Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
People keep asking me,”What are you going to do now?”
If you don’t know me, this may seem like an odd or loaded question. What the hell have I been up to, that people would ask me in such a manner?
Well, for about 17 years I have been adapting the seven plays that comprise Aleister Crowley’s Rites of Eleusis into stand alone musical theater pieces, recording soundtracks for each, working with my wife and a team of volunteers to cast and stage them, and producing feature length videos of the performances. Obviously, I did not accomplish this alone. In fact, I have had the great fortune to build and work with a community of creative individuals that have been generous with their time, talent and love, and we succeeded as a team. Most especially, I must acknowledge Melissa Holm, who was involved in every step of the process, as performer, director, producer and friend. I could never have done this without her.
As an aside, you may legitimately ask why I would do such a thing, but the short answer is that I wanted these musical Rites to exist. I wanted to enjoy them in this manner. Since they didn’t already exist, I had to help make them.
And after 17 years, most of them do exist! The final installment will be coming out on video in June of 2019. And that’s it! End of a huge project.
Hence the question: what do I do now?
I have been dodging this question since September while playing around with ideas. And what I have discovered is that what I would really like to do is work on more Rites of Eleusis.
But not in the way I
have already done them.
You see, something else has
happened since I started doing these Rites. Other people became
reluctant to present them. And some have gone so far as to tell me
that our presentations are the reason. Which might seem like a
compliment, but really isn’t.
I am the first to say that I love what we have done! There were moments that I would describe as sublime, ecstatic and even magical! But as much as these Rites are a joy to watch, as much as they can enthuse, amuse and inspire, when it comes to The Rites of Eleusis, the impact upon the performers far outweighs the impact on an audience.
And more than anything, I want to encourage that. I want to inspire and support people experiencing these Rites first-hand, as performers.
To that end I am going start by writing this blog. Within it, I am going to talk about The Rites of Eleusis, what has been done, what we did, what other people are doing, how we can learn, and develop and do better! And above all, I want to talk about why these Rites of Eleusis are worth doing! Not just watching, but engaging with in the most intimate manner.
So, this is the plan. Let’s see how it goes.
Love is the law, love under will.