 Hi, I'm Worgen, with the Temple of Ascending Flame, and today we are here to talk about Leviathan, king over all the Sons of Pride. In many cultures across the planet, in many major civilizations, dragons or serpents appear. Why is this so? China, Mesoamerica, Northern Europe, just to name a few, and all across the Near East. Let's talk about one dragon of the Near East, named Leviathan. The name Leviathan comes from the old Hebrew name, meaning twisted or coiled. When the Old Testament was translated into Greek, it was translated to the word dragon. However, in English, the original Hebrew word has been translated into Leviathan. Leviathan is referenced in several books of the Hebrew Bible, such as Psalms, the Book of Job, the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Amos, and separately in the Book of Enoch. Leviathan or the Book of Job is an aspect of the older Canaanite entity, Lotan, who was a servant to the Seagod Yom. Lotan was defeated by the Canaanite God Baal Haddad, or if you prefer, Baal Haddad, in the same manner as Leviathan was to be defeated by Yahweh. Parallels to the role of Mesopotamian dragon goddess Tiamat, who was defeated by a Marduk, as well as Lotan, who was defeated by Baal Haddad, have long been drawn in comparison, as have been wider comparisons to dragon and world serpent narratives in other cultures. Early cultures often had their prime deity, defeating some sort of serpentine or draconic great foe. We see this in Egypt, where Rah contests with the great serpent Apep. We see this in Viking lore, where Yermangander, the world serpent, is the eternal enemy of Thor. These type of stories, of hero versus dragon or great serpent, are called Achaosconf. In the case of Leviathan, the legend of Tiamat becomes that of Tietan, and then later that of Lotan, and finally becomes that of Leviathan. The thread of the primordial serpentine, or dragon force, pervades the gnosis of the Near East for thousands of years. We should note that the gnosis of dragon, or serpentine in gods or goddesses, pervades the cultures of humanity across the globe, even though disparate and assumedly isolated. This lends possible credence to the hypothesis of ancient parent civilizations, such as Atlantis or Mu, who venerated the draconic or serpentine forces, but were destroyed and dispersed after some sort of great cataclysm. Leviathan has several titles, having been called the Dragon of the Apocalypse, the Seven-Headed Beast, the Monster of the Sea, the Lord of Storm and Lightning, and the Lord of Atlantis. In astrology, dragons and Hans Leviathan are represented in the constellation of Draco, the 8th largest constellation, which resides in the celestial north, and was first cited by the Greek Ptolemy in the 2nd century. In ancient times, due to the wobble of the earth, during the time of the pyramids at Giza and the biblical Garden of Eden, it was Draco's star, Theban, that was closest to the celestial north pole, not Polaris as it is today. In fact, one of the shafts in the Great Pyramid at Giza pointed at the star, Theban, at that time. In the Bible, the constellation Draco may be associated with Leviathan, for example in Job 3.8. Draco was seen as the Leviathan or Dragon that devoured the sun or moon during an eclipse. There are also indications Draco was associated with a serpent that tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden. We see the theme of Forbidden Fruit, and the serpent again, in the Greek story of Leidon, the dragon that the goddess Hera, tasked to guard her wedding gift, a tree of golden apples, in her personal garden. Leidon was defeated by Hercules as part of his 12 labors, one of those labors being to acquire some of the forbidden golden apples. Hera then placed Leidon into the sky in remembrance, forming the Draco constellation. According to the Romans, Draco was a titan that warred against Olympus, but was defeated by the powerful Minerva, and thrown into the sky and frozen in place, where he became a constellation. Draco represents the root chakra of the celestial, and corresponds to the root chakra in all of us. Draco's correspondences, among others, are wisdom, strength, and protection. In the Judaic tradition, Leviathan is an enemy of Yahweh, being the embodiment of evil, conceit, darkness, and chaos. As a seven-headed serpent, Leviathan becomes another mass-voror, the devil. The Old Testament describes Leviathan as the most dangerous foe whom Yahweh has to confront in battle. High praise indeed. According to the book of Enoch, Leviathan and Behemoth would be separated on the day of judgment, and then both monsters will be defeated, and Leviathan will be slain, and her body will be served at a feast of the righteous. From Leviathan's skin, God will make tents for the most pious people, belts, necklaces, and jewelry. It is interesting to note that Leviathan is sometimes referred to in the masculine, and in other times, the feminine. In the book of Isaiah, Leviathan is represented as Tannenever, the intermediary between the wicked Samael and wicked Lilith, and as a product of their sexual union. Leviathan is identified with Shaitan, the Old Serpent. Leviathan is the Lord of the Abyss, and is said to dwell on the Mediterranean Sea, and be some 300 miles in length. In the Christian tradition, Leviathan is often identified with Satan, or presented as one of the fallen angels who serve Satan. Leviathan is identified with the monster Rahab, often described as the Angel of Death. This view also derives from the ancient belief in the relationship between the sea beast and darkness or evil, which our attributes also attributed to the Devil. And Thomas Aquinas described Leviathan as the Demon of Envy. Note a German bishop, Peter Binzfeld, published a list of demons and their associated sins in 1589, and he also attributed Leviathan to the Sin of Envy. In the book of the Sacred Magic of Ubremmel and the Mage, we see Leviathan being identified as one of the four princes of demons. In the three books of occult philosophy, Agrippa classifies Leviathan as one of the two chief devils, the other being behemoth. In admirable history, Sebastian Michaelis describes Leviathan as a demon prince who tempts humans into heresy and whose chief beau is Saint Peter. This