The Three Aeons
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[The following is an excerpt from the Introduction of my forthcoming book. I'm posting it for reader feedback, and because it might have intrinsic value. This comes immediately after a section on qabalistic psychology. - This is not a final draft. It's more of a polished first draft that still needs standard rewrite.]
THE THREE ÆONS
This model of the human psyche is useful in understanding another often obscure model, that of the three Æons.
At the time Crowley received The Book of the Law in 1904, some anthropologists had been focusing, for many years, on evidence of a matriarchal and matrilineal stage in human culture that had preceded the patriarchal and patrilineal form that had been principal especially in Europe for thousands of years.
Besides family structure and political and other social patterns believed to exist in this prior time, there were believed to be religious forms distinctive to the two broad time periods, as well as characteristic scientific models (particularly in astronomy) and commonplace theories of human reproduction.
Anthropology has gone further and has understood these things better in the century intervening. There were likely no discrete periods of time when all of these varied elements coexisted in quite the way previously thought. Nonetheless, it is important to understand how the theories of his day affected Crowley’s thinking, and also to understand what deeper actualities may have been working their way toward our conscious awareness in these earlier theories.
It is worth examining some of these patterns briefly.
Regarding procreation, common sense assures us that there surely was a time when the link between sexual intercourse and pregnancy was unknown. Early humans had sex, just as they did any number of other activities, and (with no necessary link observed) women got pregnant and delivered babies. During this time, everything from religious awe to pragmatic respect would have centered on woman in this role. Women did this amazing thing all by themselves!
At some point, though, the connection of pregnancy to sex would have been discovered, and this seems to have coincided with a shift of importance and social regard to the man. Creator gods replaced creator goddesses. The prevailing theory, then, was that men deposited children within women, whose job was “merely” to bear them nine months and deliver them whole. At Crowley’s birth, this was still the general scientific theory of reproduction, and I have seen one medical textbook as late as the 1920s asserting the same position.
However, by the dawn of the 20th Century there was an emerging theory gaining ground that both man and woman contributed parts of themselves equally in the creation of a child. That emerging knowledge would be pivotal in reformulating human thought and culture. The miracle was seen to be neither the man nor the woman alone, but their co-participation in the bringing forth of the real wonder, the child itself.
Regarding astronomy, we can track a different progression. There was a time when primitive humanity was most interested in the conditions of the earth – which certainly felt solid and unmoving! – and the wonders of the heavens (especially the nocturnal heavens) made them seem, most likely, the domains of gods. Astronomy was visual, not conceptual, which means that it was lunar rather than solar: You could see the stars at night and the Moon’s monthly passage across them, but could not witness the stars behind the Sun. As late as early first millennium CE, Egyptian astronomers (who were pretty sophisticated) were still recording primarily lunar passages, although they had learned to track the Sun indirectly – by noticing the stars opposite the Sun’s position, those that first rose at sunset. On the other hand, another way to identify these stars was a lunar way: the occurrence, within a particular star field, of the Full Moon.
In the last millennium or two BCE, though, other solar phenomena had started to garner attention. In particular, the Sun’s annual seasonal cycle, swinging from high declination at the summer solstice to walking low around the sky at the winter solstice, appeared to be the behavior of a great god of light that waxed and waned in strength. Even more so, the Sun’s daily behavior looked like the birthing, triumphing, and dying of heaven’s greatest lord, only to be resurrected afresh the next morning. It is no wonder, then, that humanity’s heroes and greatest gods became expressions of the Sun’s seasonal and diurnal behavior and, in time, a slain or dying god, resurrected to new life and bringing new light, became the religious embodiment of many cultures’ highest ideals.
Medieval and Renaissance astronomy brought an end to the astronomical theories on which these ideas were originally based, though it took well into the 18th Century for the fall of geocentrism and related scientific perspectives to find deep acceptance. By 1904, the world was ready for a new perspective.
