andrewcriddle

I’ve hesitated about posting this because I suspect it may be criticized for parallelomania and for resembling a bad Dan Brown novel, and I’m not sure that the critics would be wrong.

However it may, if nothing else, encourage discussion about what are and are not valid parallels.

The ultimate origin of these ideas may be an old post by David Hindley about possible parallels between the Mar Saba letter (Secret Mark) and modern theosophy, but David is in no way to blame for the result.

I’m going to list three types of parallel between the Mar Saba letter and the early 20th century history of Aleister Crowley and the Order of the Golden Dawn. (To avoid making this long post too long I will usually not spell out the parallels. I will assume that those interested are familiar with the content of the Mar Saba letter. )

Parallels with Golden Dawn rituals.

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (or in Hebrew Society of the Shining Light of Dawn) was an occultist group emphasising the secret wisdom of ancient Egypt. Members went through a series of initiations as they acquired more and more esoteric knowledge. There were formally three orders of members, the first or outer order members initiated through the Neophyte ritual, the second or inner order members who were initiated into the Order of the Rosy Cross through the Adeptus Minor ritual and the third order which was not for mere mortals.

The Neophyte ritual starts off with the initiate wandering in darkness and brings him to the enlightenment of occult knowledge which is foolishness to the natural man. It involves a veil symbolizing the separation of the first order from the more advanced second order.

After the initiate has learned what the outer order has to teach, if he is found suitable he goes through the portal ritual vowing to maintain the veil of secrecy between the first and second orders. He may now undergo the Adeptus Minor ritual leaving behind the philosophical education of the outer order and attaining the theurgy (spiritual magic) of the inner order.

In the Adeptus Minor ritual the initiate goes through a symbolic death and resurrection involving a voice from within a seven sided tomb declaring “Buried with that LIGHT in a mystical Death, rising again in a mystical resurrection, Cleansed and Purified through him our MASTER, O Brother of the Cross of the Rose! Like him, O Adepts of all ages, have ye toiled; like him have ye suffered Tribulation. Poverty, Torture, and Death have ye passed through. They have been but the purification of the Gold. In the Alembic of thine Heart, Through the Athanor of Affliction, Seek thou the true stone of the Wise.” (The whole ceremony has continual references to the number seven.)

Parallels with Crowley and the Golden Dawn .

Aleister Crowley the famous/notorious occultist/magician became a member of the outer order of the Golden Dawn through the Neophyte ritual. He then passed through the other outer order initiations. There was a widespread feeling among the inner order members that Crowley was not a suitable person to enter the second order. However Samuel Liddell Mathers, one of the founders of the Golden Dawn, privately and irregularly initiated Crowley as an Adeptus Minor and second order member. In return for this initiation Mathers temporarily received Crowley’s support in the conflicts between him and other senior members of the Golden Dawn.

Crowley subsequently broke with Mathers and the Golden Dawn, became associated with the Ordo Templi Orientis with its supposed links to the Templars, and developed the ritual magic of the Golden Dawn into homoerotic sexual magic. (Crowley also self-initiated himself into the third order of the Golden Dawn and ceased to be a mere mortal.)

Despite his oaths of secrecy Crowley published in his journal “The Equinox” versions of the Golden Dawn rituals. The publication of the outer circle rituals was not publicly opposed by the leaders of the Golden Dawn, but, warned of Crowley’s intention to publish the especially secret inner circle rituals, Mathers sought an injunction against publication. Despite Mathers sworn testimony a temporary injunction was overturned on appeal and the text of the Adeptus Minor ritual was published.

Parallels between Crowley and Carpocrates.

Crowley = Carpocrates.

On the one hand Carpocrates is a form of Harpocrates and they were confused in antiquity eg by Celsus. On the other hand Crowley took the title Baphomet as part of his role within the Ordo Templi Orientis. But in occultism Baphomet is identified with Harpocrates.

The identification of Baphomet with Harpocrates can be found explicitly in Crowley’s writings eg the Little Essay on Silence (Harpocrates is God of Silence) “For Silence is the Equilibrium of Perfection; so that Harpocrates is the omniform, the universal Key to every Mystery soever. The Sphinx is the "Puzzel or Pucelle," the Feminine Idea to which there is only one complement, always different in form, and always identical in essence. This is the signification of the Gesture of the God; it is shewn more clearly in His adult form as the Fool of the Tarot and as Bacchus Diphues, and without equivocation when He appears as Baphomet.”

