~ June 13th - 30th 2009 ~
Tuesday June 30th 2009 – 6:00am For the history buffs: On this date in 1908 an unidentified object appeared above Western China, with a deafening supersonic roar that terrified everyone as it headed due north. When it fell out of the sky, at 7:17am near the Stony Tunguska River in Siberia near Kansk, it leveled miles of forests, but left no crater. It was so powerful that the seismographs throughout the world registered what looked like an earthquake. It would be the largest recorded explosion until the H-Bomb was invented. To this day theorists are still pondering what caused the explosion; meteorite, comet, anti-matter, mini-black hole or alien spaceship? It remains a mystery. ........... I should also point out that on June 30, 1925 Frederick Leigh Gardner the man whom Aleister Crowley had decided was responsible for evoking Typon-Set against him, died.
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Monday June 29th 2009 – 10:00am Jay writes - "93 Jerry, The more I think about Chastity the more I find my thoughts turning to the first chapter of The Book of the Law. It seems to me that Chastity could be described as remaining faithful to Our Lady of Stars. "Obey my prophet! follow out the ordeals of my knowledge! seek me only!" I:32, "Also, take your fill and will of love as ye will, when, where and with whom ye will! But always unto me" I:51 Is this not the nature of Chastity, to see god in everything? Then to address your question as to the meaning of "There is no part of me that is not of the Gods," we must also see that we are a part of the Body of Nuit: "I am above you and in you. My ecstasy is in yours. My joy is to see your joy" I:13. I'm also thinking of what Ben said the other night when he was quoting a Sufi saying, that to worship a god one must become a god. There is certainly a reflective aspect at work here, that we perceive in accordance to our nature. A thug sees a thug world, a stockbroker sees money and a god sees God. But of course we must also turn to the key the Tree. We might look at each sphere as a god (Gaea, Luna, Mercury, Venus etc.) or as the Tree as the ten manifestations of one god as the Jewish Qabalists: in any case, if we keep this in context of the lower Tree, a description of our bodies and the chakras, then obviously the gods exist in us the same way they exist outside of us. One might say they are above us and in us... Chastity, then, is the work of arranging one's consciousness to be ever aware of this fact, a sort of faithfulness to the sacred. Nothing is profane. God isn't some remote abstraction. She is in every breath, in every particle of dust, in the stars above and the stars burning in the heart of every man and every woman. The bishop, I presume (not being intimately acquanted with the Gnostic Mass), must be able to bring this out so that the communion truly becomes unity with god. He must be a vehicle for Godhead. I hope that's at least a start. Love, Jay." ....... Reply: It's a very good start and right on the money.
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5:35am For the history buffs: the actress Jayne Mansfield’s tragic decapitation in a car accident happened in Slidell, Louisiana about 2 am the morning on this date in 1967. Her Buick Electra, carrying Jayne, her lawyer and boyfriend Sam Brody, her three children and their dog, plowed into the back of a tractor-trailer, obscured by the haze that had been released by a mosquito fogger. Only her children survived. She was a brief member of Anton LaVey’s Satanic Church in San Francisco; rumors that they both had a falling out and that she was ‘cursed.’ ............ Also on this date in 1988 one of the most bizarre creatures reported in recent times appeared in South Carolina and became known as the Lizard Man. It was first seen by 17-year-old Christopher Davis who was changing a flat tire on his car near Scape Ore Swamp, which is just outside the backwater village of Bishopville in South Carolina’s Lee County. As Chris looked up he saw something rather large running toward his car, on the passenger side. It was running on its hind legs, it was covered by green scales and stood about seven feet tall with glowing red eyes. Chris, terrified, immediately jumped into his car. He tried to slam the door shut but the reptile-man jumped upon the hood and seized the mirror in an attempted to wrench his door open. Chris intuitively hit the gas petal hard, accelerating, which knocked his scaly attacker off as he sped away. The only evidence that anything had ever happened was a series of long deep scratches on the hood and the wing mirror was severely twisted and at the site when the incident occurred the creature left three toed tracks. Throughout the summer other sightings were reported but as quick as the creature had appeared, it disappeared.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday June 28th 2009 – 3:30pm I was recently asked if I practice The Middle Pillar Ritual, I answered, yes and no. First, there is no set formalized version of this ritual, there are many and I do not practice any of them ... but rather I use a personal one. This is because I detest the traditional 'types' of vibrational names which border on religious affirmations of Gods which I don't worship and I tend to use vibrational Chakra frequencies (bija) along with visual Greek concepts regarding the attributes to the Middle Pillar. ... These attributes are our Sun Sign, our Moon Sign and our Rising Sign. These three points refer to the Moirae or Fates mentioned in The Myth of Er ; the Fate Lachesis ruling our Sun Sign or Tiphereth, Klotho our Moon orYesod and Atropos ruling our Rising Sign or the sphere of Malkuth. It was these three Fates who not only ratified our chosen life after reviewing all the facts regarding our past, present and future but they also assisted our Spirit to incarnate into a body; while giving us our daimon (HGA) to assist us. This is how I view my Middle Pillar; acknowledging the descent of my Spirit into Flesh in order to gain an 'experience.' I should also point out that I take the God name of Kether or Eheieh and vibrate it in Malkuth as an ending rather than a beginning to acknowledge my Spirit 'here-now' in the Flesh as 'I AM' rather than seing it as a lofty state of wannabe spirituality. Besides: Kether is in Malkuth, Malkuth in Kether.
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2:45pm I added a page onto the website titled - THE KUNDALINI, THE TREE OF LIFE & THE ZODIAC, this merely being the notes (chart) from a lecture held at LOVE'S SAKE CLERK HOUSE in September 2008 ... posted here as a convenience for those students who keep asking questions.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9:00am To answer a question regarding Bill Breeze's BOOK 4 'tome' and his other rather massive Crowley size volumes ... in a way, they are very informative but in this day and age where books are slowly becoming obsolete it is almost unthinkable that the average person will carry them around much less use them. The way of future with cell phones, Ipods, computers, laptops etc & etc is 'smaller' is better ... so I agree with you - "What is Bill thinking?" One friend, close to Bill, jokes behind his back about his "dinosaur-like dust collectors." Personally, I wish Bill would produce five smaller books that we can carry around in our knapsacks rather than one big volume which I can use as a door stop. So, to answer your question - "You being a Crowley researcher with a large library, do you use his books and if so, which ones are your favorite?" My reply - No, I use none of them, if I can help it. I have a bad heart and my doctor doesn't want me to lift anything too heavy.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7:30am To address an email: let me quote Liber De Natura Deorum in that "Baphomet and Babalon is a Measure of Heaven and Earth" regarding the Mystical Marriage. On a practical side I'd suggest performing Liber NU (Liber XI 11) which Crowley calls "An instruction for attaining Nuit" ... and also Liber HAD (Liber DLV 555) which Crowley states is "An instruction for attaining Hadit." ... In the old A.'.A.'. system after the Philosophus degree you obtain the portal grade of Dominus Liminus which is a bridge between 4=7 (Netzach-Venus) and 5=6 (Tiphereth-Sun). Once you've been given the Portal Degree you are required to study and perform both Liber Had and Liber Nu. But in our branch we feel that where the 'portal' is placed reflects the old Christianized Golden Dawn views of a sacred 'Solar Christ' rather than views expressed in Liber AL Vel Legis. The 'Portal' should, in fact, lie between Yesod and Hod to reflect a bridge between the man of Earth (Malkuth-body and Yesod-libido) and the Lover (five spheres of the Ruach) grades. On that note, we feel every new initiate of the man of Earth should be performing Liber NU since part of their requirement for both is studying the First Chapter of Liber AL vel Legis, which should not be taken lightly. And when they are ready to move out of this grade and into the Lover they should be performing Liber Had since part of their ending requirement is studying the Second Chapter of Liber AL vel Legis. In case anyone misunderstands; all initiates should be reading all three chapters but an in-depth study of each is paramount at certain stages.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6:20am I have received about a half dozen emails to my question about chastity and or the phrase 'There is no part of me' etc which I posted yesterday. All, so far, from non-initiates of our lineage. Although I appreciate the thoughts I have not posted them because I feel they will only complicate a rather difficult magickal discourse due to their personal nature and the fact that they are all 'slightly' off the topic. Always remember, the first goal of this blog is to be a learning tool to reach our A.'.A.'. initiates world wide, if an incoming email distracts from our teachings rather than is helpful, we usually will not post it. Personally, I enjoy your thoughts but when we are trying to discuss 'specific' topics we will not let the blog degenerate into people posting bizarre ideas, theories or psychobabble prevalent in many LiveJournals. ... But thanks for writing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4:57am For the history buffs: On this date in 1752 Karl von Eckartshausen was born in Haimhausen, a town near Munich, as the illegitimate child of the Count of Haimhausen and Maria Anna Eckart. At the age of seven Eckartshausen began experiencing strange dreams of a prophetic and mystical nature, as well as having ‘visions.’ He wrote the classic on every occult reading list: The Cloud upon the Sanctuary (1802). …....…. And Albert Karl Theodor Reuss was born on this date in Augsburg, Germany in 1855. He was the son of an innkeeper who became trained as a professional Opera singer. He met Richard Wagner and, in 1882, he sang in the first performance of Wagner’s Parsifal in Bayreuth. Later, in London, he sang in music halls under the name of Charles Theodore. Sadly, with the loss of his voice, he was forced to give up his singing career. He then became a druggist, a journalist and possibly even a spy for the Prussian Police. He claimed to have used a charter supplied to him by John Yarker to establish a “Masonic Academy” which became known as the Ordo Templi Orientis or O.T.O. It was his ambition to revive the Order of the Illuminati in Munich and Berlin. Reuss was Aleister Crowley‘s predecessor as the Head of the OTO. He died on October 28, 1923. …......