THE DEVIL OF A MEANING

The Baphometh (or Bafomath*) was the God of the Knights Templars, a 12th Century order of Knights disbanded on grounds of heresy. The Bafomath communicated to the Templars in the form of a disembodied voice emanating from a dismembered head. Philip K Dick, the author of A Scanner Darkly, spoke of a giant metallic head floating in the sky and following his every move. It was this experience which led him to write Valis, the story about a computerised God that had infiltrated our reality in order to restore rationality. It seems to me that Bafomath and Valis are one and the same entity. Alternatively, Bafomath might be the demiurge of the BIS, Valis' sworn enemy; although the two are hard to separate.

The Devil is often depicted as a horned-goat with wings and a human female body. In this drawing of Bafomath by Eliphas Levi we can see that the creature is a hermaphrodite, a blend of both male and female characteristics. On the Bafomath's right arm, which is raised and points to a white crescent moon, is written the word 'Solve'. On his left arm, which is lowered and points to a black crescent moon, is written the word "Coagula'. Together the words 'Solve et coagula' form the basis of the Hermetic principle of the Alchemists.

In order for the Philosopher's Stone to be created the alchemist must first dissolve a specimen of 'Prima Mater' in a crucible. Once the impurities have been removed the mixture can be allowed to coagulate once more, thus completing the Great Work. This process of dissolution and reconstitution must happen numerous times before the product can be deemed ready.

In terms of the human soul (for alchemy is often said to be as much or more about the distillation of the human spirit, as it is the making of gold from base metals) the concept of the Solve, or the universal solvent, is to break down our mental barriers and distinctions between 'us' and the world; so that we become 'One' with the Universe and its workings. When the human is returned to their former state, he/she is thus enlightened as to the nature of reality, the problems of social classes etc, etc. It is in this state that they must continue their crossing towards the further shore; the Promised Land of the Enlightened Buddhist Masters.

The Salvia Bardo, which I have spoken about in other posts, is similarly a region of dissolution and reformation. Here there is little difference between you or your neighbor, or indeed the entire experience we speak of as being 'reality'. It is the end of dreams and reality, where basic notions such as 'up' or 'down' hold no bearing; the equalizer of the opposites. But with the end of duality comes the call for its preservation; coagulation. As in the case for the twin chimney stacks of Poolbeg Power Station in Dublin City.

This need of ours to have an 'other' - that which is perceived as being separate from ourselves - was expressed in the request to preserve the now defunct Poolbeg Power Station from demolition. The twin, red and white striped chimney stacks have been an icon of Dublin, in times gone by, and a committee was formed to challenge Dublin City Council's motion to have them collapsed. This goes to show that while duality may have been vanquished, calls are made in favour of its preservation in order that life can continue in a somewhat normal fashion.

The concept that a dilapidated power station on the East coast of the Emerald Isle could have any bearing on psyche of humanity as a whole may seem 'a tad bit' erroneous, but I assure that this power station has great symbolic meaning and import, on a variety of different levels. I will be discussing these in a later post; So stay tuned.


* The actual spelling of the Baphometh was revealed by Aleister Crowley undoubtedly via numerology in the early 20th Century. The spelling 'Bafomath' is my own creation and is derived through the usage of anagrams, the meaning behind which evokes the universal solvent of the next piece.

480 Therion (LAM the Alien)

Kenneth Grant says that Aliester Crowley made contact with an extra-terrestrial lifeform, called LAM, during a group of seances known collectively as the Amanthal workings. But on closer inspection, the Amanthal transcripts reveal no mention of any entity called LAM, or any encounter that might be construed as extra-terrestrial in a nature. Clearly, Grant is mistaken in this regard.

The only evidence for the Crowley's encounter with an extra-terrestrial named LAM, comes from this drawing that is currently in Grant's possession. Crowley claimed to have sketched the mysterious figure from life, and it appears on the cover of Crowley's critique of Helena Blavatski's The Voice of Silence, along with this subtext;

THE WAY; LAM is the Tibetan for Way or Path and LAMA is He who Goeth, the specific title of the Gods of Egypt, the treader of the Path, in Buddhistic phraseology. Its numerical value is 71, the number of this book.

It seems to be stretching credulity that Crowley should associate Tibetan Buddhism with the Ancient Egyptians belief system. But when we consider it, both religions are obsessed with death and the idea of death. To this effect, both cultures possess a Book of the Dead, which are detailed manuscripts designed to help initiates navigate the realms beyond. The symbol of the lotus features prominently in Tibetan Buddhism, just as the Blue Lotus does in Egyptian ceremonial rites. And, lest we forget, the Eye of Ra and the structure of the pyramid are common archetypal manifestations of meditation, in general. Note; the Egyptian word 'ankh' means to go and is used to denote a talisman carried by Egyptian Pharaohs and God's. "He who Goeth" must therefore mean He who travel on the Path to the Land of the Dead, and never returns again - in mortal form.

