INTERVIEW: Nathaniel J. Harris

Mandrake: Nathaniel, can you begin by telling us a little about your book, and why you wrote it?

I only expected to sell a very few copies, primarily to friends of the family and those who turn up for the 'Annual Witchcraft Seminars'. Since I was going to all this effort, I decided to post an advert or two on the internet to see if anyone else wanted one. Much to my surprise the book proved to be a lot more popular than I expected, selling 100 copies in no time at all. I could and would have sold more, but the amount of money and time it took to create each copy meant that I was not only running at a near loss much of the time, but I was also working very hard just to keep up with the orders. Thankfully, you people came along and made the current edition available to a wider market.

Mandrake: Can you tell us a little more concerning 'The House of the Old Ways'?

Nathaniel: The House of the Old Ways is my 'parent coven', quite literally and not at all metaphorically! It was formed by my mother and stepfather, and if it needs justification to its lineage, I guess this comes through the hereditary witchcraft on her side of the family. Although both are also initiates of other streams of witchcraft, the House of the Old ways exists independently of any other organisation or lineage.

Judging from what I see written, and the claims I have heard people make, we are a lot more humble than many other covens or groups out there these days. We meet to support each other in our rituals, which are both spiritual/meditational, and results orientated. Most of us are very quiet individuals with no desires for fame, power, or any of that nonsense. We do not claim to be the guardians of any great and lost Mysteries, although we do have direct contact with spiritual entities and occasionally it must be said that some of them do make such claims! Most psychics have met entities like that. Personally, we listen them out, and banish them is they start talking rubbish. Nor does the House of the Old Ways make any of those silly claims about being 'guardians of the Land' or of sacred sites.

I know others have made claims to hereditary lineage, and used it to con there way into positions of supposed power, or spokespersons for Traditional Witchcraft, and so on. We make no such claims, nor do we recognise any such claims made by others as valid. Witches are strong minded individualists, it is one of the things that makes us what we are. We do not need 'leaders', or followers for that matter. If we wanted them, we would have them. If one wishes to become as a thousand, one merely has to attract a whole load of zeros.

Mandrake: You said that Witchcraft does not have leaders. But there are leaders and elders in the Craft. Among them those who have published very influential works, as well as raising the profile of the Craft to a wider public. Also, covens tend to have hierarchies led by High Priestesses and High Priests. So please, could you clarify your point?

Nathaniel: In one of Terry Pratchet's very funny 'Discworld' novels, he says that "Witches do not have leaders, and Granny Weatherwax is one of the best leaders that they do not have." No-one can deny that there are influential people in the Craft who could be said to lead by example. Yet any good Magister or Priestess will tell you that they are not really a leader in the sense that a church or a government has leaders. This is why we meet in circles, after all, as a sign that we are all equal, or are supposed to be.

Mandrake: In your book it says that you are the 'Fool' or 'Dubh Sidh' of the House of the Old Ways. Can you tell us a little more about what this means?

Nathaniel: In the House of the Old Ways, the position of 'Fool' is one of sanctioned rebellion. My job is to make sure nobody takes themselves too seriously, or disappears up their own backside. In a sense this position may be likened to the role of the Lord of Misrule, called also in European tradition as the Anti-Pope, the embodiment of the formulae of inversion as seen in the traditional 'Invisible Days', the Black Mass, or even in the reversal of the runic alphabet. Hence, too, the office is associated with the forces of darkness. Dubh Sidh is Gaelic, meaning 'Dark Phaerie'. So, whilst my position may involve poking fun here and there, it is in another sense a serious responsibility.

Mandrake: You call your work Witcha, A Book of Cunning. The meaning of this is explained in the introduction. Could you please say a little more?

Nathaniel: Witcha is an Old English word, properly spelt as wicca, which has been misappropriated and commonly mispronounced in the modern day. It means the use of witchcraft, implying specifically a male practitioner. The female equivalent is wicche.

The word 'cunning' has its roots in the runic tradition. Indeed a rune of our own Old English Alphabet bares the name 'cunning'. It implies the knowledge of sorcery, also mastery of language, poetry, and generally being clever. The term was later employed in relation to cunning folk, who were what in East Anglia later became called 'white witches', being those witches who were useful to their community. Modern academic texts, such as the excellent and highly recommended works of Professor Owen Davies, tend to over emphasise the idea that there was one path called the 'cunning', and another called the 'witch', and that these two were in conflict. Often, however, there was very little between the two. For example, Scott's Discovery of Witchcraft (1584) makes various references to the 'cunning witch'.

