Aleister Crowley's Lam & the Little Grey Men

Thanks to The Invisibles:
"It's all Crowley, Hubbard and Parsons fault?
Personally, we agree with what Crowley said."

A Striking Resemblance By Daniel V. Boudillion

Preface:
This report presupposes two very outlandish things: that there are "aliens", and that some people (occultists) have "magickal powers." It is not the point of this report to prove whether or not there are such beings or powers. What is known is that there are people who believe that there are such beings and believe that they have such powers. The crux of this report is based on what people believe, which may be very different from the way things really are. Please bear this in mind.

This report also recounts some very curious behavior on the part of a number of people. These behaviors and events actually did take place and are fact. However, the supposed results of these events are entirely subjective and entirely in the realm of belief. It is not my purpose to try to prove or disprove the beliefs of the people involved. It's what they did (and do) because of these beliefs that interest me.

Introduction:
I first became curious about a possible connection between the "grey aliens" of popular UFO culture and the activities of certain occultists after seeing several of UFO investigator Ray Fowler's books on the recommended reading list of a satanic website. In an idle moment I had done a Google search on Ray's book, The Watchers II, and one of the spots that listed it - much to my surprise - was the recommended reading list of a satanic group. (It is not my moral judgment that this group is satanic, the group itself calls itself satanic.)

I found this both disturbing and inexplicable - for what reason would a UFO book be included in the curriculum of a satanic group, and why Ray's book in particular? I emailed Ray and asked him if he had any insight into the situation, but he was as perplexed as I was. And there matters rested for a year or so until additional information came into my hands, information that may indicate - much as John Keel himself believed (Mothman Prophecies) - that occult activity may be an ingredient of the "grey alien" mystery.

The pictures below bear a resemblance and may hold the key. The first picture is a drawing made by occultist Alistair Crowley of an entity he had invoked repeatedly in 1918 and called "Lam." The second picture is a composite drawing by Ann Direnger (Contact of the 5th Kind - Imbrogno) of an "alien" type reported throughout 1980's in the Hudson Valley. Having noticed the similarity, I proceeded to investigate the connection.

Purpose of the Report:
It is the purpose of this report to investigate a similarity and possible connection, and particularly answer the question "For what reason would a UFO book be included in the curriculum of a satanic group, and why Ray Fowler's book The Watchers II in particular?"

Investigation

Aleister Crowley:
The Englishman Aleister Crowley (1875 - 1947) was one of the most notorious occultists of his day, and perhaps of modern times. Self-styled as "The Beast 666," he went out of his way to live up to it with his sensationalism and self-promotion. He wrote a number of textbooks on ceremonial magick, most of which are still in print today. He also founded and was head of a number of occult fraternities. In short, he exerted a significant influence on occult circles that has continued to grow dramatically, long after his death.

The Amalantrah Working:
In January through March of 1918 Crowley began a series of magickal workings called the Amalantrah Workings in furnished rooms in Central Park West, New York City. These were a performed via Sexual & Ceremonial Magick (his spelling) with the intent to invoke certain "intelligences" to physical manifestation. In actuality, the workings typically manifested as a series of visions and communications received through the mediumship of his partner, Roddie Minor.

Be that as it may, at least one such "intelligence" was brought into physical manifestation via the Magickal Portal they created. (A portal in this context is a "magickally" created rent in the fabric of time and space.) The entity that came through is the one pictured above left. Crowley maintained the picture is actually a portrait and drawn from real life. This entity either called itself "Lam," or was named "Lam" by Crowley. Either way, he considered it to be of interdimensional origin, which was the term then for extraterrestrial. In communications with Lam, the symbolism of the egg featured prominently.

Crowley included the portrait of Lam in his Dead Souls exhibition held in Greenwich Village, New York, in 1919. In that same year it was published as a frontispiece labeled The Way to Crowley's commentary to Blavatsky's The Voice of the Silence. Beneath the picture was the following inscription: "LAM is the Tibetan word for Way or Path, and LAMA is He who Goeth, the specific title of the Gods of Egypt, the Treader of the Path, in Buddhistic phraseology. Its numerical value is 71, the number of this book."

