Secret Rituals of the OTO

An interesting article appeared on Ebay this week viz Francis King's 1973 book: 'The Secret Rituals of the O.T.O.' which we are told was 'very poorly set, littered with careless errors, omissions, etc., etc., and is almost impossible to follow. Why pay £200 plus for a copy when you could have:

O.T.O. New Media. © 2004. Multi-media CD presentation of: The Secret Rituals of the O.T.O. Edited Introduced by Francis King. Updated Revised. Deluxe, hand-numbered edition limited to 666 copies. (Catalogue Number: 08 5207 111 6-OTONM. © 2004: Samuel Weiser.)

Before describing this item I will say that everything about it is AWESOME. From the cover and label artwork to the nice little touches in the presentation itself, this C.D. oozes class. It has been created with care and attention-to-detail and love (under will?) This item will appeal to serious collectors of Crowley and ritual magick because of its scarcity. I've never seen it advertised anywhere else and with only 666 copies produced it's even rarer than King's original book (which had a print run of 4,000). It will also appeal to students of ritual magick (especially of Sex Magick; the book's theme) as many of the careless errors present in King's original book have been corrected. The presentation and page layout is also infinitely better than King's original book. It will also appeal to everyone in the above two catagories who would love to own a copy of King's book but who simply can't afford the £200 required to buy one. Finally, it appeals to the merely curious who would love to know what all the fuss is about but don't want to spend £200 to find out.

The C.D. I have for sale is in pristine condition. The original factory seal is still intact.

It opens with a superb Flash Movie presentation (Very '2001 a Space Odyssey') giving lots of information about King's original book. The soundtrack to this is the spookiest (ritual type scenario) thing I've ever heard. (Watch out for the spinning 'O.T.O. New Media icon' in the top right corner of the screen: It's utterly hypnotic!)

The C.D. itself is divided into Four sections: Section 1: Contains the complete text of Francis King's book 'The Secret Rituals of the O.T.O.' but has been extensively updated to remove the -many- mistakes, errors, bad type-setting, syntax, grammatical and other annoying and careless bloopers that proliferate in King's book. It also makes extensive use of font colours, bold, italics, etc., to clarify all sections of the text: Especially the rituals themselves, which were practically impossible to follow in King's original book. The C.D.s 'book' pages are rendered in HTML to simulate the look of sumptuous parchment pages, marbled boards and jewel-encrusted gold edgings. The presentation is accessed via the viewers default Internet Browser.

Section 4: Contains the same revised and updated version of the book as above. But rendered as Word Documents, which, as the cover-notes say: '…are ideal should the individual require a hard copy of the text'.

Section 3: Contains a set of documents relating to the text of King's book. These include a list of suggested amendments and revisions, degree certificates and ritual notes. Plus copies of the C.Ds packaging artwork.

Section 2: Contains three photo galleries of Crowley related stuff. There are several unpublished pictures in here, including one of Crowley and Leah Hirsig dining-out in Paris in 1924, and one of Crowley on his death bed. But, best of all… there are six new pictures of Leah Hirsig. One of these shows a very young looking Leah. In the second picture she is artistically posed, most likely in Crowleys apartment: circa 1918. A third shows her walking topless at the Abbey in Cefalu. Two others show an older (post-Cefalu) Leah posing, semi-naked, in a slightly tacky way and looking a bit rough! The last is a scan of a tasteful pencil sketch of Leah (again, naked): circa 1922, probably drawn by Augustus John. Let's be honest… these six photographs on their own are worth the price of the C.D.!

All four sections are comprehensively linked. Navigation around them is made very easy by means of the well thought-out and simple menus and links.

I don't know why O.T.O. have produced this C.D. (Albeit it does say: 'Strictly for private circulation' on the cover), especially as they litigated so savagely against King's original publication. But it certainly blasts Francis King's book into the 21st Century with a bang and, as it's been produced in a deluxe, hand numbered edition, limited to 666 copies, it must be considered as an essential item on the wish-list of every collector of Crowley, O.T.O., or of sex magic rituals in general. It's certainly going to increase in value very quickly.

