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Thelema Lodge
Ordo Templi Orientis
P.O.Box 2303
Berkeley, CA 94702 USA
October 1999 e.v. at Thelema Lodge
Announcements from
Lodge Members and Officers
I have often been struck by the many similarities between Hinduism and
Thelema. In particular the verse, "Remember all ye that existence is pure joy;
that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is
that which remains." seems highly illustrative. In fact this verse may be
among the highest expressions of Hindu doctrine in the Book, occasioning such
a reaction of Buddhistic horror in Crowley that immediately Aiwass proclaims,
"O prophet! thou hast ill will to learn this writing. I see thee hate the hand
& the pen; but I am stronger." We Hindus have a concept called Sat-chit-
ananda, often translated into English as Being-Consciousness-Bliss. The first
clause of this verse is a statement of the Sat-chit-ananda formula, but with a
subtle variation introduced. "Remember all ye" is consciousness, "that
existence is" clearly represents being, and "pure joy" has got to be bliss!
Thus it reads Consciousness-Being-Bliss instead of the traditional rendering.
Now the supposition that existence proceeds consciousness seems quite obvious,
but nonetheless Husserl's phenomenology indicates that consciousness is the
only fact of which consciousness can be absolutely certain, so perhaps the
Thelemic version is in fact more accurate in its description of experience, if
not reality. I think that the remaining clauses of the verse in question are
also strong statements of the Hindu, as opposed to Buddhist, formulation of Truth. Whereas the Buddhists see sorrow and impermanence as the inevitable
concomitants of existence we Hindus focus on "that which remains" which is
called by many names, especially Parabrahman (Supreme Reality) or Paramatman
(Supreme Self), the nature of which is described by Sat-chit-ananda.
There are other, much more general, parallels between Advaita Vedanta
Hinduism and Thelema. One of the greatest of 20th century spiritual teachers,
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, had a triform description of reality which
dovetails nicely with Crowley's description in his Book of the Law. Bhagavan
spoke of three things which were actually just one thing seen in three
different ways, that is, God, the Self, and Guru. God is the Supreme Being
whose body is contiguous with the universe, none other, I would maintain, than
Nuit. The Self is consciousness, the awareness of existence, the perceiver of
perception, in other words, Hadit. And then who else can the Guru be but the
Hierophant, "Hoor in his secret name and splendour", "the Hawk-headed mystical
Lord"?
Finally, I can also mention here the very core teaching of the Navnath
Sampradaya. A key phrase used repeatedly by our immortal Guru, Nisargadatta
Maharaj, is usually translated into English as "the dimensionless point of I
AM-ness". I would say that this is almost certainly the same thing as what
Crowley called Hadit, thus allowing all of Navnath Sampradaya's spiritual
teaching to be summarized in just these two words which I therefore commend to
your readers, "be Hadit".
On October 27th the "Thelema and ... " series will conclude with an
examination of the relationships between Taoism and Thelema, which you are
most enthusiastically invited to attend. After all, the N.O.X. which can't be
spoken is no N.O.X. at all!
ERRATA - Last month's paraphrased comments on Buddhism elicited these
corrections and clarifications from our Tibetan Buddhist informant:
1. The term sunyata is generally spelled "shunyata" these days, since the
aspirated "H" is sounded.
2. "The Thought of Enlightenment", bodhichitta, is up there with
bodhisattva and shunyata as a central Mahayana concept, so it should be
mentioned as well. Generating compassion for all sentient beings (Relative
bodhichitta) who are apparent but non-existent (Ultimate bodhichitta).
Regardless, even from ultimate view, the bodhisattva cannot help but shine
with compassion (or wisdom energy) even without believing in the solidity of a
receiver of that compassion (or in a sender, for that matter). The Hinayana
practitioner, while professing compassion for all sentient beings, labors only
for personal enlightenment, not for all sentient beings' enlightenment, nor
would there be a return from Nirvana as a bodhisattva. In Mahayana and
Vajrayana, Bodhichitta, "enlightenment thought" or "awakened heart", is
generated before each practice and then, at the end of practice, all positive
energy is dedicated to the liberation of all sentient beings. This is seen as
the way to establish a foundation for one's own enlightenment, a foundation of
merit and wisdom that grows like interest in the bank.
