© Don Karr 2023

© Don Karr 2023

METHODS OF MAAT
 © Don Karr 2023

Do they call themselves the Cabala? Are they organized?

Not as I see it. Probably it never occurred to them that they constituted
a group. I say, you study them up. You ferret it out, the whole secret. It’s
not my line.
—Thornton Wilder, The Cabala (1926)
 © Don Karr 2023

METHODS OF MAAT

Don Karr

© 2023
 © Don Karr 2023

© 2019/2023 Don Karr

OAI material © 1981-1982-1983 Gerry Ahrens

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including printing, photocopying, uploading to the web, recording, or by any information storage and
retrieval system, or used in another book, without specific written permission from the author, except for short fully
credited extracts or quotes used for scholastic or review purposes.
 © Don Karr 2023

METHODS OF MAAT
by Don Karr
(2023)
300 pages

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

SECTION ONE – OAI

The Book of Maat: Part 1
Liber Magnus Conjunctiones Workings sub-figura MC
Liber ANDANA
Liber LXIII (aka Liber K)

SECTION TWO – 416

“An Astral Map for Contacting Crowley”
A Wanderer of the Waste (by L. F. Whitcomb)
4 Enoch – The Book of Creation (by ThT“Z)
The Distractions of Liber Salomonis
The Book of Deviations
Charting Nearness – Document #3
God’s Attributes

ADDENDA
Works Cited in OAI Writings
OAI Articles in the Archives
Sourceworks for 416
Contents of 416’s Works from the ’Eighties & ’Nineties
416 Articles in the Archives
 © Don Karr 2023

excerpts from

METHODS OF MAAT
© Don Karr 2023

INTRODUCTION [pp. 7-27]

A BROAD FORMULA has been postulated1 regarding the late twentieth-century occult:
Developments of the magick and esoteric philosophy in the lineage of the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley
have, by rather convoluted paths, come to two major results: Chaos magick and Maat magick. 2
Chaos magick has had fair exposure through the works of Peter J. Carroll (Liber Null, Psychonaut, Liber Kaos,
PsyberMagick) and a handful of others, such as Jan Fries, Paul Hine, Grant Morrison, and Ray Sherwin, to
name a few. Factions within the Chaos movement have developed different sources, variously H. P.
Lovecraft, Austin Osman Spare, “Nietzschean Thelemism,” and even the absurdist Discordians.
As for Maat magick, several works by Nema (Margaret Ingalls) have tipped the general market, and the
website Horus/Maat Lodge has attracted a substantial readership. However, alternative schools which focus
on Maat, such as OAI and 416, have passed nearly unnoticed. A persistent few have attempted to track
down material from these two streams, usually without much success. One of the aims of Methods of Maat—
as it was with my previous work, Approaching the Kabbalah of Maat—is to preserve and make available these
obscure works.

APPROACHING THE KABBALAH OF MAAT

The first section of Approaching the Kabbalah of Maat3 (hereafter AKM)—the companion to the present
work—follows two interrelated themes: (1) Western occult forms and uses of the kabbalistic Tree of Life,
and (2) ideas concerning the Procession of the Æons. The result is a selective account of twentieth-century
“initiated” magic(k), starting with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, progressing through Aleister
Crowley, Frater Achad (Charles Stansfeld Jones), and Kenneth Grant, concluding with Maat magic(k)ians
and “qabalists” active in the ’seventies, ’eighties, and ’nineties, namely, Horus/Maat Lodge (HML), Ordo
Adeptorum Invisiblum (OAI), and 416.
The Tree of Life is familiar to anyone who has encountered works on kabbalah, whether Jewish or Western
occult, given that this image has become the “cover art” for all things even remotely kabbalistic, and its
structure, in various forms, has been forced to serve as a template for countless systems and agendas.
The Procession of the Æons will be familiar only to those acquainted with a narrow stream of Crowley-
based literature. The idea is this: Humanity is progressing through a succession of phases marked by æons of
approximately 2000 years. The characteristics of these æons are epitomized by a sequence of Egyptian
deities: Isis, Osiris, Horus, and Maat. According to Crowley and his followers, the Æon of Horus began with
Crowley’s reception of The Book of the Law in 1904. The story will not be repeated here, for it has been dealt
with somewhat below, in AKM, and more fully in numerous books by and about Crowley.4

1 See, for instance, Nema’s “Maat Magick & Chaos Magick” in Feather and Firesnake (New Orleans – Cincinnati – Bloomington:
Black Moon Publishing, 2010), pages 117-125.
2 Quoted from an anonymous review of AKM, or perhaps the beginning of one, which appeared online shortly after the book
was released in March 2013; this review then vanished. I preserved the text as a Microsoft Word document without recording
the name of the website or the URL. If anyone can claim the piece or identify the source, please inform me.
3 York Beach: Black Jackal Press, 2013.
4 Refer below to note 13 and to the opening paragraphs of OAI’s Book of Maat.
In AKM, see Colin Low’s FOREWORD and the O.A.I. Manifesto, § “The Book of the Law, 1904” (AKM, pages 170-171).
 © Don Karr 2023

The second section of AKM, called “Methods of Maat” (the same title as this book) surveys trends in the
English-speaking intellectual ambience of the mid-twentieth century which contributed to the warp and tone
of the nascent Maat consciousness and which supported a goddess-based magic(k). Where “Methods of
Maat” (the second section of AKM) speculates on the practical and doctrinal antecedents of the Maat
movement, Methods of Maat (this book) shows through their writings the inner workings of two Maat-
oriented entities, OAI and 416.
The third section of AKM offers core Maatian texts from the 1980s, three from OAI and three from 416.
These demonstrate not only the results of an intensified focus on Maat but also the radical differences
between these two entities in how they developed their processes and doctrines despite their having had
similar starting points.
AKM concludes with an exhaustive bibliography of material cogent to the Maat movement, its antecedents,
and its development.5

METHODS OF MAAT

If the aim of AKM was to set the Maat movement and its “schools” into context, the aim of Methods of Maat
is to offer, through their writings, a close look at the workings and character of OAI and 416.
While Nema (Margaret Ingalls), Aion 131 (Denny Sargent), and other members of the Horus-Maat Lodge
(HML) play a significant role in the chronology presented in AKM (where example texts from these
practitioners are offered6), additional writings from HML are not included here. The most significant of
these have been published and are readily available.7

Books which give accounts of the reception of The Book of the Law include
• Crowley’s own work, The Spirit of Solitude: An Autobiography, Subsequently re-Antichristened The Confessions of Aleister
Crowley, two volumes (London: The Mandrake Press, 1929), PART THREE: The Advent of the Aeon of Horus.
• an insider’s look by Israel Regardie (Regardie was Crowley’s personal secretary from 1928-1932 and a noted occultist), The
Eye in the Triangle: An Interpretation of Aleister Crowley (Saint Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1970), CHAPTER 15, “The Book of
the Law.”
• Lawrence Sutin’s Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000), CHAPTER 4, “The Birth
of a New Aeon (1905-05).”
• Richard Kaczynski’s Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley (revised and expanded edition, Berkeley: North Atlantic Books,
2010), CHAPTER 5, “A Rose by Any Other Name.”
5 The AKM bibliography features the Golden Dawn and its descendants, Aleister Crowley, Frater Achad, Kenneth Grant, Philip
Greco (pseud. Horus), Linda Falorio, Mishlen Linden, Quahavin MacMath, Aion 131, Michael Bertiaux, Louis Martinié, Nema,
OAI, 416, PVN, and numerous others.
6 Within AKM:
• Aion 131, “The Book of the Holy Chosen One” (AKM, pages 51-53)
• on Nema and Maat Magic (AKM, pages 57-72), including Aion’s N’ATON (on page 65)
• Aion 131, “Nexus of Horus/Maat Ritual” (AKM, pages 73-75)
• Nema, “Consecration-Dedication Rite: 93/Maat” (AKM pages 76-81).
7 From Nema, see in particular
• Maat Magick: A Guide to Self-Initiation (York Beach: Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1995), which reprints what many consider the
primary Maatian text, Liber Pennæ Prænumbra.
• Wings of Rapture (New Orleans: Black Moon Publishing, 2011), which is a reprint of The Way of Mystery: Magick, Mysticism &
Self-Transcendence (St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 2003).
From Aion 131, find
• The Book of the Horned One: A Gate of Pan Magick, with illustrations by Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule (Richmond:
Concrescent Press, 2012).
Also refer to The Horus Maat Lodge website, http://horusmaatlodge.com/.
 © Don Karr 2023

