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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
Thelemic high holy days are nearly upon us. On March 20th, 1904 Aleister Crowley performed the invocation of Horus that led to the writing of the Book of the Law on the 8th, 9th, and 10th of the following April. This will be the fourth year that my magical working group celebrates these holy days with a series of readings from the Holy Books of Thelema along with selections from the EGC Gnostic Saints.
March 20th is the invocation of Horus, and April 8, 9, and 10 are the three days of the writing of the Book of the Law. There are 22 days from March 20th to April 10th, and each day is associated with one of the Major Arcana of the Tarot, going in reverse order from The Universe to The Fool. The various readings are selected so as to conform to these attributions for each day.
I will be posting each day's reading on this blog under the office of the readings tag. Happy holidays, everyone!
Suggested ebooks:
Kathryn Rountree - Embracing The Witch And The Goddess
Paracelsus - The Book Concerning The Tincture Of The Philosophers
On August 1, 2010, a new temple of the Order of the Gnostic Star was duly chartered and established by a group of five individuals, which is the required minimum quorum. The new temple is officially known as the Binah-Ge Temple #2, which resides in the southeastern corner of Massachusetts. I am not only quite happy and proud that I can make this announcement, but it also brings up a couple of important points that I would like to discuss here. Anyway, let us all congratulate this group and the inauguration of their new temple! A great spiritual and magickal adventure awaits them. Soon they will be experiencing many amazing new things, since in addition to receiving a charter, they also got the Order's first three years worth of ritual lore. Once they get through all of that, then more lore will be forthcoming. It will lead them from the first degree all the way through the seventh, all of which has been completely written and vetted over the last twenty years. I suspect that it will take them a number of years to master all of this lore, and while they are learning, they will be building up their own individual as well as collective magickal systems. I envy the wondrous visions and discoveries that await them, since that is what I and other members experienced many years ago.
The important points that I want to bring up at this time is that the Order of Gnostic Star is an active order with a complete set of magickal lore. That lore is available to groups who have the required minimum number of five members. I have made this statement before, but around a month ago, a group actually did contact me and requested to receive a charter for establishing a new temple. I have received these requests before, but usually after I point out the basic requirements as written in the Bylaws, potential members get cold feet and don't bother to continue to correspond with me. This time the group spokesperson had not only read the Bylaws, but informed me that his group met the basic requirements. Those requirements are pretty basic, and they are easy to verify as well - even at long distances. They had five members who had been practicing ritual magick for at least a year together. They also had the requisite collective temple space. Over the period of couple of weeks, I got separate emails from each prospective member of the temple and even talked to their spokesperson on the phone a few times. I was convinced that they had met the requirements, so there wasn't anything further to do other than issue them a charter.
Amazingly, I didn't even have a template for a charter, since there wasn't much need to produce one over all these years since the last temple folded. I consulted a facsimile of the old charter for the Isis-Sophia temple #1, but that didn't prove to be useful either. So I used my imagination and inspiration and put one together, based on what I knew had been done in the past. The final result was quite impressive and looked very official, if I do say so myself. Now if anyone else asks me to present them with a temple charter, I will have one ready to go.
This, of course, brings me to my next important point. The Order of the Gnostic Star has become reconstituted! There are now at least two temples in formation. The first and the original mother temple, Isis-Sophia, is being reassembled with a combination of old members and new. A quorum of three elders is now fully established, ready to engage the public through the edifice of the greater Order. However, there is no grand lodge and there is no overriding hierarchy, only individual and fully autonomous temples. What this means is that we can now guide and help any small group of individuals to form their own temple, provided they meet the requirements. It also means that once a temple is chartered, it becomes fully autonomous. No one who is not a member of that temple may make any group based determinations. A group can ask for advice or guidance, but all decisions are theirs alone to make. In addition, all internal group decisions must be determined by consensus. That group dynamic ensures that the elders will never be able to dictate policy to any temple, so a decision to give a charter to a temple is serious business. A charter thus will be duly given once a proper group is validated. Included with a charter is the lore, which is the first three years of rituals and documents. These will be delivered on electronic media for the group to learn, master and use to forge their own systems of magick. All of this is done at absolutely no cost to the group who petitions the Order. Our generosity has an important cause in the greater scheme of things. We expect the new group to show generosity and openness in its turn. So there aren't any hidden costs, strings, obligations or any additional requirements or expectations in this offer. It is given freely and openly to the greater occult community. As far as I am aware, there isn't any other magickal Order that runs its business in this fashion - at least none that I have ever heard of.
