Member of the NEW TRAJECTORIES WEBRING

Monday, July 18, 2022

Sex, Drugs & Magick: Sayyiduna

 

This is supposedly an American newspaper's depiction on Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis Abbey of Thelema in Sicily (November 1923)


Sex, Drugs & Magick Chapter Three: The Smoke of the Assassins 

 

Perhaps I am not subtle enough, but this seems to be the most apropos of all the Wake quotes in this volume. I always found Wilson's anecdote about being excited to see how many times "Leary" and "LSD" appeared in Finnegans Wake until Dr. Leary pointed out that his name was extremely common as lsd is an abbreviation for the pound to be incredibly charming. I love a man who laughs at himself. Perhaps that is why, no matter how I might seem to quibble with the material, I am infinitely grateful Wilson was my guide. Anyways, the quote is so appropriate I feel we must chalk it up to synchronicity or Providence. 

 

I have talked previously about the legend of Hassan i Sabbah and just how much we need to take with a grain of salt when reading modern accounts of the Old Man of the Mountain. Our culture is awash in the legend, especially within esoteric or counter-cultural circles, the widening gyre of information that is the Internet, even video games and New York Times bestseller book clubs. How much can be believed? I have wrestled, while reading the chapter and composing this post, with that question. I find that I might be too cynical in my view of history, distrusting any reports further back than this morning as untrustworthy. However, whatever truth there might be in Marco Polo's account of Hassan i Sabbah and the Assassins, he most certainly did not bring spaghetti back from China. 

 

I believe that my distressing skepticism comes partly from reading Michael Muhammad Knight's excellent William S. Burroughs vs. the Quran earlier this year. This book is a captivating memoir that I have mentioned before and I really encourage you to read it. The book contains plenty to interest people with our interests; a discussion of Burroughs' mythologization of Hassan i Sabbah, the career of Peter Lambourn Wilson and even an appearance by the RAW biographer, Prop Anon. While reading the book the weight of Burroughs' influence on Wilson occurred to me as one that I don't think about as much as others; that I should probably attribute much of what Wilson relates about Sabbah as coming from the Burroughs model, which might not be accurate. Wilson himself notes in this chapter that Burroughs held Sabbah in a place of honor, a man who honored so little in the ways of other men.

 

Indeed, it seems to be a kind of an unintentional game, Westerners trying to figure out who the Hashashin really were and their modus operandi. The Ismaili Muslims of Iran were referred to by other Muslim writers as the "Hashishiyya," but this word was also applied to Sufis or Sufi orders suspected of using hashish. The use of hashish was controversial, then as now, and there was a large amount of prejudice in the Islamic world against those who consumed it. I'll share some Sufi poems that seem to echo sentiments heard in dorm rooms all across our Great Nation:

Hashish contains the meaning of my desire.
You dear people of intelligence and understanding.
They have declared it forbidden without any justification on the basis of reason and tradition. 
Declaring forbidden what is not forbidden is forbidden. 

Preserved or written by Ibn Kathir (14th Century) 

The use of hashish is censured by all silly persons, weak of mind, insensitive,
To the censure coming from stupid and envious individuals.
Share hashish with a goodly young man firm.
In the preservation of friendship and appointments.
Is it not a relaxation for the mind? Thus enjoy
It, all you sensible men!

Muhammad bin Makki bin Ali bin al-Hussain al-Mashhadi (11th Century?) 

However, lest we get the idea that medieval Sufis were proto-hippies, they were (and are) a diverse group of peoples; the same source where I found the above poems also includes a Sufi poet condemning the use of hashish. It also seems that, far from the more colorful legend of converting the fidai, that the original belief in the Western popular imagination about the Ismailis and linking them to hashish was the belief that the fidai used hashish before battle/assassinations to give them courage. (An interesting idea for anyone who has gotten too high and tried to go grocery shopping, which quickly becomes a visit to Tartarus.) As far as I could tell, there are many historians who have concluded that Hassan i Sabbah was nothing more than a very pious Shia Muslim. But that just isn't as much fun, is it? 