OAI AND 416 IN THE ARCHIVES

The Archives were begun in 1982 by Conquering Child Publishing Company of Cincinnati, “a Cabal of
occultists” who, from 1976 to 1989, published the influential Cincinnati Journal of Ceremonial Magick.8
The purpose of the Archives is to make photocopies of manuscripts, drawings, photographs, etc., immediately and
inexpensively accessible to the student/working occultist. It is comprised of material sent to us by individuals and
groups who indicate a desire to contribute.9
Conquering Child became Black Moon Publishing in the fall of 1984. Thereafter, the Archives became
known as the Black Moon Archives and the title of their periodical publication was trimmed to Cincinnati
Journal of Magick.

The OAI was active from 1979 to 1983; all of their extant writings are from this period. While limited
editions (e.g., 100 copies) of some works were privately printed (photocopied and comb-bound or stapled),
for the most part OAI material was circulated through the Conquering Child/Black Moon Archives.
The Archives catalogue of 1983 shows thirteen OAI titles; later supplements (up to 1990) add thirteen more.
Arranged according to The Archives’ MS CODE numbers,10 these titles, with their original descriptions (and
my parenthetical additions), are
1. A Catalogue of Rituals and Reading Materials (1982) – Listing of materials available through the OAI.
2. The Book of Maat: Part 1, A Commentary on The Book of the Law Chapter 1, by Persona RA Oh (1981) (—
reprinted below)
3. Liber Cosmeg, by RA Oh – Introduction and ritual. On the cracking of the Cosmic Egg, within yet without. (A
version of this appears in APPENDICES 1-3 in Liber ANDANA, which is reprinted below)
4. [O. A. I.] Manifesto, by Persona Skia (1982) – Origin, history, and organization. (—reprinted in AKM, pages
163-179)
5. Liber 496 MLKTh, by RA Oh (1982) – “The account of the Gate of Entry into The Secret of Secrets that is
the Daughter wherein Life and Magick are One and Nothing and thus All.”
6. The Process of Initiation, by RA Oh 1043 (1982) – An exploration of the Tree of Life in terms of an easily
definable symbolism that seeks to encapsulate the very essence of the different processes of initiation. (—
reprinted in AKM, pages 211-222)
7. The Word Index to The Book of the Law, by Persona Kannon – A listing of every substantive word and
notation of its every occurrence; proper names listed with notation of occurrence; location of popular phrases.
8. A Feast for the Equinox of the Gods – Chicago, September 29, 1982. Ritual, celebrates the anniversary of the OAI
in England in 1980 and the initiation of OAI Chicago one year to the day. (—references below in Liber
ANDANA, §§ BACKGROUND and PREPARATION)
9. Liber 888, by Semele – Poem: “I am She that stands before the Gates of Desire…” (—reprinted below as
Parts 9 and 10 of Liber Magnus Conjunctiones, with references in Parts 1 and especially Part 3, § LIBER 888: 5
MARCH 1982)
10. Liber ANDANA (1983) – ANDANA is the name given to a magickal working undertaken by the Chicago OAI.
“Liber Andana created and defined a new gestalt of magick to which the word ‘Maatian’ is most appropriately
given.” It includes ritual texts, “Toward a Maatian Kabbalah,” “A Maatian Fever Ritual,” and more. (—
reprinted below)
11. An Open Letter from Frater Achad: April 8, 1948 – The first written notice of the beginning of the Æon of Maat.
(—reprinted in AKM, page 32)

8 The Black Moon Press website https://www.blackmoonpress.com/ (accessed 1/17/2017) states,

Founded in 1976 by Louis Martinié, Jo Bounds, and R.B. as Conquering Child Publishing. Upon the departure of R.B. we changed our name
to Black Moon Publishing. Our first publication was “The Cincinnati Journal of Ceremonial Magick.” We have also collected and maintain a
substantial collection of historical esoteric documents over the years that we now keep in our Archives which is available online with free
PDF file downloads of available documents..... blackmoonpublishing.com/archives
9 Statement from The Archives (Cincinnati: Conquering Child Publ. Co., 1983).
10 The Archives master catalogue from 1996 (no longer online) generally agrees with our list. Refer to ADDENDUM 2, which
reconstructs The Archives catalogue of OAI writings.
 © Don Karr 2023

12. Liber LXIII (Liber K) [aka The Work of the Tower of Silence and the Vulture] (1982) – Directions for Maatian
pathworkings; Sephiroth, Maatian Symbols and connecting Paths. Liber ANDANA may be necessary for
grasping this tract. (—reprinted below)
13. Liber Magnus Conjunctiones Workings sub-figura MC, by RA Oh (1982) – Ritual opening of a pathway to the
Comity of Stars. Extensive records, history, and methods of the OAI. Contains Liber 888. (—reprinted below)
14. Liber Samekh Hé, by Persona PVAD MUSARUS 1043 (1981) – Preliminary invocations towards the achieving of
magickal will. The knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel which is the great work of
magick. Incorporating the four keys of the Book of Transformations. (—reprinted in AKM, pages 181-209)11
15. On Magical Orders, by Persona RA Oh (1982) – An essay that explores the rationale for magickal orders in the
modern ages. Examines the O.T.O./A.A. system and discusses the O.A.I. system in detail.
16. Liber Bes-Na-Maut, by Nemu, Melika, and RA Oh, with comments by Namronaha – “The Ritual of the Boat of
Truth that traverses from one Æon unto the Next, & whereby the Adepts learn that the rituals of the old time
are black.” Includes a revised Liber Resh.12
17. Maatian Invocation (1982) – Call and response to promote parthenogenesis.
18. The Namarupa of Nothingness, by Persona 20 [Puja] – Excerpts from a magickal record. Manifested in Sri Lanka,
Feb. 6, 1983.
19. The Visions of Gordon – Poetry. Hiawatha’s departure and The Son of the Evening Star, as sent to N.M. from
G.M.13
20. Liber ANDANA sub figura CVII – A working on Nov. 2, [19]82 to complete the earlier Liber Magnus
Conjunctiones and Liber Zayin. Profuse handwritten comments by VSO. (—refer to Liber ANDANA, APPENDIX
1, reprinted below)
21. Letter to OAI from VSO – Being a statement of caution and explanation of same.
22. Letter – Prelude to abrogation of OAI.
23. Dissolution of OAI – Formal declaration. (1983)
24. A Brief History of the Tarot – Eliphas Levi’s role on the spread of the Tarot system.
25. Who Is Maat? – An invocation.
26. A Maatian Fever Ritual – Ritual of sex magick for the purpose of obtaining enlightenment (—appears as
APPENDIX 5 of Liber ANDANA, reprinted below)

OAI titles not on The Archives lists:

• OAI Pentagram Ritual, mentioned at the end of Liber ANDANA as one of the “OAI working papers.”
• Liber Zayin – mentioned in the description of item # 20 above.

