"Our work is therefore historically authentic; the rediscovery
of the Sumerian Tradition." - Aleister Crowley
INTRODUCTION
IN THE MID - 1920's, roughly two blocks from where the Warlock Shop
once stood, in Brooklyn Heights, lived a quiet, reclusive man, an author
of short stories, who eventually divorced his wife of two years and returned
to his boyhood home in Rhode Island, where he lived with his two aunts.
Born on August 20, 1890, Howard Phillips Lovecraft would come to exert
an impact on the literary world that dwarfs his initial successes with
Weird Tales magazine in 1923. He died, tragically, at the age of 46 on
March 15, 1937, a victim of cancer of the intestine and Bright's Disease.
Though persons of such renown as Dashiell Hammett were to become involved
in his work, anthologising it for publication both here an abroad, the
reputation of a man generally conceded to be the "Father of Gothic
Horror" did not really come into its own until the past few years,
with the massive re-publication of his works by various houses, a volume
of his selected letters, and his biography. In the July, 1975, issue The
Atlantic Monthly, there appeared a story entitled "There Are More
Things", written by Jorge Luis Borges, "To the memory of H.P.
Lovecraft". This gesture by a man of the literary stature of Borges
is certainly an indication that Lovecraft has finally ascended to his rightful
place in the history of American literature, nearly forty years after his
death.
In the same year that Lovecraft found print in the pages of Weird Takes,
another gentleman was seeing his name in print; but in the British tabloid
press.
NEW SINISTER REVELATIONS OF ALEISTER CROWLEY read the front page of the
Sunday Express. It concerned testimony by one of the notorious magician's
former followers (or, actually, the wife of one of his followers) that
Crowley had been responsible for the death of her husband, at the Abbey
of Thelema, in Cefalu, Sicily. The bad press, plus the imagined threat
of secret societies, finally forced Mussolini to deport the Great Beast
from Italy. Tales of horrors filled the pages of the newspapers in England
for weeks and months to come: satanic rituals, black masses, animal sacrifice,
and even human sacrifice, were reported - or blatantly lied about. For
although many of the stories were simply not true or fanciful exaggeration,
one thing was certain: Aleister Crowley was a Magician, and one of the
First Order.
Born on October 12, 1875, in England - in the same country as Shakespeare
- Edward Alexander Crowley grew up in a strict Fundamentalist religious
family, members of a sect called the "Plymouth Brethren". The
first person to call him by that Name and Number by which he would become
famous (after the reference in the Book of Revelation), "The Beast
666", was his mother, and he eventually took this appellation to heart.
He changed his name to Aleister Crowley while still at Cambridge, and by
that name , plus "666", he would never be long out of print,
or out of newspapers. For he believed himself to be the incarnation of
a god, an Ancient One, the vehicle of a New Age of Man's history, the Aeon
of Horus, displacing the old Age of Osiris. In 1904, he had received a
message, from what Lovecraft might have called "out of space",
that contained the formula for a New World Order, a new system of philosophy,
science, art and religion, but this New Order had to begin with the fundamental
part, and common denominator, of all four: Magick.
In 1937, the year Lovecraft dies, the Nazis banned the occult lodges of
Germany, notable among them two organisations which Crowley had supervised:
the A\ A\ and the O.T.O., the latter of which he was elected head in England,
and the former which he founded himself. There are those who believe that
Crowley was somehow, magickally, responsible for the Third Reich, for two
reasons: one, that the emergence of New World Orders generally seems to
instigate holocausts and, two, that he is said to have influenced the mind
of Adolf Hitler. While it is almost certain that Crowley and Hitler never
met, it is known that Hitler belonged to several occult lodges in the early
days after the First War; the symbol of one of these, the Thule Gesellschaft
which preached a doctrine of Aryan racial superiority, was the infamous
Swastika which Hitler was later to adopt as the Symbol of the forms, however,
is evident in many of his writings, notably the essays written in the late
'Thirties. Crowley seemed to regard the Nazi phenomenon as a Creature of
Christianity, in it's anti-Semitism and sever moral restrictions concerning
its adherents, which lead to various types of lunacies and "hangups"
that characterised many of the Reich's leadership. Yet, there can be perhaps
little doubt that the chaos which engulfed the world in those years was
prefigured, and predicted, in Crowley's Liber AL vel Legis; the Book of
the Law.
The Mythos and the Magick
We can profitably compare the essence of most of Lovecraft's short stories
with the basic themes of Crowley's unique system of ceremonial Magick.
