2003-07-07

I've been parusing the Thelemic sites I listed on Saturday. The "Basillica" page has been particularly interesting, especially the speeches. I've gained more insight into the workings of the often bizarre and highly interesting magicians of the OTO, those of whom I've met in person have always been decent folk.

There are certain individuals out there who take exception to the OTO's ownership of Crowley's writings. They take exception to this because they claim that these documents are, in essence, "scripture" for Thelemites. While I could agree with this statement concerning Liber Al Vel Legis, I do not think that should be the case with Crowley's work as a whole. One must remember that they have provided, free of charge on the Internet, not only Liber AL, but at times I have seen Book 4 (in it's entirety>, Magick Without Tears, and even Confessions of Aliester Crowley as well as the entire Equinox, the bulkiest in this series of documents. All of this is really besides the point anyway, with the exception of Liber AL, none of these books are "scripture". What I mean by this is, Liber AL is the only one of the documents claimed to be "recieved" entirely from an outside source. All of his other writings are the work of Al's hard work, imagination, and are all written from the perspective of him alone. Now while there are certain things in Book 4 that are written for the purpose of instruction into the Thelemic world view, they are still the work of his hand and his mind. Now regardless of how they came by these afformentioned copywrites does not matter in the least. They are still not "scripture", and thus not exempt from the copywrite laws. Heck, I've even been told in writing that they don't mind you disributing some of the documents, as long as you don't make money off of them, and this is how I feel it should be with any such thing. Things may have changed since I last checked, but the last thing I heard was that one must write to them and request that you be allowed to do so, and as soon as the Secretery General (or whoever it is who handles these things) writes you back, most of the time you have permission. There are some documents that I understand are exception, and may not be freely distributed ever, but in my humble opinion they are far more generous with such permissions as should be necessary. I might be mistaken about the whole thing, but I thought I saw this in a letter I recieved from them a few years ago. It never hurts to ask, at any rate, especially since I could be wrong about the whole thing, or they may have changed it by now. Personally however, when I want to give the gift of Crowley's words, I like buying the editions that the people at Weiser or whatever publishing company the OTO is using at the moment is worked on. The artwork and commentaries by editors and others are usually worth the price, and besides, it looks neater then a binder filled with Xerox copies.

These are just a thought, expressed as always in my humble opinion. Remember to always come to conclusions for yourself. After all, I Crowley, Henrich, Regardie, or anyone else might be wrong, but then again...so might you.
~Matt Magus

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