From: "John B. Fleming"
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 1996 15:41:24 -0500 (EST)
HERALD-TEPAPHONE
A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OF IAO CAMP, ORDO TEMPLI ORIENTIS
WINTER SOLSTICE, 1995-6 E.V.
VOLUME I, NUMBER IV
_________________________________________________________________
_Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law._
_________________________________________________________________
IAO Camp, Ordo Templi Orientis
P.O. Box 5793
Bloomington, Indiana 47407
(URL) http://www.sephiroth.org/iao/
(e-mail: rbowyer@intersource.com)
_Personnel:_
The Non-existent Brother R. B., Camp Master and Proofreader to His
Majesty
The Non-existent Sister R. H., Treasurer
Fr. In Profunda, Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda
Sr. Shekinah, Minister of Protocol and Appetizers
Sr. Manibhadra, Minister of Caffeine
Fr. Wayne (Formerly Known as the Magician Formerly Known as Wayne),
Secretary and Minister of Magical Formula
Fr. Appetitor Lucis, Chief of Cybernetics
Fr. R. A., Distinguished Guest
_Outside Contributors:_
Soror Continuity
Dr. Michael Melchizedeck, Ph.D.
The Great God Critter
A. Quiller III
Adam Weishaupt
Haon Dor
Sapiens Dominibatur Astris
_________________________________________________________________
The _Herald-Tepaphone_ is the quarterly newsletter of IAO Camp, a duly
chartered body of Ordo Templi Orientis. The _HT_ is published on the
Equinoxes and Solstices. Subscriptions are $3.00 per issue or $10.00
for one year (4 issues), make checks or money orders payable to
Bowyer.
Membership in IAO Camp and/or O.T.O. is not required to subscribe or
to submit material. Text submissions may be sent on paper or on 3.5
in. disk for WordPerfect or Microsoft Word (preferably on Macintosh),
illustrations had better be on paper at present. All copyrights reside
with the individual authors if they are willing to 'fess-up.
The opinions expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the
individual authors and do not necessarily reflect those of IAO Camp,
the Ordo Templi Orientis, or of anyone else.
_________________________________________________________________
In this issue...
* IAO Goes On-Line!
* New Members!
* New Contributor!
* Top Ten Reasons to Join O.T.O.
* Just What is a Kabbalistic Cross?
* The Dirtwitch Review
* Yuletide Interlude
* Words of Inspiration from Our Beloved Prophet
* Book Search
* Poet's Corner
* Lovecraftian Qabalah
* Announcement
* In Memoriam
* Typhonian Tomes: Being a Guide to the Works of Kenneth Grant
* The Lady Freemason
* Reviews
+ Secret Texts: The Literature of Secret Societies, edited by
Marie Mulvey Roberts and Hugh Ormsby-Lennon
+ The Occult, Colin Wilson
+ Magical Hearth: Home for Modern Pagans, Janet Thompson
+ The 1996 Opus n' Bill No-Nonsense Astrology Calendar,
Berkeley Breathed
+ Absinthe: the Green Goddess, Aleister Crowley
+ Tao Te Ching: Liber CLVII, translated, with an introduction
and commentary by Aleister Crowley
+ Humanism in the Renaissance, Sem Dresden
+ The Christian Interpretation of the Cabala in the
Renaissance, Joseph Leon Blau
+ Liber Kaos, Peter Carroll
+ The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon: Lemegeton, Book I,
translated by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, edited,
annotated, introduced, and enlarged by Aleister Crowley
+ Art and Symbols of the Occult, James Wasserman
+ In a Graveyard at Midnight: Folk Magick and Wisdom from the
Heart of Appalachia, Edain McCoy
+ Celtic Heritage, Alwyn and Brinley Rees
+ The Occult and the Third Reich: The Mystical Origins of
Nazism and the Search for the Holy Grail, Jean-Michel
Angebert
* Correspondence
+ From Sr. Continuity
+ From Dr. Michael Melchizedeck, Ph.D.
* IAO Camp Calendar, Winter 1996
* Note from the Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda
* DISCLAIMER
_________________________________________________________________
IAO GOES ON-LINE!
Yes, the rumours are true! IAO Camp, home to some of the most eminent
Luddites in the O.T.O., is now a presence on the World Wide Web. While
we have been discussing the possibility of establishing a Homepage for
some months, Fr. Appetitor Lucis (one of our two new Minervals)
proceded to set one up on his own initiative. And a bang-up job he
did, too!
The IAO Camp Homepage includes our Calendar of Events, _Liber AL_,
links to every other O.T.O. body on-line that we have discovered, as
well as complete back issues of this very newsletter--the _Electric
Tepaphone_, if you will. Shortly after this issue goes to press we
expect to have capsule profiles of each Camp member available for your
mystification, as well as other neat stuff. So log on to
_http://www.sephiroth.org/iao/_ without delay--and be sure to sign
our guestbook!
_________________________________________________________________
New Members!
We are proud to announce that the Camp now has two brand new
Minervals; Frater Appetitor Lucis and Frater R.A., who were received
as guests of the Order in November. Fr. A.L. has already distinguished
himself by creating our Website, while Fr. R.A. has constructed some
much needed new pillars for our Gnostic Mass Altar. Congratulations
and good wishes to the both of them!
_________________________________________________________________
New Contributor!
We are always interested in hearing from outside authorities on
matters relating to Magick. Now a friend of ours named Critter, who
happens to be a Traditional Witch, Javacrucian, and Tepaphone
aficionado to boot, joins us as Witchcraft columnist and reviewer.
Welcome aboard!
_________________________________________________________________
Top Ten Reasons to Join O.T.O.
10. You will no longer be a Trog.
9. Learn to levitate.
8. Everything always runs exactly on time.
7. Great parties, dude!
6. Will enable you to be more Christ-like.
5. You can look down your nose at all those cheesy Golden Dawners.
4. Holographic picture ID card.
3. Your mother will be _so proud!_
2. We have an extra Hebrew letter.
1. You never have to spend Thanksgiving with your parents again.
_________________________________________________________________
Just What is a Kabbalistic Cross?
by Soror Babel ha-Gedulah
I came from a somewhat unusual background. My mother is Jewish but my
father is Roman Catholic. When I first got into Magick I was very
interested in the so-called Kabbalistic Cross, because it seemed like
a way of reconciling my parents' differing beliefs while furthering my
own (i. e., Magick). But the more I studied the Kabbalistic Cross, the
more cans of worms it opened.
As everybody knows, the Kabbalistic Cross is the beginning and ending
part of the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram taught in the
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (TM, ® + ©, pat. pend.,
etc.). The Pentagram Ritual was written by Mathers, and he got the
inspiration and the basic format from Eliphas L=E9vi's book
_Transcendental Magic_. This is important because L=E9vi was Catholic
(they say Mathers converted to Catholicism, too), and most
non-Catholics don't understand the significance of the Sign of the
Cross. Everybody knows how you make the Sign of the Cross, and that it
confers spiritual protection (I once saw an old lady crossing herself
when walking in front of a certain O.T.O. Temple!), but not everybody
knows that it's used at the beginning and end of Catholic rituals
ranging from private prayer all the way up to the Mass. So it's
natural for a Catholic Magician like L=E9vi to open and close a very
important ritual such as the _Conjuration of the Four_ (his prototype
of the Pentagram Ritual) with the Sign of the Cross.
But in the Kabbalistic Cross you don't follow the usual Catholic
wording, 'In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
Amen.' Instead you say 'For thine is the kingdom and the power and the
glory forever. Amen.' L=E9vi can't seem to decide whether you should say
those words in Greek, or in a mix of Latin and Hebrew (see pages 51
and 234 of _Transcendental Magic_). Mathers wants you to say them in
Hebrew, but he changes the meaning to 'Thou art the kingdom...,' etc.
Nobody knows whether Mathers made this change for some esoteric
purpose or just because he didn't really know Hebrew. Certainly his
transliteration of the vau-conjunctives as '_ve-Geburah_' and '_ve
Gedulah_,' when they should be pronounced '_u Gheburah_' and
'_u-Ghedulah_,' argues that his knowledge of Hebrew was pretty
minimal.
But regardless what language you use to say these words while making
the Kabbalistic Sign of the Cross, they open another can of worms.
These words conclude the 'Lord's Prayer' in PROTESTANT Bibles. They
are absent from Catholic Bibles because Catholic Biblical scholars
consider them a late and inauthentic interpolation. And of course
Protestants reject the Sign of the Cross as a superstitious ritual, so
by combining them we're making Luther and the Pope shack up, against
both their wishes (I can hear some Thelemites shouting 'Good!').
L=E9vi is aware of what he's doing here. He calls the words an 'occult
versicle of the Lord's Prayer, which the _Vulgate_ leaves
untranslated,' and says that 'It has been retained by Protestants in
their _New Testament_, but they have failed to discern its lofty and
wonderful meaning...' He also tells us that the words 'for thine is
the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen' are 'found in
the Greek text of the _Gospel according to St. Matthew_, and in
several Hebrew copies...' In fact, they do show up in some Greek
manuscripts of _Matthew_. The earliest one dates from the fifth
century, and the others are eighth century or later. Of course there
are no ancient Hebrew copies of the _Gospels_ (L=E9vi liked to make up
authorities to support his ideas).
