The Picatrix, Ghayat al-hakim, And The O9A

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The Latin Picatrix, The Arabic Ghayat al-ḥakim, And The O9A Septenary System
(pdf)

Those who have studied the Renaissance Latin text known as the Picatrix, and those who have studied the more ancient Arabic text – Ghayat al-ḥakim – on which it is based, will be aware of three things.

First, that describing either book as an “astrological” text is a mistake, given (i) what the term astrology now denotes, such as the making of natal charts, and the writing of horoscopes based on Zodiacal constellations; and given (ii) that the classical Latin term astrologia denoted the Art (scientia) of knowing and understanding celestial objects – the stars and planets – and how these objects might affect mortals given that for ancient Greek and Roman philosophers we mortals were considered as connected to, as part of, the cosmic order, κόσμος.

Second, that the subject of Ghayat al-ḥakim – and thus of the Picatrix – is this connection and how a knowledge and understanding of the seven planets, of the Zodiacal constellations, and the relation between them, was a means whereby wisdom – an understanding of the cosmos, and of ourselves – could be attained […]

Third, how a septenary system permeates those two books.

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Editorial Note: The synchronicity of such recent O9A texts dealing with ancient Arabic esoteric manuscripts such as Ghayat al-hakim, and the appearance of Richard Moult’s latest Tarot image The Emissary with its Arabic inscription – أساسيون – is esotericism at its modern best.

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Related:

The Eludent Order Of Nine Angles
(pdf)

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Image credit: The Emissary, by Richard Moult.
Image source: https://starred-desert.com/2018/08/25/the-emissary/

The Eludent O9A

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The Eludent Order Of Nine Angles
(pdf)

This O9A compilation conveniently brings together some recent articles which, as explained in the Introduction, manifest aspects of O9A tradition hitherto neglected by both other Occultists and by academics who have studied or who are studying Western Occultism and/or the O9A.

Which aspects are (i) Occult knowledge – esoteric and pagan traditions, Greco-Roman, Arabic, and Persian – absent from other manifestations of modern Western Occultism; (ii) the link which the O9A has through this knowledge to those ancient traditions; and (iii) the erudition shown by the authors of such O9A texts.

The compilation thus compliments the O9A texts in Aρρενόθηλυς: Alchemical And Hermetic Antecedents Of The Seven Fold Way, issued in 2016.

O9A Notes On Two Ancient Pagan Texts

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O9A Esoteric Notes On Two Ancient Pagan Texts
(pdf)

We republish here two esoteric notes from 2017 ev since they are relevant to and compliment the recent (2018) O9A texts An Esoteric Note On The Somnium Scipionis {1}, Some O9A Notes On The Picatrix {2}, and A Hidden O9A? {3}.

The two esoteric notes deal with ancient Greco-Roman sources that perhaps many of those who describe themselves as practitioners of a Western Occult tradition will be unfamiliar with.

The first deals with the Avenging Alastoras as described in tractate 13 of the Corpus Hermeticum. The second, and more detailed note, concerns a part of Virgil’s Aeneid and provides a scholarly, an initiated, insight into words such as the Latin magicas which via the Greek μαγικός was the origin of the English term magic/magick.

To provide some context, what is evoked by Virgil is the immolation of a lady (Dido) who would rather die than dishonour herself by having to live with a barbarian, and who is angry at Aeneas for deserting her and who seeks aid through The Craft (sorcery) by means of a Dragon-friendly priestess. This is a manifestation of the Western ethos and a world away from what is evoked by the medieval grimoire, Magian influenced, tradition with its profusion of hierarchical ‘demons’, its alleged ‘secrets’, and its hollow promises that anyone can control such ‘demonic’ entities if they have the right accoutrements and the right Magian names.

As we mentioned at the beginning of the Alastoras article:

                  “We read an awful lot, these days, in books, articles, and via the internet, about ‘sorcery’ and invokations, almost all of which books and articles describe or rely on the Magian influenced goetic ‘tradition’ as exemplified by the misnamed Hermetic Order Of The Golden Dawn. Thus it is refreshing to once again revisit actual Western pagan sources…”

We have corrected a few typos, updated some of the references, and added an additional reference to the Alastoras article.

TWS Nexion
August 2018 ev

{1} https://www.o9a.org/2018/08/concerning-the-somnium-scipionis/

{2} https://www.o9a.org/2018/08/some-notes-on-the-picatrix/

{3} https://omega9alpha.wordpress.com/2018/08/10/the-hidden-order-of-nine-angles/

Concerning The Somnium Scipionis

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An Esoteric Note On The Somnium Scipionis Of Cicero
(pdf)

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The above text is a companion to the author’s recent essay Some Notes On The Picatrix.

