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.
Thelema Lodge
Ordo Templi Orientis
P.O.Box 2303
Berkeley, CA 94702 USA
August 1995 e.v. at Thelema Lodge
Announcements from
Lodge Members and Officers
Sirius Oasis will hold its regular monthly meeting on Wednesday evening 9th
August at 8:00 in Berkeley. You may be wondering what the difference is
between a Sirius Oasis meeting and a rehearsal for "The Rite of Jupiter," but
by reflecting upon the day of the week you will be able to distinguish them.
Drop by and assist in the planning of O.T.O. initiations and other oasis
projects, and volunteer at the last minute for half a dozen minor roles in The Rites while you're at it! Contact the Oasis Master for directions at the
number given just above.
Another approach to the gnosis of the mass, along with the road of
initiation, is the way of the scholar. This is the way of comparison and
collation and considered comprehension, and it is the way of the Thelema Lodge
Liber XV Study Group, which meets on Wednesday evening 30th August at 8:00 in
the library. Bishop T Dionysus has prepared the following report of a recent
meeting as a sample of our fare in this specialized endeavor, which is open to
everyone interested in the ritual of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica.
June's session of the Gnostic Mass Study Group concentrated on the physical accouterments of the ritual: the temple furnishings, the props, and the costumes. We took note of exactly what the Master Therion does and does not say about each item, and we compared that to the present-day usages as we experience them. Why, for instance, are so many of our brothers' lances blunt rather then pointed? We can't decide whether they are making a blunt point or blunting the point entirely. And why is the Priest's "cap of maintenance" more likely than not to resemble an Egyptian nemyss or an Arabic kafiyah, while in fact such a cap is a garment of feudal European provenance? Was the lodgemaster flippant in suggesting that this is due to the widespread publication of photos of Crowley in Egyptian and Arabic ritual garb? After all, besides our lucky study group, how many people know exactly what a cap of maintenance looks like anyway?
Grace leads the monthly Thelema Lodge Astrological Cycles Workshop, which
meets in the resource center of the Grace Astrological Service at her home in
Berkeley, on Friday evening 25th August from 7:00 to 9:00. In this "Cycles"
series we are exploring various movements and patterns in our local universe,
and this month we return to the giant cycles of the outer worlds, with an
evening devoted to the Uranian planet, named for the archaic progenitor of
the Titans. After dipping into Aquarius for a couple of months this past
spring, Uranus is now receding into Capricorn for the remainder of the year,
and won't go direct again all summer. Uranus tends to be an unpredictable
influence to come to terms with in astrology, illuminating with its lower
spectrum the limits and simplicities of the little worlds we know so well. To
be included in this group, please consult ahead of time with Grace, or call
before arriving at (510) 843-STAR.
All students of magick will enjoy the comprehensive review of Crowley's
practical and theoretical legacy being offered in our monthly discussion
series led by Brother Bill Heidrick, Treasurer General of O.T.O. and a
founding member of Thelema Lodge. Meetings are held at Bill's home in San Anselmo, with the next one scheduled for Wednesday evening 23rd August,
beginning at 7:30 . Call Bill at (415) 454-5176 for information and
directions if you haven't attended before. All aspects of Magick in Theory and Practice have been covered, with particular focus this month upon the
extensive battery of ritual practices outlined by the Master Therion for his
own magical students in the 1920s e.v. These can be consulted in the closing
appendix to M.T.P., now available in the Order's authoritative new edition
issued by Frater Superior Hymenaeus Beta, published by Samuel Weiser of New
York.
The Section Two Reading Group is a Thelema Lodge project for study together
in the course of general reading as set forth in the A A
Curriculum, with
our mid-month Monday meetings open to all interested students, readers, and
aspirants. Caitlin hosts these meetings at Oz House, and she can be reached
at (510) 654-3580 for directions and information (or contact the lodge). The
bibliography issued by the A
A
Praemonstrator at the Abbey of Thelema in
Course I is divided into two sections, designated as "serious" and
"suggestive" reading. On Monday evening 21st August at 8:00 we will continue
with the "suggestive" books, devoting an evening to oriental narrative with
Burton's Arabian Nights. This collection is far too extensive for a single
evening's survey, but many of the tales are familiar, and if you have a
favorite, or have time to sample a few of them, your suggestions will be
welcome. We hope to read a tale or two together, and share our impressions of
the collection.