Wilson says: "Hassan made modernists and even post-modernists out of his contemporaries, and they didn't like it at all." Perhaps Hassan taught us all, even if unintentionally, a centuries-early lesson in post-modernism. And if we are to be post-modern, then we can choose whatever historical quasi-fiction we wish to believe. So, if we desire a fitting narrative for Sayidunna, we need to go no further than the beginning of the twentieth century in the Balkans. In a novel called Alamut, the Slovenian writer Vladimir Bartol laid the groundwork for the modern take on Hassan i Sabbah. The novel concerns the initiation of ibn Tahir into the ranks of the fedayin as well as the recruitment of some of the "houris" to inhabit his faux-paradise. A psychological novel, Alamut concerns itself with the brainwashed devotees and the discovery of Hassan's ruse on the part of one "houri" and ibn Tahir. The novel concludes with ibn Tahir confronting Hassan where the Old Man utters his motto to him, not to Burzug Umid. Alamut also contains the incident recounted at the end of this chapter, however it is Hassan who orders two fedayin to take their lives instead of Sinan. While it might not be perfectly accurate, it is a good yarn and the speech Hassan gives to ibn Tahir concerning the watchers atop A'raf has haunted me the years since reading it. 

(And at this point I'd like to report that in Philip Farber's excellent High Magick: A Guide to Cannabis in Ritual and Mysticism, it is noted that, similar to the Hindu soma, the Zoroastrians had the drug haoma. Like soma, haoma has been conjectured as originally indicating many different drugs; yet, based on various descriptions it seem highly likely that the plant indicated by these terms was cannabis. (A far more pleasant, common intoxicant in that area of the world than amanita muscaria.) Farber notes that while some Zoroastrians and historians write about Zoroaster condemning the use of haoma, it was another drug he condemned in the Avesta, mada, which might have been the same as haoma, but might not have been. (Fun, right? Why can't people read religious texts clearly?) The modern haoma ritual of Zoroastrianism uses ephedra or Syrian rue for the substance, but Farber contends that the original psychoactive haoma was kept for the "magi" priest-class of Zoroastrians. All of this is for me to say that Zoroastrians are originally from the same Persian area that the Ismailis would inhabit.) 

Further into the chapter, closer to us than Hassan i Sabbah but prey to as much, if not more, obfuscation and confusion is the discussion of Crowleyean sex magick. This chapter is incredibly important because here, in plain enough text, Wilson reveals the operation of sex magick and provides enough information to piece together the Ninth Degree Ritual of the Ordo Templi Orientis, its most prized secret. It was from this chapter that I was able to piece together the operation in whole; when I told one teacher I believed that I had divined "a part" of the ritual, he simply replied "a part?" 

Based on my further research, my conclusion was correct. While it is dressed up in his charmingly ridiculous bombast, Louis T. Culling's Sex Magick and The Complete Magickal Curriculum of the Secret Order G.B.G. also provide the essential part of the operation as well as including "Of The Homunculus" (a secret instruction of the Ninth Degree) in his writing about "the bud-will." Granted, this is tied up in C.F. Russell's/Culling's rigmarole, but all of that is quite entertaining in and of itself. (God, I love Culling.) Much of my confirmation comes from Francis King's The Secret Rituals of the O.T.O. and various back papers in his Crowley On Christ. I should note that Caliphate partisans are happy to say that King's book, aside from being illegally printed in the first place, is devastatingly flawed. Aside from mumblings about the Third Degree Ritual, I have never been given a satisfactory explanation of how it is in any way incorrect that didn't smack of misdirecting insincerity along with unfamiliarity with the text. King himself states that his work was based on the collection of Frater Volo Intelligere, Gerald Yorke, who was as in-the-know as any of Crowley's acquaintances, even if he wasn't a member of the O.T.O.. Crowley's opus, Magick Book 4, is dedicated in part to Frater Volo Intelligere. 

Aside from spilling the beans in this manner, Wilson also reveals, as he does for us in other works, what he believes to be the incriminating poem in Crowley's The Book of Lies. Chapter 69 goes as follows: 

THE WAY TO SUCCEED -- AND THE WAY TO SUCK EGGS!

