CROWLEY & JUNG

CROWLEY & JUNGTHE BOOK OF THE LAWANDTHE SEVEN SERMONS TO THE DEAD

Adapted from the section Gnostic Revival in Aleister Crowley and the Aeon of Horus.

Crowley was at Cambridge University during the decadent fin de siecle 1890s. He wrote poetry inspired by Shelley and Swinburne.

He was initiated into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1898 and immersed himself in its teachings for a few years, learning about ritual magic, the Kabbalah, and the tarot.

In the early years of the 20th century, Crowley set mountaineering records in the Himalayas and practiced yoga.

He and his first wife Rose were in Cairo in March 1904 when a sequence of strange events overtook them.

Rose began to experience uncharacteristic trance states.

She told her husband that the old world, the epoch of Christianity, had been destroyed by fire on the inner planes.

The Age or Aeon of Horus had begun and Aleister Crowley was to be its prophet.

The couple found a representation of a form of Horus on an exhibit numbered 666 (already adopted by Crowley as a personal number) in the Boulak collection in the Cairo Museum (photos Andrew Collins).

It was the funerary stele of a priest named Ankh-af-na-Khonsu.

Crowley claimed that a trance message from Rose told him to be available at noon for 3 days to take dictation.

Between April 8th to 10th 1904, the 3 chapters of The Book of the Law were supposedly audibly dictated by a being named Aiwass.

Crowley experienced an inner impression that Aiwass was present -- transparent like a cloud of incense smoke. --- a tall, dark man -- active and strong, -- face of a savage king, - eyes veiled lest their gaze should destroy what they saw. The dress -- suggested Assyria or Persia

The mind-shattering duality of the agony and ecstasy of the twentieth century seem to have been anticipated in The Book of the Law.

The first chapter is the words of the Egyptian sky goddess Nuit, who is depicted on the Stele.

12. Come forth, o children, under the stars, & take your fill of love!13. I am above you and in you. My ecstasy is in yours. My joy is to see your joy.15. They shall gather my children into their fold: they shall bring the glory of the stars into the hearts of men.Cosmic Isis by Judith Page

32. --- the joys of my love will redeem ye from all pain.41. The word of Sin is Restriction.There is no bond that can unite the divided but love.51. Also take your fill and will of love as ye will, when where and with whom you will! But always unto me.

53. This shall regenerate the world, the little world my sister, my heart and my tongue unto whom I send this kiss.--- ecstasy be thine and joy of earth.

57. Invoke me under my stars! Love is the law, love under will.61. I love you, I yearn to you.I who am all pleasure and purple and drunkenness of the innermost sense desire you.Put on the wings and arouse the coiled splendour within you: come unto me!

Judith Page

A winged disc is pictured on the stele. In Egyptological terms, it depicts an aspect of an early predynastic form of Horus.

As defender of Ra he would travel the sky as a winged disc hunting Ras enemy Set.

Chapter Two is his words, but his energy is named as Hadit, which is understood as a mathematical metaphysical principle.

Immense forces and energies were discovered and unleashed in the twentieth century.

LSD and the the Atom Bomb. DNA. Reality was redefined.Hadit seems to speak of this.

6. I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star. I am Life, and the giver of Life, yet therefore is the knowledge of me the knowledge of death.

22. I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge & Delight and bright glory, and stir the hearts of men with drunkenness.Alex Grey

22. To worship me take wine and strange drugs whereof I will tell my prophet, & be drunk thereof!

The chapter A Man Surrounded by a Whirlwind of Sand explores the Crowley-Leary connection in considerable detail (artwork by Adam Scott Miller).

Powerful and inspiring words but amongst them were some with a more disturbing flavour.

21. We have nothing with the outcast and the unfit: let them die in their misery. For they feel not. Compassion is the vice of kings: stamp down the wretched & the weak: this is our law and the joy of the world.

The third chapter is the words of Ra Hoor Khuit, a form of Horus, and is even more ferocious.Thomas Akawie

3. I am a god of War and of Vengeance. 11. Thou shalt have danger & trouble.---Worship me with fire and blood.18. Mercy let be of: damn them who pity! Kill and torture, spare not, be upon them!

The New Aeon saw the eruption from the very core of reality of the immense forces discussed by Hadit.

