(09/1981) Drop Trooper: Memoirs of the Caliph

NOTE: This brief article appeared in Grady’s “From the Caliph” column in The Magickal Link (Berkeley: O.T.O.) in August of 1981 e.v., on the first page of the issue. In this article the editor [of Thelema Lodge Calendar] has in the interests of privacy seen fit to inconspicuously delete the surname of the local officer whom Grady commends. This article seems almost breathless in its enthusiasm for the rapid growth of the Order during the early 1980s e.v., of which after may years of hard work to “jump-start the war-horse” and get the O.T.O. working again, Grady as Caliph could be justly proud.

Drop Trooper: Memoirs of the Caliph
by Hymenaeus Alpha 777

I have just flown back from Columbus, Georgia, and I have good news for you. The A. O. Spare Encampment has now reached Chapter status.

It seems that Joe is one of these guys who just does not know when to give up. He was wandering around one day passing out Thelemic material, when he ran across this Inferno Club. It was full of go-go girls (classical routines), and the clientele were mostly skin-head drop troops from Fort Benning where they have whole battalions of paratroopers in training. I visited the club later, and I haven’t felt so at home since the Normandy drop. So Joe went in and promptly got bounced because the owner thought he was a

Baptist missionary. Joe thought about it, and decided to try again. Well, gold is where you find it. Even if you get your teeth kicked in. Anyone who was not into Baptist missionaries might have possibilities. This time he sat down next to Vanessa and they got to talking. Turned out she was heavy into Crowley and knew an awful lot about these things. The net result is that more than half of the Inferno Club signed up, and on August 2 we initiated thirteen Minervals. We have great hopes that this will grow rapidly into a lodge. Of course, Joe is a Second Degree.

Speaking of the Inferno Club, Crowley would have loved it. I remember in London in ’43 e.v. and Crowley and I were rapping across the chess board and he accused the Americans of being “much too serious.” Of course we were fighting a war. But his explanation was the old time London music hall: “Because they were so jolly.”

Last month Canada. This month Georgia. Next? An interesting thought. Oyes. The Canadian lodge is expanding rapidly.

H.A.

P.S. And thank you, Joe, for doing such a marvelous job.

Note: Originally published in The Magical Link, September 1981, and Thelema Lodge Calendar, February 2002.