Liber Okbish (Book of the Spider) thread

[The Double-Wanded One]

93, 

Liber Okbish needed a thread in particular. There is so much to go over in this text and I feel it is the result of the most important Thelemic working after the Amalantrah Working. 

The fact of it's title as Book 29 and originally consisting of 29 chapters (as stated in the preliminary note) is far from coincidental to me, considering that the 29th Surah of the Qur'an is called al-Ankabut (The Spider).

The verse in question which the Surah gets it's namesake being this: 


"The parable of those who take guardians instead of Allah is that of the spider that takes a home, and indeed the frailest of homes is the home of a spider, had they known!" 
- Qur'an 29:41


Beyond the strange correlation of Spiders and the number 29, I am not sure what further connections there are but it's something I needed to throw out because I've never seen anyone mention it before, anywhere.


The Mauve Zone, Ma'at, the Spider Goddess, the Qliphoth; The Book of the Spider has a lot of material to work with, in conjunction with particular important workings of Crowley (Algerian Working and Amalantrah), it gives so many new correlations and sigilistic points of reference. 


The text itself is hard to compare to anything else. It's not the talismanic energy-transmitting Holy Scripture of Liber Legis, it's not a text pertaining to specific matters like other Class A texts, it's not strictly the recording of a Working in the manner of Liber 418, it's not like Liber Pennae Praenumbra either. It's certainly nothing like Liber 49 or the silly Liber 440.
Perhaps there is a quality in it that is a little bit like Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente, but very loosely. 

It is rightfully considered the densest text of KG and it's surrounding commentary likewise (the rest of TNA) is the most dense reading of any KG book, on first reading it is incomprehensible but only after years of familiarity with the rest of KG's work does it become more easier to understand - plus via the references to the (at the time unpublished) transmitted text in question throughout other books of the Typhonian Trilogies. 

In Thelema in general, Liber Okbish contains a lot of information which will continue to help towards the continued development of Thelema through the current Aeon.
However one thing that I'm surprised of, is given the influence Kenneth Grant has had on Chaos Magic and the Left Hand Path, it's a surprise that Liber Okbish isn't more known in those circles, for the fact of the areas that they correlate. 


93/93

[stephen]

93, Double-Wanded One,

I see that you are on a one-man intensive to generate some life into the forums, which is admirable.

I was familiar with Surah 29 Al-Ankabut, 'The Spider', but cannot recall whether I noted the significance of the 29 connection when I first came across it. OKBISh 41 is a blank verse, although "The spider dropped from the ledge" in verse 39, before "The lattice closed" in verse 40. As Kenneth Grant comments, the number 41 has negative connotations. Surah 29:41 takes the parable of "the home of a spider" as being a frail and worthless basis for placing one's trust; possibly a more positive reference can be found in Proverbs 30:28. "The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces." KJV translation, although newer translations want to spoil this by reading: "A lizard can be caught with the hand, yet it is found in kings’ palaces." Although, I am standing by Spider for ShMMITh, 'poisonous one'.

Liber OKBISh does have unusual origins for a received text, as the introduction to THE NINTH ARCH explains. There have been discussions of it elsewhere on the site, but nothing wrong with the idea of a new thread.

93, 93/93.

[Michael Staley]

Feb 16, 2022 23:57:27 GMT The Double-Wanded One said:

93, 

The fact of it's title as Book 29 and originally consisting of 29 chapters (as stated in the preliminary note) is far from coincidental to me, considering that the 29th Surah of the Qur'an is called al-Ankabut (The Spider).

I haven't come across that correlation before, but it's very interesting.

Throughout his life, Kenneth Grant used many forms and permutations of his magical name Aossic, and his magical name within the Order was Aossic Aiwass, 718. It's interesting in this connection that 718 is the enumeration of QVRI OKBISh, "the spider's web", illustrated on the front cover of Outside the Circles of Time.

[The Double-wanded One]

I'm reading Liber Okbish again today, thinking about it's style and presentation. It definitely gives off an impression somewhat like The Vision & The Voice in that in many passages it is an active working being recorded but then it also has elements (descriptive and 'poetic') which are perhaps reminiscent of the form which Liber Cordis Cincti Serpenti is written.

In terms of the contents of Liber Okbish, I've always been insistent that (beyond Grant's commentary in the Ninth Arch) that it is a text that is to be further worked upon, just as all the Class A Holy Books Crowley recieved (plus The Vision & The Voice), that it's recorded information has further significance which will be expanded upon in the future by future Thelemites/Typhonians.
There is a lot of cryptic and symbolic information to use from it, there is also a lot of ritual information to be extracted from it (this is also something it shares with many of the Class A Holy Books). There is also a unique high level of syncretism in the text, yet it doesn't come off as trying to mesh everything together at once.
It's definitely both Grant's most important received text and one of the most important received texts post-Crowley.