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Today's featured article
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Mansur Al-Hallaj (c. 858 - March 26, 922) was a Persian mystic, writer and teacher of Sufism. His full name was Abu al-Mughith al-Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj.
He was born around 858 in Tur, Iran to a wool seller. Al-Hallaj's grandfather may have been a Zoroastrian. His father lived a simple life, and this form of lifestyle greatly interested the young al-Hallaj. As a youngster he memorized the Qur'an and would often retreat from worldly pursuits to join other mystics in study.
Al-Hallaj would later marry and make a pilgrimage to Mecca. After his trip to the holy city, he traveled extensively and wrote and taught along the way. He travelled as far as India and Central Asia gaining many followers, many of which accompanied him on his second and third trips to Mecca. After this period of travel, he settled down in the Abbasid capital of Baghdad.
Among other Sufis, Al-Hallaj was an anomaly, many sufi masters felt that it was inappropriate to share mysticism with the masses, yet Al-Hallaj openly did so in his writings and through his teachings. He would begin to make enemies, and the rulers saw him as a threat. This was exacerbated by times when he would fall into trances which he attributed to being in the presence of God. During one of these trances, he would utter Ana al-Haqq, meaning "I am the Truth" and also, "In my turban is wrapped nothing but God?" which was taken to mean that he was claiming to be God, as Al-Haqq is one of the Ninety Nine Names of Allah. more...
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Did you know...
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- ... that Nicholas Flamel was a French alchemist who lived in the fifteenth century, and is supposed to have been the most accomplished of the European alchemists? It is claimed that he succeeded at the two magical goals of alchemy: he made the Philosopher's Stone that turns lead into gold, and he and his wife Perenelle achieved immortality.
- ... that "Egypt" is a Greek corruption of the phrase "Het-Ka-Ptah", or "House of the Spirit of Ptah"?
- ... that the term chaos magic first appeared in print in the widely influential "Liber Null" by Peter Carroll, first published in 1978?
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Featured picture
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When Aleister Crowley became interested in occultism, his first textbook was Waite's Book of Black Magic and Pacts, and he wrote to the author for advice. Waite counseled Crowley to read Eckarthausen's The Cloud upon the Sanctuary, which was instrumental in forming Crowley's ideals regarding occult orders.
Many years later, after Crowley and Waite had been peers in the Golden Dawn, Crowley subjected Waite to numerous scathing reviews in The Equinox, often with the fictitious pretense that Waite was Crowley's "disciple." Crowley even went so far as to publish an obituary for the still-living Waite.
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Today in Aleister Crowley's life
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March 26:
- 1906 - "A.'. still good."
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