The members of the Binah-Ge temple are a collective of witches and pagans from various source organizations. They have done their time in groves, covens and community based organizations, and they know the basic elements of ritual and ceremonial magick. They are a fairly experienced group of individuals, and I am very pleased to have made their acquaintance. I am also happy to have been of service to them, assisting them in finding the lore and the pathway to a full mastery of the Art of Ritual Magick. I am still traveling that path myself, and I have n't finished it, so like them, we are travelers on the same basic path - the Western Mystery Tradition. I believe that in the years to come they will contribute some astounding new lore, discoveries and new techniques in ritual magick. They may come up with some really cool themes for their liturgical practices and seasonal rites, and I hope that they share some of these new directions with me and other members of this magickal family. Time will inform me whether or not I have made a wise choice in giving magickal lore to this group. I suspect that it was a wise choice.
So, here we are, my fellow readers of this blog, ready to broach the final four questions. Are you interested in such an organization as the Order of the Gnostic Star? Do you have a group of at least four other individuals besides yourself that you can assemble to work rituals and ceremonies on a periodic basis? Do you have a room or space that can be dedicated to this work? Are you presently involved in witchcraft or paganism? If you answered yes to all four of these questions and want to engage in some cutting edge ritual magickal lore, then drop me an email and let me know. I will happily engage all serious inquiries. You can email me through this blog.
Your humble servant -
Frater Barrabbas
Suggested ebooks:
John Sebastian Marlowe Ward - The Master Masons Handbook
Aleister Crowley - The Stratagem And Other Stories
By Courtney Weber and Mary Caliendo
We are Wiccan Priestesses who have been Chaplaining at Occupy Wall Street.
Courtney's story:
I became personally engaged with the movement from day one-when one of my Coveners could not attend our September 17th Mabon because he was going downtown to camp in a park that I'd never heard of with "a bunch of other people" to "show Wall Street that we'd had enough." I didn't understand what he was doing, but as I am supportive of peaceful action toward change, I applauded his efforts, but didn't see myself getting any further involved than offering him use of my shower. Within a few weeks, however, I found myself sitting in Liberty Square (Zuccotti Park) several nights a week. It was clear that this was more than a few disgruntled people hanging out in a park. It was an uprising for social and economic justice and in any movement as such, there is a role for Chaplaincy.
People often ask me to explain a Chaplain's function. "To listen," is my response. Chaplaincy provides personal support in a way that crosses religious and social barriers. A movement like Occupy needs individuals who are experienced in working with people, attuned to subtle needs, who can help keep a calm and peaceful environment. Quite often, just listening is enough to let people know they are cared about and that working for this movement is worthwhile. Chaplains frequently have a natural inclination toward caring for individuals' needs and are often quite experienced in things like mediation, delegation and also knowing when a professional mental health counselor, medical person or otherwise should be called into a situation.
There is no typical day in Occupy. I have consoled persons through anxiety attacks and episodes of depression. I have stepped into heated conflicts to mediate and deflect potentially violent fights. I have taken in Occupiers post-eviction who had nowhere else to go. I have helped organize housing. I have stood outside the city jail in the freezing cold all night to support persons arrested in demonstrations. The police brutality cannot be underestimated and quite often, those targeted are small of stature and quite frequently, female. Broken ribs, damaged wrists, head wounds and effects of the ever-present pepper-spray are the norm. While I am not a doctor or mental health professional, I am legal clergy and I am there to listen and to witness. Most importantly, I am someone who cares about these people and about the movement.
