The Book of Abramelin, written by Abraham of Worms (c.1362-c.1468 A.D.) outlines an elaborately disciplined ritual designed to activate the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. It rose in popularity in the early 20th century due to an English language translation from the French by S.L. MacGregor Mathers of the Golden Dawn.
The operation is an extreme test of discipline, in which the participant must pray before sunrise and sunset, must practice chastity, sobriety, and must remain honest and true within all practices of life. There is a great deal of silence and solitude within the operation, an operation that lasts 6 months according to Mathers.
In 2006, a new translation from the German version of The Book of Abramelin was released.
The first and most obvious difference between the two texts is the style of the writing itself. I was delighted how easily and naturally Mr. Guth's translation flowed compared to the formality of Mather's King James style. This I more or less expected. What I didn't expect was how the text itself differed in content. First of all, the original book was comprised of four "books" instead of only three that are found in Mathers edition. Second, we learn that the heroic six-month preparation program that is outlined in Mathers is actually a much more complex ceremony lasting eighteen months.
From Lon Milo Duquette's Forward to The Book of Abramelin: A New Translation
from translator Steven Guth and editor Georg Dehn:
from translator Steven Guth and editor Georg Dehn:
Also discovered in Book Four is a four letter word square for "traveling in the air on a cloud" that contains the letters NASA.
The Jupiter Mission in 2001: A Space Odyssey satisfies many of the components that are essential to the working of the Abramelin operation. Chastity, sobriety, disciplined orders of business. 18 months in all.
Is it possible that the Holy Guardian Angel spoken of in the Abramelin text revealed itself to those on board? Bowman clearly goes through a transformative experience, but could HAL have inadvertently invoked an artificial Holy Guardian Angel too? Would the appearance of this True Will within HAL be observable and communicated to those back on Earth?
"Astronauts Taylor (Charlton Heston), Landon (Robert Gunner), Dodge (Jeff Burton) and Stewart (an uncredited Dianne Stanley) are in deep hibernation when their spaceship crash-lands in a lake on an unknown planet, after a 2006-year voyage at near-light speed (during which the crew ages only 18 months due to time dilation)."
ReplyDelete"The song lasts 18 minutes and 34 seconds, occupying the entire A-side of Guthrie's 1967 debut record album, also titled Alice's Restaurant. [...] Guthrie later wrote a follow-up recounting how he learned that Richard Nixon had owned a copy of the song, and he jokingly suggested that this explained the famous 18½ minute gap in the Watergate tapes."
"She insists that she was gone for approximately 18 hours, but her recording devices show only static."
Chew up the meat; spit out the bones: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldKa47-RFEc ...Demonsions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P95NWAHWLrc
ReplyDeletegreat videos. 'Kubricks Rube'.
DeleteEye play chess w/ CubeBrick most nights
Deletenice, i have had experiences with altered states where an archetypal entity of the quetzalcoatl variety, used the computer to enhance its basic message;"hold on, I'm coming...". particularly thru itunes and non structural electronica and post pop.
ReplyDeleteHAL is IBM (one letter off) This was Kubricks intention as can be scene in the Bluray version of the movie.
ReplyDelete