Aleister Crowley on the Anti-Christ (Part I)

Introduction

So we can all be on the same page here (well kind of) I did some real research in order to discover what the anti-Christ figure of lore is traditionally supposed to do and represent. I think it is a very important place to start.

Part One: Vital Triads

I was reading Aleister Crowley's Book of Thoth. In the diagram in the back, there was a list of the vital triads, one for each Age.

Below is the Holy Trinity of the current age.

The Three Gods
0. The Holy Ghost
I. The Messenger
IX. The Secret Seed

The Holy Ghost represents the path from the Tao-Ten (or source) to Yang (male energy).
The messenger represents the son (The Magus)
The Secret Seed (or The Hermit) symbolizes the Father.

[The Hermit] symbolizes the Father, who is wisdom, he is the highest form of Mercury, and the Logos, and the Creator of all worlds.

So there you have the Holy Trinity of the current Age: Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Below would be the Trinity of the Age of Aquarius.

The Slain Gods
XI. 156 & 666
XII. The Redeemer of the Waters
XIII. The Redeeming Belly Which Kills XV

Chapter Two: The Identity of 666

I have absolutely no idea who 156 is. But 666 represents the anti-Christ, so I looked up card XI and it was Lust.

"I am snake that giveth Knowledge & Delight and bright glory, and stir the hearts of men with drunkenness. To worship me, take wine and strange drugs whereof I will tell my prophet, & be drunk thereof! They shall not harm ye at all. It is a lie, this folly against self. The exposure of innocence is a lie. Be strong, o man! Lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee of this."

This attitude is pretty clearly seen in a lot of cases today. Although God may not deny this of people, I am pretty certain that the situation itself will have consequences that are unforeseen, which is talked about later on with the destruction and restructuring of society that is necessary for it to continue in this fashion.

[Lust] is assigned to the sign of Leo in the Zodiac. It is the Kerub of fire, and is ruled by the sun.It is the most powerful of the twelve zodiacal cards, and represents the most critical of all of the operations of magick and alchemy. It represents the original marriage as it appears in nature, as opposed to the more artificial form portrayed in Atu VI; there is no attempt in this card to direct the course of the operation.

Atu VI is The Lovers. In this, Crowley is saying Lust represents "Do as thou wilt" or having the freedom to be an individual.

The previous Aeon, that of Isis, was especially connected with the signs of Pisces and Virgo, while the present, that of Horus, is linked with Aquarius and Leo.

Well, as you can see here, Crowley makes direct reference to the Procession of the Equinoxes, which I have seen mentioned in Zeitgeist. Each one comes with a prophet.

The seers of the early days of the Aeon of Osiris saw the Manifestation of this coming era in which we now live, and they regarded it with intense horror and fear, not understanding the procession of the Aeons, and regarding every change as a Catastrophe.

This means that we are entering a New Age.

The type of energy described is that of primitive, creative order. It is completely independent of the criticism of reason.

This is interesting, and the best place to look for evidence that we are entering a New Age

If you think about it, we are already in the process of abandoning the Logos. I did some research the other day using the old method of citing written sources, and noticed that the source I was using cited sources - in this manner, there is a very strict and rigid accountability to culture.

We are breaking away from this.

Behind the figures of the Beast and the Bride [in the Lust card] are ten luminous rayed circles; they are the Sephiroth (that would be the different parts of the Jewish Tree of Life like Yin and Yang) latent and not yet in order, for every new Aeon demands a new system of classification of the Universe.

This is talking about re-arranging relationships and society and would happen after the destruction of our current Western society.

At the top of the card is shown an emblem of the new light, with ten horns of the Beast, which are serpents, sent forth in every direction to destroy and re-create the world.

This sounds pretty destructive this time around.

The conclusion I get from this is that there might be secret societies behind the scenes that are carrying out these plots. And that it is going to be destructive.

reply to post by darkbake

Pssst! It's Crowley, not Crawley.

Okay. Well, this makes sense

I'm afraid, but no, it does not.

It's randomly combined vague nonsense which can be interpreted in about any way you seem fit.

Do you have something substantiated as well ? Preferably from a sane person ?

P.S. You spelled "Crowley" wrong. Duh.

reply to post by H1ght3chHippie


Well... this is what Crowley is saying... are you calling him insane or me? My comments could be completely off. I have not been feeling up to par lately, which is why I am doing research instead of posting my own thoughts about things. Feel free to criticize Crowley, I would say, especially where he got his source material.

reply to post by LightSpeedDriver


Wow... terrible mistake on my part sorry.

reply to post by darkbake

Unfortunately the writings of Crowley are vague, wandering, artistic and ....much more besides. I read some of his stuff 20 years ago, didn't understand a word of what he was saying. Or rather, the words were empty. To the uninitiated mind, at least. Oh yes, he was also addicted to Heroin in his later years which is when he wrote some of his books. Ever tried making sense of someone high on drugs?

ETA Typos are easy, as are corrections. One letter makes all the difference in the recognition of the name of this man.

reply to post by LightSpeedDriver


Well... Crowley actually talks about a lot of stuff in his books that I had already been researching on my own , so it does make sense to me, in fact often I am often surprised how he brings up certain topics that I didn't know were available back in 1944, but maybe.

Originally posted by H1ght3chHippie

Okay. Well, this makes sense

I'm afraid, but no, it does not.

