Abraxas

A reader asks: 

What is Abraxas?

He always asks the best questions.

My first encounter with Abraxas was in Jung's Seven Sermons to the dead.

God and devil are distinguished by the qualities fullness and emptiness, generation and destruction. Effectiveness is common to both. Effectiveness joineth them. Effectiveness, therefore, standeth above both; is a god above god, since in its effect it uniteth fullness and emptiness.

This is a god whom ye knew not, for mankind forgot it. We name it by its name Abraxas. It is more indefinite still than god and devil.

That god may be distinguished from it, we name god Helios or Sun. Abraxas is effect. Nothing standeth opposed to it but the ineffective; hence its effective nature freely unfoldeth itself. The ineffective is not, therefore resisteth not. Abraxas standeth above the sun and above the devil. It is improbable probability, unreal reality. Had the pleroma a being, Abraxas would be its manifestation. It is the effective itself, not any particular effect, but effect in general.

It is unreal reality, because it hath no definite effect.

It is also creatura, because it is distinct from the pleroma.

The sun hath a definite effect, and so hath the devil. Wherefore do they appear to us more effective than indefinite Abraxas.

It is force, duration, change. (Sermon II)

Abraxas is above the Sun as God and the Devil. But one doesn't really worship Abraxas, because it is unreal reality, a creature that is the manifestation of the fullness, indefinite yet effective. Not something that engenders worship.

That lead me down a few other paths of Abraxas. ΑΒΡΑΞΑΣ,or, ΑΒΡΑΣΑΞ, Abraxas or Abrasax makes it's appearances in the Greek Magical Papyri, and in the Gospel of the Egyptians, also known as The Holy Book of the Invisible Spirit.

In the Gospel of the Egyptians, Abrasax is listed as one of the ministers of the Four Lights, specifically the minister of Eleleth. There's a whole descent of manifestation from the light above light, and Abrasax is one of the ministers that manifests. Not a lot is explicitly said about him, but he's definitely mentioned and in connection with a great number of other gnostic and Christian figures.

Ireneus describes him as an archon who rules over 365 heavens, as the Greek writing of Abrasax has a numerical value of 365. Hippolytus explicates the manifestation of the Ogdoad and Hebdomad, that Abraxas was the great archon that ruled over all the others. They both count up the value of Abrasax thus:

Α = 1, Β = 2, Ρ = 100, Α = 1, Σ = 200, Α = 1, Ξ = 60

In imagery, Abraxas or Abrasax is conceived of as a Anguipede, a composite figure with the head of a Rooster, the body of a man holding a club or scourge, and a shield, and two feet made of serpents. Wikipedia describes some of the proposed meanings behind the symbols, and I won't elaborate here.

The Book of Abrasax by Michael Cecchetelli claims to be a modern compilation of rites from the Greek Magical Papyri that focuses on Abrasax as a personal God or Deity, empowering the practitioner to via standard magical means of talisman creation, invocation, and various other rituals. In one section, he calls upon Abrasax thus:

I invoke you, ABRASAX, 

Lord of whole earth and the heavens!

I invoke you, O great one, the second of the first,

Whose are the restraints with which the abyss is bound!

I invoke you, O God of the Sun, 
Whom Helios reveres!
Descend! Endacare!
Let my breath be the breath of thy lungs,
Let me speak with thy voice! (p121-122)

This gives Abrasax a sort of just below the Pleroma status, yet allows for a personal and personified interaction, rather more accessible than Jung's depiction. 

In closing, I think Abrasax or Abraxas is a figure of indefinite nature, who has been plugged into a number of cultures and cosmologies, but who is generally seen as a transcending and encompassing figure: beyond space, beyond time, ruling over both, and able to change both through being an archetype of change itself. The association with the days of the year bear this out. The imagery pulls it into a universe encompassing figure, speaking of foresight, wisdom, power, Nous, and Logos. I think it's safe to say that Abraxas represents something transcendent yet undefined.