When Thelema arrived in 1904, it was recognized by adherents to the faith that the world or at least the consciousness of the West had changed fundamentally. This was referred to as a new Aeon, called the Aeon of Horus. Quickly attempts were made to classify the previous periods where other mindsets had predominated. Each Aeon consists of a period where a certain mindset and type of deity had a dominance over others. There is not often a clean break between different periods as different cultures changed their thinking at different times.
The period known as the Aeon of Osiris happens to coincide with the birth of evidence of Magical practice. It appears around 4000BCE – 2000BCE with the development of writing, farming and the smelting of bronze or similar metals. This period immediately follows the Aeon of Isis.
For the first time in history mankind has begun to develop agriculture and what happens here? Well suddenly we have all kinds of natural factors affecting the grows of crops and so for the first time man is forced to develop his first reasoning skills, determining what causes his crops to grow.
While still being subject to the whims of nature mankind is suddenly more significantly affected by the cycles of the sun. In the summer the crops grow at great speed and in winter many of the crops appear to die off. With the reasoning that man has developed attempts are made to take ritual actions to achieve better crops and we see the recording of magical practice for the first time.
Many cultures develop cults of gods which die and are resurrected, Gods which are symbolic of the sun. From the perspective of people on the earth, the sun appears to get stronger as we enter summer and weaker in winter. It can be compared to the lifecycle of a man. Beginning at the winter solstice it is getting stronger like a child growing until it reaches its peak at summer solstice and then it acts like a man declining in strength as he reaches old age until winter solstice when the process begins again. It also seems to appear each morning in the east and disappear or die in the west so there is the mini birth and death.
One such cult is the cult of the god Osiris after whom the Thelemites named this period, but there are many others such as Helios and Sol. In many of these cults the god dies for the good of all and achieve spiritual development through that self-sacrifice.
At approximately 50AD a new cult is born with the worship of Jesus from Nazareth. Just like Elvis, Jesus is said to have come back from the dead and as the faith grew in popularity it was quickly associated with another sun god faith. It featured similar things like resurrection. As time went on it began to be made more like a sun god faith, even to the point of putting it’s typical festivals on dates associated with the sun god like Christmas which was once a winter solstice.
Around 1750 the UK begins to import much of its agricultural goods and both the UK and US go through a massive industrial revolution, which massively reduces our cultural involvement with the agricultural process. Over the next 200 years the sun god becomes almost totally irrelevant to the lives of many Westerners. The sun has gone from having near total dominance in peoples lives to being only able to determine a few things: when the schools will be on break, when it’s good to go on holiday abroad, host a barbecue in our back garden and have an outdoor wedding. The Aeon of Horus is ready to begin.