The Office of the Readings: Thelemic Liturgical Community Pathworkings

For the last 23 nights, Leaping Laughter Lodge has presented the annual "Office of the Readings." This series of rituals, led by Scott Michael Stenwick, kicks off with the Equinox Rite on March 19.

Each subsequent night, we participated in a ritual conjuration of the forces of each of the 22 paths of the Tree of Life. Check out Scott's blog post on the ritual he uses that he made back in 2008 on Augoeides. I think the ritual may have changed slightly over the years, but it's the basic formula we followed.

Beginning at Path 32, Tav, the Universe, we worked our way up the Path of the Serpent. The last three paths leading to Kether, Gimel, Beth, and Aleph align with the Feast of the Three Days of the Writing of the Book of the Law.

In a conversation on Facebook sparked by Michael Kolson, the subject of the value of the Office of the Readings came up in a post about the Zero Equals Two article on the Readings. Michael expressed his doubts about the value of the process, and asked if he was alone in thinking it was worthless.

In that conversation, I found myself saying this:

Going through an intentional experience of the 22 paths of the Tree of Life yearly becomes a shamanic quest for us as a group. It becomes an Ordeal, and it's cathartic in ways that are hard to put into words. Last year, we (my partner Harper and I) were dealing with cancer, this year we're dealing with something else, but this operation provides us with a framework to address and deal with things in a way that is beneficial that doesn't happen in any other way communally.

Frater IAO131 asked for more clarification:

To be clear, you are saying that reading segments of Holy Books "provides us with a framework to address and deal with things in a way that is beneficial that doesn't happen in any other way communally"? Can you expand more on how reading these book portions/chapters provides those things? I am very interested to hear.

And that's what started this blog post. 

Let's begin with a discussion of the basic framework of the ritual as a whole, and individually. Beginning on the night after the Equinox, Scott performs a ritual that does the following:

• Cleanses the ritual space
• Calls on the powers of creation and manifestation within the Thelemic system to attend, bear witness, and provide their influence in the execution of our statement of intent (my interpretation of his "operant field" theory)
• Uses a Call and Response formula with the congregants to focus our intents collectively, and to shape the ritual space so that it is conducive to the forces and intelligences we are seeking to conjure, in accord with the ideas of how Magick works as presented in Magick in Theory and Practice.
• Incorporates a hymn based on four stages of the Alchemical Work that progress as we progress.
• Conjures the forces represented by the Hebrew Letter, tarot Trump, and Astrological/Planetary/Elemental assignments in 777.
• Provides a timed period for the attendees to sit in contemplation and integration of these forces.
• Wraps up with a benediction that further anchors the forces within the magical sphere of the attendees.

So that's the framework. It is a daily group ritual conjuration, contemplation, and integration of the forces of each of the paths as we progress up the path of the Serpent on the Tree of Life.

If you look at the process of initiations we go through in the Man of Earth Triad, for example, you can see that it is a similar process. We are exposed to certain truths, influences, and mysteries, and we are then given an opportunity to integrate those forces before continuing on to the next logically progressive moment in the path from a Guest to a Master Magician. It takes years in the OTO.

In the A.'.A.'., the progression is from Student to Probationer to Neophyte, and so on. Each phase has tasks, assignments, and tests before the cumulative processes have prepared the individual for the next step. This process also takes years.

In the EGC, the progression is through the Sacraments, and a person can go from Baptism, to Confirmation, and on to the service officers of the Ordained Priesthood, and beyond. At each phase the person is exposed to forces, mysteries, and experiences that have to be integrated as they progress in the Church. And again, this process takes years.

In all of these processes of progressive initiations, the participants get to deal with the esoteric alchemical processes that crop up as they go along. The number of anecdotal stories I've heard related to the Ordeals of the MOE degrees are awesome. I've seen people nervous about taking their II*, not because of the actual initiation, but because of what they've seen their lodge mates go through over the next year. The A.'.A.'. Ordeals are consistent enough across the process from the times of Crowley that Dr. Shoemaker was able to produce a podcast and a chapter in his book Living Thelema about what can be expected at each phase.

But when you go through the Paths of the Tree from 32 to 11, you are taking yourself through an initiatory system that goes from the most material and mundane aspects of your existence to the absolute purest, rawest, first expression of the parts of existence.

