Thelema Lodge Calendar for January 1995 e.v.
Thelema Lodge Calendar
for January 1995 e.v.
The viewpoints and opinions expressed herein are the responsibility of the contributing authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of OTO or its officers.
Note to update: the addresses and phone numbers in these issues of the Thelema Lodge Calendars are obsolete since the closing of the Lodge. They are here for historic purposes only and should not be visited or called.
Copyright © O.T.O. and the Individual Authors, 1995 e.v.Thelema Lodge
Ordo Templi Orientis
P.O.Box 2303
Berkeley, CA 94702 USA
January 1995 e.v. at Thelema Lodge
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Announcements from
Lodge Members and Officers
Gnostic Mass
Thelema Lodge offers a celebration of Aleister Crowley's Gnostic Mass in
Horus Temple every Sunday evening, with open communion. Arrive at 7:30, or
call ahead to (510) 652-3171 for information if attending for the first time.
Our pool of officers for mass teams seems to have shrunk somewhat in the past
season, so the lodge especially encourages first degree O.T.O. initiates to
form mass teams. Speak with the lodge master regarding scheduling, rehearsal
time in the temple, and assistance for novice officers. Our lodge community
includes four bishops of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, and many other members
with extensive temple experience, who are available to guide and instruct
beginning celebrants.
The Gnostic Mass Study Group meets monthly with Bishop T Dionysus for
informal analysis and explication of Liber XV. Gather in the lodge library on
Wednesday evening 25th January at 8:00 to participate in this on-going
investigation of all aspects of the E.G.C. and its liturgy.
Classes, Gatherings, and Lodge Events
An especially busy autumn for many members has left us with decreased
commitments for organized activity this month. Spontaneous events, although
unadvertised, are frequently just as fruitful as our formally scheduled
pursuits, so if you don't see what you want on the calendar, keep in touch and
often we can arrange to make it happen anyway. Nearly all events at Thelema
Lodge --- other than initiations --- are free and open to the public. We request
donations from members, and from others who attend, in order to help cover
rental costs for our temple and library facilities. This support is essential
to sustain Thelema Lodge, and if we are to thrive it must be spread as widely
as possible over the whole lodge community. Contributions are voluntary, but
we cannot do without them. Those able to be generous are invited to discuss
our Sustaining Membership program with the lodge master.
Explore "The Astrology of Aquarius" and the implications for astrological interpretation, analysis, and ritual in the Age of Aquarius, on Friday evening
27th January with Grace in Berkeley. All who attend are requested to make
advance contact with Grace at (510) 843-STAR. Meet in Grace's zodiacal palace
in south Berkeley from 7:00 to 9:00.
Gather at Oz House for the Thelema Lodge Section Two Reading Group with
Caitlin, for a discussion of Lilith by George MacDonald, on Monday evening
16th January at 8:00. Suggested to aspirants of the A
A as "a good
introduction to the Astral," Lilith (1895) was one of the last works of the
prolific Scots novelist, who was a friend of Lewis Carroll and a significant
example for modern fantasy writers from J. R. R. Tolkien to Gabriel Garcia
Marquez. Lilith, is similar in texture to the Alice books, although not
restricted to the sensibilities of Victorian childhood.
Previous Section Two Next Section Two
The Thelema Lodge Magick in Theory and Practice Series with Bill Heidrick
continues in Marin on Wednesday evening 18th January, beginning at 7:30. This
month's focus is upon "A Few Principal Rituals" given in Appendix VI to
M.T.P., beginning with Liber Samekh. Call Bill at (415) 454-5176 for
directions and additional information.
Frater P.I. organizes the Grady L. McMurtry Poetry Society at Thelema
Lodge, meeting on Saturday evening 28th January at 7:30 in the lodge library.
Participants bring verse selections of their own choosing, whether drawn from
classic or contemporary poets, their own work, or that of friends. The group
provides an appreciative audience among whom participants work to develop
effective techniques of vocal delivery, a basic element of ceremonial magick
in the Thelemic tradition.
Join the Butterfly Net and Thelema Lodge Computer Users Group on Thursday
evening 19th January at 8:00. Instruction in various systems and skills is
offered from experienced professionals who are available at this time to
consult with members on all aspects of information processing and networking.
Bring your computer problems, share solutions, and exchange software you're
developing, at this monthly meeting.
The lodge library will be open for study and volunteer organizational work
on two Library Nights this month, scheduled for Thursday evening 12th January
and Monday evening 23rd January, beginning at 8:00. The excellent and ever-
increasing collection of magical and Thelemic study materials available at
Thelema Lodge is open for the use of members and friends by arrangement with
the lodge officers. Those planning to attend Library Nights are requested to
contact the lodge master a day or two ahead to confirm scheduling, which is
subject to change by request.
A brief business and scheduling meeting will be held on Monday evening 9th
January at 8:00, following which we will examine various documentary and
photographic materials relating to the history of Thelema Lodge. This lodge
meeting marks the deadline for calendar dates and descriptions to be published
next month, and those unable to attend are requested to contact the lodge
master with their ideas and concerns during the preceding week.
Sirius Oasis is an independent body of O.T.O., located in north Berkeley.
