Knights Templar Oasis

Abbey of Thelema DVD

knightstemplar — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 11:09:02 +0000

The much anticipated Abbey Of Thelema DVD about the Aleister Crowley years at Cefalu is now available at http://www.amazon.com/Abbey-Thelema-Mike-Ketcher/dp/B003TQXT2I/

Vince Jennings (Producer)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1009011/

Speech in the Silence – Virgo

knightstemplar — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:50:44 +0000

Sun, 22 August 2010

Episode 9: Sol in Virgo, Year 106

IAO & OAI | Profailcy | Liber Librae | Living Thelema: Patterns, Cycles and Obstacles in Your Magical Path

In this episode:

Intro music: Song of Adoration by Frater Oz
“The Upright and the Averse: I.A.O. and O.A.I.” by Frater Puck
Musical interlude: Profailcy by TARFIELD
“Liber Librae” reading by Frater Peredur
“Living Thelema: Patterns, Cycles and Obstacles in Your Magical Path” by Dr. David Shoemaker
Outro music: “Song of Adoration” by Frater Oz

[ Click here to download Episode 9: Sol in Virgo, Year 106 ]

[ Subscribe in iTunes ]

Sexual Outlaw, Erotic Mystic: The Essential Ida Craddock

knightstemplar — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:48:04 +0000

New book by Brother Vere Chappell

Aleister Crowley wrote that Ida Craddock “certainly obtained initiated knowledge of extraordinary depth. She seems to have had access to certain most concealed sanctuaries…. She has put down statements in plain English which are positively staggering.” (The Equinox, Vol. III, No. 1.)

Ida Craddock was an early advocate for women’s rights and sex reform who helped hundreds of couples to improve their marriages with her sex education counseling and tracts sent through the mail. She was also an avid occultist and mystic who reported having regular sexual encounters with angelic beings. This was an incendiary combination in late nineteenth century America, inevitably attracting the attention of moral crusader Anthony Comstock, who devoted himself to her destruction. Although suffering exile, commitment to an insane asylum, and hard labor in prison, Ida’s courage and refusal to compromise her beliefs would lead to her ultimate triumph, even in death. This book tells the fascinating story of Ida Craddock and presents her most significant writings on marriage, sex, religion, and the occult, published for the first time in one collection.

Includes the full text of the following works by Ida Craddock, many in print for the first time:

The Danse du Ventre
Heavenly Bridegrooms
Psychic Wedlock
Spiritual Joys
The Wedding Night
Right Marital Living
Ida’s Letter from Prison
Ida’s Last Letter to her Mother
Ida’s Last Letter to the Public

“This book is of incalculable value to every student of occult matters. No Magick library is complete without it.”
– Aleister Crowley

Published by Red Wheel/Weiser
Paperback, 288 pages
Available December 1, 2010
$21.95 Pre-order now for only $14.93 from Amazon.com

Brother Curwen, Brother Crowley

knightstemplar — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:25:26 +0000

From our friends at Weiser Antiquarian:

Brother Curwen, Brother Crowley. A Correspondence: The Teitan Press, York Beach, Maine, 2010. Hardcover. Octavo (9 x 6 inches, approx 23.5 x 15.2cm), xlviii + 136pp. Sewn, printed on acid-free paper. Heavy dark green cloth binding, with gilt titling etc to the spine. Black and white frontispiece, and eight pages of black and white illustrations. Pictorial dustjacket.

In September 1944, a fifty-one year old Londoner named David Curwen wrote to Aleister Crowley, initiating a correspondence that would last several years. While Curwen approached Crowley with deference, the relationship that evolved between them was a complex one that defied the accepted parameters of the student-teacher nexus. For David Curwen was no newcomer to the study of the occult, and Crowley soon discovered that the flow of knowledge would not be simply one way. In particular Crowley was tantalized by the deep understanding of the principals of tantra that Curwen had acquired during the course of many years study under a mysterious guru.

At Crowley’s urging Curwen joined the O.T.O., but he remained skeptical of many of “The Beast’s” claims, and the two ultimately parted company on strained terms. However, Curwen retained his interest in the occult, and in later life he devoted himself to the study of alchemy, publishing the results of his researches pseudonymously in the book In Pursuit of Gold, a work that many believe to be the most significant study ever published of practical alchemy.

In addition to reproducing all of the surviving correspondence between the pair, Brother Curwen, Brother Crowley includes an important biographical Foreword by David Curwen’s grandson, Tony Matthews. The letters themselves have been edited and annotated by the scholar of Crowley and Western esotericism, Henrik Bogdan, who has also contributed an illuminating Introduction that gives context to the relationship between Crowley and Curwen, as well as exploring the history of their interest in sexual occultism and tantra, and the influence that the pair had on Kenneth Grant.

books@weiserantiquarian.com

The Book of Lilith

knightstemplar — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:18:58 +0000

KTO’s friend Aepril is directing:

Exquisite Corpse Dance Theatre offers their original theatrical belly-dance production The Book of Lilith, based on the story of the ancient Middle Eastern goddess and demoness. From her beginnings as handmaiden to the Great Goddess, initiating men into Her mysteries through sacred eros, to her appearance as First Woman in the Garden of Eden – come with Lilith as she flies through the ages.

