Dispelling Myths about Meditation

I frequently visit the reddit mediation chat board page.

Something I find concerning is that so many people think that meditation is supposed to be either a psychedelic experience and or an alternative health cure for mood disorders such as anxiety and depression

With recent news about the psychological risks of long 10-day vipassana meditation retreats and persistent stories about the dire consequences of so called Kundalini activation, folks are more frequently voicing concerns about whether  basic meditation practice will make you go crazy.  And people very much like to share their “crazy” stories on social media. 

  Also, there’s a faction of Fundamentalist Christians who are indoctrinated into spreading talking points that meditation involves making your mind “blank” and that a blank mind creates space for demons to get in.

Let’s clear the air and go through these ideas.

Beginners Mind

Basic meditation is really, just sitting. Quietly, calmly, being aware of your physical self and being aware that you are a breathing, thinking  organism in relationship to your ever changing inner and outer environment. A great source of basic sitting meditation practice is a YouTube by a Tibetan Buddhist monk and meditation instructor called. Gelong Thubten explains how to develop a daily mindfulness practice.       I want to add that I have no connection to this particular teacher, but I do think that he is a good expert resource.

Many people who begin basic sitting meditation seem to think that something odd or unusual is supposed to happen. The most common experience for new meditators is restlessness, boredom, and frustration about sitting and doing nothing but realizing that they are restless, bored, and frustrated and that thoughts are automatic. My own teachers like to say that the mind sweats thoughts. That’s natural,  that’s the big special realization at the get go and, as the Beatles  say, “then You make it better.”  

How many of you play a musical instrument or a sport or have some kind of technical job?  Or how many of you were out of shape or unhealthy and then took up a certain health and fitness regimen and got a beach body?  The journey was challenging at first, but it got better with practice. And noticing changes generated incentive to keep up the good work.

But a big secret about meditation practice is that even people who have been practicing for years and years—even meditation teachers and so-called gurus—may have days when they are restless, bored, and distracted during their meditation practice. Maybe the only differences between them and a beginner in that situation is that advanced practitioners—generally speaking-- are not frustrated, expectant, or goal-oriented about what happens to be happening during meditation. They are still just sitting in the present moment in relationship with their inner and outer environment.  Because advanced practitioners can have similar experiences or even get caught up in similar self-sabotaging expectations as beginners, Buddhist meditation practitioners refer to Beginners Mind and continually return back to it. It is less a return to the basics, than simply a return to right practice.

Trancing Out

Another experience that meditators get caught up in is trance. That said, meditation is a kind of a trance if we define trance—as hypnotists to—as a mental state of profoundly focused concentration. We are basically in a trance when we’re daydreaming, absorbed in a hobby, enrapt in the plot of an entertaining movie, or staring at our smart phone and thumbing through Facebook posts.  

A professionally hypnotically induced trance is one in which a particular person’s mind is so paradoxically distracted in concentration that messages and programming that that particular mind ordinary resists get through. This is why therapeutic hypnosis can break down fears and self-sabotaging habits that are derived from defense-mechanisms in deeper layers of a person’s consciousness.

Some forms of meditation are meant to establish trance. Visualization practices, for example, that have goals of modifying your sense of self. These types of meditation may be devotional, theurgic or psychodynamic. My YouTube   SpiritGuides, Spiritual Ideals, and the Holy Guardian Angel covers some of this, and I may discuss it further in another YouTube on meditation that specifically addresses devotional and mantra meditation.

Cultivating the ability to concentrate is a prerequisite for meditation. The one trains the mind to be more focused and less noisy. The other is resting in that focused state. This is thoroughly explained in the classic The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The first half of the Yoga Sutras describes the preparatory work for a meditative life. The second half describes the deeper and deeper layers of the meditation experience and ultimately gets into concepts that may only be appreciated by very advanced practitioners. It is still worth the read, and some translations are easier to follow than others. In my opinion, Light on the Yoga Sutras by BKS Iyengar –is very accessible reading for people new to classical texts on Eastern Spirituality.

With the very wide popularity of meditation apps and “guided meditation” programs, the lines between meditation and hypnosis have been blurred. Many apps are useful guides to help you get into the so-called “zone” and hold concentrated attention. Others guide you through mental imagery and stories that may be useful in cultivating attention, relaxation, and changes in thoughts and attitudes. Others, whether intentional or not and for better or worse, are straightforward hypnotic induction. Some practices also involve breathing or somatic techniques that alter brain chemistry to induce trance and dissociative or cathartic experiences.  These kind of practices lie more in the realm of shamanism, folk magic, and occultism. If this is where your interests lie, a YouTube on Astral Temple work is planned. Stay tuned.

