(The Force of Pure Action)
There’s a quality of momentum that can’t be argued with or negotiated. This is not reckless speed, but rather a purposeful motion. This is not chaos, but a dynamic force that pierces hesitation like a blade through mist. When you encounter it, you don’t question it. You either move with it or get swept aside. This is the energy of Abraxas, and it arrives at dawn riding a chariot pulled by cosmic forces, charging into transformation whether the world is ready or not.
In Gnostic texts, Abraxas is depicted sometimes as the main archon and sometimes as the god above all gods. But one attribute remains constant: action. Abraxas is effect itself, the culmination of all goals, the dynamic force that transforms intention into reality. His strange visage (rooster head and snake legs) appeared on ancient coins as a ward against his unyielding power. People didn’t wear Abraxas imagery for decoration. They wore it as protection, as recognition that some forces are too powerful to oppose and must be respected, aligned with, or avoided.
As history unfolded, Abraxas became many things: a beguiling demon in mediaeval texts, a didactic warning from Carl Jung about the integration of opposites, and a muse to Chaos Magicians who recognized in him the power of paradox and pure will. Jung wrote in The Seven Sermons to the Dead: “Abraxas is effect. Nothing standeth opposed to it but the ineffective; hence its effective nature freely unfoldeth itself.”
Today, Abraxas arrives as our ninth companion, following Adam and Eve’s shared choice to leave the garden. Where they taught us about partnership in consciousness, Abraxas teaches us what happens when consciousness moves from contemplation into action, when the journey you’ve committed to suddenly accelerates, when the dawn you’ve been waiting for breaks and you must charge forward whether you feel ready or not.
The Advent Companion Appears
Abraxas doesn’t ask for permission or wait for consensus. He appears as momentum itself, as the sensation that something has irrevocably shifted and there’s no going back. You feel him first as urgency without panic, as clarity that demands expression, as the recognition that the time for preparation has ended and the time for movement has begun.
His rooster head sings into the dawn, announcing new beginnings with a voice that can’t be ignored. The serpent legs ground him in earth’s primordial wisdom while granting him the flexibility to navigate any terrain. He is both herald and warrior, both announcer and executor. He doesn’t just tell you change is coming. He is the change, pulling you in his wake whether you’re clinging to the chariot or running beside it.
The world he cradles isn’t something he controls in the dominating sense. It’s something he moves, directs, propels forward. Abraxas is the force that says: this chapter is over, the next one is beginning, and we’re moving now. Not tomorrow. Not when it’s convenient. Now.
In Gnostic cosmology, Abraxas sometimes rules over the 365 dimensions of reality (one for each day of the year), standing at the apex of Basilides’s elaborate system. He represents the totality of existence, both light and dark, good and evil, creation and destruction, all held in dynamic tension, all in constant motion. He doesn’t choose one side over the other. He contains all sides and keeps them moving, keeps them from becoming static, keeps them from solidifying into the kind of rigid order the archons prefer.
This is the Chariot energy at its most primal: not the controlled, disciplined warrior of traditional tarot, but the wild divine force that charges forward because stagnation is death and movement is life. Abraxas reminds us that sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is act decisively, move boldly, trust the momentum that’s building rather than analyzing it into paralysis.
As he thunders into your awareness today, his challenge arrives not as a question but as a command:
“The dawn is breaking. The chariot is moving. Are you riding with it, or are you still standing at yesterday’s threshold pretending you haven’t already chosen to cross?”
Teaching for the Day
We live in a culture that worships preparation. Plan more. Study longer. Wait until you’re ready. Make sure you have all the information. Get one more credential. Take another workshop. Read another book. There’s always a reason to delay action, always a justification for staying in the comfortable space of potential rather than the risky realm of kinetic force.
Abraxas disrupts this completely. He is the principle that says: at some point, preparation becomes procrastination. At some point, contemplation becomes avoidance. At some point, you have to stop planning the journey and start moving your feet.
This isn’t about recklessness. Abraxas isn’t chaos for chaos’s sake. His action is purposeful, directed, and the natural outcome of all the work you’ve been doing. The companions you’ve met on this journey so far have been preparing you for this moment. Sabaoth taught you to walk with sovereign certainty. Simon taught you to see clearly. Helen taught you to trust your knowing. Mary taught you to embody wisdom. Jesus showed you unwavering authority. Valentinus invited you to ask sacred questions. Adam and Eve demonstrated partnership in awakening.
