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- AD VERITATEM IX°
-
- An Introduction
- to the History of
- the O.T.O.
-
- Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
-
-
- THE ORDO TEMPLI ORIENTIS (O.T.O.) is an Initiatic Body composed of men
- and women who have accepted the principles of The Book of the Law,
- which was transmitted through Aleister Crowley (1875-n-1947) in Cairo,
- Egypt in 1904 E.V. The communicating Intelligence identified Itself as
- Aiwass, a messenger of the ruling hierarchy of our species. The Book
- announces a New Law for mankind and the planetary transition into the
- Aeon of Horus or New Aeon. The Book is conceived to be a perfect
- transmission of the divine, freed from any defects of human
- interference. As such, it is a luminous vehicle of Truth that can
- serve as an infallible guide to human conduct.
-
- Aleister Crowley will at least be remembered as the greatest occult
- genius of the twentieth century. In The Book of the Law, he is
- designated as the Prophet of the New Aeon. An enormously prolific
- writer, his own work provides the best guide to his controversial
- character. His biographers have failed to capture his essence, even
- when not being overtly hostile. His influence on modern occultism is
- incalculable, penetrating every Western school. The present collection
- of papers, a minute sample of his literary production, should give
- even the first time reader a distinct impression of Crowley.
-
- The O.T.O. practices yoga, meditation, ceremonial magick, qabalah,
- divination and related disciplines of the Western Mystery Tradition.
- Our central headquarters, long centered in Berkeley, California, is
- now moving to New York, with numerous groups spread throughout the
- world. The Order is open to all free men and women of full age
- (currently defined as eighteen years old) and good report.
-
- The Order Degrees, as described in several Order documents included in
- this issue, are conveyed in a ceremonial manner. The Degree structure
- corresponds with the Hindu Chakra system as diagrammed elsewhere in
- this issue. Thus, the Man of Earth series of degrees fully activates
- the psychic body of the Initiate.
-
- In addition to the Degree rituals, numerous Order bodies regularly
- perform the O.T.O. Gnostic Mass, which also appears elsewhere in this
- issue. The importance of the Mass within the O.T.O. is best
- illustrated in Crowley's Confessions where he calls the ritual ``the
- central ceremony of its {the Order's} public and private
- celebration.''
-
- Various other group rituals are performed, unique to each unit of the
- Order and generally indicative of the main interests of the members of
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- the group concerned. These may include Crowley's group workings such
- as his Rites of Eleusis, original adaptations of various myth cycles,
- revisions of solo rituals for group participation, or other creative
- efforts.
-
- AN INTRODUCTION TO SECRET SOCIETIES
-
-
- WE POSIT A KNOWLEDGE, or Gnosis, capable of perception by each human
- being--for, ``Every man and every woman is a star.'' We further posit
- that Divine consciousness is experiential and that certain techniques
- are of value to induce the experience.
-
- The religious instinct is an integral aspect of mankind. From time
- immemorial, people have gathered with one another to seek Truth and
- therein lie the roots of the Order. Secret societies dedicated to
- seeking wisdom have existed in all ages and cultures. From the puberty
- rite of the aboriginal tribesman, to the ecstatic whirling of the
- Dervish, to the elaborate ceremonies of the Mason, the aim is the
- same--the programmed alteration of consciousness within a group
- setting.
-
- Myths that seek to explain the emerging of consciousness within the
- human race have been a continuous cultural phenomena. The Egyptian,
- Sumerian, Indian, Chinese, Greek, Near Eastern, Celtic and other
- civilizations had Mystery Traditions of the most central societal
- import. Each had its teaching legends of figures who mysteriously
- appeared to bring the gifts of civilization and spiritual wisdom.
-
- These transmitting Forces have been variously conceived of as Gods,
- angels, spirits and by a host of other designations. It is to these
- same Beings (whatever aesthetic is used to describe Them) that we
- ascribe the religious awareness transmitted through the O.T.O. today.
-
- ``ERA VULGARIS''
-
-
- THE MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES have characteristically functioned as a
- birthplace of religions and religious movements. Three of the world's
- largest religions, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam began in this
- region. And prior to the inception of these, dating back to pre-
- history, the indigenes have worshipped such deities as Oannes, Osiris,
- Enki, Adonis, Attys and others. The area therefore has traditionally
- been one of unusual religious cross-fertilization and constant
- political upheaval.