“Meditation is the cessation of the movement of the mind.”  -Sri Patanjali

The mind sweats thoughts and feelings that then generate actions. Those actions are too often kneejerk reactions—automatic, not exactly truly conscious or willful—and often regrettable. Sometimes we call it losing it or getting carried away or dropping the ball. Through meditation practice, we become aware that these thoughts and feelings are happening and are working us instead of us working them. This realization transforms into the practice of mindfulness.

It simply means being in a place of having better insight into our thoughts and feelings, pausing and more consciously considering how we want to behave in any given situation about them. With practice, new and more effective conscious ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving arise and old automatic habits die back. For this reason, I like to counter the Fundamentalist argument that meditation invites demonic forces to take control of your mind. In meditation practice, demons are not entering your mind; they are coming out and being neutralized as you gain more self-awareness, self-control. As you become more familiar with the what your mind and feelings automatically do, the more you practice focused concentration instead of mental distraction, and the more you understand that you don’t have to be on automatic driven by thoughts and emotions, the more calm your mind and composure become. A sense of spaciousness belongingness, balance, and resilience replaces the static of noisy, disturbing and distracting thoughts and emotions.

Part 4: The Stele of Jeu. Emanation, Self-Actualization, and the Ladder of the Spheres

Phanes and the Ladder of the Spheres digital photomanipulation 14 x 16
 http://www.deerapposelli.com/illustration.html

A friend passed along a YouTube (see below) of Israel Regardie reciting the Bornless Ritual. The friend, a Brit, mentioned that Regardie’s voice was kind of quaint—“like an old relative with that cockney” as he put it. I’m guessing that the equivalent would be me listening to my now long-past grandpa with his East Side Bowery New York accent. I had imagined that Regardie’s voice and delivery would be more elegant. I searched YouTube for a clip of someone orating the Stele of Jeu in original Greek but came up empty handed. (If anyone can direct me to such a video, I’d luv it). 

I was thinking that the most potent way to orate the Stele of Jeu would be in original Greek, with intonation of barbaric words and vowel sounds in proper ancient Greek pronunciation. After all, as explained in Part 3, the letters and sounds of the Greek alphabet were thought to have special mystical efficacy in perhaps much the same way that the Sanskrit and Hebrew alphabets were and still are thought to. On that note, scholar Judith Dillon, who has been in contact with me regarding my posts about the Stele of Jeu, explained that both the structure of and mysticism surrounding the Hebrew and Greek alphabets can be traced to the Phoenicians. Joscelyn Godwin, in his book The Seven Vowel Sounds explains that Hebrew sound mysticism was adapted from Egyptian mysticism, particularly in regard to intonation of vowel sounds, and this mystery was preserved in Graeco-Egyptian Gnosticism.¹

In taking closer look at Marsanes (Codex X of the Nag Hammadi texts), we see that the fragmentary text is talking about sound combinations in relation to the “shapes” of the soul, qualities of angels, and the process of emanation from the Monad (“God” as the transcendent Absolute) to gross material existence.

On Emanation

A number of mystical ideologies operate under the premise that existence as we know it was not created by a primordial, self-caused personality, popularly called God. Rather, they operate under the premise that material existence is an “emanation” in which the “thing” that is Existence itself inscrutably divides and transforms Itself through a series of progressively denser stages until the physical world as we know it comes into being. This idea is found in Neoplatonic, Gnostic, Hermetic, Qabalist, Vedantist, and Tantric systems to name only those I’m somewhat familiar with.

Verse 35 from an esoteric Tantric meditation manual called the Saundarya-Lahari, which is the text-accompaniment of a famous Tantric image called Śri Chakra, explains it nicely:

You are the mind, you are space, and you also are fire.

You are water and earth, too.

When you have transformed yourself into the universe in this way,

There is nothing that exists in relation to you.

To transform yourself into the universe,

You assume the aspects of consciousness and bliss² in the form of the power of Śiva.

It is important to understand the idea of emanation because this is the real rationale for chakra lore and for its Western parallels found in the Qabalist Tree of Life and the alchemical/hermetic ladder of the planets and Hermetic and Gnostic cosmogony.

