THE
ARCANE
ARCHIVE

a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining
to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects.


TOP | RELIGION | THELEMA | PHILOSOPHY

Caliphate Christainity??

To: thelema93-l@bitsy.hollyfeld.org
From: Bill Heidrick 
Subject: Re: Caliphate Christainity?? (VERY Long, and tedious)
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 1996 22:38:56 -0700 (PDT)

93,

Andrew  asked:

>confused as to why OTO absorbed EGC. Comments, Bill?

The date of that happening is a little unclear.  Papus was head of the
French section of OTO at the time.  He had consecration as a bishop in
the French Gnostic Catholic Church, founded by Doinel and once counting
the notorious "Leo Taxil" as a member.  When Papus came into OTO, he
brought the GCC with him -- not unusual since more than a dozen other
organizations had some merger or overlap with OTO in those times.  When
Papus got a valid consecration out of the line of the schism of Utrect
(Wandering Bishop phenomena), he passed that along.  Crowley wrote and
published the Gnostic Mass under the new name for the Gnostic Catholic
Church as a part of OTO (Latin translation only:  Ecclesia Gnostica
Catholica) -- during WWI in the _International_.  He published it again
in the _Blue Equinox_ in 1919 e.v. and again in the 1920's in MTP -- usually
with his Baphomet OTO signature.
   Around 1981 e.v., we (Grady McMurtry, myself and some others in OTO) had
just completed filing of OTO papers for incorporation with the state of
California.  At the time, we didn't have a clear understanding of what
constituted the legal criteria for a "Church" in tax law.  Since OTO has
always possessed the forms of lodges, members and dues, we were a little
worried that all those characteristics would automatically make the
OTO a "mere" fraternal organization in the eyes of the law.  About that
time James Town happened and there was a lot of talk about cracking down
on the application procedures for recognizing churches.  Accordingly,
we set up a separate EGC corporation, without requirement of OTO membership
below the level of board of directors.  That one we filed as a formal
and simple "church" with no fraternal qualifications or language -- in effect
OTO was a religious order and EGC was a public membership church available
outside OTO membership as well as a religious chapel aspect of OTO proper.
At no time did we consider that OTO ceased to have an EGC within it, but
we did consider that we had established a separate EGC offshoot in its own
right.  I was made a bishop by laying on of hands in the back seat of the
car taking us to the notary to get the papers witnessed and signed.  I had
priestly authority within OTO, but we decided to add a separate ordination
for the separate church.  OTO members who were also bishops wore silver
and black onyx rings instead of the more traditional gold and amethyst,
to indicate respect for the color sacred to the OHO.  I still have mine,
nice thing with two bees holding the bezel.
   About a year later we read a little more law and discovered that OTO
did qualify as a religious entity by its own nature in terms of tax law.
We amended the OTO articles to reflect that as the declared primary purpose.
No problems with IRS or the Franchise Tax Office (California equivalent to
the IRS).
   The separate EGC continued until about 1986 e.v., usually holding it's
masses at OTO meeting places, sometimes separately at other places.
At times there was a petty dispute over the collections, since some EGC
masses were purely OTO EGC and some were non-OTO EGC.  OTO had financing
by dues, but the separate EGC did not -- it was dependent on donations and
OTO aid.  After Grady died, I had to step down as an EGC officer, owing to
increased duties for OTO and some personal stress.  The separate EGC started
to decay -- not that I'm claiming to be the one who held it together, but
there were others who had to choose between serving as officers in OTO or
doubling up as officers for both OTO and EGC -- OTO had opened the
US Electorial College in Grady's last year, and that drained off more
volunteers.  Although the separate EGC did attract many non-OTO members to
the Mass and the Priest/esshood, it didn't seem to attract people willing
to handle administrative duties.  Effectively, that meant drawing on the
same pool of people to make the machinery work for both OTO and EGC.
OTO got more.  There were other problems, mainly that the EGC Bishops tended
not to report baptisms, confirmations and even some ordinations with any
regularity.  No effective fund drives either.  In a word, it died from
lack of parenting.  California was happy as long as the annual reports
and a minimum $300 tax came in, but suspended the separate EGC corporation
when the EGC Secretary failed to do that.  Tax exemption papers were
prepared but never submitted -- I saw them in an envelope with stamps on it,
but the Secretary froze up and never signed or submitted them.  By that
time even the bishops were skipping annual meetings and the resolution
list was being "edited" haphazardly.
   One good thing the separate EGC did was to codify the rules and rituals.
Although that coda was never accepted by the EGC internal to OTO, it served
as a start for the present regulations -- five years of independence did
yield that much.
   During the interval between 1986 and 1989 e.v., quite a lot of Masses
took place at OTO locations without supervision.  The independent EGC had
depended on visits by bishops, and the local OTO groups had become accustomed
to ignoring details like that some of the time.  This led to some pretty
strange "Masses", and I had to order a local lodge master to publish the
fact beforehand if the Liber XV script wasn't to be followed on a particular
occasion.  Also, the independent EGC had substantially added to the list
of Saints in the Collects, including a number of ladies as well as gents.
This apparently was in ignorance of Crowley's intention to set up a list
of males he felt had in some way contributed to the recognition of the
divine woman -- from the Gnostic concept of devotion to Sophia, the
divine and female Wisdom -- early example would be Simon Magus of the Roman
period, with his "divine" Sophia partner --- later examples would be Jack
Parsons as Belerion with his Cameron as his earthly Babalon and Crowley as
Beast with his Scarlet Woman(en).