….. and to continue with birthdays, Stewert Farrar was born on this date in Highams Park, Essex in 1916. He was the author of such book as What Witches Do (1971), Eight Sabbats For Witches (1971) and The Witches' Way (1986) He died on February 7, 2000. …......….. and it would be negligent if I didn’t mention that on this date in 1940 that the ‘sleeping prophet’ Edgar Cayce predicted that Atlantis would rise from the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Bimini in the late 1960s .....…… and on June 28, 1944 Aleister Crowley had one of the most important visions of his life, one that would inevitably affect the future of Thelema. He wrote in his diary that about 1:48 a.m. he saw an “Apparition of Fra H.A. In oval of dim light. Dark Blue clothes, standing at attention. Greeting returned, before I finished mine.” There is no immediate indication in his diaries at the moment of Crowley attempting to figure out what this meant but, shortly after this vision, he begins looking toward Grady as a possible O.H.O. or successor to the O.T.O. leadership in the future. Crowley also began thinking more about “777” as his spiritual heir. He would spend the next few months trying to figure out Grady’s future and in this time he would inevitably develop the Caliph theory. He would later send Grady a letter dated August 22nd 1944, considered one of the most significant letters in modern Thelemic history because, as Grady stated, this was “the 1st of the Caliphate letters.” In time it leads to Grady being appointed the Thelemic Caliph. …...….. ah, June 28th seems like a busy day, no? …...….. for the UFO buffs; on June 28, 1952 just after midnight, Truman Bethurum of Prescott, Arizona was peaceably asleep in his truck. Within minutes he found himself abruptly awakened by strange visitors; short little spacemen in coveralls. He claimed that he was then escorted out of his truck and taken aboard a UFO where he met a beautiful female captain name Aura Rhanes, who said she was from a planet called Clarion. After his visit he wrote a note which he put in his pocket and which was later printed in LIFE magazine in 1957: “To whom it may concern. If I am found dead it will be because my heart has stopped from the terrible excitement induced by seeing and going aboard a flying Saucer.” …….. and finally, I should mention that on June 28, 1975 Rod Serling, known primarily for his role as the host of television’s The Twilight Zone, died.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday June 27th 2009 – 2:10pm To Mr. Anonymous [aka OTO initiate], I'm sorry but I disagree; doing The Gnostic Mass, or Liber XV, correctly, or by the book, with perfect props and regalia merely distinguishes the difference between performing a good play on Braoadway or one on a High School stage. It doesn't make you a magician. Anyone can do the Mass perfectly but not everyone can learn the 'magick' behind it unless they have been truly 'initiated'.
The Secret is taught in Seventh Degree and Bishops [who are made in this Degree], upon learning this secret, will be able to train the Priest, Deacon etc to assist him in performing the ritual correctly. But remember, in the VIIth Degree Grade Paper De Natura Deorum, Section III De Natura Dei Soli it clearly informs us - “For all attempts to initiate even the worthy before they initiate themselves are folly and fatality.” This is the reason why I don't, as you put it - "spell things out" on my blog. I can't make someone a magician [or teach them the secrets behind Seventh Degree or that of a Bishop] by my posting, or with the wave of my hand, or a signature on a piece of paper. I'm trying to get my students to have epiphanies which make them realize the Secrets in their own time.And with that in mind I can ask you, "Do you know the 'Secret' to Seventh which would allow you to transform the wafer into a vehicle of the Gods?" Your email implies the answer very clearly. Although you obviously know all the Gnostic Mass rhetoric perfectly you still have 'doubt' wheher or not you're doing the 'magick' behind the Mass correctly ... and doubt implies a lack of certainty built on a crumbling ruin of faith. ... In other words, simply knowing 'why' you're doing certain things along with the symbology behind the implements, movements and words does not make you a true Bishop. It makes you a really good motivated actor. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8:30am On March 21st 1979 I was made a full Seventh Degree initiate of Ordo Templi Orientis by Grady Louis McMurtry himself. I immersed myself immediately into the task of studying this degree, almost to the point of being annoying for people around me. Over the next year I continual chatted by phone with Grady about this degree, whereby he directed me toward specific places of study. One of the areas that we often talked about were the Chapters from Liber 333, The Book of Lies which are require study according to the seventh Degree grade paper Liber De Natura Deorum, Sub Figvra CCXXVIII (228). Now, years later, we began reviewing these same chapters on our blog starting on April 19th 2009 with Dewdrops and running seven weeks until we finished with The Sabbath of the Goat on May 31st. These are important foundation stones not only to making Seventh Degree ‘work’ but also for the Gnostic Mass to work properly. Remember, it is in this degree where Bishops are made or individuals whose task it is to properly consecrate the wafer ... but without an understanding of how this grade works then all that being done is making delightful cookies which do not fulfill the goal of the Order but the proclivities of an individual. Anyway, I was pleased with the over-all discussing on The Book of Lies and beginning on June 5th we began, or at least tried, to get a discussion going on the nature of Chastity which is the next step in understanding Seventh Degree. This is important because I needed to see if people really understood the chapters from The Book of Lies ... and so I asked everyone for an over-view or summation of what they learned. If they understood the chapters they’d realize what is truly meant in the Gnostic Mass by the phrase ‘There is no part of me that is not of the Gods.’ But by the 15th the discussion on Chastity had all but ended. So, let’s try to revive it, ok? So, here is the question folks, knowing that Bishops are made in Seventh Degree [which implies a magickal connection to the Grade's teachings] what does - ‘There is no part of me that is not of the Gods’ - really mean?------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7:40am Did you hear that according to Michael Jackson's Last Will & Testament that he wants to have his ashes scattered in the local sandbox so he can still get into kids pants even though he's dead. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6:45am For the history buffs: Greta Mary Sequeira was born on this date in 1907 to an English doctor of Portuguese descent. She enjoyed the London scene and could often be found at the Cafe Royal in the company of artists. It is believed by some that it was here, in 1936, that she first became acquainted with Aleister Crowley, and, “He soon became her close friend and confidant, openly declaring his love for her.” Crowley was madly in love with this woman. He even followed her across England hoping to make her his new lover, but she declined. Instead, she married Paul Valentine. Although Greta remained Crowley’s friend until his death, she never became one of his Scarlet Women. She did, however, introduce her best friend, Freida (Bloxam) Harris, the wife of Sir Percy Harris the Chief Whip in the Liberal Party, to Aleister Crowley. It would be at Greta’s house that Crowley and Frieda would develop some of the earliest designs for The Book of Thoth, his essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians, which would be published in 1944. Greta Mary Sequeira died in 1998 at the age of 91. Her obituary referred to her as “one of the last survivors of the circle around Aleister Crowley, the black magician and self-styled wickedest man alive.” ….....….. and how can I not mention that Marcelo Ramos Motta was born on this date in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1931. As a young man he attended a University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and, in the mid-50s began corresponding with Karl Germer, the head of Aleister Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orientis. Germer died in 1962 and there are those who believe that he became Karl Germer’s heir. Yes, it is true, Motta was Karl Germer’s personal student and for awhile was venerated by Germer simply because he had recently helped him publish Crowley’s Liber Aleph. However, Motta had a falling out with Germer shortly afterwards. It began when Motta started writing crazed letters of abuse. Germer summed them up best in one of his replies dated December 23rd 1961 when he wrote, “You blithering, miserable IDIOT! I have seen and had observed several similar cases of Demonitis but yours beats all records in our files.” Even a few months before his death, in June of 1962, Germer was still telling Motta that his actions are “contaminated by the demonic forces that have got hold of you.” In the summer of 1976 established his AA branch in Tennessee to began a corporation known as Society Ordo Templi Orientis, more commonly known as SOTO. On August 28, 1987 Motta died of “myocardial infarction and pulmonary edema.” Although we’d like to say he died on this date, the official statement says that “sometime between the morning of August 26 and the morning of August 28, 1987ev” he died. In the end, this Brazilian has a way of obscuring the facts, even his own death! ….....… and finally, Scott Cunningham, who was a Wiccan and a popular author of more than thirty books, was born on this date in Royal Oak, Michigan in 1956. His first glimpse into the craft came when his mother purchased and gave him the book The Supernatural by Douglas Hill and Pat Williams in 1971. Some of his more popular books were Magical Herbalism (1982), Earth Power (1983), Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs (1985), The Magical Household (1987), Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem and Metal Magic (1987), The Truth about Witchcraft (1988) and Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner (1988). On March 28, 1993 he died at the age of 37 of Lymphoma, a form of cancer, along with Cryptococcal Meningitis, complication from AIDS. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday June 26th 2009 – 8:56am Ok, one more and I promise, this is it. .... Farrah Fawcett arrives at the pearly gates and Saint Peter grants her one wish, so she thinks for a minute and says “I wish all the children in the world to be safe” and later in the day Micheal Jackson dies from a heart attack.
