Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
On Friday, September 23, members and friends of Nihil Lodge met in Tokyo to celebrate the Autumnal Equinox. In accordance with tradition, the purpose of the ceremony was to divine a word from The Book of the Law that will serve as a reference for meditation and general direction of the Lodge for the coming six months.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Over the 3 days of September 4-6, OTO Japan presented a series of lectures by Thelemic luminaries J. Daniel Gunther (author of Initiation in the Aeon of the Child) and Frater Shiva (Grandmaster of OTO Australia Grand Lodge) in Tokyo. Participants from five countries took part in this fantastic event, which demonstrated the cooperation and fraternal relations between Ordo Templi Orientis and the A∴A∴.
The Shiva X-Daniel Gunther lectures are only a few weeks away. Please see the detailed schedule. Subscribe to the event mailing list at secretary@otojapan.org.
Transport and accommodations in central Tokyo
The venues are accessible on Tokyo Metro subway lines and JR East lines. For train timetables, see Hyperdia.
Toyoko Inn Tameikesanno is between the two locations.Toyoko Inn Shinagawa is close to Hamamatsucho.
There are other hotels on the Yamanote loop lineSakura Hotel Ikebukuro and Sakura Hotel Jimbocho are budget accommodations in central Tokyo. International House of Japan near Roppongi Hills has accommodations for visitors.
For more accommodations in Tokyo, please see Tokyo Tourism Info.
For venue locations, please see the September OTO Events map.
地獄太夫
We were fortunate to have fair weather for Thelemafest II, the second annual summer retreat of the Japan OTO. Our FSR presented on the fundamentals of the OTO and Thelema and led the final workshop on the essential texts of Thelema. We also had two workshops by local Tokyo members on the topics of the Holographic Universe and the Origins and Magick of the Tarot.
On Sunday morning, we held a beautiful Gnostic Mass which was attended by non-initiates and new initiates and our brothers from Osaka.
Thank you to all who participated, to our brothers who came from Osaka, to our Tokyo brothers who organized the events, and congratulations to our newest minerval.
93,
Jigoku Daiyu
“Thelemafest II” will be held on the weekend of July 30/31 (Sat/Sun), in a beautiful park location in Chiba-ken. This event will include 4 workshops (2 Japanese, 2 English), Yoga, a BBQ, the Gnostic Mass, and other activities.
To register, contact The Japan OTO at nihil.secretary@otojapan.org
Ordo Templi Orientis Japan pleased to introduce J. Daniel Gunther and welcome back Grand Master Shiva X˚ to Tokyo for a series of lectures in September 2011.
J. Daniel Gunther is the amongst the world’s authorities on the topic of Thelemic doctrines and the syncretic method of Magick & Mysticism taught by A.’.A.’. He has served as editor of Pythagoras: His Life and Teachings, and authored Aleister Crowley and the Practice of the Magical Diary, and Inititiation in the Aeon of the Child.
“The Path of the Great Returnand the Path in Eternity: The A.’ A.’ and the OTO”
Tentative Schedule of Events:
Day 1: Sunday, 4 September 2011:
Lectures by Frater Shiva X°
Lecture 1: 10:00 – 12:00
Lecture 2: 13:00 – 15:30
Lecture 3: 16:00 – 18:30
Gnostic Mass
Doors at 20:00.
Day 2: Monday, 5 September 2011:
Lectures by J. Daniel Gunther
Lecture 1: 10:00 – 12:00
Lecture 2: 13:00 – 15:30
Lecture 3: 16:00 – 18:30
Banquet
Doors at 19:00.
Day 3: Tuesday, 6 September 2011:
Lectures by J. Daniel Gunther
Lecture 1: 10:00 – 12:00
Lecture 2: 13:00 – 15:30
Lecture 3: 16:00 – 18:30
Due to the circumstances in Tokyo, and the absence of some officers, the April Study Group has been cancelled. Watch the blog for updates and rescheduled events.
-Gimel
On Sunday, Fr. VMI, the master of Nihil Lodge, informed us of the history of the OTO from its early origins in the Masonic orders in Europe to Crowley taking up the reins, to the revival of the OTO in America to the first camps, oases and lodges in Japan.
Fr. VMI also gave us an overview of the initiatory cycle of the OTO, and then deftly answered the audience members’ questions about some basic questions to do with Thelema, OTO, and the initiation sequence.
Thank you to all who cam out.
To your wills in April.
An Introduction to The Origins of Religion
There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That’s perfectly all right; they’re the aperture to finding out what’s right. Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny. – Carl Sagan, Cosmos television series
In a previous Nihil Study Group presentation, we were brought to the threshold of the Native American sweat lodge, explored the math and magic of music, and had order made of chaos. We’ve taken on various views of the world, switching from paradigm to paradigm, , much as Crowley implored his students to. Crowley’s Equinox publication was prefaced by the motto “The Method of Science, the Aim of Religion”, a motto which, in this presentation, This presentation keeps in more heavily on the science to ferret out the mechanisms and origins of belief and religion.
…there was also the point that I was anxious to prove that spiritual progress did not depend on religious or moral codes, but was like any other science. Magick would yield its secrets to the infidel and the libertine, just as one does not have to be a churchwarden in order to discover a new kind of orchid. There are, of course, certain virtues necessary to the Magician; but they are of the same order as those which make a successful chemist.
The oft-quoted statement of Crowley in his Confessions comes to mind as we start to examine the anthropological and neurobiological view of religion.
We’re about to leave the paradigm of the equinox behind, and look at the scientific discoveries and hypotheses that have come about since Crowley’s time that explore the adaptive and evolutionary aspects of religion and belief. Let’s see what scientific methods have been put to aiming this bolt of religious impulse, and continue to examine them to find out how wrong or right these bolts are.
In this endeavor, Frater K. and Soror Gimel presented together, bilingually in Japanese and English, on this rich topic.
For January’s study group topic, Michael brought us to the threshold of the world of Native American traditions. Michael, who apprenticed for ten years in the Apache sweatlodge gave us an overview of the beliefs and practices of Native Americans. In their tradition, every breath is sacred and the dream world is as sacred as the waking one. The religious practicies of the first people don’t depend on gods coming to them; instead, the people reach out to the spirit through communal ritual practices of sweating in a specially constructed lodge. Michael described to us the sacred wheel, the symbolic shape of the sweatlodge and the effects of the purification and sweating.
We found analogues in the symbols, perceptions and ritual actions, the similarity between the sacred wheel of the Native Americans and the Qabbalistic Cross, the “going inside”, into sacred space and into ourselves to bring out a magick effect in the manifest world.
Michael mentioned the Lakota Sioux prayer, “All my relations”, a conception of the animal, plant, mineral and spirit worlds as interconnected. Thank you to our relation Michael for an insightful talk, and to all of our lodge brothers and sisters who participated.
After the talk, we had our Shinnenkai, the first party of the new year at a local pub and enjoyed a few pints.
To the accomplishment of your wills in 2011!
-Gimel/地獄太夫