This is the Holy Hexagram.
Plunge from the height, O God, and interlock with
    Man!
Plunge from the height, O Man, and interlock with
    Beast!
The Red Triangle is the descending tongue of grace;
    the Blue Triangle is the ascending tongue of
    prayer.
This Interchange, the Double Gift of Tongues, the
    Word of Double Power -- ABRAHADABRA! -- is
    the sign of the GREAT WORK, for the GREAT WORK is accomplished in Silence. And behold, is
    not that Word equal to Cheth, that is Cancer, whose Sigil is 69*?
This Work also eats up itself, accomplishes its own
    end, nourishes the worker, leaves no seed, is perfect in itself.
Little children, love one another!

[*In the poem proper, the "69" is the astrological sign of Cancer.] 

A poem that isn't a poem and isn't usually included in the running for the poem that put Reuss in a mood but shares similar concerns is #36 which contains the original version of Crowley's version of the Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram, The Star Sapphire. I can personally attest that regular practice of this ritual is transformative and comforting in many ways, especially when coupled with the theory expressed in #69. Wilson says of this: "I learned this [that Crowley could appreciate the inner meaning of mystical Christianity] directly by performing his Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram (a combination of Christian and Egyptian invocations, and one of the most powerful consciousness-altering techniques I know), which gave me an entirely new and fresh insight into the central Christian symbolism of Crucifixion and Resurrection." If you're looking for something to do, I think Wilson would echo my recommendation to commit the Star Sapphire to heart. 

Let's move away from the mysterious men and their shroud of smoke for now, though they may already have captured our imaginations. 

Stray Thoughts

- Wilson quotes Crowley's "The Psychology of Hashish," which was originally attributed to Oliver Haddo, the decidedly unflattering portrait of Crowley offered in Somerset Maugham's The Magician. "The Psychology of Hashish" is the second, and by far the most valuable/instructive part of Crowley's compendium of marijuaniana The Herb Dangerous. The other three portions of Crowley's study are composed of a dry medical report by a (seemingly real not-actually-Crowley-persona) English physician on cannabis: the other two sections are a translation of a poem on hashish by Baudelaire and an excerpt from "The Hasheesh Eater" by Fritz Hugh Ludlow. Regardie, in his introduction to The Herb Dangerous in the Sixties reprint Roll Away the Stone, compares Ludlow's work to de Quincey's and presciently calls for a reprint that would surely be (and proved) popular with the then-current generation. 

- Speaking of Baudelaire, it should be said that his and Gautier's descriptions of the effects of hashish are best taken as reports from Olympus. They are an example of what I like to call "the absinthe problem." I had always heard that absinthe was hallucinogenic because of the presence of wormwood in the 19th century recipe, which has been removed in our modern productions. However, I had also read in accounts that the wormwood's presence was negligible and that the riotous effects upon the imagination are in themselves imaginary and to be attributed to nothing more than absinthe's not-insubstantial alcohol content and romance. (I really should read Phil Baker's history of absinthe.) Both reading Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal and Gautier's Mademoiselle de Maupin can prove without doubt that each of them is capable of intoxicating the reader with nothing more than words, it goes to follow that the effects of any drug would loosen their already-tenuous grip on this dull world. I believe Wilson will later discuss how disappointed that many a hippie was to discover that opium doesn't deliver the reveries of "Kubla Khan" or The Opium-eater's visions. Alas, we are not all naturally gifted with the fervid imagination of Coleridge or de Quincey. 

- I could find nothing about Ismaili fedai wielding a flame dagger, celebrated or otherwise. 

- In High Magick, Philip Farber also writes about the ancient notations of the perhaps-mythical Shen Neng/Shennong on cannabis. Farber interestingly relates that Shennong also stated, aside from extolling the medical benefits of cannabis, that "[c]annabis...enabled seekers to forget their own consciousness and attain the Tao." Farber also notes that while cannabis was not looked kindly upon by Confucianists, some parts of Taoism have always retained a fondness for the drug and that one of the eight Taoist immortals is Ma Gu...which translates as "Hemp Maiden" or, delightfully, "Auntie Hemp." 