Pagan Chaplaincy is a unique animal. Our faiths are widely diverse and do not contain a central belief code. Therefore, what is the role of a spiritual worker whose very beliefs are defined by respecting the personal beliefs of others and not attempting to influence them? As it turns out, this unique quality of Pagan spirituality is an excellent fit for the Occupy movement. There is a prevalent antagonism within the movement toward organized religion. Sympathizing Chaplains of various religions frequently face hostility, many of them often hearing, "Religion is one of the reasons we're in this mess!" In these sorts of situations, Pagan Chaplains are able to fly under-the-radar. Where one Chaplain might face hostility and rejection in a situation due to their religious affiliations, that situation might be more open to a Pagan Chaplain. Paganism itself mirrors the Occupy movement in its lack of centralization and leadership. Pagan Chaplains are effectively able to get close to the heart of the various matters that come up within the movement as we do not have the same barriers of suspicion and prejudice that face many of our colleagues from mainstream religions.
It is important to remember that this is not a "Goddess movement." This is a movement for all persons, regardless of their religion. But even in our diversity of beliefs, one common value among Pagans is that balance is essential to life. We do not, however, exist in a balanced age. Occupy is meant to restore a balance that has been lost-both economically and ecologically. One of many objectives of the movement is to call attention to the fact that corporations have for years broken environmental laws and blocked green energy initiatives: (http://www.nycga.net/resources/declaration/) This in itself is sufficient enough reason for Pagans to contribute to this effort in some way. At the November 17th march across the Brooklyn Bridge, an illuminated message on the side of the Verizon tower stated "Occupy Earth." For decades, Pagans have spoken about reclaiming Earth. The Occupy movement may just be the socially active opportunity to do that.
Pagan Chaplaincy and the Occupy movement is also providing a unique opportunity for us to continue to show ourselves as a productive and legitimate faith community. Over the last few decades, countless Pagans have come forward with important blogs and websites and numerous Pride days dot the country festivals every year with the similar desire to present ourselves as "just like everyone else." But where our desires for acceptance really shine is in connecting with members of other faiths over common goals. Getting to know us not just under the guise of "That Pagan Person" but "Friend and Ally-and also Pagan" is a huge step toward making our voices heard and our practices respected. Divisions melt away under the pressure-cooker goal of making a difference.
Priests and Priestesses, everywhere: Find your local General Assembly. Attend a Working Group session. Holding vigils and rituals are great-but they're not enough. Talk to the people. Listen to the people. Find them blankets when they're cold, food when they're hungry, medics when they need them. Be a witness and share what you've seen and heard. Let us join our brothers and sisters of all faiths in making a difference in our communities, our country and our world. So mote it be!
Mary's Story:
My involvement as a Wiccan Chaplain in OWS began when a call for chaplains went out on a private list. I decided to go down and help. The reasons behind it were many yet the solitary reason that prompted me into action is the pure fact that religion has hijacked our government and has produced policies that are discriminatory and marginalizing. For years, Wiccans and Pagans alike have always embraced all colors, creeds and genders long before it became fashionable. Most of us recognize that all creatures that live and breathe on this planet are the Goddess's children. She is about unity of all living creatures working in harmony. I also knew that I had an obligation as a spiritual person, given I live in New York City, to come out of the underground and by example portray that religion and spirituality is all inclusive of everyone.