I agree with the Catholic scholars who consider this 'occult versicle'
an inauthentic inclusion, but it's not hard to see the logic of
including it. It follows one of the major thematic agendas of the
_Gospel of Matthew_, because it links Jesus with King David to
underscore the idea that Jesus really is the 'branch Davidian,' the
promised Messiah. The formula which is being put in Jesus' mouth in
the Lord's Prayer ('Thine is the kingdom...,' etc.) comes from the
Prayer of David, in _I Chronicles_, 29. This prayer is familiar to all
students of Kabbalah, because the names of the Sefiroth from Gedulah
(Chesed) down to Hod are found here, in order. For orthodox
Kabbalists, this proves that David was a Kabbalist and knew all about
the Tree of Life. For L=E9vi, the Protestant ending of the Lord's Prayer
proves the same thing about Jesus.
Ready to open another can of worms? L=E9vi's point in combining the Sign
of the Cross and the ending of the Lord's Prayer is that the words
correspond to the names of Sefiroth which form a cross. But they
don't. First of all, David does not use the word Malkuth for
'kingdom,' but a synonym, _Mamlakah_ (I have a Hebrew _New Testament_
based on the _King James Bible_ (!), and it also uses _Mamlakah_ to
translate 'kingdom.'). Second, the words in the occult versicle do not
translate into Hebrew as Geburah and Chesed, as L=E9vi says, or even
Geburah and Gedulah (another name for Chesed), as Mathers says. They
translate as Geburah and Tiphareth, which means they do NOT form a
cross!
So if we want the occult versicle to form a cross, we have to change
it to say 'the kingdom and the power and the mercy.' Or if we want to
keep the words of Jesus/David intact, we have to change the Sign of
the Cross to the Sign of the Funky Triangle with a Line Sticking Out
from One Side. Either way it's a little awkward, and it ruins the
perfection of L=E9vi's grand idea of the 'Kabbalistic Cross.'
One more small can. L=E9vi was right about one thing that Mathers has
wrong. In Kabbalah, Geburah is always on the left side of the body,
not on the right side as Mathers and the Golden Dawn say. So, if the
Kabbalistic Cross actually was a cross, you'd make it the way
Catholics do instead of 'backwards,' the way Orthodox Christians and
G.=B7.D.=B7. Magicians do.
So what can we do with this kitchen full of worms? Maybe the easiest
answer is to dump L=E9vi's Kabbalistic Cross and substitute something
else. At IAO Camp, Soror Shekinah makes the Sign of the Cross while
intoning the _Shema_ ('Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is
One') in her personal Pentagram Ritual. Frater Oudeis' 'Ceremony of
the Six Seals' (in the _Herald-Tepaphone_ vol. I no. 2) contains two
different alternatives to the Kabbalistic Cross, both based on the
_Sefer Yetzirah_. I should point out that Shekinah and Oudeis both
wrote their alternative 'Kabbalistic Crosses' because they couldn't
make sense of L=E9vi's Kabbalistic Cross. Another solution would be
simply to use the words of King David from _I Chronicles_, 29 (maybe
combined with some passage from _Proverbs_, such as 3:13-20 or 7:4 or
9:10, etc.).
But what if you really like the Kabbalistic Cross and you don't want
to get rid of it? One member of IAO Camp who is very well aware of all
these problems still does the Golden Dawn Pentagram Ritual just as
he's always done it. His reasoning is that it's worked for G.=B7.D.=B7.
Initiates for a hundred years, and even though we're not G.=B7.D.=B7.
Initiates we probably know more now about the intricacies of the
Kabbalistic Cross than Mathers himself did. Thus, we have a more
complete command of the ritual than the G.=B7.D.=B7. guys, just because =
we
know how messed up it is. This reminds me of Crowley's magical
technique of persisting in something you know is absurd ('From
Greenland's Icy Mountains,' etc.)
Finally, there's the point that L=E9vi's intent is more important than
the imperfection of his actual ritual. What he was trying to do was to
achieve a synthesis of all religions into One Religion. This is
exactly what Western Magicians have been trying to do since
Hellenistic times. Hermetic and Gnostic Magicians treated Greek,
Egyptian, Hebrew, and Sumerian gods as so many aspects of GOD,
Renaissance Magicians tried to synthesize Hermetic ideas with
Christianity and Kabbalah, and L=E9vi is following in their footsteps.
His intent in the Kabbalistic Cross was to make a brief ritual that
would synthesize Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and even Orthodox
Christianity (see p. 234 of _T. M._, again), into a single expression
of Christian faith. This faith was then synthesized with Judaism
through the Kabbalah, and thus united with Hermeticism, etc. L=E9vi says
that, 'True religion is universal religion,' and to attain to
religious universality, the truly catholic religion, we must be 'more
catholic than the Pope and more protestant than Luther.' (see pages
197 and 211 of _T. M._) Even if the rituals we use in pursuing this
goal are flawed, the goal remains lofty and wonderful. And so even if
the Kabbalistic Cross is not technically correct, it still conveys a
marvelous and magical idea, and synthesizes the quarreling sects of
Judaism and Christianity into the great universal wisdom-religion of
Magick. What more do you want?
_________________________________________________________________
The Dirtwitch Review
by Stone Mudrunner
Hi, I'm the Stone Mudrunner, and welcome to my column. I'm a
traditional Witch and I guess I'd better make clear that I don't talk
for all Traditions, or even all members of my tradition. (Hell, I
won't talk _to_ a lot of 'em, let alone _for_ 'em!) I was going to
write about the Wheel of the Year, but instead let's take a look at
basic spellcraft from the view of a witch.
First, it's an article of faith for us tree huggers that we can change
the world by ritual action. I don't really think that something that
is at its best is reasoned religious belief and at it's worst is Pagan
fundamentalism is a good topic here. That's mostly because a spell is
intended more to have an effect on the operator rather than the
operand.
I've reached the conclusion that a great many operations in ceremonial
Magick are more similar to Wiccan spell work than one would think. The
main point is to create a given 'space' in the mundane world, where
the operator can, free from distraction, create a very specific frame
of mind.
In order to do this, one needs to construct a ritual conducive to the
desired mind-set. Of course, any magickal practitioner will have a set
or ritual action that they habitually use to open and close magickal
space, so that much is taken care of. The meat of the ritual will be
very specific to the work at hand.
Several things will be needed. One will be a magickal link between the
operator and the operand. The more direct this link is the better.
(Remember all those nice Renaissance sex spells requiring pubic hair
and spittle?) A symbolic link is better than none, but there will be a
definite attenuation of the association.
Every bit as important to the work at hand as the link is the pattern
of ritual action. Humans function best magickally when they are
completely attuned to what they're doing. Therefore, all the elements
of the ritual should be selected to reinforce and REINTEGRATE the
complete being of the operator. A good spell working should energize
the 'Higher' (I hate that word) aspect of the Witch, either through
visualization, invocation, or meditation. The ritual should also
energize the emotions of the worker. If the emotions of the worker are
not engaged the Magick will fail. There can be no effective Magick
without this vital part of the person involved. If you are not an
emotional time bomb that detonates at the moment of ritual climax, you
lose. The mental aspect of the operator should also be involved--by
use of appropriate symbols, ritual dialogue or 'dramatic' activity.
One must have ones intellectual faculties firmly harnessed to the
working. (This includes making use of the willful suspension of
disbelief while performing ritual. If you can watch _Star Trek_ you
can believe for a ritual.) Finally, one must have the physical body
attuned to the working. The gestures and movements of the ritual must
match it's aims. It's no good adopting the Osiris Posture or Rending
the Veil if you're trying to get your neighbor naked!
By integrating the link to the operand with the concentrated alignment
of the four faculties one focuses one's will to the matter at hand.
Rather like a proper sword thrust, everything will be in line to
achieve the operator's end. When everything is properly prepared, and
the climax has come, the final act should be a cathartic event, using
emotion to power the Wheel to achieve and end.
Maybe I'll talk about the Wheel later.
_________________________________________________________________
A Yuletide Interlude
by Frater 'Agidzomai
Every Christmas carol contains profound magical secrets which are open
to every one who has made a study of the correspondences of the Holy
Qabalah. To illustrate this fact I have explicated one such antient
arcanum, 'The Twelve Days Of Christmas'.
We note immediately that the twelve days follow Christmas, the
rebirth-of-the Sun/birth-of-the-Son at the Winter Solstice. The days
are twelve in number and thus refer to the signs of the Zodiac.
