Wherefore I pray Him (Oh thou all-loving, all-transcending God!) that
should this essay fall (as seed by the wayside) into the hands of the young
and beautiful, the unspotted from the world, that He will bless it to them,
that they may dwell with us in the Heaven which is Here and Now, and (after) in the Palace which of His lovingkindness He hath prepared for us in that
Garden of Gardens which is approached only through the narrow postern gate of
Death.
Notes:
1. There is of course not the most shadowy reason in ethics for the
attitude of the law. The most confirmed sodomite (bimetallist) may beget
quite as many children as another, while monogamy is the fashion. If man were
expected to fertilize some dozens of women every night, like a stud ram, I
don't say: but he is not. But on the positive side, a strict adherence to
sodomy, except for the practical purpose of begetting children, or for
pacifying women, an object which a parallel development of Sapphism would more
rationally fulfil, would avoid the numberless crimes and calamities
inseparable from sexual intercourse -- venereal disease (almost entirely),
seduction, abortion, concealment of birth, child-murder, social tyranny, et
omnis horrida cohors malorum.
As few people seem to know the fons et origo legis, I may here be
permitted to sketch it in outline. When the power of the Crescent menaced
that of the Cross, sodomy was put down with Draconic rigour because the Turks
believed that the Messiah (a reincarnation of Jesus) would be born of the love
between two men. Sodomy was thus a religious duty with the Turk: at any
moment his passion might be used to bring about the Millenium: so with the
Christian it became a heresy, and was punished as such. People who were
beyond suspicion, such as Princes of the Church, could always obtain
dispensations, and in fact habitually did so. The documents are extant. This
was to the medieval mind a far more urgent matter than any mere persistance of
Levitical tradition, founded as it was on a popular superstition scarcely less
gross than their own.
But today no man can bring forward wither the population nonsense or
the heresy nonsense, so he brings up his dinner instead, under the equally
absurd delusion that the process is physically dirty. In the interests of
Light and Truth, one cannot too widely disseminate the grossly phrased, but
noble, American proverb that "A turd jumps away from a live prick like a
grasshopper from a snake." Anyway, one can wash! (The pathics of Laknau,
when offering themselves for hire to British officers, draw long strips of
muslin from their recta, whose perfect cleanliness is thus beyond suspicion.
O si sic omnes!)
The sole effect of the law as it stands is to make life in England
insupportable for the wretched Urning, and to expose every man, whether he be
a sodomite or not, to the attacks of blackmailers of the vilest sort.
Suppose I am threatened by these gentry; suppose I catch them and
prosecute them; suppose they get the maximum penalty, and I leave the court
with applause and the strongly expressed thanks of the judge for the courage
and skill with which I have discharged so unpleasant, albeit so useful, a
public duty.
Very well; does that convince my jealous wife?
Does that prevent people in the street from pointing me out as "the
man who was mixed up in that buggery business, don't you remember? Of course
there was nothing against him; it's difficult to bring home these things,
don't you know? But we think what we think, don't you know?"
While your admiring friends openly boast of you as a "dam clever
bugger, by God! He had half the boys in London, and when they started to
black mail him, he turned right around like that (gesture) before you could
say 'knife,' by God! and didn't they get beans, by God!"
But could I fight an English election? How would my chiefs in the
army look at it, when it came to the actual point of choosing one of two men
for promotion? What price that fat tutorship?
There are dozens of weak innocent fools in London at this hour who, making these reflections, paid the first fatal moderate demand.
There are dozens of strong-minded men who have come to the
conclusion that they may as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb, especially
as the former is real, and the latter imaginary, and so a posteriori turned
their thoughts ad posteriorem. Some men are born sodomites, some achieve
sodomy, and some have sodomy thrust upon them; the Urning, the Bimetallist,
and the carcerophobe.
There are some sodomites which were so born from their mother's womb;
and there are some sodomites, which are made sodomites of men; and there are
sodomites, which have made themselves sodomites for the Kingdom of Heaven's
sake. (The Urning, the Bimetallist and the carcerophobe, and the holy
sodomite to whom his passion is a sacrament, leading him on the straight road
into the very arms of God.) He that is able to receive it, let him receive
it!
The law manufactures sodomites as it manufactures habitual criminals.
Legalize sodomy, and you will diminish it; or even if, as you seem to
fear, you increase it, you will see no change in society but an advance in
refinement, and possibly, parallel with the fall in the price of Mercury,
Iodine, and Sandalwood oil, a slight increase in the demand for that
preparation of the supra-renal capsules which is so useful in obstinate cases
of internal haemorrhoids.