On the fated day that I reported to the Medical Tent to volunteer, I was put to work in 30 seconds. I was called to de-escalate a serious situation involving a protestor who felt marginalized due to her emotional difficulties. Mental diseases have such a stigma in this society that a lot of those with these illnesses feel out of place in the greater whole. From that day forward, I built a very close working relationship with the staff of the OWS Medical staff. It was through my on-going relationships to the Medical staff that I learned that I was the first Chaplain to ever volunteer with them. It was comforting to them that I was not biased in any way. Although this surprised me, in reality it did not given the nature of what has been done within the last 10 plus years in the name of religion, god and theology. My work however has not been overtly spiritual, as I chose to work strictly through humanitarian efforts. I never bring deity into the equation when I am counseling a protestor or calming down those who are stressed. I feel if I work from my heart and a place of empathy, the gods are already present. As a result of my observations of the movement and the general feeling of religion; it prompted me along with Courtney Weber, Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone to draft a Chaplain Code of Conduct. It was presented to the medical and support working groups as proposal and passed. Since then I was asked by other Occupies around the country for the Chaplain Code of Conduct that we wrote so that it may be used as a model.
The key to being apart of this movement as a Chaplain is to remain neutral in regards to politics as well as religion. As a result, I have been called upon to liaison with the NYPD, Firefighters, and EMTs. If there is a patient that requires their care to be upgraded, often times the medical staff is asked to leave the tent. As a chaplain, I am able to remain with the patient to ensure that they are treated properly and with respect, I am also allowed to accompany them in the ambulance with a nurse. This also is helpful to the patient because they feel like someone is present that will advocate on their behalf if they are unable to do that for themselves.
As most know from the headlines, OWS has had many difficulties from police officers. These can be quite traumatic experiences for the protestor especially after being pepper sprayed, beaten or contained in pens unable to move. Similarly, there are young people who have never been far from home, living in a tent in the middle of Manhattan surrounded night and day by scores of police. The LBGT community of OWS has found a place where they are accepted and embraced. When that happens, there are realizations of the depth of discrimination, trauma and difficulties that they have encountered in society. I have worked to soothe and support their feelings, trauma and disorientation of all protestors and society in general who came to Zuccotti Park. Even though OWS is no longer encamped in the park, the work still continues in the movement.
The most significant experience that will forever be etched into my mind was the night of the raid. I received a call in the middle of the night from Pauly Kostora, Chief Administrator of the OWS Clinic. He said: I need you down here, we are being raided. People are traumatized-there are police in riot gear are everywhere. I said "I will be right down". I jumped out of bed and immediately went on Twitter to find out what was happening. I had learned that all subways were closed so I called for a cab to bring me down to the park. Lower Manhattan was in lock down. No one was allowed in and no one out. Contrary to what was cited in the press, the protestors were given less than a 20 minute warning. People were fast asleep in their tents.
When I finally arrived, the driver warned me, "Be very careful. The police look intimidating and ready to enforce their mission with violence." He gave me his cell phone number and said, "Call me I will come pick you up when you are done free of charge, I fully support this movement and your work." I profusely thanked him and approached the barricades. There I went up to a group of police officers and said "I'm a Chaplain you have to let me in by law" as I showed them my credentials. The police officer said, "I don't care, you are not getting in." I said, "I'm allowed to go anywhere as a Chaplain." I was then physically pushed away from the barricades with force and the officer told me, "Don't make me arrest you." I said, "Go for it. Won't this be great press and go viral over the internet that you arrested a Reverend trying to assist doctors and nurses with patients?" He turned away and ignored me.
Out of the corner of my eye, across the street, I saw the same thing happening to members of the press. There was a total press blackout. I shouted to a reporter, "ARE YOU with press? I need you to bear witness and document!" I told them exactly what happened. The next thing I knew I was surrounded by cameras. Whether it ever aired or not, I'm not sure. It doesn't matter, what matters is that I went on record. Shortly thereafter, I got a call from Pauly Kostora and found out his location. I made my way to where he was located inside the barricades. I then told a different officer that I was a Chaplain and needed to get through due to a medical emergency. I got a blank stare passed me, while he was avoiding contact. I received information that the protestors were heading to another park to regroup. I aided them as they came past the barricades comforting and telling them where to regroup. I then was able to talk again to Pauly. I was informed that he was carried out of the medical tent along with a patient that was recently released from the hospital with heart trouble. The patient was ignored and no care was given by the police. During that time, NYPD took chainsaws to the medical tent. They did not check to see if there was anyone inside. A doctor and nurse was inside treating a patient got out in the nick of time. Confiscated from that tent were patient records, 5,000 dollars worth of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment and hundreds of dollars of supplies donated by medical professionals and individual citizens-all of which have gone missing. The pharmaceuticals and medical records were kept under lock and key accessed only by licensed physicians.
