Ordo Templi Orientis Spermo-Gnosis: Carl Kellner, Theodor Re

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Ordo Templi Orientis Spermo-Gnosis: Carl Kellner, Theodor Re

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Part 1 of 2

Ordo Templi Orientis Spermo-Gnosis: Carl Kellner, Theodor Reuss, Aleister Crowley
a lecture by P.R. Koenig
© Peter-R. Koenig, 1994 / March 2000

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The mixture of “red-white fluid” thus created, that is, of the male and female seed, is scooped out of the sexual organs of the wisdom consort with a finger or a small ivory spoon and collected in a vessel. The master then summons the pupil, or instructs him to remove his blindfold. He now takes some of the “holy substance” with his finger once more and moistens the tongue of the adept with it whilst speaking the words, “This is your sacrament, dear one, as taught by all Buddhas ... “ — and the pupil answers blissfully, “Today my birth has become fruitful. Today my life is fruitful. Today I have been born into the Buddha-Family. Now I am a son of the Buddhas.” (Snellgrove, 1987, vol. 1, p. 272) Concretely, this means that he has, through the consumption of the female and the male seed, attained the status of an androgyne.

However, the adept may catch the sukra from out of the vagina in a vessel and then drink it (Shaw, 1994, p. 157). It is not rare for the drinking bowl to be made from a human skull. The Candamaharosana Tantra recommends sucking the mixture up with a tube (pipe) through the nose (George, 1974, p. 75). If one sips the sukra out of his mudra’s genitals with his mouth, then the process is described as being “from mouth to mouth” (White, 1996, p. 200). Without exaggeration one can refer to this drinking of the “white-red bodhicitta” as the great tantric Eucharist, in which semen and blood are sacredly consumed in place of bread and wine. Through this oriental “Last Supper” the power and the strength of the women are passed over to the man.

-- The Shadow of the Dalai Lama, by Victor and Victoria Trimondi


Background — Believe System

One day the universe broke into pieces — either caused by a female aspect of the Creator or due to an intermediary entity between the Divine and the Profane.

Those who are happy with and in the world, and benefit from good health, and who experience love and satisfaction in their preferred fields, seem not to need the universe-healing Gnosticism, which I believe is a religious tool to deal with unbearable life.

The magician and the Gnostic live in two worlds at the same time. But, while the magician tries to use the world beyond, in order to have power over this world here, the Gnostic seeks a divine reality, a realm within this world here, which is only a sort of shadow world. Both the magician and the Gnostic (as have many other traditions such as Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist and Tantra) feel that sexuality might be the key or the door to other realities; but they differ in method between ascetic and libertinistic/sensual orientations: both still use the sexual force. Gnosticism is a varried set of overlapping traditions that often contradict each other. Not all gnostics were "spermo-gnostics". But of these I will speak now. I will summarize the complex Gnostic traditions (although the subject is far too diverse for anyone to depict it accurately in a short essay) but not their literature, nor compare their cosmology in general, nor their History; (1*) I will also go to modern times, where modern Gnostics probably find both worlds more real than the ancient Gnostics did. (2*)

Salvation

Living in a world which is subjectively felt and experienced as a "rotten place" (a Gnostic term), cries out for salvation. The way this salvation begins is with the material body. It rises up to higher planes (e.g. the emotional plane and the intellectual plane), until man reaches the divine place in the Pleroma. That is fulness to overflowing.

This Pleroma, be it in man or somewhere in outer space, is the Gnostic counterpart to the "rotten" earthly place. Two routes can be pursued to leave this rotten place: to suppress or avoid it (the ascetic concept); or to dissolve it while completely living it out (the sensual way).

A false dilemma is a type of informal fallacy in which something is falsely claimed to be an "either/or" situation, when in fact there is at least one additional option.[1]

A false dilemma can arise intentionally, when a fallacy is used in an attempt to force a choice or outcome. The opposite of this fallacy is false compromise.

The false dilemma fallacy can also arise simply by accidental omission of additional options rather than by deliberate deception. For example "Stacey spoke out against capitalism, therefore she must be a communist" (she may be neither). "Roger opposed an atheist argument against Christianity, so he must be a Christian" (When it's assumed the opposition by itself means he's a Christian). Roger might be an atheist who disagrees with the logic of some particular argument against Christianity. Additionally, it can be the result of habitual tendency, whatever the cause, to view the world with limited sets of options.

-- False Dilemma, by Wikipedia


On a higher plane it is vice versa. The sensual way leads to homeopathic asceticism: weakening the evil whilst indulging in it like a necessity. The sensual gnostic embraces sin in order to experience the decaying of the world, and to rise as the Phoenix from the ashes. Sexual orgies are sweating out the divine Pneuma/Logos which rises to the Pleroma. The ascetic way reacts allopathically: against the poison of existence it gives ignorance of the body as a remedy. (3*)

This peculiar linking-together of opposites -- knowledge with ignorance, cynicism with fanaticism -- is one of the chief distinguishing marks of Oceanic society. The official ideology abounds with contradictions even when there is no practical reason for them. Thus, the Party rejects and vilifies every principle for which the Socialist movement originally stood, and it chooses to do this in the name of Socialism. It preaches a contempt for the working class unexampled for centuries past, and it dresses its members in a uniform which was at one time peculiar to manual workers and was adopted for that reason. It systematically undermines the solidarity of the family, and it calls its leader by a name which is a direct appeal to the sentiment of family loyalty. Even the names of the four Ministries by which we are governed exhibit a sort of impudence in their deliberate reversal of the facts. The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy; they are deliberate exercises in doublethink. For it is only by reconciling contradictions that power can be retained indefinitely. In no other way could the ancient cycle be broken. If human equality is to be for ever averted -- if the High, as we have called them, are to keep their places permanently -- then the prevailing mental condition must be controlled insanity.

-- Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), by George Orwell


The term I have introduced above, the concept of "homeopathy" surprisingly is used as a method often with the ascetic way of Gnostic life. Homeopathy surprisingly has a lot in common with Gnosticism itself. (4*)

The second principle: The Minimum Dose

The second principle of Homeopathy is that of the minimum dose. Dr. Hahnemann began using medicinal substances known to work in his day, such as Cinchona or Peruvian bark, for relapsing fever, in a homeopathic way. That means that he administered a medicament with a known remedy picture to a sick person who had a similar symptom picture. But, in the beginning, he was using crude substances, for example, full strength herbs. He observed that, while the patients got well, they also had side effects. To minimize those side effects, through further experimentation, he came upon the idea of potentization. Homeopathic medicines are prepared through a series of dilutions, at each step of which there is a vigorous agitation of the solution called succussion, until there is no detectible chemical substance left. As paradoxical as it may seem, the higher the dilution, when prepared in this dynamized way, the more potent the homeopathic remedy. Thereby is achieved the minimum dose which, none the less, has the maximum therapeutic effect with the fewest side effects. In fact, Homeopathy has an enviable centuries old history of safety in use of its potentized oral medicines among patients of all ages, including babies, children, pregnant and nursing women, and senior citizens.

-- What is Homeopathic Medicine?, by American Institute of Homeopathy


Homeopathy and Gnosticism both regard the material plane as the most unimportant to man. Both concepts seek a bringing back of man/humanity in/to a primitive/archaic state of health/salvation. This state manifests itself on the highest spiritual/divine plane. Both, homeopathy and Gnosticism teach that healing and/or salvation happens from Above to Below and from Inside to Outside (which reminds us of Hermes Trismegistos' Emerald Table of the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons). But while Gnosticism offers salvation/health either via "Optimum through Maximum" or "Optimum through Minimum", homeopathy follows the middle path of balance.

The central point with the ascetic and sensual Gnostics lies with their concept of Sperm. It is the sperm that contains the Holy Logos which, when in Man, has to be brought back to the Pleroma. (5*) This implies two questions:

1. can women be saved? and,
2. what shall we do with the sperm?

The Misogynists

Maybe because it was the greediness of the female aspect of the creative Entity that caused the fall into the profane, it is the duty of the Man to give the universe back its completeness/integrity. On the material plane the woman is punished with the large wound between her legs. (6*) This wound signifies the place where primitive man once was bound with his own female aspect: the perfect Androgyn, now torn apart. It is the man's turn now to experience the lust which broke the universe apart. Woman has to suffer. Only man's sperm transports the Holy Logos. Women lack the prostata (7*) and therefore are superfluous for man's salvation as long as he does not achieve androgynity. (8*) If he does have "use" for the female, then it is only as a channel to higher divine entities. Maybe he sees some use for her menstrual blood? When he is Christian orientated (let us call him the libertine Gnostic), he might use her blood as the "Blood of Christ" and consume it as a "religious nourishment". If he sees the world as a really bad place, he avoids having children and animalistic flesh-eating (and here we find vegetarians). An ascetic avoids having ejaculations, even with his wife, but directs his sexual energies in Yoga-practises into his head (where he assumes is found the most direct bridge to the Divine). In order to achieve Androgynity, he penetrates his wife (avoiding orgasm) so that she, as well, might benefit from his luck. (9*)

Yoga is one of the preliminary conditions to master the body before using it as a temple. By westerners, Yoga is mistakenly thought to be a system of physical exercises to keep the body supple and the mind calm. But the meaning of the word yoga is union and the system was developed by eastern adepts to assist them to attain union with the source of all being.

All the Gnostic movements, be they the old ones or modern ones, assign salvation only to man: the woman has to become a man in order to enter heaven. (10*) The ascetic Gnostics avoid ejaculation and let the woman join in his wonderful ability to "produce" the Logos; the libertine Gnostics use all of the woman's gifts in order to sweat out the Pneuma.

Well. Our two questions (1. can women be saved? and, 2. what shall we do with the sperm?) cannot be separated. Only man's sperm can offer salvation (11*) and woman has to become man in order to be saved. (12*)

Which spermo-Gnostics are known today? Since the turn of the present century, the most famous group has organised itself as a quasi freemasonry organisazion, called Ordo Templi Orientis, in short: O.T.O. (13*)

Ordo Templi Orientis

Three famous O.T.O.-protagonists are: the provider of its concept/idea, the Austrian Carl Kellner (1851-1905); its German founder Theodor Reuss (1855-1923) and the notorious Englishman, Aleister Crowley (1875-1947). The reader will find the beliefs and practises of the O.T.O.(-groups) below.

Gnosticism (in its varried forms) is only one tradition that comes into play in Ordo Templi Orientis symbology, and not all aspects of every kind of gnosticism are particularly important. These modern Gnostics (and their sheep) were sperm-eaters. They assigned this to the Holy Logos; and, at least Reuss and Crowley, did not like women. (14*) However, while Reuss' biography (15*) opened his mind dualistically towards both ascetic and libertinistic ways as a means of achieving salvation, Crowley's libertinistic biography (16*) shows an individual whose universe got smaller each day, and whose world was populated with demons and angels, which did not dissolve at the darkest moment in order to give rise to a phoenix.

The Occult Circle, later reformed as O.T.O., under its founder Carl Kellner, ca. 1895

While Madame H.P Blavatsky warned from Yoga-teachings which are unsain and disapproved by the "Masters", Carl Kellner teached Hatha Yoga which included sexual exercices leaned on to the philosophies of Samkhya, Advaita and Franz Hartmann (1838-1912). Kellner was specialised in Yoga-meditations aiming at experiencing earlier incarnations (Patanjali's Yoga Sutra). His wife was the Great Goddess. Kellner himself acted as Babylonian Priest. In his house was a room without windows where the tantric rites took place to prepare the Elixir, that is: male and female sexual fluids. (17*) The pseudo-templar/freemason structure (introduced appr. by Theodor Reuss in 1903 and only after Kellner's death in 1905 used for a framework for a body later called O.T.O.) was not that important to Kellner who worked with his circle without order system. There is no evidentiary documentation that Kellner made use of the term "O.T.O.". His circle was called "The Inner Triangle" and consisted of Kellner, Hartmann, Reuss and some women.

Carl Kellner was a skilled practitioner in several traditional styles of Yoga. He believed that a major role was played by the nerve fibres (Nadis) and the 10 different kinds of breathing (Vayus). The ancient indian bodily expressions for the 10 Vayus are: Prana (in the heart), Apana (near the anus), Samana (near the genitals), Udana (in the throat), Vyana (the whole body), Naga (in the genitals), Kurma (open the eye lids), Krikara (causes sneezing), Devadatta (causes yawning) and Dhananjaya (floats through the physical body).

Reuss' theory of "Sexual Magic" was focussed on the 6th Vayus (see above) or Naga which he published in 1912, seven years after Kellner's death.

Since Theodor Reuss later spoke of the "Hermetic Brotherhood of Light" (HBL) as the central and secret source of the teachings it is easy to assume that Kellner followed its protagonist P.B. Randolphs teachings of using drugs in order to reach illumination while having sexual intercourse.

LSD and Other Psychedelics

The effects of LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) have been well documented as one of the most powerful psychoactive hallucinogens on the black market. It is the best known and most researched psychoactive drug. It is active at extremely low doses and is most commonly available on blotter or in liquid form.

Under the influence of LSD, people see images, hear sounds and feel sensations that seem real but do not exist. In addition, mood changes will occur throughout the period the drug is active, based on the user's mental state. It has been noted that the effects of LSD are equivalent to having a case of short-term schizophrenia, where nothing you are perceiving is, in fact, real.

Chronic effects of the drug can be positive and negative. Positive effects include spiritual contact and self-exploration; the most severe negative effect is known as LSD psychosis.

Because the effects seem so real, LSD has been billed as a drug that expands one's perceptions.

Many users are quite able to occasionally use LSD, without it effecting their everyday interactions. But it has been noted that frequent and prolonged use increases the probability that users will alter the normal reality testing abilities and have "flashbacks," which relive the drug state, even when the drug is not present in their system.

Its use for the purposes of Mind Control require slightly more preparation than the mere casual user.

In many shamanic cultures, where psychoactive drugs are used as part of an initiation, LSD has been used within a ritual setting, to create a tension of anticipation in the subject and, at the same time, create an atmosphere of safety. It has been rightly stated that the set and setting of rituals is central to creating a positive and powerful experience for the subject, when these types of drugs are involved. Do it at the wrong place or time, and the results will be very uncomfortable for the user. If the user begins the ritual in a stressed condition or bad mood, it may not be very pleasurable.

So, set and setting plus the rapport that the subject has with the other participants are important. Assuming that the controller has set up the environment appropriately, so that it is safe and comfortable, the controller can begin to introduce the beliefs, doctrines or behaviors they wish to teach and instill.

The most noted case of this being practiced is the infamous Charles Manson family of the 1960s. During this group's LSD trips, Manson would have the participants engage in sex orgies. If one participant found a sexual act unappealing, and resist participating, Manson would force them to perform every imaginable sexual act, and frame it as "overcoming your parents' issues."

The goal was to break down all the subjects' resistance and inhibitions, to do what they were told. The results were dramatic.

Using this method, along with other methods of cult indoctrination and Mind Control, Manson assigned several of his followers to perform the brutal murders of pregnant Hollywood actress Sharon Tate, along with Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.


-- Mind Control 101: How to Influence the Thoughts and Actions of Others, by J.K. Ellis, Dantalion Jones


Randolph also gave techniques to focus the sexual energies upon a wish, a sort of an inner photography which represents the desire to be fulfilled. (18*) There is oral history as to Carl Kellner being one of the 12 co-founders of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light in Boston/Chicago in 1895, and then leading a German "branch" which later was to become above mentioned "Inner Triangle".(19*) There is reason to believe that Reuss' HBL was not the same as Kellner's.

Deutsch: Read about the "Asiatischen Brüder vom Rosenkreuz", the "mächtigen und weisen Orden der Ritter und Brüder des Lichts" - the source of Theodor Reuss' "Brotherhood of Light" which was in fact the "Brothers of Light". English: Theodor Reuss and the Brothers of Light in the Seven Churches of Asia. The origins of his Brotherhood of Light.

settlement on Monte Verita; and on whitsuntide this movement, in part, was united with O.T.O. - for tactical purposes styled the "Hermetic Brotherhood of Light", -- as foreshadowed in the Constitution of the O.T.O. - We have struck up

-- Reuss to Crowley, 1917


The O.T.O. under Theodor Reuss

After Kellner's death in 1905, Reuss founded an O.T.O.-system now consisting of 7 pseudo-freemasonic degrees, opening the 7 Chakras, while the sexmagical VIIIth and IXth degrees were "given" without any rituals. The Xth degree only labelled the country's leader.

The surviving papers of Reuss show that he continued the Yoga-teachings of Kellner but also introduced Manichaeism. (20*) The whole body was considered Divine (the Temple of the Holy Ghost) and the sexual organs were meant to fulfill a peculiar function: a Holy Mass was the symbolic act of re-creating the universe. (21*) The root belief is that only by co-operation between man and woman can either advance spiritually. Sexually joining is a shadow of the cosmic act of creation. Performed by adepts, the union of male and female approaches more closely the primal act and partakes of its divine nature, which is seen as continuous and continuing, not for once and for all. This point of view is different from the Christian one, which holds that the creation of the universe by God occurred at some definite point in time past. The sensations that form slowly within Man and Woman sexually joined come not from the conjunction of the physical parts, but from the male and female sexual polarities in contact. Correct breathing patterns affect the chemistry of the blood stream and so bring about a change in the internal environment of the brain. Consciousness ego moves away to make room for divine power. The sexual energies then should be stored, together with correct breathing both leads to the transmutation of the energy in order the Magician becomes a Clairvoyant (in German: "Seher"). (22*)

Reuss was not that fond of masturbating (the VIIIth degree under Crowley) and called it "Selbstpeinigung" (causing pain to oneself) and "widernatuerlich" (against nature). (23*) Nevertheless he saw the Lingam (phallus) as a symbol of the creator of the universe.

It seems that Reuss worked along homosexual (24*) or at least homoerotic tantric lines (mutual touching of the phalli, (25*) the XIth degree under Crowley) but the central secret of his Ordo Templi Orientis was built around Richard Wagner's "Parsifal". The spear became the phallus while the Gral, of course, was the vagina which contained the "Grals-speise" (the nourriture of the Gral, that is, sperm and vaginal fluids). Reuss' O.T.O.-system was formed on an utopian communistic society where the Mother (with references to the christian Maria) took central position in social and sexual life, called "community of Neo-Christians". (26*)

The O.T.O. under Aleister Crowley

After Reuss' death in 1923, Crowley made an entreprise out of the O.T.O.'s secrets. There is a surviving plan to promote the "Elixir of Life" (under the name "Amrita", the Magical Medicine) (27*) and to heal patients according to O.T.O. methods, (28*) that is: to heal them with yoga and sexual fluids. (29*) Crowley used the Ordo Templi Orientis (as he used other real or ghostly orders) as a play, a publishing house and found it a suitable instrument to extract the "gold" (be it alchemistical or sexual) from the pockets of his followers. To that purpose he pretended never having had sex out of sheer lust. (30*) It always should have been a "duty", a "prayer to God" (Aiwaz, Baphomet or Sheitan (31*) — there are many more disguises); in consequence a prayer to himself whom he identified with an erected penis.

Crowley's VII* is a treatise about the creative organ's divinity, and from his "Book of Lies" one can interfer that the vital fluid is a vehicle of immortality. The Matter is the original primitive material substance semi-spiritual, immortal and containing in itself the archetypes of all form and possessing the double potency of attracting to itself individual spirits and also particles of gross Matter to form their temporary envelope on this plane (the gnostic Rotten Place).

Crowley's VIIIth degree unveiled to the "pupil" that masturbating on a sigil of a demon or meditating upon the image of a phallus would bring power or communication with a (or one's own) divine being/Super Ego. The IXth degree labelled heterosexual intercourse where the sexual secrets were sucked out of the vagina and when not consumed (when considered holy) put on a sigil to attract this or that demon to fullfill the pertinent wish/order. (32*)
In his "Emblems and Mode of Use" (33*)

Crowley describes the method of how to smear sperm on a talisman/sigil in order to attract for example money. This paper is so secret that, at one time, its possession was equal with having the IXth degree O.T.O. There was no other proof until only recently: now one possibly needs to go through an examination test to prove "possession"/"knowledge" of the IXth degree O.T.O. (34*)

Crowley played around with different sexmagickal methods. One of the O.T.O.'s secrets is the adoration of the idol Baphomet of the old Templars. While the German splinter-group, the misogynist Fraternitas Saturni definitely tried (and still tries) to incarnate Baphomet in flesh, (35*) in the O.T.O.-groups (that emerged after Crowley's death in 1947) the subject is not that clear although incorporated in the Xth degree. Crowley advised selection of a female partner. The magician and his mate "copulate continuously" until impregnation results: a homunculus. (36*) Maybe the ability of the Xth to create a homunculus was realised on the physical level in their privilegue of electing their OHO.

In the XIth degree, the mostly homosexual degree, (40*) one identifies oneself with an ejaculating penis. (41*) The blood (or excrements) from anal intercourse attract the spirits/demons while the sperm keeps them alive. On 31 March 1946 Crowley noted down a dream in his diary: "A most frightful semi-dream (between two normal motions) of giving birth to a foetus per anum. It was a mass of blood & slime. The nastiest Qliphotic experience I can remember!"

Crowley saw no use in the vaginal fluids nor did he think that women are divine, (42*) therefore he could not imagine lesbian sexmagick. He believed that "man is the guardian of the Life of God; woman but a temporary expedient; a shrine indeed for the God, but not the God." ==> Women exist for the use of men. His ideal female: "robust, vigorous, eager, sensible, hot and healthy". That is to say, his interest was in the woman's body and he wanted no spiritual or intellectual participation from her.

Crowley's main tools to achieve illumination remained: spermophagy, coprophagy and algolagnia.

Coprophagy vs Poetry?

Crowley's interest in women was reduced:

Diary entry of 26 July 1920. Crowley boasts to his Swiss Scarlet Whore Leah Hirsig while on cocaine that he is such a powerful priest and magician that he could transform excrements into his Eucharist Host. She calls his bluff (which, later in the entry he admits it was -- "I'm a Coward, and Liar. Leah-Alostrael — my Scarlet Woman — knew it.") So she tells him to go ahead and prove it by eating her shit. He finds himself unable to do so. She taunts him saying that he is no priest if he can't live up to his boast. So he complies. He complains "my mouth burned; my throat choked; my belly retched; my blood fled whither who knows, and my skin sweated.... My teeth grew rotten, my tongue ulcered; raw was my throat, spasm-torn my belly ..."

