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SWORD OF HORUS

Care Fratres et Sorores:

As usual I intend to offer you my Point of View, my opinion and the evidence which I possess that I believe supports my opinion.  The Sword's first victim is one T. Casey Brennan, who calls himself "The Great Beast 666 Reborn".

I am told that there is a long list of supposed reincarnations of Our Father Aleister Crowley and until recently our beloved brother Keallach was plagued by one of them.  By the use of an enchantment of Psychological Magic, Frater Keallach was able to rid himself of his pesty little nuisance and now it is my duty to sever the hairless skull from Mr. Brennan's weak shoulders ... metaphorically speaking, of course.

Not too long ago a relatively well known "occult magazine" published an article by T. Casey Brennan.  In the following issue they published Brennan's, excuse me, "Aleister Crowley's" sequel to Liber AL vel Legis.  It was entitled "The Revelation of the Damned" and by publishing such an obviously manufactured piece of garbage, Brennan did indeed damn himself.  As for the first article, it was headed by a picture of "The Great Beast 666 Reborn".  He was supposed to appear uncannily like Therion, shaven head and all, but he did not appear so to me.  The shape of Crowley's head and each of his features show strength in a beautifully decadent way.  Brennan's, on the other hand, is rather egg-shaped and nowhere in his features did I see a trace of the Beast's strength, but rather did I see a great weakness and fragility.

I began to question myself:  "Is this fellow mad? Or has he hit upon a gimmick that might make him a few dollars?" Then Brother Keallach came up with something interesting.  In a magazine called "Creepy", which is composed of comic-horror stories, he found one by a T. Casey Brennan.  Could this be a strange coincidence, I asked? Nay! I do not believe in such things.  It must then be true.

Our "666 Reborn" and this other T. Casey Brennan must indeed be one and the same person.  Immediately I knew the answer.  T.C.B. is a frustrated writer who has finally hit upon a gimmick.

In this first article, Brennan stated that he was put through a Great Transformation.  At this time T.C.B. lost his job (and how many of us have lost jobs?), his money (something not difficult to lose these days), his women (please note the plurality--is he trying to impress us? and you, my brothers and sister, just how many lovers have passed from your lives? is this so unusual?), his dog, which was shot in his front yard (probably for howling like its master!), his mother, who was killed in an automobile accident (the apron strings were here forcibly cut), plus his father was crippled, but I would say that this was more of a tragedy for his father! Brennan also lost his pride (alas) by being forced to go on welfare, but then, what person today has not had to swallow his pride in this manner?  (I know some unemployed people today who would gladly suffer the loss of pride to qualify for welfare.)  The point of all of this is that T. Casey Brennan simply underwent a series of events that could have and does happen to all of us.  Brennan, unable to act like a mature adult and a true Kingly Man, could not take it, was displeased with himself, and so became something, someone better.  He assumed the identity of Aleister Crowley.

The article is in the form of a letter to one of his students and it shows by its form that he has at least read Magick Without Tears.  He clutters his letter/article with Do What Thou Wilts and states quite plainly that he is "The Great Beast 666 Reborn".  He wrote about the silly worship of the Beast and stated that he is no God.  Then he proceeded to say that he is totally non-hostile toward other claimants to his throne.  The key word is throne.  Only a King or a God sits upon a throne.  One worships and serves he who sits upon a throne.  Seems rather contradictory, don't you think?

He then went on to prove his claim to be To Mega Therion by using the Qabalah ... his "Qabalah", that is.  Taking just a few examples:

(1) He equated his initials, T.C.B., with the Hebrew letters Teth, T, Gimel, G, and Beth, B, to imply that T. Casey Brennan equals The Great Beast.  Now it should be apparent to anyone capable of mentation that there is something here amiss.  T is T, B is B, but how can C be G?  Should Casey be transliterated into Hebrew it would be only natural to use Kaph, K, for the hard-C sound.  The Gimel-sound is quite different.  It seems that T.C.B. has gone astray with his Hebrew, and that is something Crowley would have never done!

(2) In attempting to prove that he is Crowley, Brennan pointed out that the Serpent, NChSh = 358, and that the Messiah, MShICh ... he had MSICh ... also has the numerical value of 358, and that 358 is the numeration of his last name, Brennan, BRHNNAN.  True, spelling his last name in this manner does indeed come to the total of 358, but just how does this prove that he is Crowley reborn?  Sounds to me more like he is a snake in the grass with a messiah complex.

(3) He mentioned a birthmark, in the form of a descending red triangle, on his chest.  Whether he has such a mark or not is difficult to ascertain and whether that mark is genuine or not is just as difficult to confirm.  But should he have one or not, just how is this supposed to prove that he is 666 Reborn?  Call it the mark of Horus if you will, but even should this be true it still fails to prove his claimed identity!

