Pagan and Gnostic Antecedents to Merkabah, Kabbalah and Goetia Volume I -Reconstructing the Syncretic Gnostic Microcosm PDF

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Pagan and Gnostic Antecedents to Merkabah, Kabbalah and Goetia Volume I – Reconstructing the Syncretic Gnostic Microcosm By A. Wretch Table of Contents Page 5 - Chapter 1 – The Symbolic Keys of the Ancient World Page 9 - Porphyry On the Cave of Nymphs in Homer Page 20 - Plato's Republic Book X -...

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Pagan and Gnostic Antecedents to Merkabah, Kabbalah and Goetia Volume I – Reconstructing the Syncretic Gnostic Microcosm

By A. Wretch

Table of Contents Page 5 - Chapter 1 – The Symbolic Keys of the Ancient World Page 9 - Porphyry On the Cave of Nymphs in Homer Page 20 - Plato's Republic Book X - The Myth of Er Page 24 - Pliny's Natural History – On Meteorites, Comets, Winds, Dew, Honey, Amber, Electrum and Notable Stones, Plants and Drugs etc Page 55 – Plato and Aristophanes on Initiation Page 57 - Chapter 2 – Pagan Throne Mysticism and Merkabah Magick Page 58 – Plato – Phaedrus Page 65 - Hymns of the Magi – Oration 36 by Dio Chrysostomus Page 69 - Zoroastrian/Persian Throne/Palanquin Mysticism Page 79 – Apollonian Magick from the Greek Magical Papyri (PGM) Page 94 - PGM spell calling on Hekate to restrain chariots and for general purpose use Page 99 – Jewish, Gnostic and Greek/Roman Thrones/Merkabahs Page 108 - A Jewish interpretation of the Orphic Merkabah Tradition Page 114 - Orphic Argonautica Page 116 - Middle Eastern myths from Sumeria, Babylon and Ugarit Page 124 - Egyptian Throne Mysticism Page 129 - Alexander the Great and Kingly Flight in the Alexander Romance Page 136 - Throne Ritual from the Munich Manuscript Page 140 - A Cunning Man's Grimoire Page 144 - Fairy Throne Ritual and evocation of Sibyllia from the Book of Oberon Page 150 - The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage Page 152 - Chapter 3 - Mystic Twins of Gemini and the Cube of Space Cosmology Page 161 – Simon Magus and Helen Page 170 – Simon's Cube of Space Cosmology and the Sepher Yetzirah as elucidated by GRS Mead Page 174 - The Poem of Empedocles Page 181 - The Derveni Papyrus Page 187 - Poimandres Page 191 - Chapter 4 - Gnostic Brain Tantra and Cosmology from the Pagan Mystery Schools Page 194 - Plato's Timaeus Page 199 - More Gnostic/Pagan Qabalah and Neurotheology Page 219 - Simon as Christ the Magician and Yahweh as an Angel Page 235 - Pagan Gnosticism and Cosmology as especially the Orphic influence on the Sethians Page 245 - More from Mead and the Pistis Sophia Page 251 - The Valentinian Creation Story and Cosmology as from Antiphanes and Hesiod Page 270 - Doctrines of the Ophites and Sethians Page 274 - Chapter 5 – Daimons and Aeons Page 274 - Necromancy among Christians, Jews, Gnostics and Pagans Page 290 - Source Texts on Pagan Daimons Page 318 - Tantric Gnostics and the Archons Page 340 - Aphrodite, Attis, Trans Sexuals and Sacred Prostitution as the key to Gnostic Tantra Page 346 - The Pig Headed Demiurge and the 72 Archons

