Thelema Lodge Calendar for July 1987 e.v.

Thelema Lodge Calendar

for July 1987 e.v.

The viewpoints and opinions expressed herein are the responsibility of the contributing authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of OTO or its officers.

Thelema Lodge
Ordo Templi Orientis
P.O.Box 2303
Berkeley, CA 94702 USA

July 1987 e.v. at Thelema Lodge

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

Announcements from
Lodge Members and Officers

This Month at Thelema Lodge

A number of events and circumstances have combined to make this issue of the Thelema Lodge Calendar a good deal later than normal. Listings for the main calendar were received very late in June, and the last material for inclusion came in early July. On top of that, I got the stomach flu, and shamelessly expect your sympathy.

Gnostic Masses will be held as usual at Thelema Lodge on the 5th, 12th and 19th. In addition, ABRAHADABRA Oasis will hold a 2PM Gnostic Mass in San Francisco on the 19th; and the Thelema Lodge Gnostic Mass of the 26th may be moved to another time and location to accommodate the Eleusian Rite of Sol, scheduled for the same date.

Egyptiana Classes proceed with Ebony on the 8th and 29th.

A special request class by Bill Heidrick on the Abramelin System will be offered on the 22nd at Thelema Lodge. Slides will be featured, and emphasis will be placed on interpreting the method of the Book for modern times and situations. This approach was the one taken by Crowley in his own pursuit of the Great Work. Don't miss it.

Enochian rituals and studies are offered on the 13th, 14th and 28th at Thelema Lodge.

Initiations are scheduled as needed and according to availability at Thelema Lodge. Call (415) 655-4942 to set up your initiation. Weekends are usual, but we generally pick dates that suit everybody as well as we can.

Brother Dusan is offering a workshop for mask making on the 25th. His work has been on display at the Lodge for several months, and this is your chance to learn how to do it! Materials costs are $5 and $10. Call the Lodge at (415) 655-4942 for more information.

See below for information on the Rites of Eleusis and Lamas.

Coming in August at Thelema Lodge

A ten meeting series on Qabalah, with special emphasis on the Tree of Life will begin and run with two meetings per month. Bill Heidrick is the instructor, and extensive materials will be provided. Meetings will cluster on the middle Wednesdays of the months.

The Rites of Eleusis

Every year and at several locations around the USA and the World local O.T.O. groups offer Crowley's Rites of Eleusis. This is a dramatic series of seven theatrical style rituals inspired by the ancient Eleusian mysteries. Crowley first produced them in England around 1912 e.v.

This year, in the San Francisco Bay Area, local O.T.O. groups and individuals are getting together to present these seven, day-long events. Most, if not all, will be held at New Horizons at 5205 Railroad Ave., Pittsburg, CA. A map follows. Please be sure to call the listed phone numbers in the Calendar at least a few days ahead to get the exact times and confirm the location. Unlike most O.T.O. events, a door charge of about $10 is expected (call to find out about that too). These events are expensively produced, and costs have to be met. Haggai Hellhowler, the host at New Horizons, has asked us to state definitely that no drugs are to be taken or used on his premises. Apparently on a previous occasion someone left paraphernalia in a lavatory there. It is not known if anyone in O.T.O. was involved, but rules are rules.

The revised schedule for the rites is this:

Saturn -- July 11th Jupiter -- July 16
Mars -- July 21 Sol -- July 26
Venus -- July 31 Mercury Aug. 5th
Luna -- Aug. 10th

The Feast of the Beast & His Bride and Lamas

Lola de Wolf, Controller General of the O.T.O. and person extraordinare has set up a FEAST OF THE BEAST AND HIS BRIDE combined with LAMAS camp out event. This should be fun and ritual for all. It will run from Noon July 31st to Noon August 3rd. Location: Battery Alexander at the Marin Headlands; from San Francisco, cross the Golden Gate. Take Sausalito exit. Go under Freeway. Call (415) 465-9389 for more information. Bring ritual tools, sleeping bags, fire wood, charcoal and brickettes. I am holding final copy on this issue of the Thelema Lodge Calendar for an insert on this, and hope you will find it deeper in this issue by the time you receive it. If not, call the number for more information.

The Motta Case Appeal
OTO Vindicated Again.

