Steffi Grant - Spirit Forces Elementals

Nightside of Eden by Kenneth Grant

The often obtuse and much maligned Kenneth Grant is probably one of the least understood occultist and writers of the 20th century. Within the shadowy world of the arcane and esoteric the reactions and opinions concerning Grant and his writings are passionate and varied. Some consider him the rightful successor of the legendary Aleister Crowley and the "Left Hand Path" while others consider him no more that a madman.

'Nightside of Eden' first published in '77 has taken almost as much negative criticism as the man himself. This is a book shunned by many, even feared by some. Words such as delusional and incoherent are among those used to describe this evocative text. I stand on the other side of the ongoing debate and consider it to be the most insightful and influential work on the qlipothic energies and their function and activity on the Tree of Life ever published. The major fault almost always pointed out by the detractors of this abstract work is the fact that almost no previous body of esoteric teaching concerning these qlipothic energies exist to support Grant's claims. It's this lack of quasi-historical validation that turns many away from the contents of this book.

Kenneth Grant's books are never an easy read and this one maybe one of the most difficult of all. Highly original and imaginative in content, Grant displays his impressive knowledge of arcane signs and symbols and an innate ability to blend the very personal aspects of thought and imagination with the more impersonal aspects of theory and practice.

One thing seems certain, there will never be a true consensus of opinion on the value, or lack of value of the 'Nightside of Eden.' Thus the debate rages on. Is it a masterpiece or the ranting and raving of an egomanical manic? Maybe the more important question would be, is it Atavastic Breakthrough or Psychotic Breakdown?

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English Heretic ::: Visitor Guides : Your Passport To The Qliphoth

Label: English Heretic ‎– EHVG001
Format: CDr
Country: UK
Released: 2007
Genre: Electronic, Non-Music
Style: Field Recording, Experimental

Tracklist:
1 A Threnody For The Energy Spectres Of Nagasaki
2 London's Qliphoth - The Ritual At Centre Point
3 In Parfaxitas
4 Open The Mithraic Stargate
5 The Brundish Horror

Notes
Comes with an additional CD-R of Visitor Guides PDF Documents containing "A Visitor's Guide To Orford Ness" (9 pages), "Time Outre - London's Qliphoth" (5 pages), and "Rendlesham, Suffolk - A Centre Of Pestilence" (6 pages).

Track 1 recorded on location at Orford Ness, 9th August 2006, then processed and composed in the studio.
Tracks 2 and 3 recorded on location beneath Tottenham Court Road, May 2007, then processed and music recorded in the studio.
Track 4 recorded on location in Rendlesham Forest, December 2005, then processed and composed in the studio.
Track 5 recorded on location at Brundish churchyard and the ruins of Greyfriars monastery, Dunwich, Suffolk, September 2004, then remixed in the studio.

Dedicated to Kenneth Grant.

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Aiwass, Maat and the New Aeon by Simon Hinton

Aiwass, Maat and the New Aeon

by Simon Hinton

We live in very strange times. The technological advances of the world are outpacing our evolution as the rate of their manifestation grows exponentially. Our consciousness exists within a spacetime curve that appears to be turning in on itself, and as we surge through its super permutated world the configurations of our starry heavens and the subtle influences on our being transform, and we witness: a new pattern has been forged. This is the New Aeon, a new dimension of possibilities, a new age of enlightenment, of Leo the Kingly Man and his Aquarian bride the Queen of Space. For those perceptive enough to tune in to these ever changing patterns a realization and sense of purpose may be perceived. This purpose is sometimes referred to as the Great Work and although it is of a magickal formulation (because it involves action) it is ultimately of mystical essence because it is a realization of a return to the Mother of all. Five hundred years before the birth of Christ the Egyptian Prince Priest Ankh-af-na-Khonsu of the 26th dynasty sensing this purpose and recognising Man's divergence from it wrote on the Stélé of Revealing the following words, which have been translated into English from their hieroglyphic form,

I am the Lord of Thebes, and I
The inspired forth speaker of Mentu
For me unveils the veiled sky
The self slain Ankh-af-na-Khonsu
Whose words are truth. I invoke, I greet
Thy presence, o Ra-Hoor-Khuit!

Unity uttermost showed!
I adore the might of thy breath,
Supreme and terrible God,
Who makest the gods and death
To tremble before Thee:-
I, I adore thee!

Appear on the throne of Ra!
Open the ways of Khu!
Lighten the ways of Ka!
The ways of the Khabs run through
To stir me or still me!
Aum! let it fill me.

There are many different belief systems which have evolved over the ages, most of which contain, to some degree or other, remnants of a wisdom of antiquity, the essence of which, if truly captured and invoked, will deliver essential universal truths empowering the initiate. Unfortunately however, history is replete with those who have taken the allegory literally, or have attached a false reality to the parable. The misinterpretation of spiritual experience has caused enormous imbalance and suffering throughout the centuries, which is why in the course of enquiry we should always do ourselves the justice of keeping an open mind. When filling in a cryptic crossword one needs to apply a little ingenuity, and similarly when dealing with the symbolisms of ancient religions there are rarely straightforward answers. During this discourse I may at times speak in terms that are couched in a language with which you may not be familiar, and in such cases I would ask you to kindly bear with me and to exercise fully your intuitive capabilities in order to capture the spirit of the information imparted. The word occult literally means hidden and occultism is about identifying the source of the power or energy that imbues a system; the power behind the power which may remain hidden to the casual observer. This pattern of energy is what is meant when we talk about a current. The Typhonian/Stellar current is of ancient antiquity and predates the solar, masculine cults by thousands of years. This is the current which Ankh-af-na-Khonsu, the O.T.O. and every 'true' pagan wishes to revive. Although the Draconian current to which I am referring, may manifest in different forms, its central essence remains the same: the light burns within; the Khu is in the Khabs.

In April 1904 the magician Aleister Crowley received a powerful grimoire from a spirit named Aiwass called The Book of The Law. It later became known as Liber Al and was an extremely pure earthing of the Typhonian current and a reflection of the beginning of powerful changes in human consciousness, which tallied with astronomical changes in our starry heavens. The Prince Priest Ankh-af-na-Khonsu attempted to revive the worship of Set-Typhon the 'terrible' God or man's true initiator. ;Furthermore Crowley believed he was an avatar of Ankh-af-na-Khonsu and the magickal memories he invoked of his many incarnations reflected his central role in the Great Work. The three verses that I quoted in my introduction from the Stélé of Revealing also formed part of the third chapter of Liber Al and were interpreted by Crowley along the lines suggested by the following Rosicrucian Benediction:

May thy Mind be open unto the Higher!
May thy Heart be the Centre of Light!
May thy Body be the Temple of the Rosy Cross!

In the material world Liber Al's prophesies were fulfilled with great accuracy as the earth became bathed in the blood of the birth pangs of the new Aeon. The horrors of two world wars and the breakdown in the fabric of society has proven to be an inevitable byproduct of an incomparable period of great transition in human history. These changes were foretold in Liber Al and Crowley further noted the odd fact that every time he published the book a major war would seem to break out nine months he nce. The madness, suffering and general world mayhem that has escalated since 1904 has been the inevitable short term result of a consciousness revolution where the build up of hidden forces and latent energies have been dramatically released. But the pain and difficulty that accompanies such changes can be minimised, and is very much dependent on the rate at which we can accept certain principles and adapt our lives in harmony with them. These expansions of consciousness have triggered, and are triggering, great effects on the material plane as humankind grapples with new modes of perception that are often radically different to conditioned response. As a simple analogy we could think of someone born with a 'silver spoon' in their mouth and eternally reliant on others, only to find a sudden change in circumstance resulting in them having to take full responsibility for themselves - there are bound to be a few teething problems.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law, one of Liber Al's central axioms, may appear on the surface to give complete behaviourial license, but this is not the case. In actuality the requirement is for us to take absolute responsibility for our actions by self-imposed discipline. Our love and behaviour should be natural and spontaneous while at the same time subject to our true will, our dharma or essential pattern of being, which brings us to another of the Liber Al's central axi Love is the law, love under will. This further requires the recognition that the only ones that can save us are ourselves. This realization brings an end to the myth that one can only reach spiritual fulfilment through a mediator or saviour. The concept of original sin is therefore a fallacy. The new law states categorically that we can reach the God Head directly. The results of New Aeon thinking are radical: goodbye confessional boxes, goodbye atonement for sins: the onl in is restriction. Aleister 'says', Welcome then my children to the age of the Anti-Christ - the Beast has arisen from the sea. Small wonder then that dear Mr Crowley had all and sundry, superstitiously scurrying for their garlic: the message was bloody scary - there ain't no God but Man!

The Egyptian Goddess Typhon and her son Set were demonised by the latter Egyptian dynasties who were beginning to adopt a paternalistic religious culture which resulted in the male God Osiris at the head of the trinity. This Osirian cult was then plagiarised and worked into the Christian' scriptures completing with powerful effect the hatchet job on the 'real' paganism. The true pagans from different cultures with their initiated gnosis and their great god Pan were targeted as evil heathen worshippers and persecuted. Pan/Set and Satan are but different names that correspond to the same type of idea, that of creative, enlightening energy, which is by its very nature chaotic and difficult to deal with. But it is not evil. A useful analogy might be the force of electricity, which if utilized by a balanced individual can be used to give warmth and protection but if used unwisely can maim or kill.