(4) Brennan asked the readers to call him person-to-person to prove that he was born with the inability to say the letter "R" like Crowley, and that he speaks with a distinctive British accent, though neither of his parents nor neighbours were British.  I wonder just how long he practiced these two things for anyone foolish enough to call him?

(5) T.C.B. translated the first couple of numbers and letters of the riddle posed in Liber AL vel Legis, Chapter II, Verse 76 thusly:  "4638"--the house number at which Brennan was born was 4328.  The 2 and the 6 can appear similar when handwritten, he said, and he believes that the 6 was deliberately substituted.  This is reminiscent of the days when the so-called men of science used to fit the facts to the theories by altering the facts!  "ABK", he continued, is a notaricon for:  Alice Brennan killed.  This, of course, refers to his mother.  But this is not very qabalistic in my opinion.  How do we know that this does not mean "Annie Besant kibitzer"?  Proceeding with his absurd antics he stated that 24 was his age when the supposed Great Transformation took place.  (He gives his birth date as August 11, 1948 E.V.) "AL" he translated, naturally, as Liber AL vel Legis, which Brennan supposedly was not aware of until after he ... ahem ... received "The Revelation of the Damned".  He also translates "AL" as Another Life.  "24 89" to him means Crowley reborn at 24, dies at 89, but let us hope that we do not have to put up with the likes of him that long!

(6) Brennan mentioned that he vaguely recalls the death of Austin Osman Spare being broadcast on the radio.  Spare was, at one time, associated with Aleister Crowley.  A.O.S. died in 1956 E.V. and Brennan would have been about eight years old at the time.  The question is, how does this prove that he is Aleister Crowley reborn?  I recall the death of George Reeves being broadcast over the television.  Does this make me the reincarnation of Superman?!

(7) T.C.B. stated that he remembered many things of his past life, but that most of these recalled incidents must remain secret.  Well, it seems that he has at least learned something from Arthur Edward Waite ... "mystery mongery" to hide the fact that no secret knowledge is really possessed by the mystery monger.

(8) Brennan's laugh is supposed to be identical to Crowley's and here the Book of Lies by Aleister Crowley is referred to.  Now how a sound can be proven to be identical to any other sound by any written word whatsoever is beyond me.

(9) Brennan is also supposed to carry the deadly head wound of the Beast as mentioned in The Book of Revelation.  This might explain some of his odd ways of thinking...

(10) Kenneth Grant and Israel Regardie have denied his claim to be Aleister Crowley reborn and this is supposed to be further proof of his claim!  Whether Grant and Regardie deny or affirm his claim means nothing to me, but at least here is something the three of us can agree upon!  Is it any wonder they denied his claim, given the above information?

And so, this is T. Casey Brennan who claims to be "The Great Beast 666 Reborn".  I do not believe that he is what he claims to be.  In the first place it is as close to impossible as anything could possibly be.  Aleister Crowley was a personality, a vehicle for the Logos of the Æon.  That personality has long since been dissolved into Naught.  It cannot return.  Only the Logos can return.  Personally I believe that T.C.B. is a capitalist of the worst kind who has decided to make his money off of the gullibility of others.

What do you believe?

(TNN.I.3.6-8, 4/20/78 E.V.)

There has been some comment upon the T.Casey Brennan article in Number 3 of this newsletter [see above] to the effect that valuable space was wasted.  Our reasons for this article were threefold:  (1) to swat a pesty insect, (2) to use T.C.B. as an example of this type of person and how they should be dealt with, and (3) as is usual for the wise Warrior, he does not go into battle without first practicing his strokes ... and it is wise for the Warrior to practice his strokes upon a dummy, don't you know.

(TNN.I.4.TITLE PAGE, 6/22/78 E.V.)

Recently a friend of mine in Canada, a Brother-in-Thelema, forwarded to me via e-mail something he had received.  The original message read in part:

I tried to visit the first web site listed above but my browser couldn't open it, and in the middle of the third one the Compustein Monster froze up so that I was forced to hit the Reset button to get out.  [Yeah, yeah, I know.  The CIA must have been monitoring my Internet use, discovered what I was up to, and proceeded to block my access to these sites that would reveal the conspiracy and spoil forever my fond memories of Robert Culp and Bill Cosby who portrayed undercover CIA agents in the old television series I Spy.]  There were other URLs listed, but if you are interested you can e-mail Brennan for them.  As another friend of mine in Canada just moments ago remarked to me via e-mail, the guy actually seemed saner back in the days that he was claiming to be Aleister Crowley Reborn!