Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

As I write this, in the third month of winter, I am filled with hope and longing for the Spring and the upcoming Thelemic New Year. I wish many felicitations to those Aquarius and Pisces (like myself) who are celebrating their solar return this month. May your year be filled with blessings of joy.

February is filled to the brim with celebrations. Xīnnián kuàilè (Happy Chinese New Year on the 12th), Happy Valentine’s Day (14th), Happy Presidents’ Day (15th), and Bon Mardi Gras (16th)! This is also the month where we honor Black history, which is often marginalized if not outright left out of our cultural education and institutions. OTO doctrine is grounded on the principles of each of us being stars, independent and free from tyranny, superstition, and oppression. One cannot simply promote one’s own freedom without regard to the external world. We believe that a membership free from unfair discrimination is essential to accomplishing our Mission, and reject doctrines that promote bigotry, prejudice, and intolerance. This then is our deepest work, and it cannot be made possible without the most daring and courageous of individuals. Thelema itself, draws upon magical and mystical systems across the globe, representing deeply rich cultural histories.

In honor of Black History month, I would like to briefly highlight Paschal Beverly Randolph (October 8, 1825 – July 29, 1875) was born a free man of mixed-race ancestry. He was a spokesman for the abolition of slavery, and he trained as a doctor of medicine. However, he was also a spiritualist, and an advocate of the use of hashish to create trances; and after initiation by Eliphas Levi founded the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis, the oldest Rosicrucian organization in the United States, which today avoids mention of Randolph’s assiduous interest in sex-magic. Read more….

Scarlet Woman Lodge has also been grieving the loss of one of our brothers to cancer. His tireless and fearless work in our community is unrivaled and he is grievously missed. I have been blessed to know such amazing people in our community and I hope you will join me in celebrating life. That our paths cross through the Law of Liberty, brings me joy. I share the words of Nuit from A Greater Feast for Death for our brother who as followed his Will into Realms beyond our Knowledge.

“ …Again She saith: “I give unimaginable joys upon earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death. This thou hast known. Time that eateth his children hath not power on them that would not be children of Time. To them that [know] themselves immortal, that dwell alway in eternity, conscious of Nuit, throned upon the chariot of the sun, there is no death that men call death. In all the universe darkness is only to be found in the shadow of a gross and opaque planet, as it were for a moment; the universe itself is a flood of light eternal. So also death is but through accident; thou hast hidden thyself in the shadow of thy gross body, and taking it for reality, thou hast trembled. But the orb revolveth anon; the shadow passeth away from thee. There is the dissolution, and the eternal ecstasy in the kisses of Nu! For inasmuch as thou hast made the Law of Freedom thine, as thou hast lived in Light and Liberty and Love, thou hast become a Free-man of the City of the Stars.”

Love is the law, love under will.

Soror Musick
Master
Scarlet Woman Lodge