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The Scarlet Letter
Volume IV, Number 1 | March 1997 Liturgy 93 by Dionysos Soter
Regularly or irregularly, before or after Mass, baptisms, confirmations, or other rites of the Church, or on its own. Place May be in a temple set for the Gnostic Mass, except that the Book of the Law should already be in the shrine. Minimum requirements are a central double cube and a Stele in the East with the Book below it. Chairs may be provided in the Southeast for the EXPOSITOR, in the Northeast for the LECTOR, and in the West (in front of the Tomb, if applicable) for the CANTOR. Participants An EXPOSITOR presides. E.G.C. Clergy in this role or any of the others may wear their regalia of office. If the Liturgy is to be performed in combination with sacraments of the Church, the EXPOSITOR should be a Bishop, Priest, or Priestess. A LECTOR is required. If the Liturgy is to be performed in combination with sacraments of the Church, the LECTOR should be a Deacon. A CANTOR is specified in the liturgy. The indicated passages may be chanted, sung, or spoken by a lone CANTOR, and four-part (SATB) arrangements of the CANTOR's parts are available for choirs. The PEOPLE should each be provided with a copy of the Prayer to the Aeon and the Anthem being used with the liturgy. 1. Sharing of the Law The EXPOSITOR advances to the East and takes the Book of
the Law. EXPOSITOR: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. LECTOR: Love is the law, love under will. The EXPOSITOR gives the LECTOR the kiss of peace. Then (s)he gives the Book to the LECTOR who places it upon the central altar The EXPOSITOR and LECTOR go to the PEOPLE and exchange the Law with them, following the same pattern, and the PEOPLE share it among themselves. Instead of the kiss of peace, the exchange may be punctuated by a simple embrace or a handshake, depending on the degree of intimacy desired. In any case, the EXPOSITOR and LECTOR will set the precedent by their exchange. 2. Prayer to the Aeon All remain standing and recite the second chapter of Liber CCCXXXIII. Or, alternatively, the verse paraphrase from Liber XLIV (A or B):
All but CANTOR sit. 3. Prayer to the Scarlet Woman The CANTOR: 4. General Exordium The EXPOSITOR stands in the East, makes the Step and Sign of a Man and a Brother and pronounces the General Exordium. EXPOSITOR: Tbe LECTOR stands at the Altar of Incense, and reads a passage from the Book of the Law. When the Liturgy of the Word of the Law forms the principal ceremony of the occasion, an entire chapter should be read. 6. Comment The LECTOR moves to the East, and the EXPOSITOR descends to the Altar of Incense. The EXPOSITOR makes the Hailing Sign. EXPOSITOR: The PEOPLE: Love is the law, love under will. 7. Gloria Patri The CANTOR chants the Gloria Patri From Liber XXXVI: GLORIA PATRI ET MATRI ET FILIO ET FILIAE 8. Discourse The EXPOSITOR delivers a Discourse, which may consist of any one or more of the following:
If the EXPOSITOR is a Bishop, Priest, or Priestess, the Discourse may also include any of these:
Ideally, the discourse should be composed for the occasion by its presenter. It is acceptable, however, to read from the works of the Saints. On no account should the EXPOSITOR presume to explicate the Lection. The EXPOSITOR concludes the Discourse by making a Cross on the PEOPLE and saying: IN NOMINE CHAOS, AUMGN AUMGN AUMGN. 9. Anthem All stand and join in an Anthem. Note that this Anthem is not subject to the same strictures for authorization as the one in the Mass. Likely possibilities for this Anthem include:
The Anthem may be spoken, chanted, or sung. Arrangements that assign portions to individual officers and semi-choruses are appropriate. 10. Memorial The LECTOR prays: “Verily, love is death, and death is life to come.” We rejoice in love under will for those of our brothers and sisters who have gained the crown of all. And if there are recent deaths to be recognized, adds: Especially on this day we remember...[Names and brief accounts of those who have died are given. The tone should be celebratory]. And closes with: May our feasts in their honor approach that greater feast which they now enjoy, and may they be granted the accomplishment of their true wills. The PEOPLE: So mote it be. 11. Will The LECTOR sounds the bell in the battery 333-55555-333. EXPOSITOR: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. PEOPLE: What is thy will? (A) or (B) (A) (B) The LECTOR sounds the bell once. Notes on Structure and Sources Like the Gnostic Mass, the Liturgy of the Word of the
