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Anger Rising
An Interview
by Dnyl of T.O.P.Y Chaos
Dnyl: You're currently working on a film, "Mouse Heaven"?
Kenneth Anger: Yes I'm finishing a film I've alrealy shot. It's a
study of animated toys of a rare nature. These are collectables of
early Walt Disney toys. I've always loved Mickey Mouse since I was
a little boy and I'm outraged about the current Disney company's
attitude to Mickey Mouse. I mean they think they own it but all the children of the world own Mickey Mouse. And I have devised a way to star Mickey Mouse in a film that the current Disney company can't
legally object to, by filming an antique toy collection of early
Disney toys. And it's just a coincidence all those toys happen to
be Mickey Mouse. I'm actually being very respectful of early Mickey Mouse. I hate later Mickey Mouse, because from "Fantasia" on the
Disney people decided to humanise the mouse, remove his tail- which is a kind of castration- and turn him into a little boy who is a
sort of a goody-two-shoes. And he's no longer the mischievous,
sadistic mouse that he was in the beginning. He used to do nasty
little tricks like twist the udd ers of cows and things like that.
And that's the only mouse I'm interested in, I mean this kind of
demon 'fetish' figure.
Dnyl: There is a rumour that you are going to do a film of the
Gnostic Mass.
Anger: Well, I'd love to but I'm very leery of any groups or
organisations. You see what's just happened in Waco, Texas where
someone that claims they're Jesus Christ, and he killed seven
federal agents when they tried to get to his armed fortress where a lot of brainwashed Australians are held up.
Well, I'm not too keen on any group or cult. I've been to meet the
various groups who call themselves O.T.O. which Crowley founded.
But Crowley never 'annointed' them or approved of them. All the
groups are fighting with each other. There's been raids, thefts,
houses have been broken into, books have been stolen, one house was burned down. These are Crowleyites fighting among each other and
I'm ashamed of them. They're as bad as christians. In other words
you get these far right christian sects and they're doing that kind of nonsense. Every group is a poison. I mean, once you get two or
three people together- three's a crowd and four is a poisonous
cult. And then you get jealousies. Crowley found that out himself.
He tried to have a commune, the first commune which was in 1920 in
Cefalu, Sicily. Human beings are too fallible for all this
idealism, living like the lion lying down with the sheep in the
holy kingdom. It's just not natural!
So you think I would approach the O.T.O. and the Crowleyites and
say ok, you want the Gnostic Mass filmed? I am the most skilled
film-maker among you. I mean, some of them have video cameras and
so forth and they turn out absolute garbage. Well I said if you
want a professional film-maker to film your ceremony, I respect the Gnostic Mass and I have performed it and I have watched various
people performing it. I said I will do it, but you've got to come
up with, say, fifty grand for me. I can't do it for ten cents. I
can't even do it for a thousand dollars. I would do it absolutely
beautifully, in a setting with actors. You see the most respected
high priestess is so ugly her face would freeze a clock. Even
though she has all the spiritual stuff, I'd get a movie actress to
play the high priestess to do the Gnostic Mass on film. When it's
done in a little back room in New York city, where I've attended a
very moving Gnostic Mass, but everyone in i t sort of looked like
homeless people who'd come in and dressed u p in sheets. And I
don't think that's the image we want to project, the Crowleyites
want to project. Like I'm sure there were homely Nazis with glasses and so forth that Leni Riefenstahl didn't film in "The Triumph of
the Will", her Nazi propaganda film. She only chose the handsome
studs and she ignored the little runts who were Nazis, you know,
looking like rats in glasses.
So, ok, they'd better hurry up because my years as a film-maker are coming to an end. My eyes will fail, my mind will fail, and my
health will give out or something. Or just get tired of life, which I am every other week. So I'd love to film it, but I will not do it on a shoestring. I need about fifty grand, that's what I said. Next year I'll need about sixty grand because everything becomes more
and more expensive. And I could have done it ten years ago when I
first suggested it for twenty-five grand. But I would never make
one on video, for instance, just because it's economical. I am a
film artist. I work on celluloid, and I prefer to work on 35mm.
Dynl: Was "invocation of My Demon Brother" based on "Moonchild"?
Anger: A bit. Yes. There's a ceremony in "Moonchild". And the
creation of a moonchild, which is the idea that you can have a baby between two people. It usually takes two people to make a baby but
not always. I mean, in other words, the legend is that there's such a thing as the immaculate conception. There's never an "immaculate"
conception, you can have one person and an entity, and the entity
is not necessarily human. In other words the moonchild would be the moon spirit impregnating the woman, and the c hristians would turn
that and say it was the virgin Mary. But as a matter of fact she's
still pregnant, she still had intercourse but it wasn't with a
human- if you believe the christian myth, which I don't.
But yes it's an influence and I show the title of the book in one
shot so I acknowledge the influence. And I have that title, which
is the only title that says "ZAP, YOU'RE PREGNANT, THAT'S
WITCHCRAFT". Because "ZAP" is already an antique expression from
the sixties. In fact, the "ZAP" comics were drawn by a friend of
mine in San Francisco, and that was a little joke to him. But "ZAP"
si still a magickal word because it comes from the sound of
electricity. ZAP- it's something that's very quick, and that's w hy I used it.
Dnyl: I've read that when Bobby Beausoleil stole "Lucifer Rising"
you tried to turn him into a toad. Is this just a rumour?
