Ross G Caldwell
I am posting to request a specific piece of information from anyone who may have Nick Farrell's Mathers' Last Secret (whether in the revised or first editions).
In the Thoth forum I recently posted on how Crowley's account of the Portal Ritual differs in a crucial detail from other presentations of it -
http://tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=4424495&postcount=7
- namely, Crowley's version, which he says comes from Westcott and by which he was presumably intitiated in 1899, has a conspicuous diagram of the Tree of Life with all the Paths, Tarot attributions, and Grade names written on it. The standard version of the Portal Ritual we all know does not.
This is important, because it tends to refute a claim made by Marco Pasi that the grade corresponding to Kether, Ipsissimus, was invented by Crowley, and that it was unnamed in the original GD Order.
Pasi says that Crowley "...eventually claimed to have attained, in the early 1920s, the last degree, which he chose to call “Ipsissimus” (in the original GD system this grade had been left unnamed).
(Marco Pasi, “Crowley, Aleister”, in Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism, (Brill, 2006) p. 285)
From a comment on Jim Eshelman's Thelema group, I learned that Nick Farrell had published what is perhaps this version of the Portal Ritual, of which Crowley only gives an abridgement.
I have not seen this book and I'm not in a position to buy it at the moment, so I would be grateful if someone could check to see if the Tree of Life diagram with all of the grades, up to Ipsissimus, are listed in Mathers' version of the Ritual.
Citations for comparison -
If you compare the Portal Ritual as Crowley presents it in Equinox I,2, pp. 242-243, and 284-288, with those given in The Golden Dawn, vol. 2, pp. 155-197, or The Portable Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic, vol. 7, pp. 2-25, you will see that, while they are essentially the same ritual, sharing much of the same text and rubric, they differ in some important details. Even in Crowley’s abridged presentation, the differences are clearly visible. For the present purpose,the crucial detail in Crowley’s version that is omitted in the Golden Dawn versions is the presence, on the altar, of a diagram of the Tree of Life with the Paths, their attributes, and the names of all the Grades, written on the Sephiroth.
What makes it most significant is that Crowley attributes this ritual to Westcott’s “Copy no. 2” of the Portal Ritual. We may assume that this was the ritual that Crowley was initiated by in 1899, but that at some point, or perhaps in other Lodges, it was suppressed.
Whatever the reason for this, Westcott’s Copy no. 2, taken at face value, proves that the name Ipsissimus for the highest grade of the Order, corresponding to Kether, existed by 1899. The Grades shown are not those of the A.’.A.’., so we can not argue that Crowley was committing a deliberate anachronism in 1909.
“Before you upon the Altar is the diagram of the Sephiroth and Paths with which you are already well acquainted, having marked thereon the grade of the order corresponding to each Sephira, and the Tarot Trumps appropriated to each Path.”
(Westcott’s “Copy no. 2” of the Portal Ritual, quoted in Crowley, Equinox I,2, p. 242)
Thank you in advance for anyone's help.
In the Thoth forum I recently posted on how Crowley's account of the Portal Ritual differs in a crucial detail from other presentations of it -
http://tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=4424495&postcount=7
- namely, Crowley's version, which he says comes from Westcott and by which he was presumably intitiated in 1899, has a conspicuous diagram of the Tree of Life with all the Paths, Tarot attributions, and Grade names written on it. The standard version of the Portal Ritual we all know does not.
This is important, because it tends to refute a claim made by Marco Pasi that the grade corresponding to Kether, Ipsissimus, was invented by Crowley, and that it was unnamed in the original GD Order.
Pasi says that Crowley "...eventually claimed to have attained, in the early 1920s, the last degree, which he chose to call “Ipsissimus” (in the original GD system this grade had been left unnamed).
(Marco Pasi, “Crowley, Aleister”, in Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism, (Brill, 2006) p. 285)
From a comment on Jim Eshelman's Thelema group, I learned that Nick Farrell had published what is perhaps this version of the Portal Ritual, of which Crowley only gives an abridgement.
I have not seen this book and I'm not in a position to buy it at the moment, so I would be grateful if someone could check to see if the Tree of Life diagram with all of the grades, up to Ipsissimus, are listed in Mathers' version of the Ritual.
Citations for comparison -
If you compare the Portal Ritual as Crowley presents it in Equinox I,2, pp. 242-243, and 284-288, with those given in The Golden Dawn, vol. 2, pp. 155-197, or The Portable Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic, vol. 7, pp. 2-25, you will see that, while they are essentially the same ritual, sharing much of the same text and rubric, they differ in some important details. Even in Crowley’s abridged presentation, the differences are clearly visible. For the present purpose,the crucial detail in Crowley’s version that is omitted in the Golden Dawn versions is the presence, on the altar, of a diagram of the Tree of Life with the Paths, their attributes, and the names of all the Grades, written on the Sephiroth.
What makes it most significant is that Crowley attributes this ritual to Westcott’s “Copy no. 2” of the Portal Ritual. We may assume that this was the ritual that Crowley was initiated by in 1899, but that at some point, or perhaps in other Lodges, it was suppressed.
Whatever the reason for this, Westcott’s Copy no. 2, taken at face value, proves that the name Ipsissimus for the highest grade of the Order, corresponding to Kether, existed by 1899. The Grades shown are not those of the A.’.A.’., so we can not argue that Crowley was committing a deliberate anachronism in 1909.
“Before you upon the Altar is the diagram of the Sephiroth and Paths with which you are already well acquainted, having marked thereon the grade of the order corresponding to each Sephira, and the Tarot Trumps appropriated to each Path.”
(Westcott’s “Copy no. 2” of the Portal Ritual, quoted in Crowley, Equinox I,2, p. 242)
Thank you in advance for anyone's help.