The True History of Christianity 401 Alchemy was not always used honourably. During the reign of Diocletian Roman alchemists became embroiled in a series of major counterfeiting scams, through the mass production of fake gold, that flooded the market place. The sheer scale of their activities almost brought the state coffers to the brink of ruination and led to an imperial decree commanding the immolation of an immense range of alchemical texts. There are no records of where these Roman alchemists escaped to, or how many treatises escaped the purges. Alchemical treatises were not the only ones subjected to state retribution. Al-Nadim states; “A reliable person has told me that the Romans burned fifteen loads of Archimedes books”, adding that their motive for doing so was very involved, so much so that it would take a long time to relate. By my estimation these books must have been regarded as seditious or threatening to prevailing religious or secular institutions. The counterfeiting theme re-emerges later in early Mediaeval history. Saxons manufactured false bullion by gilding bronze ingots, perhaps using some alchemical process.1647 During their resettlement to Gaul by Mummolus they swindled a great many townsfolk along the migration route.1647 Books used by the alchemists: The Picatrix by Thabit Ibn Qurra (d 901 AD). On Instruments and Furnaces by Zosimus of Panoplis, and the writings of Democritus of Alexandria, Geber, Rhasis and Avicenna. All written in Arabic, Latin and Greek; they once had limited, but esteemed readership. Gnostic magic HIGH MAGIC RELIGION Pagan or Biblical Gnostic. THE SOURCE OF THE POWER The term pagan Gnosticism has its origins in the Greek word Gnosis, which means “knowledge”. Therefore ARCHONS AND AEONS WERE CONNECTED WITH pagan Gnosticism was the pagan Gnosis, ie; the special things that the pagans knew. Pagan Gnostics excelled in all THE PLANETS AND kinds of Gnosis, namely the sciences, medicine, mathematics, philosophy, poetry, religious ritual, gem-craft, music, SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC idol-making, drama, politics, astronomy, astrology, rhetoric, magical apparatus and the worship of the Gods of Greece, Chaldea and Egypt, in addition to daemones (under certain circumstances). Although a large portion of their knowledge was concerned with understanding the physical world in which we live (ie; “science”), the remainder of it related to religious matters, in particular, teachings about a perfect celestial being known as “the Great Spirit”. Beneath him were other spiritual emanations of himself (namely gods, archons, aeons, genii and daemones) who performed services for him in the world, such as the serpentine intelligence called Hermes, the Psychopomp, patron of all the arts. PAGAN GNOSTIC INCANTATIONS Pagan Gnostic (and Biblical Gnostic) power dwelt in the many light or dark androgynous angels who budded from the supreme god’s own spirit, and who bestowed gifts and benefits to those who knew how to summon them. These spirits were inalienably linked to human fate, and coupled with the seven planets and 12 signs of the zodiac. As mentioned by Iamblichus, pagan Gnostics felt a need to conjure the aid of these aerie demons, elder gods and heroes (such as Hercules) in the upper and lower atmosphere, which held the bonds of our fate in their hands. The key to these invocations were time-honoured magical rituals, lamellae, power gems, foils, or specialised algebraic incantations and prayers, such as OOOOO uuuuuu OOOOOOOOOOOO OOO Zozazoth1648 or eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee aaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaa OOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOO.1649 The magical vocalisations in this instance were formerly used by the Sethian serpent Gnostics of Egypt. The following pagan Egyptian incantation against illness (found written on a papyrus dating to the 3rd Century THEY SUMMONED AD) is particularly illustrative of how such an incantation might be used.1650 DAEMONES, ARCHONS AND AEONS USING JEALOUSLY GUARDED “(ia)rbath agrammê fiblô chnêmeô INCANTATIONS (a e)e êêê iiii ooooo uuuuuu ôôôôôô(ô) Lord Gods, heal Helena, daughter of (..) from every illness and every shivering and (fever), ephemeral, quotidian, tertian, quar(tan), iarbath agrammê fiblô chnêmeô 402 The True History of Christianity aeêiouôôuoiêea eêiouôôuoiêe êiouôôuoiê iouôôuoi ouôôuo uôôu uuuuu ôô” 1650 While such utterances seem like gibberish to the uninitiated, they were formed in a prescribed manner. Appearances are deceptive; Gnostic incantations only appeared to be chaotic and jumbled in nature. According to the Sethian prophet Marsanes, their incantations normally contained long strings of vowels, sounds thought to be receptacles of celestial power. The silent quality of the pause, the pitch, rhythm and timbre all affected the invocation of the “angel” or Archon, and were of crucial importance to the efficacy of the magic. Improper utterances would most likely have resulted in failure. Incantations resembling those of the pagan Gnostics were