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64 The Reality of the Secret Chiefs The mythology of the secret masters or chiefs and the myth of the black lodge form an archetypal substratum of modern magical lore which is almost a necessity if magick is not to drift into a kind of bland parapsychological secular humanism or offbeat psychology on the one hand, or a religious fundamentalism grounded in a new faith substituted for Christianity. But one should at least allow that the legend of secret chiefs may have some rather literal basis in fact; that there are high masters of the art scattered around the world, that they are in communication with one another, and that how they use their illumination depends upon their character and predis- position. This is all that one must grant to consider the great brotherhood, or secret chiefs, as well as their opposition plausible. In medieval Tibet, this was known as the “whispered succession.” It is an open part of the literature of Tantric Yoga, and the often-invoked Tibetan connection of adepts and publicists comes quickly to mind. It was the Hidden Church of Karl von Eckartshausen that brought Aleister Crowley to the path, and small wonder; von Eckartshausen wrote in the 18th century of “...the society of the Elect, which has continued from the first day of creation to the present time; its members, it is true, are scattered all over the world, but they have always been united in the spirit and in one truth ... “It is from her that all truths penetrate into the world, she is the School of the Prophets, and of all who search for wisdom, and it is in this community alone that truth and the ex- planation of all mystery is to be found. It is the most hidden of communities yet possesses members from many circles; of such is this School ...From all time, therefore, there has been a hidden assembly, a society of the Elect, of those who sought for and had capacity for light, and this interior society was called the interior Sanctuary or Church.” In medieval European graal mythology, we find a strain of accomplished Graal Templars going out in secret to govern and protect far-flung populations, but (as in von Eschenbach’s Parzival), “...writing was seen on the Gral to the effect that any Templar whom God should bestow on a distant people for their lord must forbid them to ask his name or lineage, but must help them gain their rights of the Gral Company are now forever averse to questioning, they do not wish to be asked about themselves...” members As magical mythologist Aleister Crowley has a wonderful time with both friend and foe in the fictional Moonchild, but his nonfictional recounting of the same period comes uncomfortably close to the metaphor of the war between the Great White Brotherhood and the Black Lodge. Then we find the matter of fact (if remarkable) essay on sexual magick, “Energized Enthusiasm,” interrupted, as it were, in midcourse by an anecdotal accounting worthy of Moonchild. “Thus far had I written when the distinguished poet, whose conversation with me upon the Mysteries had incited me to jot down these few rough notes, knocked at my door ... If you come with me now, we will finish your essay.’ Glad enough of any excuse to stop working, the more plausible the better, I hastened to take down my coat and hat. “By the way, he remarked in the automobile, ‘I take it that you do not mind giving me Allen H. Greenfield