Exquisite Corpse Dance Theatre is led by Aepril Schaile and also includes, for this full-length premiere performance, dancers Amelia Kurpeski, Libby Rowe, Shaina Rae, and Samara Martin.

Performances are September 3 and 4 at 7:30pm and September 5 at 3:00pm.

Weekend in Review

knightstemplar — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:29:27 +0000

Friday evening was the wonderful play It’s All in the Delivery, with an original script and a cast of four. It portrayed Aleister Crowley, Rose Kelly, Horus, and Aiwass and the reception of the Book of the Law. This along with a feast made for a wonderful celebration of the First Night of the Prophet and his Bride.

Sunday afternoon was Centres of Pestilence. We were on II:34 and it took the entire class to cover it. We read the commentary, looked up words in Skeat’s, tied in and read the Noise chapter from Magick without Tears and more. “But ye, oh my people, rise up and awake”. It is also in the Gnostic Mass and there was was much debate over whether it was command to the individual to awake, or a command to awake others, ie Promulgate.

Sunday evening was the Gnostic Mass. One child was in the role for the 50th time, the other for the first. Nine people in the congregation, a visitor from New York, and three more that arrived too late for mass but listened outside the door and joined us for the social hour which turned into three.

We picked up another Minerval application, 2 baptisms and a confirmation application. Group Resh at the appropriate times during all the events this weekend.

Come join us for Public Gnostic Mass 1st and 3rd Sundays of every month, Centre of Pestilence is also every month, and Resh of course is ongoing. Check our calendar for details.

A Thelemic Passion Play – It’s All in the Delivery

knightstemplar — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 10:27:29 +0000

Tonight at 8PM Friday the 13th

Join us for a celebration of one of our Thelemic Holy Days with a potluck feast and the performance of a Passion Play. Non-members: $10. Doors open at 8pm. Info: events@knightstemplar-oto.org

Feast for the First Night of the Prophet and his Bride

knightstemplar — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:01:27 +0000

The Feast for the first Night of the Prophet and his Bride is one of the ten Holy Days listed in the Book of the Law. It commemorates the wedding of our Prophet Saint Sir Aleister Crowley with Rose Kelly on August 12. 1903 ev

Rose also known as Ouarda the Seer was Crowley’s first Scarlet Woman, and was instrumental in the reception of the Book of the Law. Join us Friday for a Feast and Passion Play, check the calendar for details.

Rose Kelly

The poem he wrote for her:

Rose on the breast of the world of spring,
….I press my breast against thy bloom;
My subtle life drawn out to thee; to thee
….its moods and meaning cling.
I pass from change and thought to peace,
….woven on love’s incredible loom,
Rose on the breast of the world of spring!

How shall the heart dissolved in joy take
….form and harmony and sing?
How shall the ecstasy of light fall back to
….music’s magic gloom?
O China rose without a thorn, O honey-bee
….without a sting!

The scent of all thy beauty burns upon the
….wind. The deep perfume
Of our own love is hidden in our hearts,
….the invulnerable ring.
No man shall know. I bear thee down unto
….the tomb, beyond the tomb,
Rose on the breast of the world of spring!

Centres of Pestilence

knightstemplar — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 11:43:46 +0000

Once a month at Knights Templar Oasis, O.T.O. in Salem we run a discussion group called Centres of Pestilence. The title of which comes from the short comment in the Book of the Law. We have been running this monthly for two years, and are about half way through the Book of the Law. It is the longest running series of classes we have ever done. We started with Chapter 1 verse 1 and have been discussing between one and three lines each month. We typically run about 90 minutes or so.

This is not a class in the sense that there is a teacher handing out the true meaning but rather an open discussion with the goal of finding the meaning of the verses, but always with appeal to the writings of Crowley. We read the verse, and discuss the meaning, sometimes with great debate. We read Crowley’s old comment, the new comment, and the comment called D. We also refer to Motta’s commentaries although not considered authoritative. Words we are unclear of we look up in the Oxford Dictionary, and now will be checking Skeat’s as needed.

Crowley frequently refers to his other works for additional information. The Equinox and Liber Aleph: The book of Wisdom or Folly frequently get consulted, by the end of the evening the table is covered with books. If you can find a copy The Magickal and Philosopical Commentaries on the Book of the Law is a great resource. Multiple copies of the Law is for All are a must. We keep all our Crowley books in the reference section of our library, and multiple copies are encouraged for just this reason. The commentaries have been printed in many different editions, and we have been amazed at the discrepancies between them. I would love to see a complete, authoritative set of the commentaries get published, it would be an essential tool.

We also refer to the manuscript which has primacy over the text for insight. Many people take for granted that they are the same and without controversy, yet numerous articles and even a book have been written on this subject. What a great study tool it would be to have a copy of the Book of the Law, full-size, with the text on one page and the manuscript on the facing page. Even better would be to fulfill Crowley’s plan to print the manuscript with the text printed via letterpress under each line of the script. He made some sample pages done this way, but it was a project that was sadly never completed.

Join us this Sunday, and once a month thereafter, jump in at any time as each class stands alone.

Electoral College

knightstemplar — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 11:12:10 +0000

The Electoral College of the United States Grand Lodge of O.T.O. has a new website up.