Read his 'Leah Sublime':

"Sprawl on me! Sit
On my mouth, Leah, shit!
Shit on me, slut
Creamy the curds
That drip from your gut!
Greasy the turds!
Dribble your dung
On the tip of my tongue!"


This small extract does not give the full extent of Crowley's enjoyment with Coprophagy. Crowley also notes that Leah Hirsig enjoyed this kink as well ("worn whore that has chewed your own pile of manure" and "splutter out shit [...] turn to me, chew it with me, Leah").

There is also a urine fetish and a fetish with getting venereal diseases — that is, Crowley expresses a kink for disease, even including what seems to be Hirsig's bad oral hygiene or gingivitis, stating that her breath stinks and that he wants her to spit on him.

(Notes on obscure medical terms: "Gleet" is another name for gonorrhea. "Pox" — here short for "the French pox" — does not refer to viral pox diseases like smallpox or chicken pox, but is an old euphemism for any sexually transmitted disease. "Cheeses" refers to venereal yeast infection or to Trichomonas infection, or both. "The itch" — also called "Cupid's Itch" in times past -- may refer variously to a venereal yeast infection, Trichomonas infection, ringworm of the pubes, or any more serious sexually transmitted disease.)

SUMMARY OF CROWLEY’S SEX MAGICK SYSTEM

ALEISTER CROWLEY’S SEXMAGICAL SYSTEM

Aleister Crowley maintained that the task of his sexmagical organisation Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) was "to restore Christianity to its real status as a solar–phallic religion." The structure of the O.T.O., like that of Freemasonry, is based on a staged series of initiations or degrees. The essence of the Order is in its higher degrees; strictly speaking only members of these degrees are considered to be members of the O.T.O. proper. VII°: adoration of the phallus, both within and without. VIII°: interaction outside the closed vessels of the vagina and the anus. Sexual fluids might be mixed with saliva and then rubbed into the absorbent tissues of the anus and perineum, as well as the external correspondences to the chakras (solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye, and crown). They also might be used to anoint the internal anus, then transferred as 'triune elixir' (semen, anal elixirs, and saliva) back to the mouth. The fluids may also be anointed on the eyelids and/or the entire cabbalistic middle pillar. IX°: interaction within the vagina involving either menstrual blood or the secretions of a woman when sexually aroused. X °: impregnation and fertilisation of an egg; also the act of creation or succession (for example, the election of the leader, the Outer Head of the Order.). XI°: two–fold — (i) isolation in the anus where there is no interaction at all — (ii) interaction with excrement and small amounts of blood (when small wounds occur through intercourse), mucus and, of course, the mucous membranes that lead directly to the blood supply. Crowley’s own preference was that "I am inclined to believe that the XIth degree is better than the IXth degree." Ultimately in the O.T.O’s sexual magick everything came down to semen — more recently likened to a computer hard–disk pre–formatted to be loaded with software and used at will. Crowley: "The industrial use of Semen will revolutionize human society." His instructional text 'Amrita' defines the use of semen as counteracting "Asthma, Bronchitis, Neurasthenia, Obesity, Stricture, Some cardiac distress, Greying hair, Loss of interest in sex." To avoid charges of quackery, the current American O.T.O. or 'Caliphate' denies the medicinal use of this 'Elixir of Life', and claims that it "does not practice medicine." For sacramental purposes, this O.T.O. uses hosts made with honey, meal, and wine–lees called 'Cakes of Light' (which may however contain small quantities of blood or semen: "ashes from burned cakes of light prepared according to Crowleys' Liber AL III;23[–25] would be acceptable as an additional ingredient"). (1963–1967 the Swiss O.T.O. used a total of 3,000 Hosts obtained by the Crowleyites from a genuine Catholic convent. The incense–grains had been opportunely supplied by the Chief Sacristan of St. Gallen Cathedral. And the wine for the Mass came directly from the Bishop.) — According to Crowley these Cakes should include menstrual fluids, but "In my Mass the Host is of excrement" — magically speaking, blood and excrement attracting spirits, sperm keeping them alive. He also noted in his diary on May 30, 1923 that "The Dalai Lama is right to have the faithful eat his excrement." There are many other elements of O.T.O. doctrines that can prove inimical to its public relations image: the requirement for the crucifixion of a frog in one O.T.O. initiation ritual, advice given to members that they can consider those without the pale of the Order as inferior beings, and blatantly anti–democratic elements in the various O.T.O. constitutions, antisemitic statements and texts that could be said to interfere with religious freedoms, just to mention a few. Theodor Reuss, German founder of these Oriental Templars in 1906, went further: within the O.T.O. community the use of money was to be forbidden. Every member over 18 was obliged to labour daily; those refusing to work were to be punished by forced labour. In Reuss’s O.T.O. utopia, each child was brought up by the community, where doctor–priests under parental supervision would teach children from the earliest age on that the sex organs were holy (maybe Crowley’s idea that all children from infancy should be accustomed to witnessing every type of sexual act came from this.) Those who were not found capable of producing healthy children by a 'medical board' were not allowed to breed, while those who produced children despite this decree would be punished by forced labour. These extreme ideas have not survived in modern versions of the O.T.O., if indeed they were ever espoused beyond Reuss’s essay. While the O.T.O.’s initiatory system is a sort of bureaucratic club game, it has a religiously associated section under its obedience: The Gnostic Catholic Church. It intends "to restore Christianity to its real status as a solar–phallic religion." In 1906, Chevalier Le Clément de St.–Marcq had published a booklet about the Sacred Spermatophagy, called 'L'Eucharistie'. It described what Reuss called the ultimate secret of the religious aspect of the O.T.O.: the more sperm you eat, the more the manifestation of the Christ takes place within you: no women are necessary for that. The consumption of sexual secretions borders on anthropophagia, the assimilation of selected individuals who possess awe–inspiring powers, in order to neutralise or even to use them. The Gnostic aim is to release the human from his stifling entanglement with the physical universe, and to help the pure Spirit in its return to its Divine potential. One common characteristic of all the Spermo–Gnostics in the context of most of the many O.T.O.–versions is a reduction of the sexuality unto the male physiology. Orgasm for pure reasons of lust is avoided, unless ejaculation is refrained from, or the intention is directed to drift away from the immanent orgasm and concentrate itself upon wishes that under the circumstances appear worldly in the extreme. Sperm remains the point of focus. In the enthusiastic high of the genetic and gnostic superiority of the male, femaleness vegetates in a bizarre no–mansland of androgynous necessity and almost reprehensible superfluousness. The female Logos remains mute. In the O.T.O.’s Gnostic Mass a host called Cake of Light contains the Logos. Ingredients are sperm, blood and vaginal secrets. This cake of light is made outside the ritual of the Gnostic Mass. It is given its character in the making. It is consecrated, but not transsubstantiated. The deity in the cake of light is the 'Childe', properly an aspect of Horus (or a sort of homunculus) and not of either Osiris or the cognate Christ. Transmutation is change of form, in the instance of the pertinent passage in Crowley’s Mass, by chemical processes of digestion. Transsubstantiation, on the other hand, is change of essential quality without change of form. Transmutation is a physiological process. Transsubstantiation is a non–physical process. Thus, a cake of light is transmuted in the preparation, to afford a character appropriate to the "miracle of the Mass": it’s a sexmagical medium of the participant’s Will (the ritual itself can be interpreted as a mirror of the perpetual creation of the Universe). Similar passages can be found in the VIII° ritual of the O.T.O.: "and, forasmuch as meat and drink are transmuted in us daily into spiritual substance, I believe in the Miracle of the Mass. […] This is the Blood and the Body of the Logos." Consumation of the host is necessary, body contact. Some say, it is not the host that is changed but the consumer of the host. Through contact with saliva, chewing, stomach acid. This is the transformation, the unification of the host with the consumer. The thelemic host changes the consumer – contrary to the Roman Catholic host. A Roman Catholic host is said to be transsubstantiated during the RC Mass, a change of its invisible essence (for the entering of the real–presence of the Christ) without a change in the appearance and chemical qualities of the thing. If a thing such as that was both transmutated and transsubstantiated to the body and blood, it would become actual bleeding meat from the transmutation. — The technical term for the bishopric in the context of the O.T.O. Phenomenon is Wandering Bishop or Episcopi Vagantes. This status is not defined by character qualities, not by education or theological position. These bishops are not elected by a canonical church, are not proposed as an ordain by a suffragan and not bound to a historical episcopal see or consecrated by an official bishop according to the canonical procedure. A real bishop is not a successor of a sole apostle because only the synod/college of bishops in toto is heir to the college of the apostles. Therefore: no Wandering Bishop has a real apostolic succession. There is no Holy Ghost in Wandering–Bishop–consecrations. The instrumentum consecrationis is of no apostolic value. Nevertheless, Wandering Bishops are collectors of papers and diplomas. In this context, Reuss tried to make Crowley’s 'Gnostic Mass' the "official religion for Freemasons" in 1920. But nowhere in the constitution of the O.T.O. was the office of O.H.O. connected with leadership of any church. In his introduction to the 'Ecclesiae Gnosticae Catholicae Canon Missae', (Zuerich 1955) on page 4 the Swiss Hermann Joseph Metzger claimed the
"Antiochite–Jacobinic Succession, Syro–Malabarite Line of Mar Athanasius." Today, some new O.T.O.–groups (e.g. the 'Caliphate') try to copy this scheme, see http://www.parareligion.ch/2006/boast/boast.htm.

For the anti–democratic and misanthropic aspect of these occultists: read "The Templar's Reich — The Slaves Shall Serve" at http://www.parareligion.ch/2006/pro/pene.htm
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Re: Ordo Templi Orientis Spermo-Gnosis: Carl Kellner, Theodo

Postby admin » Tue Jan 09, 2018 5:39 am

Part 2 of 2

Stranded Bishops

Halfway considering the duties of the Manichaean Elect (to concentrate the Light, the sparkling leftover when the Logos spermatikos left man, imprisoned in matter, by consuming such foods) Crowley neglected the ascetic aspect of Manicheism (who avoided activities which would tend to disperse that Light) but concentrated upon building up a brilliant Body of Light fitted for return to the Blessed Realm. (37*)

For his Holy Host Crowley gave a recipe using blood and sperm. (38*) In order to avoid a HIV-infection the current American O.T.O. (the 1977- founded "Caliphate") advises to bake the host at 160 degree Fahrenheit in the oven. (39*)

The IXth becomes a parody of the Christian Eucharist with further refinements of the techniques related to the consumption of the Elixir/Host. Absorption occurs through the mucous membrane of the roof of the mouth, rather than swallowing it because the delicate protein fabric enveloping the essence will get broken down by the acids of the digestive system before it has had a chance to integrate into the mind-body symbiosis. In the case of the mouth there is the digestive activity of the saliva. This must also affect the "delicate protein fabric enveloping the essence" to some degree, the longer it is kept in the mouth.

In 1983 this new O.T.O. group decided "that at the 9* level there are no politics. It is an autocratic structure. The qualifications of the 9* are only significant to the 9*. Their qualifications are only of interest to other 9*." [Minutes of the 28 March 1983 meeting]

The "Caliphate"-"Gnostic Church" also parodies the Roman Catholic traditions in introducing offices like "Patriarch", "Archbishop", "Bishop", (Novitiate) "Priest"/"Priestess" and "Deacon" (Priest and Deacon already appear in Reuss/Crowley's Gnostic Mass of the 1910s) (21*). Nowadays, they offer services like: Baptism Ceremony for a Child, Baptism Ceremony for an Adult, Confirmation Ceremony, Ceremony for Ordination of a Deacon, A Wedding Ceremony, A Ceremony for a Greater Feast for Death, A Basic Exorcism Rite (there seems to be a growing emphasis on exorcism), A Ceremony for Visitation and Administration of the Virtues to the Sick; they have a Saintship (no woman appears on this list) and Animal Benefictions [once at http://www.scarletwoman.org/soter/beastb.htm].(43*)

Christian prayers are attached also to the "Caliphate"-V*-ritual: "The Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus", "The Litany of St. Joseph" and "The Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary". This is to be taken as reference to the Aeonic Magus of the LAST Aeon, as a reminder that these Great Cycles build each upon the others ... also that the True Master was not at all the political hatchet job made of Him by Paulism. These prayers (that is, the initiation rituals) are accompanied by music of Mozart, Holst, Strauss, Mahler and the like. (44*)

Obviously unaware of the traditional meaning of the expression "Wandering Bishops", some of their "bishops" call themselves "Landed Bishops".

Image
Elixir Cakes of Light
Cookies will contain: human and/or other mammal blood and/or semen (possibly from menses/estrus, abortions, hostile aliens, priests, and/or congregation), and/or bird droppings.


Clotted Chakras

The Ordo Templi Orientis was, and still is, a secret part of the ethnological underground of civilisation that seeks acceptance through the mainstream culture. At the bottom of that dark well, lies only a mouthful of sperm. Because this fact is too simplistic, and maybe to shameful; it is wrapped into many "word shells"/euphemisms. While the ancient Gnostics headed directly towards the religious technicalities of dealing with sperm (avoiding ejaculation or consuming the sexual fluids); the modern Gnostics promote innumerable traditional ways, in Eastern and Western traditions, of salvation outside spermo-Gnosticism; (45*) only to hide the sperm in the inner sanctuary of their organisazion. (46*) Also the crack in the universe is attempted to be healed with sacrifices, liturgies, chants, and consecrations. But the mystery has gone astray: there is too much materialism in the O.T.O.-groups; and this tears the seeker down to earth, and hinders him from becoming one with the Divine. After many years of paying membership fees; and after having bought their beloved leaders' books; and even after they already know the "secret": one day an O.T.O.-member may discover by accident or suffering experience, that the order's scheme of salvation has not brought Gnosis. Because the pseudo-masonical Ordo Templi Orientis has such a complex grade structure, (47*) taking many years to complete and to pay for, and blends the simple Gnostic doctrines of technical psychology with all the other religious tools and with the biography of their charismatic leaders; the organisazion itself becomes an intensely "rotten place". Unfraternal behaviour between members, inflated egos, (48*) lying, game-playing, subterfuges and hysteria; cause endless splits, in-fights and even court proceedings. All this compounded together can make the O.T.O. an almost unbearable place.

Aleister Crowley's O.T.O.-groups are filled up with his concept of Thelema: a new scheme to sort out History, Religion, Philosophy, Magick and everyday life. (49*) A lot of Crowley-O.T.O.-members do not feel that sperm only transports the Holy Logos. (50*) This originally is considered a misunderstanding of the process of procreation. With the advance of Science, they assume that both the male and the female are both equally responsible for procreation. Nevertheless they follow the qabalistic sense of the male seed as the Logos to a certain extent: the woman functions as the "giver of form." (51*)

Gnostic doctrines are modified in Thelema as the doctrine of True Will: that every man and woman has a "reason" to be here: that they have "chosen" to descend into this rotten place, that they have a mission to accomplish, which they have forgotten. It is their task not simply to escape, but also to remember why they came, and to fulfill this function. (52*) Nevertheless, Thelema itself seems to radiate decay. (53*)

Several years after this essay has been published, David Scriven, Grandmaster of the 'Caliphate' in the US writes: "Before the processes of mitosis and meiosis were fully understood, there was a great deal of speculation and contention about which sex was responsible for carrying the true Essence of Life, and the various hypotheses proposed were influenced by religious, cultural, and even political concerns. The thinking on these matters from ancient times through the Renaissance (in Europe) fell generally into two major camps. One held that it was the male who carried the True Essence, the Seed of Life, and who "planted" this seed in the fertile soil of the womb of the female, where it was nourished and protected as it developed, on its own, into new Life. For these phallicists, only men possessed this Divine Spark of Life, and women did not. The ovists, for lack of a better term, held the opposite; that it was women who possessed the Seed of Life within their bodies, and that the function of men in the reproductive process was one of enabling or fertilization; of "watering the soil" so that the seed that resided therein might sprout and grow. During the 17 th and 18 th centuries, these primitive doctrines were refined into a scientific school of thought called preformationism, which held that living beings were essentially fully-formed prior to conception. This school of thought was divided into the two classical factions, the spermists and the ovists. The doctrine of spermist preformation is exemplified by the famous Homunculus image, drawn by Nicholas Hartsoecker in 1694, and supposedly based on an observation of Anton van Leeuwenhoek. The image shows a spermatozoon containing, within its head, a tiny, but fully-formed, human being, and the implication is that the sperm contains the complete, preformed essence of the unborn person; whereas the egg is merely an inert, nutritive, sheltering matrix. Crowley reproduced Hartsoecker's Homunculus on the Hermit Trump of the Thoth Tarot Deck. [page 2, snip] As advocates of Crowley's concept of scientific religion, we need to be prepared to discard scientific doctrines when they are rendered obsolete, even when such doctrines support our spiritual and social paradigms. We may continue to enjoy and revere our holy books, our historical writings, and our customary rites, because these things have historical, symbolic, spiritual, and even talismanic value to us. But we must not allow ourselves to be bound to interpretations, explanations, and applications of our symbols that are based on outmoded and discredited ideas about nature. The true significance of our great and living symbols extends much deeper than such shallow and transient notions. As I have said before, a true symbol is not merely a cipher. If we actively listen to them, our symbols will continue to speak to us the truth, to the extent that we have the capacity to comprehend it." Agape, IV;1, California 1 May 2002


Although all the splintered O.T.O.-groups as a whole also are "rotten places", where the seeker can easily enter into the Pleroma; Gnosis does not happen there, (54*) because these "rotten places" have changed from Gnostic places into psychological projection screens, where the seeker throws his image of his Holy Father upon, i.e. Crowley. The sexual revolution of lust and Gnosis has deformed and degenerated into psychological ruptures. Gnosis has become Dia-gnose which neither brings homeopathic (sensual) nor allopathic (ascetic) salvation. Vice versa on a lower plane: only ascetic seekers who practise homeopathy (outside the O.T.O.) and libertine quasi-Gnostics who practise allopathy.

Sperm as homeopathic medicine?

The Gnostic and the homeopath try to bring man back to the divine order in/of the universe. The Gnostic seeks immediate presence of the Divine while the homeopath seeks the most balanced order of the individual with the divine universe. Hippocrates said that illness comes from the Gods; that is, from above; and that the earthly world can be regarded as wounded God. Well, some Gnostics now see the sperm as universal medicine to heal everything. Because of this fact, and also because during my researches on the O.T.O.-Phenomena, I have met several ascetic spermo- Gnostics who practised homeopathy, I will now try to discuss the homoepathic aspect of sperm-eating.

It is my opinion, that, even when one sees sperm as the vehicle of the Logos, it could not be used as a homeopathic remedy, because the similarity of the homeopathic remedy to the similarity of an ill patient is based on the total and individual completeness of symptoms and on the peculiarity of a superior illness/disorder. Logos as a homeopathic remedy would, by homeopathic definition, possibly dissolve Logos. In order that sperm could act as a remedy, it must first become a remedy, which it is not as a substance. It should primarily be treated in a homeopathic way so that it takes on a different nature on a higher level where it might take effects on the patient's superior disorder/illness. This homeopathic way is called potenciation. The substance itself is going to be thinned out far over the point where scientists might find any molecules of the substance, and at the same time, the product is going to be hit or shaken. As yet, no homeopath has found a scientific explanation for this, but homeopathic-medical experience showed, that this action transforms a material substance into an energetic, that is, "healing" state, which reminds somewhat of the Christian concept of transubstantiation. But what is the Gnostic use of such, since, in Gnostic belief, the substance itself contains the Logos already? And what about all the human energetic aspects, e.g. predispositional illnesses like syphilis or HIV? What is caused by a potencialised HI-virus? This is a question which is not answered by the homeopathic scientists themselves.

Nevertheless I have met homeopaths who would use sperm as they use other human substances; for example urine or blood or pathogenic agencies. But sperm as homeopathic medicine should not be regarded as an in-bringing of the Logos. The use of homepathic sperm should depend on the total and individual completeness of symptoms that sperm (be it potencialised or not) would cause in a "healthy" individual. These side-effects could then be used to dissolve similar symptoms of an "ill" patient.

The question arises as to the practise by some O.T.O.-members who bake a host consisting of sperm and vaginal fluids in order to destroy the HI-virus. What effect does heat have on the Gnostic Logos? The gnostic/christian Thomas reported Jesus having said that who is near me is near the fire ...
Others put their sperm into a mouthful of brandy to make it more tasty. Spiritus Sanctus?
What about all those women who are forced by their men to swallow his sperm. (55*) Should these suppressed women not be more free than their suppressors? Can these women really not be saved? Or must they become O.T.O. members in order to experience salvation through sperm?

How is it seen by a woman?: Linda Falorio (not an O.T.O. member) from the Anandazone!

"A complicated question as to the "meaning" of HIV. From my human view, I can't see any benefit that these invaders might bestow, either on the individual, or on the Work. I feel they should be "banished" as one would do with any entity attempting possession, which is what these retroviruses do, as I understand it, take over one's cells for their own purposes, ... or they should at least contained within the triangle (i.e. condom). Of course, then the benefit of psychosexual fluids cannot be directly obtained on the physical, but must remain on the subtle planes. A powerful magician should be able to do this, I would think, but would need a similarly endowed person to perceive what had been distilled.

But of course, similar questions of relative benefit are in my mind as they apply to men who have had vasectomies, & women who have had hysterectomies, or are past menopause (56*) ... Then it seems one needs a well-qualified priest/priestess who may not be oneself, or one's preferred partner, to distill the elixir on the physical. But then, mightn't a powerful person be able to cause their own body to distill these endocrines, even though the glands might be removed?" September 1996

Linda Falorio is a very inspiring factor in the so-called Typhonian O.T.O.. The Typhonian O.T.O. is concerned with effective transmissions and communications from 'outerspace' for the purpose of opening Gateways. The Typhonian 'deities' denote specific operations of psycho-physical alchemy which involve essences or elixirs secreted (thrown out and/or considered unclean) by the human organism. Its formula is that of the XI° involving kalas that are entirely absent from the masculine organism. This O.T.O. version concerns itself with gathering the secretions from the vagina, urine and excrements: material from which allegedly the Elixir of Life was extracted and refined by mediaeval alchemists. Emphasis is laid on the healthy human female. (57*)

The 'Caliphate' on the other hand, recently started considering that [www.maroney.org/Essays/Facts_and_Phallacies.htm defunct now] Crowley was a sexist.

