The World LAShTAL includes: LA—Naught. AL—Two. L is “Justice,” the Kteis fulfilled by the Phallus, “Naught and Two” because the plus and the minus have united in “love under will.” A is “The Fool,” Naught in Thought (Parzival), Word (Harpocrates), and Action (Bacchus). He is the boundless air, and the wandering Ghost, but with “possibilities.” He is the Naught that the Two have made by “love under will.” LA thus represents the Ecstasy of Nuit and Hadit conjoined, lost in love, and making themselves Naught thereby. Their child is begotten and conceived, but is in the phase of Naught also, as yet. LA is thus the Universe in that phase, with its potentialities of manifestation. AL, on the contrary, though it is essentially identical with LA, shows “The Fool” manifested through the Equilibrium of Contraries. The wieght is still nothing, but it is expressed as it were two equal weights in opposite scales. The indicator still points to zero. ShT is equally 31 with LA and AL, but it expresses the secret nature which operates the Magick or the transmutations. ShT is the formula of this particular Æon; another æon might have another way of saying 31. Sh is Fire as T is Force; conjoined they express Ra-Hoor-Khuit. “The Angel"3 represents the Stèle 666, showing the Gods of the Æon, while “Strength” is a picture of Babalon and the Beast, the earthly emissaries of those Gods. ShT is the dynamic equivalent of LA and AL. Sh shows the Word of the Law, being triple, as 93 is thrice 31. T shows the formula of Magic declared in that Word; the Lion, the Serpent, the Sun, Courage and Sexual Love are all indicated by the card. In LA note that Saturn or Satan is exalted in the House of Venus or Astarté and it is an airy sign. Thus L is Father-Mother, Two and Naught, and the Spirit (Holy Ghost) of their Love is also Naught. Love is AHBH, 13, which is AChD. Unity, 1, aleph. who is “The Fool” who is Naught, but none the less an individual One, who (as such) is not another, yet unconscious of himself until his Oneness expresses itself as a duality. Any impression or idea is unknowable in itself. It can mean nothing until brought into relation with other things. The first step is to distinguish one thought from another; this is the condition of recognizing it. To define it, we must perceive its orientation to all our other ideas. The extent of our knowledge of any one thing varies therefore with the number of ideas with which we can compare it. Every new fact not only adds itself to our universe, but increases the value of what we already possess. In AL this “The” or “God” arranges for “Countenance to behold countenance,“4 by establishing itself as an equilibrium, A the One-Naught conceived as L the Two-Naught. This L is the Son-Daughter Horus-Harpocrates just as the other L was the Father-Mother Set-Isis. Here then is Tetragrammaton once more, but expressed in identical equations in which every term is perfect in itself as a mode of Naught. ShT supplies the last element; making the Word of either five or six letters, according as we regard ShT as one letter or two. Thus the Word affirms the Great Work accomplished: 5○=6□. ShT is moreover a necessary resolution of the apparent opposition of LA and AL; for one could hardly pass to the other without the catalytic action of a third identical expression whose function should be to transmute them. Such a term must be in itself a mode of Naught, and its nature cannot encroach on the perfections of Not-Being, LA, or of Being, AL. It must be purely Nothing-Motion as they are purely Nothing-Matter, so as to create a Matter-in-Motion which is a function of “Something.” Thus ShT is Motion in its double phase, an inertia compose of two opposite current, and each current is also thus polarized. Sh is Heaven and Earth, T Male and Female; ShT is Spirit and Matter; one is the word of Liberty and Love flashing its Light to restore Life to Earth, the other is the act by which Life claims that Love is Light and Liberty. And these are Two-in-One, the divine letter of Silence-in-Speech whose symbol is the Sun in the Arms of the Moon.5 But Sh and T are alike formulæ of force in action as opposed to entities; they are not states of existence, but modes of motion. They are verbs, not nouns. Sh is the Holy Spirit as a “tongue of fire” manifest in triplicity, and is the child of Set-Isis as theirlogos or Word uttered by their “Angel.” The card is XX, and 20 is the value of yod (the secret seed of all things, the Virgin, “The Hermit,” Mercury, the Angel or Herald) expressed in full as IVD. Sh is the spiritual congress of Heaven and Earth. But T is the Holy Spirit in action as a “roaring Lion” or as “the old Serpent” instead of an “Angel of Light.” The twins of Set-Isis, harlot and beast, are busy with that sodomitic and incestuous lust which is the traditional formula for producing demi-gods, as in the cases of Mary and the Dove, Leda and the Swan, etc. The card is XI, the number of Magick AVD: aleph “The Fool” impregnating the woman according to the Word of yod, the Angel of the Lord! His sister has seduced her brother Beast, shaming the Sun with her sin; she has mastered the Lion, and enchanted the Serpent.
