Thelema Lodge Calendar for June 1990 e.v.

Thelema Lodge Calendar

for June 1990 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.

Copyright © O.T.O. and the Individual Authors, 1990 e.v.

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

June 1990 e.v. at Thelema Lodge

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

Announcements from
Lodge Members and Officers


June 1990 e.v. at Thelema Lodge

Thelema Lodge wishes to express thanks to David Jones for the good work that he did as Lodge Master of Thelema Lodge. Brother David took charge at a difficult time and experienced the worst time, bar one, in the history of the Lodge. Brother Mordecai is the new Master of Thelema Lodge. He is known throughout the O.T.O., not least for his service as an officer of Grand Lodge. And now a word from 'is nibs:


INITIATION POLICY STATEMENT

Thelema Lodge is instituting some new approaches in its initiations procedures. From now on we will be adhering strictly to the order-wide policy requiring applications for initiation to be submitted 40 days in advance of the proposed initiation. Minerval applications will receive a little leeway, but waivers of the 40 day requirement will no longer be routinely granted for other initiations. If there is a special reason then a waiver may still be granted by the National Supreme Council, but it will be the responsibility of the candidate and/or their initiator to obtain permission. The lodge will no longer request waivers as a matter of course. Applications for initiation are available at the lodge, by mail, or by calling me (your Initiations Clerk!) at (415) 647-8147. Please leave your name, address, and degree sought with the mechanical slave, and we'll mail you the appropriate form.
A new series of Initiator Training classes, two Friday evenings each month, will begin in June. See the Calendar for exact dates, and degrees, on which we will be working. Because of the attitude of the Electoral College, O.T.O. members in the Bay Area must demonstrate special competence in order to be recommended by them for a charter to initiate. Therefore the lodge is setting up these classes in order to enable members to familiarize themselves with the various officer roles, through Master Magician. Members who perform well, in practices and at actual initiations, will be strenuously sponsored when they decide to apply for a charter to initiate. All local members who are already chartered to do Man of Earth initiations are strongly urged to contact the Initiations Clerk and volunteer to help train new initiators. Here is an opportunity to serve your brethren!


The events of June:

Greetings of the Summer Solstice! The Lodge will have a Solstice party June 21st, starting about 7 pm...Call Lew for info at 652-3505.
The LODGEMEETING has MOVED to the LAST THURSDAY of each month...same time and place. Next three: 6/28, 7/26, 8/30. The Lodge Of Perfection will meet on June 14th...
Gnostic Masses proceed right 'round sunset every Sunday. All for June are Liber 15 unless they change...there's a "Liber XV Text Seminar" 6/17 at 2pm in Horus Temple - we will study texts dated from 1918 to the present.
Mordecai's Initiations Workshop starts June 8th at 8 pm. If you want to learn to assist with/preside over these events - here's your chance! 647-8147 for info on the workshop AND June/July initiations. This workshop continues on 6/22, 7/6, & 7/20 - in Horus Temple.
Bill's Magick and Qabalah series begins on the 13th and 20th of June. The class on the 13th corresponds to Malkut and will present an orientation for the series. The class on the 20th will look at Astral projection, divination and related topics appropriate to Yesod. Next month the series continues with Ceremonial Magick on July 11th and a Natural Magick field trip to Mt. Tam in Marin County on Saturday the 14th of July. The July field trip will start at 5 Suffield Ave., in San Anselmo, at 10 AM, with departure to Mt. Tam by 11:30 AM. Wear old clothes, good walking shoes and be prepared for sun protection. Call (415) 454-5178 in early July for details.
Nefertiti Camp's history class 5/30 was canceled - returning 6/27 at 8 pm to Horus Temple. "Grady talks" (is this more weird necromancy?) The July class is the 25th but may move to San Francisco...watch this space.
The Magick Theatre presents "The Tempest" - we will read Shakespeare's classic play June 19th at 8 pm. Next month: New Crowley!
A Cancerian Birthday Splash will manifest at 4:18 or thereabouts on the 24th:(thanx 4 the Gemini bash, folks - I didn't think anyone remembered!) AETHYRMASS will take place 6/29 at Ancient Ways (41st and Telegraph) starting at 7:30 pm -
it's the first of June - thanks to all for their Patience in this time of reorganization...realizing this one's late, July's calendar as published here in advance is firm for at least the first half of the month - and
"FISH AND CHIPS FEED" July First, 4:18 pm
'A Thelema Lodge Fundraiser' $5 - $10 sliding scale donation

           "Y'ALL COME!"

see ya -C-



from the Grady Project:

Copyright by the Author. 1942

Originally published in The Military Engineer vol. XXXVI, no. 211 (March 1944 e.v.)

