The term
Holy Guardian Angel was possibly coined either by Abraham of Würzburg, a French Cabalist who wrote a book on ceremonial magick during the 15th century or
Samuel Liddell MacGregor MathersSamuel Liddell "MacGregor" Mathers, born as Samuel Liddell , was one of the most influential figures in modern Occultism...
, the founder of the
Hermetic Order of the Golden DawnThe Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a magical order founded in Great Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which practiced theurgy and spiritual development. It has been one of the largest single influences on 20th-century Western occultism...
, who later translated this manuscript and elaborated on this earlier work, giving it extensive magical notes. In his publication of
The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the MageThe Book of Abramelin tells the story of an Egyptian mage named Abramelin, or Abra-Melin, who taught a system of magic to Abraham of Worms, a German Jew presumed to have lived from c.1362 - c.1458...
, he writes:
- "If thou shalt perfectly observe these rules, all the following Symbols and an infinitude of others will be granted unto thee by thy Holy Guardian Angel; thou thus living for the Honour and Glory of the True and only God, for thine own good, and that of thy neighbour. Let the Fear of God be ever before the eyes and the heart of him who shall possess this Divine Wisdom and Sacred Magic."
Later,
Aleister CrowleyAleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, was an English occultist, writer, mountaineer, poet, yogi, and possibly a spy...
popularized the term within his system of
ThelemaThelema is a Magickal Philosophy based on the dictum, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. ... Love is the law, love under will," as presented in Aleister Crowley's Liber AL vel Legis ...
.
Aleister Crowley's view
Within the system of
ThelemaThelema is a Magickal Philosophy based on the dictum, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. ... Love is the law, love under will," as presented in Aleister Crowley's Liber AL vel Legis ...
founded by
Aleister CrowleyAleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, was an English occultist, writer, mountaineer, poet, yogi, and possibly a spy...
in 1904, the Holy Guardian Angel is the "Silent Self", representative of one's truest
divineDivinity and divine are broadly applied but loosely defined terms, used variously within different faiths and belief systems — and even by different individuals within a given faith — to refer to some transcendent or transcendental power, or its attributes or manifestations in the world...
nature.
In some branches of occultism, the term is so widely known that HGA has become a common abbreviation even in non-English-speaking countries. Crowley seems to consider it equivalent to the Genius of the
Hermetic Order of the Golden DawnThe Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a magical order founded in Great Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which practiced theurgy and spiritual development. It has been one of the largest single influences on 20th-century Western occultism...
, the
AugoeidesAugoeides is an obscure term meaning "luminous body" and thought to refer to the planets. Aleister Crowley considered the term to refer to the Holy Guardian Angel of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn; the Atman of Hinduism the Daemon of the ancient Greeks.-Etymology:It appears that Porphyry...
of Iamblichus, the
AtmanThe Ātman is a philosophical term used within Hinduism and Vedanta to identify the soul. It is one's true self beyond identification with the phenomenal reality of worldly existence.-Etymology:The word ātman is connected with the Indo-European root *ēt-men and is cognate with Old English "æþm",...
of
HinduismHinduism is the predominant religion of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as ', a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal law", by its adherents. Generic "types" of Hinduism that attempt to accommodate a variety of complex views span folk and Vedic Hinduism to bhakti tradition, as...
, and the
DaemonThe words daemon, dæmon, are Latinized spellings of the Greek δαίμων , used purposely today to distinguish the daemons of Ancient Greek religion, good or malevolent "supernatural beings between mortals and gods, such as inferior divinities and ghosts of dead heroes" , from the Judeo-Christian...
of the ancient Greeks. He borrowed the term from the
GrimoireA grimoire is a textbook of magic. Books of this genre, typically giving instructions for invoking angels or demons, performing divination and gaining magical powers, have circulated throughout Europe since the Middle Ages....
"The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage".
Even though the HGA is, in a sense, the “higher self”, it is often experienced as a separate being, independent from the adept. In the system of Thelema, the single most important goal is to consciously connect with one’s HGA, a process termed “Knowledge and Conversation.” By doing so, the magician becomes fully aware of his own
True WillTrue Will is a term found within the mystical system of Thelema, a religion founded in 1904 with Aleister Crowley's writing of The Book of the Law. It is defined at times as a person's grand destiny in life, and at other times as a moment to moment path of action that operates in perfect harmony...
.
For Crowley, this event was the single most important goal of any adept:
- It should never be forgotten for a single moment that the central and essential work of the Magician is the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. Once he has achieved this he must of course be left entirely in the hands of that Angel, who can be invariably and inevitably relied upon to lead him to the further great step—crossing of the Abyss
Abyss may mean:-Sciences:* Abyssal zone, a deep extent of the sea.* Abyssal plain, a flat area on the ocean floor-Philosophy:* Abyss , is a bottomless depth....
and the attainment of the grade of Master of the Temple.
Methods of achieving knowledge and conversation
Crowley said that the Abramelin procedure was not the only way to achieve success in this endeavour:
- It is impossible to lay down precise rules by which a man may attain to the knowledge and conversation of His Holy Guardian Angel; for that is the particular secret of each one of us; a secret not to be told or even divined by any other, whatever his grade. It is the Holy of Holies, whereof each man is his own High Priest, and none knoweth the Name of his brother's God, or the Rite that invokes Him.