2. Pray analyse the sensation aroused in you by the story which ends (Mrs
Awkins, asleep, being awakened by the cup of tea which she has spilt over her
lap), "There you are, Awkins! All over my stummick again!"
3. A skillful sodomite should be able to withdraw his penis nearly dry.
The subsequent moisture of the anus will act as a pleasing lubricant, when the
next round of preliminaries is over.
4. This has been already anticipated in the long note above.
5. I would suggest allopath, homaeopath, and eclectic as a fitting
classification of humanity.
6. A little obscure. I suppose the author means: a scientific whist
player need not pity a gambler more than he does a drunkard; a father of
twelve pity the raper more than the brawler; or the polo enthusiast pity the
man who thinks he is a horse more than him who fancies himself a tea-pot. --
A.L. (Major Luity's note seems to us as obscure as the text. But the point
clearly is that the sound apple does not pity the bad apple any more than the
bad orange.)
7. Conversely, it is interesting to observe that a woman can afford two
pleasures to a woman, exclusively:
(1) tribadism (cunnus as cunnum)
(2) cunnilingism.
A man can afford three pleasures to a woman, exclusively:
(1) sodomy
(2) irrumation (pleasure of the fellatrix)
(3) copulation.
Of these tribadism is rather artificial, and hardly to be
distinguished from ordinary masturbation; so that the balance is strongly in
favor of man. This explains why very few women are exclusively Sapphists, but
many bimetallists; and enables one to comprehend the hatred of woman for
sodomy, and the toleration with which men regard Sapphism.
8. I cannot too strongly urge my readers to select their lovers from
their equals in rank and fortune. It is the only safeguard against betrayal;
further, it fulfils the Greek ideal, and silences the voice adverse criticism.
-- A.L. (Solon properly forbade the practice of sodomy to slaves; and perhaps
after all the English, slaves at heart as they are, do well to observe his
law.)
9. Besides all this, there is the question of "nature" and "against
nature."
"Praise Lacedaemon, and despise Corinth!
God gave me Daphne; I won Hyacinth."
All our modern devices, though applications of nature, are against and
above nature; therefore of God. Nature's man is the cave-man. We take no
paternal pride in the pariah dog, the product of Nature; in the highly bred
setter, the product of man's genius applied to nature's very raw material,
through centuries and chiliads of struggle, we do. There is no poetry in the
panting Puritan prone on his puffing and perspiring Priscilla: the love of
Adrian and Antonious is a monument for all ages. Is there better poetry in
the world than Wilde's ". . . on Adrian's gilded barge The laughter of
Antinous" or F-----'s "the splendid Syrian youth with scarlet mouth Standing
upon the summit of the world?" Why, to kiss my boy is a canzonet, and to suck
him off a sonnet; his mouth is a madrigal, his lips are lyrics, and his eyes
idylls; to be beneath him is an epithalamium, and on top of him an epic.
10. The author of this essay was with the force that captured Theebaw in
1886, and with the Soudan Expeditions of recent years. -- A. L.
11. A high Anglican, he lived for three years, immediately after his
ordination, in monastic seclusion at L---. -- A. L. (He was presented with a
London living in 1900, and held it till his sudden conversion, and exodus, to
Rome.)
12. He was. -- A. L.
Previous Crowley Classic Next Crowley Classic
from the Grady Project:
| [untitled poem
from U.S. Army basic training]
|
| Here we have a close up view |
| Of a draftee in his new |
| Uniform that is his own, |
| Tho `tis not the same as shown |
| In the stylish fashion plates. |
| Once he was within the gates |
| Of the office where supplies |
| Are given to selected guys, |
| He discovered that the clothes |
| They hang on us, by the pose |
| They assume when they are draped |
| On his frame, were never shaped |
| To satisfy a tailor's thought |
| Of the only way they ought |
| To look when he is wearing them, |
| From collar tight to baggy hem |
| Their three sizes are, to wit: |
| Too large, too small and doesn't fit!
|
| -- Sgt. Grady L. McMurtry |
| (undated) |
Previous Grady Project Next Grady Project
Remembering Anton LaVey
by Nikolai Guliaeff, IV° O.T.O.
I never had the opportunity of knowing Anton Szandor LaVey personally, but
I remember feeling that there was a strong bond between us while I was a
member of his Church, from 1976 to 1980 c.e. Giving credit where it is due, I
would like to write about my experiences with the Church of Satan, and of my
original fascination with Satanism in my younger years.
