Arcanum 12 The Apostolate

Description of the Plate

In the waters of life is the pentacle of Solomon, a variant of the six pointed star.

The three upper points represent the three traitors of Hiram Abiff (the Internal Christ), Judas, Pilate, and Caiaphas (desire, mind and evil will).

In the middle of the plate are two columns that contain nine steps each, the Ninth Sphere (sex). Let us remember that there are nine heavens (the white column) and nine infernal regions (the black column). In order to ascend one step, one must descend one step.

Between the two columns there is a man hanging from one foot with his hands tied. With his legs he forms a cross, and with his arms he forms an inverted triangle.

The first figure (top) signifies that sex dominates reason. It is necessary to invert this symbol.

Esoteric Significance of the Arcanum

The Twelfth Arcanum represents the twelve zodiacal signs, the twelve Apostles, the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve hours of cooking of the alchemist, the twelve faculties, and the Hydrogen SI-12.

The Twelfth Arcanum of the Tarot is the Apostolate. The figure is of a hanged man forming a triangle with his arms with the vertex pointing downwards. With his legs, he forms a cross which is above the triangle. All of the work has as its objective the acquiring of Soul, meaning the achieving of the union of the cross with the triangle. This is the Great Work.

The twelfth card of the Tarot is Sexual Alchemy. The Cross-Man must be united with the Triangle-Spirit through the sexual fire.

The Chinese tradition speaks of the ten trunks (Shikan) and the twelve branches, meaning the ten Sephiroth and the twelve faculties of the human being. It is necessary to know that the seven chakras plus the five senses are the twelve faculties.

Undoubtedly, the dorsal spine has seven magnetic centers. These are the seven chakras, or the seven churches of the book of Apocalypse of Saint John.

1. Ephesus: base of the dorsal spine; four petals
2. Smyrna: at the height of the prostate; six petals
3. Pergamos: at the height of the solar plexus; ten petals
4. Thyatira: in the heart; twelve petals
5. Sardis: in the creative larynx; sixteen petals
6. Philadelphia: in the mid brow; two petals
7. Laodicea: in the pineal gland; one thousand petals

These are the seven chakras, and with the addition of the five senses one is converted into an investigator of the superior worlds. These are the twelve faculties of every human creature.

The universe came out from the Chinese Huel-Tum, the Chaos. The ten trunks and the twelve branches also came out from the Chaos, that in Alchemy is the “Ens Seminis” in which all of the “Ens Virtutis” is contained, which is the raw matter of the Great Work. This is the entity of the Being in accordance to Paracelsus. This entity becomes the Philosophical Stone or Lapis Philosophorum for which the medieval alchemists were fervently searching.

All of the misterium magnum is found enclosed in this summa matter (Latin terms in order to denominate the Arcanum A.Z.F.). The alchemist must extract from this mestrum universale (the Chaos) all of the potable gold or sacred fire, which has to rise through the spinal medulla and open all of the seven churches.

We can unite the cross with the triangle once we have extracted the potable gold, meaning the Cross-Man must be united with our immortal triad. We must incarnate the Spirit. Only thus can we convert ourselves into human beings. Before achieving this we are nothing but intellectual animals.

The Great Work or “Magnus Opus” is represented by the Twelfth Arcanum of the Tarot (it is called Magnus Opus in strict esoteric language). The arms of the figure form the triangle, his legs the cross, his head is the union of the triangle with the cross through the potable gold.

According to the Chinese, the God Fu Xi (the Adam-Christ) was born at midnight, the fourth day of the tenth moon, precisely during twelve years. The virgin Hoa Se, while walking along the shore of the river (the seminal liquid), conceived the Christ in her womb while putting her foot over the print of the Great Man.

All of these dates are very interesting.

The four days are the four elements.

In the number ten are all the secrets of the lingam-yoni, representing the ten Sephiroth.

The circle with the line cutting it in half is the mystery of sex.

The number twelve is the twelve faculties required to incarnate the Christ in the heart.

In the twelfth key of Basil Valentine, the Twelfth Arcanum is profoundly studied.

Thus, as the lion transforms the serpent into its own flesh when he devours it, so the power of Devi Kundalini, the sacred transmuted fire, eliminates all of its defects, its errors. What is important is the Great Work. We already know the key, the Maithuna. The alchemists must work for twelve hours in order to achieve the fermentation of the gold. Behold the Twelfth Arcanum. We can have the joy of really being when we possess the fermented gold.

The Essence — fraction of incarnated soul — is bottled up in the pluralized “I,” or ego. This is within the animal mental body and the lunar body of desire, and manifests itself through the physical body. We are different from the animals only by the intellect, because the animals have mind but not intellect.

The authentic Human needs to eliminate ego and to build the solar bodies with the transmutation of the Hydrogen SI-12 (twelve laws). The manufacturing of the solar bodies is intimately related with music and the seven notes.

The Hydrogen SI-12 is made through initiating the process of digestion in the human organism.

1. DO: when the food is in the mouth.
2. RE: when it reaches the throat.
3. MI: when it reaches the lung area.
4. FA: when it reaches the stomach, splenic, hepatic.
5. SOL: when it reaches the solar plexus.
6. LA: when it reaches the colon, pancreas.
7. SI: when the Hydrogen SI-12 is made and here it can rise to another superior musical octave (after the note SI the note DO begins again, corresponding to other musical scales, to another superior octave).