Page 363 - The Dragon who is Lord of this World Page 369 - Further Pagan Influences on Gnostic Demonology Page 379 - Primary Texts On Attis and other Hermaphroditic Deities Page 389 - On the Ogdoad and an overview of the Astrological Aeon Cosmology Page 403 - A Selection of spells with Daimons from the Greek Magical Papyri Page 417 - Chapter 6 - Astral Armour Page 417 - Simon Magus, the Aegis Armour of Athena and the Ephesia Grammata Page 427 - Simon Magus and the Armour of Achilles and Heracles Page 434 - Examples from Judaism and Christianity Page 437 - Further Examples in Gnosticism, Paganism, Ceremonial Magick and Witchcraft Page 440 - Yahweh, Bes, Dream Oracles and the Tefillin Page 445 - Phylacteries from the PGM Page 448 - Abraham Abulafia's Tefillin Merkabah Ritual, The Tikkun HaNefesh and the Veil of Isis Page 455 - Chapter 7 - Hygromanteia and Incantation Bowls Page 465 - Rituals from the Greek Magical Papyri Page 472 - Chapter 8 - Elucidating Simonian Doctrine through the Symbolism of the Mysteries Page 472 - GRS Mead, Concerning the Cup of Crater Page 475 - From the Hermetic texts on the Cup, the Robe/Tunic and Resurrection Page 484 - Misc Gnostic Textual Sources on Baptism, the Spiritual Robe and Out of Body Experiences Page 509 - Irenaeus: Against Heresies - Book 1, Chapter XXI – On Gnostic views of Redemption Page 511 - Ritual of Forgiveness from Pistis Sophia Book V Ch 142 Page 512 - Baptism Rituals from the Books Of Jeu in the Bruce Codex, Ch 44-49 Page 522 - A Gnostic Banishing Ritual continuing on from the Books of Jeu Ch 48-49 Page 527 - Chapter 9 - The Ritual use of Drugs/Entheogens Page 531 - Pharmakeia Sorcery Page 535 - Witches Flying Ointments and Shamanic Shape-shifting into Animals Page 555 - Mandrake Dreams and Anaesthetic, the Key to the Sabbath of Witches Page 563 - Entheogens and Demons, Bad Trips for the guilty and Shamanism for the Virtuous Page 568 - Evidence of Entheogen use associated with Alexander the Great Page 574 - Mandrake and Vines as Communion from Adam in Golgotha Page 586 - A Family of Witches, the Mysteries of Medea and her Dragon Chariot Page 594 - Asterion, Greek God of Cannabis Page 600 - Psychoactive Creatures and Excretions Page 609 - Dream Magick in the PGM Page 617 - Miscellaneous Spells from the PGM Page 618 - Rituals of Plant Harvest and Herbal codes from the PGM, Galen and Dioscorides Page 622 - Kyphi Recipes Page 626 - Chapter 10 – Theurgic Statues, Golems and Homunculi Page 626 - The Theurgy of Simon Magus, Neoplatonists and Hermeticists Page 632 - On the Nature of the Gods and Daimons in Statues Page 643 - Traditional Symbolism and Ritual Practices for Theurgic Statues Page 656 - Golems Page 665 - Homunculi Page 674 - Simon Magus, Athena and the Palladium

Page 681 - Deucalion and Pyrhha, Adam and Eve and the Occult Mysteries Page 698 - Identifying the Basilisk, the Weasel and Poplar Mushrooms Page 705 - Tying together the Symbolism of Apotheosis and Pharmakeia Page 722 - Statue Rituals from the Greek Magical Papyri

