The Bornless Ritual & The Holy Guardian Angel

Syncretic Egyptian / Graeco-Roman magic from the collection of texts known as the Papyri Graecae Magicae.
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Pablo
Magister Templi
Posts: 4560

Re: The Bornless Ritual & The Holy Guardian Angel

Post#11 » Wed Aug 02, 2017 4:17 pm

raum215 wrote:Here are just a few possible meanings of the term if it is meant to be translated, from Ah-keph-eh-lawn:

Headless
Family-less (or Bornless, if you will)
Directionless
Beheaded
Disowned
Lost

Basically, it does not say if this is an original state or if it is something that was one there and is now missing.

Born without a head, or decapitated?
Has never had a figurehead, or was it lost?


But none of that matters unless it is magically viable. I do not need to translate it for it to be magically viable.

What I meant is simple, it is assumed, not explicit in the text, that this is meant to be translated. This text is full of barbarous words, some which seem to be able to translate and some which do not. I do not make assumptions that this name is any different.

In general, a proper noun has value in assignment, not translation. What Akephalon does is more important than why this term is used to describe what Akephalon is.

Enter a passage like this in your conjuration,..

"Called Bornless by those aspiring to knowledge and Conversation by the formula of To Mega Therion -
AKEPHALON

Called Headless by those who seek the mystery of his name in the echos of The Golden Language of Greece- AKEPHALON"

When you are calling Akephalon (which I pronounce differently than what it would be as "Headless", "Bornless", or any other variant), you are not just calling on what one writer assumes.

Epithets are not always literal, and Greek is FULL of them. In my experience, all languages are. Worse off is Akephalon could by Greek creation of epithet be one who *leaves others headless* instead of being headless itself. Look for example at the debatable etymology of Achilles.

And which head, dual meaning of Greek words, especiall from Golden Age lingusitics is a must, but a lot of words have many more meanings.

At least one use of this word cognates to water with an unknown source. Another refers to castration. Another refers to one who rejects authority.


Words simply did not have concrete meanings. But what is clear is this word was a TITLE, a proper noun.

Translation of proper nouns is not required, and often not even useful, in Magick. In fact, it can be downright detrimental.


Absolutely wonderful! It is now even worse than I ever dreamed. A sh+tfit of possibility and perhaps wrapped up in "maybe". Monkey read monkey do is not wise magic. I would never touch this madness until there is a definitive explanation as to what it does and means and exactly how it would fit into my work!

It may be an idea for others to reconsider their stance and for newbies to leave this alone unless they have expert teachers.
The vulgar is at everyone's command. Eirenaeus Philalethes - The marrow of Alchemy

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raum215
Magister Templi
Posts: 4790

Re: The Bornless Ritual & The Holy Guardian Angel

Post#12 » Wed Aug 02, 2017 6:07 pm

I am just saying using the name instead of the translation is the way I tend to evoke.

I do not call beings by English translations of Proper Nouns or Names, in general.

As for Akephalon, I would do the same.

I don't get any angry energy. I don't tend to come unhinged by magick. But in general, the medulla oblongata is the aggressive center of the brain, which is connected to the amygdala, which is the emotional center to the brain, and gateway between the sensory input and the processing center.

If someone is having an aggressive response to a working, or being, that is a defense mechanism for something they are having difficulty processing.
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I YHVH do all these things.

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Avathar behemoth
Adeptus Major
Posts: 1903

Re: The Bornless Ritual & The Holy Guardian Angel

Post#13 » Wed Aug 02, 2017 6:55 pm

raum215 wrote:Here are just a few possible meanings of the term if it is meant to be translated, from Ah-keph-eh-lawn:

Headless
Family-less (or Bornless, if you will)
Directionless
Beheaded
Disowned
Lost

Basically, it does not say if this is an original state or if it is something that was one there and is now missing.

Born without a head, or decapitated?
Has never had a figurehead, or was it lost?


But none of that matters unless it is magically viable. I do not need to translate it for it to be magically viable.

What I meant is simple, it is assumed, not explicit in the text, that this is meant to be translated. This text is full of barbarous words, some which seem to be able to translate and some which do not. I do not make assumptions that this name is any different.

In general, a proper noun has value in assignment, not translation. What Akephalon does is more important than why this term is used to describe what Akephalon is.

Enter a passage like this in your conjuration,..

"Called Bornless by those aspiring to knowledge and Conversation by the formula of To Mega Therion -
AKEPHALON

Called Headless by those who seek the mystery of his name in the echos of The Golden Language of Greece- AKEPHALON"

When you are calling Akephalon (which I pronounce differently than what it would be as "Headless", "Bornless", or any other variant), you are not just calling on what one writer assumes.

