the world of English Qaballah is a fascinating foray into the cutting edge of occult studies. rune logix is honored to have Jake Stratton-Kent, well known UK English Qaballist deeply involved in revealing New Aeon English Qaballah. NAEQ is one of the most serious attempts at unlocking the secrets of the Book of the Law, one of the most enigmatic books in history.
>Some background about yourself: what started your journey with Thelema and English Qaballah?
My first involvement with practicing Magick was triggered by a chance event in 1972, someone - apparently inspired - said I had the soul of a warrior. My response to this was intense, a spontaneous illumination into what my 'will' or 'true nature' had involved in 'past lives'. So it didn't lead to joining the army or practicing martial arts but to recognition of the need to advance from that former self to becoming a magician. So I worked with the Key of Solomon and other texts just becoming available in the 1970's occult revival. By 1976 I'd been deeply affected by my first reading of the Book of the Law and had started work with the A.'.A.'. Curriculum and Oaths published by Regardie, and made my own unsuccessful attempts to discover an English gematria schema. I met Ray Sherwin a little later, who was editor of 'The New Equinox' and when he wanted to pass the Journal on he considered me at first for some reason. When he passed it on to Jim Lees and Carol Smith I naturally got in touch with them to offer my services as a writer. It was then I was exposed to their system of English Qaballa, which passed my tests with flying colours. Oddly enough they had obtained it at the precise time I had been looking for it, and there were symbols arising in both our work that were evidently convergent. In 1984 they passed the Journal on to me and I became - by default - spokesman and archivist of the developing EQ tradition.
That's obviously a fairly breathless sketch of about 35 years magical work, all I'd add to it is that the 'breaks' I received and the status thrust upon me in consequence were and are a continual surprise to me.
> Studying Liber Al is probably the principal activity of a Thelemite. In order to understand the Book of the Law, what occult sciences are essential to exploring the text?
That's a hard question, as there is a lot of background material that is important in it's way but also dispensable in the final analysis. Subjectively speaking, doing practical magic, obtaining some success at introspective work via meditation and use of the magical record, and taking note of the passages of AL that impact on your consciousness over time provides the core of an initiatory relationship with AL and the other Holy Books of Thelema. Use of English gematria to elucidate those passages that gain significance in your work and thus building up your own patterns of association is obviously appropriate to deepen this relationship.
>For readers new to your work, what are the principal developments that have driven your magick?
Well I owe a great deal both to Jim Lees and Trevor Langford, as I'd recognised how little the Revival had explored the traditional idea of astrological timing, but these guys had put it on a sound footing with
original research. That English Qaballa goes hand in hand with a species of astrological magick is a 'double whammy' for me, as the two ideas are both full of potential to take modern magick much further than simply maintaining the Golden Dawn or Crowleyan models unchanged.
> Thelema has its own Zodiac with a mobeius structure that the Emperor and The Star switch places on the cosmic circle. What kind of effect does this have on astrological magick and sidereal astrology?
My skills as an Astrologer aren't particularly special and great skill isn't really required to incorporate Timing into Magick - though it is good to have access to specialists of course! The main factor in timing of rituals are planetary conjunctions with each other or Sun and Moon, and this mobeius switch doesn't have any effect on that. To be honest I think the switch is over-emphasised, there are many equally enigmatic phrases throughout the Book of the Law. Our 'rational' culture doesn't prepare us for the magical reality that such enigmas are multi-layered, having many possible interpretations, some of which may be intensely personal. Also the interchange in conventional terms is essentially only a reordering of the Tarot pack. Appearances aside Tarot was never a major part of magick before the 19th Century and can be approached in a variety of mutually exclusive and equally appropriate ways!
> What is some research that has really caught your eye over the last few years?
One of the most laudable and important projects around is undoubtedly Joseph Peterson's work with the Grimoires on the Twilit Grotto site and CD. It would be hard to praise this work highly enough, there is simply nothing comparable. Also notable is Leo Gillis's work on Trigrammaton, which is another approach to the notion of an English Qaballa, very elegant and groundbreaking.
>Do you have any honorable mentions for original publications?
'Vodou Visions' by Sally Ann Glassman, whose work with Voodoo is both respectful and very well informed, as well as backed up by experience and initiation. The book only gives a sample of how far she has gone, but is noteworthy as an access point to an area I feel Western occultists could learn a great deal from. Also 'The Key of it All' by David Alan Hulse, taking modern 'Western' Qabalah into new areas - though possibly still placing rather too much emphasis on the Hebrew model. As a balance to that we have Kieren Barry's excellent work on Greek Qabalah, which in my opinion - and that of many serious historians - provided the basis for much produced by the Hebrew schools.