Chapter 1 – The Symbolic Keys of the Ancient World Found within this book is a compilation of texts on Pagan Qabalah, Throne Mysticism and Goetia, so as these texts generally predate what academics usually think of as Jewish Kabbalah, they help to show the Pagan origins of the Kabbalah and Merkabah. While there is no shortage of Kabbalah like motifs from around the world, and while I will include some examples from unconnected traditions, I will focus mostly on those cultures which have arguably influenced the Jewish traditions, so as to illustrate the origins of Western Occultism. In terms of what is called “Qabalah” we will look at things like cosmology, world trees, chakra systems, letter and number mysticism, hermeneutics, the origins of certain symbols and philosophies, but also the myths regarding the transmission of occult knowledge. In terms of “Throne Mysticism” AKA “Merkabah” we will examine the symbolism and practices associated with thrones, but also how this tied into beliefs about the afterlife and the notion of ascension to the heavens, or enlightenment. By “Goetia” I broadly refer to the practices of evocation, necromancy, skrying and related practices found in ceremonial magick, but which have their origins, or at least strong parallels in Pagan practices. To explain the origins of the Jewish traditions, I will show in some detail how Gnosticism as a syncretic Pagan philosophy distilled the knowledge of the ancient world and merged them with certain Jewish ideas, and ultimately preserved some Pagan mysticism after the rise of Orthodox “Christianity.” Special attention is paid to the man most credited with founding Gnosticism, Simon Magus, who will be shown to be an example of a Qabalist/Theurgist par excellence, so that by analyzing his system not only can we better understand the creation of Jewish Kabbalah, but we are better able to reconstruct the Qabalah of the Pagan traditions. So in this Volume I will focus primarily on reconstructing and explaining the Gnostic traditions, showing it's Pagan influences, then in further Volumes I will try to reverse engineer Gnosticism in order to reconstruct the Pagan influences in a Qabalistic context, by providing many more examples of these kinds of motifs. As you will see, two of the most important deities in these texts are Apollo and Hekate, who were regarded as a pair in the most ancient times, perhaps even earlier than Apollo and Artemis, though as I will show, Hekate and Artemis or Selene were in certain traditions, different forms of the same Goddess. In the mysteries of Apollo at Delphi a priestess/oracle was enthroned on a tripod and this means was also used as an initiation of “enthronement” as found below in the Greek Magical Papyri. (PGM) At Delphi the Pythia priestess sat in a cave on Mt Parnassus and would inhale fumes from incense and also likely Ethylene gas from fissures in the cave. These initiations are also similar to practices involving a magical tent or canopy as found in “The 8th Book of Moses,” which is also part of the PGM and in one variation, it involves an Apollo idol. (This ritual in turn can be likened to the ritual technology of the magick carpet in Solomonic Magick, see my other anthology/essay entitled “Magick Carpets, Sensory Deprivation and Entheogenic Ceremonial Magick”) The 8th book of Moses contains not only a reference to Apollo, but also to Dionysus, another central figure in the Orphic pantheon and mythology, though this is the only direct reference to that name in the PGM. To know which deities were part of the mysterious Orphic tradition we can look in the Orphic Hymns to the gods, as each deity has their own hymn, but the first is a hymn addressed to Orpheus' student Musaeus, though it lists a variety of deities as a kind of general evocation. Here we see Apollo, but it also ends with Hekate, who has the most details of all deities in this hymn. Other Orphic deities that I provide primary texts for include Eros/Phanes, Aphrodite Urania, the Moira, Aion, Hermes, Tyche or Fortune, the Curetes, Corybantes and Dactyls, but these will primarily be found in the Greek Volume. “I call Einodian Hecate, lovely dame, of earthly, wat'ry, and celestial frame, Sepulchral, in a saffron veil array'd, leas'd with dark ghosts that wander thro' the shade; Persian, unconquerable huntress hail! The world's key-bearer never doom'd to fail On the rough rock to wander thee delights, leader and nurse be present to our rites Propitious grant our just desires success, accept our homage, and the incense bless.”