Shaitan-Aiwass is a form of Set recognized by Crowley as his Holy Guardian Angel but Crowley only truly recognised this fact when he had 'crossed the Abyss' and substituted 'Adonai' meaning Lord with Aiwass. Crossing the Abyss is a technical term which means transcending fully all personal identity by 'dying' to the world. (The death here is not physical but a metaphor for complete dis-identification with the ego, a process which is necessary to enjoy the highest mystical states, as these transcend duality.) In the light of my researches into the Book of the Law Crowley's relationship with Aiwass makes particular sense if we consider the spirit of Aiwass to be the Holy Guardian Angel of all Mankind, or put another way, if we consider Mankind to be an organic sentient entity, there is a force/a current/a being/a pattern which represents that entity's true will. One of the numbers of Aiwass generated by gemetria is 418, which is also the number of the Great Work and results from multiplying 19 by 22. This I believe lends further credence to my suggestion that the special relationship Aiwass has with Mankind is that he represents our true will. The number 22 represents the Universe, being the number of paths on the Tree of Life and the number 19 represents manifestation, being the number of paths that have some existence below the Abyss (in the phenomenal world). When Crowley took the 'jump' from personal initiation, to the full realization that consciousness is a continuum by taking the Oath of the Abyss (which means interpreting all events as a direct and significant dealing with a Unity called God) a fuller connection was made with Aiwass. The New Aeon is an age of direct recognition of this incredible creative, chaotic potential. It is the age of genius. Saturn is the planet that corresponds with Set and as such represents both initiation and the stricture of us facing our karma. It equates on the Tree of Life with Binah the sephiroth of Understanding which rests above the duality of human consciousness (and above the Abyss of the difference) in the Supernal Triad. We have entered an age when the shackles of suppression will be blasted physically, magickally and mystically. The discipline normally associated with Saturn is required to guide us through these chaotic times. Considering the difficulties he was to face in his lifetime, Crowley at the beginning of his magickal career, picked what proved to be a very aptly chosen magickal motto, Perdurabo, meaning 'I will endure till the end', and when the chaos of Set/Horus, so symptomatic of the New Age, was invoked, it is hardly surprising that he was labelled the wickedest man in the world by a world that didn't realize how wicked it had been.

Aleister Crowley had received rigorous training from the Golden Dawn organization both in mental discipline and in magickal and mystical practice. He was also the most learned of Qabalists and possessed a brilliant mind of extraordinary capability, and yet in spite of these exceptional qualities he was not able to discover all of the meanings that lay hidden in Liber Al. Crowley, for all his radical thinking was still a child of the Old Aeon, because he was born before April 1904, and some of his understandings were slanted by personal bias i.e. his subjective conditioning. Although he was the world's most advanced mystic his understandings of the 'big picture' were in many ways limited, that is to say there were certain aspects of the Book which were to remain occult or hidden. But this was how it was intended, for Liber Al clearly states that its message would be revealed over time, and that there were some mysteries contained within that no Beast would divine.

One of the most curious incidents connected with Liber Al, and one often used as evidence that the Book derived from a praetor-human source, concerns Charles Stansfield-Jones or Frater Achad as he is more commonly known. Liber Al stated specifically that the central qabalistic key of the book would be discovered by Crowley's 'child' a One that would follow him. Crowley was a highly accomplished magician and used sex magick techniques constantly through his life. This prophesy in Liber Al had set his mind working and he was eager to produce a magickal heir. To do this he engaged in several workings with his 'Scarlet Woman' of the time, Soror Hilarion (Jane Foster) around the Autumn Equinox of 1915, believing he would achieve a manifestation on the physical plane. But it didn't quite work out that way. Fortunately he kept a magickal journal and exactly nine months after performing an act of sex magick with Hilarion, Frater Achad, who was at that time a Neophyte in Crowley's mystical organization the A.A., became a 'Babe of the Abyss' taking the grade 8° 3 or Magister Templi. The magick had worked and within eighteen months Achad had discovered the main key to Liber Al, 31 which equals both 'God' and 'Not', AL and LA forming one third of the Thelemic Trinity 93 which equates to Agape-Love and Thelema-Will. When the words 'God' and 'Not' are interchanged in the Book the sense of certain obscure passages becomes apparent. Another curious aspect is that Jones took the name 'Achad' which means Unity or One, at the beginning of his magickal career, supplying further proof that he was the 'One' prophesied. Another interesting point is that the numeration of Achad in Hebrew is 13, being 31 reversed, which represents the lunar current or principle, and one in which Crowley and his obsession with the Beast couldn't fully capture, other than through chosen feminine vessels which manifested the current: his Scarlet Women. The Unity of 13 is represented on the Tree of Life when one takes the ten sephiroth and three veils of negative existence. There are 13 full moons in a year.

It is a well recorded fact that Achad went completely 'off the rails' for a good while becoming totally obsessed with his role as Crowley's 'magickal son' and discoverer of Liber Al's key. His imbalance or magickal obsession undoubtedly occurred as a direct result of him taking the Oath of the Abyss without working through the earlier grades of initiation. His ordeal was a long one and he suffered temporary madness resulting in such acts of lunacy as, cavorting around Vancouver clad in nothing more than a raincoat (which he then cast off to demonstrate the removal of all restrictions) and joining the Roman Catholic Church. However, despite this period of insanity, Achad did provide valuable insights into Liber Al that have proven to be creatively viable and which shed important light on some of the mysteries contained therein. Most notably he heralded in the Aeon of Maat on April 2nd 1948, his 62nd birthday and 44 years after the inception of the bloody Aeon of Horus .

Among occultists Achad's announcement certainly caused controversy with most dismissing his claims as the words of a fool. The purists consider an Aeon to refer only to a vast period of time, in fact 2166 years or the length of time it takes our Sun to pass through the Vernal Equinox. There have been others however who have not dismissed Achad's claims so lightly and subsequent events have occurred that suggest he may well have been on the right track. But for those that do take such a fun damentalist stance I would firstly ask, what reason the necessity to always view time in such a strict linear fashion, and secondly, is the astrological technique of dividing the heavens into twelve equal segments, which is the mark of the post-Typhonian Solar cults, the most favourable method of concatenating patterns? Throughout human history there are certainly instances where individuals can be said to have been ahead of their time. A case in point with regards to receiving occult vibrations from future Aeons, has to be that of Dr John Dee and Sir Edward Kelly, who in the 16th century received the Enochian magickal system, although admittedly they did not fully understand it. Rather than viewing time and the succession of Aeons through such a reductionist lens, a more fruitful attitude to take might be to recognize that we live in the Aeon which we project around us. As an example of this variance one only has to look at Christendom - decaying yes - but still very much in existence, and still very much a reality to hundreds of millions of individuals, existing as it does as an Osirian, old Aeon patriarchal structure. From a purely scientific point of view the concept of receiving information from a future time was hypothesized by the American Nobel Laureate and physicist Richard Feynmann who proposed that the atomic particles known as positrons are electrons travelling backwards in time, which by non-physical means impinge on the percipient's consciousness making precognition possible. This theory is one that would most certainly tie in with the idea of an Aeon coming 'before' its time.

So far we have briefly discussed the inception of Liber Al dictated by Aiwass, a form of the God Set, the initiator or bringer of light. In the Egyptian mythos, Set, and Horus his brother, are engaged in a perpetual warfare. Symbolically therefore, we can see Aiwass (as a form of Set) taking on the warlike role where necessary, by initiating, so as to break down old fashion superstitions and restrictions which have in some form or other prevented the light of truth reaching our consciousne ss. Aiwass manifested through Crowley for this general task, and Crowley recognizing this stated quite clearly that he considered one of his chief roles was to restore and present a purer form of paganism to the human inhabitants of this planet. When I speak of a purer form I refer again to the earlier Typhonian current which the Prince Priest Ankh-af-na-Khonsu tried to revive in the 26th Dynasty, and which was suppressed by the later Osirian, solar cults. But the true current of initiation has always survived and after its Egyptian suppression it surfaced again in various Far Eastern traditions, as it also did in Jacques de Molay's Order of the Knights Templar, and other Western groups, right up until the present day.

Aiwass as a form of Set, manifested as the Beast or chaotic, creative force through Crowley. This could be described as the masculine principle corresponding with Hadit the omnipresent point, and one of the two infinities represented in Liber Al. Here it should be remembered that the great initiator Aiwass is the minister of Hoor-pa-Kraat which is the silent or concealed result of the meeting of thesetwo infinities. As such Aiwass must naturally have the pot ential to manifest as the Scarlet Woman Typhon, or the goddess-Nuit principle, the circle whose circumference is infinite and the other infinity represented in Liber Al. The first letter of His name Aleph conceals the mystery of the Double Current, for its numeration is One representing the male principle while corresponding to Nought in the Tarot which represents the female principle. The associated tarot card is the Fool which is the pure Fool of Act 1 in Parsival. As an interesting aside an old name for this card is Mat from the Italian Matto meaning fool and whose earliest derivation is surely the Egyptian Goddess Maat. Maat can quite clearly be seen then as a form of Nuit and these potentialities exist in all human beings regardless of gender. This potentialized state is symbolised by Harpocrates God of silence 'the Babe in the Egg of Blue.' In the truly initiated human being these qualities will manifest side by side in balanced equilibrium. This stat e of natural unfettered balance is that which all initiates should aspire to irrespective of which tradition they choose to align themselves with: the true emancipation of realized potential in total harmony and ease with itself. The meeting of the two infinities Nuit and Hadit results therefore in the microcosmic human being, The Kingdom of Ra-Hoor-Khuit. For those who visualize Liber Al solely as a book of the Age of Horus the occultist Kenneth Grant highlights a very valid point for what may be considered a possible imbalance of perspective. Crowley was instructed to change not so much as a single letter of the law as there were mysteries contained therein which would be discovered later. The nature of such transmissions were known as Class A. However the book was originally known as Liber L which Crowley changed after Achad discovered the qabalistic key. L it should be noted is the sacred letter in the Holy Twelvefold Table that stabilizes the Universe. L is the letter which corresponds with Libra, Balance and 'Adjustment' in the Tarot. In the Crowley/Harris Deck this card is represented by the Goddess Maat. This is the true understanding of the Book of the Law: a journey to Universal Harmony.

