The Magician's Dictionary

JACHIN & BOAZ

The white and black pillars of the High Priestess (entrance to the Temple of Solomon: I Kings, 7.21). Strength and Beauty. Jachin = establishing principle, right, active, male; Boaz = left, passive, female (and according to Case, Strength). Jachin or yod, the phallus, requires beth, the house to contain it. Jachin (He will establish) stands for Man. Boaz (In strength) stands for God. The pillars represent the difficulty in distinguishing Self from Other, which is the source of all opposites and dichotomies. When viewing the temple from outside, Boaz is on one's left and Jachin on the right. From within, looking out, Boaz is on ones right. When there is a middle pillar, it generally stands, rather vagely, for wisdom.

JEBUS

An enemy stronghold stubbornly held against the Israelites, hence any place overrun by barbarians, pets, or vermin (Jebusites).

JIHAD

Usually translated as Holy War, more nearly means struggle. Al Quran decrees no one should fight unless attacked, but fundamentalists overlook such injunctions in their rabid zeal to bring the world into the submission of Dar-es-Salaam (House of Peace).

JOHN THE BAPTIST

The mystical son of Zacharias, born at the summer solstice and complement of Christ whose opposite birth was the winter solstice. In the deepest sense, John the Baptist was both the real and symbolic Christ, dwelling in the wilderness, wearing camel skins and eating locusts and wild honey. It was he who preached, "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" It was he who said, long before Christ, "He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise." It was he who said, "Do violence to no man!" It was he who denied the Pharisees his baptism, "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"

But then we encounter the inevitable Xtian interpolation, added into the Bible a century later: "I indeed baptise you with water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire!" (Note the reference to the usual magical elements - Fire, Spirit, etc. - John, born under the sign of the Crab, being the baptiser by Water.)

John met his fate supposedly because he spurned the advances of Salome and her mother. Eventually they succeeded in convincing Herod to have him beheaded (i.e., removed the spirit from the body). The Jesus who came after was considered by some to be the reincarnation of John (or the resurrected spirit thereof).

JUDGMENT

The 20th and penultimate Arcanum, lettered Shin (the fiery character that means serpents fang). The true judgment and resurrection constitute the awakening from the death of ordinary materialistic preoccupation to the light and life of the spirit. Called by Crowley The Aeon. In our minds, beyond everyday reality, theres one Great Day that contains past, future and the alternate possibilities all at the same time. It is into this Great Day or Last Day that we enter most completely only when we die. According to Crowley, this Atu is the final leg of the mystic path chosen by the initiate.

JU-JU

A spell. Secret African magic practised by telepathic witch-doctors proficiant in undoing curses and casting out demons.

JULIAN THE APOSTATE

Ruled Rome from 360 to 363 C.E. Concerned that Rome had fallen to the Xtians, this brilliant and humane emperor valiantly tried to reinstate the old religions during his brief rulership. the novel Julian by Gore Vidal is a poignant and trustworthy account of his heroic mission.

JUMPING JESUS

Coined by George Anderla of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 1973. It is a term for measuring incremental velocities of technological change. All the knowledge of mankind from the beginning of history to the birth of Jesus represents one jesus. During the period from the birth of Jesus to the Renaissance the worlds storehouse of knowledge doubled. Thus all knowledge doubles at a geometric rate. From the Renaissance to the American Revolution it doubled again. With each jesus, the period of time necessary for this doubling shortens dramatically. At some point in the 1980s the length of a jesus became infinitely short.

JUNG'S NIGHTMARE

Jung dreamed, at age 4, of a great tower on a throne. It seemed to be made of skin and the top of it was rounded with a singly eye staring upward. He found this quite frightening. In later life, when he broke with Freud he admitted that he felt that mans needs were much greater than sex. He felt that sex was merely one powerful force amongst others. Freud begged Jung never to abandon the sexual basis of neurosis but that it must stand as a bulwark. "Against what?", asked Jung. "Against the occult.", whispered Freud.

Jungs psychological theory can be summed up in this statement: the goal of psychic development is the self - There is no linear evolution. There is only a circumambulation of the self. Everything points to the center.

JUPITER

Represents the point at which a tendency to blur the distinctions between the other planets takes place. Jupiter is the tendency to be all-encompassing and to produce, like the peacock's tail, the full panoply of influences all at once, as contrasted to the Sun which is the epitome of specialized individualization. Thus, Jupiter is the planet of expansion and fortune and indicates the manner of our growth.

JUSTICE

The 11th or 8th Arcanum, lettered lamedh. This pathway concerns itself with redressing the build-up of Karma. Crowley calls it Adjustment and assigns it the number 8, not only to displace Strength to the number eleven spot, but to emphasize that balance cannot end on an uneven number. It is useful to observe several things depicted by the figure of Justice. First of all, she is seated, which is an indication, from the beginning, that the process of correction is passive, not aggressive. Secondly, she bears the scales of justice in one hand, but a sword in the other. That means that there are times when the proper response is not justice or balance, but violence. Finally, the pillars on either side are a continuation of those first encountered in the High Priestess.