The oasis meets on Wednesday evening 11th January to plan activities and
organize initiations. Informal study of a wide range of pagan, magical, and
wiccan subjects is also offered at the meetings of Sirius Oasis. Call the
oasis master at (510) 527-2855 for directions and further information.
Future Events
Initiations in Ordo Templi Orientis are next scheduled for the first
Saturday in February at Thelema Lodge. As usual, all attending are requested to speak with one of the lodge officers ahead of time for details. The lodge
accepts applications for candidacy at any time, with a minimum of forty days
being required between submission of the completed form and performance of the
initiation. See the lodge master for details and advice whenever
contemplating initiation.
A second Minerval Magical Class is planned for next month, open to all
students but geared to beginning initiates. Also, we will continue with our
Sustaining Members Luncheon Meetings in February, although none will be held
this month. Contact Caitlin at Oz House to assist with plans for the
celebration of Brigid (Candlemass) early in February; call (510) 654-3580.
One of the biggest pagan events in the Bay Area next month will be the
first PantheaCon gathering, organized by Ancient Ways and held at the Radisson
Plaza Hotel at the San Jose Airport on 17th through 20th February. A great
variety of ritual and musical events, parties, workshop classes, and
presentations are on the schedule, drawing from diverse traditions including
Thelemic, Wiccan, Celtic, Yoruba, Umbanda, and even (it has been rumored)
Klingon. Call Ancient Ways at (510) 653-3244 or drop by the store at 4075
Telegraph Avenue in Oakland for details and registration. PantheaCon 1 is not
an O.T.O. event, but members of the Order have been involved in planning it,
and we will be well represented there. A public celebration of Aleister
Crowley's Gnostic Mass has been included in the schedule.
Crowley Classics
This essay first appeared in 1907 e.v. as the introduction to Crowley's little volume of poems Rodin in Rime, which was illustrated with water-colors by the great French sculptor. It appeared again in the same year in the third volume of Crowley's Works. Crowley had met Rodin several years before when his unconventional statue of Balzac stirred enormous controversy and was removed from public view by the city of Paris. As Crowley recalled in
Confessions, "Rodin was being attacked for his statue of Balzac. I was introduced to Rodin and at once fell in love with the superb old man and his colossal work. I still think his Balzac the most interesting and important thing he did. It was a new idea in sculpture. Before Rodin there had been certain attempts to convey spiritual truth by plastic methods; but they were always limited by the supposed necessity of 'representing' what people call 'nature'. . . The real Balzac is the writer of the Comédie Humaine; and what Rodin has done is to suggest this spiritual abstraction through the medium of form." Thelemites will recall that Crowley later specifically enunciated the "right to mould as he will" in his manifesto of human rights, Liber Oz.
August Rodin
and the Nomenclature of his Works:
A Study in Spite
by Aleister Crowley
When illegitimate criticism is met with a smart swing on the point of the
jaw, and has subsided into an unpleasant and unpitiful heap; when its high-
well-born brother has shaken hands --- not without many years of friendly
sparring --- with the new pugilist, all his family are very disappointed, for
Society takes no notice of them in its (to them unseemly) adulation of the
rising star. Their unfraternal feeling may even lead them to employ a
sandbagger and a dark night to rid them of this dreamer Joseph.
In the case of the success, in the heavy weights, of the Meudon Chicken (M.
Rodin will forgive us for the lengths to which we carry our analogy), envy has given up hope even of sandbags, and is now engaged in the ridiculous task of
attempting to disconcert the eye of the Fancy Boy by flipping paper pellets at
him across the arena. They do not reach him, it is true: but as I, who happen
to be sitting in a back row, admiring the clean, scientific sequences of rib-
punchers, claret-tappers, &c., &c., recently received one of these missiles in
the eye, my attention was called to the disturber. I will now do my part as a
law-abiding citizen and take my boot to the offender, as a warning to him and
all of his kidney. I shall not mention his name: that he would enjoy: that is
perhaps what he hoped. I will merely state that he is one of those unwashen
and oleaginous individuals who are a kind of Mérodack-Jauneau without the
Mérodack, i.e., without the gleam of intention in their work which to the lay
mind redeems even the most grotesque imbecility of technique, and the most
fatuous ignorance of all subjects connected or unconnected with art. By
philosophy he understands "Science and Health": by poetry Lake Harris or Eric
Mackay: he expects a painting to tell a pretty story or to upset a
metaphysical position. His conversation is like that of Planchette: or if
William Horton were vocal --- But Heaven forbid!
What he said, though parrot-talk, caught up in some fifth-rate sculptor's
studio, no doubt, had so much truth in it, carefully concealed by the lying
misinterpretation he had put on it, that, as I said, the pellet hit me. This
was what it came to. Rodin's works, it is said, mean nothing. He makes a
study: people see it in his studio: A. goes up and says to the Master: "Ah,
how beautiful," &c., ad nauseam --- "I suppose it is 'Earth and the Spring.'"
