Crowley ritual with a frog?
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I don't know that it's published... or that it was a detailed ritual. But here's the gist:
It was Crowley's ritual of claiming the grade and role of Magus of the Aeon. He consecrated a frog as Jesus Christ, then killed it. (And it didn't rise again!) It was his formula of killing the power of Christianity and the old aeon.
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Thank you, I was just curious....
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@AliceNui said
"Thank you, I was just curious...."
Curiouser and curiouser (sorry, had to do it)
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@Jim Eshelman said
"I don't know that it's published... or that it was a detailed ritual. But here's the gist:
It was Crowley's ritual of claiming the grade and role of Magus of the Aeon. He consecrated a frog as Jesus Christ, then killed it. (And it didn't rise again!) It was his formula of killing the power of Christianity and the old aeon."
I feel sure I've read it somewhere. Isn't it described in the autobiography? You left out the fun part -- after the crucifixion, he cooked frog's legs. (I had frog's legs once, in a restaurant in Luxembourg. They were served in a pungent sauce; the meat itself didn't have much taste. Come to think of it, my Christian upbringing was like that -- but for the pungent threat of hellfire, it was flavorless.)
I loved The Name of the Rose, but was disappointed in Foucault's Pendulum. It seems like he was trying to do what Wilson and Shea had done in the Illuminatus trilogy but without the understanding or sense of humor, and that all his interesting ideas were taken from Holy Blood Holy Grail. Maybe if I read it again I'd see it in a different light.
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@gmugmble said
"I loved The Name of the Rose, but was disappointed in Foucault's Pendulum. It seems like he was trying to do what Wilson and Shea had done in the Illuminatus trilogy but without the understanding or sense of humor, and that all his interesting ideas were taken from Holy Blood Holy Grail. Maybe if I read it again I'd see it in a different light."
Foucault's Pendulum was the first occult book I read, when I was 18. I thought it was incredible at the time, but when I went back to re-read it a couple years ago, after reading the Illuminatus trilogy and all my occult eduction, I had the same opinion as you.
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@Jim Eshelman said
"I don't know that it's published... or that it was a detailed ritual. But here's the gist:
It was Crowley's ritual of claiming the grade and role of Magus of the Aeon. He consecrated a frog as Jesus Christ, then killed it. (And it didn't rise again!) It was his formula of killing the power of Christianity and the old aeon."
Simple and effective.
I remember being highly amused by this ritual when I first got into Crowley.I'm pretty sure it's published somewhere.
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Possibly - this is what we're talking about here?
hermetic.com/crowley/libers/lib70.html
For me, the idea seems crazy at first. Why do that to a poor frog? Well, the legs were consumed thereafter and if nothing else it appeals to an ideal of efficiency!
Ritual is extremley personal and this "worked" for the magician and his intent. Does this mean I'm going to go out and crucify a frog? Not unless I'm really hungry...
Or unless I was a Magus... -
If the frog was ceremonially consecrated as Jesus Christ, I don't think I would have much of a problem locking it in a dark box overnight and then torturing it to death before I roast its legs and consume them with some spicy mustard. However terrible that might be, killing a frog pales before the horrors of the Inquisition. I'm going to leave it at that because all this talk about frogs is making me hungry.
Edit: The more I read the ritual the more I begin to like it.
""...thou shalt promise to the frog an elevation fitting for him; and all this while thou shalt be secretly carving a cross whereon to crucify him.""
"Night being fallen, thou shalt arrest the frog, and accuse him of blasphemy, sedition, and so forth..."
I'm busting up thinking about Crowley taking his revenge on Christianity by killing a frog in such a ruthless matter. Can't you see him chuckling with evil glee as he carves a cross in secret, preparing to stab an amphibian to death after accusing it of blasphemy?
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@Dar said
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@Mephis said
"I'm going to leave it at that because all this talk about frogs is making me hungry.
"Eating frogs legs is so terribly French and alien though... "
That's a very English thing to say. Here in California we usually don't judge people or food by their nationality. Just think of it, to the French you are the alien. Who is really the alien? It's a logical fallacy. Nobody is alien anywhere because the earth is round.
I also like snails. And fish and chips. Those of us who dwell on the west coast have a general appreciation of food in general, a trait I hear is lacking in your country.
And it was moreso my sadistic thoughts of killing a helpless amphibian smaller and weaker than myself that made me hungry, not so much the frog itself.
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@Dar said
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@Mephis said
"I'm going to leave it at that because all this talk about frogs is making me hungry.
"Eating frogs legs is so terribly French and alien though...
Urgh.
"LIKE
@Mephis said
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That's a very English thing to say. "No, that's simply a very Dar sense of humor.
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The inspiration for the frog comes from Revelations 16:13 – a book which Crowley was obsessed with:
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
Crowley used the symbolism contained in the last book of the Bible to signify the transition between the Old and New Aeons. Where Revelations depicts a great war between the 10 kings and the Lamb, Crowley reconciled this dualism into a higher synthesis. Hence (if I recall correctly) in the chapter “Map to an Astral Atlas” in Book 4, he claims the wounded Beast and Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, while ostensibly different, are identical at higher levels of awareness.
His usage of the symbolism of Revelations suggests he conceived of aeonic change as not merely historical change, but a more radical transition from one world to another one – an interpretation consistent with the claims of TBOTL.