Thelema Category:Thelema
Core topics
The Book of the Law Aleister Crowley True Will 93 Magick
Mysticism
Thelemic mysticism Great Work Holy Guardian Angel The Gnostic Mass
Thelemic texts
Works of Crowley Holy Books of Thelema Thelemite texts
Organizations
A∴A∴ Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (EGC) Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) The Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn (OSOGD) Typhonian Order (TO)
Deities
Nuit Hadit Horus Babalon Chaos Baphomet Choronzon Ankh-f-n-khonsu Aiwass Ma'at
Related topics
Stele of Revealing Abrahadabra Unicursal hexagram Abramelin oil Thoth tarot deck
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Aiwass^{[pronunciation?]} is the name given to a voice that English occultist Aleister Crowley claimed to have heard on April 8, 9, and 10 in 1904. Crowley claimed that this voice, which he considered originated with a discarnate intelligence, dictated The Book of the Law (or Liber Legis) to him.

The dictation[edit]

According to Crowley, the first appearance of Aiwass was during the Three Days of the writing of Liber al vel Legis. His first and only identification as such is in Chapter I: "Behold! it is revealed by Aiwass the minister of Hoor-paar-kraat" (AL I:7).^[1]

Hoor-paar-kraat (Egyptian: Har-par-khered) is more commonly referred to by the Greek transliteration Harpocrates, meaning "Horus the Child", whom Crowley considered to be the central deity within the Thelemic cosmology (see: Aeon of Horus). However, Harpocrates also represents the Higher Self, the Holy Guardian Angel.

In late Greek mythology as developed in Ptolemaic Alexandria, Harpocrates (Ancient Greek:Ἁρποκράτης) is the god of silence. Harpocrates was adapted by the Greeks from the Egyptian child godHorus. To the ancient Egyptians, Horus represented the newborn Sun, rising each day at dawn. When theGreeks conquered Egypt under Alexander the Great, they transformed the Egyptian Horus into theirHellenistic god known as Harpocrates, a rendering from Egyptian Har-pa-khered or Heru-pa-khered(meaning "Horus the Child").

Crowley described the encounter in detail in The Equinox of the Gods, saying:

The Voice of Aiwass came apparently from over my left shoulder, from the furthest corner of the room. It seemed to echo itself in my physical heart in a very strange manner, hard to describe. I have noticed a similar phenomenon when I have been waiting for a message fraught with great hope or dread. The voice was passionately poured, as if Aiwass were alert about the time- limit ... The voice was of deep timbre, musical and expressive, its tones solemn, voluptuous, tender, fierce or aught else as suited the moods of the message. Not bass – perhaps a rich tenor or baritone. The English was free of either native or foreign accent, perfectly pure of local or caste mannerisms, thus startling and even uncanny at first hearing. I had a strong impression that the speaker was actually in the corner where he seemed to be, in a body of "fine matter," transparent as a veil of gauze, or a cloud of incense-smoke. He seemed to be a tall, dark man in his thirties, well-knit, active and strong, with the face of a savage king, and eyes veiled lest their gaze should destroy what they saw. The dress was not Arab; it suggested Assyria or Persia, but very vaguely. I took little note of it, for to me at that time Aiwass was an "angel" such as I had often seen in visions, a being purely astral.^[3]

In the later-written Liber 418, the voice of the 8th Aethyr says "my name is called Aiwass," and "in The Book of the Law did I write the secrets of truth that are like unto a star and a snake and a sword." Crowley says this later manifestation took the form of a pyramid of light.

Identity[edit]

Crowley went to great pains to argue that Aiwass was an objectively separate being from himself, possessing far more knowledge than he or any other human could possibly have. He wrote "no forger could have prepared so complex a set of numerical and literal puzzles".^[4] As Crowley writes in his Confessions: "I was bound to admit that Aiwass had shown a knowledge of the Cabbala immeasurably superior to my own"^[5] and "We are forced to conclude that the author of The Book of the Law is an intelligence both alien and superior to myself, yet acquainted with my inmost secrets; and, most important point of all, that this intelligence is discarnate."^[6]Finally, this excerpt (also from Confessions, ch.49):

Babalon
Mother of Abominations
Seal of Babalon
Consort	Chaos

Babalon (also known as the Scarlet Woman, Great Mother or Mother of Abominations) is a goddess found in the mystical system of Thelema, which was established in 1904 with English author and occultist Aleister Crowley's writing of The Book of the Law (although the name Babalon does not occur in that text). In her most abstract form, she represents the female sexual impulse and the liberated woman; although in the Creed of the Gnostic Mass she is also identified with Mother Earth, in her most fertile sense.^[1] At the same time, Crowley believed that Babalon had an earthly aspect in the form of a spiritual office, which could be filled by actual women—usually as a counterpart to his own identification as "To Mega Therion" (The Great Beast)—whose duty was then to help manifest the energies of the current Aeon of Horus.

Her consort is Chaos, the "Father of Life" and the male form of the Creative Principle. Babalon is often described as being girt with a sword  and riding the Beast. She is often referred to as a sacred whore, and her primary symbol is the Chalice or Graal.

As Crowley wrote in his The Book of Thoth, "she rides astride the Beast; in her left hand she holds the reins, representing the passion which unites them. In her right she holds aloft the cup, the Holy Grail aflame with love and death. In this cup are mingled the elements of the sacrament of the Aeon".

Regular heptagram
Regular {7/2} heptagram
Edges andvertices	7
Schläfli symbol	{7/2}, {7/3}
Coxeter diagram	,
Symmetry group	Dihedral (D7)
Properties	star, cyclic, equilateral,isogonal, isotoxal

A heptagram, septagram, or septegram is a seven-pointed star drawn with seven straight strokes.

Geometry[edit]

In general, a heptagram is any self-intersecting heptagon (7-sided polygon).

There are two regular heptagrams, labeled as {7/2} and {7/3}, with the second number representing the vertex interval step from a regular heptagram, {7/1}.

This is the smallest star polygon that can be drawn in two forms, as irreducible fractions. The two heptagrams are sometimes called theheptagram (for {7/2}) and the great heptagram (for {7/3}).

The previous one, the regular hexagram {6/2}, is a compound of two triangles. The smallest star polygon is the {5/2} pentagram.

The next one is the {8/3} octagram, followed by the regular enneagram, which also has two forms: {9/2} and {9/4}, as well as one compound of 3 triangles {9/3}.

First heptagram {7/2}	Second heptagram {7/3}	Both heptagrams inscribed within a heptagon
Heptagrammic prism (7/2)	Heptagrammic prism (7/3)

Religious/occult symbolism[edit]

• The heptagram was used in Christianity to symbolize the seven days of creation and became a traditional symbol for warding off evil.
• The heptagram is also the symbol of perfection (or God) in many Christian religions.
• The heptagram is used in the symbol for Babalon in Thelema.
• The heptagram is known among neo-Pagans as the Elven Star or Fairy Star. It is treated as a sacred symbol in various modern Pagan and witchcraft traditions. Similarly, it has been adopted as an identifier by some members of the Otherkin subculture. Blue Star Wicca also uses the symbol, where it is referred to as a septegram. The second heptagram is also a symbol of magical power in some Pagan religions.

• In alchemy, a seven-sided star can refer to the seven planets which were known to ancient alchemists.
• In George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, the dominant religion of Westeros follows The Seven, whose symbol is described as a seven-pointed star.

http://lib.oto-usa.org/libri/liber0220.html