Open Buddha

Ben Rowe’s Obituary

This is written by a close mutal friend of Ben’s and mine. She was much closer to Ben over the years than I. This is quoted with permission.

Benjamin Rowe
December 11, 1951 – June 20, 2002

aka Josh Norton
aka BNIAMIN ROVH 444

For those who must know, here is a quote from a family member to another friend:

“Ben died of complications from chemotherapy for his smoking-caused lung cancer — the chemo knocked out critical immune cells, and he succumbed to a severe pneumonia infection.”

Disclaimer: Some of the following are my own personal impressions and interpretations and should be judged as truth only under that filter.

Benjamin was a Sagittarius who chose not to take on students in a teacher role as he felt it might hold him back in his own magical work.

Benjamin recreated his natal chart using a calculation that involved changing the Ascendent to the midpoint between the Sun and Moon and then rotating the other house cusps by the same amount. One outcome of the new chart was to stop the effect of Sun combust his Ascendent (conjunct by less than a degree) which manifested in his constantly getting hit on the head.

Benjamin considered himself an Avatar of Set and as such he found disagreement with how the Temple of Set interprets Set.

Benjamin was one of the members of Bate Cabal and was published in their periodical “Cincinnati Journal of Ceremonial Magick.”

He did a lot of his early Enochian scrying work while sitting at his desk at a boring government job. Later in his magical career he was interested in opening a channel to/from the earth and in working with the god/creator of the Enochian system.

He believed he had inner contacts who specifically chose to work with solitary practitioners.

While magical orders have their place, Benjamin served as an example that one can attain magically without the requirement of joining a magical order. Benjamin never took an oath to a magical order.

Al Billings has graciously created a copy of Benjamin Rowe’s website for prosperity:

http://www.hermetic.com/browe-archive/

Other online venues for Benjamin Rowe’s writings include:

Benjamin’s own site:

http://w3.one.net/~browe/

Al Billings’ other Ben Rowe site:
http://www.hermetic.com/browe/index.html

Black Moon Archives
http://w3.iac.net/~moonweb/

Enochian List Archives
http://www.hollyfeld.org/heaven/.Web/elists/enochian-l.phtml

There used to be a zipped file of correspondence on the old Enochian Podsnet/Nuitnet echo but I can’t locate a URL for that at the moment.

Following are some random quotes of Benjamin’s:

“Over the years I’ve often wished for the existence of some rival whose work bore the relation to mine that Horus does to Set. That is, enough alike to make agreement on terms possible, and enough different to make it interesting. As long as the rivalry remains friendly (as it did not with Achad and Crowley) such situations create a dynamic energy that benefits both participants. There’ve been many periods of dryness in my own work where such a person would have been welcome.” October 19, 1993.

“A lot of the themes in the results of my magickal work have had to do with ways of giving people freedom from this world. and with the paths available for people to follow once they have achieved
liberation. Others have concerned connecting (or re-connecting) the Earth to the larger universe.” November 17, 1993.

“You might think of such people as bridge-builders; they create a path between levels of the spiritual world where none had been before. They almost literally create the ground that those who follow them will walk on. Those who come after have their work eased immensely; instead of building their own bridge from scratch, they need merely follow the one that’s already there, perhaps adding
a few embellishments to the stonework along the way.” November 17, 1993

“What do I look like? Someone (I think it was Ken Day of Mezlim) said the other day that I look like a Viking who retired to become a college professor.” December 5, 1993

“Working alone: Over the years, I have seen this as a necessity for several reasons, some of which still apply, others of which don’t. The main reason was my intent, expressed in my original magickal oath, that I achieve a specific level of initiation without ever being dependent upon anyone else for guidance, and without ever incurring obligations to any person, magical group or organization.” January 7, 1994.

Break the Wheel my dear friend.

With Love,
Charla J. Williams
June 24, 2002