From: tim@toad.com (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: alt.magick
Subject: Re: The connection between Crowley and Wicca, part 2
Date: 11 Aug 93 01:31:48 GMT

I haven't read the whole thing yet (gods, it's verbose!)  The only
thing I've seen so far that bears on the historical questions involved
is the repeated assertion that P.I. status involves years of arduous
work.  This may very well be the case in the caliphate as of the last
decade or so, but it certainly was not true of the O.T.O. in the
1940's -- or even in the 1970's and early 1980's, when roughly a dozen
people were abruptly appointed to the IX, bypassing the earlier
degrees.

Whenever the O.T.O. gets low in members, rapid advancement is the
rule, as it attempts to create a set of higher-degree members capable
of creating and organizing a revival.  In fact, at the time of
Gardner, the initiations weren't even performed -- to be given a
degree, you were simply given a paper copy of the ritual.

When Gardner was admitted in the mid-40's, the O.T.O. had very few
members and was in just such an emergency status.

It appears that the writer hopes to demonstrate a longer acquaintance
then three years between Crowley and Gardner by claiming that
Gardner's P.I. status must have been the result of long acquaintance.
But far more people were skipped much higher in the Order within
recent memory.  This practice is now out of favor given the full
staffing of the higher degrees at present, but I don't think anyone
familiar with the recent history of the Order would have made such a
statement about P.I. necessarily implying years of association.

The actual initiation date of Gardner is on record, and was printed in
a recent issue of the Thelema Lodge Calendar by Bill Heidrick.  But I
can't seem to find it at present.  It was within the known years of
contact, 1946-1947.  
-- Tim Maroney

[The author of the original article clearly has one]
[or two axes to grind, too. --Ceci                 ]