Astrum Argentum A A
History
George Cecil Jones was the man responsible for introducing Aleister Crowley to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (G.D.) in 1898. Shortly after returning from China with his wife Rose, Crowley became ill and stayed with Jones to convalesce. With Jones' assistance, and as a result of his own travels and experiences, plus the small matter of his expulsion from the Order, Crowley decided to form his own Order with the intention that it would not only supersede the remnants of the G.D., but would actively promote his Religion / Philosophy of Thelema. Together they wrote Liber LXI vel Causae (Crowley’s own account of the G.D., its breakup and how the A A came to be formed), and in 1907 founded a new Order, the Astrum Argentum A A based on the Book of the Law.
Crowley only ever referred to the organisation as the A A ; what the letters stood for was supposedly known only to members. Israel Regardie in Gems from the Equinox suggests it should be Astrum Argentinum, while others call it Argenteum Astrum, Arcanum Arcanorum, Argentinum Astrum, Argentinium Astrum and Astron Argon, although C.R. Cammell, who knew Crowley very well in his later years, in his own biography Aleister Crowley The Black Magician tells us it is Atlantean Adepts. However, the consensus of opinion seems to be Astrum Argentum, so that is how it will be referred to throughout.
Unlike the A A , the G.D. was primarily a teaching order, preparing people to do magick in its Inner Order.  The A A , on the other hand, assumed that its members were either already trained in the arts or were undergoing the necessary training from their immediate superiors.
This new Order was considered to be remarkable for the originality of its structure, for unlike previous Orders, which tended to follow a lodge system, members were supposed to know only their immediate superior, plus, of course, anyone they introduced to the organisation. While the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) has received the majority of the publicity as the Order which actively follows and promotes the teachings of the religion of Thelema, it was primarily designed to be a fraternal organisation (until a member reached the highest degrees) while the A A was to be the major mode of transmitting Crowley’s magical and mystical techniques and beliefs. See Liber XXXIII - An Account of the A A . This publication was based on a part of Karl von Eckhartshausen's Cloud upon the Sanctuary which Crowley rewrote and edited to further describe his new Order.
There were no regular group rituals, although measures were taken to ensure the identity of the Officers were hidden during the few Temple initiation rituals, and members were expected to work alone, consulting as and when required with their superior in the Order. In this way it was hoped to avoid the many social complications and ego problems that led to the downfall
of the G.D.
The A A was a spiritual organisation focussing on enlightening an individual, with an emphasis on maintaining the chain of initiates from teacher to student. & nbsp;A member of the A A would strive to do the following:
- Discover for himself his own True Will, and then act upon it, and do nothing else.
- Accept the
Book of the Law
as the sole Rule of Life.
- Acknowledge that 'The word of the Law is Thelema' and that 'Love is the law, love under will'.
- Acknowledge the authority of the offices of the
Beast 666
and that of the
Scarlet Woman.
- Accept Ra-Hoor-Khuit as the Lord of the Aeon, and work to establish His reign upon Earth.
- Work to attain the Knowledge and Conversation of his
Holy Guardian Angel.
- After attaining the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel, to enter into the Abyss, and to emerge again therefrom.
On pages 660 - 661 of his Confessions, Aleister Crowley tells us, "In the A A , which is a genuinely Magical Order, there are no extravagant oaths. The candidate is pledged quite simply to himself only, and his obligation binds him merely 'to obtain the scientific knowledge of the nature and powers of my own being'. There is no penalty attached to the breach of this resolution; yet, just as this resolution is in contrast with the oaths of other orders in respect of simplicity and naturalness, so also with regard to the penalties. To break away from the A A does actually involve the most frightful dangers to life, liberty and reason. The slightest mistake is visited with the most inexorable justice.
What actually happens is this. When a man ceremonially affirms his connection with the A A he acquires the full powers of the whole Order. He is enabled from that moment to do his true will to the utmost without interference. He enters a sphere in which every disturbance is directly and instantly compensated. He reaps the reward of every action on the spot. This is because he has entered what I may call a fluid world, where every stress is adjusted automatically and at once.
Thus, normally, suppose a man like Sir Robert Chiltern (in An Ideal Husband) acts venally. His sin is visited upon him, not directly, but after many years and in a manner which has no evident logical connection with his offence. If Chiltern had been a probationer of the A A , his action would have been balanced at once. He had sold an official secret for money. He would have found within a few days that one of his own secrets had been betrayed, with disastrous consequence to himself. But furthermore, having switched on a current of disloyalty, so to speak, he would have found disloyalty damaging him again and again, until he had succeeded in destroying in himself the very possibility of ever again being disloyal. It would be superficial to regard this apparently exaggerated penalty as unjust. It is not sufficient to pay an eye for an eye. If you have lost your sight, you do not stumble over something once; you keep on stumbling, again and again, until you recover your sight.
