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A K E P H A L O S : On the Rite of the Headless One

Matthew Levi Stevens & Emma Doeve

The Rite of the Headless One1 from the Stele of Jeu the Hieroglyphist (PGM V. 96-172 in the
Greek Magical Papyri) is a missing link standing at the crossroads: a product of Antiquity,
all-but-forgotten yet rediscovered at the Dawn of Modern Magic, at first considered a mere
curio, it would be taken up and revised to become nothing less than an essential foundation
stone of Magick in Theory & Practice for the New Aeon, upon which countless other
variations and versions would be based.
This strange and potent Rite, with its heady mix of Egyptian, Greek, Jewish and even
Samaritan ideas of God, barbarous names of invocation and strange words of power, is
quite possibly the entry point of a key concept into the Western Magical Tradition, and
perhaps constitutes the foundation-stone of a whole Occult Tradition all of its own. Its
worldly origins are lost to us in Antiquity, coming down to us in an obscure fragment of
papyrus that was, perhaps, a last desperate attempt to preserve something of the Old World of
the many gods before it was too late, and the new world order of the One True God would
close the door on magic forever or at least try to. Resurfacing as an antiquarian curiosity
in Victorian times, it is undoubtedly the adoption of the Rite by one of the most notorious
enfant terrible of that era, the self-styled Great Beast Aleister Crowley, which has
contributed most to its survival into these Post-Modern Times.
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1 Somewhere between Goodwins Original and Crowleys adaptation, the Greek Akephalos meaning literally
headless but also perhaps without beginning came to be replaced by the approximation Bornless. This
is the name that has stuck ever since, but the present author feels it is more authentic to restore the meaning that,
even if it is stranger, can perhaps be considered more authentic.

Much of contemporary Occultism continues to draw from, and be shaped by, the
foundation laid down at the end of the 19th Century by the Hermetic Order of the Golden
Dawn, and then built upon by not only its most (in)famous student, Aleister Crowley who
took the bones of their Teachings and used them to shape the conceptual framework of his
New Aeon cult of Thelema, and also the Rituals of the various Orders he created (and recreated) to serve it, such as the Argenteum Astrum and the Ordo Templi Orientis, to name but
two. This dual influence continues to spread throughout almost all of Western Magic, and
much of Neo-Paganism in general but also his peers and progeny, from Dion Fortune to
Israel Regardie and Kenneth Grant, and not forgetting that even freewheelers like Austin
Osman Spare and Gerald Gardner also had some acquaintance with or background in the
likes of the A..A.. and O.T.O. So we see this influence crop up again and again, not just
among the usual suspects such as the various groups claiming descent from the Golden
Dawn or Crowley, but also among less obvious heirs - including Chaos Magic, the various
branches of Wicca, Voudon-Gnostic practitioners; and even the Church of Satan with its
various copyists, and a Left Hand Path School like the Temple of Set.
One concept that originates from this wellspring and is indeed symptomatic of just how
widespread its influence has been is that of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy
Guardian Angel: a Rite or even series of Rites that is aimed at connecting the practitioner
with what may be considered as anything from a Higher Self to literally the intermediary or
even embodiment of whatever deity he or she chooses to engage with. Whether it be thought
of as the Genius of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Augoeides of Iamblichus,
the Atman of Hinduism, the Daemon of the ancient Greeks or indeed, either a literal
messenger from the Divine or the idealised embodiment of all that is highest and best in ones
True Self the seeking of Contact with this entity is considered by many to be the central

most important Work in Magic, which should not only come above and before any other, but
of which success (or failure!) is a key determinant as to any further progress.
Aleister Crowley writes in Chapter 83 of Magic Without Tears:
It should never be forgotten for a single moment that the central and essential work of
the Magician is the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy
Guardian Angel.
And in Chapter 21 of his magnum opus Book 4 goes as far as to say:
. . . the Single Supreme Ritual is the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation
of the Holy Guardian Angel. It is the raising of the complete man in a vertical straight
line . . . If the magician needs to perform any other operation than this, it is only
lawful in so far as it is a necessary preliminary to That One Work
The origin of this idea, of attaining to the Knowledge & Conversation of the Holy
Guardian Angel, can be found in The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage,
attributed to one Abraham of Worms2. This classic grimoire had been translated into English
by the head of the Golden Dawn, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, and its system formed
a cornerstone of that Orders method. Aleister Crowley was most likely introduced to it by
either his unofficial mentor within the Order, Alan Bennett, or fellow Initiate George Cecil
Jones (with whom he would later found the Argenteum Astrum, in a short-lived attempt to
create a New! Improved! version of the Golden Dawn). Abramelin presents a long,
complicated program of arduous and gruelling devotions, involving six months of repeated
celibacy, fasting, all-night prayer vigil, meditations and rituals of ever-increasing frequency
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2 This is just one manifestation of the legend of the Jews as Magicians that we will see surface in this tale.

