~ April 8th - 17th, 2008 ~

(the latest entries are always added to the top)

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. - AL I:40

Thursday April 17th 2008 – 5:05pm Luna writes, “News on Jerry's blog: Christopher Dietler aka Zardoz died on Tuesday. All Hail Zardoz! We are lighting a votive for Zardoz today (as is our way). …. We have an urge to watch Lucifer Rising tomorrow....I, for one, have not seen Lucifer Rising since Oak and Shadow and I saw it at the Roxie...a zillion years ago.” ..... Yes, Chris released the soundtrack for Ken Anger's Luicifer Rising. Some called it a ‘bootleg’ but history is often told by the ‘victors.’ In truth Ken gave his permission only later to recind it after the albums were printed in late 1987. If you notice the picture that I posted on my memorial page of Ken Anger, Chris and his wife standing together you'll notice a huge wall poster advertising the album ... kinda says it all, no?

6:00pm The retired Grand Treasurer General of the OTO William Heidrick writes, “I'm sorry to hear that .… I remember Zardoz fondly.”

12:00pm I was just notified of some really sad news. For old OTO historians the name Boleskine House OTO in Sacramento is legendary during the life of Grady Louis McMurtry. Sadly, it’s founder and my old friend, Christopher Dietler aka Zardoz, passed away Tuesday at 4:18pm after a tragic battle with cancer. I was notified, “Apparently he went in his sleep and was not in pain while at home with his sister and long term girlfriend Kathleen.”  He will be missed.  [pictures originally posted here have been moved to Memorial Page]

8:45am I just received a great photo from an old friend named Ed whom I knew in the OTO almost thirty years ago. It shows Grady McMurtry and Lady Shirine at the Renaissance Fair. - "Grady enjoyed reading Thoth cards and talking to anyone’s whose ear he could bend about the OTO and Aleister Crowley. Grady always had fond memories when talking about his times spent at the fair.” (From Grady McMurtry's bio)  …. Thank you Ed for sharing this priceless image with us!

6:30am I want to apologize for not posting many email responses of late but I’ve been swamped with work and haven’t had the time to play as much as I’d like. I’ve got a heavy workload of ‘writing’ this month and I need to finish up some projects. This doesn’t mean, as one person worried, that I'm not answering a lot of emails. It just means that I’m not adding 'time' onto my busy schedule by cutting & pasting and posting them into this blog throughout the day. So you can keep the personal emails coming ...

6:20am For the history buffs: John Yarker, Freemasonic scholar, was born on this date in 1833. He was initiated into Masonry on October 25, 1854 at Lodge of Integrity No. 189 (later 163) Manchester. He is the author of The Arcane Schools: a review of their origin and antiquity; with a general history of Freemasonry, and its relation to the theosophic, scientific and philosophic mysteries (1909) as well as being the publisher from 1881 to 1900 of The Kneph, the official journal of the Antient and Primitive Rite. His Antient and Primitive Rite of Masonry can be traced to the Oriental Rite of Memphis established in France in 1814, and the Rite of Mizraim, established in France in 1813. He died on March 20, 1913. …… and I should mention that George Adamski, the son of a Polish immigrant, was born on this date in 1891. On November 20, 1952 he made contact with beings from the planet Venus who had arrived in a UFO in the desert of California. He generated world-wide fame for filming UFOs and writing such books as Flying Saucers Have Landed (1953) in which he described in-depth his encounters with aliens, such as Orthon. He died on February 26, 1965 of a heart attack in Silver Springs, Md. at the age of 74. He was cremated and then buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Although he had many followers who believed in his stories, Time magazine simply referred to him as “a crackpot from California.” At the time of his death he was offering to teach people how to visit the planets Venus and Mars through self-hypnosis  ‘for only fifty dollars.’ ……. And it was on April 17, 1900 that Aleister Crowley briefly captured the Golden Dawn’s Vault of the Adepts in London wearing full Highland dress, a black mask over his face, a dagger at his side and a gold cross on his breast. He was acting on behalf of MacGregor Mathers.  However, the London Adepts called the police and had Crowley removed. ……. Also, years later on April 17, 1929, The New York Times newspaper reported that “Paris to expel A. Crowley, order effective today.” This is after the March 9 incident when Crowley and Israel Regardie were visited by an inspector who argued that their coffee-brewing machine was an infernal device for distilling drugs.

Wednesday April 16th 2008 – 4:50am For the history buffs: Albert Hoffmann’s accidentally discovered the pyschotomimetic effects of Lysergic Acid Diethyamide (LSD) on this date in 1943 but how it entered his system is still a mystery. In his classic book LSD, My Problem Child he wrote, “I was forced to stop my work in the laboratory in the middle of the afternoon and to go home, as I was seized by a peculiar restlessness associated with a sensation of mild dizziness. On arriving home, I lay down and sank into a kind of drunkenness which was not unpleasant, and which was characterized by extreme activity of imagination. As I lay in a dazed condition with my eyes closed, I experienced daylight as specially bright. There surged up from me an uninterrupted stream of fantastic images of extraordinary plasticity and vividness and accompanied by an intense, kaleidoscopic-like play of colors. This condition gradually passed off after about three hours.” ……… and also, Margot Adler, the author of Drawing down the Moon which is a classic study of goddess spirituality and contemporary paganism, was born on this date in 1946.

