Aleister Crowley wrote The Gnostic Mass — technically called Liber XV or "Book 15" — in 1913 while travelling in Moscow, Russia.
The end of the ritual culminates in the consummation of the eucharist, consisting of a goblet of wine and a Cake of Light, after which the congregant proclaims "There is no part of me that is not of the gods!
"[1] Crowley published the text of the Gnostic Mass three times: in 1918 in a publication called The International, in 1919 in The Equinox (III:1), and in 1929 in Magick in Theory and Practice.
In recent years, there has been an increasing failure to attain this object, because the established cults shock their intellectual convictions and outrage their common sense.
On the surface this may sound difficult; but in practice I found it perfectly simple to combine the most rigidly rational conceptions of phenomena with the most exalted and enthusiastic celebration of their sublimity.
Eleven prayers addressed to the Sun, Moon, Lord, Lady, Gnostic Saints, Earth, Principles, Birth, Marriage, Death, and The End.
Of the Anthem, Crowley writes in Confessions: During this period [i.e. around 1913] the full interpretation of the central mystery of freemasonry became clear in consciousness, and I expressed it in dramatic form in The Ship.
The lyrical climax is in some respects my supreme achievement in invocation; in fact, the chorus beginning: "Thou who art I beyond all I am..." seemed to me worthy to be introduced as the anthem into the Ritual of the Gnostic Catholic Church.
The People enter into the ritual space, where the Deacon stands at the Altar of Incense (symbolic of Tiphareth on the Tree of Life).
She moves in a serpentine manner around the Altar of Incense and the Font (symbolizing the unwinding of the Kundalini Serpent which is twined around the base of the spine)[6] before stopping at the Tomb.
He is lustrated and consecrated with the four elements (water and earth, fire and air), and then invested with his scarlet Robe and crowned with the golden Uraeus serpent of wisdom.
In this symbolic crossing of the Abyss,[failed verification] the Priest begins with his first oration, invoking Nuit, the goddess of the infinite night sky.
The Priest takes his third and final step before the Veil, invoking Ra-Hoor-Khuit,[failed verification] the Crowned and Conquering Child of the New Aeon.
[5] The Deacon then recites the eleven Collects, which include the Sun, Moon, Lord, Lady, Saints, Earth, Principles, Birth, Marriage, Death, and the End.
[5] The Priest blesses the Elements in the name of the Lord, and also states the essential function of the entire operation, which is to bestow health, wealth, strength, joy, peace, and the perpetual happiness that is the successful fulfillment of will.
He breaks off a piece of one of the hosts, and, placing it on the tip of the Lance, both he and the Priestess depress it into the Cup, crying "Hriliu" (which Crowley translated as "the shrill scream of orgasm"[5]).