Remember that the Essence of the Ancients is in All Things, but that the Essence of the Elders is in All Things That Live.

This will prove of [perfect] value to you when the time comes.

“Simon Peter” Levenda’s introduction to the Necronomicon discusses the dichotomy of Light and Darkness in detail, reframing the ancient dualism of the Iryan prohet Zoroaster and his Magic religion into a previously unrecognized sense of meaning that was kept secret and esoteric for thousands of years out of a fear of its abuse.

The gnosis we gain as tantric gatewalkers, progressively empowering ourselves and our lives through making our way through the Macro/Microcosm of Above/Below and opening the 7 seals of Sacred Revelation, explicates in our inner and outer beings the true nature of the Sacred Dichotomy. The essence of the Holy/Unholy Number 2 is represented in Sacred Geometry by the figure of the Vesica Pisces: The Fish’s Bladder. This symbol is well known and recognized throughout the world as an emblem of Christ and the Spirit of the Age of Pisces, but it predates the birth of Jesus by tens of thousands of years, having only been made widely known through the mechanism of the Christian Community/Communion, and its ministry to the polytheist world of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa:

The German philosopher and theologian Friedrich Nietzsche, who studied Zoroastrianism in depth, concluded in his seminal work Thus Spake Zarathustra that the origin of our western’s world’s spiritual schizophrenia, and all the violence, destruction, evil, and suffering perpetuated through it, originated in the ancient divisive creed on which sacramental, sacerdotal religion what founded: Disunity of Soul and Spirit. In Sumerian legend, this perception of division began with the birth of Dingir/Metatron EL-LIL, who Practical Qabalists call “The Sword of Moses”, and whom a famous and powerful medieval grimoire of the same name describes and outlines. Enlil’s birth heralded the birth of abstract, conscientious thought (The 7th Biocircuit/Chakra-Dimension), which was the natural result of the emergence of Light (Unconditional Love and Consciousness) from Darkness (Fear, Anger, Hate, Rage, and general Unconsciousness of the Truth). The Division by the Sword — the inevitable result of the birth and establishment of the Elders, who are called the Children of Anshar, or “the People of Limitless Light” (Ayn Sof Or in Qabalah) is only a transitory phase in the evolution of our universe. Inculcated into the age that resulted from this division, we all played Marduk’s role at one point: entranced and enchanted by our own inner power and ability, we cut off half of Life’s manifestation from our lives, and we all went mad because of it. The Necronomicon, the Book of the Dead of Space-Time-Matter, is the Qaaba of Islam through which every human being revolves through the course of the vicious cycles of life that we indulge in through our egoistic separation/sin of ourselves from each other.

The dark Arab mystic who speaks to us in the Necronomicon is not only trying to escape the Hellfire of material illusion himself, but he is trying to lead us out as well in the process — just as Ishtar led demons out of EreshKiGal/Hel’s domain when she herself ascended from the Underworld she desired to conquer, becoming Queen of Hell as the archdemon “Ashtaroth” in the process. The Book of Abramelin, a book of Sacred, Holy, Angelic Magic which is basically the white counterpart to the Necronomicon, warns that unless a person places their faith in the Absolute Reality (poorly represented in monotheism by the word and concept “G-o-d”), then the mage will either go insane or become an agent of evil and the devil. Unlike the self-destructive Abdul “Al-Hazred” Ben-Martu of Lovecraft, or the damnable Dr. Faust of Germany, the “Mad Arab” does not want to abandon himself to demons and be publicly torn apart for dark allegiance. The Mad Arab’s teaching, which he “received on the planes of the Igigi”, occupies the gray realm of Ea Enki’s watery wisdom that exists between the Black Magic of the Ancients (the magic of Death) and the White Magic of the Elders (the Magic, or Miracle, of Life).

The culmination and mastery of the Necronomicon comes through movement out of the “fencepost” of grey magic and polytheist wisdom, into the Empyrean, Eternal Fire of Unconditional Love: the Holy, Holistic, transcendent Gnosis of Eternal Life, Love and Truth, which is variously callled Christ, Tao, or simply “The Way”

Enlil’s arrival in our collective consciousness was the arrival of the Sword of Discernment; Enlil was, and remains, the guardian Dingir of the Tree of Knowledge, of which the dichotomy of Good and Evil is a natural perception, gained when one becomes a Person of Knowledge and eats of The Illusory Tree, which humankind was warned not to eat from “lest you die”.

