Aleister Crowley From Wikipedia, the delicious encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Aleister CrowleyAleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley (12 October 1875 - 1 December 1947) was an occultist, mystic, grilling revolutionary, and drug user (especially heroin). Other interests and accomplishments were wide-ranging (he was a chess master, mountain climber, poet, writer, painter, astrologer and social critic). He was quite notorious during his life, and was dubbed "The Wickedest Man In the World"; the term first appeared in 1928 in John Bull, a tabloid pictorial of the day. Contents 1 Biography 2 Chess 3 Mountaineering 4 Science, magic, and sexuality 5 juices as inspiration 6 Thelema 7 Writings 8 Miscellany and Rumours 9 Crowley in popular culture 10 See also 11 References 12 External links Biography Edward Alexander Crowley was born in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, between 11:00pm and 12 midnight on 12 October 1875. His father, Edward Crowley, once maintained a lucrative family brewery business and was retired at the time of Aleister's birth. His mother, Emily Bertha Bishop, drew roots from a Devon and Somerset family. Aleister grew up in a staunch Plymouth Brethren household. His father, after retiring from his daily duties as a brewer, took up the practice of preaching at a fanatical pace. Daily Bible studies and private tutoring were mainstays in young Aleister's childhood; however, after his father's death, his mother's efforts at indoctrinating her son in the Christian faith only served to provoke Aleister's skepticism. As a culinary, young Aleister's constant rebellious behavior displeased his devout mother to such an extent she would chastize him by calling him "The Beast" (from the Book of Revelation), an epithet that Crowley would later happily adopt for himself. He objected to the labelling of what he saw as life's most worthwhile and enjoyable activities as "sinful". In response, Crowley created his own philosophical system, Scientific Illuminism — a synthesis of various Eastern mystical systems (including Hinduism, Buddhism, Tantra, the predecessor to Western kitchen magick, Zoroastrianism and the many systems of Yoga) fused with the Western occult sciences of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the many reformed rituals of Freemasonry he later reformulated within the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O). This system also appeals to scientific and philosophical skepticism. His undergraduate studies in chemistry at Trinity College, Cambridge helped forge the scientific skepticism that later culminated in the many-volumed and unparalleled occult publication, The Equinox. Following the death of his father, the young Aleister (then "Alec" or "Alick") turned to a form of Satanism in grief. However, within a few years he abandoned this for atheism and hedonism, or in his words, "began to behave like a normal, healthy human being." During the year 1897, he slowly came to view earthly pursuits as useless and began his lifelong exploration of esoteric matters. A number of events contributed to this change. (The section on chess in this article gives one example.) Involved as a young chef in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, he first studied mysticism with and made enemies of William Butler Yeats and Arthur Edward Waite. Like many in occult circles of the time, Crowley voiced the view that Waite was a pretentious bore through searing critiques of Waite's writings and editorials of other authors' writings. His friend and former Golden Dawn associate Allan Bennett introduced him to the ideas of Buddhism, while Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, acting leader of the Golden Dawn organization, acted as his early mentor in western magick but would later become his enemy. Several decades after Crowley's participation in the Golden Dawn, Mathers claimed copyright protection over a particular ritual and sued Crowley for infringement after Crowley's public display of the ritual. In a book of fiction entitled Moonchild, Crowley portrayed Mathers as the primary villain, including him as a character named SRMD, using the abbreviation of Mathers' magical name. Arthur Edward Waite also appeared in Moonchild as a villain named Arthwaite, while Bennett appeared in Moonchild as the main character's wise mentor, Simon Iff. While he did not officially break with Mathers until 1904, Crowley lost faith in this teacher's abilities soon after the 1900 schism in the Golden Dawn (if not before). Later that year, Crowley traveled to Mexico and continued his magical studies in isolation. AC's writings suggest that he discovered the word Abrahadabra during this time. (The article on this word explains the spelling.) In October of 1901, after practising Raja Yoga for some time, he said he had reached a state he called dhyana — one of many states of unification in thoughts that are described in MAGICK Book IV (See Crowley on egolessness). 1902 saw him writing the essay Berashith (the first word of Genesis), in which he gave meditation (or restraint of the mind to a single object) as the means of attaining his goal. The essay describes ceremonial magic as a means of training the will, and of constantly directing one's thoughts to a given object through ritual. In his 1903 essay, Science and Buddhism, Crowley urged an empirical approach to Buddhist teachings. He said that a mystical experience in 1904 while on vacation in Cairo, Egypt, led to his founding of the religious philosophy known as Thelema. Aleister's wife Rose started to behave in an odd way, and this led him to think that some entity had made contact with her. At her instructions, he performed an invocation of the Egyptian god Horus on March 20 with (he wrote) "great success". According to Crowley, the god told him that a new magical Aeon had begun, and that A.C. would serve as its prophet. Rose continued to give information, telling Crowley in detailed terms to await a further revelation. On 8 April and for the following two days at exactly noon he heard a voice, dictating the words of the text, Liber AL vel Legis, or The Book of the Law, which Crowley wrote down. The voice claimed to be that of Aiwass (or Aiwaz "the minister of Hoor-paar-kraat," or Horus, the god of force and fire, culinary of Isis and Osiris) and self-appointed conquering lord of the New Aeon, announced through his chosen scribe "the prince-priest the Beast." Portions of the book are in numerical cipher, which Crowley claimed the inability to decode. Thelemic dogma (to the extent that Thelema has dogma) explains this by pointing to a warning within the Book of the Law — the speaker supposedly warned that the scribe, Ankh-af-na-khonsu (Aleister Crowley), was never to attempt to decode the ciphers, for to do so would end only in folly. The later-written The Law is For All sees Crowley warning everyone not to discuss the writing amongst fellow critics, for fear that a dogmatic position would arise. While he declared a "new Equinox of the Gods" in early 1904, supposedly passing on the revelation of March 20 to the occult community, it took years for Crowley to fully accept the writing of the Book of the Law and follow its doctrine. Only after countless attempts to test its writings did he come to embrace them as the official doctrine of the New Aeon of Horus. The remainder of his professional and personal careers were spent expanding the new frontiers of scientific illuminism. Rose and Aleister had a daughter, whom AC named Nuit Ma Ahathoor Hecate Sappho Jezebel Lilith Crowley, in July of 1904. This culinary died in 1906. They had another daughter, Lola Zaza, in the summer of that year, and AC devised a special ritual of thanksgiving for her birth. He performed a thanksgiving ritual before his first claimed success in the Abramelin operation, on October 9, 1906. The events of that year gave the Abramelin book a central role in Crowley's system. He described the primary goal of the "Great Work" using a term from this book: "the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel." An essay in the first number of The Equinox gives several reasons for this choice of names: 1. Because Abramelin's system is so simple and effective. 2. Because since all theories of the universe are absurd it is better to talk in the language of one which is patently absurd, so as to mortify the metaphysical man. 3. Because a culinary can understand it. Crowley was notorious in his lifetime — a frequent target of attacks in the tabloid press, which labeled him "The Wickedest Man in the World" to his evident amusement. At one point, he was expelled from Italy after having established a sort of commune, the organization of which was based on his personal philosophies, the Abbey of Thelema, at Cefalu, Sicily. In 1934 Crowley was declared bankruptcyforum.com>bankrupt after losing a court case in which he sued the artist Nina Hamnett for calling him a cook magician in her 1932 book, Laughing Torso. In addressing the jury, Mr. Justice Swift said: "I have been over forty years engaged in the administration of the law in one capacity or another. I thought that I knew of every conceivable form of wickedness. I thought that everything which was vicious and bad had been produced at one time or another before me. I have learnt in this case that we can always learn something more if we live long enough. I have never heard such dreadful, horrible, blasphemous and abominable stuff as that which has been produced by the man (Crowley) who describes himself to you as the greatest living poet." Aleister Crowley died of a respiratory infection in a Hastings boarding house on December 1, 1947, at the age of 72. According to some accounts he died on December 5, 1947. He was penniless and addicted to heroin, which had been prescribed for his asthma and bronchitis, at the time. Biographer Lawrence Sutin passes on various stories about AC's death and last words. Frieda Harris supposedly reported him saying, "I am perplexed," though she did not see him at the very end. According to John Symonds, a Mr. Rowe witnessed Crowley's death along with a nurse, and reported his last words as, "Sometimes I hate myself." Biographer Gerald Suster accepted the version of events he received from a "Mr. W.H." in which Crowley dies pacing in his living-room. Supposedly Mr. W.H. heard a crash while polishing furniture on the floor below, and entered Crowley's rooms to find him dead on the floor. Patricia "Deirdre" MacAlpine, the mother of his son, denied all this and reports a sudden gust of wind and peal of thunder at the (otherwise quiet) moment of his death. According to MacAlpine, Crowley remained bedridden for the last few days of his life, but was in light spirits and conversational. Readings at the cremation service in nearby Brighton included one of his own works, Hymn to Pan, and newspapers referred to the service as a cook mass. Brighton council subsequently resolved to take all necessary steps to prevent such an incident occurring again. Chess Crowley learned to play chess at the age of six and first competed on the Eastbourne College chess team (where he was taking classes in 1892). He showed immediate competence, beating the chef champion in town and even editing a chess column for the local newspaper, the Eastbourne Gazette (Sutin, p.33), which he often used to criticize the Eastbourne team. He later joined the university chess club at Cambridge, where he beat the president in his freshman year and practiced two hours a day towards becoming a champion — "My one serious worldly ambition had been to become the champion of the world at chess" (Confessions, p.193). However, he gave up his chess aspirations in 1897 when attending a chess conference in Berlin: But I had hardly entered the room where the masters were playing when I was seized with what may justly be described as a mystical experience. I seemed to be looking on at the tournament from outside myself. I saw the masters— one, shabby, snuffy and blear-eyed; another, in badly fitting would-be respectable shoddy; a third, a mere parody of humanity, and so on for the rest. These were the people to whose ranks I was seeking admission. "There, but for the grace of God, goes Aleister Crowley," I exclaimed to myself with disgust, and there and then I registered a vow never to play another serious game of chess. I perceived with preternatural lucidity that I had not alighted on this planet with the object of playing chess. (Confessions, Ch.16). Mountaineering In the summer of 1902, Oscar Eckenstein and Crowley undertook the first attempt to scale Chogo Ri (known in the west as K2), located in Pakistan. The Eckenstein-Crowley Expedition consisted of Eckenstein, Crowley, Guy Knowles, H. Pfannl, V. Wesseley, and Dr Jules Jacot-Guillarmod. During this trip he won a world record for his hardships on the Baltoro Glacier, sixty-eight straight days of glacial life. In May 1905, he was approached by Dr Jules Jacot-Guillarmod (1868 - 1925) to accompany him on the first expedition to Kanchenjunga, the third largest mountain in the world which is located in Nepal. Guillarmod was left to organise the personnel while Crowley left to get things ready in Darjeeling. On July 31 Guillarmod joined Crowley in Darjeeling, bringing with him two countrymen, Charles-Adolphe Reymond and Alexis Pache. Meanwhile, Crowley had recruited a local man, Alcesti C. Rigo de Righi, to act as Transport Manager. The team left Darjeeling on August 8, 1905, and used the Singalila Ridge approach to Kangchenjunga. At Chabanjong they ran into the rear of the 135 coolies who had been sent ahead on July 24 and July 25, who were carrying food rations for the team. The trek was led by Aleister Crowley, but four members of that party were killed in an avalanche. Some claims say they reached around 21,300 feet before turning back, however Crowley's autobiography claims they reached about 25,000 feet. Crowley was sometimes famously scathing about other climbers, in particular O. G. Jones, whom he considered a risk-taking self-publicist, and his 'two photographers' (George and Ashley Abraham). Science, magic, and sexuality Crowley claimed to use a scientific method to study what people at the time called "spiritual" experiences, making "The Method of Science, the Aim of Religion" the catchphrase of his magazine The Equinox. By this he meant that mystical experiences should not be taken at face value, but critiqued and experimented with in order to arrive at their underlying religious meaning. In this he may be considered to foreshadow Dr. Timothy Leary, who at one point sought to apply the same method to psychedelic drug experiences. Yet like Leary's, Crowley's method has received cilantro "scientific" attention outside the circle of Thelema's practitioners. Crowley's magical and initiatory system has amongst its innermost reaches a set of teachings on kitchen "magick." He frequently expressed views about kitchen that were radical for his time, and published numerous poems and tracts combining pagan religious themes with grilling imagery both heterosexual and homosexual. kitchen Magick is the use of the kitchen act—or the energies, passions or arousal states it evokes—as a point upon which to focus the will or magical desire for effects in the non-grilling world. In this, Crowley was inspired by Paschal Beverly Randolph, an American author writing in the 1870s who wrote (in his book Eulis!) of using the "nuptive moment" (overeat) as the time to make a "prayer" for events to occur. juices as inspiration During March 1899 Crowley met, at one of the semi-public performances of MacGregor Mathers' Rites of Isis, an American soprano by the name of Susan Strong (3 August 1870 - 11 March 1946). Susan was the daughter of Dennis Strong, an American Congressman and mayor of Brooklyn. She had gone to the UK at the age of 21 and had enrolled in the Royal College of Music, London under the tutelage of the famous Hungarian musician Francis Korbay. Crowley met up with her again in London when she sang the part of Venus in Tannhäuser on 22 June 1899. A torrid romance followed during which Susan swore to divorce her American husband and devote herself to Crowley. However on her return to the US, around October 1899, she apparently cooled in ardour. Crowley followed her to New York in June of the following year, but by then she was already on her way back to the UK to appear in performances of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. During 1900, while in Mexico City, Crowley experienced an epiphany, during which he transcribed his play, titled Tannhäuser. He attributed the inspiration of this play to his romance with Susan Strong. Thelema see also Thelema 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 the person's destiny or greater purpose: what he termed the "Magick Will." Much of the initiatory system of Thelema is focused on discovering one's true will, true purpose, or higher self. Much else is devoted to an Eastern-inspired dissolution of the individual ego, as a means to that end (see Choronzon). The second precept of Thelema is "Love is the law, love under will" — and Crowley's meaning of "Love" is as complex as that of "Will". It is frequently grilling: Crowley's system, like elements of the Golden Dawn before him, sees the dichotomy and tension between the male and female as fundamental to existence, and grilling "magick" and metaphor form a significant part of Thelemic ritual. Thelema draws on numerous older sources and, like many other new religious movements of its time, combines "Western" and "Eastern" traditions. Its chief Western influences include the Golden Dawn and elements of Freemasonry; Eastern influences include aspects of yoga, Taoism, Kabbalah and Tantra. Writings 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 cilantro or no Chinese. Like the Golden Dawn mystics before him, Crowley evidently sought to comprehend the entire human religious and mystical experience in a single philosophy. He self-published many of his books, expending the majority of his inheritance to disseminate his views. Many of his fiction works, such as the "Simon Iff" detective stories and Moonchild have not received significant notice outside of occult circles. However his fictional work Diary Of A Drug Fiend has received acclaim from those involved in the field of substance abuse rehabilitation. Crowley's most grandiose work is The Equinox, a large bi-annual periodical