Thelema Lodge Calendar for April 1993 e.v.

Thelema Lodge Calendar

for April 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.

Copyright © O.T.O. and the Individual Authors, 1993 e.v.

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

April 1993 e.v. at Thelema Lodge

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

Announcements from
Lodge Members and Officers


EDITORIAL

Thelema Lodge Rents a House!

When this Lodge Master first rented his new apartment last June along with the Lodge Secretary & Treasurer it was not planned that the entire Lodge should also move into the space. Unfortunately, circumstances dictated the necessity to do such. It was apparent right from the start that the space was too small. Still we had to make due with what we had, knowing that it was only temporary. Plans were immediately put into motion to begin looking for a larger space once sufficient funds had been raised to allow us another move. Now, with the funds donated graciously by many Thelemites we have located just such a space. Thelema Lodge is pleased to announce that effective immediately the Lodge begins moving into the eighth location in it's sixteen years in the Bay Area. We have rented an entire house!

People who are familiar with the space will especially appreciate that our new location has more than twice the amount of room. Four bedrooms instead of three, two full bathrooms (upstairs and down), a living room and another large room for Lodge Meetings and lectures. There is a big kitchen with a lot of counter space and a separate dining room. A huge basement is available for storage, with the potential of a serious work area ... and of course a Temple space! The address of the new location is:
328 49th Street in Oakland
(see map with this calendar).


IMPORTANT INFO TO KNOW IN THIS TRANSITION!

We will still be renting our apartment at the previous address at 544 31st Street throughout the month of April. It is very IMPORTANT that everyone becomes aware that, although we are moving, the Temple will temporarily be staying at 31st Street till the end of the month of April. All events scheduled on April Calendar which require Temple space will be held at 31st Street! We will be keeping the same phone number (510-658-3280), and if there is any confusion on where an event is being held please call for details!
Since we are moving the undisputed largest amount of stuff you can cram into one little apartment, attic and basement during this month it is an extremely good idea to call before coming over, to be certain where and if any scheduled event is being held. We apologize for any inconvenience, incurred by our membership that this move might make. In the long run it's for the best.
Also, if you flip to our Calendar page at the end of this newsletter, you'll quickly notice that absolutely NOTHING is scheduled or listed from Sunday April 18th to Friday April 30th ... this has been left open for moving Thelema Lodge and those who inhabit its premises. Each night we will attempt to do just a little bit of shuffling around from house to house rather than killing ourselves with moving everything in one day, especially since we still must work full-time jobs in the interim. Unfortunately, only a little can be done each night; but in some ways this will be easiest on all of us. Again, sorry for any inconvenience this might cause. Hopefully in early May we'll be up and running again as if nothing ever happened.

Look for the New lodge/House Warming Party Coming in May!


The Feast for the Writing of
The Book of the Law

This year, as with previous years, the 'Three Days of the Writing of the Book of The Law' will be held at three separate locations. The First Feast & reading will be held on Thursday, April 8th and will be sponsored by Sirius Oasis. Call Glen Turner at (501) 527-2855 for details and directions. The second-Friday, April 9th, will be hosted in San Francisco beginning at 7:30pm. Call Jim Graeb or Jewel at (415) 750-1405 for details regarding this Feast and reading. The reading of the Third Chapter and Feast will be sponsored at Thelema Lodge (at the 31st Street location) on Saturday night, the 10th at 7:30pm. Call for details (510) 658-3280. Help for the feasts will be greatly appreciated at all three events. Please bring food and drink!


Apology to All Thelema Lodge Members

During the course of my monthly paper shuffling, I left the Lodge Meeting off the calendar page for March. I apologize for the confusion and inconvenience. I will do all I can to see that it doesn't happen again. -- Secretary, H.Herndon.


Abramelin Oil Now Available

There are numerous projects which have been planned behind the scenes at Thelema Lodge with the hope of bringing into birth something really worthwhile for our community. One such project, which we are proud to say is finally off the ground, is that our Lodge is now offering some of the best Abramelin Oil produced anywhere in our Order. In the past, few could dispute the quality and purity of the oils produced out of Thelema Lodge. This was due to the loving care of Lotte Lieb. When Lotte decided to no longer produce Abramelin Oil, the Bay Area lost a much valued resource.
Recently our Lodge Treasurer, Marlene Smith, spent months tracking down companies across the United States and Canada which could provide her with the proper ingredients for a new batch of Abramelin Oil. Her effort of love and aspiration was driven by the quest to find the purest extracts and oils possible. The greatest difficulty was in finding fresh Galangal Oil, which had not been diluted by water or other ingredients or had gone rancid and was spoiled. Galangal Oil is highly volatile and rancidity quickly occurs. Most oils of Abramelin are made with a 'perfumed' type of Galangal which is an easy substitute to obtain. Although this does go rancid, it is not a pure extract, and when mixed with other ingredients the Abramelin Oil is not completely pure. After almost a year of research Marlene found only one company in the United States which produces a pure pressure-extract of the Galangal root, without any 'perfume' substitute.
Once quality Galangal Oil was obtained, the final preparation was done in conjunction with the expertise and aid of Lotte Lieb to again produce Abramelin Oil equal to the quality Lotte has produced in previous years. It was a success.
Abramelin Oil can be purchased at Thelema Lodge any time you visit. In the past 'one dram' was offered for $31 but now (due to the quantity produced) we are able to offer the same amount for only $20. Mail orders will be taken but only for quantities of five or more, plus a $5.00 Shipping & Handling fee. Checks should be made payable to Marlene Smith. Stores are welcome to inquire about our discounts.