416 was active from 1981 to 1990. The major doctrinal works were written in the mid-1980s and published
in two series of homespun chapbooks:
(1) The Kabbalah of Maat, Books 1-4 (1984-1985)
(2) Collected Articles on the Kabbalah, Volumes 1 & 2 (1985).
Other synthetic and derivative works followed in the late 1980s and through the 1990s.
Along with writings, P-416 produced both images (mostly oil paintings14 with a few drawings, charts, and
diagrams) and musical compositions (mostly keyboard pieces) on Maatian themes as late as 2004.
From 1985-2000, 416 offered papers via The Black Moon Archives, which listed twenty 416 works. The
most significant of these were extracted from the two series of chapbooks mentioned.
Only one Archives submission was not produced solely by “Don Karr,” namely

11 Liber Samekh Hé is the OAI’s Maatian revision of Crowley’s Liber Samekh, which can be found in Gems from the Equinox (St. Paul:
Llewellyn Publications, 1974), pages 323-353.
Some Archive lists show Liber Samekh Hé as MS CODE # 15.
12 I.e., Crowley’s Liber Resh vel Helios sub figura CC, a daily practice of four salutations to the sun, reprinted in Gems from the Equinox
(cited in the previous note), pages 301-304.
13 For item # 19, The Visions of Gordon, the Archives master catalogue has “The Visions of Zodon,” but the description is the same.
14 Refer to http://www.donkarr.com/, in particular §§ SERIES PAINTINGS and NARRATIVE AND DOGMA.[DEFUNCT LINK]
 © Don Karr 2023

0. A Genealogical Chart of the Greek Gods and Goddesses, by Don Karr and L. Porch, “an exhaustive ‘family tree’ of
the Greek Deities” (1988).
Arranged according to The Archives’ MS CODE numbers,15 the 416 titles with the original catalogue
descriptions (plus my parenthetical additions) are
1. Introduction to the Perfected Tree and Its Implications with Regard to the Æon of Maat (1984) – A paper prepared for the
Convocation of the Magi held at the MATH of the ChRYSTAL HUMM (delivered June 16th, 1984). “[W]e
accept and welcome the advent of the Æon of Maat. What makes what we have received different from that
which other Maatians have proclaimed is that we have been charged to overthrow Horus and to diminish the
power of all things solar.”16
2. Adam’s Sin (1981) – A Kabbalistic analysis of the nature of Adam’s original sin.
3. Divisions of the Kabbalah (1981) – A method of classing Kabbalistic modes and practices.
4. The Cycle of Swords to the Saturn Cycle and Their Rectifications (1981) – The cycle of negative tarot cards showing the
progress of a difficulty left unattended and a cycle of positive cards which indicate ways of dealing with it.
5. The Mystery of Damage (1984) – A Kabbalistic analysis of the natural states of separation and debasement. (—
reprinted in AKM, pages 274-290)
6. Kabbalah of Maat: Document #1 (1982) – Prelude to the Vision of the Perfected Tree. (—reprinted below as
PART 4 of A Wanderer of the Waste)
7. Kabbalah of Maat: Document #2 (1982) – Dogma and commentary on the creation of the Kabbalah of Maat. (—
reprinted in AKM, pages 242-256, as an appendix to Primary Tree Attributions)
8. Kabbalah of Maat: Document #3 (1982-1983) Great Tree – Diagrams showing phases of the creation of the
Perfected Tree. (—reprinted below)
9. Kabbalah of Maat: Primary Tree Attributions (1984) – Discusses the origination of the new tree, giving astrological
attributions for the Sephiroth and Paths. All discussed in relation to Tarot, the Chakras, and the Psyche. (=
Primary Tree Attributions, Part One—reprinted in AKM, pages 226-232)
10. Kabbalah of Maat: The Paths (1984) – Brief descriptions of the paths of the new tree in terms of the Hebrew
letters, astrology, and Tarot. (= Primary Tree Attributions, Part Two—reprinted in AKM, pages 233-241)
11. Kabbalah of Maat: The Concealed Dynamics (1985) – The zodiac attributes of the Sephiroth and elements paths as
the key to the organic inter-activity of the new Tree (= Concealed Dynamics—reprinted in AKM, pages 258-272)
12. The Book of Deviations (1985) – An outline of basic concepts and terms of Kabbalah presented in the light of
the Kabbalah of Maat. (= Book of Deviations, Part I—reprinted below)
13. Notes on the Study of Merkabah Mysticism and Hekhalot Literature in English (1977-1985) – A bibliography with
notes. (—an updated version of this paper is online at HERMETIC KABBALAH: http://www.digital-
brilliance.com/contributed/Karr/Biblios/mmhie.pdf)17 and at Academia.edu: (2) Notes on the Study of
Merkabah Mysticism and Hekhalot Literature in English | Don Karr - Academia.edu

15 The number arrangement given here is from catalogues distributed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The online master
catalogue of 1996 generally agrees with our listings, save the following exceptions:
• MS CODE # 1 is repeated for Introduction to the Perfected Tree… and A Genealogical Chart…; however, some Archives lists show
A Genealogical Chart… with MS CODE # 0.
• Item # 13, Notes on the Study of Merkabah Mysticism and Hekhalot Literature in English on the list here is replaced online by
Notes on the Study of Solomonic Magic.
• The online list has no item # 15
• Item # 16, Notes on English Translations of Sepher Yezira on the list here is replaced online by Astral Map.
See ADDENDUM 5, which reconstructs The Archives online catalogue of 416 writings.
16 Regarding the delivery of and response to this paper, see AKM, pages 109-11 and below, A Wanderer of the Waste, Part 2, §§ [a]
and [d].
17 HERMETIC KABBALAH is a formidable website (1995-present) devoted to kabbalah in its many expressions, designed and
maintained by Colin Low. Features include an “Introduction” to the site and the ideas presented there, a broad “Historical
Background,” and discussions of “Major Themes”—all skillfully written by the site’s host. The site also contains “Contributed
Documents” from Bill Heidrick, Don Karr, and Colin Low. There are also source documents, booklists, links, and a blog.
I am indebted to Colin for maintaining my series of bibliographies and other papers at this site. HERMETIC KABBALAH home =
http://www.digital-brilliance.com/index.php.
Note as well Colin’s masterful book, The Hermetic Kabbalah (Digital Brilliance, 2015). This is the most sophisticated and well-
composed presentation of—and commentary on—Hermetic Kabbalah I have ever read. Colin Low is philosophical, even
spiritual, yet ever worldly wise. He has an impressive command of the whole cloth, yet he is a keen observer of those day-to-day
things that form the threads. Throughout, Low is accessible, even when describing the most arcane aspects of kabbalah and the
 © Don Karr 2023