Other than this, there is no commentary extant from Crowley upon the subject of Lam except for material published by disciples such as Kenneth Grant. Interestingly, Crowley gave the drawing to Grant in 1945.

Cult of Lam:
Since Crowley's time, several occult groups and individuals following in his footsteps have claimed to have intentionally and successfully contacted "Lam." Most notably, Michael Bertiaux in the 1960's followed by a group of O.T.O initiates in the 1970's. (The O.T.O. is the Ordo Templi Orientis, a Magickal order run by Crowley.) These individuals consider "Lam" to be a trans-mundane or extraterrestrial entity and claimed remarkable success in their invocations - if they are to be believed.

Following the success of these contacts, interest in occult circles, especially Crowleyian ones, gathered considerable steam. In 1987, Kenneth Grant, the generally acknowledged successor to Crowley, went so far as to formalize the Lam Workings into something called the Cult of Lam. To quote from Grant's Typhonian O.T.O. website:

"The Cult [of Lam] has been founded because very strong intimations have been received by Aossic Aiwass, 718'.' to the effect that the portrait of Lam (the original drawing of which was given by 666'.' to 718'.' under curious circumstances) is the present focus of an extra-terrestrial - and perhaps trans-plutonic - Energy which the O.T.O. is required to communicate at this critical period, for we have now entered the Eighties mentioned in The Book of the Law. It is Our aim to obtain some insight not only into the nature of Lam, but also into the possibilities of using the Egg as an astral space-capsule for travelling to Lam's domain, or for exploring extra-terrestrial spaces in the sense in which O.T.O. Tantric Time-Travelers are exploring the Tunnels of Set in intra-cosmic and chthonian capsules.
Members of the O.T.O. who feel strongly attracted to this Cult of Lam are invited to apply for participation therein. It is open only to Order members. They should contact Frater Ani Asig, 375'.' of the Sovereign Sanctuary, O.T.O. and submit a formal, typewritten and signed acceptance of the conditions of Working outlined here.
It should be understood that proficiency in the magical formulae of this Cult does not necessarily comport eligibility for advancement in the O.T.O., its parent Order."

Concurrently, a manuscript called "The Lam Statement" was circulated among O.T.O. initiates with a view to "regularizing the mode of rapport and constructing a magical formula for establishing communication with Lam."

Who is Lam?:
It is interesting to note that since Crowley's time, in occult terms at least, Lam is considered a class of entity rather than an individual being. When one invokes Lam, they are invoking an entity of that type, rather than a specific being. For occultists operating along O.T.O. lines, the idea is to invoke these Lam entities through Magickal Portals (intentionally created rents in time and space) into physical manifestation on planet earth. Why this is desirable is not always so clearly stated. (It often appears that within Crowleyian circles the working rule is often: "If Crowley did it, I want to do it, too.")

Michael Bertiaux, a Lam contactee and invoker of note, viewed Lam as the "subterranean burgeoning of Lucifer-Gnosis." Considering that Gnosis means an intuitive knowing, this would mean that knowing Lam is to know a welling-up from the unconscious of an inner knowing of Lucifer. (The Occult being the occult, it is important to bear in mind that occultists at least may not necessarily see Lucifer as the devil, but rather as a "light bringer" who fell to earth.)

Bertiaux goes on to say that Lam is the natural mode of human evolution in the present Aeon - indicating that to him and his followers this Lucifer-Gnosis is the appropriate path of human spiritual growth at this time.

Cowley termed the intentional cultivation of spiritual growth the "Great Work." And the Great work for Crowley, "...involved precisely the establishment of contact with non-human intelligences." Intelligences such as Lam. Using the language of Crowley's time, certain non-human intelligences such as Lam were what we today would term "extraterrestrial." (or more recently, "extradimensional" again ;p)

A Portal Opened:
It is generally agreed within occult circles that Crowley intentionally opened a portal of entry via magick ritual in the Amalantrah Workings which allowed the likes of Lam and other similar entities a passageway onto the earth-world. The rift "in-between the spaces of the stars," created by the Amalantrah Working, created a gateway through which Lam and other extra-cosmic influences could enter the known universe, and most particularly, our earth-world. According to occultists involved in such things, the Portal has since widened.

