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Monday, March 11, 2013

Masks of the Illuminati, Part Four

Dell edition, pages 96-141; Pocket Books pages 80-117; ebook version, about 40 percent

Ye Genetic Archives, pages 105-106: Wilson ties Babcock to Philip Jose Farmer's Greystoke genealogy, about which more here.

Sir John's gamekeeper, page 106: "He summoned Dorn, the Babcock gamekeeper," page 37.

"She sounded Australian," page 110. See the comments by Oz and Cryptic Music for Part Three.

"That doctrine spawned the licentiousness that destroyed Greece and Rome," page 120. It's amazing how this meme persists; by the time the western Roman Empire fell in 476 A.D., the empire was thoroughly Christian. Edward Gibbon's theory that Christianity held destroy the empire has obviously problems -- it doesn't explain how the even more Christian eastern empire didn't fall -- but at least it has a connection with facts. [Page number corrected after I saw Oz's comment -- Tom]

Pages 120-122: Is it just me, or does Lola win the argument rather easily here?

Jude the Obscure, Page 124. "Clouds Without Water" seems to be a way to circulate occult knowledge under the guise of denouncing it; could the Epistle of Jude have a similar purpose to publicize sexual spirituality under the guise of denouncing it?

"And the Age of Science that came to Flower in the nineteenth century after the Magus of Nazareth, the true order of the Rose Croix did go Underground, as a seed that should be buried ere it Sprout," page 126, see Groupname for Grapejuice's theory on the "108-year Rosicrucian Cycle," referenced in this blog post.

"Amundsen reached the South Pole," December 1911.

Page 129, "Clouds Without Water," online copy here (don't click of you are worried about spoilers), hat tip, John Merritt.

"Lewis' The Monk," page 140 free online copy of The Monk by M.G. Lewis available here.

The Great God Pan, Arthur Machen, available here.











12 comments:

Oz Fritz said...

The debate starting p.120 presents a good understanding of Crowley’s philosophy by Lola (“ Pit of Because” and “Dogs of Reason” comes right out of the Book of the Law for instance )against Babcock’s Christian superstitious beliefs which he starts emotionally defending. This seems like how it goes when these contrary viewpoints of this kind collide with each other.

I’ll have to read the Epistle of Jude before answering your question but wouldn’t be surprised if your conjecture seemed right. The Song of Solomon has beautifully poetic sex magick connotations but doesn’t denounce it at all.

Tom, Thanks for the links to Clouds and The Monk!

The quote you listed as from p. 140 about the Fall of the Empire actually resides on p. 120 not 140. Probably a very significant Qabalistic mistake. :-)

p. 101 “ Seven plus fifteen is twenty-three” – a mistake in arithmetic. I suspect a deliberate RAW misdirection or test of attention more than a typo.

p.110 “ She says her name is Lola Levine” – the name Lola Levine has the same rhythm as Leila Waddell. Laylah was the magickal name Crowley gave her.

On a tangent, Leila/Lola recalls for me the character of Leeloo from the film, The Fifth Element which, imo, presents one of the best expositions of an ideal of Crowley’s magick, Love under Will, and “howth castle and environs.”

p. 113 “And there it was … the masked Priestess sitting on the throne: Shekinah, the embodied Glory of Jehovah.” I recently dedicated a song to her in my blog post, A Response to Sandy Hook.

p.114 Lola reveals whom she might portray. All in all, this seems a very revealing page.

“… the great Mantra of protection …” to me appears an abbreviated version of the Golden Dawn’s Rosy Cross ritual. It has the same basic form. I once asked an experienced G.’. D.’. magician who used to post in the MLA Forum as Dalyrada (if I spelled that right) for an effective protection ritual. She suggested the Rosy Cross and said nothing gets through that.

Imo, this Mantra further reveals RAW genius because he shows that magick practiced extemporaneously can prove just as effective. You don’t always have to go through the whole ritual or dress in the proper robes etc. for it to work especially if the ritual has had lots of practice already.

“He repeated the Mantra three more times before he was able to feel safe again.” I see this as revealing RAW’s practical experience with these matters. Sometimes quick repetition makes the ritual effective. You should be able to feel the difference.

