Master Therion aka A. Crowley

and THE LODGE WARS

Trump XXI 

Success The World

Questions I receive about occult groups and full spectrum in-fighting are repeatedly asked by those with a genuine interest in this topic. Lodge Wars are probably the most frequent with regard to the secret societies abounding throughout Europe during the Twentieth Century, although the influences spilled out into America and other countries, during War Time especially. Stone circles and monuments from the misty past are within The Mountain Lake Wave, rather obscure at the pace of the mainstream, yet pure. The wave arouses interest in metaphysics, nature, and survival of the Ancient Knowledge through the ages. Click the house symbol for a photo of an ancient stone circle in the backyard of an Inverness home.  The Transparency Wave touches on The Mountain Lake Wave on the side of the firm while the Akasha-Black Waves touch the other, near the transcendental frequency. 
Trans. DonnaKova Dauser

The Confessions of Aleister Crowley abound with critique of the lodge mentality during the earlier twentieth century. [scroll to excerpts] Although I am not a member of The Hermetic Order of The Golden Dawn or other groups cited by Crowley in this notation, I am honestly concerned about his observations, primarily because most oversights mentioned have failed to correct themselves and remain intact today. I leave the links hot should you wish to read further into Crowley's journal. Hopefully, this page does not offend anyone from any sincere group serious about the integrity of their work. If there are objections to this post, email them to me. It should be noted Europeans view the metaphysical from a perspective with experiential references. Several castles, as example of this, are known to be haunted. Many homepages are dedicated to haunt sites throughout cyberspace, providing vivid illustrations of ancient stone monuments to our ancestors and divine alike. Those who live in the vicinity of a castle with ghosts, like Crowley, are naturally curious about many of the goings on. One of them, Aldourie Castle, [Inverness & Nairn] near Boleskine, according to tradition and rumor, is haunted by a Gray Lady. There are several resident ghosts and paranormal events reported regularly at Glamis Castle.

The Expedition to Chogo Ri in 1902 is the external version of the alchemical journey mapped by Abramelin. Manly P. Hall refers to ancient memories of the great, high power at the top of the world, "... the axle mountain of the world, sacred among many races and symbolic of the human head, which rises out of the four elements of the body. This sacred mountain, upon whose summit stood the temple of the gods, gave rise to the stories of Olympus, Meru, and Asgard."  Visit the National Geographic website for visual splendor, including new Saqqara tomb discovery about Egypt's great transition and Aten @ http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0311   Right, Karnac,  by David Roberts

Many fantastic stories designed to lure pilgrims to far away lands speak to collective visions of a place where streets are made of gold. Popular films frequently capitalize on this shining picture. The yellow brick road to Oz, ethereal golden forests of Galadriel, Sinbad's mystic city holding the treasure of Alexander the Great- even the dream of 'Zion' given to Neo in THE MATRIX, positively reinforce the belief. [Visit MATRIX page 'We're Going Inn']

Downside thematic take-offs are equally popular. Lures can also manipulate people: the legendary treasure city in THE MUMMY, or bad guys salting gold-free land (the pivotal problem for John Wayne in THE COWBOYS) and Michael Douglas' secret formula for changing paper to gold in WALL STREET. Positive or negative, the imagery evoked is linked with the New Jerusalem archetype  defined by Tarot Trump XXI, Success. Early descriptions of America commonly referred to a new world (FAR AND AWAY) with streets of golden bricks - promised alchemical secrets for adventurous spirits, bold enough to cross the great water. American currency supports the theory encouraged by the founding fathers. Lures on the original U.S. Seal  backed it.
 

 

Expedition to Chogo Ri 1902      Climber: "K2 (8,611 m), in the northern part of Karakoram, is the cherished dream of every climber."

Aleister Crowley is the outstanding "bad boy" study of a philosopher-teacher archetype somewhat similar to the biographical account of Dr. John Dee [sometimes thought a  prior incarnation for Crowley; the list includes Paracelsus as well].

 


Georgia O'Keefe


When the Abbey of Thelema closed the walls were whitewashed. Speculation about what was hidden under the paint eventually grew to the point of bizarre humour until someone bought the Abbey and removed the masking layers covering the original art.

The interior and exterior of the whole Abbey were meticulously photographed, mural pictures published, and the story of natural harmony at the site circulated in the current psychedelic 60s community of the day. Most of the pictures were flowers, plants, and herbs, similar to the psychedelic posters created for the rock & roll concerts at the Fillmore and Avalon Ballroom.  See 60s psychedelic rock art.

Now there are people who want to revisit the Abbey; consider the following comments from J.K. Rowling, in part about the Noble Black Family home in The Order of the Phoenix.

 

(Harry Potter SPOILER WARNING)

What happens to a secret when the Secret-Keeper dies?

J. K. Rowling answers her readers: What happens to a secret when the Secret-Keeper dies?

When a Secret-Keeper dies, their secret dies with them, or, to put it another way, the status of their secret will remain as it was at the moment of their death. Everybody in whom they confided will continue to know the hidden information, but nobody else.