The Babylon Working:
According to occult lore, the Portal was further enlarged by a Jet Propulsion Laboratory founder and rocket fuel scientist named Jack Parsons, and Scientology and Dianetics founder L. Ron Hubbard in 1946, facilitating - so it is said - a monumental paradigm shift in human consciousness. This Magickal working was called the Babylon Working, and like the Amalantrah Working on which its ritual was patterned, it was based on ceremonial sex magick.

Together they "endeavoured to ... incarnate a physical aspect of Babylon, the Scarlet Woman of the Book of Revelations (17:3-6). They believed that Babylon was the herald of the new Age of Horus, and that Revelations was the understandably negative interpretation by those of the dying Age of Osiris."

The gist of it was that Parsons desired to take the spirit of Babylon, the "Whore of Babylon," and invest it in a human being. The idea was to create a child in the spiritual world, and then call down the spiritual baby and direct it into a human womb. When born, this child would incarnate the forces of Babylon, which they considered to be a good thing.

(Although Crowley had previously written the somewhat hilarious book Moonchild - concerning a similar experiment - he wrote in a letter: "Apparently Parsons and Hubbard or somebody is producing a moonchild. I get fairly frantic when I contemplate the idiocy of these louts.")

In any event, the rites were duly performed as written from January 4th to 15th of that year. It is not known if a spiritual child was enwombed from them. What is known is that the Magickal Portal first created by Crowley, and which originally let Lam into the earth-world, was reestablished with considerable intensity by Parsons and Hubbard. From the diaries of the participants, it is also clear that they were not as adept as Crowley in the closings of portals. What they seemed to have accomplished was the drastic enlargement and ripping of an existing Magickal Portal and the subsequent non-closure of it. Perhaps the rip they created was not possible to close. In any event, the modern UFO era began exactly a year and a half later on June 24th, 1947, with Kenneth Arnold's sighting over the Cascade Mountains in Washington State.

Grey Aliens:
The "grey aliens," slight-bodied, big-headed, large-dark-eyed manikin creatures are primarily an American phenomena. And, it is interesting to note that all the Lam workings were done in America.

Reports of these UFO-associated entities became prevalent in the 1980's and made the big time with Whitley Strieber's book Communion. The "greys" appear eerily similar to Lam, with the exception of Lam not having the large insectoid wraparound eyes reported of the "greys." However, there are variations of these small manikins that very much resemble a Lam. See the second of the two pictures at the top of this page. This entity is a composite of a variation commonly seen in the 1980's. Rather than grey, its skin tone is clay-white and the facial features are different. In fact, the resemblance to the Lam pictured by Crowley is virtually exact.

Also and perhaps most significantly, Kenneth Grant, head of the current O.T.O., states that: "Lam is a Great Old One whose archetype is recognizable in accounts of UFO occupants." It would seem from this official Typhonian statement that the current invokers of Lam are absolutely clear that Lam and the grey-aliens are one.

Discussion

Back to the Questions:
The questions that initiated this investigation and report were: What possible connection is there between the "grey aliens" of popular UFO culture and the activities of certain occultists & for what reason would a UFO book be included in the curriculum of a satanic group, and why Ray Fowler's book The Watchers II in particular?

Question One Discussion:
Based on face value of the evidence, a theory could be constructed that not only are the Lams "grey aliens," but that the arrival of the "grey aliens" in American UFO culture was facilitated solely by the magical workings of Aleister Crowley and later disciples working in his footsteps. There are official O.T.O. groups today, such as the Cult of Lam, that are dedicated to invoking the Lam entities into the earth-world. According to their literature, not only is contact with non-human entities an integral component of spiritual growth, but the "Lam Consciousness" of Lucifer-Gnosis is the "natural mode of human evolution in the present Aeon." Thus these grey-alien/Lam entities are deemed worthy of invocation into the earth-world on behalf of the interests of humanity's evolution.

According to the face value of the evidence, one could also theorize that the Magickal Portal that Crowley created in the Amalantrah Working brought through the first of these beings. However, the Portal constructed was properly closed. In contrast, when Parsons and Hubbard did their similarly constructed Babylon working involving the opening of the same Portal, either they ripped the portal beyond ability to be repaired and closed, or it was enlarged beyond their ability to close it. In either case, the Portal - according to the evidence - has remained opened ever since to all manner of interdimensional entities to ingress upon the earth-world at will. The Parsons/Hubbard working effectively opened the world to the modern UFO entity situation. And, based on the Lucifer-Gnosis construct, O.T.O.-style occultists have continued to pull further interdimensional entities through this rip or unclosable portal.

