Aleister Crowley
One Woman’s Approach
by
Soror Syrinx

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE 4
 
CHAPTER 1 ALEISTER CROWLEY – MAN, MYTH, AND MAGICK   7

CHAPTER 2 ALEISTER CROWLEY AND THE GOLDEN DAWN 51

CHAPTER 3 THE WESTERN MYSTERY TRADITION AND

THELEMA  62

CHAPTER 4 PRETERNATURAL CONTACTS 97

CHAPTER 5 BUILDING THE A ∴ A ∴ 116

CHAPTER 6 777 AND THOTH TAROT  132

CHAPTER 7 THE BOOK OF THE LAW 129

AFTERWARD 156
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY  157
 
 
 


 
 
 
 
 
Copyright © April 30, 2017 Melissa Rovelli
 


 
Preface
 
This book was originally written as half of a book about Aleister
Crowley and Dion Fortune. I wrote side-by-side chapters with Paul
Dunne, who wrote the other half;  where I concentrated mostly on
Crowley and he mostly detailed Fortune. When we ended up not
publishing the book, I didn’t see the point of my half of the book never
being published since it detailed my approach to the Work. I’m adding
more about my personal practices; hoping it inspires and also gives
practical ideas to put into actual use. I want to encourage both men
and women to set forth on their own and to write whatever is within
them.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

CHAPTER 1
 
 
Aleister Crowley: Man, Myth, and Magick
 
Everyone has heard of Aleister Crowley. If you are one of those
individuals who regard him as a creature of Evil, a dreadful Black
Magickian, then this book is not for you. I don’t think you will enjoy it. If
on the other hand, you are interested in the world soul and
incorporating more fully into your Being, then it might be worthwhile.
I have spent many years peeling through the myriad layers of
legend, sensational press, and thought-provoking writings to find clues
about this polarizing man who people either love or hate.  He was:
Aleister Crowley, Frater Perdurabo, To Mega Therion, V.V.V.V.V.,
Ankh-af-na-khonsu, Perdurabo, Parzival, Baphomet, and The Beast
666, to name a few.  He was a writer, painter, poet, mountain climber,
magickian, and a prophet who brought to us the Law of Thelema that
proclaims the idea that every man and woman has their own True Will,
of which we are given the task to discover and put into action upon our
pursuit of Life, Love, Liberty and Light. No matter what your personal
opinion is about him, his influence is deeply embedded in the Western
Mystery Tradition, as well as several occult and pagan traditions,
whose writers have used his works with either zero or marginal
acknowledgement, including Gerald Gardner, L. Ron Hubbard,
Samael Aun Weor, etc. 
Even those who demonize Crowley cannot deny his mark seared
upon human consciousness within many facets of society: art, music,
writing, cinema, and most importantly, the occult and the direction in
which it is heading. He said, "Indubitably, magic is one of the subtlest
and most difficult of the sciences and arts. There is more opportunity
for errors of comprehension, judgment and practice than in any other
branch of physics."
Let us put all the hubbub aside, so I can introduce you to the
Aleister Crowley I know, which is through his prolific writings and their
impact upon my manifestation of Thelema. I’ll tell you a story of how I
encounter Crowley in everyday life. Those expecting the shocking or
horrific will surely be disappointed. “Throwing mud at Aleister Crowley
is quite a recognized sport.”[1] Truth be told, those who write
biographies tend to be slanted in their approach, and that usually
arises from whether their experiences and impressions are favorable. I
myself have found great difficulty, suffering, and beauty along this
path, burying roots in the black earth, yet arms stretched open to
receive solar light. Many of Crowley’s writings sit in various corners of
my brain, and any one symbol reaches out like a spider combining all
the other threads from a web created around them, as in this example:
At the end of a harsh winter, I took my dog for a walk at the edge
of my property and saw a single flower in an otherwise brown field...a
buttercup, the first flower I've seen in months, and what does it make
me think of? Aleister Crowley. Why did this moment of joy of spotting a
tiny flower I haven't seen for so long make me think of AC? Because
I’ve seen it mentioned several times, including in Ambrosi Magi Hortus
Rosarum, and this took my mind to many places. It made me also
think of Orpheus: A Lyrical Legend, where he writes "The poppy
flames anew, the buttercup glows with fresh fire, the larkspur rouses
up to be the lark indeed amid the azalea."
And here, where you have a dialogue where these flowers
randomly come up:
 
“ELSIE. So sorry, dear, we won't interfere
with you. Let us go into the fields and pick
buttercups!
3 DRINKER. Buttercups and daisies!” –
The Equinox Vol. 1. No. 7. - Page 222
 
And also here in the poem IN THE WOODS WITH SHELLEY:
 
Can there be any delight still in the buttercups sleeping?
Dawn, paler daffodil, dawn;
Smile, for the winter is over;
Sunlight makes golden the lawn,
Spring comes and kisses the clover;
All the wild woodlands await poet and songster and lover.
Linger, dew, linger and gem
All the fresh flowers in the garland;
Blossom, leaf, bud and green stem
Flash with your light to some far land...."
 
 
On a personal note, my mother and I used to play a game where
we would hold buttercups under each other’s chin and our skin would
glow, and to a 3-year old it seemed like magic because the petals of
this flower reflect yellow light with an intensity comparable to glass.
From then on, it wasn’t a weed, but a symbol that there was more
magic to come, and I quickly noticed whenever AC mentioned it
because it touched something in me. It spoke of the spark within us
all.
Yes, some people see evil in this man. There’s nothing I can do
about that. I see a brilliant and creative man, and his poetry enlivens
me. Perhaps just random musings, but I sat there with my dog,
enjoying nature and pieces of poetry from a legendary magickian,
whose writing propels me forward on my path, even though he has
long ago left this plane. These buttercups are not just a weed to me,
but something glowing and alive, and deeper still…a sublime symbol,
and it brought me euphoria on a dark day. If one sees little
connections in his works, one can follow the white rabbit on
adventures, as certainly Crowley left puzzles in his Works, and one
can make his or her own connections to new discoveries within. All of
this was stirred up from a sign of life in a dead field, and I wanted to
show a different version of this man than one might expect and not the
wicked man some believe. Perhaps, this is how Dion Fortune once
saw Crowley; first believing all the bad press until she saw deeper and
the light surfaced. Like many, she might have come to see the
immense contributions being made by this innovator, which are firmly
rooted in ancient practices, yet branching in modern expressions of
the 93 Current.
“He is a dangerously good poet, both in his poetry and in his
[2]
life.” With all of this eloquent poetry from the so-called wickedest
man in the world, it’s almost as if he’d be proper for a poetry reading
after tea, suitable for all audiences. For others, there is his erotic
poetry like White Stain or Leah Sublime, and then there is Magick in
Theory and Practice scaring dabblers with its talk of human sacrifice,
from misunderstanding symbols. When he talked, with a wry smile, of
‘sacrificing babies’, his interviewer knew, as did all his educated
readers of the time, that he was using Oxbridge slang for
masturbation. In that Victorian era, this was still seen as a major
problem, if not an actual sin. These “sins” toward sex left a lot of
people shameful and disgusted about what is natural, and yet the 3
Abrahamic religions still want to pedal that guilt and control over
people’s bodies.
While his hints of sex magick lures others, there are various
angles that speak to us from whatever direction that brought us to
encounter this fascinating man, and who is to say any ways are
wrong? Because once you do take on the Work, it is the most difficult
and demanding thing you can do. It plunges you straight into the most
dangerous place possible -- yourself. So, pick up the Book of Thoth,
Magick in Theory and Practice, Liber 418, or the one of the many
others, and dive in. If you find what you are looking for, you will go
deeper.
 
    “There is little danger that any student, however
idle or stupid, will fail to get some result; but there
is great danger that he will be led astray, obsessed
and overwhelmed by his results, even though it be
by those which it is necessary that he should
attain. Too often, moreover, he mistaketh the first
resting-place for the goal, and taketh off his armour
as if he were a victor ere the fight is well begun.”
Liber O
 
I was a young woman when I bought my first AC book, Portable

Darkness: An Aleister Crowley Reader. I flipped through the pages

and my first thought was, how in the hell am I going to understand all

this? Then, I began to read and learn Thelemic terminology. I next

bought Magick in Theory and Practice, The Book of the Law, and 777.

I began to practice. My first teacher had me keep a diary. Every day

for a year, I answered a question; what is magick? Every day, I did the

I Ching, the tarot, and commented on a line from The Book of the Law.

I was told to do the exercises in Liber III vel Jugorum, and I kept going.

(For an example of James M. Martin’s correspondence to me, see

some of the letters in the back of my book Thelemic Syzygy). It is

work, and not what is often imagined by non-Thelemites. It’s about

becoming more fully integrated within yourself. How else could you

know who you are or what is your Will?

 Here is an excerpt from my diary: 28 Die Jovis, June 1990

e.v. “Once I began a magickal path, I noticed how things aren’t what I

thought they were. Even now, I sometimes feel separated from my life,

as if my own perception is changing. I can be above it, looking down

on everything, or I can be too submerged in it, with only walls to look

at. Obstacles are like walls, and looking for a doorway only leads to

more rooms with walls. Demand to be above the walls, where only

magick can bring you.”

Perhaps, my diary would bore those looking for shock value, and
though obviously, a beginner when I wrote the above, I didn’t see a
wicked man in AC or evil in magick. I saw greatness. It is easy to vilify
an Adept one does not understand, and also easy for teens to latch
onto Crowley, perhaps wanting to test their sovereignty for the first
time, and maybe eventually seeing the importance of what it means to
do one’s Will. AC is often seen as the ultimate rebel, and that speaks
to the disenfranchised, the dreamers, and wanderers. On the other
hand, some people set their prophets upon pedestals while being
confounded by their flaws. They complain he wasn’t perfect, even
though they aren’t either. They want him to not have been a product of
the Victorian age, though that’s the time period he emerged from, and
I shake my head. It’s not that simple. People are used to the
whitewashing in their history books or the smearing of the yellow press
in journalism, and that is counter-intuitive to the Gnostic who deals in
truth. AC was himself, like it or hate it, and most occultists understand
why we shouldn’t paint our prophets to be all good like DF and all bad
like AC; that we hold a mirror to ourselves as well, to see our true face
and if we don’t like what we see, we can change ourselves and our
thinking. We cannot change the past, but we can address issues in the
present.
  
          “It is too easy to see Crowley as an overgrown juvenile
delinquent with a passion for self-advertisement. But there was
another Crowley, the Crowley recognized and admired by
Frank Bennett. Unless we understand this, we totally fail to
grasp the extraordinary influence that Crowley could exert on
women like Rose and Leah, and on men like Neuberg, Sullivan
and Bennett.” 
 
-Colin Wilson in Aleister Crowley: The Nature of the Beast
 
 
What I like about one of his Scarlet Women, Leah Hirsig, is that she
saw both the god in Crowley as well as the man, and that is what we
should do, separate the man from the Work and see him from the
proper context of his environment and his time period to get the whole
view. When reading her diary, one can sense her frustration and
annoyance with him at times, but that only connects us to their
humanness. We don’t need to make excuses or brush anything under
the rug, but say, here was an adventurous man who lived to his fullest
according to his Will and without shame. There was a man who has
truly lived! Show me a man without flaws and I’ll show you a man who
has a closet full of secrets. We aren’t here to emulate Crowley, but to
be ourselves, setting forth along our own course in the universe once
we become well entrenched in practice.
As Crowley mentions in his own diary about Leah, during the
Cefalù period, he said “She loves me for my work… She knows and
loves the God in me, not the man; and therefore, she has conquered
the great enemy that hides behind his clouds of poisonous gas,
Illusion.”
He also wrote, “What really pulled me from the pit was the
courage, wisdom, understanding and divine enlightenment of the Ape
herself. Over and over again, she smote into my soul that I must
understand the way of the gods… We must not look to the dead past,
or gamble with the unformed future; we must live wholly in the present,
wholly absorbed in the Great Work, unassuaged of purpose, delivered
from the lust of result. Only so could will be pure and perfect.” [3]
 This is what it is all about, the Great Work, and whether you
approach it through the likes of AC or someone else like Dion Fortune,
you will find the doorway to the Mysteries, their roots arising from the
Egyptian Mystery Tradition, the Hermetic Qabalah, tarot, Western and
Eastern influences, etc. This is a rich heritage passed down through
initiates throughout the ages, and AC and Dion Fortune steered its
evolution for the next stage. Sometimes they were in sync with one
another, and we can get a sense of that through their books.
 
        “These aspects of spiritual development
form the three major themes characteristic of
the present-day revival of magic, and they
reflect the three major phases of
Consciousness exemplified in mythology as the
astral, lunar, and solar currents of the Great
Work. Crowley's system, particularly, resumes
all three.”
Kenneth Grant
 
What is interesting is the fact that DF was rumored to be planning on
writing Sun Magic and Star Magic in addition to her Moon Magic,
which seems very in tune with Grant’s statement about AC about the
astral, lunar and solar. When I wrote my Vault of Babalon, I used the
moon, sun, star idea, because it resonated with me. I’m hoping this
book shows the reader the areas where DF and AC were closely
aligned, while also pointing out some of their differences, and instead
of deepening the divide, one can focus on the meeting in the middle in
order to undo some of the misinformation that had been put into place.
After all, these two were advocates for truth and for ending secrecy.
With that said, the burden now lies with each of us who want to offer
their service to the Mysteries and keep them going. Early on in our
training, we sometimes emulate these greats as a way of getting a firm
footing in magick, but eventually a few will stand on their own two feet,
and they will step forward as if visionaries, and the next quote from
The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography sums that
up:
 
          “I admit that my visions can never mean
to other men as much as they do to me. I do
not regret this. All I ask is that my results
should convince seekers after truth that there is
beyond doubt something worthwhile seeking,
attainable by methods more or less like mine. I
do not want to father a flock, to be the fetish of
fools and fanatics, or the founder of a faith
whose followers are content to echo my
opinions. I want each man to cut his own way
through the jungle.”
 
I think it’s important for a woman to write about AC to give a different
perspective than what is out there in bookstores, and though I started
this book off with focusing on AC’s poetry, do not think that if women
read Crowley that is all they can handle or that they are to be
relegated to the side-lines. No. I was making a point about perception
and how we can mould it to different angles and some don’t bother to
see this side of the man, but we need to see from all directions as well
as their opposites. Women are to be girt with a sword to battle their
own way through the heavens and hells beside men, and not to be
coddled nor condescended. The Law is for All. Thelema isn’t fluffy new
age hokum, and it will never have the popularity of the lighter
movements. The way has yet to be cleared through the muck, and if
you can’t get down in the depths, you can’t climb up either.  Thelema
isn’t about taking the “safe” path, but an honest one. It’s foraging
ahead, and though there are some dark turns, there are no wrong
roads if you live according to your Will.
 
*
 
Those brave enough to undertake the Great Work will discover they
have much to gain from these two magickians. As there are many
biographies of Crowley, the man, and I have nothing new to offer in
that area, I’m seeking to introduce what I do know, which is his works
and a little of his history behind them, to those who are ready to
partake in the legacy left behind. I am adding examples from my
practices, using what I have learned from studying their works, hoping
to motivate others to create their own. Though I never knew the man
who was Crowley and have no link to him, I use symbols to construct
my universe and let them be as a conduit, and even felt a profound
moment of communion through a flower. It wasn’t intimacy with the
man, but the purpose behind what he represents. That’s magick.
Simply put, Aleister Crowley, the larger-than-life man, remains
unforgettable, and with his good-natured humor, he said it best: “This
Aleister Crowley was not a man, or even a number of men; he is
obviously a solar myth.”[4]
I offer the words of someone who did know AC, and that was
Israel Regardie, who said, “We still find the same set of slurs,
repudiations, and insults that were prevalent then.  That Crowley
endured then, even though the development of some bitterness was
covered up by his magnificent humor, is a tribute to his fortitude, his
spiritual experience, and some say his Mission.”[5]
 
 
That Mission is still alive today. Out of darkness sits a spark, a solar
light ready to lead Mankind into a New Aeon full of potential, perhaps
sitting there like an unassuming flower, and all you have to do is let it
shine through you.  Magick is behind all things, and you just need to
grab onto a root and see where it takes you. It’s a lifelong journey.
 
        "This is the Hall of Wisdom. No one can
reveal it, no one can hide it. Like a flower, it must
grow and bloom in thy soul. If thou wouldst plant
the seed of this flower in thy soul--learn to
discern the real from the false. Listen only to the
Voice that is soundless... Look only on that which
is invisible, and remember that in thee thyself, is
the Temple and the gate to it, and the mystery,
and the initiation."
The Symbolism of the Tarot by P D. Ouspensky
 
Unfortunately, I felt I had to waste part of this chapter to confront some
of the mudslinging on Crowley in order to move beyond it so we can
concentrate on his Works, which should have been in the forefront,
though would not have gotten past the muck that has clogged this
channel. Little can be done to change the minds of those who love or
hate him, and that’s okay, but clearing our prejudices, it is hoped to
provide an objective field from which to view what exactly Thelema is
and where it is going. It might remain confusing to those who haven’t
had an opportunity to yet see it in action and up close. Maybe after
seeing it, it might shine on in appreciation, even in those who don’t
wish to be Thelemites. Either way, the opportunity is here for those
who would like that closer look into this System. Let magick bloom in
your soul and come forth, if you have eyes to see and ears to hear.
The rest will take care of itself.
 
 
        '...the artist remains inconsequential as
compared with the work, almost like a
passageway that destroys itself in the creative
process for the work to emerge.'
Martin Heidegger, The Origin of the Work of Art.
 
 
 
 
THE MAGICAL WRITINGS OF ALEISTER CROWLEY
 
 
The best way I’ve found to approach these writings is to dive in. Even
if something doesn’t make sense at first, keep studying. Read different
libers or books. Learn the terminology. Dissect the symbols. Write your
commentaries and don’t worry about being wrong. With time and
understanding, we can clarify as we go, or change our minds as
something makes more sense. I’ve heard people say, “I don’t
understand Crowley. No one should read him. It’s useless.”
Sometimes, it can be frustrating at the beginning, but rewarding
through it all.
 
 
●                                             777 And Other Qabalistic Writings Of
Aleister Crowley 
●                       AHA (Liber CCXLII/242)
 ●                       AL Vel Legis, Liber, also called The Book of
the Law (Liber CCXX/220)
●                       Book Of Lies, The (Liber CCCXXXIII/333)
●                       Clouds Without Water
●                       Collected Works of Aleister Crowley, The 
●                       Confessions of Aleister Crowley, The, An
Autohagiography 
●                       Diary of a Drug Fiend, The
●                       Equinox, The —Volume I, Numbers 1-10
●                       Equinox, The —Volume III:
No. 1, “The Blue Equinox”
No. 2, Never released
No. 3, The Equinox of the Gods
No. 4, Eight Lectures on Yoga
No. 5, The Book of Thoth 
No. 6, Liber Aleph
No. 7, Shih Yi
No. 8, Tao Teh King
No. 9, The Holy Books of Thelema
No. 10, “OTO issue”
●                       Equinox, The—Volume IV:
No. 1, Commentaries on the Holy Books and Other Papers
No. 2, The Vision & the Voice, with Commentary and Other Papers
●                       Gems from the Equinox
●                       General Principles of Astrology, The 
●                        Goetia, The: The Lesser Key of Solomon
the King (Liber CCCLXV/365) 
●                       Heart of the Master, The
●                       Khing Kang King (Liber XXI/21) 
●                       Konx Om Pax
●                       Law Is For All, The
●                       Little Essays Toward Truth
●                       Magical Record of the Beast 666, The: The
Diaries of Aleister Crowley 1914-1920
●                       Magical Diaries of Aleister Crowley, 1923-25
●                       Magick (Liber ABA, Book 4) —Sections I–IV
Section I: Mysticism
Section II: Magick (Elementary Theory)
Section III: Magick in Theory and Practice
Section IV: Thelema—The Law
●                       Magick Without Tears
●                       Moonchild (Liber LXXXI/81)
●                       Revival of Magick and Other Essays, The —
Oriflamme (OTO) Number 2
●                       Rites of Eleusis: As Performed at Caxton
Hall
●                       World's Tragedy, The
 
 
Many of the short Libers were published in the Equinox from 1909-
1913 and 1919, and they contain core teachings and practices. Then,
there are the longer ones such as Eight Lectures on Yoga, published
in 1939, the Book of Thoth, published in 1944, and the Equinox of the
Gods, published in 1936. The ones that are part of the A.’.A.’.
curriculum are assigned a class which are listed below.
 
●                       Class [A] consists of books of which may be
changed not so much as the style of a letter: that is, they
represent the utterance of an Adept entirely beyond the
criticism of even the Visible Head of the Organization.
●                       Class [B] consists of books or essays which
are the result of ordinary scholarship, enlightened and
earnest.
●                                             Class [C] consists of matter which is to be
regarded rather as suggestive than anything else.
●                       Class [D] consists of the Official Rituals and
Instructions.
●                       Class [E] consists of manifestos, broadsides,
epistles and other public statements.
 
Some publications are composite, and pertain to more than one class.
Two documents that define the concept of rights and ethics are
Liber Oz and Duty. Liber Oz details the rights of every person, such as
the right to do what he will, work, play, and rest as he will, as well as
die when and how he will. He can eat and drink what he will, as well
as live and move as he will, think, speak, write, dress as he will, etc.,
but for some reason I still find others judging or complaining others
don’t think like them or dress like them, or aren’t eating a certain diet
like them. That’s why Liber Oz is one of the first documents to read
and understand. Others say Thelema is just hedonism and doing what
you want, and that there is no duty. Well, Duty details obligations,
defined as "A note on the chief rules of practical conduct to be
observed by those who accept the Law of Thelema,” briefly listed
below, but important to read to further investigate what this entails.
 
