Saints of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica

A list of Gnostic Saints from Liber XV, The Gnostic Mass, the primary public and private ritual of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica.

There are three accepted versions of Liber XV published by Aleister Crowley, each having some differences but are all accepted as official for performances by EGC. There are also Saints added posthumously based on notes. There are, additionally, for reference and comparison, Saints that were included by Theodor Reuss in his 1920 German translation and lists from James A Eschelman's Thelemic Mass for Temple of Thelema.

Names in italic are on the “short list” for truncated performances of Liber XV. There is no short list indicated in the first publication as it appears in The International.

The end of the list of Gnostic Saints is comprised of the each past OHO of OTO, although whilst Aleister Crowley was current OHO of OTO, he placed himself on the list here. Some performances of Liber XV include Hymenaeus Alpha, Grady Louis McMurtry, at the end; and presumably Hymenaeus Beta, William Breeze, would be included when he passes his office to another.

“Martin Starr quotes a letter from Crowley to the occult ecclesiastic W.B. Crow in which Crowley described the saints of the Gnostic Mass as 'a rhetorical flourish – little more.'“—A Discourse on the Fifth Article

“ordain the insertion of the name … among the More Memorable Saints in the Gnostic Mass.”—Aleister Crowley, quoted at Paul Gauguin

There are no women on this list. Two references that may be of interest may help to explain this fact.

In a note about The Saints collect of Liber XV, Helena and Tau Apiryon offer a quote from Hymenaeus Beta, current OHO of OTO:

The title ”Liber 888 or The Gospel According to Saint Bernard Shaw” would seem to canonically suggest an actual or satirical sainthood of George Bernard Shaw within the technical books of Aleister Crowley.

Theodor Reuss included Dante Alighieri, Ludwig von Fisher, Franz Hartmann, and Charles Detré in the list of Gnostic Saints in his 1920 translation of Liber XV, The Gnostic Mass into German. The first three appear in Liber LII Manifesto of the O.T.O.. Ludwig von Fisher was included by Aleister Crowley in the original publication of the Gnostic Mass in The International, but subsequently dropped him from the list.

As published in 776½: Tables of Correspondences for Practical Ceremonial by James A Eschelman, Liber XV was rewritten in The Thelemic Mass for Temple of Thelema. In this version, there is an alternate Saints list in two Collects, with the intention “[t]o further equilibrate the balance between gender energies in the Mass”.

In a Collect for the Lion-Serpent there is a list (“reduced from the full list” not provided) of male saints, “[a]t each name Deacon signs X with thumb between index and medius.”

“Krishna, Thoth, Mosheh, Lao Tze, Gautama, Dionysus, Mohammed, and To Mega Therion. With these also: Hermes, Chiram, Horus, and Melchizedek; Apollonius of Tyana, Bardaisan, and Hippolytus that transmitted the light of the Gnosis to us their successors and heirs; Dante, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci; Raymond Lully, Nicholas Flamel, Robert Fludd, and Paracelsus who labored in the Work of the Sun; Prince Rakoczy le Conte de St. Germain, Dr. John Dee, ”Christian Rosencreutz,“ Michael Maier, and Thomas Vaughan who upraised the Rosy Cross; Giordano Bruno, Miguel de Molinos, Richard Maurice Bucke, and Swami Vivekananda; Dr. Paul Foster Case, Dr. Israel Regardie, Dr. William Wynn Westcott, George Cecil Jones, Edward Alexander Crowley, and Karl Johannes Germer”

And a Collect for the Earth includes a list of female saints, “[a]t each name Deacon signs O with thumb between index and medius.”

“Shekinah, Shakti, Sophia, Athena, Iymma, Isis, and Hé Kokkiné Guné. With these also: Sappho, Hypatia, Medea, Miriam, Fatimah, and Guenevere; Joan of Arc, Hildegard von Bingen, Caterina Benincasa, Teresa of Ávila, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and Rebecca Cox Jackson, who bore the labarum of the Light through the darkness. And these also: Eva von Buttlar, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Ida Cradock, Anandamoyi Ma, and Vivian Godfrey Barcynski; ”Anna Sprengel,“ Florence Farr, Violet Firth, and Ann Davies, who nurtured a Golden Dawn; Rose Edith Crowley, Leah Hirsig, Sarah Jane Wolfe, and Phyllis Evelina Seckler”

• Liber XV {Book 15} O. T. O.
• Liber XV (The International)
• Liber XV (Equinox)
• Liber XV O. T. O. Eccliesiæ Gnosticæ Catholicæ Canon Missæ
• Ecclesiae Gnosticae Catholicae Canon Missae
• Liber XV O.T.O. Ecclesiae Gnosticae Catholicae Canon Missae
• Liber LII Manifesto of the O.T.O.; compare the list of saints to “the constituent originating assemblies of the O.T.O. included such men as” list
• 2013/02/24/my-right-foot-or-the-potentially-awkward-issue-of-inappropriately-adoring-body-parts/
• “It seems the vocal Thelemic majority is unable to reconcile how they interpret what they read in Liber AL with the Saints Crowley chose for Liber XV. […] Almost none of the Saints were Thelemites or Gnostics in the traditional sense. And yet they are called to manifestation during the performance of Liber XV.”—A Short Article on The Subject of Thelemic Gnosticism
• The Gospel According to Saint Bernard Shaw

• Gnostic Saint
• Order of the Lion
• Order of the Eagle
• Jubilee Saints Project