Tuesday April 15th 2008 – 6:10am For the history buffs: Leonardo DaVinci, the illegitimate son of a 25-year-old notary, Ser Piero, and a peasant girl, Caterina, was born on this date in 1452 in Vinci, Italy, just outside Florence. He was one of the greatest Renaissance artists, who were also celebrated as a sculptor, architect, engineer, and even a scientist. His profound love of knowledge and research was the keynote of both his artistic and scientific endeavors. His innovations in the field of painting influenced the course of Italian art for more than a century after his death, and his scientific studies, particularly in the fields of anatomy, optics, and hydraulics, anticipated many of the developments of modern science. He painted of the Mona Lisa (1504?) and The Last Supper (1495). In 1516 he traveled to France to enter the service of King Francis I. He spent his last years at the Château de Cloux (later called Clos-Lucé), near the King’s summer palace at Amboise on the Loire, where he died on May 2, 1519. …….. and Elizabeth Montgomery, the actress who played a witch named Samantha on the TV series Bewitched, was born on this date in Los Angeles, California in 1933. She died of cancer on May 18, 1995. …….. On an historical Thelemic note, there is no clear picture of when Aleister Crowley wrote and edited his version of the Second Degree Ritual of the Ordo Templi Orientis, although it was believed to have occurred in the late teens. But we do know that it was first performed at the Agape Lodge in California on this date in 1942; when Jack Parsons and his wife Helen were initiated into this Degree. The Lodge records state very clearly that they “were consecrated Magicians this evening - the first time the Degree, as written by To Mega Therion [Crowley], has been put on; certainly in America, and probably in the world.” The records continue, “We feel this is another mile stone in our journey; or, to be more specific, in the establishment of the New Order.” The three people acting as officers in rite were Wilfred T. Smith as Saladin and the roles of Emir and Wazir were performed by Regina Kahl and Jane Wolfe.

Monday April 14th 2008 – 7:55pm Mari sent an email, part of which she writes, "... I hope my hubbie won't be Yokai (^0^) ." ... I replied, "Mari 93 ... if all things manifested have a yokai ... what have you thrown away today? I apologized to the garbage I carried downstairs and put in the can. ...  And better yet, don't worry about your future husband being a yokai as much as his yokai liking you! 93 93/93 Jerry."  :)-

7:25pm Luna writes re: Yokai,

"That posting or yours about the

Japanese film made my day! thanks.

..it will carry me through the week."

4:15pm For those who have

written to me today about their love

for 'GoGo' in the Kill Bill movie

and who now wonder what she

looks like in her role as an evil spirit

in THE GREAT YOKAI WAR ... here

she is [right] with a pet ...

12:00pm Yesterday Mari and I saw Takashi Miike’s film THE GREAT YOKAI WAR (2006). Miike is a highly prolific and controversial Japanese filmmaker. He gained international fame with the release of his romantic horror film titled AUDITION (1999) which ran for just weeks at the Film Forum, inspiring mass walkouts. He also did IMPRINT (2005) and my favorite; VISTOR Q (2001). ..... and on this note The Great Yokai War is really great and if you know the Japanese myths you’ll immediately recognize the similarities with western magick. The yokai are spirits which inhabit everything that has ever existed; like elementals or daimons, they can be good, bad or simply mischievous. The Great Yokai War is about these spirits of waste and discarded items who are disgusted about how humans have treated them and they want revenge. The best description reads: “... a young boy moves to a small town after the divorce of his parents. At a local festival, he is picked to be that year's Kirin Rider, a protector of all things good. He soon discovers that his new title is quite literal, as a nefarious spirit of waste begins to wage war with the local yokai and human populations.” … The evil female character is Agi, the Bird-Catching Sprite who is played by Kuriyama Chiaki.  If you don’t know who she is; besides being a well-known Japanese actress and model, she made her Hollywood debut in director Quentin Tarantino's 2003 film Kill Bill, Volume I as Gogo Yubari, the manriki-wielding schoolgirl yakuza bodyguard of Tokyo mob mistress O-Ren Ishii. There are a lot of good lessons to learn from this movie and the next time you throw away an old toy, an empty soda bottle, an old pair of shoes or a book, ask yourself, “If everything has a spirit, how do they feel as I throw them away as if they were garbage?” … and yes, like all good Japanese monster movies, Tokyo gets destroyed!

3:45am For the history buffs: James Branch Cabell was born on this date in Richmond, Virginia in 1879. In magick circles he is known for taking Aleister Crowley’s Gnostic Mass and incorporating it into his classic fantasy novel Jurgen (1919). Although Crowley hailed him as “a world genius of commanding stature,” Cabell dismissed him as amongst the “hordes of idiots and prurient fools … who dabbled in black magic.” He died on May 5, 1958  in his house at 3201 Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia. The cause of death was a cerebral hemorrhage. ……. And the notorious François Duvalier, nicknamed ‘Papa Doc’, was also born on this date in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1907. He was president ‘for life’ of Haiti between 1957 to his death on April 22, 1971. Some claim that Papa Doc created a ‘personality cult’ around the image of himself as the physical embodiment of the Haitian nation. Others are quick to point out that ‘Papa Doc’ was an expert in the art voodoo and that he ruled Haiti with brute force and utter terror with his ruthless security force known as the Tontons Macoutes, who routinely executed his opponents. ‘Papa Doc’ derived the name Tontons Macoutes from the Creole term for a mythological bogeyman. ……. And to continue on with birthdays; Erich von Daniken was born on this date in Zofingen, Switzerland in 1923. He spent most of his life pursuing his theory which postulated that the Earth might have been visited by extraterrestrials in the remote past. His most famous book was the Chariots of the Gods. ……. And it was on April 14, 1934 as Aleister Crowley was leaving a London courtroom, a young nineteen-year old girl named Deidre MacAlpine ran up to him and asked, “Couldn’t I be the mother of your child?” He granted her that ‘honor’ and young Aleister Ataturk would inevitable be the child’s name. ……. And it should be noted that Curtis Fuller, who had taken over FATE magazine with his wife back in 1955, died on this date in 1991 in Scottsdale Arizona at the age of 79. ……. And finally, on April 14 1996 near Laguna de Chapala, Mexico, Angler Jose Angel Pulido was allegedly attacked by a “dog sized creature covered with black hair.” Others people in the area reported seeing the same creature, a Chupacabra, covered with grayish or white fur. By morning animal mutilations were reported in numerous locations in the same general area. Others sources jokingly claimed that it was just an “illegal dirty hungry Honduran” who doesn’t act as “civilized as we Mexicans.”

