We-who-must-not-be-named

Back when in my OTO days, and even before that in the Golden Dawn, when at out-of-town member visited, we would offer them hospitality. We'd let them sleep on out couch, feed them and socialized with them during their visit. In the OTO, in particular, we have 'unofficial' events after the scedualled one that were usually some sort of afterparty.
The Hospitally I recieved and exended in the American OTO was the reason it was such a shock to be treated so coldly by the Croatian OTO when I arrived here.

So I just got back from Prague, where I attended a seminar taught by T allen greenfield. As this event approached, I was given the impression that the organizer was an extremely paranoid individual. I'd hoped once we met he'd calm down. But as the event approached, I was having difficulty getting answers to most basic of questions that I need to make araingments for. As a result, I arrived without even a hotel to stay in. The weekend before, I wondered if I would need to walk the street of Prague with a sign saying: "I am looking for the secret meeting with Allen Green field" And once I got to the location of the event. I was in a quandry because I was trying not to reveal what I was looking for to the wrong person, and they were being extremely paranoid and hostile towards me, not telling me if I had found the event I was looking for. I finally got in. But after the lecture, there didn't seem to be any after party, though there was some sort of private event that Allen was going to and I wasn't welcome at. So I was lost on the outskirts of a foreign city. I could tell Michel wanted to abandon me there. But, to his credit, he at least drove me to a hotel before dumping me. (a hotel that cost 3 times what it would have if I had but told what was going on a week before)

So I was left alone in the foreign city with nothing relevent to do until 3 PM the next day. (when the lecture official began)
The next day I tried to engage the attendees in conversation, but they were short with answers and didn't seem to want to try to talk with me. During the actual lecture, Allen was polite with me. But Michel had told me the reason he was acting so strange, because 'Allen is mad' at me. Michel helped arrange a meeting between us after the event. (actually he had been pushing for this meeting from the begining, but since I didn't know Allen was mad at me, I didn't know why) As it turns out Allen was mad because I informed him of my conflict with Tau Sunce, and Michel was mad because I didn't inform him.

Now based on how Tau Sunce liked to spend hours talking about the evils of the OTO, I expect that he probably spends hours talking about how evil I am too. So I expected he might spend time telling people in Prague how evil he thinks I am. I was courious as to whether the the attendees would keep an open mind about me, to take the word of someone they'd never met about someone they'd also never met before. But what I didn't expect was that T Allen Greenfield had stacked the deck against me. When Allen had found out I was coming, he told michel his version of the conflict between Tau Sunce and myself. (At one point in his life, Allen did everything that Sunce accuses me of. This colours his perception of the conflict)

For decades Starhawk, Zell, Dolfyn, and myself have been trying to release people from the prison of the story where the "Great Man" reveals the trust to a chosen people, an elite, a cadre, an inner circle. It's no mistake that "Great Men" are never women. So I supose I can not blame a group of people who believe in the "Great Man" so strongly they imported one, for blindly following their "Great Man"'s story about me.

Still, Allen and Michel arranged things so that I would not be allowed to meet anyone who was not Czech. All of the other foreigners were gone before I arrived.

So on the whole, The Prague illuminists did extend as good hospitality as I recieved and extended in the amercian OTO, but as bad as they were, they were still better than the Croatian OTO.

Tonight, we once again celebrated Gnostic Mass. But not 'Crowley's' Gnostic Mass. Not being part of the Caliphate, removes their controls upon us. So we're freer to use our creativity to inovate. We're able to change things if we want, and we do.

What's with the name change?

In the bad old days, there was a law that required that Native American Indians go to boarding school for 8 years (1), but they weren't allowed to be taught anything past 2nd grade. So they had 1st grade, then 2nd grade, then they repeated 2nd grade again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again. (2) In many ways, my own experience as an occultist has mirrored this. I feel like I am perpetually repeating second grade. Gardnerian Wicca seemed like a good starting place towards getting to something else. But that 'something else' never happened. Beyond the initial coolness, there was nothing, the real Magic never happened. Starhawk's answer was that the next step was political action. But that never appealed to me. So I kept looking . . . .