B. follows, and suggests "Hercules and Cacus"; C. thinks "The Birth of a
Flower"; D. calls it "Despair"; E. varies it with "Moses breaking the Tables
of the Law"; F. cocks his eye warily, and asks if it is not meant for "Mary
Magdalene"; G. votes for "The Beetle-Crusher and his Muse," and so on, day
after day, till Z. comes round and recognises it for Balzac. Rodin shakes him
warmly by both hands: Balzac it is for all time --- and one ceases to wonder
that it was rejected!
Now, of course, this paper pellet is in any care very wide of its mark.
Rodin can easily sculpt himself a tabernacle and go in with Whistler --- and
even drag in Velasquez; but here am I illustrating, however feebly, the Works,
in Poetry: and poetry cannot, unfortunately, ever be pure technique. I have
long wished to write "A Sonnet in W. and P." (with Whip as the keynote); a
triolet in U. and K.; and ode in S. Sh. Sw. Sp. and Str. --- and so on; but
people would merely say "Nonsense Verses" (so they do now, some of them!). So
that my work is liable to the most vital misinterpretation. My best friend
tells the utterly false, utterly funny story about me that I wrote one sonnet
for "L'Ange déchu" and another for "Icare."
The real heart of the attack is, of course, against Rodin's intention, and
it is my object to show what rubbish it is, even granting the literary basis
of criticism to be valid. I am given to understand that something of the sort
described above does sometimes take place in the naming of a statue (of the
allegorical description especially). But that is a question of felicity, of
epigram; never of subject.
In "La Main de Dieu," for example, the meaning is obvious, and not to be
wrested or distorted. What does it matter if we call it as at present, or
(a) The Hand of Creation,
(b) The First Lovers,
(c) The Security of Love,
(d) The Invisible Guard
-- anything in reason? These are only ways of looking at one idea, and as you
are theologian, poet, lover or mystic, so you will choose. And it is the
Master's merit, not his fault, if his conception is so broad-based as to admit
of different interpretations. The phenomenon is possible because Rodin is the
master and not the slave of his colossal technique. The naming of a
masterpiece is perhaps harder work than the producing it, and Rodin being a
sculptor and not an illicit epigram distiller, is perfectly justified in picking up what he can from the witty and gifted people who throng his studio
as much as he will let them.
Let there be an end, then, not to the sordid and snarling jealousy which
greatness must inevitably excite, not to the simian tooth-grindings which must
always accompany the entrance of a man into the jungle, but to this peculiarly
senseless and sidelong attack. One accepts the lion as a worthy antagonist;
one can enjoy playing with a fine dog; one can sympathise with sincere and
honourable labour, though it be in vain; one ignores laughingly the attack of
tiny and infuriated puppies; but there are insects so loathsome, so incredible
disgusting, worms whose sight is such an abomination, whose stink is so
crapulous and purulent, that, ignoring their malignity, but simply aware of
their detestable presence, the heel is ground down in one generous impulse,
and the slimy thing is no more. Decomposition, already far advanced, may be
trusted speedily to resolve the remains into the ultimate dust of things, mere
matter for some new and hopefuller avatar.
Such a worm are you, M. D----, who once, as above described, voided your
noxious nastiness in my presence, trusting to conciliate me by the intended
compliment that my poems on Rodin were from myself and not from him, and that
any other statues would have done as well.
I am as little susceptible to flattery as I am to the venomous dicta of
spite and envy, and I resent that when I see it employed as the medium for
this. Without your compliment, M. D----, I might have left you to crawl on,
lord of your own muck-heap; with it, I take this opportunity of stamping on
you.
NOTE. --- I had intended* to include reproductions of photographs of those
few statues which I have written upon; but I prefer to pay my readers the
compliment of supposing that they possess the originals in either bronze or
marble.
* I.e., in the large first edition, which contains seven of M. Rodin's water-
colours. Vide Bibliographical Note [in volume 3 of Crowley's Works -- Ed.].
Previous Crowley Classics Next Crowley Classics
from the Grady Project:
This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Allied victory in the Second World War, to which the founder of our lodge contributed his best efforts in the European theater of operations, as lieutenant in command of an ordnance company, delivering explosives by truck to the front lines. Over the coming months the Thelema Lodge Calendar hopes to reprint a series of Grady's war-time poetry, with most items appearing on the fiftieth anniversaries of their original composition, in between military operations in France. These poems reflect the bleak and terrible struggle out of which they were written, but also hint at the overwhelming importance of those events, both in the career of Caliph Hymenaeus Alpha and in the history of the opening century of our New Aeon.
Bitterness
| In Metz the German dead lie stacked |
| Beneath the quiet snow |
| Along the railroad tracks, a wracked |
| And grotesque iron row |
| Between the trees, and where the packed |
| Wire brambles twist and grow.
|
| Their wooden cheeks are dark with stain; |
| Hoarfrost has iced their hair; |
| Their broken bodies, shrunk with pain, |
| Claw upwards in despair. |
| The fortress City of Lorraine |
| Is guarded by their stare..
|
| The ghouls have had their business way |
| Among these frozen dead; |
| Some stripped of boots, some with their grey |
| Ring fingers clipped instead, |
| And some have even been the play |
| Of dogs, who must be fed..
|
| These are the vaunted "Waffen Korps" |
| The cold embalms so well; |
| God damn their souls forevermore |
| And may they rot in Hell! |
| We wanted peace, they wanted War |
| So leave them where they fell..
|
| Lieutenant Grady L. McMurtry, U. S. Army |
| 1/10/45 |
Originally published in The Grady Project #1 (Oakland: Thelema Lodge, O.T.O., October 1987).