You go center, then outside, then inside, then outside again, then inside, and then across.

Catch your breath.

Then it's Up one, Up two, up three.

Then back outside, and inside, and outside, and inside, and across.

Catch your breath.

Then it's outside, inside, outside, inside, and across again.

And then take a deep breath.

Because it's up Book 1, up Book 2, and up Book 3, and you've done it, you've gone up through the Tree along all the paths that connect the spheres that trace the manifestation from the purest to the most material. You've done it. You've taken apart the outer shells of things, seen what lied beneath, and how they are connected across from one another. You've ascended.

And you've breathed it all in.

So in real life, the process is a framework of initiation that has a start, and a stop, and clear path markers along the way. It's a controlled distillation of the members of the community that participate.

Harper was going through the process of being diagnosed with cancer the first time we participated in the Office of the Readings, and this community effort to work through things from the most mundane to the highest as a group helped us personally get through a lot of the pain and confusion we were dealing with in our relationship at the time. It gave us a perspective to put our experiences into. A framework to see spiritual things when we would otherwise have been focusing on some frightening truths.

This year there wasn't as much drama going on in our personal lives, but being in the crucible of the progressive pathworkings still managed to bring things that I thought I had dealt with years ago back up to the surface to address and overcome.

And the same was going on for everyone else, to varying degrees in the lodge. We went through it together, sometimes sharing the emotions, sometimes keeping them to ourselves. But we were all going through it, and we went through it together as a community. It strengthened the bonds that we share, and made paths and connections between us that don't form in any of the regular classes, masses, and events we come together to share the rest of the time.

The temple space becomes our Alembic. The rituals and the conjurations of the forces provide the heat. We who participate are the Primum Materia, and the progressive exposure to that sustained heat transforms us, purifies us, and creates a community amalgamation that leaves us stronger, purer, and more able to do what it is we are here to do.

And that doesn't happen often as a group at the local OTO community. Most Work is done alone, especially in the A.'.A.'., and the OTO and EGC initiations are at a much different level of intensity and personal transformation. Not less powerful, but more prolongued than 23 days, for sure. Having a few weeks out of the year that you know you're going to go through some immersion therapy that will draw things up to the surface to address as you climb the Coils of the Serpent is awesome.

So thanks much, Brother Stenwick (and Sorors Lalita and Maurine) for doing the rites, and thanks to all the members of the Lodge of Leaping Laughter for reading, and for the foods and wines and conversations, and above all else for showing up as a community to participate in this rite of renewal and celebration.

Super well done, sisters and brothers.

Advanced Initiation Training (AIT) May 7-8 2016 E.V.

As part of the ongoing quest to increase and improve the skill sets of our Master Magicians and Chartered Initiaties, the OTO provides Advanced Initiation Training. This program is designed to enhance the understanding of both the hands on practical aspects of the process of Initiation within the OTO, and the general understanding of the symbolism of the initiations we perform.

At Leaping Laughter Lodge, the resident Bishops regularly present Initiation Training. They set aside a whole day at the Lodge, and, beginning with the highest degree of local members, go through each of the degrees and discuss what each means. To attend the discussion, you must be initated into the degree being discussed (obviously). As each discussion concludes, the next degreed initiates can join in the next discussion. As the day progresses, we end up getting more and more people, until all the lodge members (who can make it) are present at the Minerval discussion.

It's a real blast.

But even setting aside a whole day for it leaves us with a set amount of time to discuss each degree. There are constraints, and the Bishops are as thorough as possible in these Initiation Training sessions, but there's only so much time to spend on each degree. We publish the schedule so people know when to show up, and if we go over on the II* discussion, there are I* folk hanging out in the lobby waiting to get in. 

We don't have time to get into all the gritty details.

Fortunately, the OTO put together the Advanced Initiation Training (AIT) program. Teams of specialists have put together presentations on the aspects of intiation that let us spend time immersing ourselves in the practice and symbolism of the OTO's initiatory journey.

The Lodge of Leaping Laughter in the Valley of Minneapolis is honored to present AIT on May 7-8, 2016 E.V. We'll have multiple Bishops on hand to provide different viewpoints and discussions, to exchange anecdotes of initiations gone great*, and initiations gone wrong*. We hope to have as many people present as possible, and we can't wait to see you.

