Thelema Lodge Calendar for July 1999 e.v.

Thelema Lodge Calendar

for July 1999 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, 1999 e.v.

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

July 1999 e.v. at Thelema Lodge

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

Announcements from
Lodge Members and Officers


Cakes, Wine, and Light

Thelema Lodge invites participants to the gnostic mass in Horus Temple every Sunday evening, beginning shortly after nightfall. This central public ritual of the O.T.O. is inspired by the ancient tradition of breaking and consuming bread communally, the same tradition incorporated into the Christian eucharistic ceremony. Crowley saw the essential structure of his mass as a restoration of a pagan Gnostic magical formula which perhaps had once been incorporated into the Christian liturgy, but whose meaning had been largely forgotten over the millennia. On an esoteric level the "restored" ceremony involves symbolical use of certain advanced O.T.O. theurgic techniques, perhaps representing the ancient workings. These are more exoteric ways of looking at this claim, however. For example, the Roman rite's transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of God is said to be effected by divine grace through the mediation of a priest possessed of a valid apostolic succession. Consider this as an unnecessarily elaborated way of approaching a more primal and essentially magical operation. In the archaic pre-Christian rite, a community comes together and ritually transforms a meal into a god. This is effected by the power of a magician possessed of valid confidence in his or her own abilities. The celebratory community then consumes the god, creating a state of divine group ecstasy.


Eleusis Touching Down at Oz

"The Rite of Earth," an original grounding ritual offered as a foundation to the planetary cycle of Eleusis, will take place in the back garden at Oz House in Oakland, on Saturday afternoon 3rd July. At press time, with the organizers off camping in Texas at the Io Pan Jam, we don't have a precise time for the ritual, but the best suggestion seems to be there by midday. Call for directions at (510) 654-3580, and bring feast contributions to be incorporated into the event.
Concluded last month, our twentieth cycle of the planetary passion play to which Crowley gave the fanciful title of The Rites of Eleusis (Liber 850) was a dramatic success at its rapid pace. With the seven planetary rites given in the course of a single lunar cycle, there was a fine dynamic tension among the troupe of repertory ritualists putting on the rites, leading perhaps to some momentary chaos along the way but to an enhanced coherence over the completed cycle. The series of scripted garden parties -- and temple parties -- is revived not at regular annual intervals but by a conjunction of the solar and lunar calendars, approximately once a year.


Glubbdubdrib, the Island of Sorcerers

Among the "poets in Holy Orders" to whose works the student is directed in the section on "materials for study" appended to Liber Artemis Iota, the first place is given to Jonathan Swift (1667-1745). Poet, priest, and satirist, Swift was Anglo-Irish, and for political reasons went unpreferred in his ecclesiastical career, despite being recognized as one of the most interesting and persuasive writers of his day. His great work is the four volumes of fictional travelogue, Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, published in London in 1726. With our Utopian geography well established, the Section Two reading group will spend an evening in the worlds of Gulliver, meeting at 8:00 with Caitlin at Oz House on Monday evening 19th July. Swift takes us through a series of startling shifts in narrative perspective, exploring the relations between self and society with a exuberance - and an astonishing facility of "magical realist" detail - that breaks down all barriers between travel and utopia.

Previous Section II                   Next Section II


Magi in Toolbelts

This month Bill Heidrick will continue his lecture on Liber ABA with part II. The first part of Crowley's Book 4 dealt with the course of Yoga and the central pattern of the Great Work. The second deals with the bits and pieces of the arduous labor. Here we will found a temple and quest with scourge and sword to craft the book of the art. -- At least the instructions, designs and guiding words are set down for that activity in this portion of Crowley's ultimate manual of magical craft. Many leap right in with Magick in Theory and Practice, get lost and haunt New Age catalogues looking for crystals on sticks or other pretty critters. Part II of Book 4 has the actual instructions for the making and some of the thinking necessary to the rest. The meeting will be held at 5 Suffield Ave, in San Anselmo (Marin County), Wednesday evening 21st July at 7:30. For directions (or further information) make contact well ahead of time with Bill by e-mail to heidrick@well.com.

Previous Book 4 presentation                   Next Book 4 presentation.


Crowley Classics

The Expedition to Chogo Ri

Leaves from the Notebook
of Aleister Crowley

V.