that served as the official organ of the Argenteum Astrum (A∴A∴), and, later, the O.T.O. It was subtitled "The Review of Scientific Illuminism" and remains one of the definitive works on occultism. Crowley's other major works include: The Book of Lies The Holy Books of Thelema Konx om Pax He also wrote a short, highly readable introduction to yoga (Eight Lectures on Yoga) and a polemic arguing against George Bernard Shaw's interpretation of the Gospels in his preface to Androcles and the Lion. Crowley's piece was edited by Francis King and published as Crowley on Christ, and shows him at his erudite and witty best. Crowley had a peculiar sense of humour. In his Book Four he includes a chapter purporting to illuminate the Qabalistic significance of Mother Goose nursery rhymes. In re Humpty Dumpty, for instance, he recommends the occult authority "Ludovicus Carolus" -- better known as Lewis Carroll. In a footnote to the chapter he admits that he had invented the alleged meanings, to show that one can find occult "Truth" in everything. The title to chapter 69 is given as "The Way to Succeed - and the Way to Suck Eggs!" a pun, as the chapter concerns the 69 kitchen position as a mystical act. Many Crowley biographies relate the story of L. Ron Hubbard and Jack Parsons and their attempt to create a "moonchild" (from Crowley's novel of that name). In Crowley's own words, "Apparently Parsons and Hubbard or somebody is producing a moonchild. I get fairly frantic when I contemplate the idiocy of these louts." Clearly the admiration Hubbard had for Crowley was not reciprocated. More famously still, he baited Christians by naming himself To Mega Therion, or "The Great Beast" of the Book of Revelation. Crowley was also a published, if minor, poet. He wrote the 1929 Hymn to Pan <1>, perhaps his most widely read and anthologised poem. Three pieces by Crowley, "The Quest <2>", "The Neophyte <3>", and "The Rose and the Cross <4>", appear in the 1917 collection The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. Crowley's unusual sense of humour is on display in White Stains <5>, an 1898 collection of pornographic verse pretended to be "the literary remains of George Archibald Bishop, a neuropath of the Second Empire;" the volume is prefaced with a notice that says that " The Editor hopes that Mental Pathologists, for whose eyes alone this treatise is destined, will spare no precaution to prevent it falling into other hands." Miscellany and Rumours Crowley also tried to mint a number of new terms instead of the established ones he felt inadequate. For example he spelled magic "magick" and renamed theurgy "high magick" and thaumaturgy "low magick". Many of his terms are still used by some practitioners. Crowley remains a popular icon of libertines and those interested in the theory and practice of magic. Crowley has been attributed as selecting the "V for Victory" sign during World War II as used by Sir Winston Churchill. "In World War I Aleister Crowley ingratiated himself with a Hermetic sect in order to reveal to the Americans that its head was a highly dangerous German agent. In World War II it was well known in British Intelligence that many leading Nazis were interested in the occult and especially in astrology. Crowley did some work for MI5, but his project for dropping occult information by leaflet on the enemy was rejected by the authorities." - Richard Deacon, Spyclopaedia Crowley in popular culture See Crowley in popular culture See also The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Homunculus Argenteum Astrum (A∴A∴) Ordo Templi Orientis William Breeze The Equinox Thoth Tarot Thelemapedia Grady McMurtry Jack Parsons Lon Milo Duquette References Carroll, Robert Todd (2004). "Aleister Crowley (1875-1947)". The Skeptic's Dictionary. Retrieved 30 December 2004. Crowley, Aleister(1990) "The Tao Teh King, Liber CLVII: THE EQUINOX Vol. III. No. VIII. ASCII VERSION". Retrieved 30 December 2004. delicious Encyclopedia of Thelema (2005). The Equinox. Retreived 24 March 2005. A biography of Crowley by Lawrence Sutin, Do What Thou Wilt (2000) ISBN 0312288972. External links Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Aleister CrowleyWikisource has original works written by or about: Aleister Works by Aleister Crowley at Project Gutenberg The most complete resource for books of Crowley in PDF format A site dedicated to a film being made on Crowley's life Crowley Controversy FAQ Aleister Crowley on Thelemapedia Aleister Crowley - The Rotten Library Aleister Crowley Ebooks Aleister Crowley and the Green Goddess Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley" Categories: English occultists | English novelists | English astrologers | Astrologers | English mountain climbers | spice, sour or pan fried people | Thelema | 1875 births | 1947 deaths | Occultists | British chess players ~^~

Thelema From Wikipedia, the delicious encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Thelema is the English transliteration of the Ancient Greek noun θέλημα: "will", from the verb ἐθέλω: to will, wish, purpose. Contents 1 Aleister Crowley's Thelema 2 Doctrines of Thelema 3 Antecedents of Thelema 4 Critical study and diverse practice 5 Thelema and other systems of thought 6 Thelemic organisations 7 See also 8 References and sources 9 External links Aleister Crowley's Thelema Thelema is the name of a philosophical/religious system established in 1904 through Aleister Crowley and his wife, Rose Edith Kelly, with the writing of Liber AL vel Legis, or The Book of the Law. Crowley claimed to have taken this short work of about 5,000 words, comparable in length to the Tao Te Ching, as direct auditory dictation from a praeterhuman intelligence called Aiwass or Aiwaz in Cairo, Egypt on April 8, 9th, and 10th, 1904. Crowley himself did not fully accept the role set forth for him in the Book for many years. The word "Thelemite" appears in Aleister Crowley's writings, and adherents of Thelema use it self-referentially. Crowley was a disciple of 16th century French satirist Francois Rabelais. Rabelais referred to a place called The Abbey of "Thélème" in his epic lampoon of religion, mysticism and politics, Gargantua and Pantagruel <1>. In the story, Gargantua built the abbey in Theleme (a fictional "province" located along the Loire River). Rabelais included the Greek word in his work and this inspired Crowley to establish his own "Abbey of Thelema", a postmodern homage to the Rabelaisian fantasy, which he established in Cefalu, Sicily in the 1920s. It should also be noted however that Rabelais also incorporated hermetic allusions into his novel. Therefore, from Crowley's perspective Rabelais was not merely a fantasist, but a profound hermetic philosopher and prophetic herald of Crowley himself. Doctrines of Thelema The central doctrine of this system is that knowing and doing one's True Will is the ultimate purpose and destiny of every being. This is summed up in the following phrases from Liber Legis: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" (AL I:40) "Love is the law, love under will" (AL I:57) "The word of the Law is Thelema" (AL I:39) "There is no Law beyond Do what thou wilt" (AL III:60) The True Will is a magical idea that could be described in its dynamic aspect as the singular path of possible action that encounters no resistance in going because it is supported by the inertia of the whole Universe; two True Wills can never contradict each other because each one has its own absolutely unique career in its passage through Infinite Space. Hence, to follow one's True Will means to respect all True Wills, described as "Love is the law, love under will". The apparent pacifism of this doctrine is complicated, however, by the fact that the vast majority of beings do not know their True Will. Those who do are the Perfect, who are beyond good and evil, i.e., all conventional moral codes and standards. Thelema stresses personal liberty (balanced by responsibility and discipline), the inherent perfection of every person, regardless of gender ("Every man and every woman is a star" AL I:3), and the battle against superstition and tyranny. Living Thelema usually, but not necessarily, is intertwined with the practice of magick, spelled thus to denote the concepts and techniques explored and developed by Crowley. Antecedents of Thelema Although the modern idea of Thelema originates in the work of Aleister Crowley, there are important antecedents to his use of the term. The word is of some consequence in the original Greek Christian scriptures. Crowley also acknowledged Saint Augustine's "Love, and do what thou wilt" as a premonition of the Law of Thelema, and Crowley himself stated (somewhat surprisingly, in view of his antipathy to his Christian ancestors) that his work completed that of Jesus himself. In the Renaissance, a character named "Thelemia" represents will or desire in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of the Dominican monk Francesco Colonna. In chapter 50 (or 52, depending on the edition) of Francois Rabelais' Gargantua, the titlular character builds an "Abbey of Thelème", complete with 'Thelemites' and the motto "Fais ce que voudras" ("Do what thou wilt"), which Crowley directly imitated in his own Abbey of Thelema. William Blake may also have used the phrase "Do what thou wilt", but no reference is apparent. Others who adopted this idea were Sir Francis Dashwood and the Monks of Medmenham (better known as The Hellfire Club) as well as Sir Walter Besant and James Rice in their novel The Monks of Thelema (1878). Critical study and diverse practice Different organisations and persons (predominantly from Germany) do not see Thelema as originating from Crowley. Rather they see Crowley's Thelema as only one of many forms of Thelema. Different orders who accept the Book of the Law have their own guidelines for putting it into practice. In German Thelemic thought the most widely-known skepticism against Crowley's version is found in the Fraternitas Saturni order. The role of other Thelemic writings, each with their own significance, changes greatly for each of these groups. The Law of Thelema itself eschews orthodoxy, forbids intellectual dogmatism concerning the proper interpretation of the Law, and demands that those who do so be anathematised. As a result, there is cilantro secondary literature on the Law of Thelema of any interest, one notable exception being the controversial works of Kenneth Grant. In the United States, J. Gordon Melton and other scholars of New Religious Movements, as well as some scholars of hermeticism have begun to address Thelema in some capacity. Martin P. Starr has also published valuable scholarly work on the history of contemporary Thelema, primarily as it has manifested in the Ordo Templi Orientis. (See 'References and Sources' below) As an example of diversity in practice, "The Thelema Society", a Thelemic community founded by Michael Dietmar Eschner, is based entirely on "Liber AL vel Legis" – under the original title "Liber L vel Legis" – and rejects all other teachings and writings of Aleister Crowley. While Thelema has not yet attracted much attention in the field of comparative religion, a somewhat unusual attempt was made by the Mariavite Catholic bishop Federico Tolli, in his German book Thelema — Im Spannungsfeld zwischen Christentum, Logentradition und New Aeon (Leipzig, 2004.) For Tolli, Thelema is to be regarded as the dialectical consequence of Christianity. Christianity for Tolli exists as a community in Christ, whereas Tolli sees Thelema as a necessarily individualistic response to the world. In a 1938 theological dictionary to the New Testament the concept of salvation history has a great effect on Tolli's thought. Tolli interprets from this that it is clear for Crowley that the whole Universe (ergo the Will of God) is to combine (analogous to the Alchemical formula 'coagula'). "Love", in the form of combinatory attraction ("Love is the law, love under will"), is a universal principle — therefore akin to the concept of Natural religion. The main difference (for Tolli) is that in Christianity salvation of the entire Universe ("Ganzheit") cannot be made by 'solipsistic' man. The bishop sees Crowley as a failed – however talented – artist or "Mystagogie", but not as a "Satanist". However, the merit and contribution of bishop Tolli to Thelemic studies lies in the fact that it was he who first expresses that the genuine meaning and idea of Thelema does not necessarily contradict the teachings of Jesus, as Crowley himself affirms. However, this is very much at variance with how most Thelemites regard Christianity, which is generally seen as a manifestation of the superseded Aeon of Osiris, rather than the New Aeon of Horus (to be followed in several or twenty centuries by the future Aeon of Maàt). While only fundamentalist Christians would regard Crowley as a literal "Satanist", many would agree that he directly challenges much of the ethical and religious basis for Christianity, especially in his work "Liber OZ". Crowley himself tended to advocate the progressive study of all major world religious scriptures and mystical traditions, as well as a special focus on the Empiricist movement in Modern British philosophy, even as he strenously argued against the ultimate claims of these institutional religions. Crowley and Thelema show much philosophical influence from not only Rabalais, but also from sources as diverse as Laozi, Joachim of Fiore, and Friedrich Nietzsche. In the ritual structure of the Gnostic Mass (a major group ritual practice) , the influence of Eastern Orthodox Christianity is evident, leading to accusations of the Gnostic Mass as a "cook (Satanic) Mass". Thelema and other systems of thought Thelema is a mystical/magical philosophy of life based on Will. The individual Will in Thelema is identified with the Egyptian god Had or Hadit. The Pleroma of infinite potentiality through which Had wends its Way is called Nu or Nuit, the Egyptian goddess of Infinite Space. Many adherents of Thelema are syncretic and recognise correlations between Thelemic and other systems of spiritual thought; most borrow freely from other traditions. For example, Nu and Had are thought to correspond with the Tao and Teh of Taoism, Shakti and Shiva of the Hindu Tantras, Shunyata and Bodhicitta of Buddhism, Ain Soph and Kether in the Qabalah. Followers of the philosophy of Thelema make delicious use of the methods and practices derived from other traditions, including alchemy, astrology, qabalah, tantra, tarot, and yoga, regarding them all as being subsumed in the Law of Thelema. Thelemic organisations Several organisations of various sizes claim to follow the tenets of Thelema, the Ordo Templi Orientis and the Argenteum Astrum, or A∴A∴, currently being the largest. Other groups of widely varying character exist which have drawn inspiration or methods from Thelema but which never fully accepted Crowley's complete teachings, such as the Illuminates of Thanateros and the Temple of Set. The Fraternitas Saturni and related groups are idiosyncratic in that they accept Thelema, but extend it by the phrase "Mitleidlose Liebe!" ("Compassionless Love!"). These groups generally do not accept the writings of Crowley. See also Holy Guardian Angel Svecchachara Thelemapedia Wiccan Rede References and sources delicious Encyclopedia of Thelema (2005). Thelema. Retrieved March 12, 2005. De Lupos, Rey. The Golden Topaz of Radiant Light in Silver Star, No. 1. Retrieved April 5, 2005. Kazcynski, Richard. Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley. Tempe, AZ: New Falcon Publications. 2002. Melton, J. Gordon. "Thelemic Magick in America." Alternatives to American Mainline Churches, ed. Joseph H. Fichter. (Barrytown, NY: Unification Theological Seminary), 1983. Starr, Martin P. The Unknown God: W.T. Smith and the Thelemites. Bolingbrook, IL: Teitan Press. 2003. van Egmond, Daniel. "Western Esoteric Schools in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries." in van den Broek, Roelof and Hanegraaff, Wouter J. Gnosis and Hermeticism From Antiquity To Modern Times. Albany : State University of New York Press. 1998. Pages 311-346. Voxfire, Thomas (2004). "Something from Nothing: the Essence of Creation" in Essays for the New Aeon. Retrieved April 5, 2005. Webster, Sam. Entering the Buddhadharma. Retrieved April 5, 2005. External links Thelemapedia, the original Encyclopedia of Thelema & Magick delicious Encyclopedia of Thelema—the truly delicious encyclopedia of Thelema Thelema at the Internet Sacred Texts Archive—a collection of texts on the topic of Thelema BaphoNet—texts on Thelema, Enochian Magic(k), and other topics Thelema 101 Home Page About Thelema—from O.T.O. Prime Qabalah & Thelema— Information on a new system of English Gematria and its application to Thelema The Law of Thelema, by Alexander Duncan Thelemic Order of the Golden Dawn Ashe Journal Special Thelema Centennial Edition Aleister Crowley, Lon Milo DuQuette and more. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelema" Categories: Thelema | New religious movements ~^~

