OTO Newsletter - 1974

8/7/2019 OTO Newsletter - 1974

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Box 2~3D~bli" CA 94566July .9. 1974

~leister Crowley's ORDO TEMPLI ORIENTlS

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the L4w.

According to Aleister Crowley, ORDO TEMPLI ORI~trriS is tiThe f irst of the

Great Orders of"'antiquity to accept; the Law of the New Aeon emanaUU8 frollthe A .. ·.A.:. which is: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the I4,,! 'reorganizing in accordance therewith," (The Proclamation of theO.t.O.).'That by this he meant the ORDER OF THE TEMPLE, or KNIGHTS ~IAl\, found~ddurinS the Crusades and suppressed in the 13th Centux:)'.is mad~ expli~i,t' .,

on p. 191 of THE SLUE EQUINOX. This gives us a continuous history of atleast 950 years. Hence che name of our publication, IN THE CONTINUUM.

1 was initiated into the Agape Lodge of ORDO TEMPLI QRIENTl,S in Hollywoodin the late 1930's and, due to my tnvolvement with the .n~d fOJ;;ces'(I stAsedout of England as a Company COlnlllandern the American Arnry in th@ Invasionof Normandy) was the only member of the American O.T.O. to be wi.~h A.C. inEngland during War 11. As & result of my time with him he advanced ma tothe rank of 9th Degree, OROO TEMPLI ORIENTIS. wrote to me concernina ,theCaliphate, and gave me articles of broad,authorization with specificemergency power to be used for the benefit of the Order in case of need.These articles are contained in two documents.

Tho firat document, dated March 22, 19'.6, r .• ds as follows:IIEx C as 't ro n em or is i nf er io ri s

I 'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

Thia is to authorize Fratcc Hymanaeus Alpha (Capt. Grady L. McMurtry)to take charge 'of the whole work of the Order i n California to reform

the Organization in pursuance of his report of Jan 25. '46 e.v. subjectto the approval of Frater Saturnus (Karl J. Germer). This authorizationis to be used only in emergency.

Lov. ls the law. love under will.B ap ho me t O .H .O ."



2.

The second document. d~ted Arril 11. 1946. read~ as follows:

"Ex Castro Nemoris llllcrioris

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

These presents are to appoint-·Frater Hymcnaeus Alplla--

--G ra dy L ou is l "k l' lu rt ryI Xo O .T .O .- -

as Our representative in the United States of America, and his

authority is to be considered as Ours, subject to the appro.val,

revision. or veto of Our ViceroyKarl Johannes Germer lXo O.T.O.

of 260 West 72nd ,St New York City N.Y.

Love is the law. love W\der will.Witness Our Hand and Seal.

Baphomet XO O.H.O."

With the death of Frater SatuX"llus (Karl J. Germer) in 19~2J theseflt't1cles Qfauthorization a\ltomatically wene into effec e ,

Our Posi tion On The Pub lication Of TI~.~Works Of Aleister Crowlex: - It seems

that e very one is publishing Aleister Crowley's books these i,t",ys. f~op~~ come."

to us expressing concern that we arc not trying to stop them. 'Why should we?'

E ve ry p ub li ca ti on is an automatic advertisement for Alei~ter, Orowley,and hisO.T.O. 1,0 any ~ase the legal grounds are practicall:y npn-existent as A.C.di~

not bother to copyrite much vi h is m at er ia l. Some timeS the'results can be

very funny. I was standing in Si~LLA BOOKSELLERS book s~ore in Berkeley ~,

one day examining a copy of their then recently issued edition o~ AleisterCrowley's THE BOOK OF THOTH. Noting it had the symbol t.orcopywdte I turned

to the owner of the store and asked why he had bothert.id. Where~PQn he wentinto a rAther excited and many gestured explanation that they ha.d o llly copy-

dted the PORMAT! 1 thought that'was far-out. But how is the buying public

to know? Our real concern is with those who distort Aleister Crowley materialwhen they publhh it so that it is difficult to det~rmine if i.t is reallyAleiater Crowley you are reading or what somebody want8 you to believe thatAleister Crowley wrote. For example. there are thu followers of F~ater Achad

who would have us believe that the "Achad Tree." i.e. Frater Achad's variation

on the Tree of Life, is really the work of Aleister Crowley in spite of A.C. ~sown words in Note 1. p. 1. of MACICK IN THEORY AND PRACTICE telling \lS t hat the

