TalonsIVxvi

The Virgin (well, Edditor, I'm not a...)

has brought forth

TALONS! THE

OFFICIAL ORGAN OV

Heru Behutet Oasis The light is waxing! Anno IVxvi (Sol in Capricorn, Luna in Scorpio )

From The Edditor  From Liber Kronos Easter Sacrifice Ruthvah AA 08 SS Ritual First Night Feast HomeWork SC In Bed with Crowley La Fee Found

PoeATree Lesbian Kisses Reality Robots of Omaha II The Forbidden Poem RaViews Chemical Wedding R U A Traveling Man? From The Master  Hymn to the America People

From The Edditor  Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Oy vey! It’s It’s that time again volks. Another vulgar year is almost passed, & what a year it has  been (I hear there was some erection? O, election, sorry). sorry). We have had several events here & abroad in 2008, plus a few still still coming up. These include Classes, Masses, Masses, Feasts, Initiations, Initiations, Rehearsals, Reviews, Rituals & Workshops. Workshops. A few few nu members have also joined the ranks ov Heru Behutet Oasis, both n2 the Order & from other bodies, while some have advanced (U know who U r). N short, let’s let’s do it again! Our Thelemic nu year here started March 20th w/a Mass plus Feast 4 the Supreme Ritual & the Equinox ov the Gods. Always good 2 c every1. every1. As usual I started started Working Working on Liber Kronos threads (some ncluded n this "issue", others 2 large large &/or UO&O). Our next annual event was 3 days ov amazing Masses & Feasts April 8-10 4 the 3 days ov the writing ov the Book of the Law. Law. Great Work. Work. Added 2 this was a wonderful wonde rful Mass Workshop Workshop 4.12 after a day da y ov rest given by Soror  Treasure House of Images (Liber  Sulis. The Masonic field-trip was fun (& cold), as was The Treasure DCCCCLXIII, 963) ritual (that was not cold btw). The gist was We We each played/read 1 ov the astrological signs through each ov the 12 Houses. Simple yet fun. It is always good 2 have such Sisters & Brothers visit Us. Please, come again. Jumping ahead 2 moonths, Soror Rachel & Her beau Hosted a superb Summer Solstice Feast June 20th. I presented 1 ritual ov 4 based on Resh (c (c SS Ritual ) 4 per4mance, yet timing was off (2 me @ least, damn Sun!). The next 2 events (6.22 & 6.28) were were a Diaconate Ordination & M Initiation so I cannot go n2 specifics (damn Oaths!). Oaths!). I would like 2 add welcome 2 Our Our nu Brother  & Sister Deacon. Jump ahead another 2 moonths 2 August 12, w/a 1st night Feast (& paper by moi) 4 AC & Rose. I am surprised this is not THE THE Thelemic Wedding Wedding day (well mayb wedding 1 way). Anyroad, Our next event was a Supervising Bishops' Review by Frater Hunaphu & Soror Ixel Balamke over Labor Day weekend 8.30-31. I regrettably missed missed it due 2 illness & a family member hospitalized, but I am sure it was wonderful. Again, it is always good 2 have such Sisters & Brothers visit Us. I & Others plan on attending their Mass Workshop Workshop next year @ Sekhet Bast Ra Oasis, & so should U. The next moonth Frater David & myself attended a Minerval Knowledge Lecture bing held @ Sekhet Bast Ra Oasis September 5-7 n the valley ov Oklahoma City. City. That xperience is written ov n this issue's R U A Traveling Man? so I will not go 2 n depth here. Suffice 2 say thanks thanks go 2 Brothers David & Dann, Sisters Molly & Tina, plus all those unnamed 4 a wonderful weekend. We nded the moonth ritely here w/a Fall Equinox Feast 9.22. Good Times. Times. The next few final moonths ov the vulgar year remaining, We had a Crowleymas Feast (that's 10.12 2 U trogs), 2 3rds n November (very nicely done volks), AC's Greater Feast Feast 12.1, another 3rd (again, very nicely done volks), plus there's still a Winter Solstice Solstice Mass & Feast! & TALONS!!! Whew! B4 Our year bgins We will have nu Minervals & most likely more Classes & Masses until We start the cycle all all over again. Do, come & join Us. Know, Know, I'm no Nostradamus,  but I know the next year, vulgar &/or Thelemic, will b eventful (Self sayz obviously Einstein). Einstein). Just think ov it, We get a nu president & a leap second!? Pinch me, it must b christ christ mass. Damn It! It almost is? Damn It!? Coincidentally (?), Science now sayz the the "Christmas Star" was n June June (but the bastards downgraded Pluto from a planet?!). Better tell the Gideons. Anyroad, on 2 TALONS. TALONS. Here We We have 16 submissions (ncluding this). this). Thanks must 1st b given 2 Soror Eve (2) & Soror Rachel (1) 4 Their contributions. W/out U, the contributor, contributor,

TALONS might not xist. That & it is always nice not having 2 try & fill an issue issue by my lonesome. Thanks also goes 2 Soror Rachel 4 Her Work getting TALONS up & on-line, not 2 mention bing the only other member ov the TALONS TALONS Committee. I will not go n2 dtail here on any ov the submissions, letting them speak 4 themselves. Most ov the art (or Artavisms) w/n r mein & it is always nice 2 have more from those way more talented than a 1 armed monkey, monkey, I mean Priest. Here is a complete list n the current TALONS , noted n my short-a-hand: Misc. Frog MS n ES RLZAC n FNF WLLM n FTE, c link  Soror Rachel Reality WLLM 18 n ES Green Shade n LFF Keremite Crucified n ES OTOUSAL above OZ n KTP PNTCL n FTM RUATM1 n RUATM? SC n HomeWork SC SoB n AA 08 SoR n RUATM? WWACD WWACD n RaViews Ra Views So, salutations & gratitudes aside, as usual it seems We start w/this "From The". 2 nd as We We  bgan is another "From The" witch I thought/think appropriate. I was/am especially proud ov Duty from last TALONS, TALONS, but that's just me. I would like 2 xpand these 2 nclude reports & such from other Oasis Officers (mayb Grand Lodge even). 2 thoughts (witch is actually 4 ncluding images) r  articles "From The Altar" & "From The Tomb", i.e. from the Prsts' & Prst's respective perspective. ShT, ShT, y not "From The Center" or "From The Aisle"?! 1 day mayb, 1 day. day. The next section ov submissions r again from myself, & yes they r under the general heading ov "From The" (gotta problem w/that?). These 5 submissions come from from a personal discipline ov mine Working on Liber Kronos, subtitled AThA AThA (A Thelemic Thelemi c Almanac), Almana c), throughout through out the year. The 1st 3 ( Easter  Easter Sacrifice, Ruthvah & AA 08) were produced during the 22 day period btween 3.20 & 4.10 along w/others unpublished (I nixed an Osama cartoon/sigil cing what happened 2 Denmark,  plus an "inflammatory" "inflammatory" comment just now). The 2nd 2 (SS Ritual & First Night Feast ) r from their  respective days & pretty much self-xplanatory me me thinks. I am still Working Working on the concept ov Resh Rituals ov the Elements if any1 has any ideas. Alphabetically We have HomeWork SC next, another piece ov mine witch I hope comes true (even if U can't dcode it). Who knows, it might make a good Cafe Press item 2 raise $ 4 stated  purpose/Will.  purpose/Will. 1 ov Soror Eve's Work, Work, In Bed with Crowley , follows this as does another ov mine,  Le Fee Found , 2 nd this sectionless section.

Next is what I call the PoeATree PoeATree section, witch contains 4: my Lesbian Kisses, Soror Rachel's amazing art & poetry piece Reality, Soror Eve's 2nd Robots poem nstallment ( Robots ),  Robots of Omaha II ),  KTP ).  plus meus The Forbidden Poem (or  KTP  ). The 1st is a descriptive descriptive poem (ok'd & liked by the actual lovely ladies thank U very much) & the 3rd might still b 4bidden. I'm sure I'll c. If U wax  poetic feel free 2 submit your purple prose 2 TALONS . Sure, even haikus (I guess). 4 what 1 might think would b a larger section (People still read, watch movies/shows &/or have opinions, good, bad, or neither) We We have RaViews. Even though it is not yet out n the States, I chose Chemical Wedding . What can I say? I liked liked it. Sure not all ov it, but more than not. C it & dside 4 yourself. yourself. It ain't a documentary ja know. know. The Artavism is a bracelet idea ov mine. They have WWJD? so We can have WWACD!?. Makes me giggle, but I'm sick & twisted man. Again alphabetically We We have the last piece written by an Oasis member, my R U A Traveling  Minerval Knowledge Lecture Frater David & myself myself attended September 5Man?. This dscribes a Minerval 7 @ Sekhet Bast Ra Oasis down n OKC OK. Very fun & n4mative, thanks & love 2 all nvolved. It gave me nu direction how 2 dvelop & xtrapolate °SG&RR (Degree Study Guide & Ritual Reviews) here. Blieve me, hour or so classes can't cover things the the way a weekend could. Thanks once again 2 Frater David Dav id 4 driving & the fraternity. Our last submission is another "From The" as noted above , AC's Hymn to the America People. It seemed somewhat appropriate cing as these United States ov Amerigo Vespucci Vespucci (a  pornographer!) elected yet another white man President (well, half). I must Work Work w/o attachment & was there4 a conscientious observer (Astinus so 2 speak). Yeah yeah, I know, I have no right 2 complain then, but that is a silly argument witch witch I won't waste anymore time on. If U have a specific Crowley Classic 4 a future From The Master , feel free 2 drop me a line anytime. Well, that's about it volks. Thanks once again 2 every1 nvolved n manifesting (virtually @ least) flavor. The more the merrier merrier as TALONS . Submissions r always welcomed, no ma'atter what the flavor. they say. say. It has been a great year & I know there will b another (& another, ad nauseam et infinitum). I look 4ward 2 more Classes, Masses, Feasts, Initiations, Rehearsals, Rehearsals, Reviews, Rituals, road trips & Workshops, plus another  ano ther TALONS . I hope someday you'll join Us here n the Heartland & Heru Behutet Oasis. Oasis. Once again Beloved Brothers, Sisters & others, the light is is waxing! Carpe diem mutherfockers! & as always, Love is the law, law, love under unde r will. WLLM

Easter Sacrifice or  Keremite Crucified 000 Anno IVxvi Sol Aries, Luna Libra, Dies Solis 3.23.08 e.v e .v.. 111-11111-111 Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. What is thy will? It is my will to complete Easter Sacrifice. To what end? That it may be. To what end? That I may accomplish ac complish the Work, Work, Great or not. n ot. Love is the law, law, love under will. Fall to! 1 Liber VII, chap. VI 1. Thou wast a priestess, O my God, God, among the Druids; and we knew knew the powers of the oak. 2. We made us a temple of stones in the shape of the Universe, even as thou didst wear openly and I concealed. 3. There we performed many wonderful things things by midnight. 4. By the waning moon did we work. work. 5. Over the plain came the atrocious cry of wolves. 6. We answered; we hunted with the pack. 7. We came even unto the new Chapel and Thou didst bear away the Holy Graal beneath Thy Druid vestments. 8. Secretly and by stealth did we we drink of the informing sacrament. 9. Then a terrible disease seized upon upon the folk of the grey land; and we rejoiced. 10. O my God, disguise disguise Thy glory! glory! 11. Come as a thief, and let us steal away away the Sacraments! 12. In our groves, in our cloistral cloistral cells, in our honeycomb of happiness, happiness, let us drink, let us drink! drink! 13. It is the wine that tinges everything everything with the true true tincture of infallible gold. gold. 14. There are deep secrets in these songs. songs. It is not enough to hear hear the bird; to enjoy song he he must be the  bird. 15. I am the bird, and Thou art my song, song, O my glorious galloping galloping God! 16. Thou reinest in the stars; thou drivest the constellations constellations seven abreast through the circus of   Nothingness. 17. Thou Gladiator God! 18. I play upon mine harp; Thou Thou fightest the beasts beasts and the flames. 19. Thou takest Thy joy in the music, and I in the fighting. fighting. 20. Thou and I are beloved of the Emperor. Emperor. 21. See! he has summoned us to the Imperial Imperial dais. The night falls; it is a great orgy of worship and bliss. 22. The night falls like a spangled spangled cloak from the shoulders shoulders of a prince upon a slave.

23. He rises a free man! man! 24. Cast thou, O prophet, prophet, the cloak upon these slaves! slaves! 25. A great night, night, and scarce fires therein; but freedom for the slave that its glory shall encompass. 26. So also I went down into the the great sad city. city. 27. There dead Messalina bartered her crown crown for poison from the dead Locusta; Locusta; there stood Caligula, Caligula, and smote the seas of forgetfulness. 28. Who wast Thou, Thou, O Caesar, that Thou Thou knewest God in an horse? horse? 29. For lo! we beheld the White White Horse of the Saxon engraven upon upon the earth; and we beheld the the Horses of  the Sea that flame about the old grey land, and the foam from their nostrils enlightens us! 30. Ah! but I love love thee, God! 31. Thou art like a moon upon the ice-world. 32. Thou art like the dawn of the utmost snows upon the burnt-up flats of the tiger's land. 33. By silence and by speech do I worship worship Thee. 34. But all is in vain. 35. Only Thy silence silence and Thy speech that worship worship me avail. 36. Wail, O ye folk of the grey land, for we have drunk your wine, and left ye but the bitter dregs. 37. Yet from these we will distil ye a liquor beyond the nectar of the Gods. 38. There is value in our tincture tincture for a world of Spice and gold. 39. For our red powder of projection is is beyond all possibilities. possibilities. 40. There are few men; there are enough. 41. We shall be full of cup-bearers, and the wine is not stinted. 42. O dear my God! what a feast Thou hast provided. 43. Behold the lights and the the flowers and the maidens! 44. Taste of the wines and the cakes and the splendid meats! 45. Breathe in the perfumes and the clouds of little gods like wood-nymphs that inhabit the nostrils! nostrils! 46. Feel with your whole body the glorious smoothness smoothness of the marble coolth and the generous warmth of  the sun and the slaves! 47. Let the Invisible inform all all the devouring Light of its disruptive vigour! vigour! 48. Yea! all the world is split apart, as an old grey tree by the lightning! 49. Come, O ye gods, and and let us feast. 50. Thou, O my darling, O my ceaseless Sparrow-God, my delight, my desire, my deceiver, come Thou and chirp at my right hand! 51. This was the tale of the memory of Al A'in the priest; yea, of Al A'in the priest.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. ay, another first Sol’s Sol’s Day after the first full moon on-or-after the vernal equinox! Yay, Sarcasm aside (“movable” feast? feast? If something specifically actually happened would the date move/change?), no ma’atter the occasion &/or date 2day comes around every year. year. Be it commemorating/honoring the ancient Babylonian resurrection god Tammuz, brought back from the underworld by his mother/wife Ishtar (after whom some say the festival was named), or the Phrygian Attis & Cybele, or the Phoenician Adonis & Astarte, or the Can aanite Baal & Ashtoreth, John Barleycorn, or any other number ov fertility celebrations ov death & resurrection, or how it might come to us through the Anglo-Saxon Eostre or Ostara (some even say the Greater Mysteries ov Spring, whereas others like Eleusis have the Lesser Mysteries in March), all are basically the same separated only by time, time, culture & name. No wonder the Puritans (& some Protestants later) regarded the celebration ov Easter (& Christmas btw) as pagan (not until after the Civil War  War  (~1870s) did Easter become an American tradition).

Anyroad, to most 2day 2day (Pascha, Easter 4 convenience) is non ov those things. I will not bore U with the devilish details (do a googlemancy 4 yourself), but suffice 2 say 4 most (Crosstian or not) it is the resurrection ov their horde Jesus after being killed on a good Friday after  a last meal/supper. meal/supper. 4 devout Lunatics, I mean Roman Catholics, it also marks the end ov Lent (40 days from Ash Ash Wednesday Wednesday btw). While they (Crosstians & RCs alike) now usually passover or just ignore the facts behind bunnies & painted eggs (the Quartodeciman Controversy long 4gotten, c ), most (if not all) ov their beliefs are “borrowed” from their older Abramic brothers (&/or  stolen more forcibly from some other pagan sources). The case here is the Passover feast (note wine b4 bread 4 Jewish Sader & bread b4 wine 4 mourning, later Crosstian LS/Mass plus Our  Liber XV) commemorating the supposed Exodus from Eg ypt through ten “miraculous” plagues, now JC as Passover lamb @ last supper/eucharist mass/sacrifice reerected on Sol’s Day (3 days 2 get it back up?). Don’t even get me started started on the former Mosheh Mosheh myth, son ov whom pray tell? Red Sea n deed, Sea ov Reeds n truth. Celebrating the murder ov children, innocent innocent or not, is evil, let alone the other 9 supposed divine disasters (all natural & explainable but passed down by ignorant, superstitious savages). A god witch is truly a devil I say. say. But anyway, anyway, I do digress & will not babble on.

Bullying bullshit beliefs behind, what 2 do about nothing, & why should a Thelemite &/or  rational individual even care? I first began this paper back on Easter 4.11.04 e.v., e.v., brainstorming & trying to devise a fun alternative to the Crosstian (no ma’atter how nondenominational) Easter  festivities. What came to mind, gathering background nfo as I went, was a Qoph Feast based on The Moon Atu (c The Work, 3.23, ov Liber Kronos on this Thelemic Holy Day), Da y), a Pascha Pashu Puja, plus a hunt 4 the 42 pieces ov Osiris 4 the kids k ids &/or young @ heart (no using eggs 2 find heretics). I then began to note a feast I once prepared using 2 catfish catfish (bottomfeeders) I had caught witch stole the show from what I was originally doing. Using a modified Will I baptized 1 saul & the other yehoshuah ben jehosef, sharing them with family & friends. As noted then & now, “I “I took my cue from Stauroj Batracou”. Once that genii (ov “a Mercurial nature”?) was let loose I began gathering information/notes on sayd liber, did & commented upon it, creating Keremite Crucified in the process (U would be surprised how hard it is to find find a Kermit doll!). After all that, Easter Sacrifice was not completed as a cohesive, let alone publishable, Work. Work. Luckily (or should I say chronologically), as sayd earlier, 2day comes around every year.

Y all this back-story? Well I had to explain my method ov how this Work Work (whatever it is) came to be, to myself if no other, other, b4 “completing” it (if it can ever be). While I did & have not necessarily fully devised a fun alternative to “traditional” Easter festivities 4 the masses (maybe 4 some1?) per se, I sure have enjoyed myself. The image alone gave me a good chuckle when some knucklehead on myspace chided, “How dare you!” you!” ShT, ShT, 2b quite honest (& by the Thelemic caledar as per LL plus Liber XV), there really is no need to even celebrate/commemorate/honor  “Easter” no ma’atter what what day it falls on. The magick behind the mythos manifested manifested must be remembered though, witch is the true tradition (aside from the purely astronomical perspective that is). That being sayd, what I decided upon is is to cleanup my notes & such somewhat n2 a discernable 4mat without being bogged down by beliefs to create something witch might spark  others to built upon yet is complete in & ov itself. This is where We We are now, write/right/rite write/right/rite @ this moment.

