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Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO)- What You Always Wanted To Know But Were Afraid To Ask

One of things that Ankhie loves about working at Weiser is the access to incredible reading material. The upstairs library in this office has copies of every Weiser Book (as well as Hampton Roads, Conari, Witches Almanac, Ibis, etc.) currently in print. The downstairs library has these plus the out of print oldies -  guarded by the indomitable Judi, who knows Ankhie well enough to give me the stink-eye should I linger too long near these tempting tomes.

Now, I willingly admit that I am an Ankh of great ignorance. My esoteric education is incomplete at best, and one of the problems with such envious access to material is – where to begin.  For this reason I greet each new Weiser Field Guide, Encyclopedia and Concise Guide with a joyous heart. These books have proven invaluable introductions to subjects that I often didn’t even know existed.  So when Daniel Pineda’s The Book of Secrets came across my desk I couldn’t wait to jump in and, of course, share some of it with you! It doesn’t publish until March, but a wee preview is definitely in order.

The OTO is something that I do know a little bit about. But for those of you who want to know more and are reluctant to ask, this excerpt is for you. OTO 101.

from The Book of Secrets by Daniel Pineda (March 2011)

Ordo Templi Orientis

Ordo Templi Orientis—the Order of the Oriental or Eastern Temple—was founded in the late 19th century by an Austrian paper chemist Carl  Kellner after returning from his travels in Asia. He and Theodor Reuss, the head of the revival of the Bavarian Illuminati, organized OTO in order to transmit what they called the Key to all Masonic rituals and occult sciences. This, they taught, was the initiated understanding of sexuality, symbolism, and the spiritual path. OTO’s structure was modeled on various Masonic rites such as the Rites of Memphis and Mizraim, Scottish  Rite, and the Swedenborgian Rite.

Reuss initiated Aleister Crowley into the preliminary degrees of OTO in 1910 and appointed him National Grand Master of Great Britain and  Ireland in 1912. It was not long before Crowley’s teachings on Thelema, the philosophy and spiritual method whose aim is summarized in the  phrase “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,” became an integral part of the new order. After Reuss’s death in 1923, Crowley became the Head of OTO, continuing to align the order with Thelema and its principle document, Liber AL vel Legis, sub figura CCXX or The Book of the Law.

The modern OTO is an international Thelemic organization comprised of men and women dedicated to the study of its mysteries in preparation  for the discovery and use of its Central Secret. In a similar fashion to Freemasonic and other fraternities, OTO instructs its members through  dramatic ritual in the form of initiations and the celebration of the Gnostic Mass, which Crowley described as the “central ceremony of its (OTO)  public and private celebration.”

The first three degrees of OTO as well as their prologue (0°) and pendants (IV° and P.I.), represent the six stages of incarnation and existence  known as man’s Path in Eternity. This section of the Order is known as Man of Earth Triad and in some ways corresponds with the Ancient and  Accepted Scottish rite of Freemasonry. The scheme of this Triad is as follows:

• 0° Minerval: The ego or soul is expressed as a single point with no relation,  or as the circumference of a circle, being a prologue to I°.
• I° Man and Brother or Woman and Sister: Birth is experienced as the reception of light.
• II° Magician: Life is studied as a chain of cause and effect.
• III° Master Magician: Death is voluntarily chosen as an
  extension of what is known as life and the unveiling
  of one’s true self.
• IV° Perfect Magician: Truth is seen as a perfect relationship—
  balanced, complete, and exalted.
• P.I. Perfect Initiate: Truth is experienced as the annihilation
  of difference, all of which is drawn to a point and
  extinguished.

According to Crowley, “All subsequent Degrees of the OTO are accordingly elaborations of the II°, since in a single ceremony it is hardly possible  to sketch, even in the briefest outline, the Teaching of Initiates with regard to Life.” The other two triads, known as the Lovers and the Hermit,  are concerned with the government of the order, service to the lower degrees, and the development of the Magic of Light.

Other resources:

U.S. Grand Lodge, OTO

Ordo Templi Orientis  International Headquarters

Knock Three Times – Tales of the Paranormal

Ankhie lives in a very old house – complete with bats, mice, spiders of all sizes (yes, even in winter) and more mysterious noises than any sane person could account for. The cats are always hissing at empty space, and the dogs growl – hackles raised- at empty doorways. Did I mention that Chez Ankhie is located on the downward slope of the town necropolis? The oldest and largest cemetery in Ankh-ville hulks behind – windswept on the calmest day and dark well before, and after, actual night.