Magical texts such as the Stele of Jeu may incorporate vowel or “barbarous” sounds as a way to work with the processes of emanation in a “path of return.” Writers, such as Godwin,¹ have pointed out that the vowel sounds can correspond with the classical planets, which correspond with elements and with the psychic centers in the body in a way similar to “chakras” of Eastern Tantric lore. Like chakras, they are seen as forming a ladder of evolution and involution in the human psyche. Understanding and passing through their mysteries becomes a path of liberation and self-actualization.

A Visionary Experience with the Stele of Jeu

So, here is where I segue from being a nerd to begin discussion about how the practice of reciting the Stele of Jeu is going for me. How it’s been revealing itself, possibly playing out in my life.

I began doing the practice on May 15^th and intend to complete a 40-day course. I begin the ritual with an opening that acknowledges spiritual ideals I take refuge in and also includes rituals of self-purification and casting of ritual space. I chant the ritual (a bit more mellifluously than Regardie orating the Bornless Rite) and conclude the ritual with a few minutes of meditation. With the exception of the second time I did the ritual, visionary content has been minimal. Frankly, at this point in my life, that is a good thing. The practice is mostly making me more “mindful,” which I will elaborate on in my next blog entry.

In any case, on the second day that I conducted the ritual, I had an interesting experience—the kind that people who do this sort of thing generally aim to have happen. During the preparatory part of my ritual, which involved chanting that was unrelated to Stele of Jeu text, I experienced some dynamic phenomena related to my foundations in yogic and Tantric Buddhist practices. Upon completion of the oration of the Stele of Jeu, I “heard” the statement “I am the seed of Atum.” At this point, I had not yet gathered information or made the leap about possible inferences to Ra in the text. The statement was a kind of foreshadowing--something I had experienced frequently while working with the Arbatel years ago. 

When I sat for meditation, which was actually more an exercise in cogitation that day, I was met by the inner vision of an erstwhile “spirit guide” who first emerged when I was doing astral temple/inner plane work with a Dione Fortune lineage years ago. The same character showed up again while doing Arbatel work. I entertained some disjointed images that “he” was “showing” me. When I “got” that a geometric shape I was seeing had something to do with the orphic egg, as if in response, a flood of images came into my mind, which I made a digital illustration of later that day.

I don’t give the same weight to visionary experiences as I once had. I see them as 1. dreamlike insights or ways of seeing that my subconscious mind commandeers and my conscious mind artificially spins into something intelligible or 2. epiphenomena (byproducts/symptoms) of a change in brain structure that can occur when we experience something new or break a pattern or habit—a change that manifests in thinking and behavior.

In any case, I got the idea that the image above represented the ladder of the spheres—a path of emanation—from Chaos to Cosmos to self-actualization.

Reference and a note

1. Joscelyn Godwin. The Seven Vowel Sounds in Theory and Practice. Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 1991.

2. The word ananda, which translates as “bliss” means “experience.” The power (Shakti) is the world as we know/experience it projecting from hypostasis (Shiva).

The Stele of Jeu : Part 3 Can“Headless” refer to the Divine Man embodied as the Tree of Life?

The Stele of Jeu : Part 3 Can“Headless” refer to the Divine Man embodied as the Tree of Life?

On Qabalah, Barbarous Language, and Gematria in the Stele of Jeu

The Headless also is a term in Qabalah. Given other jargon within the Stele of Jeu¹ and the notion that aspects of Qabalist-like Jewish (and other) mysticism long predated early medieval Qabalah,^1-4 I thought it might be okay to conjecture that Akephalos, in this context, also could refer to an esoteric Hebrew term. I contacted independent researcher Gary Lee, who specializes in Qabalist influences in ancient and medieval esoterica, for more clarity. He had serendipitously uploaded a paper to Academia.edu that included content on the significance of “headless” on the very day that I had decided to pursue a project involving the Stele of Jeu.  His paper, titled The Visconti –Sforza Tarot: A Sacred Open Secret, continues his ongoing exposition on how the Visconti-Sforza Tarot acts as a mnemonic device for Qabalist revelation.

Lee explained that “Headless” refers to the Divine Man, in the form of sefirot 9 to 4. These sefirot correspond with the limbs of the body. Chessed (compassion) corresponds to the right arm, Gevurah (judgement) to the left arm, and Tiferet (Truth/Beauty) with the heart. These sefirot form the Emotional or Aetheric self. Netzach and Hod represent the legs and Yeshod the genitals—the physical self.  The “head,” Lee explained, can be seen as the sefirot Da’at, which is the gateway/gatekeeper to the higher sefirot. The higher sefirot correspond to the higher faculties of the Divine Man. In other words, the head of the Divine Man manifests through integration of the mysteries of the lower sefirot and self-actualization at Da’at (ie, “crossing the abyss”). In his paper, cited above, Lee writes, “Headless” is in reference to the workings of the [Merkabah] Chariot in which one internalizes the Tree of Life as one’s body and this mnemonic system is one’s ‘Head.’”

