Thelema Lodge Calendar for July 1991 e.v.

Thelema Lodge Calendar

for July 1991 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 1991 e.v. at Thelema Lodge

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

Announcements from
Lodge Members and Officers

"I'm studying to be a Pagan priest" was Sergeant McMurtry's reply to a tank commander, in the long green army tent in Normandy in the summer of 1945 e.v. Grady had been asked "What'cha reading there?" in the midst of a meditation on the Gnostic Mass in Magick in Theory and Practice, and he decided it wouldn't be worthwhile trying to explain any further. "That crazy McMurtry," the tank commander went away muttering. Grady first attended "the mass of the Gnostic Catholic Thelemites" around the beginning of 1941 e.v., when Wilfred Smith and Regina Kahl maintained a temple in the attic of a Hollywood apartment building. Six months later he took his Minerval and First Degree initiations at Agape Lodge. While training in the army two years later, in anticipation of his posting to Europe, he typed out the priest's speeches from the Mass to carry with him and memorize. Decades later, as Caliph of the O.T.O., when Grady successfully established Thelema Lodge, it was the realization of plans he'd first made with Jack Parsons right after World War II, to form a lodge of Thelema, with a temple for the Gnostic Mass in the San Francisco area, as a complement to the Southern California Agape Lodge which Parsons then headed.

This month Thelema Lodge observes the sixth anniversary of the Greater Feast of our founding master Hymenaeus Alpha 777, Major Grady Louis McMurtry (obit. 12 July 1985 e.v.). Grady's last poem, "Identification", appears in this number of the newsletter in commemoration.

Thelema Lodge celebrates Gnostic Mass every Sunday evening in Horus Temple, beginning at nightfall (shortly after 8:30). This is an open ritual, with the public invited to communicate in our sanctuary. (Visitors unfamiliar with the lodge should call ahead: 654- 3580.) Most masses in July will follow Aleister Crowley's standard canon of the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica ritual as established in Liber XV; the exception will be "Jurgen-Mass" on 7 July. This ritual, adapted from James Branch Cabell's reworking of Crowley's mass in the fantastical romance novel Jurgen (1919 e.v.), has become a lodge tradition since Brother Lew organized the first performance three years ago. As Crowley wrote:

We find Cabell constantly breaking up the conventions of human experience in order to demonstrate the ultimate independence of true Self-Consciousness. He enables us to become free of our natural tendency to mistake the alphabet of the intellect for the Word of the Soul. He makes life intelligible by releasing it from the obsession that any of its phenomena are in themselves significant. Yet he avoids the pitfall of the ordinary mystic; he does not tell us that any experience, even the slightest, is "illusion". ["Another Note on Cabell", The Reviewer, July 1923 e.v.]

The E.G.C. offers a monthly workshop on the ritual of the Gnostic Mass, to be conducted in the temple on Sunday afternoon 21 July at 4:18 by Bishop T. Suleiman. Newcomers to the congregation, and clergy-in-training, will find this an ideal opportunity for both practical and metaphysical exploration of the mass in an informal group discussion.

Initiations into Ordo Templi Orientis will be held at Thelema Lodge on Saturday 13 July and also on Tuesday 23 July. Members interested in attending or assisting should inquire beforehand of the lodgemaster (or his officers) regarding the grades to be worked, and also the times and locations involved. Initiations are scheduled each month to accommodate the application of candidates, which must be submitted at least forty days in advance.

New members are encouraged to attend Brother Shaitan's Minerval instructional seminar, which will outline suggested programs for the Minerval year. The first meeting will be held on Wednesday 24 July at 8:00 in Horus Temple.

Classes and reading groups are offered at Thelema Lodge in a variety of magical and Thelemic subjects. They are free and open to the public, although those attending are requested to call ahead, and if possible to contribute a donation towards the upkeep of the lodge.

This month a newly-conceived series goes public: Caltin's "Beastly Prose" readings on the first evening of each month. Gather round at 8:00 on Monday 1 July in the lodge kitchen (if you can stand the heat) for a reading from Crowley's Little Essays Toward Truth.

Bill Heidrick's Tarot series concludes this month with its tenth meeting on Wednesday evening 17 July at 8:00 in Horus Temple. The subject will be Atu number 18, the Moon card. Beginning next month, Bill plans a few special-request classes on subjects of expressed interest; contact him with suggestions if you'd like to hear him explore some particular topic.