Regarding Crowley's antidemocratic, racist and misanthropic writings, followers point out: "The reason [...] aspects of Thelema are omitted [in public discussion] indicates the actual problem with presenting Thelema as a religion and attempting to get Thelema sanctioned by the government or approved by the public: Thelema is ultimately in contrast to and transgressive of normative society. Thelema rejects the morals and values of normative society and acts to transgress and violate these norms. From the inclusion of intoxicants in ritual, to the positive view of sexuality, which frequently is seen as promoting promiscuity, to the pro–authoritarian and Nietzschian aspects of Thelema, normative society has much to reject in Thelema and conversely, Thelema encourages its adherents to reject most aspects of normative society.". See The Templar's Reich.

Obviously the crack in the universe is still open. Christians like other religions await a kind of apocalypse or place of salvation beyond this world, beyond the open gap between earth and heaven, for which ascetic and libertine Gnostics try to build a bridge.

You have not heard the last of the spermo-Gnostics.

© Peter-R. Koenig, 1994 / March 2000

_______________

ANNOTATIONS:

1. A choice of some Gnostic sources: "Leonhard Fendt: "Gnostische Mysterien", ARW, Muenchen 1922/1980; Peter Sloterdijk: "Weltrevolution der Seele", I, Artemis, Muenchen 1991; J.P. Asmusen/A. Boehlig: "Die Gnosis", III, Artemis, Zuerich/Muenchen 1980; Robert Haardt: "Die Gnosis", Salzburg 1967; E. Haenchen/M. Kraus: "Die Gnosis", Artemis, Zuerich/Muenchen 1969; Wilhelm Bousset: "Hauptprobleme der Gnosis", Vandenhoeck + Ruprecht, Goettingen 1907; Kurt Rudolph: "Die Gnosis", Vandenhoeck + Ruprecht, Goettingen 1980; Hans Jonas: "Gnosis und Spaetantiker Geist", Vandenhoeck + Ruprecht, Stuttgart 1934; Johann Maier: "Vom Kultus zur Gnosis", Otto Mueller Verlag, Salzburg 1964; Elaine Pagels: "The Gnostic Gospels", Random House, New York 1979; Wolfang Schultz: "Dokumente der Gnosis", Matthes + Seitz, Muenchen 1986; Hans Leisegang: "Die Gnosis", Kroener, Stuttgart 1985; and many more
2. Also R.L. Hubbard called his Scientology "gnosticism", in: "False Purpose Rundown", 5th June 1984
3. Peter Sloterdijk: "Weltrevolution der Seele" I, Artemis, Muenchen 1991, 19
4. Sources on Homeopathy: Georgos Vithoulkas: "Die wissenschaftliche Homoeopathie," Goettingen 1986; Marco Righetti: "Forschung in der Homoeopathie," Burgdorf-Verlag, Burgdorf 1988; J.T. Kent: "Zur Theorie der Homoeopathie, J.T. Kents Vorlesungen ueber Hahnemanns Organon", Leer 1954
5. For example in: Robert Haardt: "Die Gnosis", Salzburg 1967, 66
6. Ernst T. Kurtzahn (member of Theodor Reuss' OTO), in: "Die Gnostiker", Baumann-Verlag, Schmiedeberg 1925, 77-82
7. Arnoldo Krumm-Heller (member of Reuss' OTO): "Plantas Sagradas", Buenos Aires 1931, 72. English translation: The Gnostics. — About the Gnostic Catholic Church, Androgyn + Gynandria, E.C.H. Peithmann, Peryt Shou, and the immissio membri virilis in vaginam in avoidance of the ejaculatio seminis
8. Arnoldo Krumm-Heller: "Iglesia Gnostica", Berlin 1931, 71
9. Samael Aun Weor (alleged member of Krumm-Heller's group): "Buddha's Necklace", without date and place, 1-95. "I can't find this quote in any of his books but besides from having an antiquated view on the place of woman in society, both men and women should refrain from the sexual spasm (to avoid ejaculation is SECONDARY), it's the orgasm which is to be avoided (the sperm is brute mercury, but what is more important is the subtle mercury = sexual energy and the saturated mercury = kundalini) and both man and women have the possibilities to benefit from this sexual magic. It's also clear that when a spouse does not want to practice Sexual Magic and the other does, the one that doesn't practice DOESN'T benefit at all of his partner who does practice." ***, Email dated 18.4.2011.
10. Gospel according to Thomas: "unless a man became a women, and a woman, man, thou canst not enter the Kingdom of Heaven". Thus, not all Gnostics are Misogynists, though the era when Gnosticism was founded was totally Misogynist
11. Ernst T. Kurtzahn (member of Theodor Reuss' OTO), in: "Die Gnostiker", Baumann-Verlag, Schmiedeberg 1925, 77-82
12. Example in: Kurt Rudolph: "Die Gnosis", Leipzig 1980 (2)
13. All pseudo-masonical rituals of Reuss' and Crowley's OTO are published in: P.R. Koenig: "How to make your own McOTO", ARW, Muenchen 1996; Crowley's rituals also in: Francis King: "The Secret Rituals of the O.T.O.", London 1973
14. Crowley: "A man who is strong enough to use women as slaves and plaything is all right", "Woman is a creature of habit, that is, of solified impulses. She has no individuality", "Monogamy is only a mistake because it leaves the excess women unsatisfied", "A woman is only tolerable in one's life if she is trained to help the man in his work without the slightest reference to any other interests soever": "Confessions", edited by John Symonds/Kenneth Grant
15. A try is: Ellic Howe/Helmut Moeller: "Merlin Peregrinus", Koenigshausen + Neumann, Wuerzburg 1986; details also in P.R.Koenig: "Der Kleine Theodor Reuss Reader", ARW, Muenchen 1993; P.R.Koenig: "Das OTO-Phaenomen", ARW, Muenchen 1994; P.R. Koenig: "Der Grosse Theodor Reuss Reader", ARW, Muenchen 1997
16. John Symonds: "The King of the Shadow Realm", London 1989
17. A historical outline of those practices, in: Heinz Hunger: "Die Heilige Hochzeit", Wiesbaden 1984
18. P.B. Randolph: "Magia Sexualis", Paris 1931/69; Elias McGregor (ed. Roberth North, 1988): "Magia Sexualis by P.B. Randolph"; Gordon J. Melton: "P.B. Randolph — America's Pioneer Occultist", Lyon 1992; Joscelyn Godwin: serial of articles in "Theosophical History" volume 2- 3, Fullerton 1988-1991; also David Board in: "Theosophical History" Volume 3, number 3, Fullerton 1990; and a letter from Joscelyn Godwin, dated 13 October 1994, reprinted in: P.R. Koenig: "Ein Leben fuer die Rose", ARW, Muenchen 1995
19. Sources: Reuss' magazine "Oriflamme", Bad Schmiedeberg 1902-1914; several internal manuscripts; and the Austrian researcher Josef Dvorak
20. Manicheism considers the material world as "evil"; "angels" copulate with the "archonts" in order to free the "evil bonds", in: J.P. Asmussen/A. Boehlig: "Die Gnosis" 3, Artemis, Zuerich/Muenchen 1980. Archonts are the guardians of the universe and are often viewed as maleficient forces. One of the archonts is the demiurge or the creator of the world. The recurring image of Archonts is that of jailers imprisoning the divine spark in human souls held captive in material creation.
21. Theodor Reuss in his translation of Crowley's Gnostic Mass: "Die Gnostische Messe, Aus dem Original-Text des Baphomet, uebertragen in die deutsche Sprache von Merlin Peregrinus", Bad Schmiedeberg 1917; Facsimile in: P.R. Koenig: "Der Grosse Theodor Reuss Reader", ARW, Muenchen 1997
22. Reuss: "Mysterica Mystica Maxima", in: "Jubilaeums-Ausgabe der Oriflamme 1912", Baumann, Berlin und London 1912, 23
23. Reuss: "Parsifal und das Enthuellte Grals-Geheimnis", Bad Schmiedeberg 1920; the annotated manuscript dated 1914 is transcribed in: P.R. Koenig: "Der Kleine Theodor Reuss Reader", ARW, Muenchen 1993
24. Le Chevalier Le Clement de St-Marq: "L'Eucharistie", Bilsen 1906; fascimile re-printed in: P.R. Koenig: "Der Grosse Theodor Reuss Reader", ARW, Muenchen 1997; Reuss called this pamphlet a revealing of the central secret of the OTO: only sperm contains the Logos: no women needed. Reuss wrote to Le Clément the following meaningful lines (we carefully reproduce his jargon): "I enclose two numbers of the "Oriflamme" which will show you that the Order of the Oriental Templars is in possesion of that same knowledge contained in your "L'Eucharistie"". In effect, we find in the "Oriflamme", published in 1912, this, which clears the matter: "Our Order is in possession of the key which opens all the masonic and hermetic secrets: it is the doctrine of sexual magic, and this doctrine explains, leaving nothing in the dark, all masonic symbolism, every religious system". The quote is in chapter X (La question du satanisme) of René Guénon's "L'Erreur Spirite", originally published 1923
25. Wiener Freimaurerzeitung 9/10, Wien 1926, page 28; facsimile re- printed in: P.R. Koenig: "Der Grosse Theodor Reuss Reader", ARW, Muenchen 1997
26. Reuss: "Aufbauprogramm und Leitsaetze der Gnostischen Neo-Christen O.T.O.", Bad Schmiedeberg 1920; re-printed in: P.R. Koenig: "Der Kleine Theodor Reuss Reader", ARW, Muenchen 1993
27. The newly founded American OTO, called "Caliphate", allegedly "does not practice medicine", in: "Thelema Lodge Newsletter", Berkely, September 1993
28. Crowley: "the industrial use of Semen will revolutionize human society", diary entry 8 August 1923
29. Aleister Crowley: "Amrita", King Beach 1990; see also: Gerald Yorke: "'Sex' und der O.T.O.", in: "AHA" 6, Bergen an der Dumme, 1991
30. "Pleasure as such has never attracted me. It must be spiced by moral satisfaction", Aleister Crowley: "Confessions"
31. Self-idolation: "thanks to Aiwaz, our Lord God the Devil", "I sing for God, our Lord, Aiwaz", diary entries 22nd and 28th July 1920
32. Those secret instructions are published by Francis King: "The Secret Rituals of the O.T.O.", London 1973
33. Published in: "Mezla" I.111,1, Ithaca/NY 1985; on-line by William Breeze (current "Caliph" of the "Caliphate" and self-styled "Patriarch" of the pertinent "Gnostic Catholic Church") on BaphoNet-by-the-Sea: 718/499-9277, June 1992; Gregory von Seewald: flyer version in the early 1990s; translated and annotated in: P.R. Koenig: "Der OTOA- Reader", ARW, Muenchen 1994
34. "How does one make the Elixir of Life?", "What are the uses of the Elixir of Life?", allegedly proposed by Phyllis Seckler, but allegedly not in use (as communicated by a low degree member of the "Caliphate", in July 1997)
35. Discussion in: P.R. Koenig: "Ein Leben fuer die Rose", ARW, Muenchen 1995
36. Facsimile of this handwritten instruction by Crowley in: P.R. Koenig: "How to make your own McOTO", ARW, Muenchen 1996
37. Thelema uses new word shells for already existing concepts: The gnostic Pleroma in Thelema is called "Nuit" wherein/whereto the sperm returns alias "Hadit". Nevertheless, William Breeze (current "Caliph"): In Thelemic cosmogony there is no pleroma as in Gnosticism. This place, Kether in the Tree of Life, is occupied by Ra Hoor Khuit..., and our own silent selves, our Jechidah in Qabalistic terms, our Guardian Angels," "The Magical Link", new series 1, Fall (December!), Stockholm 1997, 9. So again: where's the "Gnosticism" in Thelema?
38. Nothing new: already described in: Carl Schmidt: "Koptisch-Gnostische Schriften", Volume 1, Leipzig 1905 (4th edition Berlin 1981); also described by Epiphanius, in: "Panarion", in: Robert Haardt: "Die Gnosis", Salzburg 1967; E. Hanechen/M. Krause: "Die Gnosis" 1, Artemis, Zuerich/Muenchen 1969. Crowley also had a version of his own: "In my Mass the Host is of excrement", diary entry 5 July 1920
39. "Magical Link" I;5, New York 1987; "Thelema Lodge Newsletter", Berkeley, January 1991. Supreme Grand Council meeting, April 3, 1993: "Cakes of Light should be prepared only according to the formula previously published; but ashes from burned cakes of light prepared according to AL III;23 would be acceptable as an additional ingredient"
40. Crowley: "I am inclined to believe that the XIth degree is better than the IXth degree", diary entry 26 August 1916
41. Crowley also imagined men as "Scarlet Whores" while masturbating (diary, 16 November 1914) ("Scarlet Woman ... is any Woman that receives and transmits my Solar Word and Being", in Crowley: "Magical and Philosophical Commentaries", edited by John Symonds/Kenneth Grant, Montreal 1974, 307)
42. Crowley: "Liber Agape" (in: P.R. Koenig: "How to make your own McOTO", ARW, Muenchen 1996), and Crowley: "De arte Magica"
43. "Those rituals seem a parody of Christianity and Catholicism. Of course, the Benediction of Animals is to be expected in a country where pet psychiatrists can make more than an engineer. What if the animal really did have some religious ideas? Would non-Thelemic (as if there could be an orthodox Thelema) animals then be: a Pagan Pussy, a Heretic Hamster, Demonic Dog? Do these people have so much time on their hands that they must now impose their religious views on their pets?!?
The confirmation and baptism ceremonies could too easily attract worshippers. These are hardly going to be productive members of a Thelemic order. Such people will spend much time proclaiming how they had some level of spiritual awareness bestowed upon them through such a ceremony. Perhaps it is useful to have such rituals to keep the masses happy, but I do not think that they contribute to the work at hand (Great Work, "Knowledge & Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel", whatever)." Stephen L***, 2 July 1998
44. "III-1 O.T.O. Man of Earth Rituals Rev. 4.2B, Fall IIIxxx", by Fr. H.K. Kapellmeister, OTO, New York 1990, 1
45. A key point in Crowley's collection of keywords seems to be that there is no need for salvation, at first sight. Deus Est Homo. God Is Man, quem creavit Elohim. This seems to be a gnostic expansion of the Psyche: those who are adoring become those who are adored
46. Reuss and other OTO-leaders, also William Breeze, head of the "Caliphate", consider only members from the VIIth degree upwards as "real OTO members". The VIIth degree is the border to sexmagick/spermo-gnosis. Order schematism in: P.R. Koenig: "Materialien zum OTO", ARW, Muenchen 1994, 22-23
47. There are OTO-groups without any masonic structure
48. For example, William Breeze, head of the "Caliphate" and self-proclaimed OHO (alleged world wide leader of the "true" OTO), has adopted the Xth-title "His Sacred Majesty"
49. "It means shifting the Centre of Gravity of the Human Race!", diary entry 6 August 1923
50. Although the gnostic Pleroma is called "Nuit" wherein/whereto the sperm returns as "Hadit"
51. Polarity of Chokmah (the illuminating intelligence) and Binah (the sanctifying intelligence)
52. Correspondence between the author and David Scriven, the representative of the chief of the "Caliphate" for the US, dated November 1996
53. Crowley: "I am the Beast ... I am Thelema", (diary entry 22 October 1920), "I need a rotten stage of things to work on", (diary entry 1 June 1920)
54. The "Caliphate", for instance, can be looked at as a bureaucratic firm which tries to maintain the copyrights of Aleister Crowley; or a mundane "club" without spirituality as it is described by one of its ex-leading member. A still leading member admits that True Gnosis cannot bestowed or conferred on a person by any person or organization (David Scriven, November 1996), see also the German foreword in my "Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica" (Muenchen 1998)
55. I do NOT speak about OTO-members here, but generally about abused women
56. The alleged "Caliphate"-examination paper for the IXth degree (see footnote 34) focus on the "physical condition" for sexmagick, which arises the question as to disabled persons as members of sexmagical organisations
57. Kenneth Grant: "Beyond the Mauve Zone", London 1999
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Re: Ordo Templi Orientis Spermo-Gnosis: Carl Kellner, Theodo

Postby admin » Thu Jan 11, 2018 2:57 am

Part 1 of 2

The Templar's Reich Milieu: The Slaves Shall Serve
by Peter-Robert Koenig
parareligion.ch
Accessed: 1/10/18

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Aleister Crowley could be regarded as a political opportunist chumming up with anyone anywhere, and running the business of his religion (Thelema) for his private amusement. However, the more he failed with his political ambitions and his utopian endeavours, the more he flaunted himself as the founder of a religion.

Crowley attracted fanatics from all walks of life. He was a prig (not only in respect of his political views), who had assembled a religion for self styled outsiders. One would be hard put to regard this religion as either philantropical or democratic. Thelema always aspires to turn into a state religion, nevermind of which state, i.e. its founder tried to ingratiate himself with his religion to anything state-like, no matter how totalitarian or radical it was. For him, the main issue was the presence of an anti-christian element. The amazing thing about those efforts is that Thelema and the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) did not want to substitute christianity but return it to its original condition. Thus Crowley wrote in 1944, entirely along Theodor Reuss’ lines that it was the task of the O.T.O "to restore Christianity to its real status as a solar-phallic religion".

Nevertheless one should not disregard the manifold clientele attracted by this topic. Neither should one make light of Crowley’s anti-semitism and other embarrassing traits in order to render him palatable for academia and the mainstream.

Regarding the Mass of the Phoenix, Liber Nu, Liber Had, Liber Astarte, Liber Thisharb, Liber VII, X, LVX, XC, CCXXXI: the O.T.O.'s "Journal of Thelemic Studies", 1;2, 2008, http://thelemicstudies.com/JoTS1–2.pdf, page 40: "The reason these aspects of Thelema are omitted indicates the actual problem with presenting Thelema as a religion and attempting to get Thelema sanctioned by the government or approved by the public: Thelema is ultimately in contrast to and transgressive of normative society. Thelema rejects the morals and values of normative society and acts to transgress and violate these norms. From the inclusion of intoxicants in ritual, to the positive view of sexuality, which frequently is seen as promoting promiscuity, to the pro–authoritarian and Nietzschian aspects of Thelema, normative society has much to reject in Thelema and conversely, Thelema encourages its adherents to reject most aspects of normative society."

This writer does not assert that Crowley, Thelema or the O.T.O are fascist or Nazi: Crowley also had connections to communist characters. His totalitarian streak could blend with the "right" or the "left," and both "right" and "left" if pursued to extremes verge into shades of the totalitarian. In this sense one can call him a fascist but one could equally call him a communist, and he was neither in the final analysis. However, it is obvious that some misanthropic elements can be found in the biography of Crowley, in the concept of Thelema and in the instructions for members of the O.T.O. and its environment. We will thus concentrate on the most evident examples and protagonists. And who else can be found in this milieu: the occult racists. And the rôle models.

A must for the interested reader is Marco Pasi "Aleister Crowley und die Versuchung der Politik" (Graz 2006). Original: "Aleister Crowley e la tentazione della politica" (Mailand 1999). This online article deliberatedly leaves out topics discussed in Pasis' work and is more an additional collection of documents than an in-depth discussion of the topic.

Read also Richard B. Spence: "Secret Agent 666" (WA 2008)

The political inclination of the Orders and their members

Occult organisations are frequently faced with the reproach of cherishing Right Wing extremist ideas; not least because of Aleister Crowley’s distinction between “ordinary” humans who are compared to dogs — and who serve — and a superior class of human gods, who rule the dogs [Liber AL].

Crowley's 1937 idea of the commercial utilization of the Swastika on porcelain cups and his suggestion to discuss Thelema “as the base for the Nazi new order” [diary entry dated 5th May 1936] indicate the assumption of a totalitarian conviction by Crowley.

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Rolf Steinberg: "Nazi-Kitsch", Darmstadt 1975

On the other hand, after the National Socialist seizure of power, more than two dozen Lodge-like organisations, including occult groups, were forbidden. The 1937 circulated decree of the SS Reichsführer was the political conclusion of Nazi propaganda against freemasons and similar organizations. The Gestapo was given the order to dissolve all forbidden groups which they had not already targeted.

List of the forbidden organizations according the ministeral decree dated 07 December 1936

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Transcript by Eugen Grosche

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Facsimile in "In Nomine Demiurgi Saturni", Munich 1998, 55ff.

Freimaurerlogen

o Symbolische Grossloge von Deutschland, nebst Tochterlogen
o Freimaurerbund zur Aufgehenden Sonne, Hamburg, nebst Tochterlogen
o Grossloge zur Sonne, Bayreuth, nebst Tochterlogen
o Grosse Freimaurerloge zur Eintracht, Darmstadt, nebst Tochterlogen
o Grosse Mutterloge des Eklektischen Freimaurerbundes, nebst Tochterlogen
o Grossloge von Hamburg, nebst Tochterlogen
o Deutsch Christlicher Orden Sachsen, Dresden, nebst Tochterlogen
o Deutsch Christlicher Orden deutscher Dom, Leipzig, nebst Tochterlogen
o Grosse Nationalmutterloge zu den 3 Weltkugeln, Berlin, nebst Tochterlogen
o Grossloge von Preussen, genannt zur Freundschaft, Berlin, nebst Tochterlogen

Freimaurerähnliche Organisationen

o Odd-Fellow-Orden
o Druiden-Orden
o Rechabiten-Orden [?]
o Grossloge "Le Droit Humain" (Co-Freimaurerei)
o Internationale Arbeiter-Freimaurerloge
o Arbeiter-Freimaurerbund
o Die Finniere am Offenen Tempel, Winkelloge in Leipzig
o Loge der Schaffenden "Colonis" e.V.
o Orden der Ritter vom Heiligen Gral, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main
o Anthroposophische Gesellschaft
o Mazdaznan-Bewegung
o Ebdar (Ermächtigte Bruderschaft der alten Riten), Orden vom Heiligen Gral im Orient von Patmos — Organisation Bo Yin Ra
o Orientalischer Templer-Orden (O.T.O.)
o Fraternitas Saturni (einschliesslich Esoterische Studiengesellschaft)
o Illuminaten-Orden (gegründet 1896)
o Orion-Bund (Adonistische Sekte Dr. Musallam Sättler)
o Rosenkreuzer-Gesellschaft in Deutschland
o Grals-Orden (*norusnin-Sekte) [Illegible. See scan below]
o Grossloge "Wahrer Weg", Hannover, und "Weg zum Licht", Magdeburg, Spiritistische Logen
o Summum Supremum Sanktuarium des Alten Schottischen Ritus der Freimaurerei in Deutschland
o Swedenborg-Ritus der Freimaurerei
o Orientalischer Templer Orden
o Hermetischer Orden der Goldenen Dämmerung
o Misraim-Ritus 90°
o Orientalischer Memphis-Ritus 97°
o Alter und angenommener Ritus von Heredom
o Hermetische Bruderschaft des Lichtes
o Fraternitas Rosae Crucis
o Neue Gnostische Kirche
o Neuer Illuminat
o Allgemeine Pansophische Schule
o Pansophische Societät

Korporative Zusammenschlüsse

o Verein Deutscher Freimaurer, Leipzig
o Freimaurerische Vereinigung "Rat und Tat" in Frankfurt a.M.
o Freimaurerische Jugendvereinigung "Gefolgschaft der Georgsknappen" in Dresden

Also

o Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft
o Paneuropäische Union Deutschland e.V.