Some Notes On The Picatrix

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The Latin text known in the West as the Picatrix – a medieval translation, via Spanish, of the Arabic text Ghayat al-Ḥakim, which Arabic text has been dated as from around the year 1000 CE {1} – has received some attention in the last few decades by those interested in or claiming to be practitioners of Western Occultism, with a few English translations of the Latin text by such people available and with some of these versions stating that they are based on the scholarly version of the Latin text, edited by David Pingree, published in 1986 by the Warburg Institute. The problem with these modern translations based on the text of the Picatrix is of course that they are translations of a Latin medieval translation of a Spanish translation and thus are quite far removed from the original Arabic text.

The Picatrix itself is widely believed – by scholars – to have influenced and informed the European Renaissance, and a recent book titled Arabic Influences on Early Modern Occult Philosophy {2} places the Picatrix in the necessary historical context, referencing as it does works by and studies of figures such as Marsilio Ficino, Aristotle, Macrobius (who wrote Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis), and Al-Farabi.

In terms of modern Western Occultism, the Ghayat al-Ḥakim – the original Arabic text – and some other Arabic texts would seem to be the origin of the ‘grimoire’ and talismanic tradition predating as they do the much later Hebrewesque and Kabbalah influenced grimoires – with their Hebrewesque ‘demons’ – beloved by The Hermetic Order of The Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley, Howard Stanton Levey, and by perhaps the majority of individuals claiming to be practitioners of Western Occultism.

            In contrast to this later Hebrewesque and Kabbalah influenced grimoire tradition, the Order of Nine Angles (ONA, O9A) have always claimed not only that their Occult tradition pre-dates such Hebrewesque and Kabbalah influenced Occult traditions but is also the original, the traditional, Western Occult tradition, melding as that original tradition did Greco-Roman pagan sources – for example, the Somnium Scipionis of Cicero, and the Corpus Hermeticum with its septenary anados {3} – with Arabic sources such as Al-Kitab Al-Alfak (The Book Of The Spheres) and which Arabic text was most probably influenced by, or derived from, the Ghayat al-Ḥakim.

The O9A have also claimed that the later Hebrewesque and Kabbalah influenced Occult tradition – with its ten-fold Otz Chim – is a distorted version of the earlier, Greco-Roman and pagan, septenary tradition. {4} {5}

That the O9A claims have scholarly, historical and Western pagan foundations should by now be obvious to those who have studied primary sources such as the Arabic text of the Ghayat al-Ḥakim, other Arabic works such as De Radiis Stellarum by Al-Kindi, {6} and Kitab Al Madkhal Al Kabir Fi’ilm Ahkam Al Noudjoum, {7} and who have also taken the trouble to read Myatt’s commentaries on the Corpus Hermeticum as well as O9A essays such as (i) Lapis Philosophicus, Isaac Newton, And The Septenary System and (ii) Azoth: Western Alchemy And The Seven Fold Way Of The Order Of Nine Angles. {8}

R. Parker
July 2018 ev
v.1.03

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{1} As of July 2018 ev, a digital edition of the Arabic text of Ghayat al-Ḥakim – published in 1933 in Germany – is available at http://catalogue.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/record=b2205045~S12

{2} Liana Saif, Arabic Influences on Early Modern Occult Philosophy, Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic, 2015, ISBN 978-1137399465.

{3} qv. David Myatt’s translation of and commentary on the Pymander text of the Corpus Hermeticum, available in his book Corpus Hermeticum: Eight Tractates. 2017. ISBN 978-1976452369

See also the O9A text Alchemical And Hermetic Antecedents Of The Seven Fold Way, available from https://omega9alpha.wordpress.com/ἀρρενόθηλυς/

{4} qv. O9A texts such as https://omega9alpha.wordpress.com/2013/12/25/originality-tradition-and-the-order-of-nine-angles/

{5} qv. the O9A compilation The Esoteric Hermeticism Of The O9A, available from https://omega9alpha.wordpress.com/2016/03/30/the-esoteric-hermeticism-of-the-order-of-nine-angles/

{6} According to some scholars this treatise by the Arab philosopher Al-Kindi influenced John Dee.

{7} A copy of the Arabic text is, as of July 2018 ev, available at https://archive.org/details/1H5Uuo

{8} The essays are included in The Esoteric Hermeticism Of The O9A.