Sir Richard Frances Burton's sixteen volume translation of Alf Laylah Wa Laylah assembles a comprehensive collection of the Islamic storytelling
traditions of the middle ages, under the name of The Thousand Nights and a Night. The volumes were issued "to subscribers only" between 1885 and 1888.
Along with the stories themselves, which Burton first dared print uncensored
in their details of erotic lore and carnal magick, more than ten per-cent of
the work consists of the translator's commentary and notes. Burton ranks
among the greatest travelers, conversationalists, geographers, linguists, and
ethnographers of his century, and was also profoundly experienced in several
traditions of spiritual discipline (including initiation as a Kamil or Sufi
Master, entry into a Sikh worship circle, and a full appreciation for the
secret world of Islam from the inside). Devoting the last thirty years of his
life to the Nights, Burton supplied a wealth of data from the world of the
stories, enough to qualify him easily as the gnostic saint of footnotes.
Develop your proficiency with the gestures and secrets of O.T.O. initiation
at this month's "Signs, Grips, and Words" night at Thelema Lodge, to be held
on Monday evening 14th August at 8:00 in Horus Temple. Volunteers from among
the lodge's senior initiates will be on hand to take members through the
grades to which they have been admitted, offering a demonstration and review
which is sure to stand us all in good stead the next time we find ourselves
gathered in a secret oasis. Participation is limited according to initiatory
standing.
Lodge library nights in August are scheduled for Wednesday evening 16th and
Monday evening 28th August, from 8:00 to 10:00. These are times when we have
arranged to have a lodge officer on hand to open our library and temple
facilities for the use of members and friends. If you have a word or a
formula to research in the reference shelves, or some lines of poetry to find
for use in a ritual, or if you have individual ritual work to do in the
temple, or a mass or rite to rehearse, give the lodge a call and plan to do it
on one of these dates, or contact the lodge to reschedule library nights when
possible.
Members are requested to help plan events for Thelema Lodge, and take on a
share of the business of the lodge, at our monthly lodge luncheon meeting on Saturday afternoon 13th August from 12:30 to 2:30. The lodge officers will
serve a meal (please bring drinks!) and we can go over the calendar together
and share our hopes for the progress of our community. Notes and notices for
the newsletter are due at this luncheon, and should be handed to the
lodgemaster or read on to our telephone tape no later than this date.
The lodge will not be having a meeting of our poetry circle in August;
Frater P.I., who coordinates this series, has canceled it in accommodation of
the opening of The Rites of Eleusis. This group will next meet on the last
Saturday evening in September. Last month's meeting of the Grady L. McMurtry
Poetry Society, in contrast to our usual unique mix of poems and poets, was
mostly taken up with extracts from Robert Penn Warren's sixty-page narrative
poem Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce. It's a broodingly moving description of
the U.S. government's subjugation of one of the last free bands of indigenous
Americans. Warren won Pulitzer prizes for both his fiction and his poetry,
and was the first Poet Laureate of the United States. A couple of passages
from an English translation of Goethe's poetic drama Faust provided a
trenchant counterpoint.
attributed to Aleister Crowley
Psycho-Analysis, the investigation of the nature of the mind, is an old
diversion. But science -- if such really be science -- has found a new method
for such analytical parlour games. By it the reactions of a man to various
impressions, through the nerves, are measured. The quickening of his pulse,
when the professor suddenly shouts the word "Muriel" at him; the depressed
expression when he whispers the words "income tax"; all these can now be
weighed in the scales of science.
After a labourious research of months the whole nature of the soul is laid
bare, and the reasons of a preference for Cherrystones over Little Neck clams,
unmasked. Even the character of a man's dreams is supposed by this school to
reveal his hidden nature.
Professor Freud of Vienna is the best known of those who have been
developing this line of study, but recently Professor Jung of Zürich, has
challenged his teaching and his supremacy alike with a book called Psychology and the Unconscious (Moffat, Yard & Co.).
There is, in short, a split in the psycho-analysis camp. This essay will
give in outline the main doctrine of psycho-analysis, and explain the nature
of the quarrel between Freud and Jung. The subject is quite a fascinating
one, and will probably be discussed at every dinner-table during the coming
social season.
