kaos

“Laughing stock” danger of
worshipping strange entities
by Hermann Skelder
In 1945, Aleister Crowley gave Kenneth
Grant a portrait of “Lam” as “a seal of
authority”, essentially a not particularly
inspiring pastel drawing of the head of an
alien (sorry, “præter-human intelligence”).
Grant’s Typhonian oto subsequently set up
a “specialised cell” to explore the “Cult of
Lam”, described as “a trans-mundane entity
contacted by Aleister Crowley in the course
of the Amalantrah Working”. Grant wrote
about Lam here and there in his books, and
eventually came to regard it as utterly
embarrassing to be seen by his wife Steffi
before bedtime with his Horlicks in his hand
kneeling down to worship a small pastel
drawing of an alien by Crowley—I mean it’s something out of a Chas Addams’ cartoon
ain’t it? or maybe that makes for domestic bliss in the Grant household I dunno—so
gave Lam to Michael Staley to play around with, with Steffi’s doubtless relieved approval
to have the alien out the bedroom. The Curse of Lam was upon Staley.
I do not know if Staley has a regular shag, but I do know he’s 9° in the Typhonian
oto and will probably be Grant’s successor, although there is a toady in the wings who
might be kissed. Staley has substantially developed the Cult of Lam the Pastel Alien
(does he have a partner?). Staley, who edits the Typhonian journal Starfire, has stated:
“The emerging Cult of Lam is of central importance to Starfire.” Call me cynical if you
will, but over the years I have singularly failed to comprehend why a naff drawing of an
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