Therion (Thelema)

Deity found in the mystical system of Thelema

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Thelema

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Core concepts

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Thelemic texts

* Aleister Crowley bibliography
* Kenneth Grant bibliography
* Marcelo Motta bibliography

Organizations

* A∴A∴

* O∴A∴A∴

* Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (EGC)

* Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO)

* Society Ordo Templi Orientis (SOTO)

* Thelemic Order of the Golden Dawn

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Deities

* Nuit
* Hadit
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* Aiwass
* Therion
* Babalon

* Baphomet
* Chaos
* Ma'at

Places

* Boleskine House

* Abbey of Thelema
* Agape Lodge

Related topics

* Abramelin oil
* Cake of Light
* Choronzon
* Eroto-comatose lucidity
* Goetia
* Magical formulae
* Number of the beast
* Obeah and wanga
* Qlippoth
* Table of magical correspondences

* The Beast and Whore of Babylon
* Worship of heavenly bodies

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Therion (thēríon) (Greek: θηρίον, beast) is a deity found in the mystical system of Thelema, which was established in 1904 with Aleister Crowley's writing of The Book of the Law. Therion's female counterpart is Babalon, another Thelemic deity. Therion, as a Thelemic godform, evolved from that of "The Beast" from the Book of Revelation, whom Crowley identified himself with since childhood, because his mother called him that name.[1][2] Indeed, throughout his life he occasionally referred to himself as “Master Therion” or sometimes “The Beast 666”. He wrote:

> Before I touched my teens, I was already aware that I was THE BEAST whose number is 666. I did not understand in the least what that implied; it was a passionately ecstatic sense of identity.[3]

The word "Therion" is mentioned in several Thelemic rituals, such as The Star Ruby. In total, there are five mentions of The Beast in Liber AL vel Legis, the first being in 1:15, and the remaining four are all in the third chapter—verses 14, 22, 34, and 47, respectively—although the word “beast” can be found elsewhere therein. Aleister Crowley believed that the references to The Beast and the Scarlet Woman (Babalon) in the book “do not denote persons but are titles of office”.[4] The first mention reads thus:

> Now ye shall know that the chosen priest & apostle of infinite space is the prince-priest the Beast; and in his woman called the Scarlet Woman is all power given.[5]

## Numerology

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The Number of the Beast is 666. The number is significant in the system of Thelema. It is the sum of the numbers inside the 6-by-6 magic square, which is associated with the sun by some Kabbalists, astrologists, and numerologists.[6] According to Crowley, it is a solar number.[7] The Stele of Revealing bore the catalogue number 666 at the time when Crowley discovered it.[8][9]

Lon Milo DuQuette has written that the Hebrew letter shin (ש), which is written at the beginning and end of the Hebrew word for 'sun' (shemesh), conceals in itself the number of The Beast, because its shape is like three vavs (ו) conjoined together, whose gematrical value is 6.[10]

The following words and phrases have 666 for their gematrical value:[11]

* אליסטיר קרולי — ALISTIR QRWLY; a Hebrew spelling of the name “Aleister Crowley”.
* נכיאל multiplied by 6 (111x6) — NKIAL; Nachiel; the intelligence of the sun.
* נמרוד מכוש - NMRVD MKVSh; Nimrod M'kush; Hebrew for "Nimrod from Cush".
* נשימירון — NShIMIRVN; Nashimiron; the qlippoth of Pisces.
* פרי שלום — PRI ShLVM; pri shalom; Hebrew for “fruit of peace”.
* סורת — SVRTh; Sorath; the evil spirit of the sun.
* תריון — ThRIVN; a Hebrew transliteration of “θηριον” / “therion”, Greek for “beast”.
* Το Μεγα Θηριον — Greek for “The Great Beast”. Koine Greek is the Greek dialect by which the books of the New Testament were written, including the Book of Revelation, where the original mention of The Beast's number is recorded (13:17-18).

## See also

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* Padmasambhava
* Magical formula

## References

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### Citations

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1. ^ Booth (2000), p. 3.
2. ^ Sutin (2000), pp. 18–21.
3. ^ Crowley (1997), Part III: Definition and Theorems of Magick.
4. ^ Crowley (1983), Commentary on III:15.
5. ^ Crowley (1976), I:15.
6. ^ Drury (1992), p. [page needed].
7. ^ Crowley (1977), p. 48.
8. ^ Gillavry (2014).
9. ^ Tully (2010).
10. ^ DuQuette (2003), p. 14.
11. ^ Crowley (1977), p. 57, entry for 666.