So when someone knocks on the door, Ankhie waits before yelling out, “come in.” The Weiser Field Guide to the Paranormal has given me good indication of the kind of company that could come calling.

Here is but one example of phantom rappers from that terrifying tome!

The modern Spiritualist movement was born in 1848 when the Fox sisters of Hydesville, New York allegedly communicated with a spirit via rapping and knocking. Young Maggie Fox is usually credited with spontaneously inventing this system. Although it is highly unlikely that Maggie or anyone in the Fox family was aware of it,in fact, this type of mystical rapping was not a unique phenomenon. Over the centuries, similar experiences had been recounted. The best documented is the 16th-century haunting of the convent of St. Pierre de Lyons in France.

In 1522, Alix de Telieux, a young novice, ran away from this convent, absconding with some jewels. She was
reported to be living a dissolute life and, a few years later, the convent heard reports that she had died, possibly
in 1524. In 1528, another young nun, Anthoinette de Grollée, who had been Alix’s friend
when she was at the convent, began hearing mysterious sounds in her room, as if someone were rapping
loudly on the floor with their knuckles, although no one was there. The rapping was ignored at first, in hopes
that it would go away, but it did not. Instead, it grew louder and more continuous. As with the Fox sisters, this
disembodied rapping was not isolated to Anthoinette’s room, but followed her throughout the convent. Other nuns heard it as well.

Eventually, the convent’s mother superior felt obliged to notify the bishop. He dispatched a priest, Adrian de Montalambert, to investigate. Montalambert heard the rapping and, convinced that it was Alix, tried to communicate with her. He decided to ask the spirit questions that it could answer with a predetermined, 21 codified number of raps—one for yes, two for no, and
so forth. Once communication was established, the ghost became extremely communicative, even chatty.
The spirit confirmed that it was indeed Alix and said that she had obtained a reprieve from purgatory in
order to seek salvation. She gave the priest the sordid details of her life, confessed her sins, and begged for absolution.
She requested that arrangements be made for her corpse to be exhumed and reburied in the convent.
Only then, she claimed, could she rest in peace.

The request was granted. Alix was given a funeral appropriate to a nun in good standing. For a few days
afterward, all was quiet, but the spirit’s final departure was dramatic. The rapping abruptly returned—this
time in the form of loud, constant drumming. Father Montalambert returned to the convent and reestablished
contact. As the spirit announced that Alix had been released from purgatory and was en route to
heaven, Anthoinette was seen to be levitating. Suddenly, there was a huge thud similar to the
sound of a massive hammer. Witnesses heard the sound of thirty-three distinct and loud blows accompanied
by the sudden appearance of a light so blindingly, dazzlingly bright that no one could see. (In Christian
context, the number thirty-three has tremendous significance as the age Christ reputedly attained before
the Crucifixion.) Following these thirty-three thuds, the noise stopped, the light went out, and Anthoinette
tumbled to the ground. The rapping ceased forever.

from The Weiser Field Guide to the Paranormal by Judith Joyce (aka Judika Illes)

Esoteric Tuesday for 1.1.11 – The Mysteries of Quetzalcoatl

I am borrowing this excerpt from our sister blog Better Yet Books (dedicated to Conari and Hampton Roads titles) – because I found it facinating, a little bit terrifying and way more surprising than I would have expected!

Enjoy!

from Richard Leviton’s Encyclopedia of Earth Myths.

QUETZALCOATL

Humanity’s prime angelic benefactor and bestower of self-aware consciousness and free will (Lucifer) seen without a negative filter.

Also known as Eros, Fenir the Wolf, Kucimatz, Kukulkan, Light-Bearer, Light-Bringer, Loki, Lucifer, Malak Tawus (“Peacock Angel”), Midir, Morning Star, Phanes, Phosphorus, Prometheus, Protogonos.

Description: The name Quetzalcoatl means “the Plumed Serpent,” combining two words from the Nahuatl language of Mesoamerica, quetzal, an emerald-plumed bird, and coatl, a serpent. Among the Aztecs and Olmecs of ancient Mexico and the Mayans of Central America, Quetzalcoatl was a highly respected, ultra-wise god, one of the four sons of the high deity, Ometeol.

Quetzalcoatl, also called Kukulkan (Maya) and Kucumatz (Quiche), came from Tollan, the Land of the Sun, whose name means “Place of Cattail Reeds” or “Palace of Rushes.” Tollan was a paradisal realm and a source of all high culture in which Quetzalcoatl was king: many of its buildings were made of green stone. He is often depicted as sitting on the Jaguar Throne, holding the staff of fertility,  his garments signifying the aspiration toward the divine, his father, Ometeotl, and conveying authority and a high degree of spiritual awareness.