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AN ALLEGORY

THE DEATH OF MAB

The entire universe in which most of us live is just one leaf in an immense forest, the Big View Eternal Park. Inhabiting this forest are well over ten times the largest conceivable number of fairies. These are fairies in the sense of "invisible spirits of the woods"; any other sense is up to them and none of your damn business. In politics it is fair to say they are monarchists, though no one pays taxes, and the death penalty is impossible. All in all it is a happy state of affairs with nothing but courtesy, refinement, and empty ceremonial from eternal dawn to eternal dusk. Throughout this endless existence the one and only monarch of Big View was, is, and ever will be Queen Mab. Her beauty absolutely defies description, thus I must describe her. In one brief instant she is every possible woman and not woman; her radiance is darker even than grey; her justice the impartial bias of chance. Her lips are sweeter than trousers, and her eyes fiery zephyrs. Well, I told you it couldn't be done. Of Queen Mab it must be said that she was all-knowing. The most insignificant action of her most insignificant subject (the wedding of Charles & Di?) is as familiar to her as the clash of her favorite galaxies. And so it is all the more amazing that she should have done what she did, knowing full well the outcome of her action. It was during the fortieth infinite cycle of eternity when she decided to abdicate her throne. "Can't stand in the way of progress!" she crowed; a curious claim considering that nothing would or ever could change in Big View Eternal Park. Her resignation was duly accepted, since it is impossible to disobey Queen Mab. Her successor, identical to her in every way, was summoned out of the Void of Dispersion, arriving nameless and clothed in the largest perfect number.
In the riotous celebration that followed the arrival of the new queen, Mab was almost forgotten. She sat alone in a corner, or I should say almost alone, because a tiny voice squeaked out from under her chair, "Well, what now?". "Eh?", Mab was unaccustomed to answering questions. "I mean, what do ex-queens do with themselves?". Mab saw that it was the new queen speaking to her from the mouth of a glowing embryo encased in a crystalline egg. "Hmmm...", Mab was also unaccustomed to thinking. And then she said, half in jest, "I suppose I could go find you a name." The babe shrieked furiously at this, "That could be dangerous! Besides," she started to calm, "I don't need a name to begin with." Something in Mab knew that the new queen was right, but still she overreacted; perhaps it was pride, or maybe she was regretting her recent decision to forgo her position. It's one thing to be the center of the universe, quite another to be the universe itself. Had she made the right choice? Was existence worth it? No matter, she'd chuck it all now to find a name for the Queen. And where else? Mab jumped into the Void of Dispersion.
Tartarus as a way of life. Existence shredding itself into Klein bottles of psychoactive wine. Mabness assailed by tornadoes of possibility.
A wave broke upon the shore of no sensation; a body, once Mab, cast up at the feet of the Queen of the Forest. "Your name," it heaved one final breath, "is Mab."
In the first universe of the second infinity of the fiftieth eternity of the Big View Eternal Park (which is to say everywhere) there is a unique solar system. A single, massive blue-white star orbits a black hole blazing out a gravity wave transmission to all Existence, a single sentence, Mab's epitaph, "To sacrifice thyself to Thy Self is no sacrifice at all."

--- Fr. HaLayL


from Uncle Theo'

INTRODUCTION BY THEODOR REUSS TO "LINGAM-YONI",

HIS GERMAN TRANSLATION OF HARGRAVE JENNINGS' "PHALLISM"

