LIBER VIII. the Equinox
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The Changing Role of Leah Hirsig in Aleister Crowley's Thelema, 1919
Aries – Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism 21 (2021) 69–93 ARIES brill.com/arie Proximal Authority The Changing Role of Leah Hirsig in Aleister Crowley’s Thelema, 1919–1930 Manon Hedenborg White Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden [email protected] Abstract In 1920, the Swiss-American music teacher and occultist Leah Hirsig (1883–1975) was appointed ‘Scarlet Woman’ by the British occultist Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), founder of the religion Thelema. In this role, Hirsig was Crowley’s right-hand woman during a formative period in the Thelemic movement, but her position shifted when Crowley found a new Scarlet Woman in 1924. Hirsig’s importance in Thelema gradually declined, and she distanced herself from the movement in the late 1920s. The article analyses Hirsig’s changing status in Thelema 1919–1930, proposing the term proximal authority as an auxiliary category to MaxWeber’s tripartite typology.Proximal authority is defined as authority ascribed to or enacted by a person based on their real or per- ceived relational closeness to a leader. The article briefly draws on two parallel cases so as to demonstrate the broader applicability of the term in highlighting how relational closeness to a leadership figure can entail considerable yet precarious power. Keywords Aleister Crowley – Leah Hirsig – Max Weber – proximal authority – Thelema 1 Introduction During the reign of Queen Anne of Great Britain (1665–1714), Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (1660–1744), was the second most powerful woman in the kingdom. As the queen’s favourite, the Duchess overcame many restrictions hampering women of the time. -
Acknowledgments P. Xi Encountering the Scarlet Goddess P. 1 Western Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic P
Acknowledgments p. xi Encountering the Scarlet Goddess p. 1 Western Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic p. 6 Notes on Methodology p. 8 Technicalities and Demarcations p. 10 Outline of the Book p. 12 Divine Women, Femmes, and Whores: The Theorization of Multiple Femininities p. 17 Feminism and Sex: Passion, Prostitution, and Pleasure p. 18 Difference, Divinity, and Multiple Femininities p. 19 Fem(me)ininity and Vulnerable Subversion p. 23 "The Sex That Is Not One": The Concept of Plural Femininities p. 26 The Scarlet Goddess and the Wine of Her Fornications: Crowley, Babalon, and the Femmep. 35 Fatale 1898-1909 Good, Bad, and Scarlet: Femininities of the Fin-de-Siècle p. 36 Scripture and Scourging: The King James Bible and Pariah Femininities before Babalon p. 39 "Fresh Blossoms from the Heart of Hell": Jezebel and the Influence of Decadence p. 39 "The Work of Wickedness": The Scarlet Woman in Liber AL vel Legis (1904) p. 43 "Into Unguessed Abysses": Lola of the Infernal Bliss p. 46 "I Was Really Being Married": Pain and Erotic Submission in Crowley's Early Work p. 49 The Dancing God and the Pyramid Gateway: Babalon in The Vision and the Voice p. 51 Dancers, Bulls, and Amphoras: Babalon below the Abyss p. 52 Enter the Mother of Abominations: Babalon above the Abyss p. 55 The Daughter and the Blasphemy: Babalon beyond the City of the Pyramids p. 58 Enthroned in Eternity: Babalon in the 2nd Aethyr p. 63 Erotic Destruction and Pariah Femininities: Blood, Receptivity, and Reframed p. 65 Whoredom Yielding Peaches and Women with Whips: Babalon, Crowley, and Magical Systematizationp. -
The Complete System of Thelemic Magick
Thelemic Qabalah Volume I Publication in Class C by Frater Apollonius 4°=7□ ATAT Fable Once upon a time there was a Great Wild Beast whose mighty roar could be heard all over a sleepy kingdom. In this kingdom there were many lovely maidens. Each Maiden lived in a wonderful cottage by a lake or a stream or by the ocean or by an echoing valley. The Children of this kingdom knew no mother or father but rather sought sustenance and comfort in the house of one of the many Maidens. Each Maiden gathered about herself all of the beautiful Children that she came in contact with and taught them by the L.V.X. of Her Soul. Each Maiden could hear the roar of the Great Wild Beast and knew that with each roar, new Children would come seeking sustenance and shelter and knowledge. The maidens would leave on porch lights to guide the children to them for the Kingdom was enveloped in eternal darkness save in the presence of a Maiden. If a Child learned well, they became a Maiden and left the cottage, with a light of their own to build and light a cottage of their own. At intervals, a Great Wild Beast would be born and roar for a time. Each Great Wild Beast, nearing the time of His passing, would teach a Maiden how to roar like them and instruct them to pass the roar on until they heard another Great Wild Beast. One day, the Great Wild Beast died and his roar was not heard in the Kingdom for many a year. -
