T HE E.G.C. may be considered the ecclesiastical arm of O.T.O. It is primarily dedicated to the performance of the Gnostic Mass, which includes the following proclamation of Thelemic religious doctrine.
I believe in one secret and ineffable LORD; and in one Star in the Company of Stars of whose fire we are created, and to which we shall return; and in one Father of Life, Mystery of Mystery, in His name CHAOS, the sole viceregent of the Sun upon the Earth; and in one Air the nourisher of all that breathes.
And I believe in one Earth, the Mother of us all, and in one Womb wherein all men are begotten, and wherein they shall rest, Mystery of Mystery, in Her name BABALON.
And I believe in the Serpent and the Lion, Mystery of Mystery, in His name BAPHOMET.
And I believe in one Gnostic and Catholic Church of Light, Life, Love and Liberty, the Word of whose Law is THELEMA.
And I believe in the communion of Saints.
And, forasmuch as meat and drink are transmuted in us daily into spiritual substance, I believe in the Miracle of the Mass.
And I confess one Baptism of Wisdom whereby we accomplish the Miracle of Incarnation. And I confess my life one, individual, and eternal that was, and is, and is to come.
AUMGN. AUMGN. AUMGN.
Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (E.G.C.), or Gnostic Catholic Church, celebrates the Gnostic Mass, and offers other sacerdotal rites including baptism, confirmation, pubertal/menarcheal rites of passage, marriage, last rites, funerals, and requiems. Clergy are members of specific degrees within O.T.O.
Aleister Crowley wrote the Gnostic Mass in 1913 as an expression through dramatic ritual of the O.T.O.'s spiritual mysteries. Today, O.T.O. Oases and Lodges are charged with celebrating the Gnostic Mass on a regular basis. The rite calls for five officers: a Priest and Priestess representing the masculine and feminine polarities, a Deacon who oversees the ritual, assisting the clergy and guiding the congregation as needed, and two Children who carry implements and offer the sacraments to the congregants. In practice, the offices of the Children are often performed by adults, and when limited by practical circumstances, the rite can be performed with only three officers: Priest, Priestess and Deacon. Despite its resemblance to the Catholic Tridentine Mass (e.g. the Creed, Collects, and sacraments), the tenets and contents of the Gnostic Mass are profoundly Thelemic. Uniquely, each celebration of the Mass allows communicants to imbue their sacraments with a private intention, thus being active magicians rather than passive observers. 1 The ritual appears in many of Crowley's books, including Magick, The Equinox (vol. 3 nos. 1 and 10), Gems from the Equinox , and online at www.hermetic.com/sabazius/gnostic_mass.htm and www.gnosticmass.org .
Crowley penned the Mass soon after his June 1, 1912, appointment as O.T.O. National Grand Master for the U.K. As he recalled:
My own relations with the Gnostic Catholic Church are like the annals of the poor, short and simple. My predecessor was rather keen about the Gnostics as the original founders of what, after many changes, has become the O.T.O. During my six weeks in Moscow in 1913 I had what I can only call almost continuous illumination and wrote some of my very best poems and essays there. Of course, the Gnostic Mass was one. It was inspired, I think, by Saint Basil's. It sounds rather extraordinary, but I seem to have had some premonition of the Revolution in Russia, and my idea was to write a Mass which would, in one sense, carry on the old tradition yet not come into conflict with science. The whole thing, as is almost invariably the case with my work, was written straight off in white heat and never underwent revision. 1
The Gnostic Mass presents, in stylized and dramatic form, the central secret of O.T.O. The ritual saw its first publication in 1918: Crowley ran it in The International , an American journal he was editing at the time. Theodor Reuss prepared a German translation the same year. During this period, Crowley sought to establish a U.S. Supreme Grand Council of O.T.O. in Detroit, with prospective members preparing themselves with rehearsals of the newly published Gnostic Mass. Although the body never got off the ground, the centrality of the Mass in Crowley's design indicates its importance to him. Reuss attended a 1920 International Masonic Conference in Zurich, where he proposed (alas, unsuccessfully) that the Gnostic Mass be adopted as the official ritual of Rose Croix Freemasonry.
The Mass always remained part of Crowley's life: it was occasionally celebrated in the early 1920s at the Cefalù abbey, 2 and he recited its Anthem at Raoul Loveday's funeral in 1923. When recording selected poems in the 1940s, he included several of the Collects from the Mass. Agape Lodge, founded in 1935 in southern California, began regular celebrations of the Gnostic Mass. Today, its celebration serves as a primary objective for O.T.O. bodies worldwide, fulfilling Crowley's vision described in the Confessions . 3 Discussing the Anthem, he writes,
The lyrical climax is in some respects my supreme achievement in invocation; in fact, the chorus beginning: “Thou who art I beyond all I am . . .” seemed to me worthy to be introduced as the anthem into the Ritual of the Gnostic Catholic Church which, later in the year, I prepared for the use of the O.T.O., the central ritual of its public and private celebration , corresponding to the Mass of the Roman Catholic Church. [italics added]
1 Liber Aleph , chapter 86 (Γη), “De Formula Tota.”
1 Crowley to W. B. Crow, 2 April 1945. Yorke Collection, Warburg Institute, University of London.
2 According to Crowley, “we occasionally celebrated a semi-religious ceremony known as the Gnostic Mass.” See The Legend of Aleister Crowley (3rd edition), p. 381.
3 Confessions , p. 714.