Thelemic Orders: A∴A∴, OTO and the Typhonian Tradition

Thelemic orders are the organisations through which the teachings of Aleister Crowley's Thelema are transmitted and practised. The two oldest are the A∴A∴, a system of individual spiritual training founded by Crowley and George Cecil Jones in 1907, and the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), a fraternal initiatory order of German origin that Crowley reorganised around the Law of Thelema. Later bodies include the OTO's Gnostic Catholic Church, the Typhonian Order founded by Kenneth Grant, and many smaller groups.

The A∴A∴: Crowley's Order of Spiritual Training§

After leaving the Golden Dawn, Crowley sought to create a purer system of attainment. In 1907, with his former Golden Dawn mentor George Cecil Jones, he founded the A∴A∴ (the letters are usually taken to stand for Argenteum Astrum, "Silver Star," though the order does not officially explain them). Its instructions, practices and grade papers appeared in The Equinox from 1909, so that much of the curriculum has always been public.

The A∴A∴ has no lodges or group rituals. Each member is supervised by a single superior, normally knowing only that person and any students of their own. Its grades, from Probationer through Neophyte, Zelator, Practicus and Philosophus to Adeptus Minor and beyond, correspond to the sefirot of the Tree of Life and require tasks in yoga, ritual, study and self-discipline, recorded in a diary. The three highest grades, of the Third Order, lie beyond the Abyss; see Tarot and Qabalah in Thelema. Since Crowley's death several lineages have claimed to continue the A∴A∴, and the order has no single public headquarters.

The Ordo Templi Orientis Before and Under Crowley§

The Ordo Templi Orientis, "Order of Oriental Templars," grew out of German fringe Freemasonry. The Austrian chemist Carl Kellner (1851–1905) conceived it, and the German journalist and singer Theodor Reuss (1855–1923) organised it in the first decade of the twentieth century, combining Masonic degrees, Rosicrucian and Templar symbolism and a secret teaching of sexual magic in its highest grades.

Crowley was admitted in 1910 and in 1912 was appointed head of a British section, the Mysteria Mystica Maxima. He rewrote its rituals in a Thelemic spirit and in 1913, in Moscow, composed the Gnostic Mass (Liber XV) for its church. After Reuss's death in 1923, Crowley was recognised as Outer Head of the Order by part of the membership, though German lodges divided over his claims and over the Thelemic doctrine he required. The OTO's degree system came to be organised in three triads (Man of Earth, Lover and Hermit), with the "Sovereign Sanctuary of the Gnosis" at the top, and its rules were set out in Crowley's Liber CXCIV and Liber LII.

The Abbey of Thelema and Agape Lodge§

From 1920 to 1923 Crowley led a small community, the Abbey of Thelema, in a farmhouse at Cefalù in Sicily, with Leah Hirsig and others, including for a time the actress Jane Wolfe. It was meant as a school for the new aeon, with a daily round of ritual, yoga and writing. After the death of a young member, Raoul Loveday, and a hostile press campaign in Britain, the Italian government of Mussolini expelled Crowley in 1923. The episode is discussed in Aleister Crowley.

In the United States, the Agape Lodge of the OTO, founded in Los Angeles in the 1930s under Wilfred Talbot Smith, was for years the only active OTO lodge. It held public Gnostic Masses and in the 1940s, based in a large house in Pasadena, was led by the rocket engineer Jack Parsons, whose magical workings with L. Ron Hubbard in 1946 later became notorious. Wartime conditions, quarrels and Crowley's death in 1947 left the order much reduced.

After Crowley: Germer, McMurtry and the Modern OTO§

Crowley's designated successor, Karl Germer (1885–1962), headed the OTO from the United States and devoted himself to publishing Crowley's works but initiated few new members. At his death in 1962 he left no named successor, and rival claims followed, including that of the Brazilian Marcelo Motta. In 1969 Grady McMurtry (1918–1985), a former member of Agape Lodge, invoked emergency authority granted to him by Crowley in the 1940s and began to rebuild the order as its "Caliph." A United States federal court in 1985 recognised McMurtry's organisation as the legal successor of Crowley's OTO in a dispute with Motta's group. After McMurtry's death, William Breeze, known as Hymenaeus Beta, was elected head of the order.

Membership is by initiation into a series of degrees, beginning with the preparatory Minerval degree and the three degrees of the Man of Earth triad, which are conferred in ritual dramas performed by the members of a local body. Higher degrees are by invitation. The order presents its initiations as a symbolic journey of the soul from birth to death and beyond, and members are expected to accept the Law of Thelema but not any particular interpretation of it. National Grand Lodges govern the order in several countries under the international headquarters.

Today the OTO has local bodies (lodges, oases and camps) in many countries and is the largest Thelemic organisation, with a membership generally estimated at a few thousand. Its Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (Gnostic Catholic Church) performs the Gnostic Mass publicly and ordains clergy, and the order holds the copyrights to much of Crowley's work.

The Typhonian Order and Other Lineages§

The English occultist Kenneth Grant (1924–2011), who knew Crowley in his last years, established New Isis Lodge in London in 1955 and was expelled by Germer, but went on to lead what he called the Typhonian OTO, later renamed the Typhonian Order. In a series of books beginning with The Magical Revival (1972) he combined Thelema with the work of the artist Austin Osman Spare, Tantra, H. P. Lovecraft's fiction and speculation about extraterrestrial and "nightside" currents, giving rise to Typhonian Thelema as a distinct tradition.

Other organisations include the Fraternitas Saturni, founded in Germany in 1928, which accepted the Law of Thelema with its own Saturnian emphasis; the College of Thelema and Temple of Thelema associated with Phyllis Seckler in California from the 1970s; and many independent A∴A∴ lineages and smaller orders. Thelemic ideas also shaped later movements outside these orders, including Wicca, chaos magick and parts of the left-hand path. For the beliefs that unite these groups, see Thelemic Doctrine and What Is Thelema?

Frequently asked questions§

What is the difference between the A∴A∴ and the OTO?§

The A∴A∴ is a system of individual spiritual training from teacher to student, without lodges or social life. The OTO is a fraternal order with lodges, group initiations and a church, the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica.

Who founded the Ordo Templi Orientis?§

The OTO was conceived by Carl Kellner and organised by Theodor Reuss in Germany in the early twentieth century. Aleister Crowley joined in 1910, later became its head, and made it a Thelemic order.

Does the OTO still exist?§

Yes. The OTO revived under Grady McMurtry from 1969 and today has local bodies in many countries, with an international headquarters in the United States.

What is the Typhonian Order?§

It is the organisation founded by Kenneth Grant as the Typhonian OTO, later renamed. It developed a distinctive form of Thelema emphasising the "nightside," the work of Austin Osman Spare and Lovecraftian imagery.

Sources and further reading§

• Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley — Richard Kaczynski, 2010
• Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation — Henrik Bogdan, 2007
• Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism — Henrik Bogdan and Martin P. Starr (eds.), 2012
• Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons — John Carter, 1999
• The Magical Revival — Kenneth Grant, 1972
• Magick: Liber ABA, Book Four — Aleister Crowley, ed. Hymenaeus Beta, 1997
• Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons — George Pendle, 2005