The “barbarous” terms, which are treated as “words of power” (voce magicae) in the Stele of Jeu have intrigued those who have worked with the text. It has been said that the terms are obscure godnames, garble of once intelligible mystical terms, and/or sacred sounds. In this way, there has been an attempt to make the barbaric terms intelligible.

Although we might be looking at nonsensical woo-woo garble from a past and alien age, we also may be looking at encrypted content. Palindromes and anagrams are common devices in ancient and medieval magical formulae. Acrostics and other word puzzles and gematria also played an important role in magic and mysticism, particularly Greek and Jewish magic and mysticism,^3,6 the latter of which happened to be rather influential in the ancient world^1,4 

and a reason why the orator of the Stele of Jeu assumes authority by announcing "I am Moses."4   

Bernabé and Jiménez San Cristóbal point out in their work on the Orphic Gold Tablets that barbaric terms may not be magical gibberish but a string of letters within which is an encrypted message that only the initiate knows and knows how to weed out.⁷  Hypotheses related to the Orphic Gold Tablets may not apply to the Greek Magical Papyri but they are nevertheless “food for thought.”

Kieren Barry, who makes a case that Jewish Qabalah emerged from Pythagorean and Hellenist Isopsephia (Greek gematria), cites two second-century Gnostics, Marcus Magus and Marsanes [the fragmentary Codex X of the Nag Hammadi texts, known as Marsanes, actually], to explain that the letters of the Greek alphabet were thought to be aligned with creative powers of the Cosmos,⁸ perhaps much like Sanskrit and Hebrew in which  the “garland of letters”and their sounds and sound combinations represent mystical concepts and keys to gnosis and empowerment. Barry, in paraphrasing  Marsanes, says that “the various combinations of vowels and consonants could bring about control of [Cosmic] powers. The Greek letters are ‘the nomenclature of the gods and the angels’; ‘and as they are changed, they submit to the hidden gods by means of beat and pitch and silence and impulse.’” Barry goes on to say, “This concept was central to much of Hellenistic magic and can be seen throughout the Greek magical papyri in the combinations of vowels, letter permutations, and long lists of ‘barbarous names,’ or voces magicae, that were contained in various charms and divine invocations.”

And this might be at play in the barbarous terms in the Stele of Jeu—but let’s look at some patterns in the gematria. Some interesting patterns emerge when pythmenes (a technique sometimes simplified and called Pythagorean reduction) is applied to some of the terms.

The gematriac value of Osoronnophris (Οσοννωφρις) “Beautiful Osiris” is 2220. Now we can pair the word with other words and phrases that have the value 2220, such as phrases known in Gnostic and Christian mysticism such as "I, alpha and omega" (egw alfa kai wmega) or we can reduce the numbers to 6 + 0. The number 6 has specific significance in Pythagorean and also Jewish mysticism, but, in this context, we can perhaps infer an association between Osoronnophris and the 6 limbs (sefirot) of the Headless (0) Divine Man. The string  of godnames  that appear toward the second half of the oration and are traditionally used by modern-era occultists for the headband formula:  Aoth, Abaoth, Basym, Isak, Sabaoth, IAO also reduces to 6.  Each may have its own numerical significance. For example Isak equals 231 and Iao  (Ἰάω) reduces from 811 to 10/1. 

The numbers 10 and 1, both Pythagorically and Qabalistically significant, also recur.

Iabas (214) and Iapos (381) (Samaritan terms for Yahweh) reduce to 7 and 3, respectively=10/1. The term “Paphro Osoronnophris”  is 3701 or 10 and 1. (“Paphro” is assumed to be "Pharoah" in some translations based on a speculative  comment by late 19th century Egyptologist EA Wallis Budge, who also speculated that Osoronnophris  was supposed to read as "Ausa Unnefer."9 )The following sentence says “This is your true name, handed down by the prophets of Israel.” Is that a reference to Malkuth/Kether? 

