#Ogdoadic

[fyeahygocardart]

Ogdoabyss, the Ogdoadic Overlord

[ygo-monster-type-tournament]

Round 1b, Match 10: Rokket vs. Ogdoadic vs. Umbral Horror!

Silverrokket Dragon // Ogdoabyss, the Ogdoadic Overlord // Number C104: Umbral Horror Masquerade

[thempireiain]

It's the last Friday of the month, so time for another deck profile!

Wasn't able to pull together a deck in Master Duel this week, so instead you get a Batty Deck on a build I have been brewing for a while!

Introducing: Sprightile, Spright combined with Reptile good stuff!

https://youtu.be/YKqD604LGp0

[weidaoduzun3]

ΑΒΡΑΣΑΞ -- ABRASAX From a Hermetic Viewpoint.

To the Gnostics, Abrasax is the great archon who created the whole world. There is quite a bit of nuance considering how Basilides Gnosticism views this deity. Nuance that I am not qualified to go over at the moment. Carl Jung refers to Abrasax as a truly terrible entity that encompasses all evil and all good, in his Red Book. I've seen negative reactions from people on Discord to this entity, but also some positive reactions.

But to the Hermeticist…who and what is this weird rooster head, snake-legged deity that is found all throughout the Greek Magical Papyri (PGM)? Let’s find out? 

In the Discourse of the Ogdoad and Ennead (D89) we are given strings of vowels and nomina Barbara for the Hermetic student, namely Tat as he is being taught by Hermes. To Christian H. Bull in his The Tradition of Hermes Trismégistōs, the string of Greek vowels and nomina Barbara/voces magicae is the totality of the Kosmos. Tat asks to receive the imprint of fullness by ways of hymns of praise to God. Bull seems to agree with Alberto Camplani that the “imprint of Fullness (Pleorma)” is coded within these string of vowels and voces magicae. 

From personal experiences — I have to agree with this, but I had to fuck around and find out for myself as I read this book many months ago when vowels and voces magicae were not big in my praxis. Anyways, here is the full hymn: 

Great! So how does this tie into ΑΒΡΑΣΑΞ and what is this names value to a Hermeticist? For starters — This name, has a numerical value of 365, according to isopsephy. 365, as the majority of you know, is the totality of days our Earth revolves around the Sun. In PGM VIII. 1-63, specifically in lines 45-50… we see a love spell invoking Hermes to which we are given the name of ABRASAX equaling 365 explicitly, and quite possibly a voces magicae for Hermes.

The Sun's importance in Hermeticism is ever-present. Most explicit in my opinion is SH 2a from M. David Litwa’s Hermetica II:

Also important to note: Thoth. Many believe Thoth is just the god of the Moon, yet Thoth has a Solar form: the Baboon. Baboons and their screeches are believed to be connected to the language of the gods. This is confirmed in the Demotic Book of Thoth. Where a scribe of Thoth’s Scribal College: The House of Life [𓉑], says this about the great teacher, Thoth: "The signs revealed their form. He called to them and they answered to him. He knew the form of speech of the baboons and the ibises." Thoth is also believed to be the creator of not just words and language but also vowels (Philebus 18b-c). For clarity's sake, Thoth is an extremely important figure in Hermeticism. Our teachings are based upon a syncretic god: Hermes & Thoth — Hermēs Trismégistōs. 

More evidence for the importance of ΑΒΡΑΣΑΞ is found in PGM XIII.1-343 — the famed Heptagram Rite, which we can perform more clearly and neatly here. This is a ritual that invokes Aiōn. Aiōn is believed to be the power of the Unknowable, Ineffable Godhead in Corpus Hermeticum XI. In lines 80-89 of PGM XIII, we are given voces magicae to Aiōn in 7 different languages as seen below.

Birdglyphic: ΑΡΑΙ Hieroglyphic: ΛΑΙΛΑΜ Hebraic: ΑΝΟΧ ΒΙΑΘΙΑΡΒΑΘ ΒΕΡΒΙΡ ΕΧΙΛΑΤΟΥΡ ΒΟΥΦΡΟΥΜΤΡΟΜ Egyptian: ΑΛΔΑΒΑΕΙΜ Finally, in Baboonic: ΑΒΡΑΣΑΞ 

(The voces magicae for Aiōn is continued in 'Falconic' and lastly hieratic languages). Thus, we can see a clear link to baboons and Thoth, the name Abrasax to the baboons, and their "language." We see a connection between Aiōn and Abrasax, and we also saw above in PGM VIII that it could also be used as a voces magicae to Hermes!