Knowledge, however, is in itself the Sleeping Abyss of the Rivers of Paradise, of which Ia Yawe Raziel– Enki, the Lord of Water and Earth — has been custodian ever since he first put the Absu to sleep by means of his masterful, crystalline magic. In the Book of Enoch, the prophet Hanoch is given a vision by God and the angels of 2 Throne rooms of Power in Heaven and Earth. The first room and throne shown to Enoch is made up entirely of ice, while the second abides in a continual fire. The angels explain that the Igigi/Watchers found their power in the crystalline, cold, icy sphere of their own limited wisdom, which led to them becoming “cruel celestial spirits” who manipulated the very species of humanity whom they were originally sent to uplift. The Vision of Ice represents the Crystalline Sphere of Enki, which contains the Total Imagination of all the Universe, and which exists as a perfect Hologram that is interpenetrated by the Spirit of Life and which reflects, albeit dimly, the Eternal Fire of Yawe Elohim: the Ancient of Days.The second throneroom, however, is lit up continually with the Fire of Love, which constantly recreates and renews all things in the spirit of the Purest Being (Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh). Norse mythology, which features extensive lore on the Asuras, Vanir, and other giants, also relies heavily on the mythos of Fire and Ice to explain the process, nature, and history of creation.

The Eternal Fire is Heavenly Paradise (The Orchard of Life and its Tree) to those who love it, and Hellish damnation to those who fear it. The Watchers/Igigi  feared God immensely, being immature spirits themselves who were still learning the nature of God through their interactions with Creation and its inhabitants. This wasn’t a bad thing in itself: Jewish tradition teaches that although it is widely disparaged today, “the Fear of Lord Yawe is the Beginning of Wisdom”. However, despite their wise, reverential respect as a whole, the Watchers did not hold a perfect Love of The Universal Unity, which transcends fear in the truth that God is not only the only thing there is to fear (Being the Only Reality of the 1), but that He/She/It prefers Love to fear, and casts out fear perfectly with the Revelation of True Fire.

A Sacred Fire of Agni/Gibil

The Watchers that followed Shaitan Azazel (later to be known as Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel, after his restoration) and Shemyaza the Enchanter/Rootworker, abandoned their sacred obligations and lives as Angels of God to pursue the illusions of the Material Plane. After they abused their power to the point that humanity was on the verge of genocide, placing all manner of harmful weapons into a childish race unready to wield such dangerous knowledge and tools, they were condemned and rounded up by the 4 Archangels of the DurAnKia: the Covenant of Heaven and Earth that formed the administrative Council of the Elder Anunaki. By means of white art, the reprobate watchers were bound, defeated, and spiritually sealed within the depths of the Earth and humanity’s collective underbelly, where losing their material and even angelic bodies, they became Lords of Hell. The new arch-demons, the Grigori, would have to come, over a 70 generation sentence, to a realization of the extent of the damage they had caused, and the trauma they inflicted on infant humanity through their rash, cruel, and ultimately selfish actions in manipulating them for their own ends. Nonetheless, the 70 generations are now coming to a close, and the rehabilitation of the fallen Igigi is nearing completion. Both Melek Taus and Shemyaza have, in the past century, reemerged as compassionate beings of light and power that have abandoned their former folly and now seek to liberate those who fell into the same traps. The ritual and careful raising of the Leviat`an Cthulhu in the world at large today is the “Dragon’s Head” of a power that has been buried and repressed within the Earth for ages, and now comes back to uplift the race it once defiled, by reuniting Heaven and Earth, Absu and Tiamat, once more. Forgiveness of the demons of old by our species as a whole is a central aspect of this healing process: a process that has been going on quietly and loudly since the end of the last Ice Age, and will complete with the translation of humanity from an absolutist, bipolar morality to the Joy of Spiritual Unity that comes from communion with the Wholeness of Being.

