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The cards are not to be sold without the book.
If the book can be printed without illustrations it need not
cost more than [L]300.
If Lady Harris likes, she can give it away with the cards, I do
not want any money out of it: and she can say she wrote it, I don't
care.
But I will not allow the cards to be issued so that they can be
used only for gambling or fortune-telling.
The new catalogue, full of grotesque blunders which discredit
the scholarship of the Work, must be withdrawn.
.PA
[Actually written by Crowley, to himself; the "Society" is
fictitious as such.]
An open letter to Alestair Crowley
SOCIETY OF HIDDEN MASTERS
Dear Sir
For many years we have watched your career with benevolent
interest; wile we have been unable to approve many of your
activities in particular your policy of revealing secret knowledge
which we consider dangerous if in the possession of untrained and
uninitiated people. We have always respected your passionate
integrity, your fanatical (and in our opinion, indiscreet) love of
Truth.
I our view, this mistaken policy has been responsible for many
of your own personal mishaps. For this reason we re surprised that
you should acquiesce, even by silence, in so blatant and impudent a
hoax as the exhibition of Tarot Cards at the Royal Society of
Painters in Water Colours, 26/7 Conduit Street, W.1. beginning 4th
August 1942.
We hereby challenge you to deny any of the statements here
following:--
1. During the winter of 1898/9 you were entrusted by the Order of
A..A.. with the Secret Lecture on the Tarot, giving the initiated
attributions.
2. You published these attributions at the command of the Secret
Chiefs of the order in a Book of Reference numbered 777 in 1909.
3. You issued the Official Lecture of the Order on the Tarot, in the
Equinox Vol. I Nos VII and VIII, March and September 1912.
4. You have made the Tarot your continual study and used it daily,
since the Winter of 1898/9.
5. You have made the Tarot the skeleton or schema of all your
writings on mystical and magical subjects. We would instance
particularly "Ambrosia", "Magi Hortus Rosarum" (The Wake-World),
"The Vision and the Voice", "Theory and Practice of Magick".
6. You have been recognized everywhere in Europe and America (even,
to a less extent, in India) as the supreme Authority on the Tarot;
that is, by serious students of the subject.
7. You have contemplated the construction and publication of a
properly designed and executed pack, based on the Equinox
information ever since the issue of the grotesque and falsified
parody which appeared under the auspices of the later A.E. Waite.
6. In a series of conversations in 1937 beginning at Mr. Clifford
Bax' chambers in Albany St., W.1., you suggested to Lady Harris that
she might be able to carry out this work. Although she very rightly
protested that her knowledge of the subject hardly extended beyond
the name, you, with the imbecile optimism characteristic of you,
persuaded her that the descriptions of the cards given in the
Equinox would be sufficient guide, and persuaded her to make the
attempt.
9. It became obvious almost at once that the Equinox designs were
artistically impracticable. Lady Harris very properly asked you to
take the whole subject in hand ab ovo esque ad umbilicum. You
thereupon agreed to devote your whole knowledge to the work of
designing an entirely original pack of cards, incorporating the
results of your 39 years of constant study of the subject with your
profound--if at times unacceptably unorthodox--knowledge of
comparative religion, mathematical physics, philosophy and Magick.
Also nthat you should compose a Treatise explaining the subject in
full. It appears from a notice in the Exhibition that there is a
proposal to publish the cards as a pack without this book. To do so
would limit their use to fortune-telling, a form of fraud against
which you have constantly set your face your whole life long. We
refuse to believe that you have now consented to prostitute the
Sacred Wisdom of Thoth to this base and dishonest purpose and we
insist upon this point being made clear.
10. On May 11, 1938, Lady Harris became officially your disciple,
and was permitted to affiliate to the other Order of which you are
Head, the O.T.O.
11. You made an agreement with Lady Harris by which you were to have
a 66 2/3% interest in the work.
12. For the next four years approximately, Lady Harris prepared
water-colours of the cards. She did this from your rough sketches
and descriptions under your continual direction, subject to your
constant and repeated corrections. In some cases you made her redraw
and re-paint a card which you found unsatisfactory as many as five
or six times. She has, when left to herself, no sense of dignify or
congruity; one of us has seen some attempts which you rejected, for
instance, her ideal figure for "The Fool", the Holy Ghost, was Harpo
Marx. Did you really pass this and Trump I? She gave the Sphinx in
Trump X a French cabahy sabre! And her first conception of "The Lord
of the Winds and the Breezes; the King of the Spirits of the Air",
was a clown in plate armour, waving rapier and dagger, sprawling
over a demented nag, diving through a paper screen in a circus!
13. You left Lady Harris a comparatively free hand in respect of
insignificant details; but at no time did she contribute a single
idea of any kind to any card, and she is in fact almost as ignorant
of the Tarot and its true meaning and use as when she began. We
cannow however, blame you for this.
