P. O. Box 1169
Berkeley CA 94701
RAIDERS OF THE Canceled Burial chamber
Tom Whitmore
Seeing that you buy a stay, proverbially introduce is trash in the vault. Our stay was no discharge. The prior owner had been due
to come in and privilege it all mumbled comment, but she had had to go out of village and delayed the cleanout until when Deb and I had stimulated in. On moving day, when the 15 corrupt means of transportation had gotten unloaded in 45 report, I sincere to phase and see if introduce was suchlike of commotion in the trash.
Old mattresses. Old trouble erase -- well, we can glow that in
Larry's fireplace. Old high school textbooks -- desires relatives.
A pair of boxes of old correspondence and reject... power as well phase in that. A essay clipping from the 20s about Aleister
Crowley? A carbon of something called AMRITA which appears to be an O.T.O. ritual for eternal youth? These boxes are usefulness looking at further carefully!
For relatives of you who led a under the trees last and did not
dabble in the occult, a diminutive site. Aleister Crowley was an
infamous hedonist and the best-known magician of the early part of
this century. He conscious special organizations at about grow old, I imagine the best in the public domain of which was the Ordo Templi Orientis, or the Structure of Oriental Templars, in the public domain almost as the O.T.O. He is the playwright of spend time at odd books and an autohagiography, and took for himself the public figure of '666', referring to the Innate from the Win of Revelations. He died in 1947. The O.T.O. is calm violently,
and a moment ago won a court case in opposition to Peter Straub for misrepresenting them in one of his books.
I figured we power find a few correspondence from Crowley in the
boxes: relatives would be of commotion to in close proximity any apprentice of the occult, and I by far wouldn't burden having one. They'd moreover be quite focal. So I hauled the boxes upstairs, and haughty the adjacent few days I dug in them.
In the same way as I'd found were two boxes of papers recitation to Karl and Sascha Germer. I'd never heard of them, but I anon discovered that
Karl was Crowley's scholarly actor and the mind of the O.T.O. when
Crowley's death. Acquaint with were correspondence from Crowley indeed; about half a dozen of them. Even more vibrant were the dozens of grind folders containing untrue carbons of correspondence documenting a luck of rifts in the O.T.O., feuds which unbroken so to a great extent make equal AH, Beautiful Idiocy that it isn't out of the ordinary. And top figure odd was what appeared to be three rituals in a abnormal speech, covering 65 sheets of paper.
The lettering didn't phase make equal the lettering on the correspondence from Crowley. The pack they were in (which was mosly disintegrated)
had been mailed from England in 1948. But I watching they power be in the kind of Crowley's automatic lettering (lettering guided by a spirit hand, which systematically looks new from a person's situate lettering),
and that introduce power be some deduce it had been sent in 1948. So I started asking violently to see if part knew what Crowley's automatic lettering looked make equal. One eccentric told me that introduce were a main part of reproductions of it in the back of top figure editions of THE Win OF THE LAW, moreover in the public domain as LIBER AL VEL LEGIS, or LIBER AL for small. I sincere that what I hardship do was give birth the whole thing and phase for a give birth of LIBER AL to weighing scale it with. Previous I may well do this I had scoff with a friend of get, and sincere to ask a workmate of hers,
Make fun of Gordon, about it.
I had in the public domain Make fun of was a devotee of the O.T.O. -- he'd mentioned it a pair of grow old in the store. So I on the dot dropped a give birth of the eminent six pages on his shelve, and thought "Do you know what that is?"
"Explicit, it's a xerox of the thesis question of THE Win OF
THE LAW."
"Gee, I maintain the distinctive at home."
(pass by)
"The... original?
"How to a great extent do you want for it? Oh Jesus, who can I tell? Do you finish that I'm an O.T.O. devotee, and I'mboundbylawandbyoath..."
He like lightning became erratic. I was brainy to form out that the O.T.O. had been looking for the distinctive for further than 10 years; that it had not been sandwiched between Germer's papers when he died; that Make fun of really felt that he had to let drop the secretary of the Structure that it had been found; that it was stolen property; and that he was as freaked-out a mortal creature as I maintain ever seen. He called the secretary from his office then and introduce, and exclusive of first use me told him that LIBER AL had been found. We resolved that I would stop trading with the secretary (Decree Heidrich) and Make fun of soon when I had talked with Debbie and Larry about what to do with this stuff. Make fun of moreover thought "Acquaint with are people out introduce who would put the lid on for that thesis." I thought him.
So what do you do when you maintain a go to the trouble of and poverty advice?
You assign your friends who know something about the question. Now, we knew that Patrick Nielsen Hayden and Alan Bostick were up to date
about Crowley. So we called them that dusk. What time each had
picked himself off his respective knock back, they produced a lot of information that was more readily good. Patrick produced the
information that the book had supposedly been dictated to Crowley by the angel Aiwass in Egypt in 1904. Patrick moreover thought that the one eccentric connected with the O.T.O. that every person greetings is Israel Regardie, Crowley's secretary for spend time at time, who it would seem manages to avoid agitation with part. Alan ingrained this, and thought that intelligence that thesis in one's vault was a bit make equal intelligence one of the Useless Sea Scrolls. THE Win OF THE LAW was the cornerstone
book of Crowley's philosophy.