Just in case you have forgotten exactly how the Fidelius Charm works, it is "an immensely complex spell involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single, living soul. The information is hidden inside the chosen person, or Secret-Keeper, and is henceforth impossible to find -- unless, of course, the Secret-Keeper chooses to divulge it" (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)

In other words, a secret (eg, the location of a family in hiding, like the Potters) is enchanted so that it is protected by a single Keeper (in our example, Peter Pettigrew, a.k.a. Wormtail). Thenceforth nobody else – not even the subjects of the secret themselves – can divulge the secret. Even if one of the Potters had been captured, force fed Veritaserum or placed under the Imperius Curse, they would not have been able to give away the whereabouts of the other two. The only people who ever knew their precise location were those whom Wormtail had told directly, but none of them would have been able to pass on the information.

Go Harry Potter Lexicon: Number Twelve Grimmauld Place

 
 

Crowley's Beachy Head Prediction

THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
April 8, 2001

Featured Picture of the Week: How are the mighty fallen:  the 200ft Devil's Chimney broke away from Beach Head on England's south coast last week sending clouds of chalk dust into the sky. The 19th-century climber and occultist Aleister Crowley warned that evil would descend on the people of nearby Eastbourne if the tower collapsed.
                                                                                                          - Alan Jones
 

Beachy Head Lighthouse reports - On January 12, 1999, a huge part of the 200 m high chalk cliffs immediate behind the lighthouse fell into the sea. Thousands of tons of chalk rubble, loosened by a winter of wet weather and storms, collapsed to form a new spit of land reaching almost up to the base of the tower.... The cliff fall came as a great shock to the inhabitants of the privately-owned Belle Toute lighthouse that stands just feet away from the edge of the cliffs...

Position 50° 44' 0 N 00° 14'.50 E
White Cliffs of Beachy Head [similar to photo depicted in the Sunday paper]
Beachy Head Lighthouse 
Map of South Coast

The Phial of Galadriel:  A magical phial containing the light of Earendil, the Evening Star. This was a gift to Frodo:
"And you, Ring-bearer," she said, turning to Frodo. "I come to you last who are not last in my thoughts. For you I have prepared this." She held up a small crystal phial. It glittered as she moved it and rays of white light sprang from her hand. "In this phial," she said, "is caught the light of Earendil's star, set amid the waters of my fountain. It will shine still brighter when night is about you. May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out."
The Lord of the Rings, page 397
The Elven gift was instrumental when Frodo and Sam escaped from Shelob in the pass of  Cirith Ungol. Visit Galadriel's Glade and Lothlórien for background.

Neophyte Note: No one in metaphysics is Satanic because the commitment to a religion in dark arts would require someone sell their soul. Studies in magic are different. Magic, white, black, and transcendental, is completely independent of a metaphysical journey.

CONFESSIONS excerpt

72

I think it proper to devote an entire chapter to the subject of my relations with freemasonry. I have mentioned that I had obtained the 33° in Mexico City. It did not add much of importance to my knowledge of the mysteries; but I had heard that freemasonry was a universal brotherhood and expected to be welcomed all over the world by all brethren.

I was brought up with a considerable shock within the next few months, when, chancing to discuss the subject with some broken-down gambler or sporting-house tout --- I forget exactly --- I found that he would not "recognize" me! There was some trivial difference in one of the grips or some other totally meaningless formality. A measureless contempt for the whole mummery curled my lip. I squared the matter (as already related) by having myself initiated in Lodge Number 343 "Anglo-Saxon" in Paris. What that led to I have recounted elsewhere and now quote:

I happened to know that the chaplain of the British Embassy in Z--- was Past Grand Organist of a certain English province. He proposed me, found a seconder, and I was duly initiated, passed and raised. I was warmly welcomed by numerous English and American visitors to our Lodge; for Z--- is a very great city.

I returned to England sometime later, after "passing the chair" in my Lodge, and wishing to join the Royal Arch, called on its venerable Secretary.

I presented my credentials. "O Thou Great Architect of the Universe," the old man sobbed out in rage, "why dost Thou not wither this impudent impostor with Thy fire from heaven? Sir, begone! You are not a Mason at all! As all the world knows, the people in Z--- are atheists and live with other men's wives."

I thought this a little hard on my Reverend Father in God, my proposer; and I noted that, of course, every single English or American visitor to our Lodge in Z--- stood in peril of instant and irrevocable expulsion on detection. So I said nothing, but walked to another room in Freemasons' Hall over his head, and took my seat as a Past Master in one of the oldest and most eminent Lodges in London!

Kindly note, furthermore, that when each of those wicked visitors returned to their Lodges after their crime, they automatically excommunicated the

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whole thereof; and as visiting is very common, it may well be doubted whether, on their own showing, there is a single "just, lawful and regular mason" left on the earth!

