Announcements from
Lodge Members and Officers

    On Sunday March 21st at 4:18pm Thelema Lodge will be celebrating the Equinox of the Gods and all are welcomed to attend this glorious event. Achad Osher 583 VIII° will be doing excerpts from the Ritual of Beth which was originally performed by Aleister Crowley & his wife Rose while in the Great Pyramid in 1904. This ritual has only recently surfaced. James T.Graeb will follow with the 'Evocations to Horus' which was also performed by Crowley on March 20th 1904. After a brief break everyone will be hosted with a reading of Aleister Crowley's dramatic play 'The God-Eater' and, as if this is not enough, we will be holding a 'Feast for the Equinox of the Gods' around 7:06pm! It's going to be a great day ... the Gods should be pleased!

from the Grady Project:

Previously published in Ecclesia Gnostica I:2 (Winter, 1985e.v. with the author's dedication "for: Julie Weber and her Magick Theater", in McMurtry: Poems (London & Bergen: O.T.O., 1986 e.v.), and in The Grady Project #3, (March 1988 e.v.).

    In the sign of silence imagine yourself to be standing on the Equator and facing East.

Part One
    Stretch arms outward and upward then bring down both hands to touch the forehead with the fingertips and visualise the Ajna chakra saying "Unity uttermost showed,". Then more both hands downward to touch the throat with the fingertips, visualise the Vishuddi chakra and say "I adore the might of thy breath," and so on, visualising Anahata and saying "Supreme and terrible god," Manipura "That makest the gods and death," Svadisthana "To tremble before thee," Muladhara "I, I adore thee." Thus is formed the vertical arm of the cross of light.
    To form the horizontal arm draw both hands upward from the Muladhara and stop at the Anahata, touching the chest with the fingertips of both hands and say "Appear on the throne of Ra." Now the hands separate for the first time -- tracing a line along the chest, each finger to its respective nipple say "Open the ways of the Kha." Tracing the line back to the centre say "Lighten the ways of the Kha." Now stretch the arms out fully so the body resembles a T or a cross and say "The ways of the Khabs run through me, to stir me or to still me." Then drop the hands to the side of the body and say "Aum. Let it fill me."

Part Two
    Do an anticlockwise spiral to the left imagining yourself to be well into the Northern Hemisphere and stop when you are facing East again. With your right hand trace a pentagram of yellow and vibrate THERION. Turning to the right and following the course of the sun with your hand trace a pentagram of red where the noonday sun would be/is and vibrate HADIT. Still turning and following the sun trace a pentagram of blue in the west and vibrate BABALON. Continuing, trace a pentagram of black where the midnight sun would be/is and vibrate NUIT. Turn once more so you are facing the East and a circle is drawn. Retrace your spiral by walking backward until you are facing East and back on the Equator.

Part Three
    Do a clockwise spiral into the Southern Hemisphere and stop when you are facing East. With your left hand trace a pentagram of yellow on the eastern Horizon and vibrate THERION. Following the course of the sun as before, turn to the left and at the midcourse of the sun trace a pentagram of red and vibrate HADIT. In the west trace a pentagram of blue and vibrate BABALON, and facing south trace a pentagram of black at the midnight of the sun and vibrate NUIT. Complete the circle by turning left once more. Now retrace this spiral until you are back at the equator and facing East.

Part Four
    With your hands by your sides say "The light is mine, its rays consume me, I have made a secret door, into the house of Ra and Tum, of Kephra and of Ahathoor."
    Extending the arms and legs so the body resembles a pentagram say "My number is eleven as all their numbers who are of us. The five pointed star with the circle in the middle and the circle is red."

Part Five
    Repeat Part One.

