Saints of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica - Hermeneuticon (original) (raw)

A list of Gnostic Saints from Liber XV, The Gnostic Mass, the primary public and private ritual of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica.

There are three accepted versions of Liber XV published by Aleister Crowley, each having some differences but are all accepted as official for performances by EGC. There are also Saints added posthumously based on notes. There are, additionally, for reference and comparison, Saints that were included by Theodor Reuss in his 1920 German translation and lists from James A Eschelman's Thelemic Mass for Temple of Thelema.

Names in italic are on the “short list” for truncated performances of Liber XV. There is no short list indicated in the first publication as it appears in The International.

The end of the list of Gnostic Saints is comprised of the each past OHO of OTO, although whilst Aleister Crowley was current OHO of OTO, he placed himself on the list here. Some performances of Liber XV include Hymenaeus Alpha, Grady Louis McMurtry, at the end; and presumably Hymenaeus Beta, William Breeze, would be included when he passes his office to another.

“Martin Starr quotes a letter from Crowley to the occult ecclesiastic W.B. Crow in which Crowley described the saints of the Gnostic Mass as 'a rhetorical flourish – little more.'“—A Discourse on the Fifth Article

“ordain the insertion of the name … among the More Memorable Saints in the Gnostic Mass.”—Aleister Crowley, quoted at Paul Gauguin

There are no women on this list. Two references that may be of interest may help to explain this fact.

In a note about The Saints collect of Liber XV, Helena and Tau Apiryon offer a quote from Hymenaeus Beta, current OHO of OTO:

In his address to the Women’s Conference in 1996 (see The Magical Link, Fall 1997 e.v.), the Patriarch Hymenaeus Beta described the Gnostic Mass as a ‘celebration of the sexual polarities and their cosmic and natural interplay’ from a male perspective, having been written by a man. With regard to the list of Saints, he said, ‘It is a list of the small handful of men and man-gods who, in the opinion of the author of the Mass, understood the divinity of woman. […] Someday, perhaps not soon, but who knows, a woman adept of the Sovereign Sanctuary will manifest the genius to compose a Mass in which the female takes the more active role, and the male the more passive (as with siva and sakti in Hinduism) — in which the Deacon, speaking for the Priestess, can claim communion with the women in history that have perceived the divinity of man.'”

However, note that in Ecclesia Gnostica, Vol 1 no 4, Summer-Fall 81 (1985), in the conclusion of the “Brief Biographies of the Gnostic Saints” series, there is evidence that three feminine gnostic saints were, in fact, recognized by EGC: “four saints have been canonized by the E.G.C. Board to date. Sketches of these eight saints are presented below … Rose Edith Kelly … Leah Hirsig … Jane Wolfe …” (The fourth was Hymenaeus Alpha 777, aka Grady Louis McMurtry).

Theodor Reuss included Dante Alighieri, Ludwig von Fischer, Franz Hartmann, and Charles Detré in the list of Gnostic Saints in his 1920 translation of Liber XV, The Gnostic Mass into German. The first three appear in Liber LII Manifesto of the O.T.O.. Ludwig von Fischer was included by Aleister Crowley in the original publication of the Gnostic Mass in The International, but subsequently dropped him from the list.

As published in 776½: Tables of Correspondences for Practical Ceremonial by James A Eschelman, Liber XV was rewritten in The Thelemic Mass for Temple of Thelema. In this version, there is an alternate Saints list in two Collects, with the intention “[t]o further equilibrate the balance between gender energies in the Mass”.

In a Collect for the Lion-Serpent there is a list (“reduced from the full list” not provided) of male saints, “[a]t each name Deacon signs X with thumb between index and medius.”

“Krishna, Thoth, Mosheh, Lao Tze, Gautama, Dionysus, Mohammed, and To Mega Therion. With these also: Hermes, Chiram, Horus, and Melchizedek; Apollonius of Tyana, Bardaisan, and Hippolytus that transmitted the light of the Gnosis to us their successors and heirs; Dante, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci; Raymond Lully, Nicholas Flamel, Robert Fludd, and Paracelsus who labored in the Work of the Sun; Prince Rakoczy le Conte de St. Germain, Dr. John Dee, ”Christian Rosencreutz,“ Michael Maier, and Thomas Vaughan who upraised the Rosy Cross; Giordano Bruno, Miguel de Molinos, Richard Maurice Bucke, and Swami Vivekananda; Dr. Paul Foster Case, Dr. Israel Regardie, Dr. William Wynn Westcott, George Cecil Jones, Edward Alexander Crowley, and Karl Johannes Germer”

And a Collect for the Earth includes a list of female saints, “[a]t each name Deacon signs O with thumb between index and medius.”

“Shekinah, Shakti, Sophia, Athena, Iymma, Isis, and Hé Kokkiné Guné. With these also: Sappho, Hypatia, Medea, Miriam, Fatimah, and Guenevere; Joan of Arc, Hildegard von Bingen, Caterina Benincasa, Teresa of Ávila, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and Rebecca Cox Jackson, who bore the labarum of the Light through the darkness. And these also: Eva von Buttlar, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Ida Cradock, Anandamoyi Ma, and Vivian Godfrey Barcynski; ”Anna Sprengel,“ Florence Farr, Violet Firth, and Ann Davies, who nurtured a Golden Dawn; Rose Edith Crowley, Leah Hirsig, Sarah Jane Wolfe, and Phyllis Evelina Seckler”

There is an unofficial, speculative list of feminine Gnostic Saints, as counterpoint to the masculine list, inserted into the Earth collect at An Analysis of the Gnostic Mass:

“With love we honor them that did of old adore thee and manifest thy Victory unto the World: Isis, Athena, Sappho, Medea, Kali, Fatima, Lilith, Sheba, the wisdom of Solomon; With these also: Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Lady Jane Wolfe, Hatshepsut, Hippolyta, Boudicca, Marie Curie, Amelia Earhart, and many an Holy Adventuress; Anaïs Nin, Ouarda the Seer, Marie Laveau, Alostrael, Mary Shelley, Salome, Judith, Ananda Moyi Ma, Gala Dali, Lady Frieda Harris, and all other Holy Women of Thelema, workers of the Obeah and the Wanga. O boundless ecstasy of the Naught, who gatherest the blood of all saints into thy Cup! With all thy Daughters of the Sangraal, we honor and love Her that is above, within, and about us. May their Essence be here measureless, mystical, mysterious and maternal to manifest this feast!”