The Gnostic Saints

(Revision as of 05:44, 18 Sep 2004)

The Gnostic Saints are listed in Liber XV, also known as the Gnostic Mass, which is the central rite of OTO. They are part of the Fifth Collect, "The Saints."

In the Catholic and Orthodox churches, a saint is a person who has been canonised (officially recognized) after their death. However, in the EGC, death is not necessarily a prerequisite for sainthood, since Aleister Crowley was certainly alive when he wrote Liber XV (he included himself twice, in fact). The Gnostic Saints are generally considered to those who have embodied the essential principles of Thelema and formed a line of adepts through the ages.

The only Gnostic Saint to have been officially added to the original list is William Blake, based on a discovered writing by Aleister Crowley who described him as such. It is also considered approprate to include the name of deceased Grand Masters of OTO, such as Hymenaeus Alpha.

From Liber XV, the entire Collect is written below. Those names in italics are commemorated in ordinary masses, whereas the entire list is entoned for a "celebratory mass," such as when it is performed in conjunction with a Wedding.

Collect V: The Saints

"LORD of Life and Joy, that art the might of man, that art the essence of every true god that is upon the surface of the Earth, continuing knowledge from generation unto generation, thou adored of us upon heaths and in woods, on mountains and in caves, openly in the marketplaces and secretly in the chambers of our houses, in temples of gold and ivory and marble as in these other temples of our bodies, we worthily commemorate them worthy that did of old adore thee and manifest they glory unto men,

Lao-tzu
Siddhartha
Krishna
Tahuti
Mosheh
Dionysus
Mohammed
To Mega Therion
Hermes
Pan
Priapus
Osiris
Melchizedek
Khem
Amoun
Mentu
Heracles
Orpheus
Odysseus
Vergilius
Catullus
Martialis
Rabelais
Swinburne
Apollonius Tyanæus
Simon Magus
Manes
Pythagoras
Basilides
Valentinus
Bardesanes
Hippolytus
Merlin
Arthur
Kamuret
Parzival
Carolus Magnus
William of Schyren
Frederick of Hohenstaufen
Roger Bacon
Jacobus Burgundus Molensis the Martyr
Christian Rosencreutz
Ulrich von Hutten
Paracelsus
Michael Maier
Roderic Borgia Pope Alexander the Sixth
Jacob Boehme
Francis Bacon Lord Verulam
Andrea
Robertus de Fluctibus
Johannes Dee
Sir Edward Kelly
Thomas Vaughan
Elias Ashmole
Molinos
Adam Weishaupt
Wolfgang von Goethe
William Blake
Ludovicus Rex Bavariae
Richard Wagner
Alphonse Louis Constant
Friedrich Nietzsche
Hargrave Jennings
Carl Kellner
Forlong dux
Sir Richard Payne Knight
Paul Gaugin
Sir Richard Francis Burton
Doctor Gerard Encausse
Doctor Theodor Reuss
Sir Aleister Crowley

—Oh Sons of the Lion and the Snake! With all thy saints we worthily commemorate them worthy that were and are and are to come.

 May their essence be here present, potent, puissant and paternal to perfect this feast!"

Relevant Links

The Invisible Basilica: Saints of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (http://www.hermetic.com/sabazius/saints.html)

Liber XV, The Gnostic Mass (http://www.scarletwoman.org/docs/docs_mass.html)