Here Begins my entry for Tuesday, the 2nd Day of December, 1986 in the Magical Record of L

Here Begins my entry for Tuesday, the 2nd Day of December, 1986 in the Magical Record of LA-BAJ-AL, Mage-&-Watcher Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. When I was 8 years old, my Uncle Henry began to instruct me in dream magic & the use of a simplified L.B.R. (lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram) which used no foreign names -- just visualizations of elemen- tal attributions with technique to encourage my imagination to fill in colors, scents, sounds, etc.-- to be performed astrally before sleep &/or during conscious dreams (especially nightmares!). He also taught me fire magic (how to build fires, how to talk to fire, how to listen when fire talks back, etc.). One day, as we were building a fire & sharing magical secrets with each other, he told me a magical name by which I could call to him even if he were far away. My uncle Henry's magical name was Let There Be Light. Over the years, I have used Uncle Henry's name to con- tact him & talk with him. Using my skilled & guided imagination, I can relive parts of the past we shared together & I can have new adventures with him, even though Uncle Henry has been dead for about 20 years now (c.f., my record of 2« years ago dealing with the series of dream workings with Uncle Henry & my cousin Sue which led to the BAJ material). Ten days ago I made a very interesting discovery. While reviewing Crowley's Sex Magickal Diaries for his NYC period, I found mention of a Frater F(iat) L(ux). Grant (as Crowley's editor) states there is no record of who this frater might be. Fiat Lux is the latin equivalent of Let There Be Light. Was my Uncle Henry the same Frater F.L. mentioned by Crowley?? I feel that he was, although I have no proof to substantiate my belief. Uncle Henry was a high ranking mason. He had a set of Crowley's Equinox (10 white books + 1 blue one), back many years before Weiser issued the re- print series. He educated me into Magick & into the substance of Thelema, but did not even mention any dogma. I was being raised as a strict Roman Catholic & he was a close friend of my family. I am very thankful that Uncle Henry did not confuse me by contradicting anything I was being taught at home or school. He taught me ethics & the ability to tell right from wrong; he did not load me down with moral principles. He gave me magical tools, not dogma. He had some sort of old scroll on his wall, which he referred to as his Charter. Beyond that, I know very little. The charter was dated 1901, the year my Dad was born (so I remember the date). If this was (as I believe) an OTO charter, then his lineage seems to go back directly to Reuss (or perhaps to someone else), rather than thru Crowley. Have I been an initiate of the OTO (in this lifetime) since age 8? I do not really know how to answer that question. My Uncle Henry taught me dream control & how to cast a circle. He taught me lots of `down-home' folksy magic like calling to the wind or asking the clouds to move away from the sun. He taught me how to talk with my Holy Guardian Angel, which the catholic nuns talked about, but could not (or would not) teach me how to contact. He taught me the meaning of ritual by exposing photo- graphic film to direct sunlight (thus completing the film's yearning for light), then feeding the exposed film to fire. [He referred to this rit- ual as a symbolic enactment of 2=1=0 & told me I would have to discover other enactments of this mystery for myself!] All he taught me was without `strings'. I took no dire oaths. I signed no documents. He asked nothing of me other than that I do my best to discover my True Will & to do my best each & every day to do my Will as best I could -- which was quite enough for a little kid who was being ordered around by a bunch of Dominican penguins, who thought it was their right/duty to instruct me what-&-how to think. It is as though my happening upon the mention of Frater F.L. ten days ago has awakened a catena of initiation within me which has long lain dormant. I haven't done magic (in the flesh) with my Uncle Henry since puberty & I haven't seen him since he died back in the `60s -- although I do talk with him in dreams and I do magick with him in waking visions. When (in 1958) I moved away from his neo-Tudor profess house in Flushing NY, magic & Thelema became a dream. High School, puberty, & growing-up took their place in the forefront of my existence. In 1968 I re-discovered magic (via Richard, the Mad Chemist) and the writings of Aleister Crowley. I became a Crowlean scholar & I encorpor- ated magick into the core of my being. I remembered the old books which my Uncle had shown me, and the lessons he taught me from real-life, but I never thought to question whether he was a part of the Order. On July 6th, 1972 I formally accepted the Law of Thelema & began searching-out the A.'.A.'. & the OTO. When I could not locate any viable Branches of the Order manifesting upon the outer, I made 3 oaths, the last of which is only now (some 14 years later) coming to fruition. First, I vowed to seek-out Liber LXV, (which Crowley stated was to be given to each Probationer of the A .'.A.'., but which not then in print) and begin my studies within the A.'.A.'