revelation is said to have come during an exorcism of a possessed nun from the poetic demon Barith who was possessing her. In Gnostic writings, Leviathan is described as the soul of the world, the beginning and the end, the element of chaos within, and the divine potential lying dormant in every human soul. The Ophites were a Christian, Gnostic sect that revered the serpent of the Garden of Eden, for it is that serpent that enabled mankind to obtain the forbidden knowledge of good and evil which was denied to them by Jehovah. They saw Leviathan and behemoth as stations through which the human soul must pass in order to attain bliss. To the Ophites, Leviathan is the soul of the world, identified with the Auroboros serpent that encircles all and devours its own tale. Through the Gnostics, because the serpent is the soul of the world, it can never truly be defeated as it will simply rise to life once more for the Dragon is eternal. One of the chief rival religions to Christianity before the rise of Islam was Manichaeism. This religion was based on religions of the Near East and Gnosticism and held that Leviathan was slain by the sons of the fallen angel, Shamyaza, who was the leader of the Watchers from the Book of Enoch. Alastair Crowley attempted the Abramalan ritual, a six month ritual in which one seeks to commune with one's holy guardian angel, and that involves the invocation of the rulers of hell, one of those being Leviathan. The name of Leviathan appears on the symbol of Baphomet, a representation of the union between Lilith and Samael. As an encircling and internal force, and the symbol was derived by Anton Leve, from the French occultist, Eliphis, Levi, to form the official symbol of the Church of Satan. We can see here to the right that the symbol of Baphomet is encircled by the Hebrew letters spelling out, Leviathan. Today sticks with the demonic hierarchy presented in the Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramalan the Mage, as one of the Four Crown Princes of Hell, and names the chapter on Leviathan as Leviathan, the Raging Sea. In the Outer Gateways, Kenneth Grant states, The magical light is said to be in Doth, the Eleventh Sephora. It is identical with the Kundalini of the Hindu philosophy, the Kwanseon of the Mongolian Peoples. It is the Ophidian current itself, the Great Serpent Leviathan, called the evil to conceal its holiness. Michael Aquino writes in the Diablakon, Before God or Angel, Demon or Man, there was Leviathan alone, principle of continuity and ageless existence. For the Temple of Ascending Flame, the Cave of Lilith can be likened to the Root Chakra at the base of the spine, where the Kundalini Serpent lies coiled. It is the first power zone in the subtle body of man, the lair of Leviathan in the Traconian tradition, and the womb of the Queen of the Night on the Cavalistic Tree. Leviathan arrives with lightning and thunder, ripping the sky asunder. This is symbolic of the Traconian illumination that strikes as lightning, shattering consciousness and transforming it with the flames from the dragon's jaws. Once we step onto the path and start flowing with the current, the dragon's fire will gradually burn any obstacle that stands in our way in the pursuit of our Godhood. In the Traconian tradition, Leviathan is both the inner and the outer dragon, the primal force of all creation and destruction, and the inner evolutionary potential of man, that which connects us with the dragon, the spark of the dragon's fire within. In the macro-cosmic science, Leviathan is the very beginning, the original cosmic force that gave rise to the universe. On the micro-cosmic level, she or he represents the inner source of continuous transformation and timeless existence, the principle that activates and binds all processes of the self. She is the above and the below, the inner and the outer force, the soul of the world, and the inner fire. Leviathan, the third component in the Traconian trinity, is the electric energy or tension caused by the friction of the twin polarities of light and shadow. It is the fire snake rarified on the more subtle planes of consciousness, and it is the abyss itself, but after another manner. Leviathan is what binds the astral and physical bodies. She represents self-control and mastering of the self through a dynamic change. She is both the above and the below, the inner and the outer force, the soul of the world, and the divine spark. She is the timeless existence, the principle that wakes and binds the essence of the self. You can find Leviathan by immersing yourself in the depths of the unconscious in dreams and visions through which the impulses of the unknown are brought to the light of consciousness. This process is an integral part of the left hand path, where the adept gradually reaches the center of consciousness by immersion in its inner core in search for potential that enables one to shape reality, both the inner and outer. Through walking the path of Leviathan, we become as Leviathan, the great serpent dragon, the divine being, separate from all cosmic structures. All we have to strive for is to become aware of and master the spark of divinity, the essence of Leviathan. Thank you for listening to and viewing this presentation on Leviathan. I highly recommend the Oriculum Leviathan Tarot by Asimuth Mason and Bill Duvendak. It is by far my most favorite tarot, a tarot of the left hand path and a clipothic tarot. If you are interested in doing what we do, contact links are provided here on the page. There is a host of free materials and gnosis on the Ascending Flame website. The intro track for this video is the Forbidden Elixir by the artist Emiya. Emiya's compositions are absolutely perfect for any ritual work, particularly left hand path workings. Please support his work. Website and Facebook links are provided. His work is also available on Apple Music and Spotify. Background track for this video is Feral Spirit by the artist Paleo Wolf from the album Archetypal. Please support Paleo Wolf as I have by purchasing his tracks and albums. I find his compositions for meditation and ritual work to be primal and moving and I highly recommend them. Website and Facebook links are provided. His work is available on iTunes and Spotify.