LIBER CI O.T.O.
AN OPEN LETTER TO THOSE WHO MAY WISH TO JOIN THE ORDER
Enumerating the Duties and Privileges.
These Regulations are in force in any
district where the membership of the Order
exceeds one thousand souls.
An Epistle of BAPHOMET to Sir GEORGE MACNIE COWIE, Very Illustrious and Very
Illuminated, Pontiff and Epopt of the Areopagus of the VIIIth Degree O.T.O.,
Grand Treasurer General, Keeper of the Golden Book, President of the Committee
of Publications of the O.T.O.
|
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
It has been represented to Us that some persons who are worthy to join
the O.T.O. consider the fees and subscriptions rather high. This is
due to your failure to explain properly the great advantages offered by
the Order. We desire you therefore presently to note, and to cause
the same to be circulated throughout the Order, and among those of the
profane who may seem worthy to join it, these matters following concerning
the duties and privileges of members of the earlier degrees of the O.T.O.
as regards material affairs. And for convenience we shall classify
these as pertaining to the Twelve Houses of the Heavens, but also by
numbered clauses for the sake of such as understand not the so-called
Science of the Stars. First, therefore, concerning the duties of the
Brethren. Yet with our Order every duty is also a privilege, so
that it is impossible wholly to separate them.
OF THE DUTIES OF THE BRETHREN
First House.
- There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt. Yet it is well for
Brethren to study daily in the Volume of the Sacred Law, Liber Legis,
for therein is much counsel concerning this, how they may best carry out this
will.
Second House.
- The private purse of every Brother should always be at the disposal of
any Brother who may be in need. But is such a case it is a great
mischief if the one ask, and the other consent; for if the former be
really in need, his pride is wounded by his asking; and if not, the door
is opened to beggars and imposters, and all manner of arrant knaves and
rogues such as are no true Brethren. But the Brother who is possessed
of this world's goods should make it his business to watch the necessity of
all those Brethren with whom he may be personally acquainted, anticipating
their wants in so wise and kindly and delicate a manner that it shall appear
as if it were the payment of a debt. And what help is given shall be
given with discretion, so that the relief may be permanent instead of
temporary.
- All Brethren shall be exceedingly punctual in the payment of Lodge
Dues. This is to take precedence over all other calls upon the purse.
Third House.
- The Brethren shall be diligent in preaching the Law of Thelema.
In all writings they shall be careful to use the prescribed greetings;
likewise in speech, even with strangers.
- They shall respond heartily to every summons of the Lodge or Chapter
to which they may belong, not lightly making excuse.
- Brethren should use every opportunity of assisting each other in their
tastes, businesses, or professions, whether by direct dealing with Brethren
in preference to others, or by speaking well of them, or as may suggest
itself. It seems desirable, when possiuble, what where two or more
Brethren of the same Lodge are engaged in the same work, they should seek
to amalgamate the same by entering into partnership. Thus in time
great and powerful corporations may arise from small individual enterprises.
- They shall be diligent in circulating all tracts, manifestos, and all
other communications which the Order may from time to time give out for
the instruction or emancipation of the profane.
- They may offer suitable books and pictures to the Libraries of the
Profess-Houses of the Order.
Fourth House.
- Every Brother who may possess mines, land, or houses more than he can
himself constantly occupy, should donate part of such mines or land, or
one or more of such houses to the order.
- Property thus given will be administered if he desire it in his own
interest, thus effecting a saving, since large estates are more
economically handled than small. But the Order will use such
property as may happen to lie idle for the moment in such ways as it
may deem good, lending an unlet house (for example) to some Brother who
is in need, or allowing an unused hall to be occupied by a Lodge.
- (Yet in view of the great objects of the Order, endowment is welcome).
- Every Brother shall show himself solicitous of the comfort and
happiness of any Brother who may be old, attending not only to all
material wants, but to his amusement, so tthat his declining years
may be made joyful.
Fifth House.
- Every Brother shall seek constantly to give pleasure to all Brethren
with whom he is acquainted, whether by entertainment or conversation,
or in any other manner that may suggest itself. It will frequently
and naturally arise that love itself springs up between members of the
Order, for that they have so many and so sacred interests in common.
Such love is peculiarly holy, and is to be encouraged.
- All children of Brethren are to be considered as children of the
whole Order, and to be protected and aided in every way be its members
severally, as by its organization collectively. No distinction
is to be made with regard to the conditions surrounding the birth of
any child.
- There is an especially sacred duty, which every Brother should
fulfil, with regard to all children, those born within the Order
included. This duty is to instruct them in the Law of Thelema,
to teach them independence and freedom of thought and character, and
to warn them that servility and cowardice are the most deadly
diseases of the human soul.
