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Subject: November 1998 e.v. Thelema Lodge Calendar/Newsletter

Mailed free within 100 miles of San Francisco California

Printed edition otherwise: $12 per year North America, $12 per year surface

overseas, $24 per year air mail overseas.

Copyright (c) O.T.O. and the Individual Authors, 1998 e.v.

  Limited license is hereby granted to reproduce this file without fee, with

this message intact.  This license expires November 1999 e.v. unless renewed

in writing.  No charge other than reproduction costs is permitted under this

license to the receivers of copies of this file without O.T.O. written

permission.  This file is not to be altered or incorporated in whole or in

part within another electronic or printed publication without written

permission from O.T.O.

  Thelema Lodge

  Ordo Templi Orientis

  P.O. Box 2303

  Berkeley, CA  94702  USA

Phone: (510) 652-3171 (for events info and contact to Lodge)

  Production Editor and Circulation:

  OTO-TLC Editor

  P.O.Box 430

  Fairfax, CA  94978



Compuserve: 72105,1351          (Submissions and circulation only)

America on Line: B Heidrick         "    "       "        "

Internet: heidrick@well.com         "    "       "        "



Calendar events in the San Francisco Bay Area for November 1998 e.v., in

brief.  Always call the contact phone number before attending.  Some are

limited in size, change location and may be subject to other adjustments.

When you call, you don't get lost or disappointed.  Initiations are private.

Donations at all OTO events are welcome.



*************************************************************************

The viewpoints and opinions expressed herein are the responsibility of the

contributing authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of OTO or its

officers.

*************************************************************************



11/1/98   Gnostic Mass 7:30PM Horus Temple     (510) 652-3171    Thelema Ldg.

11/4/98   College of Hard NOX 8 PM             (510) 652-3171    Thelema Ldg.

          with Mordecai in the library

11/7/98   Feast of Samhain 7:00 AM

11/8/98   Lodge luncheon meeting 12:30         (510) 652-3171    Thelema Ldg.

11/8/98   Gnostic Mass 7:30PM Horus Temple     (510) 652-3171    Thelema Ldg.

11/12/98  Ritual Study Workshop with Cynthia   (510) 658-9393    Thelema Ldg.

          8:00 PM

11/14/98  Liber 418 readings begin             (510) 652-3171    Thelema Ldg.

          TEX 8:00PM Horus Temple

11/15/98  Gnostic Mass 7:30PM Horus Temple     (510) 652-3171    Thelema Ldg.

11/16/98  Section II reading group with        (510) 652-3171    Thelema Ldg.

          Caitlin: Beast Fables 8PM Library    (510) 652-3171    Thelema Ldg.

11/17/98  Liber 418 reading RII 29th Aethyr    (510) 652-3171    Thelema Ldg.

          8:00PM in Horus Temple

11/18/98  Class on Hebrew influences in  Magick(415) 454-5176    Thelema Ldg.

          with Bill Heidrick 7:30 PM

          at 5 Suffield Ave. San Anselmo

11/19/98  Ritual Study Workshop with Cynthia   (510) 658-9393    Thelema Ldg.

          8:00 PM

11/21/98  OTO initiations (call to attend)     (510) 652-3171    Thelema Ldg.

11/22/98  Finnegans Wake reading 4:18 PM       (510) 428-0870

11/22/98  Gnostic Mass 7:30PM Horus Temple     (510) 652-3171    Thelema Ldg.

11/23/98  Liber 418 reading BAG 28th Aethyr    (510) 652-3171    Thelema Ldg.

          8:00PM in Horus Temple

11/24/98  Liber 418 reading ZAA 27th Aethyr    (510) 652-3171    Thelema Ldg.

          8:00PM in Horus Temple

11/25/98  College of Hard NOX 8 PM             (510) 652-3171    Thelema Ldg.

          with Mordecai in the library

          combined with 26th DES & 25th VTI

11/26/98  Liber 418 reading NIA 24th Aethyr    (510) 652-3171    Thelema Ldg.

          8:00PM in Horus Temple

11/28/98  Liber 418 reading TOR 23rd &         (510) 652-3171    Thelema Ldg.

          LIN 22nd 8:00PM in Horus Temple

11/29/98  Liber 418 reading ASP 21st Aethyr    (510) 652-3171    Thelema Ldg.

          8:00PM in Horus Temple

11/30/98  Gnostic Mass 7:30PM Horus Temple     (510) 652-3171    Thelema Ldg.

11/30/98  Liber 418 reading KHR 20th &         (510) 652-3171    Thelema Ldg.

          POP 19th 8:00PM in Horus Temple



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Announcements from

Lodge Members and Officers





                         The Lamp of Invisible Light



   On Saturday 14th November, Thelema Lodge begins its annual reading of Liber

CDXVIII, "The Vision and the Voice."  This chronicle, one of Crowley's

masterpieces, details his astral explorations of the 30 Aethyrs of Enochian

magick, as he performs the work of his initiation into the grade of Magister

Templi, the crossing of the Abyss.  The vision of each Aethyr thus stands both

as a signpost along the road toward mystical union, and also as a storehouse

of initiatory knowledge. We will be ceremonially reading each Aethyr at 8:00

on the evening of the anniversary of its reception, through 20th December.