It had been decided (very reluctantly on my part) that Eckenstein should stay behind at Paiyu to arrange a flour-dak. Special men were selected for this job who would be willing to go two marches a day and thus effect a saving of time in both senses. Eckenstein and I agreed that the advance party - we had arranged to march in three shifts - must be led either by him or by me, as we could trust no one else in the matter of mountain work; we had already seen too much. Another year's work would perhaps have fitted Knowles to undertake the difficult task of leading; but as it was he had never been on big mountains before, or even the Alps on anything but minor expeditions, and it was out of the question. Also we thought he did not speak Hindustani sufficiently well to remain in charge of the dak at Paiyu. Now though Eckenstein and I were both confident enough to lead an advance party, I cannot pretend to rival his magnificent talent of organization; and though I was going on this journey more for his sake than my own I felt compelled to assent to his self-sacrificing proposal to remain himself in the anxious and tedious work of supplying the expedition with food until we reached our main camp. The other puzzle was what to do with Wesseley; but we put him with Pfannl and trusted to luck. We had had several times to complain of his striking natives merely because they did not understand his broken English; further, they did not accord him the respect which the rest of us had won; and we were seriously afraid that very little trouble of this sort on the glacier might lead to a general revolt of the coolies in the party with which he travelled.
It would have been better to have put him with Knowles; but the latter absolutely refused to go under these conditions, for which I do not feel myself able to blame him. On the 8th, after finishing with Abdulla Khan, the final preparations were made for my advance party. I was to take about twenty coolies and on the 9th of June I bade au revoir to the others and started on my solitary journey. The course of my advance to Camp 10 (which I propose to call Camp Misery) is given in the diary which I wrote at the time and sent off to our correspondents at home; which I shall consequently reproduce as it stands. I wrote in a very frivolous manner chiefly to show our friends how very absurd it would be to entertain any anxiety on our account. The studied cheerfulness of Knowles was all very well; but if a man can deliberately sit down and write nonsense as I did, it is clear that he is not in any discomfort or danger.

June 20th - Knowles arrived with the Doctor. It was snowing hard all day and Knowles and I crouched together in my tent and discussed the events of the last ten days.

June 21st - Knowles, the Doctor and myself were all ill and the weather was snowy.

June 22nd - Doctor and I better. Knowles worse. Weather slightly improving.

June 23rd - Knowles better: weather fine.

June 24th - One corner of my tent was loose; all the morning it blew like hell! and I sat on the loose corner for five hours to prevent the whole affair from being blown into the neighbouring crevasse.

June 25th - More dull doubtful weather; Pfannl ill.

June 26th - Bad weather.

June 27th - Eckenstein arrived and almost immediately after he came into camp the weather cleared. He was rather ill.

June 28th - He was still ill. The weather was fine and we held a durbar. It was arranged that Pfannl, the Doctor, and I were to go up to the shoulder of Chogo Ri with one sleighload to establish a light camp, making an attempt on the mountain the day after. Wesseley was very indignant at not being included in the party, and used expressions which ought never to have been tolerated. I did not hear him myself, as I had hurried off to fix up the sleigh, but Eckenstein's illness alone saved the offender from a well-merited thrashing.

June 29th - In the early morning the wind was so high that we could not start. Knowles was ill as well as Eckenstein. The rest of us took advantage of the lull to go up on ski in direction of the Pass. I had only expected to be out for ten minutes, and had not taken my snow goggles; but the weather got finer and finer and I was tempted to go on - like a fool.
About 4 o'clock a furious wind sprang up. My tent was loose; a violent snowstorm began to rage about half-past six: I rushed across to the cooking tent to prepare some food and found a Balti (of whom we had retained five) out in the snowstorm saying his prayers!

June 30th - I had a bad attack of snow blindness: the three foreigners went out to reconnoitre.

July 1st - We sent Pfannl and Wesseley up to the corner of the north-east ridge of Chogo Ri with half a dozen coolies: the rest of us celebrated Knowles' birthday and we had a really good time. The weather was reasonably fine though in the afternoon it began to threaten and to blow.

July 2nd - Another furious snowstorm.

July 3rd - Ditto.

July 4th - Ditto.

July 5th - Ditto. Two men, however, came up from below bringing our dak including two copies of Tannhä user from my publishers. We all wished they had been 2,000 as then we should have had something dry to put tents on.

July 6th - Snowstorm continues. We were now reduced to a condition of considerable discomfort as the heat of the body, what there is of it, and its pressure, gradually melt a deep hole in the ice, which collects all the water in the neighbourhood, and this gradually soaks through tent, valise, mattress, and sleeping bed, so that one becomes wet. It is not nice to be wet when there is no possibility of getting dry till the next fine day. The pool of water in my tent was very large, and I passed a good deal of time very pleasantly in sailing paper boats. It (the pool) only froze at night.