Sunday April 13th 2008 – For the history buffs: On the date in 1662 Isobel Gowdie, the renowned ‘Queen of Scottish Witches of the Auldearne Coven,’ confessed to witchcraft, without being tortured, in Scotland. She admitted to having frequent dealings with faeries who took her to Faerieland, entering through various mounds and caverns. The entrance of the land of the Faerie was populated by elf-bulls, whose “roaring and skoilling” always left her frightened. Gowdie said that she met often with the Queen and King of Faerieland. They were always finely dressed and offered her more meat than she could eat. Together with other witches and faeries, Gowdie would amuse herself by changing herself into an animal, like a hare or a cat. The Faeries also taught her how to fly by climbing beanstocks and cornstraws and shouting, “Horse and Hattock, in the Devil’s name!” Gowdie also claimed to have used her broom for an atypical reason. Instead of using it for cleaning or nightly traveling, she used it to deceive her husband. Before going to a sabbat, Gowdie substituted her broom for herself in bed. She said that he never knew the difference, “which might have been more of a comment on their marriage than a confession of witchcraft.” In the end, she was tied to a stake, strangled by the executioner and then burnt to ashes. …..….. and speaking of peculiar people; Madalyn Murray O’Hair, activist and atheist, was born on this date in 1919. She once boasted, “There is no God. There’s no heaven. There’s no hell. There are no angels. When you die, you go in the ground, the worms eat you.” According to the 1964 issue of Life magazine, she became the most hated woman in America after suing the Baltimore school district in an attempt to subtract the word “God” from the Pledge of Allegiance. Her case, Murray v. Curlet had reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1963, leading to a landmark legal victory: the abolition of prayer, Bible readings, and all religious references from the American public school system. She vanished in August of 1995, was presumed kidnapped, murdered and standing before God with a dumb look on her face. ……... And I should also point out that on April 13, 1973 the actor Sammy Davis Jr. was initiated into the Church of Satan by Anton LaVey’s wife Karla, and Michael Aquino, the future founder of The Temple of Set.  …….. And finally, on April 13 1996 near Jardines de San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico residents reported seeing something that resembled an enormous bird flying over the area. Those interviewed by the local media stated that they had never seen a bird of such enormous size and that it emitted bizarre shrieking sounds. A smell of sulfur was also noted in the area, as well as bizarre animal mutilations. Was it a flying Chupacabra or giant killer pigeon?

Saturday April 12th 2008 – 7:05am I want to remind all the locals that tonight is an OPEN HOUSE at my apartment; beginning at 6:00pm. Because it is around supper time you can bring food & drink etc for yourself; no need to supply for others. Just do what thou wilt. Bring questions and topics that you'd like to discuss. Email me for details.  Hope to see ya all!

4:30am For the history buffs: Mr. &  Mrs. Horos, aka Swami Viva Ananda, are probably most famous for deceiving  McGregor Mathers into thinking that they were great adepts and then shaking him down for Golden Dawn manuscripts. Shortly afterward they tried to set up a bogus Golden Dawn in London where they rented some rooms at 99 Gower Street, but they were eventually thrown out by their landlady. It was on this date in 1900 that they both left England for Africa to “Spread the Light” to that continent. …….. the author Joan Grant was born on this date in 1907 and firmly believed that she was reincarnated from previous individuals who lived in ancient Egypt, the Holy Land and pre-Columbian America. Her books include The Winged Pharaoh, Lord of the Horizon and many others. In September of 1914 Joan Grant and her family briefly visited America and the following month, on October 24th, Aleister Crowley also set sail for the same country. They both would be in New York during the holidays. Miss Grant mentions in her biography that on Christmas day in 1914 when she was only seven years old, a visitor came to her home to see her mother. She was expecting someone who claimed to be psychic, but writes “the moment I saw Aleister Crowley I thought of him as a kind of human toad.” She continues with a rather lengthy tale but, in truth, her story about Aleister Crowley is so uncharacteristic of the Beast that many considered it to be purely the imagination of a little girl. …..... and it was on April 12, 1988 that the UFO expert and noted author Coral Lorenzen, died in Tucson, Arizona. She, along with her  husband Jim, founded the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) ……. And finally, the grizzly Satanic sacrificial murders of fifteen people were uncovered on this date 9n 1989 on a ranch in the border town Matamoros, Mexico, just south of Brownsville, Texas,

