Thelema A Modern Religion For Modern Times

Thelema is a modern religion, started in 1904, by the much-maligned Aleister Crowley. As a result of his association to Thelema, it is also much-maligned and misunderstood by many. This is my attempt to give a basic rundown of Thelema as well as some starting points for more information.

Since Thelema values the individual's free will and choices, this is not an attempt to convert, which would be useless. It is instead an attempt to explain a misunderstood religion and to offer the individual access to information to gain further information, if they so desire. Also, Thelema is open to personal interpretation, so my interpretation of Thelema will vary from another thelemite's interpretation. So, I have attempted to keep this very basic so as to not run too much into controversial areas.

Books You Might Enjoy:

Anonymous - Thelema A New Spiritual Tradition For A New Age
John Moore - A Modern Master Extract
Thomas Moore - Candle Magick For Love

The Last Days Of Aleister Crowley

In 1975 Rodney Davies met Kathleen "Johnny" Symonds, who had been Aleister Crowley's (AKA "The Great Beast 666" and "The Wickedest Man on Earth") landlady during the last months of his life in 1947. Here's his entertaining piece about it.

200908270919 Crowley brought with him some special gold coins, which he claimed had magic powers and was anxious about keeping safe, and a 'box of (I Ching) sticks'. He made frequent use of the latter. 'When he had an appointment for the dentist, for instance, he threw the sticks in the air. And once he called me and said, "Phone the dentist immediately! The sticks have told me not to go." The dentist was very amazed.'

The Great Beast soon settled into a regular daily routine. At nine each morning the housekeeper Miss Clarke took him his breakfast, and at ten, if the weather was fine, he would take a stroll in the garden, where Johnny kept some beautiful plump white rabbits, which he nicknamed 'The Chrysanthemums' and would love to watch. When the sun shone he would often sit with his hands held heavenwards.

Crowley then spent most of the rest of the day sleeping in his room, where he also took his other meals. His favourite snack was sardines sprinkled with curry powder. He roused himself as darkness fell, and sat up all night either writing letters, reading or indulging in his heroin drug habit.

'He had a ration of heroin which was allowed him,' Mrs Symonds said. 'It used to come down from a chemist called Heppel's in London. But the police knew about it. I've often watched him stick a needle in his arm. He didn't mind.'

...

According to Johnny, Aleister Crowley was an easy-going, trouble-free resident, who not only spent much of his time in his room, but who rubbed along well with the other visitors and with her and her husband. Indeed, her feelings about him were entirely positive: 'I liked him,' she said. 'He was great fun.'

Books You Might Enjoy:

Kenneth Grant - Aleister Crowley And The Hidden God
Aleister Crowley - To Man
Aleister Crowley - Poems
Aleister Crowley - Duty
Thomas Voxfire - What Was Aleister Crowley

Thelema Letters To The Editors

Letters to the Editors
Will and Word Winter Solstace 1990 ev

These letters were pre-Autarchy. The Charter had not been
purged of the tenancy towards power concentrating in the hands of
a few individuals who would be officially recognized as "officers".
E.G.

Editors:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law
From the Supreme And Most Holy King Of The Neo-Thelemoid Clique:
Greeting to all points of the Triangle!
This letter is an attempt at answering the charges levelled
at us by the Sorers of the Man of Earth series of sexism.
Specifically the language of our initiation rituals. Well, all I
can say to that is that that's the way Crowley wrote them for us,
so that, as they say, is that. Now, some Fraters and Sorers will
point to the recent interpretations of some of The Great One's
writings leading to revision of our initiation rituals and ask why
we can't change the wording of these rituals with regards to its
"sexist" terminology as well. All I can say is that since nobody
in any position of authority seems to be offended by this alleged
"sexist" terminology, we simply do not recognize any valid reason
to change the language. It is symbolic. It is understood that when
you call everyone present "he" you include women as well. Its just
more convenient and familiar to us that way.

Dear Editors:
Do what thou Wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
You read the letter from our esteemed Supreme and Holy Queen
the same day I did and I know that some of you are as disturbed by
it as I am.
Personally I am fascinated by this curious disregard of the
Magickal effects of language by our leadership, which represents
itself collectively as practicing a system of Magick intimately
connected with Quaballah; which is itself a sophisticated and
beautiful language/symbol system. To tell a quabalist that there
is no psychological, psychic, or other impact in calling all
persons present "he" (or even "she") because it is "symbolic" or
"conventional" or "less cumbersome" [translates: easier], is at
best unconscious, at worst stupid. Please. Don't insult me again,
gals.
The current Neo Thelemoid Clique leadership's position of
cringing behind Big Daddy Crowley's Authority for the sexist shit
spattered throughout Her writings (scattered amongst the
revolutionary/evolutionary messages from Liber AL like dead roaches in a chalice of communion cakes) is enough to make me laugh until
I cry. Have you people even heard about Orwell, or Korzybski, or
Burroughs or any of the Feminist thinkers at all?
This kind of unconsciousness is exactly the kind of thing that
keeps us out of the O.T.O.!
Please, guys, try to imagine the frustration of listening to
this same old male supremacist (and I use the term quite
specifically!) Old Aeon/Osirian Bhalasti over and over again from
people who smugly purport to be evolved beyond such things! You
make a mockery of your Grades. You are testament to the fact that
the people involved with leadership positions in the Thelemic Arena are just as much victims of the sexist assumptions of Crowley's
English Gentleman Upbringing as he was! Arrrgh. What you people are essentially saying is that it is OK to continue sanctioning this
attitude because Crowley did it. So, Crowley had a problem So that
makes it OK?
Even worse for the Neo-Thelemoid Clique as a whole, is that
we face the same kind of problems that our friends in the O.T.O.
are facing the worst of which are:
1) Universal lack of business administrative skills among the
leadership.
2) Disaffection of some of the members with the more dogmatic
interpretations of Liber Al and our body of Crowley rituals being
made by the leadership.
Hey, don't get me wrong, just because I got no swinging dick
doesn't mean I don't like the folks attached to theirs, but I do
object to this frustrating and tedious perpetuation of that same
ol' Osirian Ol' BOYS Network.
I listen to some of these glassy-eyed fanatics as they declaim
on the glories of the New Aeon of the Child and try not to snort
too loudly when I contemplate the deadly inaccuracy and
neuron-level self deception necessary for them to maintain sexist
attitudes in this environment of Thelemic ritual and rhetoric.
I have nothing more to say except that the Committee Charter
Revision will also involve our Clique's Charter Revision, no matter what the various officers of the Councils, Colleges and Senates
think.
Love is the Law, Love under Will
Sorer Eris

Letters To The Ed.-Post Revision
I would like to thank all you folks for the help you've given
me in the past year since the Charter Revision. The backlog of
letters has been amazing. It seems that Charter Revision has met
the approval of the membership.
Ed.

Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law,
Greetings from the valley of the Neo-Thelemoid Clique to all
points on the Circumference of the circle!
The Hermits Pro Temp of the Neo-Thelemoid Clique wish to
announce our endorsement of the Charter. We feel that this is a
structure far superior to the pyramidical masonic/catholic church
set up that we used that Crowley had set up for the O.T.O. We have
been using that structure too long.
Thelemoids will be best served in the context of the Committee
if we the Neo-Thlemoid Clique decentralize ourselves. It is
unfortunate that those claiming degrees within the Hermit Circle
had to be purged. Those of us formerly holding those degrees have
conceded that none of us can in fact meet the requirements for the
Hermit Degree (See the revised Charter under Blue Circle
Requirements) and although our Clique's membership received word
in the mailing following the Charter Revision, we wanted to restate the fact to the membership of the Committee at large.
Love Is The Law, Love Under Will
The Hermits Pro Temp
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Dear Editors:
An Orgonic friend of mine recently got arrested for breaking
into houses in a ritzy section of --. Now, this was not for
purposes of stealing, he was leaving copies of a little booklet
entitled A Book of Shadows behind him, each left on the pillowcases of the beds of the owners, and in the dresser drawers of any
youngsters in the house. In case they wanted to check theirs out
even if mom and dad didn't want them to keep it.
The cops and legal parasites are blown out of their pants by
this weirdness. Now check this out. One of the solid citizens who
came to the police during this spree to report her pillow
vandalized by a booklet, is claiming some mucho expensivimo jewelry was stolen. I bet its insured to the max. Now, I know the man
accused personally as a close friend for many many years. I believe him when he says he didn't steal the necklace and stuff. It looks
bad though, since none of these people can believe that someone
could actually break into 14 homes in 6 days that they know about!
for the purposes of making an artistic statement. What should we
do?
Shine On Brothers And Sisters,
Severian

Dear Severian and Co:
After everyone gave their opinions as to how to approach this,
we have a number of effective options for you to consider. We have
mailed these to you because the effectiveness of many of these
scenarios is cancelled by their being public knowledge. Please feel free to use the Security Hotline according to the procedures
outlined in the material we sent. Keep in touch.
Eds.