.. I imagined Crowley as my superior within the Order and vowed to work under him (thru his books) until I could rightfully function as his magickal son, as a Master of the Temple. Crowley's Equinox was in the Cornell U. Rare Books Room, but the Blue Equinox (containing Liber LXV) was not in Cornell's collection. Shortly after I made this oath, the Blue Equinox materialized for me very unexpectedly! The rare book room librarian tripped as she was carrying a stack of Equinoxes to me. The Blue Equinox landed on my desk, right side up, and opened to the correct page. Instant samadhi! Choirs of angels singing in my ears, colored lights blazing on the page, instant visuals of 3 secret chiefs conferring me with their blessings, etc., etc. -- all these special effects years before I discovered psychedelics! Wow! When I recovered my senses, I asked the librarian where the Blue Equinox had come from. She shrugged her shoulders, smiled at me & said "maybe by magic". Second, I vowed to publish Liber CCXX in order to promulgate the Law of Thelema on the outer & attract to myself those whose Will is aligned to my own. Together we would tackle the Great Work as best we could until such time as links to the inner Order were complet- ed. I co-published Liber CCXX with Soror Tanith in March of 1976. By 1977 I was putting all my magickal energies into the Typhonian OTO (publishing MEZLA, reading probationers' records. etc.), and I had `shelved' my vows regarding becoming a Master of the Temple -- after all, I had already found the Order! Why bother to formulate my own links when I could simply use Grant's catena? [I was also feeling very humble at that time & felt I was not worthy to make my own links directly with the A.'.A.'. until I had worked my way up thru the ranks of the Typhonian OTO.] By 1981 I had co-formulated this Powerzone (Math of the ChRySTAL HUMM) with Soror 0-Maku(tz), and our magick here had begun to run a-foul of Grant's vision of the Order. By hindsight, I can see that we had (quite unconsciously) begun to reify our links with the Fountainhead of the Order for ourselves. It was my disagree- ments with Grant which prompted me to examine, up-date, then ful- fill my third oath. Third, once I had established myself as a functional Master of the Temple of the A.'.A.'., I vowed to re-establish the catena of init- iation within the Order from Malkuth up thru the Abyss according to the Charter granted to me by One Star in Sight and Liber A'Ash vel Capricorni Pneumatici. Between 1979 and 1983, I amended this oath (first made in 1972), as I became more aware of my True Will. 1. I had no interest in being a Master of the Temple, as that is Crowley's office. Instead, I aspired to Mastery in the field of Alchemy and have functioned in this office for the past 5 years. The external Universe is my mirror. Every interaction I have with any person, being, object, or force in the Universe is a direct communication of the multiverse with my soul, and I treat them accordingly. I examine, evaluate, and answer all communications in accord with my Will. 2.I have also come to realize that although Crowley's vision of the Order is/was pyramidal, such a structure is not in accord with my Will. It is neither my Will nor desire to spend my life working to reify Crowley's (or anyone else's) vision of the Order. According to One Star in Sight, members of the Order of the Silver Star "exist in their own Truth, which is both universal and uni- que, yet coherent within the universal will. They perceive (that is, understand, know, & feel) in love, which is both unique and universal." Crowley further states "Members of the Order are each entitled to found Orders dependent upon themselves...to cover types of emancipation and illumination not contemplated by the original...system." In speaking of those aspiring to the Grade of Master, Crowley divulges what seems to me to be the key to my differences with Grant (& other Masters of our Order) when he says "He [who aspires to being a Master] must then decide upon the critical adventure of our Order". It would seem that (for me) the critical adventure of our Order is the formulation & reification of a non-hierarchal network of Masters, each doing their own Will & all working on the Great Work! At present, the vehicles I choose to work my Will are as follows: On the outer, I work within the Chthonic OTO, co-founded by myself, SAM Webster, & Cliff Pollick. Maggie Ingalls is also recognized as a Master amongst us. Within a year, I suspect we will have as many Masters as the Typhonian OTO had members in 1981, when Tanith cast away her seat in the Typhonian Sovereign Sanctuary. [note: 12/87 -- we do not yet have the number of Masters I predicted last year, but membership is now up to about 20, including 2 from Australia!] On the inner, I work within the 11-Star, which is that lustrous crystal- lization of the A.'.A.'