From thelema93-l-owner@bitsy.hollyfeld.org Thu May 9 18:24:44 1996 Received: from nova.unix.portal.com (nova.unix.portal.com [156.151.1.101]) by jobe.shell.portal.com (8.6.11/8.6.5) with ESMTP id SAA20444 for ; Thu, 9 May 1996 18:24:43 -0700 Received: from bitsy.hollyfeld.org ([198.70.189.30]) by nova.unix.portal.com (8.6.11/8.6.5) with ESMTP id SAA00216 for ; Thu, 9 May 1996 18:24:32 -0700 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by bitsy.hollyfeld.org (8.6.12/8.6.9) id VAA08301 for thelema93-l-outgoing; Thu, 9 May 1996 21:09:46 -0400 Received: from nova.unix.portal.com (root@nova.unix.portal.com [156.151.1.101]) by bitsy.hollyfeld.org (8.6.12/8.6.9) with ESMTP id VAA08297 for ; Thu, 9 May 1996 21:09:33 -0400 Received: from jobe.shell.portal.com (jobe.shell.portal.com [156.151.3.4]) by nova.unix.portal.com (8.6.11/8.6.5) with ESMTP id SAA28402 for ; Thu, 9 May 1996 18:04:52 -0700 Received: (tyagi@localhost) by jobe.shell.portal.com (8.6.11/8.6.5) id SAA19104 for thelema93-l@bitsy.hollyfeld.org; Thu, 9 May 1996 18:04:51 -0700 Message-Id: <199605100104.SAA19104@jobe.shell.portal.com> Subject: Re: Stele of Revealing. To: thelema93-l@bitsy.hollyfeld.org Date: Thu, 9 May 1996 18:04:50 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: from "Marianne Sarkis" at Apr 21, 96 02:47:41 am From: tyagi@HOUSEOFKAOS.ABYSS.COM (xiwang mu) Orientation: House of Kaos, St. Joseph, Kali Fornika, US -- Kali Yuga X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 12256 Sender: owner-thelema93-l@HOLLYFELD.ORG Precedence: bulk reply-to: thelema93-l@bitsy.hollyfeld.org Status: RO 49960509 (possibly Xposted to Usenet) E6, welcoming the overthrow of the Order for the benefit of the individual |From: Marianne Sarkis |Date: Sun, 21 Apr 1996 02:47:41 -0400 (EDT) |> "on some day before march 23rd[1904], Ouarda [AC's wife] identified the |> particular god with whom she was in communication from a stele in the |> Boulak Museum, which we had never visited. It is not the ordinary form of |> Horus but Ra-Hoor-Khuit. I was no doubt struck by the coincidence that the |> exhibit, _a quite obscure and undistinguished stele_, bore the catalog |> number 666" |> "March 23rd and April 7th. I made inquiries about the stele and had the |> inscriptions translated into French by the assistant curator at Boulak. I |> made poetic paraphrases of them." _The Confessions of Aleister Crowley_, pg 394-5; ed. Symonds/Grant, 1979. (verified; pages changed to reflect what I found - mu) |This is enough to make me very skeptical. However, I still don't |understand why it's so significant for Thelemites to have a picture or |representation of this Stele. religion: stele - pictures Egyptian gods whom Aleister Crowley identified as Nuit (over-arching), Hadit (right), and Ra-Hoor-Khuit (seated), adorn the front of the stele mentu - Crowley identified *as* Ankh-f-n-Khonsu (prince-priest) tablet - religion likes tablets and plates; pictorials and connections to the past of archaic and mystical origin (cf. Mormons) 666 - the finding of the stele in the means by which Crowley is supposed to have done this (haphazardly, directed by his wife Rose Kelly (Ouarda the Seer/W.)) is thematically significant (and, to some, ontologic evidence) as it indicates the activities of 'outside forces' upon the Beast and his Scarlet Woman (offices of cosmic purportion). the association of 666 with this implies Aiwas/Satan and the Beast simultaneously. yet whether there were witnesses to these events beyond Fra. P and W is not clear. in the main it can only be significant to the faithful and to P/W. origin - Egypt is the land of Khem, the source of the magick of Mosheh and various other mythical and powerful mages. hieroglyphics speak of arcaneness, agedness, and power evul bk - there is a direct relationship between the Book of the Law and the Stele of Revealing, in time, pictorally, and in text. the former two being dealt with above, text directly related to the New Aeon and the proper worship of Ra-Hoor-Khuit [with mu's spicy and adverarial notes!]: III:9-10 Lurk! Withdraw! Upon them! [yoicks! tally ho!] this is the Law of the Battle of Conquest : thus shall my worship be about my secret house [cf Islam] Get the stele of revealing itself; set it in thy secret temple - and that temple