Mandrake: In Witcha, you state that your craft has come to your primarily through the hereditary stream of your family, and has its roots in East Anglia. Is there anything you would like to add to what you have already told us?

Nathaniel: There is not a lot to tell, really, compared to the outlandish mystical claims made by many others asserting hereditary lineages. The witchcraft in my family stretches back several generations. My mother, and my grandmother, both display unusual psychic talent and have run 'circles' of one kind or another during their lifetime. My Great Aunt, being my grandmother's sister, was the one who first informed my mother that she is of the witches, and taught her the first spells she employed. These were of the usual binding of poppets, and so on, formulae that one commonly associates with witchcraft and are well known today. The most influential member of our family, as far as witchcraft is concerned, is probably my Great Great Aunt Daisy Chapman, who was a witch and midwife operating in the Suffolk area. Unfortunately I never had the pleasure of meeting her in the flesh. She was the one who used to quietly encourage my mother by sending her letters and little packages with interesting things in. She, as well as other family members who have returned from whence they came, is honoured by name in our ancestral observances.

It must also be said, however, that ours is not a static and unchanging tradition with sacred rites passed through our lineage being unchanged for generations. Rather, we are each of us unique individuals. We do not always agree about everything, and this includes witchcraft!

Mandrake: In Witcha, you speak about the belief in fairies, or 'phaeries' as you give it, being a part of your tradition. What's all that about?

Nathaniel: To say that we believe in phaeries or 'pharisee' might be a little misleading, as most people think of this as a twee tradition kept amongst ignorant peasants. Yet it is the knowledge of these sometimes very frightening forces that might be considered the absolute crux of our witchcraft. Yet, too, it should be said that we are not really Pagans, as the word is commonly used today.

Mandrake: Here your viewpoint seems to differ greatly from others involved in the 'witchcraft revival'. You say you are not Pagan, yet believe in the Old Ones. Some might find this more than a little confusing. In Witcha, you describe yourself as Catholic. Can you explain this, please?

Nathaniel: That comment is only half a joke. I have never been baptised, nor do my family attend regular church services or support any organised religion. However, it may be more correct to call us 'nominally Catholic' rather than Pagan, as many of our formulae draw upon the powers written of in the classical 'goetic' grimoires of our tradition, and similar. Yet I think what must be stressed is that witchcraft itself is not a religion. We do not gather to 'worship' anything or anyone, even though we have regular first hand experience of the spiritual dimensions.

Mandrake:But you said that Witchcraft is not a religion?

Nathaniel: This is a difficult one as I most certainly do not wish to invalidate those out there who do practice their witchcraft as a part of a religion. Yet at the same time I think it is necessary to point out that world-wide, and even in the various approaches I encountered growing up amongst the witchcraft of East Anglia, there is no universal faith that unites us as witches. What we have in common is rather better described in my view as an arcarnum of practices and esoteric 'truths' that may only ever be realised on an individual level. For example a voodoo witch in New Orleans, a Malaysian witch of the mountains, a medieval cunning witch of East Anglia, a modern Pagan witch of England, a Taoist witch, a pre-Christian witch of Persia, or a sworn-in of the House of the Old Ways, all work according to essentially very different faiths. Yet at the same time we all work our witchcraft according to quintessentially similar formulae.

Historically witches have often been of a subversive and anarchic spirituality. Many would say that witchcraft is in fact the very antithesis not just of organised religion, but of fixed belief of any kind. Austin Osman Spare is probably the best known exponent of this approach to witchcraft in the modern day. Others of recent history, less known but probably no less responsible regarding shaping the current as it comes to us, have included the likes of Major General C. Fuller of the Golden Dawn, upon whose work Crowley based his Enochian translation of the Goetia. I think the Setanic witch priest Charles Pace was another, and his friend Cecil Williams who originally founded the Museum of Witchcraft. Hence the purpose of the 'sinister' rites of the Black Sabbat, which were quite akin to what more modern cultists might call deconditioning.

Mandrake: So do you believe in Gods, God, or Goddesses?