The unknown author of this work tells us that on each of the twelve
days he was given a marvelous present by his True Love, and this is
the key which unlocks the enigma of the song. In modern times we
identify the Holy Guardian Angel with the True Will, but during the
Christian era the Word of the Law was not Thelema but Agape; hence the
adepts of the Middle Ages identified the Holy Guardian Angel with the
True Love. This is substantiated by innumerable works of mystical
literature in which the Deity is represented as a divine lover or
'heavenly bridegroom' (e.g., _Song of Songs_ and _Revelation_).
The interpretation of the carol is now clear: an adept of the Osirian
Age attained to the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian
Angel, union with his True Love, here symbolized as the Advent of the
Christ Child whose birth coincides with the glorious renewal of the
Sun, and this True Love gave him twelve 'gifts'-- i.e. initiatory
mystical experiences, or 'gifts of the Holy Spirit'-- related to the
twelve signs. The song is an epithalamium celebrating his marriage to
the Divine Lover, Adonai, and at the same time a record, in poetical
language, of his attainment. The exact meaning which these visions had
for the anonymous adept who received them must remain a matter of
conjecture, but careful Qabalistic exegesis can reveal the bare bones
of their meaning and provide solid evidence for my interpretation by
clarifying the relationship between the twelve mystical gifts and the
twelve zodiacal signs and Hebrew letters to which they correspond. The
song progresses from a single 'gift' to the plenitude of divine grace
on the twelfth day, so we will analyze this last and loftiest day.
_'On the twelfth day of Christmas, my True Love gave to me Twelve
ladies dancing'--Pisces_
Even contemporary American slang and vulgarism testify to the identity
of ladies and fish, and this equation is of the highest antiquity--cf.
the _vesica piscis_ as symbol of the female principle. The ladies
dance to indicate that the adept has overcome all the burdens, fears,
and restrictions which characterize this dark sign. Veneration of the
twelfth sign as the summit of Initiation may seem strange until we
consider that the carol is a product of the Osirian or Piscean Age,
during which the number twelve was seen as a glyph of perfection, the
_ne plus ultra_ of human spiritual evolution, just as eleven is today
venerated as 'the principal number of Magick' in the Aquarian Age: it
is thus completely natural for the Piscean adept to regard Pisces as
the greatest of his visions.
_'Eleven lords a-leaping'--Aquarius_
The lords leap into air, the element of which Aquarius is the Kerubic
emblem. This is emphasized by the addition to 'leaping' of the letter
'a', representing the Hebrew Aleph, the eleventh Path, attributed to
elemental air (note how nothing in these old mystical texts occurs
merely by chance!). The obvious parallel between leaping lords and
dancing ladies assures the adept that the ancient Mysteries of
Initiation will be preserved in the coming Age of Aquarius, and that
mankind will indeed 'leap' to new spiritual heights. Observe the
intricate intercrescence of the Old and New Aeons in these images of
Pisces and Aquarius: by speaking of 'ladies' in the age of patriarchy,
our adept has adumbrated (from knowledge acquired in his communion
with the H.G.A.) that balance of the sexes which will typify the
androgynous Age of Horus, while the presence of male 'lords' in the
latter age stresses that the good works of the Osirian epoch will not
be cast away as in the catastrophic upheavals of the previous Equinox
of the Gods.
_'Ten drummers drumming'--Capricorn_
Continuing the account of his revelatory experience, the author passes
from visions of cosmic and aeonic scope to matters of a more personal
and material nature. The symbolism here is distinctly earthy:
10=3DMalkuth=3Dearth, and the heavy throb of the drumming underscores th=
e
earthiness of this vision. Since Capricorn is ruled by Saturn it is a
very heavy and earthy sign, associated with monetary concerns and
frequently with 'evil' (it corresponds to Trump XV, The Devil), but
here the drummers beat a happy tempo to accompany the leaping dancers
already discussed. Thus the adept is told to rejoice, because his
material needs will be met.
_'Nine pipers piping'--Sagittarius_
Pipes symbolize divine inspiration and their presence in this vision
assures the adept that his philosophical and religious pursuits
(governed by Sagittarius) will hereafter be guided by his True Love or
Angel. Note also that this commemorates his attainment, since 9=3DYesod
and Sagittarius=3DSamekh, the path leading from Yesod, beyond the path
of Mars (here represented by the alliteration of 'p'=3DPeh, the letter
of Mars) to the dwelling of Christ and the Holy Guardian Angel in
Tiphareth.
_'Eight maids a-milking'--Scorpio_
Scorpio is the Kerub of Water, and its watery nature is brought out by
the alliteration of 'm' (m=3DHebrew Mem=3Delemental water). It is stress=
ed
that this is no more the stagnant water of putrefaction and death
(Mem=3DTrump XII, The Hanged Man, while Scorpio=3DXIII, Death), however,
because now water is to the adept the milk (Mem=3D40=3Dchalab, 'milk') o=
f
that Mother who resides on the distant shore of the Great Sea, Binah.
It must be borne in mind that these remarks apply to the religious
consciousness of an Osirian master: The Hanged Man, Mem, is the type
of the Dying Solar God, and only through his death (Scorpio=3DXIII)
could Initiation occur in that doleful age, yet all this
suffering--the pain of his obligation--has now been transformed to joy
by the coming of Adonai, the True Love, the newborn Christ. The
puzzling extra 'a' in 'a-milking' affords an illustration of the
astonishing subtlety of this song's symbolism, for the letters Nun
(=3DScorpio), Mem (alliterated in the line), and the additional letter
Aleph (otherwise inexplicably present), form in Hebrew the sacred word
Amen, signifying the completion of the Great Work (its numeration, 91,
is a Mystic Number of Kether as well as the numeration of Malka, the
Virgin or Maid; thus it signifies the ultimate union of Kether and
Malkuth). By the exegetical method of notariqon the phrase 'maids
a-milking' becomes mam, an Indo-European root signifying 'breast' and
accentuating the symbolism of the milk of the Great Mother (Mama). The
idea of a 'milking maid'--i.e. a lactating virgin--could only refer,
in this Christian context, to Mary the Virgin Mother, suckling her
divine Son. The number eight verifies all this because 8=3Ddad, the
Hebrew for 'breast', and also 8=3DHod=3DMercury the ruler of Virgo.
_'Seven swans a-swimming'--Libra_
The Venereal symbolism of this vision is unmistakable. Both 'seven'
and 'swans' pertain to Venus, who rules the airy sign Libra. The
birds, creatures of the air, are 'a swimming', i.e. causing airy
forces (a=3DAleph=3Dair) to manifest on water; this shows that the age-o=
ld
confusion of air and water (which so vexed the Golden Dawn, the last
great Osirian Order) has been clearly reconciled in the mind of the
adept; this newfound equanimity betokens the Balance, Libra. It is
probable that the mystery is revealed by Love.
_'Six geese a-laying'--Virgo_
Geese are an ancient symbol of the Great Mother, known in Christian
tradition as Mary, the Virgo Mater. Yet these geese are 'a laying',
i.e. they have been fertilized like Mary by the Holy Spirit, the Ruach
or breath, represented by the prefixed Aleph. This fertilizing force
is also represented by the letter Yod, the secret fire concealed in
the reed of Prometheus as well as in the Caduceus of Mercury who rules
the sign of the Virgin. In this vision the mysteries of Creation and
the true significance of parthenogenesis have been unveiled for the
adept.
_'Five gold rings'--Leo_
This is without doubt the holiest and most profound of the twelve
mystical experiences recounted in this carol, and to this day it is
given a unique reverence whenever the song is sung, as if even the
uninitiated carollers intuitively perceive its sanctity. There are in
all six 'gifts' of birds and five 'gifts' of people, obviously
denoting Macrocosm and Microcosm respectively. In the midst of these
appears the gift of 'five gold rings' symbolizing the marriage-- the
unio mystica--of Microprosopus and Macroprosopus at the attainment of
the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, represented
by the abbreviation 5=3D6. This is restated even more subtly in the
'five gold rings' themselves: 5 is the Pentagram, Microcosm, while
gold=3DSol=3DTiphareth=3D6, the Hexagram, Macrocosm.
Both these adjectives, 'five' and 'gold', modify 'rings', the symbol
of unity, the mythical serpent Ouroboros who bites his own tail. Note
that 'serpent'=3DTeth, the letter of Leo (note also that Leo=3DTrump XI
and 11=3D5+6). This vision is the rapture of union with the True Love,
Adonai.
But since the unknown Medieval adept who left this song to us was an
initiate of a Christian esoteric tradition, this gift must contain
some reference to the mysteries of the Crucifixion--another aspect of
the symbolism of Tiphareth, where the marriage takes place. We need
not search long to find it. The rings, as noted before, are serpents,
and 'serpent' in Hebrew is Nechesh=3D358=3DMessiach, 'the Messiah';
gold=3DSol=3DTiphareth=3D6=3DVau=3Dthe Son. Five in this sense is clearl=
y a
reference to the five wounds of Christ, and of course 5=3DV=3DVau which
means 'a nail' (Vau also corresponds to Trump V, The Pope). The
mysteries of this revelation are infinite, so I will leave any further
analysis to the ingenium of my readers.
