A K E P H A L O S : On the Rite of the Headless One Matthew Levi Stevens & Emma Doeve
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(PGM V. 96-172 in the The Rite of the Headless One from the Stele of Jeu the Hieroglyphist (PGM Greek Magical Papyri) is a missing link standing at the crossroads: a product of Antiquity, all-but-forgotten yet rediscovered at the Dawn of Modern Magic, at first considered a mere curio, it would be taken up and revised to become nothing less than an essential foundation stone of Magick in Theory & Practice for the New Aeon, upon which countless other variations and versions would be based. This strange and potent Rite, with its heady mix of Egyptian, Greek, Jewish and even
Samaritan ideas of God, ‘barbarous names of invocation’ and strange words of power, is quite possibly the entry point of a key concept into the Western Magical Tradition, and perhaps constitutes the foundation-stone of a whole Occult Tradition all of its own. Its worldly origins are lost to us in Antiquity, coming down to us in an obscure fragment of papyrus that was, perhaps, a last desperate attempt to preserve something of the Old World of the many gods before it was too late, and the new world order of the One True God would or at least try to. Resurfacing as an antiquarian curiosity close the door on ‘magic’ forever – or in Victorian times, it is undoubtedly the adoption of the Rite by one of the most notorious enfant terrible terrible of that era, the self- styled ‘Great Beast’ Aleister Crowley, which has contributed most to its survival into these Post-Modern Times. _______________ _______________ 1 Somewhere between Goodwin’s Original and Crowley’s adaptation, the Greek ‘Akephalos’ meaning literally “headless” – but but also perhaps “without beginning” – came to be replaced by the approximation “Bornless”. This
is the name that has stuck ever since, but the present author feels it is more authentic to restore the meaning that, even if it is stranger, can perhaps be considered more authentic.
Much of contemporary Occultism continues to draw from, and be shaped by, the foundation laid down at the end of the 19th Century by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and then built upon by not only its most (in)famous student, Aleister Crowley – who took the bones of their Teachings and used them to shape the conceptual framework of his New Aeon cult of Thelema, and also the Rituals of the various Orders he created (and recreated) to serve it, such as the Argenteum Astrum and the Ordo Templi Orientis, to name but two. This dual influence continues to spread throughout almost all of Western Magic, and much of Neo-Paganism in general – but also his peers and progeny, from Dion Fortune to Israel Regardie and Kenneth Grant, and not forgetting that even freewheelers like Austin Osman Spare and Gerald Gardner also had some acquaintance with or background in the likes of the A.·.A.·. and O.T.O. So we see this influence crop up again and again, not just
among the ‘usual suspects’ such as the various groups claiming descent from the Golden Dawn or Crowley, but also among less obvious ‘heirs’ - including Chaos Magic, the various branches of Wicca, Voudon-Gnostic practitioners; and even the Church of Satan with its various copyists, and a Left Hand Path School like the Temple of Set. One concept that originates from this wellspring and is indeed symptomatic of just how widespread its influence has been is that of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel: a Rite – or even series of Rites – that is aimed at connecting the practitioner
with what may be considered as anything from a ‘Higher Self’ to literal ly the intermediary or even embodiment of whatever deity he or she chooses to engage with. Whether it be thought of as the Genius of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Augoeides of Iamblichus, the Atman of Hinduism, the Daemon of the ancient Greeks – or indeed, either a literal
messenger from the Divine or the idealised embodiment of all that is highest and best in one’s True Self – the seeking of Contact with this entity is considered by many to be the central
most important Work in Magic, which should not only come above and before any other, but of which success (or failure!) is a key determinant as to any further progress. Aleister Crowley writes in Chapter 83 of Magic Without Tears: It should never be forgotten for a single moment that the central and essential work of the Magician is the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. And in Chapter 21 of his magnum opus Book 4 goes as far as to say: . . . the Single Supreme Ritual is the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. It is the raising of the complete man in a vertical straight line . . . If the magician needs to perform any other operation than this, it is only lawful in so far as it is a necessary preliminary to That One Work The origin of this idea, of attaining to the Knowledge & Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, can be found in The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage , attributed to one Abraham of Worms 2. This classic grimoire had been translated into English by the head of the Golden Dawn, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, and its system formed
a cornerstone of that Order’s method. Aleister Crowley was most likely introduced to it by either his unofficial mentor within the Order, Alan Bennett, or fellow Initiate George Cecil Jones (with whom he would later found the Argenteum Astrum, in a short-lived attempt to create a “New! Improved!” version of the Golden Dawn). Abramelin presents a long, complicated program of arduous and gruelling devotions, involving six months of repeated celibacy, fasting, all-night prayer vigil, meditations and rituals of ever-increasing frequency _______________ 2 This is just one manifestation of the legend of the Jews as Magicians that we will see s urface in this tale.