The link of Baphomet to Harpocrates is also related to the identification by Eliphas Levi of Baphomet with the goat/ram of Mendes. In late Egyptian syncretism the ram of Mendes becomes merged with Harpocrates the dweller in Mendes.

If Crowley = Baphomet and Baphomet= Harpocrates and Harpocrates = Carpocrates then Crowley = Carpocrates.

Andrew Criddle

andrewcriddle

The Sources for the above material are rather scattered.

The Golden Dawn rituals and other works by Crowley can be accessed at hermetic.com.

The most questionable factual claim, (as distinct from questions of parallelism), is the identification of Baphomet with Harpocrates. On the one hand this claim is almost certainly objectively bogus, on the other hand it is found more or less explicitly in various occultist writers including Crowley.

Andrew Criddle

gurugeorge

Very funny Andrew

However, I do think there's an interesting "parallel" of sorts between Crowley and the "Paul" figure (probably partly to do with Crowley being an ex Plymouth Brother seeing himself as a sort of prophet). It's this:-

If you look at the history of Crowley's spiritual organizations, while he was alive they were actually very, very tiny, almost insignificant in terms of numbers (maybe a few hundred people at the most all over the world).

Yet if you were to believe his writings, they were widespread, influential, with famous people involved.

IOW, he "blew up" out of proportion what his results actually were in his writings (presumably just to attract followers by giving them the illusion they'd be joining something with an ongoing buzz).

But the parallel also works in this way: Crowley after his death is more influential than he was during his life. Instead of a few hundred, we're now talking about a movement that has maybe tens of thousands of (at the very least) fellow-travellers all over the world.

So you have a situation where from internal documents the religion's startup looks like it's quite big (but it's actually inflated), and then after the founder's death it does actually begin to match up more to the initial inflated account.

I think this parallel is interesting for the mythicist case: you can see how it's possible that a movement who's self-description is grossly self-inflated in the early years, but actually does gather some momentum later, is possible - and moreover, you can have some insight into the psychology of the "mystical" or intensely religious type (for whatever else Crowley was, he was no charaltan in the sense of not believing what he preached - the artist Augustus John called him "the most religious man I have ever met"). You have the same evident passion as "Paul", the same belief that he's at the start of something big, etc., etc.

Roger Pearse

Interesting indeed - thank you Andrew.

stephan huller

Very interesting. Very creative. I think some Canadian professor wrote a whole paper on this theme for the conference in Toronto. I am no expert on Aleister Crowley. I once knew a guy who was into this stuff. Yet in Crowley's thought Harpocrates is a god and Carpocrates in the writings of the Church Fathers is a man. In the letter to Theodore Mark writes a gospel which is stolen by this man Carpocrates and reinterpreted by him incorrectly according to Clement. In Crowley's system Harpocrates dispenses a new Law. Even if Crowley thought he was Harpocrates, the Letter to Theodore doesn't have Carpocrates author the secret revelation (= mystic Mark). He simply takes over a revelation given to Mark. Isn't that different?

This guide also says that Crowley identified with a twin of Harpocrates not Harpocrates himself "Hoor-paarKraat is also the twin of Ra-Hoor-Khuit, with whom Crowley personally identified."

http://books.google.com/books?id=FQ5...crates&f=false

I notice there are no actual references or footnotes in your post. It would be interesting to see where Crowley actually said he was Harpocrates. Again I am no expert nor do I have any desire to get into this stuff. That guy I knew who was into this stuff smoked three packs of Marlboros a day, had yellow death and got into a fist fight with me when he told me at lunch 'I guess everyone has had at least one homosexual experience.' I said no. And then he wanted to get into this fist fight and then I just pushed him a snow bank. I think I found out later that he was sexually abused at 16 by a magician at a party. Seriously.

I just remembered that guy also married a stripper who used to be into Crowley too and then she became a newborn Christian (but was still apparently very sexually active). They got a divorce. I remember also that at that dinner the Chinese restaurant (it was Toronto of course) had massive shrimp and only charged $5 for a lunch sized serving of Singapore noodles. I kept wondering while eating it how this place could get away with that - even at 1990's pricing.

DCHindley

Andrew,

I too have been fleshing out where that idea of "truth hidden by seven veils" may have come from. The earliest witnesses to the phrase "seven veils" I can come up with were two Christian magic spells, probably originating before the 11th century.

