"While visiting Grace Cathedral in San Francisco last year … Pat and I were in awe of most of what we saw at the Cathedral. However, the most poignant moment was when we sat under the main dome, looked up, and there it was, a beautiful pentagram. We gave one another a look of triumph."  (from "Pagan Images In Christian Art", by Amethyst Crow, Spirited Women, Portland, Oregon, May/June 1997.)¹

The "look of triumph" exchanged above by Amethyst and Pat could have been exchanged as easily in Brisbane’s St Stephen’s Cathedral. In Grace Cathedral, Amethyst and Pat saw the pentagram as relating to their Earth Mother spirituality. In St Stephen’s Cathedral, the symbols in "The Human Search For God" shrine also refer specifically to the occult spirituality of Aleister Crowley. As shown in previous issues of NFTP, this shrine incorporates covert but distinct references to "Lucifer", "witchcraft" and even "the false moon of the sorceress" – all packaged as a "tribute" to Aboriginal people.

In this issue, we continue our examination of the shrine and, once again, ask Archbishop John Bathersby:

In recent issues, we have examined the numerology embedded in the shrine by St Stephen’s Cathedral artist Ms Fiona Foley. We have seen how the numerology refers to Aleister Crowley’s Liber Samekh ritual and how Ms Foley has infringed Aboriginal customary law in painting the reference to "K_u_n_a/pipi" into panels 3, 4, 5 & 6.

We have also seen how Ms Foley has used the ‘Maningrida’ conjunction of the sun and moon (panels 3 & 6) to establish a further reference to the Kunapipi ceremony.

This ‘sun and moon’ conjunction also functions as a reference to Crowley’s occult Liber Samekh ritual. As Lon Milo Duquette points out in his book The Magick Of Thelema, Samekh is the "path" in the occult ‘Tree of Life’ which connects its 6’th and 9’th "Sephiroths" (‘mystical qualities’), symbolized by the sun and moon.

While the above says little to the typical citizen in the pews, it speaks volumes to those who know how to "read" Ms Foley’s art. Bearing reference as it does to the standard ritual practice of Crowley and his modern-day followers, such references are as familiar to them as the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostle’s Creed to those in the pews.

If you practice the rites of the Christian God exclusively, you will not possess the raw information required to "read" the symbols. If you practice Crowley’s rites, you know Liber Samekh intimately and are equipped to appreciate the symbols and their meanings.

One of the ironies of including in the shrine the Liber Samekh ritual (or "Congressus cum Daemone", as it was sub-titled by Crowley) is that it also serves as a reference to what has become known as "Australian Spirituality".

As Duquette explains in The Magick of Thelema, "The version of Liber Samekh with which we are most familiar was prepared in 1921 for the benefit of Abbey of Thelema resident Frater Progradior (Frank Bennett)."

Frank Bennett was an Australian and is remembered to this day in occult lore and literature both for being Crowley’s Australian associate and for his own personal association with the Liber Samekh ritual.

To Crowley’s Australian followers, Liber Samekh in a sense represents Crowley’s gift to Australia - or rather, Crowley’s gift to "Australian Spirituality". The inclusion in the shrine of references to Liber Samekh was something its designers obviously saw as a key element of the shrine. Interestingly, the official St Stephen’s tourist leaflet refers to the shrine as "The Australian shrine".

As indicated in NFTP_14, 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". But what did Crowley mean by this?

The occult magazine The Watcher, Jan/Feb/Mar 1990, offers the following:

"… the Beast 666 (Crowley) has preferred to let names stand as they are, and to proclaim simply that Aiwaz – solar-phallic-hermetic – ‘Lucifer’ – is his own Holy Guardian Angel (Higher Self) and ‘the Devil’ Satan …

"In his ritual for the Attainment of Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel, Crowley identifies himself as the servant of Satan, "the Devil, our Lord …"

"The occult author Kenneth Grant, a former student of Crowley’s and head of an English OTO lodge, comments that "this whole ritual is an invocation of Shaitan (Satan) or Set", Crowley’s aim being union "with his Angel, Shaitan-Aiwaz."

"Satan is, in Crowley’s cosmology, "the Sun-Father, the vibration of Life that Flames with this cosmic Energy", the solar-Phallic Current.

"Grant, in contradiction to Regardie, writes that Crowley’s Thelemic philosophy (a synthesis of Nietzscheanism, Eastern and Western mysticism, gnosticism and mythology expressed in his own powerful poetical style) is Satanic or Shaitanic."

Your Grace,

It was as far back as in issue no. 8 that NFTP demonstrated how the seven panels in the shrine spelled out "L_u_c_i_f_e_r".

Through 15 issues now, we have been exploring the many meanings embedded in the shrine "The Human Search For God". We have seen why the meanings of the symbols and representations have never been revealed - and were not meant to be.

We understand why people like Amethyst and Pat are able to exchange "looks of triumph" about what is in "The Human Search For God" shrine in your Cathedral.

You do not comment, nor it seems do you contest what NFTP is saying. What NFTP is revealing is not a matter of debate; rather, it is a matter which compels the exercise of the authority held by you as archbishop of Brisbane.