T Polyphilus (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} paradoxosalpha) wrote,@ 2009-01-04 22:40:00 |
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The Islam of To Mega Therion: Fifth Pillar
To finally complete this survey of the basic disciplines of Islam as reflected in Thelemic practice requires an examination of the hajj: the pilgrimage to Mecca, performed with the customary rites at the designated season. Muhammad is reported to have said, “Except for paradise, there is no more pleasing reward than the pilgrimage!” The word hajj is usually supposed to be derived from an Arabic term meaning “to make a circle,” and the sevenfold circumambulation (tawaf) of the cubic building of the Kaaba in the hajj ceremonies persists from an age before Islam.
The pre-Muslim hajj is a phenomenon implicitly admitted in the Qu’ran and other sources. A prior custom of nude worship was abolished in the first Islamicization of the hajj rites, in favor of the simple white ihram garb now enjoined on male Muslims for the hajj. Of course, the most important change was the shift from a polytheistic idolatry to aniconic monotheism. While secular historians might see this development as an innovation for Mecca, the Qu’ran itself insists that Muhammad restored an ancient worship that had been instituted by the Biblical patriarch Abraham (Ibrahim), who constructed the Kaaba (2:125, 22:26). Tradition further alleges that the site of the Kaaba was the location where, after Adam’s expulsion from paradise, he had worshipped God by circumambulating a tent.
For all of the significance and interest of the hajj rites around the Kaaba, the climax of the pilgrimage is the wuquf at ‘Arafa about fourteen miles away: the throng of the year’s pilgrims “standing” (wuquf) before the divine presence. These few hours—largely measured by a couple of sermons (khutbas), which could not be heard by most attendees before modern amplification technologies were available—are the fulfillment of the pilgrimage and the point at which living Muslims are considered to attain greatest proximity to God. A series of rites follows the wuquf at ‘Arafa: a night without sleep at Muzdalifa en route back to Mecca, followed by a second wuquf, the stoning of a pillar in Mina, a sacrifice of livestock, a return to Mecca for a final tawaf and ceremonies of purification, and three days in Mina with further stoning of the pillars there, which are understood to represent “Devils.”
In its spatial focus on Mecca, the hajj bears a relationship to the daily salat. But it is also viewed as related—by change of temporal scale—to the annual sawm for Ramadan. Salat punctuates the day with dedication to God, sawm punctuates the year, and the hajj punctuates an entire lifetime. Although some may repeat the pilgrimage, the obligation applies only once, and the unfree and insane are exempt. Undergoing the hajj is understood to confer spiritual maturity, and while it is seldom described as such, it constitutes the most significant initiatory experience offered by Islam as a whole.
In the system of attainment that Crowley outlined for Thelemites, he pointed to one particular experience as the essential spiritual maturation. “The Holy Guardian Angel is the Unconscious Creature Self--the Spiritual Phallus. His knowledge and conversation contributes occult puberty.” (Liber Samekh II.A.5) “It should never be forgotten for a moment that the central and essential work of the Magicians is the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.” (Magick Without Tears, p. 502) “The Supreme and Complete Ritual is therefore the Invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel; or, in the language of Mysticism, Union with God.” As the cornerstone of his system, Crowley indicated this attainment as “The Next Step, the thing which was immediately above” mankind. (Magick in Theory & Practice, pp. 11 & 20)
There are some few points of comparison one might make between the Sacred Magic as described by “Abraham the Jew” (the actual by-line of the Abra-melin text) and the hajj. Most conspicuous is the idea of undertaking an approach to God in a condition of regulated purity. Both insist on a white garment for the final phases. The Day of Consecration in which Knowledge and Conversation is attained might be compared to the wuquf at ‘Arafa, the Convocation of the Good Spirits to the return to Mecca, and the Convocation (and subjugation) of the Evil Spirits to the final days at Mina.
