Outside the Circles of Time

[Gregory Peters]

Re-reading this one recently and am reminded once again of the magic and wonder that all of the Typhonian Trilogies trigger in my consciousness. The introduction alone is priceless and never fails to inspire my own Work!

Chapter 5 p.62 has a curious mention:
"According to Michael Bertiaux, who received a transmission from Aiwaz in 1977, Crowley has already reincarnated upon earth in feminine form. [...] All that we are justified in assuming is that the 93 Current, having been transmitted in its present form by Aleister Crowley, is now manifesting in a feminine form somewhere in Asia, as Crowley prophesised." (with a footnote to chapter 86 of the Confessions where presumably this prophesy is discussed - I don't have it easily available at the moment to follow up).

I wonder if Grant or Bertiaux ever followed up with any of this? Has there been any other mention of such an occurrence?

[stephen]

Not a response to Gregory's preceding query from 2013 ! guess we all missed that one - but an off-the-cuff attempt to initiate some discussion on Outside the Circles of Time - most recently mentioned by Sarah-Jayne in her member's introduction.

Steffi Grant's cover designs for the trilogy volumes are an integral element of the production and the one for OTCOT is possibly one of her most striking:


                                    
                                                    



The Spider's Web linking the Eleven Power Zones. Certainly an image for contemplation. Prominent in the top right sphere is the Sigil of Aossic, but none of the others are specifically identified in the book, or elsewhere in the Trilogies to my recollection. They do feature on the pentacle shown in the plates in the book of the portraits of Lam and Pan.  Therefore, they represent another mystery to the workings of New Isis Lodge that still warrant further clarification.  In any case, the cover as well as the book, was certainly an inspiration to me when I first acquired it - back in 1980 e.v. !!  

[Nalyd Khezr Bey]

Variations of those same four "sigils of the Great Old Ones" (not including the Aossic sigil) turn up again in Beyond the Mauve Zone in Alistair Campbell's painting The Eye of Yog-Sothoth shown in plate 13. They are not rendered identical to how they are on the cover of OTCOT but they are clearly supposed to be the same.

[stephen]

May 28, 2015 17:45:58 GMT Nalyd Khezr Bey said:

Variations of those same four "sigils of the Great Old Ones" (not including the Aossic sigil) turn up again in Beyond the Mauve Zone in Alistair Campbell's painting The Eye of Yog-Sothoth shown in plate 13. They are not rendered identical to how they are on the cover of OTCOT but they are clearly supposed to be the same.

Thanks for pointing that out, Nalyd.  On reflection, I think its the sigil at bottom left that figures there most memorably.

Actually, in plates 12 and 13 in OTCOT, both feature the "Altar with magical mannikins and sigils of the Great Old Ones" and their form there is more elaborate than portrayed on the cover design.  Sigils of which Great Old Ones one might ask ?  Well, they do not necessarily have to be Great Old Ones named by Lovecraft, but if you consult the first chapter of Hecate's Fountain with regard to the magical mannikins etc. there is the suggestion that the sigil middle-right might represent Hastur.

As for the cover design itself, it is probably best described on page 162 of OTCOT, where Grant says:

"Both Spare and Lovecraft "knew the sacred alignments".  The lines of the spider are the girders of the Tunnels of Set, and the trap-doors into space are situated in the eleven pylons or Towers of Shaitan".

One should not, perhaps, read too much precise metaphysical topography into this description, but it certainly opens up vistas of the imagination.

[Deleted]

Yes, definitely food for thought Stephen (thank you).

[Raj Don Yasser]

I'm about 1/3 through my first reading of OTCOT and it's already my favorite, thus far. Perhaps I'm more accustomed to Grant's writing style, maybe the content is easier to digest, or something else altogether. Regardless, it seems that each volume becomes more and more difficult to put down. This morning I was so engrossed that I was almost late for work today, arriving just one minute before a state-required mandatory training. 

[stephen]

"..a state-required mandatory training" sounds a bit intimidating, Raj Don.

Hope there was not any psychological assessment involved when your head was still full of OTCOT!

[Raj Don Yasser]

Aug 30, 2018 15:11:15 GMT stephen said:

"..a state-required mandatory training" sounds a bit intimidating, Raj Don.