known in some parts of Europe, even as late as the early Middle Ages. As isolated as these examples may be, they have been found in Scandinavia and Frisia, incised into wands. According to Kieckhefer, this variety of wand (fig 87.2) tends to predominate in Denmark, and many places where the Danes settled. The incantation aaaaaaaaRRRnnn.bmuttt alu1651 was found on one particular wand, a nonsensical string of characters untranslatable in Dansk Tongr, which halted abruptly with the Norse power word “alu”. Thus it had an apparent magical meaning, which must have had some significance for the user. Nonetheless modern runologists have been unable to field a possible interpretation for it. An answer to this problematic question might be found in the writings of the Gnostic prophet Marsanes, who provided a lengthy discourse on the ether-penetrating virtues of vowels, dipthongs and consonants.1652 By Fig 87.1 Supposedly a comparing the Norse exemplar with known Gnostic inscriptions,1653 and applying information within the Coptic depiction of Christ raising Nag Hammadi texts (particularly those of Marsanes), we could come up with the following explanation for this Lazarus from the dead. However I see it as a inscription, but in truth, its fullest meaning may not have been known even to the sorcerer. It was most likely a Gnostic magician solar invocation, denoted by the a’s, perhaps in unison with several male archons and minor angels. Maybe an wielding a wand similar additional entity was summoned by calling upon them collectively by the correct utterance of the name. Whether to the Lindholm example. they were long or short a’s was also significant, since short letters were of less account than long ones (which resonated with power). The liquid consonant “R” was most likely what Marsanes referred to as a semi-vowel, a consonant which sounded like a vowel when used in a word. A triple letter imparted a male archontic power meaning. These groups were then joined together by combinations of inferior consonants, known as intermediaries, whose full significance was just a matter of faith, something not revealed to the initiate. Consonants were always to be truncated by vowels. Singular letters were often dictated to, and mastered by the name and nature of the preceding, or succeeding power letter, but in some cases they carried some powerful influences. So, is it a coincidence that there were some eight consecutive a’s, three groups of triple consonants, plus three individual consonants? Could “alu” be a corruption of the Egyptian “power-word” for magical energy; “akhu”? 1654 Could the “bmuttt” on the wand be a rending of the the Egyptian word “mut”1655 (meaning “a soul of the dead”), and if so was the wand used to summon the dead using the power of the sun? Is it a coincidence that the overall shape of the wands resembles one supposedly used in the raising of Lazarus from the dead (fig 87.1)? Perceptible similarities between the Norse and Egyptian magical incantations are all the more intriguing once you discover what an Arab Traveller, one Al-Tartushi, had to say about the 10th Century Danes of Heidby. Around 935 AD Al-Tartushi informs us in the Travel book of Ibrahim Ibn Jakub that Heidby’s Norsemen worshiped the constellation of Sirius as a god (as did the Egyptians and Magi), to which they sacrificed swine, cattle and rams, Fig 87. 2 The Norse which were hoisted aloft on stakes. It is a matter of great curiosity that he describes male and female Danes wearing eye Lindholm wand with the makeup. The closest parallel to this is of course ancient Mesopotamia (especially Chaldea) and Egypt. Al-Tartushi aaaaaaaaRRRnnn.bmuttt alu inscription. further reported they sang disturbing growling songs from the throat, like dogs. All in all, the vocalisations of Gnostic vowel incantations must have sounded like insane undulating squealing, or even growling.1656 So, in light of the similarities between the Norse inscriptions and the Alexandrian Gnostic incantations, were the Danes The True History of Christianity 403 intentionally making dog sounds? or was it drunken babble? or, perhaps an aaaaaaeeeooooooiiiuuoooaa or other Gnostic hymn or vowel incantation like that found on the Lindholm wand? Al-Tartushi added that he found their songs very unnerving. What is more, the Norse Volva prophetesses used what they termed sethir magic, which in one surviving account required them to ascended a dais. Someone present in the gathering assembled before the Volva began singing songs, as the prophetess entered into a trance. We might ask if there was a connection between Norse Sethir magic, the Danish growling songs, the Sethian-style wand inscriptions of the Norsemen, and the magic of the Sethian serpent Gnostics (who may well have sent their greatest holy books to the Crimea, a location where Norsemen could conceivably come into contact with such teachings)? The power, prophesies and magic utilised by the Greek pagan Gnostics were rendered all the more powerful through the intermediaton of the Great Serpent, or as Malleus Maleficarum called it, the Pythonean genius.