Within the subject of occultism Crowley wrote widely, penning commentaries on the Tarot (The Book of Thoth), yoga (Book Four), the Kabbalah (Sepher Sephiroth), astrology (The General Principles of Astrology), and numerous other subjects. He also wrote a Thelemic "translation" of the Tao Te Ching, based on earlier English translations since he knew little or no Chinese. Like the Golden Dawn mystics before him, Crowley evidently sought to comprehend the entire human religious and mystical experience in a sing ...

See also:

Aleister Crowley, Aleister Crowley - Biography, Aleister Crowley - Chess, Aleister Crowley - Mountaineering, Aleister Crowley - Science magic and sexuality, Aleister Crowley - Women as inspiration, Aleister Crowley - Thelema, Aleister Crowley - Writings, Aleister Crowley - Miscellany and Rumours, Aleister Crowley - Crowley in popular culture

Read more here: » Aleister Crowley: Encyclopedia II - Aleister Crowley - Writings

The religious or mystical system which Crowley founded, into which most of his writings fall, he named Thelema. Thelema combines a radical form of philosophical libertarianism, akin in some ways to Nietzsche, with a mystical initiatory system derived in part from the Golden Dawn. Chief among the precepts of Thelema is the sovereignty of the individual will: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." Crowley's idea of will, however, is not simply the individual's desires or wishes, but also incorporates a sense of ...

See also:

Aleister Crowley, Aleister Crowley - Biography, Aleister Crowley - Chess, Aleister Crowley - Mountaineering, Aleister Crowley - Science magic and sexuality, Aleister Crowley - Women as inspiration, Aleister Crowley - Thelema, Aleister Crowley - Writings, Aleister Crowley - Miscellany and Rumours, Aleister Crowley - Crowley in popular culture

Read more here: » Aleister Crowley: Encyclopedia II - Aleister Crowley - Thelema

Ordo Templi Orientis: (Latin, “Order of Oriental Templars”) One of the largest magical orders in the world today, the Ordo Templi Orientis emerges from the complicated world of central European fringe Masonry in the early twentieth century. Its beginning dates back to 1895 when Freemasons Carl Kellner (1851-1905), a wealthy Austrian industrialist, and Theodor Reuss (1855-1923), a journalist and former opera singer, began discussing the possibility of forming a “Masonic Academy” of esoteric studies.

Also See: O.T.O., OTO

(See also: Ordo Templi Orientis, Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

Ordo Templi Orientis

See Crowley, Aleister.

(See also: Ordo Templi Orientis, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Ordo Templi Orientis

See Crowley, Aleister.

(See also: Ordo Templi Orientis, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Aleister Crowley

(1875–1947) An English magician and Occultist. Crowley was known for sex magic, homosexual rituals, and a fascination with drugs, blood and torture. Headed the British branch of Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), founded the Abbey of Thelema at Cefalu in Sicily. Author of Diary of a Drug Fiend and Magick in Theory and Practice

(See also: Aleister Crowley, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

O.T.O.

The Ordo Templi Orientis, an offshoot of Crowley's Golden Dawn, inherited by Karl Germer. Refers to the rising solar/phallic power. It relies on the 3 tantras of autosexuality (viii), heterosexuality (ix) and homosexuality (xi). Later efforts to reshape the O.T.O.'s insights (notably Grant's) attempted to eliminate the 3rd of these, particularly its attribution of the number eleven. The formula for ix is (+1) + (-1) = 0.

Apparently the purpose of the O.T.O. is the development of personal evolution. There are many versions (sexual, puritanical, Fascist, Gnostic, etc.) in Europe and America, all of which tend to factionalize. The American lodge in Berkeley disputes the " authenticity" of the British order. The British O.T.O., headed by Kenneth Grant, is probably the most interesting and its rulership was conferred on him by Germer himself. In 1955, however, Grant renamed his group the New Isis Lodge and produced a manifesto stating that the earth is being bathed in rays emanating from the transplutonian planet, Isis, which is exerting a new spiritual force upon mankind. The degrees of the Lodge have been redesigned to help aspirants make use of the "subtle radiations." Grant also stated at that time that there was a sister lodge in Germany run by Eugen Grosche, a long-time enemy of Germer's because of the former's deliberate perversion of Crowleyian practice. Germer now attempted to expel Grant, but failed. Next, a "magical war" broke out between Grant and Gerald Gardner, the former leader of the chapter and in this contest, Gardner employed the services of artist, Austin Osman Spare to create an evil talisman which ultimately resulted in the death of a water-witch member of the temple.