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8:48am Ok no more Michael jokes ... well, maybe just one more. ... Do you know how Michael Jackson use to pick his nose? ...... From a catalogue. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8:43am Have you heard about Michael Jackson's last songs? It's a remake of "I'm forever blowing bubbles!"------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8:41am What was the difference between Michael Jackson and a grocery bag? One is white, made out of plastic, and dangerous for kids to play with while the other you carry your groceries in. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8:40am Have you heard about the book Michael Jackson was writing at the time of his death? It's called, .The In's and Out's of Child Rearing.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8:30am There is an OPEN HOUSE at my apartment tonight starting at 6:30pm. What tonight's discussion will be has yet to be determined. Email me for details if ya need them. Since these meeting always begin around supper time I must remind you all that you can always bring something to eat and drink without fear or guilt of having to share it. There is no law beyond do what thou wilt. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6:40am For the history buffs: Many people are totally unaware that the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm about the Pied Pier who lured 130 children out of Hamelin actually happened and had occurred on this date in 1284. Modern historians believe this tale was simply folklore surrounding an early psychopath and a pederast who was involved in some sort of mass child killing and rather than facing the phantoms of such a horrendous act, myths began to evolve. ……....… On this date in 1750 Tobias Gill, a Negro drummer who was said to be stationed with the Fourth Hussars in the village of Blythburgh, in Suffolk, England, got extremely drunk and was ejected from the White Hart Inn. He wandered onto Blythburgh Common where he met a pretty Walberswick girl named Ann Blakemore. In his drunken state he raped and killed the young girl with his scarf. The very next morning, three farm labourers who were walking across the commons found him in a drunken sleep passed out next to the cold, lifeless body of Ann Blakemore. He was tried for her murder, found guilty and sentenced to death. He was hanged near the very scene of this crime on 14th September. His body hung on the gibbet for over two weeks as a warning to others before it was taken down and interred by his comrades in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church. The ghost of ‘Black Toby,’ as he has come to be known, has been seen many times over years, always in June, in the area now known as Toby’s Walk. …...…. On this date in 1904 the European actor Laszlo Loewenstein was born in Austria. When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, he left Paris and, eventually moved to Hollywood where he became known as Peter Lorre. He appeared is such movies as The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca (1942). On an odd note; Ian Fleming’s first James Bond book named Casino Royale was made into a movie in 1967 the evil villain known as Le Chiffre, who was based on Aleister Crowley, was played by Orson Welles. What few know is that Casino Royale originally made its debut in 1954 on US Television. The person who played James Bond’s villain, Le Chiffre, was none other than Peter Lorre. …...….. and finally, Colin Wilson was born on this date in 1931 in Leicester, England, into a working class family. He has written dozens of books and hundreds of articles on a diversity of subjects ranging from philosophy, crime, literary criticism, fiction, and the occult. One of his most famous books is The Outsider (1956) although he has also written a biography on Aleister Crowley called The Nature of the Beast (1987).------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday June 25th 2009 – 4:45pm Wow, no lie, the News is reporting that seven bright UFOs were seen over North Petherton, England today. The witness Steve Sims said: "The lights all appeared to be travelling at an equal distance apart. I too thought it was unusual as I have never seen anything like it before." .... What is with today? Where is Big Foot? Has anyone seen the Loch Ness Monster today?
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3:25pm NEWS: WACKO'S DEAD AT 50, RUMORS ARE SAYING BUBBLE'S COMMITS SUICIDE UPON HEARING THE NEWS. ... Yes, the News is reporting - "Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon at his Holmby Hills home and paramedics were unable to revive him. We're told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back." .... Under the Subject: "Praise Jesus!!" Jerri sent an email -"93 Jer, Hahaha...to add to the strange happenings today...Michael Jackson is dead! Praise Jesus...the children are saved :) 93 93/93 JJ ." ... It is a crazy day for the News ... what next?------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12:10pm Just when you think you’ve heard it all. The BBC News is reporting today that Australia has solved its ‘Crop Circle’ mystery! It seems the circles are made by stoned wallabies who are eating their way through the medical poppy fields and then, when high as a kite, they’re hopping around in circles and flattening the grass out! Rick Rockliff, a spokesman for poppy producer Tasmanian Alkaloids, said the wallaby incursions were not uncommon, but other animals also been spotted in the fields acting unusual; he added, “There have been many stories about sheep that have eaten some of the poppies after harvesting and they all walk around in circles.” ... What? You can’t make this stuff up! And you probably thought the crop circles were made by UFOs! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8:20am A friend has been trying to send me a PDF from Australia all week but it keeps getting corrupted and jumbled. This morning I received an email from him which stated - "What can I say? Your west coast computers obviously don't like our Aussie Pdfs." ...... I replied - "I don’t think it has to do specifically with west coast computer not liking Aussie Pdfs as much as the fact that I live in Be-zerkeley. Living here is like living in a whole different dimension. People in other parts of the country or world most likely live quiet uneventful lives and they haven’t a clue what we have to go through. Strange things naturally occur here that we simply accept. Like the ‘flock’ of old grey haired men riding bicycles naked down the middle of the street the other day or the six foot tall man strolling in a gorilla suit wearing a top hat with huge flaming birthday candles melted on top while no one paid him notice. (I liked it when he was tap dancing) And how can we forget the people who homestead Trees a few blocks from my apartment? Although my personal favorite of late was the old black man standing on a street corner panhandling in a full Chinese gown doing a fan dance to rap music while trying to utter his ‘version’ of Chinese intermixed with verses from the Koran in English. A true crowd pleaser. ... They say the city is held together by a ‘wingnut’ on ever corner. I tend to agree. It is a miracle if a PDF, or anything, ever makes it through this dimension warp unscathed and is not eaten by the yokai." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5:40pm Well, let me remind you all again; Charles' band WINGNUT BREAKFEST is playing tonight at 8:30pm at the Mediterranean Café at 2475 Telegraph Ave in Berkeley ... and do you know what the groupies are called for his band? Why they’re ‘Spoonies’ of course ... and if you’re coming to see his band play and you want to join in, then Charles told me to tell you all to bring a set of ‘Spoons’ and if you don’t know how to play these little devices click here: http://www.davidholt.com/music/playspoons.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5:30am For the history buffs: On this date in 1903 Eric Arthur Blair was born to a British bureaucrat in Motihari, Bengal, India. He would become more famously known by his pen name of George Orwell, the author of the 1945 biting satire on Communist ideology titled Animal Farm. It is a classic volume on the dangers of totalitarianism and the death of freedom through thought control. Orwell issued many warnings about the risks of misusing language for personal gain, like “If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” ….....… The movie The Omen opened in theaters on this date in 1976. It begins with the ambassador Robert Thorn of the United States being approached by a priest in a Rome hospital who tells him that his child was born dead. However, the priest informs him of a ‘replacement’ and Thorn accepts the offer, agreeing not to tell his wife. Soon after Thorn is appointed as US ambassador to England. A series of strange deaths begin to surround the child Damien as it grows up. Another priest comes to Thorn, telling him the child is the anti-Christ, a son of Satan. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday June 24th 2009 – 1:00pm In regards to my 8:10pm posting, Luna adds - "As for the "ghost" around Casey. Brandie said that she saw something in that area around Casey..and then asked Leigh to close the door so that she could take the photo of "it"... this is the first time that I have had a person see something in advance to taking a photo that comes out with a "ghost'....but it is all speculative because, of course, a lot of stuff was going on and many "things" were present in the room due to the intensity of the energy and that we are all mages in one way or another....who knows? " ........ Reply: I agree, who knows. I don't have a problem with Jay talking about photographing energy ... I had a problem with his choice of 'words' ... i.e. crown cakra.
