Thelema Lodge Calendar for November 1997 e.v.

Thelema Lodge Calendar

for November 1997 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, 1997 e.v.

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

November 1997 e.v. at Thelema Lodge

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

Announcements from
Lodge Members and Officers


Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica

Visitors are welcome at Thelema Lodge, and the best time to come is Sunday evening, when we hold our weekly celebration of Aleister Crowley's Mass of the Gnostic Catholic Church. Our gnostic mass is a pagan eucharist ritual, which culminates in a communion circle, when all who attend partake together of the cake and wine which have been magically consecrated by the priest and priestess. For further information, including directions to the temple, those who have not previously attended should call the lodgemaster ahead of time at (510) 652-3171. As autumn draws on, and as we set the clocks back for the dark of the year, masses will be getting underway earlier, so communicants should now be arriving by 7:30. Usually we wait together in the lodge library for a few minutes before the deacon appears at the outer veil to call us inside the temple for the celebration to begin.

How can the thelemic community here best perpetuate within our weekly gnostic mass celebration the traditions of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, which devolve upon us as we assemble in Horus Temple? A rich history of joyful devotion continues to thrive in our ongoing enthusiasm, our understanding and performance skills, and in the magical trust we have built together as celebrants and communicants in the sanctuary of the gnosis. To share meaningfully in the gnostic mass, the first step is simply to learn the ritual; to become familiar with its basic structure, and gradually to explore and understand the speeches and gestures of which it is composed. It is natural to begin by picking up the lines assigned to the People in the mass, with which most communicants find they are able to join in after only a few weeks of regular participation, with no greater effort of memorization than simply paying good attention. The roles of the officers will require more concerted study, but it is the depth of meaning approached in this process of absorbing the rubric of the mass into one's own will, which leads the celebrant on to the heart of the gnosis.

"Learning the Mass" is the title of a special seminar to be offered at Thelema Lodge on Friday evening 7th November by Gnostic Bishop T Theodora, beginning at 8:00. Our discussion will be oriented for novice officers who are preparing for public celebration, and also for those who are out of practice and want to regain mastery in the roles. But the practical techniques and interpretations which should be shared in this seminar will also be useful to those who continue as regular celebrants, and even to those who have been coming only to communicate. A Christian priest from one of the local Episcopal churches has come to our gnostic mass a few times, and commented that the memorization of the officers' parts was impressive, since the eucharist ceremony in most churches is somewhat shorter and simpler than ours, and yet is almost always read out from a missal. We assured him that, had he a priestess to work with in his sanctuary, he would not want to have his eyes in the book very much. Learning the mass is the way we assume membership and cohere together as the body of the Gnostic Catholic Church, and Bishop Theodora welcomes involvement in her seminar from all the parts of this body.


M M M

Initiations for advancement in Ordo Templi Orientis are next scheduled here on Saturday afternoon 8th November, with all members who are interested in attending requested to call the lodge ahead of time for specific information regarding the time, place, and degrees to be worked. There will be a feast following the ritual for all of those involved; contributions of drinks and desserts are welcome from members who attend.
Initiation into the Man of Earth degrees of O.T.O. is offered by application at Thelema Lodge, and at many other chartered O.T.O. groups both locally and internationally. To request candidacy, obtain from one of the lodge officers the proper application form for the degree sought, and submit it when complete -- including the signatures of two valid sponsors -- to the lodgemaster. The initiation can then be scheduled, following an application period of one month.
Candidates are allowed six months to take the initiation after they become eligible, and this period can be extended by another six months upon request. Only those candidates who take it upon themselves to maintain contact with the lodge officers as they await initiation can for practical purposes be regarded as persevering in their application. No advance dues or fees are collected at this lodge, but the correct amount must be paid on the day of the ritual.
A seminar on the Minerval degree of O.T.O. will be offered at Thelema Lodge on Saturday afternoon 15th November at 4:00. Organized by local members of the Lodge of Perfection, and presented for us by Tammy Austin, this event will of course be limited to 0° initiates of O.T.O. We will be exploring the symbolism of the Minerval rite, with a complete "guided tour" of the initiation ritual, and conclude with an open discussion of our role in the Order as members at this degree, and the meaning of the Minerval work in our everyday lives. Join us as we invoke a new conception for the magical progress of the self, as a babe in an egg.