(See also: O.T.O., Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

PARSONS, JOHN WHITESIDE

I hight Don Quixote, I live on peyote,

marijuana, morphine and  cocaine,

I never know sadness but only a madness

that burns at the  heart and the brain

I see each charwoman, ecstatic inhuman,

angelic,  demonic, divine.

Each wagon a dragon, each beer mug a flagon

that  brims with ambrosial wine.

So goes a poem written by magician Jack Parsons, head of the California lodge of the O.T.O. (1944-52), as privately printed in a 1943 issue of The Oriflamme. This was, synchronistically enough, as Robert Anton Wilson has pointed out, but a few weeks before the discovery of LSD.

All of Crowley's disciples struggled valiantly to "discover the identity of the hidden God" within them, their "True (Thelemic) Will" and to find a way to implement their knowledge. Their endings were mostly dismal. Those who claimed success in the Great Work ceased all further activity and led lives thereafter of total obscurity. One of them, Frater 210, Jack Parsons, claimed success, only to go up in flames shortly thereafter.

Jack Parsons was a co-founder of The California Institute of Technology. His contributions to the aerospace industry and nuclear research were so considerable that he has the unique distinction of being the only North American sorcerer in the 20th Century to have had a mountain on the moon named after him. He was also one of Aleister Crowley's more bizarre disciples.

He was born on October 2, 1914, in Los Angeles, California. The only offspring of divorced parents, he spent a solitary and uneventful childhood. He devoted himself, as solitary children do, to reading and daydreaming. He also harbored a grudge against authority and interference and nursed a rebellious spirit. His studies led him into aerospace technology, but by temperament he was apparently not a scientist and his life did not truly begin until 1939, when an acquaintance, Wilfred T. Smith, introduced him to Aleister Crowley's writings and invited him to join his Agap‚ Lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis.

Wilfred T. Smith, or Frater 132, had ostensibly been a special protege of Crowley's, who had decided for astrological reasons that Smith was a god imprisoned in human flesh. This seems curious to us now, because Smith's behavior was totally psychopathic. The truth is that Smith had fallen into disfavor with Crowley, who had decided the man was turning the O.T.O.'s California Lodge into a cheap love cult, which Crowley considered a "slimy abomination." As soon as Parsons came into the order, Smith grabbed Parson's wife, Helen, as his very own familiar and had a child by her. Thereupon Parsons abandoned her and took her younger sister, Betty, as his mistress and magickal partner. This arrangement appeared to work well enough for him and he soon advanced into the inner circles of the lodge. Meanwhile, Crowley very cleverly gave Smith a specific formula for his apotheosis and ordered him to resign in order to identify this God within. This was the easiest way of getting Smith out of the Lodge so that Parsons could be put in charge. Immediately, Smith's star began to fall. He conceived a hatred for Parsons and "attacked him astrally." Kenneth Grant in his Magical Revival recounts a curious hallucination or dream that Parsons underwent with a black-caped figure whom he transfixed with knives and eventually drove away.

But now Parsons, determined to repeat his initial disasters, brought in a mysterious "Frater X" as his secretary and who seemed a promising candidate for the lodge which Parsons had now taken over. His new friend, however, also proved to be a rogue and quickly wormed out of Parsons the top-secret psycho-sexual and magical techniques of the Agape Lodge. Soon thereafter, Frater X got him to enter a business venture with him, with Parson's money as the lion's share of the investment. Next Frater X persuaded him to sell the property that was the headquarters of the Lodge. Then he and Betty went on a yachting cruise around the world. Now that Frater X had reduced him to poverty, Parsons had to earn his living in an "aircraft company." What it is about the occult that could possibly interest dreary U.S. government agents defies the imagination, but Parsons was, after all, working for the government. So by now the O.T.O. was swarming with U.S. intelligence agents posing as members!