By the end of 1910, thanks to my relations with the Grand Hierophant 97° of the Rite of Memphis (a post held after his death by Dr. Gerard Encausee, Theodor Reuss, and myself), I was now a sort of universal inspector-general of the various rites, charged with the secret mission of reporting on the possibility of reconstructing the entire edifice, which was universally recognized by all its more intelligent members as being threatened with the gravest danger.

I must briefly explain the circumstances.

(a) There is a great multiplicity of rites.

(b) There is a great multiplicity of jurisdictions.

(c) Even where rite and jurisdiction are identical, there are certain national jealousies and other causes of divergence.

(d) The Progress of feminism has threatened the Craft. (The meaning of the 3° having been totally lost, orthodox freemasons are unable to explain why women cannot become Master Masons. They cannot. I, the fiercest of feminists, say so.) Co-Masonry, under Mrs. Besant, whose hysterical vanity compels her to claim any high-sounding title that she happens to hear, Le Droit Humain in France, and similar movements almost everywhere, were bringing masonry into contempt by their sheer silliness. They were so obviously exactly as good as real freemasons.

(e) The history of freemasonry has become more obscure as the light of research has fallen on the subject. The meaning of masonry has either been completely forgotten or has never existed at all, except insofar as any particular rite might be a cloak for political or even worse intrigue.

(f) It has become impossible for people living in modern conditions to devote adequate time even to learning the merest formalities.

(g) The complete lack of understanding which is now practically universal has made men inquire why in God's name they should cherish such pretentious pedantries?

A few anecdotes will illustrate the situation for the average non- mason.

1. A certain rite in England derives its authority from a document which is as notoriously a forgery as Pigott ever penned. The heads of this gang wished to break, in the most shameless and rascally manner, an agreement made some years previously with John Yarker. Yarker pointed out that their only real authority was derived from their agreement with him, since he, working under a genuine charter, had "heled" their breach with antiquity by recognizing them. They replied that they relied on the forged document. He said that he would cut away the ground from under their feet by publishing the proofs that their charter was worthless. Then they said that they

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knew as well as he did that the document was forged; but they didn't care, because they had induced the Prince of Wales to join them!

2. Several of the main rites of English masonry are not recognized by each other, and some of these are not even tolerated (that is, if a member of A joins B, or even discusses freemasonry with a member of B, he becomes liable to immediate expulsion); yet a certain royal duke was actually the head of two incompatible rites.

3. There is no uniformity with regard to toleration. Thus A and B sometimes recognize each other, but, while A recognizes C, B does not, so that a member of B and a member of C might find themselves meeting in a Lodge of A, and thereby automatically excommunicate each other.

4. English Craft masons do not permit religious political or commercial motives to enter into freemasonry, yet they are in official relationship with certain masonic bodies whose sole raison d'être is anti- clericalism, political intrigue or mutual trade benefit.

5. The Scottish Rite, the degrees of Knight Templar, Knight of Malta and others in England are definitely Christian, e.g. the point of one degree is the identification of prophet, priest and king, three in one, the Trinity of the Royal Arch, with Christ; and in the Rose Croix degree, Christ is recognized as the "corner stone" of earlier symbolism. But in America, the Christian elements have been removed so that wealthy Jews may reach the summit of masonry.

6. I once attended a Lodge whose Master was one of the two local bankers. He used his influence to get business for his bank. The other banker promptly obtained a charter from some "clandestine" body and started an opposition. In this district, the clandestine Lodges greatly outnumbered the orthodox.

7. I have visited Craft Lodges and Royal Arch Chapters in Fraternal Accord in England, where the "raising" and "exaltation" were carried out in shirt sleeves, while cigars were smoked and the legs conveniently disposed on other chairs, and only employed to kick the candidate as he went round.

8. At one ceremony in America, the officers being 33° masons, recognized by the orthodox Scottish Rite in England, there were two candidates, both Jews. They were hoodwinked and introduced into opposite ends of a tube through which they were instructed to make their way. In the middle of the tube was a live sow.

9. In Detroit, a member of the 32° was threatened by certain 33°s with expulsion unless he complied with their views as to his domestic life. The matter was one with which they had no right to meddle on any conceivable theory of human relations.

10. In some parts of America, financial and social pressure is put upon

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people to compel them to take the 32°! It is common to boycott men in trade or business for refusing to give unfair advantages to their fellow masons.

11. A 33° mason, of many years' standing, holding high office in the Supreme Grand Council, who had joined in order to obtain the traditional secret knowledge, told me that he had never learnt anything from any of the degrees. The only peculiarity in this case is that he should have expected anything of the sort --- or wanted it!

12. With hardly an exception, the "secrets" of freemasonry are strictly arbitrary. Let me explain what I mean. If I am given the combination of a safe, I expect to be able to open it by the use of the word. If I can do so, it proves that that is the correct word. The secrets of freemasonry disclose no mysteries; they do not do what they profess to do; they are meaningless conventions.