The medical tent was one step away from being a completely free clinic to serve the whole of the community protestor and NYC resident. We have numerous doctors of all specialties from psychiatry to pediatricians, nurses, physician assistants, paramedics, social workers and a course a tiny group of Chaplains. People came in scores for free medical care; we filled a vast hole in our society. As middle class resources are dwindling and health insurance premiums are too expensive, all found a place where they can get top notch medical attention.
I do profoundly hope that the work I am doing with OWS Medical will echo through America. Medical care should be a right not a luxury and I pray that the work we are doing will somehow change the course of history so that medical professionals will see the day when they can treat a patient properly instead of having their hands tied by appeasing and treating in such as way that insurance will pay for it. Due to the primary fact that no health insurance was involved at the OWS medical tent, the patients were able to receive the attention and care that has been unseen in this country in a very long time. I am humbled and inspired by the humility and compassion of the all the medical professionals that have volunteered their time and resources. They work full time jobs and then tirelessly work long hours with OWS Medical.
They may have shut us down, but all is not lost. We are currently regrouping and coming up with a new strategy to continue to provide medical services to the community, even the NYPD if they so require.
OWS CHAPLAIN CODE OF CONDUCT
* WE DO NOT PREACH OR PROSTHELYTIZE. As Chaplains, we provide comfort, support, counseling and consolation to the community as a whole as compassionate people. Our involvement is strictly humanitarian, we actively remain neutral. We do not interject our religious beliefs, cultural view points or self identified biased opinions upon each other, protestors or the community that we serve. We do not attempt to invite or coerce any individual to any religious activities, services or path of belief. While on duty and marked we do not engage in politics or political beliefs of any kind. We continuously scrutinize our own blind spots in order to foster service in a humanitarian manner.
* WE RECOGNIZE THAT THERE A MULTITUDE OF PATHS THAT LEAD TO THE SAME PLACE. We respect each religion, philosophy and belief as each individual perceives or recognizes a higher power. We honor and find value in the diversity of all beliefs.
* OUR APPEARANCE IS VITAL. We "strongly encourage "wearing plain clothes and keeping on persons religious symbols to a minimum in order to appeal to all diverse religions, cultures, genders, colors and lifestyle preference so that it will provide an atmosphere of sacred space, equality and acceptance for all.
* WE RECOGNIZE THAT INDIVIDUALS HAVE BEEN MARGINALIZED AND STIGMATIZED BY RELIGIONS, CONGREGATIONS AND SOCIETY. We actively challenge the perpetuation of any form of social and/or religious domination or oppression. This includes, but is not at all limited to sexism, racism, transphobia, ableism, classism, ageism and any other institutional oppression. We cultivate an awareness of our own economic and/or cultural privilege and the impact it may have on an individual, thus we work to create a welcoming, comfortable space through acceptance, trust and non-judgment for all, while calling out any action of other chaplains that perpetuate oppression.
* WHILE ON DUTY WE DO NOT SOLVE THE ISSUE WITH PRAYER, CHANT OR MEDIATION AS A FIRST, SECOND OR EVEN THIRD LINE OF SERVICE; we act only within our scope of universal counseling training, provide comfort, passive listening and safe space. We always partner to the best of our ability with trained support team, certified mental health professionals and/or medics. We administer to spiritual needs only at the request of the individual.