Another point of interest with this image is the number 49, which appears stylistically rendered in the bottom left hand corner of Crowley's LAM drawing. A member of the now defunct website the bapists head proposed that what Crowley was referring to Fragment #49 of Helena Blavatski's text The Voice of Silence, which clearly mentions 'the Path' in relation to meditative states;

49. Thou canst not travel on the Path before thou hast become that Path itself.

I believe that Crowley is only referencing this fragment incidentally, and that the real message is something far stranger. In 1909, eight years before the above picture had even seen the light of day, Crowley embarked upon a spiritual visionary quest to open the 49 gates of Enochian Magic. This magical system is said to allow the practitioner to converse with the Angels, and was developed by Sir John Dee and Ed Kelley in the 16th Century AD. Enochian Magic is also claimed to be a fully-fledged language, and it may be of interest to note that 'LAM' in Enochi translates as the path. The Keys to these Gates were presented by the 49 magic squares in Liber Loagaeth, of which Dee had this to say;

I am therefore to instruct and inform you, according to your Doctrine delivered, which is contained in 49 Tables. In 49 voices, or callings: which are the Natural Keys to open those, not 49 but 48 (for one is not to be opened) Gates of Understanding, whereby you shall have knowledge to move every Gate…

But you shall understand that these 19 Calls are the Calls, or entrances into the knowledge of the mystical Tables. Every Table containing one whole leaf, whereunto you need no other circumstances.

The 49 Calls, in fact, only number 18, but variations of an additional call produce 30 separate Keys or Aethyrs. As you can see by this reproduction of the 30 Aethyrs, they are all words 3-letters in length;

1. LIL 6. MAZ 11. ICH 16. LEA 21. ASP 26. DES

2. ARN 7. DEO 12. LOE 17. TAN 22. LIN 27. ZAA

3. ZOM 8. ZID 13. ZIM 18. ZEN 23. TOR 28. BAG

4. PAZ 9. ZIP 14. VTA 19. POP 24. NIA 29. RII

5. LAT 10. ZAX 15. OXO 20. CHR 25. VTI 30. TEX

Crowley detailed his experiences with these 30 Aethyrs in his book Liber 418; The Vision and the Voice. The similarity between the title of this book and the title of Helena Blavatski's The Voice of Silence is to be understood, and may have been a factor in Crowley choosing that work to critique to begin with. Crowley's relationship to the angels is characterised by an aggressive stance; Crowley routinely murders the angels if they do not give him what he wants. In light of Crowley's disregard for all things forbidden, we can assume that he was also hellbent on uncovering the 49th, or forbidden key. I believe that he has revealed it in the subtext of this drawing to be; LAM.

Interestingly, LAM in the Enochian language is pronounced 'el-ah-em' - or 'elohim', the name of God. So,  according to this logic, what Crowley has depicted in his drawing is not an alien, but God himself. Well, what did you expect him to look like?

Now that we have established that the 49th Key is LAM, and that this translates to the Hebrew name for God, Elohim, we can see why it is that this piece of information is afforded such a secretive (or forbidden) position in Dee's and Kelley's magical system. But while LAM may have been the message afforded to Crowley; via the angels, I feel that there could be a different one for me personally, at least.

The distinctly mathematical nature of the Enochian Keys may have had something to do with the fact that John Dee was distinguished mathematician of his time (as well as the Queen Elizabeth's chief cryptogorapher). However, the reference to there being 48 keys to the magic squares in the Liber Loagaeth does have several bona-fide mathematical comparisons. These come in the form of, but are not limited to;

• the 48 actions available to the Order 3 magic square GL(2,3)
• the 12 groups of 48 actions available to the magic square Order 4
• the octahedral symmetries of Order 48 for both the cube and octahedron
• the 480 (48 x 10) multiplications of the Octonion PSL (2,7)

The 48 actions of GL (2,3) I feel that it is interesting to note a number of highly esoteric symbols in this group of actions, including; the swasticah, the Star of David, the Masonic Double Square and Masonic artist Matthew Barney's Field Emblem. 

If, for example, we consider each of the 48 actions of GL (2,3) as being like a separate key (or Call), we can thereby construct a 49th key by combining all of the previous 48. Such an action would serve no real world function and could, in that sense, be described as forbidden. Such an action might take this form;

This crystalline image is like a stepping-stone on the way to more elaborate higher-dimensional analogues, such as the 24-Cell; a hypercube superimposed on a hyperoctahedron. Vincent Bridges, in his video Enochian Alphabet II - The Ancient Language of Angels, discusses the possible relationship between the 24-Cell and the Round Tablet of Nalvage (another of the Enochian Tables). I arrived at similar conclusions independently, and now believe that the exact shape must be a truncated 24-Cell, as this has 192 vertices, conforming to the 192 angels of Enochian lore. More research will be needed to prove whether I am right or not, in this regard.

Proponents of the extra-terrestrial view on the origins of LAM routinely refer to a magickal rite, known as the Babylon Working. This working is said to have taken up where Crowley's efforts left off, and was performed by Jack Parson's and Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard in 1946. If true, this would mean that Scientology is the largest organisation to have inherited the Thelema, and consequently Enochian principals and values, the world has ever seen. This means that Tom Cruise, as front man for the organisation, is in a uniquely prized position, as the OT VIII; the arch-Therion, the Octonion of the Thelama; to unlock a new realm of angelic information. At age 48 he is also in the pen-ultimate phase in his existence to do so. What will July 3rd 2011 bring for Cruise, as he proceeds towards the 49th Gate or year. I, for one, choose not to speculate.