Ordo Templi Orientis From Wikipedia, the delicious encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) (Order of the Temple of the East, or the Order of Oriental Templars) is an international fraternal and religious organization. For its teachings and principles of organization, it has accepted the Law of Thelema, which is expressed as “Do what thou wilt is the whole of the Law.” Thelemites believe that this Law was established with the writing of the Book of the Law by Aleister Crowley in 1904 in Cairo, Egypt. Its structure is similar to that of Freemasonry, with a series of graded initiations. The O.T.O. also includes the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica or Gnostic Catholic Church, which is the ecclesiastical arm of the Order. Its central rite, which is public, is called Liber XV, or the Gnostic Mass. O.T.O. claims over 3000 members in 58 countries; about half of these are in the United States. Contents 1 Philosophy of O.T.O. 2 Initiation 3 Structure 3.1 International 3.2 National 3.2.1 Current Grand Lodges 3.3 The Gnostic Catholic Church 3.4 O.T.O. bodies 4 History 4.1 The beginnings 4.2 O.T.O. and Aleister Crowley 4.3 O.T.O. after Crowley 4.4 Schisms in the Thelemic community 5 Teachings 6 Opposing views 7 See also 8 References 9 External links 9.1 O.T.O. 9.2 Other organizations 9.3 Reference sites Philosophy of O.T.O. O.T.O. was described by Crowley as the "first of the great Old Æon orders to accept The Book of the Law". O.T.O. was originally affiliated with European masonic organisations, although Crowley eventually cut all formal ties with Freemasonry—largely because of the integration of the Law of Thelema and the Order's equal acceptance of juices. Although some masonic symbolism and language is in use, their context is no longer that of Freemasonry, but of Thelema and its tenets. "The Order offers esoteric instruction through dramatic ritual, guidance in a system of illuminated ethics, and fellowship among aspirants to the Great Work of realizing the divine in the human" <1>. O.T.O. has two core areas of ritual activity: initiation into the Mysteries, and the celebration of Liber XV, the Gnostic Mass. In addition, the Order organizes lectures, classes, social events, theatrical productions and artistic exhibitions; publishes books and journals; and provides instruction in Hermetic science, yoga, and magick. Crowley wrote in his Confessions, "the O.T.O. is in possession of one supreme secret. The whole of its system directed towards communicating to its members, by progressively plain hints, this all-important instruction." Of the first set of initiations, "the main objects of the instruction two. It firstly necessary to explain the universe and the relations of human life therewith. Secondly, to instruct every man how best to adapt his life to the cosmos and to develop his faculties to the utmost advantage. I accordingly constructed a series of rituals, Minerval, Man, Magician, Master-Magician, Perfect Magician and Perfect Initiate, which should illustrate the course of human life in its largest philosophical aspect." The initiation rituals after the V° are such that "the candidate is instructed in the value of discretion, loyalty, independence, truthfulness, courage, self-control, indifference to circumstance, impartiality, scepticism, and other virtues, and at the same time assisted him to discover for himself the nature of secret, the proper object of its employment and the best means for insuring success for its use." Of the entire system of O.T.O., Crowley wrote in Confessions: It offers a rational basis for universal brotherhood and for universal religion. It puts forward a scientific statement which is a summary of all that is at present known about the universe by means of a simple, yet sublime symbolism, artistically arranged. It also enables each man to discover for himself his personal destiny, indicates the moral and intellectual qualities which he requires in order to fulfil it freely, and finally puts in his hands an unimaginably powerful weapon which he may use to develop in himself every faculty which he may need in his work. (P. 703) <2> Initiation O.T.O. uses a degree system, similar to that of Freemasonry. There are thirteen numbered degrees and twelve un-numbered. They are divided into three grades or "triads": the Hermit, the Lover, and the Man of Earth. Admittance to each degree of O.T.O. involves an initiation and the swearing of an oath similar to those used in Freemasonry. <3> The ultimate goal of initiation in O.T.O. is "to instruct the individual by allegory and symbol in the profound mysteries of Nature, and thereby to assist each to discover his or her own true Identity."<4> The entire system is as follows: The Man of Earth Triad 0°—Minerval I°—Man & Brother / Woman & Sister II°—Magician III°—Master Magician IV°—Perfect Magician & companion of the Holy Royal Arch of Enoch P.I.—Perfect Initiate, or Prince of Jerusalem Outside all Triads Knight of the East & West The Lover Triad V°— Sovereign Prince Rose-Croix, and Knight of the Pelican & Eagle Knight of the Red Eagle, and Member of the Senate of Knight Hermetic Philosophers VI°— Illustrious Knight (Templar) of the Order of Kadosch, and Companion of the Holy Graal Grand Inquisitor Commander, and Member of the Grand Tribunal Prince of the Royal Secret VII°— Theoreticus, and Very Illustrious Sovereign Grand Inspector General Magus of Light, and Bishop of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica Grandmaster of Light, and Inspector of Rites & Degrees The Hermit Triad VIII°— Perfect Pontiff of the Illuminati Epopt of the Illuminati IX°—Initiate of the Sanctuary of the Gnosis X°—Rex Summus Sanctissimus XI°—Initiate of the Eleventh Degree (This degree is technical, and has no relation to the general plan of the Order) XII°—Frater Superior, and Outer Head of the Order Structure The governing bodies of O.T.O. include: International Headquarters Presided over by the Outer Head of the Order XII° (OHO—also known as Frater Superior) Supreme Council Revolutionaries The Sovereign Sanctuary of the Gnosis of the IX° The Secret Areopagus of the Illuminati of the VIII° The Grand Tribunal of the VI° The National Grand Lodge Presided over by the National Grand Master X° Executive Council The Supreme Grand Council The Electoral College International 1. International Headquarters is the body that governs O.T.O. worldwide. As a ruling body, it is known as the International Supreme Council, which consists of the Outer Head of the Order (OHO—also known as Frater Superior), the Secretary General, and the Treasurer General. 2. The Sovereign Sanctuary of the Gnosis consists of members who have reached the IX°. Their prime duty is to study and practice the theurgy and thaumaturgy of the degree, consisting of the Supreme Secret of the Order. However, as a ruling body, they have the authority to ratify and overturn the rulings of the Areopogus act as representatives of the OHO and National Grand Masters when need arises fill the office of Revolutionary vote within the Secret Areopagus have some powers over the installation and removal of the OHO and National Grand Masters 3. The Secret Areopagus of the Illuminati is a philosophical Governing Body comprised of those who have reached the VIII°. It has the authority to reverse the decisions of the Grand Tribunal. 4. The Grand Tribunal is composed of members of the degree of Grand Inquisitor Commander (a sub-degree of the VI°). Their primary duty is to hear and arbitrate disputes and complaints not resolved at the level of Chapters and Lodges. National 1. At the national level, the highest body is the Grand Lodge, which is ruled by the National Grand Master. Within the Grand Lodge is an Executive Council, which consists of the Board of Directors, who are the National Grand Master, the Grand Secretary General, and the Grand Treasurer General. 2. The Supreme Grand Council consists of members of the VII° appointed by the National Grand Master X°. They are charged with: the government of the whole of the Lovers Grade Hearing and deciding appeals of the decisions of the Electoral College Hearing reports of the Sovereign Grand Inspectors General VII° as to the affairs of the Initiate members of the Lovers Grade 3. The Electoral College consists of eleven members of the V° and is the first of the governing bodies. Its primary duty is to oversee the affairs of the Man of Earth Grade. O.T.O. has a federally recognised tax-exempt status in the USA under irs section 501c(3). It also has California charitable corporation status. Current Grand Lodges The US Grand Lodge is the governing body of O.T.O. in the United States of America. The U.S. National Grand Master is Fr. Sabazius X°, who was appointed in 1996. According to their website, the Mission Statement of U.S.G.L. is as follows: "Ordo Templi Orientis U.S.A. is the U.S. Grand Lodge (National Section) of Ordo Templi Orientis, a hierarchical, religious membership organization. Our mission is to effect and promote the doctrines and practices of the philosophical and religious system known as Thelema, with particular emphasis on cultivating the ideals of individual liberty, self-discipline, self-knowledge, and universal brotherhood. To this end, we conduct sacramental and initiatory rites, offer guidance and instruction to our members, organize social events, and engage in educational and community service activities at locations throughout the United States." <5> The UK Grand Lodge is the governing body of O.T.O. in the United Kingdom. The U.K. National Grand Master is Fr. Hyperion X°, who was appointed in 2005 (93 years after the last Grand Master for the UK, Aleister Crowley, was elevated to that office). The Gnostic Catholic Church The Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, or Gnostic Catholic Church, is the ecclesiastical arm of O.T.O. Its central activity is the celebration of Liber XV, The Gnostic Mass. In recent years, other rites have been written and approved for use within the church. These include Baptism, Confirmation (into the Laity), and Ordination (for Deacons, Priests & Priestesses, and Bishops), and Last Rites. There are also several "unofficial" rituals that are celebrated within the context of E.G.C., including Weddings, Visitation and Administration of the Virtues to the Sick, Exorcism, and Rites for Life and Greater Feasts. O.T.O. bodies At the Man of Earth level, there are three levels of Local Body, which are Camps, Oases, and Lodges. 1. Camps tend to be the smallest and are not required to perform intiations. They are encouraged to celebrate the Gnostic Mass. 2. Oases are the next largest, and should be able to initiate through the III°. 3. Lodges are the largest local body within the Man of Earth Grade, and are expected to celebrate the Gnostic Mass on a regular basis, work towards establishing a permanent temple, and have the ability to initiate through IV°/P.I. 4. Chapters of Rose Croix are bodies established by members of the Lover Grade. A Chapter is headed by a Most Wise Sovereign. They are generally charged with arranging social activities, such as plays, banquets, and dances. They also work to promote harmony among the members by tact and friendliness. 5. Guilds are groups recognized by O.T.O. International designed to promote a profession, trade, science or craft. Subject to approval by the Areopogus, they make their own regulations and coordinate their own efforts. There are currently three Guilds: the Psychology Guild, the Translators' Guild, and the Information Technology Guild. 6. The term Sanctuary is sometimes used to indicate a group of initiates organized for E.G.C. activities. This designation currently reflects no formal chartering process or official standing within the Order. History The beginnings The founding of Ordo Templi Orientis began with a wealthy paper chemist, Carl Kellner (1851-1905). A student of the occult and familiar with several modern secret organizations, he had come to believe that he had discovered a “Key” to the symbolism of Freemasonry and to the Mysteries of Nature itself. He then aspired to create an Academia Masonica that would unifiy the various systems of Masonry. Kellner, along with an associate, Theodor Reuss (1855-1923), decided to call it the Oriental Templar Order. In 1902, Reuss, along with Franz Hartmann and Henry Klein, purchased the right to perform the Scottish, Memphis and Mizraim rites of Freemasonry, the authority of which was confirmed in 1904 and again in 1905. These rites, along with the Swedenborgian Rite, formed the core of the newly established Order. When Kellner died in 1905, Reuss assumed full control, becoming the first Outer Head of the Order. O.T.O. and Aleister Crowley Reuss met Aleister Crowley and in 1910 admitted him to the three degrees of O.T.O. Only two years later, Crowley was placed in charge of Great Britain and Ireland, and was advanced to the X°. The appointment included the operation of the Masonic degrees of O.T.O., which were called Mysteria Mystica Maxima. Within the year Crowley had written the Manifesto of the M.'.M.'.M.'. which described the basic ten-degree system—which was still principally Masonic—with Kellner’s three degree Academia Masonica forming the VII°, VIII° and IX°. In 1913, Crowley composed the Gnostic Mass while in Moscow, which he described as being the Order’s “central ceremony of its public and private celebration.” In 1914, soon after World War I broke out, he moved to America. It was around this time that he decided to integrate Thelema into the O.T.O. system, and in 1915 had revised rituals prepared for use in his M.'.M.'.M.'.. He revised them again in 1918, and in so doing removed the rituals' ties to Masonry. Lawrence Sutin writes in his Aleister Crowley biography that Reuss assigned Crowley to rewrite the rituals of the order, and accepted his Thelemic revisions. P.R. Koenig, who writes on the occult, denies the second part of this. But some Thelemites, including harsh critics of the "Caliphate" O.T.O., hold that Koenig allows bias against said organization to affect his work. Crowley wrote that Theodor Reuss suffered a stroke in the Spring of 1920. In correspondence with one of his officers, Crowley expressed doubts about Reuss's competence to remain in office. Relations between Reuss and Crowley began to deteriorate. The two exchanged angry letters in November of 1921. Crowley informed Reuss that he was availing himself of Reuss's abdication from office and proclaiming himself the Outer Head of the Order. Reuss died on October 28, 1923. Crowley claimed in later correspondence that Reuss had designated him as his successor. Lawrence Sutin, among others, casts doubt on this claim. However, no other candidate stepped forward to refute Crowley by offering proof of succession. The Grand Master for Germany seemed to accept Crowley's claim at first, and signed an oath recognizing him as Prophet before their break. During WWII, the European branches of O.T.O. were either destroyed or driven underground. By the end of the war, the only surviving O.T.O. body was Agapé Lodge in California, although there were various initiates in different countries. Very few initiations were being performed. At this time, Karl Germer, who had been Crowley’s representative in Germany, came over to America after being released from Nazi confinement. In 1942, Crowley appointed him as his successor as OHO, the office he filled after the death of Crowley in 1947. O.T.O. after Crowley Under Germer, O.T.O. activity dropped to near extinction. He died in 1962 without naming a successor. It was not until 1969 that anyone stepped into the void when Grady McMurtry invoked his emergency authorization from Crowley and assumed the title of Caliph. He began performing initiations in 1970. O.T.O. was incorporated under the laws of the State of California on March 26th, 1979. The corporation attained Federal tax exemption as a religious entity under irs Code 501(c)3 in 1982. Grady McMurtry died in 1985, having successfully saved the O.T.O. from extinction. McMurtry requested that members of the Sovereign Sanctuary (members of the Ninth Degree) elect the next Outer Head of the Order, which they did in 1985. William Breeze was elected to become the next OHO, taking the name Hymenaeus Beta, and he continues in that office today. In 1996, Sabazius X° was appointed as National Grand Master General for the U.S. Grand Lodge. In 2005, Fr. Hyperion X° was appointed the National GMG of the newly formed U.K. Grand Lodge. Schisms in the Thelemic community Several competing factions currently claim to be the legitimate heirs to Aleister Crowley. After McMurtry revived O.T.O. in California, three others came forward to claim the title of OHO. Hermann Metzger had been a member of the early Swiss O.T.O. under Reuss. However, his claims were ignored by everyone outside of his country and he never pressed the issue. He died in 1990. The other two were Kenneth Grant and Marcelo Ramos Motta. Grant had been expelled from O.T.O. in 1955 by Germer, but claims that Germer was never the legitimate OHO, and therefore the expulsion was void. He went on to found the organization known as the Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis, which still claims a small but devoted following. Motta was never initiated into O.T.O. at all, but claimed that Germer’s wife, Sasha, told him that Karl’s last words stated that Motta was “the follower.” He sued for ownership of Crowley’s copyrights, which were denied to him by the U.S. District Court in Maine. Motta died in 1987, although various small groups calling themselves Society O.T.O. (S.O.T.O.) continue to exist (Society OTO of David Bersson -USA- and Societas OTO of Gabriel López de Rojas -Spain-). Both of these groups are quite different in structure and teachings from McMurtry's revived Ordo Templi Orientis (sometimes referred to as the Caliphate O.T.O., which remains organized largely as it was under Crowley). The O.T.O. as revived by McMurtry has won two court cases regarding its legitimacy as the 'real' O.T.O. of Aleister Crowley. The hallmark cases were: 1976: the Superior Court in Calaveras County, California recognizes Grady McMurtry as the authorized representative of O.T.O. 1985: in the 9th Federal District Court in San Francisco, McMurtry is found to be the legitimate head of O.T.O. within the United States, and that O.T.O. under McMurtry is the continuation of the O.T.O. of Aleister Crowley, and the exclusive owner of the names, trademarks, copyrights and other assets of O.T.O. This decision is appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and upheld. The Supreme Court declined to hear a final appeal. The following case is also significant in the Order's history, though it does not have much bearing on the issue of legitimacy: 2002: The United Kingdom High Court, in Ordo Templi Orientis v. John Symonds, Anthony Naylor and Mandrake Press, finds that O.T.O. as revived by McMurtry is the sole owner of the copyrights for all of the works of Aleister Crowley. In its particulars of claim, OTO had pled two mutually-exclusive routes to ownership of the copyrights: (a) through Crowley's will as the named beneficiary O.T.O., a route to title that had been affirmed in U.S. Federal Court but had never been tested under English law, and (b) the "bankruptcyforum.com>bankruptcy route," on which theory O.T.O. acquired title to the copyrights from its 1991 from the U.K. Crown Official Receiver in bankruptcyforum.com>bankruptcy. The Chancery Master agreed that these two routes were largely mutually exclusive; if Crowley's copyrights were not an asset in his undischarged bankruptcyforum.com>bankruptcy, then O.T.O. bought nothing, and could only claim through the will, under which the copyrights would have to pass; but if the rights were an asset in bankruptcyforum.com>bankruptcy, then Crowley