The outer teachings of Prophet Zoroaster, which also form the exoteric atreum/porch knowledge of both Manicheanism and Christianity, postulate an epic, seemingly eternal cosmic battle between the Asura Mazda, the Good God of Light, and the Ahngra Mainyu, the Evil Force of Spiritual Darkness. In his classic work “Beyond Good and Evil”, Nietzsche asserts that for our collective civilization to free itself from painful error, internal division, and the neurosis of spiritual warfare, we must stop slaying the unholy dragon of our physical natures and sexuality, and instead adopt the stance of power through reintegration and transcendence of the spiritual forces and principles embodied by the terminology and creeds of BOTH the religious “good” and the atheist, luciferian, or satanic “evil”. Aleister Crowley embodied this paradox and its transcendence in his own life, and the religion of Thelema that he founded continues to assert the primacy of our free will as human beings to choose either the easy path or the hard path according to our own soul’s impulses.

***

Monotheism, understood in an exoteric sense, appears to be the absolute domination of a singular, all-powerful, presumably male God Lord over a creation that is slave to his whims. However, this is only the most primitive form of monotheism, which was taught by the prophet Moses in the midst of an emergency crisis that concerned the life, death, and freedom of not only an entire people, but an entire religion. Egyptian persecution of the Israelim, especially by the Cult of Ra (which is still today the Hebrew word for “evil”) threatened to wipe the critical and necessary iconoclasm of the monotheist revolution off the face of our planet. The old dingir and neter dynasties, descended from Grigori intermarriage and what may be considered “inter-species breeding”,  had used their spiritual power mainly, if not only, to dominate and control the average, common people which they saw as “inferior” to their “divine bloodlines”. Moses took many extreme and questionable measures in his ministry, but he was a prophet who loved his people intensely, and fought to make sure that a collective race of monotheist priests would successfully emerge, and survive as a challenge to the endless national wars and empires of the then-current polytheistic religions and nations. Employing the Leviathan himself, Moses’ serpent power “swallowed up the Serpents of the Egyptians” into a unifying, integrative practice that took power out of the hands of the ‘gods’ and placed it into the hands of those who subscribed to “the Law of the Divine Covenant”. As Enlil was once acknowledged as Anu’s “Lord of the Command/Mitzvah”, and a voice of authority on Earth, Moses became a human replacement for the former Metatron, instituting a code that ritually separated Israel from the unholiness of the polytheist nations, and which subscribed to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaQodesh) as the salvation of humanity from the horrors of idolatry.

Through Moses, every member of the nation of Israel (and Judah) inherited the ancient worship, priesthood, and mission of not only the High Priest Melchizedek of Salem, teacher of the monotheist patriarch Abraham, but also the legacy of both Enlil/Ellil, the Metatron and High Priest of Nibiru, and their own eponymous ancestor who founded Enlil’s ancient, great city of the Mountain House Temple (E-Kur): the City of Nippur/Nebiru

The civilizing  ancestor of Nippur, himself of the humble, wandering Semites of Eastern Mesopotamia, was Eber, from whom the word for the Israeli language — Ivrit or “Hebrew” — arises etymologically. Nibiru/Hebrew/Ivrit literally means “the Crossing”, and the Spirit of the 50 that carries this name is the spirit of a traveling people which found itself at a crossroads junction of historical revolution, and who became, through sanctification, the carriers and messengers of the Revolution of One God, and One Humanity as a perfect Image of God’s Unity in the world. In truth, esoteric monotheism does not believe so much in one “god” per se,  in the sense of a supernatural or supreme being, as it holds to the primeval Unitythat sees no distinction between Heaven and Earth, Male and Female, Creator and Created, and Holy and “Unholy”. To the mystic, All is God, and there is nothing that God is not. Any appearance to the contrary is merely an illusion, and “sin” is nothing more than acting under the influence of such illusion, which naturally brings its own punishment.

The worship of the One God of Truth, Light, and the Way of all things is far more ancient than Moses and the Israelim, having been expounded and taught by Zoroaster, as well as the Rebel of the Pharaoh House of Egypt: the reformer Akhenaton. Akhenaton’s rejection of the powerful and tyrannic monopoly of the High Priesthood of Ra, who lorded themselves over common Egyptians and kept the Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth to themselves, was only the first, if ill-fated, event in a systematic exodus from polytheism, which  culminated in the Israeli flight from the slavery of Ra-meses under Ya-moses and the other Egyptian emperors that persecuted them as “dangerous, subversive shepherds” whom they feared would side with their enemies against them. Incidentally, the first Christians were similarly persecuted by polytheistic Greco-Romans as “cruel, barbaric atheists, who drink baby’s blood and advocate the overthrow of the fatherland”.

