Some members of the Thelemic and occult community are fast becoming aware of a small privately issued book called Priest/ess, written by my dear friend Michael Effertz, which advocates that the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica  or “EGC” –  the religious branch of the OTO, allow public “queer” performances of the Gnostic Mass.   

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“I was often reduced to such expedients when wandering in strange lands, camping on glaciers, and so on.  I fixed it workably well.  In Mexico, D.F. for instance, I took my bedroom itself for the Circle, my night-table for the Altar, my candle for the Lamp; and I made the Weapons compact.  I had a Wand eight inches long, all precious stones and enamel, to represent the Tree of Life; within, an iron tube containing quicksilver—very correct, lordly, and damsilly.  What a club!  Also, bought, a silver-gilt Cup; for Air and Earth I made one sachet of rose-petals in yellow silk, and another in green silk packed with salt.  In the wilds it was easy, agreeable and most efficacious to make a Circle, and build an altar, of stones; my Alpine Lantern served admirably for the Lamp.  It did double duty when required: e.g. in partaking of the Sacrament of the Four Elements, it served for Fire.  But your conditions are not so restricted as this.”
–  http://hermetic.com/crowley/magick-without-tears/mwt_23.html

“Now, as many are fully occupied with their affairs, let it be known that this method is adaptable to the necessities of all. And We bear witness that this which followeth is the Crux and Quintessence of the whole Method.  First, if he have no Image, let him take anything soever, and consecrate it as an Image of his God. Likewise with his robes and instruments, his suffumigations and libations: for his Robe hath he not a nightdress; for his instrument a walking stick; for his suffumigation a burning match; for his libation a glass of water? But let him consecrate each thing that he useth to the service of that particular Deity, and not profane the same to any other use.”
–  http://www.sacred-texts.com/oto/lib175.htm

There is a moment in every evocation where I find myself  intensely present.   Rather than entering into a fogged and hypnotized state, as the ignorant imagine must occur, I attain a sudden electric clarity.  It is as if my normal waking life is the one wrapped in mist and fog.  Here, in a circle marked out with pin-points of light, and wreathed in fumes of incense, my senses clear like a cloudless sky.

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Why practice magick today?  Isn’t this method of coming to know, and interact with the world, outdated?  Isn’t it really just applied psychology?  Can’t we accomplish the same things that magick promises through less transgressive, weird, and socially awkward methods?

 Every intentional act is a Magical Act.

– A. Crowley, Magick without Tears (MWT), Chapter 1

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