Article: Of the Ceremony of the Introit

This is an excerpt of an essay by Father John on the Liber XV – The Gnostic Mass.¹, with commentary on important concepts in Thelema.

[…]

“The DEACON and all the PEOPLE say:

I believe in one secret and ineffable Lord; and in one Star in the Company of Stars of whose fire we are created and to which we shall return; and in one Father of Life, Mystery of Mystery, in His name

CHAOS:

the sole viceregent of the Sun upon the Earth; and in one Air, the nourisher of all that breaths.”

Ineffable = “too great to be described; to holy to be spoken”

Viceregent = vice = substitute + regent “a person chosen while a king or queen is sick, absent, or too young” or “a member of a governing board, as of a university”.

CHAOS = secret, ineffable, Star, Father, substitute for a stand-in for the Sun upon the Earth, Air, nourisher. Chaos has been associated with the Dyad (Sephiroth of Chokmah whose number is 2) as well as the Father of Thought. Other associations with CHAOS include WORD and WISDOM.

It is taught in some metaphysical circles that the air we breath contains something which is used by our physical bodies to sustain life. It might just be oxygen. But there are those who say that there something special, Prana, which sustains our spiritual life as well in the Air. LORD is another name for Hadit.

“And I believe in one Earth, the Mother of us all, and in one Womb wherein all men are begotten and wherein they shall rest, Mystery of Mysteries, in Her name

BABALON.”

BABALON is the Sphere of Binah, Number 3, the Mother – and yet, after another fashion, also in Malkuth, the Earth. Notice the associatiion between CHAOS and BABALON where CHAOS was called the sole (only) viceregent of the SUN UPON THE EARTH.

“And I believe in the Serpent and the Lion, Mystery of Mysteries, in His name

BAPHOMET.”

Key 11 Lust (Thoth)

The Serpent and the Lion is shown in Atu 11 – Lust. This Atu corresponds to the Hebrew letter Teth, whose value is 9. There is a total of 9 squares in the magical square of Binah and Saturn. This associates BAPHOMET with BABALON – if we didn’t already have BABALON riding the BEAST in the Thoth Deck.

Leo is also associated with Atu 11 and the Sun rules Leo. Therefore the association of BAPHOMET back to CHAOS is made.

BAPHOMET is the combination of the Spheres of Chokmah and Binah and is Heru-Ra-Ha, the twins Ra-Hoor-Khuit and Hoor-Paar-Kraat.

Notice that there are 8 letters in BAPHOMET and 7 letters in BABALON. The sum of these two letters is 15. Behold, a picture of BAPHOMET is found on Atu 15.

“And I believe in one Gnostic and Catholic Church of Light, Life, Love, and Liberty, the Word of whose Law is:

THELEMA.”

Gnostic = esoteric knowledge of spiritual matters. Gnosis is the Greek word for Knowledge.

Catholic = True and Universal in extent, of interest to all. (The Law is for All.)

Light, Life, Love, and Liberty are also related to the four powers of the Sphinx. See Liber Aleph, chapters 151 to 154 for more information on this.

THELEMA should be a rather familiar word to us. But it is strongly suggested that we don’t accept the pat answers we found in the past. Discover new meanings and associations for this Greek word meaning WILL. It seems that this would be the first step in discovering your True Will – to discover what WILL really is.

[…]

Your attention is drawn to the choice of the word “WISDOM”. Is that not another name for CHAOS?

Father John, (n.d.). Liber XV – The Gnostic Mass (continued). Of The Ceremony Of the Introit. hermetic.com. Retrieved on 28 May 2010 from http://hermetic.com/egc/gnostics.html

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