In the interest of maximum content for minimum effort, here's the thesis paper I wrote for my recently completed Comparative Religion class. I got an A on it, btw.
Organizational Schism in Post-Crowleyan Thelema
On April 6-8th of 1904, Aleister Crowley received the revelation that led to the
creation of a new religion, Thelema. For an hour on each of those days, Crowley claims
he sat alone in the rented room he and his new bride, Rose, were sharing in Cairo, and
wrote down the words dictated to him by a discarnate voice which identified itself as
Aiwass. The work of these three days were the three chapters of the volume knows as
Liber AL vel Legis, The Book of the Law, which lays down the basic cosmology and
ethics of Thelema. The two best known lines from this volume(which Crowley
encouraged people to use as greetings) at ‘Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the
Law’, and ‘Love is the law, love under will.’
Earlier in 1904, while passing through Germany, Crowley had joined an
organization called the Ordo Templi Orientis(OTO). He didn’t ascribe much importance
to it at the time, it was merely a hobby of his to collect to collect ‘occult’ titles. (For some
reason, many ‘anti-occult’ writers seem to have picked up the idea Crowley founded the
OTO. In actuality it was founded by two German freemasons, Theodore Reuss and Karl
Kellner, with the initial sole purpose of teaching tantric yoga to initiates of the Masonic
Rites of Memphis and Mizraim.) Crowley forgot about his membership in the OTO
completely until many years later. In 1910, though, Crowley published a collection of
paradoxical poems and riddles, The Book of Lies, which attracted the attention of
Theodore Reuss. Reuss payed a visit to Crowley and demanded to know why he had
published the central initiatory secret of the OTO. Crowley had no idea what Reuss was
talking about, and said so. When Reuss pointed out the chapter in The Book of
Lies(Crowley does not say which chapter it was, but based on inference from other
materials, and conversations with a friend of mine, I’m fairly certain it was Chapter 36,
The Star Sapphire, which describes a fairly basic sex magick ritual.) When it was
ascertained that Crowley had made the ritual up, without reference to order documents,
Reuss made Crowley the head of the OTO in Great Britain, with authority to re-write the
order’s initiation rituals. Crowley did so, infusing ideas from the Book of the Law into the
rituals. When Reuss died in 1923, Crowley assumed the title of Outer Head of the OTO.
There were no major schisms in Thelema during the remainder of Crowley’s life.
One of his ex-lover’s, Leah Hirsig, did attempt to create a non-Crowley centred Thelema
after he abandoned her and their son in Tunisia, but that didn’t go anywhere.
When Crowley died in 1947, he appointed Karl Germer as his successor as head of
the OTO, which Crowley had, over the years, molded into the primary vehicle for the
promulgation of Thelemic ideology. Crowley had doubts, however, about Germer’s
long-term dedication to the cause, and created a contingency plan, detailed in the so-called
‘Caliphate letters’, whereby another student of his, Grady McMurtry, would step in and
assume authority under the emergency title of Caliph, should Germer show himself
unwilling or unable to perform the duties of the office of OHO.
It was under Germer that the first major schism in Thelema occurred. In 1955,
Kenneth Grant, a former secretary to Aleister Crowley, declared himself to be the rightful
OHO of OTO. Germer promptly expelled him. Grant proceeded onwards, throwing out
the dramatic rituals created by Crowley, and creating a fusion of Crowley’s Thelemic
ideologies with ideas taken from the work of horror/fantasy writer H. P. Lovecraft and sex
mystic Austin Osman Spare. Michael Staley, the public spokeman for the Typhonian
OTO(as Grant’s order is known) claims that Grant was designated as OHO by Crowley,
and that Germer merely acted in the role probationally until Grant was ready to fully
assume his responsibilities. The Typhonian OTO has never been able to expand much
outside England, and I’ve heard through the grapevine that their primary current activity is
infiltrating and disrupting the activities of other OTO lineages that happen to have active
bodies in England, which the Typhonians apparently consider to be ‘their’ turf.