Those interested in assisting with an Aethyr reading, please contact Frater

Majnun at (510) 601-9393.  Goholor vnalah!<>



   Here are the dates of the Aethyrs for this month:

      30 -------------- Saturday Nov. 14th

      29 --------------- Tuesday Nov. 17th

      28 ---------------- Monday Nov. 23rd

      27 --------------- Tuesday Nov. 24th

      26 ------------- Wednesday Nov. 25th

      25 ------------- Wednesday Nov. 25th

      24 -------------- Thursday Nov. 26th

      23 -------------- Saturday Nov. 28th

      22 -------------- Saturday Nov. 28th

      21 ---------------- Sunday Nov. 29th

      20 ---------------- Monday Nov. 30th

      19 ---------------- Monday Nov. 30th



                            Middle of the Scorpion



   Greetings of the season of Samhain to friends and members of the lodge as

the sun attains the midpoint of the Scorpion, occurring just before sunrise on

Saturday 7th November.  By local tradition, no event is planned, all our steam

for this time of year having been blown over Hallowe'en according to the civil

and christian calendars.

   Celebration of the mass of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica begins each Sunday

after nightfall, and all the communicants should arrive at Horus Temple no

later than 7:30 this time of year, to be ready for the deacon's call.

Questions about the mass are best directed to our local gnostic bishops, and

the temple schedule is maintained by the lodgemaster, who can provide

information and directions (or introductions to our clergy) to those calling

the lodge, or at lodge events.  Initiate members should also keep in touch

with lodge officers regarding O.T.O. initiation rituals, which are scheduled

privately.  The date this month for initiations into Ordo Templi Orientis here

is Saturday 21st November, but all must arrange in advance in order to be

included.



                               N.O.X.  3  Times

                       (on the oneness if it wants me)



   Whenever two or more individuals interact they create a third thing, the

relationship between them.  One of these relationships has been labeled The

College Of Hard N.O.X. because it subjects the ideas of its participants to

many strenuous tests of virtue and fitness.  November's intellectual ordeals

will commence in the lodge library at eight o'clock on the evenings of the 4th

and the 25th.  A very reasonable tuition fee will be required; spare yourself

the embarrassment of arriving unprepared.

   The topic of discussion for November 4th is, broadly speaking, the concept

of trinity.  More specifically we will be examining three specific trinities

of spiritual classification which may or may not illumine the question, "Is

religious experience inherently trinary in nature?". The first trinity is

suggested by three different passages in the Book Of The Law:

   "This that thou writest is the threefold book of Law."

   "Who calls us Thelemites will do no wrong, if he look but close into the

word.  For there are therein Three Grades, the Hermit, and the Lover, and the

man of Earth."

   "Behold! there are three ordeals in one, and it may be given in three ways.

The gross must pass through fire; let the fine be tried in intellect, and the

lofty chosen ones in the highest.  Thus ye have star & star, system & system;

let not one know well the other."

   Do the three "types" of Thelema which may be meant in these passages

correlate with our second trinity, the three types of religious teacher

described by Crowley in his "Confessions"?:

   "The history of mankind teems with religious teachers.  These may be

divided into three classes.

   "1.  Such men as Moses and Mohammed state simply that they have received a

direct communication from God.  They buttress their authority by divers

methods, chiefly threats and promises guaranteed by thaumaturgy; they resent

the criticism of reason."

   "2.  Such men as Blake and Boehme claimed to have entered into direct

communication with discarnate intelligence which may be considered as

personal, creative, omnipotent, unique, identical with themselves or

otherwise.  Its authority depends on `the interior certainty' of the seer."

   "3.  Such teachers as Lao-Tzu, the Buddha and the highest Gnana-yogis

announce that they have attained to superior wisdom, understanding, knowledge

and power, but make no pretense of imposing their views on mankind.  They

remain essentially sceptics.  They base their precepts on their own personal

experience, saying, in effect, that they have found that the performance of

certain acts and the abstention from others created conditions favourable to

the attainment of the state which has emancipated them.  The wiser they are,

the less dogmatic.  Such men indeed formulate their transcendental conception

of the cosmos more or less clearly; they may explain evil as illusion, etc.,

but the heart of their theory is that the problem of sorrow has been wrongly

stated, owing to the superficial or incomplete data presented by normal human

experience through the senses, and that it is possible for men, by virtue of

some special training (from Asana to Ceremonial Magick), to develop in

themselves a faculty superior to reason and immune from intellectual

criticism, by the exercise of which the original problem of suffering is

satisfactorily solved."

   "The Book Of The Law claims to comply with the conditions necessary to

satisfy all three types of inquirer."

   The final trinity is an example drawn from the history of Indian religious

philosophy.  We will examine the three main traditions within the movement

called Vedanta; its name just means "the culmination of Veda", and it is

referring at least in part to the last section of the early Hindu holy

scriptures (the Veda), the Upanishads, wherein the earlier mythical, ethical,

and ritual teachings are undergoing their development into a real mystical

philosophy.  These three main branches of Vedanta are Advaita (non-dualist),

Vishishtadvaita ("qualified" non-dualist), and Dvaita (dualist).  The basic

issue among them is the relationship between the Absolute and the individual.