- I looked up Dr. Michael Aldritch, something I don't think I've ever done before this reading. I couldn't find much about him, but he is still around and evidently wrote the now-uncommon Drugs-For & Against. He also contributed to the "High Times" Encyclopedia of Recreational Drugs

- I am disappointed that after multiple rereadings of this text, I still haven't read Terry Southern's "The Blood of a Wig." The story, found in Red Dirt Marijuana and Other Tales, concerns the account of a magazine editor's outrageous drug use. Evidently the titles refer to injecting the blood of a schizophrenia patient (the "wig") and contains this bit about the Kennedy assassination: 

- I learned, through trial and major error, that it is never in one's best interest to bring up the feeding of the Red Lion or the White Eagle in their truest sense, save when under the rose. 



14 comments:

  1. RAW has sex magick pieces in quite a few other places, "Email to the Universe" for example, but this is fuller and more explicit, so I was interested that you seem to endorse the accuracy of this chapter. The particular technique that RAW recommends also comes up in "Schroedinger's Cat," as Oz Fritz no doubt remembers (he has a new piece up at The Oz Mix about the trilogy).

    I was also interested that you endorse the Phil Farber book -- I think the HIlaritas Press podcast on Maybe Day, July 23, will feature him. I note that there's a Kindle for "High Magick."

    The bit about pot making plain bread and water delicious interested me, because Epicurus talked about how bread and water can be very satisfying if you are hungry and thirsty. Contrary to what people usually think about Epicureanism, Epicurus recommended trying to be satisfied with plain fare, as it makes gourmet food all the more satisfying when it becomes available.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lots of great historical information in this post, thank-you! Farber's book looks like an excellent adjunct to Wilson's comments about hash and weed.

    There are a few sex scenes in Schrödinger's Cat, I do remember one where the male character, Starhawk?, performs post-coital oral sex on his partner to mix the substances.

    There is a lot of different things written and said about the OTO IXth degree secret. Never having been in the OTO I don't feel qualified to offer an opinion. But that's never stopped me before, lol. I've learned sex magick from other sources, Hyatt's Secrets of Western Tantra, for instance. E.J. Gold wrote an excellent book called Alchemical Sex that goes into detailed information about the alchemical mixing of sexual substances.

    I'm still re-reading this chapter, it's a long one. So far, it seems that RAW doesn't frame his info in terms of the IXth degree secret. I'm not aware of him ever having been a member of that Order. Jerry Cornelius writes on this secret particularly in his new and highly recommended book, The Secret Sexual Teachings of Aleister Crowley. Cornelius does cover those two chapters from The Book of Lies as well as quoting extensively from King's The Secret Rituals of the OTO. It's my impression that the IXth degree secret isn't tied to any specific ritual or technique, rather those rituals and techniques may make use of this secret via theurgic magick.

    I like he idea of memorizing The Star Sapphire (ch. 36, BoL). I also find it one of he most beautiful in the book. One can see sexual allegory in it, yet it seems to operate on multiple levels.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I sit corrected. RAW does talk about Crowley's adventure with the IXth degree secret in the very next page after I stopped. My cosmic schmuckness knows no bounds ... or humility is endless.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Tom- It is my understanding that Epicureans believed in pleasures that couldn't easily be taken away (is that right?) so I could see an emphasis on enjoying plain food making sense.

    I believe this is one of the places he is clearest in the practical sense of magical techniques. If nothing else, it was significant to my magical education.

    I really enjoy Phil Farber's work. His MetaMagick is a very beat up part of my collection. I was excited when High Magick came out as he seemed ideal to write about it. It is an excellent text.

    I read Oz's piece, it was great!

    @Oz- I don't think I saw the previous comment. But as a fellow, larger perhaps, cosmic schmuck, I understand the feeling.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh, my previous comment didn't post, how interesting. I'll write it again when I get a moment.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lots of great, informative history in this post. I love the quotes about the joys of hash both in this post and in the chapter. Farber's cannabis book seems an excellent adjunct/elaboration of RAW's cannabis comments here. I expect we find a certain amount of fabulation in Burrough's & RAW's account of Hassan I Sabbah for didactic reasons. Jesus Christ comes to mind as another (maybe) historical figure subject to a great deal of fabulation. As least we have evidence that Sabbah existed. To my knowledge, we can't say the same about Mr. Christ.

