T Polyphilus (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} paradoxosalpha) wrote,@ 2007-03-28 00:02:00 |
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The Islam of To Mega Therion: Second Pillar
The second act of worship listed in the Hadith of Gabriel is salāt, “the prayer.” This Arabic term does not refer generically to occasional or spontaneous prayers of thanksgiving, imprecation, and so forth. Those prayers instead are designated as du’ā. Salāt is the required daily regimen of prayer at the five appointed times of early morning, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and evening. Observing salāt requires that the adherent be ritually pure, face a particular direction (qibla), and perform a very specific sequence of invocations, with prescribed bodily postures, along with recitals from the Quran and perhaps a du’ā or two as components of the larger salāt.
Crowley’s admiration of and interest in the practice of salāt was expressed in his poem “The Five Adorations,” published under the pen-name Dost Achiha Khan in the Autumn 1909 Equinox:
But it wasn’t until 1910 that Crowley publicly issued his basic ritual for a salāt sort of worship among Thelemites. This “Liber Resh vel Helios sub figura CC” is prescribed for aspirants and initiates of both A.'.A.'. and O.T.O. Later curricular summaries describe it as an “instruction for adoration of the Sun four times daily, with the object of composing the mind to meditation and of regularizing the practices,” and a “highly important magical ritual for daily use and work.” Resh (as I will call it here for short) differs from the Muslim salāt by requiring only four, rather than five, sessions of prayer each day. It is also--from the Muslim perspective--blasphemously polytheistic, even in the instruction to “assume the God-form of Whom thou adorest, as if thou didst unite with Him in adoration of That which is beyond Him.” Interestingly, however, Muslim sources affirm the continuity of the prayer-times of salāt with the custom of pre-Islamic Arabic paganism. The synchronization was intended to force on the earliest Muslims an exclusive choice between Muhammad’s din and that of his tribal forebears. Crowley's "Five Adorations" poem, no less than Resh, seems to tie salāt back to its origins in solar worship.
Like the Muslim salāt, Resh is tightly regulated in terms of speech, thought and physical gesture, and yet affords room for variations based on traditional instruction and individual choice. There are two general tasks that complete the Thelemic ritual, in the form of the “adoration” and “holy meditation.” The stanzas from the Stele of Revealing as paraphrased in chapter III of Liber Legis seem to have become the global default option for the “adoration,” which is, however, supposed to be “taught thee by thy Superior” among initiates. “Holy meditation” is left undefined, and Crowley’s remark about “regularizing the practices” suggests that it might consist of one of the yoga exercises from Liber E, Liber Ru, Liber HHH, or Liber Yod. But the precedent of salāt instead inclines towards the notion of reciting memorized passages from the Holy Books of Thelema.
Another important development away from the Islamic salāt is the qibla, or direction of prayer. In Islam there have been two points designated as the qibla for all worshippers. The original qibla was Jerusalem. Only after the emigration of the fledgling Muslim community from Mecca to Medina did Muhammad abrogate the Jerusalem qibla in favor of the Kaaba at Mecca. In Thelema, Liber Legis designates a qibla (“kiblah”) at “thy secret temple -- and that temple is already aright disposed,” (III:10) interpreted by Crowley as a reference to Boleskine House in Scotland, which he had owned at the time of the Writing of the Book. Yet Resh does not use Boleskine as its qibla. Instead, worshippers are to orient towards the actual physical location of the Sun. The same solar qibla obtains in the Mass of the Phoenix, a later (1913) ritual for daily use that could fulfill some functions of salāt.
Boleskine only comes to serve as a proper qibla in the Gnostic Mass (1918) and the Ritual of the Mark of the Beast (1921 at the earliest—possibly as late as 1928). Each of these latter two rituals has features that invite comparison to salāt. The Ritual of the Mark of the Beast (detailed in “Liber V vel Reguli”) is “for the daily use of a Magician of whatever grade,” and could at least serve as a perpetual observance “to invoke the Energies of the Aeon of Horus.” The Gnostic Mass is, of course, based more closely on Christian models. But it inclines towards the sort of communal worship which is expressed in Islam through the weekly Friday salāt.