On a personal note: I've been a keen collector of Crowley related material for many years and I've never, ever seen, or heard of this particular C.D. before: Or anything quite like it. The packaging is extremely professional and contains a hologram as a further mark of authenticity. The C.D. is also hand-numbered (inside a beautiful cartouche) on the front cover. I already possess a copy of the book this C.D. presentation is based on (Francis King's: Secret Rituals of the O.T.O.) and can say quite categorically: There is no comparison whatsoever between the two! After experiencing this C.D., there is absolutely no way I'd part with £200 for a copy of King's book, if I could have a copy of this for a fraction of the price. This C.D. is much, much better than King's original book in every way: Including the price!!! I'm pretty certain that, at the price, this little gem will soon be snapped up. So if you're interested… don't hang around because when it's gone, it's gone. And you're very unlikely to see this particular item advertised again.

Intriqued? Apparently there is still an opportunity to buy a copy at:
http://www.tobew.com/SR At least it was last time i looked ; ) This C.D. now been placed on O.T.O.'s list of 'Banned and litigated against' items. As such, its value as a collectible item is assured and will continue to rise. Weiser Antiquarian Books, Inc, and O.T.O. have denied all knowledge of this C.D.. So, I guess it must be considered as an unofficial edition. The fact that it was not produced by a Samuel Weiser / O.T.O. hybrid in no way detracts from the C.D.s content. Regardless of its true origin the C.D. is still a limited, hand numbered edition, is still extremely professional in both packaging and presentation and (all that really matters I guess) does contain all of the information it claims.

Art and Ryszard Gancarz
By David William Parry

Semantically, the words fate and destiny are not seen as synonyms. Most people choose to lead quite ordinary lives and in that sense accept their fate. They could be compared to sleep-walkers who stumble through life, never realising the astonishing fact that miraculous powers surround them. Only on the rarest of occasions do they stir from their dissatisfying slumbers, irritated by the unsettling thought that there must be more to existence than the pedestrian pleasures of mundane experience. Yet this very irritation has caused some people to awaken into a new life of freedom and creativity. The prickling of their dissatisfaction has acted like a grain of aspirational sand in an oyster shell and produced one of the blackest pearls. This is the power of modern art at its best and is potently manifest in the works of the relatively unknown Polish painter Ryszard Gancarz.

When encountering his work for the first time many observers are almost forced to leave the twenty-four hour nightmare of self imposed limitation behind them. They are reborn into the realities of a higher knowledge: a type of learning which completely transforms a person and takes them beyond the sphere of the simply human into the world of contemporary imagism. There are others of course, and the names of the men and women who have recently taken this irrecoverable step are known to both the history of art and literary legend. Having said that, in ages past, imagist experiments sometimes caught critical attention for the wrong reasons. In Edwardian England for example, the notorious Aleister Crowley seems to have set the precedent by leading a life devoted to sexuality and symbol, thereby focusing the hypocritical sensibilities of his peers on scandal rather than artistic endeavour. At times, Crowley even seems to have forgotten that the impact of visual languages derived from an image seek to evoke the atmosphere or mood surrounding material things, whereas symbols dialogue with the numinous itself and require a theological methodology. Moreover, the transitory and often lurid visions of certain other confused imagists defended by some of the better known Parisian Salons during the late 1800s occasionally reached an abstract (albeit largely misinterpreted) moral level. In order to achieve this bewildering status, critics claimed that the armour of artistic integrity had to be laid aside and the dubious protection assured by the gift of discernment openly spurned. These comments caused an open hostility to arise between the already contentious factions struggling at the fringes of this embryonic movement and allowed the ascent of a number of weird and wonderful people into the public world of so-called symbolist "decadence". Perhaps this is typified in the character of the Sar Peladan and his fanatical followers. To be sure Peladan, for all of his energetic enthusiasm, never really seems to have been regarded as a first rate figure in his own day either as an occult novelist or as an aesthetician. Unsurprisingly, pundits were quick to point out that his best known work "Le Vice Supreme" (published in 1884), received strangely pedantic reviews. Nevertheless, he has remained a rather picturesque individual whose own personal participation in "forbidden" pursuits appear to be somewhat negligible.

From the beginning of his rather chequered career Peladan attracted a retinue of reprobates and villains. One of these was the befudelled esoteric thinker Stanislas De Guaita who didn't seem to grasp the subtle and yet profound differences between the occult and the iconic arts. When they first met they fanned each other's egos into a frenzy of pseudo-Rosicrucian ideas with the intention of stimulating the paintings and sculptures of their clique. It should be remembered that Christian Rosenkreutz was a legendary fifteenth century seer of doubtful historicity whose supposed doctrines were in succeeding centuries heavily embellished by exotic ideas and extravagant hallmarks drawn from a wide range of German and Jewish folktales. However, undeterred by a factual analysis of these events Peladan decided to become a prominent figure in the liminal world of French Rosicrucianiam.