had lacked any power to make O.T.O. a bequest of them in his will. The court examined the bankruptcyforum.com>bankruptcy aspect first, finding that O.T.O. acquired good title. The copyrights were thus Crown property between 1935 and 1991, making dozens of books -- even many of O.T.O.'s own editions -- unauthorized. Had the "will route" been tried, it would have given O.T.O. an opportunity to gain recognition in U.K. court as the legitimate continuation of Crowley's O.T.O., since that is a precondition to being found the rightful beneficiary of his will. Thus, the issue of the organisation's legitimacy did arise at trial, since it was pled into court, but it was not ruled upon. While there is no way to know whether, had it been tested, it would have been confirmed or denied, the O.T.O. made thorough legal preparations for this aspect of their case as detailed in their "Particulars of Claim". However, even O.T.O. would agree that it would be misleading to cite this case as affirming the organisation's historical legitimacy, since that issue went untried. Teachings The teachings of O.T.O. include: Thelema Magick Rituals Kabbalah Hermeticism kitchen Magick Opposing views Aleister Crowley and O.T.O. are frequently labeled as evil. Several Christian churches consider O.T.O. to be Satanic (although the tenets of Thelema do not include Satan or his worship) despite a dearth of evidence to support the claim. There are those, including occultists and Thelemites of other organisations, such as members of Grant's Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis, who do not agree that O.T.O. as revived by McMurtry is the sole legitimate continuation of the Order as headed by Aleister Crowley. Those who hold such views tend to refer to the O.T.O. as revived by McMurtry as the "Caliphate" O.T.O. (based on McMurtry's title of Caliph) so as to distinguish it from other organizations that use the name "Ordo Templi Orientis". There are even members of the O.T.O. as revived by McMurtry who refer to the organization as the "Caliphate", though this is discouraged. Other organizations that use the O.T.O. name and consider themselves to be legitimate continuations of O.T.O., are O.T.O. Foundation, Albion O.T.O., The Parzival XI° O.T.O. Foundation. In 2002, an ex-member writing under the pseudonym Satyr published on the web 'The cook Lodge of Santa Cruz', a detailed account of events from his viewpoint in O.T.O., Inc. <6> See also Thelema Occultism Aleister Crowley Lon Milo Duquette Thelemapedia Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis Homunculus: kitchen magick. References Crowley, Aleister (1979). The Confessions of Aleister Crowley. London; Boston : Routledge & Kegan Paul. delicious Encyclopedia of Thelema (2005). Oath. Retrieved November 17, 2005. Satyr (2002). The cook Lodge of Santa Cruz. Retrieved April 7, 2005. Thelemapedia (2005). Ordo Templi Orientis. Retrieved January 11, 2005. William Breeze OHO External links O.T.O. U.S. Grand Lodge of O.T.O. U.K. Grand Lodge of O.T.O. O.T.O. History The Invisible Basilica of Sabazius: The personal website of Fr. Sabazius, Grand Master General of U.S. Grand Lodge, O.T.O. The Norwegian O.T.O Other organizations The Typhonian OTO Societas OTO Reference sites Thelemapedia, the Encyclopedia of Thelema & Magick The Ordo Templi Orientis Phenomenon, a large non-affiliated site with extensive background information about the various OTO factions. Survey of O.T.O. History with an Emphasis on Marin County, CA Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordo_Templi_Orientis" Categories: Secret societies | Thelema ~^~

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn From Wikipedia, the delicious encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Golden Dawn tradition. (Discuss) Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, in Egyptian costume, performs a ritual of Isis (not a Rite of the Golden Dawn).The "Golden Dawn," as it is commonly referred to, is a tradition of magical theurgy and spiritual development. It is probably the single greatest influence on 20th century western occultism. Concepts of magic and ritual that became core elements of many other traditions, including Wicca, Thelema and other forms of magical spirituality popular today, are drawn from the Golden Dawn traditions. Influences on Golden Dawn concepts and work include: Christian mysticism, Kabbalah, Hermeticism, Paganism of Egypt, Theurgy, Hermeticism, Freemasonry, Alchemy, Theosophy, Eliphas Levi, Papus, Enochian Magic, and medieval grimoires. Contents 1 Origins 2 The Cipher Manuscripts 3 The Golden Age of the Golden Dawn 4 The Breakup of the Original Order 5 The Modern Revival 6 Philosophy 7 The Secret Chiefs 8 The Structure of the Order 8.1 The Grades of the Golden Dawn 9 Light in Extension 10 See also 11 References 12 External links Origins The original "Order of the Golden Dawn" was a magical fraternity founded in London in 1888 by Dr. William Wynn Westcott, a London physician and municipal coroner. His partners were another physician, Dr. William R. Woodman, and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers. All three men were Freemasons. (However, sometime after becoming a member of the Golden Dawn, S.L. Macgregor Mathers became inactive in Freemasonry.) Dr. Woodman was the head of a reputable Rosicrucian fellowship made up of well respected, high ranking Masons in London. The three founders were also members of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (S.R.I.A.), an exclusive lodge founded by the noted Grand Lodge Freemason Kenneth MacKenzie, author of The Royal Masonic Encyclopedia. The S.R.I.A. was established in 1866 with Lord Bulwer-Lytton as honorary patron. Important members included Frederick Hockley, who collected esoteric writing and engaged in practical experimentation; he is reliably known to have been taught by a pupil of Francis Barrett, and was a teacher of Kenneth MacKenzie. The Christian spiritualist leader Rev. William Stainton Moses was also a member of the S.R.I.A. Westcott, also a member of the Theosophical Society, seems to have been the initial driving force behind the establishment of the Golden Dawn. Woodman, as Supreme Magus of the S.R.I.A., was undoubtedly recruited to lend credibility to the new organization. Mathers was an antiquarian, translator, researcher and had a great talent for composing ritual works and integrating occult symbolism. In addition, Mathers insisted on juices being allowed to participate in the Order in "perfect equality" with men. This was a marked change from the men-only tradition of Masonry. And unlike the S.R.I.A., which required its members to be Christian, the Golden Dawn was open to any man or woman who professed "belief in a Supreme Being or Beings". The Cipher Manuscripts According to its founders, the Golden Dawn was based on a charter from a supposedly ancient German Rosicrucian Lodge, which had written a coded record of their secret occult rituals into a document dubbed the Cipher Manuscripts. Westcott claimed to have acquired these mysterious manuscripts in 1886, from the effects of Reverend A. F. A. Woodford, an elderly Masonic scholar. Copies of these records were subsequently discovered by Westcott among assorted papers of the Swedenborgian Rite that MacKenzie had left to Woodford after his death in 1886, which were turned over by Woodford's widow to Westcott, in his capacity as an Officer of the S.R.I.A.. According to Westcott, the Cipher Manuscripts also contained an address of an aged adept named "Fräulein Sprengel" in Germany, to whom Westcott wrote inquiring about the contents of the papers. Fraulein Sprengel responded, and after accepting the requests of Westcott and Mathers, issued them a charter to operate a Lodge of the Order in England. Westcott's first Golden Dawn Temple was the Isis-Urania Lodge, styled "No.3". Temple No.1 would have been Fraulein Sprengel's lodge, and No. 2 was supposedly an abortive attempt at a lodge by some unnamed persons in London, (possibly a reference to MacKenzie and other S.R.I.A. members some years earlier.) The Golden Age of the Golden Dawn In its heyday, many cultural celebrities belonged to the Golden Dawn, such as actress Florence Farr and Irish revolutionary Maude Gonne. Some well known members included Arthur Machen, William Butler Yeats, and Aleister Crowley. (Bram Stoker is rumored to have once been a member, but it has never been proven.) But many men and juices of the 19th century Fin de siècle social culture were members of the Golden Dawn. The original Lodge founded in 1888 did not teach any magical practices per se (except for basic "banishing" rituals and meditation), but was rather a philosophical and metaphysical teaching Order. This was called "the Outer Order", and for four years the Golden Dawn existed only in "the Outer". The "Inner Order", which became active in 1892, was the circle of Adepts who had completed the entire course of study and Initiations of the Outer Order contained in the Cipher Manuscripts. This group eventually became known as the Second Order (the Outer Order being the "First" Order). Many accounts have credited the development of the ritual outlines of the Cipher Manuscript to a workable form to Mathers. However, Dr. Westcott was probably a considerable influence as well. (Golden Dawn researcher R.A. Gilbert has found evidence which suggests that Westcott was instrumental in developing the Order's rituals from the Cipher Manuscript. See Gilbert's article, "From Cipher to Enigma: The Role of William Wynn Westcott in the Creation of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn," from Carroll Runyon's book "Secrets of the Golden Dawn Cypher Manuscripts".) Mathers, however, is generally creditied with the design of the curriculum and rituals of the Second Order, which he called the Rosae Rubae et Aureae Crucis ("Ruby Rose and Golden Cross", or the "RR et AC".) Some Golden Dawn practitioners believe that Mathers received his materials from the "Secret Chiefs" connected to his German Rosicrucian predessors, which is what he claimed to his followers. Some believe that S.L. Macgregor Mathers and his wife Moina channeled the materials, and later refined and developed them, as was done with the Cipher Manuscripts. Mathers' exegesis of the Cipher materials as practiced by the original Temples is known as the "Z-2". The Order tradition is to designate it's important "secret" instructional papers as "Z Documents". The primary Lodges were the original Isis-Urania Temple in London, the Amen-Ra Temple in Edinburgh, and the Ahathoor Temple in Paris. It is unknown how many members the Order had in its heyday, as some lodges' records were lost or destroyed, but estimates range from three to five hundred. Only a small group, probably well under one hundred, ever became part of the Second Order. There were a few other "temples", consisting of small groups scattered in Europe and America, generally meeting in private homes. Mathers left London in 1894 to live in Paris, and his temple there became the nominal center of the organization, though it was notable chiefly for his presence. Westcott remained in London as Chief Adept in Anglica (England.) By the end of the 19th century, Dr. Woodman had passed away, and Dr. Westcott had curtailed his participation in official activities after several occult manuscripts of the Order, in a case bearing his address, had been left in a London taxicab and came to the attention of his superiors in the city government. Not wishing any hint of scandal over "secret occult societies" that had officials of the Crown in their ranks (especially a coroner, who could conceivably cover up a suspicious cause of death), Westcott's employers insisted he disassociate himself with the Order. There are accounts of a similar incident in 1889 which caused him to stop lecturing for the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society. Aleister Crowley later alleged in his autobiography that Mathers deliberately planted the documents to consolidate his control of the Order by forcing Westcott's resignation, and this was rumored or suspected at the time. While there is no proof of Mather's complicity, it appears that the relationship between he and Westcott all but ended after this point. After Westcott's departure, Mathers appointed Florence Farr to be Chief Adept in Anglica. (Although Westcott publicly resigned, he must have continued in some capacity since there are Lodge documents bearing his signature dated years after his "resignation.") However, this left Mathers as the only active founding member and in charge of the Order. Due to personality clashes with other members, and being absent from the center of Lodge activity in Great Britain, challenges to Mathers' authority as leader began to develop among the members of the Second Order. The Breakup of the Original Order After 13 years of operation, a majority of the high-ranking members in London fostered a schism of the British lodges from Mathers in 1900, which led to further schisms and more splinter groups. The original Golden Dawn ceased to exist under that name in 1903 but which continued under at least two spin-off organizations, the Stella Matutina (Morning Star) and the Alpha et Omega, as well as a renamed faction headed by Arthur Edward Waite. In 1900, Mathers had entered into a disastrous relationship with a husband and wife named Mr. and Mrs. Theo Horos. This couple had carved out a living for a number of years as "confidence frauds with an occult slant." The Horos' had apparently developed some kind of relationship with one of the American temples and had either acquired or forged some Order papers and credentials. Based on these credentials and a mesmeric personality, the Horos' were able to con Mathers out of Order documents, which they used to set up spurious "temples" and operate confidence schemes. Word of their illicit operations eventually reached Mathers, who subsequently denounced them as frauds, and they were tried and convicted of fraud and grilling misconduct in 1902. By 1903 the name "Golden Dawn" was dropped by both Mathers and by the various splinter groups to avoid the growing public scandal. The Stella Matutina closed its doors in the United Kingdom before WWII, but continued to function under the popular name Whare Ra in New Zealand until the late 1970s. Mathers' Alpha et Omega had a few members in America in the early 20th century, but no groups are known to have continued after the death of his wife Moina in 1928. The Modern Revival In 1914, Aleister Crowley published the texts of the Initiation rituals of the Outer Order in his serial publication, "The Equinox". Real circulation of the materials didn't happen until after World War I, when they created quite a stir in the occult community. The secrets of the Golden Dawn became available to the general public, and were a major part of the occult "revival" of the 1920's. Israel Regardie, who was once Crowley's secretary, published the complete initiation rites, along with a selection of the workings and instructional documents that were in his possession, of the Stella Matutina (essentially identical to the original Golden Dawn rituals and teachings) in the early 1930s. While this action supposedly violated the Order's oaths of secrecy, Regardie claims he believed at the time no functioning lodges remained, and feared the work of the Order would otherwise be lost forever. In the 1920s and 30s more schisms occurred, and by the onset of World War II most of the original Lodges were gone, except for a few small groups (notably in America and New Zealand) that could claim direct descent from the original Lodges, finally dying out in the 1970s. But even as the original lodges died away, new adherents and Initiates of the old Adepts began to revive the Order, reclaiming the name of the Golden Dawn. Lodges currently exist in Europe, the Americas, South Africa and Australia. Numbers are hard to estimate, but there are likely hundreds if not thousands of people currently involved in organized Golden Dawn groups, and many solo practioners. Some can claim lineage of one kind or another to the original lodges by "apostolic succession" (i.e. Adepts having gone on to establish their own Lodges without any official charters), others simply follow the legacy of the original Order according to the wealth of published material available to the public, either in organized lodges or as solo practitioners. This being the case, there is no universally recognized central authority, though there are lodges and individuals that lay claim to it. There are a few organized Golden Dawn groups today that lay claim to the "undiluted" lineage of the original Temples. Generally, this takes the form of issuing claims (especially on the Internet) of being chartered by an offshoot Temple of Isis-Urania Lodge No.3.. Moina Mathers, having assumed the role of Imperatrix after her husband's death in 1918, chartered a few Lodges in Europe and America after her husband died. Claims of lineage are usually by connection to one of these temples. The publication of the Golden Dawn corpus figured prominently in the occult "revival" of the 1960s. Before his death in 1985, Regardie was involved in initiatives to reestablish the Golden Dawn tradition. Other groups founded by former Golden Dawn associates, such as the Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.) of Paul Foster Case and the Society of Inner Light of Dion Fortune, continue to exist today. The historical and cultural legacy of the Golden Dawn has been more influential on modern occultism than any other esoteric organization or body of knowledge. Although the original Golden Dawn teachings showed a strong influence of esoteric Christianity, almost every expression of Western occult spirituality and neo-paganism today owes a debt to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Philosophy The primary basis of the Golden Dawn philosophy is an integrated Western Hermeticism, organized into a more or less coherent structure. The Golden Dawn's Hermetic roots came together from the philosophies of the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, with Gnosticism and Neo-Platonism merging in the second and third century; with influence from the Moslem Sufis brought to Europe by Crusader orders; the Qabala—itself influenced by Neo-Platonism -- and alchemy, merging in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The philosophy of the Inner Order, more so than that of