They can be found in Ancient Christian Magic (or via: amazon.co.uk), by Marvin W. Meyer & Richard Smith, Princeton University Press, 1999:

70. Spell, with Gnostic characteristics, to protect from filthy demons
Text: London Oriental Manuscript 5987
Description- papyrus, 77 3/4 x 5 3/8 in. [unfortunately, undated]

Yoel Thiel Misiael Mioel Daithe Eleluth Ermukratos Adonai Ermusur, the invisible one within the seven veils, by him stand the seven radiant lights Sarthiel, Tharbioth and Urach and Thurach and Armuser and Eiecha, the seven inexpressible lights, the sixty golden lamps which burn in the tabernacle of the father.

You are Akramiel, Prakuel, the salvation of Israel. You are the salvation of the father. You are ..., the salvation of. . . . You are the father in whom . . . Ermukraton . . Ermusur invisible Bainchooch, O one within the seven veils.

73. Erotic spell of Cyprian of Antioch
Text: Heidelberg Kopt. 684
Description- book with sixteen pages of rag paper; the pages are 14.3 x 9 cm; pages 1-13 contain the spell of Cyprian, and the last three pages are blank; eleventh century.

According to legend, Cyprian of Antioch tried to employ magic [spells] in order to seduce a Christian virgin named Justina. As the story goes, he failed in his attempts, and so he converted to Christianity, abandoned his hooks of ritual power, and eventually became bishop of Antioch. Some traditions suggest that both Cyprian and Justina were martyred during the persecution of the Roman emperor Diocletian (ruled 285-305). The translation given here is of the spell of Cyprian. See also Howard M. Jackson, “A Contribution toward an Edition of the Confession of Cyprian of Antioch."

So I reproved my wrath [at not being able to seduce the Christian virgin Justina through his knowledge of magic spells], laid my anger aside, and allayed my rage with great humility. Then I got to my feet, turned my face to the west, stretched my right hand out to heaven, cleansed myself of the dirt on my feet, snorted, and directed these spells at heaven, to the tabernacle of the father within the seven veils.

I cannot say for sure what original Greek/Coptic or Latin words lie behind the translation "veil," making it hard to determine whether these refer to the "curtains" that drape over the gates to each of the seven heavens, or to curtains which obscure perception.

It is only much later that the term comes into focus in the West. Oscar Wilde uses the term to describe the erotic dance of Salome in his 1891 play Salome.

In the beginning of my research, I found an article "The Kabalah And The Kabalists" by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, published in the journal Lucifer, May, 1892:

Kabalah, as a word, is derived from the root Kbl (Kebel) "to hand over," or "to receive" orally. It is erroneous to say, as Kenneth Mackenzie does in his Royal Masonic Cyclopædia, that "the doctrine of the Kabalah refers to the system handed down by oral transmission, and is nearly allied to tradition"; for in this sentence the first proposition only is true, while the second is not. It is not allied to "tradition" but to the seven veils or the seven truths, orally revealed at Initiation. Of these methods, pertaining to the universal pictorial languages--meaning by "pictorial" any cipher, number, symbol, or other glyph that can be represented, whether objectively or subjectively (mentally)--three only exist at present in the Jewish system. Thus, if Kabalah as a word is Hebrew, the system itself is no more Jewish than is sunlight; it is universal.

This sounds very close to what the Letter to Theodore says the secret gospel of Mark claimed happened between the youth and Jesus. But where did Blavatsky pick up on this idea?

It turns out that Blavatsky may have picked it up from Ramalinga Swamigal (Arutprakasa Vallalar Chidambaram Ramalingam, 5 October 1823 – 30 January 1874), a Tamil holy man. [His name, FWIW, means something like "Rama's Penis" - see the description of the 7th veil]

Around 1870 he established the Sathya Gnana Sabai, [meaning] hall of True Wisdom Forum, and ensur[ed] it was entirely secular. … He said that our soul is blinded by 7 seven veils. [At his Forum, in symbolic representation, t]here are seven cotton fabric screens, representing the seven factors that prevent a soul from realizing its true nature.