Anger: Well, no it isn't a rumour. I did a ceremony, and with an
artist friend of mine I created a beautiful enamel medallion. On
one side was Bobby's portrait painted on a miniature porclain, just like in the time of Queen Elizabeth the first, before they had
photography.
Bobby was a very beautiful boy, with beautiful blue eyes and he was nineteen years old and he had long hair to his shoulders. He was
very cocky and very self-confident, but he was a scorpio and he had a lot of scorpio traits, which are charismatic but they're not
always easy to work with (and I have a half scorpio in my
horoscope). But on the other side was a toad, a beautiful golden
toad.
So, anyway, the toad is from the fairytale about the frog prince.
You know, you kiss the toad and maybe it'll turn into a prince, and maybe you'll get herpes from the toad, frog herpes, which must be
horrible. Or something, who knows. It's a symbol, of faith, and
true love and various things. I mean its a marvellous fairytale.
Crowley adored fairytales and so do I, and he wrote a wonderful
essay about them. This was like "flip the coin", in other words I
knew there were these two natures, and he could be ei ther this
poisonous toad or an angel. Because his dark side of his nature
took over- he stole my van, he stole the film, he betrayed me. I
gave him money to buy some musical things for his band, instead he
went and bought a huge amount of marijuana in Mexico, and drove up
in my van with my license plates on the van, full of bales of
marijuana (at that time, as big as this couch you could buy these
huge things, wrapped in black plastic).
He stored them in my studio. He sneaked them in and stored them.
Our dog began sniffing these wrapped up plastic packages, and then
I cut one open and there was all this grass. It was my apartment
and if anyone was gonna get busted I was gonna get it- he would get off as a minor and I was 'seducing' him or 'corrupting' him in some way. So I picked up the bales, threw them down the front step, and
I'm not particularly a physically hefty hunk of a guy or anything
like that but when I'm mad... I picked him up by the scruff of his
neck when he came home after a late date and tossed him down the
front stair. And that was the end of our relationship.
But you know scorpios are sneaky, and so he waited. He had a real
old car that kept breaking down and everything, but I had the van
that I bought for the first "Lucifer Rising" film production. He
knew I never cooked, and he waited until I went out to dinner with
a friend. Then he broke into the place, stole all the film and then stole the van. So I came back and there was no van, no film, and he was gone. I knew he did it, nobody else could have done it- or
wanted these cans of film with "L.R." on them for "Lucifer Rising".
Dnyl: You were saying last night that he took your van and then
broke down in the desert and was picked up by the Manson Family.
Anger: No, this was in San Francisco where I was living in the
Russian Embassy, which was the consol house when imperial Russia
had a consol in San Francisco. We lived there. He stole the van and he drove it to southern California which is about four hundred
miles south, towards L.A. He had friends down there working in the
group "Love", they were a sort of acid rock group that he played
for. And it broke down not in the desert but in San Fernando valley on the road in front of Spahn Ranch, which is where a t that moment the Manson Family was holed up in the abandoned movie sets. They
were living in this broken down Western village, and somehow they'd got this guard who was supposed to look after it who was blind. I
mean, having a blind old man as a guard! They sweet talked him in,
they said "we'll go get your groceries and we'll do this and that
and so forth. You poor old man, blind. What a pity you're blind you can't see what beautiful chicks we are". Man son would use these
girls in that way on various thing s. So, the girls came out, here
was this cute guy, nineteen years old, with a broken down van and
they said "hey, why don't you move in with us" so that's how he got mixed in with them.
But he was my second choice for Lucifer. The first one was six
years old and he died in an accident thinking he was an angel and
could fly. His name was Vito. He had a hippy mother and a hippy
father who were both artists and he was an absolutely stunning
child. He had platinum blonde hair. It's never been cut since he
was born, so it was down to his shoulders, and he looked like a
Blake cherub. He was so awesomely beautiful. People would see him
and just go "ahgh"!
This kid had that charisma, that magick, but he died before I could use him. I told him I wanted him to be in the movie and he agreed,
he said yes. And I didn't suggest that he would try rehearsing
flying on the roof, but that's where he died, in an accident he
fell off the roof. And you know it's just heartbreaking. Everyone
was in mourning, in fact we never got over it.
At any rate, you know, Bobby was the second choice and he was
nineteen, not six, and so the angelic side... he was more the
demonic side. And I thought I could handle that and I couldn't. It
sort of blew up in my face! But he was arrested for murder two
years after he left me. He left me in '67 and the Manson killings
began in the summer of '69, beginning with Bobby and Susan, one of
the girls. He had sold some bad dope to the Manson family that the
Manson family had resold to the Hell's Angels, and the dru g agents had sprayed it with cyanide. And so all the Hell's Angels, about
fifty of them, got extremely ill. They almost died, and then when
they recovered they blamed the Manson family. They said 'if you
don't kill whoever you got that dope from, we will kill all of
you'. That was California in the sixties (laughs), the so-called
generation of love, or summer of love or whatever (laughs). That
was a farce! And so that's how Bobby got mixed up in mur der and
why he agreed to murder and, you know, they were al l dropping acid like it was breathe mints, and generally cutting loose from their
family connections. They were all middle to upper-middle class
kids, you know, rebelling against their backgrounds. That was
basically it.
Dnyl: How did you meet and get involved with Brian Jones, Mick
Jagger and the Rolling Stones?
