Gnostic Alchemical Church of Typhon— Christ

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Gnostic Alchemical Church of Typhon— Christ

The Gnostic Alchemical Church of Typhon—Christ is a thelemic magick group that came into existence in the 1990s as a result of the publication of the English Qabala. The English Qabala is a system of numerical correspondences developed in the 1970s by British thelemite Jim Lees and a small group of associates with whom he shared his original findings. The English Qabala begins with the assignment of numerical values to each letter of the English alphabet as is done in ordinary numerology. It differs in the method of arriving at the numerical value assigned.

Lees assigned the letter "A" the value of 1. He then counted 11 letters and arrived at the letter "L," which was assigned the numerical value of 2. Eleven letters further brought him to "W." He continued that process through the alphabet, starting back at the beginning each time he got to the end. The result was an alphabet ordered thusly: A L W H S D O Z K V G R C N Y J U F Q B M X I T E P

Each letter was assigned a value from 1 (A) to 26 (P). Using these new values in a manner similar to the way that the values of the Hebrew alphabet are applied by Kabbalists to the Bible, thelemites began a new look at The Book of the Law, the holy book of the movement launched by magician Aleister Crowley early in the twentieth century and now divided into several dozen organizations.

In its choice of name, the Gnostic Alchemical Church affirms its alignment with Gnosticism and the ancient esoteric tradition that dates to the second century C.E. and has been revived in modern theosophy and magic. By gnosis, the church means the direct knowledge/experience that individuals have of the divine. It seeks to further gnosis (wisdom) by reference to the revelations that have come and continue to appear in the English Qabala and The Book of the Law.

The church differs from many thelemite groups in its offering members access to rituals (both public and private) designed to be used at moments of major astrological conjunctions. In astrological thought, the close proximity of two planets allows the energies of the two planets to join. For members of the Gnostic Alchemical Church, rituals are particularly effective during the conjunctions of the Sun and Venus, the Sun and Mercury, and the Sun in Jupiter. These rituals lead the individual to what is termed "Ordeal X," a high magical initiation.

The Gnostic Alchemical Church of Typhon-Christ has branches in France, England, Canada, and the United States. It supports an Internet site at http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/7770/, and it may be contacted through the site.