Announcements from
Lodge Members and Officers

    Masses: Every Sunday, 8 pm - at Thelema Lodge. The Rite Of Sol may change the time of the Mass 12/16; but there are no Heresies yet planned.
    Initiations: Workshops for Minerval and First Degree on the 7th and 28th at 8 pm, Horus Temple. Initiations December 15th; call Mordecai at 647-8147 for information.

    Meetings: Thelema Lodge meets 12/27 at 8 pm; the Lodge Of Perfection meets December 20th.

    Special one meeting presentation by Bill Heidrick: Liber 777, how the various tables and columns relate and how they do NOT relate. This is your chance to find out the limits, rationale, sources and applications of most of the entries in Crowley's Liber 777. 8 PM on 12/12/90 e.v. at the Lodge. Next month a ten meeting series on Tarot will be offered by Bill --- starts with one meeting in January on 1/16/91 e.v. and continues mostly at two meetings a month until concluded.

    Magick Theatre: The Feast of St. Henry Miller will be held on Thursday, Dec. 27, 1990 e.v. (the day after his birthday) at The Catacombs, starting approximately 7:30 PM. Ample food, whisky and wine will be provided, & readings from Miller's various works will be featured throughout the evening. If you like beer (or mixers) bring your own. For info: The Catacombs, (415) 658-8783.
    "Liber 418" readings continue - call Caitlin for the time of each particular Aire. Most will be at the Lodge.
    The Capricorn Birthday bash will be Sunday the 30th at 4:18 pm... pardon my brevity, All - it's busy now, but I think we'll get Slack by January! -C-

[previously published in The Oriflamme I:1 (Pasadena: Agape Lodge, February 1943 e.v.) and in The Grady Project #1 (Oakland: Thelema Lodge, October 1987 e.v.)] e.v.]

    Since we have a class on Liber 777 this month, I thought I would resurrect an article I wrote for the old O.T.O. Newsletter about eleven years ago. This first appeared in the May 1978 e.v. double issue # 7-8. The issue is long out of print, but some considerations are afoot to put the Newsletter into computer format and possibly make it available again in photocopy. The O.T.O. Newsletter was the precursor of the Magical Link; and it was in publication until the last issue in 1980 e.v., # 10-11. The poor beasty died of obesity, with the last issue going to 120 pages, including four-color cover. Much as I liked doing it, that was a bit much for the press in the room behind my kitchen. Hope you like it.

Notes on: Liber 777

    Many of us have wished to set gems into talismans and other devices in correspondence to the Sephiroth. This is workable in most of the correspondences listed in 777, Col. XL, but diamonds and a few other stones are beyond the means of most of us. One can use chips, of course; but size counts for much in workings of one kind or another. It is better to have a stone that matches the working, is large enough to be seen and is not a plastic or glass fake. With these ideas in mind, the following table of semi-precious gems and minerals is offered. Notes follow to clarify the selections and to provide instruction on the principle of magical signatures.