   All that happened in terms of regular attendance at the Mass was that
non-OTO members now make up the majority of attendees at some
OTO Gnostic Masses, particularly in the SF Bay Area.  Ordinations went
a little strange, owing to lack of supervision of the loose independent
EGC bishops.  The remedy was to regularize ordinations to qualification
of degree previously held in OTO, when done by OTO bishops, and that has led
to some dispute.  There are non-OTO bishops, of course, but their separate
corporation went belly-up from lack of support by the members.  OTO
registers these when they request it, subject to the condition that the
minimum degrees must be held by any individuals they ordain as long as
they retain registration with us -- otherwise we decline to register the
new ordinations.  Doesn't mean those people don't have valid ordinations,
just that we can't be responsible for them.  I didn't mind the gender
reversal masses, myself, although some OTO members took exception.  There
were a few real twisters' tho -- Like the time three Moonies were visiting
as guests brought by G.Melton: Isaac and Sally stood up and declared with
some gusto that they would refuse to do the Mass unless cunnilingus and
fellatio were a part of it.  No problem, this was a public mass, not a
Mass of the Holy Ghost in private between two individuals sans-audience.
I&S left, we got another priest and priestess, held a regular Mass and
I don't think the Moonies remembered to blink the whole time -- eyes just
stayed bugged out.

Enough for now.

>If we have Officers at all, then must do well by us, or the system will
>indeed fall apart.

Exactly what happened to the independent EGC.

93 93/93
Bill



The Arcane Archive is copyright by the authors cited.
Send comments to the Arcane Archivist: tyaginator@arcane-archive.org.

Did you like what you read here? Find it useful?
Then please click on the Paypal Secure Server logo and make a small
donation to the site maintainer for the creation and upkeep of this site.

The ARCANE ARCHIVE is a large domain,
organized into a number of sub-directories,
each dealing with a different branch of
religion, mysticism, occultism, or esoteric knowledge.
Here are the major ARCANE ARCHIVE directories you can visit:
interdisciplinary: geometry, natural proportion, ratio, archaeoastronomy
mysticism: enlightenment, self-realization, trance, meditation, consciousness
occultism: divination, hermeticism, amulets, sigils, magick, witchcraft, spells
religion: buddhism, christianity, hinduism, islam, judaism, taoism, wicca, voodoo
societies and fraternal orders: freemasonry, golden dawn, rosicrucians, etc.

SEARCH THE ARCANE ARCHIVE

There are thousands of web pages at the ARCANE ARCHIVE. You can use ATOMZ.COM
to search for a single word (like witchcraft, hoodoo, pagan, or magic) or an
exact phrase (like Kwan Yin, golden ratio, or book of shadows):

Search For:
Match:  Any word All words Exact phrase

OTHER ESOTERIC AND OCCULT SITES OF INTEREST

Southern Spirits: 19th and 20th century accounts of hoodoo, including slave narratives & interviews
Hoodoo in Theory and Practice by cat yronwode: an introduction to African-American rootwork
Lucky W Amulet Archive by cat yronwode: an online museum of worldwide talismans and charms
Sacred Sex: essays and articles on tantra yoga, neo-tantra, karezza, sex magic, and sex worship
Sacred Landscape: essays and articles on archaeoastronomy, sacred architecture, and sacred geometry
Lucky Mojo Forum: practitioners answer queries on conjure; sponsored by the Lucky Mojo Curio Co.
Herb Magic: illustrated descriptions of magic herbs with free spells, recipes, and an ordering option
Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers: ethical diviners and hoodoo spell-casters
Freemasonry for Women by cat yronwode: a history of mixed-gender Freemasonic lodges
Missionary Independent Spiritual Church: spirit-led, inter-faith, the Smallest Church in the World
Satan Service Org: an archive presenting the theory, practice, and history of Satanism and Satanists
Gospel of Satan: the story of Jesus and the angels, from the perspective of the God of this World
Lucky Mojo Usenet FAQ Archive: FAQs and REFs for occult and magical usenet newsgroups
Candles and Curios: essays and articles on traditional African American conjure and folk magic
Aleister Crowley Text Archive: a multitude of texts by an early 20th century ceremonial occultist
Spiritual Spells: lessons in folk magic and spell casting from an eclectic Wiccan perspective
The Mystic Tea Room: divination by reading tea-leaves, with a museum of antique fortune telling cups
Yronwode Institution for the Preservation and Popularization of Indigenous Ethnomagicology
Yronwode Home: personal pages of catherine yronwode and nagasiva yronwode, magical archivists
Lucky Mojo Magic Spells Archives: love spells, money spells, luck spells, protection spells, etc.
      Free Love Spell Archive: love spells, attraction spells, sex magick, romance spells, and lust spells
      Free Money Spell Archive: money spells, prosperity spells, and wealth spells for job and business
      Free Protection Spell Archive: protection spells against witchcraft, jinxes, hexes, and the evil eye
      Free Gambling Luck Spell Archive: lucky gambling spells for the lottery, casinos, and races