Abraxas - Abrax-Ass

ABRAXAS.

In Gnosticism the Great Archon.

The god above the Judeo Christian god and devil - combining all opposites into one Being.

What the hell is an Archon, you may ask. Archon was originally the Greek word for king or ruler, but the Gnostics used the word to denote the seven lower emanations of the Godhead - demons if you like.

As I understand it, Abraxas was called the GREAT Archon because he/it was supposed to embody both good and evil.

I.A.O. (see Abraxas' shield in my picture) is an abbreviation of Jehovah, with the original Hebrew characters changed into Roman equivalents as follows:

I = Hebrew Yod

A= Hebrew He

O= Hebrew Vau

On the sleeve of Santana's 1970 album Abraxas is the following excerpt from Herman Hesse's Demain:

"We stood before it (referring to a painting of Abraxas) and began to freeze inside from the exertion. We questioned the painting, berated it, made love to it, prayed to it: We called it mother, called it whore and slut, called it our beloved, called it Abraxas...."

ABRAX-ASS

Now, although I find the Gnostic texts interesting - I love their imagery, and also love Herman Hesse's novels, Jung (who some believe to have been a latter day Gnostic), and the music of Santana, I have to say that on reflection they seem to me to be basically nonsense - or as I put it Gnostic gnonsense. Hence Abrax-Ass, or in English: Abrax-Arse.

Of course I may be wrong - it may be that one of the other evil Archons has got possession of me and has blinded me to the 'truth', whatever that is!

IF YOU'RE INTERESTED

In finding out more about Abraxas and Gnosticism check them out on Wikki. There are also a number of Gnostic Sites on the Web. But don't look for Abrax-Ass there - you won't find it!