. formulated by Nema, in `79 (or so) as an alter- native to the linear catena outlined in One Star in Sight On a personal level, I balance within myself using my various catena of initiation. From my Uncle Henry, I feel initiated Wisdom & un-preten- tious simplicity which emanates from Chokmah. From Aossic Aiwas I learn knowledge of the Abyss & of the Courts of Chaos. From Grady I learn understanding of how to pull-together a viable & functional Magickal Order. Upon my own (which much thanks to thanks to Uncle AL, Aiwass, & the rest of the gang), I tap-into the Kether-point. I AM a visible manifestation of the Order. Upon Malkuth, I function as a Chief of the Chthonic OTO. Upon the inner, I function within the 11-Star -- sometimes upon the Throne of Chesed, but mainly as a Spider-God upon the Throne of `Um-Ur-Atwiel from within the nexus which is Da„th. Love is the law, love under will. Here ends my entry in the Magical Record of OTz PTN--690 and Frater PVN, Master of Re-Creative Alchemies for this 2nd Day of December, 1986e.v. * * * Here Begins my entry for Friday, the 5thDay of December, 1986 in the Magical Record of LA-BAJ-AL, Mage-&-Watcher Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Lots of wonderful bizarre strange dreams these days. I am now living alone. I love being able to sleep uninterrupted & to work without anyone bothering me. I have lots of company (mainly MaryAnn & Earil) so I have companionship too. Talk about having my cake & eating it too! In one of my dreams last night, I was at an OTO convention. It was held in a marvelous castle. It looked more like an SCA meet combined with a pagan-fest & a Science Fiction Worldcon than a meeting of the OTO! Lots of folks from many branches of the Order. Lots of parting. Lots of ritual, both formal (a program & everything!) & informal thru-out every day & night. Lots of talking & getting to know one-another. Part way thru I realized that the gathering was more than social. It was also a political convention to work out a viable inter-Branch structure for the Order. As members from the Caliphate pre-dominated, I assumed that they would vote as a block and the larger multi-Branch OTO would become no more than a front group for the Caliphate Branch of the Order. Boy, was I wrong! Nobody seemed to care about any party lines. Everyone was an individual Thelemite & acted accordingly. Sure, people had friends, pet ideas, & gripes. But they also talked with people outside of their affinity groups & partied with everyone! They listened openly to those who came from different perspectives, & worked hard to reach innovative solutions without any need to compromise. I had stayed away from all the interim committees & plenary sessions, spending my time/energies instead on working with individuals to share magick in Circle & throw some wild anarchist ideas around at late-night informal gatherings around the watchfire. I never asked anyone for their OTO grade, rank, or title, but I assumed (by their open minds) that I was dealing mainly with new initiates &/or Masters -- for I had found that those of mid-Rank in any organization are the most closed-minded. At the end of the Gathering, there was a big party with a big pageant & parade. The culmination was a coronation of sorts, for the interim committees had formulated a loose-knit structure for the Order which had several offices. Those who filled these offices would define them in accord with Will & nobody was being asked to subjugate their Will to any edict by any officer(s). Sounded good to me, but I was still suspicious. In my opinion, the Order certainly could use some figureheads who were personable magickians able to think on their feet, & who would not become too ego-attached to their office to continue their growth. These offic- ers could concentrate/disseminate information, give their informed magic- kal opinions on topical OTO issues, represent the Order on TV, mediate squabbles, & direct aspirants toward viable Order contacts, but I still thought that the Caliphate would be in charge & therefore would direct aspirants only to one of its chartered groups & have their own axe to grind in offering opinions. I attended the `contest' anyway. I had been so out of it that I did not even know what the offices were to be, much less who the Candidates were. As I entered the courtyard, I was stopped by two Knights Templar in full regalia. They escorted me over to a Priestess, who looked very young & very officious (much like MA's daughter Mellanie). The guards began to question me as to my Grade, etc. They did not use words, but gestures. One would give an elaborate sign & wait for my reply. When I did not reply, the other gave another sign. The process was repeated back-&-forth for at least 10 minutes. I became bored very quickly. For the most part, I ignored them (preferring, instead, to flirt with the young priestess), for I felt that my fears about the Cali- phate had already come true & I would fail their little tests no matter what I did. When they finally got down to the thumb squeezings of the Minerval grade, I acknowledged them in proper form, after scanning the yard & shielding my eyes from the sun, then scratching my balls absentmindedly with the same thumb. As I was naked, I then sniffed my finger, smiled, & sighed at the Priestess. She smiled at my slightly grumpy response to the quiz, then asked me if I had any other grades or titles I wished written next to my name. As I looked over at her I saw that she had some sort of registry book, which was open to a list of names, including my own. The page was nearly full. I told her that I had enough grades & tit- les to fill several pages, but most of them were meaningless, except to me, or my close magickal family. She asked me once again what titles I wanted next to my name. When I looked even more bored at her, she closed the book & asked me what my Will was concerning my place within the Order. Since she had just shifted the conversation from want to Will, I answered her fully & honestly. I told her that in the Caliphate I was a lapsed Minerval on bad report. In the Typhonian OTO I had been