_'Four calling birds'--Cancer_
These birds are presumably perched upon Cheth, a fence, and they sing
because Cheth=3D418=3Dthe Great Work complete. These four birds are none
other than the Tetragrammaton--the Father, the Mother, the Son, the
Daughter--and we immediately recall that Cancer governs families. The
birds call out to the adept to remind him that even in the patriarchal
Age of Osiris the Great Work entails the recognition of both male and
female aspects of divinity: the Daughter is the necessary completion
of the formula. In Christian symbolism, moreover, birds represent the
souls of the faithful, so that these four birds singing on the fence
418 are also the souls of four adepts who have attained before and who
call to the adept to join them in the ranks of the heavenly host
(heavenly because birds are creatures of the heavens).
_'Three French hens'--Gemini_
The hens are from France because Europeans have traditionally
associated that country with all aspects of love, and Gemini rules
Trump VI, The Lovers (corresponding to the six letters in the word
'French'), which traditionally depicted not two but three figures
(three hens). Further, the sequence of hens, turtledoves, and a
partridge calls to mind (does it not?) the words of Odo of Tusculum.
This great Christian teacher once compared the faithful to a variety
of birds. Some flee from the hand like hens, he said; some are cunning
like partridges, and some love solitude like turtledoves. Now these
French hens 'flee from the hand': flight is a Mercurial action, and
'hand'=3DYod=3DVirgo, ruled by Mercury. This vision is clearly intended =
to
differentiate between the passive, earthy manifestation of Mercury in
Virgo and his active, airy manifestation in Gemini. The vision is a
vivid illustration of the importance of not mixing the planes.
_'Two turtledoves'--Taurus_
The alliteration of 't' refers to the earthy nature of the sign
(t=3DTau=3Delemental earth), but the Venereal aspects are not to be
neglected. The dove is the bird of Venus, ruler of Taurus, and the
number two reminds us that doves mate for life. Odo of Tusculum said
that turtledoves like solitude and that doves are guileless; we may
assume that both are connoted here. The solitary birds come together
and their union is firmly established through the force of Earth. The
vision teaches that the essence of love is the innocence of the dove.
_'And a partridge in a pear tree'--Aries_
Again the alliteration is significant, as 'p'=3DPeh=3DMars the ruler of
Aries. The partridge is cunning, but here we see that this cunning is
unnecessary: the bird perches in a tree, safe from all predators
below, and surrounded by an abundance of delicious fruits. Surely this
wonderful tree can be no other than the Tree of Life! The partridge is
the adept himself (Aries governs personality and self), resting as we
all desire to do among the branches of that Holy Tree.
Traditionally the carol is sung in a peculiar pattern, beginning with
a single 'gift' for the first day and progressing with each new day to
new pinnacles of inspiration, but always repeating the full list of
'gifts' from previous days. This, of course, is a widely-used
technique of invocation, well attested in the literature of Merkabah
mysticism. Its purpose is to induce a trance state through the
constant repetitions, and at the same time to overwhelm the rational
faculties through the enormous numbers of 'gifts' bestowed. On the
twelfth day alone the adept receives 78 separate items from his
Beloved (the number of cards in the Tarot, hence another symbol--like
12--of completion and perfection), and in the full course of the
twelve days he receives no less than 364 (this plus the One Supreme
Gift--the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian
Angel--equals 365, another number of perfection, being the complete
Solar Cycle). Contemplation of this profusion of divine gifts exalts
the consciousness of the caroller beyond the limits of rationality
into the celestial realms, so that by continually singing this song
anyone might attain to the same ecstatic states as the unknown adept
who composed it. Thus 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' is far more than
a record of one man's attainment: it is an actual invocation, a
ceremony in song by which aspirants may achieve their own union with
the True Love.
Finally, there is a possibility of interpreting this Christmas carol
as the outline of a twelve-degree system of Initiation employed by
some medieval Order now otherwise forgotten by history. In the first
degree, corresponding to Aries, the candidate is given a Tree, i.e.
the correspondences of the Holy Qabalah which form the basis for the
Western Esoteric Tradition, and successive initiations lead the
candidate toward union with the True Love--the Bridal of the Rosy
Cross--in the Fifth Degree. But further explanation of this
alternative interpretation is superfluous, as it is obvious to even
the most casual observer.
_________________________________________________________________
Words of Inspiration from Our Beloved Prophet
'Members of the Order are to regard those without its pale as
possessing no rights of any kind, since they have not accepted the
Law, and are therefore, as it were, troglodytes, survivals of a past
civilization, and to be treated accordingly. Kindness should be shown
towards them, as towards any other animal, and every effort should be
made to bring them into Freedom.'
--Fr. Baphomet X=B0
(in Liber CI)
_________________________________________________________________
BOOK SEARCH
This is a new column that, hopefully, will appear in each issue. We
are always contacting each other looking for this or that publication
so we will print a list of desired, needed, would kill for books,
articles, etc... that we are searching for. Any help would be greatly
rewarded. Also we welcome any requests!
Soror Shekinah: (can be reached at rbowyer@intersource.com, or camp
mail box)
I am looking for material on Florence Farr of Golden Dawn, G. B. Shaw
fame. Specifically the following:
* _An Introduction to Alchemy and Notes_ by S.S.D.D., in _A Short
Enquiry Concerning the Hermetic Art_ by a Lover of Philalethes,
London, 1714. _Collectanea Hermetica_, vol 3, edited by W. W.
Westcott. London: Theosophical Publishing Society, 1894.
* _Modern Woman: Her Intentions_. London:Frank Palmer, 1910.
* _The Music of Speech_. London:Elkin Mathews, 1909
* Florence Farr and Olivia Shakespeare, _The Beloved of Hathor_, and
_The Shrine of the Golden Hawk_. Croyden, England: Gordon Craig,
1901[sic,1904]. (Two plays possibly together, written at the same
time as the Cairo Working).
* John Todhunter, _A Sicilian Idyll_. London:Elkin Mathews, 1890.
* Various editions of a publication called _The Occult Review_: 7,
no's 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, 1908; 8, no's 1 and 2, 1908
* A publication called _The New Age_, published in London from May
1907 to December 1908. I do not have the specific citations, but I
do know the names of the articles if I can locate the publication.
I realize that these are not your run of the mill occult books,
although I believe they should be. Thank again for any help.
_________________________________________________________________
Poet's Corner
_Additional Verses for Frosty the Snowman_
Mithras the Sun-God
Was a jolly happy soul,
And he slew a bull
On solstice day
So the world would not get cold.
Mithras the Sun-God
Is a solar myth they say,
But the Gnostics know
He obeyed the crow
And he killed that bull one day.
The Sun required a sacrifice
To keep from getting dim,
And when Mithras slew the bull, old Sol
Came down to feast with him.
Mithras the Sun-God
He saved the world from Night,
And his immolation
Also brought salvation
To the men who sought the Light.
_Pater accipe, Sancte accipe
Thuricremos leones,
Per quos thuradamus,
Per quos consumimur
Ipsi, O Meithra!_
Mithras the Sun-God
Asia Minor was his home,
But his chosen priest
Travelled from the East
And established his cult at Rome.
Mithras the Sun-God
Had an initiatory cult,
Through seven degrees
They sought Light and Peace
In a subterranean vault.
There must have been some magic
In that Phrygian cap he wore,
For when they placed it on their heads
His initiates were reborn.
Jesus the Sun-God
Made Mithras go away,
But he waved goodbye
Saying 'Don't you cry,
I'll be back again some day!'
[The middle section, corresponding to 'Thumpety-thump-thump...' in the
original, is adapted from an invocation inscribed on the wall of the
Mithraeum under Santa Prisca.]
_________________________________________________________________
Lovecraftian Qabalah
by Haon-Dor
_Ph'nglui mglw'nath Cthulhu
R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn._
Kenneth Grant is to blame for this.
It was some years ago when I obtained a copy of _The Magical Revival_
and, while I found a good deal of the book informative, the section in
Chapter Six comparing Lovecraftian and Thelemic concepts just about
made me gag. Even allowing that he was writing in the early Seventies
when Lovecraft studies was still labouring under August Derleth's
Manich=E6nism, Grant's table was still pretty shallow1.
The natural result of this was that I determined to produce my own
table of correspondences. To be sure this was a daunting task even for
someone who's a long-time Lovecraft fan as well as a practicing
Magician, but I went ahead with it anyhow, and you may now shudder
before the results. For the most part, I have tried to restrict myself
to the 'objective' portrayal of the Mythos, however some personal
touches were unavoidable, and are identified as such. In particular,
much of Table 2, the Elemental correspondences, is of my own devising.
I have utilised the best editions of the primary sources at my
disposal so as not to be unduly influenced by other 'occult'
interpretations of the Mythos2. One of the many strange things I
discovered was that, despite their supposed alienness, the entities of
the Cthulhu Mythos actually fit very comfortably into the _777_
tables. This, among other things, makes me wonder just who the _real_
aliens are.