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8:10am Over the last few days Luna has sent a bunch of great pictures, one picture showed Casey with a glow around her head. Jay writes about this - "This is very interesting. The pattern actually looks like it could be Casey's crown chakra, the way there's a sort of halo around her head." ... To which I replied - "I doubt Casey is activating her 'Crown Chakra' ... don't cross the planes and read into anything that natural science, i.e. cameras, produce." This morning Jay wrote back - "Certainly I take any inferences made from this picture with a grain of salt. I did say it looks like it could be, not that it necessarily is. What do you think of infrared, though? I've heard that an infrared image can show a distinct difference in something before and after it's blessed. Not sure if that's true." Reply: How someone might interpret the phrase 'it could be' also means that you believe it to be so, so be careful of your choice of words. As for 'infrared' ... the debate has long been split down the middle as to what it actually shows. It is no secret that we can change our astral shell simply by heightened states of emotions and even effectuate changes in our astral surroundings. Remind me to dig out a photo taken of me by infra red back in the early 80s after almost two weeks of doing The Mark of the Beast ritual daily in our Temple back in Connecticut. There is a very distinct image on my chest which the naked eye couldn't see nor daily showers ever washed off. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that if we photograph a 'halo' or 'image' around or on a person we must remember that first and foremost the human body on the lowest Malkuthian level has an energy field around it, as does all matter and second, this is not necessarily reflective of anything 'chakra-like' which implies a heightened state of spirituality in a Yesodian level or higher ... and as a magician we're suppose to act like scientists and as a scientist we must be careful of our choice of terms which could be misleading. The use of the words 'crown chakra' is inappropriate in your previous email unless you're training to be some kind of Newage White Lighter. [yes, I mean Newage, so that it rhymes with sewage ...]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8:05am Last night around 9:50pm, just south of us by a few miles in San Leandro, we had a 2.1 magnitude earthquake. I didn't feel it but then again, after hours in the bar, I didn't feel much of anything! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8:00am For the history buffs: Ambrose Bierce was born on this date in Meigs County, Ohio in 1842. After serving in the Civil War, he moved to San Francisco where, in 1906, he published The Cynic’s Word Book. It was filled with ironic and sardonic definitions but it would not sell well, or become his most famous work, until it was retiled: The Devil’s Dictionary. In this book, when contemplating Love, he wrote that it is “temporary insanity curable by marriage.” In 1913, at the age of seventy-one, Bierce traveled to the revolution-torn Mexico to fight alongside the bandit Pancho Villa, where he disappeared. The popular theory is that Bierce argued with Villa over military strategy and that he was subsequently shot, however, he probably perished in the battle of Ojinaga on January 11, 1914. …...... and Janet Owen was born on this date in Clapham a district of London, England in 1960. She first became involved in witchcraft after visiting Alex Sanders, the “enfant terrible” of witchcraft and the King of Witches as he liked to be called. Alex Sanders initiated Janet into his coven during February 1970. She later married Steward Farrar and became more commonly known as Janet Farrar. …...…. And finally I’d like to point out that on June 24, 1985 the O.T.O. issued a special bulletin detailing Grady McMurtry’s present ‘health situation’ in order to prepare the masses of the possibility of his death. He would die less that a month later.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday June 23rd 2009 - 10:20pm Despite my weaken heart condition of late; Dave Solina from Florida has arrived for a visit and he and Ben Hance of Leaping Laughter Clerk House and Tristan forced me to go to the bar with them tonight. I wanted to say no, I just cried. They made me eat a greasy cheeseburgers with onions hoping to further clog my arteries, they laughed and then they bought two pitchers of beer which they thrust down my throat ... woe is me .... and if that wasn't bad enough, Ben forced me, did you hear me, forced me to watch cute girls in short skirts with exposed breasts walk the window hoping to further exasperate my heart condition. Trust me, I am trying to stay healthy but its not easy.
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6:30am Charles wants everyone to know that his band WINGNUT BREAKFAST, which includes himself, Recoo & Wizard, will be playing this Thursday night at 8:30pm at the Mediterranean Café at 2475 Telegraph Ave in Berkeley. If you're in the area, want to listen to free music and drink great coffee, come on by!------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6:00am For the history buffs: James Wasserman was born on this date in Newark, New Jersey in 1948. He, along with two other Mottaites; Daniel Gunther and Richard Gernon, ‘fled’ their master Marcelo Motta and took initiation into Aleister Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orientis under Grady Louis McMurtry on July 27, 1976. All three were later expelled by Motta from the A.'.A.'.. As for Wasserman, he later became Lodge Master of Tahuti Lodge OTO in New York. He also began Studio 31 Inc in 1977 which is a graphic design firm in the publishing and advertising arts. He has written numerous book such as Aleister Crowley and the Practice of the Magical Diary, Art and Symbols of the Occult, The Templars and the Assassins: The Militia of Heaven and The Slaves Shall Serve: Meditations on Liberty. ……. And it was on June 23, 1981 that The Temple Ov Psychick Youth (TOPY) was founded by the acid house pioneer of the rock band Throbbing Gristle, Genesis P-Orridge. The Temple is said to be dedicated to the manifestation of magickal concepts lacking mysticism or the worshipping of gods while focusing on the psychic and magickal aspects of the human brain which is linked with “guiltless sexuality.”------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday June 22nd 2009 – 9:00am A big Happy Birthday goes out to my dear friend and fellow Crab - Ricardo Flores. Hope your day is an enjoyable one.
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8:50am For the history buffs: Henry Rider Haggard born on this date in West Bradenham Hall, Norfolk, England in 1856. He was a prolific writer, who published extremely colorful novels set in unknown regions and lost kingdoms throughout the darkest corners of the world. Haggard’s best-known work is the romantic adventure tale known as King Solomon’s Mines (1885). My favorite is his book simply titled SHE (1886). ...…….. and it was on this date in 1996, at night, near Belmopan, Belize, several youngsters, including a nine-year old named Tyrel Haylock, were outside their home talking and playing when Tyrel spotted a strange creature about 150 feet away, crouching down, like it was squatting on the ground beside a coconut tree. He immediately pointed it out to the others who froze as the creature slowly walked towards a small house next to the sheep pen, where the feed was stored. The kids later described the creature as being about the size of a goat, with large wings on its back, small arms, and a tail. It sort of jumped, or hopped, as it walked and it made a strange petite sound. As the creature got closer to the sheep pen the kids ran to get their father, who came out running with a light and a machete. Although the father searched, he did not find the creature. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday June 21st 2009 – 7:45am For the history buffs: On this date in 1916 Charles Stansfeld Jones, aka Frater Achad, took the Oath of the Abyss and entered the City of the Pyramids which is the abode of NEMO (No Man), becoming a Master of The Temple 8=3 in the AA. …...…. And the US Army Lieutenant Colonel Michael Aquino, founder of The Temple of Set, supposedly summoned the Prince of Darkness himself on this date in 1975. ....……. And to continue with today’s ‘flavor’ lets mention that it was on June 21st 1996 near Flexeiras, Litoral Norte, Brazil that a 64 year old man named Cesar Miglioranza was driving back from work when he noticed a strong light in a nearby field. Stopping his car to investigate, he got out and as he approached the area he saw a large UFO on the ground. He then claimed that all of a sudden he felt paralyzed and was unable to move. As he watched he realized that next to the UFO were two short beings with large heads and helmets, long arms and wearing silvery tight fitting suits. They seemed to be collecting samples from the ground. After a few moments they conversed among themselves in an unknown language then boarded the object, which quickly took off at high speed. Cesar was unable to move for about another five minutes but also reported feeling very tired and sleepy for two to three more days.
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Saturday June 20th 2009 – 9:55am Richard Cole writes - "Loved your recent focus on Lie Chapters, which evoked some fabulous thoughts." ....... I replied that I'm "glad that you've been enjoying The Book of Lies discussion. My students really do test my little brain from time to time. I guess we must be training them well."