Friday April 11th 2008 – 6:30am for the history buffs: On this date in 1670 Major Thomas Weir was burnt to the stake. He was born sometime around 1596, in Lanark, Scotland. In the spring of 1670, when he was 76 years old, he suddenly began to confess to horrible crimes. At first, no one believed him, thinking he had lost his mind but since he insisted that he was telling the truth, the Provost was obligated to send doctors to examine him, to determine whether or not Major Weir was insane. His confessions included an incestuous relationship with his sister Jane from the time she was ten until she was fifty, which only ceased when he no longer found her physically attractive. He also claimed to have slept with his step-daughter, Margaret Bourdon, and of having many illicit affairs with the servant girls of his house. Worse, he admitted to bestiality with horses and cows. One woman even came forward to report that she had seen him in ‘flagrante delicto’ with a mare. Sadly, she was not believed and was publicly whipped for telling lies. Still, Major Weir’s confessed perversions were just the tip of the iceberg. He claimed the motive for all his sexual misdeeds was that he was a witch, which in the 17th century sense of the word meant that he was a sorcerer and Devil-worshipper. His close colleague in sorcery was his sister, Jane Weir, who up to this time had been regarded merely as a kindly old spinster. When confronted with her brother’s charges, Jane Weir did an extraordinary thing - she confessed. Her description of her life of sin had more to do with magic than perversion. She claimed to be an emissary of a Fairy Queen, “a very tall woman with a child on her back,” whom she struck a deal with in order to be taught how to spin yarn at a rate four times faster than any human could. When this detail was brought to light, all of Edinburgh recalled how Jane Weir was renowned for her skill at spinning and this meant that she obviously sold her soul to the Devil, whom she admitted appeared to her as a small female midget. It was Jane who told the authorities that her brother’s staff was a magical wand. He leaned on it during prayer, she said, so that the Devil could inspire him to colossal lies and pretense of piety. After being examined by a learned doctor both Weirs were pronounced ‘Certified as Sane’ and they went on trial for their lives on April 9, 1670. The trial didn’t last long. The jury unanimously found Jane Weir guilty of witchcraft. Her brother was not convicted of any witchcraft charges but he was found guilty of sexual crimes. On April 11, Thomas Weir was brought to the place of execution, which was a spot between Edinburgh and Leith. He was permitted the mercy of strangulation before his was body was burned. He died, as Sir Walter Scott would later write, “stupidly sullen and impenitent.” His sister, Jane Weir, was burned at the stake the following day at Grass Market. She was distraught on the scaffold, and cried out that she wanted to die with “as much shame as possible.” Though over sixty years old, she tore at her clothes, trying to bare her aged and wrinkled body to the onlookers. In a scene that echoes down to the present day, she rebuked the mob at her execution, telling them: “I see a great crowd of people come hither today to behold a poor old miserable creature’s death, but I trow there will be few among you who are weeping and mourning for the broken Covenant.” The Weir’s house, called ‘The Bow,’ stood for a century and a half, becoming infamous as a haunted house. Neighbors reported weird lights and noises from the empty house, sounds of dancing, shrieks, and the sound of a spinning wheel, even  a glowing coach would sometimes pull up to the house to take the spirits of Thomas and Jane Weir off to Hell. No one would rent the place. The last known couple who tried, in the early 19th century, left after one night because they awoke to find, of all things, a spectral calf peering at them as they lay in bed. ‘The Bow’ was torn down in the 1830s to make way for new construction. ……… and of interest; Robert Wentworth Little, the editor of a weekly periodical The Freemason from issue 1, published on March 13, 1869 until 1873, died on this date in 1878. He was the true founder of the Rosicrucian Society of England on June 1, 1867, which was known as Sociates Rosicruciana in Anglia, or simple as Soc. Ros. or by its initials S.R.I.A. He also founded the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Misraim in England. The Rite of Misraim’s inaugural meeting was held at the Freemasons’ Tavern on December 28, 1870 with Robert Little, the Earl of Limerick and Sigismund Rosenthal in the three principal chairs. Records show that there were between eighty to a hundred brethren present. …….. and speaking of odd people, Howard Stanton Levey was born on this date in Cook County, Illinois in 1930 but his parents soon relocated to California. This was a fertile environment for the man, who would change his name to Anton Szandor LaVey and assume the role whicht the press would dub “The Black Pope.” In 1956 he had purchased the old Victorian house on California Street in San Francisco’s Richmond district and later painted it black. It was reputed to have been a den of iniquity and a speakeasy. It would become home to the First Church of Satan in 1966.  He is the author of the classic book he Satanic Bible. On October 29, 1997 LaVey died of cardiac arrest in, of all places, the Christian hospital of St. Mary’s in San Francisco. His death certificate incorrectly lists the date of his death as October 31. After his death, the ‘black’ house remained unoccupied, fell into disrepair and  was finally demolished on October 17 of 2001. ……… but most important I’d like to mention that on April 11, 1946 Grady McMurtry received an ‘official’ notice from Aleister Crowley which briefly stated, “This is to authorize Frater Hymenaeus Alpha (Capt. Grady L. McMurtry) to take charge of the whole work of the Order in California to reform the Organization in pursuance of his report of Jan. 25, ‘46 e.v. subject to the approval of Fr. Saturnus (Karl J. Germer). This authorization is to be used only in emergency.” Of course, the report mentioned is his Grand Inspector General Report of, as Grady called it, the “Hodge-Podge-Lodge.” This was the second authorization that Grady received from Crowley. The first document received in late March appointed him “as Our personal representative in the United States of America, and his Authority is to be considered as Ours, subject to the approval, revision, or veto of Our Viceroy Karl Johannes Germer IX (degree) O.T.O. ...”

Thursday April 10th 2008 – 7:45pm You asked, “In your astrological studies do you see any one sign more so than others to be spear-heading the Thelemic movement?” ….. Reply: There was a time in our history, long ago, when many Thelemic leaders were Libras; Aleister Crowley, Jack Parsons and Grady McMurtry etc. The only modern Libra of note is Jim Eschelmen.  Many of the other main Thelemic movers and shakers are shattered about: Karl Germer and Helen Parsons Smith are both Aquarians. Jane Wolfe and Keith Richmond are Aries. Kenneth Grant, Phyllis Seckler and Llee Heflin are all Geminis.  Both Bill Heidrick and William Breeze are Leos. And we must not forget Dave Scriven; he’s a Virgo …. But oddly, myself, Lon Milo DuQuette, Marcelo Motta, Carol ‘Poke’ Runyon, James Wasserman, Peter Koenig and Martin P. Star are all Cancers and it is no secret, we are some of the more unique Thelemic writers. 