At this juncture in our enquiry we shall examine the goddess Maat in a little more detail. Maat is the Egyptian Goddess of Truth, Justice, Righteousness, Measurement and Balance. She is depicted as a beautiful young woman wearing a blue feather her symbol, in a headband. She is the daughter of Ra the Sun God and the wife of Thoth the Ibis headed scribe of the Gods. Maat is an ideal, a principle, and the principle is that of perfection and balance. The Maat principle then is that which should naturally follow the enlightenment that the initiator Set brings. This perfection is for that of the whole human race. The martial Horus destroys the remnants of past philosophies while Maat invokes the future. The planet we live on is in a terrible state and is being destroyed on the Outer. Ecological disasters present themselves to us on the news every day as we poison our Mother Earth. The key to change ultimately lies not in political structure however, but in our minds or rather our consciousness. Self-realization is the key and the internal battle which results in initiation manifests as the Double Current in Liber Al. There is much about the human race that needs to be purged. Swift as a trodden serpent turn and strike! Be thou yet deadlier than he. Liber Al III:42. By our very existing we destroy the past and invoke the future; our past, our future. But the war is in the present, the and Now! The present is Ra-Hoor-Khuit which corresponds to the third chapter of Liber Al and is the most difficult to understand. Above the Abyss there are no contradictions because the inner conflicts of the personality complex have been transcended. Understanding shines and the balancing aspect of Saturn can enact. Set only causes chaos where it is 'needed' and dualistic thinking always requires some degree of chaos. This should not be misconstrued as a carefree license to mess with the Gods: Set is a powerful deity and we must be prepared for upheaval if we invoke Him, in the same that no one in their right mind would allow a completely untrained pilot to fly a Jumbo Jet. When Ordeal X (the crossing of the Abyss) has been successfully accomplished the harmonising features of Maat will greet us and the Unity of Thought resulting from our initiation can de-reflect upon itself and become no-thing. This is the secret of the Mother and her name is Nuit!

The following working has been conceived as a method of visualising in very simple terms how the current of Shaitan-Aiwass operates in a Horus' Aeon sense and how the 93 Thelemic current and its effects, may be moulded and developed in a balanced form so as to tally with the Maatian current/Aeon. It should be understood that these forces represent different polarisations in the consciousness continuum and may be further visualised as a twisting helix which has a corresponding organic representation on the molecular level, our D.N.A.-the very building blocks of life, because when the two infinities Nuit and Hadit meet they spiral and curl. On a larger scale Human Beings possess 46 separate chromosomes and 46 is the number of Maat.

You may wish to shut you eyes for the duration.

Working

Imagine you are standing in the middle of a dark and densely filled forest. The trees around you are all diseased and rotten and the air is filled with millions of bugs that have come to feed on the decaying carcasses of dead animals that lay strewn at your feet. All around you is death and the symbols of death; the putrid smell of rotting flesh fills the air. You cannot move and you cannot see, and just liked the Hanged Man of the Tarot you stand petrified, glued to the spot with no way out. You are restricted, caught up in a guilt ridden world repressed and helpless. Everything is contaminated and there seems to be no hope. So you open your heart and scream out to the God of All My Lord why have you forsaken me? Is there no light left in the world? But the great God Pan laughs at your tragic grimace- You have forsaken yourself. is nature's reply. All experience occurs within, so you must will your destiny.

Instinctively you recognize the truth in Pan's words and pray further to save yourself by enacting your magickal will which means invoking the Angel of mankind to enlighten the dark tunnels and byways of Set.

Your power I plead to crystallise in form
And our true Stardom weave
Its Universal orbit Born-
Less One strayed god perchance should fall
Yes I shall die my Love
Reborn to blaze this path my call!

I summon thee Aiwass!
From all the Gods and energies and powers of the Universe!
Let no obstacle of mind, matter, space or time
E'er come between us!

Aiwass Aiwass as I was
I bid thee come forth!
Shine the light of initiation upon I!

And from the overhead clearing a single spark descends, illuminating the night with a faint glimmer of possibility. You have made the jump of self connection and in response you hear a faint whisper from the God of All If you want the light you must will the light.

So you take heed and will the light causing the spark to catch on a small piece of dry wood which ignites, shedding a river of brightness. And with this light you witness that the gloom and death around you are but a section of the cycle of transition: the netherside of beauty. And then the fire comes - burning, destroying and laying waste to the old, tearing down the lying spectres of the centuries. With the force and fire of creative opposition you have inadvertently invoked the Hawk headed God which succumbs and answers to your Angel's direction. It burns and burns again swift as the trodden serpent in the Kingdom of Ra-Hoor-Khuit Now!

This is the initiation of enlightenment destruction.

And you pray further to the Angel of mankind as the horrors of your mind melt away.

Restore the feather of Maat's beauteous balance!
For I to suck the nectar
Flowing bountifully copiously!
A shimmering cosmic orgasm
Of rapturous liaison!
I plead with you my Angel
Come again! Come again! Come again!

IAF SABAF!

Such are the words!

......................................................has spoken!

So mote it be!

The earth has now been purged of its atrocities while Saturn has eaten your sick children: the demons of your mind which had been feeding all their lives on your prana. And now you sit on sweet smelling grass while the sun shines kindly upon thee and there next to you is single blue feather lying on the ground. Ahh..... so this is the truth of Maat: existence is pure joy and all sorrows are but shadows. Initiation is being let into the joke by degrees which is why we'll double up in laughter when the truth unfolds. And from the seed of your consciousness a tree begins to grow and resting in its tallest boughs the honeybee builds its home in hexagonal style. Without a lust of result it tirelessly works, providing warmth, nutrition, security and happiness for its offspring. You are the bee and Shaitan is your nectar, the Unity of consciousness manifests a reflection of itself through you - a mechanism of neurological structure, wired to receive.
This is the initiation of enlightenment creation. This is the initiation of Maat.

The working is completed. Relax and allow your consciousness to fully return to the room.

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

Since the reception of Liber Al there have been other Typhonian Transmissions that have helped to enlighten initiates further. Of particular interest with regards to this discussion, is the transmission received by Soror Andahadna in 1974 known as Liber Pennae Praenumbra delivered by a spirit calling itself Na'ton. This was a powerful transmission which very much embodied the Maatian current. Rather than supersede Liber Al, which is probably the purest and most potent Typhonian trans mission extant, Liber Pennae Praenumbra succeeds in complimenting it, while delivering fresh impetus to both the Current and its development. The world we live in is not static and new understandings will always evolve. It is important to remember that the manifestation of the twin current is dependent on the neurological structures through which it earths. At the time of the reception of Liber Al for example there was a tremendous world interest in Egyptology and Aleister Crowley was in Cairo. The beauty of the Egyptian mythos as an infrastructure for transmitting thought process is the wide pantheon of the gods it embodies, which can be used very efficiently to explain or isolate certain types of ideas or energies. In a similar way a study of the Jewish Qabalah enables a mystical filing cabinet to be created in the mind of the student in which ideas of all classes can be ordered. Gerald Massey the 19th Century Scholar whose monumental works have provided the pillars of ou r Typhonia, made a perceptive observation when he noted that external currents, forces and phenomena are explained and communicated in the sign language of the day. Today that sign language may embody the terms of quantum physics, special relativity or digitalized computer language, but the sun still shines and the seasons continue unerringly which by way of illustration demonstrates that the Current exists which ever model is used to earth it.

The Double Current which traces its way through Liber Al must be recognized as two strands of the same force. Liber Al 1: 45 states:
The Perfect and the Perfect are one Perfect and not two; nay are none! To the truly initiated mind therefore this will be perceived not as a conflict, but as the division which comes with dualistic thought process and when we transcend duality we will recognize this clearly as a harmonious Unity . This is the vision of Maat. At this point I would like to quote from Liber Pennae Praenumbra.

The hidden One of the Abyss now gives the two wherein is wrought the higher alchemy: supporting Earth is Chthonos - learn it well, and all bonds shall be loosed for the Will's Working. Surmounting Spirit, there is Ychronos, whose nature is duration and the passing-away thereof.

The two are one and form the Kingdom's essence. Who master's them is the Master of the World. They are the utter keys of transmutation, and the keys of the power of other elements.

Nema the book's transmitter describes in the commentary Chthonos as spacetime, matter energy, and Ychronos as the chart of changes through the time dimension. Both are fractal complexities.

In the next verse the Double Current is identified as being the substance of man. The Kingdom corresponds to Malkulth on the Tree of Life which represents Earth. This is described in Liber Al as The Kingdom of Ra Hoor-Khuit, which as I have already mentioned is formed from the two infinities Nuit and Hadit. The meaning is clarified in the following verse.

Of old ye knew the key of two in one conjoined. Ye have lived and loved
the full measure as NU and HAD, as PAN and BABALON. The mystery of mine own image do ye also know, for such a Truth was for the ancient Orders of the East and the West.

This image is Baphomet, the Goat-headed human figure with an erect phallus and female breasts. This androgynous figure represents the Unity that is achieved when duality is transcended. On the material plane we can see this spirit manifesting when males recognize unashamedly, qualities within themselves that have traditionally been conditioned as feminine, and conversely when females recognize traditionally conditioned male qualities, as part of a balanced whole within themselves. Yes, all of us, both male and female can adopt the symbolism of the Beast and the Scarlet Woman personally, just as we can both give and receive, think and feel. True peace and long lasting happiness is an attainable reality if we truly capture the spirit of the Double Current and mould our realizations into a hamonious Unity.