While the latter was a sophisticated psychological structure, intended
to bring the initiate into contact with his higher Self, via a process
of individuation that is active and dynamic (being brought about by the
"patient" himself) as opposed to the passive depth analysis of
the Jungian adepts, Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos was meant for entertainment.
Scholars, of course, are able to find higher, ulterior motives in Lovecraft's
writings, as can be done with any manifestation of Art.
Lovecraft depicted a kind of Christian Myth of the struggle between opposing
forces of Light and Darkness, between God and Satan, in the Cthulhu Mythos.
Some critics may complain that this smacks more of the Manichaen heresy
than it does of genuine Christian dogma; yet, as a priest and former monk,
I believe it is fair to say that this dogma is unfortunately very far removed
from the majority of the Faithful to be of much consequence. The idea of
a War against Satan, and of the entities of Good and Evil having roughly
equivalent Powers, is perhaps best illustrated by the belief, common among
the Orthodox churches of the East, in a personal devil as well as a personal
angel. This concept has been amplified by the Roman Catholic Church to
such an extent - perhaps subconsciously - that a missal in the Editor's
possession contains an engraving for the Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle,
for November 30, that bears the legend "Ecce Qui Tollis Peccata Mundi"
- Behold Him Who Taketh Away The Sins of the World - and the picture above
it is of the atomic bomb!
Basically, there are two "sets" of gods in the mythos : the Elder
Gods, about whom not much is revealed, save that they are a stellar Race
that occasionally comes to the rescue of man, and which corresponds to
the Christian "Light"; and the Ancient Ones, about which much
is told, sometimes in great detail, who correspond to "Darkness".
These latter are the Evil Gods who wish nothing but ill for the Race of
Man, and who constantly strive to break into our world through a Gate or
Door that leads from the Outside, In. There are certain people, among us,
who are devotees of the Ancient Ones, and who try to open the Gate, so
that this evidently repulsive organisation may once again rule the Earth.
Chief among these is Cthulhu, typified as a Sea Monster, dwelling in the
Great Deep, a sort of primeval Ocean; a Being that Lovecraft collaborator
August Derleth wrongly calls a "water elemental". There is also
Azazoth, the blind idiot god of Chaos, Yog Sothot, Azathoth's partner in
Chaos, Shub Niggurath, the "goat with a thousand young", and
others. They appear at various times throughout the stories of the Cthulhu
Mythos in frightening forms, which test the strength and resourcefulness
of the protagonists in their attempts to put the hellish Things back to
whence they came. There is an overriding sense of primitive dear and cosmic
terror in those pages, as though man is dealing with something that threatens
other than his physical safety: his very spiritual nature. This horror-cosmology
is extended by the frequent appearance of the Book, NECRONOMICON.
The NECRONOMICON, is according to Lovecraft's tales, a volume written in
Damascus in the Eighth Century, A.D., by a person called the "Mad
Arab", Abdhul Alhazred. It must run roughly 800 pages in length, as
there is a reference in one of the stories concerning some lacunae on a
page in the 700's It had been copied and reprinted in various languages
- the story goes - among them Latin, Greek and English. Doctor Dee, the
Magus of Elizabethan fame, was supposed to have possessed a copy and translated
it. This book, according to the mythos, contains the formulae for evoking
incredible things into visible appearance, beings and monsters which dwell
in the Abyss, and Outer Space, of the human psyche.
Such books have existed in fact, and do exist. Idries Shah tells us of
a search he conducted for a copy of the Book of Power by the Arab magician
Abdul-Kadir (see: The Secret Lore of Magic by Shah), of which only one
copy was ever found. The Keys of Solomon had a similar reputation, as did
The Magus by Barret, until all of these works were eventually reprinted
in the last fifteen years or so. The Golden Dawn, a famous British and
American Occult lodge of the turn of the Century, was said to have possessed
a manuscript called "the Veils of Negative Existence" by another
Arab.
These were the sorcerer's handbooks, and generally not meant as textbooks
or encyclopedias of ceremonial magick. In other words, the sorcerer or
magician is supposed to be in possession of the requisite knowledge and
training with which to carry out a complex magickal ritual, just as a cook
is expected to be able to master the scrambling of eggs before he conjures
an "eggs Benedict"; the grimoires, or Black Books, were simply
variations on a theme, like cookbooks, different records of what previous
magicians had done, the spirits they had contacted, and the successes they
had. The magicians who now read these works are expected to be able to
select the wheat from the chaff, in much the same fashion as an alchemist
discerning the deliberate errors in a treatise on his subject.