There were no more notable schisms during Germer’s life. Through the remainder
of Germer’s life, though, he became increasingly paranoid and began seriously neglecting
his duties as OHO. When he died in 1961, there were fewer than 20 member left in the
OTO. Between Germer’s death and McMurtry’s assumption of the office of Caliph in
1969, the OTO went through an interregnum. However, things were not completely
quiet. A personal student of Karl Germer’s, Marcello Motta, became convinced that he
was the intended successor as OHO(despite the fact that he had never been initiated into
the Order.) It is nearly impossible to find accurate reliable information about the early
history of Motta’s Society Ordo Templi Orientis(SOTO.) What can be known is that for a
brief period after Germer’s death, Motta accepted Kenneth Grant as OHO, but eventually
rejected him and gave himself the title. He re-wrote Crowley’s rituals, began publishing
Crowley’s books(with his own idiosyncratic commentaries and edits) in both English and
translated into his native Portuguese.
In 1969, Grady McMurtry, who had moved to Washington, DC, in the late 50’s
and fallen out of the loop of the Thelemic community which was centered in California at
the time, learned of Germer’s death, and activated his authority of Caliph in order to begin
the arduous process of rebuilding the Order from what remnants that remained. When
Motta learned of McMurtry, he issued a letter of expulsion, and began a campaign of
low-grade harrassment against the Caliphate(as people who do not accept McMurtry’s
legitimacy refer to the OTO.) Most of the people Motta sent to spy on McMurtry ended
up jumping ship and joining the OTO, though.
Things remained mostly quiet until 1983, when Motta sued publishers Samuel
Weiser, Inc. for copyright infringement, due to their publishing of Crowley volumes edited
by McMurtry. This lawsuit resulted in the Conclusion of Law “Plaintiff Motta and SOTO
do not own the Crowley copyrights in their individual capacities. The OTO is not proven
to be an incorporated association having legal status to own property. Therefore,
Plaintiffs cannot derive ownership of the copyrights from the OTO.” In the immediate
aftermath of the Maine trial, Motta and his followers published slanderous comments
about McMurtry and other members of OTO who had testified at the Maine trial. In the
meantime, McMurtry sped up the process of legally incoporating the OTO as a religion,
and in 1985, brought his own lawsuit for copyright infringement and slander against
Motta.
In McMurtry, et. al vs. Society Ordo Templi Orientis, et. al., Judge Legge of the
9th District Circuit ruled that the OTO under McMurtry was the legal holder of all
Crowley copyrights. Though he dismissed the slander charges, he ordered the Defendant
to pay all of the Plaintiffs legal fees.
McMurtry died the day after the ruling in the case was delivered. He left
instructions that his successor as Caliph be chosen by a vote of the IXth degrees. This
was carried out, and William Breeze became Caliph and OHO de facto of OTO.
Motta died in 1987, without designating a successor. Two SOTO alumni, David
Bersson and William Barden, immediately declared themselves OHO, and soon after,
expelled each other. There is very little information available about William Barden. I can
only report heresay culled from conversations I had some time ago on the now defunct
Aleister Crowley Messageboard(an un-moderated mess of a website that used to be at
www.aleistercrowley.com, but disappeared some time ago, to be replaced recently with a
generic collection of Thelema related links.) A former Motta student named Jana
Rabinowitz(who posted at Naughty Little Girl in reference to a bizarre essary about her on
David Bersson’s website) told me that Barden(who resides in Australia) is a chronic
heroin addict with a paralyzing fear of Americans. His branch of SOTO does not seem to
be active at all.
David Bersson, however, is a fish of another sort. His website,
www.castletower.org, is probably the best unintended comic relief in the whole of the
online Thelemic community. Filled with over-heated diatribes about the evil’s of the
Caliphate, accusations of ‘treason’ against former members of SOTO, and bizarre flights
of fantasy about the ongoing ‘magickal war’ between SOTO and everyone who disagrees
with them, it is truly a sight to behold(but, if you check it out, make sure you turn your
speakers off first. That MIDI he has playing over everything is painful.) My personal
dealings with members of SOTO(on the aforementioned defunct message board) were
pretty much what you’d expect from castletower. I’d refute some factual error that some
random member of SOTO had made, and a dozen more members of SOTO would
proceed to curse me and make lewd comments about my ancestors. Particularly amusing
is their tendancy to accuse anyone and everyone of being a ‘traiter’ to SOTO, no matter
how many times it is explained that you cannot be a traiter to an organization which you
have never been a member of.