In conclusion I would like to quote from a small reception that I received from a spirit identifying itself as my Holy Guardian Angel in July of last year. The reception was dictated by an inner voice in what proved to be an unrehearsed and completely natural, free following communication. It formed a small book which I named Liber Omonoia 311 which means Unity in Greek - its numeration totaling 311 which I later discovered. The book's contents have played a pivotal role in my personal initiation and are imbued with the Maatian current, although in no way do I consider the book to be either a new dispensation or even a postscript to Liber Al. What its reception provided was vital additional information that acted as a catalyst for a deeper understanding of The Book of the Law and the Double Current contained therein.

6. One is the key.
Chosen for those that free.
And in the day of balance it shall be three for ye.
7. Thus ye have One and three
Three and One.
Had Unity
Let not one well know the other.
8. In the day of Maat the justified will gain by losing that which they chose to explain.
Negating the effects of pain.
9. And only then shall your Unity be found
And only then Not again shall my children breathe the light without breath. The dark without death.

Simon Hinton 1998 ©

LAM: The Gateway by Michael Staley

   

Lam!
Thou Voice of the Silence,
Glyph of Hoor-paar-kraat:
The Dwarf-Self, the Hidden God.
Gateway to the Aeon of Maat!
I evoke Thee! I evoke Thee!
With the mantra Talam-Malat,
Talam-Malat,
Talam-Malat ...

Crowley's portrait of Lam, entitled 'The Way', was first published in 1919 as a frontispiece to his Commentary on Blavatsky's The Voice of the Silence. However, nowhere else in Crowley's work is there a mention of it until 1945, when a diary entry records Kenneth Grant's interest. It is clear, however, that the portrait arose in connection with the Amalantrah Working of 1918-19, when Crowley lived in New York. Unfortunately, the Record of that Working which survives consists of the first six months only. Nevertheless, it is clear from a study of this surviving material that the portrait of Lam embodies the quintessence of the Working.    
LAM - Typhonian O.T.O.

The absence of Crowley's exegesis on Lam gives us a great deal of freedom and creativity to discover the implications for ourselves, and to use them as magical and mystical tools in our initiation. The portrait was republished in Grant's book The Magical Revival in 1972, and several times since - see, for instance, the Statement on Lam by the O.T.O. published in Starfire Volume I number 3 (London, 1989).

There is much material on Lam in the more recent books by Grant; however, a definitive interpretation has yet to emerge. This is because we are dealing with something that is living and growing, rather than a matter simply of academic study.

Nevertheless, a broad outline is emerging, enough to make clear the primary function of Lam as the Gateway to wider and deeper ranges of consciousness - our extra-terrestrial, pan-dimensional Reality. In fact, anything whatsoever can function as the Gateway to those dimensions. The supreme glyph of Enlightenment is the lightning-flash, the swift awakening to Reality, which illuminates the landscape previously shrouded in darkness. The lightning flash can be triggered at any time, and by anything, when the conditions are propitious. The accumulation of glamour around the Cult of Lam makes it a Gateway which is pre-eminently accessible, however. The association with The Voice of the Silence makes it clear that Lam is a glyph of that Voice - the Babe in the Egg, Harpocrates, the God of Silence. This is Hoor-paar-kraat, the dwarf-self or Hidden God which is the Holy Guardian Angel. Here is a deep and powerful link; Hoor-paar-kraat is the copula with the unbroken, ever-coming substratum of consciousness which is Maat or the Tao, and of which we are terrestrial refractions. It is because of the intimate, intrinsic nature of this connection that every Initiate needs to forge his or her own link with Lam, and thus to develop an idiosyncratic Cult of Lam. The evocation reproduced at the outset of this essay is an example, being part of the present author's Lam sadhana, encapsulating the awareness of Lam outlined above.

Crowley gave the portrait to Kenneth Grant in 1945. Since then the significance of Lam has become more apparent. This significance can be glimpsed in the Amalantrah Working, but its applications reach well beyond; were this not the case, then Lam would be nothing more than an exotic curio in the museum of Crowleyanity. The emerging Cult of Lam is of central importance to Starfire; for now, though, this article looks at some of the seeds in the Amalantrah Working and related areas. Appended are two accounts of contemporary Lam Workings which have been submitted to us [on-line is only ONE appendix]. The first of these draws on Enochian approaches; the second makes use of the magical technique outlined in the Statement on Lam published in the third issue of Starfire.

Crowley went to the United States in 1914, at the outbreak of the First World War, and stayed there until 1919. This period covers the core of his initiation into the A.·. A.·. grade of Magus. These years were marked by an ever-deepening insight into and affinity with Taoism, as is made plain in the course of the Preface to his Tao Teh Ching - actually a revision of James Legge's earlier translation. This insight saturates Liber Aleph, The Book of Wisdom or Folly, the manuscript of which was almost complete by the opening of the Amalantrah Working. Liber Aleph is a central work of Crowley's, where he makes clear the deep affinity between Taoism and Thelema; without an appreciation of this affinity, Liber Aleph appears as little more than a scattering of aphorisms. The Amalantrah Working needs to be seen in the context of this initiation.

According to Crowley's account, the Working arose spontaneously. He was living with a mistress at the time, Roddie Minor. One of her indulgences was opium, the opulent visions of which she related aloud. On one particular occasion, her apparent ramblings struck Crowley as bearing on the Abuldiz Working of some years previously, and after some astral investigation he decided that there were indeed threads of the earlier Working which were being picked up; thus opened the Amalantrah Working. Crowley inaugurated regular sessions, which usually took place at the weekends. He seemed interested primarily in its use as an oracle for his affairs over the forthcoming week. Although there were many such short-term oracular pronouncements, there was also a wealth of more substantial material.

Amalantrah is the name of the entity with whom Crowley trafficked over the course of the Working. Communication was never direct, but via a medium or Seer who was sensitised by sex, drugs and alcohol in various combinations. Because of the effects of these preliminaries, the earthing of the communications was sometimes poor, their expression rambling and diffuse; the wheat needs to be separated from the chaff, therefore, when considering the Record. The Seer was usually Roddie Minor, although on a few occasions other women did assume the Office. The visions often opened in a woodland Temple which was perceived astrally by the Seer; this Temple was sometimes peopled by apparent doubles of those participating, and included on occasions absent colleagues.

Several of the early visions are very suggestive of the portrait of Lam. Consider, for example, the following:

    I began by asking for a vision containing a message. I first heard gurgling water and saw a dark farmhouse in among trees and green fields. The house and other things disappeared and a dark yoni appeared just where the house had stood. I then asked where will a message come from? Immediately soldiers with guns appeared lounging about the place, and a king on a throne where the house had stood. I then asked again for a message and saw an egg in which were many tiny convolutions of some flesh-like substance which would form something. The egg was placed in an oblong as in a picture. Around it were clouds, trees, mountains and water, called the 'four elements'. A camel appeared in front of the whole picture. I next tried to find out who the king was. He looked more like Prof. Shotwell than any one else. That is, he was 'simple, democratic' and very learned and fine. He was certainly not a king belonging to any kingdom limited by a country's borders, but he was a king of men, or a king of the world. I asked his name and the word 'Ham' appeared between the egg in the oblong and the soldiers around the king.

The Egg is a commonly-occurring glyph throughout the visions of the Amalantrah Working. It is of course a glyph of birth - the egg which contains the potential of all that is to come. There is a reference in one of the visions to Geburah 'applied to' the egg. Geburah is in this context the sword which cleaves the egg, or the lightning flash which sunders it, giving birth to the potential secreted within. Since elements of this particular vision are the foundation for much of the subsequent analysis, an extract from the Record follows. In this extract, 'T' is Therion, and 'A' is Achitha, the motto of the Seer, Roddie Minor. 'The Wizard' is Amalantrah. 'Arcteon' is the motto which was given to Charles Stansfeld Jones by Amalantrah. The bracketed material in the Record indicates both lacunae and asides by Crowley or others.

    [Saturday] 27th April 1918 10.08 p.m. Wizard very serious and looks at Achitha in a very contemplative mood. Seems to approve. Turtle is most prominent thing in Temple. Child is there, lion and Barzedon. Arcteon has a very prominent place; he is a tall man that always appears in the Temple.
    T: 'What is the work of this weekend?'
    A: 'Geburah.'
    T: 'Geburah applied to what?'
    A: 'The egg. The egg is resting on the point of mountain tops, very sharp. Water around, lotus flowers on it.'
    T: 'Egg is symbol of some new knowledge, isn't it?'
    A: 'Gimel. Lamed.' (= spring, fountain.)
    T: 'What does that mean?'
    A: 'I don' t know; followed symbol of mountain and lotus flower.'
    T: 'How are we to break open the egg?'
    A: 'In plain language it means Thou art to go this Way.'
    T: 'That isn't plain language. How are we to get this new knowledge?'
    A: 'Don't ask questions too fast. Sow the wild oats; go into the (...) into the Mother ... (T[herion]: You bet, you bet.) (A[rcteon]: I think you're both getting off the trolly.) ... to be born again.'
    T: 'What about the Mass of the Holy Ghost?'
    A: 'That hasn't anything to do with it. You've shattered everything. I'll have to establish connection all over again. Going into the Mother to be born again, you get a New Life and then the Earth is covered with wonderful flowers, and bees come to the flowers to get honey to store, and the honey is stored elixir. I see a hill very steep. (I think (...) is played out.) Mother standing (...) down watching child. I don't know if she's going to save it or go after it or what. Lotus flower on water again.'