3. The Tibetan equivalent for the Sanskrit "vajra" - dorje - literally
means "lord stone" - i.e. Diamond or Adamantine - the idea of the stone that
cuts but can't be cut. I'm only guessing - but it's possible that the original
ritual implement, the vajra or scepter, was a stylized thunderbolt; perhaps
this was the origin of Thunderbolt Doctrine name.
4. It's important to distinguish between the Thelemic pan-religious (no pun
intended) interpretation of Tantra and what the Tantric Buddhist would say. In
spite of Anagarika Govinda's bizarre choice to paste Arthur Avalon's chart
from The Serpent Power into The Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism, I have seen
some similarities between the Tantric Hindu and Buddhist views on this matter,
but hardly a direct correlation. It is possible that, with advanced training,
I will see more exact similarities, but as it stands, there doesn't seem to be
an aim of directly awakening "the Kundalini serpent" or even necessarily a belief thereof. I have never seen seven chakras, or the inner channels mapped
in the caduceus pattern. As I said before, there are similarities, but most
interestingly, these can vary from practice to practice in the Tantric
Buddhist system - with changes in color, number of chakras, and even
placement. The difference may be in the Tantric Buddhist emphasis on clarity
rather than ecstasy. So the approach would be different. Also, I think the
Buddhist might regard the Hindu system as somewhat mechanistic, i.e. fixating
on these inner diagrams as a goal rather than a byproduct. Only an opinion,
subject to change.
5. Though the Tibetan form of Vajrayana Buddhism does make use of
invocations of various spiritual entities and other shamanic magical rites,
and performs initiations into the Tantric mysteries, I don't perform
initiations, only meditation instruction. No empowerments. Also I would like
to put quotes around the word "entities", to avoid solidification in view. Do
they really exist? Chagdud Tulku told my brother: "Yes and no."
6. When you wrote "If these underlying principles are adhered to then
Buddhists could even bring the Thelemic pantheon into their own practice,
perhaps identified with traditional Buddhist figures (Nuit as Avalokiteshvara,
Hadit as Manjushri, and RHK as Vajrabhairava springs to mind)." I was reminded
of a very interesting story from a friend who asked Trungpa Rinpoche about
continuing his own Thelemic practice. Trungpa's advice, I am told, was not to
mix them. My interpretation of this: honor the system you're working in, don't
tinker. This is true even with the Tibetan Buddhist lineages. One is not
encouraged to mix and match. 777 aside, I don't think it's necessary to find
correlations between Buddhist and Thelemic deities. The Tantric Buddhist would
advise the Thelemite to practice with Relative and Ultimate bodhichitta,
compassion and emptiness. Then Nuit, Jesus or whoever could be a manifestation
of wisdom mind.
7. This ordinary solid world is regarded as "our" creation, but not the
spiritual revelations themselves (in which there is no place for "our"). True,
they are not communications from a god outside of oneself, but from the
visionary manifestation of primordial wisdom inseparable from oneself.
8. Actually, in direct contradiction to your statement, any authenticated
terma would be considered the direct transmission of the founder of Tibetan
Buddhism, Padmasambhava, and would be the equivalent of a Class A document in
Thelema. There are also Pure Vision texts, which have visionary origins from
Vajradhara etc., that would not be called "terma" only because that term is
very specific. Still, these would be seen as Class A. I really know only how
the Nyingma school regards "terma" and "pure vision" texts. The Gelugpa
(followers of the Dalai Lama) might not accept these definitions.
A, and
several years ago our group enjoyed an especially stimulating discussion of
this work. Now we return for a look at some of Stoker's lesser known
writings. A prolific author who published eleven novels and dozens of
stories, as well as several volumes of theatrical memoirs and a good deal of
dramatic criticism, Stoker (1848-1912) spent ten years as a civil servant in
Dublin before becoming personal secretary to one of his age's most celebrated
stage actors, Sir Henry Irving, in 1878. He had earlier published a few
stories and novellas in various magazines, and in the early 1890s his first
three novels of Irish village life appeared, of which The Snake's Pass (1890)
is the best known. His early work had included some traditional ghost stories
and tales of horror for the Christmas annuals with which Victorian publishers
flooded the winter-time fiction market, but nothing in this mode shows much
preparation for Dracula, the fantastic masterpiece for which he became famous. This work, which has never been out of print in the twentieth century, created
one of the great mythological figures of our culture, and exhibits a
strikingly effective narrative technique in its epistolary form, which Stoker
adapted from the earlier novels of Wilkie Collins.