Also note that the word Israel consistently appears as Istrael (Ἰστράηλ). The added tau (τ) allows the word to reduce to 10/1. ). The letter tau designates a seal (as in a seal of ownership or contractual seal of agreement). It has been extrapolated to mean the seal between God and the devotee and also Truth and Perfection. On the topic of that extra tau in Israel, Gary Lee says [personal communication]: “Tau in the word Israel/ Istrael would represent the ‘perfection of beauty,’ which in Hebrew is the word ‘Zion.’ The term beauty is in regards to the Sefirah Tiferet, the Divine Man, thus the ‘Perfection of the Divine Man’ being the ‘cleaving’ or unification of the Human Intellect/ soul with the Active Intellect of the Cosmos . . .”

But wait! There’s more. If we add up and reduce the number of the string of barbaric words that follow (Ar, Thiao, Rheibet, Atheleberseth, A, Blatha, Abeu, Ebeu, Phi, Chitasoe, Ib, Thiao), we get 10/1, and the string of terms: theou Anlala Lai, Gaia, Apa, Diachanna Choryn ALSO reduces to 10/1.  

Next: Vowel sounds and the Ladder of the Spheres.

References

1. LiDonnici, Lynn. “According to the Jews:” Identified (and Identifying) ‘Jewish’ Elements in the Greek Magical Papyri. In LiDonnici, Lynn; Lieber Andrea, eds. Heavenly Tablets Interpretation, Identity and Tradition in Ancient Judaism. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2007.

2. Abbi Aryeh Kaplan. Inner Space. Jerusalem: Moznaim Publishing Corporation., 1990,

3. Kieren Barry. The Greek Qabalah. Alphabetic Mysticism and Numerology

in the Ancient World. York  Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, 1999, pp 270-271.

4. Hans Dieter Betz, ed. The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation Including the Demotic Spells. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986, p xiv.

5. Yehuda Liebes; Batya Stein trans. Studies in Jewish Myth and Jewish Messianism.  Albany, NYL State University of New York Press; 1993.

6. Duncan Fishwick. An Early Christian Cryptogram? CCHA. 1959;26:29-41.

7. Alberto Bernabé and  Ana Isabel Jiménez San Cristóbal. Instructions for the Netherworld The Orphic Gold Tablets. Boston:Brill, 2008, p 141.

8. Barry, p 117.
9. E. A. Wallis Budge. Egyptian Magic. New York: Routledge, 2002 (reprint of original published in 1899), pp 176-177.

The Oration

I invoke you, Headless One!

You who created the Earth and the Heavens,

You who created the Night and the Day,

You who created the Darkness and the Light.

You are Osoronnophris, whom no one has ever seen.

You are Iabas; you are Iapos.

You have distinguished the Just from the Unjust.

You have made the Female and the Male.

You have made the Seed and the Fruit.

You have made men Love and Hate one another.

I am Moses, your prophet, to whom you have revealed your Mysteries, the ceremonies of Israel.

You have produced the Moist and the Dry and that which nourishes all life.

Hear me, for I am the messenger of Pharoah Osoronnophris, which is your true name, handed down to the prophets of Israel.

Hear me: Ar, Thiao, Rheibet, Atheleberseth, A, Blatha, Abeu, Ebeu, Phi, Chitasoe, Ib, Thiao.

Hear me and turn away this spirit.

I invoke you, awesome and invisible God who dwells in the void of the spirit.

Arogogorobrao, Sochou, Modorio, Phalarthao, OOO, Headless One.

Deliver this person from the spirit that restrains him.

Hear me: Roubriao, Mariodam, Balbnabaoth, Assalonai, Aphniao, I, Tholeth, Abrasax, Aeoou,

Mighty dH

Hea Headless One, deliver this person.

Ma, Barraio, Ioel, Kotha, Athorebalo, Abraoth.

Deliver this person from the spirit that restrains him.

Aoth, Abaoth, Basym, Isak, Sabaoth, IAO.

He is the Lord of the Gods.

He is the one who the winds fear.

He has made all things by the command of his voice.

Lord, king, ruler, and helper.

Save this soul.

Ieou, Pyr, Iou, Pyr, Iaot, Iaeo, Ioou, Abrasax, Sabriam, Oo, Yu, Eu, Oo, Yu, Adonaie, 
 Now Now Angel of God.
 Anlala Lai, Gaia, Apa, Diachanna Choryn

"I am the headless spirit with my sight in my feet; mighty immortal fire;.

I am the Truth.

I detest the unjust deeds done in the world.

I am the one who makes the lightning flash and the thunder roll.

I am the one who is the shower of life on the earth.

I am the one whose mouth is flame.