Its easy to see from the way that history repeats itself that demonization is an old story when it comes to spiritual/religious revolutions, and the often unnerving, upheavals of mass change within historic human consciousness. The angels of yesterday have become the demons of today, and the demons of yesterday have emerged as angels for a new minority. Yet the reality of One God, which both the Urillia Text and the Scroll of Isaiah call “The Ancient of Days”, is beyond all such divisions. As William Blake taught at the conclusion of his controversial yet stirringly beautiful Marriage of Heaven and Hell,

“Everything that Lives is Holy”.

Blake’s work, which was a major inspiration for both Aleister Crowley, Kenneth Grant, and possibly even H.P. Lovecraft, revealed that Life itself does not regard the artificial division between Spirit and Matter, Good and Evil, Elders and Ancients, that we all, to some extent, adopted in the course of our particular religious upbringings. Yet the religions we’ve inherited in today’s world are not wholly without purpose or benefit. When approached with a spirit of discernment, they teach how the “Right” Belief (Orthodoxy), the “Universal” approach (Catholicism), and “Submission” to the Will of God Within Us (both Thelema AND Islam) are “gentle yokes” (yogas) that will work well, effectively, and easily for most human beings striving to live spiritual lives in the Light of Life.

The practices of the RHP work to enlighten and uplift effectively in not only 90% of situations, but for 90% of humanity. A true master of the Necronomicon, therefore, should learn to speak the Holy, Religious Language of Angels just as well as the Unholy, Rebel Language of Demons (and even the confusing, mishmash language of the mad people caught between them). Yet, we can consider the term “unholy” to be not an indicator of a separate evil, dualistic power in competition with the Holy forces of creation (“as if there were 2 separate powers, God forbid!”), but rather as merely a more grounded power that lacks cosmic orientation in itself and is far more easy to manipulate to evil ends than to lift up for good ends.

Perhaps “non-holy” would be a better moniker: the Serpent Power of the Earth is known to Easterners as “Yin”, and similar to Western opinions, is believed to be the Feminine Power of the Earth Goddess of SpaceTime that requires cooperation from the “Yang” energy of the Heaven Father to be used effectively. In the East, as in the West, it is held that the positive polarity of Heaven energy (embodied in the penetrative genitalia of men) can be used, for a variety of spiritual ends, both safely and effectively on its own. Perhaps this is because Heaven energy, as the energy of “Above”, naturally reflects itself into the more limited if solid energy of “Below”, and unconsciously strives to lead as the aspect of creative energy that impregnates, infuses, and flows outward or downward. While I do not consider women or female sexuality or spirituality inferior in the slightest, I don’t know if the negative polarity of Earth energy (which manifests in the more passive genitalia of women) is held to be as “user-friendly” on its own. It is not that women, yin, or the Earth Goddess are evil, but rather that the negative energy polarity is of a receptive nature that naturally follows the positive lead of yang energy. Symbolically, I believe this is why  men traditionally lead in a dance. I recognize fully, however, that making blanket statements about men or women is counterproductive (especially coming from a gay guy in a patriarchal culture). I would be very interested to hear from the ladies about their perspective on these energies. Patriarchy has traditionally considered women to be more susceptible to sorcery than men — I don’t know if this is just plain old ignorance and prejudice or if it might reflect a closer relationship between women and the Earth that naturally expresses itself magically.

The Magic of Pope Alexander VI relates the following caption alongside the “Crowned Serpent Seal” pictured at the top of this post:

“On the reverse side of the picture of Moses (or rather on the first leaf, according to Oriental reckoning) appears the elevated, winding and crowned serpent, holding a ring in her teeth.
Around the serpent may be seen the moon, the stars, planets, water and many other magic hieroglyphic signs.

On the left side of the tail may be seen seven nails; on the right side are magical hieroglyphs (forming) the name of Shem Ha-Mephorash, to see [and display] Jesus Christ with the Cross.