More to come.

gacord said...

p. 101... Actually Oz, if you think about it, under RAW's own historical narrative seven plus fifteen DOES equal 23 because two plus two equals five. 7+15=22, 2+2 = 5. 5 = 2+3 (which is 23 put back together.) All part of the dance of "question everything", to me...

So yeah, also a RAW joke. :-)

Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson) said...

Oz,

Is there a particular book you recommend to learn about the Golden Dawn, Crowley, etc.?

Oz Fritz said...

Tom,

I can't think of one particular book that stands out. Some of Crowley's biographies have a lot of this info. The 3 best are " Aleister Crowley: The Biography" by Tobias Churton (my current favorite), "Perdurabo" by Richard Kaczynski (at times pedantically detailed), and "Do What Thou Wilt" by Lawrence Sutin. They will all also have lots on the Golden Dawn as it was Crowley's introduction to ritual and he based his magick on their system. Another good biography is "The Eye in the Triangle" by Israel Regardie which is the one that greatly influenced RAW.

Oz Fritz said...

Thanks for your comment gacord. I don't get how 2 + 2 = 5 but am sure the light will dawn on this mystery someday.

Oz Fritz said...

p. 124 the De Auro Rubeo section appears a send-up of Gurdjieff’s writing style in his magnum opus “All and Everything.”

p.125 “Science had already revealed to them that 99.9% of the physical universe was invisible to their senses …” A physicist once told me that if you stacked a sheet of papers from the Earth to the Moon and called that all the energy or “information” out there, the part of the universe perceptible to humans would about equal the thickness of one sheet of paper. In light of that, the sentence that follows looks quite interesting.

p.125 The next section,
“A Most Curious History
True Story of the Rosy Cross"
appears a send up of Crowley’s writing style in his “Book of Wisdom and Folly” which he wrote for his magickal son.

De Auro Rubeo, The Red Gold, title of the “Gurdjieff section” represents an alchemical term though the subject of alchemy doesn’t get mentioned in it. Alchemy does get mentioned in the “Crowley section“ that follows.

I’ve always found Crowley’s and Gurdjieff’s systems most complementary to each other. When RAW stated at a workshop that he thought they presented different approaches to the same system, it confirmed suspicions I had about this.

Last year I picked up a book called “Beelzebub and the Beast” advertised as comparing the two men’s work. I liked the book but found the comparison between the two inadequate, most of it seems to focus on one system or the other though some common threads are shown. Nevertheless, I find this particular study incomplete for the moment, but glad it got started. This book was written in the 70’s but didn’t find a publisher until recently. In a preface or forward, the heirs to the author claim that he sent a copy of it to RAW around that time and that RAW used some of this information without acknowledging the source. I find this claim questionable.

p.125 “From Abramelin came the Sacred Word unto Abramelin the Jew, who was called to the sublime Task of the Illuminati …” refers to The Book of Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage which has the HGA ritual that caused Crowley to buy his house on Loch Ness. Connecting it with the Order of the Rosy Cross appears quite accurate.

Eric Wagner said...

I loved Regardie's Eye in the Triangle.

On page 101 Einstein quotes Goethe's Faust, "Zwei seelen wohnen." Faust also has a Walpurgisnacht scene.

Einstein says on pg. 104, "Renunciation of the old must precede discovery of the new." Must we to some extent renounce Bob Wilson's ideas to break through to new understanding?

I find it interesting to read about Lord Greystoke in this book since I just started rereading Tarzan of the Apes with my tenth graders.

The updates to Sir John's home remind of Downton Abbey when they first get a telephone.

PQ said...

A great synchronicity occurred for me while I was reading this section of the book and thinking about astral projection.

I met someone who hosts an astral projection group here in Austin. Got into a very thorough conversation about it all which really expanded my perspective on astral projection and added to my enjoyment of the book.

PQ said...

Also, Oz your comment about the invisible 99.9% of the universe was terrific. I'm prompted to post it to my blog (giving the proper credit, of course).

I'd just like to get this straight, though: scientists know of this physiologically undetected 99.9% of the universe via measurement with scientific instruments? Or is it a mathematical, theoretical conclusion?

Oz Fritz said...

Thanks,PQ. I don't know but would guess the exact number is theoretical. I'll ask someone who might know how they arrived at this conclusion.

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