The title of ninth Sephira, or emanation of the Tree Of Life, is YSVD (Yezod). It is the Sephira of the Lunar magick of Aub, or Ob, the Serpent (whence “obeah”). The Serpent is a Symbol common to the Yezidi, Voodooists, Tantrics, and Thelemites. Yezod or Yesod as the secret center of the Yezidi is an apt description of the Sephira wich corresponds to the sexual center in the human body. Yesod means “Foundation”, and the Hadit of the Thelemites, is the Foundation of the World, as Yesod is the foundation of the Tree Of Life. The accursed God of the South is, then no other than the lord of the reproductive forces typified by the southernmost Sephira-Yesod. Yesod is attributed to the Moon. not to the Sun. The curious symbolism is explained by the connection of the Serpent or Dragon with the lunar current typified by Babalon- “for he is ever a sun, and she a moon”. The symbolism may be fathomed at the Hindu level of mythology where Shiva (the Indian Seth) is called “the god with the crescent” (i.e the moon) in the Bhagavad Gita. Also, Thoth the Moon-god, was originally the God of Sirius, identical with the Star-God-Seth, before the luni-solar mode of reckoning time supplanted the stellar reckoning. This is the reason why the inverted pentagram, or pointed towards the south is usually abhorred as a seal of the devil. Is the seal of Satan because it invokes the snake sex, snake Obeah. The osirisian, and Christians, fled from this aspect of existence, and the pentagram of Set, the south, was considered the symbol of impurity and of abomination. It is still the star of Satan for those who consider the use the current of sexual magic as “evil” that is diabolic. Originally there was no moral pollution; it comes from the hands of the followers of the cult of the old Aeon, those represented in myth by God Dying: Adonis, Osiris, Christ, etc
Paschal Beverly Randolph (October 8, 1825 – July 29, 1875) was an American medical doctor, occultist and writer. Randolph is notable as perhaps the first person to introduce the principles of sex magic to North America, and, according to A.E. Waite, establishing the earliest known Rosicrucian order in the United States .
Sources disagree as to Randolph’s birthplace (New York or Virginia). He was a free man of mixed-race ancestry, descendant of William Randolph. His father was a nephew of John Randolph of Roanoke and his mother was Flora Beverly, whom he later described as a woman of mixed English, French, German, Native American and Malagasy ancestry. This background led to his being a spokesman for the abolition ofslavery. His mother died when he was young, leaving him homeless and penniless; he ran away to sea in order to support himself. A peripatetic man, he lived in many places, including New York state, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Toledo, Ohio. He married twice; his first wife was African-American; his second wife was Irish-American.
Early life
As a teen and young man, Randolph traveled widely, due to his work aboard sailing vessels. He journeyed to England, through Europe, and as far east as Persia, where his interest in mysticism and the occult led him to study with local practitioners of folk magic and varied religions. On these travels he also met and befriended occultists in England and Paris, France.
Career
After leaving the sea, Randolph embarked upon a public career as a lecturer and writer. By his mid-twenties, he regularly appeared on stage as atrance medium and advertised his services as a spiritual practitioner in magazines associated with the Spiritualist Movement. Like many Spiritualists of his era, he lectured in favor of Abolition; after Emancipation, he taught literacy to freed slaves in New Orleans.
In addition to his work as a trance medium, Randolph trained as a doctor of medicine and wrote and published both fictional and instructive books based on his theories of health, sexuality, Spiritualism and occultism. He authored more than fifty works on magic and medicine, established an independent publishing company, and was an avid promoter of birth control during a time when it was largely against the law to mention this topic.