is already aright disposed - & it shall be your Kiblah [again, cf Islam] for ever. It shall not fade, but miraculous colour shall come back to it day after day. Close it in locked glass for a proof to the world. [of what?] new aeon - "THE NEW AEON The third chapter of the Book [of Revealing] is difficult to understand, and may be very repugnant to many people born before the date of the Book (April, 1904). It tells us the characteristics of the Period on which we are now entered. Superficially, they appear appalling. We see some of them already with terrifying clarity. But fear not! [note: 'we are in deep shit! fear not, our god resolves our problems!] It explains that certain vast 'stars' (or aggregates of experience) may be described as Gods. One of these is in charge of the destinies of this planet for periods of 2,000 years.* In the history of the world, as far back as we know accurately, are three such Gods: Isis, the mother, when the Universe was conceived as simple nourishment drawn directly from her; this period [Nu(it)-Isis :>] is marked by matriarchal government. Next, beginning in 500 B.C., Osiris, the father, when the Universe was imagined as catastrophic, love, death, resurrection, as the method by which experience was built up; this [Had(it)-Osiris-Jesus] corresponds to patriarchal systems. [note the similarity of mythic conclusion as the modern feminist neopagans-> matriarchy] Now, Horus, the child, in which we come to perceive events as a continual growth partaking in its elements of both these methods, and not to be overcome by circumstance. This present period [Ra-Horus-666] involves the recognition of the individual as the unit of society. [cf Satanism; 49960606 the Aeon of the Adversary!] We realize ourselves as explained in the first paragraphs of this essay. Every event, includiung death, is only more accretion to our experience, freely willed by ourselves [take responsibility for your life] from the beginning and therefore also predestined. [bet you didn't that Thelemites believed in Predestination too! ;>] This "God," Horus, has a technial title: Heru-Ra-Ha, a combination of twin gods, Ra-Hoor-Khuit and Hoor-Paar-Kraat. The meaning of this doctrine must be studied in 'Magick.' (He is symbolized as a Hawk-Headed God enthroned.) [is this such a big change from Yahweh? The Battle-God sitting on a throne (of judgement?), supposedly bi- or non-sexual, and yet always called 'He'?; one wonders if Crowley wasn't revisiting the Aeon of the Had-Hoor-Jeshua] He rules the present period of 2,000 years [sound familiar?], beginning in 1904. [round about the time the Angel of the Abyss was supposed to 'get out' ;>] Everywhere his government is taking root. [manifest destiny?] Observe for yourselves the decay of the sense of sin, the growth of innocence and irresponsibility, the strange modifications of the reproductive instinct with a tendency to become bi-sexual and epicene [then why does the author use the pronoun 'He' to refer to the God?], the childlike confidence in progress combined with nightmare fear of catastrophe, against which we are yet half unwilling to take precautions. [note how willing the author is to accept the values of the previous aeons -- growth and catastrophe, the combination of Nu-Isis and Had-Osiris, yet is this something *new*, or just a revisitation to aspects of the past, combined?] Consider the outcrop of dictatorships, only possible when moral growth is in its earliest stages, and the prevalence of infantile cults [!] like Communism, Fascism, Pacifism, Health Crazes, Occultism in nearly all its forms, religions sentimentalized to the point of practical extinction [true also of the religion of Thelema? kinda cult-like if you ask me]. Consider the popularity of the cinema, the wireless, the football pools and guessing competitions, all devices for for soothing fractious infants, no seed of purpose in them. [one could make a case that modern obsessions spell more plainly the change of the aeons (by our author, noted: * The moment of change from one period to another is technically called The Equinox of the Gods); is this then a proof that the prince-priest's Dictation was only that of Herald, announcing a later change, as other *Thelemites* have claimed? (esp. Achad, Grant, Nema, likely