The Vision and the Voice

Again this autumn Caitlin will be supervising a complete reading of Liber 418, The Vision and the Voice of the Thirty Aethyrs, on the anniversaries of the original scrying sessions which generated these magical revelations. We open with TEX, the Cry of the 30th Aethyr, at 8:00 on Friday evening 14th November, which like many of the Aethyr readings will be held at Oz House. Next is RII, the 29th Aethyr, on Monday evening 17th November, immediately preceding the Section Two Reading Group's exploration of the Old Hebrew Book of Judges. Further Aethyrs to be read this month are BAG (28) on Sunday 23rd, and ZAA (27) the following day, both at 8 PM; then DES (26) at 1:10 PM and VTI (25) at 8:40 PM, both on Tuesday 25th; NIA (24) is on Wednesday 26th at 2 PM; TOR (23) at 9:30 AM and LIN (22) at 4 PM, are both on Friday 28th; ASP (21) is on Saturday 29th at 1:30 PM; then KHR (20) at 9:15 AM and POP (19) at 10 PM, will both be read on Sunday 30th November. The series continues through December.
When Crowley first attempted to explore by "skrying in the Spirit Vision" the regions enumerated in the Enochian Calls of John Dee and Edward Kelly, the imagery which he recorded seemed to him "as unintelligible . . . as William Blake to a 7th Day Adventist." These were the opening two Aethyrs, which were explored during a mountain-climbing trip to Mexico late in 1900. Nine years later Crowley resumed and concluded the project, with the assistance of his friend, pupil, and lover Victor Neuberg, at stops made along the way during a walking tour of Algeria. His basic technique, in the account given by Crowley's later secretary Israel Regardie, was to use a large gem of topaz set in a wooden cross; "he would take this stone and recite the Enochian Call and, after satisfying himself that the forces invoked were actually present, made the topaz play a part not unlike that of the looking glass in the case of Alice." (Regardie, who later confessed that he felt uneasy about his employer's homosexual reputation even though attention of this kind was never directed toward him, made no comment whatsoever about Neuberg's active role in the invocations, which was unlike anything in Alice.)


N.O.X. Talks

November's Wednesday evening meetings of the College of Hard N.O.X. will be held on the 5th and 26th at 8:00. Special thanks are due to Frater Majnun for chairing the Thanksgiving week session in the Dean's absence. The proposed topic for 5th November is subjectivity, and how it expresses itself in human personality. At least three types of subjective behavior will be critiqued: the empiric, which believes in, and identifies its experience with, objective reality; the solipsistic, which realizes that all experience is subjective, and so disbelieves in objective reality; and, the realistic, which, while recognizing that its experience must always be subjective, yet still continues to believe in its perceptions of an objective reality. But if anyone should say that our object is to subject each subject to the condition of object, this subject would have to object!

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Honey from the Lion

Join the Section Two reading group this month at Oz House on Monday evening 17th November, as we return to the Big Black Book of Swords and Sorcery for an evening with some of the great tribal heroes of the Bronze Age. Limp leather will spring to life beginning around 8:30 (after the 29th Aethyr reading from Liber 418), as Caitlin guides us through the Old Testament book of Judges. In the age of the Hebrew Judges, the Promised Land was still a wild frontier, and angels brought down instructions to great heroes (of both the strong-arm and smart-ass varieties). The Book of Judges includes Gideon with his soggy fleece, Jephthah and his human sacrifice to the Lord, Samson and the secret of the honey in the lion, and many little tales like the one of Ehud's assassination of Eglon, as well as the Song of Deborah (already centuries old when the book was assembled, presumably in the early 6th century B.C.E.).

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A Greater Feast for Patrick King,
Frater Meithras XI°

News of the accidental death of our Brother Patrick King has reached the lodge from the Czech Republic, where he had been travelling when he was apparently asphyxiated by a faulty heater in a hotel room. Originally from Salt Lake City, Pat was an active and enthusiastic member in the early days of Thelema Lodge, and one of the leading organizers of the Rites of Eleusis at that time. He did important research on assignment from Hymenaeus Alpha in the Crowley archives of the Warburg Institute at the University of London, which contributed to the work of the Lover's Triad of O.T.O. degrees, and his own inscrutable work with the magick of the XI° was so impressive that it warranted an official charter from the Caliph in those early days (which now seems something of a contradiction in terms).
Pat was a beautiful guy, an expert and an instructor in several martial arts, with an extraordinary grace of movement when he was in good form and health. Many knew him as a loving friend, playful and adventuresome and knowing, radically but stylishly challenging, to wide circles of thelemites. He always had his demons, and his very serious and debilitating substance abuse over many years seemed sometimes to be the price he paid for suppressing, when he was sober and working, his vast reserves of latent anxiety, antagonism, and mistrust. Even though Pat left the O.T.O. over a decade ago, remarking that he hardly recognized in it the Order of which he had once been a vital part, he maintained the affection of many of its members. His achievements and his antics have long been legendary. Pat even boasted of being given the X° of O.T.O. for Morocco by Grady, in a moment of exasperation, and on condition that he remove himself thence to claim the title (which several years later he managed to do). We have learned much from his work, and from his play with us, as well as from some of the harder lessons of his example. O.T.O. members who never chanced to meet him, including our other Patrick King, also long in the Order, will be hard pressed to find his like in this incarnation. He will be greatly missed, even as we celebrate his life.