    This author whose chaotic life gave him the experience to write what some have regarded as some of the best literary masterpieces of the twentieth century. His life of alcoholism is both hilarious and extremely heartbreaking. Most of his adult life he wandered around America and Europe in a constant struggle to find himself and to write. He is best known for his book entitled Under the Volcano published in 1947. This is a long version of a short story by the same name which he wrote ten years earlier. He was born in 1909 and died at the age of 47, the headlines of the morning paper simply read "She Broke Gin Bottle, Found Husband Dead', a fitting epitaph.
    When Malcolm Lowry met the woman who was to become his second wife in 1939 they moved north and would finally settle in a small squatter settlement called 'Dollarton' just north, of Vancouver, Canada. Although he never personally knew Aleister Crowley it was at "Dollarton Lowry fell under the influence of Charles Stansfeld-Jones, a former member of Aleister Crowley's 'Hermetic Students of the Golden Dawn'."¹
    It appears that one day " ... they received a visit from a tall stranger: a tall, cadaverous Welshman who introduced himself as Charles Stansfeld-Jones. He had come, he announced, as a census-taker for voter registration. Lowry invited him in for tea, during which Stansfeld-Jones remarked that census-taking was not his real vocation. He was really Frater Achad, an adept in the Cabbala, a former member of the Hermetic Students of the Golden Dawn, the mystical child of the infamous Aleister Crowley, with whom he had for a time edited Equinox magazine, founder of a group of Chicagoans who called themselves the Colegium ad Spiritum Sanctum, and author of two privately printed Cabalistic texts, The Bride's Reception and The Anatomy of the Body of God. Lowry was dazzled: here was precisely the person he needed, just when he was needed most."² What an intro!
    The two became good friends with Frater Achad taking Lowry on as his student and teaching him everything he knew about the Qabalah. "Soon Lowry had become fascinated by black magic and the occult"³ Although after a while he became plagued by unfortunate disasters of fire, with his own house burning to the ground and later his neighbors, Lowry "began to believe that his playing about with the occult in Stansfeld-Jones house had put him in bad repute with certain demonic forces; and that it was his destiny to be pursued by the element of fire"⁴, but they remained friends.
    For those who wonder just how much of Frater Achad's teachings filtered through into Lowry's works you should read, The Private Labyrinth of Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano and the Cabbala by Perle Epstein⁵ ... you'll be amazed what the actually underlying theme is behind this novel! -Frater Archivist

Notes
1. Malcolm Lowry by Ronald Binns, Methuen, NY 1984 pg. 29.
           The Archives of HA File No. 2359
2. Malcolm Lowry, A Biography by Douglas Day, Oxford University Press, NY 1984 pg. 294.
           The Archives of HA File No. 2072.
3. Malcolm Lowry by Ronald Binns cont. pg. 29.
4. Malcolm Lowry By Douglas Day cont. pg. 303.
5. The Private Labyrinth of Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano and the Cabbala
           by Perle Epstein, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. NY 1969.
           The Archives of HA File No. 2118.

    The seven double consonants, fundamentally, having been designed and established, combined, weighed, and changed by God, He formed by them: seven planets in the world, seven days in the year, seven gates, openings of the senses, in man male and female.

    The seven planets in the world are: Saturn {}, Jupiter {}, Mars {}, Sun {}, Venus {}, Mercury {}, Moon {}. Seven days in the year are the seven days of the week {Sunday, ; Monday ; Tuesday, ; Wednesday, ; Thursday, ; Friday, ; and Saturday, }; seven gates in man, male and female are: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and the mouth {These applications of the planets to the double letters are the most highly corrupted matter in existing manuscripts of the Sepher Yetzirah, as is noted further below. No definitive text exists in this matter. The attribution to the seven gates in man, male and female might be as follows: right eye, ; left eye, ; right nostril, ; left nostril, ; right ear, ; left ear, ; mouth, . Although this seems reasonable, no certainty is claimed; the allocation suggested here to the human gates is merely plausible. The allocation to the planets is that used by the G D and by the older Thelemic Orders. This allocation to the gates is offered as one alternative to that below.}

    First Division. He let the letter predominate in Life, crowned it, combined one with the other and formed by them: Mercury in the world, the Fourth day in the year, and the right eye in man, male and female {Contrary to the G D interpretation used here, the more reliable texts say: Moon, First Day and right eye}.

    Second Division. He let the letter predominate in Peace, crowned it, combined one with the other, and formed by them: the Moon in the world, the Second day in the year and right ear in man, male and female. {There are various associations of the seven gates of the senses to different things. The whole matter is the subject of a tract in the Sepher Zohar "The Book of Concealed Mystery" - this tract may be found in Mather's Kabbalah Unveiled and in Luzzatto's General Principles of the Kabbalah. Neither of these two books provide an exact solution to the allocation of the seven double letters, but they provide material from which the problem may be attacked. The more reliable texts here assign: Mars, Second day and right ear.}

    Third Division. He let the letter Dalet, predominate in Wisdom, crowned it, combined one with the other, and formed by them: Venus in the world, the sixth day in the year, the right nostril in man, male and female. {The word translated there as "Man" is actually "Nepesh", the name of the "animal soul" or that which animates the body during life. This word is used in all statements like this one throughout the Yetzirah in the Hebrew text. Later mystical traditions ascribe the Nepesh soul to be the ghostly spirit that lingers after death in some cases while higher souls are said to ascend to better places. The more reliable texts here assign: Sun, Third day and right nostril.}

    Fourth Division. He let the letter predominate in Wealth, crowned it, combined one with the other, and formed by them: Jupiter in the world, the Fifth day in the year, and the left eye in man, male and female {The more reliable texts here assign: Venus, Fourth day, left eye}.