Nathaniel: I can only answer this personally, rather than speak for my family or 'tradition'. Previous generations of witches in my family were actually Christian. As I said, witchcraft is not a religion. They would have been Christian even if their craft had been something else entirely, such as tailors or carpenters. My mother and stepfather were drawn towards Pagan Witchcraft of one kind or another through their careers, but even they consider this approach to be a lot more modern than it pretends. Any tradition that has genuinely survived through the medieval period would have had to change and adapt with the times in order to survive. Thus, on the whole, many genuine old witchcraft traditions embraced what might be called 'nominally Catholic' formulae, which some might identify as older pagan traditions which have taken on new masques. Most modern covens, since they are also involved with the Pagan revival, have adopted Pagan formulae. We, however, are not reconstructionists. Rather, we are taking an ever evolving tradition into the modern, largely post-Christian, day.

As far as the existence or non-existence of gods is concerned, my opinion is that it is impossible to discuss such things in reasonable or logical terms. Perhaps they are a little like the 'non-existent' numbers that are used to solve certain otherwise impossible equations.

Mandrake: Some people may find your claims to hereditary lineage frustrating. After all, you cannot train to become hereditary, either you are or you are not. The only way to become such is to be either born into a witchcraft family, or marry into one. What point, then, is there in openly admitting your hereditary lineage?

Nathaniel: Firstly, to state my background is not a claim to personal power or knowledge. Rather, it explains my motivation for involving myself in witchcraft and magick in the first place. I did not begin my studies in order to become something that I was not already. I am a witch by birth, with natural talent, which has been nurtured over the years with training and study. This has included my becoming involved, in my youth, with other magical organisations. It is well known that I am a past Magister Templi of the Illuminates of Thanateros, and became involved in Chaos magic, for example. In the end, however, I outgrew these groups and 'returned to the fold', so to speak.

I appreciate that some may find my hereditary status frustrating. I have been accused of being elitist in the past. However, nobody is claiming that our way is better, purer, or in any other way more traditional or important than anybody else's witchcraft. To state that I am hereditary is simply fact, and is not said for any other reason.

I think the confusion here is caused because over the years many have raised their heads and claimed to be hereditary purely in order to claim some kind of power over other people. Usually these claims prove to be false over the years, or at least are never proven to be true.

Also, there are those who mistake my claim as saying that you absolutely have to be born a witch to be 'real'. I have never said this, nor would I. You do not have to be born into a witch family in order to be a witch, any more than being born into a family of accountants automatically makes you an accountant. However, if you are born into a family of accountants, and do want to be an accountant yourself, you are in for a head start. Yet you will still have to train and study just as hard as anybody else if you are going to be any good. In this case you might have someone who will show you the books, or grimoires in the case of witchcraft, and let you in to one or two secrets of the trade.

Finally, as I have said, most people will assume you are lying if you tell them you are a hereditary witch, anyway, and usually not without good reason.

Mandrake: Well, we've met your family, so we know you are not lying! Which perhaps brings us to your appearance on the National Geographic's documentary on witchcraft for the 'Taboo' series, which was made just as the first edition of Witcha came out. How was it that this programme came to be made?

Nathaniel: The researchers for the National Geographic contacted Graham of the Museum of Witchcraft, Boscastle, to make contact with genuine witches willing to be on international television. As you can imagine there were plenty who stepped forward but who could not stand up to the intense scrutiny these researchers needed to put any claims made through. No doubt there were other genuine witches who just did not need the grief of being scrutinised. In the end, they chose me, and also featured a family coven meeting held on the Eve of May. The programme, 'Taboo: Witchcraft' still repeats on the National Geographic channel once in a while. I received a letter from one of the researchers to say it was one of their highest rating documentaries. Nobody got an EMI for it, though. Perhaps they should have done!

Mandrake: Both on this documentary, and in Witcha, you speak of the Bible as a grimoire of witchcraft. No doubt this is something many people will have difficulty with, both amongst witches and Christians alike!

Nathaniel: Well, you know me, I never like to make things easy for people by telling them what they would rather hear. The Bible has a long tradition of employment within the witchcraft and cunning of Britain, and was often referred to in much the same way as it is in contemporary magical 'Christianity', such as the path of Santeria which actually bares many striking resemblances to our own traditions. Such comparisons were made in the documentary you mention.

Mandrake: Our books have often generated controversy and we couldn't help but notice that Witcha was attracting some very positive as well as very negative vibes - how do you feel about that?

