Category: common

rare-occult-books:

Andrew Logan Montgomery’s
WALKING THE CROOKED PATH, some thoughts on Qutub.(2013)

Andrew D. Chumbley died suddenly, on his thirty-seventh birthday, of a severe asthma attack.  There is a qabbalistic irony in that I think he might have appreciated.  Thirty-seven is the number of the Perfected Man, the seven spheres of the tree of life below the abyss crowned by the divine triad above.  It is Adam before the Fall.  For a man who had so obviously mastered very deep arcana, departing the world after thirty-seven solar revolutions is an eerie coincidence.  This doesn’t mitigate the tragedy of losing him at such a young age; it would have been extraordinary to see what he might have produced next.

I never knew the man, but I knew his work, and would comfortably place him alongside Austin Spare or Aleister Crowley in the list of the 20th century’s greatest occultists.  This was not another self-help, mass market, Llewelyn New Ager.  Chumbley had tapped into very deep magic, terrific and terrifying, awesome and awful. His Azoetia is probably the first genuine grimoire written in centuries, and his second work,Qutub, is a black jewel.  Both are now nearly impossible to find, commanding prices of one to two thousand dollars when you do, despite being less than twenty-five years old.  It’s hard to imagine any occultist in possession of them being willing to let go.

Qutub is, like the Emerald Tablet or Crowley’s Liber AL vel Legis, a work of extreme brevity but tremendous depth.  It’s seventy-two verses took a year to write and one could profitably spend ten times that puzzling them out.  As Crowley said in his “Initiated Interpretation of Ceremonial Magic,” the world of magic is a mirror, and Qutub explores this riddle in slowly spiraling mysteries.  Magic is both a mask and a mirror, a projection and reflection, a lie and the truth, and the point where these opposites merge into one.  That place is Qutub, the Arabic word for “point.“  The verses of this meditation are designed to bring you there.

Qabbalistically speaking, “nothingness” or “zero” is a kind of code word for God (or “ultimate reality,” if you prefer).  God contains all things, and thus nothing is all that can be said of it.  It cannot be said to be “good” because that denies it “evil,” it cannot be said to be “male” because that denies it femininity, it cannot be said to be “light” because that denies it darkness.  This is why the Buddha called it nirvana, and why the Hebrews didn’t give it a name.  God must contain all opposites because it is the source of all opposites.  Aleister Crowley nicely summed this up as n + -n = 0.  If you take all opposites and add them together, they become nothingness, perfect, without definition or limits, eternal and unchanging.  Nothing lasts forever.  Nothing is perfect.  From the Qabbalistic perspective, by stripping God of its “darker” attributes and assigning them to Satan, the Christians are committing a very serious kind of blasphemy.  God must be the totality of being.  They are cutting it in half.  (I have always found useful here the notion of “nothing” as an empty sheet of paper…because it has nothing on it, it has the potential to become anything.  Once you start to write or draw on it, you start limiting it, defining it, and stripping that unlimited potential away)

The Point then is that first breath God took before it said “let there be light.“  A point exists, but is without length or breadth; it is unity, but right on the very doorstep of being nothing itself.  After that breath, the moment God says "let there be light” we now have “Two,” the duality of light and darkness.  But that initial “One” is the very first stirring of creation before that happens.

Qutub then–which enumerates to 111, also the number of the Tarot Trump “The Fool,” symbolizing the beginning of the Journey–is the start and the finish, the initial step out the door and the moment of arrival, the alpha and the omega, if you will.  It is where something comes from Nothing and returns to Nothing.  This is the sense in which Chumbley uses it.  It is a cosmological code word for the ultimate mystical experience, the dissolution of the ego and the sense of becoming “one” (or Nothing) with everything, as well as the act of creation.

This is all pretty standard mysticism.  A Sufi, a Buddhist monk, a Hindu ascetic, and a devout Christian contemplative could all relate to it.  But Chumbley takes us there along the “crooked path,” a phrase which at once reminds us of both the Qabbala’s “lightning strike” of creation and something more sinister.  And by “sinister” I mean the Latin for “left-hand.”

The Left Hand Path (properlyvamamarga) is a Sanskrit concept that arises in some tantric practices.  Without getting side-tracked, what it amounts to is a “short-cut” to enlightenment through antinomian practices.  If the goal of the Right Hand Path is to overcome the Self through bhakti (love and faith) or karma(work and meditation), the Left Hand Path seeks to do the same through jnaya(knowledge and experience).  Byintentionally breaking taboos, not out of animal weakness or by accident, the seeker breaks down all barriers between him and the Infinite.  He overcomes the Self by dissolution.  Thus in India the tantric would do things like eat meat, drink wine, or engage in ritualized sexual activity with “unclean” women.  The point was not to party, but to unwind the Self and undo identity.

The term shows up in Western esotericism in a somewhat bastardized sense, but with some similar characteristics.  Here it takes on more Jungian dimensions; the merging with the Shadow.  It attempts to reach that essential state of Nothing by embracing the negative and darker characteristics of the personality as a lover; again, n + -n = 0.  The Seeker makes a bride of those things in himself he has been taught to reject.  This is in defiance of conventional religious law, which keeps the individual divided from himself, told to embrace only the “good” within him and reject the “bad."  The Left Hand seeker embraces both in an attempt to know the totality of experience and being, and from this vantage point sees opposites reconciled.

Thus Qutub invokes some very dark characters in its verses.  Chumbley himself says of it ”…this work treats the Arcanum of the Opposer, a magical formula of the Crooked Path concerning the Powers of Self-overcoming.“  That Opposer–again the Shadow–is encountered in the work at various turns as Lilith (the first wife of Adam from Jewish folklore who refused to obey and was replaced by Eve), Iblis (the Islamic satan), and Melek Taus (or Malik Tawas, the "Peacock Angel” of the Yezidi religion, believed to be a Lucifer that rebelled but was later forgiven and redeemed).  But this is where we must remember magic is a mirror…if you look into the darkness and see only evil and sin, that is because your brought them there with you.  As Chumbley says at the opening of the book, “he who is illuminated with the brightest light casts the darkest shadow."  This is precisely why the Peacock Angel is the epitome of transformative redemption.