1.                   Duty to Self.
2.                   Duty to Others.
3.                   Duty to Mankind.
4.                   Duty to All Other Beings and Things.
 
 
 
 
 
 
THE FICTIONAL WRITINGS OF CROWLEY
 
In looking at Crowley’s fiction works, his "Simon Iff" series of detective
stories (The Scrutinies of Simon Iff, Simon Iff in America, Simon Iff
Abroad, and Simon Iff Psychoanalyst), and Moonchild aren’t well
known outside of occult circles. However, his Diary of a Drug Fiend
and its dealing with addiction to heroin and cocaine seems to have
had a wider reach into mainstream culture.  Characters Peter
Pendragon and Louise Laleham go on a drug binge across Europe
and end up at an Abbey of Thelema, where they learn magickal
techniques to find their True Will. This book is believed to represent
the author’s personal experiences, and its ending contains a message
that he hoped would inspire and empower the reader. When a book
can accomplish that, it is no longer just a made-up story, but a vehicle
in which to affect the consciousness of another, potentially leading to
an action of change…magick.
Perhaps the reader is inspired to make a change in himself, or to
write or create from whatever was touched within him.
 In this respect, reading Dion Fortune in particular has had that
effect on me, drawing me into the occult world and igniting a desire to
set out on my own adventures. I was a teen when I first read DF’s
fiction and was much older when I read AC’s Moonchild, and it also
made a lasting impression on me. Published in 1917, its plot involves
a magical war between a group of white magickians, led by Simon Iff
against black magicians over an unborn child (which itself was a
distraction perpetrated by the White Lodge, as its real effort was to win
WWII). More than the plot itself, I was interested in how he portrayed
occult ideas and used the correspondences of the moon, and how he
approached the lunar, while thinking about how he and DF were laying
down the framework of later Wiccan and Goddess movements, even
though AC gets very little credit; whereas, Dion Fortune does.
Whatever faults people have with AC, or his shortcomings, he
was on the foreground of introducing into the consciousness of that
period that women were powerful with all the freedom and rights as a
man. Below are some of his quotes on women:
 
“We of Thelema say that “Every man and every
woman is a star”. We do not fool and flatter
women; we do not despise and abuse them. To
us a woman is Herself, absolute, original,
independent, free, self-justified, exactly as a man
is.”
 
“We dare not thwart Her Going, Goddess she!
We arrogate no right upon Her will; we claim not
to deflect Her development, to dispose of Her
desires, or to determine Her destiny. She is Her
own sole arbiter; we ask no more than to supply
our strength to Her, whose natural weakness
else were prey to the world’s pressure. Nay
more, it were too zealous even to guard Her in
Her Going; for She were best by Her own self-
reliance to win Her own way forth!”
 
“We do not want Her as a slave; we want Her
free and royal, whether Her love fight death in
 our arms by night, or Her loyalty ride by day
beside us in the Charge of the Battle of Life.”
 
“Let the woman be girt with a sword before me!”
 
“In her is all power given.”
 
Though it’s the nonfiction I turn to for instruction and understanding,
it’s the creativity and the feelings evoked in fiction, and even his
scryings and poetry, that resonate with me, and much more than the
stories themselves, the fictional books by AC and DF catapulted me
into a sphere where I got to immerse myself in a world populated by
thinly disguised Golden Dawn characters, and interact with them in my
own imagination. Oddly enough, I found that reading fiction was more
intimate, as authors pour their heart and soul into it, and through that,
they touch a part of ourselves. Though no longer alive themselves,
their words can still conjure a response to awaken or a call to action.
The books below list many I wasn’t aware of.
 
 
Collected Works of Aleister Crowley, 1905–1907
Page                  Title Type Year  
1 Aceldama Poem 1898 –
7 The Tale of Archais dramatic 1898 –
29 Songs of the Spirit Poems 1898 –
57 The Poem Play 1898 –
64 Jephtah Play 1899 –
90 Mysteries Poems 1898 –
Jezebal and other Tragic
129 Poems 1899 –
Poems
An Appeal to the
136 Poem 1899 –
American Republic
141 The Fatal Force Play 1899 –
154 The Mother's Tragedy Play 1899 –
The Temple of the Holy
166 Poems 1900 –
Ghost
214 Carmen Saeculare Poem 1901 –
         
222 Tanhäuser Play 1902 –
263 Death in Thessaly Epilogue – –
265 Qabalistic Dogma Appendix –  
  
Collected Works Volume II 1906
 
Page Title Type Year  
1 Oracles Poems 1905 –
58 Alice, an Adultery dramatic 1903 –
86 The Argonauts Play 1904  
Ahab and other
121 Poems 1903 –
Poems
130 The God-Eater Play 1903 –
concept
140 The Sword of Swong 1904 –
 
Ambrosii Magi Hortus
212 Satire 1902 –
Rosarum
The Three
225 Satire 1902 –
Characteristics
233 Berashith Essay 1902 –
Science and
244 Essay 1902 –
Buddhism
262 The Excluded Middle Essay 1902 –
267 Time Essay 1902 –
283 – Epilogue –  
  
 
Collected Works volume III 1907
CONTENTS
Page Title Type Year  
1 The Star and the Garter concept 1904 –
20 Why Jesus Wept Play 1905 –
Rosa Mundi and other
51 Poems 1905 –
Love Songs
The Sire de Malétroit's
68 Play 1906 –
Door
84 Gargoyles Poems 1906 –
109 Rodin in Rime Poems 1907 –
126 Orpheus concept 1905 –
219 – epilogue – –
appendix
233 (bibliographical note) – –
A
appendix
240 (index of first lines) – –
B
 
Besides his fiction, he was a prolific poet, and as mentioned, I don’t
think Crowley’s poetry gets the attention it deserves. Interestingly, I’ve
seen Thelemites telling women they don’t need to worry about the
HGA, just work on their feminine wiles and write poetry, i.e. women’s
work. First of all, Crowley wrote poetry and it is not a “girly” thing to do.
Second, I suck at poetry. Third,  I want to show women they are just as
capable and to trust that Voice within, because it is there. There is
nothing wrong with poetry or writing about the HGA if you wish, such
as my book Angelos Tou Theou: Exploring the HGA and the Daimon.
Maybe I should have baked cookies or knitted a sweater instead? I do
like cookies and sweaters, but I like magick too and don’t see why I
can’t do it.
A few of Crowley’s poems are shared below:
 
 At Sea
 
As night hath stars, more rare than ships

In ocean, faint from pole to pole,

So all the wonder of her lips

Hints her innavigable soul.

Such lights she gives as guide my barque;

But I am swallowed in the swell

Of her heart's ocean, sagely dark,

That holds my heaven and holds my hell.

In her I live, a mote minute

Dancing a moment in the sun:

In her I die, a sterile shoot

Of nightshade in oblivion.

In her my elf dissolves, a grain

Of salt cast careless in the sea;

My passion purifies my pain

To peace past personality.

Love of my life, God grant the years

Confirm the chrism - rose to rood!

Anointing loves, asperging tears

In sanctifying solitude!

Man is so infinitely small

In all these stars, determinate.

Maker and moulder of them all,

Man is so infinitely great!

 
 
La Gitana
 
 
Your hair was full of roses in the dewfall as we danced,

The sorceress enchanting and the paladin entranced,

In the starlight as we wove us in a web of silk and steel

Immemorial as the marble in the halls of Boabdil,

In the pleasuance of the roses with the fountains and the yews

Where the snowy Sierra soothed us with the breezes and the dews!

In the starlight as we trembled from a laugh to a caress,

And the God came warm upon us in our pagan allegresse.

Was the Baile de la Bona too seductive? Did you feel

Through the silence and the softness all the tension of the steel?

For your hair was full of roses, and my flesh was full of thorns,

And the midnight came upon us worth a million crazy morns.

Ah! my Gipsy, my Gitana, my Saliya! were you fain

For the dance to turn to earnest? - O the sunny land of Spain!

My Gitana, my Saliya! more delicious than a dove!

With your hair aflame with roses and your lips alight with love!
Shall I see you, shall I kiss you once again? I wander far

From the sunny land of summer to the icy Polar Star.

I shall find you, I shall have you! I am coming back again

From the filth and fog to seek you in the sunny land of Spain.

I shall find you, my Gitana, my Saliya! as of old

With your hair aflame with roses and your body gay with gold.

I shall find you, I shall have you, in the summer and the south

With our passion in your body and our love upon your mouth -

With our wonder and our worship be the world aflame anew!

My Gitana, my Saliya! I am coming back to you!

 
 
Reading Crowley is obviously an adventure in itself. But what about
magickal practice? What should one actually practice? What does a
Thelemite even do?
 
      "It is written that “Love is the law, love under
will.” Herein is an Arcanum concealed, for in the
Greek Language ΑΓΑΠΗ, Love, is of the same
numerical value as ΘΕΛΗΜΑ, Will. By this we
understand that the Universal Will is of the nature
of Love. Now Love is the enkindling in ecstasy of
Two that will to become One. It is thus an
Universal formula of High Magick. For see now
 how all things, being in sorrow caused by
dividuality, must of necessity will Oneness as
their medicine."
Aleister Crowley - Liber CL
 
 
Ceremonial or ritual magick is also referred to as high magick. It
usually involves robes, tools, and complex rituals, involving banishing
and invoking or evoking, sometimes with the aid of ancient grimoires.
"Invoke" is to "call in", just as to "evoke" is to "call forth." That is the
essential difference. “In invocation, the macrocosm floods the
consciousness. In evocation, the magician, having become the
macrocosm, creates a microcosm. You invoke a God into the Circle.
You evoke a Spirit into the Triangle.”[6] I see invoking as calling an
archetype into you, usually one having the aspect which you want to
strengthen in your own personality or that which you want to bring out
in yourself.
When I was in a Dianic coven, though not high magick, I led the
ritual after invoking Diana or another representation of the Goddess
such as Isis, before I would lead those in my circle according to the
moon or wheel of the year. Or I’d pursue more ceremonial type magick
from a book I bought. Then I found Thelema, and I had to really study.
Trying to write Thelemic rituals was a little more complicated, but two
are included in this book. On the other hand, evocation is usually to
gather information, or for obtaining services from spirits such as from
grimoires including the Goetia. Though people do use the Goetia to try
to contact spirits or demons, Crowley also said that these “demons”
are parts of one’s own brain, and it is interesting to see it from either
perspective and how one chooses to approach it.
As far as grimoires are concerned, in the 1990’s, I was an inner
member of the International Guild of Sorcery, which then became the
International Guild of Occult Sciences and veered into wackadoodle
land, but I associated with occultists translating and/or writing their
own grimoires, including Robert Blanchard and Brother Moloch, and
even wrote my own, The Eustaxiani (Syrinx) Papyrus with Blanchard,
which was basically a modern look at The Leyden Papyrus
surrounded by a Gnostic story (Letters from Blanchard and his
thoughts on that book are included in Thelemic Syzygy). Though I was
fascinated by these types of books, I soon left it all behind to focus on
the inner, where I needed to walk alone, yet I find that these books
carry a certain fascination by the general population, who either are
drawn or repulsed by them.
I find it fascinating that Crowley wrote to Arthur Edward Waite
after reading his book, The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts; asking
him for guidance. Waite suggested that he read The Cloud upon the
Sanctuary by Councillor von Eckartshausen, and Israel Regardie
would later identify this perusal as a crucial juncture in Crowley's life.
AC would later portray Waite as Edward Arthwaite, a bumbling buffoon
in Moonchild.
Many of us have had the experience when we came across a
book that has been pivotal to us in some way. Ask yourself, what
magick book first attracted you? Was it a particular author or a title?
Then ask yourself, why are you interested in magick in the first place?
What do you want your rituals to accomplish? Maybe even the first
question should be from Book 4, where it asks:
 
          “What is a Magical Operation? It may be
defined as any event in nature which is brought
to pass by Will. We must not exclude potato-
growing or banking from our definition. Let us
take a very simple example of a Magical Act: that
of a man blowing his nose.”
 
As stated, my teacher had me ask myself every day what was magick,
so I had a clear understanding. Crowley saw Magick as the essential
method for a person to reach true understanding of the self and to act
according to one's true will, which he saw as the reconciliation
"between free will and destiny." Crowley describes this process in his
Book 4:
 
 
“One must find out for oneself, and make sure
beyond doubt, who one is, what one is, why
one is  ...Being thus conscious of the proper
course to pursue, the next thing is to
understand the conditions necessary to
 following it out. After that, one must eliminate
from oneself every element alien or hostile to
success, and develop those parts of oneself
which are specially needed to control the
aforesaid conditions.”
 
 
Other Libers also are filled with magickal instruction, and it can take
years to take into account all that is being said. What good is invoking
if one hasn’t had this instruction? Crowley provides excellent
coaching.
 
      “The student, seated in the ‘God’ position, or
in the characteristic attitude of the God desired,
should then imagine His image as coinciding with
his own body, or as enveloping it. This must be
practiced until mastery of the image is attained,
and an identity with it and with the God
experienced.”
Liber ABA
 
 
The studying never ends. Read and re-read. People joke about
armchair magickians, but only a fool would practice what he does not
yet understand (yes, I’ve been a fool), though they must eventually
leave the chair if this is their desire. Even if you don’t have a formal
teacher, you can find what you need by following a system that
resonates with you, and Thelemites can find a well laid out approach
in the many libers and books written by AC. Start simply and branch
out when ready and do at your own pace. Start small. Everyone wants
to be an instant adept, and there is no such thing. Meditate, examine
your life. Get a good foundation in the basics and then explore the
areas that call to you. Crowley was insistent upon the importance of
practice. As he writes in Liber E:
 
   "It is absolutely necessary that all experiments
should be recorded in detail during, or
immediately after, their performance ... The more
 scientific the record is, the better. Yet the
emotions should be noted, as being some of the
conditions. Let then the record be written with
sincerity and care; thus with practice it will be
found more and more to approximate to the
ideal.”
 
And also:
 
 
        “Now, as to your personal accoutrements,
Robe, Lamen, Sandals and the like, The Book of
the Law has most thoughtfully simplified matters
for us.  "I charge you earnestly to come before
me in a single robe, and covered with a rich
headdress."  (AL I, 61) The Robe may well be in
the form of the Tau Cross; i.e. expanding from
axilla to ankle, and from shoulder to --- whatever
you call the place where your hands come out.”
Magick without Tears
 
 
 
Some newcomers aren’t sure where to start. What rituals should you
do? Anyone can do Resh, and it’s an easy way to dive in and start
doing, while you prepare yourself to take on more. In Confessions,
Crowley stated: “The object of this practice is firstly to remind the
aspirant at regular intervals of the Great Work; secondly, to bring him
into conscious personal relation with the centre of our system; and
thirdly, for advanced students, to make actual magical contact with the
spiritual energy of the sun and thus to draw actual force from him.”
Learning to banish and performing the Star Ruby would be necessary
to master before venturing into harder territory.  Others to study would
be The Star Sapphire, Liber V vel Reguli, Liber Cadaveris, and Liber
DCLXXI vel Pyramidos, etc., and usually apply to one’s grade.  Some
desire to perform the Abramelin ritual, while others want to experience
the Goetia. There are also Eucharistic rituals such as the Gnostic
Mass and Mass of the Phoenix. Some newcomers often come to
Thelema after watching a Gnostic Mass, where one witnesses a
mystical journey that culminates in a kind of chemical marriage and
the consumption of Cakes of Light, and even watching can have a
profound effect on the seeker. 
 
Awed by magick, I remember painstakingly drawing the seals of
Solomon on parchment, painting a black mirror with wormwood paint
that I got from a curio shop, or pondering Enochian names and
dreaming of scrying the Aethyrs. I was all over the place, but exploring
from the aching desire to know. I wanted to touch every corner of the
unknown and to see if it would touch back.  If you have the all-
encompassing desire to obtain knowledge, the doors will appear, and
you will find the one that is right for you, but it’s not always clear cut. I
tried so many paths, not sure where to turn, and I wouldn’t trade the
exploration aspect for anything, because that made me who I am.
Instead of rushing to some end point, enjoy the lifetime of seeking and
experiencing every facet that intrigues you, because there is no
accomplishment without the laborious building towards it.
I’ve known several who like to design their rituals based on what
they were learning in the Qabalistic sphere they are working with, or
some representation to their psyche of what they are learning, or
inspired by such as a passage from the Book of the Dead or another
book. More than following a ritual in a book, this personal touch allows
a “way in” to start creating more complicated or sophisticated work,
though the simple and free of fluff can be equally effective. For those
not ready for that avenue yet, start with rituals from books, while also
observing the practices advised for Thelemites.
In Liber Aleph, Crowley lists the following "Means prescribed in
our Holy Books" for constant observance:
 
●                                             Neglect never the fourfold
Adoration of the Sun in his four
Stations, for thereby thou dost affirm
thy Place in Nature and her
Harmonies. (Liber Resh)
●                       Neglect not the Performance of the
Ritual of the Pentagram, and of the
 Assumption of the Form of Hoor-pa-
Kraat. (Liber O)
●                       Neglect not the daily Miracle of the
Mass, either by the Rite of the
Gnostic Catholic Church (Liber XV),
or that of the Phoenix (Mass of the
Phoenix).
●                       Neglect not the Performance of the
Mass of the Holy Ghost, as Nature
Herself prompteth thee.
●                       Travel much also in the Empyrean
in thy Body of Light, seeking ever
Abodes more fiery and lucid.
●                       Finally, exercise the Eight Limbs of
Yoga.
 
There is also a regimen given in Magick in Theory and Practice, with
doing yoga, assuming god-forms, purification, consecration,
invocations, as well as experiencing the spheres and Aethyrs. Even
writing is an act of magick, and keeping a diary is a way to not only
document your works, but to find your voice.
 
     “Within the circle stands an Altar, the solid basis on which
he works, the foundation of all. Upon the Altar are his Wand,
Cup, Sword, and Pantacle, to represent his Will, his
Understanding, his Reason, and the lower parts of his being,
respectively. On the Altar, too, is a phial of Oil, surrounded by a
Scourge, a Dagger, and a Chain, while above the Altar hangs a
Lamp. The Magician wears a Crown, a single Robe, and a
Lamen, and he bears a Book of Conjurations and a Bell.”
Liber O
 
Another exercise to do is the recital of the formula of Will before the
main meal of the day, which was done at Cefalu, and among my
friends and family today, and is as follows:
Leader: (knocks 3-5-3) Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of
the Law.
All: What is thy will?
 Leader: It is my will to eat and to drink.
All: To what end?
Leader: That I may fortify my body thereby.
All: To what end?
Leader: That I may accomplish the Great Work.
All: Love is the law, love under will.
Leader: (knocks once) Fall to!
 
 
Below is how to do Resh.  Feel the sun radiating on your skin and feel
in tune with the cycle of the day.
 
Resh
 
0. These are the adorations to be performed by aspirants to the
A.'. A.'.
1. Let him greet the Sun at dawn, facing East, giving the sign of
his grade. And let him say in a loud voice:
 
              Hail unto Thee who art Ra in Thy rising, even unto
Thee who art Ra in Thy strength, who travellest over the
Heavens in Thy bark at the Uprising of the Sun. Tahuti
standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor
abideth at the helm. Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of
Night!
 
2. Also at Noon, let him greet the Sun, facing South, giving the
sign of his grade. And let him say in a loud voice:
 
    Hail unto Thee who art Ahathoor in Thy triumphing, even
unto Thee who art Ahathoor in Thy beauty, who travellest
over the heavens in thy bark at the Mid-course of the Sun.
Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor
abideth at the helm. Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of
Morning!
 
3. Also, at Sunset, let him greet the Sun, facing West, giving
the sign of his grade. And let him say in a loud voice:
  
                Hail unto Thee who art Tum in Thy setting, even
unto Thee who art Tum in Thy joy, who travellest over the
Heavens in Thy bark at the Down-going of the Sun.
Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-
Hoor abideth at the helm. Hail unto Thee from the
Abodes of Day!
 
4. Lastly, at Midnight, let him greet the Sun, facing North, giving
the sign of his grade, and let him say in a loud voice:
 
        Hail unto thee who art Khephra in Thy hiding, even
unto Thee who art Khephra in Thy silence, who travellest
over the heavens in Thy bark at the Midnight Hour of the
Sun. Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and
Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm. Hail unto Thee from the
Abodes of Evening.
 
5. And after each of these invocations thou shalt give the sign of
silence, and afterward thou shalt perform the adoration that is
taught thee by thy Superior. And then do thou compose
Thyself to holy meditation.
 
6. Also it is better if in these adorations thou assume the God-
form of Whom thou adorest, as if thou didst unite with Him in the
adoration of That which is beyond Him.
 
7. Thus shalt thou ever be mindful of the Great Work which thou
hast undertaken to perform, and thus shalt thou be strengthened
to pursue it unto the attainment of the Stone of the Wise, the
Summum Bonum, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness.
 
    “There is a single main definition of the object of all
magical Ritual. It is the uniting of the Microcosm with the
Macrocosm. The Supreme and Complete Ritual is therefore the
Invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel; or, in the language of
Mysticism, Union with God.”
Liber Aba
  
 
As I don’t want to just put Crowley’s rituals here, as few Thelemic
books offer anything original and just rehash what it is out there, the
following is a ritual created by me to show what we can design based
on ancient or modern sources and an example of what can do with
this system, and others are free to disagree. It my approach to the
Holy Guardian Angel, which is the ultimate goal for the Thelemite to
contact. The Thelemic magickal system is alive and evolving. It started
with Crowley, and won’t end there. Thelema gives a framework that
you adapt and use, as you apply it to your life. Again, not to replace
Crowley’s rituals, but to get our own understanding out of them.
 
 
 
Messenger Ritual by Soror Syrinx
 
On the altar, place a cup with one’s menstrual blood and a dagger.
Then place the Universe card or some representation that speaks to
you.
 