The references to the lotus flower in association with the egg, and later the child, are significant. They suggest the Babe in the Egg, Harpocrates, often depicted as seated upon a lotus flower. The mountain is a symbol of initiation, of communing with the gods; examples are Mount Arunachala and Mount Kailas, and the story of Moses ascending the mountain to receive the Word of God. The Hebrew letters Gimel and Lamed give GL, which means 'spring, fountain'. The portrait of Lam shows clearly a mottled emanation or umbra from the top of the egg, like the dappled effect of a fountain in sunlight, or the 'fountain of dew' which showers from the Sahasrara chakra when the Fire Snake streaks up the Sushumna. The original publication of the portrait in 1919 did not show this, presumably because it was too subtle for the reproduction techniques then prevalent; subsequent publications in The Magical Revival (1972), Outside the Circles of Time (1980), and Starfire Volume I number 3 (1989) show it clearly, however. The Record of the last surviving session of the Working makes further reference to Gimel and Lamed, as the following extract shows:

    [Sunday] 16th June 1918 9.00 P.M. Wizard very natural - usual folk there.
    T: 'Symbol for next week?'
    A: '245.' (perfect man; gall; RVCH AL (Spirit of God).)
    T: 'Explain, please.'
    A: '83 explains one side of it.' (83 = dew, wave etc.) '74 explains rest.' (74 = ??? etc.)
    83 = Gimel 74 = Lamed
    33. Spring, fountain. Perhaps all means the way is clear.

Here Gimel and Lamed are again mentioned, this time as the two sides of Perfection which are integrated in Adam Qadmon, the Perfect Man. This reference to Perfection suggests the Tao; it also suggests Maat as the Perfect Aeon. Gimel and Lamed when enumerated in full are 83 and 74 respectively, and combine as 157, the number which Crowley assigned to his reworking of Legge's Tao Teh Ching translation. He completed the reworking during his Magical Retirement at Oesipus Island in the summer of 1918; and he relates in the published Preface how he evoked Amalantrah to elucidate certain obscure passages. The attribution of 157 to his Tao Teh Ching, then, gives us further confirmation of the Taoist substratum of the Amalantrah Working, and reinforces the identification of Perfection with the Tao.

The portrait of Lam shows a well-developed Ajna chakra, which can also be seen as a stylised ankh. Together with the pattern of the umbra mentioned earlier, the shape of a cup or chalice is clearly delineated. GL also means a 'bowl' or 'chalice'. This suggests that if Gimel and Lamed are the two sides of Perfection, then Perfection is the Supreme Chalice or Graal, the Cup of Babalon, the Womb of the Mother. This interpretation is underlined by a passage in Crowley's Commentary to Liber LXV (The Book of the Heart Girt with the Serpent):

    Pe is the letter of Atu XVI the 'House of God' or 'Blasted Tower'. The hieroglyph represents a Tower - symbolic of the ego in its phallic aspect, yet shut up, i.e. separate. This Tower is smitten by the Lightning Flash of illumination, the impact of the H.G.A. and the Flaming Sword of the Energy that proceeds from Kether to Malkuth. Thence are cast forth two figures representing by their attitude the letter Ayin: these are the twins (Horus and Harpocrates) born at the breaking open of the Womb of the m other (the second aspect of The Tower as 'a spring shut up, a fountain sealed').

This passage underlines the mention earlier of Geburah 'applied to' the egg, the lightning flash being in this context a type of Geburah. We have, then, an identity between the Tao and the Cup of Babalon, both being Perfection; and, of course, 'The Perfect and the Perfect are one Perfect and not two; nay, are none!" (AL I.45). The reference to 'a spring shut up, a fountain sealed' is from the Song of Solomon:

    A garden barred is my sister, my bride, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

This indicates a pregnant womb, rather than a celebration of virginity: to shut up or seal is to obstruct something which has formerly flowed. It is, then, an apt phrase to be used by Crowley in the context of the quote above from his Commentary to Liber LXV. Moreover, it recalls a passage from Kenneth Grant's The Magical Revival:

    Crowley used the sevenfold star as a basis for the Seal which he designed for the Great White Brotherhood. The major emblem of the Silver Star is thus the sevenfold seal upon the Yoni of the Star Goddess. In the yonis or triangles appear the seven letters of the name B.A.B.A.L.O.N. Centrally, a vesica is shown, blocked or barred, indicating the presence of the secret seed; the point has become the line, the diameter has become the circumference. This seed is the 'hermit', the hidden, masked, anonymous male essence in the process of begetting its image as the Sun-son upon the mother goddess. This is therefore the Seal of Set who opens his mother's womb, as Sothis the Star opens the Circle of the Year.

(Grant, The Magical Revival, p.48)

Set is Hoor-paar-kraat, the 'secret seed', the Hidden God, released from the egg by the shattering force of the lightning flash of illumination. In Olla, Crowley defines Silence as the Path of the Lightning Flash. Silence in this context is not simply the absence of noise or movement: it is the 'still, small voice' from which manifestation unfolds, the potential which gives rise to the actual, the noumena which underlies phenomenon. The Egg of Silence is typified by Lam; to embark on the Cult of Lam is therefore to evoke the Hidden God, the Holy Guardian Angel. This is Initiation, the journey inwards which is simultaneously the journey outwards, for the microcosm and the macrocosm are not two but one. Lam is the Gateway to Outside - those tranches of consciousness which lie beyond the bounds of what we consider to be ourselves.

This Gateway, and these tranches, are nothing new. The goal of all magical and mystical traditions is Gnosis - the awakening to Reality. The nominalisations of this goal are legion, but all paths lead to Rome. Similarly, each Initiate will have his or her own Gateway, but each Gateway will open out onto the same Reality.


Let us now analyze briefly the evocation which was reproduced at the outset of this essay.

    Lam!
    Thou Voice of the Silence ...

Crowley's association of the portrait of Lam with The Voice of the Silence identifies it as a glyph of that Voice. The association is underlined by the assignation of 71 to both the portrait and the Commentary, as is made clear by the inscription which accompanied the portrait as originally published:

    LAM is the Tibetan word for Way or Path, and LAMA is He who Goeth, the specific title of the Gods of Egypt, the Treader of the Path, in Buddhistic phraseology. Its numerical value is 71, the number of this book.

A metathesis of LAM is ALM, also 71, a Hebrew word meaning silence, silent'. The Silence is the noumenon which underlies and infuses phenomena, the continuum of which all things soever are simultaneously facets and the whole. The Silence is the quietness at the heart of noise, the stillness at the heart of activity, the being at the heart of going, and the emptiness at the heart of matter. These juxtapositions may seem merely revelling in paradox; the fact is, though, that reason is a tool of limited application, and paradox is a means of pointing beyond apparent contraries. The 'Way' or 'Path' is a reference to the Tao. The 'Treader of the Path' is the Initiate, treading the path of initiation. This brings to mind the concluding lines from "Pilgrim-Talk", in Crowley's The Book of Lies:

    O thou that drawest toward the End of The Path, effort is no more. Faster and faster dost thou fall; thy weariness is changed into Ineffable Rest.
    For there is no Thou upon That Path: thou hast become The Way.

Initiation is the realisation that we are all jivanmukta, liberated whilst yet living; further - that the only thing to be liberated from is the idea that we are not already liberated.

    Glyph of Hoor-paar-kraat:
    The Dwarf-SeIf, the Hidden God.

Hoor-paar-kraat is the unmanifest twin of Ra-Hoor-Khuit, manifestation. The distinction between these twins is figurative only; they are aspects of each other, neither separate from the other. The term 'Dwarf' Self' is often used: 'dwarf' in the sense of yet to manifest, adolescent, prepubescent, yet to flower. This is the Hidden God, a term used throughout the Egyptian Book of the Dead to glyph the sun in the Underworld or Amenta, the potential which is at the heart of florescence. Yoga is Union; not the union of opposites, but the unveiling of the union which has always existed, veiled by the illusion of limitation. Hoor-paar-kraat is a term often used synonymously with the Holy Guardian Angel.

Hoor-paar-kraat may be seen in terms of the Tetragrammaton, the Hé final, Horus or Ra-Hoor-Khuit being the Vau. This identifies Hoor-paar-kraat with the Aeon of Maat, the continuum or extra-terrestrial reality, a Communion in which we are at once Celebrants and that which is celebrated. As Treaders of the Way, we are not something separate which merely traverses from one point to another: we are the Way.

    Gatesway to the Aeon of Maat!
    I evoke Thee! I evoke Thee!
    With the mantra Talam-Malat ...

Taking the above ideas together, we can see, therefore, in what sense Lam is the Gateway. The portrait of Lam arose from the Amalantrah Working, and is a glyph of that Working. Lam is the Voice of the Silence, the Silence which is the extra-terrestrial continuum of consciousness of which manifestation is a facet. The Aeon of Maat is not a span of time, nor an initiation to which we might attain by virtue of intense and protracted contortions of the mind and body, but is here and now - the Ever-Coming One.

The mantra 'Talam-Malat' celebrates the Gateway, and is uttered several times before it lapses into silent vibration. 'Talam' is the semenhoney offered in the Mass of Maat; the word is a fusion of Lam and Maat. Its number is 81, KSA, the full moon which is both the flowering of the lunar cycle and the point of return to the New Moon; similarly, Maat is both the flowering of the Aeonic cycle and the point of return to the Pralaya or dissolution. The second half of the mantra, 'Malat', a mirror image of the first half, emphasises this sense of backward-turning.

The use of this mantra stems from the culminating moon of a Working, based on Crowley's Liber Samekh, which I undertook several years ago after sensing a summons to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. The number 81 emerged into awareness, and it seemed to be a perichoresis of several elements - my growing interest in Lam, the mysteries of Maat into which I was then gaining an insight, and my Angel. The mantra 'Talam-Malat', then, concentrates and celebrates the common nature and indeed identity of the Angel, the Aeon of Maat, the Tao, and extra-terrestrialism. This insight was, and is, a matter of experience; once tasted, the nectar is not only never forgotten, but is ever-present.