At the age of 12 I was told by my mother that there was a new religion
called Satanism, and in this religion people pray to the Devil. She had heard
of a Satanic Wedding, where the priest who married the couple walked around
with horns on his head throughout.
So there it was: "Satanism." I became fascinated by the idea that such a
thing was possible. I thought that everyone hated the Devil, and I could not
understand why people would even consider taking on this way of life. "Don't
these people know that they are going to Hell for this?" I asked. But the
concept remained in my mind and became part of my everyday thinking further on
in life. Later, my sixth grade teacher asked her students to write a report
about a man in San Francisco who owned a lion, which he had living with him.
Should he be allowed to keep it, or should the lion be taken away to the zoo?
I asked my father about the strange man who had a lion living with him in the
city. My father replied that, yes, there was such a man, but that he was a
Satanist. He told me that Satanists had short lives, and died violent deaths.
(He was probably thinking about celebrity Church of Satan member Jayne
Mansfield's decapitation, when the car she was riding in hit a tank truck.)
Anton LaVey made headlines again when another respected Church of Satan
member, a U.S. Navy man by the name of Edward D. Olsen, received a Satanic
funeral in late 1967. What made it an outrage was that the U. S. Navy had
participated, and the Russian Orthodox Church in San Francisco was up in arms
over this. Later there was a Satanic Baptism for Zeena Galatea as well, and the following an interesting movie, Rosemary's Baby, allegedly featuring Anton
LaVey as the Devil Himself.
In my teens I stumbled upon an old copy of Adam magazine, featuring an
interview with Anton LaVey. When asked why he founded the Church of Satan,
LaVey replied in so many words that he was not satisfied with his finances,
but that the Church of Satan brought him the capital he wanted. This was in
1972 c.e. There was a bookstore in San Anselmo, "Abraxas," which carried
metaphysical and "underground" reading materials. On the lower shelf, towards
the back of the store, there was a stack of Satanic Bibles selling for 95¢
each. I considered myself to be in a subterranean mode at that time, so the
title appealed to me. I opened up this forbidden-looking book and started
scanning it. Inside, there was language which showed disrespect towards the
Judeo-Christian religion, and I liked it because Christianity was responsible
for so much harm, suffering, and wrongdoing.
At the College of Marin, I noticed copies of The Devil's Avenger by Burton
Wolfe, and bought one. There was also a copy of The Complete Witch by Anton
LaVey at the San Anselmo Public Library, which I checked out and renewed.
Those were the first two books on the subject that I thoroughly read. The
philosophy contained in The Devil's Avenger was appealing to me. It talked
about the importance of free thinking, as well as dispelling some
misconceptions I had about Satanism. I enjoyed reading about Shibboleth
Rituals, which were "designed to exorcise and negate the influence of
detestable personas and institutions through psychodramatic ridicule wherein
each Satanist plays a role of somebody he detests or someone who represents an
institution he hates."
The Satanic Bible and The Satanic Rituals were the next books. (It was
because of the Enochian Calls in the former book that I found an interest in
John Dee and his works, and in Aleister Crowley's Liber CXXXIX.) After
sending a letter off to the church requesting to join, I received the Nine
Satanic Statements, along with an application letter. For $25 I became a
contributing Member. I also returned an order form for The Cloven Hoof. The
annual subscription rate for this periodical was $10, and my first bimonthly
issue arrived on January XI and carried an article by Bruce Birkman entitled
"Satanism for the Masses." Most of the LaVey articles which appeared in The Cloven Hoof were later reprinted in The Devil's Notebook. The Hoof was my
subterranean connection to diabolical delights, and my only link with the
Church at that time. Through this publication I was introduced to The Satanic Mass LP record. It featured selections from LaVey's rituals on one side, and
on the reverse LaVey's reading of the Prologue and the entire Book of Satan
from The Satanic Bible, while Wagner, Beethoven, and Souza played in the
background.
At times The Cloven Hoof would become comical, attesting to LaVey's great
sense of humor. LaVey taught me that developing one's sense of humor was
important to the magician, for there is no laughter in the kingdom of heaven.
"What element, besides the obvious, in the average person's conception of God and Satan distinguishes each entity's personality? A sense of humor --- the presence or the absence of one. Can anyone picture God telling, taking, or enjoying a good joke? The idea is laughable. The Devil, on the other hand, laughs with demonic mirth, is possessed of a sardonic wit, and his eyes hold a glint of wicked bemusement. The farthest God, in his popular image, ever strays from sobriety is a beneficent smile. Satan sniggers with fiendish scorn at God, who sits in his ivory tower emitting nary a chuckle," wrote
Diane LaVey in her essay for The Cloven Hoof (82nd issue, XIV A.S.). Mockery,
satire, lampoon, iconoclasm, sarcasm, sardonicism, irony, scorn; all require
humor, all propose introspection, as well as examination of their subjects.
