http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/index.html
Online versions of most of the [non-suppressed] books by Crowley. Although I generally prefer actual books, meself.
Like I say, I don't recall Venus, offhand, and I keep a copy of AL in my pocket most of the time.
online version:
http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/engccxx.html
That said, I've read other references by Edward Alexander regarding Venus, even a commentary on Julius Caesar's fascination/devotion to this Goddess as the counterpart to MARS [Horus] and a prerequisite for "victory". This all a commentary on Crowley's claim to have "invented" the V FOR VICTORY hand gesture circa WW2. Oddly enough, neither Crowley nor Churchhill nor DuGalle "invented" this millenia old gesture...however one of the first references to it, as being related to Venus/Victory was by Rabbelais, the French "abbey of Thelema" inventor who inspired so much of Crowley's thoughts, and whom he claimed to have been a reincarnation of. Having likely known this, the entire affair may be seen as Aleister's odd sense of humor.
I'm filled with useless information.
The OTO was never an "official" Masonic Lodge Branch, and indeed wasn't permitted to organize HERE [there actually, but where I live] in Detroit on account of its having borrowed too heavily from mainstream Masonic imagery and its tendency to publish Masonic information a bit too loosely. All of this changed however, when OTO was coopted in the late sixties, following Germer's demise.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordo_Templi_Orientis
Most of its history is public information, therefore wikiable.
I don't believe in the Masonic conspiracy per se, as I've researched Masonry enough to know that there isn't much esotericism used today, and that it is basically an intellectual club in modern times. This acknowledged, there are several currents of esoteric thought running through the Lodge and into thousands of forms on the other side. This makes it a potentially infinite source of research.
The OTO uses HRA and MM degrees/rites and also some of the Swedenborgian rites, which seems to me to be where Kabballah and western tantra really entered mainline masonry historically. There are overt references even to Hindu tantra in Swedenborg and Blake, if one knows what these are, that is. A good place to start a study of these ideas is the essay "Why Mrs. Blake Cried: Swedenborg, Blake and the Sexual Basis of Spiritual Vision" by Marsha Schuchard. PDF below:
http://www.hermetics.org/pdf/Swedenborg ... Vision.pdf
The root site, btw, is an excellent source of information for those who do not wish to pay money for this information.
Although I recommend getting it straight from Swedenborg/Blake and their related public records of the time. Note, even in this essay it mentions, how at the Blake Church the Masons of the local lodge discussed all of this quite openly, as a consideration as to whether to officially accept it as DOGMA. Odd. Or maybe it is just a sign of how remarkably uneducated English speaking people are today concerning these mysteries. Crowley didn't invent anything. He synthesized several concurrent branches of thought with his ideas of [then] modern science. Nothing more. His real talent lies only in his encyclopedic knowledge of certain esoteric subjects which he was able to weave together. That, and mountain climbing.
I tend to regard the fate of the offical branches of Thelema, namely the OTO in its various guises as having, quite predictably, fallen into the same snare as every religion and/or mystery school [Masonry included] that came before. That is, having been HIJACKED for the purposes of those other than originally intended. Also, as in most of these organizations, the assholes who use it as cover for organized criminal activities obviously do not represent the mainstream. Indeed, particularly in the occult world, it is very rare that most members of a particular current will actually join ANY organization. There are many thousands of Thelemites, and only a few of these thousands even give [Mc]OTO the time of day.
Like Catholics who never go to church, I suppose. A Masonic Conspiracy seems roughly as likely to me (being initiated) as a Jewish Conspiracy or any other simplistic line of thinking. Of course I know you weren't saying that yourself, I was merely saying it for the record.
What do I FEEL about the ritual itself, as we're discussing it, you mean?
Blasphemy on all levels. Human sacrafice. Likely related to the concepts surrounding the "currents" and the Enochian realm of things. Donald Tyson, a white lighter wanker, would've probably called it an Apocalypse working, in its relations to the "Watchtowers" and Sirius.
For the record, I tend to regard the Sirius connection as slightly overemphasized by the Grant [typhonian] thelemites, who I view as being, at best, misguided [LITERALLY].
on every level, primarily on the subconscious psychological level, I regard the ritual as an attempt to steal the current. To "abort" the birth of the [second phase] Thelemic Aeon. A Black Brotherhood operation to destabilize [Jeff almost always uses "platforming"] the collective unconscious. Probably of the whole world. Inducing stagnation. Hampering cosmic evolution. Tinfoil hats and party favors for everyone!
I also think they made a colossal mistake. But that is for later. Suffice for now to repeat an eariler assertion of mine: If these people actually TRULY understood the concepts of Illumination, if they understood the principles we're discussing, they would never have considered something like this. And not just because it is a horrible thing to do to SOMEONE ELSE.
I'd like to treat 77 seperately in a future post, as it was probably one of Crow's favorites. The entire Book of Lies is based around it, and properly understood, it gives an explanation for how he understood his system to work and its relation to the history of the world.
11/22 could certainly have occult overtones, though, in my mind at least, they seem less obvious than the repeated weighted numbers in the 911 ritual. The KING was very much at the center of that operation, and the numbers seem to have had only peripheral value. Whereas in the current ongoing spell, the numbers are very obviously important.
How many times a week do you hear someone reference the ritual?
What terms are usually used as shorthand?
I see the combined effort of the numbers as "wheels within wheels" so to speak. a hologram of sorts, repeating the same alchemical "wedding" formula over and over again, in various forms, with similar extrapolations.
It isn't over yet either.