Nathaniel: Well yes, as you know - whenever you put your head above the parapet there's always someone who wants to shoot you down. Goes with the territory I guess. Not sure why that is - human nature maybe. Like Gore Vidal said, 'Nothing is more pleasing than to see your friend's latest book on the remainder pile' - wicked thoughts. Maybe you know you've arrived when this happens. I'd expected some criticism of the book but not all this ad hominem stuff and attempts at character assassination, even attacks on my close family. These have included some 'old crafters' who seem to think I was treading on their toes, and one or two that have been a bit cross at my speaking so frankly about certain more sinister aspects. On the whole, though, much of this polava has come from those who hope to raise their own profile by attacking mine and the family's. At first I was a bit stung by it all but as the sales of the book rise and the positive comments more than outweigh the odd nutcase, I'm learning to let it wash over me. Anyway, how can anything be considered bad publicity if you've already openly admitted to practices of Black Witchcraft anyway? I'm not really as evil as some people would have it, yet at the same time it is often fun to play up to the 'Bad Boy of Witchcraft' image.

Mandrake: Didn't you appear on the 'Kilroy' show about 'Witchcraft Friend or Foe?' openly admitting to having cursed people in your previous career?

Nathaniel: Hell yes. They had heard of me because of the N.G. documentary and begged me to be on that show. I must say that when I got there I did feel like I had been particularly singled out for some bad press. Despite my protests that it had been a long time since I had been particularly keen to curse anyone, but that yes I did think it was sometimes justifiable, he insisted on calling me a Black Witch and I did not really complain about that. On the one hand he was saying that he did not believe in all this Mumbo Jumbo, and on the other he was saying that I should be arrested for my magical actions. The studio was like a lion's den, with me and a few other witches of other paths already keen to dissociate themselves from me due to whatever had been said previously, and some quite rabid Christians and 'sceptics' all around us. Incidentally, it was the last episode of his series recorded, and I was the last person on the show to receive his well rehearsed wannabe politician's handshake. After that his T.V. career ended and he became an object of public ridicule. Make of that what you will.

Mandrake: You are also a tattoo artist, and have done some fine work on Jasmine Deville. Could you tell us what attracted you to this art form?

Nathaniel: There is something very primordial and magical about tattooing. There are many people one meets who have had glyphs and signs tattooed upon them as a part of some magical act or self transformation. Although the tattooist themselves might not be a practitioner of witchcraft or magic, the very act of having these things prominently emblazoned in one's flesh seems to successfully connect us somehow to the powers behind the signs. Thus, I suppose, many so called primitive initiatory cults involve the marking of the flesh during the candidate's progression. The word 'tattoo' is actually Polynesian, and only added to our English vocabulary fairly recently. Our own word before then was 'stigma', and in the witchcraft cults this tattoo has been known as the 'Stigma Diaboli' or Mark of the Devil. These may have been hidden on the body, and may have been what the witchfinders were actually supposed to hav! e been looking for. Persecution records make record of marks made by the 'Devil' of the cult pricking the finger of the new initiate to make a permanent mark, as with two Northampton witches condemned in 1705, and the Scottish witches also. Robert Graves makes mention of this somewhere in the White Goddess. Also, the signs may identify us to one another, as with the Maori tribal markings that show your gods, family status, and history. With what has been called the 'Modern Primitive' movement within body art, we can see that many of our own culture have been actively seeking to regain some sense of the sacred or magical tattoo for ourselves. It thus only made sense that I should employ my artistic skills in this world, and the majority of my customers are those who are consciously connecting tattooing to their magical practices. I am largely self taught, as the methods I employ are manual rather than using the conventional tattoo gun. Nevertheless, I have a! lways hung around tattooists of one kind or another since about six years old. When I started tattooing, about ten years ago, I was fortunate in that I lived in London and knew many successful tattoo artists. I also had two rare chance meetings with tattoo artists whom I would personally describe as magicians of one kind or another- one who tattooed traditionally for the Yakuzza in Japan, and another who was a genuine Maori tattooist and who allowed me to sit in on a session with a customer. These events proved to me that I was on the right path.

Mandrake: well that's more than enough - thanks for being so frank - if folk want more there's the current book and another coming soon - watch this space.

Nathaniel will also be talking at London Secret Chiefs on Wednesday 24th August - 8pm - at the Devereux Public House, 20 Devereux Court,London WC2, near Temple Underground) If you like interviews there's one with Mandrake's Mogg Morgan on the Avalonia website (www.avalonia.co.uk)

Black Flag Productions - Crowley Classics

Well not sure where they come from - but two rather nice 'pirate' CDs have just landed in my inbox. They both contain electronic versions of 'restricted' material that can only be had at premium rates via secondhand markets - ie: White Stains (actually that may well still be in print from Duckworth); Snowdrops form a Curate's Garden; The Scented Garden; Leah Sublime; plus selected essays and comments.