-
- It is a recurrent historical theme for governments to attempt to
- control the religion of a people in order to achieve stability. In 325
- E.V., the Roman Emperor Constantine convened a group of religious
- leaders from the area to achieve this goal. He became the first ruler
- to adopt Christianity as the state religion. The Council of Nice, or
- Nicene Council, epitomized the future of the religion. The purpose of
- the meeting was to settle a theological dispute. The loser was
- anathemized and exiled, his books ordered burned and their possession
- became a capital offense. A hypocratic yea-saying to the first creed
- of the new faith cemented the work of the Council. All this took place
- under the ``benign'' direction of the pagan Emperor, a notorious
- murderer who liberally rewarded the attending bishops after their work
- was finished.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- The standardization of the books of The Bible followed some years
- later. Elements of mysticism incompatible with the ``reform'' were
- neatly removed from the Canon. The vicious persecution of Gnostics,
- Pagans and Jews assured no philosophic rivalry with the growing
- Christian ideological consolidation. In 391 E.V., an angry Christian
- mob destroyed the Alexandrian Library and Temple (the great repository
- of pagan learning). This dealt a major blow to the spirit of
- intellectual research and hindered the possibility of exposing the
- fraud being built on the then-living remains of earlier cults.
-
- Heresy became a catch-all phrase for religious speculation.
- Philosophy, so highly cultivated in pagan society, was constricted. It
- would be several centuries before the power was achieved to turn this
- policy into mass murder, but rehearsals for the Inquisition were well
- under way in the interim. An example was the murder of Hypatia in 415
- E.V. Famed leader of the Neo-Platonic School, she was torn limb from
- limb by a band of enraged Christian monks. Great Pan was certainly not
- dead, but one can imagine His wailing for the human suffering to come.
-
- THE CRUSADES
-
-
- PRIOR TO THE BEGINNING of the Crusades in 1095, Europe was
- experiencing a period of cultural stagnation caused jointly by the
- collapse of the Holy Roman Empire and the attempts of the Church to
- assume temporal sovereignty over its remains. The resulting confusion
- led to a usurpation of direct control by a number of once-vassal
- princes, giving rise to the system of Feudalism. The chaos of the
- period is best illustrated by the eagerness with which vast numbers of
- Europeans joined the Crusades.
-
- The Holy Land contained the seeds of the later Renaissance. Arab
- culture was at its highest and most refined. The area now added
- European Christianity to its religious potpourri. The Mystics, Fakirs,
- Zoroastrians, Gnostics, Sufis and Buddhists of the region presented a
- kaleidoscopic panorama to the newly arrived Crusaders. The
- superstitions and dogmas of Catholicism must have seemed quite pale,
- when compared to the richness and sophistication of the Oriental
- theologies to which they were now exposed. Increasing doubt concerning
- the exclusive possession of divine favor by Christianity would
- gradually undermine orthodoxy.
-
- THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR
-
-
- DUE TO THE NATURE of the European presence, the Military Orders were
- the most stable institutions during the 200 years of Western
- occupation. The soldiers were involved with the exotic culture of
- their new homeland on a daily basis.
-
- Foremost among the Military Orders was the Knights Templar. Founded by
- Hughes de Payens in 1118, the Order was originally composed of nine
- Knights, who protected pilgrims on their travels through the Holy
- Land. King Baldwin II, the second European King of Jerusalem, awarded
- them lodging near the site of the Temple of Solomon, from whence
- derives their name.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- The Military Orders were clearly an idea whose time had come. The
- concept of a religious body of warriors was new to Christianity. The
- promise of glory, danger, travel, religious expiation, and the chance
- to fight to establish God's Kingdom on earth, fell upon waiting and
- ready ears.
-
- In 1126 the Templars came under the patronage of St. Bernard of
- Clairvaux, the most influential and politically powerful Catholic
- theologian of his time. He aided their efforts enormously. At the
- Council of Troyes in 1128, St. Bernard presided over the writing of
- their Rule which dictated the behavior of the members of the Order.