There will be wine and roses.

Event details can be found on the links at the following site:

http://leapinglaughter.org/advanced-initiation-training-ait/

If you already know what AIT is all about and are a Chartered Initiate, or III* or higher and want to attend, you can go directly to the Registration link below:

http://ait.oto-usa.org/minneapolis-2016

[NOTE: All footnotes are speculation only, and probably won't actually be discussed:]

* Crowley appeared and gave him a crown. The crown stayed when Crowley went back to the City of the Pyramids. 

** What do you MEAN the goat has a headache? How can you even TELL?

BJ Swayne/Ararita 418 Discusses Solomonic Magic, "Witchblood," and Thelema for Millennials

I had a great conversation this evening with Ararita 418 (BJ Swayne) of William Blake Lodge. We talked about our history, and then started aiming for a conversation on the Heptameron and his recent work on de-hot-messifying the thing... and we sort of missed a lot.

Instead, we got to talking about what makes a magician or a witch a magician or a witch, and wandered on to the differences between Solomonic Magic and modern Ceremonial Magick, and what happens when you conjure a spirit from a Grimoire using Thelemic techniques.

Then we ended up having a fascinating conversation about how Millenials are basically already incorporating the Law into their lives, and how the A.'.A.'. and OTO might evolve to adapt to this particular change in things.

We didn't make it to the Heptameron stuff, but that's probably ok. We'll try again soon.

OTO: Cooler than Some People Think

One of the things my friends in the grimoire magic community make fun of me about for joining the A.'.A.'. and OTO is that neither the A.'.A.'. or OTO have made any kind of significant advancements in the realm of "Magic/k" since about 1899.

I get it, in some ways, but in most of the ones that are actually matter, this is so much crap, and no one knows because almost all the Thelemites are sharing amongst themselves, and not the community at large.

Which isn't totally cool, but also makes sense.

We feed the family first.

One of the things I expected when I joined the organizations was a rehash of watered down concepts that took the vibrant principles of Hermetics I'd found in "ACTUAL HERMETICS" and turned it into some kind of formulaic nominal system of philosophical wankery that talked more about psychological implications than actual spirits.

And sure, that happens, on occasion, but in interesting ways.

But honestly, guys, Hermetics never really died, and there are people working pretty hard on working through modern stuff that indicates stuff that people 1700 years ago couldn't imagine is being addressed in our magic/kal practices.

For example, refer to the stuff Blazing Star is putting forward:

See more stuff they're making available on their channel below:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrY0nUe4z6fLzlv3iRbiXpg

Progenitrix: Soror Meral, Mother of the Modern O.T.O.

by Sr. Harper Feist

At Leaping Laughter, we tried to have a women’s group. Last summer and fall, we met haltingly a couple of times, before we realized that many of us really didn’t have another day to be at the lodge. The reasons? Some of us needed to work, some needed time with their family. Others needed Sunday to shop, garden, pickle (really!) and clean. It turned out to be impossible to get very many of us together at one time.

The one meeting that most of us attended was at the Lodge Masters’ house. At that meeting, we proposed to each study about one woman that we each thought had potential to be named a Gnostic Saint, one with Thelemic leanings, and then later share that knowledge with the others. Names from several historical epochs arose: Ida Craddock, St. Theresa of Avila, Ann Bonny the pirate and Katherine the Great. Jane Wolfe and Phyllis Seckler were naturally also mentioned, our true Thelemic grandmothers.

Of all these women, Phyllis, Soror Meral, would have understood best the fate of our women’s group last year. To adapt a phrase, she was the hardest working woman (and quite simply one of the hardest working initiates) in Thelema. She was a member of the Sovereign Sanctuary of the Gnosis in the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), a mother, an artist, taught art in a high school and typed many Crowley manuscripts, preserving them for the future. She was a thoughtful student of the occult, a member of both in the A.’.A.’. and the O.T.O., and also very serious about her astrological studies. She founded the College of Thelema , and later warranted the formation of its continuation as the International College of Thelema and the Temple of the Silver Star. In addition, she was also the editor of In the Continuum, the College’s journal, for almost 25 years.

Amidst all this, arguably her most important contribution to the history of our order is that she helped re-birth the O.T.O, which was all but dead in 1969, all the while carrying on her teaching and training, and supporting Grady McMurtry. In the name of the missing women’s group, I’d like to acquaint you with her story.

