Contents

Foreword............................................................................................xvii

Argūmentum ....................................................................................1

Petition.............................................................................................3

Apologia ............................................................................................5

A House Divided ...........................................................................7

Gender Ignorance ....................................................................... 31

Achieve Both Weddings! .......................................................... 49

Pleading the Ninth ..................................................................... 55

Auctōritās..................................................................................... 67

Illustrative Citations from the works of Aleister Crowley

and Sabazius ................................................................................. 69

Appendix: Liber VX .................................................................... 85

 Foreword

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

This little book is about the Gnostic Mass, a topic of some

interest to its intended audience. Priest/ess was originally issued in
a private edition of 44 numbered copies, the majority of which
were disseminated freely to the three principal officers of O.T.O.
International, many key officers of United States Grand Lodge,
and every Lodge of U.S.G.L. By providing copies to the Lodges,
I had hoped to share the book with the broad membership of the
Order, at least in the United States. However, it quickly became
apparent that the scarce private edition was inadequate to meet
the growing demand for the book, both within and without the
O.T.O. While Priest/ess directly addresses the O.T.O., its critical
exploration of gender and sexuality in the Gnostic Mass makes
it an item of historical interest for Thelemites worldwide. Now,
with this trade edition, Priest/ess has been made available for
the study and enjoyment of an audience larger than I had ever
anticipated. Though I have prepared this volume as a gift to my
brothers and sisters in the spirit of fraternity, it may well be that
its publication may occasion some surprise and, should there be
any misunderstanding, even controversy. In such event, I accept
full and sole responsibility and here offer what explanation may
reasonably be demanded of me.
More specifically, this book is a vindication of what I have come
to call queer Gnostic Mass, being any celebration of the Gnostic
Mass involving a Priest and Priestess of the same sex or involving

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a female Priest and a male Priestess. Some of the members of our
Order may have been fortunate enough to have witnessed or
partaken in such a celebration. More people will have heard of
such rites than will have participated in them. I imagine many
people in the O.T.O., especially the newer members, have not even
considered the possibility of such a thing. Despite this, the subject
of queer Gnostic Mass involves issues of much wider familiarity:
Thelema, magick, sexuality, gender, and not least of all, human
rights. If the prohibition of queer Gnostic Mass is not at present a
pressing cause of concern for the average O.T.O. member, I hope
to show that it nevertheless deserves our most sincere and urgent
attention.
I was first inspired to delve into the question of queer Gnostic
Mass in November, 2008 after reading our Supreme and Holy
King Sabazius’ stalwart rebuke of the passage of Proposition 8 in
California, which in some circles generated conversations about
the connection between equal marriage rights and the Mass. Being
myself a queer member of the Order, I developed a special interest
in the subject. While I believe the question of queer Gnostic
Mass does bear very directly on the queer members of our Order,
I also believe that every member has a stake in the magical and
philosophical issues at its heart. We all deserve the benefits offered
by equal access to the mystic marriage.
I chose the title, Priest/ess, in salute to that prophet of the
pandrogyne, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (who is most assuredly
(still) her/e). The image of the pandrogyne, whose essence is
expression and whose origin is artistic and spiritual union, harkens
back to the familiar image of Baphomet and offers a suitable glyph
for the present work. It recalls a speculation of Victor Neuburg’s
about the future evolution of mankind. Neuburg was an
enthusiastic student of The Intermediate Sex, an early 20th century
study and vindication of homosexuality by the philosopher and gay
activist Edward Carpenter. Though I have been unable to obtain
any writings from Neuburg that explicitly discuss The Intermediate
Sex or his own theories on the subject matter, biographer Jean
Overton Fuller does offer a glimpse into Neuburg’s thoughts:

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 Carpenter says we do not know what nature is deriving at
in producing this type and suggests that we may be in for a
new phase of evolution. Nothing seems to me likelier than
that Victor put this together in his mind, with hints found
in the Kabalah, The Secret Doctrine and elsewhere that man,
prior to the Fall, was androgyne, and that androgyny is
destined to be recaptured in the far future when physical
transformations have made possible the reproduction of the
species in a manner different from that known at present.
While it would be difficult to see how physical
homosexual practices could forward such an evolution
in a precise manner, my feeling is that Victor thought
that anything conducive to a hermaphrodite state of
consciousness must be in line with the ultimate purpose.1
We find some confirmation of the view described by Fuller above
in one of Crowley’s Simon Iff short stories, “Outside the Bank’s
Routine,” where he describes a host of individuals honored by the
fictitious Hemlock Club:
Aubrey Beardsley, Ernest Dowson, Beddoes, Cracken-
thorpe, were all represented. They had even Victor
Neuburg, with “Sex is one; go now, be free.”2
Crowley also explored hermaphroditism and androgyny in his
work, going so far as to say of the holy book Liber Cordis Cincti
Serpente that:
Those only understand it who combine in themselves
the extremes of Moral idea, identifying them through

