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To: alt.magick.tyagi
From: tyagI@houseofkaos.Abyss.coM (tyagi mordred nagasiva)
Subject: Re: More fake AC bio (was: Need advice regarding Co-Masonry)
Date: 21 Nov 1994 09:04:14 GMT

[from alt.magick: heidrick@well.sf.ca.us (Bill Heidrick)]

93

Tim Maroney (tim@toad.com) writes:

>The Simon Necronomicon was published in 1979 or 1980, more
>than thirty years after Crowley's death.

Not only that, Crowley would likely have considered it revolting.

>Crowley was a Mason, and was granted degrees in numerous
>rites of Masonry.

Well, yes, but not in regular GLOE Masonry, it would appear.  His
French Lodge was recently made regular, but that isn't retroactive.

>His groups, the A.'. A.'. and O.T.O., use Masonic
>symbolism extensively.

Quite true, although much more so of O.T.O. than of A.'.A.'., honor
points excluded.  Consider also that Crowley's main book: "Liber AL vel
Legis" is called "The Book of the Law" and is used in those O.T.O.
initiations as the VSL.

>There's little doubt that to Crowley, "Satan" was an entirely
>positive symbol, and he repeatedly identified himself with it.

Tim, I disagree with you on this utterly.  It simply isn't true.
Crowley did use "Satan" as the subject of poetry and irony, but
he denied the existence of the critter.  "Entirely positive"
is belied by may instances of his usage.  A study of incidence
of the words: "Lucifer", "Satan" and "Christ" in 20 megs of A.C.'s
Stuff here on disk came out with the following:

lucifer   ----     22 occurrences
satan     ----    165 occurrences
christ    ----  1,260 occurrences

Analysis of "lucifer" finds (some from Crowley's translation of E.Levi's
_The Key of the Mysteries_ in Equinox Vol. I, #10 supplement):

similes (one is a duplicate)----------------------------------  3
Satanists called Christians ----------------------------------  1
name of a person (Fr. Lucifer) -------------------------------  1
figures of speech (e.g. left Lucifer at the door) ------------  1
poetic salutation (O' Lucifer) -------------------------------  1
Lucifer saved eventually (see below)--------------------------  1
Lucifer is not Satan (see below)------------------------------  1
"Daughter of Lucifer and accomplice of Prometheus" -----------  1
Rhetorical question ------------------------------------------  1
Book review, scurrilous remark -------------------------------  1
Book review, non scurrilous ----------------------------------  1
Warning against pride ----------------------------------------  1
Poetic image linking Lucifer, Satan and Christ (below) -------  2 (dup)
Not Satan, but one of the princes of evil --------------------  1
As Brahma (part of a general assault on religions) (below) ---  2 (dup)
As planet Venus ----------------------------------------------  1
Acceptance of common usage (MTP below) out of frustration ----  1
Other poet using the word "Lucifer" --------------------------  1


Equinox Vol. I, No. 10, page 23 suppliment:

   Lucifer, of whom the dark ages have made the genius of evil, will be truly
the angel of light when, having conquered liberty at the price of infamy, he
will make use of it to submit himself to eternal order, inaugurating thus the
glories of voluntary obedience.


Ibid:


  The fallen angel is not Lucifer the light-bearer; it is Satan, who
calumniated love.


Eq. I, 4:

  By Thy most secret and Holy Name of Apophis be Thou blessed, Lucifer, Star
of the Dawn, Satan-Jeheshua, Light of the World!

Eq. I, 5:

   And Satan is worshipped by men under the name of Jesus; and Lucifer is
worshipped by men under the name of Brahma; and Leviathan is worshipped by
men under the name of Allah; and Belial is worshipped by men under the name
of Buddha.

Magick in Theory and Practice (MTP):

  This has led to so much confusion of thought that THE BEAST 666 has
preferred to let names stand as they are, and to proclaim simply that AIWAZ
--- the solar-phallic-hermetic "Lucifer" is His own Holy Guardian Angel, and
"The Devil" SATAN or HADIT of our particular unit of the Starry Universe.


Conclusion:  Except for the MTP reference, which context places as a
defiance of popular prejudice more than an expression of belief, Crowley
did not appear to make much use of "Lucifer" as a serious subject.  Most
references combining "Lucifer" and "Satan", few though they are,
differentiate between the two.

-------------------

The references to "satan" are more varied.  Most are simile, metaphor,
derogatory or associations of "Satan" to Christianity.  Some appear to
use the term in a non-traditional fashion.  Examples of the latter below.
There are a couple of poems dedicated to Satan, but they appear to be
intended either for humor or shock value.  Satan is also associated with
Saturn in Astrology, the Sun in mythology (not Astrology), and several
philosophical ideas and ancient deities not relevant to Christian
concepts of a Devil or Personification of Evil.  The first example below
associates "Satan" to a geographic direction.

Comment on Liber AL:

   It is also to be considered that Nu is connected with North, while
Had is Sad, Set, Satan, Sat (equals "Being" in Sanskrit), South.

Confessions:

  I simply went over to Satan's side; and to this hour I cannot tell why.

  My satanism did not interfere with it at all; I was trying to take the
view that the Christianity of hypocrisy and cruelty was not true
Christianity.