To Advaitins the Absolute (Brahman) is the only reality, the individual

(jivatman) is just an appearance of the Absolute, while Dvaitins think that

both the Absolute ("Creator") and the individual ("creature") are real, though

the latter is utterly dependent upon the former.  The Vishishtadvaitins try to

have it both ways by seeing the individual ("soul") as real just because it is

a part of the Absolute ("God").  These three schools of thought are usually

each associated with a great sage, respectively, Shankara (earlier than 820),

Ramanuja (11th/12th cent.), and Madhva (earlier than 1317), though they all

boast numerous saints, real and legendary.

   Some of these saints have been really wild people.  For example, Jnaneshvar

(or Jnanadeva), an Advaitin who lived from 1275 to 1296.  Though of the

Brahmin caste he was denied a formal religious education because his father

had earlier tried unsuccessfully to desert his family for the life of a

religious devotee.  He was initiated in yogic disciplines at a young age by

his older brother, and despite his lack of orthodox training he dictated at

the age of 15 a book called "The Lamp Of Plain Meaning" which consists of

commentary explaining the inner meaning of the Bhagavad-gita.  It is to this

day called the most revered work in the Marathi language.  He is also credited

with a number of other important books.  At the age of twenty-one, to the

sound of the music and chanting of his devotees, he assumed his yogic posture

in a small niche dug out of the earth which was then bricked up after him.  A

short life, but a merry one!

   On November 25th expect to talk turkey with our substitute Dean, Sorter

Mestyrious.



                       Fox, Lion, Mouse, Ass, Dog, Hare



   Crowley wound up his "Section Two" reading list with some general

suggestions for the study of mythology and folklore, and though he omitted

specific mention of the ubiquitous minor genre of the "beast fable," our

reading group will devote an evening this month to these traditional animal

stories.  Meet in the lodge library on Monday 16th November at 8:00 with

Caitlin for a discussion, with examples -- bring your favorites; there can

hardly be any person in the world who hasn't encountered beast fables somehow

or other -- of the magical interface between human tale-telling and bestial

characterizations.

   We will likely begin with the Greek fables of Aesop, which are not the work

of any individual author, but an early compilation, widely used and updated

for centuries under the name of Aesop.  The tradition continued through the

earliest days of book-printing, and still survives, without ever having

achieved a canonical organization or a "complete" edition.  In the original

Greek collections many brief tales and sayings were included, most of which

involve animal -- and sometimes even vegetable -- characterizations.  These

"fables" were originally called logoi, (perhaps best translated not as "words"

but as "lines," or units of meaning), and many of them are quite brief; some

are simply "one-liners," remembered from one speech and noted down for reuse

in another.  Apparently, over the course of a speaking career, a clerical

slave named Aesop began the collection of exemplary anecdotes and illustrative

tales.

   Aesopus, according to ancient accounts, was a Greek slave in Samos during

the middle of the sixth century before the common era, and the probable date

of his death was 564.  Thus he was a contemporary of Sappho, but unlike her

intricately patterned lyrics, which could be imitated or altered only with the

greatest care and difficulty, his prose fables were continually recycled over

many generations in the discourse of Greek orators in law courts and political

councils throughout the Hellenic civilization.<>



                  Discussion of Hebrew Influences in Magick



   Bill Heidrick will review Hebrew contributions over the course of the

development of Western Magick in a presentation at 5 Suffield Ave. in San

Anselmo.  The class meets at 7:30 in the evening, on Wednesday 18th November.

   A review of Near Eastern ancient approaches, early apocalyptic literature

and other relics will begin the presentation.  From there we will progress

through the end of the Middle Ages fairly quickly, spending the balance of the

evening on emergence of Qabalah and the impact of its modern variations upon

ritual and ritual tools.



                             Sirius Afternoon Tea



   Members of Sirius Oasis in Berkeley offer an afternoon tea at 4:18 on the

final Sunday of the month, 25th November.  This is a change from the evening

meetings, and with the dark of the year the open gatherings switch to daylight

hours to liven the group up.  Real tea and cookies and an afternoon snack

worth coming to are in the works for the first time around, and all are

invited to join with Sirius Oasis in initiation plans and other forthcoming

events.  To get Sirius for directions and information, call (510) 527-2855.

   This past Rites cycle was one of our best in many years, with a dramatic

authority, an ease of magical focus, an aptness of musical competence -- and a

level of fun -- that seemed wonderfully to fulfill the mysteries of Eleusis.

Our great thanks go to Sirius Oasis for the enchanted back yard temple in

which six of these rituals were held, with the trees spread high overhead

against the night (and the giant bath bubbling underneath the stage).  Apart

from one accidental "walking on water" incident, it was a remarkably smooth

and strongly directed series of rituals, where the audience was offered a

unified presentation over ten weeks of a magical working reenacted by a

repertory band of magi at play.  Thanks also to Grace at the Temple of

Astrology in Berkeley for entertaining us in such stately style for the stings

of Saturn, and setting the cycle in motion so well.  The Rites were an

enormous group effort this year, but no one did more than our brother Mars-as-

Odin, with his traveler's hat, his stage expertise, his sound advice, and

generosity; to him the lodge commends a special recognition.