As Kenneth Grant wrote in The Magical Revival:
 
          "The Silver Star (A:.A:.) is Sirius. As Hoor-paar-Kraat,
whose formula is silence and strength, he is the undying god,
beyond our solar system. Horus is the ‘son’ of this god and the
sun (or father) of our solar system. Horus is thus Hrumachis
(son of) the star, Sirius. Sirius, Sothis or Set-An, thus
represents the supreme, the eternal light. The star is therefore
the key to the present aeon of Horus."
 
 
O Sopdet (Sirius) my soul, make my path ready, set up a stairway to
the great plain, for you are my mother.  [Coffin Text]
 
Say the following and note the ancient formula in bold, as it also is a
formula for the creation of one’s “world”:
 
Hekàs, ô hekàs, éste bébêloi! Begone, whatever is unholy!
 
 
Aski-Kataski (darkness and light)

Haix-tetrax (fourfold, 4 seasons, the change between the active and

the silent)

Damnameneus (sun, the spiritual self unified, the self shut up in the
egg that hatches - In the New Comment, Harpocrates, the "Babe in
the Egg of Blue," is described as not only the God of Silence, but as
the Higher Self, the Holy Guardian Angel.”

Aision (Logos, truth; the true voice that unites with the body).

Then say:
 
Before me the Star, from the unmanifest to manifest.
Behind me the earth and the changing seasons.
To my right hand the sun that incubates the egg that I seek
to birth. The sun of the south, Saturn, Adonai.
To my left hand, my daimon that guides my orbit, and
whom I am its messenger, to birth with force and fire.
 
I invoke Hoor-paar-Kraat (Harpocrates), whose formula is silence and
strength, of whom Aiwass is the minister.
 
I invoke Ra Hoor Khuit, who is force and fire.
 
I come from the star, Sirius. Sothis, my soul. I am Virgo
Intacta, I am also Harpocrates, unmanifest 0, female
principle. I call unto me, Harpocrates, the manifest 1, the male
principle, so that I might partake of his lance.
 
Hear me Klûthi mou! Come to me! Elthé moi!
Hither, Blessed One! Deûro Mákar!
 
"Angel, mine angel, draw thee nigh!"
“Angel, I invoke thee now!” [from the Temple of Solomon the
King]
  
Say: Harpocrates (the Higher Self), wed Sothis, my soul, so
that we shall bear a child, Hrumachis (son of) the star, Sothis. I
bear this son from my Beloved, whose lance I take and guide it
into the chalice of the unborn. (put dagger in chalice of blood) I
take this Male Principle within my Female Principal of my
womb, where the unmanifest becomes manifest.
 
In my womb is the babe, who has formulated his father and
made fertile his mother,[7] and is Harpocrates, but he
develops into the other secret eye, the sun of the south,
Adonai. Let me be your voice.
 
        He leaps thrice armed from his mother, his twin hidden
within him,[8] and he is to be Hrumachis,[9] who symbolizes a
new course. From this birth, will be a message, each from their
own Angel, according to the blueprint which you must now
build upon, and which you will give voice to.
 
"The sky is clear, Sothis lives, because I am a living one, the
child of Sothis, and the Enneads have cleansed themselves
for me in Ursa Major, the Imperishable. My house in the sky
will not be destroyed...Sothis has caused me to fly up to the
sky into the company of my brethren, the gods. Nuit, the
Great, has uncovered her arms for me." [from the Pyramid
Texts]
 

“I am He! The Bornless Spirit! Having sight in the Feet: Strong, and
the Immortal Fire!

I am He! the truth!

I am He! Who hate that evil should be wrought in the World!

I am He, that lightened and thundereth,

I am He, from whom is the Shower of the Life of Earth;

I am He, whose mouth ever flameth:

I am He, the Begetter and Manifester unto the Light:

I am He, The Grace of the World:

‘The Heart Girt with a Serpent’ is My Name.”

“Come thou forth and follow me, and make all spirits subject unto me,
so that every spirit of the firmament and of the ether, upon the Earth
and under the Earth, on dry land and in the water, of whirling air and of
rushing fire, and every spell and scourge of God, may be obedient
unto me.”

“IAF:SABAF

Such are the Words!” (Liber Samekh)

 
 
       “Hail unto thee who knowest not thy right eye from thy left;
for in the æon of my Father there is but one light.”  Liber 418
 
(Read Portal of the King’s Daughter for more on ritual)
 
 
Undeniably, Aleister Crowley made his mark in this world. His
words are rooted deep in its fabric, and many will come along to add
to this design. So whoever he was, man, magickian, myth, prophet, or
a combination of all, he was an important player in the direction of
magick. As both and he and Dion Fortune got their start in the Golden
Dawn, it is important to trace their steps. It seems it was their
encounters there, both positive and negative, that set them on a
course to greatness.
 


CHAPTER 2
 
 
ALEISTER CROWLEY AND THE GOLDEN DAWN
“Inevitably anyone with an independent mind
must become 'one who resists or opposes
authority or established conventions': a rebel.
If enough people come to agree with, and
follow, the Rebel, we now have a Devil. Until,
of course, still more people agree. And then,
finally, we have --- Greatness.”
                                                                      
                           Aleister Crowley
 
 
 
Many great minds arose from the ranks of the Golden Dawn, and so it
is no surprise that Aleister Crowley got his start here, as well. He was
initiated into the Outer Order in 1898. His most important mentors, as
pointed out by Israel Regardie in The Eye in the Triangle, were George
Cecil Jones, known by the motto Volo Noscere, "I want to know," and
Allan Bennett, who went by the motto Iehi Aour,"Let there be light.”
Later on, in 1907, George Cecil Jones and Crowley would found the
A∴A∴ together, using their Golden Dawn training, as well as the
teachings of Crowley's Holy Books, and incorporating them into this
new order which is the modern expression of the Great White
Brotherhood. Jones also contributed to the book 777, which had been
expanded from work done by Mathers and Bennet in their Hermetic
Qabalah. These men gave AC a firm foundation to rise from, though
curiously, in 1911, Jones “unsuccessfully sued a newspaper, the
Looking Glass, for libelously associating him with Crowley,”[10]
specifically that they were having a homosexual relationship. It seems
Crowley’s reputation distanced even those closest to him, especially
when it came to being in the public eye. As for Allan Bennett, with
whom Crowley learned the basics of magick, Hatha yoga and
Buddhism from, Crowley clearly held great respect for him, and he
describes their first meeting:
 
    "I was aware of the presence of a tremendous
spiritual and magical force. It seemed to me to
proceed from a man sitting in the east, a man I
had not seen before, but whom I knew must be
the very Honorable Frater Iehi Aour, called
among men Allen Bennett."[11]
 

Shortly after meeting, Allan Bennett moved in with Crowley and they
later travelled in the East together. “One of Bennett's better assets was
his talent and performance in practical ceremonial magic. One popular
composition was the rite of evocation of the Spirit Taphthartharath to
visible appearance. Much of this work can be accredited to Bennett.
He founded a Buddhist lodge which later developed into the Buddhist
Society. At this time, all workings between him and the Golden Dawn,
or even Crowley for that fact, were almost non-existent.”[12]
Eventually, AC would reject Buddhism for Thelema, and their
friendship waned. Unfortunately, Crowley’s interactions with other GD
members were fraught with opposition and fighting, including William
Wynn Westcott, William Butler Yeats, and Arthur Edward Waite. This
was par for the course. Sometimes, for spiritual growth, we need the
testing of ourselves against the aggregate like sharp rocks tumbling
against the others until smooth. Without disagreements, the giving and
taking, and the challenging of ideas, there can be no growth. A pearl
does not become a pearl without aggravation, and New Agers miss
this point. Stars crash into stars, (though Thelemites state that won’t
happen if everyone follows their true Will) orbits change. Nothing
arises from the status quo.  AL:III.59 "As brothers fight ye!" But, as
brothers, is the main point, and not with the underhandedness that
went on, or the corruption within its ranks.
It’s important to know the foundation that AC and DF started from
before branching out and creating their own fraternities, and neither
would have gotten to where they were without conflict, whether AC
with MacGregor Mathers or DF with Moina Mathers.  Within any
group, there will always be jealousy, pettiness, and unhealthy conflict
which should be avoided, if at all possible. On the other hand, there
will always be a wrestling of brother against brother, or even man
against his Angel, and the key is the resolution of the struggle after the
testing of one’s self against what he believes to be wrong and/or
obstacle to break through. There will always be peace and war on this
plane of existence because our world functions through duality, but we
can develop tools in order to handle and resolve issues. And seek
balance. Eventually, these two rose above their contemporaries by
ingenuity and talent, and by not being held back by those who didn’t
want them to break out of the shell and birth change, and birth comes
from the union of opposites to create that transcendent point.
 
“This elaborate Golden Dawn system became
part of Crowley's own inner world ... He carried
it further than even the Golden Dawn principals
had envisaged. I know of nothing within the
Order documentary that even hints at the kind
of visionary and spiritual experience that
Crowley managed to get out of it.”
Israel Regardie
 
Visionaries like AC work a system, but sometimes they want to
work outside the box once they outgrow it, especially when a group
isn’t advancing one by his talents, and, thus, holding him back. The
GD was giving titles to others for favor or money. This undoubtedly
would cause trouble with the others working the hierarchical system.
From one point of view, the rules are in place to keep the system intact
to pass down to those below, and to measure the attainments from
one to the other, but on the other hand, they weren’t measuring the
attainments, but selling merit badges. Plus, in a New Aeon, we were
getting rid of the old and ushering in the new, and there will be those
of the caliber of AC or DF who will take apart the bones of the old and
reshape them, but you have to know the rules before you can break
them, as well as to know what should be preserved.
Crowley wasn’t content to be a cog in the wheel, though any
system needs both types, those who are content to serve and those
who lead. If there isn’t a balance between opposing forces, something
will break. If one doubts the leader, who will follow?  The Adepts of the
Isis-Urania and Amen-Ra temples became dissatisfied with
MacGregor Mathers' leadership. Near the end of 1899, these adepts,
who were also not approving of Mather’s friendship with AC, were
determined to make contact with the Secret Chiefs themselves,
instead of relying on Mathers.  Some even doubted Mather’s contact
with them.
The last straw had been when Crowley was refused initiation into
the Adeptus Minor grade and Mathers overrode that decision and
initiated him at the Ahathoor temple in Paris on January 16, 1900.
After returning to the London temple, Crowley requested from the then
acting secretary, Miss Cracknell, the papers recognizing his grade of
Adeptus Minor. Many weren’t happy such as Florence Farr, who
wanted to resign, and Mathers soon dismissed her. Finally, a meeting
was held “in London to remove Mathers as chief and expel him from
the Order.” [13] One of their motivations was that Crowley and Elaine
Simpson broke into the temple at the direction of Mathers in attempt to
remove items to take back to Paris.
In his criticism of the GD, Crowley saw members initiated
because of their “worldly prosperity” instead of their accomplishments.
That by itself is enough to invalidate the group. It lost its sacred
mission, as well as its integrity, and we can read more about this in
Liber LXI vel Causae, where he tells his side of the story, and portions
can be read below:
 
            “We must pass over the unhappy juggleries
which characterized the next period. It has
throughout proved impossible to elucidate the
complex facts.

We content ourselves, then, with observing that

the death of one of his two colleagues, and the
weakness of the other, secured to S.R.M.D. the
sole authority. The rituals were elaborated, though
scholarly enough, into verbose and pretentious
nonsense: the knowledge proved worthless, even
where it was correct: for it is in vain that pearls, be
they never so clear and precious, are given to the
swine.

The ordeals were turned into contempt, it being

impossible for anyone to fail therein. Unsuitable
 candidates were admitted for no better reason than
that of their worldly prosperity.  In short, the Order
failed to initiate. Scandal arose and with it schism.”
 
Note that the balance of power in a magickal order requires a
triumvirate of adepts.  And when Woodman and Westcott abandoned
the order; one through death and the other to preserve his mortuary
business, Mathers was all alone.  His failure to restore the triumvirate
sets up the collapse of the order.
 
      “In 1900 one P., a brother, [Crowley,
“Perdurabo''] instituted a rigorous test of S.R.M.D.
[Mathers] on the one side and the Order on the
other. He discovered that S.R.M.D., though a
scholar of some ability and a magician of
remarkable powers, had never attained complete
initiation: and further had fallen from his original
place, he having imprudently attracted to himself
forces of evil too great and terrible for him to
withstand. The claim of the Order that the true
adepts were in charge of it was definitely
disproved. In the Order, with two certain
exceptions and two doubtful ones, he found no
persons prepared for initiation of any sort. He
thereupon by his subtle wisdom destroyed both the
Order and its chief.''
 
 
The Golden Dawn splintered off, and one might wonder if it splinters
too much, if all that is left isn’t just firewood.  Is the root forgotten or
can something new and different be built, or should it just be left to
burn whatever fire it can support and for how long? This is what AC
thought of its remnants:
 
      “Writing his memoirs in the 1920's, Crowley
called Waite "the only survivor" of the Golden
Dawn "who still pretends to carry on the
business, though he has substituted a pompous,
 turgid rigamarole of bombastic platitudes for the
neophyte ritual, so that the last spark of interest
is extinct forever."
Israel Regardie
 
Trouble did not end with the fracturing of the group. Mathers and AC
would go to court when Equinox No. 3 was soon to be published and
Crowley was served with a summons in an attempt to stop the
publication of Rosicrucian rituals. The story made the Press, who even
copied the secret rituals from the Equinox and shared them to the
dismay of the Golden Dawn. Crowley had won. Perhaps, they would
have landed in obscurity had it not been for Crowley. It doesn’t do one
much good just to know the history, but to know the works as well.
One might wish to read the works of the Golden Dawn and AC. To
understand Crowley, we also need to understand his training in the
Western Mystery Tradition, to have a firm grasp on what he studied,
and the next chapter touches on some basics.
Pursuing the Western Mystery Tradition in non-Thelemic groups
seems to have developed into a misconception where you have to
either choose to follow someone like DF or AC, and banish any other.
Freely read any or all. Some go as far as to label one good and the
other bad. Different systems can be wrong for one individual, but right
for another person. They come from the same source, though different
expressions, and seekers may gravitate to those they feel more in
tune with. Be guided from within, not propaganda.
I personally have seen Gnostics claim other Gnostic sects are
evil, while declaring to be the good sect, based solely on a slight
variation in ideology, not any perceived wrongdoing of its followers.
Then there are Wiccans claiming that Thelema is evil, without getting
the chance to know the contribution made by AC to Wicca.  People
like an “us” and “them” mentality, where only they are correct, so the
other must be a villain.  In this more modern age, it is hoped we can
move into a mature realm where we stop seeing “evil” behind every
corner, and accept that we do live in a dualistic world that must be
balanced within ourselves. It doesn’t mean we have to accept or
practice as another does, but to see the value in the freedom of
differences. As such, it is just as important to learn the history, the
disagreements, the contributions, and the teachings that work. It’s
about where we take this information into the future. As discussed,
sometimes change must happen.
Unfortunately, there still seems to be a lot of animosity between
the Golden Dawn splinter groups and Thelemites today, who
themselves have their own schism, and that is inevitable, as history
has shown us. On a positive note, new visionaries from future
generations will be called to step forward to keep the Work going
despite the conflict. Before that can be done, one must study and
learn the tradition that calls one to begin this journey. Know it in and
out. The schools of AC and DF will be laid out further in this book.
First, we need to touch on the question, what is the Western Mystery
Tradition?
 


CHAPTER 3
 
 
THE WESTERN MYSTERY TRADITION AND THELEMA
 
 
The Western Mystery Tradition pertains to the mysteries that arose out
of ancient religions and practices stemming from systems including
Greek/Eleusinian, Egyptian, Gnostic, Sumerian, and Celtic, to name a
few. Despite the hardships and uncertainties of life, there have always
been a select number of people who have contemplated our universe,
such as documenting the skies and the movement of stars. They
wanted answers to the most difficult questions, such as who am I and
what do I want? What is my purpose? These seekers turned to their
priests and priestesses for leadership, or sought oracles and
philosophers for guidance. From seeking to answer life’s questions,
myths arose to explain natural phenomenon, as well as various
creation stories. Over time, new gods and goddesses would
continually come into favour, while others faded away, as rituals were
created around them.
When the Greco-Roman public ceremonies had fallen into
disrepute, secret cults arose, open only to the worthy who underwent
special ordeals to prove their worthiness. The most famous were the
Mysteries celebrated at Eleusis, commemorating the worship of
Demeter and her daughter Persephone. Some of the oldest Mystery
traditions were Mithraism, the Orphic Mysteries, and the Egyptian cult
of Isis and Serapis. These traditions were handed down through trials
and initiation. Since then, secret societies have sought to preserve this
ancient wisdom through dark ages and persecution in order to keep
this lamp lit for those who choose to answer the call.
The ancient world, especially ancient Greece, provided a model
for our modern world, including in the areas of architecture, politics
and magick. They gave us mathematical advances as well as abstract
thought, and we have philosophers and scribes to thank for
documenting even the most obscure myths and ceremonies. Because
of this, the mysteries flourished even after old cultures died. This duty
of preservation was born of Man’s desire to understand who he is and
where he came from, as well as his purpose while on this earth, and it
drove him to discover his past through these stories from Man’s
earliest recollection.
Being observant, with a desire to understand his world, he also
studied the heavens and recorded solar, lunar and stellar
phenomena. He then pursued divination, astrology, and alchemy. Man
experimented with his world to unravel its secrets, and these ideas
spread, and we find that the highly educated of society over
generations were studying these ancient practices, where we later
come to John Dee and his pursuit of Enochiana. These ideas stayed
in dark corners for fear of the church, but the few would continue to
arise to preserve esoteric ideas. The Western Mystery Tradition of the
late 19th century onward did borrow some ideas from Helena Petrovna
Blavatsky, such as astral projection, psychism, and Eastern thought.
At the same time, Freemason, Rosicrucian, and other groups were
intermingling, with some of their members perfecting the art of
ceremonial magick, passing down arcane knowledge and performing
initiations to keep the chain going.  Eliphas Levi said, “that magic was
not so much a matter of saying the right incantation, or doing the right
ritual, but of identifying and tapping into the power behind all of these
things.”
Over time, we see that various mystery schools have come into
prominence and faded away such as the Aracadian cult of Despoina,
Cult of Attis, Cult of Cybele, Cult of Trophonius, Serapis, Dionysian,
Eleusian, Mithraic, and Orphic Mysteries, to name a few, and
researchers and secret societies preserved what they could, and we
might never know the extent of what was lost in the Library of
Alexandria, or through oral teachings no longer passed down or
remembered. What we have left is transmitted through various groups
or books of various reputations, some better than others, and many
still look to these sources for inspiration or enlightenment. Their
echoes from the past still ring through our souls.
 
 
            "What is the function of the qabalistic
interpretation of religion? This magic of which
both the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley
speak? If I say its goal is illumination or the
 expansion of consciousness, not much at first
may be gleaned from that. Yet "being brought
to the Light" is a most apt description of the
high goals of the system. It is the Great Work.
There is no ambiguity in the concept of the
Order Rituals as Crowley found them towards
the close of the nineteenth century."
Eye in the Triangle, Israel Regardie
 
The Golden Dawn is one of the well-known modern Mystery Schools
that was devoted to the study and practice of the occult and
metaphysics for spiritual development. Arising out of the Golden
Dawn, by Crowley, Thelema was established in 1904 with the writing
of the Book of the Law, and it is the goal of the Thelemite to realize his
divine nature and to carry out his True Will upon his course in life,
while championing freedom for himself and for all Men.  The Law of
Thelema can be summed up with these well-known words.
 
●                        “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the
Law” -- AL I:40 
●                       “Love is the law, love under will” -- AL I:57.
 
Thelema emphasizes personal effort, both mental and physical, as a
means of obtaining self-knowledge, and Aleister Crowley exemplifies
that, as he was an adventurer, explorer, and student of Yoga and
Tantra. From the East, he explored Taoism, Buddhism, and the I
Ching. He also pursued Western ideas of Gnosticism, Enochiana, and
the Greco-Egyptian mysteries, and then wrote voluminously about his
travels both within and without. To know oneself, one must go to the
core of one’s being and examine every facet. AC did this on every
plane he could reach, whether exploring mountain tops or scrying
Aethyrs. One needs that fire within himself, that drive to propel him
across the Abyss itself, and it must be his all-consuming passion or
the fire will give out and wither before he reaches that point. We all
must attempt to reach our own pinnacle that is set for each lifetime,
and that must be done deep within our being and by our own
experiments.
When I wrote my book, Vault of Babalon, I wondered if Dion
Fortune fans would be offended by my intermingling concepts from her
teachings with Thelemic ones, even though I personally see them as
lifted from the same wellspring. I also wondered if Thelemites would
sneer at my talk of fairies, though fairies are even mentioned in The
Book of the Law, and of course, are used as a literary tool to clothe
ideas. It seems that during his years at Cambridge, Crowley became
interested in Celtic ideas, and I can see how he would have meshed
with DF over this subject, when he wrote:
 
"Here was a romantic and mystical idea which
suited my political and religious notions to the
ground. It lived and moved in an atmosphere of
fairies, seal woman and magical operations.
Sacramentalism was kept in the foreground
and sin was regarded without abhorrence.
Chivalry and mystery were its pillars."[14]
 
These myths and fairy tales evoke the quest to explore dangerously
un-mapped and wild regions of ourselves, which we must reclaim and
bring under conscious control, so that the human mind can understand
the true nature of itself and the world around it. Add the Qabala and it
acts as a map to synthesize aspects of ourselves into a whole picture,
and Dion Fortune exemplifies that as well through her works. In her
fiction, her characters became transformed after confronting
imbalances and achieving a union of opposites; initiated by the
Goddess. Even Dion knew the value of pre-Christian Morgan Le Fay,
and she tried to place in our modern consciousness the truth that a
woman’s power is not to be feared, but embraced. The woman is all
power given and to bestow upon the man. Together, they complete the
circuit.
 