14. You have followed with as much fidelity as was possible the
traditional designs of the mediaeval packs; but you have notably
enriched and revivified some of them, especially the Trumps, with
your scholarship, as observed above in paragraph 9.
15. In every trump you have not only incorporated symbols
illustrating the doctrines of Payne Knight, Hargrave Jennings,
Arthur Eddington, J.G. Frazer, Bertrand Russell, J.W.N. Sullivan,
Eliphaz Levi and how many others! --but introduced very many ideas
purely personal to yourself and based on your own personal magical
experience--see "The Vision and the Voice", "The Paris Working" etc.
16. In certain cases, in order to make sure that your doctrine of
the New Aeon is clearly manifest as the spiritual-magical basis of
the whole work, you have given new names to the cards. Notably
Trumps XI, XIV, and numerous "small" cards. You have made the final
correction to the attributions--Trumps IV and XVII, according to the
Book fo the Law given to you in Cairo April 8, 9, and 10 1904. You
have used "The Stele of Revealing" (see "The Book of the Law" Chap.
I 49, III 19) to replace "The Last Judgment" (Trump XX) to affirm
the supersession of the Aeon of Osiris the Dying God by that of
Horus the Crowned and Conquering Child. The entire composition is
soaked in and reeks of your own private and personal point of view
with regard to Magick.
17. You undertook this Work with two main motives:--
1. That it should serve as a Magical Atlas of and Guide to the
Universe, for this "New Aeon of Horus", that is, for the next
2,000 years.
2. That its undeniable beauty and majesty should be an
intelligible vindication of the whole of your life's work.
You rightly foresaw that sooner or later it would be clear
that you are the sole responsible author of the Work and Lady
Harris only your more or less docile and intelligent
instrument.
18. You and Lady Harris were at first agreed that the Work should be
put forth anonymously. She wrote to a friend "I intend to remain
anonymous when the cards are shown". You had, of course, pointed out
that any student of the subject would recognise your authorship at a
glance.
19. Too well aware that in the past your work has been stolen and
exploited by unscrupulous rascals and also that doctrinal argument
of a lightly technical kind may all too frequently prove rather hard
for a jury, you took the precaution of introducing certain symbols
into the designs of susch a character that the most stupid would be
compelled to acknowledge your authorship of the Work.
Your conduct is abominable and inexcusable to allow Lady Harris
to issue a catalogue crammed with the grossest errors of fact,
blunders of scholarsip, irrelevancies and absurdities; to allow her
to make herself the laughing-stock of London by larying claim to the
authorship of pictures of which all artists know her to be utterly
incapable, her work having been that of a wealthy amateur persistent
enough to acquire a good technique but with no personality, no
"message" groping in Bloomsbury forgs for the parasitic adulation of
a gaggle of sycophants.
We can understand your passionate wish to get these cards
exhibited, even by a subterfuge, but you had no right to sacrifice
Lady Harris and you have no right to lend yourself, even by silence
to the perpetration of a hoax transparent and nausient as it must
naturally be, which affects the honour of the Fraternity of Art and
Letters.
We repeat that we are surprised; for whatever your faults, you
have always been honourable and truthful with more than ancient
Roman rigour. You must speak now.
for the Society of Hidden Masters.
Justus M.
Sic vos non vobis.
Sunur evique.
.PA
[1st page of letter missing--this is Crowley's "reply" to the letter
from the Society of Hidden Masters.]
Their estimate in paragraph 6 is exaggerated: it depends on the
definition of "serious students."
Nor would it be useful to deny them, as in every case their
truth is guaranteed by evidence independent of my asseveration,
internal evidence of documents easily accessible.
"I do however most strenuously deny participation in the hoax.
This was perpetrated by Lady Harris without my knowledge or consent;
I only learnt of the exhibitions, in the first case several days
after the opening, from information supplied by loyal friends.
This letter is to authorize and to request you to publicize its
substance, either by a letter addressed to the Times and other
newspapers, or as you in your best judgment may see fit.
Believe me,
Gentlemen,
Yours faithfully,
Aleister Crowley
TM> To expand on my earlier comments on Satanic symbolism in Thelemic
TM> ritual, and their relevance to the question of whether Thelema is a
TM> form of Satanism under some reasonable definition of that word.
TM>
TM> You ought to get a copy of "Magick in Theory and Practice" if you're
TM> interested in the issue. Crowley's ritual and meditative instructions
TM> were his best writing, possibly because they dealt with what he knew
TM> best. It's because of the power and importance of these instructions
TM> that I was willing to overlook his appalling right-wing politics and
TM> cite Crowley as a source in Twilight Crossing; LaVey and Aquino have
TM> made no contributions that measure up to these.
TM>
TM> I'm going to track through the various Liberi in Appendix VI, "A Few
TM> Principal Rituals", in order.
