LAShTAL A Journal of Thelemic Magick in Theory and Practice Official Organ of Eulis Lodge,

                            LAShTAL
      A Journal of Thelemic Magick in Theory and Practice

               Official Organ of Eulis Lodge, OTO

      VOLUME FOUR, NUMBER ONE - SUMMER, 1992 e.v. IV e.n.

            Contents copyright (c) 1992 by the OTO.
                      All rights reserved.

              MAGICK IN THEORY, MAGICK IN PRACTICE
        Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

    Especially if you are not particularly familiar with
    ceremonial magick, the OTO, Eulis Lodge or our
    publication, please read this section before plunging
    into the depths (some might say ÒabyssÓ) of LAShTAL.
    Come to think of it, even if you ARE familiar with all
    this, you may profit from a few words of explanation.

    Eulis Lodge carries out the work of Aleister CrowleyÕs
    Ordo Templi Orientis, or OTO in Òthe Valley of Atlanta,
    GeorgiaÓ as it has done for the last ten years. While
    experimental newsletters (ÒThe Star and the GarterÓ) and
    published schedules existed prior to 1988 e.v., our
    efforts to develop a major journal began in that year
    with the publication of Volume One, Number One of
    LAShTAL.

    Since that time, the journal has appeared only
    haphazardly, this being the sixth issue. To date, the
    results have been uneven. Topics covered have included
    CrowleyÕs ÒGnostic MassÓ - the central celebratory
    ritual of the OTO, sexual magick, original rituals, rare
    materials by Aleister Crowley, very controversial short
    stories, a running interview with Erisian Kerry
    Thornley, reincarnation, ufos, etc.

    The OTO itself is a fraternal, initiatory Òserious and
    secret body of initiates,Ó with an unbroken line of
    Grand Masters going back some one hundred years. The OTO
    is best understandable in theory by study of its basic
    documents, readily available in THE EQUINOX, Volume III,
    Number 10 (Weiser Books, 1990 paperback edition). In
    practice, Eulis Lodge and many other OTO groups in over
    30 countries around the world organized into over 100
    bodies, offer frequent performances of the Gnostic Mass
    and other educational and ritual events. We also offer
    initiation into the OTO.

    Our journal aims to both inform interested lay readers
    as to what we are all about, and to communicate with our
    fellow Thelemites (Thelema = Will) as well. In these
    respects we have thus far met with only limited success,
    and this issue represents yet another change in format.
    Your response will tell us if we are on the right track.
    Please be assured that mail directed to LAShTAL and its
    staff will be given serious attention.

    In this issue, magick in practice is represented by the
    rare material by Aleister Crowley and `updatedÕ with the
    report on Eulis LodgeÕs recent and lengthy experiment
    with Enochian Magick. Who we are as an organization and
    a lodge is covered by the transcriptions of talks on
    ÒAleister CrowleyÕs OTO In Legend and RealityÓ and ÒThe
    Devil and Aleister CrowleyÓ in this issue. Magick in
    theory is covered from its historical roots in ÒNotes On
    P.B. Randolph and the Hermetic Brotherhood of LightÓ
    published here for the first time.

    While the OTO lays claim to the knowledge and wisdom of
    the great orders of antiquity, it took on its present
    form in the 1890s when the first OTO Grand Master, Karl
    Kellner(1850-1905), a freemason and initiate of the
    sexual magick of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light (H.B.
    of L.), integrated his knowledge with that of Karl
    Albert Theodor Reuss (1855-1923), who succeeded Kellner
    as Grand Master and who was a leader and heir of the
    Antient and Primitive Rite of Freemasonry.

    Our article on Dr. P. B. Randolph and the Hermetic
    Brotherhood of Light is somewhat speculative, but it
    traces the roots of the ÒphilosophicalÓ aspect of OTO
    theory through Randolph (1825-1875) and his American
    Brotherhood of Eulis, and its European and Egyptian
    parallel, the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light. Dr. Peter
    Davidson, the head of the H.B. of L. in Scotland,
    migrated to North Georgia in 1890 and continued the H.B.
    of L. work until his death in 1915. The OTO today is
    also known as the ÒFraternitas Lucis HermeticaeÓ or
    ÒHermetic Brotherhood of Light,Ó and our Lodge in
    Atlanta is named for the enigmatic RandolphÕs 1873 book,
    EULIS, which broke ground in that it opened the door of
    the sexual aspect of Magick to the Western World.

    Your comments on our efforts are cordially invited.

               Love is the law, love under will.

ÑT Allen H. Greenfield, Lodge Master