July 7th - A fine day which we occupied in cleaning tents and kiltas of snow, and in drying our various things.

July 8th - A fine morning. The Doctor and I went off to Camp 11, which I propose to call Camp Despair. I was not very well, and the march was exceedingly tedious over interminable snowfields. We had packed our loads on a sleigh; but the men could not draw it, and it soon tumbled into a crevasse; we pulled it out and took off four of the seven loads, which were given to the men to carry, but the sleigh was still impossible; and the men of their own accord untied it so that everything arrived at Camp 11 on the backs of the men. In the afternoon the weather became bad.

July 9th - Fire insurance expired, as my diary humourously informed me. I was feeling much better. The weather was slightly improved, but the valley wind still very violent. Pfannl ill. In the afternoon I went up the snow slopes and found myself able to go at an excellent pace. The height, 2,000 feet and more, did not seem to affect my breathing. In the evening, however, I was very ill indeed with abdominal pains. My temperature went up to 100 degs., and I got an attack of shivering. As I had not had malarial fever since leaving Srinagar, neither the Doctor not I suspected that this was the cause though we now think it must have been. Cold, exposure, enforced idleness, and bad feeding had doubtless reduced my strength so much as to make the conditions favourable for a relapse, and doubtless my energy of the afternoon drove the final nail. I was in my bag when all of a sudden my breathing arrangements seemed suddenly to go to pieces, and I had to employ my whole muscular strength to get a supply of breath; rather like the methods for resuscitating the apparently drowned. I was nearly sick in addition. This state of things lasted nearly all night. I had strength enough, however, to send the Doctor and Wesseley out scouting.

July 10th - Fine weather. I was a little better, but the abdominal pains continued, and I felt very weak and ill. I was able to get out of my tent and lie in the sun. I saw a fly, a butterfly, some crows, and a thing which appeared to be a kind of bee; all these animals had, of course, followed us from below. In the afternoon there was a very fine avalanche from Chogo Ri, the snow from which was blown over both Camp Misery and Camp Despair. My scouts returned in the afternoon with a report neither very satisfactory nor very intelligible.

July 11th - Very ill, my temperature having gone to 39.4 Cent. We were joined by Eckenstein and Knowles; weather fine.

July 12th - We sent off the Austrians to scout: I felt a little better. Most of the day was fine. At night Eckenstein was ill.

July 13th - Eckenstein and I still ill. Weather going bad.

July 14th - Weather hopelessly, infamously bad! We got a chit from Wesseley saying Pfannl was ill and asking us to send him twenty-three different things, most of which were at Camp Misery, and the rest we had not got at all; he also apparently wanted us to break into our system of provision units and send up only the particular things for which he had a fancy! The answer he got was such as to make him give us up as hopeless, and on the next occasion he broke open the kiltas himself.

July 15th - Eckenstein and I better. In the afternoon the weather cleared, but new snow had fallen to a great depth. A chit arrived that Pfannl was worse.

July 16th - The Doctor brought down Pfannl and Wesseley. Another fine morning but bad afternoon.

July 17th - Snowstorm all the morning, slightly cleared later.

July 18th - Snowing hard all day. Momentary clearance at nightfall showed us a changed landscape. There was hardly a rock visible. Eckenstein very ill with bronchial asthma.

July 19th - Eckenstein better. Wesseley went to Camp Misery and back to bring up some food and certain invalid requirements for Pfannl. Letters and flour arrived. Pfannl delirious: a little sunshine during the day.

July 20th - Weather fine. Pfannl still under morphia.

July 21st - Pfannl and Wesseley descended in charge of the Doctor. We had insisted on Wesseley going down, as some compassion was necessary to guard against any repetition of suicidal ideas on the part of Pfannl, and we did not want to deprive the Doctor of his chance of climbing the mountain.

Previous Crowley Classic                   To be continued. Part VI


from the Grady Project:


Clear Crowley's Name Campaign

by Grady McMurtry

[concluded from preceding issue]

