THE ARCANE ARCHIVE
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Subject: The Hawk Headed Herald - Volume 1, Number 1

[obtained from http://www.visi.com/~invoke/camp/library/ ]

We are a relatively new Camp in the Order (chartered Autumnal Equinox IVii) and we are just now moving out of the arena of theory and into the realm of practice. Our first group ritual was held in celebration of this past Winter Solstice in Prescott, Arizona and was enjoyed by all those who attended. We used this very important time of the year to meditate on each of our individual and unique paths, looking past the veil of winter to the abundance of summer harnessing the force of the season in our celebratory ritual to bring forth advantagous elements of ourselves as individuals and our Camp as a whole.

Also, in our budding practice grows many a wonderful thing, strange and rich, for our Temple. While we still, as yet, do not have a favorable area for permenant indoor workings, we have outdoor sites aplenty as both Prescott and Coconino National Forest Preserves can attest to! But this makes no difference as of now, as we all enjoy our group workings to be outside with the trees: either under bright sky or clear starry night away from the life dulled by the city and drugged by the tv. Even so, we will (and perhaps quite soon) obtain a permenant indoor Temple within which to work, so as to be an all- weather Camp, so to speak.

If you were able to make it to our A.N. IViii Vernal Equinox and Invocation of Horus celebratory weekend (and had one of these newsletters handed to you in person), we were most happy to have you there! (I hope!) Otherwise, we trust that your Equinox passed with as much pleasure as you could muster!

Now, without further prolongation, we hereby present "Duty" by Aleister Crowley, hoping that all who read it here will envision its message afresh and further instill its practice within the action of your life itself.

Frater O.G.K.

"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." --- AL I:40
"There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt." --- AL III:60
".... thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no other shall say nay. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect." --- AL I:42-44
"Love is the law, love under will." --- AL I:57"
"Every man and every woman is a star." --- AL I:3"

A. YOUR DUTY TO YOURSELF.

1. Find yourself to be the centre of your own Universe. "I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star." --- AL II:6

2. Explore the Nature and Powers of your own Being.

This includes everything which is, or can be, for you; and you must accept everything exactly as it is in itself, as one of the factors which make up your True Self. This True Self thus ultimately includes all things soever; its discovery is Initiation (the travelling inwards) and as its Nature is to move continually, it must be understood not as static, but as dynamic, not as a Noun, but as a Verb.

3. Develop in due harmony and proportion every faculty which you possess.

"Wisdom says: be strong! Then canst thou bear more joy. Be not animal; refine thy rapture! If thou drink, drink by the eight and ninety rules of art: if thou love, exceed by delicacy; and if thou do aught joyous, let there be subtlety therein! But exceed! exceed!" --- AL II:70-71"

"Be strong, o man! lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee for this." --- AL II:22"

4. Contemplate your own Nature.

Consider every element thereof both separately, and in relation to all the rest, so as to judge accurately the true purpose of the totality of your Being.

5. Find the formula of this purpose, or "True Will", in an expression as simple as possible.

Learn to understand clearly how best to manipulate the energies which you control to obtain the results most favourable to it from its relations with the part of the Universe which you do not yet control.

6. Extend the dominion of your consciousness, and its control of all forces alien to it, to the utmost.

Do this by the ever stronger and more skillful application of your faculties to the finer, clearer, fuller and more accurate perception, the better understanding, and the more wisely ordered government, of that external Universe.

7. Never permit the thought or will of any other Being to interfere with your own.

Be constantly vigilant to resent, and on the alert to resist, with unvanquishable ardour, and vehemence of passion unquenchable, every attempt of any other Being to influence you otherwise than by contributing new facts to your experience of the Universe, or by assisting you to reach an higher synthesis of Truth by the mode of passionate fusion.

8. Do not repress or restrict any true instinct of your nature; but devote all in perfection to the sole service of your one True Will.