It is my contention that such practices of enthroned fumigation were a strong influence on the Merkabah tradition of mystical Judaism. While Gershom Scholem, the most respected secular scholar on the subject sees Merkabah coming out of the Gnostic tradition, the Gnostics were themselves clearly influenced by Pagan traditions such as Orphic mysticism and the PGM and the 8th Book of Moses itself is a mish mash of various traditions, including Pagan, Gnostic and Jewish elements. Through such ritual means the magician is able to use “entheogens,” that is psychoactive plants and fungi used ritually, in this case by inhaling incense to either divine the future, or in some cases separate the consciousness from the body and induce astral flight. By studying such texts we can see a number of reoccurring themes and that ritual enthronement was an initiation that activated the mystical awareness of the magician, an awareness that would then allow them to interact with the spirits, gods and heavens consciously and so pursue any number of magickal goals. As I will show, as the “World Tree” or Kabbalistic Tree of Life depicts the cosmology of the heavens, astral flight to the heavens via Throne Mysticism naturally brings up much of the same cosmology and symbolism. What is more, under the influence of such entheogens, the magician or mystic would also interact with various entities from specific heavens, or astrological planets, so that Goetia is far more connected to Jewish Kabbalah or Merkabah than many currently believe, all three practices having common roots in the Pagan traditions. As will be shown, much of the underlying philosophy behind this has to do with ideas about the soul transcending to the heavens after death and becoming a star, with reincarnation occurring when a star falls, IE when a meteorite or shooting star enters earths atmosphere, generally coming from the circumpolar region of the sky. This idea of souls becoming stars and reincarnating can be seen in Plato's Myth of Er and especially his conception of the “Spindle of Necessity,” which indicates the axis mundi, or pole by which the movements of the stars are measured. “Necessity” is the English translation of the name of a Greek goddess, Ananke, who was the goddess of natural law, but also in a sense fate, she turns up repeatedly in rituals of the PGM, especially those with Orphic elements or which involve the axis mundi and the constellations surrounding the pole such as the Ursa Major and Minor. Below I have included the Myth of Er which explains the spindle of Necessity, I encourage you to read the full text as it will shed light on the nature of Ananke in the following texts and also presents the Platonic cosmology, or in some ways, Plato's version of the Tree of Life. However, before you read this myth, I have also included the text, “On the Cave of the Nymphs in the Thirteenth Book of the Odyssey” by Porphyry, as it explains the meaning behind many of the symbols I will bring up, as well as ideas of reincarnation from caves, and more occultly the Taurid meteor showers. Ananke can be likened to Tyche or Aphrodite Urania, in fact the Orphic Hymn to Aphrodite Urania shows that Ananke comes from Aphrodite Urania and is likely even an aspect of her when it says in the Hymn to Aphrodite, “HEAVENLY, (Urania) illustrious, laughter-loving queen, Sea-born, night-loving, (Nyx) of an awful mien; Crafty, from whom Necessity (Ananke) first came, Producing, nightly, all-connecting dame: 'Tis thine the world with harmony (Harmonia) to join, For all things spring from thee, O pow'r divine. The triple Fates are rul'd by thy decree.” The Derveni Papyrus, an ancient work which gives an interpretation of an Orphic Text, explains the relationships of the various Orphic deities. From this text we learn, Zeus is the one god and all things exist within his mind (Nous) and the other deities are aspects of his mind, hence the text is “henotheistic.” That is henotheism is the idea there is one underlying divinity, and all other deities are aspects of this one, an idea found explicitly in places like Egypt and India, but as we will see, was an idea common to many Pagan mystics. This fits with the Orphic hymns as Aphrodite Urania is explained along with Harmonia as aspects of Zeus, Aphrodite is responsible for bringing different types of matter together in a way that is echoed in the philosophy of Empedocles, himself being a magician in the Orphic Goetic tradition and an influence on Gnosticism. In the Derveni Papyrus, the Moira, or fates are equated with practical wisdom (Phronesis) and divine breath (Pneuma) and as they weave fate together, they certainly would be good deities for a magician to evoke or to ask their assistance. In the Gnostic tradition, the goddess Sophia has both a heavenly aspect sometimes called Barbello or Prunicos and an