Babalon Rising: Jack Parsons’ Witchcraft Prophecy
Babalon Rising: JaCk parsons’ WitChCraFt propheCy Erik Davis In the forty yearS or so following the death of John Whiteside Parsons in 1952, his name—Jack Parsons from here on out—circulated principally among magic folk, critics of Scientology, and historians of modern rock- etry. In the new century, however, the tale of the SoCal rocket scientist- cum-sex magician has proven a hot commodity, told and retold in a series of articles, biographies, graphic novels, movie scripts, and reality tv shows that have transformed Parsons into one of the most storied figures in the history of American occulture. The superficial reasons are easy to see: with its charismatic blend of sex, sorcery, technology and death, Parsons’ story haunts a dark crossroads of the Southern California mindscape, scrawling a prophetic glyph in the wet pavement of postwar America. Indeed, his tale is so outrageous that if it did not exist, it would need—as they say—to be invented. But if it were invented—that is, if his life were presented as the fiction it in so many ways resembles—it would be hard to believe, even as a fiction. The narrative would seem overly contrived, at once too pulp and too poetic, too rich with allegorical synchronicity to stage the necessary suspension of disbelief. In this essay, I want to explore an unremarked aspect of Jack Parsons’ life and thought, what I will call his magickal feminism. In his 1946 text Free- 165 166 Erik Davis dom is a Two-Edged Sword, Parsons issued a call for women to take up the spiritual, sexual, and political sword—a cry for female autonomy that also eerily anticipated the militant witchcraft that would find historical expres- sion in California over twenty years later. -
THE EQUINOX No
THE EQUINOX No. IV. will contain in its 400 pages VARIOUS OFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS of the A\ A\ THE ELEMENTAL CALLS OR KEYS, WITH THE GREAT WATCH TOWERS OF THE UNI- VERSE and their explanation. A complete treatise, fully illustrated, upon the Spirits of the Elements, their names and offices, with the method of calling them forth and controlling them. With an account of the Heptarchicall Mystery. The Thirty Aethyrs or Aires with “The Vision and the Voice,” being the Cries of the Angels of the Aethyrs, a revalation of the highest truths pertaining to the grade of Magister Templi, and many other matters. Fully illustrated. THE CONTINUATION OF THE HERB DAN- GEROUS. Selection from H. G. Ludlow, “The Hashish- Eater.” MR. TODD: A Morality, by the author of “Rosa Mundi.” THE DAUGHTER OF THE HORSELEECH, by ETHEL RAMSAY. THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING. [Continuation. FRATER P.’S EXPERIENCES IN THE EAST. A complete account of the various kinds of Yoga. DIANA OF THE INLET. By KATHERINE S. PRITCHARD. Fully Illustrated. ACROSS THE GULF: An adept’s memory of his incarnation in Egypt under the 26th dynasty; with an account of the Passing of the Equinox of Isis. &c. &c. &c Crown 8vo, Scarlet Buckram, pp. 64. This Edition strictly limited to 500 Copies. PRICE 10s A\ A\ PUBLICATION IN CLASS B. ========== BOOK 777 HIS book contains in concise tabulated form a comparative view of all the symbols of the great Treligions of the world; the perfect attributions of the Taro, so long kept secret by the Rosicrucians, are now for the first time published; also the complete secret magical correspondences of the G\ D\ and R. -
The Black Lodge of Santa Cruz Bysatyr Tex Rii Bag Zaa Des VTI the Kaos-Babalon Press London Copyright © 2002 the Satyrikon All Rights Reserved
the black lodge of santa cruz bySatyr tex rii bag zaa des VTI The Kaos-Babalon Press London Copyright © 2002 The Satyrikon All rights reserved Citation: Satyr. “The Black Lodge of Santa Cruz.” In: Biroco, Joel (ed). KAOS 14: Supplement [pdf edition]. London: The Kaos-Babalon Press, 2002. I “Jacques de Molay was not roasted alive so we could put a Holy King on the throne.” Fr Spartacus In the spring of 1990, an ashlar was ripped from the foundation of the Caliphate Ordo Templi Orientis, heaved into the trunk of a Chevy Nova, taken by a steep and precipitous route to the California coast, and there for a time brought to rest. It was an ominous moment, the kind that though significant only to a handful, nonetheless spawned rumor, hearsay, and the balance of that from which myth and legend are born. One such rumor is that the person responsible—or persons responsible, as some might object—was a renegade “Wandering Bishop”, acting under the auspices of the Black Lodge of Santa Cruz, a clandestine initiatory body that had formed near the heart of the Caliphate and now threatened its very existence. Personally, I felt such speculation was mere fodder for foolish assumption, and am surprised to find it persists to this day. It is for this reason that I have found myself compelled to step forward, and present the truth of the matter as best I can. I can assure you that when I, the witness of these events, first came into contact with the Caliphate, becoming embroiled in an insane plot to break away from that celebrated body was the farthest thing from my intent. -