The differences are, of course, manifold, but many of them were mitigated in the course of Crowley’s grappling with the operation. The hajj involves travel to a specific place--understood as a veritable axis mundi; while the work from The Sacred Magic is to be undertaken at a single location “in whatever place” (with specific reference to Exodus 20:24). The hajj takes only a single season at most, even including the times of caravan travel; but The Sacred Magic demands an entire six months, to begin at Easter. The hajj is a universal component of a religion that aggressively affirms its accessibility; but The Sacred Magic cautions its possessor against communicating its method to any who might prove unworthy. Hajj pilgrims are supposed to be adults. Abraham requires the use of a child medium for the Knowledge and Conversation; Abra-melin editor and Golden Dawn chief S.L. Mathers dismissed this requirement, and Crowley seems never to have seriously considered it.
Crowley broke off his operation of 1900 in order to attend to the political schism within the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. He did not return to the aspiration until his sojourn in China of 1905. This time, he worked while traveling:
As part of Crowley’s later visionary operations in the Algerian desert in 1909, his Angel Aiwass communicated to him a reworking of the Abramelin instructions tailored to the New Aeon and Thelema. The reduced ninety-one day procedure of this “Liber VIII” actually brings the Augoeides Operation into a duration comparable to that of the hajj. In the final century of the Old Aeon, the pilgrim caravan from Cairo took about sixty days, which were then followed by the few weeks of actual hajj observances. And yet, despite the clear specifics of “Liber VIII,” Crowley wrote in “One Star in Sight”:
In the Sufi traditions, there is sometimes an apparent derogation of the hajj. Yunus Emre said,
The context in which Ibn ‘Arabi made this claim is important, in that it stands as an important pre-figuration, and even precedent, of Crowley’s Next Step as a reflection or development of the hajj in the New Aeon. In 1201 e.v., the Sufi arrived in Mecca for the first time. Not only did he engage in tawaf of the ordinary sort, but he developed a practice of visualizing the Kaaba and circling it in his "heart" (i.e. meditative imagination). In the course of this practice, the Kaaba of the heart transformed itself into a being whom Ibn ‘Arabi describes in the Futuhat (“Meccan Revelations”) as “the Evanescent Youth, the Silent Speaker, him who is neither living nor dead, the composite simple, the enveloped-enveloping.” This Mystic Youth is his eternal Companion, the Angel who has accompanied him on his peregrinations and circumambulations, and who is that Form of God “who knows and ... [is] what is known.”
(Other posts in this series...)
To finally complete this survey of the basic disciplines of Islam as reflected in Thelemic practice requires an examination of the hajj: the pilgrimage to Mecca, performed with the customary rites at the designated season. Muhammad is reported to have said, “Except for paradise, there is no more pleasing reward than the pilgrimage!” The word hajj is usually supposed to be derived from an Arabic term meaning “to make a circle,” and the sevenfold circumambulation (tawaf) of the cubic building of the Kaaba in the hajj ceremonies persists from an age before Islam.
The pre-Muslim hajj is a phenomenon implicitly admitted in the Qu’ran and other sources. A prior custom of nude worship was abolished in the first Islamicization of the hajj rites, in favor of the simple white ihram garb now enjoined on male Muslims for the hajj. Of course, the most important change was the shift from a polytheistic idolatry to aniconic monotheism. While secular historians might see this development as an innovation for Mecca, the Qu’ran itself insists that Muhammad restored an ancient worship that had been instituted by the Biblical patriarch Abraham (Ibrahim), who constructed the Kaaba (2:125, 22:26). Tradition further alleges that the site of the Kaaba was the location where, after Adam’s expulsion from paradise, he had worshipped God by circumambulating a tent.