Therefore it was (and is) insanity for the tyro to pick up a work on ceremonial
Magick like the Lesser Key of Solomon to practise conjurations. It would
also be folly to pick up Crowley's Magick in Theory and Practise with the
same intention. Both books are definitely not for beginners, a point which
cannot be made too often. Unfortunately, perhaps, the dread NECRONOMICON
falls into this category.
Crowley's Magick was a testimony of what he has found in his researches
into the forbidden, and forgotten, lore of past civilisations and ancient
times. His Book of the Law was written in Cairo in the Spring of 1904,
when he believed himself to be in contact with a praeter-human intelligence
called Aiwass who dictated to him the Three Chapters that make up the Book.
It had influenced him more than any other, and the remainder of his life
was spent trying to understand it fully, and to make its message known
to the world. It, too, contains the formulae necessary to summon the invisible
into visibility, and the secrets of transformations are hidden within its
pages, but this is Crowley's own NECRONOMICON, received in the Middle East
in the shadow of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, and therein is writ not only
the beauty, but the Beast that yet awaits mankind.
It would be vain to attempt to deliver a synopsis of Crowley's philosophy,
save that its 'leitmotif' is the Rabelaisian
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
The actual meaning of this phrase has taken volumes to explain, but roughly
it concerns the uniting of the conscious Self, a process of individuation
which culminates in a rite called "Knowledge and Conversation of the
Holy Guardian Angel"; the Angel signifying the pure, evolved Self.
Yet, there are many terrors on the Way to the Self, and an Abyss to cross
before victory can be declared. Demons, vampires, psychic leeches, ghastly
forms accost the aspiring magician from every angle, from every quarter
around the circumference of the magick circle, and they must be destroyed
lest they devour the magician himself. When Crowley professed to have passed
the obstacles, and crossed the Abyss of Knowledge, and found his true Self,
he found it was identical with the Beast of the Book of Revelation, 666,
whom Christianity considers to represent the Devil. Indeed, Crowley had
nothing but admiration for the Shaitan (Satan) of the so-called "devil-worshipping"
cult of the Yezidis of Mesopotamia, knowledge of which led him to declare
the lines that open this Introduction. For he saw that the Yezidis possess
a Great Secret and a Great Tradition that extends far back into time, beyond
the origin of the Sun cults of Osiris, Mithra and Christ; even before the
formation of the Judaic religion, and the Hebrew tongue. Crowley harkened
back to a time before the Moon was worshipped, to the "Shadow Out
of Time"; and in this, whether he realised it as such or not, he had
heard the "Call of Cthulhu".
Sumeria
That a reclusive author of short stories who lived in a quiet neighbourhood
in New England, and the manic, infamous Master Magician who called the
world his home, should have somehow met in the sandy wastes of some forgotten
civilisation seems incredible. That they should both have become Prophets
and Forerunners of a New Aeon of Man's history is equally, if not more,
unbelievable. Yet, with H.P. Lovecraft and Aleister Crowley, the unbelievable
was a commonplace of life. These two men, both acclaimed as geniuses by
their followers and admirers, and who never actually met, stretched their
legs across the world, and in the Seven League Boots of the mind they did
meet, and on common soil . . . . Sumeria.
Sumeria is the name given to a once flourishing civilisation that existed
in what is now known as Iraq, in the area called by the Greeks "Mesopotamia"
and by the Arabs as, simply, "The Island" for it existed between
two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, which run down from the mountains
to the Persian Gulf. This is the site of the fabled city of Babylon, as
well as of Ur of the Chaldees and Kish, with Nineveh far to the north.
Each of the seven principal cities of Sumeria was ruled by a different
deity, who was worshipped in the strange, non-Semitic language of the Sumerians;
and language which has been closely allied to that of the Aryan race, having
in fact many words identical to that of Sanskrit (and, it is said, to Chinese!).
For no one knows where the Sumerians came from, and they vanished just
as mysteriously as they appeared, after the Assyrian invasions which decimated
their culture, yet providing the Assyrians with much of their mythology
and religion; so much so that Sumerian became the official language of
the state church, much as Latin is today of the Roman Catholic Church.
They had a list of their kings before the Flood, which even they carefully
chronicled, as did many another ancient civilisation around the world.
