From thelema93-l-owner@bitsy.hollyfeld.org Thu Aug 1 22:41:54 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 WAA09672 for ; Thu, 1 Aug 1996 22:41:53 -0700 Received: from bitsy.hollyfeld.org (bitsy.hollyfeld.org [38.240.235.1]) by nova.unix.portal.com (8.6.11/8.6.5) with ESMTP id WAA27719 for ; Thu, 1 Aug 1996 22:41:24 -0700 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by bitsy.hollyfeld.org (8.6.12/8.6.9) id BAA17213 for thelema93-l-outgoing; Fri, 2 Aug 1996 01:43:06 -0400 Received: from mh1.well.com (mh1.well.com [206.15.64.22]) by bitsy.hollyfeld.org (8.6.12/8.6.9) with ESMTP id BAA17209 for ; Fri, 2 Aug 1996 01:42:56 -0400 Received: from well (heidrick@well.com [206.15.64.10]) by mh1.well.com (8.7.5/8.7.5) with SMTP id WAA25543 for ; Thu, 1 Aug 1996 22:38:58 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 1 Aug 1996 22:38:56 -0700 (PDT) From: Bill Heidrick Subject: Re: Caliphate Christainity?? (VERY Long, and tedious) To: thelema93-l@bitsy.hollyfeld.org In-Reply-To: <199608020301.UAA10602@dfw-ix10.ix.netcom.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-thelema93-l@HOLLYFELD.ORG Precedence: bulk reply-to: thelema93-l@bitsy.hollyfeld.org Status: RO 93, Andrew asked: >confused as to why OTO absorbed EGC. Comments, Bill? The date of that happening is a little unclear. Papus was head of the French section of OTO at the time. He had consecration as a bishop in the French Gnostic Catholic Church, founded by Doinel and once counting the notorious "Leo Taxil" as a member. When Papus came into OTO, he brought the GCC with him -- not unusual since more than a dozen other organizations had some merger or overlap with OTO in those times. When Papus got a valid consecration out of the line of the schism of Utrect (Wandering Bishop phenomena), he passed that along. Crowley wrote and published the Gnostic Mass under the new name for the Gnostic Catholic Church as a part of OTO (Latin translation only: Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica) -- during WWI in the _International_. He published it again in the _Blue Equinox_ in 1919 e.v. and again in the 1920's in MTP -- usually with his Baphomet OTO signature. Around 1981 e.v., we (Grady McMurtry, myself and some others in OTO) had just completed filing of OTO papers for incorporation with the state of California. At the time, we didn't have a clear understanding of what constituted the legal criteria for a "Church" in tax law. Since OTO has always possessed the forms of lodges, members and dues, we were a little worried that all those characteristics would automatically make the OTO a "mere" fraternal organization in the eyes of the law. About that time James Town happened and there was a lot of talk about cracking down on the application procedures for recognizing churches. Accordingly, we set up a separate EGC corporation, without requirement of OTO membership below the level of board of directors. That one we filed as a formal and simple "church" with no fraternal qualifications or language -- in effect OTO was a religious order and EGC was a public membership church available outside OTO membership as well as a religious chapel aspect of OTO proper. At no time did we consider that OTO ceased to have an EGC within it, but we did consider that we had established a separate EGC offshoot in its own right. I was made a bishop by laying on of hands in the back seat of the car taking us to the notary to get the papers witnessed and signed. I had priestly authority within OTO, but we decided to add a separate ordination for the separate church. OTO members who were also bishops wore silver and black onyx rings instead of the more traditional gold and amethyst, to indicate respect for the color sacred to the OHO. I still have mine, nice thing with two bees holding the bezel. About a year later we read a little more law and discovered that OTO did qualify as a religious entity by its own nature in terms of tax law. We amended the OTO articles to reflect that as the declared primary purpose. No problems with IRS or the Franchise Tax Office (California equivalent to the IRS). The separate EGC continued until about 1986 e.v., usually holding it's masses at OTO meeting places, sometimes separately at other places. At times there was a petty dispute over the collections, since some EGC masses were purely OTO EGC and some were non-OTO EGC. OTO had financing by dues, but the separate EGC did not -- it was dependent on donations and OTO aid. After Grady died, I had to step down as an EGC officer, owing to increased duties for OTO and some personal stress. The separate EGC started to decay -- not that I'm claiming to be the one who held it together, but there were others who had to choose between serving as officers in OTO or doubling up as officers for both OTO and EGC -- OTO had opened the US Electorial College in Grady's last year, and that drained off more volunteers. Although the separate EGC did attract many non-OTO members to the Mass and the Priest/esshood, it didn't seem to attract people willing to handle administrative duties. Effectively, that meant drawing on the same pool of people to make the machinery work for both OTO and EGC. OTO got more. There were other problems, mainly that the EGC Bishops tended not to report baptisms, confirmations and even some ordinations with any regularity. No effective fund drives either. In a word, it died from lack of parenting. California was happy as long as the annual reports and a minimum $300 tax came in, but suspended the separate EGC corporation when the EGC Secretary failed to do that. Tax exemption papers were prepared but never submitted -- I saw them in an envelope with stamps on it, but the Secretary froze up and never signed or submitted them. By that time even the bishops were skipping annual meetings and the resolution list was being "edited" haphazardly. One good thing the separate EGC did was to codify the rules and rituals. Although that coda was never accepted by the EGC internal to OTO, it served as a start for the present regulations -- five years of independence did yield that much. During the interval between 1986 and 1989 e.v., quite a lot of Masses took place at OTO locations without supervision. The independent EGC had depended on visits by bishops, and the local OTO groups had become accustomed to ignoring details like that some of the time. This led to some pretty strange "Masses", and I had to order a local lodge master to publish the fact beforehand if the Liber XV script wasn't to be followed on a particular occasion. Also, the independent EGC had substantially added to the list of Saints in the Collects, including a number of ladies as well as gents. This apparently was in ignorance of Crowley's intention to set up a list of males he felt had in some way contributed to the recognition of the divine woman -- from the Gnostic concept of devotion to Sophia, the divine and female Wisdom -- early example would be Simon Magus of the Roman period, with his "divine" Sophia partner --- later examples would be Jack Parsons as Belerion with his Cameron as his earthly Babalon and Crowley as Beast with his Scarlet Woman(en). All that happened in terms of regular attendance at the Mass was that non-OTO members now make up the majority of attendees at some OTO Gnostic Masses, particularly in the SF Bay Area. Ordinations went a little strange, owing to lack of supervision of the loose independent EGC bishops. The remedy was to regularize ordinations to qualification of degree previously held in OTO, when done by OTO bishops, and that has led to some dispute. There are non-OTO bishops, of course, but their separate corporation went belly-up from lack of support by the members. OTO registers these when they request it, subject to the condition that the minimum degrees must be held by any individuals they ordain as long as they retain registration with us -- otherwise we decline to register the new ordinations. Doesn't mean those people don't have valid ordinations, just that we can't be responsible for them. I didn't mind the gender reversal masses, myself, although some OTO members took exception. There were a few real twisters' tho -- Like the time three Moonies were visiting as guests brought by G.Melton: Isaac and Sally stood up and declared with some gusto that they would refuse to do the Mass unless cunnilingus and fellatio were a part of it. No problem, this was a public mass, not a Mass of the Holy Ghost in private between two individuals sans-audience. I&S left, we got another priest and priestess, held a regular Mass and I don't think the Moonies remembered to blink the whole time -- eyes just stayed bugged out. Enough for now. >If we have Officers at all, then must do well by us, or the system will >indeed fall apart. Exactly what happened to the independent EGC. 93 93/93 Bill