This brings us to the prime consideration of the Cult of Lam, which is that though Lam is the Gateway to our extra-terrestrial reality, that Gateway is intrinsic to the individual Initiate. Similarly, the key that unlocks the Gateway is necessarily of a unique pattern, and must be discovered by the Initiate in the course of direct magical and mystical experience, The Cult of Lam focuses upon the techniques for discovering the pattern. However, these techniques can never be a universal template; rather, they are but a basis upon which the Initiate rears his or her own Temple of Illumination, the inner shrine of which is Silence.

The Cult of Lam, then, is a quintessence of the Typhonian tradition, which is concerned with trafficking with that which lies Outside of the terrestrial vehicle, and hence uniting the terrestrial and the extra-terrestrial. The practical Keys which facilitate this alchemy will be explored in future articles.

Appendix
Lam and the Art of Archery

    'Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the highest are of us'.
    'The Tao of Heaven is like an arrow, yet it woundeth not'.
    'Happy are they that have known me for who I am. And glory unto him that bath made a gallery of my throat for the arrow of his truth, and the moon for his purity'.

The following material has been drawn from explorations of the Enochian System, and can be of use in contacting Lam. There seem to be several Aethyrs particularly appropriate to the contact with LAM and the energies of the Aeons of Horus and Maat. There are also some elemental spheres within the watchtowers themselves which seem appropriate to contact with LAM. The first account is of a journey to the Aethyr VTI, the Aethyr of Change. Its numeration in terms of the Enochian letters is either 133 or 139, the former reducing as 7 x 19. This is the Aethyr where the Initiate discovers the nature of his or her 'Covenant with God'. The Covenant is LAM; it reflects the particular direction of the Initiate's arrow of Will within the continuum of Maat. Before moving to the vision of this Aethyr, a few signposts are appropriate.

    BAG, the Aethyr of Doubt = 19;
    BABALON (Babelon) = 114 = 6 x 19;
    VTI = 133/139 = 7 x 19;
    SHAITAN = 133/139;
    OVOF, Magnify = 133;
    ABRAHADABRA = 418 = 22 x 19.

Journey to VTI: The Aethyr of Change

    After repeating the appropriate calls, I began to stare into the large calcite crystal upon the table which served as an altar. I could see stars in space, and after repeating the word OVOF [Magnify] several times I felt myself to be floating in space. There was a large star towards which I was being drawn. I passed through the coronasphere of the sun, but felt no discomfort. I found myself in a bright but misty void within the star. A beach appeared in the mists and I walked up onto its sands. At the edge of the beach was a wood of large oak trees which I quickly entered. I moved deeper and deeper into the woods, and the light from the star cast strange long shadows which seemed to point the way into the heart of the wood. A grove appeared; and within that clearing was a beautiful waterfall, which bubbled into a stream and then wove its way towards the beach, disappearing out of sight. I bathed in the waterfall. I realised suddenly that I was being watched, and noticed that there was a cave behind the waterfall. In the twilight I could see the radiant image of a woman; she stood in profile, half-clothed in the shadows, beckoning me to enter within. I penetrated the veil of the waterfall and took her hand. She led me down a long tunnel that seemed to go far underground. Finally we came to two large doors with an elaborate seal upon them. My guide vanished into the shadows, and an impressive warrior-like angel clothed in samurai-like clothes appeared before the door, blocking my way. He had fiercesome flashing eyes, and 106 arrows pierced his chest like a pin cushion. The Barbs protruded from his back, and his chest was a mass of feathers, the feathers of MAAT. In one exotic flashing, flowing movement without any break, he fixed his eyes unflinching like a cat, whilst his hand selected the arrow for me and placed it upon his bow, and he drew and fired at my heart. As the arrow entered my heart I was shaken with pain and pleasure; I realised in a blinding gnosis that these arrows had been dipped in the Holy Graal of the Scarlet Woman, and this was the poison of Babalon which would lead me to the GRAAL and to the Abyss in search of the Philosophers Stone (the antidote, if you like). The poison would eventually bring about the death of my personality in the Abyss, but it also connected me to the bloodline of those who seek the path which leads to LIT: and beyond to LIL - LIL-LIT (H). I saw then that the Elixir of the Poison of the Arrow (MAL is 'an arrow' in Enochian) is LAM.
    I realised later that this occult attack had come from the Governor called Ranglam. But I had forgotten about the arrow by now, as the seal had been broken and the doors to the underground chamber opened. I entered within; the atmosphere was very dark and deathly quiet. At the end of the room stood a Stone throne, and a presence sat upon it. I stared to perceive who it was, but as I tried to focus on the face it started to distort. I could see two red eyes staring back at me, and felt intensely that this was myself in the future as yet not formed, as yet unborn, unseen and unheard; but I had been marked and I would return. At this point I withdrew from the vision, realising that I could go no further at that time. I believe that the presence here encountered was the LAM, the face of the Monad that only becomes really apparent in this Aethyr of LIT.

What follows is information which has been received as a result of expeditions to Aethyrs, both alone and in groups, over the past few months. he Aim was to achieve deeper knowledge of the function and operation of LAM with regards to the Great Work and our respective true selves. These are the results.



Egregore Chain No. 1: LAM (104) + AIWASS (156) + OLUN (158) = 418

LAM is the duality of creation, QAA (52), the arrow and the target. Aiwass on this basis is the threefold aspect of creation, the fulfilment and the synthesis of the aspiration of the arrow towards heaven. AIWASS + OLUN = 314 = KAL (to manifest, or precipitate). KAL is derived from KALZ which means 'the Firmament' and is itself a factor of doubt. KALZ = 323 = 17 x 19. Hence we can derive from this the formula:

    KAL LAM = 418 = KAL MAL (Sigil Earth of Water, Water Tablet)
    Manifest LAM = 418: Manifest the Arrow.

OLUN: OL (to make = 2 x 19) + UN (title of the first enochian letter) = 120 = OM, Understanding, and GRAA the Moon. Hence OLUN can he defined as to make the understanding of the Moon, or to make a hole which is receptive to understanding. OLUN seems to be very like TIAMAT or LILITH.

    KAL = 314 = BUTMONI (Their mounts) 2 x 157. ZORGE (Love) = 151/157.

Hence we can see that the marriage of AIWASS and OLUN creates manifestation and expresses the duality of Love and its division. Out of their mouths spill the duality of the word which is divided, but which becomes reconciled through the Love of LAM: the arrow joins them. The arrow of truth is the arrow of Eros, the arrow of LIT - the Aethyr without a supreme Being. OLUN is the act of drawing the Bow, LAM is the face behind the Arrow, and AIWASS is the act of aiming and fixing the target which depends upon light.

Egregore Chain No. 2: MAAT (111) + AIWASS (156) + BEAST (37) + BABALON (114) = 418

    MAAT (111) + AIWASS (156) = 267, YRPOIL, 'division'; BEAST (37) + BABELON (114) = 151, ZORGE/SALOME, 'love'; YRPOIL (Division) + ZORGE (Love) = 418.

Hence 'I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union'. But how can this union be accomplished? How can the duality be reconciled? The answer is through the introduction of a third variable, which is Love: the Love of the Beast for Babalon, and of Maat for Aiwass. It is interesting to see how Aiwass appears on both these maps. He seems to represent on the one hand in the first map the Magus, and Logos of the Aeon; whilst in the second one he is the Demiurge, with the path of the Hierophant (Man of Earth) connecting these two maps together.

But what exactly is an egregore chain, and how does it work? It can be defined as the group spirit (super-consciousness) of all the members of a particular Order. The F.S. (Fraternitas Saturni) use this notion very effectively; members need not be present in the workings or rituals of other Order members in order to gain access to the egregore. It is analogous to the running of magical computer programs across a network of adepts or members, in order to access necessary gnosis and guidance from the Secret Chiefs. This can be done using these egregore maps because they express the laws of Creation and the Fall through their symbolism. They allow people to free themselves from the lust of result by the externalisation of the Holy Guardian Angel into the egregore; thus, in the process of trying to communicate with the Secret Chiefs, the nature of the Angel is encountered in the process. It also helps to align groups to the Great Work more effectively, diminishing group Babel that hinders us from uniting with Babelon. Babel is a negative build up of Shaitan energy that restricts the flow of Will. This is the division that must be overcome with Love. When working alone, the triad seems to be the most natural pattern to assume. For example, I take the form of Aiwass through atavistic assumption, and through OLUN my anima manifests the Child that is Lam, the fruit of my will, the Hidden God. In pairs, OLUN + AIWASS relationships form, with Lam being the invisible unifier or copula between them.

The Bow is formed of a branch of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The String is the golden thread, the Sutrat-man that connects us from incarnation to incarnation, from past to future; it is the knowledge which we retrieve from Choronzon through the ABRAHADABRA process. The String is the Serpent of Time, Apep, that must be overcome. The frequency of the string as it resonates is the song of the true self, and is but part of the music of the spheres. The tension of the Bow is the force of Shaitan that tries to resist the Initiate drawing it back and seeing his or her origin. Shaitan does this by creating a sevenfold veil of doubt which must be transcended. The Bow may now be opened which itself creates a division, a window to the void through which we can find the path. This takes the strength of a Lion or a Dragon (OLUN). To open the bow is to weave a vortex, a voracious devouring of chaos and cosmos. The Daughter of the Flaming Sword is often depicted holding the mouth of a lion, as if to control it, to stop her being consumed. But the opening of the bow is the opening of the mouth of the Dragon, whereby one is consumed with fire (spirit). The Bow is now fully extended and becomes a Circle, with the heart of the Initiate at the centre: Hadit joins with Nuit. (Nuit is often depicted holding two arrows in early Egyptian icons, one of which points upward, the other downward). Now we aim without aiming; to forget the arrow (MAL) is to remember LAM: the Target is our intention. We lilace the arrow, symbol of our will (AIWASS) and its ultimate fulfilment, upon the string; and, dissolving ourselves in samadhi upon a sevenfold doubt, we loose the arrow in a moment of pure folly. The feathers of the arrow are plucked from the headdress of MAAT; these feathers form a cross pattern as they resolve themselves in a circle which becomes the Mark of the Beast. One of these feathers of MAAT is used to weigh the heart of the Initiate in the 17th Aethyr TAN, the Aethyr of the Balance.

