The Crown of the Magician

Grigori

I've been researching the crown as a ritual tool. It seems to have fallen out of favour and is not discussed much anymore, but was an important item for Crowley and his peers. Crowley goes so far as to say a magician should not wield the much more common sword, until he is wearing his crown.

Book 4 said:
The Crown of the Magician represents the Attainment of his Work. It is a band of pure gold, on the front of which stand three pentagrams, and on the back a hexagram. The central pentagram contains a diamond or a great opal; the other three symbols contain the Tau. Around this Crown is twined the golden Ureaus serpent, with erect head and expanded hood. Under the Crown is a crimson cap of maintenance, which falls to the shoulders.

Instead of this, the Ateph Crown of Thoth is sometimes worn; for Thoth is the God of Truth, of Wisdom, and the Teacher of Magick. The Ateph Crown has two ram's horns, showing energy, dominion, the force that breaks down obstacles, the sign of the spring. Between these horns is the disk of the sun; from this springs a Lotus upheld by the twin plumes of truth, and three other sun-disks are upheld, one by the cup of the lotus, the others beneath the curving feathers.

There is still another Crown, the Crown of Amoun, the concealed one, from whom the Hebrews borrowed their holy word "Amen." This Crown consists simply of the plumes of truth. But into the symbolism of these it is not necessary to go, for all this and more is in the Crown first described.

The crimson cap implies concealment, and is also symbolical of the flood of glory that pours upon the Magician from above. It is of velvet for the softness of that divine kiss, and crimson for that it is the very blood of God which is its life. The band of gold is the eternal circle of perfection. The three pentagrams symbolize the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, while the hexagram represents the Magician himself. Ordinarily, pentagrams represent the microcosm, hexagrams the macrocosm; but here the reverse is the case, because in this Crown of Perfection, that which is below has become that which is above, and that which is above had become that which is below. If a diamond be worn, it is for the Light which is before all manifestations in form; if an opal, it is to commemorate that sublime plan of the All, to fold and unfold in eternal rapture, to manifest as the Many that the Many may become the One Unmanifest. But this matter is too great for an elementary treatise on Magick.

The Serpent which is coiled about the Crown means many things, or, rather, one thing in many ways. It is the symbol of royalty and of initiation, for the Magician is anointed King and Priest. {108}
It also represents Hadit, of which one can here only quote these words: "I am the secret serpent coiled about to spring; in my coiling there is joy. If I lift up my head, I and my Nuit are one; if I droop down mine head and shoot forth venom, there is rapture of the earth, and I and the earth are one."

The serpent is also the Kundalini serpent, the Magical force itself, the manifesting side of the Godhead of the Magician, whose unmanifested side is peace and silence, of which there is no symbol.
In the Hindu system the Great Work is represented by saying that this serpent, which is normally coiled at the base of the spine, rises with her hood over the head of the Yogi, there to unite with the Lord of all.

The serpent is also he who poisons. It is that force which destroys the manifested Universe. This is also the emerald snake which encircles the Universe. This matter must be studied in Liber LXV, where this is discussed incomparably. In the hood of this serpent are the six jewels, three on each side, Ruby, Emerald, and Sapphire, the three holy elements made perfect, on both sides in equilibrium.
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While googling the Uraeus serpent, I accidentally found a blog devoted (apparently, its in Portuguese so I am making some guesses) to Egyptian artifacts, and it included what seems to be an image of the crown just as described by Crowley. Visible is the Uraeus serpent, and the 3 pentagrams at the front, the centre one containing a white cabochon (diamond?) stone, the others containing the tau. Missing are the jewels on the hood of the serpent and the hexagram at the back is not visible/present. Attached to this post is the image from the blog and also an image of a young Crowley wearing a crown, though it is not the same as the one described in Book 4 (written by an older Crowley).
http://gloria-ao-egito.blogspot.com/2009/09/uraeus.html

Google translator said:
Uraeus is the common term applied to the plow, snake-shaped ornament worn in crowns of gods and pharaohs of ancient Egypt, stands also on the monuments that should be protected. A cobra, pronta para o ataque, com o pescoço dilatado, foi dada aos homens pelo deus-Sol. The snake, ready to attack, with the neck extended, was given to men by the Sun-god.
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Anyways, I guess I don't really have a question, but was interested in a discussion. Does anyone have any thoughts on the image, or on the ritual use of a crown in general? Given the feeling likely/expected by someone wearing a crown, I can see how useful it may be as a tool in ritual.