“His divine Essence fills the Daughter (the soul
of Man) and places her upon the Throne of the
Mother, fulfilling the Economy of the Universe,
and thus ultimately rewarding the Magician (the
Son) ten thousandfold.”
Magick in Theory and Practice
 
Those who want to pursue the Western Mystery Tradition will find
great value in reading both Fortune and Crowley, but there will be little
yield until one studies world history, myths, philosophy, world religions,
symbolism, etc. We each find what we are meant to find. Sometimes,
inner truths can be uncomfortable and it can be unsettling to break
thru a world we thought we knew. Where there is resistance, there is a
door that has yet to be opened. In the end, it is an individual journey
and eventually we need to wrestle any demons and push through the
walls of our own making.
We all start out looking for secrets, but unfortunately, no one can
give them to you despite what charlatans claim, except for providing a
few tools and a map. The digging must be done by you. This kind of
knowledge and wisdom comes from years of study and practice, and it
is not something you can learn at a high-priced seminar. It requires a
solid basis of data and theory, while constantly updating new
discoveries within. Compare and contrast everything from religions,
myths, to philosophies. In the end, Know Thyself.
It’s like being thrown into a labyrinth, not knowing which way to
turn, while running away from mythical monsters of our conscious
mind, and through all the scars and scrapes from the testing, you
reach a place where it is only you and the monster at last facing each
other. Wrestle him until layers and layers of yourself are undone, and
you can clearly see that he is you. The goal is the illumination and
expansion of your consciousness, which can be achieved by you
alone. A teacher can answer some questions and guide to a certain
point, but the rest is up to you, so come to the door of the Mysteries
and lay yourself bare. Anything you are afraid to see will be that
monster waiting to destroy you, so you have to be ready before you
open that door. It is all to do with: “The desire for light on the path of
spiritual development that ends in Divine union.” As Dion Fortune
noted.
If you hear the call, you will arrive at this door. Knock when
ready. Along the way, sometimes there is a lot of confusion and
misinformation and we take wrong turns. That is why there are schools
out there to point you in the right direction, if you find a reputable one.
It can take a long time of searching and even wasted years through
correspondence courses, lodges, lectures, camp outs, etc., to discover
where you belong, even if that means being solitary. Sometimes, in
our misguided awe, we even put our teachers on pedestals, when they
can lead one astray from his true voice. Heed your gut, and before
undertaking anything, ask yourself, is this my will to do this?
 In the end, it’s about your destiny. Learn what you can and get
active. Put your hands in it, as well as your voice. Take from the old,
such as what works and is relevant to the future. Only by
experimenting will you know what that is. The Western Mystery
Tradition is deep with a lot of avenues to traverse. As long as you
never stop pursuing, you will eventually find the correct path, and
some of the detours even beneficial.
For me, I find that Thelema provides an avenue to express all
that I have learned so far through self-discovery and analysis. It is free
of superstition and the fluff bogging down other traditions, and it
provides a direction forward, as it requires each person to actively
participate upon his own strength and ingenuity or he won’t get far.
Anyone willing to put in effort will get out exactly what he puts into it.  
How can we talk about Thelema and not mention sex? This is
where the division seems to occur in the magickal world, whether in
some Gnostic groups or the Golden Dawn, who wrestle with the topic,
so a brief look is important.
 
Sex Magick
 
      “[T]he detestable mysteries of sex were
transformed into joy and beauty. The obsession
of sin fell from my shoulders into the sea of
oblivion.”
                                                               The Confessions of Aleister
Crowley
 
In our dysfunctional society, this topic tends to either attract or repulse,
as talking about sex makes some people uncomfortable, as if people
are so removed from their own nature that they fear or detest it. Sex is
often seen as immoral and evil. I’ve even seen members in the Golden
Dawn recently arguing if sex magick was ever used by its members,
and so maybe the cloud of secrecy has done too much damage over
time, though some seem to be standing up for the truth and not afraid
to do so. Some still want to say that Maiya or DF did not practice sex
magick, and I say it’s time to return their power to them and to not
remove this vital part of their being.
 It seems when portraying the memory or the myth DF has
become, over her real self which we may never know, she was
circumcised by those who wanted to control her image to keep her
“good.” There is no shame in being a sexual person, and we need to
remove the lies and chains cast upon us all by the dark ages of
superstition religions, in order to be free; free of oppression or
alienation from our own bodies by society, who wants us shameful and
fearful. If one cannot handle those who follow the axiom “know thyself”
by unearthing every shadow alongside the light, while throwing off the
shackles of a repressed society that proclaims that a woman’s
sexuality is shameful and evil, then maybe one isn’t ready to pursue
Thelema.
 
“The Book of the Law solves the sexual
problem completely. Each individual has an
absolute right to satisfy his sexual instinct as is
physiologically proper for him.”      
-        Crowley, Confessions, 874-75; cf. The Law is
for All, 51.
 
 
I think we owe a lot to AC. It’s about time someone had the guts to say
these things, brave indeed, especially in the time period they were
written.  A sexual revolution was bound to eventually happen, though it
seems after the 1960’s has past, occultists in some groups still tip toe
around the subject or avoid it altogether. As it’s not the main topic of
this book, it will only be gleaned at, but one can see from the following
quote why it might be worth thinking about.
 
          “If this secret [of sexual magic], which is
a scientific secret, were perfectly understood,
as it is not by me after more than twelve years'
almost constant study and experiment, there
would be nothing which the human imagination
can conceive that could not be realized in
practice.”
The Confessions of Aleister Crowley
 
How should one go about studying sex magick? Start with a book
such as Tantra for Westerners by Francis King or one of similar nature
to get basic ideas down. Start learning the symbols. When reading any
book on this subject, pay attention to the terms, such as the example
below. Write what it means to you. Dissect the language. As Crowley
noted in The Book of Lies:
 
“Shiva, the Destroyer, is asleep, and when he
opens his eye the universe is destroyed...But
the "eye" of Shiva is also his Lingam [phallus].
Shiva is himself the Mahalingam, which unites
these symbolisms. The opening of the eye, the
ejaculation of the Lingam, the destruction of the
universe, the accomplishment of the Great
Work --all these are different ways of saying
the same thing.”
 
 
Besides your run of the mill Tantra books, look to the esoteric as well.
Start with understanding the tarot or read The Chymical Wedding.
Explore encoded language and use your intuition to discover what it is
saying to you. Look at the ideas of women being lunar and men being
solar, or write down your own interpretation for Babalon and the Beast.
Sex magick isn’t just about the physical, but an internal reconciliation
of opposites. Calling it sexual alchemy is a better way to say it. In our
society, we seemed to have removed all that is sacred and beautiful
from our ideas about sex, and that is why some assume sex magick is
prurient.  If some were too look a little closer, they might seem
differently, as far as those who have a problem with this, and see the
sacred, just as Crowley did. Just as Dion did. As for Crowley, he was
working through taboos, the time period in which he lived in, and
dealing with after effects of what happened to him at school, so his
journey was his own to process, just as ours is.
 
            [T]he science of the sexual magic is
the key to the development and the
underlying secret of all Masonic symbols.…
[I]t is certain that the sexual question has
 become the most burning question of our
time. –
Theodor Reuss, "Mysteria Mystica Maxima"[15] [43]
 
Maybe now, we can have these lost secrets returned to us. We can act
like responsible adults who handle our own natures, while also never
coercing another in regard to their nature, but each free to pursue his
or her own sexuality without force or intimidation. If women are going
to come to their full potential, I think it needs to be through respect and
the uplifting of her. Objectifying women or chaining women to
consumer fads of beauty only keeps women from discovering her own
power, and only when she is in full control of her own power could she
possibly hope to aid in its direction. Such a woman would be a
kingmaker and not a slave of society.
 
           “The sexual act is a sacrament of Will.
To profane it is the great offense. All true
expression of it is lawful; all suppression or
distortion of it is contrary to the Law of
liberty.”
Crowley, The Law is for All[16] [44]
 
We can’t talk about sex magick without mentioning Paschal Beverly
Randolph, as he was possibly the first person to bring the principles of
sex magick to North America, and according to A. E. Waite, also
establishing the earliest known Rosicrucian order in the United States.
[17]
In the course of his travels in the Middle East, Randolph claimed to
have been initiated by Fakirs, alluded to have been a branch of the
Nusa'iri -- a group allegedly practicing Gnostic sexual rituals. After
returning to the United States, he began to teach what he learned
such as, at the moment of orgasm, a couple is opened to the powers
of the cosmos, and that whatever they Will shall be accomplished
upon the moment of intense mutual orgasm. That might cover a wide
range of physical or spiritual aims.
Randolph's teachings are said to have influenced the Ordo
Templi Orientis (which was inspired by Karl Kellner, and later founded
by Theodor Reuss), as Randolph’s writings reached Europe possibly
through the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, started by Max Theon and
Peter Davidson in the 1880’s. This group often doesn’t get much
credit. Central to their teaching was the polarity of male and female
energies that not only create the universe, but unites man and angel.
Dion Fortune herself was very interested in polarity and the circuit of
force, and her writings will relay this.
This is what the O.T.O. had to say in Oriflamme in 1904: "Our
Order possesses the Key which unlocks all Masonic and Hermetic
secrets, it is the teaching of sexual magic and this teaching explains
all the riddles of nature, all Masonic symbolism and all religious
systems."
The first six degrees are said to be based on Masonic initiation,
while the seventh, eighth, and ninth degrees are phallic, auto-erotic,
and heterosexual, and the eleventh is homosexual. During the sexual
act, one focuses upon will and imagination upon the goal when
achieving orgasm. The sexual fluids may then anoint a talisman or
used in Cakes of Light. Unlike the O.T.O., Randolph saw sex as a
sacrament between married couples with moral undertones.  Note,
Dion Fortune considered “marriage” as applying to Adepts working
together.
De Arte Magicka should be of interest to those studying the IX
degree rite, and the following letter from 1916 details some of AC’s
knowledge from Tantra sources.
 
      “It appears that a special set of nadis [nerves]
fed the Muladhara lotus as if it had three roots. The
source of these roots is in the three centres...Buy
they are not lotuses of the same order as the
sacred Seven...
The anal lotus is of eight petals, deep
crimson, glowing to rich poppy color when
excited...
The prostatic lotus is like a peridot, extremely
translucent and limpid...The petals are numerous, I
think thirty-two.
The third lotus is in the glans penis, close to
the base...It is of a startlingly rich purple...The
centre is gold like the sun…
 In the female… these three lotuses also exist,
but in a very different form...[T]he second of the
chakras is situated between the urethra and the
cervix uteri...[I]ts color is neutral grey but in
pregnancy it becomes a brilliant orange and
flowerlike...
The third lotus is at the base of the clitoris...
The petals are forty-nine in number…The basic
color is a rich olive green, sometimes kindling to
emerald
                                                     Kenneth G rant, The
Magical Revival,  82-3.
 
Brother Curwen , Brother Crowley. A Correspondence recounts
Crowley's correspondence with David Curwen, who studied Tantra in
South India. According to Grant's account, Crowley was annoyed that
Curwen had a vast, and possibly greater knowledge about Tantra, and
even Crowley admitted, "Curwen knows 100 times as much as I do
about Tantra. But I do not advise it." And of course, Curwen told AC
that Dion considered herself a follower of Crowley, though he later
took that back when he got mad at him.
What one learns from reading Crowley is that he saw orgasm,
just like a drug experience, as a means to push oneself to extreme
exhaustion in order to dissolve into the infinite, beyond limitation.
 
     “As man loses his personality in physical love,
so does the magician annihilate his divine
personality in that which is beyond.
In love the individuality is slain...Love death
therefore, and long eagerly for it.
Love destroyeth self...Love breedeth All and
None in One”
                                                                                         
         The Book of Lies
 
From the Gnostic Church of L.V.X. website:
“One easy way to think about polarity is in the law of attraction. 
And attraction is the measure of the bond of love that is taught in Liber
AL as the only thing, which can unite the divided.  The formula of ON
includes two other lesser formulas; BABALON as employed by the
Scarlet Woman and ABRAHADABRA as employed by the Beast. 
These two magnetically polarized congregants ultimately connect on
four planes, which are composed of seven bodies throughout.  On the
Tree-of-Life, the four planes have connecting points for the two
operators and are demarked specifically as the Tower Atu, the Lust
Atu, the Empress Atu and Kether.  But the beginnings of the formula of
ON exclusively employs the path that connects Hod with Netzach (the
Tower Atu).
ABRAHADABRA is specifically mentioned by Liber AL to be the
Key of the Rituals.  And yet the formula of BABALON is not only
essential to the formula of ON, but without it, the formula of
ABRAHADABRA loses the dimension of practical application on a
mundane level (the earth; Babalon).  We can deduce in 'Silence', a
certain key that explains why the formula of BABALON is not overtly
delineated in the Book of the Law.  However, both formulas have been
actively explored by our predecessors and the field notes are slowly
becoming extant.  Kenneth Grant is a leading exponent in this regard
and has developed ideas on experiments begun by both Aleister
Crowley and Dion Fortune.”
 
No man creates in a vacuum, and that’s why we are celebrating AC
and DF, and seeing the connections, and hoping to inspire others to
carry the work forward.
 
*
 
Where to start from a practice sense? Work with your partner to kindle
electricity, bed to the East, altar in the West. Consecrate each other.
Adore the phallus as if the Phallus of Asar, and in joy, let the eternal
waters flow, finding immortality for yourselves. May the L.V.X. manifest
in the Night of Pan, and this sacrament be communicated from one to
other.
Let this energy build and pulsate, seeing it as light radiating to every
cell. At the peak of ecstasy, picture your body in your mind, created in
light, vibrating it into existence through the sensations along with the
image you are trying to hold. Declare your intent until all turning black
…nothingness...as a sacrifice to Nuit. Anoint a symbol with the
combined fluids, if one wishes. Think no more of it. Let that intent be
as laid in the womb, growing into a Magickal Child who will birth in
time. Document your experience and any results.
 
The following is from my book Traversing the Scarlet Path:
 
The VII degree is a solar/phallic ritual wherein the phallus is worshipped; whereas,
the Scarlet Woman will need to approach this a little differently. She is all power
given, Pangenetor, "all-begetter.” Her womb is the house of the sun, the Holy Grail.
She gives form to the male energy she receives in her womb. She accepts the
phallus/sperm/creative force, which she manifests into the Magicakal child. His will
becomes her will, and her will becomes his will, and her womb brings that forth.
 
“And I believe in one Earth, the Mother of us all, and in one Womb wherein all men
are begotten, and wherein they shall rest, Mystery of Mystery, in Her name
BABALON.” —Aleister Crowley
 
Before you do this lesson, ask yourself, who am I? What is my will? Babalon creates
motive. What is your motive? What do want to give form to?
 


VIIth Degree
Solar-Phallic Worship
 
On the altar, place solar-phallic Crucifix surrounded by 6 candles.
 
Spend the time fasting, and meditate on the Chariot Atu of Thoth. The sun god is
Apollo, god of light, prophecy, healing, and truth. But, you as a woman, are the
moon; whereas, this degree was written for men. That is the conundrum, or is it? I
asked Paul Joseph Rovelli about it, and said you can still worship the phallus, and
do so as the throne of Isis, where you are that which gives the pharaoh his power. To
do that, take the light within you, that he brings you, and then radiate it back out onto
the world. Picture your womb as a shrine to the sun.
 
You may wish to create a symbol to express your will, that which you seek to grow
and to manifest. Once fashioned, write an oath to yourself to proclaim your
commitment.
 
To start with, do a banishing, light the candles, begin your foreplay, slowly arousing
each other, while feeling the heat of desire as the heat of the sun, its rays vibrating
through you with vivacity. You are the moon, saying to the sun:
 
“I love Thee, I love Thee. / Every breath, every word, every thought, every deed is an
act of love with Thee. / The beat of my heart is the pendulum of love. / The songs of
me are the soft sighs: / The thoughts of me are very rapture: / And my deeds are the
myriads of Thy children, the stars and the atoms. / Let there be nothing! / Let all
things drop into this ocean of love! / Be this devotion a potent spell to exorcise the
demons of the Five! / Ah God, all is gone! Thou dost consummate Thy rapture.
“(Liber VII, 5:21-30)
Once both fully aroused, imagine yourself offering the womb of Isis to the sun, as a
temple in which to house it, and say:
 
“To love you is better than all things. I invoke you with a pure heart, and the Serpent
flame therein. For one kiss I am willing to give all.” (AL I:61)

When his phallus is within you, radiating light therein, think of it as growing your will
as in the Chariot card. “ The Chariot stands for combined powers, ready to move
forward. It represents the dynamic principle and the human will to proceed, the ability
to use the powers of life and keep the outer and inner balance.”
 
She is ever the moon, and he the sun, and they become conjoined. They are one.
As you are conjoined, bring the energy from your womb up your spine to mind’s eye,
translate that to male, who brings it down to spine…the cycle of On (Devil-
Ayin/Death-Nun as taught in Seventh Degree). Then focus your minds on the symbol
you have chosen (sun, holy grail, throne of Isis), and send that image to his mind as
you orgasm, until your mind goes black. Anoint the symbol with your fluids.
 
In my book Thelemic Syzygy, I include some of mine and Paul’s
personal correspondence such as, leading to the VIII degree practice:
11/8
Yes my dear…it is the nature of Qabalistic work…the energy flows down from the
divine to the superiors in the order…this energy is light and love…and it is given
to the lodge, church or lineage…those receiving that light (from the Secret
Chiefs) are the elders of the lodge…the Priest and Priestess of the church; their
conjugal union birthing all its operations…and the lodge members or
congregation or students of the lineage receive this light…and they pass it onto
those who would follow them…each one turning upwards to the divine…to imitate
the divine by giving light in the same way…and then becoming the divine!  This is
the nature of qabalistic practice.
If you understand this, you understand much…and the stories that make the
mythos…as we design the sanctuary of the church…we will tell the story of
Babalon astride the Beast…and mothers will tell their children; ennobling the
daughters of men in the ways of Our Lady…and fathers will tell their children;
initiating the sons of light into the mysteries of the Beast.  Joy and Beauty will
flow from this and a community will be birthed as the Magickal Childe of our
Love.  As we see this, our love can only grow!
I loved talking with you before…it was really great to feel you getting a little more
comfortable with me on the phone.
I hope we get to do this much more and soon…I want to know you so well when we
meet; that we can talk about 10,000 more things.
And when we cover them, we’ll find 10,000 more…I’m real ‘deep’ a lot—but that’s
just a part of me…that’s why I talked about cards and games today.
My love, I really feel like you’re bringing me a new opportunity on life and joy…and in
my last go-round, I wasn’t so mindful…a bit stupid emotionally.
And maybe I’ve a bit more to learn…but I want you to know that I love life in the back
yard…the BBQ…or around the kitchen table; coffee, tea…whatever…
And I know you know what I mean…I know there’s a lonely soul in you from your
own difficulties and more than being mindful about you, I’m gonna do all I can to
make sure that you feel this as well…that your heart will always know I’m there, as
you snuggle in my heart.
Today, I imagined a wedding; I put a gold band on your finger; commemorating a
sun…for as in AL, it says that he is ever a sun.
And I imagined you put a silver band on my finger…again, as AL teaches…she is
ever a moon.
In this way, I carry you with my heart and I give myself that you carry me with your
heart. And that is but a commemoration of the mystical marriage.
For we are already melding.
And my darling…I know you chose me
And you made me love you…
And you gave me joy…
And I have these kisses for you…
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11/9
I loved talking to you too, and I want to snuggle in your heart, so lets meld, merge and
kiss, and work towards that vision.
 
Could I ever have really thought my love…that one could come along and capture me the way
that you have?
Yes, my sweet Melissa…I have dreamed of this…and I’ve been in love before…though I’m
want to remember those women in your love.
 
I just can’t…their names seem to escape in the way that their hearts have vanished from my
life…and truly, all I have left of them is the wisdom that has brought me to you.  I made a
strong enough decision in that just taking what I could get was not good enough anymore for
me…but that I needed better emotional standards for myself and the people in my life.  And I
began a process of screening and cutting in order to push away the old world of dysfunction to
create space for wholesomeness.  This is a place in my heart that has been well prepared for
you!—Your heart is honest and wise; your intellect, feverishly absorbent and your spirit is filled
with passion; so much so, that we needn’t list the bad qualities in most, and almost all women
today.  You have set yourself apart in a strident way and truly you are She that I adore.
And you are the only one that I adore and can ever adore; a soul am I that found its other half
—my whole life being but a preparation for you and as I know your whole life has been so for
me.  We have a thousand lifetimes yet to run through and we’ve travelled a thousand lifetimes
to be here today; each of us collecting experience to bring to the other; each time, becoming
that much more whole when we are together.  And would that it now be time that our union be
permanent that we will yet bring an even greater infinity into our love.
 
AL:I.28  "None, breathed the light, faint & faery, of the stars, and two."             
AL:I.29  "For I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union."       
AL:I.30  "This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the
joy of dissolution all."
 
11/14
Oh my darling let me do this dance
the thought of you bidding me en-trance
that we might tangle in the ancient way
how I greet the dawn of this new day
 
Oh my darling make this day my increase
that the dream of life in us will never cease
built upon the wisdom in each our past
and to the love of life at last!
 
