Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00543)

"kpauljohnson " wrote:
> Several times I've been accused of being part of anti-Theosophical 
> conspiracies, all (IIRC) at times I was a committed and longtime 
> Theosophist. 

I think I've mentioned that some people will always think the worst,
regardless of the evidence. In my own experience, I have studied
numerous religions. When I talk about the LDS church, nobody thinks I'm
a Mormon. When I speak about the Amish, nobody thinks I'm Amish. When I
speak of the Jehovah's Witnesses (and I read both Awake! and Watchtower
fairly regularly), nobody think's I'm a Jehovah's Witness. But when I
speak about Satanism, then I MUST be a Satanist. If I speak about
Thelema, I MUST be a Crowleyite. If I speak about Wicca, I MUST be a
witch. 

In fact, I was brought up Jewish, given a Jewish and secular education.
At Columbia College, I concentrated (a concentration is a lighter form
of a major, available for students who wished to have broader studies)
in Religious Studies (as well as Political Science and Computer
Science), and therefore have a broad (but not necessarily deep)
knowledge of many different religions. But, as I stated, just because I
know about a religion does not mean that I belong to it, or am even
sympathetic towards it. 

And when someone who wishes to look beyond the "party line" in
Theosophy is ostracized, it is a sign that the Theosophical Society is
crossing over the line into religion (which is probably the reason why
you are still welcome in most, if not virtually all of the Lodges, which
tend to be more sensitive about that sort of thing than National). 

> Have had very little contact with Crowleyite and Thelemic folks 
> either, but can recall two conversations 11 and 22 years respectively 
> ago with two individuals who were into this movement. 

I used to be in regular touch with Paul Hume, a major figure in the
Caliphate OTO (among other things, I dated his business partner's
sister when I was in college), and we have had MANY conversations about
the ties between Crowley and Theosophy.

I'm sending you a private response on another issue you bring up.

Bart Lidofsky