Rodney Orpheus - Grimoire of Aleister Crowley: Group Magick Rituals

Published by

ABRAHADABRA

PRESS

ISBN 978-0-9569853-2-3

Rodney Orpheus 2011

The right of Rodney Orpheus to beidentified as the author of the work is asserted.

Works by Aleister Crowley copyright Ordo Templi Orientis.

Used by permission.

All Rights Reserved.

The right of Aleister Crowley to be

identified as the author of the works is asserted.

Ordo Templi Orientis

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GRIMOIRE

OF ALEISTER CROWLEY

Group Rituals in the Age of Thelema

Rodney Orpheus

with contributions by

John Dee, Jules Doinel, Euripides,

G.R.S. Mead, Cathryn Orchard,

and Howard White

Foreword by Lon Milo DuQuette

ABRAHADABRA

PRESS

2011

Contents

Foreword

by Lon Milo DuQuette

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

M agick is a lonely art. It must ever be so, because ultimately we are each a universe unto our self. The whatever-it-is-we-are was alone when it incarnated into this corporeal dimension; and it will be alone at the timeless instant we shuffle off this mortal coil. But as we labor through the measured ticks of space-time on this side of the pylons of birth and death our whatever-it-is-we-are is surrounded and assailed by a vast assortment of other whatever-it-is-we-ares other monads of consciousness who are also universes unto themselves and some of these other universes are fellow magicians.

Magick is also (first and foremost) a self-transformational art. It may be the magicians intent to effect changes in his or her outer life circumstances, i.e. , I want the girl next door to fall in love with me but the success of any magical operation designed to bring about that romantic outcome will most assuredly be in large part the consequences of the magician becoming transformed into the type of person the girl next door falls in love with.

Im sure there are knowledgeable and skilled magicians who will disagree with my sweeping assertion that the only thing I can change with Magick is myself . It is of course a statement that is impossible for me to prove or disprove, and frankly Im not inclined or motivated to try. Im not trying to establish or defend magical doctrine. I simply know that for me at this season of my life at this moment in my magical career the thing that needs to change the most in my world is me .

I have to confess, the prospect of magick being a form of consciously directed self-evolution was not what initially attracted to me to the art so many years ago. Naturally, I told myself that I was doing all this to gain enlightenment to achieve spiritual liberation, but in truth it was the allure of wearing a black-hooded robe and strutting around in darkened temples brandishing my wand and sword against terrible demons cowering in terrified obedience before my radiant adeptship.

Man! Would I look cool doing that!

No matter how noble and altruistic my conscious pretenses were, Lon Milo DuQuette (the post-adolescent magician) inwardly desired power power to master the cruel and chaotic circumstances of my life power to right the wrongs I was witnessing in the world around me power to set things straight and in harmony with my own (obviously already enlightened ) vision of personal, moral, social, political, and spiritual absolutes.

As comically deluded as I might have been, there is of course nothing fundamentally wrong with such youthful and militant idealism nothing wrong with wanting to change the world for the better and setting to work to do just that. I guess the biggest flaw in my aspirational game-plan was that I was overlooking the fact that in order for me to use magick to begin making these changes I would first have to consciously evolve into a real magician. As luck would have it, I would early in my career come under the influence and tutelage of magicians who would each in their unique way (either by positive example, negative example, or admonition) make sure I never forgot this fundamental fact of life.

Foremost among my senior mentors were Phyllis Secker (Soror Meral), Grady L. McMurtry (Hymenaeus Alpha, 777), Helen Parsons-Smith (Soror Grimaud), and Francis (Israel) Regardie. All of these dear people are now deceased.

McMurtry and Regardie trained directly under Aleister Crowley, and Seckler had been the student of Jane Wolfe, a student of Crowleys and a one-time resident of Crowleys famous Abbey of Thelema in Sicily. Parsons-Smith was the double widow of Jack Parsons (the famed magician and rocket scientist) and Wilfred T. Smith both were, at different times, Masters of Agape Lodge, O.T.O. in Southern California.

These colorful people kept me from being entirely alone in the early years of my quest. Because of their efforts (and more often despite their efforts) I was in the mid 1970s baptized in the magick fire of Thelema. With their encouragement, cynicism, and guidance, I formally took up the disciplines of Crowleys magical orders, the A.A. and Ordo Templi Orients.

My A.A. work began under the guidance of Seckler and was (or should have been) an entirely private affair. My O.T.O. experience, on the other hand, required me to work in a more public manner and with other magicians all over the world sometimes many other magicians. In fact, an important aspect of the O.T.O.s magical curriculum is the development of the individual magicians ability to work in concert (and survive) within the complexities of a uniquely organized society populated by cast of militantly independent magicians (some of whom are as intractable, imperfect and flawed as myself!). Its a very important part of the magical training of an O.T.O. initiate.

As you might expect, Crowley didnt make the O.T.O. ordeal an easy one. In fact, Ive known more promising magicians to wreck on the shoals of the Orders societal challenges than for any other reason. More often than not, however, I usually come to see the wisdom and genius of Crowleys magical vetting process.

Whether or not they have established a formal A.A. relationship, a great many O.T.O. initiates and others who consider themselves Thelemic magicians embark on the study and practice of the various rituals Crowley developed for the edification of A.A. magicians. The systematic practice of these rituals vis a vis the magicians personal initiatory climb up the Tree of Life of consciousness is generally viewed in Thelemic circles as doing the work.

The work is certainly there to do. The rituals and a few commentaries are published in a plethora of sources. One of the finest collections is found in the magnificently ponderous Liber ABA, Book IV1, but for many years most of us relied almost exclusively on those ritual Libers that appeared in the Appendices of Magick in Theory and Practice .

Armed with little more than these Libers and the roadmap of the Tree of Life , four generations of magicians have set out alone on the Thelemic path of return; dissecting, cross-referencing, and trying to make sense of the bewildering subtleties of Crowleys evolving thought, and then attempting to transfer that understanding to the temple environment in coherent ceremonies that can be performed by (and for the benefit of) one person. To say it is a challenge to the lone magician would be a beastly understatement.

Yes. Magick is a lonely art. But does it always need to be that lonely?I dont believe so and neither does my Brother Rodney Orpheus. People even magicians sometimes need other people. There are moments in my life when I dont know what I am, where I am, or who I am unless I can see myself momentarily reflected in the souls of others around me.