expelled from the Vø. She smiled at me again & asked me if that was how I defined my place within the Order. I looked at her long & hard. All the external trappings seemed to indicate that she & the guards were simply pawns in the Caliphate's bid to power. But she did not seem to me to be acting like a pawn. She looked & acted like a Priestess. I owed it to her (and to myself) to treat her as such. So I looked her in the eye, mentally/astrally centered within myself, invoked all my various mantels of office & told her that I am OTz PTN-- 690, a Prince of the outer Court. I reveal this rank/office to all who ask, for I am recognized within the company of the OTO at large. When in the company of those with whom I reveal my inner nature & work the Magick of the Order-on-the-inner, I am LA-BAJ-AL--75, Mage-&-Watcher, a co- founding Sovereign of the Chthonic OTO. To those who attempt power-over trips on me or on the Order at large, I invoke PVN--156 into my being. Within the linear 10-step scheme for the OTO used by the Caliphate & by the Typhonian OTO, frater 690 is a Vø, 75 is a Xø(but not O.H.O.) and 156 has no rank at all, for he is a revolutionary within the Order, so (as an anarchist rebel) he cannot attain to any office whatsoever. The Priestess rose from her seat, anointed my third eye with blood of her loins, & bade me pass into the courtyard. I did so. The crowd was a bit much for me, so I climbed the battlements & watched the festivities from up above. I was puzzled by the interchange at the gate, but put it out of my mind as I watched the carnival below me. I then realized that not once during the week previous had I spent any time with anyone I knew in the Order. SAM had been very busy within the plenary sessions. I had seen Cliff around-&-about, but he had been more interested in the formal rituals than I. At night, I had expected to see him at trip Circle, but he had departed each night to work his nurse's job. Arian had been busy working her sex magicks, but I was tripping too hard most of the time to be really interested in sex. I had spent most of my time talking Thelem- ic-Anarchist philosophy with lots of folk I hardly knew, then tripping my brains out with beings who did not really seem human. They referred to themselves as observers from the stars & (at least while I was tripping) I could easily take them at their word. SAM then drove up to me in a bright red sportscar & interrupted my musings. I told me to hop in, so I did so. He then drove down a big ramp to the center of the main stage. The crowd was cheering wildly. SAM hop- ped out of the car & told me to slide-over to the driver's seat. I was bewildered & a bit befuddled, but I complied. SAM raised his arms & the crowd gave him the silence he had asked for. He thanked them graciously & turned meaningfully to me before continuing. He said that there were probably only a few folks here who did not really know what was going on, but as at least one of those few was a friend of his, he would retell the tale of the council meeting. He told how there had been much honest discussion, seasoned with a few outbursts of frustration, but consensus had finally been reached. As the council had been open to all, anyone who didn't bother to come hadn't any real grounds for complaint. He said that the Council had decided as follows: First! Each & every initiated member, powerzone, & Branch of the Order vows to recognize every other member, powerzone, & Branch of the Order by whatever rank(s) they each individually claim to hold. Second! From this pool of initiates, individuals had been chosen to rep- resent certain classes of initiates to the world-at-large & to fill public offices dealing with inter-Branch harmony. Third! These officers would function forever unless: a) They abdicated thru death. b) They were impeached by another grand council of other initiates c) They went into hermitage, & their duties were given to another. If/When an abdicated officer re-incarnated with sufficient memory to re- claim his/her office, or should a hermit come out of hermitage, s/he would co-serve their office along with whomever was appointed his/her successor until one of them chose to move-on to another office. Fourth! While the Council could give some initial labels to these offic- es, it was up to the individual officeholders to evolve/expand/focus their offices in accord with Will. Fifth! Liber Oz & Liber AL would serve as guidelines for settling dis- putes. The audience went wild! Brothers & Sisters hugged one-another. Various banners were un-furled all along the walls of the courtyard, while every- one cheered them all. I was swept away on a wave of beatific emotion. It was wonderful. Very anarchistic, yet functional & orderly, too! I par- ticularly liked the part about all grades being accepted. I have liked this particular aspect of á-Cabal's groundrules for years & I was over- joyed at seeing it implemented into the OTO at large. Then SAM gestured dramatically (as only SAM can do!) & a marching band began a pompous (yet humorous) drumroll to accompany his theater. He pointed to himself, & thanked everyone for asking him to become Official Order Bard & Master of Ceremonies. The young Priestess who interviewed me at the gate then ascended the stage & officially invested him into office. He was given his mantle of office -- a magnificent multicolored Austrailian cowboy hat with a huge ostrich plume, and a bullet-proof