Phyllis Seckler (neé Pratt) was born on June 18, 1917. Her family moved around a lot when she was young, from Alberta to British Columbia to Seattle and then to Southern California where she graduated from high school in Los Angeles (1935). Shortly after her graduation, she left home following a split with her mother and began to support herself. She also took night classes in drama, where she met Regina Kahl. Regina introduced Phyllis to the Gnostic Mass at Agape Lodge, where she was the presiding Priestess. Attracted primarily by the stimulating people that frequented Agape, she moved in and did housekeeping to help pay her rent.

Regina Kahl, Agape Lodge ca. 1939

These were busy years for Phyllis. She married Paul Seckler, whom she has also met during the drama classes in 1938. In 1939, she received her Minerval and I* initiations. In June 1940, she was admitted as a Probationer in the A.’.A.’. under Jane Wolfe, the only member of Agape lodge to have studied personally with Crowley. She was at that time also studying astrology with Fredrick Mellinger. When the lodge moved from LA to Pasadena, the Secklers were founding members, along with Mellinger, Wilfred Smith, Wolfe, Kahl, Joe and Grace Miller, Jack Parsons and Betty Northrup. It should be said that the Secklers were not always happy with the “inconsiderateness” of the household. The one statement that sources agree with about Agape Lodge is that it was a pretty wild place. At that time, it was also the only operating O.T.O lodge in the world.

Painfully, Phyllis was invited to leave the Agape house in 1942 because of the behavior of her eldest daughter, who was a reactive child, and prone to screaming fits. Later, the daughter, Stella, was diagnosed as partially deaf, explaining the disturbing nature of her childhood. Phyllis settled briefly into a cabin in Fallbrook, later into a small apartment in Los Angeles. In spite of her insensitive treatment at the hands of the Agape members, she remained, however, loyal to both the O.T.O. and A.’.A.’.continuing to study with Jane.

During the Agape years, Soror Meral helped keep Crowley in the loop with respect to the goings-on at Agape with letters and cartoons, primarily of the inhabitants of the house, something Crowley appreciated. She was not universally valued, though, as this excerpt from a letter to Jack Parsons from Crowley reveals. 19 October 1943 “… (5) I very strongly disapprove of your description of Phyllis Seckler as an indigent cook. I know nothing of her financial status, and have never been subjected to her cooking, but from my personal knowledge she is an admirable psychologist and an extremely clever artist. The information that she has supplied has been more illuminating than the total of what I have had from other sources…” [1] The very next day, Crowley wrote to Seckler herself, “You have all the courage and all the common sense necessary to pull you through. I will only remark that, whatever anyone else may say, you have in me a sincere friend and admirer: on me you may always rely, if ever you need me.” [2]

When Crowley died in 1947, Germer took over as head of the O.T.O. and A.’.A.’. As such, he received all of Crowley’s book and writings and literary effects under his title as the Grand Treasurer General of the O.T.O. He received 3 tons of materials from England that he kept at various addresses until his death in California. While he was still in NJ, Phyllis wrote to him with her concern that some of the unpublished works of Crowley would be lost unless some copies were made. She typed Liber 418, “The Vision and the Voice,” “Magick Without Tears” and a portion of Crowley’s confessions.

Germer was principally concerned with protecting Crowley’s literary heritage, and not on growing or administering to the Order. During his leadership, besides advancing those who were already in the order, there were no new initiations. [3]

In the mid-1950s, Agape Lodge finally failed. At this time, Seckler was still typing and editing Crowley’s work for Germer. She finished a Master’s degree in art at UCLA in 1955 and began work as an art teacher at a high school in Livermore. Germer confirmed in a letter written around this time Phyllis’ status as an Adeptus Minor (5°-6°) in the A:.A:..[4] She was also advanced to IX° of the O.T.O. by Germer, including instructions in the central mysteries of the Order.