The penalties of wrong-doing are applied not by the deliberate act of the Chiefs of the order; they occur in the natural course of events. I should not even care to say that these events were arranged by the Secret Chiefs. The method, if I understand it correctly, may perhaps be illustrated by an analogy. Suppose that I had been warned by Eckenstein always to test the firmness of a rock before trusting my weight to it. I neglect this instruction. It is quite unnecessary for Eckenstein to go all over the world and put unreliable rocks in my way -- they are there; and I shall come across them almost every time I go out climbing, and come to more or less grief whenever I meet them. In the same way, if I omit some magical precaution, or make some magical blunder, my own weakness will punish me whenever the circumstances determine the appropriate issue.
It may be said that this doctrine is not a matter of Magick but of common sense. True, but Magick is common sense. What, then, is the difference between the Magician and the ordinary man? This, that the Magician has demanded that nature shall be for him a phenomenal mode of expressing his spiritual reality. The circumstances, therefore, of his life are uniformly adapted to his work."
The Temple and headquarters of the A A were situated in a rented flat in Victoria Street, less than a quarter of a mile from Buckingham Palace. The rituals and teachings of the Order were originally those of the G.D., but rewritten in a less esoteric form, with Yoga and other oriental practices added, which Crowley had studied and learnt during his travels. He realised that all religions and traditions were interwoven, all having similar historic traditions and fables such as the Great Flood, and integrated those teachings and philosophies with the Western traditions. To begin with the only members were the two founders, Crowley and Jones (who did not take an active role), but it was not long before people were flocking to join. Among the first were Captain J.F.C. Fuller and Victor Neuburg.
Between 1909 and 1914 Crowley published The Equinox, the cover bearing the two phrases The Aim of Religion and The Method of Science. He considered this work to be the first to forward the method of science and the aim of religion with scholarship and common sense. Two issues were published annually, one on each of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. During this five-year period, ten voluminous issues were produced each one containing a selection of poetry, plays, short stories and material relating specifically to the occult. These ten combined to complete Volume I.
After publication of the second issue, The Equinox was prosecuted by Mathers for revealing some of the rites of the G.D. Mathers obtained an injunction preventing future issues, but Crowley won an appeal and was awarded costs in a famous court case in March 1910. No further issues were published during the war years, a ‘period of silence’ as Crowley put it. Following the war, he published one large volume in a blue cover, which became known as The Blue Equinox. Lack of funds prevented any subsequent issues of The Equinox from being produced.
The major reason for the publication of The Equinox was to use it as a vehicle to promote the A A , and as a platform to voice his opinions and attitudes towards the G.D. The majority of the material is irrelevant for genuine students of the occult, but that which is deemed important has been selected and edited by Israel Regardie (Crowley's one-time secretary) and published in Gems from the Equinox.

In 1910 another act designed to bring Crowley's new organisation into the public eye was the performance of the Rites of Eleusis at Caxton Hall, Westminster. The Rites of Eleusis, a series of seven public invocations or rites written by Aleister Crowley, centred on each one of the seven classical planets of antiquity (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury and Luna). The rites were performed by Crowley, Leila Waddell on violin, and Victor Neuburg in October and November. Crowley claimed that the rites were designed to inspire the audience with 'religious ecstasy', and that simply reading them would help people to 'cultivate their highest faculties'. Not surprisingly, the popular press of the day thought otherwise, and considered them an immoral display riddled with blasphemy and erotic suggestion. Nevertheless, the A A did get some good advertising press from it.
Following these performances, Horatio Bottomley of John Bull magazine and De Wend Fenton of The Looking Glass magazine started to delve into Crowley’s past. The following is an extract from The Looking Glass on 29 October 1910, referring to The Rites of Eleusis:
Excerpt from The Looking Glass dated 29 October 1910
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AN AMAZING SECT
We propose under the above heading to place on record an astounding experience which we have had lately in connection with a sect styled the Equinox, which has been formed under the auspices of one Aleister Crowley. The headquarters of the sect is at 121, Victoria Street, but the meeting or séance which we are about to describe, and to which after great trouble and expense we gained admittance under an assumed name, was held in private at Caxton Hall. We had previously heard a great many rumours about the practices of this sect, but we were determined not to rely on any hearsay evidence, and after a great deal of manoeuvring we managed to secure a card of admission, signed by the great Crowley himself. We arrived at Caxton Hall at a few minutes before eight in the evening - as the doors were to be closed at eight precisely - and after depositing our hat and coat with an attendant were conducted by our guide to the door, at which stood a rather dirty looking person attired in a sort of imitation Eastern robe, with a drawn sword in his hand, who, after inspecting our cards, admitted us to a dimly lighted room heavy with incense. Across the room low stools were placed in rows, and when we arrived a good many of these were already occupied by various men and women, for the most part in evening dress. We noticed that the majority of these appeared to be couples - male and female. At the extreme end of the room was a heavy curtain, and in front of this sat a huddled-up figure in draperies, beating a kind of monotonous tom-tom. When all the elect had been admitted the doors were shut, and the light, which had always been exceedingly dim, was completely exhausted except for a slight flicker on the "altar". Then after a while more ghostly figures appeared on the stage, and a person in a red cloak, supported on each side by a blue-chinned gentleman in some sort of Turkish bath costume, commenced to read some gibberish, to which the attendants made responses at intervals.