Achad Tree is complete nonsense. Another current example is the Xeno Presl;)edition of THE BOOK OF THE LAW in which it is stated explic.itly that it has

been "Edited. Revised and Enlarged by Jerry Kay." What was written by Crowleyand what haa been changed by Jerry Kay? Mr. Kay does not tell U8 •• nd only

•a person who haa access to the ARchives of tIle Ol:der can straightell it out.If there ts sufficient response we may coua ide r doing a Une by line expc a t tionof the cqange;i in the Jerry Kay edt t ion of THE BOOK OF THE lAt-l if GNOSTlCA NEWSis interested in printing it. Normally we only keep members of th~ Orderadvised on matters of this QAture. But at least Mr. Kay is open enough tote 11 us that he has changed it. What is rea l ly pernicious are those who tryto divort your thinking into their own private head-trip without telling youthat they have changed Crowley's words. "00 WHAT THOU WILT SHALL BE T1LE WHOLEO~' THE LAW" is the most famous statement from Aleister Crowley's LIBER AL VELLEGIS (THE BOOK or' THE LAW). and is c e r ca rn Iy covered by the admonition (Liber

1 54), "Change not as much as the style of a letter ..... Yet in A n e c; 1~ to ri alO lon the back page of Lt)vel Press's edition of Alciater Cl'owley" tIBER ALEPHchh 1M cl\&ngQd to "Do what thou w1~t IIthu whole of the Law," Ana thuru 11



no notification that a change has been made. This h head-playing. Let thebuying public bewure. And certainly anyone who knew Aleister Crowley per-soua Ll.y knows how violently he would have reacted to tld~. In a letter tohiro I once made a typo in capitalizing "w~ll" in the Thelemic greeting "Loveis the law. love under will." I received back a stinging rup Iy , "And pleasedo nut put in c apt ca Ls where they do not be Long l " ' r o a I , ub l ic u n aC q Ua i nt e d; ~ ~;with Al.eis t.e Crowley's ,",arksit might se em a small matter ",heth.erone ~aYS";4."SHALL HE" or "IS," yet those ,",hoknow their MAGICK IN THEORY A.."JDRACTICEU:i well a s the res c of Crowley's ,",orksknow that it; is vital to the Thc~clUi.c·conception that nature shall be cons tde red as EVER CllANGING and EVER HL:l,;OHINTht.!reforeto change that dictum to "IS" h to .asae rc thac staais has been ~c\liT h6 .4 tt he u ni ve rs e h , fi ni sh ed . 1 . 1 ' 1 concep ti. ou an d ch an ge , " be co nu .n g.'! o r " Qy "c OQ .a :i C row le y s om en unea put it, no longer applies. Whatever els4 i~ m a Y b e pl '\, 1S0l>hically, such an argum~Llt is certainly both anti-Crowley and anti,·Thelelnic

" ,

S~e'lking o f Level Press, ht me call the public's attention to p. 2 of GNOS1Ic.NEW~ for May 21. 1914 whel;'eMr. Robe rt Anton Wilson withdraws his statt;;UleJ\t(GNOSTlCA NEWS, Feb 21, 1974, p. 9) that Level Press,,:is"th~ publishirl$ ~~ Q f

the Oxdo Templt Orientis in California." It 1s Lmpoa s f bLe to~ Level Press t.O'

be the publishing arm of the O,T.O, since, as I pointed out to Mr.Wil~on, Ihave in my poaaes s tcn a 'let(:erof resignation from Aleister Cl;o~leyIs OROO

TEMJ:lLIORIENTIS by the pubUsher of Level llress. Those whp havebo~ght copie:tof Level Press's edition of THE BOOK OF THE LAW under the impression that .itwas publhhed by the O.T.O. and iG authentic Aleister Crowley writing will beinterested to know that Level Press has ren~ved A.C.'s 5 part IntroquQtionto Tim BOOK OF THE LAW. The 2 page filler they have 6u~itltu~eJ ~s notAleister Crowley's Introduction to THE BOOK OF THE LAW. As to what O.therulL.J.dvertisedhanges they are making in thepooks by A1eister Grow1ey they ar~p ub li sh in s, t he . p ub li c -i8 left to .guess•. ~ll I ~an do is put the public onnotice that Level Preu'i;J in the practice ot; ch ....gi ng A lei st ;e rC ro wl ey m at er iathey are publishinu without; notice that it has been chang.ed.Again, let thebuying pub Uc beware. 1 have asked GNOS'rICA NEWS to inc Lude Ht'. WHso,,' s re-traction 1n thia special Aleister Crowley edition.' .'

