Blood of the Pure - Chapter Eleven - The Mark of the Beast

The Mark of the Beast

This symbol is the creation of the Ritual Magician Aleister Crowley. It seems to have functioned as his personal seal.

 It was named as a play on words relating to one of his magical names, To Mega Therion, (The Great Beast).

The central theme, a clear resemblance of the male genitália, is typical of Crowley, and completely intentional on his part.

The uppermost circle is the alchemical sigil (a seal / sign) of the sun, while the half circle immediately below represents the crescent moon.

Most probably, in its very simplest terms, the Mark of the Beast is a symbol denoting the masculine principal, which is usually paired with its feminine counterpart, the seven pointed Seal of Babalon. It is formed from three overlapping circles plus a half circle, the number of revolutions in the mark's associated ritual, and the number of coils in the Kundalini (She who is coiled - the female energy lying coiled at the base of the yogic body). 

Blood of the Pure - Chapter Ten - The Unicursal Hexagram

The Unicursal Hexagram

The unicursal hexagram is an hexagram or six-pointed star created for the purpose of drawing the figure in one continuous movement, unicursally, in the same way other magical polygons are drawn, like the pentagram for example. This is significant in ritual magick when invoking and banishing hexagrams must be made. It can also be depicted inside a circle with the points touching it.

In Thelema, developed by Aleister Crowley, the hexagram is usually depicted with a five-petalled flower in the centre which symbolizes a pentacle (and the divine feminine), the whole symbol summing eleven (five petals of the flower plus the six points of the hexagram), being 11 the number of divine union. The Symbol itself is the equivalent of the Egyptian Ankh or the Rosicrucian's Rosy Cross, representing the microcosmic forces (the pentacle / flower, as a symbol of the pentagram with the 5 elements, the tetragrammaton or YHVH), interweaved with the macrocosmic forces (the hexagram, representing the planetary or heavenly cosmic forces, the Divine).

Blood of the Pure - Chapter Nine - The Chalice

The Chalice

The Chalice has always been a symbol of all things involving healing, fertility, death or immortality.

In Christianity is seen as the symbol to the cup of the Last Supper, through which Jesus offered his blood or Spirit as a sacrifice for humanity’s benefit. Later it became an object of spiritual quest, in the form of the Holy Grail. Nowadays the ritual chalice used in the Catholic Mass is a ritualistic object where wine is symbolically transformed into the "blood" of thye God. This in turn is drawn from the older Hebrew tradition of the Kiddush ir Bride's Cup, which represents the presence of God during the Sabbath and at Passover.

In the Sufi tradition, the chalice symbolizes the vessel that contains.

Its esoteric symbol is associated with purification and transformation, life and healing, energy and manifestation. The chalice has the purpose “to keep life alive until the world is awake.” 

The Chalice is also used in Wiccan and Ritual Magick ceremonies, representing the element of water, receptivity, feminine energy, and form. It represents the Goddess of feminine principal in a number of rituals.

It is also related to the suite of cups in the Tarot deck, and the watery signs of the Zodiac.