Crowley Classics

Crowley's volume of polymorphicaly perverse symbolist poetry entitled White Stains was printed privately and pseudonymously in a small edition by the noted pornographer and literary publisher Leonard Smithers in 1898. Most of the copies were confiscated and burned by British Customs agents many years later in the course of a shipment to London, but a facsimile of the book has been issued by John Symonds (London: Duckworth, 1986). Crowley prefixed the following notice to the volume: "The Editor hopes that Mental Pathologists, for whose eyes alone this treatise is destined, will spare no precaution to prevent it falling into other hands."
In fact the poetry had been written as part of an experiment inspired by Crowley's reading of Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis at Cambridge. As described in Confessions, Crowley "invented a poet who went wrong, who began with normal and innocent enthusiasms, and gradually developed various vices. He ends by being stricken with disease and madness, culminating in murder. In his poems he describes his downfall, always explaining the psychology of each act" (p. 139). He does not call attention to the fact that the invented poet seems to be his own imaginary uncle; or at least this George Archibald Bishop could easily be taken for the brother of Crowley's mother Emily Bertha Bishop. Her real brother, Thomas Bond Bishop, had made life miserable with his "extraordinarily narrow, ignorant, and bigoted Evangelicalism" (ibid., 54) when as a teenager -- upon the death of his father -- Crowley had been forced to move in with him. The specific dates mentioned in this fictional history may have been significant in the history of Crowley's mother's family, although this cannot easily be documented.