I am the one who begets and manifests. 

I am the Grace of the Aion.

My name is a heart encircled by a serpent.

Come forth and follow.

The Stele of Jeu : Part 2 A Supplication to the Divine Light by Whatever Name

The Stele of Jeu Part 2: A Supplication to the Divine Light by Whatever Name

Akephalos : The God Whose Head is the Sun

The “Headless One” (Akephalos  Ακεφαλς) is the subject of evocation in the Stele of Jeu (Greek Magical Papyri  V 96-172).  Notes within the English translation of the Greek Magical Papyri, edited by Hans Dieter Betz,¹ tell the reader that Akephalos refers to an old Egyptian deity that later became popular in Hellenic Egypt wherein it was associated with Osiris. John Colman Darnell, however, tells us in The Enigmatic Netherworld Books of the Solar-Osirian Unity, which deciphers hieroglyphic content from the tombs of Tutankhamun, Ramesses VI, and Ramesses IX,  that Akephalos refers to a Greco-Roman deity associated with (ie, regarded as a cognate of) Osiris in the form of—not a mummified god of the underworld—but a solar deity (Ra-Osiris).² The author provides consensus evidence, based on archaeological finds and Egyptology research, that the head of the headless form of Osiris is the sun and that the solar Osiris is one with Ra. The of concept of a solar/progenitor Osiris is affirmed in another scholarly text, which also points out that (and how) the Stele of Jeu associates Ra-Osiris (as Akephalos) with the god of the Hebrews.³ The author also points out that the term Akephalos is associated with the Egyptian god Bes in two other sections of the Greek Magical Papyri.  Bes is a beneficent solar deity.

 Lines within the Stele of Jeu, while referring to epithets of both Osiris and Yahweh, also may point to Ra. For example:

You who created the Earth and the Heavens (Geb and Nut—technically Ra’s grandchildren by Shu and Tefnut),

. . .

You have made the Female (Tefnut) and the Male (Shu).

. . .

You have produced the Moist (Tefnut—goddess of moisture) and the Dry (Shu—god of air) and that which nourishes all life.

 

Also, just as the orator in the Stele of Jeu ultimately identifies with the supreme progenitor solar deity, so too do souls who successfully traverse the underworld become Ra in Egyptian afterlife spirituality.⁴ Just as Osiris becomes self-realized as Ra, so too does the worthy soul.

Reference to Phanes, an Orphic solar deity/First Cause that personifies the Light of Creation and is associated with Eros (Life Force) and Aion (Eternal Cyclical Time), also may be read into the last lines of the Stele of Jeu, which say: “I am the Grace of Aion. My name is a heart encircled by a serpent.”  Phanes, according to the ancient Greek historian Diodorus (90 BCE- 30 CE), was identified as a cognate of Osiris among the Orphics, and the neoplatonic apologist Proclus (412-485) identified Phanes with Dionysus, who was generally regarded in the ancient world as a cognate of Osiris.⁵

Although Akephalon is assumed, in occult circles, to refer to Osiris, it may sort of refer to God as the supreme Divine Light, known by different names in different cultures and most familiar to Egyptians as Atum or Amun-Ra. The Stele of Jeu calls the deity Osoronophris (“Beautiful Osiris”) and Iabas and Iapos (Samaritan names for Yahweh)⁶ and also uses Hebraic godnames and anagrams within the strings of “barbarous terms” within the text (eg, Iao and Sabaoth). The Late Classical Era Gnostic deity Abrasax is thrown into the mix as is Aion and presumably Phanes. These names might all be being used in a syncretistic way as epithets for one redemptive/restorative and supreme divine principle.

The Truth is One. The wise know it goes by various names. Rg Veda I.64.46

copyright Dee Rapposelli Pink Lotus, Digital Photograph http://www.deerapposelli.com

Next: Qabalist  influences, encryption, and isopsephia in the Stele of Jeu

References

1. Hans Dieter Betz, ed. The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation Including the Demotic Spells. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986, p 335.

2. Coleman Darnel, John. The Enigmatic Netherworld Books of the Solar-Osirian Unity: Cryptic Compositions in the Tombs of Tutankhamun, Ramesses VI and Ramesses IX. Fribourg Switzerland: Academic Press, 2004, pp 115- 116  RE-Osiris p 452-453

3. LiDonnici, Lynn. “According to the Jews:” Identified (and Identifying) ‘Jewish’ Elements in the Greek Magical Papyri. In LiDonnici, Lynn; Lieber Andrea, eds. Heavenly Tablets Interpretation, Identity and Tradition in Ancient Judaism. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2007.