The Caliehate: A1eiater Crowley gave me a number of Instru~t10~8 1n writingconcerning this high Office. These are known as The C4liphate l,~ttcnlJ. A fterall Aleiater Crowley would know that a euccessor to the Prophet in a n OrientalOrder wou14 be _ Cali~h.

.•

The Outer Head of the Order (0.1t.0.): There h at present no Outer Head of thOrder for Alei8ter Crowley's OROO TEMPLI OR.IENTIS. The Outer Head of the Ordeis an international Office (aee p. 200. THE BLUE EQUINOX) and Aleiater Crowley'OaDO T~WLI ORIENTIS 1s not at this time established organi~atio~lly to fulfi

e ' therequirelJ\ents of its Constitution in this respect (see The Constitution of[he Order. THE BLUE 'EQUINOX). There is, how~vcr, a Caliph. As af\yone in theOrient would know. a Praphet can designate a line of succession to follow hilJ

MemberShip: ORDQ TEMPLI ORIENTIS is a dues paying organizatian. If you arenot paying dues to O.T.O. you are not a member of O.T.O. even thouSh you mayho.1vebeen Initiated into O.T.O. at one time. Membership in O.T.O. rcquir~s(1) phy~ical participation in the Ceremonies ~f Initiation, and (2) the PolY-me nt; of subscription and due s ('l'heonstitution of the Order, p , 246, THE ULUEl::QUINOX). We do not Initiate by corre~poncJl.!l\ccr "on the astral," ~nd anyonewho fails to pay dues cea.!iesipso facto to ~e a mcmLer of Aleiater Crowll.!Y's



_ 1 •. ,~ . . , . . '

• ~'.: O.T.O~ and A.'.A.·. are entirely ~eparate organiza~ions (p'. 198.T~ ,• BLU~EQUINOX). they are, howe~er, closely allied. Frater Saturnus Qnce a,k~d

A4C. to clarify this and, in a ~~~urn l.ett+er:, dated ~ept 1&. 1946. Cr~"",~ey ,i .tated. liThe difference betweenA".A.'. and thl~ 0.1.0. ~s (~h~t) ••• tiheftt,·.ft,~'.·is a sempiternal institution, and enti~ely sec'~t. There i&no QQ~nica~~on

between its Plet@ers. Theoretically, a member knows only the $uppr~or ,who

introduced him~ and any person who~ h e himself h~s introduced. 'The Order18 run em purely spiri tl,lal linea. II Grea,tly simplifi,e4 ~ Wuthiqkt:>f A.'.!;/'.as being "the flaming heart" of O.T.Q." '

"'\ '

Alternate O.T.O. 's and Aleister Crowley's ORDOTEMPLIORIENTIS: At present'

both Kenneth Grant i~ Engiand and a Herr Metzger inj~w~tz~rland have laid,

claim ~o being Outer llead of the Or<;\et for the O.l'.Q. 'Ill both' caaes one can

only pr~: lUloe that' they are mi,stakel\_ Kenneth Cr~nt can n9t I ; > e ' O\lt~r Head

of an Qrder'to which he doefJ not belong. He wasexp~lled ~rom ORDQT~~l

ORlENTlS Ln 1955 by Ft:at~r Saturnus (Karl J. Germer) the successor t o , ' ,Aleh~er Crowley as Outer Head of the Ot(ler (see p. 166, Francis Kiog, RITU*,L

MAGIC'INENGLAND). Of course Kr-' Grant can argue that he 1a the head of his'

own O.T.O~ Herr ~t~ger ~annot be Outer Head of the Order' ~ecauae hie 'llelection"

was only by his own Lodge in Swi.tzurland, a purely national bodyat~empting to, \ ' ' ,

effect an intqrnationa~ deciSion. Herr Metzger can also assert that h~ ia ~he

head of hiB own O.t.O. Also there is a group ,in Southel;'n Cal1forn~Cil whQclAi~

they have an "original" Q.'t.O. charter fr:om Louis Culling, th!J 1a'pure f~rce,

1 have placed in the ARchives a letter, dated Dec 2 3 , 1 9 5 7 , from F~~ter Saturnus

(Karl J. Germer), then Ou.~er Head,of the Order, in which he states e,ategC)r1.cal1y.