translated into English by Sor. N and Fra. Faustus
The old life falls and new life rises out of the ruins. In this context I must say that our time is a time of transition. Old ideas, old habits, old opinions and principles of living vanish bit by bit, and new ideas, new habits, new opinions and principles of living, even new religion, seem to grow out of our modern Western cultural ferment. It is only natural that this fermentation makes for peculiar bubbles, and occasionally a lot of foul smelling gas. I need only point out the frightening growth of pornographic literature (which probably reached its height in "Karl Hetmann") and the decadence of the performing and graphic arts. But actually these are only the side-effects of a growth period of a new Weltanschaung, maybe even an entirely new world. Despite all these new creations, in fact, there is nothing that is absolutely new in the world. The new Weltanschaung, the new customs, and the new religion are built upon the old. Even the perversions in the excrescences of most modern fermentation are at their bases of divine origin. They are a subconscious continuation of the most ancient religious cults on earth (a usually unconscious reenaction of the ancient sex cult in modified form). In spite of the efforts of the Christian churches over 120 million people, of whom 100 million are subjects of the King of England, are still practitioners of the sex cult (Lingam-yoni), which surely shows the need to spread widely authentic material about phallism. With that a truer and fairer guideline for the modern sex cult movement (which should be condemned for its excrescences, but which reactivates the ancient divine worship in its inner core) can be found. The publication of this authentic material is even more appropriate because the Catholic Church uses, in a hidden form, the phallus worship, Lingam-yoni cult, and other similar practices (Cult of the Virgin) taken from so-called Pagan rituals.
The subjects of the following text*, which is divided into seven books of six pages each, share one common source, but there are various branches, some quite complicated. The cult which is described in this book descends from the dimmest reaches of prehistoric antiquity. It was the leading religious cult during the fullest flowering of the cultures of classical antiquity, and is still a living factor in our time. It is interwoven with the development of the greatest and mightiest kingdoms in the world's history, and still today it is intimately connected with the lives and customs of whole peoples which belong to the British Empire.
Partly, our material derives from the secret "holy books" of an ancient order descended from the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and the original inhabitants of India. The other part comes from recognized sources of our most well-known investigators of culture, history, and archaeology.
As proof of our arguments we will offer old writings and oral traditions, as well as extant monuments, sculptures, stones, inscriptions, and symbols which have been indecipherable to most people until now.
Such a work is not suitable for young and immature people, but adults of both sexes will gain a general knowledge and understanding of the world, as well as its peoples and their customs, by studying the material we publish. Some Tartuffe may say that we are "immoral", "corrupting", etc., but we are prepared for that, and we want to declare from the outset that attacks like that will not be in the least discomfiting to us. While treating of this subject as we do in this work we will touch upon and describe many things which might inspire libertines of both sexes to perverted thoughts, which is only natural, but not our fault. To the pure, as we know, everything is pure.
In this time the East (which is now the mightiest representative of so- called Paganism) has conquered the West in bloody battle. After this Westerners can no longer sneer about "wild Pagans in faraway Asia", rather they should think about the future when as in a new Volkerwanderung the peoples of India, pushed aside by the Chinese and Japanese, will knock at the doors of Europe. Then we will see if the Christian religion has left the people of the West enough belief in God and enough resistance to successfully reject the inrushing masses of Asia, who serve the sex cult.
To give our European Christian people such an inner resistance (which comes only from a fixed belief in God) it will be necessary for the old Christian belief to win back the many millions of pseudo-Christians, or a new kind of belief in God must be rooted in their hearts. If in the place of today's extreme unbelief a real living belief in a divinity could occur then it would not be bad if this belief was embodied in a phallus a cult of some sort.
In response to all future suspicions and accusations we will answer already at this time: "Honi soit qui mal y pense."

* (The rest of the text, by Jennings, is omitted.)