13. With the rarest exceptions, freemasons make no attempt to keep their obligations so far as the moral principles inculcated are concerned. For instance, the Master Mason is sworn to respect the chastity of the wife, sister and daughter of his Brother. Those who do so probably respect the chastity of any woman irrespective of her male connections.

14. Freemasons, generally, but especially in England and America, resent any attempt to take masonry seriously. I may quote an essay by a Past Grand Master. It appeared in the English Review for August 1922. It sets forth the initiated view. The question is: Why does a man become a mason?

We ought to cross off the pettier human motives first, love of vanity, of mystery, of display, of make-believe; but the average man in England becomes a mason for as serious a reason as he becomes a Church member or a theosophist; and the average man is usually most abominably disillusioned.

He may join the Craft with some idea of fellowship, because it is a tradition in his family to do so, or because he hopes to find in the Secret of the Mysteries something which he does not find in any of the exoteric forms of religion.

How is it that the same Order satisfies --- more or less --- aspirations so diverse?

We are brought at last face to face with the fundamental problem of the masonic historian --- the origin of the whole business.

Without any hesitation at all, one may confess that on this critical question nothing is certainly known. It is true, indeed, that the Craft Lodges in England were originally Hanoverian clubs, as the Scottish Lodges were Jacobite clubs, and the Egyptian Lodges of Cagliostro revolutionary clubs.

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But that no more explains the origin of freemasonry than the fact "many Spaniards are Roman Catholics" explains why the priest says and does certain things rather than others in the Mass.

Now here is the tremendous question: we can admit all Mr Yarker's contentions, and more, as to the connection of masonic and quasimasonic rites with the old customs of initiating people into the trade guilds; but why should such a matter be hedged about with so severe a wardenship, and why should the Central Sacrament partake of so awful and so unearthly a character?

As freemasonry has been "exposed" every few minutes for the last century or so, and as any layman can walk into a masonic shop and buy the complete Rituals for a few pence, the only omissions being of no importance to our present point, it would be imbecile to pretend that the nature of the ceremonies of Craft masonry is in any sense a "mystery".

There is, therefore, no reason for refraining from the plain statement that, to anyone who understands the rudiments of symbolism, the Master's degree is identical with the Mass. This is in fact the real reason for papal anathema; for freemasonry asserts that every man is himself the living, slain and re-arisen Christ in his own person.

It is true that not one mason in ten thousand in England is aware of this fact; but he has only to remember his "raising" to realize the fundamental truth of the statement.

Well may Catholic and freemason alike stand appalled at the stupendous blasphemy which is implied, as they ignorantly think, not knowing themselves of the stuff and substance of the Supreme Self, each for himself alike no less than Very God of Very God!

But suppose that the sublimity of this conception is accepted, the identity admitted; what sudden overwhelming billow from the past blasts their beatitude? What but the words with which Freud concludes Totem and Taboo: In the beginning was the deed!

For the "sacrifice of the Innocent" celebrated alike in the Lodge and in cathedral is this identical murder of the Master of the Fellow- Craftsmen, that is of the Father by his sons, when the ape system of the "Fatherhorde" was replaced by the tribal system which developed into the "military clan"!

These statements are undeniable, yet it may be doubted whether there are five hundred freemasons of all the rites put together who would assent to them, or even refrain from objecting to them as bitterly as the average man in Victorian times disliked being told of his kinship with the other primates, and as his children and grandchildren are annoyed when science demonstrates

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that their religions are survivals of savage superstitions and their dreams determined by bestial instincts.

15. The W.M. of an exclusive English Lodge told me that he had learnt his part by saying it over to his wife in bed, justifying himself for this apparent breach of his obligation by remarking, with a laugh, that the secrets were lost and that therefore he could not betray them however much he wanted to.

Faced with these, and similar difficulties, I gladly accepted the task laid upon me by the most intelligent freemasons of the world, united as they were by their sincerity, understanding and good will, though divided by sectarian squabbles about jurisdiction.

My first object was to answer the question, "What is freemasonry?" I collated the rituals and their secrets, much as I had done the religions of the world, with their magical and mystical bases. As in that case, I decided to neglect what it too often actually was. It would be absurd to judge Protestantism by the political acts of Henry VIII. In the same way, I could not judge masonry by the fact that it had denounced the Concordat. I proposed to define freemasonry as a system of communicating truth --- religious, philosophical, magical and mystical; and indicating the proper means of developing human faculty by means of a peculiar language whose alphabet is the symbolism of ritual. Universal brotherhood and the greater moral principles, independent of personal, racial, climatic and other prejudices, naturally formed a background which would assure individual security and social stability for each and all.

The question then arose, "What truths should be communicated and by what means promulgated? My first object was to eliminate from the hundreds of rituals at my disposal all exoteric elements. Many degrees contain statements (usually inaccurate) of matters well known to modern schoolboys, though they may have been important when the rituals were written. I may mention one degree in which the candidate is portentiously informed that there are other religions in the world besides Christianity and that there is some truth in all of them. Their tenets are explained in many cases with egregious error. The description of Buddha as a god is typical. I saw no point in overloading the system with superfluous information.