The whole of Qutub has a very intentional Arabic, "Sufi-esque” vibe.  Indeed, one of the “non-dark” figures invoked by the poem is Khidir, a sort of Sufi “saint” or “boddhisatva” who appears in many guises to help people discover the Infinite.  Qutub is a shadowy reflection of the poet Rumi, who wrote of God as the Lover and the Other.  My old mentor, the Sufi and religious scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr, often cited the Sufi teaching that there were many revelations and many paths, all leading to the same center.  This imagery is referenced again and again by Chumbley as the poem unfolds, as are many other images drawn from Arabic and Persian mysticism.  Looking for the center is like seeking an oasis in the desert.

And where does the poem lead?  What is the destination?  “The main purpose of magical practice,” Chumbley tells us in the poem’s commentary, “…is to refine, develop, and eventually to transmute the Entire Being of the Magician, this process being in accordance with his Will, Desire, and Belief.  It is to recreate oneself in a form aligned unto one’s True Nature.  …Although the (magickal) Current (which originates and flows from the center) affects all Nature, it has conscious direction through the Initiate, who, being possessed of the Gnosis, actively works to manifest this Current: to become Magick Incarnate.  This is the subject of the poem Qutub."  We seem to be seeing a variation here of Thelema and its doctrine of "True Will,” a concept far too large to properly enlarge here but which, in essence, states that all things in the universe have their own path or trajectory proper to them, determined by composition, position, and in the case of sentient beings, disposition.  It is not fate or destiny becomes it does not claim to know the end, but merely the proper direction one should head in.  For Thelema, the main thing is to discover your True Will and to do it, and thus you will have the “inertia of the universe behind you."  Chumbley’s own Arte Magickal seems to embrace a similar line, with the magician discovering his True Nature and embracing it, taking his rightful place in existence.  In doing so he becomes the current of magic flowing from the center of all things into the world, he becomes the very path he walks upon.  Those familiar with the Tao Te Ching or certain schools of Buddhism will recognize the concept.

But the question we are left with, is “doesQutub deliver?”  Can it actually help one discover himself and follow his path?  This is a valid question for any esoteric document, and the answer is always the same; “yes…and no.”  Chumbley is very up front with this in his commentary;

“…The mystical and symbolic language of the Poem is, in a literal sense, occult; it simultaneously conceals and reveals the sum of its meaning by way of cipher.  The eternal nature of Symbols is revealed facet by facet, moment by moment.  In being cast out before the Mind their timely significance is divined and, like a mirror, will reflect the Beholder.  Do not blame the mirror for that which it reflects.  Look Beyond–Look Within!”

In short, this is not one of those New Age works that crowd the shelves at Barnes & Noble.  This is not force-fed consumer illumination.  Qutub is challenging and will unlock only for the right people, something that can easily be said for theTao Te Ching, Liber AL vel Legis, or a thousand other esoteric works.  But it is a genuine work of esotericism, and a very powerful instrument for self-realization, something few modern books on the “occult” can actually claim.  For this reason I cannot but recommend it highly for the serious student.  With time and contmeplation, Qutub not only unlocks its doors, but yours.   

rare-occult-books:

When the Dragon-Book of Essex was first published by Xoanon Publishing back in 2014, they had on their website a small epistle written by Robert Fitzgerald. After a short while I found it wasn’t there anymore but luckily I printed off a copy, though there maybe copies out there somewhere. So for those interested I have written it below, via my phone believe it or not, but for you guys it’s worth it!

A FEW WORDS UPON DRACONIAN PRAXIS By Robert Fitzgerald

Grimorium Synomosia Dracotaos, the second volume of Andrew Chumbley’s Trimagisterion cycle of grimoires, now becomes manifest in accord with his final changes to the manuscript before his passing in 2004 e.v. The book is Andrew’s written culmination of over twelve years of ritual practice exacted by an inner cell of the Cultus Sabbati known as “The Collumn”. I worked with Andrew during the last five years of Column work and was instrumental in bringing its praxis to the United States beginning in 1998. From 1999 to 2002 I served as Preceptor for all Cutus sodalities in North America, including the Column, and actively executed the Draconian Year of rites and working for seven years.

To say that the work of the Column was arduous is an understatement, and the severity of its ordeals is the main reason for writing this brief epistle, as the Dragon Book now moves out into the wide world. Let me state at the outset that this work is NOT for everyone. It is demanding in the arena of personal sacrifice and the time allotted for the proper exaction of its rites and interstitial practices. It has a tendency to destroy personal relationships and to destabilise one’s mind and environment.

Simultaneously, it is work that delivers in terms of personal gnosis and trancendence. But, again, it is not for everyone, because essentially it is the Pathway of Cain, first sorcerer, as made manifest in the flesh and sensorium of the Draconist practitioner. This transmutation is paid for in blood, pain and ecstasis. Once begun, commitment must be total, and the slaughter of Abel – one’s profane self and being – is ritually exacted repeatedly, until the sorcerer passes through the fire, forged anew. And it is with this goal, that ultimately, the Dragon Book is concerned. The demand of the work is absolute, and comprises a quite literal ‘selling of one’s soul’ to the Devil, in this case being the primal serpent. So because of this, and the Path’s ever deviating nature, some words upon context are needful.

The Dragon Book was the result of many years of workings, and collaboration with many initiates. It did not happen in a vacuum or solely extend from the mind of Andrew Chumbley (though it was he that reified it into textual reality). It was the labour of a secret conclave of the Cultus Sabbati. As such its work was wholly initiatic and sub-rosa in nature, as was its relationship to the Cultus Sabbati in general. So why publish it? As with the Azoëtia Andrew wanted the Dragon Book to serve as a vehicle to attract suitable candidates to the overarching work of the Cultus Sabbati. I often argued with him as to the efficacy of this goal in relation to the book’s publication, as I felt it would chiefly serve to attract the unworthy and inappropriate to our doors. Both of our feelings were ultimately vindicated, as the Draconian Arcanum refined the worthy, and cast out or obliterated the unsuitable. Also, I believed, as I still do, that this work is only for the elect – meaning those actually capable of performing it to completion. Debate amongst our initiates, especially among the Draconists, have long ensued over this matter, each having his or her own position, uniquely distilled from the experience of the practices themselves. In the end, we have honoured Andrew’s wishes and published the book.