But let’s look at the imagery as well. A rooster head with snake legs. The legs, to me, are Chthonic of course, and curl up to shape an Ω, the seventh sphere, Saturn. The connection to Omega is something Christian H. Bill points out. The rooster is also a Solar animal. So to me, we have a beautiful image representing the totality of All Things from the Sun whose an image of Truth, directly subordinate to the One Primal Deity (SH 2a), down to the Du’at/Underworld. Both Hermes and Thoth are connected to the Underworld as well as the Sun. Hermes' planet, Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. Hermes is also famously known as a psychopomp, a traveler and mediator between Hades and Mount Olympus, Death and Life. Thoth, with His solar connections stated above, is also a key member of the Ancient Egyptian Underworld. In the Ani Papyrus, we see Thoth as the recorder/scribe that lists every heart that is weighed up against the Divine Feather of Truth -- Ma'at.

Thus what we have here, from a Hermetic standpoint, is that Abrasax is not a malevolent archon or a demon as denoted by the early Catholic Church, but rather a beautiful deity that is worthy of reverence whose name equals our revolution around the Sun, the Image of God. Abrasax — a name that is connected to both Hermes and Thoth, for reasons stated above. A name that also has a connection to Aiōn, an extremely important power/god in Corpus Hermeticum XI.

That is my interpretation, from a Hermetic standpoint. There are many interpretations of this elusive yet captivating deity. Abrasax can be a voces magicae for Hermes, or for Aiōn, it can be what I said, or you can take the Gnostic approach, or Jung, or Catholic approach to Abrasax. Regardless of what you do with the information, I shall continue to raise my voice in jubilation and cry out:

ΧΑΙΡΕ ΑΒΡΑΣΑΞ ! 

[lostpeace]

Here is Destiny of Dionysus' new look! Progress is going smoothly, I might be able to release the finalized version by the end of the month.

[ascendingaeons]

On the Symbolism of the Ogdoad

It's been my experience that buried underneath patterns, beliefs, and interpretations there are core truths. The Greeks called them Forms or First Principles, the Egyptians knew them as the Netjeru, among the Teutons they were the Runes, and to the Hebrews they were the Sefirot. Based on my own experiences I am of the firm belief that these Principles are, in a sense, animated and alive. Being able to hear and see them takes time and sacrifice. I can say it feels like a blessing to reach out and touch even one of them.

The Netjeru are forces of nature within the spectrum of Cosmos and Chaos. They are embodied within both the physical universe and the human psyche. They are both primordial and universal, scientific and spiritual. The nature of their involvement with both objective and subjective reality far transcends that of third-dimensional human beings. The Egyptian word netjer or neter was carried on through the ages as the Coptic noute, the Latin natura, and finally the English nature.

In Egyptian cosmology, the Ogdoad were four pairs of Netjers conceptualized to represent different aspects of the primeval chaos. They were at the heart of the Hermopolitan cosmology. They were believed responsible for the inundation of the Nile and the rising of the sun. The forces of chaos were an essential part of the cosmic circuit. They were first mentioned in religious texts during the Middle Kingdom (2040-1640 B.C.E.). The original mound of creation (depicted as the Benben stone, a lotus flower containing the child Ra, or the child Ra hatching from the cosmic egg) was said to rise from the chaotic waters. Ra represents both the physical sun but also the creative principle as a whole. The names of the Ogdoad are:

Nun and Naunet (Primeval Ocean and Primeval Sky)

Kek and Kauket (Obscurity and Illumination)

Amun and Amunet (the Hidden One and the Revealed One)

Heh and Hauhet (Infinity and Boundaries)

The males were depicted as frogs or frog-headed men (as very prolific animals, frogs symbolize new life) whereas the females were serpents or serpent-headed women (often portrayed as spirals, serpents symbolize the latent creative force in the universe). The Egyptians chose well to use these animals as representations of the pre-creation state, thinking they would be comfortable in the primeval ooze. The Ogdoad are equivalent to the four fundamental interactions of the universe (the weak nuclear force, the strong nuclear force, gravity, and electromagnetism).

Nun was the primeval ocean and His consort Naunet was the sky above it. In the pre-creation state Nun was the chaotic primeval matter and Naunet was the primeval space. In the created universe Nun was what the Egyptians believed to be the watery firmament surrounding the world, similar to the Greek titan Okeanus, and in older texts, Naunet became the anti-sky which Ra must traverse every night in the Duat.