Sex and Rockets Sex and Rockets ©2004, 1999 by John Car Ter and Feral House
Sex and Rockets Sex And Rockets ©2004, 1999 by John Car ter and Feral House. All rights r eserved. ISBN 0-922915-97-0 Design by Linda Hayashi Cover design by Sean Tejaratchi 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Feral House 1240 W. Sims Way Suite 124 Port Townsend, WA 98368 www.feralhouse.com Sex and Rockets The Occult World of Jack Parsons John Carter Introduction by Robert Anton Wilson feral house Contents Introduction by Rober t Anton Wilson vii Preface xxv one The Early Years: 1914–1936 1 ockets two Parsons at Caltech: 1936–1939 15 three A Short History of the OTO sex and r 37 iv four Parsons’ Double Life: 1940–1942 47 five The Return to South Orange Gr ove Ave.: 1942–1945 83 six An Introduction to Enochian Magic 109 seven The Babalon Working, Part 1: Januar y–February 1946 119 eight The Babalon Working, Part 2: March 1946 135 nine Parsons’ Final Years: 1946–1952 155 ten Death and Beyond 177 Afterword 200 Photo Section 204 v Appendix A Primary Bibliography 227 contents Appendix B Secondary Bibliography 228 Appendix C Additional References 230 Index 234 vi sex and rockets A Marvel Walked Among Us by Robert Anton Wilson “I seem to be living in a nation that simply does not know what freedom is.” —John Whiteside Parsons 1 This book tells the life story of a very strange, very brilliant, very funny, very tormented man who had at least thr ee major occupations (or v ocations); he also had no less than four names. -
Winter, 2012 Ev Agapé Vol
THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE U.S. GRAND LODGE OF ORDO TEMPLI ORIENTIS VOLUME XII A IN k UMBER B IN g N 4 ANNO IV:XIX WINTER, 2012 EV AGAPÉ VOL. XII • No. 4 AGAPÉ VOL. XII • No. 4 PROCEEDINGS OF NOTOCON If who were unable to grab a copy at its NOTOCON launch in August, Unity Uttermost Showed! is now The Official Organ of the available from Amazon.com and CreateSpace.com. United States Grand Lodge of Ordo Templi Orientis UNITY UTTERMOST SHOWED! PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEVENTH BIENNIAL CONTENTS NATIONAL ORDO Proceedings of NOTOCON 2 TEMPLI ORIENTIS From the Grand Master: A Brief Examination of The Comment 3 CONFERENCE: Man of Earth Delegates 5 SEATTLE, From the Electoral College 6 WASHINGTON, The Altar, the Chalice, and the Wand 7 AUGUST 7-9, 2009 EV Speech in the Silence 11 Book Review 12 United States Grand Advanced Initiator Training 13 Lodge, O.T.O., Publication Announcements 14 2011 EV U.S. Grand Lodge Officers Directory 15 Unity Uttermost Showed! offers a selection of papers from the seventh biennial National Ordo Templi Orientis Conference (NOTOCON) of the United States Grand Executive Editor: Sabazius X° Lodge of O.T.O., held in the Valley of Seattle, Washing- Editor: Frater Julianus ton, in 2009 EV. The papers cover diverse topics includ- Editorial Assitant: Terry Murdock ing Enochian magick, sacrifice in Aztec mythology, the sacred geometry of an astral cathedral, producing ritual Proofreading: Heather Lantz, Joseph Thiebes theater, personal responsibility in Magick, promulgation Production & Distribution: Soror Marlene of the Law of Thelema, textual analysis of The Book of the Law, and more. -
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley: An Inventory of His Collection at the Harry Ransom Center Descriptive Summary Creator: Crowley, Aleister, 1875-1947 Title: Aleister Crowley Collection Dates: 1889-1989, Extent: 18 document boxes, 1 oversize box, 1 galley folder, 2 oversize folders, (7.5 linear feet) Abstract: Works, magical and poetic, comprise the majority of the Aleister Crowley Collection, which also includes prose, correspondence, and personal papers. Also present are materials relating to several occult groups with which Crowley was involved. Language English. Access Open for research Administrative Information Acquisition Purchases and gifts, 1960-2002 (R162, R312, R920, R1252, R2139, R2180, R2396, R2914, R3057, R3217, R3600, G759, G868, G2619) Processed by Chelsea S. Dinsmore, 2000 Repository: Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin Crowley, Aleister, 1875-1947 Biographical Sketch Aleister Crowley, 1875-1947, was born Edward Alexander to Edward and Emily Crowley in Leamington, Warwickshire. His father died when Aleister was eleven, and the boy and his mother went to live with relatives. Supported by a legacy left by his father, Crowley entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1895. Though he rarely attended lectures and left without taking a degree, his time at Cambridge was not wasted. He began a program of self-education which involved reading everything he could get his hands on, becoming extremely proficient at chess, and enjoying the social venue available to a wealthy young college man of the times. Crowley traveled a great deal during school holidays, taking trips to St. Petersburg, Holland, and Scandinavia. It was in Stockholm on New Year's Eve 1896 that he had his first mystical experience, which was to shape his pursuits for the rest of his life. -