The Lending Library

Recently we have received notice of which books from the donated Library of the late Stephen Alexander will be staying in the Bay Area. According to his Last Will & Testament it was his personal wish that his entire library go to the Grand Lodge in New York, but Hymenaeus Beta has graciously given at least one third as a donation to Thelema Lodge. We are keeping most of the books on Magick! Almost every volume by Aleister Crowley, Regardie, Levi, John Dee, The Golden Dawn and others will remain here. Thelema Lodge's library will almost triple. We extend our greatest appreciation to Hymenaeus Beta for this gift. Further, we wish to announce that with this rather large donation of books the policies of The Lending Library will be changing. If you are interested please contact the Lodge for further info.


from the Grady Project:

Angel Far

My mind is as bleak as the steppes of the Moon
And as cold as the Uranian air
My heart is as hot as the bright-side moon
Exploding in a solar flare
And with the lion love of my fiery boon
I burn in Her glorious hair

    The galaxies
    Are Arrow-Trees
    Plummed by Maat's fierce love's
    A glowing see
    That holds the worlds together.

1/14/62             
-- Grady L. McMurtry    

Published in McMurtry: Poems (London & Bergen: O.T.O., 1986 e.v.), and in The Grady Project #3 (March 1988 e.v.).

Previous Grady Project                   Next Grady Project


Crowley Classics

For a change of pace, here are Crowley's marginal notes to his Diary of a Drug Fiend. Like many authors, Crowley did not like to stop re-working his published writings. We have seen in past issues of the TLC how his marginal notes to separate poems were later edited and published in The Works of Aleister Crowley. The same was done for Vision and Voice with an annotated version published long after the first appearance in Equinox, Vol. I. Crowley's method was to take copies of the earlier editions and comment in the margins. Some of these commented books were handed to editors, while others were given or sold to collectors and friends. Many of these annotated copies have surfaced at the Warburg Institute collection in London, the Humanities Research Center at the U of Texas in Austin, and in other University and estate collections. Gerald Yorke ("G.J.Y." in the parenthetic notes below) made a practice of copying down these marginalia, and this present set came to O.T.O. in the 1970s via Francis (Israel) Regardie. The page and paragraph references are to the first edition. Most of the notes which follow identify people on whom the characters were based and indicate sources of inspiration. Copyright © OTO, 1993.

A.C. annotations to the Abbey of Thelema Library
Copy of the Diary of a Drug Fiend