Part of this new astronomical vision arose from a revolution in theoretical physics. In particular, 1904 also marked breakthroughs by Albert Einstein which led eventually to two competing and seemingly mutually exclusive models: a general theory of relativity which works only in very large realms (consider the Thelemic goddess Nuit who is the infinite circumference, the entirety of space) but collapses entirely in microscopic contexts; and the quantum theory that flourishes in the microscopic (consider the Thelemic god Hadit who is the infinitesimal point, the inmost seed-idea or point of view) yet collapses in the macroscopic. Soon the crusade began to find a unifying theory. 21st Century physics may have found this in string theory.
Regarding religion, especially in the West, patterns have unfolded more or less paralleling the astronomical theories mentioned above. In simple terms, primitive religious were primarily focused on earth and the Moon. A next phase of religions were primarily solar, and particularly celebrated by metaphor the annual and daily birth-death-resurrection cycle of the Sun. The religion which Liber Legis introduces for a new stage of human evolution is stellar; that is, it is superficially solar, but recognizes the Sun no longer as a ruling father, king, or god, but as simply one more star amid countless other stars.
All of this is terribly interesting to me and to many others. It shows many kinds of progression from an essentially feminine set of ideas to an essentially masculine set of ideas, to… something else. What it does not provide, however, is a coherent time line demarcating distinctive “æons” or zones of time, when all the feminine ideas lined up together, then were supplanted by the masculine ones.
In the late 19th and early 20th Century, though, the idea of a “matriarchal” time supplanted by a “patriarchy” was quite popular.
When the message of The Book of the Law began to sink in for Crowley, he began to conceive of human history in three phases, or æons. He had already been told that the New Æon just beginning was ruled by Horus, successor to his father Osiris. It became natural, therefore, to relate the prior phase to Horus’ mother (and Osiris’ mate), Isis. Thus, he began to write of the Æon of Isis, the Æon of Osiris, and the Æon of Horus, which we might more generically call the Age of the Mother, Age of the Father, and Age of the Child.
We will encounter these terms occasionally as we experience and analyze the visions of the 30 Æthyrs.
But is there any legitimacy to these ideas at all? If they are not reflective of a convergence of social, political, familial, scientific, religious, and other overlapping ideas, are they anything at all?
I think they are. There is a further history of evolution in the human species that these “æons” actually map. It is the progressive development of each successive stratum of the human psyche.
I define the Æon of Isis as that period of history when the baseline level of functioning of the typical adult human was Nephesh, or what we now call subconsciousness. This is still the typical state of consciousness of non-domestic animals (and, mostly, of most domestic animals), and what we term the infantile level of consciousness in modern humans.
I define the Æon of Osiris as that period of history when the baseline level of functioning of the typical adult human has been Ruach, or what we now call ego-consciousness – that is, the “conscious” mind as it presently characterizes the typical psychologically healthy human adult. This period has also been characterized by the reactive suppression of things most associated with “Isis” stage consciousness, including women, children, and small animals (as emblematic of Nephesh consciousness), and substantial conscious suppression and minimization of our relationship to subconsciousness in general. (There is a long story to be told about the Osiris Æon and its unfolding. I need to save that for another time.)
I accept, based on evidence persuasive to me, that at some point around the start of the 20th Century humanity entered a third developmental phase. It is comfortable to me to accept that this is the Æon of Horus that Crowley said began in 1904, because that label and approximate timing match what I can observe from other channels. And, as you by now will have guessed, I define the Æon of Horus as that period of time within which the baseline level of functioning of the typical adult human will emerge as Neshamah, or what we generally call superconsciousness. Obviously, we are not there yet! Similarly, even in recent centuries we can see significant development in human ego formation, so that the Osiris Æon must be viewed as having been a gradual unfolding. Political liberty, for example, is a relatively new idea, measurable in mere centuries. The King Arthur myth, roughly a thousand years old, is a remarkable example of a solar king (symbolic of our baseline ego development) who, in all his majesty and glory, is still but a boy (as was collective ego-development of his time), still struggling with his relationships with Isis Æon ideas.