TM>
TM> Grimorium Sanctissimum. The O.T.O./A.'.A.'. sex magic expressed in the
TM> form of a Black Mass, with a naked virgin as the altar.
How is is it a Black Mass? Or are all sex magick rites Black Masses? It doesn't involve Christian crucifixes, upright or averse, though it
does have oil and a bell. One might say it has cakes and ale, but
these are not the stolen and desecrated ones of an oppressor, but rather the natural secretions of the participants. I usually think of a Black Mass as a specific attack on the Catholic Rite, reversing and spoiling.
TM> The Star Ruby. Therion and Babalon, who are the Beast and the Scarlet
TM> Woman from the Apocalypse of John, and who are explicitly Satanic
TM> symbols. (The Star Ruby is the Thelemic recension of the Lesser Banishing
TM> Ritual of the Pentagram.)
Only Tim calls it "thelemic recension. It is interesting to note that this ritual was published in two forms by Crowley himself, the other one using Chaos, Babalon, Eros and Psyche. Babalon in this case refers, I think, to the Babalon of Dee and Kelly, rather than the Babalon of Revelation, though Dee and Kelly were certainly aware of the latter. (It pairs with Chaos, who in the Dee and Kelly system would be Choronzon.)
TM> The Star Sapphire. Set, a very close Satanic cognate, and Baphomet,
TM> the demon supposedly worshipped by the Templars.
This ritual is designed to unify opposites. Not surprising that Crowley's Christian opposites would be used. Note that L.V.X. is invoked at the end, and not N.O.X.
TM> The Mass of the Phoenix. The magician carves his or her breast with
TM> the Mark of the Beast, soaks the blood into a cake, and eats it.
I don't know what Tim's source is for the use of the Mark of the Beast.
It may be a confusion with the following ritual. This ritual says 'the proper sign', which I take to be a personal and individual symbol,
which for Crowley may well have been the Marlk of the Beast. But I've found no specific record of what the proper sign is.
TM> Liber V vel Reguli. "Being the Ritual of the Mark of the Beast".
TM> The Beast 666, Therion, Babalon, Averse Pentagrams, "Saturn or Satan
TM> is exalted in the House of Venus or Astarte", "the Father-Mother
TM> Set-Isis", and so on.
This ritual, being the Ritual of the Mark of the Beast, is especially personal to Crowley, and he notes that it is to be adapted for the
daily use of other Magicians.
TM> The Gnostic Mass. Chaos, Babalon, Baphomet, Abrasax, Therion, Simon
TM> Magus, and another reclaiming of the Black Mass with its naked virgin
TM> on the altar. (The G.S. form above is more adapted to the ceremonial
TM> use of two people, while this form is for the puhblic and is veiled
TM> with a cloak of symbolism.) Interestingly, something very like this
TM> ritual may have a great deal to do with our general conception of the
TM> Black Mass, coming from the Star Chamber affair in France. It is
TM> unclear how much of the accusations were exagerrated and brought into
TM> line with the Inquisitional mythology, and how much was an actual
TM> "amatory mass" as some of the sources refer to it.
I disagree from the outset that this is a Black Mass. It is, to me, the adaptation of the Russian Orthodox pomp and circumstance (very
impressive to a Plymouth Bretheren-raised individual) to a fertility religion. It is not the reverse of a religion, it is the use of very standard ritual for another religion.
TM> This ends the appendix containing the principal Thelemic rituals, with
TM> the exception of Liber Samekh. That is so important that it receives
TM> its own appendix, IV. As you know, the emphasis of Liber Samekh on
TM> Satan is intense. It also exalts the Beast and the Scarlet Woman yet
TM> again. This is the ritual of "the Attainment of the Knowledge and
TM> Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel" or Higher Self; in Crowley's
TM> case, he believed this "devil or angel" to be named Aiwaz or Aiwass,
TM> and to have delivered the Book of the Law, the foundation of Thelema.
Liber Samekh was originally developed by Crowley for Crowley at a
particular point on his path, where he was trying to get in contact with his HGA. Note that the Barbarous names themselves have nothing Satanic in them with the possible exception of the mention of Babalon, which I do not think is original. The source of these Barbarous names is a Greco-Egyptian papyrus. The satanic symbold Tim claims are in the ritual are in fact in Crowley's notations of his interpretations. In other words, we are back at Crowley's personal spiritual path. Note that within the ritual the choice of identification of the name and race of the aspirant is up to the aspirant. (This is explained in the commentary Point II, Section Aa) The original ritual had Moses and
Israel, when first rehashed by Mathers. Crowley chose Ankh-af-na-Khonsu and Khem, when he rewrote it, and refers to himself as The Beast 666 directly as an individual who picked these names for this purpose.
