The "Mark of the Beast"

"Unity transcends consciousness.  It is above all division.  The Father of thought - the Word - is called Chaos - the dyad.  The number Three, the Mother is called Babalon...This first triad is essential unity, in a manner transcending reason.  The comprehension of this Trinity is a matter of spiritual experience.  All true gods are attributed to this Trinity.   An immeasurable abyss divides it from all manifestations of Reason or the lower qualities of man.  In the ultimate analysis of Reason, we find all reason identified with this abyss.  Yet this abyss is the crown of the mind.  Purely intellectual faculties all obtain here.  This abyss has no number, for in it all is confusion." - Aleister Crowley in Magick in Theory and Practice (p. 2)

 

In his book The Magick of Thelema (p. 93),  Lon Milo Duquette writes:

    Crowley's published comments on Reguli are sparse, so I have been fortunate to have been allowed access to Crowley's notes and several unpublished versions of the ritual which have been helpful in writing this chapter.

    Crowley introduces Reguli as "the Ritual of the Mark of the Beast", which to a great many people, especially those who think they understand the Book of Revelation of John, has a decidedly sinister ring to it.  But, as is usually the case with the nomenclature of Thelemic Magick, the expression that evokes fear and loathing in the hearts of the profane, is revealed to the wise to be a profound and spiritually wholesome arcanum.

    To the Qabalist, the Mark of the Beast (Rev. 13:16) is the New Testament development of the Mark of Cain (Gen. 4:15), which, contrary to popular religious interpretation, is not the brand of a cursed sinner, but instead represents the radiant seal of illumination in the forehead of the Initiate.   Graphically, the Mark of the Beast is represented in its most simple form as the Sun and Moon united and, among other things, is the symbol of Babalon and the Beast conjoined, and the Great Work accomplished.

    Therefore, as...an incantation proper to invoke the Energies of Horus... the Ritual of the Mark of the Beast, if properly executed, serves to rewire the psychic body of the Magician to accommodate these higher spiritual energies.  In fact, the overt employment of the various chakras makes Reguli as much a yogic exercise as a ritual of ceremonial Magick.

Duquette further elaborates (p. 94):

    Incorporating the horizontal Paths is perhaps the most notable innovation of Reguli and sets it apart, fundamentally, from all other rituals of the Pentagram.  This is especially significant in light of the fact that Crowley maintained that the Aeon of Horus activated the Path of Teth (the horizontal Path between fifth Sephirah, Geburah, and the fourth Sephirah, Chesed) on the Universal Tree of Life.

In 777 and Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley (p. 51), Crowley writes:

    The seat of human consciousness, which is solar, pertaining to Tipereth, is in the head...

    To simplify the mark represents reflection upon existence, the Sun (the Sun is also Kether (1) ) corresponding to consciousness reflects on the Mind's Eye, or Third Eye, the Moon, ascribed to Chokmah (2) and Binah (3) collectively.  Geburah (5) and Chesed (4) relate to the two shoulders and hands.  The Book of Revelations mentions the Mark of the Beast, as well as the Name of the Father (God) as being on the forehead and right hand.  The following excerpt is from my essay The Formula of the Sun which should be studied in conjunction with this essay:

    The cross itself symbolizes the intercourse between opposites. Notice that the horizontal line or horizon of Mother Earth (blue line) is traversed, crossed by the course of the rising Sun (red line) forming a cross.  There were at least a thousand variations of the cross, including the Egyptian ankh, that pre-date the Christian Cross. "Pick up your cross and follow me a-cross the abyss!".  Because the vertical line when transcended brings one from 3 to 2 dimensions (and thence to one; Kether, from there to Zero), from duality to unity, form to formless.  And this is also how the Christians pray (the prayer is supposed to represent the transcendence of the ego, duality), but do not understand why they do it.

"In the name of the Father, the Son (the Sun), and the Holy Spirit (The Mother; Holy Indicates Hole or the Feminine principle; Zero, Nuit; Spirit corresponds to Formlessness), Amen (Om, Hmmm; the sound heard/experience just before Limitless Light)."

 

   Any one who has studied the Qabalah knows that the Tree of Life also corresponds to the body.  Kether is at the level of the head.  Chokmah and Binah at the third-eye,  Geburah and Chesed correspond to the right and left shoulders and Tipharet to the heart.  So that when we cross ourselves we are implying that we would like to transcend duality (we await the mystic wedding).  Note:  Some may place the vertical line as (Time) between Binah and Chokmah (the mind's eye being ascribed to the Moon) and the abyss (Da'ath) between these two supernals and Kether. 