In the following article, "Universal Fraternity of Universal Right of Oneness of Soulful Love and Compassion of all Living Beings Souls, as revealed and flourished by Arutperunjothi Ramalinga Vallalar," by Arul Thiru Gnanansabandram in Mettukupan [= Mettukuppam, Okkiyam Thuraipakkam, Tamil Nadu, India] 2006, the author provides a more elaborate picture of the Guru's message:

In Vadalur [Tamil Nadu, India], Vallalar raised [the] Sathya gnana sabha [Hall of True Wisdom Forum], where god is seen as grace light behind seven veils of ageless ignorance, each proclaiming a philosophy. Veil after veil, slowly unveiled, God’ glows in matchless sheen. Burning bright to keep in flight the devotee’s hesitancy and hug soul spark into his clasp.

Vallalar glimpsed divinity in vortex of mind, burning with leaping flames of million suns. Arutperum Jothi Vallalar alone revealed to the world, gods dazzling abode in the midst of consciousness. A quarter golden, the rest flaming white color of flag and seven veils behind light……

• the first veil dark dark, irrevocably dark Maya Shakti
• But the gifted having it lifted see the blaze of blue in the second veil Kriya Shakti, oceaning all the wealth of skies and seas
• and reach the third all green,…Parasakthi…Green with creativity, sustaining all universes,
• and flamboyant red ,the fourth veil, bellowing destruction of all the mounts of past presences on earth ….. red veil ..Ichcha Sakhti.
• And golden yellow [fifth] veil Gnana Sakthi, fluttering charms and enchainment of jubilee, deliverance, wisdom garbed.
• And the sixth milky white veil …. Aathisakthi, pristine white a blaze of furied purity
• and last [seventh] veil mixed screen color veil……. Chit Sakthi, envelopes the Throbbing soul into its fold.

But just exactly how would I connect Blavatsky to Ramalimgam?

H P Blatavsky, in the article "Coming Events Foretold," published in The Theosophist, Vol. III, No. 10, July, 1882, pp. 243-244, attempts to answer members of her own Theosophical Society who were disenfranchising themselves on account of the removal of the headquarters from New York (est 1875) to a suburb of Madras India in 1882.

She and co-founder Colonel Olcott had claimed that they had been ordered to India by the same Tibetan Buddhist Mahatmas who had sent them to America from Russia in 1873. The orders came by means of "channeling" their spirits by means of occult practices. The American Theosophists were starting to question the existence of these Tibetan Mahatmas.

To support their claims to have communicated with these mysterious Tibetan mystics, they produced an affidavit made before an Indian court judge (who, by sheer coincidence was a VP of the local Theosophist society) by a disciple of Ramalingam, as follows:

… During the latter part of his visible earthly career, he often expressed his bitter sorrow for this sad state of things, and repeatedly exclaimed: “You are not fit to become members of this Society of Universal Brotherhood. The real members of that Brotherhood are living far away, towards the North of India. You do not listen to me. You do not follow the principles of my teachings. You seem to be determined not to be convinced by me. yet the time is not far off, when persons from Russia, America (these two countries were always named), and other foreign lands will come to India and preach to you this same doctrine of universal brotherhood. Then only, will you know and appreciate the grand truths that I am now vainly trying to make you accept. You will soon find that the brothers who live in the far north [i.e., Russia] will work a great many wonders in India, and thus confer incalculable benefits upon this our country.” This prophecy has, in my opinion, just been literally fulfilled. The fact, that the [Tibetan] Mahatmas in the North exist, is no new idea to us, Hindus; and the strange fact that the advent of Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott from Russia and America [respectively] was foretold several years before they came to India, is an incontrovertible proof that my Guru was in communication with those Mahatmas under whose directions the Theosophical Society was subsequently founded.

Tholuvore Velayudham Mudaliar, F.T.S.
“The official position of Vellayu Pandit as one of the Pandits of the Presidency College-is an ample guarantee of his respectability and trustworthiness.”
G. Muttuswamy Chetty,
Judge of the Small Cause Court, Madras,
Vice-President of the Madras Theosophical Socy.

… This [says Blavatsky] is one of those cases of previous foretelling of a coming event, which is least of all open to suspicion of bad faith. The honourable character of the witness, the wide publicity of his Guru’s announcements, and the impossibility that he could have got from public rumour, or the journals of the day, any intimation that the Theosophical Society would be formed and would operate in India—all these conspire to support the inference that Ramalingam Yogi was verily in the counsels of those who ordered us to found the Society.