and intensity, requiring the aspirant to take time off from work, marriage and family life, and also purchase a property just to create the right environment for the Working. Not surprisingly, this has proven to be a major stumbling-block – even for independently wealthy men like the young Crowley – but the lure of a direct hotline to God (or whatever) that would reveal to you your True Will and give you power over angels, demons, and elementals, thereby opening up all the powers of magic, was not to be given up in a hurry. When the Abbey of Thelema was created in Cefalu, Sicily in the 1920s with the express intent of being a Spiritual College where aspiring adepts could learn how best to discover their True Wills, the question of attaining to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel became a burning one. After a particularly promising Student Frank Bennett
had experienced a spontaneous Gnostic ‘contact’, Crowley penned Liber Samekh (first published as an appendix to his Magick In Theory & Practice) with the hope that it would be an express handbook for the process. His source for the Ritual he penned was The Rite of The Headless One, which he had already published as the “preliminary invocation” of his edition of The Goetia as far back as 1904. Although the original text of the Stele of Jeu has no connection whatsoever with the Ars Goetia of the 17th Century Grimoire known as The Lesser Key of Solomon, in many people’s minds the association has stuck. The true origins of the Stele of Jeu the Hieroglyphist , who wrote it, when, where, and why are lost in the mists and myths of antiquity. Little or nothing of any certainty is known, but we can perhaps imagine along certain lines: the Stele of Jeu3 was most likely written by a wandering scribe, still able to read Egyptian hieroglyphs, who now eked out a living _______________ 3 It has been suggested that the author was simply “a Jew” who knew hieroglyphs; some connection has been made with the Gnostic Books of Jeu. As these are also known as the Books of IEOU – a vowel-sequence obviously suggestive of the Greek Hermetica – perhaps such attributions are misleading. Curiously, the Books deal with the Creation of Aeons by way of Knowledge of a Wo rd.
transcribing texts for a clientele who wanted to be able to access the esoteric wisdom of the Egyptians, but regrettably were without the ritual framework of temple practi ce. Like many of the papyri, this was found in a cache of papers sealed into amphorae and stashed against discovery and the elements in a cave. The brothers Ali, who were looking for a stray goat, literally stumbled onto the cache amid pottery fragments, and quickly realised
they were ‘on to something.’ From there the papyrus made its way, via the then unregulated black market in Egyptian Antiquities, into the hands of the Swedish consul in Alexandria, a Mr. Anastasi, who later sold it to the British Museum in London. The first translation to appear anywhere was by Charles Wycliffe Goodwin, published in 1852 as Fragment of a Graeco-Egyptian Work Upon Magic . Born in 1817, Goodwin was a Bible Scholar, Egyptologist, and lawyer who in 1865 became Assistant Judge of the British Supreme Court for China and Japan. Goodwin was something of a man of letters – as well as writing for the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, editing and translating Anglo-Saxon lives of the Saints, and contributing to the Literary Gazette, he was also for many years music critic for The Guardian – but it is for his deep-seated love of Egyptology that we are interested in him here. His engagement with all things Egyptian apparently began at the age of 9, when he read an article on ‘Hieroglyphics’ in the Edinburgh Review for December 1826, and throughout his life he would write and lecture extensively on related subjects, corresponding with the leading Egyptologists of the day , and his work on hieratic was credited as ‘a genuine
revolution in the science.’ As for the Fragment itself, Goodwin is fairly scathing in his comments upon the text, dismissing the combination of Egyptian, Greek, and Jewish terms as symptomatic of the confusion of the more pagan Gnostics, and the words of power as being akin to the gibberish
of the superstitious primitive. Despite this, it came to the attention of Mathers and his Golden Dawn who thought it was just the sort of thing they needed to lend their ritual theatrics a touch of Graeco-Egyptian authenticity. (I would commend those with a greater interest to turn their attention to excellent work on the subject by Israel Regardie or Alex Sumner.)
AKEPHALOS:
Being an attempted restoration of The Rite of the Headless One, according to The Stele of Jeu the Hieroglyphist.
Here is an outline of the Rite of the Headless One, based on the text given in the Stele of Jeu the Hieroglyphist , with my attempt at a pronunciation guide (in brackets), for English speakers who did not have the benefit of a Classi cal Education including Ancient Greek 4.
