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 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.

Halloween, Magic, and Belief

Apotropaioi 1

“I was born with magic”—in the words of the protagonist in my fave TV series The Adventures of Merlin (which I shamelessly view over and over again on Netflix). We’re all born with magic. It’s the innate human ability to dream and imagine and have fantastical experiences that, for some, result in glorious creativity and innovation and advance humankind. Humans are the only beings on Earth that can build castles in the sky—and convince themselves and others that those castles are “real.” Wonderful and perilous. Right? What my personal foray into magic and mysticism has taught me is that the human experience of the magical, mystical, supernatural, occult, spiritual, and religious is real and valid, but the explanations we give for our “otherworldly” (or more accurately “innerworldly”) experiences are largely conjecture—a big creative guess about what weird thing just happened.

Apotropaioi 2

The explanations get jimmied up into a belief, a doctrine, and then into a ritual, a standard, a paradigm. This works in many ways, but take, for example, the child terrorized by things-that-go-bump-in-the night. When I was a child of about age 10 years, I was a given my own bedroom. It was a small room in which was a door that led to the attic and a steam radiator. It was a decent space with groovy, optical-illusion black and white wallpaper that my parents put up as a decorative treat for me (it being the early 70s), but I spent weeks that first winter being absolutely terrorized by a phantom knocking on the attic door. I finally got the nerve, late one night, to go into my parents’ bedroom to alert them to the situation. My snoozing mother opened one eye when I whined about my predicament and growled in cruel exasperation, “It’s the radiator. Get back to bed!” (Not only did the steam radiator hiss, it made knocking sounds.) Boy, did I feel stupid. . .

But perhaps my mother felt that way about 7 or 8 years prior when I was old enough to speak and kept blabbing, in fine detail, about a guy named Guy who my mother feared was a dude shadowing us. She was understandably feeling terrorized until an artist friend came for a visit and began sketching a pic of a man who he announced was Guy—“Little Niecies” imaginary friend.

Tarocchi

Apotropaioi 3

Where am I going with this? Well, Halloween is approaching—as well as some other holidays. That means, in this free 21^st century ubermulticultural, anarchic American society, that everyone comes out of the woodwork to impose their beliefs and values on others and also reframe and impose rules on the beliefs and celebratory traditions of others. As for Halloween—a mardi-gras–like harvest festival in which the macabre and diabolical are spoofed—what we get is an eyeful of missives from fundamentalist Christians on how Halloween is a Satanic orgy plucked from the pages of the Malleus Maleficarum (the book that, despite popular understanding, was never given credence by the medieval Catholic Church and whose authors were denounced by it . . . just sayin’). We also get stories, by and for Muggles, about the rise of the modern witchcraft and pagan movements, whose adherents celebrate the antique Northern European cultural festival of Samhain (from which Halloween was adapted) as a religious one. For more information about this, I refer anyone reading this to an essay by historian Ronald Hutton, which was published in The Guardian last year. 

Is it OK to revel in and also spoof our superstitions about and fascination with magic and the supernatural for Halloween and also laugh in the face of death and the ugly unknown it represents ? Sure. It is a bonding human experience. Seeing traditions in that way makes them poignant and memorable for me beyond whatever beliefs we construct as their rationale.

The images are all photos from my magical still lifes series, with the image below being an example of digital photo manipulation.

The Spell