Since his mistress had also been stolen from him, Parsons set about, by evocation (and ritual masturbation supervised by Frater X), to obtain an Elemental Spirit to take the place of Betty. And in 1946 he wrote to Crowley that he had actually found such an elemental -- a woman named Marjorie Cameron. She soon became his second wife. Crowley wrote to warn him to avoid excessive devotion to an elemental, but his warning had little effect... Now Parsons contacted an "Intelligence" who spoke to him, directly at first. It was not long, however, before he began speaking through Fr. X, who, it seems, had returned and been forgiven! This time Frater X informed Parsons that he was "overshadowed by an Angel with flaming hair." Parsons now set about to make a Moonchild -- a procedure that must take place at a time when the moon is "void of course" or without earth influence. This endeavor annoyed the dying Crowley very much. In fact, by now, Crowley was thoroughly disgusted with Parsons and the Californians. At this point Parsons took the "Oath of the Abyss" and the magical name of "Belarion Armilus All Dajjal Anti-Christ." In 1948 he took the oath of the Antichrist and in 1949 penned his autobiographies. Finally he took up the "Black Pilgrimage," a terrible path forcing him to chose between suicide, madness and the Oath of the Abyss. In this endeavor he would open himself up to the influence of the demon, Choronzon.

Not long after that, in June of 1952, Parsons began a dangerous invocation in a last ditch effort to release his Will. He called upon an Aethyr who had already brought disaster to a fellow magus (Kelley), backed up by a sexual magick of his own. In his further rituals with the woman of the flaming hair and the invocation of the Lady of Babalon (not to be confused with "Babylon") there are constant calls to fire and flame, "Flame is out Lady, flame is her hair. I am flame" (In this case, "fire" refers to its opposite, "blood.") Suddenly, while working in his lab in Pasadena, he dropped a phial of fulminate of mercury and burst up in a terrible explosion -- ordinary fire being the opposite and balancing complement of blood.

Twenty years after his fiery death, official maps depicting the dark side of the moon prominently honored his many aerospace contributions with "Parson's Crater." Perhaps this act was fully intended as a deliberate pyrrhic mockery, suggesting mythic figures of old who were translated to the skies as immortal stars. Parsons is not the only mortal to have achieved celestial recognition without apotheosis, but he's the only one who deliberately tried, failed and then made it by default.

What makes Parsons so intriguing, no doubt, is that he appears in so many footnotes by so many different authors and yet hardly anything is known about him. Moreover, trying to cut a path through his zigzagging life is extremely frustrating for the biographer. Most lives, whether dull or interesting, tend to tell us something about the person, but Parsons' life seems almost deliberately labyrinthine. His writings are not easily unearthed and jealously guarded. The reason for that isn't hard to discern. Parsons was a social and intellectual rebel during an era of rigid conformity. He was not only the author of the two-volume book about the Anti- Christ: The Black Pilgrimage and The Manifesto of the Anti-Christ (which eponym he conferred on himself) but also claimed, says Colin Wilson, that he had been advised by a Higher Power "to declare war on all authority that is not based on courage and manhood... the authority of lying priests, conniving judges, blackmailing police and to call an end to restriction and inhibition, conscription, compulsion, regimentation and the tyranny of the laws."

The "Higher Power," it turned out, was an even more elusive character: our old friend, the sinister Frater X.

Until quite recently the Identity of Frater X remained unknown. Rumor had it that he had lived to a very old age in fame and luxury from the misuses of the magickal secrets that he had stolen. His identity remained a mystery until the late 1980's when it was revealed in several places at once that Frater X was none other than L. Ron Hubbard, father of Dianetics and Scientology.

