Hermeticism
Septem Portae 七重门
Seven planetary spheres, one hundred twenty-eight states
Seven planetary heavens in the old Chaldean order, each either still binding or already refined. Every cast places you on the ladder between matter and the Ogdoad — and ascent and descent are both the great work.
The structure of this instrument
Seven heavens, Chaldean order
Seven spheres in the old Chaldean sequence — Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn — and each, at any moment, is either still binding or already refined. A hundred and twenty-eight states span the whole ladder.
Vices refined into virtues
Following the Poimandres, each sphere carries a temperament that first weighs the soul down and, worked upon, becomes its answering virtue. To refine a sphere is to make that passage — appetite into temperance, wrath into courage, and so through all seven.
The ladder counts the refined
Count the spheres you have refined and you have your rung. Zero is the base of matter; seven, the threshold of the Ogdoad above the spheres. The cast places you on that ladder and shows the single steps up or down from where you stand.
Ascent and descent are both the work
Refining a sphere is a rising door; letting one sink back into binding, a descending door. Descent is never dishonoured here: as the Emerald Tablet has it, the power gathered above is carried back down to work upon matter. Both directions are the great work.
Planetary hours
The instrument reads the planetary hour of your cast. The sphere that rules that hour is gilded and weighs into the reading — the same walk, read under a different sky.