On 28.6.37 added to this list

o Bund Deutsche Schlaraffia e.V.

Soon, the Atlantic Adepts (Master Therion) joined in.

The SS decree was probably the closing curtain in the German Masonic drama. Prior to this, the Lodges had been asked to dissolve themselves. Those who bucked were finally forbidden in 1937.

Eugen Grosche, founder of the Fraternitas Saturni, fled from the Nazis to Switzerland and Karl Germer, Crowley's best friend, landed in a concentration camp.

Karl Johannes Germer

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Facsimile in "Materialien zum O.T.O.", Munich 1994, 45

Should we interpret these events as an exoneration of occult Orders from the charge of fascism? Certainly, Karl Germer’s stay in a concentration camp is gladly used as a figleaf in order to meet reproaches of fascist tendencies in the O.T.O.

13. Februar 1935: "Sie haben durch die ständige Verbindung mit dem im Ausland lebenden Hochgradfreimaurer Crowley dessen staatsfeindlichen Umtriebe unterstützt und durch die Verbreitung seiner Lehre versucht, in Deutschland Anhänger für ihn zu werben."

"You have supported the subversive activities of freemason Crowley, now living abroad, by consistently keeping in contact; and by spreading his teachings you have tried to recruit disciples for him in Germany."


Germer believed that his arrest was to be seen in connection with articles in "Judenkenner" [“The Connoissseur of Jews”]. [see below].

However, the FBI documents on Germer report that he allegedly twaddled about the Master Race.

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FBI documents on Karl Germer — Master Race

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
SECRET
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
11/2/42
KARL JOHANNES GERMER
INTERNAL SECURITY - G
ALIEN [ILLEGIBLE]: CONTROL

SYNOPSIS OF FACTS: Informant advised that subject has stated he is of the opinion that HITLER is right in believing Germans are the "Master Race." Subject's conversation alleged to be violent Nazi propaganda and short wave radio found in apartment in previous search, and claimed to be property of wife, is believed to have been purchased by subject in name of wife. Subject believed to be receiving money from group in Los Angeles which he transmits to ALEISTER CROWLEY in London. CROWLEY and subject alleged to have been engaged in "Black Magic" in Italy and to have been ejected from that country. Assistant USA HAROLD F. McCA[ILLEGIBLE], SDYN, recommends issuance of Executive Subpoena.

Bureau file #100-65028; report of Special Agent [DELETE] dated April 16, 1942 at New York City.

On June 3, 1942 [DELETE] New York City, telephonically contacted Special Agent [DELETE], New York City, was in possession of certain information concerning subject.

[DELETE] on interview, advised that subject is about 65 years of age, well preserved, and often comes to the book shop to read or purchase the books of ALEISTER CROWLEY.

NY FILE 100-18329

He stated that since GERMER has been coming to the shop he has purchased the following books by that author:

"The Book of Lies"; a volume of the "Equinox"; "Magic in Theory and Practice"; and "Clouds Without Water".

[DELETE that he has often heard of ALEISTER CROWLEY's being consulted by HITLER concerning his "Black Magic" and he has often heard GERMER state that he, GERMER, is a believer of HITLER's ideology to the extent that he, too, believes that the Germans are a "Master Race." [DELETE] that GERMER has mentioned being in a concentration camp at one time and he has also mentioned the fact that all of his books were seized. GERMER stated [DELETE] that he has little money over here in the United States.

According [DELETE] GERMER, at one time, had entered into a very vigorous argument with [DELETE] concerning his "Master Race" theories [DELETE] in a subsequent interview, corroborated this statement but was unable to furnish any additional information concerning subject.

A review of the files of the New York Field Division revealed that an application for a Certificate of Identification as an alien enemy was filed by subject on February 13, 1942 and indicated that his Alien Registration number is 7584004. He revealed on this application that his present address is 1007 Lexington Avenue, New York City, and that his previous addresses were as follows:

Camp De Gurs, Gurs, Basses Pyrennes, France, and Camp Les Milles, C.D.E., France

He indicated that he is employed in the United States by himself as a machinery salesman. He further revealed that he was born on January 22, 1885. He claimed that he is presently stateless but was formerly a citizen of Germany and revealed that he has a sister, ELIZABETH GERMER, and a brother, OTTO GERMER, whose address is unknown to him, in the United States. He further revealed that he has three brothers

WILHELM GERMER
GUSTAV GERMER, and
ALFRED GERMER,

and a sister MARGARITE GERMER, who are presenting residing in Germany at an address unknown to him.

He applied for his first papers to obtain his United States citizenship in April, 1941, is married to an American and is therefore eligible for final papers in April, 1942. He stated that he has complied with all of the regulations required of enemy aliens.

In a supplementary statement he indicated that he is a German Refugee stating that when he was on a visit to Germany in 1935 he was arrested by the Gestapo and was in a Nazi Concentration Camp for seven months. He stated that he was forbidden to leave Germany after his release but escaped to Belgium in October, 1935 and resided there until the Nazi invasion on May 10, 1940 and from that time was in a French Concentration Camp until February 18, 1941.

On the application, he is described as follows:

Height: 5'9"
Weight: 150 pounds
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Grey
Complexion: Ruddy

The Bureau has forwarded to this office a copy of a letter dated [ILLEGIBLE] 1942 from [DELETE] which is quoted:

"Sirs:

[DELETE]. When the Nazis first came to power he was put into a concentration camp for translating into German the books of a notorious English author ALEISTER CROWLEY. He escaped to Belgium and later to France. Then through the efforts of his wife who is an American he was allowed into the United States.

I have felt worried because his conversation is violent Nazi propaganda. At once on his arrival he got a powerful short wave radio set and a large motor car, both put in his wife's name. It seems strange because they have no money and living in one roomed apartment, 1007 Lexington Avenue, N.Y.C. It has been so much in my mind that you might feel this case should be looked into. His wife is a very loyal American but quite in the power of her husband.


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Karl Germer

The fact that someone landed in a concentration camp does not necessarily free the person from a fascist world view. Many Ariosophs and rough anti-Semites were forbidden by the Nazis, such as Lanz of Liebenfels for example who affected Adolf Hitler with his writings. The Nazis considered the occult Orders too quixotic, too un-German. In 1933 Mathilde Ludendorff, a fervent defender of voelkisch Weltanschauung saw the O.T.O. as a breeding nest for "Irresein durch Occultlehren" (the odd German expression vaguely translates as "Psychoticness through Occult Teachings" in the sense of becoming psychotic doing occult practises. Which is b.t.w contrary to my own believe. See "Satan — Jünger, Jäger und Justiz").

Thelema

However, before we attach the labels “totalitarian” or “fascist” to Crowleyites we should outline the main features of the Thelemic worldview.

Many Thelemites consider themselves to be divine agents, acting from a “True Will” — while non-Thelemites are mere 'objects' — as indicated in Crowley's dictum, "the slaves shall serve." The “slaves who shall serve” are each and everyone who lives (according to the Thelemic worldview) in dependency: dependants/subordinates, addicts, weaklings — in other words: the enslaved ones. Similarly, Grosche spoke of "things, objects, material".

In occult terms the Thelemite is a dichotomist, seeing himself as a superior being or a 'chosen one', while everyone else is as nothing. This sort of Thelemite (certainly, there are exceptions to the rule) lives in a world ruled by good and evil; of course, as a superior being these Thelemites might reach a level that is above that (the “crossing of the Abyss”) — but nevertheless the world below the abyss is only black and white. Thelemites are trapped in such relationships; all are victims and culprits, masters and slaves, gods and sub-humans. And this is mirrored in their language when they describe their critics, ex-members, the (Christian) churches, the government, the administration or whomever they target.

This is contradictory to the self-portrayal of Thelema retailed to the public from which new members must be drawn.

Not only is the religious-philosophical ideology Thelema totalitarian, but also the emotional attitude, the value conceptions, the opinions about being chosen, the rôle identifications, the projected unfair fate of the Thelemites and the assumption of the justified predominance over non-Thelemites derived from all of these considerations. Viewed politically, this is expressed in all political orientations resulting from an anti-democratic perspective.

Aleister Crowley

Together with Crowley, Theodor Reuss, the founder of the O.T.O., published pro-German propaganda during the First World War. That fact is documented sufficiently.

In order to see the context of these politically-interested so-called Salon-Satanists, I recommend: Wilfried Kugel: “Der Unverbesserliche" [The Irresponsible One]. A remarkable biography on Hanns Heinz Ewers. According to Kugel, Ewers contacted the O.T.O. already in 1906. Kugel's book lightens up the background on many interesting details, e.g. regarding George Sylvester Viereck.

Crowley was so inspired by Ewers that he hoped for a translation of his Gnostic Mass into German by Ewers. Like Crowley, Ewers published pro-German propaganda in the magazine “The International”; Reuss subsequently translated a text of Crowley in his O.T.O. — Magazine. And in 1917, the Gnostic Mass.

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Facsimile in "Der Grosse Theodor Reuss Reader", Munich 1997, 210ff.

It's the same publisher that later distributed hate-pamphlets against the O.T.O. by Jean Paar.

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Das Gesicht Englands

Hanns Heinz Ewers

Ewers' occult novel “Vampir” is a treatise of blood lust, cutting open of chests and drinking blood. Such motifs are welcome themes for occultists. In addition, Ewers wrote film scripts for some of the most well-known films of Expressionism of the 20's, e.g. “Der Student von Prag" [A Student of Prague]. Ewers penned the novels “Alraune”, “Das Grauen”, "Die Besessenen" [The Possessed Ones], “Horst Wessel” (written on behalf of Hitler), "Nachtmahr", "Mein Begräbnis", "Vampir", "Zauberlehrling" and a plethora of illegible trash novels, works which fit well within the tradition of Crowley’s fiction and which anticipate Eugen Grosche's slippery occult novel "Exorial".

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Table of Contents of "The International", December 1917

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The personal and political development of Ewers is interesting: In 1931 he joined the NSDAP, was black-balled by the Nazis in 1934 and subsequently supported and pursued Jewish friends. Shortly before his death in 1943 he made it possible for his half-Jewish wife to escape to Czechoslovakia.

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Hanns Heinz Ewers Horst Wessel Ein deutsches Schicksal Cotta'sche Buchhandlung Stuttgart und Berlin 1932

The Third Reich

Aleister Crowley tried, during the Second World War to ingratiate himself with the British Secret Service as an expert in astrology and occultism, and to offer his help in cross-examining Rudolf Hess. A copy of his letter exists to this day. Crowley personally knew Ian Fleming of the “Naval Intelligence” (the writer of the James Bond novels). Fleming was however neither in the MI5 nor in the MI6, those responsible for the capture of Hess. The head of MI5 was Sir David Petrie, the head of MI6, Stewart Menzies.

Since Crowley knew Fleming personally, he tried through Fleming rather than by Petrie to meet Hess.

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Rudolf Hess arrived in Scotland on May 10th, 1941, reported in the popular press by May 13th. Aleister Crowley to Ian Fleming, May 14 [1941?]

Hess was arrested in Ham Common. After being questioned for three weeks by the authorities in the Tower of London, Hess was transferred and spent the remainder of the war in Wales and Gloucestershire. Ham Common is between Richmond and Kingston, in the southwest of London and southwest from Richmond Park. Here Crowley allegedly met Rudolf Hess. The source of the allegation is a contemporary guard; any other confirming sources so far are unknown.

On the background of the Hess-Crowley connection see also Marco Pasi and Richard B. Spence: "Secret Agent 666" (WA 2008)

Crowley marked page after page of Hermann Rauschning's “Hitler Speaks” [this book of 1939 was an Allied propaganda fraud but it fooled a lot of people, apparently Crowley included] with his own comments, “proving” to himself that Hitler had copied "Mein Kampf" from Crowley's own “Book of the Law,” Liber AL.

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He almost certainly got the [Swastika] from us. I personally had suggested it to Ludendorff in '25 or '26 [...]

Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff (1865-1937) briefly supported Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. At the time when Crowley allegedly contacted him, Ludendorff was representative of the NSFB (a coalition of the German Völkisch Freedom Party and members of the Nazi Party). Ludendorff concluded that the world's problems were the result of Christians, Jews, and Freemasons.

In his diaries, Crowley noted his dreams of Hitler. On February 4, 1938 he dreamed “about Hitler & cigars & Magick & my horse Sultan. I was running Germany for him”, because “Fascism must always fail because it creates the discontent which it is designed to suppress.” On 2.6.1939 Crowley dreamed again that “I had several long talks with Hitler. A very tall man. Forgot subject, but he was pleased & impressed: ordered all my books translated & made official in Germany". Diary entry of October 17, 1939: “Hitler reported dead from a surfeit of raspberries”. On January 24, 1940 Crowley dreamed of Hitler and “Phallic geometric pictures, Satanic parodies of diagrams” etc. On July 29, 1943 Crowley went to the cinema: “Saw show of cartoons lampooning Mein Kampf, with appropriate quotations. Taken in these selected doses, what a masterpiece! And how patent & profound a debt he owes AL!” After the war Crowley had other thoughts: “Himmler, the Schweinhund [sic] & worse who put Karl Germer in Concentration Camps — chiefly because he was my friend! — killed himself after capture.” (May 23, 1945).

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"The Medusa's Head", John Symonds' novel about an alleged meeting between Hitler and Crowley, Thame, England, 1991. 350 numbered copies only.

Democracy

In 1922, Crowley hoped that Israel had to be subjected completely to the Law of Thelema, because he, Crowley the Anti-Christ, nevertheless was the Messiah for which the Jews waited. How does this daydream fit into Crowley's alleged fascist Weltanschauung?

Crowley appears to have been a political opportunist, a hypocrite whose chief principle was self-interest. His main political statement can be picked out from his diary entry of May 29, 1923: "I'm certainly not an anarchist, for the family is the smallest and vilest unit of government: nor a Socialist, for the State is the largest and so the least human unit. I suppose then, that — with Ethyl as without — I want a Patriarchal-Feudal system run by initiated Kings."

In his publications one reads: "This is the central doctrine of Thelema in this matter. What are we to understand by it? That this imbecile and nauseating cult of weakness — democracy some call it — is utterly false and vile." [ Magick Without Tears, Chapter 46]

"The principle of popular election is a fatal folly; its results are visible in every so-called democracy. The elected man is always the mediocrity; he is the safe man, the sound man, the man who displeases the majority less than any other; and therefore never the genius, the man of progress and illumination." [O.T.O. An Intimation with Reference to the Constitution of the Order]

"Confessions of Aleister Crowley" chapter 87: "But so far as I understand it at all, it seems as if my work were to construct a model of a new civilization to replace that which we see before our eyes reeling towards catastrophe.... I will only say that my main idea had been to found a community on the principles of The Book of the Law, to form an archetype of a new society. The main ethical principle is that each human being has his own definite object in life. He has every right to fulfil this purpose, and none to do anything else. It is the business of thecommunity to help each of its members to achieve this aim; in consequence all rules should be made, and all questions of policy decided, by the application of this principle to the circumstances... [...] I have attained to understanding, I have made my magical model of society, and I await the moment when those who have chosen me to carry out their colossal conception summon me to stand forth before the world and execute their purpose. At this point, then, I leave my memoirs. My individual life is ended forever. It was always a mere means of bringing The Book of the Law to mankind."

"The ultimate aim is to have quite populous Abbeys, with every type of talent represented, so that there will be a body of capable and intelligent people to rule the herd, and save the useful elements in our past civilization from being swamped by it." [Crowley to Frieda Harris, 1941, quoted in Samuel Weiser Catalogue August 2007.]

Anti-Semitism and Religious Intolerance

Crowley's diaries are full of anti-Semitic and intolerant outbursts. It is pointless to list all of them here: there are too many. By way of example, we will quote a few: "stupid Jewish tart", "cheap frivolous Jew — very low class", "very Jewish & vampirish", "Send us a Hitler!"

His diaries display these outbursts: "He now cheats me just a little on each payment, like a Jew clipping coin."

"I told him he was like an old Jew clipping coin. Foul swine!" "The great psychological Mystery is how any one can believe in Xianity who has ever seen a Jew." "Bill & I bust up the whole cafe, over a Jew who would wear his hat. I disliked the shape." "Yorke rang up: must get #500 from Jews (Bar the Jews!)." "Simon – –a very lousy Jew." "Astrological note. People with Aries rising – –very aggressive – –get stolid & fat as Taurus comes up. Ex: Lady Owen. Also, generally, Jews." "Played very good chess v. Lommer & the spectacled Jew" "Saw delightful Jewess Ass enough to ask Aldo Philipson to lunch. An imbecile renegade Jew—'Catholic.' Really bestial. I stood him for 3 1/2 hours!!! and then he wanted to measure the carpets! Where was 'faith' then?" "trouble with Refujews." "All quiet, bar old Martha fining(?) the Refujewess." "Talk with wide –awake Jewesses & Karen." "Spasms after lunch: I called for help. Jews, hearing, rang up police to complain!!!" "Baddish night, with overhead Jews raising hell all the time" "a symbol to bring victory (Pentagram spoilt by Jew –Bolshie assn. in minds of idiots)" "my idea to seek it in Jews shops. Gamage, in particular. (Gamage a Jew?" "Note that the Refusal to count money is the complete upset of the base of old –Aeon ideas of Equity. It is the Nay saying to the spirit of the Jew, which has rotted the soul of mankind. No more let the heroic man, who has risked his life daily & lost a limb or two, starve on the doorsteps of the coward he had protected!" "Got off with Persian Jewess(?) whom I marked down some days ago. Message: 51. Kan. Found good room at Zetland House & took it. Later (of course) the hag sent round to cancel it! Jewess, very sly, came room –hunting" "Diana Parker (a Rumanian Jewess) in tub(?) with grandchild of hag" "here is a very stupid Jewish tart" "Alice to tea. Ham likes her, has never seen a more obvious jewess" "Ham brought Liversidge who appears a cheap frivolous Jew – very low class Nail up Jew hogs." "Miserable letter from Frieda. By arrogance, and domineering, and bullying her supposed inferiors, she does not compensate for her cringing fear of the foul Jew she married" "'Laides in Retirement' at regal, pretentious vulgar house, reminding one of those ghastly 'province' joints in Berlin. The German jew in heaven!" "Lady Waldie –Griffith. Me half dead. All talk anti –Jewish." "Christ Child rang up, got Pam & me to Hatchett's & ne Berens (Late Behrens – how deep a disguise!) Bloody row about jews –B felt the pressure. Pam here – Louis dropped in – so I got neither properly! Went to join the Christ Child at Hatchett's. he had a horrible Jew racketeer with him" "Royal Colonel (a German Jewish wench!) salutes Guards" "'To hell with Huns & Jews!' you sing?/ Come, come now, think it over!/ All honour to our noble King,/ And General Eisenhower!" "Long letter from JWP 5 FH in form. TB came for her; very Jewish & vampirish. Has been lying to me: I wonder if her stole Eq III 2." "The swine 'Michael Juste' won't pay oh God! Send us a Hitler! The foul Jew in the hotel has almost destroyed it in 3 days" "David Curwen 136 Mary'B Rd low Jew pal of Mike." "Sat o Brains Trust with two quite intelligent jews, and a garrulous female who gibbered."

This raises the question of the context of the quotations. And what about the interpretation of these quotations? How many contexts of a quotation are needed in order to "understand" the quotation?

Crowley's books are full of anti-Semitic stereotypes. In the context of Thelema, however, only those are decisive which exist in connection with the interpretation of his Liber AL. Crowley forbade explicitly discussing Liber AL:

"Those who discuss the contents of this Book are to be shunned by all, as centres of pestilence. All questions of the Law are to be decided only by appeal to my writings, each for himself."


Therefore all Thelemites are forced to fall back on Crowley's own interpretations. Crowley’s new commentary on Liber AL describes the “heathen” (that is, the non-Thelemites) in these terms: "Christians and other troglodytes — but most especially the parasites of man, the Jews" [III;11]. In another place, Crowley interprets the bloody, war-mongering language of his Liber AL, Bible of the Thelemites, to be applied literally: “especially Jews and Protestant Christians” are like “vernim” which should be exterminated [III;18].

In the “secret” instruction to the VIII° of the O.T.O., Crowley perpetuates another well-known anti-Semitic stereotype: He describes Jews who slaughter the children of non-Jews for their Passover Meals, in order to consume or use the blood for talismanic or sacramental purposes. His language betrays no hint of irony, but conveys serious instruction: “Consider this”. From Crowley’s standpoint, however, someone who is annoyed by these accusations (and other, similar libels, which are contained in the VIII° instruction) and considers them as “monstrous and extravagant,” merely exhibits a “defect.” In other words, the fault can never be the prophet Crowley’s, but must always lie in the reader's own intuition and apprehension. Crowley's modern followers share this opinion.

These accusations and interpretations are not the statements of a low-calibre Thelemite but proceed from the inventor, the founder of Thelema, the “prophet of the new Aeon.” Crowley in his diary entry 22nd October 1920: "I am the Beast [...] I am Thelema" and on 27th May 1917: "I myself AIWAZ have been considering all the time how to act as to Crowley's body and mind." On 14th June 1917: "I am getting quite to the point of habitual recognition of myself as AIWAZ."