    Fifth Division. He let the letter predominate in Beauty, crowned it, combined one with the other, and formed by them: Mars in the world, the Third day in the year, and the left ear in man, male and female. {The more reliable texts say: Mercury, Fifth day, left ear}.

    Sixth Division. He let the letter predominate in Fruitfulness, crowned it, combined one with the other, and formed by them: The Sun in the world, the First day in the year, and the left nostril in man, male and female. {The more reliable texts say: Saturn, Sixth day and left nostril.}

    Seventh Division. He let the letter predominate in Dominion, crowned it, combined one with the other, and formed by them Saturn in the world, the Seventh day in the year, and the mouth of man, male and female. {The more reliable texts say: Jupiter, Seventh day and mouth.}

    By the seven double consonants, were also designed seven worlds {The lower seven Sephiroth}, seven Heavens {Not the same as the lower seven Sephiroth. The seven Heavens combine certain Sephiroth. They are: Malkut- Yesod, Tipheret; Hod; Netzach; Geburah; Chesed; Da'at-Binah; Chokmah; Keter, -- These are also not to be confused with the seven body centers or Chakras which are variously made to combine to the Sephiroth, most especially in this order: Malkut; Yesod; Hod-Netzach; Tipheret; Geburah-Chesed; Binah- Chokmah; Keter. This latter correspondence is an artificial one, for it breaks down at the Vishuddah, where a complex interaction involves several groups of Sephiroth, including Da'ath, in succession.} seven lands, seven seas, seven rivers, seven deserts, seven days in a week, seven weeks from Passover to Pentecost, there is a cycle, of seven years {widely used in Astrology under various names; e.g. the Saturn Return or Lunation Cycle about 28 years from birth. This country (U.S.A.) has laws based on the seven-fold cycle: legal age at 21, the President must be 35 or older}, the seventh is the release year {In the U.S.A. legal records and statuary limits on some crimes are retained for seven years}, and after seven release years is Jubilee {Fiftieth anniversary is still considered significant in our traditions}. Hence, God loves the number seven under the whole heaven. {The theory of seven rays that is popular with Theosophists is based on this seven business. M. Blavatsky probably was greatly influenced by this source, as she was by the Zohar in her forgery of the Seven Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan.}

    Two stones build two houses {There are only two ways to combine two different letters}, three stones build six houses {the "six rings" of three different letters exhaust the possibilities for three different objects taken three at a time}, four build 24 houses, five build 120 houses, six build 720 houses and seven build 5,040. From thence further go and reckon what the mouth cannot express and the ear cannot hear. {This section outlines the power of combinations of magical powers of the letters and generally spaces out. The manuscripts here prove their corruption through various different errors in the numbers cited. The lost original probably had the combinatorial values correctly stated, as they are given in this edition).

11 Dec. Received info re 93 from A.C.
25 Dec. Christmas Dinner at Bell Inn, Aston Clinton, with Crowley. Chess & discussion of degrees. Said goodbye. Had to hitchhike back to London because of strike by subway workers.
20 Dec. Met Louis Wilkinson (Marlowe), author, while visiting A.C.
26 Dec. Visited lady Frieda Harris this morning. Met her husband, Sir Percy Harris, at lunch. Invited to the House of Commons to meet {?}everidge.
27 Dec. Visited Tower of London. Foggy to freezing cold. ...
28 Dec. Trip postponed again until Sat. Things are looking up on the Western Front. The Germans seem to be stopped - for the present. For all time if the weather holds.
31 Dec. New Years Eve with Cau{?} out at Kensington.

1 Jan. London to Paris
2 Jan. Paris to Brussels by night sleeper

Grady was mustered directly back to the US after the end of the War, and his diary recounts his first meetings with Stateside O.T.O. members after his visits with Crowley:

17 Nov {1945} ... AWOL to see Karl & Sascha. ...
18 Nov. Karl & Sascha picked me up at Gate #1, ... back to NY via 23rd St. Ferry. Mama Marussa's Italian Restaurant. Beat Karl at chess. Picked up Liber 132 & Liber A. Horoscope ruling, Sagittarius rising.
20 Nov. Took off from Newark ...

