Easter reception of Liber Legis?
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I seem to have "discovered" something. (I use quotes because it may be that I've merely re-discovered something that lots of people know about, or that I could have read the key fact at some time in the past and forgot about it consciously...)
For some reason, last night the following idea flashed in my mind: "Hey, April 8, 9, and 10 falls right in the middle of the time period where Easter tends to fall. Wouldn't it be interesting if it fell on one of those dates in 1904!"
A perliminary check of the days of the week proved that it was possible: April 8, 1904 was a Friday, and April 10 was a Sunday.
The Western/Catholic Easter in 1904 fell one week earlier, on April 3. But the Eastern Orthodox Easter indeed fell on April 10, 1904! I made sure to verify this using two completely unrelated web sites with Easter date calculators.
Talk about striking right at the heart of the "old aeon!"
Does this have any meaning for anyone out there? Isn't it true that Crowley was influenced by the Orthodox mass in the creation of the Gnostic Mass? Can correspondences be made between the traditional interpretations of Good Friday (Nuit), Holy Saturday/Easter Vigil (Hadit) and the big day itself (Ra-Hoor-Khuit)? Does this mean that a valid Thelemic calendar can be constructed with a similarly "movable" date?
Sorry about the boatload of questions. Maybe this is just a silly coincidence.
Steve
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That's quite striking, Steve!
I'd gotten bit by the Easter bug 10-15 years ago and was briefly very very sure that 8-9-10 must have been Easter weekend - until I actually checked, and realized it was a week off. I filed it away as a brief, zaney, cool idea.
It never occurred to me to check the Eastern Orthodox.
Unfortunately, I can't think of any reason to think AC would have been aware of the Eastern Orthodox holiday while on his honeymoon and caught up in everything that was going on - other than the (always possible) eventuality of just happening to bump into somebody that mentioned it.
PS - On the Thelemic calendar, this dates from the Vernal Equinox, not from the dictation of Liber Legis.
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OK, there was commotion going on around him!
The primary Christianity in Egypt is the Coptic Orthodox Church. It's Easter was also on April 10 in 1904! - See: www.copticchurch.net/classes/coptic.holidays.php?year=1904&submit.x=16&submit.y=3
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Sorry to bump an old thread, but I was kind of tickled that today is both Good Friday (in the Western calendar) and the 105th anniversary of the writing of the following:
"III. 51. With my Hawk's head I peck at the eyes of Jesus as he hangs upon the cross."
I'm sure there's some deep symbolism in this.
Steve