What is Mount Abiegnus?

Perhaps you have come across this term in a Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn ritual or the writing of Crowley. This article will contain ritual words from the HOGD so avoid it if you intend to undergo the initiation and do not want the ritual spoiled.

Well, most of its description is in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn’s Adeptus Minor ritual, but the mountain is briefly mentioned in the Portal ritual as the Mountain for initiation. The mountain has been referred to as the eternal stone so it indicates the success of alchemy. It is also the mountain which houses the cave in which the vault or tomb of the adepts where an initiate experiences the golden dawn stage of alchemy and is restored to the Edenic state.

And the Stone made without hands is the Eternal Stone of the Wise, which will become the Mountain of Initiation, whereby the whole Earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God.

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn – Portal Grade

During the Adeptus Minor ritual, the name of the mountain is explored. It ends up being described as The Lamb of the Father. In Christianity, a Lamb is often the sacrifice used to atone for sins. After Jesus’ death on the cross, he is referred to as the Lamb of Judah. Therefore, this mountain symbolises the power to return to the pre-sin state. Since the HOGD use the pre-eden state as a symbol for accessing the Tree of Life and the potential for mystical ascent, this mountain symbolises the means to achieve that and houses the space in which initiates go through this transformation.

The meaning of this title of Abiegnus – Abi-Agnus, Lamb of the Father. It is by metathesis Abi-Genos, Born of the Father. Bia-Genos, Strength of our race, and the four words make the sentence: ABIEGNUS ABIAGNUS ABI-GENOS BIA-GENOS. “Mountain of the Lamb of the Father, and the Strength of our Race”

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn – Adeptus Minor Ritual

It is supposedly on this mountain where the initiate finds the vault of the adepts. The initiates mystical ascent up the Tree of Life is symbolised by their spiralling climb up Mount Abiegnus. Note that the initiate has gone through grades which represent Earth in the North, Air in the East, Water in the West and finally Fire in the South. So the initiate has already spiralled the mountain in some way or another. The following section from the Adeptus Minor ritual feels to me as if it needs no explanation as it is plain in itself. It is read to the initiate while they are presented with an image of Mount Abiegnus.

This is the symbolic Mountain of God in the centre of the Universe, the sacred Rosicrucian Mountain of Initiation, the Mystic Mountain of Abiegnus. Below and around it are darkness and silence, and it is crowned with the Light ineffable. At its base is the Wall of Enclosure and Secrecy, whose sole Gateway, invisible to the profane, is formed of the Two Pillars of Hermes. The ascent of the Mountain is by the Spiral Path of the Serpent of Wisdom. Stumbling on between the Pillars is a blindfolded figure, representing the Neophyte, whose ignorance and worthlessness while only in that Grade is shown by the 0 = 0, and whose sole future claim to notice and recognition by the Order is the fact of his having entered the Pathway to the other Grades, until at length he attains to the summit.

Conclusion

The Mountain of Abiegnus is a Rosicrucian symbol which symbolises a mystical ascent. It shows the separation of the sacred from the profane. Its name suggests it can reconcile man from his fallen state (if you accept the doctrine of original sin). Its gates are between the Pillars of Hermes only allowing entrance to worthy. Any direct ascent is impossible requiring initiates to spiral around it in order to ascend. It houses the vault of the adepts, where the initiates are commended to Tiphereth and experience the Golden Dawn. At its summit is often depicted the sacred castle of the divine.