Hyatt and Black's two manuals 'Urban Voodoo' and 'Pacts with the Devil', though more ephemeral in some respects, nevertheless deserve an honourable mention.
> What are some differences between American and the UK Thelemite culture?
Well, understand that I am generalising for the sake of brevity. In the Seventies and early Eighties English Thelema had an experimental and non-hierarchical approach that was not nearly so influenced by the OTO as events in the USA, owing rather more to Regardie's publication of the A.'.A.'. curriculum and Oaths, and to original research and experiment. Sadly I think this has given way to the more retrospective American model with it's emphasis on the Gnostic Mass and Irregular Freemasonry rather than Magical practice.
> In twenty years from now, what do you see for Thelemites that don't exist now? Profess houses? Tory's finding their Holy Guardian Angel? Greater multimedia access to Thelemic ideas?
Well Crowley was a Tory of course ;-) I'm sure multimedia and other I.T. developments will continue to facilitate magical endeavours, somewhat inevitably. What I'd hope for though is that Thelemites will extend the legacy of Crowley by intelligent syncretism and - particularly - the composition of rituals of their own. There are many indicators in the Crowleyan corpus of ways to compose rites compatible with what already exists as Thelemic Magick, and it is important that we escape the cult of Crowley sufficiently to recognise new work and compose new masterpieces.
> What are skills Thelemites could start to learn right now to make a greater contribution to the Thelemic community?
Well cooking is certainly a key area for the establishment of Thelemic Feasts!
In order to extend the Thelemic synthesis and bring Magick properly into the modern age we need to learn from Living Traditions, particularly in my view the African Traditional Religions. While Thelemites restrict their efforts at spirit communication to bullying spirits with knives and names of Jehovah they are manifestly failing to 'Let the rituals be rightly performed with joy & beauty' or to purge 'the rituals of the old time'. So again, while I expect I.T. and other modern developments to play a major role in what Thelemites and other Western occultists are up to, if Magick is to really progress it requires a new Liturgical methodology.
>Lets talk about women. What is in the Old Aeon religions that keeps appealing to women? What could Thelemites improve to change this?
So far as this writer is concerned, Thelema really needs to address this point. What appeals to women in other religions - and not all are 'Old Aeon' by any means - is the richness of fabric and the diversity of approach offered by many of them. Without categorising or departmentalising the abilities of the sexes overmuch there is some truth in the idea that women have innate ritual skills that men have to strive for, whether it be embellishing the temple or getting the feel for the spirit of the occasion. So for instance the contradiction in using Old Testament phrases when applying gematria to the Book of the Law is often more apparent to women, as is the ugliness of traditional Western approaches to working with spirits - where the African Traditional Religions genuinely offer something less Old Aeon than old style Solomonic or Masonic ritual. So again, to 'Let the rituals be rightly performed with joy & beauty' underlines an area where women have a considerable contribution to make, if the men could let go of their attachment to outworn forms.
> Is Thelema dogmatic?
In essence, probably not, in practice, unfortunately all too often. A motto we could do well to enshrine at the heart of Thelemic practice is *There are no rules, only traditions*. Inflexibility about tradition and to Crowleyan writings in particular is something male scholars have unthinkingly imposed on modern Thelema - for instance in over-valuing the Crowley redaction of the 'Goetia of Solomon the King' simply because it has Crowley's name on it, while it is actually a very imperfect text.
> Where can people find out more about your goings on?
The website of the Gnostic Alchemical Church of Typhon-Christ is the principal and most accessible resource, also the EQ-list and it's archive. In print there is 'The Equinox - British Journal of Thelema', Volume VII (numbers 1 to 8 so far), and 'The Book of the Law and it's Qaballa'. Otherwise anyone can readily enough put yours truly's name through a search engine and peruse my rantings all over the place!
> Any final comments you would like to add?
Well, to summarise my perspective isn't too difficult: Thelema has the potential to lift modern Magick to the status of a Living Tradition rather than a fledgling century old revival. To do this it needs to take cues from where Crowley and the other early revivalists left off, and to explore areas they neglected, thus extending the synthesis rather than enshrining it's past achievements. Of Key importance in this is the double current offered by English Qaballa: to make the Thelemic Holy Books rather than the Old Testament the heart of modern Qaballistic exegesis, and to understand that Astrological Timing is a key aspect of the Worship of Nu under the starlit heaven. In one phrase, that has been purposefully sprinkled throughout this interview: Let the rituals be rightly performed with joy & beauty!
> Thanks so much for your time Jake!
Find out more about the happenings of the Gnostic Alchemical Church of Typhon-Christ here
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