Glossary of Magical & Qabalistic Terminology (3)

 

 Heru-ra-ha: The Egyptian double god whose twin aspects are Hoor-paar-kraat, the hidden universe, and Ra Hoor Khuit, the manifested universe. These twin aspects are similar to those embodied by the twins Set and Horus. 
Set and Horus (the Greek name for Heru) are sometimes represented (notably, at Aunnu) as the double god Heru-Set who like Heru-ra-ha, stands as a bridge across the Abyss, invisible and visible, dwelling in both eternity and in time. 
Heru-ra-ha (sometimes simply called Horus, although there are many Horus gods) is the god presiding over the Aeon or eternity in which dwell the souls of the “Imperishable Ones” who dwell forever in the body of Nuit. He is the guardian of the great threshold called the Abyss, and the Lord of the Last Judgement. Qabalistically, Heru-ra-ha adds to 418 – see “Abrahadabra”. (See also Aeon; Hoor-paar-kraat; Horus; Nuit; Ra Hoor Khuit; Set) Holy Guardian Angel: The Holy Guardian Angel is the spiritual counterpart or double of man’s natural soul. From the point of view of the natural soul, i.e. human consciousness, the Angel is an objective being. Like the Egyptian god Set, he is always where consciousness is not. His manifestation or body is what the ancient Egyptians called a Khu; his heart they called a Khabs. 
In the Four Worlds of the traditional Qabalah, the natural soul (known to the Egyptians as the Ka) is fallen and dwells in Assiah, the material world. The Angel rules over Yetzirah, the formative world. The Angel’s function is to receive the Word of the True Will and communicate it to the natural soul. For such communication to take place, the soul has to unite with the Angel in love under will – the magical formula of the Aeon of Horus given by Nuit in Liber AL vel Legis. Through this union the Holy Guardian Angel consumes the life and substance of the natural soul or Ka. Thus the substance of the natural soul is transmuted into a body for the Holy Guardian Angel. This body or Khu is of the same essence as the body of Nuit, the company of heaven dwelling in the creative world, Briah. The Angel and the soul then form one body and one spirit, a Khu and a Khabs. Their substance has become identical to that of the celestial Khabs and Khu, the worlds of Briah and Atziluth, into whose lives they are able to pass to be born forever as a star in the company of heaven. 
The Holy Guardian Angel is a poetic metaphor used by Iamblichus in his De Mysteriis for the being who is also referred to as the Augoeides (a Greek word derived from Augos, meaning “morning light”), Redeemer, the Messiah, the Alpha and Omega (personified as a Word made flesh) or simply, the Way. In Liber AL vel Legis the Khu and the Khabs are also referred to as the Scarlet Woman and the Beast. (See also Beast, Fall, Ka, Khabs, Khu, Heaven, and Scarlet Woman; Set) Hoor-paar-kraat: The Egyptian god of silence, the hidden aspect of the double god Heru-ra-ha and equivalent of the god Set. As latent and withdrawn, Hoor-paar-kraat is the dwarf-self, Holy Guardian Angel or Khabs who, when fertilised by the divine Word, comes to manifestation as his twin Ra Hoor Khuit. (See also Heru-ra-ha; Ra Hoor Khuit; Set) Horus: The Greek form of the Egyptian god named Heru or Hoor (Coptic), of which there are many forms. Horus generally represents consciousness moving across time and eternity, transcending death. He is “that which rises up”. As such, he is the Beast of Liber AL vel Legis. 
Each aspect of Horus corresponds to a particular phase in this great life cycle. The Egyptian name HRU means “countenance; face; sky; day”. It is composed of the letter H, the letter of “breath”, added to RU, “mouth”, therefore meaning “the breath of Ra” – which was one of his many titles and attributes. 
The name Horus is related to the Greek word hora, meaning “season, hour”. This relationship points to the changeable nature of consciousness embodied by Horus as it passes through the various stages of creation. 
Horus is the twin of Set. He is the solar hero who represents consciousness emerging triumphant from the dark womb of his mother Nuit, Typhon or Draco. This victory comes after a long battle against the natural forces of dispersion embodied by the god Set, the opposer who perpetually attempts to slay Horus. Horus rules over both heaven and earth. His power is double, and its symbol is the Egyptian Sphinx. 