Dear Editors,
What this magazine needs is a comic!
Sorer N.O.S.

Dear Communications Subcommittee:
When are we going to get the Newspeak dictionary, first
edition?
Zed the Impaler

By next issue! E.G.

SEX IS PEACE
TRUE WILL NOT SLAVERY
CONSCIOUSNESS IS STRENGTH

Suggested ebooks:

Anonymous - The Prayers Of The Elementals
Howard Phillips Lovecraft - The Haunter Of The Dark
William Godwin - The Lives Of The Necromancers

The Wickedest Man In The World

John Bull, March 24th 1923

The Wickedest Man In The World

In this article we reveal startling facts regarding the corruption of children in Aleister Crowley's "cesspool of vice" in Cefalu, and describe some of the blasphemous and bestial ceremonies - or orgies - which have taken place in the so-called "Abbey Of Thelema," for which he is now seeking new recruits from the young men and women of two English Universities.



In our last two issues we have published a series of charges against a man named Aleister Crowley, who from a safe retreat on the shores of Sicily spreads a contaminating influence that has already brought to ruin more than one young life. The more the activities of this degenerate Englishman are investigated, the more incredible becomes the tales of his villainies. It is understood that the Italian Government are resolved to put an end to Crowley's career of vice, and in this effort they will have the sympathy of decent-thinking people in every land.

Our past exposures of Crowley have been, to say the least of them, highly sensational, but they are as nothing compared to these we have yet to make concerning the amazing record of this degenerate poet and occultist, traitor, drug fiend, and Master of Black Magic, his knowledge and practise of which are amply proven by his writings and by the evidence of those who have come into contact with him. He may well be described as the Wickedest Man in the World.

We are impelled by the sheer horror and gravity of his recent devilries to make further exposures concerning what is going on in his Lust Temple at Cefalu, Sicily, to which he is seeking to lure a number of unsuspecting students from Oxford and Cambridge Universities - both men and women - under the pretence of studying occult science and the mysteries of the Cabbala. Already, one eminent Cambridge professor - whose identity is known to us - has arranged to join Crowley at Cefalu next month for this purpose, and is now working with a well-known titled scientist in South Africa, who is, we are informed, conducting a Lodge or "Study Circle" in Bloemfontien, of the Cabalistic Order, of which Crowley is the Past, if not the Present, Grand Master.

Our revelations of the sinister circumstances leading to the recent death of a brilliant young Oxford graduate at Crowley's so-called "Abbey," in Cefalu, first brought to light the existence there of little children, all between five and seven years of age, who are living there with the Beast and his abandoned acolytes under conditions that defy description.

These unhappy children - two boys and a girl - are said to be half starved and have already been taught by "The Beast" to indulge in the vilest practises, while they are made to witness sexual debaucheries that are too disgusting to describe. Tow are children of one of the female drug fiends who are living with Crowley in his "Abbey," one of them by her former husband, and the other by Crowley, who is the father also of the third child by some other of his countless women victims.

The main room of the "Abbey" - which is really a converted farmhouse - is windowless, with a flagged stone floor on which is painted a great orange circle, lined with pale yellow. Inside this "magical circle" are interlaced black triangles. This room is furnished as a sort of pagan, or Pantheistic, temple, in which are performed, not only Cabalistic ceremonies, but the most depraved forms of Dionysian rites. (Dionysus was the Greek God of Wine, in whose honour Bacchanalian revels and orgies were given.)

The nature of these can be barely hinted at, but one - to the facts of which we have two independent eye-witnesses of it's performance on two separate occasions - has to do with the violation of a naked woman in front of the "altar," and her subsequent slaying and "sacrifice" of a goat, which is made to play a principal part in these disgusting Dionysian rites.

The woman, who acts as the "Virgin Goddess" or priestess in this vile ceremony, is first given an aphrodisaical drug, such as hashish (known in the East as Vhang") or another similar drug distilled from Indian hemp, known in scientific circles as "Anhalonium Lewine."
This renders the debauchee capable of participating in practices which no normal person could conceive of, much less describe.

We understand that, aroused by our exposures, the Italian Government is determined to clean out this plague-spot of crime at Cefalu, and bring Crowley to justice for his illegal traffic in noxious drugs.

There are, however, other "activities" at the Abbey which admit of more detailed accusation. One of these is the method employed by Crowley of paying his numerous debts on the island, by sending out his women as "hostages" to those who are willing to accept this despicable method of payment.

Another, which has considerably hampered our enquiries and is even calculated to baffle the inquiries which have already been instituted by the Home Office and by Scotland Yard, is Crowley’s practise of getting certain prominent and highly-placed citizens of Cefalu and Palermo up to his "Abbey," where they are persuaded to take part in the sexual orgies which follow drug parties, and which even form a leading part in the Abbey’s "religious ceremonies."

We shall not hesitate to hand to the authorities the names of some of these distinguished visitors, together with further sworn testimony if, as we anticipate, a certain official on the Island endeavours to stifle Government investigations.

Suffice to say for the moment, that one of Crowley’s women in the "Abbey" is shortly expecting another child to be born, the father of which is known to be a prominent banker in Palermo, who is a friend of the British Consul.

We may mention that, up to the time of this article going to press - no death certificate has been received by the relatives of the young Oxford graduate who died under such suspicious circumstances at the Abbey four weeks ago, nor has any reply been received from the British Consul at Palermo to the anxious inquiries made by the young man’s mother and sister concerning his death.

Another of the women inmates of the Abbey has borne two children by Crowley, both of whom are now dead. This woman was living with him when he had his London Lust Temple in the Fulham Road, to which he enticed a number of young women whom he induced to indulge in various forms of unnatural vice while under the influence of drugs which he had administered first to them. Since our publication of the particulars of his abominable attack upon the life and sanity of one of our informants, we have received information which shows that he has deliberately driven other women mad who had come under his influence. One of these died on Holloway Jail while serving a term for being found in possession of the drugs with which Crowley had supplied her, while another - the Hon. Mrs. K., died in an asylum.

Unless the authorities act quickly Crowley will succeed in luring others to hi den of infamy. This must be prevented at all costs.

Books You Might Enjoy:

Andrew Lang - The Witch And Other Stories
Rabbi Michael Laitman - Attaining The Worlds Beyond
Naomi Janowitz - Magic In The Roman World

The Thelema Religion Comes Of Age

The Book of the Law stands as the foundation of Thelema. In it, we are told that every man and every woman is a star. Every person is an individual. Each person is to find his True Will, the natural inclination of his soul, and accomplish that. The Law of Thelema comes from the Book of the Law and drives this essential doctrine home: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the law, love under will." This is not a license to do what you want, but rather a charge to find your True Will and accomplish it above all else. It is up to each individual person to interpret the Book of the Law for themselves, appealing to the writings of the prophet, but ultimately deciding for themselves as to the meaning of each verse. The only question is whether the person will be king of his own destiny, or the slave to the desires of others.

Just as we are to interpret the book for ourselves and to follow our own Wills, we are also charged to not interfere with the Wills of others. Self-determination is one of man's rights. Each star has its own orbit, each person has his own path. We must go beyond doing what others tell us is right and instead find what is right for us. Morality that restricts needlessly should be shrugged off as the shackles it has become. Each person should think for himself, reason for himself, and follow his own path. Since no two paths are the same, we have no way to instruct our brother or sister other than to encourage them to accept their own freedom, and with it, their own responsibilities for their life.

While many of the statements found in the Book of the Law and the commentaries were radical for the time in which they were delivered, they are things many agree with today. Crowley spoke of gender equality, the acceptance of homosexuality and bisexuality, the bondage to old religions which attempted to stuff everyone into a one-size-fits-all path, etc. As the Aeon has progressed, these have become ideals many of us espouse.

