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Secret Chiefs

From Thelemapedia

Thelema

Terms & Concepts

The Book of the Law

Numbers in Thelema

Aleister Crowley

Nuit|Hadit|Horus

Babalon| Chaos

Aiwass| Ankh-af-na-khonsu

Agape

Magick

True Will

93

Holy Guardian Angel

Stele of Revealing

Body of Light

Abrahadabra

Aeons

City of the PyramidsLust of Result

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Saying Will

The Great Work

Secret Chiefs

Holy Books of Thelema

Secret Chiefs(sometimes "Secret Chiefs of the A.'.A.'.") Aleister Crowley's term for those

praeternatural entities which direct the progress of humanity for ends that are usually beyond theken of mortal men. The Secret Chiefs are of at least the grade of Magus and Magister Templi,

may or may not be in human form depending on their own needs at the time, and are utterly

unknown to the rest of humanity except in the very rare times when they find it part of their planto reveal themselves to one person.

Crowley stated that he believes thatAiwass,who dictatedThe Book of the Lawto him, andAb-

ul-DizandAmalantrah,entities he contacted in other workings, were all Secret Chiefs. InMagick Without Tearshe also stated he suspected that a man of his acquaintance (whom he did

not name in that particular article) was also a Secret Chief.

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The Secret Chiefs are possessed of immense powers, called the "Ophidian Vibrations" which

allow them to "insinuate [themselves] into any desired set of circumstances." (MWT, 9:92)

These powers allow the Secret Chiefs "to induce a girl to embroider a taperstry, or initiate apolitical movement to culminate in a world-war; all in pursuit of some plan wholly beyond the

purview or the comprehension of the deepest and subtlest thinkers." (MWT, 9:92-93)

The primary discussion of the Secret Chiefs is inMagick Without Tears,chapter 9, although the

term appears in many of Crowley's writings. In his Confessions,Crowley often discusses the

events of his own life in terms of what he supposes to have been the plans of the Secret Chiefs.

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Precedents and Early History

Crowley's immediate source for the idea of Secret Chiefs was the Hermetic Order of the Golden

Dawn, which subscribed to the notion, and justified its operation with reference to them.

Nineteenth century occultism was full of various sorts of "hidden masters," however. TheHermetic Brotherhood of Luxor referred to an "Interior Circle" of enlightened masters who could

be contacted clairvoyantly. The Mahatmas (literally, "Great Souls") of theTheosophical Societywere another important case. Johnson'sMasters Revealedexplores the possibility that, rather

than otherworldly guides or fictional sources of legitimacy, the Theosophical Mahatmas were

historical persons with whom Blavatsky associated.

Possibly the earliest example of the Secret Chiefs concept is found in the "Unknown Superiors"

(Superiores Incognitii) of the Rite of Strict Observance, a Templarist Masonic body established

by Baron von Hund in the mid-eighteenth century. Some writers (Kenneth MacKenzie, forexample) believed that Hund's superiors were the Jesuits. At about the same time, however, the

German Gold- und Rosenkreuzorder also referred to its own mysterious secret chiefs(unbekannte Oberen).

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Sources

Crowley, Aleister. (1991).Magick Without Tears. Israel Regardie, ed. New FalconPublications.

Crowley, Aleister. (1989). The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography.

Edited by John Symonds and Kenneth Grant. London: Arkana. Godwin, Joscelyn, Christian Chanel, John P. Deveney. (1995). The Hermetic

Brotherhood of Luxor: Initiatic and Historical Documents of an Order of Practical

Occultism.York Beach: Weiser.

Johnston, K. Paul. (1994). The Masters Revealed: Madame Blavatsky and the Myth of theGreat White Lodge.Albany: SUNY Press.

MacKenzie, Kenneth. (1877). The Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia.(reprint) Kila: Kessinger.

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McIntosh, Christopher. (1997). The Rosicrucians: The History, Mythology, andn Rituals

of an Esoteric Order.(3rd revised edition). York Beach: Weiser.

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