sarap‚ lined with mystical symbols to get him past any border guard on the planet (i.e., passports from 33 countries; gold, opium, & pornography for bribes, Santa's list of who's naughty & nice, etc.). The Knights Templar then stepped-foward & gave him his magickal weapons -- a cord- less microphone, with batteries guaranteed to last a full ’on, & a portable computer (with full publishing capabilities , modem, & lifetime free use of phone lines & databases. Once the applause died down, SAM picked up the microphone & whispered into it. Everyone heard him clearly. It was as though we each had a tiny hearing-aid type speaker behind our right ear. SAM smiled & thanked us all for giving him our ear. He then gestured to me -- still sitting in the red sportscar. He said that I had been named as Prince of the outer court, for I taught people how to think for themselves & how to argue their beliefs without becoming too attached to them. He handed me the keys to the car, telling me that the key to success on the outer was self-motivation, hence I was being gifted with an automotive vehicle to carry me thru the world. He told me that I needed no magic sarap‚, for my Will was one with my movement & I could not be impeded by speedtraps or local regulations, so long as I was one with my Will. He (on the other hand) had a job to do as bard & (as such) he needed a bullet-proof vest to deflect the anger of those he lampooned & passports to gain him access to closed courts where his services were most desperately needed. I heard a commotion behind me & saw that a whole caravan was lining up. There were circus wagons with pictures of burlesque queens & lion tamers & gladiators painted garishly upon their sides. And trucks adver- tizing hokey sounding patent medicines (third eye wash, holy graal cleanser for venereal problems, siddhi enhancers (& mystical diplomas) for those who doubted their own powers, snake oil to keep your pet kundalini serpent happy, etc.). And hippy microbuses painted all psyche- delic with abstract (& blatant) erotica, drug & anarchist slogans on the bumpers, and filled with naked happy people. And big black limosines with dark tinted windows & chauffers who looked like mafiosso `soldiers'. All the cars & all the buses & all the trucks had CB radios, which were tuned to channel 23, The Voice of the Illuminati, by which we would contact each other on the road. It was time to put the magic mystery tour back on the road -- but this time we would be coordinated!. It had been a long time since Ken Keasey's bus had been purchased by the Smithsonian & nobody was really expecting us! Some think of the Illuminati as but a joke. To us, it is a cover -- promulgation of the Law of Thelema on-the-outer takes many forms! Some seekers are attracted to the Order's public edifices, while others are initiated in back rooms, carnival sideshows, or while hitching thru Kansas. On the inner, our self-chosen job was to make initiatory contact with as many viable Currents as we could find & integrate with. Our job was to weave the fabric of reality to meld all traditions working all ’onic formul‘. The gasoline gypsies were out to blow the minds of the world! An old woman I didn't know came up to me & put an old beat-up hat on my head. She looked like Maria Ouspenskia -- the woman who played the ancient gypsy witch in the old Lon Chaney Werewolf movies. She told me (in a voice which even sounded like the old gypsy's!) that my `new' hat had been in her care for quite some time now. It was the hat which Emperor Norton had given to Sam Clemens just before Sam's trip to Europe (upon which trip Mark Twain had written Innocents Abroad). She told me that SAM's hat (not Clemens -- Webster, our M.C.) had an Ostrich plume of the Goddess Maat because his office was truth, while mine was bedecked with peacock feathers as a symbol of Lucifer, self-possessed manifestor of alternity & weaver of myths made manifest thru Will alone. SAM then took-up center stage once again & bade us on our way. He told us caravan gypsies that it would not be good for us to know too much about the other offices in the Order. For we were renegades. We worked our Wills outside of authority, respectability, & the laws of nation- states. The less we were `officially' involved with the `legally-recog- nized' branches of the Order, the better for all concerned. I looked at SAM & said "Does this mean I won't be able to get my First Degree Initiation from the Caliphate?" The crowd roared at my seeming joke. I say seeming, for I was very serious. I had always seen the Cali- phate as a valid & viable Branch of the Order, but I had somehow (without even trying!) gotten myself pronounced anathema amongst them without benefit of a trial. The young priestess looked at me earnestly & told me that in my travels I would be initiating many into the Current. In order to maintain balance, I would receive an initiation for every one I gave. Eventually, I would certainly find bona fide Caliphate groups who would welcome me into their ranks & share all with me. Until then, there was no sense in lusting after initiatory links which were only side-steps to my Path. She adjured me to remember lessons in The Secret Society (the essay by Jean Ferry). As we were about to depart, one of the Knights Templar showed me a shift-lever in my sportscar which enabled me to convert it into a comfortable van, a 4x4 Winnebago, a taxicab, a tractor trailer truck, and