Under such circumstances simplicity simplicity is best (does K.I.S.S. ring a bell?). bell?). Hopefully the correlation ov Easter & sacrifice ov some sort is apparent, shown throughout many mythological

systems. As always do a googlemancy if unsure ov the basics. basics. I’ve also tried tried to note appropriate Thelemic equivalents if possible. The only thing left to do now is reproduce Σταυρος Βατραχου Βατραχου with my remaining notes & comments shown between arrows, arrows, <>, as need might be. The notes mostly cover the history & references to the liber to help understand its place in the Thelemic Canon. The comments afterwyrds are short & sweet (not 2 mention slightly slightly n code, I call it shorta-hand) & refer mostly to “performance” ov sayd ritual ritual on sayd day. day. The ending image is the  previously mentioned Keremite Crucified (my The Moon Atu was also added later on the last pg). In all nothing too risqué &/or radically revealing, yet the rite duly done is very powerful (need I remind my dear reader it does contain amphibian assault, murder, dismemberment & consumption). As Brother Hamlet might say, say, do U c the rub? Most Westerners Westerners are put off by the animal sacrifice bit no ma’atter how nominal the animal, an imal, unless it’s it’s a tuna, cow or chicken (damn  pro-dolphin lobbyists!). This is odd as both Judaism & Crosstianity are dependent on this type ov sacrifice (humane or not), the first a requirement 4 Temple worship & the last myth a supposed substitute ov bread & wine 4 blood sacrifice. I wonder what Isaac sayd 2 Abram coming down the mountain? As U’ll c I did not harm a real frog & do not have a problem with it if done in a certain setting. I will go on the line here 4 the record & say I’m 220% against human sacrifice, either on the altars ov some fake god or that ov pursuing petty polyticks over national interests with Our  soldiers. Leave it to Uncle Al to give Us a weapon against their tyranny. tyranny.

My intent almost accomplished, I will end with a few final notes. While Liber LXX is technically an A∴A∴ Publication in Class D (Official Rituals & Instructions), there are some O.T.O. O.T.O. correspondences witch the Adept & Adhehent alike should surmise (cip c Magick w/o Tears Chapter XIII, System of the O.T.O.). O.T.O.). I will not note my personal degree discoveries, only those  previously published by others others relevant to the point. Nothing too in-depth as that would would make this unpubishable. Ask me privately. privately. Note also (if I am not mistaken) Liber 70 is not directly connected with Easter (4.23.1916, the year ritual was originally written & performed) aside from it  being a “Magical Operation to banish the "Dying God"”. As noted above & below, I basically basically remembered doing a similar ritual based on it while Working Working on a paper 4 Easter. It seemed appropriate & right 2 do the rite & write about it @ that time, & 2 finish finish it now. now. It is a powerful  banishing tool easily adaptable to any circumstance, limited only b y the operand’s ingenuity (nmhoal). Now U can c my conundrum on how to finish finish discussing sayd sayd subject. Each must do their own Work Work though or else they’ll impose theirs on others, a tactic ov the Slave God mentality We are trying to banish/dispel/annihilate (passive aggressively through ritual ov corpse, no real ones please). That sayd, this section is @ an end. Who knows? There is the 92nd anniversary ov the original writing & performance coming up, & there is always Easter 4.12.2009, not 2 mention then the 93rd sayd anniversary & so on. I might eventually add it as a thread in Liber Kronos if  found useful. Anyroad, I hope U enjoy this this Work Work & it doesn’t doesn’t confound &/or confuse any1. As always, any questions, comments &/or curses are welcomed. Love is the law, law, love under will. WLLM X+X

00 Devised by AC in the summer ov 1916 to confirm his assumption ov the grade ov Magus, 9=2, & performed Moonday, Moonday, July 17th, 1916 e.v. This later led AC to write a criticism ov G.B.

Shaw’s Shaw’s Androcles and the Lion preface (becoming Liber DCCCLXXXVIII) & Star Sponge Vision during a G.M.R. (Great Magical Retirement). In His Own Words, Words, Hag chap.82 pg. 808: “In order to erect the temple of the New Aeon, it appeared necessary to make a thorough clearance of the rubbish of its ruined predecessors. I therefore planned and executed a Magical Operation to  banish the "Dying God". I had written in "the Wizard Way” Way” <1 <1>: He had crucified a toad In the Basilisk abode and now I did so. The theory of the Operation was to identify the toad with the "Dying God" and slay it. At the same time I caused the elemental spirit of the slain reptile to serve me.” Liber 73, The Urn, record ov 9=2 Magus Initiation “July 4. Chokmah being 73, one day of this initiation is 73 da ys.” “July 17. Performed the ceremony of the assumption of the curse of the Grade of Mage. ÇT. ÇT. B. Record attached. 0. The Mystery of Conception about 2 a.m. I. The Mystery of Birth about 6 a.m. II. The Mystery of Baptism about noon. III. The Mystery of Worship all day. IV. The Mystery of Trial 9:00 p.m. V. The Mystery M ystery of Crucifixion 9:30 p.m. VI. The Mystery of Resurrection and Ascension 9:45.” refers to Liber 70 on pg 71 this is the record, 0-VI “Aug. 11. It is rather amusing after Op. of July 17 that I have now a stenographer exactly ex actly like a frog to assist me in the ceremonial slaying of Jesus in the Shaw article.” Liber 49, Brother Jack Parsons “48. Now is the hour of birth at hand. Now shall my adept be crucified in the Basilisk abode.” 1949=4066 AB. Anno Babalonus, i.e. yr+2117 2004=4121, 2008=4125 First published 1973 in John Symonds’ The Great Beast, chap. IV. IV. Mentioned in Brother Kenneth Grant’s 1973 Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God: “Crowley replaced the traditional rite of this Degree with a symbolic abnegation of historic, as opposed to Gnostic, Christianity, Christianity, a ritual involving the crucifixtion of a toad previously baptized in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This was a magical affirmation of the supersession of the Aeon of  the Dying God by that of Horus, the Ever-Living One.”

Quoted with general commentary in Francis King’s 1977 MegaTherion, pgs 119&120.  Noted & quoted in The Key of the Abyss by Anthony Testa, Testa, 2006, pg 123, http://www.lulu.com/items/volume_31/487000/487143/2/print/487143.pdf  “In one of the more famous quotes from Liber 49, Babalon informs Parsons he will undertake unde rtake the Black Pilgrimage171. The first verse of this section refers to Crowley’s Crowley’s ritual performed in his h is “Great magical Retirement” in which it appears that Parsons, at this point not yet a Magister  Templi, will be the sacrifice in a similar ritual172; Now is the hour of birth at hand. Now shall my adept be crucified in the Basilisk abode173. This is a perplexing verse and one wonders what Parsons may have made of it. As we shall see when we look further into the data encoded Kabbalistically into Liber 49, and as several commentators have pointed out, the being behind the  book seems to be more in tune to the Great Old Ones of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos 171 See Analysis of the Black Pilgrimage, this volume. 172 As Liber 70 is designed to “capture” an elemental spirit of a “Mercurial nature” and we might speculate that Parsons was to assume this role as, perhaps, a guardian. Perhaps in his death, from the explosion of  fulminate of mercury, he did. 173 Liber 49, Verse 48 Crowley’s Liber 70 provides some detail: STAUROS BATRACHOU, the Ceremonies proper to obtaining  a familiar spirit of a Mercurial  nature as described in the  Apocalypse of St. John the Divine  from a frog or toad  STAUROS BATRACHOU   He had crucified a toad   In thee basilisk abode, Muttering the Runes averse Mad with many a mocking curse. and Section V  This sentence is then executed. After the mocking upon the Cross, say thus: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Law. I, the Great Beast, slaying thee, Jesus of Nazareth, Nazareth, the slavegod, under the form of this creature of frogs, do bless this creature in the name of the + Father and of the + Son and of the + Holy Ghost. And I assume unto myself and take into my service the elemental spirit of this frog, to be about me as a lying spirit, to go forth upon the earth as a guardian to me in my Work for Man; that men may speak of my  piety and of my gentleness and of all virtues and bring to me love and service and all material things soever  where I may stand in need. And this shall be its reward, to stand beside me and hear the truth that I utter, the falsehood whereof shall deceive men. Love is the law, love under will. Then shalt thou stab the frog to the heart with the Dagger of Art, saying: Into my hands I receive thy spirit.

Interestingly, this ritual will provide us with some insight when we turn toward the use of  Apocalyptic imagery and loci in magick.” Simon’s 2007 Papal Magic pg87 “Aleister Crowley, Crowley, while not an ordained Catholic priest, was also sensitive to the efficacy of the Christian ritual. During one of his occult operations in which he assumed the advanced degree of  Magus, he crucified a toad in imitation of the Crucifixion of Jesus; before this, however, he  baptized the animal according to Christian tradition. This meant that the toad was, at least somehow nominally, nominally, a Christian, and that its crucifixion would be seen as genuine. Baptism, Crowley knew, was the one sacrament that could  be  be performed by a layperson. According to

Catholic law, law, a layperson may baptize an infant in extremis: if the baby is in danger of dying and there is no clergyman around. Thus, he took this law as precedent, as the toad was, most certainly, certainly, in danger of death! As for the crucifixion itself, that was never a sacrament (of c ourse) but had  been committed by laypersons, Roman soldiers in fact, so Crowley was on somewhat safer ground there. Crucifixion is an essential element of the initiation structure of the Golden Dawn, the English secret society in which Aleister Crowley was first initiated, and represented its highest degree, that of the Adeptus Minor, in which the initiate is literally crucified (using rope instead of nails).” There are a few online versions, 1 with original key entry by a Frater Occultus Non Extinctus (supposedly “IXth O.:T.:O.:”) O.:T.:O.:”) with spell-checking by b y a Nemo & another  by a Frater T.S.. T.S.. While re-edditing this noticed USGL has it up now, http://lib.oto-usa.org/libri/liber0070.html. It is a Class D document (Official Rituals and Instructions) according to ABA based on correspondence between Brothers Crowley & C.S. Jones. From Crowley Desk Reference, Brother Jerry Cornelius: CEREMONIES PROPER TO THE OBTAINING OF A FAMILIAR SPIRIT, THE Stauros Batraxou (Liber LXX - 70) - (The Frog Ritual) AC/Original handwritten copy, copy, Warburg Warburg , 1916 AC/Original typed copy, Warburg Warburg (Aleister Crowley Diaries) pg.7, 1916 The Satanists, Edited by Peter Haining, Taplinger Publishing Co., NY pg.183 HB, 1970 AEON II magazine, WA pg.34, 1985 Thelema Lodge, OTO, CA, pamphlet, 1988 The King of the Shadow Realm by John Symonds, Duckworth & Company, Ltd., London pg.212 HB, 1989 see - DIARIES 16/06/28 17/03/06 (The Diary of a Magus) I printed, retyped & burned original to have a virgin copy Anno IVxii, Sol 21° Aries, Luna 10° Capricorn, 4.11.04 e.v. I tried the best I may to translate the MS handwriting &/or find where it is in the limited time & scope ov this Work Work (thank U Frater A.A.), witch is why I’ve included it below 4 U 2 decide. The notations may be that ov Brother Gerald Yorke. Yorke. Notice they wrap around & are difficult to read. It doesn’t really ma’atter ma’atter as they are essentially unimportant to the Work. [This Book is to be given to any who has given evidence of his capacity for it to a Brother already possessing it by personal examination only, only, such examination to extend continuously over eleven A.C to C. Stansfield Jones An XII Sol in     ;in in “I must close: the frog-elemental whom I invoked has

arrived, and I must slay Shaw* and the slave god.” (* opus to The Gospel According to Saint Bernard Shaw) * Within a short time after this , there appeared suddenly a (in that Σταυρος Βατραχου Βατραχου <2 <2> remote back-block!) so like a as to show that she was it! The Ceremonies proper to the obtaining ob taining a familiar spirit of a Mercurial nature* as described in the Apocalypse of St. John the Divine from a frog or toad. "He had crucified a toad In the basilisk abode, Muttering the Runes averse, Mad with many a mocking curse. The Wizard Way 0. The Mystery of Conception I. The Mystery of Birth II. The Mystery of Baptism III. The Mystery of Worship IV. IV. The Mystery of Trial V. The Mystery of Crucifixion Crucifi xion VI. The Mystery Mystery of Resurrection and Ascension

about 2 A.M. about 6 A.M about noon. all day. 9:0 P.M. 9:30 P.M. 9:45.

Liber LXX (70) The Cross of a Frog Σταυρος Βατραχου The Ceremonies proper to the obtaining of a familiar spirit a Mercurial nature as described in the Apocalypse of St. John the Divine from a frog or toad. Α∴Α∴

Publication in Class D "He had crucified a toad In the basilisk abode, Muttering the Runes averse, Mad with many a mocking curse." The Wizard Way 0 The Mystery of Conception (about 2 A.M.)

In this Ritual the Chief Officer Officer representeth a Snake, because of Mercury. Mercury. (The proper food of  snakes is frogs.) The Mystery of Conception is the catching of the frog in silence, and the affirmation of the Will to perform this ceremony. I The Mystery of Birth (about 6 A.M.) The frog being caught is kept k ept all night in an ark or chest; as it is written, "Thou didst not abhor the Virgin's Virgin's Womb." Womb." Presently the frog will begin to leap therein, and this is an omen of good success. Dawn being come, thou shalt approach the chest with an offering of gold, and if available of  frankincense and myrrh. Thou shalt then release the frog frog from the chest with many acts of homage and place it in apparent liberty. liberty. He may, may, for example, be placed on a quilt of many colours, and covered with a net. II The Mystery of Baptism (about noon)  Now take a vessel of water and approach the frog, saying: In the name of the Father + and of the Son + and of the Holy Ghost + (here sprinkle water on its head) I baptize thee, O creature of frogs, with water, by the name Jesus of Nazareth. III The Mystery of Worship (all day) During the day thou shalt approach the frog whenever convenient, and speak words of worship. And thou shalt ask it to perform such miracles as thou desirest to be done; and they shall be done according to Thy Will. Will. Also thou shalt promise to the frog an elevation fitting for him; and all this while thou shalt be secretly carving a cross whereon to crucify him. IV The Mystery of the Trial (9.0 P.M.)  Night being fallen, thou shalt arrest the frog, and accuse him of blasphemy, sedition, and so forth, in these words: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Law. Lo, Jesus of Nazareth, how thou art caught in my snare. All my life life long thou hast plagued me and affronted affronted me. In thy name I-with I-with all other free souls in Christendom-have been tortured in my boyhood; all delights have been forbidden unto me; all that I had has been taken from me, and that which is owed to me they pay pa y not-in thy name.  Now,  Now, at last, I have thee; the Slave-God in the power of the Lord of Freedom. Thine hour is come; as I blot thee out from this earth, so surely shall the eclipse pass; and Light, Life, Love and Liberty  be once more again the Law of Earth. Give thou place to me, o Jesus; thine æon is passed; the Age

of Horus is arisen by the Magick of the Master the Beast that is Man; and his number is six hundred and three score and six. Love is the law, law, love under will. [Pause] Ι, Το Μεγα Θηριον, therefore condemn thee, Jesus the slave-god, to be mocked and spat upon and scourged and then crucified. V The Mystery of Crucifixion (9.30 P.M.) This sentence is then executed. After the mocking upon the Cross, say thus: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Law. I, the Great Beast, slaying thee, Jesus of   Nazareth, the slave-god, under the form of this creature of frogs, do bless this creature in the name of the + Father and of the + Son and of the + Holy Ghost. And I assume unto myself and take into my service the elemental spirit of this frog, to be abou t me as a lying spirit, to go forth upon up on the earth as a guardian to me in my work for Man; that men may speak of my piety and my gentleness and of all virtues and bring me love and service and all material things soever soev er where I may stand in need <3 <3>. And this shall be its reward, to stand beside me and hear the truth that I utter, the falsehood whereof shall deceive man. Love is the law, law, love under will. Then shalt thou stab the frog to the heart with the Dagger of Art, saying: Into my hands I receive thy spirit. VI The Mystery of Resurrection and Ascension (9.45) Presently thou shalt take down the frog from the cross and divide it into two parts; the legs shalt thou cook and eat ea t as a sacrament to confirm thy compact with the frog, and the rest shalt thou burn utterly with fire, fire, to consume finally the æon of the accursed one. So mote it be! And this ceremony shall serve also as a ceremonial assumption of the Curse <4> of the Grade of a Magus 9° 9°=2, Α∴Α∴

KC The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. Vol. 5, p. 228, Nicaea final decision, the words ov the Emperor  Constantine: “At this meeting the question concerning the most holy day of Easter was discussed, and it was resolved by the united judgment of all present that this feast ought to be kept by all and in every place on one and the same day…And first of all it appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin…for we have received receive d from our Saviour a different way …” Also from CE, "In fact, the Jewish feast was taken over into the Christian Easter celebration."