As the worldly manifestation of the Book is imminent (*now published), I’d like to share some personal advice for those who might be interested in performing its rituals.

First and foremost, it is vital for the reader of the Dragon Book to know that this work once initiated, must be seen to its conclusion. It is not work to be ‘dabbled’ in, which will be easily proven to any that try. If the work genuinely calls out to you, then approach it with respect and honour, and exact the practices as written, without compromise or change. The reason for this is manifold, but primarily, without the context of actual Initiation, the work itself will cohere around the practitioner and serve as initiator into Crooked Path sorcery. As to the exact nature of outcome, only the Path itself may know, until the practitioners themselves become it. Yet, in order for this to be ultimately effective, the rites must be performed correctly and thoroughly.

Despite these admonitions, there is, contained within the book itself, a means of ingress into the work that serves as the Direct Path into its mysteries. And for those who are serious about engaging with it, before the inception of the ritual Dragon Year with the Rite of Ka, I suggest that they first practice, for no less than a period of three months, the ‘Hallowing of the Kingdom of Qayin’ praxis. This will cement a solid foundation and basic understanding of the structure of Draconian Praxis and prepare the individual for fuller immersion in the Current. The daily summoning of Cain will also prepare the practitioner for the ordeals of the rites, whereby the flesh of Cain undergoes a series of intense purifications and transmutations. The Hallowing grounds of the practitioner into the telluric ritual domain of the Bloodacre – the First Circle – and foreshadows the coming of Cain as Draconist, or Qayin Azhaka. For it is Qayin Azhaka that ultimately presides over the rites and ever stands at the threshold of the second circle, as both Opposer and Guide to the sorcerer. Its daily ritual exaction opens the way upon the earth for the decent of Dracotaos into the body of the practitioner.

A second and supplementary practice which should be performed prior to the engagement of Ka, are the calls of the Stellar Transvocation. As its name implies, these summon the celestial powers of each of the Dragon’s limbs down into the earth, and within the corresponding parts of the practitioner themselves. The cycle of invocations becomes a daily devotional unto the Dragon itself, and aligns the myriad pathways of Earth and Sky together as one, transforming the sentient fields of the sorcerer’s awareness. In essence, the Transvocation resumes the entirety of the Draconian rites under a single ritual rubric of practice. The calls serve to activate the numinous centres of the Dragons body in the flesh of the practitioner, thus preparing them for the greater ordeals of this ingress and marriage as revealed in the Draconian cycle as a whole.

Finally, the wise shall discern the matter at hand, and begin from the beginning, with the Marriage Rite.

rare-occult-books:

Here’s one of the best essays I’ve read concerning the Azoëtia which I found online couple of years ago. For those who haven’t read it, enjoy

THE AZOETIA, Thoughts on the Grimoire, by Andrew Logan Montgomery.

(2013)

The Modern Necronomicon

If you are a serious occultist, you’ve probably heard of the Azoetia already. For the more casual reader, let me give you some background. In May, 1992, British “cunning man” Andrew Chumbley self-published a new occult work in limited edition. By 2002, Azoetia: A Grimoire of the Sabbatic Craft, was ready for re-release in another, slightly more deluxe edition (the Sethos edition, named for the book’s “guardian daemon”). It was already by that time a sensation. In today’s esoteric market, everyone seems to want to imitate the late Anton LaVey, whose 1969 Satanic Bible was a mass market grimoire written for the Everyman.  Aleister Crowley had attempted such a thing decades earlier, but his work proved too dense for the non-specialist. The Satanic Bible, by contrast, was a little paperback anyone could purchase, read, and then completely apprehend all the “secrets” of magic with. When LaVey published this book, it was a landmark. Since then, however, everyone under the sun has tried to do the same thing, flooding the world with mass market self-help mumbo jumbo. Most of these modern New Age books are to the medieval grimoires, or Crowley’s Equinox, what the Big Mac is to filet mignon; cheap, filling, but utterly lacking in substance.

Chumbley decided to go against the current. It is the oldest magical formula in the book: do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. Thus, the Azoetia was neither mass market nor for the Everyman. Chumbley’s esoteric group, the Cultus Sabbati, released the volume in a very limited number through a publisher (“Xoanon,”) specifically created for the purpose. The book was exceedingly rare, and possession of it suddenly put you in an elite club.

By 2004, it seemed as if everyone in the occult community had heard of the book, but few had every actually seen it. Like Lovecraft’s Necronomicon, it seemed quasi-legendary, an urban legend for modern Magicians. And then, the unthinkable happened. On his 37th birthday, Andrew Chumbley died of a sudden, severe asthma attack.

Another thing Magicians share in common with Artists is that death makes their work even more valuable. In Chumbley’s case, this was triply so. Not only had he died young, suddenly, and unexpectedly, the very date of his death had eerie occult significance. There is something weird—in the classic sense of the word—about dying on your birthday, particularly given Chumbley’s profession. Add to this the fact that the number 37 has tremendous qabbalistic significance; 37 is the number of the “Perfected Man,” the three divine Sephiroth of the Tree of Life balanced above the 7 manifest Sephiroth below the Abyss. In addition, 37 is the seed of all triple numbers. 37 x 3 = 111, 37 x 6 = 222, 37 x 9 = 333, and 37 x 18 = 666. These coincidences all coalesced, turning tragedy into a kind of frenzy. On the internet, people started to compare Chumbley to Lovecraft’s Abdul Alhazred, who penned the infamous Necronomicon before himself dying a mysterious death. The Azoetia was lifted from legend to myth. The result was a kind or viral marketing campaign. Copies of the Azoetia couldn’t be obtained for love or money.

Well…not exactly. People were willing to part with their precious Azoetias for absurd amounts of money…usually in the range of $1500 to $2500 US. Worse still, one was expected to shell out the cash sight unseen. If you went on Amazon to read “reviews” of the book, for example, no one seemed willing to talk about what it actually said. All you got was a bunch of scary hoodoo about the book being a “True Grimoire,” “not for the weak-hearted,” “a text only for the most serious student,” etc, etc. As I started to research the book, it became clear to me that most owners weren’t willing to divulge its contents mainly because it’s very mystery ensured its value.  I began to wonder if anyone actually used it.