myriad other vehicles. I opted for the van, as I was looking for some company on my ride. The van was quickly filled with friends & lovers (both old & new) & we began to drive-off. SAM was hitching at the gate, so we picked him up. He was not staying for the rest of the awards either, as he had work to do. As we drove down the road away from the castle, we past a very ancient wooden sign which read: Now leaving Camelot an Honorable Province of Norton. This Road kept safe for All Pilgrims thu the joint-efforts of The Order of Knights Templar & The Bavarian Illuminati Your karma at Work -- thruout the ’ons! We stopped at a gas station near the border crossing. As the attendant was filling our gastank, another attendant (who looked very much like Phoenix) stuck a nitrous hose into the van thru the driver's window. He told us that it isn't fair to let our car suck gas unless we got some too! At that point, I realized I must be dreaming, so (since I had to take a piss) I woke-up & used the bathroom in my wake-time reality, as I felt it might be beyond my powers of manipulating dream reality to attempt pissing in the dream gas station's restroom without pissing in my bed too! Love is the law, love under will. Here ends my entry in the Magical Record of OTz PTN--690 and Frater PVN, Master of Re-Creative Alchemies for this 5th Day of December, 1986e.v. * * * Here Begins my entry for Tuesday, the 5th Day of May, 1987 in the Magical Record of LA-BAJ-AL, Mage-&-Watcher Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. I have been working on ideas for some short videos. My notes have (thusfar) all been in my head, so I thought I'd better put them down where I can locate them when I gain access to video equipment. Video #1 Opening scene: Double exposure of American Flag waving in the wind with blue sky & white clouds in the background and scrolling script (generated with Fontasy) of text below. Effect I am looking for is that of a movie title of a WW-II or McCarthy era patriotic film. Soundtrack is instru- mental version of America the Beautiful. Never give up the Flag. No matter what others have done in its name, Never give up the Flag. The American Flag is one of the more powerful talismans created by our race. To give over this talisman to madmen & fools simply because others have used our Flag for purposes which you do not approve is not only foolhardy, but criminal. --Eugene V. Debbs, 1912 Soundtrack continues with America the Beautiful, with choral accompan- imentment using slightly modified words. For Beautiful, for spacious skys, For amber waves of Grain. Pan from flag to panorama of skys to fields of ripe rye waving in the breeze. For purple mountain's majesty, Above the fruiting plains. Macro telephoto close-up of large gold-&-purple psilocybe mushroom cap, pull camera away as zoom is widened to show vista of shrooms fruit- ing on a veritable sea of rye cakes. America, America Gods shed their grace on Thee! Continue to pan back to reveal that mushroom cakes are arranged in the shape of a map of North & Central America. Atlantic ocean is dark grey/- green cloth (blanket?) & pacific ocean is deep blue. Double expose with vignettes of still drawings of various gods & goddesses in poses of bene- diction. Use gods from many cultures. Some anthropomorphic, some bestial, some geometric. Last image is that of milky way in a rainbow-like Nuit arch connecting Atlantic & Pacific oceans. In peace & love and all that's good From sea to shining sea. Fade out mycelial map and do a rapid vignette collage of pagan festivals, orgies, laughing naked children, county fairs, smiling happy workers, etc. Fade out to black. Then show still of closing message. This video has been brought to you as a public service by Math of the ChRySTAL HUMM and the Chthonic Branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis /\ / \ /OTO \ \Seal/ \ / \/ Video #2 Music: opening segment of Jarre's Equinox. Scene total darkness. Camera pre-focused. Turn mushroom lamps on. As light comes up, use manual expo- sure control to slowly bring details out of the murkiness. Scene is of waves of undulating vapor from humidifiers flowing over very fruitful & closely packed mushroom cakes on benches in grow room. [High speed camera shutter for slow motion effect may be useful.] Plastic tent is peeled back as lights come-up so vapours slowly clear to reveal mushrooms. Tel- ephoto zoom in on one mushroom. Hand comes & plucks mushroom. Follow hand, slowly widening zoom to show person picking mushroom & placing it into overflowing basket of other mushrooms. Fade to scene in drying room. Mushrooms being cut-up, cleaned, weighed & placed into drier. Camera looks over shoulder of worker showing detail of the entire process for a small batch of mushrooms. Cynthia (or some other like-breasted young woman) enters room wearing only a skirt or an apron, which she is using as a harvest basket for a large crop of outdoor mushrooms. Peter (or some like figured young man) comes in bearing an- other basket of mushrooms. They stand to either side of MA who is seated with her back to camera, pouring their harvests on the workbench. Pleasant mouth-watering juxtaposition of Cynthia's breasts & the mushroom harvest. The two standing figures are half-facing the camera, framing the seated worker who makes room for the new bounty. Music during this scene is America the Beautiful. Cut to food drier filled with mushrooms. Shelves are partially out in step-fashion to display the harvest. Drier is full to overflowing. Arm comes in from off camera to push shelves into drier & close door. Zoom back to show drier & window. Clock (with hands & luminescent dial) is on drier. Go to time-lapse. 