Paul Foster Case

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Paul Foster Case (October 3, 1884 – March 2, 1954) was an American occultist.

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[edit] Case's early life

A modern scholar of the Tarot and Qabalah, Paul Foster Case was born at 5:28 p.m., October 3, 1884 in Fairport, New York.

His father was the town librarian and a Deacon at the local Congregational church. When he was five years old, his mother began teaching him to play the piano and organ, and later in his youth, Case performed as organist in his family's church. A talented musician, he embarked on a successful career as a violinist, and orchestra conductor.

Case was early on attracted to the occult. While still a child he reported experiences that today are called lucid dreaming. He corresponded about these experiences with Rudyard Kipling who encouraged him as to the validity of his paranormal pursuits.

In the year 1900, Case met the occultist Claude Bragdon while both were performing at a charity performance. Bragdon asked Case what he thought the origin of playing cards was. After pursuing the question in his father's library, Case discovered a link to Tarot, called 'The Game of Man,' thus began what would become Case's lifelong study of the Tarot.

Between 1905 and 1908 (aged 20-24), Case began practicing yoga, and in particular pranayama, from what published sources were available. His early experiences appear to have caused him some mental and emotional difficulties and left him with a lifelong concern that so called "occult" practice be done with proper guidance and training.

In the summer of 1907, Case read The Secret of Mental Magic, by William W. Atkinson (aka Ramacharacka) which led him to correspond with the then popular new thought author. Many people have speculated that Case and Atkinson were two of the three anonymous authors of The Kybalion, an influential Theosophical text.

[edit] Case's dilemma: music or the mysteries

Case reported a meeting on the streets of Chicago, in 1909 or 1910, that was to change the course of his life. A "Dr. Fludd," a prominent Chicago physician approached the young Case and greeting him by name, claimed to have a message from a "Master of Wisdom" who, the Doctor said, "is my teacher as well as yours."

The stranger said that Case was being offered a choice. He could continue with his successful musical career and live comfortable, or he could dedicate himself to "serve humanity" and thereby play a role in the coming age.

From that time on, Case began to study and formulate the lessons that served as the core curricula of the Builders of the Adytum, the school of Tarot and Qabalah that Case founded and that continues in operation.

In 1916 Case published a groundbreaking series of articles on the Tarot Keys, titled "The Secret Doctrine of the Tarot," in the popular occult magazine The Word. The articles attracted wide notice in the occult community as organizing and clarifying what had been confusing and scattered threads of occult knowledge as illustrated and illuminated by the Tarot.

[edit] Whitty and Alpha et Omega

In 1918, Case met Michael Whitty, who was the editor of the magazine Azoth (and would become a close friend) Whitty was serving as the Cancellarius (Treasurer/Office Manager) for the Thoth-Hermes Lodge of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega. Alpha et Omega was S. L. MacGregor Mathers' group that formed after the demise of the original Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Whitty invited Case to join Thoth-Hermes, which Case did. Case's aspiration name in A.'.O.'. was Perserverantia (perseverance).

Whitty republished Case's attribution of the Tarot keys (with corrections) in Azoth. That same year, Case was became Sub-Praemonstrator (Assistant Chief-Instructor) at the Thoth-Hermes Lodge. The following year, he began to correspond with Dr. John Brodie-Innes (Fr. Sub Spe)

Between 1919 and 1920, Case and Michael Whitty collaborated in the development of the text which would later be published as The Book of Tokens. This book was written as a received text, whether through meditation, automatic writing, or some other means. It later surfaced that Master R. was the source. On May 16, 1920 Case was initiated into Alpha et Omega's Second Order. Three weeks later, according to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn's bio-page on Case, he was named Third Adept.

In December of 1920, Michael Whitty died. Case believed Whitty's health problems were attributable to the dangers that arise or may arise in the handling of Enochian magic. He later corresponded with Israel Regardie about those concerns.

[edit] The controversy with Mathers

Some have alleged that it was "because of his quick advancement through the Grades of the Order [that] sparked some jealousy among the other Adepts" or that some of his teachings seemed unsuitable. Whatever the real facts, on July 18, 1921, Moina Mathers wrote to Case about concerns that had been voiced to her about some of his teachings.

In her July 18th letter, she told Case, "You evidently have reached a point in your mystical Way where there would appear to exist certain cross-roads. The artist in you, which I recognize, and with whom I deeply sympathize, would probably choose to learn the Truth through the joy and beauty of physical life."

"You who have studied the Pantheons, do you know of that enchanting God, the Celtic Angus, the Ever Young? He who is sometimes called Lord of the Land of Heart's Desire? The artist in us may have lingered in that land for a moment. But you and I who would be teachers and pioneers in this Purgatorial World must be prepared before all the Gods to be the servants of the greatest of them all... the Osiris, the Christ, the God of the Sacrifice of the Self."