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9:25am Just a reminder, today is the Summer Solstice when the Sun enters the best of all the Zodiac signs, or that of Cancer, while the Moon is unfortunately in Gemini ... but I forgive it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9:20am For the history buffs: On this date in 1584 the magician John Dee writes in his private diary that Edward Kelly, skrying into the crystal, saw “four very fair castles, standing in the four parts of the world: out of which he heard the sound of a Trumpeter. Then seemed out of every Castle a cloath to be thrown on the ground, of more than the breadth of a Table-cloath. Out of that in the East, the cloath seemed to be red, which was cast. Out of that in the South, the cloath seemed white. Out of that in the West, the cloath seemed green, with knops on it. Out of that in the North, spread, or thrown out from the gate under foot, the cloath seemed to be very black.” Of these four castles, they are also referred to as four houses and “Watchtowers.” The importance of this vision is the use of the term Watchtower which not only implies a place where angelic sentinels are stationed to stand guard and protect God’s Kingdom from the profane, but also they act as Hidden Gates which allow entities to descend and guide humanity when summoned appropriately. It is important to mention this vision because anyone who has studied one of the numerous modern books on Enochian magick will realize the elemental colors have changed. They are not what are found in Dee’s original manuscripts. ….....…. And Albert Gallatin Mackey, one of the greatest writers in Freemasonry who complied A Lexicon of Freemasonry in 1845, died on this date in 1881. …......…. And the UFO expert Donald E. Keyhoe was born on this date in Ottumwa, Iowa in 1897. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in the Class of 1920 and was commission of a 2nd Lieutenant in the Marine Corps. His article Flying Saucers Are Real in the January 1950 issue of True became one of the most widely read and discussed articles in publishing history, and caused a sensation. The article was later expanded into a paperback book by the same title, Flying Saucers are Real (1950) and it reached an even wider audience. This was followed by the major hardcover books Flying Saucers From Outer Space (1953), Flying Saucer Conspiracy (1955), and Flying Saucers: Top Secret (1960). He also published other articles such as What Radar tells about Flying Saucers and I Know the Secrets of the Flying Saucers. In January 1957 Keyhoe had become Director ofthe newly formed National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) in Washington, D.C., which under his leadership gave serious publicity to the UFO mystery through the 1960s and encouraged Congressional hearings. In 1966, he was already convinced that the control of gravity was the explanation for the ‘impossible’ maneuvers made by UFOs, and he publicly demanded an end to the Government’s policy on UFO secrecy in order that all scientists world-wide could openly work on the subject without the fear of ridicule. His last book Aliens From Space was published in 1973. By this time Keyhoe had become convinced that the Central Intelligence Agency was the principal agency behind the cover-up. He spent his later retirement years at ‘Bluemont’ in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley outside of Luray, Virginia, with his wife Helen Gardner Keyhoe, a native of Page County, Virginia. Mrs. Keyhoe was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and a prize-winning rose grower. He died on November 29, 1988 at the age of 91. …......... and it was on June 20, 1923 that Norman Mudd, Frater Omnia Pro Veritate, followed Aleister Crowley to Tunis, after the Abbey of Thelema had closed. However, Crowley would inevitably leave both him and Leah Hirsig penniless and desperate, so desperate that Leah would have to work as a common prostitute in Paris to survive. Mudd would later commit suicide.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday June 19th 2009 – 8:00am I would like to apologize for not getting this article uploaded sooner but I’ve been pre-occupied with The Book of Lies discussion of late and it simply slipped my mind. Mea Culpa! Anyway, I have just up-loaded and added the next or nineteenth installment of a series which Frater Hymenaeus Alpha 777 (Grady Louis McMurtry) wrote on magick and philosophy. The series is titled FROM THE CALIPH. The first installment appeared in The Magickal Link in October of 1981. I wish to thank Frater Orpheus for making this page and all the other pages possible in this series. The latest installment was originally published in The Magickal Link, Volume III No.4 April 1983e.v. and is titled ON THEORETICAL UNIVERSES. Click HERE for details.
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6:05am Just a reminder, there is an OPEN HOUSE at my apartment tonight starting at 6:30pm. What tonight's discussion will be has yet to be determined. Email me for details if ya need them.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6:00am For the history buffs: J. C. Brown, age of 79, vanished on this date in 1934. He had organized a group of over eighty people interested in accompanying him, at his own expense, back to Mt. Shasta to explore the ancient tunnels that he had found back in 1904. He claimed that they were filled with giant skeletons and artifacts which he believed were relics of the ancient Lemurians. The group was supposedly to leave on June 19th at 1:00pm but, as the day dawned clear and beautiful, their leader never appeared. Brown was never seen again and what happened to him is a mystery to this day. …...….And it was on June 19, 1947 that Aleister Crowley, aware that his impending death might be near, wrote out his Last Will and Testament. …...…. And finally, the classic Cold War-era monster film titled Them! opened on this date in theaters in 1954. The plot is simple; nuclear tests in the New Mexico desert result in the growth of gigantic mutant ants which menace cities in the American south-west and eat people. A team scientist race to find a way to control them before the ants can establish more nests and hatch more queens.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday June 18th 2008 – 1:30pm An afterthought to my 1:00pm posting: ... returning to the idea that our Angel “shushed” us while we were in the womb in order to stop us from talking about Heaven, reminds me of the Egyptian god-form of Horus as the child. In this form he is known as Hoor-paar-Kraat, or Harpocrates, the ‘Babe in the Lotus.’ He is always shown as a small boy, with a sidelock of hair, with his index finger held up to his lips. He is considered to be the God of Silence; while as an adult he becomes the God of Speech or Ra-Hoor-Khuit. Gnostic talismans often depicted Harpocrates as a child sitting in a boat with a flail in his left hand. An Ass’s head (Anubis) is shown at one end of the boat with Star above and a Hawk’s head at the other end with the Moon above. Underneath the boat are the letters ΙΑΏ. We also know that Aleister Crowley has stated in numerous places that Harpocrates is known as the Egyptian God Set and is, in fact, HAD, the ‘babe in an egg’ of blue mentioned in Liber AL vel Legis II:49. Crowley also has stated throughout most of his life that Liber AL vel Legis was written by his Higher Self which he referred to as Aiwass but clearly toward the end of his life he began to realize that his Higher Self and his Angel Aiwass were in fact two separate things. He explains this in Magick Without Tears. In truth, Aiwass is obviously Crowley’s daimon or HGA; there is no argument here. Yet it appears upon reading Liber AL vel Legis that Hoor-paar-Kraat is in fact Crowley’s acorn or seed of himself unborn and thus Aiwass, like the daimon itself, is his Minister (AL I:7) who is teaching Crowley profound Wisdom in order to assist him in his journey in the land of the living. Love it, or hate, this tiny volume vomits the age old myth of birth, life and death from Crowley’s collective unconsciousness.
