EsoteriaA library of sacred & hidden knowledge
Liber XXXII · Thelema

Liber XXXII · Thelema · Chapter V: Thelemic Orders

The Gnostic Mass (Liber XV): Thelema's Central Public Rite

The Gnostic Mass (Liber XV), written by Crowley in Moscow in 1913: origins, temple, officers, creed, saints, Eucharist and its celebration by the OTO today.

8 min read 1,872 words Updated

The Gnostic Mass, formally Liber XV or the Canon of the Mass of the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, is a Eucharistic ritual written by Aleister Crowley in 1913 and the principal public ceremony of Thelema. Celebrated by a Priest, a Priestess, a Deacon and two Children, it culminates in a mystic marriage of symbolic male and female principles and in communion, in which each participant consumes a Cake of Light and a cup of wine. It is performed today by the Ordo Templi Orientis and its church, the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (EGC), in many countries.

Origins: Moscow 1913 and the Gnostic Churches§

In the summer of 1913 Crowley was in Moscow managing a small touring troupe of English dancers and violinists. During the visit he wrote the Gnostic Mass, together with several poems. In his Confessions he said that he had been inspired in part by the liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church, whose sung services, iconostasis and veiled sanctuary impressed him. He intended the new rite to provide Thelema with a public ceremony comparable to the Christian Mass: a sacrament for a community rather than a private magical operation.

The name of the church for which it was written has a longer history. In 1890 the French archivist Jules Doinel founded an Église Gnostique, a small church that revived the names and ideas of the ancient Gnostics, and over the following decades several French occultists, including figures associated with Papus, received consecrations as Gnostic bishops. Theodor Reuss, head of the Ordo Templi Orientis, had links with these circles and incorporated a Gnostic Catholic Church into the structure of his order. Crowley's Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica adopted the name but filled it with Thelemic content. The Mass was first printed in the New York magazine The International in 1918 and then in The Equinox, volume III, number 1 (1919), known as the Blue Equinox. Reuss is reported to have issued a German translation in 1918 and to have recommended the rite to his order.

The Temple and Its Officers§

The rubrics of the Mass describe a temple oriented towards the east. At the east end stands the High Altar, raised on steps and covered with a cloth; above it, on a super-altar, are a reproduction of the Stele of Revealing flanked by candles, a copy of The Book of the Law, roses and other furnishings. A veil can be drawn to hide the altar. In the middle of the temple are a small altar of incense and a font, and in the west stands an upright tomb, a structure from which the Priest is raised at the start of the rite. The congregation sits between them.

The officers are:

  • The Priest, who bears a lance and represents the active, solar and masculine principle.
  • The Priestess, who represents the receptive, stellar and feminine principle, and who in the course of the rite is identified with Nuit, the sky goddess of The Book of the Law.
  • The Deacon, who stands for the people, proclaims the Law, leads the creed and reads the collects.
  • Two Children, sometimes described as positive and negative, who assist by carrying water, salt and other elements.

The roles are traditionally sexed, though practice and debate on this point have developed in recent decades, as discussed below.

The Structure of the Rite§

The Mass unfolds in a sequence familiar to anyone who knows Christian liturgy, adapted to Thelemic theology:

  1. Introit. The Deacon opens the temple, proclaims the Law of Thelema and leads the congregation in the creed. The Priestess enters with the Children, circles the temple and purifies and consecrates the Priest, who rises from the tomb. He in turn leads her to the altar.
  2. The Opening of the Veil. After the Priest has closed the veil and invoked within it, he opens it to reveal the Priestess enthroned at the altar. He addresses her as the embodiment of the infinite starry goddess, and she responds in Nuit's words.
  3. The Collects. The Deacon reads eleven short prayers, called collects, addressed to the Sun, the Lord, the Moon, the Lady, the Saints, the Earth and the Principles, and concerning Birth, Marriage, Death and the End.
  4. The Consecration of the Elements. The Priest consecrates the bread, in the form of a Cake of Light, and the wine.
  5. The Anthem is sung or recited.
  6. The Mystic Marriage and Consummation of the Elements. The Priest breaks a particle of the Host and lowers it into the cup, symbolising the union of male and female principles, and communicates himself.
  7. Benediction and Communion. The Priest blesses the people, and those who wish come forward to receive a Cake of Light and a cup of wine.

Each communicant, having consumed the elements, faces the people and declares: "There is no part of me that is not of the gods." The phrase expresses the Thelemic doctrine that the individual is fundamentally divine, a star in the body of Nuit.