As of today, the OTO under William Breeze is by far the largest of Thelemic
organizations in the world, with nearly 4000 members(of which I am one). New Thelemic
organizations continue to propagate. Some of them, such as the Thelemic Order of the
Golden Dawn, the Holy Order of Ra Hoor Khuit, Thelema Kaaba, and The Gnostic
Alchemical Church of Typhon-Christ have gone to great lengths to distance themselves
from the inter-order squabbling of such groups as SOTO and TOTO. Others, such as the
OTO Fellowship(OTOF), and the United Rites OTO(UR-OTO) have found new and often
bizarrely convoluted means of expanding the political squabbling. Thelema is still a young
religion, and I have no doubt that it will develop in unexpected ways as time passes.
Bibliography
Carter, Gene, United States District court, District of Maine, Marcello R. Motta, et. al. vs
Samuel Weiser, Inc., Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.
http://www.mysunrise.ch/users/prkoenig/html/maine.htm, 1984.
Legge, Charles A. United States Disctrict Court, Northern Court of California, Grady
McMurtry, et al, vs. Society Ordo Templi Orientis, et. al., Finding of Fact and
Conclusions of Law. http://www.mysunrise.ch/users/prkoenig/html/los.htm,
1985.
Sabazius(Scriven, David), Docter (Albert Karl) Theodore Reuss, (1855 e.v.-xix e.n)
http://www.otohq.org/oto/bios.html, Ordo Templi Orientis, 1997.
Sabazius(Scriven, David) and AMT(??), History of Ordo Templi Orientis.
http://www.otohq.org/oto/history_details.html#ohogermer, Ordo Templi Orientis,
1996.
Staley, Michael, Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis, A Brief History.
http://www.mysunrise.ch/users/prkoenig/staley/staley1.htm. Typhonian OTO,
1986.
Organizational Schism in Post-Crowleyan Thelema
On April 6-8th of 1904, Aleister Crowley received the revelation that led to the
creation of a new religion, Thelema. For an hour on each of those days, Crowley claims
he sat alone in the rented room he and his new bride, Rose, were sharing in Cairo, and
wrote down the words dictated to him by a discarnate voice which identified itself as
Aiwass. The work of these three days were the three chapters of the volume knows as
Liber AL vel Legis, The Book of the Law, which lays down the basic cosmology and
ethics of Thelema. The two best known lines from this volume(which Crowley
encouraged people to use as greetings) at ‘Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the
Law’, and ‘Love is the law, love under will.’
Earlier in 1904, while passing through Germany, Crowley had joined an
organization called the Ordo Templi Orientis(OTO). He didn’t ascribe much importance
to it at the time, it was merely a hobby of his to collect to collect ‘occult’ titles. (For some
reason, many ‘anti-occult’ writers seem to have picked up the idea Crowley founded the
OTO. In actuality it was founded by two German freemasons, Theodore Reuss and Karl
Kellner, with the initial sole purpose of teaching tantric yoga to initiates of the Masonic
Rites of Memphis and Mizraim.) Crowley forgot about his membership in the OTO
completely until many years later. In 1910, though, Crowley published a collection of
paradoxical poems and riddles, The Book of Lies, which attracted the attention of
Theodore Reuss. Reuss payed a visit to Crowley and demanded to know why he had
published the central initiatory secret of the OTO. Crowley had no idea what Reuss was
talking about, and said so. When Reuss pointed out the chapter in The Book of
Lies(Crowley does not say which chapter it was, but based on inference from other
materials, and conversations with a friend of mine, I’m fairly certain it was Chapter 36,
The Star Sapphire, which describes a fairly basic sex magick ritual.) When it was
ascertained that Crowley had made the ritual up, without reference to order documents,
Reuss made Crowley the head of the OTO in Great Britain, with authority to re-write the
order’s initiation rituals. Crowley did so, infusing ideas from the Book of the Law into the
rituals. When Reuss died in 1923, Crowley assumed the title of Outer Head of the OTO.