Another essential point was to reduce the unwieldly mass of material to a compact and coherent system. I thought that everything worth preserving could and should be presented in not more than a dozen ceremonies, and that it should be brought well within the capacity of any officer to learn by heart his part during the leisure time at his disposal, in a month at most.

The eighteenth-century Rosicrucians, so-called in Austria, had already endeavoured to unite various branches of Continental freemasonry and its superstructures; in the nineteenth century, principally owing to the energy

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and ability of a wealthy iron master named Karl Kellner, a reconstruction and consolidation of traditional truth had been attempted. A body was formed under the name O.T.O. (Ordo Templi Orientis) which purported to achieve this result. It purported to communicate the secrets, not only of freemasonry (with the Rites of 3°, 7°, 33°, 90°, 97°, etc.,) but of the Gnostic Catholic Church, the Martinists, the Sat Bhai, the Rosicrucians, the Knights of the Holy Ghost and so on, in nine degrees, with a tenth of an honorary character to distinguish the "Supreme and Holy King" of the Order in each country where it was established. Chief of these kings is the O.H.O. (Outer Head of the Order, or Frater Superior), who is an absolute autocrat. This position was at this time occupied by Theodor Reuss, the Supreme and Holy King of Germany, who resigned the office in 1922 in my favour.

The O.H.O. put the rituals of this Order at my disposal. I found them of the utmost value as to the central secret, but otherwise very inferior. They were dramatically worthless, but the prose was unequal, they lacked philosophical unity, their information was incomplete and unsystematic. Their general idea was, however, of the right kind; and I was able to take them as a model.

The main objects of the instruction were two. It was firstly necessary to explain the universe and the relations of human life therewith. Secondly, to instruct every man how best to adapt his life to the cosmos and to develop his faculties to the utmost advantage. I accordingly constructed a series or rituals, Minerval, Man, Magician, Master-Magician, Perfect Magician and Perfect Initiate, which should illustrate the course of human life in its largest philosophical aspect. I begin by showing the object of the pure soul, "One, individual and eternal", in determining to formulate itself consciously, or, as I may say, to understand itself.

It chooses to enter into relations with the solar system. It incarnates. I explain the significance of birth and the conditions established by the process. I next show how it may best carry out its object in the eucharist of life. It partakes, so to speak, of its own godhead in every action, but especially through the typical sacrament of marriage, understood as the voluntary union of itself with each element of its environment. I then proceed to the climax of its career in death and show how this sacrament both consecrates (or, rather, sets its seal upon) the previous procedure and gives a meaning thereto, just as the auditing of the account enables the merchant to see his year's transactions in perspective.

In the next ceremony I show how the individual, released by death from the obsession of personality, resumes relations with the truth of the universe. Reality bursts upon him in a blaze of adorable light; he is able to appreciate its splendour as he could not previously do, since his incarnation has enabled him to establish particular relations between the elements of eternity.

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Finally, the cycle is closed by the reabsorption of all individuality into infinity. It ends in absolute annihilation which, as has been shown elsewhere in this book, may in reality be regarded either as an exact equivalent for all other terms soever, or (by postulating the category of time) as forming the starting point for new adventure of the same kind.

It will be clear from the above that the philosophical perfection of this system of initiation leaves nothing to be desired. We may write Q.E.D. The practical problem remains. We have already decided to incarnate, and our birth certificates are with our bankers. We do not have to worry about these matters, and we cannot alter them if we would; death, and what follows death, are equally certain, and equally able to take care of themselves. Our sole preoccupation is how best to make use of our lives.

Now the O.T.O. is in possession of one supreme secret. The whole of its system at the time when I became an initiate of the Sanctuary of the Gnosis (IX°) was directed towards communicating to its members, by progressively plain hints, this all-important instruction. I personally believe that if this secret, which is a scientific secret, were perfectly understood, as it is not even my me after more than twelve years' almost constant study and experiment, there would be nothing which the human imagination can conceive that could not be realized in practice.

By this I mean such things as this: that if it were desired to have an element of atomic weight six times that of uranium that element could be produced. If it were desired to devise an instrument by which the furthest stars or the electrons could be brought within the range of every one of our senses, that instrument could be invented. Or that, if we wished to develop senses through which we could appreciate all those qualities of matter which at present we observe indirectly by means of apparatus, the necessary nervous structure would appear. It make these remarks with absolute confidence, for even the insignificant approaches that I have been able to make towards the sanctuaries of this secret have shown me that the relations between phenomena are infinitely more complex than the wildest philosophers have ever imagined, and that the old proverb "Where there's a will there's a way" needs no caveat.