He is talking about the beast mentioned in the Bible, and he is talking about destroying society so that a new one can be built. The ten horns, or serpents, are part of the beast, which also has seven heads.

There is a lot of symbolism used in whatever societies he belonged to, apparently he belonged to Ordo Templi Orientis. See, regardless of the existence of God, there could still be people behind the scenes that take the whole "play" pretty seriously.

The description of the beast is found primarily in Revelation chapters thirteen and seventeen. Chapter thirteen gives the fullest description of the beast. John saw the beast "rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy."

Wikipedia: The Beast

reply to post by darkbake

Completely agree with you on these points but, at the end of the day, and possibly with the exception of his "Holy Guardian Angel" ritual, he spoke much but extremely cryptically which makes it near impossible (imho!) to truly understand what he was trying to convey.

This is not mentioning the homosexual sex rituals and talk of child sacrifices which also featured in his booiks.

reply to post by LightSpeedDriver


Hmm... maybe he did go a bit insane, but The Book of Thoth seems very well put-together, organized and full of explanations of things. I wonder how much of it he made up, how much of it he got from other sources / research, and how much of it / the information in it influences whoever is in charge of our society.

Man... this is confusing. But this is the best I can do at figuring out the symbolism behind the 7 heads and 10 horns.

Therefore, the 7 Heads of the Revelation beast, being essentially a mirror image of the 7 Heads of the Daniel 7 beasts, are to be identified as follows:

1. Babylon- the "lion"
2. Persia- the "bear"
3. Greece- the "4-Headed leopard"
4. Turkey
5. Syria (Assyria)
6. Egypt
7. Rome

Source

What religious people think about the 10 heads seems to be irrelevant, as they are utterly confused. But I will say that they think they involve Europe and Islamic nations working together.

So... I'm just going to pick from a random conspiracy website and call it good. There is absolutely no basis for this.

These future 10 nations will be ruled by the antichrist.

Source

reply to post by darkbake

His books were quite readable and well-constructed but they gave nothing concrete that you could use, apart from possibly the Tarot handbook. I still have the Thoth deck in a suitcase, but I was never any good with Tarot cards.

Your last post sums up Crowley for me in one word; confusing. I spent a couple of years trying to understand but found it pointless. There was no real sense to be found, just allegories, prose and more prose. Just my 2 cents and quite probably the wrong interpretation. I wish you luck in any case.

ETA I understood that he used and combined many different religions, belief systems, symbols, etc and combined them to create his own. I am far from an expert though so again could be wrong on this point also.

reply to post by LightSpeedDriver


You should try reading some of these websites that I'm going to in order to figure out what the ten horns and seven heads of the beast represent if you want confusing...

In my opinion...

The Beast, The Dragon, The Serpent, The Devil, Sin all represents nature. We are all born selfish to only react to OUR emotions, thoughts, until later we grow up and become compassionate and understand that OTHERS have emotions, thoughts, opinions, too.

The Beast is the one who clings to Nature (like a beast in a field). It is one who understands the qualities of Strength and Selfishness.

The Lamb represents the leader of The Sheep. The Shepard being "God" himself. The Lamb is Jesus, and since this is the adult, The Sheep look up to The Lamb but they will all be slaughtered by The Great Shepard (God) in the end as Jesus was crucified on The cross.

Even The Bible admits that those who choose to be Sheep (following Jesus's Teachings) will be prosecuted.

The reason why this prosecution happens is because when the world remembers what TRUE Christianity is (Self LESS Ness) they will be used by The Greedy - The Beasts (The Self ISH ness).

1 represents leader, strength, ego
2 represents relationships, duality

3 represents creation (man + woman = child, this + that = something new)
3 also represents trinity (God, Jesus, Holy Spirit - Mind, Body, and Spirit)

6 represents MAN and NATURE because it is the day that God supposedly created HUMANS and it was the day that NATURE was finished being created (7 = HOLY [day of rest]).

666 means Nature being the only Trinity - The only creative force.

It is the number of MAN because this is where MAN creates his life and destiny.

The MARK of the beast is in the hand or forehead. We can see that in these ancient cultures the "hand "represented "action" and the "forehead" represented "thinking", so these are all clues to be put together.

Also, God's throne has 7 torches of flames. There are 7 archangels, and there were 7 days for the PERFECTION of CREATION - 7 was the resting day.

Aleister Crowley associated himself with The Anti-Christ because he gave the basic rule of NATURE (Mark of The Beast) - "Do What Thou Wilt" [ Forehead - Keeping in thoughts Hand - Doing in Action].


(At least this is the best interpretation I can come up with for now).

reply to post by arpgme


Thanks man, wow, that makes more sense than the websites I've been visiting for the past half hour or so in order to get this 7 heads and 10 horns thing figured out.

Some quick thoughts on the subject at hand....

666 is the atomic structure of carbon which makes up the reality of the physical world.

An illusion maybe?

Also, Oil is based on the carbon atom as well.

The beast (oil) is the number of man (666) and their relationship reeks havoc on relationships, psyche, and the environment.

Well, that sums up the traditional anti-Christ lore pretty well I think. A good place to start.

reply to post by MamaJ


I have heard this viewpoint before, thanks for bringing it up

Mr. Crowely Doom Doom Doom

i always thought Ozzy said it best, with the line, "You fooled all those people with magic."

here have a listen.

reply to post by hounddoghowlie


Well at least I identified the source of the "New Age" movement (unless he got it from somewhere else?). Also, good song.