The Magick in Theory and Practice Study Circle continues with two Thursday evening meetings this month, led by Marlene. Join us in Horus Temple at 8:00 on 11 July and 25 July for a group reading and discussion, chapter by chapter, of Book IV, part 3. To quote Hymenaeus Alpha again, "like so much of Crowley, MT&P is a whole new book every time I re- read it every five years."

"Jerry's Logorrhea" flows on, and you can fill your ears at the font on Saturday evenings 6 July and 27 July. Call the lodge or contact the lodgemaster a few days beforehand for details regarding content, location, and time.

The Magick Theater gathers to read Crowley's little-known play The Gods (1918 e.v.) on Tuesday evening 30 July, beginning at 7:30. This conversation between four Babylonian gods, enthroned amongst the stars in the primal universe, was announced as "a drama from the Coptic of IAO SABAO" when it appeared in the "Drama Issue" Crowley edited for The International. The location of this reading remains to be arranged; call the Theater for information at 530- 3923.

There will be an organizational meeting for this year's fourteenth annual cycle of Crowley's Rites of Eleusis at the lodge on Wednesday evening 31 July, beginning at 8:00. Dates have been established for the cycle, with the Rite of Saturn on 21 December (eve of the Winter Solstice), continuing through the Rite of Luna on 20 January 1992 e.v. There may also be a Rite of Earth to ground out the cycle, and experimental rites for one or more of the outer planets are being considered, to precede Saturn. Crowley intended the original seven evening performances to comprise a single drama, and we're organizing a more coherent and coordinated cycle this year, but anyone interested in assisting with one or more of the rites is welcome to attend this planning session.

A Thelemic Gentlemen's O-- will convene at the lodge on Monday afternoon 29 July at 5:30. Gather out in the back yard for removal to some private spot for tea and secrets.

The Thelema Lodge belly-dancing class meets most Monday afternoons from 5:30 to 7:30 in the temple; please call to confirm.

Lodge Clean-Up Day is Sunday afternoon 14 July, beginning at 1:11. Although the Deacon will sweep out the temple before mass each week, the other downstairs common rooms at the lodge are heavily used by us all, and need to be maintained as well. Come by and lend a hand!

The Leo birthday cake will be roared to oblivion at the lions' party on Sunday afternoon 28 July at 4:18. Get your piece!

Lodgemeetings are regularly scheduled for the second to last Monday evening in each month, beginning at 8:00 at the lodge. This month the date is 22 July. Come help plan events, discuss business, or propose a team for the Gnostic Mass.

The L.O.P. meets privately on Thursday evening 18 July.

August brings us Lammas, calculated astrologically for Wednesday the 7th; we'll probably celebrate the following weekend, but camping plans are still tentative. The Feast of the Beast and His Bride is Monday 12 August. For projected dates of classes and regular events, see the August advance calendar in this issue.

Love is the law, love under will.

Crowley Classics

Pansil

By Aleister Crowley

[This essay was appended to Liber LXVII, The Sword of Song, Called by Christians The Book of the Beast in 1904 e.v. A modified version was used as a review in Equinox Vol. I, No. 3.]

Unwilling as I am to sap the foundations of the Buddhist religion by the introduction of Porphyry's terrible catapult, Allegory, I am yet compelled by the more fearful ballista of Aristotle, Dilemma. This is the two-handed engine spoken of by the prophet Milton!¹

This is the horn of the prophet Zeruiah, and with this am I, though no Syrian, utterly pushed, till I find myself back against the dead wall of Dogma. Only now realising how dead a wall that is, do I turn and try the effect of a hair of the dog that bit me, till the orthodox "literary"² school of Buddhists, as grown at Rangoon, exclaim with Lear: "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is / To have an intellect!" How is this? Listen, and hear!

I find myself confronted with the crux: that, a Buddhist, convinced intellectually and philosophically of the truth of the teaching of Gotama; a man to whom Buddhism is the equivalent of scientific methods of Thought; an expert in dialectic, whose logical faculty is bewildered, whose critical admiration is extorted by the subtle vigour of Buddhist reasoning; I am yet forced to admit that, this being so, the Five Precepts³ are mere nonsense. If the Buddha spoke scientifically, not popularly, not rhetorically, then his percepts are not his. We must reject them or we must interpret them. We must inquire: Are they meant to be obeyed? Or -- and this is my theory -- are they sarcastic and biting criticisms on existence, illustrations of the First Noble Truth; reasons, as it were, for the apotheosis of annihilation? I shall show that this is so. Let me consider them "precept upon precept," if the introduction of the Hebrew visionary is not too strong meat for the Little Mary⁴ of a Buddhist audience.