  The problem of life was not how to satanize, as Huysmans would have
called it; it was simply to escape from the oppressors and to enjoy the
world without any interference of spiritual life of any sort.

     For instance, if I mention a beetle I expect the reader to understand
an allusion to the sun at midnight in its moral sense of Light-in-Darkness;
if a pelican, to the legend that she pierces her own breast to feed her
young on her heart's bleed; if a goat, to the entire symbolism of
Capricornus, the god Pan, Satan or Jesus (Jesus being born at the winter
solstice, when the sun enters Capricorn); if a pearl, to the
correspondences of that stone as a precious and glittering secretion of
the oyster, by which I mean that invertebrate animal life of man, the
Nephesch.

Equinox I, 1:

     [Or vice versa, friend, if you are a Satanist; 'tis a matter of
words --- words --- words.

Eq. I, 10:

and Satan is only so incoherent and so formless because he is made up
of all the rags of ancient theogonies.

Eq. I, 2:

  Thus it happens that until you become God, God Himself is in Reality
The Tempter, Satan, and the Prince of Darkness, who, assuming the
glittering robes of Time and Space, whispers in our ears: "Millions and
millions and millions of eternities are as nothingness to me; then how
canst thou, thou little mote dancing in the beam of mine eye, hope to
span me?

Eq. I, 5:

 SMAL, Satan so-called, but really only Samael, the accuser of the
brethren, unpopular with the Rabbis because their consciences were
not clear.

  Also OMMV SThH, Ommo Satan, the Satanic Trinity of Typhon, Apophis,
and Besz; also ShM IHShVH, the name of Jesus.

Gospel According to St. Bernard Shaw:

  Refreshed, he continued: "The men who are willing by this means to
become the saviours of their country shall be called the Synagogue of
Satan, so as to keep themselves from the friendship of the fools who
mistake names for things.

MTP:

  This "Devil: is called Satan or Shaitan, and regarded with horror
by people who are ignorant of his formula, and, imagining themselves
to be evil, accuse Nature herself of their own phantasmal crime.

  Satan is Saturn, Set, Abrasax, Adad, Adonis, Attis, Adam, Adonai, etc.

  This serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of Man, but He who made Gods of
our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade "Know Thyself!

   Thus, in low grades of initiation, dogmatic quarrels are inflamed
by astral experience; as when Saint John distinguishes between the Whore
BABALON and the Woman clothed with the Sun, between the Lamb that was
slain and the Beast 666 whose deadly wound was healed; nor understands
that Satan, the Old Serpent, in the Abyss, the Lake of Fire and Sulphur,
is the Sun-Father, the vibration of Life, Lord of Infinite Space that
flames with His Consuming Energy, and is also that throned Light whose
Spirit is suffused throughout the City of Jewels.

  He is the Lord of the Sabbath of the Adepts, and is Satan, therefore
also the Sun, whose number of Magick is 666, the seal of His servant the
BEAST.

   In AL note that Saturn or Satan is exalted in the House of Venus or
Astarte, and it is an airy sign.


Conclusion:  Crowley used "Satan" most often in the Christian context
as a term of common speech to indicate some image of myth suited to
another subject under discussion; next most often as an anti-establishment
slur, especially for a brief period in his late teens or early 20's when
he followed "Satan" as an act of rebellion; more rarely but philosophically
as a Miltonian ideal and positive image for ideas concealed by common
prejudices; occasionally as an insult or joke, including categorization
of his own public reputation.  The more profound usages of "Satan" by
Crowley appear to be totally irrelevant to Christian ideas.

---------

The 1,260 occurrences of "Christ" (including "Christian", "Christmas"
and other combinations) in this sample indicate a greater interest in
Christianity than Satanism, per say.   With so large a number, I have
not analyzed the patterns closely, but at significant number are positive.
One is a usage of devotion to Christ (Crowley's 5 = 6 G.'.D.'. motto).
Most references to "Christ" directly are quite positive, although very
frequently contrary to popular views of the historicity of "Christ".
About half the references to Christianity are negative, emphasizing
"false doctrines" and vice pervading Christian theology or tradition.


>His tradition of Thelema has a great deal to do with the Satanic
>symbols of the Beast and the Scarlet Woman, servitors of the Draconic
>form of Satan in the Apocalypse of John.

Calling these various things "Satanic symbols" is not responsible,
IMHO.  To Christians, yes, mostly.  To Satanists, some, yes, some no.
To Thelemites, mostly no.  To the author of the Apocalypse, definitely
no.   Where do you get "servitors of the Draconic form of Satan..."?
That one throws me.

>Our own Bill Heidrick denies that any of these symbols are actually
>central to Thelema, to which opinion he is of course entitled, just as
>I am entitled to the opinion that Crowley did consider them central.

On the centricity or lack of it in the symbols, I've never commented.
On the meaning of these symbols in Crowley's usage and in Thelema,
not all of this is a matter of opinion.  There is ample evidence in
Crowley's writings toward determination actual fact of usage.

N.B. for follow-up, it might be best if the alt.freemasonry cross-post
was dropped on some follow-up.  If you want me to respond, please retain
the cross-post to alt.magick.

93 93/93
Bill Heidrick