Tag Archives: the order

Revolt of the Magicians

Aleister Crowley – Revolt of the Magicians: A Novel by Lon Milo DuQuette and James M Bratkowsky, the 2011 softcover edition, is part of the collection at the Reading Room.

Lon Milo DuQuette and James Bratkowsky's Aleister Crowley The Revolt of the Magicians

“The dawning twentieth century is not big enough for eccentric genius Aleister Crowley. He is an acclaimed poet, chess master, world-class mountaineer, and probably the most passionately liberated man in Victorian London. His real devotion, however, is magic … and the search for his own soul. An infamous fourteenth century Arabic book of magic survives the centuries to spawn the formation of a hidden society of magicians in London. The Order is led by occult scholar MacGregor Mathers and his wife Moina, who claim to be in touch with secret masters that give them ever-increasing magical knowledge and power. For several years the Order grows, drawing on new members from the giants of British commerce, art, and literature. Suddenly, at the height of the Order’s influence, MacGregor and Moina appear to lose contact with the secret masters. They move to Paris and ignore the Order’s plea for more teachings and higher initiations. The London lodge threatens to sever ties with them and make magical contact with the secret masters themselves. Five very famous members lead the revolt:
• the poet William Butler Yeats
• the playwright Maude Gonne
• Bram Stoker, author of Dracula
• Florence Farr, the most acclaimed actress of her day
• and one of the wealthiest women in the world, tea heiress Annie Horniman.
Crowley naively joins the Order at the beginning of the revolt. Blinded by his intense spiritual aspirations, he is not only drawn into the conflict, but unwittingly becomes the catalyst that brings about their destruction.”

 

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You may be interested in a new post by Sabazius about the implementation of a specific part of Liber CXCIV (Book 194)

You may be interested in a new post by Sabazius over on his blog at “A new method of selecting Man of Earth Delegates” about the implementation of a specific part of Liber CXCIV (Book 194), which is one of the O.T.O. specific Libri, also called “An Intimation with Reference to the Constitution of the Order“.

“Heretofore, these Man of Earth Delegates have volunteered directly to the USGL Volunteer Coordinator, who would then pass their information on to me for consideration. However, according to Book 194, the Men of Earth are to ‘choose’ these Delegates. Note also that the closing paragraph of Book 194 states that the system of O.T.O. ‘combines monarchy with democracy.’ There is no other component of the O.T.O. governmental structure that involves democratic election; therefore, the choosing of the MOE Delegates by the members of the Man of Earth Triad would appear to be the sole constitutional opportunity to include an element of ‘democracy’ in our system.

To date, it has appeared impractical to implement any kind of direct election of these Delegates by the members of the Man of Earth Triad, especially given the criteria that their terms are for one year only, there must be four of them, and two must be male and two female. If the Delegates were each to be chosen by open vote of the entire Man of Earth Triad, these criteria would put Grand Lodge in a painful state of perpetual election that would pose essentially insurmountable logistical obstacles. Over the past year, however, we have developed a system that overcomes these obstacles, and fully implements a system permitting the Man of Earth Triad to choose its own Delegates according to Book 194; and the Executive has just formally adopted this system.

The essence of the system involves the creation of an intermediate Nomination Panel—composed exclusively of members of the Man of Earth Triad—to evaluate and nominate volunteer candidates to the National Grand Master General for appointment as Man of Earth Delegates”

The Deeper Symbolism of Freemasonry from The Meaning of Masonry by Walter Leslie Wilmshurst.

“We know that even the elementary and superficial secrets of the Order must not be communicated to unqualified persons, and the reason for this injunction is not so much because those secrets have any special value, but because that silence is intended to be typical of that which applies to the greater, deeper secrets, some of which, for appropriate reasons, must not be communicated, and some of which indeed are not communicable at all, because they transcend the power of communication.” [via]

The Position and Possibilities of the Masonic Order from The Meaning of Masonry by Walter Leslie Wilmshurst.

“The future development and the value of the Order as a moral force in society depend, therefore, upon the view its members take of their system. If they do not spiritualize it they will but increasingly materialize it. If they fail to interpret its veiled purport, to enter into the understanding of its underlying philosophy, and to translate its symbolism into what is signified thereby, they will be mistaking shadow for substance, a husk for the kernel, and secularizing what was designed as a means of spiritual instruction and grace.” [via]

The Position and Possibilities of the Masonic Order from The Meaning of Masonry by Walter Leslie Wilmshurst.

“But the fact is with us that the ideals of the Masonic Order are making a wide appeal to the best instincts of large numbers of men and that the Order has imperceptibly become the greatest social institution in the Empire. Its principles of faith and ethics are simple, and of virtually universal acceptance. Providing means for the expression of universal fraternity under a common Divine Fatherhood and of a common loyalty to the headship and established government of the State, it leaves room for divergences of private belief and view upon matters upon which unity is impracticable and perhaps undesirable. It is utterly clean of politics and political intrigue, but nevertheless has unconsciously become a real, though unobtrusive, asset of political value, both in stabilizing the social fabric and tending to foster international amity.” [via]

The Position and Possibilities of the Masonic Order from The Meaning of Masonry by Walter Leslie Wilmshurst.

“To comply with this definition of Initiation which it might be useful to apply as a test not only to those who seek for admission into the Order, but to ourselves who are already within it—it is obvious that special qualifications of mind and intention are essential in a candidate of the type likely to be benefited by the Order in the way that its doctrine contemplates, and that it is not necessarily the ordinary man of the world, personal friend and good fellow though he be according to usual social standards, who is either properly prepared for, or likely to benefit in any vital sense by, reception into it.” [via]