<1> Published in Equinox I 1 & The Winged Beetle THE WIZARD WAY VELVET VELVET soft the night-star glowed Over the untrodden road, Through the giant glades of yew Where its ray fell light as dew Lighting up the shimmering veil Maiden pure and aery frail That the spiders wove to hide Blushes of the sylvan bride Earth, that trembled with delight At the male caress of Night. Velvet soft the wizard trod To the Sabbath of his God. With his naked feet he made Starry blossoms in the glade, Softly, softly, as he went To the sombre sacrament, Stealthy stepping to the tryst In his gown of amethyst. Earlier yet his soul had come To the Hill of Martyrdom, Where the charred and crooked stake Like a black envenomed snake By the hangman's hands is thrust Through the wet and writhing dust,  Never black and never dried Heart's blood of a suicide. He had plucked the hazel rod From the rude and goatish god, Even as the curved moon's waning ray Stolen from the King of Day. He had learnt the elvish sign; Given the Token of the Nine: Once to rave, and once to revel, Once to bow before the devil, Once to swing the thurible, Once to kiss the goat of hell, Once to dance the aspen spring, Once to croak, and once to sing, Once to oil the savoury thighs Of the witch with sea-green eyes With the unguents magical. Oh the honey and the gall Of that black enchanter's lips

As he croons to the eclipse Mingling that most puissant spell Of the giant gods of hell With the four ingredients Of the evil elements; Ambergris from golden spar, Musk of ox from Mongol jar, Civet from a box of jade, Mixed with fat of many a maid Slain by the inchauntments cold Of the witches wild and old. He had crucified a toad In the basilisk abode, Muttering the Runes averse Mad with many a mocking curse. He had traced the serpent sigil In his ghastly virgin vigil. "Sursum cor!" the elfin hill, Where the wind blows deadly chill From the world that wails beneath Death's black throat and lipless teeth. There he had stood -- his bosom bare --Tracing Life upon the Air  With the crook and with the flail Lashing forward on the gale, Till its blade that wavereth Like the flickering of Death Sank before his subtle fence To the starless sea of o f sense.  Now at last the man is come Haply to his halidom. Surely as he waves his rod In a circle on the sod Springs the emerald chaste and clean From the duller paler green. Surely in the circle millions Of immaculate pavilions Flash upon the trembling turf  Like the sea-stars in the surf --Millions of bejewelled tents For the warrior sacraments. Vaster, vaster, vaster, vaster, Grows the stature of the master;

All the ringed encampment vies With the infinite galaxies. In the midst a cubic stone With the Devil set thereon; Hath a lamb's virginal throat; Hath the body of a stoat; Hath the buttocks of a goat; Hath the sanguine face and rod Of a goddess and a god! Spell by spell and pace by pace! Mystic flashes swing and trace Velvet soft the sigils stepped By the silver-starred adept. Back and front, and to and fro, Soul and body sway and flow In vertiginous caresses To imponderable recesses, Till at last the spell is woven, And the faery veil is cloven That was Sequence, Space, and Stress Of the soul-sick consciousness. "Give thy body to the beasts! Give thy spirit to the priests! Break in twain the hazel rod On the virgin lips of God! Tear the Rosy Cross asunder! Shatter the black bolt of thunder! Such the swart ensanguine kiss Of the resolute abyss!" Wonder-weft the wizard heard This intolerable word. Smote the blasting hazel rod On the scarlet lips of God; Trampled Cross and rosy core; Brake the thunder-tool of Thor; Meek and holy acolyte Of the priestly hells of spite, Sleek and shameless catamite Of the beasts that prowl by night! Like a star that streams from heaven Through the virgin airs light-riven, From the lift there shot and fell An admirable miracle. Carved minute and clean, a key Of purest lapis-lazuli More blue than the blind sky that aches

(Wreathed (Wreathed with the stars, her torturing snakes), For the dead god's kiss that never wakes; Shot with golden specks of fire Like a virgin with desire. Look, the levers! fern-frail fronds Of fantastic diamonds, Glimmering with ethereal azure In each exquisite embrasure. On the shaft the letters laced, As if dryads lunar-chaste With the satyrs were embraced, Spelled the secret of the key: "Sic pervenias." And he Went his wizard way, inweaving Dreams of things beyond believing. When he will, the weary world Of the senses closely curled Like a serpent round his heart Shakes herself and stands apart. So the heart's blood flames, expanding, Strenuous, urgent, and commanding; And the key unlocks the door  Where his love lives evermore. She is of the faery blood; All smaragdine flows its flood. Glowing in the amber sky To ensorcelled porphyry. She hath eyes of glittering flake Like a cold grey water-snake. She hath naked breasts of amber  Jetting wine in her bed-chanber, Whereof whoso stoops and drinks Rees the riddle of the Sphinx. She hath naked limbs of amber  Whereupon her children clamber. clamber. She hath five navels rosy-red From the five wounds of God that bled; Each wound that mothered her still  bleeding, And on that blood her babes are feeding. Oh! like a rose-winged pelican She hath bred blessed babes to Pan! Oh! like a lion-hued nightingale She hath torn her breast on thorns to avail The barren rose-tree to renew

Her life with that disastrous dew, dew, Building the rose o' the world alight With music out of the pale moonlight! O She is like the river of blood That broke from the lips of the bastard god, When he saw the sacred mother smile On the ibis that flew up the foam of Nile Bearing the limbs unblessed, unborn, That the lurking beast of Nile had torn! So (for the world is weary) I These dreadful souls of o f sense lay by. I sacrifice these impure shoon To the cold ray of the waning moon. I take the forked hazel staff, And the rose of no terrene graff, And the lamp of no olive oil With heart's blood that alone may boil. With naked breast and feet unshod I follow the wizard way to God. Wherever he leads my foot shall follow; Over the height, into the hollow, Up to the caves of pure cold breath, Down to the deeps of foul hot death, Across the seas, through the fires, Past the palace of desires; Where he will, whether he will or no, If I go, I care not whither I go. For in me is the taint of the faery blood. Fast, fast, its emerald flood Leaps within me, violent rude Like a bestial faun's beatitude. In me the faery blood runs hard: h ard: My sires were a druid, a devil, a bard, A beast, a wizard, a snake and a satyr; For --- as my mother said --- what does it matter? She was a fay, pure of the faery; Queen Morgan's daughter by an aery Demon that came to Orkney once To pay the Beetle his orisons. So, it is I that writhe with the twitch Of the faery blood, and the wizard itch To attain a matter one may not utter  Rather than sink in the greasy splutter 

Of Britons munching their bread and  butter; Ailing boys and coarse-grained girls Grown to sloppy women and brutal churls. So, I am off with staff in hand To the endless light of the nameless na meless land. Darkness spreads its sombre streams, Blotting out the elfin dreams. I might haply be afraid, Were it not the Feather-maid Leads me softly by the hand, Whispers me to understand.  Now (when through the world of  weeping Light at last starrily creeping Steals upon my babe-new sight, Light --- O light that is not light!) On my mouth the lips of her  Like a stone on my sepulchre Seal my speech with ecstasy, ecstasy, Till a babe is born of me That is silent more than I; For its inarticulate cry Hushes as its mouth is pressed To the pearl, her honey breast; While its breath divinely ripples The rose-petals of her nipples, And the jetted milk he laps From the soft delicious paps, Sweeter than the bee-sweet showers In the chalice of the flowers, More intoxicating than All the purple grapes of Pan. Ah! my proper lips are stilled. Only, Only, all the world is filled With the Echo, that dips over  Like the honey from the clover. Passion, penitence, and pain Seek their mother's womb again, And are born the triple treasure, Peace and purity and pleasure. --- Hush, my child, and come aloft Where the stars are velvet soft!

<2> Stauros Batrachou, Grk=~ Cross/stake ov a frog Σταυρος an upright pale, stake or pole sigma-tau-alpha-upsilon-rho-omicron-stigma 200-300-1-400-100-70-31=1102=4 Βατραχου frog  beta-alpha-tau-rho-alpha-chi-omicron-upsilon 2-1-300-100-1-600-70-400=1474=16=7 2576=20=2 Some say a reference to Revelations Reve lations chap. XVI: “13. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the earth and an d of the whole world, to gather them together to the battle of that great day da y of God Almighty.” Almighty.” <3> “Shortly after this date, I received numerous unexpected unexp ected gifts.” AC MS note, the rest illegible, Frater T.S. <4> “This came into effect on leaving NY for NO.” AC MS note, Frater T.S. T.S. AC returned to New York York 10.17.1916, & 12.9.1916 traveled to New Orleans for G.M.R.. C Liber 73. For more on this Curse Curse c ABA chap. XXI: “Nor will the mere Master of the Temple, as a rule, presume to act upon the Universe, save as the servant of his own destiny. It is only the Magus, He of the grade above, who has attained to Chokhmah, Wisdom, and so dare act. He must dare act, although it like Him not. But He must assume the Curse of His grade, as it is written in the Book of the Magus.” Liber B vel Magi sub Figura I in Eq I VII & ABA App VII: 00. One is the Magus: twain His forces; four His weapo ns. These are the seven Spirits of  Unrighteousness; seven vultures of evil. This is the art and craft of the Magus but glamour. How shall He destroy Himself? 0. Yet Yet the Magus hath power upon up on the Mother both directly and through love. And the Magus is Love, and bindeth together That and This in His Conjuration. 1. In the beginning doth the Magus speak Truth, and send forth Illusion and Falsehood to en slave the soul. Yet Yet therein is the Mystery of Redemption. 2. By his Wisdom made He the Worlds: the World World that is God is none other than He. 3. Now then shall He end His Speech with Silence? For He is Speech. 4. He is the First and the Last. How shall He cease to number n umber Himself? 5. By a Magus is this writing made known through the mind of a Magister. Magister. The one uttereth clearly, and the other Understandeth; yet the Word Word is falsehood, and the Understanding darkness. And this saying is of All Truth. 6. Nevertheless it is written; for there be times of darkness, and th is as a lamp therein. 7. With the Wand createth He. 8. With the Cup preserveth He. 9. With the Dagger destroyeth He.

10. With the Coin redeemeth He. 11. His weapons fulfil the wheel; and on What Axle that turneth is not known unto Him. 12. From all these actions must He cease ce ase before the curse of His Grade is uplifted up lifted from Him. Before He attain to that which existeth without Form. 13. And if at this time He be manifested upon earth as a Man, and therefore is this present writing, let this be His method, that the curse of His grade, and the burden bu rden of His attainment, be uplifted from Him. 14. Let Him beware of abstinence from action. For the curse of His grade is that he must speak  Truth, that the Falsehood thereof may enslave the souls of men. Let Him then utter that without Fear, that the Law may be fulfilled. And according to His Original Nature will that law be shapen, so that one may declare gentleness and quietness, being an Hindu; and another fierceness and servility, servility, being a Jew; and yet another ardour and a nd manliness, being an Arab. Yet Yet this matter  toucheth the mystery of Incarnation, and is not here h ere to be declared. 15. Now the grade of a Magister teacheth the Mystery of Sorrow, and the grade of a Magus the Mystery of Change, and the grade of o f Ipsissimus the Mystery of Selflessness, Selflessness, which is called also the Mystery of Pan. 16. Let the Magus then contemplate each in turn, raising it to the ultimate power of Infinity. Infinity. Wherein Sorrow is Joy, and Change is Stability, Stability, and Selflessness Se lflessness is Self. For the interplay of the  parts hath no action upon the whole. And this contemflation shall be performed not by simple meditation --- how much less then by reason! --- but b y the method which shall have been given unto Him in His initiation to the Grade. 17. Following which method, it shall be b e easy for Him to combine that rinity from its elements, and further to combine Sat-Chit-Ananda, and Light, Love, Love , Life, three by three into nine that are one, in which meditation success shall be That which was first adumbrated to Him in the grade of  Practicus (which reflecteth Mercury into the lowest world) in Liber XXVII, "Here is Nothing under  its three forms." 18. And this is the Opening of the Grade of Ipsissimus, and by the Buddhists it is called the trance  Nerodha-Samapatti. 19. And woe, woe, woe, yea woe, and again woe, woe, woe, unto seven times be His that preacheth not His law to men! 20. And woe also be unto Him that refuseth the curse of o f the grade of a Magus, and the burden of  the Attainment thereof. 21. And in the word CHAOS let the book be sealed, yea, let the Book be sealed. “Richard Wagner's Wagner's Parsifal is the knight k night to whom it succeeded to render the Christian feast of   Easter its proper power and significance, after the feast is pined away awa y and had become stereotyped in the hands of its priest hitherto, the old and sick king Amfortas. With the holy lance lance Parsifal heal the king's gaping wound, and thus justify himself as not only the rightfully keeper of the Grail - the holy cauldron which contains the blood b lood of Christ but also the new and duly by right administrator  of the political power in the kingdom. kingdo m. Such is the tale of Parsifal Pa rsifal in Wolfram Wolfram von Eschenbach's medieval High German drama PARZIVAL ARZIVAL from about 1205, and from where Wagner was inspired to compose the opera. But Wagner goes thoroughly into different features of the myth in a way as Wolfram never have dreamt of, according to B. Bojesen. As for instance does d oes Wagner Wagner emphasize the incident with the beautiful witch, Kundry, and that there in Parsifal's relation to her is hiding a

decisive perspective in the opera. In the middle of the second act she sings: 'The only reason why I was lingering here, was as for you to find me'. But this reply acted with a double do uble entendre. In short, he, Parsifal, has to understand that she is a spiritual function, which he should integrate. And the only way to do this is to reject the physical sexual union with her. The result of this is pictured in the last scene of the opera. After Parsifal has raised the Grail from its shrine, Kundry sinks, with her eyes at him, slowly to the ground in front of Parsifal, inanimated. She no longer exists as a concrete being - exactly because Parsifal P arsifal has integrated her as spiritual function. Parsifal is now 'whole', and has in one stroke achieved his authority.” Although the last piece might not segue well, it was in my original notes on Easter witch I did not want 2 delete or know where exactly 2 put (that & I needed 18 pgs 4 another reminder ov 2day’s 2day’s THD ov The Moon b4 The Emperor takes his watch). Seems proper it come @ the end, “to render the Christian feast of Easter its proper power and significance” –  ov Magick!!!

IAOP

Ruthvah or  What I Drown My Head In or  The Supernal Scent “Thou wast lithe and delicious to the taste, and thy perfume was of musk mingled with ambergris.” Liber LXV, Chap. 3, 6 Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. As U might surmise, I was doing my Reading 4 2day (3.29.08) & ran across a cross this verse. While it doesn’t mention civet specifically, specifically, the formula reminded me ov Ruthvah, or The Perfume of Immortality. Immortality. I first found this n Richard Cavendish’s 1967 The Black Arts (my The Book of  Black Magic) & bgan making/using it since I started shaving shaving my head (95/96?). While 4 the life ov me I cannot find the pg (yet!*), the gist was AC rubbed it (not 2b confused w/IT from Amrita) n2 his scalp & used it 2 attract women (w/another side-effect side-effect ov startling horses). As an aside, I find both women & men (I don’t know about horses) like it & want 2 know how 2 get some. Anyroad, during this time I would find only on ly 2 references: a Crowley notebook n MEGATHERION MEGATHERION & A Magick Life. Life . That is until now. “A favourite anointing oil often used for sexual attraction is that which was favoured by b y Aleister  Aleister  Crowley. Crowley. I suspect that tha t its name - Ruthvah - is a corruption of the Arabic ruh hiyat meaning "breath of life" and its alternative name, ‘The Perfume of Immortality’ to some extent substantiates this. A genuine ruthvah would be compounded from musk, ambergris and civet but the product of these animal secretions would be unjustifiably expensive.” Ray Sherwin, The Book of Results & Aromagicks Throughout the years I’ve sort ov prided myself m yself on bing 1 ov the few if any who used sayd  perfume, let alone know about it (witch most did/do not). I’ve even thought ov selling it (& I have sold some), but mass marketing a product witch comes c omes from an animal didn’t & doesn’t sound too kosher to me (just do a googlemancy &/or wander n Wikiland Wikiland on later sayd substances). I make small batches & a little goes a long way. way. That sayd, it is nice cing others discover this fine fume. B warned though, as some say they r “genuine” yet use a mixture ov “traditional substances coupled with synthetic synthetic compounds”. Now is that that genuine 2 U? There’s also Pheros, “inspired “inspired by Ruthvah”, plus “The Temple Of Solomon Secret Ruthvah Elixir Of Love”, ™!? The prices I’ve seen range from $5.50-$44, but I’ve found it only takes about $17.95 2 make ~an ounce (witch again, goes a long way even w/daily use). Here is 1 example, witch even offers offers something 4 women (Snow Queen?!): “RUTHVAH ANCIENT SEXUAL BODY OIL Ruthvah / perfume of immortality. As used by High Priests / Kings / Great Men. Rare and costly ingredients from far-flung places. Rubbed into scalp / temples te mples / said to drive women wild. Works Works subconsciously upon members of opposite sex to attract / compel. Crowley used Ruthvah and based his success with women on it Based on natural pheromones giving physical and psychical attraction.” http://www.sorcerers-apprentice.co.uk/ http://www.sorcerers-apprentice.co.uk/equiplst.htm equiplst.htm

 Now, the notion ov a magical perfume (or anything else 4 that ma’atter) 2 attract another is  probably prehistoric. Some might remember Roman women wanting the sweat/essence ov a gladiator 4 it’s it’s virile properties. This & other sort ov SSM (Simple Sympathetic Magic) sadly 2day endangers tigers & bears 4 TCM. From a modern perspective this is all superstition, yet yet given the  placebo effect even if it doesn’t Work Work it can/does by giving the perfumer the confidence they r  wearing something special witch actually smells amazing (nmhoal). (nmhoal). B it a magical aphrodisiac aphrodisiac &/or natural pheromone elixir, I & most I meet njoy it. So, what’s what’s the recipe!? Please check 777 Column XLII., Perfumes., Key Scale #s 1&29, 2&26 & 3&26. Ruthvah=1 prt Ambergris/Kether, Ambergris/Kether, 2 prts prts Musk/Chockmah, 3 prts Civet/Binah. Please note the # ov prts=sephiroth #, & 777 KS (hence The Supernal Scent subtitle from above). Mayb that’s that’s 1 reason y it is rubbed n2 the scalp? Anyroad, please do make it & dside 4 yourself. 2 nd this section I nclude the pertinent pe rtinent pieces from the AC notebook & Cavendish quote I finally found. From Francis King’s The Magical World World of Aleister Crowle y, now MEGATHERION, MEGATHERION, & here (notes n "" theirs, not mine &/or AC’s): AC’s): http://www.objectnotfound.net/stuff/gallery http://www.objectnotfound.net/stuff/gallery-two/aleister-crowley -two/aleister-crowley-book  -book  63. Elesair  "(This first reference looks more like Elesair, but i think he's actually writing elixir since that page deals with detailing "the loving cup" of elixir given out before magic ceremonies)." 67. Cunts rot. "(This is in relation to a court case which produced the fact that marginal notes in one of Crowley's essays contained the latin "Pater Iubit Scientiam Scribe; Adest Rosa Secreta Eros" and more o f  which using the first letter of each word produced produce d many a fun filled word and to which Crowley replied to the judge that this was purely purel y coincidental and as a matter of fact the judge's name "Scrutton" is actually an anagram for "cunts rot". The books follows "..it seems most unlikely that anyone save Crowley himself was impressed by this argument")." 74. Trance change "([simply] a detail of either the transfiguration of Crowley, Crowley, or documentation docu mentation of a particularly p articularly bad trip)." 80. Talisman magic "(a reference to the smearing of a talisman with semen to imbue it with magic power)." 105. menstrual magic "(a reference to Crowley believing sex magic to be particularly "efficacious" during menstruation)" 159. Ruthvah "(Ruthvah is "the perfume of immortality" used by Crowley which he claimed helped his sex appeal - which accordingly was going strong even when he was an old fat bastard.)" 180. meditation, visualisation, then passing it to subconscious "This has something to do with meditating on something you want, calling it into view and an d then trying to forget about it, the theory being that it now resides inside your subconscious in a purer 

state and is working away [unbeknown to you] to achieve the desired effect - this sounding like something I once heard Anthony Robbins say - further proof he is in league with satan!" nectar honey pollen propolis royal  jelly formic acid