Sixth House.
- Personal or domestic attendants should be chosen from among the
members of the Order when possible, and great tact and courtesy are
to be employed in dealing with them.
- They, on their part, will render willing and intelligence service.
- While in Lodge, and on special occasions, they are to be treated
as Brothers, with perfect equality; such behaviour is undesirable
during the hours of service, and familiarity, subversive as it is of
all discipline and order, is to be avoided by adopting a complete
and marked change of manner and address.
- This applies to all persons in subordinate positions, but not to
the Brethren Servient in the Profess-Houses of the Order, who, giving
service without recompense, are to be honoured as hosts.
- In the case of the sickness of any Brother, it is the duty of all
Brethren who know him personally to attend him, to see that he want
for nothing, and to report if necessary his needs to the Lodge, or
to Grand Lodge itself.
- Those Brethren who happen to be doctors or nurses will naturally
give their skill and care with even more than their customary joy in
service.
- All Brethren are bound by their fealty to offer their service in
their particular trade, business, or profession, to the Grand
Lodge. For example, a stationer will supply Grand Lodge with
paper, vellum, and the like; a bookseller offer any books to the
Library of Grand Lodge which the Librarian may desire to possess; a
lawyer will execute any legal business for Grand Lodge, and a railway
or steamship owner or director see to it that the Great Officers travel
in comfort wherever they may wish to go.
- Visitors from other Lodges are to be accorded the treatment of
ambassadors; this will apply most especially to Sovereign Grand
Inspectors General of the Order on their tours of inspection. All
hospitality and courtesy shown to such is shown to Ourselves, not to
them only.
Seventh House.
- It is desirable that the marriage partner of any Brother should
also be a member of the Order. Neglect to insist upon this
leads frequently to serious trouble for both parties, especially the
uninitiate.
- Lawsuits between members of the Order are absolutely forbidden, on
pain of immediate expulsion and loss of all privileges, even of those
accumulated by past good conduct referred to in the second part of the
instruction.
- All disputes between Brethren should be referred firstly to the
Master or Masters of their Lodge or Lodges in confidence; if a
composition be not arrived at in this manner, the dispute is to be
referred to the Grand Tribunal, which will arbitrate thereon, and
its decision is to be accepted as final.
- Refusal to apply for or accept such decision shall entail expulsion
from the Order, and the other party is then at liberty to seek his
redress in the Courts of Profane Justice.
- Members of the Order are to regard those without its pale as
possessing no rights of any kind, since they have not accepted the Law,
and are therefore, as it were, troglodytes, survivals of a past
civilisation, and to be treated accordingly. Kindness should be
shown towards them, as towards any other animal, and every effort
should be made to bring them into Freedom.1
- Any injury done by any person without the Order to any person
within it may be brought before the Grand Tribunal, which will, if
it deem right and fit, use all its power to redress or avenge.
- In the case of any Brother being accused of an offence against
the criminal law of the country in which he resides, so that any
other Brother cognisant of the fact feels bound in self-defence
to bring accusation, he shall report the matter to the Grand Tribunal
as well as to the Civil Authority, claiming exemption on this ground.
- The accused Brother will, however, be defended by the Order to
the utmost of its power on his affirming his innocence upon the Volume
of the Sacred Law in the Ordeal appointed ad hoc by the Grand Tribunal
itself.
- Public enemies of the country of any Brother shall be treated as
such while in the field, and slain or captured as the officer of the
Brother may command. But within the precincts of the Lodge all
such divisions are to be forgotten absolutely; and as children of One
Father the enemies of the hour before and the hour after are to dwell
in peace, amity, and fraternity.
Eigth House.
- Every Brother is expected to bear witness in his last will and
testament to the great benefit that he hath received from the Order
by bestowing upon it part or the whole of his goods, as he may deem
fit.
- The death of a Brother is not be an occasion of melancholy, but
of rejoicing; the Brethren of his Lodge shall gather together and
make a banquet with music and dancing and all manner of
gladness. It is of the greatest importance that this shall be
done, for thereby the inherited fear of death which is deep-seated
as instinct in us will gradually be rooted out. It is a
legacy from the dead æon of Osiris, and it is our duty to kill it
in ourselves that our children and our children’s children may be
born free from the curse.
Ninth House.
- Every Brother is expected to send a great part of his spare
time in the study of the principles of the Law and of the Order,
and in searching out the key to its great and manifold mysteries.
- He should also do all in his power to spread the Law,
especially taking long journeys, when possible, to remote places,
there to sow the seed of the Law.
Tenth House.