*************************************************************************



                               Crowley Classics



   This satirical account of a journey to Japan was included in Crowley's

magical miscellany volume "Konx Om Pax: Essays in Light" (London & Felling-on-

Tyne: Walter Scott Publ., 1907), 55-67.  We offer it in two parts, beginning

here and concluded in these pages next month.



                                  Thien Tao

                                      or

                            The Synagogue of Satan



                             by Aleister Crowley



               My object all sublime

               I shall achieve in time --

               To make the punishment fit the crime --

               The punishment fit the crime!

                                  W. S. Gilbert



                                      I.

                            "The Decay of Manners"



   Since nobody can have the presumption to doubt the demonstration of St

Thomas Aquinas that this world is the best of all possible worlds, it follows

that the imperfect condition of things which I am about to describe can only

obtain in some other universe; probably the whole affair is but the figment of

my diseased imagination.  Yet if this be so, how can we reconcile disease with

perfection?

   Clearly there is something wrong here; the apparent syllogism turns out on

examination to be an enthymeme with a suppressed and impossible Major.  There

is no progression on these lines, and what I foolishly mistook for a nice easy

way to glide into my story proves but the blindest of blind alleys.

   We must begin therefore by the simple and austere process of beginning.

   The condition of Japan was at this time (what time?  Here we are in trouble

with the historian at once.  But let me say that I will have no interference

with my story on the part of all these dull sensible people.  I am going

straight on, and if the reviews are unfavourable, one has always the resource

of suicide) dangerously unstable.  The warrior aristocracy of the Upper House

has been so diluted with successful cheesmongers that adulteration had become

a virtue as highly profitable as adultery.  In the Lower House brains were

still esteemed, but thy had been interpreted as the knack of passive

examinations.

   The recent extension of the franchise to women had rendered the Yoshiwara

the most formidable of the political organizations, while the physique of the

nation had been seriously impaired by the results of a law which, by assuring

them in case of injury or illness of a lifelong competence in idleness which

they could never have obtained otherwise by the most laborious toil,

encouraged all workers to be utterly careless of their health.  The training

of servants indeed at this time consisted solely of careful practical

instructions in the art of falling down stairs; and the richest man in the

country was an ex-butler who, by breaking his leg on no less than thirty-eight

occasions, had acquired a pension which put that of a field-marshal altogether

into the shade.

   As yet, however, the country was not irretrievably doomed.  A system of

intrigue and blackmail, elaborated by the governing classes to the highest

degree of efficiency, acted as a powerful counterpoise.  In theory all were

equal; in practice the permanent officials, the real rulers of the country,

were a distinguished and trustworthy body of men.  Their interest was to

govern well, for any civil or foreign disturbance would undoubtedly have

fanned the sparks of discontent into the roaring flame of revolution.

   And discontent there was.  The unsuccessful cheesemongers were very bitter

against the Upper House; and those who had failed in examinations wrote

appalling diatribes against the folly of the educational system.

   The trouble was that they were right; the government was well enough in

fact, but in theory had hardly a leg to stand on.  In view of the growing

clamour, the official classes were perturbed; for many of their number were

intelligent enough to see that a thoroughly irrational system, however well it

may work in practice, cannot for ever be maintained against the attacks of

those who, though they may be secretly stigmatized as doctrinaires, can bring

forward unanswerable arguments.  The people had power, but not reason; so were

amenable to the fallacies which they mistook for reason and not to the power

which they would have imagined to be tyranny.  An intelligent "plebs" is

docile; an educated "canaille" expects everything to be logical.  The shallow

sophisms of the socialist were intelligible; they could not be refuted by the

profounder and therefore unintelligible propositions of the Tory.

   The mob could understand the superficial resemblance of babies; they could

not be got to understand that the circumstances of education and environment

made but a small portion of the equipment of a conscious being.  The brutal

and truthful "You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear" had been

forgotten for the smooth and plausible fallacies of such writers as Ki Ra Di.

   So serious had the situation become, indeed, that the governing classes had

abandoned all dogmas of Divine Right and the like as untenable.  The theory of

heredity had broken down, and the ennoblement of the cheesemongers made it not

only false, but ridiculous.

   We consequently find them engaged in the fatuous task of defending the

anomalies which disgusted the nation by a campaign of glaring and venal

sophistries.  These deceived nobody, and only inspired the contempt, which

might have been harmless, with a hate which threatened to engulph the

community in an abyss of the most formidable convulsions.

   Such was the razor-edge upon which the unsteady feet of the republic strode

when, a few years before the date of my visit, the philosopher Kwaw landed at

Nagasaki after an exhilarating swim from the mainland.





                                     II.

                               "Standing Alone"



   Kwaw, when he crossed the Yellow Sea, was of the full age of thirty-two

years.  The twenty previous equinoxes had passed over his head as he wandered,

sole human tenant, among the colossal yet ignoble ruins of Wei Hai Wei.  His

only companions were the lion and the lizard, who frequented the crumbling

remains of the officers' quarters; while in the little cemetery the hoofs of

the wild ass beat (uselessly, if he wished to wake them) upon the tombs of the

sportsmen that once thronged those desolate halls.