THE FIRST PRECEPT

This forbids the taking of life in any form.⁵ What we have to note is the impossibility of performing this; if we can prove it to be so, either Buddha was a fool, or his command was rhetorical, like those of Yahweh to Job, or of Tannhäuser to himself --

Go! seek the stars and count them and explore!

Go! sift the sands beyond a starless sea!

Let us consider what the words can mean. The "Taking of Life" can only mean the reduction of living protoplasm to dead matter: or, in a truer and more psychological sense, the destruction of personality.

Now, in the chemical changes involved in Buddha's speaking of this command, living protoplasm was changed into dead matter. Or, on the other horn, the fact (insisted on most strongly by the Buddha himself, the central and cardinal point of his doctrine, the shrine of that Metaphysic which isolates it absolutely from all other religious metaphysic, which allies it with Agnostic Metaphysic) that the Buddha who had spoken this command was not the same as the Buddha before he had spoken it, lies the proof that the Buddha, by speaking this command, violated it. More, not only did he slay himself; he breathed in millions of living organisms and slew them. He could not eat nor drink nor breathe without murder implicit in each act. Huxley cites the "pitiless microscopist" who showed a drop of water to the Brahmin who boasted himself "Ahimsa" -- harmless. So among the "rights" of a Bhikkhu is medicine. He who takes quinine does so with the deliberate intention of destroying innumerable living beings; whether this is done by stimulating the phagocytes, or directly, is morally indifferent.

How such a fiend incarnate, my dear brother Ananda Maitriya, can call him "cruel and cowardly" who only kills a tiger, is a study in the philosophy of the mote and the beam!⁶

Far be it from me to suggest that this is a defence of breathing, eating, and drinking. By no means; in all these ways we bring suffering and death to others, as to ourselves. But since these are inevitable acts, since suicide would be a still more cruel alternative (especially in case something should subsist below mere Rupa), the command is not to achieve the impossible -- the already violated in the act of commanding -- but a bitter commentary on the foul evil of this aimless, hopeless universe, this compact of misery, meanness, and cruelty. Let us pass on.

THE SECOND PRECEPT

The Second Precept is directed against theft. Theft is the appropriation to one's own use of that to which another has a right. Let us see therefore whether or no the Buddha was a thief. The answer of course is in the affirmative. For to issue a command is to attempt to deprive another of his most precious possession -- the right to do as he will; that is, unless, with the predestinarians, we hold that action is determined absolutely, in which case, of course, a command is as absurd as it is unavoidable. Excluding this folly, therefore, we may conclude that if the command be obeyed -- and those of Buddha have gained a far larger share of obedience than those of any other teacher -- the Enlightened One was not only a potential but an actual thief. Further, all voluntary action limits in some degree, however minute, the volition of others. If I breathe, I diminish the stock of oxygen available on the planet. In those far distant ages when Earth shall be as dead as the moon is today, my breathing now will have robbed some being then living of the dearest necessity of life.

That the theft is minute, incalculably trifling, is no answer to the moralist, to whom degree is not known; not to the scientist, who sees the chain of nature miss no link.

If, on the other hand, the store of energy in the universe be indeed constant (whether infinite or no), if personality be indeed delusion, then theft becomes impossible, and to forbid it is absurd. We may argue that even so temporary theft may exist; and that this is so is to my mind no doubt the case. All theft is temporary, since even a millionaire must die; also it is universal, since even a Buddha must breathe.

THE THIRD PRECEPT

This precept, against adultery, I shall touch but lightly. Not that I consider the subject unpleasant -- far from it! -- but since the English section of my readers, having unclean minds, will otherwise find a fulcrum therein for their favourite game of slander. Let it suffice if I say that the Buddha -- in spite of the ridiculous membrane legend, one of those foul follies which idiot devotees invent only too freely -- was a confirmed and habitual adulterer. It would be too easy to argue with Hegel-Huxley that he who thinks of an act commits it (cf. Jesus also in this connection, though he only knows the creative value of desire), and that since A and not-A are mutually limiting, therefore interdependent, therefore identical, he who forbids an act commits it; but I feel that this is no place for metaphysical hair-splitting; let us prove what we have to prove in the plainest way.

I would premise in the first place that to commit adultery in the Divorce Court sense is not here in question.

It assumes too much proprietary right of a man over a woman, that root of all abomination! -- the whole machinery of inheritance, property, and all the labyrinth of law.

We may more readily suppose that the Buddha was (apparently at least) condemning incontinence.