14. The Zohar in English Translation (1985) – Bibliographic essay on the sources of the Zohar in English with
reviews and summaries of the contents of two dozen books. (—an updated version of this paper is online at
HERMETIC KABBALAH: http://www.digital-brilliance.com/contributed/Karr/Biblios/zie.pdf, and at
Academia.edu: (2) Notes on the Zohar in English | Don Karr - Academia.edu)
15. The Book of Deviations II (1982) – Studies on the Maatian creation mythos. (= Book of Deviations, Part II—
reprinted below)
16. Notes on English Translations of Sefer Yezira (1988) – Notes for the scholar studying the Hebrew “Book of
Formation.” Bibliography and commentary.18 (—an updated version of this paper is online at HERMETIC
KABBALAH: http://www.digital-brilliance.com/contributed/Karr/Biblios/syie.pdf, and at Academia.edu: (2)
Notes on Editions of Sefer Yetzirah in English | Don Karr - Academia.edu)
In a later addition to the Archives catalogue (1990-1994), a two-and-a-half-page list of 416 works fully
repeats the list above, displacing one item:
13. Notes on the Study of Solomonic Magick (1983) – A bibliography with notes. (—an updated version of this paper is
online at HERMETIC KABBALAH: http://www.digital-brilliance.com/contributed/Karr/Biblios/tssmie.pdf, and
at Academia.edu: (2) The Study of Solomonic Magic in English | Don Karr - Academia.edu)
In another place (as noted above), repeating MS CODE # 16 of the Sepher Yezira paper, is the listing
16. Astral Map (1982) – An astral map for contacting Mr. Crowley (—a single page showing only the diagrams
from the paper, reprinted in full below)
Catalogued under the author name P-416 is
1. 4-Enoch—The Book of Creation (1982) – A kabbalistic creation myth. (—reprinted below)

Other noteworthy contributors to The Archives include19 *Aion 131, Akoko, Asa Un-Nefer Camp OTO,
Black Moon itself, Rick Brown, Larry Cornett, Crystal Serpent, Kenn (or Ken) Deigh, Esoteric Order of
Dagon, *Linda Falorio, Al Fry, Grove of the Unicorn, Alan Holub, Richard Kaczynski, Norman Kaeseberg,
David Koons, MaTheP Lamm, Lightning Flash, *Mishlen Linden, *Quahavin MacMath, *Louis Martinié,
*Nema, Nepthys Chapter OTO, Nine Roots, Occult Digest, Ordo Templi Baphe-Metis, Persona Navitae,
Rafal T. Prinke, *Frater PVN 690 (Bill Siebert), Rorrim, Benjamin Rowe, Frater Shabbathai, Signal Network,
Michael Turner, Sam Webster, and Frater Zaon.
The Archives also offered twenty-five of Aleister Crowley’s more obscure works and a handful of writings
from Crowley’s heir, Frater Achad. Listed as well are works by Buddhist spiritualist and explorer Alexandra
David-Neel, best known for her book Magic and Mystery in Tibet, and Rosicrucian sex magician Paschal
Beverly Randolph.

streams which rush around it. In this, his manner of description and the connections that he draws are highly original, though
in a way that leaves one muttering, “Oh, of course.”
18 Notes on English Translations of Sefer Yezirah has MS CODE # 17 in later catalogues. This paper is still accessible in its 1992 form at
http://blackmoonpublishing.com/archives/assets/dok-17.pdf. This version contains an Appendix on the differing attribution
sets for Hebrew letters and planets in various editions of Sefer Yezirah, none of which matches the Golden Dawn scheme.
19 Those authors marked with an asterisk (*) are discussed in AKM.
 © Don Karr 2023

OAI VS 416

While at first blush they might seem to have arisen from the same occult stream, OAI and 416 showed
markedly divergent approaches to dogma, practice, and presentation. One fundamental difference is
indicated by their respective sources.
In the OAI writings, a clear majority of the works cited and recommended for further reading are by Aleister
Crowley.20 Case in point: near the end of Liber Samekh Hé, perhaps OAI’s most significant single work, is an
annotated bibliography, “A Review of the Libers: Crowley’s Magickal Rituals,”21 which lists and comments
on eighteen works. Indeed, Liber Samekh Hé is itself OAI’s revision of Crowley’s Liber Samekh. OAI surely
saw itself as utilizing and then advancing Crowley’s work.
There are also a significant number of references to Frater Achad, Kenneth Grant, and Nema. In particular,
OAI writings make note of Achad’s Liber XXXI 22 (which is offered as one of the “additional publications
[available] from the Ordo Adeptorum Invisiblum”23) and Nema’s Liber Pennæ Prænumbra. However, as stated
in Liber Magnus Conjunctiones Workings [hereafter Liber MC] (Part 1, ¶ 2),
The OAI are aligned to the Maatian magickal current, coming out of the work of three English magickians and
not, as is more usual, the message of Liber Pennae Praenumbra.24

Kenneth Grant’s work is treated somewhat skeptically, as the background section to OAI’s Liber ANDANA
suggests:
His [Grant’s] work, though carelessly written and replete with errors, became the instrument through which
knowledge of Nema’s work was first received.

The fact of OAI’s being a thelemic order25 is often reiterated, and, in a manner similar to the other Crowley-
based groups that incorporate the Maat current, such as the HML, the OAI writings proclaim that we now
reside in the Æon of the Twins, the age(s) of Horus and Maat simultaneously. According to the OAI, Liber
AL did not usher in the Æon of Horus.
The research and work of Maatian thelemicists have indicated that the more traditional interpretation has been
misperceived and that The Book of the Law launched the Aeon of Zayin (Heru-ha-ra) with its two aspects of Horus
(Ra-hoor-khuit) and Maat (Hoor-paar-kraat).26

20 Refer below to ADDENDUM 1, “Works Cited in OAI Writings.”

21 In AKM, pages 205-207.
The works listed in Liber Samekh Hé “can be found in either/both Gems from the Equinox or Magick in Theory and Practice” (AKM,
page 205).
22 I.e., XXXI Hymns to the Star Goddess Who Is Not (Chicago: Will Ransom, 1923).
Chapter I from Liber XXXI is reprinted in AKM, page 151. Chapter XXX from Liber XXXI is reproduced in OAI’s Liber
ANDANA, Appendix 3.
23 The list of publications appears on the last page of Liber ANDANA.
24 The nature and significance of Liber Pennæ Prænumbra are discussed in AKM; see in particular pages 40-41, 58, 61-62, and OAI’s
report on pages 176-177.
25 “Thelemic” indicates acceptance of the inspired authority of The Book of the Law, received by Crowley in 1904 and promulgated
by the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO). See the second section of O.A.I. Manifesto, titled “Our Heritage As Thelemites” (reprinted
in AKM, pages 169-70), followed by “The Book of the Law, 1904” and “The Coming of the Child (I. 54-56; III, 47)”—the Roman
numerals in the title of the last section refer to the chapters of The Book of the Law; the “Child” is Frater Achad.
An excellent and most efficient quick history of the term and concept thelema was composed by Vere Chappell: “What Is
Thelema?” posted at http://www.thelema101.com/intro.html).
26 OAI’s Book of Maat, ¶ 2.
Zayin, ‫ז‬, is the letter attributed to the tarot trump The Lovers and, in the zodiac, to Gemini, the Twins.
 © Don Karr 2023