The Hydrogen SI-12 has a second octave, giving origin to the solar astral body when the sexual impulse and the ejaculation are refrained. The Hydrogen will pass to a third octave that will give origin to the solar mental body while this one is having a third shock. A fourth octave gives birth to the body of conscious will. All of this work is with the Maithuna. Our Divine Being will enter through the pineal gland when we are in possession of the four vehicles. Then, we will achieve the Second Birth, and we will convert ourselves into true Human Beings. While we have the animal lunar bodies, we are intellectual animals. We are a chrysalis that can be transformed into a celestial butterfly. This is achieved with super-efforts.

The food of the physical body is the Hydrogen 48 (48 laws). If we save this Hydrogen, it can be transformed into Hydrogen 24 (24 laws that serve as food to the solar astral body). This Hydrogen 24 is wasted through excessive work, worthless efforts, desires, emotions, anger. The Hydrogen 12 is the food of the solar mental body. It is wasted through intellectual efforts. If we save the Hydrogen 12, we will obtain the Hydrogen 6 in order to nourish the body of conscious will.

One who has the superior existential bodies of the Being has the right to incarnate their divine triad Atman-Buddhi-Manas. Then it is stated a new Son of Man, a Master, a Mahatma, is born.

Everything that is written in the book of the Apocalypse is for the times of the end. We have to inform humanity that the times of the end have already arrived. All of this poor humanity is divided into twelve tribes. All of humanity is unfolded and developed within the zodiacal womb. The zodiac is a uterus in which humanity is gestated. The twelve tribes can only receive the seal of God on their foreheads by practising with the Arcanum A.Z.F., “And I heard the number of them which were sealed.” [Revelation 7:4] “Of the tribe of Judas were sealed twelve thousand, of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand.” [Revelation 7:5-8]

There are only twelve thousand sealed of each of the twelve zodiacal tribes. Behold here the Twelfth Arcanum of the Tarot. Behold here the union of the cross with the triangle. Behold here the Sexual Magic. Behold here the Realized Work, the living Human Being that does not touch the earth, but only with thought.

Only twelve thousand sealed of each of the twelve tribes of Israel will be saved from the great cataclysm (this quantity is symbolic). Only those that have achieved the union of the Cross-Man with the Triangle-Spirit will be saved.

Related with the new Jerusalem we find the following, “And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates (the twelve zodiacal gates in the universe and in the human being) and at the gates were twelve angels (from the zodiac) and names written thereon, which are the names of the children of Israel (the twelve types of humanities in accordance with the influence of the twelve zodiacal signs). [Revelation 21:12]

“As above so below.” The human being has twelve faculties controlled by twelve atomic angels. Twelve zodiacal signs exist in the starry space and in the human being. It is necessary to transmute the sexual energy and to make it pass through the twelve zodiacal gates of the human organism. The prophet continues speaking about the twelve zodiacal gates as follows, “On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.” [Revelation 21:13]

“And the wall of the city had twelve foundations and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” [Revelation 21:14] The twelve zodiacal signs and the twelve energetic spheres interpenetrate each other without confusion. The solar humanity is completely realized in the twelve planes.

The Twelfth Arcanum is the foundation of the celestial Jerusalem. The Twelfth Arcanum is the symbol of Sexual Alchemy. This is the sacrifice and the Realized Work.

One has to work with the gold and silver. One has to work with the moon and the sun in order to edify the celestial Jerusalem within each person. Gold and silver, the sun and the moon, are the sexual forces of the man and woman.

All of the signs and philosophy of the Great Work are found enclosed within the Twelfth Arcanum. The secret, living and philosophical fire is hidden within the Christonic semen. The mysticism of Sexual Alchemy is the mysticism of all the ancient initiates.

The philosophy of Sexual Alchemy has its principles in the school of the Essenes, in the school of Alexandria, in the teachings of Pythagoras, in the mysteries of Egypt, Troy, Rome, Carthage, Eleusis, in the wisdom of the Aztecs and of the Mayans, etc.

The science of Sexual Alchemy and its procedures must be learned from the books of Paracelsus, Nicholas Flammel, and Raymond Lully. Also, we find the procedures hidden within the veil of all the symbols in the geriatric figures of the old hieroglyphics of many ancient temples in the Greek myths, Egyptian myths, etc.

You who are searching for initiation, you who read immensely, you who live fluttering from school to school always searching, always longing, always sighing, tell me with sincerity... Did you awaken your Kundalini? Did you open the seven churches of your spinal medulla? Did you incarnate the Lamb? Answer me beloved reader, be sincere with your own self. Put your hand on your heart and answer me with sincerity, are you Self-realized? Are you sure that with your theories you will convert yourself into a God? What have you achieved? What have you received with all your theories?

One who wants to realize the Self needs the revolution of the consciousness: to die, to be born, and to sacrifice oneself. There exists a revolution of the consciousness when we decapitate the ego, the “I.” There exists a revolution of the consciousness when we build the solar bodies. There exists a revolution of the consciousness when we incarnate the Being. Until that moment, we do not have a real existence.