His mission was to establish communication between Heaven and Earth, to unite humanity with the all-father, Ometeotl. Quetzalcoatl, in performing this mission, was a culture benefactor, bestowing all the arts upon humanity. He was the Lord of Healing, the Lord of Hope, Father of the Toltecs, Lord of the Breath of Life, and the radiant Lord of the Morning Star (Venus).

He was widely revered throughout sites in Mesoamerica and consistently associated with the planet Venus, both in terms of archeoastronomical alignments at sites dedicated to his worship and in his mythology.

Quetzalcoatl’s name also can be interpreted as “Precious Twin,” since quetzal means both “bird” and “twin.” The twin in this case was Tezcatlipoca, God of the First Sun of Earth, Quetzalcoatl’s dark brother, whose name means  “Lord of the Smoking Mirror.” Legend says Quetzalcoatl, God of the Second Sun of Water, was dethroned by machinations of his evil brother, then immolated himself. The ashes, rising heavenward, turned into birds with glorious plumage, while his heart (or spirit) soared back to Venus; afterward he was known as Lord of the Dawn and Lord of the Eastern Light.

Yet Quetzalcoatl’s triumphant return to Earth and humanity was prophesied. According to Zapotec (a tribe of Native Americans living in the Oaxaca Valley of Southern Mexico) legend, Quetzalcoatl would one day return to his heart, which he had buried under the Tree of Life in the Valley of Oaxaca. When he returned, he would overthrow Tezcatlipoca and end his 900 year rule. Zapotec belief, coupled with New Age millenialism, claimed that the Harmonic Convergence of August 1987 marked the actual return to Earth of Quetzalcoatl.

Explanation: In Quetzalcoatl, we can observe the positive attributes, the culture-benefiting activities of Lucifer, the Light-Bringer, without any theological or moral filter.  In Quetzalcoatl, we can see Lucifer in his pure state, without his alleged refusal to serve humanity (Judeo-Christian filter) or defiance of the gods (as Prometheus, through the Greek filter) and his punishment in either case. As Quetzalcoatl, he is at peace with both God (Ometeotl) and humanity.

Sites that registered a high degree of Quetzalcoatl veneration, such as Teotihuacan and Chichen Itza in Mexico, are likely to be Lucifer Binding Sites.

This geomantic feature, however, has three valences. Where Lucifer, as the Lord of Light, is arriving in glory, as Quetzalcoatl, the site is called a Tollan, in honor of Quetzalcoatl’s divine origin. Where he is being bound, as in the Greek guise of Prometheus, it is called Mount Caucasus. Where he is being released, it is a Jerusalem, in recognition of the esoteric meaning of this word, “Foundation of Lucifer,” based on Venus as a Morning and Evening Star, and Lucifer’s ancient identification with this planet, both known as Phosphorus.

Quetzalcoatl, the Toltec Lucifer, was the benefactor of the second generation of humanity, bestowing upon them the Emerald, a structured container for Absolute Light, known to the Greeks, for example, as the gods’ fire. In a sense, he is the Lord of the Heart as befits his Quiche Indian characterization as Kucumatz who is the androgynous “Heart of Heaven.”

Quetzalcoatl was called God of the Second Sun of Water in reference to this second generation of humans and his intimate involvement with their destiny. His dark brother, Tezcatlipoca, was called God of the First Sun of Earth, in reference to his oversight of the first generation of humans, later aborted and withdrawn from physical creation and placed in a netherworld.

Quetzalcoatl’s Lord of the Dawn and Morning Star attributions are metaphors for his gift of self-aware consciousness and free will to humanity at its dawn. He is the benefactor and supervisor of the dawning of self-awareness in humans individualized in material bodies, a significant change of ontological state from natural union with God and all of Creation to a unity that is voluntarily achieved.

The Zapotec prophecy of the return of Quetzalcoatl to his heart in the Valley of Oaxaca was correct. The Harmonic Convergence of August 1987, a worldwide millenialist event in which estimated millions of people meditated at holy sites around the Earth, marked the return of Lucifer, arriving in glory and plumed with angels, to the physical world, after millenia.