* WE RECOGNIZE THAT ENERGY IS IMPORTANT. We keep an upbeat, positive attitude when dealing with those we service and in our care. Universal kindness, love and compassion are essential to the energy we project. We ask before we make any kind of compassionate physical contact such as hugging, hand holding, etc.
* WE PRACTICE EMPATHY AND CULTURAL AND SPIRITUAL HUMILITY by checking your own identity-based assumptions. We seek to listen to individual experiences from a place of openness and non-judgmental religious beliefs, and help people to meet their needs as they define them for themselves rather than our own idea of what might be best. We refrain from assigning a name or gender to a higher power and use universal language(s) in which to express our faith based beliefs so that our language is appealing to all.
* WE SERVE WITH NO EGO OR RELIGIOUS HIERARCHAL STRUCTURE. We organize ourselves horizontally without religious dominance or hierarchies of command, experience ability or level of involvement. Every Chaplain has equal power in all decisions affecting them
* WE MAINTAIN A HIGH LEVEL OF CONFIDENTIALITY AT ALL TIMES. We respect the privacy of confession, needs and issues of those we aid and service. We ask the individual in a non-threatening manner prior to the involvement of any medical treatment or any other necessary intervention to aid in any crisis.
* AT ALL TIMES WE ADHERE TO THE MEDIC AND SUPPORT CODE OF CONDUCT AND PROCEDURES. We are an active part of the Medic working group and Mental Health sub-working group therefore follow all codes of conduct, guidelines and procedure.
Written and Assembled: Rev. Gavin Bone, Rev. Janet Farrar, Aquarian Tabernacle Church, Eire
Courtney Weber and Mary Caliendo -Pagan Chaplains New York, NY USA
Mary Caliendo and Courtney Weber are Wiccan Priestesses living in New York City, who chaplain the OWS movement through the Support and Medic Working Groups. Mary can be reached at maryacaliendo@earthlink.net and Courtney can be reached at courtneyaweber@gmail.com
Suggested ebooks:
Anonymous - Wicca Beliefs And Practices
Aj Drew - A Wiccan Bible
[from http://www.geocities.com/allaxul9/set.html ]
Set: A Predecessor of Satan?
By Fenris Wolf
"Set goes into Satan a whole lot easier then Satan goes into
Set. A good anology would be a man (the "Set-oriented"
occultist) attempting to fit a good sized elephant into a
shoebox. It simply can't be done."
-Fenris Wolf, A thought
You hear about it among some circles-namely, "Satan is a
bastardized version of Set", or, more kindly, "Set is the
predessesor of Shaitan and Satan." But honestly, is this true?
The author says not. For one, notice the areas of any influence
that Set would have on the, perhaps you could say, "designing" of
Satan. For one, I could be wrong, but I don't believe that
Christians where paying all that much attention to the Egyption
religion, much less "design" as it where, Satan after Set. As the
Christian knee-jerk reaction is to ultimately paint ALL foriegn
symbolic "Gods/Goddesses" as "Evil", it's hard to believe that
they sat down and said, "Ok, now which one is the Evil god in the
Egyption religion? It is best we "design" Satan after him."
Doubtful. I have no proof that they didn't, but just through the
use of common sense-doubtful.
Plus, if Set was truley a 'main' influence on Satan, then why is
there so little resemblence? The Devil and his minions have of
corse been depicted in many different ways over the last few
thousand years, but never as ant-eater or ardvark looking
creature*. Satan has been, in most cases, depicted as rather
fearsome, or at least mischevous. No, rather, if any thing was a
"main" influence on Satan, it would have to be the greek gods Pan
and Dionysus, who's resemblence is uncanny to him.
