From the East of the SUPREME GRAND COUNCIL of the
SOVEREIGN GRAND INSPECTORS GENERAL of the 33rd and
last degree of the Ancient and Accepted Rite of Freemasonry in and for
Great Britain and Ireland under G.L. near the D.B. corresponding to 53',
25" N. Latitude 2', 3" West Meridian of Greenwich.
To all Illustrious, Ineffable and Sublime Freemasons of every degree
Around and [unclear] over the surface of the Globe, Greetings:
KNOW YE - That the undersigned Sovereign Grand Inspectors General
do hereby certify and proclaim, our Illustrious Brother ALEISTER
CROWLEY of *London*, to be an Excellent Master Mason, Secret
Master, Royal Master, intimate Secretary, Provost and Judge, Intendant
of the Building, Elect of Nine, Elect of Fifteen, Sublime Knight Elected,
Grand Master Architect, Ancient Master of the Royal Arch, Grand Elect
Perfect and Sublime Mason, Knight of the Temple, Prince of Jerusalem,
Knight of the East and West, Knight Rose Croix of Heredom, Grand
Pontiff, Master ad Vitam, Patriarch Noachite, Prince of Libanus, Chief
of the Tabernacle, Prince of the Tabernacle, Knight of the Brazen
Serpent, Prince of Mercy, Commander of the Temple, Knight of the
Sun, Knight of Saint Andrew, Grand Elect Knight Kadosh, Grand
Inspector Inquisitor Commander, Prince of the Royal Secret, Most
Puissant Sovereign Grand Inspector General of the 33rd and Last Degree.
WE ALSO COMMAND: All the Knights, Princes and Sublime Masons
under our Jurisdiction and we pray all other MASONS over the Surface
Of The Globe, to Welcome and Honor Him as a SOVEREIGN
GRAND INSPECTOR GENERAL, and to give credit to these
LETTERS PATENT, we have caused to be signed in the margin by our
said Illustrious Bro. ALEISTER CROWLEY, that they admit no other
than himself.
Signed and Delivered by us SOVEREIGN GRAND INSPECTORS
GENERAL of The 33rd and Last Degree with the Seal of our said
SUPREME COUNCIL affixed in the Valley of Manchester this 29th
day of the 11th month A.M. 5071 corresponding to the 29th November,
A.D. 1910.
Yarker was nearing the end of his life, and it has been supposed that
he needed someone to carry on the work of the A&P Rite after his death.
Although the issue of 'degrees for cash' has been raised, all the evidence
points to the fact that Yarker's interests in masonry were, on the whole,
genuine, and that of the A&P Rite was of major signiÞcance and
import to him. Thus, we can surmise that he was genuinely looking for someone
with the necessary qualiÞcations, and interest in the Rite, to continue
it following his demise.
Yarker died on the 20th of March, 1913, and this was reported both in the
Oriþamme, the ofÞcial organ of the OTO under Theodor Reuss,
as well as by Crowley in the Equinox.
At Crowley's studio at 76 Fulham Road, London, on the 30th of June, 1913,
a meeting was held by the Sovereign Sanctuary of the A&PR. This was
to decide the future of the A&PR following Yarker's death. Those present
were Crowley, Theodor Reuss, Henry Meyer, Leon Engers Kennedy, and William
Quilliam. Henry Meyer was duly elected to the position of Sovereign Grand
Master General of the A&PR for Great Britain and Ireland, to take Yarker's
place. At this time, Crowley was reported to be the Patriarch Grand Administrator
General, and elevated in the rite of Memphis from the 95° to the 96°.
Following Crowley's obituary to Yarker in the Equinox, he further reports
himself to be 97° in the rite of Memphis... there is no documentary
evidence to suggest that this had been in any way bestowed upon him by anyone
of any authority.
Finally, in this vein, there is an incident reported by John Symonds in
his Þnal biography of Crowley, the King of the Shadow Realm. He states
that in 1914, Crowley left the United Kingdom for the USA, bearing with
him a charter proclaiming him to be a Honorary Magus of the SRIA. Crowley
was not, and never was a member of the SRIA, this having been proved by
total omission of his name from the Golden Book, a register of all members
of the SRIA. In addition, the title of Honorary Magus can only be bestowed
by the Supreme Magus of the SRIA (the ruler of the society), and Crowley
was not at this time in friendly contact with anyone in the SRIA. The leaders
of the SRIA were well aware of Crowley's existence and activities, and took
a very dim view of them. However, the patent was presented to him by an
American body, who erroneously called themselves the SRIA, and
who had no official charter.
W. Wynn Westcott held the position of Supreme Magus at this time, but was
never on friendly terms with Crowley and would not have given his help to
Crowley in this respect. Although S.L. Mathers was a member of the SRIA
(he had been initiated into the Craft in the Hengist lodge, and had continued
for a few years, but had dropped out of regular masonry, to pursue a 'higher'
course of mystical attainment), at this time he was in battle with Crowley
over the matter of published GD rituals in the Equinox, and would not have
assisted Crowley in procuring, or producing this certiÞcate. Further
evidence reveals that honorary membership of the SRIA is indeed a great
honour, and F. Hockley, a scholarly mason and expert on crystallomancy was
given only an honorary IV° for lectures given to the society. Crowley,
who had no contact with the order, would never have been honoured with the
highest degree the society could bestow.
The following quotes are taken from the Confessions p.700 et seq. regarding
Crowley's motives behind the use of his masonic knowledge in the revision
of the OTO rituals.
