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Tim Maroney's comments on Satanism and Thelema
July 1991
Dear Diane,
To expand on my earlier comments on Satanic symbolism in Thelemic ritual,
and their relevance to the question of whether Thelema is a form of
Satanism under some reasonable definition of that word.
You ought to get a copy of "Magick in Theory and Practice" if you're
interested in the issue. Crowley's ritual and meditative instructions
were his best writing, possibly because they dealt with what he knew best.
It's because of the power and importance of these instructions that I was
willing to overlook his appalling right-wing politics and cite Crowley
as a source in Twilight Crossing; LaVey and Aquino have made no
contributions that measure up to these.
I'm going to track through the various Liberi in Appendix VI, "A Few
Principal Rituals", in order.
Grimorium Sanctissimum. The O.T.O./A.'.A.'. sex magic expressed in the
form of a Black Mass, with a naked virgin as the altar.
The Star Ruby. Therion and Babalon, who are the Beast and the Scarlet
Woman from the Apocalypse of John, and who are explicitly Satanic symbols.
(The Star Ruby is the Thelemic recension of the Lesser Banishing Ritual
of the Pentagram.)
The Star Sapphire. Set, a very close Satanic cognate, and Baphomet,
the demon supposedly worshipped by the Templars.
The Mass of the Phoenix. The magician carves his or her breast with
the Mark of the Beast, soaks the blood into a cake, and eats it.
Liber V vel Reguli. "Being the Ritual of the Mark of the Beast".
The Beast 666, Therion, Babalon, Averse Pentagrams, "Saturn or Satan
is exalted in the House of Venus or Astarte", "the Father-Mother
Set-Isis", and so on.
The Gnostic Mass. Chaos, Babalon, Baphomet, Abrasax, Therion, Simon
Magus, and another reclaiming of the Black Mass with its naked virgin
on the altar. (The G.S. form above is more adapted to the ceremonial
use of two people, while this form is for the puhblic and is veiled
with a cloak of symbolism.) Interestingly, something very like this
ritual may have a great deal to do with our general conception of the
Black Mass, coming from the Star Chamber affair in France. It is
unclear how much of the accusations were exagerrated and brought into
line with the Inquisitional mythology, and how much was an actual
"amatory mass" as some of the sources refer to it.
This ends the appendix containing the principal Thelemic rituals, with
the exception of Liber Samekh. That is so important that it receives
its own appendix, IV. As you know, the emphasis of Liber Samekh on
Satan is intense. It also exalts the Beast and the Scarlet Woman yet
again. This is the ritual of "the Attainment of the Knowledge and
Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel" or Higher Self; in Crowley's
case, he believed this "devil or angel" to be named Aiwaz or Aiwass,
and to have delivered the Book of the Law, the foundation of Thelema.
I have not mentioned the constant repetition of the Serpent symbol,
which for Crowley was interpreted along the lines of Genesis -- or an
anti-Genesis which reclaimed the pagan symbol demonized in the Hebrew
myth. Someone could object, after all, that Serpent-worship is hardly
confined to Satanism; we have to see how much Crowley explicitly inverted
the tail of the Bible before we can know certainly that he did the same
with the head. So the Serpent or Snake has little evidentiary value
in itself, except where it is very plainly a reference to Genesis, as
in "I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge" in the Book of the Law.
As we can see, there is not one Thelemic ritual, among those Crowley
thought most important, which is lacking in Satanic symbols.
Now, we should also consider Appendix VII, "A Few of the Principal
Instructions Authorised by the A.'.A.'." These are much less Satanic
by and large. Many of them have no Satanic references worth mentioning,
such as the Yogic instructions of Liber HHH, Liber E, and Liber RV,
and the Golden Dawn derived ceremonial magick practices of Liber O,
Liber Yod, Liber Resh, and Liber A. Similarly for the past-life recall
practice (perhaps Theosophical?) of Liber Thisharb and the penultimate
practice of Liber B vel Magi. Yet there are other works in the same
appendix which contain notable Satanic symbolism, such as Liber Astarte,
Liber III, Liber Cheth, and Liber A'ash.