The ego was not a new invention of consciousness anytime in the last several thousand years; however, it has undergone substantial maturation in only the last few centuries, implying that it was a relatively new “organ” in the recent millennia. Similarly, superconsciousness is not new to humanity. Books such as Maurice Bucke’s Cosmic Consciousness and William James' Varieties of Religious Experience document important parts of its history. But, in the past, it has been proportionately rare. As the 20th Century began it seems that it was becoming a more common phenomenon.
We are looking at a “100th monkey” type of effect. Individual people have long awakened faculties of consciousness that typical people do not even know about, let alone use. But that does not mean that typical people do not have these faculties available to them. When a sufficient (small) percentage of people awaken these faculties, some mechanism – whether a shared band of consciousness, or the impact of social spread – will cause this awakening to spread radically across the face of humanity.
Should not our purpose, then, be to awaken these faculties within ourselves, and encourage it in others. As with most things in life that are within species capability – for example, being a su-perior athlete – the main requirement is persistent, ardent practice! Spirituality is like a muscle that can be trained. My earlier book, The Mystical & Magical System of the A.'.A.'., describes in detail one system of accomplishing this. The present book provides an-other way, which is the awakening of modes of consciousness by sympathetic exposure.
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Very well written Jim, i like how you open with the part on procreation. I had never thought of it like that as i just assumed we would have always known the purpose for sex. But what you say makes sense.
Looking forward to the release.
Sapere Aude
LLLL
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That was very interesting to read!
"On the other hand, another way to identify these stars was a lunar way: the occurrence, within a particular star field, of the Full Moon."
I had no idea! Were birthsigns assigned according to the full moon (and not the sun) in those days?
As for feedback; in the part about astrology you also talk about science. It would be clearer to me if you perhaps you treat those subjects seperately and add a "Regarding science" part too.
"21st Century physics may have found this in string theory."
You don't give a Thelemic counterpart for this. (Perhaps on purpose?) I would have liked some guidance on this point in the text. I now interpreted it myself (based on the following paragraphs on the three different aeons) as Heru-ra-ha. Is that a correct assumption?
"I need to save that for another time.)
I accept, based on evidence persuasive to me, "
Those two statements, following each other immediately, make me feel lost. I accept that you know what you are talking about, but there is no way for me to make the thought-jump with you to the following concepts. I feel as if I have no stepping stone to follow you to the next ideas. It feels like the stepping stone is either in the story you are not telling me yet, or in the evidence that persuaded you, but that you don't share with the reader.
From that moment in the text I lost grip on the story and I am not too sure what is being said afterwards and how to integrate that with what I learnt previously.I hope the feedback may be helpful. Thank you so much for sharing these chapters. You have a very clear and pleasant writing style, which makes it easy for me to pick up on new concepts.
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Very good basic framework. Captures the fluidity of the idea nicely. Solid prose too.
Your connection of the 3rd to "Superconsciousness" certainly resonated with my Leary/Wilson self. -
@Orione said
"That was very interesting to read!
"On the other hand, another way to identify these stars was a lunar way: the occurrence, within a particular star field, of the Full Moon."
I had no idea! Were birthsigns assigned according to the full moon (and not the sun) in those days?"
Yes. The Moon-sign had enormously greater importance.
"As for feedback; in the part about astrology you also talk about science. It would be clearer to me if you perhaps you treat those subjects seperately and add a "Regarding science" part too."
There isn't a "regarding astrology" part, but, rather, a "regarding astronomy part." Is that what you meant? The actually isn't anything about astrology in that section (though one can draw some astrological inferences, as you did above) - it's all astronomy.
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"21st Century physics may have found this in string theory."You don't give a Thelemic counterpart for this. (Perhaps on purpose?) I would have liked some guidance on this point in the text. I now interpreted it myself (based on the following paragraphs on the three different aeons) as Heru-ra-ha. Is that a correct assumption? "
Actually, I did. I just didn't take it all the way because it's another book. It's the clue aboiut string theory (which I've been intending to write some long articles on for about ten years). The essential points of string theory read like they came straight out of Liber L. - OK, not sure what I'll do with it differently, but I'm taking note of how these parts left you feeling hanging or incomplete. Thanks.