Epithets are not always literal, and Greek is FULL of them. In my experience, all languages are. Worse off is Akephalon could by Greek creation of epithet be one who *leaves others headless* instead of being headless itself. Look for example at the debatable etymology of Achilles.

And which head, dual meaning of Greek words, especiall from Golden Age lingusitics is a must, but a lot of words have many more meanings.

At least one use of this word cognates to water with an unknown source. Another refers to castration. Another refers to one who rejects authority.


Words simply did not have concrete meanings. But what is clear is this word was a TITLE, a proper noun.

Translation of proper nouns is not required, and often not even useful, in Magick. In fact, it can be downright detrimental.

Ok so it refers to primal man, or archetype of man? Ah well.
Do i need it? Nope, tried using the borneless before an evocation and to me the ritual after felt like a faillure.

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Avathar behemoth
Adeptus Major
Posts: 1903

Re: The Bornless Ritual & The Holy Guardian Angel

Post#14 » Wed Aug 02, 2017 6:57 pm

:goodpost Pablo.
I also dont react well to overly "mysterious" stuff. Its just off putting.

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Nashimiron
Adeptus Minor
Posts: 564

Re: The Bornless Ritual & The Holy Guardian Angel

Post#15 » Fri Aug 04, 2017 9:13 am

A few quick points:

Moonlit Hermit wrote:"...conjure him by his name..." This seems pretty straight forward, calling the Headless One as Akephelon. I admit that in all the time I've recited the Headless Rite I never referred to him as Akephelon, perhaps it is time for me to start.


His name - several are given, so He is your usual syncretic magician's god:

"Pharaoh Osoronnophris ... your true name" - Osiris of course
"you are Iabas; you arc Iapos;" - The god of the Samaritans

as well as the long names which make up the barbarous words.

raum215 wrote:Born without a head, or decapitated?
Has never had a figurehead, or was it lost?


Self-decapitated - see the image at the end of PGM VIII 64-110.

One of the most useful references I found was in a book about the shrine of Tutankhamun which features akephalos:

He is the headless body, the mummy without a face;
he is the colour-changing bull, the commander commanding eternal silence, the TKM of every day, the great dawn.


This is the mighty eastern giant, his Osirian part as Akephalos, his solar part as the Buchis bull... in the final text to the sixth division of the Book of Caverns Kephri is termed TS-TP "attached of head".

Akephalos was not powerful without his head, but because of what his headlessness implied - his head was with the sun, and was the sun.


The Enigmatic Netherworld Books of the Solar-Osirian Unity

Further regarding Kephri, when I was at a lecture at the British Museum by some Egyptologists discussing the latest Egyptian exhibition one of them mentioned a story about Isis looking for the various parts of Osiris, and when she found his head, as she went to lift it a scarab beetle ran out from under it.

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Nashimiron
Adeptus Minor
Posts: 564

Re: The Bornless Ritual & The Holy Guardian Angel

Post#16 » Fri Aug 04, 2017 9:27 am

Moonlit Hermit wrote:Akephelon lacks a head yet in the rite it is said that his mouth burns completely. How can one not have a head yet have a mouth?


From the book I just quoted, a footnote says:

For the roaring of Akephalos.... a reference to the noise of creation at the eastern horizon.....The light of the deity and the voice of the deity are equated...


All these references in academic studies of Egyptian mysteries lead me to the conclusion that all of the contents of the Stele of Jeu are established elements of the Osirian mystery rites. And note that when performing it you first identify yourself with Moses, and it is believed by some that he was initiated into the Egyptian priesthood.


Moonlit Hermit wrote: I submit that the lack of a head separates the spirit from the mundane world and suggests it transcends all the levels of existence. To have a head is to have identity and sense organs that make one nearly human. One that lives without a head is unencumbered by most of the physical senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste) and perhaps some of the more subtle senses as well. Yet we know he has some of these senses which, it seems to me, means he gathers this information in another way.


I tend to mostly agree with this. I think it represents a state where the spirit is detached form the body and the Headless One is travelling in the spirit vision. At a book launch a year or so ago, I mentioned to the author my belief that the mumified Akephalos represents someone physically restrained to aid getting out of his body. I learned from this conversation that physical restraint has been shown to help things such as dream recollection, so ... bingo!

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raum215
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Re: The Bornless Ritual & The Holy Guardian Angel

Post#17 » Fri Aug 04, 2017 1:08 pm

All of this was implicit in the "Headlessness" of Osiris, which is his missing phallus, not his head on his shoulders. It was never found.