Aiwass clothed the book in the imagery that Crowley would best understand not only due to his Victorian upbringing but also due to his training within The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn which used intense Egyptian symbology in its rites. However, unlike The Myth of Er in Plato’s The Republic, there has yet to be a good reflective study of Crowley’s Liber AL vel Legis. As sacrilegious as it might sound, from a psychological point-of-view, I don’t think Crowley ever discovered his ‘myth’ since it often becomes convoluted in his writings whenever his conscious mind, driven by an overbearing ego, tries to define his personal archetypal images.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1:00pm To answer a question: there is a similar myth to that of Greek version of the River of Forgetfulness in Jewish lore. According to the Talmud, before we were born, when we were still safely within the comfort of our mother’s womb, we all had access to the ultimate ‘Truth’ because God dispatches to each one of us an angel known as Lailah. This Angel places a candle above our head, while he teaches us all the Wisdom, as well as the history of our Soul. The candle illuminated the darkness within the womb and as it written in Job 29:3 “When his candle shined on my head, and when by His light I walk through darkness.” At birth, the angel extinguishes the light and then assists us in coming forth into the world. The moment we emerge, Lailah gives each one of us a little ‘tap’ between the nose and the upper lip, causing us to cry out and to instantly forget all that we have learned. It is as if the angel has ‘shushed’ us to keep us quiet. This is supposedly the origin of the small indentation in the skin beneath their noses, anatomically known as the philtrum.” The philtrum (φιλτρον) is derived from the Greek word philein (φιλειν) which means ‘to love’ or ‘to kiss.’ Although Lailah is distinctly a male Angel, the feminine form of his name is attributed to another Angel known as Lilith. Some consider this the balance between light and darkness, good and evil. In Judiasm it is believed that we are all given a Guardian Angel under one of these two Angels, Lailah or Lilith, who are often referred to as Yetzar ha-tov, of good inclinations and Yetzer ha-Ra, of evil inclinations. Regardless which class of Angel we are given it must watch over us all of our days according to our ways, or life that we have chosen. Howard Schwartz in his now classic book TREE OF SOULS: The Mythology of Judaism (NY: Oxford University Press, 2004) explains this further by writing:“A righteous man who speaks the truth is assigned an angel along with him in the ways of the righteous and helps him to speak the truth.When a man makes himself act like a saint, willing to suffer, he is assigned an angel who goes along with him in the way of saints and helps the man to accept all suffering.If, on the other hand, a man behaves like one of the wicked, lying and deceiving, he is assigned an angel who goes along with him in the way of the wicked and leads him on to more deceit.” P. 202 In many ways Yetzar ha-tov or good inclinations and Yetzer ha-Ra of evil inclinations, mimics what we are taught in magick as referring to our ‘Will’ and our ‘Want’ and where Judaism assigned two separate classes of Guardian Angels to humanity, the Greeks saw their daimon as being neutral and singular. The inclinations were not seen as part of a total predetermined life package as much as being the choices we make due to the circumstances of life. In other words, the circumstances of birth, whether bathed in a good or bad calling merely allows us to have specific lessons in order for our Soul to distinguish between good and evil. It was believed that we were given ‘Free Choice’ to determine which path we want to follow; despite our foundations.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8:40am Weiser Antiquarian Books Catalog # 59 on The Qabalah may now be viewed at: www.weiserantiquarian.com/catalog ... Quite a few real gems are being offered. A few in particular; if my students dont have them already, are Charles Ponce's Kabbalah, J.F.C. Fuller's The Secret Wisdom of the Qabalah, S.L. MacGregor Mathers' The Kabbalah Unveiled, Israel Regardie's The Middle Pillar and Isaac Myer's Qabbalah. Lots of stuff to drool over! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5:50am Anyone walking around Telegraph Avenue knows of Charles our local astrologer/Tarot reader. His band ‘Wingnut Breakfast’ is playing tonight at the Mediterranean Café at 8:00pm which is on Telegraph near Dwight Way. If like good atmosphere, ‘free’ music and great coffee and you happen to be in area, stop by.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5:45am For the history buffs: Phyllis Evelina Seckler (nee’ Pratt), aka Soror Meral, was born on this date in Edmonton, Canada in 1917. She was one of the most remarkable women in the history of Thelema, known as Soror Meral. She took Minerval Degree into Aleister Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orientis at Agape Lodge back on August 26th in 1939. She joined the AA on June 3rd 1940. By the late-sixties Crowley’s organization seemed destined for obscurity but, out of the ashes, arose Phyllis Seckler and Grady McMurtry. Together, these two people became the primary figures responsible for bringing the Order from its near death to the world wide organization that it is today. It is safe to say that without Soror Meral the OTO would probably have died. For this we all owe her our deepest gratitude. She would publish In The Continuum, a magazine which first rolled off the press in March of 1973. In 1979 Soror Meral was Chartered to run her own OTO Lodge, known as 418 Lodge. Besides founding the well-known College of Thelema, as well as the Temple of Thelema, she remained editor and publisher of the serial magazine known as In The Continuum until her death. Soror Meral had spent most of her lifetime in the service of both the AA and OTO - bringing the knowledge of the Thelema to the forefront of occult studies. She died, or celebrated her Greater Feast on May 31, 2004 in Oroville, California. She would have been 91 today had she lived.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday June 17th 2009 – 5:50am For the history buffs: Sir William Crookes was born on this date in 1832. Spiritualism was very much in the forefront of society in the nineteenth century, especially after the ghostly events in 1854 involving the Fox sisters of Hydesville, New York. This and other incidences of supposed poltergeist-like levitations, rappings and materializations, fascinated Crookes, who was deemed as a scientist of international repute. Although initially skeptical, believing Spiritualism to be little more than superstition and trickery, he decided to investigate. He would explain his reasoning for his inquiry: “I consider it the duty of scientific men who have learnt exact modes of working to examine phenomena which attract the attention of the public, in order to confirm their genuineness or to explain, if possible, the delusions of the dishonest and to expose the tricks of deceivers.” One of the first people who he studied the famous medium Daniel Dunglas Home, whom he came to believe was endowed with a powerful psychic force. Crooke undertook his experiments under strict scientific conditions, whenever that was possible. Of all his experiments, the one that made him most famous was with the medium Florence Cook. Through her mediumship, there occurred a series of materializations of the Spirit Katie King, which lasted almost three years. Crooke took an unbelievable forty-four pictures of this entity. However, the scientific community was never convinced and they even accused him of complicity with Florence Cook, and of having a love affair with her who, at the time, was only a teenager. Still, Crooke held fast to his experiments and pictures as being factual. He never lost faith about the reality of Spirit phenomena. He would later become a member of the Society for Psychical Research. In one of his address this association in 1898, he said: “'Thirty years have passed since I published an account of experiments tending to show that outside our scientific knowledge there exists a Force exercised by intelligence differing from the ordinary intelligence common to mortals. I have nothing to retract.” His most notable book is the Phenomena of Spiritualism (1874). He died in London on 4 April 1919. …...…. And Miriam Samos, more commonly known as Starhawk the Wiccan author, was born on this date in 1951. She has authored or co-authored nine books, including The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess (1978), which has long been considered an essential text for the Neo-Pagan movement. …....….. and it was on June 17, 1952 that Jack Parsons, the ex-Lodge Master of Agape Lodge OTO in southern California, died. He and his wife, Marjorie Elizabeth Cameron, had their trailer already packed and were ready to move to Mexico for a time but this date would end their plans. Jack accidentally dropped a can of mercury fulminate in his ground floor laboratory. His lab was an old four-car garage apartment that had once been the stable of the estate located at 1071 South Orange Grove Avenue, which had once been Agape Lodge. The first people to arrive after the blast found the huge stable doors blown off their hinges, two walls gone, windows shattered and a gaping hole torn through the ceiling timbers revealing the second floor apartment. They found Jack Parsons underneath a massive double-tub laundry fixture that had landed on top of him along with a section of the wall. All the newspapers at the time reported that he was actually conscious even though he was badly burned and mangled. In fact, Jane Wolfe would later tell Grady McMurtry that Jack “was in so deep a case of shock that he gave instructions regarding the removal of a bath tub which had landed on his back. Yet getting to the hospital [Huntington Memorial Hospital] he became inarticulate, lapsed into unconsciousness” and he died shortly thereafter. One newspaper wrote that, “The explosion blew off his right forearm, tore a gaping hole in his jaw and shattered the other arm and both legs.” Jane also told Grady, “Jack was badly mutilated, no one was permitted to see the body.” He was later cremated on July 19th. Jane wrote, “There was no service for Jack; Candy [i.e. Cameron] and two young men, in silence held a lighted-candle vigil.” Jack’s obituary referred to the service simply as - “secret rites.” ….....….. and it was in June 17, 1963 that the British author and lecturer, John Cowper Powys, died at the age of 91 in Wales. He met Aleister Crowley only once. He briefly discussed this meeting saying, “The only time I met Aleister Crowley was when I had to be the Speaker at a Foyle’s Literary Lunch and I had him at my side and I treated him to a bottle of wine which he had finished before my speech was over!” …....….. and finally, on June 17, 1996 near Barrio Candelaria, Puerto Rico, at night, Debra Hernandez heard noises in her backyard and upon investigating she encountered a bizarre creature tearing its way through a coop filled with helpless, excited and crazied chickens. She described the creature as “black with pointed ears and enormous fangs.” Startled by the intrusion, the Chupacabra dropped its prey and ran away.
