Blood of the Pure - Chapter Twelve - Yin & Yang

Yin & Yang 

 - Yab Yam, Taiji -

The Yin Yang is the easily recognized Taoist symbol of the interplay of Forces in the Universe. In Chinese philosophy, this symbol represents 'how everything works', and depicts two great opposite forces unable to exist without each other, and upon whose continual interaction everything depends. Yin (black, the moon) is the female aspect. Being dark and negative, she represents the moon, water and the earth, while Yang (white, the sun) is male. He is the opposite, being light and positive, and represents the sun, fire and the heavens.

The outer circle represents everything (the Universe and everything within it) while the black and white shapes within the circle symbolize the interaction of the two energies, 'Yin' and 'Yang', which cause all things to happen in the Universe. While 'Yin' (female) is dark and passive, downward and cold, contracting and weak, 'Yang' (male) is bright and active, upward and hot, expanding and strong.

From the shape of the two sections of the symbol, continually revolving like a wheel spinning on its axle, one can gain a sense of the perpetual movement of these two energies. Yin changes to Yang while Yang changes to Yin, then back again, causing everything to happen during the process, such as waters freezing and melting, plants growing to produce their seeds before dying, metals expanding and contracting, night turning to day, Winter turning to Spring, then Summer, then Autumn and eventually back to Winter.

The Yin Yang symbol represent the idealized harmony of these forces; equilibrium in the Universe. In ancient Taoist texts, white and black represent enlightenment and ignorance, respectively. 

Blood of the Pure - Chapter Eleven - The Mark of the Beast

The Mark of the Beast

This symbol is the creation of the Ritual Magician Aleister Crowley. It seems to have functioned as his personal seal.

 It was named as a play on words relating to one of his magical names, To Mega Therion, (The Great Beast).

The central theme, a clear resemblance of the male genitália, is typical of Crowley, and completely intentional on his part.

The uppermost circle is the alchemical sigil (a seal / sign) of the sun, while the half circle immediately below represents the crescent moon.

Most probably, in its very simplest terms, the Mark of the Beast is a symbol denoting the masculine principal, which is usually paired with its feminine counterpart, the seven pointed Seal of Babalon. It is formed from three overlapping circles plus a half circle, the number of revolutions in the mark's associated ritual, and the number of coils in the Kundalini (She who is coiled - the female energy lying coiled at the base of the yogic body). 

Blood of the Pure - Chapter Ten - The Unicursal Hexagram

The Unicursal Hexagram

The unicursal hexagram is an hexagram or six-pointed star created for the purpose of drawing the figure in one continuous movement, unicursally, in the same way other magical polygons are drawn, like the pentagram for example. This is significant in ritual magick when invoking and banishing hexagrams must be made. It can also be depicted inside a circle with the points touching it.

In Thelema, developed by Aleister Crowley, the hexagram is usually depicted with a five-petalled flower in the centre which symbolizes a pentacle (and the divine feminine), the whole symbol summing eleven (five petals of the flower plus the six points of the hexagram), being 11 the number of divine union. The Symbol itself is the equivalent of the Egyptian Ankh or the Rosicrucian's Rosy Cross, representing the microcosmic forces (the pentacle / flower, as a symbol of the pentagram with the 5 elements, the tetragrammaton or YHVH), interweaved with the macrocosmic forces (the hexagram, representing the planetary or heavenly cosmic forces, the Divine).