"CORN BEEF HASH. I.e., food suitable for Americans." ~~ Frater Perdurabo, The Book of Lies (Falsely so-called), Chapter 41.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
It is inevitable that the simple-minded people in America, who masquerade themselves as adepts, teachers, and "guides," found or in some other manner represent so-called occult organizations which claim to be authentic depictions of the Esoteric and/or Gnostic Traditions, would come around to the highly profitable act of Crowley- bashing.
We had, over the years, held Manly in a great deal of esteem, since he has preserved many precious works for posterity in his Secret Teachings of all Ages, and in other publications.
We even turned a blind eye when we discovered that he was partially responsible for the programming of Sirhan Sirhan as a patsy in the assassination of Robert Kennedy.
However, when we find an old copy of GNOSIS Magazine (No. 18, Winter 1991, pp. 10 - 11), in which there is an obituary of the esteemed Mr. Hall, from the bigoted and vitriolic pen of Stephan Hoeller, we see that pieces in the jigsaw puzzle begin to come together.
Our first encounter with Hoeller's writings was when we obtained a copy of The Book Your Church Doesn't Want You to Read, edited by Tim Leedom. Hoeller's contribution is an excellent piece, entitled "Hermes vs. The Puritans". We found it to be a welcome relief.
We were led to seek other works by Hoeller and found a copy of Jung and the Lost Gospels. It was fair, and we found a reference to the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholicae, or Gnostic Catholic Church.
Does Mr. Hoeller know the origins of this Church?
It wasn't founded by Jung, or by Manly P. Hall! In the 1890s, Jules Doinel, in Carcassonne, founded [or perhaps reformed] this Church, along with Gerard Encausse (Papus).
Later, Papus commissioned a High Mass for this Church. And . . . guess who wrote this Mass? Yep, Aleister Crowley.
In fact, Papus passed his Bishopric to Theodore Reuss, who passed it to Crowley.
It is absurd, then, for a man of Hoeller's caliber and erudition to parrot the outright lies of the Hearst sponsored, owned, aided and abetted News Media, that had it on their Agenda to destroy Crowley practically before his career began.
Yet . . . again, in a lecture on Abraham Abulafia and the Prophetic Qabalah, we see the same undeserved and bigoted treatment.
This time a near word for word parroting of the sentiments of Gershom Scholem in his Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism.
Scholem, at least, is entitled to his opinion, since Western practitioners have debased the Qabalah in its original context.
We would even agree, to some extent, that Crowley's Qabalah, like his Egyptology and his interpretation of Buddhism, is pedestrian by comparison with reality.
Yet, when all is sliced and diced, who is Hoeller, or Hall, to say that they are far better than all that evil black magick so-called?????
After all, Hall is one of the proponents of the Baconian Theory, along with his parrots, like Elizabeth van Buren and Elizabeth Clare Prophet.
What's worse, Hall wasted a lot of valuable space on this completely contrived Bacon-Shakespeare nonsense.
Why not adopt Umberto Eco's view, namely, that the real genius behind Shakespeare and Bacon was John Dee's brainwashed puppet, Edward Kelly?
After all, it is more likely that Kelly invented more than we will ever be aware of, and it was all plagiarized by lesser men, like Dee, Bacon, etc.
In fact, there is nothing to say that Sir Francis Bacon was anything worth emulating, since he felt that the New World was little more than a whore for Western Europe to plunder.
His present incarnation probably twitches as these words are written. Of course, maybe the real genius was Seven Seas Jim!
For Hall to state that without Madame Blavatsky all of modern occultism collapses like a house of cards, is to betray his own ignorance.
For an interesting view of Blavatsky, we highly recommend the work by Gertrude Marvin Williams, Madame Blavatsky: Priestess of the Occult.
Blavatsky came after the great teachers and inspirers of the Occult Revival of the 19th Century. She was very important, in her propaganda, and in her organizing abilities. And while ISIS Unveiled has many excellent moments, like Pike's Morals and Dogma, they aren't entirely her words.
In short, Crowley's work is authentic, at least as authentic as anybody else who made contributions to the Authentic Tradition.
The Particular passage we have trouble with is the following:
[This shows a lack of any contact with historicity. By long hair, does he include Bacon, Shakespeare, Jesus, Parzival, Albert Pike, Eliphas Levi, and all the adepts of the past?
Drugs -- see Secret Teachings, p. 112.
Turbulent radicalism -- what about the turbulent radicalism that created America?
Unhappy anomalies these aren't. The unhappy anomalies are the bickerings of these bigoted puritans! These things, we guess, were one thing in one age, but when one wants to keep the gravy coming in, well, boys, get these hippies and magicians outta here!!]
[Ceremonial magick is the basis of the Authentic Tradition. Anyone who tries to deny this might as well as try selling the Brooklyn Bridge. Sexual Freedom?
Well, Mr. Hoeller, let's all be puritans like the ones you so accurately condemned in your article in The Book . . . ]
[I.e., the more influential Scottish Rite Masons who had it on their agenda to blacklist Crowley from the time he started publishing The Equinox, and probably, too, deliberate frauds like H. Spencer Lewis....]