6:30am For the history buffs: Its another day filled with classic events! ... For starters; the events which lead up to this date in 1612 had begun over the previous month when Alizon Device was begging on the road to Trawden, England, where she met John Law and asked him for some pins. He refused, she became angry and no sooner had he parted than he mysteriously fell to the ground lame. The story of the witches of Pendle began with a feud between two families, both headed by old women with a notorious reputation for witchcraft and who began making accusations toward members in the opposite clans. Some members were arrested, while others of the two rival clans met on this date, of April 10, 1612, at a big feast at Malkin Tower, the home of Alizon Device and her family. They met in order to try and find a solution to their feuding and to discuss the possibility of breaking those family members already accused of witchcraft out of jail. This makes the crimes seem all the more serious, as there is now an apparent element of conspiracy and even a documented “witch’s sabbat.” This meeting precipitated in Alizon Device’s being arrested on April 27 along with her immediate family, and all those who were present at Malkin Tower ‘sabbat, along with even some of their neighbors by Roger Nowell, the prosecutor and former High Sheriff of Lancashire. After the ‘interrogation’ some were deemed innocent and released while others were sent to Lancaster to await trial on a charge of witchcraft. However, on July 27, 1612, Jennet Preston becomes the first of the ‘Malkin Tower’ Witches to be hanged. On August 18th and 19th, more were tried at the Assizes in Lancaster, with Judge Bromley presiding, accompanied by Judge Altham. Unfortunately, one of the older clan members died in prison before she reached trial. On August 20th, ten more people, having been found guilty, were taken from the castle and hanged. In the end, twenty people were arrested, tried and convicted. This is the story, in brief, of the infamous Lancashire witches.  …..…. And also of note about this date is that the  Reverend Alphonsus Joseph-Mary Augustus Montague Summers was born at Pembroke Lodge, near Bristol, England in1880. It is believed that he simply claimed the title of ‘Reverend’ because it is not exactly known to which religious order he belonged. Although many have theories, there is no specific proof of his affiliation. Throughout his life, he was a firm believer in the powers of Evil, and pursued an avid research to document its manifestation. His contribution to the literature of witchcraft, vampirism and werewolves have been a most valuable and while many today might criticize his over-all views, no one can doubt the meticulous scholarship that Summer brought to bear on these subjects. He wrote such works as The History of Witchcraft and Demonology (1926), The Geography of Witchcraft (1927), The Vampire, His Kith and Kin (1928) and The Werewolf (1933), to name only a few. It is very difficult to decipher the exact relationship which he and Aleister Crowley shared, since not enough information survives to detail the full story but, unlike the story of Neuburg being turned into a Zebra, there is another story that “Aleister Crowley once changed Summers into a giraffe, but forgot to tell him. So that Summers never knew.” On the other hand, in 1928, the noted author Lance Sieveking traveled to southern France near Cassis where he had the chance to meet the Great Beast, Aleister Crowley. During the evening, Sieveking took the opportunity to ask Crowley, “What he thought of the Rev. Montague Summers?” Crowley simply replied, knocking the end off his cigar with an air of an executioner, “I haven’t seen Monty Summersfor years … he takes care of that. He knows what would happen.” With curiosity ablaze, Sieveking  felt he just had to ask, “What would happen?” To which Crowley replied, “I should change him into a toad.” On August 10, 1948 Montague Summers died suddenly at his home in Dynevor Road, Richmond on this date. He was buried in Richmond Cemetery with no public Mass being allowed. That same year a new edition of his most notable work, the translation of Malleus Maleficarum was released. His contribution to the literature of witchcraft, vampirism and werewolves have been a most valuable and while many today might criticize his over-all views, no one can doubt the meticulous scholarship that Summer brought to bear on these subjects. …..... and of note: on April 10, 1904 the third and final chapter of The Book of The Law, known as Liber AL vel Legis, was dictated to Aleister Crowley at noon on this day, thus completing the volume. ……. And on this date in 1931 the author of the best selling book The Prophet, Khalil Gibran, died of cancer in New York City hospital, at age 48. …… and the grandfather of late night weird radio in New York City, Long John Nebel, died of cancer at the age of 66 on this date in 1978. His classic Long John Nebel Radio Program in the 1950s talked about every facet of UFOs possible. ……. And finally, on April 10 1996, on a ranch near Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, several livestock and goats were found mutilated and curiously devoid of blood. On the same night, during a party, the son of the ranch owner went outside and saw a mysterious humanoid figure sitting on top of a fence, it then jumping up and onto the roof of the house were others inside heard the footsteps. Several roosters and chickens were found mutilated the next day as well as some of the neighbor’s goats. The Chupacabra or “Goat sucker” had obviously struck.

Wednesday April 9th 2008 – 10:41am Craig writes, “I wanted to complement you on your book Aleister Crowley and the Ouija Board. You started very slowly and all of a sudden I found myself making sense of some very complicated ideas.  I enjoyed the journey of the book itself and how you care for your reader.” ….. I replied: I am pleased to hear that you are enjoying my book on the Ouija. Thanks for the kind comments. It was a labour of love to write and it is one of those Aleister Crowley topics that no one feels important enough to write upon. I feel, in some ways, that it is such a complicated subject and that one needs a general overview on the topic of the spiritual movement in general to proceed with an adequate book. Many modern magicians have little or no foundation on this subject. You asked for reading recommendations, most of the info is found scattered through hundreds of books and sadly, little in one place. I would recommend a copy of Frater Achad’s Crystal Vision. Or, more important; C.W.Leadbeater’s book titled The Astral Plane. As for an over-view on magic. Too many modern books rehash the same old info. I would always go back to a great source like Regardie’s The Golden Dawn which details many magickal studies.