- All pregnant women are especially sacred to members of the
Order, and no effort should be spared to bring them to acceptance
of the Law of Freedom, so that the unborn may benefit by that
impression. They should be induced to become members of the
Order, so that the child may be born under its ægis.2
- If the mother that is to be have asserted her will to be so
in contempt and defiance of the Tabus of the slave-gods,3 she is to
be regarded as espcially suitable to our Order, and the Master of
the Lodge in her district shall offer to become, as it were,
godfather to the child, who shall be trained specially, if the
mother so wishes, as a servant of the Order, in one of its
Profess-Houses.
- Special Profess-Houses for the care of women of the Order, or
those whose husbands or lovers are members of the Order, will be
instituted, so that the frontal duty of womankind may be carried
out in all comfort and honour.
- Every Brother is expected to use all his influence with
persons in a superior station of life (so called) to induce
them to join the Order.4 Royal personages,
ministers of State, high officials in the Diplomatic, Naval,
Military, and Civil Services are particularly to be sought
after, for it is intended ultimately that the temporal power
of the State be brought into the Law, and led into freedom and
prosperity by the application of its principles.5
- Colleges of the Order will presently be established where
the children of its members may be trained in all trades,
businesses, and professions, and there they may study the
liberal arts and humane letters, as well as our holy and
arcane science. Brethren are expected to do all in their
power to make possible the establishment of such Universities.
Eleventh House.
- Every Brother is expected to do all in his power to induce
his personal friends to accept the Law and join the Order.6
He should therefore endeavour to make new friends outside the Order
for the purpose of widening its scope.
Twelfth House.
- The Brethren are bound to secrecy only with regard to the
nature of the rituals of our Order, and to our words, signs,
etc. The general principles of the Order may be fully
explained, so far as they are understood below the VI°; as
it is written, "The ordeals I write not: the rituals shall
be half known and half concealed: the Law is for all."nbsp;
It is to be observed that the punctual performance of these
duties, so that the report thereof is noted abroad and the fame
of it cometh even unto the Throne of the Supreme and Holy King
himself, will weigh heavily in the scale when it comes to be a
question of the high advancement of a Brother in the Order.
OF THE PRIVILEGES OF THE BRETHREN
First House
- The first and greatest of all privileges of a Brother is to
be a Brother, to have accepted the Law, to have become free and
independent, to have destroyed all fear; whether of custom, or
of faith, or of other men, or of death itself. In other
papers the joy and glory of those who have accepted the Book of
the Law as the sole rule of life is largely, though never fully,
explained; and we will not here recapitulate the same.
Second House.
- All Brethren who may fall into indigence have a right to the
direct assistance of the Order up to the gfull amount of fees
and subscriptions paid by them up to the time of application.
This will be regarded as a loan, but no interest will be charged upon
it. That this privilege may not be abused, the Grand Tribunal
will decide whether or no such application is made in good faith.
Third House.
- Members of the Order will be permitted to use the Library of
any of our Profess-Houses.
- Circulating Libraries will presently be established.
- Brethren who may be travelling have a right to the hospitality
of the Master of the Lodge of the district for a period of three days.
Fourth House.
- Brethren of all grades may be invited to sojourn in the
Profess-Houses of the Order by Grand Lodge; and such invitation may
confidently be expected as the reward of merit. There they
will be able to make the personal acquaintance of members of the
higher Grades, learn of the deeper workings of the Order, obtain the
benefit of personal instruction, and in all ways fit themselves for
advancement.
- Brethren of advanced years and known merit who desire to follow
the religious life may be asked to reside permenantly in such houses.
- In the higher degrees Brethren have the right to reside in our
Profess-Houses for a portion of every year; as shown:—
VI°. | Two weeks |
VII°. | Two months |
G.T. | One month |
S.G.C. | Three months |
P.R.S. | Six weeks |
VIII°. | Six months |
- Members of the IX°, who share among themselves the whole property
of the Order according to the rules of that degree, may, of course,
reside there permanently. Indeed, the house of every Brother of
this grade is, ipso facto, a Profess-House of the Order.
Fifth House.
- All Brethren may expect the warmest co-operation in their pleasures
and amusements from other members of the Order. The perfect freedom
and security afforded by the Law allows the characters of all Brethren
to expand to the very limits of their nature, and the great joy and
gladness with which they are constantly overflowing make them the best
of companions. "They shall rejoice, our chosen; who sorroweth
is not of us. Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious
languor, force and fire, are of us.
- Children of all Brethren are entitled to the care of the Order, and
arrangements will be made to educate them in certain of the
Profess-Houses of the Order.
- Children of Brethren who are left orphans will be officially adopted
by the Master of his Lodge, or if the latter decline, by the Supreme
Holy King himself, and treated in all ways as if they were his own.