But lets go beyond looks-how about characteristics? Satan has
always been a figure of intelligence, ultra-pridful,
ultra-lustful, and extreme rebellion-while in the Egyption sense
of things, Set really only existed as a god of destruction, such
as draught for instance. There where other deities, such as
Thoth, Amon etc that represented intelligence and Darkness/The
Hidden respectfully. So therefore, one could possibly gain more
correlation between Amon and Thoth with Satan, then one ever
could with Set.
Bogus occultist Micheal Aquino (from hearon out known as "Mikey
Abeano") claimed something along the lines that Set embodied all
of the Aespects that the Christians used to "create" or "design"
Satan, but this is inherently false. He claimed that various
characteristics, such as "honor, honestly, intelligence, etc"
where of Set. As far as honor goes, in a well known tale about
Set, it was said that he, in his hurry to be born, tore himself
out of his mothers womb. With all due respect to the symbol of
Set aside-thats hardly very 'honorable'. Secondally, we have
honestly-The Devil has been portrayed in many ways, with normally
positive qualities, but being an honest joe wasn't ussually
always in the cards to be honest. Lastly, as said before,
attributes like intelligence, power, etc, while they might have
been placed by the Egyptions onto Set simply because he was a god
(as all mythologies portray they're deities as intelligent,
powerfully suppierior to mortals anyway) they wheren't his "Main
line" if you catch me. Rather, as said before (sorry if I'm
repeating himself) but Set was more destruction oriented and
such, and any portayles of Abeano and others as the epitome of
intelligence and power are simply-as Rev.Hr.Vad once told
me-placing on him attributes that he did NOT have before.
On another way to refute that Set is the 'predessor of Satan'
what about the other, hundreds of gods/goddesses that easily fit,
or are at least related to the Satanic type? Could not Loki and
his progency, when combined wholesale (more on this in another
essay) be concidered Satan? Plus, there was no way that the Norse
mythology could have influenced Satan-yet it is still EXTREMELY
similar to Satan-so in otherwords, there are these "Satans" in
every religion, new and old!(even in new age, although they're
harder to see more on this later too)
As the Italian Fascist Dictator once said (I'm quoting from
memory, forgive me if I'm somewhat off) "We are not like the
English...we call our bread bread, and our wine wine, we tell
things for how they are". In otherwords, unlike Kenneth Grant and
Aliester Crowley, who both where/are intelligent men, people like
Dr.LaVey didn't beat around the bush-they where direct. He called
his Satan Satan, he did'nt make up other names for him.
(Also, I'd like to say that I don't have anything against Set as
a devil, as he certainly was, but I do have something against
this symbol being portrayed as some sort of major Satanic deity
or whatever.....lets face it people, Set was more of a predessor
to Gonzo then he was to anything else!"
Copyright XXXV A.S. / 2000 c.e. by Fenris Wolf. All Rights
Reserved.
END
Suggested ebooks:
Kenneth Grant - Aleister Crowley And The Hidden God
Thomas Voxfire - What Was Aleister Crowley
"The first version of this article was published on 6/19/2006 on the previous version of this blog. "
A hundred years ago most men belonged to fraternal orders of one sort or another, many of which had initiatory rites largely copied from those of Freemasonry. These days many books on magick and witchcraft support the concept of "self-initiation" and the popularity of secret and semi-secret fraternal orders has waned. Does that mean that formal initiation has become a quaint anachronism, or is it still an effective spiritual technology?
What the concept of self-initiation gets right is that regardless of the rituals and ceremonies you go through and the degree titles you hold, you have to do the corresponding spiritual work yourself. There is no real way around this basic truth. Spiritual realization is experiential - it cannot be taught or even directly explained. Because of this a degree title does not guarantee spiritual wisdom or power. In many organizations, advancement to higher degrees is contingent upon service to the organization rather than actual spiritual attainment, and the fact that someone is a hard worker in the mundane realm says nothing about their capacity for magick or mysticism, or the quality of their realization.