"Be goodly therefore: dress ye all in fine apparel; eat rich foods and drink sweet wines and wines that foam! Also, take your fill and will of love as ye will, when, where and with whom ye will! But always unto me." --- AL I:51

"The word of Sin is Restriction. O man! refuse not thy wife, if she will! O lover, if thou wilt, depart! There is no bond that can unite the divided but love: all else is a curse. Accursed! Accursed be it to the aeons! Hell." --- AL I:41

"Ye shall gather goods and store of women and spices; ye shall wear rich jewels; ye shall exceed the nations of the earth in splendour & pride; but always in the love of me, and so shall ye come to my joy." --- AL I:61

9. Rejoice!

"Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains." --- AL II:9

"But ye, o my people, rise up & awake! Let the rituals be rightly performed with joy & beauty! .... Aye! feast! rejoice! there is no dread hereafter. There is the dissolution, and eternal ecstasy in the kisses of Nu." --- AL II:34-35,44"

"Now rejoice! now come in our splendour & rapture! Come in our passionate peace, & write sweet words for the Kings!" --- AL II:64

"Thrill with the joy of life & death! .... Come! lift up thine heart & rejoice!" --- AL II:66

B. YOUR DUTY TO OTHER INDIVIDUAL MEN AND WOMEN.

1. Love is the law, love under will.

"Come forth, o children, under the stars, & take your fill of love!" --- AL I:12

Unite yourself passionately with every other focus of consciousness, thus destroying the sense of separateness with the Whole, and creating a new baseline in the Universe from which to measure it.

2. "As brothers fight ye." --- AL III:59

("....If he be a King, thou canst not hurt him." --- AL II:59) To bring out saliently the difference between two points of view is useful to both in measuring the position of each in the whole. Combat stimulates the virile or creative energy, and, like love, of which it is one form, excites the mind to an orgasm which enables it to transcend its rational dullness.

3. Abstain from all interference with other wills.

"Beware lest any force another, King against King!" --- AL II:24

(The love and war in the previous injunctions are of the nature of sport, where one respects, and learns from, the opponent, but never interferes with him, outside the actual game.) To seek to dominate or influence another is to seek to deform or destroy him; and he is a necessary part of one's own Universe, that is, of one's self.

4. Seek, if you so will, to enlighten another when need arises.

This may be done, but always with strict respect for the attitude of the good sportsman, when he is in distress through failure to understand himself clearly, especially when he demands help; for his darkness may hinder one's perception of his perfection. (Yet also his darkness may serve as a warning, or excite one's interest.) It is also lawful when his ignorance has led him to interfere with one's will. All interference is in any case dangerous, and demands the exercise of extreme skill and good judgment, fortified by experience. To influence another is to leave one's citadel unguarded; and the attempt commonly ends in losing one's own self-supremacy.

5. Worship all!

"Every man and every woman is a star." ---AL I:3

"Mercy let be off: damn them who pity!" ---AL III:18

Each being is, exactly as you are, the sole centre of a Universe in no wise identical with, or even assimilable to, your own. The impersonal Universe of "Nature" is only an abstraction, approximately true, of the factors which it is convenient to regard as common to all. The Universe of another is therefore unknown to, and unknowable by, you; but it induces currents of energy in yours by determining, in part, your selection of facts for contemplation and by exciting your reactions. Use men and women, therefore, with the absolute respect due to inviolable standards of measurement; verify your own observations by comparison with similar judgments made by them; and, studying the methods which determine their failure or success, acquire for yourself the wit and skill necessary to cope with your own problems. Pity, sympathy and like emotions are fundamentally insults to the Godhead of the person exciting them, and therefore, also to your own. The distress of another may be relieved; but always with the positive and noble idea of making manifest the perfection of the Universe. Pity is the source of every mean, ignoble, and cowardly vice; and the essential blasphemy against Truth.

"To Me do ye reverence! to me come ye through tribulation of ordeal, which is bliss." ---AL III:62

C. YOUR DUTY TO MANKIND.

1. Establish the Law of Thelema as the sole basis of conduct.

The general welfare of the race being in many respects necessary to your own, principally a function of the intelligent and wise observance of the Law of Thelema, it is of the very first importance to you that every individual should accept frankly that Law, and strictly govern himself in full accordance therewith. You may thus regard the establishment of the Law of Thelema as an essential element in your own True Will, since, whatever the ultimate Nature of that Will, the evident condition for putting it into execution is freedom from external interference. Governments too often exhibit the most deplorable stupidity, however enlightened may be the men who compose and constitute them, or the people whose destinies they direct. It is therefore incumbent on every man and woman to take the proper steps to cause the revision of all existing statutes on the basis of the Law of Thelema. This law being the Law of Liberty, the aim of the legislature must be to secure the amplest freedom for each individual in the State, eschewing the presumptuous assumption that any given positive ideal is worthy to be attained.