From the Outbasket

----- One of the long term projects around here consists of putting Crowley's works on computer diskette. While entering The Equinox, I came across the following remark:
"In Tiphareth the aspirant attains to no less a state than that of conversation with his Holy Guardian Angel, his Jechidah, 'The permanent principle behind the conflicting opinions.'"
----ref: Equinox I, 4., "The Temple of Solomon the King," page 145.
It seems unlikely that the Yechidah (Crowley's "Jechidah") could be the Holy Guardian Angel mentioned in Abramelin. This passage was published in 1910 e.v., and was evidently written before. Crowley had attained the Knowledge and Conversation of the H.G.A. by then, but his major work across the Abyss started in 1909 e.v. (detailed in the next issue of the Equinox, "Vision and Voice".). In that year Crowley strived to attain Magister Templi, the grade in AA corresponding to Binah on the Tree of Life. When the crossing is first made, all the upper Sephiroth appear as one (see the last issue of the TLC on the 50 Gates of Understanding). This is a temporary condition, and the three Supernal Sephiroth subsequently become distinct again. The same structure is seen in the Qabalistic parts of the soul or souls: Neschamah is used in two senses: (1) The combined Yechidah soul of Keter, Chiah soul of Chokmah and the soul of Binah. (2) As Neschamah, the soul at Binah exclusively. Very likely this is not a coincidence, but two different expressions of the same thing. When one first crosses the Abyss on the Tree of Life, all the supernals are as Binah and all remaining higher aspects of the soul appear as one, that one being Neschamah. From the viewpoint of one below the Abyss, the Yechidah and the Chiah are mere abstractions. It is only the Neschamah which can be indirectly experienced from Tipheret in that relation known as The Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. Lacking a direct experience of the Yechidah, it would be natural to think of the H.G.A. as being identical with it.
The Yechidah is the highest soul: undifferentiated, immortal, unchanging, and absolute unity. The Holy Guardian Angel is a personality uniquely interacting with the personality of the mystic, which latter is the Ruach soul that centers on Tipheret but includes Chesed through Yesod. If the Yechidah is an absolute unity, it cannot have the property of personality. One can say "I Am", Eheieh, the divine name corresponding to Keter, only in a very tenuous way. Strictly speaking, this "I am" cannot be true of the Yechidah, for it subsumes and implies "I am not". The unity would be broken. Perhaps it is better to consider that Eheieh "proceeds" from Keter in the "creation" of Chokmah. In any event, the Yechidah cannot be the Holy Guardian Angel; for the Yechidah is the same for everyone in direct counterpoise to the Holy Guardian Angel being unique to each one. Only in the sense of the H.G.A. interpreting Yechidah to the Ruach or personality of the mystic is it ever possible to say "the aspirant,... his Jechidah". No one can possess a Yechidah, rather one enters into the single Yechidah that is one and the same for all. This also applies to the Ipsissimus grade, it is only one. There cannot be two.
So; what is the Holy Guardian Angel? Is it Neschamah or Yechidah? Throughout his life Crowley struggled with the identification of Aiwass. At different times he considered Aiwass to be his Holy Guardian Angel, Satan as an aspect of Christ, Set, a servitor of the Gods, a God, a servant of the Secret Chiefs and an impostor pressed into service against its native desire. All these theories revolve and repeat without ultimate resolution in the different periods of Crowley's writing. Crowley felt Aiwass to be his H.G.A. at some time after 1904 e.v. and prior to 1910 e.v., the time span in which he attained the K. & C. of the H. G. A. by a magical retirement begun in 1900 e.v., interrupted and then completed in 1909 e.v. Could he have attained the Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel and yet failed of the Knowledge, taking it to be the Aiwass of 1904 e.v.? Comparison of writings from that time with later ones would suggest so, but wouldn't that vitiate the whole attainment? How know and subsequently discover the knowing false? This problem offers a clue to the nature of the H.G.A.
What if the H.G.A. is like Eheieh, a proceeding from rather than an aspect of the Sephiroth? Then it would have a nature much like that of the paths between the Sephiroth, an ephemeral and changing state, a road from one to another. The paths are not static. The Sephiroth alone possess equilibrium within their limits. The path between two Sephiroth is the communication of one to another, the knowledge of one by the other. Is this not exactly what is said of the Holy Guardian Angel, that the experience is one of Knowledge and Conversation?
Consider then: If the Holy Guardian Angel is the first apprehension of the Supernals by the Ruach soul centered at Tipheret, surely then it is of the first point of that apprehension, Binah and the lesser Neschamah soul of Binah. As has been said, this gives the impression of being the whole of the Supernals, with the H.G.A. being the Adonai, the god and lover of the mystic.
Then this: The pneumenon of the soul beyond the Abyss clothes itself in the phenomena of the mortal soul below the Abyss, using images derived from the sensory world to give it form. In the story of Plato's cave, this Holy Guardian Angel is a shadow cast upon the wall of the cave. The light which casts it (Yechidah), the passage which constricts it (Chiah), the structures which shape it (Neschamah) are not seen. It is the shadow which is seen, the absence and presence of that light upon the familiar world known to the personality (Ruach). When the shadow is recognized, it is the Ruach which comes to know it. When the shadow moves and appears in response to the actions of the mystic, that is conversation. The knowledge (Da'at) advances through this interaction. There is one definite constraint. The Knowledge and Conversation is at first limited to illumination and eclipse of ideas already familiar to the mystic. The Angel itself is a form created from parts already known to the Ruach of the mystic. There is nothing new save that disclosed by novel combinations of the known. For this reason, all revelations of sacred scripture speak over-much of the past Aeon and almost exclusively in words known to the scribe. There are mysteries and great puzzles. There are secret keys and echoing names. Yet even the light of revelation is at best perceived as a mottling of shadow on the wall of the cave, half revealed and half concealed. When the mystic turns to see the light direct, there is little that can be said.
Then Aiwass was truly Crowley's Holy Guardian Angel at the time of the writing of "The Book of the Law". It matters not at all if this Aiwass was something else, for at that time it served the role and function. One could say that Allen Bennett was Crowley's Angel when he taught. Eckenstein had his turn, as did Rose, Roddie Minor, Alostrael and all the others. Places, people, thoughts, voices and visions; all comprise the Angel. With Knowledge and Conversation, the Angel assumes a less corporeal type. There is a later change more profound and likely the agency that sparked Crowley's doubts concerning Aiwass. If the Holy Guardian Angel is an ephemeral manifestation between Binah and Tipheret, between Neschamah and Ruach, what happens when the Exempt Adept passes to Babe of the Abyss, the transition Crowley noted as being common to both AA and O.T.O. (VIIIth Degree O.T.O, the only point of union of the two systems other than perhaps Minerval with Probationer -- Note to Web edition: These common points between the two orders were theorized by Grady McMurtry, but they are not considered correct by the present O.H.O. of O.T.O.)? This is well described in Vision and Voice as the encounter with Choronzon, the demon of illusion and Da'at. Only the formula of LAShTAL, the Hebrew word meaning, "without intention", can pass that test. Choronzon is the betrayal of the Angel in two senses. (1) The Angel is seen to be false. (2) The forms of the Angel become the illusions of Choronzon. Choronzon is the empty shell of the Angel, forced to manifest by the desire of the Seer in a place beyond its nature. As the Angel gives meaning to all things, Choronzon offers meaning when only detachment is correct. The Angel may teach though the symbol of water, but who so cries "water, water" in that place beyond Chesed shall fall to the snares of Choronzon. The higher as shadowed forth by the Angel is part true and part delusion enforced through the lower symbols which communicated it. Beyond those symbols, the truth stands. Choronzon insists on the symbols. The Angel, shorn of Choronzon, is the Neschamah; Angel no more, for the symbols have fled with the parting of the great veil, the symbol "Angel" amongst the others. After this experience, Crowley and Perdurabo still quested the Angel, but the Magister Templi knew better. Thus the doubts rising without resolution concerning Aiwass.