The Horus form most closely associated with the Sphinx is Hrumachis, one of the aspects of the god mentioned in Liber AL vel Legis. Other aspects of Horus are referred to as: Heru-ra-ha, Hoor-paar-kraat and Ra Hoor Khuit. Gods such as Tum, Ahathoor and Khephra are representations of the mutation of consciousness through the Horus cycle.
The ancient Egyptians attributed the god Horus to the planet Saturn. On the Tree of Life, Saturn corresponds to the sphere of Binah and the World of Briah, heaven. The Aeon of Horus thus represents the eternal life of the body of Nuit, the company of heaven. Saturn is the planet that rules the zodiacal sign of Aquarius; the Law of Thelema, which is the Law of the Aeon of Horus, was transmitted on the threshold of the Age of Aquarius. (See Aeon; Briah; Ahathoor; Heaven, Company of; Heru-ra-ha; Hoor-paar-kraat; Khephra; Nuit; Ra-hoor-khuit; Set; Sphinx; Thelema; Tum) Hrumachis (or Harmachis): The Greek name of the Egyptian god Heru-khuti, also known as “Horus of the two horizons”, who represents the sun in his daily course across the sky from sunrise to sunset. Hrumachis is the god of the Sphinx, symbol of the duality of the manifested universe. As the god of the two horizons, Hrumachis is the embodiment of the principles of change, mutability and metamorphosis that characterise the life cycle of creation. Various Horus gods such as Ahathoor and Ra Hoor Khuit are all forms of Hrumachis. Other Egyptian gods mentioned in Liber AL vel Legis, including Hoor-paar-kraat, Tum and Khephra, correspond to the invisible or un-manifested phases of the universal life cycle, or the frontiers thereof. The Horus god who stands as a bridge between the worlds is Heru-ra-ha, a double god whose twin aspects are Hoor-paar-kraat (the invisible universe) and Ra-hoor-khuit (the visible universe). The chief shrines of Hrumachis were at Aunnu (Heliopolis). (See also Ahathoor; Heru-ra-ha; Hoor-paar-kraat; Horus; Khephra; Ra-hoor-khuit; Sphinx) Initiation – Egyptian Centres of: Over the course of nearly three thousand years of history a myriad of initiation centres flourished in dynastic Egypt. Most were established along the Nile, which the Egyptians saw as a personification of the life current that sustains the universe. Five of these centres grew to be of particular importance in Egypt’s history. 
Starting from Upper Egypt, these are: Thebes, Abydos, Hermopolis, Memphis, and Aunnu. Memphis is situated at the crossroads between Upper and Lower Egypt, and Aunnu (named Heliopolis by the Greeks) was located at the entrance of the Nile delta, across the river from the plateau of Giza where stood the Sphinx and the Pyramids. 
Of these five centres, Abydos was the most exoteric. It was the seat of large public performances of the mysteries, and a popular pilgrimage centre. It was at Abydos that many of the complex and esoteric themes of other centres were presented to the populace. The primary deities worshipped at Abydos were Osiris and Anubis, as well as the god Khentamentiu who became gradually absorbed by the cult of Osiris. 
Of greater esoteric significance were the mysteries of Thebes, Hermopolis, Memphis and Heliopolis (Aunnu). Uppermost and furthermost is Thebes (Karnak); the centre dedicated to the gods Atum, Mut, and their child Khonsu, the Moon. 
The work of the priesthood of Thebes was particularly involved with the time cycles or kalas animating the life of the goddess worshipped there as the hippopotamus Apet. These cycles were understood to manifest the life of Amoun, the Hidden God dwelling inside the goddess. Thebes was therefore the centre most concerned with the passage of eternity into time, and with the life movement or current that results, including the great cycle known as the precession of the equinoxes. 