Previous Grady Project Next Grady Project
An Abramelin Ramble,
with visits to roadside attractions along the way
and sundry personal advice.
PART XI -- Junk behind the back seat..Derived from a lecture on 7/22/87 e.v. by Bill Heidrick
Copyright © Bill Heidrick
Some scraps of travel notes and we are done:
In order to make use of any system, you have to learn the system and get it
working. The 231 Gates of the Yetzirah is the system I've used. I extended
that working considerably, just by taking more time as it became possible.
The present one I am meditating on is 
, Shin-Bet or Bet-Shin. Crowley took
his Abramelin meditation system from the work of John Dee. There are a series
of Calls, organized and progressively difficult. Crowley was able, after a
couple of failures, to make a go of that. He tried it in Scotland with the
Golden Dawn "Shin of Shin" ritual, and it petered out. He tried it in Mexico
and only got a little way. He went into the Arabian desert, paraded Victor
Neuburg around in fancy dress and got side-tracked briefly, but he managed to
accomplish the thing, as any can see in Vision and Voice.
The main thing that you need in this world is to learn how to use what you
already have. It works that way in meditation as well. If you take an old
system and don't pay too much attention to an old teacher, then you might
develop a light of truth in that old system that no one ever knew before.
That's new. Or perhaps, something of it was forgotten, and rediscovering the
forgotten part is what you need to do. In this work, it is necessary that
everything be new. Yet, the pattern will always be old. That is not a
contradiction. Everything that you do from the pattern is new to you. By
using a preexisting pattern, something old in that sense, you don't have to
start from scratch. If you want to make a drawing, you get a piece of paper.
You can make the paper yourself, an entertaining thing that one might like to
try; but that is not the best way to make a drawing. It's the same here. You
need a paper, a piece of paper to write yourself upon. That "paper" should be
an existing system. If you originate that system yourself, it may or may not work; but you will be certainly wasting a lot of precious time. You will also
likely end up with an experience that you can't explain to anybody. The
biggest problem for people who get deeply into these things, as I have found
and seen, is that they get so far removed that they can't communicate their
experiences to others. Such folk get very very lonely and seem very very
strange. Why stand on the sea-shore and reach as high as you can? Why not
stand on a mountain top and reach higher? The mountain top is there already.
You don't have to make your own mountain of sand. That's the principle.
There are various rituals and things to get into. Consider John Dee's
original version of the Enochian Squares. That's a magical procedure worked
out in Elizabethan times. He even called it "Enochian" from the legendary
Book of Enoch.
If you can get situated in a little hut in the wilds, you have it made.
But if you can't find a lovely sylvan setting out of a Chinese or Japanese
dream, you are just going to have to lump it with a corner of your apartment.
Crowley had a bit of a sense of humor. Consider the Abramelin square
printed in the Equinox just in front of his article on Geomancy. That one is
titled "To undo Magic". Also, there is a similar square placed just behind
the title page of The Goetia, a portion of the Lesser Key of Solomon. It's
another one of the Abramelin squares to undo magic. Tasteless trick, I call
it.
If you get into some method of art, by all means incorporate it into this.
Embroidery of magical squares is perfectly workable.
You will get pretty pictures if you can meditate enough. They don't mean
anything? Maybe they do. In the 231 gates method, it is common to draw
elaborate diagrams or mandalas, such as a combination of all of the other
letters placed between the two Hebrew letters, e.g. Tzaddi and Hay. Every
other letter is there, so in a sense this shows all the things that pass
between the gates of Tzaddi and Hay, between the Star and the Emperor Trump.
Such talismans and power drawings proliferate with this method.
LITTER ON THE FLOOR:
| S | A | T | O | R | | Sow |
| A | R | E | P | O | and reap |
| T | E | N | E | T | hold to |
| O | P | E | R | A | the work |
| R | O | T | A | S | of the cycle |
To know all things Past and Future in general.
| M | I | L | O | N | | a night's lodging or rest |
| I | R | A | G | O | to alarm, terrify tremble |
| L | A | M | A | L | "to God" a name of Solomon |
| O | G | A | R | I | to cry, chatter |
| N | O | L | I | M | the soiled ones |
In a place of rest, tremble before the God of Solomon and strangely utter
concerning mortal things.
To know things past regarding Enemies.
| K | O | S | E | M | |  | | oracle, divination |
| O | B | O | D | E |  | servants |
| S | O | F | O | S |  | to be fulfilled |
| E | D | O | B | O |  | pine away; prayer |
| M | E | S | O | K |  | pining; oppression |
Take an oracle about servants who were sent away; about the purpose of
death bringing prayers that make the miserable more miserable.
or
Discover one who serves harm and thievery; weaken away concealment.
