Daughter of Sunset Updates

A special thanks to guest poster Fr. Iskandar for this item:

Students of things esoteric, Eastern and Western alike, will probably find these two new titles of special interest.

One is a biography by Robert Love, The Great Oom:  The Improbable Birth of Yoga in America (New York: Viking, 2010), briefly reviewed by the New Yorker. The Great Oom was a name the press gave to Dr. Pierre Bernard, the founder of the American Tantrik Order, a yoga aficionado, an adventurer, and a lady’s man, who was also recently talked about by Dr. Richard Kaczynski in his lecture on Victorian Sex Magic that he presented under the aegis of the Daughter of Sunset Oasis, here in Vancouver. To quote from the cover:

Reviving a forgotten tale of mysticism, intrigue, and the American dream, The Great Oom traces the practice of yoga from Bernard’s moonlit ‘Tantrik’ rituals in 1890s San Francisco to its arrival in New York City, where his teachings were adopted by the Wall Street barons ad Gilded Age heiresses who would bankroll his luxurious Jazz Age ashram on the Hudson River – the first in the nation. With celebrities like Leopold Stokowski hitting the mat with Vanderbilts, Goodriches, and Great War spies, Bernard’s brand of yoga (which initiates signed their names in blood to learn) was reviled as much as it was revered.

An essential and fun read on an important subject.

The other title is Aleister Crowley, The Drug and Other Stories (Wordsworth Editions, 2010), forthcoming in September this year. A collection of 49 stories by Crowley, some of them never published before, issued in a popular edition (Tales of Mystery and the Supernatural) by a respected publisher, with the foreword by David Tibet and Introduction by William Breeze, with the more than affordable price of only $4.57, this is a publication that many of us will  eagerly anticipate.

Daughter of Sunset Oasis began a new season of classes on various topics of Magick and Mysticism yesterday with two related topics.

Fr. Iskandar opened with a closer look at Liber Resh vel Helios sub figura CC. This book includes the briefest of instructions for performing what is most often referred to as “Resh” where the practitioner greets the Sun at its four quarters. Several issues around appropriate signs and methods of visualization were discussed. We closed with the performance of the evening portion of the ritual as a group. Great group participation in the discussion as well as the ritual itself.

After a short break Br. B presented a talk outlining the basics of Raja Yoga and some of the ideas Crowley had on the subject from Eight Lectures on Yoga. Br. B then contrasted this with some of the ideas of Zen meditation. After some instruction on the basics of asana the group settled in for fifteen minutes of actual meditation focused on the breath. A little more discussion of the experience followed.

The attendance was strong and the group dynamic is very solid. The discussion that followed after class at dinner was exceptional. I can’t wait until next month!