Having long used the pseudonym “The Rosicrucian” for his Spiritualist and occult writings, Randolph eventually founded the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis, the oldest Rosicrucian organization in the United States, which dates back to the era of the American Civil War. This group, still in existence, today avoids mention of Randolph’s interest in sex magic, but his magico-sexual theories and techniques formed the basis of much of the teachings of another occult fraternity, The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, although it is not clear that Randolph himself was ever personally associated with the Brotherhood.Two twentieth century occultists and practitioners of sex magic, Theodor Reuss of Germany and Aleister Crowley of Great Britain, were heavily influenced by Randolph in both organizing theOrdo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) and in their sex magic rituals.
In 1851, Randolph made the acquaintance of Abraham Lincoln. Their friendship was close enough that, when Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, Randolph accompanied Lincoln’s funeral procession in a train to Springfield, Illinois. However, Randolph was asked to leave the train when some passengers objected to the presence of an African American in their midst.
Death
Randolph died in Toledo, Ohio at the age of 49, under disputed circumstances. According to Professor Carl Edwin Lindgren, D.Ed., many questioned the coroner’s finding that Randolph died from a self-inflicted wound to the head, for many of his writings express his aversion to suicide. The evidence was conflicting. R. Swinburne Clymer, a later Supreme Master of theFraternitas, stated that years after Randolph’s demise, in a death-bed confession, a former friend of Randolph had conceded that in a state of jealousy and temporary insanity, he had killed Randolph. Randolph was succeeded as Supreme Grand Master of the Fraternitas, and in other titles, by his chosen successor Freeman B. Dowd.
“Sex and magic are intertwined experiences—sex is one kind of magic (and can be made more magical
without being concerned with sex-magic at any point), and magic can be,
while erotic and arousing, not necessarily sexual in the way that is
often understood. There is a commonly-held belief that those who
practice sex-magic are indulging themselves in wild orgiastic rites at
every opportunity. This is rarely the case. After all, if you need to
go through lots of occult rigmarole just to get laid, then you’re a bit
sad, aren’t you? Then again, the occult subculture is full of SAD
people, desperate to finally get laid and attempting to turn to
sex-magic as a last resort.”
Phil Hine– Sex Magic, Tantra & Tarot: The Way of the Secret Lover
Adept (Latin) Adeptus, “One who has obtained.” In occultism, an adept is one who has reached the stage of Initiation and has become a Master in the science of esotericism.
THELEMIC GREETINGS! Jimmy, Charlotte & Scarlet Page
Imagine getting a Holiday card from Jimmy Page at the height of his success and instead of it saying “Merry Christmas” or the more politically correct “Happy Holidays”, it says instead… “Thelemic Greetings”.
Bob Freeman is an author, artist, and paranormal adventurer from rural Indiana, and also a member of the Aleister Crowley Society. In February of 2011 Bob posted on his blog Occult Detective an entry regarding a set of greeting cards from Jimmy Page being for sale in the Weiser Antiquarian Catalog. Weiser Antiquarian, has been one of the world’s leading suppliers of rare, secondhand, and out-of-print books on comparative religion, mysticism, and the occult for over 88 years.
A set of hand signed greetings cards from Jimmy Page being sold from a private collection is not that all interesting. However the images he had reproduced on the cover of these cards and what he had printed inside, is what intrigues me. Specifically, what was the spiritual significance of the artwork chosen for these holiday cards?
The first of the two privately printed greeting cards, was commissioned and sent out by Jimmy Page circa 1972 with the second one dated 1973. Further the Weiser Catalog stated… The cards are:
a) A large (6″ x 8″ – when folded) undated greeting card privately produced for Jimmy Page and sent out by him circa Christmas 1972. The card has a reproduction of a black and white work by Austin Osman Spare on the front. Inside is the printed text “Jimmy Page / Plumpton Place / Plumpton Sussex.” Above this it is boldly signed “[name of recipient] 93 93/93 Jimmy Page.”
b) A large (6″ x 8″ – when folded) undated greeting card privately produced for Jimmy Page and sent out by him at Christmas 1973. It has a reproduction of a drawing by Aleister Crowley printed in dark red on the front, and inside has the printed text “Thelemic Greetings” / Jimmy, Charlotte & Scarlet Page / Plumpton Place / Plumpton Sussex.” This card is NOT signed.
