To: alt.magick,alt.magick.tantra
From: papaj418@bellsouth.net (John E. "Papa John" Mayer)
Subject: Re: A Neo-Tantric Reading List
Date: Wed, 07 Aug 2002 00:53:33 GMT

On Tue, 9 Jul 2002 22:54:21 +0100, "Alex Sumner"
 wrote:

>Um no. "Patrick" Zalewski published "Secret Inner Order Rituals of the
>Golden Dawn" under no-ones aegis except perhaps his own and Israel
>Regardie's. The contents of Zalewski's book bear little or no relation to
>the OTO rituals, as found in e.g. "OTO Rituals and Sex Magick" by Theodor
>Reuss & Aleister Crowley.

What I get for not taking the book down from the shelf while trying
to make reference to it...sez "Regardie/Zalewski" which I took to
be Richard. That book and his "Z-5" series are ostensibly offered
by NZ's GD/OTO offshoot which seems, like virtually all modern 
OTO and Dawn outgrowths, to be a hotch-potch of masonic and
egyptesque formalities. Like the hypocrisy evident in almost all 
modern churches (and many other cults), the name-calling and
backbiting among magical societies provides the most important
evidence of their occult "virtue" or lack thereof. 

But that begs the question, really. If one defers to Crowley/
Reuss, one simply buys into what is demonstrably at least the
second generation of purloined goods, since it's fairly easy to 
see that P.B.Randolph pioneered the same ideas at least a
generation before. And even *he* was honest enough to admit
in his aging years that he had fabricated his system from pieces
he had gleaned in his early travels. Pedigree is merely a formality
in a system *built* on formalities. A real magician's power comes 
not from the secrets SHe knows, but from hir power to perceive
patterns due to a lifetime of dogged pursuit of esentially artificial 
patterns. If one can see the pattern that holds a nation in thrall, 
one can also see the flaw in that pattern and expoit it. It is the
ability to perceive in creative ways that is the essence of magick,
not secrets and validated traditions. 

So I think perhaps dwelling on publishers' imprints and worrying
about who published what book is far less important than the idea
of reading whatever comes to hand and learning to discern pearls
from pigshit. If one fails to find the Pearl of Great Price, one will
at least become an expert on the fecal matter of swine. Wars have
been won and nations founded on far less. 
Love,
Papa John

John E."Papa John" Mayer
papaj418@bellsouth.net
"If it don't hurt a little bit, it ain't Rock & Roll!"