   During this time Kwaw devoted his entire attention to the pursuit of

philosophy; for the vast quantities of excellent stores abandoned by the

British left him no anxiety upon the score of hunger.

   In the first year he disciplined and conquered his body and its emotions.

   In the next six years he disciplined and conquered his mind and its

thoughts.

   In the next two years he had reduced the Universe to the Yang and the Yin

and their permutations in the trigrams of the Fo-hi and the hexagrams of King

Wu.

   In the last year he had abolished the Yang and the Yin, and became united

with the great Tao.

   All this was very satisfactory to Kwaw.  But even his iron frame had become

somewhat impaired by the unvarying diet of tinned provisions; and it was

perhaps only by virtue of this talisman





      N  A  H  A  R  I  A  M  A

      A        Q

      H                    E

      A     Q

      R

      I                    Q

      M                    Q  A

      A





that he succeeded in his famous attempt to outdo the feats of Captain Webb.

Nor was his reception less than a triumph.  So athletic a nation as the

Japanese still were could not but honour so superb an achievement, though it

cost them dear, inasmuch as the Navy League (by an astute series of political

moves) compelled the party in power to treble the Navy, build a continuous

line of forts around the sea-coast, and expend many billions of yen upon the

scientific breeding of a more voracious species of shark than had hitherto

infested their shores.

   So they carried Kwaw shoulder-high to the Yoshiwara, and passed him the

glad hand, and called out the Indians, and annexed his personal property for

relics, and otherwise followed the customs of the best New York Society, while

the German Band accompanied the famous Ka Ru So to the following delightful

ballad:



   CHORUS             Blow the tom-tom, bang the flute!

                           Let us all be merry!

                      I'm a party with acute

                           Chronic beri-beri.



                                    I.

                      Monday I'm a skinny critter

                             Quite Felicien-Rops-y.

                      Blow the cymbal, bang the zither!

                             Tuesday I have dropsy.

                                                                     "Chorus."

                                     II.

                       Wednesday cardiac symptoms come;

                             Thursday diabetic.

                       Blow the fiddle, strum the drum!

                             Friday I'm paretic.

                                                                     "Chorus."



                                    III.

                       If on Saturday my foes

                             Join in legions serried,

                       Then, on Sunday, I suppose,

                             I'll be beri-beried!

                                                                     "Chorus."



   One need not be intimately familiar with the Japanese character to

understand that Kwaw and his feat were forgotten in a very few days; but a

wealthy Daimio, with a taste for observation, took it into his head to inquire

of Kwaw for what purpose he had entered the country in so strange a manner.

It will simplify matters if I reproduce "in extenso" the correspondence, which

was carried on by telegram.

   (1)  Who is your honourable self, and why has your excellency paid us

cattle the distinguished compliment of a visit?

   (2)  This disgusting worm is great Tao.  I humbly beg of your sublime

radiance to trample his slave.

   (3)  Regret great toe unintelligible.

   (4)  Great Tao -- T. A. O. -- Tao.

   (5)  What is the great Tao?

   (6)  The result of subtracting the universe from itself.

   (7)  Good, but this decaying dog cannot grant your honourable excellency's

sublime desire, but, on the contrary, would earnestly pray your brilliant

serenity to spit upon his grovelling "joro."

   (8)  Profound thought assures your beetle-headed suppliant that your

glorious nobility must meet him before the controversy can be decided.

   (9)  True.  Would your sublimity condescend to defile himself by entering

this muck-sweeper's miserable hovel?

   (10)  Expect leprous dragon with beri beir at your high mightiness's

magnificent heavenly palace tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon at three sharp.

   Thus met Kwaw, the poet-philosopher of China; and Juju, the godfather of

his country.

   Sublime moment in eternity!  To the names of Joshua and Hezekiah add that

of Kwaw!  For though he was a quarter of an hour late for the appointment, the

hands went back on the dial of Juju's chronometer, so that no shadow of

distust or annoyance clouded the rapture of that supreme event.



                          to be concluded next month



*************************************************************************



                           from the Grady Project:



                                  Test Tubes



    Joe Jugg, he was a chemist, -- sure of Truth he was a seeker;

    Solutions of all kinds he mixed within his little beaker.

    But once he judged his pH wrong, and when it cleared (the pall),

    This was his plaintive comment as they scraped him off the wall:

    "When mixing NO3," he said, "that is, if you ever should"

    Note: Filter it through paper that is really made of wood;

    For cotton, it has properties, you know this, I assume,

    If these two mix with glycerol, 'tis likely to go 'Boom'."

    Now that is what has happened here -- would I'd listened to the teacher!

    What little there is left of me must perforce meet the preacher."