The second CD is the famous wax cylinder recordings of Crowley. The producers are almost certainly those that previously issued The Secret Rituals of the OTO. It appearance put a few noses out of joint, icluding, so I'm told, people at Weiser's, who were wrongly credited on the CD with its publicationn. Obviously these are bootlegs and therefore highly controversial. Somebody out there obviously objects to the current restrictions on this material, enforced by various copyright holders - this is 'gorilla' war. So far, I have been no complaints about the previous issue from the Black Flag people. Last time a looked they were at: http://www.tobew.com/SR

'Ultimate Premature Ejaculation Mastery' (reviewed by Charlotte)

Initially I was put off by the cover illustration that showed a cheesy airbrushed image very similar to the one on the cover of Donald Kraig's 'Sexual Magick' (a great book by the way, let down by said cover illustration).

Then I was further thrown when skimming through the glossary of terms and coming across euphemisms such as 'Big O' for 'Orgasm'.

However I decided that the contents looked promising and to give reading this e book a go. After all I am very much a product of a generation of women brought up on with available and encouraging literature and attitudes about sexual and sexual/spiritual self exploration and I think it's a great thing to have similar information available to men.

There are some good, practical contents in this book, and the reader is led through them in a methodical easy to follow way. It focus' on mental and spiritual attitudes as well as vocal and breath work, basic physical exercises and some yoga techniques.

I also appreciated the way in which there is constructive defocusing on the main aim of the sex act being about ejaculation, and whilst there is an obviously strong emphasis on the spirituality in sexuality there is still a stress on the importance on the more earthy base side of sex, in its various forms.

There is also the inclusion of a section on safe sexual practice and protection.

However the E Book is let down on various counts.

Its definition of the word 'tantra' is nebulous.'Tantra' seems to be loosely defined as an amalgamation of techniques from various cultures that can utilised to establish credence to a quest for sexual spirituality and accompanying sexual prowess.

Perhaps I sound a bit cynical but how could I not be when I encountered suggestions to broach the subject of a Tantric relationship with a potential partner with wording such as, 'Explain the promise of extended spiritual bliss', or anecdotes about tantric lovers ('Joe Stud' is a term referred to) who could keep a woman going all night, 'driving them wild' 'in the sack'.

I started to feel that here was yet another clichéd sex manual aiming for credibility through its use of the supposed spiritual practice of one culture to counteract the sexual inadequacies in another…our own.

This feeling was only reiterated by the use of language such as 'the familiar urge to squit'and 'the worlds greatest stud' which does it actually give the e book a certain 1970's sex manual feel.

Early on the writer does explain his use of euphemisms and Eastern terminology as intended to remove and replace words that may hold with them connotations of sexual shame; however in my mind they work more to the contrary bringing even more negative connotations to the original words and terms and glamorising and distorting the selected replacements and creating a new and somewhat exclusive (to the reader) language.

Throughout the book there are also, increasing, references and sales pitches linked to the author's sites. Whilst this is fair enough, it does become invasive.

This is a long book, over 180 pages, and I admit whilst I read most of it I did not finish it. I feel it does have many assets but I feel the language and what comes across as dodgy spirituality lets it down.

However perhaps a man may have a different perspective of the book?

The Magical Dilemma of Victor Neuburg
Jean Overton Fuller

isbn 1869928792 334pp 152x229mm 10 illustration 13.99
Paperback original
Jean Overton Fuller’s humane biography of Aleister Crowley’s disciple, lover, fellow magician, poet seer; the literary god father of Dylan Thomas

Really two books in one. Firstly a record of one man’s extraordinary journey to magical enlightenment. Secondly the story of the Aleister Crowley, the magus who summoned Neuburg to join him in the quest. The book opens with the author’s entry into the group of young poets including Dylan Thomas and Pamela Hansford Johnson. They gather around Victor Neuburg in 1935 when he is poetry editor of the Sunday Referee. Gradually the author becomes aware of his strange and sinister past, in which Neuburg was associated in magic with Aleister Crowley. Neuburg had been Crowley’s partner in magical rituals in the desert and in rites even more dangerous and controversial.

The author sought out the truth behind the rumours and with her intuitive understanding of deeper things presents a sympathetic and compelling biography.