Their effect on the life of the world was as diverse as the LSD Summer of Love and the horrors of Auschwitz and Hiroshima.

During the first decade of the 20th century, Aleister Crowley perfected his system of magick for the New Aeon.

In 1910 he staged a series of public ceremonies in London inspired by the ancient mystery cult at Eleusis.

It was an attempt to revive pre-Christian religious forms for the modern world.

Music was provided by Crowleys Scarlet Woman of the time, Leila Waddell.

I will put a live coal upon your lips, and flowers upon your eyes, and a sword in your hearts, and ye also shall see God face to face. Thus shall we give back its youth to the world, for like tongues of triple flame we shall look upon the Great Deep.Aleister Crowley. Rites of Eleusis.

Was Crowley alone in his belief in the end of an entire epoch of civilisation in 1904 along with the return of ancient spiritual forces? Did anyone else of note likewise describe stirrings of what we could recognise as the Aeon of Horus?

One man who gave profound expression to undercurrents in the psyche of western humanity during the twentieth century was Carl Gustav Jung.

The modern common idea of a collective unconscious derives from him. He played a significant role in inspiring interest and revival in a wide range of mystical topics drawn from the worlds traditions.

In 1936 his Wotan essay showed a deep understanding of Hitler and the Nazis, proclaiming the messianic leader as a shamanic mediumistic figure, who was in effect channelling certain aspects of the archetype of the Germanic deity on behalf of the unconscious of a whole nation.

Jung recognised the dangers and spoke a truth about Nazism that no-one else had expressed so clearly.

1958s Flying Saucers remains a core text for understanding the bigger picture in which the enigmatic aerial phenomenon arose, the changing of an astrological age with its accompanying signs and portents.

Surely such a man would have been aware of at least some of the distinctive flavour of Crowleys Aeon if it really was arising in the collective mind.

During the same decade that Crowley wrote The Book of the Law, Jung (far right) met Freud (far left) and became a rising star in psychoanalysis.

At first glance, he and his wife Emma had little resemblance to Mr and Mrs Crowley.

In 1913, he began an epic descent into the unconscious, a visionary process somewhere between psychosis and shamanic dismemberment.

His artwork, recording something of his experiences, the legendary Red Book, full of mythic imagery, was not published until long after his death.

Sometime between the summer of 1916 and February 1917 (there are variant dates in different accounts), over three consecutive evenings, Jung had a Book of the Law experience, writing Seven Sermons to the Dead.

The episode was heralded by strangeness in the family home. Jungs children saw and sensed ghosts. One had a serious dream featuring an angel and a devil.

Jung himself felt a powerful atmosphere building. On a Sunday afternoon, the doorbell started ringing. No earthly visitor was responsible. The apparatus could be clearly seen moving on its own.

The air in the whole house seemed so thick with spirits that it was difficult to breathe. Jung cried out, For Gods sake, what in the world is this? A chorus of voices replied, We have come back from Jerusalem where we found not what we sought.

The Jung family near the time of the Seven Sermons episode.

With the barriers between the worlds broken, Jung settled down to write a stunning text. Its authorship was attributed to Gnostic teacher Basilides.

There is still conjecture over whether or not Jung was mediumistically channelling dictation from a source he believed to be Basilides or expressing some part of his own psyche through the form of a Gnostic teaching.

Basilides sets out to instruct the dead, who seem to be crusading knights who failed to find fulfilment in Jerusalem, in other words, through conventional Christianity.

Their god concept gets a makeover through encountering Abraxas. He is usually depicted as having a human body with a roosters head and legs like serpents. Sometimes he has a hawk or a lions head. He tends to hold a whip and a shield. Abraxas rides in a chariot drawn by four white horses.

The sun and moon may both be shining above him to indicate his embodiment of opposites.

Abraxas is associated with Basilides, who flourished in Alexandria around about 120-30AD. He made use of numbers in a way reminiscent of Pythagoras.

The name of Abraxas was linked with numbers and taken to add up to 365 and is therefore considered to refer to the solar year. This clearly connects him with cycles of time.

From this reverence for Abraxas derives the Abraxas gems. These come in the form of gems, plates, or tablets of metal.