6:30am For the history buffs: Alot has happened on today so lets begin ... it was on this date in 1744 that Grace Pett, 60, an alcoholic residing in Ipswich England, was found on the floor by her daughter like “a log of wood consumed by a fire, without apparent flame.” Nearby clothing was undamaged. The first reliable historic evidence of spontaneous human combustion appeared years earlier in 1673 when Frenchman Jonas Dupont published a collection of spontaneous human combustion cases and studies entitled De Incendiis Corporis Humani Spontaneis. ……. And one of the giants of French literature, Charles Baudelaire, was born on this date in Paris in 1821. He was an audacious character who cherished the idea of doing things for their shock value, like dying his hair green or walking down the streets of Paris with a pet lobster on a leash. Once, when an interviewer asked him what his favorite word was, he simply replied, “hemorrhoids.” He was one of Aleister Crowley’s greatest inspirations. Crowley, like Baudelaire, would often wear daring hairstyles like a Mohawk haircut, or only a tuft of pink or green hair on top of a shaved head. Crowley’s dress was also so unusual at times that people starred at him as if he were a Parisian fashion statement. Crowley translated and published many of Baudelaire’s poems. ……. And I should like to mention that Gerald Festus Kelly was born in Paddington, London on this date in 1879. He was educated at Eton, Trinity Hall Cambridge and Paris. While at Cambridge he met Aleister Crowley. Together they planned to publish a magazine, but they never did. Kelly was initiated into the Golden dawn on October 31, 1899. He became known as Frater Eritis Similis Deo. Kelly and Crowley built up a close friendship, with Crowley later joining him in his Montparnasse studio in Paris. They met again in Scotland, where Crowley met Kelly’s sister Rose whom he eventually married. Kelly became a member of the Salon d’Automne, Paris in 1904. His first exhibition of paintings and drawings took place at the Royal Academy in 1909 and he was also a founder member of the National Portrait Society. He was commissioned to paint the State Portraits of both King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, which he completed 1945. He died quietly and peacefully at his home on January 5th 1972 of bronchial pneumonia. He was 93 years old. ……. And more important historically for Thelemies is the fact that Leah Hirsig was born on this date in Switzerland, one of nine children in 1883. At the age of two her family moved to the United States, where she grew up in New York. On reaching adulthood she became a teacher at a public high school in the Bronx. She and her older sister Alma were drawn to the study of the occult, and this interest led them to visit Aleister Crowley in 1918, who was living at the time in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. Crowley and Hirsig felt an immediate and instinctive connection. In January of 1919, he consecrated her as his Scarlet Woman. She adopted the magical name Alostrael, “the womb (or grail) of God.” Crowley also called her the Ape of Thoth, in reference to the companion of the god Tahuti who enables his ideas to become reality. Hirsig indeed proved herself by assisting Crowley in making his dreams a reality. In 1920 they founded the Abbey of Thelema in the town of Cefalù on the coast of Sicily, thus realizing in concrete form the dream of the French literary genius and early Thelemite François Rabelais. At the Abbey, Hirsig was instrumental in guiding Crowley, the Prophet of the New Aeon, to a deeper understanding of the Law of Thelema. At a time of despair, Crowley 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.” Hirsig’s role as Crowley’s initiatrix reached a pinnacle on May 23, 1921 she presided over his assuming the Oath of Ipsissimus in the AA, or 10=1. She was the only person present to have witnessed this event. Inevitably, like all his woman, Hirsig fell out grace. On September 21, 1924 she sent a letter to Aleister Crowley stating, “I hereby renounce the title of Scarlet Woman and pass it on to the Scarlet Concubine” of your desire, which meant that his latest woman, Dorothy Olsen, could assume the throne. This did not mean that Hirsig was abandoning her commitment to Thelema. Her diary from this period reveals her continuing devotion to the Great Work, her renewal of her magical oaths, her ongoing invocations of Ra Hoor Khuit, and her consecration of herself as the bride of Chaos. In 1925, when Crowley asked her to serve again for a period as his scribe and secretary, she readily accepted; she was ready to give her assistance when it was necessary to the furtherance of his magical work and to the promulgation of the Law of Thelema. As Crowley wrote in his diary during the Cefalù period, “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.” Hirsig ultimately returned to the United States and resumed her work as a schoolteacher. She died in Meiringen, Switzerland  in 1975. …..…. And to continue on; Paul Robeson, the son of a runaway slave, was born in Princeton, New Jersey on this date in 1898. He began his acting career in 1924 with the Provincetown Players. With a resonant voice and the ability to project a humane spirit, he won wide acclaim with his creation of the title role in Eugene O’Neill’s Emperor Jones (1925) and All God’s Chillun Got Wings (1925) Other outstanding dramatic performances included Black Boy (1926), DuBose Heyward’s Porgy (1928) and Othello (in London, 1930, and New York, 1943-45). In 1925 he made his debut as a concert singer. Possessed of a magnificent bass voice, he became known especially for his rendition of “Ol’ Man River” in Jerome Kern’s play Show Boat (1928) and for his interpretations of spirituals. The oddest play, which Robeson wisely never did, was to perform the lead in Aleister Crowley’s play titled Mortadello (1912). It seems, according to Viola Bankes, that Crowley once approached her and asked, “I wish you would ask Paul Robeson to play the Negro rôle in this play. If he accepted it, the success of the play would be assured.” The character whom Crowley felt Robeson should play was Orlando. In Mortadello he is described as being “of gigantic stature, a full negro who is romantically involved with a white woman named Monica, ‘whose long black hair hung down upon her milky white shoulders.’ Viola agreed to Crowley’s requests and, in time, she met with Robeson at Albert Hall. She also gave him a copy of Crowley’s Mortadello but, in the end, Robeson declined the offer to play Orlando. He explained, “I’m afraid it’s no use. You see, there are certain lines and gestures which the British public would not care to see enacted between a Negro and a white woman. As for the American stage, why, if I were to produce it over there, someone in the audience would get up and shoot me with a revolver!” Paul Robeson died in Philadelphia on January 23, 1976. …...…. But, as amusing as this date has been, the most important thing to mention about this date is that on April 9, 1904 Aleister Crowley received the second chapter of The Book of The Law, known as Liber AL vel Legis, on this day in Cairo at noon.

Tuesday April 8th 2008 – 5:50pm I added more pictures on-line of Saturday's feast. These came from Ben Hance. Click HERE to view them.