The works cited by 416 are nearly all Jewish and primarily kabbalistic.27 While the influence of Messrs.
Crowley, Jones, and Grant regarding notions such as the Procession of Æons is quite evident, 416 evolved
matters of doctrine through deconstructing/reconstructing texts of rabbinic kabbalah, most obviously the
Zohar, the works of Moses Cordovero, Hayyim Vital’s Etz Hayyim, the works of Moses Hayyim Luzzatto,
Meir Poppers’ Ilan ha-Gadol, Schneur Zalman’s Tanya, Elchonon Wasserman’s Epoch of the Messiah, along with
passages from the Tanakh,28 bits of the New Testament,29 and certain pseudepigrapha.30
416 exhibited a reluctance toward—though not a full rejection of—Western esoteric kabbalah (or qabalah).
Certainly, 416 found the Golden Dawn system in sore need of revision, though not along thelemic lines.
Wherever Crowley is mentioned in 416 writings, he is undermined and dismissed.31
With the same intensity with which they rejected Crowley, 416 repudiated Horus, the Crowned and
Conquering Child, and even saw fit to recast the Procession of the Æons:
According to the calculations of 416, the Age of Osiris is best represented by the establishment of monotheism in
Egyptian religion, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism. The age of Horus, then, began with the establishment of the
Christian Church—which had only an incidental connection with the myth of Jesus, the Son (“Conquering Child”)
of God.
The characteristics of Horus are reflected not so much in the message of the New Testament but in the behavior
of the Church: its chauvinistic spiritual imperialism (Aries—“one way”) and its compulsions toward control and
secrecy (Scorpio). Crowley’s behavior was an extension—alas, a grotesque caricature—of that exhibited by the
Church. To 416, the reception of The Book of the Law, given its contents, was “Crowley’s little spasm of the same
old same old”—death throes rather than birth pangs.32

Needless to say, no one who followed the doctrines of 416 ever claimed to be a thelemite.

27 Refer to ADDENDUM 2, “Sourceworks for 416,” and to the bibliographies which appear in several of the 416 works reprinted
below.
28 Usually, Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures: The New JPS Translation According to the Traditional Hebrew Text (Philadelphia/Jerusalem: The
Jewish Publication Society, 1985).
29 Specifically, The New English Bible: New Testament (Oxford/Cambridge: Oxford University Press/Cambridge University Press,
1961).
30 In particular, the books of Enoch, especially the work called “3 Enoch,” i.e., Sefer Hekhalot, which can be included among the
pseudepigrapha under only the most generous definitions. It is, in fact, one of the core group of hekhalot texts, along with
Hekhalot Rabbati, Hekhalot Zutreti, Merkabah Rabba, and Ma’aseh Merkabah.
See my “Notes on the Study of Merkabah Mysticism and Hekhalot Literature in English” at HERMETIC KABBALAH:
http://www.digital-brilliance.com/contributed/Karr/Biblios/mmhie.pdf, or at Academia.edu:
(2) Notes on the Study of Merkabah Mysticism and Hekhalot Literature in English | Don Karr - Academia.edu
31 Refer to P-416’s brief work, “An Astral Map for Contacting Crowley,” reprinted below.
OAI’s RA Oh, too, was critical of Crowley (for example, in several passages of Book of Maat), but OAI did not totally reject him
and the writings associated with him as 416 did.
32 From “A Note on the Procession of the Aeons,” cited in AKM, page 112. The references to Aries and Scorpio derive from the
fact that Horus is associated with Mars, which rules these two signs.
On the metaphysical/mythological basis of 416’s negative view of Horus, see Document #2 (appended to Primary Tree
Attributions) in AKM, pages 242-256, especially §§ 5-6, 10-16, and the addendum.
There is, however, the following passage from 416’s “Maat Statements” (1994): “Regarding the Twin Current: With a base of
Maat and her apparatus (which includes the revised TREE OF LIFE) the Prince (Horus) must be crossed by the Priestess (Maat in
her lunar [yesodic] expression) for the Twins to be crowned.”
 © Don Karr 2023

A more technical contrast between OAI and 416 involves their structures and attributions of the Tree of
Life.
OAI used two distinct patterns for the Tree. One matches the Golden Dawn scheme as expanded by
Kenneth Grant.33 While the sefirah da’at is frequently shown in these Golden Dawn-like trees (as in Liber MC
34) and often has a station in OAI rituals, it is considered, as in the old (Golden Dawn) system, the eleventh

or shadow sefirah. Its position is in the midst of the old system’s Abyss.
Liber MC (Part 1, ¶ 2) describes the role of da’at (or, as OAI spells it, Daath) in their “10 sephiroth + Daath”
scheme:
Knowledge of the Comity [of Stars] is achieved by peering through the Window (He, the Star) or by passing the
Doorway of the Black Hole of Maat. It is Black to the Blind, but gold and blue to the seeing. It is Daath, or the 11th
sephira (the number of Nuit and Maat) and goes beyond the limits of the 4 dimensions of time and space. There is a
paradoxical dissimilarity with Daath as the entry into the Abyss of the qliphoth and tunnels of Set on the
reverse/other Tree of Life.35

The other OAI Tree scheme is similar to the pattern used by Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman (1720-
1797), the Gaon of Vilna, known as the GRA, or ha-GRA, an acronym for ha-Gaon Rabbi Eliyahu. In this
alternative Tree, Daath is omitted.36 As it is tabulated in OAI’s Liber ANDANA and Liber K,37 this system
shows Tiphereth as the fourth sefirah raised to the customary position of Daath, with Chesed and Geburah as the
fifth and sixth. This arrangement also switches Netzach and Hod in the seventh and eighth positions.

TWO OAI ARRANGEMENTS OF THE SEFIROT

Liber Magnus Conjunctiones Liber ANDANA/Liber K
1. Kether 1. AL (Kether)
2. Chokhmah 2. Chockmah
3. Binah 3. Binah
-- (Daath) --
4. Chesed 4. Tiphereth
5. Geburah 5. Chesed
6. Tiphereth 6. Geburah
7. Netzach 7. Hod
8. Hod 8. Netzach
9. Yesod 9. Yesod
10. Malkuth 10. LA (Malkuth)

In reference to this alternative tree, the preface to Liber ANDANA states,

Item: As a result of Liber ANDANA, the ancient wisdom of the Kabbalah has been re-cast, and its perennial truth
is now open to infusion by Maatian principles. With this new insight to the Kabbalah, its essence can be utilized
most effectively for the goals of the Maatian Aeon.

33 For Grant’s version of the Tree, see The Magical Revival (London: Frederick Muller, 1972), between pages 212 and 213.
34 See below, Liber MC, PARTS 9 and 11.
35 Compare Grant’s description of “Daäth” as the abysmal portal to the back, or nightside, of the Tree of Life, The Nightside of Eden,
INTRODUCTION, page 1.
36 The graphic template for this OAI tree matches that of 416; however, the arrangement of the sefirot is significantly different.
37 Liber K = Liber LXIII: The Work of the Tower of Silence and the Vulture (1982); see below.
 © Don Karr 2023

The opening remarks of Liber K refer to the developments of the Tree in Liber ANDANA:
[A] new mode of grasping the Kabbalah more in keeping with the non-hierarchical, changing, democratic world of
Maatian reality emerged.

Regarding the paths running between the sefirot, Liber K gives an ascending scheme similar to that of Frater
Achad, where the paths track from malkut to keter according to the Serpent of Wisdom,38 but, in the OAI
arrangement, these are adjusted to fit their alternative order of the sefirot.

416 used a revised Tree scheme which developed through a coordination of Jewish and Western occult
sources.39 In 416’s “Perfected Tree,” malkut is omitted and da’at is treated as a full-fledged sefirah—the tenth.
Indeed, in 416 doctrine, da’at is the primary station of Maat.40
416’s attributions for the paths, which are, with some small variations, derived from the Lurianic41 scheme,
follow a distinct order not found in the Golden Dawn-based Trees: the mother letters of the Hebrew
alphabet are the three horizontal paths, the double letters are the seven vertical paths, and the simple letters
are the twelve diagonal paths—matching the organization and logic of grouping the elements, planets, and
signs of the zodiac. The systems of both the double and simple letters (i.e., the planets and signs) descend.
Even so, the attributions of the Hebrew letters to the elements, planets, and signs of the zodiac agree with
those of the Golden Dawn.