TM> I have not mentioned the constant repetition of the Serpent symbol,
TM> which for Crowley was interpreted along the lines of Genesis -- or an
TM> anti-Genesis which reclaimed the pagan symbol demonized in the Hebrew
TM> myth. Someone could object, after all, that Serpent-worship is hardly
TM> confined to Satanism; we have to see how much Crowley explicitly inverted
TM> the tail of the Bible before we can know certainly that he did the same
TM> with the head. So the Serpent or Snake has little evidentiary value
TM> in itself, except where it is very plainly a reference to Genesis, as
TM> in "I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge" in the Book of the Law.
TM>
TM> As we can see, there is not one Thelemic ritual, among those Crowley
TM> thought most important, which is lacking in Satanic symbols.
Tim is here defining Thelema as the aping of Crowley and the use of his personal rituals as dead instruments, rather than live examples.
I would rather call this Crowleyanity, a phase of the development
of the understanding of Thelema that Crowley foresaw and dreaded.
TM> Now, we should also consider Appendix VII, "A Few of the Principal
TM> Instructions Authorised by the A.'.A.'." These are much less Satanic
TM> by and large. Many of them have no Satanic references worth mentioning,
TM> such as the Yogic instructions of Liber HHH, Liber E, and Liber RV,
TM> and the Golden Dawn derived ceremonial magick practices of Liber O,
TM> Liber Yod, Liber Resh, and Liber A. Similarly for the past-life recall
TM> practice (perhaps Theosophical?) of Liber Thisharb and the penultimate
TM> practice of Liber B vel Magi. Yet there are other works in the same
TM> appendix which contain notable Satanic symbolism, such as Liber Astarte,
TM> Liber III, Liber Cheth, and Liber A'ash.
I find it suspicious that he doesn't quote any of these. The mention of Cerberus in Liber III is negative, and this ceratinly has Thelemic gods;
Nuit, Hadit, and the word ABRAHADABRA. Much of the symbolism is from the Book of the Law, the Priestess, the Ox, the Fool, though these do appear elsewhere as well, of course. Liber HHH opens with a quote from Liber LXV, and the aspiration is towards one's own HGA. Liber Astarte quote Liber LXV also and only warnings against the wiles of the devil's distractions, which in this case I take to be simply advice to not break concentration. He does mention Babalon at the end. In Liber RU he refers the reader to Liber XXV and Liber CLXXV, Astarte. These instructions are all intertwined and interrelated, and I think it is erroneous to base conclusions on a few of them, especially ignoring thelemic references when it is convenient to do so.
TM> The interesting thing about the instructions of this category is that,
TM> for the most part, they are not particularly Thelemic either. There is
TM> little mention of the Thelemic trinity of Nuit, Hadit, and Ra-Hoor-Khuit,
TM> or of the Book of the Law, or of the word Thelema, or "Do what thou wilt"
As I mention above. this is not true, apart from the purely ceremonial ritual instructions, such as are based on Hebrew CM traditions. It may be that Tim's definition of Thelemic is more restricted than mine. In fact, I think he defined it and then went looking for evidence.
TM> or its cognates such as "the law of liberty". Where these do occur, they
TM> are usually in passing rather than central to the instruction; and in
TM> nearly every case, the degree of Satanic symbolism is proportional to
TM> the degree of Thelemic symbolism.
I think this is an inaccurate representation. He is discounting half the books that have thelemic references, and simply claims they lack them.
This may relate to his more limited definition as to what is Thelemic.
TM> That is, there is hardly a book that contains noteworthy Satanic
TM> symbolism that does not also contain Thelemic symbolism of roughly equal
TM> note, and vice versa. The books which don't contain one rarely contain
TM> the other.
Basically when he discusses gods, he discusses gods. The other books deal with other matters. This is not surprising, given his range of interests.
TM> Liber A vel Armorum could be taken as a counterexample, but even there
TM> the quote from the Book of the Law is merely an opening clause having
TM> no import to the teaching in itself; it is a single sentence stating
TM> Crowley's authority to present the book. If it were omitted, it would
TM> have no effect on the instruction of how to construct elemental weapons.
TM> It's of no more significance than the mention of Typhon in Liber O.
Or perhaps Satan, SET, etc. in all the personally adaptable rituals?
TM> In Liber Astarte and Liber III, the Thelemic and the Satanic symbolism
TM> are both used in passing, almost as afterthoughts. (Astarte also contains
TM> some of the anti-Satanic symbolism that Crowley sometimes uses; the
TM> Thelemic devil is named Choronzon, and here he is presented as leading
TM> the aspirant astray.) In Astarte, the little Satanic symbolism consists
TM> of a reference to Babalon, which is also Thelemic symbolism; the only
TM> other Thelemic references are to Choronzon and a single short clause
TM> (out of fifty clauses) which urges the use of Thelemic books and
TM> aphorisms in the practice. In Liber III, the Thelemic mythology is
TM> solely in an opening benediction which (once again) could easily be
TM> omitted without having the slightest import to the meditation practice,
TM> while the Satanic symbol of "Cerebus, the great Beast of Hell" is almost
TM> as unimportant.
