the neck to fend off vampires. More particularly, it applies to the “Eye of Horus,” which is a wooden phallus used to avert the “evil eye.” However, all apotropaics are defenses against some sort of “eye” and the purpose of the object is to engage the attention of said eye and detour its malevolence. Hence the more startling or unusual the device, the better.
AQUARIUS — The llth Sign, the number of wizardry — electronic as well as esoteric. The sign of astronomy, no less than astrology, and above all, the sign of Independence and service to the world. The new precessional beginning of the zodiac, heading the New Age. It is the emblem and inspiration of “Man”: “Henceforth the Son of Man Appeareth in the Heavens.”
In 1929 Jung wrote that we would enter the first star of Aquarius in 1940, adding, “That would be the turning point. We may look for a new development about that time.” Famous Aquarians: Lincoln, Thomas Paine, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Edison, Lindbergh, Dickens, Jules Verne.
ARACHNE —The Spider. 13th Month of the proposed “Newtime” calendar to begin at the winter solstice of 2000 A.D. From a possible corruption of the early Pagan or Druidic 13th zodiacal sign Auriga, The Charioteer. That there were originally 13 signs in the zodiac goes back, probably, to Osiris’ body being dismembered into 13 parts. Reference should be made to James Vogh’s Arachne Rising, wherein he points out that Auriga (or Arachne), lying as it does between Taurus and Gemini, is the logical placement for the 13th sign and appears to have been so designated by the Druids.
There are others who cite Ophiuchus, The Serpent Holder, as the more logical 13th month. Ophiuchus (between Scorpio and Sagittarius) is even cited by some as the Age we are now inhabiting, rather than Pisces or Aquarius, and that it began in the early 1940’s.
ARCHANGELS — Guardians of the ten Sephiroth of the Qabalah: Metatron, Ratziel, Tzaphkiel, Tzadkiel, Chamael, Raphael, Haniel, Michael, Gabriel, Sandalphon. It is useful to know their names in order to work gematria, temurah and notariqons which will yield further information about the Sephiroth.
ARCHON — On the mundane plane, a temporal ruler. Each magician has his own dimension over which he is its Archon. In Gnosticism, the Archons were planetary rulers, the planets representing as they did, spiritual worlds through which the soul, as in Ancient Egypt, passed after death. In order to pass from one sphere to the next, the soul had to be able to recite the proper password, or give the name of the corresponding Archon. This is the “sacred knowledge” that Gnosticism (or “Knowing”) was concerned with. Archons, however, are rulers of the earth and universe, which are the evil, inferior realms composed of souls imprisoned in matter — that’s why special or privileged knowlege is necessary to get past them.
ARIES — The Ram, first sign of the zodiac and all beginnings. The Great Beginner. Sign of spring, freedom, leadership and the emblem of the initiator in all things. The ram’s horn or shofar is still the rallying call of Judaism, which began at the beginning of the Arietian Age over 4000 years ago. The Ram is the unifying Emperor because he is the head of the world, the mansion of the exaltation of the Sun. And the most powerful number is One, the Ace that tops the multitudes.
Aries, being the individual, represents the uniqueness of all monads. Famous Arietians: Charlemagne, Bismarck, Jefferson, Cesar Chavez, Raphael, Swinburne, Wilhelm Reich, Dane Rudhyar, Houdini, Hans Christian Andersen, Rachmaninoff, Descartes, Joseph Campbell.
ARITHMOSOPHY — Numerology, but specifically Bertiaux’s breaking down of words into numbers for one of his alternate universes.
ARMAGEDDON — The Plain of Meggido, a site of traditional battles in ancient Canaan. According to the bible this is where the last mighty battle in the War between the armies of Light and Darkness will culminate and climax in the Day of Judgment. It should be understood that this is not an ordinary war between nations, but a spiritual conflict occurring within the human collective unconscious. Meggido is the symbol of the world and it is in the world that the Great War is now being waged. Its effects are felt when Megiddo is known as a place of mourning where great kings of Judah were slain and it seems therefore that error has taken the place of ideals.
ARMANISM — Ancient Teutonic pagan priesthood exterminated by the Christians. One of the streams that was diverted by the Nazis to feed directly into their metaphysics.
ARRA — (Or “Ur.”) Star-stone of the covenant of the Elder Gods — as in the Necronomicon’s Chaldean oath, “They who gave it to us will not forget us. They have sworn: Spirit of the Skies, Remember!”
Also known, HPL says, as the “Elder Sign,” the five-pointed sigil “carven of gray stone from ancient Mnar,” the glyph of the Elder Gods whose sway over the Great Old Ones remains incontestable. The star-stone spells and incantations are only stand-ins for the Elder Gods themselves. They may not therefore be strong enough, in the end, to resist the Great Old Ones, but who holds the Arra can control any lesser creature. And such also are legion.
AS IF — In Eckankar chelas are taught that the senses contain all manifestation. Imagination, in the field of Maya, if exercised properly will create an effect by the chela who acts “as if” it has already happened. We have only to recognize that we have already reached God-Consciousness.
ASPECT — One of the forms or faces of a god (Father: Son: Holy Ghost or Brahma/Vishnu/ Shiva). A human being’s aspect can be considered one of his traditional roles, as an actor has certain well-known “character parts.”
ASTRAL LIGHT — (HPB calls it “astral fluid.”) In Hinduism this is an invisible aura surrounding the earth and is the life-energy of the cosmos itself. It acts as a storehouse for all the energies of the cosmos and contains (eternal?) “holograms” of everything that transpires (or has transpired?) on the physical or astral planes.
Others refer to it as the “cosmic switchboard” or the “collective unconscious” that connects all individual minds to Mind, or Omniscience. The magician operates within it always inside a consecrated bubble so as not to be influenced or harmed by its infinite cross-currents.
It is so fluid and tenuous that the slightest act of the will or imagination can cause it to bend in the magician’s desired direction.
ASTRAL PLANE — A mental world shared by dreamers, OOBE travelers, perichoretic visitants, newly dead, beings/spirits from other worlds who have lived lives on other planets and so on. Here are also the formidable, native “Kamadevas” and finally the lower devic orders, including the elementals and those who provide us with the spirit of a place (genius loci). Alchemical “elementals” also exist here, as do all the undespatched, artificial creations of magicians (Tibetan magi, for instance, are adept at creating thought-creatures tulpas). Many of the astral creations become powerful symbols or Jungian archetypes — collectively created.
We already exist on the A. P., as we exist on the physical plane. We have but to experience it consciously. Marc Edmund Jones says that it is the level of experience for simple individuality or is our “first transcendency of physical cause and effect.” The Astral Plane is constructed by the mental imagery of those who travel there. (Xtians think themselves in heaven, others imagine they are wherever their fancy takes them.) Astral is the first type of matter, much more subtle than our present version. As far as we’re concerned, on the astral plane, there is no “material” reality, even though everything vaguely resembles our world. Things behave like the material world, except that the character of things is worn on the outside, rather than hidden inside as on earth. This is because the Astral lies midway between material earth and the spirit worlds, qabalistically on the Yesodic