Hope there was not any psychological assessment involved when your head was still full of OTCOT!

You guessed right: all clinicians in Illinois with Medicaid clients are required to be certified to use the IM-CANS assessment tool. Very boring and my mind kept tending towards the Outside.  

[The Double-wanded One]

Many great chapters in this book in the trilogies, covering quite a broad range (like all the books that follow it, especially H.F. and O.G.).
"Nuclear Art @ The New Gnosis" is very important to me. Once again covering Achad, first time covering Parsons and Nema - it's quite a significant book in the trilogies now that I think about it. "Stones of Precious Water" too.

[Gregory Peters]

Sept 30, 2013 1:13:42 GMT Gregory Peters said:

Re-reading this one recently and am reminded once again of the magic and wonder that all of the Typhonian Trilogies trigger in my consciousness. The introduction alone is priceless and never fails to inspire my own Work!

Chapter 5 p.62 has a curious mention:
"According to Michael Bertiaux, who received a transmission from Aiwaz in 1977, Crowley has already reincarnated upon earth in feminine form. [...] All that we are justified in assuming is that the 93 Current, having been transmitted in its present form by Aleister Crowley, is now manifesting in a feminine form somewhere in Asia, as Crowley prophesised." (with a footnote to chapter 86 of the Confessions where presumably this prophesy is discussed - I don't have it easily available at the moment to follow up).

I wonder if Grant or Bertiaux ever followed up with any of this? Has there been any other mention of such an occurrence?

As chance (what a quaint term) would have it, I was browsing through Bertiaux's Ontological Graffiti and came upon the sessions with Aiwaz. In particular the  Seance of May 11, 1969 1:00AM:

MPB: What of Crowley, the Great Master, who was Ipsissimus?
Rep: He has come back to your world and is in a female embodiment, yet only now a child.
MPB: Under what sign did he return as a woman?
Rep: Under Taurus, and born in Asia, with much wealth and position.

"

[stephen]

I'm not especially well-informed on Asian women of "wealth and position", but she should be in her 50s by now then

[Gregory Peters]

Nov 29, 2018 15:00:58 GMT stephen said:

I'm not especially well-informed on Asian women of "wealth and position", but she should be in her 50s by now then

Makes me think of the Stones Sympathy for the Devil. I wish Aiwass had been a little more direct in giving out details, maybe even something like a country would have been graciously accepted. Of course, when you look at the communications Crowley had with Aiwass, he was always a bit on the vague side of things (maybe The Book of the Law took a supreme effort to dictate, and he was a bit spent after).

[N0T 2]

Nov 29, 2018 21:07:33 GMT Gregory Peters said:

Nov 29, 2018 15:00:58 GMT stephen said:

I'm not especially well-informed on Asian women of "wealth and position", but she should be in her 50s by now then

Makes me think of the Stones Sympathy for the Devil. I wish Aiwass had been a little more direct in giving out details, maybe even something like a country would have been graciously accepted. Of course, when you look at the communications Crowley had with Aiwass, he was always a bit on the vague side of things (maybe The Book of the Law took a supreme effort to dictate, and he was a bit spent after).

It's pretty clear Crowley made Aiwass (and the totally dubious annunciation myth) up, if the facts (in non-Caliphate publications, or publications that don't pretend that William Breeze is head of anything except a totally profane corporate entity) are fully assimilated. Not to say he doesn't exist - he does if you want him to, and maybe even if you don't. Just like Frodo Baggins. He's a character in a narrative that was woven into an autobiographical tale designed to attack the occult establishment and promote the author as a messiah/prophet of the One True Path. There is value in Thelema, but part of that value is rejecting the dogma and the propaganda that delivered it.

Pretty much anyone could say anything about their new contacts with Aiwass, and it would be completely subjective to say whether they, too, are also just making it up or not. That doesn't invalidate any of it. All this stuff is subjective in its field of relevance. Otherwise it would be meaningless. I don't quite know where I'm going with this, except to say that maybe Bertiaux had just seen some of Crowley's orientalist art and/or writings and got inspired to make some thing up about him being alive again and a woman in Asia. I wonder if he meant actually racially Asian, or the offspring of an European expatriate. Or otherwise.