ABSTRACT
The Lord Secret and Most Holy in the Gnostic Mass is the Secret Root of the self, symbolized in the Mass by the serpent crown and the particle broken off the host. It is represented by I/Yod in the magical formula VIAOV. By being depressed into the cup of wine (the priest’s “blood”), it passes into pure potentiality or spirit, represented by the letter A in VIAOV. This is identical with it becoming Harpocrates or the Holy Guardian Angel. From there it moves back into manifestation, now with an added solar character. This is represented by O in VIAOV and is called the Lion-Serpent or BAPHOMET. BAPHOMET is therefore an eidolon of the Holy Guardian Angel of each, having an extroverted, solar nature and an introverted, serpentine nature. While the introverted aspect, the Lord Secret and Most Holy, reflects the Secret Self of the individual, the extroverted aspect, the Lord Visible and Sensible, represents that very same principle in manifestation, utilizing the process of life and death for its expression down the generations. It is by virtue of the Priest embodying both of these aspects (as symbolized by the mantles granted him by the Priestess) that he is able to transform a symbolic part of his own body into this eidolon for public use.
One of the curious features of Liber XV: The Gnostic Mass is the mention and invocation of two Lords. One of these two Lords corresponds with the Sun.
By the power of ☩ Iron, I say unto thee, Arise. In the name of our Lord the ☩ Sun
Thou that art One, our Lord in the Universe the Sun
Lord visible and sensible of whom this earth is but a frozen spark turning about thee with annual and diurnal motion
Let this offering be borne upon the waves of Æthyr to our Lord and Father the Sun that travelleth over the Heavens in his name ON.
Alongside this Lord Visible and Sensible, sometimes in the same passage, we find reference made to a Secret and Ineffable Lord.
I believe in one secret and ineffable LORD
By the power of ☩ Iron, I say unto thee, Arise. In the name of our Lord the ☩ Sun, and of our Lord ☩ …
Lord secret and most holy, source of light, source of life, source of love, source of liberty
Lord most secret, bless this spiritual food unto our bodies
The Priest of the Gnostic Mass represents both of these Lords and acts on behalf of both of them in the ceremony. We know this, because the Priestess bequeaths two mantles to the Priest at the beginning of the ceremony: the robe and the crown. Donning him with the robe, she says, “Be the flame of the Sun thine ambience, O thou PRIEST of the SUN!” Then placing the crown upon his forehead she says, “Be the Serpent thy crown, O thou PRIEST of the LORD!” By making him the Priest of the Sun, the Priestess is arguably also placing him in the role of CHAOS, who we learn from the first article of the Creed is “the sole viceregent of the Sun upon the Earth”. By making him Priest of the Lord (Ineffable), the Priestess now also associates the Priest with those qualities of the Lord mentioned in the second Collect: “Lord secret and most holy, source of Light, source of Life, source of Love, source of Liberty”.
In chapter V of Magick in Theory and Practice, Crowley indirectly associates this Lord Secret and Most Holy with the I of the VIAOV formula by means of these four attributes, and by extension with Yod .
Iota is the secret Life ………….. Serpent
— Light …………. Lamp
— Love ………….. Wand
— Liberty ……….. Wings
— Silence ……….. Cloak”
These symbols are all shewn in the Atu “The Hermit”.They are the powers of the Yod, whose extension is the Vau.
Yod is the Hand wherewith man does his Will.
Crowley expands on the relationship between this Secret and Ineffable Lord and the individual later in the same chapter:
The first process is to find the I in the V—initiation, purification, finding the Secret Root of oneself, the epicene Virgin who is 10 (Malkuth) but spelt in full 20 (Jupiter).
This can be understood as a brief description of the process of initiation in the context of A∴ A∴ whereby one attains to the Knowledge and Conversation of one’s Holy Guardian Angel. But this formula also has special significance for the Mass. In Part VI of the Mass, the Priest had declared the host to be his own body with the words “TOUTO ESTI TO SÔMA MOU” (“this is my body”). Then in Part VIII of the Mass, he breaks off a piece of this host and declares it to be his “seed”: “TOUTO ESTI TO SPERMA MOU” (“this is my seed”). This should be understood as an example of the Priest (V) isolating the Secret Root of himself (I) as symbolized by the bread particle. But this Secret Root or sperma of the Priest is identical with the Lord Secret and Most Holy. It is by virtue of his office of Priest of the (Ineffable) Lord that the Priest is able to perform this function in the ceremony. The symbol of this office further strengthens this association, as the serpent is in the shape of a spermatozoon.
The particle is placed on the tip of the lance, and, the Priest clasping the cup, the Priest and Priestess together depress the tip of the lance with the particle into the wine in the cup. Shortly thereafter, the Priest says, “O Lion and O Serpent that destroy the destroyer, be mighty among us.” From the third article of the Creed, we know that the Lion-Serpent invoked here is none other than BAPHOMET. Crowley’s commentary on the formula of VIAOV sheds light on this section of the Mass as well:
This Yod in the “Virgin” expands to the Babe in the Egg by formulating the Secret Wisdom of Truth of Hermes in the Silence of the Fool. He acquires the Eye-Wand, beholding the acting and being adored. The Inverted Pentagram—Baphomet—the Hermaphrodite fully grown—begets himself on himself as V again.