First write the Characters of the Names ‘AŌTH ABRAŌTH BASYM ISAK SABAŌTH IAŌ’ on a strip of clean papyrus. As in this first instance the Names are to be written, rather than spoken, it makes more sense to me that this should be done in the original Greek characters: ΑΩΘ ΑΒΡΑΩΘ ΒΑΣΥΜ ΙΣΑΚ ΣΑΒΑΩΘ ΙΑΩ
Having done so, mark either end of the Strip with the ‘Beneficial Sign’:
_______________ 4 Our pronunciation guide runs as follows: t’ – to be pronounced with a slight aspiration, as if a breathy ‘h’ follows; R – an attempt at that ‘rolled R’ that English-speakers find so challenging; a, e, i, o, u – to be sounded LONG, except the likes of ar , er , etc. – to be pronounced as they look; otherwise I have spelled out the
phonetics as ‘literally’ as I can.
Then hold the strip to your forehead, stretched from temple to temple, the Names facing Outward. Take up position at your altar, or other place of Working, and face North. Visualise the Strip as a Serpent swallowing its own tail, and vibrate the Names: AŌTH ABRAŌTH BASYM ISAK SABAŌTH IAŌ
( Ar-ot’ arb-Ra-rot’ bar -zoom ee-zark zar-ba-rot’ ee-ar-o) As you do so, imagine your mind expanding to the very limits of Consciousness, until the Ourobourous encircles the Cosmos, the Names you have vibrated radiating out through the Universe, and begin to recite the following, vibrating the Names & Words of Power where indicated: I summon you, the Headless One, who created the Earth and the Heavens who created the night and the day you who created the light and the darkness you are Osoronnophris, whom none has ever seen you are Iabas, you are Iapos you have distinguished the just and the unjust you have made the female and the male you have revealed the seed and the fruits you have made men love each other and hate each other. I am Moses your prophet, to whom you have transmitted your mysteries celebrated by Israel
you have revealed the moist and the dry and all nourishment, hear me! I am the messenger of Osoronnophris 5 this is your true name which has been transmitted to the Prophets of Israel. Hear me, ARBATHIAO
REIBET
ATHELEBERSETH
ARA
BLATHA
ALBEU
EBENPHCHI CHITASGOE IBAOTH IAO
(ar-R-bar-t’ -ee-ar-o Re-ee-bet ar-t’ -el-eb-eR- set’ ar - Ra blart’ar arl -bew eh-behn F-khee kht’ars-go-ee ee-bar-ot’ ee-ar-o) listen to me and turn away this daimon. I call upon you, awesome and invisible god with an empty spirit AROGOGROROBRAO SOCHOU MODORIO PHALARCHAO OOO
(ar-Rog-og-Ro-Rob-Rar-o so-khoo mo-do-Rio F-ar-lar-R-khar-o o-o-o ) Holy Headless One, deliver me, (your name), from the daimon which restrai ns me, ROUBRIAO
MARI
ODAM
BAABNAOTH
ASS
ADONAI
APHNIAO
ITHOLETH ABRASAX AEOOY
( Roob-Ree-ar-o mar-R-ee o-darm bar-arb-nar-ot’ arz -ss ar-don-ey ar-F-nee-ar-o eet’o-let’ ar -bR-ar-zarks ar-er-o-o-oo) _______________ 5 The ‘obvious’ interpretation is that this name is a form of Osiris; one of Crowley’s perhaps more credible innovations is that this is a corruption of the Egyptian ‘Asar -un-nefer’ , meaning “Myself made Perfect”.
Mighty Headless One, deliver me, (your name), from the daimon which restrains me, MABARRAIO IOEL KOTHA ATHOREBALO ABRAOTH
(mar-bar-R-rar-ee-o ee-o-el ko-t’ar art’o-R-eeb-ar-lo arb-ra-rot’ ) deliver me, ( your name), AOTH ABRAOTH BASYM ISAK SABAOTH IAO
(ar-ot’ arb-ra-rot’ bar-zoom ee-zark zar-bar-ot’ ee-ar-o) He is the Lord of the gods, He is the Lord of the inhabited world He is the one whom the winds fear He is the one who made all things by the command of his voice. Lord, Sovereign, Master, Assistant, Deliver this Soul IEOU PYR IOU PYR IAOT IAEO IOOW ABRASAX SABRIAM OO YY AY OO YY ADONAIE
(ee-eh-oo poo-R ee-oo poo-R ee-ar-ot’ ee-ar-er-o ee-o-o-oo ar-bR-ar-zarks sarb R-ee-em o-o oo-oo ey o-o ee-ee ar-don-ar-ee-ay) quickly, quickly, good Messenger of God! ANLALA LAI GAIA APA DIACHANNA CHORYN
(arn-lar-lar lar-ee g-ay-ar arp-ar d-ay-ar-kharn-nar kho-R-oon )
I am the Headless daimon with my sight in my feet I am the mighty one who possesses the immortal fire I am the truth who hates the fact that unjust deeds are done in the world I am the one who makes the lightning flash and the thunder roll I am the one whose sweat is the heavy rain which falls upon the earth that it might be made fertile I am the one whose mouth shoots forth tongues of fire I am the one who begets and destroys I am the Word of the Aion My name is a heart encircled by a serpent Come Forth and Follow. Upon successful completion of the Rite, it is said that the Headless6 One will appear and:
“Subject to you all daimons, so that every daimon, whether heavenly or aerial or earthly or subterranean or terrestrial or aquatic, might be obedient to you and every spell and scourge which is from God. And all daimons will be obedient to you.” What more could you want?
