The Word of the Aeon

by

Frater Zephyros

Why a Word of the Aeon? The word itself seems to be a spell or formula of sorts that works as the principal formula for attainment. There are three possible words that have been put forth by not only Crowley, but others. And of course, truth really comes from what people cluster around as what is captured by the zeitgeist of Initiates really proves itself by its success. Makashanah, Abrahadabra and Thelema have been put forth by Crowley and others as the three principal words to consider. They will be dealt with in detail below. Yet there are other words that can reasonably be considered. These are 'ON', AGAPE, and the Neophyte word 'MUAUM' (which is itself in contention with 'MTzThBTzM'; both of which have been published repeatedly along with other once confidential A.'.A.'. material).

More importantly is the connection between the Obeah and the Wanga.  The Word becomes the Wanga or talisman (physical manifestation) of a spiritual power that is its corresponding Obeah.  We then have the connection of the spiritual with the physical plane and a polar dynamic is created that results in what we call Magickal Power.  The idea of the work being secret as in the Neophyte word or the secret word of Crowley's O.T.O., keeps the integrity of the Obeah and the talisman (Wanga) can then be highly effective.  However, as the words become compromised, this power is negated and a new word needs to be devised.

This may not necessarily be so with the Word of the Aeon only in that here, the intent is to manifest a spiritual force (Obeah) for the whole of humanity...and not for the exclusive use of a magickal circle that seeks its own inherent synergy.  But there has been some debate as to whether or not Crowley had even uttered a word as Magus or if he did, what that word was.  This word needs to be at the heart of what we call the 'Thelemic Current' and without its full establishment, the current itself remains in the aethyr with no physical manifestation here on Earth.

With that in mind, we examine the following words:

Makashanah (418)

Makashanah has 11 English letters; 8 Hebrew letters (Magus is 8=3 working or 11); Word of the Aeon
as per angel (Nephilim) of 27th aethyr. And it's gematria is consistent with that of the Great Work;
418. If this is the uttered word, then it comes by virtue of the angel of the aethyr; being on a par
with Aiwass. But then Crowley is clearly not the Magus uttering the word as this is way too
low an aethyr for that grade. 'Mak' is the prefix for Hebrew words that translate as: food, food for fire and fuel; suggesting a source of energy. Other words include: meal, fruit-tree and populated; suggesting growth and nourishment. And 'ha-shanah' translates from Hebrew as 'the year'. We have a strong argument for this word both from its source and its etymology.

But to provide the proverbial 'other side of the coin,' the Hebrew translation literally says:  Word of the Year and a year is not an aeon.  What makes this particularly significant, by the Precession of the Equinox, the Aquarian Aeon will not start until the year 2485ev.  This makes the Aeon of Horus, a sub-Aeon of the Aeon of Pisces.  And I would submit that it is a correction of the perverted and now Christist current.  This brings us to our next word:

Abrahadabra (418)

Abrahadabra is mentioned three times in Liber AL: AL III.1: "Abrahadabra; the reward of Ra Hoor Khut." AL III.47: "This book shall be translated into all tongues: but always with the original in the writing of the Beast; for in the chance shape of the letters and their position to one another: in these are mysteries that no Beast shall divine. Let him not seek to try: but one cometh after him, whence I say not, who shall discover the Key of it all. Then this line drawn is a key: then this circle squared in its failure is a key also. And Abrahadabra. It shall be his child & that strangely. Let him not seek after this; for thereby alone can he fall from it." AL III.75: "The ending of the words is the Word Abrahadabra. The Book of the Law is Written and Concealed. Aum. Ha."

It has been suggested to this writer that Abrahadabra may be translated from Hebrew as 'the voice of the Great Seer'? But its etymology is potentially far more interesting. As the Hebrews derived many of their religious ideas from India, Abram and Brama really are the same word with the letter 'A' being a prefix in one and a suffix in another. And of course, we have the principal division of east and west with those religions that come directly from the fertile crescent. Brama was the originator and creator with an h being added later in the development of the languages so that we get Abraham and Brahma. Brahma's source is Parabrhm which in Persia is Abriman and later with that he became Ahriman. And in ancient Babylon (located in the fertile crescent), the same word is Abarama.

Abraham as the ancient father of Israel is the Hebrew copy of Brahma as the seed of life. And so therefore Abra as a prefix or suffix certainly refers to the ideas of seed and origination in various ancient languages. Abrahadabra is a derivative of Abracadabra. Crowley in creating this derivative, claimed it as a restoration completed four years before his reception of Liber AL. This is a strong argument against this word as he was not at this time a Magus nor did he have Aiwass speaking through him. Crowley says that Abrahadabra represents the complete  mystery of the Great Work. Yet, it is but one part of the formula of ON. In the context of ON, we are really only referring to the Great Work of 5=6 contrasted with Makashanah being 8=3.