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"I need to save that for another time.)I accept, based on evidence persuasive to me, "
Those two statements, following each other immediately, make me feel lost. I accept that you know what you are talking about, but there is no way for me to make the thought-jump with you to the following concepts. I feel as if I have no stepping stone to follow you to the next ideas. It feels like the stepping stone is either in the story you are not telling me yet, or in the evidence that persuaded you, but that you don't share with the reader.
From that moment in the text I lost grip on the story and I am not too sure what is being said afterwards and how to integrate that with what I learnt previously."Again, useful feedback. Thanks. - Just so you know what I was intending, there was, in fact, no direct step from the one to the other. The parenthetical completely concluded the one section, and the next sentence (next paragraph, in fact) went on to another topic. Would it be better without the parenthetical? There is so much more - pages and pages more - that I could say (and often say in lectures) about the gradual unfolding of the last millennium or so of the Osiris Aeon that I felt I couldn't skip it without me feeling a huge hole, so I meant only to say that there was lots, lots more - then drop the subject and go on.
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"There isn't a "regarding astrology" part, but, rather, a "regarding astronomy part." Is that what you meant? "
Yes, my bad!
"Would it be better without the parenthetical? "
Yes, I think so. I already accept at the start of the chapter that this is a very broad overview of the aeons, so it's okay to not read all the details. It's just that it felt (to me) that something crucial to understanding all following concepts was missing.
And perhaps you can even do without the first part of the next line, and make it:
"At some point around the start of the 20th Century humanity entered a third developmental phase. It is comfortable to me to accept that this is the Æon of Horus that Crowley said began in 1904, because that label and approximate timing match what I can observe from other channels."Now that I know that I wasn't missing important information, it was easy to read and understand the rest of the chapter.
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very interesting I've often wondered about the jump from sub-consciousness to consciousness myself; would you care to elaborate on what you think caused the shift?
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@Orione said
"And perhaps you can even do without the first part of the next line, and make it:
"At some point around the start of the 20th Century humanity entered a third developmental phase. It is comfortable to me to accept that this is the Æon of Horus that Crowley said began in 1904, because that label and approximate timing match what I can observe from other channels." "Thanks for the suggestion but, in this case, I'm leaving it alone. That sentence is extremely crucial to the entire piece (not to mention setting the exact tone necessary for full intellectual honesty.)
Thanks again.
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@_aLL_seEIng_eYe_ said
"very interesting I've often wondered about the jump from sub-consciousness to consciousness myself; would you care to elaborate on what you think caused the shift?"
I'd only be guessing. I think it was basically a natural evolutionary process unfolding potential already present in our DNA map. That tends to be the best theory, I think, of spiritual progress in general, that everyone has "super powers" encoded into them and certain practices and patterned external triggers set them off kin what appears to be an outright mutation - something understood better with 21st Century knowledge of how RNA throws the switch on active vs. inactive genes.
Environmental pressures can accelerate or impede these stages, of course.
Bottom line, I regard almost every single thing we do in initiatory occultism as part of natural pohysiological and psychological development - it's all "developmental psych."
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_potentiation
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP) is currently receiving the most attention as the function by which learning occurs (according to my education so far...)
"In neuroscience, long-term potentiation (LTP) is a long-lasting enhancement in signal transmission between two neurons that results from stimulating them synchronously.[2]"
"LTP improves the postsynaptic cell's sensitivity to neurotransmitter in large part by increasing the activity of existing receptors and by increasing the number of receptors on the postsynaptic cell surface.[4]"
What they have not included in this brief description is the fact that this phenomenon occurs because DNA triggers are activated within the cell. The latent potential in the DNA of a particular cell is activated, improving its sensitivity (as well as the strength the "new pathway" being developed in the brain). This is the main process in the brain associated with learning and memory (so far) from a biological standpoint.
Regardless of what can or cannot be said for certain about how and if memory is actually stored in the brain, to my mind, at very least, it does provide a biological rationale for the development and strengthening of brain pathways that already exist (in potential) within the logical architechture of our DNA.
