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Introduction (v2.5)

Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two6/25

Notes6/25

Atrozity

Author's Introduction to the Web Edition (v2.5)

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

Let me first say that it is a distinct honor to have the Ra-Hoor-Khuit Network host this serialization of my novelette, AtrOZity. As I sit and write the second version of this introduction, I am deeply moved by the response that merely the first chapter in this book has received. I can only continue to write and hope that the rest of the series is as warmly received. 

This project began several years ago and never made it past a couple of printed pages. With a sudden interest in the piece due to a conversation concerning Liber OZ and its implications, I have picked it back up and I am continuing the saga with a fresh new look. And why would any self-respecting author place his work online, and especially in progress? Everything you will read on this site will be first run writing. It is a rough draft. Of course, reading the final version will have enough differences that I promise it will not have been a wasted effort here.

To be certain, one must have a sense of the sardonic to read this work, much as I have maintained in order to write something of this nature. It is a piece that can only be described as Thelemic satire, and even that is incorrect. It is merely a murder mystery, a work of pure fiction that utilizes objects and forms in which I am most familiar. There is no hidden meaning and no deep thought to this work.

Thelema is not for the weak minded. I have been convinced of this many times over throughout the last decade as a proclaimed Thelemite. However, it does have certain aspects that have a potential for being taken too literally. Liber OZ is just this kind of an aspect. And the drama of AtrOZcity is taken from this very premise. I will admit that outside of an intimate knowledge of Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), Thelema, or even Aleister Crowley a reader might find themselves a bit lost. But this is fiction and as such it demands a certain suspension of belief. This story is an alternate reality that is extremely unbalanced by its overpowering theme of political domination by Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) and the religious philosophy of Thelema. This does not mean that I think O.T.O. will rule the world. It merely is one alternative Universe where I have asked for a high degree of suspension of belief. But I have been told that it still makes a good read. So I offer it up with a lack of shame for the overabundance of its particular occult nuances.

AtrOZcity is set in a time (the early second millennium) when O.T.O. has taken control of the political power of the country. The entire degree system that exists today has been migrated into the positions of temporal power. Utilizing my own interpretation of the An Intimation with Reference to the Constitution of the Order, I have created an entire political and social structure for this new society. Maybe my ideal is actually a valid one, but I am not willing to promote it as such anymore. I have begun to make available on this site my notes and diagrams for such a society structure upon which AtrOZity is built.

When I first joined O.T.O. back in 1990, I was a young fanatic that had visions of O.T.O. coming to some temporal power and ushering in a new millennium of peace, justice and the Thelemic way in what I imagine would be much like the world I have created here. Over the years I realized that this was not only a pipe dream, but that what I mistook for an ideal was nothing more than an atrocity. If I was capable of forcing Thelema by way of O.T.O. into the minds of every man and every woman, then I was no better than the Christian Church. While I continue to maintain my ideals for the Order, I am also capable of fantasizing the “what if” and utilize both the positive and negative aspects of that fantasy.

I would like to thank those who read through Chapter One at its original site and emailed me with such mistakes as they found in the continuity of the story. While I will reiterate that this is a rough draft, some things that are blatantly out of place are most welcome to be pointed out to me in email. Your praise or criticism are equally as welcome.

I am indebted to many people who have made this work possible. Kip Coddington was instrumental in being the first to interest me in the social value of such models and who laboriously endured many a night listening to my original theories and crazy ideas ten years ago. He was also the first to show me the true value of O.T.O. beyond mere fraternity. Darren Witwer provided the basis for a critical analysis of Liber OZ during an online discussion in the Thelemic Occulture Forum that provided the catalyst for this piece in the first place. Finally, I am most especially indebted to my Mate, Jennifer Harber, who has put up with late nights and lost time to see this work continue to fruition.

AtrOZity is humbly dedicated to Ordo Templi Orientis and to that Scarlet Woman of my own life. 

Love is the law, love under will.

bishop
(James M. Harber)