Despite Jimmy Page’s well-known interest in Thelema, items directly connecting him with the spiritual philosophy or religion that Aleister Crowley founded in 1904 with the writing of the Book of Law are extremely scarce. Never mind associating Thelema indirectly to Jimmy’s partner Charlotte Martin and his daughter Scarlet.
The artwork visible in the above image [Bottom Row-Left] is from the actual Weiser Catalog listing for the cards. It shows the Aleister Crowley drawing b) and Austin Osman Spare’s Portrait of the Artist (1907) a) tucked behind the card with Crowley drawing. Phil Baker, author of several books on Austin Osman Spare, chose this very image for the cover of “Austin Osman Spare – The Occult Life of London’s Legendary Artist”, and states on page 46 of this book that this image is in the private collection of Jimmy Page. It is further stated in the one sheet for this book… “that the world’s largest Spare collection is held by Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin.”
This Austin Osman Spare self portrait was painted in 1907. In October of 1907, Spare held his first major exhibition, titled simply “Black and White Drawings by Austin O Spare”, at the Bruton Gallery in London’s West End. Attracting widespread interest and sensational views in the press, he was widely compared to Aubrey Beardsley, with reviewers commenting on what they saw as the eccentric and grotesque nature of his work. The World commented that “his inventive faculty is stupendous and terrifying in its creative flow of impossible horrors”, while The Observer noted that “Mr. Spare’s art is abnormal, unhealthy, wildly fantastic and unintelligible”.
Baker writes in his book [that ‘Portrait of the Artist’]…“It is a remarkable work of Edwardian black-and-white art, and if only this one work survived people would say ‘Who was that artist…?’ Baker also provides a great interpretation of this self portrait on pages 46 through 48.
Spare depicts himself staring straight at the viewer with a remarkably unique hand gesture. In front of him, on an idealized desk, are over twenty objects. Some objects are typically found on a desk and others appear to be from his creative minds eye.
The description inside the card, “[name of recipient] 93 93/93 Jimmy Page” followed by / Plumpton Place / Plumpton Sussex, is very similar to what has been discovered to have been sent by Page to Grady Louis McMurtry. Grady, the student of Aleister Crowley, is best known for reviving the fraternal organization, Ordo Templi Orientis, which Grady headed from 1971 until his death in 1985.
I found what appears to be actual images of the second greeting card on Lashtal.com, The Home of Aleister Crowley Society. This card was sent out circa Christmas 1973 and features an Untitled drawing by Aleister Crowley dated Aquarius I7 [1934] whose media was pen and ink on paper. This drawing was on exhibit in April of 1998 at the October Gallery in London. Aleister Crowley: Paintings and Drawings – A Retrospective Exhibition was the first time Crowley’s expressionist drawings were shown in public since 1931. The exhibition was made possible by Kenneth Anger and the OTO archives along with private collections. The above drawing was listed as “Private Collection”. If the first card had a reproduction of artwork now owned by Page, could the original work of this drawing also be owned by Page?
Interestingly a plate of this very drawing was created for inclusion in Kenneth Grant’s 1994 book titled “Beyond The Mauve Zone”. This same Crowley drawing can be found on page 190 as plate 12. captioned “If I droop down mine head, and shoot forth venom…”. (AL. II. 26) A quote from Aleister Crowley’s Liber AL, (also known as The Book of the Law) Chapter II passage 26.
Page’s Thelemic Holiday Card, sent out 39 years after it was drawn, says nothing about what the artist was depicting, as neither did the wall card at the exhibition in 1998, 64 years after it’s release. Does Kenneth Grant’s caption give us some insight to the meaning behind this drawing?
Grant, a close personal friend to Austin Osman Spare and secretary to Aleister Crowley was granted by Karl Germer to run a UK OTO lodge from 1951 to 1955. Germer expelled Grant from the OTO for taking his Nu-Isis lodge in a direction Germer felt was inconsistent with the teaching’s of Crowley. Grant ignored this and ran his Nu-Isis lodge from 1955-1962. From 1962 to 1969 little is known about Grant other than in 1969 he appointed himself OHO or the Outer Head of the OTO. Essentially, according to Kenneth Grant, he was running the OTO worldwide, from London. Also in 1969 Grady McMurtry, “invoked emergency authorization” from Crowley and became the Frater Superior of O.T.O. Grady did not acknowledge the OHO office, and remained in this O.T.O. leadership position till his death in 1985.