. . . . exploring other magical systems . . . including ceremonial magic. But I still felt like I was repeating the same things over again. Ceremonial magic was just a more complex way of doing the same old stuff. I kept wondering when I would be able to escape the children and sit at the 'grown-up' table. But everywhere I go in occult circles, I see the same childish games . . . . and sometimes find myself being tricked into playing them. It's just like when I was a child: We start a club, come up with a fancy name for it and it would not be long before a fight over something stupid would cause someone to be 'kicked-out-of-the-club'. Or members of the club would flaunt their membership to the non-members. (3)(4)

Back when a few influential members of the Pagan Community joined the Golden Dawn, someone pointed out that it was devisive to our communty. The GD people were doing their widely published, but 'secret' rituals. Memorizing jargon so they could talk about the same old things in a language that no one else understood. I now realize she was right about the GD, but at the time, I was sensive about being younger than everyone else so I joined the GD so I could be in 'the club'. Later in life, the same thing repeated with the OTO, only worse. With people who had higher degrees 'putting on airs' to those who were lower, even though, like the Golden Dawn, the OTO 'secrets' are all published.

Still, this is not to say I didn't enjoy or suffer from the many initiatory mystery plays I participated in. Some of the the Initiations I have been though in various systems have been life-altering ectatic experiences. Others have been painful, or just lame.

Several months ago, Theba Temple underwent a scism. This was due to upheaval in the personal lives of myself and Theba Temple's founding Templar, Tau Sunce. For me It was completely unexpected. On February 13th, the future of Theba Temple seemed bright. Two days later we had a scism. It took me a long time to realize that both Tau Sunce and I were being manipulated by someone who would do anything to destroy our work. I still regard Tau Sunce as a Friend and honestly don't understand why he is mad at me. I hope, someday we can heal this rift between us.

Still, when the big change first happened, it seemed wrong to continue to use the Theba name for our group. The name: Theba, is associated with an e-mail address that Tau Sunce had used since before his break from the OTO. I offered to return the Templarship of Theba Temple to Tau Sunce, but he declined. I decided to wait and see if he would change his mind, but had not heard from him since.

At this point, I found myself being tricked into playing childish games. In the span of less than a month, twice, no one showed up for the event at my place because the OTO was having Gnostic Mass. The first time, not one person told me they weren't coming. (6) The second time was the founding ritual of our new group and the only person who told me he wasn't coming was the person who priested both Gnostic Masses. We invited a few of them to a few more events. But finally decided to stop inviting people who's primary loyalty was to some other group. There's no need to compete with other groups for members. Better to be different, so that there is a reason for another group's existance. In the meantime, another group formed of former Theba Temple members. And so we have a scism.

It would be great if the various groups could unite and share resources. (It's obsurd that in a town this small, there need to be three seperate sets of Gnostic Mass props!) But for various reasons, I'm sceptical that this could ever happen. (even after two years, the OTO camp continues to snub me. There can be no co-opperation if we don't comunicate.)

I don't want to play with the children anymore. . . . I want to sit at the grown up table.

And So, I, Tau Samlah, Templar of Theba do publically announce our new name and direction as We-who-must-not-be-named Temple. (5) We occationally perform rituals in a variety of styles including Gnostic Mass and neo-Pagan style ritual. We also offer initiation through original, unpublished, Mystery Rites.


(1) Where they were beaten if they spoke their native language.
(2) I can imagine the discipline problems. The 'bad' kids were chained to posts in the basement, where they could speak their native language to each other and keep their culture alive.
(3) Dolfyn once told me that we weren't able to be teenagers when we were young so we play those games after we became Pagans.
(4) http://paulgraham.com/nerds.html
(5) I think having a fancy name for the group is stupid, hence the name.
(6) Perhaps this has all just been a cultural misunderstanding. When a church has a permenant location and paid clergy, there's no need to R.S.V.P. But it seems to me that when someone spends all day prepping to hold a ritual in their own home, it is only polite to say whether or not you want to attend.

We are an old People
We are a new People
We are the same People
Stronger than before!

On this date in History, Theba Temple established a new Identity. With the founding ritual of our new group.

