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- How Aleister Crowley Came To Berkeley
- ___________________________________ by Philip Jameson
-
- [Editorial note: The following article is reprinted from a news report from
- the early 1970╒s on the formation of the Thelema Lodge in California. It is
- offered here to give a brief outline of how the Berkeley O.T.O. came into
- existance. Although much of the material is now out-of-date and much
- information has been ignored by the writer, the article is relatively truthful
- and contains very few historical inaccuracies. Reprinted from "The Rising Aeon
- Journal, the official publication of the Seattle Ordo Templi Orientis]
-
-
- The recent occult fad of the Sixties and early Seventies was not the first to
- sweep the western world. There were previous ones every 40 or 50 years in
- the17th,18th and 19th centuries with dozens of alchemical, Masonic and
- Rosicrucian orders starting up at the drop of a charter. One of the more famous
- (or infamous) of these was the O.T.O. or Ordo Templi Orientis, (Order of the
- Eastern Temple) which claimed to be descended from the original Knights
- Templar. The Templars were an extremely wealthy and powerful religious order
- of crusading knights which was broken up by the Roman Catholic Church and
- Phillip IV of France in 1307 amid charges of satanism, sorcery, homosexuality
- and not giving the Pope or the King a big enough cut of the profits. In 1913,
- an out-of-place-and-time hippie named Aleister Crowley published his gem of
- metaphysical paradoxes, The Book of Lies, in which he accidently revealed on
- the major sex magick secrets of the O.T.O. (which he knew only to be a European
- masonic group). The then ╥Outer Head of the Order╙ (grand-high-mucky-muck) in
- Germany, Theodore Reuss, contacted Crowley and insisted that he would have to
- be initiated and sworn to secrecy. Swiftly the young genius rose through the
- ranks to the ╥ninth degree╙ and soon was given a charter by Reuss to start up a
- British branch of the Order, which he pretty much ran as he damned well
- pleased. As a magical lodge the O.T.O. as ran by Crowley nominated as an avatar
- of Oriental sex and drug mysticism on a basis of standard Rosicrucian-Masonic
- cerimonial magic. The goal was primarily a religious one: ╥the Knowledge and
- Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel╙ (communication with one╒s higher self)
- and the eventual attainment of enlightenment. If Crowley had stuck with this,
- the other lodges of the O.T.O. probably would have remained friendlier. But
- then he came up with the ╥Law of Thelema╙ (a Greek word meaning ╥will╙). In
- 1904, Crowley went through an intense three-day psychic experience during which
- he ╘received╒ through automatic writing a document known as The Book of the
- Law, supposedly dictated by various Egyptian deities. This extremely
- compicated mystical work stated, amongst other things, ╥Do what thou wilt shall
- be the whole of the Law╙ (one of the most misunderstood phrases) and ╥Love is
- the law, love under will.╙ Gradually, Crowley adopted the entire structure of
- his branch of the O.T.O. to his ╥Thelemite╙ doctrines of absolute metaphysical
- independence. The Book of the Law has a nmuber of harsh and complex passages
- which unfortunately make it easy to twist in order to suit the purposes of
- fascists, satanists and other powertrippers, although Crowley himself seems to
- have been an Ayn Rand sort of anarchist. A number of the O.T.O. lodges split
- over the thorny question of whether or not to ╥accept the law of Thelema.╙
- Thus, even today, there are a handful of legitimate O.T.O. groups which will
- have nothing to do with Crowley if they can help it. Crowley╒s O.T.O. was
- fairly successful as such groups go, absorbing many of the members (and a great
- deal of written material) from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which
- Crowley had previously joined just in time to be an active participant in its
- political dismemberment. Eventually, Reuss resigned as Outer Head of the Order
- (╙OHO╙) in favor of Crowley, who went to town, chartering branches in Canada,
- the United States, Australia, South America and elsewhere. But as the fad
- dwindled, so did the membership, and the German lodges were destoryed by the
- Nazis (as part of their final solution to the uppity occultist problem). So by
- the time Crowley died in 1947 hardly any of the O.T.O. lodges, original or
- Thelemite, continued to exist. Karl Germer, a ninth degree initiate of the
- Swiss O.T.O., then took over as OHO and did almost nothing for the rest of his
- life, since he was going in other spiritual directions. Several years after
- Germer╒s death in 1962, another ninth degree initiate from the United States,
- Grady L. McMurtry, decided to activate his ╥emergency powers╙ as Caliph of the
- O.T.O. The year before his death, Crowley had given McMurtry (who had been
- with him through the war) papers appointing him as his Caliph (since Crowley
- considered himself a ╥prophet╙ naturally his successor would be a ╥caliph╙), in
- order to investigate some problems with the collapsing lodges in America.
- These made Grady second in command of the Order, under Germer. Since nobody
- else in the late Sixties seemed to be doing anything, McMurtry decided to
- declare himself OHO, and to take over what was left of the O.T.O. until such a
- time as the Order again had sufficient lodges and members to hold a proper
- international election for an OHO. After knocking around the Bay Area for a
- few years, he finally decided to try some ╥fairly heavy magick╙ last spring,
- opening up the Order to an influx of psychic energy from the ancient Egyptian
- Gods worshipped by the Order. KAPLOOIE!! The
- hippie-commie-pervert-weirdo-heathen occultists of Berkeley descended upon him
- en masse to check him out. They found a hard drinking, hard thinking crusty
- old man with one of the world╒s greatest collections of humorous Al Crowley
- stories. Living with a priestess from the New Mexico desert, ╥Grady╙ found the
- living room of their house filled every week with increasing numbers of Crowley
- fans, eager to join a serious (but not too serious) magical lodge based on his
- theories. One by one, many of the best and most scholarly occultists in the
- Bay Area began to show up to evaluate the ╥new╙ group, and quite a few of them
- seem to be sticking around to help with the organizational work. Friendly
- links with the remnants of precious O.T.O. lodges in the United States and a
- gradual unification seems to be shaping up. Something magical certainly seems
- to be going on with the O.T.O. now that it╒s centered in Berkeley. Since
- April, over 80 new members have been initiated into the ╥zero-ith╙ degree (for
- novices) and a half a dozen or so people have been initiated into the first,
- second and third degrees. (Thus, the heirarchy of the organizational structure
- is slowly being filled up properly.) A newsletter with real occult meat to it
- is being published quarterly, with subscribers and associate members from all
- over the world gobbling up each issue. Regular classes in Cabala, Yoga,
- Ceremonial Magic and Thelemic Metaphysics are being organized and the bi-weekly
- open meetings are filled to over-flowing╤ enough so that the Order is having to
- rent a hall. Perhaps the best sign of Divine Intervention is that the rampant
- sexism of previous Crowley groups (a hangover from the 19th century) is
- fighting a losing battle against the increasing number of strong women joining
- the Order. Ceremonies are being edited and rules changed so as in almost full
- and equal participation for all, regardless of race, gender or place of
- plausible origin. On October 12th, the Feast of Crowleymas (Uncle Al╒s
- birthday) the ╥Thelema Lodge╙ of the O.T.O. was officially chartered as the
- grand lodge of the Order, just as the sun came out of its eclipse. Like a
- ph╧nix rising from the flames, Aleister Crowley╒s Ordo Templi Orientis appears
- to be reborn, thanks to Bay Area occult know-how and a little divine help.
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