Even initiates may not always recognize the daring, inspired and cosmic scope of Parson's effort. How much Hubbard was involved is uncertain, but that extraterrestrial contact of some kind was made through Parsons' rift in the wall between worlds was revealed, according to Kenneth Grant, by the Babalon working. He and Achad began this only a year before Crowley's death in 1947 and that year coincided with the first wave of ufo "invasions." "Parsons opened a door and something flew in" says Grant. Whatever that may be, something more than Babalon and channeled writings, we now realize, erupted into our world and continues to pour in, moving at weird and mocking variance to our sublunary science and reality systems. Crowley's and Achad's initiations, says Grant in his Outside the Circles of Time, led up to the "40's framed by AL. III. 46, the number of Mu, Cry of the Vulture of Maat and key of the mysteries" and that in turn finally "fulminated in Hiroshima of 1945." Grant wrote those words in 1980, before AIDS and the greenhouse effect, quoting from Crowley: "Now the 80's cower before me and are abased."

Ego and Initiation run the same hurdles. Ego interferes with the natural course of apotheosis. And for Grant, psychiatry is out of the question. It exposes the sensitive, personal and private talismans and techniques needed for reshaping social progress to the killing glare of mindless immediacy and expediency. Initiation, says Parsons himself, must proceed as best it can through and past the barriers... "until the misty bastions of infantile Trawenfells change into the rocks and crags of eternity; the garden of Klingsor into the City of God."

The Xtian idea of a God descending to become a man is the exact reverse of Magick. If Crowley's goal was to release the God hidden inside every human being, Jack Parsons dared to go a step further. His intention was to raise Hell to earth's level, to elevate our hellworld a step closer to Heaven! Since he was by nature a quiet and humble man, such a fusilary and hubristic ambition proved so powerful a charge for him that it burst out of the astral plane and destroyed him on the physical plane.

(See also: PARSONS, JOHN WHITESIDE, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

Wicca is a Neopagan religious movement found in many different countries, though most commonly in English-speaking cultures. Wicca was first publicised in 1954 by a British civil servant named Gerald Gardner after the British Witchcraft Act was repealed. He claimed that the religion, of which he was an initiate, was a modern survival of an old witch cult, which had existed in secret for hundreds of years, originating in the pre-Christian Paganism of Europe. Wicca is thus sometimes referred to as the Old Religion. The veracity o ...

Including:

• Wicca - Definition
• Wicca - History of Wicca
• Wicca - Origins
• Wicca - Later developments
• Wicca - Beliefs and practices
• Wicca - Morality
• Wicca - Discrimination and persecution of Wiccans
• Wicca - United States
• Wicca - Wiccan traditions
• Wicca - Notes

Read more here: » Wicca: Encyclopedia - Wicca

Gnosticism is a blanket term for various mystical initiatory religions, sects and knowledge schools, which were most prominent in the first few centuries AD. It is also applied to modern revivals of these groups and, sometimes, by analogy to all religious movements based on secret knowledge gnosis, thus can lead to confusion. The occult nature of gnostic teaching (as seen from a modern viewpoint) and the fact that much of the material relating to the schools comprising Gnosticism has traditionally come from critiques by orthodo ...

Including:

• Gnosticism - Etymology
• Gnosticism - Background and origins of gnosticism
• Gnosticism - Theology and cosmology
• Gnosticism - The classic gnostic myth
• Gnosticism - The Valentinian Gnostic creation myth
• Gnosticism - Matter
• Gnosticism - Gnostic conceptions of humanity
• Gnosticism - Lifestyle
• Gnosticism - Gnostic sects
• Gnosticism - Sources
• Gnosticism - Gnostic texts
• Gnosticism - Notable Gnostics
• Gnosticism - Gnosticism in modern times
• Gnosticism - Gnosticism in popular culture

Read more here: » Gnosticism: Encyclopedia - Gnosticism

The term Western mystery tradition (also Western Esoteric tradition) refers to the collection of the mystical esoteric knowledge, such as Kabbalah, of the western world. Western mystery tradition - History. The Western mystery tradition traditionally started in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Rome and Israel, while it contains many characteristics from the Pagan people of Ancient Britain and Scandinavia, such as the Celts. Ancient figures associated with the Western tradition include Plato, Pyt ...