This attitude reveals an age-old distinction between those who pursue imagism as a means to an end and true imagists who recognise that they are actually explorers in the realm of imagination. Gancarz without the slightest doubt belongs to the latter school. This is why I should warn the reader from the outset, that his art is dangerous and must be approached with great caution. For Gancarz, imagination should not be confused with fantasy, which seems to be only a collection of random erotic associations and distorted sensory information. On the contrary, imagination is an empathic faculty of the psyche, which may be developed into an organ of subjective perception through which valuable altered states of awareness can be grasped. In a sense, imagism could be called the science of the imagination and stands along with logic as one of the greatest achievements of the human spirit. With this in mind it may be helpful to examine the techniques Gancarz employs to strengthen the third eye of his imaginative cognition.

His art seems to argue that everything in this world is relatively true and that the power of image is the binding agent, which secures each creative success or traps the otherwise evolving soul. Only the free flow of form, emancipated from false notions of intellectual quality can release the instincts of the heart. Indeed, his thesis explores contradiction along with restricted comprehension as the principle modalities conditioning our encounter with art. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Gancarz allows classic images to surface from the blurred ephemeral boundaries of post-modernity. Through the active chaos created by his clever use of colour-metaphor, we may observe anonymous human heads, buildings, highly sexualised female torsos, scribbled text in both English and Polish, a bleak and colourless church, ironically repetitious scenarios vaguely reminiscent of Andy Warhol at his best, and even the occasional phallus. Nevertheless, the sign or mark of his personal artistry may be read throughout every composition. Moreover, Gancarz has gone further than other contemporary imagists due to the indirect suggestion that a visual doctrine of correspondences underlies his work. This idea is vital to the practise of his art because Gancarz is contending that all material things have a natural as well as an aesthetic meaning. He is attempting to guide his admirers through a sentient hieroglyphic labyrinth, inscribed with depictions of deeper realities. What is more, Gancarz claims that once read and decoded into manageable portraits these living images can be finally grasped. Fascinatingly, he then alludes to the possibility that they may be re-built in the sensuous mind transforming both body and essence. His art therefore, is a disturbing journey into alchemical cartographies.

There is a long creative history behind pictures of this kind and Gancarz has made a significant as well as provocatively innovative contribution to the imagist movement. It may be that for Gancarz, the primary error of received imagism was to put "expertise" on a pedestal and then defend its fallible pronouncements as though they were insights into a fixed aesthetic order. For him, this overly theoretical scheme of interpretation is vacuous. On the other hand, he is fully aware that discovering art may be a labour of love, but it is also a victim of human lethargy. For Gancarz, these are the twin Herculean pillars upholding the prominent imagist notion that art demands personal sacrifice. It can only be lamented then, that so few artists in their beleaguered attempts to define the parameters of painting have proved capable of rising to the challenge posed by his work. Instead, his colleagues have tended to compound the problem by embracing a naïve multi-cultural overview, which increasingly obscures artistic clarity. If present day imagists, bereft of any intellectually shared visual language, endlessly extend their yogic contortions to include allegedly analogous shapes (themselves divorced from any meaningful context), then the notion of creative coherence has finally been abandoned. Certainly, western hubris usually accompanies these broad brush-strokes of misinterpretation, often allied to the unfortunate fact that these superfluous depictions prove, on closer inspection, to need additional development themselves. Yet, this is the moment of triumph, not defeat. Gancarz has announced that uncharted imagist expeditions have ended and a new age of imaginative integrity has begun.

David Parry's poetry collection 'Caliban's Redemption' is published by Mandrake and features a cover illustration by Gancarz

OMPHALOS MAGICKAL FAIR

Creative Magickal Expression
In Bath from April 25th to May 1st.
OPENING RITUAL
MOGG MORGAN

WORKSHOPS
JULIAN VAYNE AND GREG HUMPHRIES
MISHLEN LINDEN

PERFORMANCE
ANTON CHANNING
GAVIN SEMPLE
ORRYELLE DEFENESTRATE / METAMORPHIC RITUAL THEATRE

TALKS
LEVANNAH MORGAN
"MOVIES AND MAGIC"

PAINTING / SCULPTURE / TATTOO / ASTROLOGY / PHOTOGRAPHY / COSTUME.