- Brethren who have a right to some especial interest in any child
whose mother is not a member of the Order may recommend it especially
to the care of their lodges or Grand Lodge.
Sixth House.
- In sickness all Brethren have the right to medical or surgical care
and attendance from any Brethren of the Lodge who may be physicians,
surgeons, or nurses.
- In special circumstances the Supreme Holy King will send his own
attendants.
- Where circumstances warrant it, in cases of lives of great value
to the Order and the like, he may even permit the administration of
that secret Medicine which is known to members of the IX .
- Members of the Order may expect Brethren to busy themselves in
finding renumerative occupation for them, where they lack it, or,
if possible, to employ them personally.
Seventh House.
- Members of the Order may expect to find suitable marriage partners
in the extremely select body to which they belong. Community of
interest and hope being already established, it is natural to suppose
that where mutual attraction also exists, a marriage will result in
perfect happiness. (There are special considerations in this
matter which apply to the VII° and cannot be discussed in this
place.)
- As explained above, Brethren are entirely free of most legal
burdens, since lawsuits are not permitted within the Order, and
since they may call upon the legal advisors of the Order to defend
them against their enemies in case of need.
Eighth House.
- All Brethren are entitled after death to the proper disposal of
their remains according to the rites of the Order and their grade in it.
- If the Brother so desire, the entire amount of the fees and
subscriptions which he has paid during his life will be handed over
by the Order to his heirs and legatees. The Order thus affords
an absolute system of insurance in addition to its other benefits.
Ninth House.
- The Order teaches the only perfect and satisfactory system of
philosophy, religion, and science, leading its members step by step
to knowledge and power hardly even dreamed of by the profane.
- Brethren of the Order who take long journeys overseas are
received in places where they sojourn at the Profess-Houses of
the Order for the period of one month.
Tenth House.
- Women of the Order who are about to become mothers receive all
care, attention, and honour from all Brethren.
- Special Profess-Houses will be established for their convenience,
should they wish to take advantage of them.
- The Order offers great social advantages to its members, bringing
them as it does into constant association with men and women of high
rank.
- The Order offers extraordinary opportunities to its members in
their trades, businesses, or professions, aiding them by co-operation,
and securing them clients or customers.
Eleventh House.
- The Order offers friendship to its members, bringing together men
and women of similar character, taste, and aspiration.
Twelfth House.
- The secrecy of the Order provides its members with an inviolable
shroud of concealment.
- The crime of slander, which causes so great a proportion of human
misery, is rendered extremely dangerous, it not impossible, within the
Order by a clause in the Obligation of the Third Degree.
- The Order exercises its whole power to relieve its members of any
constraint to which they may be subjected, attacking with vigour any
person or persons who may endeavour to subject them to compulsion, and
in all other ways aiding in the complete emancipation of the Brethren
from aught that may seek to restrain them from doing That Which They
Will.
It is to be observed that these privileges being so vast, it is
incumbent upon the honour of every Brother not to abuse them, and
the sponsors of any Brother who does so, as well as he himself,
will be held strictly to account by the Grand Tribunal. The
utmost frankness and good faith between Brethren is essential to
the easy and harmonious working of our system, and the Executive
Power will see to it that these are encouraged by all means, and
that breach of them is swiftly and silently suppressed.
Love is the law, love under will.
Our fatherly benediction, and the Blessing of the All-Father in the
Outer and the Inner be upon you.
BAPHOMET X° O.T.O.
IRELAND, IONA, AND
ALL THE BRITAINS
Notes
This tract was published in Equinox III (1) in 1919. According to
Gerald Yorke's bibliography of Crowley, it was previously issued as a pamphlet
by the O.T.O. This document is posted here for historical purposes only;
much of it does not form, and has never formed, O.T.O. policy (it is only
relatively recently that O.T.O. membership in any 'district' has exceeded
1,000). Many of the provisions are of dubious legality in the U.S.A. and
elsewhere. The present U.S. Grand Master has issued a
Memorandum on Liber 101
which clarifies some of these points.
1: This infamous passage does not form current policy,
indeed is something of an embarassment.
2: Current policy does not advocate "inducing"
anyone to join the Order, nor the initiation of pregnant women.
3: A Crowleyism for "is not married."
4: Current policy does not advocate "inducing"
anyone to join the Order.
5: Does not form current policy as far as I know, unless one
credits the ravings of anti-Masonic conspiracy writers.
6: Current policy does not advocate "inducing"
anyone to join the Order.
Text © Ordo Templi Orientis. All rights reserved.
Key entry, notes and HTML coding by Frater T.S. for Nu Isis
working group, Leeds.
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