Road Trips and Special Guests – Grassroots Promotion

Posted on by Jon Sewell

Let’s begin with the assumption that you want to make art, be it staging a Rite of Eleusis, or any other means of self expression. Then let’s continue with the idea that you want to share that art with other people.

How do you do it?

Start with the basics: social media, invite your friends, posters, and reaching out to any special interest blogs, podcasts or online magazines that appeal to your target audience.

But in terms of really bringing in an enthusiastic crowd, we suggest you make an event of the presentation. Over the years we explored several manners for doing this to greater and lesser success. Here is a mile high overview of our strategy.

We Started Taking the Show on the Road

We staged The Rite of Luna in 2005, and before presenting it in May in Seattle, we traveled to Sekhet Maat Lodge in Portland, OR to do a “pre-show”.

This was a somewhat stripped down version of the final presentation, without the multimedia aspects and some of the larger set pieces. But it served as a target date to get the cast ready for performance, allowed us to create buzz around the material we were presenting, and work out some of the kinks in front of a supportive crowd.

The Rite of Mercury at Sekhet Maat Lodge, 2010

The members of the Lodge really loved having us, and we learned that strange rule performing artists encounter, the further you travel, the cooler you are.

This method went well enough that we used the same strategy for two more shows, The Rite of Venus in 2007, and The Rite of Mercury in 2010. At some point I should go into detail on The Rite of Venus 7/7/7 event, as that deserves a post all it’s own.

As we continued to explore this strategy, we discovered that there were problems and expenses associated with travel we had not anticipated. In addition, as our sets grew more and more elaborate, the idea of bringing them to other locations became more problematic.

So we needed to explore a new strategy.

We Brought the Show Home

Employing that aforementioned strange rule (the further you travel, the cooler you are) in it’s converse, we decided to invite a guest speaker from out of town with a solid draw (and so much charm!) to speak for one of our performances. We then increased the ticket cost for that one show enough to cover airfare and expenses.

Thus we had one person traveling, no sets, and a draw that naturally created a more robust event. Additionally, buzz about the lecture event increased buzz about the remaining performances.

Lon Milo DuQuette

Our first guest lecture was delivered by the inestimable Lon Milo DuQuette, who was kind enough to give a talk and performance before one of our presentations of The Rite of Sol, as well as provide a couple of lectures for Horizon Lodge, our local O.T.O. body.

The “video” of Lon’s Lecture, created by Daniel Christensen

We had this wonderful plan to record the lecture on video and make it a special feature on the DVD. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the recording media. The video was entirely lost. But as fate would have it, we had audio rolling through the lecture as well.

Our good friend Daniel Christensen volunteered to create a power point style video to accompany the lecture, which we placed on YouTube, and which continues to receive traffic to this date.

Incidentally, Daniel has invited his mother to several of our presentations, which she has always graciously attended and appreciated. After seeing the last one, Daniel proceeded to show her clips from some of the others she had missed, and to try to explain the overall narrative. She was confused by much of this. Eventually, he showed her the video he had created for Lon’s lecture.

After watching it, she turned to him and asked: “Why didn’t you show this to me first?”

As it turns out, this lecture is an excellent introduction to the overall structure of The Rites of Eleusis.

After our success with a guest speaker for The Rite of Sol, we decided this was a better investment of our resources. Since then we have had the pleasure of having Richard Kaczynski, Merle Ward and Dr. David Shoemaker provide guest lectures, each bringing their own wit and wisdom to their presentations.

The best part of this practice is having the opportunity to hear the lectures in the theater, while immersed in the work itself. It really drives the material home.

The Rites of Eleusis

Posted on by Jon Sewell

Their Origin and Meaning

[Editor: This is a “guest blog post” written by Aleister Crowley. I suggest this article to anyone who wishes to undertake performance of The Rites of Eleusis. Additionally, if you want to place The Rites, themselves, within the context of Crowley’s life and works, I suggest watching this informative lecture by Dr. Richard Kaczynski, who was gracious enough to deliver this lecture to the attendees of the Eleusyve Productions presentation of The Rite of Mars, in conjunction with the Seattle Esoteric Book Conference in 2014.]

The Rights of Eleusis

Among the various accounts that have appeared of the character of the Rites of Eleusis, so-called, I find that very few people seem to understand intellectually what they were all about. It will be as well, therefore, if I make here a plain statement as to the exact nature of the rites. The ceremonies developed from very rude beginnings. The first one was in this wise. I happened to have a few friends in my room in the evening, among them the celebrated Australian violinist, Miss Leila Waddell. It struck me that we might pass the time by a sort of artistic dialogue; I read a piece of poetry from one of the great classics, and she replied with a piece of music suggested by my reading. I retorted with another poem; and the evening developed into a regular controversy. The others were intensely interested in this strange conflict, and in the silence of the room spiritual enthusiasm took hold of us; so acutely that we were all intensely uplifted, to the point in some cases of actual ecstasy, an intoxication of the same kind as that experienced by an assistant at the celebration of the Mass or the performance of Parsifal, but stronger because of its naturalness and primitiveness.

