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Holy Guardian AngelWithin the system of Thelema founded by Aleister Crowley in 1904, the Holy Guardian Angel is the "Silent Self", representative of one's truest divine nature. In occultism, the term is so widely known HGA has become a common abbreviation even in non-English-speaking countries. The concept is equivalent to the Genius of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Augoeides of Iamblichus, the Atman of Hinduism, and the Daemon of the gnostics. Crowley borrowed the concept from the Grimoire "The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage". Even though the HGA is, in a sense, the higher self, it is often experienced as a separate being, independent from the adept. In the system of Thelema, the single most important goal is to consciously connect with ones HGA, a process termed Knowledge and Conversation. By doing so, the magician becomes fully aware of his own True Will. For Crowley, this event was the single most important goal of any adept: - It should never be forgotten for a single moment that the central and essential work of the Magician is the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. Once he has achieved this he must of course be left entirely in the hands of that Angel, who can be invariably and inevitably relied upon to lead him to the further great stepcrossing of the Abyss and the attainment of the grade of Master of the Temple. (Magick Without Tears, Ch.83)
See also: Initiation Methods of Achieving K&C Crowley said that the Abramelin proceedure was not the only way to achieve success in this endevour: - It is impossible to lay down precise rules by which a man may attain to the knowledge and conversation of His Holy Guardian Angel; for that is the particular secret of each one of us; as secret not to be told or even divined by any other, whatever his grade. It is the Holy of Holies, whereof each man is his own High Priest, and none knoweth the Name of his brother's God, or the Rite that invokes Him. (Book 4, "One Star in Sight")
Since the operation described in Abramelin is so complex and requires time and resources not available to most people, Crowley wanted to provide a more accessable method. While at the Abbey of Thelema in Italy, he wrote Liber Samekh, a ritual designed specifically for attaining the Knowledge and Conversation with ones HGA. In his notes to this ritual, Crowley sums up the key to success: INVOKE OFTEN. He also explains, in more detail, the general mystical process of the ritual: - The Adept will be free to concentrate his deepest self, that part of him which unconsciously orders his true Will, upon the realization of his Holy Guardian Angel. The absence of his bodily, mental and astral consciousness is indeed cardinal to success, for it is their usurpation of his attention which has made him deaf to his Soul, and his preoccupation with their affairs that has prevented him from perceiving that Soul.
- The effect of the Ritual has been
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- to keep them so busy with their own work that they cease to distract him;
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- to separate them so completely that his soul is stripped of its sheaths;
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- to arouse in him an enthusiasm so intense as to intoxicate and anaesthetize him, that he may not feel and resent the agony of this spiritual vivisection, just as bashful lovers get drunk on the wedding night, in order to brazen out the intensity of shame which so mysteriously coexists with their desire;
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- to concentrate the necessary spiritual forces from every element, and fling them simultaneously into the aspiration towards the Holy Guardian Angel; and
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- to attract the Angel by the vibration of the magical voice which invokes Him.
- The method of the Ritual is thus manifold.
Another detailed description of the general operation is given in The Vision and the Voice, Aethyr 8. Carroll & the HGA Peter Carroll split the concept in two and speaks of two "Holy Guardian Angels". According to him, one is the Augoeides, a projected image of whatever the magician strives for, and the other is quantum uncertainty, which he says ultimately determines the acts of the magician and is a spark of the only true creative force, chaos, much as previous concepts have spoken of the Guardian angel as a spark of divinity. However, Crowley's view on the subject remains the more popular one. See also: Chaos magic Referrences - Adapted from the Thelemapedia article Holy Guardian Angel. Rerieved on 03/15/05.
- Crowley, Aleister. (1997). Magick: Book 4. 2nd ed. York Beach, Me. : S. Weiser.
- ___. (1982). Magick Without Tears. Phoenix, AZ : Falcon Press
- ___. (1998). The Vision & the Voice : the Equinox, IV(2). York Beach, Me. : Samuel Weiser.
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