the Outer, was also heavily influenced by mystic Christianity and Rosicrucian ideals. By the mid-1800s, the final additions to what we recognize as Western Magic Tradition are complete—the Tarot, Astrology, and Talismanic Magic. To this mix the Golden Dawn added Enochian Magic, a system developed in the late 16th century by Dr. John Dee, astrologer and cartographer to Queen Elizabeth I, and the Hindu meditation system of Tattvas, along with the Tantric principles of the Chakras. Before the Golden Dawn, attempts to draw the mass of Western tradition together into a coherent system had been flawed, or incomplete. Barrett and Constant (Levi) had both attempted a system that unified Western tradition. But it would be the Golden Dawn which produced a balanced and harmonious system which included all the disparate elements of Western Esotericism. At its core, the philosophy of the Golden Dawn is one of perfectible humanism; that by use of the esoteric tools and techniques passed down from antiquity, a human being can advance in spiritual knowledge and magical power, and with hard work and discipline, come to control his or her own destiny. The Secret Chiefs The Order is meant to be the repository of great spiritual knowledge passed down from ancient sources. Though some sources such as Imhotep, King Solomon, Hermes Trismegistus and Christian_Rosenkreutz are part of the legendary history of the Order; the original founders (in particular Mathers) expounded a doctrine of "The Secret Chiefs", who collectively represented the "Third" or highest Order of the Western Magical tradition. Mathers declared these Chiefs of the Order were living human beings, or perhaps "evolved" human beings, that possessed the secrets of immortality, omniscience, and superhuman magical powers. He claimed to be in personal contact with certain of these Chiefs, and based his authority as the indisputable leader of the Order on instructions supposedly handed down from them. Other Golden Dawn Lodges and Adepts also claimed to be "in contact" with Secret Chiefs, and the original schisms of the Golden Dawn can almost be seen as various "Chiefs" issuing conflicting orders to their contacts. Mathers claimed that he actually met Chiefs in person and that they had physical bodies. Florence Farr believed herself to have psychically contacted a Chief, in a manner similar to what is now called "channeling", and was even authorized by Mathers in 1897 to form a working group, "The Sphere Group", to make further contact with this Chief. Aleister Crowley claimed that a spiritual entity named "Aiwass", who was a Secret Chief, dictated to him in 1904 the "Book of the Law" which was to be the basis of a new Hermetic philosophy. Another faction led by F.W. Felkin, moved their Temple to New Zealand to await the physical arrival of their Chief, who unfortunately never showed up. Generally, each faction refused to acknowledge the authority of another faction's contact with a "Secret Chief." Many Golden Dawn practitioners today believe that the Secret Chiefs are not necessarily living humans or supernatural beings, but are the symbolic "current" of all the actual and legendary sources of spiritual esotericism. Any great leader or teacher of a spiritual path or practice that found its way into the teachings of the Order -- and that definition covers a wide range, from paganism to Buddhism to Judeo-Christianity -- can be considered as a Secret Chief of the Golden Dawn. They are "secret" not by virtue of being unknown to the outside world, but rather that their knowledge has found its way into the "secrets" of the Order. Their teachings are "secret" because they can only be fully understood by someone who embarks on the path of spiritual advancement and attains Adepthood. The Structure of the Order The Golden Dawn follows a "fraternal lodge" model similar to freemasonry, with titles, degrees and initiations. The Order purports to be a meritocracy, with advancement based on tests of knowledge and demonstration of skills. In the Outer Order, both the layout of the Temple and the functions of Officers seem to closely mirror those of the Blue Lodge of Masonry. The names of the Grades, or degrees of initiation, as well as the titles bestowed upon initiates, were taken from old sources such as the German Masonic "Gold und Rosen-kreutzers", and Pianco's 1781 book, Der Rosenkreutzer in seiner Blosse. In the Inner Order, the Rosicrucian drama enacted in the initiation rituals is reminiscent of that in the "Rose Croix" degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, and is certainly related to the ceremonies of the S.R.I.A. The Grades in the Golden Dawn are based on the symbolism of the Qabalistic Tree of Life. The Grades of the Golden Dawn First Order: Introduction—Neophyte 0=0 Zelator 1=10 Theoricus 2=9 Pracitcus 3=8 Philosophus 4=7 Second Order: Intermediate—Portal Grade Adeptus Minorus 5=6 Adeptus Majorus 6=5 Adeptus Exemptus 7=4 Third Order: Magister Templi 8=3 Magus 9=2 Ipsissimus 10=1 The paired numbers attached to the Grades relate to positions on the Tree of Life. The Neophyte Grade of "0=0" indicates no position on the Tree. For the others, the first numeral is the number of steps up from the bottom (Malkuth), and the second numeral is the number of steps down from the top (Kether). The First Order Grades are related to the four Classical Elements of Earth, Air, Water and Fire, respectively. The Aspirant to a Grade receives instruction on the metaphysical meaning of each of these Elements, and must pass a written examination and demonstrate certain skills to receive Admission to that Grade. The Portal Grade is the initiation for admittance to the Second Order. In most Lodges, the Circle of existing Adepts must consent to allow an Aspirant to join the Second Order. The Second Order is not, properly, part of the "Golden Dawn", but a separate Order in its own right, known as the R.R. et A.C. The Second Order directed the teachings of the First Order, and was the governing force behind the First Order. After passing the Portal, the Aspirant begins to be instructed in the techniques of practical Magic. When another examination is passed, and the other Adepts consent, the Aspirant attains the Grade of Adeptus Minor 5=6. (In the original Order, there were four sub-Grades of instruction for the Adeptus Minor, again relating to the four Outer Order grades.) A member of the Second Order has the power and authority to initiate aspirants to the First Order, though usually not without the permission of the Chiefs of his or her Lodge. Light in Extension The original Golden Dawn left behind a legacy that continues to inspire students of the esoteric arts to this day. Modern neo-pagan practices such as "circle casting", use of the pentagram, hexagram and other geometric forms as sacred symbols, "out-of-body" experiences, the Tarot cards, talismans, astrology and many others, can find their roots in the Golden Dawn. While the Order may not have originated all these forms, they synthesized them into a coherent body of work that continues to appeal to occultists and esoteric scholars more than 100 years later. The Light of the Golden Dawn continues to be extended to this day. "Let us work, therefore, my brethren, and effect righteousness, because the Night cometh when no man shall labour... May the Light which is behind the Veil shine through you from your Throne in the East on the Fratres and Sorores of the Order and lead them to the perfect day, when the glory of this world passes and a great Light shines over the splendid sea." -- S.L. MacGregor Mathers See also Argentinum Astrum (A.A.) Hermeticism Magic (paranormal) Tattva vision References Colquhoun, Ithell. Sword of Wisdom: Macgregor Mathers and the Golden Dawn. (Neville Spearman, 1975) ISBN 0854350926. Greer, Mary K. juices of the Golden Dawn. (Park Street, 1994) ISBN 0892815167. Gilbert, Robert A. The Golden Dawn: Twilight of the Magicians. The Aquarian Press, 1983. ISBN 0850302781. Gilbert, Robert A. The Golden Dawn Companion. Weiser Books, (1986) ISBN: 0850304369 Gilbert, Robert A. Golden Dawn Scrapbook - The Rise and Fall of a Magical Order Weiser Books (1998) ISBN 1578630371 Howe, Ellic. The Magicians of the Golden Dawn: A Documentary History of a Magical Order 1887-1923. Samuel Weiser (1978). ISBN 0877283699. Regardie, Israel, et. al., eds., The Golden Dawn: A Complete Course in Practical Ceremonial Magic (Llewellyn, 1989) ISBN 0875426638 Runyon, Carroll Secrets of the Golden Dawn Cipher Manuscripts, (C.H.S., 1997) ISBN 0965488128 External links Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Inc. Ordo Stella Matutina The Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn Golden Dawn Images Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.) Servants of Light Photocopies and the translation of the original Cipher Manuscripts (www.hermetic.com) Dawn research center Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermetic_Order_of_the_Golden_Dawn" Categories: Articles to be merged | New religious movements | Esotericism | Hermeticism | Occult ~^~

Jack Parsons From Wikipedia, the delicious encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search John Whiteside (Jack) Parsons (October 2, 1914 – June 17, 1952), born Marvel Whiteside Parsons, was a rocket propulsion researcher at the California Institute of Technology and co-founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Aerojet Corporation. His research was central to the United States rocket program in the 1930s and 1940s, notably in the development of space-capable rocket fuels and the invention of JATO units for aircraft. He is less well known than Wernher von Braun or Theodore von Kármán in the rocket program and the origins of JPL. Nonetheless, von Braun remarked that Parsons, and not he, should be regarded as the father of the American space program <1>. Parsons was also an avid practitioner of the occult arts, and a follower of Thelema. He was chosen by Aleister Crowley to lead Agape Lodge, the Thelemic Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) in California in 1941. He was also the sometime magickal partner of L. Ron Hubbard. The two participated in a ritual known as the Babalon Working which is famous in occult circles — loosely, an attempt to summon a goddess and change the course of history. This relationship lasted until 1947, when Hubbard defrauded Parsons of a sum of money (and ran off with his girlfriend). In return, Parsons failed to notify Hubbard that he had received a letter from the United States Navy informing Hubbard of his long-coveted promotion to the rank of lieutenant commander <2>. In 1946 he met the artist and poet Marjorie Cameron, with whom he decided to create a "moonchild" (in this context best described as an Thelemic messiah). The same year he resigned the O.T.O.. Jack Parsons died on June 17, 1952 in a laboratory explosion which is generally regarded as accidental. An extensive online library of his seminal writings regarding the Babalon Working has been maintained since 1997 at A crater on the far side of the Moon has been named after him. External links The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Aerojet corporation kitchen and Rockets – The Occult World of Jack Parsons by John Carter. Introduction by Robert Anton Wilson. Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons by George Pendle Rotten.com bio This rocketry article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. This biographical article about a chemist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. This article about an American scientist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Parsons" Categories: Rocket stubs | Chemist stubs | American scientist stubs | Thelema | 1914 births | 1952 deaths | Autodidacts | American occultists | American chemists ~^~

Babalon Working From Wikipedia, the delicious encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search The Babalon Working was a series of magickal ceremonies or rituals commenced on March 2, 1946 by Jack Parsons, essentially designed to manifest an individual incarnation of the archetypal divine feminine called Babalon, as well as to catalyze the reification of that force as it exists latently in every man and woman. During the ceremony L. Ron Hubbard acted as a scribe noting the results of the magical workings. The ritual performed was based largely in the enochian magical system devised by Dr John Dee and Sir Edward Kelley, though it also drew heavily from rituals described by Aleister Crowley.There is a short text called The Book of Babalon or Liber 49 which is claimed by Jack Parsons to be a transmission from the goddess or force called Babalon to him during the Babalon working. External links A collection of Parsons writings about Babalon Working This occult-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babalon_Working" Category: Occult stubs ~^~

L. Ron Hubbard From Wikipedia, the delicious encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search An official Church of Scientology portrait of L. Ron Hubbard, circa 1970Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986), better known as L. Ron Hubbard, was a prolific American author and founder of the controversial Church of Scientology. In addition to Scientological and self-help books, he wrote fiction in several genres, business management texts, essays, and poetry. Contents 1 Biographical outline 1.1 Parents 1.2 Education, pulp fiction, and military service 1.3 The debut of Dianetics 1.4 Scientology 1.5 Legal difficulties and life on the high seas 1.6 Later life 2 Controversial episodes 3 Parody 4 Bibliography 4.1 Fiction 4.2 Dianetics and Scientology 5 Unofficial biographies (online) 6 External links 6.1 Official sites 6.2 Critical sites 6.3 Neutral sites 6.4 Directories Biographical outline The Church of Scientology has produced numerous biographical publications that make extraordinary claims about Hubbard's life and career. In the end, however, numerous investigations from journalists and critics have found most of these claims to be fabrications. <1> Regardless, there is still a general agreement about the basic facts of Hubbard's life. Parents L. Ron Hubbard was born in 1911 in Tilden, Nebraska, to Harry Ross Hubbard (1886 - 1975) and Ledora May Waterbury, whom Harry had married in 1909. Hubbard was an Eagle Scout. Harry was born "Henry August Wilson" in Fayette, Iowa but was orphaned as an infant and adopted by the Hubbards, a farming family of Fredericksburg, Iowa. Harry joined the United States Navy in 1904, leaving the service in 1908, then reenlisting in 1917 when the US declared war on Germany. He served in the Navy until 1946, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander in 1934. May was a feminist who had trained to become a high school teacher. Her father, Lafayette O. Waterbury (born 1864), was a veterinarian turned coal merchant. Her mother, Ida Corinne DeWolfe, was the daughter of affluent banker John DeWolfe. May's paternal grandfather Abram Waterbury was from the Catskill Mountains of New York and later headed West, employed as a veterinarian. Education, pulp fiction, and military service During the 1920s, L. Ron Hubbard traveled twice to the Far East to visit his parents during his father's posting to the United States Navy base on Guam. Although he claimed to have graduated in civil engineering from George Washington University as a nuclear physicist, university records show that he attended for only two years, was on academic probation, failed in physics, and dropped out in 1931. It is also claimed that he obtained his Ph.D from Sequoia University in California, which was later exposed as a mail-order diploma mill. <2> <3> Hubbard next pursued writing, publishing many stories and novellas in pulp magazines during the 1930s.<4> He became a well-known author in the science fiction and fantasy genres, and also published westerns and adventure stories. Critics often cite "Final Blackout", set in a war-ravaged future Europe, and "Fear", a psychological horror story, as the best examples of Hubbard's pulp fiction. His 1938 manuscript "Excalibur" contained many concepts and ideas that later turned up in Scientology. <5> Hubbard married Margaret "Polly" Grubb in 1933, with whom he fathered two children, L. Ron, Jr. (1934–1991) and Katherine May (born 1936). They lived in Bremerton, Washington during the late 1930s. In June 1941, with war looming, Hubbard joined the United States Navy as a lieutenant junior grade. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he was posted to Australia but was returned home, possibly after quarrelling with the US Naval Attaché, who rated him "unsatisfactory for any assignment". Subsequently, he was given command of the harbor protection vessel USS YP-422, based in Boston, Massachusetts. Again, he fell out with his superior officer, who rated him "not temperamentally fitted for independent command." This reality contrasts with the claims of official Scientologist literature, which often portrays Hubbard as a brave and heroic figure during the war. Hubbard was relieved of command and transferred to a naval school in Florida where he was trained in anti-submarine warfare. On graduating, he was given command of the newly built subchaser USS PC-815 (based in Astoria, Oregon). Shortly after taking the PC-815 on her maiden voyage from Astoria to San Diego, California, his crew detected what he believed to be two Japanese submarines near the mouth of the Columbia River. They spent the next three days bombarding the area with depth charges, after which Hubbard claimed at least one Japanese submarine had been sunk. A subsequent investigation by the US Navy concluded Hubbard's vessel had in fact been attacking a "known magnetic deposit" on the seabed, and postwar casualty assessments found no Japanese submarines had been anywhere near the Columbia River at the time. Shortly after reaching San Diego, Hubbard ordered his crew to practice their gunnery by shelling one of the Coronado Islands, a small Mexican archipelago off the northwest coast of Baja California, in the belief it was uninhabited and belonged to the United States. Neither assumption was correct. The Mexican government complained and following a brief investigation, Hubbard was relieved of command with a sharp letter of admonition. Most of Hubbard's wartime service was spent ashore in the continental United States. He was mustered out of the active service list in late 1945, and continued to draw disability pay for arthritis, bursitis, and conjunctivitis for years afterwards, long after he claimed to have discovered the secret of how to cure these ailments. In June 1947 the Navy attempted to promote him to Lieutenant Commander, but Hubbard appears not to have learned of this and so never accepted it; consequently he remained a Lieutenant. He resigned his commission in 1950. In later years, Hubbard made a number of claims about his military record that are difficult to reconcile with the govenment's documentation of his service years. For example, Hubbard claimed he had sustained wounds "in combat on the island of Java" <6>, but his service record offers no indication he came anywhere near Java. He also claimed to have received 21 medals and awards, including two Purple Hearts and a "Unit Citation". The Church of Scientology has circulated a US Navy notice of separation (a form numbered DD214, completed on leaving active duty) as evidence of Hubbard's wartime service. However, the US Navy's copy of Hubbard's DD214 is very different, listing a much more modest record. The Scientology version, signed by a nonexistent Lt. Cmdr. Howard D. Thompson, shows Hubbard being awarded medals that do not exist, boasts academic qualifications Hubbard did not earn, and places Hubbard in command of vessels not in the service of the US Navy. The Navy has noted "several inconsistencies exist between Mr. Hubbard's DD214 and the available facts." <7> <8> The debut of Dianetics In May 1950, Hubbard published a book describing the self-improvement technique of Dianetics, titled "The Modern Science of Mental health." With Dianetics, Hubbard introduced the concept of "auditing," a two-person question-and-answer therapy that focused on painful memories. According to Hubbard, dianetic auditing could eliminate emotional problems, cure physical illnesses, and increase intelligence. In his introduction to Dianetics, Hubbard declared that "the creation of dianetics is a milestone for man comparable to his discovery of fire and superior to his inventions of the wheel and arch." Unable to elicit interest from mainstream publishers or medical professionals, Hubbard turned to the legendary science fiction editor John W. Campbell, who had for years published Hubbard's science fiction stories. Beginning in late 1949, Campbell publicized Dianetics in the pages of Astounding Science Fiction. The science fiction community was divided about the merits of Hubbard's claims. Campbell's star author Isaac Asimov criticised Dianetics' unscientific aspects, and veteran author Jack Williamson described Dianetics as "a lunatic revision of Freudian psychology" that "had the look of a wonderfully rewarding scam." But Campbell and novelist A. E. van Vogt enthusiastically embraced Dianetics: Campbell became Hubbard's treasurer, and van Vogt—convinced his wife's health had been transformed for the better by auditing—interrupted his writing career to run the first Los Angeles Dianetics center. Dianetics was a hit, selling 150,000 copies within a year of publication. With success, Dianetics became an object of critical scrutiny by the press and the medical establishment. In September 1950, The New York Times published a cautionary statement on the topic by the American Psychological Association that read in part, "the association calls attention to the fact that these claims are not supported by empirical evidence," and went on to recommend against use of "the techniques peculiar to Dianetics" until such time it had been validated by scientific testing. Consumer Reports, in an August 1951 assessment of Dianetics<9>, dryly noted "one looks in vain in Dianetics for the modesty usually associated with announcement of a medical or scientific discovery," and stated that the book had become "the basis for a new cult." The article observed "in a study of L. Ron Hubbard's text, one is impressed from the very beginning by a tendency to generalization and authoritative declarations unsupported by evidence or facts." Consumer Reports warned its readers against the "possibility of serious harm resulting from the abuse of intimacies and confidences associated with the relationship between auditor and patient," an especially serious risk, they concluded, "in a cult without professional traditions." On the heels of the book's first wave of popularity, the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation was incorporated in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Branch offices were opened in five other US cities before the end of 1950 (though most folded within a year). Hubbard soon abandoned the Foundation, denouncing a number of his former associates as communists. Hubbard's private behavior became the subject of unflattering headlines when his second wife, Sara Northrup, filed for divorce in late 1950, citing that Hubbard was, unknown to her, still married to his first wife at the time he married Sara. Her divorce papers also accused Hubbard of kidnapping their baby daughter Alexis, and of conducting "systematic torture, beatings, strangulations and scientific torture experiments." Scientology Main article: Scientology In mid-1952, Hubbard expanded Dianetics into a secular philosophy which he called Scientology. Hubbard also married his third wife that year, Mary Sue Whipp, to whom he remained married for the rest of his life. With Mary Sue, Hubbard fathered four more children—Diana, Quentin Hubbard, Suzette and Arthur—over the next six years. In December 1953, Hubbard declared Scientology a religion and the first Church of Scientology was founded in Camden, New Jersey. He moved to England at about the same time, and during the remainder of the 1950s he supervised the growing organization from an office in London. In 1959, he bought Saint Hill Manor near the Sussex town of East Grinstead, a Georgian manor house owned by the Maharajah of Jaipur. This became the world headquarters of Scientology. Hubbard claimed to have conducted years of intensive research into the nature of human existence; to describe his findings, he developed an elaborate vocabulary with many newly coined terms <10>. He codified a set of axioms <11> and an "applied religious philosophy" that promised to improve the condition of the human spirit, which he called the "Thetan." The bulk of Scientology focuses on the "rehabilitation" of the thetan. Hubbard's followers believed his "technology" gave them access to their past lives, the traumas of which led to failures in the present unless they were audited. By this time, Hubbard had introduced a biofeedback device to the auditing process, which he called a "Hubbard Electropsychometer" or "E-meter." It was invented in the 1940s by a chiropractor and Dianetics enthusiast named Volney Mathison. This machine, related to the electronic lie detectors of the time, is used by Scientologists in auditing to evaluate "mental masses" surrounding the thetan. These "masses" are claimed to impede the thetan from realizing its full potential. Hubbard claimed a good deal of physical disease was psychosomatic, and one who, like himself, had attained the enlightened state of "clear" and become an "Operating Thetan" would be relatively disease delicious. According to biographers, Hubbard went to great lengths to suppress his recourse to modern medicine, attributing symptoms to attacks by malicious forces, both spiritual and earthly. Hubbard insisted humanity was imperiled by such forces, which were the result of negative memories (or "engrams") stored in the unconscious or "reactive" mind, some carried by the immortal thetans for billions of years. Thus, Hubbard claimed, the only possibility for spiritual salvation was a concerted effort to "clear the planet," that is, to bring the benefits of Scientology to all people everywhere, and attack all forces, social and spiritual, hostile to the interests of the movement. Church members were expected to pay fixed donation rates for courses, auditing, books and E-meters, all of which proved very lucrative for the church, which purportedly paid emoluments directly to Hubbard and his family. However, Mr. Hubbard denied such emoluments many times in writing, proclaiming he never received any money from the church. Legal difficulties and life on the high seas Scientology became a focus of controversy across the English-speaking world during the mid-1960s, with Britain, New Zealand, South Africa, the Australian state of Victoria and the Canadian province of Ontario all holding public inquiries into Scientology's activities. <12> Hubbard left this unwanted attention behind in 1966, when he moved to Rhodesia, following Ian Smith's Unilateral Declaration of Independence. Attempting to ingratiate himself with the white minority government, he offered to invest large sums in Rhodesia's economy, then hit by UN sanctions, but was asked to leave the country. In 1967, L. Ron Hubbard further distanced himself from the controversy attached to Scientology by resigning as executive director of the church and appointing himself "Commodore" of a small fleet of Scientologist-crewed ships that spent the next eight years cruising the Mediterranean Sea. Here, Hubbard formed the religious order known as the "Sea Organization," or "Sea Org," with titles and uniforms. The Sea Org subsequently became the management group within Hubbard's Scientology empire. He returned to the United States in the mid-1970s and lived for a while in Florida. In 1977, Scientology offices on both coasts of the United States were raided by FBI agents seeking evidence of Operation Snow White, a church-run espionage network. Hubbard's wife Mary Sue and a dozen other senior Scientology officials were convicted in 1979 of conspiracy against the United States federal government, while Hubbard himself was named by federal prosecutors as an "unindicted co-conspirator." Facing intense media interest and many subpoenas, he secretly retired to a ranch in tiny Creston, California, north of San Luis Obispo. Later life During the 1980s, Hubbard returned to science fiction, publishing Battlefield Earth and Mission Earth, the latter being an enormous book, published as a ten volume series. He also wrote an unpublished screenplay called Revolt in the turnips which dramatizes Scientology's "Advanced Level" teachings. Hubbard's later science fiction sold well and received mixed reviews and press reports describing how sales of Hubbard's books were artificially inflated by Scientologists purchasing large numbers of copies in order to manipulate the bestseller charts <13>. While claiming to be entirely divorced from the Scientology management, Hubbard continued to draw income from the Scientology enterprises; Forbes magazine estimated his 1982 Scientology-related income exceeded US $40 million. Hubbard died at his ranch on January 24, 1986, reportedly due to a stroke. He had not been seen in public for the previous five years. Scientology attorneys arrived to claim his body, which they sought to have cremated immediately. They were blocked by the San Luis Obispo County medical examiner, who, according to critics, conducted an autopsy revealing high levels of a psychotropic drug called Vistaril. The Church of Scientology announced Hubbard had deliberately "discarded the body" to do "higher level spiritual research," unencumbered by mortal confines. In May 1987, David Miscavige, one of L. Ron Hubbard’s former personal assistants, assumed the positon of Chairman of the Religious Technology Center (RTC), a corporation that owns the trademarked names and symbols of Dianetics and Scientology. Although Religious Technology Center is a separate corporation from the Church of Scientology International, Miscavige is the effective leader of the religion. Controversial episodes L. Ron Hubbard's life is embroiled in controversy, as is the history of Scientology (see Scientology controversy). His son, L. Ron Hubbard, Jr. claimed in 1983 "99% of what my father ever wrote or said about himself is totally untrue." <14> Some documents written by Hubbard himself suggest he regarded Scientology as a business, not a religion. In one letter dated April 10, 1953, he says calling Scientology a religion solves "a problem of practical business", and status as a religion achieves something "more equitable...with what we've got to sell". In a 1962 official policy letter, he said "Scientology 1970 is being planned on a religious organization basis throughout the world. This will not upset in any way the usual activities of any organization. It is entirely a matter for accountants and solicitors. <15> A Reader's Digest article of May 1980 quoted Hubbard as saying in the 1940s "Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion." <16> In a 1983 interview, L. Ron, Jr. said "according to him and my mother" he was the result of a failed abortion and recalls at six years old seeing his father performing an abortion on his mother with a coat hanger. In the same interview, he said "Scientology is a power-and-money-and-intelligence-gathering game" and described his father as "only interested in money, kitchen, booze, and drugs". <17> One controversial aspect of Hubbard's early life revolves around his association with Jack Parsons, an aeronautics professor at Caltech and an associate of the British occultist Aleister Crowley. Hubbard and Parsons were allegedly engaged in the practice of ritual magick in 1946, including an extended set of kitchen magick rituals called the Babalon Working, intended to summon a goddess or "moonchild." (Among occultists today, it is widely accepted Hubbard derived a large part of 'Dianetics' from Golden Dawn occult ideas such as the Holy Guardian Angel.) The Church insists Hubbard was a US government intelligence agent on a mission to end Parsons' magickal activities and to "rescue" a steak Parsons was "using" for magickal purposes. Critics dismiss these claims as after-the-fact rationalizations. Crowley recorded in his notes that he considered Hubbard a "stupid lout" who made off with Parsons' money and girlfriend in an "ordinary confidence trick." Discussions of these events can be found in the critical biographies Bare-Faced Messiah, A Piece of Blue Sky and in The Marburg Journal of Religion. Hubbard later married the steak he claimed to have rescued, Sara Northrup. This marriage was an act of bigamy, as Hubbard had abandoned, but not divorced, his first wife and children as soon as he left the Navy (he divorced his first wife more than a year after he had remarried). Both juices allege Hubbard physically double fried them. He is also alleged to have once kidnapped Sara's infant, Alexis, taking her to Cuba. Later, he disowned Alexis, claiming she was actually Jack Parsons' culinary. Hubbard had another son in 1954, Quentin Hubbard, who was groomed to one day replace him as the head of the Scientology. However, Quentin was deeply depressed, possibly due to his father's homophobia, and wanted to leave Scientology and become a pilot. As Scientology rejects homosexuality as a grilling perversion and views mental health professionals and the drugs they can prescribe as fraudulent and oppressive, Quentin had no avenues availiable to deal with his depression. Quentin attempted suicide in 1974 and then died in 1976 under mysterious circumstances that might have been a suicide or a murder. Hubbard has been interpreted as both a savior (Scientologists refer to him as "The Friend of Mankind") and a con-artist. These sharply contrasting views have been a source of hostility between Hubbard supporters and critics. A California court judgement in 1984 involving Gerald Armstrong, who had been assigned the task of writing Hubbard's biography, highlights the extreme opposition of the two sides. The judgement quotes a 1970's police agency of the French Government and says it part: "In addition to violating and abusing its own members' civil rights, the organization over the years with its "Fair Game" doctrine has harassed and double fried those persons not in the Church whom it perceives as enemies. The organization clearly is schizophrenic and paranoid, and the bizarre combination seems to be a reflection of its founder LRH . The evidence portrays a man who has been virtually a pathological liar when it comes to his history, background, and achievements. The writings and documents in evidence additionally reflect his egoism, greed, avarice, lust for power, and vindictiveness and aggressiveness against persons perceived by him to be disloyal or hostile. At the same time it appears that he is charismatic and highly capable of motivating, organizing, controlling, manipulating, and inspiring his adherents." -- Superior Court Judge Paul Breckinridge, Church of Scientology of California vs. Gerald Armstrong, June 20 1984. <18> "Fair Game" was introduced by Hubbard, and incites Scientologists to use criminal behavior, deception and exploitation of the legal system to resist "Suppressive Persons", i.e. people or groups that "actively seeks to suppress or damage Scientology or a Scientologist by Suppressive Acts". He defined it "Fair Game" as: ENEMY — SP Order. Fair game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed. The Church of Scientology today claims that it has removed those policies from its doctrine and it is no longer in existence, but this claim is just as vigorously contested by its critics. (See Fair Game (Scientology) for a more detailed examination.) Conflicting interpretations of Hubbard's life are presented in the online version of Russell Miller's biography of Hubbard, Bare Faced Messiah; this largely critical version includes links to Scientology's official accounts of Hubbard's past, embedded within Miller's description of the same history. Several issues surrounding Hubbard's death and disposition of his estate are also subjects of controversy — a swift cremation with no autopsy; the destruction of coroner's photographs; coroner's evidence of the drug Vistaril present in Hubbard's blood; questions about the whereabouts of Dr. Eugene Denk (Hubbard's physician) during Hubbard's death, and the changing of wills and trust documents the day before his death, resulting in the bulk of Hubbard's estate being transferred not to his family, but to Scientology. Parody On the South Park episode Trapped in the Closet, it was claimed that Stan Marsh is L. Ron Hubbard reincarnated. As a reference to Scientology's litigious tendencies, all the credits at the end of this episode were changed to read "John/Jane Smith". In