Law uses a ritual structure extracted from Christian worship. The general
structure of this ceremony is derived from “The Liturgy of the Word” by
the Christian Reformer Urlich Zwingh. Zwingli's liturgy was composed in
1525 e.v. based on a service included in John Surganes Manuak Curatorum (Basel,
1502 e.v.). Surgant, an ecclesiastic and academic, had formulated his new
service in the vernacular to promote biblical preaching and congregational
worship. The principal model for Surganes service was the medieval church
ceremony of Prone. Surgant's ceremony was intended to precede and complement
the Roman Mass, but when Zwingh reduced the frequency of Eucharistic celebrations
to quarterly, the Liturgy of the Word assumed a posistion as a replacement
for the Mass in Sunday observances. Liturgy 93 is a non-sacramental ritual designed to stand
alone or to be grouped with sacramental ceremonies of the Church. Performed
alone, it is simply a highly-ritualized meeting of Thelernites to share
the Law and it requires no authority to validate it. When it is performed
in combination with E.G.C. sacraments, or with a Discourse that addresses
the sacraments of the Church, then the Expositor should possess sacerdotal
authority (i.e. ordination in the Priesthood).
If Liturgy 93 precedes the Gnostic Mass (like Surgant's
service), then it assumes some of the qualities of the early Christian "Mass
of the Catechumens." To reflect this feature upon conclusion of Liturgy
93, people who do not intend to partake of communion should be instructed
to leave and given the opportunity to do so by the Lector/ Deacon. Since
Mass and Liturgy 93 each take at least 40 minutes, it may be desirable to
have a full-fledged intermission between the two.
If performed with baptisms or confirmations, Liturgy
93 follows the ceremony naturally. It may be treated as an elaboration of
the closing Prayer and Exhortation at baptism, focusing on the Prayer to
the Aeon and the Discourse. Or it may be viewed as the Presentation and
Reception of the newly confirmed members at confirmation, focusing on the
Sharing of the Law and the Discourse. (References are to the 1994 e.v. recensions
of baptism and confirmation rituals by T Apiryon Ep. Gn.)
The Kiss of Peace is an ancient custom in congregational
ceremony which fits naturally with the exchange of the Law. It is cited
in the earliest extant Christian liturgies. It is correctly performed by
kissing the right check, then the left of the brother or sister so greeted.
Both of the Prayers to the Aeon were written by Crowley
from the model of the Christian Pater Noster. I have myself presumed
to model the Prayer to the Scarlet Woman on the Ave Maria.
The General Exordium is the version included by Crowley
in Liber LXIV. It is presumably an ancient Egyptian text concerning the
god Tahuti. Crowley's initial encounter with it was doubtless the Z-1 document
of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, to which it was prefaced.
The variable elements of Liturgy 93 constitute the greater
portion of time in the ceremony. These are the Lection, the Discourse, and
the Anthem. Some effort should be made to attune these three elements to
one another in any given enactment of the Liturgy. For instance, the first
performance of the Liturgy of the Word of the Law included the reading of
the Third Chapter, a discourse invoking Babalon, and an anthem combining “I
am the harlot that shaketh death” (from the Second Aethyr of The
Vision and the Voice) with a chant entitled “Nike Babalon.” Other
factors that can contribute to the choice of Lection, Discourse, and Anthem
are the sacrament (if any) performed in conjunction with the Liturgy, and
the Thelemic liturgical calendar (as defined by AL II:35-43, saints' greater
feasts, and local celebrations).
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