- They were concurrently sanctioned by Pope Honorious. Within a short
- period of time, they amassed vast stores of wealth and land donated by
- aristocrats excited by their charisma.
-
- The Templar Rule gradually expanded to include secret initiation
- rituals and private confessors. They were under direct control of the
- Pope and not responsible to any King or nation. As the European
- position weakened over the two centuries of occupation, the Templars
- were accused of collusion with the enemy on more than one occasion. It
- was noted, for example, that the colors of their mantles (a red cross
- on a white background, adopted in 1146) were the same as those of the
- Assassins or Hashishim.
-
- The Assassins, founded in 1090 by Hasan-i-Sabah, grew as an
- independent Shiite-Ishmaili force within the primarily Sunni Muslim
- world. They rose to prominence by maintaining extremely well defended
- mountain fortresses, and by pursuing a policy of selective
- assassination. Their isolation and essential fanaticism suggest
- ingrained doctrines of an unorthodox nature. That there was
- communication between the Templars and Assassins is well known. Also,
- the hierarchical similarities between the two Orders are noteworthy.
- (The Assassins were crushed by the Mongols in 1256, but their
- descendants now live in India under the leadership of the Aga Khan.)
-
- The Europeans were finally defeated in 1291 and the Templars left the
- Holy Land. On their return to Europe they were warily welcomed. Their
- independent, armed presence caused tension because there was no longer
- a pressing rationale for their existence. However, being the Pope's
- personal army, they still enjoyed his protection. They participated,
- for example, in the Albigensian massacres at his behest.
-
- Finally, through the malice and greed of Philip the Fair of France and
- the weakness of Pope Clement V, the Templars were arrested in France
- on a single night in 1307. (Philip had established a precedent for
- this by similarly arresting every French Jew eight years before.) The
- Pope, under Philip's direction, issued a European edict requiring all
- nations to arrest the Templars within their borders. The edict was
- ignored or cursorily complied to by several nations, notably Germany,
- Scotland, Spain and Portugal. However, the French, Italian and English
- Temples were destroyed, thousands of Knights killed over the next
- seven years and the vast wealth of the Order confiscated by civil and
- religious authorities.
-
- Many feel that the bankrupt Philip seized upon the idea of crushing
- the Order when he ran to the Parisian Temple for protection from an
- angry mob incensed by his monetary policies and currency
- manipulations. During his three-day refuge, he would have realized the
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- extent of Templar riches. For among other things, they had established
- the practice of international banking among Christians. Their numerous
- fortresses along the trade routes leading Eastward served as
- depositories for kings, nobles and merchants. The Templars had grown
- even wealthier thereby. Another motivation for Philip's hostility to
- the Order was that his application to join the Temple some years
- earlier had been refused by the these proud warriors.
-
- THE TEMPLAR LEGACY
-
-
- TEMPLAR SURVIVORS generally changed the name of the Order, joined
- fellow Orders like the Hospitaliers, or went quietly underground. It
- is our contention that they continued to teach the doctrines and
- techniques they had learned and developed in the East--the ``secret
- teaching'' of the Order. We further posit that this closely guarded
- teaching gave rise to the flourishing of the occult arts in Europe.
-
- The centuries following the Templar dispersion in the fourteenth
- century played host to an esoteric revival which has continued to the
- present day.
-
- The first written literature of the Grail Tradition appeared almost
- simultaneously with the founding of the Knights Templar. The Templar
- phenomena certainly inspired later authors like Wolfram von
- Eschenbach, whose Parzival, written in the late twelfth and early
- thirteen centuries, precisely reveals the symbolism of the O.T.O.
- lamen. Parzival's first publication in printed form in 1477 closely
- corresponded with the introduction of the Tarot into Europe. The Tarot
- includes among the rich threads of its symbolic tapestry a perfect
- pictorial representation of the Grail symbols. Interestingly, St.
- Bernard and his Cisterician Order are acknowledged by Pauline
- Matarasso in The Quest of the Holy Grail as the source of the monastic
- guidance given to the Grail companions. The white habits of the monks,
- their consistent isolation as hermits and the virtues they espouse to
- the Knights being pure Cistercian doctrine.