The religion of wicca was devised by a member of Crowley's OTO, Gerald Gardner. He adapted the Law of Thelema to his attempt to bring back paganism and it became the wiccan Crede "An it harm none, do what ye will". Due to this first attempt at the reconstruction of paganism, we have seen an increasing explosion of neo-pagan religions, all emphasizing the individual's right to believe as he or she will. Even many within the formerly intolerant old aeon religions are now tolerant of the beliefs of others.

Crowley proclaimed the start of a new age. We are fortunate enough to witness it's progression: the age of the individual, the Aeon of Horus. Even though he suffered through an addiction to heroin as well as libel in the press, he tirelessly worked to promulgate the law. We are the benefactors of his work. We are the children of the crowned and conquering child, Horus.

Books You Might Enjoy:

Sekhet Sophia - The Alexandrian Book Of Shadows
Tuesday Lobsang Rampa - Chapters Of Life
Amber K - The Basics Of Magick
James Eschelman - Invocation Of Horus
Anonymous - Thelema A New Spiritual Tradition For A New Age

The Tao Teh Ching

The Tao Teh Ching, roughly translated as The Book of the Way and its Virtue (see below on translating the title), is an ancient Chinese scripture. Tradition has it that the book was written around 600 BCE by a sage called Laozi (also spelled Lao Tzu, Lao Tse, Laotse, "Old Master"), a record-keeper in the Emperor's Court of the Zhou Dynasty. A careful reading of the text, however, suggests that it is a compilation of maxims sharing similar themes. The authenticity of the date of composition/compilation and the authorship are still debated.

This short work is one of the most important in Chinese philosophy and religion, especially in Taoism, but also in Buddhism, because the latter – an Indian religion – shared many Taoist words and concepts before developing into Chinese Buddhism. (Indeed, upon first encountering it, Chinese scholars regarded Buddhism as merely a foreign equivalent of Taoism.) Many Chinese artists, including poets, painters, calligraphers and even gardeners have used the book as a source of inspiration. Its influence has also spread widely outside the Far East, aided by many different translations of the text into western languages.

Many believe that the Tao Teh Ching contains some universal truths which have since been independently recognized in other philosophies, both religious and secular. Each modern language interpretation (including even interpretation of the three-character title, of which there are dozens) differs at least slightly and occasionally profoundly from the next. Depending on how one reads them, some chapters could have three or more interpretations, ranging from practical wisdom for the common man to advice intended for kings to even the odd medical recipe.


There is also an interpretation of this Chinese classic by Aleister Crowley out there.

Books You Might Enjoy:

John Dee - Table From Liber Loagaeth French Version
John Dee - The Calls Of Enoch
Israel Regardie - The Art Of True Healing
Aleister Crowley - Liber 157 The Tao Teh King

The Law Of Thelema

The Law of Thelema was revealed to the world by a praeterhuman Intelligence calling himself Aiwass in Cairo, Egypt in March and April, 1904 e.v. Aiwass appeared first to Rose Edith Kelly nee Crowley, in an altered state of consciousness (ASC), and subsequently to the British poet and magical adept, Aleister Crowley (born in Leamington, England on October 12, 1875 e.v.).

Aiwass proceeded to demonstrate his objective existence independently of the psyches of both Crowley and Rose, by leading them to the stele of Ankh-af-na-khonsu, a Theban Egyptian priest of the 8th century B.C.E., in the Boulak Museum, where they had never been. He then dictated a sacred text to Crowley called the Book of the Law. For five years thereafter Crowley resisted the Law of Thelema and the mission of Thelemic prophet laid upon him by Aiwass, regarding the Cairo Working, as it is called, as an "astral vision" (i.e., a purely imaginative - but not "imaginary" - experience).

However, Crowley's subsequent attainment of the grade of Master of the Temple in the Supreme College of the Great White Brotherhood resulted in his acceptance of the Law of Thelema and of his own prophetic role as described in the Book of the Law. Crowley proclaimed himself as the prophet of a new eon for humanity for the first time in his long mystical poem, Aha! (1909), which has been compared in beauty and profundity to the Bhagavad-Gita. Thereafter he signed his correspondence and formal instructions with the two main slogans of the Book of the Law, ;Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" and ;Love is the law, love under will."

Crowley founded a magical society, the A. ..A. .., took over the leadership of another, the O.T.O., and wrote a series of formal instructions promulgating the Law of Thelema, as well as teaching Scientific Illuminism and Magick. Many of these formal instructions were published during his lifetime in his Equinox periodical and elsewhere. Crowley believes that the Law of Thelema resolves all spiritual quandaries, harmonizes science and religion, and supersedes all historical dispensations, establishing a new cultural epoch for humanity, which he calls the New Aeon of Horus, the Crowned and Conquering Child. According to Crowley, the New Aeon will endure for at least several hundred years, possibly for as long as two thousand years.

During his lifetime Crowley succeeded in attracting a small following, mainly in Germany and America, of no more than one or perhaps two hundred souls (counting all those who adhered to Crowley at any time, for any length of time; a much smaller number remained faithful to Crowley at the end of his life). Crowley lost many followers due to his troublesome personality and libertine lifestyle, especially after he came to the attention of the British tabloid press following the First World War. After his death, Crowley left behind him a disorganized and demoralized O.T.O. movement which has since split up into several competing factions, notably the American Caliphate founded by McMurtry, the Swiss O.T.O. founded by Metzger, the English O.T.O. under the leadership of Kenneth Grant, and a Brazilian O.T.O. founded by Marcelo Ramos Motta. A very few members of the original A. ..A. .. also carried on the work in a very limited way, but the A. ..A. .. organization qua organization did not survive Crowley, at least not openly.

A larger number of revivals of the O.T.O., A. ..A. .., and other self-professed Thelemic groups, without any clear historical link to Crowley, with various, sometimes divergent points of view, have also come into existence since a revival of interest in Crowley's work associated with the counterculture revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Today the Law of Thelema has attracted several thousand adherents worldwide, as well as a larger following of curiosity seekers, including several prominent rock stars. The Law of Thelema has a strong presence on the Internet, and many of Crowley's writings are available online. Crowley first editions are in demand, and fetch high prices in the rare book market.

Books You Might Enjoy:

William Godwin - The Lives Of The Necromancers
Frater Hoor - A Thelemic Calendar
Prentiss Tucker - In The Land Of The Living Dead
Anonymous - The Laws For Witches
Anonymous - The Prayers Of The Elementals

Psychic Michael Tsarion 2012 The Future Of Mankind

MICHAEL TSARION - 2012 The Future of Mankind, Micheal Tsarion gives a presentation in The Granada Forum in Los Angeles. "people deserve the government they get " Michael Tsarion says "the real war is a psychic one it is a war on consciousnesses " it is a psychic dictatorship, the Government literally means Control of the mind

Michael Tsarion research goes deep into man's history. Asking questions that your Religion does not want to discuss, and finding answers that science cannot explain he gives his perception as to why the world is in the present state of decay and who it is that really rules from the top of the power pyramid.Michael Tsarion has researched ancient civilizations and ancient texts for years and his mentor was Jordan Maxwell. He has a vast amount of knowledge regarding symbolism and is teacher of many of the sacred arts such as tarot and astrology. He believes that earth's crime-soaked history has been manipulated by powerful secret societies with bloodline connections to ancient alien visitors who crossed their own DNA with that of earth's indigenous inhabitants. It is not my opinion that everything in this presentation is meant to be taken literally but it is of paramount importance that each and every human being discovers what the future holds, and what the world's ancient scriptures are saying. This riveting investigation into the occult history of the world will open your eyes and allow you to make sense of the agendas of government and religion, the strange preoccupations of the media, and much of what can transpire in future years. I remain skeptical of some the opinions Tsarion presents in this video but overall he was able to paint a different picture of the world I thought I had figured out through everything I was raised to believe and what we are taught in school. Please watch with an open mind and come to your own conclusion but realize that this is just another point of view based on information that Tsarion has analyzed but you must do the same.Michael Tsarion gives his opinion. It's up to you if you should agree but the information in this presentation is accurate and its what should be soaked up the most.

Suggested ebooks:

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Keywords: astral projection books  learn to astral travel  astral travel experiences  butterfly net  butterfly net  crowley thelema  guide to astral travel  how to astral travel  paul foster case  

The Golden Dawn Internal Problems

In addition to Crowley’s expulsion, there was rampant in-fighting among founding members of the organization. Woodman died in 1891 and wasn’t replaced. Mathers produced an initiation ritual for the Adeptus Minor degree. Most of these rituals were based on Freemasonry. Many members thought that he was a little eccentric, possibly a lunatic.

