How the Ancient Invocation of the Headless God became Aleister Crowley's Ritual of the Bornless One

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Wow. For someone who says to have no expertise of modern occultism, I'm totally blown away. I've been in the GD for over 20 years now and you informed me of things I have never heard of. Thank you again Dr Sledge.

I come from a poor background and could never afford education. Thank-you for your free scholarly content. I've recently found your channel and you've a very digestible way of sharing your topic, which i appreciate.

"Untranslatable magic words" Sounds like a good way to add locusts or more fire to our current problems.

I really wish there was an channel like yours that dove into historical research on Buddhist, Hindu, and Daoist texts with their own relations to “Esotericism”. Your work is excellent.

“Sketch and sus!” 😂Dr. Sledge, I have had to stop watching your videos while eating or drinking due to fear of aspiration. You say the funny parts with the same seriousness as all the other parts of your lessons 🤣. I am so happy to have found your talks/lessons and I have told all my like minded friends to follow you as well. As always: keep up the great work, thank you for your lessons, and Shabbat shalom 🙏🏽

I have a lot to say about Liber Samekh, The Bornless Ritual, the Headless One, and the PGM in general. I'll try not to get carried away. I think I'll start with the myths surrounding them. The first is, and I'm glad it doesn't appear in this video, that Mathers and Crowley didn't know that the original ritual was an exorcism. They absolutely did, the theory being that if you exorcised everything within, the initiate made a space for a higher power to reside (and once that higher power was within, the initiate then had the authority to boss around the spirits--this is how the ritual became "The Preliminary Invocation".) In Liber Samekh, Crowley both shows and tells this by instructing the initiate to pass counterclockwise ("widdershins"), and explicitly stating it as well. Another myth is that Liber Samekh is for achieving the Knowledge and Conversation. It isn't. Again, Crowley both shows and tells us this in the text. The ritual is for a 5=6 in the A.'. A.'. meaning that the initiate should have already achieved the K&C through their own means before performing Liber Samekh. Think of it like an old timey television. You've changed the channel to the WHGA (Knowledge and Conversation); now you have to wiggle the antenna until you get a good signal (Liber Samekh). That said, people swear by it, and I wouldn't dare argue with those who claim to have achieved the K&C this way. I'm going to cut it short here because I could go on forever on this topic. I will say that Liber Samekh is Crowley's most lucid work. In it, he is unequivocal about the nature of the HGA (another great myth being that Crowley flip flopped about the nature of the HGA, debunked by Erwin Hessle), that if it isn't the unconscious mind, it at least works through the unconscious mind. That said, the Liber Samekh has two unfortunate flaws: as Dr. Sledge said, the goofy attempt to interpret the barbarous words, and a weird structure. For anyone interested in reading Liber Samekh, I suggest picking up Lon MIlo DuQuette's THE MAGICK OF ALEISTER CROWLEY, where DuQuette has edited Liber Samekh into an easier to read format. Okay. That's enough.

"what's a kidney compared to gnosis anyway..." are you sure you didn't miss your vocation as a comedian? I genuinely laughed so loudly when that came up,.

Call me weird but your opening sequence is the only one that I don't skip through, its so relaxing and watchable that I let it play EVERY time. Me thinks you just shortened it :face-orange-frowning: Do you not care about my stress levels? Also, thanks so much for what you do.

There's a very Bornless One-like moment in Elden Ring, where inside of a mausoleum there is a headless cadaver laid out on a plinth, and by touching the headless body, the player can receive the ego-image of one of the in-game gods or demigods. There has been talk in Esoterica comments sections before about the level of occult intelligence in From Software games. In Bloodborne you burn sigils into your own mind, in the manner of Spare's occult practice, much of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is spent performing alchemical processes with iron, sulfur, and mercury, and much of the games' writing style bears heavy resemblances to Automatic Writing or something composed in another form of trance state, so it wouldn't surprise me if the Walking Mausoleum ritual I described above is modeled off of the Bornless One.

I've read a few different perspectives on Crowley's life but never from a religious academic perspective. Going into more detail of a piece of his writing and discussing the actual history of it is something I've never really done either and its so fascinating. Thank you for this!

My Great grandfather was friendly with Aleister Crowley whilst he lived at Boleskine House. Both were keen mountaineer's. My own father recalled a book titled magic of loch Ness, gifted to his grandfather by Crowley.

Hoping this is taken only with the utmost respect and love in which I am stating it, Jewish sarcasm is second to none and you sir are at the top of the proverbial food chain. Thank you!

Im 3 weeks sober and im absorbing info like a sponge. This has told me something about a topic i thought i knew about.. thanku brother.

Brill beef is one of my fav parts of this protagonist journey. I feel like this arc will be completed soon.

You are one of the few who speak about magic esoteric for what it is and not for what it might be... 👌 I'll keep an eye on your channel because I feel that Ill potentially learn something... thx from 🇫🇷

I have a difficult time keeping up with what day it is, but when I see the notification of a new Esoterica video I know it’s finally Friday and it’s going to be a good one. Watching these videos has found it’s place in my morning routine, it feels like my version of Saturday morning cartoons :)

13:24 this was the 3rd time I laughed out loud in this video. It IS fantastic and your humor is making my day.

Love, love, love this post! Had me cracking up. 😂 Awesome sauce, Sledge! 🌟 This is a ritual I have found most beneficial, regardless of origin…. Intention is key. 🙏

As a Thelemite and a native Hebrew speaker, I found this extremely fascinating. I have been practicing Liber Samekh for several years now, and some things you mentioned were just under my nose this whole time! Thank you so much for making this video! 93s