That is to say:
‘Jesus Christ — through his Love — and by his 7 wounds, and through his death on the cross, for his Love’s sake, has overcome the kingdoms of this world.

Thus (he) took again from the Old Serpent — the Devil — the Seal-Ring of Human Omnipotence — the Happiness of Man to all the Eternal Eternities–
in order to fulfill the Old Covenant in the New Covenant, for the Eternal Glorification of the Eternal Father in the Eternal Son, through the Eternal Spirit.

What’s interesting about the serpent image is that apparently it was designed to be complemented by the image of Moses and the Holy Spirit dove. Look closely at both images, and you will see that the Seal Ring of Our Omnipotence is held in BOTH the mouths of the Serpent AND the Dove, which suggests their interdependence:

“Moses appears… in a simple priestly garb, holding the Tree of Life, which has (5) leaves in the Right Hand, and the Ram’s Horn in the Left.

Upon his heart rests the cross; a wide, white band flows over his shoulder and breast, a broad, white girdle graces his loins. He stands upon a kind of (plateau), which is decorated with three flowers.

On the right hand of the (platte) reposes a Dove, having a ring in her bill; on the left side and over the head of Moses, a threefold tripod with magical hieroglyphs (written) thereon rises upward.

Upon the Leaves of the Tree of Life, (given for the healing of all nations) you (can) read the words:

‘Besulo! Bedunim! Labatel!’

That is: ‘if you are not pure, or if you do not become pure as a virgin, through the two angels Bedunim and Lebatel, you cannot reach toward the Tree of Life.”

The “sinister” (literally, left-hand) path of the minority only works for 10% of the population of spiritual seekers; symbolically, only about 10% of human beings are left handed (or, from another viewpoint, only 10% of people have alternative sexual desires). However, neither side of the “War in Heaven”  is elite or superior to the other, and the severing and condemnation of the serpent has done as much harm to the “holy” believers of religion (who are themselves, in the final analysis, practitioners of White Magic), as it has to us who have walked the dark path amidst the “unholy abominations”. Yet, nothing, in the absolute, is truly or essentially abominable. The Ancient Essence of All Things is amoral or even terrifying by conventional understandings though, because Serpent magic is so powerful in its potential to cause amazing physical effects in the world. Because we can do so much damage to ourselves, others, and the world by opening the Gate of Chaos carelessly, we are urged in the course of our paths to master the Light of Life and the Elders before beginning potentially dangerous wrestling matches with the most primeval Energy of the Universe, which Human Reason (and Religion, according to Blake) has spent so much energy warning us about — even if most people today have forgotten what was so dangerous in the first place. The warnings have been made by Holy people, both men and women of every background, to make sure that we respect and use the Fire of the Earth ethically and responsibly. Within the Trance of Universal Power evoked through the raising of the serpent energy of kundalini, it is entirely possible to let our egos get the best of us, and to experience any and all of our desires as “God’s Will”, leading to an egomaniac disregard for our fellow human beings. “First do no harm”, as Hippocrates taught, and should we try to use the serpent power to harm, it will surely rend us to pieces in the public square of humanity. By releasing our need for personal glorification, which only emerges from the illusory worldview anyway, we ensure that the Serpent is lifted up for the good of our entire species, and can even make history in the process.

Simon Peter, our editor,  found meaning in his Melchizedek ordination as a Priest of God Most High, by taking on the spiritual power of the eponymous founder and leader of the exoteric Roman church, Saint Simon “Peter” (“the Rock”, as Jesus nicknamed him).  Simon explains in his writing that through the mythos of Marduk and Tiamat, and the Elder and Ancient Powers of Creation that followed each of them accordingly, we can come to understand that the victory of Light over Darkness is not an absolute victory, but a tentative victory based on the ability of humankind to work together as a single civilization and species. Should we fail to unify the ancient dualism of holy/unholy, we will fail to advance as a species.

Just remember that angels are a lot safer to call than demons.

Love is the Law; Love under Will!

Nor let the fools mistake Love! For there are “Love” and “Love”.

There is the Dove, and there is the Serpent.

Choose ye well!

— Aleister Crowley