We know that Buddha had abandoned his home; true, but Nature has to be reckoned with. Volition is no necessary condition of offence. "I didn't mean to" is a poor excuse for an officer failing to obey an order.

Enough of this -- in any case a minor question; since even on the lowest moral grounds -- and we, I trust, soar higher! -- the error in question may be resolved into a mixture of murder, theft, and intoxication. (We consider the last under the Fifth Precept.)

THE FOURTH PRECEPT

Here we come to what in a way is the fundamental joke of these precepts. A command is not a lie, of course; possibly cannot be; yet surely an allegorical order is one in essence, and I have no longer a shadow of a doubt that these so-called "precepts" are a species of savage practical joke.

Apart from this there can hardly be much doubt, when critical exegesis has done its damnedest on the Logia of our Lord, that Buddha did at some time commit himself to some statement. "(Something called) Consciousness exists" is, said Huxley, the irreducible minimum of the pseudo-syllogism, false even for an enthymeme, "Cogito, ergo sum!" This proposition he bolsters up by stating that whoso should pretend to doubt it, would thereby but confirm it. Yet might it not be said "(Something called) Consciousness appears to itself to exist," since Consciousness is itself the only witness to that confirmation? Not that even now we can deny some kind of existence to consciousness, but that it should be a more real existence than that of a reflection is doubtful, incredible, even inconceivable. If by consciousness we mean the normal consciousness, it is definitely untrue, since the Dhyanic consciousness includes it and denies it. No doubt "something called" acts as a kind of caveat to the would-be sceptic, though the phrase is bad, implying a "calling." But we can guess what Huxley means.

No doubt Buddha's scepticism does not openly go quite as far as mine -- it must be remembered that "scepticism" is merely the indication of a possible attitude, not a belief, as so many good fool folk think; but Buddha not only denies "Cogito, ergo sum"; but "Cogito, ergo non sum." See Sabbasava Sutta, par. 10.⁸

At any rate Sakkyaditthi, the delusion of personality, is in the very forefront of his doctrines; and it is this delusion that is constantly and inevitably affirmed in all normal consciousness. That Dhyanic thought avoids it is doubtful; even so, Buddha is here represented as giving precepts to ordinary people. And if personalty be delusion, a lie is involved in the command of one to another. In short, we all lie all the time; we are compelled to it by the nature of things themselves -- paradoxical as that seems -- and the Buddha knew it!

THE FIFTH PRECEPT

At last we arrive at the end of our weary journey -- surely in this weather we may have a drink! East of Suez,⁹ Trombone-Macaulay (as I may surely say, when Browning writes Banjo- Byron¹⁰) tells us, a man may raise a Thirst. No, shrieks the Blessed One, the Perfected One, the Enlightened One, do not drink! It is like the streets of Paris when they were placarded with rival posters --

Ne buvez pas de l'Alcool!

L'Alcool est un poison!
and

Buvez de l'Alcool!

L'Alcool est un aliment!

We know now that alcohol is a food up to a certain amount; the precept, good enough for a rough rule as it stands, will not bear close inspection. What Buddha really commands, with that grim humour of his, is: Avoid Intoxication.

But what is intoxication, unless it be the loss of power to use perfectly a truth-telling set of faculties? If I walk unsteadily it is owing to nervous lies -- and so for all the phenomena of drunkenness. But a lie involves the assumption of some true standard, and this can nowhere be found. A doctor would tell you, moreover, that all food intoxicates; all, here as in all the universe, of every subject and in every predicate, is a matter of degree.

Our faculties never tell us true; our eyes say flat when our fingers say round; our tongue sends a set of impressions to our brain which our hearing declares non-existent -- and so on.

What is this delusion of personality but a profound and centrally-seated intoxication of the consciousness? I am intoxicated as I address these words; you are drunk -- beastly drunk! -- as you read them; Buddha was as drunk as a British officer when he uttered his besotted command. There, my dear children, is the conclusion to which we are brought if you insist that he was serious!

I answer No! Alone among men then living, the Buddha was sober, and saw Truth. He, who was freed from the coils of the great serpent Theli coiled round the universe, he knew how deep the slaver of that snake had entered into us, infecting us, rotting our very bones with poisonous drunkenness. And so his cutting irony -- drink no intoxicating drinks!

--------------

When I go to take Pansil,¹¹ it is in no spirit of servile morality; it is with keen sorrow gnawing at my heart. These five causes of sorrow are indeed the heads of the serpent of Desire. Four at least of them snap their fangs on me in and by virtue of my very act of receiving the commands, and of promising to obey them; if there is a little difficulty about the fifth, it is an omission easily rectified -- and I think we should all make a point about that; there is great virtue in completeness.