-
- Alchemy developed a considerable body of literature in the sixteenth
- and seventeenth centuries, which witnessed the works of Paracelsus,
- Agrippa, Trithemius and Bruno. The publication of the Rosicrucian
- Manifestos in 1614 and 1615 introduced the concept of a Secret Order
- of Adepts, silently guiding humanity's destiny. The idea fascinated
- the European mind and became the model for Mozart's Magic Flute and
- other epic poems and plays of the period. The Enochian workings of Dr.
- John Dee and Edward Kelley were a particular nexus point of this
- Current. The plans for the utopian Palatinate of Frederick V were
- conceived in this remarkable period, which also saw the rise of such
- occult luminaries as Robert Fludd, Michael Maier, Elias Ashmole and
- Johann De Bry.
-
- The great interest in Occultism continued unabated into the eighteenth
- century. Court de Gebelin introduced the theory that the Tarot was
- derived from Egypt and had a qabalistic correspondence with the Hebrew
- alphabet. Freemasonry spread at a rapid rate. Its Lodges played a
- pivotal role during the French Revolution. The legendary shadow
- figures of the Comte de St. Germain and Cagliostro were reputed to be
- organizing rebellion everywhere. The Illuminati, founded by Adam
- Weishaupt in 1776, grew rapidly, giving rise to endless speculations
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- of political conspiracy. It is still rumored today that the
- destruction of the French monarchy during the Revolution was intended
- to avenge Templar blood shed some four hundred years earlier.
-
- In the nineteenth century, Kenneth MacKenzie, Frederick Hockley,
- Eliphas Levi, Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Papus, P. B. Randolph, W. Wynn
- Westcott, and others, wrote about, practiced and taught the sacred
- sciences. Madame Blavatsky founded the Theosophical Society in 1875,
- the year of Crowley's birth. The Golden Dawn was founded in 1888 and
- included among its members some of the leading lights of English
- literary and artistic circles. The erudite occult scholar, S. L.
- MacGregor Mathers was its most notable head. The genius of his
- contribution to the development of the Western Qabalah must be
- appreciated before any comprehension of Crowley's work is possible.
- Crowley rose rapidly in the ranks of the Golden Dawn which served as
- his occult training ground.
-
- THE MODERN O.T.O.
-
-
- IN 1895, KARL KELLNER (|850-n-|905), a wealthy Austrian industrialist
- and paper chemist, as well as a high-grade Mason, founded the Ordo
- Templi Orientis. Kellner had traveled widely in the East, where he met
- three Adepts who instructed him in specific magical practices.
- Kellner's efforts to develop the Order were later assisted by Franz
- Hartmann, Heinrich Klein and Theodor Reuss, who had worked together
- prior to joining the O.T.O. The Order was first proclaimed in 1902 in
- Reuss' Masonic publication, Oriflamme. On Kellner's death, Reuss
- succeeded him as Outer Head. The ``Jubilee'' edition of the Oriflamme,
- published in 1912, announced that the Order taught the secret of
- sexual magic.
-
- Theodor Reuss was an interesting character. Born June 28, 1855 in
- Augsburg, he entered Masonry in 1876. He was a singer, journalist and
- possibly a spy for the Prussian political police, infiltrating the
- Socialist League founded by Karl Marx's daughter and her husband.
- Reuss was later associated with William Wynn Westcott, a leader of the
- Golden Dawn, who introduced him to John Yarker. Yarker chartered Reuss
- to found the Rites of Memphis and Mizraim in Germany. After several
- attempts to concretize various Masonic Rites, Reuss settled on the
- development of the O.T.O.
-
- The Order experienced a reasonably steady growth under Reuss'
- leadership. For example, he chartered Papus in France, Rudolph Steiner
- in Berlin and H. Spencer Lewis in the USA. In 1912, the historic
- meeting between Reuss and Crowley occurred. Crowley wrote that Reuss
- came to him and accused him of revealing Order secrets. When Crowley
- responded that he had no idea what Reuss was talking about, Reuss
- opened to a chapter in The Book of Lies. When Crowley looked at it
- afresh, the initiated interpretation of sexual magick unfolded itself
- to him for the first time. Reuss appointed Crowley as Supreme and Holy
- King of all the English speaking world, and it was this authorization
- that he invoked when publishing the material in The Equinox.