Nonetheless, formal initiation is a powerful method for imprinting the mind with concepts and ideas that will facilitate the spiritual evolution of a dedicated spiritual practitioner who takes those lessons to heart. The secrecy that surrounds initiatory traditions is related to a powerful psychological techique - the mind becomes more sensitive and attuned to information when it is placed in a situation of uncertainty, so an initiatory ritual will create a much more powerful imprint if the candidate does not know what is going to happen. Enough has been published that it is possible with some diligence to locate the degree work of most initiatory orders, but if you ever plan on taking the degrees all you are doing is cheating yourself.
I am convinced that this is the sole practical reason for secrecy surrounding initiation rituals. For much of human history it was believed that secret knowledge was somehow more powerful, but I suspect this belief was due to a misunderstanding of the mechanics of mind. When a candidate knows what is going to happen it is not that current of magical energy is weaker but that the mind expects the form of the ritual and is less moved by it. As a result, the magical effect of the initiation is reduced and a reasonable person might conclude that the power of the rite somehow grows if few know its details. What really happened is that the mind anticipated the actions of the rite, conceptualized them, and processed them ahead of time so no effective imprint was formed.
So does this imprint hypothesis mean that initiations are merely psychological? In a sense the answer is yes, but there is no "merely" about it. All magical rituals raise energy if performed by skilled practitioners. The difference with an initiation is that the psychological imprint allows the psyche of the candidate to be more open to that energy than they might otherwise be, and gives that energy a framework in which to work toward creating change in the candidate's life.
One of the wonders that the Internet has brought us is the concept of "astral initiations" that is, a group of magical practitioners will ask candidates to send them photographs or some other sort of magical link and then perform the initiation rite on the magical link, presumably to transmit a current of energy to the candidate corresponding to the energy summoned by the initiation rite. While the people doing this work may be sincere, I have trouble believing that it is all that effective. Without the imprint, the initiation will not work nearly as well. A magical force may be set in motion, but the effect will be reduced if it has to travel over a magical link and there will be no imprint created since the candidate has not gone through the physical experience of the initiation.
A couple of people have reported to me that they took astral initiations and felt some sort of tangible energy effect, and I believe them - I just think that the effect is unlikely to be any greater than that of performing a self-initiation rite and perhaps that would have been a better route to take. For one thing, it's free. Second of all, I think that any magician will learn a lot more writing and conducting his or her own initiation ritual than he or she will possibly pick up going through any sort of "astral ritual" conducted by others, regardless of how talented those others might be. Better still, though, would be to find a friend who is also a talented magician who can write a ritual that will be completely unfamiliar to the candidate so that an imprint will be properly formed.
Because this can be a difficult situation to set up, existing fraternal bodies still have an important role in initiation. In general, the rituals they perform were originally developed by talented ritualists and improved over the years based on changes that were found to work better for initiating candidates. Such improvements are based on empirical observation that a single individual could never undertake on short notice, and as a result the rituals themselves are cleaner and generally work better. While groups like Ordo Templi Orientis are more explicitly magical, the Masonic fraternity also puts on good initiation rites that have been tested for centuries on millions of candidates, a very impressive track record. Also, Masonic initiations are not only available to men - American Co-Masonry (http://www.co-masonry.org/) offers initiation to both men and women and has lodges in many areas of the country.
If Masonry is any indication, today more and more people are becoming interested in initiation and fraternal orders and seeing the value in joining such organizations. After losing members for a long time, it seems like Masonic lodges are finally starting to find more qualified individuals seeking initiation. The Internet helps make these groups easier to find, and it is clear that this is where many of the inquiries are now originating. My Masonic lodge has a very nice website at http://braden.org/ that has a lot of information, and I am also an initiate of Ordo Templi Orientis (http://oto-usa.org/) and a member of the local OTO lodge (http://www.leapinglaughter.org/) here in Minneapolis. Feel free to check out the links for more information.
Suggested ebooks:
Aleister Crowley - Magick
Aleister Crowley - Magick Without Tears