For all of the significance and interest of the hajj rites around the Kaaba, the climax of the pilgrimage is the wuquf at ‘Arafa about fourteen miles away: the throng of the year’s pilgrims “standing” (wuquf) before the divine presence. These few hours—largely measured by a couple of sermons (khutbas), which could not be heard by most attendees before modern amplification technologies were available—are the fulfillment of the pilgrimage and the point at which living Muslims are considered to attain greatest proximity to God. A series of rites follows the wuquf at ‘Arafa: a night without sleep at Muzdalifa en route back to Mecca, followed by a second wuquf, the stoning of a pillar in Mina, a sacrifice of livestock, a return to Mecca for a final tawaf and ceremonies of purification, and three days in Mina with further stoning of the pillars there, which are understood to represent “Devils.”
In its spatial focus on Mecca, the hajj bears a relationship to the daily salat. But it is also viewed as related—by change of temporal scale—to the annual sawm for Ramadan. Salat punctuates the day with dedication to God, sawm punctuates the year, and the hajj punctuates an entire lifetime. Although some may repeat the pilgrimage, the obligation applies only once, and the unfree and insane are exempt. Undergoing the hajj is understood to confer spiritual maturity, and while it is seldom described as such, it constitutes the most significant initiatory experience offered by Islam as a whole.
In the system of attainment that Crowley outlined for Thelemites, he pointed to one particular experience as the essential spiritual maturation. “The Holy Guardian Angel is the Unconscious Creature Self--the Spiritual Phallus. His knowledge and conversation contributes occult puberty.” (Liber Samekh II.A.5) “It should never be forgotten for a moment that the central and essential work of the Magicians is the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.” (Magick Without Tears, p. 502) “The Supreme and Complete Ritual is therefore the Invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel; or, in the language of Mysticism, Union with God.” As the cornerstone of his system, Crowley indicated this attainment as “The Next Step, the thing which was immediately above” mankind. (Magick in Theory & Practice, pp. 11 & 20)
This is the essential work of every man; none other ranks with it either for personal progress or for power to help one's fellows. This unachieved, man is no more than the unhappiest and blindest of animals. He is conscious of his own incomprehensible calamity, and clumsily incapable of repairing it. Achieved, he is no less than the co-heir of gods, a Lord of Light. (One Star in Sight, pt. 10)Crowley definitely described this Next Step as a universal property of humanity, in no way novel with him, nor bound to any particular tradition. While the phrase originally derives from The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-melin the Mage, Crowley identified the “Holy Guardian Angel” with the augoeides of Iamblichus, the daimon of Socrates or the Neoplatonic genius, the Logos of ancient Gnosticism, the Adi-Buddha (as understood by Blavatsky), Vishnu in the Bhagavad-Gita, and the Jechidah of Kabbalism. He also pointed to “Adon-Ai” in Bulwer-Lytton’s novel Zanoni, and the “Vision of Adonai” recorded by Anna Kingsford, as examples of the phenomenon. In his instructions to aspirants, Crowley kept to the designation “Holy Guardian Angel,” for these professed reasons:
- Because Abramelin’s system is so simple and effective.
- Because since all theories of the universe are absurd it is better to talk in the language of one which is patently absurd, so as to mortify the metaphysical man.
- Because a child can understand it.
There are some few points of comparison one might make between the Sacred Magic as described by “Abraham the Jew” (the actual by-line of the Abra-melin text) and the hajj. Most conspicuous is the idea of undertaking an approach to God in a condition of regulated purity. Both insist on a white garment for the final phases. The Day of Consecration in which Knowledge and Conversation is attained might be compared to the wuquf at ‘Arafa, the Convocation of the Good Spirits to the return to Mecca, and the Convocation (and subjugation) of the Evil Spirits to the final days at Mina.
The differences are, of course, manifold, but many of them were mitigated in the course of Crowley’s grappling with the operation. The hajj involves travel to a specific place--understood as a veritable axis mundi; while the work from The Sacred Magic is to be undertaken at a single location “in whatever place” (with specific reference to Exodus 20:24). The hajj takes only a single season at most, even including the times of caravan travel; but The Sacred Magic demands an entire six months, to begin at Easter. The hajj is a universal component of a religion that aggressively affirms its accessibility; but The Sacred Magic cautions its possessor against communicating its method to any who might prove unworthy. Hajj pilgrims are supposed to be adults. Abraham requires the use of a child medium for the Knowledge and Conversation; Abra-melin editor and Golden Dawn chief S.L. Mathers dismissed this requirement, and Crowley seems never to have seriously considered it.