 Tears saliva perspiratio n milk menstrual blood urine

3 parts of Civot 2 " " musk  1 " " ambergris Infusion bath small stainless steel tub with a capacity of 12 gals plus liquid displacement of girl. - Honey from girls birth flower - girls first day of menstruation - warm shower to remove dust, perspiration, (no soap) half hour soaking - another warm shower to wash off honey. honey. * 5pm 3.30.2008 Pg 44, “He wore a special Perfume of Immortality, Immortality, made of one part ambergris, two parts musk  and three parts civet, which gave gav e him a peculiar odour, but which he said attracted women and also horses, which always whinnied after him in the streets.”29  Note 29 Symonds The Great Beast pg 268. I also used the pg 43/44 A-M Talisman as well once  btw. Another thing I usually notice/remember 2day is from The Book of Thoth: “Note on the Precession of the Aeons. "The Hanged Man" is an invention of the Adepts of the I.N.R.I.-J.A.O. formula; in the Aeon previous to the Osirian, that of Isis (Water), (Water), he is "The Drowned Man". The two uprights of the gallows g allows shewn in the Mediaeval packs were, in the  parthenogenetic system of explaining and ruling Nature, the bottom of the Sea and the keel of the Ark. In this Aeon all birth was considered an emanation, without male intervention, o f the Mother  or Star-Goddess, Nuit; all death a return to Her. This explains the original o riginal attribution of the Atu to Water, and the sound M the return to Eternal Silence, as in the word AUM. This card is therefore specially sacred to the Mystic) and the attitude of the figure is a ritual posture in the Practice called "The Sleep of Shiloam".”  Now,  Now, as the Ruthvah remembering & writing took up most ov 2day’ 2da y’ss time I can only collect notes 4 this digression (ShT, I’m already Working Working on 2morrow’s THD also). As this is an annual thang & I have hav e until next year I will just give my notes 4 now (here omitted, SRN). Love is the law, law, love under will. WLLM X+X

Attitude Adjustment Adjustment 08 or  Orderly Devotion USDO&O Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.  Now I know some might ask what the 22 days ov the “THD/THHS” (Thelemic Holy Days/Thelemic High Holy Season) &/or Readings have 2 do w/the O.T.O. O.T.O. & E.G.C.? They’re not mentioned either n Our rituals or even the Calendar from LL & Our Mass (specific & not so specific days r ov course n LL & Our Mass, Mass, but not the 22 day period). The simple truth is nothing, & I do mean simple. simple. Is it an A∴A∴ custom then? That answer is not so so simple, but it is is no, & yes, sort ov. From James Eshelman’s Thelemic Tephilah Tephilah (follow the link & please read n full), previously mentioned & quoted elsewhere n Liber Kronos: “I established a personal foundation for this some years ago in identifying sacred readings and meditations for each of the 22 days of the Thelemic High Holy Season (March 20-April 10 of each year), originally shared only with Second Order members of Temple of Thelema, and later (Anno XCIV) published in Black Pearl.” http://www.aumha.org/arcane/tephilah.htm If that’s that’s not clear enough, here’ he re’ss a little history & (hopefully) some clarification. As most might/should know, Brother Eshelman is a member ov the A∴A∴, COT & TOT 2 name a few Orders (he resigned from O.T.O. O.T.O. n 1992 I think, but on good terms). COT was founded 1973 by A Ph yliss Seckler, Seckler, once HA777’s HA777’s wife) “in service to” the ∴A∴ & O.T.O. member Soror Meral (aka Phyliss A∴A∴ (i.e. not necessarily the A∴A∴ btw). TOT was then created n 1987 by Soror Meral, Meral, Anna King & Mr. Mr. Eshelman upon COT teachings. By this peripheral pedigree & quote above 1 can/should c the notion ov the 22 devotional days & readings came from a member ov an Order & not the Order itself. It has bcome popular (me thinks) bcause ov its obviousness (@ least the 22 connections, on Readings c blow). I’m surprised AC didn’t dvelop it as he did the so-called 73 “Chokmah Days”. YChD Days 4 22-day Workings? Workings? Unity. Unity. That is (@ (@ least 1) goal ov bhakti yoga isn’t it? xtre me aside, Eshelman’s Temple Temple of Thelema www.heruraha.net avatar is Raistlin Majere,

So, does this mean 1 must/should stop if not specifically a member ov any ov the above alphabet soup ov Orders, or that they r useless n general? Know, not @ all. It is a wonderful  practice 4 many reasons, & not just memorizing correspondences c orrespondences &/or preparing 4 The Three Days. It can b a condensed series ov “Path-Workings” “Path-Workings” &/or Initiations (note the O.T.O. O.T.O. does not use the ToL as the GD, A∴A∴ & other systems do). As U might note I use these days (past,  present & n the future) as an impetus/xcuse 2 write (like I need 1). N short, while it is not specifically part ov the O.T.O., O.T.O., E.G.C. or even A∴A∴ Work, U will b well rewarded the more time U put n2 it. Later as it comes about I’ll + the rest ov the year. year.

All that aside, what r the Holy Books the Readings come from, “works that are not to be changed, even to the letter”? From AC’s AC’s Hag.: "The spirit came upon me and I wrote a number of books in a way which I hardly know how to describe. They were not taken from dictation like The Book of the Law nor were they my own composition. I cannot even call them automatic writing. I can only say that I was not wholly conscious at the time of what I was writing...I cannot doubt that these books are the work of an intelligence independent of my own." From meus 2006 The Holy Books ov Thelema, the first & only place I’ve seen all 15 collected 2gether btw (during that 22-day period also): Class “A" Holy Books LIBER I, Liber B Vel Magi “This is an account of the Grade of Magus, the highest grade which it is ever possible to manifest in any way whatever upon this plane. Or so it is said by the Masters of the Temple." LIBER VII, Liber Liberi Vel Vel Lapidis Lazvli, Advmbratio Kabbalae Kab balae AEgyptiorvm Svb Figvra VII,  being the Voluntary Voluntary Emancipation of o f a certain Exempt Adept from his Adeptship “These are the Birth Words Words of a Master of the Temple. The nature of this book is sufficiently explained by its title. Its seven chapters are referred to the seven planets in the following order: Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Sol, Mercury, Luna, Venus.” Venus.” LIBER X, Liber Porta Lucis “This book is an account of the sending forth of the Master by the A∴A∴ and an explanation of  his mission.” LIBER XXVII, Liber Trigrammaton, being a book bo ok of Trigrams of the Mutations of the th e TAO TAO with the YIN and the YANG. “An account of the cosmic process: corresponding to the stanzas of Dzyan in another system.” LIBER XXXI Liber Legis, The Book of the Law Original written text well worth the read. C.I.P. C.I.P. I 26. Note also the first chapter’s verses r not #’d. LIBER LXV, LXV, Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente “An account of the relations of the Aspirant with his Holy Guardian Angel. This book is given to Probationers, as the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel is the Crown of the Outer College. Similarly Liber VII is given to Neophytes, as the grade of Master  of the Temple Temple is the next resting-place, and Liber CCXX to Zelator, since that carries him to the highest of all possible grades. Liber XXVII is given to the Practicus, as in this book is the ultimate foundation of the highest theoretical Qabalah, and Liber DCCCXIII to the Philosophus, as it is the foundation of the highest practical Qabalah.” LIBER LXVI, Liber Stellae Rubeae

“A secret ritual, the Heart of IAO- OAI, delivered unto V.V.V.V.V. for his use in a certain matter of  Liber Legis, and written down under the figure LXVI.” “This book is sufficiently described by the title.” LIBER XC, Liber TZADDI Vel Vel Hamus Hermeticus Sub Figura XC “An account of Initiation, and an indication as to those who are suitable for the same.” LIBER CLVI, Liber Cheth Vel Vallum Abiegni Sub Figura CLVI “This book is a perfect account of the task of the Exempt Adept, considered under the symbols s ymbols of a  particular plane, not the intellectual.” LIBER CCXX, Liber AL Vel Vel Legis Sub Figura CCXX as delivered d elivered by LXXVIII unto DCLXVI “This book is the foundation of the New AEon, and thus of the whole of our Work.” Work.” The eddited form ov Liber XXXI, C.I.P. I 26. LIBER CCXXXI, Liber Arcanorum twn ATV tou TAHVTI QUAS VIDIT ASAR IN AMENNTI Sub Figura CCXXXI Liber Carcerorum twn QLIPHOTH cum suis Geniis. Adduntur Sigilla et  Nomina Eorum “This is an account of the cosmic process so far as it is indicated by b y the Tarot Tarot Trumps.” LIBER CCCLXX, Liber A'ASH Vel Vel Capricorni Pneumatici Sub Figura CCCLXX “Contains the true secret of all practical magick.” LIBER CD, Liber TAV Vel Kabbalae Trium Literarum Sub Figura CD “A graphic interpretation of the Tarot on the plane of initiation.” LIBER DCCCXIII, Vel Vel Ararita Sub Figura DLXX “This book is an account of the Hexagram and the method of reducing it to the Unity, and Beyond.” LIBER DCCCCLXIII, A NOTE UPON “Only the short note pertains to Class A.”  Now U might ask (esp. 2day), “Where’s “Where’s Liber Libræ?” Again from Thelemic Tephilah: Tephilah: “The readings for each day are selected primarily (but not exclusively) from the Thelemic Canon (A∴A∴ Class A Documents), so as to correspond to the symbolism of the Letter and Trump.” Since he warned Us We’ll We’ll let him off the proverbial tzaddi. I (obviously as I’m writing writing this) knew the answer yet wanted 2 ngrain what these Works Works were & that the Reading 2day is not 1 ov them (but ov course U already knew that). This liber (n Class Class B, XXX=30, 4 3.30) goes against (n prt) what I sayd earlier about no O.T.O. connection w/the Readings, if only that it is nc luded on the above lines ov reasoning I’d surmise. Sure if I hadn’t mentioned that occult cross-fertilization cross-fertilization no1 bsides Initiates wood’ve known there was a connection no ma’atter how trivial, thus the USDO&O* caveat, witch really has no raison d'être 2b. Since it is so though I’ll try 2b as as ambiguous yet clear enough 2b understood. Nothing is truly sayd.

So, U’ll know Liber Libræ as an almost verbatim copy ov a GD Practicus (3=8) Knowledge Lecture (On The General Guidance And Purification of the Soul). Very practical I might say, say, on the backs ov others. others. Anyroad, coumpair both & njoy. njoy. I must prepare 4 Fortune. Love is the law, law, love under unde r will. WLLM X+X

“Learn first, O Practicus of our Ancient Order, Order, that true Equilibrium is the basis of the Soul. Sou l. If  thou thyself hast not a sure foundation, whereon wilt thou stand to direct the forces of Nature? Know then that as Man is born into this world amidst the darkness of Nature and the strife of  contending forces, so must his first endeavour be to seek the Light through their reconciliation. reconc iliation. Thus, thou who hast trial and trouble of this life, rejoice because of them, for in them is strength, and by their means is a pathway pathwa y opened unto that Light Divine. How should it be otherwise, O man, whose life is but a day in Eternity a drop d rop in the Ocean of  Time? How, How, if thy trials were not many, couldst thou purge thy soul from the dross of Earth? Is it but now that the higher life is beset with dangers and difficulties; hath it not been ever thus with the Sages and Hierophants of the Past? They have been persecuted and reviled, they have  been tormented of men, yet through this has their glory increased. Rejoice, therefore, 0 Initiate, for  the greater thy trial, the brighter thy triumph. When men shall revile thee and speak against thee falsely, falsely, hath not n ot the Master said "Blessed art thou." Yet, Yet, O Practicus, let thy victories bring thee not n ot vanity, vanity, for with increase of knowledge should come increase of wisdom. He who knows little, thinketh he knows much; but he who knoweth much hath learned his own ignorance. Seest thou a Man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him. Be not hasty to condemn other's sin. How knowest thou that in their place thou couldst have resisted the temptation? And even were it so, why shouldst thou despise one who is weaker than thyself? Be thou well sure of this, that in slander an d self-righteousness is sin. Pardon therefore the sinner, but encourage not the sin. The Master condemned not the adulterous woman, but neither did he encourage her to commit the sin. Thou therefore who desirest magical gifts, be sure that thy soul is firm and steadfast, for it is by flattering thy weakness that the Evil One will gain power over thee. Humble thyself before thy God, yet fear neither man nor spirit. Fear is failure and the forerunner of failure; and courage is the  beginning of virtue. Therefore fear not the Spirits, but b e firm and courteous with them, for thou hast no right either to despise or to revile them, and this too may lead thee into sin. Command and  banish the Evil ones. Curse them by b y the Great Names of God, if need be; but neither mock nor  revile them, for so assuredly thou wilt be led into error. A man is what he maketh himself within the limits fixed by his inherited destiny; he is a part o f  mankind. His actions affect not himself only, only, but also those with whom he is brought into contact, either for good or for evil.

 Neither worship nor neglect the physical body, which is thy temporary connection with the outer  and material world. Therefore let thy mental equilibrium be above disturbances by material events. Restrain the animal passions and nourish the higher aspirations; the emotions are purified by suffering. Do good unto others for God's sake, not for reward, not for gratitude from them, not for sympathy. sympathy. If thou art generous, thou wilt not long for thine ears to be tickled by expressions of gratitude. Remember that unbalanced force is evil, that unbalanced severity is but cruelty and oppression, op pression, but that also unbalanced Mercy is but weakness which would allow and abet evil. True prayer is as much action as Word; Word; it is Will. The Gods will not do d o for man what wha t his Higher  Powers can do for himself, if he cultivate cu ltivate Will Will and Wisdom. Remember that this Earth is but an atom in the Universe, and thou thyself but an atom thereon. And that even couldst thou become the God of this Earth whereon thou crawlest and grovellest, thou wouldst even then be but an atom and one among many. Nevertheless, have the greatest self-respect, and to that end sin not against thyself. The sin which is unpardonable is knowingly and wilfully to reject spiritual truth, but every sin and act leaveth its effect. To obtain magical Power, learn to control thought. Admit only true ideas which are in harmony with the end desired, and not every stray and contradictory idea that presents itself. Fixed thought is a means to an end; therefore pay attention to the power of silent thought and meditation. The material act is but the outward expression of the thought, and therefore it hath been said that "the thought of foolishness is sin." Thought therefore is the commencement of action, and if a chance thought can produce much effect, what cannot fixed thought do? Therefore, as has been already said, establish thyself firmly in the Equilibrium of Forces, in the centre of the c ross of the elements, that Cross from whose centre the creative word issued in the birth of the dawning universe. As it was said unto thee in the Grade of Theoricus: "Be thou therefore prompt and active as the Sylphs, but avoid frivolity and caprice. Be energetic en ergetic and strong like the Salamanders, but avoid irritability and ferocity. ferocity. Be flexible and attentive to images like the Undines, but avoid avo id idleness and changeability. changeability. Be laborious and patient like the Gnomes, but avoid grossness and avarice." So shalt thou gradually develop the powers of thy th y Soul and fit thyself to command the spirits of the elements. For wert thou to summon the Gnomes Gno mes to pander to thy avarice, thou wouldst no longer command them, but they would command thee. Wouldst thou abuse the pure creatures of God's creation to fill thy coffers and to satisfy thy lust for Gold? Wouldst Wouldst thou defile the Spirits of driving Fire to serve thy wrath and hatred? Wouldst Wouldst thou violate the purity of the Souls of the Water to pander to thy lust and debauchery? Wouldst Wouldst thou force the Spirits of the evening breeze to minister to thy folly and caprice? Know that with such desires thou canst but attract the evil and not the good, and in that can the evil will have power over thee. In true religion there is no sect. Therefore take heed that thou blaspheme not the name by which another knoweth his God for if thou doest this thing in Jupiter, thou wilt blaspheme YHVH; and in Osiris YEHESHUAH.

"Ask of God and ye shall have, Seek and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you."” * USDO&O Under S? Degree Oath & Obligation So, S? could b Second, Sixth, Seventh, Sixteenth, Seventeenth… Witch juan? Sergeant Shultz says, “I know nothing!” Others whisper, “Sub Rosa Nigra” “This Black Rose is then the veil of BABALON Herself. It is the repulsiveness which is one half of o f Fascination.” The Cry of the 2nd Aethyr, Aethyr, Which is Called ARN BABALON, that rideth ON, The Beast

SS Ritual 6:59 pm act SS 8 pm showup 8:47 pm Ss WLLM Ov the Furnishings, or Set & Setting: The Place, temple space, etc., ideally outside 4 SS, n 4 WS. Equipment as need b, KISS. Using Ra & Ah statues. Ov the Officers: Ritual & non, plus weapons & such if applicable. All=whomever is not main Off  Hst=Host &/or horse Ah=Ahathoor wmn, main character w/Ra Ke=Kephra wmn Ra=Ra mn Tu=Tum mn RHK=Ra Hoor Khuit blk rb, carries Ra & Ah statues Ta=Tahuti wht rb, main speaker  Ov the Ceremony: Who does what when & where. 4 what purpose? 2 commemorate/celebrate the journey journey ov Ra. Opening Hst III-IIIII-III Hst Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. All What is thy will? Hst My will, witch is truly thine, is to hail the height ov the Sun! All To what end? Hst That Our body may rejoice n the light, life, love & liberty ov the 1, nay, nay, none! All To what end? Hst That We We may commemorate rightly with joy & beauty & fraternity the Summer Solstice! All Love is the law, law, love under u nder will. Hst I-III-I-III Hst Let this offering be borne upon the waves of Aethyr to our Lord and Father the Sun that travelleth over the Heavens in his name ON.

Ta & RHK nter & go 2 E: Ta What is the hour? All Right now! X (Mulier) facing out RHK  It is the height ov Ra’s power. power. (leaves Ra statue n E & go 2 S) Ta What is the place? All Right here! O (Vir) facing n RHK  Withn & without Us, the true limits ov space. (leaves Ah statue n S) Ta What do We celebrate with this cardinal rite? All Yam! N (Puer) widd All Hydor! N (Puer) widd All Water! N (Puer) widd All Aqua! N (Puer) widd RHK  The longest day & shortest night! Ta & RHK stay n S. Each nter w/song: Ra goes 2 E saying/singing sa ying/singing a ka dua tuf ur biu bi a'a chefu dudu nur af an nuteru Ah goes 2 S saying/singing a ka dua tuf ur biu bi a'a chefu dudu nur af an nuteru Tu goes 2 W saying/singing a ka dua tuf ur biu bi a'a chefu dudu nur af an nuteru Ke goes 2 N saying/singing a ka dua tuf ur biu bi a'a chefu dudu nur  af an nuteru Hst Appear on the throne of Ra! Open the ways of the Khu! Lighten the ways of the Ka! The ways of the Khabs run through To stir me or still me! Aum! let it fill me! The Light is mine; its rays consume Me I have made a secret door Into the House of Ra (Enterer towards East)

Ra gives LVX signs Hst gives Sign of Silence Hst and Tum (Enterer to West) Tum gives Air sign Hst gives Sign of Silence Hst of Khephra (Enterer to North) Kephra gives water sign Hst gives Sign of Silence Hst & of Ahathoor. (Enterer to South) Ahathoor gives fire sign Hst gives Sign of Silence Hst Let Us adore Ahathoor, Lady of Amentet, mighty dweller in the Funeral Mountain, eye of Ra, dweller before Him, beautiful of fire in the boat of millions of years. Ah Hathoor am I, and to my beauty drawn All glories of the Universe bow down, The blossom and the mountain and the dawn. Fruit's blush, and woman, our creation's crown. I am the priest, the sacrifice, the shrine, I am the love and life of the divine! Life, death, love, hatred, light, darkness, are surely mine—  Are mine. Hst Let Us hear the fiery Words Words ov Water: (pass around 4 All 2 read, or Ke) (LIBER CHETH VEL V EL VALL VALLVM VM ABIEGNI SVB FIGVRA F IGVRA CLVI) 1. This is the secret of the Holy Graal, that is the sacred vessel of our Lady Lad y the Scarlet Woman, Woman, Babalon the Mother of Abominations, Abominations, the bride of Chaos, that rideth upon our Lord the Beast. 2. Thou shalt drain out thy blood that is thy life into the golden cup of her fornication. 3. Thou shalt mingle thy life with the universal life. Thou shalt keep not back one drop. 4. Then shall thy brain be dumb, and thy heart beat no more, and all thy life shall go from thee; and thou shalt be cast out upon the midden, and the birds of the air shall feast upon thy flesh, and thy bones shall whiten in the sun. 5. Then shall the winds gather themselves together, and bear thee up as it were a little heap of dust in a sheet that hath four corners, and they the y shall give it unto the guardians of the abyss. 6. And because there is no life therein, the guardians of the abyss shall bid the angels of the winds pass by b y. And the angels shall lay thy dust in the City of the Pyramids, and the name thereof shall be no more. 7. Now therefore that thou mayest achieve this ritual of the Holy Graal, do thou divest thyself of all thy goods. 8. Thou hast wealth; give it unto them that have need thereof, yet no desire toward it. 9. Thou hast health; slay thyself in the fervour of thine abandonment unto Our Lady. Let thy flesh hang loose upon thy bones, and thine eyes e yes glare with thy quenchless lust unto the Infinite, with thy passion for  the Unknown, for Her that is beyond Knowledge the accursed one.