This book is true up to the grade of Adeptus Exemptus.
| -- V.V.V.V.V. 8 = 3 |
After having worked with this book for a few years, I've come to the
conclusion that this statement not only places limits on how far the material
can be relied upon, but also provides an important clue as to exactly what it
means. Adeptus Exemptus is the A A grade corresponding to the sphere of
Chesed. It is the attainment of absolute self-reliance, during which the
Adept prepares and publishes a thesis setting forth a systematic understanding
of the universe. It is the highest grade before facing the crisis of the
Crossing of the Abyss and the attainment of the grade of Magister Templi.
Since the crossing of that Abyss involves the total annihilation of self, the
Adeptus Exemptus can be thought of as the highest attainment possible for an
individual as such.
V.V.V.V.V. is the motto Aleister Crowley accepted upon his attainment of
the Magister Templi grade in 1910, in full: "Vi Veri Vniversum Vivus Vici," or
"In my lifetime I have conquered the Universe by the force of Truth." So from
the transpersonal perspective of the Magister Templi grade, he endorses the
truth of Liber 231 up to the personal perspective of Adeptus Exemptus.
How I find this works out in practice is that Liber 231 is a perfect
"photograph" of how the 22 paths of the Tree of Life were embodied within the
mind of Aleister Crowley, the Adept. Because of this, they are in a sense
only interpretations of the paths, but because these interpretations are
rendered with such clarity, they qualify as Class A, not to be changed by so
much as the style of a letter. The way I experience this is that by working
in a magical setting with the sight of the Arcanorum sigils and the sound of
the Arcanorum names, I am able to experience a vivid recreation of what the
paths meant to the author. From there, it is only a short jump to finding
those corresponding places in my own mind. In this way, they form a condensed
initiation into the mysteries of the paths. This month, we'll be working with the paths of Beth, the Magician,
celebrating intelligence and cunning, on October 7th; Gimel, the High
Priestess, who is purity and flux, on October 14th; Daleth, the Empress,
embodying love and pleasure, on October 21st; and He, the Emperor, symbolizing
conquest and energy, on October 28th. Held every Thursday night at 7:30, the
Scales of the Serpent combine elements of Thelemic qabalah, Tibetan deity
yoga, and the Sepher Yetzirah into an exploration of the Tarot trumps and
their corresponding paths. Bring a small cushion, and offerings to the path
of the evening. Call (510) 525-0666 for directions.
| -- Michael Sanborn |
| -- Liesl Reese |
translated by Aleister Crowley Which is the True One?
One must always be drunk.
Everything lies in that; it is the only question worth considering. In
order not to feel the horrible burden of time which breaks your shoulders and
bows you down to earth, you must intoxicate yourself without truce - but with
what?
With wine, poetry, art? As you will; but intoxicate yourself.
And if sometimes upon the steps of a palace, or upon the green grass of a
moat, or in the sad solitude of your own room, you awake - intoxication
already diminished or disappeared - ask of the wind, of the wave, of the star,
of the bird, of the clock, of all that flies, of all that groans, of all that
rolls, of all that sings, of all that speaks - ask, what time is it? And the
wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, will answer you, "It is time to
intoxicate yourself." In order to escape from the slavish martyrdom of time,
intoxicate yourself; unceasingly intoxicate yourself; with wine, or poetry, or
art - as you will.
The moon, who is caprice itself, looked in at the window while thou didst
sleep in thy cradle, and said to herself, "This child pleases me."
Softly she descended her ladder of clouds and passed noiselessly through
the window-panes. Then she stretched herself upon thee with the supple
tenderness of a mother, and laid her colors on thy face. From that thine eyes
are turned green, and thy cheeks are marvelous pale. It is through looking at
this celestial visitant that thine eyes are grown so strangely large. She has
so tenderly fastened on thy throat that thou hast therefore kept forever the
desire to weep.