They are mainly inscribed with the word Abraxas. Some depict Egyptian god-forms with inscriptions such as Abraxas and IAO.

Some have Jewish words like Jehovah and Adonai. There are images of a cock, a lions head with the word Mithras, monstrous forms, sphinxes and apes. The phrase solar-phallic, which Crowley used to refer to the Thelemic current, sums up their general attributes.

A painting by Jung representing the Seven Sermons episode.

Abraxasis undefinable life itself, which is the mother of good and evil alike.He is the brightest light of day and the deepest night of madness.He is both the radiance and the dark shadow of man.

In the words of the Seven Sermons:

Abraxas generates truth and falsehood, good and evil, light and darkness with the same word and in the same deed. Therefore Abraxas is truly the terrible one.

He is the monster of the underworld, the octopus with a thousand tentacles, he is the twistings of winged serpents and of madness.

To fear him is wisdom.

Not to resist him means liberation.

I am Life, and the giver of Life, yet therefore is the knowledge of me the knowledge of death.

This recalls the words of Hadit.

What was Jung the psychologist doing having a full-on occult episode like this?

An amazing experience of Jung that is highly relevant here has only become more well-known since the publication of this book in 1997.

As part of the visionary experiences that began in 1913, a figure appeared to Jung who he knew as Philemon. Jung described him as having an Egypto-Hellenistic atmosphere with a gnostic coloration.

Philemon became a guru to Jung, as Aiwass had been to Crowley, guiding him through his descent into the unconscious. This wise old man aspect of his psyche, who some occultists might designate as an inner plane contact, and Crowley might have called Holy Guardian Angel, later served as the conduit for the incoming Basilides-Abraxas transmission.

Jung had become very interested in the mystery cult of Mithras that was widely popular in the Roman Empire during the early centuries AD.

Alan SorrellMithraic cult ceremony.

In the syncretistic manner of the time, his form mutated. A complex of kindred god-forms blurred and blended. Mithras, Abraxas, Aion, Harpocrates (Graeco-Roman form of young Horus).

Egyptian-style Harpocrates.Graeco-Roman-style Harpocrates.

Blend of Harpocrates and Eros

From the Renaissance work of Athanasius Kircher, showing how the form persisted through the Christian middle Ages.

A variant spelling, Meithras, adds up to 365 like Abraxas. Crowley claimed that the correct name of the idol supposedly worshipped by the Templars was Baphometr which meant Father Mithras.

Abraxas gem depicting Harpocrates.Crowley making sign of Harpocrates.Harpocrates on Crowley tarot card also depicting figures on the Stele, Nuit, Hadit, and Ra Hoor Khuit.

The Golden Dawn had a technique known as the assumption of a god-form. It involved powerfully imagining oneself in the appearance of some deity.

One might take a particular posture that the chosen form has been depicted in. If it was an Egyptian god for example, it might also mean imagining oneself to have an animal head of some kind.

Crowley had often taken on the form of Horus during his Golden Dawn days. He later felt that this had helped to predispose him towards the Cairo revelation that led to his proclamation of himself as Logos of the Aeon.

One night in December 1913, in a state of active imagination, Jung started to experience a snake wrapping itself around his body. As it did so, he found himself taking on a crucifixion pose and his head changing shape into that of a lion.

Jung had assumed the god-form of the Mithraic leontocephalic (meaning lion-headed) cosmocrator (ruler of the cosmos), Lord of Time, Aion.

He later said that

In this deification mystery you make yourself into the vessel, and are a vessel of creation in which the opposites reconcile. So Aion, the lion headed god with the snake round his body, again represents the union of opposites, light and dark, male and female, creation and destruction.

There is clearly a hint of what was to come a few years later with Abraxas.

At the time of the reception of The Book of the Law, Crowley stated that the old world had been destroyed by fire, at least on the inner planes.

In the ancient world, some Stoic philosophers, believed to have heavily influenced Mithraism, expounded a concept called ekpyrosis. Vast cycles of time come to an end either through flood or fire. When it came to flame, it was a kind of alchemical process whereby all of the energy of the universe was transformed into fire. This ending was also a beginning of a new world.