More fuel was added to the fire by the Cultus Sabbati themselves. In an age where every “secret,” “occult” order has a website and runs around constantly blabbing about it’s teachings and trying to recruit new members, the Cultus was truly closed. Few knew what they stood for, what they did, or how to get in. Possession of the Azoetia seemed to be the only glimpse inside a secret order that really was secret.

I had gotten my hands on Qutub, Chumbley’s second work, some time before and found it astounding.  This made me only more determined to read the Azoetia.  Reasoning there is no point calling yourself a magician if you can’t even conjure up a book, I sent out a sigil for it, Austin Spare style, and went about my business.  About three months later a friend put me in touch with a young woman who had found religion and wanted to get rid of her “devil books” as quickly as possible.  It turned out she had an Azoetia, and I picked it up for little over it’s original price.  That was back in 2007.  I’ve had to re-read and digest this extraordinary book for five years before feeling like I could start to discuss it.

But not all in one post.  So here is the first of an eventual series of essays on the work.   

A Book By Its Cover

The Sethos edition is indeed a handsome book. Hardbound with the very highest quality binding, the spine is stamped with the title, the publisher’s imprint, and a sigil that resembled the god Set crossed with a Spare-type sigil. This would be the mark of Sethos, no doubt. The cover bears a mandala-like magic circle, an eight-spoked wheel bearing 22 mystical letters, around the circumference of which are words of power in the same characters.

The title is itself provocative. “Azoth” was the Universal Solvent or Medicine of alchemy, the “quintessence” from which everything else was made. Lovecraft might have been inspired by this term when he created “Azathoth,” the mindless, nuclear chaos from which the universe emerged. In any case, Azoth plays a key role in the book, as we shall later see. “Goetia” (perhaps the source of the second half of the title) is the fabled medieval Lesser Key of Solomon, the grimoire of grimoires concerned with the evocation of fallen angels.The title Azoetia is suggestive of both the original essence of creation and the calling up of spirits. One might wish to translate it as “the calling of daemons from primal quintessence,” which given the contents of the book is not so radical an interpretation.

Tradition

The first thing readers will wish to know is to what tradition does the Azoetia belong. Is it Wiccan? Satanic? Hermetic? Thelemic? Voodoo? Sufi? Chaotic? The answer, it seems, is “all of the above.”

“…it has been my endeavor,” the author writes in his introduction to the first edition, “to define those Principles underlying the many different paths of Magick and to unify them within the single body of a working grimoire…” It would seem, therefore, that the author is working from a Perennialist viewpoint, the assumption that there exists a universal truth or set of truths in all schools of magic and philosophy. He confirms this a few paragraphs later;“…all currents of Magick flow from a single fountain, and I, in drawing this Grimoire from my dreams, have hopefully filled a cup from a pure source…” For Chumbley, the dogmatic differences of occult traditions are veils, masks concealing a single, hidden source. The Azoetia is an attempt to tap directly into that source.

The skeptic might say that Chumbley is not so much as tapping into the primordial source of occult traditions as synthesizing a new one from diverse schools of thought. Either viewpoint is valid with regards to this text. The final point is that virtually any Magician, working from any tradition, could find in the pages ofAzoetia some portion of teachings or practices mirroring his or her own.

For example, despite consciously distancing himself from the modern schools of Wicca, Chumbley’s “Sabbatic Craft” shares a great deal in common with them (at least on the surface). This text is very much concerned with a God and a Goddess (the former embodying Death and the latter coming in triple forms). The working tools mirror those of Gardenarian or Alexandrian Wicca; the wand, a black handled Arthame (Athame), a white handled working knife, a Pentacle, a Cup, a Cord, a Circle, an Altar, etc. The opening ritual closely resembles Wiccan Circle Casting, and there is even a wheel of the year. However, elements from other traditions are clearly woven in here. A magical quill is included, which recalls the Peacock Angel Melek Taus (a key figure in Qutub). The altar is a double cube (more Hermetic than Wiccan). The temple includes a central pole, or “fetish-tree” which is nearly identical in function to those in voodoo honfours.

But all of this, the author asserts, is just set dressing, with little bearing on the truth of the text. A constant theme throughout the Azoetia is the reminder that all the tools, rituals, incantations, and even the text itself are just outward expressions of inner truths. Without getting too far ahead of myself, the last page of the Azoetia reads; HERE ENDETH THE GRIMOIRE AZOETIA…MISTAKE NOT THIS BOOK FOR THE WORDS UPON ITS PAGES. Chumbley earnestly wants us to understand that the grimoire, and all the tools, are physical representations of something else, something without form. For him, Magick is tool of working backwards from the trappings towards that inner source.

Again, back to the introduction; “…the Quintessence of Magick is not to be found by the combination of externals, but solely by the direct realisation of innate source. It is not to be discovered by system with system, belief with belief, or practice with practice; it is not found by uniting the “elements” in their temporally manifest forms. For beyond the Outer, beyond the dualistic and substantive manifestations of element with element, the Quintessence is already attained…when this Mystery is understood, the secret of the Azoth is revealed in truth…”

Like the Chaos Magicians, or to an extent Anton LaVey, Chumbley is telling us that the dogmatic elements of Magick are all mechanisms to tap into its noumenal source. Writing from this standpoint allows Chumbley to imbue his grimoire with a quality which transcends divisions of tradition. A Hermetic is going to read the Azoetia and say “Chumbley was really one of us.” But the Wiccan, the Satanist, and the Thelemite might all come to the same conclusion. Whether you feel that this is evidence of Chumbley’s “Quintessence,” or just a skilled job at integrating diverse forms and practices, is up to you.

Sethos

The second edition of the Azoetia bears the name of the entity watching over it, and opens with a dedication to him. Chumbley explains “Sethos” as…“the Daimon of the Grimoire Azoetia; a noetic emanation of the Magical Quintessence; a mediator between Abel, Cain, and Seth, that is, between the Sacrificed Man of Clay (the Uninitiate Self), the Transformative Man of Fire (the Initiating and Becoming Self), and the Self-Transformed Man of Light (the Initiatic Self-existent One)…” p. 361

Chumbley is drawing on a bit of Gnosticism here. For the Gnostics, ideological rivals of the early Christian Church, the Hebrew God described in the Old Testament wasn’t the Good Guy at all, but rather the Villain. He and his angels were merely lesser emanations of the True Deity. The Gnostics called the false god Ialdabaoth, and explained that he had fashioned the world of matter as a prison to hold captive human souls (which were, in fact, tiny sparks of the True God). Ineffable, invisible, and intangible, the True Deity was far removed from the material world. He did not act directly, but only sent forth emanations. For some Gnostics, Jesus was just such an emanation, sent by the True God to liberate people from the captivity of false one.