Yes! Do not believe that the Buddha was a fool; that he asked men to perform the impossible or the unwise.¹² Do not believe that the sorrow of existence is so trivial that easy rules easily interpreted (as all Buddhists do interpret the Precepts) can avail against them; do not mop up the Ganges with a duster; nor stop the revolution of the stars with a lever of lath.

Awake, awake only! Let there be ever remembrance that Existence is sorrow, sorrow by the inherent necessity of the way it is made; sorrow not by volition, not by malice, not by carelessness, but by nature, by ineradicable tendency, by the incurable disease of Desire, its Creator, is it so, and the way to destroy it is by the uprooting of Desire; nor is a task so formidable accomplished by any threepenny-bit-in-the-plate-on-Sunday morality, the "deceive others and self-deception will take care of itself" uprightness, but by the severe roads of austere self-mastery, of arduous scientific research, which constitute the Noble Eightfold Path.

Notes
1. "Lycidas", line 130.
2. The school whose Buddhism is derived from the Canon, and who ignore the

degradation of the professors of the religion, as seen in practice.
3. The obvious caveat which logicians will enter against these remarks is that

Pansil is the Five Virtues rather than Precepts. Etymologically this is so.

However, we may regard this as a clause on my side of the argument,

not against it; for in my view these are virtues, and the impossibility of

attaining them is the cancer of existence. Indeed, I support the etymology

as against the futile bigotry of certain senile Buddhists of today. And,

since it is the current interpretation of Buddhistic thought that I attack,

I but show myself the better Buddhist in the act. -- A.C.
4. A catch word for the stomach, from J. M. Barrie's play Little Mary.
5. Fielding, in The Soul of a People, has reluctantly to confess that he can find

no trace of this idea in Buddha's own work, and calls the superstition the

"echo of an older Faith." -- A.C.
6. The argument that the "animals are our brothers" is merely intended to mislead

one who had never been in a Buddhist country. The average Buddhist would,

of course, kill his brother for five rupees, or less. -- A.C.
7. Membrum virile illius in membrana inclusum esse aiunt, ne copulare posset.

["His virile member having been obstructed by a membrane, it is said he

was unable to copulate." -- trans. ED.]
8. Quoted [in Crowley's essay] "Science and Buddhism," note.
9. "Ship me somewhere East of Suez, where a man can raise a thirst." -- R. KIPLING
10. "While as for Quilp Hop o' my Thumb there, Banjo-Byron that twangs the

strum-strum there." -- BROWNING, Pachiarotto (said of A. Austin).
11. To "take Pansil" is to vow obedience to these Precepts.
12. I do not propose to dilate on the moral truth which Ibsen has so long laboured to

make clear: that no hard and fast rule of life can be universally applicable.

Also, as in the famous case of the lady who saved (successively) the lives of

her husband, her father, and her brother, the precepts clash. To allow to die

is to kill -- all this is obvious to the most ordinary thinkers. These precepts

are of course excellent general guides for the vulgar and ignorant, but you and

I, dear reader, are wise and clever, and know better. Nichtwar?

Excuse my being so buried in "dear Immanuel Kant" (as my friend Miss

Br*c* -- a fast woman who posed as a bluestocking -- would say) that this biting

and pregnant phrase slipped out unaware. As a rule, of course, I hate the

introduction of foreign tongues into an English essay. -- A.C.

Previous Crowley Classics Next Crowley Classics

from the Grady Project:

Identification

(to be used in my own ritual)

I am the Hymenaeus Alpha

My number is 777

I am the Bridge that is Between the Worlds

I man the Watchtowers of the Universe

      That light the Way

O'er the shores of the Abyss of Night.

      I am as Cold as a Cave of Ice

And as Dry as a Candle

I take the Work

The task I dare

As I enflame myself with prayer

      The Bull that lows

      The Lion's roar

      Are for the Saints

      Who go before

      The Eagle's scream

      The Serpent's hiss

      Are for the Babe

      In the Abyss

I am the King

The King must die

That He may live

Beyond the "I"

My Heart's life blood

I offer up

To Babalon

To fill her Cup

I give my Life

I give my Art

I hold not back

One speck of dust

I give my -----

I give my all

I am the Grail Knight,

Parzival!

-- Grady L. McMurtry

[undated; circa 1980s e.v.]

(previously published in Ecclesia Gnostica #4, 1985 e.v.)

