Adocentyn is the name of the mythopoetic Egyptian city constructed by Hermes Trismegistus as recorded in the infamous grimoire, Ġāyat al-Ḥakīm (“Aim of the Sage”) better known as Picatrix.
Picatrix tells us that Thrice-Great Hermes – who we refer to in the Ogdoadic Tradition as “Primal Grand Master and Flame-bearing Lord of Topaz” – constructed the city of Adocentyn as a Temple of the Sun so that he could “know the volume of the Nile,” and that it was built opposite of the Mountain of the Moon. As a Temple of the Sun, Adocentyn represents the Ruach-consciousness of man – constructed by his particular genius and yet inspired by the Divine. This man-made edifice thus symbolically towers across from and yet mirrors the Mountains of the Moon, which represent the vast forces of Nature – specifically the emotional-instinctual nature of Man: the Nephesh. The Nile was truly a source of Life and thus became equated with the highest divine principles; to fully measure its volume therefore means nothing less than the conscious apprehension of the Divine Mind, the attainment of Gnosis.
Further, Picatrix states that Adocentyn was “a House of Talismans.” We are told that the four walls of the city of Adocentyn bore great statues of the four kerubic creatures of the zodiac which were ensouled with spirits, and these talismanic statues served as the guardians of the gates of the city. At the center of Adocentyn was constructed a great tower from which shone a different colored light each day of the week. We can view Adocentyn itself as symbolic of the perfected soul, and thus the House of Talismans takes on distinctly new meanings within the context of the Ogdoadic Tradition. The first interpretation is that this House of Talismans is in fact the Domus Sacrificii, or House of Sacrifice – the key map and method of attainment of our Tradition, but also especially significant to the Mysteries of the First Hall of the Order. Another interpretation pertains specifically to the Mysteries of the Second Hall, in which the astral body of the Theourgos is in fact built into its own powerful House of Talismans.
In sum, the legend of Adocentyn embodies the purpose of this House of the Ordo Astrum Sophiae: to raise up its initiates into the Light of the Glorious Star of Regeneration through the Hermetic Gnosis of the House of Sacrifice.
The Master of the House of Adocentyn has worked extensively with the Ogdoadic Tradition for fifteen years, is the Chief Editor of The Ogdoadic Journal of the Western Mysteries, and is Prior of the Ordo Astrum Sophiae.