He claimed his wife, Mina, received teachings from the Secret Chiefs through clairaudience, psychic hearing. Mathers translated The Book of the Sacred magic of Abra-Melin the Mage, which he claimed was bewitched and created by a nonphysical intelligence. He claimed the Secret Chiefs had initiated him into a Third Order and was expelled from the organization. In 1897, members discovered Westcott's questionable activities in founding The Golden Dawn. He resigned. Schisms beyond repair had formed within the organization.

In 1917, it was reestablished as the Merlin Temple of the Stella Matutina which lasted until the 1940s when it declined after the publication of its secret rituals by former member Israel Regardie, Crowley's one-time secretary.
Crowley and the Golden Dawn

The rise and fall of this hermetic organization parallels the history of many occult groups. Highly intelligent people with mystical beliefs found these organizations and attract others who share these qualities. Eventually there are internal conflicts for various reasons. Some splinter organizations of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn still exist. Aleister Crowley, a heroin addict, died in Hastings, England on December 1, 1947 from a respiratory infection. His teachings also live on.

Books You Might Enjoy:

Order Of The Golden Dawn - Lesser Invoking Ritual Of The Pentagram
Order Of The Golden Dawn - The Invoking Pentagram Ritual Of Fire
Morwyn - The Golden Dawn
Order Of The Golden Dawn - Meditation With The Archangel Auriel

The Birth Of The Thelema Religion

It was when this honeymoon was in Cairo that the young buddhist's wife wanted to see evidence of magick. Crowley decided to invoke the sylphs for his wife. She claimed she saw nothing. However, she began telling him "they're here" and mumbling something about a child. He couldn't imagine what she was talking about, so the next day when she continued, he invoked Thoth, the Egyptian god of knowledge, to make sense of it. There was no immediate result, but on the third day, Rose decides that the Egyptian god Horus is speaking through her. Crowley, in an attempt to prove her wrong, carries her to the Bulaq Museum in Cairo and she promptly points out a funerary tablet labeled Stele 666 and the figure of Horus as Ra-Hoor-Khuit.

For the next three weeks, Crowley had the stele translated by the assistant curator to the museum. At the end of that time, he invoked Horus and was told to enter the temple at exactly noon on April 8th, 9th, and 10th, writing down what was given to him. On each of the three days, he was given a new chapter to a book by Aiwass, whom Crowley began to consider his Holy Guardian Angel. The three chapters formed a book which became known as The Book of the Law. This became the foundation of a new philosophy called Thelema.

The first chapter is written as if spoken by Nuit, the goddess of space. It describes worship directed towards the infinite. The second chapter is written as if spoken by Hadit, the infinitesimal point and the consort of Nuit. It sets up timed religious observances as well as further codes of conduct. The third chapter is spoken as if by Horus, the crowned and conquering child, the synthesis of the two. This chapter takes on a war-like tone and finishes up the instructions on conduct as well as giving tasks for the future.

At first, since it clashed with Crowley's Buddhist leanings, he rejected the Book of the Law, primarily because of the wording of the third chapter. However, he eventually began to see the sense of it and started the first thelemic order, the order of the silver star or Argentum Astrum (A.: A.:) in 1907. He also, per the instructions in the book, began working on commentaries to the Book of the Law, setting himself up as the prophet of the New Aeon or age. He began devoting himself to the promulgation of the Law of Thelema by writing many poems and books as well as other activities.

It was one of these writings that caused him to be contacted by a man named Theodor Reuss in 1913. Reuss claimed that Crowley had published the secret of the pseudo-masonic order called the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) and demanded he be initiated into it, taking oaths to protect the secret. After proof of his publishing of the secret, Crowley relented and was initiated. The very next year he advanced to tenth degree in that order and became head of Great Britian and Ireland for the order.

The next year, Crowley traveled to Moscow and, after attending a Orthodox mass, sat down to write the Gnostic Mass, a Mass incorporating not only the ideals of Thelema, but also the secret of the OTO. It was his goal to provide a religion for the new aeon, incorporating the philosophy in symbol suitable for public performance. Through the use of theater and song, it would proclaim the Law for all.

In 1922, Crowley became the head of the OTO, the first old aeon organization to accept the Law of Thelema and its precepts. He spent the rest of his life traveling and sharing this Law with the world, not only through his own association, but with numerous books, poems, and articles. At the age of 71, Aleister Crowley, with his son Ataturk at his side, succumbed to his Greater Feast and died. His ashes were buried near a tree on the property of Karl Germer, a holocaust survivor, and his successor to the OTO.

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Liber 415 Opus Lutetianum Or The Paris Working

Book: Liber 415 Opus Lutetianum Or The Paris Working by Aleister Crowley

Opus Lutetianum, The Paris Working. (including Esoteric record and sundrys) A record of homosexual magick operations.

Download Aleister Crowley's eBook: Liber 415 Opus Lutetianum Or The Paris Working
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Term Equinox In Astrology

In astronomy and astrology, an equinox is defined as the moment when the sun reaches one of two intersections between the ecliptic and the celestial equator.

The word "equinox" comes from the Latin for equal night. The equinoxes occurring with the sun at 0° Aries and Libra (late March and September, respectively, on the common calendar) are the two occasions each year when the day and the night are of equal duration. For measuring the length of a day, sunrise is the moment when the sun is half-above the horizon and sunset is the moment when the sun is half-under the horizon. Using this definition, the length of the day (and the night) is precisely 12 hours at an equinox.

In the northern hemisphere, the Aries equinox is known as the vernal (spring) equinox and the Libra equinox is the autumnal (autumn) equinox. In the southern hemisphere, these names may be transposed. For simplicity, this article will refer to the equinoxes by the zodiacal names used above.

On the common calendar, the vernal equinox typically falls on either March 20 or 21 and the autumnal equinox on September 22 or 23 – the Gregorian dates vary because some years are leap years, shifting the calendar by a day or so relative to the seasons. The Thelemic Calendar, for obvious reasons, does not have the problem of varying dates for the equinoxes. Because the Earth's orbit is elliptical, the dates on which the equinoxes fall do not divide the year into equal halves.

The equinoxes can also be interpreted as virtual points in the sky. Although, during full daylight, stars other than the sun are overwhelmed by sunlight, making it hard to see where the sun is compared to other celestial bodies, the sun does have a position (as seen from the earth) relative to the other stars. As the Earth moves around the sun, the apparent position of the sun relative to the other stars moves in a full circle over the period of a year. This circle is called the ecliptic, and is also the plane of the Earth's orbit projected against the whole sky. The other bright planets like Venus, Mars and Saturn, also appear to move along the ecliptic, because their orbits are in a similar plane to Earth's.

Another virtual circle in the sky is the celestial equator, or the projection of the plane of the Earth's equator against the whole sky. Because the Earth's axis of rotation is tilted relative to the plane of Earth's orbit around the sun, the celestial equator is inclined to the ecliptic. Twice a year, the sun, making its progress around the ecliptic, crosses the plane of the Earth's equator. These two points are the equinoxes. The time at which the sun passes through each equinox point can be calculated precisely—so the equinox is actually a particular moment, rather than a whole day.

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The Legend Of Aleister Crowley

The portly and voluminous poet, mystic, magician, explorer, scholar and publicist, Aleister Crowley, here has his Legend given to the world before the trifling formality of his death.
It is at once the strength and weakness of this decorously-tempered panegyric that it is the work of an instructed advocate rather than an impartial judge. In considering, criticising and appraising this unique and bulky figure we have to bear in mind - and it is only fair that we should thus bear in mind - the character, or rather the characteristics, of his countrymen.
Critics of life so diverse as Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick’s, and Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay, have in their several ways noted the proneness of the English mob to single out an object of hatred, and to howl at that unfortunate figure until they have either slain it, or cast it into the limbo of unreturning exile.

For us Freethinkers, it should suffice to recall the names of certain of our own heroes and martyrs who have thus enjoyed the favour of this distinguishing mark of approbation at the stone-filled hands and patriotic voices of their grateful fellow-countrymen, who never forgive genius, originality, or Independance of thought. Byron, Shelley, Richard Carlile, Charles Bradlaugh, are names among a score or two that might be given that indicate what are the real feelings of the man in the street towards his saviours and benefactors. Mob psychology is an inferiority complex magnified to the nth power; and in England, at least, there are not enough people of exalted temperament to prevent the martyrdom of the "sports" and leaders among mankind.