Since the operation described in “Abramelin” is so complex and requires time and resources not available to most people, Crowley wanted to provide a more accessible method. While at the
Abbey of ThelemaThe Abbey of Thelema refers to a small house which was used as a temple and spiritual centre and was founded by Aleister Crowley and Leah Hirsig in Cefalù, Sicily in 1920....
in Italy, he wrote
Liber Samekh, a ritual designed specifically for attaining the Knowledge and Conversation with one’s HGA. In his notes to this ritual, Crowley sums up the key to success: “INVOKE OFTEN.”
He also explains, in more detail, the general mystical process of the ritual:
- The Adept will be free to concentrate his deepest self, that part of him which unconsciously orders his true Will, upon the realization of his Holy Guardian Angel. The absence of his bodily, mental and astral consciousness is indeed cardinal to success, for it is their usurpation of his attention which has made him deaf to his Soul, and his preoccupation with their affairs that has prevented him from perceiving that Soul.
- The effect of the Ritual has been
-
- to keep them so busy with their own work that they cease to distract him;
- to separate them so completely that his soul is stripped of its sheaths;
- to arouse in him an enthusiasm so intense as to intoxicate and anaesthetize him, that he may not feel and resent the agony of this spiritual vivisection, just as bashful lovers get drunk on the wedding night, in order to brazen out the intensity of shame which so mysteriously coexists with their desire;
- to concentrate the necessary spiritual forces from every element, and fling them simultaneously into the aspiration towards the Holy Guardian Angel; and
- to attract the Angel by the vibration of the magical voice which invokes Him.
- The method of the Ritual is thus manifold.
Another detailed description of the general operation is given in
The Vision and the Voice in the eighth Aethyr and is also described in
Liber 8.
Variations in Crowley's view
Crowley only espouses a view that the Holy Guardian Angel is the 'silent self' in his early life. In his seventies, when composing
Magick without TearsMagick Without Tears was the last book written by occultist Aleister Crowley , initially written in the mid 1940s near the end of his life, and first published in 1954. The book consists of 80 letters to various students of magick...
, he presents a completely different and diametrically opposed view. According to this definition, the Holy Guardian Angel is not one's 'self', but an independent and discrete being, who may have been a human like oneself at one stage:
- Now, on the other hand, there is an entirely different type of angel; and here we must be especially careful to remember that we include gods and devils, for there are such beings who are not by any means dependent on one particular element for their existence. They are microcosms in exactly the same sense as men and women are. They are individuals who have picked up the elements of their composition as possibility and convenience dictates, exactly as we do ourselves... I believe that the Holy Guardian Angel is a Being of this order. He is something more than a man, possibly a being who has already passed through the stage of humanity, and his peculiarly intimate relationship with his client is that of friendship, of community, of brotherhood, or Fatherhood. He is not, let me say with emphasis, a mere abstraction from yourself; and that is why I have insisted rather heavily that the term 'Higher Self' implies a damnable heresy and a dangerous delusion."
Peter Carroll's view
The occult writer, Peter Carroll split the concept in two and speaks of two "Holy Guardian Angels". According to him, one is the Augoeides, a projected image of whatever the magician strives for, and the other is
quantum uncertaintyIn quantum mechanics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle states that certain pairs of physical properties, like position and momentum, cannot both be known to arbitrary precision. That is, the more precisely one property is known, the less precisely the other can be known...
, which he says ultimately determines the acts of the magician and is a spark of the only true creative force,
chaosChaos typically refers to a state lacking order or predictability. In ancient Greece, it referred to the initial state of the universe, and, by extension, space, darkness, or an abyss...
, much as previous concepts have spoken of the Guardian angel as a spark of
divinityDivinity and divine are broadly applied but loosely defined terms, used variously within different faiths and belief systems — and even by different individuals within a given faith — to refer to some transcendent or transcendental power, or its attributes or manifestations in the world...
.
Enochian view
The Enochian system of Dr. John Dee offers a concept similar to Crowley's later views with regard to the HGA.
In this dialog between Dee and the angel Jubanladace on p.18, Cotton Appendix XLVI 1, the angel provides this perspective:
Dee: If I should not offend you, I would gladly know of what order you are or how your state is in respect of Michael, Gabriel, Raphael or Uriel.
Jubanladace: Unto men, according unto their deserts, and the first excellency of their soul, God hath appointed a good Governor or Angel, from among the orders of those that are blessed. For every soul that is good, is not of one and the self same dignification. Therefore according to his excellency we are appointed as Ministers from that order, whereunto his excellency accordeth: to the intent that he may be brought, at last, to supply those places which were glorified by a former: and also to the intent, that the Prince of darkness might be counterposed in God's justice.
In the past life regression
Hypnotist
Michael NewtonMichael Newton is an American author best known for his work on Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan series. Newton first began work on the Executioner series by co-writing "The Executioner's War Book" with Don Pendleton in 1977. Since then he has been a steady writer for the series with almost 90 entries...
, wrote in his book
Destiny of SoulsDestiny of Souls is the title of the second book by Michael Newton published in 2000. Michael Newton is a Master Hypnotherapist who has developed his own "age regression" technique.- Summary :...
that, "In my work, guides are sometimes described as guardian angels, although our personal teachers are beings who have incarnated in physical form long before graduating to the level of guides."
Criticism
Mike Howard reports in
The Book of Fallen Angels that members of the Order of the Morning Star (OMS) have argued that the Holy Guardian Angel is a fabricated concept in Western occultism and is largely the invention of
Aleister CrowleyAleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, was an English occultist, writer, mountaineer, poet, yogi, and possibly a spy...
and his peers, drawing upon only a handful of sources. In the Thelemic journal
Starfire this discussion was explored in more detail, with various occult authors siding on both sides of the debate.
External links