Headless God (Akephalos)
While the Headless God, or Akephalos, was used to banish evil spirits by the Graeco-Egyptian magickians, Christians in the fifth and sixth centuries regarded it with trepidation. One Coptic spell calls on angels, archangels and the blood of Christ for protection against headless beings, while another calls on angels, archangels, the Holy Trinity and the Mother of Christ for protection against a headless dog. This should not be taken to mean that the Headless God is any way evil, as when Christians introduced their religion, all gods and spirits were demonised.
One Graeco-Egyptian invocation to the Headless God (in which the Headless God is referred to as a creator god) was modified by the Order of the Golden Dawn and called the Bornless Invocation. This invocation was used as a preliminary to workings with spirits, by giving the magickian power over all lesser entities. Aleister Crowley modified the Bornless Invocation still further and called it Liber Samekh. Crowley claimed to have corrected the words of power and used his ritual to directly access his higher self, which is referred to as the Attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. As Crowleyphiles all know, access to the Holy Guardian Angel is absolutely essential to the successful practice of advanced magick.
The Headless God is mentioned in several Graeco-Egyptian charm papyri and on amulets, and is truly an enigmatic figure. Some scholars interpret it as the spirit of decapitated criminals, others a manifestation of Set, Osiris, or the dwarf gods Bes, Besa and Besas. These dwarf gods were protectors of sleep and childbirth.
In the fourth division of the Tuat, which is passed through by the Sun-god during the fourth hour of the night, there is a three-headed serpent, with a pair of hawk's wings, and two pairs of human legs, who is the warder of this holy way. Facing the serpent and grasping its third head with his right hand, and a staff with a curled end in the left, is a headless god called AB-TUAT. This headless god has no other apparent function.
Headless gods were also known outside Egypt. Plutarch writes of the headless Molos in Crete and Pausanias of the headless Triton in the temple of Dionysos at Tanagra.
Whatever his true nature was, the Headless God while largely forgotten now, was used for dream oracles and exorcisms by the Graeco-Egyptian magickians.