And yet in the overflowing of her joy the moon filled all the room with a
phosphorescent light, like a luminous poison, and all this living light was
thinking and saying: "Thou shalt know eternally the influence of my kiss; thou
shalt be beautiful in my fashion. Thou shalt love me - the Water, the Clouds,
Silence, Night; the vast green Sea, the shapeless water that hath many shapes;
the place where thou art not, the lover that thou knowest not, monstrous
flowers, and delirious perfumes, [cats that swoon at music and groan as women
do with harsh, soft voice.]
"And thou shalt be loved of my lovers, courted by my courtiers. Thou shalt
be the queen of those men whose eyes are green and whose throats I have
clutched in my nocturnal caresses: of those who love the sea, the vast,
tumultuous green sea, the shapeless water that hath many shapes, the place
where they are not, the woman whom they know not; the sinister flowers that
resemble the thuribles of an unknown religion; the perfumes that trouble the
will, and the savage and voluptuous beasts that are the symbols of their
madness."
And it became of all that, spoilt child, accursèd and belovèd, that I am
crouched this moment at thy feet, seeking, in all thy being, the reflection of
that fearful Divinity, that god-mother prophetic, that poisonous nurse of all
the madmen-of-the-moon.
Whoso looks from without into an open window never sees so much as he who
looks at a closed window. There is nothing more profound, more mysterious,
more fertile, more darksome, more dazzling, than a window lighted by a candle.
[What one may see in sunlight is always less interesting than what passes
behind the glass. In this black or shining cavity life lives, life dreams,
life suffers.]
Beyond the waves of roof I see a woman, middle-aged, already wrinkled,
poor, always bending. She never goes out. With her face, her clothing, her gesture - almost nothing - I have reconstructed the story of this woman - or
rather, her legend, and sometimes I tell it to myself, and weep.
If it had been a poor old man, I could have reconstructed his history just
as easily.
And I lie down to sleep, proud of having lived and suffered in others.
Perhaps you will say to me, "Are you sure that your fairy tale is true?"
What does outside reality matter to me, if my imagination has helped me to
live, to feel what I am?
A hundred times already the sun had sprung radiant or saddened from that
vast basin of the sea whose shores scarce let themselves be seen; a hundred
times already it had plunged again, sparkling or morose, into its immense
evening bath. For many days we were able to contemplate the other side of the
firmament and decipher the celestial Alphabet of the Antipodes, and each of
the passengers grumbled and scolded.
One would have said that getting near to land increased their suffering.
"When then," they cried, "shall we cease to sleep a sleep that is shaken by
the wave, disturbed by a wind that snores louder than we? When shall we be
able to digest our dinners in motionless chairs?"
Some of them thought of their fireside, regretted their faithless and
sullen wives, their squalling offspring. They were all [so] obsessed by the
image of the absent land [that I think they would have eaten grass more
enthusiastically than do cattle]. At last we sighted the shore, and as we
approached, behold, it was a land magnificent and dazzling; it seemed that all
the harmonious sounds of life came from it in a vague murmur, and that from
this coast, rich in every sort of greenery, there exhaled to a distance of
many leagues a delicious odor of fruits and flowers.
Immediately everyone was joyful, and illhumor departed; all quarrels were
forgotten, all wrongs pardoned. [The duels which had been arranged were
erased from memory, and ill-will fled away like clouds of smoke.]
I alone was sad, inconceivably sad.
[Like a priest from whom one should ravish his Divinity,] I could not
without heart-breaking bitterness tear myself from this sea so monstrously
seductive, from this sea so infinitely varied in its terrifying simplicity;
this sea which seems to contain in itself and to represent by its play, its
enticements, its rages and its smiles, the dispositions, the agonies and the
ecstasies of every soul that hath ever lived, that now lives, that ever shall
live.
As I bade farewell to its incomparable beauty I felt myself smitten down,
even to death, and [therefore] whenever one of my companions cried "At last!"
I was only able to cry "Already!"
And yet it was land; land with its noises, its passions, its conveniences,
its festivals; a rich and magnificent country full of fair promise, which sent
to us a mysterious perfume of rose and musk, and whence, in an amorous murmur,
came to us all the music of life.