10. Thou hast love; tear thy mother from fro m thine heart, and spit in the face of thy father. Let thy foot trample the belly of thy wife, and let the babe at her breast be the pre y of dogs and vultures. 11. For if thou dost not this with thy will, then shall We do this despite thy will. So that thou attain to the Sacrament of the Graal in the Chapel of Abominations. Abominations. 12. And behold! if by stealth thou keep unto thyself one thought of thine, then shalt thou be cast out into the abyss for ever; and thou shalt be the lonely one, the eater of dung, the afflicted in the Day of Be-with-Us. 13. Yea! verily this is the Truth, this is the Truth, this is the Truth. Unto thee shall be granted joy and health and wealth and wisdom when thou art no longer thou. 14. Then shall every gain be a new sacrament, and it shall not defile thee; thou shalt revel with the wanton in the market-place, and the virgins shall fling roses upon thee, and the merchants bend their knees and  bring thee gold and spices. Also young boys shall pour wonderful wines for thee, and the singers and the dancers shall sing and dance for thee. 15. Yet shalt thou not be therein, for thou shalt be forgotten, dust lost in dust. 16. Nor shall the aeon itself avail thee in this; for from the dust shall a white ash be prepared by Hermes the Invisible. 17. And this is the wrath of God, that these things should be thus. 18. And this is the grace of God, that these things should be thus. 19. Wherefore I charge you that ye come unto me in the Beginning; for if ye take but one step in this Path, ye must arrive inevitably at the end thereof. 20. This Path is beyond Life and Death; it is also beyond Love; but that ye know not, for ye know not Love. 21. And the end thereof is known not even unto Our Lady or to the Beast whereon She rideth; nor unto the Virgin her daughter nor unto Chaos her lawful Lord; but unto the Crowned Child is it known? It is not known if it be known. 22. Therefore unto Hadit and unto Nuit be the glory in the End and the Beginning; yea, in the End and the Beginning.

All & Off  All r dissolved n the End. All r absolved n Ecstasy! Hst As it is so, Our Lord & Father the Sun travels West, West, setting, & seems no more. Ta & RHK go 2 W & All face the same. Hst Let Us adore. Let Us hail Him n Our way. Tu (facing W n Air sign) leads All n Resh (All give signs but not saying words out loud): Hail unto Thee who art Tum in Thy setting, even unto Thee who art Tum in Thy joy jo y, who travellest over the Heavens in Thy bark at the Down-going of the Sun. Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm. Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Day! Give Sign of Silence. Unity uttermost showed! I adore the might of Th Thy y 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 the Khu! Lighten the ways of the Ka! The ways of the Khabs run through To stir me or still me! Aum! let it fill me!

The light is mine; its rays consume Me: I have made a secret door  Into the House of Ra and Tum, Of Khephra and of Ahathoor. I am thy Theban, O Mentu, The prophet Ankh-af-na-khonsu!

By Bes-na-Maut my breast I beat; By wise Ta-Nech Ta-Nech I weave my spell. Show thy star-splendour, star-splendour, O Nuit! Bid me within thine House to dwell, O winged snake of light, Hadit! Abide with me, Ra-Hoor-Khuit! Ra-Hoor-Khuit!

Hst Let Us Feast! Closing Opening Feast Hst III-IIIII-III Hst Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. All What is thy will? Hst My will, witch is truly thine, is to hail the height ov the Sun! All To what end? Hst That Our body may rejoice n the light, life, love & liberty ov the 1, nay, nay, none! All To what end? Hst That We We may fortify ourselves with meat & drink & intercourse! All Love is the law, law, love under u nder will. Hst Fall to! Hst I May give food offerings 2 2 statues.

First Night Feast The Feast for the First Night of the Prophet and His Bride is a commemoration of the first night Crowley spent with his first wife, Rose Edith Kelly. Kelly. They were married in a civil c ivil ceremony at Dingwall on August 12, 1903, although the wedding was not properly recorded until several days later. later. Rose later played an important role in the events surrounding the reception of  o f  The Book of o f the Law. The Feast for the First Night of the Prophet and His Bride is to be observed ob served on August 12 of each e ach year. http://www.hermetic.com/sabazius/gmnotes.htm

Rose, Lola Zaza & AC, 1909

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. 105 years ago, @ the suggestion ov his friend Gerald Kelley, a bored AC AC traveled to Strathpeffer, Strathpeffer, Scotland (c Confessions/Hag chaps 45 & 46). Supposedly during lunch 8.11.1903, 8.11.1903, AC & Kelley’s Kelley’s sister, Rose Edith Kelly Skerrett (later Crowley Goymley, Goymley, 7.23.1874-1932), 7.23.187 4-1932), “got into conversation”. Seems the young widow had a problem. While wandering over the golf links to walk the last few holes with her brother & another friend named Hill (who liked Rose btw), Rose confessed to AC AC that she was “in great trouble”. Long story short (do read Hag chaps 4 dtales), her family wanted her to marry a man named Howell for his money. money. She did not want to as she “had been carrying on an intrigue intrigue with a married man man named Frank Summers”. Sitting on the

links in Scotland (a golf course!?), The Beast proposed a “practical programme” to his future first Scarlet Woman: "All you have to do," I said, "is marry me. I will go back to Boleskine and you need never hear of  me again --- unless," I added with romantic grandiloquence, "I can be of any further assistance to you. That will knock your marriage with Howell on the head; you will be responsible for your  conduct, not to your family, but to me (as in the case of an Indian dancing girl married to a dagger  or a pipal tree); and you can ca n go and live in the flat which Mr. Summers proposes to take for you, without interference." Sounds easy enough. She obviously sayd yes (“jumped at” suggestion sayd AC), so after  letting the boys finish their golf game & telling her brother (who took it as a joke), Rose went to the hotel & AC to to the local authorities. They would have to wait 3 weeks, but after slipping a halfcrown he was told it was only onl y necessary to go to the sheriff ov the county & declare dec lare the intention to get married. married. AC returned to the hotel with the news, & after a short conference with his  betrothed, they dsided to elope. The new plan was to catch the the first train to to Dingwall (Scotland again), call on the sheriff & “get it over before breakfast”. They would leave quietly so as not to wake any1. Imagine, The Beast raping His Bride (I hope my fine reader(s) reader(s) will know I mean this as Hades raped Persephone, meaning take away/steal). “So we stole out in the dim grey of the morning.” After an uneventful train ride, “there was nothing to say”, the couple arrived in Dingwall looking for the sheriff. sheriff. After a little more run around from the locals, Our intrepid couple made an appointment with a lawyer for 8am 8.12.1903 to be married. With time time to spare they returned to their hotel to eat & drink something, “in a state of suppressed nervous excitement”. Dressed as a Highland Laird, “accoutred cap-a-pie from my  bonnet to my claymore”, The Beast & Bride arrived as scheduled @ 8 to find out ou t the need ov a sheriff was unnecessary (“a (“a mere flourish”). All they needed to do was consent to the marriage & dclare they regarded themselves “as man and wife”. AC it seems did not like “the prose of the  proceedings”, witch induced him to elaborate on it by taking out his h is dirk & kissing it, “as a pledge of my faith”. What gets me is what AC says next (italics his), “I never thought of kissing her !” !” Anyroad, The Beast & His Bride were duly married. married. Now all they needed to do was register @ the sheriff’s office (he needed his “little whack” ov the action). The Beast & His Bride went back to their hotel to wait on the sheriff, but not b4 Gerald found them & took a swing @ AC. AC. Seeing that he was too late, the couple dsided to carry out “the original programme”. To add to the situation, Hill arrived & sayd the marriage was illegal & must  b annulled. Hill not making his case, the couple stood their ground (Rose (Rose “like the game little little  bitch she was”, while AC “yawned gracefully and left them to fight it out”). In the end it was arranged that they would register register & carry on as planned. The couple returned to Strathpeffer Strathpeffer where AC was interviewed by his new mother-in-law. mother-in-law. Afterwards they went to the sheriff’s to register, register, after witch they were “induced to swear the most formidable oaths; about nothing in particular, but they apparently gratified the official instinct and filled the official coffer”. To add to this AC pens, “It was the finest piece of ritualistic ritualistic rigmarole that I have ever heard in my life”. The necessities  being done, the couple left for the train station in what “chanced to resemble a prison van”. After a long wait, they boarded & spent the trip sitting opposite each other in their first-class carriage. They arrived @ their destination a little b4 dinnertime. They had gotten away with it, & the rest is history (& Our Feast Day). The Beast wrote this that night for His Bride, “one of the most  beautiful and fascinating women in the world”:

Rose on the breast of the world of spring, ....I press my breast against thy bloom; My subtle life drawn out to thee; to thee ....its moods and meaning cling. I pass from change and thought to peace, ....woven on love's incredible loom, Rose on the breast of the world of spring! How shall the heart dissolved in joy take ....form and harmony and sing? How shall the ecstasy of light fall back to ....music's magic gloom? O China rose without a thorn, O honey-bee ....without a sting! The scent of all thy beauty burns upon the ....wind. The deep perfume Of our own love is hidden in our hearts, ....the invulnerable ring.  No man shall know. I bear thee down unto ....the tomb, beyond the tomb, Rose on the breast of the world of spring! Love is the law, law, love under will. WLLM

HomeWork HomeWork SC Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.  N past issues ov Talons I have shared some personal assignments w/volk,  but now I would like 2 present 1 2 U dear reader. Blow is an image witch I will not give a lot ov nfo on. That is 4 U 2 divine as it burns n2 Ur psyche (that or U translate the Enochian). All U need 2 do is charge it by any means U know,  but do not 4get it! Yep, that’s t hat’s it! Sure I could babble on & relate the myriad m yriad methods ov charging, yet U already know them (don’t U?). ShT, put it on a shirt! The S… C….. Campaign! Anyroad, I hope it Works!

Love is the law, law, love under unde r will. WLLM

In Bed With Crowley Soror Stellae -- Crowley books I have h ave read while in bed. Literally. Crowley books all over the bed. Crowley shoots seeds of magical eternal wisdom, opinions, smartaleck know-it-all retorts, retorts, reviews, and everything everything else all over the bed. Little wiggly pearls of  insight and experiences and all the time he hollers, “don’t follow me!” Well what are we supposed to do, then. With With Crowley in bed. Reading 418 in bed got me this vision. I was in an apartment building, and I went up stairs (how many I don’t remember) to an empty apartment, thru the front door, and from behind the wall just b ehind the door, there came a great, sonorous, louder than reality, reality, from beyond the know-not-where, grandiose voice saying something, I couldn’t understand a word it was saying. I knew it was talking to to me, tho, and that the message must be important. How long this lasted, I don’ t know but in visions it usually doesn’t last very long and seems like forever. forever. Finally, Finally, it said, “and now my servant has my bags  packed and I have to leave.” I thought it said something about having to catch a plane, or maybe that was just my impression (surely (surely it’s it’s going to fly not go by train(?). Then it was gone, and I went down the stairs to a seemingly lower or maybe below ground level (those garden level apartments) and saw—the Brady Bunch. Imagine that. I can only figure that the reason this vision was arranged as it was because, in 418, Crowley describes his working in the order of, doing the body of the ritual, and whatever else is involved, and then describes “coming down” from the expanded seemingly large consciousness to the mundane, earthly consciousness again. Maybe his description of that process made a firm impression on my own consciousness, or maybe rather, rather, subconsciousness. I can only surmise that seeing the Brady Bunch means two things, that the BB is my deep unconscious symbol of  mundanity, mundanity, normality, normality, the family circle as I grew up with the concept of, and that it got that way  because I spent too much of my time watching pop culture tv in in the 60s. What a waste of a good adolescence. Not my fault, parents are supposed to guide and teach kids. Messed up my expectations too. At least now I know I gotta get a broader b roader definition and classical version of  mundanity going. But it just goes to show you that, while your life experiences are your gnosis,  practically any of your life experiences can end up being an important part of your own personal gnosis. Prior to this event, and after beginning to read diligently thru 418 for some time, I started seeing 418s following me around all over town, wherever I went. 418 on license plates (the most visible when driving), 418s on the clock (seems I still manage to somehow intuitively or strangely otherwise look at the clock when it’s it’s 4:18 in the afternoon) whether at a t home or on the computer c omputer at work or on the phone display at work or anywhere and am usually not awake at 4:18 in the blessed a.m. One of these 418s made itself all too clear at one point while I was trying to ignore all this 418 activity. activity. I had parked downtown to go to the civic center for something, and was a block or so away and could not see the front of the civic center from where I parked. As I rounded the corner 

toward the front of the civic center where they have the huge electronic word display of recent events and ticket information, a marquee I guess it’s it’s still called, there displayed on the largest clock in town, was the time. 4:18. Well, Well, I couldn’t very well ignore that large large and intrusive message, could I. Liber 418 is Crowley ’s only liber which gave me such a personal g nosis-interactive feedback  self-referential reaction when read before falling into the hypnogogic state just before sleep. Why, Why, is not for me to ask, but I do LOL. Suffice it to say, say, life is not “normal” when in bed with Crowley. Crowley.

La Fee Found 8:10 The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from the sky, sky, burning like a torch, and it fell on one third of the rivers, and on the springs of the waters. 8:11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood: And the third part of the waters became wormwood; And many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. Revelations

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. I sit here on the Ides ov February/Lupercalia/etc reflecting & writing about the 13th, a most wonderful night. I found the Goddess, the Green one btw, btw, & this is what I did to her. her. It all began as a now typical Wednesday Wednesday night, being a good Heremite hiding in plain site while reading The Pitch & having a beer b4 writing writing more & meeting another young young victim. It was then I noticed an advert for a Leap Day Party @ Seven Downtown downtown. Not believing what I was reading, I hopped up from my hops & asked the bartender if it was true. The first, some lady who never  knows anything & talks more than serves, sayd she had no idea & asked the guy bartender. bartender. He sayd yes & that they had an unopened bottle. Joy!!! La Fee Verte Verte @ a dive bar! It definitely wasn’t The Old Absinthe Absinthe House, but as I am a m n KCMO vs. NOLA it would have to do. Yes volkes, absinthe is legal!!! Now I’ve had the wormwood-free Pernod, the Czech Absinth King Of Spirits plus a few other absinthes b4 (not to mention the homemade kind), but @ that moment I was giddy as a schoolgrrl to christen the bottle. He sayd it was 7 bucks & I replied who cares. The lady bartender became quite excited to learn how to serve it. While not necessarily necessarily a frappe, he showed her to do it this way: 1 part Lucid Absinthe was poured n2 a tall glass, as they had no slotted spoons &/or sugar cubes some kind ov syrup was mixed n2 1 ov those metal things w/H2O, ice & shaken, then ~ 3 parts are poured n2 the glass. To see it louche was/is a beautiful thing, no ma’atter how primitive it was concocted. To behold the essential oils escaping/blooming from their bonded solution puts puts a green sparkle in the eye. eye. Even b4 lifting the glass to drink the smell & taste ov licorice become real. To get happy about a simple drink might be silly to some (& a disease to others), yet I think even good ol’ Sid Arthur wood agree happiness in the silliest thing can be a virtue (yes, or a vice). So, how did it taste? 2 bartenders staring @ U wanting your opinion/approval makes things kind ov impersonal, so I gave them a 10 (y ‘aggle over eggs?), sayd thanks & took my seat. 3 bells sounded behind me as my gratuities gratuities r recognized. I sit, set it b4 me & prepared myself & surroundings for the elixir, putting TP aside aside &, as Astinus, take my pen n hand, write the date/time & begin documenting the experience. I won’t bore U with the details (yet!?), (yet!?), but it was good. Mixing the H2O, ice & “syrup” separately is a good battlefield method & will probably become standard seeing it is simple. As with all things it depends on who is serving & being served. The guy bartender did a good job. It wasn’t too bland, bitter or sweet. I like a bit ov a bite bite sometimes,  but not so undiluted the alcohol burns my lips, tongue & everything else going down. ShT, ShT, try it neat! Too much sugar sucks also as I do not have a sweet tooth tooth (I do like cheesecake though). The second glass later once Brie breezed n (witch the lady bartender prepared btw) b tw) would have a little too much “syrup” for my tastes. Luckily my companion’s was a bit bitter for her & We We traded kissing glasses. We enjoyed the surprise yet had other plans.