It is believed that they had a sophisticated system of astronomy (and astrology)
as well as an equally religious rituale. Magick, as well in history, begins
at Sumer for the Western World, for it his here, in the sand-buried cuneiform
tablets that recorded an Age, that the first Creation Epic is found, the
first exorcism, the first ritual invocations of planetary deities, the
first dark summonings of evil Powers, and ironically, the first "burnings"
of people the anthropologists call "Witches".
Lovecraft's mythos deals with what are known chthonic deities, that is,
underworld gods and goddesses, much like the Leviathan of the Old Testament.
The pronunciation of chthonic is 'katonic', which explains Lovecraft's
famous Miskatonic River and Miskatonic University, not to mention the chief
deity of his pantheon, Cthulhu, a sea monster who lies, "not dead,
but dreaming" below the world; an Ancient One and supposed enemy of
Mankind and the intelligent Race. Cthulhu is accompanied by an assortment
of other grotesqueries, such as Azathot and Shub Niggurath. It is of extreme
importance to occult scholars that many of these deities had actual counterparts,
at least in name, to deities of the Sumerian Tradition, that same Tradition
that the Magus Aleister Crowley deemed it so necessary to "rediscover".
The Underworld in ancient Sumer was known by many names, among them ABSU
or "Abyss", sometimes as Nar Mattaru, the great Underworld Ocean,
and also as Cutha or KUTU as it is called in the Enuma Elish (the Creation
Epic of the Sumerians). The phonetic similarity between Cutha and KUTU
and Chthonic, as well as Cthulhu, is striking. Judging by a Sumerian grammar
at hand, the word KUTULU or Cuthalu (Lovecraft's's Cthulhu Sumerianised)
would mean "The Man of KUTU (Cutha); the Man of the Underworld; Satan
or Shaitan, as he is known to the Yezidis (whom Crowley considered to be
the remnants of the Sumerian Tradition). The list of similarities, both
between Lovecraft's creations and the Sumerian gods, as well as between
Lovecraft's mythos and Crowley's magick, can go on nearly indefinitely,
and in depth, for which there is no space here at present. An exhaustive
examination of Crowley's occultism in light of recent findings concerning
Sumeria, and exegesis on Lovecraft's stories, is presently in preparation
and is hoped to be available shortly. Until that time, a few examples should
suffice.
Although a list is appended hereto containing various entities and concepts
of Lovecraft, Crowley, and Sumeria cross-referenced, it will do to show
how the Editor found relationships to be valid and even startling. AZATOT
is frequently mentioned in the grim pages of the Cthulhu Mythos, and appears
in the NECRONOMICON as AZAG-THOTH, a combination of two words, the first
Sumerian and the second Coptic, which gives us a clue as to Its identity.
AZAG in Sumerian means "Enchanter" or "Magician"; THOTH
in Coptic is the name given to the Egyptian God of Magick and Wisdom, TAHUTI,
who was evoked by both the Golden Dawn and by Crowley himself (and known
to the Greeks as Hermes, from whence we get "Hermetic"). AZAG-THOTH
is, therefore, a Lord of Magicians, but of the "Black" magicians,
or the sorcerers of the "Other Side".
There is a seeming reference to SHUB NIGGURATH in the NECRONOMICON, in
the name of a Sumerian deity, the "Answerer of Prayers", called
ISHNIGARRAB. The word "Shub" is to be found in the Sumerian language
in reference to the Rite of Exorcism, one of which is called Nam Shub and
means "the Throwing". It is, however, as yet unclear as to what
the combination SHUB ISHNIGARRAB (SHUB NIGGURATH) might actually mean.
There was a battle between the forces of "light" and "darkness"
(so-called) that took place long before man was created, before even the
cosmos as we know it existed. It is described fully in the Enuma Elish
and in the bastardised version found in the NECRONOMICON, and involved
the Ancient Ones, led by the Serpent MUMMU-TIAMAT and her male counterpart
ABSU, against the ELDER GODS (called such in the N.) led by the Warrior
MARDUK, son of the Sea God ENKI, Lord of Magicians of this Side, or what
could be called "White Magicians" - although close examination
of the myths of ancient times makes one pause before attempting to judge
which of the two warring factions was "good" or "evil".
MARDUK won this battle - in much the same way that later St. George and
St. Michael would defeat the Serpent again - the cosmos was created from
the body of the slain Serpent, and man was created from the blood of the
slain commander of the Ancient Army, KINGU, thereby making man a descendent
of the Blood of the Enemy, as well as the "breath" of the Elder
Gods; a close parallel to the "sons of God and daughters of men"
reference in the Old Testament. Yet, though the identity of the Victor
is clear, there were - and are - certain persons and organisations that
dared side with the vanquished, believing the Ancient Ones to be a source
of tremendous, and most unbelievable, power.