It was subsequently decided to try and tune everybody up to some definite, prearranged emotion, and we strung together a rough ceremony in honor of Artemis. This was so successful that it even impressed persons who had always been complete sceptics and scoffers. Having been of help in private, we endeavoured to reproduce the effects in public with greater elaboration.

How to Write Rites Right

With regard to the genesis of the Rites of Eleusis I must explain that they did not spring fully armed from my brain, Minerva-like. The actual form which my ideas took was simply a question of convenience and compromise. It was necessary to have a series of some sort, and seven seemed to be about the right number, if we were going to get them done before people went away for Christmas. I might have chosen another sort of deities; but I thought that those associated with the days of the week would make it easier for everybody, and it certainly made it very much easier for me, because the correspondences of colour, form, idea, number, and so on of the planets had been so very well worked out. Of the way in which the rituals were constructed, I must say a few words. Let us put ourselves in the position of the dramatist. Take, for example, the first ritual, that of Saturn. Working on tradition, just as Wagner did when he took the old Norse Saga for his world drama, we find Saturn as a black, melancholy God, the devourer of his children. Ideas of Night, Death, Black hellebore, Lead, Cypress, Tombs, Deadly Nightshade. All these things have a necessary connection with Saturn in the mind of anyone who has read the classics. The first condition of this rite is, then, to make the temple a kind of symbolic representation of the sphere of Saturn. So the representative of Saturn wears the Black Robe. The time is declared to be midnight (though, as a matter of fact, it is only twenty minutes past eight — this is an ordinary theatrical convention; and masons will think of certain analogies in their own “Orgies”). If the brethren are fed, it is “on the corpses of their children” as Saturn fed on his. If they drink, it is “poppyheads infused in blood” — symbols of sleep and death. Saturn further represents the earth, the plane of matter, humanity bounded by old age and death, humanity blindly groping after illumination and failing to get it.

Aleister Crowley performing the role of Magister Templi
The Rite of Saturn, Caxton Hall, London 1910.

The Truth Behind the Veil

It is, then, the primitive darkness of humanity that is represented in this ritual. Therefore, we have the despairing cry, “There is no God”; and as a logical result the suicide of the high priest, for there cannot be a priest without a God. It is the blackness of uttermost despair; and so the ritual ends. It is only in the second rite, the rite of Jupiter, who is etymologically and actually identical with the Hebrew Jehovah, that light breaks. But even in that rite, when the Supreme Power is declared, He is too exalted for anyone to approach Him; it is only by the work of the Divine Spirit that He is made manifest; and this manifestation only takes place in the God-man whom some call Iacchus and others Jesus — again an etymological and mystical identity! This doctrine appears to me to differ from the orthodox doctrine of Christianity in one point only; it is not sectarian. I do not require Mr. John M. Robertson to tell me that the story of the crucifixion is merely a mystery play adapted from the rites of Mithras; the rite being symbolical of a spiritual truth, all nations that possess knowledge of spiritual things will have incorporated it in their rites under some name or other.

The Deadness of Dogma

If my interpretation has been erroneous, let me be shown my error, and I will repent; but no sensible person can maintain for a moment that my interpretation is un-serious or irreverent. And my chief defense — my counter-attack — is that the orthodox methods of inculcating the doctrine in question have been so purely dogmatic and dull, that they have lost all vital force. Without art, truth becomes falsehood. Imagine anyone taking the teachings of the “Blue Bird,” and pounding them into a creed, and writing dull sermons about them! The unfortunate children who had to learn them would begin to hate Maeterlinck bitterly. But let the sublime truths of Christianity be once again “clothed round by sweet art, with the spacious warm heaven of her imminent wings,” and there will be that true revival of religious life that everyone is blindly seeking.

-Aleister Crowley
The Bystander
23rd of November, 1910

Difficult People

Posted on by Jon Sewell

“It is necessary, in this world, to be made of harder stuff than one’s environment.” 
― Aleister Crowley

This post has been delayed because I find the subject matter particularly difficult. For my own part, I have nothing but the deepest appreciation and respect for everyone who wanted to work with us along the way, and I make it a practice to foster an attitude of gratitude for the abundant support we have been provided. I have always seen my role as being supportive to the artists we work with, and have made every effort to be understanding and patient when situations become difficult.

Complaining about other people and their behavior, especially in a public forum, isn’t something I am either keen to do, or particularly comfortable with.

Yet, it would be a disservice to anyone looking for practical advice if I were to pretend that there were never interpersonal challenges, never disagreements, and that we were never placed in a situation where we made the decision to remove a cast or crew member from our team. It happened on several occasions over the years, and each time was uncomfortable, but ultimately we did what we thought was best for the team, and the project.

This particular post, like many others, also presumes that you, the reader, are the person running the project, and the advise is geared accordingly.

In our last post we talked about Adjustment, course correction, and how moving forward often means just, “not taking things personally”. Rather than succumbing to frustration, accept the reality and soldier on. This is likewise the first order of business in conflict management when dealing with difficult people.

“We were just joking!” Capricornus explains to Choragoge

Fortunately, those skills will likely cover you over 80% of the time, and often fostering the attitude of courageous adjustment on your team is enough to smooth out the wrinkles and keep the project moving forward without taking further action. It is surprising, but true, that when you tell people that you expect them to be able to handle a challenge, and when you put that idea to them with conviction, that they will believe you and act accordingly!