I think Tim is identifying as Thelemic only the mythology mentioned strictly in the Book of the Law. This may be the source of his only identifying Satanic mythology as Thelemic. Thelema embraces a good deal more than the Book of the Law, though of course it is central. But it is good to remember that Crowley got the Book of the Law when he was 29, before he got involved with the OTO, or started the A.'.A.'. He lived to be 72, and never stopped refining the system. The Book of the Law is without a doubt the most satanic book by Crowley. I think this has a lot to do with his state of development at that age.
TM> Was Crowley a Satanist? Is Thelema a form of Satanism? Only the most
TM> contrived definition of "Satanism" could answer these questions "no".
I think these are two very different questions. How does Tim define Thelema?
TM> What would Crowley have answered? In a dedication to "Why Jesus Wept",
TM> he told G. K. Chesterton that he, Crowley, had "found [his] Messiah in
TM>...
TM> the Devil and all his angels", and showed through gematria that the
TM> Serpent was the true Messiah.
Here Crowley is baiting a Catholic, and catching Tim.
TM> In "Magick in Theory and Practice" (cap.IV) and "The Book of Thoth",
TM> and many other places, he praised Satan
TM> at length. He sang rapturous love-songs to the devil in his ritual
TM> practices, and gave him the unholy kiss referred to in the legends of
TM> the templars and the Sabbat. He wrote, in the last chapter of "Magick
TM> in Theory and Practice", that:
TM>
TM> "The Devil" is, historically, the God of any people that one
TM> personally dislikes. This has led to so much confusion of
TM> thought that THE BEAST 666 has preferred to let names stand
TM> as they are, and to proclaim simply that AIWAZ -- the solar-
TM> phallic-hermetic Lucifer -- is His own Holy Guardian Angel,
TM> and "The Devil" SATAN or HADIT of our particular unit of the
TM> Starry Universe. This serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of
TM> Man, but HE who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil;
TM> He bade "Know Thyself!" and taught Initiation. He is "the
TM> Devil" of the Book of Thoth, and His emblem is BAPHOMET, the
TM> Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection.
TM>
TM> We have no need to speculate on the issue. The man has spoken clearly
TM> for himself.
I agree with this final summation. Crowley has spoken for himself,
and specifically for his own HGA identification. That does not mean that Thelemites all have Satan as their HGA. It would be perfectly viable, if somewhat silly, to consider Hadit the Holy Ghost, Nuit Mary, and Ra-Hoor-Khuit Christ. 'I bring not peace, but a sword!'
I have started the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal and will post articles at strategic points in the process to share with you how this ordeal is shaping up. One can spout platitudes and make theories about magick, but the real proof is in the performance of actual ordeals and experiments.
Since I have proposed an alternative path to the traditional Abramelin ordeal, joining it with the invocation of the Bornless One, it is important for me to actually test my hypothesis and to note the results for others to examine and ponder. What I have learned through my many years of practical experience is that one's intention has a powerful shaping influence on what one experiences in the practice of ritual magick. What this means is that even a highly flawed ritual performed by a mere novice can be as effective as that performed by an experienced magician if that novice has the right amount of passion, zeal and an empowered and indomitable intention.
However, the difference between a novice and an experienced magician is that the experienced magician can repeat the phenomena produced and even share the rituals and ceremonies that he or she used with others for their examination and experimentation. A novice is effective often as a matter of luck or the right combination of effects, and generally not because of their experience and knowledge. This means that a novice may produce effective results or not, but only somewhat slightly better than chance.
On November 16, at exactly 1:14 pm CST, I began the Abramelin Lunar ordeal with an extensive meditation session and later followed up that evening with a Mass of the Goddess. What I experienced was a potent affirmation that the path and action that I have chosen is the right one for me at this time. I sensed that I had engaged with a powerful spiritual presence, undoubtedly that it was my personal aspect of the Goddess blanketing me with good will, anticipation and joy at the beginning of what will prove to be a very challenging seven weeks of constant meditation, contemplation and invocative ritual magick. So my personal aspect of the Deity is in a positive accord with what I am spiritually and magickally planning to do. That's a good sign, but there have been other signs that I have experienced that would also indicate that fate is positively disposed towards me.
The previous weekend (Nov. 7), I invoked the archangel Ratziel (God's Mystery) using the new methodology that I had assembled recently. Ratziel is a spirit that I have invoked a number of times previously, since I have determined that he is the core of what I have discovered over the years as a very different Enochian system of magick, incorporating the Nephilim as contra-archangelic entities as well as other variations. I intend to write extensively on this different approach to Enochian magick in the future, but for now, let's just say that I am quite familiar with Ratziel.
