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

I certainly know many of you personally, but there are also certainly others I’ve never met.

I first discovered Aleister Crowley in a chapter heading in Robert Anton Wilson’s Illuminatus! Trilogy. It was a quote from the Book of Lies, a book I immediately acquired and fell in love with. After moving on to the Vision and the Voice and then the Book of the Law, I quickly became a Thelemite as I then understood that term at the young age of 15. Over the next 7 years or so I read everything Crowley I could find and also began experimenting with the practices of the A.’.A.’. which I found in Gems of the Equinox.

I discovered the O.T.O. quite by accident in 1991 through a friend who met Brother Jim Garvey at a club. By 1992 I had taken my Minerval and then First Degree, and soon became a Probationer of the A.’.A.’. as well. I first encountered what would become Scarlet Woman Lodge on a visit to Austin when the budding camp had not yet even been chartered by Grand Lodge. I moved to Austin in 2001 and soon became quite active in the now-Lodge.

I’ve been an ordained Priest in the Gnostic Catholic Church since 1998 and have performed the Mass probably around 60 times in the last 5 or 6 years. I continue to try to promulgate the Law of Thelema as I can, though lectures, both my own and the organization of those by other notable Thelemites.

The past 4 or more years has been a constant battle with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, which, although now apparently cured, the radiation which cured it left me partially paralyzed from the waist down (partial paraplegia). Nevertheless, I continue to care for my two teenage sons, give my time and efforts to the Lodge as I can, and am working on a book on Thelema which I hope to soon publish (proofreading is tough!).
I hope to see some of you either at an online class or when the physical Lodge finally reopens…whenever that will be.

Love is the law, love under will.

Fraternally,
J.P.