The readers who are familiar with my books (for example, Fosforos or Argarizim) know that the Star of Azazel system uses the concept of SIN in a peculiar way. Instead of seeing the so-called deadly sins as something which should be avoided at all costs, the tantric approach of the brotherhood seeks to purify the sins and use their dynamic basic essence in the path of ascension. Also, to the most famous sevenfold system of the cardinal sins, the eighth one is added, or rather, re-attached since it has also been part of the system in the early centuries of Christian theology.
In the brotherhood tantra, the eight sins are considered to be formed of two elemental crosses, the lower –
SLOTH
GLUTTONY
GREED
ENVY
– and the higher one:
WRATH
LUST
PRIDE
DESPAIR
It is particularly the higher quaternary of sins that interests us as occultists. The lower cross is a more profane one, and simple use of willpower can often be applied to purify it accordingly. The higher cross is the one that cannot be dealt with by purely mechanical self-discipline, but some or other of its parts always fascinates the shadow side of the self. From this derives the term “mortal sin,” and in all honesty, this term should be reserved for the four higher cardinal sins.
By an interesting coincidence, SIN is not only an English word for the critical vices, but also a Babylonian Moon deity. And Moon, as we know, is the patron of the Left Hand Path, also called “the Moon Path” in Bhagavad Gîtâ. So we see that the concept of sin, and conquering it with love rather than hatred and mechanical control, is one of the most important aspects in Satanism, or whatever we want to call our Left Hand Path tantric working.
This Moon, like Sun (the patron of the Right Hand Path), is also a microcosm for the whole of creation. In Moon, everything is reflected. It is much more than our planet’s cold satellite; true Moon is everything that reflects the light of the archetypes. It is the great vessel of light and being. It is, in a way, the Black or Clear (colourless) Grail. In Zohar, it is Moon and not Sun which is the patron of the Messiah, the perfect adept.
This “being in all” means many things. Its meaning opened with the celestial key means that it dwells in the whole of Zodiac. This means that we can give Moon path correspondences for every cardinal sin in the higher cross. It corresponds with the cross of the four corners of the Zodiac, thus:
TAURUS — LUST
LEO — WRATH
SCORPIO — PRIDE
AQUARIUS — DESPAIR
It might be interesting to note that the cardinal sin for our own age is thus Despair. It helps to understand the challenges of lost meanings that many people are going through today.
This is the higher cross of the cardinal sins, but there is also the lower one, and these lower sins are each connected to two of the higher ones, as their cross can be drawn over the higher one, to form the double cross with eight aspects (see Argarizim, chapter Phlegethon).
Between LUST and WRATH, there is GREED.
Between WRATH and PRIDE, there is ENVY.
Between PRIDE and DESPAIR, there is SLOTH.
Between DESPAIR and LUST, there is GLUTTONY.
The interesting thing is that this twofold cross is also a celestial one, even though the vault of the sky thus found can seem ominous. Yet the ancients knew that the stars are archons, princes of matter and form, and the astral influences are rarely beneficial originally, before we as human beings purify them to be such. Thus it is said in many a system that stars control people who have not yet advanced enough to control themselves by spiritual Work.
In the brotherhood working, we use the eightfold wheel of calendary feasts, like many cultures before ours. This eightfold celestial wheel comprises two solstices (winter & summer), two equinoxes (spring & autumn), and four feasts in their middle points, i.e. at the eves of February, May, August, and November. Just recently, we went through one of such portals, the Feast of Spring’s Passing in Walpurgisnacht.
From this, we notice that each of the sins also corresponds to a calendary festival:
SPRING EQUINOX (Pisces to Aries) thus corresponds to GLUTTONY.
SPRING PASSING (Taurus) thus corresponds to LUST.
SUMMER SOLSTICE (Gemini to Cancer) thus corresponds to GREED.
SUMMER PASSING (Leo) thus corresponds to WRATH.
AUTUMN EQUINOX (Virgo to Libra) thus corresponds to ENVY.
AUTUMN PASSING (Scorpio) thus corresponds to PRIDE.
WINTER SOLSTICE (Sagittarius to Capricorn) thus corresponds to SLOTH.
WINTER PASSING (Aquarius) thus corresponds to DESPAIR.
This Azazelian model of the Zodiac of Sins, or the Black Moon Grail, thus gives a handful of keys to an aspirant who seeks to purify each one of his essential energies. Whereas the human principles are the vertical structure of his being, the so-called Sins (the Moons!) are the horizontal structure, challenging at first but turning into power when the subtle has been separated from the coarse, “gently and with great care.”
Salome 