With some reservations, I have accepted August Derleth's idea that at
least some of the Great Old Ones were linked to the four Elements. I
have also accepted, for convenience as much as anything else,
Chaosium's distinction between the Great Old Ones and the more
'cosmic' Outer Gods. It is wise to bear in mind that Lovecraft was
often deliberately haphazard with his terminology, and that he used
the label 'Old Ones' to refer to several different classes of
entities. It is best if the reader does _not_ take these tables as a
rigid classification system in any sense.
I have used the regular _777_ format as revised for the new edition of
_Magick_. I have decided not to number these new columns so as to
avoid possible confusion with 'official' additions which may
eventually be published.
Most of the entries are taken from Lovecraft's own works, which I am
treating as 'Canonical' for our purposes; these are printed in CAPITAL
LETTERS on the tables. Those entities developed by others3 but used by
Lovecraft himself form a nebulous intermediate class and are printed
in small caps {_Bold_ in this WWW edition}. Entries taken solely from
HPL's associates and later imitators4 may be thought of as
'Apocryphal', and are printed in regular type. Lastly, my own
contributions are given in _italics._
1The Tree of Life diagram in _Hecate's Fountain_ is better, but still
a little idiosyncratic in my opinion.
2My opinion of Grant's work has already been mentioned, and I have
similar reservations about 'Simon', Colin Wilson, Robert Turner _et
al_. I consider the work of the modern 'Esoteric Order of Dagon' to be
of a higher calibre, however.
3Principally Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch, August Derleth, Ambrose
Bierce, Robert Chambers, Arthur Machen, Frank Belknap Long, and Clark
Ashton Smith.
4Such as Ramsey Campbell and Brian Lumley.
TABLE I
_KEY SCALE_ _OUTER GODS_ _GREAT OLD ONES_ _ALIEN AND MONSTROUS RACES_
0 YOG-SOTHOTH 1 AZATHOTH MI-GO, Insects from Shaggai 2 NYARLATHOTEP
THE MILLION FAVOURED ONES 3 SHUB-NIGGURATH, Quachil Uttaus, OUTER GODS
generally CATS FROM SATURN, GHASTS Abyss YOG-SOTHOTH (as UMR
AT-TAWIL), Daoloth Atlach-Nacha NIGHTGAUNTS, DIMENSIONAL SHAMBLERS,
_Hounds of Tindalos_ 4 Ubbo-Sathla Chaugnar-Faugn GREAT RACE OF YITH,
GNOPH-KEH 5 Cthugha, YIG SERPENT MEN 6 'OLD ONES' OF ANTARCTICA 7
SHUB-NIGGURATH Abhoth 8 NYARLATHOTEP _Hastur_, Ithaqua FLYING POLYPS,
TCHO-TCHO PEOPLES 9 CTHULHU, DAGON & HYDRA, OLD ONES generally SPAWN
OF CTHULHU, EARTHLY CATS, DREAMLAND CREATURES generally 10
SHUB-NIGGURATH Shudde M'ell, _Tsathoggua_ GHOULS, Cthonians, Voormis
11 _Hastur_ Byakhee 12 NYARLATHOTEP Eihort Hunting Horrors 13 CTHULHU,
Glaaki ZOOGS 14 SHUB-NIGGURATH Abhoth Spawn of Abhoth 15 Ithaqua
Wendigos 16 NYARLATHOTEP (as DARK PHARAOH) GHATANOTHOA, _Tsathoggua_
SHANTAKS 17 DAGON & HYDRA, Zhar 18 Ubbo-Sathla Star Vampires 19
NYARLATHOTEP (as FACELESS SPHINX) SHOGGOTHS 20 Ithaqua GNOPH-GEH 21
Yibb-Tsill Chaugnar-Faugn 'Brothers' of Chaugnar-Faugn 22 Y'golonac 23
CTHULHU DEEP ONES 24 YIG SERPENT MEN, Servants of Glaaki 25 COLOURS
OUT OF SPACE 26 NYARLATHOTEP (as BLACK MAN), SHUB-NIGGURATH Dark
Young, MEN OF LENG 27 Cthugha 28 AZATHOTH (as DAEMON-SULTAN) 29 DAGON
& HYDRA DEEP ONES, MOON BEASTS 30 AZATHOTH (with OUTER GODS DANCING
AROUND) IDIOT FLUTE-PLAYERS 31 Cthugha Fire Vampires 32
Hziulquoigmzhah, _Tsathoggua_ FORMLESS SPAWN, GHOULS, DHOLES, BHOLES
32 bis Shudde M'ell Cthonians 31 bis AZATHOTH The OUTER GODS
TABLE II
_KEY SCALE_ _ELEMENTS_ _OUTER GODS_ _GREAT OLD ONES_ _ELEMENTAL RACES_
_LOCI_ _CULTS_ _ELEMENTAL WEAPONS_ 11 Air NYARLATHOTEP _Hastur_
Byakhee _Carcosa_ _Cult of the Yellow Sign_ _Obsidian Dagger_ 23 Water
YOG-SOTHOTH CTHULHU DEEP ONES R'LYEH CTHULHU CULT _Chalice_ 31 Fire
AZATHOTH Cthugha Fire Vampires Fomalhaut _Bone Wand_ 32 bis Earth
SHUB-NIGGURATH Shudde M'ell Cthonians G'harne WITCH CULT Star-Stone of
Mnar 31 bis Spirit AZATHOTH The OUTER GODS CENTRE of the UNIVERSE
CHURCH of STARRY WISDOM SHINING TRAPEZOHEDRON
TABLE IV
_KEY SCALE_ _NOTABLE SORCERERS_ _PRINCIPLE GRIMOIRES_ 0 1 EICH-PI-EL,
KURANES AL AZIF 2 ABDUL ALHAZRED NECRONOMICON 3 _Eibon_ _Book of Eibon_
Abyss KEZIAH MASON, The WHATELEYS NECRONOMICON 4 KURANES, NEPHREN-KA,
_Von Junzt_ _Unausprechlichen Kulten_, _Cultes des Goules_ 5 Haon-Dor,
_Ludvigg Prinn_ _De Vermiis Mysteriis_ 6 RANDOLPH CARTER PNAKOTIC
MANUSCRIPTS 7 AZENATH WAITE SEVEN CRYPTICAL BOOKS of HSAN 8 JOSEPH
CURWEN The King in Yellow, Celaeno Fragments 9 OBED MARSH R'LYEH TEXT,
PONAPE SCRIPTURE, Revelations of Glaaki 10 RICHARD UPTON PICKMAN
G'harne Fragments, _Cultes des Goules_
_________________________________________________________________
Announcement
Some people who don't wish to be named would like to announce the
birth of Shadowmind and Dreamdancer, 185 lbs. and ??? lbs.
respectively. They sprang full-grown from the womb of the Goddess,
full-grown members of the Priesthood!
_________________________________________________________________
In Memoriam
The members of IAO Camp wish to congratulate Frater Wayne (Formerly
Known as The Magician Formerly Known as Wayne) on the occasion of his
Third Degree Initiation.
Happy deathday to you!
Happy deathday to you!
You look like a corpse,
And smell like one too!
_________________________________________________________________
Typhonian Tomes: Being a Guide to the Works of Kenneth Grant
By Frater In Profunda III=B0
_Part Six: Outside the Circles of Time_ (Muller 1980)
In some of his earlier books Grant touched on the later work of Frater
Achad; namely his proclamation of the '=C6on of Maat' to supercede the
=C6on of Horus. Now he devotes an entire book to the subject, bringing
in the related work of Nema (then known as Andahadna) and others in
Cincinnati's Bate Cabal.
From the opening chapters, it would seem that Grant has accepted
Achad's assertion that Crowley 'failed to utter a Word for the =C6on of
Horus'. 'Thelema' _cannot_ be the Word because it is the 'word of the
_Law_,' not of the _=C6on_! This is most charitably described as
excessive hair-splitting, and I really can't imagine why in the
Macroprosopus Grant would want to undermine his own work and
authority--supposedly _based on Crowley's_--in this way. Evidently our
author thinks better of this, for most of the book is devoted to
demonstrating that Maat is a future =C6on after all, but that certain
adepts have been able to intercept this Current-to-be _now_--hence the
book's title.
We spend a good deal of time sipping Grant's usual, and increasingly
_outr=E9_, Qabalistic _soup du jour_. I would describe it, but it really
must be experienced: the numbing sensation is unique. He sort of ties
this book in with _Nightside of Eden_ by refering to some transmitted
writing called the _Qabalas of Besqul_ which he declines to quote or
describe in any detail.
Grant proceeds on a lengthy account of the writing of Nema's _Liber
Penn=E6 Pr=E6numbra_, which is supposedly the Holy Book of Maat, in the
early Seventies. Here I must say that I am operating with Inside
Information, as I personally know someone who was involved in those
Workings. My informant tells me that Grant's account of the events is
_seriously_ inaccurate, and that when pressed for an explanation, he
proclaimed himself to be more interested in the mythology of the
events and put pressure on Nema to resign from the 'Typhonian O.T.O.'