Preface to White Stains

by Aleister Crowley

In the fevered days and nights under the Empire that perished in the struggle of 1870, that whirling tumult of pleasure, scheming, success, and despair, the minds of men had a trying ordeal to pass through. In Zola's La Curée we see how such ordinary and natural characters as those of Saccard, Maxime, and the incestuous heroine, were twisted and distorted from their normal sanity, and sent whirling into the jaws of a hell far more affrayant than the mere cheap and nasty brimstone Sheol which is a Shibboleth for the dissenter, and with which all classes of religious humbug, from the Pope to the Salvation ranter, from the Mormon and the Jesuit to that mongrel mixture of the worst features of both, the Plymouth Brother, have scared their illiterate, since hypocrisy was born, with Abel, and spiritual tyranny, with Jehovah! Society, in the long run, is eminently sane and practical; under the Second Empire it ran mad. If these things are done in the green tree of Society, what shall be done in the dry tree of Bohemianism? Art always has a suspicion to fight against; always some poor mad Max Nordau is handy to call everything outside the kitchen the asylum. Here, however, there is a substratum of truth. Consider the intolerable long roll of names, all tainted with glorious madness. Baudelaire the diabolist, debauchee of sadism, whose dreams are nightmares, and whose waking hours delirium; Rollinat the necrophile, the poet of phthisis, the anxiomaniac; Péladan, the high priest -- of nonsense; Mendés, frivolous and scoffing sensualist; besides a host of others, most alike in this, that, below the cloak of madness and depravity, the true heart of genius burns. No more terrible period than this is to be found in literature; so many great minds, of which hardly one comes to fruition; such seeds of genius, such a harvest of -- whirlwind! Even a barren waste of sea is less saddening than one strewn with wreckage.
In England such wild song found few followers of any worth or melody. Swinburne stands on his solitary pedestal above the vulgar crowds of priapistic plagiarists; he alone caught the fierce frenzy of Baudelaire's brandied shrieks, and his First Series of Poems and Ballads was the legitimate echo of that not fierier note. But English Art as a whole was unmoved, at any rate not stirred to any depth, by this wave of debauchery. The great thinkers maintained the even keel, and the windy waters lay nor for their frailer barks to cross. There is one exception of note, till this day unsuspected, in the person of George Archibald Bishop. In a corner of Paris this young poet (for in his nature the flower of poesy did spring, did even take root and give some promise of a brighter bloom, till stricken and blasted in latter years by the lightning of his own sins) was steadily writing day after day, night after night, often working forty hours at a time, work which he destined to entrance the world. All England should ring with his praises; bye-and-bye the whole world should know his name. Of these works none of the longer and more ambitious remains. How they were lost, and how those fragments we possess were saved, is best told by relating the romantic and almost incredible story of his life.
The known facts of this life are few, vague, and unsatisfactory; the more definite statements lack corroboration, and almost the only source at the disposal of the biographer is the letters of Mathilde Doriac to Mdme J. S., who has kindly placed her portfolio at my service. A letter dated October 15, 1866, indicates that our author was born on the 23rd of that month. The father and mother of George were, at least on the surface, of an extraordinary religious turn of mind. Mathilde's version of the story, which has its source in our friend himself, agrees almost word for word with a letter of the Rev. Edw. Turle to Mrs. Cope, recommending the child to her care. The substance of the story is as follows.
The parents of George carried their religious ideas to the point of never consummating their marriage!1 This arrangement does not seem to have been greatly appreciated by the wife at least; one fine morning she was found to be enceinte. The foolish father never thought of the hypothesis which commends itself most readily to a man of the world, not to say a man of science, and adopted that of a second Messiah! He took the utmost pains to conceal the birth of the child, treated everybody who came to the house as an emissary of Herod, and finally made up his mind to flee into Egypt! Like most religious maniacs, he never had an idea of his own, but distorted the beautiful and edifying events of the Bible into insane and ridiculous ones, which he proceeded to plagiarise.
On the voyage out the virgin mother became enamoured, as was her wont, of the nearest male, in this case a fellow-traveller. He, being well able to support her in the luxury which she desired, easily persuaded her to leave the boat with him by stealth. A small sailing vessel conveyed them to Malta, where they disappeared. The only trace left in the books of earth records that this fascinating character was accused, four years later, in Vienna, of poisoning her paramour, but thanks to the wealth and influence of her newer lover, she escaped.
The legal father, left by himself with a squalling child to amuse, to appease in his tantrums, and to bring up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, was not a little perplexed by the sudden disappearance of his wife. At first he supposed that she had been translated, but, finding that she had not left the traditional mantle behind her, he abandoned this supposition in favour of quite a different, and indeed a more plausable one. He now believed her to be the scarlet woman in the Apocalypse, with variations. On arrival in Egypt he hired an old native nurse, and sailed for Odessa. Once in Russia he could find Gog and Magog, and present to them the child as Antichrist. For he was now persuaded that he himself was the First Beast, and would ask the sceptic to count his seven heads and ten horns. The heads, however, rarely totted up accurately!
At this point the accounts of Mr. Turtle and Mathilde diverge slightly. The cleric affirms that he was induced by a Tartar lady, of an honourable and ancient profession, to accompany her to Thibet "to be initiated into the mysteries." He was, of course, robbed and murdered with due punctuality, in the town of Kiev. Mathilde's story is that he travelled to Kiev on the original quest, and died of typhoid or cholera. In any case, he died at Kiev in 1839. This fixes the date of the child's birth at 1837. His faithful nurse conveyed him safely to England, where his relatives provided for his maintenance and education.
With the close of this romantic chapter in his early history we lose all reliable traces for some years. One flash alone illumines the darkness of his boyhood; in 1853, after being prepared for confirmation, he cried out in full assembly, instead of kneeling to receive the blessing of the officiating bishop, "I renounce for ever this idolatrous church;" and was quietly removed.