Motta, other people who may want also to enslave us in a cult in order to support them financially and emotionally, as the Prophet attempted)] Consider sport, the babyish enthusiasms and rages which it excites, whole nations disturbed by disputes between boys. [this was new? olympics? football/rugby?] Consider war, the atrocities which occur daily and leave us unmoved and hardly worried. We are children. [and we treat our children like animals] How this new Aeon of Horus will develop, how the Child will grow up, these are for us to determine, growing up ourselves in the way of the Law of Thelema under the enlightened guidance of the Master Therion. [more adoration for the Master emphasizes the scripture and the stele and the religion] _______________________________________________________ Excised from an introductory essay to the Book of the Law found within a copy given to the Abyss by another member of the OTO (US) (fourth chapter of five, which I intend also to key in below or in another post; if you know of where this originates, please email me and/or make this plainly known, thanks). |> Coincidentally, i was commissioned to carve an authentic-looking Egyptian |> stele last week and did a fair amount of study of actual carvings. I have |> photos of the Stele of Revealing and notice that it was not carved, simply |> painted and the painting is not as elaborate or precise as many of the |> examples i was working from. This suggests that it was not a particularly |> important piece in its day. At least not important to any wealthy person. |Is it important now, other than for thelemites, that is. The usage of the term 'thelemites' here is ambiguous. It may refer to any number of identities (of social caste, of individual timber, of magical art). Crowley says much about 'Thelemites' (I'm not aware he ever identified himself as one, though I'd love to hear claims of this :>), and should be quoted occasionally about this in relation to the subject (I may take this up later). I think it more conservative to say that the stele is important to some people who identify themselves *as* Thelemites. Much like the badge of 'Christian' or 'Buddhist', this is used to prop up egos, oppress others at the expense of the Law of the Thelema (ignorant of its meaning), to form a shell (qliphot) around a community which is at odds with the surrounding culture (being tantric and, esp. early on, largely anti-Christian in tone but not substance), and to inspire converts to the new and more exciting 'progress', at times at the expense of their individuality and/or the biosphere. More: cult - born into a splintering social system wherein the paradigm of old no longer functions (destroyed by Science in a wash of arid materialism and cynicism), citizens of nation states reach for some Solution to the horror they see around them as the villages and cities become engulfed in globalization through war and terrorism. apocalyptic religions and other warmongering gods have long inspired their worshippers to ever more fervent devotion, often ignoring and sometimes blatantly reframing historical evidence into self-supporting rivalry among personality-cults. this is exemplified in the (US) OTO's opposition to Satanism and the bulk of the Order's rejection of Crowley's obvious counter-cultural lifestyle in favor of the status quo. the RELIGION of Thelema began with the sacrifice of the Law from which it stole its name (even with the nod of the Master). now worn like a badge of progress and advancement within post-Darwinian evolutionary heyday, excellently manifested in the various organized pursuits: modern OTOs, latter-day Rosicrucians, the Church of Satan and the Temple of Set (among numerous offshoots/splinters), the movement called 'Thelema' has taken on all the characteristics of most 'Old Aeon' religions, complete with inane fanaticism about their Prophet(s) (almost always male), support of a mythology as if it were history (resembling Neopagans in dimmer moments), and various unchangeable icons of odd assortment which do not always consistently represent the histories and philosophies promoted by its cultists (stele: note the 666, which is of obvious Satanic bent). E6/6/6 - stay tuned tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com mu