Therion

Therion
Aliases	The First Monster, The Beast, Wild Animal, The Primal Beast, Leviathan, Devourer of God's Creation, Great Beast of Darkness, Ayin's favorite, The Beast 666, the True Shadow of Barbelo
Affiliation	The Beast from the sea, the Beast from the Earth, Three Great Titans of Creation
Physical Description
Species	Pre-existential Primordial Beast
Gender	Male
Physical Sex	N/A
Spirit of	Hunger, Fear, Horror, Despair, Primality, Oblivion, Beasts, Bestiality
Pantheon	Thelema
Relatives
Parents	Self-Created or Eternal
Siblings	God, the Darkness, Ayin, Barbelo
Offspring	Whore of Babylon, The Beast from the sea, the Beast from the Earth, the Leviathan, Behemoth, Ziz, Bahamut, Kujata, Simurgh

“	The Primal Beast that devours everything. Therion is called by us the Great Beast of Darkness and Devourer of God's Creation. It is an inconsistent and seemingly irrational creature, but make no mistake, son of man. Therion is a very intelligent creature, almost as intelligent as God, and because of this, from his petty point of view — no offense — Therion just looks like a grotesque creature driven by instinct to want to devour everything.	„
	— Calur to Carl Black.

Therion is the Pre-existential Beast considered to be the first monster within all of Creation. He is also the primal Beast that spawned equally destructive creatures of darkness known to John of Patmos as Beast of the Sea and Beast of the Earth.

Overview

File:0a7f3b4f430edfb13f1ea37ef914e9c2.gif

Therion's true form (Art by Erica Anderson)

Therion was born before the Primeval Wars, having been one of the Pre-Existentials who waged war against God in an attempt to prevent the creation of the cosmos. Therion is a true monster, similar to Azathoth, being an Eldritch creature, more specifically, the pre-existential personification of hunger, horror, fear, and bestiality, being the shadow of Barbelo.

Therion during the Primeval Wars was defeated by God, with his true body being forced and imprisoned in the Bottomless Abyss, sealed with a key that would later be given to Abaddon. However, during the war, God with His attacks ripped off pieces of the Primal Beast, hurling several smithereens of the beast into the endless void. These shrapnel were found by The Darkness, who infused them with his power within these pieces of Therion, which eventually gained a type of "sapience" and went on to become what would later be known as the Beasts of Apocalypse.

Therion is also responsible for the origin of most of the terrifying primeval beasts mentioned by biblical and Talmudic figures, such as Leviathan, the sea serpent; the Behemoth, the master of the earth, as well as Ziz and the Whore of Babylon, Babalon, who embodies his feminine attributes. Aleister Crowley used to believe that he himself was the incarnation of Therion, similar to Jesus as the incarnation of God. However, this appears to have been just the arrogance of the occultist. Nevertheless, it would be Crowley's identification with Therion that would lead to him establishing the occult religion Thelema.

Appearance

When taking a physical form, Therion appear as a huge monstrous beast for indeterminate species. With a mixture of mammalian, reptilian, avian, fish-like, and even bug-like features. The body of Therion is constantly shifting between different monsters, as its almost animalistic drive to devour everything doesn't allow it to keep a consistent figure.

Personality

Therion hasn't shown any emotion outside of animalistic rage. A few cosmic entities have stated that Therion has an intelligence similar to that of God, however this has yet to be demonstrated.

Powers and Abilities

As the first beast in existence and the shadow of Barbelo, Therion was one of the strongest being of existence. His power is equal that of Barbelo, maybe even more. In contrast to his alter-ego, Therion  represent fear, hunger, despair, oblivion and bestiality. He managed to go against all Arcuthas and easily corrupted them, forcing God to seal them away for safely of Creation. His defeat requsted unity of God and Barbelo and even so they were unable to trully destroy him.

• Nigh-Omnipotence: Similar to his alter-ego, Therion is an entity of almost unlimited power, being able to threat and possibly destroy entire Creation when left loose. He figth singlehandely against all of Arcuthas including Calur and not just their were unable to defeat him, they ended up corrupted by him. He could also stand against Barbelo on equal terms for a long time

• Nigh-Invulnerability: Therion is essencially almost completely invulnerable and indestructeble, being able to go against a nigh-omnipotent Arcuthas and Barbelo without virtually any damage. Even the God himself was unable to destroy him alone, forcing Him to unity with Barbelo to finally destroy him by cutting him on pieces and seal them but they were still unable to get rid of him fully as some of his parts remained as well as his consciousness.

History

During the start of Creation, God was formed from the unmade universe saying "the Word." When God looked into the primordial waters and saw His reflection, seeing His perfect and co-equal reflection, the Holy Spirit who is also the embodiment of the spirit of the Lord, Barbelo, who, seeing the beauty of the Almighty, fell in love with Him and came out of the waters of chaos towards the Most High. However, Barbelo had looked behind her as God did, and she noticed her shadow within the primordial waters. This shadow took form and became the Primal Beast, Therion. Therion is the shadow of a reflection, a mutation of a copy, two layers separated from the ultimate good.

When Azathoth declared the Primeval Wars against the Abrahamic God, Therion also joined the battle on the side of Ayin and the Darkness, in an attempt to destroy the worlds born of God's will. While God fought Azathoth and Khaos, Barbelo was responsible for fighting Therion, her shadow, trying to force him to return to her. However, Therion wanted to dethrone the light and his alter ego. After countless clashes in the depths of the primeval pits, Barbelo could not defeat Therion, as both were the same being and the Goddess of Creation could not defeat herself, God decided to unite with Barbelo and with the Sword of Extinction was able to cut the Dark Beast's body into thousands of pieces and cast them into the depths of the abyss.

Some of these shards were found by The Darkness who used them to bring the Beasts of Apocalypse to life, while God to keep the Beast under control decided to create new beasts from his body, dividing Therion's body into five distinct beings known as the Primordial Beasts.

While his body was split, his intelligence remained, this intelligence taking the form of the Whore of Babylon. She hid in the shadows carefully planning to bring Therion back to his true form. This careful planning would eventually pay off during the Apocalypse, where every piece of Therion would finally come together again. With its form back to how it was, Therion would once again pursue his goal to devour every last bit of God's creation.

Myths and Legends

Therion is a major deity from the mystical system of Thelema, which was created in 1904 by Aleister Crowley with the book The Book of the Law. Therion was based off of the Beast from the biblical Book of Revelation, as Crowley formed a kinship with said Beast since childhood due to his mother calling him "The Beast."

Quotes

“	Now ye shall know that the chosen priest & apostle of infinite space is the prince-priest the Beast; and in his woman called the Scarlet Woman is all power given.	„
	— Liber AL vel Legis.

“	HQbiunqonowfenweifuhriheoifmwefw.	„
	— Therion's "Words" heard by a Human.

Gallery

Dakota-curry-sp19-art520-longo-dcurry-a011.jpg

(Art by Curry Dakota)

Trivia

• It is unknown how Aleister Crowley got information about this beast, as little is known about the creature and the closest we have to it is its offspring.
  • Virgo theorizes that Aleister Crowley was an alien in disguise and so had information about the Monster.