At the same time, Grady McMurtry gathered some Agape folks in California with the goal of trying to convince Germer to resume initiations. There was agreement on this in the short term, but then the two men argued over issues related to a personal loan. Shortly after this in 1961, McMurtry lost his job in California and moved to Washington D.C., began teaching at George Washington University and worked as a management analyst for the U.S. government. [5]

Germer died in 1962 from prostate cancer, although this fact was kept from the community for years, in part because his wife Sasha did not trust the members of the O.T.O. During the time between Germer’s death and widespread recognition of it, Crowley’s magical implements and private notebooks were stolen from Sasha Germer’s house. In 1969, Seckler and McMurtry shared a series of letter where they planned to revitalize Thelemic activity in the US. Seckler’s initial plan was to start a Thelemic college, but then she discovered that McMurtry had been appointed by Crowley as Caliph after Germer’s death. Seckler then paid for McMurtry to go to California to support the reactivation of the O.T.O. It appears that Phyllis supported Grady financially throughout this period, until finally she asked him to find lodgings in Berkeley.

Figure 2 - Phyllis Seckler 

(Soror Meral)

in the early 2000s.

Seckler, McMurtry and Mildred Burlingame (of Agape Lodge) reinaugurated the O.T.O. in July 1969, with the first initiation being performed at a park near the Russian River. Phyllis’ concern that very few of these people went on to I* has been documented. She resolved to mitigate the ignorance about Crowley and his writings.

In 1973, Phyllis started the College of Thelema (COT) and began to edit and publish Into The Continuun, a project she pursued for 25 years afterward. She saw the COT as a much-needed source of preparatory instruction for aspirants to the A.’.A.’., having seen too many students fail due to a lack of training in the basics. She also continued her initiatory and instructional work within the A.’.A.’. itself.

Phyllis retired from teaching art in 1975, and gave herself more completely to Thelemic activities. She worked with McMurtry until his death in 1985. In 1979, she was granted a charter for 418 Lodge. The Temple of Thelema – an initiatory branch of COT - was founded in the late 1980s, patterned after the structure and curriculum of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

It goes almost without saying that the organizations founded or administered by Soror Meral have produced students of very high caliber – including David Shoemaker, James Eshelman, Gregory Peters and Lon Milo DuQuette.

Soror Meral led 418 Lodge from its inception until her death in 2004, founded organizations that are important in the promulgation of Thelema, and helped resuscitate an O.T.O. that came very close to being lost in the 1960s. I believe that our beloved grandmother would well understand the struggles of our Women’s Group, and also presents us with an ambitious and tenacious FEMALE role model, a thing very useful and important in today’s Order.

References

1. Red Flame 11, “Jane Wolfe, her life with Aleister Crowley, Part II” Red Flame Productions, Berkeley CA, 2003. ISBN 0-9712376-3-8 (p 55).

2. Private correspondence, ICOT archives.

3. Private correspondence between Germer and Wolfe, ICOT archives.

4. Private correspondence, ICOT archives.

5. Oto-usa.org/oto/history/#crowley

Further Reading

1. Shoemaker, D., G. Peters and R. Johnson, Eds “Phyllis Seckler (Soror Meral) – The Thoth Tarot, Astrology & Other Selected Writings,” The Teitan Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-933429-19-2.

2. Shoemaker, D., G. Peters and R. Johnson, Eds “Phyllis Seckler (Soror Meral) – The Kabbalah, Magick, and Thelema” The Teitan Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-933429-4.

3. Red Flame 10, “Jane Wolfe, her life with Aleister Crowley, Part I” Red Flame Productions, Berkeley CA, 2003. ISBN 0-9712376-2-X.

A Bishop-induced OTO Epiphany: The EGC is...

A few weeks ago, I went to a conference in Florida called "A Gathering of Bishops." Sherri, the local Body Master at Hidden Spring Oasis put it all together with her local lodge mates, and she did an awesome job*.

Tau Asteria, Tau Ce Acatl, and Tau Iatromantis were in attendance** and presented on several topics related to their roles as Bishops within the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (EGC), their roles as Soverign Grand Inquisitors General in the Mysteria Mystica Maxima (M∴M∴M∴), and examinations of aspects of the Gnostic Mass (Liber XV), including the Eucharist, the role of the Priestess, and the relationship between the roles of the mass and the congregants at large.

Their presentations were direct, balanced, and pragmatic, and I don't think anyone who attended walked away without picking up something useful and interesting that made their enjoyment of the rituals of initiation and celebration that we share more meaningful.

