What is sacrement AL II: 22 ?

[Diamond-otherkin]

Hi everyone,
I was reading Stephen Mace and at some point he says "Yet in its arrogance, the State has usurped power in a realm not its own. It has reached beyond the public acts that have always been its purview and now asserts a right to supervise private consciousness. This has been done by defining the sacraments of AL II: 22 as contraband. These sacraments are sacred to Hadit, the center and Source of all Self-Identity."
What are these sacraments ? (if those in the know are able to answer)
I would hazard to guess it may be psycho-active substances? Not seeking to do anything else than understanding what the author meant

 

[CALLMESNAKE22]

I would like to know too. The way it is written looks like 11:22 which is my birthday and usually means somthing when I see it randomly like this.

 

[Reynard]

Hey

I assume this refers to Liber AL vel Legis - Crowley's Book of the Law.

Book II, verse 22 begins, To worship me take wine and strange drugs whereof I will tell my prophet, & be drunk thereof! They shall not harm ye at all.

There might be a deeper meaning to "wine" and "strange drugs" (with Crowley, there's usually plenty of meanings) but at its most simple, and based on the strange drugs that Crowley seemed to use (but note that I'm no Crowley expert), it's probably referring to hashish, opium or mescaline.

And uh, wine. I like a nice buttery Chardonnay. But be wary of Crowley's advice that it won't harm you. I had a bottle and a half last night, and I stubbed my toe when stepping off the kerb on the walk home. Aches like a mother-humper this morning.

 

[Kellhuss]

It’s just an edgy guy finding a convoluted way of mourning the fact ‘strange drugs’ aren’t legal. Pretentious libertarian guff.

 

[Firetree]

'Strange drugs' ... why would they be strange to the Old Boy ... he was a chemist ... well, not qualified but he took courses and seemed competent . What would have been 'strange ' back then and to him ; opium, cocaine , hash ? HA! Those guys back then were soaking in it !

But he was one of the first westerners to experiment with psychedelics ... particularly peyote . Both 'strange' in itself and 'strange' as in new and not from the normal 'selection' .

I had mescalin a few times in my youth ( the good pure stuff ) ... yep ... that was 'strange ' .

 

[HoldAll]

I see the Crowley's verse as a celebration of the ecstatic approach to gnosis in general and Mace's criticism as too narrowly focused on drugs banned by the state as illegal substances. However, Crowley also mentions wine which may allude to the dionysia/bacchanalia in Antiquity. "Strange drugs" may refer to drugs that were seen as exotic in his day, for example hashish, but also to intoxicating substances still unknown at that time. That may have included LSD but I think the overarching theme here is disinhibition, so e.g. MDMA would probably fit the bill.