. . . . . One morning I got up in a bad temper, sad, tired of idleness, and
impelled, it seemed to me, to do something big, a brilliant action; and I
opened the window. Alas!
The first person that I saw in the street was a glazier whose piercing and
discordant cry came up to me through the heavy and contaminated atmosphere of
Paris. It would be utterly impossible for me ever to tell you why I was
suddenly seized with a hatred, as sudden as it was despotic, against the poor
man.
"Hullo, hullo," I cried to him to come up. At the same time I reflected,
not without some amusement, that my room being on the sixth story, and the staircase extremely narrow, that the man was bound to find it rather difficult
to make the ascent, and to catch in many a place the corners of his
merchandise.
At last he appeared. Having examined all his glasses with curiosity, I
said to him: "What, you have no colored glasses? - Rose glasses, red glasses,
blue glasses, magic glasses, glasses of Paradise! You impudent fellow; you
dare to walk about in the poor quarters of the town, and you have not even
glasses which make life look beautiful!" And I pushed him vigorously towards
the staircase, where he stumbled and swore.
I went to the balcony and seized a little flower-pot; and when the man
reappeared in the doorway I let fall my engine of war on the back edge of his
shoulder straps, and the shock overthrowing him, he broke beneath his back all
his poor walking stock in trade, which uttered the crashing cry of a glass
palace split by lightning.
And, drunk with my madness I cried to him furiously: "Let life look
beautiful, let life look beautiful!"
That the rational may exist within the irrational and that the irrational
may be generated by the rational may seem strange to those who have been
excessively impressed by the ease with which the methodology of symbol
structure has clarified the routines of the physical universe. That this is
really not so strange, however, should become apparent when we remember that
China had a long tradition of bureaucracy and rationalism, yet its highest administrators were "magically endowed." Nazi Germany was a bureaucratic state and rationally routinized to a high degree, yet it had a charismatic leadership.2 In the same way the Marxist ethic, when applied to a practical political situation, results in a monolithic bureaucracy ruled by a vocational elite whose claims of exclusive knowledge as to the working of the historical dialectic is to be understood only within the irrational world of the magic universe of discourse.3
Nothing is more removed from actual events than the closed rational system.
Under certain circumstances, nothing contains more irrational drive than a fully
self-contained, intellectualistic world-view.1
Notes:
1. Karl Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia, p. 197.
2. Franz Neumann, Behemoth (New York: Oxford, 1942), p. 81.
3. Mannheim, op. cit., p. 118.
by Nathan W. Bjorge
part three:
The Categories of Initiation
In the next set of installments in this series I will attempt to describe
the various elements of Ebony's magical system, as I currently understand
them. My discussion will, to the best of my ability, try to accurately
represent and interpret what he thought and was doing from '97 to his death in
'99. From those few of his notes and journals that I have been able to review
for this article series, I know that his conception of this system in, say,
1988 is quite different from what I will be presenting here. People who
worked with him in earlier periods will have their own understandings of what
Hawk and Jackal is. I think this is great - these articles represent a
personal interpretation.
As my first topic, I would like to address the overall conception of the
stages of the Great Work as understood by the Hawk and Jackal system. To what
end are the various magical technologies we will be exploring directed?
Enthusiasts of Ebony's work over the years have often been quick to seize on
the flashier technologies, such as Tesseract Magick, and use them
independently outside of a true self-transformational context. I have
personally found the Tesseract to ultimately be less than useless unless
directed towards the Great Work by some kind of additional framework. The
thelemic three grade system, endorsed by Hawk and Jackal, provided one such
possible framework.
In the Book of the Law it says: "Who calls us Thelemites will do no wrong,
if he look but close into the word. For there are therein Three Grades, the
Hermit, and the Lover, and the man of Earth. Do what thou wilt shall be the
whole of the Law" (AL I:40). Within the thelemic tradition AL I:40 has been
interpreted by Crowley and others to refer to three "true grades" (my own
term). That is to say, these designations refer to the three general stages
of attainment of the Great Work. Following this interpretation, the three
grades are designated as corresponding to the three main subdivisions, or
colleges, of the A A.