1. Fuller, Jean O. The Magical Dilemma of Victor Neuburg: A Biography. Oxford:

Mandrake, 1990. 119. Neuburg’s poetry is profuse with hermaphroditic
imagery and subtext. He later wrote of Carpenter, “All that we prize as true/
Was held by you of old! […] Be sounded through the world: This man was
true” vide supra 213.
2. Crowley, Aleister. “Outside the Bank’s Routine.” The Simon Iff Stories and
Other Works. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth, 2012. 64.

xix
 transcendental overcoming of the antinomy. They must
have gone further yet, beyond the fundamental opposition
of the sexes. The male must have completed himself and
become androgyne; the female, and become gynander.
This incompleteness imprisons the soul. To think “I am
not woman, but man,” or vice versa, is to limit one’s self, to
set a bar to one’s motion. It is the root of the “shutting-up”
which culminates in becoming “Mary inviolate” or a “Black
Brother.”3
Only by overcoming the “fundamental opposition of the sexes,”
says Crowley, can the magician fully comprehend the mysteries of
the holy books. I consider this fact to be among the chief reasons
for reforming the policy of the E.G.C. to permit queer celebrations
of the Gnostic Mass, which could provide us with a vehicle for
achieving this necessary transcendence through ritual.
Though I consider the above to be sufficient justification for
reformation, I recognize that others will not be so easily swayed
(hence a book and not a postcard!) To that end, the present work
is divided into three sections: Argūmentum, a formal petition
in advocacy of queer Gnostic Mass, Apologia, a series of essays
that cover a range of pertinent topics in defense of the thesis,
and Auctōritās, a suggestive collection of excerpts from the
works of Aleister Crowley and our Grand Master Sabazius, from
which sprang the thesis. Many of the excerpts gathered together
in Auctōritās also are quoted or cited in Apologia. In some
instances, a given quote will even appear at length in several of
the essays. Though this may give an impression of redundancy,
these passages were simply too pivotal to omit on that ground.
I have endeavored to present my sources throughout in such a
way that the reader will be able to readily understand the context
and basis of each argument without needing immediate recourse
to the primary literature (though, needless to say, I encourage
the reader to use the citations in Apologia and the excerpts in

3. Commentary to Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente, V: 44. Commentaries on the

Holy Books and Other Papers. York Beach, Samuel Weiser, 1996. 202-203.

xx
Auctōritās to guide further study of the source texts). As an
additional aid to the reader, the text of Liber XV as it appeared in
the 1919 publication of The Equinox III(1) has been added as an
appendix. The essay “Gender Ignorance, or Good Intentions Are
Not Enough!” was generously contributed by Pat Fields, a scholar
of gender studies. Fields graciously permitted me to modify
the essay by introducing my own commentary into the body of
the text, producing an original collaborative work. Some of the
excerpts presented in Auctōritās were suggested by friends and
supporters. The remainder of the work and its organization are my
own.
My aim in this foreword was to explain the origin and purpose
of this book and to invite you, the reader, to continue reading. The
following pages offer strong arguments, studied perspectives, and
challenging points. I want to establish, at the start, that I do not
ascribe any malevolence to those responsible for forbidding the
public celebration of queer Gnostic Mass, nor do I here speculate
as to their motive in doing so. I do not challenge the legitimacy
of any leader of the Order nor advocate any obstinate violation of
its laws. I recognize that, as a Man of Earth, I share no part in the
governance of our Order. Be that as it may, in my view our laws
contain a grave error and where error persists, we each have a duty
to action. I believe that reform begins with fraternal conversation
and hope that Priest/ess will help elevate the discourse to the very
highest offices of the O.T.O. and E.G.C.
It has been speculated whether or not, if she were alive today,
Alys Cusack would have been allowed to celebrate the Gnostic
Mass in the role of the Priestess. Whatever may come of my efforts,
let it be known that I would have fallen at he/r knees before that
altar.

Love is the law, love under will.

Michael Effertz
The Cosmopolitan, Saint Paul
January 3, 2013 e.v.

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