A suggested LAM Visualisation

Imagine you could remember all your past incarnations in full, through different races, sexes, cultures, planets and even solar systems. Imagine yourself turning around to look behind in a moment of paranoia-critical, and seeing all those incarnations. The fear and disgust of past acts, pain and death must be transcended in doubt and magnified, so that the covenant becomes manifest. Try to synthesize all these shades; though they be divided, this is the mystery of Babalon that you must overcome with Love. Then, through a process of Magical forgetfulness, forget the arrow and give birth to LAM: a bi-sexual humanoid entity which glows with orgone light energy and is the sum of your past and the root of your future. This image is nameless, the Bornless One; hence it is attributed to the Fifth Aethyr, the Aethyr which is without a supreme Being; but it is also a servant of the Arrow, Truth.

Zos Speaks!: Encounters With Austin Osman Spare by Kenneth Grant & Stefi Grant (PDF)

 In the domain of talismanic books there are very few that can come close to this one in the raw power it projects. True to form of occult books, this one too leaves enough out to make the serious reader reach out to seek more with senses outside of the optical and intellectual. Several PHDs can be tackled from the material contained here.

Amongst the hundreds of books I have read and own this is singularly the most important by a long margin. In reality it is 2 books in one. The first being a meticulously collected and intimate exchanges between Spare and his de facto successor Grant, or rather the Grants as both Kenneth and Steffi were clearly devoted students, friends and supporters of Spare. The glimpse into Spare’s personality and thought patterns is simply priceless. The second part of the book is as close as we ever got to an authentic grimoire of one of the greatest and enigmatic magicians who ever walked the denser plain of existence. Here we finally get to unravel some of the cryptic concepts from Spare’s seminal work “The book of Pleasures” particularly the philosophy behind the alphabet of desire as it relates to sigils. We also get a privileged view into some astoundingly powerful (from personal experience) rituals, which frankly makes those of the Thelemites seem amateurish at best. This is magick in its raw form. The straight line of the will between the two points of desire and reality, devoid of the “fat” of unnecessary pomp and circumstance that so plagues conventional magickal practices.

The various formulae Spare shares (at long last) are sufficiently potent so that even, in Spare’s own words, “The Devil himself shall not prevent your 'will' from materializing.”

No price is too high for the privilege of owning this book. For the serious student of the Art, it is nothing short of indispensable.

Download:
https://mega.co.nz/#!EtsyQCIQ!04JjLbgdGHa1v5YyR-5pjDuj_htU7WSdAOzSWw3LbhE

English Heretic ::: Wyrd Tales

I really do love this album.  In fact it haunts me.  If you have never heard English Heretic then you really should.  Highly recommended.

Tracklist:
1 Season Of The Witches' Glove    
2 Pan Satyros    
3 The Digitalis Experience (Side 1)    
4 Theme From The Abraxas Inheritance
5 The Menabilly Pathworking
6 Oh Whistle And I'll Come To You
7 The Vampires Are Coming / Minion Of The Outer Ones

Preview:

Download:
http://sh.st/XA70K

Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis: The OTO After Crowley by Michael Staley

An occult magazine published recently in England carried what purported to be a flow-chart, showing the descent of the Ordo Templi Orientis from its foundation by Kellner down to the present day. The flow-chart is in fact a highly contentious piece of work circulated by the so-called Caliphate O.T.O., the group formerly led by Grady McMurtry and now operating from New York. It comes as no surprise, therefore, to see that the main line of succession to the position of Outer Head of the Order (O.H.O.) passes from Crowley to Germer, and thence to McMurtry. Thus, the Caliphate group presents itself as the mainstream O.T.O., the direct and legitimate successors to Crowley; and all other groupings as at best mere offshoots from the main stem, at worst frauds and pretenders. Its sounds fairly straightforward. The trouble is, however, that the claim is simply untrue. The more that it is examined, the more shallow it becomes.

This article has in fact been prompted by the latest appearance of the flow-chart. It could - and perhaps should - have been written years ago. In essence, it seems a waste of time to have to argue about the past, when what really matters is the present task of developing Thelema and radiating the 93 Current. Some people and organisations seem to see Crowley, Thelema and the O.T.O. as glamorous museum pieces, fixed in perpetuity, to be preserved and cherished here and hereafter. According to this notion, the structure of the Order is sacrosanct, bequeathed to us by the Great Man himself. Thus they admit of no development, no innovation, no change. In short, Thelema becomes a cult of Crowley, and his personality a prime focus. Nothing could be more laughable, more pitiable, than such a notion. It is surely a grotesque distortion of Thelema, and a negation of all that Crowley strove for. Things are in a constant state of flux and flow, unless they are dead. Of course if people hide from change, it is often because they are scared of the challenge of thinking afresh, of innovation. A finished, fixed system is much easier to deal with than one that is constantly changing, constantly evoking.

Crowley succeeded Reuss as O.H.O. in 1922. However, the reins of leadership passed by no means easily or smoothly. Many of the existing lodges in Germany, and no doubt elsewhere, had had strong reservations about Crowley for years. Simply, many of them went their own ways, and thus the Order was to some extent splintered. Crowley undertook a certain amount of reorganisation of the Order, but he retained its masonic or quasi-masonic structure, with its apparatus of fees, secret signs, passwords, ritual conferring of grades, etc. Something of a doctrinal Thelemic influence seems to have been infused into the grade rituals, and the degrees appear to have been reorganised to some extent, but the structural masonic influence is clear. A glimpse of this type of stucture can be gained from the Blue Equinox.

The masonic influence is not altogether surprising. During the closing years of the last century and the opening years of this, when the modern "occult revival" is deemed to have gathered impetus, many of the occult groups seem to have sprung from masonic or quasi-masonic organisations. Many of the founders of these groups were themselves Freemasons, and they carried over with them the preoccupations with charters, grades, secret passwords, grips and the like. Any structure of grades is - or should be - purely functional and pragmatic, a means of orderly progress through a course of work. They should never be seen as assessments or statements of "spiritual status"; and if people are going to be prey to such misconceptions, then it might be better to have no grades at all. Crowley was to some extent a product of the old, patriarchal Aeon, and seems to have been unable to get away from the idea of such old-Aeon structures. This is perhaps demonstrated by his limited remodelling of the Order after he took over the leadership.

Despite Crowley's ambitions throughout the years, he died in 1947 without nominating a clear magical heir or successor. During the last few years of his life, his trusted lieutenant was Karl Germer. Crowley appears to have inducted Germer straight into the IX* of the Order, and the latter had no acquaintance with the earlier grades that a more orthodox progression through the structure would have given him. Germer was the Grand Treasurer General, and the financial burden of directing the affairs of the Order seems to haven fallen largely on his shoulders. It is curious that, although Crowley came to see Germer as being his successor, he did not take the trouble to train him for the position, nor even establish whether Germer himself felt up to the task. When Crowley died, he left behind a very confused state of affairs. Although it was his wish that Germer succeed him, Germer felt that he was not equal to the task, and declined to become O.H.O. Thus he remained as Grand Treasurer General, fulfilling the role of curator of an Order that was effectively dormant. In the years following Crowley's death the Order was rudderless and in disarray. Some lodges went their own ways, and others just withered.

This picture of the Order following Crowley's death can be substantiated. Kenneth Grant was a member of the Sovereign Sanctuary of the Order, and corresponded with Germer on Order affairs. This correspondence is voluminous, and is of particular interest for the light that it sheds on these matters. In particular, it substantiates the position that Germer refused the office of O.H.O. Indeed, far from claiming the office, he took every opportunity of disavowing it.

In a letter to Grant dated 24 September 1948, Germer advises him that

    ... You should study all that is published about the Constitution etc of the O.T.O. and digest it. You would have known that I am not the O.H.O. I do not know whether I would accept the job if it were pressed on me.

It is clear from the above extract that the job had not been pressed upon him, and that he woule feel reluctant to be "drafted" into the position. In a subsequent letter to Grant, dated, 25 May 1951, he expands upon this:

    ... In the first place, do not refer to me as your superior in the Order. That is only true in an extremely limited sense. What I appear to be in the O.T.O. has been thrust upon me, against my will. I will do what I can; but I shall refuse to make claims that go against my grain. I am strictly speaking the Grand Treasurer General of the O.T.O. No more, no less! The whole situation shouts for somebody who has the will and the guts and the capacity to grow into supreme leadership. If he comes along he will have my full support. But I, personally, am not going to sail under false pretences. I have told everybody that I never learnt Rituals, never saw them performed; nor the Mass: in short, I have no feeling for Order-organisation.

Gemer went on reiterating this point - that he was not the O.H.O., did not wish to be, and felt himself inadequate for the task. More interestingly, however, he began to see Grant as a potential O.H.O. The following passages are extracted from a letter to Grant dated 18 January 1952:

    ... As you know, I never went through the O.T.O. grades; I don't know ritual, or the rituals. But A.C. made me Grand Treasurer General with the financial burden mostly on my personal shoulders ...
    ... I have never gone systematically through the grades, etc. I, therefore, cannot advise on this side of the work. I have come to the conviction that you are being trained for just this, and I am sure that you have the passion, the capacity for intensive work, and the Will to reach Mastery in this department or field.