Minimal correspondence from Page to McMurty is known to exist, other than a card similar to the one depicted here. However, there exists on the internet several copies of letters from McMurtry to Page wanting to discuss Page’s plans with the Boleskine property, that Page purchased in 1970, a property formerly owned by Crowley and considered a Kiblah of Thelema.
The schism between the Grady O.T.O. and Grant O.T.O. is well documented on the internet. Question is, did Thelemites have to pick sides, like Rap musicians did during the East Coast & West Coast Rap Schism?
Did Page lend this drawing to both Kenneth Grant for inclusion in his 1994 book and the Crowley 1998 exhibition?
None of this is as interesting as what is being referenced in Grant’s caption on page 190 of his book “Beyond The Mauve Zone”. This line is a from section of Crowley’s Liber AL or The Book of The Law, Chapter II passage 26 and references Hadit.
The second chapter of Liber AL is spoken by Hadit, who refers to himself as the “complement of Nu,” his bride. As such, he is the infinitely condensed point, the center of her infinite circumference. Crowley says of him, “He is eternal energy, the Infinite Motion of Things, the central core of all being.
Hadit is also the Secret Seed. In The Book of the Law he says; “I am alone: there is no god where I am.”. He is “the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star.”. He is identified with kundalini; in The Book of the Law he says, “I am the Secret Serpent coiled about to spring: in my coiling there is joy. If I lift up my head, I and my Nuit are one. If I droop down mine head, and shoot forth venom, then is rapture of the earth, and I and the earth are one. There is great danger in me…”
Crowley’s drawing depicts a snake, a symbol for Kundalini.
Hadit is the Fire of Desire at the Heart of Matter (Nuit). The combination of the upward-pointing triangle of Hadit and the downward-pointing triangle of Nuit forms the Star of Spirit (the Hexagram). The union of the infinitely small Hadit and the infinitely great Nuit causes an explosive rapture which leads to samādhi. Grant showing a plate on the very opposite page with a hexagram seems perfectly well placed.
Hadit’s symbols are our Sun, the serpent, the Fire Snake, the star Sothis, the planet Pluto, sperm, the Will, the winged globe, the Hermit, and the hidden flame.
Is it a coincidence that Jimmy Page’s ZoSo sigil itself has two circles with a dot in the center? A symbol described as above referencing Hadit.
Jimmy Page’s passion for art and its influence on his career is very interesting to me. The choice for this image on a “Thelemic Greeting” card is very spiritual indeed. I suspect it represents the Kundalini as divine creative energy, but I will never really know its personal significance to Page as his choice for the card.
The simple fact remains that the artwork of both Austin Osman Spare and Aleister Crowley were prominently displayed on these holiday cards and on the walls of Jimmy Page’s Equinox Bookshop. Both Spare and Crowley were artists and practicioners of systems of Magick who knew each other, and both knew Kenneth Grant.
Did Page know Grant? It’s hard to believe that they didn’t know each other. They both lived in London and Miami at roughly the same time and the community of Thelemites interested in original works by both Crowley and Spare is very small and secretive. Page admits at a minimum reading books co-edited by Symonds and Grant, and has amassed a large collection of works that may have been sourced by Grant.
Interesting facts regarding Spare is that he submitted several drawings for publication in Crowley’s Thelemite journal, The Equinox, receiving payment in the form of an expensive ritual robe. Spare was also invited to join Crowley’s Thelemite magical order, the A∴A∴ or Argenteum Astrum. However Spare shortly fell out with Crowley.
Spare’s system of Sigil Magick has influenced an entire movement called Chaos Magick and Key to Spare’s magico-religious views were the dual concepts of Zos and Kia. Spare described “Zos” as the human body and mind, and would later adopt the term as a pseudonym for himself. Spare gave himself the magickal name “Zos”, and like Page he was a Capricorn who’s ruling planet was Saturn. Is it a strong coincidence that Jimmy Page gave himself the name Zoso? Maybe, maybe not.
Magical phenomena, however, come under a special sub-class, since they are willed, and their cause is the series of “real” phenomena, called the operations of ceremonial Magic.