Our grandmothers, before we had finished teaching them to extract nutriment
from ova (by suction), were wont to spend the hours of night-lights with
divines -- or rather, with their Works. They would interpret their own dreams
by the aid of a variety of theological works. Mais nous avons changé tout cela. Today our grandmothers dance the hula-hula at Montmartre, or at the
Castles in the Air, until the dawn breaks, and they now interpret their dreams
by the aid of Professor Freud or Professor Jung, for Joseph and his ilk have
been tried and found wanting.
Psycho-analysis has been but ill understood by the average man. Most of
us, however, will acquiesce in the necessity for an inquiry into the cause of
dreams -- and of the poet's dreams, dreams which are in reality the myths of a
race. For all effects have psychic or hidden causes.
The Victorian age was distinguished by its mechanical interpretation of all
phenomena. Not only did it destroy our ideas of the divine nature of the
soul, but it would not even permit us to be human. A live man only differed
from a dead one as a machine in motion does from one at rest. The only
exception to this analogy was that we did not know how to restart a man that
happened to have stopped.
Dreams, therefore, were regarded as undigested thoughts. I made a small
research of my own in this matter, recording the dreams of a month. All but
two of some fifty of my dreams were clearly connected, either with the events of the previous day, or with the conditions of the moment. Rainfall on my
face would start a dream of some adventure by water, for example. Or a battle
royal with a man at chess would fight itself all over again, with fantastic
additions, in the overtired and overexcited brain.
I am bound to say that the theory that dreams come from natural causes in
our every-day life seems to me perfectly an adequate and satisfactory one. I
conceive of the brain as an édition de luxe of the wax cylinder of a
dictograph. I imagine that disturbances of our blood currents (intoxications,
and the like) reawaken some of these impressions at random, with the same
result, more or less, as if you started a victrola, and kept on jerking it
irregularly. Our thoughts are normally criticized and controlled by reason
and reflection and will; when these are in abeyance they run riot, combine in
monstrous conspiracies, weave wizard dances. Delirium is but exaggerated
nightmare.
But since the Victorians, the universe is conceived more as dynamic than
kinematic, more as force than as motion; and the will has at last become all-
important to philosophy.
We ought not to be surprised to learn that Dr Jung of Zürich balked at some
of Freud's conclusions. Instead of relating will to sex, he related sex to
will. Thus, all unconsciously, he has paved the way for a revival of the old
magical idea of the will as the dynamic aspect of the self. Each individual,
according to the initiates, has his own definite purpose, and assumes human
form, with its privileges and penalties, in order to execute that purpose.
This truth is expressed in magical language by the phrase "Every man and every
woman is a star", which stands at the head of all hieratic writings Liber Legis. It follows that "The word of Sin is Restriction"; "Do what thou wilt
shall be the whole of the Law". So, once more, we see Science gracefully
bowing her maiden brows before her old father, Magic.
Dr Jung has, however, not reached this high point in conscious thought.
But he sees clearly enough that neuroses and insanities spring from
repressions, from internal conflicts between desire and inhibition; and he
does apparently accept fully the definition of "libido" as Will, in the
magical sense. Bergson's "élan vital" is very much the same, if a shallower
conception. At any rate, let us rejoice that the tedious and stupid attempt
to relate every human idea to sex has been regulated to oblivion; or, if you
prefer to put it that way, that we must now interpret sex in vaster symbols,
comprehending and achieving the ancient and modern worships of Pan as
embracing the universe more adequately than almost any other conception. The
charge of anthropomorphism still lies; but this is necessary. "God is man" --
the third and secret motto of the knights of the Temple -- is, after all, for
humanity at least, a proposition of identity, and relative only in so far as
all Truth is relative.
The main practical issue of Jung's acquiescence in magical theory is, as
explained above, his interpretation of myths. The myth is the dream of the
race. He sees that Freud cannot sustain his thesis that every dream is a
picture of unfulfilled desire; but he seeks to prove that the great myths of
the race, being really the poems of the race, are the artistic and religious
expressions of the will of the race. For the will of the world becomes
articulate in the true poet, and he is the incarnation of the spirit of the
times (the Zeitgeist). He was of old limited by the frontiers of his own
civilization and time, but today his footstool is the planet, and he thinks in
terms of eternity and of infinite space.
Now Jung's great work has been to analyze the race-myths, and to find in
them the expression of the unconscious longings of humanity.