Anger: Well, it was very easy for me because I moved to London from San Francisco and my best friend happened to be the best friend of
Mick Jagger and he still is today. That was the magick key in the
door, but it was nothing special. I don't really like rock and
roll, in fact I never listen to it voluntarily. I like some of
their ballads, like 'Ruby Tuesday', I think it's a beautiful song,
and some of the choir things. I never really liked 'Sympathy for
the Devil', even that (but I don't think you can real ly call that
rock and roll).
But Brian was a very magickal person, and he was a witch. He had a
third nipple. Like Rosaleen Norton (that I hope to make a film
about) had the equivalent of an extra nipple. Brian's nipple was
down here on his inner thigh, and for a straight guy to take down
his pants to show me his third nipple! He said "I have a witch's
mark' and I said 'yeah?'. And he said 'yeah!'. We were alone and he siad 'here, I'll show you' and so he took down his pants. And
here's this little...but it was, it was formed like a pe rfect
nipple on his inner thigh. And I said 'is it like your two other
nipples?' and he said 'yeah, its fun to...here touch it!' And I
touched it (laughs). You know he would play with me that way a
little bit, but he was an absolute darling of a person.
But I saw him destroy himself in two years with heroin, and the
only reason he took heroin was to blot out his terrible fear of the public and the police. He got so paranoid about the police that
were going to bust him for dope and all that, that he used to hide
under the bed like a little child. 'Where's Brian? Where's Brian?'
Well, he'd be under the bed hiding. Trembling, like this, because
he thought the police were coming and they were going to take away
his dope. It's such a waste of talent.
I've enjoyed knowing those people, but I don't go name dropping all the time. I've known people that meant a lot more to me than any of the Rolling Stones. I'm sorry that Brian died, but it was a hell of a life. I wouldn't wish it on anyone to be a pop star.
But I hope I live long enough to see the decline and fall of
Michael Jackson. Because I've talked to plastic surgeons that
worked on him, and his nose is held up by a prayer. In other words, it is collapsing in on itself, he had all the cartilage removed and its possible the whole thing will melt, like the witch at the end
of the Wizard of Oz. That would give me a certain satisfaction, I
won't say pleasure, but this story of him having a skin disease- he bleaches himself twice a week! He slathers himself in this ointment that stinks to high heaven and it'll probably give him cancer or
something (laughs). He claims he has impetigo but that's absolute
rubbish. He's been bleaching himself, which is like an insult to
the black race.
But he removed his African nose that used to have two nostrils big
enough to drive a bus in. He took about a pound of liver off his
lips. Now he has these thin little prissy lips and now he claims
that oh, he had a little work done. A little work done! But who is
he kidding? What I can't understand is why he isn't totally
rejected by the blacks because he's like insulting the blacks to
try to bleach himself white. And then he claims its a disease, I
mean come on! At any rate, I don't deal with pop celebriti es. I
basically deal with old movie personalities that I find much more
interesting. But I am going to have a footnote or something about
Michael Jackson because he has made one or two films, and he
generally pisses me off, frankly!
Yesterday's post about thinking, got me thinking about how it is that I really do feel like I'm getting a handle on this project. And I realized that I've been doing a lot of thinking about all the ways in which I already am like Aragorn. I haven't been doing very much thinking about all the ways in which I am not like him, can't measure up to him, will never be him.... etc. I also realized that this has been a general trend for me recently.
FOR EXAMPLE: Right after Thanksgiving, I received the tax bill for my property. I was, at that point 3 years past due and the bill was a whopping 1700! Well, I freaked out at first, naturally, since there was no way I was going to be able to come up with the money. And then, after I calmed down, I said to myself, "Well, I don't see any reason why that money can't just show up!" Then, I did some magic on it and pretty much let go of it. So, what did I get for Christmas? Someone I love very much surprised me with the paid receipts for those taxes! So, for the first time in 6 years I started out the year without any overdue taxes!
ANOTHER EXAMPLE: I decided that teaching classes in Magick, Reiki, Animal Communication, and doing Medicine Wheels, Shamanic Healing, Shamanic Art, and other cool stuff would be a good way to tap into my inner Aragorn. I just started thinking about doing them... now suddenly I have a place to teach Magick, a place to do most of the other stuff, a First Degree Reiki class starting in March. And I think it's because I've been thinking in terms of what I CAN do vs what I CAN'T do.
In the past, I have spent a lot of time working at positive thinking, and even more time delving deeply into negative thinking. This time, however, there seems to be a difference. When I'm thinking positively about something, it feels more relaxed, there is an inner confidence that was lacking before. And when I'm on that downward slide into trauma drama, and angsting and whining and grinding my teeth - it too feels more relaxed, and even though I might be wallowing in self pity, I'm not really taking it all that seriously.
So, I have to say that the act of presenting this project and putting it out there as a do-able thing, talking about it every day, thinking in terms of succeeding has actually had a profound effect.
What about you? Where are your thoughts leading you? Has anything you've seen or read recently had a profound effect on your life? Do you spend more time telling yourself what you can do? or what you can't do?
Oh, and by the way, if you're interested in what I said about Magick, you might want to review the project we did on Gypsy Magic.
Suggested ebooks:
Howard Phillips Lovecraft - The Horror At Martins Beach
Justin Winsor - The Literature Of Witchcraft In New England
I was cruising around on Facebook recently and came across a video list of the "Top 10 Secret Organizations" posted on Bing. Right there at #9, I found the order of which I'm an initiate, Ordo Templi Orientis. Interestingly enough, the blurb in the video is reasonably accurate, describing OTO as a "Mystical movement based on the spiritual philosophy of Thelema" with "strong connections to the occult." One could perhaps argue the meaning of "strong connections" in this context, but given the significance of Aleister Crowley's work in the general occult scene I nonetheless consider it a basically true statement.