24 hrs condense to about a minute. Clock hands zoom around. Scene outside of window goes thru day/night/day cycle. Music: ??? during time lapse. Trays removed from drier to show dry mushrooms. Crumbs put into mortar & ground with pestle. Some sort of majestic music with hint of mystery during crumb grinding. Then put into ornate bowl & carried out of room. Cut to camera following person bearing bowl. Camera sees hands & bowl & distorted roller-coaster view of changing scenery as bowl is carried down to basement. Music is Caverna Magica by Volenweiter. View of extraction set-up, with full bowl of crumbs on one side & emp- ty waste box on the other. Looking over the shoulder of the alchemist, camera sees how extractor is set-up. Music Night on Bald Mountain by Mus- orgsky or some other such in a similar vein. Then go to time-lapse (with same clock as used upstairs) for 6 hours while batch cooks. Switch to speedy (keystone cops) realtime for refill of extractor. Keep this up, showing how bowl empties & waste box fills up. Give the feeling that this process takes 4-6 days. Music should build tension. Perhaps some of the electronic music from The Exorcist or from Psycho. Show alchemist filling up globular elixir bottle with very dark brew. Triumphal music, such as The Gate of Kiev (from Pictures at an Exhibi- tion), or one of the triumphal Polanaisse's by Chopin. Alchemist turns toward camera & offers bottle to camera. Zoom in on bottle. Spotlights shine on bottle causing sparkling motes on its dark surface. As bottle fills view, screen goes darker & darker. Music: Telstar by the Tornados. Cut to Outside. Back field. False dawn. View from 10' high platform about 100' West of Firecircle, looking East. Manual exposure. Telstar fades & sounds of drumming & low murmurs of chanting become more prominent. Fire & torches (or sparklers) are under-exposed motes floating in darkness (like light motes in bottle in last scene). Gradually lighten-up to show fire & dancers, with early morning fog rolling over hills & valleys to east. Sweep to vistas of fog & coming dawn. [Get off platform & come closer to fire-circle for closeups.] Pan back to firecircle. Zoom in on drummers & dancers. Pan to people making love & others watching. A flute player weaves his music in & around the tempo of the lovers. Pan to half-empty globular bottle of elixir sitting by half-empty cup on crude stone altar near fire. Also on altar are a cluster of mushrooms, some fresh & some dry. One of the large fresh ones has a big bite taken out of its fully open cap. The alchemist walks over to alter, picks-up cup & salutes the dawn with cup held in both hands fully extended over his head. Camera angle is such that light of dawn seems to emanate from cup when the alchemist has his arms fully raised over his head. He then takes a drink from the cup & turns to the camera holding up the cup in a one-handed salute toward viewer as he winks at the camera. Pan to vistas of sun coming up. Voice dubbed over drumming: Hail unto Thee who art Ra in thy Rising, even unto Thee who art Ra in thy Joy; Who traveleth across the heavens in thy Bark, at the Up-rising of the Sun. Tehuti standeth in his splendor at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the Helm; All Hail from the abodes of Night! Camera back on platform. Zoom to sun coming-up over horizon, then pan to church steeple across street catching the dawn's light. Music: Ave Maria Pan to bright sky. Time-lapse sky so day progresses quickly from dawn thru evening & night stars come out. Split screen horizontally. In upper screen is starry sky with two golden mushrooms pulsating in space. Mushrooms & stars do not move. Sky view is pre-dawn in late summer or early autumn, looking east. Sirius & Orion are clearly visible. In lower screen are images appropriate to text of voice over. Voice Over: spoken by a strong yet sensuous masculine woman's voice, preferably with a slightly ambiguous foreign accent. I am old, far older than thought in your species, which is itself 50 times older than your history. Though I have been on earth for ages, I am from the stars. My home is no one planet, for many worlds scattered though the shining disk of the galaxy have conditions which allow my spores an opportunity for life. The mushroom which you see is the part of my body given to sex thrills and sun bathing. My true body is a fine network of fibers growing thru the soil. These mycellial networks may cover acres and may have far more connections than the number of synapses in a human brain. My mycellial network is nearly immortal -- only the sudden toxification of a planet or the explosion of its parent star can wipe me out (& then only in a local region of space). By means difficult to explain because of your limited model of what you term reality, all of my mycellial networks in the galaxy are in hy- perlight communication across space & time. For, you see, consciousness is a relativistic phenomena as well as a chemical phenomena. My/our con- sciousness exists outside of the wheel of karma, woven through the river of linear time. I speak to you as one who looks inward to you from out- side the Circles of Time. My mycellial body is