The interesting thing about the instructions of this category is that,
for the most part, they are not particularly Thelemic either. There is
little mention of the Thelemic trinity of Nuit, Hadit, and Ra-Hoor-Khuit,
or of the Book of the Law, or of the word Thelema, or "Do what thou wilt"
or its cognates such as "the law of liberty". Where these do occur, they
are usually in passing rather than central to the instruction; and in
nearly every case, the degree of Satanic symbolism is proportional to
the degree of Thelemic symbolism.
That is, there is hardly a book that contains noteworthy Satanic symbolism
that does not also contain Thelemic symbolism of roughly equal note, and
vice versa. The books which don't contain one rarely contain the other.
Liber A vel Armorum could be taken as a counterexample, but even there
the quote from the Book of the Law is merely an opening clause having
no import to the teaching in itself; it is a single sentence stating
Crowley's authority to present the book. If it were omitted, it would
have no effect on the instruction of how to construct elemental weapons.
It's of no more significance than the mention of Typhon in Liber O.
In Liber Astarte and Liber III, the Thelemic and the Satanic symbolism
are both used in passing, almost as afterthoughts. (Astarte also contains
some of the anti-Satanic symbolism that Crowley sometimes uses; the
Thelemic devil is named Choronzon, and here he is presented as leading
the aspirant astray.) In Astarte, the little Satanic symbolism consists
of a reference to Babalon, which is also Thelemic symbolism; the only
other Thelemic references are to Choronzon and a single short clause
(out of fifty clauses) which urges the use of Thelemic books and aphorisms
in the practice. In Liber III, the Thelemic mythology is solely in an
opening benediction which (once again) could easily be omitted without
having the slightest import to the meditation practice, while the Satanic
symbol of "Cerebus, the great Beast of Hell" is almost as unimportant.
(Is it even Satanic at all? some might ask. After all, Cerebus is Greek.
Indeed, if Crowley had not craftily used the phrase "the great Beast"
there might be some doubt under a restrictive definition of Satanism.
The Twilight Crossing definition of Satanism as the reclamation of
demonized mthological figures would include it even without that
phrase, but there is simply no way that Crowley used the phrase "the
great Beast" except as an explicit reference to the demon of Revelation.
Crowley's "Cerebus, the great Beast of Hell" has a double meaning, both
of which are Satanic under the Twilight Crossing definition, and one of
which is Satanic even under the overly restrictive definition preferred
by anti-Satanists.)
Liber Cheth and Liber A'ash are the only books of the category which are
aggressively either Satanic or Thelemic. And each of them are both. In
them, we are back to the sex magic of the O.T.O. and the A.'.A.'., and
once again we are dealing with Babalon, the Beast, Hadit, Nuit, Set, Chaos,
and Baphomet. No knowledgable person would deny the centrality of these
sex practices to Crowley's systems, and no truthful person could deny that
every time they are set forth in ritual and meditation instructions, they
are flanked and upheld by a constellation of Thelemic and Satanic symbols.
Was Crowley a Satanist? Is Thelema a form of Satanism? Only the most
contrived definition of "Satanism" could answer these questions "no".
What would Crowley have answered? In a dedication to "Why Jesus Wept",
he told G. K. Chesterton that he, Crowley, had "found [his] Messiah in...
the Devil and all his angels", and showed through gematria that the
Serpent was the true Messiah. In "Magick in Theory and Practice" (cap.
IV) and "The Book of Thoth", and many other places, he praised Satan
at length. He sang rapturous love-songs to the devil in his ritual
practices, and gave him the unholy kiss referred to in the legends of
the templars and the Sabbat. He wrote, in the last chapter of "Magick
in Theory and Practice", that:
"The Devil" is, historically, the God of any people that one
personally dislikes. This has led to so much confusion of
thought that THE BEAST 666 has preferred to let names stand
as they are, and to proclaim simply that AIWAZ -- the solar-
phallic-hermetic Lucifer -- is His own Holy Guardian Angel,
and "The Devil" SATAN or HADIT of our particular unit of the
Starry Universe. This serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of
Man, but HE who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil;
He bade "Know Thyself!" and taught Initiation. He is "the
Devil" of the Book of Thoth, and His emblem is BAPHOMET, the
Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection.
We have no need to speculate on the issue. The man has spoken clearly
for himself.