Previous Grady Project Next Grady Project

From the Outbasket

As a "People of the Book," Thelemites are naturally a bit irritable when it comes to book- thieves. Knowledge is free by inherent human right, save only when it infringes upon privacy or is unavailable at the present stage of development of the individual. Legitimate secrets are therefore proper only in matters of privacy, matters of pure form (Words, Grips, Signs, etc.) and in instances where ground work is needed to prepare the receiver for the information. There are any number of ways in which others may attempt to thwart the right to knowledge. To fail to admit ignorance on being asked a question, to deliberately deceive, to fail to admonish the need for preparation, even to say what is plain truth to one but misleading to others, -- all these and many other effronteries frustrate the seeker. One particular way, however, is more odious than a lie. Have you ever reached for that familiar place on the shelves where you last set down a book, only to discover it missing? It was there. No one asked to borrow it. Where did it go? Perhaps the book is needed for an obscure point of reference. Perhaps it is needed to answer someone's question, to loan to a student, even to be used to prepare a new publication. Gradually the realization dawns, after much search, Stolen! Not misplaced. Not lost. Stolen!

It matters little if a book is taken from a store shelf, from a library or from the guarded box of one person. The latter happened some months ago to a Brother on the East Coast of the USA. If from a store, no one can buy the book, read it, share it and contribute the price to the publication of another. If from a library, the theft is directly from all who frequent the library. In this case, from one individual, personal treasures were lost which had been made available to many others at a Camp of the Order. The sophistry of the thief apparently went along these lines: "A higher initiate told me to do it (whether a human being or an hallucination is not clear)." More often such a thief simply disregards duty and honor with a slave thought against rights of property or a self-centered caveat of right. Is such a miscreant lost to Choronzon? Not necessarily. As far as O.T.O. is concerned, the reaction will tend to be: "Don't call again." As far as karma is concerned (dharma is most unlikely to be the state of such), the balance on the wheel is a compensating life of ignorance crowned by a dusky blot of stupidity.

Here are some words by Crowley on a related subject: From Magick without Tears, Ist edition, pages 223 - 224

"Suppose that by what is hardly fraud, but 'undue influence' (as the lawyers say) I could persuade a dying person to leave me a couple of hundred thousand in his will. I shall use every penny of it for the Great Work; it sounds easy! 'Of course! Damn you integrity! Damn you! The Work is all that matters.'"
"All the same, I say NO. I should never be the same man again. I should have lost that confidence in myself which is the spine of my work. No need that the fraud should be discovered openly: it would appear in all my subsequent work, a subtle contamination."
"But suppose that it were not the matter of gulling a moribund half-wit; suppose that the price was a straightforward honest-to-God Bank Robbery under arms on the highway, should I hesitate then? Here I should risk my head, and the dice are loaded against me; nor does the deed imply 'moral turpitude.' Stalin's associates regarded him as a martyred hero when the law of the country, less cogent that Thelema, sat heavily on his devoted head."
"It would really be a little difficult; my rough-and-tumble life was the best possible training for such desperate adventures, so that Nephesch could not enter a protest. As to Neschamah, we nearly all of us (Thank God!) have a secret sympathy, with the nobler type of criminal, whence the universal appeal of Arsène Lupin, Black Star, Raffles and Stingaree. When they can make some show of justice-on-their-side, it is easier still: Scarlet Pimpernel and his tribe. We are now almost within the marches of those heroes of romance that enchanted our adolescence: Hereward the Wake, Robin Hood, Bonnie Prince Charlie. And there are, on the other hand, few of us who do not secretly gloat over the discomfiture of 'Money-Bags.'"
"My retort, however, is convincing and final. Robbery in any shape is a breach of the Law of Thelema. It is interference with the right of another to dispose of his property as he will; and if I did so myself, no matter with what tactical justification, I could hardly ask others to respect my own similar right."
"(The basis of our criminal law is simple, by virtue of Thelema: to violate the right of another is to forfeit one's claim to protection in the matter involved.)"

-- TSG (Bill Heidrick)

Previous Outbasket Next Outbasket

FROM THE HISTORY HEAP

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law -- Liber AL vel Legis I:40

July 1, 1942
Aleister Crowley's tarot cards which were painted by Frieda Harris are shown in the Berkeley Galleries to the public on this date.

July 2, 1881
President Garfield is shot on this date by an ex-Oneida Community member Charles Guiteau. Who after sexual intercourse with the spirit Lordy was commanded to kill the President. "Get acquainted with the science of Spiritology", he stated at his interrogation.