While this may seem odd to the modern reader, it does explain a great deal of the Bible’s inconsistencies. Any objective reading of the text leads the reader to wonder how the jealous, vindictive, and murderous God of the Old Testament could possibly be the beneficent and compassionate one spoken of by Jesus. In addition, it explains the problem of suffering and evil a lot more efficiently than the more standard “blame-it-on-Lucifer” line. Regardless, this is what various Gnostic groups believed and taught down through the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd centuries, until the Christian Church got organized and started putting them out of business.

Now, if you reread the Bible with Gnosticism in mind, several things change. For example, in Eden, Ialbadaoth and his angelic cronies suddenly appear to be keeping Adam and Eve naked and stupid, like apes. Then along comes the serpent, who actually helps the couple by persuading them to rebel. He talks them into eating the fruit of knowledge and becoming self-aware. They stop being animals and start being human. For this reason, there was an entire Gnostic sect known as the Ophites (snake-worshippers).

But there was another Gnostic sect known as the Cainites.  To understand why, we must consider the next biblical drama; Cain and Abel. Cain, the eldest son of Adam and Eve, is the first farmer and blacksmith. Abel is a herdsman. God (ie Ialbadoath) commands the two to make a sacrifice to Him. Cain sacrifices the finest fruits of the harvest. Abel slaughters an animal. As a result, God favors Abel’s sacrifice and scorns Cain’s. Message? This God wants blood. As a result, Cain murders his brother and as a result undergoes a mysterious transformation.  Though sent into exile, he is somehow “marked” with a sign of God’s protection.  If anyone tries to punish or murder Cain for his crime, they themselves will be punished by God.  This is completely bizarre, given Yahweh’s “eye for an eye” mentality.  Even more odd, in the wake of losing two sons, Eve conceives a new son, Seth.

Seth is a very curious figure in both Gnosticism and mystical Judaism. Many sects regarded Seth as an emanation of the True God.  The line of Seth was called the “sons of God,” and believed to be holy.  Adam is said to have given them the secrets of the Kabbalah, and many Gnostics belived that Seth—not Jesus—was the savior who would return at the end of time.  

For Gnostics, Seth’s incarnation was made possible by Cain’s sacrifice.  Abel was the first human being to die, and by killing him Cain had opened a path into the otherworld, a path along which the True God could send part of Itself into Ialbadaoth’s creation. Perhaps Yahweh couldn’t punish Cain because he somehow enjoyed the protection of the higher, true God.  

With all this in mind, we are ready to tackle the dedication opening the Sethos edition of the Azoetia;

O Sethos! Rise up and remember!

Recall the Promise once stain’d in red upon the primal dust of the earth!

By baying dog and moon-beam, by lantern, stave, and upright stone,

Come fathom the starlit heights of Heaven in the Old Dew-pool of Cain.

Come ring the blood round with the Serpent, Come turn the skin of time,

Come pace about the corpse of Abel, here break the Fate of Mortal Man!

Here cast forth the Visions from Yesterday, from Tomorrow, unto Today.

Here open the way for the Crooked Path, for the Pathway forever to be!

O Sethos! Rise up and remember,

‘Til thy Namesake, the Man of Light, is born!

The Crooked Path is the one opened by the sacrifice of Abel, and it leads directly to the Azoth. And Cain—the first Magician—is held as the psychopomp, the opener of the way.

Now on one level, Abel is the Uninitiated Self, the normal, everyday mortal held captive by the system, subject to all the laws of nature and time. Cain is the Initiate who rebels against this, sacrificing his old life up in an effort to tear free from the bounds of time and space. And Seth is the Divine Self, the perfected being born from Cain’s sacrifice, the magician who completes his quest. We are seeing the old alchemical formula, solve et coagula, again.

In purely psychological terms, this myth reflects the fact that our lives and identities are hollow constructs, forced upon us by heredity, society, and experience. It urges us to murder these identities and to replace them with entirely self-created ones, to transform ourselves into who we want to be rather than who we’ve been told to be.

But on another level, Abel represents what Chumbley calls Zoa—the life force present in all human beings, analogous to the alchemical mercury. Cain is his darker twin, Azoa, the force of death equally present within us, analogous to salt. And Seth/os would be Azothos, the magical force that unites and transcends both, the divine fire analogous to sulfur. The work of the magician is to liberate himself from both the forces of life (with its pains, cravings, and instability) and death (with its limitation and finality). He must murder Abel and exile Cain, so that Seth (transcendence) might be born.

Aleister Crowley touched on all of this in his Book of Thoth, particularly with regards to the Trumps “Lovers” and “Art.” Another excellent source for further reading would be the writings of Julius Evola (the best being The Hermetic Tradtion).

Here Is How You Create Your Language.

mandrakeandmarjoram:

Take words from the body, with the grammar in hand as your guide. 

Sethos by your side, the Old Toad Woman by mine. Ancestor and guest, two pillars, two frames, one gate, an infinity of gates.

Where is the beginning? Where is the end? 

None, a circle that spins forward through the stars, never ending, never beginning, always transforming, shape shifting, stretching, breaking, being reborn, circle become uncircle then circle once more. 

Eleven Aats, 22 Letters, an infinity of points upon the map of quintessence.

What are yours? How do you speak? Write? Lip?

Sounds guttural and aerial, authocthonic and aethyrial both of the I that is both beginning and end. 

You say, 1, 2, 3, 4 call the Devil to your Door, and find his horns upon your own crown, hoofs on your own feet, fire burning hot in your own belly. 

Tell the story of your own being, 

The Quintessential I.

image

Azoetia, by Andrew Chumbley, page 6.

Naming is creating

thevillaoformen:

Imagine reality as an enormous sphere of energy (absurd, but indulge me). Nothing exists beyond this sphere. Now, divide this sphere into parts by giving them names. Divide those parts into new parts and give them names to. Now continue to divide these parts into smaller parts and if need be put them into groups or categories. Give these categories names. Make up rules for why some parts are connected to others. Continue this process of dividing, categorizing and naming.

