Abraxas
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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- For other uses, see Abraxas (disambiguation).
Abrasax (Gk. ΑΒΡΑΣΑΞ, which is far more common in the sources than the variant form Abraxas, ΑΒΡΑΞΑΣ) was a word of mystic meaning in the system of the Gnostic Basilides, being there applied to the “Great Archon” (Gk., megas archōn), the princeps of the 365 spheres (Gk., ouranoi)
In literature
- Thomas More, Utopia
In the 1516 novel Utopia by Thomas More, the island called Utopia once had the name "Abraxa", which scholars have suggested is a related use.
- Aleister Crowley, "The Gnostic Mass"
Abrasax is invoked in Aleister Crowley's 1913 work, "The Gnostic Mass" of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica:
- IO IO IO IAO SABAO KURIE ABRASAX KURIE MEITHRAS KURIE PHALLE. IO PAN, IO PAN PAN IO ISCHUROS, IO ATHANATOS IO ABROTOS IO IAO. KAIRE PHALLE KAIRE PAMPHAGE KAIRE PANGENETOR. HAGIOS, HAGIOS, HAGIOS IAO.
As a piece of mystical and religious syncretism, the work reflects more the personal preferences of the modern magician than it holds historical veracity.
- Carl Jung, Seven Sermons to the Dead
Abraxas is an important figure in Carl Jung's 1916 book Seven Sermons to the Dead, a representation of the driving force of individuation (synthesis, maturity, oneness), referred with the figures for the driving forces of differentiation (emergence of consciousness and opposites), Helios God-the-Sun, and the Devil.
- There is a God about whom you know nothing, because men have forgotten him. We call him by his name: Abraxas. He is less definite than God or Devil....
Abraxas is activity: nothing can resist him but the unreal ... Abraxas stands above the sun[-god] and above the devil If the Pleroma were capable of having a being, Abraxas would be its manifestation.
- That which is spoken by God-the-Sun is life; that which is spoken by the Devil is death; Abraxas speaketh that hallowed and accursed word, which is life and death at the same time. Abraxas begetteth truth and lying, good and evil, light and darkness in the same word and in the same act. Wherefore is Abraxas terrible.
- Herman Hesse, Demian
Several references to the god Abraxas appear in Hermann Hesse's 1919 novel Demian, such as:
- The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. That God's name is Abraxas.
- ... it appears that Abraxas has much deeper significance. We may conceive of the name as that of the godhead whose symbolic task is the uniting of godly and devilish elements.
- Abraxas doesn't take exception to any of your thoughts or any of your dreams. Never forget that. But he will leave you once you become blameless and normal.
- Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children
Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children (1981) contains a reference to Abraxas in the chapter "Abracadabra":
- Abracadabra: not an Indian word at all, a cabbalistic formula derived from the name of the supreme god of the Basilidan gnostics, containing the number 365, the number of the days of the year, and of the heavens, and of the spirits emanating from the god Abraxas.