To cause any spirit to appear, and take ... the form of a Bird.
|  |  |  | | | | The adversary |
|  | |  | | of man |
| | | | | becomes pleasant |
| | | | | in a garment |
| | | | | extended. |
Diary of the square: While finishing this, a call from M-A. She was sitting
at a resort, by a pool. A sudden gust of wind and the large umbrella
sheltering a table by her chair was caught up. She rose from her seat and
took a couple of steps. The aluminum shaft of the umbrella struck down into
the chair she had just vacated, piercing the back at the level her heart would
have been, had she not left the spot.
To be beloved by a Woman:
The beloved shines forth her living breath as the burning scent of cinnamon
bark. She is shy and white as the moon. Behold the tree of striving
penetrate the whiteness deeply. Sing out in strength at fulfillment.
From 
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
.
New Square: To send away afflictions that come from pets.
Live each day in the Sun. Join in kinship with the Sea. Abandon sadness
and noise --- speak the sign. A blooming shoot, divine adornment. A mist
conceals the sickness. Shout joyfully, in the World delight at plenty. Bring
this sign to the noise amid sounds of beauty. All kinds of falsehood flee the
friend. A gift deals with smell by the sign of the Most High.
|  | |  |  | | | The Mother |
| |  | | | names the |
| | | | | trembling bound |
| | | | | of the night's |
| | | | | increase. |
To Discover any Magic, To be done on red satin with green grid, letters in black; attached in yellow.
A SCRAP OF MEDITATION WEDGED UNDER THE SEAT:
7/22/71 e.v.
Upon the plane a thousand teachers. Each is true. Each says all the
others lie. Each teaches a tale of unraveled thread. Each speaks of warp and
woof. Each casts a net to catch souls. Each tells truth with lies.
Find a faith. Stand firm in it. Be baptized with water and with fire.
Affirm the opposite of the faith. Then you shall baptized with piety and
apostasy.
Seek ever the opposite in every thought. Only through negation may truth
flow. Set two legs upon the ground. Raise two arms to heaven. Thus you
burrow and fly.
A child sits in the temple. Learned men ask patronizing questions.
How old are you?
How young are you?
Who is your father?
My child.
Who are you?
Who am I not?
Whence did you come?
Where I am going.
What do you know of the Law?
Only what I Will to Know.
The doctors of the place are confused. They cry aloud: "Who has taught
such devilish lies to a child? Who has schooled such insolence?"
The child, thinking the questioning still proceeding, points to an empty
room behind a veil and says: "He taught me!"
Since the shedding of blood in the sanctuary is forbidden, the elders
tell the child that he is holy and that he should depart. This seems the only
course.
The child walks out of the temple and journeys back to his village. His
home is poor. He enters an empty room after lifting a bit of cloth which
serves as a door.
The priests of the temple go on worshiping outside their Holy of Hollies.
The Child dwells in His.
Previous Abramelin Ramble
Primary Sources
Crowley's Publishing Plans:
Here is a letter from Aleister Crowley to Karl Germer, reflecting his last phase of publishing in vita with the production of the Book of Thoth and plans for what would become Magick Without Tears. Many names go by in the process, often of O.T.O. members connected to Agape Lodge:
| | The Bell Inn,
Aston Clinton, Bucks.
November 29th, 1944
|
Dear Karl,
I have your letters of October 22nd, October 31st and November 7th. I am
glad to hear that you are on something new and I hope that this time it will
turn up trumps. I have told Miss Taylor what you say about your address.
I will look at Mrs Lowthorpt's figure, and when this letter comes back from
being typed may be able to make a few comments. I note what you say about
McMurtry.
I am asking the binder to send you invoices for the copies that he is
sending out to you. In the meanwhile the quarto bound cost 17/6d. per copy,
and the half-bound, 27/6d. I have already written you about the blocks, but
you could perfectly well get out an edition without them --- in fact you had
much better do so if your are hoping to sell the book at any reasonable sort
of price. Roughly speaking, the cost of a set of blocks for one card is from
£10 to £15.
I am very glad that you are having copies made of "Liber Aleph". I
certainly hope you can get it printed, and I am sure that I can trust you to
see that the style is as good as that of the Tarot. It was my intention to
have one chapter on one page. I also regard it as number One of what I may
call classic publications, although the book I am now working on, "Aleister
Explains Everything" is likely to come first, because that can be got out in a
large edition cheaply, and I think will do a great deal to sell the other
books.
I am not sure whether I sent a copy to Frederick. I certainly did to Jack
and Georgia. I did not send one to Jane's sister. I thought she was dead.
I feel that I am treating you very badly, but you must realise that I am
working in the most impossible conditions. I can only afford one day a week
for dictation. My secretary comes out here and takes back the shorthand,
sends me the typescript for revision and signature. She has filed everything
very neatly and nicely, but as you know from experience it is from my point of
view almost like throwing them into the ashcan. I tremble when I think of
trying to find everything. Nor can I grasp any business matters at all with
my mind. I do my best to answer your letters, but I never feel sure that I
have done so satisfactorily. The result is that you ask me to do some
perfectly simple thing which any idiot could do in five minutes, and it is
completely beyond my understanding, far more-so beyond my ability to execute.
