As we have continued our examination of the St Stephen’s Cathedral shrine "The Human Search For God", we have seen:

• how the shrine contains references drawn from the Aboriginal world of the Northern Territory, packaged together with others drawn from the western occult world of a long-dead Aleister Crowley;

• how the shrine sets forth Crowley’s references to "witchcraft" and even "the false moon of the sorceress";

• how Cathedral artist Ms Fiona Foley - in a manner not remotely likely to have been sanctioned under Aboriginal law - has "appropriated" sensitive cultural knowledge owned by Northern Territory Aborigines; and

• how His Grace Archbishop John Bathersby has not been able to face the need to exercise the responsibilities of his office.

In this issue, we continue our examination of panels 3 and 4, specifically the 3 leaves in panel 4 and the 2 leaves immediately above in panel 3. On-going readers will recall that, taken together, the five V-shaped leaves form the "V V V V V" reference - the initials of Aleister Crowley’s motto for his grade as "Master of the Temple". (Reference: The Great Beast: The Life and Magick of Aleister Crowley, by John Symonds.)

These same leaves also work as direct references to Crowley’s occult numerology: The sum of the leaves (3+2 = 5) and their product when multiplied together (3*2 = 6), provide a specific reference to the "5=6" grade and "5=6" rituals in Crowley’s system of occult spirituality.

As Kenneth Grant points out in Aleister Crowley And The Hidden God, "In Crowley’s Cult, the Great Work entails the union of the five and the six (i.e. man and god, woman and man, beast and angel, etc.), thus enabling humanity to obtain cosmic consciousness. The 5 and the 6, the Pentagram and the Hexagram, together form the eleven fold star …"

The 5=6 grade in Crowley’s system is the grade of "Adeptus Minor", the grade at which initiates are expected to "perform the Great Work and to attain the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel". (See The Magick Of Thelema: A Handbook of the Rituals of Aleister Crowley, by Lon Milo Duquette.)

"This is the climax; this is the point to which all practices have led. If the Great Work is accomplished, he knows and does his will and as an Adeptus Minor (within) ‘is admitted to the formula of the Rosy Cross on entering the College of the Holy Ghost.’ That is to say that he or she is enabled to practice the highest forms of Sex Magick." (See Crowley’s Apprentice, by Gerald Suster.)

According to the occult authority Richard Cavendish, Crowley described his ritual Liber Samekh as "the Ritual employed by the Beast 666 (i.e. Crowley himself) for the Attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel".

In The Black Arts, Cavendish also notes that Crowley added to this ritual "the subtitles Theurgia Goetia Summa , ‘High Supernatural Black Magic’ .. and Congressus cum Daemone, ‘Intercourse with the Demon’".

So, in presenting the five V-shaped leaves in a 5=6 configuration, the shrine also contains a direct reference to Crowley’s 5=6 grade and to the corresponding ritual for the conjuring of the "Holy Guardian Angel". As Cavendish also notes, this is the "black magic" art of goety. As Donald Tyson says in his book Enochian Magic, goety is "a method for summoning and commanding demons".

NFTP has previously detailed at some length (see NFTP_11) how panels 5 & 6 also contain yet more "ritual knowledge" relating to the conjuring of spirits and how those panels are based upon Ms Foley’s painting "Moon Fish" which is held in the collection of the Australian National Gallery.

NFTP_8, _9 & _10 also set out how the panels in the shrine are to be read so as to spell out "L_u_c_i_f_e_r" and "K_u_n_a/pipi", the secret-sacred Aboriginal word for Earth Mother.

We have seen previously, (in NFTP_9), how deeply offensive cross-cultural appropriations of this nature are to many traditional Aborigines.

In continuing to present artwork of this nature to the public, the Archdiocese of Brisbane is assuming a divisive position in relation to the Aboriginal community - supporting a certain kind of ‘New Age’ Koori perspective in a gratuitous disparagement of traditional Aboriginal law and spirituality.

The insult to the traditional Aboriginal perspective is not lessened by the fact that the shrine is officially said to be "a tribute to the Aboriginal people who originally owned the land on which the Cathedral is built".

Much has been said in recent times about reconciliation, cultural convergence and tolerance. But what can anyone say when a Catholic Cathedral plays host to such calculated mockery of traditional Aboriginal law and spirituality?

How can the Australian church talk about reconciliation with any sense of moral integrity when a Catholic archdiocese lends its Cathedral to such purposes?

Over the past year or so, NFTP has set forth in considerable detail the true and previously un-revealed meanings of the St Stephen’s Cathedral shrine ‘The Human Search For God’.

The Church’s position over that time has been almost complete silence. To this day, Archbishop Bathersby has made no attempt to explain how the ‘systems of meaning’ in the shrine work. The church has not even attempted to deny the claims in NFTP. Even the reasons for the church’s silence have not been revealed.

In the face of such abject paralysis on the part of archdiocesan authorities, Cathedral-goers are entitled to ask: What is going on?

It is one thing for a shrine of this nature to be installed in a Catholic Cathedral. It is entirely another matter for the archdiocesan authorities to fail to act once the matter has been exposed to the light of day.

So, Your Grace, when are you going to do what has to be done?

Tim Pemble-Smith
3 – 111 Central Avenue
Indooroopilly Q 4068
after hours: (07) 3871 2047

Want NFTP by mail or e-mail? For e-mail, let NFTP know at: trps@ozemail.com.au