Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
We’re excited to announce the newest module from the Education Committee of O.T.O. US Grand Lodge. This module deals with all aspects of the Holy Grail- its history, symbolism, and relevance to Thelema. If you are interested in obtaining a copy of this module for your local body, please email us at:
education@oto-usa.org
Please note that these modules can only be requested by an officer of a duly chartered body of O.T.O. and are not available for distribution to the public.
Love is the law, love under will.
News
Liber Samekh – History and Development
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
This presentation can now be viewed here:
Join us on Monday November 29th at 7pm Central Time as Harper Feist presents her lecture on the history and development of Liber Samekh. This is a public presentation, so please feel free to share this invitation far and wide!
This presentation discusses the evolution of the late Classical exorcism known currently as the Headless Rite to Liber Samekh, a Thelemic ritual to facilitate achievement of Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. The talk will focus on the meaning and translational history of the Headless Rite and the fact that the original ritual is very similar to a neo-Platonic theurgic exercise. This current is especially palpable in Samekh, one of the most important of Crowley’s contributions to the Thelemic canon.
Love is the law, love under will.
Diversity Task Force panel discussion
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
In 2018, Fr. Sabazius ordered the creation of the Diversity Task Force as an arm of U.S. Grand Lodge, dedicated to improving diversity and inclusion within our Order. Guided by the U.S.G.L. Mission and Values Statements, a subgroup of the Task Force known as the MoMod (Monthly Module) team has spent the last eight months creating educational modules which the Education Committee is distributing on the local level. Join us on Sunday, April 25th at 6pm Pacific Time as we welcome a panel of members from the Task Force’s MoMod team who will be sharing their experiences working with the team. This event will be open to the public, so please feel free to share it far and wide!
Love is the law, love under will.
Anandalahari & The Shiva Samhita: a Method of Crossing the Abyss (without crossing the Abbess) with Felicia Heidrick
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
(note: This presentation was not recorded. Anyone interested in viewing it is welcome to contact Felicia Heidrick directly. It was awesome.)
Join us at 6pm Pacific Time, Thursday February 25th as we host Felicia Heidrick as a special guest lecturer for this presentation. Though not a member of Ordo Templi Orientis, Felicia has a profound wealth of experience and we’re delighted that she has volunteered to share her time and wisdom with us! This presentation is open to the public, so please feel free to share it far and wide.
You’ve read Magick in Theory & Practice and perhaps The Equinox, in which Aleister Crowley refers to the Shiva Samhita. You’ve celebrated and perhaps memorized Liber XV, the Gnostic Mass. You’ve learned that you are the talisman, the point, the Mystery, incarnate; that Thou art That and That am I. BUT do you really know it with every fiber of your being? Join Felicia Heidrick (yes, that Heidrick) to explore “waves of bliss” (the literal translation of Anandalahari) another method of Crossing the Abyss. And, because our method is science, you can look forward to science-based supporting facts. Buckle your seatbelt, it’s not gradual. Come prepared to take your own notes–Felicia doesn’t share hers.
About Felicia:
In 1997, Felicia met author Donald Michael Kraig. From Don, Felicia received pathless path mentoring in the practices of a Shakta tantric tradition based in Sri Vidya which, as it happens, is quite Thelemic. She will be sharing what worked for her all those years ago.
Love is the law, love under will.
The Body as a Scrying Sensor with Harper Feist
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
This presentation is now viewable on the O.T.O. U.S. Grand Lodge Youtube channel, here:
Join us on Wednesday, January 27th at 6pm Pacific Time as Sr. Harper Feist presents “The Body as a Scrying Sensor”, which she previously delivered in 2017 at NOTOCON XI in Orlando, FL.
“Scrying as an art and skill is necessary to successful conjuration work. Harper has a useful understanding of communion with the invisible world, and has developed a series of techniques that put her “in the zone” to be able to interact with the entities we call into our crystals. She’ll be discussing methods of moving out of the way, the cultivation of an internal emptiness, and the premise that the entire human body is a sensory device that the spirit world will use to commune with you.”