    The three fingers placed together correspond to the three sephiroth - Kether (the Thumb), Chokmah(Forefinger), Binah(Middle Finger! Fuck! ;copulation with Binah is indicated. :) ).   We touch the forehead corresponding to Chokmah/Binah (Beast/Babalon in Thelemic nomenclature), then the Heart corresponding to the Sun (Son of God).  The Holy Spirit is indicated by touching the right shoulder, this vertical line between the shoulders is just below the Abyss (it is the Horizontal Line, the Horizon, Feminine principle between Formless and Form), the left shoulder corresponding to the work of the Exempt Adept that will experience the Amen or Omm when he/she transcends Duality.  The Sun (Son) takes the place of his Father (just as Horus takes the place of Osiris in the new aeon) when he transcends Duality in coupling (crossing the Vertical Line from Tipharet to Kether (individual consciousness, the sun in Tipharet is "sacrificed" in order to attain the transcendent, Kether), the Male Principle Potency is "Sacrificed" in the form of Erect Member, which gives it's Seed or Sperm to the Female during coitus) with Babalon the archetypal "Mother of the Universe", the Holy Spirit, which is depicted in Thelema as a "Great Whore" because she refuses none.  Let us not think that the symbols dirived apply to sex alone.  The sexual process is simply a reflection of higher processes on the material plane,  the act of generation being acribed to the creative act. 

 

    Anotherwords the Universe, Space has intercourse with all Individual Points of View; it does not deny any the mystical experience of Gnosis or Samadhi.  In Taoist systems Babalon is simply the Yin, while "The Beast", Therion is the Yang.  In yoga Babalon is Shakti, while Therion is Shiva.  In Grail symbolism they are the Sun and Moon or more appropriately the Invisible Sun of consciousness held in the arms of a Crescent Moon, corresponding to the two hemispheres (left and right) of the brain (the integration of the two-hemispheres), or Reflection on Existence.  These symbols are fundamental because they hold the key to the Riddle of Existence.  How anything exists in the first place or how everything came from Nothing and how it is that anyone experiences anything at all; such as one's individual self or existence (see Crowley on Existence)

Let's have a look at how this ties in with a certain meditation taught by a particular Foundation:

"Bring your attention to your right hand hanging by your side.  Simply notice it... Now, while you are being very, very aware of your hand, at the same time (and you find you can do it) become also aware of the middle of your forehead.  Now as though you were looking through the middle of your forehead, funnel your attention down your arm into your hand...Now watch the thought that tries to pull you away from being ware of you hand.  If your thoughts pull your awareness away from the present moment, bring your attention back to your hand..."  - The Meditation Exercise in How Your Mind Can Keep You Well (p. 5-7) by Roy Masters (a.k.a. Rueben Obermeister).

    Anotherwords, the "Name of the Father" or the "Mark of the Beast" or whatever you want to call it is simply attention (the Sun, consciousness) directed to the Mind's Eye (the moon).  The present moment corresponds to the Sun, who has transcend the timeline and thought, which is rooted in the Moon, the Mind's Eye.  Let's compare this to a technique taught by Rudolf Steiner (a former grandmaster of an O.T.O. lodge), in his book How To Know Higher Worlds (p.135-136) :

Once the temporary center in the head has been properly stabilized, further practice of the concentration exercises transfers it downward, into the vicinity of the larynx.  The movements and currents of the ether body then spread out from there, illuminating the soul space around us...using the currents that flow roughly parallel to the hands and whose center lies in the two-petalled lotus flower* near the eyes.  This is possible because the currents flowing from the larynx form rounded shapes, some of which flow toward the two-petalled lotus flower and thence continue as wave-like currents along the hands.

 

*[Ajna chakra or third eye.  One might refer one petal to Binah, while the other to Chokmah.  The symbol of the Grail might also be conceived as a yin/yang in the center of the forehead.  It is here that opposing thoughts and philosophies cancel out to Zero.  Likewise it is the place from which all ideas, in fact the entire universe is conceived.  This is the magic circle (unconscious mind) containing the opposites upon which the Sun, consciousness, the Magician, reflects, and imregranates or programs with ideas, bringing a Universe into manifestation.  They correspond to the pineal and pituitary - Ian Axir]

    As you sit before your computer monitor, geometric impressions entering your mind's eye, (as input through the Dualistic medium of the two eyes) with perhaps your right or left hand resting on a mouse, you might well ask if you haven't already taken the Mark.  [Somewhere in the distance I hear the echoes of the laughter of the Master Ian Axir.]

Qabalistic and Thelemic Tree of Life

Bibliography

Crowley, Aleister. Magick in Theory and Practice. Secaucus, New Jersey: Castle Books, 1991.

Duquette, Lon Milo. The Magick of Thelema. York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, 1993.

Masters, Roy. How Your Mind Can Keep You Well. Grants Pass, Oregon: Foundation of Human Understanding, 1978.

Steiner, Rudolph. How to Know Higher Worlds. Hudson, New York: Anthroposophic Press, 1994.

�2004 Ian Axir.  All Rights Reseved.