The Exoteric And Esoteric Reality Of The O9A

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The Exoteric And Esoteric Reality Of The Order Of Nine Angles
(pdf)

Herewith, A Return To The Dark?

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Herewith, A Return To The Dark?

As Anton Long wrote in 2011 ev in the ONA text The Discovery and Knowing of Satan,

                   “The Order of Nine Angles is an esoteric association of individuals, and the emphasis of this association is on: (1) practical experience and challenges (Occult, exoteric, and amoral) and (2) on the authority of individual judgement. Thus, for the ONA, what matters is the individual developing, from their own years-long (mostly decades-long) practical experience, a personal weltanschauung: that is, discovering their own individual answers to certain questions concerning themselves, life, existence, the Occult, and the nature of Reality.”

Also, two decades earlier he had written,

                   “There is no acceptance of someone else’s authority […] I claim no authority, and my creations, profuse as they are, will in the end be accepted or rejected on the basis of whether they work. Satan forbid they should ever become dogma or a matter of faith. I also expect to see them become transformed, by their own metamorphosis and that due to other individuals: changed, extended and probably ultimately transcended, may be even forgotten. They – like the individual I am at the moment – are only a stage, toward something else.” {1}

As Professor Monette explained, the O9A

                   “is not a structured lodge or temple, but rather a movement, a subculture or perhaps metaculture that its adherents choose to embody or identify with.” {2}

Now, in 2018 ev, with the early stages of Phase III of O9A sinister strategy {3} well-presenced, {4} and with an abundance of new and old O9A texts freely (and, for now, still) available from the omega9alpha weblog, it is obvious that the public future and the public persona/personae of the O9A – and the present and future interpretations, manifestations, and the natural evolution of the O9A – belong to (i) independent O9A nexions – be they traditional, Satanist, pagan, Left Hand Path, NS-orientated, Darkly Sinister, Vampyric, or otherwise – and (ii) to those artists, musicians (of whatever genre or none) and activists who presence by their endeavours the sinister-numinous aesthetic, and/or who presence or embody the esoteric philosophy and praxises, of the Order of Nine Angles.

Sufficient has been written, over the past four decades, by both “Anton Long” and The Inner ONA for those interested in the O9A to, should they so desire, follow the O9A Seven Fold Way, establish an independent O9A nexion or presence the ethos of the O9A through music and art or by other means.

Sufficient has also been written to counter the anti-O9A propaganda and silly allegations that modern self-described – mostly Levey inspired – ‘satanists’ and mundane others have spewed forth for decades and no doubt will continue to spew forth by means of various mediums.

All that those interested in the O9A, or interested in understanding the O9A, need for them to begin to appreciate the O9A in esoteric context – that is, sans polemics and propaganda, both O9A and anti-O9A – are the following five, brief, introductory guides all of which are available as gratis open access (pdf) documents:

Practical Guide To The Seven Fold Way
(pdf)

The Exoteric And Esoteric Reality Of The O9A
(pdf)

Classifying O9A Texts
(pdf)

Quintessence Of The Order Of Nine Angles
(pdf)

O9A Occult Fiction
(pdf)

T.W.S. Nexion
May 2018 ev
v.1.07

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{1} Letter to Michael Aquino, dated 20th October 1990 ev. The Satanic Letters of Stephen Brown. Volume 1. Thormynd Press, 1992.

{2} Monette, Connell. Mysticism in the 21st Century. 2013. Sirius Academic Press. p.89

{3} Phase III of the sinister strategy of the O9A is evident
(i) in “a burgeoning esoteric [O9A inspired] culture of which clandestine O9A nexions are a part,”
(ii) in those clandestine O9A nexions returning to the tradition of personal covert recruitment and the practical testing of new Initiates which testing includes culling,
(iii) in each O9A person, nexion, group, or cell, freely developing their own interpretation of everything O9A, because they are “free to develop and change everything O9A, [since] there is no authority above the individual, or beyond each group or collective of groups. No leader, no outer (or inner) representative, no council, no old guard, who can make pronouncements about or declare what is or is not correct. No official or genuine O9A; no heresy; no proscription of individuals or groups. Furthermore, no consensus is necessary or required among those who are or who associate with the O9A, although naturally a particular O9A nexion may have or arrive at a particular internal consensus and thus presence a particular interpretation of matters O9A,”
(iv) in “each O9A person, nexion, group, or cell, [using] their own judgement in respect of what they do; in how they, individually and/or as part of an O9A nexion, presence the dark and manifest the sinister in practical ways,”
(v) in the retirement of “Anton Long”.