Although salāt always involves individual discipline, and it can be observed in a solitary manner, salāt in groups of two or more is considered meritorious. In particular, an expanded salāt undertaken by a congregation in a designated place of prayer (“mosque,” not necessarily a building) is obligatory for Muslim men at noon on Fridays. The Gnostic Mass is firmly oriented towards the congregational setting. But Resh can also be performed in groups; it was enacted thus at Cefalu, and Crowley’s instructions for O.T.O. stipulate it:
The dual Sun/Boleskine system of qibla has continued in Thelemic practice. The two may reflect a deliberate design, emphasizing both distinction and correspondence between the “Lord visible and sensible” and the “Lord secret and most holy.” The Boleskine qibla, as an edifice on the Earth’s surface, most closely resembles the Muslim ritual orientation toward the Kaaba. In mosques, it is customary to mark the qibla with a niche called a mihrāb. Thelemic temples, following the indication of the ritual of the Gnostic Mass in Liber XV, may use a copy of the Stele of Revealing as a Thelemic mihrāb.
- other posts in this series
- essay by NGMG Sabazius X° on the Boleskine kiblah
The second act of worship listed in the Hadith of Gabriel is salāt, “the prayer.” This Arabic term does not refer generically to occasional or spontaneous prayers of thanksgiving, imprecation, and so forth. Those prayers instead are designated as du’ā. Salāt is the required daily regimen of prayer at the five appointed times of early morning, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and evening. Observing salāt requires that the adherent be ritually pure, face a particular direction (qibla), and perform a very specific sequence of invocations, with prescribed bodily postures, along with recitals from the Quran and perhaps a du’ā or two as components of the larger salāt.
Crowley’s admiration of and interest in the practice of salāt was expressed in his poem “The Five Adorations,” published under the pen-name Dost Achiha Khan in the Autumn 1909 Equinox:
I PRAISE Thee, God, whose rays upstart beneath the Bright and Morning Star:Although an electronically-propagated editorial note by Br. WEH implies that the first line of each couplet is a “translation” of the second, I think the couplet form indicates that the lines are complements rather than equivalents. A reasonably literal translation of the Arabic lines would be “I intend to perform the obligatory morning (or other time of day, varied in each stanza) prayer; God is great.” This compound Arabic expression uses a conventional formula for niyya (“intention”), one of the preliminary components of any formal act of worship in Islam, including salāt. The niyya for salāt is ordinarily said softly to oneself. Then comes the taqbīr ("allahu akbar"), immediately before the salāt proper, which commences with a recital of the opening sura of the Quran.
Nowit asali fardh salat assobhi allahu akbar.
I praise Thee, God, the fierce and swart; at noon Thou ridest forth to war!
Nowit asali fardh salat assohri allahu akbar.
I praise Thee, God, whose arrows dart their royal radiance o'er the scar:
Nowit asali fardh salat asasri allahu akbar.
I praise Thee, God, whose fires depart, who drivest down the sky thy car:
Nowit asali fardh salat al maghrab allahu akbar.
I praise Thee, God, whose purple heart is hidden in the abyss afar:
Nowit asali fardh salat al asha allahu akbar.
But it wasn’t until 1910 that Crowley publicly issued his basic ritual for a salāt sort of worship among Thelemites. This “Liber Resh vel Helios sub figura CC” is prescribed for aspirants and initiates of both A.'.A.'. and O.T.O. Later curricular summaries describe it as an “instruction for adoration of the Sun four times daily, with the object of composing the mind to meditation and of regularizing the practices,” and a “highly important magical ritual for daily use and work.” Resh (as I will call it here for short) differs from the Muslim salāt by requiring only four, rather than five, sessions of prayer each day. It is also--from the Muslim perspective--blasphemously polytheistic, even in the instruction to “assume the God-form of Whom thou adorest, as if thou didst unite with Him in adoration of That which is beyond Him.” Interestingly, however, Muslim sources affirm the continuity of the prayer-times of salāt with the custom of pre-Islamic Arabic paganism. The synchronization was intended to force on the earliest Muslims an exclusive choice between Muhammad’s din and that of his tribal forebears. Crowley's "Five Adorations" poem, no less than Resh, seems to tie salāt back to its origins in solar worship.