Worship of the Ancient Ones in History
"Let them curse it that curse the day, who are skilful
to rouse Leviathan." - JOB 3:8
S.H. Hooke, in his excellent Middle Eastern Mythology, tells us that the
Leviathan mentioned in JOB, and elsewhere in the Old Testament, is the
Hebrew name given to the Serpent TIAMAT, and reveals that there was in
existence either a cult, or scattered individuals, who worshipped or called
up the Serpent of the Sea, or Abyss. Indeed, the Hebrew word for Abyss
that is found in GENESIS 1:2 is, Hooke tells us, tehom, which the majority
of scholars take to be a survival of the name of the chaos-dragon TIAMAT
or Leviathan that is identified closely with KUTULU or Cthulhu within the
pages are mentioned independently of each other, indicating that somehow
KUTULU is the male counterpart of TIAMAT, similar to ABSU.
This monster is well known to cult worship all over the world. In China,
however, there is an interesting twist. Far from being considered a completely
hostile creature, dedicated to the erasure of mankind from the page of
existence, the Dragon is given a place of pre-eminence and one does not
hear of a Chinese angel or saint striving to slay the dragon, but rather
to cultivate it. The Chinese system of geomancy, feng shui (pronounced
fung shway) is the science of understanding the "dragon currents"
which exist beneath the earth, these same telluric energies that are distilled
in such places as Chartres Cathedral in France, Glastonbury Tor in England,
and the Ziggurats of Mesopotamia. In both the European and Chinese cultures,
the Dragon or Serpent is said to reside somewhere "below the earth";
it is a powerful force, a magickal force, which is identified with mastery
over the created world; it is also a power that can be summoned by the
few and not the many. However, in China, there did not seem to be a backlash
of fear or resentment against this force as was known in Europe and Palestine,
and the symbol of might and kingship in China is still the Dragon. In the
West, the conjuration, cultivation, or worship of this Power was strenuously
opposes with the advent of the Solar, Monotheistic religions and those
who clung to the Old Ways were effectively extinguished. The wholesale
slaughter of those called "Witches" during the Inquisition is
an example of this, as well as the solemn and twisted - that is to say,
purposeless and unenlightened - celibacy that the Church espoused. For
the orgone of Wilhelm Reich is just as much Leviathan as the Kundalini
of Tantrick adepts, and the Power raised by the Witches. It has always,
at least in the past two thousand years, been associated with occultism
and essentially with Rites of Evil Magick, or the Forbidden Magick, of
the Enemy, and of Satan . . .
. . . and the twisting, sacred Spiral formed by the Serpent of the Caduceus,
and by the spinning of the galaxies, is also the same Leviathan as the
Spiral of the biologists' Code of Life : DNA
The Goddess of the Witches
The current revival of the cult called WICCA is a manifestation of the
ancient secret societies that sought to tap this telluric, occult force
and use it to their own advantage, and to the advantage of humanity as
was the original intent. The raising of the Cone of Power through the circle
dancing is probably the simplest method of attaining results in "rousing
Leviathan", and has been used by societies as diverse as the Dervishes
in the Middle East and the Python Dancers of Africa, not to mention the
round dances that were familiar to the Gnostic Christians, and the ones
held every year in the past at Chartres.
The Witches of today, however, while acknowledging the importance of the
Male element of telluric Power, generally prefer to give the greater honour
to the Female Principle, personified as the Goddess. The Goddess has also
been worshipped all over the world, and under many names, but is still
essentially the same Goddess. That TIAMAT was undoubtedly female is to
the point; and that the Chinese as well as the Sumerians perceived of two
dragon currents, male and female, gives the researchers a more complex
picture. The Green Dragon and the Red Dragon of the alchemists are thus
identified, as the positive and negative energies that compromise the cosmos
of our perception, as manifest in the famous Chinese yin-yang symbol.
But what of INANNA, the single planetary deity having a female manifestation
among the Sumerians? She is invoked in the NECRONOMICON and identified
as the vanquisher of Death, for she descended into the Underworld and defeated
her sister, the Goddess of the Abyss, Queen ERESHKIGAL (possibly another
name for TIAMAT). Interestingly enough, the myth has many parallels with
the Christian concept of Christ's death and resurrection, among which the
Crucifixion (INANNA was impaled on a stake as a corpse), the three days
in the Sumerian Hades, and the eventual Resurrection are outstanding examples
of how Sumerian mythology previewed the Christian religion by perhaps as
many as three thousand years - a fact that beautifully illustrates the
cosmic and eternal nature of this myth.
