I'M AN EVIL, EVIL MAN
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. - AL I:40
I, J. Edward Cornelius (Frater Achad Osher 583), was the sixth Lodge Master of the oldest continually operating Lodge in the world, Thelema Lodge OTO which was founded by Grady McMurtry. I held this position between 1991-1993. On August 4th, 1993 after spending days drafting an official letter to Bill Breeze, I finally sent it. It began: “This is the type of letter I’ve always dreaded because it expresses neither a popular opinion nor can it fully explain what torment runs through my soul in so few pages. The jest of the letter you already know since our phone conversation of August 2nd but it can be summoned up simply, it is my decision after much thought that I am resigning as Lodge Master of Thelema Lodge.” ... It was Bill Breeze who suggested that I write one last nice Editorial for the Thelema Lodge Calendar, for the September 1993 edition, to help make the “transition smooth” and to “bury the hatchet.” I immediately began drafting my last Editorial, which I called ‘POSITIVE CHANGES IN THE BAY AREA.’ It simply read:Editorial
Positive Changes
in the Bay Area
New changes will be happening in September. Ordinarily I would have liked to call a special Lodge Meeting to personally express all the positive actions but unfortunately things have been moving really fast so I can only give a brief extract. Minimal time has been afforded me to explain all the details for which people might yearn. On September 1st 1993ev I personally made the decision to step down as Lodge Master along with Henry Herndon our Secretary and Marlene Smith, Treasurer. Regrettably this is my last Editorial for the Thelema Lodge Calendar as of September. Enthusiastic changes are a foot along with a stiff upper lip and a positive attitude.Hopefully these changes will benefit the entire Bay Area and of course Thelema Lodge. Everyone who has supported our efforts and greatly appreciated all that we have achieved over the years shouldn’t be distraught or feel thrown to the wind by our actions today. I have applied for another Lodge Charter here in the Bay Area with complete blessings of our beloved Frater Superior Hymenaeus Beta and we should be receiving such by mid-September, this I affirm. Despite some obvious changes all should be business as usual by November 1st with only one slight excursion. Regrettably this excursion will occur in the month of October when Marlene and I will be on our honeymoon in total elation. Is there any question to which you might like a reply? Call anytime, (510) ... .... and we’ll attempt to address them forthwith. Keeping with tradition, the changing of a Lodge Master will prompt misunderstanding so let’s keep in touch with earnest. Basically we began planning this transition in July knowing it would occur eventually. Until now we have kept it quiet, but with the nomination of the new Lodge Master by the Electoral College we feel that everyone should be informed respectfully. Luck and the best of it, we offer to John Brunie the new Thelema Lodge Master who I feel as the choice to be the finest. Let us throw our total support behind him enthusiastically. So with my departure I ask everyone in the Bay Area to give the same love and support to Mr. Brunie as you have given to me regularly. Help and volunteer your services whenever asked. In time both our Lodges will be working together to establish a greater Thelemic Community with much more diversity everywhere. Thelema Lodge is sailing off under new leadership and I extend the best to John Brunie willfully. signed Frater Achad Osher 583 VIII°
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Bill Heidrick, unsuspecting of anything being wrong, called me on August 21st to ask if he could do some editing. He claimed that the grammar wasn’t great. He wanted to add and take out some punctuation and join a few smaller sentences together. His points were, in truth, quite correct but I argue that Bill had gutted everything that I had ever written since day one, so I begged him to please leave my last piece alone. I told him that I probably won’t write anything else for the TLC ever again and I asked him to give me some dignity and let my ‘last’ piece be mine, 100%. In the end Heidrick reluctantly agreed but clearly informed me that my Editorial was filled with bad English. He further said that everyone who reads it will see this, but if that is what I wanted, he gave his word that he’d leave it alone and publish it exactly as is. After hanging up the phone I burst out into laughter. Heidrick had no idea what he had just done. I had hidden a code in the article, petty as it might seem but I learned from the best, from Heidrick himself. I knew that if he ‘Changed’ the article even in the slightest, it would throw off the code. I felt that I had fought Bill Heidrick too long over “his baby” (i.e TLC) and I was so tired of him always having the “final say” in this calendar and thus it prompted my payback. Outsiders to the area may never appreciate what I did but those who actually know Bill Heidrick will attest that there could be no better send off to annoy him to his grave. Basically, if you took the first letter of each word beginning in every sentence, going down, it spelt: No More Heidrick Bullshit.
Then, if you took the first letter of the last word in each sentence, going up, it spelt:We are free, free at last, yes.
The Gods, they say, often reward those who have been wronged. And speaking of such, on the September 18th 1993 I came home to find one of the best messages ever left on my answering machine in my entire life. I was in total stitches, laughing out loud when I heard it. It was from Bill Breeze himself and all he said was, and I quote:“Hi Jerry 93 It’s (laughing) Saturday. Well you should know that, ah, (more laughter) Heidrick found your coded message in the last newsletter. (more laughter) You’re an evil, evil, evil man you know that? Really, really, really evil … so, … that’s it (laughing). So if you’re around this weekend and you want to give me a call that’s cool. … OK, see ya 93! (c) Cornelius 2008ev
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