There are some countries, in which racist statements are illegal and would result in jail time for those who would publish them anew.

There are modern followers of Crowley who do not share his idisyncratic antisemitic views. That there are more than a few members of the 'Caliphate' or of other O.T.O.-versions who are of Jewish origin.

In Wiliam Breeze’s censored version of the 'Caliphate' the passages displaying the above mentioned anti-semitic leanings are missing. "The Law is for All: The Authorized Popular Commentary on Liber AL vel Legis sub figura CCXX The Book of the Law" Edited by Louis Wilkinson and Hymenaeus Beta. New Falcon Publications, Arizona 1996. But the O.T.O. seems to be contaminated. You can fish a turd out of a water tank, but anyone who knows the turd was there won't drink from it.

Said 'Caliphate', the globally most widespread O.T.O. distributes self-portraits of their founder “suitable for worship”. [The Magical Link #2, Fairfax 1998, 10]

Can a uniform political direction be noticed in the O.T.O?

Of course, O.T.O. -members are more or less politically orientated. The O.T.O per se gives itself unpolitically, although its statutes look differently.

"Members of the Order are to regard those without its pale as possessing no rights of any kind, since they have not accepted the Law, and are therefore, as it were, troglodytes, survivals of a past civilisation, and to be treated accordingly. Kindness should be shown towards them, as towards any other animal, and every effort should be made to bring them into Freedom." (Liber CI, 28).

Current O.T.O.-politics states in 1999 that "OTO does not now encourage its members to treat those outside the Order as inferiors who possess no rights." http://lib.oto-usa.org/sabazius/essays/memo0101.html

But I heard that this is only the "official version" while behind the curtain there are members sticking close to Crowley's rule.

In an approach of excessive self over-estimation Crowley saw his religion as state-controlling:

“It is intended that the lay power of the state is brought into the law [of Thelema]” (Liber CI, 40).

The O.T.O. and Thelema alike seem to be anti-social and anti-democratic.

Similarly Guido Wolther already argued in connection with his sexmagick in the Fraternitas Saturni, in an odd wording: “The Penis of a non-member never insert into your vagina. Penis and seed of a layman go through the mouth [...] Do not have consideration for the laymen — throw him away like an old glove — if he has nothing more to give away "

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Facsimile in "In Nomine Demiurgi Nosferati", München 1999, page 111

The same Guido Wolther, formerly Grandmaster of the Fraternitas Saturni in 1966: “My wife is by the way Jewess and of French origin and in her youth suffered terrible experiences — just imagine, what a shock it was for her, when one of the brothers of the lodge 'confessed' having killed as a SS-man many immates of a woman camp? As a high degree she was commited to listen to — and eventually to be silent and forget and then forgive. Oh God! I could not do that!”

Facsimile in "In Nomine Demiurgi Nosferati", Munich 1999, page 175

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In the writings of the O.T.O one always meets problematic paragraphs. One encounters here socially no longer acceptable Sex utopias, like Reuss' desire already quoted to have so-called doctor-priests teach even the youngest children the conception that the sex organs are something holy and the sex act is the bridge, which connects men with God. Reuss' O.T.O. — Children should learn the secrets of the sex act from doctor-priests, until they are married.

Read The Programme of Construction and the Guiding Principles of the Gnostic Neo-Christians O.T.O. published in 1920.

Crowley added in his ”New Comment to Liber AL“ (quasi the word of the prophet): »Moreover, the Beast 666 [= Crowley] adviseth that all children shall be accustomed from infancy to witness every type of sexual act, as also the process of birth«.

How is an adelescent child to know that problematic paragraphs in the holy work of the holy father are not to be taken literally? Especially in view of surely hardly understandable passages in Crowley's Charter of Human Rights: »Man has the right to kill those who would thwart these rights«, »The slaves shall serve.« Don't forget that Crowley forbade explicitly discussing Liber AL.

The 'Caliphate' departs not far from Reuss and Crowley in its defaults for child education. In the order magazin ”Magickal Link“I; 12, Berkeley December 1981, it was officially published that children and parents are on an equal footing, so that the children's true will is not suppressed. That contradicts other high degree members, when they mean, children could not not be initiated because they lack the experience of growing up, that is missing their entire childhood.

However, only the 'Caliphate' clasps itself at Crowley's word. Neither the Typhonian O.T.O., nor the Swiss O.T.O celebrate sexual masses. The Swiss O.T.O dissociated itself even from sexmagick and Crowley.

Martha Küntzel and Friedrich / Frederic Lekve

Martha Küntzel, who lived in Leipzig, translated three volumes of Crowley's writings and Liber AL in the 1920s. Küntzel saw in Adolf Hitler her magical son. Earlier, she had proclaimed Crowley the World Messiah. However, Küntzel’s fanatical devotion to Hitler was too much for Crowley. Eventually, she found a Thelemic follower in Friedrich / FredericLekve, who later became Mayor of Hildesheim, Germany. Lekve wanted to use the swastika as the “Sign of German Thelema.”

Friedrich (Frederic) Lekve to Crowley, 28. April 1935. Facsimile in "Materialien zum O.T.O.", Munich 1994, 102ff.

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"You suggest to use your coloured design of the Hakenkreuz as decoration for flags, porcelain, toys etc. and to make an arrangement with some firm which manufactures such articles to buy the rights. I am very sorry that I must inform you, that this way cannot be executed for the reason of the German law, which does not allow to use the Hakenkreuz being a sign of national highness in any form for decoration purposes.

But perhaps this design can become one day the sign of the German Thelema."


Lekve was responsible for the survival of Thelema in the German-speaking countries after WWII. He considered himself to be Crowley's personal representative.

Crowley seems to have rehabilitated Martha Küntzel. The preface to his Tarot book from 1944 was allegedly written by Martha Küntzel. However, this attribution is false: Crowley wrote it himself.

Details to Martha Küntzel in Marco Pasi "Aleister Crowley und die Versuchung der Politik", Graz 2006.

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Correspondence of Küntzel with some O.T.O.-protagonists in "Noch mehr Materialien zum O.T.O.", Munich 2000

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An excerpt from Francis King: "Satan and Swastika. The Occult and the Nazi Party", Herts 1976, 142.

"It would be exciting indeed if Martha Kuntzel had been the originator of this excellent advice! Alas, however, the whole idea of Hitler being her 'magical child' would seem to have been exploded by the lady herself:

... pure spirits. Do not allow yourself to be led away from your true path by earthbound spirits, which will rob you of your creative power.


It would be exciting indeed if Marthe Kuntzel had been the originator of this excellent advice! Alas, however, the whole idea of Hitler being her "magical child" would seem to have been exploded by the lady herself:

You are perfectly right [she wrote to Crowley shortly before the outbreak of the war of 1939-45] when you say I can't think politically. I never cared for politics except during the War [of 1914-18] and then since the time of Hitler's rising, though late enough, as it was when I began to see that Hindenburg was too old to give the help of the Reich the necessary turn. And then it began to dawn upon me how much of Hitler's thoughts were as if they had been taken from the Law of Thelema. I became his fervent admirer, and am so now, and will be to my end. I have ever so often owned to his firm conviction that the close identity of Hitler's ideas with what the Book teaches endowed me with the strength necessary for years ago . . . But Germer's letter amused me greatly. Isn't it a lark to hear him bring forth his 'theory' about Hitler's 'magic birth'!


Thus Crowley's supposed influence on Adolf Hitler, belief in which is still surprisingly widespread in certain occult circles, shrinks, it would seem, to nothing more than the fact that Martha Kuntzel was a Nazi!" And yet the parallels between Crowley's Book of the Law and Hitler's opinions as expressed in his conversations with Rauschning are both striking and significant. Their significance arises, not out of any influence exerted upon Hitler by Crowley and his teachings, but out of the fact that both men were drawing, firstly, upon the darker side of the occult and mystical tradition and, second and in many ways more important, upon the daemonic emotional forces which have taken refuge in the darkness of the Unconscious during the high-noon of European rationalism.


2003 Martha Künzel’s translation of Crowley’s “Liber Aleph” was published in Germany by the “Caliphate”. Previously Marcus Jungkurth’s earlier translation of 1986 (published by Michael D. Eschner) was in circuit.

Arnoldo Krumm-Heller

Another friend of Reuss and Crowley was the adventurer Arnoldo- Krumm Heller, whose life this writer covered at length in an earlier work, "Ein Leben für die Rose" (“A Life for the Rose”). He was a convinced Hitler fanatic and anti-American. Krumm-Heller’s articles on these topics are now available on-line. [link below]

Krumm-Heller published his fascist blatherings in his own order’s magazines, proof of how he mixed his politics with religion.

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Details: Dance the Adolf Hitler

In the midst of Berlin, allegedly the Nazi flag fluttered from the gable of the building which also was advertised as a temple for the Argenteum Astrum.

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A photograph of his house; published by Krumm-Heller himself in his magazine "Rosa-Cruz", 27. November 1932, Berlin-Heiligensee 1932, 56. El Sumo Supremo Santuario de la Fraternitad Rosa-Cruz y de la Santa Iglesia Gnóstica de Berlin-Heiligensee.

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Complete text in "Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica"

In 1937, Krumm-Heller sent one of his sons to the NAPOLA or National Political School, which trained the future leaders of the Reich. He admired Mussolini and Kemal Atatürk and worked together with Ernst Issberner-Haldane on esoteric ideas of Plasmogeny and the origin of life. Issberner-Haldane published in the same publishing house like Eugen Grosche: Verlag der Freude, in Wolfenbüttel. [About the connection between Krumm-Heller, Aleister Crowley, Karl Germer... soon on this website]

Nevertheless, Krumm-Heller'a library was confiscated in 1942 by the Nazis. Here he was in good company of other occultists: Heinrich Tränker who considered himself as head of many organizations, also of the O.T.O. after Reuss' death in 1923, and Julius Meyer of the Illuminaten-Orden of Theodor Reuss and Leopold Engel suffered the same fate.

Issberner-Haldane, member of Lanz von Liebenfels' Ordo Novi Templi (O.N.T.), was published after the Second World War in the same esoteric magazine which featured Hermann Joseph Metzger, chief of the Swiss O.T.O.: the Arve.

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Zürich 1948. Here Issberner-Haldane.

Peter Mano is Hermann Joseph Metzger. Other writers of the 'Arve': Manfred Kyber, Hans Sterneder, G.W. Surya, Herbert Fritsche (who considered himself to be the successor to Arnoldo Krumm-Heller's Gnostic Church), Theodor Czepl (successor of Liebenfels and active in Walter Englert's Order of Illuminati in Frankfurt/Germany in the 1960s) ...
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Part 2 of 2

Hermann Joseph Metzger

H.J. Metzger Outer Head of the Swiss O.T.O. lauded Lanz von Liebenfels enthusiastically, not only in his O.T.O. magazine, but even at the latter’s funeral.

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E.O.L. Mitteilungsblatt No. 1, June 1954, Zürich 1954, page 6

"Ein Fest für das Feuer, ein Fest für das Wasser, ein Fest für das Leben, ein grösseres Fest für den Tod."

Liber Al II.41

Ein leuchtendes Beispiel ungebeugten Bekennertums und höchster Tugend

Dr. Georg Lanz von Liebenfels

hat am 22. April 1954, um 3 Uhr morgens, in vollem Frieden die Gewänder gewechselt.
Alle die ihn kannten werden ihm ein ehrendes Andenken bewahren.

Seine sterbliche Hülle wurde im Familiengrab des Penzinger Friedhofes, Wien XIV., am 28. d.M. beigesetzt.

V.I.T.R.I.O.L.U.M.


[Translation]

AL II,41: "A feast for fire and a feast for water; a feast for life and a greater feast for death!"

Dr. Georg Lanz von Liebenfels

a shining example of steadfast profession of commitment and highest virtue, has peacefully changed his earthly garb.

All of those who knew him honour his memory.

His mortal shell was laid to rest in the family grave in the Penzinger cemetery, Vienna XIV, April 28.

V.I.T.R.I.O.L.U.M.


On December 22, H.J. Metzger announced his interest in incorporating Liebenfels into his planned compilation of orders to Grosche: ”however one should try to win over the last Gr.M of the Templars, Hans [sic] von Liebenfels [...]

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Grosche’s reaction on December 29 was hesitant: "You will not have much luck with Liebenfels, he is too biased in his engagement with all things Aryan — I know all of his writings."

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Lanz von Liebenfels had written a tome of material e.g. the “Theozoologie,” (1906) and the "Anthropozoon Biblicum" (1903-1904) in which he sketched the picture of a new human race, led by Ariosophical elites — mystically trained Patricians and leaders of a secret society which stands at the peak of all peoples and races. Liebenfels envisioned a fight between Good and Evil in which the Aryan Asen wages a ”Holy War”against sub-humans, the so-called Äfflinge [apelings] and other racially inferior creatures, in order to destroy them. The rescuer of the Asen is none other than Frauja, gothic for Christ..

More below.

Felix Lazerus Pinkus

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Felix Lazerus Pinkus

Interestingly enough, Metzger in his youth was a communist. Probably this early inclination stemmed from his spiritual father figure, Felix Lazerus Pinkus, the X° for Switzerland in the 1940s. Pinkus attained a doctorate with his dissertation on "Die moderne Judenfrage" [the modern Jewish question]. He belonged to the Allgemeine Zionistenverband (Universal Zionist Association). In 1907 he worked in the city theatre Lindau as a Dramaturg. In 1908 he and his wife Elsbeth Flatau together accepted joint positions at the folk theatre in Zurich and immediately he became a teacher at the private High School Minerva. In 1910, Pinkus became editor of the Swiss “Magazine for Youth Education.” From 1914-18 Pinkus was editor of the trade journal “Economist” and president of the Zionistenbund (Zionist Association) in Zurich. In 1918 he wrote the brochure “On the Establishment of the Jewish State” and suffered a financial descent into bankruptcy. Thereupon Pinkus was arrested in Vienna and had to flee from the authorities of Zurich. He set off for Albania. In 1931 the family met again in Berlin. Pinkus became an expert on economics and politics in the commercial representation of the Soviet Union. Distinguishing themselves by their own initiative from the Jewish middle class of Prussia, he and his wife led a complex household in their Zurich mansion “ Krystall” and attempted to connect a banker's lifestyle with the lifestyle of a liberal-social-idealistic world view, in which no cultural temptations were omitted. In addition he was active in the Loge (Lodge) B’nai B’rith, occasional journalist for the Völkerbund, and a translator of English.

Krumm-Heller and the “Caliphate”

In 2005, the Australian branch of the 'Caliphate' published under the O.T.O. logo a booklet of Krumm-Heller in an English translation, accompanied by a white-washed preface which conveniently omitted any mention of Krumm-Heller's political activities. The swastika was absent. Anti-Semitic expressions were censored. Pro-Hitler statements were expunged. His racist opinions disappeared down the memory hole.

Without mentioning Krumm-Heller’s name, I asked a high degree member of the 'Caliphate's inner circle (whom I will refer to as “X”),: what is X's opinion regarding the publication of the book of a racist by the O.T.O.? The first thing X wanted to know was whether the book was by Reuss or Crowley. It seemed that X was accustomed to such associations with these two. Granted, Reuss and Crowley were not as overtly zealous about racial notions as Krumm-Heller — that is, if one overlooks the fact that Reuss wanted marriage and reproduction to be regulated by the O.T.O. Reuss wrote:

"Every man, woman, boy and girl over 14 will be regularly examined by the medical delegates of the Supreme People's health board. Persons (male or female) who have not been found capable by the Supreme medical board of producing healthy children will not be allowed to marry. People who produce children despite this decree, will be punished by public forced labour."

-- Theodor Reuss Parsifal und das enthüllte Grals-Geheimnis


Parts of Reuss' O.T.O.-Utopia remind me of the ideas of Lanz von Liebenfels (see "Theozoloogie", pages 148ff .]

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Lanz von Liebenfels — Theozoloogie

The then Zeitgeist: Arnoldo Krumm-Heller’s novels „Hertha“ and „Alfredo“ are harangues against prostitution, fashion, masturbation and any other poisoning of the modern world. Matrimony alone saves the “natural woman”.

You will find excerpts of Krumm-Heller’s novels in "Ein Leben für die Rose".

After I had revealed the name Krumm-Heller to this high degree member, who is a driving force in the 'Caliphate', “X” refused to deal with the matter.

The Nazis and Occultism

For quite some time much sensational literature has drawn attention to the intertwining of National Socialism and occultism. In a few cases, truly outstanding studies have been written which separate fact from fiction. For example, Ellic Howe cleared up the rumors about Hitler's alleged devotion to astrology. One might also read Manfred Ach/Clemens Pentrop, “Hitler's 'Religion'”. Certainly every interested reader should consult Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke’s "The Occult Roots of Nazism". Goodrick-Clarke’s work is the definitive study of Ariosophy. To summarize briefly, there is much legend surrounding the question of the influence of occultism on National Socialism. Heinrich Himmler's esoteric inclinations were probably far smaller than they have been painted by some. Rudolf Hess, the other alleged occultist among the Nazis, most probably only had a private interest in occultism and was without any influence in politics. A complete absence of evidence also undermines the conspiracy theory which holds that the Allies in the Nürnberg War Crime Trials consciously suppressed documents on the occult influence of the Nazi leaders.

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Wewelsburg

The Nazis permeated politics and religion in their very own manner.

One fact is completely undeniable: Mathilde Ludendorff, the völkisch ideologist, clearly expressed her opposition to the O.T.O. in 1933.

Ariosophy

Some current occultists evince a clear interest in the old Ariosophic literature.

To give one example: in the mid-1980s, Dieter Heikaus of the Ordo Saturni advertised his order/lodge with a “special department for Ariosophy” in the "Spiritual Adressbuch" [Spiritual Addressbook]. He revealed to me personally that he had been a guest in the house of Rudolf Mund, writer of “Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels und der Neue Templer Orden" [Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels and the new Templar Order]. Mund was the successor of Liebenfels' O.N.T. and also visited the Swiss O.T.O..

The Gnosis of Lanz von Liebenfels

Although it has evidently nothing in common with Thelema and O.T.O., a short digression into Liebenfels’ Gnose suggests itself.

According to Liebenfels, in earlier times, the gods lived on the earth. These gods were equipped with a third eye which possessed the power to convert matter. These gods were divided into two groups: white and black magicians. The white-magic gods bred a pure human race from which the Aryans developed, while the black-magic gods copulated with animals, from which the “sub-races” (i.e., races inferior to the Aryans) arose.

Some parts in Liebenfels' "Theozoologie" read like the script to an undiscovered sequel to the motion picture series, "Planet of Apes."

1934 the reading list for Liebenfels’ followers encompassed — besides a lot of others — the following authors well known within the occult context: Leopold Engel (co-founder of the Illuminaten Orden of Reuss), Franz Hartmann (alleged co-founder of the O.T.O. , although facts tell a different story), Papus (= Gérard Encausse), the latter at least in direct connection with the O.T.O., furthermore E.T. Kurtzahn (a Gnostic in Theodor Reuss’ surroundings), H.P Blavatsky as well as Arnoldo Krumm-Heller’s favourite book: Pistis Sophia (from "Praktische Einführung in die arisch-christliche Mystik. VI. Teil: Praxis, Geschichte und Literatur der Mystik" [“Practical Introduction into Aryan-Christian Mysticism. VI. Practice, History and Literature of Mysticism”]). Interestingly all these names — except for Kurtzahn and Papus — are missing from the list of the "Ariosophischen Literaturverzeichnis" [“Ariosophic Literary Index”], published two years previously. Instead, Eliphas Levi and E.C.H. Peithmann (part of the O.T.O and Gnostic Church surroundings) are listed. [“Bibliomystikon, 4. Volume, 1. Part, Untertullnerbach 1932]. Liebenfels reviews Dion Fortunes’ novel "Liebe aus dem Jenseits" [The Demon Lover] in one of the issues of "Ostara" ("Lesebücherei der Blonden") ["Library for the Blondes"] (Nr. 12, Vienna 1929, 20). In other issues Franz Hartmann is recommended (13, 1918; 79, 1915; 86, 1916) as well as E.C.H. Peithmann (13/14, 1930), Karl Prandler-Pracht (a friend of Krumm-Heller’s; number 26, 1917; 45, 1911; 79, 1915; Prandler-Pracht's “Calendars for Occultists" (in 82, 1915) and Peryt Shou (a common acquaintance of Crowley and Krumm-Heller; 77, 1914)

The fact that Liebenfels recommended a few O.T.O./thelemic protagonists does not indicate that his fellow feelings were reciprocated.

The enourmous listings of literature, quotes and footnotes in Liebenfels’ works seem to point out his familiarity with the occult literature of his time. He also campaigned against a libertine interpretation of the “classical” Gnose.

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Scan from 'Neue Metaphysische Rundschau', XVII, Heft 1, Berlin 1909, "Das Kabirengeheimnis", p 12-13

It is hardly surprising that these occult ideas were even too much for the Nazis.

Allegedly a prohibition to write was issued against Liebenfels and in 1938 the "Lumen Club" associated with his O.N.T. was even banned. Issberner-Haldane was also banned. The antipathy seems to have been mutual: apparently Liebenfels, too, had spoken out against National Socialism. [Wilfried Daim: "Der Mann, der Hitler die Ideen gab", 2. Edition Vienna 1985, 181]

All in all Liebenfels, his writings and his order remained without influence upon the times of the Nazis.

Paranoia

"Der Judenkenner" named several prominent occultists — Theodor Reuss, Aleister Crowley, Arnoldo Krumm-Heller, Rudolf Steiner, Ordo Templi Orientis — and denounced them in a Jew-baiting manner.

Facsimiles in "Der Grosse Theodor Reuss Reader", Munich 1997, p 340ff.