Do We We still have all Our ears? Ov course. Did We We hallucinate? Not that I know ov, ov, & I asked. No green fairies, pink elephants or even Oscar’s tulips. Most ov that that thujone & wormwood hype has its roots n disinformation & temperance tales the likes ov Dr. Jeckle & Mr. Mr. Hyde. The deadly & not-so-deadly side-effects r similar to rot gut, bathtub gin, moonshine & other  concoctions made by those who didn’t know how, were lecherous cigarette company type volke using non-quality substances to save a buck or both. Don’t 4get it was a medicine (yes as CocaineCola) & contains a pretty pretty good amount ov alcohol. Lucid is 62% alcohol. That’s That’s 124 proof! U would die from alcohol poisoning long b4 being affected by the wormwood’s wormwood’s thujone. Did I mention its flammable?! Imagine start drinking Bacardi 151 or something similar @ l’heure verte (“the green hour”, 5 pm to U & me). Sure it sounds like college college to some, yet the high chance ov abuse & what stems from from that is obvious as with any substance (alcoholic or not). I’ve personally never understood &/or suscribed to the conservative christian adage "Love the sinner, hate the sin." I do not believe n sin, although I was damn good w/a bow once. Personal responsibility. responsibility. That’s That’s the ticket! It’s It’s almost like blaming Black Sabbath, Judas Priest or Twisted Twisted Sister as Tipper & the “ladies” did for for those wastes wastes ov air who committed suicide. Because ov musick?! Theirs?! Really?! Another example & culprit ov the “Absinthe Madness” is obviously preexisting preexisting problems such as social conditions &/or mental illness. Anyroad, since trying the new Lucid Wednesday knight (w/o&w/Brie) I have found it sells for $65 a bottle & is probably @ Berbiglia’s. Berbiglia’s. An expensive habit n deed, yet fine for especial occasions. I’m not sure what other bars it is sold @ as I do have other things to do than bar hop, such as research & writing/typing this for others & myself. I’ve reread AC’s AC’s Absinthe: The Green Goddess (I do not know y AC called Absinthe “The Green Goddess” vs. “The Green Fairy” btw) & liked certain similarities similarities 2 the knight. I found a few more recipes, including Ernest Hemingway's Hemingway's “Death in the Afternoon Cocktail”. I wonder when those those would be appropriate? Below r these w/a few other miscellaneous items items on the subject. Just do a googlemancy for more, more, or ask me when I’m feeling better (it’s (it’s the flu, not the absinthe) & have h ave more time (I smell a sequel, or a series). Love is the law, law, love under will. WLLM 70. There is help & hope in other spells. Wisdom says: be strong! Then canst thou bear more joy. Be not animal; refine thy rapture! If thou drink, drink by the eight and ninety rules of o f art: if thou love, exceed by delicacy; and if thou do aught joyous, let there be subtlety therein! 71. But exceed! exceed! LL II Miscellania ”The Prohibitionist must always be a person of no moral character” & ”Thus in order to maintain the equilibrium eq uilibrium of sanity, sanity, the artist is obliged to seek fellowship with the grossest of mankind.” -Aleister Crowley -Aleister Crowley

“Absynthe, monster formerly born for our loss From Africa in Paris, trailing your green dress” -Antoni Deschamps “Come, the Wines go to the beaches, And the waves by the millions! See the wild Bitter  Rolling from the top of the mountains! Let us, wise pilgrims, reach The Absinthe with the green pillars….” & "When the poet's pain is soothed by a liquid jewel held in the sacred chalice, upon which rests the  pierced spoon, the crystal sweetness, icy streams trickle down. The darkest forest melts into an open meadow. Waves Waves of green seduce. Sanity surrendered, the soul spirals toward the murky depths, wherein lies the beautiful madness - absinthe." -Arthur Rimbaud “Even when she walks she seems to dance! Her garments writhe and glisten like long snakes obedient to the rhythm of the wands  by which a fakir wakens them to grace. Like both the desert and the desert sky insensible to human suffering, and like the ocean's endless labyrinth she shows her body with indifference. Precious minerals are her polished eyes, and in her strange symbolic nature angel and sphinx unite, where diamonds, gold, and steel dissolve into one light, shining forever, useless as a star, the sterile woman's icy majesty.” majesty.” -Charles-Pierre Baudelaire “I will free you first from burning b urning thirst That is born of a night of the bowl, Like a sun 'twill rise through the inky skies That so heavily hang o'er your souls. At the first cool sip on your fevered lip You determine to live through the day, Life's again worth while as with a dawining smile You imbibe your absinthe frappé.” -Glenn MacDonough "Let me be mad... mad with the madness of Absinthe, the wildest, most

luxurious madness in the world." -Marie Corelli "Absinthe has a wonderful color, green. A glass of absinthe is as poetical as anything in the world. What difference is there between a glass of absinthe and a sunset?" & "After the first glass, you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally, Finally, you see things as they the y really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world." -Oscar Wilde “Five o'clock. Foul weather. Grey sky... depressing, hellish sort of grey. Oh, for a good downpour to get rid of all these imbeciles milling around with their idiotic airs!…Foul weather. A bad day today, today, dammit. Bad luck. Article rejected. So politely... : ‘Liked your article... interesting idea... nicely written... but not really in the style of the magazine, I'm afraid…’ Style of the magazine? Style of the magazine?? Dullest magazine in the whole of Paris! Whole of France. Publisher preoccupied, distracted: ‘Got your manuscript here somewhere... yes, liked your novel... interesting idea... nicely written... but business is very slow at the moment, you see... already got too much stuff  on our hands... ever thought thoug ht of writing something aimed more at the popular market? Lots of sales... awards…' Went out politely, feeling stupid: ‘Another time, perhaps.’ Foul weather. Half past five. The boulevards! Let's take to the boulevards. Meet a friend or two. If you can call them friends. Bunch of worthless... But who can you trust in Paris? And why is everyone out tonight so ugly? u gly? The women so badly dressed. The men looking so stupid. ‘Waiter! ‘Waiter! Bring me an absinthe and sugar!’ Amusing, watching the sugar lump melt gently on its little grid. Same way they say a drip of water hollows out granite. Only difference, sugar softer than granite. Just as well, too. Can you imagine? Waiter, Waiter, one absinthe and granite! Absinthe on the rocks! That's a good one, that's a good one. Quite funny. For people who aren't in a hurry - absinthe and granite! Nice one. Sugar lump's almost melted now. There it goes. Just like us. Striking image of mankind, a sugar lump... When we are dead, we shall all go the same way wa y. Atom by atom, molecule by molecule. Dissolved, dispersed, returned to the Great Beyond by b y kind permission of roots and earthworms. Everything sorted out then. Victor Hugo and a hack like Anatole Beaucanard equal in the eyes of the Great God Maggot. Thank goodness. Foul weather... Bad day. Fool of an editor. Unbelievable ass of a publisher. Don't know though. Perhaps not so much talent as keep telling self.

Good stuff, absinthe. Not the first mouthful, perhaps. But after that. Good stuff. Six o'clock. Boulevards looking a bit more lively now. now. And look at the women! A lot prettier than an hour ago. More elegant, too. Men don't look so cretinous either. Sky still grey. grey. Nice mother-of-pearl sort of grey. grey. Rather effective. Lovely Lov ely nuances. Setting sun tingeing the clouds with pale coppery pink glow. Very Very fine. ‘Waiter! ‘Waiter! An absinthe and anis!’ a nis!’ Good fun, absinthe with sugar, but can't stand around all day waiting for it to melt. Half past six. All these women! And so pretty, most of them. And so strange, too. Mysterious, rather. Where do they all come from? Where are they the y all going to? Ah, shall we ever know!  Not one of them spares me a glance - and yet I love them all so much. I look at each one as she passes, and I’m certain I’ll never forget her face. Then she vanishes, and I have absolutely no recollection what she looked like. Luckily, Luckily, there are always even prettier girls following behind. And I would love them so, if only they would let me! But they all pass by b y. Shall I ever  see any one of them again? Street Hawkers out there on the pavement, selling everything under the sun…newspapers... celluloid cigar-cases... cuddly toy monkeys - any colour you want... Who are all these men? Crushed by life, no doubt. Unrecognised geniuses. Renegades. Hollow eyed. But fire still burning in their pupils. A book waiting to be written about them. A great book. An unforgettable book. A book  that everyone would have to buy - everyone! Oh, all these women! Why doesn't it occur to just one of them to come in and sit down beside me... kiss me very gently... gently... caress me…take me in her arms and rock me to and fro just as mom did when I was small? ‘Waiter! ‘Waiter! An absinthe neat. And make mak e it a large one!’” -Par Alphonse Allais "For me, my glory is but a humble ephemeral absinthe." -Paul Verlaine “Absinthe, O my lively liquor, It seems, when I drink you I inhale the young forest’s soul During the beautiful green season. Your perfume disconcerts me And in your opalescence I see the full heavens of yore, As through an open gate. What matter, O refuge of the damned, That you a vain paradise be, If you appease my need;

And if, before I enter the gate, You make me put up with life, By accustoming me to death.” & “When sundown spreads its hyacinth veil Over Rastaquapolis It’s It’s surely time for an absinthe Don’t you think, my son? It’s It’s especially in summer, when thirst wears you down - Like a hundred Dreyfus gossips That it’s fitting to seek a fresh terrace Along the boulevards Where one finds the best absinthe That of the sons of Pernod Forget the rest! They’re like a sharp by Gounod: mere illusion. I say along the boulevards, and not in Rome,  Nor at the home of the Bonivards; To be an absinthier is not to be any less a man. And on our boulevards One sees pass the sweetest creatures With the gentlest manners: You’re drinking, they rouse your nature, They are exquisite... but let it pass. You have your absinthe, it’s it’s all about ab out preparation This is not, believe me, As the cynics think, a small matter  Banal and without emotion The heart should not be elsewhere For the moment at least. Absinthe wants first, beautiful ice water  The gods are my witness! Tepid water, none of that: Jupiter condemns it. Yourself, what say you? Might as well, my faith, drink donkey piss Or enema broth And don’t come on like a German, And scare her, With your carafe; she would think, poor dear! That you want to drown her. Always rouse her from the first drop … Like so ... and so ... very gently Then behold her quiver, all vibrant With an innocent smile; Water must be for her like dew,

You must be certain about that: Awaken the juices of which she is made Only little by little. Such as a young wife hesitates, he sitates, startled When, on her wedding night, Her husband brusquely invades her bed Thinking only of himself... But wait: your absinthe has bloomed in the meantime, See how she flowers, Iridescent, passing through every shade of the opal With a rare spirit. You may sniff now, she is made; And the beloved liquor  In the same instant brings joy to your head And indulgence to your heart …” -Raoul Ponchon "The first month of marriage is the honeymoon, the second is the absinthe-moon." -Voltaire Ernest Hemingway's 'Death in the Afternoon Cocktail' 1 jigger ov absinthe added to a champagne flute. Add iced champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Links http://www.oldabsinthehouse.com/ http://www.drinklucid.com/ http://www.absinthesupply http://www.absinthesupply.net/products/king-of-spirits.html .net/products/king-of-spirits.html http://www.absintheonline.com/acatalog/Cocktails.html Wormwood  Artemisia Absinthium Artemisia was the wife & sister sister ov King Mausolous (hence mausoleum). It is a bitter herb generally used to expel intestinal worms/parasites, as a digestive stimulant, to reduce fever, as a wash to relieve skin itching/rashes, has abortive properties, as a treatment ov malaria, a general  pesticide witch repels slugs & snails, keeps moths away & can be toxic in large quantities.

 Absinthe: The Green Goddess

[1]

By Aleister Crowley I.

Keep always this dim corner for me, that I may sit while the Green Hour glides, a proud pavine of Time. For  I am no longer in the city accursed, where Time is horsed on the white gelding Death, his spurs rusted with  blood. There is a corner of the United States which he has overlooked. It lies in New Orleans, between Canal Street and Esplanade Avenue; Avenue; the Mississippi for its base. Thence it reaches northward to a most curious desert land, where is a cemetery lovely beyond dreams. Its walls low and whitewashed, within which straggles a wilderness of strange and fantastic tombs; and hard b y is that great city of brothels which is so cynically mirthful a neighbor. As Felicien Rops wrote,--or was it Edmond d'Haraucourt?--" la Prostitution et la Mort 

 sont frere et soeur--les fils de Dieu!" [2] At least the poet of Le Legende des Sexes was right, and the  psycho-analysts after him, in identifying the Mother with the Tomb. This, then, is only the beginning and end of things, this "quartier macabre" beyond be yond the North Rampart with the Mississippi on the other side. It is like the space between, our life which flows, and fertilizes as it flows, muddy and malarious as it may be, to empty itself into the warm bosom of the Gulf Stream, which (in our allegory) we may call the Life of God.

But our business is with the heart of things; we must go beyond the crude phenomena of nature if we are to dwell in the spirit. Art is the soul of life and the Old Absinthe House is heart and soul of the old quarter of   New Orleans. For here was the headquarters of no common man--no less than a real pirate--of Captain Lafitte, who not only robbed his neighbors, but defended them against invasion. Here, too, sat Henry Clay, who lived and died to give his name to a cigar. Outside this house no man remembers much more of him than that; but here, authentic and, as I imagine, indignant, his ghost stalks grimly. grimly. Here, too are marble basins hollowed--and hallowed!--by the drippings of the water which creates by  baptism the new spirit of absinthe. I am only sipping the second glass of that "fascinating, but subtle poison, whose ravages eat men's heart and  brain" that I have ever tasted in my life; and as I a m not an American anxious anxious for quick action, I am not surprised and disappointed that I do not drop dead upon the spot. But I can taste souls without the aid of  absinthe; and besides, this is magic of absinthe! The spirit of the house has entered into it; it is an elixir, the masterpiece of an old alchemist, no common wine. And so, as I talk with the patron concerning the vanity of things, I perceive the secret of the heart of God himself; this, that everything, even the vilest thing, is so unutterably lovely that it is worthy of the devotion of a God for all eternity. What other excuse could He give man for making him? In substance, that is my answer to King Solomon. II.

The barrier between divine and human things is frail but inviolable; the artist and the bourgeois are only divided by a point of view--"A hair divided the false and true." I am watching the opalescence of my absinthe, and it leads me to ponder upon a certain very curious mystery, persistent in legend. We may call it the mystery of the rainbow. Originally in the fantastic but significant legend of the Hebrews, the rainbow is mentioned as the sign of  salvation. The world has been purified by water, and was read y for the revelation of Wine. God would never  again destroy His work, but ultimately seal its perfection b y a baptism of fire.  Now,  Now, in this analogue also falls the coat of many colors which was made for Joseph, a legend which was regarded as so important that it was subsequently borrowed for the romance of Jesus. The veil of the Temple, too, was of many colors. We We find, further east, that the Manipura Cakkra--the Lotus of the City of  Jewels--which is an important centre in Hindu anatomy, and apparently identical with the solar plexus, is the central point of the nervous system of the human body, body, dividing the sacred from fro m the profane, or the lower  from the higher. In western Mysticism, once more we learn that the middle grade initiation is called Hodos Ca melioniis, the Path of the Chameleon. There is here evidently an illusion to this same mystery m ystery.. We also learn that the middle stage in Alchemy is when the liquor becomes opalescent.

Finally, Finally, we note among the visions of the Saints one called the Universal Peacock, in which the totality is  perceived thus royally appareled. Would it were possible to assemble in this place the cohorts of quotation; for indeed they the y are beautiful with  banners, flashing their myriad rays from cothurn and habergeon, gay and gallant in the light of that Sun which knows no fall from Zenith of high noon! Yet I must needs already have written so much to make clear one pitiful conceit: can it be that in the opalescence of absinthe is some occult link with this m ystery of the Rainbow? For undoubtedly one does indefinably and subtly insinuate the drinker in the secret chamber of Beauty, Beauty, does kindle his thoughts to rapture, adjust his point of view to that of the artists, at least to that degree of which he is originally capable, weave for his fancy a gala dress of stuff as many-colored as the mind of Aphrodite. Oh Beauty! Long did I love thee, long did I pursue thee, thee elusive, thee intangible! And lo! thou enfoldest me by night and day da y in the arms of gracious, of luxurious, of shimmering silence. III.

The Prohibitionist must always be a person of no moral character; for he cannot even conceive of the  possibility of a man capable of resisting temptation. Still more, he is so obsessed, like the savage, by the fear of the unknown, that he regards alcohol as a fetish, necessarily alluring and tyrannical. With With this ignorance of human nature goes an ever grosser ignorance of the divine nature. He does not understand that the universe has only one possible purpose; that, the business of life being happily completed by the production of the necessities and luxuries incidental to comfort, the residuum of human energy needs an outlet. The surplus of Will must find issue in the elevation of the individual towards the Godhead; and the method of such elevation is by religion, love, and art. These three things are indissolubly  bound up with wine, for they are species of intoxication. Yet against all these things we find the prohibitionist, logically enough. enough. It is true that he usually pretends to admit religion as a proper pursuit for humanity; but what a religion! He has removed from it every element of ecstasy or even of devotion; in his hands it has become cold, fanatical, cruel, and stupid, a thing merciless and formal, without sympathy or humanity. humanity. Love and art he rejects altogether; for him the only meaning of  love is a mechanical--hardly even physiological!--process necessary for the perpetuation of the human race. (But why perpetuate it?) Art is for him the parasite and pimp of love. He cannot distinguish between the Apollo Belvedere and the crude bestialities of certain Pompeian frescoes, or between Rabelais and Elenor  Glyn. What then is his ideal of human life? one cannot say. So crass a creature can have no true ideal. There have  been ascetic philosophers; but the prohibitionist would be as offended by their doctrine as by ours, which, indeed, are not so dissimilar as appears. Wage-slavery and boredom seem to complete co mplete his outlook on the world. There are species which survive because of the feeling of disgust inspired by them: one is reluctant to set the heel firmly upon them, however thick may be one's boots. But when they are recognized as utterly noxious to humanity--the more so that they ape its form--then courage must be found, or, rather, nausea must be swallowed. May God send us a Saint George! IV. IV.

It is notorious that all genius is accompanied b y vice. Almost always this takes the form of sexual extravagance. It is to be observed that deficiency, deficiency, as in the cases of Carl yle and Ruskin, is to be reckoned as

extravagance. At least the word abnormalcy will fit all cases. Farther, we see that in a very ver y large number of  great men there has also been indulgence in drink or drugs. There are whole periods when practically every great man has been thus marked, and these periods are those during which the heroic spirit has died out of  their nation, and the burgeois is apparently triumphant. In this case the cause is evidently the horror of life induced in the artist by the contemplation of his surroundings. He must find another world, no matter at what cost. Consider the end of the eighteenth century. In France the men of genius are made, so to speak, possible, by the Revolution. In England, under Castlereagh, we find Blake lost to humanity in mysticism, Shelley and Byron exiles, Coleridge taking refuge in opium, Keats sinking under the weight of circumstance, Wordsworth forced to sell his soul, while the enemy, enemy, in the persons of Southey and Moore, triumphantly holds sway. The poetically similar period in France is 1850 to 1870. Hugo is in exile, and all his brethren are given to absinthe or to hashish or to opium. There is however another consideration more important. There are some men who possess the understanding of the City of God, and know not the keys; or, if they possess them, have not force to turn them in the wards. Such men often seek to win heaven by forged credentials. Just so a youth who desires love is too often deceived by simulacra, si mulacra, embraces Lydia Lydia thinking her to be Lalage. But the greatest men of all suffer neither the limitations of the former class nor the illusions of the latter. latter. Yet Yet we find them equally given to what is apparently indulgence. Lombroso has foolishly sought to find the source of this in madness--as if insanity could scale the peaks of Progress while Reason recoiled from the bergschrund . The explanation is far otherwise. Imagine to yourself the mental state of him who inherits or  attains the full consciousness of the artist, that is to say, say, the divine consciousness. He finds himself unutterably lonely, lonely, and he must steel himself to endure it. All his peers are dead long since! Even if he find an equal upon earth, there can scarcely be companionship, hardly more than the far courtesy of king to king. There are no twin souls in genius. Good--he can reconcile himself to the scorn of the world. But yet he feels with anguish his duty towards it. It is therefore essential to him to be human.  Now the divine consciousness is not full flowered in youth. The newness of the objective world preoccupies the soul for many years. It is only as each illusion vanishes before the magic of the master that he gains more and more the power to dwell in the world of Reality. Reality. And with this comes the terrible temptation--the desire to enter and enjoy rather than remain among men and suffer their illusions. Yet, Yet, since the sole purpose of the incarnation of such a Master was to help humanity, they must make the supreme renunciation. It is the  problem of the dreadful bridge of Islam,  Al Sirak --the --the razor-edge will cut the unwary foot, yet it must be trodden firmly, firmly, or the traveler will fall to the abyss. ab yss. I dare not sit in the Old Absinthe House forever, forever, wrapped in the ineffable delight of the Beatific Vision. I must write this essay, that men may thereby come at last to understand true things. But the operation of the creative godhead is not enough. Art is itself too near the reality which must be renounced for a season. Therefore his work is also part of his temptation; the genius feels himself slipping constantly heavenward. The gravitation of eternity draws him. He is like a ship torn by the tempest from the harbor where the master must needs take on new passengers to the Happy Isles. So he must throw out anchors and the only holding is the mire! Thus in order to maintain the equilibrium of sanity, sanity, the artist is obliged to seek  fellowship with the grossest of mankind. Like Lord Dunsany or Augustus John, today, today, or like Teniers Teniers or old, he may love to sit in taverns where sailors frequent; or he may wander the country with Gypsies, or he may form liaisons with the vilest men and women. Edward Fitzgerald would see an illiterate fisherman and

spend weeks in his company. company. Verlaine Verlaine made associates of Rimbaud and Bibi la Puree. Shakespeare consorted with the Earls of Pembroke and Southampton. Marlowe was actually killed during a brawl in a low tavern. And when we consider the sex-relation, it is hard to mention a genius who had a wife or mistress of even tolerable good character. If he had one, he would be sure to neglect her for a Vampire or a Shrew. A good woman is too near that heaven of Reality which he is sworn to renounce! And this, I suppose, is why I am interested in the woman who has come to sit at the nearest table. Let us find out her story; let us try to see with the eyes of her soul! V.