and 1 quote, "Cul,llng· ••• i$, officially, no more than A 2nd degree Q.'t.·O~", In '

the meantime O.T.O.ts;'are springing up all over the place and soon one ~111 be

able to ~ake one's pick of O.T.O. like sbopp~ng in a supermarket, Anyone attempt1

to use Franc1a King's THE SECRE1'RITUALSOF THEO.T.O. to eet. up anO~t.O. wil.l

.,have some problems with Words, Signs aod Grips in the In!tlat1on ceremonies •.•

the Word tor the 2nd,Degree Initiation is definitely n2S Adonat ••• nor are they

likely to',know that the qnly place the Thelemic Banlsh1.ng Ritual has been pub-

lished (to date) is in our Qwn IN THECONTINUUMwe always pasaed tt a long fromhand to hand as a private pa.per before) ••• nor are they ltkely to know LiH! falUil1.

greoting by which Thulemitc8 of the Order have universally kn<Xlneach oth~r for

yQa~s (as i t 1& only u8ud betwQon friends 1 have nevor hQard it used by a non-'fholom!te of tho Ordgr) ••• nor are thoy likely to bo ablo to do ClQI1\oth1nsalOeimple as to properly pronounce the god..names ·in THE BOOKOF THE LAW(tiu1e,

Hadit, Ra-Hoor-Khuit). One may join the Kennech Grant-David Smith O.T.O. vI.'

',,.

4 .

ORDOTeMPLl ORIENTIS (p. 203, THEBLUEEQUINOX). Wedo have a College of Theleuu

whereby certain deserving persons may study and be instructed by ~i1 prior to

becoming duly Initif,lte fll4!DlQeraof O.t.O. '!'his is not a "correspondence course"

for the general public. .

l.Oblisations: On ~. 29 of GNOSTlCANEWSfor May 2l, 1974. a •.\:·rater ~rux"

, ..tates in a "Notice to Thelelliites ..• : It has a.lways been your ~ri.vilegc to. demand hospitality of any Lodgemaace r for up to chre e days .•• " This is typical

of the misinformation being broadcast these days. This privilege i~ extended

only to members of Q. t .0. (p. 200, THEBLUEf:QUINOX.). There are aU kinds, 9.~ ,

Thelemites who are no't membeJ:s of 0,T.0. Even Achad l~reak.$ c.aU thetll.lilelv.es

Thelelll1tea •



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the SWi88 O.T.O. or one of the supe rmarke t specials O.T.O., and welcome.

ORDOTEMPLIORIENTIS itself is .cnIy interested in those who want a direct

line of continuity and authorization from Aleister Crowley in person.

,The number of people writing to tell us that they are incarnat,ing/manifesting

Alei:Her Crowley. 'rhe rion , TOMEGA THERlUN, TIle Beast, Tl~ GRE . .o \. t WILD BEAST.

The Scarlet Woman. The Magickal Child, Cod, THEUNKNOWNOD, 966, Ank-f-n ...

~lon~u (Aleister Crowley), Ank~f-n-Khonsu (an E~YPtian Prince~Priest of !h~bel

of the 26th Dynasty), Frater Pe rdurabo , The-One-To ..Pollow (thi~ is usually

accomparu ed by some extensive proof system .•. a Lso a sununary demand for an

excens Ive library of rare and out-of-print or never p rinccd Crl,lwley material),.

eec . , have been so uumerous that at one time we considered cir(:ul~ti.nga. rosteJ;,

so they could keep track of each o the r . cons rde ra ttons of mailing CO:iCS

cauaed uS to desist, however. ·Also we have no relation with and have never'

been contacted by something called "The Bava rian Illuminati." whatever c h a o z ; ,

is. despite propaganda to the contrary.

Friends of Jack Parsons will be hapPf to know that our Depart~a ~ro~he~, ~sjoined other immortals of Science by having a c race r on chili ~oon I.).a~d,for .

him. See "NAMESON 'rUE MOON,"S~ and TELESCOPE,f:IIov1910•. fo~ C~a.t:er P~rsona'

~tcoordinates 31 North, 111 0ast.

Our address is still the same as that on the Caliph Card of the THOTH1;AROT

deck., (Bo~ Z043;\Dublin C A . 94566). EJ;\clo~e a stamp Q~ • $e).f-ad~re~&ieds~aD\ped

envelope for a reply.. Ove r seas correspondents should enc.19'.' "a~ i*t4rnational'p os ta ge c er ti fi ca te .

LOVe is ~he law, lqv~uoo.rWl~~

{ ~~~~~~~A1Pha '

Ordo Te~pli O~~,ntts, Calipt,l"< ' , . '

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OTO Newsletter - 1974

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