He told Mathilde Doriac that he had been to Eton and Cambridge -- neither institution, however, preserves any record of such admission. The imagination of George, indeed, is tremendously fertile with regard to events in his own life. His own story is that he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1856, and was sent down two years later for an article which he had contributed to some University or College Magazine. No confirmation of any sort is to be found anywhere with regard to these or any other statements of our author. There is, however, no doubt that in 1861 he quarreled with his family; went over to Paris, where he settled down, at first, like every tufthead, somewhere in the Quartier Latin; later, with Mathilde Doriac, the noble woman who became his mistress and held to him through all the terrible tragedy of his moral, mental, and physical life, in the Rue du Faubourg-Poissonnière. At his house there the frightful scenes of '68 took place, and it was there too that he was apprehended after the murders which he describes so faithfully in "Abysmos." He had just finished this poem with a shriek of triumph, and had read it through to the appalled Mathilde, "avec des yeux de flamme et de gestes incohérentes," when, foaming at the mouth, and "hurlant de blasphèmes indicibles," he fell upon her with extraordinary violence of passion; the door opened, officers appeared, the arrest was effected. He was committed to an asylum, for there could be no longer any doubt of his complete insanity; for three weeks he had been raving with absinthe and satyriasis. He survived his confinement no long time; the burning of the asylum with its inmates was one of the most terrible events of the war of 1870. So died one of the most talented Englishmen of his century, a man who for wide knowledge of men and things was truly to be envied, yet one who sold his birthright for a mess of beastlier pottage than ever Esau guzzled, who sold soul and body to Satan for sheer love of sin, whose mere lust of perversion is so intense that it seems to absorb every other emotion and interest. Never since God woke light from chaos has such a tragedy been unrolled before men, step after step toward the lake of Fire!
At his house all his writings were seized, and, it is believed, destroyed. The single most fortunate exception is that of a superbly jewelled writing- case, now in the possession of the present editor, in which were found the MSS. which are here published. Mathilde, who knew how he treasured its contents, preserved it by saying to the officer, "But, sir, that is mine." On opening this it was found to contain, besides these MSS., his literary will. All MSS. were to be published thirty years after his death, not before. He would gain no spurious popularity as a reflection of the age he lived in. "Tennyson," he says, "will die before sixty years are gone by: if I am to be beloved of men, it shall be because my work is for all times and all men, because it is greater than all the gods of chance and change, because it has the heart of the human race beating in every line." This is a patch of magenta to mauve, undoubtedly; but -- ! The present collection of verses will hardly be popular; if the lost works turn up, of course it may be that there may be found "shelter for songs that recede." Still, even here, one is, on the whole, more attracted than repelled; the author has enormous power, and he never scruples to use it, to drive us half mad with horror, or, as in his earlier most exquisite works, to move us to the noblest thoughts and deeds. True, his debt to contemporary writers is a little obvious here and there; but these are small blemishes on a series of poems whose originality is always striking, and often dreadful, in its broader features.
We cannot leave George Bishop without a word of inquiry as to what became of the heroic figure of Mathilde Doriac. It is a bitter task to have to write in cold blood the dreadful truth about her death. She had the misfortune to contract, in the last few days of her life with him, the same terrible disease which he describes in the last poem of his collection.2 This shock, coming so soon after, and, as it were, as an unholy perpetual reminder of the madness and sequestration of her lover, no less than of his infidelity, unhinged her mind, and she shot herself on July 5th, 1869. Her last letter to Madame J... S... is one of the tenderest and most pathetic ever written. She seems to have been really loved by George, in his wild, infidel fashion: "All Night" and "Victory," among others, are obviously inspired by her beauty; and her devotion to him, the abasement of soul, the prostitution of body, she underwent for and with him, is one of the noblest stories life has known. She seems to have dived with him, yet ever trying to raise his soul from the quagmire; if God is just at all, she shall stand more near to His right hand than the vaunted virgins who would soil no hem of vesture to save their brother from the worm that dieth not!
The Works of George Archibald Bishop will speak for themselves; it would be both impertinent and superfluous in me to point out in detail their many and varied excellences, or their obvious faults. The raison d'être, though, of their publication, is worthy of especial notice. I refer to their psychological sequence, which agrees with their chronological order. His life-history, as well as his literary remains, gives us an idea of the progression of diabolism as it really is; not as it is painted. Note also, (1) the increase of selfishness in pleasure, (2) the diminution of his sensibility to physical charms. Pure and sane is his early work; then he is carried into the outer current of the great vortex of Sin, and whirls lazily through the sleepy waters of mere sensualism; the pace quickens, he grows fierce in the mysteries of Sapphism and the cult of Venus Aversa with women; later of the same forms of vice with men, all mingled with wild talk of religious dogma and a general exaltation of Priapism at the expense, in particular, of Christianity, in which religion, however, he is undoubtedly a believer till the last (the pious will quote James 2;19, and the infidel will observe that he died in an asylum); then the full swing of the tide catches him, the mysteries of death become more and more an obsession, and he is flung headlong into Sadism, Necrophilia, all the maddest, fiercest vices that the mind of fiends ever brought up from the pit. But always to the very end his power is unexhausted, immense, terrible. His delirium does not amuse; it appalls! A man who could conceive as he did must himself have had some glorious chord in his heart vibrating to the eternal principle of Boundless Love. That this love was wrecked is for me, in some sort a relative of his, a real and bitter sorrow. He might have been so great! He missed Heaven! Think kindly of him!

