>>40793967The Judge speaks all languages, has infinite knowledge, and never seems to age. Crowley traveled the world, practiced ceremonial magick, studied in Egypt, China, India, and claimed to channel beings beyond time like Aiwass. Holden dances naked at the end of the world, immortal and free. Crowley wrote The Book of the Law after a mystical encounter in Cairo and that book describes an age ruled by the Crowned and Conquering Child, the one who ends the old world. Both are symbols of the anti-Christ consciousness: not โevilโ in the cartoon sense, but liberated from morality, serving only force, will, and the destruction of innocence as a form of revelation. Holden and Crowley both speak in riddles, quote ancient texts, blaspheme joyfully, and smile at murder. Not out of sadism, but as a recognition of the divine law of entropy. Blood Meridian is full of Gnostic subtext. The desert is spiritual. The war is alchemical. And Judge Holden? He might just be the Aeon of Horus in flesh. Crowley said this new Aeon would be ruled by a god who destroys to awaken. Crowley believed in incarnation of spiritual forces. He may have believed he was Holden, or became him in visions or rituals. McCarthy may have tapped into the same current, intentionally or psychically.