11/14
Another evening gone and the day is done…one more day gone, of those days that yet
keep us apart.
 
until tomorrow…I’ll hold you in my heart as I sleep…I hope you’ve some time after work to
chill…shut your eyes w/a glass of wine and feel the stars raining down on your body…feel
your body herself….a firmament of stars.  Love flows within you and without you…within
me and without me.
whisper….my Darling
whisper again…my Darling
yet again…Darling
zzzzzzzzzz
 
11/15
My Darling One…I gotta tell you…I don’t see you as fragile at all…quite the
opposite…very strong, indeed.
Your voice is soft and sweet; your heart is yearning and open; but I am not fooled by
these things by thinking that these make you vulnerable.
Again my Love…quite the opposite…these things add to your strength.  And there is
physical strength to you too…you’re not prissy; though you voice might make it seem
so.  But it seems to me there also, you’re used to holding back and not trying to
overshadow your man…there’s a hidden strength in your voice as well.

My Darling…a link I made with you in the aether this evening…I have been hard at
work in waking my body up to you…my mind and heart moving so much faster…and
the funk my body has had to endure for so long.  In your feelings…feel my khu this
evening…I have found some magick to match my other efforts and I have kindled
electricity between us this night…in my vision, we were in our abbai and in our
sacred temple…bed to the East…altar in the West; where we consecrate each other
and bring the eternal waters to our church…finding immortality for ourselves.
My Phallus was the Phallus of Asar and you did adore it.
And you took me into yourself and we spoke the secret words; fully consecrated and
in our ceremonial bed.
My Phallus was the Phallus of Asar and you did adore it.
And thus did the L.V.X. manifest in the Night of Pan that the sacrament was ready to
be communicated.
And it was communicated…and firmly affixed to the church building itself; that even
its image in our minds will hold the seed of our bud-Will.
That this operation will be and that which you began yourself, yesterday, will prove to
be the start of a hastened process.
All is at our ready.
Agape (divine love) for you; my Scarlet Woman
Ba’al
xo
 
From me to Paul:
My Love, Ba'al, this brings me great joy...I live for this...for you...
You take my breath away, reading your words, knowing this will all be real...picturing this in
my mind...feeling your khu...
Love, your Scarlet Woman, Ashtoreth?
xo
 
I Like Ashtoreth a lot…How could Ba’al feel otherwise?...and so Good Morning
my Darling-Ashtoreth!
Your magickal link to yourself is first and paramount…and you are in the middle of a
major transition in your life.
With this you have come to realize that this path is important to you…so focus on
raising your magickal energy in yourself…feel it pour into each and every cell of your
body as a light the emerges from the very ecstasy of your orgasm.  In that moment,
see your entire body in your mind’s eye…the astral body that is yours to formulate…
that will be that which starts with the image of your physical body that the orgasm
helps you to feel in its totality…and wash yourself in the wave of ecstasy; losing your
consciousness  entirely, as a sacrifice unto to Nuit…that petit morte (little death) that
is orgasm.
xo
 
 
 
From me to Paul:
I aroused myself, letting the energy build and pulsate, radiating to every cell, "seeing" it as
light. At the peak of ecstasy, I tried to picture my body in my mind, created in light,
vibrating it into existence through the sensations along with the image, and for a second or
two, I imagined myself with you (though that wasn't a part of what I was intending, I
couldn't help it, my mind would go there), until I couldn't hold the image, it all turning
black...not sure lost consciousness, but an all-encompassing darkness for several
moments...nothingness...as a sacrifice to Nuit.
I feel the best I have felt in years...I feel wonderful.
xo
 
1/12/13
A brilliant beginning…!!!  Bringing the focus to me…the Beast (Phallus/Sun) is as
if honoring the Hadit that is your Star.  The image of me that you see is that
idealization…that god.  But then in the final throes of ecstasy…you should lose
that concentration…before making that final run (sotospeak), declare your
image/intent and then make the mind-losing final run as the sacrifice of energy
unto that image.  Then afterwards, bask in the awareness of successfully
charging that image…and note how wonderful you feel…this is the energy
returning to you and completing the circuit.
The losing of consciousness and sacrifice unto Nuit…marvelous!!!
You’ve started nicely practicing the VIII Degree rite my Love…just wonderful.
xo
 
11/23/2012
Yes, my dear…I hope that we can begin this wonderful journey together
(yesterday!).
 
It’s one of beauty and grace and we’ll both have much to learn here.
I got the theory down…that’s about it…need your help for more.
So I need you as you need me.
J
 
2/11/13, to Paul,

And I long to see you....especially days when I can see your bare chest and your strong
arms....makes me swoon....
And your eyes...devilishly sexy and full of light....
M xo
 
2/15/13
My Darling One…tonight I was able to work an VIII Degree rite with you as my object of
the goddess.
Even in my preparation for this earlier today, I came up w/an anagram for you: MBA
(Melissa Babalon Ashtoreth).
I am using this for you in my diary; so joyous that you are bringing all of this Magick out of
me.
The object of my work is to ensure that we can begin the work of the church.
I really feel like I am finding some vitalization that I had lost; learning to move my energy
again.
And perhaps I’m lost in my present enthusiasm, but I just now feel so strongly that I will be
more than I ever was.
p.s. I love you!
xo
 
Sweet Dreams tonight!
 
(Same date)
That I can bring magick out in you makes me exquisitely happy, want to assist you with the
work of the church and see you fulfill every dream in our deepest ecstasy...and I love
you...and in that love I hope you are vitalized...and eternally joyous.
MBA xo
 
2/17/13 me to paul
It will...I feel this work is already a part of me...a part of my consciousness, becoming a
part of my way of thinking, a part of my feelings, my desire, my goals...merging with
yours...how beautiful is that…
*
 
For other info, await our diaries one day.
 
Some dispute that Dion Fortune or her mentor Maiya had an interest
in Thelema, or their extent of practising sex magick, and it is
imperative to the integrity of our traditions that history be preserved
and not distorted to the best of our abilities. Read “Talking to the
Gods.” Which leads us to ask:
 
Where is Thelema today? 
 
       “Religion must be re-stated in the new age,
not because truth has changed, but because the
manner of its expression has become atavistic
and in consequence is not only incomprehensible
but definitely leads astray a new age with a new
destiny.”
Dion Fortune, War Letter No 67, 30th March 1941
 
 
AC didn’t want to create a flock of mindless robots giving lip service.
There is so much room to grow. Maybe some new ideas will work.
Maybe some won’t, but we need the opportunity to add to the overall
picture. Again, from AC writing in Liber O: “These rituals need not be
slavishly imitated; on the contrary, the student should do nothing the
object of which he does not understand; also, if he have any capacity
whatever, he will find his own crude rituals more effective than the
highly polished ones of other people.”
People build onto a system with their own mark, which can be
creative and adding to the experience. When learning to write one’s
own rituals, one might study from the system they follow to get an idea
of the basics behind it. I base the following ritual on the Mass of the
Phoenix. I wrote it to celebrate my own imagination while trying to put
my touch on it to feel connected to it, but more like a piece of art. As I
don’t want followers, I’m not advocating anyone do any rituals I write
outside a realm of experimentation or curiosity. That person should
write their own for themselves as part of the learning process, and
putting some magickal work of themselves forward. It is about us all
feeling connected and inspiring one another to keep the lamp lit.
There’s room for all us to add our brush strokes, and maybe some of it
will last, while some of it fades.
 
The Rite of Immortality
 
       “For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead
shall rise incorruptible and we shall be changed.
For this corruptible body must put on
incorruption, and this mortal body must put on
immortality.”
I Corinthians XV.52-53
 
Need: chalice, 2 Cakes of Light, Elixir Rubeus. Perhaps adorn altar
with lilies or lotuses. Note the words in The Book of Thoth: "She rides
astride the Beast; in her left hand, she holds the reins, representing
the passion which unites them. In her right she holds aloft the cup, the
Holy Grail aflame with love and death. In this cup are mingled the
elements of the sacrament of the Aeon."
 
Begin by doing the Star Ruby and then return to altar, where you
placed the cakes of light and chalice (the womb of Babalon) which
holds several drops of the Elixir Rubeus. Intone:
 
      “By the Bread and the Cup, therefore
masculine and feminine powers of the Universe
are symbolically commingled together. This is
then a formula of regeneration or resurrection;
immortality. The idea of death is the surrender
of the self to the ‘beloved’…Hadit to Nuit.” [Paul
Joseph Rovelli]
 
Raise the cup and say:
"For as thy blood is mingled in the cup of BABALON, so is thine
heart the universal heart.” – [Aleister Crowley]
Now use your own words or that of a poet’s about the power of
the Elixir of Life, such as sample below.
“O the elixir! He who is restored to life by you, is never afraid of
death.” (Rubais, 192)
 
Raise Cakes of Light, and say, I name you the beginning and the end,
life and death, the material basis of the holographic universe of which I
am not bound, but transmuted by life-giving Star-Fire and Red Lion on
my journey towards the City of the Pyramids. ("However, Babalon is
just on the other side, beckoning. If the adept gives himself totally to
her—the symbol of this act being the pouring of the adept’s blood into
her graal — he becomes impregnated in her, then to be reborn as a
Master of the Temple and a saint that dwells in the City of the
Pyramids."—Magick Without Tears)
Draw with the elixir (also called effluvium of Babalon) a circle with
a dot in the center on each cake. Pick one up and say:
6. “I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the
core of every star. I am Life, and the giver of Life, yet therefore is the
knowledge of me the knowledge of death.” -Liber Al vel Legis
Burn one cake.
Raise the other and say: Vehicle of light and immortality, the
blood flows through my body. I shall not wither and become a shell as
are the vampires[18] in the Old Aeon. In this blood is the force that
sustains me, and so it shall.
Eat the other cake, let it strengthen your Vehicle of Light. Aum!
Let it fill me!
53. “This shall regenerate the world, the little world my sister, my
heart & my tongue, unto whom I send this kiss. Also, o scribe and
prophet, though thou be of the princes, it shall not assuage thee nor
absolve thee. But ecstasy be thine and joy of earth: ever To me! To
me!”
Go forth:
          "ABRAHADABRA.

I entered in with woe; with mirth

I now go forth, and with thanksgiving,

To do my pleasure on the earth

Among the legions of the living."

                                       Mass of the Phoenix.
 
 
More and more Thelemites are writing, doing art, making music and
films. This also adds to the work started by Aleister Crowley, and one
wonders what he would think of his legacy blooming in this day and
age, or even where it will end up in the next age? I am excited to see
what grows and branches out.
 Let more come forward! Even though I’ve seen many women
complain Thelema has no place for them other than a pre-defined role
of aiding a man in his enlightenment while it doesn’t offer the depth
they need to their own attaining, which is harking back to the idea that
both the O.T.O. and A.’.A.’. were designed for men, I think one should
be guiding his/her own ship and forage ahead to ascertain what you
need to fulfill your Will. Take that responsibility into your hands.  I say
this: The task is available for women of this generation to make
contributions to Thelema that haven’t been envisioned before, and
perhaps needing to be worked out by the visionaries of today, and to
add to the greater understanding of how we can carry out our Work to
the benefit of all involved. Instead of throwing one’s hands up and
walking away, why not offer the answer? I see some new Thelemites
who are doing just that!
 
As for me, I look to women like Iona Miller, Erica Cornelius,
Helen Kirkby, and a few others, and see them as paving the way.
There are of course many men adding to Thelema too, and there are
many works to study. Some noteworthy names hold a lot of sway,
while new ones are testing their voices. Thelema is a small world, and
many are rising by their own bootstraps along the better known,
brother beside brother. It makes me eager to see what the future
brings. I get excited to see new writings and books being published.
Though it is said that Thelema is for the few, the few shine bright. I
saw Patrick Alfons Cyriel Bloos and his Temple of Nvit-Isis, giving a
place for poets, writers, artists, and musicians to showcase their talent
and message, but sadly passed away too young. I also watch those in
the Gnostic Church of L.V.X., and have high expectations from some
of them. I think the 93 Current will be in good hands from many in the
periphery, and I can’t name them all, but let’s see what evolves.
Thelema began with Crowley, but its not only about Crowley, and
there’s room for all of us.
Here are some words left by Jack Parsons in his The Woman
Girt With a Sword to inspire you:
 
       “But be not sad, my beloved. Be joyous and
unafraid. For within you is the song that shall
shatter the silence, the flame that will burn away
 the dross,” and “But there is an end, and a
beginning and the beginning and all the future is
with you. For you are the mother of the new race,
the redeemer and lover of the new men, the men
that shall be free.”
 
 


CHAPTER 4
 

PRETERNATURAL CONTACTS
“My observation, of the Universe convinces me that there are beings
of intelligence and power of a far higher quality than anything we can
conceive of as human; that they are not necessarily based on the
cerebral and nervous structures that we know, and that the one and
only chance for
mankind to advance as a whole is for individuals to make contact with
such Beings.”
                                                                                                   -Aleister
Crowley
 
 
In this chapter, we are going to look at a few of the entities that
Crowley interacted with.  One of those will be the author of Liber Al vel
Legis; this is the Holy Book Crowley obtained from the preternatural
contact, Aiwass, through his wife Rose, in Cairo, in 1904.  Liber Al vel
Legis, the Book of the Law, proclaims a new age for humanity. During
the Aeon of Horus, man looks inward for enlightenment. This is in
contrast to the age of Osiris, in which man looked to religious leaders
to teach him about the divine. In seeking that connection, ourselves,
we reach into the unknown to see what inhabits the expanse of the
universe, whether within or without. There are varying ideas about
preternatural contacts, so we’ll look at Crowley’s experiences and
decide for ourselves what their sources are. Some say Aiwass was
part of AC’s mind; others believe differently. We’ll also take a look at a
few of his workings for contrast.  No matter their source, preternatural
beings have a profound effect on those they contact and/or work
through, especially when the goal is the elevation of Mankind, which
Crowley’s work exemplifies.  
      According to Crowley, the first appearance of Aiwass was during
the three days of the writing of Liber Al vel Legis. Chapter I: "Behold! it
is revealed by Aiwass the minister of Hoor-paar-kraat" (AL I:7). In the
later-written Liber 418, the voice of the 8th Aethyr says "my name is
called Aiwass," Crowley described the encounter in detail in The
Equinox of the Gods.[19]
“The Voice of Aiwass came apparently from over my left shoulder,
from the furthest corner of the room. It seemed to echo itself in my
physical heart in a very strange manner, hard to describe. I have
noticed a similar phenomenon when I have been waiting for a
message fraught with great hope or dread. The voice was
passionately poured, as if Aiwass were alert about the time- limit  ...
The voice was of deep timbre, musical and expressive, its tones
solemn, voluptuous, tender, fierce or aught else as suited the moods
of the message. Not bass  – perhaps a rich tenor or baritone. The
English was free of either native or foreign accent, perfectly pure of
local or caste mannerisms, thus startling and even uncanny at first
hearing. I had a strong impression that the speaker was actually in the
corner where he seemed to be, in a body of "fine matter," transparent
as a veil of gauze, or a cloud of incense-smoke. He seemed to be a
tall, dark man in his thirties, well-knit, active and strong, with the face
of a savage king, and eyes veiled lest their gaze should destroy what
they saw. The dress was not Arab; it suggested Assyria or Persia, but
very vaguely. I took little note of it, for to me at that time Aiwass was
an "angel" such as I had often seen in visions, a being purely astral.”
That passage would suggest an entity separate from himself, and we’ll
see how he changes his mind over the years. By chance, I stumbled
across the winter 2011 edition of the journal Magic Ritual, and
Witchcraft, which contained an article by Marco Pasi, who attempts to
explain how Crowley viewed these contacts, including his Holy
Guardian Angel, at different times in his life, as well as the validity he
ascribed to them. He points out the AC gave them a psychological
interpretation, while at other times they seem to be separate from his
being. The article cites the introductory essay to the Goetia, where AC
points out that it is irrelevant if these demons and spirits actually exist,
as they can be seen as parts of our brains. On the other hand, AC
also used the aid of Scarlet Women to contact discarnate entities, and
even then, one may ask whether it was a projection of the Scarlet
Woman’s unconscious mind or a separate being? To solve that
problem, AC approached a working like a scientist by testing the
information coming forth from the seer to verify its validity.  We see
that Crowley establishes initial contact with entities such as Aiwass
through his wife Rose and the writing of The Book of the Law, or
through other magickal partners during a working to contact an
intelligence. AC would then ask questions that she couldn’t have
possibly have known the answer to, in order to authenticate the
contacts, as a man of science would do, and then document his
findings. After this initial contact through the woman, he would then
pursue his own link with the “being.” As for Aiwass, Crowley viewed
him differently throughout his life, first as discarnate entity, and then
evolved into Crowley’s HGA. At one point, he says in Liber Aba, "no
forger could have prepared so complex a set of numerical and literal
puzzles.” He also says, “We are forced to conclude that the author of
The Book of the Law is an intelligence both alien and superior to
myself, yet acquainted with my inmost secrets; and, most important
point of all, that this intelligence is discarnate." For contrast, let us look
at The Cosmic Doctrine to see how Dion Fortune viewed interacting
with these discarnate entities from her personal experience. As a
medium, she often worked with inner-plane contacts, and here, she
wrote about her insights into these sources.
“I feel that I am the last person to be able to form an opinion as the
nature of the experiences here recorded. To determine whether they
are what they purport to be, or whether they are dissociated
complexes of my own subconscious mind, is not quite such a simple
problem as either believers or scoffers might think. If these
communications are not received from discarnate entities, then I must
be utilizing certain little-known capacities of the human mind. The
communicators make statements on these points, and these are
appended, but of course their statements on these pointes, and these
are appended, but of course their statement cannot be regarded as
evidence. I know, however, that I could not have written any work at
the pace at which this was produced.”[20]
Similarly, Crowley writes in his Confessions: "I was bound to admit that
Aiwass had shown a knowledge of the Cabbala immeasurably
superior to my own"  
       Dissimilarly, Crowley also spoke of Aiwass in symbolic terms. In
The Law is for All, he writes of Aiwass: "In his absolute innocence and
ignorance he is The Fool; he is the Saviour, being the Son who shall
trample on the crocodiles and tigers, and avenge his father Osiris.
Thus, we see him as the Great Fool of Celtic legend, the Pure Fool of
Act I of Parsifal, and, generally speaking, the insane person whose
words have always been taken for oracles." In the end we say that
Crowley later satisfies the question about Aiwass in Equinox of the
Gods: "I now incline to believe that Aiwass is not only the God once
held holy in Sumer, and mine own Guardian Angel, but also a man as I
am, insofar as He uses a human body to make His magical link with
Mankind, whom He loves, and that He is thus an Ipsissimus, the Head
of the A ∴ A ∴.”
       I’ve seen variations said about the HGA, and there is confusion.
Some have the mistaken notion that their HGA will direct them in daily
tasks as if ordering them around like a boss, and one person states
their angel tells them when to drink coffee and also what not to do, as
if dissociating their Angel as a way of not taking responsibility in their
lives just as Christians do by needing some far-away God or being
directing their plan on earth, or blaming it like a devil, instead of being
the one to take the reins and being held accountable.  To clear the
matter, it might be wise to study what AC says about the subject, or
even one of his contemporaries for comparison.  This is what Dion
Fortune says about the Holy Guardian Angel in The Mystical Qabala:
 
30. “It is this Second Triad which forms the Oversoul, the Higher Self,
the Holy Guardian
Angel, the First Initiator. It is the voice of this higher self which is so
often heard with the
inner ear, and not the voice of discarnate entities, or of God Himself,
as is thought by
those who have had no training in tradition.”
 
33. “Those who are familiar with Qabalistic terminology know that the
first of the greater
initiations is said to consist of the power to enjoy the knowledge and
conversation of our
Holy Guardian Angel; this Holy Guardian Angel, be it remembered, is
really our own
higher self. It is the prime characteristic of this higher mode of
mentation that it consists
neither in voices nor visions, but is pure consciousness; it is an
intensification of
awareness, and from this quickening of the mind comes a peculiar
power of insight and
penetration which is of the nature of hyper-developed intuition. The
higher consciousness
is never psychic, but always intuitive, containing no sensory imagery. It
is this absence of
sensory imagery which tells the experienced initiate that he is on the
level of the higher consciousness.”
 
Note Dion Fortune says that the H.G.A. has nothing to do with
praeternatural entities and contrast with Crowley’s insistence at some
points that Aiwass was his H.G.A.
 