Anyway, this entity, when invoked, had a profound effect on me and imparted some very fascinating information. The effect was one of acknowledgment, which empowered my intention and gave me a profound resolution that my desire to perform the upcoming ordeal is the correct thing to do. I had to recreate the sigil for Ratziel, having misplaced the one that I made for previous invocations, and the archangel told me that the new sigil was my passport and key for invoking the more potent and mysterious Seraphim and Cherubim, who I intend to invoke in the next four weekends. By the middle of December, I will have invoked all eight of these majestic spirits, and my intention for doing so has been strengthened by the favor and good will of Ratziel. I still need to carefully build up my intention before attempting these invocations, but now I feel more resolved and compelled to do so, and less cautious and worried about the outcome. Invoking these super-archangels is no small matter and approaching them with frivolous requests or unethical desires would be most disastrous for any magician.
Ratziel also imparted to me that he had a hand in influencing and inspiring me to formulate this ordeal, even though the credit for doing so is still completely my own. So what this means is that a bit of angelic providence has inspired and guided me to formulate this working. I must admit that I am greatly intrigued, and it would seem that the spiritual hierarchy is in agreement with what I am about to do. That being said, I must still be disciplined and diligent in all of my efforts in order for this ordeal to be successfully concluded. I will refrain from eating red meat, will eat sparingly and adopt a vegetarian diet for the weekend workings. I am also meditating twice daily - once at waking, and again before bed. The weekends will require some vigils and a steadfast focusing on just the magick at hand, to avoid any distractions. I must, therefore, complete all of my work before the end of the week so as to make myself ready for the major workings on the weekend.
So all is in readiness for the first set of invocations this weekend, when I will invoke the Seraphim and Cherubim of Earth, whose names are Zahariel and Yofiel, respectively. I will write up a report summarizing those encounters, and we shall see how all that plays out. Right now, I feel very confident about the outcome, since all the signs point to a powerful affirmation of the rightness of this working and its successful outcome.
Frater Barrabbas
Suggested ebooks:
Aninymous - The Angelical Alphabet
Sepharial - The Arcana Or Stock And Share Key
Edward Kelley - The Angelic Alphabet
WOMEN VS. MEN
By: Michelle Hass (in conversation with Scott Szakonyi
"Ok folks, Loki and I have been chatting, and we're ready to raise a ruckus that might go on for months."
Chiniginish and I relish the challenge...with Coyote looking over Our shoulders and chuckling...
"Here's the question: Are women superior to men, and if so, why? I THINK that women are superior to men in the modern world because evolution is lagging society. Most of the evolution of the human race (about 60 million yrs) took place in hunter/gatherer tribes, where aggressive behavior on the part of the male hunters was a survival trait, and relating/caring behavior was a survival trait for females. Now, in the 20 thousand or so years since we have become agrarian, the need for male hunter aggressiveness has gone the way of the Dodo, while the need for relating/caring behavior has become primary. Where does this leave us?
"Well, as I see it, women are almost ideally suited to the overcrowded, communication intensive environment that we call modern society. Men, on the other hand, are like people with no arms playing handball. It's not that we're bad folk, it's just that we were designed by evolution for an environment that hasn't existed for 20 THOUSAND YEARS, which is a real drop in the bucket in terms of evolution. Evolution isn't going to be giving us any help for at least a few million years; maybe never since we are constantly screwing up the gene pool with our wars that leave the genetically defective to breed and send the genetically preferable off to evolutionary dead ends. So all we men can do is try to better ourselves and ask for patience on the part of women, who must feel like the entire male sex has completely missed the boat. "
Well, you've got a nice point, but it assumes something that I believe 'taint necessarily so. Is male aggressiveness part of nature or nurture? The jury seems to be coming back from a long period of deliberation, and it looks like the verdict is NURTURE.
This very nicely dovetails with my own theory of what thelemites refer to as the
"procession of the aeons". In Crowley's notorious Liber Al vel Legis, we are said to be passing from an aeon of belief in suffering male gods and patriarchy to an aeon of belief in the value of Self and of partnership between the sexes.
Crowley called the old aeon the "Aeon of Osiris" and the new the "Aeon of Horus, the Crowned and Conquering Child." The enthroned Child is not masculine or feminine, but androgynous/gynandrous. The aeon before the Osirian was that of Isis, an aeon of Great Mother Goddesses and matriarchy.
My chronology is a little different than that which Crowley attributed to these three epochs of human history so far. Crowley declared that the Aeon of Horus began with the Spring Equinox of 1904+ Common, just before the writing of the Book of the Law. I maintain that the change is still taking place, and had its roots in the 1700s+ Common. The writings of the philosopher Locke were some of the first to make a very important quantum jump, and provided ideological impetus for the vital changes that have and are taking place.
What Locke asserted was that government did not rest on Divine Right, but on the consent of the governed. Human beings were not born to different castes, some fated to serve while others were fated to rule by the grace of the gods. Human beings were born equal, and had certain rights as a birthright: Life, Liberty, the right to pursue Happiness, and the right to security of private property.