4. John H. Taylor . Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001 pp 30-32.

5. Alberto Bernabé and  Ana Isabel Jiménez San Cristóbal. Instructions for the Netherworld The Orphic Gold Tablets. Boston:Brill, 2008, p 144.

 6. Betz, p 336.

The Oration

I invoke you, Headless One!

You who created the Earth and the Heavens,

You who created the Night and the Day,

You who created the Darkness and the Light.

You are Osoronnophris, whom no one has ever seen.

You are Iabas; you are Iapos.

You have distinguished the Just from the Unjust.

You have made the Female and the Male.

You have made the Seed and the Fruit.

You have made men Love and Hate one another.

I am Moses, your prophet, to whom you have revealed your Mysteries, the ceremonies of Israel.

You have produced the Moist and the Dry and that which nourishes all life.

Hear me, for I am the messenger of Phapro Osoronnophris, which is your true name, handed down to the prophets of Israel.

Hear me: Ar, Thiao, Rheibet, Atheleberseth, A, Blatha, Abeu, Ebeu, Phi, Chitasoe, Ib, Thiao.

Hear me and turn away this spirit.

I invoke you, awesome and invisible God who dwells in the void of the spirit.

Arogogorobrao, Sochou, Modorio, Phalarthao, OOO, Headless One.

Deliver this person from the spirit that restrains him.

Hear me: Roubriao, Mariodam, Balbnabaoth, Assalonai, Aphniao, I, Tholeth, Abrasax, Aeoou,

Mighty dH

Hea Headless One, deliver this person.

Ma, Barraio, Ioel, Kotha, Athorebalo, Abraoth.

Deliver this person from the spirit that restrains him.

Aoth, Abaoth, Basym, Isak, Sabaoth, IAO.

He is the Lord of the Gods.

He is the one who the winds fear.

He has made all things by the command of his voice.

Lord, king, ruler, and helper.

Save this soul.

Ieou, Pyr, Iou, Pyr, Iaot, Iaeo, Ioou, Abrasax, Sabriam, Oo, Yu, Eu, Oo, Yu, Adonaie, 
Now nbw angel of god
Anlala Lai, Gaia, Apa, Diachanna Choryn

"I am the headless spirit with my sight in my feet; mighty immortal fire;.

I am the Truth.

I detest the unjust deeds done in the world.

I am the one who makes the lightning flash and the thunder roll.

I am the one who is the shower of life on the earth.

I am the one whose mouth is flame.

I am the one who begets and manifests. 

I am the Grace of the Aion.

My name is a heart encircled by a serpent.

Come forth and follow.

The Stele of Jeu ( Bornless Rite ) Project: Part 1

The Stele of Jeu ( Bornless Rite ) Project: Part 1 –

Introduction- Disclosure-Statement of Intent

Six years ago, I did some solo and group work with a medieval magical document called the Arbatel. It was an exciting time. Exhilarating. But the years immediately following the work were fraught with struggle: upheaval, accidents, illness, and a string of jobs from hell. My relevance as a magical practitioner—and also my foothold as a spiritual practitioner—tanked during that time as well. And I wasn’t the only one in the “Arbatel Cohort,” as we called ourselves, who experienced upheaval and setbacks.  Some in the magical community would say, “Well, that is what you get for opening a Pandora’s box in grimoire work.” I would say, however, that upheaval and the rigors of resistance to it are the nature of catharsis, which is the nature of self-revelation and “spiritual transformation.” To quote a lyric from Jesus Christ Superstar, “To conquer death, you only have to die.”

Where I Am Coming From

Although I started my magical career about 12 years ago with a small offshoot of the Dione Fortune lineage, I ultimately did not align myself with any traditional lodge. I did entertain Chaos Magic for a while and liked to think of myself as a “free illuminist”— I otherwise have a life-long, well-mentored background in Eastern spirituality—primarily Advaita Vedanta—an orientation I have returned to and that strongly informs my magic, art, and creative writing. I am also a medical editor/writer by profession with a specialization in psychiatry and neurology. In addition, I am a bit of a nerdy autodidact on the cultural history of magic and mysticism in European `culture. Taken all together, this means that I do not subscribe to the “Spirit model” of magic and I do not take people who claim to practice “traditional” magic all that seriously. So that is my “Disclosure statement.”

