Thelemic Culture Update: April 2013

Thelemic Culture Update is a monthly feature that brings together links to various announcements, writings, and events from around the web.

Speech in the Silence: Program #41 of Speech in the Silence includes a reading of Liber Ararita by Frater Peredur with music by Ascension Conspiracy, an “End Magician Self-Cruelty PSA” by Frater IAO131 and Soror Fieri Facias, Dr. David Shoemaker’s Living Thelema segment on “Creating Effective Magical Invocations,” and various musical pieces by One Three One. [Speech in the Silence]

2C-Thelema: 2nd Century Thelema posts new interviews with:
- Joseph Thiebes [2C Thelema]
- Keith Taylor [2C Thelema]
- Frater Lamogue [2C Thelema]
- Soror Freyja [2C Thelema]

Gnostic Mass video: Anahata Chapter of the O.T.O. Rose Croix, with the sanction of the United States Grand Lodge, O.T.O., is proud to sponsor the making of a professionally produced, high quality video of Liber XV, The Gnostic Mass. [Indiegogo]

News from OTO IHQ: O.T.O. International Headquarters has announced several important news items, listed below. [OTO IHQ]
- Thoth Tarot art exhibition: O.T.O. IHQ and the Warburg Institute have arranged for the inclusion of nine of the Aleister Crowley and Frieda Harris Thoth Tarot paintings at The 55th International Art Exhibition, or Venice Biennale (June 1, 2013 – November 24, 2013) [OTO IHQ]
- Thoth Tarot restoration: O.T.O. has raised the necessary funds to restore the original Thoth Tarot paintings, and this Thoth Tarot restoration project is now completed. [OTO IHQ]
- Copyright litigation against US Games: O.T.O. is filing suit in U.S. Federal Court against U.S. Games Systems, and perhaps others, over the Thoth Tarot Deck. [OTO IHQ]
- Publishing news: All of Crowley’s surviving diaries are now in page proofs— totaling over 6,000 pages as things now stand. A new edition of The Holy Books of Thelema are currently in final proofs, there is a new edition of The Diary of a Drug-Fiend, and many other newly-mastered versions of out of print ‘backlist’ titles. [OTO IHQ]
- Fill/Kill: Hymenaeus Beta came into possession of Crowley’s copy of ‘Thelema,’ i.e. The Holy Books, which includes “a very important text correction to Liber CCXX III:37,” specifically a marginal note that corrects “fill me!” to “kill me!” in the text of Liber CCXX. [OTO IHQ]

Fill/Kill controversy: As one might expect from a change to teh central Holy Book of a religion, there has been a fair bit of controversy around this supposed “correction” to Liber CCXX. Here are some written responses to this “Fill/Kill controversy.”
- The Hermetic Library weighs in with a fairly extensive analysis of the situation. [Hermetic Library blog]
- Colin Campbell weighs in on the ‘kill’ side. [De Arte Magica]
- Jerry Cornelius weighs in on the ‘fill’ side. [Satan in Berkeley]
- The members of the LAShTAL forum debate the issue. [LAShTAL]

Peaches Geldof: Peaches Geldof, a journalist and model, recently sent a message on Twitter about Thelema, and encouraged her followers to read Aleister Crowley on her Instagram. [Twitter]
- This lead to an article in “Look” magazine about her, Thelema, and the OTO. [Look magazine article]
- This has also led to several incredibly poor instances of tabloid “journalism” that took the opportunity to remind us that we have not come far at all since the days when Crowley was demonized as “The Wickedest Man in the World.” [Daily Mail]
- Occulture tackles the media reaction to Peaches Geldof’s “Tweet.” [Occulture]

Thelemic mysticism: IAO131 continues his essay about the basics of Thelemic Mysticism [IAO131]

NOTOCON IX: Registration is still open for NOTOCON IX: Neither East nor West (Aug. 9-11, 2013). [NOTOCON]

A∴A∴: A document entitled “The Truth about A∴A∴” has been published recently. Whether it’s true or not is still up for debate. [Truth about A∴A∴]