Defending Paper Gods Aleister Crowley and the Reception of Daoism in Early Twentieth Century Esotericism Nilsson, Johan
Defending Paper Gods Aleister Crowley and the Reception of Daoism in Early Twentieth Century Esotericism Nilsson, Johan Published in: Correspondences 2013 Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Nilsson, J. (2013). Defending Paper Gods: Aleister Crowley and the Reception of Daoism in Early Twentieth Century Esotericism. Correspondences , 1.1, 103-127. Total number of authors: 1 Creative Commons License: CC BY-NC General rights Unless other specific re-use rights are stated the following general rights apply: Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Read more about Creative commons licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. LUND UNIVERSITY PO Box 117 221 00 Lund +46 46-222 00 00 Download date: 02. Oct. 2021 Correspondences 1.1 (2013) 103–127 ISSN 2053-7158 (Online) correspondencesjournal.com ! Defending Paper Gods Aleister Crowley and the Reception of Daoism in Early Twentieth Century Esotericism Johan Nilsson E-mail: [email protected] Abstract This article explores the representation of Daoism and Chinese religion in the writings of Aleister Crowley. -
THE BOOK of LIES Aliester Crowley
THE BOOK OF LIES Aliester Crowley THE BOOK OF LIES WHICH IS ALSO FALSELY CALLED BREAKS THE WANDERINGS OR FALSIFICATIONS OF THE ONE THOUGHT OF FRATER PERDURABO (Aleister Crowley) WHICH THOUGHT IS ITSELF UNTRUE A REPRINT with an additional commentary to each chapter. "Break, break, break At the foot of thy stones, O Sea! And I would that I could utter The thoughts that arise in me!" (OPPOSITE: Photo of FRATER PERDURABO on his ass.) COMMENTARY (Title Page) The number of the book is 333, as implying dis- persion, so as to correspond with the title, "Breaks" and "Lies". However, the "one thought is itself untrue", and therefore its falsifications are relatively true. This book therefore consists of statements as nearly true as is possible to human language. The verse from Tennyson is inserted partly because of the pun on the word "break"; partly because of the reference to the meaning of this title page, as explained above; partly because it is intensely amusing for Crowley to quote Tennyson. There is no joke or subtle meaning in the publisher's imprint. FOREWORD THE BOOK OF LIES, first published in London in 1913, Aleister Crowley's little master work, has long been out of print. Its re-issue with the author's own Commentary gives occasion for a few notes. We have so much material by Crowley himself about this book that we can do no better that quote some passages which we find scattered about in the un- published volumes of his "CONFESSIONS." He writes: "...None the less, I could point to some solid achievement on the large scale, although it is com- posed of more or less disconnected elements. -
Feminist Thelema
Feminist Thelema Brandy Williams Copyright 2007, 2016 Brandy Williams Publication Date July 7 2016 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. Feminist Thelema Brandy Williams Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 4 History of the discussion ............................................................................................................. 4 Terms of the discussion .......................................................................................................... 5 Feminism..................................................................................................................................... 5 Benefits of feminist inquiry .................................................................................................... 6 Women in Thelemic organizations ................................................................................................. 7 Women in O.T.O......................................................................................................................... 7 Background ............................................................................................................................. 7 Status of Women in O.T.O. ...................................................................................................