Our guide informed us that this was known as the "banishing rite of the pentagram."
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More Turkish bath attendants then appeared, and executed a kind of Morris dance round the stage. Then the gentleman in the red cloak, supported by brothers Aquarius and Capricornus - the aforesaid blue-chinned gentlemen - made fervent appeals to Mother of Heaven to hear them, and after a little while a not unprepossessing lady appeared, informed them that she was the Mother of Heaven, and asked if she could do anything for them. (She may be seen in the photograph on page 140 sitting on the chest of "the Master" - Mr Crowley - and apparently endeavouring to perform some acrobatic feat.) They beg her to summon the Master, as they wish to learn from him if there is any God, or if they are free to behave as they please. The Mother of Heaven thereupon takes up the violin and plays not unskilfully for about ten minutes, during which time the room is again plunged in complete darkness. The playing is succeeded by a loud hammering, in which all the robed figures on the stage join, and after a din sufficient to wake the Seven Sleepers the lights are turned up a little and a figure appears from the recess and asks what they want. They beseech him to let them know if there is really a God, as, if not, they will amuse themselves without any fear of the consequences. "The Master" promises to give the matter his best attention, and, after producing a flame from the floor by the simple expedient of lifting a trap-door, he retires with the Mother of Heaven for "meditation", during which time darkness again supervenes. After a considerable interval he returns, flings aside a curtain on the stage, and declares that there is no God.
He then exhorts his followers to do as they like and make the most of life. "There is no God, no hereafter, no punishment, and no reward. Dust we are, and to dust we will return." This is his doctrine, paraphrased. Following this there is another period of darkness, during which the "Master" recites - very effectively, be it admitted - Swinburne’s "Garden of Proserpine."
After this there is more meditation, followed by an imitation Dervish dance by one of the company, who finally falls to the ground, whether in exhaustion or frenzy we are unable to say.
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There is also at intervals a species of Bacchie revel by the entire company on the stage, in which an apparently very, young girl, who is known as the "Daughter of the Gods," takes part.
On the particular occasion we refer to the lights were turned up at about 10:15, after a prolonged period of complete darkness, and the company dispersed. We leave it to our readers, after looking at the photographs - which were taken for private circulation only, and sold to us without Crowley’s knowledge or consent, and of which we have acquired the exclusive copyright - and after reading our plain, unvarnished account of the happenings of which we were an actual eye-witness, to say whether this was not a blasphemous sect whose proceedings conceivably lend themselves to immorality of the most revolting character. Remember the doctrine which we have endeavoured to faintly outline - remember the periods of complete darkness - remember the dances and the heavy scented atmosphere, the avowed object of which is to produce what Crowley calls "ecstasy" - and then say if it is fitting and right that young girls and married women should be allowed to attend such performances under the guise of the cult of a new religion.
New religion indeed! It is as old as the hills. The doctrines of unbridled lust and licence, based on the assumption that there is no God and no hereafter, have been preached from time immemorial, sometimes by hedonists and fanatics pure and simple, sometimes by charlatans whose one thought is to fill their money-bags by encouraging others to gratify their depraved tastes.
In the near future we shall have more to say about this man Crowley -- his history and antecedents -- and those of several members of the sect -- and we also hope to be in a position to give a description of the "happenings" at the flat in Victoria Street on the occasion of what we may call "private matinee performances."
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The Looking Glass in particular started to print more and more outrageous reports about Crowley, and more importantly, his friends and allies such as Allan Bennett, of whom it was said conducted unmentionable immoralities with Crowley. Fuller advised him to sue but he chose not to as he considered the magazine to be unimportant. Eventually Jones sued the magazine because, although not mentioned specifically, he considered he was implicated through his association with Crowley. Crowley sat in the gallery throughout the trial, which Jones lost, refusing to testify. After the trial, membership of the A A declined, but from 1913 it began to recover, two new recruits being Nina Hamnett and the socialite Gwendoline Otter.
When Crowley became the leader of the O.T.O.,
that organisation became the outer order of the A A . The emblem incorporates the symbols of the A A and the O.T.O. The outer portion, known as
the septagram, is the symbol of the outer order representing the ceiling of the Vault of the Adepti (5° = 6° grade), and the symbol of Babalon. Using the Hebrew system of gematria, Babalon enumerates to 156. A mathematical formula containing seven sevens

was devised by Crowley to represent this number. Babalon is a known holy name of Binah,
corresponding with the High Priestess of the Tarot, whose title in Thelemic Tarot decks is 'Priestess of the Silver Star'.
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