Like the Muslim salāt, Resh is tightly regulated in terms of speech, thought and physical gesture, and yet affords room for variations based on traditional instruction and individual choice. There are two general tasks that complete the Thelemic ritual, in the form of the “adoration” and “holy meditation.” The stanzas from the Stele of Revealing as paraphrased in chapter III of Liber Legis seem to have become the global default option for the “adoration,” which is, however, supposed to be “taught thee by thy Superior” among initiates. “Holy meditation” is left undefined, and Crowley’s remark about “regularizing the practices” suggests that it might consist of one of the yoga exercises from Liber E, Liber Ru, Liber HHH, or Liber Yod. But the precedent of salāt instead inclines towards the notion of reciting memorized passages from the Holy Books of Thelema.
Another important development away from the Islamic salāt is the qibla, or direction of prayer. In Islam there have been two points designated as the qibla for all worshippers. The original qibla was Jerusalem. Only after the emigration of the fledgling Muslim community from Mecca to Medina did Muhammad abrogate the Jerusalem qibla in favor of the Kaaba at Mecca. In Thelema, Liber Legis designates a qibla (“kiblah”) at “thy secret temple -- and that temple is already aright disposed,” (III:10) interpreted by Crowley as a reference to Boleskine House in Scotland, which he had owned at the time of the Writing of the Book. Yet Resh does not use Boleskine as its qibla. Instead, worshippers are to orient towards the actual physical location of the Sun. The same solar qibla obtains in the Mass of the Phoenix, a later (1913) ritual for daily use that could fulfill some functions of salāt.
Boleskine only comes to serve as a proper qibla in the Gnostic Mass (1918) and the Ritual of the Mark of the Beast (1921 at the earliest—possibly as late as 1928). Each of these latter two rituals has features that invite comparison to salāt. The Ritual of the Mark of the Beast (detailed in “Liber V vel Reguli”) is “for the daily use of a Magician of whatever grade,” and could at least serve as a perpetual observance “to invoke the Energies of the Aeon of Horus.” The Gnostic Mass is, of course, based more closely on Christian models. But it inclines towards the sort of communal worship which is expressed in Islam through the weekly Friday salāt.
Although salāt always involves individual discipline, and it can be observed in a solitary manner, salāt in groups of two or more is considered meritorious. In particular, an expanded salāt undertaken by a congregation in a designated place of prayer (“mosque,” not necessarily a building) is obligatory for Muslim men at noon on Fridays. The Gnostic Mass is firmly oriented towards the congregational setting. But Resh can also be performed in groups; it was enacted thus at Cefalu, and Crowley’s instructions for O.T.O. stipulate it:
All residents in the Profess-Houses of the Order are formally bound to perform the four daily Salutations to the Sun as prescribed in Liber CC. The exception is, when actually engaged in a ceremony approved by the Order, such as initiation, invocation, or meditation.Both the Mass of the Phoenix and the Ritual of the Mark of the Beast had variant forms for group use. The Mass of the Phoenix congregational version, called the “Ritual Ordained for Public Service,” also included preaching, which--under the designation khutba--forms such an important element in the Friday salāt.
The dual Sun/Boleskine system of qibla has continued in Thelemic practice. The two may reflect a deliberate design, emphasizing both distinction and correspondence between the “Lord visible and sensible” and the “Lord secret and most holy.” The Boleskine qibla, as an edifice on the Earth’s surface, most closely resembles the Muslim ritual orientation toward the Kaaba. In mosques, it is customary to mark the qibla with a niche called a mihrāb. Thelemic temples, following the indication of the ritual of the Gnostic Mass in Liber XV, may use a copy of the Stele of Revealing as a Thelemic mihrāb.
- other posts in this series
- essay by NGMG Sabazius X° on the Boleskine kiblah
