Adam soon returned victorious from
his raid, and was very glad to lay his
fur aside, and seek the embraces of his
consort. Any doubts he might have had
were soon removed by Eve whose mass of
tawny hair soon hung over his thighs,
while her little red mouth proceeded to
excite him to the proper degree of
rigidity. It was soon obtained, and she
quickly changed her position to bestride
him, while her hand guided him to the
proper orifice. The dance began. Eve
wriggled her fat bottom about as hard as
she could, and Adam assisted as far as
his constrained position would allow.
The critical moment arrived and a deluge
of warm liquids mingled to flood the
surrounding parts. But Eve would not
let him withdraw as yet. And at this
moment Adam gave vent to a cry of pain.
"I'm bitten," he said. "That horrible
Palaeopulex," said Eve. "No, it's in
you! It's pushing me out! Get up!"
And Eve jumped up alarmed to find Satan
quietly emerging from his citadel. Adam
jumped for a club. But by the time he
arrived a change had arisen. The old
snake-skin dropped and Satan stood in
his own shape, a radiant spirit. "You
bit me," said Adam, embarrassed. "For your own good! God doomed you to death.
My bite has filled your blood with a
poison that will take away Death's
terrors, that will make him welcome
even!" "What is this poison called?"
said Eve. And Satan replied "Syphilis!"
As he went away he laughed. God did not
like to hear him.
Previous Crowley Classics Next Crowley Classics
From the Outbasket
In reading Crowley, the question
often arises: Where is he getting this
stuff? Whether the work is noir humor
like that above or a deeply insightful
and rather opaque religious writing,
Crowley's sources and influences are
often a mystery. The A
A reading list
in Magick in Theory and Practice is a
logical place to start, but no
distinction is made there between works
that influenced Crowley and works he
recommended as also embodying a view he
had held for some time. In this short
space, or in a major book for that
matter, it is impossible to cover many
of Crowley's sources. Some often over-
looked sources will be noted.
Before going further, an important
point needs to be made. Thelema is not
Crowley. Crowley is not Thelema. Some
of our readers may have a sole interest
in the purely literary side of Crowley's
writings, but many share the Thelemic
Religion. For the latter, some of what
follows may seem to skirt blasphemy. I
offer the following contention:
Whatever is sacred in Liber AL
specifically or in Thelema generally is
independent of Crowley the man. The
earlier influences on Crowley or earlier
appearances of the same words and ideas
elsewhere are not in any way relevant to
the sacredness of the text. Why was
Crowley chosen to be the prophet of
Thelema? A simple answer, he was
prepared. Crowley was prepared by
exposure to the words, ideas and
language necessary to receive Liber AL,
just as were the prophets of past time
prepared to receive their messages. It 
doesn't matter that Crowley probably
picked up "Aiwass" from unconscious
integration of the shapes of the letters
of a Greek word in Eliphas Levi's Key of
the Mysteries (plate called "Great
Pentacle from the Vision of St. John",Eq, I, 10, Sup. p. 74) or that "Thelema"
as a religion and an Abbey comes from
Rablais' 16th century satire on
monasticism. Neither does it matter
that most of Crowley's ideas about
society, morals and the nature of such
beings as the "Secret Chiefs" stem first
from his Quaker childhood and later from
similar views encountered in his youth.
Anyone who has experienced the Knowledge
and Conversation of the Holy Guardian
Angel knows that the experience avails
itself of the states of mind and
circumstance present in the person at
the time. If whole passages in Liber AL
can be found to be paraphrases or
quotations from other sources, what does
it matter? It is the melody that makes
the music, and the instrument will
always dominate on one level. Crowley,
his antecedents and his experiences
formed the instrument for the
manifestation and revelation of Thelema.
If we can separate the harmonics from
the notes, we can but better approach
the essence of the song. Enough, here
are a few notes on Crowley's sources:
Childhood -- see Confessions, Gospel
according to St. Bernard Shaw, World's
Tragedy & High History of Sir Palamedes
for a model on his father and the early
influence of education and Plymouth
Brethren. Also for the source of his
social errors and business incompetence.
Later childhood and adolescence provided
his sexual orientation and literary bent
at Cambridge. Frazier's Golden Bough
merely fleshed out ideas from Levi.
Alan Bennett -- introduced Crowley to
the ideas of eastern philosophy. These
furnished Crowley with his mystical
training, terminology, and mental
techniques. The Golden Dawn provided
Crowley with the model of his
organization of attainment. Masonry the
model of society and the forms of
ceremonial for groups.
Theosophy furnished idealism and melded with the
Quaker ideas of masters and elect.
Reuss gave the justification for magical
sexuality. Eckenstein taught the
concept of discipline. Von
Eckartshausen gave Crowley the idea of
an invisible order, while Waite
introduced Things that go BUMP in the
Night.
Music Halls & the Ingoldsby Legends --
Crowley's humor and satire, also his
negligent racism.
Tao Teh King -- source of many of
Crowley's social theories and higher
philosophy.
