DADAJI - Shri Dadaji Gurudev Mahendranat [ Aleister Crowley: related works. From the David Tibet collection ].

An extremely scarce handmade limited edition card with holograph inscription to David [Hall] from Dadaji, on one side and a print of a pastel (?) drawing of a desiccated corpse in a coffin on the other. Also with David Tibet's penciled ownership signatures.

( England ): ( Privately Printed ), ND (ca. 1976). Limited Edition. A handmade greeting card in the form of a single piece of thin yellow card, approximately 8 3/4 x 3 3/4inches with a print of a pastel sketch (?) of a dessiccated corpse in a coffin (possibly clipped from a magazine?) pasted on one side (artist unknown). On the other side Dadaji has written the numeral 5 above a horizontal line, over the number 10 - indicating that this is number 5 of 10 copies produced. Beneath this he has written: "Dear David / Love and blessings from the / wild lands of the Holy Land. / Do what thou wilt / shall be / the whole / of the Love (sic) / Love Always / [Signed] Dadaji." It is curious that he has written "Love" rather than "Law" in the last line of the standard Thelemic greeting - but it seems most likely that this was a simple error rather than deliberate substitution. Dadaji: Shri Paramahamsha Mahendranath (born Lawrence Amos Miles: 1911-1991), was an Englishman who is said to have had a youthful acquaintance with Aleister Crowley and who in later life embraced Indic religion and Tantrism becoming a guru of the northern Indian Uttarakaula Tantric Order. His teachings fused traditional eastern Tantric with Western magical techniques and went on to form the basis for the Arcane Magical Order of the Knights of Shambhala (AMOOKOS), an occult order founded in 1982 by Michael Magee (Lokanath Maharaj) which gave training to a number of now well-known figures before succumbing to the seemingly inevitable divisions that plague such groups. The card was sent by Dadaji to David Hall (1942-2007), who is best known as the author of "Beelzebub and the Beast", and numerous shorter pieces, and as the editor and publisher of the 1970s occult journal "Sothis" to which Dadaji contributed. The card was later given by Hall to British artist, writer and musician DAVID TIBET (founder of the music group Current 93) and has THREE small examples of Tibet's OWNERSHIP SIGNATURES in pencil at the bottom of the page: the uppermost is an early version of his more commonly seen "civvy" signature, underneath this is his magical name as as a member of the Typhonian OTO [Frater] "Pavo", underneath this is his name as a member of AMOOKOS - "Kapilanath", and beneath this he has written the Thelemic greeting "93". The picture on the front of the card is actually made of two sections, that are joined in the horizontal centre, and there is a tiny overlap and corresponding light crease. The edges of the card are dusty and have a little light creasing, and there is generally a little mild discoloration. Still a VG example of a rare - possibly unique - survival of the British magical world in the 1970s. Item #68445

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