Esoterically, the Harmonic Convergence took place inside Lucifer’s own Emerald, and its copy inside every living human – the Emerald is an aspect of the heart chakra – and at the prime copy of the Emerald as placed on Earth, at the churchyard of El Templo del Santa Maria and its 2000 year-old El Tule tree. Through this mass event, all of humanity, whether aware of it or not, got to experience the presence of the unfallen Lucifer, the brilliantly plumed Quetzalcoatl, arriving in glory, complete freedom, and absolution from his divine home with Ometeotl (the Supreme Being) within the heart temple of humanity.

A Winter Ritual of the African Diaspora

Our friends over at Conari Press just posted this winter ritual on their Facebook page. With their permission I share it with you here!

from the wonderful Jump Up: Good Times Throughout the Seasons with Celebrations from Around the World, by Luisah Teish:

This ritual can be performed any time during the winter season

Preparations

For this ritual you will need these items:

• A recording of sounds of the Ocean
• Clothing that reflects the color of the Sea
• A mat
• Objects from the Sea and/or those associated with the qualities of the Sea (seashells, coral, silver objects, Moonshapes, and mirrors)
• A seven-day deep blue candle in a glass
• A seven-day green candle in a glass
• A large bowl with blue water in it
• Blessed anointing oil (I recommend Meditation or Sweet Dreams oil)
• Small musical instruments
• Seven dimes
• A folk or fairy tale about Mer-people or Ocean creatures
• Songs and food to share
• Smudge in a shell
• A silver bell

Clean and decorate the room. Play the Ocean tape and allow the sound of the Sea to fill the room before the ritual begins.Altar Building: This ritual may be performed in front of the seasonal altar …It could also be done in the presence of the dinner table; however, because people are so drawn by the power of food, I recommend that the ritual be performed in another room, away from the dinner table, or shortened to allow for the appetites of family and friends.

Entry: As the participants (hereafter referred to as “family”) enter the room, they may place their ritual objects on the altar table or mat. Choose a comfortable place to sit. (I recommend a comfortable chair or pillows on the floor with room to lie down.) Listen to the sounds of the Ocean and be quiet.

Smudge: The oldest woman in the house (or She Who Has the Most Children) should mix a smudge of sage. rosemary, hyssop, and lemon verbena and smudge the altars of the people. As she does this, moving West, North, East, and South, the youngest woman in the house (or She Who Has No Children) should follow her, ringing the silver bell.

Invocation to the Directions

Center: Face the altar. Invoke the power of the Trickster. Visualize yourself as the spark of all beginnings. Ask for the power to truly change your life in the coming year.

West: Turn and face the West. Invoke the powers of the West and the Western ancestors. Ask for a beautiful interior life, for sweet dreams and loving family. Ask for health and protection of women and children and for better understanding between women and men in the coming year.

North: Turn and face the North. Invoke the powers of the North and the Northern ancestors (the Europeans and/or whatever people inhabit the land north of where you are). Ask for the power of manifestation and the preservation of the Earth in the coming year.

East: Turn and face the East. Invoke the powers of the East and the Eastern ancestors. Ask for inspiration and the peaceful use of technology in the coming year.

South: Turn and face the South. Invoke the powers of the South and the Southern ancestors. Ask for personal courage, for the healing of sexually transmitted disease, and the end of sexual abuse, and the cooling of international temperaments in the coming year.

This ritual is a group effort, the invocation of the directions can be shared by five people. Choose one person to hold the center. The other four people will stand facing their respective directions and remain there until all directions have been invoked. At the end of the invocation, everyone will return to the center.

Performing the Ritual

Deep Sea Chant: Hand in hand, with eyes closed, the family takes seven, slow, deep breaths, breathing in the sound and feel of the Ocean’s depth. Now family members call out the names of Sea deities (Goddesses and Gods) and chant these names. Play with the names, stretch the vowels, hammer the consonants, allow them to crescendo and decrescendo into a cacophony of sound. Return to silence. Listen to the sounds of the Ocean. Melt down into your seats, lie down on the floor, relax in Yemaya’s arms.

Guided Visualization: A visualization should be spoken by someone who has a soothing voice. The sounds of the Ocean create the background music; occasionally the tinkle of the maiden’s silver bell is heard. Light the blue candle. The visualization should take the family back to Mother’s womb, to the depths of the Ocean. It should speak to the creative and regenerative powers of the Mother’s womb and the Father’s seed. Family members are encouraged to recreate themselves, to compose a new person for the New Year. This visualization works best when it is delivered impromptu (this preserves the virginity of it). If you prefer to read it from a prepared script, let your voice be influenced by the rhythm of the Ocean. The speaker should visually walk into the Ocean, experience devolution and union with Her other life forms, return to a single cell, and recreate herself. If you are the speaker, speak the directives that will seduce others into similar feelings as you are experiencing this recreation. In this way the speaker will remain part of the flow. Let your own words come through as you speak.