Notes:
#1. Milky Quartz is featureless white, a match to the white Brilliance of Keter.
    Quartz with gold inclusions is white flecked Gold, also a color symbol
    of Keter.
#2. Mother of Pearl is the color match of Chokmah.
#3. An Apache Tear is usually a small round stone of black hue. It transmits
    a little light and gives a feeling of endless depth. This stone was
    sacred to South-Western American Indians. The reference to Binah is by
    color and mystical properties.
#4. Blue Azurite matches the blue of Chesed. This is a copper ore, and can
    be used to link Netzach with Chesed --- definitely a right-pillar stone
    for the Tree of Life.
#5. Desert Rose is a flower-like crystal of granular Hematite. it is dull
    light russet in color and an iron ore. Thus, rose = 5; reddish = color
    of Geburah, iron = metal of Geburah.
#6. Citrine is a yellow golden gem like a drop of honey, thus Tipheret, gold
    and Sun.. In darker hues this is sometimes called honey topaz, and a
    large stone of this type was used by Crowley for scrying in his Liber 418
    working. It is inexpensive, not like the rare true topaz. I picked up a
    90 karat cut stone for about $100 some years ago. Little ones go for
    under $10 --- as do most entries in this list.
#7. Green Malachite is green in color and a Copper ore, thus Netzach.
#8. Cinnabar is reddish orange in color and an ore of Mercury, thus Hod.
#9. A Moon Stone is at first glance more for #13 and Gimmel than for #9 and
    Yesod. This follows from the transcendent appearance of this gem. One
    must not fall into the trap of thinking that one affinity determines
    place forever. The Moon and Yesod match a stone with the appearance of
    the Full phase of the Moon. While lesser gems might match the lower
    place of Yesod, there are certain sexual mysteries of O.T.O. which
    elevate this place. The Moon Stone in its white form is like a drop of
    semen leavened with the White Eagle. Only through subsequent skilled
    working can the gem be raised to #13. This is an affinity quite close to
    that of Binah and Malkut as Mother and fallen Bride in ancient Qabalah.
    In a real way, these "budget" versions of Column XL can be thought of as
    Green Lion to the Precious Stones' Red Lion. Those who aim directly for
    the top without treading the way up often squander magical force.
#10. Lava, basalt and granite are the bones of the Earth. These stones are
    the prima matter of the physical world.
#11. Native Sulfur, not alchemical Sulfur, has an affinity to air and
    therefore Aleph. Native Sulfur in crystalline form is yellow (Aleph) and
    sublimates (turns into gas from the solid state).
#12. Feather Agate (also called Tree Agate), contains brilliant plumes of
    color in a clear and colorless stone. These are like the forces
    manipulated within the Magician by the art hidden within the letter Bet.
#13. Satin Spar is a stone that looks like a fall of crystalline rain. It is
    a perfect depiction of the descending influence of the Moon.
#14. Emerald Beryl can be bought from a lapidary as an opaque crystal for $8
    to $20. It is the green gem of Venus.
#15. Red serpentine has a muted red, for Hay, and is chemically like asbestos
    to protect against fire.
#16. Brown Obsidian is often ribboned in black. If all the surface of the
    earth were melted, this stuff would result. Vau is union.
#17. Alexandrite (artificial variation of carborundum, not natural
    Alexandrite; the natural stone is fully on a par with the finest diamonds
    in cost): For Zain, Gemini, this artificial stone is an easy correspondence.
    The natural stone has some optical properties not to be found in the
   artificial, but both natural and artificial produce a reddish color in
    artificial light and a green one in daylight. This dual coloring is the
    Gemini matching. The property is more extreme in the artificial stone.
    In addition, the idea of art bettering nature has some affinity to the
   path of Zain on the Tree of Life.
#18. Chet is color matched to Amber in the symbolic King Scale. This
    substance is also used in the regular table XL. Amber may contain and
    preserve objects within itself --- Cancer's facility of containment.
#19. The Cat's Eye simulates the eye of the serpent, Tet, and the eye of the
    Lion, the Tet Beast of Tarot.
#20. Peridot is yellowish Green; a Virgo = Yod color in the King Scale.
#21. Turquoise has the color of Jupiter, and myth grants it the status of a
    fallen part of the sky. This stone is sometimes used to protect or
    measure the health of a person wearing it. Turquoise of a white-veiled
    type changes its color at times, like the passage of a cloud upon the
    mystical sky of its wearer. A strong case of #13 could also be made
    here, for Turquoise or Lapis dust was the pigment used by the Egyptians
    on the Stele of Revealing for the Body of Nuit. This was once blue, but
    now is green. Turquoise and Lapis Lazuli gradually change to a variation
    of malachite with exposure to air. Thus mystically, Nuit Virgin becomes
    Nuit Mother. There is a strong feminine side to the God Jupiter, which
    is often overlooked. Jupiter is the Sire of Dionysus, but also the
    birthing Mother. Athena was born from the head of Zeus.
#22. Lace Agate shows a balance of chemical forces, thus Libra and Lamed.
#23. Moss Agate looks like an undersea view, thus Water and Mem.
#24. Aquamarine represents the mystical waters of re-birth in its color and
    clarity. Scorpio and Nun also stress this.
#25. Flint is the stone of Arrows and therefore Sagittarius, Samekh. The
    power of this stone to strike fire also applies to this path.
#26. Fluorescent Minervals, when exposed to the proper wavelengths of ultra-
    violet light or black light, glow with "unnatural" colors. The
    application to Ayin = Eye should be clear, especially when taken with the
    King Scale color and the Devil Trump.
#27. Blood Stone is a dull black or green flecked with red, like blood
    splattered on ebony. This stone is traditionally the talisman of storms,
    earthquake, disaster, violence of all kinds and destroying sickness ---
    either to cause or cure. The affinity to Peh as the letter of the Tower
    Trump should be obvious.
#28. Rutilated Quartz is a stone shot through with perfect lines of bright
    metallic crystal. The link to Tzaddi can be made in many ways, but the
    clearest in my view is to Tzaddikim, the Perfect Watchers or Secret
    Chiefs.
#29. Fossils show the course of evolution and therefore match the Moon Trump
    and the path of Qof. In selecting a fossil, choose one that represents a
    known evolutional line to the present living species. If from a
    vertebrate, part of the back of the skull. Fossil bones and remains from
    extinct Genera, like Saurians, are more correct to represent the Qlipot.
    In that line, I have a nice Stegasaurous bone that I libate with beer or
    wine at intervals. It keeps the beasty happy, and few lesser critters
    care to bother the rest of such a ghost.
#30. Native Gold is the metal of the Sun.
#31. Fire Opal gleams with the root of mineral fire.
#32. Granite and Basalt apply here as they do for #10