The other 20% of the time, you may find yourself dealing with the sort of intransigence that can only be solved by removing the human obstacle from the equation.

The reasons that a person might be difficult are as varied as the people, themselves. There are some who are attached to their own vision, and cannot refrain from argument. There are some who are cruel and disruptive to other cast members for their own amusement or out of insecurity. There are some who will just actively do the opposite of whatever you ask in the name of “Chaos Magick” or some other excuse to defy any and all authority. There are some who simply claim that they wish to be involved, and proceed to do nothing, but argue their devotion to the project.

Some challenges can be overcome by setting firm expectations, and sticking to them. If the behavior can be discussed, acknowledged, and modified, chances are good that this will be a great learning opportunity for everyone involved. Working with a group is one of our best catalysts for growth, and one of the benefits of doing this work. Don’t be too quick to run off volunteers who may just be working through some personal foibles.

“Their false compassion is called compassion and their false understanding is called understanding, for this is their most potent spell.”


― Aleister Crowley

Nevertheless, the underlying truth is that unless you believe that you can work through the issue, the reason is not important. If the person cannot address the concerns about their conduct, then the project leaders must address the concerns, by removing the person from the project. A problematic person cannot be ignored within the group. They will drive off the rest of the team.

And if someone is making a point of being difficult while trying to create and rehearse, there is a good likelihood that they will be equally or more difficult when it is time to perform! Sadly, it also means they will be difficult when asked to leave.

They will argue. Make a scene. Accuse you of being cruel. Defame you on the internet. Try to foster bad publicity. Possibly reach out to crew members and supporters and try to convince them to withdraw support. And my all time favorite, accuse you of being a poor Thelemite for interfering with their will*.

“And another thing! You are a BAD THELEMITE!”
…is NOT what Magister Templi said to Aquarius.

This, BTW, is non-sense. If anyone has the will to be involved in your project, they must necessarily have the will to meet your criteria. And if it is truly their will to celebrate The Rites of Eleusis and they cannot do so as a member of your team, they can certainly go and do it themselves. Wish them luck, and escort them out!

It can be rather like a bad breakup in a public place. Loud, angry and embarrassing. I recommend that any difficult conversation like this involve the person in question, and two members of the team. Don’t do it in front of everyone if you can help it, and don’t go alone. Three is the magic number.

And when they do respond loudly, and they may, once again the adage, “Don’t take it personally” comes to mind. You cannot allow yourself too much time to revel in hurt feelings when dealing with a troublesome individual. You have a production to run, and they have already derailed it to some degree. There is a very good chance that causing you distress is precisely the reaction they are looking for, and I suspect you have better things to do.

Remove them from the group, e-lists, etc. and move on with the work. Explain it to the remainder of the cast without getting personal. Remember, another person may have to depart, and they will be watching for how you treat people when they leave. Every courtesy you show to a difficult person once they have been removed reflects well on you, and keeps the channels of communication open. You want people to come to you and let you know what is happening, rather than being afraid to reach out to you, thus allowing their struggles come as a surprise at the eleventh hour.

I also strongly recommend that you do not respond on social media, do not engage in debate, do not play into their narrative, do not try to “show them” by doubling-down in even more egregious behavior than their own. This is a victory for your detractors. This plays to the narrative of their persecution. And in the end, it is a waste of creative energy.

“The best way to show that a stick is crooked is not to argue about it or to spend time denouncing it, but to lay a straight stick alongside it.”

― D.L. Moody

This is a quote I often paraphrase as: “Sometimes you lay a straight stick next to a crooked stick and call it a good days work.”

And this is a much easier task when you remember this simple truth: You are not in a power struggle with anyone. If you are in charge, you can listen to every idea (at the appropriate time), consider every option, and make your decision. You can adjust as necessity requires, as we previously discussed. You are never obligated to debate. If you are running the show, that is it.

Now, if you make it awful, people will leave. But if you allow someone else to make it awful, people will also leave. At the end of the day, you do not have to explain yourself, defend your position, or apologize for being responsible for making the decisions. You just have to step into your role as an authority and act according.

And, Oh, my friends! Don’t let that go to your head, either. That is the other pitfall of taking things personally.

Adjustment

Posted on by Jon Sewell

Course Correction Without Recrimination

“No plan survives contact with the enemy.” – Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

While the above quote is a paraphrased from the original German, “Kein Operationsplan reicht mit einiger Sicherheit über das erste Zusammentreffen mit der feindlichen Hauptmacht hinaus” (no plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force) the sentiment is witty enough, and germane to theater enough, that it might have come from William Shakespeare.

As such, it seems like a fine place to launch into Adjustment in the creative process. I am particularly fond of the idea of “Adjustment” as it is one of the Tarot Trumps from The Book of Thoth that differs in both title and nuance from the traditional attribution “Justice”.

From The Book of Thoth – “This card in the old pack was called Justice. This word has none but a purely human and therefore relative sense; so it is not to be considered as one of the facts of Nature. Nature is not just, according to any theological or ethical idea; but Nature is exact.”