The foregoing has mainly been of chronological interest; and our readers will find it most informative by comparison with the accounts given in the TLC for 1992 e.v., especially August through October of that year. We will conclude with an excerpt of a more speculative character.

25 Dec. {'45} The integration of the mind. -- mental integrity --- the mind must be integrated before it can achieve coherence. One method of integration is the discipline of daily practice in the Magick arts. Magick, by definition, is the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with Will.

From time to time one of the correspondents of Grand Lodge expresses difficulty with Liber OZ. Without going into matters of secrecy in O.T.O., here is a typical discussion of the subject.

    It's no good to argue that the Liber came late; its germ is in Levi's Key to the Mysteries and was strongly impressed on Crowley long before he even heard of O.T.O. The posting of such a document, different in detail of course, descends to us from our 19th century Masonic forebears. Liber OZ should be signed with the real name of the person posting it, with the genuine address of that person subscribed. It is acceptable to put it up at an O.T.O. temple to show one's personal commitment, but the extremes have run to nailing it to the door at #10 Downing Street in London and sticking a copy under the cushion on the throne of the Pope during a Papal visit to Canada some years ago. I posted it on the bulletin board of the law building at University of California in Berkeley Campus and the bulletin board of a theological student union off campus.
    To secretly subvert by clandestine activity and anonymous placarding is not the way of Thelema. It is not possible to proceed far in that dishonorable way, nor is it acceptable. The secret progress of Thelema is in the hearts of Thelemites and in the invisible nature of the Kings. It is not in devious deeds under shadow of night. Storming the barricades is not necessary either. Tacit agreement with injustice and tyranny will not do.
    Although changes in Liber OZ are equally as unacceptable as using a Magical name instead of a full name, there is nothing to stop you from writing a qualifying note in addition to your signature and physical address. OTO posting of the Liber is an alternative. There is less danger from strangers, but posting Liber OZ at an O.T.O. Lodge is equally valorous in another sense. By posting copies at the religious and secular locations of the Lodge (or "edifice") you would be stating that your membership is not less important than your adherence to Thelemic principles. That is an honorable act, and should have no more risk than posting in a more public place. They also are worthy who choose to defend freedom at home.
    In O.T.O., no detailed interpretation is made for the initiate of Liber OZ. Individuals are granted the understanding of this in their own way, save only that we would certainly expel anyone who showed signs of exercising an imagined personal right to kill out of simple frustration. The key to Liber OZ is in the word "Man". It is not "each man", "any man", "I", "any person", etc. It is the term "Man", meaning "Human Kind". The oath affirms what history has proven down through the ages. Life is not more precious than freedom. Life is given and taken in the conflict of nations in the passage toward the universal brotherhood of Mankind. That is done in war. That is done by the State in instances when the State is so morally weak or materially starved as to have no other recourse. That is done by martyrs to causes upon their own persons (the only sense in which I can see an individual "man" in this). The only life which I consider that I have the absolute right to end is my own. There are cases where self- defense of one's own life could be challenged without injury to the spirit of Liber OZ, but I do not pretend to such a degree of sanctity. To assent that "Man has the right to kill those who would thwart these rights", is to recognize that a People may rise against a tyrant, spending their own lives and those of the actively lethal enemy in extremis when there is no alternative. It is to recognize that Nations go to war and that States have the right to take any steps necessary against a criminal so pernicious and vile as to steal the life and lives of the populous. No man has the right to kill me, save I commence to kill another. I have no right to kill another man save perhaps in self-defense or in the defense of my people, in accord with just laws of the State. A well ordered State has no death penalty, and no need of such. What State is well ordered? Only where there is no State would the right of Mankind default to the duty of a man in so dire a matter.
    If you do your true will, no one shall prohibit you. If you have that clearly in mind, you know the higher aspect of Liber OZ; that it is but a statement of the nature of things. How "kill" in this sense? Is it not to simply know that the True Will brooks no interference of this magnitude? That a very mountain would move and fall in upon itself to create a meadow for your garden, if that's the thing your Will has rendered Law. Men die. Men are born. Man lives. We age and pass away so that life may be refreshed of our opinions and the Child come eternally. If a man dies in an accident, is it not because he reached his end and could continue only in the defiance of true Will, a thing that cannot be? If a man is murdered, it is the same for him and for his murderer. True oaths, like all true things, must become one with their opposites beyond the Abyss. In Liber OZ, the sense of tension is so resolved when the swearer comes to see the oath as a statement of Truth, not a prohibition and a right.
    On the hazard of security, this is an illusion. If the outside is so threatening, post it in the smaller community of religion and secular authority that is your own Lodge. Do not think that such words make a difference to the outer world. Lack of reasonable caution can lead to regrettable consequences, therefore be reasonably cautious. Post it where it will be a "Scarlet" letter, ignored because of the hurry of the place. Post it where it will be seen as "Nutso" instead of "Maniacal". Safety is an illusion. This secret is not kept by the nature of the world. We keep faith with each other, and do not harm our brothers and sisters. We keep duty with ourselves, and do not shirk the risk at need. The police will have their fantasies, as do we. Let us not assume that the police don't have files because we have comforting fantasies! If that file contains a conviction for murder, that is a serious matter. If that file contains an undirected declaration, it contains far less than the false rumors already spread about us.
    Liber OZ, the "Book of the Goat and Tree", is not obsolete. It is to teach. It is to bring the initiate to self-realization of these things. It is to induce a crisis of conscience. Dramatic ritual is not in a box or on the boards alone. The Drama of initiation fails if there are no questions raised to life after. I will concede that Crowley lived with his foot precariously perched before his mouth, but I don't find Liber OZ a prime example of that penchant.