This assertion shows up in Liber Al as these statements:
"Every Man and Every Woman is a Star. "
"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law. "
"Love Is The Law, Love Under Will. "
"Thou hast no right but to do thy Will. "
In a little less arcane language, these statements run thusly:
Every Individual matters.
Every Individual has the right to live, be free and pursue Happiness (harmony with one's life's purpose, or True Will) as they Will.
These rights stop at the boundary of the Wills of others. Live your life as you see fit, but mind your own business and above all, HARM NOBODY. This includes yourself in a very conditional way. You *do* have the right to self destruction, but if you truly believe that you matter, why would you want to?
These assertions are usually encountered firstly in a Locke-inspired document that has passed into the history of this country, the Declaration of Independence. If there is any one document that is a trigger point for the New Aeon, it's that one. The American Revolution was the first time monarchy was cast aside in favor of democracy of a representative sort.
Democracy was tried before, but never quite this way. And despite several course corrections that needed to be made, (the abolishment of Slavery, the giving of Women, Blacks and Amerinds the right to vote) and some that still need to be made (the granting of total equality for all races and sexes, a shift to a more direct method of participation, i.e. Cyber-democracy) the democratic experiment in the United States is the most enduring of all.
Before the 1700s, government was imposed from above, not thought of as flowing from the consent of the governed. Individuals were not accorded rights as a birthright, but were granted rights by the king, usually on a class-by-class basis. Human beings were dealt with as masses and classes, on a Collective basis.
Coincidental with these developments was a surfacing of hermetic thought in a more widespread way then ever before in history. The Rosicrucian and Freemason movements brought hermeticism to a wide audience. Within the ranks of Freemasonry were both common and noble, and often commoners would be lodgemasters in lodges frequented by those of noble birth. Hermetic orders ennobled not by birth, but by level of knowledge and initiation and (hopefully)
by level of spiritual attainment.
Now, this was fine in theory, but unfortunately in practice things weren't so swift. It was only until the mid-1800s and groups like the original Golden Dawn that women had the possibility of initiation. Even now, in Masonic lodges that have lost their occult focus and are now little more than men's clubs, men are ritually strip-searched to assure the initiator that the candidate is indeed male and not a disguised female.
The baggage of the old days of sexism and classism remain in a lot of hermetic orders even today. Crowley himself had serious problems accepting women as equals: he had a rather low opinion of them and was quite cruel to them in numerous cases. But very explicit in the message of the New Aeon is that people are to be dealt with, not by sex or race or social strata but by their inborn, inalienable rights as individuals...as Stars, to use a thelemic term.
The Neo-pagan movement was a definite evolutionary step in defining a New Aeon mode of spirituality. Unlike the traditional hermetic order, Wicca and other forms of Neo-paganism do not have a multiplicity of ranks and a chain of command. Some have three degrees, some two, some only one, that of initiate.
Initiation is not a bestowal of rank, but more a purpose-oriented process. As magickal orders continue to evolve, they will either need to emulate more and more the informality and non-hierarchical non-structure of Neo-paganism or choke on their bloated hierarchies. It is funny when one considers that there is much evidence to suggest that Neo-paganism evolved from the Astrum Argentum and the OTO, and that much of Gardner's groundbreaking work in reconstructing the old pre-Osirian Druidic religion was helped along with the research help of Uncle Al himself.
Perhaps, as the knightly orders of the past were meant as guardians of the Christian Church, there will become a symbiotic connection between Neo-paganism and Magickal orders, especially among those whose non-structure mimics that of the coven. Arguably this symbiosis exists now, and hell, I'm living proof of this.
So what the deuce does this have to do with the sexes? You'll see as I wrap this up. Ok...remember I mentioned that before the Osirian epoch and the patriarchy, which seems to have come in with the rise of the big cities and the transformation from a hunter-gatherer society to an agrarian one (methinks you have placed the transformation a little too far into the past) there was the Isian epoch and the matriarchy? Well, before patriarchal philosophy displaced matriarchalism, women pretty much ran things. They didn't hunt because to place women, who were the living image of the Goddess and the ex-nihilo creatrixes of the next generation, in bodily jeopardy was literally blasphemy. Women were the intermediaries for men to the Goddess, who was unapproachable otherwise. The men had their hunting cults, but they were as insignificant in reality as the Victorian-era anthropologists misread the ancient religion of the Goddess as merely an inferior "fertility cult."