We cannot think that he has been particularly happy in selecting wooden,
academic exercises like Haiwatha, which has as much inspiration as the Greek
iambics of a fourth-form boy in a fourth-rate school; and he is still obsessed
by the method and also by the main ideas of Freud. Much of his analysis is
startling, and at first sight ridiculous.
Can we close our eyes to the perpetual contradictions in his alleged symbolism? Jung regards a serpent or a monument as desire, or the obstacle to
desire, or the presence of desire, or the absence of desire, just as suits his
purpose. There is not consistency in the argument, and there is no serious
attempt to bring all cognate symbols into parallel. He brings many, it is
true -- but he omits certain important ones, so that one is bound to suspect
that all his omissions are intentional! However, the main point of this paper
is to illustrate the prime line of reasoning adopted by Jung. This
understood, the reader can ferret out his own explanations for his own dreams,
desires and myths!
Jung is a determinist. The Victorians -- especially Herbert Spencer --
denying "free will", would argue that a man ate an egg not because he wanted
to do so, but because of the history of the universe. The forces of infinity
and eternity bent themselves in one herculean effort, and pushed the egg into
his mouth! This is quite indeniable; but it is only one way of looking at the
egg question.
Now Jung treats literature in just this way. He will not admit that an
author has any choice of material. If Rupert of Hentzau wounds somebody in
the shoulder, it is because of the story of Pelops and Hera, in which the
shoulder is a sexual symbol. If the other man ripostes and touches Rupert in
the ear, it is because Pantagruel was born from the ear of Gargamelle. So the
ear is a sexual symbol. If the hero of a novel goes from Liverpool to New
York, it is the myth of "the night journey by sea of the sun". If he goes on
to Brooklyn, it is the Descent into Hades of Virgil, or Dante, or anybody
else! There is no evasion of this type of argument; but all arguments that
prove everything prove nothing! If I prove that some cats are green, it is
interesting; but if I go on to show that all cats are green, I destroy myself.
"Greenness" becomes included implicitly in the idea of "cat". It is senseless
to say that "all bipeds have two legs".
However, Dr Jung does not mind this at all. He definitely wishes to reduce
the universe of will, which we think so complex and amusing, to a single crude
symbol. According to him, the history of humanity is the struggle of the
child to free himself from the mother. Every early need is met by the mother;
hunger and fatigue find solace at her breast. Even the final "will to die",
the desire of the supreme and eternal repose, is interpreted as the return to
earth, the mother of us all.
It will occur to the reader that there is much in this; for instance, the
myth or religion of the race tends to disappear with its emancipation from the
mother and family system.
But we cannot conquer one's revolt against what seems the essential
absurdity of the whole Jung argument; that, considering -- let us say, the
importance of the horse to man, with so many horses to choose from, Jung can
see nothing in a story of a man on horseback but a reference to the "symbol of
the stamping horse", which has something to do with the dreams of one of his
neurotic patients on the one hand, and the mythical horse in the Rig-Veda on
the other!
We almost prefer the refinement of modesty evidenced by the young lady who
always blushed when she saw the number "six" -- because she knew Latin!
However, we should all study Jung. His final conclusions are in the main
correct, even if his rough working is a bit sketchy; and we've got to study
him, whether we like it or not, for he will soon be recognized as the
undoubted Autocrat of the 1917 dinner-table.
Just ask your pretty neighbour at dinner tonight whether she has
introverted her Electra-complex; because it will surely become one of the
favourite conversational gambits of the coming social season!
Roosevelt the god | |
Lies dead in a flower garden | |
Lenin in his tomb | |
Has been deified by the icon worshippers | |
And tomorrow | |
Is tomorrow | |
Is tomorrow | |
The Nike's on the hill | |
God's in his Heaven | |
All's well with the world | |
Both of these poems were originally published in The Grady Project #3 (Berkeley: Thelema Lodge, O.T.O., March 1988).
Derived from a lecture series in 1977 e.v. by Bill Heidrick
Copyright © Bill Heidrick
These are activities for each of the traditional parts of the Tree of
Life.