So, life has taken a turn for the better. I am making more money than ever before and at a leisurely pace; I got on board with an old friend and collaborator who has become a small publisher through whom I will republish my fantasy fiction series; I am regaining my artistic voice, and I have connected with a new community of Vedantists. As for my “magical me,” I’ve become isolated and bored. I was about to fold it away in the been-there, done-that” bin. Then artist Susanne Iles posted a link to a blog post of a mutual acquaintance on the Stele of Jeu. Encouraged by Susanne, I decided to take it on as a project.

When involved with the Arbatel project, I kept a blog about it. I intend to do the same with my work with the Stele of Jeu, which will shed light on context and also provide insight to other practitioners on new ways to make the text relevant and workable for them.

The Stele of Jeu is a tract within the Greek Magical Papyri and is designated as section V 96-172. The Greek Magical Papyri is a compilation of highly syncretic texts that date from the 2 century BCE to 5 century CE of Hellenized Egypt. They are Greco-Egyptian magical spells and are loaded with references to Egyptian, Greek, Gnostic, Orphic, and Hebrew deities—sometimes all in the same document.

Scholars have said that the Stele of Jeu is an example of an exorcism, given a recurring line in the document that requests deliverance from a spirit. Modern occultists, however, treat it as an exercise in self-transformation—theurgy or apotheosis—in which the aim is to identify with deity. More on what that “means” in an ensuing blog entry.

The document is popularly known as the Bornless Rite based on interpretive ideas applied to it by late 19^th/early 20^th century occultists—namely founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley. It is also known as the Headless Rite because the text is directed to a deity referred to as Akephalos—Greek for “Headless One.” The term could refer to any number of obscure ancient headless deities and it is often assumed to refer to an Egyptian one, but it could refer to something else entirely, which will be the topic of my next two posts.

Preparation for the Rite

Face north, “write the formula” on a parchment, “extend” across the forehead (ie, write the formula, which includes 6 unknown godnames, and wear the parchment as a headband. The modern tradition has been that the formula is the godnames: Aoth, Abaoth, Basym, Isak, Sabaoth, Iao.) Say:

“Make all Spirits subject to Me so that every Spirit of the Firmament, the Ether, Earth and under the Earth, dry Land, or Water, Air Fire, and every Spell and Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me!”

The Oration

I invoke you, Headless One!

You who created the Earth and the Heavens,

You who created the Night and the Day,

You who created the Darkness and the Light.

You are Osoronnophris, whom no one has ever seen.

You are Iabas; you are Iapos.

You have distinguished the Just from the Unjust.

You have made the Female and the Male.

You have made the Seed and the Fruit.

You have made men Love and Hate one another.

I am Moses, your prophet, to whom you have revealed your Mysteries, the ceremonies of Israel.

You have produced the Moist and the Dry and that which nourishes all life.

Hear me, for I am the messenger of Phapro Osoronnophris, which is your true name, handed down to the prophets of Israel.

Hear me: Ar, Thiao, Rheibet, Atheleberseth, A, Blatha, Abeu, Ebeu, Phi, Chitasoe, Ib, Thiao.

Hear me and turn away this spirit.

I invoke you, awesome and invisible God who dwells in the void of the spirit.

Arogogorobrao, Sochou, Modorio, Phalarthao, OOO, Headless One.

Deliver this person from the spirit that restrains him.

Hear me: Roubriao, Mariodam, Balbnabaoth, Assalonai, Aphniao, I, Tholeth, Abrasax, Aeoou,

Mighty dH

Hea Headless One, deliver this person.

Ma, Barraio, Ioel, Kotha, Athorebalo, Abraoth.

Deliver this person from the spirit that restrains him.

Aoth, Abaoth, Basym, Isak, Sabaoth, IAO.

He is the Lord of the Gods.

He is the one who the winds fear.

He has made all things by the command of his voice.

Lord, king, ruler, and helper.

Save this soul.

Ieou, Pyr, Iou, Pyr, Iaot, Iaeo, Ioou, Abrasax, Sabriam, Oo, Yu, Eu, Oo, Yu, Adonaie,
Now now angel of God
Anlala Lai, Gaia, Apa, Diachanna Choryn

"I am the headless spirit with my sight in my feet; mighty immortal fire;.

I am the Truth.

I detest the unjust deeds done in the world.

I am the one who makes the lightning flash and the thunder roll.

I am the one who is the shower of life on the earth.

I am the one whose mouth is flame.

I am the one who begets and manifests. 

I am the Grace of the Aion.

My name is a heart encircled by a serpent.

Come forth and follow.