King Henry VI (1421-1471ev) asserted that the freemasons conceal the faculty of 'Abrac' amongst their many secrets; evidently tying in Abracadabra with Abraxas, the solar deity of Basilides and his branch of Gnostic Christianity. Abracadabra was also used by the ancient Romans to make talismans for the curing of illness. Abrahadabra is 'old aeonic' formula for Great Work that may have been purged, cleansed and purified for the new aeon, but the fact is that it originated long before start of the aeon of Pisces and is masculine in nature as it works the solar paths of the Tree of Life. However, the formula for the aeon of Pisces which really evolved thirteen-hundred years after Moses was INRI and is an evolution of Abrahadabra. Upon examining the formula we find the first Abra (father/substance) reproduces itself (Had--creates a triune nature; this is Set; the 'babe in the egg--and as per the Amalantra working; the Holy Ghost [HRILIU] or metaphysical ecstasy; orgasm) in manifestation of the second Abra (son/instrument) as the Logos that fulfills the father; the true Christ--the Son.

The formula is profaned and revealed to the masses thirteen-hundred years later at the start of the Piscean Age. This age up to the present date is really an astrological event following the 'Precession of the Equinoxes'. And Abrahadabra is really two-fold in manifestation. Thelemic dogma teaches that the first manifestation of it is represented by Set who is is Hoor-paar-kraat; the god of Silence and the formula of discovering your own Star. In this case, Set as the 'Dog-Star' is the star Sirius, known to us as Isis, the gate of the Mysteries (Cf. The Chemical Wedding).  And the second and twin manifestation is represented by Horus who is Ra-hoor-khuit; the god of Speech whose utterance is the manifestation of the Logos in this aeon.

Thelema (93)

We are taught in Liber AL that Thelema is the Word of the Law. Viewing the law as a natural force or energy we can ask, did other avatars inaugurate a current of energy? Moses succeeded, Krsna succeeded, Lao Tzu succeeded and Mohamed succeeded. And the Neophyte word in the A.'.A.'. is also equal to 93 by gematria and has a practical perspective. Even ON could be considered as a lesser but still strong candidate for the word of the aeon if we factor in a practical perspective; but its gematric value doesn't work at all. Still we will consider it later in this essay. And the differences between the numbers 418 and 93 require consideration. 418 is the number of the Great Work, 93 is the number of the Thelemic Current wherein the Great Work is performed. They both represent different ideas.

The '93 Current' as an idea, amplifies the zeitgeist perspective briefly discussed at the beginning of the essay. The noun form of the verb 'ethelo' which means 'to wish or desire'; carrying overtones of joy or delight. This can carry the idea that Thelema is the 'Intent' (the word put forth by Casteneda) or the formula that creates that wish or desire. In it's ancient Greek use, it carries the connotation that it is the 'Will of God' as it also carries the connotation of Love in its use in the language…and interestingly enough is one part of the larger formula of Love under Will (wherein we can include AGAPE). However, Thelema is uttered by Aiwaz as Magus.  Crowley also explored this word as the word based on his experience in the 25th Aethyr: "And the Angel says: Blow, all ye trumpets, for I will lose my hands from the mouth of the lion, and his roaring shall enkindle the worlds." Crowley comments on this quote: "BABALON prepared 666 (in a certain very secret manner) to utter the WORD [Thelema]."

The supposed Words of other Aeons or Magus' turns the tables on even the idea of a Word of the Aeon. Buddha, Lao Tzu and Confucius were all contemporaries of each other and there can only be one Magus. While this is certainly a time of flowering that would eventually culminate with the beginning of the Christian era and the Gnostic Jesus, we have no clear picture of Jesus.  Was he the historical Jeshua bar Joseph as made famous by his brother James?  Or was he Apollon of Tyana, the Mage whose 'miracles' were later attributed to the Gnostic Jesus and distorted when the Nicean Council created their version of Jesus?  Less than five hundred years later we have Mohammed coming along with yet again, another Word. 

Before all that and you only have to go back a little more than five hundred years before Buddha and company, we find the Hebrew Moses. Yet was he really Akhenaten?  And even five hundred years before him we get the mythical Abraham. Zoroaster goes back potentially more than eight thousand years and we can place Krsna back five thousand years. With this, we find no consistent pattern of time spans to validate a Word being transmitted at the start of any Aeon.  What seems more relevant, is that with the cluster of those first four avatars, the earth was bathed in a spiritual birthing that we could term the beginning of the Manifestation of Sagittarius, which contains within it, three Aeons; Pisces, Aquarius and Capricorn. That would put that would make the Aeon of Pisces dual in nature as it is also the start of a Manifestation. 