    My last initial post went into an alternate universe, I'll have to finish recreating it as time allows.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I really love the Abbey of Thelema illustration, the spirit of the Abbey lives on.

    Tom, I do remember reading a sex scene in Schrödingers Cat where the male character, might have been Starhawk?, had post-coital oral sex with his paramour for the purpose of mixing substances.

    I wrote somewhere between 10 or 15 years ago my opinion that the story Crowley told of Reuss telling Crowley he had publishing the IXth degree secret without knowing it then getting blinded by the realization of the importance of sex magick, a fabulation, a put-on. After all, it appears in the Foreward to The Book of Lies. One thing this tale accomplishes: Crowley's presentation gets apparently verified by an outside occult Authority, the head of an Order with allegedly ancient ties. In Jerry Cornelius' new book The Secret Sexual Teachings of Aleister Crowley he agrees with this view and provides evidence through dates of events.

    There has been a lot of discussion of the OTO IXth degree secret. The two chapters in The Book of Lies ch. 36 & ch. 69 both contain this secret, in my opinion, as do several others in the book. Ch. 36 seems an extremely powerful and productive method for this theurgic method and Ch. 69 goes with it, after another fashion. Both chapters allegorically provide alchemical sexual techniques, but both also describe another, metaphysical level connected to the theurgic side of magick. I see that as the secret. I don't view the secret as tied to any particular ritual or technique.

    That one chapter in the book contains the secret without saying which one seems a brilliant puzzle for a marketing tease. It also allows future magus like RAW to comment have their say.

    ReplyDelete
  8. My comments appear to be getting removed. I wrote another lengthy one and posted it last night. I saw it posted and now it's gone. I suspect an AI censorship bot. It would be courteous to receive some explanation rather than just seeing them disappeared. In very clinical terms, I described a scene in "Schröginger's Cat" related to RAW's sex magick, maybe that's it. I should have kept a copy of it but didn't. I'll write the gist of it out again at some future point and make sure to keep a copy. I was elaborating my opinion first stated 10 - 15 years ago that the Reuss story Crowley told appeared largely made up and my view of the IXth degree secret, chapters 36 & 69 in "The Book of Lies", etc.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Also how much I loved the Abbey of Thelema illustration above.

    ReplyDelete
  10. @Oz, the illustration was a find! It came from one of the more unhinged but enjoyable commentators on Crowley and the OTO. After what you noted I looked at my comments and your previous ones were counted as spam....I have no idea why that would have happened as you post here frequently. It's that evil AI the tech bros warned us about.

    If I remember correctly, most of the sex magick material in Schrodinger's Cat is in the original "The Trick Top Hat" which contains a lot of reworked scenes from "The Sex Magicians." The material in Sex, Drugs & Magick was meaningful as it is what helped me understand "the secret." I agree that it seems to be more of an idea than a straight forward step-by-step. I'll have to check out Jerry Cornelius, I've always been aware of him as he shares a name with one of my favorite fictional characters but haven't read him. I'm also trying to get caught up on your Deleuze posts and read the material you sent last year so I can comment!

    As far as the Star Sapphire is concerned, I've never experienced a ritual (even, blasphemy!, the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram) that was more beneficial to my mental/spiritual health when performed regularly. Without the sex, it is still a nigh-perfect summation of creation. The word "holy" really makes sense in its context.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Rarebit, thank-you for resurrecting my last lengthy post and for the reply.

    RAW credited the discrepancy of Reuss objecting to Crowley's reveal before The Book of Lies got published to a lie in the copyrite date rather than a fabricated story allowing him to comment on the "chapter containing the secret" narrative without discrediting it. Crowley first gave this account in Confessions not long after Reuss died, so Reuss wasn't around to object.