At one time we knew aleister crowley pretty well, as is plain from this book; and although in some respects he was perhaps "not quite nice to know," as the slang phrase goes, we do not think that it is quite fair to charge him with murder, cannibalism, black magical practices, moral aberrations, treachery, druggery; as is the custom among the cunninger and more degraded jackals of Fleet Street. We know something of journalists, but we know very few members of the newspaper craft who would not sell themselves for twenty guineas down if it were quite "safe."

Rigid moralists, like the good Horatio Bottomley and the Almost-Reverend James Douglas, it seems to us, really protest too much in their religious efforts to keep England pure and holy; and for this reason , differing as we do from very much that is taught and advocated by Aleister Crowley, we respectfully decline to join the howling mob of interested pietists who every now and then raise the wind in the Silly Season by shrieking with inspired vituperation at the poet under discussion. If a fraction of the charges brought against Crowley were true, he should be exiled from every country in the world, and, after judicious application to his reason of various Chinese tortures, he should be hanged, drawn and quartered first, broken on the wheel afterwards, and the remains sown with salt before being cast into the infernal pit; but somehow we have an instinct against accepting the unsupported assertions of the professional moralists of our popular journals, and we do not know that Mr. Douglas, Mr. Bottomley and the lesser lights of cheap journalism have not proved their case up to the hilt. In these circumstances we venture publicly to the record our opinion that the poet might be allowed to follow his paths in comparative peace until something definitely criminal can be proved against him, when the police, no doubt, will be quite capable of dealing with the case. Crowley is at least as important a figure as the late D. H. Lawrence and Mr. James Joyce, both unquestionably men of genius; and when we remember the kinds of things said against these artists in our cheaper prints, we hesitate to acquiesce in the Sunday newspaper verdict of Aleister Crowley.

Mr. Stephenson gives an amusing and interesting, if one sided and partial, account of his subject; and the book will have it’s place when the history, literary and social, of the early twentieth century comes to be written.

A final note: we ourselves differ profoundly on many points - on most points, indeed - from Crowley; we do not see why he should not have a fair share of this notice therefore is written solely in the interests of fair play, by one who is in no respect a follower or partisan. It is a plea from ordinary human tolerance addressed by a Freethinker to his fellow Freethinkers. Those of them who feel inclined to quarrel with this estimate of Crowley’s genius might inform themselves by glancing at his latest published book, Confessions. This work, now in course of publication, is , in my considered judgement, the greatest autobiography that the world has ever seen. We have not the least doubt that posterity will endorse this finding.

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Starting Path Of Thelema

In April of 1904 an astonishing event changed the life of Aleister Crowley: poet, mystic and Golden Dawn occultist. While he and his wife, Rose, were vacationing in Egypt a mysterious entity initiated contact with the couple. First the voice moved Rose to lead Crowley to the funerary stele of an ancient Egyptian priest named Ankh-af-na-Khonsu. Later Crowley heard the voice over the course of three days. The voice, which belonged to a divine entity, commanded Crowley to transcribe his words, culminating in a piece of writing called Liber AL vel Legis, sub figura CCXX, or The Book of the Law.

Although Crowley resisted much of the teaching of The Book of the Law for many years, ultimately he accepted the role it assigned to him as Prophet of the New Aeon. The entire process is described in detail in Crowley's Equinox of the Gods and Book 4, Part 4. The Book of the Law is short - only 220 verses in length - but packed full of poetic, cryptic passages filled with Egyptian and apocalyptic Christian symbolism as well as strings of letters and numbers which appear to be an unsolved code.

Like many esoteric scriptures, there are several potential meanings to the verses in Liber AL, often apparently contradictory meanings. Crowley later wrote a short comment which included the line, "All questions of the Law are to be decided only by appeal to my writings, each for himself." This line is generally interpreted to mean that each person must interpret Liber AL for themselves and none other.

In 1922, Crowley became the Outer Head of Order of the group known as Ordo Templi Orientis (Order of the Eastern Templars). Under Crowley's leadership, the O.T.O. adopted The Book of the Law as its holy book and Crowley revised the order's rituals to bring them in line with the teachings of the path of Thelema.

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Spiritual Practice Of Thelema

Many occultists endlessly spin out cosmologies and other symbolic arrangements having little relationship to any apparent pragmatic issue. Crowley speculated quite a lot, but coming from the rigorous curriculum of ritual and meditation of the Golden Dawn, and exposure to Buddhist monasticism and Hindu yoga, he was more concerned with setting up a program of spiritual exercises and degrees.

In Thelema the goal of the path is always the same, to be the most oneself that one can be, to know who you really are and to let that eternal self or True Will be the guiding force in life. To do this it is recommended that one practice ritual and meditative disciplines that still and focus the mind, travel astrally to various locations in the spiritual world inside or outside oneself, invoke sacred energies and beings, evoke and command spirits, attain to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel at the central sphere of the Tree of Life (called Tiphareth or Beauty), and at the Abyss between the supernal and lower spheres, give up all one's conceptions about one's self in favor of the radical perspective of the eternal self.

Initiation is a major theme in Crowley's system of Thelema, as in its two direct ancestors, the Golden Dawn and Theosophy. Initiation is a complex subject and has been the subject of extensive study by anthropologists. Freemasonry is an initiatic tradition in Western society that follows the model of initiation accepted by anthropologists, and esoteric Freemasonry has been a major contributor to the Golden Dawn, Theosophy, and Thelema as well as other magical groups, including modern Witchcraft. Initiations mark stages in personal development. Occult theories differ on whether initiations induce progress by working magic on the initiate, or whether they mark progress already made in personal work, or both.

The practices of Crowley's system are arranged in an initiatic progression that is called the A.·. A.·. system (those glyphs after the letter "A" are triangles made up of three dots, a Masonic usage indicating a claim to possess the Lost Word). This curriculum is a combination of Golden Dawn magic, Yogic and Buddhist meditation practices, and original practices developed by Crowley. The work required to achieve even the middle ranges of the system is very difficult and few people have accomplished this. Many Thelemites have claimed personal attainment in A.·. A.·. terms without undertaking the basic requirements.

The curriculum requires the daily practice of rituals and meditations, as well as magical retirements, a kind of one-person spiritual retreat in which weeks or months at a time may be spent in meditative solitude. The motto of Crowley's literary and magical journal, the Equinox, was "The Method of Science, the Aim of Religion". While his methods fall short of a truly scientific standard, one feature his system shares with anthropology is the requirement that one keep a detailed journal of practices and observations. Writing a phenomenological record of ritual experience is a crucial part of what is called ethnographic field observation in anthropology and of the A.·. A.·. system as well.

The A.·. A.·. system of initiations follows the spheres of the Tree of Life, as did the Golden Dawn. In addition to the Golden Dawn and a variety of Freemasonic and fringe Masonic degrees, Crowley gave and received the A.·. A.·. grades, the Ordo Templi Orientis degrees, and the ordinations and bishoprics of the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica or Gnostic Catholic Church. These are all different systems but there is some overlap in themes and practices. The O.T.O. system follows a traditional model derived from Freemasonry, although like all Crowley's groups it admits both women and men. Rather than any arduous practices being required as in A.·. A.·., patience, devotion, the O.T.O. initiation rituals, some secret teachings, and a fraternal social process are supposed to equip the initiate over time to deal with inner mysteries of a magical nature. The EGC system is closely related to the O.T.O. but revolves around the traditional ecclesiastical offices of Priest and Bishop, as found in the wandering Bishop tradition of esoteric Christianity.

A number of new Thelemic groups with their own initiations and courses of study have sprung up since Crowley's death in 1947 and several are currently in operation. In addition, there are a number of different lineages of A.·. A.·. and several rival claimants to the title of O.T.O. The largest O.T.O. group, under Hymenaeus Beta, has won court cases in which it asserted the right to the O.T.O. name and to its share of the Crowley estate.

The Literalist might say this: The A.·. A.·. is the Great White Brotherhood, that hidden order of Initiates that has existed in Service throughout the ages and has emerged behind such masks as the Rosicrucians and the Zoroastrian Magi. The Third Order of A.·. A.·. has direct access to the deities and sages who operate the Occult Government not only of this world but of other worlds as well, both physical and spiritual. The Book of the Law was sent to humanity by the A.·. A.·. on the occasion of the revolution in ?ons declared by its Secret Chiefs. Crowley held the grade of Magus in the A.·. A.·. and as such uttered the Word of the ?on, THELEMA, which all members accept as natural Law. Outer Orders such as O.T.O. are less important than the Inner Order of A.·. A.·. but exist in Service to it and may prepare the worthy to scale its heights.