When we first had an enormous sphere of reality we now have smaller parts divided through naming and categorizing. We have a universe, a galaxy, a solar system, a planet, a surface, soil, plants, a tree, wood, a plank, a chair, a floor. We have molecules, atoms, quarks etc. All divided and individually named and categorized. Why?

Why do we name and make up categories and systems? We do not discover a new part of reality, we just made one up because it fits the system we are using, which is also made up. We do so because we need names and systems to be able to differentiate in our communication.

Fact is (there are no facts), that there is no difference between a chair and the floor it stands on other than language. There is no difference between a bumblebee and a Thursday, between cancer and strawberry ice cream, between death and a smart suit. Reality exists only through language. What we perceive as reality is a set of constructed attributes that we use in order to communicate more efficiently.

There is no reality set apart from human experience.

What has been made can be unmade.

Naming is creating.

noise-vs-signal:

“Wisdom for the New Flesh” by Andrew D. Chumbley

“An Introduction to the Lore of the Sabbatic Tradition with reference to the transmission of the Quintessential-Azoёtic Current.

In seeking the Quintessence of Magick we must seek within ourselves, as Unique Stars shining
within the Body of the Void – shining with the Single Flame of Magical Power. We must not look further
than the Present Moment, nor strive towards an ever-distant Idol of Perfection; rather we must grasp the
Secret NOW.

For the Arcanum of the Quintessential Current lies within our flesh, permeating the blood
with the quickening of the Spirit; and here within the Vessel of the Body the Primal Atavism of the Magician is enshrined.

This atavism is called within the Tradition of the Sabbatic Mysteries ‘the First-born of Witch-blood’. It is the Soul of the Mundane Autochthon, the Ancestor/Ancestress unto whom the First Vision
was given and unto whom the gift of speech was bestowed, that he might utter the Power of the Vision
through the sacred medium of language (the Sacred Alphabet) and thus communicate the Arcana unto Us,
the Inheritors of Witchblood.

This ‘First-born’ of Magick is named by some ‘Cain’, he who received the Mark of the Beast upon
his brow. Cain is called ‘the Master of Horsemen’ and is identified with the Blacksmith, the Master of Fire
and Metal. He is referred to as ‘the Man-in-Black’ and as such may be identified with the Burnt or Blackened God – Shaitan or Set-an.

Within the Sabbatic Tradition ‘the Man-in-Black’ is figured as the Devil, the
Great Opposer, and is in literal terms the very entity of Death. As ‘Death’ or Thanatos he is the deified
form of the first initiate, and his god-form or ‘entity’ is the Gateway to the atavistic lineage of the Tradition, from the First-born to the Last-dead of Witchblood.

The means by which we may enter into communication with these atavisms of magical heredity
through the Gateway of our own bodies may best be described in terms which are at once both mystical
and practical. We are taught that the Primal Goddess, who is Life Itself, must be called upon at the Place
where three roads meet. These three roads are the three states of awareness – Waking, Dreaming and
Sleeping. The Goddess is the Continuity of Awareness – the State in which the Adept abides after the accomplishment of contemplative, ritual and votive disciplines.

Beyond the Meeting-place of the three
roads there is the Fourth Road; this is entered through any State of ‘Inbetweenness’, such as a ritually induced hiatus of consciousness or more often the State of Hypnagogia. The Fourth Road is the Trance
State Itself — the State of Silent Knowing or Gnosis.

The Sabbatic Teaching is that where the Four
Roads meet the Power of Death resides. As the God of the Cross’d-Roads he leads the Aspirant through
the Psychostasis of the Initiatory Ordeals, thus granting him communion with the ‘Living And the Dead of
All Blessed And Wise’.

In summary, the instantaneity of Illumination is the immediate result of contact with the innermost
sanctum of our own being. It is the unveiling of all past and future transitions of entity through which the
Indivisible ‘I’ will pass, by the means of going to the ‘Cross-roads’ or Transvocatory Point between all
Space and Time.

The Great Sorcerer draws Power from his own Death. Now!

I have outlined in a basic manner the crux of a Body of Lore, whose elegant simplicity and yet
highly intricate nuances cannot be given a just expression by words alone. But nonetheless this outline
will suffice to impart to the reader a sense of the approach to the Quintessential Current which the Tradition of the Sabbatic Craft may grant the Aspirant. In essence it focuses upon the individual as a centre of
power and emphasizes the vital importance of one’s personal vision of the World.

Rather than primarily
attempting to externalize a Unity of different initiatory streams, by bringing together individuals skilled in
such, to facilitate a ‘working group’, its prime objective is to allow the individual aspirant to discover the
Unity of Magical Power within, whilst engaging them in a complete body of magical disciplines and lore
without compromising the germination of personal insight. (This manner of Teaching is akin to the Sufic
Technique known as the ‘scatter’ method).

By going forth through the Gateway of the Cross’d-Roads the
aspirant meets face-to-face the Catena of the Mighty Dead – not only those of his own metempsychotic
lineage, but all Kindred of Our Arte to which he is bound by the Covenant of descent from the First Initiate.

He enters the Circle of the Living and the Dead to dance in co-ёval rings of moments, days and
epochs, hand-in-hand with Gods, Beasts, Men and things of Spirit and Flesh as yet unnamed. This Vision
is that of the Great Sabbat — the Prototype or ‘Form’ of Magical Quintessence from which all magical
rites and practices take their pattern.

It has been called ‘The Communion of the Saints’, ‘The Sabbath of
the Witches’, in antiquity ‘The Sabaziorum’, and in the times of Ancient Babylon ‘Sa-bat’.

To some this
Vision is full of glorious imagery, where angelic nymphs will lead them carousing and singing to feasts of
delightful superabundance. Yet to others it is an infernal pilgrimage, traversing gulfs of pain upon ladders
of knives, jostling with concupiscent hordes of half-formed Satyri and Succubi unto the oft’-bloodied altar, where the Anus of the Goat is kissed as though it were the tender lips of a Proserpinian Virgin.