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Tuesday June 16th 2009 – 7:00am For the history buffs: Alice Bailey, who was a Theosophist, a prolific writer and the founder of an international esoteric movement, was born on this date in Manchester, England, the daughter of an engineer in 1880. ……...... On June 16, 1881 Marie Laveau, the renown Voodoo Queen of New Orleans died at the age of 87. This is noteworthy because she continued to be seen in and around town after her ‘supposed’ demise. However, Marie bore fifteen children. Historians now believe that Marie Laveau really did die in 1881 and that her daughter, Marie Laveau-Glapion, a striking look alike, took over the role of Voodoo Queen. Marie the II was about 50 years old when her mother died and this theory accounts for sightings all the way into the early twentieth century of the Voodoo Queen being seen in New Orleans. However, her mother, the real ‘Voodoo Queen of New Orleans’, was born in 1794 in Vieux Carre. Her father, Charles Laveau, was said to have been a wealthy white planter and her mother, Darcantel Marguerite, a mulatto with a strain of Indian blood. She described herself as being mulatto, quadroon, and sometimes just as “yellow.” She was a tall statuesque woman, with “curling black hair, good features, dark skin that had a distinct reddish cast, and fierce black eyes.” She married Jacques Paris, a free man of color, on August 4, 1819. However, a short while after the wedding he disappeared and Marie began calling herself the ‘Widow Paris.’ It is certain that she was both feared and respected. Though apparently adept with charms and potions of all kinds, Marie’s real power came from her extensive network of spies and informants. It seems the New Orleans elite had the habit of carelessly detailing their most confidential affairs to their slaves and servants who then reported to Marie their secrets both out of respect and fear. As a result, Marie had an almost ‘magical knowledge’ of the workings of political and social power in New Orleans. When her daughter, with her uncanny resemblance to Marie, became a priestess, legends of Marie Leveau’s power only grew because now she was ageless and could appear in more than one place at a time. In the end we can say that Marie was no charlatan who deceived her followers with tricks and intimidation. She clearly had a great passion and devotion for Voodoo. Her most famous religious mark was probably the rituals on the banks of Bayou St. John held every June 23, St. John’s Eve. Voodoo rituals were also held occasionally on the shore of nearby Lake Pontchartrain at Marie’s cottage, Maison Blanche. It was said that sometimes she would dance about with her large snake, whom she called Zombi, wrapped around herself. All in all, Marie Leveau is a figure shrouded in mystery. She was a Voodoo priestess and a devoted Catholic. She wove spells and charms but wielded even more influence through her earthly network of spies and informants. She ruthlessly wielded her power yet went to great pains to help the injured, sick, and downtrodden. In the final analysis, we will never know her true character, but it seems a mistake to try to choose between these disparate sides of Marie Leveau: this fascinating and complex woman was all of these things and more. …....…. It was on June 16, 1924 that Idries Shah, writer and savant, was born in Simla, India. He died in London on November 23, 1996. Idries Shah greatly extended the western knowledge of the Sufi teachings. ……..... And finally, on June 16, 1970 Issac Bonewits graduated from The University at Berkeley at a time when the Berkeley’s individual ‘group-study program’ allowed people to create their own degree course. He was the first and last person ever to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Magic and Thaumaturgy. Sadly, the publicity about Bonewits’ degree so embarrassed the University administrators that ‘Magic, Witchcraft and Sorcery’ has been banned from the individual group-study programs ever since.
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Monday June 15th 2009 – 10:30am I answered an email from the 14th - "... technically with age this sexual energy doesn’t change, it mutates direction. To work with it we just have to rethink the whole scenario of its usage. The older we get we ‘play’ less and arousal usually implies an outright need to simply get laid. But getting laid Earths-out the libido in a fleeting moment of gratification. So, the key is how do we get ourselves ‘arouse’ without being stupid. Each person is different, each person’s proclivities are different. I sit back with my students and try to push buttons with them, similar to Crowley’s techniques; to get them to embrace ‘arousal’ without shame, guilt or fear that it’ll automatically lead to a sexual encounter. I want my students to understand their bodies (Malkuth) and their libidos (Yesod).
Think of your past beyond your early ‘puberty’ years into young teens and adolescence ... how many times did you think of another person to the point where you became temporarily obsessed with the ‘idea’ of them. This is Chastity from a magickal point-of-view. How many times did you masturbate to someone whose image lay deep in your mind? How many times did the world stop while your focus turned inward with an emotional psychodrama fueled by fondling yourself? A secret - self gratification does not ‘earth-out’ inner intent. It only fuels it. It kept the sexual drive alive to the point where you channeled it toward a ‘direction’ but in your youth, what was the direction? ... was it just toward a boy? What would have happened had your focus turned toward your Inner Self; the Hidden God within? This is what Eighth Degree OTO teaches; if properly understood. It teaches us a matrix whereby we channel the energy correctly into creative genius. Poets, writers, artists for centuries have unconsciously been doing this for centuries driven by an often crazed sexual appetite or libido. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6:05am For the history buffs: On this date in 1648 a woman named Margaret Jones, who had been practicing medicine and who lost several of her patients, was tried, convicted and became the first person in the state of Massachusetts to be hanged for witchcraft. ……. Also, near Twain Hart, California on this date in 1996 a woman reported seeing a large bubble like UFO hovering near a river. The object was described as gelatinous, transparent and an opaque gray color. Inside she claims to have seen several figures, although only in silhouette and with no discernible features.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday June 14th 2009 – 7:10am To answer a reoccurring question; no I do not publish every email that comes in regarding different people's thoughts on Chastity or other subjects. If I get four or five that are saying the same thing , or close to it, I usually pick one to post. There is no reason to continually post similar views with redundant replies. This blog is not an anything goes kinda thing where I'm simply trying to fill up space. Besides being for my personal amusement, I use the blog like a learning tool with the ability to reach many students around the world at once. I also want to avoid filling the blog up with too many misleading thoughts; I want it to be more positive than negative. Most of the emails that I omit are usually way off the mark with the subject being discussed.
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6:15am After yesterday’s historical tome, it’s another quiet day but for the history buffs: Simon of Sudbury (Simon Tybald), Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of all England, was murdered on this date in London in 1381. His demise began when Richard II introduced the unpopular Poll Tax. This caused the infamous ‘Peasants Revolt’ led by Wat Tyler, which inevitably led to a mob of peasants storming the Tower of London, dragging Simon of Sudbury out to Tower Hill and then, after ‘many blows,’ beheading him. Afterwards they took his head and stuck it on a pole over London Bridge. His mummified head is still kept preserved in a glass case in St Gregory’s Church in Suffolk, so shriveled that it looks more like a skull. His body is buried at Canterbury, where ghostly footsteps have been heard for year, rumored to be the ghost of Simon looking for his head. …....… and it was on June 14, 1968that the creepy, eerie gothic film titled Rosemary’s Baby opened of this date. It was about a young newlywed couple who moves into a large, rambling old apartment building and become friendly with the eccentric next-door neighbors, who turn out to be members of a Satanic coven. However, prior to finding this out, Rosemary has a nightmarish dream in which she is making love to Satan. She then imagines herself impregnated so that her baby can be used in the New Yorkers’ evil cult rituals. The front of the building, which is shown in the movie, is none other than the entrance-way to the famous Dakota on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where John Lennon was later assassinated. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday 13th of June 2009 – 4:10pm I received this email regarding Chasitity:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
This whole business of discussion on “Chastity”, and the need for it as a practice, brings to mind, and re-reminds my observation that outside forces always seek to control us.
As creatures on this planet- there seems to me a division
and merging of inner forces and outer forces.
Daily practice, through Liber Resh Vel Helios and Holy Meditation is one way in which to sharpen our instruments of absorption and transmission so that we may edit out all which is always there, so that we may focus on that
which is our goal.
Conditional reflex may be normal for animals- but for human beings, accepting a conditioned reflex robs of us of the ability to act and grow from within- or from what is “truth “according to our True Wills.
Through not being obsessed, I feel that this part of us which is motivated from the forces within, replace that part of one’s self which used to use analysis instead of understanding. It seems that analysis always tries
to substitute for understanding.
Chastity may imply a practice of avoiding a desire or action,
resisting temptation.
No one can be “tempted” or swayed unless one desires what is offered- breaking trance through daily practice can liberate us from this.
CHESED reminds me of this section from the WAKE WORLD
“There are three ways into the Fourth House from below. The first passage is a very curious place, all full of wheels and ever such strange creatures, like monkeys and sphinxes and jackals climbing about them and trying to get to the top. It was very silly, because there isn't really any top to a wheel at all; the place you want to get to is the centre, if you want to be quiet.”
Agape- Joe from Beverly
Love is the law, love under will.
