THE BOOK of LIES Aliester Crowley
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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. -
Rosaleen Norton's Contribution to The
ROSALEEN NORTON’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE WESTERN ESOTERIC TRADITION NEVILLE STUART DRURY M.A. (Hons) Macquarie University; B.A. University of Sydney; Dip. Ed. Sydney Teachers College Submission for Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Humanities and Social Science University of Newcastle NSW, Australia Date of submission: September 2008 STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This work contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text. I give consent to this copy of my thesis, when deposited in the University Library, being made available for loan and photocopying subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. Signed: Date: Neville Stuart Drury ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that the work embodied in this Thesis is the result of original research, the greater part of which was completed subsequent to admission for the degree. Signed: Date: Neville Stuart Drury 2 CONTENTS Introduction 5 Chapter One: Rosaleen Norton – A Biographical Overview 16 Chapter Two: Sources of the Western Esoteric Tradition 61 Chapter Three: Aleister Crowley and the Magic of the Left-Hand Path 127 Chapter Four: Rosaleen Norton’s Magical Universe 214 Chapter Five: Rosaleen Norton’s Magical Practice 248 Chapter Six: Rosaleen Norton as a Magical Artist 310 Chapter Seven: Theories and Definitions of Magic 375 Chapter Eight: Rosaleen Norton’s Contribution to the Western Esoteric Tradition 402 Appendix A: Transcript of the interview between Rosaleen Norton and L.J. -
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. -
Thelemic Qabalah Volume II
Thelemic Qabalah Volume II Publication in Class C by Frater Apollonius 4°=7□ ATAT Preface The first volume of this set addressed the theoretical approach to qabalistic practice. The very study of qabalistic theory in itself is not only absorbing, but all by itself can lead to an exultant state of consciousness. And of course, qabalistic theory is so much more than was presented in this first volume. From a Thelemic perspective, we have covered this topic in a wider sense in works like: Scientific Illuminism The Starry Gnosis: An American Revelation Liber Loagaeth: Leaf 1A And though these tomes expand the theoretical corpus, they still barely hold a skeletal representation of the enormity of the Greater and Lesser Mysteries that together make the Holy Qabalah…the holy and antient study that still then, must lead us to the present volume; that of praxis. Again, the study itself, that should that be all one ever does with the Qabalah in this life, can provide its own exultation of the Soul; that even then, a more intimate connection with one’s own life on this planet is deepened to a wondrous and wholesome degree. But in praxis, the soul takes yet a stronger step towards the congealing (discussed in Congealing the Soul in Volume I) that is the perfection of the self. Praxis is both the practice and the approach to practice and it does not occur in a vacuum. Every master needs his or her apprentice…why? Because as we explained in the first volume, the energy of the creator flows to the individualized ends that we are and then must extend from us in imitation of the creative force…we are essentially, re-creative creatures. -
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. -
Liber Samekh
MAGICK IN THEORY AND PRACTICE [BOOK 4 (LIBER ABA) PART III] First published Paris: Lecram Press., 1930 Corrected edition included in Magick: Book 4 Parts I-IV, York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, 1994 This electronic edition prepared and issued by Celephaïs Press, somewhere beyond the Tanarian Hills, and manifested in the waking world in Leeds, Yorkshire, England July 2004. (c) Ordo Templi Orientis JAF Box 7666 New York NY 10116 U.S.A. MAGICK IN THEORY AND PRACTICE BY THE MASTER THERION (ALEISTER CROWLEY) BOOK 4 PART III Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Celephaïs Press Ulthar - Sarkomand - Inquanok – Leeds 2004 Hymn to Pan [v] ——— ἔφιξ᾿ἔρωτι περιαρχὴς δ᾿ ἀνεπιόµαν ἰὼ ἰὼ πὰν πὰν ὢ πὰν πὰν ἁ λιπλαγκτε, κυλλανίας χιονοκτύποι πετραίς ἀπὸ δειράδος φάνηθ᾿, ὦ θεῶν χοροπόι ἄναξ —SOPH. Aj. ——— THRILL with lissome lust