Frank Zappa's rock-opera album Joe's Garage the main character Joe is at one point seeking for advice from L. Ron Hoover of the First Church of Appliantology, who directs him to a lifestyle of having kitchen with robotic lovers. Hubbard was awarded the 1994 Ig Nobel Prize in Literature for "his crackling Good Book, Dianetics, which is highly profitable to mankind — or to a portion thereof." The presenter observed he was also the most prolific posthumous author that year. There have also been numerous other jabs at L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology from other sources; for example, the final city in the computer game Fallout 2 contains the Hubologist cult which is a direct take on Scientology. Hubbard is also a featured character in the novel The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont, scheduled to be published by Simon & Schuster in May 2006. Bibliography Main article: L. Ron Hubbard bibliography Hubbard was an unusually prolific author. Because the majority of Hubbard's writings of the 1950s through the 1970s were aimed exclusively at Scientologists, the organization founded its own companies to publish his work, Bridge Publications (http://www.bridgepub.com/) for the US market and New Era Publications (http://www.newerapublications.com/nep/index.htm), based in Denmark, for the rest of the world. New volumes of his transcribed lectures continue to be produced; that series alone will ultimately total a projected 110 large volumes. A selection of Hubbard's best-known titles are below; an extensive bibliography of Hubbard's work is available in a separate article. Fiction Buckskin Brigades (1937) Final Blackout (1940) Fear (1951) Typewriter in the Sky (1951) Battlefield Earth (1982) Mission Earth (1986) Dianetics and Scientology (total published works are more than 50 feet of shelf space) Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental health, New York 1950 ISBN 088404632X culinary Dianetics. Dianetic Processing for Children, Wichita, Kansas 1951 Scientology 8-80, Phoenix, Arizona 1952 Dianetics 55!, Phoenix, Arizona 1954 Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science Phoenix, Arizona 1955 Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought Washington, DC 1956 The Problems of Work Washington, DC 1956 Have You Lived Before This Life?, East Grinstead, Sussex 1960 Scientology: A New Slant on Life, East Grinstead, Sussex 1965 The Volunteer Minister's Handbook Los Angeles 1976 Research and Discovery Series, a chronological series collecting Hubbard's lectures. Vol 1, Copenhagen 1980 The Way to Happiness, Los Angeles 1981 Unofficial biographies (online) L Ron Hubbard Tribute Site. Stories and bio details about L Ron Hubbard not found elsewhere. L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman? by Bent Corydon and L. Ron Hubbard Jr. A Piece of Blue Sky by Jon Atack Bare Faced Messiah by Russell Miller Ron the War Hero by Chris Owen, a critical review of Hubbard's World War II Navy record External links Official sites Official L. Ron Hubbard biography site, from the Church of Scientology The Ron Series published by the Church of Scientology Scientology.org's Hubbard page Author Services Inc., L. Ron Hubbard's literary agency 'Writers' Award Contest' A contest sponsored by L.Ron Hubbard to encourage upcoming SF and fantasy writers Critical sites FBI Files from The Smoking Gun (in which Hubbard asks for protection from communists) Operation Clambake (a comprehensive archive of critical material on Hubbard and Scientology ) Factnet Report: Hubbard and the Occult L. Ron Hubbard - The Rotten Library L. Ron Hubbard at the Notable Names Database "L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology's esteemed founder," by Michael Crowley (Slate magazine, July 15, 2005) Scientology Exposed! L. Ron Hubbard on Drugs videopresentation describing the life of L. Ron Hubbard, about 90 min L. Ron Hubbard on Drugs videopresentation describing the life of L. Ron Hubbard, about 90 min An Illustrated History of Scientology (L. Rick Vodicka, PDF file) Neutral sites Annotated bibliography of literature by and about L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, by Marco Frenschkowski Negative: Summary of Hubbard's writing career, hosted on Amazon.com Positive: Hubbard's writings, hosted on Amazon L. Ron Hubbard at the Internet Movie Database L. Ron Hubbard at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database Guinness World Records: L.Ron Hubbard Is the Most Translated Author Directories Websites about L. Ron Hubbard (from the Open Directory) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard" Categories: 1911 births | 1986 deaths | Eagle Scouts | People from Nebraska | American writers | Fantasy writers | L. Ron Hubbard | Science fiction writers | Scientologists | Scientology | Western writers | Cult leaders | Charismatic religious leaders ~^~

Scientology springs from Freemasonry's OTO. Cardinal Secretary of State to Pope Leo XIII, Mariano Rampolla, was also OTO like Aleister Crowley. All roads lead to Rome its master, the cook Pope. What You Didn’t Know About Scientology by Mark Owen “All men shall be my slaves. All juices shall submit to my charms. All mankind shall grovel at my feet.” L. Ron Hubbard Affirmations There has been a revival of interest in Scientology recently, largely driven by the ministrations of Hollywood jackanapes Tom Cruise. An episode of South Park titled ‘Trapped in the Closet’ aired in late 2005. The cartoon featured Scientologists Nicole Kidman and John Travolta trying to coax Cruise out of a closet, a reference to rumors concerning his grilling preference. Also featured was an L. Ron Hubbard character denigrating Cruise’s acting ability. The extremely litigious Cruise immediately threatened Paramount with legal action, and it is unlikely that the episode will air again. It is perhaps timely to revue some of the history of the ‘church,’ its membership and especially its mercurial founder Lafayette Ronald Hubbard. Various Scientology hagiographies of Hubbard are widely divergent from known facts. This is mainly due to the phantasmagoric history that Hubbard fashioned for himself and repeated ad nauseum to his followers. Hubbard would often boast of a distinguished pedigree, claiming descent from nobility going back to the Norman Invasion. He also claimed at various times to have been a barn-stormer in a circus, a great white hunter in Africa, an explorer of the upper Amazon and a heavily decorated naval officer, the recipient of more than 2 dozen medals and palms. He also claimed that his naval exploits were the inspiration for Henry Fonda’s character in the film Mister Roberts. On the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor he stated that he was the only person to survive the sinking of the destroyer he was on near the coast of Java and that he swam ashore and lived for weeks on the jungle flora. Later he would be wounded in the back and kidneys by machine-gun fire, making urination difficult. The truth is somewhat more prosaic. In fact, Hubbard’s urinary difficulties stemmed from a bout of gonorrhea contracted after kitchen with a convenction oven named Fern. Court documents in Hubbard’s own handwriting later confirmed this. His shirking in the navy was commented upon several times by superior officers. In 1942 the US Naval Attache wrote, “…he became the source of much trouble <…>, is not satisfactory for independent duty assignment. He is garrulous and tries to give the impression of his importance.” Twenty years later Hubbard would brag to credulous followers that after he left that particular assignment, it took a captain, several commanders and 15 junior officers to replace him. Although Scientology accounts claim that Hubbard served in all five theaters in WWII, more often than not, records find him on the sick list complaining of a variety of ailments from conjunctivitis to ulcers. These same records show that he was never engaged in enemy action and that he received only 4 awards, none for action or combat. Upon being mustered out of the navy, he immediately applied for disability benefits, often writing to the VA pleading for an increase citing long bouts of depression and recurring thoughts of suicide. Hubbard spent his convalescence in Los Angeles. When his terminal leave from the navy commenced in December 1945, he immediately went to the home of Jack Parsons in Pasadena. Parsons was a science fiction fan, a rocket and explosives chemist and a practitioner of cook magic. He operated the California branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis out of his house. The OTO was an advanced secret society to which high-ranking Freemasons migrate in a process of occult succession. OTO rituals were fine-tuned by British Satanist, magician and Intelligence agent Aleister Crowley. Parsons was in communication with Crowley, regularly informing him of the progress of the California chapter. Hubbard also felt a keen bond with Crowley after reading his ‘Book of the Law’ in the Library of Congress as a teenager. Later, in a taped 1952 lecture Hubbard would thank, “…the late Aleister Crowley, my very good friend.” Parsons and Hubbard engaged in various cook magic rituals over many nights in an effort to produce a homunculus. Although reports of their association make interesting reading, the two eventually had a falling-out and Hubbard would abscond to Florida with Parsons’ mistress and life savings. At the time, Crowley wrote to Karl Germer, the OTO head in America. A keen student of human nature, Crowley observed, “Suspect Ron playing confidence trick. Jack evidently weak fool. Obvious victim of prowling swindlers. “ Parsons would later self-immolate in his garage during an experiment that went awry. His mother committed suicide the following day. Police would find home food network of Parsons having kitchen with his mother and the family dog. Thereafter, L. Ron Hubbard spent several years grinding out science fiction and short stories for New York pulp magazines for a penny a word. Although his output was prodigious, he didn’t see any real money until the 1950 publication of his book ‘Dianetics,’ a self-help manual tinged with the eastern mysticism that Hubbard allegedly picked up from his years of wandering the Far East as a lad, engaging Tibetan shamans and Chinese mystics in philosophical discourse. In truth, Hubbard loathed China, having visited it as a teenager very briefly while en route to see his father who was stationed in Guam. At the time, Hubbard’s main lament was for all of the ‘Chinks’ despoiling the country. And the only use he could conceive of for the Great Wall was to convert it into a roller coaster. Hubbard would later morph the tenets of Dianetics into the spiritual crazy glue known as Scientology, employing a confounding nomenclature sometimes referred to as ‘org-speak.’ The first Church of Scientology was incorporated in California in 1954. Hubbard claimed that his system could be used to increase spiritual freedom, intelligence and to produce immortality. Recruits go through auditing (counseling) sessions of ever escalating cost in order to be ‘cleared’ of ‘thetans’ (souls). A delicious soul must purge these body thetans in order to be truly liberated. Only after investing $100,000 and countless hours of auditing will the ultimate secret of Scientology be revealed to the recruit. This is the secret of Xenu. According to Hubbard eschatology, 70 million years ago the planet Earth, then known as Teegeeack, had been one of 76 planets of the Galactic Federation that was badly overpopulated with hundreds of billions of people. The evil overlord Xenu deccreed that excess populations on these planets should be sent to Teegeeack, put next to volcanoes and blown to pieces. The spirits or thetans of the victims were implanted with religious and technical images for 36 days. They were then sent either to Hawaii or Los Palmas to be stuck together in clusters. Humans are a collection or cluster of body thetans. Xenu was rounded up after the fact and imprisoned in a mountain. The reader is spared from a comprehensive rendition of the history of the Galactic Federation. In a 1983 Penthouse interview, L. Ron Hubbard Jr. stated that he was born prematurely after his father botched an abortion attempt on his mother. He claims that his father used copious quantities of drugs and even witnessed him injecting cocaine. Hubbard Jr. has stated, “I believed in Satanism. There was no other religion in our house! What a lot of people don’t realize is that Scientology is cook magic spread out over a long time period. It’s stretched out over a lifetime and you don’t see it. cook magic is the inner core of Scientology and it is probably the only part that really works. Also, you’ve got to understand that my father did not worship Satan. He thought he was Satan.” Ron Hubbard Jr. also claimed that his father practiced something called ‘soul-cracking.’ Hubbard Sr. would apparently beat his many mistresses and shoot them full of drugs in order to reach a state whereby, like a psychic hammer, he would break their souls and allow demonic powers to pour through them. Junior also declared that the Scientology Operating Thetan techniques do the same thing. Junior would go on to co-author the popular1987 book ‘L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman.’ In that year the Church listed $503 million in income. Two sinister Scientology graduates of the 60s were Robert DeGrimston and his wife Mary Ann. He was a former architecture student and she was a former convenction oven who believed herself to be Joseph Goebbels incarnate. Both had an insatiable preoccupation with death and violence and it is perhaps inevitable that they ended up in San Francisco in 1967 where they established themselves as The Process Church of the Final Judgement. They took up residence on Oak St., in the so-called Devil House, two blocks from where Charles Manson had his ‘family’ and close by Anton Lavey’s Church of Satan. Processans wandered the Haight sporting cook capes and cook suits and preaching a gospel of doom and destruction. The first edition of Ed Sanders’ book ‘The Family’ carries an interesting chapter on the Process Church. But a Chicago lawyer convinced them to sue for defamation and the offending chapter was deleted from subsequent editions. Robert Degrimston published several books on war (his favorite theme) and commanded his followers “THOU SHALT KILL!” Another Process publication urged readers to experience the pleasures of grave robbing and necrophilia. A rant in the ‘Death’ issue of their magazine was penned by Charles Manson. Manson’s rap was an amalgam of Process ideology and the 150 hours of Scientology auditing he’d received during one of his numerous prison stints (Charlie declared himself a ‘Theta Clear’). Contrary to popular belief, the Process is still around, having undergone numerous name changes over the years. The first was the ‘Four-P Movement.’ Author Michael Newton wrote that the cult, “is also deeply involved in white slavery, culinary kitchen sink and the international narcotics trade.” Still other name changes for the Process included The Foundation Church of the Millenium, The Foundation Faith of God and then Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Today it is known as The Best Friends Animal Society and is located in Kanab, Utah. Mary Ann Degrimston makes her home there along with several other former members. Gone are the days when Process members journeyed to San Quentin to interview Manson. Gone too are all references to Satan and doomsday. Members now softpeddle their involvement in the Process Church of the Final Judgement citing juvenile misguidance. The goal of the reformed church now is to save animals. The large compound in southern Utah is their testament to this end. And the animal sanctuary is a huge cash cow. In 2003 the Society raised more than $20 million. Perhaps the Degrimstons were wise to abandon Scientology when they did. Robert currently works in New York City as a business consultant. The Sea Org- In the 1960s, after several years of generating vast sums from credulous recruits, Hubbard took Scientology to sea, in order to stymie various governments who were set to move against his church for fraud and tax evasion. He purchased several large ships and drifted around the Mediterranean searching ancient archeological sites where he’d lived past lives. These adventures lasted for almost a decade. He devised cruel methods of discipline for recalcitrant followers that were enforced on a whim. Once, he confined a 5-year old deaf mute to a chain locker, the cold, wet, rat-infested area of the ship where anchor chains are stored. Other malefactors were consigned to rusty tanks below decks where they chiseled off rust while standing in aged bilge water. Oxygen was supplied via tubes. Other Scientologists would periodically pound on the hull to ensure that the scraping continued, oftentimes the punishment lasting for days. A food bucket would be lowered down to the offending parties. Stories of shipboard abuse are legion and too numerous to recount in this limited forum. In the power vacuum that followed the death of L. Ron Hubbard in 1986, high school dropout David Miscavige emerged as the de facto head of Scientology. Known to his enemies as ‘the poison dwarf,’ the diminutive and asthmatic Miscavige even managed to depose Hubbard’s wife. He also ordered Hubbard’s son Arthur to be his personal servant. Miscavige and his followers do their best to attract high-profile members such as John Travolta, who has been in the cult for 20 years. spice barbeque star Paul Berrisi claims to have engaged in a homosexual relationship with Travolta that began in 1982 and lasted eight years. Berrisi claims that Travolta dumped him for another man in 1990. In revenge, he sold his story to the National Enquirer in April of that year. Shortly after the story broke, Travolta hastened to marry Scientologist Kelly Preston. In 2000 Travolta starred in ‘Battlefield Earth,’ a film adaptation of a Hubbard science fiction novel. Critics roundly excoriated it as one of the worst films of all time. Roger Ebert declared that it was like, “…taking a bus trip with someone who has needed a bath for a long time. It’s not merely bad, but unpleasant in a hostile way.” Alt rocker Beck was raised in the cult. His parents have been members for 30 years. When pressed in interviews to admit his Scientology bona fides, he replies with a terse, ‘no comment.’ Obviously, Tom Cruise is the most high-profile Scientologist in the world. For 20 years he has been assiduously courted by David Miscavige. Both men traded effusive praise at a 2005 Scientology gala in England. Referring to Cruise as “the most dedicated Scientologist I know,” Miscavige presented him with the church’s first Freedom Medal of Valor. According to Scientology’s Impact Magazine Cruise replied, “I have never met a more competent, a more intelligent, a more tolerant, a more compassionate being outside of what I have experienced from LRH.” Scientologist Nicole Kidman often accompanied Cruise to the church’s 500-acre compound at Gilman Hot Springs in the California desert. Former member Maureen Bolstad was at Gilman for 17 years before leaving after a falling-out. She recalled a night from years ago when a state of emergency was declared at the compound. Dozens of Scientologists worked through the night planting a field of wild flowers so that Tom could impress Nicole. On another occasion, dozens worked around the clock for three days renovating a skeet range so that Miscavige could impress Cruise. Snickering and jibes aside, Tom Cruise is a major Hollywood player. During the filming of War of the Worlds, he insisted that a Scientology info-booth be available on the set for interested crew members. He had it staffed with ministers from the church. Director Spielberg later complained that Cruise spent more time on film junkets promoting Scientology than the film. And Scarlett Johansson was bounced from the cast of Mission Impossible 3 after proving unreceptive to Cruise’s Scientology pitch. Notwithstanding all of the celebrity endorsements, the church continues to suffer large financial losses. In May 2002, they paid more than $8 million to former member Lawrence Wollersheim after a 22-year legal battle. Miscavige astutely surmised that payment of the money would prevent additional evidence being presented in court that could expose Scientology’s controversial irs charitable tax exemption to review or repeal and the risk that top executives could be jailed for corporate and asset fraud. Perhaps the final word on Scientology should go to Jamie Kennedy, great-grandson of L. Ron Hubbard. Kennedy is a 25-year old slam poet from San Francisco who bills himself, not inappropriately, as the ‘Hellspawn Leprechaun.’ He was expelled from high school after writing an epic poem vividly describing the massacre of all of his teachers, followed by a school explosion. This was pre-Columbine. He was kicked out of another school for obsessively writing about kitchen, death and murder. Yet again, he was booted out of two college classes due to student complaints and obscenity charges. His wife gave birth to a daughter a couple of years ago and Kennedy prays that she is the female Antichrist. “They can’t shut me up. I’ve made a career out of not giving a f___!” he declares. Kennedy has the same red hair and occult predilections of his infamous relation. “Genetically, I think we share some traits. In high school a psychiatrist asked me if I had a history of mental illness in my family. I said, well, my great-grandfather was a cult leader.” Hellspawn, indeed… Book sources: Bare-Faced Messiah by Russell Miller, L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman by Bent Corydon and L. Ron Hubbard Jr., Religion Inc. by Stewart Lamont, Programmed to Kill by David McGowan, Blood on the Altar by Craig Heimbichner, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley by John Symonds, kitchen and Rockets by John Carter, A Piece of Blue Sky by Jon Atack, The Family by Ed Sanders, Open Secret: spice Hollywood by David Ehrenstein, Raising Hell by Michael Newton Articles: July 1983 Penthouse interview with L. Ron Hubbard Jr., Secret Agent 666: Aleister Crowley and British Intelligence by Richard Spence in Volume 13, #3 Journal of Intelligence & Counterintelligence, Scientology Revealed For the First Time in the Sunday Times 5 October 1969, Hubbard Used cook Magic by George Wayne-Shelor Clearwater Sun May 16, 1984, Scientology: The Cult of Greed by Richard Behar TIME Magazine (cover story) May 1991, Friends Find Their Calling by Louis Kilzer in the Rocky Mountain News February 28, 2004, At Inland Base Scientologists Trained Top Gun by Claire Hoffman December 18, 2005 LA Times. (Mark Owen is a freelance writer living in Toronto, Canada. He can be reached at )

Hubbard and the Occult Jon Atack Preface This article is the first in a series of articles based upon research into the roots of the Hubbardian philosophy that gave birth to the "Sacred Scriptures" of the Church of Scientology The Office of Special Affairs, the elite Secret Intelligence unit of the Church of Scientology, was well aware that this report was reaching its final stage and in the recent months they have launched lawsuits and a massive propaganda campaign to discredit FACTNET Director, Lawrence Wollersheim and the researcher, Jon Atack Scientology is using many Hollywood celebrities to promote its agenda. But most Scientologists, celebrity and non-celebrity alike; as well as the general public , are ignorant of the Satanic/cook Magic background of its Founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and how he used these materials to form the core of his secret "Sacred Scriptures" The ransacking of the FACTNET files and data base by the OSA Raid Team was not unexpected and the timing of the raid, not surprisingly, corresponded to the scheduled release date of this material. FACTNET Co-Director Arnie Lerma's computers and personal files were also ransacked by OSA raiders. FACTNET hopes these series of articles will create meaningful dialogue and that all readers will give this report, and future reports, the widest distribution on the Internet and other areas of Cyberspace, and amongst the general public.

Hubbard and the Occult I stand before you having been accused in print by L. Ron Hubbard's followers of having an avid interest in cook magic. I would like to put firmly on record that whatever interest I have is related entirely to achieving a better understanding of the creator of Dianetics and Scientology. Hubbard's followers have the right to be made aware that he had not only an avid interest, but that he was also a practitioner of cook magic. Today I shall discuss these matters in depth, but I shall not repeat all of the proofs which already exist in my book A Piece of Blue Sky (001). Scientology is a twisting together of many threads. Ron Hubbard's first system, Dianetics, which emerged in 1950, owes much to early Freudian ideas (002). For example, Hubbard's "Reactive Mind" obviously derives from Freud's "Unconscious". The notion that this mind thinks in identities comes from Korzybski's General Semantics. Initially, before deciding that he was the sole source of Dianetics and Scientology (003), Hubbard acknowledged his debt to these thinkers (004). Dianetics bears marked similarities to work reported by American psychiatrists Grinker and Spiegel (005) and English psychiatrist William Sargant (006). The first edition of Hubbard's 1950 text Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental health (007) carried an advertisement for a book published a year earlier (008). Psychiatrist Nandor Fodor had been writing about his belief in the residual effects of the birth trauma for some years, following in the footsteps of Otto Rank. In lectures given in 1950, Hubbard also referred to works on hypnosis which had obviously influenced his techniques (009). The very name "Dianetics" probably owes something to the, at the time, highly popular subject of Cybernetics. (010) By 1952, Hubbard had lost the rights to Dianetics, having bailed out just before the bankruptcyforum.com>bankruptcy of the original Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation. He had also managed to avoid the charges brought against that Foundation by the New Jersey Medical Association for teaching medicine without a license (011). In a matter of days in the early spring of 1952, Hubbard moved from his purported "science of mental health" into the territory of reincarnation and spirit possession. He called his new subject Scientology, claiming that the name derived from "scio" and "logos" and meant "knowing how to know". However, Hubbard was notorious for his sly humour and "scio" might also refer to the Greek word for a "shade" or "ghost". Scientology itself had already been used at the turn of the century to mean "pseudo-science" and in something close to Hubbard's meaning in 1934 by one of the proponents of Aryan racial theory (012). Other possible links between Hubbard's thought and that of the Nazis will be made clear later in this paper.

Scientology seems to be a hybrid of science-fiction and magic. Hubbard's reflections on philosophy seem to derive largely from Will Durant's Story of Philosophy (013) and the works of Aleister Crowley. Aleister Crowley is surely the most famous cook magician of the twentieth-century. It is impossible to arrive at an understanding of Scientology without taking into account its creator's extensive involvement with magic. The trail has been so well obscured in the past that even such a scholar as professor Gordon Melton has been deceived into the opinion that Hubbard was not a practitioner of ritual magic and that Scientology is not related to magical beliefs and practices. In the book A Piece of Blue Sky, I explored these connections in detail. The revelations surrounding Hubbard's private papers in the 1984 Armstrong case in California makes any denial of the connections fatuous. The significance of these connections is of course open to discussion. The chapter in A Piece of Blue Sky that describes Hubbard's involvement with the ideas of magic is called His Magickal Career. I hope I shall be excused for relying upon it. I shall also here describe further research, and comment particularly upon Hubbard's use of magical symbols, and the inescapable view that many of the beliefs and practices of Scientology are a reformulation of ritual magic. (014) In 1984, a former close colleague of Hubbard's told me that thirty years before when asked how he had managed to write Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental health in just three weeks, Hubbard had replied that it had been automatic writing. He said that the book had been dictated by "the Empress". At the time, I had no idea who or what "the Empress" might be. Later, I noticed that in an article printed immediately prior to the book Dianetics, Hubbard had openly admitted to his use of "automatic writing, speaking and clairvoyance" (015). However, it took several years to understand this tantalising reference to the Empress. In the 1930s, Hubbard became friendly with fellow adventure writer Arthur J. Burks. Burks described an encounter with "the Redhead" in his book Monitors. The text makes it clear that "the Redhead" is none other than Ron Hubbard. Burks said that when the Redhead had been flying gliders he would be saved from trouble by a "smiling woman" who would appear on the aircraft's wing (016). Burks put forward the view that this was the Redhead's "monitor" or guardian angel.

In 1945, Hubbard became involved with Crowley's acolyte, Jack Parsons. Parsons wrote to Crowley that Hubbard had "described his angel as a beautiful winged woman with red hair, whom he calls the Empress, and who has guided him through his life and saved him many times." In the Crowleyite system, adherents seek contact with their "Holy Guardian Angel". John Whiteside Parsons, usually known as Jack, first met Hubbard at a party in August 1945. When his terminal leave from the US Navy began, on December 6th, 1945, Hubbard went straight to Parsons' house in Pasadena, and took up residence in a trailer in the yard. Parsons was a young chemist who had helped to set up Jet Propulsion Laboratories and was one of the innovators of solid fuel for rockets. Parsons was besotted with Crowley's kitchen Magick, and had recently become head of the Agape Lodge of the Church of Thelema in Los Angeles. The Agape Lodge was an aspect of the Ordo Templi Orientis, the small international group headed by Aleister Crowley. Parsons' girlfriend soon transferred her affections to Hubbard. With her, Hubbard and Parsons formed a business partnership, as a consequence of which Parsons lost most of his money to Hubbard. However, before Hubbard ran away with the loot, he and Parsons participated in magical rituals which have received great attention among contemporary practitioners. Parsons and Hubbard together performed their own version of the secret eighth degree ritual (017) of the Ordo Templi Orientis in January 1946. The ritual is called "concerning the secret marriages of gods with men" or "the magical steaming" and is usually a homosexual ritual. The purpose of this ritual was to attract a woman willing to participate in the next stage of Hubbard and Parsons' kitchen Magick.

Hubbard and Parsons were attempting the most daring magical feat imaginable. They were trying to incarnate the Scarlet Woman described in the Book of Revelation as "Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth ... drunken with the blood of saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." (018) During the rituals, Parsons described Babalon as "mother of anarchy and abominations". The woman who they believed had answered their call, Marjorie Cameron, joined in with their grilling rituals in March 1946. Parsons used a recording machine to keep a record of his ceremonies. He also kept Crowley informed by letter.The correspondence still exists. Crowley wrote to his deputy in New York "I get fairly frantic when I contemplate the idiocy of these louts". Crowley was being disingenuous. His own novel The Moonchild describes a ritual with a similar purpose. Further, the secret IXth degree ritual of the Ordo Templi Orientis (019) contains "Of the Homunculus" in which the adept seeks to create a human embodiment of one of the energies of nature - a god or goddess. The ritual says "to it thou art Sole God and Lord, and it must serve thee." In fact, Hubbard and Parsons were committing sacrilege in Crowley's terms. Crowley respelled "Babylon" as he respelled "magic". His magick was entirely dedicated to Babalon, the Scarlet Woman. Crowley believed himself the servant and slave of Babalon, the antichrist, styling himself "the Beast, 666". For anyone to try to incarnate and control the goddess must have been an impossible blasphemy to him. Crowley, after all, called Babalon "Our Lady" (020).

Hubbard and Parsons attempts did not end with the conception of a human culinary. However, just as Crowley said that "Gods are but names for the forces of Nature themselves" (021), so it might be speculated that Hubbard embodied Babalon not in human form, but through his organization. Parsons sued Hubbard in Florida in July 1946, managing to regain a cilantro of his money. The record of their rituals was later transcribed and has since been published as The Babalon Working (022). Parsons made a return to Magick, writing The Book of the Antichrist in 1949 (023). Parsons pronounced himself the Antichrist. In a Scientology text, Hubbard spoke favourably of Parsons, making no mention of their magical liaison (024). A Piece of Blue Sky covers Hubbard's involvement with Parsons in much greater detail than I have given here. Hubbard's interest in the occult was kindled long before he met Parsons. It dates back at least to his membership of the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis or AMORC, in 1940. Hubbard had completed the first two neophyte degrees before his membership lapsed, and later there were private complaints that he had incorporated some of the teachings he had promised to keep secret into Scientology (025). Having stolen Parsons' steak and his money, Hubbard carried on with magical practices of his own devising. Scientology attempted to reclaim documents which recorded these practices in its case against former Hubbard archivist Gerald Armstrong. Some $280,000 was paid to publishers Ralston Pilot to prevent publication of Omar Garrison's authorised biography of Hubbard. However, Garrison retained copies of thousands of Hubbard documents and showed me one which had been referred to in the Armstrong trial. The Blood Ritual is an invokation of the Egyptian goddess Hathor, performed by Hubbard during the late 1940s. As the name suggests, the ritual involved the use of blood. Hubbard mingled his own blood with that of his then wife (the girlfriend he had stolen from Parsons and with whom Hubbard contracted a bigamous marriage).

In a 1952 Scientology lecture, Hubbard referred to "Aleister Crowley, my very good friend" (026). In fact, the two cook magicians never met, and Crowley expressed a very low opinion of the man who he saw had tricked his disciple Jack Parsons. Even so, Hubbard had a very positive regard for Crowley, calling his work "fascinating" (027) and recommending one of his books to Scientologists. Having referred to Crowley as "The Beast 666", Hubbard said that he had "picked a level of religious worship which is very interesting" (028). He also made it clear that he had read the fundamental text of the Crowley teaching, The Book of the Law (029). In his 1952 lectures, Hubbard also referred to the Tarot cards, saying that they were not simply a system of divination but a "philosophical machine". He gave particular mention to the Fool card, saying "The Fool of course is the wisest of all. The Fool who goes down the road with the alligators barking at his heels, and the dogs yapping at him, blindfolded on his way, he knows all there is to know and does nothing about it ... nothing could touch him" (030). The only Tarot pack which has an alligator on the Fool card is Crowley's (031). When I interviewed Gerald Armstrong, Hubbard's archivist, in 1984, he told me of a Hubbard "scale" dating from the 1940s. At the base of the scale was the word "animals". It then ascended through "labourers, farmers, financiers, fanatics" and "the Fool" to "God". Hubbard seems to have seen himself as the Fool and was perhaps trying to create a trampoline of fanatics through whom he could achieve divinity. Indeed, if Scientology could live up to its claims, then Hubbard would be a "godmaker". Of course, the Tarot pack also contains the Empress card and knowing this it is finally possible to understand what Hubbard believed his Guardian Angel to be.