I. VAMA MARGA Foundations Of The Left-Hand Path - staticfly.net

uncensored words in his sex-magical diaries that we will turn in our
examination of his actual practice. Think what one will of Crowley as man
and magician, his journals provide any student of sex magic with invaluable
psychological insights into some of the challenges of erotic initiation in the
modern West.
It somehow seems appropriate to begin our exploration of Aleister
Crowley with an uncertain legend rather than an established fact. For any
attempt to get to the bottom – shall we say – of the Great Beast is largely a
matter of seeing beyond the gaudy glare of his posthumous legend to the
mortal that legend conceals.
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Whatever the true story of how Reuss first came into contact with
Crowley, the English magician was indeed summoned to visit Reuss in
Berlin, where he was ceremonially installed as the "Most Holy, Most
Illustrious, Most Illuminated and Most Puissant Baphomet, X., Rex Summits
Sanctissimus 33°, 90°, 96°, Past Grand Master of the United States of
America, Grand Master and Supreme and Holy King of Ireland, Iona and All
the Britains that are in the Sanctuary of the Gnosis, National-Grossmeister
ad vitam der M.:M.:M.:" The name Baphomet was selected by Crowley in
honor of the androgynous idol of the original Templars whose work the
O.T.O. claimed to be continuing.
If Frater Merlin (Reuss) believed that his newly instated lodge
brother Baphomet would make for a useful subordinate in the Order, he was
not the first to underestimate the vaunting ambitions of Aleister Crowley. As
Jean Overton Fuller wrote of Crowley: "He was one of those who use people
as ladders; ingratitude was his hallmark." Far from being content to play
second fiddle to Reuss in the tiny O.T.O., Crowley already envisioned
himself as the prophet – if not the incarnation – of Thelema, a new religion
that he preached would rule mankind for the next two thousand years. To
this end, he quickly diverted his branch of the O.T.O. from Reuss's original
vision into a vehicle for the promulgation of his personal religion, Thelema.
In 1921, Reuss, annoyed by Crowley's attempt to integrate his Thelemic
teaching into the Order, expelled the Englishman from the O.T.O.
altogether. Nevertheless, after Reuss's death in 1923, Crowley continued to
masquerade as the Outer Head of the O.T.O. for the remainder of his life.
The result has been that the true O.T.O. – such as it was – founded by Reuss
has been long eclipsed by the Crowleyan fantasy, an error that continues to
the present day.
Holy Crowleyanity
Although we will largely be concerned here with Crowley's sex magical
theory and practice, this important aspect of his teaching should be
understood as only one part of a complex religious system. Before we
identify some of the most germane elements of Crowleyan erotic initiation, a
larger picture of the prophetic role Crowley fashioned for himself must be
presented.
The event that had provided Crowley with his messianic mission
took place during Crowley's 1904 honeymoon in Cairo. According to
Crowley, a superhuman being known as Aiwass dictated to him a received
document called The Book Of The Law, acclaimed as the principal Thelemic
scripture. (Gerald Yorke, another disenchanted adherent who later
characterized Crowley as a "false prophet," irreverently called Aiwass
"Eyewash") Crowley recalled that the voice of Aiwass spoke to him from
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behind his left shoulder – a detail interpreted by some as evidence that The
Book Of The Law is a work of the sinister, left-turning current. Less
esoterically, some psychiatrists have described hearing voices from behind
the left shoulder as a symptom of schizophrenia – although if Crowley's
behavior can be classified clinically, the highs and lows of manic depression