Tim
The case of the West Memphis Three may have happened nineteen years ago, but as this latest bizarre story shows the the media is still going completely crazy over any crime that appears to involve occultism. According to initial reports, two young women got together with a man they met over the Internet, then tortured and stabbed him to death in a Satanic sexual ritual. No, wait, actually there was no murder, the supposed "ritual" involved no occult or Satanic components, the stabbing was apparently consensual cutting that got out of hand, and the man is not pressing charges. Wow. That went from "batshit insane" to "poorly executed BDSM scene without safewords" in about two seconds. But of course the news media outlets prefer the former fabricated account.
While at the apartment building, police were approached by Rebecca Chandler, 22, who stated, "I think you are here looking for me." Chandler told cops that she had engaged in sexual relations with the Arizona man "and that the cutting was consensual but that it got quickly out of hand."
Chandler claimed that her roommate--whom she identified only as "Scarlett"--was "the one who did the majority of the cutting" during the incident. Chandler, police reported, "also made reference to 'Scarlett' possibly being involved in satanic or occult activities."
Chandler was placed in custody at the scene. During a subsequent search of the apartment, investigators seized copies of "The Necromantic Ritual Book" and "The Werewolf's Guide to Life," a humor book. The former book promises to enable a reader to "share consiousness with the Angel of Death." Paperwork seized from the home was described by police as the "7 Pentacles" of planets. Additionally, a black folder was described as an "Intro to Sigilborne Spirtits," an apparent reference to "The Sigil-Born," metaphysical entities that are "occultic practitioners" of necromancy, the purported ability to contact the dead.
As an aside, in the Thoth Tarot the Seven of Disks is titled "Failure," which in this case seems about right.
It's clear to me that Chandler's roommate is no occultist. For those of you who were practicing magick in your twenties, think about it - how many occult books did you own? If it was less than a dozen I would be surprised, since by the time I was in my mid-twenties I probably owned hundreds. In my experience this holds true even for many practitioners who aren't well-off, since there are plenty of places you can find heavily discounted books on magick. But what did the police find when they searched the apartment? One Leilah Wendell book on necromancy, a humor book about werewolves, a folder with some spirit sigils, and paperwork referencing the aforementioned "Failure" Tarot trump. That's it. This young woman may have had an interest in necromancy, but from these limited materials "an interest" looks to be as far as it went.
Salon also has an article up by the auther of the aforementioned werewolf book discussing his feelings about being drawn into this case. I read it as a cautionary tale, because I know that if I sell enough of my own books on magick the day is going to come when somebody involved in a crime will own a copy and police will seize it as evidence. Then I'm sure the media will do the same thing as they did here and try to link my books on "evil Enochian magick" with devil worship or who knows what else, completely ignoring that "Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy" is about conjuring angels and the prayers of John Dee included as part of that process would not sound even remotely out of place at a Christian revival.
When I posted on the release of the West Memphis Three back in August I wrapped up that article by expressing my hope that it would represent the last gasp of the "Satanic panic" of the early 1990's. From the reaction to this case, though, I now realize that was a vain hope on my part. Sensationalism sells, so the media is going to keep blowing this stuff out of proportion as long as they can get away with it. I'm glad to see that the real facts surrounding this case came out fairly quickly, but at the same time I'm sure that the original made-up story is going to be set in a lot of peoples' minds for some time to come. It's not the sort of thing one easily forgets.
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TEMPLE OF THELEMA
HISTORY LECTION
TO THE ERUDITE OF THELEMA:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Our Order first announced itself to the public with a
Manifesto published in 1604, and widely distributed throughout
Europe beginning in 1612. Its impact on the cultural evolution of
the Renaissance was inestimable, despite the fact that it operated
almost entirely in secret. Countless volumes, often speculative
and fanciful, have been written on its subsequent history. In
1887, it authorized the establishment of a visible Outer Vehicle
called the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
When the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn ruptured in schism
in 1900, conventional wisdom said that it was a failure; yet no one familiar with Western Hermetic Magick in this century can question
the major positive influence it continues to have even today.