Harper Feist is driven to sense the invisible world. In her day job, she is a scientist making use of wavelengths of light unseen to the human eye to better understand the universe. In a similar vein, many of her esoteric efforts are focused on using somatic techniques to improve ritual and religious experiences. To the latter point, she has taught several workshops at national conferences and an online class focused on helping practitioners develop a scrying practice. She prides herself on the creation of a friendly and accessible approach to sensing to the invisible world. Her current research interests include Iamblican theurgy and the notion of ritual purity.
Love is the law, love under will.
The Bird Fights Its Way Out of the Egg by Gordan Djurdjevic
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
(note: This presentation was not recorded. Anyone interested in viewing it should contact Gordan directly. It was amazing.)
Join us on Tuesday, December 29th at 6pm Pacific Time as Br. Gordan Djurdjevic presents “The Bird Fights Its Way Out of the Egg”. This event will be public, so please feel free to share the link far and wide! This presentation will not be recorded, and we ask that all participants refrain from recording and part of it.
An Esoteric Reading of Hermann Hesse’s Demian.
The literary oeuvre of Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) is known for its thematic focus on issues involving search for the meaning of life and the authentic self-knowledge. His novels often display a disenchantment with the established religious and social forms and engage with non-conventional modes of spiritual quest, which is arguably one of the main reasons for his popularity among the countercultural youth of the 1960s. Hesse’s most popular work, a short novel Siddhartha (1922), set in India at the time of the historical Buddha Śākyamuni, promoted Asian religious ideas. An earlier novel, Demian (1919), on the other hand, abounds with gnostic undercurrents reflective of alternative religious traditions in the West. It is well known that Demian was influenced by the ideas of the Swiss analytical psychologist Carl Gustav Jung, while the admiration for Friedrich Nietzsche is explicitly acknowledged in the novel. However, Hesse was also influenced by the countercultural milieu of Monte Verita in Ascona and it is conceivable that he was even familiar with some representatives of the Theodor Reuss’ Ordo Templi Orientis, active in the area during his visits. This presentation will interrogate the relationship between major ideological strands in Hesse’s works, with the main emphasis on Demian, and the philosophy of Thelema, and will highlight some points of their mutual congruence.
About the Presenter: Gordan Djurdjevic is a contributor to the anthology Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism (Oxford University Press, 2012); co-editor, with Henrik Bogdan, of the collection of essays Occultism in a Global Perspective (Acumen, 2013; Routledge, 2015); and the author of Masters of Magical Powers: The Nath Yogis in the Light of Esoteric Notions (VDM, 2008); India and the Occult: The Influence of South Asian Spirituality on Modern Western Occultism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014); and, with Shukdev Singh, Sayings of Gorakhnath: Selected Translations from the Gorakh Bānī (Oxford University Press, 2019).
Love is the law, love under will.
AMDUAT: The Magical Secrets of Solar Rebirth by Christeos Pir
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
This presentation can be viewed on the O.T.O. U.S. Grand Lodge Youtube channel:
https://youtu.be/ElP1UA0qXxc
The “Book of the Dead” was for anyone – or at least anyone who could afford it. But there was another magical book reserved exclusively for Kings and High Priests: The Amduat, or “The Book of What Is in the Netherworld.” It describes the journey of the deceased through the underworld, identified not only with the god Osiris, but also with the passage of the Sun through the hours of the night to Dawn. Thus the dangers faced by the Sun during the night mirror the dangers faced by the dead king as he struggles against enemies to re-integrate himself on his way to rebirth. Just as the Sun ‘dies’ in the West and must make the perilous voyage through the Night Country to be reborn in the East, so too must the deceased pass through the Western Lands to the Netherworld, the Land of the Dead, and vanquish his foes with the help of his spiritual guardians. Only then can he find his way back into the world of light. This is the terrifying ordeal that we as Kings must undertake in order to find our own reintegration.
This workshop will use images, descriptions, and analyses of the original burial inscriptions to show how the traversing of this arduous passage gives us a 3000-year-old glimpse into how the sun’s journey through the dangers of the underworld, and those of the pharaoh who likewise seeks rebirth, can also offer us clues to our own spiritual renewal.