Crowley then goes on to describe the relationship between Venus and Saturn, as they rule and have their exaltation in Libra, which this card symbolizes. He details how the resultant interplay between these two forces manifest as the cause and effect that is understood as Karma, and that we experience as temporal reality.

Sounds pretty fancy. Check out the whole thing.

This is a pretty lofty concept to apply to art, to be certain, but then all the best concepts are applied to art, and vice versa. For practical purposes, this comes down to a simple idea: “We become what we do.”

More especially, “When we do, we overcome.”

Every effort we put forth in the creative process, in the “Doing”, must by definition come up against the resistance that is inertia. We are shaping matter in accordance with our wills, and that matter would otherwise be at rest. Overcoming physics with the will to create is the very definition of art, and magick. And matter has no internal motivation to be helpful, so we must adjust our efforts in accordance with what is most efficacious in our creative process.

And we will run afoul of all manner of challenges. Fortunately, we have our love for our art to sustain us!

Hermia and Lysander from A Midsummer Night’s Dream

LYSANDER:
Ay me! for aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth;
…
War, death, or sickness, did lay siege to it,
Making it momentary as a sound,
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,
Brief as the lightning in the collied night
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
And ere a man hath power to say ‘Behold!’
The jaws of darkness do devour it up;(150)
So quick bright things come to confusion.

HERMIA: If then true lovers have ever cross’d,
It stands as an edict in destiny.

– A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act 1, scene 1

Or, to quote from Liber Librae

“Thou then who hast trials and troubles, rejoice because of them, for in them is Strength, and by their means is a pathway opened unto that Light.”

In order to overcome these challenges, in order to succeed, we will have to Adjust! And in adjusting, we become stronger, more experienced, and better suited to our next task!

I cannot tell you the troubles you will face on your path, only that they will come. Perhaps you will lose money, or suffer illness. Perhaps someone on cast will move away, or become disenchanted. Perhaps you will win the lottery and decide you have better things to do. (What? It doesn’t all have to suck! Getting something cool can be equally distracting!)

The point is, there will be challenges to overcome, and an attitude of adjustment is crucial to progress. It is here that I find the term Adjustment so much more appropriate than the idea of Justice, as exemplified in older decks. Justice demands that we stop all progress to find resolution. And while certain redress of injury is necessary to the healing process, or culling process, as the case may be, it is often a distraction from the work at hand. As an example, if a cast member moves away due to hardship or family circumstance, this requires no redress of injury, simply a fond farewell, and the search for a suitable replacement can begin. There should be no recrimination in such a circumstance, and to search for “justice” (or for someone or something to blame) is a waste of energy.

I will also say here that there is a certain school of “Wish-craft” that puts forth the proposition that if an action is in accord with your true will, that it will some how manifest without effort or obstacle. This is the most nonsensical notion ever uttered.

“How should it be otherwise, O man, whose life is but a day in Eternity, a drop in the Ocean of time; how, were thy trials not many, coulds’t thou purge thy soul from the dross of earth? 

Is it but now that the Higher Life is beset with dangers and difficulties; hath it not ever been so with the Sages and Hierophants of the past? They have been persecuted and reviled, they have been tormented of men; yet through this also has their Glory increased.”

Liber Librae

I often remind those who adhere to the “easy-road” philosophy of Thelema that many of our Gnostic Saints died in poverty and affliction. Their devotion to the exploration of their true will did not necessarily lead to riches or reward in any material sense, because the reward is in the “Doing”.

And lastly, I leave you this thought on the theater, which saw me through many a trial.

Invocation And Integration

Posted on by Jon Sewell

More on the Art of Devotion and It’s Impact

In the previous post by Daniel Christensen, we touched on a variety of ways to practice invocation, and I’d like to dig a little deeper into some methods for approaching this as a ceremonial magician.

I am going to begin by recommending a study of ASTARTE vel Liber BERYLLI sub figura CLXXV. This is an excellent series of instructions for devotion to deity. It may seem deeper than a ritualist is likely to dive prior to celebrating one of The Rites of Eleusis, particularly if you are planning to start with a dramatic reading of the script, but as with any discipline, it is a matter of learning the rudiments first. I certainly do not intend to intimate that doing all of Liber ASTARTE is a prerequisite to studying or performing The Rites of Eleusis. Rather, it is a series of instruction of how to dive deepest into the material, and as such it is a excellent way to gauge the stages of your process in the work.

Being aware of how this material can be approached by stages, and not allowing oneself to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of a task, is of greatest practical merit when getting started. Don’t try to do all the steps at once, but acquaint yourself with the steps, and apply your creativity in following them. In the beginning, a little goes a long way!

As an aside, in Liber ASTARTE Crowley presents some very clear guidelines for devotional work, and I recommend that those with limited experience with invocation adhere to those guidelines. There is a tendency to want to experiment in the early stages, and it is the easiest way to develop poor habits. I know that this sounds odd coming from the guy who says, “Drive it like you stole it!”, but practically speaking, in order to drive it like you stole it you will need to know how to start your engine!