Of course, Kenneth Grant's statement noted above ("Lam is a Great Old One whose archetype is recognizable in accounts of UFO occupants") is the final proof that the Crowleyian occultists fully believe that they are indeed invoking "grey aliens" into the earth-world.

Two Cents for John Keel:
Noted UFO/Fortean researcher and author John Keel felt that much of the paranormal situations he investigated, such as the "Mothman," were at root due to occult activity of some sort. And it looks like he was on to something.

Interestingly, part of the ritual for invoking Lam, or Lams, is to begin by meditating on the eyes of Crowley's Lam portrait. To quote Kenneth Grant: "To gaze into the eyes of this entity is to invite potent contact. One feels an immediate sensation of lightness, of weightlessness, and then a sensation of falling... of being sucked into a vortex...." Sound familiar? It is well known among UFO investigators that the eyes of the "grey aliens" have a powerful effect on the witness. Witnesses often feel like they are being sucked into their eyes. They also invoke deep feelings of fear.

Grant continues with instructions: "The eyes will enlarge and will suck in [your] consciousness until there arises a sensation of being within the entities head." (Again, this is presented as a good thing.) In any event, the first gate of consciousness is obviously through the eyes. And thus one who would meditate upon the eyes of a portrait of such a entity will indeed begin the process of opening a portal within themselves to the entity. In other words, you don't have to be a trained occultist to raise hell in yourself, which is also one of Keel's contentions.

Question Two Discussion:
Why would Ray Fowler's Watcher series be recommended by Satanists as part of their curriculum? First, most Satanists have an interest in magick. Second, the kind of magick is almost always Crowleyian magick. Third, a significant portion of the Crowleyain world feel that invoking Lam, or Lams, is a necessary part of moving human evolution ahead. Fourth, Lams are the occult label for "grey aliens." Fifth, the most comprehensive books on the habits and idiosyncrasies of the "greys" are Ray Fowler's Watcher series. If you want to know all about the "greys," you read Fowler.

Summary:

1) "Grey Aliens" are Lams, and were first contacted via magickal ritual by Alistair Crowley. Further magickal ritual along similar lines created a situation where direct access for these entities to the earth-world was established. Certain groups and people believe this to be beneficiary to humanity, and continue to draw these beings into the earth-world through magickal ritual via the original access point.

2) Satanists are involved in Crowleyain Lam invocations and recommend Ray's books for their extensive content on the habits and idiosyncrasies of the "greys" (Lams).

Conclusion:
It is now clear why Ray Fowler's books were recommended reading. This part of the puzzle, and the primary reason I wrote the report, has been solved to my satisfaction.

The secondary question raised by investigating the first (do "aliens" or "lams" actually exist) is a far different matter. People's actions are objective, but the motivations are based on the subjectivity of beliefs. What one person believes to be "reality" may not be in the least "real" to another.

At a certain level - and for the purposes of this report - it does not really matter if these beings and powers are objectively "real" or not. What is significant and of pertinence here is that many members of the occult community (O.T.O./Crowleyian) do indeed believe these beings and powers to be "real" and govern themselves accordingly. They spend considerable time attempting communication and invocation of them. They believe it is for the benefit of us all, although if this were generally known, I would think it would be a point of some considerable debate.

Addendum

Lam Lore:
According to O.T.O. chief Kenneth Grant:
Lam is known to be a link between the star systems of Sirius and Andromeda.
Lam is the gateway to the Void. Its number, 71, is that of "NoThing", an apparition.
Lam, as a Great Old One, whose archetype is recognizable in accounts of UFO occupants. Lam has been invoked to fulfill the work set afoot by Aiwass; as a reflex of Aiwass. Lam as the transmitter to AL of the vibrations of LA via MA, the key to the Aeon of Maat. Lam is the occult energy beaming the vibrations of Maat and may proceed from that future aeon.

Finis

Thanks to The Invisibles