Notes:
1. Will it be believed that a clergyman (turned Plymouth Brother and schoolmaster) actually
made an identical confession to boy of ten years old? -- A.C., 1904.
2. Syphilis -- ed/TLC

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An Introduction to Qabalah

Part XXXIII -Some Variations on the Tree.

Derived from a lecture series in 1977 e.v. by Bill Heidrick
Copyright © Bill Heidrick

This installment makes reference to variations on paths for the Tree. For illustrations of examples and a different treatment, see Thelema Lodge Calendar, "The View from Tipheret", 6/92 to 10/92 e.v.

Consider a modified Tree of Life diagram: Remove paths 13, 25, 31 and 29. Add new paths between 1-4, 1-5, 2-5, and 3-4. This Tree displays a strengthening of the upper half of the diagram. By completing the arrangement between the upper sephirot in this fashion, the half above Geburah and Chesed seems isolated from the lower half. This Tree has two pentagrams, one the reflection of the other. The pentagrams are like the sun and moon, mated and yet apart. The diagram retains 22 paths, but the middle pillar is sacrificed. Malkut is tenuously attached by all that's left of that middle pillar. In a human condition, this is like a person who has a strong mystical life and a protected, harmonious material existence. This is the state of mind of one who has well begun a magical retirement.

Take again a traditional Tree and make a different modification: First draw up the lower sephirot of the middle pillar by one place, so that Tipheret occupies the center of the upper five sephirot, Yesod stands where Tipheret did before and Malkut occupies the place formerly held by Yesod. Retain all vertical and all horizontal connecting paths. Place the diagonal paths in this fashion: 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 1-5, 2-9, 3-9, 6-7, 6-8, 4-10, 5-10, 7-10 and 8- 10. Again there are exactly 22 connecting paths. This Tree depicts the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, as a moment when the lower middle pillar is drawn up. There is perfection above and perfection below, seen as an upper and a lower hexagram of paths. The highest point of aspiration of the mortal below reaches into the heart of the Angel, while the lowest extension of the hexagram of the Angel reaches to the heart of the aspirant. Here is the moment of marriage of gods and men. It is not the crossing of the Abyss or that attainment of seven times seven in which the 50th gate opens to the supernals. There are limited paths of communication between the two hexagrams, and those hexagrams form two centers of personality.
Some years ago Lynn Powell constructed a similar Tree. Instead of elevating Tipheret or Yesod, he took Malkut and stuck it in Da'at. The paths were changed as well, with rearrangement of the attributions. Consider similar experiments. Ponder them and what the changed relations on the Tree might signify. Very many different arrangements are possible, but all must be studied and interpreted.
There is a tradition in Qabalah that a Qabalist isn't really kosher unless the Qabalist knows all about the Torah and the Talmud. That's orthodox Kabbalah. For me, it is sufficient if I can find an essential seed somewhere in Qabalah, in the writings of the past and in the sense of what I see, to justify my experiments. Had I come up with Lynn's Tree, I would first justify it by the tradition that Malkut and Da'at are somehow the same. In one approach to a perfected Tree Da'at disappears and Malkut goes there. Next, I would argue that the whole lower part of the Tree takes on a nature similar to the old quality of Malkut, but it is unified in the middle of the Abyss by the risen Malkut, not unlike the formula of Osiris and the notion of vicarious salvation.

What was I just talking about, all this business of justifying and finding a seed in somebody else's work? What was I doing? I ran a line to another Tree, just to make sure that whatever I came up with could be brought together with what had been done before. Instead of idly drawing circles and lines, I've made sure that there is a little tie of energy to something other people have learned. That's the justifying, the making sure that it's all still connected.

Remember back to those four overlapping circles, a way of depicting the Four Worlds. Lynn's Tree is the sort of thing that can be in variation. When those circles overlap, there's a Da'at-Malkut combination. Those over-laps are like two pieces of cardboard, one held above the other. The top of one has been concealed, and you can't see the bottom of the other. That too can be considered a Da'at-Malkut thing.

Ponder these things and experiment.

Previous, Part XXXII                   Next: Some Thoughts on Achad's Paths.


from the Grady Project:

Two Poems

Nostalgia

Oak
Smoke

-- Grady L. McMurtry
(Nov 3, 1962, 1015)

Space Drive

Rogue
Drogue!

Spherical?

Lyrical!

          -- Grady L. McMurtry
          (11-13-62, 1430)
          original title: "Space Anchor"


La Gauloise

(Song of the Free French)

par Aleister Crowley

Créateur du signe V
auteur de "Thumbs Up!"

14 Juillet 1942 e.v.

Prix: à volonté
140 Piccadilly, London, W.I.

Hommes de coeur, jamais battus,
Hommes d'honneur, rélévons-nous!
Trahis, meurtis, foulés par terre,
Bah! la première plaie de la guerre!
[Tenez] c'est l'aube de la gloire!
Brille, soleil de la victoire!
Tous, en avant! Bannière, avance!
Haut, ferme, fort! Vive la France!

Trâitres, à mort! Couards, à mort!
Au vent l'essor du tricolore!
Marchons (chargons, brisons, moulons)
A la revanche, au châtiment!
Balayons, au néant sans fin,
Les barbares, les assassins!
Tous, en avant! Bannière, avance!
Haut, ferme, fort! Vive la France!

Libres, égaux, frères français,
Vaincrons! Vaincrons à tout jamais!
Les foubrs lâches écrasons!
Exterminons le vil tyran!
Hommes de coeur, hommes de gloire,
Hommes d'honneur, à la victorie!
Tous, en avant! Bannière, avance!
Haut, ferme, fort! Vive la France!


La Gauloise

(Song of the Free French)

Men of courage, never beaten,
Men of honor, let us arise!
Betrayed, bruised, trod upon,
Bah! the first wounds of the war!
Beyond the dawn of glory!
Shine, O Sun of victory!

(refrain)
Forward all, Flag advance!
High, firm, strong. Long live France!

Death to Traitors! Death to Cowards!
Into the wind unfurl the tricolor!
Let us march (charge, break, grind to dust)
On to revenge, to punishment!
Let us sweep into the endless void
the barbarians, the assassins!

(refrain)

Free, equal, French brothers,
Wee will conquer, we will conquer for evermore!
Let us crush the craven knaves!
Let us exterminate the vile tyrant!
Men of courage, men of glory,
Men of honor, on to Victory!

