THERE IS DEATH FOR THE DOGS: The Smoking Dog Project concluded its operation on 17 May An. IV v (1997 e.v.) "The many change and pass, the one remains."

CAVE CANEM: Many of the rituals and discourses of the Smoking Dog Project were based on official rituals of the A.'.A.'.--e.g. Liber Reguli, the Star Ruby, and Liber Resh. Neither the Smoking Dog Project nor its individual contributors were in any official relationship with the A.'.A.'. No authority or propriety regarding A.'.A.'. materials was ever held or claimed by the Smoking Dog Project.

FIAT CANES

Manifesto of the Smoking Dog Project

If the barking of a dog disturbs your meditation, it is simplest to shoot the dog, and think no more about it. --Liber IV, Pt. I


Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

The Aeon of Horus dawned nine decades ago, and the rush of energies engendered by that event has seen a proliferation and acceptance of magical technologies unparallelled since the early centuries of the previous aeon. Of all the technologies of willed change, the most vital is ritual. In a world where "Spelling is defunct," the increasingly post-literate Aeon cries out for ritual which can furnish the experience of willed actuality, in contrast to the tepid virtual thrills of the "media." We magicians must create and maintain living traditions that involve all the senses in their immediacy.

The Smoking Dog Project denies that ritual can be learned from books. It is rather invented by individuals from the books which cannot effectively convey all of the sensory information required to transmit the experience of a ritual, let alone the knowledge neccessary for its enactment.

And while magick itself is a profoundly individual pursuit, there is a vital social function to ritual. Magicians' theories about the importance of ritual vary widely. There is little intellectual consensus. But the rituals themselves provide a common ground in experience. Magicians' ideas about that experience may differ, but the congruent participation in the rituals creates a powerful basis for communication between magicians. This result is true even of basic banishings and adorations, though of course it is an explicitly intended result of some of the powerful Thelemic initiation rituals.

Therefore ritual practice is the chief support of what Frater Superior Hymenaeus Beta calls "Thelemic culture." There is no reason for complacency. If Thelema is to grow and thrive, there must be collective dedication to the development of more potent and refined forms of ritual.

This work of ritual experimentation and proliferation is the avowed purpose of the Smoking Dogs, conceived as a project of the Scarlet Woman Oasis, O.T.O.

There are three varieties of invocational magick, concordant with the three letters of the formula D.O.G. The first, devotional ritual, is expressed by D--daleth, the Empress, Aphrodite. Ceremonial magick takes place in the circle: O or ayin, which is the Devil, Pan. And G, gimel, is the High Priestess, Artemis, who represents the dramatic ritual.

As a Dog, I seek the company of my Master, I bark "IO!" I have no leash, and will have none unless it be held by my Angel. To that end, the scenting of the Lord of my own cosmic hunt, I vow to develop new forms of devotion, new extremes of rapture to uncover the animating principle of the universe as I experience it.

I also am a Master in my own right, presiding over those places that I have sanctified with my own waters. It is my priviledge and obligation to refine and apply my Will to every event within my domain. The arts of identification and command make me Alpha, which is aleph as I bound at the heels of the Fool. I can keep the sheep inside the circle, but the goat gives me the eye from his triangle.

Truly, as it is said in the Law, "There is death for the dogs." I rejoice therfore, but growl "UNT!" Death is the ultimate punctuation of consciousness, but lesser punctuations exist naturally, and may be contrived to illustrate "that pure portion of human consciousness which man calls by the name of some God." "I wrenched DOG backwards to find GOD; now GOD barks."

So I issue a call to those who would participate in this project. There is more Work to be done than hundreds of Dogs could undertake. But this is not for pups. Competence may be tested; there are other packs for those who are not (or not yet) prepared to create new forms that will extend and solidify the Law in practice. In the meanwhile, these Dogs will continue to smoke, and naturally, "where there's smoke. . ."