Here's what's interesting about the OTO's inclusion - the other societies on the list. At #9, OTO is ranked higher than the Catholic organization Opus Dei despite the latter group's membership of 85,000 compared to OTO's 3-4 thousand. The rest of the list includes organizations that are legitimately powerful today, shaped historical events, and/or attract a lot of press from conspiracy theorists. Here's the rest of them:
8. The Knights Templar - Prior to the fourteenth century, served as bankers to all of medieval Europe.
7. Ku Klux Klan - Now a shadow of its former self, but once an enormous organization with millions of members.
6. Beati Paoli - I hadn't heard of this one, but apparently it is believed that some of the modern mafia groups are descended from it.
5. Majestic-12 - Researched by many and pretty much found to be bogus, this group was supposedly set up to study UFO techology and communicate with aliens.
4. Freemasons - Another group with which I'm involved, the Masons still have millions of members but are not nearly as nefarious as some claim.
3. Thule Society - Smaller that the OTO even at its height, but this German occult society had a disproportionate influence on Nazi philosophy.
2. The Illuminati - Disappeared around 1800 and fictionalized in the early 1970's by Robert Anton Wilson, this group is nonetheless apparently the sworn enemy of fundamentalist Christianity.
1. The Bilderberger Group - Small but genuinely powerful, the Bilderberger group constitutes one of the largest concentrations of financial and political resources in the world.
You can check out the video here. As they say at the Oscars, it's an honor just to be nominated. And in case you're wondering, no, the OTO does not "run the world from the shadows." It would be kind of cool if it did, though.
In response to my most recent blog, on Lineage and the Golden Dawn, the anonymous Mr. "James Crumpit" (mr crumpit@...) wrote on Robert Zink's Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn forum:
Dear David and "The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Alpha et Omega, etc."Frater TDO" is not a member of the Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn, nor are there any members by the name "VH Soror FSO," so do not take their opinions as those of our order. Also, this forum is not the EOGD forum, but is a talk box for the GD community hosted by the EOGD. Furthermore, I don't know why you make any noise about lineage, when you and your order (with the overly lengthy name which you were forced to change to per court order) have absolutely no legitimate lineage to
speak of.
You can't claim lineage through Israel Regardie, nor do you (anymore). You founded your own version of the third order, which you currently claim lineage through, which doesn't count as lineage since you founded it yourself. Also you can't claim lineage to Mathers because you have the address of a Masonic Hall he worked in for a period and rent the building now and again to perform your garage-style version of Golden Dawn ceremonies.
Get off the lineage kick. Nobody buys it. Repeating yourself over and over doesn't make your points any more valid.
J.C.
p.s. wow I made a point without having to write an overly lengthy novela/dizzying blog.There are numerous problems with the statement where Mr. Crumpit writes: "FRATER TDO" IS NOT A MEMBER OF THE ESOTERIC ORDER OF THE GOLDEN DAWN, NOR ARE THERE ANY MEMBERS BY THE NAME "VH SOROR FSO," SO DO NOT TAKE THEIR OPINIONS AS THOSE OF OUR ORDER.TO BEGIN WITH, SOROR FSO IS WELL KNOWN ON THE BLOGOSPHERE AS A MEMBER OF THE ESOTERIC ORDER OF THE GOLDEN DAWN THROUGH HER FLIGHT OF HERMES BLOG. MOREOVER, ALTHOUGH THEY CLEARLY HAVE HAD OPPORTUNITY TO DO SO, NEITHER FRATER TDO NOR SOROR FSO HAVE PERSONALLY DENIED MEMBERSHIP IN THE EOGD. WE HAVE ONLY "JAMES CRUMPIT'S" ANONYMOUS WORD FOR THIS, ALTHOUGH HE DOES APPARENTLY SPEAK WITH SOME AUTHORITY REGARDING EOGD MEMBERSHIP ROLLS.MOST IMPORTANTLY, EACH of the above referenced blog posts were personally approved by Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn leader, Robert Zink, using his Yahoo alias, Zanoni49. In other words, ALL of the posts in question were published with both the "knowledge" and the "approval" of the highest levels of EOGD leadership. Nonetheless, in the interest of harmony in the Golden Dawn community, I have edited the content my latest blog to answer the objection raise by EOGD's mysterious "Mr. Crumpit."What appears undeniable from James Crumpit's post is that HE, at least, is indeed a member of the EOGD. Moreover, since complete membership rolls are not available to the vast majority of EOGD members, J.C.'s claim of intimate knowledge of EOGD membership rolls indicates even a leadership role. This official sanction is further underscored, since Mr. Crumipt's post also was published with the full "knowledge" and "approval" of the highest levels of EOGD leadership. It was personally approved by EOGD leader, Robert Zink (Zanoni49), himself.In this context, the following statements made by the mysterious Mr. Crumpit become extremely interesting. J.C. writes:YOU CAN'T CLAIM LINEAGE THROUGH ISRAEL REGARDIE, NOR DO