I cannot forebear to quote from Professor A. S. Eddington, Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at Cambridge:

Here is a paradox beyond even the imagination of Dean Swift. Gulliver regarded the Lilliputians as a race of dwarfs; and the Lilliputians regarded Gulliver as a giant. That is natural. If the Lilliputians had appeared dwarfs to Gulliver, and Gulliver had appeared a dwarf to the Lilliputians --- but no! that is too absurd for fiction, and is an idea only to be found in the sober pages of science.

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The injunctions of the sages, from Pythagoras, Zoroaster and Lao Tzu, to the Cabbalistic Jew who wrote the Ritual of the Royal Arch, and the sentimental snob who composed those of the Craft degrees, are either directed to indicating the best conditions for applying this secret, or are mere waste of words. Realizing this, it was comparatively simple for me to edit masonic ethics and esotericism. I had simply to refer everything to this single sublime standard. I therefore answered the question "How should a young man mend his way?" in a series of rituals in which the candidate is instructed in the value of discretion, loyalty, independence, truthfulness, courage, self-control, indifference to circumstance, impartiality, skepticism, and other virtues, and at the same time assisted him to discover for himself the nature of this secret, the proper object of its employment and the best means for insuring success in its use. The first of these degrees is the V°, in which the secret is presented in a pageant; while he is also instructed in the essential elements of the history of the world, considered from the standpoint of his present state of evolution and in his proper relation to society in general with reference to the same.

The degree of Knight Hermetic Philosopher follows, in which his intellectual and moral attitude is further defined. In the VI°, his position having been thus made precise, he is shown how to consecrate himself to the particular Great Work which he came to earth in order to perform. In the VII°, which is tripartite, he is first taught the principle of equilibrium as extended to all possible moral ideas; secondly, to all possible intellectual ideas; and lastly, he is shown how, basing all his actions on this impregnable rock of justice, he may so direct his life as to undertake his Great Work with the fullest responsibility and in absolute freedom from all possibility of interferences.

In the VIII°, the secret is once more manifested to him, more clearly than before; and he is instructed in how to train himself to use it by certain preliminary practices involving acquaintance with some of those subtler energies which have hitherto, for the most part, eluded the observation and control of profane science.

In the IX°, which is never conferred upon anyone who has not already divined from previous indications the nature of the secret, it is explained to him fully. The conclusions of previous experiments are placed at his service. The idea is that each new initiate should continue the work of his predecessor, so that eventually the inexhaustible resources of the secret may be within the reach of the youngest initiate; for at present, we are compelled to admit that the superstitious reverence which has encompassed it in past ages, and the complexity of the conditions which modify its use, place us in much the same position as the electricians of a generation ago in respect of their science. We are assured of the immensity of the force at our disposal;

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we perceive the extent of the empire which it offers us, but we do not thoroughly understand even our successes and are uncertain how to proceed in order to generate the energy most efficiently or to apply it most accurately to our purposes.

The X°, as in the old system, is merely honorary, but recent researches into the mysteries of the IX° have compelled me to add an XI°, to illustrate a scientific idea which has been evolved by the results of recent experiments.

In the reconstituted O.T.O. there are therefore six degrees in which is conveyed a comprehensive conception of the cosmos and our relation therewith, and a similar number to deal with our duty to ourselves and our fellows, the development of our own faculties of every order, and the general advancement and advantage of mankind.

Wherever freemasonry and allied systems contribute to these themes, their information has been incorporated in such a way as not to infringe the privileges, puerile as they often seem, which have been associated hitherto with initiation. Where they merely perpetuate trivialities, superstitions and prejudices, they have been neglected.

I claim for my system that it satisfies all possible requirements of true freemasonry. It offers a rational basis for universal brotherhood and for universal religion. It puts forward a scientific statement which is a summary of all that is at present known about the universe by means of a simple, yet sublime symbolism, artistically arranged. It also enables each man to discover for himself his personal destiny, indicates the moral and intellectual qualities which he requires in order to fulfill it freely, and finally puts in his hands an unimaginably powerful weapon which he may use to develop in himself every faculty which he may need in his work.

My original draft of these rituals has required modification in numerous details as research made clearer, deeper and wider the truth which they comprehended; and also, as experience showed, the possibilities of misunderstanding on the one hand, and of improved presentation on the other. Great practical progress was made until the work was suspended by the outbreak of the war in 1914.

One of my original difficulties was to restore the existing rituals to their perfection. There were innumerable corruptions due to ignorance of Hebrew and the like on the part of the unworthy successors of the founders. To take a gross example.

The word Jeheshua, spelt in Hebrew in the 18° of the Scottish Rite, was habitually spelt with a Resh instead of a Vau. So brutal a blunder is conclusive proof that the modern Sovereign Princes of Rose Croix attach no meaning whatever to the name of Jesus --- which they profess to adore more intelligently than the mob because it represents the descent of the Holy Spirit into the midst of that tremendous name of God which only occurs in

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their ritual because of its power to annihilate the universe if pronounced correctly1.

The intelligence of the average mason may be gauged by the following quotation from the R.A.M. degree. The twentieth century! --- and such stuff is solemnly offered as instruction to grown men!