Including:

• Western mystery tradition - History
• Western mystery tradition - The Dark Ages
• Western mystery tradition - The European Enlightenment
• Western mystery tradition - The Second World War
• Western mystery tradition - The Collapse of the Soviet Union
• Western mystery tradition - Today
• Western mystery tradition - Philosophy
• Western mystery tradition - Initiation
• Western mystery tradition - The Main Themes
• Western mystery tradition - The Teachings
• Western mystery tradition - Organisations
• Western mystery tradition - People
• Western mystery tradition - Texts

Read more here: » Western mystery tradition: Encyclopedia - Western mystery tradition

Aleister Crowley wrote The Gnostic Mass—technically called Liber XV or "Book 15"—in 1913 while travelling in Moscow. In many ways it is similar in structure to the Mass of the Roman Catholic Church. However, the comparison ends there, as the Gnostic Mass is a celebration of the principles of Thelema. The ceremony calls for five officers: a priest, a priestess, a deacon, and two acolytes, called “children”. The end of the ritual culminates in the consumation of the eucharist, which is a glass of wine and the host, called a Cake of Light, after which the congregant proclaims � ...

Including:

• Gnostic Mass - The Temple
• Gnostic Mass - Structure
• Gnostic Mass - The Ceremony of the Introit
• Gnostic Mass - The Ceremony of the Rending of the Veil
• Gnostic Mass - The Collects
• Gnostic Mass - The Consecration of the Elements
• Gnostic Mass - The Anthem
• Gnostic Mass - The Mystic Marriage and Consummation of the Elements
• Gnostic Mass - The narrative of the Gnostic Mass
• Gnostic Mass - Links of Interest

Read more here: » Gnostic Mass: Encyclopedia - Gnostic Mass

The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor was an initiatic occult organisation that first became public in late 1884, although according to an official document of the order ("Origin and Object of the HBL", see Godwin et al, 1995, pp.92-97) it begun its work in 1870. According to this document, authored by Peter Davidson, the order was established by Max Theon, who when in England was initiated as a Neophyte by "an adept of the serene, ever-existing and ancient Order of the original H. B. of L." (Ibid p.95) The Order's relation, if any, with the mysterious "Brotherhood of Luxor" t ...

Read more here: » Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor: Encyclopedia - Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor

Neopaganism (sometimes Neo-Paganism) describes a heterogeneous group of new religious movements, particularly those influenced by ancient, mainly pre-Christian and sometimes pre-Judaic religions. Often these are Indo-European in origin, but with a growing component inspired by other religions indigenous to Europe, such as Finno-Ugric, as well as those of other parts of the world. As th ...

Including:

• Neopaganism - History
• Neopaganism - Historical sources
• Neopaganism - Ecological and mystical currents
• Neopaganism - Pantheon
• Neopaganism - Worship and Ritual
• Neopaganism - Number of adherents
• Neopaganism - Concepts of divinity
• Neopaganism - Neopagan views of gods and gender
• Neopaganism - Traditions
• Neopaganism - Reconstructionist
• Neopaganism - Syncretist and eclectic
• Neopaganism - Related theological concepts
• Neopaganism - Usage of the term 'Neopagan'
• Neopaganism - Sources

Read more here: » Neopaganism: Encyclopedia - Neopaganism

William Breeze was born in Paris, France on 12 August 1955. He studied music in New England, possibly at Harvard University, in the 1970s. He is a musician who plays electric viola, mandolin, guitar, bass and electronics. Breeze was a member of Coil from 1997 through 2004, playing electric viola. Breeze is currently a member of the band Current 93. Breeze has also played with Psychic TV and appears on Thee Fractured Garden (1995), Cold Blue Torch (1995), Trip Reset (1996), Spatial Memory (1996), and ...

Including:

• William Breeze - Occult activities
• William Breeze - Editorial work

Read more here: » William Breeze: Encyclopedia - William Breeze

A heptagram or septagram is a seven-pointed star drawn with seven straight strokes. There are two kinds of heptagram: Acute heptagram, the {7/3} star polygon. Obtuse heptagram, the {7/2} star polygon. The acute heptagram is known as the Elven Star or Fairy Star, a sacred symbol to Wiccans who follow the Faery tradition. Similarly, it has been adopted as an identifier by members of the Otherkin subculture. Blue Star Wicca also uses the symbol, where it is referred to simply as a septagram. The acute heptagram is also a sy ...