Kek and Kauket represented the awakening of the Universal Mind from the darkness enveloping the primeval ocean. Egyptians associated night with the chaotic energies and forces. Kek and Kauket were known as "the bringer-in of the light" and "the bringer-in of the night", respectively, indicating both their dominion over the hours of twilight and the dual-spiral nature of consciousness. Kek is that which is perpetually beyond the reach of the intellect and Kauket is the embodiment of continually pushing back barriers—of Opening the Way.

Amun and Amunet were Wind and Air, the dynamic elements of chaos. Creation cannot be explained from within, only from without, i.e. the Creator and the created universe are not one and the same. There must be an external force underlying creative efforts. This has been known by many cultures as “the breath of life” which animates inert or dead matter. The Egyptians knew this force as Amun, the Netjer of wind also known as the Hidden One. Amun represents the occult force underlying creation.

Heh and Hauhet symbolized the dynamic relationship between Matter and Spirit. One knows a compounded horizon, the other bears the limitless expanse of the primeval waters, knowing neither the impression of space nor time.

Most ancient cultures (as well as some that survive to this day) lived by the understanding of the cyclicality of nature, which can be observed within the succession of seasons. The universe was perceived as dynamic and animated rather than mechanistic and dead. The wisdom that many these days perceive as baseless or quaint was the result of centuries spent working the earth and observing the sky. The ancients developed mystery plays to illustrate the cosmic dance, the eternal conflict between the forces of cosmos and chaos. The mystery plays, rites, and festivals were more than just religious affairs to the ancients; they were acts of involvement with the cosmic crisis (often portrayed by the disappearance and rebirth of the sun).

The sun symbolizes cosmic order. The word "order" often sounds sterile and mechanistic but, rather, is taken to mean balance or regulation. The glaring heat of summer and the brittle cold of winter symbolically contributes to the death of the earth. From these chaotic seasons come longer days, renewed vegetation, and new generations of fauna, the cyclicality of creation playing out on the cosmic stage. Should the forces of either cosmos or chaos destroy the other, the outcome will be the same regardless of the victor. The creative principle involves a continuance of transformation through creation and destruction—an alchemy if you will. This has been depicted by many cultures as the world serpent.

The bringing of order and definition to the primeval state was not a sudden or random event but one subject to a greater form of law. The Egyptians knew this as Ma'at, the Greeks as Logos, the Teutons as Ørlög, the Hindus as Ṛta, the Zoroastrians as Asha, and the Lakota peoples as Wakan Tanka or the Great Mystery. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, it is referred to as the Word of God. Creation is not something that can be explained from within, but only from outside of it or beyond its scope; whence comes the concept of the occult or hidden force underlying creation. This is not something I consider to be a god necessarily but rather an emanation, a permeating force or principle that underlies objective existence. In the microcosm, this would be comparable to the notion of vitality or the animating principle.

Creation is an emanating, dynamic, and ongoing act as opposed to a singular, decisive act. It is the process by which undifferentiated matter, energy, and consciousness are brought to order and definition. It is the transition from subjective being to objective being, from the unconscious to the conscious. In human terms, it is the transition from an unconscious state to one of awareness. It is not the bringing forth of something out of nothing. The necessary elements already exist and the act itself is the forming and re-purposing of chaotic matter or energy into something new. To a person rousing from active sleep, their dream could be considered incredibly real even though it was the product of their unconscious mind attempting to categorize the experiences of the previous day.

Creation is inherently cyclical, continuous, and multidimensional. The experience of it is, by its very nature, transcendental (i.e. beyond oneself). The universe is not static. It is evolving on every scale and in every aspect, very much animated and alive. One of the core Hermetic teachings is that everything in the universe is composed of energy vibrating at an infinite range of frequencies, all of which are susceptible to mental influence.

Inherent in this dynamic process is the reconciliation of opposites, a practical example of which can be found in the interaction between matter and antimatter. The majority of the universe is comprised of plasma with matter and antimatter distributed throughout. When matter (e.g. a negatively-charged electron) and antimatter (a positively-charged positron) collide, they produce a violent reaction—the conversion of matter to energy in the form of an explosion. In doing so, the particles and antiparticles negate each other and return to zero mass with their total energy being redistributed into the surrounding space, transformed into gamma radiation. The universe wastes nothing.

This process was defined philosophically as the dialectic Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis and portrayed allegorically as Unity-Scission-Reconciliation. This dialectic is observable in nature as the changing of seasons, the life cycles of flora, and the behavior of fauna. It manifests recurrently in human lives as the intricacies of relationships and personal growth, the outreaching of generations, and the evolution of customs, trends, and technology.