Mithras became the presiding deity of this process. The Mithraic Aion was the turner of the zodiacal wheel, the mover of the cycles of the heavens. I tend to feel that the Cambridge educated classically literate Crowley would have had the concept of ekpyrosis somewhere in the back of his mental filing cabinet in 1904. He obviously readily used the term Aeon to refer to a cycle of time.

In terms of a strange commonality of inspiration, compare this passage from one of Crowleys works in 1907 to Jung in 1916.

O all ye toads and cats rejoice! Ye slimy things, come hither!Dance, dance to the Lord our God.Crowley. Liber VIIHe is the lord of toads and frogs, who live in water and come out unto the land, and who sing together at high noon and at midnight.Jung. Seven Sermons.

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn had roots in Alexandria like Basilides. The most significant example of this is the mileage got from a mid-nineteenth-century academic work, Fragment of a Graeco-Egyptian Work upon Magic from a Papyrus in the British Museum by Charles Wycliffe Goodwin. It featured an Invocation of the Headless One.

Golden Dawn chief Samuel Liddell Macgregor Mathers made use of it as a preliminary invocation in a translation he made of the medieval grimoire, the Lesser Key of Solomon that became known in the order.

It featured a sequence of Barbarous names of Evocation, weird, seemingly meaningless words that carry a feeling of archaic strata of humanities religious consciousness.

As Kenneth Grant explains it in The Magical Revival, The Headless One was a name given by the Gnostics to the Sun in Amenti, ie the Light in the Underworld. --- In other words, the headless one typified the hidden god submerged below the horizon: in terms of psychology, the subconsciousness, the subliminal Will.

Crowley adjusted the translation from Headless to Bornless, to indicate the fact that the True Will is subject to neither birth nor death, its vehicles alone are subject to these twin phases of activity in the phenomenal world. The invocation of the Bornless One therefore forms the practical basis for contacting the most hidden of all gods or daemons the Holy Guardian Angel.

Thee I invoke, the Bornless One.Thee, that didst create the Earth and the Heavens.Thee that didst create the Night and the Day.Thee, that didst create the darkness and the light.

Crowleys adaptation found its final form as Liber Samekh, a hefty section within the great masterwork, Magick.

This included the barbarous names Qabalistically adjusted, elucidated, and translated into English. He considered it to be his definitive manual for the invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel.

Crowley advised in his explanatory notes for the ritual that it would involve a sequence of assuming the form and the consciousness of the Elemental God of the quarter. With fire in the south, this would be a solar phallic lion. Jung knew all about that.

The barbarous name Abrasax (a variant spelling) is interpreted to mean,of the Father, the Sun, of Hadit, of the spell of the Aeon of Horus!

Alex Grey

Perhaps the most famous of all magical incantations, Abracadabra, derives from the name of Abraxas.

The Book of the Law contains the important Thelemic variant Abrahadabra, a magical formula explaining the nature of the union of Nuit and Hadit. In the sphere I am everywhere the centre as she, the circumference, is nowhere found.

It also refers, as Kenneth Grant explains in The Magical Revival, to the two faces, or the dual aspect, of HAD, as the solar twins,- Set and Horus (Hoor-Paar- Kraat and Ra-Hoor-Khuit).

This calls to mind the duality of Jungs Abraxas.

In Flying Saucers: a Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky, Jung expressed his belief that the UFO phenomenon was an example of manifestations of psychic changes which always appear at the end of one Platonic month and at the beginning of another.

--- Apparently they are changes in the constellations of psychic dominants, of the archetypes, or gods as they used to be called, which bring about, or accompany, long-lasting transformations of the collective psyche.

Ideas that were below the psychic horizon were rising again into consciousness during the transition into the dawning of a new epoch.

This insight also clearly applies to the Gnostic revival and its peculiar forms expressed through The Book of the Law and Seven Sermons via the remarkable temperaments of their respective scribes.

We can see changes in the constellations of psychic dominants, of the archetypes, or gods, overseen by deities connected with time cycles, Abraxas, the Mithraic Cosmocrator, Harpocrates/Aion.

The affirmation of this today is indeed a manifestation and a transmission of the Avalonian Aeon in Glastonbury.

Yuri Leitch. Avalonian Aeon. Paul Weston.

Yuri Leitch. Aquarian Phoenix .Paul Weston

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