The Chaotic might say this: The A.·. A.·. is an abstraction which includes all authentic magical paths. There are real groups that call themselves the A.·. A.·. but its real nature is in the continuity of spiritual traditions everywhere. Different groups may be best for different people and thinking of any one group as the One True Path is a remnant of the ?on of Osiris. Today there are spiritual methods that improve on Crowley's curriculum, like isolation tanks, trance music, sigilization, and mind machines. The Protestant work ethic is obsolete and there's no reason a magical path has to cop a Victorian attitude. Progress is possible through play as much as perseverance and perspiration.

The Skeptic might say this: Religious systems present themselves as revolving around doctrine, practice, and morality but they can often be best understood by the methods of political science, group psychology, sociology and anthropology. The homogenizing and leveling effects of social bonding are always in tension with the freedom of the individual. The ruling system offers a narrow range of compromises to preserve an appearance of free thought while keeping the range of acceptable viewpoints and statements narrow through tacit groupthink processes and/or overt dogma. The work of such scholars as Gershom Scholem, who researched the dynamic between traditional dogma and individual spiritual experience in Qabala, and Ellic Howe, who documented the social dynamics of the Golden Dawn, is useful in understanding Thelema as well. Thelemic groups have a dogmatic tendency that is in conflict with their commitment to freedom. There are many power dynamics involved in initiatic hierarchy and many people seek degrees for status and power. Still there is no psychological reason to doubt the basic premise of spiritual exercise -- that by dedicating time and work to the development of mental faculties they may be strengthened just as physical exercise strengthens the body.

The Mystic might say this: The ordinary mind is a roaring babble that drowns out the voices of the Holy Guardian Angel and of the True Will. Establishing Silence through Yogic concentration, then calling upon and strongly imagining the Forces behind the sensible world and emanating downward from Kether, one may climb the Ladder of Lights and obtain Enlightenment. Most people require instruction by groups to learn the practices that make Enlightenment more than a faint hope or dream and all such Fraternities derive their authority from A.·. A.·., which has existed since humans have and perhaps longer. Descending from Kether is a great Spiritual Hierarchy that beckons downwards to us and calls us Upward, as our Aspiration also lifts us Upward through the successive Emanations of the one supreme and invisible God within ourselves.

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Sacred Thelemic Texts

The Book of the Law was written when Aleister Crowley was a Minor Adept of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Subsequently he underwent an experience, called the "ordeal of the abyss," similar to the "dark night of the soul" of the mystics, in which he completely annihilated his human personality and achieved an extreme state of "psychic opening." He became completely open and receptive to the influx of the divine consciousness, an intense, intuitive, transrational, and ecstatic state of self-perfection and realization of reality in its fundamental and ultimate aspects. In this state, intermittently over a period of five years, Crowley wrote a series of books, ranging in length from several hundred to several thousand words, concerning which he declares that they are beyond rational criticism, i.e., absolutely and indubitably true. These books were written "automatically," i.e., without rational reflection, in a state of trance. These works constitute the revelatory foundation of the Law of Thelema, and are referred to, including the Book of the Law, as the Holy Books of Thelema. In order of writing, they are:

Liber AL vel Legis (1904 e.v.)
Liber Liberi vel Lapidis Lazuli (1907 e.v.)
Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente (ibid)
Liber Stellae Rubeae (ibid)
Liber Porta Lucis (ibid)
Liber Tau vel Kabbalae Trium Literarum (ibid)
Liber Trigrammaton (ibid)
Liber Ararita (1907 or 1908 e.v.)
Liber Arcanorum t Atu t Tahuti, etc. (1907 and 1911 e.v.)
Liber B vel Magi (1911 e.v.)
Liber Tzaddi vel Hamus Hermeticus (1911 e.v.)
Liber Cheth vel Vallum Abiegni (1911 e.v.)
Liber Aaeash vel Capricorni Pneumatici (1911 e.v.)

In addition to the foregoing, Crowley wrote (or, rather, dictated to his disciple and lover, the poet Victor Neuburg, in an ASC) The Vision and the Voice. The Vision and the Voice (properly, Liber XXX Aerum vel Saeculi) is a series of visions based on the Enochian magical workings of famed Elizabethan scholar john dee and his skryer Edward Kelley, to which Crowley tracesthe beginning of the process culminating in the advent of the New Aeon in 1904 e.v. Crowley claimed to be Edward Kelleyaes reincarnation. All but the first two visions were received in the Sahara Desert in 1909 e.v., to which he ascribed a combined classification, viz., A-B, Class aeAae being a "holy book" as discussed above, and Class aeBae an ordinary work of rational scholarship. A prefatory note to The Treasure House of Images, published in The Equinox in 1910 e.v., was assigned the aeAae classification. Liber NU and Liber HAD also contain instructions received directly from V.V.V.V.V., Crowleyaes motto as a Master of the Temple of the A...A..., which are presumably also Class aeA,ae since V.V.V.V.V. corresponds to Crowleyaes neschamah, the soul in its static aspect.

Finally, in 1925 e.v., after a hiatus of more than a decade, Crowley penned the last and the shortest of the Holy Books of Thelema, a short preamble to the Book of the Law of only 77 words (plus 27 words of quotation from the Book of the Law), in which both the study and discussion of the Book of the Law are specifically and absolutely prohibited. Most Thelemites today follow Crowleyaes lead in interpreting The Comment to mean that no one may publicly interpret the Law of Thelema, and that those who do so are to be shunned, despite the fact that the prohibition is only applied to the text of the Book of the Law itself, and not any other holy book. Consequently, little critical literature on the Law of Thelema (as distinct from biography) has appeared since Crowleyaes death in 1947 e.v., the only notable exception being the writings of Kenneth Grant (most importantly, The Magical Revival, aleister crowley and the Hidden God, and Hecateaes Fountain). However, Grant and his followers are shunned as heretics by many Thelemites, especially the followers of the American Caliphate, who accuse him of collaborating with John Symonds. Symonds, who many Thelemites believe exploited the aeold man" for personal profit and gain by hypocritically maneuvering himself into the position of Crowleyaes literary executor, is the author of several extremely hostile biographies of Aleister Crowley, as well as the co-editor with Kenneth Grant of a number of Crowleyaes writings. In his final Crowley biography, King of the Shadow Realm, Symonds claims that Crowley was actually psychotic (similar assertions are sometimes made about Carl Gustav Jung as well, and are clearly ideologically motivated).

The Holy Books of Thelema are remarkable by any standard, especially the two longest books, Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente and Liber Liberi vel Lapidis Lazuli, although personal hostility towards Crowley has caused them not to be as widely regarded as they should. Except the Book of the Law, the Holy Books of Thelema represent the high water mark of Aleister Crowleyaes literary career for sustained philosophical sublimity, lyric and symbolic beauty, and structural elegance. Often obscure, they are nevertheless potent and profound testaments to the ecstatic integrity of Aleister Crowleyaes spiritual realization. Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente is an account of the Attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. Crowley also wrote a long and interesting commentary on this particular holy book. Liber Liberi vel Lapidis Lazuli describes the Ordeal of the Abyss from an universal perspective, whereas The Vision and the Voice documents Crowleyaes own attainment of this grade as well as offering innumerable insights into the Law of Thelema and the New Aeon in general. These two attainments, the Angel and the Abyss, constitute the two critical events in the life of the adept in Crowleyaes system, by which the aspirant becomes a Major Adept and a Master of the Temple respectively, and have considerable resonance with the perennial philosophy from which all authentic spiritual insights derive.

Another holy book, Liber Cheth vel Vallum Abiegni, describes the grade of Babe of the Abyss, and Liber B vel Magi describes the grade of Magus. Liber Porta Lucis and Liber Tzaddi vel Hamus Hermeticus describe Crowleyaes mission as Thelemic prophet and the task of initiation in the New Aeon. Liber Tau vel Kabbalae Trium Literarum explains the ordeals of the grades. Liber Ararita is a description of the spiritual path in extremely subtle and abstract language. Liber Trigrammaton describes the process of cosmic devolution. Liber Arcanorum interprets the Tarot trumps as an initiatory sequence. Liber Aaeash and Liber Stellae Rubeae offer practical instruction in sexual Tantra.