YOU (ANYMORE). YOU FOUNDED YOUR OWN VERSION OF THE THIRD ORDER, WHICH YOU CURRENTLY CLAIM LINEAGE THROUGH, WHICH DOESN'T COUNT AS LINEAGE SINCE YOU FOUNDED IT YOURSELF. ALSO YOU CAN'T CLAIM LINEAGE TO MATHERS BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE ADDRESS OF A MASONIC HALL HE WORKED IN FOR A PERIOD AND RENT THE BUILDING NOW AND AGAIN TO PERFORM YOUR GARAGE-STYLE VERSION OF GOLDEN DAWN CEREMONIES.Many of J. Crumpit's misunderstandings about our order's actual relationship to Golden Dawn lineage I have dealt with already in a recent blog. I will address the remaining ones in a future blog as well. What is most interesting - in the present context - is JC's erroneous statement that our order somehow claims lineageTHROUGH A BUILDING OR MASONIC HALL. This is very significant, BECAUSE THIS ARGUMENT HAS APPEARED NOWHERE ELSE EXCEPT ON ANONYMOUS WEBSITES AND BLOGS ATTACKING OUR ORDER AND MYSELF WITH DEFAMATION OF A MOST DESPICABLE NATURE.This is a strong indication that these anonymous websites and blogs have likewise been published with the "knowledge" and "approval" of Robert Zink. To make this point crystal clear, let us first compare JC's above statement with Blog Troll "Tommy," who writes on the anonymously published Golden Dawn Insider attack blog:HOW CAN YOU CLAIM LINEAGE THROUGH A BUILDING when your order's website clearly places emphasis on apostolic succession. Let us also compare JC's above statement with the words of another recent anonymous blog troll, "Frater Incognito," who writes on yet another anonymously published attack blog:THEY CLAIM THEIR LINEAGE THROUGH A MASONIC HALL that Mathers and company had worked in when he moved to Paris. To CLAIM LINEAGE THROUGH A BUILDING, particularly one that has had no Golden Dawn activity for nearly a century, is a rather interesting claim.Our order, of course, has ever claimed any sort of lineage through any sort of building, Masonic or otherwise. It is extremely telling, however, that the only places that this misleading argument has ever appeared has been on the on the Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn Yahoo forum belonging to Robert Zink and on anonymously published websites and blogs attacking our order. This provides an Ariadne's tread - piercing the veil of anonymity - and leading directly to Robert Zink.This is not the first time that Robert Zink has been linked to such defamation either. The most compelling evidence of comes from the official EOGD, "Golden Dawn Blog" where blog owner, Robert Zink, using his alias as Frater PDR, slipped up and wrote:FOR ALLEGED EVIDENCE OF GOLDEN DAWN NAZISM, CLICK HERE: HTTP://HOGD666.50MEGS.COMIT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT MR. ZINK SANITIZED HIS EOGD BLOG OF THIS POST AFTER THE GOLDEN DAWN COMMUNITY BECAME AWARE THAT IT LINKED MR. ZINK DIRECTLY TO THE ANONYMOUS DEFAMATION WEBSITES AND BLOGS ATTACKING THE HERMETIC ORDER OF THE GOLDEN DAWN, THE OUTER ORDER OF THE ROSICRUCIAN ORDER OF ALPHA ET OMEGA. HERE ARE ORIGINAL IMAGES OF RELEVANT PORTIONS OF ROBERT ZINK'S - NOW SANITIZED - BLOG POST:IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT THE CONTENT OF THE 50MEGS SITE THAT ROBERT ZINK LINKED TO - WAS NEARLY IDENTICAL AS THAT PRESENTLY ON THE ANONYMOUS ATTACK BLOG OF TODAY'S "FRATER INCOGNITO."SUCH NONSENSE HAS GONE ON LONG ENOUGH. ROBERT ZINK CLEARLY BELIEVES THAT BY PUBLISHING SUCH FEAR-MONGERING RUBBISH, HE CAN FRIGHTEN POTENTIAL MEMBERS AWAY FROM OUR ORDER AND INTO HIS. SUCH FEAR-MONGERING TACTICS, HOWEVER, HAVE NO PLACE IN ORDERS HAVING TO DO WITH SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT AND ARE HARMING THE REPUTATION OF THE ENTIRE GOLDEN DAWN TRADITION.THERE IS, OF COURSE, NO TRUTH IN ANY OF THIS EITHER. THE TRUTH IS THAT NAZIS, LIKE CULT-LIKE ACTIVITIES, HAVE NO PLACE IN THE GOLDEN DAWN. THE GOLDEN DAWN IS NOT ABOUT RACE, CREED, OR COLOR. THE GOLDEN DAWN IS ABOUT HELPING PEOPLE TO DEVELOP THEMSELVES SPIRITUALLY...... AND IN TRUTH OUR ORDER, LIKE ALL GOLDEN DAWN ORDERS, IS OPEN TO ASPIRANTS OF ALL races and religions - even of all sexual preferences. We have all sorts of members - Black, White, Pagan, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Gay, Lesbian, you name it.But then again, the defamation trolls have never let the truth stand in the way of their fear-mongering. The aforementioned anonymously published attack website definitively linked to Robert Zink, for example, (like many other anonymous attack sites and blogs) shows a cropped photograph of me dressed up like Adolph Hitler and claiming to be "proof" I am a Nazi."
This is, of course, complete nonsense. It is common knowledge in the Golden Dawn community that I care deeply about the environment - and passionately about the protection of species from extinction - and that this photograph originally appeared on the front page of the University of California at Berkeley newspaper......and was taken at an environmental protest that I was involved in. This was a street theater environmental action - and I was in character - SPOOFING Adolph Hitler, mocking racism, and calling for interracial and global unity tosave the Earth fromenvironmental holocaust.