Including:

• Heptagram - 3D

Read more here: » Heptagram: Encyclopedia - Heptagram

This article is on medieval books of magic; for information on the term "grimoire" as used in the Source Mage GNU/Linux operating system, see the Source Mage article. A grimoire (IPA [grɪˈmwɑr]) is a book of magical knowledge written between the late-medieval period and the 18th century. Such books contain astrological correspondences, lists of angels and demons, directions on casting charms and spells, on mixing medicines, summ ...

Including:

• Grimoire - In Fiction

Read more here: » Grimoire: Encyclopedia - Grimoire

Ceremonial magic is a branch of magick. Ceremonial magic, often abbreviated as CM, is a tradition inspired largely by Hermeticism and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. It includes, but is not limited to, Goetic magick, Enochian Magic, Tarot, Astrology, Grimoire magick, hermetic qabalah and Thelemic ritual. Ceremonial magic is commonly considered the most complex form of magick. It utilizes elaborate magic theory, draws from a large body of literature and always uses ritual. Practitioners of CM often organize themselves in magical societies such as the Builders of the Adytum, the various for ...

Read more here: » Ceremonial magic: Encyclopedia - Ceremonial magic

In January of 2005, the project was forked due to editorial differences. The forked project was named Free Encyclopedia of Thelema. [2] Some of the differences between the two projects are: Use of the knowledge base: Thelemapedia requests that articles conform to basic editorial policies similar to those of Wikipedia, namely using cited information from the knowledge base or drawing from common knowledge—with the caveat that materials should have a general pro-Thelema stance. Free Encycl ...

See also:

Thelemapedia, Thelemapedia - Policies, Thelemapedia - The project is forked, Thelemapedia - Managing editor creates controversial promotional pages

Read more here: » Thelemapedia: Encyclopedia II - Thelemapedia - The project is forked

The first meeting of FUDOFSI took place in Paris, France, in February 1939. List of people present in the first meeting of FUDOFSI: Reuben Swinburne Clymer Alfred I. Sharp Count Jean de Czarnomsky Constant Chevillon Henri-Charles Dupont Henri Dubois Raoul Fructus (former member of the FUDOSI) Andre Fayolle Nauwelaerts Laugenier Camille Savoir Hans Rudolf Hilf ...

See also:

FUDOFSI, FUDOFSI - History, FUDOFSI - Attitude towards AMORC and H. S. Lewis, FUDOFSI - The First Meeting of FUDOFSI, FUDOFSI - The End of FUDOFSI, FUDOFSI - External link

Read more here: » FUDOFSI: Encyclopedia II - FUDOFSI - The First Meeting of FUDOFSI

Gnosticism has been treated at length by several modern authors, philosophers and psychologists: William Blake, the nineteenth century Romantic poet and artist, was according to some sources well-versed in the doctrines of the Gnostics, and his own personal mythology contains many points of cohesion with several Gnostic myths (for example, the Blakean figure of Urizen bears many resemblances to the Gnostic Demiurge). However, efforts to dub Blake a "Gnostic" have been complicated by the complex nature and extent of Blake's own m ...

See also:

Gnosticism, Gnosticism - Etymology, Gnosticism - Background and origins of gnosticism, Gnosticism - Theology and cosmology, Gnosticism - The classic gnostic myth, Gnosticism - The Valentinian Gnostic creation myth, Gnosticism - Matter, Gnosticism - Gnostic conceptions of humanity, Gnosticism - Lifestyle, Gnosticism - Gnostic sects, Gnosticism - Sources, Gnosticism - Gnostic texts, Gnosticism - Notable Gnostics, Gnosticism - Gnosticism in modern times, Gnosticism - Gnosticism in popular culture

Read more here: » Gnosticism: Encyclopedia II - Gnosticism - Gnosticism in modern times