    Most commentators I've read cite ch. 36 as the one with the secret. RAW goes against the grain by citing ch. 69 as the one. The thing to consider - how to apply the theurgic magick in ch.36 appears not very clear - the instruction goes: "making the ROSY CROSS as he may know how." Bringing ch. 69 into the mix with the concept of reciprocal feeding and the symbolism of reversal in the number and in the symbol for Cancer gives a significant clue to the how of the ROSY CROSS. The Freudian symbolism of Cross = male, Rose = female must get reversed to the Rose = Hadit, the Cross = Nuit, extending infinitely in all directions.
    RAW reinforces this with the quote he opens Schrödinger's Cat with: "Not until the male becomes female and the female becomes male shall ye enter the Kingdom of Heaven." He attributes this to Jesus in The Gospel of Thomas

    In my view, RAW provides a crucial key to the secret by highlighting chapter 69 similar to how Achad provided the key to The Book of the Law with the number 31

    ReplyDelete
  12. Also wish to express deep and sincere appreciation Rarebit for your always interesting and informative posts here and over at Rawillumination, and for reading and commenting upon the Deleuze and other material I post. Thank-you!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I am this summer having difficulties devoting as much time as I would like to the reading groups, but I always enjoy reading what everyone has to say. And this specific post I found very informative, great job!

    First of all, thank you Apuleius for pointing out the spaghetti thing (could Marco Polo have brought ramen from Asia, though?)

    I highly recommend the film version of Confession Of An Opium Eater, starring Vincent Price, and featuring some amazing opium-drenched dream sequences.

    This Hawkwind song has always been one of my favorite of theirs.

    I liked that we learn on p.148 that Michael Aldrich is the one that came up with the idea of the time-release capsule that made us pause some months ago when reading about it in PR.

    The concept of the ‘sleeper agent’ seems to add a bit to the talks on spies and counter-intelligence from the PR chapters we recently went through. Makes me a tad uneasy to contemplate, as it can potentially reinforces the paranoid TRUST NO ONE ethos of a self-built Chapel Perilous maze in a dysfunctional C7.

    The signal used to activate the agents seen on p.152 reminds me of the Hanged Man in tarot, even though I am not sure what the connection might be. Perhaps it makes sense as the agent is finally done waiting now that they got the signal to move on to the next stage of the mission.

    Despite being mostly remembered for his lengthy verbiages on mushrooms and DMT, Terrence McKenna devoted a large part of his book Food of the Gods to the ancient drug soma. I think his research tended to point to the hypothesis that soma contained fermented ergot, but I read the book quite a few years ago.

    I loved RAW’s critic of half-baked skepticism on p.164. “What the skeptic really seems to be claiming is that he knows what the subject feels better than the subject knows.”
    ‘We know what you really want better than you do’ also seems to be what mosbunall politicians, advertisers, or so-called experts are often telling us.

    Finally on a personal note, I always connect hash to teenage experiences of hiding from neighbors and the police to smoke it, only to get a mostly paranoid high that would end in headache. One might say that the set and setting were far from ideal, but then again I started smoking weed under similar conditions and always found it much more relaxing. However I doubt I ever got good quality hash, including in Amsterdam or Christiania.

    That was a very enjoyable chapter, but so information-rich that I suspect we could discuss it in details for weeks.

    ReplyDelete
  14. @Spookah: I really appreciate you taking any time to keep on with our group. I will say that I do think about your opinions when I choose my musical accompaniment anymore. I'll have to watch the Price film which I (somehow) haven't heard about before now.

    I read a lot of angry culinary historians talking about how ramen isn't spaghetti even if Polo did bring it back to the West while researching this question. Was the time-release capsule in one of my posts? I believe it was...

    I think yall in the UK have much easier access to hash or else cannabis products are more easily considered hash there. When I've read British stoners, they talk about hashish a lot more than Americans. Hash is pretty rare here...I've only bought it twice. Nowadays we have wax and shatter available from legal states if one wants to get really zonked.

    ReplyDelete

Lion of Light: It is All About the Child

"Kung walked              by the dynastic temple        and into the cedar grove,              and then out by the lower river, And wit...