Things will never go right until I have a full-time secretary who will have
all the business details in her head, and that means doubling the monthly
transfer at the least.
I am sending you six prospectuses. But you must send by return of post 60
cents in payment for them. This is to keep on the right side of the 'paper
control' people, who have been making trouble for me. They have no standing
in the matter because the Equinox Vol. 3, no.5, of which "The Book of Thoth"
is a part, is a periodical and not subject to their jurisdiction.
Wonders will never cease about that material. I went to a local woman in
Aston Clinton, and she made me perfectly good shirts. I suspect that the
London man was simply making an excuse for not doing the work. You have no
idea how strangely people act these days.
What you say about Jack appears very complicated. I had an extremely nice
letter from him, and then I had a letter from Helen to say that Smith had
started his retirement on satisfactory lines, but of course for all I know
this may be a pack of lies. Honestly, I don't know where I am.
You suddenly shoot off from the question of Jack to your health. Of course
what you say is very obscure to me. I can only hope that everything will go
well.
I have not a Book 4 Part II. I managed to borrow a copy for a month about
three weeks ago, but have to return it. I have a copy of Part I. If this is
any good to you I will send it along.
I am very glad to hear that Sascha is better, and that her proposed visit
to California will be an outstanding success.
It would be perfectly senseless for me to go back to London. I am thinking
of winter quarters somewhere on the borders of Kent and Sussex, but the devil
you know is better than the devil you don't know, and there are so many
advantages in remaining here that I shall take quite a lot of shifting.
Georgia's letter is very interesting, but I must say that I don't get very
much out of it. All this business about auras gets on my nerves. I don't
know what she means by this taint which she mentions in her penultimate
paragraph.
I am probably rather peevish this afternoon. I appreciate Georgia
immensely in every way, and realise how wonderful her support has been; but I
do not want to know about various misadventures and calamities unless there is
something I can do about them. I don't know why she has to write a letter
like that.
Now for yours of October 31st. I don't remember receiving any letter from
Jack to you. He cabled me 80 dollars about the same time as your 300 dollar
transfer. This has put me all right with the binders. I have not had
anything else from Jack since the contribution in the early summer when the
Tarot was in question. I think that he owes me a letter; but I don't like to
swear to that till I am almost sure. I certainly think that he ought to
contribute much more largely than he does. Your original idea of a quarter of
a century ago that we should never do any good until we had a proper
headquarters and a proper staff, is still the right idea. I don't think that
you should spend large sums of money on getting out reprints while this
business of headquarters awaits attention, and also these books which exist
only in manuscript, and some of which are in duplicate. I am living in a state of constant terror lest some more of my most important work should be
destroyed without remedy.
You returned in this last letter to the question of Jack, in alternate
paragraphs. It is very confusing --- still more so since every paragraph seems
to contradict the one which has gone before! I rather doubt Frederick's
judgement.1 If I remember correctly in my last letter to Jack I was able to
congratulate him on a very fine piece of poetry, and certainly his last letter
appeared to show the right spirit. But as you imply there may be some kind of
plot with Smith in the foreground. The idea is2 so senseless that I can
hardly imagine any human being holding out. But you know people are like
that.
I will send a Tarot to Lt. Crombie through Georgia.
Max's letter to you: there may be a spare copy of the Equinox of the Gods
in storage. Until there is a proper headquarters it is no use trying to look
for one.
Yours of November 7th. Thanks for the Artemis Iota. My mind is now at
ease on that subject. The whole of your letter confuses me terrible. I think
perhaps that you are yourself confused. Success is your proof does not seem
to me to have anything to do with love.
Of course I understand very well, from the first minute that I met you,
your difficulties in this outlook of yours. I have written again and again
about it, and I don't know that I can add anything useful. Your real trouble
it seems to me is that you take everything so seriously, that you feel
compelled to analyse in season and out of season, when there is no real
occasion.
I am very glad to hear that there are hopes of a good transfer in December.
If I decide to shift over, it is going to cost a lot.
You must apologise to Handel about the book. I sent that copy because I
had not one of the other kind available. You can have no conception how
muddled it has been. At the present moment I am having to find out from the
binder how many copies have been bound, how many need binding and so on, and
as to the numbering that has got all mixed up. The difficulty has been mostly
that of transporting the books from London here and so on. You have got your
twenty copies on the way. I cannot understand your figures at all. The
actual cost of producing a copy was approximately £5, but that is allowing
nothing whatever for overhead, stationery, typing, journeys and heaven knows
what else, occasional secretarial assistance. I say nothing of the author,
but the idea that Jack appears to have that 80 dollars should secure him ten
copies is contemptible. Two copies are much more like the value. I think you
must have misunderstood his cable. It is really too ridiculous.
I will try and get you a copy of the printer's account, but it is mixed up
with the costs of other books, and honestly I don't know where I am about it.
You might be able to make something.