If this seems just a bit fishy (as in fabricating a witness to a "prophecy" that validates her claims) I would agree. So, you have a willingness to fabricate evidence as well as a mystery teaching about veils obscuring mental perception, and what better medium (no pun intended) for hatching a fabrication of a gospel which makes Jesus a mahatma revealing spiritual truth through initiation. eh?

It seems then that the concept of seven veils derives from magical texts, which themselves may have picked it up from Jewish mystical ascents, which had its own ideas about curtains separating the heavens, which only open when the adept gives precisely the right passwords to the guardian angels in exactly the right way.

Jewish magical texts, in Hebrew, created likely in the 5th century or later have survived (example, Sepher Ha Razim). Egyptian magical texts (3rd century CE on) are a somewhat corrupted version of the kind of magic seen in the Jewish texts. Medieval magicians translated both Greek and Hebrew magical "recipe books" into Latin, adding their own flourishes while also receiving influence from Jewish Kabbalah mystics. This was the kind of occult mysticism that Crowley practiced: Magical experiments to learn how to command and control demons and angels, with the "wisdom" to use that power wisely.

This has nothing in common with Blavatsky, who channeled spirits and Tibetan Mahatmas. There are several 19th century academics who shared theosophic ideas about occult, such as G R S Mead and B F Hort, but I really doubt that any of them could expertly mimic the bookhands of Eastern Orthodox monks.

Where else can we go? With so many famous 19th century Western scholars traveling about the east, seeking previously unknown biblical and patristic manuscripts, and wresting them from the hands of the monestaries by hook (the Russian Tsar) or crook ("they were just going to throw it out or bake bread with it, so I secretly saved it from the flames"), eastern intellectuals such as Simonides, who also brokered the sale of these manuscripts, took special delight in slipping in forgeries to fool the Western experts.

While I realize that the Theosophy movement post-dates Simonides death, what about a wanna-be Simonides who saw a perfect opportunity to fool those Russian and American Theosophists?

DCH

steve_bnk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley

Crowley was a pagan/occultist/drug head/con artist who synthesized from many historical traditions. I read his Diary Of A Drug Fiend back in the 70s.

Think Scientogy and LR Hubbard as sort of successor to Crowley. There is an alleged weak link between Crowley and Hubbard. They both started religions for fun and profit.

Thread should be in Non Abrahmic forum.

stephan huller

Ive had conversations with lawrence schiffman where he acknowledged the seven veils are also attested in the qumran material

andrewcriddle

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that Crowley said he was Harpocrates. What I said was a/ Crowley as cult leader took the name Baphomet b/ Crowley as occult theorist identified Baphomet and Harpocrates. See crowley little-essays-towards-truth silence from which I quoted before. a/ and b/ together allow one to identify Crowley and Harpocrates, (If Crowley=Baphomet and Baphomet=Harpocrates then arguably Crowley=Harpocrates), but I don't think Crowley himself made that identification. (Crowley did claim a close association between himself and Harpocrates by means of which he allegedly could pass unseen but that is different from identification. )

Andrew Criddle

gurugeorge

In the Crowleyan magical cultus, assuming the "god form" of a deity and sonorously intoning its name, or other holy names, is a common practice - this requires some facility in "astral travel" (sort of like lucid dreaming while awake), such that the figure of the god is felt as enveloping and becoming one's own.

Generally the assumption of a god form is done to exalt oneself psychologically to the level of a deity, so that one has (as the deity) command of lesser spirits that are, so to speak "resonant" with that deity's symbolism, but do the "dirty work" of affecting matter. Much like Daoist magic, the idea is to take one's problem to a higher level of bureacracy, and let that higher level of bureaucracy take charge of the entities that actually affect matter, through the "proper channels".

However, assuming the god form of Harpocrates (a small child with its forefinger or thumb to its lips, denoting innocence, silence, wonder and/or potential, depending on how it's taken) has the connotation of bringing things back to equilibrium (e.g. a magical ritual is a sort of output of energy, Harpocrates represents the return of that energy to "silence", or primordial potential). (As with most things Crowleyian though, there's a sexual subtext wrt to the finger/thumb and mouth.)

So in a sense, since Crowley did such rituals every day (in "astral form"), he would have felt very closely associated with Harpocrates several times a day. But it would be the same with any god form he'd "worked" with (e.g. Mercury/Thoth/Hermes).