I am as much as a Nazi for playing Hitler - as is fellow actor Sir Alec Guiness - who played both Hitler and Obi Wan Kanobi - or Sir Ian McKellen - who played both Hitler and Gandalf! Let's be real. You can't be remotely anti-Semitic and embrace the Jewish mysteries that are part of the Golden Dawn. Racism is a destructive philosophy not only against my beliefs, but also against my vows, and against the Golden Dawn.What doesn't seem to be against some people's beliefs, vows, or love for the Golden Dawn, however - is defamation and attack on the reputation of the Golden Dawn. For what? So that seekers won't realize how little these people know about basic the deeper mysteries of the Golden Dawn? Do these people not realize that they are harming the reputation of the entire Golden Dawn tradition?... or do they simply not care - because they see the GD as little more than a vehicle to promote "New Age" seminars?If this were not sad enough - recent months have seen theentire Golden Dawn community attacked by outside agitators on new attack blogs - alleging that all Golden Dawn orders are Nazi fronts and linked to the Greek fascist party calling itself Golden Dawn (Chrysi Ayvi).Is it not time for such madness to stop once and for all? I get boiling mad at when Golden Dawn initiates are attacked no matter who it is being attacked. For example, I recently defended the brothers and sisters of the Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn when Pat Zalewksi published the following post on his OGD forum:GENERALLY SPEAKING, THE BEST WAY TO (CHOOSE A GD ORDER) IS TO LOOK AT THE WEBSITES OF THE ORDERS INVOLVED, AND WRITE TO THE ONES IN WHICH YOU'RE INTERESTED. MY ONLY WARNING WOULD BE TO BE VERY, VERY CAREFUL! THERE ARE SOME CULTS OUT THERE MASQUERADING AS GOLDEN DAWN ORDERS, and the only way you'll ever really know is by trusting your intuition AND keeping your wits about you at all times.Pat Zalewski then went on and wrote himself:NONE OF WHAT IS ASKED OF A STUDENT SHOULD BE AGAINST THEIR MORAL AND LEGAL OBLIGATIONS. THIS IS USUALLY CIRCUMVENTED IN SOME GROUPS BY A STATEMENT THAT THE SECRET CHIEFS HAVE SANCTIONED IT- LIKE FATWA OR PAPAL BULL. WE HAVE ALL HEARD OF INCIDENTS LIKE THIS AND THEY HAVE NO PLACE IN THE GD TEMPLE AND ARE FOR A GD CULT.PatThis kind of nonsense has gone on far too long. We have all seen the anonymous attack blogs out there like the Golden Dawn Observer and the Cult Watch blog that call the Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn a cult. These are, of course, just as condemnable as those calling our order a nest of Nazis! And now that are seeing not just our order -but the ENTIRE Golden Dawn community being called nests of Nazi's! What will be next? Outside forces calling all Golden Dawn orders cults? The Golden Dawn is already on the official French list of sects.Under present circumstances, I find it extremely short-sighted for Pat Zalewksi to be making posts like the one above. In reality, we all know that there are no cults in the Golden Dawn - just like there are no Nazis - because - if you ARE a cult - if you ARE a Nazi - you are NOT Golden Dawn!If an order using the name Golden Dawn practices cult-like activity - they are NOTGolden Dawn! There are no Golden Dawn cults! Just like a racist Greek group using the name Golden Dawn for their fascism - isNOT Golden Dawn!Pat Zalewski instead of spreading false and harmful rumors about GD cults - should instead clarify that there are NO cults in the Golden Dawn and outright reject any order doing that - as NOT part of the Golden Dawn - instead of scaring people into believing there are "Golden Dawn Nazis" or "Golden Dawn Cults" - when any such groups are evidently NOT the Golden Dawn.You will recall that, for several months now, the HOGD/AO has been calling for greater harmony in the Golden Dawn community. We have invited all Brother and Sister GD initiates to a Golden Dawn Harmony celebration to be hosted next Vernal Equinox by the Ahathoor Temple in Paris. This invitation still stands. We have also invited all Golden Dawn leaders to contact us to negotiate the mutual removal of objectionable materials from our respective websites, fora, and blogs. To their credit - until last week - both Robert Zink and Pat Zalewksi had joined together with our order for several months - in not approving any posts attacking other Golden Dawn orders or their leaders. It is most unfortunate that attack posts are beginning to appear on the various Yahoo fora once again. It is even more unfortunate that neither Robert Zink nor Pat Zalewski have so far shown any willingness whatsoever to begin - together with our order - to remove on a reciprocal basis - objectionable materials from our respective fora, websites, and blogs.The importance of beginning such a clean-up has been underscored by the appearance in recent months of anonymous blogs attacking all Golden Dawn orders - falsely linking them to the Greek fascist party unfortunately also using the Golden Dawn name.Let there be no doubt about it - We are ALL under attack - every single brother and sister of every Golden Dawn order. Striving for harmony in the Golden Dawn community has never been more important than it is now - in light of recent, terrible attacks on the ENTIRE Golden Dawn community.And certainly - there is no longer ANY room whatsoever for the sort of fear mongering tactics that have been linked for years to Robert Zink.The time has come for Robert Zink to abandon such failed policies - and instead to stand together with ALL Golden Dawn leaders - in fact with ALL Brothers and Sisters in ALL Golden Dawn orders everywhere - in a united front against defamation of any part of the Golden Dawn community.To do otherwise - to ignore this clear and present threat to the reputation of the ENTIRE Golden Dawn community - may well spell the doom of the of the entire Golden Dawn.Sub Umbra Alarum Tuarum, Yeheshua
David GriffinG.