Of course, the Piscean Aeon would eventually degrade into the Christist Egregore as we have it today, this is because it was inaugurated by a botched attempt to reveal the mysteries to the masses or profane; perhaps due to the great force that was unleashed by the start of the Manifestation occurring simultaneously. In order to further demonstrate the difficulty inherent in the he time line, below is a chart of supposed Avatars with their words:

And what about the modern collection of 'Avatars'? We start with S.L. MacGregor Mathers, Madamme Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Aleister Crowley, whom we can call the archetypal male avatar of the modern era with Dion Fortune being the archetypal female avatar. And we shouldn't forget G.I. Gurdjieff and Carlos Casteneda through all of this. Then there's Swinborne and Rabelais and Eliphas Levi as much as there is Francis Barrett, who had a profound influence on Mathers. There seems to be no end to the appearance of Avatars. And we can give them words if we like. Casteneda can be said to have uttered the word 'Intent'; Levi can be said to have uttered the word 'Baphomet'…et al. Nothing fits the neat mathematically calculated calendar that has become a part of Thelemic dogma.

These avatars all came into different cultures for the most part. And they never really uttered a word. This is really a new concept based on Qabalistic Magick, which is itself, only a thousand years old at the most. And so we're forced to ask: Is an Aeon a period of time? And the answer would be yes, if we're considering the Precession of the Equinox.  But no if we're talking about the Aeon of Horus.  The latter would be as discussed above, a restoration of the perversion that has resulted in the Christist Egregore.

Relying on a precursory understanding of quantum physics as her validation, along comes next, the word 'IPSOS' from Nema, a woman who is said to channel an Aeon that Liber AL teaches us will follow the Aeon of Horus and who has gained some vindication by way of Kenneth Grant. Nema's Liber Penumbra is a dangerous transmission in that the communicating spirit overtly aggrandizes the scribe alluding to her as Babalon herself.  A lot could be said on the ridiculous nature of such an assertion, not the least of which is the anthropomorophization of a god, consistent with all superstitious religions.  But with all communications of the sort and from inferior spirits, there is always mixed in with the lies, a modicum of truth in order to make it palatable in its effort at deception.

The twin current of Cthonos, which can be translated as 'underworld' and Ychronos, which can be translated as 'not time' is expurgated.  Together these may bear some merit as there is a serious study of these forces being conducted at present and in private channels unrelated to the Nema 'hive'.  Perhaps some authentic Class-A communication may turn up, suggesting that these forces tried to get through muck of Nema's overt egoic mess.  Of course, the whole idea of a hive is the perfect antithesis of Thelemic Doctrine in that the latter espouses the heart of the individual in contradistinction to the herd consciousness.

Note that in my private correspondence with Nema (in my archives) she kept claiming that Ipsos (probably a Latin word that means 'Themselves') equals 93 when pressed to show any Qabalah that would support her work as prophecy.  And it was the only thing that she could produce, though the assertion is incorrect and contradicted in her own book.  Certainly any Class-A contact should be able to yield more anyway.  In her book, she even takes a real leap trying to equate the English letter 'O' with the Hebrew letter Vau in her several Gematric analyses that now has her followers using a few as 'official' greetings in a mock imitation of Thelemic tradition.  O is usually equated with Ayin as Vau have U, V and W.  And of course, if one follows the instructions in her book, one would be a Magister Templi in a matter of minutes, but just saying the Magick word.

Frater Achad decided that Crowley's word was actually 'silence'. And this idea was incorporated into the development of the Maatians system espoused by Nema and Kenneth Grant amongst others. Yet Achad also asserted that Crowley failed to receive the real word and was merely grasping with his restoration of Abrahadabra as Crowely was not yet a Magus--the utterer of the Word. I would note that a Magus probably does not 'receive' a word but utters it as an expression of who and what the Magus actually is...a sort of spontaneous combusion.  At least this seems to bear more authenticity than anything that could be contrived.

The formula of 'ON' was Crowley's system of theurgy and can be seen as being a strong candidate for the Word of the Aeon. The integral part of this formula that activates it is silence. And this can even be said to be a timeless word that transcends all this hyped-up aeonic consciousness. Therefore, it's probably a good idea to confine this particular idea of aeons to Thelemic and neo-Thelemic culture. The study of the Precession of the Equinox and the Starry Gnosis is a far more encompassing wisdom that includes and is included in both Eastern and Western systems, reaching back to the dawn of man's quest for Gnosis.

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