Therefore, the Goddess of the Witches has two distinct forms: the Ancient
One, Goddess of the Dragon-like telluric Power which is raised in Magickal
rituals, and the Elder Goddess, Defeater of Death, who brings the promise
of Resurrection and Rejuvenation to her followers those who must reside
for a time after death and between incarnations in what is called the "Summerland".
Sumer-land?
Another hallmark of the Craft of the Wise is evident within the NECRONOMICON,
as well as in general Sumerian literature, and that is the arrangement
of the cross-quarter days, which make up half of the Craft's official pagan
holidays. These occur on the eves of February 2nd, May 1st, August 1st,
and November 1st, and are called Candlemas, Beltane, Lammas and Samhain
(or Hallows), respectively.
The name Lammas has a curious origin in the dunes at Sumer. It is not less
than the name of one of the four mythological Beasts of the astrological
fixed signs, Lamas being the name of the half-lion, half-man Guardian of
Leo (the sign governing most of August, when the feast of Lammas takes
place), and USTUR being that of Aquarius (February), SED that of Taurus
(May) and NATTIG that of Scorpio (November). I do not believe that this
is a fantastic assumption, the Sumerian origin of the Feast of Lammas.
Indeed, it seems just as valid as the ideas of Idries Shah concerning Craft
etymology as presented in his book, The Sufis. It is also not far-fetched
to assume that these four beasts were known to the entire region of the
Middle East, as they appear on the Sphinx in Egypt, and have become the
symbols of the Four Evangelists of the Christian New Testament - an ironic
and splendid result of the ignorance of the Greek religious historians
concerning the ancient mysteries!
Probable the most inconsistent concept the Sumerians possesses with reference
to the Craft is the naming of the Goddess as a deity, not of the Moon (as
the Craft would have it), but of the planet Venus. The Moon was governed
by a male divinity, NANNA (like INANNA but minus the initial 'I'), and
was considered the Father of the Gods by the earliest Sumerian religion.
It should be noted, however, that all of the planetary deities, termed
"the zoned Ones" or zonei in Greek, and indeed all of the Sumerian
deities, had both male and female manifestations, showing that the Sumerians
definitely recognised a yin-yang composition if the universe (the "male
Moon" idea is, the Editor is given to understand, common to so-called
Aryan mythologies). There is also evidence to show that every god and goddess
also had both a good and an evil nature, and evil gods were banished in
the exorcism formulae of that civilisation as well as the lesser forms
of demon.
The Horned Moon
As mentioned, the God of the Moon was called NANNA by the Sumerians. By
the later Sumerians and Assyrians, he was called SIN. In both cases, he
was the Father of the Gods (of the planetary realm, the zonei), and was
depicted as wearing horns, a symbol familiar to the Witches as representative
of their God. The horn shaped crown is illustrative of the crescent phases
of the Moon, and were symbolic of divinity in many cultures around the
world, and were also thought to represent certain animals who were horned,
and worshipped for their particular qualities, such as the goat and bull.
They also represent sexual power.
The fact that, in ancient Sumeria and Egypt, horns were solely representative
of evil gods, but of many different deities, was used by the Christian
Church in their attempt to eradicate pagan faiths. It was a simple enough
symbol to identify with the Author of Evil, Satan, which the Church depicted
as a half-animal, half-human creature with horns, claws, and sometimes
a tail. The Church's use of the horns as a sort of archetype of Evil is
quite similar to the feeling many people have today with regards to the
swastika used by the Nazis, a symbol which has become the archetype of
an evil sigil in the West. The fact that it is a highly valued mystical
and religious symbol in the East is something that is not well-known. What
is worse, the image of the Devil as perpetrated by the Church is simultaneously
representative of sexual energy, and can be safely compared to Jung's archetype
of the Shadow, the psychic repository of a man's innate maleness, as the
anima represents that part of a man which is feminine. Truly, the pictures
painted of a Satanic ritual by the pious Catholic clergymen was one of
sexual orgies and "perversions", and the handbook of the Inquisitors,
the Malleus Maleficarum - which has been responsible for the deaths of
many more people than even Hitler's Mein Kampf - is full of detailed sexual
imagery and reveals the nature of the souls of the monks who wrote it,
rather than of the innocents it was used to massacre. Eventually, Satanism,
Protestantism and Judaism were inextricably woven together to form a patchwork
quilt of Evil that the Church attempted to destroy during the Middle Ages,
with fire and sword.