I had a mild epiphany at this event, and I've been digesting it to make sure it's properly absorbed before I talk about it publicly. I ALSO want to make sure to distance my own take-aways from the Bishops who attended:

I am not saying this is what they meant, or intended me to hear, or even said explicitly. This is my presentation of my personal conclusions, reached after hanging out with these guys for a weekend and hearing what they had to say, about the OTO, the EGC, the M∴M∴M∴, the Mass, and the people who make this happen.

Aumgn Aumgn Aumgn.

Ok? Ok.

So before I get to the epiphany, here's my experience of the OTO and EGC:

Me: I'm a Hermetic magician who thinks Crowley was awesome, but had a tendency to over-complicate things. I've found in Hermetic magick the cure to what ails us all, self-empowerment, self-actualization, and the ability to tap into the full reserves we're all born with using a relatively simple symbol-set; four elements, seven planets, one circle of stars, and some mysterious junk out past the stars that you can spend lifetimes enjoying.

My experience in OTO has been great. We get together, we talk magick, we drink, we do initiations, we have conferences, and everyone has a good time. When I say "We," I mean the lodge folk, who are magicians familiar with the Hermetic model of magick, in our own way. We have good speaks and help each other out. We talk about how we do magick, and how our results are coming along. We teach those with less experience about the tools we use personally, if they're interested.

My experience in the EGC has also been great, I was Baptised at Thelesis and a Soror Amy zapped me right proper, and I still have petals from the rose that I use in rites. I was confirmed at Hidden Spring (THANKS LEANNE, I'm fine now). I served as Child in the Mass, then Deacon, received ordination as Deacon, and now am serving as Priest in the Mass, with caveats*** because I haven't been ordained yet. Working on it though.

But after three years of doing this, I couldn't finish the sentence:

"The OTO [or] EGC is _____________________."

And that bothered me.

But problem solved, thanks to the good Bishops!

So T. Iatromantis (David Shoemaker) kicked off with a talk about the Mass, and how to use it as a magickal act as a participant/congregant. Then T. C Acatl (Craig Berry) followed up with a talk on the Sacraments of the EGC. Then T. Asteria went did some back-to-back talks about the role of the Priestess and the role of the Eucharist, specifically the Cakes of Light. And then they did a panel discussion where they barely even looked like victims of a firing squad as 20 people rapid-fired questions at them from around the room.

It was amazing, and we're typing up the notes to share. These guys are awesome, the M∴M∴M∴ is awesome, and the EGC is awesome, and that's why I'm writing this. Because without any one of them taking me aside and telling me straight up, "Hey Josh-Rufus, THIS IS WHAT THE OTO IS ALL ABOUT," they managed to do so cumulatively in a way that makes sense to me, and I'm sort of still a little bit high on it.

And anyone who's looked at the US Grand Lodge Web Site on OTO initiation can probably just sit back and laugh at me after they read this, because it's all right there.

But let's start with the Mass.

The Mass is super cool, and it's the symbolic formula of the all the rites of our Order, and everyone who's taken a minute to listen to OTO podcasts probably has heard several high ranking Duquettes and others speak about the magickal formula embodied in the mass. I've talked to enough magician-members of the Order after mass to know that a lot of us understand that we can think of a thing we want to happen throughout the mass to make it manifest. I'm simplifying, there's tech involved, but not a lot more than that.

T. Iatromantis' teaching on it this time was a little deeper, a little more personal. He used the magick words "Thought-Word-Deed" to explain that the mass itself is a Hermetic rite. It gives everyone an opportunity to take a THOUGHT, materialize it symbolically through WORD, and then to manifest as a DEED. And he took us through it twice in different ways, I realized something amazing:

THE GNOSTIC MASS GIVES ALL ATTENDEES A CHANCE TO PARTICIPATE AS A HERMETIC MAGICIAN IN THE CREATION AND MANIFESTATION OF THEIR LIVES.

All caps because it's important. Everyone who just shows up can do magick. No initiation required, no years of magical practice, no memorized columns of correspondences, no ability to draw a tree of life from memory.

No conjuration of angels or demons, either. You just show up, and do magick via participation.

Think about what you want. Symbolize it. Hold that symbol in mind. Speak it into being, because THERE IS NO PART OF YOU THAT IS NOT OF THE GODS. Then follow through, take advantage of the opportunities that come your way when you tap into it.

Thought+Word+Deed=MAGICK.