11:15am Luna sent an email. She writes, “Jerry 93! Leigh just walked in from the office and I gave him his cudos for coming up with the alien meatloaf...it made his morning.! Your Bloggings over the last few days are priceless...the responses from people are priceless....I am forwarding the link to some of my old friends and family members...so that they can read for themselves .... so they can further understand the difference between a "cult" and a gathering of free willed Thelemites. … Steven Cohen will be here all day tomorrow...he will help me with the measurements for my postcard art masters...and I we are going to put out a little xeroxed 'zine.  I will do my best to try to draw his wonderfully wyrd quantum particle ideas onto paper. … You and your crew in Berkeley serve as a fountain of inspiration to us here. Much Love and Respect 93 93/93 )O(.”  …….  Reply: The alien was tasty! Yum Yum. … Give Steven a big hug for me. … and in regards to the ‘postcards’ Luna mentions, for my reader’s benefit, these are great pictures [see below] of Luna’s artwork. For some of you who know’s Grady’s poetry; RUST and ALIEN STAR will be a plus; you’ll also notice Crowley, Grady, Jane Wolfe and lots of other great pictures & Thelemic images. She’s getting these postcards together to sell in sets. I don’t know the cost yet but if you want to reserve a set; let me know. The photo below does not give justice to her use of colors and images.

7:00am John, thanks for the comments. In some modern circles Thelema is appealing; especially  you’re a closet Christian because after years of being told that you can’t do this or that, Thelema offers the dirty little school boy justification to act out his neurosis under the pretenses of do what thou wilt. If he’s not taught correctly he’ll walk around his feeble little world calling himself a Thelemite when in fact, he’s not. Let me quote something posted on my blog last October 22nd  :  I guess Mary, who wrote me privately on Sunday, sums up my reasoning for mentioning the above far better. She wanted to know what was the single most thing that got me totally disgusted with OTO where I simply didn’t care any longer if I remained in or out. It was a good question. Well, after much deliberation and five hundred reasons, I thought about this one episode as an example and I guess I just didn’t want to hang around with Thelomites any more. ... now please do not write me emails telling me that I spelt this word wrong. Granted, a Thelemite, based on the Greek word θέλημα or Thelema, is a person who pursues their True Will. Now, on this date, officially for all time, I hereby proclaim its opposite – the Thelomite! This is word based on Θέλω which is Greek for ‘Want.’ ... I guess what I am trying to say is that the hypocrisy of the OTO finally got to me. The example that I used above refers to a person who sits on an official OTO Council in judgment of other people’s actions in the Order. Phyllis Seckler and I often discussed this problem; how we saw many ‘management level’ OTO people over the years act not in accordance with The Book of The Law, or in a Thelemic manner but in ways in which they’d suspend or expel other members if they got caught doing the same thing. Thelema in the OTO is where the higher up you go in the degrees you can scream, “Do as I say, not as I do or act” and years ago, that is what finally pushed me over the edge.

Definition: Thelomite: a person who disregards

the Will of others and acts out of personal

beliefs or wants on the 'horizontal plane' in contrast

to the Thelemite who acts 'vertically' and respects

the Thelemic Rights of others.

[I apologize if I offend anyone in the OTO but within AA circles

Aleister Crowley informs us that we learn best by 'examples.']

6:40am Mike writes, “My area is dull, filled with the ‘new’ OTO types. Wished I lived in California. You guys seem to know how to throw a party.” …… Reply: It’s never completely ‘how’ you throw a party but whom you invite. We have a great core of Thelemites around us; people who understand what this means and who believe in Crowley when he says the first golden rule of Thelema is let all others do their Will first. This allows for diversity and forces you to except people despite difference in opinion. We know what is good for one person’s Universe may not be true or good for another. It’s OK to be different. I am utterly driven by this belief. But the OTO has yet to learn these Laws but what do you expect from an Order which doesn’t want its members to openly write about or talk about Liber AL vel Legis? How do you learn Thelema?

6:20am I received this email from Carlos, Ricardo's brother; who also attended Saturday's feast. He writes, "93 Dear Friend, I wanted to let you know that I'm grateful for the opportunity to have shared a space with you. It was a magical experience to have met you, to have met Ben, Luna and friend Michelle, Charles (very cool:), Luis, and everyone else who was there. ... Many years ago, when I was about eight or nine years old, my brother Ricardo and friend Juan Carlos used to play Dungeons & Dragons. Besides the player characters being played, the fantastic monsters, the villains, and the adventures themselves, what I enjoyed hearing about most was the magic-users and their schools. This day, at Ben's, I became that player character in the presence of a magic school. ... Two very memorable moments that are going in my journal. One is listening to you talking to that Mexican-looking guy's wife about the "fake people." Hearing you talk about how the Angel is manifesting his guidance and council and presence through the fabric, the veil that is apparently my life experience by using the fake people was very valuable to me. I can use just the memory of the feel and the sensation of that particular circle, your voice if not the words, that specific moment of you to my left, her before me, and Ricardo to my right, and work on recognizing my Angel in my database of memories; and I suspect now, just as I write this, that it can unlock some wonderful stuff that can be useful somehow, somewhere. ... The other is when you and Luis, whom I have seen before, as a teenager in the Bay Area, in the TV screen maybe...who knows?...you and Luis came in and upon seeing Luis I said to Ricardo "Luis" before you even introduced him. I knew Ricardo had been wanting (and waiting) to meet him; he had mentioned it. He had mentioned that he was also a teacher. Nothing in particular about his outside appearance gave it up. It was in the way you two moved towards us, towards Ricardo, and when they both faced each other, and when their eyes met, everything went quiet. The noise level lowered significantly (even that bitchy bird that wouldn't shut up left), the radiations heightened the space outside the dream...Nice! ... Thanks again Jerry, for your hospitality and your friendly welcome. Hope to see more of you. Carlos 93 93/93." ....... Reply: You are too kind. I greatly enjoyed meeting you; your energy was centered on your Heart. You wear it well. When you walked in I immediately 'knew' that we have met before but where I know not. It puzzled me. Perhaps we met earlier in another 'space', another 'time' and we both dreamt what was coming on Saturday? The question is why?  I love these types of Déjà vu-s.  I have them a lot and of course they can never be proven but in my heart I know what I feel. … As for Luis and I, we are both from Connecticut. We have known each since the early 1980s. I moved out here to California in 1989 and he a few years later. He is, undisputedly, my best friend.  He personally knew Grady, joined the OTO under him at my Lodge back in the 1980s. He also joined Grady’s AA lineage and rose up the ranks. His accomplishments out-do my own in many ways. I always sense his energy centered around his ‘throat’ area; a neat guy to know despite his occasional Taurian stubbornness and isolationism.  I wish we could have had more time to talk but in a party setting it is sometimes difficult, if not fleeting as we all mingle and move around. Anyway, it was a joy meeting you.