Crowley broke off his operation of 1900 in order to attend to the political schism within the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. He did not return to the aspiration until his sojourn in China of 1905. This time, he worked while traveling:
My plan was to transport the astral form of my temple at Boleskine to where I was, so as to perform the invocation in it. It was not necessary for me to stay in one place during the ceremony; I frequently carried it out while riding or walking. (Confessions, p. 518)The invocation was the Preliminary Invocation of the Goetia (so-called), which developed gradually into the form detailed in “Liber Samekh.” This practice begun in February, ceased in July of that year, without reaching the term of six months. Crowley’s third attempt at the A.'.O.'. (i.e. “Augoeides Operation,” as it most commonly appears in his diaries) started in June 1906. In August, he composed the Invocation of the Ring (i.e. “ADONAI! Thou inmost fire...”) to serve as the crowning orison of the final weeks. And on October 9, Crowley finally achieved the attainment to which he had been aspiring for nearly seven years.
As part of Crowley’s later visionary operations in the Algerian desert in 1909, his Angel Aiwass communicated to him a reworking of the Abramelin instructions tailored to the New Aeon and Thelema. The reduced ninety-one day procedure of this “Liber VIII” actually brings the Augoeides Operation into a duration comparable to that of the hajj. In the final century of the Old Aeon, the pilgrim caravan from Cairo took about sixty days, which were then followed by the few weeks of actual hajj observances. And yet, despite the clear specifics of “Liber VIII,” Crowley wrote in “One Star in Sight”:
It is impossible to lay down precise rules by which a man may attain to the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel; for that is the particular secret of each one of us; a secret not to be told or even divined by any other, whatever his Grade. It is the Holy of Holies, whereof each man is his own High Priest, and none knoweth the Name of his brother’s God, or the Rite that invokes him. (pt. 10)
In the Sufi traditions, there is sometimes an apparent derogation of the hajj. Yunus Emre said,
When you seek God, seek Him in your heartOne of the chief charges of heresy brought against the great mystical teacher Mansur al-Hallaj was that he had declared physical pilgrimage to Mecca unnecessary. Instead, since God was omnipresent and omnibenevolent, the faithful might perform modified versions of the hajj rites in their homes with the same spiritual benefit as that obtained in the Holy Places. (Hallaj protested that he had only recounted an existing tradition to be applied in cases where it was impossible for a Muslim to make the pilgrimage.) The Sufi master Ibn ‘Arabi claimed that the true Kaaba was the being of the individual Muslim.
He is not in Jerusalem, nor in Mecca nor in the hajj.
The context in which Ibn ‘Arabi made this claim is important, in that it stands as an important pre-figuration, and even precedent, of Crowley’s Next Step as a reflection or development of the hajj in the New Aeon. In 1201 e.v., the Sufi arrived in Mecca for the first time. Not only did he engage in tawaf of the ordinary sort, but he developed a practice of visualizing the Kaaba and circling it in his "heart" (i.e. meditative imagination). In the course of this practice, the Kaaba of the heart transformed itself into a being whom Ibn ‘Arabi describes in the Futuhat (“Meccan Revelations”) as “the Evanescent Youth, the Silent Speaker, him who is neither living nor dead, the composite simple, the enveloped-enveloping.” This Mystic Youth is his eternal Companion, the Angel who has accompanied him on his peregrinations and circumambulations, and who is that Form of God “who knows and ... [is] what is known.”
For his Angel is an intelligible image of his own true Will, to do which is the whole of the law of his Being.
(“Liber Samekh,” pt. III)
(Other posts in this series...)