            4. The Law - presented to young people who will mature as Thelemites.
                        a. Youth Organizations
                                    i. DeMolay - or organization of similar name - giving instruction in a Lodge form that will couple vigorous outdoor life with the serious teachings of the principles of Light, Life, Love and Liberty applied to everyday life. This might be divided into junior and senior sections.
                                    ii. A similar organization for girls.
                                    iii. A co-educational organization with more emphasis on the social graces. This should be limited to members of the two former organizations to insure unity of purpose.
            5. The Law - for "the joiners." (One or more "Lodges" for those fraternal people to whom "religion" has no appeal as such but who join fraternities, clubs and lodges such as the Masonic Lodge, the Rotary Club, the Elks and many others organizations where they may meet for fraternal gatherings with their colleagues and friends. The more serious Mason will quite probably be found in the High Lodge of the OTO. The Mason who takes his lodge duties less seriously and looks on the organization more as a meeting place will find a place in these less serious clubs. There is no need to alter the Masonic Lodge as it exists today.
            6. The Law - in every day usage. Teaching that Brothers should be greeted with "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" and "Love is the law, love under will," the saying of "Will" before meals, etc. will be part of the function of the Church and the Lodges.
C. Liber AL vel Legis - a study on its praeter-human origin and what its teachings mean to mankind. (I can't write this)
D. A list of inspired books. (a job for the secretariat)
E. A list of semi-inspired books. (a job for the secretariat)
F. A list of treatises on the subject. (a job for the secretariat)
G. Lectures
            1. The Law of Thelema as a way of life.
            2. Crowley is England's literary martyr - see "The Legend of
Aleister Crowley," addendum to Policy, etc.
                        a. Exposing the editors and journalists who vilified Crowley and their distortions of the truth, etc.
                        b. These prominent men defend Crowley (with reference to H below)
                        c. The true reason for those experiments seized upon by the sensational press, etc.
                        d. The truth about certain incidents that have been distorted and used against Crowley - why he left Sicily, his fight against Fascism, he stayed in London through the darkest days of the blitz and is still there, etc.
                        e. Men of history, art and literature with whom Crowley has been intimately associated - Rodin, Maugham, (this is where you come in)
                        f. Crowley was one of the first victims of Fascism - are we to condemn a man for that? Were not Einstein, Toscanini, Thomas Mann, etc. driven before the Fascist storm for being individualists? Here is one of England's foremost literary men etc.
                        g. Here is the author of the V campaign being senselessly persecuted (what is our proof that you are the author of the V campaign? Not long ago I heard a BBC broadcast attributing its origin to the Belgians.)
                        h. Crowley has never been convicted of any crime in any court (better qualify this statement or check it closely before making so wide a declaration).
                        i. Scotland Yard gives Crowley a clear record (and better be damn sure of this, a job for the staff).
H. Articles written by figures in public life (I've worded this so as not to offend some of these Lady so-and-so's you speak of who may be militant for woman's rights. Do you agree?)
            1. Bernard Shaw, Tiffany Thayer, Ben Abramson, Menchen, Cabell, Dunsany, Fuller, Maugham, (and who else? Better give me a list.)
I. Songs, national and other (list, please).
J. Finances
            1. Donations to campaign fund, subscriptions to publications, pledges, etc.

Previous Grady Project. Part II.                   Next Grady Project.


An Introduction to Qabalah

Part XLVII - Sabbatai and Nathan.