The Unity of these disparate representations lies in an integral area of Sabbatic Lore, the Teachings regarding the Hand and the Eye, in which magico-aesthetic formulae regarding the Purity of Perception and the sensory transmission of the Quintessential Current via Art have been developed, and are still
under refinement.

Their Praxis is fundamentally akin to that of the Varna Marg and the One-Life/Short-Path of the Bon-po Mystics of Tibet and Nepal — the Full Embrace of Abomination in order to gain intercourse with True Beauty and Understanding.

This is glyphed by the transmogrification of the Osculum
Infame to the ‘Sacrificial’ Heiros Gamos of the Virgo Sabbati, and that of the Medusine Witch-Queen into
the flowering visage of an Aphrodite. (It is of note in comparison to the One-Life/Short-Path that there is
an identity with the ‘Fourth Road’ previously mentioned, this also relating to the half coil of the Fire-snake
or Kundalini, which is of three and one half coils. The identity between the ‘Short Path’ and the ‘Fourth Road’ is explicit
upon a study of common techniques and aims within both the practical and the mystical fields).

With regard to the magico-aestheticism of Sabbatic Lore, we have a direct cultic precursor in Zos
vel Thanatos (Austin Osman Spare), whose own artistic and magical work greatly refined this specific
area of the Tradition. He was himself an Initiate of the Sabbatic Mysteries — in the Outer via the lineage
of Yelda Paterson and the Salem Witch-cult, and upon the Inner via the psychically inductive initiations
caused by traffick with ‘intrusive familiars’ such as ‘Black Eagle’, as well as the metempsychotic inductions of the Sabbatic Lore facilitated by his practice of Atavistic Resurgence.

It was through the personage of Zos that the Sabbatic Current conjoined with the Typhonian 93 ̇. ̇ Current transmitted through the
O.T.O. The symbiosis of the two streams is attained par excellence via the Zos Kia Cultus, which may be
seen as both an ‘atavism’ of the Sabbatic Cult today and as the ‘Portal’ for the insurgent vitality which is
presently revivifying the Circle of Artist-Initiates.

It is perhaps pertinent at this juncture to state my own
role in these matters and to comment, as much as is permitted without breaching the law of secrecy, upon
the present form of the Cultus Sabbati. Contrary to the aspersions of historians, anthropologists and occultists, there are surviving traditions of magic, witchcraft and sorcerous practices in Britain and Europe.

The one to which I belong is that of the Sabbatic Craft or Cultus Sabbati which, discarding nominalisations, is a magical tradition preserved a direct lineage of Outer Initiations. Its essence or ‘Current’ is native
to Britain, although in antiquity it has been informed by the same current from Sumer which informs the O.T.O. (hence the etymology of Sabbat = Sa-Bat, the Lunar festival of Inanna) and is within my
own time once more assimilating the web of currents transmitted from the many occult power-zones upon
and beyond the Mundane Sphere.

The Lineage of Outer Initiations, which has been unbroken since before the inauguration of the
Thelemic Era, is preserved by a means simply called the ‘Passing-On or Passing-Over of Power’. It is
usually a gesture of contact between the Initiate and the Initiator — accompanied by the reception of the
Pass-word and the Words of Benediction: “May the Blessing Be”.

It is of note that this blessing and gesture are identical to that preserved in certain Sufic and Dhulqarneni Circles, the words being translated
directly as “Mubarak Bashad” — “May the Blessing Be”.

A cognate means of this ‘Passing-On’ will be
found in the tradition of ‘The Horse-Whisperers’, a Secret Society closely linked to the oldest forms of the
Craft — hence the relevance of the ‘Master of Horsemen’ or Cain, the First Initiate, born from the Union
of Adam and Lilith.

Certain forms of Freemasonry, Voudon, the Bon-po, as well as the aforementioned
Sufic and Equine-totem sects et al., preserve an initiatory gesture to impart the power of their current from
Initiator to Initiate.

Within the Sabbatic Craft this is only bestowed when the aspirant has fulfilled a preparatory period of nine months and a novitiate period of one year and a day, during which they are taught
and trained in the manner of the tradition. There are other means of this ‘Passing-On’, such as the purely
metempsychotic, which preserves the Inner Catena of Witchblood.

There is also the Eroto-inductive
means, which is only used once by an Initiator in his or her lifetime in order to pass on not only the
‘Power’ of the Tradition, but also a certain secret authority. According to custom the worthy Initiate must
be of the opposite gender, thus ensuring the alternation of masculine and feminine emphasis in the teachings, and also engendering the ‘Children of the Elder Gods’ — those sired in the precincts of the Sabbatic
Conclaves.

It is also important to point out another aspect of my own work, because it bears upon the relevance of the Zos Kia Cultus and the work of future adepts within these Mysteries. This is the matter of the
individual Initiate’s responsibility, not only to preserve the lineage and its lore, but also to refine, expand
and sublimate it in accordance with personal vision and predilection.

Zos, in his formulations within The
Witches’ Sabbath and in his Grimoire of Zos, transmuted the Sabbatic Lore as a natural consequence of
his own artistry, but nonetheless did not detract from its Corpus of Wisdom. What his words do not impart his pictures most assuredly do.

Likewise in my own recension of the Tradition within The Azoёtia, A
Grimoire of the Sabbatic Craft (From Azoth, Zoa, Azoa, et al.; hence Quintessence, Life and Death, and
cognate ideas) I have redefined the Body of Sabbatic Lore and have sought to reconstruct the entire
framework of the Tradition in accordance with its present aim of reifying the Quintessential Current of
All Magick.

Certainly the work reflects my personal vision, but the ‘Lore’ encoded therein is a direct ’re-enfleshing’ of the Tradition as a Whole, drawing in strands of symbolism and technique from many paths
to achieve their focus within the Quintessential-Azoёtic Current. Thus having focused the Gnosis of the
High Sabbat upon the inner as a repository for the Unifying Current of the Magick of All Aeons, the task
is now to reciprocate this upon the Outer.

The Book Azoёtia is the Telluric Point of Ingress in the reification of the Quintessential Current. It
is the ‘Living Truth’, the Very Flesh of the Initiates, which is the Gateway through which the Mighty
Dead of Witchblood will once more “go forth in Shadow and in Light upon the Earth”.