A quotation from Der O.T.O. Phaenomen RELOAD, Munich 2011, part I, page 52: "If the editor of Judenkenner was Ulrich Fleischauer (and this is by no means certain), he was in regular contact with Mgr Jouin of Révue Internationale des Sociétés Secrètes, and Hamilton Beamish of The Patriot in England. All these journals were preoccupied to some extent with this topic. Judenkenner published every week for almost two years during 1935-1936. Heydrich ordered the Security Service (SD), and the Secret Police (Gestapo) to seize documents from, and suppress, occult organisations on 20th July 1937, and the freemasonic lodges on 23rd April 1938. Whilst I am sure the SD and Gestapo did acquire juicy documents before these dates, I question whether they really acquired the most interesting information until after the suppression dates. For this reason, Ulrich Fleischauer's vast sources for Judenkenner remain a mystery, as does the nature of Heydrich's and Dr Francis Six's relationship with Fleischauer. Fleischauer later worked for Alfred Rosenberg, after Heydrich closed down Judenkenner in late 1936 (reason unknown)." [Paul Sturges]

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Karl Germer on the harangues in "Der Judenkenner": "In the case of [Heinrich / Henry] Birven I know that he has a tremendous literature of the background of O.T.O. etc. and was in touch with the French leading circles. He was called to the Gestapo to testify or for questioning, but I am sure not seriously molested. He [Birven] and [Heinrich] Tränker threw it all on me, the wicked Germer. B. may, to save his skin, have supplied the Gestapo with additional information, not usually found in literature."

So Germer believed to have found the scapegoats for his consignment to a concentration camp: Birven and Tränker. [see above].

Samples for right wing O.T.O. and “paranoia” literature of that time.

Literature about the Paranoia global conspiracy theories: Helmut Reinalter (Hrsg.): "Verschwörungstheorien. Theorie — Geschichte — Wirkung", Innsbruck 2002

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Facsimiles from "Feldzug gegen Rudolf Steiner", Flensburger Hefte 63, Flensburg 1998, Beitrag: Peter-R. Koenig: "Gestatten, Undercover-Agent Peter-R. König", 109-168

Gregor Schwartz-Bostunitsch also co-wrote with Lanz von Liebenfels, Issberner-Haldane and Guido von List.

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Lanz von Liebenfels, "Bibliomystikon" Pforzheim 1930, 129 Ariosophie

References to Bostunitsch, Liebenfels and Issberner-Haldane, once more to be found in Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke: "The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology", 1985. And in addition in: Wilfried Daim: "Der Mann, der Hitler die Ideen gab", Wien 1957; Rudolf J. Mund: "Lanz v. Liebenfels und der Neue Templer Orden", Stuttgart 1976 and Ekkehard Hieronimus: "Lanz von Liebenfels: 'Lebensspuren'", in "Wege und Abwege" (Anniversary Publication for Ellic Howe, Hrsg. Götz von Olenhusen), Freiburg 1990

See also Rudolf von Sebottendorff: Der Talisman des Rosenkreuzers. Introduction by Albrecht Götz von Olenhusen

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Jean Paar soon became a follower of Ludendorff. He also published under the pseudonym of S. Ipares.

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Quotes from some of his works mentioned here in: "Der O.T.O.-Phänomen REMIX", Munich 2001

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1935 Hermann Rehwaldt tried to influence his audience with an occult novel which clearly indicates the Fraturnitas Saturni.

Facsimile in "In Nomine Demiurgi Saturni", München 1998 Hermann Rehwaldt — Fraternitas Saturni

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Also worth mentioning: Christian Kreuz, a pen name for Baron Ernst Theodor Herbert von Bommsdorff-Bergen, who allegedly considered himself an incarnation of Baphomet. More in "Der O.T.O.-Phänomen REMIX", Munich 2001, page 72 B

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The way from paranoia to the downright bizarre was short.

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Interestingly, there is ariosophic literature expressing itself benevolently as regards Fraternitas Saturni. Facsimiles in "In Nomine Demiurgi Nosferati", Munich 1999, pp 27ff.

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Are there occult-fascist ideas today in O.T.O. lodges or in related occult groups outside of the German-speaking countries?

Marcelo Ramos Motta, one of the belligerent competitors in the field of the O.T.O. behaved like an anti-semite and interpreted Crowley’s writings accordingly. There is no point in delving into this matter here. Interested readers may look up Motta’s "Magick Without Tears (Unexpurgated, Commented)", Nashville 1983.

From a manuscript dated 1957:

"People who have not as yet accepted the Law of Thelema are in it regarded as pagans and phillistines, little more than animals and, in certain things, below the beasts. [...] The O.T.O. is an anarchy, and, as a result, its government is absolutely autarctic. [...] it is to be foreseen that breaches of discipline shall arise, that scandal and immorality may develop in the Lodges, not only financial but sexual scandal may breed at any moment, and more easily so in the Lover triad than in the man–of–earth–triad. Breaches of discipline of this kind are breaches of Order discipline, not of personal discipline, and must be dealt with the utmost severity! Brothers who, in the interest of their egos or wishes harm the Organism of the Order must be not only demoted but, in case it is estimated they represent too much danger of disease, must be discarded by the Organism. When definitively discarded, if it is estimated that they possess too much knowledge, they must be ruthlessly exterminated. An appropriate magical link must be formed and a hostile current of will directed for their prompt destruction."

-- Marcelo Ramos Motta: "The Development of a Secret Society in America in the Years 1957–2000 e.V.", 10.1.1957.


Christian Bouchet

In the political associations or alignments of the many Italian O.T.O. – variations, Hitler and Stalin are equally admired. Most members are recruited from the Right . In Italy some occult associations lead to a group called Orion, comprising former adherents of Julius Evola who promote anti-imperialistic and anti-American notions, mixed however with philo-Russian attitudes (this holds true for members both on the Right and the Left). Similar associations can be found among the French occult groups as well as the South American lodges.

In France, the O.T.O. lodge master of the 'Caliphate,' Christian Bouchet, received an antedated Spanish Memphis-Misraim Charter in 1991 from the Spaniard Manuel Cabrera Lamparter. This charter traces back to Michael Bertiaux and allegedly was issued to empower its possessor “to fuck the Caliphate” in matters involving copyrights.

With this charter, Bouchet “logically” proclaimed himself head of the national French Grand Lodge of Arnoldo Krumm-Heller's O.T.O. The 'Caliphate' subsequently expelled Bouchet, who meanwhile moved politically to the Right.

As in Italy, when the O.T.O is mentioned in France, rarely is the 'Caliphate' meant, but usually rather the associations that Bouchet created. Bouchet publicly claims himself to be the “Xe de l'Ordre du temple d'Orient, évêque gnostique et hiérophante de l'Etoile d'argent”.

Meanwhile, offshoots of Bouchet's O.T.O who think that this O.T.O. is equal to the 'Caliphate' thrive today in Spain. In 1994, Bouchet made Jordi García Casas and Juan José Comas García V° of the Loge “of the Mystical Kindi” [sic] in Barcelona and signed the document with a Gnostic reference as “Marcion XI°”. The two see themselves now as 'Califas' of the O.T.O for Spain and sign as IX°, X° and XI° . Together with Bouchet their names can be found in neofascist circles in Spain around Ernesto Milá (Frende de la Juventud [FJ], Partido Español Nacional Socialista [PENS]). Comas leads his own neofascist organization CEDADE. The same people are in contact with a Gabriél Rojas who runs an illegitimate Temple of Set and a Church of Satan, naturally without permission from the correct chiefs of either organization. Not surprisingly, these circles also contain an Ordo Illuminatorum and an Ordo Templi Orientialis [sic].

In 1991, Bouchet created the politically Right-oriented La Troisième Voie, from which he split off however in 1996 (?) to form the Right-wing, anti-American group Nouvelle Résistance. In 1999, Bouchet took part as a nationalist revolutionary (Comités d'Action Republicaines) in the splitting of Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front National.

At the beginning of the 90's, Bouchet attained a doctorate as an historian on Aleister Crowley. His friend Rémi Boyer (allegedly an advisor at the French Ministry of Justice) then gathered different adherents of all ideological inclinations and created a Cercle d'Alexandrie.

This circle not only practised rituals but also pursued theoretical studies (i.e., the collecting of material). It is not completely evident whether this organization is identical to a so-called Group Thèbe, where the same names can be found ...

Likewise Boyers name is connected with a group Arc-En-Ciel. In the diverse memberships of these circles you not only find researchers like Serge Caillet (Memphis Misraim) or Robert Amadou (among other things Prêtre de l'Église Syrienne), who sometimes assemble with the Freemasons of Zurich, but also illustrious personalities, such as the Memphis-Misraim Grandmaster Gérard Kloppel, Jean Pierre Giudicelli de Cressac Bachelerie (Memphis Misraim in Nice and politically on the Right in the Front de Liberation National Corse) or Jean Pascal Ruggiu (Golden Dawn in Paris) ...

Martin Erler, former Grandmaster of A.M.O.R.C in Germany, whose “cooperation” in these circles was also solicited, came to the conclusion that these groups are only “sneaky constructions” in order to procure internal material.

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Christian Bouchet

In 1993, Bouchet, in the context of his contacts to the national Bolshevik front, appeared on a Russian TV program of Alexander Dugin. The interview was printed in Dugin’s yearbook “Mily Angel” and in “The Way to Apocalypse: Knocking on the Golden Gate” (1997) printed by Yury Vorobyevsky. Thus Bouchet ironically gave the initiation for the start of the 'Caliphate' in Russia, which took place in the spring of 2000.

On 30 of May 2001, the French government issued "The Law to Reinforce the Prevention and Repression of Groups of a Sect-like Character" a.k.a. the “anti-cult law”. The law refers to 172 listed religions, among them the O.T.O.

Paolo Fogagnolo

As an example of another kind of political extremism in the periphery of the O.T.O. — groups I would like to present the Italian Paolo Fogagnolo.

In about 1977, Fogagnolo founded his own militaristic group: Lo Muscio Brigade (BLM). Fogagnolo hoped that his BLM would become connected to the Red Brigade (Brigado Rosso), but this never happened. In 1981, most of the members of the BLM were arrested. Fogagnolo fled to Turin, where he found a hideout in the anarchist environment, hiding among burglars. There Fogagnolo bragged about his terrorist exploits and the number of people he had killed. Fogagnolo wanted to become the leader of all of the terrorist organisations in Italy. Eventually he came in contact with relatives of the Red Brigade terrorists. Unsurprisingly, Fogagnolo was denounced and, in 1981, arrested. In an attempt to save his skin, Fogagnolo denounced his fellow combatants. Nevertheless he was sentenced to prison in Allessandria. In prison he attempted suicide and refused meals, also separating himself from all terrorist groups. After his release from prison, Fogagnolo tried to portray himself as a great hero, and proclaimed that in the prison he had "converted" to occultism. Consequently he competed with other Italian occult organizations and founded spin-offs of the O.T.O.A. and the F.R.A., became a Memphis-Misraim member and also a bishop of a Gnostic Church of Antiochia. For a while Fogagnolo even kept in contact with the above-mentioned Christian Bouchet, but as a left-wing extremist soon separated himself again. Today he leads a Fraternitas Rosa Croce Dorei ed Antica.

Fogagnolo made the headlines in the summer 2006, when it turned out that he was friendly for a while with Claude Covassi, who allegedly had spied on Muslims on behalf of the Swiss Intelligence Service.

Hypocrisy

There is a glaring hypocrisy inherent in Thelema which was noticeable to me. Thelemites aim to replace Christianity and the State itself with Thelema and a Thelemic system. Some Thelemites consider themselves surrounded by a destructive State, a “pig system”. Some Thelemites see themselves in a world full of aggressions, yet are driven by aggressions themselves, focused against everything, including themselves. Let us particularly examine the 'Caliphate' because this O.T.O. -variation is the most well-known. A high degree member from the inner circle who shall remain anonymous plays down the number of people with fascist ideas in the O.T.O and points out that they have excluded a few members, after their misanthropic attitude was noticeable: "OTO doesn't admit known serious racists, and Nazis are usually avowed racists. Once in the membership, it takes an actual offence to be kicked out — including slander or very open racist behavior. Some have slipped in, but they typically don't stay long after their behavior gets obvious. 5/100's of one percent losers of this type is not a bad statistic."

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The Slaves Shall Serve

For practical purposes we should explicate only the statements of high degree members, since they possess a model character. The two books of the joint founder of the 'Caliphate', James Wasserman, which are advertised even on the official web page of the 'Caliphate', are particularly remarkable. Wasserman also wrote the text which is attached to Crowley's Tarot set. We will discuss however his two politically-oriented works: “The Templars and the Assassins” and “The Slaves Shall Serve”.

On the back of “The Templars…” from the year 2001 William Breeze (chief of the 'Caliphate') and Michael Aquino (once chief of the Temple of Set) express their recommendations; the work therefore receives a special meaning for all members. Wasserman undertakes therein a Tour de Force through the history of the old Knights Templars and constructs, like many O.T.O. — Thelemites, a historical continuity up to the O.T.O. The book brings the old Assassins, the Hashishim, into the drama. The Assassins of Hasan i Sabah were Muslim, politically-motivated killers who eliminated their political enemies selectively.

Following 9/11, such statements have now naturally become problematic. As a sequel, Wasserman penned his second book in which he reports on the current situation. In “The Slaves Shall Serve” of 2004 he calls for readers to reach for weapons: “Buy guns” and “You MUST join the national Rifle Association”.

Many Thelemites maintain a preference for many kinds of martial arts, including Ninjutsu, the Japanese art historically associated with assassination and occult practices. Such pursuits they gladly justify from Liber AL which constantly promotes fighting, war and all kinds of Armageddon scenarios.
Wasserman goes now much further and propagates a “militarism, patriotism”, “a strong military, decisive national self interest” and the “concept of the self-reliant citizen-soldier”. What are his motives?

Wasserman's cry for combat and his call for weapons goes hand in hand with the religious fundamentalism which at present cripples America--or propels the country, depending upon one’s point of view. Wasserman holds that America is the freest country in the world, currently threatened by dark powers and can be released only by Crowley's teachings . In view of real and chimerical threats, the Thelemic faith becomes again an unbroken, combative confession. Wasserman compares evil powers which attack or threaten America with the Thelemic version of Satan = Choronzon, who stands for everything that blocks the magician on his way to perfection. Choronzon can be therefore everything, a woman, an idea, the own Ego, whatever the Thelemite wants. For Crowley, Choronzon was even a completely manifest demon which could be ceremonially evoked. Wasserman proves quite clearly that many Thelemites seem to be religious fanatics who see themselves as do-gooders and a type of master race. And that leaves the question: what now is Evil for Wasserman?

He denounces the U.S. government as a police and monitoring state, the FBI as infiltrated by “psycho-fascists” and he is also afraid of the global rule of “Islamo-fascists” and the United Nations. He not only is anti-European but in his opposition to Communism even defends the Communist hunter Joseph McCarthy. Wasserman is for reinstating public school prayer, as if one can simply replace the word God by a Thelemic divinity (Ra Hoor Khuit, perhaps?). He refers continuously to the John Birch Society, a Right-wing organization opposed to a “global conspiracy", and appoints himself as a sort of Birch role model.

And contrary to all Thelemites and O.T.O.- members I know, Wasserman completely openly proclaims: Become active, write to politicians and newspapers, purchase and stash weapons.

But note: Wasserman sees a line of descent from the O.T.O back to Muslim assassins and warns at the same time of “Islamo- fascists”? Here he must be careful or he will shoot himself in the foot.. He must make a distinction between the selective killing of the Assassins and the random killing of Bin Laden. But this distinction may be lost on some, although selective murdering of specific enemies deemed to be threatening does not seem to worry Wasserman.

He appeals to the American Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, furthermore throwing in the “Charter of Human Rights” (a.k.a. Crowley's Liber OZ) , in which the right to free expression of one’s will is not only required, but likewise the authorization to kill those who refuse this right is “granted.”

Although Wasserman does not write it explicitly, the reader may gather the impression that he compares the 'Caliphate' with the Waco group, which he defends. You remember? A small farm of cultists, up to their neck in weapons, besieged by the FBI. Women and children almost all killed. Wasserman seems to use this tragedy to foment paranoia and imply that the 'Caliphate' might become a similar “noble victim” unless the members stash guns as high as the chimney.

To be fair, not all Thelemites support such positions. I actually met some high degree members who feel embarrassed by Wasserman and consider his books terrible. Nevertheless, his book defending Islamic assassination ("The Templars and the Assassins") is sold on the 'Caliphate’s U.S. Grand Lodge website through their online bookstore.

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The Sun Behind the Sun

Contrary to Christianity and the other world religions Thelema has no ancient tradition of hermeneutics, exegesis or apologetics spanning thousands of years. There is also no attempt to construct any such tradition, because everything about Thelema finally always refers to the absolute authority of Aleister Crowley.

"Those who discuss the contents of this Book are to be shunned by all, as centres of pestilence. All questions of the Law are to be decided only by appeal to my writings, each for himself."


Again: a must for the reader is Marco Pasi "Aleister Crowley und die Versuchung der Politik" (Graz 2006). Original: "Aleister Crowley e la tentazione della politica" (Mailand 1999). Pasi analyses Crowley's political worldviwes and his connections with J.F.C. Fuller, Tom Driberg, Walter Duranty, Gerald Hamilton, Maxwell Knight and Fernando Pessoa. The afterword by H.T. Hakl refers to Julius Evola.

Read also Richard B. Spence: "Secret Agent 666" (WA 2008)
Discussion about the Proto-Fascist Aspect of Thelema
Fascist ideas in Theodor Reuss' reading list for the O.T.O.: The Correct Gnosticism
Playgame of an O.T.O.-Fatamorgana, Statistics, Censorship, Name Dropping
Gaps in the Script of Esotericism: Hypocrisy and Hypercrisis – Oscar Wilde: Ambition is the last resort of failure
Fetish, Self-Induction, Stigma and Rôleplay
Not O.T.O. related: Rudolf von Sebottendorff: Der Talisman des Rosenkreuzers. With a preface by Albrecht Goetz von Olenhusen
More about all this in: Andreas Huettl and Peter-R. Koenig: Satan — Jünger, Jäger und Justiz
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Re: Ordo Templi Orientis Spermo-Gnosis: Carl Kellner, Theodo

Postby admin » Thu Jan 11, 2018 9:15 pm

Theodor Reuss: The Programme of Construction and the Guiding Principles of the Gnostic Neo-Christians O.T.O., published in 1920
Transcript of the German Original in: P.R. Koenig: "Der Kleine Theodor Reuss Reader". See also Anthony Naylor/P.R. Koenig: O.T.O. Rituals and Sexmagick. Partly identical with the "Parsifal"-text

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Guiding Principles of a new Civilization and Religion.

Mankind, tortured by the World War, needs a new faith, a new Christianity, and a new civilization built upon it.

That the much praised European civilization and the Christian Church were unable to prevent the cruelties of this World War or the greed and hatred of the peace that was meant to end this world war, this alone is sufficient proof, that Christianity as it reigns to-day, and modern civilization it created, are no longer capable of living, and must be replaced by a new Christianity and a new civilization.

But mankind also demands a new faith. Because the old belief in God, which flowed from the Christian teachings as brewed by the Church Fathers, has for the great majority of the members of the Christian Church, long become a fairy-tale, because it was unable to withstand the biting criticism of modern science. And the belief in mankind (belief in brotherliness) was exceptionally thoroughly destroyed by the peace of Versailles, much more than by the events of was themselves. For the makers of the peace of Versailles had decoyed the peoples of America and Europe into the field by the slogan: "For Freedom and Humanity; For Justice and Equality" to fight a crusade against the Imperialism of German barbarity. And in the end the gentlemen Clemenceau and Lloyd George exploited the naivete of the German Michel, who, confiding in the glamour-casting and treacherous promises of the leaders of the Entente that not the German people, but only the imperialism of the Hohenzollern was to be exterminated, finally abandon fighting and resistance, in order to erect the Anglo-French world-imperialism on the deceived and enslaved German People.

For their own undoing however, Clemenceau and Lloyd George also destroyed all faith in humanity and brotherliness in their allies, through the Versailles machinations, so that millions of people, victors and vanquished alike, have lost all faith in God and man.

The Community of the Gnostic Templars or Neo-Christians, abbreviated as O.T.O., which already before the war had numerous adherents in America, Holland, Bohemia, France, Russia, Italy, etc., now steps out from the reserve it cultivated until now, in order to bring to tortured mankind the new Glad Tidings of the Gnostic Christians, and the new civilization springing therefore.

The message of the O.T.O. is: Freedom, Justice, Love.

The Freedom of the O.T.O. is freedom from Original Sin, and the freedom to execute the Will of the God-head. It does say in Liber Legis: "Do what thou wilt". But it is also said: But remember that you will have to render account for all tht deeds! That is the law of Karma.

So that not willfulness and unbridled behaviour, but strict discipline is "true freedom".

Highest self-culture, iron self-discipline, that is O.T.O. freedom. All freedom not controlled by strict self-discipline is licentiousness, willfulness, lawlessness, leading to Chaos.

"Do what thou wilt" is also in no wise identical with "Do what you like", but "Do what is thy Will, but examine, whether what thou wilt be God's will also". Only when your will is in agreement with the "Will of God", can you put it into practice. But then with intense concentration.

Justice is the second principle and refers to the purpose of man's life on earth, and the destiny of mortal man. The purpose of man's existence of earth is: faithful devotion to duty. Everybody must, whether well born or lowly, educated or uneducated, whether day labourer, peasant, artisan, professor, judge, merchant, artist or king etc., - simply everybody must do his duty to his utmost ability wherever fate has put him. That is his purpose, the fulfillment of God's law, of Justice. All is Law in the Universe. Life on earth is also subject unto it. Whoever lets this thought ripen in himself to its utmost possibility, will find the solution of many questions that worry him. The phrase is hard, but truth is always hard and encloses the duty to work of every individual.

Beautiful, of enthusiastic beauty, is only Love, and "Love is the highest law, love under control of the Will!" - Love is the reward of overcoming self, the basis of all brotherhood, the source of strength for devotion to duty; She makes us accept hard truth, leads us to conscious union with God, and enables us to approach God during this life on earth, and really to experience "at-one-ment with God."

The Master Therion says: The act of love consummated with overflowing energy, under control of the Will, is the "Act of God", a "sacramental act", is "In-God-with-God-at-onement". A man to whom it was granted to unite with God, under control of Will, in the godly, sacramental love-act, is a channel for the deity. Yet, says Liber Legis: "Although much is said in the law of highest Love, of enthusiastic, yielding, selfless, flaming, fiery, overflowing, love, there is no word about sentimental love". This also one has to ripen within oneself. Because the results are seen in a 1000 channels of earthly, daily life; they contribute to beautify it; they build a bridge to "Art". Love alone makes life bearable, Life, - otherwise so cold and often cruel.