Tonight marked the return of She-who-must-not-be-tagged to the altar at Priestess of a very special Gnostic Mass. Once again, she displayed her usual high level of Priestessly skill as Tau Sunce Priested with her and frater Aludel deaconed flawlessly. At the midpoint of the Gnostic Mass, in place of the collects, Tau Samlah, (who was originally consecrated by Tau Sunce) re-Consecrated Tau Sunce, thus sharing with him the lineage Tau Samlah received at his recent re-Consecration in by Sir Tau Allen Greenfield.

Everyone expressed how much they enjoyed this Gnostic Mass afterwards.

Frater Aludel annouced afterwards that he wants to be deaconised next week at a Mass of Shiva.

And Tau Samlah annouced that the first ten chauds points will be confered to those who want them at the next Gnostic Mass.

I was not present tonight at our Gnostic Mass. But people reported that it was a success. Several people noticed that Priestess V is back on the altar. (She's Priestessed the last few Masses since December)

"On 4 February 2010 there was a gathering of Free Illuminists at Kwan Yin
House in Atlanta, Georgia US. The guest of honor was Tau Samlah who was
visiting from Croatia. This event once again reminded me of the great
appreciation I have for the principle of free communion. There were multiple
nodes represented. Members were present from Theba Temple, Assembly of the
Knowledge and Wisdom of Solomon, Constellation of Abraxas, 32z11 Lodge Vault
Network, Ormus Lodge and the Coptic Gnostic Church. We also received support
from various other nodes and individuals who sent warm greetings and well
wishes. I want to personally thank everyone who expressed their solidarity
for this gathering.

The evening began in the upstairs of Kwan Yin House with a delectable feast
prepared by the gracious Tau Ishaviva. T Allen passed around for our
consideration a Cross Consecration Rite which he had previously prepared
(see attached). We collectively decided to use this Rite for the
consecrations.

Following the feast, T Allen ordained Raven to the Gnostic and Apostolic
Diaconate. We then proceeded to the cross consecrations. As per the ritual,
we gathered in a circle, Deacon Raven lit a red candle, held the oil and
presented the text for each consecrator. I recall the order being as
follows:

Consecrations sub conditione

T Allen to Tau Samlah,
Tau Samlah to Tau Lamed,
Tau Lamed to Tau Roger,
Tau Roger to Tau Ishaviva,
Tau Ishaviva to +Dositheos
+Dositheos to Tau Aron
Tau Aron to T Allen.

Through this we have essentially united the lines of succession held by many
of our US bishops in free communion with our "Eastern European" bishops in
free communion. [NOTE: I realize "Eastern European" is probably an
Americanized term. I intend no offense by my use of it and am happy to be
corrected by folks that live in this region on what the proper term for it
might be]. As far as I know, the cross consecrations have further
established and extended the egregore between the US, Croatia, Serbia,
Poland and Russia. Again, if my facts are wrong, feel free to correct me!

A change of scenery - downstairs in the home base of Ormus Lodge - we
proceeded to facilitate all 97 points chauds empowerments (plus some of the
lesser known points) for Tau Samlah. The empowerments were done by T Allen,
myself, Tau Lamed and Tau Ishaviva.

We were then joined by Laremy and three (or four?) fellow members of 32z11
Lodge Vault Network (I apologize, but can't recall everyone's names. Laremy,
feel free to announce your Lodge brothers names). The dialog was extremely
engaging. I was grateful for the fellowship we shared together.

Anyone can feel free to add to or amend this account. I'm simply trying to
get something down for the record. :)

Agape,
+Dositheos"

yet another Mass of Baphomet, this time, performed by the most skilled Priestesses I've ever seen! She-who-must-not-be-tagged performed the invokations while Priestess V acteded as manifestor. As usual, when either of these two is involved in a ritual, it was cool! And both of them together was amazing¨!

Tonight we had another Mass of Baphomet. This one was very long. Still, it was enjoyable. And all reported it as a positive experience.

Tonight it was my priviledge to Priest Gnostic Mass with a very gifted Priestess and frater Aludel. The ritual, left all of us giddy with happiness . . . as I intended. In fact, she ad I were a bit overwhelmed by how powerful the experience was.
this Gnostic Mass also marked the return of frater Saša, who had been absent of late. He brought a friend who was meeting us for the first time. Everyone enjoyed the experience!