Idle Thoughts : Formula of Incantation
Whilst reading the book Chaldean Magic : Its Origin and Development (1878) by François Lenormant, I came across a number of early Egyptian formulas of incantation used to protect the user of them from harm (the first from Crocodiles, the second from more Crocodiles, and the third, here, against general harm) and it made me think a little and contemplate much:
O thou that bringest back the voice of the guardian
Horus has pronounced in a low voice the incantation:
“Country!”
May Isis, my kind mother, pronounce the invocation for me, as well as
my sister Nephthus,
May they remain in the act of greeting,
on the south of me,
on the north,
on the west,
on the east!
In order that the jaws of the lions and the hyenas be sealed,
the head of all the animals with long tails,
who eat flesh and drink blood ;
that they may facinate (me) ;
to lift up their hearing ;
to hold me in darkness ;
to make me avoid light ;
to render me invisible,
instantly in the night!
What caught my attention is Lenormant's analysis demonstrating that the Egyptian spells had the enchanter identifying him or herself with the God-figure, and thus becoming divine as suggested by the Thelemic quotes:
There is no god but man.1and
Every man and every woman is a star.2
Of course, there are other portions mentioned futher along in the same chapter, that refer to other spells that call down Gods directly, to which the text gives suggestion that they answer if their true-and-proper-name is used within the ritual or spell.
However, at this point I realised I should read the book from the beginning rather than starting at a randomly selected page. And upon first investigation, starting at the beginning and moving towards the end is rewarding. One of those gems that availed itself to appear was a comparison between the Egyptian techniques and the Chaldean techniques. The Chaldeans, Lenormant suggests, used prayer, and incantations to communicate with an intermediatory spirit or god, who then took their request to a higher god, which used words-of-power to enact their Will. The Egyptian magicians, as a contrast, were documented using spells and words-of-power to raise themselves to divinity and to even directly command the gods at times.
I can see valid comparisons to both of these within the Themelmic magical doctrines. The Chaldean method of an intermediatory spirit has resonance in the Holy Guardian Angel. After the Knowledge and Conversation, your HGA guides you until the point where you Cross the Abyss. As a result, the HGA is the spirit that is initially in between yourself and communicating with the divine within the Supernals.
A comparison (at least from what I can find in publicly available material and to the best of my knowledge) to the Egyptian words-of-power exists in Liber DCLXXI vel Pyramidos where the initiate recites the word of power during an invokation:
Asar Un-nefer! I invoke
The Four-fold Horror of the Smoke
Unloose the Pit! By the dread Word
Of Power – that Set-Tyhpon hath heard -
SAZAZSAZAZANDATSANSAZAZ3
And in some instances, in the grade of the Magus of the A.A., pronouncing a Word of the Æon elevates them to that divinity. And this then leaves me with the idea to explore historical methodologies that The Prophet may have read about and experienced and then potentially used in his development of his working system. So by reading through a book written 131 years ago, I found pieces of translations from material much older again, that gave me a small glimmer of insight into things that were perhaps the intent of Crowley in his work, and at theleast gives me more insight into my own magical actions.
1 Liber LXXVII , 'OZ'
2 Liber AL vel Legis, Chapter 1 verse 3
3 Commentaries on the Holy Books and Other Papers, Equinox Volume 4 Number 1, pg 65
posted by Legion of Nimheil at 22:43
0 comments