_______________ 6 Somewhere between Goodwin’s Original and Crowley’s adaptation, the Greek ‘Akephalos’ meaning literally
“headless” – but also perhaps “without beginning” – came to be replaced by the approximation “Bornless”. This is the name that has stuck ever since, but the present author feels it is more authentic to restore the meaning that, even if it is stranger, can perhaps be considered more authentic.
A K E P H A L O S : Some Closing Remarks
One of the central premises of The Rite of the Bornless One is that Man can Act as God. Goodwin quotes Porphyry in regard to this heresy: The magician lies in order to compel the heavenly powers to tell the truth: for when he threatens to shake the heavens, or to reveal the mysteries of Isis, or the secret thing that lies hid at Abydos, or to stop the sacred boat, or to scatter the limbs of Osiris to Typhon, what a height of madness does it imply in the man who thus threatens what he neither understands nor is able to perform . . . I see the text as a survival of the Egyptian origins of theurgy. Egyptian priests generally divided their time in office between two particular types of role: sems-neter , where they were in the service of the gods – performing mostly temple
duties, officiating at ceremonies, and the like; and paxer-neter , where they were literally acting as gods
– to cast spells, perform
divination, etc. Here, perhaps, is one of the beginnings of the split between what have come to be thought of as all-too-separate categories: ‘religion’ in the case of the former, and ‘magic’ in the case of the latter. The Rite of the Headless One draws on (at the time of writing) newly established ideas of Moses as prototype magus: The Man who saw God face-to-face, and came back with His Word to impart His Law, and Act in His Authority. In his Vita Mosis, Philo of Alexandria, a
contemporary of Christ and the Apostles, adds to the already accepted notion of Moses as
Prophet and Lawgiver the concept that the ‘superior magician’ represents a Logos (Word) and articulates a Nomos (Law), based on that Logos; secondly, that such a Magus no longer needs to be transported in ecstasy like the shamans of old to receive intimations of the Divine or experience the OtherWise, but can instead be raised up so that he apprehends them by direct personal knowledge, or Gnosis. As such, The Rite of the Headless One may be seen as the seed by which the ultimate blasphemy against the spiritual monopoly of the monotheist religions survives to later re-manifest in our Post-Modern world: for surely the goal of the Magus has always been, rather than merely to know the Will of God and be its instrument or vessel, to Act as such in their own right? Perhaps in the final analysis it is meaningless to ask whether one can ever truly act above
whatever notion of ‘God’ or ‘the gods’ one has, but maybe it is enough to decide in whi ch direction one’s actions and intent are directed: whether to serve in another’s kingdom, or seek to assert one’s own. To my mind the fact that The Rite of the Headless One is a survival from a time when such options were still considered, and is not a Working whose end result is an ecstatic union with the Divine – rather one in which an identification with the Divine, and a claiming of the ability to act as such, is asserted, and of necessity is to be repeated – makes it an ideal tool for those of our times who would truly seek to walk the Path of the Magus, and in so doing speak the Word that establishes a Law, and in so doing creates a World. Few are Called – Fewer will Try – Fewest still will Succeed.
Matthew Levi Stevens & Emma Doeve
Bibliography: Betz, Hans Dieter – The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, including the Demotic Spells (1986 University of Chicago Press, Chicago) Crowley, Aleister – The Goetia (1904 Society for the Propagation of Religious Truth, Boleskine Foyers Inverness), The Confessions (1929 Mandrake Press, London), Book 4 (1913 Wieland & Co., London), Magic Without Tears (1954 Thelema Publishing Co., Hampton, New Jersey) Flowers, Stephen E. – Hermetic Magic (1995 Weiser Books, New York) Goodwin, Charles Wycliffe – Fragment of Graeco-Egyptian Work on Magic (1852 Deighton, Macmillan & Co, Cambridge) Kaczynski, Richard – Perdurabo (2002 New Falcon Publications, Tempe, Arizona) Regardie, Israel – Ceremonial Magic (1980 Aquarian Press, Great Britain) Sumner, Alex – The Bornless Ritual (2004), online @ http://www.jwmt.org/v1n7/bornless.html Webb, Don – Seven Faces of Darkness (1996 Runa-Raven, Smithville, Texas)