What single book influenced Crowley
the most? As far as his mystical
writings, magical theories, health ideas
and political dreams, the answer can
only be Eliphas Levi's The Key of the
Mysteries. Many of Crowley's ideas in
these areas can be found in seed at
least in Levi. Here are a few examples.
The page citations are from Crowley's
translation in the supplement to EQUINOX
I, 10 -- by the way, all the Equinox
volume I is now available in ASCII
format on diskette from OTO, P.O.Box
430, Fairfax, CA 94978 USA. {Note to Web edition: These are no longer available on diskette, but may be obtained either by email attachment or from many web sites.}
Liber OZ is developed from p.35 in
EQ-I-10.
Page 234 "HUMAN life and its
innumerable difficulties have for
object, in the ordination of eternal
wisdom, the education of the will of
man."
"The dignity of man consists in doing
what he will, and in willing the good,
in conformity with the knowledge of
truth."
Page 213: "...one of those
traditional secrets with regard to which
silence is necessary, and which it is
sufficient to indicate to those who
know, leaving always a veil upon the
truth for the ignorant."
An appropriate exercise would be to
seek a passage in Levi for every idea in
LIBER AL, viz: "Nothing resists the will
of man, when he knows the truth, and
wills the good." KM, p. 235 for "... do
thy will. Do that, and no other shall
say nay." AL I,42-43
A quote to take for Crowley's Opus:
Levi KM p. 241: "When a new word comes
into the world, it needs swaddling
clothes and bandages; genius brought it
forth, but it is for experience to
nourish it. Do not fear that it will
die of neglect! Oblivion is for it a
favorable time of rest, and
contradictions help it to grow."
Crowley's unexamined belief in
Natural Law has its origin in his times,
but it also can be drawn from Levi: "Q.
What is infinite reason?" "A. It is
that supreme reason of being that faith calls God." (p. 102) -- This is the
characteristic phrase of the philosophy
of 18th century enlightenment: "God is
Reason" -- also the characteristic
error. 19th century philosophy
continued this into Determinism and the
now discredited concept of "Natural
Law".
Levi's idea of the "magnetic fluid"
derived from the efforts of Newton,
Mesmer and others to quantify the astral
body. 18th and 19th century efforts to
measure ectoplasm, oddic force, etc. and
to physically measure an essence of life
have persisted to the verge of the 21st
century in a strange pseudo-science. At
least in the 18th and 19th centuries
there was the idea of the luminous
Aethyer as a partial justification for
this sort of thing. Now it is generally
considered a curiosity dependent on
subjective measurement without the
objective external instrumentation
required by hard science. This concept
has led to a vast array of quack medical
theories and the loss of otherwise
promising philosophies. Bulwar Lytton
used the idea; W. Reich was imprisoned
for trying to cure with it. Crowley
lost much time over it in his later
years in trying to market his Amrita
derivations. The future may disclose
some substance here, but it tends to
"confusion of the planes" more often
than not.
Page 105: "Q. Are these experiences
articles of faith?" "A. No, they
pertain to science." -- Although this is
not essential to Thelema, Crowley's
dependence on it is interesting. "The
Method of Science. The Aim of
Religion." -- A valid perspective, but
not without potential for
misapplication. This, more than
anything else, is the influence of Levi
on Crowley's philosophy. Accidents of
emphasis in Levi's works often became
seeds for avenues of research in
Crowley's effort.
Levi gives many anecdotes in this
work. p. 119: "...an Englishman
otherwise quite sane, who thought that
he had met a stranger and made his
acquaintance, who took him to lunch at
his tavern, and then having asked him to
visit St. Paul's in his company, had
tried to throw him from the top of the
tower which they had climbed together."
Crowley elaborated quite a few of these
into short stories.
P. 257: "To brave God and to insult
Him, is a final act of faith." -- See
Crowley's "John St. John".
P. 260: "While love is nothing but a
desire and an enjoyment, it is mortal.
In order to make itself eternal it must
become a sacrifice, for then it becomes
a power and a virtue." -- See Crowley
in Magick in Theory and Practice,
chapter 12.
Levi appears to have turned Crowley's
interest toward Poe and Wm. Blake, as
well as many other authors.
Even the Golden Dawn seems to have
taken more from Levi than a twist to his
Tarot attributions and the sketch for
the Lesser Pentagram Ritual. Consider
KM p. 195: "In old times, chess-players
sought upon their chess-board the
solution of philosophical and religious
problems, and argued silently with each
other in manovuering the hieroglyphic
characters across the numbers." -- can
this be the remark that sparked creation
of Enochian Chess?
A word of caution. In reading Levi,
a strong stomach is one of the
requisites. The book is filled with
Christian remarks. It is not always
possible to get through this veil on a
first or even a third reading. Persist.
Write in the margin. The hard part is
getting past the pseudo-logic and
Christian propaganda.