Dedication.
Alostrael = Leah Hirsig
Telepylus. Vulgarly called Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum, Cefalu, Sicily.
               Established April 1, 1920 e.v.
Astarte Lulu Panthee. Daughter of The Beast 666 by Ninette Fraux (Shumway)
               Born Nov. 26 1920 e.v. at Cefalu.
Preface. Line 1. i.e. a truly imagined story.
2 from bottom. Quoted by E.A.Poe in 'Ligeia'
Last line. Liber Legis.
Page 3(4). Peter Pendragon. A composite figure, but mostly imagined - i.e. he is
my idea of a fairly common type. The worst elements are drawn accurately
from one Cecil Maitland, son of the Revd. Maitland (of a junior branch of
the family of the Earls of Lauderdale), a renegade Romish priest notorious
in the 'Oxford Movement'.
p. 3(4). last line. Family affairs imaginary, invented for the convenience of explaining
his social and financial position. Not in view of the 'Solution' on pp 348, 349
which had not occurred to my mind.
4. para 6. I idealized from The Grange, Redhill, Surrey where I lived from 1881
to 1886. e.v.
5. line 2. Psychology taken from Sieveking's article, referred to infra.
para 6. Mr. Wolfe. Character from the late E.T.M.Dennes, my own lawyer.
6. para 2. Cafe Wisteria. Cafe Royale.
3. Suggested by a settlement I made myself and certain troubles arisen with
the trusteeship in 1921-22. (I later became the trustee. G.J.Y.)
7. para 4. Fordham. Frank Harris.
5. Vernon Gibbs. Herbert Vivian.
1. Some of P.P's psychology is borrowed from my own psychology. I will mark
any notable passages of this kind with a Greek Psi
8. para 3. Figure of a young-old man. Lord Alfred Douglas. His jackal. T.W.H. Crosland
5. Dialogue verbatim and ensuing scrap accurately reported. (A.C. scratch out
his name for the Earl of Bumble. G.J.Y.)
9. para 5. The head waiter, M Blot, for many years maitre d'hotel at Cafe Royale
6. Respective ages of F(rank) H(arris) and A(lfred) D(ouglas). Following
speech actually made.
10. para 2. 'Across...' and para 7. Greek Psi
12. line 4. See Sasaki Shigetz on Shinto in The International
       para 5. A Handsome Welshman. Augustus John.
13. para 5. An actual speech
8. A fat German Jew. Jacob Epstein
9. A voluble genial man. Gordon Craig.
14. para 4. A red headed slut. Mary Rodker, nee Butts.
4. A German woman of the lowest class. Gretel ---, wife of Capt (now Gen.)
J.F.C.Fuller
     last para. Violet Beach. Iris Tree, daughter of Beerbohm Tree, a once notorious
barnstormer.
15. para 4. Lou. Purely imaginary: hardly even a wish-phantasm. I don't know at all
where I got her.
     para 5. Greek Psi
16. para 4. Physical description, partly memory, partly report, and partly a wish-
phantasm of my daughter, Lola Zaza Crowley.
17. para 1. King Lamus ruled Telepylus, the City of the Laestrygonians in the Odyssey.
6. King Lamus. As nearly as possible an accurate self-portrait in all respects.
I merely avoided physical stigmata which would have made identification
impossible to miss.
18. para 2. Greek Psi
19. para 2. Au chien qui fume, a workman's cafee in the Halles in Paris. But the
description given later is of the Golden Calf, a bad cabaret started in London
(Heddon Street, off Regent Street) in 1912 by Freda Strindberg.
20. para 3. Percy Wyndham Lewis: The description is flattering.
4. Greek Psi
5. A shrill-voiced Danish siren. Freda Strindberg, one of the dramatist's
loose wives - 'relict or derelict', I said, in Equinox I, VIII p (Page not given.
G.J.Y.)
5. One of her professional entertainers. A Lesbian imported from Spain
via the Place Pigalle.
21. para 4. See Equinox I, 3 Supplement. Wrote 'The Star in the West' on my
Work, and was my colleague for some years - till his wife dragged him down.
     para 6. Quoted from Sieveking's article.
22. Last para. Telepylus. Cefalu: see S. Butler 'The authoress of the Odyseey' for
the identification.
23. para 1. This sort of silly talk was current in London for years. The 'Sunday
Express' was silly eno' to publish it - and a lot more - Nov 26, 1922 e.v.
I foresaw the storm which would break on the publication of this book:
it was my deliberate intention to answer this sort of charge in advance.
24. para 2. Published in The English Review 1922 e.v.
27. para 1. From Sieveking.
     para 3. 4. Greek Psi
28. para 4 See Liber VII.
7. 'Your kiss is bitter with cocaine. Observed, psychological effects and
all during the experiments at Cefalu 1920 e.v.
30. para 4. Sieveking
31. para 2. My studio at 2 (or 33) Avenue Studios Fulham Road London S.W.
7. 'There are four gates...' Quoted from Liber Legis I.
32. para 7. Miss Fatma Hallaj Izeh Kranil (See International). The incident
of her collapse actually took place, from the mixed stimulants as described.
33. para 3. from bottom. The original from a poem written in Tunis, June '20,
to Leah Hirsig - is inscribed on the 'Hell' wall of the Chambre des
Cauchemars (i.e. A.C.'s bedroom G.J.Y.) in the Abbey at Cefalu.
For 'love' read 'cunt'. (The word 'cunt' has been heavily scratched out so
as to be illegible G.J.Y.)
34. para 3 from bottom. Anhalonium Lewinnii. I made many experiments on
people with this drug in 1910 and subsequent years.
35. 3. Simon Iff, a wish-phantasm of myself as an old man. See my novel.
(Refers to the Simmon Iff stories I think. I know of no such novel. G.J.Y.)
     para 8. I entered at King's College Hospital London before going to Cambridge
but never studied. My knowledge is due to later reading and experience.
42. para 1. Incidents of my own marriage suggested the obstacle.
43. para 1 and 2. These two men are together Alex. Coote, late of the Vigilance Society.
44. para 4. A fact. Messrs. Dunhill can confirm.
45. para 3. A.C. 'Rosa Inferni'.
46. para 3. Suggested by my own experience of a honeymoon - 1903-4.
40. para 3. Doris Gomez or Carlyle, a mistress of mine when in New York.
51. bottom. Gwendolen Otter. A lady who cultivates literary lions, and dabbles
a little herself.
51. line 6. A private joke.
53. para 4. Kind of hotel near the Etoile. Stayed there myself on my own honeymoon.
55. 6. 'kisses'. By changing the word from p. 33 I meant to hint that neither was correct.
63. para 1. I often do this.
7. Elgin Eccles. Imaginary figure, partly composed of a man named Laurence
Felkin.
65. para 4. Mademoiselle Haidee Lamoureux. Drawn partly from Jane Cheron
(see my Three Poems to her in Eq. I. V and partly from a friend of hers.
66. 1. Petit Savoyard. An actual restaurant on the Butte - a great favourite of mi(ne).
88. para 6,7. Greek Psi
90. para 3. I once had my lawyer's clerk bring me money to Paris.
94. line 4. after 'gentlemen' add '! By heaven,' 95. para 1. A real restaurant in the Bois
