BILL
SIEBERT/OtzPtn/PVN letters
14 July
1978 – 2 Sept. 1979
I.
Undated
One-page handwritten
note in red ink on heavy 6.5 x 11” stationery, with Boleskine House address and
OTz PTN seal, referring to a delayed order (for back copies of MEZLA, most
likely) and signed Bill Siebert, and Frater OTz PTN (in Hebrew script) – 690.
II.
14 July,
’78ev (5 Paophi, 4747)
One page
letter on Boleskine House stationery (an oversized 8.5 x 14” sheet of white
paper with address at top right and OTz PTN seal on lower left and telephone
number at lower right). Typed in a larger than usual font size, probably 14
point. This was the common format for the first page all of the subsequent
letters. Signed “Bill” with (frater) OTz PTN typed below.
Included in the content was a short explanation of the
Egyptian Sothic calendar (on which Bill based his idiosynchratic dates like 5
Paophi 4747). Also an explanation of the official organ of the TOTO in the U.S.
– MEZLA.
III.
15 Sept 78
3 pages –
first page and a half hand-written, typewritten thereafter. First page marked
as described as above but pages 2 and 3 feature a full-page greyscale rendering
of the OTz PTN seal in the background. This motif would continue in subsequent
letters of more than one page.
A more comprehensive explanation of the Sothic
calendar. He reports having received his copy of the Stele of Revealing from
Graven Image Co. (Mike James/Frater Ophidia of the TOTO). He first mentions a
“thelemic Egyptologist” he knows who is “doing a life sentence in Marion,
Illinois” penitentiary. (This becomes
significant later).
IV.
5 October
‘78
2 pages,
typed, signed in red ink on second page
Bill
reports receiving a magazine called MANDRAGORE from a probationer… “It is
dynamite! Nothing as fancy as the Cincy Journal… but strictly hard core!” (MANDRAGORE
was a periodical produced by the Grove of the Star and the Snake in NYC.) He
says the maximum security prison in Marion, Ill. contains two thelemites
“(a regular power zone)” and the one he knows better is D.C. “who is in for
life (killing a cop during a bank heist). I ‘met’ him via an article he wrote
on the stele of Revealing for Grady McMurtry’s newsletter (McMurtry, in case
you don’t know, is one of the ‘other’ people who ‘claim’ to be the head of the
OTO).”
V.
23 Oct.
1978ev
One page,
signed “Bill” in red ink
A
discussion of “Thelemic power zones” as they existed at that time. “…it would
seem that your part of the country has far more than its fair share of distinct
power zones… you folks in Bloomington & the thelemites in & around
Cincinnati…” and the beginnings of a power zone at the prison in Marion, Ill. A
cautionary but not critical comment on the fact that I was aware of the tasks
of the V degree OTO even though I was a mere Probationer.
VI.
13 Nov.
1978ev
One page,
typed, signed “Bill” in purple ink
A very
insightful letter about the grade structure in the Typhonian OTO and advice to
concentrate on the task at hand rather than worry about “higher grades”.
VII.
20
December, ‘78ev
One page,
signed “Bill” in black ink
Ways of
controlling consciousness without drugs, including the isolation tank, and
suggestions on how to soundproof the room where the tank is located. Extensive comment on the recent rash of
promotions in McMurtry’s OTO: “The relationship between his Order & the OTO
will probably remain non-existent until both Grady & Grant die.”
VIII.
14
January, 79ev
One page.
Wishing
me good luck on submitting the record of my probation & cautioning that
Tanith might not get to it for a while.
Speculation that Grady (McMurtry) is thinking about his death & his
successor to the OHO and that is the reason for the “battlefield promotions” to
the IX degree because they will elect the new Caliph. Further discussion of my
correspondence with the prisoners in Marion penitentiary: “How are the guards
going to determine that you aren’t trying to smuggle him drugs? (hash oil mixed
with dragon’s blood reeds, or lsd in the abramelin oil?)”
IX.
29
January, 1979ev
One page,
signed OTz PTN – 690 in Hebrew script
Comments
on one of the Marion prisoner’s “ravings” (M.B. who claimed to be OHO of the
Choronzon Club or some such). “I would not be surprised if B… got his S&M
views on the OTO from Grady’s Order…. Karl Germer was both a sexist & a
racist (one of the big fights between him & 718’s initiation of women as
absolute equals in the Order & over the initiation of a black woman into
the Order)…”
“It would
seem that catholic nunneries make good training grounds for thelemites. Not
only Tanith, but Andahadna & a probationer from Washington all spent time
with the nuns… (Tanith picked up a copy of The Great Beast to read while (0n)
jury duty, just because it was a fat enough book to get her through the trial.)
(Andahadna was married with 4 kids before someone she knew told her that women
couldn’t possibly become magicians… so she became a magician just to prove that
she could to it – now she is center of the Maat Current as well as being in the
OTO).”
X.
19 Feb.
1979ev
One page
- I must have been an initiate of the Typhonian OTO by this time because it
began “Care Frater Qadathion – 636” instead of the usual “Dear Dennis”. Also
signed “Fraternally Yrs” instead of “Yrs”.
Comments
on the position of women in the OTO “prior to the reorganization by Grant…” and
pointing out that despite the “token initiation of women in the OTO… all of the
instructions are written to men… women are more “experimental vessels” than
active participants. Grant got in trouble for trying to correct the bias &
train women as equals.”
This
letter was written after the escape and recapture of some of the thelemic
prisoners mentioned in earlier letters. Two of them tried to escape, D.C. was captured
near the prison but H.Z. and a friend were successful and free for several days
before recapture. I had been corresponding with all of them and was a little
worried that H.Z. was going to be knocking on my dormitory door.
This
letter ends with a most prophetic wish that would inspire the first large scale
gathering of Typhonian Thelemites in the United States:
“Wouldn’t
it be great if the OTO could find a farm somewhere central & hold a
regional or nation-wide get-together?”
(It so
happened that Andahadna/Nema was living at just such a farm in Ohio, and in
August 1980 the Warrior Lord Working brought together Thelemites from the east
coast, Florida, Texas and more to the Maat-Pangrove Abbey of Thelema, the
birthplace of the Horus-Maat Lodge.)
XI.
2 Sept.
1979ev
One page
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