Liber AL vel Legis, the Latin rendering of the "Book of the Law," is of course Aiwassae proclamation of the advent of the New Aeon and its essential formulae (even although Crowley had not crossed the abyss when Aiwass revealed the Book of the Law, he classifies it as an holy book because it represents the dictation of Aiwass himself, who holds the rank of Ipsissimus, i.e., the highest possible grade. Crowley himself only attained this grade seventeen years later, in 1921 e.v., at which time he and Aiwass became one being: thus the relationship with the Holy Guardian Angel represents in the Thelemic view a kind of spiritual marriage).

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Scientology Revealed For The First Time The Odd Beginning Of Ron Hubbard Career

Above: "In 1946 Aleister Crowley (left), the sorcerer and mystic whose dabblings in black magic earned him the title The Wickedest Man in the World, found a new disciple and welcomed him to one of his occult communities in California. The extraordinary activities of this new and enthusiastic disciple are described in a vast collection of papers owned by a former admirer of Crowley which we have examined. The man in question is Lafayette Ron Hubbard (right), head of the now notorius Church of Scientology."

JOHN WHITESIDE Parsons, a brilliant rocket fuel scientist, joined the American branch of Crowley's cult in 1939. He struck up earnest correspondence with "The Beast 666," as Crowley was known by his followers, and soon became his outstanding protege in the United States. By January, 1946, Parsons was impatient to break new frontiers in the occult world. He decided to take the spirit of Babalon, the "whore of Babylon," and invest it in a human being.

But to carry out this intricate mission Parsons needed a female sexual partner to create his child in the astral (spiritual) world. If this part of the fixture went successfully Parsons would be able to call down the spiritual baby and direct it to a human womb. When born, this child would incarnate the forces of Babalon. During his magical preparations for this incarnation Parsons found himself overwhelmed with assistance from a young novitiate named Ron Hubbard.

Parsons write to Crowley at the beginning of 1946. "He (Hubbard) is a gentleman, red hair, green eyes, honest and intelligent and we have become great friends. Although he has no formal training in magic he has an extraordinary amount of experience and understanding in the field. Ron appears to have some sort of highly developed astral vision. He describes his angel as a beautiful winged woman with red hair whom he calls the Empress and who has guided him through his life and saved him many times." He concluded almost ecstatically, "He is in complete accord with our own principles. I have found a staunch companion and comrade in Ron."

But within two months the bonds of friendship were under some strain: Ron claimed Parsons girlfriend, Betty. With admirable restraint Parsons wrote to Crowley, "She has transferred her sexual affection to Ron. I cared for her rather deeply but I have no desire to control her emotions." As if to cement their loyalties Parsons, Hubbard and Betty decided to pool their finances and form a business partnership.

Meanwhile preparations for the mystical mission were well under way. From January 4 to 15, 1946, Parsons and Hubbard engaged in a nightly ritual of incantation, talisman-waving and other Black Magic faithfully described in Parsons diary as Conjuration of Air, Invocation of Wand and Consecration of Air Dagger. With a Prokofiev violin concerto blaring away the two of them pleaded with the spirits for "an elemental mate" -- a girl willing to go through sexual rites to incarnate Babalon in the spirit world.

Parson mentions that windstorms occurred on a couple of nights and one night the power supply failed. But nothing seriously responsive until January 14, when Ron was struck on the right shoulder and had a candle knocked out of his hand. "He called me," Parsons wrote, "and we observed a brownish yellow light about seven feet high. I brandished a magical sword and it disappeared. Ron's right arm was paralyzed for the rest of the night.

The following night was even more portentious. Hubbard apparently saw a vision of one of Parsons' enemies. Parsons wrote, "He attacked the figure and pinned it to the door with four big throwing knives with which he is expert." For four days Parsons and Hubbard were in a state of tension. Then, on January 18, Parsons turned to Ron and said, "It is done." He added, "I returned home and found a young woman answering the requirements waiting for me."

The incarnation ritual set out in Parsons' manuscript, The Book of Babalon, is difficult reading for the unconfirmed spiritualist. Broadly interpreted, Parsons and Hubbard constructed an altar and Hubbard acted as high priest during a series of ceremonies in which Parsons and the girl shared sex. The owner of the documents, who is an expert on Crowley's magic, says that Parsons at this stage was completely under Hubbard's domination. How else can one explain Hubbard's role as High priest in the rites after only a few weeks in the trade?

For the first of the birth ceremonies which began on March 1 Hubbard wore white and carried a lamp while Parsons

Jack PARSONS, the AntiChrist

above: PARSONS, the AntiChrist

was cloaked in a black, hooded garment carrying a cup and dagger. At Hubbard's suggestion they played Rachmaninoff's Isle of the dead as background music.

Parsons account of the start of the birth ritual is as follows: "The Scribe (Hubbard) said, 'The year of babalon is 4063. She is the flame of life, power of darkness, she destroys with a glance, she may take thy soul. She feeds upon the death of mean. beautiful -- horrible.' The scribe, now pale and sweating rested awhile, then continued." There are two possible reasons why Hubbard showed anxiety at this stage of the ceremony, the owner of the papers says. He was either deeply moved by the spiritual depth of the ceremony or he couldnt think what to say next.

Hubbard further instructed Parsons: "display thyself to our lady; dedicate thy organs to her; display thy mind to her; dedicate thy soul to her, for she shall sbsorb thee. Retire from human contact until noon tommarro. Speak not of this ritual. Discuss nothing of it. Consult no book but thine own mind. Thou art a god. Behave at this alter as one before another."

On the third day the ritual began four hours before dawn. Ron tells his companion, "lay out a white sheet. Place upon it blood of birth. Envision her approaching thee. Think upon the lewd, lascivious things thou coulds't do. All is good to Babalon. All. Preserve the material basis. Thus lust is hers, the passion yours. Consider thou the Beast raping." These invocations along with other passages in the ritual indicates that Parsons had collected specimens of his own sperm and the girls menstrual fluid.

The climax of the ceremony occurred the following day with Ron at he altar working his two subjects into a sexual frenzy. Over Rachmaninoff he intoned such gems as:

Her mouth is red and her breasts are fair and her loins are full of fire,

And her lust is strong as a man is strong in the heat of her desire.

An exalted Parsons wrote the next day, "Babalon is incarnate upon the earth today awaiting the proper hour of her manifestation. And in that day my work will be accomplished and I shall be blown away upon the breath of the father even as it is prophecied." (In fact, Parsons was "blown away" in a rocket experiment laboratory in Pasadena in 1952.)

Unable to contain his joy, Parsons decided to tell Crowley what had happened. On March 6 he wrote, "I can hardly tell you or decide ho much to write I am under command of extreme secrecy. I have had the most important, devastating experience of my life." Crowley was dumbfounded by the news of the incarnation ceremony. He wrote back, "You have me completely puzzled by your remarks. I thought I had the most morbid imagination but it seems I have not. I cannot form the slightest idea what you can possibly mean>"

With a distinct note of concern he dashed off a letter on the same day to the head of his American cult saying, "Apparently Parsons or Hubbard or somebody is producing a Moonchild. I get fairly frantic when I contemplate the idiocy of these louts." (This acid rebuke comes from a man whose activities were once summed up by a judge like this: "I have never heard such dreadful, horrible, blasphemous and abominable stuff as that which has been produced by the man who describes himself as the greatest living poet.")

By May that same year Crowley was not only concerned about Parsons spiritual well-being. There was a smaller matter of certain moneys. When the trio formed their business enterprise, Parsons is believed to have put in 17,000 dollars, Hubbard about 1,000 dollars, and Betty nothing. Using about 10,000 dollars of he money, Hubbard and his newly acquired girlfriend, Betty, bought a yacht. A report to the head of the American branch by another cult member says, "Ron and Betty have their boat at Miami, Florida, and are living the life of Riley, while Brother John (Parsons) is living at rock bottom and I mean rock bottom.

In a more sinister way, the report added: "Let is consider this matter of the magical child which Jack Parsons is supposed to turn loose on the world in nine months (now seven). Ron, the Seer, was the guy who laid down the main ideas, technic (sic), etc., of said operation."