The implications of such details in Tree structure and attribution are the substance of the first part of AKM.

ATTRIBUTIONS OF THE PLANETS: OAI VS 416

SEFIRAH OAI - Liber MC 416
keter Pluto Pluto
hokhmah Neptune Uranus
binah Saturn Neptune
da’at (Uranus) Mercury
hesed (or gedulah) Jupiter Jupiter
din (or gevurah) Mars Saturn
tiferet Sun Sun
nezah Venus Venus
hod Mercury Mars
yesod Moon Moon
malkut Earth (Earth)

38 On Frater Achad’s ascending scheme, see Achad’s Q.B.L. or The Bride’s Reception: Being A Short Cabalistic Treatise on the Nature and
Use of Tree of Life… (Chicago: privately printed, 1922; rpt, New York: Samuel Weiser, 1969).
39 On the antecedents of 416’s “Perfected Tree,” see AKM pages 5-11, 100-102, and passim. Also, refer to the “Perfected Tree”
reproduced below.
40 Maat is equated with both the shekhinah and the kabbalistic parzuf, nukva. See AKM, pages 107-108 and 155-160, and below,
Book of Deviations, § The Aspect of the Five Faces and the Tree of Life.
41 Lurianic, i.e., from Luria = Isaac Luria (1534-1572), the single-most influential figure in the history of kabbalah. Lurianic
kabbalah generally displaced the classical kabbalah of the Zohar (13th century). Refer to my essay, “Which Lurianic Kabbalah?” at
Academica.edu, https://www.academia.edu/30928619/Which_Lurianic_Kabbalah.
 © Don Karr 2023

Another difference which is quite evident in the writings included below and in AKM concerns what might
be called the motif (perhaps read motive) of OAI versus that of 416.
With the exceptions of the O.A.I. Manifesto42 and The Book of Maat, all of the OAI texts which have been
reproduced in this book and AKM describe magickal processes. Some of these writings, such as Liber MC
and Liber ANDANA, include full accounts of the performance of these processes and their outcomes.
OAI ritual procedures were carried out in large part to provide “correlates,” i.e., confirmations of the
revelation through complementary results achieved by various members on both personal and doctrinal
levels. In the OAI writings, the personal was well integrated into the magickal, as the preface to Liber MC
states:
“The personal is political and the political is personal” they say in feminist circles in England. It is a major
ideological force. In the same way magick and the personal can be seen. You cannot divorce magick from life, and
neither can you divorce life from magick. Life is the ritual and all life becomes magick.

While 416 offers what we can assume are suggestions for ritual processes in, for example, the “Unifications”
section of The Mystery of Damage,43 even here we see a rush toward metaphysics. From A Wanderer of the Waste
(the bulk of which is reprinted below), we learn that 416 made a concerted effort to identify what was
personal in the “received” material and separate it from that which might yield doctrine. Accordingly, in the
416 writings released—following the traditional kabbalistic model—the personal is completely suppressed.
Certainly, from the works which have been collected here and in AKM, the inner workings of the OAI—
their history, practices, and experiences—are far clearer to us than those of 416. The insights provided by A
Wanderer of the Waste are complicated by an overlay of art—this in stark contrast to the blunt sincerity of RA
Oh throughout the OAI writings.

Finally, the OAI determined itself to be an order. In the Encyclopedia of American Religions, J. Gordon Melton’s
account states,
Periodically, order members will gather for group rituals. … The order is non-hierarchical. Leadership can be
exercised by any member and teaching is a matter of sharing the results of individual ritual workings with the larger
membership. All members have access to all materials possessed by the order.44

Within the writings, we can account for about a score of active participants. It is impossible to estimate the
number of followers, if not actual members. J. Gordon Melton concludes his entry on OAI,
There are less than 100 members.

While a handful of personæ contributed to the collection of writings which we now possess representing
OAI, the material was culled, edited, introduced, and commented on by Persona RA Oh. She does not claim
leadership of the order; in fact, she occasionally insinuates such a role upon other members (e.g., Laylah in
the preface to Liber MC). Even so, in the dedication and background section of Liber ANDANA, it is noted
that RA Oh was the OHO (Outer Head of the Order) of OAI and that she had been “designated the
‘Prophet of the Vision.’”
As can be seen in the OAI writings which are reprinted below, different members were put in charge of the
various aspects of the ritual activities described. The preface to Liber ANDANA states,

42 AKM, pages 163-179.

43 AKM, pages 273-293; the “Unifications” are on pages 284-293.
The only practical manual that 416 ever produced appeared as The Kabbalah of Maat: Book 4, by D. Karr (Ithaca: KoM, 1985).
No part of it was submitted The Archives, and very little has been reprinted.
See below, ADDENDUM 3, CONTENTS OF THE 1984-1989 “KoM” CHAPBOOK SERIES.
44 Encyclopedia of American Religions, sixth edition (Detroit – London: Gale Research, 1999), page 1698.
 © Don Karr 2023

Item: Each participant in the workings made a contribution to its conception, development, writing, performance
and reporting, as well as the process of critique through which it passed. The very process which accompanied
these workings provided substantial pragmatic verification (i.e., it works!) of a key Maatian building block—the
Communion of the Hive…

416 was never a membership organization, being instead a small collection of friends and correspondents
who “worked the stuff” in a variety of ways or simply read it and made comments. There was no group of
people that called themselves “416” or considered themselves an order.
The name 416 is, in fact, an ex post facto term used to refer to a body of Maat-oriented material generated
chiefly by two people, Personæ P and G, and reported almost exclusively by one, P. A small group of
followers, perhaps more “fans” or “curiosity seekers,” accumulated as a result of P’s presentation of the
Introduction to the Perfected Tree and Its Implications with Regard to the Æon of Maat at the Convocation of the Magi
on June 16th, 1984, and the exposure of 416 writings via the Black Moon Archives 1985-2000.

With all of the differences between OAI and 416, there are some significant similarities.
Neither had any time for the traditional hierarchy of grades symptomatic of Golden Dawn and Crowley-
based orders.45 The anti-hierarchical convictions of 416 were, in part, what motivated the rejection of Horus,
who, as “Conquering Child,” inevitably seeks something or someone to have “power over.”
It is somewhat surprising that OAI defaulted Horus into their pantheon, especially considering another
similarity of OAI and 416: both proclaimed themselves to be feminist.46 Nonetheless, neither makes more
than passing reference to the vast feminist literature of the ’seventies and ’eighties in their writings.47
Within neither OAI nor 416 were there fraters or sorors, simply personæ—their names, pseudonyms, or, as with
416, single letters.
Neither OAI nor 416 founded their work on Liber Pennæ Prænumbra. Liber MC (Part 1, ¶ 2) attests (repeating
a clause quoted a few pages back),
The OAI are aligned to the Maatian magickal current, coming out of the work of three English magickians and
not, as is more usual, the message of Liber Pennae Praenumbra.
Yet here we lapse into further differences between OAI and 416.
OAI’s Liber ANDANA, § RESULTS, elaborates,
Liber Pennae Praenumbra began a phase of work announcing Maat to the Lovers of the Hawk. Nema, also known as
Andahadna, announced that the publication of The Cincinnati Journal of Ceremonial Magick, #5, largely dedicated to
her writings, ended the first phase of her work. 48 … Liber ANDANA begins the Work-to-come [mentioned in
Liber Pennæ Prænumbra].49