I shall now retire from the unequal contest. It is really no good turning
me upside down over all these business calculations. It simply spoils my
temper.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours with great love, but not feeling well; digestion all wrong these
last 3 days
Aleister
P.S. I am sending you a set of six of the Letters of which there are now
about 70, chosen at random so as to give you a sort of idea of the scope of
the book. It is a little difficult to arrange, about the order in which they
should appear, and at the moment I think the best way out of it is to classify
them under various headings such as The Universe, Man, the Order, Yoga,
Ethics. You might be able to get a contract with an occult periodical to
issue them serially. Such people as I have honoured with the privilege of
reading them are all very enthusiastic. I find that they want copies for themselves, and every one is agreed that for the first time I have been able
to put things in such a way as can be understood by the ordinary intelligent
person. For this and other reasons I think that you ought to be able to make
a good thing out of it commercially. If you want a complete set of Letters it
means that I shall have to have the whole series retyped. I want to impress
upon you that people are pestering me from every quarter to supply them with
various stuff published or unpublished. This means that I have to send my
copies out to a firm to be typed, and this comes out rather expensive. For
instance, Jean Phillips appears to be in close touch with Orson Welles and is
anxious to interest him in my work. I am therefore sending here various
things which might take his fancy. (You realise of course that his
acceptation of one story of mine would make us for good and all). It has
occurred to me that "The Three Wishes" would suit O.W. very well, not having
any spare copies I had to have it retyped, 60 pages cost with two carbons,
£3.13.9d. Now I have got to get Liber Aleph recopied and also the secret
Documents of the 7th-9th Degress.3 A.C.
P.S. Long letter just in from Jack. Will write again on Sunday when I have
had time to read and consider it. A.C. |
Notes (from the margins of this copy):
1. Note in Margin by A.C.: It sounds hysterical to me.
2. A.C. in the margin: Can`t remember what I wrote. Sec. ... here. This
sounds wrong.
3. A.C. note below: and "Across the Gulf".
Previous Primary Sources Next Primary Sources
From the Outbasket
Last month's look at Crowley's usage of "Lucifer", "Satan" and "Christ" occasioned a question. Loran asked about A.C.'s references to Francois Rabelais (c. 1494 e.v. to 1553 e.v.). It's widely known that Rabelais said "Do what thou wilt", used Thelema and employed an Abbey of Thelema in his
Gargantua and Pantagruel four centuries before Liber AL. The old Hell Fire Clubs continued that tradition through variation into the late 18th century. For some, this becomes a question of Crowley faking it. For others, it is more a matter of observing a gradual development of Thelema through the half millennium preceding the Aeon of Horus. In any event, Crowley was equipped to "hear" the word when Aiwass communicated. The following examination of usage from 20+ megs of Crowley's opus details "Rabelais" and Rabelaisian".
from Not the Life of Sir Roger Bloxham:
"This Book be your Romaunt, the pillow of your slumbers, the candle of your
vigils; and you shall salute me Guardian of the Graal, because I stood with
Shakespeare and Aristophanes and Apuleius and Cervantes and Rabelais and
Balzac and Sir Richard Burton who liked life whole and wholesome, hardy to the
four winds, not mewling, puking, piffling, twaddling, bellelettrizing,
Dameauxcameliarizing, Murgerizing, Lukizing, Omarizing, Wertherizing,
Littlenellizing, sentimentalizing, squalling, squawking, weeping, deploring,
and all the other participles in the language and outside it that may be
quintessentialized as finding favour with the burgess."
"Well, Louis says, that we cannot help thinking a little of Laurence Sterne
and Rabelais; to which I answer ``Would Got 'twere so!"
Old Comment to Liber AL I,39: "The word of the Law is 
:
"Compare Rabelais. Also it may be translated, 'Let Will and Action be in
harmony.'"
from Works of Aleister Crowley, Vol. II:
"Brutal truth-telling humour, at times perhaps too Rabelaisian; lyrics,
some of enchanting beauty, others painfully imitative; sonnets of exceedingly
unequal power, a perfectly heartless introduction (some fools would call it
pathetic), ..."
"Till now --- as I write the sun bursts forth suddenly from a cloud, as if
heralding the literary somersault of the twentieth century --- we have been
content to accept Shakespeare as orthodox, with common sense; moral to a
fault, with certain Rabelaisian leanings: a healthy tone (we say) pervades his
work."
from Confessions:
"I found myself engaged in all sorts of schoolboy escapades where hard
knocks and Rabelaisian practical jokes gave birth to huge and hearty
laughter."
"It is really strange how polite propriety is always stumbling into
Rabelaisian jests."
"Rabelais: the final secret is in the bottle inscribed TRINC."
In Liber XV, the Gnostic Mass, Rabelais is a saint.
from Crowley's translation of The Key of the Mysteries by Eliphas Levi:
"The France of the Crusades, the France of the Troubadours, the France of
songs, the France of Rabelais and of Voltaire, the France of Bossuet and of
Pascal, it is she who is the synthesis of all peoples: it is she who
consecrates the alliance of reason and of faith, of revolution and of power,
of the most tender belief and of the proudest human dignity."
"The Bibliophile Jacob suggests that Verville stole his Moyen de Parvenir
from a lost book of Rabelais. Verville was a Canon of St. Gatien, Tours, and
is associated with Tours and Touraine." --- A Crowley footnote.