-oOo-

Want a puzzle? Get a copy of Confessions by Crowley, and "The High History of Good Sir Palamedes the Saracen Knight and of His Following of the Questing Beast", Crowley's epic poem from Equinox I, 4. This epic is an account of Crowley's mystical quest from the death of his father until about 1905 e.v. Identify the metaphoric elements with Crowley's life from "Confessions". Hint: When Sir Palamedes kills someone or something, it's a renunciation by Crowley of some facet of his belief or hope. The person or thing killed represents a person or a manner of philosophy mentioned in "Confessions". Don't forget that this doesn't reach actual events beyond 1905 e.v., a fact perhaps exemplified in the reconciliation toward the end with Christianity.

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Non O.T.O. event:

The Midwest Pagan Council's 14th annual Pan Pagan Festival will take place this year at a campground near Yorkville Illinois. The program includes camping, feasts, rituals, merchants and an ample workshop schedule. For information, write to: Program committee, P.O.Box 212, Matteson, IL 60445 or call (no collect calls!) (312) 767-1113. The festival runs from August 16th through 19th. Deadline for pre-registration is 8/4/90, $35 for adults and $15 for children age 5 to 11, under 5 free. Registration after this date goes up to $50/$25. The cut-off date for pre-registration is the date RECEIVED, not the date mailed.

Events Calendar for June 1990 e.v.

6/3/90Gnostic Mass at SunsetThelema Ldg
6/8/90Initiations Wrkshop Minerval 8PMThelema Ldg.
6/10/90Gnostic Mass at SunsetThelema Ldg.
6/13/90Magick & Qabalah #1 with Bill 8 PMThelema Ldg.
6/17/90Gnostic Mass seminar 2pm
(1918 to the present)		Thelema Ldg.
6/17/90Gnostic Mass at SunsetThelema Ldg.
6/19/90Reading of the Tempest 7:30 PMMagick Thea
6/20/90Magick & Qabalah #2 with Bill 8 PMThelema Ldg.
6/21/90Summer Solstice, call for infoThelema Ldg.
6/22/90Initiations Wrkshop Ist Deg 8PMThelema Ldg.
6/23/90Secret MeetingThelema Ldg.
6/24/90Cancer Birthday party 4:18 PMThelema Ldg.
6/24/90Gnostic Mass at SunsetThelema Ldg.
6/27/90History (OTO) Class 8 PMNefertiti Cmp
6/28/90Thelema Lodge meeting 8 PMThelema Ldg.
6/29/90Aethyrmass at Ancient Ways 7:30 PMTHL-AW

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)

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