THE ARCANE ARCHIVE
	a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects.

To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.satanism,alt.magick,talk.religion.misc,alt.magick.order,alt.magick.serious
From: boboroshi@satanservice.org (SOD of CoE; SS of D93)
Subject: Magical Authority Schemes (Re: Statement by the Highest Authority of the A.'.A.'.
Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2001 17:55:17 GMT

50010612 VI! om Hail Satan!

Felix:
>> I am chartered by the Highest Authorities of the A.'.A.'. to
>> point out to all you people who don't realise that all, absolutely 
>> ALL claims of establishment of Orders by the A.'.A.'. are bogus and 
>> should be disregarded. ALL A.'.A.'. websites are fraudulent. ALL 
>> Orders who henceforth claim A.'.A.'. authority are hereby instantly 
>> dissolved this 29th day of March 2001 by the POWER, the Undisputed 
>> Power, of the A.'.A.'.

sri catyananda :
> Thank you for saying what had to be said. 
> cat yronwode, O.H.O. of the A.'.A.'.

there is a popular legend concerning the AA that one will only
know a single initiator beyond one's grade, such that, like the
Rosicrucians, public statements claiming membership or authority
ought automatically be considered proof of charlatanry.

the AA appears to have begun on the initiative of George Cecil 
Jones aka D.D.S. aka Volo Noscere aka Gnoscere; Aleister Crowley, 
aka (in this relation) V.V.V.V.V.; and Karl Germer, aka Saturnus. 

there was an attempt within Crowley's text to associate the AA 
with the Great White Brotherhood ("One Star in Sight"), whose 
members were presumed by Rosicrucians and Theosophists to be at 
the controls of the cosmos. this corresponded directly with his 
reframing of the Rosicrucians and Golden Dawn as (lower) parts 
of the AA structure. 

on the Inner (imagined) Plane, the AA was presented by its
creators as a continuation or related branch of the masters 
who made esoteric knowledge available to the spiritual elites 
under a variety of names whose existence presupposed an
hierarchic and dualist cosmic organization (a commonplace
religious feint to inspire the attention, money, and power
as donations to the supposed religious temporal authorities). 

it is reasonable that this constituted a kind of role-playing 
where social authority of religious and political nature was 
otherwise denied to these individuals on account of their 
peculiarity and strange ideologies.

it was precisely this divide which broke up the early Church
of Satan, with Michael Aquino and his cronies forming a faction
of those wishing to serve Set and create an esoteric hierarchy,
LaVey preferring to retain a predominantly atheistic charade
with the hope of inspiring actually powerful individuals to
become in involved his church while it lauded influence and 
riches. the CoS effectively identified secular humanism with 
Satanism and attempted to fuse ecumenical leadership with 
temporal rule. as it has turned out, only entertainers and 
others who, like LaVey, were adept at manipulating the media 
for brief periods through notoriety (e.g. Marilyn Manson) have 
been drawn to (at least publically) affiliate with this church.

the technique of equating identification of membership with
charlatanry not only has the effect of squelching rivalry
for one's erstwhile primary secret society, it also places
any organization's actual administrators out of the way of
serious scrutiny, allowing a kind of veil that could conceal
anything from the Masters of the Universe to a gang of teens
pretending to vouchsafe fabulous magical secrets from the
unworthy.

as this veil begins to break down (like it has in the (c)OTO,
whose officers have openly identified AA orgs and relations 
due to occulto-political rivalry), it is the role of modern
founders of secret societies to integrate the once-Inner
(and more fabulous while quite probably entirely fabricated)
elite order as an "Outer Order" in the same way that Crowley
and his followers did with the Golden Dawn and Rosicrucians
-- not because they were in some way a continuation of these
societies, but so as to co-opt the previous popularity and
mystique surrounding them toward their novel construction.

where these elite spiritual hierarchies make special claims
to authority, power, and the protection of fabulous items
(e.g. OTO's early claims to be in possession of the
Universal Medicine of alchemical tradition and its later
claims to a potent sex magical system which continues
despite open publishing of its solar-penile formulae), 
so their structure must become more and more secret, rigid,
and pyramidal, protecting the paucity of their actual
content and the (typically) despicable character of their
chief administrators.

this system of fabrication and charlatanry has become
increasingly transparent (e.g. Levi and his imaginative 
fabrications that enter into and become part of the
purported 'history' of occultism despite clear evidence
to the contrary).  

the situation has become so severe that esoteric occult
organizations now at times TRUMPET the abrasive and
thoroughly despicable character of their founders as some
kind of CONTRAST to the obvious charlatanry of not only
the conventional religious (always a theme of lambaste in
contrast, at least previously, to the pure development of
their own leaders), but even of previous occultists. 

this is the case with Aleister Crowley and his supposed
(unproven, demonstrably false) grand spiritual status.
his defenders will go so far as to explain that his
*methods* are sound despite the fact that they have quite
obviously failed in the case of Crowley. his reprehensible
character, they say, is a protection against recasting him
as a saint, though Crowley's self-styled saintliness
(he called his autobiography an 'autohagiography') has
inspired a cult in his wake regardless of clear evidence
that he had little to nothing to do with real spirituality.

if the AA and its ilk do in fact exist as spiritual adepts
(something on par with considering whether any particular 
cosmic god might exist, or what and where the character of
Blavatsky's 'D.K.' or Tibetan Master 'Koot Hoomi', might be), 
then realistic assessments of the kinds of persons and 
activities associated with it have apparently been left 
behind in a fight to step up to the top of the New Improved 
Pyramid Scheme.

blessed beast!

boboroshi@satanservice.org: Satanic Outreach Director,
Church of Euthanasia (CoE) (http://www.churchofeuthanasia.org/)
Temple Of Kaoz Undur Satan (TOKUS) (http://www.satanservice.org/tokus.html)
Sorcerer Supreme of Dimension 93
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~references:
http://www.luckymojo.com/faqs/faq.--a-a--.0010
http://www.luckymojo.com/crowley/004osisight.txt
http://www.luckymojo/com/altmagickfaq/gwbref