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Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2003 05:13:52 CST
From: paulhume@comcast.net (Paul Hume)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.wicca.moderated
Subject:  Re: Gardner-Crowley question
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> I have a question for you experienced wiccans out there. 

You'll also hear from experienced Thelemites ;-)

> I'm reading a book about Aleister Crowley and it says there: ?(...)
> Gardner was a member of the O.T.O (...). 

True. Documented pretty much beyond dispute.

> In the year 1943 he payed
> Crowley to write a book about magical rituals.

Highly unlikely. No indication that the two men had met that early (I
believe Arnold Crowther introduced them in 1945 or 1946, a year or two
before Crowley's death).

> The result was The Book
> of Shadows, that subsequently was accredited to a witch from the 16th
> century.

Even less likely. Crowley in his prime could have written the basic
structure of the Gardnerian degrees in a few weeks time, based on his
familiarity with Masonry and his ability to construct different mythic
forms on ritual foundations, but by the time he meets Gardner he is
ill, qworking away at several of his own projects, and did not
indicate anywhere in his records undertaking such a task.

> The style: a couple of anachronisms, rituals of the Golden
> Dawn, whole paragraphs from The Book of Law give away Master Therion
> as the author.

A popular argument, but it sounds like a distortion of critics like
Aidan Kelley, who did a close reading of Ye Boke of Arte Magick and
identifies numerous sources, Crowley and Mathers among them, but not
limited to them.

> Furthermore many Thelemites were at the same time members of Wiccan
> covens, where upon a certain syncretism developed." (from Christian
> Bouchet, ?Aleister Crowley", 2000)

Bouchet is making this up out of whole cloth. Let him cite the names
of "many Thelemites" - there weren't that many at this time, in fact.
He may be extrapolating from some of Jack Parsons' material written
after his Babalon Working in which he speaks of "The Witchcraft" - but
these were independent materials Parsons was developing for a more
woman-centered cultus, independently of what was to become modern
Wicca. Jack was never in a formal coven such as Bouchet describes.

> This has been translated by myself from German to English, so I'm
> apologizing upfront for any mistakes.

Ah, then it is scheiss instead of crap. Not your translation, but the
original.

Regards,
Paul