All of that preparation, all of that inner work, all of those realizations… Abraxas is what happens when all of it suddenly coalesces into movement. When insight becomes action. When knowing becomes doing. When the internal transformation finally ripples outward into visible change.
Jung’s description is precise: “Abraxas is effect.” Not potential effect. Not theoretical effect. Actual, observable, undeniable manifestation. The thing you’ve been working toward suddenly happening. The change you’ve been contemplating suddenly underway. The life you’ve been imagining suddenly beginning.
And here’s what Abraxas knows that we often forget: once you’re in motion, the path reveals itself. Once the chariot is moving, the destination becomes clearer. Once you’ve committed to action, resources and allies and opportunities appear that were invisible when you were still standing still, waiting for permission or certainty or the perfect moment.
The archons love to keep you in preparation mode forever. They love to convince you that you’re not quite ready, that you need just a little more time, that action without absolute certainty is dangerous. They thrive on your hesitation because hesitation keeps you manageable, predictable, and controllable.
Abraxas is ungovernable. He charges forward because forward is the only direction that matters. He contains all contradictions (light and dark, good and evil, creation and destruction) without being paralyzed by them. He acts not despite uncertainty but with it, through it, making uncertainty itself part of the momentum.
This is the teaching today: you will never feel completely ready. You will never have perfect information. You will never eliminate all risk. But at some point, the cost of staying still exceeds the risk of moving forward. At some point, preparation becomes a cage rather than a foundation. At some point, you have to sing into the dawn like the rooster and charge forward like the serpent.
The chariot is moving. The question isn’t whether you’re ready. The question is whether you’re willing to act anyway.
Journaling Invocation
“What action have you been preparing for that you’re now being called to take? What are you waiting for that will never arrive, and what would it mean to move forward anyway?”
This question asks you to look honestly at where preparation has become procrastination. Where contemplation has become avoidance. Where the work of getting ready has become a way of not starting.
Maybe there’s a creative project you’ve been “preparing” to begin for months or years. Maybe there’s a difficult conversation you’ve been rehearsing in your head instead of having. Maybe there’s a life change you’ve been analyzing from every angle instead of implementing.
Abraxas doesn’t ask you to act foolishly or recklessly. He asks you to recognize when you’ve done enough preparation, when you’ve gathered enough knowledge, when you’ve contemplated long enough and the only thing left to do is move.
Write about what you’re being called to act on. What momentum is building in your life that you’ve been resisting or controlling or trying to manage into something more comfortable? What wants to move through you right now, today, this week, that you’ve been telling yourself to wait on?
And here’s the deeper question: what are you actually waiting for? Permission from someone else? A guarantee of success? The elimination of all uncertainty? Abraxas will tell you plainly: none of those things are coming. The chariot moves anyway. You can ride it or watch it pass.
What would change if you stopped waiting and started moving? Not someday. Today.
Small Embodied Practice
Stand with your feet firmly planted. Take a moment to feel your weight, your stability, and your rootedness in this moment.
Now begin to march in place. Not a casual step, but a decisive, rhythmic march. Lift your knees. Feel the force of each footfall. Let your arms swing. Build momentum.
As you march, say with each footfall (either aloud or internally):
“I am moving.”
“I am acting.”
“I am effect.”
Feel how different this is from stillness. Feel how momentum builds on itself, how each step makes the next step easier, how movement creates its own energy.
Now begin to move forward. Keep the same rhythm, the same purposefulness, but actually travel through space. If you’re indoors, walk the length of your room or hallway with this Abraxas energy. If you’re outside, walk a block. Keep the rhythm. Keep the intention. Keep the momentum.
Notice what happens in your body and mind when you move with this kind of decisive force. Does doubt arise? Does something in you resist? Or does something else awaken, something that’s been waiting for permission to charge forward?
After several minutes, come to a stop. But don’t just collapse back into stillness. Stand in a posture of readiness. Weight slightly forward. Energy coiled and available. This is Abraxas at rest: not passive, but ready to move at any moment.
Take one deep breath and acknowledge: “The chariot is always moving. I am always choosing whether to ride it or watch it pass.”
You just practiced being effect rather than potential.
Being momentum rather than hesitation.
Being the force that charges into new dawns because waiting is not an option.
The caravan moves together. If today’s companion stirred something in you, if Abraxas’s unstoppable momentum helped you recognize where you’ve been preparing instead of acting, let us know in the comments. Your movement lights the path for others walking beside you. 🐓⚡
Tomorrow: Marcellina arrives with her fierce balance, the one who stood in darkness to see the light.
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