July 3, 1900
While attending St.John's College, Oxford it has been written that, 'After the college gates were closed at midnight' Raoul Loveday 'regularly climbed in and out' and 'His feats of climbing the Martyrs' Memorial and cementing an enamel chamber-pot to the top won him a romantic fame throughout the university.' He was born on this date but unfortunately was best remembered for following Crowley to Cefalu where fate awaits him in the form of death!

July 5, 1924
G.I.Gurdjieff has been described "... as an insane driver who would not last two minutes on a modern road" and who Fritz Peters tells often drove too fast on the wrong side of the road. Often he would miss his turn and refusing ever to go back he would look for a new route on his map. One such route brought him head on into a tree outside Paris on this date which was near fatal!

July 6, 1187
Saladin marches the captive Templars before him to give them the choice of conversion or death ... all decided upon death & are killed to the last man.

July 8, 1916
Aleister Crowley & Hilarion (Jane Foster) attempt to create a 'Magical Child' as heir of his magical current. The Child would take the form of Frater Achad.

July 10, 1910
Austin Osman Spare joins the A A, assuming the magical motto Frater YIHOVEAUM, or I AM-Aum as a Probationer, 0= 0 .

July 13, 1527
The Elizabethan scholar, Dr. John Dee who was born on this date is said to have translated the Necronomicon¹ of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred into English. It is one of these copies that Wilbur Whateley would use to call forth the Old Ones in Dunwich at his family's estate.

July 12, 1985
The beloved O.H.O. of the Ordo Templi Orientis, Frater Hymenaeus Alpha, 777, aka. Grady Louis McMurtry sheds his earthly vehicle and dies in California after a long illness.

July 19, 1692
Five more women are executed in Salem for being witches.

July 20, 1955
Kenneth Grant sends Karl Germer his new Manifesto along with a letter which explains that for the preservation of secrecy it was not possible for Germer, the OHO of the Ordo Templi Orientis, to see copies of the 'new' OTO rites as written by himself! In reply, Germer sends a registered letter on this date to Mr. Grant, expelling him.

July 28, 1904
Nuit Ma Ahathoor Hecate Sappho Jezebel Lilith is born to Aleister Crowley and his wife Rose. Duncombe Jewell remarked later that she had died of acute nomenclature.

July 27, 1873
Dr. William Moriarty, the real figure Dion Fortune based Dr. Taverner upon, is born in Dublin, although it has been written that 'Moriarty was not an MD. He was not even a PhD. He just fibbed a little'.

July 29, 1875
Paschel Beverly Randolph, who started a Rosicrucian fraternity in California in 1861, shot himself through the head and died on this date. His followers claimed that the curses and black magic of H.P.Blavatsky had finally taken their toll.

Love is the law, love under will. -- Liber AL vel Legis I:57

Cornelius/Herndon.

Note:
1. A fictitious title for a magical work used by Lovecraft in his stories. It was probably inspired by the PICATRIX. All published versions of the "Necronomicon" are fake, but some contain useful material. -- ED.

Previous History Heap Next History Heap

Thelema Lodge Events Calendar for July 1991 e.v.

7/1/91	"Beastly Prose" with Caitlin 8PM	Thelema Ldg
7/6/91	Jerry's Logorrhea (call for Pl&Tm)	Thelema Ldg.
7/7/91	Jurgen-Mass 8:30 PM	Thelema Ldg.
7/11/91	Magick in Theory and Practice Study Circle with Marlene 8PM	Thelema Ldg.
7/13/91	Jerry's Logorrhea Call Lodge for time and Place	Thelema Ldg.
7/13/91	Initiations (call for details)	Thelema Ldg.
7/14/91	Lodge clean-up all afternoon	Thelema Ldg.
7/14/91	Gnostic Mass 8:30PM	Thelema Ldg.
7/17/91	Tarot class #10 with Bill 8PM	Thelema Ldg.
7/18/91	Lodge of Perfection	LoP
7/21/91	Mass workshop 4:18 PM	Thelema Ldg.
7/21/91	Gnostic Mass 8:30PM	Thelema Ldg.
7/22/91	Lodge Meeting 8 PM	Thelema Ldg.
7/23/91	Initiations (call to attend)	Thelema Ldg.
7/23/91	Secret Meeting	Thelema Ldg.
7/24/91	Minerval Degree class 8PM	Thelema Ldg.
7/25/91	Magick in Theory and Practice Study Circle with Marlene 8PM	Thelema Ldg.
7/27/91	Jerry's Logorrhea Call Lodge for time and Place	Thelema Ldg.
7/28/91	Leo Birthday Party 4:18 PM	Thelema Ldg.
7/28/91	Gnostic Mass 8:30 PM	Thelema Ldg.
7/29/91	Gentlemen's "O" 5:30 PM	Thelema Ldg.
7/30/91	Magick Theater reads Aleister Crowley's The Gods. 7:30 PM (call for location).	Magick Thea.
7/31/91	Rites of Eleusis Organization meeting 8PM	Thelema Ldg.