-
- Reuss resigned as Outer Head of the Order in 1922 after suffering a
- stroke and named Crowley his successor. All was well until 1925 when
- The Book of the Law was translated into German. There was a break in
- the continuity of the Order. Many members split with the new O.H.O.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- over the book, which Crowley was actively promulgating through the
- Order. He had earlier revised the Order rituals at Reuss' request,
- deeply infusing the doctrines of the New Aeon revelation.
-
- Crowley published many of his most important works under the
- imprimatur of the O.T.O.. He reformulated its long-term goals and
- mission and came to view the O.T.O. as the ``ark'' for preserving the
- distillation of the world's cultures into the future. These views are
- best expressed by Crowley himself, in his summary of the O.T.O. system
- excerpted from his Confessions in this issue. Crowley succeeded in
- fostering a few strong leaders in North America, and it is to these
- deep roots that the O.T.O. owes its continued survival. As he writes
- in Liber Aleph, ``This Magick...dependeth greatly on the Art to set
- many other Wills in sympathetic Motion; and the greatest Magus may not
- be the most successful--in a mean Conception of a Limit of Time.''
-
- The O.T.O. in North America was founded in 1912 when Charles Stansfeld
- Jones (well-known as Frater Achad) brought together twelve sincere and
- interested associates in Vancouver, British Columbia, all of whom
- signed forms agreeing to take initiation through the III°. They were
- duly chartered as a Agapè Camp (later a Lodge), and Crowley spoke
- glowingly of their work in his Confessions where he recounts his
- inspection tour in Vancouver.
-
- Frater Achad, as Parzival X°, continued to stimulate O.T.O. activity
- in both Canada and the United States for many years. However, it was
- left to one of the charter members of the Vancouver Lodge, Wilfred T.
- Smith, to found the first Lodge in the United State in the 1930's--
- Agapè Lodge in Pasadena, California. In Crowley's later years, Agapè
- Lodge was the single most active Order body in the world, prompting
- Baphomet's appointment of Smith as Ramaka X°. Smith and his Lodge
- members contributed greatly to Crowley's publishing efforts, and
- performed a weekly Gnostic Mass for many years. Bro. Smith's wife,
- Soror G., continues his important work after his death, and remains an
- honored and active Agapè Lodge member to this day. Soror Meral,
- Mistress of 418 Lodge, publisher of In The Continuum and head of the
- College of Thelema in California took her first initiation at Agapè
- Lodge, as did the late Caliph Hymenaeus Alpha X°. The membership of
- Agapè Lodge also included the illustrious scientist John W. Parsons,
- who helped found the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Cal Tech's Arroyo
- Seco. A crater on the Moon is named after him, in honor of his
- developmental work on the rocket fuel that launched America into
- space.
-
- THE O.T.O. AFTER CROWLEY'S DEATH
-
-
- WHEN CROWLEY DIED in 1947, he willed all otherwise unassigned
- copyrights and literary remains to the O.T.O., and the succession as
- Outer Head of the Order to Karl Germer, Frater Saturnus X°. Germer had
- long served as Grand Treasurer General and Crowley's Legate in the
- U.S., and Crowley directed that all the aforementioned property be
- shipped to Germer at the new O.T.O. Headquarters in New York. His
- strength of position within the Order, and the respect and, some would
- say, fear that he commanded made him the acknowledged leader. Crowley
- had in fact many times referred to him as his natural successor.
-
- Germer was born in Germany in 1885. He had a distinguished military
- career in the First World War and was active in the influential German
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Pansophia movement of the 1920s. Years later, when the Nazis assumed
- control, he was imprisoned because of his connection with freemasonry
- and Aleister Crowley. While in Berlin's notorious Alexanderplatz
- Prison, and later in a Belgian concentration camp, he endured great
- privation by reciting the Holy Books from memory, backward and
- forward, until he attained to the Knowledge and Conversation of his
- Holy Guardian Angel. He supported Crowley diligently especially in the
- later period of the latter's life.