Rule Number Five of How To Be God (or the Devil) states that "a sense of humor
is a must; a god who can't laugh at himself or find comic relief is a dull
Jehovah, and most definitely un-Satanic" (Anton LaVey, in the 113th issue).
I look back at my experience as something which was very positive. True,
there were many things I had to find out by doing them the hard way, and there
were prejudices - not only against the Right-Hand Path but even against anyone
on it - which I picked up through misunderstandings of various sorts. Not
wishing to seem like some fundamentalist yahoo, I like to think that I do not
have all the answers, and that I could be mistaken. Life is too short to
poison it with bitterness, pessimism, cynicism, and negative emotions or
thoughts, which serve only to close the mind and stunt development. True,
Anton LaVey and I did not see everything eye to eye, but that is the beauty of
free thinking and empiricism.
Not until Year XX (1985 c.e.) did I realize that there had been a schism in
the Church of Satan in Year X. Naively, I expected that somehow the
differences could be settled between the Temple of Set and the Church of
Satan. It seemed to me there were precious few of us, and it would only make
our detractors happy to see us start sniping at each other in an unnecessary
war. Sorry, Anton LaVey, but I differed with you here. On numerous occasions
the Temple of Set was slighted and denounced with bitter hatred in The Cloven Hoof, and it went so far as to change the Hoof from a magical forum into a
vehicle for venting frustrations. I do not have the desire to voice my
differences with LeVay now, even though at the time I was disappointed with
him. I wish to remember Anton at his best. It is my observation that
dwelling on the negative has a tendency to weaken one's will.
With this said, I thank you, Anton Szandor LaVey. You started something
which I will treasure forever. You showed me the importance of living one's
life to the fullest, and you have provided me with the necessary tools to de-
program myself from "that lying specter of the centuries" which is
Christianity. But as it happened, I terminated my membership in the Church of
Satan as of 1980 c.e., feeling that if I was to provide answers to the 40
questions on their questionnaire, then I needed to have some of my own
questions answered to my satisfaction, and in person, by one of the Church's
representatives. When no such opportunity ever arose, I stopped subscribing
to The Cloven Hoof.
Then in 1983 c.e. I hooked up with the O.T.O. It seemed imperative for me
to have some contact with other occultists, and I didn't think it wise for a
beginner to practice magic in solitude too much of the time. Besides, I was
curious about a gentleman by the name of Aleister Crowley. It stood to reason
that if I really wanted to learn something about The Great Beast, the odds
would be in my favor if I could take lessons from "the man who knew Crowley,"
Grady Louis McMurtry. Yet it was first the writing of Anton LaVey which had
introduced me to Crowley, and to the O.T.O.
When the Helms-Walker anti-occult initiative (SB # 3389) surfaced around
1985 c.e., I decided to take action. Letters were written and telephones
called. I knew first-hand what a dastardly aberration evangelism could be -
and still is. And, out of protest and support, I began to subscribe again to
The Cloven Hoof, this time at an annual rate of $25. I kept renewing my
subscription until the final issue arrived in 1988 c.e. Following this
decision to halt publication, Dr. Michael A. Aquino gave an excellent
presentation on the history of the Hoof in his own Scroll of Set.
I consider it a special privilege to have studied with initiates from the
Church of Satan. One Priestess who knew Anton LaVey said that he was one of
the kindest, sweetest human beings she ever met. I know another person who
was a great admirer of Anton LaVey, to whom I will refer here as Mr C., and he
is a devout Satanist. Once, at a time when his wife was five months pregnant,
Mr C. announced that he would have a son, who would be born on Anton LaVey's
birthday, April 11th, and that his name would be Anton Szandor C. Well, guess
what! Coincidences really do happen: Mr C. retains that name for his eight
year old son, who was born of the 11th of April.
Anton Szandor LaVey died at the age of 67, on October 29, XXXII A.S., after
suffering for some time from a heart condition. It is said that this is what
triggered a pulmonary edema. According to Susan Sward from the San Francisco Chronicle, family members "performed a Satanic funeral for him on Tuesday in
Colma where he was cremated." In short, Anton LaVey arrived mysteriously on
the scene and then disappeared into the flames.