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)

	I am the Hymenaeus Alpha
	My number is 777
	I am the Bridge that is Between the Worlds
	I man the Watchtowers of the Universe
	That light the Way
	O'er the shores of the Abyss of Night.
	I am as Cold as a Cave of Ice
	And as Dry as a Candle
	I take the Work
	The task I dare
	As I enflame myself with prayer
	The Bull that lows
	The Lion's roar
	Are for the Saints
	Who go before
	The Eagle's scream
	The Serpent's hiss
	Are for the Babe
	In the Abyss
	I am the King
	The King must die
	That He may live
	Beyond the "I"
	My Heart's life blood
	I offer up
	To Babalon
	To fill her Cup
	I give my Life
	I give my Art
	I hold not back
	One speck of dust
	I give my -----
	I give my all
	I am the Grail Knight,
	Parzival!
	-- Grady L. McMurtry
	[undated; circa 1980s e.v.]

July 1, 1942	Aleister Crowley's tarot cards which were painted by Frieda Harris are shown in the Berkeley Galleries to the public on this date.
July 2, 1881	President Garfield is shot on this date by an ex-Oneida Community member Charles Guiteau. Who after sexual intercourse with the spirit Lordy was commanded to kill the President. "Get acquainted with the science of Spiritology", he stated at his interrogation.
July 3, 1900	While attending St.John's College, Oxford it has been written that, 'After the college gates were closed at midnight' Raoul Loveday 'regularly climbed in and out' and 'His feats of climbing the Martyrs' Memorial and cementing an enamel chamber-pot to the top won him a romantic fame throughout the university.' He was born on this date but unfortunately was best remembered for following Crowley to Cefalu where fate awaits him in the form of death!
July 5, 1924	G.I.Gurdjieff has been described "... as an insane driver who would not last two minutes on a modern road" and who Fritz Peters tells often drove too fast on the wrong side of the road. Often he would miss his turn and refusing ever to go back he would look for a new route on his map. One such route brought him head on into a tree outside Paris on this date which was near fatal!
July 6, 1187	Saladin marches the captive Templars before him to give them the choice of conversion or death ... all decided upon death & are killed to the last man.
July 8, 1916	Aleister Crowley & Hilarion (Jane Foster) attempt to create a 'Magical Child' as heir of his magical current. The Child would take the form of Frater Achad.
July 10, 1910	Austin Osman Spare joins the A A, assuming the magical motto Frater YIHOVEAUM, or I AM-Aum as a Probationer, 0= 0 .
July 13, 1527	The Elizabethan scholar, Dr. John Dee who was born on this date is said to have translated the Necronomicon¹ of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred into English. It is one of these copies that Wilbur Whateley would use to call forth the Old Ones in Dunwich at his family's estate.
July 12, 1985	The beloved O.H.O. of the Ordo Templi Orientis, Frater Hymenaeus Alpha, 777, aka. Grady Louis McMurtry sheds his earthly vehicle and dies in California after a long illness.
July 19, 1692	Five more women are executed in Salem for being witches.
July 20, 1955	Kenneth Grant sends Karl Germer his new Manifesto along with a letter which explains that for the preservation of secrecy it was not possible for Germer, the OHO of the Ordo Templi Orientis, to see copies of the 'new' OTO rites as written by himself! In reply, Germer sends a registered letter on this date to Mr. Grant, expelling him.
July 28, 1904	Nuit Ma Ahathoor Hecate Sappho Jezebel Lilith is born to Aleister Crowley and his wife Rose. Duncombe Jewell remarked later that she had died of acute nomenclature.
July 27, 1873	Dr. William Moriarty, the real figure Dion Fortune based Dr. Taverner upon, is born in Dublin, although it has been written that 'Moriarty was not an MD. He was not even a PhD. He just fibbed a little'.
July 29, 1875	Paschel Beverly Randolph, who started a Rosicrucian fraternity in California in 1861, shot himself through the head and died on this date. His followers claimed that the curses and black magic of H.P.Blavatsky had finally taken their toll.