(PS I have posted to the blog asking the author where the image came from, if anyone speaks Portuguese and may be able to better than my google translator effort, I would be much obliged)
 

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Grigori

I had a reply from the blogger, saying they found the image on the internet. I've replied asking if they can remember where. If anyone has seen it anywhere else please let me know!
 

Professor X

That pic of Crowley is also in Book 4.

It is every powerful picture. I have always been drawn to it for some reason.

That picture has a lot of energy.
 

ravenest

It definatly does not look like an Egyptian artifact to me. Its a modern mock up. The opening page of that site should give it away.

I'd suggest looking at crowns (zillions of types and variations back then) from older Egyptian sources, statues and sculpture to get an idea of the original.

Never really used the crown myself (but used the sword heaps) except in the Gnostic Mass and in a Goetic working (as I was trying to do all the gear in that ritual. It didnt do much for me in that ritual ... I found the 'Magick Ring' interesting and amazingly effective though.)
 

ravenest

oh yeah ...

If you want to make one you can get a reasonable Uraeus crown from a belly-dancing shop., buy some pentagram jewelry (like a pendant - pentagram / hexagram in a circle) some faux jewels from a bead shop and thine own ingenium.
 

Grigori

ravenest said:
It definatly does not look like an Egyptian artifact to me. Its a modern mock up. The opening page of that site should give it away.
Click to expand...

No, I agree. It can't be anything but based on Crowley's description I think, unless Crowley stole his description from somewhere else I can't find a source for. Its just frustrating that the only image I can find is on that blog, and no Crowley site has any such image. It seems the blogger can't remember where they found it, probably another "Egyptian-ish" site, that found it on another, that found it on another etc..

Ravenest said:
If you want to make one you can get a reasonable Uraeus crown from a belly-dancing shop., buy some pentagram jewelry (like a pendant - pentagram / hexagram in a circle) some faux jewels from a bead shop and thine own ingenium.
Click to expand...

A fun weekend activity :D I'd be tempted to retry my hand at that oven bake clay stuff and then lather it with metallic gold paint :D
 

ceewayne

Another good description, albeit shorter is in Liber XV, the Gnostic Mass.

The DEACON brings the crown from the High Altar. (The crown may be of gold or platinum, or of electrum magicum; but with no other metals, save the small proportions necessary to a proper alloy. It may be adorned with divers jewels, at will But it must have the Uraeus serpent twined about it, and the cap of maintenance must match the scarlet of the Robe. Its texture should be velvet.)

http://www.sacred-texts.com/oto/lib15.htm
 

Grigori

Thanks ceewayne :) I decided I would have a go at making my own, if only for a craft exercise. I've made a uraeus crown from polymer clay and baked it until hard. Also 4 disks of polymer clay.

I'm intending to paint with metallic gold and then cover with gold leaf. Then I will paste on the disks and draw onto them the pentagrams, taus, and hexagrams. I bought today some stick-on swarovski crystals, red, green and blue for the serpent's rubies, emeralds and sapphires; and white for the pentagram's diamond.

All going well I should have a pretty respectable custom made gold crown made from real gold, for under $30!

While googling last night I also found this jewelers site, looks like they've had a thelemic customer or two. There is a solid gold uraeus crown, and also a copper, gold and silver disk containing a sun and the word ABRAHADABRA.
http://www.jameslynn-goldsmith.com/extraordinary_jewelry/
 

ceewayne

One last thing

This is from The Cry of the 12th Aethyr, Which is Called LOE from the Vision and the Voice

This is that which is written, "O my God, in one last rapture let me attain to the union with the many." For she is Love, and her love is one, and she hath divided the one love into infinite loves, and each love is one, and equal to The One, and therefore is she passed "from the assembly and the law and the enlightenment unto the anarchy of solitude and darkness. For ever thus must she veil the brilliance of Her Self." O Babylon, Babylon, thou mighty Mother, that ridest upon the crown'd beast, let me be drunken upon the wine of thy fornications; let thy kisses wanton me unto death, that even I, thy cup-bearer, may understand.

The Beast has a Crown...
And Babalon rides upon him
 
Decans Can the Liber T be read just like the Thoth?