    In obtaining stones and minerals, never go to a jeweler. For that matter, don't patronize a jeweler's stock anymore than you can avoid. The mark-up above a Lapidary's retail price commonly exceeds TEN TIMES! In addition, a jeweler's stone has been subjected to more haggling by far than a lapidary's. There is less accumulated trash on a virgin, unset stone. Setting should be done either at the direction of a practitioner of Magick or by the Magician. While we are on the subject, there are some things to know about rare metals. Never buy any substance described simply as "gold"; under the trade laws, this is not true gold but an imitation yellow metal. Require "Gold Metal" and get the alloy measure: 24K is nearly pure. 14K is a bit over half gold, but will work better in almost all uses. Less than 10K is a bit unwise. Also, German Silver hasn't a trace of true Silver, and Sterling Silver is an alloy of Silver and other metals. Most finished pieces of true silver are plated with a silver-like metal that resists sulfur in the air and from human skin. This may or may not be desirable. Test the coating of a reputed silver object by rubbing with egg yoke --- tarnish is the proper result. Gold can often be tested with lemon juice and salt; most of the imitations will either brighten quickly and tarnish after or show some sort of reaction. True Gold cannot be harmed by any chemical product commonly found in the home. Obtain pure metals and metal chains from Gold and Silver Dealers --- they are used to "small" amount sales. Lapidaries also can supply these metals in smaller amounts and at a slightly higher price, with materials for setting and casting sets. Jewelers will charge $20 to $30 for a length of 10K chain that would cost $2 to $6 in 14K from a Gold Dealer. If hard up for gold, go to a liquor store and buy Goldwasser. Filter out the flakes of 24K gold leaf and drink the rest. Alternatively, drink the whole thing; finely divided gold is a mild hallucinogenic drug.