‘Vicky encouraged me as no one else has done,’ Dylan Thomas declared on hearing of Neuburg’s death. ‘He possessed many kinds of genius, and not the least was his genius for drawing to himself, by his wisdom, graveness, great humour and innocence, a feeling of trust and love, that won’t ever be forgotten.’ ‘ . . . there was a whiff of sulphur abroad, and all of us would have liked to know the truth of the Aleister Crowley’s legends, the truth of the witch-like baroness called Cremers, the abandonment of Neuburg in the desert.’ - Pamela Hansford Johnson

THE TRIUMPH OF PAN (Bath Omphalos)

An evening focused on Victor Neuburg poet, Aleister Crowley's greatest disciple and discoverer of Dylan Thomas, both in factual and creative interpretation.

FEATURING Marc Aitken's rarely screened classic film, 'Do Angels Ever Cut Themselves Shaving'

Richard McNeff, author of 'Sybarite among the Shadows' will talk about his novel and Victor Neuburg, and give an accompanying slide show.

This presentation will also incorporate a reading from the novel assisted by actor Oengus Macnamara.

'DO ANGELS EVER CUT THEMSELVES SHAVING' Synopsis

Edwardian England, a house haunted by memories, and a man who has been to the brink of his sanity, and only partly returned. A man who was once privy to the circle of the "Great Beast", the celebrated occultist Aleister Crowley. Once a key figure in Crowley's, Magickal universe he now finds himself estranged, and attempts a return to normality. Traumatised by the horror of the First World War he returns home as one of a new species, the gentleman addict. During his chemical odyssey, his mind opens to the metaphysical world he only glimpsed during his brush with the occult. The distorted memory of the trenches, and ghostly spectre of Crowley, invade his visions with unwelcome regularity. An actress with whom he once fell in love is merged ethereally with the nurse who saved his life in the trenches, but who administered the first grains of his addiction. She continually appears during his visions as both Angel and Daemon. Despite all he suffered at Crowley's hands, he finds he cannot condemn him, and in a trance takes one last walk across the fields of memory, to be re united with his "Dear Beast".

'SYBARITE AMONG THE SHADOWS'

Richard McNeff's talk will focus on the poet Victor Neuburg, remembered as both Aleister Crowley's greatest disciple and the discoverer of Dylan Thomas. The magical workings performed with Crowley in Paris and the Algerian Desert resulted in Neuburg's breakdown. In the aftermath, Neuburg could never decide if Crowley was the greatest magician of the age or the worst man who ever lived. Such a perspective provides an interesting slant on the life and practices of the Beast. It was explored in Jean Overton Fuller's groundbreaking the Magical Dilemma of Victor Neuburg, currently reissued by Mandrake (ISBN 1869928792), and is the cornerstone of McNeff's Sybarite among the Shadows: both the short story, which appeared in International Times in 1977 and was subsequently republished in America and Russia, as well as the recently-published novel (Mandrake of Oxford ISBN 1869928822). In the latter, Crowley and Neuburg are reunited by Dylan in 1936. Against the backdrop of bohemian London, they complete their magical work together, while at the same time getting embroiled in an MI5 plot to avert the Abdication. A reading from this and slides will accompany the talk. "McNeff's novel is so different from anything else you'd normally find on a bookshelf that it should perhaps be a compulsory purchase." -The Independent On Sunday

Marc Aitken; Biography Marc has been involved in the music and film industries for over 25 years. The film "Do Angels ever cut themselves shaving?" based loosely on the circle of characters surrounding the occultist Aleister Crowley was shown at last years Glastonbury Festival, to the surprise of mushroom users and readers of the Daily Mail alike. Returning to his first love of lighting Marc has been lighting director for a number of music videos including most recently the "Father and Son" video for Peter Gabriel.
Richard McNeff; Biography
Richard McNeff was born in London. He is a published poet and writer who works internationally in education and the art world. Early contact with associates of the Beast sparked his interest in Crowley.

Oengus Macnamara; Biography
Oengus Macnamara has been an actor for many years, working in TV, and on stage and screen. He is a member of the Godot Company and frequently appears in works by Samuel Beckett. This year, among other things, he has been in Casualty on BBC1 and Kathy Burke's acclaimed production of Brendan Behan's The Quare Fellow.

4 pounds/3 pounds concessions.
For details contact omphalospaganmoot@...