Do these things:
10. | Pick up a clump of moist earth and smell it. | |
32. | Listen carefully to a TV set for at least half an hour without once looking at it. | |
9. | Turn off the sound on a TV set and look carefully at the picture for at least half an hour. | |
31. | Call telephone information and ask for your own number and address -- even if you haven't got a phone. | |
30. | Read a children's story and write about it as if it were a news story. | |
8. | Make a detailed plan for tomorrow. | |
29. | Spend a half hour in a dark garden at midnight. | |
28. | Stand naked before a mirror and gaze into your reflected eyes. | |
27. | Copy a page from a book by hand and immediately burn the copy. | |
7. | Spend half an hour at noon in the same garden you used for # 29. | |
26. | Enter a room which has a closet. Sit there and slowly say one hundred times: "There is a monster lurking and waiting to grab me in that closet." Turn off all the lights, close your eyes and go into the closet. -- Try holding an ice cube while you say the words. | |
25. | Get some of your favorite food or drink. Wait until you are hungry or thirsty; then taste but do not eat or drink. After an hour you may eat or drink something else, but not your favorite that day. | |
24. | If you like meat, sit before some cooked meat; imagine the birth of the animal; then eat. -- If you don't eat meat, sit before a vegetarian meal; imagine someone in another country dying of starvation; eat the food. | |
6. | Rest today and think of the Sun that shines equally on all. | |
23. | Drink a glass of water and then wash the glass. | |
22. | Visit a courtroom while a trial is taking place. | |
5. | Imagine yourself on trial. | |
21. | Read a book by a prisoner who was later released. -- for example: Angela Davis, An Autobiography; the Biblical Book of Job; Mein Kampf by Hitler; the second volume of The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova. | |
20. | Go to a public place like a subway station or a bus terminal. Figure out the routine of the place. Write a set of helpful instructions on how to use the services offered. | |
19. | Take some coins. Walk downtown. Put them in parking meters (if legal where you live ... otherwise, purchase a news paper from a vending machine and leave it unread on top of the machine.). | |
4. | Feed a wild animal or bird -- not a pet or a zoo animal, but a house mouse will do for the animal. | |
18. | Wear your best formal clothing. | |
17. | Read or write a love letter. | |
3. | Find a book (go to the library for it if necessary) that gives instructions for delivering a baby. Read it. 16. Show someone how to do something. | |
15. | Aside from knowledge and skill, what makes an expert different from an ordinary person? -- explain this to someone or write it as an essay. | |
14. | Talk seriously to a plant for at least fifteen minutes. Tape record this (borrow a recorder if necessary) and play it back. | |
2. | Write a description of a familiar object. Run around, jump, yell, dance to lively music, have someone tickle you. Immediately, sit down and write another description of the same object. | |
13. | Relax in a warm bath for a couple of hours. | |
12. | Try to imagine what is involved in supplying everyone in your city with food, power and water. | |
11. | Try to find out who is in charge. | |
1. | Delegate your authority today. |
These tasks are intended to produce a complex set of feelings and
perceptions that pertain to each of the parts of the Tree. For example,
consider number 9. This is something to do. "Turn off the sound on a TV set
and look carefully at the set for half an hour." Doing so should send you
into a realm of fantasy, it's a physical exercise to study the fantasy of
Yesod. Some of these exercises should be done in sequence, e.g. #29 has to be
done before #7. #29 is the path of Qoph, "spend half an hour in a dark garden
at midnight." (Please choose the garden with caution, as there are some
places where this isn't safe.) This will put you in a place where the sense
of sight is suppressed, but all of the other senses are more than usually
active. Sight is closely connected to the mind, and we think too quickly
about what we see. When we are limited to scent, sound and temperature,
emotional reaction comes more easily. Number 7, has one doing the same thing
for an hour at noon to let things of the mind draw together with things of
feeling. Number 26, on the Tree of Life, is the path between Hod and
Tipheret, and the Tarot card is the Devil. The suggestion is to fix firmly in
the mind a fantasy feeling that there is something bad, something to harm you
in the next moment. This path from Hod to Tipheret is the place to break
self-imposed limitations on logical thought.
The sets of exercises in the previous installment of this column, together
with this one, are intended to progress from rational thinking and learning
through images of nature to doing things. Somewhere in the progress you'll be
getting a grip on each and every part of the Tree of Life.