*
 
Now, let us look at other examples of contacts such as LAM. Crowley's
portrait of the entity LAM first appeared in 1919, as part of his Dead
Souls exhibition held in Greenwich Village, New York, and then
included in his commentary on Madam Blavatsky's "The Voice of the
Silence." There is no explanation from Crowley about the subject of
LAM besides this mention in The Equinox Vol. 3. No. 1 , "LAM is the
Tibetan word for Way or Path, and LAMA is He who Goeth, the
specific title of the Gods of Egypt, the Treader of the Path, in
Buddhistic phraseology. Its numerical value is 71, the number of this
book." It is inferred by some that this drawing of Lam arose out of the
period of the Amalantrah Working, a series of magickal workings with
the intent of invoking “intelligences” to physical manifestation. These
took place from January through March of 1918 Crowley in Central
Park West, New York City, and resulted in a series of visions and
communications received through Roddie Minor, and the main
symbolism derived from the working was an egg. The Typhonians take
this idea further in their thinking that LAM is an alien intelligence. 
Some Thelemites approach these entities through a Jungian
approach, while others are open to the possibility of extraterrestrial or
discarnate contacts from varying intelligences or beings.
This is an excerpt from the beginning of that working, which took place
from January 14 to June 16, 1918 e.v., speaking to the Wizard
Amalantrah 729, Crowley’s longest recorded astral communication.
[Monday] January 14, 1918 [e.v.]
12.10 a.m.
“While with The Lady of Our Dreams I had a vision of Myself being a
spreading candlestick with thirteen candles. Over each flame was the
opening of a tube which could hold water as a fountain. These tubes
met the flame in a throbbing vibration which became almost
excruciating when suddenly the part of the candlestick above the stem
or staff, broke off and became a crown. The crown floated in the air
tilted at a slight angle and a circle which was a halo came down from
heaven and dropped into the crown. In the center a wand came and
then it all hovered above the candlestick with a veil round it. The veil in
some ways appeared as rays of light. After I told this vision T[herion]
talked a long while about the number 93; how adepts were tested
when they brought messages; and how messages had been sent to
him through the Scarlet Woman.”
During this working, Crowley seems to wax and wane in the value of
what Amalantrah is telling him. This wizard Amalantrah was a
discarnate intelligence contacted around January 1918 in Greenwich
Village, while AC was writing Liber Aleph. Roddie Minor was said to
have been smoking opium when she had the vision of herself as a
candelabra of thirteen candles, part of this became the crown that
floated in the air until a halo entered the crown. AC suggested she
question the images using active imagination, as Jung might have
suggested. AC guided her through the astral, where she saw a
farmhouse and heard water. After this disappeared, she saw a yoni, a
camel, a king, and then a wizard. The main symbolism ended up being
an egg. Of interest, Ab-ul-Diz had also spoken of an egg just as
Amalantrah had, but AC was more interested in the Qabalistic spelling
and meaning of Baphomet, AC’s O.T.O name, and the spelling of
Therion in Hebrew so that its value equaled 666. On a positive note,
the wizard spelled the word “Bafometh” and said it meant “Father
Mithras.” AC believes that Roddie wouldn’t have known these things.
However, the answer to the other question came from another source
than Roddie or the wizard, at a later date.
Now, let’s look at a quote from Michael Staley's forward to The Lam
Statement in Starfire vol. 1 no. 3: "The Amalantrah is in many ways a
continuation of the Abuldiz Working of several years previous. In both
of these Workings the symbolism of the egg featured prominently. One
of the earlier versions of the Amalantrah Working ended with the
sentence, 'It's all in the egg.' During the final surviving version of this
Working, in reference to a question about the egg, Crowley was told:
'Thou art to go this way.'"
To compare the workings, let’s take a brief look at the Abuldiz

Working, which can be found in "The Equinox" No. VII of Vol. I, where

“an account of a Communication made to Fra. Perdurabo in 1904 - X.

through the seer Ouarda is to be found.” See below.

“This Ouarda, disobedient unto her high calling, suffered in detail
those things prophesied of her, and the final catastrophe, or an
equivalent even more terrible, occurred on the 27th of September,
1911 - X.
At least this catastrophe (dementia in its most hopeless form)
precluded the possibility of her ever serving Fra. P. as a messenger
from the Great White Brotherhood whom he serves.”
 
In November 1911, Crowley carried out a ritual, during which he
reports he was being directed to write Book 4 by a discarnate entity
named "Abuldiz."  The writing of Book 4 was actually accomplished
with the aid of Soror Virakam (Mary Desti). Abuldiz appeared in Soror
Virakam’s visions as an old man with a long white beard, wearing a
ring which contained a white feather. Abuldiz communicated that there
was a book to be given to Crowley, and the name of the book was
Aba, and its number 4. Another being, seen as a black-headed Turk or
Egyptian wearing a Fez and a red sash, was also in the room. He was
called Jezel, and one of his hands had scaly crocodile skin.  By
Crowley's account, the Abuldiz Working ended with an instruction for
Crowley to go to the desert in search of an egg under a palm tree.
This theme recurred in the Amalantrah Working, with Crowley being
urged to go to Egypt.  Crowley appears to have not trusted the Abuldiz
and Amalantrah Workings, or even the Shanghai Working of 1906 with
Elaine Simpson. AC met with Elaine in Shanghai and performed the
Cairo Working. On April 20 and 21, they invoked Aiwass, with Elaine
acting as seer. During the course of the Cairo Working, AC says he
regarded Aiwass as an astral being, though later he would see him as
his Angel .
  "It is impossible to lay down precise rules by which a man may attain
to the knowledge and conversation of His Holy Guardian Angel; for
that is the particular secret of each one of us; a secret not to be told or
even divined by any other, whatever his grade. It is the Holy of Holies,
whereof each man is his own High Priest, and none knoweth the
Name of his brother's God, or the Rite that invokes Him."
                                                                                          -A.Crowley,
Book 4, A Star in Sight
 
I’m interested in coming to a conclusion for myself, not to dictate that
conclusion for others, as others might vary widely in their views. In our
politically correct, overly sensitive culture, disagreeing with someone
often seems like an attack, and yet perceiving an attack against
themselves, they also don’t want others to have opinions that differ. I
expect and encourage others to have their own ideas, and demand
the same right in return. After all, beliefs often anchor us to illusions,
and my ideas are just that – ideas, and only relevant by the amount of
power someone else attributes to them.  We sometimes change our
minds about things, even as Crowley does. In my own circle, those
who I associate with tend to approach most or all contacts as being
purely of the mind. It is easy to speculate, so I think one should share
their own personal experiences when it comes to what they are writing
about, so one gets a sense of where they stand on the subject matter.
Thelemites aren’t superstitious. They take a scientific approach, and
that means they do their experiments to come to their own
assumptions.  Personally, I accept the idea of extraterrestrials, and I
don’t find it abnormal or supernatural, but a possibility that may be
backed by science one day. My book Daughter of the Mighty Ones
details my view on that subject, but I’m more interested in discarnate
contacts, daimons or Angels for this chapter. I can relate where AC is
coming from in his own pondering of these entities. I’ll share some
experiences from old diaries that I have never shown anyone.  These
stem from a more Shamanic type vision I would seek when I would go
into the woods with my sister, and we’d go to our separate areas and
try to contact spirits, whether elemental or discarnate. Without proper
guidance, we ventured into the Great Unknown, unrestricted by
expectation. We were open to touch whatever our minds presented to
us.
In an old magickal diary on 26 Die Martis, June 1990 e.v., I wrote “In a
magick circle, I can bring forth a vision of a being from the candle. I
know not what it is…So, whether this being with the head of a man
and a spiritual form sort of like a genie is real or not, must mean that
magick can alter reality, or the perception of it.” This was a sort of
apparition appearing within the aura of candlelight in my circle. It might
have been a trick of the eye, or not. I had long sought beings outside
of our present reality, because I felt they must be there, and yet was
amiss of what to do when I might have found them.
Though I tried on different occasions to contact beings, sometimes
through active imagination, I never obtained much of interest from it.
Sometimes, I’d just sit in meditation, and let my mind adventure. My
oddest experience was on September 11, 1990 e.v., when I wrote, “I
was in a circle journeying with my mind. I went with a swarm of bees
and went with them until I met Kitan, a very rough, bearded, wild-
looking man. Thinking he was too uncontrollable, I went with some
crows and met Sheta or Shelta, who was a soft-speaking woman who
warned me about Kitan.”
Those were just aspects of my mind, and I was too young and
inexperienced to know where to take the inner journey or how to do
pathworking using the symbols of each path. I was just exploring the
“wild west” of the mind.  As a child, having to deal with a mother who
sometimes had “nervous breakdowns” when her thyroid levels were
unbalanced after having had her thyroid removed due to cancer, I was
very aware of the horrors of mental illness. It was very painful, not to
mention terrifying when this person seemed to change into someone I
didn’t know, so I was always careful not to let myself get too far off the
beaten path and to view my experiences objectively. Though her
problem was chemical and not genetic, we both had psychic
inclinations, as well as my sister, and quickly learned how to reground
after each ritual or experience, so that we wouldn’t lose touch with
reality and how to function within it. One need only study the methods
of others, and find what works for him.
“I admit that my visions can never mean to other men as much as they
do to me. I do not regret this. All I ask is that my results should
convince seekers after truth that there is beyond doubt something
worthwhile seeking, attainable by methods more or less like mine” The
Confessions of Aleister Crowley  : An Autohagiography, by Aleister
Crowley

Some things that I have experienced, I cannot explain, and though I

still have occasional interest in pursuing this avenue, now that I’m
older and hopefully wiser, I realize my results aren’t what is important,
as far as others are concerned. It is about each person trying methods
to come to our own truth as we take this journey, and I take all this
impetus to write and find that meaning I’m searching for. It’s about
creating with my daimon, which I call Orin, to inspire my writing
pursuits.  Orin was the name of a being that came to me in the woods.
Sitting in a clearing, I felt a presence and I asked for its name, and an
odd-sounding name popped into my head, something like Auryn[21]
(222) or Orin[22] (320). I’m not quite sure what my Orin actually is. I see
him as something to inspire me from my own imaginary places. That
spirit may have moved on, or was or is a part of me, and though I have
no recent communication with whatever it was that gave me that
name, I, for whatever reason, started calling my daimon Orin, and that
made me curious about Crowley’s process in dealing with his entities
and Angel. I have come to wonder if I externalized something in the
woods and then reintegrated it within me, instead of looking outside of
myself for wisdom. At the same time, I feel my writing is influenced by

something beyond me.

 
4:32 P.M., Die Solis, May 21, 2017 e.v.  “Paul and I talked about this
spirit I long ago encountered that gave me its name, Orin (Its
inconsequential to me whether this spirit was external, part of my
brain, or whathaveyou, as people have different ideas about that and I
respect that, but its the synchronicity and associations that matter to
me). I briefly studied the Lesser Key of Solomon in my younger years
and actually forgot about it until I found seals I had drawn on
parchment pressed into a diary I hadn't looked at in over a decade or
more. And I did use the Lesser Key with radionics (see Thelemic
Syzygy, where Blanchard discusses it in a letter to me). Today, I put on
a bracelet with a compass and it triggered some thoughts. It made me
think of that spirit, Orin (I usually spell it that way, though I tried
variations because I didn't know for sure which way to do it.), and
there is a spirit called Orin commanded in the NE (northeast) under
the Angels of the Compass, not that my "Orin" is actually associated
with that "spirit," but have just been scribbling ideas of what this
means to me, along with personal associations. In the end, it may only
mean something to me, but it’s given me a lot to think about
concerning a ritual I wrote for my daimon, which I also call Orin.”
 
       In those ominous woods, I once encountered a frightening boy my
age that appeared dead or not human, and later, I did a self-dedication
ritual in those same woods, when a pillar of light materialized on my
left. Without guidance, I didn’t know how to process this. In the end, I
am not concerned about what or who AC encountered, but the fruits of
those encounters, and I am using that as guide for my own practice,
while coming to my own conclusions. The reader may come to a
different realization which is correct for him. I then remind myself what
AC said in Magick in Theory and Practice, "Let me declare this Work
under this title: ‘The obtaining of the Knowledge and Conversation of
the Holy Guardian Angel," because the theory implied in these words
is so patently absurd that only simpletons would waste much time in
analyzing it. It would be accepted as a convention, and no one would
incur the grave danger of building a philosophical system upon it."
      Anyone can write about magick, but only you can experience what
that means to you. We sometimes use others as a mirror to ourselves
to put our encounters into perspective, and what I love about Crowley
is that he was always questioning and searching for truth, and that is
what we all must do for ourselves. In regard to the HGA, in Essays
Volume 4, Jerry Cornelius states that one doesn’t actually obtain the K
and C of the HGA until one is above the Abyss, since the Angel
cannot descend into duality, but we can encounter a projection of it in
the form of a daimon, capable of taking messages down to conscious
self. Usually one starts to approach it in Tiphareth, and Liber Samekh
and the Abramelin rituals are 2 rituals, where Cornelius goes on to say
that one can channel gnosis through working with their daimon, and
that it will aid us in our destiny as long as both human and daimon
stay the course and don’t stray. A person who has not taken control of
his lower Ruach will seek to veil vices in virtue.[23] I read many books
and essays by Jerry and his wife, and always have a lot to think about
afterwards, and find it especially important to hear the voices of those I
feel are making important contributions to Thelema. Learning never
ends, and there are several who have influenced me, including Paul
Joseph Rovelli, of course.
It is a lifelong journey, and if one is receptive, that door will open when
they are ready. As we see throughout history many artists, writers and
philosophers have been guided by their daimons, and no matter how
literal one takes this idea of the daemon, the seeking to align with
one’s true nature will potentially provide a straighter course to what
goal one is hoping to accomplish, if not getting caught in traps that
lead one astray. Many a great artist and/or magickian has been
benefited from their aid.
Besides exploring the idea of the daimon, the Secret Chiefs are
another area to consider when it comes to spiritual contacts, and AC
had at one time considered that the entities behind Ab-ul-Diz and
Amalantrah might have been Secret Chiefs.  He said they can
insinuate themselves into the lives of those they sought to influence.
Anyone who has ever had a stranger come up to them with a piece of
information they have been searching for, knows that sometimes the
universe will approach them in mysterious ways. As I mentioned in my
book, Ishtar of the Star, I had my DF and AC books piled around me,
and I was forlorn that I wasn’t living the life I wanted, that I wasn’t
doing my purpose. I sent these thoughts out, wanting to find my place,
and something asked me, “Are you sure you want this?” Not knowing
what exactly “this” was that it was alluding to (I assumed it was my
Work), and I answered, “Yes,” and within a few days, I saw that I
would have my pathway prepared by moving to New York, surrounded
by new people, and that I had a chance to bring my work to life. I don’t
know what it was that “spoke” to me, but it set events in motion that I
merely had to step into, if it was my Will to do so. Maybe it was my
daimon, maybe something else. It’s not always clear cut.
      We can call them the “Inner Plane Contacts.” Dion Fortune had a
system of three degrees emphasizing making contacts.  It is well
known that Israel Regardie said that after his 5=6 initiation he went
into the Vault to hear the Secret Chiefs. He found it rubbish. Because
of that, others in the Golden Dawn got away from
psychism/mediumship, when perhaps there is something here that has
been lost. If one can make contacts great; don’t be stopped by those
who can’t. You won’t know until you try.
      As for people on the other side I knew, I only once tried to contact
a deceased friend, and it was because she died violently in a stabbing,
and I needed to speak to her, the grief was unbearable and I hadn’t
the chance to say good-bye. I realized it was similar to when speaking
to “other beings,” that the words aren’t heard from the ears, but
through telepathy. Sometimes only partial words come through. I
asked her who killed her, and I heard “Shaw.” I kept asking, Shawn? In
my impatience, I was getting frustrated. Time would expose the culprit
whose last name was Hoshaw. Like a bad phone connection,
sometimes bits and pieces can be missed or our mind wants to fill in
the blanks for us, and that gets us off track.
        Ever since I was 18 and witnessed a rose materialize before me,
after I demanded a sign before going any further on my path, I knew
that the unknown can be touched, and that if the student is ready, they
will be heard. I later received the words “The way is set,” meaning I
just had to walk forward, and if I ended up getting entangled or lost by
not having focus, then that was my own fault. The door may open to
us, but it’s up to us to make it through by our own effort and
determination. They call it the “unknown” for a reason, and although
we can dress it up with whatever names we choose to call it, some
things just are. I’m just venturing out on this well-worn path, hoping to
make contact with wherever I can. We bravely hold out our hand to
what is there, because with every action is an equal and opposite
reaction and something just might reach back. It’s just that some signs
are not as easily seen until we are ready. It might be wise to never
look into the void until ready to face all possibilities face to face, ugly
or beautiful, good or evil, because in this realm, there is always both,
and we must stand firm, not swayed by what we might find. I’m still
working on that, and I wonder how Crowley would guide me, if he
were here to answer my questions.
I wrote my book Angelos Tou Theou to expand on this chapter. See
that book if you want more info on the daimon and HGA.


CHAPTER 5
 

BUILDING THE A ∴ A ∴
In 1907, Crowley joined the Ordo Templi Orientis, under the leadership
of Theodore Reuss. In this same year, Aleister Crowley and George
Cecil Jones, aided by Fuller, founded the A ∴ A ∴ , (Argentium Astrum
-- the Silver Star), an organization designed to promote the
advancement of humanity by perfection of the individual, with a strong
emphasis on mystical and magical methods of spiritual attainment in
accordance with the aim to research, practice, and teach scientific
illuminism.  A classic account of the A ∴ A ∴ is found in Von
Eckharthausen's The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary, re-issued by the
A ∴ A ∴ as "Liber XXXIII".  One will find the hierarchic and spiritual
initiatory structure is based on the Tree of Life, with its grades rising up
the sephira. The A ∴ A ∴ is sub-divided into three orders: The S.S.,
which is the governing body (Third Order) and consists of those
grades that are above the Abyss; The R.R. et A.C. (Second Order),
being those degrees that are below the Abyss, but above the Veil of
Paroketh; and The Golden Dawn (First Order), which are the grades
below the Veil of Paroketh. Members of the First Order of A ∴ A ∴
openly declare everywhere their connection with A ∴ A ∴ (Liber
CLXXXV). 
            A ∴ A ∴ members officially only know those directly above and
below them.  They work alone, writing letters and consulting as
needed with their teacher who oversees the curriculum. In this way, it
is hoped to avoid the many political and personality conflicts that
brought about the downfall of the Golden Dawn. Another problem with
the GD was the buying of grades, and this was sought to be prevented
within this new Order. Therefore, the A ∴ A ∴ never accepts payment
for its teachings. It is about doing the Work, not obtaining superficial
badges of honor. The goal is maintaining the chain of initiation from
teacher to student. The student seeks to acquire the Knowledge and
Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, and that sets him on a
course where he is guided from within for the rest of the way.
       Karl Germer (S.'.H.'. Frater Saturnus, 8=3) was the senior living
A ∴ A ∴ member at the time of Crowley's death. Germer became head
of the A.’.A.’., per Crowley’s instructions and therefore defacto,
Baphomet in the O.T.O.  “But Germer really didn’t know what he was
doing with either”—in Paul Joseph Rovelli’s opinion. More important,
Germer appointed no successor in any clear manner.  So there is no
central governance in the A.’.A.’.  The Caliphate used a legal
maneuver to obtain Crowley’s copywritten material and the seal of the
O.T.O.
      Over the governing of the Order, various claims are made that are
still argued about today. Some lineages of the A ∴ A ∴ are said to be
descended from Crowley.  One of those descends from Crowley's
student, actress Jane Wolfe (Soror Estai). Other lineages run through
Grady McMurtry, Charles Stansfeld Jones, or through pupils of
Marcelo Ramos Motta, who was a student of Germer. Another lineage
links itself to Crowley through Israel Regardie and his pupil Gerald
Suster. There are independent lineages who make no claim of ties
through Crowley, but who teach the curriculum and stay out of politics,
which mentioned in the paragraph above is what Crowley sought to
avoid, while others dispute over who is the “true” central authority of
the A ∴ A ∴ . I have no interest in the politics, and leave it to others to
dispute, as they will, though I do think it might be healthy to have
many lineages to compare the fruits with. That’s my view, and to each
his own. May they flourish as they will. I’m friends with various
lineages, though I find a few not friendly towards “independents,”
whether seen as not real or outsiders, and that’s their choice to do so.
Of interest, many from the “true” lineages contact my husband saying
they love his work and they want to join him instead, but they are
concerned about his credentials. His credentials is that he does the
Work. I do my Work, my way. It might not make me A ∴ A ∴ either , but
I serve in the way I was called to. I saw a void in Thelema for people
like me and I said let me be of use, if I can. I have ears if someone or
something wants to help me get out a message. I serve the White
Lodge in whatever capacity given to me and will do it without official
title or recognition if need be.
       A description of the tasks of the First Order is given in Liber XIII
vel Graduum Montis Abiegni: a syllabus of the steps upon path, in The
Equinox Volume 1.  Anyone wishing to join a lineage should find one
that fits his needs. I’ve known several young men who belong to 2 or 3
at the same time, and when I questioned why, I was told they want to
cover their bases to make sure they end up “in the real one.” I told one
fellow that even a “true” school cannot help him if he cannot stand on
his own two feet, nor can a “false” school hinder him if he truly has the
drive. If one is confident in himself, he will eventually achieve without
needing to connect himself to a name, though many seek to learn from
honest intent, from I see from the periphery. Some attach on to Dion
Fortune as well, as if they need her connection to give them validation,
when, through our work, it is us who gives ourselves that foot to stand
upon. Perhaps, one should be so good in their work, orders will all
seek a link to him, instead of the other way around. 
       If needing a group for structure, then find a quality group that feels
right to you, and what is good for one might be wrong for another. It’s
about the Work, not power or glamour, or trying to be an elitist or
celebrity worshiper that some beginners mistakenly believe. Also,
some personalities just don’t mesh. Each of us is on a personal
trajectory, and sometimes we have to walk a little bit off the map,
especially as a woman who has to figure out her own way in this new
territory. Not everyone likes to see individuality or those stepping out of
the fold. Living in a dualistic world, there will always be two sides, and
a great leap is made when one can stand in the middle and not get
caught up in the warring sides.  See all walls, as well as above and
below them, and then one decides for oneself what matters and what
doesn’t, and that will vary on the overall spectrum. Having one point of
view doesn’t seem to work well in Thelema, where everyone is
expected to have his or her own, as he should. I would love to see
great things arise from all lineages and independents, to honor all of
those who added their light.
 
As stated on the Astron Argon webpage, run by my husband Paul
Joseph Rovelli, it reads, “The A ∴ A ∴ will admit anyone to the Grade
of Probationer who are able to make contact and formally make the
request. However, immediately the test of sincerity is presented. The
potential candidate for Initiation will be told to make this request,
formally, in writing and given a very small window of time by which to
do this. As the instruction goes:  Write on a piece of paper: “It is my
will to join the A ∴ A ∴ ” Do this immediately or not at all. It is amazing
how few can really do this; showing us how many people really can’t
follow even the simplest of instructions. For those that can and during
the interview process it is seen that they have an understanding of
what they are asking, the Oath of Probationer is immediately
administered.”
 
“The first condition of membership of the A ∴ A ∴ is that one is sworn
to identify one's own Great Work with that of raising mankind to higher
levels, spiritually, and in every other way.”
                                                                                          Magick
Without Tears, ch. 9
 

GRADES OF THE A ∴ A ∴

Above shows a little of the history and information on the A ∴ A ∴

today, and below is the basic set-up of the grades. Consult the
Equinox for further instruction. This is just general info found online.