H. Frater Lux Ex Septentrionis
Imperator Ordinis, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega
"Ex Deo Nascimur.
In Yeheshua Morimur.
Per Sanctum Spiritum Reviviscimus"
Liber A'ash vel Capricorni (CCCLXX) by Saint Aleister Crowley
0. Gnarled Oak of God! In thy branches is the lightning nested! Above thee hangs the Eyeless Hawk.
1. Thou art blasted and black! Supremely solitary in that heath of scrub.
2. Up! The ruddy clouds hang over thee! It is the storm.
3. There is a flaming gash in the sky.
4. Up.
5. Thou art tossed about in the grip of the storm for an aeon and an aeon and an aeon. But thou givest not thy sap; thou fallest not.
6. Only in the end shalt thou give up thy sap when the great God F. I. A. T. is enthroned on the day of Be-with-Us.
7. For two things are done and a third thing is begun. Isis and Osiris are given over to incest and adultery. Horus leaps up thrice armed from the womb of his mother. Harpocrates his twin is hidden within him. Set is his holy covenant, that he shall display in the great day of M. A. A. T., that is being interpreted the Master of the Temple of A.'.A.'., whose name is Truth.
8. Now in this is the magical power known.
9. It is like the oak that hardens itself and bears up against the storm. It is weather-beaten and scarred and confident like a sea-captain.
10. Also it straineth like a hound in the leash.
11. It hath pride and great subtlety. Yea, and glee also!
12. Let the magus act thus in his conjuration.
13. Let him sit and conjure; let him draw himself together in that forcefulness; let him rise next swollen and straining; let him dash back the hood from his head and fix his basilisk eye upon the sigil of the demon. Then let him sway the force of him to and fro like a satyr in silence, until the Word burst from his throat.
14. Then let him not fall exhausted, although the might have been ten thousandfold the human; but that which floodeth him is the infinite mercy of the Genitor-Genetrix of the Universe, wher he is the Vessel.
15. Nor do thou deceive thyself. It is easy to tell the live force from the dead matter. It is no easier to tell the live snake from the dead snake.
16. Also concerning vows. Be obstinate, and be not obstinate. Understand that the yielding of the Yoni is one with the lengthening of the Lingam. Thou art both these; and thy vow is but the rustling of the wind on Mount Meru.
17. Now shalt thou adore me who am the Eye and the Tooth, the Goat of the Spirit, the Lord of Creation. I am the Eye in the Triangle, the Silver Star that ye adore.
18. I am Baphomet, that is the Eightfold Word that shall be equilibrated with the Three.
19. There is no act or passion that shall not be a hymn in mine honour.
20. All holy things and all symbolic things shall be my sacraments.
21. These animals are sacred unto me; the goat, and the duck, and the ass, and the gazelle, the man, the woman and the child.
22. All corpses are sacred unto me; they shall not be touched save in mine eucharist. All lonely places are sacred unto me; where one man gathereth himself together in my name, there will I leap forth in the midst of him.
23. I am the hideous god; and who mastereth me is uglier than I.
24. Yet I give more than Bacchus and Apollo; my gifts exceed the olive and the horse.
25. Who worshippeth me must worship me with many rites.
26. I am concealed with all concealments; when the Most Holy Ancient One is stripped and driven through the marketplace I am still secret and apart.
27. Whom I love I chastise with many rods.
28. All things are sacred to me; no thing is sacred from me.
29. For there is no holiness where I am not.
30. Fear not when I fall in the fury of the storm; for mine acorns are blown afar by the wind; and verily I shall rise again, and my children about me, so that we shall uplift our forest in Eternity.
31. Eternity is the storm that covereth me.
32. I am Existence, the Existence that existeth not save through its own Existence, that is beyond the Existence of Existences, and rooted deeper than the No-Thing-Tree in the Land of No-Thing.
33. Now therefore thou knowest when I am within thee, when my hood is spread over thy skull, when my might is more than the penned Indus, and resistless as the Giant Glacier.
34. For as thou art before a lewd woman in Thy nakedness in the bazaar, sucked up by her slyness and smiles, so art thou wholly and no more in part before the symbol of the beloved, though it be but a Pisacha or a Yantra or a Deva.
35. And in all shalt thou create the Infinite Bliss, and the next link of the Infinite Chain.
36. This chain reaches from Eternity to Eternity, ever in triangles -- is not my symbol a triangle? -- ever in circles -- is not the symbol of the Beloved a circle? Therein is all progress base illusion, for every circle is alike and every triangle alike!
37. But the progress is progress, and progress is rapture, constant, dazzling, showers of light, waves of dew, flames of the hair of the Great Goddess, flowers of the roses that are about her neck, Amen!
38. Therefore lift up thyself as I am lifted up. Hold thyself in as I am master to accomplish. At the end, be the end far distant as the stars that lie in the navel of Nuit, do thou slay thyself as I at the end am slain, in the death that is life, in the peace that is mother of war, in the darkness that holds light in his hand as a harlot that plucks a jewel from her nostrils.