{4} Examples of such recent Presencing “Of The Sinister” (valid as of May 2018 ev) include but are not limited to the following:

§ the availability of gratis open access digital texts such as (a) the 1460 page seventh edition of Guide To The Order of Nine Angles: Theory and Praxises (external link), and (b) its companion work the 159 page The Esoteric Hermeticism Of The O9A (pdf),
§ the availability of printed versions of classic ONA texts included in books such as (a) The Sinister Tradition, ISBN 978-1479324613, (b) Hostia: Secret Teachings of the ONA, ISBN 978-1493633906, and (c) Sinister Tales, ISBN 978-1479305636,
§ the active and traditional Italian Secuntra nexion, who have published two books – (a) Corpus Secuntra, Telos, ISBN 978-1981879342, and ISBN 978-1545074497, and (b) Satanica Eresia – Una Guida al Satanismo, ISBN 978-1986070034 – and also recorded some O9A chants,
§ the Deathwave Nexion who have produced recordings by O9A-inspired musicians such as Hvile I Kaos which band had a successful public concert in 2018 at a venue in Long Beach California,
§ the release of ‘sinisterly-numinous’ recordings by the Deverills Nexion,
§ the Finnish Black Metal record label The Sinister Flame, and groups such as Altar of Perversion,
§ the MMP Temple record label,
§ the Tempel ov Blood,
§ the Non Est Secundus Quia Unus Est book of Tarot images by Richard Moult,
§ the O9A inspiring some members of some politically active National Socialist groups.
§ And so on and so on…

Labyrinthos Mythologicus: Such A Confusion

A perspicacious comment about the Order of Nine Angles (ONA, O9A), requiring no comment from the likes of “us”.

{begin quotation}

Such a confusion in great numbers is one of the stated purposes of the Labyrinthos Mythologicus, and it is what makes it inherently elitist at every level. That is to say, it is not elitist because it brags or because there is an authority denying entry, but because it asks from the practitioner a wide variety of abilities, at least in potential, and the willingness to develop them through hard work. Some of these are stated explicitly, and others are required by the sheer complexity or lack of explanations of certain things, which end up pushing the seriously interested practitioner to find ways, bridge gaps, interpret and discover his own unique way. Being unable to do so, either out of incompetence or mental intransigence, is to be culled by the design of the ONA or to be culled out of the loop by one’s own mediocrity, incapacity or emotional blockage and blinding (often the case among clever occultists).

From its inception, the Seven-Fold Way was intended to see most fail, to see most crumble under pressure, by a reluctance to try again, by carelessness leading to mental or physical injury or destruction. It should be clear to any objective and intelligent student of the materials (not to speak to a practitioner, I presume) that personal discernment is the foremost of all ONA requirements, once a holistic and balanced view of its rather wide assortment of ideas throughout the decades has been at least partially digested. To even suggest that the failure of many (most?) ONA would-be initiates is a sign of failure of the system, or to suppose that the bickering between ONA-inspired/derived groups implies an alarming state of affairs threatening to take it down, is to not to be able to see beyond the proverbial nose.

Darg
Praefuscus Ferrum
2017

{end quotation}

Aristocracy, Anarchy, or Nihilism?

The Continuing Internal O9A Debate

Aristocracy, Anarchy, or Nihilism?
(pdf)

Related:

The O9A And Anarchy

Anarchy

In its essence, the Order of Nine Angles is, and always has been, anarchic {1}, where a useful, working, definition of anarchy is “that way of living which regards the authority of The State as unnecessary and possibly harmful, and which instead prefers the free and individual choice of mutual and non-hierarchical co-operation”.

This anarchism of ours is evident, for example, in (a) our non-hierarchical, communal, nature and structure; (b) in our disdain for the principles of ‘copyright’ and ‘intellectual property’; (c) in our insistence on internal change and development, where everything ONA “can and should be surpassed, refined, changed, when others discover, experience, and attain knowledge and experience for themselves” {2}; and (d) in our Code of Kindred Honour which places the law of kindred honour over and above the laws of The State.

If there is a ‘secret’ about the O9A, then it is this.

Notes

{1}. Refer to:
(a) The text The ONA and Anarchy first circulated in 1991 ev, included in some compilations of ONA MSS published in the 1990s.
(b) The letter to Aquino, dated 7th September 1990 ev, in Vol I of The Satanic Letters of Stephen Brown.
{2}. Satanic Letters of Stephen Brown, Letter to Miss Stockton, dated 19th June, 1991 ev