where I go sometimes.
98. para 3. ... When we came in. a frequent experience of mine.
99. para 6. For 'and she told him' read 'and she told me'
102. (Above Chapter VIII) I am surprised on looking through this book An XIX
to note the invariable expression of dislike and contempt for Italians.
I was not aware I felt a tithe of this.
104. para 3. Italy.
106. para 4. A picture of my own (Now in my possession G.J.Y.)
107. 4. 'obstruse' should read 'abstruse'
110. last para but 1. Italy
112. para 3. at the Caligula. The Tiberio: I stayed there in 1920.
114. para 3. Italy.
     last para. Gatto Frotto. A purely imaginary haunt, so far as I know.
116. para 3. Lloyd George. An unscrupulous, ignorant, imbecile and ignoble
demagogue of the period.
117. top. The Fauno Ebbrio. Almost any wine-shop: I know several.
118. para 2. Italy.
121. para 2. Greek Psi
6. Italy
122. para 2. Italy.
4. This man. Drawn from somebody I once knew, but I can't think of the name.
123. para 6. Italy. 124. para 4. from bottom. Italy. 126. para 8. Italy.
128. para 1. A tall bronzed Englishman. Mostly from Smart, English
Vice-Counsul in New York during the war.
130. bottom. Norway. I went here in 1897.
132. bottom. strengstens verboten.
134. 3. Italy. 134. para 6. Italy.
135. para 7. the girl at the desk, 'fished about in the drawer'. Not 'Ele pecahit dans
sa culotte' as Aumont thought. (G.Aumont, I think, translated the book into
French, but the translation was never published. G.J.Y.)
136. bottom. Italy. 137. paras 1,2,6 and 8. Italy. To the latter A.C. added
'The first complimentary word about the Italians.'
139. para 3. Italy.
6 Gambrinus. Also called Esposito - when the Germans were called Huns.
144. para 8. Mabel Black. Partly a well-known boot-fetichist in London, partly
Myriam Deroxe, a dope-fiend mistress.
149. para 4. "There was a girl there...". later introduced as 'Lala'. Leah Hirsig.
151. "Thirst!" Insert title "Morphine". By me. First published in the English Review
in 1913. I had at that time no experience of morphine at all.
154. para 2. Olya. A prostitute - accurated (sic G.J.Y.) portrayed - whom
I loved in Moscow in 1913.
159. middle. Oscar Eckenstein. I climbed with him from 1898 to 1904.
The lesson in glissading is authentic.
160. para 2. A Himalayan expedition. To Kanchenjuhga in 1905. The incident is authentic.
      do 3. For Mauvis read mauvais.
163. para 6. Pieced together from odd memories of various adventures.
165. para 5. Lillie Fitzroy. Partly the "Baroness Else von Freytag-Loringhaven'
a colleague of Ezra Pound.
167. para 5. 'that American nigger.' Really 'Leon' a pal of Walter Gray, a
musical negro, friend to myself and Roddie Minor in New York.
171. para 3. at least, so Doris Gomez found the first time she tried it - at 36 W 40th St.
New York in 1915.
178. last line. I got this answer from the colleague of a chemist whom I had known
for 20 years and seen alive and well two days before in May '22.
197. line 8 from bottom. 'doctor'. Imaginary - the typical G.P.
198. para 5. Imagined from a patient, an old woman who got me some morphia
in New Orleans in 1917-.
199. Line 10. Andrew McCall. Wish-phantasm of Dr. Murry Leslie, who treated
my wife's dipsomania in vain.
      do 13. Sloane Square. No 89.
      do 14. A rich old woman. Mrs. Harley.
205. para 2. Maisie Jacobs. A pure wish phantasm - a girl I want to meet.
209. para 1. My Screen (New York 1919) "Dead Souls".
2. Bill Waldorf. Bob Chandler, N.Y. painter.
211. para 8. She put some elsewhere. (probably her cunt. G.J.Y.)
212. para 2. See p. 106. But she had heard of it at school and seen pictures
213. para 7. This design - and numerous other details from my own magical cabinet.
215. para 1. "The Magician". The novel he scissors-and-pasted about me.
     para 2. The old man. This is one of the Masters whom I have met on the Astral Plane.
217. para 2. 'Io Pan Pan Pan! etc. I invented this mantra in my Great Magical Retirement
on Montauk August 1919.
233. para 1. 'but the idea of being driven mad by hynotists...' Delusion of a certain
Hon John Harris.
235. para 1. Cecil Maitland once shot himself in this inefficient way.
242. para 3. ... 'they fill up.' NOT 'they fit up'.
     Para 4 'many' NOT 'may'.
243. last line. Mme. Daubignac's. Nobody in particular.
250. line 6. from bottom. 'Do as thou wilt'. Done during the writing of this book,
by a crank and a crook named Philp Lee Warner.
252. para 2. I met Muahdsley earlier in 1904 and studied with him for awhile.
253. line 12. from bottom. 'with acrid venom' NOT 'with acid venom'.
264. line 1(5). from bottom. 'All we were asked to do was'
NOT 'All we were asked was'.
274. the poem. First published in "The Winged Beetle".
275. the quotation in para 2. Quoted from the Preface to "White Stains".
278. last para. Another song. Written to Marie Lavroff (Roehling) New York.
282. para 1. from bottom. Ko Yuen. A fact.
290. para 5. For 'Destiny' read 'Providence'.
304. last two line(s) of last para but one. I did this in 1900.
307. paras 1 and 2. Italy.
309. para 5. A fair haired boy. Howard, son of Ninette Fraux Shumway born in wedlock.
     para 8. an even smaller boy. Hansi, natural son of Leah Hersig and Edward Carter.
313. top 2 lines. My 8° = 3 robe.
     para 3. Athena and Cypris. Jane Wolfe and Ninette.
      do 8. 'eat in silence' Except when Gabsis (sic? G.J.Y.) are present, and one shouts
to cover the noise they make in eating.
315. line 11. to any artificial chemical process. (A.C. adds 'artificial' G.J.Y.)
320. last para. two people absolutely rotten. Mary Rodker nee Butts and Cecil Maitland.
321. para 4. 'were' NOT 'was' so extreme.
325. para 1. from bottom. Italy
335. Add to the list of reasons:
     1. A. My cough is much better this morning. Ergo, the treatment is doing
me good. Ergo, take a dose now!
337. Add to the list of reasons:
   28. I have succeeded in stopping. It has no power over me. I can take it when
I choose. I will take it now.
       I left out this from Freudian reasons. This is my own trouble. I stop heroically,
lose all fear, start again, avoid counting doses lest I start a 'fear-complex' and
am well into the habit again before I am aware. The remedy is to destroy the
fear of forming the fear-complex!
345. para 5. The refectory. Describes the house we call The Umbilicus as the former
is called The Horsel.
   5. Volcanic islands. The Lipari Islands.
348. Last line but one. This deduction was made on the spur of the moment from
memory of the facts of the story. They were not chosen to make the issue
seem plausible
353. para 2. Altered from 'where Crowley is' - a proverb long current.