                        ---- Grady L. McMurtry

                                   (undated)



*************************************************************************



                           David Nicholls: In Peace



   Our brother James David Nicholls celebrated his Greater Feast last month,

departing from this life on 18th October at about twenty minutes before

midnight.  A second degree O.T.O. initiate under the magical name of Frater

Triskaideka, he came to the O.T.O. early in 1994 e.v. as a deacon in the Old

Catholic Church, and his occult studies retained a characteristic element of

Christian mysticism even as he whole-heartedly blazed his unique path as a

devoted Thelemite.  Though physical frailty limited his activities, his love

of the Gnostic Mass kept him coming back quite often to the lodge from the

home he shared with his elder brother's family in Fairfax.  He was

particularly pleased by the understanding which he developed within the

E.G.C., and on the few occasions when he was able to serve us as priest or

deacon in Horus Temple he made a contribution to our sacramental community

which was true and strong and unlike that of any other member.

   Born on 3rd December 1952 e.v. in Charlotte, NC, David suffered from a very

serious congenital heart condition which made horrific medical intervention

necessary on several occasions, beginning in early childhood.  The prospect of

further surgery was never distant on his horizon, but he had learned long

since to live in its shadow.  It was considered a wonder by his doctors that

he even reached his 'teens, and he was always fearlessly aware that his body

held very uncertainly to life on earth.  His heart has at last given out,

after a very brief final hospitalization, and by his own donation his body has

been given for scientific purposes to the UCSF Medical School, where he was

participating in a long-term heart study.

   We shall miss his self-assurance in discussion, his humor and enthusiasm,

his devotion to the many friends he was always making (and often bringing

along to mass at the lodge), and his tolerance of an even wider range of

religious awareness than is common among Gnostics.  With his Christian

ordination he accepted a challenge "to learn as much as possible about all

religions," and in this endeavor he knew no bounds.  The bishop who ordained

him in 1974 e.v. and followed his progress for twenty years wrote a letter

recommending David which included this statement: "We regret that sometimes

his viewpoints appear to lean toward the occult.  However, our policy of

responsible tolerance compels us to respect his personal opinions though they

may differ from ours and others."  Hearing him at Thelema Lodge frequently

bring into our discussions his personal devotion to "Jesus the Magician," we

sometimes felt the same way, even as we began to share some of his own

fascinations.  In first requesting initiation here, David made it his object

"to continue to discover my true will for this life and to aid in completion

of the great work."  This proved indeed to be his most deep and abiding

commitment, and at his parting we rejoice in the memories of what he gave to

us along the way.



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                               Primary Sources



Jane's Books:

   It was the practice in the late 1940's and '50's e.v. for Agape Lodge

members to provide Karl Germer with lists of books in their personal

libraries.  This was partly for sharing or loaning books between members of

OTO and partly to track books loaned by OTO to the members.  Here is such a

list compiled by Jane Wolfe toward the end of her life.  By then Jane had

simplified her life to an extent, as one does in later years on a limited

income.  That in itself lends special interest to this list, since these books

form the residue of a lifetime of study and collecting.  If we could only sift

out the "keepers" from the "leftovers", we might have an updated reading list

for Thelemites.  As it is, this list provides a rare insight into the mind of

one of Crowley's closest students from Cefalu and the 1920's e.v.



Jane Wolfe Library as of May, 1949

   Crowley:

   Equinox 1-10 plus Blue Equinox

   Little Essays Toward Truth

   Heart of the Master

   Book of Lies

   Collected Works

   Eight Lectures on Yoga (London binding)

   Eight Lectures on Yoga (Hollywood binding)

   Equinox of the Gods (London binding)

   Liber Al, in white paper (London binding)

   Magick -- in one vol.

   Book of Thoth (Therion presentation)

   Olla, de luxe (Crowley presentation)

   Olla

   Fun of the Fair      (Crowley presentation)

   City of God (Crowley presentation)

   Mortadello

   Moonchild

   Book 4, Part I

   Book 4, Part II

   777

   Winged Beetle

   Diary of a Drug Fiend

   Liber LXV, white in gold binding

   Liber VII, white in gold binding

   Liber AL, et al, white in gold binding

   Liber Al, et al, unbound, given by 666 for use on G?M.R. Cefalu



   Typescript Liber Aleph

   Typescript Commentary

   Typescript Tao Teh King

   Typescript Atlantis



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



   Sacred Magick of Abramelin

   Goetia -- Chicago ed.

   The Ritual of Higher Magic, Furze Morrish

   Secret of the Golden Flower, Wilhelm and Jung

   Garden of Pomegranates, Regardie

   Candle of Vision, "A.E." (Russell)

   Song and Its Fountains, "A.E" (Russell)

   Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, Steiner

   Laotzu's Tao and Wu Wei, Dwight Goddard, et al.

   Light on the Path, Mabel Collins

   Light on the Path & Illuminated Way, Mabel Collins

   The Sun moves Northward, Mabel Collins

   The Prophet, Kahil Gibran

   A Dweller on Two Planes

   The Tarot, Paul Case

   Decline of the West

   Pain, Sex and Time, Gerald Heard

   Modern Woman, the Lost Sex, Lundberg & Farnham

   Integration of the Personality, Jung

   Psychology of Jung, Jacobi

   Psychic Energy, Its Source, etc., Esther Hartman

   New Visions for New Men, Dane Rudhyar

   The Astrology of Personality, Dane Rudhyar

   Man and the Supernatural, E. Underhill

   The Guru, Manly P. Hall

   Bhagavad Gita, M... C...

   Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, Max Hindal

   In Search of the Miraculous, P.D. Ospensky

   Existentialism, Sartre

   The Meeting of East and West, Northrop

   Journal of Delacroix

   Art, History of, van Loon.

   Wind, Sand and Storm, Exupery

   Fontainhead, Ayn Rand

   Trelaney, Armstrong

   Ape and Essence, Aldous Huxley

   Yogi and the Commissar, Koestler

   Darkness at Noon, Koestler

   Reflection in a Mirror, Charles Morgan

   Last Poems, Anna Hempstead Branch

   Forth Beast!, Louis Marlow

   Autobiography, Frank Lloyd Wright

   Cycles, Edw. Dewey & Edw. Dakin

   Progressive Relaxation

   Syblis, Leda, & New Pleasure, Pierre Louys

   70 Chinese Poems

   Both Sides of the Jordan, Nora R. H.

   Life Everlasting, Corelli

   Roget's Thesauris

   Webster Dictionary, unab. 1925



   {Loaned from} OTO by Mary Green:

   Marcel Poust, complete works

   Middle Pillar, Regardie

   The Song of Sano Tarot, Fullwood

   Crystal Vision through Crystal Gazing, Jones

   The Moon and its Nodes.



   {Loaned from} OTO by Karl {Germer}

   Diary of a Drug Fiend

   Book of Lies

   Book 4, Part I

   Stratagem



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                          An Introduction to Qabalah



                  Part XLIII -- Problems at Keter and Da'at



         Derived from a lecture series in 1977 e.v. by Bill Heidrick

                         Copyright (c) Bill Heidrick



   At times there is a certain kind of bewilderment, as through a veil has

been drawn between sections of the mind.  A familiar thing may suddenly stop

making sense.  Life seems to stall and there's nothing to do but stop in

confusion.  Often this signals a flaw in attainment of Keter, a sudden loss of

the sense of continuity or unity.  This state usually can be traced to a

problem below, on the middle pillar.  Tipheret, Yesod and Malkut are the first

places to look for the cause.  In Tipheret, the flaw may be a mistake in role,

for yourself or for someone as you perceive that other person.  It may be a

situation where the rules are different from those imagined, not unlike

finding yourself in a place where an unfamiliar language is spoken or where

the talk is about people you don't know.  In Yesod, this break is more subtle,

often a half perceived thing of feelings, but it may be as sudden as walking

into the wrong house by mistake -- everything is turned around, wrong colors

and no familiarity at all to the furnishings.  If originating in Malkut, this

Keter-break will usually be some crude failure of fit, like trying to use a

metric wrench on an English bolt.  It may also take other forms of loss of

grip, either from weakness of the body or some other slippage.  In all cases,

these states of disjuncture, whether originating in Tipheret, Yesod or Malkut,

produce a fragmentation of the sense of unity, a break into loneliness of mind

without the solace of peace.  The solution is found through identifying the

place below Keter where this is caused and making adjustments there.  In

Yesod, such an effort can be difficult.  Tipheret takes care of itself in this

way through time, while Malkut usually just requires a small change of method.

Yesod evokes fears and alienation more often, and the best approach there is a

change of scene or a period of rest.

   Beware of logic in trying to solve problems of the Middle Pillar.  There is

a tendency to think that once you've got it in your head, the matter is in

control.  That's not the case.  On the middle pillar, more than either the

right or the left, all difficulties must be addressed in Malkut ultimately.

Nothing is balanced until the substrate is well attended.



   Da'at has a different sort of linkage with other Sephirot of the Tree than

does Keter.  Rather than shatter in confusion, the world may suddenly make too

much sense.  Da'at mimics the unity of Keter.  Obsession is the symptom of

this, whereby everything perceived seems to be revealed in "true" relation.

The nature of the relation discloses the problem below on the Tree.  Paranoia

suggests the Column of Severity, with Geburah for mental conspiracies and Hod

for material traps.  Blissful delusion is more toward the Mercy side, with

misplaced assumption of safety in Chesed or of romantic love in Netzach.

Da'at and Tipheret joint problems tend to deal with place, either to high or

too low in esteem.  Malkut may occasion anger at failure, with the world

seeming to be filled with rot and decay.  Yesod tends to generate harsh

problems when seen in Da'at, literal madness and fugue much like that with

Yesod-Keter problems.  The difference is that with Da'at this derangement is

deeper and more a matter of chaos than of unpleasant detachment.



   A fault discovered through Keter has the character of loss of touch.  One

discovered through Da'at, the counterfeit of Keter, has nothing to give it

contrast.  Da'at can evoke hopelessness and even a sense of doom.  Keter

simply expels by denying the presence of union below.  Neither is serious,

unless taken seriously.  These problems are only warnings; the gears that are

grinding out of alignment are below.



   One other thing, before we move on: All these difficulties in the Sephirot

have important beneficial aspects in certain meditations and practices.  That

is advanced work, and will be touched on in various places along the way as we

progress through future installments in this series on Qabalah.



                     Next: Moving on to different things.