45 The O.A.I. Manifesto, however, states, “We admit women to all grades….” (AKM, page 168).
46 See O.A.I. Manifesto, quoted in AKM, pages 84, 165, and 167; P-416’s Introduction to the Perfected Tree and Its Implications with Regard
to the Æon of Maat (1984), and D. Karr, The Kabbalah of Maat, Book One (1984), pages ‫ב‬-‫( ד‬2-4).
47 E.g., 416’s Concealed Dynamics quotes a paragraph from Barbara Walker’s Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets (San Francisco:
Harper & Row, 1983); see AKM, pages 156 and 261.
48 A footnote (note 16) in the O.A.I. Manifesto indicates that RA Oh planned a commentary on Liber Pennæ Prænumbra (AKM, page
177). As far as I know, this commentary has never been published.
49 The passage from Liber Pennæ Prænumbra, titled The Showing of the Image, reads,
From out the Yonilignam drifted forth a Cloud, violet and light-shot. In the misty heart thereof a sound arose, vibrating soft, yet filling
everywhere.
Jeweled and flashing rainbow-lights from wings, there hovered in the midst a humble BEE. Striped gold and brown, soft-haired and curved in
form, it shone its eyes unto the Priests and Kings assembled.
Spoke then She-Who-Moves from out the mist surrounding:
 © Don Karr 2023

Thus, OAI writings fully acknowledge Nema’s revelation and claim to build upon it. Indeed, the O.A.I.
Manifesto sets up a tradition of progress from Crowley through three movements of “Maat into magical
manifestation.”50
• Frater Achad
• Jack Parsons, whose Babalon Working and Liber 49 were acknowledged by OAI but not directly drawn upon
for their development
• Nema and Liber Pennæ Prænumbra

The preface to Liber ANDANA states that the ANDANA work itself is a development of all previous Maat
magick.
Item: As a further result of Liber ANDANA, the specific and distinctive nature of Maatian magickal energy, hinted
at in the prior work of both the OAI and other Maatian practitioners, was clearly perceived, experienced and
defined. Once defined, it clarified the events of past ritual efforts.

While referring to Achad here and there, 416 seems to have ignored Parsons and Liber Pennæ Prænumbra
altogether.

This is the symbol of the Work-to-come, the Great Gynander in its Earthly form. The Magician shall grow like unto the BEE as the Aeon
unfolds, a leader and sign unto the Race of Man.
Further, the “Preliminary Considerations” of Liber K state,
Liber K is the natural outgrowth of Liber ANDANA in that Liber ANDANA was seen as the “work-to-come” mentioned in
Liber Pennae Praenumbra. The work-to-come was to be followed by the Work of the Tower of Silence and the Vulture.
50 O.A.I. Manifesto, in AKM, pages 163-179.
 © Don Karr 2023

excerpt from

METHODS OF MAAT
© Don Karr 2023

INTRODUCTION TO

A WANDERER OF THE WASTE

[pp. 171-177]

by L. F. Whitcomb (1890-1967)
(compiled 1997-1999)
 © Don Karr 2023

for E.S.
 © Don Karr 2023

INTRODUCTION TO

A WANDERER OF THE WASTE

AT THE URGING of several 416 sympathizers and friends—E. S., the man to whom A Wanderer of
the Waste is dedicated, foremost among them51—Persona P sought to produce a history of 416’s
quest for and reception of Maat.52

The first attempt to compose such a history was the “Introductory Statement” to The Kabbalah of
Maat, by D. Karr, begun in 1988 and privately issued in 1994-1995.53 Portions of this statement
closely resemble the prose sections of A Wanderer of the Waste, PART 2, §§ [a], [b], [d], and [e],
though composed in the first person. Within this “Statement” is the first written account of 416’s
methods, including several examples of raw “received” material, similar to that found in A Wanderer
of the Waste, PART 2, § [f] vii, along with details of the techniques used to interpret their content.

One passage of the “Introductory Statement” describes how, using various forms of divination
(tarot readings, projection, meditation, dream questions), partners P and G posed numerous
questions concerning how to establish a viable method of gaining accurate information from the
“other side.”54

The “Statement” reports that in April of 1983, three interrelated messages came to P and G. The
last of these, received by G, reads
WRITE THE LAST SWITCH DOWN
EACH HAS IN IT SEIL OR SEI˩ OR SPEI˩ OR SEI‫ל‬

51 E. S. = Eric Seidler (1954-1990), the most significant reader of and commentator on 416 material in the years 1988-1990.
With Todd Swainbank, Seidler edited Taking Freshwater Game Fish: A Treasury of Expert Advice (Woodstock [VT]: Countryman
Press, 1988), which contains three of his articles. Seidler was featured as the author’s mentor in Phil Genova’s First Cast:
Teaching Kids to Fly-Fish (Mechanicsburg [PA]: Stackpole Books, 1998); see in particular pages 5 and 161.
Seidler was also an accomplished guitarist, song-writer, and band leader (Moxie).
52 “P” is generally used to identify the primary author of 416’s literary output, though ‫ פ‬might be more appropriate. In the 416
writings, both are used. P worked out Latin and Hebrew versions of his motto using the initials P and ‫פ‬, respectively.
Throughout A Wanderer of the Waste, P, P-416, and 416 are used interchangeably.
53 The core of The Kabbalah of Maat was a digest of material from the chapbook series of the mid-1980s. Twelve copies were
produced: the original typescript, which was retained by the author, and eleven photocopies, which were dispatched to a
carefully selected group of recipients.
The contents of The Kabbalah of Maat (1994-1995) are listed below in ADDENDUM 3.
54 The “other side” here does not refer to the Jewish notion of sitra ahra, the evil realm.
To P, the “other side” reduced to the unconscious, which is linked to the collective memory of the entire race and may be
influenced by forces and intelligences beyond our immediate sphere. P’s notion of the route to the “other side” bears
comparison to Kenneth Grant’s concept of da’at (Daäth) as “the abysmal portal to the back, or nightside of the tree” as described
in Grant’s Nightside of Eden.
G’s concept of the “other side” was shaped by writings like The Betty Book: Excursions into the World of Other-Consciousness, Made by
Betty between 1919 and 1936, recorded by Stewart Edward White (New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1957). Indeed, P and G’s
cooperative method of gathering information from the “other side” shows some similarity to the “excursions” recorded by the
Whites.
 © Don Karr 2023

The analysis of these lines yielded that P and G were being instructed (1) to alternate uttering and
scribing—namely, while one speaks, the other writes, then switch, and (2) to accept each speaker’s
utterances as part of an interlocking whole; the formulæ SEIL, SEI˩, etc., all contain the idea of
bringing together (two?) unstable parts to form a balanced whole.

Taken together, the three messages indicated the method that P and G would use for the following
five years, called “Silent Questions.”

Two people work together. One goes into a trance or sensitive state while the other, the scribe,
writes questions. The scribe does not ask the questions aloud, just writes them down. The
entranced person then speaks, answering the questions without hearing them. What he or she
speaks is called an “utterance,” which the scribe writes down. Then the two switch roles.

Sometimes the utterances came quickly; sometimes they took hours. Some of the messages were
straightforward and concise; others were obscure, even, at first glance, nonsensical. Some
utterances came, rather than in words, one letter at a time. Usually the highly-coded utterances
came clear with analysis, but not always.

