Aiwass Temple No. 8 of the Temple of Thelema presents:
THE THELEMIC MASS
6pm — Sunday, March 7th, 2010
RSVP to:
for location details
Suggested donation: $10.00
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Greetings and welcome!
Within the College of Thelema exists an initiatory and ecclesiastical order called Temple of Thelema. In service to the Thelemic community, and under the auspices of Aiwass Temple No. 8 in NYC, Temple of Thelema is pleased to announce the public celebration of its Mass.
A bit of history...
The Thelemic Mass is a distinctive ritual of Temple of Thelema based on A.'.A.'. Liber XV: Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica Canon Missae (written by Aleister Crowley in 1913). Crowley sought to create a Mass specifically based on The Book of the Law and conveying its truths in a vehicle of popular religion. He succeeded beautifully. The result was Liber XV.
Unfortunately, he also wrote it to include distinctive symbols, and even confidential signs and tokens, of one organization of which he then was a senior officer (O.T.O.). Besides compromising that fraternity’s privacy, it also made the Mass overly narrow IF THE GOAL WAS TO REACH THE MOST DIVERSE COMMUNITY.
Temple of Thelema, many years ago, undertook a modest rewrite. About 93% of our Mass is Crowley’s sublime original. The other 7% is our distinctive contribution. The rewrite was intended to accomplish the following purposes:
- To preserve the essence of the ritual as first written.
- To remove details distinctive, and often confidential, to O.T.O., in respect of their entitlement to their own Mysteries.
- To fortify it with stylistic elements distinctive to, but not private to, our own rites.
- To further equilibrate the balance between gender energies in the Mass: Social standards on this issue, thankfully, have shifted in the 90 years since Liber XV was crafted. If there is any ritual where the feminine needs to be on an equal standing with the masculine, it’s this one!
- By subtle tweaking, to enhance the magical and dramatic power of the ceremony, working on the solid basis already present.
The resulting ceremony, reissued under the more accurate and expressive name of The Thelemic Mass, is for all.
Temple of Thelema has sponsored or supported the celebration of the Mass from the beginning, especially in Southern California venues; but this has not occurred in recent years. In the near future, regular public celebration will begin in New York. Though the primary script is a training document confidential to Temple of Thelema, a version suitable for public circulation will be included in the forthcoming new edition of 776 1/2 by James A. Eshelman (estimated release: early March).
You are cordially invited to join us and participate in the Mysteries of the Mass.
Space is limited. Please RSVP early to reserve a seat.
Love is the law, love under will.