By way of further analogy, a musician who has practiced scales, learned theory, and studied their craft can appear to break all manner of rules when improvising. But this is the way an untrained mind views mastery. In truth, the musician has learned when it is permissible and desirable to depart from the standard modes of play in order to evoke a nuanced emotional response in the listener. By contrast, a beginner seeing this virtuosity could seek to emulate it without understanding any of the nuance, and this will simply result in making a frightful noise.

All this is to say: Avoid taking shortcuts in your personal work. You are working on yourself, as a person. The last thing you want to do is short-change yourself!

Here I would like to deviate from Invocation and talk about Integration.

In mythical sotries we have heard the tale of the Titan Prometheus, who defied Zeus and stole fire from the Gods in order to give it to humanity. There is a strong parallel between the narrative of this story, and the experience of invocational magicians, including a dire warning about the repercussions of such a course of action.

Joseph Campbell describes this narrative in terms of the Hero’s Journey in his work “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”. The Hero’s Journey is an archetypal story pattern, common in ancient myths as well as modern day adventures. This is also the story of every magician who embarks upon this work.

Invocational work touches something within the practitioner that is trans-personal. This force, once awakened, must be integrated back into the world. By trans-personal I mean to say that it relates to a primal motivation rather than to a particular set of circumstances. In the same way that hunger, or frustration, or desire are all things we experience relating to different phenomena, but the essence of these impulses is experienced by humans, primates, and really most living things in one manner or another. These are the titanic forces that dwell in the unconscious, in the unknown, to surface in moments of tension. During the course of our exploration we come to awaken these forces within ourselves.

When we work directly with these forces; when we anthropomorphize them, interact with them, love them, hate them, fight them, fuck them, we bring them into our world. We bring these living archetypes back to our day to day lives, like Prometheus carrying the flame to mankind. This challenges our preconceptions and changes our view of the world. It is force and fire, and it will impact our lives in profound ways. We discover treasures. We discover monsters. And often we discover how easily these Gods can throw us off balance, dazzle us with glamour and make us monstrous in the process.

This is precisely why we need to integrate our work into our lives, rather than try to compartmentalize it. Journal about it. Look for ways that it is informing your daily life. Paint, or sculpt, or blog. If you are me, write songs about it. Find the places where there is a sympathy between the work you are doing and the life you are living and make a space there.

Because any work you do with intention will result in energy. That energy will be seeking it’s “ground”. Provide a path for it to follow. Make space for the lightening to strike, and know that it will. One does not seal such Holy fire in a jar, one makes a space for it to shed it’s light, and breathe the air, and offer it material upon which it may feed and work.

This is what I mean by integration, finding a fitting altar for Prometheus to set his fire.

I was a little uncertain about how to end this post, and fortune smiled upon me.

AS I am writing this Solsbury Hill is playing in the next room.

“To keep in silence I resigned
My friends would think I was a nut
Turning water into wine
Open doors would soon be shut
So I went from day to day
Though my life was in a rut
‘Til I thought of what I’ll say
Which connection I should cut…”

Peter Gabriel wrote this song about the alienation he felt after a spiritual experience. This is a part of the Hero’s Journey as well. The loneliness one will partake of, being an alien in the material world, after seeing the Heavens and conquering the Hells.

Quoting the singer about the song: “It’s about being prepared to lose what you have for what you might get … It’s about letting go.”

Invocational Arts

Posted on by Jon Sewell

Guest Blog Post by Daniel Christensen

[Editor’s Note: Today we are happy to feature a guest blog post by Daniel Christensen, an Eleusyve alumni who has been involved in every Rite we staged in one manner or another. For several weeks we’ve been talking about a post about the mechanics of invocation, and the various techniques employed in devotional work. We asked Daniel to kick off the topic because of his well rounded background with several methods of devotional work, many of which informed the practices of our cast over the years.]

I was honored to be involved with the Eleusyve Theater Group between 2004 and 2018, performing and/or working back stage for all seven of the rock opera Rites of Eleusis. Wrapped in and around that experience, I was also involved with a neo-pagan ritual theater group that performed a weekend-long immersive and interactive modern interpretation of the Eleusinian Mysteries.* I know that in some places, there are hard feelings between some neo-pagans and some Thelemites. I am not here to sing Kumbaya to make it all better**. What I will say is that each of those world-views and practices informed my approach to the other.

I would also point out the elephant in the temple: The big differences between these two forms of theater are rooted in the assumptions that we make about who our audience is and what they expect.

A few years ago, I saw two rituals rather close together, both on the descent of Inanna: one neo-pagan and one Thelemic. Both used the same myth and yet each presented the ritual in fundamentally different ways.

The neo-pagan ritual was rooted in physical participation: it was a community accustomed to spiral dances, improvised chants, and extemporaneous revelations from participants in touch with mythological archetypes. The attendees came to an old concrete military bunker after dark. They walked from station to station, shivering and shedding their bits of ego at each of the stages. A gate guardian demanded Inanna give up something to proceed; the attendees likewise gave up something of their own to proceed down to Erishkagal.

The Thelemic ritual was based in a culture that values individual observation and contemplation of a rite. Mass participation is limited to proscribed steps and signs, to pre – scripted recitation. Attendees to the Thelemic Descent ritual walked into a temple and sat against the side-walls, facing the center, as in a Gnostic Mass. The attendees watched Inanna make her progress down, just as they would watch the Priest progress from the tomb to the altar. They participated by reading excerpts from poetry, in unison; their sacrifice was written down and carried by one of the officers.

