Saturday, June 26, 2010

Alhazret's "Elder Sign" and its occult associations


Alhazret's "Elder Sign" seems to be all but completely unknown to western occultists. However, it is a relatively common symbol in Arabic magical traditions. Below the associations of Alhazret's "Elder sign" have been summarized based on the writings of Ibn Wahshiyya (بن وحشية) and supplemented with material from Ibn 'Arabi (ابن عربي‎) and other sources.
The name of the sign is "Zai" (زاي )
It is a Solar Grapheme ["huruf ash-shams" (حروف الشمس)]
Its numeric value is 7 (٧)
It is associated with the 19th lunar mansion ["manzil" (منزل)] which called The Sting ["ash-shaula" (الشولة)]
Its zodiacal sign is Scorpio [“burj al ‘aqrab” (برج العقرب )]
The divine name associated with this sign is The Living One ["al Hayy" (الحي)]
Terrestrially it is associated with the element Water and celestially it is associated with the element of Air.

11 comments:

  1. Very interesting! How old is this symbol? Do you know who/when it was first used?

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  2. So far, I've been able to trace it unquestionably to the mid-9th century. However, this 9th century source (Wahshiyya) claimed to be revealing material from numerous much older sources. Wahshiyya was brilliant and not to be taken lightly. Here is an article about how he cracked the mystery of hieroglyphics centuries before the West.
    http://www.muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?ArticleID=481

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  3. Wahshiyya said the sign to belonged to a set of 28 symbols which he attributed to a first century Turkish physician named ديسقوريدس

    As I mentioned earlier, Wahshiyya was a brilliant scholar so his attribution shouldn't be dismissed lightly.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Ibn Wahshiyya writes of the signs:
      "The Alphabet of Dioscorides the philosopher, commonly called the Tree alphabet. He wrote on trees, shrubs, and herbs, and of their secret, useful, and noxious qualities in this alphabet, used since in their books by different philosophers."

      Some think this passage means El-Mushajjar was used by or even created by Dioscorides. The truth is that El-Mushajjar was used to hide the Arabic translation of the works of Dioscorides. Dioscorides did not invent the signs or the system.

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  4. Thank you very much for the extra info, keep on my friend :))

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  5. Ineresting!
    yet matter ,its sign ''Zai'' have much in common with ''Key of Zin''?

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    1. I'm not an expert of the subject of Labyrinth of Zin or the Silver Key, but I can tell you that people who have explored this topic have apparently found just such a connection.

      http://www.chaosmatrix.org/library/chaos/texts/zin.html

      And obviously Zai + Nun = Zin. I have not looked at the occult significance of this but I'm sure it could easily prove a revealing subject to investigate.

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  6. I Thank for extra info;)
    I join yours topic
    keep my in friend))

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  7. I just became aware of this post. So far, this is the only other source on the internet connecting Ibn Wahshiyya to the Elder Sign (signs actually). I have traced the signs from the Elder times (about the first century A.D.) to modern times. There has been very little interest anywhere else, but I think I will compile one article summarizing the information. When I do, I'll post a link here if that's okay.

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  8. I never did finish, but here's what I got around to writing:
    http://yogsothothery.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-elder-sign.html

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