Christeos Pir (T אריה) is a Bishop of EGC and a Sovereign Grand Inspector General. He has been a member of O.T.O. since 04/04/93, and is Past Master of William Blake Oasis (now William Blake Lodge), past Secretary and Deputy Master of Scarlet Woman Lodge in Austin TX, and past Most Wise Sovereign of Baphomet Chapter Rose Croix. He is a professor (ret.) of the History of Globalization, and is the author of numerous essays on magical topics. He has led seminars and experimental study groups in various subjects at a number of O.T.O. bodies, at NOTOCON, at Ecumenicon/Sacred Space (a national pagan-oriented ecumenical conference), and at several Texas OTO Conventions (TOTOCONs).
We look forward to seeing you there!
Love is the law, love under will.
“We Antichrists” by Dionysius Rogers
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
This presentation is viewable on the O.T.O. U.S. Grand Lodge Youtube channel, here!
Order leadership and senior initiates have been at justifiable pains to distinguish Thelema from vulgar Satanism. At the same time, it is undeniable that an antichristian impulse was inherent in the work of our Prophet, who called himself both an atheist and “the truest of all Christians.” This presentation will discuss the development of the concept of antichrist throughout the Old Aeon, and its fulfillment in Thelema. It will include a survey of the Thelemic Saints and heroes who have been recognized as antichrists, as well as a discussion of the sources and expressions of Aleister Crowley’s opposition to Christianity, and it will culminate with an appeal to the “inner antichrist” of each Thelemite.
About the presenter: M. Dionysius Rogers joined OTO in 1992, and has served the organization in local, national and international offices. He is Past Master of Scarlet Woman Lodge and Past Most Wise Sovereign of Ouarda Chapter. He is an active EGC Bishop, and the author of the books Thelema for the People, Fire in the Reed, Raise the Spell, and Mysteries of the Great Beast Aleister Crowley. He is a scholar of religion who has made presentations on esoteric and occult topics at academic conferences in Europe and the USA regularly since 2004, and he is a charter member of Academia Ordo Templi Orientis. He has also been a regular presenter at NOTOCON since its inauguration in 1995.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Love is the law, love under will.
USGL Local Body public events calendar.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
The USGL Education Committee is pleased to announce the publication of the Local Body Public Events Calendar.
The Local Body Public Events Calendar is a service to help local bodies share their public events. It allows local bodies to attract a wider audience for their public offerings and, hopefully, will assist with financial sustainability during the uncertainty we are currently facing. The calendar also serves members of the Order to make connections within the broader O.T.O. community, while seeking out classes, lectures, and discussions related to their personal interests.
We hope the calendar can also help to spread The Law of Thelema by providing access to local body events to those members of the Order and the general public who do not live near a local body, and may otherwise have little or no access to Thelemic events and education. Many local bodies have expressed an interest in continuing some online events even after they are able to meet in person again; it is our intention that this calendar continue to serve local bodies to promote both virtual events and in-person events (when permitted).
All local bodies have the option to participate in the Local Body Public Events Calendar, and it is NOT too late to join. We will continue to add local bodies as they are ready. The Education Committee is also available to help local bodies plan and execute virtual classes. For more information on joining the calendar or assistance conducting online classes, please contact Soror Mackay mackay@oto-usa.org
The calendar resides at https://edu.oto-usa.org/usgl-local-body-public-events/ Please share with your members!
We hope to “see” you soon.
Love is the law, love under will.
Education Committee news.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
We have some exciting initiatives underway that I wanted to let you all know about! Presently we are working on our calendar, and soon it will be your one-stop-shop for finding public online events that you can attend. We’re also working on putting together a “Virtual Educators list” to make it easy to get in touch with members who are ready to present lectures and classes online. We’ll be regularly hosting online presentations, and as always we’ll be working on more educational modules that your local Master or Organizer can request.
We will send out announcements on this page when we make progress, so make sure to check in regularly. Thanks!
Love is the law, love under will.