It's Hermetics! The Gnostic Mass is HERMETICS! (cue soylent green camera effects)

So the Mass is a chance for everyone, regardless of attainment, to participate in Hermetic Magick. That was part one of my epiphany. And the EGC is, in my opinion, primarily responsible for putting on the Mass. The official public presentations of the Mass will, with very rare exceptions, include at least an EGC Ordained Priest or Priestess as either Priest, Priestess, or Deacon.

But what else?

T. Ce Acatl was up next, and spoke about the sacraments, specifically the sacraments of marriage, and of death. As he spoke, he talked about how the rites in the EGC are founded around the fundamental understanding that the source of power that is being outwardly structured and affirmed is within you, putting you in the position to realize the only "divinity" being called on is yourself. He picked up on a metaphor T. Iatromantis had used, that as you go along in your work, you are becoming more and more focused, like a light that starts out shining in every direction slowly over time becoming more and more focused until it was a laser.

Now all this happened to be a confirmation of what I learned over years and years of Hermetic studies outside of these OTO Orders. I limited my occult Work to sources betwen the first and third centuries EV, with a lot of framing from Agrippa. I eschewed all the 1899 EV and later "occult" teachings at the time, but since then I have come to realize that everything I learned in those studies of the source texts is also presented in the teachings of the OTO.

Not to get ahead of myself though.

The next day, T. Asteria took the lead and spoke about the role of the Priestess, guidelines on official stances, where there's room to wiggle, and her personal expectations of the Priestesses she oversees as Bishop. Then she spoke on the development of the Cakes of Light, and the myths, the magick, and the mysteries surrounding them.

In each discussion, she presented very practical advice, based on experience. She dealt with pretty specific topics in a frank and earnest way, with facts laid out, anecdotes, and conclusions she's reached on the different aspects of the topic at hand. And she addressed things across the whole spectrum of the experiences, from Tree of Life interpretations of the roles of the Mass teams, to how to deal with ... overzealous Priests reinterpreting the script without letting you know ahead of time.

They were all like that, honestly. Attending this conference was just like going to a professional seminar, or a college level class on the kinds of things we can expect to experience as we do the OTO thing that we do. A lot of it was a discussion on advanced topics that you run into when you're doing Magick in public with other people, who also do Magick. Another part of it was how to deal with people who might be working with different images and at different levels of understanding and experience in a group rite.

But every part of what they were teaching provided a way to do the OTO thing we do that meets everyone where they're at. Giving them what they need, so they could do Magick.

And I started hearing a theme in everything they were talking about, whether it was individual  roles in the Mass, the Mass itself as a whole operation, their own roles in the M∴M∴M∴ and the EGC, the things they do as Bishops, about being extensions of the sovereignty of the King, the other hats they wear in service to the OTO ...

Everything they do and teach is about how to become an effective Magician, and then how to become an even more effective Magician. And then the people we interact with through the various aspects of the OTO can learn to accomplish their True Will and attain happiness. And then that makes the whole world a better place for everyone at the same time.

You know... they do the Great Work.

The Summum Bonum.

And it hit me, the OTO hosts and presents the Mass so that everyone else who attends can do Magick. And if they don't understand how to do that, the OTO teaches what that means, over time, in small bites, within a specific context.

They make magicians!

In the Mass anyone can participate in Magick. All the principles are there that I spent years researching in ancient papyri and Renaissance grimories. Four elements, Seven Wandering Planets, a Circle of Stars, and the underlying Mysteries of the Eighth and Ninth Spheres, the stages of incarnation, the Hermetic Secret that thou art god, in a way...

It's all right there, laid out for anyone. You don't even have to understand it to get to benefit from it.

Learning that stuff changed my life. It took me from a place where I was simply responding to events in my life as a victim to a place where I am able to create the events of my life. I went from being a victim to an effective human being, able to change the world as I saw fit (without screwing it up for anyone else) because I had gained a deep and personal relationship with the occult forces that manifest the world. It took a long time to understand these basic Hermetic principles, and I was quite proud of myself for figuring it out. I had dreams of bringing the freedom and empowerment of Hermetic philosophy to the world.

Imagine my surprise finding out that there's already an organized body of people working globally to give this same opportunity to everyone else who's interested?