The above mentioned principles and inferences to be drawn therefrom have been concentrated by the O.T.O. into the following fundamental canon of belief: "God and the world (Visible as well as Invisible) are an all-embracing, limitless realm, the Universe, consisting of the conscious primal energy (or creative potency), the positive force, and the unconscious primal substance (world egg or matrix), the negative force, which create through union (primal creation) new worlds with them, and attract or create creatures of similar principles. The likeness to God of created beings is shown by the fact that the primal creative potency inhabits them as well. The potency is the innate proof to the creature, of descent from God the original creator.

In this sense are to be understood the words of the Bible: and God created man in His image, in God's image he created him.

In order to find the truly complete solution of the world-riddle, one has to disregard the fundamentally erroneous but common distinction between Spirit, Soul, and Matter. The Soul is only to be regarded as a "spiritual" thing (spiritual agent) which has existed from the beginning of time as primal sensation in the primal act of creation. This primal sensation in man is the yearning of the split-off part to re-unite with the mother principle (therefore religere and religion). Because man cannot comprehend God through his intellect, but only feel him through his soul ("In the heart", one says, although the bearer of sensation is the sympathetic nervous system), which after physical death returns to God. Without the primal sensation there would be no creation or creatures.

For the practical execution of the above stated principles, the Order seeks to establish communities founded on co-operative principles of people free from sin (freed from the Christian-ecclesiastical original sin). For the creation of such communities only such people are suitable, who are convinced of the existence of a soul which enables us to approach resemblance to God; who have understood that selfish action is the source of all human ills, and that we prepare our lot after death during our life on earth, according to the law of Karma; who are filled with the truth of this saying of Man: Only he who has understood the holy doctrine concerning the holiness of the God organs, is truly free and liberated from all sin." Liberation from original sin is the "true freedom". We still wish to constitute a community of (sexually) free people, who are without (sexual) sin. We wish to create men who will not have to be ashamed of their creative organs.

Because of the Christian civilization still reigning to-day, this attempt will meet great difficulties, but a beginning has already been made, and been successful with a small circle. On a large scale such an attempt will finally succeed only when the new generation will be brought up from earliest youth according to the principles of the new moral code.

Youth must look upon the sexual organs as something holy right from early childhood. Their functions must be explained to boys and girls as "holy actions", as soon as the mother notices that the sexual forces are beginning to appear. These doctrines must be given out by parents in the most natural manner from earliest childhood. And in school, men and women doctors, instead of the present teachers of religion, will exercise priestly office and teach doctrines with scientific basis as "teachings for this life". On the foundation laid by these physiologists (priestly doctors) the "teachings for the Other life" will be then given by doctors of the soul (spiritual priests).

At the moment it is the other way around. From the earliest childhood children are crammed with otherworldly teachings and religious fables, which collapse completely which the child grows up, because the adult finds that they do not represent facts. This belated discovery produces a struggle in developed people, which brings an immense amount of unhappiness and misfortune for all that were misled in this fashion. People less advanced become liars and hypocrites, which encourages moral catastrophes and has consequences such as we now have to witness at the end of the war. Therefore new morals have become essential. In future the doctor-priest, under the parents' supervision, will teach children from earliest youth that the sex organs are holy, and that they have to be particularly guarded and protected, because in actions which later on be done through these organs, invisible God will make himself manifest to Man. Because this act, accomplished with these organs, is a repetition on earth of God's original act of creation, in which God reveals himself to us, works through us, and through whose execution we always renew our union with God, and constantly create new beings, according to His will and command, "in his image".

A youth brought up according to such principles will not only be steeled and proof against the misuse of the sex organs, but they will also begin very early to comprehend God, and to believe in this God, because they recognize a link between God and Man in the creative act, which they feel binds them to the godhead. Belief reared on this base will be so firm, so marvellous, that it will be able to move mountains.

Plan of a neo-Christian Community.

The basic principles of the construction-programme of the Gnostic Templars and neo-Christians (O.T.O.) have been condensed in the following essay as a practical political programme. Persons of the same language and same race form a closed peoples community (The State.) All toil, all means of production, all natural resources (such as coal, iron etc.) all large-scale exploitation of natural products (such as large-scale farming, vine- growing etc) all public transport (railways, shipping), all public welfare institutions, trade, communication (such as postal services, telegraph, hospitals, orphanages, schools, museums, art institutes), all available capital in paper or bare money, which exceeds a value of, say, 10,000 mark, is common property of every member of the people.

In England one called it "nationalization of property." Private property is abolished on principle, but each responsible member of the community can claim as his or her personal property everything he or she acquired through his or her own labour for personal use. (This comprises clothes, books, household utensils, but excludes objects of luxury, things made of gold, jewels, etc.) Also he may own during his present life a small piece of arable land allotted to him or her for building or planting.

Within the community bare money is not allowed. No member of the community is allowed to own money or securities worth more than 10,000 Mark, and these also return to the community after his death. Nobody is allowed to possess any securities yielding dividends. These, as far as they exist within the community, are common property for the benefit of the state, as for example, for trade with other (strange) people's communities.

Every member of the community - man or woman - over 18 is obliged to labour daily according to his capacities for the wealth of the people's community. A jury of fellow-workers, with two members chosen by the accused, will decide in doubtful cases what "according to his capacities" may mean in cases where a person protests against work allotted to him. People refusing to work will be punished by long, public, forced labour.

Work to be done for the community not to exceed 36 hours per week. Wages due for such work to be credited by the community executive to each worker with the common community account.

In return for the fulfilment of the duty to work, the community guarantees to keep every single member of the community, so that they have free of cost, controlled (rationed) means of living, including free housing, heating, light, clothes rationing, instruction, care of the sick, education of children, entertainment, like theatres, music art etc., and a free funeral.

All persons over 60, as well as the sick and permanent invalids are freed from the duty to work, but recieve the same free advantages as the fit. The right to inherit is abolished in principle. Only moveable objects of personal use, which have less value than 10 Mark, can be willed by parents to their own children.

All large-scale trade, especially with foreign countries, all industry (except for small hand production) is done on account of the community.

All works of Art are property of the community. In order to spur on each single comrade to do the best he can, be it in the field of craft, trade, industry, art, farming, cultivation of animals, household etc., or any other type of work, peoples' prize feasts will be instituted each year, whence those people who had done best during the year, will be publicly praised, crowned with laurels, and rewarded. The value of the prize consists of real and ideal values. All who have won first prize will be named as judges for the following year. Also they will have preferment, with travels for amusement, for example (which are forbidden - outside the country - to all other members of the community, in order to encourage settled habits). Journets of research will constantly be made, paid for by the community, but only prize-winners will be chosen for them.

The people (every man and woman over 20) every year elects an executive council, who has to deal with the community's business. This council is aided by experts of all sorts of work, subordinated to it, which are elected by the people direct every 7 years. Re-election is permissible.
Order in the interior to be preserved by a body (town-watch, community-watch, field-watch) elected by the community. For protection against the exterior, each man and woman has to put his/her person at the disposal of the community. For this purpose they have to undergo a yearly training from 17 onwards, lasting 6 months when 17, 2 months when 18 and then each year a fortnight's refresher training.

All lawsuits are cost free.

Persons who molest the law by unjustified complaints, make false accusations, or swear false oaths, murder, steal etc., will be punished by publicly dishonouring forced labour. The public law will be dealt and pronounced by judges elected by the people.

All relations between a man and a woman will be regarded as a marriage.
Children bear the mother's name. Each child is brought up by the community. If applied for children up to 6 can be brought up the mother at home. Every man, woman, boy and girl over 14 will be regularly examined by the medical delegates of the supreme people's health board. Persons (male or female) who have not been found capable by the supreme medical board of producing healthy children are not allowed to wed. People who produce children despite this decree, will be punished by public forced labour.

Religion will be a private matter. but as the reigning Christian Church, built on the doctrines of the Church Fathers, have abandoned the pure doctrines of original Christianity, and have proved absolutely incapable of diminishing even to a slight extent the low animal cruelty current amongst their own, externally most zealous adherents, the State will support and encourage the cult of the re-vivified original Christianity (Community of Gnostic Neo-Christians).

ATTENTION!

The above construction programme can only be realized through the means of peaceful, social development, and never through violent revolution.

The head of the O.T.O. Community.
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Re: Ordo Templi Orientis Spermo-Gnosis: Carl Kellner, Theodo

Postby admin » Thu Jan 11, 2018 9:30 pm

Ordo Templi Orientis Outer Head of the Order?
by Karl Germer

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Karl Germer to Jane Wolfe, April 14, 1941

As for myself, I was arrested by the Belgians the day the Germans marched into Belgium, i.e., May 10th, 1940. As the latter advanced we were transferred to the French authorities on May 14th and held in French Concentration Camps ever since. I have been in the Camps of Le Vijean and just before the Germans advanced there, sent to the Camp of St. Cyprien on the Mediterranean near the Pyrenees of Spanish ill repute, and from there ultimately transferred to the worst Camp in France: Gurs, in the Pyrenees, where conditions were so primitive, so horrible that even very mild descriptions of the actual conditions in the American press shocked and bewildered people over here. And there are still 15,000 men, women and children held there in that Camp alone.

I got out finally on February 1st, 1941, after a non-quota immigration visa had been anew procured by Cora as long ago as September last, but the French only gave me permission to go to Marseille to see the Consul four months after he had asked me to call urgently for the visa. It's just their complete incapacity for doing anything, for making progress, for organization, that made it impossible to obtain the permit before, despite all kinds of urgent steps that were undertaken by Cora, others and myself with the various French authorities and the American Ambassador and Consul. We in the Camps have come to understand thoroughly the basic reasons for the rapid break-up of French resistance both militarily and administratively. Most, 95% of the prisoners in the Camps were Jews, all violently hostile to the Nazis, violently friendly to the French, many offering spontaneously to fight on their sides actively, who have now more or less become hostile to the French, due to the unsanitary conditions in the Camps, the dirt, the ridiculously poor food, causing scurvy, various diseases, the unhealthy water, and their incapacity and unwillingness to improve conditions until at long last attacks in the American Press based on reports smuggled out by devious and dangerous means forced the French to pretend to do something. Believe me, I am glad to be out of that hell. Fortunately, my health and general conditions do not seem to have suffered very much, and that is really a miracle which the French did their best to defeat.

If we had been prisoners of war, if we had been enemies of the French, if we had been young and vigorous, if we had been nothing but men, if we had shown the least sign of revolt on occasion -- one could perhaps excuse the French. But most of us were over forty (up to 70), several thousands of women (of whom perhaps 35% over 65 and up to 95 years of age), 10% children and babies. And yet all those atrocities. There is no reasonable excuse or even explanation. No wonder that the death rate was horrible and that the blind sympathy for the French and their cause in those Camps has turned to the complete opposite.

********************************************************

Protective Prisoner No. 303, Outline by Karl Germer

The record of the author's seven months imprisonment in Nazi Concentration Camps, "COLUMBIA HOUSE," and "ESTERWEGEN" (the latter in the "Moor" at the Dutch frontier.)

Personality of author

51 years old; good education; University studies at Grenoble and Sorbonne. Has lived and traveled for 20 years in most European countries, North America, North Africa. 4 years' war record as adjutant and machine gun officer: Belgium, France, Russia, Serbia. Highest war decorations.

Police Prisoners

After return from England, author was arrested Feb. 2, 1935 in Leipzig while visiting relative without any reason given. Handcuffed and transferred to station. For 10 days in Berlin pol prison in same cell with lowest criminals. Gestapo (Secret State Police) Feb. 11 first hearing. 5 hours' cross questioning, yet no definite charge made.

Reason for arrest given

Feb. 18 at last: for being in touch with high grade Freemasons abroad.

Gestapo methods

Brutalities. Thence taken to: "Columbia House" the Berlin Concentration Camp. Atmosphere of terror. Atrocious treatment.

Methods

Solitary confinement. Life in cell. No reading permit for 4-1/2 months!

S.S. guards and their mentality

Once for six weeks not let out into the open air.

Work in Architect's office

For 6 weeks I had permit to work there; this gave me exceptional freedom and chance to see the run of the prison, get into personal contact with all the prisoners and S.S. guards and officers. Permitted me to get deeper insight. Contact with many prominent people who were imprisoned.

In Strict Solitary Confinement

From April 10 to July 7.

Cruelty of the Treatment

Punishment, because my wife had sent me a cable from New York with reply prepaid, and I had filled out the blank and sent it to Gestapo for censure. (I was forbidden to attempt to communicate with anybody outside Germany.)

Rigorous Arrest

8 days on water and bread on hard boards, because I had dared to complain about S.S. guard. April 30; I am accused of having secret net of agents all over Germany. To have factory for false passports. Etc. etc. Sodomites and Transvestites at Columbia House, arrested wholesale after the Rohm Putsch.

JULY 7th, INTERVENTION OF AMERICAN CONSUL

Thereafter transferred to Esterwegen Camp in the "Moor", the bogs near the Dutch frontier. One of the worst of the worst Camps in Nazi Germany.

Transportation there in prison vans

Hancuffed; three days' journey.

Reception at Esterwagen

Unbelievable terror. 1200 prisoners there. The "Scheiss-Kuhle," work there the worst in the whole Camp. I am detailed to it with a gang of 5 (amongst them Dr. Leber, the Socialist member of the Reichstag, a wealthy "race pollutor", and a "witness of Jehovah." I was included for "obstinately refusing to tell the truth," i.e. for denying that I was a Mason (which I am not!).

Epilogue

I see the American Consul in Berlin.

My Escape from Germany into Belgium

The book has 60-65,000 words and is written in English.

********************************************************

New York, October 4, 1948, by Karl Germer

I have lived in London, England, from 190(0) to 1904; I was the representative for Albert Herbert Ltd., Coventry, Berlin Branch, from 1912 to 1914, representing them in Eastern Germany and West Russia; during that period I visited England again.

I came to London again in 1929 on my way from New York and travelled to London repeatedly between 1929 and 1932. When the Nazis took over in Germany I went to London and lived there from 1933 to 1934, all the time preparing my departure for the U.S.A. to rejoin my American wife, but I failed to get my U.S. immigration visa in time.

The Home Office refused to extend my temporary visa and I returned to Germany at the end of 1934. (From February 5, 1935 to August 1935 I was in a Nazi Concentration Camp.) I escaped from germany in October 1935, and entered England on a Belgian refugee passport at Harwich (if I remember correctly) at the end of November 1935. I obtained a temporary visa which was extended from 3 to 3 months; until at the end of November 1936 I was asked to leave England. I had not been able to earn any money because regulations did not allow me to do so. I was in a desperate plight. Friends who knew that I spoke English fluently persuaded me not to return to Belgium which was too close to the German frontier and people had been known to have been kidnapped by Nazi agents, and the Nazis had been searching for me because I had written a book against them. They suggested that I go to Ireland which they said was a "Free State" where I could easily begin activities in the machinery line.

I decided to do this and I think I arrived in Dublin on Dec. 1, 1936. I quickly made contact with a leading machinery firm who were eager to put my expert knowledge into their services; I was very successful there, in fact after 4 weeks they financed the purchase of a car which I paid off within a few months.

Around Easter 1936 there was a need for me to make a business trip in the interest of the machines which I handled to Belgium. I decided to use the opportunity to regularise my stay in Ireland and obtain a permanent visa. I went to the French Consul in Dublin and asked for a visa. When he saw my Belgian refugee passport (the only document I had) he said it was impossible to give me a visa; He would have to apply for this in writing to Paris, and this would take three to four weeks. My business did not permit such a delay. When he saw my predicament, he came outside his office and said: I have spoken to you in my official capacity, now let me talk to you as a person. There is a way for you to cross the channel over the Easter holidays by going to London and buy a week-end ticket; this allows you to set foot at Boulogne (or was it Calais?) without any visa.

This sounded simple, and I followed his advice. When I got to London I bought a return ticket to Paris without any formalities. (The point has been raised at the British Passport Office in New York that I had claimed to be a British subject. This is not true. I have never done this, and would not do this. The official in New York then tried to explain the details of how one buys such a ticket in London; that there are several booking offices, one for British subjects, another for aliens. I do not think that I paid any attention to any of this. I remember talking to the man at the window asking him some questions about the validity etc., etc. I cannot remember details; enough, at that time I was proud to be able to speak the language with great fluency. It seems to me that the train on which I arrived came very early in the morning and I was eager to catch the next train; there was not much time to lose.)

On the board I was asked by the French official (the English official, if there was one, never bothered me) to show some paper to identify me. It was then that I showed a calling card of a man who had just died and whose widow had asked me take over the machinery business of her husband as without such help there was no one to continue it. (Her husband whom I knew well enough, had felt his end coming and implored me to assist his family if something should happen to him.) I had a supply of those calling cards with me for the exact purpose of identifying me as being the one who continued in that machinery business. I certainly did not pose as having the name shown on the calling card; I did not say one word; there was much rush and pushing on board because it was Easter.

I attended to my business affairs in Belgium and France and obtained a new Belgian refugee visa. I presented this to the British Passport Office in Brussels which issued a proper visa for Ireland. I went via Harwich where I was stopped and ultimately sent back to Antwerp.

As I had many business obligations in Ireland my return to Dublin was imperative. I asked for a new Belgian passport; I went again to the British Passport Office in Brussels who again issued a visa for a trip to Ireland direct; on arrival in Dublin I presented this passport, and after several weeks was ordered to return to Brussels. The Minister of Justice informed me that if I could obtain from the German Ambassador a letter that he withdrew his objection against my stay in Ireland, he could arrange for a visa. I know this part sounds incredible: it is a fact; I could, if necessary, amplify it with many details which can now be told but which I had to withhold for many years in order not to compromise certain persons. Mr. Smylie, editor in chief of the Irish Times, was fully informed by me at the time; he was amazed and wanted to take steps in the Dail to stop the fifth column influence.

In subsequent years I was able to build up a fairly large machinery export business in Brussels, exporting Belgian machines mostly to England. This should have necessitated visits to England, but with a Belgian refugee passport a special British visa was required. Whenever I applied for one it was refused.

Had I been a good and fanatical Nazi I would never have met with any visa trouble in England. As it turned out it was my being an enemy of the Nazis that led to my victimisation by the British. (The crime, which the Gestapo accused me of, was being in touch with high-grade British Freemasons.)
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Re: Ordo Templi Orientis Spermo-Gnosis: Carl Kellner, Theodo

Postby admin » Fri Jan 12, 2018 1:45 am

Nosferatu's Baby (Much Too Much) Too hot To Handle
by Peter-R. Koenig
parareligion.ch
© Peter-R. Koenig 1994/October 1996/August 1998, translation adapted by Mark Parry-Maddocks in October 2000

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Image
Heinrich Tranker Baphomet Rosycross

The topic of hostility towards women in religion and occultism has scarcely been touched on in studies of these subjects. However, it is a symptom of such attitudes that even the hedonistic prophet of the "New Æon" Aleister Crowley, and his quasi-counterpart the ascetic Arnoldo Krumm-Heller, adhered to certain forms of misogyny in both theory and practice; attitudes which are still present in those who proclaim their ideas of a new humanity. The reader should ideally be familiar with The O.T.O. Phenomenon, or the authors' articles, before reading the following excursus on the practices and psychology of the various O.T.O. groups.

In the disguised O.T.O. lodge that calls itself Fraternitas Saturni (FS), there is a misogynistic agenda, to which the FS's founder Eugen Grosche gave blatant voice. Only a few of many examples need be quoted here:

"The Female Being is the enemy and the opposer of Man from the very Beginning." "Certainly not every cow is a beast of prey, and not every Female Animal a demonic being." The purpose of marriage is "to domesticate man." What can Man do against it? "In marriage the will of Man must be dominant." "The influence on Man of the pure sexual urge for females will be defeated in time through the self-conscious spiritualization of Woman."

Under his pseudonym of Gregor A. Gregorius, Grosche defined his view of women's rôle clearly: "To be a lover who only satisfies all sexual and erotic desires of man." Nonetheless, the FS was - and still is - described as a "unique and recognised magical Lodge" which "nevertheless admits women," though the female members are only qualified "as help-meets for experimental magic, and in the cult of the sexual Mysteries." Hence the men in the FS used "consciously created sexual dependance" to achieve their aims.

Grosche's successors have continued this doctrine: Karl Wedler (or 'Giovanni') and his protegé Guido Wolther ('Daniel') have on the one hand declared that "homosexuals and pederasts must be rejected as sex-magical monstrosities" - yet on the other hand proclaimed that the ruling spirit of the present æon is the "Dæmon of torture and adultery" worshipped with "grains of incense steeped in semen and human blood; he follows the Dæmon of Lies, of Sodomy and Homosexuality, the Dæmon of Lewdness and Orgies." This is indicated by certain magical symbols, which are said to confer "immediate power with respect to sex on both men and women." Wedler gave his "brother and friend" Wolther a manuscript entitled 'The Devil's Elixirs', which contained recipes for poisoning enemies, inflicting deadly ailments, driving people insane, and so on ad nauseam.

Having come upon the dogma propounded by his FS predecessors, Dieter Heikaus ('Set Horus') elected to cathartically reveal their ideas to the outside world - a risky process that he hoped would set these "great magicians" up as magical idols once more. He decided that his Ordo Saturni, and more particularly its internal 'Pentalpha' group, could perform "the sex-magical operations of the old FS".

Nosferatu's Baby

Because of his chauvinistic attitudes towards women, Eugen Grosche was never able to find his soul-mate in the physical world, but using his occult arts and knowledge, assumed the form of 'GOTOS' an égregore or group-spirit. GOTOS was also called 'UTUIT', which was supposed to mean 'OTO-it' (a sort of activated form); it was also the highest rank in the FS (from 'Gradus Ordo Templi Orientis Saturni'), and the égregore was created as an astral body by the joint efforts of all FS members, using a specially created head-and-shoulders statue or bust to help their efforts. By this means, Grosche hoped that after his death, in the form of GOTOS's astral body, he could at last be united with his soul-mate - and thereby reach an androgynous state on a higher plane. This group-spirit was supposed to have some femimine characteristics, but the only feminine aspect of GOTOS was the mediumship used to obtain the design of its statue. Representing an égregore as a bust or head recalls the literary traditions of statues coming to life (see next section); or else the tale of Salomé, who desired John the Baptist's head on a platter - perhaps to gain his powers of prophecy.