The Recovery: As the visualization ends, the family will open their eyes and sit up. Now it is time to share the experiences from the Ocean bottom. Members will volunteer to share their stories. Anyone who wishes to remain silent may do so. Invite family members to chose a name or title for themselves that bespeaks their experience…

Anointing: Now pass the anointing oil around the circle. Each person should anoint her or his third eye (between the eyebrows), heart (between the breasts), and navel while pronouncing their sacred name. Some people may want to use this name throughout the year. If the name is that of a sea creature, it may be used as a dream totem. Ask your personal wisdom if this totem is your dream companion for the year.

Make Merry: After the anointing, members may pick up their small instruments and create a “makeshift orchestra.” Begin with a steady drumbeat, something soft and comforting. Let the instruments join in at will. Build the music up. Get up and move your body. Swim through the space, flip-flop and dive through the air. Each person should only stop playing and dancing when they are ready. Decrease the music and the movement until there is only the sound of the drum, the silver bell, and the Ocean in the background.

The Mother of Secrets: Each person will bring out their seven dimes. Whisper your hopes, dreams and aspirations to the seven dimes. Take your time. Be clear. When you are ready, go to the bowl of blue water. Say, “All powerful, all healing, most beautiful Mother, give birth,” and drop the dimes in the Ocean.

Each person will dip their hands in the water, just enough to carry a wet hand over to their ritual object on the altar mat. Sprinkle your ritual object with Ocean water, pick it up, and return to your seat.

At this point, a woman should deliver ans Oriki (praise-poem) in honor of the Ocean. A few words will do. Simply share a personal story about the beauty and power of the Ocean, or confess how much you love Her, thank Her for her undying dance, Her endless returning.

Close the Directions: Lightly or firmly dismiss the directions South, East, North, and West.To extinguish the candles simply pinch the flames with moistened fingers. Do not blow the candles out. Share food, conversation, and song. Read a folktale. Play like children.

Bright Lights and Boston Accents – Weird Wednesday

The area that I  grew up in and (coincidentally) the area that I live in now are hot spots for UFO sightings. Now… this is New England we’re talkin’  here – creepy old  houses hidden behind hundred-year-old trees. Not a lot of open sky. Lots of skeptics. So what gives with all the extraterrestrial activity? Why are all these flinty Yankees looking up?

Beats me. However…

I recently spent a long winter’s night outside with some hard-partying neighbors. There was a lovely fire in the firepit, a case of beer chilling in the snow, bad jokes, boring stories… the usual stuff. It was loud and fun and then something really weird happened. Big bright lights in a triangular formation moved through the sky over our  heads, very slowly, then as we watched, disappeared one by one.

“Gobsmacked” is the word that comes to mind. That and “freakin’ awesome!”

Everyone stood around slack-jawed for about thirty seconds, and then the shouting began.

There are a number of things it could have been, yet almost everyone in our group was instantly convinced that it was a  UFO – convinced with the passion and intensity of religious converts. Other explanations were quickly dismissed. Declarations of the “my-life-is-changed” variety were made. This ordinary night had been transfigured into something important, memorable, and binding. When the party broke up hours later it was with a sense of camaraderie.  Something had happened.

So I mused upon all of this and came up with a theory. Actually, it’s more of a series of questions, but that’s where theories start.

Mystics challenge mind and body with focused meditation and extremes of deprivation.  The average individual lacks both the discipline and will for this type of spiritual journeying – but that does not mean that  she/he lacks the ability.

Our lives are full of noise and distraction. Everything happens faster and faster. Months go by like days and minutes last forever. We are full but still feel empty. We barely have time to think but are bored out of our minds. Is it possible, that in this state of constant, numbing stimulation we are approaching the kind of extreme that the visionary seeks through silence? A sort of mirror experience. Could it be that more and more people see unusual things because, like the mystic, our minds are suddenly (and unintentionally) receptive?  Are there more odd-goings-on in the world or are we just seeing what has always been there – buzzed beyond pragmatism and conditioned by technology to believe that, yes – anything is possible, and likely?

Once again – beats me.

I just know that I lived much of my life in a landscape of clear air and bright stars – yet I never saw a meteor. Now it seems that all I have to do is want to see one – and there it is. The same could be true for many things. Something has happened, and it is happening still. And this flinty Yankee will be looking up when it does.