Previous Crowley Classics                   Next Crowley Classics


Archivist Anecdotes

Friends & Acquaintances
of Aleister Crowley

Part IV

Arnold Bennett

Aleister Crowley writes that, "... Arnold Bennett had gratified the public with a highly spiced description of me in Paris Nights".1 This account of Crowley's 'spiced description' is briefly mentioned in John Symonds' book The Great Beast where he states that Crowley, "...returned to Europe wearing a heavily jewelled red waistcoat and the largest ring that Arnold Bennett had ever seen on any hand! We know about this splendid waistcoat and this outsize ring because Bennett conveniently recorded them for us in his Journal on the 22nd of April 1904, and also made use of them and their owner for one of his characters in Paris Nights."2
Unfortunately Symonds quotes the date wrong, but gets the general idea right. In The Journal of Arnold Bennett3 the actual date is Tuesday April 26th. Arnold Bennett also states that "I rather liked him" regarding Crowley.
The following month both of these gentleman met again; and this is recorded in Mr.Bennett's Journal briefly, "I dined at the Chat Blanc. Aleister Crowley was there with dirty hands, immense rings, presumably dyed hair, a fancy waistcoat, a fur coat, and tennis shoes."4 This is a better description of Aleister Crowley than a "heavily jewelled red waistcoat and the largest ring I ever saw on a human hand", which although interesting doesn't paint as good a picture of the Great Beast.
One gentleman with independent means spent most of his life just hanging around the Cafe Royal and was preoccupied with writing down everything he overheard. His diaries are massive and have priceless stories of such famous individuals as Oscar Wilde, D.H.Lawrence, Augustus John and of course Aleister Crowley. His name was St.John Terrapin.
In these private diaries there is a funny story of Crowley and Bennett at the Cafe Royal which deserves to be quoted at length. Terrapin writes, "I was pleased to see Bennett establish his interest in the Domino Room by arriving with a guest of his own the following day - none other than Aleister Crowley, the Beast himself".
"Having ordered drinks, Crowley began what became an animated conversation with the apocalyptic statement: 'Christianity has collapsed. It can no longer serve humanity - if ever it did. A new aeon for mankind has commenced. My Holy Guardian Angel, Aiwass, has appeared before me to dictate a new Book of the Law.'
"Crowley was deadly serious, but Bennett had difficulty in keeping a straight face."
"'You must give me the details when your angel finishes his task,' he remarked."
"'That I will certainly do, but already I can tell you the basis of the New Law. There shall be no law beyond "Do what thou wilt". The word of Sin is restriction. On no account live within your own skin ...'"
"Bennett's mouth, which was always half open, gaped wider as the Beast continued, his narrowed eyes making him look more Mongolian than ever."5
In this book there are a lot of Crowley/Bennett stories to quote, but space in this publication is limited. Its best to say these two shared a friendship in an odd sense of the term. Years later Aleister Crowley would write to Arnold Bennett begging him for help and money:

