[NOTE: This was sent shortly after podcast #42 came out. However, I never had a chance to reply because it was posted to the site right before the switch. Kat was nice enough to resend it!]
Dear John:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.
Greetings from the UK.
I am currently listening to episode 42, and after listening for about a year I’ve finally decided to write in and comment.
First, thank you very much for all your diligence in presenting the TCTC podcast. It is always a pleasure to listen to your thoughts and the interviews, and I enjoy hearing about various projects Thelemites are undertaking. TCTC is a fantastic, highly intelligent resource and you are to be commended for bringing it to fruition and keeping it running.
What’s been itching at the back of my mind every time I listen to TCTC finally made it to my conscious thinking today. Early in episode 42 you said something to the effect of the following : “The main event for the OTO is not a ritual… it is NOTOCON, a convention that takes place every two years and is basically an excuse for members of the OTO to get together and party…..” etc.
Now, being new to the OTO, I freely admit that I don’t have in-depth knowledge of everything and everyone involved therein. Also, because I didn’t encounter the Order until I moved to the UK I have no first-hand experience of the OTO in the US. However, I’d like to perhaps inject a tiny ray of sunshine into perceptions about the OTO.
Here in the UK the central event of the OTO and the EGC is Crowley’s Gnostic Mass. It is regularly practiced. On almost any given Sunday somewhere in the UK the Gnostic Mass is given by an OTO body. It is treated as a serious magickal working, and many OTO members throughout the UK study it in great detail. Even when I am not fulfilling one of the officiant roles, I always take something away from participation in the Gnostic Mass — from just the relief of being still in a beautiful ritual space and allowing it to provide atmosphere for magickal meditation to serious revelations about how my life and my Work is progressing. From conversations with others in the OTO and with guests, spiritual benefit from participating in the Gnostic Mass seems to be the norm rather than the exception.
In addition to the Gnostic Mass, I have first-hand experience of OTO bodies in the UK holding various workshops, including ones on working with the Goetia, Reiki and Yoga, creating and performing Equinox rituals, and holding many of the feasts spoken of by Crowley, comprised of astrologically-attuned ingredients. Ideally, in my opinion, the OTO worldwide would regularly practice a wide variety of Thelemic rituals as well. But that is another discussion for another time. Ultimately, I wrote to let you know that there are practicing magickians in the OTO. We are not all continually drug-addled social rejects. I think proper presentation of the Gnostic Mass should not be overlooked as a genuine Thelemic ritual which is regularly enacted by the OTO.
Best wishes for the future, wherever it leads you, and continued fortitude as you pursue the Great Work. I look forward to more TCTC, and hope that you will be able to continue ‘casting it in the future.
Love is the Law, Love Under Will.
Kat