Incedentally, _none_ of those involved had been in his order at the
time of the Workings, something Grant just manages to _not quite_ make
clear. In fact some people saw this entire book as an attempt by him
to acquire some of the credit for Bate Cabal's work.
To be brief, Nema's writings1 often seem more like bad New-Agey
science-fiction than Magick. Indeed, with her 'intergalactic
transmissions', time-travel, planetary gestalt race-consciousnesses
and the 'Comity of Stars'2, she often sounds like a UFO channeler who
took a wrong turn on the way to Sedona. Grant ties this in with his
fixation on Lam, whose portrait he was given by Crowley (and which, I
am told, overlooks Grant's writing desk to this day). This picture,
which Crowley called 'The Soul of a Tibetan Lama', does bear a strong
resemblance to some descriptions of UFO aliens, and Grant stretches
this for a lot more than it is worth.
It gets worse as Grant covers her other major channeling, the _Books
of the Forgotten Ones_, where we are treated to ninety-third-rate
Lovecraft _pastiche_. The 'Forgotten Ones' are apparently primal
atavisms in the human racial unconsciousness that were sealed away at
some point and are now returning because modern nuclear explosions
have re-opened the gateway. We are treated to such revelations as
this: 'On the ground that they have misinterpreted the magical
allegories and types, we discount the theories of Dickhoff and others
who exalt the Elder Gods as Martians, and abhor the Great Old Ones as
the snake-like and invading spawn from Venus. The Elder Gods are the
Maatians (not Martians!) who, when manifesting as the Ophidian Current
are known as the Great Old Ones.'
Grant's style remains consistent, though marked by increasing shifts
between first and third person. Certainly there are more than enough
new strange words to satisfy anyone. We get 'undistortedly',
'id-entifier', 'sub cthonian', 'imbibition', 'kalography',
'astronomical plenilune', '_oneiric perichoresis_', 'Voodic', 'blent',
'lucubration', and the rather puzzling 'co-sexual'.
All things considered, I don't think it is too remarkable that it took
Grant over a decade to get another book in print.
1The original material in question may be studied in the early numbers
of the Cincinnati Journal of Ceremonial Magick, and in the recently
released Maat Magick by Nema.
2Maat herself is apparently a sentient neutron star out in space
somewhere.
Next issue: get your scuba gear kids, we're plunging into _Hecate's
Fountain_.
_________________________________________________________________
The Lady Freemason
(from The Pearl, 1969)
As a Brother of old, from his Lodge was returning,
He called on his sweetheart, with love he was burning,
He wanted some _favours_, says she, 'not so free,
Unless you reveal your _famed secrets_ to me.'
'Agreed--'tis a bargain--you must be prepared,
Your legs well exposed, your bosom all bared,
Then hoodwinked and silent, says she, 'I'll be mum,
In spite of the poker you'll clap on my bum.'
To a chamber convenient his fair charge he bore,
Placed her in _due form_, having _close tyled_ the door,
Then presented the points of his sharp _Instrumentis_,
And the Lady was soon made an 'Entered Apprentice'.
His working tools next to her gave he presented,
To improve by them seriously she then consented,
And handled his _jewels_, his _gavel_ and _shaft_,
That she in a jiffy was passed 'Fellow Craft'.
She next wanted _raising_, says he, 'there's no urgency,'
She pleaded that his was a _case of emergency_,
His _column_ looked to her in no way particular,
But she very soon made it assume perpendicular.
He used all his efforts to raise the young elf,
But found he required much raising himself;
The task was beyond him, Oh! Shame and disaster,
He broke down his charge, and she became _Master_.
Exhausted and faint, still no rest could betide him,
For she like a glutton soon mounted astride him,
'From _refreshment_ to _labour_,' says she, 'let us march.'
Says he, 'you're exalted--you are now _Royal Arch_.'
In her zeal for true knowledge, no labour, no shirking,
His _jewels_ and _furniture_ constantly working,
By night and by day, in the light or the dark,
With pleasure her lover she guides to the _Mark_.
_________________________________________________________________
Reviews
'Treat 'em Rough.'
_Secret Texts: The Literature of Secret Societies_, edited by Marie
Mulvey Roberts and Hugh Ormsby-Lennon. AMS Press, 1995 (349 pp.).
Looking at the title, one would expect this to be a collection of
manifestos, instructions, rituals and other primary source documents
relating to Masonry, Rosicrucianism, Illuminism, the Golden Dawn and
other Western esoteric bodies. Naturally, in the great tradition of
'blinds to deceive the profane', this is nothing of the sort. What we
have here is a collection of essays dealing mostly with history and
literary criticism of authors who were somehow involved in esoteric
movements--usually in the most tenuous fashion. As such the book is
mostly an exercise in the academic practice of pontification by
'authorities' who have no connection whatever to their subjects, and
only the vaguest inkling of the complexities involved, mostly because
they read each others' flawed commentaries rather than the primary
sources. Certainly they would never _stoop_ to actually asking the
advice of any modern secret societies.
That said, I must report that there are a few good things waiting here
for the diligent reader. Ingeborg Kohn's article on Jos=E9phin [S=E2r
Merodack] P=E9ladan is an excellent introduction to this important
figure in Nineteenth Century art and occultism, and Paul Rich's study
of Kipling's interest in Freemasonry and its effect on his work
(especially in _Kim_) is a real gem. These are balanced however, by
such effluvia as R. A. Gilbert, who really must have a commission from
the United Grand Lodge of England to make Freemasonry seem as dull and
pointless as humanly possible. His piece on 'The Golden Dawn in
Popular Fiction' is a monument to the Art and Science of Missing the
Point.
Sacramentally, dilucid, in fine, then, we must consider these texts to
be, on the whole, extremely un-secret.
-- Br. H. A. 98.6=B0 F., 37=B0 C.
_________________________________________________________________
_The Occult_, by Colin Wilson. Random House, 1971 (603 pp.).
His assertion that airborne bacteria contaminating cheese gives rise
to maggots is on a par with the rest of it. Recycle now.
-- Critter
_________________________________________________________________
_Magical Hearth: Home for Modern Pagans_, by Janet Thompson. Samuel
Weiser [alleged], 1995 (133 pp., $9.95).
Don't be fooled by that Ankh on the spine: _Magical Hearth_ is
actually a Llewellyn book in disguise. It combines two popular
Llewellyn genres, the witchier-homes and-gardens genre (_The Magical
Household_, etc.) and the Wiccan-family values genre (_The Pagan
Family_, etc.), with a pronounced emphasis on herbal tea. The author
displays the erudition characteristic of some Llewellyn authors, too:
she writes 'who's' when she means 'whose', 'imbibe' when she means
'imbue', and--my personal favorite--'Cabala' when she means
'Sephirah'. It's all so sad that I cried in my tea.
-- A. Quiller III
_________________________________________________________________
_The 1996 Opus n' Bill No-Nonsense Astrology Calendar_, by Berkeley
Breathed. Day Dream Publishing, 1995 (16 months, $12.99).
Opus and Bill the Cat are certainly the Marsyas and Olympas of our
times. Here they at last reveal the _inner truths_ of astrology. Far
more useful than any number of Llewellyn calendars.
-- Sapiens Dominibatur Astris
_________________________________________________________________
_Absinthe: the Green Goddess_, by Aleister Crowley. Contra/Thought
(alias Holmes Publishing), n. d. (19 pp., $5.95).
It's really shameful that outfits like this continue to crank out
these little booklets at extortionate prices; even more shameful is
the fact that book-nerds like me continue to buy them. Holmes doesn't
bother to tell you, but the text is reprinted from _The
International_.
Crowley's essay is preeminently a charming description of The Old
Absinthe House of New Orleans, ca. 1918. It has some fine AC prose and
a few insightful passages--but hell, for the price of the booklet you
could buy enough wormwood to snocker you and all your friends and then
write your own essays!
-- Edmond d'Haraucourt
_________________________________________________________________
_Tao Te Ching: Liber CLVII_, Translated, with an Introduction and
Commentary, by Aleister Crowley. Samuel Weiser, 1995 (112 pp.,
$12.95).
This book constitutes _The Equinox_ vol. III no. VIII, so all loyal
followers of the Beast 666 (bunch of pathetic book-hoarding dweebs
that we are!) must get a copy to make our collections more complete;
besides, the truly alarming photo of Crowley is worth $13 all by
itself. Of course Crowley didn't know Chinese, so this 'translation'
is just his personal interpretation of the rather clunky translation
by Legge. It is certainly of interest to Thelemites, but probably not
to Sinologists.
Perhaps the best thing about this book is that it seems to have been
proofread more carefully than any O.T.O. publication in years; it
contains only a handful of errata.
-- R. B.
_________________________________________________________________
_Humanism in the Renaissance_, by Sem Dresden. World University
Library (McGraw Hill), 1968 (255 pp.).