Next down the course of the Nile is Hermopolis, the city of Hermes-Thoth. Thoth is the god ruling over the principle of creation by division and doubling, through which spirit acquires a shadow: matter. The formation and transformation of matter was the focus of the work performed at the next centre down the Nile, Memphis. The material “double” was understood by the initiates of Memphis to be fashioned by the god Ptah-Sokar, the blacksmith who gives matter its form, and conversely transfigures matter back to spirit after death. Following Memphis comes Aunnu, the “pillared city” where “the King comes forth between the thighs of the divine Nines”. Aunnu was the physical location of the Primordial Mound, the place of birth of the Ever-becoming One and the point at which light enters the world. There, the Word was made flesh. (See also Aunnu, Hermopolis, Memphis, and Thebes) Ka: The Ka is man’s astral double, the natural soul. The Egyptian hieroglyph of the Ka is two upraised hands and arms. The nature of the Ka is itself double. In Egyptian symbolism the gods Set and Horus represent the dual Ka of the Initiate or King, and stand on either side of him. In the non-initiate, the double Ka is housed – or imprisoned – by its feminine counterpart, Khaibet, which is often depicted as a shadow form of the person. Any man or woman has a Ka and a Khaibet, but without being polarised and thus liberated through Initiation, the Ka is subject to the desire-impulses arising from the shadow. 
The Khaibet, or shadow, is itself bound up with the human identity or ego (which is that part of the shadow we think of as being ‘ourselves’). The Ka double cannot therefore achieve its spiritual purpose, which is to offer its substance to the Holy Guardian Angel or Khabs for the formation of a Khu, by which the Khabs star can be “fixed”. 
Through repeated union with the Angel, the Khaibet, which has no essential reality or substance, drops away like a shell (qlipha) or husk. The liberated dual principles Horus and Set then divide by the power of the sword of Zayin. Through their polarity, they cause Hadit (the flame of life arising from darkness) to awaken and arise towards his Nuit (infinite bliss). (See also Holy Guardian Angel; Horus; Khabs; Khu; Qliphoth; Set) Go to Glossary 4 Return to the top of page Ordo Astri home pageGlossary_1.htmlGlossary_1.htmlGlossary_4.htmlGlossary_4.htmlGlossary_5.htmlGlossary_2.htmlGlossary_2.htmlGlossary_4.htmlGlossary_4.htmlGlossary_2.htmlGlossary_5.htmlGlossary_5.htmlGlossary_4.htmlGlossary_5.htmlGlossary_1.htmlGlossary_1.htmlGlossary_1.htmlGlossary_2.htmlGlossary_2.htmlGlossary_4.htmlGlossary_4.htmlGlossary_4.htmlGlossary_5.htmlGlossary_5.htmlGlossary_6.htmlGlossary_6.htmlGlossary_1.htmlGlossary_1.htmlGlossary_4.htmlGlossary_4.htmlGlossary_5.htmlGlossary_1.htmlGlossary_2.htmlGlossary_4.htmlGlossary_6.htmlGlossary_4.htmlGlossary_4.htmlGlossary_5.htmlGlossary_4.htmlOrdo_Astri.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1shapeimage_2_link_2shapeimage_2_link_3shapeimage_2_link_4shapeimage_2_link_5shapeimage_2_link_6shapeimage_2_link_7shapeimage_2_link_8shapeimage_2_link_9shapeimage_2_link_10shapeimage_2_link_11shapeimage_2_link_12shapeimage_2_link_13shapeimage_2_link_14shapeimage_2_link_15shapeimage_2_link_16shapeimage_2_link_17shapeimage_2_link_18shapeimage_2_link_19shapeimage_2_link_20shapeimage_2_link_21shapeimage_2_link_22shapeimage_2_link_23shapeimage_2_link_24shapeimage_2_link_25shapeimage_2_link_26shapeimage_2_link_27shapeimage_2_link_28shapeimage_2_link_29shapeimage_2_link_30shapeimage_2_link_31shapeimage_2_link_32shapeimage_2_link_33shapeimage_2_link_34shapeimage_2_link_35shapeimage_2_link_36shapeimage_2_link_37shapeimage_2_link_38shapeimage_2_link_39shapeimage_2_link_40shapeimage_2_link_41shapeimage_2_link_42shapeimage_2_link_43shapeimage_2_link_44shapeimage_2_link_45shapeimage_2_link_46shapeimage_2_link_47shapeimage_2_link_48shapeimage_2_link_49shapeimage_2_link_50shapeimage_2_link_51shapeimage_2_link_52shapeimage_2_link_53shapeimage_2_link_54