Such processes also underly the theory that entheogens chemically awaken latent pathways in the mind (instead of through the effort of training and meditation alone) and lay the groundwork for an understanding of the the strengths and weaknesses of each method as it is implemented to expand the mind.
As new pathways (circuits) are developed, new ways of thinking are achievable, though disorienting at first - as anyone who has ever "tripped" in one way or another knows. To the extent that these new ways of thinking are made compatible with living in the world of time and action, genius is activated and achieved.
So... all that to say... What stimulates the change? In my humble opinion... large scale re-synchronization of thought that causes one metaphor (circuit pattern?) to be superceded by the next higher level of functioning...? Specifically in our generation, instantaneous global information and communication - as well as the new meme of electricity and computers...
Also... before, we only had DC. Now we have AC.... Which is a new layer...
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Very interesting read, and quite solid.
It might not fit within the parameters of what you are doing with the new book, but I'd love to see some mapping of these aeons and stages of consciousness to events in civilization and mythology - tool use, agriculture, adam & eve, etc., etc...
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Awesome stuff, Jim
As usual, I only wish I could read more of what you had to say.EXCEPT - I think you missed a question mark at the end of this sentence in the last paragraph:
@Jim Eshelman said
"Should not our purpose, then, be to awaken these faculties within ourselves, and encourage it in others."
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@AvshalomBinyamin said
"Very interesting read, and quite solid.
It might not fit within the parameters of what you are doing with the new book, but I'd love to see some mapping of these aeons and stages of consciousness to events in civilization and mythology - tool use, agriculture, adam & eve, etc., etc...
"I'll leave that for someone else. If I had another life handy to live right now, I'd probably go into social anthro; I'll need to let someone else live that life and report on it.
I tend to agree it would be interesting. OTOH I'm not quite sure we'd find much. Part of my premise is that the old-view sort of "ages" don't actually line up that way. But it would be worth really trying to discern that mapping. In particular, I'd like to know how close the hunter-gather shift to personalized farm plots relates to this shift. I'm certain there is no way that "my land" could emerge as a concept without a sense of ego-differentiation from the herd, but it's a critical shift-point when matrilinearity shifted to patrilinearity.
Adam & Eve may have a brief cameo in my discussion of the Abyss.
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@Ash said
"Awesome stuff, Jim
As usual, I only wish I could read more of what you had to say.EXCEPT - I think you missed a question mark at the end of this sentence in the last paragraph:
@Jim Eshelman said
"Should not our purpose, then, be to awaken these faculties within ourselves, and encourage it in others."
"You're right. I did. Thanks
And... "more of what I have to say" should be available in January when the book comes out. The section right before this one is a summary of Qabalistic psychology; the section right after (also written yesterday) is called "Light & Night," and discusses the L.V.X./N.O.X. relationship.
The Intro has gotten so large that I'm thinking of breaking it up into an Intro and five successor chapters. Here's what that would look like at the moment:
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INTRODUCTION
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THE PLAYERS
Aleister Crowley (1875-1947)
Victor Neuburg (1883-1940)
John Dee (1527-1609?) & Edward Kelley (1555-1597) -
QABALISTIC & MAGICAL CONCEPTS
The Four Worlds
The Functional Basis of Astrology
The Tree of Life: The Ten Sephiroth
The Tree of Life: The Hebrew Alphabet & the Paths
Qabalistic Psychology
The Three Aeons
Light & Night
Grades in the Golden Dawn & A.'.A.'.
The Angel & the Abyss
Choronzxon -
ENOCHIAN MAGICK
The Enochian Alphabet
The 30 Enochian Aethyrs
The Call of the 30 Aethyrs
Enochian Gematria -
[VISION WORK - title not finalized]
(Discussion of the nature & method of vision work)
(Discussion of factors observable as affecting the vision contents, including quantification of the extent to which astrological and other factors were responsible for the vision contents) -
SOURCE MATERIAL FOFR V&V
[might not be chapter title, but it's the first part of contents]
[how to use the book most effectively]
[wrap-up of Introduction section]
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@Jim Eshelman said
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@_aLL_seEIng_eYe_ said
"very interesting I've often wondered about the jump from sub-consciousness to consciousness myself; would you care to elaborate on what you think caused the shift?"I'd only be guessing. I think it was basically a natural evolutionary process unfolding potential already present in our DNA map. That tends to be the best theory, I think, of spiritual progress in general, that everyone has "super powers" encoded into them and certain practices and patterned external triggers set them off kin what appears to be an outright mutation - something understood better with 21st Century knowledge of how RNA throws the switch on active vs. inactive genes.