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                              From the Outbasket



  Edited topics discussed in email:



J. S. raised some points that led to the following observations.



   People often think of "The OTO Secret" as something pertaining to a

particular degree, but there are many OTO secrets.  In my opinion, the

greatest secret of the OTO is the same as that of Freemasonry; not one that is

concealed under oath, just impossibility of clear verbal expression.  It's

about the nature of the relationship of an individual to others, as perceived

and felt by each.  Often this is simply expressed as the brotherhood and

sisterhood of human kind.  It can only be learned in company, and, for a

particular variation like that found in OTO, only through Camp, Oasis or

Lodge.  As for the others, they fall into three types: secrets of form,

comprising word, grip, sign and text of the degrees; secrets of privacy of the

members; secrets by nature.  The latter are also key mysteries of the degrees

themselves, only discoverable in essence by direct experience and not fully

describable by words.



   Regarding apparent sexual bias in the terms used by OTO, either stressing

the male or the female in certain ways, some of this is a part of particular

settings or rituals where roles are used or explored.  Otherwise the question

of common usage in the language arises.  Perhaps we have to bear the debt of

the centuries for a time.  Consider word origins:

   Pagan -- the closest term to this word as used originally by Numa is the

word "parish" -- being a governmental church centered region still used as

such in the Roman Catholic church.  Next nearest is the term "county".

   Ovation -- although it now signifies a form of cheering or applause for

something, particularly a performance, it originally meant the sacrifice of a

sheep to honor a Roman general.  If 5,000 or more enemy were killed during the

war, the republic honored with a Triumph.  If less, but still a laudable

victory, an Ovation.  They sacrificed bovines and had a parade with a Triumph

(the word even getting into Tarot for the "Trumps" from the floats in later

parades to commemorate religious figures and biblical events).  With an

Ovation, there was a quiet ceremony and usually one sheep.

   Now the pagans of old time, the Christians, are calling everybody else

Pagans.  Still, I rather fancy the novelty effect of throwing a bleed'n sheep

on stage to thank an actor, along the lines of Monty Python.  It's not an

altogether ancient practice.  Although flowers to the dressing room are now

more common, people use to heave chickens and good food on the stage a century

or so ago in small communities, rotten food if they disliked the performance.

   The point is that some things need to change slowly, lest we loose too much

with a procrustean cut to make what we have fit our ideals.  Creation of non-

gender linked words has a long way to go before acceptance.  It seems best to

continue as we have, letting the meanings of the words adapt over time.  This

happens as that Greater Secret spreads its way among us.  Besides, Universal

Brotherhood, inclusive without regard to gender, sounds better than "Universal

Hood".



S. asked about OTO policy regarding disabled people, regardless of whether the

disability is genetic or acquired, moderate or severe.



   As far as OTO is concerned, so long as the candidate is mentally competent

to take and understand an oath at the time, of age, good report and not

suffering from a physical condition that would make all practical adjustments

to compensate the ritual to make it safe enough and still work, there is no

bar.  Sometimes it's necessary to specially schedule such an initiation or to

hold it where facilities are better for the needs of the candidate.  Being

drunken or drug intoxicated is a bar at the time.  We have initiated the blind

and the deaf.  Infectious diseases require sanitation but can be accommodated

if they are chronic conditions -- otherwise wait for remission.  Severe

conditions of health that would greatly enhance danger to the candidate may be

a bar if some compensation in the arrangements cannot be figured out, but we

have initiated individuals in poor health in their 80's.  The later stages of

pregnancy are not advisable for certain initiations, but time solves that

issue.  A terminal illness prompts extreme effort to accommodate the candidate

by adjustment of the ritual details.



C. remarked that he was brought up with the notion that it was impossible to

know his real name or identity.



   Except for some who are "bound to the soil", like old time peasants, nobody

knows into adolescence who they are.  Names grow in meaning too, since just

having the sounds of one's given name does not show the origin.  Real

knowledge of who one is amounts to the first attainment in the Great Work.

This is an inner thing.  Being adopted without knowledge of birth parents

makes this seem a special problem.  It isn't.  Nearly everyone has to go

through this, and the birth name is only a slight part of it.  Discovery of

self is possible.



C.G. asked about the origin of the correspondences of the body to the Hebrew

letters, such as the left ear to one letter, lungs to another etc.  He also

asked about the correspondences in general.



   Those correspondences first appear in the "Sepher Yetzirah", some of them

possibly of 3rd century e.v. origin.  The planetary attributions are different

in different versions of the manuscripts, but the zodiacal and elemental

attributions are consistent across the different MSS.  The associations to

body parts are more consistent in the different manuscripts than those to the

planets, but some variation is also present.  The key word associations vary

significantly in the manuscripts.  Double letters all have opposite key words

attributed.  The several systems are apparently a relic of a pre-"Sepher

Yetzirah" tradition, not perfectly understood.  There are parallel systems,

not the same, in the "Zohar" for the body associations.



                    ----  TSG  (Bill Heidrick)



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  November 1998 e.v. Thelema Lodge Calendar



  Mailed free within 100 miles of San Francisco California



                                                Ordo Templi Orientis

                                                P.O. Box 2303

                                                Berkeley, CA  94702  USA



  Production Editor and Circulation:

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