-- 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
| February 2, 1913 | He used the imperfect translation made by John Dee of the Necronomicon bequeathed to him by his grandfather to call down the 'Old Ones', he was Wilbur Whateley, born on this date in Dunwich.
|
| February 8, 1810 | The man born on this date once wrote, 'that if a man breathes in a certain way upon the back of a woman she will automatically surrender to his will.' He is also reported as being one of Aleister Crowley's previous incarnations. His name, Eliphas Levi.
|
| February 8, 1855 | Snow had blanketed the ground during the night around the peaceful village of Topsham, England, but when the town awoke they found themselves confronted by a strange visitor. During the night something walked for miles around the village and although it walked upright like a man, left hoof prints in snow! Rumors
spread that the devil had visited Devonshire!
|
| February 11, 1891 | The woman born on this date, Sascha Germer was responsible for strewing Aleister Crowley's ashes into the mud at the base of a tree in Hampton, New Jersey.
|
| February 12, 1964 | It is said that Aleister Crowley had been paid a suitably large fee from Gerald Gardner who died on this date, to compose rituals that could be used in his new Gardnerian witchcraft.
|
| February 14, 1856 | Frank Harris who was born on this date, wrote that Aleister Crowley upon leaving America bound for England in 1919 'left a string of worthless cheques' behind, although he should have written that the way of a mystic is often hard to understand.
|
| February 16, 1923 | Raoul Loveday, Frater AUD, aka ADONIS dies at the Abbey of Cefalu. Three days earlier Crowley recorded in his Magical Record that he felt a current of magical force, 'heavy black and silent' threatening the Abbey.
|
| February 17, 1600 | Giordano Bruno refusing to retract any of his philosophical opinions before the Inquisition of Rome was finally condemned as 'an impenitent and pertinacious heretic' and was publicly burned at the stake on this date in a place called Campo dei Fiori (Square of Flowers), Rome.
|
| February 23, 1680 | La Voisin the 'Satanic High Priestess' is burned at the stake after confessing that she obtained over 2500 children during her life to be used as human sacrifices to 'satan'.
|
| February 27, 1784 | Although many of his followers claim this man to be still alive since he knew the secrets of the Elixir of Life, the truth is that Comte de St. Germain died in Hesse, Germany on this date.
|
| February 27, 1861 | Rudolf Steiner was born on this date in Kralijevec, Hungary.
|
| February 28, 1946 | On this date a great goddess appeared to Jack Parsons claiming, "yea, it is I Babalon, and this is my book..." of which she began dictating. Thus came forth 'The Book of Babalon'.
|
| February 29, 1880 | Aleister Crowley's sister Grace Mary Elizabeth Crowley died on this date leaving young Aleister an only child.
|
Love is the law, love under will. -- Liber AL vel Legis I:57
Cornelius/Herndon.
Previous History Heap Next History Heap
Events Calendar for February 1992 e.v.
| 2/1/92 | | Cthulhu Culture Club 6:30 PM w/Jerry | | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/1/92 | Council/LOP 3:33 PM | LOP |
| 2/2/92 | Brigit Ritual 4:18 PM | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/2/92 | Gnostic Mass 7:30 PM | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/3/92 | Thelema Lodge Meeting 8PM | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/3/92 | New Moon ritual | |
| 2/4/92 | Chinese New Year (Monkey, Anno 4690) | |
| 2/9/92 | Gnostic Mass 7:30 PM | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/10/92 | Ladies' T 5:30PM | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/12/92 | "Magick without Aleister" with
Fr. Majnun 8 PM | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/13/92 | Magick in Theory and Practice
Study Circle with Marlene 7PM | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/14/92 | Valentine's Day | |
| 2/15/92 | Initiations (call to attend) | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/16/92 | E.G.C. meeting & mass wkshp 4:18PM | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/16/92 | Gnostic Mass 7:30 PM | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/17/92 | Greater Feast of St. Giordano Bruno
party & reading at Lola's 8PM | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/18/92 | "Mars, Plenet of Hours" 8PM
class with Drax | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/19/92 | "Liber Samekh" class with Bill 8PM | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/23/92 | Lodge Clean-up 1:11 PM | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/23/92 | Pisces Birthday 4:18 PM | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/23/92 | Gnostic Mass 7:30 PM | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/26/92 | Magick Theater reads Crowley:
The Scorpion 7:30 PM | Magick Thea. |
| 2/27/92 | Magick in Theory and Practice
Study Circle with Marlene 7PM | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/29/91 | "Jerry's Leap-Year Logorrhea" 6:30PM
Call to attend. | 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)
The 392nd anniversary of the Greater Feast of Giordano Bruno will be the occasion of a
small gathering on Monday evening 17 February at 8:00 at Lola's, with a commemorative reading
and hot dog roast.
The best way to locate the North Star is to find the bright Big Dipper. This star-
grouping is so near the north celestial pivot that it is visible all year long (during some
part of the night) in these latitudes. One should find the two stars that make up the side
of the dipper, or cup, that the handle is not attached to, and follow the straight line
through them out of the dipper, until you come to the first and only reasonably bright star.
This is Polaris, at the beginning of the handle of the Little Dipper, or the Lesser Bear-Ursa
Minor. With the exception of Polaris, the seven stars making up Ursa Minor are quite dim and
difficult to make out at all in the city limits.