Man of Earth = Ordo G D = Neophyte through Dominus Liminus A A
Lover = Ordo R C = Adeptus Minor through Exempt Adept A A
Hermit = Ordo S S = Magister Templi through Ipsissimus A A
The O.T.O. also uses these three designations within its three triad
system, but in a different manner than in A A. The present discussion is
not concerned with this separate structure.
References to these divisions in the following discussion designate the
highest sense of the term A A - the true, universal inner order accessible
to all human beings by right. The particular outer organization created by
Aleister Crowley in 1909 and called A A is an attempt to instantiate this
spiritual hierarchy in a transmittable manner. Hawk and Jackal is a distinct
and separate attempt to perform the same task, at least in theory. We will
have the occasion, in part four of the series, to see to what extent the
system might or might not live up to its potential. For this month, however,
I would like to present the ideal model.
Having adopted the three grade system from the greater Thelemic tradition,
Ebony discusses their nature largely within the second part of The Books of
the Hawk and Jackal. Let's examine what he has to say. Each of the three
true grades possesses its own archetypical set of symbols. This set
illustrates the plane upon which the grade operates. The task of the grades
to obtain an understanding of the set and to place its components into an
appropriate and balanced disposition. "Equilibrium is the basis of the Work"
(Liber Librae). This equilibration is accomplished by the passage of an
ordeal. Which passage then actualizes an attainment.
The Man of Earth works upon the terrestrial level, the plane of the four
elements. These classic four categories symbolize many things, but they
especially connote the basic components of the psyche. Fire is will, water
intuition and emotion, air reason and intellect, earth the physical body and
its sensations. Often opposed and at odds with each other in the psyche, they
are complementary when in equilibrium. The task of the Man of Earth,
therefore, is symbolized by situating oneself at the center of the cross of
the elements, at the point of balance. From this still point at the midst of
the whirling elements, communion is possible with that which has set them in
motion. The ordeal is the inertia of the elements, their resistance to
realignment. In a certain sense their balance is impossible without the
intercession of a transcendent factor: the attainment of the Knowledge and
Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.
Knowledge and Conversation provides the radical breakthrough, a direct
communication with the divine, which defines an adept within the Thelemic
tradition. This is the grade of the Love. Having discovered one's True Will,
the work is now to do that True Will, and nothing else. The lover works upon
the Macrocosmic, or planetary plane. The Man of Earth equilibrated the
components of the "little world" or microcosm. Now the Lover's task is to
extend that equilibrated microcosm into alignment with the macrocosm. The
limited self is emptied into the universal Self, culminating in the so-called
ordeal of the Abyss. Passage through the Abyss constitutes attainment of
Binah and mastery of the temple of the universe.
Concerning the work of the Lovers, Ebony declares "Only when we have
accomplished these tasks of the Adept, and can maintain our equilibrium on the
Planetary planes, the realization of who one truly is has not occurred. Only
when this Great Work of realization, of the unity between the Microcosm
within, and the Macrocosm without, has taken place; can we put aside all that
we, before, would have called 'self,' and cross the Abyss" (Books of the Hawk
and Jackal, part 2, page 36).
The Hermit, or Master, works upon the plane of the Astral. In this context
this refers to the plane of the fixed stars. Ebony's conception of Thelemic mastery was essentially identical to the Master Therion's as expressed in One
Star in Sight and his other writings.
This is the basic structure of the three true grades, which Ebony holds in
common conception with the greater Thelemic tradition. He also had a number
of personal Kabalistic interpretations of them, which we will now explore.
The Book of the Law says, "The fool readeth this Book of the Law, and its
comment; and he understandeth it not. Let him come through the first ordeal,
and it will be to him as silver. Through the second, gold. Through the
third, stones of precious water. Through the fourth, ultimate sparks of the
intimate fire" (AL III: 63-67). Ebony maps the stages given in these verses
onto the true grades according to the following scheme.
Silver corresponds to the Man of Earth. Silver symbolizes the moon and the
initial full/new moon coven work undertaken by the initiate of the Hawk and
Jackal. The moon refers to the sub-lunary sphere of the Ptolemaic cosmology -
the terrestrial realm of the four elements below the planetary spheres -
Malkuth and Yesod as Earth and the near astral beneath the higher planetary
sepheroth. This Earth moon pair constitute the elementary plane of the Man of
Earth for the Hawk and Jackal system.