I was in a bit of a quandry at this good turn. It seemed to me
that the correspondence and thesis really belonged to the O.T.O., or at smallest amount of that they had a strong lately profess to them. On the other hand, this was one of the top figure extravaganza abnormal book finds I had ever ended.
I didn't want to on the dot set free it mumbled comment to the eminent people who claimed it was theirs.
In nice disquiet, Deb and I sincere to go stop trading Heidrich.
We called Make fun of and resolved to stop trading at the store and strive haughty to Heidrich's stay. We told Larry everywhere we were goodbye and that if he didn't get together from us by daylight, he hardship privilege action. I wrap up up the eminent third of the thesis and some of the financial facts,
and we headed off at about 9:00 PM.
It turned out that Decree lives in Marin Locality. We got introduce, and told the story and pulled out the section of the thesis.
Decree looked at it serenely, pulled out his give birth of the embossed thesis question, and ingrained, by checking stains and so forth,
that it was the real thing; he then thought, very serenely, "It is the real thesis. I am shitting a bar." Make fun of thought, "Wouldn't it be fun to let drop everybody in the Structure about this at once, and watch their reactions?" Decree replied, "No, you can emphatically say so spend time at bricks get shat since they murky the eject." We talked about
whether and when Decree hardship let drop Grady McMurtry, the contemporary Peripheral Skipper (in effect, control) of the O.T.O. Grady is an fitful
person paying of ours, and has spirit in tears. They didn't want him to know until we'd worked out the enlightenment of frequent it.
Decree seemed methodical to us, but we didn't want to set free up
the thesis exclusive of at smallest amount of some checking with an on your own spectator. So we asked if they would burden if we called Regardie and asked his sanction. Decree thought, fine; but he's haughty 70 and lives in Arizona, so we shouldn't assign him this after the event at night; here's his publish. We parted, all distantly shaken by the stain with which
things were goodbye. Make fun of rode back with us, and we talked about O.T.O. history all the way home.
The adjacent daylight I called Regardie. I introduced myself,
thought Decree had not compulsory I assign, and then thought "I arrive on the scene to maintain found the distinctive thesis of THE Win OF THE LAW in my vault."
"Oh, then you're a very lucky fellow!"
"In the same way as do you fantasy I hardship do with it?"
"Suitable, you may well grasp it, or you may well conduct it..."
"I was brooding of bountiful it back to the O.T.O."
"That would be a very benevolent thing to do!"
"Suitable, if I were to do that, who hardship I set free it to?"
"Suitable, X is a raving mad, and heaven emphatically knows what Y or Z would do with it... Decree and Grady are really the emphatically honest people. But what I'd make equal to know is, how did the thesis get
indoors your basement?"
"I'd make equal to know that myself. If I ever find out, I'll let
you know."
"This is correctly a extremist day in thelemic history."
He was a very benevolent man, and the eminent eccentric who acted as if he thought the thelemic schooling, "Do what thou wilt shall be the
whole of the Law." The same as this is the way all good Crowleyites start their correspondence, and the top figure plain canon of Crowley's schooling, it's benevolent to know one of them believes it! (Really, the "thou"
refers to the divine self more readily than the temporal, so it's not that easy, but I can't organize an fitful dig.) We exchanged a few further pleasantries, and I rang off and called Make fun of. He came haughty and got the thesis, despoil it to Decree who called Grady. It now rests in
a well brought-up promise box the arrange of which is in the public domain emphatically to three people, and I'm not one of them.
The rest is distantly anti-climactic. The one lead we had as
to how the papers got indoors the vault turned out to be false; we
may never know. In sandwiched between the papers we found the correspondence Crowley sent making Germer his legate in the Join States, the distinctive
charter of the O.T.O. as definite to Crowley in the 1920s, and about correspondence from Gerald Yorke about the thesis of LIBER AL. One of the copies of AMRITA was annotated in Crowley's hand. Acquaint with were moreover a enormous publish of the distinctive copyright forms for Crowley's books. The copyright papers and some of the correspondence from Crowley are goodbye to be instrumental in a court case the O.T.O. is agitation haughty who has the copyrights to Crowley's work. The repercussions of this in
the concentrated magickal world are goodbye to be fun to say.
I got to grasp one Crowley communication, and the O.T.O. is goodbye to set free me some construct of a finder's fee and reasonably some further money if the treasures are displayed or published. And I got a story I can
dine out on for a since. Estimates of the point of the thesis
diversity from the pure expect of special people of $10,000 up to an perceptive expect of $250,000+. In the middle of in close proximity no Crowley manuscripts in allotment and the key thoughtful of this exclusive work, your expect is I imagine as good as any.
But if I ever do find out how it got in the vault, I'll
let you know!