The whole position is well summarised in the following extracts from a letter to Grant dated 18 January 1952:

    ... Nor am I against the O.T.O. system, or the system of Degrees. Only, paradoxically, I have very little interest in it. I wish someone could take the whole work, and the responsibility for the burden which A.C. laid on my incompetent shoulders, off me! What I hate more than anything is to sail under false pretences. I repeat what I've said before: I have never gone through an O.T.O. initiation or graduation; I've never been present at a Gnostic Mass performance ... I do not know the password, grips etc. of even the lower degrees of the O.T.O. Briefly: A.C. appointed me to the highest grade and responsability without coaching me for the job. If we want to get the O.T.O. properly going again, we need a competent leader, not only for England but for the world. It must be somebody who knows the thing inside out; who has a goal, not only for a period of his own life-span, but beyond that. I have often thought that you might well be chosen for the job ...
    ... You ask me: what is going on elsewhere concerning the O.T.O. There is no active Lodge, as such in the U.S.A., of the O.T.O. What is done is by old members individually.

It is clear from these extracts that Germer did not consider himself to be O.H.O., and it is surprising - given his repeated disavowals - that he has come generally to be seen as such. In his role as caretaker he worked well and devotedly, issuing several of Crowley's works posthumously - for instance, Liber Aleph and Magick Without Tears. Certainly, he administered the affairs of the Order, and fullfilled a custodial role in the years following Crowley's death. However, he was not the O.H.O.

It is at this point that the claims of the Caliphate group break down. It is their contention, as instanced by the flow-chart earlier referred to, that McMurtry succeeded Germer as O.H.O. Quite how this could possibly have been the case, when Germer was on his own admission not of this position himself, is not at all clear. After all, if Germer had reiterated this point in his correspondence with Grant, he must surely have mentioned it to others as well. It is difficult to imagine that McMurtry and his colleagues were not aware of the true state of affairs - in particular of Germer's position in the Order. And yet, this group continues to base its claims upon a line of transmission of headship from Crowley to Germer to McMurtry. To illustrate this, the following is an extract from a letter from their Grand Treasurer General to an English enquirer, dated 22nd July 1984:

    ... From the 1920's Aleister Crowley became the Outer Head of the Order (O.H.O.); and he is responsible for the present form of the Order. Since that time, the Order has been headed in turn by Fr. Saturnus (Karl Germer) and, after the demise of Fr. Saturnus, by Fr. Hymenaeus Alpha, Caliph (Grady McMurtry). We hold papers of direct and unroken continuity in the direction of O.T.O. from the hand of Aleister Crowley to the present head of the Order ...

Before proceeding further, it would be profitable to shed some light on the position of McMurtry, and on the nature of the "papers of direct an unbroken continuity in the direction of O.T.O." A brief consideration of events during the last few years of Crowley's life is necessary.

During the 1940's, Crowley became increasingly disillusioned with the Agape Lodge of the O.T.O., situated in California. He regarded its leadership as being increasingly erratic and inane, and eventually came to see the whole Lodge as a lost cause. An interesting account of this episode is given in chapter 9 of Kenneth Grant's The Magical Revival, and Crowley's growing frustration with the Lodge is clear. Eventually, he came to the conclusion that a fresh start was needed. Consequently in 1946 he issued McMurtry with written authority to take charge of the work of the Order in California. Following this, he was also appointed as an official representative of the Order in the United States of America generally. McMurtry's authority, given in the form of two documents, was however quite limited, being subject to the approval of Germer, himself resident in the States. The first, dated 22 March 1946, states that

    ... This is to authorize Frater Hymenaeus Alpha (Capt. Grady L. McMurtry) to take charge of the whole work of the Order in California, to reform the Organisazion in pursuance of his report of Jan 25, '46 e.v. subject to the approval of Frater Saturnus (Karl J. Germer). This authorization is to be used only in emergency ...

Following this a second document was issued, dated 11 April 1946, and the body of it is as follows:

    ... These presents are to appoint Frater Hymenaeus Alpha - Grady Louis McMurtry IX* O.T.O. - as Our representative in the United States of America, and his authority is to be considered as Ours, subject to the approval, revision, or veto of Our Viceroy Karl Johannes Germer IX* O.T.O. ...

As can be seen from these extracts, the documents hardly constitute the "direct and unbroken authority" that has been claimed. This shortfall would not, of course, be of any importance, were it not for the fact that the Caliphate group places so much store by the documents. Interestingly, Germer has already been quoted as saying, in the course of his letter to Grant of 18th January 1952, that there was no active Lodge in the United States. This was written some six years after the authority from Crowley was issued, and thus makes it clear that McMurtry and his colleagues were not seen particularly active.

One of the chief banes of occultism is the addiction to paper credentials, authorisations, charters and the like, which it is felt lend some sort of spiritual weight, exaltation or glamour to the recipient organisation. However, the proof of the pudding is surely in the eating, and the yardstick for assessing any group can only be its creativity and vitality. Another bane is that of harking back to a supposed sort of Golden Era, in this case an imaginary homogeneous O.T.O. in Crowley's time. Now, anyone who has taken so much as a cursory glance at the history of occult orders must feel almost sea-sick from the flux and flow exhibited. Like minor political groupings, there is a succession of schisms and regroupings, alliances and splinterings. Things never seem to stand still. When we speak of "the O.T.O." from which descent is claimed, what do we mean? Crowley was a controversial figure, and when he became O.H.O. many Lodges simply went their own ways rather than yield to his authority. Might they not have claimed some justification, to be the "genuine O.T.O."? It must be clear, therefore, that "by their fruits shall ye know them".

With this in mind, the following is extracted from "An Official Statement Concerning the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.)". It was originally published in Mezla in 1977, and is still relevant today:

    Certain individuals have questioned the authority of the O.T.O., as re-organised by Kenneth Grant in accordance with the evolution of the 93 Current transmitted by Aleister Crowley from Shaitan-Aiwass in 1904 e.v.
    The vitality of a magical current may be assessed by its products. It should be evident to all but the voluntarily blind, therefore, that the various shoots of the original O.T.O. - bar one - have, by this criterion, proved themselves virtually impotent.
    Readers should consider the fact that all books on Crowley that appeared prior the Grant's Typhonian Trilogy reveal an almost total ignorance on the part of their authors as to the three major concerns of the Book of the Law. We refer to: 1) the importance of extra-terrestrial influences and the necessity for establishing proper contact with them through the magick of the New Aeon; 2) the mode of their invocation by magical means; 3) the science of the kalas (psycho-sexual emanations of fully-polarized male-female organisms) which lies at the heart of the Book of the Law and which is the substratum of all its teachings and the key to the curious cyphers (literary and numerical) which abound in its pages. In point of fact, no books to this day - with the exception of Grant's - treat of the most secret magick of the kalas and their use in the psycho-sexual mysteries of the 93 Current.
    Read Cammell, Hutin, Regardie, Symonds, et al. We repeat: no book published before 1972 contains so much as an allusion to these matters. Whilst Symonds was jeering at Crowley and his antics in The Great Beast, and in various introductions to Crowley's posthumously published works, Grant was pursuing researches that were to supply the vital keys to an initiated understanding and direction of the 93 Current as transmitted through the Book of the Law.
    In the previous issue of this newsletter, and in the introduction to the new O.T.O. edition of Liber AL, Crowley himself has been quoted in respect of the changes which he knew he would have to occur if the O.T.O. were to survive as a fully functioning vehicle of the 93 Current. It was Grant who ultimately effected these changes. But in tearing down the old and rigid system of graded advancement - which depended mainly on fees and favours - he called down upon himself an avalanche or protest from those who were in a position to profit materially from the obsolete system.
    Karl J. Germer, having proved himself blind to the implication of Crowley's letter to him, failed to understand and accept them when - soon after Crowley's death - Grant submitted his plans for change. The remainded of the story has passed into "magical" history. But at that moment, precisely, the 93 Current surpassed Germer and he was no longer in a position to make decisions affecting the Order, which then came completely under the direction of Kenneth Grant. The division is precise and final and the choice lies with you.
    It remains to remind those who support the old-aeon concept of the O.T.O., that they have not produced - nor can they ever produce - the slightest evidence of a creative current in any of its forms, such as is evidenced by the one here represented, which is therefore the Only True Order.
    Consequently if, instead of wasting valuable time and energy in denying its living reality, such individuals were to strive to understand what the 93 Current actually can mean for themselves and for humanity at large, they may reach a stage when these words will seem superfluous. To this end they should aquaint themselves very thoroughly, very profoundly, with Grant's Typhonian Trilogy, for no where else in published form have the genuine and ultimate formulae of practical occultism been made so fully available ...

It is a charge often repeated, as if to illegitimise "Grant's O.T.O.", that Grant was expelled from the Order by Germer. The extracts already quoted from correspondence between the two make it clear that, in the earlier years at least, relations were cordial and that Germer had a high opinion of Grant. In later years, however, there was dissension between them, and Germer issued documents which purported to expel Grant from the Order. Due to the situation prevalent at the time, however, and Germer not being - on his own admission - the O.H.O., the supposed expulsion must be considered invalid. More to the point, though, it is surely irrelevant, as this article demonstrates.

It was the publication of Crowley's Confessions in 1969 that stimulated much of the current interest in Crowley and his work; and it was on the cover to this volume that Grant first laid claim publicly to the office of O.H.O. For years following Crowley's death the Order was without direction, in disarray, and barely alive in the Outer. In the circumstances, it was in all probability Grant's assumption of the position that saved the Order from disappearance into oblivion. Since then he has proved beyond doubt, by virtue of his creative development and enhancement of Crowley's work, his worthiness for that position.