As Above, So Below - Explained In Detail With Pics

One of the best threads I've found on GLP so far. I'm glad I found it. Thanks OP

Roman:
I.
N.
R.
I.

Hebrew:
Yod.
Nun.
Resh.
Yod.


Egyptian:
Virgo, Isis, Mother.
Scorpio, Aphopis, Destroyer
Sol, Osiris, Slain and Risen.
Isis, Aphopis, Osiris..


Greek:
I.A.O.

The mystery formula called I.A.O. conatins the greatest mystery of the Western Mystery Tradition. The basic formula of IAO is of life, death, and rebirth.

In Magick (1997, Ch. 5), Aleister Crowley states that IAO is

"the principal and most characteristic formula of Osiris, of the Redemption of Mankind. 'I' is Isis, Nature, ruined by 'A', Apophis the Destroyer, and restored to life by the Redeemer Osiris."

Crowley defines, "IAO is the formula of magick. It is the way things reproduce and recreate themselves through extension and specialization." (The Book of Wisdom and Folly) 'I' represents the monad or the phallus. Its actions do not produce change within, but only “out of itself.” 'O' represents the yoni or the female, which changes through addition, subtraction or multiplication. It represents matter that is capable of taking on form. The union of the 'I' and the 'O' would create the triad, or the world formed by the two creative principles out of matter. 'A' would then represent the conjunction between these two principles.

I.A.O. is the highest possible form of initiation. It is Yeshua crucified and resurrected on the cross, it is the Buddha enlightened beneath the tree, it is Mohammed returned from the desert with revelations. It is the key to the entire system of esoteric knowledge.

I - Isis, innocence, beginning.
A - Apophis, destroyer, ordeal
O - Osiris, rebirth, new understanding

This is the formula that defines the entire Western Mystery Tradition.

Iao is also the name of the unknown Elohiym.

Jewish historian Joseph Furst tells us:
"The very ancient name of God, Yâho, written in the Greek Iao, appears, apart from its derivation, to have been an old mystic name of the Supreme deity of the Shemites. (Hence it was told to Moses when initiated at HOR-EB -- the cave, under the direction of Jethro, the Kenite or Cainite priest of Midian.) In an old religion of the Chaldeans, whose remains are to be found amongst the Neo-platonists, the highest divinity enthroned above the seven heavens, representing the Spiritual Light-Principle and also conceived as Demiurgus, was called Iao, who was, like the Hebrew Yâho, mysterious and unmentionable, and whose name was communicated to the initiated. The Phoenicians had a Supreme God whose name was trilateral and secret, and he was Iao."

Psalm 68:4 tells us;

"Praise him by his name Iach
Who rides upon the heavens, as on a horse,"

Historian Philip Dunlap tells us:
"the Arabs represented Iauk (Iach) by a horse. The Horse of the Sun (Dionysus)."

IAO or Iach is the Gnostic sun-god, he is Abraxas, the mystery-god.


There is a greater mystery to IAO formula.

Eliphas Levi explains:

"The snake as a symbol of rebirth following death is an ancient, yet ever-present conception which can be traced through endless patterns of sculpture, painting, verse, and the myths of gods, demigods, or heroic mortals. This is so because during its yearly period of hibernation the snake sheds its skin and reappears as if renewed. The wisdom of the serpent, which is suggested by its watchful lidless eye, lies essentially in mankind's having projected into this lowly creature his own secret wish to obtain from the earth a knowledge he cannot find in waking daylight consciousness alone. This is the knowledge of death and rebirth forever withheld except at those times when some transcendent principle, emerging from the depths, makes it available to consciousness."

IAO is the nameless Elohiym, the secret serpent, the serpent which tempted Eve and brought initiation to mankind.