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

There are many other elements of Qabalah, besides the Tree of Life diagram. Consider Sabbatai Sevi. About 1666 e.v., he made a bid for being the Messiah and came close to making it, at least in a material way. He had people going to Palestine from all over. There were rumors of lost tribes marching out of the desert to seize Mecca and all sorts of stories. He was finally arrested by the Ottomans. The Grand Turk said; "you've got a choice. You can be the Messiah of the Jews and die right here and now or you can become a Moslem and live." Sabbatai became a Moslem. There are people who still follow him today. Some of his followers converted to Islam, but others remained Jews.
Sabbatai Sevi was subject to fits of manic depression. He would go around breaking every law he could find in the Old Testament in a fit of mania. Then all of a sudden he would become so depressed he couldn't move. He'd sit in a room and stare at the floor. At other times he would be perfectly normal. The people around Sabbatai usually figured he was nuts and just let it go at that. When he was normal, he was a good enough fellow. When he was manic he was certainly a party guy. When he was depressed he hid and nobody noticed him.
There was another man, named Nathan. Sabbatai hung around in Palestine and Nathan lived down in Gaza. Nathan specialized in finding the Tiquon for people, a practice discussed earlier in this series. He would have someone come to him for this sort of help; or, if he was really hot that day, he would vibe to wherever they were and send them a letter of advice without actually seeing them in person. He would ask himself: "what is wrong with this person?" Through methods of Kabbalah, he would then discover a cure or solution. This always involved a task to perform. Somebody finally turned Nathan on to Sabbatai Sevi. Nathan considered Sabbatai, heard what people had to say about him and went through the whole thing. There was Sabbatai, as innocent as an apple in the road. Nathan went over the list. Malkut? Well, obviously there's a problem. Yesod? Nah. Hod? He makes sense, he talks good. Netzach? Nothing out of the ordinary there. Tipheret? The guy was married, living a good Jewish life, most of the time. Geburah? He's not particularly hung up on anything. Chesed? Alright there too. This fellow seems to be no better or worse than any other Jewish person. Binah? i'ah. Chokmah? Unh. Keter? - he couldn't make sense of it. This guy didn't seem to have any consistent flaw. He would go surfing out into mania; he would be normal; he would go into depression. There didn't seem to be anything that Nathan could find to justify this condition. He couldn't figure out a Tiquon for the Sabbatai. Finally, Nathan came to the conclusion that there's only one person who could be alive in the World with such terrible trials and not have anything really intrinsically wrong with him. Sabbatai had to be the Messiah. The sufferings that this man experienced must be the sufferings of the whole people of Israel upon his shoulders. There is no other reason for him going dingy in such a peculiar way every so often.
Soon, the word got around. People in Amsterdam began selling their houses; people in Poland began hopping boats for Palestine. Everybody wanted to be there when the Messiah was finally crowned. Those were days of much political unrest and enormous change. It seemed to make sense that the time of the Messiah had come, especially with a prophet, this fellow Nathan, telling the people that Sabbatai was for real. Nathan and Sabbatai ended up with a colossal following.
So what is this? There is real power resident in Qabalah/Kabbalah and in religious systems. The Kabbalah provided a theory, some fleshing out with gematria and various insights into old stories to add meaning to the brief passage of Sabbatai's "hairy star". For a few years, he seemed to be a mystery found and answered, the key to thousands of years of seeking a saviour. Sabbatai fit the bill for a while. A century after him there was a man named Jacob Frank who was the center of similar things. The 18th century saw the rise of Freemasonry, as earlier Rosicrucian movements had appeared. These gentile societies were often influenced by Qabalistic events and figures of their time. We hear of the "Great White Brotherhood" and other mysterious and much misunderstood things. These notions have a life of their own, but very often they can be traced speculatively to material roots. In the time of Sabbatai, Kabbalists traditionally wore white robes at Synagogue. Perhaps they were the origins of the Great White Brotherhood. The influence can be more direct. At the beginning of the 19th century, Masonry tentatively opened to Jewish members, with a "Judenloge" founded in Frankfurt in 1807 e.v. Some Lodges were of mixed gentile and Jewish membership. A great deal of influence came from these Jewish Masons, often versed in Kabbalah, on the rituals and traditions of their fellow Masons. Wars and intolerance had their effect, and in 1871 e.v the Frankfurt "Judenloge", Zur aufgehendden Morgenröthe, was forced to sever relations with London Masonic groups. The Order of the Golden Dawn was founded seventeen years later, allegedly with the permission of a mysterious German authority. Morgenröthe is essentially the same name, a German word signifying morning redness. It is an interesting speculation, whether there was any connection between the earlier Kabbalistic group and the later Qabalistic one.
Sabbatai and others like him planted a seed that sprouted all over Europe and is still continuing to produce strange fruit. These things are an illustration of the magical direction that Qabalah can take. A movement may begin within a religious context, subject to restraints of faith and culture. Such a movement is living, a graft from a vital tree. It passes from one place to another, taking root, dropping seed and finding new soil. Hybridization occurs, but like a feral population of any domestic breed, there is a tendency to resolve by natural selection down to the basics of the species. Who can say which is the "True" form and which the sport? Perhaps fundamental mysteries are always propagated thusly.
After news of Sabbatai reached Europe, Christians began freaking out. When they saw the Jews heading back to Israel, they thought: "Oh my God, it's the end of the World!" A movement started totally apart from Judaism. It received one of the classic "right names" for things, The Chiliasts, from the Greek word chilias, meaning 1,000 or the millennium. Silly is certainly the word for it, as has become so obvious as we approach the arbitrary mundane year 2,000 e.v. That's the power of a little Qabalah, able to light a fuse. It takes a bit more to know what's likely to blow up!

Further reading:

Sabbatai Sevi, The Mystical Messiah, by Gershom Scholem, Bollingen Series XCIII, Princeton University Press, 1975, ISBN: 0-691-01809-x.

Jews and Freemasons in Europe, 1723-1939, by Jacob Katz, Harvard University Press, 1970, SBN: 674-47480-5.

Previous Introduction to Qabalah              Next: A little Meditation and on to real Qabalah -- Part XLVIII


Primary Sources

Jack's Oriflamme:
This is the Oriflamme edition hotly criticized by Crowley in a letter to Jane Wolfe, published in the April 1998 e.v. issue of the TLC. Crowley's main objections could be summed up as: not enough Thelema, too much Parsons (especially that ---- poem!), too many mistakes, not enough OTO, and not enough Crowley. Looking at the text in sequence, it might be that the placement of Jack's poem was the key to Crowley's reaction. After that, there was no second issue! Much of the unattributed text below may have been written by Jack Parsons.


