EMAIL WITHOUT TEARS

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Volume 2                      Issue 2                        9302.02 e.v.
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Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
The word of Sin is Restriction.

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Moderator's Note:

We received three contributions this month:

Two from Havoc23 (Frater Perdurabo's 'The Vigil of St. Hubert'
and the mysterious _Liber MCLI_), and one from me
(Selections from the writings of Thomas Merton).

We are growing steadily in readership and are adjusting our focus
slightly to accomodate a broadened distribution (posting to the Usenet
group, 'alt.magick').  Please take note of the administrativia at the
end of this issue for details.  Enjoy!

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From: HAVOC23


The Vigil of St. Hubert (50)

In the forest God met the Stag-beetle. "Hold! Wor-
  ship me!" quoth God.  "For I am All-Great, All-
  Good, All Wise...The stars are but sparks from
 the forges of My smiths...."
"Yea, verily and Amen," said the Stag-beetle, "all
  this do I believe, and that devoutly."
"Then why do you not worship Me?"
"Because I am real and you are only imaginary."
But the leaves of the forest rustled with the laughter
  of the wind.
Said Wind and Wood: "They neither of them know
  anything!"

                                - Frater Perdurabo


[From _The Book of Lies_, Chapter 50.  HAVOC23 considers this appropriate 
for the new Administration in the U.S. ;>]

---------------

[The following document was downloaded from 'Sacred Grove' BBS.
Not only is the author unreferenced, but its content is slightly
inaccurate.  To my knowledge and to the knowledge of my kin in the
Order, _Liber MCLI_ is a GUIDELINE, not a requirement.  Many of us
do agree, however, that it serves as a very valuable guide for study.

If you have any information regarding who created the original or
revised version of this document, please contact the moderator and
appropriate credit will gladly be attributed. Thank you.]


_Liber MCLI_ ('Micklee')

These being the requirements of Minerval to Third Degree in study
and work in O.T.O. in the Order as it has manifested under the Caliph.

Prepared An LXXV of the New Aeon
Updated An LXXXVII of the New Aeon


MINERVAL STUDY PROGRAM

These are the practices and studies that the Order requires for the
Minerval period.  A formal examination is required in these matters
(a perfect score is not necessary) before advancement to the First Degree.

1) Study THE BOOK OF THE LAW.  Memorization of the first Chapter is
suggested.  This may be done a verse a day, with review at intervals, or
whatever way is your will.

2) Keep a daily Journal or Magickal Diary.

3) Practice LIBER RESH daily.

4) Become proficient in the Lesser Pentagram Banishing Ritual.  Twice
daily use is wise.

5) Do "Will" at the beginning of the main meal of the day.

6) Study MAGICK IN THEORY IN PRACTICE.  Special attention to be paid to
the following Study Guide:

7) Stay in touch!  OTO JAF Box 7666, New York, NY 10116-4632 USA.
(SASE for quickest response and decreased office expenses.)


WILL:

Knock: 333-55555-333 (Total 11 knocks)

"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law!"
Response: What is thy will?
It is my will to eat and drink!
Response: To what end?
That my body may be fortified thereby!
Response: To what end?
That I may accomplish the Great Work!
"Love is the law, love under will!"

Knock: 1 "Fall to!"

May be done at all meals.  Should be done at the principal meal.

Note:  Always say with enthusiasm!  Inflame yourself with prayer!


FIRST DEGREE STUDY PROGRAM

These are the practices that the Order requires for the
First Degree.  An examination is required in thee practices. ( a perfect
score is not necessary) before advancement to the Second Degree.

1) Continue and elaborate the practices and studies of the Minerval Program.
All are important.

2) Select and become proficient in at least one of the following: LIBER XXV,
LIBER XLVI, LIBER V or LIBER DCCC (Liber Samekh).

3) Begin or continue a particular study in one of the following: Qabalah,
Divination, Yoga, Astral Workings, or a like discipline.

4) Perform some work that will endure beyond your own physical lifetime:
write and be published, speak in public, produce a work of art, have and
nurture a child or perform some similar work that will pass beyond your own
mind, and beyond the minds of your immediate associates.

5) Perform some work for the benefit of your Brothers and Sisters in the
Order: Provide time and work in organization, correspond with isolated
initiates, share your insights, volunteer for specific needed tasks within
your abilities or perform some other service needed by the Order.

6) Join with fellow initiates in a Chapter, Lodge, or other group of the
Order.

7) Analyze your magical diary from some definite point of view; e.g.
endeavor to determine the point at which virtue becomes vice, as: sympathy
degenerating into pity, advice into meddling, temperance into apathy,
excellence into illusion, gentleness into shallowness and like matters.
Perhaps assign elements to your traits to determine imbalances.  Also try to
determine what about yourself/life you can't laugh at.  Record your findings
in your diary with both theoretical views and actual examples from your
daily life.


SECOND DEGREE STUDY PROGRAM

These are the practices that the Order requires for the Second Degree.
An examination is required in these practices (a perfect score is not
necessary) before advancement to the Third Degree.


1) Continue with Minerval and First Degree programs.  All are important.

2) Learn and become proficient in the following:
A> Liber Reguli
B> Perform in at least one group ritual.
C> Create and perform an original ritual.
D> Maintain a diary record of ritual workings.

3) Memorize the following columns from Liber 777: I, II, III, VII, XIV, XV,
XVI, LIV, LV, CLXXIX, and at least two others of your choice.

4) Learn and become familiar with some part of the tradition or history of
the O.T.O., and the signs, grips and words of the Minerval through Second
Degrees.  Fulfill your Second Degree obligation regarding Liber Oz.

