The Headless One

by Jake Stratton-Kent

Part of the Guides to the Underworld series from Hadean Press. The ritual of the Headless One examined in this Guide has been one of the most important in modern magic for 160 years. Originating in the Magical Papyri, it was published by Charles Wycliffe Goodwin in 1852. It was swiftly adapted by the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley, forming the very core of their ritual arsenal. It has received more recent endorsement from the Temple of Set. The rite has borne various titles, such as the Bornless One, Liber Samekh, and the Preliminary Invocation. A key element of what is effective in modern magic, its ancient roots have long remained a closed book. Only a fraction of the papyri were available to the early revival, and long delays prevented later students investigating much further. That the ritual formed part of an important ‘genre’ within that ancient ritual corpus was a fact suspected by few. An important study of the ritual was published in 1991 by Jake Stratton-Kent in No.6 of the long out of print Equinox/BJT. This booklet is a comprehensively revised and updated expansion of that ground-breaking investigation of the ritual of the Headless One.

Genres: Occult, Magic

43 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 6, 2013

About the author

Jake Stratton-Kent has been a goetic magician since 1972, making more than forty years of continuous goetic practice. His practical work integrates the magical papyri, italo-french grimoires in particular the Grimorium Verum and African traditional religions with a focus on Quimbanda and magia negra. His interest in magic spans the ancient, medieval, renaissance, and modern as well as stretching from the West to the Middle East and crucially, the New World. His scholarly approach is backed with a personal relationship with the spirits.

Reviews

[Jim Stath · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this work. Short, and to the point, it describes both the ritual itself (Should you wish to perform it) and the historical context of its origin. Also it analyzes its connection with the rest of the rituals in its source text, the Greek magical papyri, along with its connection to the entire corpus of modern western magical traditions. I definitely would prefer if the original Greek language was also included, but I still consider it an excellent read for the amount of info crammed in a work the size of a pamphlet.

[Xzavier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely valuable resource for Thelemites

Jake Stratton-Kent elucidates the complexities and nuances of the popular ritual "Bornless One" and Liber Samekh; detailing it's history, source material, and alterations. Stratton-Kent also provides excerpts from Records detailing the use of the ritual.

[Edric Unsane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and informative, but ultimately too short to give a full view of the scope of the elucidations.

[Forrest · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mister Crowley [sic], what they've done in your headless [sic].