132 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
132 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
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BAPHOMET XIø
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System of the O.T.O.
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from Magick Without Tears
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This letter first appeared in Magick Without Tears (Hampton, N.J.:
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Thelema, 1954).--H.B.
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Cara Soror,
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
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YOU INFORM ME that the Earnest Inquirer of your ambit has been
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asking you to explain the difference between the A...A... and the
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O.T.O.; and that although your own mind is perfectly clear about it,
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you find it impossible to induce a similar lucidity in his. You would
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add that he is not (as one might at first suppose) a moron. And will I
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please do what I can about it?
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Well, here's the essential difference ab ovo usque ad mala the
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A...A... concerns the individual, his development, his initiation, his
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passage from ``Student'' to ``Ipsissimus''; he has no contact of any
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kind with any other person except the Neophyte who introduces him, and
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any Student or Students whom he may, after becoming a Neophyte,
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introduce.
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The details of this ``Pilgrim's Progress'' are very fully set forth in
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One Star in Sight; and I should indeed be stupid and presumptuous to
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try to do better than that. But it is true that with regard to the
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O.T.O. there is no similar manual of instruction. In the Manifesto,
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and other Official Pronunciamenti, there are, it is true, what ought
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to be adequate data; but I quite understand they are not as ordered
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and classified as one would wish; there is certainly room for a simple
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elementary account of the origins of the Order, of its principles, of
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its methods, of its design, of the Virtue of its successive Grades.
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This I will now try to supply, at least in a brief outline.
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Let us begin at the beginning. What is a Dramatic Ritual? It is a
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celebration of the Adventures of the God whom it is intended to
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invoke. (The Bacchae of Euripides is a perfect example of this.) Now,
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in the O.T.O., the object of the ceremonies being the Initiation of
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the Candidate, it is he whose Path in Eternity is displayed in
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dramatic form.
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What is the Path?
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1. The Ego is attracted to the Solar System.
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2. The Child experiences Birth.
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3. The Man experiences Life.
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4. He experiences Death.
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5. He experiences the World beyond Death.
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6. This entire cycle of Point-Events is withdrawn into Annihilation.
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In the O.T.O. these successive stages are represented as follows:
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1. P.I.
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1. 0ø
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(Minerval)
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2. Iø
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(Initiation)
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3. IIø
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(Consecration)
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4. IIIø
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(Devotion)
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5. IVø
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(Perfection, or Exaltation)
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6. P.I.
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(Perfect Initiate)
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Of these Events or Stations upon the Path all but three (IIø) are
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single critical experiences. We, however, are concerned mostly with
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the very varied experiences of Life.
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All subsequent Degrees of the O.T.O. are accordingly elaborations of
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the IIø, since in a single ceremony it is hardly possible to sketch,
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even in the briefest outline, the Teaching of Initiates with regard to
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Life. The Rituals Vø-n-IXø are then instructions to the Candidate how
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he should conduct himself; and they confer upon him, gradually, the
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Magical Secrets which make him Master of Life.
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To return for a moment to that question of Secrecy: there is no rule
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to prevent you from quoting against me such of my brighter remarks as
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``Mystery is the enemy of Truth''; but, for one thing, I am, and
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always have been, the leader of the Extreme Left in the Council-
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Chamber of the City of the Pyramids, so that if I acquiesce at all in
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the system of the O.T.O. so far as the ``secret of secrets'' of the
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IXø is concerned, it is really on a point of personal honour. My
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pledge given to the late Frater Superior and O.H.O., Dr. Theodor
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Reuss. For all that, in this particular instance it is beyond question
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a point of common prudence, both because the abuse of the Secret is,
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at least on the surface, so easy and so tempting, and because, if it
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became a matter of general knowledge the Order itself might be in
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danger of calumny and persecution; for the secret is even easier to
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misinterpret than to profane.
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Lege! Judica! Tace!
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Love is the law, love under will.
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Fraternally,
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666
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