Both rituals had the same essential story. Both had priests and priestesses, music, lavish altars and costumes. Both had a profound impact on the people who attended. And yet, without even touching on the myth or the mystery, you know that both were very different in their presentation. Why? Because I believe a community will interact with your art in the manner to which they are accustomed. Both directors knew what their audiences would and would not do. We challenged a lot of that in both the Mysteries and the rock opera Rites. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. (I’m still sad no one sat in the “splash zone” for the Rite of Jupiter. I mean, y’all wear enough black, it wouldn’t show.)

This way to the “slash zone.”

Still reading? Good.

Devotional practices work the same way. For the more secularly inclined, I’m talking about digging into a spiritual role by digging into yourself; getting your roots down into it and letting the archetype and the role grow into you. Devotion is action, attention is focus.

For the group that presented the modern Eleusinian Mysteries, this devotional practice was an essential part of the performance. Auditions were held in November and weekly rehearsals began in January (for a festival that happened in late March/early April.) But before the first rehearsal, each of the priests and priestesses began devotional work at home. Actors were encouraged to erect an altar for the god-form they portrayed, to decorate it with bits and pieces and symbols appropriate to the role, and to spend time (daily, if possible) working on and with that. Having an outward manifestation – an altar, a talisman – gives the subconscious mind some symbols to chew on.

To provide balance, the actors also dug in to some good old fashioned left-brain research. One year for the Eleusinian Mysteries, I had the role of Ares – Greek god of war. Of course, my gut reaction was to sign up for a martial arts class. But in my research, I learned that before Ares was a fighter, his mentor first taught him to dance. (You don’t think he caught Aphrodite’s attention by his spear work alone, do you?) In the end, my tango lessons taught me more about my body and my kinesthetic sense than the krav maga. (Bonus: It made for a great showdown at the end of the Rite of Venus between Libra/Jon and Saturn/me.

So if devotion is energy and attention is focus, the third ingredient is time. My best results always come from stuffing my brain full of facts and then letting them ferment until an idea falls out. That fermentation usually means walking away and letting my mind unwind on something else. Remember though: research and contemplation and action all have ways of stirring up changes in your brain, but ideas take time and rarely adhere to a schedule.

The results? Investing the energy and focus over time can lead to transformation. Back when I was involved, the festival celebrating the Eleusinian Mysteries included not only staged and scripted performances, they also included improvisational, interactive time between the attendees and the priests and priestesses. After months of work (plus a few crisis counseling classes), the actors could step into their roles and, if all went right, speak and act in ways they believe those gods would behave. They became the walking, talking altars with which the attendees contemplated and furthered their own spiritual growth and development.

All this was bouncing around in my brain before this random dude approached me at a party and said, “I’m making a rock opera version of Crowley’s Rite of Luna. Wanna play?” At the Rites, we had devotional altars to the gods backstage in our dressing rooms. On one memorable occasion, we allowed the audience to make devotional offerings to the godform, which led to someone offering a thong to Venus. As I said, a community will experience your art in the manner they are accustomed.

*For the purposes of this article: the “Rites of Eleusis” will refer to the ritual theater plays written by Aleister Crowley and concerning the lightning path of the planets on the Tree of Life from Saturn to Luna; “the Eleusinian Mysteries” will refer to both the ancient and modern ritual theater surrounding the story of Demeter and the abduction of Persephone.
** I will also add that I consider myself a dilettante (in Lon Milo DuQuette’s sense) in both traditions. I was initiated and have long since retired from the Wiccan organization; baptized and confirmed in the EGC. Any mistakes or misunderstandings I make about the Fundamental Nature of How These Groups Work are my own and should not reflect upon Eleusyve Productions, the Ordo Templi Orientis, the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, or the Aquarian Tabernacle Church.

[Second Editor’s Note: Daniel sells himself short in this post, as he was not merely involved, he was entirely integral. And a really good sport. As evident in the clip below, which is one of several promotional videos we shot featuring “Pastor Steve”.]

Creative Rules

Posted on by Jon Sewell

More on Inspiration

Following up on my post about inspiration, (which somehow was mostly about my love of Xanadu) I want to talk about limitation as it relates to the creative process. And fortunately, we have an excellent jumping off point. The recent lecture by Dr. David Shoemaker, that he presented prior to The Rite of Saturn last September in Seattle.

So, before you read this post, you should really listen to this lecture on the Living Thelema Podcast:

David Shoemaker Lecture from The Rite of Saturn

We’ll wait… No, really. Listen to it.

Okay, moving on. You’ll listen to it eventually.

The point that Dr. Showmaker makes about limitation, and the practical advantages of putting hard limits upon yourself in order to foster creative thought is something we are going to discuss with regard to our work with The Rites of Eleusis, and a technique you could consider when planning your own.

“But wait!” I hear you saying. “You told me I could drive this like I stole it!”

Of course! And you should! But self imposed limitations feed the creative process! And limiting the broad scope of all possibility to a more streamline set of alternatives will allow you to travel toward your destination in the same way a road might lead you across a wide and trackless desert.