Dear Arnold Bennett,

I am sure you remember me as habitually wearing the largest ring that you ever seen on any human hand. As the enclose shows I have been blackjacked and am only just beginning to pick myself up. I am sure that you will help me to secure a full public investigation of this abominable business. All sorts of un-English methods are being used to stifle the discussion. They seem principally to rely on bringing me to actual starvation before I can get back at them. For the honour of English letters, Strike!6
Yours sincerely Aleister Crowley

He would enclose a copy of an "Open Letter to Lord Beaverbrook" all in hope to obtain "social justice". There is no record of Bennett ever responding back.
--- Frater Archivist

Further Reading

Arnold Bennett, A Biography by Reginald Pound, William Heinemann LTD London. The Archives of HA File No.1358.

Notes:
1. The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, Edited by John Symonds & Kenneth Grant,

Hill and Wang, NY, 1969, pg.405
2. The Great Beast, The Life of Aleister Crowley by John Symonds, Roy Publishers, NY, 1952, pg.63
3. The Journal of Arnold Bennett, Viking Press,Inc./The Literary Guild, NY, 1933, pg.169.
The Archives of HA File No.5
4. Ibid pg.210
5. The Private World of St John Terrapin by Chapman Pincher Sidgwick & Jackson,
London, 1982, pg.190. The Archives of HA File No.11
6. The Great Beast by John Symonds cont. pg.239

Previous Archivist Anecdotes                   Next Archivist Anecdotes


Poetry

THE SWORD

I. Laughter

Laughter, the sword
Power/Cuts
Lashes Out
That, else love
Which do you choose?

II. Power

I am laughter
In your darkened halls
You who take life too seriously
You who would not love for free
You who do not even pursue
To Banish the Illusion
Around your will so willfully
I grieve at the sound of your intrusion
I avoid your dark hearts skillfully
Only to love you anyway,
I stand at the break of day.

III. Cuts

Skillfully cross-dressing with the winds,
sHe begins to find hir hidden self -
That obscured for so long
Against society's laughter,
That which exists
Rewards in the here-after.

------- Bryan R. Olson 0°


Qabalah

Sepher Yetzirah

(4th Installment)
[Adapted to conform to the Golden Dawn correspondences in 1976 e.v. with parenthetic notes by Bill Heidrick from the Kalisch and Stenring translations. This rendering of the S.Y. is made in the public domain as a way of paying dues of another kind. The notes are in curly brackets: {}, and are not part of the original text. The Sepher Yetzirah is the ultimate basis of the Golden Dawn system of correspondences embodied in Crowley's Liber 777.]

Chapter Five.

Section One.

The twelve simple letters Qof Tzaddi Ayin Samekh Nun Lamed Yod Tet Chet Zain Vau Hay symbolize, as it were, the organs of sight, hearing, smell, speech, digestion or swallowing, touch or coition, work, walking, anger, mirth, thinking or meditation, sleep* {The Golden Dawn changed these qualities around quite a bit in disregard of a relatively uniform version in the manuscripts of the SEPHER YETZIRAH. In the following sections, the Golden Dawn term will be given first and then a version from the Kalisch translation: e.g. "Golden Dawn term (Kalisch term)".}

Section Two.

The twelve simple consonants Qof Tzaddi Ayin Samekh Nun Lamed Yod Tet Chet Zain Vau Hay symbolize also twelve oblique points {The Order of the Golden Dawn says, in order: North East, Hay; South East, Vau; East Above, Zain; East Below, Chet; North Above, Tet; North Below, Yod; North West, Lamed; South West, Nun; West Above, Samekh; West Below, Ayin; South Above, Tzaddi; and South Below, Qof. The Kalish translation gives in the same order for the letters: East Height, North East, East Depth, South Height, South East, South Depth, West Height, South West, West Depth, North Height, North West, North Depth.}. They grew wider and wider to all eternity, and these are the boundaries of the world. {In the Golden Dawn theory, as developed by Paul Foster Case, the posthumous founder of B.O.T.A., these 12 directions are the locations of the twelve edges of the "Cube of Space" which has for faces the first six double letters. Some Qabalistic studies attempt to define a diamond shape in three dimensions. In any event, this section is possibly the origin of the Masonic Temple of Solomon, which fills the universe through its duplication -- like three-dimensional tiles fitting together.}

Section Three.