On the 300th anniversary of the publishing of our first
Manifesto, a representative of the governing Third Order, named A.,
contacted a brother, P., and ordered him to assume governance of
the Order and to reformulate it along certain lines. A new
Manifesto was dictated, called the Book of the Law. This is the
true Book T which, as our predecessors wrote, is found at the Heart of the Master. It was dictated in 1904, and widely distributed
throughout Europe and the world beginning in 1912.
Together with another brother, D.D.S., P. reformulated the
Order as instructed. In doing this, they dispensed with an Outer
Order altogether, and opened immediately, to all who were prepared
by life, the Work of the Inner. (For example, the old sub-grades
of Zelator Adeptus Minor through Adeptus Adeptus Minor were now
called simply Neophyte through Adeptus Minor.) They identified
themselves by the initials A.'. A.'.
For their work we are grateful, for we are among their direct
successors and were brought to Light by their Wisdom.
Yet, while superior to all that had gone before, their work
failed in one respect: There remain aspirants, capable of success,
who require a more graduated approach to the Inner Veil; and our
Greatly Honored Fraters provided no clear approachway for such
students.
Only a few years later, another Frater P. resigned from the
American remnant of the old Golden Dawn order, as an act of
conscience. He, too, was then contacted by an agent of the Third
Order, named R. This Master completed P.'s initiation, and set him
the task of preparing a new Outer Vehicle by which the greatest
number of aspirants could undertake the task of self-regeneration
and be prepared for the Inner Work. In this, P. succeeded
admirably, accomplishing for the Outer Order, by his perseverance,
what the other P. accomplished for the Inner Order by his
endurance.
For this we are grateful, for we are among the direct
successors of this P. as well, and have seen the fruits of Beauty
harvested by the gardeners trained in his school.
Yet, while the instruction of the Master R. gleams with
Wisdom, his words soar with the same philosophy that is found in
the Book of the Law, and he refers regularly to the dawning of a
New Age of Regeneration and Healing for all humanity, this Outer
School did not align itself openly with the new Thelemic
Dispensation. It taught of Light, Life, and Love; but rarely
carried the additional torch of Liberty.
In our own time, we were among those to reap the rewards, and
therefore inherit the trust, of the A.'. A.'., and to find the path lighted by the Book of the Law. With this trust came the
responsibility to make clear the Path for those who come behind us.
Yet so many of those who approached were ill-prepared to begin the
journey. Our Soror M., through her College of Thelema, provided a
preparation for many; but even this appealed only to a specific
type of character.
The Outer Orders already existing and known to us did not
fulfill the genuine needs with which we were faced. Those which
both initiated and taught were not Thelemic; while those which were Thelemic would not teach.
The Next Step, therefore, was clear. It was necessary to
establish a new Outer Order, on the pattern of the Tree of Life,
whose methods include ceremonial initiation, structured education,
and on-going group participation; whose members as a condition of
membership, are prepared to put the Great Work foremost in their
lives; and which bases all of its practices and principles on Liber AL vel Legis, The Book of the Law.
This task has been accomplished. The Order's name is the
TEMPLE OF THELEMA. Its chief Work is the preparation of the
individual for INITIATION; yet it seeks only those who truly desire to grow in love, power, and wisdom and to serve humanity in
conformity with the Book of the Law.
By this letter, we invite all to search themselves sincerely
and decide if they are of us.
Application for an interview, or specific questions, should be
addressed to the Temple Cancellarius at:
Harpocrates Temple
TEMPLE OF THELEMA
222 North Manhattan Place
Los Angeles, CA 90004
"This shall regenerate the world, my little
sister, my heart & my tongue, unto whom I send
this kiss."
Love is the law, love under will.
Sub Umbra Alarum Tuarum.
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Aleister Crowley - Pocket Guide To Thelema
Magic is the claimed art of altering things either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult natural laws unknown to science. Magic has been practised in all cultures, and utilizes ways of understanding, experiencing and influencing the world somewhat akin to those offered by religion, though it is sometimes regarded as more focused on achieving results than religious worship. Magic is often viewed with suspicion by the wider community, and is commonly practised in isolation and secrecy. Modern Western magicians generally state magic's primary purpose to be personal spiritual growth, many seeing magic ritual purely in psychological terms as a powerful means of autosuggestion and of contacting the unconscious mind.[citation needed] Modern perspectives on the theory of magic broadly follow two views, which also correspond closely to ancient views. The first sees magic as a result of a universal sympathy within the universe, where if something is done here a result happens somewhere else. The other view sees magic as a collaboration with spirits who cause the effect.