Crowley, The Masons and The Mafia
by Akashanath, July 2005 e.v.

Introduction
Like many occultists, I avoid mentioning my practices to my secular friends wherever possible. One reason is the association most people seem to have between ritual magick and human sacrifice. My denials are often met with suspicion and disbelief. Today most serious occultists, whilst acknowledging that ritual slaughter played its part in the distant past, will scoff at the idea that it could have more than a symbolic role in modern magick.

An example of the gap between reality and popular perception can be found in the myth of Aleister Crowley, initiate of the Golden Dawn and founder of Thelema. Whilst it has now become relatively commonplace to hear him described as a child murderer, Crowley was actually never accused of this during his lifetime. He was, however, widely and publicly blamed for the death of his pupil Raoul Loveday. According to the Crowley Biography The Great Beast(1) , Loveday visited Crowley at his Abbey of Thelema in Cefalù in the summer of 1922. In April 1923, he died of dysentery. The London Press, although not levelling any direct accusation, called for an immediate investigation. While the reports seemed mainly to be an excuse to reprint salacious details of life in the Abbey, they nevertheless had some impact on the newly installed Italian fascist government. On April 23rd, if The Great Beast is to be believed, Crowley was summoned to the Police Station and shown an expulsion order. He left a week later.

Whilst Crowley’s murderous activities may have been largely imaginary, Mussolini may have had his reasons for being suspicious. Like most small Sicilian towns in the orbit of Palermo, Cefalù was run by Mafiosi. A new book by John Dickie titled Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia(2) , cites new evidence from research carried out after the Italian Mafia trials of the early 1990s. This material, much of it published in English for the first time, confirms long-standing rumours about links between the Mafia and other secret societies. It can now be verified that, like members of many magickal groups including the Golden Dawn and Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), members of the Mafia underwent initiation rituals, swore binding oaths of loyalty, and were organised into units based on geographical boundaries. Unlike their occult contemporaries, Mafiosi were then obliged to carry out tactical murders on the say so of their superiors, murders which often carried a gruesome symbolism.

The Origins of The Mafia Before the Mafia trials of the 1990s, many myths surrounding the secretive criminal fraternity were deliberately allowed to survive, and in some cases were actively fostered by Mafiosi themselves. One such notion was that the organisation stretched back to feudal times, representing a kind of underground aristocracy during successive foreign occupations. In his book Dickie argues convincingly that the Mafia in fact grew up during the Bourbon dynasty that ruled Sicily from Naples during the early nineteenth century. The Neapolitans brought with them Freemasonry, which grew in popularity from the 1820s. With its secret meetings and signs of recognition, masonry provided the perfect cover for revolutionaries and others not content with the Bourbon regime. As early as the 1830s nationalistic Sicilian lodges known as ‘carbonari’ (charcoal burners) were reported as cornering the market for certain types of government contract. Following Garibaldi’s successful uprising in 1860s, Sicily was incorporated into the new Italian state. Being ruled from Rome rather than Naples brought little advantage to the impoverished Sicilians, however. The secret societies did not disband, but refocussed their activities on extortion. Soon they had establised a stranglehold on the island’s valuable citrus trade. It was through this that connections were first made with American ports, connections which would multiply in value enromously when the export of lemons and limes was supplemented by a much more lucrative commerce - in opiates. The Mafia Initiation

The Mafia initiation ceremony is cited a few times in the book, based on ‘primary sources’ such as accounts from Mafia defectors. Details vary, but the basic pattern follows that laid out on page 160.

“… only six months earlier Verro [the initiate, a local trade unionist] had been woken at dawn by a handful of gravel thrown at the window of his house in via San Nicolò. As agreed, he dressed quickly. Once outside, he was led a short distance to the the house of a man he knew, a gabelloto [farm foreman] on one of the estates that surrounded the town. There he was shown into a room where he found a group of men around a table. At the centre were three rifles and a piece of paper with a skull drawn on it.

The presiding boss began by explaining the purpose of the meeting was to admit Verro to the secret association - the members called themselves Fratuzzi (‘the brothers’). When prompted the initiate Verro explained how the social movement he had founded in Corleone aimed to champion the interests of the oppressed proletarian masses. Satisfied with this account, the boss warned of the dangers that faced any man who did not keep the society secret.