and intensity, requiring the aspirant to take time off from work, marriage and family life, and
also purchase a property just to create the right environment for the Working.
Not surprisingly, this has proven to be a major stumbling-block even for independently
wealthy men like the young Crowley but the lure of a direct hotline to God (or whatever)
that would reveal to you your True Will and give you power over angels, demons, and
elementals, thereby opening up all the powers of magic, was not to be given up in a hurry.
When the Abbey of Thelema was created in Cefalu, Sicily in the 1920s with the express
intent of being a Spiritual College where aspiring adepts could learn how best to discover
their True Wills, the question of attaining to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy
Guardian Angel became a burning one. After a particularly promising Student Frank Bennett
had experienced a spontaneous Gnostic contact, Crowley penned Liber Samekh (first
published as an appendix to his Magick In Theory & Practice) with the hope that it would be
an express handbook for the process. His source for the Ritual he penned was The Rite of The
Headless One, which he had already published as the preliminary invocation of his edition
of The Goetia as far back as 1904. Although the original text of the Stele of Jeu has no
connection whatsoever with the Ars Goetia of the 17th Century Grimoire known as The
Lesser Key of Solomon, in many peoples minds the association has stuck.
The true origins of the Stele of Jeu the Hieroglyphist, who wrote it, when, where, and why
are lost in the mists and myths of antiquity. Little or nothing of any certainty is known, but
we can perhaps imagine along certain lines: the Stele of Jeu3 was most likely written by a
wandering scribe, still able to read Egyptian hieroglyphs, who now eked out a living
_______________
3 It has been suggested that the author was simply a Jew who knew hieroglyphs; some connection has been
made with the Gnostic Books of Jeu. As these are also known as the Books of IEOU a vowel-sequence
obviously suggestive of the Greek Hermetica perhaps such attributions are misleading. Curiously, the Books
deal with the Creation of Aeons by way of Knowledge of a Word.

transcribing texts for a clientele who wanted to be able to access the esoteric wisdom of the
Egyptians, but regrettably were without the ritual framework of temple practice.
Like many of the papyri, this was found in a cache of papers sealed into amphorae and
stashed against discovery and the elements in a cave. The brothers Ali, who were looking for
a stray goat, literally stumbled onto the cache amid pottery fragments, and quickly realised
they were on to something. From there the papyrus made its way, via the then unregulated
black market in Egyptian Antiquities, into the hands of the Swedish consul in Alexandria, a
Mr. Anastasi, who later sold it to the British Museum in London.
The first translation to appear anywhere was by Charles Wycliffe Goodwin, published in
1852 as Fragment of a Graeco-Egyptian Work Upon Magic. Born in 1817, Goodwin was a
Bible Scholar, Egyptologist, and lawyer who in 1865 became Assistant Judge of the British
Supreme Court for China and Japan. Goodwin was something of a man of letters as well as
writing for the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, editing and translating Anglo-Saxon lives of
the Saints, and contributing to the Literary Gazette, he was also for many years music critic
for The Guardian but it is for his deep-seated love of Egyptology that we are interested in
him here. His engagement with all things Egyptian apparently began at the age of 9, when he
read an article on Hieroglyphics in the Edinburgh Review for December 1826, and
throughout his life he would write and lecture extensively on related subjects, corresponding
with the leading Egyptologists of the day, and his work on hieratic was credited as a genuine
revolution in the science.
As for the Fragment itself, Goodwin is fairly scathing in his comments upon the text,
dismissing the combination of Egyptian, Greek, and Jewish terms as symptomatic of the
confusion of the more pagan Gnostics, and the words of power as being akin to the gibberish

of the superstitious primitive. Despite this, it came to the attention of Mathers and his Golden
Dawn who thought it was just the sort of thing they needed to lend their ritual theatrics a
touch of Graeco-Egyptian authenticity. (I would commend those with a greater interest to
turn their attention to excellent work on the subject by Israel Regardie or Alex Sumner.)

AKEPHALOS:
Being an attempted restoration of The Rite of the Headless One, according to
The Stele of Jeu the Hieroglyphist.

