William Breeze was born in Paris, France on 12 August 1955 and is an American musician and occultist, best known as a member of Coil and as the current international leader of Ordo Templi Orientis. Under the name Hymenaeus Beta he is a leading editor of the occult works of English author Aleister Crowley, the founder of the philosophy and religion of Thelema.
Contents |
Breeze is a musician who plays electric viola, mandolin, guitar, bass and electronics. In the early years of his career he worked with poet-percussionist and Velvet Underground cofounder Angus Maclise. Footage of Breeze performing alongside Maclise was shown at the exhibition DREAMWEAPON The Art and Life of Angus MacLise (1938 – 1979) from May 10 - May 29, 2011 curated by Johan Kugelberg and Will Swofford Cameron[1].
Breeze was a member of Coil from 1997 through 2004, playing electric viola, and is currently a member of the band Current 93 (a number and reference important in Thelema).
Breeze has also played with Psychic TV and appears on the recordings Thee Fractured Garden (1995), Cold Blue Torch (1995), Trip Reset (1996) and Spatial Memory (1996) and is mostly credited as playing viola and viola synthesizer.[2]
Breeze has been involved in the occult since the 1970s. He was involved in the publishing of Aleister Crowley's Magical and Philosophical Commentaries on The Book of the Law (edited by John Symonds and Kenneth Grant; 93 Publishing, 1974) and was a student of Marcelo Ramos Motta, who described him as "an ex-Probationer who failed to keep his Oath and perform his Task and was cut contact with as a result."[3] In 1978, Breeze was initiated into the Minerval degree of Ordo Templi Orientis. During the next few years, he advanced through the Man of Earth degrees of O.T.O., taking his IV° & P.I. at Tahuti Lodge in New York City in January 1985.
Following the death of Caliph Hymenaeus Alpha (Grady McMurtry), Breeze was elected as Frater Superior of Ordo Templi Orientis in a special election by all the active IX° members of O.T.O. He assumed the name Hymenaeus Beta.
Breeze is known in the occult community (under his pseudonym Hymenaeus Beta) as the editor of several of the works of Aleister Crowley.
Some of the works he has edited include:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||