ASTRID BAUER …....GREG HUMPHRIES……DAVE EVANS…….CHRiSTINA RICHARDSON...
ANN BRYN-EVANS….GERARD HUTTON……ROBERTO MIGLIUSSI ….JASMINE DEVILLE... ANTON CHANNING ….. MARK HURST…….. NATHANIEL HARRIS…….MISHLEN LINDEN.... CHRIS CHIBNALL……HAZEL MACLEAN……ORRYELLE DEFENESTRATE…..IAN SELBIE
MUSIC CHARLOTTE PUGH SULIS
FILM 'EARTH INFERNO'

CLOSING RITUAL MISHLEN LINDEN
For further information e-mail charlottejane@...
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Sponsored by 'The Annual Witchcraft Seminar'

Kaos Hieroglyphica
Alchemy for the New Aeon
Anton Channing

isbn 1869928830 19.99UKP 200pp special hbk

In the year 1564, Dr John Dee published his work, Monas Hieroglyphica. Its central symbol represented the unity which was the gnosis of the monotheistic aeon.

Now over four hundred years later, Anton Channing has published his long awaited debut work Kaos Hieroglyphica, within which he expounds a new symbol, the Kaos Hieroglyph. This symbol represents the plurality and freedom of the New Aeon. This work of magical alchemy draws on such diverse material as Thelema, the Chaos Current, the Maat Current, Timothy Leary, Witchcraft, Paganism, the Hermetic Tradition, Taoism, Shamanism and the author's own Pineal Gland.

The Kaos Hieroglyphica offers the reader interpretations of Hermetic symbolism in a way that is both insightful and relevant to New Aeon Magic.

Liber T: Tarot of Stars Eternal by Roberto Negrini,
artwork by Andrea Serio

Liber T is a new rendering of the famous Crowley/Harris Tarot deck into what some might say is a more contemporary mode. The person who first drew my attention to the deck - assumed, perhaps rightly, that the pun on liberty was another blow in the 'fightback' against the current corporate copyright holders of Crowley / Harris deck. It is said that it can be difficult to gain the appropriate permissions to reproduce images from the old deck and there are rumours that those who have managed to do so have lived to regret the experience. How much of this is true - i dunno - but such are the rumours that go round bookfairs. Redrawing an image is one way to circumvent any existing copyrights - and the result is often quite pleasing - as in this case the colours seem fresher. The style is distinctly stellar. Overall this is a nice deck, and the artwork is of very high quality.

The deck is sponsored by the OTOA - which according to the rather informative page of Albion Lodge of the (Caliphate?) stands for 'Ordo Templis Orientis Antiquas [whose] history . . based upon suggestive charters and few documentations about its historical facts. [Let's not forget that there were times when even Crowley mislaid the odd certificate!] In spite of this its egregoric power and dynamic has proved to be resistant to falling into sleep and forgetfulness. By this fact one can at least assume that the line is capable of a certain power. In a letter to Peter Koenig, Bertiaux said the following: "Whether or not the Jean-Maine lineage was linked to the OTO of Reuss probably can't be ever proven" (Bertiaux, letter dated 4 April 1990). So from this let us proceed in the history of an order that started in the same place as all other OTO bodies with Theodor Reuss.'

I garnered a lot of information on the deck from Diane Wilkes review for the http://www.tarotpassages.com/liber-t.htm principally that: the subtitle of the deck (Tarot of Stars Eternal) hints to the impetus behind this deck; the revisions to the Minors are based on the Decans, also known as the 36 Symbolic Constellations of the Egyptian Star Cult, the SIBU SEPESU (Eternal Stars). Negrini's sources of inspiration include Liber Hermetis of the Corpus Hermeticum, Indian (Vedic) astrology, Picatrix, and the writings of Agrippa and Bruno. The deck is intended for ritual use, based on the spread/ritual provided in the Little White Booklet (LWB).' There is also a useful table setting out the differences in keyword between the Crowley / Harris and Liber T. So probably a deck for those caught up in the OTOA trajectory, but may also be of interest to any lover of the Tarot. - mogg

Sacred Smoke (advert)