5) Begin a general study of all of these fields, specializing in one in
greater depth:
A> Alchemy
B> Astrology
C> Qabalah
D> Tarot
E> Yoga
F> Another field of study approved by your Initiator  (See recommended
reading list.)

6) Take responsibility for some task that directly benefits our Order.
With the Third Degree the candidate should possess an ability to function
as part of the Order in Official capacities.

7) Meditate on your Heart Chakra.


THIRD DEGREE STUDY PROGRAM

Prepare your own program, after you have received the Third
Degree.  The program must have seven points, and must include the previous
programs in point one and must end with point 7: Meditate on the chakras.
Model your plan on the earlier curricula and submit it to your initiator and
the Grand Lodge of O.T.O.  After your program has been approved, proceed.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

From: Frater Nigris


Selections from the writings of Thomas Merton

"A monk is a man who has been called by the Holy Spirit to relinquish
the cares, desires and ambitions of other men, and devote his entire
life to seeking God.  The concept is familiar.  The reality which the
concept signifies is a mystery.  For in actual fact, no one on earth knows
precisely what it means to 'seek God' until he himself has set out to
find Him.  No man can tell another what this search means unless that
other is enlightened, at the same time, by the Spirit speaking within
his own heart.  In the end, no one can seek God unless he has already
begun to find Him.  No one can find God without having first been found
by Him.  A monk is a man who seeks God because he has been found by God."

From _The Silent Life_, by Thomas Merton,
Publ. by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1988; page vii.


"...asceticism... [of monasticism] is simply the recovery of our true self, 
man's true 'nature,' created for union with God.  It is the purification, 
and liberation of the divine image in man, hidden under layers of 
'unlikeness.'  Our true self is the person we are meant to be - the man 
who is free and upright, in the image and likeness of God.  The work of 
recovery of this lost likeness is effected by stripping away all that 
is alien and foreign to our true selves - shedding the 'double garment' 
of hypocrisy and illusion by which we try to conceal the truth of our 
misery from ourselves, our brethren and from God."  

Ibid, p. 22.

        
"Variations in monastic discipline depend largely on how far each 
different rule seeks to accommodate itself to the limitations of the 
human subject.  The best monastic rules are not necessarily the most 
austere, for strictness is not the only norm of value in the monastery.  
Those rules are best which are best adapted to their end - helping men 
of flesh and blood effectively lead lives of prayer.  If the rule is too 
austere, the monk may become a machine doing penance, but he will 
cease to be a man of prayer.  More often than not the rule will break 
him instead of making him into what he ought to be.  If the rule is not 
austere enough, the monk will let himself get too soft for prayer and 
spiritual discipline, and will become, in fact, a comfortable (though 
perhaps anxious) citizen - another inert member of the middle class.

"The most austere rules, and those which seek to reproduce as closely 
as possible the original purity of the monastic life, place more emphasis 
on solitude, penance, silence, manual labor, contemplative prayer. 
The less austere rules while retaining a definite realization that the 
monk is a man of the desert, nevertheless turn in some degree toward the 
world, in order to provide a monastic life for the majority of vocations 
who would find the pure ideal unbearable.  In these rules, greater emphasis 
is placed upon vocal and liturgical prayer, on works of mercy, community 
life, intellectual work, teaching and even the apostolic ministry.

"These two tendencies, te one solitary and the other social, always 
unite together in every form of organized monasticism.  Each monastery 
maintains, in some degree or other, a blend of the solitary life and the 
common life."  

Ibid, pgs. 54-5.


"...there is in reality no contradiction between [an] emphasis on silent, 
interior and solitary union with God, and the contemplation which is 
inspired by liturgy.  In the end, both are the same.  One is the fruit of 
the other.  Through the psalms, through the Mass, the monk enters into 
an inner realization of the Mystery of Christ, and comes to communion 
with the Father, in the Son, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and 
this is the contemplation which is the main purpose of the monastic life."

Ibid, pgs. 84-5.


"...In the last analysis the strength of the hermit is not to be sought 
in any rule or any obedience or any guidance imposed on him from the 
outside.  He has to be one of those rare men who is strong with an inner 
spiritual consistency that is all his own and which enables him to 
function in solitude, without the stimulus of example or the fear of 
criticism.  It is not simple for a man to live constantly on a high 
level of integrity when he is seen by no one except God.  It requires 
both great faith and an unusual strength of character."  

Ibid, pgs. 157-8.

*************************************************************

Moderator's Note:

Our focus has changed slightly, given that we will now be distributing this
publication to Usenet's 'alt.magick'.  It now reads as follows:

"FOCUS

"The focus of this digest is dictated by the consensual interests of
the OTO members who contribute and subscribe to it.  This may include
'Magick' and 'Thelema', but does not necessarily relate to either subject.

"Email Without Tears is a contributory serial and does not include
personally-addressed, continuing dialogues, though the variation in 
contributed items may reflect a dialectic of sorts."


Please contact me if this does not suit your purposes.  Thank you.

===========================================================

The deadline for submissions for Vol. 2, #3, March 1 edition, is

FEBRUARY 20, 1993.

Send to the email address below.

This publication is archived on Alamut, Slopoke, Netcom.com and
echoed to 93-net.

Invoke me under my stars.   Love is the law, love under will.

I am I!

Frater (I) Nigris (666) 333
Thyagi@HouseOfkAoS.Abyss.com
Portal!Cup.Portal.Com!Thyagi@Uunet.uu.net
Uunet!Cup.Portal.Com!Thyagi@Uunet.uu.net

Thyagi NagaSiva
871 Ironwood Drive
San Jose, CA 95125





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