Occult Sigils: Some Questions For O9A Novices

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Sigils In Medieval And Renaissance Occult Texts
(pdf)

Part I: The Picatrix
Part II: Sigillum Dei Aemeth And The Septenary System

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Extract from Part I:

In two previous notes we touched upon the difference in some of the Occult sigils in the 11th century (CE) Arabic manuscript Ghayat al-hakim and those in the manuscripts of the Latin Picatrix dating from the 14th and 15th centuries (CE).

While some of the differences in the manuscripts are undoubtedly due to scribal errors and unintentional emendations, other differences may well (i) reflect how the scribes – or the editor(s) or authors of later printed texts – naturally and perhaps in a well-intentioned way evolved the symbolism in accord with both their apprehension of the manuscripts and/or their apprehension and understanding of contemporary Occult texts and praxises, and/or (ii) reflect the judgment of the illustrators or typesetters of later printed texts in respect of representing them on the printed page.

It is therefore interesting to compare some of the differences between the sigils of the Arabic Ghayat al-hakim and those in the Latin Picatrix, especially as such sigils were regarded as important in the crafting and use of talismata.

For one question which a practitioner or an aspiring practitioner of The Dark Arts might well ask is whether or not such later, emended, sigils were as effective as the earlier ones. Questions which practitioners or aspiring practitioners of The Dark Arts should answer themselves as a result of practical Occult experimentation.

[Two] such differences are illustrated below:

Ghayat al-hakim

Picatrix

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A Note On A Difference In Sigils

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A Note On A Difference In Sigils
(pdf)

In an earlier text we noted the difference between the sigils of the septenary planets in the Latin text of the Picatrix – whose MSS date from c. 1300 to c.1459 – to those in the earlier Arabic MS Ghayat al-hakim, dating from c.1050.

This text explains the difference in greater detail and explains how these differences relate to the O9A septenary tradition.

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 O9A Deofel Quartet

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The Deofel Quartet present much of the diverse aural traditions of the Order of Nine Angles as Anton Long received them: as stories about people, their interactions; their ‘satanic’ or esoteric views and beliefs; and about certain events that involved those people. In The Deofel Quartet he simply reworked the factual material – as writers of fiction are wont to do – in order to make an interesting story, in the process obscuring the identities of those involved and sometimes their place of residence or work; added some entertaining details (as in the ‘astral battles’ of a kind now familiar – decades later – from the Harry Potter stories) and concatenated certain events in order to provide ‘action’ in a limited time-frame.

Thus, the fictional stories not only compliment other O9A material but provide a ‘different way into’ the complex O9A mythos; a way that many will find more interesting (and certainly more entertaining) than thousands of pages of sometimes polemical and sometimes ponderous O9A factual texts, and a way that especially places the O9A’s satanism into perspective, Aeonically and otherwise.

The Quartet was written by Anton Long with the stories originally read out from handwritten manuscripts at Temple/nexion meetings of the Order of Nine Angles (O9A) in the decades of the 1970s and 1980s. These meetings were never large – sometimes only a few people, occasionally a dozen or less – and were always held in intimate and candle-lit surroundings.

Following the expansion of the O9A in the late 1980s resulting from O9A articles being published in occult zines such as Nox, the original handwritten manuscripts (most with handwritten corrections or alterations) were, in the early 1990s typed out on manual typewriters by various people.

° Falcifer
° The Temple of Satan
° The Giving
° The Greyling Owl

Further reading:

O9A Occult Fiction
(pdf)
Note: Contains Plot Spoilers

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Other fictional works by the O9A include:

° Eulalia – Dark Daughter of Baphomet. c.2009.
° Tales of the Dark Gods, c.2008, comprising the four short stories (i) In The Sky of Dreaming, (ii) Jenyah, (iii) Sabirah, and (iv) A Dark Trilogy.
° The two individual short stories Hangster’s Gate and Copula cum Daemone. c. 1976.
° The short story Gruyllan’s Tale, which forms part of the Balocraft of Baphomet series. c.2010.
° The short story Sunedrion: A Wyrdful Tale. 2015.

O9A Esoteric Notes LXI

Order of Nine Angles Esoteric Notes 61
(pdf)

Contents:

° Non-English Names And Terms In O9A Tradition
° Finding Answers To The Thirteen Questions For ONA Adepts
° Fayen
° The Logos Of The ONA
° The Green Damask Room

Satanism: Two Differing Views

Modern Satanism: Two Differing Views
(pdf)