The

ORIFLAMME

Vol. I                    No. I
February 21, 1943 E.V.


DIONYSUS

I bring ye wine from above
From the vats of the storied sun;
For every one of ye love.
And life for every one.
Ye shall dance on hill and level;
Ye shall sing in hollow and height
In the festal mystical revel,
The rapturous Bacchanal rite!
The rocks and trees are yours,
And the waters under the hill,
By the might of that which endures,
The holy heaven of will!
I kindle a flame like a torrent
To rush from star to star;
Your hair as a comet's horrent,
Ye shall see things as they are!
I lift the mask of matter;
I open the heart of man;
For I am of force to shatter
The cast that hideth - Pan!
Your loves shall lap up slaughter,
And dabbled with roses of blood,
The joys of a million years,
The flowers that bear no seed.
My life is bitter and sterile,
Its flame is a wandering star.
Ye shall pass in pleasure and peril
Across the mystical bar
That is set for wrath and weeping
Against the children of earth;
But ye in singing and sleeping
Shall pass in measure and mirth!
I lift my wand and wave you
Through hill to hill of delight:
My rosy rivers lave you
In innermost lustral light.
I lead you, lord of the maze,
In the darkness free of the sun;
In spite of the spite that is day's
We are wed, we are wild, we are one!
-- Aleister Crowley

"for pure will, unassuaged of purpose,
delivered from the lust of result,
is every way perfect."
                                              Book of the Law. I. 44
--------

To-day practically all men must realize that humanity has arrived at a cross road. Society over the whole earth is being rocked to its foundations, and change of great magnitude is facing all established human institutions. Years ago some few foresaw the approaching cataclysm, and a small minority saw the import thereof.
In a poem written in 1900 and published in 1906, it is stated:

     "This is the birth hour of the age of gold.
    The false gold pales before the gold divine."

And we read "Perfection abideth not in the pinnacles, nor in the foundations, but in the ordered harmony of one with all." Obviously there is a deficiency of "ordered harmony," for it is most apparent that we are still some distance from perfection.
It is foolish to force the human animal to conform to laws which violate the inherent nature of the species. And no person or system can long endure in such a course. The fight for freedom, for liberty of the individual, is an old, old battle in which many have fought, many died, many lost. A few won on a few fronts, and these few bought us what freedom we now possess. We still fight, and will continue to fight, to a final freedom.
For inspiration in our battle we need only to review modern history, say from about the 12th century on, when the Templars fought so well, down to the establishment of this America.
What is needed that we slip not from the foothold they fought so hard to gain? Obviously organization; under the eye of an adequate Intelligence, capable of comprehending the general and particular need together. Some few now know that such an Intelligence has appeared in the theatre of Life, whose utterance is enshrined in the Book of the Law, and that plans for such organization now exist.
To this Book then, we must turn for instruction on how to govern ourselves; and to that organized plan, as the way to harmonize our lives with those of our fellows on our march towards perfection.

--------

                    "There are deep secrets in these songs. It is not enough
                    to hear the bird; to enjoy song he must be the bird.
                                                            Liber VII, VI, 14.

--------

It should hardly be necessary to define the stand of Thelemites in the present conflict, The Law of Thelema is not pacifistic, and our entire movement is based on the principle of individual liberty.
For us, the war is clear cut. There is no possible compromise between the principles of the Axis and the principles of Thelema. They are anti-thetical. There is no doubt as to the identity of the tyrant, the aggressor, nor as to the identity of his friends, his dupes, his tools.
The Order has suffered defeat in Madrid, Shanghai, Lidice, Athens, Warsaw, Paris. It has won with Britain, Stalingrad and Bataan. We fight in Russia, the Pacific, the Aleutians, and in every place where tyranny and oppression exist, unto the end of tyranny and oppression.
Whoso is loyal to the Axis is a traitor to the Order. Whoso is indifferent, or in compromise, is a slacker of the Order.
Whoso is not in battle, or forging our weapons, or encouraging his fellows against the Axis, is not a Thelemite.
A Thelemite who does these things will do them exceedingly well, for he knows the principles for which he fights.
And whosoever does these things is welcome in our Camp, for he fights in a good cause.