Reply: Amusing but not really reflective of chastity in a magickal sense as taught in VIIth Degree OTO. The thoughts seem primarily from a Malkuthian point-of-view rather than remembering that the lessons we've been discussing from The Book of Lies over the last few weeks are the foundation stones of Crowley's sex magick which each invidual must master before ever considering a 'magickal partner.' So what does chastity, as you mentioned, have to do in this regards? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9:00am Mick writes - "93 Jerry, you recently started a discussion about Chastity on your blog. I won't reword what's being said there because It speaks for itself. So I'll just cut to the chase scene.As I see it now, Chastity is an important element to infuse this new egregor. Fairly soon into the blog, the alchemical cup of Babalon emerges as an important element in the conditon of Chastity. After our discussion about Leigh's "pitcher of soma" and the Ibis' beak, this quote from the blog struck me as revealing -- the image of the two instruments fitting each other perfectly as if they were parts of one transcendent thing:"...he is not truly chaste until he is able to redeem her, an act which he performs by the reunion of the Lance and the Sangraal."So a question comes up about Thoth:Does the Ibis drink from the pitcher or does he fill it?Mick 93 93/93Reply: Well, I'd love to answer you but I'm not quite sure where you are coming because your email is too brief and unclear as to what you imply. I cannot simply assume that you and I are on the same page because we use 'similar' phrases. This is why I so often scream 'clarity' ... magicians must learn to drag from their Ruach images and ideas into the light of day in a way that others can understand them on Malkuth; which is a Sacred Garden that you're tending ... consider this about The Fool card - "Mountains represent the abstract mathematical conceptions which are behind all knowledge of Nature. As such, they are cold and uninteresting to many. But the melting snow upon the peaks feeds the streams that make fertile the valleys below. So will the principles of Ageless Wisdom feed your consciousness and make fertile your mental imagery, thus transforming your life." - Paul Foster Case. ... Learn to water your garden or fertile valley carefully, you don't want the water to simply run off into the gutter. ... Also, is not the white snow the 'Dewdrops' mentioned in The Book of Lies? .... Finally, I can hear Grady right now laughing and yelling at me - "Spell it out boy, I'm not a mind reader!"------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7:15am Frank writes - "Your June 10th 1:45pm posting by Jerri says : "I just read the VII degree paper, Liber De Natura Deorum…"Mountains are female when they are hollow; most especially, when they are inhabited: for example, Abiegnus, the ‘Mountain of the Caverns.’" I own Francis King's The Secret Rituals of The OTO and I cannot find this quote anywhere in Liber De Natura Deorum. Is she wrong or just quoting something else?" ......... Reply: King's version is 'edited' and omits quite abit from the original typescript. Also, if you have Peter Koenig and Tony Naylor's book OTO, Rituals and Sex Magick by Theodor Reuss & Aleister Crowle' (London: I-H-O Books, 1999) pg.269, they simply use King's version. .... Also in King's book regarding the next paper or Eighth Degree, Deorum cum Hominibus, did you know the original typescript is 42 pages? Yes, you heard me right - 42 pages! Now compare that to Francis King's 18 pages and what do you get? EDITED!!!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6:45am Frater Orpheus wrote a gem on the VIIth Degree concept of 'Chastity' which is rather lengthy for this blog so I included it at the bottom of 'AN OPEN EPISTLE ON CHASTITY.' ... All our students in the man of Earth Grade would be wise to read this and study it well. Frater Orpheus and I have had a private discourse for years on magick and it is obvious by the fruits of his labour that it has paid off. He clearly understands why The Book of Lies discussions were important and why this little discourse on chastity was the obvious next step. Unlike the discussions regarding certain chapters from The Book of Lies which ended each week, the discourse on this subject will continue further ... it is mandatory for students to understand. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6:20am I almost forgot to add to the history heap that on June 13, 1662 Mary Sanford was hanged in Hartford, Connecticut after being accused of witchcraft. This took place almost thirty years before the witchcraft hysteria broke out in Salem Village. (Hoadley’s Record Witchcraft Trials : Records Particular Court case No.2:174-175) Even though the witchcraft hysteria continued in Connecticut until 1697, Mary Stanford, who was born on February 16th 1620 in Essex, England, was the last person executed in the state for witchcraft. We also know that her husband Andrew Sanford was listed amongst the Roll of Names as having an indictment cast against him but he was acquitted. Their son Andrew Sanford the IInd, born in 1643, would grow up and have a family and his genealogical tree is well documented in New England. One of Mary Stanford’s most recent descendants is none other than J. Edward Cornelius, born July 14, 1951, or me! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6:15am For the history buffs: William Butler Yeats, whom Aleister Crowley described as “a lank dishevelled demonologist who might have taken more pains with his personal appearance without incurring the reproach of dandyism,” was born on this date in Dublin, Ireland, the oldest of four children in 1865. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. He died at the age of 73 on January 28, 1939. …...…. And Dr. Gerald Gardner, of Gardnerian witch fame, was born on this date in a small town called Blundellsands, which is near Liverpool, England in 1884. He believed that he was a descendant of ‘Grissell Gairdner,’ who was burned as a witch at Newburgh in 1610. Some historians claim that Aleister Crowley was paid a suitably large fee from Gerald Gardner to compose rituals which could be used in his new Gardnerian witch-cult although many modern Gardnerian Witches try to deny this fact as if trying to distance themselves from the evils of Old Crow. Is there a connection between the two? There is, in fact, an actual OTO Charter reportedly given to Gerald Gardner from Crowley giving him the right to begin an O.T.O. Camp but under careful scrutiny this document becomes suspect. First of all, the document is written completely in Gardner’s handwriting with the exception of the signature of ‘Baphomet.’ Second, the official greeting which Crowley always methodical uses is quoted incorrect as ‘Do what thou Wilt shall be the law,’ which is something Old Crow would never do. There are other obvious uncertainties, like Crowley calling Gardner ‘beloved son’ - which is also highly unlikely. Gardner authored such books as High Magic’s Aid, Witchcraft Today, The Meaning of Witchcraft, Kris and Other Malay Weapons. He died on February 12, 1964 at the breakfast table on board a ship after suffering a fatal heart attack on this date. The following day he was buried on shore in Tunis, his funeral was attended only by the Captain of the ship in which he traveled. …....… and shall we continue? It was on June 13, 1888 that Fernando Pessoa was a Portuguese poet born in Lisbon on this date. He did something rather unique. He wrote his poetry under 73 different names. Four of these: his own, Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis, and Álvaro de Campos, are well known. Each of his personas has his own putative biography, physical characteristics, relationship to the others, poetic voice, and outlook, and in part reflects Pessoa’s disbelief in the idea of an integrated personality. Among Pessoa’s collections, which include poems in English, are Sonnets (1918), English Poems (1922), and Mensagem (1934). He knew Aleister Crowley during his infamous stunt in 1930. This is when the Portuguese papers in Lisbon announced finding a note at the mouth of Boca de Inferno, a dangerous piece of water celebrated as a place for “suicides.” The note, in Crowley’s hand and placed under his personal cigarette case to keep it from blowing away, was simply saying how he couldn’t live without his 19 year old Scarlet Woman, Hanni Larissa Jaeger, whom he also refers to as “The Monster.” The Press around the world, due to the instigation by Pessoa, jumped on the fact that Crowley had committed suicide. However, in Crowley’s private 1930 diary he wrote, “Sept. 21. I decided to do a suicide stunt to annoy Hanni. Arrange details with Pessoa.” Obviously the stunt worked because he and Hanni were reported as being ‘seen’ together shortly after his suicide. Although some people believed this to be true, other didn’t and, while Crowley and Hanni were in Germany, the Portuguese newspapers still carried reports of ‘sightings’ of the Beast in Portugal as if he were the Loch Ness monster of Lisbon. To complicate the story even further, The Oxford Mail of October 14th 1930 even went as far as reporting that preparations were being planned in London to hold a séance in order to contact the spirit of Aleister Crowley! As for Pessoa, he died on November 30th 1935. …......… and it was on June 13, 1941 that Grady Louis McMurtry, the man who would inevitably take over the Ordo Templi Orientis after Karl Germer’s death, took Minerval & First Degree Initiation on this date and thus joining the OTO. …...… and how I can I forget to mention Whitley Strieber. He was born on June 13, 1945 in San Antonio, Texas. He is a writer best known for his horror novels The Wolfen and The Hunger. He also wrote the best-seller titled Communion: A True Story, which professes to be a non-fictional description of his subjective experiences with non-human entities from a UFO, which looks exactly like the drawing of an entity Aleister Crowley saw out in Montauk in 1918 called LAM. According to Strieber’s story it all began on December 26, 1985, at a secluded cabin in upstate New York. He had gone sliding with his wife and son, they later ate Christmas dinner leftovers and then went to bed early. Six hours later, Whitley Strieber found himself suddenly awake and being abducted by aliens. ……..... OK, start screaming enough is enough, stop with the history babble! But I can’t. I have to tell you that it was on this date in 1949 that a quiet British gentleman, the son of a plumber, by the name of Cyril Henry Hoskin fell off a ladder and suffered a serious head injury. When he finally came around he seemingly had forgotten who he was while remembering a totally new identity as a Tibetan monk. This was the ‘birth date’ of the author known as Tuesday Lobsang Rampa. His most famous book, read by hundreds of thousands of people, was The Third Eye (1956). He died of complications of the heart on January 25, 1981. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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