The ceremonies of the ancient Greek-Pagan mysteries are a forerunner of the latter Gnostic and Christian Eucharist. With the onset of the Piscean Age, The Pagan mystery cults based their Eucharistic ceremonies on death and resurrection of the Solar God with the object enabling the initiate to vicariously or symbolically take part in this death and resurrection and so attain eternal life. Generally, an animal was selected to represent the Dying God and then ritually killed. Sometimes the animal’s blood was poured over the initiate(s) and in other cases, it was imbibed; a form of the Bloody Sacrifice. The flesh was also eaten in a ceremonial meal; all clearly suggesting the life force of the god being absorbed in the human body. Crowley delineages this quite well in MITP:

One of the simplest and most complete of Magick ceremonies is the Eucharist. It consists in taking common things, transmuting them into things divine, and consuming them. So far, it is a type of every magick ceremony, for the reabsorption of the force is a kind of consumption; but it has a more restricted application, as follows. Take a substance symbolic of the whole course of nature, make it God, and consume it.

Of the elements, the first is the break or Cake-of-Light in the Thelemic tradition. The Greek word for bread is ARTOS, which has a value in the Greek Qabalah of 671, which is equivalent to the Hebrew evaluation of the word Thora, the word for the Law and the Bride of God. As well, this is the principal number of the A.’.A.’. Initiation ritual, Liber Pyramidos. Thora is then the name of the third ‘person’ of the Supernal Triad, equivalent to the Christian Holy Ghost or feminine aspect of the Logos, which is why the Gnostic Mass is a celebration of the Goddess.

The Greek word for cup (used in the Gnostic Mass) is POTHRION, and it is numerically equal to 688, which is the diameter of a circle having a circumference of 2,162, the number of miles in the moon’s diameter. By this it may be supposed that the sublunary world is intended, from the four elements of which the body of the Logos was compounded, in the shape of a cross, the masculine emblem; suggesting the Sun. Then AIMA (blood) yields 52, the number of weeks in one solar journey through the Zodiac; connecting the idea of blood with the Sun and L.V.X.

By the Bread and the Cup, therefore masculine and feminine powers of the Universe are symbolically commingled together. This is then a formula of regeneration or resurrection; immortality. The idea of death is the surrender of the self to the ‘beloved’…Hadit to Nuit.

The Fourfold Emanations of the Law

THE EMANATIONS OF THE LAW ARE FOURFOLD, AND WHEN THE LAW COMES TO BE THE CENTER OF YOUR BEING THESE FOUR RAYS WILL FILL YOUR BEING, AND THESE FOUR RAYS ARE: LIBERTY, LOVE, LIFE AND LIGHT. THESE RAYS OF THE LAW HAVE TO BE APPLIED TO EACH AFFAIR OF YOUR DAILY LIFE.

1º LIBERTY: THE POWER TO CHOOSE YOUR OWN DESTINY: THE ROD.

EXCEPT THAT YOU ARE FREE TO ACT, YOU WILL BE UNABLE TO ACT. THE FIRST NECESSITY IS LIBERTY. IGNORANCE IS THE GREATEST LIMITATION DETERRING US. FIRST YOU HAVE TO DISCOVER THE STAR YOU ARE AND YOUR RELATION WITH OTHER STARS AROUND YOU AND YOUR RELATION AND IDENTITY WITH THE TOTALITY.

IN ORDER TO REALIZE THE GREAT WORK, EACH ONE OF US HAS TO DISCOVER HIS OWN INFINITE WILL AND DESTINY. WE HAVE TO APPLY OURSELVES DAILY TO DESTROY THE CONCEPT OF DUALITY (I AND NOT-I) THAT RESTRICTS OUR WILLS AND ADHERE TO THE REALIZATION OF UNITY IN A WILL OF DESIRE.

YOU HAVE TO BECOME A MASTER OF YOURSELF, ANALYZE YOUR MOST INNER THOUGHTS, DISCHARGE OF YOUR LIFE THE IMPEDIMENTS RETSTRAINING YOUR LIBERTY. “THOU HAST NO RIGHT BUT TO DO THY WILL”, BUT ONLY THE GREATEST HAVE THE STRENGTH AND THE VALOUR TO OBEY IT.

2º LOVE. ONE FORCE UNITING THE CUP.