The Order of the G ∴ D ∴ (Golden Dawn)

 
Probationer
(0°=0 □ ): The Probationer is to obtain a scientific knowledge of the
nature and powers of one’s own being, and to write a careful record of
the same for one year.
In Volume I of the Equinox, Crowley writes: “I am authorized to say
that no one will be admitted as a Neophyte unless his year’s work (as
a Probationer) gives evidence of considerable attainment in the
fundamental practices, Asana, Pranayama, assumption of God-forms,
vibration of divine names, rituals of banishing and invoking, and the
practices set out in sections 5 and 6 of Liber O.
 
Although he is not examined in any of these, the elementary
experience is necessary in order that he may intelligently assist those
who will be under him.”
 
“The aspirant to the AA shall hear the [History] Lection (Liber LXI) and
this note of his office [The Task of the Probationer]; IF HE WILL, shall
then procure the robe of a Probationer; shall choose with deep
forethought and intense solemnity a motto...On reception, he shall
receive the robe, sign the form provided and repeat the oath as
appointed, and receive the First Volume of the Book. Robe instructions
are today, given to the Probationer upon signing the Oath in a
document entitled:
 
Notes for the Probationer; along with other instructions that also begin
the dialogue process. The First Volume of the Book mentioned by
Crowley, contained Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente (Liber LXV) and was
given to the Probationer, who is required to study the book thoroughly
and commit one chapter to memory. Today, no book is given as all
major Thelemic works are available freely on the Internet. The other
book in this volume was originally Liber LXI vel Causae, the History
Lection of the AA. But other documents are also important in addition
to these introductory documents; these include: Liber CL: De Lege
Libellum, Postcards to Probationers, Liber II : The Message of The
Master Therion, Practical Occultism (Helena Petrovna Blavatsky).”
 
 
Neophyte
(1°=10 □ ): Has to acquire perfect control of the astral plane, and to
obtain control of the nature and powers of one’s own being.
  
“He shall apply himself to understand the nature of his Initiation.”
                                                                                        Liber Collegii
Sancti
 
 
Zelator
(2°=9 □ ): The Zelator's main work is to achieve complete success in
asana and pranayama. He is to obtain control the foundation of his
own being.
“Let him be mindful that the word Zelator is no idle term, but that a
certain Zeal will be inflamed within him, why he knoweth not.”
                                                                                       Liber Collegii
Sancti
 
 
 
Practicus
(3°=8 □ ): Is expected to complete the intellectual training, and in
particular to study Qabalah. To obtain control of the vacillations of his
own being.
“Practicus - Is expected to complete his intellectual training, and in
particular to study the
Qabalah.”                                                                                                
                         One Star in Sight
“He shall pass examinations in Liber DCCLXXVII, the Qabalah, and
the Sepher Sephiroth.”
                                                                                                        
Liber 185
 
“Instruction and Examination in the Qabalah and Liber DCCLXXVII.”
                                                                                                        
Liber 13
 
 
 
Philosophus
(4°=7 □ ): Is expected to complete the moral training. Is tested in
Devotion to the Order. To obtain control of the attractions and
repulsions of one’s own being.
“When authority confers the grade [of Philosophus], he shall rejoice
therein; but beware, for that is his second departure from the middle
pillar of the Tree of Life.”
                                                                                                      Liber
Collegii Sancti
 
“Let him remember that the word Philosophus is no idle term, but that
Philosophy is the Equilibrium of him that is in the house of Venus that
is the Lady of Love .”
                                                                                           Liber
Collegii Sancti
 
 
 
Dominus Liminis
(The Link): Is expected to show mastery of pratyahara and dharana.
To obtain control of the aspirations of one’s own being.
“When the title of Dominus Liminis is conferred upon him, let him
rejoice exceedingly therein; but beware, for that it is but the false veil
of the moon that hangs beneath the Sun.”
                                                                                                  Liber
Collegii Sancti
 
“He shall in every way establish perfect control of his devotion
according to the advice of his Dominus Liminis, for that the ordeal of
advancement is no light one.”
                                                                                                  Liber
Collegii Sancti
 
 
 The Order of the R ∴ C ∴ (Rosy Cross)
 
Adeptus Minor (Without)
(5°=6 □ ): Lesser Adept (Without). Is expected to perform the Great
Work and to attain the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy
Guardian Angel.
Adeptus Minor (Within)
(5°=6 □ ): Lesser Adept (Within). Is admitted to the practice of the
formula of the Rosy Cross on entering the College of the Holy Ghost.
The Adeptus Minor works entirely on his or her own and requires only
the consultation with the Holy Guardian Angel for further instruction in
the development of the Great Work.
 
Adeptus Major
(6°=5□): Greater Adept. Obtains a general mastery of practical Magick,
though without comprehension.
Adeptus Exemptus
(7°=4 □ ): Exempt Adept. Completes in perfection all these matters. He
then either (a) becomes a Brother of the Left Hand Path or, (b) is
stripped of all his attainments and of himself as well, even of his Holy
Guardian Angel, and becomes a Babe of the Abyss, who, having
transcended the Reason, does nothing but grow in the womb of its
mother. It then finds itself a Master of the Temple.
The Order of the S ∴ S ∴
Magister Templi or Master of the Temple (8°=3 □ ): The principal business
of this grade is to obtain a perfect understanding of the Universe. The
essential Attainment is the perfect annihilation of that personality
which limits and oppresses his true self.  
 
Magus
(9°=2□): The Magus seeks to attain Wisdom, declares his law, and is a
Master of all Magick in its greatest and highest sense. His will is
entirely free from internal diversion or external opposition; His work is
to create a new Universe in accordance with his Will. 
Ipsissimus
(10°=1 □ ): Beyond the comprehension of the lower degrees. An
Ipsissimus is free from limitations and necessity and lives in perfect
balance with the manifest universe. This grade corresponds to Kether
on the Tree of Life.
 

The A ∴ A ∴ Manifesto
 
Instructions on the Existence of Universal Wisdom

 
Mystery is the enemy of Truth.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
 
(Note: The following was issued by the A ∴ A ∴ in Detroit, probably
around 1925 e.v. anno xxi)

Since the invention of the European printing-press the civilized world

has been flooded with literature emanating from a large number and
variety of societies, organizations, brotherhoods and lodges, each
claiming to be the guardian of a “secret doctrine,” a “sacred wisdom,”
or an “ancient way,” which not only claimed to provide answers to
many of the most difficult questions in religion and philosophy, and to
confer certain magical powers on its initiates, but also usually claimed
divine authority, oriental origin and great antiquity. At first some of
these claims were taken seriously by leaders of Western thought.
        A little book published anonymously in A.D. 1610, entitled: The
Discovery of the Brotherhood of the Honorable Order of the Rosy
Cross may truly be said to have convulsed the intellectual life of
Middle Europe for years; until the subsequent publication by Valentine
Andrea of an explanation that the work made wholly fictitious claims,
brought into disrepute the general idea of a secret doctrine as such,
and even struck a heavy blow against the Parascelsian occultism
which has been gaining adherents since its promulgation a hundred
and fifty years before. The rapid rise of the Cartesian philosophy, and
the success which attended the investigations of experimental
science, caused the speculative and practical savants respectively to
regard all hidden teachings as ridiculous and contemptible.
      Nevertheless there were still many who were willing to be lured by
strange claims who carried on much of the old “hidden tradition” under
various forms. Some systems derived their inspiration from
theopathetics like Tanchelm, Gichtel and Kuhlmann and other
passivist-quietist teachers; others from theosophists who applied the
laws of the natural and ethereal world to the construction of a religious
system, such as Boehme and Swedenborg; others again followed
theurgic traditions such as those of Appollonius of Tyana, Peter of
Alcantara, St. Julian of Norwich and others too numerous to mention,
who claimed spiritual guidance and sometimes miraculous power
through supernatural endowment rather than through magical arts.
       The publication by H.P.Blavatsky (ob. 1891) of her greatest work,
The Secret Doctrine, lead to the incorporation of a number of the
traditional teachings of Hinayana Buddhism and Saiva Hinduism into
the secret teachings of several organizations; and the circulation in
Europe of the exposition of the Hebrew Kabbala called the Zohar,
(reputed to have been written by the Rabbi Simon ben Jochai) added
still another tradition to the already confused system of secret
teaching.
      All of these teachings and traditions have their modern followers
and exponents, usually men and women of much zeal who spend the
greater part of their lives in endeavoring to convince the world that this
or that doctrine is the one great teaching, which holds the key to all the
problems of religion, philosophy, and sometimes sociology, for which
the world is seeking. Yet, in spite of all their energy and zeal, none of
them has succeeded in gaining for his system the allegiance of the
generality of the leaders of thought and science, philosophy, religion or
sociology. And the spiritual and intellectual satisfaction which they
offer has sufficed for very few of those who were in a position to
investigate their systems by the methods familiar to genuine scholars
of whatever school of thought.
      Some of these systems required their adherents to accept a theory
of origins and an eschatology which they were unable to reconcile with
the most certain results of scientific investigation. Others required the
devout and pious to sacrifice their spiritual beliefs and consolations for
an astral materialism disguised as a dynamistic spiritualism. Others
again seriously put forward philosophical conceptions which were
shown by the best of ancient and modern philosophers to be
untenable in their literal sense. Other systems were connected with
subversive political and sociological doctrines and overridden with an
extraordinary variety of fads and strange customs. Others required
from their initiates promises and practices to which no honorable man
could consent.
      And yet, amid all this welter and confusion there was not one of
these systems which had not to its credit something that was of value,
some spark of truth that held it together for at least a time against the
storms and attacks which every such system had to face during the
nineteenth century. As a rule the more truth it possessed the longer it
lasted and the larger the number of adherents it gained. But sooner or
later most of these secret teaching succumb to the attacks of those
who, wise enough to see their short-comings, are not wise enough to
discover the precious ore hidden among the mass of worthless
gangue.
            The Principle of Identity on which all thought is based
presupposes the unity of truth. So much all except the most extreme
relativists will admit.
            It follows that, if enough were known, it would be possible to
construct a complete system of universal knowledge of which no one
part could possibly contradict another. If any contradiction were
present, even by implication, it could be demonstrated that the system
was either incomplete or in some measure false. Therefore, if now or
at any future time, a claim were made on behalf of any person or
organization that such knowledge did actually exist and was in his or
its possession, that claim, however suspicious and improbable, would
not in its nature be inherently absurd or impossible. But before the
truth of such a claim could be admitted the most careful investigation
would have to be undertaken and the most stringent tests would have
to be applied, to ensure that it was not partially or completely
fraudulent.
          These on whose behalf this paper is circulated most definitely
claim that they are in possession of the outlines of such a system, in
possession of something approaching to universal knowledge, and of
a tradition not otherwise obtainable than through them.
      They invite the interested reader of this paper to make application
for such information as will lead to his becoming possessed of as
much of this universal knowledge as he may require or be able to
qualify himself for.
          And in order to dispel suspicions, they offer to substantiate the
genuineness of their offer by actually imparting this universal
knowledge, and by superabundantly demonstrating its truth and any
and every way that has as yet been imagined on earth. They declare
themselves able to show conclusively that the dogma of the Relativity
of Knowledge, when carried to the extremes of its foremost modern
exponents, is false and obscuranist. And upon those who genuinely
aspire to have the advantage of this teaching, they impose no very
difficult conditions.
Love is the law, love under will.
 


CHAPTER 6
 
 
777 and THOTH TAROT

“The skeptic will applaud our labours, for that the very catholicity of the
symbols denies them any objective validity, since, in so many
contradictions, something must be false; while the mystic will rejoice
equally that the self-same catholicity all-embracing proves that very
validity, since after all something must be true. Fortunately we have
learnt to combine these ideas, not in the mutual toleration of sub-
contraries, but in the affirmation of contraries, that transcending of the
laws of intellect which is madness in the ordinary man, genius in the
Overman who hath arrived to strike off more fetters from our
understanding.”—777

777 and Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley was edited and
introduced by Israel Regardie, though it was first published
anonymously in 1909 after Crowley had written it in just a week;
working from the book by Allan Bennett and Mathers, and then
expanding on it. Cecil Jones added to 777, as well, and it is a
cornerstone for study for any serious practitioner. Even Dion Fortune
used the correspondences in 777 in her writing of The Mystical
Qabala, as well as having seen the original book by Bennett and
Mathers, which was said to have been either found and/or written by
them.  The importance of these correspondences is that 777 puts in
one’s hand a system in which he can discover connections between
Qabalistic attributes, design a ritual, or come to an understanding of
the Qabala on a deeper level. It shows astrological, color scales, tarot,
deity, and elemental attributions, to name a few, all in one source.
From there, one can begin his own experiments.

Dion Fortune wrote, “In these manuscripts, Mathers is supposed to

have found the outline of the “Golden Dawn” rituals and the system of
correspondences which is the key to its teaching, including the correct
attribution of the Tarot trumps on the Tree of Life, which enables them
to be linked Lip with the astrological signs, a secret that students have
long sought to discover. It is this system which Crowley uses in his
Equinox, 777, Book Four, and his recently published Magick; which
Regardie uses in both his books, and which I am using in my Mystical
Qabalah, now appearing serially in my own magazine. We have none
of us cripped from each other, but have all drawn upon the Mathers’
manuscripts.

“I personally drew direct, because I possess these manuscripts; but I

did not take the responsibility of publishing them, or any of their
contents, but worked from Crowley’s 777, as I acknowledged in my
articles, using my knowledge of the Mathers manuscript for counter-
checking purposes.” --    Ceremonial Magic Unveiledb y Dion Fortune

Obviously having been in the Golden Dawn, Dion Fortune and Aleister
Crowley both worked from these same set of symbols that were used
by the wise of the time, and one just has to look in their books to see
that they are speaking the same language. In the sample below, we’ll
first look at AC, and his use of the Priestess of the Silver Star, and
then by DF. Of course, if one is familiar with the tarot, they will see the
connections, while the Silver Star also pertains to the A.’.A.’.

“I am the Angel of the moon.  I am the veiled one that sitteth between
the pillars veiled with a shining veil, and on my lap is the open book of
the mysteries of the ineffable light.  I am the aspiration unto the higher;
I am the love of the unknown.  I am the blind ache within the heart of
man.  I am the minister of the sacrament of pain.  I swing the censer of
worship, and I sprinkle the waters of purification.  I am the daughter of
the house of the invisible.  I am the Priestess of the Silver Star.” 

                                                                                        The Vision and

the Voice

In my book, She of the Silver Star, I wrote, “This mysterious Priestess

of the Star, as mentioned in the comment above and the one below, is
entrenched in our psyche by past occultists who have passed along
the keys to this door. Even Crowley was given a copy of Dion’s book
The Sea Priestess, and who knows how much she had learned from
him when writing this, or how this touched his own mind? I am
indebted to both for what they inspire in me.”  Compare what she says
below to Crowley’s above.
 
“She is also the priestess of the Silver Star that rises from the twilight
sea. Hers are the magnetic moon-tides ruling the hearts of men.”
                                                                        The Sea Priestess by
Dion Fortune
 
       Dion seems to be capturing the same basic ideas, and so working
from a book like 777 is a way to write based on valid and accepted
concepts. When we all work from the same set of symbols, we can
see the same images and their underlying messages.  These images
feed the common archetypes or collective unconscious of the Western
mind.
       A good way to learn the correspondences of the Tree of Life is to
go through a sacred writing or book, or ritual, and write down any
symbols that you find, especially repetitive ones, and sit down with a
copy of 777. Perhaps, for example, it dealt with a dog or Anubis. What
else relates to it? Follow  the columns across, from page to page.
What path would you encounter Anubis on? Whichever symbol you
chose, find the stone or incense connected to it, and so on. Make a
list. You will find a deeper experience and meaning when you return to
the book and continue reading. 777 is not just a book to read. Make a
temporary altar with the appropriate color and number of candles,
stones, or tools. It is a tool to understand what you are reading, as well
as a source from which to create from.
“If we take an example, the use of the table will become clear.

Let us suppose that you wish to obtain knowledge of some obscure

science.

In column xlv., line 12, you will find “Knowledge of Sciences.” By now
looking up line 12 in the other columns, you will find that the Planet
corresponding is Mercury, its number eight, its lineal figures the
octagon and octagram. The God who rules that planet Thoth, or in
Hebrew symbolism Tetragrammaton Adonai and Elohim Tzabaoth, its
Archangel Raphael, its Choir of Angels Beni Elohim, its Intelligence
Tiriel, its Spirit Taphtatharath, its colours Orange (for Mercury is the
Sphere of the Sephira Hod, 8), Yellow, Purple, Grey, and Indigo rayed
with Violet; its Magical Weapon the Wand or Caduceus, its Perfumes
Mastic and others, its sacred plants Vervain and others, its jewel the
Opal or Agate; its sacred animal the Snake, &c., &c.” –777

Once you have a working knowledge of symbols, proceed to the Holy

Books of Thelema. Start with a small section and contemplate the
symbols and how they are being presented. It might help to write a
commentary on the quotes that touch you. Reading is sometimes not
enough. Find something to connect to in the book, make it personal.
It’s like putting a puzzle together where the final picture is a mystery.
Once you add piece by piece, you start to see a greater image.

When I wrote a ritual called Rite of the Benignant Ones, I sat down
with a copy of 777 and made sure I got the correspondances right to
the best of my ability, and I worked in tarot cards as well. Creating
rituals was always my passion. I was inspired by DF who talked about
Mars and sorcery, and I thought, maybe I want to be a sorceress. This
was before I continued my studies in Thelema, but I loved studying all
areas of the occult and seeing what I could do. See below:

On Tuesday during the hour of Mars, go to your consecrated circle.

Adorn yourself in violet and an opal.  Then slide a headpiece with a
twin serpent on your third eye.  Around your altar, set eight violet
candles along with incense and a deck of tarot cards. State your
objective of defense from all would-be attackers. Invoke the Furies.
Sometimes I read the the poetic invocations in "The Hymns of
Orpheus" by Thomas Taylor such as this one:
"Vociferou, Bacchanalian Furies, hear!
Ye, I invoke, dread powers, whom all revere;
Nightly, profound, in secret who retire,
Tisiphone, Alecto and Megara dire:
Deep in a cavern merged, involved in night,
Near where Styx flows impervious to the fight;
Ever attendant on mysterious rites,
Furious and fierce, whom Fate's dread law delights;
Revenge and sorrows dire to you belong,
Hid in a savage veil, severe and strong.
Terrific virgins, who forever dwell
 Endu'd with various forms, in deepest hell;
Aerial, and unseen by human kind,
And swiftly coursing, rapid as the mild.
In vain the Sun with winged refulgence bright,
In vain the Moon, far darting, milder light,
Wisdom and Virtue may attempt in vain,
And pleasing Art, our transport to obtain;
Unless with these you readily conspire,
And far avert your destructive ire."
 
 
 
Your protection I entreat!
In forgotten lands you roam,
Though, Colonus, you call home.
Come, come now, I humbly plea,
Protect me now-I am in need.
Come! Come howling from afar,
Justice is your guiding star.
Hear the chants of power call.
Raise your sword. Ignorance must fall!

 
Visualize person. Then lay down the Eight of Pentacles. Say:
Your work at harming me shall be no more.
Lay down the Eight of Cups. Say:
You shall leave your undertaking, your pursuit of me.

Your mind now turns from me.

Lay down the Eight of Wands. Say:
The Furies are on the move. They descend upon you.
Raise your emotions, starting from the root chakra and then imagine
them shooting at once as thought-forms of jackals from your brow. 
See them snapping and growling and eating the malice directed
toward you.
Lay down the Eight of Swords. Say:
By your injustice against me, I cast you down. By your own karma, you
are bound.

Another important work is The Book of Thoth, and it is worth studying

along 777. Of note, there are some changes in the Thoth deck
compared to others, so below is a history of how it came about and
what is different as compared to other decks.

THOTH TAROT

The Thoth deck was painted by Lady Frieda Harris, and Crowley gives
Harris praise in the introduction to the Book of Thoth, where he says,
“She devoted her genius to the Work. With incredible rapidity she
picked up the rhythm, and with inexhaustible patience submitted to the
correction of the fanatical slave-driver that she had invoked, often
painting the same card as many as eight times until it measured up to
his Vanadium Steel yardstick!” Of note, a great many women were an
integral part of Aleister’s magickal life, bringing his visions to life with
their talents, and they deserve credit for their hard work and service,
which Aleister clearly acknowledges here in Freida’s case, as the
cards had to be achingly precise, as much as with scrying work. They
had to portray accurate information, and “Eliphas Levi declared that by
arranging the Tarot cards according to a definite order man could
discover all that is knowable concerning his God, his universe, and
himself.”[24] Take the time to examine each card and imagine each
paint stroke that went into the design and how they perfected each
potent image, with its inherent mysteries ready to unfold for the
seeker.
“The Tarot cards must be considered (1) as separate and complete
hieroglyphs, each representing a distinct principle, law, power, or
element in Nature; (2) in relation to each other as the effect of one
agent operating upon another; and (3) as vowels and consonants of a
philosophic alphabet. The laws governing all phenomena are
represented by the symbols upon the Tarot cards, whose numerical
values are equal to the numerical equivalents of the phenomena.” –
The Secret Teaching of All Ages
Lady Frieda met Aleister Crowley after he had had asked Clifford Bax,
a playwright and author, to help him find an artist to design the deck,
and in June 1937, Bax invited Frieda Harris when two other artists
apparently didn’t show up. Up for the task, Harris studied Rudolf
Steiner's Anthroposophy, as well as Crowley’s books. She even began
“taking lessons in projective synthetic geometry, based upon the ideas
of Goethe as reflected in the teachings of Steiner, from Olive Whicher
and George Adams.”[25] Through her studying, natural talent and
direction from Crowley, this powerful deck came into being.