The Book is only
a visible means to read from and thereby gain access, through the subtleties of symbolic inference and
psychic perichoresis, to the Great Unwritten Grimoire of Magick which is the ‘True Form’ of the Azoёtia.

As Present Magister of the Cultus Sabhati, I have initiated this Work in accordance with both the principle of preserving the integral Body of the Teachings and the ethos of their perpetual refinement. This is
not straightforward, nor is it a light responsibility; one must ensure that whatever one adds or subtracts
does not diminish, imbalance or conflict with the Harmony of the Totality. This concerns all who are at
present conjoined in similar endeavours within the field of the Arcane; with all due honour I express my
blessings, gratitude and encouragement to those True Companions of the Way.

The Principal Methodology of the Sabbatic Arcana is Sorcery, and therefore it is necessary for me
to define what is meant by ‘Sorcery’ in this context. Its meaning as employed in the Cultus Sabbati is in
agreement with its correct definition via the roots of etymology: ensorcel/ensorcellment = encircle, meaning ‘to bewitch’ or ‘to bind by witchcraft’.

Hence this implies the method of ‘encircling’ or ‘binding’ as a
means of control and influence within the manipulative procedures of Magickal Power. It is usual for occultists to maintain a simple error of technicality to strengthen their practical ineptitude.

In the use of
‘Sorcery’ as a name for specific magical procedures the error of terminological inaccuracy is most common. The term is usually restricted to those operations which rely upon the use of material bases, or are
located strictly upon a fixed level of magical processes, i.e: — the Lunar/Sexual Strata Entity. The error
extends further, classifying the ‘Sorcerer’ as a Practitioner of ‘Black Magick’. Fortunately these errors are
half-truths.

Sorcery embodies the technique of ‘Binding’ as the means of controlling the Magical Forces, and
hence may best be defined via a definition of that technique:

The act of Binding is the deliberate limitation of a Force or State of Entity by Will, desire
and Belief, in order to give that Force or State of Entity a specific Form or Icon, and
hence give its Power a Focus and an intensity.

This definition is not restricted to any one level. It functions from the Highest to the Lowest Strata of Being; upon the Transcendental and Mystical Plane via the ‘Forms’ of the Elder Gods and the Abstract Magical Principles embodied in the Sacred Alphabet; upon the Intellectual Plane via the ‘eidos’ of the Gods
and Powers as ‘cogent principles of philosophical enquiry’ and as the ‘Ideas’ which specific god-forms
represent; upon the Emotional level via the sensory corollaries of the Sacred Letters; upon the psycho-
sexual level via the use of specific eroto-cognitive and orgiastic formulae; upon the mundane level via the
ritual iconography and the use of fetishistic bases to earth or manifest the Power Invoked; and upon the
atavistic level via the ancestral, totemic and elemental powers communicated with and used by the Practitioner as delegatory extensions of his present entity.

This only glosses over the Practice of Sorcery, but it clearly exemplifies its relevance to the Adept.
As defined in reference to the Azoetic Current, Magick is the Force Itself, the Transmutability of the
Quintessence (Azoth) of All Nature; and Sorcery is the Method par excellence of the Arte Magical used
to control that Force.

Its advantage is primarily its technical precision in working with the extremely specific nuances of the Magical Current, and yet maintaining the Sanctity of Mystery via their understanding
and control through the cryptogrammatical meta-language of the Sacred Alphabet.

The ramifications of
the system are complex and intricate, but it exists as an holistic ‘entity’. Its understanding should be undertaken not solely upon an intellectual or rational plane, but rather by ‘feeling’ an intuitive knowledge and
by virtue of sudden realization: a deep and tacit gnosis married to the lightning-swift illumination.

The notable distinction in the Sorcery of the Azoёtic Current is that it is ‘the Sorcery of the
Crooked Path’; it defines, refines and achieves its ends, and in doing so confronts the limits of Nature’s
own horizon. By the transilient dance of the Adept from the Old Flesh to the New Flesh he perpetually
reifies ‘That’ which he is not: the Body of Otherness.

He is thus not only the Gateway for the Returning
Dead but the Gateway for Those who are ‘Beyond’ and ‘Between’ the borderlines of Possibility. In consequence of this I give the following magical formulae, which I hope will serve as a precis of these ideas,
and if used as daily objects of contemplation will transmit and enflesh the Quintessential Current to the
‘Pure of Hand and Eye’.

Of these, The Soliloquy of Alogos should be used upon waking and The Exvocation upon retiring. This order should be changed around at the Full Moon and the New Moon.

The Soliloquy of Alogos

I: O’ Thou Sole Arcanum — Panphage, Pangenetor, Panfornicatrix,
who art the Wanderer within the Labyrinth of every Possibility.

A Cipher of Cryptograms concealeth the Metatheses of thy Name.

Thou hast no kingdom beyond Transciency,
who art exiled amid perpetual metamorphoses.

By this Sorcery of Will, Desire and Belief:
Thou art Here, this Very Moment: Enfleshed.

From this Form give forth the Necroloque:
the Death-Speech of Atavism.

Grant us the Immediacy of Our Futurities:
Transference between all Otherness.

Lead us to meet the Ever-coming Chaos with a tranquil embrace
and ennoble us with thy Solitude.

Spare us no Sensation:
That we may attain Gnosis within Ekstasis.

For Thine is this Illumination:
the Living Truth of I: NOW.

The Exvocation

I: O’ Thou Colossus of Phantasie,
who art the Mote and the Motion of All Creation,
the Ephemeral Masquerader of Chaos.

Ever-changing are thy Names;
All Names but no Name will suffice to call Thee.

Thy Kingdom is the Horizon that encircleth me.

By mine Inscrutable Sorceries,
Thou art Here, this Very Moment: Transvoked.
That the Circle lieth empty.

In this Void enflesh anew the Alogos of I.

Grant us the New Flesh: Protosarkia.
Incarnation to That which hath yet no nature.

Lead us not,
For we are the Path Itself.
The Sole Prae-determinant of That which shall Be: NOW.

“Wisdom for the New Flesh” by Andrew D. Chumbley, in “Starfire Journal Volume I Number Five” (1994).

“Gnosis For the Flesh Eternal” (1999) is an expanded version of this article, and appears in “Opuscula Magica Volume Two” (2011).

Source: noise-vs-signal