"The word of Sin is Restriction." --- AL I:41

The essence of crime is that it restricts the freedom of the individual outraged. (Thus, murder restricts his right to live; robbery, his right to enjoy the fruits of his labour; coining, his right to the guarantee of the State that he shall barter in security, etc.) It is then the common duty to prevent crime by segregating the criminal, and by the threat of reprisals; also, to teach the criminal that his acts, being analyzed, are contrary to his True Will. (This may often be accomplished by taking from him the right which he has denied to others; as by outlawing the thief, so that he feels constant anxiety for the safety of his own possessions, removed from the ward of the State. Crime being a direct spiritual violation of the Law of Thelema, it should not be tolerated in the community. Those who possess the instinct should be segregated in a settlement to build up a State of their own, so to learn the necessity of themselves imposing and maintaining rules of justice. All laws against artificial crimes should be abolished. When fantastic restrictions disappear, the greater freedom of the individual will itself teach him to avoid acts which really restrict natural rights. Thus real crime will diminish automatically. The administration of Law should be simplified by training men of uprightness and discretion, whose Will it is to fulfil this function, to decide all complaints by the abstract principle of the Law of Thelema, and to award judgment on the basis of the actual restriction caused by the offense. The ultimate aim is thus to reintegrate Conscience, on true scientific principles, as the warden of conduct, the monitor of the people, and the guarantee of their governors.

D. YOUR DUTY TO ALL OTHER BEINGS AND THINGS.

1. Apply the Law of Thelema to all problems of fitness, use and development.

It is a violation of the Law of Thelema to abuse the natural qualities of any animal or object by diverting it from its proper function, as determined by consideration of its history and structure. Thus, to train children to perform mental operations, or to practise tasks, for which they are unfitted, is a crime against nature. Similarly, to build houses of rotten material, to adulterate food, to destroy forests, etc., etc., is to offend. The Law of Thelema is to be applied unflinchingly to every question of conduct. The inherent fitness of any thing for any proposed use should be the sole criterion.

Apparent, and sometimes even real, conflict between interests will frequently arise. Such cases are to be decided by the general value of the contending parties in the scale of Nature. Thus, a tree has a right to its life; but a man, being more than a tree, may cut it down for fuel and shelter when need arises. Even so, let him remember that the Law never fails to avenge an infraction: as when wanton deforestation has ruined a climate or soil, or as when the importation of rabbits for a cheap supply of food has created a plague. Observe that the violation of the Law of Thelema produces cumulative ills. The drain of the agricultural populations to big cities, due chiefly to persuading them to abandon their natural ideals, has not only made the country less tolerable to the peasant, but debauched the town. And the error tends to increase in geometrical progression, until a remedy has become almost inconceivable, and the whole structure of society is threatened with ruin. Experiments in creation, involving variation from existing types, are lawful and necessary. Their value is to be judged from their fertility, as bearing witness to their harmony with the course of Nature towards Perfection.

Since I became involved with Magick in general and the OTO (even more specifically, Thelema) in particular, it has come to my attention that there is much misunderstanding as to the nature of both --- and not just from the obvious corners of fundamentalists and conservatives who, if they know of these things at all, think of them as fronts for Satan worship in the Christian sense or just plain immorality in the American sense, but also from seemingly open minded and earnest seekers for "something more" than has been handed them by posterity. These are individuals whom I would expect to be quite receptive to the bold expression and assertion of freedom and life that I have come to know as Thelema. It is this group of individuals that I seek to addrress with this humble offering.