She is a woman of no more than thirty years of age, though she looks older. older. She comes here at irregular  intervals, once a week or once a month, but when she comes she sits down to get solidly drunk on that alternation of beer and gin which the best authorities in England deem so efficacious. As to her story, it is simplicity itself. She was kept in luxury for some years by a wealthy cotton broker, crossed to Europe with him, and lived in London and Paris like a Queen. Then she got the idea of  "respectability" and "settling down in life"; so she married a man who could keep her in mere comfort. Result: repentance, and a periodical need to forget her sorrows. She is still "respectable"; she never tires of  repeating that she is not one of "those girls" but "a married woman wo man living far uptown," and that she "never  runs about with men." It is not the failure of marriage; it is the failure of men to recognize what marriage was ordained to be. B y a singular paradox it is the triumph of the bourgeois. Only the hero is capable of marriage as the church understands it; for the marriage oath is a compact of appalling solemnity, solemnity, an alliance of two souls against the world and against fate, with invocation of the great blessing of the Most High. Death is not the most  beautiful of adventures, as Frohman said, for death is unavoidable; marriage is a voluntary heroism. That marriage has today become a matter of convenience is the last word of the commercial spirit. It is as if one should take a vow of knighthood to combat dragons--until the dragons appeared. So this poor woman, because she did not understand that respectability is a lie, that it is love that makes marriage sacred and not the sanction of church or state, because she took marriage as an asylum instead of  as a crusade, has failed in life, and now seeks alcohol under the same fatal error. Wine is the ripe gladness which accompanies valor and rewards toil; it is the plume on a man's lancehead, a fluttering gallantry--not good to lean upon. Therefore her eyes are glassed with horror as she gazes uncomprehending upon her fate. That which she did all to avoid confronts her: she does not realize that, had she faced it, it would have fled with all the other phantoms. For the sole reality of this universe is God. The Old Absinthe Absinthe House is not a place. It is not bounded by four walls. It is headquarters to an army of   philosophies.  philosophies. From this dim corner let me range, wafting thought through every air, salient against every  problem of mankind: for it will always alwa ys return like Noah's dove to this ark, this strange little sanctuary of the Green Goddess which has been set down not upon Ararat, but by the banks of the "Father of Waters." Waters." VI.

Ah! the Green Goddess! What is the fascination that makes her so adorable and so terrible? Do you know that French sonnet "La legende de l'absinthe?” [3] He must have loved it well, that poet. Here are his witnesses.  Apollon, qui pleurait le trepas d'Hyacinthe,  Ne voulait pas ceder la victoire a la mort.

 Il fallait que son ame, adepte de l'essor, Trouvat pour la beaute une alchemie plus sainte.  Donc de sa main celeste il epuise, il ereinte  Les dons les plus subtils de la divine Flore.  Leurs corps brises souspirent souspirent une exhalaison d'or   Dont il nous recueillait recueillait la goutte de--l'Absinthe!  Aux cavernes blotties, aux palis petillants,  Par un, par deux, buvez ce breuvage breuvage d'aimant! Car c'est un sortilege, un propos de dictame, Ce vin d'opale pale avortit la misere, Ouvre de la beaute l'intime sanctuaire --Ensorcelle mon coeur, extasie mort ame! [4]

What is there in absinthe that makes it a separate cult? The effects of its abuse are totally distinct from those of other stimulants. Even in ruin and in degradation it remains a thing apart: its victims wear a ghastly aureole all their own, and in their peculiar hell yet gloat with a sinister perversion of pride that they are not as other men. But we are not to reckon up the uses of a thing by contemplating the wreckage of its abuse. We We do not curse the sea because of occasional disasters to our marines, or refuse axes to our woodsmen because we sympathize with Charles the First or Louis the Sixteenth. So therefore as special vices and dangers pertinent to absinthe, so also do graces and virtues that adorn no other liquor. The word is from the Greek apsinthion . It means "undrinkable" or, according to some authorities, "undelightful." In either case, strange paradox! No: for the wormwood draught itself were bitter beyond human endurance; it must be aromatized and mellowed with other herbs. Chief among these is the gracious Melissa, of which the great Paracelsus thought so highly that he incorporated it as the preparation of his  Ens Melissa Vitae, which he expected to be an elixir of life and a cure for all diseases, but which in his hands never came to perfection. Then also there are added mint, anise, fennel and hyssop, all holy hol y herbs familiar to all from the Treasury of  Hebrew Scripture. And there is even the sacred marjoram which renders man both chaste and passionate; the tender green angelica stalks also infused in this most mystic of concoctions; for like the artemisia lucidity, with a touch of the madness, of the absinthium itself it is a plant of Diana, and gives the purity and lucidity, Moon; and above all there is the Dittany of Crete of which the eastern Sages say that one flower hath more  puissance in high magic than all the other gifts of all the gardens of the world. It is as if the first diviner of  absinthe had been indeed a magician intent upon a combination of sacred drugs which should cleanse, fortify and perfume the human soul. And it is no doubt that in the due employment of this liquor such effects are easy to obtain. A single glass seems to render the breathing freer, the spirit lighter, the heart more ardent, soul and mind alike more capable of executing the great task of doing that particular work in the world which the Father may have sent them to perform. Food itself loses its gross qualities in the presence of absinthe and becomes even as manna, operating the sacrament of nutrition without bodily disturbance. disturbance. Let then the pilgrim enter reverently the shrine, and drink his absinthe as a stirrup-cup; for in the right conception of this life as an ordeal of chivalry lies the foundation of every perfection of philosophy. philosophy. "Whatsoever ye do, whether ye eat or drink, do all to the glory of God!" applies with singular force to the absintheur . So may he come victorious from the battle of life to be received with tender kisses by some

green-robed archangel, and crowned with mystic vervain in the Emerald Gateway of the Golden City of  God. VII.

And now the cafe is beginning to fill up. This little room with its dark green woodwork, its boarded ceiling, its sanded floor, its old pictures, its whole air of sympathy with time, is beginning to exert its magic spell. Here comes a curious child, short and sturdy, sturdy, with a long blonde pigtail, with a jolly little old man who looks as if he had stepped straight out of the pages of Balzac. Handsome and diminutive, with a fierce mustache almost as big as the rest of him, like a regular little Spanish fighting cock--Frank, the waiter, in his long white apron, struts to them with the glasses of ice-cold  pleasure, green as the glaciers themselves. He will stand up bravely with the musicians bye b ye and bye, and sing us a jolly song of old Catalonia. The door swings open again. A tall dark girl, exquisitely slim and snaky, snaky, with masses of black hair knotted about her head, comes in. On her arm is a plump woman with hungry e yes, and a mass of Titian red hair. They seem distracted from the outer world, absorbed in some subject of enthralling interest and the y drink  their aperitif as if in a dream. I ask the mulatto boy who waits at my table (the sleek and lithe black   panther!) who they are; but he knows only that one is a cabaret dancer, the other the owner of a cotton  plantation up river. river. At a round table in the middle of the room sits one of the proprietors with a group of  friends; he is burly, rubicund, and jolly, jolly, the very ver y type of the Shakespearean "Mine host." Now a party of a dozen merry boys and girls comes in. The old pianist begins to play a dance, and in a moment the whole cafe is caught up in the music of harmonious motion. Yet still the invisible line is drawn about each soul; the dance does not conflict with the absorption of the two strange women, or with my m y own mood of detachment. Then there is a "little laughing lewd gamine" dressed all in black save for a square white collar. Her smile is  broad and free as the sun and her gaze as clean and wholesome and inspiring. There is the big jolly blonde Irish girl in the black velvet beret and coat, and the white boots, chatting with two boys in khaki from the  border.  border. There is the Creole girl in pure white cap-a-pie, with her small piquant face and its round button of a nose, and its curious deep rose flush, f lush, and its red little mouth, impudently i mpudently smiling. smiling. Around these islands seems to flow as a general tide the more stable life of the quarter. Here are honest good-wives seriously discussing their affairs, and heaven only knows if it be love or the price of sugar which engages them so wholly. wholly. There are but a few commonplace and uninteresting elements in the cafe; and these are without exception men. The giant Big Business is a great tyrant! He seizes all the men for slaves, and leaves the women to make shift as best they can for--all that makes life worth living. Candies and American Beauty Roses are of no use in an emergency. So, even in this most favored corner, there is dearth of the kind of men that women need. At the table next to me sits an old, old man. He has done great things in his day, day, they tell me, an engineer, who first found it possible to dig Artesian wells in the Sahara desert. The Legion of Honor glows red in his shabby surtout. He comes here, one of the many wrecks of the Panama Canal, a piece of jetsam cast up by that tidal wave of speculation and corruption. He is of the old type, t ype, the thrifty peasantry; and he has his little income from the Rente. He says that he is too old to cross the ocean--and why should he, with the atmosphere of old France to be had a stone's throw from his little apartment in Bourbon Street? It is a curious type of house that one finds in this quarter in New Orleans; meagre without, but within one comes unexpectedly upon great spaces, carved wooden balconies on which the rooms open. So he dreams away his honored days in the Old Absinthe House. His rusty black, with its worn red button, is a noble wear. Black, by the way, seems almost universal among the women: is it instinctive good taste? At least, it serves to bring up the general level of good looks. Most American women spoil what little beauty they may have  by overdressing. Here there is nothing extravagant, nothing vulgar, none of the near-Paris-gown and the

lust-off-Bond-Street lust-off-Bond-Street hat. Nor is there a single dress to which a Quaker could object. There is neither the mediocrity nor the immodesty of the New York York woman, who is tailored or millinered on a garish pattern, with the Eternal Chorus Girl as the Ideal--an ideal which she always attains, though (Heaven knows!) in "society" there are few "front row" types. On the other side of me a splendid stalwart maid, modern in muscle, old only in the subtle and modest fascination of her manner, her face proud, cruel and amorous, shakes her wild tresses of gold in pagan laughter. laughter. Her mood is universal as the wind. What can her cavalier be doing to keep her waiting? It is a little mystery which I will not solve for the reader; on the contrary-VIII.

Yes, it was my own sweetheart (no! not all the magazines can vulgarize that loveliest of words) who was waiting for me to be done with my musings. She comes co mes in silently and stealthily, stealthily, preening and purring like a great cat, and sits down, and begins to Enjoy. She know I must never be disturbed until I close my pen. We shall go together to dine at a little Italian restaurant kept by an old navy man, who makes the best ravioli this side of Genoa; then we shall walk the wet and windy streets, rejoicing to feel the warm sub-tropical rain upon our faces. We shall go down to the Mississippi, and watch the lights of the ships, and listen to the tales of travel and adventure of the mariners. There is one tale that moves me greatly; it is like the story of the  Herculaneum . A cruiser sentinel of  Herculaneum cruiser of the U.S. Navy was detailed to Rio de Janeiro. (This was before the days of wireless telegraphy.) telegraphy.) The port was in quarantine; the ship had to stand ten miles out to sea.  Nevertheless, Yellow Yellow Jack managed to come aboard. The men died one by b y one. There was no way of getting word to Washington; Washington; and, as it turned out later, the Navy Department had completely co mpletely forgotten the existence of the ship. No orders came; ca me; the captain stuck to his post for three months. Three months of solitude and death! At last a passing ship was signaled, and the cruiser was moved to happier waters. No doubt the story is a lie; but did that make it less splendid in the telling, as the old scoundrel sat and spat and chewed tobacco? No, we will certainly go down, and ruffle it on the wharves. There is really better fun in life than going to the movies, when you know how to sense Reality. There is beauty in every incident of life; the true and the false, the wise and the foolish, are all one in the eye that beholds all without passion or prejudice: and the secret appears to lie not in the retirement from the world, but in keeping a part of oneself Vestal, Vestal, sacred, intact, aloof from that self which makes contact with the external universe. In other words, in a separation of that which is and perceives from that which acts and suffers. And And the art of doing this is really the art of being an artist. As a rule, it is a birthright; it may perhaps  be attained by prayer and fasting; most surely, surely, it can never be bought. But if you have it not. This will be the best way wa y to get it--or something like it. Give up your life completely to the task; sit daily for six hours in the Old Absinthe House, and sip the icy opal; endure till all things change insensibly before your eyes, you changing with them; till you become as gods, knowing good and evil, and that they are not two but one. It may be a long time before the veil lifts; but a moment's experience of the point of view of the artist is worth a myriad martyrdoms. It solves every problem of life and death--which two also are one. It translates this universe into intelligible terms, relating truly the ego with the non-ego, and recasting the  prose of reason in the poetry of soul. Even as the eye of the sculptor beholds his masterpiece already existing in the shapeless mass of marble, needing onl y the loving kindness of the chisel to cut away the veils of Isis, so you may (perhaps) learn to behold the sum and summit of all grace and glory from this great observatory, observatory, the Old Absinthe House of New Orleans. V'la, p'tite chatte; c'est fini, le travail. Foutons le camp! [5]

Edditor's Gnotes [1] From The International, February 1918, 1918, pgs 47-51. It was never published. published. Note the next published published issue, March 1918, is called the “All Drama Number” & includes Our Mass. [2] "Prostitution and Death are brother and sister -- the children of God!" http://www.billheidrick.com/tlc199 http://www.billheidrick.com/tlc1996/tlc0296.htm 6/tlc0296.htm [3] “The Legend of Absinthe”, shortened to “Absinthe” & found in The International, October 1917, pg 306 under the pseudonym Jeanne la Goulue (aka AC). [4] Apollo, who weeps for H yacinth's yacinth's demise, Had not the will to yield this victory to Death. It must be that the soul, adept in flight, Has found for beauty the most holy hol y alchemy. alchemy. Then with her starry hand exhausted, has used up The most subtle gifts of the goddess Flora. Their bodies struggle through the golden gloom From which we carefully let drip -- Absinthe! From lowly hovels and from sparkling courts, Alone, in pairs, come drink of this magnetic fluid! Because it is a charm -- as one might say sa y -The pale opal wine which interrupts all misery, Manufactured within the secret sanctuary of beauty -- Bewitch my heart, and captivate my soul! http://www.billheidrick.com/tlc199 http://www.billheidrick.com/tlc1996/tlc0396.htm 6/tlc0396.htm -orApollo, who mourned at Hyacinthe's demise, Refused to concede this victory to Death. Much better that the soul, adept in transformation, Had to find a holy alchemy for beauty. Thus with his celestial hand he drained and crushed The subtlest harvest of the garden goddess, The broken bodies of the herbs yielding a golden essence From which we measure out our first drop -- of Absinthe! In lowly hovels and in glittering courts, Alone, in pairs, drink up this potion of desire! For it is sorcery -- as one might say -When the pale opal wine ends all misery, Opens beauty's most intimate sanctuary -- Bewitches my heart, and exalts my soul in ecstasy! http://www.oxygenee.com/absinthe/ http://www.oxygenee.com/absinthe/books7.html books7.html [5] "There, little kitty, the journey's done; we'll camp here!" http://www.billheidrick.com/tlc199 http://www.billheidrick.com/tlc1996/tlc0396.htm 6/tlc0396.htm

Lesbian Kisses The witching hour begins after Holy Mass & Feast. Grrlfriends ov a platonic kind, Tipsy or drunk, Either will do. Bottle after bottle, Shot after shot is consumed. Inhibitions loosen as alcohol plies the soul. Bored, drunk, horny, horny, Grrls kiss. A peck @ first. They break their liplock & giggle, They cannot believe themselves. Another swig, another bit ov boredom, They kiss again, Soft lips meeting soft lips. Deeper, longer this time, They enjoy themselves. They break again, whisper, & liplock again, This time even longer & even deeper. They touch other pink parts yet do not embrace, Too taboo even here. h ere. They kiss again, a shorter interval between the last break. Longer, deeper, longer. Soft flesh merging with soft flesh. They break, giggle & depart dep art to their boyfriends. WLLM

Reality Soror Rachel

Robots of Omaha II Hookerbot shes like a welded seamy sided machine grinding out al obscene oh guess who turns on nebraskan woman better  stay away omaha wooman yer politics smells like slaughterhouse juice  being poured into the sewer system every night wage slavery is named just right especially HERE in da Paris o da Plains touted so bright  by media and magazine  paid to do it up right and put a blush and a lash on a pudgy fat ass dress her up right to hide all the flaws and the fact that she's based on many flagrant violations of law It's gotten so illegal they could just place an electric fence all around the place instead of the border  so much human rights flushed down the dysfunctional sewer system we aint seen em have you, not in a rhymin rhythm the robots of omaha have thier own prostitute and she's a hookerbot fer sure yeah you know from that show all gussied up and no place to go Here's what happened, i tell you true, they took the backwater kid and used her thru and thru Its like they took an ugly whore and  put on some more hair  and makeup and dusted her off a bit and air   brushed the photos and went, ta-da, yer in paris. no doubt about it, harris  but you won't see the poison po ison till you get inside her  and that'll cost you your soul Soror Stellae

The Forbidden Poem William William Edmond Dozier  -CaveatBecause ov what my lawyer told me, I have had to call ca ll this poem KTP (U figure it out). Seems the full original title is still illegal. Very popular when sayd aloud in the KC poetry scene though. As I originally wrote it on my birthday (2.3.71) a few years back, & AC wrote The Forbidden Lecture 2.3.30, the above designation is an homage 78 years later. KTP

RaViews Chemical Wedding  original screenplay by Bruce Dickinson Julian Doyle director & co-writer  Focus Films

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Over the years there have been rumors & rumors ov rumors concerning a Crowley movie  project (We're (We're still waiting Mr. Anger). So far only 3 have really manifested: the Abbey Of  Thelema Movie, the Aleister Crowley Film & Chemical Wedding  (not 2 b confused w/the unrelated 1998 album sharing same title & title track). Seeing as I have only seen the latter, it seems natural natural 2 RaView RaView it. B4 even starting though, I would like 2 get 1 thing straight. straight. This is by no means a serious movie about Uncle Al, His methods, or Thelema n general, but rather an entertaining "what if?" story concerning Crowley. Crowley. What if Crowley was reincarnated somehow in modern times? times? What Would Would AC Do!? (4 1 thing He'd put that on a bracelet!, but murder?) Chemical Wedding is the moonchild ov Iron Maiden front man Bruce Dickinson, who also has 2 cameos in his movie movie (Netherwood Landlord & a Blind Man). Man). Personally I am not a Maiden fan so I had no idea what 2 expect. It did & does not surprise me he liked AC as many other  musicians do & will. The director & co-writer I already knew ov from Monty Python Python & Brazil  fame. Julian Doyle also also eddited 1 ov my favorite movies, movies, The Life of Brian (a vulgar christmass staple along w/The Last Temptation of Christ ), ), & was the bobbie who ended Holy Grail (WORST ENDING EVER btw). They seem 2 have touched on most ov the popular myths about The Beast (both + & -, but more -) w/a few ov their own projections (not 2 mention artistic license) 2 boot, mirrored in the movie by the actions ov the character based on impish Vicky (witch We We will see initiates the diabolical digital events).