As a matter of fact, a certain type of devil worship did exist during those
times but, ironically, the acolytes of Hell were usually never brought
to trial; something which stems from the fact that many of those who celebrated
and attended the infamous Black Masses of the period were Roman Catholic
clergymen, many of whom has been pressed into His Service at a young age
by their parents, who wished to see their sons brought up well-fed and
educated in those uncertain times, where the Church was the sole power
and refuge. The frustration at being "condemned" to a life that
demanded the abandonment of society and a "normal" life led many
priests to express their hostilities through the Office of the Demon, the
Black Mass. Often, this was also a means of political demonstration, as
the Church controlled virtually all the political life of the period. In
a way, as though in a test tube at a philosophical laboratory, Aleister
Crowley was brought up under similar circumstances - although ver far removed
in time from the days of the Church's immense temporal power. Coming from
a fanatically religious Christian family, and suddenly freed upon the neighbourhood
of Cambridge, Crowley did, in a sense, turn Satanist. He identified strongly
with the underdog, politically as well as spiritually, and came eventually
to take the Name of the Beast as his own, and expound a philosophy that
he hoped would rip apart the worn tapestry of the established moral Christian
atmosphere of Victorian England, and expose it for what it really was,
a carpet made of many ingenious threads and not God - or eternal happiness
- at all; only nap.
Therefore, it seemed almost logical that he should seek in the defeated,
Old Religions of the world for the basis of his new philosophy and, some
say, his new "religion". He raised the female aspect back up
to one of equality with the male, as it was in the rites of Egypt, and
of Eleusis. "Our Lady Babalon" (his spelling) became a theme
of many of his magickal writings, and he received he Credo, the Book of
the Law, through a Woman, his wife Rose Kelly. The lunar element, as well
as the Venusian, are certainly accessible in his works. It has even been
said in occult circles that he had a hand in putting together the grimoire
of one Gerald Gardner, founder of a contemporary Witchcraft movement, called
the Book of Shadows.
The Moon has an extremely important, indeed indispensable, role in the
tantrick sex magick rites that so preoccupied Crowley and the O.T.O. There
can be no true magick without woman, nor without man, and in the symbolic
language of the occult there can be no Sun without the Moon. In alchemy,
ceremonial magick, and Witchcraft, the formula is the same, for they all
deal with identical properties; whether they are called the Sun and Moon
of the Elixir Vitae, the male and female participants in a rite of Indian
or Chinese tantricism, or the Shadow and the Anima of Jungian depth psychology.
For many years, the Moon remained the prime deity of the Sumerians, constituting
the essential Personum of a religious and mystical drama that was performed
roughly 3000 B.C. amid the deserts and marshes of Mesopotamia. Side by
side with the worship of the Moon, NANNA, there was fear of the Demon,
PAZUZU, a genie so amply recreated in the book and the movie by Blatty,
The Exorcist, and similarly recognised as the Devil Himself by the Church.
PAZUZU, the Beast, was brought to life by Aleister Crowley, and the Demon
walked the Earth once more.
With publicity provided by H.P. Lovecraft.
The Devil
PAZUZU was a prime example of the type of Devil of which the Sumerians
were particularly aware, and which they depicted constantly in their carvings
and statues. The purpose of this iconography was to ward off the spiritual
- and psychic - circumstances which would precipitate a plague, or some
other evil. "Evil to destroy evil." Although the ancient people
of the world were conscious of an entity we might call the :Author of all
Evil", the Devil or Satan, as evident in the Sumerian Creation Epic
and the rumoured existences of the Cult of Set of the Egyptians, the more
pressing concern was usually the exorcism of TIAMAT, she exists, somehow,
just as the Abyss exists and is perhaps indispensable to human life if
we think of Her as typifying the female quality of Energy. Although MARDUK
was responsible for halving the Monster from the Sea, the Sumerian Tradition
has it that the Monster is not dead, but dreaming, asleep below the surface
of the Earth, strong, potent, dangerous, and very real. her powers can
be tapped by the knowledgeable, "who are skilful to rouse Leviathan."