Rituals
Magical rituals are the precisely defined actions (including speech) used to work magic. Bronislaw Malinowski describes ritual language as possessing a high "coefficient of weirdness," by which he means that the language used in ritual is archaic and out of the ordinary, which helps foster the proper mindset to believe in the ritual. S. J. Tambiah notes, however, that even if the power of the ritual is said to reside in the words, "the words only become effective if uttered in a very special context of other action." These other actions typically consist of gestures, possibly performed with special objects at a particular place or time. Object, location, and performer may require purification beforehand. This caveat draws a parallel to the felicity conditions J. L. Austin requires of performative utterances. By "performativity" Austin means that the ritual act itself achieves the stated goal. For example, a wedding ceremony can be understood as a ritual, and only by properly performing the ritual does the marriage occur. 'Emile Durkheim stresses the importance of rituals as a tool to achieve "collective effervescence," which serves to help unify society. Psychologists, on the other hand, describe rituals in comparison to obsessive-compulsive rituals, noting that attentional focus falls on the lower level representation of simple gestures. This results in goal demotion, as the ritual places more emphasis on performing the ritual just right than on the connection between the ritual and the goal. However, the purpose of ritual is to act as a focus and the effect will vary depending on the individual.
[edit] Magical symbols
Magic often utilizes symbols that are thought to be intrinsically efficacious. Anthropologists, such as Sir James Frazer (1854-1938), have characterized the implementation of symbols into two primary categories: the "principle of similarity," and the "principle of contagion." Frazer further categorized these principles as falling under "sympathetic magic," and "contagious magic." Frazer asserted that these concepts were "general or generic laws of thought, which were misapplied in magic."[10]
[edit] The Principle of Similarity
The principle of similarity, also known as the "association of ideas," which falls under the category of "sympathetic magic," is the thought that if a certain result follows a certain action, then that action must be responsible for the result. Therefore, if one is to perform this action again, the same result can again be expected. One classic example of this mode of thought is that of the rooster and the sunrise. When a rooster crows, it is a response to the rising of the sun. Based on sympathetic magic, one might interpret these series of events differently. The law of similarity would suggest that since the sunrise follows the crowing of the rooster, the rooster must have caused the sun to rise.[11] Causality is inferred where it should not have been. Therefore, a practitioner might believe that if he is able to cause the rooster to crow, he will be able to control the timing of the sunrise.
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"Years ago Gerald Schueler wrote a book for Llewellyn entitled An Advanced Guide to Enochian Magick" as a followup to his first book, "Enochian Magic". Schueler was one of the early authors to try and put together a set of books that would allow beginners to start practicing the Enochian magical system, but his work suffered from a number of significant flaws. The "Advanced" book consisted mostly of a recounting of Aleister Crowley's "The Vision and the Voice" along with Schueler's largely Theosophical interpretations of each aethyr vision. The book included some more complex rituals in the back which, I have to say, for the most part did not work. And yes, I started out working with Schueler's books, so I did try them out. Now Frater W.I.T., author of "Enochian Initiation", has published a new similarly-titled book that is a real improvement over Schuler's failed effort. Entitled "Advanced Enochian Magick", it is now available from Outskirts Press.
I wound up really enjoying the book, but there are a couple of things that put me off at first glance. The book is subtitled "A Manual of Theory, Training, and Practice for the Novice and the Adept." My first question was why an "advanced" book would include "novice" level material. It seems like a bit of a contradiction, though I've seen this sort of thing before, like with Jason Newcomb's introduction to the Goetia subtitled "A Simple Advanced Key." If it's simple, what's advanced about it? Furthermore, as I read through the early chapters of the book it pretty much felt like everything I was reading was material that I'd seen before - basic Golden Dawn rituals, Timothy Leary's eight-circuit model, the Qabalah, and so forth. But basically what is going on here is that W.I.T. is laying out the magical language that is necessary to understand the more complex rituals later in the book. If you already know this material, you can skip ahead.