The scholarship of this book has probably been deconstructed and post
modernized out of vogue by now, but it is still a good introduction to
the epoch of European history out of which arose so much of modern
occultism. Well before it was academically cool to discuss magic,
Dresden was writing about the importance of astrology, Qabalah, and
the Hermetic corpus to Renaissance thinking. He devotes sections to
Pico della Mirandola, Marsilio Ficino, and Rabelais, and mentions
occult writers ranging from Agrippa to Postel to Kircher. The book has
its drawbacks--Dresden constantly pauses to remind the reader that
scholars really don't know a hill of beans about Renaissance thought,
and spends a lot of time arguing against popular misconceptions I've
never even heard of--but on the whole it should serve nicely to
acquaint aspiring occultists with an important part of their heritage.
There are lots of pictures, too.
-- Fra. O.T.M.
_________________________________________________________________
_The Christian Interpretation of the Cabala in the Renaissance_, by
Joseph Leon Blau. Columbia U. P., 1944 (167 pp.).
50 years after its publication, this survey of the Christian Qabalah
remains the most important book of its type--mostly because it remains
the only book of its type. Blau's erudition is extensive, and his book
really is indispensible for students of qabalistic magic. I just wish
somebody would bring his research up to date, and check out his
speculations. For example, I noticed that Blau interprets a passage in
Paul Ricci's _Isagoge_ as a reference to the Lurianic qabalists. I
doubt that this is correct: not only was the _Isagoge_ written well
before Isaac Luria was born, but (according to Blau's own dates) it
had already reached a second edition 7 years before the birth of
Luria's initiator! He may not be 100% reliable in details like this,
but for a broad overview of the Christian Qabalah, Blau is still the
best. Here's hoping that his work will soon be made obsolete.
-- Oudeis
_________________________________________________________________
_Liber Kaos_, by Peter J. Carroll. Weiser, 1992 (218 pp., $14.95).
This edition of Peter Carroll's wisdom is conveniently divided into
two sections: _Liber Kaos_ and the _Psychonomicon_. _Liber Kaos_ gives
us a rundown of Mr. Carroll's theories, including 'Principia Magica,'
'Aeonics,' and 'Principia Chaotica.' Principia Magica teaches us the
'Chaos Magic Theory' which includes some muddled quantum theory,
explanations of 'pseudo-time' and 'shadow-time' and Pete's 'Equations
of Magic' (with graphs and tables, of course). The 'psychohistory'
model of Aeonics that he presents is of mild interest, though he
naturally assumes that the present or coming age is that of the
Chaoist.
The _Psychonomicon_, however, is far more useful. Especial attention
should be paid to 'Liber Boomerang' as it contains several bits of
eloquently expressed wisdom. The section on 'Eight Magics' is, again,
of mild interest and contains dubious color attributions (Carroll's
contrived creation, undoubtedly... _ooo, he's CHAOTIC_!). Carroll
continues to contradict himself and make offensive statements
('...homosexuality is unsatisfactory, if the frenetic merry-go-round
of partner exchanges in that discipline is anything to go by.')
throughout. Sublime.
The reader will be remiss not to carefully perform the two rituals at
the end of this section. The Thanateros Ritual, utilizing bad poetry,
weird paraphrases of _Liber AL_, orgasmic moans, and screams of
'death-terror,' is sure to annihilate your silly dualistic thought
patterns. And after bleeding all over the Azathoth pentacle while
sinking into a 'susurrating glossolalia' only to find the Blind, Mad
Egregore himself angry at you for calling him needlessly, you'll
doubtless be enlightened.
This volume is, once again, riddled with stupid anecdotes from
Carroll's life, though unfortunately not quite so many as are
contained in_ Liber Null & Psychonaut_. However, we do learn how it is
'easy to teleport small objects at will' and how Carroll was given an
'octarine' gem by a 'Wizard' in India. These stories are presented in
an offhanded way that makes them sound entirely incredulous and
ridiculous--though it seems Carroll is purposely presenting them this
way so that we will believe him, yet somehow we still don't. _Hmmm_.
They are, however, valuable for entertainment. Be sure to be on the
lookout for Carroll's latest book, _Psybermagick_. Surely it, too,
will be a gem.
-- A. L.
_________________________________________________________________
_The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon: Lemegeton, Book I_, translated
by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, edited annotated, introduced and
enlarged by Aleister Crowley (illustrated second edition with new
annotations by Aleister Crowley, edited by Hymenaeus Beta). Weiser,
1995 (134 pp., $16.00).
First of all, I must reassure you that the illustrations are not those
D&D-style drawings that mar the New Falcon edition of the _Goetia_,
but rather the adorable little engravings by Louis Breton that you've
seen in all those coffee-table books; they are supplemented by a few
of Crowley's crude sketches, which have the advantage of having been
drawn from life.
The new edition irons out some errors which were present in the first
edition, greatly increases the usefulness of the Enochian
conjurations, and generally makes the book more convenient for
reference; it even fixes the pile of mistakes in the Greek text of 365
from the 1994 edition of _Magick_. It is not, however, without its
flaws. First, the book is printed on cheap, see-through paper. Second,
the new edition introduces more than fifty new errors. Most of these
occur in the Editor's Foreword, and most are very minor problems like
the incorrect accenting of several Greek words; others, though, are
more substantive errors of fact.
For all these blunders we can thank the _Tepaphone_'s own 'R. B.',who
had a hand in the translating and proofreading work for this new
edition. Despite his arrogance and the occasional shallowness of his
research, I really expected more of this intelligent amateur. R. B.
tells me that a corrected reprint on real paper is already in the
works, and will appear under the imprint of 93 Publishing: perhaps
serious students should wait for this improved version. Meanwhile, the
new edition is still better than the first edition.
-- A. Quiller III
_________________________________________________________________
_Art and Symbols of the Occult_, by James Wasserman. Tiger books, 1993
(128 pp., $14.99).
It's an attractive occult coffee-table book, with slightly cooler
pictures than most other occult coffee-table books. The text of course
is Really Basic, in the way of such books. The author is obviously
enthusiastic about Crowley (something rare in this genre), but still
misquotes him just like King or Cavendish or Maple or those other
guys. The dust jacket promises an 'extensive bibliography of classical
occult works,' which has perfidiously been replaced by a one-page
reading-list. Oh well, it still looks nice on my coffee-table.
-- Dennis Wheatley
_________________________________________________________________
_In a Graveyard at Midnight: Folk Magick and Wisdom from the Heart of
Appalachia_, by Edain McCoy. Llewellyn Publications, 1995 (212 pp.,
$14.95).
Ms. McCoy seems to have a knack for writing books that I wish I could
like but just can't. Her grasp of Appalachian economic history
contains insights that I just can't reconcile with personal
experience. (For instance, she maintains that the 'Celtic' settlers of
Appalachia built frame houses in techniques learned from the Cherokee
and didn't use log cabins.) That may be this book's worst
failing--it's compiled from secondary and tertiary sources. Amazingly
enough, she even complains that there is a dearth of folklore
available from the region.
Just as strange is her insistence that the Scotch settlers maintained
their Celtic calendar, and then stipulates that Christmas was a
traditional pagan time for annual divinations. (Funny, as a Celtic
Witch I've always used Samhain.)
Her section on magickal ethics is laughably New-Agey, and her attempts
to turn what is essentially Christian magickal practices into some
pseudo-Wiccan tradition suck.
Basically this is a book that's the result of a little light reading,
some wishful thinking and a Llewellyn contract.
-- Critter
_________________________________________________________________
_Celtic Heritage_, by Alwyn and Brinley Rees. Thames And Hudson, 1961,
rpt 1991.
This one's really good. Marked by solid scholarship and intelligent
correlations, the Rees compare Celtic and Hindu mythologies, working
on the assumption that both India and the surviving Celtic countries
are on the geographic periphery of the Indo European cultural area,
and are both likely to more clearly exhibit root concepts of the
heroic age of Indo-European culture. By drawing parallels between the
_Vedas_ and the four Cycles of British Celtic myth they illustrate
some of the imbedded values of Celtic culture.
The book has proven immensely informative, except for the part where I
got lost in the complicated numerical symbolism common to both
cultures.
-- Critter
_________________________________________________________________
_The Occult and the Third Reich: The Mystical Origins of Nazism and
the Search for the Holy Grail_, by Jean-Michel Angebert, translated by
Lewis A. M. Sunberg. Macmillan Publishing Co., 1974 (306 pp.)
This is based upon the researches of a fellow named Otto Rahn
(1904-1939), whose book, _Crusade Against the Grail_, earned him a job
in the 'Ancestral Heritage' bureau of the S.S. Rahn's thesis was that
the Cathars were the keepers of the Holy Grail, which was a stone
tablet inscribed with secret knowledge. This was kept at the Cathar
fortress of Monts=E9gur and later smuggled out and hidden before the
place was taken by the forces of the Albegensian Crusade.