Although the Christian religion has gone to great lengths to prove that
the Devil is inferior to God and exists solely for His purpose, as the
Tempter of Man - surely a dubious raison d'etre - the Sumerian Tradition
acknowledges that the Person of "Evil" is actually the oldest,
most Ancient of the Gods. Whereas Christianity states that Lucifer was
a rebel in heaven, and fell from God's grace to ignominy below, the original
story was that MARDUK was the rebel, and severed the Body of the Ancient
of Ancient Ones to create the Cosmos in other words, the precise reverse
of the Judeo-Christian dogma. The Elder Gods evidently possessed a certain
Wisdom that was not held by their Parents, yet their Parents held the Power,
the Primal Strength, the First Magick, that the Elder Ones tapped to their
own advantage, for they were begotten of Her.
It generally accepted in the Halls of Magick that all of the Wisdom in
the world is useless without the necessary adjunct of Power. This Power
has gone by many names, as the Goddess and the Devil have, but the Chinese
symbolise It by the Dragon. It is the force of Will, and relies heavily
upon the biochemical matter that makes up the human body, and hence, the
human consciousness, to give it existence. Science is coming around to
accept the fact that the Will does exist, just at the point where Psychology
has determined it does not - in the behaviourists vain attempt to eradicate
what has always been known to constitute vital parts of the psyche from
their consideration in pseudo scientific experimentation, leaving us with
the "white mice and pigeons" of Koestler's The Ghost In The Machine.
Science, ancient Sister of Magick, has begun to realize the human potential
that resides, inconspicuously, in the spiral-mapped matter of the brain.
Just as the magicians, accused of trafficking with the Devil, were said
to have developed tremendous power over natural phenomena, Science has
ascended to that realm unblamed, and guiltless. The Pope has ridden in
aircraft. Cardinals have flown in 'choppers' over battlefields in Southeast
Asia, urging technological eco-side, invoking Christ; pronouncing damnation
and the Devil on the industrially inferior man. Ecce Qui Tollit Peccata
Mundi.
And a rock group from England, home of the Anglican heresy, sings of "sympathy"
for the Devil. PAZUZU. TIAMAT. The Seven Deadly Sins. The fear of Lovecraft.
The pride of Crowley.
The lunar landing was the symbolic manifestation of man's newly acquired
potential power to alter the nature - and perhaps, via nuclear weapons,
the course - of the heavenly bodies, the zonei, the Elder Gods. It has
a power the Ancient Ones have been waiting for, for millennia, and it is
now within their grasp. The next century may deliver unto mankind this
awesome power and responsibility, and will leave him knocking on the dread
doors of the azonei, the IGIGI, approaching the barrier that keeps out
the ABSU.
And one day, without the benefit of NECRONOMICON, the Race of Man will
smash the barrier and the Ancient Ones will rule once more.
An alternative possibility exists: that, by landing on the Moon, we have
come to reinstate the ancient Covenant and thereby assure our protection
against the Outside. Since "the gods are forgetful", buy treading
on their celestial spheres we are reminding them of their ancient obligations
to us, their created ones. For, as it is said in one of man's most ancient
of Covenants, the Emerald Table, "As Above, So Below". Man's
power to alter the nature of his environment must develop simultaneously
with his ability to master his inner environment, his own mind his psyche,
soul, spirit. Perhaps, then, the lunar landing was the first collective
initiation for humanity, which will bring it one step closer to a beneficial
Force that resides beyond the race of the "cruel celestial spirits",
past the Abyss of Knowledge. Yet, he must remember that the occult powers
that accompany magickal attainment are ornamental only, indications of
obstacles overcome on the Path to Perfection, and are not to be sought
after in themselves, for therein lies the truth Death. Lovecraft saw this
Evil, as the world passed from one War and moved menacingly towards another.
Crowley prepared for it, and provided us with the formulae. The Mad Arab
saw it all, in a vision, and wrote it down. He was, perhaps, one of the
most advanced adepts of his time, and her certainly has something to say
to us, today, in a language the Intuition understands. Yet they called
him "Mad".
Accompanied in the ranks of the "insane" by such "madmen"
as Neitzsche, Artaud, and Reich, the Mad Arab makes a Fourth, in a life-and-death
game of cosmic bridge. They are all voices crying in that wilderness of
madness that men call Society, and as such were ostracised, stoned, and
deemed mentally unfit for life. But, for them, Justice will come when we
have realised that the Ship of State and the Ship of St Peter have become
mere Ships of Fools - with Captains who course the seas by stars, ignoring
the eternal Ocean - and then, we will have to look to the Prisoners in
the Hold for navigational guidance.
It is there, always, and Cthulhu Calls.