For more exercises of this sort, see the booklet: Qabalah #1, by the
author. Q1 is also available on 93 Net BBS's and elsewhere as the ASCII file
"QBL-1.ASC"
by Soror Mary Magdalene / 974
i. | Touching the forehead say Unto Me, | |
ii. | Touching the breast say The Text, | |
iii. | Touching the right shoulder, say The Author, | |
iv. | Touching the left shoulder, say and The Reader. | |
v. | Clasping the hands upon the breast, say To The Pages, Amen. | |
vi. | Turning to the East, make the appropriate gesture of opening a book. Vibrate ANTI-Feminist! Visualise the "quilt making" (The Western Canon) Feminist critics melting away behind the force of the text. | |
vii. | Turning to the South, the same, but vibrate ANTI-Marxist! Visualise the rampaging crowds of aging Marxist critics melting away behind the force of the text. | |
viii. | Turning to the West, the same, but vibrate ANTI-Ethnocentric! Visualise the "rabblement" (The Western Canon) of Ethnocentric critics melting away behind the force of the text. | |
ix. | Turning to the North, the same, but vibrate ANTI-Deconstructers/New Historicists! (Whichever may be the most appropriate for the prevailing academic climate of the locality.) Visualise the Deconstructionist/New Historicist critics flinging themselves, lemming-like, over a cliff, due to the force of the text. | |
x. | Turning back to the east, and extending the arms on the form of a cross, say, | |
xi. | Before me, Shakespeare; | |
xii. | Behind me, Homer; | |
xiii. | On my right hand, Dante; | |
xiv. | On my left hand, Tolstoy. | |
xv. | For around me flames the Anxiety of Influence, | |
xvi. | But in my Column, I'm the Star. | |
xvii-- | ||
xxi. | Repeat (i) to (v), the Critic's Cross |
This ritual should be performed before commencing any part of the Great
Critical Work, in order to clear the area of undesirable influences which
might otherwise obsess the Critic.
Specific demonic critical entities, such as the Feminist Critic, may be
effectively controlled by studying the Inertia, which contains the Dread and
Awful Names of all the major hierarchies of all the Feminist, Marxist,
Ethnocentric, Deconstructionist and New Historocist Critics in the infernal
world of the Crackpot, which forms their dwelling place.
The motto of the O.C.O. is of course: "Read what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. The Canon is the law, the Canon under Will" (Will being Shakespeare).
Brilliant globe of light inspire | |
Flaming sun drawing higher | |
Midday travels of thy bark | |
Golden pathways holy arc | |
O holy angels | |
Present before me | |
Enflame my heart | |
With passion and tears | |
Shower thy radiance | |
Upon the aeon crowning | |
In new light | |
93 Jermyn St. SW. 1 | Nov. 29 '43 e.v. | |
Care Frater Hymenaeus Alpha!
Fraternally, 666
Documents will be sent off to-morrow |
Bell Inn Aston Clinton Bucks | May 23 {'44} | |
Dear H.A. 93
Yours of May 20. I wrote you yesterday, and now you have changed your A.P.O. Many thanks for the criticisms: most useful. At present I cannot determine the final form of the book; it might, e.g., be a mixture of several methods. Perhaps it might even be worked into a semi fictional form; a account of the training of a "made-up" pupil, with the essays, letters &c worked in as milestones or turning-points in his progress. No more now: I'm dog tired: the delayed-action bomb has been too much for me. Too long & too painful to write details. So, for the moment, adios! 93 93/93 Yours A.C. P.S. M.A.Sutherland 10 NORMAND Mansions {TC} W.14. wants his Lasher back. Please send it to him direct. So sorry I haven't been able to get you one yet. |
{Corrections to difficult readings above from Br. T.C.}
Netherwood The Ridge, Hastings, Sussex 1. 10. 45 | ||
Dear Grady,
Yours ever, {signed} Aleister
Lt. G.L.McMurtry, |
A.C.Y. asked about dangers in Goetic (and other operations):
The principal danger is obsession. It's worse with a religious childhood
overloaded by fear of Hell. After that, the necessary emotional stress to get
results depends very much on easily overlooked details. Finally, the rituals
themselves presuppose a hostility to the spirits involved and at least a minor
degree of Roman Catholic ordination (exorcist).
The usual warnings about Abramelin spirits should be divorced from the
Goetia. Although there is an overlap in some senses, the spirits and methods
are very different. The Goetia involve an extremely decadent Christian view
of what amounts to a mix of old deities and some casual spirits. The
Abramelin spirits are quite different. The Enochian more different still,
although John Dee did start with the Greater and Lesser Keys of Solomon.
Is it necessary to wait for the K&C of the HGA before undertaking Goetic operations?
