Hidden Agenda - Secrets of Freemasonry Ebooks Archive

The name Abraxas, coined by Basilides, the Egyptian Gnostic, is a word symbol consisting of seven letters which signify the seven creative powers or planetary angels recognized by the ancients. Sampson Arnold Mackey advances the theory that the name is compound- ed from two ancient words, Abir, which means a bull, and Axis, which means the pole. To substantiate his belief, he brings forward the fact that a motion of the earth, commonly called the alternation of the poles, resulted in the vernal equinox taking place at one time in Taurus, the Celestial Bull, over the North Pole. The four white horses drawing the chariot of Abraxas symbolize the four ethers by means of which the solar power, Abraxas, is circulated through all parts of the universe. The seven-lettered name of Abraxas is symbolically significant of his seven-rayed power.