"Balzac's Contes Drolatiques were deemed to have been more inspired by
Verville than by Rabelais." --- Crowley footnote.
from a review by Crowley in Equinox Vol I, No 6:
| "...Hence a tedious novel, |
| dull novel, | | unconvincing novel, |
| stupid novel, | futile novel, |
| pseudo-occult novel, | banal novel, |
| pot-boiling novel, | senseless novel, |
| tired novel, | ground-out novel, |
| pointless novel, | unreal novel, |
| fatuous novel, | sorry novel, |
| etc., etc., etc. |
The above method of filling space I took from Rabelais. Mr Hichens' method
is just as obvious. PANURGE."
from "The Bismarck of Battersea" in Equinox, I-7:
"More lucid and a thousand times more entertaining than Bunyan, deeper than
Berkeley, as full of ecstasy of laughter as Rabelais, and of mystic ecstasy as
Malory, a book of the Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz with
Voltaire."
from Gospel according to St. Bernard Shaw:
"Hence Protestantism is due to the accident that the translation called the
Authorized Version was done by scholars of that period of the marvellous
flowering of English which not only gave us Marlowe and Shakespeare and
Malory, but such masters of translation as North for Plutarch, Florio for
Montaigne, Urquhart and Motteux for Rabelais, and a dozen more."
from the bibliography in the center of Magick in Theory and Practice:
"The Works of Francois Rabelais. Invaluable for Wisdom."
from Magick Without Tears:
"...(Liber LXVI, Liber CCCLXX, Liber DCCCXXXI, Liber CLXXV, Liber CLVI and
others, also in The Equinox are official publications of the A A) There are
also various classics of the subject, helpful to assimilate the romantic and
enthusiastic atmosphere proper to the practice of the Art; one may instance
Catullus, Juvenal, (especially the "Sixth Satire"), Martial, Petronius
Arbiter, Apuleius, Boccaccio, Masucci, Francois Rabelais, de Balzac ("Contes
Drolatiques"), de Sade (Justine, Juliette, et al...."
"For --- see Liber Aleph, after Rabelais --- the Word of the Last Oracle is
TRINC."
"You did expect at least something of the atmosphere of the Arabian Nights;
if not so high, of Apuleius and Petronius Arbiter; of Rabelais, Meinhold, de
la Motte Fouque; and the Morte d'Arthur in later times, of Balzac, Dumas,
Lytton, Huysmans, Mabel Collins and Arthur Machen."
finally, from a footnote to The Scented Garden of Abdullah the Satirist of Shiraz aka Bagh-i-Muattar:
"This is the Rabelasian jest --- the story of Hans Carvels ring --- in Eastern dress."
I echo the sentiment, and trust that our readers' Solstice has been a merry one!
-- TSG (Bill Heidrick)
Previous Outbasket Next Outbasket
Events Calendar for January 1995 e.v.
| 1/1/95 | | Gnostic Mass 7:30PM Horus Temple | | Thelema Ldg. |
| 1/8/95 | Gnostic Mass 7:30PM Horus Temple | Thelema Ldg. |
| 1/9/95 | Thelema Lodge Meeting 8:00PM
(& Lodge History night) | Thelema Ldg. |
| 1/11/95 | Sirius Oasis meeting in Berkeley 8PM | Sirius Oasis |
| 1/12/95 | Thelema Lodge Library night 8PM
(call to attend) | Thelema Ldg. |
| 1/15/95 | Gnostic Mass 7:30PM Horus Temple | Thelema Ldg. |
| 1/16/95 | Section 2 reading group, 8PM at OZ
MacDonald's Lilith w/Caitlin | Thelema Ldg. |
| 1/18/95 | Magick in Theory and Practice class
with Bill in San Anselmo 7:30PM | Thelema Ldg. |
| 1/19/95 | Butterfly Net Computer Group 8:00PM | Thelema Ldg. |
| 1/22/95 | Gnostic Mass 7:30PM Horus Temple | Thelema Ldg. |
| 1/23/95 | Thelema Lodge Library night 8PM
(call to attend) | Thelema Ldg. |
| 1/25/95 | Liber XV Study Group w. Bp. T
Dionysys 8:00PM | Thelema Ldg. |
| 1/27/95 | Astrology of Aquarius with Grace
7-9PM, Berkeley. Call to attend. | Thelema Ldg. |
| 1/28/95 | 777 Poetry Society 7:30PM w.Fr.P.I. | Thelema Ldg. |
| 1/29/95 | Gnostic Mass 7:30PM Horus Temple | Thelema Ldg. |
The viewpoints and opinions expressed herein are the responsibility of the
contributing authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of OTO or its
officers.
Note to update: the addresses and phone numbers in these issues of the Thelema Lodge Calendars are obsolete since the closing of the Lodge. They are here for historic purposes only and should not be visited or called.
Thelema Lodge
Ordo Templi Orientis
P.O. Box 2303
Berkeley, CA 94702 USA
Phone: (510) 652-3171 (for events info and contact to Lodge)
Production and Circulation:
OTO-TLC
P.O.Box 430
Fairfax, CA 94978 USA
Internet: heidrick@well.com (Submissions and circulation only)
