I cannot break my oath to Kenneth Grant’s OTO, and I won’t. Here he is pictured in 1974. We used to drink in a pub just round the corner from where he lived, and did so much that my girlfriend and I renamed it the KG.
As we lived in Golders Green too, I sometimes took a trip there on my tod. One night, I fell into a conversation with two Hindu guys – a Brahmin from Gujarat and a Brahmin from Bengal.
Should they have been drinking at all? The tapestry unfolded. The Gujarati Brahmin was appalled at the fact another member of his gotra on the other side of India ate fish. The Bengali guy was appalled that the rigorous diet on the west coast was quite so vegetarian.
A Jain joined us. He said that day was a religious day in Jain tantrik culture. On one day a year, a faithful Jain could drink and do all sorts of things that they couldn’t do on any other day in the year.
Kenneth Grant was a thelemite but as the Kaula Upanishad said, you must respect other people’s notions of what the heck any of it meant. He was very taken with David Hall’s notion that Beelzebub (Gurdjieff) and the Beast (Crowley) were two of a kind.
As for the Nu Isis Lodge. As I was inducted in the first degree of Kenneth’s order, I never got to meet these people in 1973. Ithell C
olquhoun was very nice to the SOTHiS people in her book about Mathers, but we’re still not sure where in her book, Sword of Wisdom – the Mathers picture, is. She left it to the Tate but now, apparently, it is nowhere found.
Kenneth was witty about the witch Graham Gardner and about the s0-called Scot McGregor Mathers. To me he described the BT tower as Gardner’s dick, and Centre Point as Mathers’ dick. Which one was the bigger dick?
Or was it the other way round? He was a very witty man. ♦
Thank you so all these memories and wonderful pictures, Mike. Its so wonderful to see Kenneth smiling .
Whats the Mathers picture you reference in this post? I think I missed that one.
As far as I know the Mathers painting was rejected by the Tate (and by the National Portrait Gallery and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery ) and ended up being sold at the local auction house in Penzance for a few pounds. It ended up in the States being resold for many thousands of dollars.
Thats fascinating Paul Self. Now if only someone could track it or a photo of it down.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CUZpztIIhyk/SpWmIz1pcMI/AAAAAAAAAfA/CdiXLzEBzGQ/s1600-h/MacGregor_Mathers.jpg
I always liked this one, he looks like Nog Bad the Bad.
Hope its ok for me to post links here
Yes John, that’s the one, as painted by his wife Moina.
wait what?? I thought the painting Mike si discussing is by Ithell…. he says he cannot find it in her book??
And isn’t that Mathers painting pictured in the Atlantis Bookshop?
I do not believe this is the painting mentioned in the post.
The portrait of Mathers that was painted by Moina was eventually passed to Ithell who published it in her book The Sword of Wisdom. She – Ithell – left her papers to the Tate together with this painting, the latter which was rejected.
Aye, that painting of Mathers by Moina (used as the frontispiece to Ithell Colquhoun’s ‘Sword of Wisdom’) is hanging in the Atlantis bookshop.
It is indeed the same painting (or was) in the Atlantis Bookshop. It passed to Geraldine.
Sometimes Friends Fall Out. Editing Lives together, Calously denieing Each Other. Heres Example:
I cannot break my oath to Von Drashek MD, and I won’t. Here he is pictured in Writings. We used to Rob Banks in BIG Way, just round the corner from where National Gold Reserve iskept….
Yes,Yes. OMG So Yiddish. That way self Remorseis Lessened with Hope of Gold futures, Aplenty. Like Ahab, I Nail this Equidorian Gold Ounce to MastHead. First Man to Cremate ALL Hedonist Rants of Billy Bob, Gets Onuce & Drop ofMy Blood.
Eh, Heartiesum of Practical Matter, InDeed.
Signed: Rub, Rub,Rub adub, Shine That Copperplate. Mirror,Mirror On Wall, Whose Greatest Commentos’ of ALL.
Mirrior mirror on the wall, why is my life so meaningless and small.
Can we get some more Grant reminiscences Mike? :) Pleeeeease
Which way around was it? I heard Centrepoint was New Isis and the Post Office the GD..
… “Graham Gardner” … o…kay…
Surely you mean Gerald Gardner not “Graham Gardner”? Also, could you tell us the reason why Mr Grant regarded the BT Tower and Centre Point as Mr Gardner & Mr Mathers’ phalli?
Yes, you’re quite right, Gerald Gardiner it is. Kenneth said that the Centrepoint was where Gerald held his covens, while the BT Tower occupies the spot where Mathers’ held his GD “covens”.
Great, thanks. This may explain why the Labour and Conservative Parties have been housed in Millbank Tower in Westminster, London. I wonder what went on at the site before the tower was built?