Here is an outline of the Rite of the Headless One, based on the text given in the Stele of
Jeu the Hieroglyphist, with my attempt at a pronunciation guide (in brackets), for English
speakers who did not have the benefit of a Classical Education including Ancient Greek4.
First write the Characters of the Names ATH ABRATH BASYM ISAK SABATH
IA on a strip of clean papyrus. As in this first instance the Names are to be written, rather
than spoken, it makes more sense to me that this should be done in the original Greek
characters:

Having done so, mark either end of the Strip with the Beneficial Sign:

_______________
4 Our pronunciation guide runs as follows: t to be pronounced with a slight aspiration, as if a breathy h
follows; R an attempt at that rolled R that English-speakers find so challenging; a, e, i, o, u to be sounded
LONG, except the likes of ar, er, etc. to be pronounced as they look; otherwise I have spelled out the
phonetics as literally as I can.

Then hold the strip to your forehead, stretched from temple to temple, the Names facing
Outward. Take up position at your altar, or other place of Working, and face North. Visualise
the Strip as a Serpent swallowing its own tail, and vibrate the Names:
ATH ABRATH BASYM ISAK SABATH IA
(Ar-ot arb-Ra-rot bar-zoom ee-zark zar-ba-rot ee-ar-o)
As you do so, imagine your mind expanding to the very limits of Consciousness, until the
Ourobourous encircles the Cosmos, the Names you have vibrated radiating out through the
Universe, and begin to recite the following, vibrating the Names & Words of Power where
indicated:
I summon you, the Headless One,
who created the Earth and the Heavens
who created the night and the day
you who created the light and the darkness
you are Osoronnophris, whom none has ever seen
you are Iabas, you are Iapos
you have distinguished the just and the unjust
you have made the female and the male
you have revealed the seed and the fruits
you have made men love each other and hate each other.
I am Moses your prophet, to whom you have transmitted your mysteries celebrated by Israel

you have revealed the moist and the dry and all nourishment,
hear me!
I am the messenger of Osoronnophris5
this is your true name which has been transmitted to the Prophets of Israel.
Hear me,
ARBATHIAO

REIBET

ATHELEBERSETH

ARA

BLATHA

ALBEU

EBENPHCHI CHITASGOE IBAOTH IAO


(ar-R-bar-t-ee-ar-o Re-ee-bet ar-t-el-eb-eR-set ar-Ra blartar arl-bew eh-behnF-khee khtars-go-ee ee-bar-ot ee-ar-o)
listen to me and turn away this daimon.
I call upon you, awesome and invisible god with an empty spirit
AROGOGROROBRAO SOCHOU MODORIO PHALARCHAO OOO
(ar-Rog-og-Ro-Rob-Rar-o so-khoo mo-do-Rio F-ar-lar-R-khar-o o-o-o)
Holy Headless One, deliver me, (your name), from the daimon which restrains me,
ROUBRIAO

MARI

ODAM

BAABNAOTH

ASS

ADONAI

APHNIAO

ITHOLETH ABRASAX AEOOY


(Roob-Ree-ar-o mar-R-ee o-darm bar-arb-nar-ot arz-ss ar-don-ey ar-F-nee-ar-o
eeto-let ar-bR-ar-zarks ar-er-o-o-oo)
_______________
5 The obvious interpretation is that this name is a form of Osiris; one of Crowleys perhaps more credible
innovations is that this is a corruption of the Egyptian Asar-un-nefer, meaning Myself made Perfect.

Mighty Headless One, deliver me, (your name), from the daimon which restrains me,
MABARRAIO IOEL KOTHA ATHOREBALO ABRAOTH
(mar-bar-R-rar-ee-o ee-o-el ko-tar arto-R-eeb-ar-lo arb-ra-rot)
deliver me, (your name),
AOTH ABRAOTH BASYM ISAK SABAOTH IAO
(ar-ot arb-ra-rot bar-zoom ee-zark zar-bar-ot ee-ar-o)
He is the Lord of the gods,
He is the Lord of the inhabited world
He is the one whom the winds fear
He is the one who made all things by the command of his voice.
Lord, Sovereign, Master, Assistant,
Deliver this Soul
IEOU PYR IOU PYR IAOT IAEO IOOW ABRASAX SABRIAM OO YY
AY OO YY ADONAIE
(ee-eh-oo poo-R ee-oo poo-R ee-ar-ot ee-ar-er-o ee-o-o-oo ar-bR-ar-zarks sarbR-ee-em o-o oo-oo ey o-o ee-ee ar-don-ar-ee-ay)
quickly, quickly, good Messenger of God!
ANLALA LAI GAIA APA DIACHANNA CHORYN
(arn-lar-lar lar-ee g-ay-ar arp-ar d-ay-ar-kharn-nar kho-R-oon)

I am the Headless daimon with my sight in my feet


I am the mighty one who possesses the immortal fire
I am the truth who hates the fact that unjust deeds are done in the world
I am the one who makes the lightning flash and the thunder roll
I am the one whose sweat is the heavy rain which falls upon the earth that it might be made
fertile
I am the one whose mouth shoots forth tongues of fire
I am the one who begets and destroys
I am the Word of the Aion
My name is a heart encircled by a serpent
Come Forth and Follow.
Upon successful completion of the Rite, it is said that the Headless6 One will appear and:
Subject to you all daimons, so that every daimon, whether heavenly or aerial or
earthly or subterranean or terrestrial or aquatic, might be obedient to you and every
spell and scourge which is from God. And all daimons will be obedient to you.
What more could you want?