When the transition came to the cities and to patriarchy sometime around 10,000- to 7,500- Common, the long-suppressed males took by force what the Goddesses of the Isian era denied them by their divine decree...power. Male warrior deities replaced female mother deities. The priestesses of the old religions were destroyed. (The Book of Joshua in the Old Testament is a vivid account of one triumph of Osiris over Isis.) And the new order began. But the old matriarchal religions survived for several thousands of years after the turn of the aeon, and it is painfully obvious that the old patriarchal ways will haunt us for thousands of years into the future, even as new ways take hold and new philosophies become more accepted. But it really is nurture rather than nature that makes men aggressive and women passive. Men can learn to be nurturing and loving, and women can learn to be assertive and empowered. In order that we can truly enter this new aeon where all are leaders and all are Stars, we each have to cultivate the "other side" of our Selves. No, women are not superior to men, nor is it the other way around. Every Individual matters. Everyone has the potential to be a King, in the thelemic sense of the word. We need to learn to treat all with dignity, be they material successes or abject material failures.
We need to treat even those still enslaved by the old with as
much dignity as those who have declared their secession from them and their embracing of the New Law.
The evolution is really and truly in our own hands.
Beauty and balance, Will and Love,
Michelle.
The coven that I've been working with in Denver begins its cup blessing by a dialogue between the Priest and the Priestess. Both have a hand each on the athame and the chalice:
Priest: "Be it known that a man is not greater than a woman.
Priestess: "Nor yet is a woman greater than a man"
Priest: "For what one lacks"
Priestess: "The other can provide"
Priest: "As the Athame is to the male"
Priestess: So is the cup to the female.
Both: And when conjoined together, they become one in truth, for there is no greater magick in all the world than that of love.
BB Rowan
Suggested ebooks:
Howard Phillips Lovecraft - The Green Meadow
Michael Sharp - The Great Awakening
WARNING: PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!
YOU WILL BE ASKED TO USE MUCH MORE OF YOUR WILL IN THIS SPELL THAN A WHITE OR GRAY MAGICK SPELL. IN THOSE SPELLS THE SPELLCASTER PUTS FORTH MOST OF THE ENERGY. IN BLACK MAGICK YOU WILL BE SUPPLYING THE ENERGY. BE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT AND THAT HALF-WAY THROUGH, YOU DON'T SECOND-GUESS YOURSELF AND LEAVE A BLACK MAGICK SPELL ADRIFT. I CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR HOW YOU CHOOSE TO USE THIS SPELL. I CANNOT HELP YOU IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG. I CANNOT CHANGE THE RESULTS ONCE THE SPELL HAS TAKEN HOLD. IF YOUR REASONS ARE GENUINE FOR THIS KIND OF MAGICK, THEN THINGS WILL PROBABLY WORK OUT JUST FINE. AS WITH ANY NON-WHITE MAGICK, THERE IS ALWAYS A RISK. PLEASE ONLY CONSIDER BLACK MAGICK AS AN ABSOLUTE LAST RESORT. BLACK MAGICK SPELLS TAKE ANYWHERE FROM 1-120 DAYS TO MANIFEST RESULTS.
THIS IS THE FIRST LUCK AND FORTUNE SPELL THAT I HAVE OFFERED THAT IS OF A DARKER NATURE. "LUCKY 13 OIL IS USED IN VARIOUS VOODOO AND HOODOO SPELLS AND THIS SPELL IS BASED UPON THOSE PRINCIPLES.USE THIS SPELL IF YOU NEED LUCK, FORTUNE, MONEY, POWER AND DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT CONSEQUENCES.
THIS (LIKE ALL BLACK MAGICK SPELLS) IS NOT A EVIL SPELL UNLESS YOUR INTENTIONS ARE SO. IF NOT THIS SPELL CAN BE USED TO TURN BAD LUCK TO GOOD AND WORK SITUATIONS OUT IN YOUR FAVOR. IT IS A POWERFUL SPELL AND CUTS RIGHT TO THE CHASE.
AS WITH ALL MY DARKER WORKINGS I HAVE NO DESIRE TO KNOW HOW YOU INTEND TO USE THIS SPELL. YOU CAN KEEP THAT TO YOURSELF. JUST KNOW THAT IF YOUR INTENTIONS ARE OTHER THAN PURE, YOU MUST DEAL WITH POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES AND KARMA (BUT ONLY IF YOU BELIEVE IN IT - IF NOT, THEN I GUESS IT WON'T MATTER A WHIT TO YOU, WILL IT?).
USE THIS SPELL TO BOOST ANY BLACK MAGICK SPELLS YOU HAVE WORKING.
USE THIS SPELL TO GENERATE FORTUNE.
USE THIS SPELL FOR FAME.
USE THIS SPELL FOR POWER RELATING TO MONEY.
USE THIS SPELL TO ADD DARK ENERGY TO WHATEVER WORKINGS YOU HAVE UNDERTAKEN.
USE THIS SPELL FOR LUCK IN GAMBLING.
USE THIS SPELL FOR FORTUNE IN BUSINESS (IF YOU DON'T MIND POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES DEPENDING ON YOUR LEVEL OF INTEGRITY).
500.00
Suggested ebooks:
Aubrey Bell - The Magic Of Spain
Anonymous - White Magic Spells