Environmental pressures can accelerate or impede these stages, of course.
Bottom line, I regard almost every single thing we do in initiatory occultism as part of natural pohysiological and psychological development - it's all "developmental psych.""
it is interesting to note that you mentioned the infantile stage as being equally subconscious and synonymous with the Aeon of the Mother; using that comparison it would seem reasonable to assume that the onset of consciousness coincides with the onset of "memory" since most of us do not remember anything in our first years of existence(my first memory is the birth of my younger brother when i was 2yrs old) likewise non-domestic animals memory also seems instinctive. Memory to me then seems somewhat synonymous with an awareness of the linear passage of time, or one event being consecutive to another. In my last post i was about to ask whether you thought that consciousness was synonymous with an awareness of the linear passage of time but refrained when i considered you mentioned in the first Aeon that they may have been aware of the lunar cycle which would indicate memory of consecutive events but it seems a valid consideration? At what period would you put the Aeon of the Mother? and can you say what type of calender or time tracking devices did they use then?
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@AvshalomBinyamin said
"Very interesting read, and quite solid.
It might not fit within the parameters of what you are doing with the new book, but I'd love to see some mapping of these aeons and stages of consciousness to events in civilization and mythology - tool use, agriculture, adam & eve, etc., etc...
"you might be interested in Ralph Abraham's article "Chaos and the Millenium" which does that from the standpoint of a bifurcation theorist.
www.ralph-abraham.org/articles/MS%2392.Millennium/millennium.pdf
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The introductory chapters seem pretty intriguing! I hope to get this book, just as soon as I get your other two main ones
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memory... hmm...
Would written language and history count anywhere? The exteriorization of the memory function?
I'm reminded of the High Priestess holding her scroll of the Law.
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"it is interesting to note that you mentioned the infantile stage as being equally subconscious and synonymous with the Aeon of the Mother; using that comparison it would seem reasonable to assume that the onset of consciousness coincides with the onset of "memory" since most of us do not remember anything in our first years of existence(my first memory is the birth of my younger brother when i was 2yrs old) likewise non-domestic animals memory also seems instinctive. Memory to me then seems somewhat synonymous with an awareness of the linear passage of time, or one event being consecutive to another. "
aLL_seEIng_eYe, the way I learnt this (but I learnt it as a matter of fact and not really as a theory, so I don't know where these facts come from and how well-researched they are) is that children under the age of 2.5 to 3 have not yet developed a sense of self. As babies they consider themselves as part of the whole of existence and only slowly begin to differentiate between themselves and the world. Only after a few months will they understand they are not the same entity as their mother and will get seperation anxiety, for example. Kids up to the age of 2.5/3 also refer to themselves in the third person. "Mike wants milk" not "I want milk". Only at the age of 2.5/3 do they start to see themselves as real selves and from then on they will start to collect self-related memories. It is also the age at which kids start to understand their gender-identity.
It's not that kids younger than that don't remember things - they do. And it is even likely that those baby memories are stored somewhere. For example - abused kids do sometimes have mental scars from the abuse of the time before 2.5/3 but will not be able to tell a coherent story about it. We can't relate to these 'memories' in the way we can relate to our other memories, so it is difficult and different to 'remember' them.It's very interesting to relate this to the aeons!
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Some readers of your book will be taking for granted a common view that the Aeons of Isis, Osiris, and Horus correspond respectively to the astrological ages of Aries, Pisces, and Aquarius. Even Crowley, though he was vague about the matter, seems to have believed that an "aeon" was a 2000-year affair. You might want, at least in a footnote, to acknowledge that view and state that you disagree.