Cakes of Light§

The bread of the Mass is the Cake of Light, a small wafer whose traditional ingredients are given in the third chapter of The Book of the Law. The recipe there includes meal, honey, wine-lees, oils and blood, and it has been read in different ways by different Thelemites and organisations since Crowley's day. The cakes are understood as a sacrament of the new aeon rather than a symbol of sacrifice.

The Creed, the Saints and the Collects§

The creed recited by the Deacon and congregation is one of the most compact statements of Thelemic belief. In Crowley's wording it affirms faith in a secret and ineffable Lord, in a Star from whose fire all are created, in a Father of Life named Chaos and in the Earth, mother of all, whose name is Babalon, in the Serpent and the Lion named Baphomet, in one Gnostic and Catholic Church of light, life, love and liberty whose law is Thelema, in the communion of saints, in the miracle of the Mass and in the transformation of meat and drink into spiritual substance. It deliberately echoes the structure of the Nicene Creed while replacing its content.

The collect of the Saints names a long list of historical and legendary figures whom Crowley honoured as bearers of the light. They include founders of religions such as Lao-tzu, Siddhartha, Krishna, Moses, Dionysus and Mohammed; ancient magicians and philosophers such as Pythagoras, Apollonius of Tyana and Simon Magus; Gnostic teachers including Basilides and Valentinus; Roger Bacon, Christian Rosenkreutz, Paracelsus, John Dee, Edward Kelley, Jacob Boehme and Michael Maier; and modern figures such as Goethe, Richard Wagner, Friedrich Nietzsche, Éliphas Lévi, Richard Francis Burton, Paul Gauguin and the OTO's founders. The list is a self-conscious genealogy, connecting Thelema with Gnosticism, Rosicrucianism, alchemy and the sexual and religious radicals of the nineteenth century.

Agape Lodge and the Mass in America§

The Gnostic Mass was little performed in Crowley's lifetime outside a handful of groups. The most important was Agape Lodge in Southern California, led by Wilfred Talbot Smith, which began celebrating the Mass publicly in Hollywood in the 1930s, with Regina Kahl as Priestess. The lodge later moved to Pasadena, where its members included the rocket engineer Jack Parsons. Martin P. Starr's history of the lodge shows that the weekly Mass gave the small Thelemic community a regular public face and attracted curious visitors, including figures from the Hollywood world.

After Crowley's death and a long period of decline, the OTO was revived in the late 1970s under Grady McMurtry (see Thelemic Orders). The Gnostic Mass became the centre of its public life, and the EGC developed a clergy of deacons, priests, priestesses and bishops. Today OTO lodges, oases and camps in many countries celebrate the Mass regularly, often monthly or weekly, and it is usually open to the public. For most people who encounter Thelema in person, the Mass is the first ritual they see.

Interpretation: Sacrament, Sexuality and Gender§

Crowley described the Mass as the central ceremony of the OTO's public and private work. On one level it is a Eucharist, in which the communicant consumes consecrated elements and is united with the divine, a theme set out in comparison with Christian practice in Christian Sacraments and Liturgy. On another it is an enactment of the Thelemic cosmology: the Priestess as Nuit, infinite space, the Priest as the active point of Hadit, their union producing the consecrated elements that sustain life.

The rite's symbolism is openly sexual. The lance and the cup, the raising of the Priest and the mystic marriage represent sexual union as a sacred act, in line with the sex magick taught in the higher OTO degrees. In public performance this symbolism is enacted only symbolically. Scholars such as Hugh Urban and Manon Hedenborg White have examined the Mass as an example of modern esoteric sacralisation of sexuality and as a site of debate over gender. Crowley's text assigns roles by sex and identifies the Priestess with the divine feminine; some participants value this as an elevation of women to the centre of worship, while others have questioned its essentialism, and EGC practice has evolved in response to these discussions.

Frequently asked questions§

Who can attend a Gnostic Mass?§

Public celebrations by OTO bodies are usually open to visitors, who may watch and, if they wish, receive communion. Practices differ between local groups, which typically publish their schedules and guidelines for guests.

When was the Gnostic Mass written?§

Crowley wrote it in Moscow in 1913. It was first published in 1918 and appeared in The Equinox in 1919.

What is said at communion in the Gnostic Mass?§

After consuming the Cake of Light and the wine, each communicant faces the congregation and declares that there is no part of them that is not of the gods. The words express the Thelemic belief in the divinity of every individual.

What is the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica?§

It is the ecclesiastical arm of the Ordo Templi Orientis, responsible for the Gnostic Mass and other public rites such as baptism, confirmation, marriage and funerals. Its name continues that of earlier French Gnostic churches, but its theology is Thelemic.

Sources and further reading§