There were no major schisms in Thelema during the remainder of Crowley’s life.
One of his ex-lover’s, Leah Hirsig, did attempt to create a non-Crowley centred Thelema
after he abandoned her and their son in Tunisia, but that didn’t go anywhere.
When Crowley died in 1947, he appointed Karl Germer as his successor as head of
the OTO, which Crowley had, over the years, molded into the primary vehicle for the
promulgation of Thelemic ideology. Crowley had doubts, however, about Germer’s
long-term dedication to the cause, and created a contingency plan, detailed in the so-called
‘Caliphate letters’, whereby another student of his, Grady McMurtry, would step in and
assume authority under the emergency title of Caliph, should Germer show himself
unwilling or unable to perform the duties of the office of OHO.
It was under Germer that the first major schism in Thelema occurred. In 1955,
Kenneth Grant, a former secretary to Aleister Crowley, declared himself to be the rightful
OHO of OTO. Germer promptly expelled him. Grant proceeded onwards, throwing out
the dramatic rituals created by Crowley, and creating a fusion of Crowley’s Thelemic
ideologies with ideas taken from the work of horror/fantasy writer H. P. Lovecraft and sex
mystic Austin Osman Spare. Michael Staley, the public spokeman for the Typhonian
OTO(as Grant’s order is known) claims that Grant was designated as OHO by Crowley,
and that Germer merely acted in the role probationally until Grant was ready to fully
assume his responsibilities. The Typhonian OTO has never been able to expand much
outside England, and I’ve heard through the grapevine that their primary current activity is
infiltrating and disrupting the activities of other OTO lineages that happen to have active
bodies in England, which the Typhonians apparently consider to be ‘their’ turf.
There were no more notable schisms during Germer’s life. Through the remainder
of Germer’s life, though, he became increasingly paranoid and began seriously neglecting
his duties as OHO. When he died in 1961, there were fewer than 20 member left in the
OTO. Between Germer’s death and McMurtry’s assumption of the office of Caliph in
1969, the OTO went through an interregnum. However, things were not completely
quiet. A personal student of Karl Germer’s, Marcello Motta, became convinced that he
was the intended successor as OHO(despite the fact that he had never been initiated into
the Order.) It is nearly impossible to find accurate reliable information about the early
history of Motta’s Society Ordo Templi Orientis(SOTO.) What can be known is that for a
brief period after Germer’s death, Motta accepted Kenneth Grant as OHO, but eventually
rejected him and gave himself the title. He re-wrote Crowley’s rituals, began publishing
Crowley’s books(with his own idiosyncratic commentaries and edits) in both English and
translated into his native Portuguese.
In 1969, Grady McMurtry, who had moved to Washington, DC, in the late 50’s
and fallen out of the loop of the Thelemic community which was centered in California at
the time, learned of Germer’s death, and activated his authority of Caliph in order to begin
the arduous process of rebuilding the Order from what remnants that remained. When
Motta learned of McMurtry, he issued a letter of expulsion, and began a campaign of
low-grade harrassment against the Caliphate(as people who do not accept McMurtry’s
legitimacy refer to the OTO.) Most of the people Motta sent to spy on McMurtry ended
up jumping ship and joining the OTO, though.
Things remained mostly quiet until 1983, when Motta sued publishers Samuel
Weiser, Inc. for copyright infringement, due to their publishing of Crowley volumes edited
by McMurtry. This lawsuit resulted in the Conclusion of Law “Plaintiff Motta and SOTO
do not own the Crowley copyrights in their individual capacities. The OTO is not proven
to be an incorporated association having legal status to own property. Therefore,
Plaintiffs cannot derive ownership of the copyrights from the OTO.” In the immediate
aftermath of the Maine trial, Motta and his followers published slanderous comments
about McMurtry and other members of OTO who had testified at the Maine trial. In the
meantime, McMurtry sped up the process of legally incoporating the OTO as a religion,
and in 1985, brought his own lawsuit for copyright infringement and slander against
Motta.