So my epihany then... I think I'd phrase it this way:

The OTO and EGC are the best vehicle available today for transmitting the Hermetic principles that made me an effective human being. We provide a means for all humans, regardless of our exposure to occult principles to learn the Thought-Word-Deed manifestation process that Hermetics has tried to teach for millenia. These organizations create Magicians who can become their own masters in life.

Now for the "no-shit, sherlock" moment I mentioned earlier about the Initiation page on the (well-indexed and organized) US Grand Lodge wb site.

Look at the names of the First, Second, and Third Degrees of the OTO:

I*   Woman and Sister / Man and Brother
II*  Magician
III* Master Magician

As you progress through the OTO, you go from Woman/Man to Magician to Master Magician.

It took me WAY TOO LONG to figure that out.

* It's worth noting, OTO folk, that people who want to make things happen are making things happen. If you want things to happen, like a bishop event at your local lodge, make it happen. There are bishops. They will show up. With valuable experiences and interpretations. And bullet points.

** Christeos Pir was scheduled to attend and present something about the growth of local bodies that I really wish I'd gotten to see, but he couldn't make it. I'm still looking forward to hearing his presentation though, it looked like it had some meatiness to it. He kind of owes us now, I think.

*** Warning: Near-flawless Greek, still thinking lewd thoughts about Harper most of the time, and that second-step speech, I just ... sigh.

Online Repositories of Wisdom that make a Difference in the World of Magicians

When I started out researching grimoire magic, I found references to Joseph Peterson's Esoteric Archives, perhaps the most comprehensive site on the entire internet for magicians looking for scholarly presentations of the grimoire texts that form the basis of the Western Magical Tradition.

I delved deep into the footnotes, the commentaries, and the practical wisdom Joseph collected, and I was able to find a way to do some pretty cool shit as a result. I accomplished some of the more astounding goals of Hermetic Magic as a result of his research, insight, painstaking footnotes, and amazing scholarly dedication to presenting information publicly for people like me.

Fast forward almost a decade, and I found myself all of a sudden drawn into the web of the A:.A:. and the OTO. Babalon had me by the short curlies, and dragged me into the warp and weave of Thelema. I needed something similar to the Esoteric Archives so I could catch up with my partner in the Work at hand.

I was fortunate to find the Hermetic Library at Hermetic.com.

There are plenty of sites out there that host bits and pieces of the collected writings of Aleister Crowley, but by far the most comprehensive and useful repository I've found is Hermetic.com. I am not exaggerating at all when I say the only reason I was able to join the A:.A:. was because that site has the most comprehensive collection of hard-to-find and currently-out-of-publication texts required for the curriculum of that particular organization. I made extensive use of Google's site:hermetic.com [search term] feature as I spent about a year working through the preliminary texts. I still call on that site at least once or twice a week to continue my studies and practices.

When I took the step of beginning my priestly duties in the Gnostic Mass, I had Sabazius' version of the mass on my phone for quick reference at every practice, and in the tomb before going live. I've read through Tau Polyphilus' commentaries, Sabazius' profiles of the Saints, Beth Kimbell's recipe for Cakes of Light, and of course the Abramelin Ramble of Bill Heidrick, a thing everyone aspiring to K&CHGA should read. Achad's ... interesting speculations and insights are available at the click of a mouse.

Hermetic.com is an awesome resource for Thelemites, for sure...

But wait, there's more!

The Hermetic Library, while housing the world's most extensive and well-organized online texts of the works of Aleister Crowley, is also home to some of the most important work that's come out of the Western Occult Tradition in the last 100 years. The works of Austin Osman Spare, the grandfather of "Chaos Magick" are housed there. Norton's Imperium, and the writings of Benjamin Rowe can be found there.

Yes, that Benjamin Rowe.

I've recently had the good fortune to work with the Librarian at that particular treasure trove on a project for an upcoming event that I can't talk about in great detail yet, and it turns out the guy hosting Hermetic.com is amazing in real life too. He's not just "internet awesome," he's a good dude.

If you haven't been there, you're missing out. If you haven't been there lately, what have you even been doing? The site has a ton of useful stuff that you probably should be reading, referencing, and integrating into your practice as a Thelemite.

And you should also be supporting the site financially, because the Law ain't promulgatin' itself.

Well, technically it is.

But Hermetic.com makes it easier for everyone called to this stuff.