One Long Panel of Stones – Chapter 5

To: m-bakersfield@earthlink.net

From: sallymetfairy@prodigy.net

Subject: hermatic order of owl

Hello Melinda,

My name’s Sally, you don’t know me, but I came across your book while reading an article about a vault unearthed at a construction site in Flagstaff. I got your email address from someone in your old office at the university, sorry if this is an intrusive.

I’m emailing because I’m doing some research into the Hermetic Order of Owl. I have your book here, but I don’t see them mentioned anywhere, and I haven’t had much luck coming up with any information about the order thus far. Since you’re quoted talking about them in the paper, I’m hoping you might be able to point me to some research or perhaps answer some questions?

Oh! And, do you know if anything else was ever found? Whatever happened with the vault?!

Thanks so much for your time,

Sally Arins

To: sallymetfairy@prodigy.net

From: m-bakersfield@earthlink.net

Subject: re: hermatic order of owl

Wow, I haven’t thought about that in years. I’m surprised you were able to find anything at all. How did you dig that up?

I have to be honest, I don’t know much about the Hermetic Order of Owl beyond recognizing their symbols on the vault. I’ve always been intrigued by them, but have never found much information. This is a little embarrassing, but when the newspaper came to me I just sort of blurted that out and they ran with it.

What I do know is they split of from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn due to some kind of financial conflict. I’ve never found a full book of any kind—which is surprising, because I vaguely remember finding Aleister Crowley was involved with the Owls at some point, and that guy couldn’t keep his mouth shut (or his pants zipped). I had a few pages supposedly pulled from different books, but I can’t remember much about them.

Sadly, any notes I did have are lost. I don’t know what the history department told you, but I’m retired now, and that retirement was very swift. Which is to say, I wasn’t afforded a chance to collect my things.

I hope this helps. If you have some specific questions, please ask, it might jostle something free in my memory. I’ve been pretty bored in retirement, if I’m honest, and procrastinating writing my followup book is about the only thing I do all day.

To: m-bakersfield@earthlink.net

From: sallymetfairy@prodigy.net

Subject: re: re: hermatic order of owl

Thanks so much for getting back to me!

I was able to find the article using a computer, apparently Flagstaff is very modern and has all their old newspapers available on the web!

A rumor of Aleister Crowley and a connection to this Golden Dawn is already more information than I’ve been able to find. I’m doing my research at a local bookstore that has a lot of older esoteric texts, but nothing this out there, I guess.

I guess I should back it up. I’m a little hesitant to say this, but I have seen a book that’s supposedly written by someone in the Order of Owl. It’s indecipherable though, just a collection of maps with nonsense names. That’s what got me interested to begin with. So I guess I’m really just looking to cover the basics right now. Like, do you know when they might have split off from the Golden Dawn? Where were they when this happened? Do you have any guesses about what they might have been doing that 1) led them to have a vault in Flagstaff and 2) create this single copy of a book of nonsensical maps?

Thank you!

To: sallymetfairy@prodigy.net

From: m-bakersfield@earthlink.net

Subject: re: re: hermatic order of owl

Totally understandable to be cautious about sharing discoveries! I’d be jealous if I was still a professor! Are you writing a book? Are you a journalist? I just realized you didn’t really share how you became involved here.

So, those maps are, more than likely, a series of instructions. Do you know much about magic threory? It’s all a little convoluted, but the drastically simplified version goes like this: there’s a right hand path, a left hand path, and a chaos magic. Right hand path involves a lot of rules and ceremonies, the left hand path is, well, to put it bluntly, mostly just for having sex, while chaos magic is a sort of, hrm, like, a DIY version of the two.

None of this is super important right now, but the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was very much studying along the right hand path. They were obsessed with rules and ceremonies. My understanding is the Owls split off partially because, well, their rituals just weren’t doing anything. They’d organize these huge ceremonies with everyone standing on specific places like a giant chess board in order to open up a portal to another world, but it never worked. They claimed it did, sure, saying that the portals were in the eyes of the participants, and now they’re awake to see them. But there’s not much evidence it did anything.

The Owls thought they could do better. So, they broke off and created their own rituals. Instead of the Dawn’s chess board in a large room, they used much larger spaces for their rituals. Like, real big. Worldly big. That’s the gist of what I’ve heard, anyway.

My guess is those maps aren’t maps. Try looking at them as keys to a ceremony.

As for Flagstaff. I don’t think it’s Flagstaff that drew them here. I think it’s Sedona. I don’t know how much you know about Sedona, but I recommend looking into it. It’s an energy vortex, and a place many people go to in search of larger truths. I was there last year with some students and all I can say is, it just feels different there.

Best of luck to you.