    In the dawn of Christianity, this faith was a heresy of Judaism. A Rabbi of the masses, one Joshua, a Nazarene preacher by the shore of the lake of Tiberius, had raised up a following among the poor and the outcast. He died at the hands of the State, a victim of the times and his imprudence. The Apostles or immediate followers of this man continued in their way, and spread this belief far and wide throughout the Roman World. It met with little success among any but the poor at first. When Paul joined them the cultus underwent an intellectualization. Philosophers and Gnostics took some slight notice. Variations began to emerge. The Gnostic element held mainly that no priests and priestesses should be made distinct from laity. These Gnostic variations also included practices quite strange by popular modern opinion, Sometimes including orgiastic worship and smearing of sexual secretions on shrines and talismans. Other Mystery religions became inextricably mixed into Christian practices. This is notably true of Mithraism, and when the Gospels were fabricated in the second century the story of Mithras became so confused with that of the Christ that no truth can be attributed to the Gospel story. The life of Christ is as untrue as that of Robin Hood or King Arthur. There was a human life behind each of these romances, but hardly anything of the story fits the man.
    Since those early days a great lot has happened to Christianity. In the first century it was passive and largely vegetarian. The terrible stories of martyrdom are as distorted as the Gospels themselves. There was little concerted persecution by the Romans of the Christians. Mostly it came from refusal by Christians to take an oath of allegiance to the Roman state. This was done, as it is today in America, by taking a pledge to the welfare of the state in the name of the deity. Christians generally abstained from joining in public ceremonies and from espousing the dedicatory sacrifices to the gods of Rome. Today, we say the "Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag", adding since the time of President Eisenhower "under God". Some folk, notably Quakers, refuse to take this pledge; and it is certain from his recorded sentiments that Thomas Jefferson of "Declaration of Independence" fame would have refused it. In recent time Americans have been subjected to persecution for this omission, and a US Presidential election campaign had a theme based on this intolerance. In Roman times, the early Christians were given a chance to participate in a minor way in the public acts of sacrifice and allegiance as a way of voiding strictures against them. Many accepted slight hypocrisy to save their lives and property, as did the Mohammedans and Jews of 15th century Spain during the persecutions then. It gives a bad taste and soils the sense of honor, but it is less injurious to most than death. After all, "the truth told to a fool is a lie". If a boor demands foolishness and threatens mayhem if it is not done, humor the baboso! The invincibly ignorant cannot hear noble sentiments contrary to their folly.
    After Constantine and the 4th century, the waffling of Emperors about toleration of the Christians came to an end. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries there were various enactments and efforts. At some times Christian places of worship were closed. At other times they were restored and reopened. Aside from the vulgarity of the Roman Circus, there was little execution and that mostly token. A presbyter here, a bishop there would be warned over a period of months or years. On occasion this did reach the point of execution, but only after considerable delay to permit flight and many opportunities to perform simple acts of allegiance to mitigate the sentence. There were greater persecutions after the ascension of Constantine, but they were of Christians by Christians and of pagans by Christians. The Empire in the West entered decline while that in the East lingered on until it was destroyed by the Christians of the West in an aborted Crusade against Islam.
    An ugly history, true enough, but where did the intolerance of modern Christianity emerge? Is it inherent in the faith of Rabbi Joshua? I doubt that very much. Admittedly, Joshua, the historical figure behind "Jesus Christ" had no great interest in Gentiles. He could be polite to non-Jews, but did not want them for followers. The Apostles took their time deciding to preach to the Gentiles, but several of them eventually came to do it. Certainly there was no persecution by Christians of non-Christians in the early centuries. Only after the Roman State espoused Christianity were there general persecutions of non-Christians, and they were not of the virulent character we see later. One could hardly call them religious persecutions, since they were political first and religious only by convenience. If some group or distant potentate became a competitor, a spurious ground of religious irregularity was got up to cover a naked power grab. Distasteful as it is, such stuff is found in every culture. Western history and contemporary politics is full of this sort of thing. It uses religion for propaganda and discrimination, not as the ultimate basis of persecution in itself.
    I submit that the intolerance of Christianity for other faiths has its roots in the rise of the Holy Roman Empire and owes its essential form to the 13th century. After the decline of the West and the capitulation of the last Emperor of Rome the old Roman provinces in Europe fell into anarchy. It has been said that "In the course of the ninth and tenth centuries all the towns of France were destroyed." --- Fr. Funck-Brentano, "The Middle Ages". The rule of Charlemagne had come and gone. In its wake there was no central law. Every hand was lifted against every other. The very coronation of Charlemagne came out of terrible tribulations. Eginhard (d. 844 e.v.) recounts that Charlemagne was created Emperor by Pope Leo in an act of desperation. The Romans had rioted, seized upon the person of the Pope, plucked out this eyes and cut out his tongue. Leo made Charlemagne the first Holy Roman Emperor to establish a protector for his very life, such of it as was left to him! Over the next few centuries the new Empire was formed and Pope competed with Emperor for worldly sovereignty. Pope Nicholas I and Emperor Lothair, Gregory