The bread particle or sperma—the Lord Secret and Most Holy—upon being depressed into the “blood” of the Priest in the cup “expands to the Babe in the Egg,” which earlier in this chapter Crowley associates with Harpocrates. In the New Comment on AL I.7, Crowley states:
Hoor-paar-Kraat or Harpocrates, the “Babe in the Egg of Blue”, is not merely the God of Silence in a conventional sense. He represents the Higher Self, the Holy Guardian Angel. The connexion is with the symbolism of the Dwarf in Mythology. He contains everything in Himself, but is unmanifested
In other words, the isolated “Secret Root” of the Priest—his sperma—has become a Holy Guardian Angel. This was accomplished “by formulating the Secret Wisdom of Truth of Hermes in the Silence of the Fool”. Hermes or Thoth is associated with the path of Beth on the Tree of Life, whereas the Fool is associated with the path of Aleph. Both extend from/lead into Kether. Crowley explains the connection between Harpocrates, Aleph, Beth, and Kether in a passage from the Book of Thoth:
Arriving at highly sophisticated theogony, there appears a perfectly clear and concrete symbol of this doctrine. Harpocrates is the God of Silence; and this silence has a very special meaning. (See attached essay, Appendix.) The first is Kether, the pure Being invented as an aspect of pure Nothing. In his manifestation, he is not One, but Two; he is only One because he is 0. He exists; Eheieh, his divine name, which signifies “I Am” or “I shall Be”, is merely another way of saying that he Is Not; because One leads to nowhere, which is where it came from. So the only possible manifestation is in Two, and that manifestation must be in silence, because the number 3, the number of Binah-Understanding-has not yet been formulated. In other words, there is no Mother. All one has is the impulse of this manifestation; and that must take place in silence. That is to say, there is as yet no more than the impulse, which is unformulated; it is only when it is interpreted that it becomes the Word, the Logos. (See Atu I.)
We might say that the Holy Spirit or Holy Guardian Angel—represented here by Aleph—is released from the sperma—represented by I or Yod—upon its dissolution in the “blood” or wine. This resultant Holy Spirit is identical with Kether, which itself represents All (Ain Sof) = None (Ain). It is pure potentiality which can only be turned into some state of affairs by means of the utterance of the Word. To put the same thing another way, the Holy Spirit has been created by the movement from 2 to 0, which we might call the process of mysticism. It can now be turned into a state of affairs by the opposite movement from 0 to 2, which is called magick. The first process is comprehended in the path of Aleph (the Fool), the second in the path of Beth (the Magus). The first requires silence, the second incantation or the Word.
In connection with the same passage from The Book of Thoth we read:
The Fool is also, evidently, an aspect of Pan; but this idea is shewn in his fullest development by Atu XV, whose letter is the semi-vowel A’ain, cognate with Aleph.
This is mirrored in the passage from MITAP we were just considering:
He acquires the Eye-Wand, beholding the acting and being adored. The Inverted Pentagram—Baphomet—the Hermaphrodite fully grown—begets himself on himself as V again.
That the Gnostic Mass is aimed at the production of such a being is given in its title of Liber XV, XV being the Roman numeral associated with the Devil card depicting Baphomet. Baphomet is described in the Creed and in Part VIII of the Mass as the Lion-Serpent. In his commentary to AL II.8, Crowley says, “Harpocrates is also the Dwarf-Soul, the Secret Self of every man, the Serpent with the Lion’s Head.” Again, we see the close association between the Holy Guardian Angel and the Eucharist of the Mass, but rather than being in its unmanifest form as Aleph, it has now developed into its manifest form of Baphomet or the Lion-Serpent. The original serpent or spermatozoon of the Priest dissolved into (N)one, only to reemerge with an added leonine (solar) aspect. It was reduced to 1 (the particle), then to none (at HRILIU becoming Aleph), now to reemerge as 2 with the dual form of Lion-Serpent.
The Lion is associated with Leo, which is ruled by the Sun (Lord Visible and Sensible). This is Horus or the extroverted aspect of Heru-Ra-Ha or the Holy Guardian Angel. The serpent is one of three emblems associated with Scorpio (the others being the eagle and the scorpion). Scorpio is attributed to the path of Nun, to which is assigned Atu XIII, Death. Death is the ordeal of the Second Grade of A∴ A∴, Adeptus, wherein Knowledge & Conversation occurs. The serpentine aspect of the Eucharist therefore represents the destructive or corrosive influence of the Holy Guardian Angel on the aspirant. “Serpent” is also the meaning of “Teth,” the path on the Tree of Life associated with Leo and Atu XI which depicts Beast and Babalon conjoined. This is the introverted or Harpocrates aspect of Heru-Ra-Ha. The union of these two symbols in the path of Teth strongly implies that we are not dealing here with two separate individuals (Lords) but rather with the same principle under two descriptions.
Notice how the dual character of the Eucharist as Lion-Serpent reflects the dual roles of the Priest as Priest of the Sun and Priest of the Lord. It is only by virtue of serving both of these roles that the Priest is able to create a Eucharist embodying both of these principles.
I would like to suggest that while the Lord Secret and Most Holy is the Secret Self or Secret Root of each individual, the Lord Visible and Sensible is the outward, visible, characteristic effect of that very same Self as it utilizes life and death for its own continuance “from generation to generation”. From the other side, while the Sun represents the Word Made Flesh, consciousness in time, or God manifest as sexual generation, the Secret Lord represents the utterly transcendent aspect of that process, that which maintains and promotes its self-identity paradoxically through the very same power of death which nullifies its vehicle of manifestation.
As we have seen previously, that BAPHOMET is an eight-lettered name is significant, as 8 is the number associated with Hod on the Tree of Life. This associates the Eucharist of the Mass with Mercury or Christ. This Mercurial Eucharist is a reflection of the original Mercury which served as the seed or sperma of the operation. It is precisely by virtue of its mercurial function that the Lord Secret and Most Holy is able to “continue knowledge from generation unto generation” as described in the fifth Collect. Since each one of us exists by virtue of such a transmission, the Eucharist is able to serve as an eidolon of the saving power of the Holy Spirit within each of us. Hence BAPHOMET as Lion-Serpent or God Made Flesh serves as an appropriate Christ figure for our cult.