And so Moina Mathers asked Case to resign as Praemonstrator which he did. Apparently Case had already begun work on establishing a Mystery School of his own.

[edit] Builders of the Adytum

After Case left Alpha et Omega, he vigorously pursued the organization of his own Mystery School. In the summer of 1922, Case put his first efforts together preparing a comprehensive correspondence course. In one year it covered what the B.O.T.A. presently cover in over five years. He called the course The Ageless Wisdom, and it covered just about the whole of Hermeticism. By 1923 Case formed The School of Ageless Wisdom, probably in Boston.

Within a few years he moved to Los Angeles, abandoning once and for all, his career as a musician, and established the Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.). Still in existence today, B.O.T.A. is an authentic Mystery School. Over the next three decades, Case organized the curriculum of correspondence lessons covering practically the whole corpus of what is called the Western Mystery Tradition; Tarot, Qabalah, and Alchemy.

[edit] Case's Views on Enochian

In the "Wheel of Life" Magazine, in March 1937, Case described B.O.T.A.'s relationship to the Golden Dawn, and his views on the Golden Dawn's use of Enochian material.

"B.O.T.A. is a direct off-shoot of the Golden Dawn, but its work has been purged of all the dangerous and dubious magic incorporated into the Golden Dawn's curriculum by the late S.L. MacGregor Mathers, who was responsible for the inclusion of the ceremonials based on the skrying of Sir Edward Kelly.

"There is much in these Golden Dawn rituals and ceremonies that is of the greatest value; but from the first grade to the last it is all vitiated by these dangerous elements taken from Dee and Kelly. Furthermore, in many places, the practical working is not provided with adequate safeguards, so that, to the present writer's personal knowledge, an operator working with the Golden Dawn rituals runs very grave risks of breaking down his physical organism, or of obsession by evil entities."

[edit] Case's death

Case died easily while vacationing in Mexico with his second wife, Harriet. His ashes lie in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

[edit] Significant influences in Case's life

Master R.

In the summer of 1921, Case received a phone call from The Master Rococzy. Case later met The Master R. in person at the Hotel Roosevelt in NYC (Madison and Lexington Avenues at 43rd Street).

The Adytum News described it this way: "One day the phone rang, and much to his surprise the same voice which had been inwardly instructing him in his researches for many years spoke to him on the phone. It was the Master R. who had come personally to New York for the purpose of preparing Paul Case to begin the next incarnation of the Qabalistic Way of Return. ... After three weeks of personal instruction with the Master R., Builders of the Adytum was formed."

Lilli Geise

Case married a soror from Alpha et Omega named Lilli Geise. On May 9, 1924 Lilly Geise died.

Harriet B. Case (1893-1972)

In 1943 Case married Harriet.

Ann Davies (1912-1975)

In 1943 Case was introduced to Ann Davies. She walked into one of his classes with her sister. Later, Ann and her small daughter Bonnie moved into the Cases' house where they helped by fixing meals, mimeographing lessons, etc.

Masonic Affiliations

According to the membership archives of the Grand Lodge, F. & A.M. of California and an unpublished biography of Case written by the archivist of the Builders of the Adytum.

Fairport Lodge No. 476, Fairport, New York.

  • Initiated: March 22, 1926
  • Passed: April 12, 1926
  • Raised, June 28, 1926

Hollenbeck Lodge No. 319, Los Angeles

  • Affiliated: September 5, 1944
  • Demitted: June 2, 1953

Eagle Rock Lodge No. 422, Los Angeles

  • Affiliated: June 2, 1953

[edit] Case's writings

Articles:

  1. Article on Tarot in "The Word" (1916)
  2. Article on Tarot (revised) in "Azoth Magazine" (1918)

Books:

  1. The Kybalion (1912) [with William A. Atkinson]
  2. An Introduction to the Study of the Tarot (1920)
  3. A Brief Analysis of the Tarot (1927)
  4. The True and Invisible Rosicrucian Order (1927)
  5. Correlations of Sound & Color (1931)
  6. The Highlights of Tarot (1931)
  7. The Book of Tokens (1934)
  8. The Great Seal of the United States (1935)
  9. The Open Door (1938)
  10. The Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages (1947)
  11. Daniel, Master of Magicians
  12. The Masonic Letter G
  13. The Name of Names

[edit] His legacy

Case left behind extensive published writings on Tarot and Qabalah and even more unpublished writings that are circulated today through the Mystery School he founded.

Some of the wording from "The Book of Tokens" was used in the Tarot-inspired musical episode of Xena: Warrior Princess entitled The Bitter Suite.

[edit] See also

[edit] Bibliography

  • Research by Lee Moffitt

[edit] External History Sites

[edit] External links

[edit] Original texts

Writings of Case and his contemporaries

[edit] Online resources

Online information on Case and his work

Online fora discussing Case and his work

Online resources reflecting the work of Case or his students

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