    In 1970-71 e.v. several books were bought by your Editor from a liquidated library sale in Oakland, California. This book mark was in some of them. Let's see if our readers recognize the mark. Here's a clue: This Order was founded before the Golden Dawn in the 'States by followers of B.P.Randolph. It's still around in several forms. Some of the books bearing this mark were first editions by Crowley, Steiner and Westcott.

March 1, 1888	The Isis-Urania Temple of The Golden Dawn is officially 'Chartered'. Later A.E.Waite would unexpectedly take charge of the temple and refuse to have any "truck" with the Secret Chiefs whether in or out of the body.
March 5, 1887	The local doctor advised an immediate operation for cancer of the tongue. Plymouth Brethren from near and far were summoned to help discover the Lord's will in this matter, the operation was declined. Thus Edward Crowley, Plymouth Brethren preacher and father of Aleister Crowley died on this date.
March 9, 1929	Aleister Crowley and Israel Regardie are told they must go and are expelled from France, after an inspector called on them and argued that their coffee-brewing machine was an infernal device for distilling drugs.
March 10, 1582	John Dee meets Edward Kelly for the first time.
March 10, 1985	Israel Regardie dies in Arizona on this date.
March 13, 1911	Lafayette Ron Hubbard is born, founder of Scientology. His son upon leaving the 'church' would say, "What a lot of people don't realize is that Scientology is black magic that is just spread over a long period of time. Black magic is the inner core of Scientology - and it is probably the only part of Scientology that really works."
March 13, 1926	Mrs.Marian Dockerill, the sister of Leah Hirsig publishes her expose on Aleister Crowley's cult in a series of articles which began running on this date in the New York Journal entitled 'My Life in a Love Cult'.
March 14, 1904	Aleister Crowley rents a flat in Cairo.
March 15, 1937	Howard Phillip Lovecraft dies at the age of 46.
March 16, 1244	200 Cathar 'Perfects' are burned at the stake after they surrender their castle fortress at Montesegur in France rather than 'giving up their faith'.
March 16, 1904	Aleister Crowley recited an invocation in order to enable his wife, Rose to see the Sylphs, the elemental spirits of water. Rose saw nothing, but got into a curious dream state in which she kept repeating "They are waiting for you!".
March 18, 1313	James de Molay the Grand Master of the Templars is burned at the stake.
March 19, 1933	The first public performance of The Gnostic Mass is held in California at the Agape Lodge.
March 21, 1875	Jane Wolfe is born.
March 21, 1904	Aleister Crowley takes the Oath of a Probationer in the A Ataking the motto 'Perdurabo'.
March 22, 1920	Aleister Crowley and Ninette leave Cefalu with the 'brats' for Marseilles, Leah Hirsig goes off to London.
March 23, 1904	Aleister Crowley's wife, Rose identifies the 'god' waiting for Crowley as that found upon the stele No.666 at the Boulak museum.
March 27, 1920	Aleister Crowley arrives in Cefalu.
March 30, 1925	Rudolf Steiner dies.

Events Calendar for March 1993 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.

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Berkeley, CA 94702 USA

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

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