_______________
6 Somewhere between Goodwins Original and Crowleys adaptation, the Greek Akephalos meaning literally
headless but also perhaps without beginning came to be replaced by the approximation Bornless. This
is the name that has stuck ever since, but the present author feels it is more authentic to restore the meaning that,
even if it is stranger, can perhaps be considered more authentic.

A K E P H A L O S : Some Closing Remarks

One of the central premises of The Rite of the Bornless One is that Man can Act as God.
Goodwin quotes Porphyry in regard to this heresy:
The magician lies in order to compel the heavenly powers to tell the truth: for when
he threatens to shake the heavens, or to reveal the mysteries of Isis, or the secret thing
that lies hid at Abydos, or to stop the sacred boat, or to scatter the limbs of Osiris to
Typhon, what a height of madness does it imply in the man who thus threatens what
he neither understands nor is able to perform . . .
I see the text as a survival of the Egyptian origins of theurgy. Egyptian priests generally
divided their time in office between two particular types of role:
sems-neter, where they were in the service of the gods performing mostly temple
duties, officiating at ceremonies, and the like;
and
paxer-neter, where they were literally acting as gods to cast spells, perform
divination, etc.
Here, perhaps, is one of the beginnings of the split between what have come to be thought of
as all-too-separate categories: religion in the case of the former, and magic in the case of
the latter.
The Rite of the Headless One draws on (at the time of writing) newly established ideas of
Moses as prototype magus: The Man who saw God face-to-face, and came back with His
Word to impart His Law, and Act in His Authority. In his Vita Mosis, Philo of Alexandria, a

contemporary of Christ and the Apostles, adds to the already accepted notion of Moses as
Prophet and Lawgiver the concept that the superior magician represents a Logos (Word)
and articulates a Nomos (Law), based on that Logos; secondly, that such a Magus no longer
needs to be transported in ecstasy like the shamans of old to receive intimations of the Divine
or experience the OtherWise, but can instead be raised up so that he apprehends them by
direct personal knowledge, or Gnosis. As such, The Rite of the Headless One may be seen as
the seed by which the ultimate blasphemy against the spiritual monopoly of the monotheist
religions survives to later re-manifest in our Post-Modern world: for surely the goal of the
Magus has always been, rather than merely to know the Will of God and be its instrument or
vessel, to Act as such in their own right?
Perhaps in the final analysis it is meaningless to ask whether one can ever truly act above
whatever notion of God or the gods one has, but maybe it is enough to decide in which
direction ones actions and intent are directed: whether to serve in anothers kingdom, or seek
to assert ones own. To my mind the fact that The Rite of the Headless One is a survival from
a time when such options were still considered, and is not a Working whose end result is an
ecstatic union with the Divine rather one in which an identification with the Divine, and a
claiming of the ability to act as such, is asserted, and of necessity is to be repeated makes it
an ideal tool for those of our times who would truly seek to walk the Path of the Magus, and
in so doing speak the Word that establishes a Law, and in so doing creates a World.
Few are Called Fewer will Try Fewest still will Succeed.

Matthew Levi Stevens & Emma Doeve

Bibliography:
Betz, Hans Dieter
The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, including the Demotic Spells (1986 University of Chicago
Press, Chicago)
Crowley, Aleister
The Goetia (1904 Society for the Propagation of Religious Truth, Boleskine Foyers Inverness),
The Confessions (1929 Mandrake Press, London),
Book 4 (1913 Wieland & Co., London),
Magic Without Tears (1954 Thelema Publishing Co., Hampton, New Jersey)
Flowers, Stephen E.
Hermetic Magic (1995 Weiser Books, New York)
Goodwin, Charles Wycliffe
Fragment of Graeco-Egyptian Work on Magic (1852 Deighton, Macmillan & Co, Cambridge)
Kaczynski, Richard
Perdurabo (2002 New Falcon Publications, Tempe, Arizona)
Regardie, Israel
Ceremonial Magic (1980 Aquarian Press, Great Britain)
Sumner, Alex
The Bornless Ritual (2004), online @ http://www.jwmt.org/v1n7/bornless.html
Webb, Don
Seven Faces of Darkness (1996 Runa-Raven, Smithville, Texas)

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