Verro was asked to repeat the Fratuzzi oath of loyalty before holding out his right hand thumb to be pricked with a pin. The blood was smeared on the image of the skull, which was then burned. In the light of the flames, Verro exchanged a fraternal kiss with each of the mafiosi in turn. He was told that, to introduce himself to any member of the Fratuzzi, he was to touch his incisors and complain of a toothache. He was now a member of the Corleone cosca of the mafia.”

In some versions, the image of the skull is replaced with the image of a saint, and the rifles with knives or daggers. The author of Cosa Nostra suggests parallels with masonic initiations, without going into details, and indeed there are some. In particular, there are marked similarities between the above and the so-called ‘Vengeance Grades’. Although unfashionable nowadays, these enjoyed a wide popularity in the 18th and 19th centuries. The basic motif, as always, revolved around the murder of the Master Builder of the Temple of Jerusalem, Hiram Abif. In this version of the myth, the initiate discovers one of the assassins and plunges a knife into his breast. The Vengeance Grades have a particular resonance within Red Lodge masonry because of it’s Templar grades, and the oath of vengeance allegedly sworn by the Templars’ 23rd Grand Master, Jacques de Molay.

According to occult legend the Order goes ‘underground’ after being betrayed by the Church and French King. Whilst burning at the stake, de Molay cries out to God for vengeance - a prayer that is answered by the death of both Pope and King within the year. The coming decades also see the end of the French Capetian dynasty, with many of the remaining monarchs meeting unpleasant ends. This led them to become known as the Rois Maudits, or cursed line. Interestingly, the Vengeance Grades have often been cited by the Catholic Church as evidence of the murderous and un-Christian nature of masonry. As Cosa Nostra now reveals, though, the Mafia had at least as much overlap in membership with the Priesthood as with the Masons.

Crowley, of course, would have known a great deal about the Vengeance Grades: as ‘Outer Head’ of the Ordo Templi Orientis (or Order of the Eastern Temple), he would have had a special interest in the Templar grades of English masonry, and may well have used his Italian travels as an opportunity to familiarise himself with the variants practised abroad. Sicily was itself an important Crusader stronghold, part of a chain of island fortresses that brought supplies to, and treasure from, the Holy Land. Also the skull was an important Templar symbol (often but not always combined with the two crossed thigh bones now usually thought of in connection with pirates).

Of course, the skull also has a much more obvious secular meaning, which bears directly on the work of the Cosa Nostra. According to Dickie, murder was absolutely at the core of Mafia operations. In 19th and early 20th century Sicily, poverty was nearly universal and life was cheap. Dickie’s book documents numerous killings over incidents such as vandalised bushes or slight discourtesies, which could be interpreted as deliberate insults and therefore threats to the authority of Mafia bosses. One police informant is strangled (symbolising silence) after first having had his arm cut off (symbolising the futility of opposing the Mafia). Another boy is held hostage until his 14th birthday, and then strangled (murder of children was forbidden).

For me, the Mafia (as well as the Masons) exemplify the folly of taking oaths of loyalty and secrecy more seriously that one’s oaths to the gods or the higher self. Obedience and secrecy in secret societies may once have been necessitated by persecution, but nowadays is hard to justify. Personally, I like the injunction in Lokanath’s translation of the Ganesha Upanishad: “This Arthava Shira [Magickal Text] should not be given to those not pupils.” The requirement for secrecy is qualified: it’s OK to share with genuine students, but not to boast or try to impress those who have no real interest. All of which brings me full circle, to why I don’t talk about magick to my secular friends. All things being considered, there are usually plenty of other areas of mutual interest, often topics where I have more to learn and my friends have more to say. My magickal intent remains focussed, and my friends don’t start looking at me nervously and wondering if the rumours are true ...

References

1 Symonds, John (1951) The Great Beast: The Life of Aleister Crowley, Rider, London. Chapter XXI ‘The Gods Claim A Victim’, pp.197 -215
2 Dickie, John (2004) Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia, Coronet, London

Publishing in the 5th Dimension

Mandrake's Kimberley Morgan has won a prize for her student publishing dissertation - Publishing in the Fifth Dimension: Theosophy and the birth of Mind, Body and Spirit Publishing. The judges commented on what seemed at first an unlikely subject, until the author researched and tracked its developement into a publishing movement with international dimensions, albeit not a commercial one at the outset. The prize was awarded by the Sue Thomson Foundation from fifteen entries submitted by nine British Universities. The dissertation can be read on the Publishing Training Centre website:

http://www.train4publishing.co.uk/content/oncourse/pitfd.pdfng

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