Some have doubted whether the Ark was capable of containing two of every sort of creature, with provisions necessary for their support for a whole year; for so long and more did Noah stop in that Ark. But on a careful inquiry it has been found that only about one hundred different sorts of beasts, and not two hundred birds, are known, the greater part of them are of no bulk, and many exceedingly small, and it has been said all the creatures in the Ark would not take up the room of five hundred horses. After four thousand years human ingenuity cannot now contrive any proportions better adapted than that of the Ark for the purpose it was intended for. A Dutch merchant, two hundred years ago, built a ship answering in its respective dimensions to those of the Ark; its length being one hundred and twenty feet, breadth twenty feet, depth twelve feet; while building, this vessel was laughed at, but afterwards it was found that it held one third more and sailed better than any other merchant vessel of the time.

Thus we have a collateral proof no way inconsiderable that the Spirit of God, from whom commeth all understanding, directed Noah in that manner.

Again, the central secret of a Master Mason is in a Word which is lost. This fact has induced various and ingenious persons to invent ceremonies in which it is found (in some more or less remarkable manner) amid the acclamations of the assembled populace, and proclaimed in pomp to the admiring multitude. The only drawback is that these Words do not work. It apparently never occurred to these ingenuous artisans to test it. It is useless to label a brick "This is the keystone of the Royal Arch", unless the arch stands when it is put in place.

Much of freemasonry is connected with the Hebrew Cabbala. My knowledge of this science enabled me to analyze the Secret Words of the various degrees. I soon found myself able to correct many of the corruptions which had crept in, and there was no doubt that my conclusions were not mere conjectures, since they made coherent good sense out of disconnected nonsense. (I am naturally unable to publish any of these discoveries; but

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  1. The ignorance of masons is quite boundless. In the Red Cross of Rome and Constantine Degree, for example, we read, "Lord God of Sabbath". No one knows the difference between HB:Taw HB:Bet HB:Shin and HB:Taw HB:Aleph HB:Bet HB:Tzaddi !

I am always ready to communicate them to inquiring Brothers. When I have done so, my arguments have been found cogent and convincing.)

I supposed myself to have reached the summit of success when I restored the Secret Word of the Royal Arch. In this case, tradition had preserved the Word almost intact. It required only a trifling change to reveal it in all its radiant royalty. And yet my success only left me with a sense of deeper annoyance at my complete failure to deal with the abject anti-climax of the III° with its lamentable excuses for having made a fool of the candidate, its pretentious promises and its pitiful performance.

As I lay one night sleepless, in meditation, bitter and eager, upon this mystery I was suddenly stabbed to the soul by a suggestion so simple, yet so stupendous, that I was struck into shuddering silence for I know not how long before I could bring myself to switch on the electric light and snatch my notebook. At the first trial the solution sprang like sunlight in my spirit. I remained all that night in an ecstasy of awe and adoration. I had discovered the lost Word!

The obvious line of criticism is this: How can you be sure that the Word which you have discovered is really the lost Word after all?

This may be made clear by an illustration. On the apron of the 18° I find HB:Heh HB:Resh HB:Shin HB:Heh HB:Yod in Hebrew characters. I find that this word means nothing; the context suggests that it may be an error for HB:Heh HB:Vau HB:Shin HB:Heh HB:Yod, Yeheshuah or Jesus; but how do I know that this word and not another has power to make man triumphant over matter, to harmonize and sanctify the blind forces of the universe? Thus: I know that HB:Heh HB:Vau HB:Heh HB:Yod represents the four elements; that 4 is a number symbolizing limitation. It is the square of 2, the only number which cannot be formed harmoniously into a "Magic Square". (Two represents the Dyad, the original Error.) I know also that the letter Shin represents a triune essence, the fire of the Spirit, and in particular Ruach Elohim, the Spirit of the Gods, because these two words have the numerical value of 300, which is also that of Shin itself.

I thus interpret the word Yeheshuah as the descent of the Holy Spirit into the balanced forces of matter, and the name Yeheshuah is therefore that of a man made divine by the descent of the Holy Spirit into his heart, exactly as the name George means a farmer. This exegetical method is not a modern invention. When Jehovah selected a family to be the father of Israel, he changed the name HB:Mem-final HB:Resh HB:Bet HB:Aleph (243 = Abram) Father of Elevation into HB:Mem-final HB:Heh HB:Resh HB:Bet HB:Aleph (248 = Abraham) Father of a multitude; and by way of compensation changed HB:Yod HB:Resh HB:Shin (510=Sari) Nobility to HB:Heh HB:Resh HB:Shin (505=Sarah), Princess. There are several other similar stories in the Bible. A change of name is considered to indicate a change of nature. Further, each name is not arbitrary; it is a definite description of the nature of the object to which it is attached. By a similar process, I am certain of my results in the matter of the Lost Word, for the Found Word

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fulfils the conditions of the situation; and furthermore, throws light on the obscure symbolism of the entire ritual.