["Appeared to stand for?" If one is honest with oneself, one would pick up copies of The Confessions, Magick Without Tears, and The Law Is For All , and one would find exactly what Crowley was about. Manly Hall will be a dusty relic, possibly forgotten altogether, a few centuries from now, but Crowley earned his immortality. His chief failing was that he was a century ahead of his time, or at least was alive in a world that was a century behind the times. But then... P. B. Randolph was at least 150 years ahead of his time. ]
[The dreaded figure referred to is that of the deliberate slander and outright libel of the British Tabloid press (i.e., the Sunday Times, the general print media, all yellow), based upon the outright lies of Betty May "Tiger Woman" Loveday.
She was furiously jealous of her husband's attachment to Crowley, which seems to be a mainstay when one embarks upon the Path...
Crowley warned Raoul Loveday not to drink the water in a stream in the mountains near the Abbey in Cefalu, but extreme thirst prevailed and he got dysentery from giving in. This led to death, since there wasn't any medical help forthcoming from the locals.
Betty May concocted the entire story of bizarre orgies, sacrifices, black magick rites, and the rest of the world bought it.
Trevor Ravenscroft picked up the poison pen in the early 1970s with The Spear of Destiny, basing his Crowley nonsense on a rather morbid imagination. If one knows the story, and if one knows oneself, then one knows the truth of the matter.]
[It is a misfortune that people with a mind as vast as that of the compiler of Secret Teachings of all Ages would stoop so low as to regard a Spiritual Great-Uncle as a reprobate. But, then, it seems he held his Spiritual Grandfather (Rudolph Steiner) in contempt as well. As to his Spiritual Father, Max Heindel, well....
It doesn't surprise us to find that name show up in the story. Did you know that it was Max Heindel's writings which inspired the creators of the Thule Society?]
[We wonder if he realized that one of the people who exerted perhaps the greatest influence upon the members of the Beat Generation, and its lineal descendants, the Hippies, was Alan W. Watts.
And, Watts held Aleister Crowley in high esteem.
Watts himself hailed from a Golden Dawn group, [at least according to C. S. Hyatt & Israel Regardie] and had been closely associated with Aldous Huxley, who received his first Mescaline from Aleister Crowley in Berlin, circa 1929 c.e.
Aldous Huxley gave Mescaline to Brion Gysin sometime in the Thirties.
And it was Gysin who initiated another prominent figure of the Beat Generation, the late, great, William S. Burroughs, in 1950s Tangier.
Gysin also gave the now famous hashish recipe to Gertrude Stein!
And, did he realize that the Beats strongly influenced bringing on the Consciousness movement, which gave birth to the Hippy culture?
These are all directly connected elements in the Authentic Tradition, whether one likes long hair, drugs, turbulent radicalism, left-oriented politics or ceremonial magick!]
[Los Angeles politics at the time forbade him. It is true. And, as Sam Yorty's guru, and part of the old power clique in the days of house dicks with tape recorders in every hotel, it's not surprising.
One really should obtain a copy of Mike Rothmiller's L. A. Secret Police, for an eye-opening and rather nauseating account of the L. A. Police machine, which people of Hall's caliber undoubtedly paid lip service to.
And, since it was Aldous Huxley who passed the mantle of succession to Doctor Timothy Leary, it is no wonder that dinosaurs like Hall wanted to deny evolutionary succession to the rightful heirs.]
This, then, is one figure in nearly a century of black listing. Unfortunately, we didn't have this obituary several years ago, when we were closer to the locale in question. It matters less now, of course, eight years after the event, but it really does matter in the long term, because we recognize the need for an historical Thelemic Group.
An historical group, organized for the purposes of demonstrating the agelessness of the Thelemic Tradition.
It is more necessary, today, as individuality is threatened from every front as TO MEGA THERION himself warned.
And, since people seem to have the completely erroneous opinion that Crowley made it up, we have the proof, that OUR Tradition extends all the way back, past recorded history's beginnings: Back to the ages before dogmas conflicted with one another, before the bogus phantoms of "St. Germain," Bacon, Shakespeare, Lemuria, and Koot Hoomi!
As we regard ourselves to be engaged primarily in historical labors, we are not seeking followers, disciples, or students.
We are all students and Adepts (adepts-potential at least).
As we are all part of the totality that is the Global Village, we have the world and its products as our instructors.
We have regular recommendations as to curricula that may be found beneficial to some, and they are available upon request.
The principal goal is our History Project.
Since a lot of people who embark upon the Path and write about seem to not want to bother themselves with this all-too-important area of research, we have taken it upon ourselves, with a little help from our Unknown Superiors, so that the kids can play in the sandbox.
We are interested in hearing from sincere and honest individuals and groups.
We will acknowledge all contributions.
As to "A Sage for all seasons, Manly P. Hall: R.I.P." ~~ we can justifiably add ~~ good riddance to bad rubbish! To the Lions!!
Corned Beef Hash, is this proliferation of occult groups which continue to deny the validity of the people and/or groups in the past who constitute in a great deal The Authentic Tradition.
Corned-beef Hash is a reference to these bogus Rosicrucians or R+C-like groups, Theosophy influenced groups, and all their inbred kindred of near-sighted neanderthals.
It's about time more of us recognized the fact that there are a lot of seriously damaged goods in the occult biz.
And, corned-beef hash, in this context, is food suitable for Americans, it seems!
17 January 1998 e.v., revised 06 May 2000 e.v.
Love is the law, love under will.
Copyright © 1997 - 2003 Jonathan Sellers. All Rights Reserved.