I was reading through R. Campbell Thompson’s “The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia” and came across a translation from “Tablet B”: A hawk to flutter in thine evil face, in my left hand I thrust forward. This reminded me of the following passage(s) in “The Book of the Law”: [III:51] With my Hawk’s head I peck at the eyes of Jesus as he hangs upon the cross. [III:52] I flap my wings in the face of Mohammed & blind him.

While this recognition, valid or otherwise, does not cross the line into pestilential interpretation (not that it would stop me if it did), I found the parallel ideas rather interesting.  In the Babylonian text, this is part of a ceremonial incantation, ostensibly to drive off an evil spirit.  In the Thelemic context, in my opinion, it is an image that denotes the obviation of the Old Aeon gods, represented here by Jesus and Mohammed, but would equally include any similar gods of that nature. Thus, in a sense, Ra-Hoor-Khuit, the hawk-headed lord of the Aeon, could be seen in these passages as “driving off” the gods of the Old Aeon.

An Aside: The Clavis Inferni

On a separate topic, I also noted in the “Grimoire of St. Cyprian,” released by Skinner and Rankine as part of their ever-increasing and excellent body of collaborative work, the Latin abbreviation of a circle and cross meaning “prayer,” its form perhaps indicative of a communion wafer. This brought me back to “The Book of the Law” III:47, “… this circle squared…,” which appears similarly, though broken.  I’ll leave the rest to the interpretation of the reader, but I found my own interpretation in light of that recognition rather interesting.

References:

The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia; R. Campbell Thompson; Forgotten Books; 2010. Reprint of 1903 edition by Luzac & Sons, London.

The Law is For All; Crowley, Wilkinson (Ed.), Hymenaeus Beta (Ed.); New Falcon; 1996.

The Grimiore of St. Cyprian: Clavis Inferni, Skinner & Rankine; Golden Hoard; 2009.