In 1981, initiates of the Ordo Templi Orientis began performing Aleister Crowley’s Rites of Eleusis dramas in California. Revived by Lady Chandria and Vandimir McAirt, backyard productions of these mythic dramas became popular and took on a life of their own throughout the 1980s and 90s.
This silent film is all that remains of a series of home movies made as part of a film class the now-departed Chandria participated in; it compiles scenes excerpted from a variety of the Rites. The original soundtrack was a reading of Liber Tzaddi, which did not survive the years of storage. It was found in a garage in 2009 and the surviving fragments were digitized by Glenn Turner. The extant scenes are recognizable to anyone who has experienced one of these astrological dramas.
video provided by Bob Jones