6:00am Mick, who attended our Liber AL festivities, sent me an email this morning. He writes, "Jerry 93! Finally getting to send along my own "Hoor-Ras!" for the Feast on Saturday! I wrote in my journal: 20080406 – 1818: Attended the Feast at Ben’s place in Berkeley yesterday. 2212 Blake Street. Ben is a force of nature with the large gleam of a happy satyr and the heart of a boy. Jerry looked healthy and more relaxed than I’ve seen him. He was very gracious. It was obviously a relief to find out his fainting spell had been precipitated by new blood pressure medication and not a worsening condition. The party was lively. Met some new folk. Luis, Luna, Mari and Steven Cohen made an impression in particular. Now there’s some “Life” going on there!!! I like these people because they know how to look you in the eye and they have their own ideas and senses of the world. Non judgmental, each exploring the possibilities of their unique existence and heartily engaging the consequences and bounty of it. These are the most vivid people I think I’ve been around since childhood. 1936: Conformity is a form institutionalized stagnation." ... I'm so glad I could make it up to Berkeley on Saturday Jerry. It was good seeing everyone and getting a chance to chat again. What a delightful assembly of genuinely real and interesting individuals! Though, as a side note, when partaking of alien meat-loaf I prefer to use the more circumspect appellation: "the other grey meat", I have to say the terrific food and delicious drink was surpassed only by the comradely color and warmth of all those gathered...Three thumbs up! Bind Nothing! Mick 93 93/93." ...... Reply: I was glad to see you too old friend. Yes, it was a good crowd but you forget, you were part of it which helped make it a positive experience.

5:45am For the history buffs: it was on April 8, 1904 that the first chapter of The Book of The Law, known as Liber AL vel Legis, was received by Aleister Crowley in Cairo on this day, at noon. ……. The poet Victor ‘Vickybird’ Neuburg signed the Oath of Probationer joining the AA on this date in 1909. Later, when Aleister Crowley & Neuburg were in the Sahara trying to summon the Devil, Neuburg kept ‘chirping’ unintelligently during the ritual and, as Neuberg’s friend Calder-Marshall noted, “Crowley became so enraged that he turned Vickybird into a zebra, rode him into Alexandria, and sold him to the zoo, where he remained for two years before regaining human shape.” ……… and it was on this date in 1939 Elizabeth Clare Wulf was born in Red Bank, New Jersey to a World War I German U-boat captain and his Swiss wife. After her first failed marriage she met Mark L. Prophet. Being clairvoyant she informed him that they had met in a previous life at King Arthur’s Camelot when she was Lady Guinevere and he was Lancelot. Obviously thrilled by the idea they married and she assumed the name Elizabeth Clare Prophet. She would become a pioneer of modern spiritual thought who supposedly is a Messenger for enlightened spiritual beings called Ascended Masters. She and her husband established The Summit Lighthouse in 1958 to publish the teachings of these Ascended Masters. She is also became the head of The Church Universal and Triumphant. Her followers call her everything from Mother, to Guru Ma, to the Vicar of Christ, The Messenger and the Mother of the Flame. After Mark died of a stroke she married Randall Kosp, who then changed his name to King. After divorcing King, she married Ed Francis in 1981, a man 11 years her junior. They divorced in 1998. One person once commented, “You’d think the Ascended Masters would have given her advice about her own life?”  ……… and I should point on that on April 8, 1944, following months of German bombing, where one actually exploded in the backyard of 93 Jermyn Street, blowing out the windows in Aleister Crowley’s bedroom, Crowley finally decided that he needed “more quiet” and he left London for the countryside. “Can’t say I blame him,” said Grady McMurtry, “I thought it was dumb enough to stay in London to begin with; but I didn’t tell him that.” Crowley took a small room at the Bell Inn, Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire. Crowley described it as “a most delightful, really old, inn, big open fire, food incredibly good. But nothing to do, and no one to talk to.” He was given room No.11 which, according to one of Crowley’s biographers, seemingly pleased him since it was the number of the Qliphoth or rather the infernal sphere on the Qabalistic Tree of Life. ……… and finally, James Daniel Gunther was born on this date in 1950 in Altus, Arkansas. In Marcello Motta’s Equinox Vol.V No.4 (1981) on p.xi Motta maliciously wrote, “James Daniel Gunther: once legitimate O.T.O. representative; demoted for planning to murder his hierarchic superior; withdrew voluntarily from the AA and was expelled from the O.T.O.” In truth, James Daniel Gunther, who was living in Nashville, was also demoted from 4=7 to a Probationer 0=0 by Marcelo Motta for supposedly lying about memorizing his Chapters from the Holy Books, and for ‘forging’ his diaries. After Motta’s death he mysteriously re-emerged and became head [?] of Motta’s AA which now ‘pulls the strings’ behind the Ordo Templi Orientis; especially in America; second in command of this lineage is William Breeze.

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The postcard to the right has our AA lineage across the top and bottom. Pictured right to Left: Aleister Crowley, Jane Wolfe, Phyllis Seckler, Grady McMurtry and Jerry Cornelius.