Artio at PeacockAngel creates bespoke, specifically designed incense for whatever your purpose. Gathering together the exotic ingredients can be difficult, time consuming and expensive if you have to buy minimum quantities. Around the world since the dawn of time incense recipes have been passed down the generations with their formulas a closely guarded secret. We will provide small bags of most incense blends, based on these most ancient of trade secrets, made on the right days at the correct time. Incense can be customised and made up for your specific purpose. But when ordering please bear in mind all incense are made according to planetary days, hours and appropriate moon phase. The trick with incense is in getting both the blend and the texture just right: using the correct amount of resin, woods, leaves, roots, herbs, spices, flowers and oils and mixing them to just the right consistency. This is what we do. No artificial ingredients are used. Just unadulterated, natural ingredients, free from synthetics, binders, and additives. Each ingredient, just like sound has a particular vibration and synthetics just don't, they contain no life force at all. Find us at Peacockaagel.com

The Works of Michael Aquino

Until 1996, Michael Aquino was the founding High Priest of the Temple of Set; before that one of the illuminati of the Church of Satan. I've just been reading two new monumental ebooks published by Michael Aquino and, remarkably for such extensive works, are available free of charge. http://www.xeper.org/maquino.

The setanic groupings are viewed from a critical distance by most LHP magicians. One informed commentator recented wrote to me: 'that the isolationist 'black brother' approach is flawed, . . . the TOS seem to equate the LHP with this position and that the aim of magick is to become an isolated, inviolate self.' I'd add that I think any truly sethian magical organisation would be more rosicrucian than old style 'masonic'. The TOS say they are closer in spirit to Crowley's AA, and although that involves the wellknown sequence of 'masonic-type' grades, they still see in this a valid magical structure. And, it has to be said, they do not charge for initiation. Even so, the Temple of Set and before them, the Church of Satan stumbled onto a mythos which is uniquely relevant to modern magick and for that they deserve credit and indeed respect. I haven't read either book through yet (one is 1000 pages of detailed research with over 50 photographs) but whatever the possible bias it's sure to be crucial reading for anyone who really wants to understand the magick of this important emerging archetype. - [mogg]

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Groups

Bath Omphalos, a Moot for LHP magicos in Bath area. For more details contact omphalospaganmoot@.... Essentially a discussion group at the moment, open to all. The first speaker meeting is

Conferences

Next Witchcraft seminar 23rd October 2005 - review of 2004

Gale force winds whipped around the battlements, rain lashed the windows. Marion Green was heard to say, 'if you really want to understand the elements go into the carpark.' Well that didn't really come out right but we knew what she meant.

Many were there to hear what turned out to be Maxine Sanders engaging description of the genesis of the Alexandrian movement. But first - in heavy chiaroscuro, choking clouds of incense rose from half a dozen censors, then Ralph Harvey's voice cut through the gloom - a voice straight from the hammer house of horror and long john silver - WITCHCRAFT!!!!! - the OOOOOLLLLLLLLDDDDDD religion.

Lots of hocum and wiccan foundation myth, of course, but all done with great panache and a final crescendo of passion that had many, myself included, in tears.

Was it that or Diane Firmin's earlier amazing talk about the magick of cats, where the speaker conjured a pathetic image of the witches on the gibbet, the family pet hanging and sharing their fate to the last. Its a very sad image that - and in the news this week it was confirmed -

LONDON, England (AP) -- A Scottish township plans to mark Halloween by officially pardoning 81 people -- and their cats -- executed centuries ago for being witches.

Well what a wonderful conference - perhaps the last to be held at that spooky venue - above is just a smattering of the many excellent speakers - some maybe a bit worse for wear from the demon drink on the evening before but otherwise as good as . . .

Star of the show i'd say the very understated but thought provoking piece from JSM editor Dave Evans which can be viewed at:

Well done Adrian and everyone involved

Omphalos

Bath is to play host to a Magickal Fair from the 25th of April to the 1st of May, 2005. This event is basically about having a platform to express magickal creativity. Part of this involves the creation of a magickal picture book. A key word is being sent to magicians from diverse cultural, geograpical and philosophical perspectives... This word will be interpreted and illustrated in either one image or a triptych. These examples of a linking of a collective magickal unconscious will then be assembled (in a simplistic format) and sold at the fair.

We cannot give any financial recompense for this, just a chance to be involved in something interesting and a copy of the resultant magazine. The deadline for submissions is the end of January. We'll need your name, the name you use to sign your work ,and a contact address...

The key word is Omphalos.

If you are interested in contributing and want further details please contact me at charlottejane2002@... Many thanks, and look forward to hearing from you! Charlotte