For example, some of the interpretive limits we placed upon ourselves were:

  1. We changed no words. We could repeat phrases to create musical refrain, and characters could repeat each others lines, and in a few places long parts were divided between to characters as in a dialog, but the words are all there.
  2. There is no spoken dialog. Everything is sung.
  3. With one exception, all the music is original.
  4. There is a continual story told through The Rites of Eleusis as we presented them. While each Rite can stand alone, when viewed as a whole, there is a single narrative running through it. (Which relates to the formula of Tetragrammaton and the Qabalistic worlds, in case you were wondering.)
  5. The actions and motivations we interpreted into the story were based on the characterizations of the astrological and planetary symbols as we understand them. But the way we presented them had to be understandable to a lay person.
  6. New innovations were always reviewed against the question: “Will this detract from the main story?”
  7. The setting we presented these Rites is was a “mythical place” that is informed by events in human history, but takes place in no specific time or place. This was more a freedom we granted ourselves, but also a restriction in so far as we did not allow the setting to inform the character roles, but rather tried to present those roles within the narrative.

What rules would you place on a presentation? What about a series?

One Star in the Company of Stars

Posted on by Jon Sewell

Featured Cast and Crew: Sunnie Larsen

Rather than indulge in yet another autobiographical post about my love of 80’s musicals, today I would like to focus on the work of one of our long term team members, Sunnie Larsen.

The incomparable Sunnie Larsen

Sunnie was involved in six of the seven Rites of Eleusis that we presented, taking the stage in five of those in the role originally filled by Leila Waddell. For The Rite of Venus in 2007 she was able to collaborate on the music, but sadly unavailable on our performance dates. This is when we learned that if we wanted to book Sunnie, we would have to plan it more than a year in advance. Which we did, going forward.

If her wonderful composition and live performances were the extant of her involvement, that would be enough. Her voice and instrumental skills were integral in the shaping of our presentations. Her stage presence is grand, and her unflagging positive demeanor throughout the rehearsal and staging process make her a joy to work with. But that is just what you can see from the stage, or in the videos.

In reality, Sunnie did much more for our productions than deliver excellence in composition and performance. She spent many hours of her personal time (working closely with Marcos Duran) to transcribe the choral arrangements into sheet music for the cast. In addition, she regularly took point on teaching the choral arrangements to the various sections, and offering guidance and support to other cast members throughout the rehearsal process and theater run. Her skills brought everyone on the cast to a higher level, and her participation and dedication improved the productions for everyone involved.

The majority of the viola arrangements Sunnie performed for the Rites were her original compositions, either working with Jon Sewell to capture a specific theme, or having free rein to create something that works with the music provided. Many of the more moving tracks started out as improvisational pieces that were developed into melodies crafted to create the sense of other worldly wonder called for by the various narratives of the Rites.

As a case in point, this piece from The Rite of Saturn was her first take at the material, and we were all so moved we kept it.

Currently Sunnie is working on a solo album entitled “The Space Between Notes”, which is being crowdfunded via Kickstarter. I urge everyone who has come to appreciate her music over the years to contribute to this project.

The Space Between Notes

If you would like to learn more about the composition process for The Rites of Eleusis, and how the team worked together, there is a brief YouTube video here.

Musical Adaptation Part One

Musical Adaptation Part Two

We would also like to take time to acknowledge Katie Cashatt, who performed the role of Luna in The Rite of Luna (2005), and Heather Freeman, who learned the music Sunnie composed to perform as Luna in Taurus in The Rite of Venus (2007). Each of them brought so much strength and beauty to their performances, and enriched the projects with their skill and craft.

Katie Cashatt as Artemis (Luna) in The Rite of Luna (2005)
Heather Freeman as Luna in Taurus in The Rite of Venus (2007)

You Have To Believe We Are Magic

Posted on by Jon Sewell

Inspiration, the Angel and Olivia Newton John

I want to talk about inspiration. Where it comes from, where it goes, and what to do with it when you have it.

But first, allow me to acknowledge that I missed a blog update. I have been having a bit of writers block, and Wednesday came and went without inspiration. I have also been working though a larger creative block, and these are more than a little related.

I set myself a goal of making three updates a week. This is my rule, that I made for myself, and I have been following it diligently for a month. I even incorporated traveling to Chicago (which may be the inspiration for another post) into my schedule and kept to it, so I am not kicking my own ass too hard over this lapse. Nor do I feel the need to “catch up”. It is one post missed over the course of a month, and I believe I can grant myself that much slack.

I am mostly acknowledging this because a little slack in the creative process seems like a good thing, at least for myself, and I trust you will all be kind enough to grant me my occasional bouts of humanity. There may be lapses in the future, as well, but I will make every effort to stay on target.

As it happened, the writer’s block has become the core of this post, because this is certainly not the first lack of inspiration I have experienced in the course of a large project, and it will not be the last. The trick I learned along the way is to keep at it, and look for that spark of creativity. Protect it and grow it into a flame. And don’t be surprised if you encounter that spark in odd places.