That's hybridizing the Abramelin and Goetic traditions. It makes sense in
the Abramelin tradition, in that the HGA is near the top of a chain of
authority used to control the spirits. In the Goetic tradition, the authority
is supposed to come from ordination as a sort of priest.
What are some differences and similarities between Goetic, Enochian and Abramelin traditions?
The three groups have things in common and differences of exposition.
Goetia tends to demonize in a Christian sense, e.g. Astaroth in place of
Astarte, with major alteration of detail from older religious traditions. The
Goetia can be re-worked to handle these spirits as destructive aspects of
deities and demi-deities also having beneficent and neutral aspects. The
Abramelin system uses a closer approach to classical relations with spirits.
The Enochian system uses an essentially Elizabethan Celtic slant on what
starts as a Greater Key of Solomon system and quickly fans out into new
spirits. The Abramelin squares are frequently composed of symmetrical
arrangements of Hebrew words and short verse. The 200 odd Enochian squares
are mainly composed of text, written in rows, except for the watchtowers.
Dee's Enochiana is not traditional, rather it applies "Enoch" to a late
"Solomonic" system. Old Enochiana was Merkabah Qabalah, as seen in the
Ethiopian texts of the books of Enoch. All three traditions make some use of
the classic Demons of the Four Quarters, but the Abramelin and Enochian
Systems are more geographical. The Abramelin System tends to make very few
changes in the allocations, e.g. Kore is one of the spirits, identical to the
Persephone of the Greeks. The Enochian system of Dee greatly enhances the
allocation to political regions of the earth. The Goetic system is more
random, including what amounts to the spirits also used in the 1,001 Arabian
Nights.
For a Merkabah reading source, I recommend starting with: Gershom G.
Scholem's Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and Talmudic Tradition, The
Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1965, Library of Congress Catalogue
Card Number: 60-10743.
P. expressed concern about visiting the Gnostic Mass, on grounds that she might explode in giggles. I tried to "help" by the following observation:
When the rubric in the Gnostic Mass has the Priest saying "virgin, pure
without spot", my mind kicks back to a grammar school reader, Fun with Dick and Jane, which had a dog named "Spot". Perhaps you can see the difficulty:
Here's a priest of a semi phallic rite ("Dick") leading his innocent sister
Jane about (Virgin), and trying to avoid the damn dog of reason (Spot) that
will disrupt the flow of the mystery.
8/4/95 | Signs, Grips and Words 8:00PM Horus Temple (members only) | Thelema Ldg. | ||
8/5/95 | Lammas Ritual at the Beach meet at OZ house 10:00AM sharp | |||
8/6/95 | Gnostic Mass 8:00PM Horus Temple | Thelema Ldg. | ||
8/7/85 | LAMMAS, Sol 15 deg. Leo 5PM | |||
8/9/95 | Sirius Oasis Meeting 8PM Berkeley | Sirius Oasis | ||
8/10/95 | FULL MOON in Aquarius 11:16 AM | |||
8/12/95 | FEAST OF THE BEAST AND HIS BRIDE | |||
8/13/95 | Lodge luncheon meeting 12:30 | Thelema Ldg. | ||
8/13/95 | Gnostic Mass 8:00PM Horus Temple | Thelema Ldg. | ||
8/14/95 | "Samekh without Fears" ritual class Horus Temple 8:00 PM with Rr. L.C. | Thelema Ldg. | ||
8/16/95 | Thelema Lodge Library night 8PM (call to attend) | Thelema Ldg. | ||
8/20/95 | Gnostic Mass 8:00PM Horus Temple | Thelema Ldg. | ||
8/21/95 | Section 2 reading group, 8PM at OZ Sir R. Burton`s 1,0001 Nights with Caitlin | Thelema Ldg. | ||
8/23/95 | Magick in Theory and Practice 8:00PM in San Anselmo with Bill | Thelema Ldg. | ||
8/25/95 | Astrological Cycles with Grace 7 PM, Berkeley. Call to attend. | Thelema Ldg. | ||
8/26/95 | The Rite of Saturn. 9:30PM | Thelema Ldg. | ||
8/27/95 | Gnostic Mass 8:00PM Horus Temple | Thelema Ldg. | ||
8/28/95 | Thelema Lodge Library night 8PM (call to attend) | Thelema Ldg. | ||
8/30/95 | Liber XV Study Group w. Bp. T Dionysys 8:00PM | 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.
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.