IPSOS
IPSOS, meaning "themselves", is the magical formula of the Aeon of Ma'at as transmitted by Nema Andahadna in her inspired magical work, Liber Pennae Praenumbra. It is used by the Horus-Maat Lodge and Kenneth Grant's Typhonian Order. According to Kenneth Grant, its initiated translation is "the same mouth".[1]
Aeons
[edit]Within the system of Thelema, history is broken down into a series of Aeons, each with its own dominant concept of divinity and its own magical formula of redemption and advancement.[2] According to Aleister Crowley, the last three Aeons have been the Aeon of Isis, the Aeon of Osiris and the current Aeon of Horus which began in 1904 with the writing of The Book of the Law.[3]
Aleister Crowley believed that the Aeon of Ma'at will succeed the present one.[3] According to one of Crowley's early students, Charles Stansfeld Jones (a.k.a. Frater Achad), the Aeon of Ma'at has already arrived or overlaps the present Aeon of Horus.[4]
Crowley wrote:
I may now point out that the reign of the crowned and Conquering Child is limited in time by The Book of the Law itself. We learn that Horus will be in his turn succeeded by Thmaist, the Double-Wanded One; she who shall bring the candidates to full initiation, and though we know little of her peculiar characteristics, we know at least that her name is justice.[5]
Meanings
[edit]According to Grant, the word IPSOS was received by initiates who were in communication with extraterrestrial intelligences.[1] He equates the word with part of a cryptic cipher in Liber AL (II, 76), RPSTOVAL, by virtue of the fact that in the qabalistic art of gematria, both evaluate to either 696 or 456, depending on whether an 'S' in each is taken as the Hebrew letter shin or samekh.[6]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Grant (1977), p. 116.
- ^ DuQuette (2003), p. 15.
- ^ a b Bogdan (2012).
- ^ Nema (1995), Introduction.
- ^ Crowley (1969), p. 400.
- ^ Grant (1977), p. 119.
Works cited
[edit]- Bogdan, Henrik (2012). "Envisioning the Birth of a New Aeon: Dispensationalism and Millenarianism in the Thelemic Tradition". In Bogdan, Henrik; Starr, Martin P. (eds.). Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 89–106. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199863075.003.0004. ISBN 978-0-19-986309-9. OCLC 820009842.
- Crowley, Aleister (1969). The Confessions of Aleister Crowley. Hill and Wang. ISBN 0-80903-591-X.
- DuQuette, Lon Milo (2003). The Magick of Aleister Crowley: A Handbook of Rituals of Thelema. San Francisco and Newburyport: Weiser. ISBN 1-57863-299-4.
- Grant, Kenneth (1977). Nightside of Eden. London: Frederick Muller Limited. ISBN 0-584-10206-2.
- Nema (1995). Maat Magick: A Guide to Self-Initiation. Weiser Books. ISBN 0-87728-827-5.
Further reading
[edit]- Karr, Don (2013). Approaching the Kabbalah of Maat. York Beach, Maine: Black Jackal Press.