of the light, O man! My man! Come careering out of the night Of Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan! Come over the sea From Sicily and from Arcady! Roaming as Bacchus, with fauns and pards And nymphs and satyrs for thy guards, On a milk-white ass, come over the sea To me, to me, Come with Apollo in bridal dress (Shepherdess and pythoness) Come with Artemis, silken shod, And wash thy white thigh, beautiful God, In the moon of the woods, on the marble mount, The dimpled dawn of the amber fount! Dip the purple of passionate prayer In the crimson shrine, the scarlet snare, The soul that startles in eyes of blue To watch thy wantonness weeping through [vi] — v — HYMN TO PAN The tangled grove, the gnarléd bole Of the living tree that is spirit and soul And body and brain - come over the sea, (Io Pan! Io Pan!) Devil or god, to me, to me, My man! my man! Come with trumpets sounding shrill Over the hill! Come with drums low muttering From the spring! Come with flute and come with pipe! Am I not ripe? I, who wait and writhe and wrestle With air that hath no boughs to nestle My body, weary of empty clasp, Strong as a lion and sharp as an asp - Come, O come! I am numb With the lonely lust of devildom. -
Liber Samekh Hé
LIBER SAMEKH HÉ BY PERSONA PVAD MUSARUS 1043 [Gerry Ahrens] of the Ordo Adeptorum Invisiblum (1981) TRANSCRIBED AND EDITED BY Don Karr (2008) Text © Gerry Ahrens 1981 Edition © Don Karr 2008. Email: [email protected]. All rights reserved. License to Copy: This publication is intended for personal use only. Paper copies may be made for personal use. With the above exception, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, without permission in writing from the author. Reviewers may quote brief passages. THE KNOWLEDGE AND CONVERSATION OF THE HOLY GUARDIAN ANGEL WHICH IS THE GREAT WORK OF MAGICK PRELIMINARY INVOCATIONS TOWARDS THE ACHIEVING OF MAGICKAL WILL KNOWN AS LIBER SAMEKH HÉ AND INCORPORATING THE FOUR KEYS OF THE BOOK OF TRANSFORMATIONS BY PERSONA PVAD MUSARUS 1043 [Gerry Ahrens] of the Ordo Adeptorum Invisiblum _____________________________________________________________________ Chicago STELLUM PRESS 1981 INTRODUCTION DO WHAT THOU WILT The preparation and practice of ritual magick is to concentrate the body’s energies and immediate environment in an intense focus directed towards the ritual’s purpose. Such focused energies can thus be effectively transmuted into pure Will, the achieving of which is magick. The invocations and instruments of the ritual are there to provide an objective reality; while the vibrations vibrated by the words of power are of a nature that creates a series of responses that set alight the magickal power in the Magician’s body and mind. To this end, the training and understanding of the magician is to enable the development of such a Will—as the Magickal Force—both within and outside, beyond and part of the Self. -
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. -
LIBER VIII. the Equinox
THE VISION AND THE VOICE from without by the earthquakes of his judgement. They have set their affections upon the earth, and they have stamped with their feet upon the earth, and cried: It moveth not. Therefore hath earth opened with strong motion, like the sea, and swallowed them. Yea, she hath opened her womb to them that lusted after her, and she hath closed herself upon them. There lie they in torment, until by her quaking the earth is shattered like brittle glass, and dissolved like salt in the waters of his mercy, so that they are cast upon the air to be blown about therein, like seeds that shall take root in the earth; yet turn they their affections upward to the sun. But thou, be thou eager and vigilant, performing punctually the rule. Is it not written, “ Change not so much as the style of a letter”? Depart therefore, for the Vision of the Voice of the ninth Aethyr that is called ZIP is passed. Then I threw back myself into my body by my will. Bou-SAADA. Dec. 7th, 1909. 9.30-11.1o pm. THE CRY OF THE 8TH AETHYR, WHICH IS CALLED ZID There appears in the stone a tiny spark of light. It grows a little, and seems almost to go out, and grows again, and it is blown about the Aethyr, and by the wind that blows it is it fanned, and now it gathers strength, and darts like a snake or a sword, and nowit steadies itself, and is like a Pyramid of light that filleth the whole Aethyr.