The Ancient Egyptians had a way of expressing such relationships and interactions. This was achieved by grouping the Netjeru into dyads, triads, tetrads, etc. These groupings were formulaic, illustrating the interaction between principal forces. For example:

Nun-Ptah-Atum

Nun: undifferentiated matter/energy

Ptah: converting potentia to dunamis

Atum: self-begotten awareness

This triad embodies the scientific basis of Creation in which the undifferentiated, inert state of matter and energy come into being as the physical universe. The Egyptians portrayed the transformative catalyst as Ptah, the patron Netjer of artisans. Ptah is portrayed with His body bound in cloth (representing the dense state of matter, the concealed potentiality underlying creation), often standing on a pedestal or seated on a throne (representing His mastery over universal laws). His hands and head are uncovered (indicating the capacity for action, expression, and intent) and He is often seen holding a staff combining the ankh, was, and djed (symbols of life, sovereignty, and stability).

I am writing a book that focuses on Nun and will occasionally post snippets of it here. Nun is one of the Netjers that I work with and I’ll be writing more about that in my Relationships With The Netjeru series. You would be surprised by the wisdom and friendship to be found in obscure forces of creation.

[dwellerinthelibrary]

Description from Wikimedia Commons: "The sun rises from the mound of creation at the beginning of time. The central circle represents the mound, and the three orange circles are the sun in different stages of its rising. At the top is the "horizon" hieroglyph with the sun appearing atop it. At either side are the goddesses of the north and south, pouring out the waters that surround the mound. The eight stick figures are the gods of the Ogdoad, hoeing the soil." From the Book of the Dead of Khonsumes.

Where: Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna

When: Third Intermediate Period, 21st Dynasty

[khensaptah]

I recently wrote a new purification prayer, as part of a new moon ritual I am developing. I'm hoping to host a public ritual going forward in honor of Ptah's role as god of the newly waxing crescent!

You can find this prayer here, on my website.

This purification connects us to the Ogdoad as a primal source of purification, as well as Ptah-Djehuty as the creator. May it provide you with blessings.

[ygoartreviews]

Nunu, the Ogdoadic Remnant

An absolutely gorgeous and stunning card. Egyptian themed Yugioh cards are where it's at. These kinds of cards are the heart and soul of this game to me, because they so clearly harken back to the early days of the franchise. I've also just really truly loved ancient Egyptian stuff for my entire life basically lol. Contrary to what the wiki states, I'd say this card is based on Naunet instead of Nun, because the feminine aspects of the Ogdoad (the eight primordial gods of ancient Egypt) were depicted with snake features, while the male aspects have frog features. Regardless, this card screams primordial. The relative nothingness of the background beyond some gray smoke and a small burst of light at the very top. And of course, the very way the majority of Nunu's body is drawn: as mysterious black ripples of an unknown substance. It contrasts so well with all of the bright and shiny gold bits. I really love the way her cobra hood is rendered to look like a pharaoh's headdress, even down to the blue stripes. She's got some fancy headdress things of her own going on, but it's mostly just nonsense shapes (but they do reflect the big ol' wings she's got). To top it all off, they even included a fancified water lily, an important part of ancient Egyptian religion closely associated with the primordial waters of the Nun.

Rating: 10/10, this is a card I would probably frame on my wall

[yugiohcardsdaily]

Nephilabyss, the Ogdoadic Overlord

"If a monster(s) is sent from the hand or Deck to the GY, while this card is in your GY (except during the Damage Step): You can Special Summon this card, also you cannot Special Summon monsters until the end of the next turn, except Reptile monsters. If you control this card that was Special Summoned from the GY: You can target 1 monster in your GY, except 'Nephilabyss, the Ogdoadic Overlord'; Special Summon it. You can only use each effect of 'Nephilabyss, the Ogdoadic Overlord' once per turn."

[fyeahygocardart]

Aleirtt, the Ogdoadic Dark

[mask131]

Egyptian mythology: Off a chaotic start

A good way to understand the nature of Egyptian mythology is to take a look at its various creation myths.

Egyptian mythology was created by uniting, fusing and cumulating rites, beliefs, legends and theologies coming from different sub-realm, city-states and history eras, and trying to stitch them together into a cohesive whole. Terry Pratchett beautifully summed it up in his book “Pyramids”: the Egyptians never threw away a god, just in case he could be useful later, and so they piled on gods and myths and stories and rites, even though they contradicted each other. 

The creation myths of Egypt work in a similar way. Egypt didn’t have one, but several “religious centers”, specific cities with each their own pantheon of local gods, each their own set of legends and beliefs, each their own take on religion. If you think the myth-variations of the Greek city-states were complex, oh boy, get ready, because compared to the Egyptians, the Greeks are a piece of cake. Each of those major religious center had its own creation myth, that by default entered in conflict with each other, and yet co-existed in the people’s mind and religious practices. 