The most valuable material in the early chapters is the set of recommended practices for both beginning and more advanced magical practitioners. It is not really new material, but I've seen few books that outline the practices so concisely or make it as clear that there really is quite a bit of work involved in being a magician. It's not a discipline where you can read a few books and then go around proclaiming yourself an expert without ever casting a spell or maintaining a daily ritual practice, which I've seen all too many people do. While I recommend a slightly different sequence of rituals based on my operant field model, the practices outlined by W.I.T. will work fine - and actually doing them will put you head and shoulders above about 90% of the people out there who claim to be magicians but in fact do little to no work.
It should be kept in mind that this is not a "novice" level book, despite the subtitle. The "novice"-level material is laid out with basic instructions, but there is little of the hand-holding that you tend to find in real beginner books. For example, you won't find a whole chapter dedicated to answering the question "Is practicing magick evil?" If you know nothing about magick and are picking this up as your first book you are likely to come away a little confused. You should probably read a few introductory books before you pick this one up if you're just starting out, but for people who are already practitioners looking to learn the Enochian system these straightforward explanations are nice. Given this, I think that W.I.T. oversells the potential power of magick in a way that is unnecessary for its target audience, people who are already practicing magick and understand its usefulness, though I do like seeing an author who doesn't shy away from advocating objective paranormal results.
It is the second half of the book that really shines, once it has covered all the background material and gets into the substance of the Enochian ceremonies. Here we find more material along the lines of the material covered in "Enochian Initiation", a complex set of rituals accompanied by accounts of magical results. If every magician did this with the ceremonies he or she performs and published the results we would be well on our way to establishing a knowledge base for magick that is similar to what we find in the physical sciences, and in my opinion establishing such a knowledge base should be the goal of every magician. Secrecy about techniques and results helps no one, and does nothing to make the magick itself more powerful or relevant or meaningful.
Frater W.I.T. approaches Enochian magick from the Golden Dawn perspective as far as attributions and techniques go, much as Aleister Crowley did. I am not going to offer a line-by-line analysis of the rituals in the book simply because in my own Enochian practice I've eliminated many of the Golden Dawn elements and am more of a Dee purist, though I also use attributions from Crowley's "The Vision and the Voice" and incorporate Thelemic rather than Christian symbolism. I use the 1587 reformed Tablet for my model of the Watchtowers which attributes EDLPRNAA and RAAGIOSL to different directions, I don't use the truncated pyramids for the squares, use a different order for the Angelic Keys, and so forth. That being said, as far as I can tell the rituals follow the Golden Dawn model well and I do know a number of magicians who claim to get really good results with that system. Some of his ideas, such as evoking multiple angels at once, are actually more in keeping with the original Dee system, and as that's the way I usually work Enochian magick I can vouch for it as a very effective practical technique.
The self-initiation ceremony in the book's final chapter is a particularly interesting and powerful piece of magical work. A version of it was published in "Enochian Initiation", but this new version includes some additional symbolism and I find it hard to believe that anyone could work through it without getting some sort of tangible result - at least if they've done the work leading up to it. Initiation ceremonies are one of the aspects of the Enochian system that appears to be missing when you work through the diaries and other source documents, and this ceremony or something very similar to it seems like a good way to fill that gap. I've heard of the occasional "Enochian Order" offering some manner of initiation, but as far as I know no groups of this sort have managed to last more than a few years or accumulate more than a handful of members. The Enochian system may just not be suited to such a group structure for some reason.
For magicians working with the Golden Dawn/Thelemic Enochian system (that is, probably most Enochian magicians these days) this is a good book to pick up, especially for the later chapters which show how to put together and perform large and complete Enochian rituals. Such rituals are rarely published anywhere and they serve as good examples for serious and involved practice of the Enochian system. Furthermore, working with multiple angels has proved to be very powerful in my own magical work and this is a technique that is not addressed or usually even mentioned in the books that I've seen on the Golden Dawn Enochian system. As with "Enochian Initiation", I wish more magicians would publish this sort of material so that all of us could collaborate more effectively, and I congratulate Frater W.I.T. for his efforts along these lines.
Want to buy your own copy of "Advanced Enochian Magick" by Frater W.I.T.? Order from my Books and Media page and you can help support Augoeides.
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