The IMAGINATION Azazel & Iblis

The IMAGINATION

AZAZEL עזאזל

IBLIS إبليس

(Announcer of the Path)

Azazel in pre-Islamic Arabia is synonymous with one’s imagination, Azazel presents one with the Path of the Heretic, rebelling against the objective universe (natural

order) in order to discover our independence from it. Azazel offers us to ‘eat of the fruit’ from any tree free from persecution.

In the ancient Arabic world Azazel is ‘Azāzīl عزراءيل the first name of Iblis. In the Semitic language AZ is an adjective meaning ‘fierce’ ‘to be strong’, as a noun it means ‘strength’. Its root being ‘nz’ which implies contrary motion. AZAZ is the verb meaning ‘powerful’ and is used to express the qualities of a deity in comparison to the weakness of mankind. EL is a common abbreviation for the gods known as Elohim. As a preposition, EL is also used to express contrary motion.

During the Hebrew New Year of Yom Kippur the ritual of a scapegoat, adapted from the Canaanites, is performed. Islamic Jihad is the mechanism by which collective scapegoating diminishes who they perceive as a minority through projecting a collective psyche of the deepest, blackest shadows in one’s soul. The primordial fallen angel of the Book of Enoch with dominion over 200 other fallen angels, in the Jewish Midrash he is a demon.On fragment 7 of 4Q530 in the Dead Sea Scrolls Azazel is mentioned;

4Q530 Fragment 7

‘ . . . your strength . . . thereupon Ohya said to Hahya . . . Then he

answered, It is not for us, but for Azazel, for he did . . . the children of

angels are giants, and they would not let all their loved ones be

neglected . . . we have not been cast down; you have strength . . . ‘

The Rabbinic literature of the Jews proposed to connect Azazel with the atoning of wickedness amongst the fallen angels ‘Uza and Azel’. This resulted in a ceremony where a goat, symbolizing mankind’s sins, is sent back to the desert abode where the demon Azazel awaits it. The desert once again being the source of desolation, ruin and impurities. Azazel perhaps belongs to the class of "se'irim," goat-like djinn that haunts the desert.

The Yom Kippur ceremony consists of the High Priest taking two identical male goats, and marking one Adonai (Hebrew name for God) and Azazel (fallen angel). The Adonai goat is sacrificed to God as atonement for all the sins of the community and the Azazel goat is then charged with these sins and sent off into the desert to perish.

Azazel imparts the wisdom to us that we must bear our own shadows, confront them, and conquer them. We must not project them onto others. We take responsibility for our Darkness, it is a part of who we are. The integration of the Shadow Self is the very foundation of Jungian Individuation and the Philosopher’s Stone. The archetype of the Scapegoat is the harmony of diametrically opposed poles, this is Baphomet.

Azazel invites us through ritual, ceremony, and symbology to reinstate our creative life. We become as the Ouroboros and end where we began, in realization of the unconscious mind, how to relate to it, hold onto it, and awaken to its nondual potential.

The Ahl-i Haqq (People of Truth) are a Kurdish sect who practice an extreme form of Shi'ism, Sufism, Gnosticism and Shamanism. Of the various subgroups, the Shaitan-Parastiyyan sect venerates the Abrahamic Satan. Here Satan is understood as the way of expression through the self, a projection of one's own spiritual imperfection. The Western Left Hand Path would understand this in the phrase "Wisdom through Adversity" and that this is the path of spiritual alchemy (al-Khemia).

Satan is Iblis also known earlier as Azazel and of smokeless fire as the djinn are. As the story goes Iblis / Azazel / Satan would not bow before the Created Man (Adam) because this Man is below Him and He is below Allah, to whom He shall only serve. If we are to embrace Western Left hand Path cosmology we realize that Allah / Yahweh / El is our Greater Self and that our Dæmon is Azazel and we are Iblis the fallen Lucifer. Our Dæmon shall never bow to our human self, for the Dæmon only serves our Greater Self.

Reprinted from:

كتاب العواء في ليلة الصحراء

Kitab Eawa' fi Laylat Alsahra' (The Book of Howling in the Desert Night)

By 'Amir Alzzalam