The Federal 9th District Circuit Court of Appeals has made a decision in the case of O.T.O. vs. S.O.T.O., and that decision is entirely in our favor. In the MEMORANDUM of the Appeals Court, filed June 4, 1987 e.v., the Judges held that:

1. Plaintiff OTO is, and SOTO is not, the continuation of the Original OTO.

2. McMurtry is, and Motta is not, the OHO.

3. The findings were not in violation of the 1st amendment, being based on secular indicia and credibility of testimony.

4. Plaintiff OTO legally owns the names, initials, insignia, trademarks, tradenames, copyrights, writings, archives and library that belonged to the original OTO.

5. McMurtry's death does not change this fact because plaintiff OTO continues to hold the property in its corporate capacity.

6. Defendants libeled certain plaintiffs.

7. Collateral estoppel from the Motta vs. Weiser case applied to SOTO and not to OTO.

The full text of the MEMORANDUM will be found in the Magical Link for July, 1987 e.v.

What all this means is substantially: We are the OTO. We own Crowley's unsold and nonpublic domain copyrights.

The case was first started in 1981 e.v., very soon after we learned of Motta's intent to sue Weisers, Inc. for royalties in publication of Crowley's works. Six years later, we have reach the middle level of appeal. Beyond this there is only technical challenge to the Appeals Court and appeal to the Supreme Court. With luck, another year or two will see the end to this expensive but necessary defense of our identity, our property and the good names of our friends and senior members.

Don't Tread on Us
We're Legit!

Every so many years, somebody stands up and tries to sell a bill of bads on the O.T.O. Some of this may originate in the Victorian prejudices Crowley had to live with in his own day. Some of this is out-right religious prejudice. Some of this comes from lousy research and confusion with people who falsely claimed to be in or to run OTO, such as Grant, Motta and the infamous "Solar Lodge" group. Some of this is simply hack writing along the lines of the slick dreadfuls of the supermarket checkout lines. For whatever reason, an author named Maury Terry has written a book called The Ultimate Evil, which purports to discover a national conspiracy of Satanist murder behind some notable cases in the past 20 years. For all I know, the Son of SAM and other cases might indeed be linked. The moon might be made out of green cheese beneath the surface tested by the Astronauts. Volkswagons might actually be powered by elves who turn themselves into a standard motor whenever observed. Given enough pages and wind, it is possible to make some sort of an argument for anything. I do not dispute that there are people who read this kind of stuff and then go out to imitate it.

Whatever the merits of Mr. Terry's research, he reaches well beyond it for his conclusions.

I quote from an interview aired here in the Bay Area on 6/23/87 e.v., SF Channel V I Witness News. The Channel V interviewer asks the questions and Maury Terry Responds:

Q. "What cult is this? What are we talking about here?"
A. "Well, you're talking about an amalgam of a couple of cults. There are elements of the old O.T.O., which was the Ordo Templi Orientis that came over to the United States with Aleister Crowley, an infamous black magician in the early '40s. The O.T.O. set up the network in quite a few US cities and is still active today. Renegade elements of the O.T.O. merged with elements of the old Process Church of the Final Judgment, which was a British Satanic cult that arrived in San Francisco in the ... right in the Fall of the Summer of Love in 1967. Process set up shop here, then down in LA, then into New York, Chicago, Dallas other cities."
Q. "Now these people primarily are not involved in murder, in those cults, correct?"
A. "No, but there was in inner circle, an inner hard core among these organizations that absolutely is into, into murder. It's murder for hire. It's murder to eliminate their own enemies, weak links. They'll take snuff contracts; and there are elements in these groups that are making very big money in kink and in child pornography and in narcotics dealing."
Q. "And you are saying the David Berkowitz, Son of SAM, as well as Charles Manson, were either members or links to those cults."
A. "David Berkowitz joined an offshoot of the Process-O.T.O. organization in New York in 1975. Charles Manson, the evidence clearly shows, belonged to a subset organization of the Process in LA in 1968. The two men didn't know each other. The were at different times at different cults, but they belonged to the same umbrella organization, if that's a fair way to put it."