``What is Freemasonry? I collated the rituals and their secrets, much as
I had done the religions of the world, with their magical and mystical bases.
As in that case, I decided to neglect what it too often actually was. ...I
proposed to define freemasonry as a system of communicating truth - religious,
philosophical, magical and mystical; and indicating the proper means of
developing human faculty by means of a peculiar language whose alphabet
is the symbolism of ritual. Universal brotherhood and the great moral principles,
independent of personal, racial, climatic and other prejudices, naturally
formed a background which would assure individual security and social stability
for each and all.
"The question then arose, 'What truths should be communicated and by
what means promulgated?' My first object was to eliminate from the hundreds
of rituals at my disposal all exoteric elements. Many degrees contain statements
(usually inaccurate) of matters well known to modern schoolboys, through
they may have been important when the rituals were written. ... I saw no
point in overloading the system with superfluous information.
"Another essential point was to reduce the unwieldly mass of material
to a compact and coherent system. I thought that everything worth preserving
could and should be presented in not more than a dozen ceremonies, and that
it should be brought well within the capacity of any officer to learn by
heart his part during the leisure time at his disposal, in a month at most."
From the quotes above, we may get the impression that Crowley considered
freemasonry to be a particularly useful philosophical system to him, but
this can be countered with the argument that very little of it was used
by him, and the material present in the OTO rituals was there before him.
His statement of taking the material and condensing it is false insofar
as this had already been done for him by Kellner, Germer et al. His actual
usage of the precepts and ideals of the Craft were negligible.
To summarise the importance of Crowley's contact with Freemasonry as a whole,
we must consider several points. The Þrst is that he felt that this
mystical trend or approach was of beneÞt to his spiritual and psychological
development. This does not seem to stand up, given that he never took an
active rôle in any of the orders, and did not progress as is the norm
to the Master's Chair, and through then to the further degrees and rites,
as a cohesive process. However, this could be argued against on the grounds
that Crowley was a highly erratic individual, who had no truck with conventionality,
and considered himself above everyone, and above mundane rules for the masses.
His progress and unorthodox manner of receiving the degrees in Freemasonry
could have been perfectly acceptable to him, in the grand scheme. Perhaps
he felt that he did not need to follow the usual line of progress since
he was capable of assimilating the valuable points of Freemasonry in his
own right. Certainly he never took the orders teachings to heart on the
subject of it's grand principles, Brotherly Love, Charity and Truth. Never
particularly warm, he did not display any especially positive behaviour
towards masons he met, this often being paradoxically negative. His charitable
acts were practically nil, and the concept of Crowley being a martyr to
the truth is almost laughable. The quote above regarding Universal Brotherhood,
although a lofty aim, was one ideal that Crowley never took to heart, nor
actively used.
The second point is that he felt the need to be a part of masonry in order
to vindicate himself, and elevate himself in the eyes of his critics and
acolytes. As previously mentioned, at this time the Freemasonry was an honourable
and acceptable pursuit for a gentleman, and he could well have believed
that this facet of his mystical activities would legitimise his more controversial
activities. This is a debatable point, since Crowley rarely took notice
of what other people thought about him, and would not have been likely to
follow this course simply to justify himself to his critics. If the case
for increasing his status is considered, in that his activities in this
might have delivered more orthodox followers to his cause, we see a disparity,
since his extremely irregular progress would have done more harm than good,
as regular masons would have viewed his irregularity with disquiet and apprehension.
Thus, here it can be seen that this argument does not stand up to analysis,
except possibly if Crowley had a disordered view of how the public would
view his afÞliation, and himself believed that his irregularity would
cause no problems. This Þnal argument is not likely, since Crowley
rarely considered the perceptions of others to his activities, and this
whole concept is unlikely to have played much on his mind.
Thirdly, we should consider the view that Freemasonry and it's appendent
rites gave Crowley a great deal of ritualistic material and ready-made ceremonial
for use in orders of his own conception. The above quotes would have it
that this was a major reason. Although the A.'.A.'. did use Golden Dawn
and Masonic ritual to some degree, it was only to the amount of about 10
- 15%, with new material being formulated by Crowley along qabalistic lines.
As to his revisions of the OTO rituals following his inauguration as head
of the order in the United Kingdom, reliable evidence from sources within
that order suggest that very little of the revisions was based along masonic
lines. The OTO rituals were already based to an extent on masonic themes,
the lower degrees having been taken from the Rites of Memphis and Mizraim,
and the revisions tended to introduce qabalistic aspects to the ceremonies.
His use of masonic knowledge was negligible for the large part, and so we
can only consider that he might have desired masonic initiation in this
respect for it's future potential, which he never used in later life.
The Þnal point is to do with his desire to gain recognisable accolades,
either for his own ego's beneÞt, or to fool the gullible into thinking
that he was a master in all spheres. This is a hard argument to attack,
since there is no conclusive proof either way. The pro-Crowley group would
argue vehemently against this, as he did not use many of the titles for
masonic degrees regularly, only as tag-lines in the Equinox and in correspondence,
and they would say that other reasons were the motivation behind his masonic
activities. On the other hand, Crowley did use accolades widely, although
maybe not masonic ones to a large extent, as covered elsewhere in this thesis,
and so one could still argue that the beneÞts of gaining a new set
of titles would have been of some use to him when dealing with those individuals
that had knowledge of Freemasonry.
Therefore, one can only deduce that Crowley's possible motives in this respect
are probably a compound of these several points, and no one held precedence
as the major reason for his interest in the sphere of Freemasonry.
MDAF
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