So far so good, but Rahn evidently linked this to Nazi-style 'Aryan'
racial theories, and Angebert (apparently a pseudonym for at least two
people) uses this to derive a whole 'system' of Nazified occultism
that makes Hitler the heir of the Cathars, Manich=E6ans and Gnostics.
All this is accomplished with a grasp of religious and occult history
that makes Kenneth Grant look good! In fact if you snip out the
occasional moralising on the horrors of World War II, this book could
be a 'primer' of Aryan-supremacist mysticism. Now, even assuming that
Adolph and company were really hard-core Black Magicians (which is
more than a little doubtful), it is obvious on the face of it that
they must have been blithering incompetents, (think about it: they
sacrifice tens of millions of innocent human beings and they can't
even win a lousy war!)
The main problem with this book is that Angebert (whoever they are)
has _effectively accepted a Nazi racial interpretation of all occult
lore as unquestionable fact_. That there might be a non-racist
interpretation of anything does not even occur to our author(s), who
seem ready to assume that any referrence to an 'elite' or 'elect'
group in any tradition in all of history must pertain to some sort of
Nazi-style 'master race' doctrine. Never mind that this is clearly not
the case, or that even the concept of a 'biological salvation' (if we
may so call it) is virtually inconcievable before the Nineteenth
Century and thus is more a product of the scientific revolution than
any 'occult tradition'.
-- Adam Weishaupt
_________________________________________________________________
Correspondence
Cari Sorores et Fratres,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Thanks for the _Herald-Tepaphone_ Vol. I, Issue II. I would love if
you could send issue I. Yours is a memorable newsletter and I'll be
saving it in a binder I suspect; it would be nice to have the complete
volume. (What is a 'tepaphone' anyway?)
Your newsletter has a bold, iconoclastic feel that I personally
appreciate, (I grow weary of young newsletters with a 'what is a
Thelemite, how do we behave, what do other people think?' tone to
them). I particularly enjoyed the multitudinous, sharp-as-a-tack book
reviews. A couple of notes though: do you really call people 'trogs'?
To their faces? And if you think they are 'trogs', do you actually
date them? [...] (It is my personal experience that calling people who
you don't know to be accepting of the New =C6on 'trogs' has never been a
really good way to ever even introduce the subject; much like calling
'Malkuth Magicians'--you know, they can cause change by Earth
law--'mundane'. Of course, if they are JoHo's, and they just woke
you--before noon!--with their bull and phony smiles--then they are
indeed 'trogs'. Nice limerick about 'J. E.'...
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally, XXOO,
Sr. Continuity,
Scarlet Woman Oasis, O.T.O.
(If you think I have a big stick up my butt, You're welcome to come
remove it if you can...)
P.S. I hear cheese goes real good spread between the pages of library
books...
_Cara Soror,_
_Thank you for your kind words. You may not realise it, but yours is
our very first fan letter! It does our hearts good to know that
someone appreciates us._
_The stuff about Trogs is (mostly) a joke, and is not intended to
bother anyone._
_We fear that our stick-removal equipment is not portable, but thanks
for the invitation nonetheless._
_For reasons which are obvious we cannot discuss the arcana of the
Tepaphone in such a public forum as this--we daren't even hint at this
Supreme Mystery, as we are sure you will appreciate._
_-- the Propaganda Minister_
_________________________________________________________________
To the Propaganda Minister:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
We write in response to the absurd 'Unclassifiable Ad' in your last
issue which purported to make every reader the 'real Head of the
Golden Dawn'. This _travesty_ is wholly unacceptable in your otherwise
fine publication!
We know whereof we speak inasmuch as we, of the _New Reformed Orthodox
Gnostic-Rosicrucian Traditional Thelemic Temple of the Hermetic Order
of the Golden Dawn_TM (which also incorporates the _Chivalric Order of
the Sangre=E1l_® and the _Ecclesia Gnostica Perennis et
Universalis_©), hold the _only existing authentic Initiatory
succession_ and right to represent the _Great White Brotherhood_ (Pat.
pending) in the Outer. In obedience to the astral directives of the
Secret Chiefs (who include among Their number such luminaries as S. L.
MacGregor Mathers, Aleister Crowley, A. O. Spare, Mme. Blavatsky, Ren=E9
Gu=E9non, Dr. Rudolph Steiner, Gerald Gardner, Anna Sprengel, Dr. Israel
Regardie, J. Krishnamurti, and many Others of equal merit, if less
fame) we have undertaken the _immense_ labour of reconstituting the
G.=B7.D.=B7. Tradition in this =C6on. We emphasize that we, and our
representatives, are the _only authorised agents_ of this Tradition
and that all others must be regarded as spurious.
As the facts in the case are so obvious and compelling, we regard
debate on this matter as superfluous, and hereby extend an open
invitation to all those sincere seekers of the Light to join with us
in the Great Work.
Love is the law, love under will.
--Dr. Michael Melchizedeck, Ph. D.
Chevalier du Graal,
Grand Hierophant,
Supreme Imperator,
and Archbishop
_Dear Dr.Phd,_
_Please take a number._
_-- the Propaganda Minister_
_________________________________________________________________
IAO Camp, O.T.O. Calendar of Events
Winter, 1996 e.v.
January
5 Regular Meeting, 8pm. 6 Gnostic Mass, 8pm. 18 CUUPS Class: History
of the Golden Dawn, UU Church, 7pm. 26 Study Group: Banishing Rituals,
8pm.
February
2 _Groundhogmass_, Regular Meeting, 8pm. 10 Gnostic Mass, 8pm. 15
CUUPS Class: Rituals of the Golden Dawn, UU Church, 7pm. 16 Study
Group: The Star Ruby, 8pm. 24 Initiations, Black Sun Oasis.
March
1 Regular Meeting, 8pm. 20 _Feast of the Supreme Ritual_ 21 _Equinox
of the Gods_, CUUPS Class: G.=B7.D.=B7. Equinox Ritual, 7pm. 23 New Year=
s
Party/Ritual, 8pm. 24 Gnostic Mass, 8pm.
April
8, 9, & 10 _Feast of the Three Days of the Writing of the Book of the
Law._
_Note:_ Unless otherwise specified, all events take place at the IAO
Camp temple. Schedule is subject to change without notice, so please
call ahead to confirm
_________________________________________________________________
The Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda wishes to thank
everyone for their support over the last year; whether you contributed
material or subscribed, or just thought this rag was worth reading,
it's been a great year and we hope the next one will be even better!
93/93!
_________________________________________________________________
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the O.T.O.,
the M.=B7. M.=B7.M.=B7., the I.O.I., any Camp, Oasis, Lodge, Temple, Gro=
ve,
Circle, Coven, Chapter, Council, Commandery, Consistory, Web, Pact,
Compact, Subcompact or Luxury Sedan, Vortex, Nexus, or Power-Zone, the
A.=B7.A.=B7., any person or group purporting to represent the A.=B7.A.=
=B7.,
any person or group purporting to be the A.=B7.A.=B7., any Outer School =
or
College supporting any group purporting to be the A.=B7.A.=B7., any Oute=
r
Order attached to any Outer School or College supporting any group
purporting to be the A.=B7.A.=B7., any pseud-O.T.O., O.T.O. rip-offs,
O.T.O. imitators, O.T.O. rejects, O.T.O. parodies, O.T.O. wannabees,
or any group whose name coincidentally resembles that of O.T.O.
(including but certainly not limited to O.T.A., O.T.B., O.T.D.,
O.T.S., O.T.O.A., S.O.T.O., C.U.O.T.O., T.O.T.O., T.O.T., T.O.T.G.D.
or the other T.O.T.), the United Grand Lodge of England or his Devoted
Wife Sasha, any Masonic or Co-Masonic or Sort-of Masonic Grand
Anything (regular, irregular, or totally constipated), any group that
has anything to do with Atlantis or Space-Aliens or Rosicrucians, any
or all of the 333 One True Orders of the Golden Dawn (TM, ® +
©, etc.), the R.R. et A.C. (TM, ® + ©, etc.), the Great
White Brotherhood (pat. pending), the A.O., the S.M., the G.S., the
SWBiF into light BD, MTV, T.O.P.Y., A.M.O.R.C., the G.=B7.B.=B7.G.=B7., =
the
Heebie-Geebies or the Bee-Gees, Aleister Crowley, any and all people
who think they're the reincarnation of Aleister Crowley, Matilda Jane
Rayle, anybody named MacGregor, Samuel Weiser, le Comte de
Saint-Germain or his evil twin Skippy, Sir Roger Bloxam, Pope Pius IX,
Mr. Frank Parker, Hymenaeus Beta, Hudson Tuttle, Bill
Heidrick@well.com, the individual authors, or anybody at all. In fact,
let us clearly state that nobody holds ANY of these opinions.
Furthermore, everything is purely fictional and any alleged
resemblance to anyone living, dead, undead, unborn, ascended, or
descended, or indeed to anything at all is entirely due to your own
paranoia, you pantophobic little twit!
_________________________________________________________________
_Love is the Law, love under will._
EOF
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