For example, I recently found inspiration in Xanadu. Not the song by Rush, or the poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Coleridge upon which that song is based, but the movie from 1980 starring Olivia Newton-John as a Muse called Kira. Which makes a certain kind of sense, because, you know, she’s a Muse.

Melissa and I attended a “Sing Along” presentation of Xanadu last week, and it was just as ridiculous and beautiful as I remember. But it also contained some food for meditation, as all the best entertainment does.

I do not expect that even half the people reading this are familiar with the movie Xanadu. It was the first film that Olivia Newton-John starred in after Grease, and the first film for which any actress was paid $1,000,000.00. She was at the top of her game, and looks and sounds wonderful throughout.

The soundtrack also featured the music of Electric Light Orchestra. I developed my love for Electric Light Orchestra at the age of six. My grandfather would walk my sister and I to the library, and allow us to check out books. During one of these trips I discovered that I could also check out records. My first record was a telling of The Count of Monte Cristo, which my young mind found very dull. Upon returning it, I decided that a record about spaceships would be much more exciting. So I checked out a copy of the double album “Out of the Blue” by ELO. I played the first few bars of the first song upon returning to my grandparents home, and my grandmother rushed into the room to provide me with headphones, so she didn’t have to be subjected to this odd music. This was my first experience with headphones, and really with rock music aside from snippets on the radio. This was also my first experience of synesthesia. It was literally my first experience of the place where religious ecstasy and music meet. Suffice to say, I love some ELO.

The film Xanadu also features Gene Kelly, in one of his final film roles. While rock music was not a staple in my home growing up, musicals were. Singin’ in the Rain, Brigadoon, and On The Town were all known to me when I first encountered Xanadu. And Gene Kelly was a consummate entertainer.

How could such a collection of talent not be successful? Well, it wasn’t exactly the hit people were expecting. In fact, it was the film that the Golden Raspberries were created to celebrate as the Worst Film of the Year. But my strange little 11 year old brain rather enjoyed it.

The film is all over the map. It has no villain to speak of, other than capitalism, and no real moral to speak of, other than capitalism being good? It is not so much plot as a series of musical number attached by loosely related dialog. It has all the Shakespearean gravitas of an episode of Jim Henson’s The Muppet Show. And I say that with love.

I will not say the film has aged well. Although it is filled with the sort of passion that one might expect from a pre-Aids awareness Hollywood, and the dancers are a beautiful mixture of human types, colors, and gender bending; over the top anti-tropes. It certainly doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test. But visually, I believe this is the future liberals want.

On a more personal note, I am not saying that my Holy Guardian Angel bears any resemblance to the character of Kira, but I am saying that she does represent the archetypal genius that affords a magician the opportunity to course correct over the hills and valleys of earthly life, and there may be some resemblances to the way such an intelligence might manifest itself to me, personally. A more than passing resemblance, if I am being honest. She also has an infuriatingly indirect approach, as one might expect, of answering every question with another question, or open ended statement, that leaves the questioner with more mystery than when the conversation started.

Melissa also imprinted on this film early on, and has some great stories about her childhood love of the music of Xanadu, as it is one of the first vinyl records she ever owned. So before you chastise me for dragging her to this odd celebration of style over substance, I’ll just let you know it was her idea.

We blissfully set out to sing along with the sentimental camp-fest, and something interesting happened. Inspiration, in the form of a conversation about what these roles represent.

The films protagonist is Sonny, played by Michael Beck, from the cult film The Warriors. Sonny is a painter working at a job he hates who quits to do great art. Only to suffer painter’s block.

He encounters a muse, a Greek demi-God of inspiration and the arts called “Kira”. She emerges from a mural he painted in the script, but for some reason this detail is omitted in the film.

She inspires him, not to paint, but to open a club with some rich elderly gentleman he meets on the beach, played by Gene Kelly, and they create Xanadu. Never mind that he was good at painting, something about this club was more important.

There is some glitz, there is some cheese, Zeus says no to their forbidden love, something, something, big musical finish.

So imagine how I was feeling last week, sitting in a theater, soaked in cheese, while wondering what my next project might be, and how I am going to shape my next work of art, to be confronted by this childhood image that obviously set so many of my expectations. It was cool. And weird. And it reminded me that inspiration is where you find it. Keep your eyes open and it grows where you least expect it.

This viewing lead to some conversations. Was Kira asking Sonny to abandon his dream, or find a new one, better suited to him? Was the development of his artistic craft a necessary step to meeting his true destiny? Or was she just some capricious God-Child using him to finish her assignment?

These are deep questions we ask ourselves, when working out how we will exercise our creative genius. And often the skills we develop in one area can lead us in another, unexpected direction. In the end, I can only suggest that excellence is a habit, so bring your best to what you do…and cut yourself a little slack.

Speaking of creative genius, if you factor in my assumptions about the gratuitous illicit substances that must have been employed in drafting this film, and getting it green-lighted by a studio, I can say that it perfectly captures the formula for ekstasis described by Aleister Crowley in Energized Enthusiasm.

Which, like this post, sort of wanders off into the weeds, and finds something cool where you least expected it.

In future posts, I will talk about some other tricks for enticing inspiration back, when it sneaks away in the night. For now, what inspires you?