These consist of (1) Sight. The circle, square, triangle, vessels, lamps, robes, implements, etc. (2) Sound. The invocations. (3) Smell. The perfumes. (4) Taste. The Sacraments. (5) Touch. As under (1). (6) Mind.
The combination of all these and reflection on their significance. These unusual impressions (1-5) produce unusual brain-changes; hence their summary (6) is of unusual kind. Its projection back into the apparently phenomenal world is therefore unusual. Herein then consists the reality of the operations and effects of ceremonial magic,(6) and I conceive that the apology is ample, as far as the “effects” refer only to those phenomena which appear to the magician himself, the appearance of the spirit, his conversation, possible shocks from imprudence, and so on, even to ecstasy on the one hand, and death or madness on the other. But can any of the effects described in this our book Goetia be obtained, and if so, can you give a rational explanation of the circumstances? Say you so? I can, and will. The spirits of the Goetia are portions of the human brain. Their seals therefore represent (Mr. Spencer’s projected cube) methods of stimulating or regulating those particular spots (through the eye).
The names of God are vibrations calculated to establish: ( A ) General control of the brain. (Establishment of functions relative to the subtle world.) ( B ) Control over the brain in detail. (Rank or type of the Spirit.) ( C ) Control of one special portion. (Name of the Spirit.) The perfumes aid this through smell. Usually the perfume will only tend to control a large area; but there is an attribution of perfumes to letters of the alphabet enabling one, by a Qabalistic formula, to spell out the Spirit’s name. I need not enter into more particular discussion of these points; the intelligent reader can easily fill in what is lacking.
If, then, I say, with Solomon: “The Spirit Cimieries teaches logic,” what I mean is: “Those portions of my brain which subserve the logical faculty way be stimulated and developed by following out the processes called ‘The Invocation of Cimieries.’ “And this is a purely materialistic rational statement; it is independent of any objective hierarchy at all. Philosophy has nothing to say; and Science can only suspend judgment, pending a proper and methodical investigation of the facts alleged.
Unfortunately, we cannot stop there. Solomon promises us that we can (1) obtain information; (2) destroy our enemies; (3) understand the voices of nature; (4) obtain treasure; (5) heal diseases, etc. I have taken these five powers at random; considerations of space forbid me to explain all. (1) Brings up facts from sub-consciousness. (2) Here we come to an interesting fact. It is curious to note the contrast between the noble means and the apparently vile ends of magical rituals. The latter are disguises for sublime truths. “To destroy our enemies” is to realize the illusion of duality, to excite compassion. (Ah! Mr. Waite, the world of Magic is a mirror, wherein who sees muck is muck.) (3) A careful naturalist will understand much from the voices of the animals he has studied long. Even a child knows the difference of a cat’s miauling and purring. The faculty may be greatly developed. (4) Business capacity may be stimulated. (5) Abnormal states of the body may be corrected, and the involved tissues brought back to tone, in obedience to currents started from the brain. So for all other phenomena. There is no effect which is truly and necessarily miraculous. Our Ceremonial Magic fines down, then, to a series of minute, though of course empirical, physiological experiments, and whoso will carry them through intelligently need not fear the result. I have all the health, and treasure, and logic, I need; I have no time to waste. “There is a lion in the way.” For me these practices are useless; but for the benefit of others less fortunate I give them to the world, together with this explanation of, and apology for, them. I trust that the explanation will enable many students who have hitherto, by a puerile objectivity in their view of the question, obtained no results, to succeed; that the apology may impress upon our scornful men of science that the study of the bacillus should give place to that of the baculum, the little to the great—how great one only realizes when one identifies the wand with the Mahalingam, up which Brahma flew at the rate of 84,000 yojanas a second for 84,000 mahakalpas, down which Vishnu flew at the rate of 84,000 croces of yojanas a second for 84,000 crores of mahakalpas—yet neither reached an end.
But I reach an end. Boleskine House, Foyers, N.B.
BOOK OF THE LEMEGETON 1 GOETIA
The Lesser Key of Solomon – Goetia
Compiled and Translated By S.L. “MacGregor” Mathers Editing Additional Material By Aleister Crowley
Occult Aspects 