-
- Germer was a quiet man, given to self-isolation. The Order ceased to
- initiate new members under his direction. His policy was to
- concentrate almost exclusively on the publishing program. Some fine
- results were accomplished, including Magick Without Tears, The Gospel
- According to St. Bernard Shaw, 777 Revised, The Vision and the Voice
- (with Commentary) and The Book of Lies (with Commentary).
-
- Germer died in 1962 without naming a successor. His unprobated will
- directed only that the property of the Order be divided among the
- ``heads'' of the Order.
-
- The intervening years have not been lacking in claimants to leadership
- of the Order. The published record stands for itself. With some
- diligent investigation, interested parties can learn the details for
- themselves.
-
- We (and recently the United States Government has legalized our
- opinion) view the succession as having been passed to Major Grady
- Louis McMurtry, Caliph Hymenaeus Alpha. His leadership of the Ordo
- Templi Orientis rests on several rather clear letters of authorization
- from Crowley himself. They met while McMurtry was a young First
- Lieutenant during World War II. He had been admitted to the O.T.O. in
- 1941 at Agapè Lodge through Jack Parsons. He received the Ninth Degree
- from Crowley directly and was entrusted with documents of emergency
- authorization to take charge of the entire work of the Order in
- California (as stated earlier, the only functional O.T.O. body at this
- time.) Crowley additionally appointed McMurtry his personal
- representative in the USA, whose authority was to be considered as
- Crowley's own. These two charters, dated respectively March 22, 1946
- and April 11, 1946, were subject only to Karl Germer's approval, veto
- or revision.
-
- Germer was well informed of these charters as he attended the Agapè
- Lodge meeting at which McMurtry presented them. The two men
- subsequently exchanged correspondence regarding plans to legally
- incorporate the Order in California. In a letter to McMurtry dated May
- 24, 1946, Germer stated, ``I want you to be fully informed, as 666
- holds you in charge of the Californian activities with any steps you
- decide to be taken with my approval.'' Whatever differences they may
- have had, there is nowhere the slightest suggestion that Germer even
- considered vetoing or revising McMurtry's charters.
-
- Six months before his death, Crowley wrote to McMurtry on June 17,
- 1947. He stated that while Germer was the natural Caliph to follow
- him, he had to look to Germer's successor, who, he wrote, could well
- be McMurtry.
-
- McMurtry disagreed with Germer's policy of not initiating new members.
- He moved to Washington, D.C. in 1961 largely to avoid a direct
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- confrontation with Germer over this issue. Here he taught Political
- Science at George Washington University while working as a Management
- Analyst for the Government. He also directed the Washington
- Shakespeare Society. In 1969, he learned of the 1967 theft of the
- Order Library from Mrs. Germer's home, during which she had been
- brutally beaten. He immediately resigned from Government Service and
- returned at once to California to conduct an investigation, re-
- activating his authorization from Crowley as Sovereign Grand Inspector
- General of the Order. The results of his extensive research were
- forwarded to the authorities concerned, as well as Mrs. Germer, and
- form the substance of the Solar Lodge chapter in Ed Sanders' book, The
- Family.
-
- THE O.T.O. UNDER THE CALIPHATE
-
-
- WHEN MCMURTRY BECAME AWARE of the critical condition into which the
- Order had fallen after Germer's death, he was impelled to invoke his
- documents of emergency authorization from Crowley. His first public
- act was to arrange for the publication of the Crowley/Harris Thoth
- Tarot Cards in 1970. This deck has the power of assisting the Magician
- to invoke the energies of the New Aeon--a visual tool for the
- programming of consciousness. In 1983, he released The Holy Books of
- Thelema. This collection of the Class A documents are the founding
- documents of the Thelemic religion. The two publications taken
- together constitute the Prophet's essential legacy, the words and
- images of the New Aeon.
-
- In the 15 years since McMurtry assumed leadership, the Order has grown
- to its largest size ever. With Lodges, Chapters and Camps in the U.S.,
- Canada, South America, Germany, Norway, the Balkans, New Zealand and
- Australia, the Order is like a lotus opening to the rays of the New
- Aeon Sun.