(refrain)

                                             -- English translation by Robin Coffee

Crowley sent a copy of this poem to the London headquarters of the Free French. He received the following note in reply: "Sir, I am instructed by General de Gaulle to thank you for your letter of May 12th. It is with a keen interest that we receive your song. We are touched by the fine sentiments, which you express in so charming a style."


Primary Sources

Care Frater Saturnus:
Among the papers of the inventory made by Karl Germer, Fr. Saturnus, for the OTO archive then in his keeping, there is a brief list of books inscribed by Crowley. The dedications are mostly to Germer from Crowley, but a few are to Cora and to Sascha, Karl's last two wives. At least one, Liber Aleph, was likely a bound typescript. This document provides insight into the relationship between Crowley and Germer, both in breadth and depth.

Books with Inscription to KJG, etc.

Temperance No.6. To Karl Germer in memory of many bottles of Hock drunk in sincere friendship. Aleister Crowley.

do.    No. 45. To Karl Germer safe in New York from his friend Aleister Crowley, the happiest man in Europe since that news arrived. An. I.xv. Sun in Taurus

OLLA To Karl and Sascha an ordinary copy to amuse 'em while the h.m.p. one is being bound -- Love Aleister.

Olla (half morocco)To my dearest and best of friends Karl and Sascha with all my fondest love from Aleister Crowley. June 10, '47 e.v.

The Book of Thoth No. 3.To Karl and Sascha (Fratri Saturno) without whose constant aid and loyalty and encouragement this volume could never have seen the light, their grateful and devoted Aleister. Jour de la Bastille '44 An I, xviii Sun in 22° Cancer.

Liber Aleph (half morocco)To my beloved Brother in the light Karl Johannes Germer Saturni with a depth of affection that is altogether beyond human expression. Aleister Crowley 666

X MoonchildTo Cora Germer not merely because she is probably what that Moonchild grew up to be; but because she is rather a nice kid. Aleister Crowley. An. I 4 Sun in 3° Libra. (Given to Sascha.)

X The Fun of the Fair.My dear Sascha, Alas! that I can offer you no worthier wedding present than this book. But all my heart --- for what that may be worth! -- goes with it. May this, however seedling though it is, prove earnest of a happier harvest! Yours Aleister. No. 4.

X The City of God. No.9.To Sascha who also is a City Beautiful! Aleister Crowley

Book of the Law, red buckram, small ed.To my dear Brother in the Way. from Ankh-f-n-Khonsu

do.     small ed.Fratri. ad Magni (paper) Operis sui perfectionem. An XII Sun in Aries.

The Heart of the Master. Leather.To my dear comrade Fra. from To Mega Therion (Greek). An I, vii, Sun in Libra.

Thumbs Up!Caroio fratri meo amico dilectissimi hunc librum do. 666 No. 15.

doA second copy has these annotations:
on errata slip:
It seems that I was not quite strong enough. Within a fortnight of Sept. 7 Kiev fell and the situation in the Russian front began to get steadily worse. But I shall keep on trying!
on errata slip:
On last page, after "Now, whereas" Dr. Birven of .... has foully and treacherously attacked the Order in the person of Fra IX° one of its highest officials and otherwise wrought mischief .... add to this list the name of Dr. Henri Birven signed 6 = 5 R.R. et A.C

The Fun of the Fair, on last page: No. 3.To my best of brothers devotedly, with will to his enduring happiness, the Traveler Aleister Crowley.

Clouds Without Water.To Karl Germer in token of good will Aleister Crowley. June 22, 1925 e.v.

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From the Outbasket

Here are some edited selections from recent email discussion:

B.V. Asked about "Social Vampires".

Social "Vampires" are found in categorizations of relationship situations between individuals, with few exceptions. These vary from mild flirting (which can lead to obsession) through serious "head trips" (mental and social destructive games) to severe drains on the spirit and life energy. Older people in the presence of much younger people can have a "vampiric" effect, as can very young children on some older people. The flirting kind can be fun, but only if one is not too sexually tense and prone to worry. Even the "head trip" kind can be amusing, if one does not take it too seriously and has plenty of time to be away from it. Most situations of this type are simple imbalances, like too much water pressure. In a few cases, the person in the role of "vampire" is very destructive and the only thing to do is to avoid that person. For spiritual and mental drains of life energy, it may be necessary to go away from a place as well as a person, or to find something more positive in one's life -- that's why we take vacations and have places of amusement. One of the most common vampiric situations comes from lack of maturity. People often think that it is necessary to defeat or conquer someone else in order to achieve a goal. Although at times that is true, usually there is no need to destroy externals in order to attain.

A.C.Y. asked about religious prohibitions, especially against saying divine names.