On reading Parson's accounts of the ceremony and the reports from branch headquarters in America, Crowley cabled his U S office on May 22: "Suspect Ron playing confidence trick -- Jack Parsons weak fool -- obvious victim prowling swindlers." In a letter a few days later he said, "It seems to me on the information of our brethren in California that Parsons has got an illumination in which he lost all his personal independence. From our brother's account, he has given away both his girl and his money . Apparently it is the ordinary confidence trick."

A much-chastened Parsons wrote to Crowley on July 5, "Here I am in Miami pursuing the children of my folly. I have them well tied up. They cannot move without going to jail. However, I am afraid that most of the money has already been spent. I will be lucky to salvage 3,000 to 5,000 dollars." Just how Parsons managed to capture the errant lovers is in keeping with the other extraordinary chapters of this story. "Hubbard attempted to escapeme," Parsons wrote, "by sailing at 5 p.m. and performed a full invocation to the Bartzabel within the circle at 8 p.m. (a curse). At the same time, however, his ship was struck by a sudden squall off the coast which ripped off his sails and forced him back to port where I took the boat in custody."

Parsons recovered financially and possibly as a backlash to his experience with Hubbard, he took the Oath of the AntiChrist in 1948 and changed his name to Belarion Armiluss Al Dajjal AntiChrist. In his scientology publications Hubbard says of the period, "Crippled and blinded at the end of the war I resumed studies of philosophy and by my discoveries recovered so fully that I was reclassified in 1949 for full combat duty."

Hubbard claims that more than two dozen thinkers, prophets and psychologists influenced scientology (which he launched in 1951); everyone from Plato, Jesus of Nazareth to Sigmund Freud whom he says he studied under in Vienna. The record can now be righted with the inclusion of Aleister Crowley, the Beast, 666.

Books You Might Enjoy:

Dion Fortune - The Secrets Of Dr John Richard Taverner
Pino Longchild - Wicca Revealed A First Year Within The Craft
Colin Low - A Depth Of Beginning Notes On Kabbalah

Rockmusic And Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley has had a large influence upon modern rock music. The following overview of Crowley’s life is from Hungry for Heaven by Steve Turner:

“Born in 1875, Aleister Crowley had, like the Rolling Stones, rebelled against a regulated small-town background. He’d been raised in Leamington, Warwickshire, by parents who were members of the Strict Brethren, a fundamentalist Christian sect. From an early age young Aleister identified with the enemies of God in the Bible stories that were read to him. In particular he identified with the antichrist predicted in the book of Revelation. In 1898 he joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a magical society.

“Most of Crowley’s adult life was dedicated to indulging in everything he believed God would hate: performing sex magic, taking heroin, opium, hashish, peyote and cocaine, invoking spirits, and even once offering himself to the Russian authorities to help destroy Christianity. He wrote volumes of books that he believed were dictated to him by a spirit from ancient Egypt called Aiwass. “To worship me take wine and strange drugs,” the spirit conveniently told him. “Lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture. Fear not that any God shall deny thee for this.” …

“Crowley finished his life as a sick, wasted heroin addict given to black rages and doubts about the value of his life’s work. His last words as he passed into a coma on December 1, 1947, were, “I am perplexed…” (Steve Turner, Hungry for Heaven, pp. 92,97,98).

Aleister’s father Edward was a Brethren preacher, but he had inherited a fortune from his father who Crowley Ale. Edward died when Aleister was eleven and the son inherited the fortune. From this inheritance, Aleister financed his satanic career. He began torturing and killing animals at age twelve. Crowley was a heroin addict and a sexual pervert. His Christian mother referred to him as “The Great Beast of Revelation whose number is 666,” and he was pleased with the title. He was convinced that he was the reincarnation of the magician Eliphas Levi, who died the year Crowley was born. Crowley also believed he had lived other lives, including that of Pope Alexander VI. Crowley claimed that dark powers gave him the words to his “Book of the Law.” His first wife, Rose, died in a mental asylum. His second wife also went insane. “Five mistresses committed suicide, and scores of his concubines ended in the gutter as alcoholics, drug addicts, or in mental institutions” (Hellhounds on Their Trail, p. 56).

Crowley’s philosophy was as follows —

“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.”

“Lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture. Fear not that any God shall deny thee for this.”

“I do not wish to argue that the doctrines of Jesus, they and they alone, have degraded the world to its present condition. I take it that Christianity is not only the cause but the symptom of slavery” (Crowley, The World’s Tragedy, p. xxxix).

“That religion they call Christianity; the devil they honor they call God. I accept these definitions, as a poet must do, if he is to be at all intelligible to his age, and it is their God and their religion that I hate and will destroy” (Crowley, The World’s Tragedy, p. xxx).

Crowley studied Buddhism and Hindu yoga, following in the footsteps of Helena Blavatsky, and did much to popularize these in the West.

In 1922, Crowley published Dairy of a Drug Fiend, which was about the use of cocaine. He described the widespread use of cocaine among Hollywood stars, which he described as “cocaine-crazed sexual lunatics.”

As noted, Crowley died a wasted heroin addict given to rages and doubts. His last words were “I am perplexed…” Crowley worshipped the demon god Pan, the god of sexuality and lust. His “Hymn to Pan” was read at his funeral: “I rave and I rape and I rip and I rend/ Everlasting world without end!”

Crowley has had a great influence on rock & roll. The International Times voted Crowley “the unsung hero of the hippies.” One man who helped popularized Crowley’s work among rockers is avant-garde film artist Kenneth Anger. He claimed that his films were inspired by Crowley’s philosophy and called them “visual incantations” and “moving spells.” Anger considered Crowley a unique genius. Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin both scored soundtracks for Anger’s films about Crowley. See “Led Zeppelin” for more about Page’s enthusiasm for Crowley.

Crowley’s photo appeared on the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album cover. The Beatles testified that the characters who appeared on the album were their “heroes.” John Lennon explained to Playboy magazine that “the whole Beatle idea was to do what you want … do what thou wilst, as long as it doesn’t hurt somebody” (Lennon, cited by David Sheff, The Playboy Interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, p. 61). This was precisely what Crowley taught.

Ozzy Osbourne called Crowley “a phenomenon of his time” (Circus, Aug. 26, 1980, p. 26). Ozzy even had a song called “Mr. Crowley.” “You fooled all the people with magic/ You waited on Satan's call / … Mr. Crowley, won't you ride my white horse…”

On the back cover of the Doors 13 album, Jim Morrison and the other members of the Doors are shown posing with a bust of Aleister Crowley.

David Bowie referred to Crowley in his song “Quicksand” from the album The Man Who Sold the World.

Graham Bond thought he was Crowley’s illegitimate son and recorded albums of satanic rituals with his band Holy Magick.

Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson said: “… we’ve referred to things like the tarot and ideas of people like Aleister Crowley” (Circus, Aug. 31, 1984). Their song “The Number of the Beast” said, “666, the number of the beast/ 666, the one for you and me.” Crowley was called the Beast.

Daryl Hall of the rock duo Hall and Oates admits that he follows Crowley. “I became fascinated with Aleister Crowley, the nineteenth-century British magician who shared those beliefs. … I was fascinated by him because his personality was the late-nineteenth-century equivalent of mine—a person brought up in a conventionally religious family who did everything he could to outrage the people around him as well as himself” (Rock Lives: Profiles and Interviews, p. 584). Hall owns a signed and numbered copy of Crowley’s The Book of Thoth (about an Egyptian god).

Sting, formerly of the Police, has spent many hours studying Crowley’s writings.

Stiv Bators, lead singer for The Dead Boys and Lords of the New Church, had a song titled “Do What Thou Wilt/ This Is the Law,” after the philosophy of Satanist Aleister Crowley. In another song Bators sang: “I heard the Devil curse/ I recognized my name.”

LSD guru Timothy Leary was a Crowley enthusiast. He said: “I’ve been an admirer of Aleister Crowley. I think that I’m carrying on much of the work that he started over a hundred years ago … He was in favor of finding yourself, and ‘Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law’ under love. It was a very powerful statement. I’m sorry he isn’t around now to appreciate the glories he started” (Late Night America, Public Broadcasting Network, cited by Hells Bells, Reel to Real Ministries).

The Marilyn Manson song “Misery Machine” contains the lyrics, “We’re gonna ride to the abbey of Thelema.” The Abbey of Thelema was the temple of Satanist Aleister Crowley.

“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11).

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” (2 Cor. 6:14).

Books You Might Enjoy:

Aleister Crowley - To Man
Aleister Crowley - Poems
Aleister Crowley - Duty