In McMurtry, et. al vs. Society Ordo Templi Orientis, et. al., Judge Legge of the
9th District Circuit ruled that the OTO under McMurtry was the legal holder of all
Crowley copyrights. Though he dismissed the slander charges, he ordered the Defendant
to pay all of the Plaintiffs legal fees.
McMurtry died the day after the ruling in the case was delivered. He left
instructions that his successor as Caliph be chosen by a vote of the IXth degrees. This
was carried out, and William Breeze became Caliph and OHO de facto of OTO.
Motta died in 1987, without designating a successor. Two SOTO alumni, David
Bersson and William Barden, immediately declared themselves OHO, and soon after,
expelled each other. There is very little information available about William Barden. I can
only report heresay culled from conversations I had some time ago on the now defunct
Aleister Crowley Messageboard(an un-moderated mess of a website that used to be at
www.aleistercrowley.com, but disappeared some time ago, to be replaced recently with a
generic collection of Thelema related links.) A former Motta student named Jana
Rabinowitz(who posted at Naughty Little Girl in reference to a bizarre essary about her on
David Bersson’s website) told me that Barden(who resides in Australia) is a chronic
heroin addict with a paralyzing fear of Americans. His branch of SOTO does not seem to
be active at all.
David Bersson, however, is a fish of another sort. His website,
www.castletower.org, is probably the best unintended comic relief in the whole of the
online Thelemic community. Filled with over-heated diatribes about the evil’s of the
Caliphate, accusations of ‘treason’ against former members of SOTO, and bizarre flights
of fantasy about the ongoing ‘magickal war’ between SOTO and everyone who disagrees
with them, it is truly a sight to behold(but, if you check it out, make sure you turn your
speakers off first. That MIDI he has playing over everything is painful.) My personal
dealings with members of SOTO(on the aforementioned defunct message board) were
pretty much what you’d expect from castletower. I’d refute some factual error that some
random member of SOTO had made, and a dozen more members of SOTO would
proceed to curse me and make lewd comments about my ancestors. Particularly amusing
is their tendancy to accuse anyone and everyone of being a ‘traiter’ to SOTO, no matter
how many times it is explained that you cannot be a traiter to an organization which you
have never been a member of.
As of today, the OTO under William Breeze is by far the largest of Thelemic
organizations in the world, with nearly 4000 members(of which I am one). New Thelemic
organizations continue to propagate. Some of them, such as the Thelemic Order of the
Golden Dawn, the Holy Order of Ra Hoor Khuit, Thelema Kaaba, and The Gnostic
Alchemical Church of Typhon-Christ have gone to great lengths to distance themselves
from the inter-order squabbling of such groups as SOTO and TOTO. Others, such as the
OTO Fellowship(OTOF), and the United Rites OTO(UR-OTO) have found new and often
bizarrely convoluted means of expanding the political squabbling. Thelema is still a young
religion, and I have no doubt that it will develop in unexpected ways as time passes.
Bibliography
Carter, Gene, United States District court, District of Maine, Marcello R. Motta, et. al. vs
Samuel Weiser, Inc., Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.
http://www.mysunrise.ch/users/prkoenig/html/maine.htm, 1984.
Legge, Charles A. United States Disctrict Court, Northern Court of California, Grady
McMurtry, et al, vs. Society Ordo Templi Orientis, et. al., Finding of Fact and
Conclusions of Law. http://www.mysunrise.ch/users/prkoenig/html/los.htm,
1985.
Sabazius(Scriven, David), Docter (Albert Karl) Theodore Reuss, (1855 e.v.-xix e.n)
http://www.otohq.org/oto/bios.html, Ordo Templi Orientis, 1997.
Sabazius(Scriven, David) and AMT(??), History of Ordo Templi Orientis.
http://www.otohq.org/oto/history_details.html#ohogermer, Ordo Templi Orientis,
1996.
Staley, Michael, Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis, A Brief History.
http://www.mysunrise.ch/users/prkoenig/staley/staley1.htm. Typhonian OTO,
1986.
posted by Ethan at
4:36 PM