The most famous and widespread of those creation myths, the one people are most aware of today, is actually the creation myth of the city of Heliopolis (in the original Egyptian, “Iunu”). The Heliopolis theogony was based around a group of gods known as the Ennead (”pesedjet” in Egyptian), nine deities forming a family through whose genealogy the world was created. A reason this creation myth became so popular is because it is very similar to the way the Greek cosmogony work. According to this myth, in the beginning there was just the Nun, the primordial ocean, the endless dark and lifeless waters. From these waters a mound appeared, and on it appeared the primordial, creator-god Atum (later identified and fused with Ra). Atum, the All-Deity, then gave birth (either through masturbation or by sneezing/spitting) to the deities Shu and Tefnut, the air and th humidity, who mated together to give birth to Nut and Geb, the sky and the earth, who in turn had four children - Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys. (A variation of the myth includes “Horus” as the fifth child, but that’s... a complicated business). So far so good.

But then, you have to confront and compare the Ennead of Heliopolis with another group of gods supposedly responsible for the creation of the world. The Ogdoad of Hermopolis (in Egyptian, “Khemenu”). According to the cosmogony of Hermopolis, before the world existed there were eight deities, four primordial couples each the manifestation of one of the pre-creation elements: Nun and Naunet (primordial waters), Amun and Amaunet (the primordial air or the hidden/secret power), Kuk and Kauket (primordial darkness), Huh and Hauhet (shapelessness or infinity). These eight abstract deities suddenly joined together, gathering their power and essence, and in a great explosion of energy they created the world. From this point forward the texts disagree and split into two traditions. Everybody agrees from one of the first created things the sun arose - but for one group the sun was hatched from an egg placed by the god Thot on a mound coming out of the waters ; while for another group the sun arose from a blooming lotus flower (which was a manifestation of the god Nefertem). 

These are however but two of the numerous cosmogonies of Egypt. Beyond these two stories of groups of gods creating the world, either through their family tree or a cosmic gang-bang, there are also several Egyptian cosmogonies which rather present one lonely creator-god who manifested or shaped the world one way or another. In Memphis for example (Inebu-hedj in Egyptian), it was thought that the world, the gods, the elements and every living being were created by the god Ptah, who conceived all of them in his mind/heart as ideas, and then made them exist by pronouncing their name out loud. This tradition is similar and yet opposing the one of Elephantine, where the primordial creator-god is called “Khnum” and is said to have shaped and modeled physicaly the world, the gods and every living things out of clay. Hopefully, the Egyptian themselves tried to link together and unite those conflicting theogonies into one more cohesive ensemble: for example the Memphis creation myth evolved to include the Ennead, by claiming that Ptah was the secret power behind the manifestation of Atum and the formation of his descendants (Ptah was notably identified with the mound that came out of the Nun before Atum appeared). Another “tie-in” cosmogony would be the one of Thebes (in Egyptian “Waset”): the city had taken as a patron-god the deity Amun, and as it rose into power as a new religious capital/religious center, it took “away” from the Ogdoad ensemble Amun, and claimed that he was creater, vaster and older than the other Ogdoad members. According to the Thebes belief, Amun was THE primordial power and creating force of the universe - while he was part of the Ogdoad, he had created it around him, AND he also was the one who created the Ennead. 

The list could go on and on, but these are the five most common and brought up creation myths when it comes to Ancient Egypt, and they perfectly show how, despite each legend contradicting the others, they still were worked on so that they could eventually be tied and linked together into a vaguely cohesive mythology (if you can close your eyes on minor and secondary unlogical details). 

[reversequalia]

caught up with Ennead after like. six months. oops.

but anyway WE'RE GETTING THE OGDOAD UP IN HERE??? HELL YES!!!

[sabakos]

I would like my life to have a significant increase in physical affection with only a mild to moderate increase in regular novel social interaction. Or, I want to meet people and become familiar enough with them to cuddle and also not have to maintain a life where I must meet other people regularly whom I do not desire to become familiar with.

[sehetep-shenwer]

There will be frog people btw

[dwellerinthelibrary]

[A rectangular fragment of an unpainted coffin. At left, four naked gods with hands raised in worship; Heh and Nun have frog heads; Naunet and Hehet have uraeus heads. All appear male despite their labels. At right, a solar barque with multiple passengders, including a god with his arms raised above his head, holding a sun disc containing a scarab.]

Where: Hermitage Museum St Petersburg

When: Roman Egypt