Prohibitions arise from several origins. Some are simply conservative, intended to maintain a tradition or protect a social system (community). Some are tropes, intended to evoke or suggest thinking and behavior indirectly. Some are arbitrary, intended to help with confusing situations. All accepted prohibitions induce psychological states in the mind of those who accept them. Various tricks (E.g. rolling in snow, nettles etc.) are necessary to deal with the psychological blocks associated with accepted prohibitions.
When encountering such prohibitions, especially against blasphemy or taking holy names "in vain", remember this. You are yourself. Discount but don't disregard. Proceed with an inquiring mind and due caution. Experiment, both within and without the strictures of these traditions. The balance of the sacred and the profane can be quite complex.

A.C.Y. also wondered about the absence of opprobrium in Liber AL against Jewish terms and prophets, since Christian, Buddhist and Islamic traditions appear to get a rough treatment from Ra-Hoor-Khuit in the text.

I think Moses and Abraham just fell in the cracks.
Alternatively, Judaism is a less obviously the product of one mind in origin and is less given to the sorts of things Crowley had direct experience in at the time. All sacred scripture, revelation, if you will, must pass through the mind of the person acting as scribe. If the idea is not on top or otherwise readily available, it may not be used to pass along the message. Crowley had struggled with the religions Liber AL attacks in the 3rd Chapter. Those were available to convey a notion of dispute with current conceptions, while perhaps the inner traditions of Judaism were not. Also missing are attacks on Greek, Roman, Egyptian and purely Chinese religious thought -- which either did not stress Crowley at the time or, if they did, did not appear monolithic to him. For that matter, are these apparent attacks addressed against the inner traditions or the outer superstitions associated with those religions?

G. asked if angels and demons have actual existence or if they are only visualizations.

This is unknowable. Since such beings are not physical, there is no absolute way of proving that they exist outside the mind. However, they appear able to exist in the minds of more than one person and at different times in history in similar ways.

-- TSG (Bill Heidrick)

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Poetry

A Villanelle for Dao Sun

Everything is but illusion
on the track of trackless ways,
heading nowhere but to fusion.
Some have reached this sure conclusion,
now, as some in ancient days:
Everything is but illusion.
The forms appear in wild profusion,
minding not how each one strays,
heading nowhere but to fusion.
Each to all makes its allusion,
flash of light on water plays.
Everything is but illusion.
Birth is but a fresh infusion
of life's blood to feed death's frays,
heading nowhere but to fusion.
Remember, lost amidst confusion
on this track of trackless ways,
everything is but illusion
heading nowhere but to fusion.

-- A.U. Bando
                                            10/17/97


Thelema Lodge Events Calendar for November 1997 e.v.

11/2/97Gnostic Mass 7:30PM Horus TempleThelema Ldg.
11/5/97College of Hard NOX 8 PM
with Mordecai		Thelema Ldg.
11/7/97Learning the Mass 8PM w. Caitlin
(Traditional date of Samhain)		Thelema Ldg.
11/8/97Thelema Lodge initiations
(call to attend)		Thelema Ldg.
11/9/97Gnostic Mass 7:30PM Horus TempleThelema Ldg.
11/12/97Thelema Lodge Library night 8PM
(call to attend)		Thelema Ldg.
11/14/97Liber 418 readings begin TEX(30)
8 PM		OZ House
11/15/97Minerval Seminar 4PM w. TammyThelema Ldg.
11/16/97Lodge luncheon meeting 12:30Thelema Ldg.
11/16/97Gnostic Mass 7:30PM Horus TempleThelema Ldg.
11/17/97Section II reading group with
Caitlin: Book of Judges
at Oz house, 8 PM		Thelema Ldg.
11/17/97RII(29) 8PM at OZ HouseOZ House
11/23/97Gnostic Mass 7:30PM Horus TempleThelema Ldg.
11/23/97BAG(28), 8PM at OZ House
11/24/97Sirius Oasis meeting 8:00 PM
in Berkeley		Sirius Oasis
11/24/97ZAA(27), 8PM at OZ HouseOZ House
11/25/97DES(26), 1:10PM at OZ HouseOZ House
11/25/97VTI(25), 8PM at OZ HouseOZ House
11/26/97College of Hard NOX 8 PM
with Mordecai		Thelema Ldg.
11/26/97NIA(24), 2PM at OZ HouseOZ House
11/27/97Feast for No Reason at OZOZ House
11/28/97TOR(23), 9:30AM at OZ HouseOZ House
11/28/97LIN(22), 4PM at OZ HouseOZ House
11/29/97ASP(21), 1:30PM at OZ HouseOZ House
11/30/97Gnostic Mass 7:30PM Horus TempleThelema Ldg.
11/30/97KHR(22), 9:15AM at OZ HouseOZ House
11/30/97POP(19), 10PM at OZ HouseOZ House

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
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