IT IS WRITTEN: “LOVE IS THE LAW, LOVE UNDER WILL”. LOVE EQUALS WILL NUMERICALLY. LOVE IS THE FIRE OF ECSTACY OF TWO WHO WANT TO BECOME ONE. IT IS THE UNIVERSAL FORMULA OF HIGH MAGICK. THE PAIN CAUSED BY DIVISION IS HEALED BY THE UNION OF UNITY. THE UNION OF ELEMENTS OF OPPOSED POLARITY PRODUCES A GLORY OF HEAT, LIGHT AND ELECTRICITY. IN THIS EXPLOTION OF ECSTASY A TRANSCENDENCE IS KNOWN AS DIVINE SPIRITUALITY THAT KNOWS NO ONE BUT UNDERSTANDS ALL.

UNITE THUS IN ECSTACY WITH EACH STAR THAT YOUR WILL CHOOSES IN THE GREATEST PASSION AND LUXURY, INFLAMING YOURSELF WITH ALL MEANS THAT YOUR IMAGINATION DICTATES. REMEMBER THAT LOVE IS INFINITE IN ITS DIVERSITY, JUST AS THE STARS ARE. MAY EVERY ACT OF LOVE BE COMPLETE AND PURE.

3º LIFE: THE ECSTACY OF THE PURE ESSENCE: TO CREATE, THE SWORD.

LIFE IS INDESTRUCTIBLE. THE CONSCIENCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL I EXTENDS TO INCLUDE BIRHT AND DEATH IN A SPIRAL CURVE EXTENDING TO INFINITY. THE CONTINUITY OF EXISTENCE IS SOMETHING ASSURED BY THE MEMORY OF THE SOUL. AS ASPIRANTS TO THE SACRED WISDOM WE HAVE TO CONSIDER OURSELVES ALWAYS AS PART OF THE SERPENT OF LIFE. IN THE ACT OF LOVE THE I/NOT-I IS DEVOURED IN A MYSTICAL DEATH FOR ALL TO BE DISSOLVED IN THE FORMLESS LIGHT OF THE UNITY. TO CREATE IS FOR YOU A REPETITION OF THE CORRECT PRACTICE OF THIS CONSCIENCE OF WHICH INDWELLS THE LIGHT. IT IS NECESSARY TO CONTEMPLATE THE IDENTITY OF LOVE AND DEATH IN THE PRACTICE OF MORTAL LOVE AS A SYMBOLIC SACRAMENT OF THE GREAT DEATH. HOOR-PAAR-KRAAT EQUALS THE GODDESS OF DESTRUCTION OR REABSORBTION OF THE I IN PRIMORDIAL INDIVIDUALITY, WHICH DENOTES THE DESTRUCTION OF THE EGO, OR THE LIMITED PERSONALITY COMPLEX. THROUGH DEATH YOU WILL BE REBORN TO CONTINUE A LIFE OF ETERNAL MOVEMENT IN THE NEVER ENDING CHANGE, BECAUSE YOU WILL NEVER DIE; ALTHOUGH YOU MAY CHANGE, THE TRANSORMATION IS A PART OF NATURE.

4º LIGHT: VISION OF THE MIND. KNOWLEDGE OF ALL THINGS. THE ECSTACY OF ALL KNOWLEDGE. THE DISC.

THE LIGHT IS INVOKED BY AN ACT OF WILL TO CREATE LIFE. IT IS AN ECSTACY WHICH IS LIMITLESS AND FORMLESS. THIS PRIMORDIAL LIGHT IS DARKNESS, SILENCE AND NAUGHT. FROM THIS SOURCE OF PRIMORDIAL LIGHT COMES THE SOUND OF THE VOICE OF SILENCE, THAT HAS TO RETURN IN THE END TO THE SILENCE. IN THE WILL TO LOVE THE LIGHT IS HIDDEN THE SECRET PART OF LIFE AND LOVE COMES TO BE ONLY A STAGE. IN EACH ACT OF LOVE GUIDED BY WILL, THE INFINITE ENERGY OF THE UNIVERSE IS DISSOLVED LITTLE BY LITTLE IN THAT LIGHT THAT IS ITS SECRET AND SUBTLE NATURE, NAUGHT. THIS LIGHT OR NAUGHT IS THUS THE RESULT OR TOTALITY OF PURE PERFECTION AND EQUALS TO THE IDENTITY BETWEEN ALL THINGS AND NAUGTH.