I am thus in a position to do for the contending sects of freemasonry what the Alexandrians did for those of paganism. Unfortunately, the men who asked me to undertake this task are either dead or too old to take active measures and so far there is no one to replace them. Worse, the general coarsening of manners which always follows a great war has embittered the rival jurisdictions and deprived freemasonry altogether of those elements of high-minded enthusiasms with regard to the great problems of society which still stirred even its most degenerate sections half a century ago, when Hargrave Jennings, Godfrey Higgins, Gerald Massey, Kenneth MacKenzie, John Yarker, Theodor Reuss, Wynn Westcott and others were still seeking truth in its traditions and endeavouring to erect a temple of Concord in which men of all creeds and races might worship in amity.

<snip>

Sacred Mysteries
Among
The Mayas And The Quiches,
11,500 Years Ago

Their Relation To The Sacred Mysteries
of Egypt, Greece, Chaldea and India

by,

Augustus Le Plongeon

regarding excavations

     In the ceilings of the rooms situated at the north and south extremities of the building are carved in peculiar and regular order, in deep intaglio, semi-spheres, ten centimeters in diameter, intended to represent the stars that at night so beautify the firmament. Inside of the triangle formed at each end of said rooms by the converging lines of the arch are also several of these semispheres - those in the north room form a triangle, while those in the south room, five in number, figure a trapezium with one of these half spheres in the middle.

     The middle chamber is now devoid of decorations of any sort. Its length, seven meters, is to-day the only vestige which remains to indicate that in it, in former times, were practiced rites and ceremonies pertaining to the third degree of initiation. This chamber could be reached by walking on the narrow terrace round the building; but I feel certain that those whose privilege it was to assemble within its walls, got to it from the west side. There was a stairway nine metres wide, beautifully ornamented, leading from the court yard adjoining the priests' palace, to the entrance of the sanctuary. Thence another small stairway 2m. 40c. wide, situated on the north side of the sanctuary, led to the upper terrace, to the roof of that monument, and to the middle chamber. The access to the north and south rooms was by a grand stairway of ninety-six steps, each 20 cm. high, that led to the upper terrace surrounding the whole edifice. This stairway, situated on the east side of the mound, is fourteen metres [45 feet 6 inches] wide, and, like that on the east side, so steep as to require no little practice and care to ascend and descend its narrow steps with comparative safety and ease...

     The ornaments that cover these walls are remarkable in more than one sense. They are not only inscriptions in the Maya language, written in characters identical with, and having the same meaning and value as those carved on the temples of Egypt; but among them are symbols known to have belonged to the ancient sacred mysteries of the Egyptians, and to modern Free Masonry. In August 1880, among the debris, at the foot of the mound just described, I found pieces of what once had been the statue of a priest. The part of the statue, from the waist to the knee, particularly attracted my attention. Over his dress the personage wore an apron with an extended hand....   A symbol that will easily be recognized by members of the masonic fraternity.

     We must not forget that Plato informs us that the priests of Egypt assured Solon, when he visited them 600 years before the Christian era, that all communications between their people and the inhabitants of the "Lands of the West" had been interrupted for 9,000 years, in consequence of the great cataclysms, during which, in one night, the large island of Atlantis disappeared, submerged under the waves of the ocean. Are we not then right if we surmise that the monuments of Mayax existed 11,500 years ago, and that mysteries, similar to those of Egypt, were celebrated in them? To support that belief we have the symbols already mentioned as existing in the chambers, the construction of the chambers themselves, the sculptures carved on the cornice that surrounds the sanctuary, representing cross bones and skeletons, with arms and hands uplifted, tokens that many of the Masons again cannot fail to recognize; besides other emblems..... which exist on the walls of the residence of the priests, an edifice adjoining that temple. This may be considered the oldest known edifice in the world consecrated to secret rites and ceremonies; and its builders the founders of the sacred mysteries, that were transported from Mayax to India, Chaldea, Egypt, Etruria, by colonists or missionaries....

e me if you would like further transcription and research excerpts

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POWER SITE THEMES

Scroll to CONFESSIONS excerpt
and
Augustus Le Plongeon, Sacred Mysteries Among The Mayas
and the
Quiches
11,500
Years Ago


 

IN THE FIELD WITH DOWSERS (excerpt from Dowsers
A Look Under The Surface and Behind The Superficial)

Meditation - The Golden Dawn Implosion

The Mountain

scroll to read  Crowley's Prediction re Beachy Head and link to pix [under K2]

K2 - The Savage Mountain. Background here is at variance with Confessions account; it has some good general information

Picture references to HotChi and The Deva

Poster Karnac, David Roberts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Swiss physician and surgeon, philosopher and theologist, metallurgist and alchemist, magician and scientist, travelling medicine man and father of the science of pharmacology. A contemporary of Rabelais and Ulrich von Hutten. Crowley considered him to be an Adeptus Exemptus.
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