All Accuracy Accuracy Aside, Aside, n the nd I was entertained. I did not learn anything, but I really did not think I would (bing an occultist occu ltist 4 20 + years, n the OTO 4 12, EGC & OTB 11, yada, yada, yada). I will admit I had not expected much (let's just say I watched it on my computer) yet was  pleasantly surprised. I know other occultists & non will disagree w/me, but that is the nature ov the beast (& The Beast). U can't please every1. Whenever it is released n the US I will buy the DVD & put it n my collection. So, What Would Would AC Say? I think He would love it, or sue 4 slander (Little Sunshine was litigious ja know). The opening titles bgin w/a montage ov familiar pictures & newspaper headlines, some real (or even true) whereas some not. These include AC n Vir Vir godform, as the Old Crow & then as Baphomet, clippings about the Jack Parsons, Lafayette Ronald Hubbard & OTO connections, plus a few ov the old yellow standards ov killing babies (c MIT&P chap. XII, i.e. the same t ype ov swill as some saw/see human kid skin 4 parchment vs young goat), the K2 deaths & AC being the most wickedest man in the world. N short, it feeds n2 the popular view ov AC & sets sets the stage 4 more 2 come. It compares 2 listening 2 Mr. Mr. Crowley by Black Sabbath 4 the 1st time & bing confronted w/its derogatory & negative nature as the song progresses. progresses. Anyroad...

The opening sequence starts in 1947 Hastings on what seems like a nice summer day (remember, AC died n December). A regular caller it seems, Symonds (Geoff Breton), Breton), & college friend r driving 2 Netherwood House, AC's last residence. When they arrive & knock on the door  they r greeted by the Landlord (Dickinson n disguise) & told witch room is His. His. What should b the Old Crow is instead a Cefalu Crowley (stoutish, shaved & d oped) played amazingly by John Shrapnel. Words & fluids r exchanged (seems some1 is trying 2 create a Moonchild or  something?) & the scene ends w/Alex hurt n some way, way, AC tot & a pocket watch (yes, a pocket p ocket watch Rosebud). Fast 4ward 2 the turn ov the millennium, Cambridge University (actually somewhere n Hertfordshire), & the story bgins. An American scientist from Cal Tech, Tech, a Dr Joshua Mathers (Kal Weber), has come 2 connect 2 "state ov the art" devices, his virtual reality simulator suit & a nu British supercomputer named the the Z93 (cheeky, (cheeky, huh?). The obvious love interest (& dyed Scarlet Woman, i.e. the drapes don't match the curtains, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, know what I mean, know what I mean) is intrepid reporter Lia Robinson (Lucy Cudden), just a young cub looking 4 an interview. interview. As noted above, yet unknown n the movie, a lab assistant (a Dr Victor Victor Nuberg, played  by Jud Charlton) has infected the experiment w/a viral algorithm supposedly composed ov Crowley writings & rituals (the essence, soul &/or spirit ov His Work). Flash back a bit 2 find Vicky Vicky persuading a stammering Professor Oliver Haddo (played amazingly throughout by Simon Callow btw) after his Masonic meeting 2 test it it out. As an aside, some might remember Oliver Haddo is a Crowley caricature (a necromancer) from W. W. Somerset Maugham's 1907 novel The Magician. Professor Haddo winds winds up missing immediately after the experiment & shows up the next day @ a lecture 2 give a talk on Shakespeare’s Hamlet , who then recites AC's To Pe or Not To Pe from Snowdrops From A Curate's Garden (c blow) & afterwards  pisses on the audience! Thus the movie implies the the experiment has actually caused Professor  Professor  Haddo 2 become the reincarnation ov Crowley, vs downloaded n4mayshun & memories/personality as n Freejack or The Matrix series. But, n order 4 it 2 stick, Haddo/AC must  perform The Chemical Wedding Wedding (w/a Scarlet Woman Woman ov course). This internet as astral plane motif is not nu. I remember & still have the 1995 Green Egg v28 #110 witch discusses (& refutes n a way) this idea. The article, Load & Run: High-Tech High-Tech Paganism, is written by 2 nobodies (Dr  Timothy Leary & Eric Gullichsen) so no1 but myself probably read it. Again, a "what if?" story concerning Crowley. Crowley. What if Crowley was reincarnated somehow in modern times? What Would Would AC Do!? Or better yet, what would a person supposedly possessed possessed  by Crowley do? There sure has been a few ov these has-beens, & there will more than likely b more. By the looks ov things the writers seem 2 not think much (good @ least) will come. More defecation (ShT this time), sex, a crucified prostitute, drugs & more sex, h ypodermic needles, more sex & even murder follow (but (but not necessarily n that order). Sure some ov this sounds like Crowley, Crowley, but I have heard worse ov myself. A fan or a follower I think would try 2 represent AC n @ least a fair light vs arch nemesis. Not The Wizard of Oz  buffoon, but not the bad guy either. either. Don't get me wrong, I liked liked it! Some might say the names r unoriginal, but they just need 2 actually read Moonchild where AC does it. There is a ritual witch reminded me ov The Cephaloedium Working n a way, plus the fax machine scene was hilarious (Enochian or Daggers scripts would have been more appropriate appropriate me thinks). The murderous side is probably probably an allusion 2 the previously mentioned MIT&P chap. about killing 156 children a year via masturbatory or 

other no procreative methods, yet yet taken 2 the extreme. The hypodermics obviously allude allude 2 AC's heroin usage & the games some play (c Diary of a Drug Fiend ), ), again taken taken 2 the extreme. I must also say the orgy reminded me more ov In the Mouth of Madness @ the end than an Agape Feast or  Magick Opus. I won't even go n2 the ending, witch sort sort ov reminds me ov The Planet of the Apes where Heston realizes he was on Earth (damn dirty apes!!!), but this time Gore is President?! The same happened n The One w/Jet Li btw. btw. Still, I liked it. I was entertained & put off by some (as w/most things), but I highly recommend seeing the movie. It will spark interest n finding out what AC was actually about, as well as cause some 2 start or even hate Him more. What can ja do mon? Maybe 1 day there will b a serious movie about AC & Thelema. This is not it though, but I didn't think it would b. As Always, watch 4 yourselves, & Do what thou wilt. Love is the law, law, love under unde r will. WLLM Simon Ca Callow Kal Weber Joh John Shrap hrapn nel Bruc Brucee Dick Dickin inso son n Terence Ba Bayler Thomas Nelstrop Robert Ashby Geoff Breton Mathew Fraser Anto Antoni niaa Beam Beamis ish h Helen Millar Esme Bianco Danny Szam Lucy Cudden Jud Charlton Paul McDowell Richard Franklin Mike Shannon Sean Rea Gemma Hiles Annie Walker Lizzie Millne Christina Chong Lily Dumont Andrea Sadler Jaime Markham Mark Wa Wainwright Kirk Brandon  Ni  Nicol cola Roc Rockh khil illl Jean Leppard Kare Silversten Ellia Morgan

Oliver Ha Haddo/AC Dr Joshua Mathers Old Old Ale Aleist ister Crow Crowlley Land Landlo lord rd/B /Bli lind nd Man Man Professor Br Brent Jones Chaplain Ma Marshall Young Symonds Anton Le Fay Glas Glasto tonb nbur ury y Wom Woman an Rose Mavis Ben Lia Robinson Dr Victor Nuberg Symonds Dean Alex Young Alex Ruby Rene Secretary Mei-Ling Joyce Stella Erzsebet Bathory Inspector   Ceremonial Guard Kat Kate the the Violin olin Gir Girl Doctor   Drunk   Lady Amazonia

Ollie Smith Postboy Natasha Ford Ceremony Girl Thomas Hugo Policeman Alex Leppard Official Bill Jones Toilet Queen Jared Ashe Student Ashby Rhik Samadder Student Rick   Danny Szam Student Ben Grace Fox Student Clarice Carly Davis Student Brenda Robin Goodchild Student Phil Joni Levison Hotbuns Berkhoff   Dean Butler Ceremony Man Peter White Station Guard Toby Parker Porter   George Grafton Guard Justin Peyton Organist Bill Jones Man with Bag on Head Sonia Timlett Girl at Train Station Kia Kia Di Dicki ckinson nson Bli Blind Man' Man'ss Da Daught ughter  er  Neil Tuohy Driver   David Rogalski Leading Mason David Pupkewitz Lecturer   Paul Astrom-Andrews Lecturer   Peter Dale Lecturer   Chris Szuca Restaurant Diner   Sara Sarah h Hew Hewet ettt-Ho Horn rnee Rest Restau aura rant nt Dine Diner  r  Elaine Stanley Restaurant Diner   Darryl Bunker Florist  Nic  Nick k Ains Ainswo wort rth h 'The 'The End End is is Nigh Nigh'' Man Man Toby Marrow Curb Crawler  

TO PE OR NOT TO PE KING. O heavy burden!

POLONIUS. Hold on, I'm coming: I'll withdraw, my lord. [Enter Hamlet.]

HAMLET. To pe or not to pe: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer  The slings and arrows of outrageous stricture Or to take arms against a closed urethra u rethra And by abscission, end it? To To fuck: to come:  No more: and, by a come to say we end The cockstand and the thousand natural lusts That flesh is heir to. "Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To fuck: to come: To come, perchance to clap! Ay, there's the rub. For from that come of fuck what clap may catch When we have shuffled off this mortal stand Must give us pause. There's the chordee That makes calamity of so wet dreams! For who would bear the jerks and drops of piss, The pisspot's wrong, the bladder's contumely, contumely, The pangs of prostate gland, the pe's delay, delay, The insolence of orchitis, and the spurns That patient merit of the urethra takes When he himself might his quitus make With a greased catheter. catheter. Who would sandal swill To fart and shit under a potent po tent purge But that the dread of something after a fter gleet, The senile stricture from whose imminence  No catheter gives 'scape, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear the ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of. Thus chordee doth make cowards of us all! And thus the native need of urination Is sickled o'er with the pale cast of thought thoug ht And enterprises of great piss and po, meant With this regard, their currents corkscrew turn And lose the name of pumpship. Soft you now! The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orions Be all my sins remembered. OPHELIA Good my lord, How does your honour for this many a day? HAM. I humbly thank you! well, well, well.

OPH. My lord, I have remembrances of yours That I have longed to redeliver: I pray you now receive them. HAM.  No, not I. I never gave you aught. OPH. My honoured lord, you know right well you did. [Left disputing.]

R U A Traveling Man? or  Out Ov Town O.T.O. Events or  I Was Here Minerval Knowledge Lecture Sekhet Bast Ra Lodge September 5-7 2008

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Whenever possible it is always nice 2 get out ov Misery, Misery, KC esp. Know, not bcause it is not nice or overtly savage here. The Heartland is beautiful, even w/the w/the KC cow town mentality & energy vortex (thus some say it sucks, c KCMO-Ellsworth, KS ley line), plus Our local co mmunity usually has something going on. Sure some events might not come Our way (yet), but as We We grow they will. W/that sayd, it is always good 2 get Out Ov Town Town & experience how other bodies do things. When I heard Our Brothers & Sisters down south were having a weekend Mass & Minerval Lecture I knew I wanted 2 go. A few few other local members did as well, but n the end there were 2 ov Us. B4 getting n2 what I can (it was ° specific so not much, sorry), I must 1st thank Brother David 4 driving down & back from OKC. There was plenty 2 talk talk about 2 & fro, not 2 mention the fraternity w/a nu Brother was refreshing. refreshing. I have made the ride b4 as my mother is from OK plus I've had Initiations & performed n them @ Sekhet Se khet Bast Ra, but I had not been 2 their nu Temple Space (c front window above). We met @ the Heru Behutet Oasis Temple Temple Space the Friday ov & set off around 2ish (Brother David driving, myself passenger), making it there that evening/nite (w/a little cell help on the specifics from Our Host & Their Lodge Master Soror Molly). Upon arrival @ 2714 27 14 N. Pennsylvania Penns ylvania Ave. Ave. We We were greeted by Soror Molly, who introduced Us as We We were shown around Their wonderful dedicated space. Bhind the blue door is a nice sitting/tyling/waiting sitting/tyling/waiting area w/reading material b4 1 enters enters where the Mass was was set up. Everything was ov course ready & looked amazing. Further words would only b skew wise. Lining the right side ov that space & co continuing ntinuing 2 the back was their Library, Library, bejeweled w/statues, a gorgeous Stele

& such. The back area has more books, bathrooms, a few couches & kitchen area (& not n some1s house, must b nice). Anyroad, I was impressed. impressed. I was esp. glad 2 c the familiar faces ov Soror  Molly (Lodge Master), Soror Tina (the Event Coordinator) & Frater Dann (the M Lecturer), plus all the nu 1s. After more meeting & greeting greeting Mass bgan. What can I say? Their Mass was wonderful! It is always always nice 2 c others perform a rite I so much love 2 myself. Afterwards there was more socializing while tearing the Temple Temple down & even more socializing w/every1 pitching n tidying up a bit b4 retiring retiring 4 food or their lodgings. Frater David & myself would b staying @ Casa Ware w/a few other OOT (Out Ov Towners), there4 We followed Soror Molly, Molly, arrived safely, safely, socialized some more & settled n 4 the next day. I knew 6:30am would come awfully early as I set the alarm, yet I looked 4ward 2 the 1st Lecture day. day. Meditating more than sleeping, I look 2 c the time ov 6:29 & get up. Saturnday Morning abulations & Adorations aside, after every1 was up & ready they made their way 2 the 8am Bagels & Bananas b4 Frater Dann's 9am Lecture. Lecture. Frater David & myself myself stopped off 4 some supplies b4, yet still made it w/plenty ov time 2 spare spare (above & unpublished pictures taken then). Anyroad, after meeting & greeting as volk showed 4 B & B, Minerval tyling bgan around 8:30 & the Lecture 9. Now, Now, I cannot tell what was discussed. I can say We We broke 4 lunch @ noon & resumed till 6pm. I will also say it was very nteresting nteresting & n4mative. After a little more socializing every1 went their  way 2 prepare 4 socializing @ Casa Buchanan around 8. We stopped off 4 supplies again (no cold  beer n OK!?) b4 returning 2 Casa Ware Ware & resting a bit 4 the Festivities. On that I will only say it was fun w/a w/a capital F! O.T.O. O.T.O. members sure sure know how 2 unwind. I even learned how many Thelemites can fit n2 a car! 6:30am again came early n the land ov the Lotus smokers, yet I still looked 4ward 2 the rest ov the M Lecture (but not a long drive back 2 KC & then another home, even w/the great company ov Frater David). The previous morning repeated (plus packing), We We got there b4 the Temple Temple opened @ 8:30, socialized as it did & bgan the Lecture @ 9. We stopped & went 2 lunch again @ noon (this time bringing another Brother, identity w/held), starting up on returning (w/some selling their  wares, c blow) & nding around around 5. As w/such events, it was sad 2 c it nd. Frater David & myself  sayd Our salutations & drove back 2 KC, where We We again sayd Our salutations & retired 2 Our  separate lodgings. Sure the wonderful weekend was over, over, but there was a lot ov nfo 2 go over & the fraternity fantastic. Kudos 2 all. Well, that's about it 4 the 1st nstallment ov R U A Traveling Man? . I would like 2 thank again Frater David, Soror Molly, Frater Dann, Soror Tina, Sekhet Bast Ra Lodge n general & every1 else nvolved n such an exquisite event (~28 4 Lectures, + or - other other times). Great Work Work ndeed. We made & met friends from Alombrados Encampment (New Orleans LA), Bubastis Camp (Dallas TX) & Subtlety or Force Encampment (Albuquerque NM) as well as from Sekhet Bast Ra Lodge. I even got a few goodies. I purchased 2 copies ov Doomsayer's Doomsayer's Digest from Subtlety or Force Encampment ( Autumn 2008 #s 41 & 45, w/fresh fist prints btw) & the S tele of Revealing on a granite tile from a Bubastis Camp member (the case I added). Bsides those spoils We We bring back  the knowledge & xperience ov the event. Sure not the specifics n such such a public 4mat, yet I have my notes if any1 M or above is nterested (or just come 2 a °SG&RR). Anyroad, next year (2009) I & Others will again b going south 2 Sekhet Bast Ra Lodge, this time 4 a Mass Workshop Workshop presented  by Hunahpu & Ixel Balamke. Until then, Love is the law, law, love under unde r will. WLLM

Get the stele of revealing itself; set it in thy secret temple -- and that temple is already aright disposed -& it shall be your Kiblah for ever. It shall not fade, but miraculous colour shall come back to it day after day. Close it in locked glass for a proof to the world. LL III 10

From The Master  Sir Aleister Crowley HYMN TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE (Independence Day). Brothers and sisters on this day Of deathless glory, let us come United in our glad array To hymn our fathers' martyrdom. Ashes to ashes? Dust to dust? So let it be! In God we trust. They died -- they died -- and we are free. Take up their cross! Deserve their crown! The stainless flag of liberty By man shall not be trodden down! Ashes to ashes? Dust to dust? So let it be! In God we trust. In war and earthquake, wreck and wrong, Still let the flag of freedom fly In peace and safety, safety, still be strong! For we will live as we would die. Ashes to ashes? Dust to dust? So let it be! In God we trust. Though ruin wash the world in blood, Though death devour, though time decay, Let but our hearts hold brotherhood, And this they shall not take away awa y. Ashes to ashes? Dust to dust? So let it be! In God we trust. Stand! and join hands! and let us sing! Shake out Old Glory to the Skies! With heart and hand defiant fling Our purpose against Destiny's. Ashes to ashes? Dust to dust? So let it be! In God we trust.

PNTCL