Gold is assigned to the Lovers. Gold symbolizes the Sun, which is the
central point of the planetary plane. Gold symbolizes the attainment of solar
consciousness of the adept.
Stones of Precious Water bridges into the Hermits, but for this four fold
model refers specifically to the Masters of the Temple. "Precious Water" is
here read as a reference to the Great Sea of Binah. The Master of the Temple
partakes of the stellar consciousness of the plane of the fixed stars.
There is one more stage: that of the Magus, who achieves the ultimate
sparks of the intimate fire. At this lever, the Magus transcends the zodiac
of the solar system and partakes of the mysteries of galactic consciousness.
Ebony never achieved the grade of Magus, and so this level remains posited as
an ideal for the Hawk and Jackal system. In most regards it is identical to
the normative A A conception.
Concerning the Ipsissimus, the Hawk and Jackal system is silent.
With regard to the mysteries of solar, stellar, and galactic consciousness
previously alluded to, I should explain that Ebony intended this in a
relatively literal sense. He was a firm and vocal adherent of Rupert
Sheldrake's morphogenetic field theory. This theory holds that consciousness
exists as a non-localized electromagnetic field effect. Sheldrake, in a few
places - most notable in The Physics of Angels, co-written with Matthew Fox -
advances the possibility that stars may possess consciousness. This is due to
the complex electromagnetic activity in their coronas. It could produce
effects like the complex electromagnetic activity of the brain; i.e.
consciousness. Or, as Ebony put it to me succinctly, "For me, the Sun is
physically God." Under this conception the designation of the third order as
the Silver Star is literal. Ebony did not think that the Sun was "talking to
him." His conception was of a type of consciousness on a vastly higher octave
of being that could nevertheless be brushed against by a human as a type of
transcendent communion.
The idea of the morphogenetic field is not an essential component of
Ebony's system. Nevertheless, it was a personal belief of Ebony's that the
universe itself was some kind of morphogenetic field, that the universe was
conscious. He was in many ways a classical Panthiest. Divinity was totally
imminent for him, and he experienced it about himself consciously.
| 10/2/99 | Jack Parsons Lesser Feast 6PM in Hayward | Rosslyn Cmp | ||
| 10/3/99 | Gnostic Mass 8:00PM Horus Temple | Thelema Ldg. | ||
| 10/6/99 | College of Hard NOX 8 PM with Mordecai in the library | Thelema Ldg. | ||
| 10/7/99 | Scales of the Serpent series on Liber Arcanorum. 7:30PM at Cheth House with Michael | Thelema Ldg. | ||
| 10/10/99 | Gnostic Mass 8:00PM Horus Temple | Thelema Ldg. | ||
| 10/14/99 | Scales of the Serpent series on Liber Arcanorum. 7:30PM at Cheth House with Michael | Thelema Ldg. | ||
| 10/16/99 | OTO Initiations, call to attend | Thelema Ldg. | ||
| 10/17/99 | Gnostic Mass 8:00PM Horus Temple | Thelema Ldg. | ||
| 10/18/99 | Grady McMurtry Lesser Feast 7:30PM At Ancient Ways | |||
| 10/21/99 | Scales of the Serpent series on Liber Arcanorum. 7:30PM at Cheth House with Michael | Thelema Ldg. | ||
| 10/24/99 | Gnostic Mass 8:00PM Horus Temple | Thelema Ldg. | ||
| 10/25/99 | Section II reading group with Caitlin: novels and stories by Bram Stoker, 8PM at OZ house | Thelema Ldg. | ||
| 10/27/99 | College of Hard NOX 8 PM with Mordecai in the library | Thelema Ldg. | ||
| 10/28/99 | Scales of the Serpent series on Liber Arcanorum. 7:30PM at Cheth House with Michael | Thelema Ldg. | ||
| 10/24/99 | Gnostic Mass 7:30PM Horus Temple NOTE NEW TIME | 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.
Thelema Lodge
Ordo Templi Orientis
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Berkeley, CA 94702 USA
Phone: (510) 652-3171 (for events info and contact to Lodge)
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