The Book is like the interview, only 400 pages more so. This is so full of holes that there is no room to cite them all here. A few examples: Crowley was last in the US in the 1920s, and Agape Lodge was brought down to LA from Vancouver in the mid 1930s by W.T.Smith. There is not now and never has been any connection between the Process Church organization and the OTO. In 1975 e.v. there was at most one (1) O.T.O. member in New York, and I'm not so sure that he was there then. In 1968 e.v. there were at most 15 active remaining O.T.O. members in the World; all our major growth to the present 1,000 plus membership in 17 countries is since 1977 e.v. Speaking as a member of the innermost circle and core of O.T.O. for the past 10 years, the last act of gratuitous physical violence I can remember performing or endorsing took place when I was in grammar school in a playground fight, about the age of 7 or 8 years. I loosened the tooth of a fellow who wouldn't stop jabbing me in the ribs. I consider that I am if anything more aggressive than the average of my confreres of the inner circles. I do not find it conceivable that any of those who have been my close colleagues in directing the OTO have done anything like the acts of consummate criminal violence that Mr. Terry finds so interesting. The worst possible impact I can imagine from his book is that such people might seek us out in the mistaken impression that we are such swine as they. Mr. Terry seems to be making an effort to avoid actually saying that we have done or are involved in doing these things, for he is undoubtedly aware of the nature of the Libel Laws. His fondness for placing our name in such company may have over-reached itself, however. Watch this space for solicitations for the Legal Fund. Your donations to Grand Lodge are Tax Deductible.

If Mr. Terry thinks that he can safely smear the name of O.T.O. without fear of being physically attacked by O.T.O. solders, he is absolutely correct. We don't have Soldatari. We are a family, but not Mafia. We don't have a consolare, but we do have a Lawyer. That is entirely another matter. Our idea of human sacrifice is coitus interruptus, Nonoxynol-9 spermicide and the pill. We get rid of our problem members by expelling them with due process, not by extermination. The only snuff around here comes in a little round paper box, and I prefer plug and cut leaf. We do feel that the laws concerning sexual conduct between consenting adults and the use of drugs need a lot of relaxing. We don't run the Black Market. Child abuse, sexual or otherwise, is ample grounds for being expelled from O.T.O.

Two lesser questions: What is this about Crowley being a Black Magician all the time? Seems to me he called other people that name. How long do you have to be around before they stop calling your group a cult? 85 years is not enough I suppose.

Bill Heidrick, Grand Treasurer General
and an Original Incorporator of O.T.O.

Events occurred in 1987

Events Calendar for July 1987 e.v.

7/7/87	Gnostic Mass 8PM	Thelema Ldg &
7/8/87	Egyptiana Class with Ebony	Thelema Ldg
	on the "Coffin Texts" 8PM
7/10/87	Initiation Workshop (private) 8PM	ABRAHADABRA
7/11/87	Rite of Saturn at New Horizons	Thelema Ldg
	Donation at Door
7/12/87	Gnostic Mass 9PM	Thelema Ldg
7/13/87	Enochian Ritual for the 13th	Thelema Ldg
	Aethyr with Dave and Nick 9PM
7/14/87	Enochiana Class with Dave	Thelema Ldg
	1st and 2nd Calls. 8PM
7/16/87	Rite of Jupiter at New Horizons	Ankh..Khons.
7/19/87	Gnostic Mass 8PM	Thelema Ldg
7/19/87	Gnostic Mass 2PM	ABRAHADABRA
7/21/87	Rite of Mars at New Horizons	Hypatia Cmp
7/22/87	Abramelin Class with Bill 8PM	Thelema Ldg
7/23/87	Alein Gods 7:30 PM	Dii Aleini
7/25/87	Oasis Organizational. meeting	ABRAHADABRA
7/25/87	Mask making workshop with Dusan	Thelema Ldg
	Materials: $5 and $10
7/26/87	Rite of Sol
7/26/87	Gnostic Mass (may be changed)	Thelema Ldg
7/28/87	Enochiana Class on Sigillium and	Thelema Ldg
	the Seven Names of God that the
	Angels dare not utter. Dave 8PM
7/29/87	Egyptiana Class with Ebony 8PM	Thelema Ldg
7/31/87	Oasis meeting (San Francisco)	ABRAHADABRA
7/31/87	Rite of Venus at Lammas Camp Out
7/31/87	Lammas Camp-out at Battery	Thelema Ldg
	Alexander, Marin Headlands
	Noon 7/31/87 to Noon 8/3/87
	also, Gnostic Mass, Sunday
Fridays	Selene Camp meets most Fridays	Selene Camp
Weekends	Initiations from Minerval to IIIrd	Thelema Ldg
	by appointment at Thelema Lodge

The viewpoints and opinions expressed herein are the responsibility of the contributing authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of OTO or its officers.

Thelema Lodge
Ordo Templi Orientis
P.O. Box 2303
Berkeley, CA 94702 USA

Phone: (510) 652-3171 (for events info and contact to Lodge)

Production and Circulation:
OTO-TLC
P.O.Box 430
Fairfax, CA 94978 USA

Internet: heidrick@well.com (Submissions and circulation only)