Isis was able to make a temporary one from gold but it was not the original, and it was not permanent.

All of this, incidentally, correlates to Ouranos, Indra, and many an other castrated deity.

I am not saying it is so. I am saying it is not necessary to get into mythology and I don't specifically think it is magically required for alot of things.
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I YHVH do all these things.

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johnblend
Philosophus
Posts: 269

Re: The Bornless Ritual & The Holy Guardian Angel

Post#18 » Sun Aug 06, 2017 7:53 am

I have had this thought about being headless is also not being ruled by anything else.

We use "head" as the thing that rules, such as head of state, head of an organisation and so on.

My knowledge about how this translates into the greek language is very limited.

When i started this ritual i used the epitet "bornless". I had dreams about heads and one dream where i looked at my own dead decapitated head in my bed.



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Avathar behemoth
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Posts: 1903

Re: The Bornless Ritual & The Holy Guardian Angel

Post#19 » Sun Aug 06, 2017 9:07 am

:goodpost

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nipha333
Philosophus
Posts: 454

Re: The Bornless Ritual & The Holy Guardian Angel

Post#20 » Sun Sep 24, 2017 9:23 am

I tend to agree with the authors that have stated this is a ritual of Set. If one takes the crowley version, which i did originally, it requires a little digging into crowleys work to piece together some sense. By his own words in several places he had no idea what the hell or who the hell his HGA was. I think that his ideas on the fact that it is some type of higher consciousness or higher self make no sense in light of the actual context of this ritual, as well as the abramelin program he was so fond of. Both are calling on exterior spirits, not some psychobabble higher self. (I would also like to point out that this derives from mathers idiotic representation of the rite in the first place. Much like his Jung parroting about alchemy being psychology) I think words like "lashtal" and works like Liber Reguli and crowleys confusion about what the HGA was start to make a lot more sense when you consider the idea most promulgated by people like don webb and stephen flowers that in some aspects, Set represents the principle of human intelligence. (or isolate intelligence as they refer to call it) I think this clear up crowleys confusion and much of what has been written by people that are "initiated" into crowleys blind spots. This is actually one of the things that made me break away from most of thelema. I always suspected the "hidden god" was not what it was said to be, its not a euphemism for hadit, the inner sun, the hga, or any of the other crap people have claimed it refers to. What makes sense to me is that crowley was obsessively performing a Set ritual, and ended up with an essentially Setian philosophy. Only this was never truly perceived by him due to many blindspots indoctrinated into him by the golden dawn and their kabbalah obsession, as well as more circumstantial blindspots such as his lack of access to papyri sources we easily have at our disposal now.
Anyway my point in all of that is that i think thelema, the book of the law, etc, is the biggest proof that above all else, this is a set ritual, and regardless of what you think youre calling, youre going to get what the ritual asks for, not what you think you should get.

An excerpt from Don Webbs Seven Faces of Darkness:
"...The attribution of this text to Jeu, a gnostic teacher who taught methods of divine ascent through the use of sigils, is telling. Jeu taught his deciples how to enter the Secret Place (Setheus) and obtain there the knowledge to create aeons. [can anyone say crowley for me] This spell in Greek and the Books of Jeu in Coptic were both written 350-440 CE. Both contain the idea of an "empty spirit" formed by the actions of ascending and descending from the place of internal initiation. This empty, invisible, holy, or "future" spirit is the unique place from which each magician steps out of the Cosmos to work his will upon it.
..
The "Holy Headless One" is identified in other texts as being the constellation Draco. He is Set in his form as the Bata serpent. Bata exists as a continuous serpent, or a series of Remanifestations (see "The Tale of Two Brothers) .....
..
Because the rite does NOT produce ecstacy, but rather a slow unfolding of the Law - it requires many performances. Once an individual has found his or her law....."

I have used this ritual as obsessively as crowley did, though not exactly in his form. And it has more or less accomplished over the years what don webb talks about here, a slow unfolding of a complex subjective synthesis that has provided me with a personal system, and wordview, or "aeon" so to speak.

Don webb goes on further:
"A note on the names: The samaritan forms of IAO, Iabas and Iapos, which are rather rare for the magical papyri, suggest that the author of this spell was the Sethian gnostic Dositheus, the Samaritan magician who was the author of the great Sethian gospel known as the Three Steles of Seth, and teacher of Simon Magus. He likely introduced - or revealed from older sources -
the myth of the Scarlet Woman."
Last edited by nipha333 on Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:47 am, edited 4 times in total.
'Goetic Magic … if properly understood would regenerate Western magic and underline its immense cultural significance, on a level equal to any spiritual tradition in the world.' -JSK

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