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Subject: JEverall: XIth Degree
Date: 9 Jul 1997 16:43:52 -0700
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[from thelema93-l@hollyfeld.org: john.sentrax@mail.ndirect.co.uk (John Everall)]

|     93.
|
|At 10:44 AM 5/30/97 +1040, John Everall wrote:
|
|>Kenneth Grant - whatever one's views on his heterodox & idiosyncratic
|>interpretation happen to be - appears to view the XIth degree as the
|>reversal of the IXth for a very specific reason related to sexual alchemy.
|>The IXth, if I am reading him aright, relates to albedo(whiteness) & the
|>XIth to rubedo(redness). The latter, in this case, then is connected with
|>sexual practice during menstruation("the best blood is of the moon,monthly"
|>-AL) and Grant maintains that this is the esoteric meaning of the term
|>'Scarlet Woman'.

Patrick Crumhorn:
|     Works for me, though in terms of the OTO under Crowley,
|I imagine that the XIth degree was not operated along these
|lines.  It's clear from A.C.'s diaries , though, that he
|extensively used *both* formulae in his own work, whether
|he called them "XI degree" or not.
|     Grant's interpretation is consistent with the tantric
|emphasis within the Typhonian OTO, but the lunar formulae
|are clearly a major part of Crowleyan Thelemic magick (from
|the 'cakes of light' to Liber Stellae Rubeae).  I don't know
|why KG got so much flack from certain quarters over this (well,
|actually I think I do, but I won't go into that right now <g>.)
|     As I've written before, I suspect that one aspect of the
|XI degree (in its symbolic, rather than its historical sense)
|can be considered as the breaking of a deeply-ingrained "cultural
|taboo."  In some cultures, the menstuating female is held with
|such abhorrence, that to approach her at all, sexually or no,
|is almost unthinkable  (Islam, orthodox Judaism, etc.). In
|other cultures, homosexuality and/or sodomy (not automatically
|the same thing) are the "unthinkable" sexual taboos. Grant
|touches upon this idea also, in the emphasis he puts on the
|Tantric rite of the "Five Makaras," where the pious teetotaling
|vegetarian Hindu practitioner must eat meat, drink wine, and
|engage in sexual union with a woman not his wife.  That would
|certainly tend to "kick out the jams" of the psyche, if one was
|coming out of that particular cultural milieu.  This would
|be in keeping with A.C.'s idea of the "reversal" formula, in a
|less-obvious and more effective way than merely "reversing"
|sexual polarity.

Thanks for the intersting & informative post, Patrick. Grant seems to be of
the opinion that Crowley/OTO assimilation of Tantric techniques acquired by
Kellner was flawed because they didn't apprehend the true secrets of the
Vama Marg(Tantric Left-Hand path). In Grant's book "Remembering Aleister
Crowley" he refers to the superior knowledge in these areas of David
Curwen, who nobody seems to have any information on. Did Curwen exist, or
is he perhaps a figment of KG's somewhat hyperactive imagination?
John Everall.