The twelve simple letters Qof Tzaddi Ayin Samekh Nun Lamed Yod Tet Chet Zain Vau Hay fundamentally, having been designed, established, combined, weighed and exchanged by Him, He performed by them: twelve constellations in the world, twelve months in the year, and twelve organs in the human body, male and female.

Previous Part of the Sepher Yetzirah                   Chapter Five to be continued.


Primary Sources

Aleister and His Publishers:
This item is actually the last page attached to the marginal notes on Diary of a Drug Fiend, see above in "CROWLEY CLASSICS". Crowley sent this proposal to Collins (later Harper Collins and later still Harper & Row, publishers of BOTH Diary of a Drug Fiend by Crowley and Painted Black by Carl Raschke! Short is the memory of the press!

This is the original Synopsis accepted by Wm Collins without a line of the book having been written. I had in fact no detailed idea of how the story would develop.

-----
                             31 Wellington Square Chelsea
The Diary of a Drug-Fiend
I
Paradiso
1. At the Cafe Royale
2. The Night Club
3. A German spy
4. The honeymoon
5. Capri
6. The limit of horror
7. Return to England
II
Inferno
1. The brake
2. Too late to stop
3. Privation
4. Degradation
5. Moral annihilation
6. Crawling from agony to agony
7. Suicidal attempts
8. The bottomless pit
III
Purgatorio
1. The Saviour
2. Rebuilding the moral temple
3. Opposition to recovery
4. German spy and pussyfooter in league
5. Flight to freedom
6. A glimpse of Paradise
7. The angels at the gates
8. We re-enter.
List of people
Self, Augustus John, Epstein, Lilian Shelley, Boy Billy, Euphemia Lamb, Gordon Craig, Austin Harrison, Raymond Radclyffe, Frank Harris, 'Bosie' Douglas, T.W.Crosland, Frank Strindberg.
Conditions
50,000 words. Delivered in 4 weeks. £40 down and £5 weekly till finished in advance of royalties. Serial rights, movie rights, separable.
----
This synopsis was accepted June 1, 1922 e.v. but the £5 weekly was to be paid as £20 on July 3. Beresford suggested fewer chapters of more words each.
----

Previous Primary Sources                   Next Primary Sources


Last Month's
Mystery Illustration

The seal shown last month is a rubber book stamp of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Atlantis, Luxor and Elphante. This organization was an affiliate of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light, Fraternitas Lucis Hermeticae, the immediate precursor of O.T.O. For more on the Hermetic Brotherhood, read Clymer's R.C. Fraternity in America -- with a grain of salt. For more on B.P.Randolph, see Robert North's Sexual Magic, Magickal Chile, 1990. Mr. North was kind enough to write to us when he saw the seal in the March TLC.

Mystery Illustration

For an extended view of the arcane device below, visit Thelema Lodge in May {1993 -- moved since then -- Note to Web edition}.

Previous Mystery Illustration                   Answer and Next Mystery Illustration


From the Outbasket

Here are the annual demographics of the O.T.O. from Agape Grand Lodge. Membership totals from Grand Lodge accounts at end February 1993 e.v.: 2,288 all, 1,880 of which are initiates.

ADV 91
Associates 317
Minervals 660
Ist Degrees 485
IInd Degrees 290
IIIrd Degrees 221
IVth Degrees 125
Vth Degrees 70
Higher Degrees 29

--oOo--

Known addresses by regions at end February 1993 e.v.
(Associates and initiates both) Total: 2,060 in 35 countries


UNITED STATES TOTAL: 1,181

Alabama 13 Minnesota 15
Alaska 1 Mississippi 2
Arizona 37 Missouri 6
Arkansas 4 Montana 1
California 317 Nebraska 17
    (North Cal: 187) Nevada 3
    (South Cal: 130) New Hampshire 7
Colorado 9 New Jersey 21
Connecticut 14 New Mexico 7
Delaware 3 New York 133
Dist. of Columbia 1 North Carolina 8
Florida 36 Ohio 19
Georgia 47 Oklahoma 19
Guam 1 Oregon 72
Hawaii 8 Pennsylvania 29
Idaho 2 Puerto Rico 9
Illinois 38 Rhode Island 4
Indiana 41 South Carolina 2
Iowa 4 South Dakota 1
Kansas 7 Tennessee 10
Kentucky 8 Texas 45
Louisiana 16 Utah 20
Maine 2 Virginia 12
Maryland 7 Washington 56
Massachusetts 13 West Virginia 3
Michigan 15 Wisconsin 16