--------

I height Don Quixote, I live on Peyote,
marihuana, morphine and coccaine.
I never knew sadness but only a madness
that burns at the heart and the brain,
I see each charwoman ecstatic, inhuman,
angelic, demonic, divine,
Each wagon a dragon, each beer mug a flagon
that brims with ambrosial wine.
I went to the city and found it a pity
the devil was playing at hell,
And ten million mortals had entered hell's portals
and thought they were all doing well.
I said: "See, dear people, on every church steeple
an imp of the devil at play,
See ghouls cut their capers in daily newspapers
and fiends in police courts hold sway;
The mountains are palaces, women are chalices
meant to be supped and not sold,
The desert a banquet hall set for a festival,
ripe for the free and the bold;
The wind and the sky are ours, heaven and all its stars,
waken, and do what you will;
Break with this demon spawn'd hel-inspired nightmare
bond - Magick lies over the hill."
* * *           
They said I was crazy, ambiguous, lazy,
disgusting, fantastic, obscene;
So I hied for my sagebrush and cactus and corn mush,
To see if the air was still clean.
Oh, I height Don Quixote, I live on peyote,
marihuana, morphine and cocaine,
And may I be twice damned for a bank-clerk or store hand
if I visit the city again.
-- John W. Parsons

LIBER CL

DE LEGE LIBELLUM

L.L.L.L.L

PREFACE THE LAW

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

In righteousness of heart come hither, and listen; for it is I, TO MEGA THERION, who gave this Law unto everyone that holdeth himself holy. It is I, not another, that willeth your whole Freedom, and the arising within you of full Knowledge and Power.

Behold! the Kingdom of God is within you, even as the Sun standeth eternal in the heavens, equal at midnight and at noon. He riseth not: he setteth not: it is but the shadow of the earth which concealeth him, or the clouds upon her face.

Let me then declare unto you this Mystery of the Law, as it hath been made known unto me in divers places, upon the mountains and in the deserts, but also in great cities, which thing I speak for your comfort and good courage. And so be it unto all of you!

Know first, that from the Law spring four Rays or Emanations: so that if the Law be the center of your own being, they must needs fill you with their secret goodness. And these four are Light, Life, Love and Liberty.

By Light shall ye look upon yourselves and behold All Things that are in Truth One Thing only, whose name hath been called No Thing for a cause which later shall be declared unto you. But the substance of Light is Life, since without Existence and Energy it were naught. By Life therefore are you made yourselves, eternal and incorruptible, flaming forth as suns, self-created and self-supported, each the sole center of the Universe.

Now as by Light ye behold, by Love ye feel. There is an ecstasy of pure Knowledge, and another of pure Love. And this Love is the force that uniteth things diverse, for the contemplation in Light of their Oneness. Know that the Universe is not at rest, but in extreme motion whose sum is Rest. And tis understanding that Stablity in Change, and Change Stabilty, the Being is Becoming, and Becoming Being, is the Key to the Golden Palace of this Law.

Lastly, by liberty is the power to direct your course according to your Will. For the extent of the Universe is without bounds, and yea re free to make your pleasure as ye will, seeing that the diversity of being is infinite also. For this also is the joy of the Law, that no two stars are alike, and ye must understand also that this Multiplicity is itself Unity, and without it Unity could not be. And this is an hard saying against Reason: Ye shall comprehend, when rising above Reason, which is but a manipulation of the Mind, ye come to pure Knowledge by direct perception of the Truth.

Note also that these four Emanations of the Law flame forth upon all paths: ye shall use them not only in these Highways of the Universe whereof I have written, but in every By-path of your daily life.

Love is the law, love under will.

                                                                      (To be continued.)

TO MEGA THERION is in England, devoting great energy and time to the enormous amount of work before Him.

Of outstanding importance in His schedule is the publication of the Tarot, that ancient Book of Thoth, which now requires an interpretation to fit the Aeon of Horus. This is a most meticulous and arduous work, entailing the designing and engraving of an entirely new set of Cards, as well as an accompanying Book of Tarot which gives their history, their mystic and symbolic significance.
It is essential, therefore, that we wholeheartedly contribute toward this Work to make possible its achievement. Personal necessities are also needed, which we should count it a privilege to supply.
Contributions should be made for these purposes, and sent regularly, to the Treasurer, P. O. Box 93, Pasadena, California.

--------

In the Great Ages man realized his relation to all nature and to the living universe about him. He felt his "oneness" with the earth, air, sea and stars; and in his fullness of Life he worshipped the Sun as a visible symbol of the Supreme, the Author of all Life, Heat and Energy. In our frivolous egocentric way of living we have lost much of this essential realization.
But that we may once more move toward the Awareness of Life and Beauty, what more appropriate than that we celebrate the Sun in song and ritual?
Therefore, four times daily we perform "The Adorations"
                                                                                (Equinox I, VI.)