Earthly aspect, called Achamoth and we can see this in the Greek tradition as Aphrodite Urania and the Earthly Aphrodite Pandemos, meaning "Aphrodite for all the people." In one Gnostic text, the Book of Baruch, we are given the following explanation and names, it is quoted by their Christian accuser Hippolytus Book V when he explains one Gnostic cosmology, “the female (principle) is devoid of prescience, passionate, two-minded, two-bodied, in every respect answering (the description of) the girl in the legend of Herodotus, as far as the groin a virgin, and the parts below (resembling) a snake, as Justinus says. But this girl is styled Edem and Israel.” This reference to Herodotus is a comparison of Sophia to the Scythian goddess Agrimpasa, who was a women from the waist up, and snake below. While he was not aware of this Gnostic interpretation of Sophia as the snake goddess, according to Professor Carl Ruck, Agrimpasa (or Echidna) influenced the many diverse medieval myths of the fairy snake woman known as Melusina. While much of the details surrounding this remain mysterious, this would have influenced the medieval Cathar Gnostics and other mystics of the time who were interested in the use of psychoactive mushrooms. As we will see again and again, hallucinogens, ie “entheogens” or plants and fungi used for spiritual purposes and are central to understanding the creation of these mystical and occult ritual systems. (“Entheogen” literally means to generate the divine within) At any rate, Ananke is really a central player in these mystical traditions, especially in the PGM, she is often found along with Helios, or Helios Mithras as a form of Apollo. Plato's spindle of Necessity and Pagan symbolism regarding the axis mundi in general can do much to shed light on the origins of the Kabbalistic tree of life and indeed the “world tree” or some cosmic tree is a crucial concept in most Pagan traditions. There are in fact so many texts referring to mystical trees, generally in the centre of the world, that I cannot include them all here, however I will provide some examples from various cultures in Volume 2. The Assyrian Tree of Life, and its precursors in Babylon and Sumeria etc are the most influential on the Jewish tradition, but that is hardly surprising given that even the exoteric form of Judaism is heavily influenced by Mesopotamian and Persian religions. In various traditions the “fixed stars” of the circumpolar region are thought to be in the highest heaven, or a special heaven because they never go down below the horizon and are visible throughout the year, hence they were useful for navigation. In the Kabbalistic tradition there are 36 in particular which are each assigned an angel that governs 10 degrees of the zodiac, these angels are called “decans.” From Stobaeus, who seems to be a Pagan with a Christian name, we read the following Hermetic ideas about these stars, “Let us, then, think of them as though of Watchers stationed round [and watching] over both the Seven themselves and o'er the Circle of the All--or rather over all things in the World--holding together all, and keeping the good order of all things.” Because they never went below the horizon they are referred to as “imperishable stars” in the Egyptian Pyramid texts and we can see that in various places these stars are also each personified and given a ferry boat. The term “Watchers” also comes up in the Pyramid texts, the Book of the Dead and Coffin texts as in spell 500 and 764 which also tells of thrones, which I have included in the Volume on Egypt. In some places these Watchers seem to refer to the sons of Horus, AKA “Shemsu Hor,” who are associated with the four directions and who are also similar to the followers of Horus in the much later Edfu texts. This ferry boat idea is also very comparable to the Chaldean oracles, a text which is often attributed to Zoroaster, but which undoubtedly provides one of the most direct Pagan influences on the Kabbalah. That is plenty others have already detailed many similarities between the Kabbalah and Chaldean Oracles in their cosmologies and philosophy. In the Chaldean Oracles, Hekate plays a role like that of Sophia in Gnosticism, her place is in the border between the lower heavens and the higher ones. Like the spindle of Necessity with its planetary “whorls” (a term referring to a device used for spinning thread) the Chaldean Oracles has the concept of“Iynges” which are like wheels and can likewise be likened to Kabbalistic Sephiroth which also correspond to the planets. The Iynges are used to evoke the ferrymen daimons who bring messages (the word “angel” means messenger) from the divine realm to the magician, but also bring back the prayers from the magician to the divine world so that they can be answered. According to Philostratus, there were also Iynges at the oracle of Delphi.

In the Ugaritic texts of Canaan, which scholars have shown was a major influence on Judaism, the image of “shade” (as for example under a tree) is used as a metaphor for protection that comes from either the gods or kings, but when a king died, the people believed they would also go to Sheol, or the afterlife and live in the “shade” or phantom of the king's spirit. (See Lamentations 4:20, Isaiah 14:9-20 and Ezekiel 31, or even the dream of Nebuchadnezz...