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