Abraxas

“Discoveries have been made in and around Egypt of amulets containing stones engraved with the name of a spirit or god, Abraxas (earlier Abrasax). The name also appears frequently in curse tablets, often in conjunction with other names of spirits or gods. Abraxas is associated with the Basilideans, followers of Basilides, a religious teacher in early second-century Alexandria.

Basilidean teaching combined ideas from a number of religious traditions including Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity. If one adds the numerical value of the Greek letters of Abraxas or Abrasax  (` or `), one obtains the total 365 (1 þ 2 þ 100 þ 1 þ 200 þ 1 þ 60), which corresponds to the 365 orders of spirits recognized in the Basilidean model of the universe (Budge 1978: 208). It also corresponds to the number of days in the solar year, and Abraxas was associated with the sun” (Ogden 1999: 48).

 –Barry J. Blake, Secret Language: Codes, Tricks, Spies, Thieves, and Symbols, 2010, pg. 123-4.