### Works cited

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* Booth, Martin (2000). A Magick Life: The Biography of Aleister Crowley. London: Coronet Books. ISBN 978-0-340-71806-3.
* Crowley, Aleister (1976). The Book of the Law: Liber AL vel Legis. York Beach, Maine: Weiser Books. ISBN 978-0-87728-334-8.
* Crowley, Aleister (1977). 777 and other Qabalistic writings of Aleister Crowley. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser. ISBN 0-87728-222-6.
* Crowley, Aleister (1983). Regardie, Israel (ed.). The Law is for All: An Extended Commentary on The Book of the Law (2nd ed.). Phoenix, Arizona: Falcon Press. ISBN 978-0-941404-25-9.
* Crowley, Aleister (1997). Magick: Liber ABA, Book 4, Parts I-IV (Second revised ed.). Boston: Weiser. ISBN 0877289190.
* Drury, Nevill (1992). Dictionary of Mysticism and the Esoteric Traditions. Bridport, Dorset: Prism Press. ISBN 1-85327-075-X.
* DuQuette, Lon Milo (2003). The Magick of Aleister Crowley: A Handbook of the Rituals of Thelema. Weiser Books. ISBN 978-1578632992.
* Gillavry, D. M. (2014). "Aleister Crowley, the Guardian Angel and Aiwass: The Nature of Spiritual Beings in the Philosophies of the Great Beast 666" (PDF). Sacra. 11 (2). Brno: Masaryk University: 33–42. ISSN 1214-5351. S2CID 58907340. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 June 2016. Retrieved 10 January 2022.
* Sutin, Lawrence (2000). Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0312252434.
* Tully, Caroline (2010). "Walk Like an Egyptian: Egypt as Authority in Aleister Crowley's Reception of The Book of the Law" (PDF). The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies. 12 (1). London: Equinox Publishing: 20–47. doi:10.1558/pome.v12i1.20. hdl:11343/252812. ISSN 1528-0268. S2CID 159745083. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 January 2022. Retrieved 10 January 2022.

## Further reading

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* Djurdjevic, Gordan (2012). "The Great Beast as a Tantric Hero: The Role of Yoga and Tantra in Aleister Crowley's Magick". In Bogdan, H.; Starr, M. P. (eds.). Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 107–14. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199863075.003.0005.
* Grant, Kenneth (2013). Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God. Holmes Publishing Group Llc. ISBN 978-1906073169.

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Thelema

Organizations|

* A∴A∴
* Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica
* Fraternitas Saturni
* O∴A∴A∴
* Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn
* Ordo Templi Orientis
* Society Ordo Templi Orientis
* Thelemic Order of the Golden Dawn
* Typhonian Order

Personalities|

* List of Thelemites
* Ankh-af-na-khonsu
* Aleister Crowley
* Kenneth Anger
* Allan Bennett
* William Breeze
* Mary Butts
* Marjorie Cameron
* Lon Milo DuQuette
* Jeanne Robert Foster
* J. F. C. Fuller
* Karl Germer
* Kenneth Grant
* Lady Frieda Harris
* Leah Hirsig
* Christopher Hyatt
* Charles Stansfeld Jones
* George Cecil Jones
* Richard Kaczynski
* Rose Edith Kelly
* James Lees
* Grady Louis McMurtry
* Mogg Morgan
* Marcelo Ramos Motta
* Nema Andahadna
* Victor Neuburg
* Sara Northrup
* Jack Parsons
* Helen Parsons Smith
* Theodor Reuss
* C. F. Russell
* Phyllis Seckler
* Wilfred Talbot Smith
* Leila Waddell
* James Wasserman
* Sam Webster
* Jane Wolfe

Thelemic texts|

* Aleister Crowley bibliography
* The Book of Lies
* The Book of the Law (Liber AL vel Legis)
* The Book of Thoth
* Clouds without Water
* Collected Works
* Confessions
* The Diary of a Drug Fiend
* Eight Lectures on Yoga
* The Equinox
* The Blue Equinox
* The Equinox of the Gods
* The Holy Books of Thelema
* Konx Om Pax
* The Law is for All
* Liber 777
* Liber Aleph
* Liber OZ
* Liber Resh
* Liber Trigrammaton
* Little Essays Toward Truth
* Magick (Book 4)
* Magick Without Tears
* Moonchild
* One Star in Sight
* The Stratagem and other Stories
* Thoth Tarot
* The Vision and the Voice
* White Stains

Concepts and ideas|

* 93
* Abyss
* Aeon
* Agape
* Astral projection
* Body of light
* English Qaballa
* Great Work
* Hermetic Qabalah
* Holy Guardian Angel
* Magical formula
* Night of Pan
* Stele of Revealing
* Stellar wisdom
* True Will

Magick|

* Abrahadabra
* Ceremonial magic
* Enochian magic
* Eroto-comatose lucidity
* Goetia
* Obeah and wanga
* Sex magic

Ceremony and ritual|

* Liber Resh
* Pentagram Ritual
* Bornless Ritual
* Gnostic Mass
* Rites of Eleusis

Godforms|

* Nuit
* Hadit
* Heru-ra-ha
* Aiwass
* Therion
* Babalon
* Chaos
* Ma'at
* Harpocrates

Symbolism|

* Number of the beast
* Pentagram
* Rose Cross
* Tree of Life
* Unicursal hexagram

Related topics|

* Abbey of Thelema
* Abramelin oil
* Agape Lodge
* Boleskine House
* Book of Abramelin
* Cake of Light
* Choronzon
* Dianism
* Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
* IPSOS
* Magical alphabet
* Magical organization
* Solar deity
* The Beast
* Whore of Babylon

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