-
- We face many problems at present, yet, ``There is success'', and we
- work unremittingly. The Order has met the criteria for promulgatation
- of the O.T.O. Constitution in the United States. While some
- suggestions from An Open Letter to Those Who May Wish to Join the
- Order (see infra) appear quaint in these days of over-regulation (free
- railroad transport indeed!), we present these writings at this time
- that we may reaffirm our fealty to the principles therein. The
- structure envisioned by these documents is then both our reality and
- our goal. May their words be guides to those so chosen.
-
- POSTSCRIPT
-
-
- DURING THE WRITING of this article, on July 12, 1985 E.V., our Beloved
- Caliph Hymenaeus Alpha celebrated his greater feast. On the day of his
- death, the Order was notified of our legal victory in a United States
- Federal Court which certified our exclusive ownership of all names,
- trademarks, insignia and copyrights willed by Crowley to the Ordo
- Templi Orientis.
-
- On September 21, our new Caliph was proclaimed. His dedication to the
- principles described in the following pages assures us that they will
- be implemented fully and speedily. His first act of adherence to the
- Constitution's guidelines was to accept the mantle of secrecy imposed
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- on the X° and O.H.O. in Liber 52 (see infra). His respect for his
- predecessor and his lineage have impelled him to choose the name
- Hymenaeus Beta. Formerly a member of the Man of Earth Triad, the fact
- of his elevation to Frater Superior gives evidence of the magical
- fitness of the current manifestation of the Order. ``The succession to
- the high office of O.H.O. is decided in a manner not here to be
- declared; but this you may learn, O Brother Magician, that he may be
- chosen even from the grade of a Minerval. And herein lieth a most
- sacred Mystery.''
-
- Soon after the election, the new Caliph reactivated Agapè Lodge as the
- International Grand Lodge of the Order, located in New York.
-
- A new phase of our development has begun and we look with eager eyes
- to the future.
-
- Love is the law, love under will.
-
-
- FRATER AD VERITATEM IX°
- Grand Secretary General
- New York City, Winter Solstice An IIIxv
-
- BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS CONSULTED
-
-
- Clymer, Rosicrucian Fraternity in America (Quakertown, PA: Rosicrucian
- Fraternity, 1935)
-
- Crowley, Confessions of Aleister Crowley (New York: Hill and Wang,
- 1969)
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- Crowley, Magick Without Tears (St. Paul: Llewellyn, 1973)
-
- Daraul, History of Secret Societies (New York: Pocket Books, 1969)
-
- Dudley, History of the First Council of Nice (Mokelumne Hill, CA:
- Health Research, 1966)
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- Encyclopedia Americana, 1979 edition
-
- Eschenbach, Parzival (New York: Vintage, 1961)
-
- Franzius, History of the Order of Assassins (New York: Funk &
- Wagnalls, 1969)
-
- Heckethorn, Secret Societies (New Hyde Park, NY: University Books,
- 1965)
-
- Howe, Theodor Reuss (London: Transactions of Quatuor Coronati Lodge,
- 1978)
-
- Howarth, Knights Templar (New York: Atheneum Press, 1982)
-
- King, Ritual Magic in England (London: Neville Spearman, 1970)
-
- King, Sexuality, Magic and Perversion (Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press,
- 1974)
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- King, Rebirth of Magic (London: Corgi, 1982)
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- Legman, The Guilt of the Templars (New York: Basic Books, 1966)
-
- Lewis, The Assasins (New York: Basic Books, 1968)
-
- MacKensie, Secret Societies (New York: Crescent Books, 1967)
-
- Matarasso (trans.), The Quest of the Holy Grail (Middlesex: Penguin,
- 1975)
-
- Sanders, The Family (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1971)
-
- Shah, The Sufis (Garden City: Doubleday, 1964)
-
- Simon, Piebald Standard (Boston: Little, Brown, 1959)
-
- Webster, Secret Societies (n.p., Christian Book Club, 1924)
-
- Weston, From Ritual to Romance (Garden City: Doubleday, 1957)
-
- Wingus, Illuminoids (New York: Pocket Books, 1979)
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- Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul,
- 1974)