His grandson, Stanton Zaharoff, made a remark about Anton that touched me
deeply. He said, "He wasn't what people would perceive him to be . . . He was
a sweet and caring, highly intelligent individual. This guy was cooler than
most friends of mine." Anton LaVey was one of the strongest critics of
conventional religion in this century, and I suspect that this is one of the
reasons why the fleecing shepherds were mortified about him. They conspired
with slander, and some of the most obtuse and delusional paranoia imaginable
from anyone representing themselves as reasonable people, "scholars," law
enforcement personnel, "occult specialists," and experts, or "holy men of
god." But one should expect all manner of fantastic and incredible nonsense
from peddlers of the lies, religious delirium, and hypocrisy that is the
"Jesus Racket." Ironically, it was LaVey who had the last laugh, by dying at
St Mary's, a Catholic hospital. The chaplain and sisters are probably still
exorcising his room!
Xeper and Remanifest.
-- Adept Nikolai Guliaeff II° T.S.
An Introduction to Qabalah
Part XXXVI - Toward a Dynamic Application.Derived from a lecture series in 1977 e.v. by Bill Heidrick
Copyright © Bill Heidrick
After the detailed approaches to the Tree which we have taken up, it's
appropriate to get a little bit more into doing something positive with it.
There are always times when life seems to be confused or dysfunctional. By
looking for bias and obsession on the Tree, it is possible to seek an
improvement.
One Sephira may either be getting too much or too little. Alternatively, a
person may be looking at the whole world from the attitude of one Sephira
rather than keeping consciousness circulating over the Tree. For example,
consider the view from Geburah. It's rather a splendid thing but awfully
harsh. The other experiences that fit the rest of the Tree are there, but
they are colored with the reddish fiery quality of Geburah. It's possible to
get trapped within a Sephira. You can mistake one of the little trees inside
a given Sephira for a whole Tree of Life. On the Middle Pillar, that's not
particularly bad. If it's on either the Left or the Right, you are going to
have trouble. Those are imbalanced places. Someone who views the entire Tree
of Life or all the events of their life from Geburah, thinking that they are
seeing the whole of life, will typically be forceful, irritable and pretty
miserable. Such a person is difficult to know, always trying too hard and
pushing too far. Every Sephirot or aspect of life is there in a way, but that
way is all Geburah.
Previous Introduction to Qabalah -- Part XXXV Next: More on imbalances.
Owing to the length of two of our articles this time, there was no room for the Primary
Sources and Outbasket columns. Our regular columns will resume next issue.
Events Calendar for February 1998 e.v.
| 2/1/98 | | Gnostic Mass 7:30PM Horus Temple | | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/3/98 | Ritual of Bigid & pot luck feast
7:30 at OZ house | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/4/98 | College of Hard NOX 8 PM
with Mordecai in the library | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/8/98 | Lodge luncheon meeting 12:30 | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/8/98 | Gnostic Mass 7:30PM Horus Temple | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/9/98 | Section II reading group with
Caitlin: Richard Burton's "Kama
Sutra" and reated texts
at Oz house, 8 PM | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/15/98 | Gnostic Mass 7:30PM Horus Temple | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/22/98 | Gnostic Mass 7:30PM Horus Temple | Thelema Ldg. |
| 2/23/98 | Sirius Oasis meeting 8:00 PM
in Berkeley | Sirius Oasis |
| 2/25/98 | College of Hard NOX 8 PM
with Mordecai in the library | Thelema Ldg. |
The viewpoints and opinions expressed herein are the responsibility of the
contributing authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of OTO or its
officers.
Thelema Lodge
Ordo Templi Orientis
P.O. Box 2303
Berkeley, CA 94702 USA
Phone: (510) 652-3171 (for events info and contact to Lodge)
Production and Circulation:
OTO-TLC
P.O.Box 430
Fairfax, CA 94978 USA
Internet: heidrick@well.com (Submissions and circulation only)
- That twins them with the Lord of Resurrection; and even as I
plunge my member into the sarcophagus, the flesh-eater, the podex of my lover,
and withdraw it, its strength renewed as the eagle's, so do I know that when
the Eater of all flesh devours me altogether, I shall arise in my strength,
through the blessed resurrection of our Lord Jesus, the lover of John the
beautiful, into a world where erectio penis shall be the rule and not the
exception. Where, please God, we shall all be Sapphists and Sodomites, joined
each to each in one incredible spinthria, with the extreme orgasm (which is
the Holy Ghost) abiding upon us and within us for ever and ever.