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To: Thelema93-L and Darkpaths-L (both now at Egroups.com)
From: nagasiva@luckymojo.com (nigris (333))
Subject: Magical Battles with the OTO (was Advice)

49990727 IVom 

a correspondent mentions the possibility of being in a magical
 duel with a member of the OTO and wants advice on how to wipe 
 them out:

this response presumes you mean Caliphate OTO rather than some
other contender for the title. 

there are so many different members of the OTO that basing one's
antagonistic strategy upon this meager bit of information is
somewhat ridiculous, but I can dwell on the stereotypes and
commonplace weaknesses you are likely to find with one who so
identifies and is willing to engage you in a magical duel.


OTO is at best a religiomagical membership organization, 
especially to its upper echelon, and, at its worst, a cult 
of Crowleyanity. its present imperatives include retaining 
the Aleister Crowley copyrights through legal power and 
promoting what it identifies as 'the Law of Thelema' 
throughout the world.

membership prefers generally to see its forerunner Crowley
as a misunderstood saint and attempt to explain away his
arrogant biggotry as 'reasonable for his time period'. they
often enjoy collaging passages from his paltry scripture,
known as "Liber Al vel Legis", into a flimsy philosophical
and religious construction, and use it to justify their
activities and motivations to a public which hopes that
they will go away like their "Master Therion" did.

  
the individual asks if there are any weaknesses which a
 "chaote" may exploit:

many members of the OTO are neoChristian ceremonialists 
spoonfed the harryhausenesque fantasies of Dee, Blavatsky,
and Crowley as what to expect in any kind of DnD-like 
'magical battle'. often the antagonist in their 'Thelemic'
paradigm is some Enochian-cum-Therionic fly-I'd-self-demon
they call 'Choronzon', whose terror is described by Crowley
in his  combat with the demon (described
in "The Vision and the Voice"). hooking up with this entity 
or wearing its garments in the astral may afford the 
combatant an extra advantage. some OTO members venture
further into the Lovecraftean or kaotik current, but these
are more often members of Grant's or Bertiaux's cliques.

one of the dreams of many OTO members is some kind of
interaction with their "Holy Guardian Angel". either a
well-targetted assault on the *relationship between the
aspirant and hir angel* or some disguise AS said being
might gain one a leg up. research the proper signs to
provide the initiate so as to sound convincing and get
past hir defenses.

all OTO members of any status have been through their
membership initiation rites. if these contain some sort
of hoary threat, this could also be used to the
advantage of the mage who faces them in combat. 

the ceremonialism of OTO initiates serves as a weakness
as does the commonality of secret initiations. obtaining
copies of the initiation rites through reproductions of
some text like Francis King's "Secret Rites of the OTO"
(available in some public libraries and occasionally to
be found online after being spewed there by some OTO-foe
who has not yet had hir account dispersed by the potent
OTO legal department) could be important in understanding
the deeper aspects of the member's psyche. any reliance
on strict rules of ceremonial rite (such as may be
discerned through an analysis of Crowley's texts,
especially "Book Four", "Book of Lies" and Regardie's
compendium "Gems from the Equinox") could also be seen
as a magical weakness. both of these data sources could
be exploited by the wily opponent.

in practical terms, I would think that well-placed
curses, carefully worded and timed, could be effective
in at least breaking down the defenses of an especially
cultish OTO member. typically only those of lower level
engage in what others of the order would probably regard
as 'juvenile' or 'wasteful' activities like 'magical
duels', so this will tell you something about the
person's position. levers such as those surrounding hir
organization's authority structure (say, an incisive
vision of the Frater Superior urging hir to surrender)
or hir magical "career" (threats to hir ability to 
successfully pass through the rites of the order's 
extensive and vaunted degree-system) could also be very
important achille's tendons as it were.


the same source asks how to keep this from spilling over to hir
 kindred or 'collateral victims':

if at all possible obtain their name and birth date. if you
can get them, also obtain personal effects, such as hair,
nails, clothing, etc. these can be used to pin-point the
individual and/or create a target which can be enclosed in
a talisman-bound magical container that will diffuse your
heaviest energy-bolts before their extraneous energy reaches
those around hir.

where you are concerned have your magical weapons ready,
set shields on your kindred, wards on your domicile, and
try to stay away from people during the period of warfare.
charge batteries ahead of time in order to be used by you
when you need them for protection and/or extra aggression.
consecrate your weapons by the most potent methods
available to you and, if is your wont, enlist compatriots
to lend their energies and/or magical wills to your cause.

research in Grant's, Bertiaux's, and even Goetic texts
may prove valuable in an all-out search for artillery.
with creative imagination anything is possible.

above all, keep your wits about you and your allies on call.

good luck, happy jousting and blessed beast!

nigris (333)