Those who use different decks may notice that Crowley renamed
several of the trumps, and also re-arranged the astrological and
Hebrew alphabet correspondences of some cards, in accordance with
Liber AL vel Legis. The Rider-Waite deck was the first one I used, and
when I went onto the Thoth deck, I saw some of the differences right
away. Compare below.

Rider-Waite Thoth
I: The Magician I: The Magus
II: The High II: The
Priestess Priestess
VIII: Strength XI: Lust
X: Wheel of
X: Fortune
Fortune
VIII:
XI: Justice
Adjustment
XIV:
XIV: Art
Temperance
XX: The
XX: Judgement
Aeon
XXI: The
XXI: The World
Universe
 
Traditionally, the cards also contain the page, knight, queen and king,
while the Thoth deck replaces them with princess, prince, queen, and
knight. Another difference is the restoring of the positions of the Star
and Emperor. (The GD originally ‘swapped’ the positions of these two
cards to fit their qabalah…this is discussed by Regardie). The
corrected attributions are: Heh = Aquarius = 15th Path, Tzaddi = Aries
= 28th Path. Of note, the A.'.A.'. task for working the Path of Tzaddi is
Meditation SSS from Liber HHH. He also placed Lust (strength)
between The Wheel of Fortune and The Hanged Man, and Justice
between The Chariot and The Hermit, though he leaves them in their
location on the Tree of Life. (You can refer to the Mobius Ribbon essay
in the Book of Thoth). Obtain this deck and start working with it. For
beginners, I recommend one get acquainted with ideas gradually, and
incorporate more information as it becomes relevant. First, learn their
order and position on the Tree. Later, explore the reasoning behind the
changes. As I was taught, it may be useful to start by doing a reading
every day or by examining a card and detailing its attributes.  In time,
they become part of your consciousness.


CHAPTER 7
 
The Book of the Law
“It really makes little difference in the long run whether The Book of the
Law was dictated to [Crowley] by praeterhuman intelligence named
Aiwass or whether it stemmed from the creative deeps of Aleister
Crowley. The book was written. And he became the mouthpiece for
the zeitgeist; accurately expressing the intrinsic nature of our time as
no one else has done to date.”—Israel Regardie
As stated earlier, this sacred Thelemic Holy Book was written down by
Aleister Crowley, as dictated to him by a discarnate entity named
Aiwass.  The book contains three chapters written in the first person
as if by Nuit, Hadit and Ra Hoor Khuit, rather than as if by Aiwass
himself. In Lecture 2, AC writes "we have Nuit, Space, Hadit, the point
of view; these experience congress, and so produce Heru-Ra-Ha, who
combines the ideas of Ra-Hoor-Khuit and Hoor-paar-kraat." With this
book, Crowley proclaimed the arrival of the Aeon of Horus, and
imparting instructions for its adherents. It was written in Cairo, Egypt in
1904, with some saying on April 8th, 9th, and 10th; while others,
including me, agreeing it to be April 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.  “Kenneth Grant
has laid claim that the Liber AL vel Legis was actually written on April
1, 2 and 3, 1904 ev. He supports this with assertions made by Frater
Achad”[26] about AC having understood the problem of having the
book’s reception staring on April Fool’s Day and it would seem to be a
joke.
       It all began with AC trying to show the sylphs to his wife Rose,
and though she didn’t see them, she fell into a trance, telling him,
“They’re waiting for you!” She told him that it was Horus who was
waiting for him, so he asked her questions to test her, and she is said
to have answered them accurately. He wanted to be assured. As the
story goes, she led him to the Stele numbered 666, and AC could see
by the synchronicity of the events that it was a legitimate contact.

In The Magical Revival, Kenneth Grant writes, “When Aiwaz

communicated the Law, he uttered the word Will in Greek, because
Greek-like Hebrew, Arabic and Coptic- has its own qabalah, each
letter being also a number. Thelema therefore signifies not only Will,
which is its literal meaning, but also 93, a number of vital significance
in Crowley's system. The Greek word Agape, meaning Love, also
adds to 93 and so does Aiwaz, thus identifying these seemingly
diverse ideas in a mystical unity. The three highest Sephiroth which
form the Supernal Triad of the Tree of Life also add up to 93, when the
secret Key of The Book of the Law (AL) is applied in a special
manner.”

The cosmology in The Book of the Law is sometimes interpreted

literally, just as there are those who think the Bible is literal, while
others see it as a metaphor and/or instructions for attainment. 
However, one approaches it, we can see the dance of the contracted
point of Hadit against the infinite space of Nuit. "Nuit is the centripetal
energy, infinitely elastic because it must fit over the hard thrust
directed against it; Hadit, the centrifugal, ever seeking to penetrate the
unknown"—Magick Without Tears, Ch.38.
From the union of these opposites in this Aeon comes the Crowned
and Conquering Child represented by Ra Hoor Khuit. To have a better
understanding of what is being portrayed, reading commentaries,
whether by Crowley, Motta or Paul Joseph Rovelli, can help a student
open up a course of deeper study into what is being presented, while
reading what AC wrote about The Book of the Law in his own words
gives us insight into how he went about the reflection of determining
the importance of this Holy Book. We see that AC struggled with The
Book of the Law and was not readily accepting of it. It was such a
profound event in his life and this took time to process, as it would for
anyone, especially when confronting entities no matter where they
stem from. To me, that says he was trying to remain objective with a
scientific mind. He put this book aside until he was ready to look at it in
a new light. The following quotes sums up his experience.
“The climax of my life was what is known as the Cairo Working,
described in the minutest detail in the Equinox of the Gods.  At that
time, most of The Book of the Law was completely unintelligible to me,
and a good deal of it - especially the third chapter - extremely
antipathetic.  I fought against this book for years; but it proved
irresistible.
      I do not think I am boasting unfairly when I say that my personal
researches have been of the greatest value and importance to the
study of the subject of Magick and Mysticism in general, especially my
integration of the various thought-systems of the world, notably the
identification of the system of the Yi King with that of the Qabalah.  But
I do assure you that the whole of my life's work, were it multiplied a
thousand fold, would not be worth one tithe of the value of a single
verse of The Book of the Law.”
                                                                                           Magick
Without Tears
On June 24, 1909, Crowley accidentally stumbled upon the original
manuscript of the Book of the Law. In his diary, he wrote, “[g]lory be to
Nuit, Hadit, Ra Hoor Khuit in the Highest! A little before midday I was
impelled mysteriously (though exhausted by playing fives, billiards,
etc. till nearly six this morning) to make a final search for the
Elemental Tablets. And lo! When I had at last abandoned the search, I
cast mine eyes upon a hole in the loft where were skis, etc., and there,
O Holy, Holy, Holy! Were not only all that I sought, but the manuscript
of Liber Legis!” AC accepted The Book of the Law, and Kenneth Grant
said “Crowley spent the greater part of his life attempting to fathom the
mysteries of this singular Book, and he said in his last years that much
still remained dark. But he fathomed enough of it to found a system of
Magick unrivalled in the history of Western Occultism. The essence of
Do what thou wilt, and its corollary, is not new. On the contrary, it is as
ancient and ageless as the Tao and the Teh, the Yin and the Yang,
Siva and Sakti or the Tibetan imagery of Yab-Yum. What is new is its
emphasis upon action, upon doing, rather than upon non-action and
surrender. Thelema is a dynamic formula, not a static one, and it
requires the precise formulation-before action of the energy which is to
be its mainspring.”

Consider the Cephaloedium Working, where AC says, “Now the Oath

of the Working is to establish The Book of the Law; in particular, to
finish the Comment and to publish the book as therein commanded.”
Below is an excerpt from the working:

Die Veneris: Dec. 24. I have been revising the Comment on "Liber
Legis," with the aid of Alostrael, Iacchaion, & Jane Wolfe. This applies
only to Chapter I; Chapter II I have revised with Iacchaion only, &
Chapter III I have read through alone. I cannot express myself
adequately about my sense of failure in this Comment. More I feel that
I have not conquered my repulsion to Chapter III. I ask myself too:

Have I even tried to carry out the instructions in that Chapter?

I am utterly wretched about the whole matter. I say: have I not failed
absolutely to obey the "Heavenly Vision"? I am so miserable that I can
only see one course of action: to ask the Yi to give a General Symbol
for my past Work in relation to "The Book of the Law."

LIV - Kwei Mei: Alas! too true! I have been divided against myself: I
have gone in just deep enough to compromise myself, not I when the
whole-hearted plunge would have brought success.”

Despite all of this, there has been some controversy associated with
this book, such as saying that Crowley made it up, which has no
bearing one way or the other. Look at the Bible or The Book of
Mormon. There will always be arguments about what is divinely
inspired or human directed, but to many, it doesn’t matter as it’s the
message that resonates with them. Others will kill to defend their
book, which is out of the dark ages, though still duping the
uneducated. Perhaps all of our holy books throughout history are
“made up,” in that they are made through some aspect of our
consciousness and whatever it is that affects it, and that can be either
through inner or outer influences upon the writer who pens it.
            C.F. Russell, who was in the A.’.A.’., and who spent time at
Cefalu, though later distanced himself from AC, had this interesting
comment to make, “I can still find use for his masterpiece, Liber Legis,
which he wrote as directed by ...Aiwaz in 1904. [See Vol. II] Lapses of
memory about this are due to his having taken a large dose of
anhalonium at the time.”[27] 
The second controversy is the changing of a word in The Book of the
Law from “fill” to “kill,” from the saying, “let it fill me.” I personally find it
troubling to interfere with the works of the deceased, such as the
burning of DF’s works, or the changing of fill to kill in The Book of the
Law, even if implied that that is what it should have been. But it has
been published as fill for all this time? Instead of changing anything
after the author is dead and cannot clarify, perhaps write a
commentary or include a note about what you might disagree with, but
leave the work as is, in its already published form and let others
decide for themselves, instead of recently inserting changes in
publications without a mention, which is confusing when a book
(considered to be a Holy Book) is suddenly altered after so many
years and now it reads differently.  Of course, look at the translations
of the Bible and see that conundrum, and how meanings have been
changed. A mess. There are arguments on each side, and maybe
both can be seen as valid, though I say err on the side of caution and
include this dispute in the publication. It might explain it better to those
who have questions.
My argument is that AC taught Leah Hirsig to say fill, as she writes fill
in her diary and not kill. My qualm is that, wouldn’t he have told her to
say kill if that is what he meant? This may not seem like a big deal to
non-Thelemites. It’s just one word, you might say, though the book
itself says, “36. My scribe Ankh-af-na-khonsu, the priest of the princes,
shall not in one letter change this book; but lest there be folly, he shall
comment thereupon by the wisdom of Ra-Hoor-Khuit.”

And of course, I’m not Crowley or Aiwass, and certainly no expert, so I

can only throw some ideas out that occur to me, but have no authority
to do anything else. It doesn’t hurt to question. Its perilous to never
question. I still question….

A sample for Leah’s diary, where she uses the word fill:
 
“Hear Thou me, O Lord of Silence and of Strength. Show me Thy way
that I may follow Thee in it. Give Thou of Thy Wisdom to Our Lord,
The Beast 666, whom Nuit has called her Scribe, Ankh-af- na-khonsu,
the Priest of Princes; whom Hadit Hails at the Prophet of Nu, the
Prophet of Had, the Prophet of Ra-Hoor- Khu; and whom Thou hast
termed O Blessed Beast, that He may comment with his Three-fold
Book of Law with hadit burning in his heart. Thee, in whose name is
hidden and glorious, a splendor I Invoke, I greet Thy presence, O Ra-
Hoor- Khuit. Unity uttermost showed! I adore the might of Thy breath.
Supreme and terrible God That maketh the Gods and death To
tremble before Thee: - I adore Thee. Appear on the throne of Ra!
Open the ways of the Khu! Lighten the ways of the Ka The ways of the
Khabs run through To stir me or to still me! Aum! Let it fill me!”
 
Obviously, Crowley taught her to say it that way because she was
learning all about Thelema through him. This is something to keep in
mind when purchasing a copy, as the newer copies are altered, and
for the sake of history and clarity, this needs to be mentioned. There
are Thelemites on both side of the argument, and newcomers may not
be aware that this even happened or why it matters. For this chapter
about The Book of the Law, it needed to be mentioned as a part of the
history of the book, as changing one word can lead to other changes
without so much a mention. Others may want to make further
alterations to suit them, and who could stop it?
       Our overly sensitive culture may eventually want to edit out some
of the imagery or even make it less controversial. I have even seen
one Thelemite in an uproar by some passages from the book because
they “weren’t nice,” not even trying to understand the meaning,
especially claiming to be a Thelemite, which is disturbing. She told my
husband to remove these hateful quotes and to never share such a
horrible book again, and so obviously, education is needed as all
books face the perpetual threat of banning, altering, or destroying by
people or cultures that fear them or want to manipulate them for
whatever purpose. Perhaps we should seek to understand what
causes such a violent reaction in some while inspires others. One
need only to look to the history of the Bible or Koran to see where the
error lies, and that might be in not understanding the message or
seeking to take these books literally instead of allegorically.  Are they
to be instructions or teachings to unlock and ponder for a greater
significance, or fodder for unstable minds?
 
Kenneth Grant says this: “The Thelemic Book is not merely passively
prophetic, but actively charged with a power strong enough to reduce
whole dynasties to rubble.”
 
One thing is for certain, this book can ignite a reaction in its readers,
whether in a quest, a debate, or a spiritual direction. Anyone
interested in Thelema will benefit from studying the history and
symbolism of this book, as well as pondering its commentaries. Many
newcomers, including me at one time, can find Thelema very difficult
or even intimidating at first, and I sought to make these ideas more
approachable by introducing some of its books and practices that can
act as an entry point to get started from. Begin with one book and/or
one practice, and add on more when ready. It’s not easy, but it’s like
thrusting roots into the ground, and the stronger the root, the more
formidable the eventual bloom.
        If one wants to seriously pursue magick, some basic foundation
has to be laid out to some degree, and one only needs to peel back
each layer further and further, as far as ingenuity, talent, and drive
takes him or her. Of course, there is a lot to learn from DF and AC,
and I have personally drawn from both over the years, as they have
been important influences, each offering a piece I needed to enrich the
experience. Seeing the connections adds to the whole picture, and I’d
be lacking without the inspiration of either.  In the end, they were key
players in the direction of magick, and now we must ponder their
contributions and see what we can get from it or add to it.


Afterward
“When we've all finished talking, there's something that never utters a word, but goes
right down through the earth.”  -Diary of a Drug Fiend

That quote is how I feel after writing this book.  We can study the
teachings of someone like Crowley and design our own personal place
within it, like one square of fabric on the universal quilt. We should be
working in collaboration toward the helping of Mankind, whether to
teach or to inspire. After all, we are interconnected and can affect the
outcomes of our future. Whatever strengths or weaknesses that critics
direct towards DF or AC, they left behind invaluable resources to help
one begin his/her quest.    In this book, we examined a little about who
DF and AC were, as well as their systems of magick, and answered
the questions of where did they get their start from, what is the
Western Mystery Tradition, and what books might guide the reader
further? They are listed as well. I also shared a little about one person
from this system is experiencing it, while producing my own works
from it, as a way to show how others may do the same. As I’m an
occultist, not a professional researcher or academic, I could only relate
as far as my experience, while at the same time seeing what new
contributions can yet be made. These systems are doable. It takes a
little initiative and study, but it’s a great time to be alive and to have
their dedication put at your fingertips. Let’s see how far we can take it,
so that future generations can reap the rewards, just as has been
done for us. The path is ready when you are.
 
Soror Syrinx 30th April 2017 e.v.


Bibliography
 
Cornelius, Jerry and Erica, Essays Volume 4

Crowely, Aleister, 777 And Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister

Crowley 

AHA (Liber CCXLII/242)

AL Vel Legis, Liber, also called The Book of the Law (Liber
CCXX/220)

Book Of Lies, The (Liber CCCXXXIII/333)

Confessions of Aleister Crowley, The, An

Autohagiography 

Diary of a Drug Fiend, The

Equinox, The —Volume I

Equinox, The —Volume III

Equinox, The—Volume IV:  No. 2, The Vision & the Voice,

with Commentary and Other Papers

Law Is For All, The

            Liber A'ash vel Capricorni Pneumatici sub figurâ CCCLXX

 
            Liber Aleph
 
            Liber Collegii Sancti

            Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente (Liber LXV) 

            Liber E
            Liber O

            Magick (Liber ABA, Book 4) 

Magick Without Tears

Moonchild (Liber LXXXI/81)

Curwen, David, Aleister Crowely, Brother Curwen, Brother

Crowley. A Correspondence
 
Grant, Kenneth , The Magical Revival
 
Greenfield, Allen, Paschal Beverly Randolph: Sexual Magick in
the 19th Century.
 
Hall, Manly P., The Secret Teaching of All Ages
 
Heidegger, Martin, The Origin of the Work of Art

Fortune, Dion, Applied Magic

Aspects of Occultism

Ceremonial Magic Unveiled

          Moon Magick

          Psychic Self-Defense

          The Cosmic Doctrine

           The Esoteric Orders and Their Work

          The Esoteric Philosophy of Love and Marriage

          The Magical Battle of Britain

          The Mystical Qabalah

         The Sea Priestess

          The Secrets of Dr. Taverner

          Through the Gates of Death

King's Bench Division. The Equinox. Jones v. The Looking Glass

Publishing Company (Limited) and Others', The Times, 27 April
1911.
 
  King, Francis, Modern Ritual Magic: The Rise of Western
Occultism
          Tantra for Westerners
 
2011 edition of the journal Magic Ritual, and Witchcraft
 
Ouspensky, P D, The Symbolism of the Tarot
 
Regardie, Israel and P.R. Stephensen, The Legend of Aleister
Crowley
Richardson, Alan, Aleister Crowley and Dion Fortune: The Logos

of the Aeon and the Shakti of the Age (Paperback)

 
                    The Magical Life of Dion Fortune: Priestess of the 20th
Century
Russel, C. F., ZNUZ IS ZNEES: Memoirs of a Magician Edited and

Revised
 
Stanley, Michael, forward to The Lam Statement in Starfire vol. 1
no. 3:
 
Wilson, Colin, Aleister Crowley: The Nature of the Beast
 

Websites
http://www.astronargon.us/Holy%20Conundrum.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Frieda_Harris

http://www.astronargon.us/Allan%20Bennett.htm
 
 
 
 
 
A list of my Books
 
Aleister Crowley: One Woman's Approach
 
 
Thelemic Syzygy: The Founding of a Church
 
 
The Scarlet Grimoire
 
 
Tokens of Uraei
 
 
Traversing the Scarlet Path (no longer published)
 
 
Book of Tepht
 
 
X Vasa
 
 
Portal of the King's Daughter
 
 
Vault of Babalon
 
 
She of the Silver Star
 
 
Angelos Tou Theou
 
 
Daughter of the Mighty Ones
 
 
Ishtar of the Star: Seeking Maiya Tranchell Hayes
 
Throwing It On the Circle
 
Books Co-Authored:
Dea Babalon: An Adoration of Our Lady by Two Servants by Soror Syrinx
and Patrick Bloos
Dea Babalon: The Cornerstone Becomes the Capstone by Soror Syrinx and Patrick
Bloos (not published)
The Eustaxiani Papyrus by Soror Syrinx and Robert Blanchard (only 2 ever printed,
was online)
Illusory Fringe by Melissa Rovelli and Andrew Swaim
The Magical Systems of Aleister Crowley and Dion Fortune by Soror Syrinx and Paul
Dunne (not published)
 
 
Magazines:
B2B Magazine
 

[1]
The Legend of Aleister Crowley by Israel Regardie and P.R. Stephensen
[2]
The Legend of Aleister Crowley by Israel Regardie and P.R. Stephensen
[3]
The Confessions of Aleister Crowley
 
[4]
The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, Part 1, Prelude
[5]
The Legend of Aleister Crowley by Israel Regardie and P.R. Stephens en
[6] Book 4
[7]
  “Glory be unto thee, who didst set thy feet in the North; whose forehead is
pierced with the sharp points of the diamonds in thy crown; whose heart is pierced
with the spear of thine own fecundity. Thou art an egg of blackness, and a worm of
poison. But thou hast formulated thy father, and made fertile thy mother.” Liber 418
[8]
Liber A'ash vel Capricorni Pneumatici sub figurâ CCCLXX
[9]
Crowley comments, “Hrumachis is the Dawning Sun; he therefore symbolizes any
new course of events.”
[10]
King's Bench Division. The Equinox. Jones v. The Looking Glass Publishing
Company (Limited) and Others', The Times, 27 April 1911.
[11]
The Confessions of Aleister Crowley,
 
[12]
http://www.astronargon.us/Allan%20Bennett.htm
[13]
Francis King. Modern Ritual Magic: The Rise of Western Occultism
[14]
Confessions
[15]

 
 
[16]

 
[17]
Paschal Beverly Randolph: Sexual Magick in the 19th Century. Allen, Greenfield
 
[18]
This mass has been called Mass of the vampire. Of note, Dion Fortune was once
accused of being a vampire, so I added that statement with a little humor. Like AC,
she too had her critics.
[19]
The Equinox of the Gods
[20]
The Cosmic Doctrine
[21]
I stay away from this spelling as it was used in a movie, and I didn’t want it to be
seen as a joke. Orin is associated under Angels of the Compass, but I doubt that
connection, and still question the spelling.
[22]
Theurgia Goetia - Book II of The Lemegeton, Orin seal
[23]
Essays Volume 4, Jerry and Erica Cornelius
[24]
The Secret Teaching of All Ages
[25]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Frieda_Harris
[26]
http://www.astronargon.us/Holy%20Conundrum.htm
[27]
ZNUZ IS ZNEES: Memoirs of a Magician Edited and Revised by C.F. Russell