Here is one of the more opaque lines from the April 1983 set of messages:
FLIS FIGURE TO LWBLILI

Kabbalistic analysis determined what this formula suggested:

The speaker of utterances should not be conscious of the question he or she is answering or the
meaning of what he or she is saying. This assures the validity of the messages received.

“Kabbalistic analysis” here suggests, in part, converting the Roman letters to their Hebrew
equivalents and then working with their meanings, correspondences, and symbolism. For instance,
the first word of the above formula, FLIS, was converted to ‫פליס‬. The initial breakdown was based
on the meaning of the name for each letter:
mouth + teach/learn/goad or guide + hand + support

This sequence alone suggests a significant part of the meaning that was ultimately derived from the
set of three messages and clearly connects to the SEIL / SEI˩ / SPEI˩ / SEI‫ ל‬formulæ noted
above.
 © Don Karr 2023

The second attempt to produce a history of 416 was A Wanderer of the Waste,55 which took several
years to assemble. The method of its composition was a magical process and, as such, the record it
yielded is fragmented and frequently indirect.
In his hope to achieve an objective voice—or at least an alternative subjective voice—P contrived
to arrange the narrative by channeling his late grandfather, L[ouis] F[ulmer] Whitcomb (1890-1967),
who, P had determined, would have been quite intrigued with 416’s expeditions into various forms
of mysticism and magic.
From the books that he had inherited from his grandfather a quarter century before, P ritually
selected, or ceremonially chose “by chance,” Seton Dearden’s Burton of Arabia: The Life Story of Sir
Richard Francis Burton 56 to serve as a divining medium. From this book, P extracted words, phrases,
sentences, even whole paragraphs via ritual procedure: magically “at random.” This array of
snippets, scores of them, was then wrestled into rhymes and prose. These were then interspersed
with excerpts from P’s notebooks and, slightly revised, the more conventional narrative passages
from the “Introductory Statement” of the 1994-5 edition of The Kabbalah of Maat.
This “rigamaround-the-rosy” method of writing does not appear to have checked in the slightest
any of P’s biases toward the topics treated in the eventual Wanderer of the Waste. Still, a story does
emerge which takes P from hostile confusion to ambivalence, and finally to a certain constructive,
even if combative, resolve. However, one must read the “official” works of the 416 cycle to
discern—and evaluate—the results.57

55 The allusion of the title is, ironically, to Crowley, who identified with Alastor, the “Wanderer of the Wastes” in Percy Bysshe
Shelley’s poem, Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude (1816):
The poet wandering on, through Arabie
And Persia, and the wild Carmanian waste…
56 New York: Robert McBride & Company/National Travel Club, 1937. Other books in the running included
• John Erskine, Adam and Eve ([n.p.]: Grosset and Dunlap, 1927)
• Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness (Garden City: Blue Ribbon Books, 1928)
• Henri Gaudier and Sophie Suzanne Brezeska, Savage Messiah (New York: The Literary Guild, 1931)
• W. G. Hardy, Abraham: Prince of Ur (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1935)
• The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud (New York: The Modern Library, 1938)
• L. Adams Beck, The Way of Stars (New York: The Sun Dial Press, 1940)
—any one of which would have been a more fortunate choice for divining purposes than Burton of Arabia. But, as the saying
goes, “Chance is the scapegoat of the true will.”
The selection of P(- - - - - - -) as a name also arose via chance. In the fall of 1982, the eventual P-416 conducted a ceremony to
determine for himself a name or motto and, hence, the focus of his mission. Twenty-two small slips of paper, each with one of
the Hebrew letters on it, were set afloat in a large silver bowl. The ceremony concluded with a very disappointed fellow drawing
the letter ‫פ‬. His strongest association for ‫ פ‬at that moment was with the corresponding tarot trump: THE BLASTED TOWER.
57 The “416 cycle” includes
• Primary Tree Attributions
• Concealed Dynamics
• The Book of Damage
• The Book of Deviations
• Documents #1, #2, and #3.
Primary Tree Attributions, Concealed Dynamics, and The Book of Damage appear in Approaching the Kabbalah of Maat (= AKM – York
Beach: Black Jackal Press, 2013), pages 226-293. The Book of Deviations appears below, pages 243-260; Document #1 is appended
to A Wanderer of the Waste, pages 215-216. Document #2 is reprinted in AKM, pages 242-256; Document #3 is reproduced as
Charting Nearness, below, pages 261-275.
 © Don Karr 2023

In 2002, A Wanderer of the Waste was rendered a second time as a musical composition: “Nine
Sketches from A Wanderer of the Waste.”58 Written as a series of narrative vignettes, the whole piece
runs twenty minutes and fifty-six seconds. The sections of the musical version match sections of
Part 1 of the poem/prose version, using the same titles and letter designations:
1. [a] – [b] – [c] – [d/e]
2. [f] Leaves of Grass
3. [g] The High Priestess
4. [h] The Blasted Tower
5. [i] The Hanged Man
6. [b] theme
7. [g] theme
8. [i] theme
9. [i] theme with pedals

All tracks on all sections of A Wanderer of the Waste were played on a Hammond RT-3 organ (1960)
through a Leslie 145 speaker cabinet (1967). It is often difficult to recognize the sounds that were
generated for the piece as coming from a common tone-wheel organ and rotary speaker even
though no special effects were added.59 In fact, several listeners, upon hearing the opening strains
of the CD, thought that there was something wrong with their sound equipment.

The Hammond RT-3 at DHORA MUSIC.

from A Wanderer of the Waste, PART 3

58 Selection 1 of Don Karr – Organ Pieces, recorded at Dhora Music, Ithaca (2002-2004); mastered by Alfred B. Grunwell at
FingerLakes Recording, Ithaca, (2004).
The entire contents of Organ Pieces are pertinent to the 416 saga. The tracks in which the connection is most discernible are
those collected as “Six Sketches from The Punishments of the Failed Messiahs.” A series of three paintings which bears the same title
appears at http://www.donkarr.com/gallery_2003_4.html [DEFUNCT LINK]. Each of the three is accompanied by a sound track
selected from the “Six Sketches.”
On the http://www.donkarr.com/ site, there are two other sound tracks:
• Joy Is Sorrow at http://www.donkarr.com/gallery_1998_9_2.html [DEFUNCT LINK]
• Change Is Stability at http://www.donkarr.com/gallery_1998_9_3.html [DEFUNCT LINK]
Joy Is Sorrow originally appeared on Nothing Stays Different: Instrumental Music by Don Karr, recorded at Dhora Music, Ithaca (1988-
2004); mastered by Alfred B. Grunwell at FingerLakes Recording, Ithaca (2004).
There is also the six-CD compilation, The Notebooks of 416, recorded and mastered at Dhora Music, Ithaca (2012-2013) which
includes 102 pieces composed within the span 1972 to 2002 rendered entirely on organ.
59 Anyone familiar with, say, Earl Grant’s version of Ebb Tide (Decca Records, 1961) should not be surprised at the sound-effect
capabilities of an unadorned Hammond organ.
 © Don Karr 2023

(Methods of Maat, page 214)

[f] The Alchemist

I am mixed
base matter
needing purification by fire
But the flame in me
is not met
by any beacon,
mirror to itself,
So the fire raises soot
and turns me more complex.
 © Don Karr 2023

The Impression of Nukva’s Will in AZILUT of BIRUR—gathering—fixing—emending

Methods of Maat—page 268
 © Don Karr 2023

Location of the Weapons, Temple of Metatron

Methods of Maat—page 229