VII and Henry IV, Hadrian and Frederick Barbarossa --- all contested in tracts, bulls and armies for dominance. In the meantime Europe suffered under the lex talionis and simple robbery. Finally, in the 11th century, Pope Urban II made his speech at Clermont, calling for an end to Christians bashing Christians and for the first Crusade against the "Infidel". The avowed purposes were 1st, to get wealth from foreigners, 2nd to reduce local butchery, 3rd to protect against further massacres like that upon Gunther's pilgrimage to the Holy Land (1060's); and perhaps, just as an afterthought, to take control of Jerusalem for religious reasons. Talk about an idea whose time had come! Before long there were rich "Christian" monarchies dotted about the Holy Land. Only subsequent Crusades marred the picture. The older, established Crusaders resented the young bloods coming in from Europe. These new arrivals tended to pick fights with local Moslems, thus upsetting the comfortable arrangements of the old guard. The idea was to bash around a bit, capture a town, set yourself up, maybe marry a local girl and make lucrative peace with her well-to-do family. Trade improved from nothing to vast proportions. Banking, legal incorporation, stock companies and such were born in these times.
    Soon life in Europe began to settle down. The Popes and Emperors were still at odds, but most of the issues had either been settled or complicated to the point that nobody could figure out how to get ultimate advantage by simple anathema or brute force. Wars and edicts continued, but they were mostly matters of leverage. With this increase of order came a need to stabilize the situation. Pope Innocent III (1198-1216 e.v.) declared a "crusade" against King John of England on an issue of election of high clergy which ultimately resulted in political stalemate and ascendancy of the power of the Pope. Among other concessions, John became the vassal of the Apostolic See for the kingdoms of England and Ireland. The situation was reversed for a while by Emperor Frederick II, Stupor Mundi, in the 13th century, and the temporal power of both Emperors and Popes began to wane from that time. Material causes for intolerance had diminished to matters of temporary advantage. Throughout this period many greater and lesser atrocities occurred; a Cathar was burned to death in 1076 e.v. at Cambrai by a mob after he was declared a heretic. The violence came less from the high potentates than from the people and lesser nobility. Brutalized by centuries of disorder, the masses cared little for the value of human life. The Church before the inquisition usually contented itself with excommunication alone. When this was done, the masses often considered themselves free to murder the wealthy with impunity. In some instances the common people murdered bishops and Abbots in retaliation against taxes by the ecclesiastical estates. The 1115 e.v. revolt of Laon, as recounted by Guilbert, was a notable example of this.
    Thomas Aquinas wrote his Summa Theologica in the 13th century, a vast though uncompleted work intended in imitation of Aristotle as a perfect compilation of Philosophy and Theology. A century before and a century after this time saw many attempts to codify the mundane law, partly derived from surviving compilations dating back to the Byzantine Emperor Justinian. As the Middle Ages drew to a close and the Renaissance began, the Church at Rome combined Canon Law, Byzantine Law and the Summa of Aquinas into an edifice of rigid Theocracy. The four Roman virtues were increased to seven through the addition of the ecclesiastical virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity; and the traditional five sacraments were increased to seven, including confession. All questions of religious difference went to the Summa Theologica for final determination of potential heresy. Abstential chastity was made mandatory for clerics as a control on family influence. The ceremonies of worship became more closely defined and variations were finally forbidden after a certain scandal under Louis XIV some centuries later. Spain became nominally Christian from border to border, and the Inquisition was formed to subject all variance to the test of Aquinas. After the introduction of the printing press, the sales of indulgences and other abuses induced Martin Luther and other leaders of the Protestant Reformation to arise in rebellion against these incursions. The doctrine of papal infallibility was brought forth very recently in a desperate attempt to restore Papal domination. All this resulted from an attempt to control chaos in ordinary life in the vacuum created by the loss of Roman law. When one faction became dominant for a time, all others were attacked without mercy to stave off decline of power.
    Christian intolerance is the heritage of these centuries of disorder, not a part of early Christian essential faith. A few years ago I happened to see a documentary in which some Europeans were recounting their experience in a part of Africa. The local people had experienced terrible war and famine in living memory. All social order had dissolved. These travelers came upon an old woman, naked and dying. Her own people ignored her, but the travelers were moved to give her comfort in her last hours. The old woman began crying; and when asked what was the matter, she said: "I remember when I was a little girl and people took care of people." The centuries have done this to Christianity as the years did it to the tribe of that old woman. We have an ancient legacy of greed, cruelty and famine to overcome. Our old women died in rags long ago. No one remains to remember the hand of gentle succor from the Golden Age of Augustus. This hatred from of the dark ages must be banished, and with it the sickness of intolerance.
    Not much can be done in so little space on such a theme, but I hope I have given some food for thought. Read Medieval History for the details. A cure may take centuries, but understanding the origin of the evil is a first step. "Love is the law, love under will."

Events Calendar for December 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.

   Note to update: the addresses and phone numbers in these issues of the Thelema Lodge Calendars are obsolete since the closing of the Lodge. They are here for historic purposes only and should not be visited or called.