Abraxas
With Abrasax (Greek ΑΒΡΑΣΑΞ) - this term is found more frequently in the sources than the more popular Abraxas (ΑΒΡΑΞΑΣ) - the Egyptian Gnostic Basilides referred to the symbol of the highest primal being, from which, according to him, the five primal forces spirit , word , providence , wisdom and power have emerged. Basilides' followers worshiped Abraxas as the highest God, who allegedly also sent Jesus into the world, whom they regarded as only a spirit, but still as the son of the Old Testament God YHWH and Messiah .
The word can be found even before Basilides, for example on Hellenistic magic papyri , where it evidently denotes a powerful demon , or on ancient amulet stones, where it is evidently the true name of God. Without question, Abraxas played an important role in many magical practices (see Abracadabra ).
The cult of Abraxas remained alive into the Middle Ages and still had many followers during the Renaissance . Even today there are many artists who are from the atavistic nature of Abraxaskultes inspire leave. Today Abraxas is often associated with satanic currents due to its blasphemous interpretation .
Origin and name
The origin of the name is unclear and there are several theories about it. Johann Joachim Bellermann traces the name back to the Egyptian words abrac and sax . The Abraxas variant is believed to have originated from confusing the Greek letters Sigma and Xi in the Latin translation. There are also approaches that see coded numbers in the name.
The word is a sequence of seven Greek letters that stand for the days of the week and, using gematria, each result in a numerical value:
- α = 1; β = 2; ρ = 100; α = 1; σ = 200; α = 1; ξ = 60
Adding up the values gives
- α + β + ρ + α + σ + α + ξ = 1 + 2 + 100 + 1 + 200 + 1 + 60 = 365,
d. H. the number of days in the solar year . Thus Abraxas, like the Persian god Mithras , could embody the time in which the sun once traversed the zodiac , and beyond that, in his function as deity of numerology , the 365,000 years or 365 aeons in which the world is supposed to exist . One “day of God” corresponds to 1000 human years, as can also be seen in the Bible (Psalm 90: 4).
"Because a thousand years are like the day that passed yesterday, like a watch in the night."
The word Abraxas could symbolize the seven planets as well as the seven levels of human enlightenment . In early Christian times it could have been synonymous with "our father" and "lord of hosts", which could mean an equation with Mithras and YHWH . Later the Christians began to see the Gnostic “Lord of the World” as a demon.
Abraxas also coined the magic word Abara-kadabara, better known today as " Abracadabra ".
presentation
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The appearance of this creature is shaped by various animal images: a human torso, a rooster head and snake feet . With him he carries a whip and a shield , which is surrounded by a branch shaped like a double cross. These images are representative of the primal forces mentioned above.
- Snake Feet: Spirit and Word (Nus and Logos)
- Rooster Head: Providence (Phronesis); Herald of daylight and morning
- Whip or scourge: power (dynamis); served to drive away spirits
- Shield: Wisdom (Sophia)
This "rooster-headed God" is considered a figure of light, a symbol of procreation and a sign of victory and happiness.
The abraxas with this word or with the image of the being served as amulets to protect against negative forces.
Quotes
“… Our God is called Abraxas, and he is God and is Satan , he has the light and the dark world in him. [...] The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Whoever wants to be born has to destroy a world. The bird flies to God. The god is called Abraxas. "
In his Septem sermones ad mortuos, CG Jung describes the Abraxas as:
"... is a God above God [...]. God you did not know because people forgot him. We call him by his name ABRAXAS. To distinguish God from Him, we call God Helios or Sun. Abraxas is an effect, nothing stands in the way of it but the unreal, hence its active nature unfolds freely. The unreal is not and does not resist. The Abraxas stands above the sun and above the devil. He is the improbably probable, the unreal thing. If the pleroma had a being, the Abraxas would be its clarification. It is indeed the agent itself, but not a specific effect, but an effect in general. It is unreal because it has no specific effect. It is also a creature as it is different from the pleroma. The sun has a definite effect, as does the devil, therefore they seem much more effective to us than the indefinable Abraxas. It is strength, duration, change. "
Aftermath
Thomas More cites Utopia Abraxas as the previous name of the island in his novel , before it was renamed Utopia by King Utopus.
Abraxas was carved into the Kaiser-Heinrich-Kreuz of Fritzlar Cathedral .
In Hermann Hesse's novel Demian , an Abraxas amulet is mentioned, and the myth "Abraxas" is briefly explained in its context.
In Otfried Preußler 's children's book Die kleine Hexe (1957), the little witch's wise raven is called Abraxas.
The ninth title of the Therion album Lemuria is dedicated to Abraxas. Thomas Karlsson writes there, among other things: "The sign of Abraxas / The circle of the solar year / Deep in winter you will see how the sun is born."
Abraxas is also the name of one of the most successful albums by Carlos Santana with his most famous song Black Magic Woman , released in 1970.
Terror Abraxas is the Australian band the title of an EP Deströyer 666 from 2003, whose founder, singer and guitarist KK Warslut the ever appearing in the symbolism of the band Caduceus to express the duality takes up the Gnostic deity Abraxas and to represent the archetype not Hermes , the Greek god of magic .
Abraxas is the title of a ballet in five pictures by Marcel Luipart (choreography) and Werner Egk (music and libretto), premiered on June 6, 1948 at the Prinzregententheater in Munich.
literature
- AA Barb: Abraxas Studies. In: Hommages à Waldemar Deonna . Collection Latomus, 28, 1957, pp. 67-86.
- Albrecht Dieterich : Abraxas. Studies on the religious history of later antiquity. Teubner, Leipzig 1891. Reprint: Scientia-Verlag, Aalen 1973, ISBN 3-511-00866-2 .
- Marcel Le Glay : Abraxas . In: Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). Volume I, Zurich / Munich 1981, pp. 2-7.
- Ioannis Macarii canonici Ariensis Abraxas, seu, Apistopistus: quæ est antiquaria de gemmis Basilidianis disquisitio. Accedit abraxas proteus, seu multiformis gemmae Basilidianae portentosa varietas. Antverpiae, ex officina Plantiniana Balthasaris Moreti, 1657, books.google.com (Johannes Macarius: Abraxas seu Apistopistus and Johannes Chiflet: Abraxas Proteus in one volume)
- Simone Michel : The magical gems: to pictures and magic formulas on cut stones of antiquity and modern times. Volume 1. Studies from the Warburg House 7. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2004.
- Peter Zazoff : The ancient gems. Handbook of Archeology, Volume 4. Beck, Munich 1983, pp. 349-362.
Web links
- The seven teachings of the dead ( Memento from July 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- Septem sermones ad mortuos
- CG Jung's unsolved anagram ( Memento from December 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ^ Catholic Encyclopedia
- ^ Carl Gustav Jung: Septem sermones ad Mortuos (1916), Sermo 2; based on the works of the same name by Basilides, which he wrote down in Alexandria , the city where east and west meet.
- ^ Hermann Hesse: Demian: the story of Emil Sinclair's youth . 1st edition. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 978-3-518-18816-3 .
- ↑ Otfried Preußler: The little witch . 1st edition. Thienemann, Stuttgart 1957.
- ^ Therion - Lemuria. Discogs.com, accessed April 24, 2020 .
- ↑ Santana - Abraxas. Discogs.com, accessed April 24, 2020 .
- ↑ E.: Deströyer 666 . In: Slayer , No. 20, Blood Fire Death , 2010, p. 72.
- ↑ Otto Friedrich Regner, Heinz-Ludwig Schneider: Reclam's ballet guide . Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-15-008042-8 , p. 35.