At Dawn, facing East:
           Hail unto Thee who art Ra in Thy rising,
          even unto Thee who art Ra in Thy
           strength, who travellest over the
           Heavens in thy bark at the Uprising of
          the Sun.
                     Tahuti standeth in his splendour at the prow,
                     and Ra-Hoor abideth at the
                     helm.
           Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of
          Night!

At Noon, facing South:
           Hail unto Thee who art Ahathoor in Thy
           triumphing, even unto Thee who art
           Ahathoor in Thy beauty, who travellest
           over the Heavens in Thy bark at the Mid-
          course of the Sun.
                     Tahuti standeth, etc.
          Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Morning!

At Sunset, facing West:
           Hail unto Thee who art Tum in Thy setting,
           even unto Thee who art Tum in thy
           joy, who travellest over the Heavens in
           Thy bark at the Down-going {sic}
                     Tahuti standeth, etc.
           Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Day!

At Midnight, facing North:
           Hail unto Thee who art Khephra in Thy
          hiding, even unto Thee who art Khephra
           in Thy silence, who travellest over the
           Heavens in Thy bark at the Midnight
           hour of the Sun.
                     Tahuti standeth, etc.
           Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Evening!


THE ELVINWISE

The Daughters of Odin are Fey, my Lad,
The daughters of Oden are Fey.
The buxom daughters of Frey I've had
When the icy Arctic moon was mad
And the snow was cold and deep, my Lad.
In a land beyond the day.

Aye, a land beyond the day, my Lad,
In a land beyond the day.
Where the Valkyr eyes are grey and sad
As they pace the windy terrace, clad
In a lace of steel and gold, my Lad!
And they hunger for their prey.

Aye, they hunger for their prey, my Lad,
And they hunger for their prey.
Valhalla's grim display has had
No Viking strong to feed the mad
Hyrrockin Queen of Snow, my Lad.
For many a weary day.

-- Grady L. McMurtry.


--------

The first issue of THE ORIFLAMME! As it will be published at regular intervals hereafter, at 25¢ the copy, we shall be glad to receive items of interest, and to consider for publication any suitable material. Address all communication to The Editor, Box 93, Pasadena, California.

--------

The Book of the Law, pocket edition.........................................................$ .50

The text: with a preliminary essay by Fr. O.M.
The Equinox of the Gods.......................................................................... 10.00
A full account of the Career of Aleister Crowley, of how the Book of the Law came into existence; with coloured illustrations of the Stele of Revealing, The Summons by the Master Therion, & facsimile of Manuscript. 85 pages.
The Book of Lies........................................................................................ 5.00
A book of Mystical Epigrams.
Eight Lectures on Yoga..................................................................... 5.00
Best analysis of the Eastern Systems of Initiation, freed from all sentimentality.
Magick, In Theory and Practice, the volume............................................... 3.00
Parts III and IV. {sic}
One Star in Sight, pamphlet.......................................................................... .25
A brief extract from Magick, outlining the structure and system of the great White Brotherhood.
Little Essays Towards Truth....................................................................... 4.00
Illuminated comments of the Oracles of Zoroaster.
Creed of the Thelemites................................................................................ .05
Message of the Master Therion, pamphlet.................................................... .25

N.B. Please note that prices and addresses in this reprint of Oriflamme #1 out of Agape Lodge #2 are out of date. They have been provided for historic reasons only.

Previous Primary Sources                   Next Primary Sources

Events Calendar for July 1999 e.v.

7/3/99Rite of Earth at OZ House
7/4/99Gnostic Mass 8:00PM Horus TempleThelema Ldg.
7/8/99Ouranos Collective Ritual workshop
8PM in Horus Temple		Thelema Ldg.
7/11/99Gnostic Mass 8:00PM Horus TempleThelema Ldg.
7/18/99Gnostic Mass 8:00PM Horus TempleThelema Ldg.
7/19/99Section II reading group with
Caitlin: Gulliver's Travels
8PM OZ house		Thelema Ldg.
7/21/99Class on Book 4, part 2, "Magick"
with Bill Heidrick in San Anselmo		Thelema Ldg.
7/22/99Ouranos Collective Ritual workshop
Green Magick 8PM in Horus Temple		Thelema Ldg.
7/25/99Sirius Oasis Tea, 4:18 PMSirius Oasis
7/25/99Gnostic Mass 8:00PM Horus TempleThelema 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)

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