as fragile as a spider web, but the collective hypermind and memory is a vast historical archive of the career of evolving intelligence on many worlds in our spiral gal- axy. Space, you see, is a vast ocean to those hardy life forms that have the ability to reproduce from spores, for spores are tough enough to to travel thu the inhospitable cold & vacuum of interstellar space till they reach the friendly life-supporting tidal pools of planets such as your own. Many such inter-stellar species are intelligent, but few seem to be able to share their secrets of hypercommunication with the race of hu- mans. For those of you who know us, our means of communication should be obvious: psilocybin/psilocin in the biosynthetic pathways of my living body open for me & my symbiotes the vision screen of many worlds. You as an individual & humankind as a species are on the brink of the formation of a symbiotic relationship with my genetic material that will eventually carry humanity and earth into the galactic mainstream of the higher civi- lizations. Since it is not yet commonplace for your race to recognize other vari- eties of intelligence around you, your beliefs/theories of politics/so- ciety have advanced only so far as the notion of collectivism -- & even that is flawed by the rather self-limiting notion that to be collective one must give-up or put-aside one's ego! But beyond the cohesion of the members of a species into a single social organism there lie richer & even more baroque evolutionary possibilities. Symbiosis is a relation of mutual enrichment of autonamous & independent individuals of different species to produce positive benefits for each of the species involved. Symbiotic relationships between myself & civilized forms of higher animal intelligence have been established many times in many places thruout the long ages of my development. These relationships have been mutually useful. Within my memory is theoretical knowledge of hyperlight physics. Your race is ingenious and you love to create. I would not offer you a free ticket to the stars, for that would be an insult to your resource- fulness. I have come to know you & love you over the millennia of our courtship. I know you will enjoy the challenge of converting my theoret- ical knowledge into ships to sail the gulfs of infinite space in finite time. I propose a partnership: My theory coupled with your ingenuity to create a fleet of starships for exploration, trade, & settlement. For, although my spores are able to travel though space unassisted, my journey is long & my destination is uncertain. I seek a ticket aboard your star- ships to new worlds circling suns younger & more stable than your own. Again & again I offer this agreement to higher beings to secure an eter- nal existence down the long river of cosmic time; thereby have I spread throughout the galaxy over the long epochs. A mycellial network has no organs to move the world, no hands; but higher animals with manipulative abilities can become partners with the star knowledge within me. To- gether, we can both return to the millions of worlds all citizens of our starswarm are heir to. Background music: Also Sprach Zarathustra (theme from 2001) swells from background as image focuses on color enhanced observatory photos of deep space objects. Music fades out to silence, then Telstar (possibly re-done by Don Karr) swells up from silence as images of space vessels are super- imposed on night sky. Illustrations from Mythology (Icharus, the cow who jumped over the moon, etc.) & early Science Fiction (Cyrano de Berjerac, Jules Verne, H.G.Wells, etc.). Stills from Flash Gordon & `50s SF movies. NASA photos. Fade-out night sky to a rapid series of Chelsey Bonestell slides of alien landscapes. Music dies down to silence, & images to total darkness. Music: opening segment of Jarre's Equinox. Scene total darkness. Camera pre-focused. Turn mushroom lamps on. As light comes up, use manual ex- posure control to slowly bring details out of the murkiness. Scene is of waves of undulating vapor from humidifiers flowing over very fruitful & closely packed mushroom cakes on benches in grow room. [High speed camera shutter for slow motion effect may be useful.] Plastic tent is peeled back as lights come-up so vapours slowly clear to reveal mushrooms. Telephoto zoom in on one mushroom. Hand comes & plucks mushroom. Follow hand, slowly widening zoom to show person picking mushroom & placing it into overflowing basket of other mushrooms. Mushroom picker looks up at camera, smiles, and walks toward camera holding out a mushroom. Hand of camera person reaches out & accepts mushroom, moving it up to just below lens. Hand moves back into view. Mushroom has a big bite taken out of it. Cut to color movie footage of nuclear explosion with the words The END superimposed over the mushroom cloud. Official military type news dialog reporting the explosion on soundtrack. Movie footage (& voiceover) begins to break-up & become less & less real. Image of big mushroom with bite taken out of it is superimposed over un-real explosion. Mushroom cloud & words fade away entirely. Voiceover by same person who delivered the mushroom speech: Or, the Beginning? Scene of night sky with credits. Music from Holtz' the Planets. Love is the law, love under will. Here ends my entry in the Magical Record of OTz PTN--690 and Frater PVN, Master of Re-Creative Alchemies for this 5th Day of May, 1986e.v. * * *