EUROPE TOTAL: 615

BELGIUM 3 NETHERLANDS 6
BOSNIA-HERCEGOVINA 15 NORWAY 60
BULGARIA 6 PORTUGAL 1
CROATIA 58 SCOTLAND 3
DENMARK 17 SLOVENIA 64
ENGLAND 121 SPAIN 3
FRANCE 19 SWEDEN 16
GERMANY 85 SWITZERLAND 5
GREECE 2 WALES 1
N & S IRELAND/ERIE 2 YUGOSLAVIA 114
ITALY 14


CANADA TOTAL: 165

Ontario 45 Alberta 46
British Columbia 39 Quebec 35


OCEANIA & ASIA TOTAL: 79

AUSTRALIA 46 NEW ZEALAND 20
JAPAN 13


PANAMERICA (exp. US&CAN) TOTAL: 13

BRAZIL 4 MEXICO 1
ECUADOR 1 PANAMA 1
GUADELOUPE 5 PERU 1


AFRICA TOTAL: 7

NIGERIA 4 TOGO 1
SOUTH AFRICA 2

Detail of February 1992 e.v. Demographics (last year)

Previous Outbasket                   Next Outbasket


FROM THE HISTORY HEAP

APRIL

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

April 1, 1915
H.Spencer Lewis organizes a spurious and clandestine Rosicrucian body, calling it AMORC, on 'All Fools Day'.

April 1, 1975
Sascha Germer dies.

April 2, 1886
Charles Stansfeld Jones is born.

April 2, 1920
Aleister Crowley 'officially' establishes the Abbey of Thelema at Cefalu.

April 2, 1948
This is the birth date of the Aeon of MAAT, or MA-ION according to Frater Achad.

April 6, 1861
Stanisla de Guaita is born in France.

April 7, 1807
Pierre Michel Eugene Vintras is born in Baxeux, France.

April 8, 1904
The First Chapter of The Book of The Law is received by Aleister Crowley in Cairo.

April 8, 1909
Victor Neuburg signs the Oath of Probationer joining the AA.

April 9, 1904
Aleister Crowley receives the Second Chapter of The Book of The Law
in Cairo at noon.

April 10, 1904
The Third Chapter of The Book of The Law is dictated to Aleister Crowley, thus completing the volume

April 10, 1934
Aleister Crowley begins a lawsuit against Nina Hamnett for slander she makes against him in her book The Laughing Torso. He would lose the case. Although the Court of Appeal would later admit Crowley was given a bum deal and should have won, a new trial never took place.

April 10, 1936
Followers of the Sacred Atlantean text 'The Codex Pappus', using true grit, "established" the first Gnomon Temple in Burnette, Indiana under the leadership of Mr. Jimmerson.

April 14, 1934
As Aleister Crowley was leaving a London courtroom a young, nineteen-year old girl named Deidre ran up to him asking, "Couldn't I be the mother of your child?" ... He granted her that 'honor' and young Ataturk was the result.

April 17, 1900
Aleister Crowley 'briefly' captures The Vault of the Adepts in London wearing full Highland dress, a black mask over his face, a dagger at his side and a gold cross on his breast, acting on Mathers' behalf. The Adepts called the police and had him removed.

April 20, 1923
Norman Mudd arrives at the Abbey of Thelema at Cefalu.

April 25, 1900
In a letter to Lady Gregory, W.B.Yeats writes, "... Crowley, a quite unspeakable person. He is I believe seeking revenge for our refusal to initiate him. We did not admit him because we did not think a mystical society was intended to be a reformatory."

April 28, 1727
Mr.Joques de Livron Joachim la Tour de la Case Martines Depasqually, the founder of the Martinist, was born on this date.

April 29, 1917
Florence Farr dies at the age of 57.

April 29, 1969
Grady Louis McMurtry arrives in California from Washington D.C.

April 30, 1923
Aleister Crowley transfers the Abbey of Thelema at Cefalu to Norman Mudd.

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

                              A.O.583 VIII°

Previous History Heap                   Next History Heap

Events Calendar for April 1993 e.v.

4/4/93LOP & Adviser Council 3:33 PMThelema Ldg.
4/5/93Thelema Lodge meeting 8:00 PMThelema Ldg.
4/8/93First Day of Liber ALSirius Oas.
4/9/93Second Day of Liber AL (SF)Independant
4/10/93Third Day of Liber AL 7:30 PMThelema Ldg.
4/11/93Gnostic Mass 4:18 PMThelema Ldg.
4/17/93Initiations, Call to attend
(Third Degree)		Thelema Ldg.

(Thelema Lodge will be moving from the 18th through to 20th, call for events)

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)

Home away from Home