There seems to be a prevalent attitude from this quarter which sees the practice and topic of Magick and the OTO as stoic and boring (one non-magickian friend of mine asked me "does he ever laugh" of an OTO friend he did not know): as if practitioners of this noble art are constantly serious and not open to joy and revelry when the situation calls for it. (I expect this perception will draw a few laughs from any who have attended OTO activities in the Phoenix or Tucson areas!) I suppose many of them might imagine, if they had a chance to glimpse the photograph of the illustrious Eliphas Levi printed in his work "Trancendental Magic" that we all look similiar to this and that this look reflects our general attitude towards life in general. With all due respect to Eliphas Levi, I don't know of any practitioner of Magick, at least in the Arizona community, that wears this face at all times --- nor do I think that Levi himself wore it as as a general rule either. My point is that this conception of the Magickian as pent up in a study somewhere picking through tattered copies of ancient grimoires, oblivious to the world going on outside is quite erronious to say the least. Even a cursory study of The Book of the Law will reveal the fallacy of this conception.

By and far, most of the people I have had the priveledge of meeting in this community are joyful and interesting people --- not to mention first rate partiers when the time is right. (I suppose this last statement "when the time is right" is the key to this mystery.) Freedom as I have come to understand it and as it is presented in the works of Aleister Crowley and others does not mean simply doing whatever the hell you want whenever you want in any situation. Freedom is to be found through the realization of one's "True will", as it has been called, and the free excercise of that will in all of life's situations.

The problem that I believe most people have with this is that it requires work. There, I've said it, that nasty four lettered word. Yes, my friends, Magick, which is a path to this freedom, requires work, very hard work at times (yes, I know Robrt A. Wilson makes it sound easy, but he himself has spent many hours in research and practice to come to the point he has). Yet in this work there is great joy and celebration. Just as the painting of a masterpiece, the chiseling of stone into the perfect image of a man, or the penning of a great poem requires many hours of concentration, frustration, perseverance and buckets full of sweat, so to does this work of Magick: which is nothing less than the unknotting of the riddle of your being, the chiseling away of the rocky crags and rough blemishes of yourself to unveil the Star concealed within. It requires the same struggle and determination as do all forms of the Great Work: "....in the going there is joy." I can not imagine a more joyous line of work to be involved with.

In conclusion, I would say to all those who may be interested in Magick or the OTO: be armed with the capacity for joyous celebration, a healthy skepticism and sense of humour, and also be armed with the capacity to apply yourself to many hours of hard work, which is joy and celebration and heartache and love. As the time for the commencement of the celebrations of "the Supreme Ritual" and "the Equinox of the Gods" --- heralding the arrival of Spring and the dawning of Summer --- draw nearer, I feel inclined to leave you with an excerpt from Liber Al vel Legis, The Book of the Law, which I feel expresses the true nature of our work this Spring and everyday:

"Let the rituals be rightly performed with joy & beauty! There are rituals of the elements and feasts of the times. A feast for the first night of the Prophet and his bride! A feast for the three days of the writing of the Book of the Law. A feast for Tahuti and the child of the prophet --- secret, O Prophet! A feast for the Supreme Ritual, and a feast for the Equinox of the Gods. A feast for fire and a feast for water; a feast for life and a greater feast for death! A feast every day in your hearts in the joy of my rapture! A feast every night unto Nu, and the pleasure of uttermost delight! Aye! feast! rejoice! there is no dread hereafter. There is the dissolution, and eternal ecstasy in the kisses of Nu." Love is the law, love under will.

Frater IDWAB

Besides this electronic version of the Hawk Headed Herald, paper copies are also printed upon fine paper far from being made by hand --- but even so, they are quite fit for binding in your archives! Yearly subscription is $8.00. Please contact the camp via S or Email to arrange payment. HHMLE also publishes (we hope!) a bi-yearly journal named EXO. Volume One came out this past summer solstice (An IViii). EXO is $6.00 per year or $3.00 a piece. Our Smail address is:

Hawk Headed Mystical Lord Encampment
P.O. Box 147
Flagstaff, AZ
86002-0147

April 8-10 The three days of the writing of the Book of the Law celebratory weekend
April 22 777 Workshop

May 6 Camp meeting
May 20 777 Workshop

June 3 777 Workshop
June 17 Summer Solstice celebratory campout June 24 Camp Meeting