GOLDEN DAWN – ” THE COPTIC INVOCATION – THE BORNLESS ONE  AKA THE HEADLESS ONE RITUAL”

 The Bornless One Ritual -Learn all about this powerful ritual that should precede any ceremonial magick!

This piece may be a little over the heads of those that are not familiar with the Hermetic Order Of The Golden Dawn, A very powerful Magickal order that was founded in Victorian England, but claimed lineage back to continental Europe to the Earliest Rosicrucians.

We will examine a very important Ritual commonly known as the Bornless one.

In the context of the Golden Dawn and Stella Matutina and not that of Crowley’s Thelema, (the Stella Matutina was the Offshoot of the Original Golden Dawn Order after the Original order suffered public scandals and schisms.

Due to two outsiders (The Horos) fraudulently using Stolen GD documents to misrepresent themselves as GD adepts for nefarious purposes.

This resulted in the Original Order eventually shutting down and the Stella Matutina continued in secret in New Zealand after Felkin moved it there.)

 ALEISTER CROWLEY & THE BORNLESS ONE RITUAL

The ritual known as “On the Coptic Invocation- The Bornless One” is rarely discussed amongst modern occultists.
A common error is to assume that Aleister Crowley (who gave it considerable emphasis in his writings) either adapted it from his reading of Charles Goodwin’s 1852 “a Fragment of a Graeco-Egyptian work upon Magic” or received it from the Golden Dawn member Allan Bennet whilst under the latter’s instruction.

Please note that the latter is correct, but it needs emphasizing that Bennett received it as an Adeptus Minor of the Golden Dawn.

STELLA MATUTINA & HOW THEY USED THE BORNLESS ONE RITUAL

The ritual is in fact a standard text of the Zelator Adeptus Minor, 1=10 grade first utilised by Macgregor Mathers and it was used in the G.D., in Mathers’ A.O. and in Felkin’s Stella Matutina.

Indeed, in the Stella Matutina there was a special adaption and it was recommended that the Z.A.M. perform it every single day without fail.

And before any important magickal working.
Jake Stratton-Kent (see his excellent article on the subject) noted that the ritual is more correctly titled “the Headless One”, rather than “the Bornless One” and it seems that Mathers preferred to call it “The Bornless One “ for whatever reason.

The Bornless Ritual is one of the most important God Invocations in ceremonial Magic. The Bornless Ritual is based as previously mentioned on Graeco-Egyptian magical writings.

The ritual was published in 1852 as a mere fragment of a Graeco-Egyptian work of Magic by Charles Wycliffe Goodwin.

Goodwin published it for the Cambridge Antiquarian Society.

E.A. WALLIS BUDGE

And E. A. Wallis Budge the famous British Egyptologist included part of the bornless ritual in Egyptian Magic in 1899. Different versions of it have been written and used in various rituals.

The original intent of the Bornless Ritual was apparently exorcism.

It shows Jewish influence, referring to Moses and the “ceremonies of Israel.” It employs barbarous names to command all spirits of the firmament, ether, and the elements.

Back to the Golden Dawn and Mathers…
It is obvious that the title “Headless One” was undoubtedly known to some Golden Dawn and Stella Matutina members and in an annotation made by Dr. Carnegie Dickson in the context of a higher Grade Dickson mentions this.

With specific reference to the 7=4 and the Grades above, Dickson states that the “Headless One” is identified with the T-shaped Cross (without the upper vertical bar) and therefore it is Tav, and it is Malkuth or everything below Tiphareth. (Qabalistic Tree of Life)

By performing the bornless ritual and using other higher Grade material one enables the Headless One to recover its “Head” separated by Daath.

Once this “Head” is restored to the T Cross we have, of course, the Ankh, symbol of the 7=4 and of the completed Adept of the Third Order.

 (The GD has three orders, the1st or  outer order is called the Golden Dawn, The Second or Inner is Known as The RR et AC and is Rosicrucian, The Third order whose name remains concealed corresponds to the Sephiroth of Binah, Chokmah, and Kether, and begin with the probationary initiation of the Portal of the Abyss (which corresponds to Non-Sephirah of Daath)
Elsewhere Dickson suggests that the “Head” (Vesica, Egg) is Aima, the Great Mother of the Headless, or Bornless One.

The first “step” towards the restoration of Headless Son (Sun) and Mother is entering Tiphareth via the Door of Venus.

Several GD Golden Dawn, AO  Alpha Omega and SM Stella Matutina manuscript copies of the bornless ritual are extant and below are two pages from the copy made by the Rev. Ayton in the early 1890s.

The Golden Dawn Version differs from the original…in that RA HOOR KHUIT  is replaced with Osorronophris, IA BESZ is replaced with Iabas and IA APOPHRASZ is replaced with IAROS.

It is also much abbreviated.

Yet retains and amplifies in some aspects its full potency when performed by a learned magician.