39. So therefore the beginning is delight, and the End is delight, and delight is in the midst, even as the Indus is water in the cavern of the glacier, and water among the greater hills and the lesser hills and through the ramparts of the hills and through the plains, and water at the mouth ther when it leaps forth into the mighty sea, yea, into the mighty sea.
Reading 2: Liber Aleph (CXI), Chapters Wq-Wr, by Saint Aleister Crowley
Wq
SEQUITUR DE HIS VIIS.
Now the Path of Ayin is a Link between Mercury and the Sun, and in the Zodiac importeth the Goat. This Goat is called also Strength, and standeth in the Meridian at the Sunrise of Spring; and it is His Nature to leap upon the Mountains. So therefore he is a Symbol of true Magick, and his Name is Baphomet, wherefore did I design him as an Atu of Thoth, the Fifteenth, and put his Image in the Front of my Book, The Ritual of High Magick, which was the second Part of my Thesis for the Grade of Major Adept, when I was clothed about with the Body called Alphonse Louis Constant. Now the Goat flieth not as doth the Eagle; but consider this also that it is the true Nature of Man to dwell upon the Earth, so that his Flights are oft but Phantasy; yea, the Eagle also is bound to his Eyrie, nor feedeth upon Air. Therefore this goat, making each leap with Fervour, yet all Times secure in his own Element, is a true Hieroglyph of the Magician. Mark also, this Path sheweth One continuous in Exaltation upon a Throne, and so is it the Formula of the Man, as the other was of the Woman.
Wr
DE OCULO HOOR.
I say furthermore that this Path is of the Circle, and of the Eye of Horus that sleepeth not, but is vigilant. The Circle is all-perfect, equal every Way, but the Vesica hath bitter Need, and seeketh thy Medicine, that is of right compounded for High Purpose, to ease her Infirmity. Thus is thy Will frustrated, and thy Mind distracted, and thy Work lamed, if it be not brought to Naught. Also thy Puissance in thine Art is minished, by a full Moiety, as I do esteem it. But the Eye of Horus hath no Need, and is free in his Will, not seeking a Level, or requiring a Medicine, and is fit and worthy to be the Companion and the Ally of thee in thy Work, as a Friend to thee, not Mistress and not Slave, that seek ever with Slyness and Deceit to encompass their own Ends. There is moreover a Reason in Physics for my Word; study thou this matter in the Laws of the Changes of Nature. For Things Unlike do in their Marriage produce a Child which is relatively Stable, and resisteth Change; but Things like increase mutually the Potential of their particular Natures. Howbeit, each Path hath his own Use; and thou, being instructed in all Ways, choose thine with Discretion.
I just wanted to take a moment and say thanks to all of you who have purchased my book. The book has been tremendously well received and I've had nothing but positive feedback. When I looked on amazon.com today there was only 1 copy left in stock with a re-order on the way. It left me a bit gobsmacked. I cannot actually articulate how excited I am to know that people are out there reading my book. It really does mean the world to me. So to all of you, Thanks!
The fact that this book seems to really be taking off means that it's quite likely that New Page will pick up my next book as well. I've just started work on my second book and it's going to be a guide to advanced defensive magick. The idea will be for the advanced guide to sort of pick up where Defense Against the Dark left off, giving more advanced techniques, tools, and rituals. My question to you is: what do you want to see from such a guide? What are the scenarios you want to be able to face? What things have you heard of that you want to know more about? I'd love to see some comments about this, but you can also email me at emily @ e-carlin.com
Suggested ebooks:
Anton Josef Kirchweger - The Golden Chain Of Homer
Howard Phillips Lovecraft - The Hound
With two terminology posts in a row I must be turning into a curmudgeon or something. "You kids spell your damn words right!" Thankfully this one is probably my last on the subject, at least for awhile.
Every so often some nightclub performer comes along and decides to call what they do "magick" in order to, I guess, sound cool or something even though what they are doing is clearly stage magic. Another of these is apparently on the loose, named Odes Odhner.
Odhner calls what he does "magick," something that blends traditional nightclub-type magic, with majik, a kind of magic that examines occult practices of the present and past.
Hang on a second there. What the hell is "majik?" That can't be a real word!
See, when Aleister Crowley proposed that "magic" be used to describe stage magic and "magick" be used to describe the spiritual practices of theurgy and thaumaturgy he was simply reverting to the Elizabethan spelling of the word. It's English, just with a more archaic spelling. But "majik?" It's clearly Odhner's own goofy terminology, and Kelly-Anne Suarez, the journalist writing the article, buys it without a second thought. Maybe she just couldn't be bothered to check.
Here's a quick reference for future lazy journalists.
MAGIC: Stage magic, as practiced by nightclub magicians, mentalists and so forth.
MAGICK: Spiritual practices drawn from the Western Esoteric Tradition.
MAJIK: A completely made up word, or one of the above written by someone who is borderline illiterate.
See the difference?
I think I'm probably done with this topic as the terminology becomes more muddled every time I look into it. In my opinion Crowley's use of two (and only two) distinct spellings makes sense, but once you start throwing in every possible phonetic variation in order to look "edgy" or "cool" or something else that translates as "just plain stupid" the whole thing becomes a losing battle for anyone who values precision and consistency.
It's too bad, really. Complaining about this may seem overly pedantic, but if folks could agree on standard spellings for their terms it would make the Internet a whole lot more useful for those of us who do actual magical research.
Suggested ebooks:
John Moore - Aleister Crowley A Modern Master Extract
Kenneth Grant - Aleister Crowley And The Hidden God