So the central concept in FS lodges is that of the lodge égregore, and its powers of re-animation. The classic prototype for such an idea is that of Baphomet, the supposed idol of the Knights Templar, who was (as the Roman Emperor) likewise worshipped in the form of a head. It has been claimed that Baphomet was invoked with the first sura of the Qur'an, and dismissed with the twenty-fourth chapter of the apocryphal Book of Sirach.

O.T.O. groups have all made use of the idea of Baphomet - but in the Saturn lodges it has been given a different emphasis, and far greater value than in the other versions of the O.T.O.

People out of stone

In India, it is a tradition amongst certain Tantric sects to anoint their phallic lingam images with oil, milk, and sometimes semen. A similar tradition involving living statues and plaster busts exists in Western culture - at least on a literary level. E.T.A. Hoffman, Edgar Allen Poe, Ambrose Bierce, and Jules Verne amongst others, have reinterpreted the original myth of Pygmalion from Ovid; it can even be seen in the musical 'My Fair Lady'. This tradition fulfills an ancient human dream, that of bringing the dead back to life, either artificially or with the help of the gods of magic. Even today there are hints of it in cybernetics and genetic engineering. Inspired by the attempts of Charles Darwin's grandfather Erasmus Darwin to re-animate dead worms, the nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley wrote the novel 'Frankenstein: or the new Prometheus' which was published in 1818. More on the theme has been written more recently by authors such as Philip K. Dick (as in 'Blade Runner'), Alfred Bester, Stanislaw Lem and Pierre Klossowsky. In Switzerland in 1972, a drama based on the classical myth of Galatea appeared, expressing the eternal dream of a man for a woman who is wholly dedicated to him. In the play, which was a reworking of an 'Alpensaga' (Swiss mountain fairy tale), some farmers create a 'Sennentuntschi', an artificial woman grown in a bottle from a mixture of dung and cheese. Needless to say, Sennentuntschi soon frees herself from their attentions.

In Jewish mysticism, there is the legend of the Golem, which is ultimately based on Psalm 139 verse 16; the story is best known from the mediæval golem created by Rabbi Löw of Prague, as described in Gustav Meyrink's impressive novel The Golem (1915). Golems are reproductions of Adam, formed from the dust of the earth, and they go even further back in Jewish culture, as may be discovered in a commentary on the ancient Cabalistic text the Sefer Yetzirah, as expounded by the eminent scholar Gershom Scholem. The German author of occult and erotic potboilers H.H. Ewers added a sexual twist to the legend with his novel Alraune in 1911. Also in Germany, Paul Wegener directed a film of The Golem in 1915, the first in a series of German films such as Nosferatu, Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari and Dr. Mabuse which evoked a fascination for evil. Neo-Gnostics and secret societies in Germany and elsewhere got a lot of inspiration from fictional sources such as these - enough for them to devise their own 'Order Secrets'. The concept of the Homunculus, an alchemical mannikin produced in a bottle, was not foreign to Theodor Reuss, the O.T.O.'s founder. The prescribed reading-list for O.T.O. members included G. Herman's work called Genesis - das Gesetz der Zeugung (Genesis - the Law of Procreation) which describes the production of a being "who is realized through the odic power of materialization, and which as odic mist streams from the vulvae, and under the traditional uterine influence easily forms child-souls." The alchemist Paracelsus described his formula for creating a Homunculus using blood and semen, and this has been compared to the consecrated hosts of the Spermo-Gnostics. In 1914 Aleister Crowley wrote his Xth degree instruction De Homunculo Epistola in which he described the homunculus, even though he was less than enthusiastic about it. It is quite possible that he had been inspired by Somerset Maugham, who had published a novel called The Magician in 1907, whose villain Oliver Haddo is based on Crowley; in the novel Haddo manufactures a mad homunculus by devilish arts. Similarly, Crowley himself wrote a novel in 1917 (not published until 1929) called Moonchild, in which sex-magicians create a speaking homunculus with astrological enchantments.

"You are my Creator, but I am your Master — Obey!" [Mary Shelley, Frankenstein]

In the Saturn Lodges a definite connection was made between the subject of 'artificial astral beings' and Vampire mythology. The égregore and its incarnate 'tenant', the possessor of the highest degree in the FS, were fuelled by the vital sexual powers of all the lodge members. Both the FS and its successor the Ordo Saturni deliberately tried to create a form of astral vampire, which they hoped eventually to incarnate as a being of flesh and blood. It was a reversal of the Christian Eucharist, where the congregation consumes the supposed flesh and blood of God, in the form of bread and wine. If one believes that Gods are the creation of Man, then it follows that an order-egregore is also a God. To successfully create a Golem might therefore mean that with the Golem even a God could be vicariously destroyed; a dream of omnipotence realised. In the FS the office of Gotos permits a personality to be united with GOTOS UTUIT itself; the Outer Head of the Order (OHO) becomes the Inner Head of the Order (IHO). Deus est Homo - Homo est Deus, as was stated similarly (but unconnectedly) in Reuss and Crowley's Liber Agapé.

In the FS's magical system, the libido during sexual intercourse was transferred from the sexual partner to the astral égregore. In concrete terms, this meant all that heterosexual and homosexual activity was conducted with the use of wordshells/euphemisms (Holy, Logos, Saturn, etc.) to feed the égregore's vitality. These efforts to identify the Saturn Order with an (at least) astral Golem, a Homunculus, an image or statue brought to life, or else some other form of android to build up power, is quite different from the practises of other O.T.O. groups, who are effectively engaged in a quest for the 'Elixir of Life' in the form of psychosexual secretions to gain self-empowerment, or to contact spirits. Nonetheless, this has not prevented some membrs of the so-called 'Caliphate' O.T.O. from joining the Ordo Saturni; in the Saturn lodges this 'elixir' was mostly used for anointing the statue of the GOTOS.

Baphomet and the O.T.O.

The égregore has never been an important issue to other O.T.O. groups. As Marcelo Ramos Motta wrote: "the Egregora does exist in the so-called 'astral plane' and it is a demon, that is to say, an illusory entity. It is not a true Microcosm, but a gestalt of vitalized shells, a focus for everything that is negative, defeatist, maudlin, bigoted, introverted in human nature - a morass completely hostile to progress and to the spiritual evolution of mankind."

The publication of an earlier version of the foregoing sections in this essay caused some interest among members of the 'Typhonian' O.T.O. following the FS example, they duly devised what they called an 'Égregore Map' from various more or less Thelemic entities: Lam, Olun, Aiwass, Maat, Babalon, and the Beast. "It can be defined as the group spirit (super-consciousness) of all the members of a particular Order... It is analogous to the running of magical computer programs across a network of adepts or members, in order to access necessary gnosis and guidance from the Secret Chiefs. This can be done using these égregore maps because they express the laws of Creation and the Fall through their symbolism. They allow people to free themselves from the lust of result by the externalisation of the Holy Guardian Angel into the égregore."

The égregore is by definition a created soul (psychogon); according to Aleister Crowley it serves mostly to realise of wishes, and is consequently a 'helpmeet-spirit' who obeys the Holy Guardian Angel as in the Abramelin system. The 'Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage' (see illustrations 1 & 2 ) describes one method of attaining communication with one's guardian angel; every human being has an individual spiritual power, a divine mirror image called the Holy Guardian Angel, who restores a link to the divine for human beings engulfed in matter. Once contact with the Guardian Angel has been established - after six lunar months of asceticism and constant devotional prayer - the magician may then (if he dares) invoke armies of demons and servile spirits to do his will.

From the other side, it could reasonably be claimed that the guardian angel gets something in return. In the ecstasy of a human orgasm, the Angel attains a vision of the Universe as a continuous, unblemished phenomenon, where it is separated from the pure union of human with the divine; and thus the Angel finds wholeness in the human to whom it ministers.

Many FS techniques, like absorbing the libido from sexual partners may also be found in O.T.O. lodges. But in the OTO, the method is to transfer the libido's energy to one's own ego and its adjuncts. The Order becomes a substitute for the archetypal Mother, while its charismatic leader is transformed into a substitute for the corresponding Father-figure. This practice started with Carl Kellner, whose female followers wore a locket containing a photograph of him, and the lamen, or magical shield of the Memphis-Misraim Rite: a sphinx within a pyramid under a blazing sun. Kellner viewed his self-created office as Baphomet as descending from the Babylonian priesthood. However, in Richard Payne Knight's interpretation, Baphomet was an androgynous figure who united active and passive polarities. Kellner apparently did not accept Éliphas Lévi's diabolic interpretation of Baphomet, which Crowley was later to use in the 'Devil' card of his Thoth Tarot designs. Indeed, Crowley always described himself as Baphomet in connection with the O.T.O., and considered this to unite the offices of both Inner and Outer Head of the Order in himself - they were linked in the concept of the homosexual eleventh degree of the O.T.O. [This might explain the 'Caliph' William Breeze's assumption of the XIth degree]. It is not known whether he ever tried to bring an image to life (except the skeleton he fed with blood at his Chancery Lane 'Black Temple'), or to use Baphomet as an égregore in the FS sense. Certainly, when his follower Jack Parsons tried to create a homunculus with the aid of sex-magic (and the founder of Scientology, Lafayette Ronald Hubbard), Crowley reacted angrily, calling the affair "nonsense".

Crowley, alias Baphomet XI°, assumed the rôle of an idealised father-figure in his rescension of the O.T.O. By idolising Crowley/Baphomet in this way, his followers nurtured precociously regressive sadistic and anal attitudes, which tended to be acted out in the form of oral aggression, as a consequence of a significant upset of the balance between fantasy and reality. As the central idol of the Crowleyan O.T.O. there stood a golden phallus, with which the sex-magician was meant to identify himself in the form of an ejaculating penis. In O.T.O. groups of this school there is little possibility of using such phallocentric and narcissistic behaviour as a way of obtaining solitary communion with an égregore. Energies liberated in this way would generate 'disorder' in 'practicing' individuals (at least in the higher degrees). The imitation of Crowley's biography stimulates dramatic relationships and drug-addiction. There is no Gnosis here. No, not even here, where a Gnostic sense of an intolerable existence is reflected in several different O.T.O. Orders all at war with each other; these merely show that there is a yawning void between the 'rotten places' and the Pleroma.

With these O.T.O.'s, the light at the end of the tunnel for seekers is the corpse-light glimmer from carefully contrived schemes and inducements towards sensuality and self-indulgence; it shines on a mouthful of semen, and illuminates no more than ready-made images, images which are endlessly imitated, regurgitated and thoroughly manufactured.

Knights of the Neurosy-Cross

The Saturn lodges have never succeded in achieving the union of the human holder of the Gotos office, with the GOTOS égregore. This is apparently why the O.T.O. fell into schism during Crowley's time; the Saturn lodges have not been able ("so far" that is) to invoke the spirits of Pluto necessary to the union, and this has meant the Gotos-Golem (the O.T.O. Saturni Golem) has fragmented into narcissistic offshoots of Grosche and his allies.

If this human Gotos is not a Charismatic individual, then the efforts of his followers can only be devoted to the service of the égregore-GOTOS, charging it up like a battery; but if the human Gotos does not remain in the background, then the magical energies can flow back, and not drain away. But this latter possibility only works if the human Gotos avoids the trap of narcissistic folly through excessive dependance on the GOTOS (human or égregore), as also so long as the human Gotos separates himself from the lodge members having an influence on psychological transmission. This practice has only been tried in the 'Caliphate' O.T.O. (in contrast to H.J. Metzger's group) where the chief of the Order, the 'Caliph' remains effectively incomminicado, except for 'ex-cathedra' pronouncements; paradoxically, the 'Caliph' is seen as magically powerless. A repressed identification with a homosexual All-Father figure in the form of Crowley has proved to be a deficiency in the personal development of many 'Caliphate' followers. The result has been a fanatical, supposedly socially involved 'coming out' of the 'Caliphate' as a publicly recognised religious community, and led to their concealment of all their magical and sexual doctrines. Recently this group has told its membership to separate the "problematic" figure of Aleister Crowley from the doctrine of Thelema, even though Thelema is still to be considered as he Highest Truth of this Æon. This has effectively replaced critical thought, and replaced it with all the trappings of 'belief' in a cult, with an emphasis on the importance of ritual for its own sake, and new myths. Information which might promote dissent is suppressed, and measures to censure those who step out of line is now included in the group's statutes.

Unsubstantiated legal threats frighten bogeymen. So the 'Caliphate' (which now represents itself as the one and only O.T.O.) proclaims that it is incapable of error, and uses the courts to fight every criticism from the moral 'majority', the press or the police. A strategy of positive news-management has been introduced, and where necessary truth is the first casualty.

Fraternitas Rosicruciana Antiqua

Although Baphomet also occurs in the initiation rituals of the F.R.A., it seems that Arnoldo Krumm-Heller was never involved in the aforementioned shenanigans. He saw himself in a messianic role, adhering strongly to the idea of Christian Gnostic objects of veneration, and Jesus as saviour. Salvation was obtained from Him alone, and it meant that people would only ever meet good deeds along the way. True, salvation could be achieved through spermo-gnosis as well, but only by avoiding ejaculation. These homoeopathic Gnostics served a higher divine order, but their concomitant will to bring order to humanity was very far from self-deification. In spite of his apparent adherence to Thelema, and the use of LAM as a mantra, Krumm-Heller was more involved with social concerns and joining organisations, rather than any magical or mystical self-development. Homoeopathy requires a lot of human sensitivity from both doctor and patient.

There is no evidence that Krumm-Heller believed in any particular Intelligence, like those found in Crowley's spiritual cosmogeny. Krumm-Heller focussed more on human reality and not on gaining contact with transcendental realms, even when those were formulated as Beings. To this day, "the teachings of the Ancient Rose-Cross Brotherhood" have had no real rôle for their astral (actually Theosophical) Master Racoczy, nor of the égregore, nor of an Inner Head of the Order. Contact with the "angel on the other side" takes place only in "helping and healing".

Apart from thinking that avoiding ejaculation helped healing and human evolution, Krumm-Heller thought it a "good deed for redemption". Maybe redemption was necessary in revolutionary Mexico, when the material world must really have looked like a Gnostic "Rotten Place". It is not known, however, whether he used semen either homoeopathically or isopathically as a universal medicine.

After Krumm-Hellers death, there was conflict within his Rosicrucian organization, rather like those in the O.T.O. groups. But today his F.R.A. is relatively small, its membership regarding themselves as isolated groups, and not ruled by an overall leader. Krumm-Heller offered little room for his followers psychological projections, and his F.R.A. was, and still is, too exclusive to attract really deep devotion. Had it not been for H.J. Metzger's claims to be the leader of the F.R.A., nobody would have heard anything about Krumm-Heller or the F.R.A. in the German or English-speaking worlds after World War Two. It has only been by plagiarising the present author's books that the 'Caliphate' have been able to mix Krumm-Heller into their historical fantasies.

Gnosis in Appenzell - A catalogue

At Stein in Appenzell, where Metzger's Swiss O.T.O. has its headquarters it was claimed that "Beauty and Ecstasy take the place of the previous taboos of society" and "through a period of monogamy in marriage (devotion to only one other person), which is a deviation from natural law, there may be rediscovered that substance which will regain the Divinty's blessing," which was apparently so because "Europeans lack the blessed institution of polygamy". "Every wedding dissolves matter, and creates less matter". The duty of women: "Eroticism and sin - these are the Gates to the Upper World. The Feminine has the key... women will become the Guardians of Good, Loyalty, and Morality." This group also taught techniques for tightening the vaginal muscles, and enjoined washing one's genitals in cold water to prevent sexually-transmitted diseases. "Homosexuality is spreading worryingly through the masses", while "Masturbation is a scourge" - and the only remedy was "to cut it off".

The group was against Yoga; instead autogenic training was "the sweetest fruit of the struggle for self-knowledge". "Humanity finds a place on the astral plane after death. An interaction occurs with the chain-reactions from atom-bomb tests, whereby the fusion of nuclear hydrogen in the Sun facilitates the manifestation of divine power". "From the clouds, radioactivity gives life to stones." They apparently promote a sort of homeopathic "electronic healing", which "will solve the riddle of illness, especially of epidemics", because "it is not impossible that metals and precious stones can have a localised effect on the orbit of electrons". Accidents like broken legs are a result of wrong thinking according to Metzger's O.T.O., which also claimed that vaccination and vegetarianism are bad for health.

Love is the Law - Love under Will

In the end all sex-magical systems fail, when psychological order (not to mention the body's metabolism) is upset by its techniques; any gaps (such as the Void in the image of the Self) are filled with synthetic replacements (the Phallus, the égregore, Crowley, etc.). Despite a rigid regulation of daily life, interpersonal relationships outside the artificial reality of the O.T.O. or FS shrink to the level of projecting one's own failures onto others. This produces dependency, fears of persecution, and a reliance on curses, rituals for destruction, and invoking the help of demons. For instance, at Easter 1992 the mother of what was claimed to be the future reincarnation of Eugen Grosche (and Gotos) Gertrude Zellhuber (aka 'Lara') felt magically threatened by the former Grand Master of the FS, Walter Jantschik. Although GOTOS and the necessary spirits of Pluto were evoked, Jantschik noticed nothing, which seems to have left these hostile intentions free to wreak havoc among other supposed enemies of Lara & co., such as the Temple of Set.

A slowing-down in self-development can be a direct inducement to magical thinking, while overemphasis on instinctive and impulsive energy may cause weakening of control over sexual and aggressive behaviour. This particular polarised state is characterised by an exaggerated emphasis on autoerotic and autonomous activities - in other words, Do what thou Wilt. It can alter a person's self-esteem, their identity, and their sexual and societal rôles. Deliberately distorting the libido can become a serious sport in sex-magic.

Crowley clearly identified himself with Thelema "I am the Beast... I am Thelema" (Diary, 22 October 1920); has Thelema turned out to be a a defect in the oedipal phase of the New Aeon, fostering tendencies towards neurosis and psychosis?
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Re: Ordo Templi Orientis Spermo-Gnosis: Carl Kellner, Theodo

Postby admin » Tue Aug 14, 2018 11:28 pm

Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica
by Wikipedia
8/14/18

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.


Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (E.G.C.), or the Gnostic Catholic Church, is a Gnostic church organization. It is the ecclesiastical arm of the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), an international fraternal initiatory organization devoted to promulgating the Law of Thelema.

Thelema is a philosophical, mystical and religious system elaborated by Aleister Crowley, and based on The Book of the Law. The word Catholic denotes the universality of doctrine and not a Christian or Roman Catholic belief set.

The chief function of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica is the public and private performance of the Gnostic Mass (Liber XV), a eucharistic ritual written by Crowley in 1913. According to William Bernard Crow, Crowley wrote the Gnostic Mass "under the influence of the Liturgy of St. Basil of the Russian Church".[1] Its structure is also influenced by the initiatory rituals of the Ordo Templi Orientis.[2] Its most notable separation from similar rites of other churches is a Priestess officiating with a Priest, Deacon, and two Children. In addition to the Eucharist, baptism, confirmation, marriage, and last rites are offered by E.G.C. Marriage is not limited to couples of opposite gender.[3]

About the Gnostic Mass, Crowley wrote in The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, "... the Ritual of the Gnostic Catholic Church ... I prepared for the use of the O.T.O., the central ceremony of its public and private celebration, corresponding to the Mass of the Roman Catholic Church."[4] It is the single most commonly performed ritual at O.T.O. bodies, with many locations celebrating the Mass monthly or more frequently. Most O.T.O. bodies make some or all of these celebrations open to interested members of the public, so the Mass is often an individual's first experience of the O.T.O.

Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica has a hierarchical structure of clergy, assisting officers, and laity which parallels the degree structure of the O.T.O. initiatory system. Before 1997, the two systems were more loosely correlated, but since then there have been strict rules concerning minimum O.T.O. degrees required to serve in particular E.G.C. roles.[5]

Membership

Membership in Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica is similar to the Roman Catholic Church, with some important differences. As currently constituted, E.G.C. includes both clergy and laity. Clergy must be initiate members of O.T.O., while laity may affiliate to E.G.C. through baptism and confirmation without undertaking any of the degree initiations of the Order.

Novice clergy are initiate members who participate in the administration of E.G.C. sacraments, although they have not yet taken orders (i.e., been through a ceremony of ordination).

The first ordination in E.G.C. is that of the diaconate. Second Degree initiates of O.T.O. who have been confirmed in E.G.C. can be ordained as Deacons, whose principal duties are to assist the Priesthood.

The sacerdotal ordination admits members to the priesthood. Sacerdotal ordinands must hold at least the K.E.W. degree of O.T.O., a degree only available by invitation. The Priesthood is responsible for administering the sacraments through the Gnostic Mass and other ceremonies as authorized by their supervising Bishops.

The Priesthood is supervised and instructed by the Episcopate, or Bishops. Full initiation to the Seventh Degree of O.T.O. includes episcopal consecration in E.G.C. The Tenth Degree Supreme and Holy King serves as the Primate or chief Bishop for any country in which O.T.O. has organized a Grand Lodge. The Frater (or Soror) Superior of O.T.O. is also the Patriarch (Matriarch) of the Church, with ultimate authority over the clergy.

Rituals

The principal ritual of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica is the Gnostic Mass, a Eucharistic ceremony written by Aleister Crowley in 1913. Theodor Reuss produced and authorized a German translation in 1918.

The text of the Gnostic Mass makes reference to ceremonies of baptism, confirmation, and marriage. Crowley left some notes towards a baptism ritual, and his "Liber CVI" was written for use in a last rites circumstance. The Bishops of the contemporary Church have developed rituals for all of these purposes, as well as infant benedictions, consecration of holy oil, funerals, and home administration of the Eucharist to the sick.[6]

Although some Gnostic Masses are held privately for initiates only, there is nothing 'secret' about E.G.C. rituals as such, and they are commonly open to the public.

Saints of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica

The Gnostic Saints of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica are a series of historical and mythological figures revered in the religion of Thelema. They are found in the fifth Collect of Liber XV, titled "The Saints".

Two Gnostic Saints have been officially added to the original list. William Blake was so recognized based on a discovered writing by Aleister Crowley which described him as such.[7] Giordano Bruno was more recently added to the list.[8]

History

The Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica descended from a line of French Gnostic revival churches that developed in the 19th century. At that time, these Gnostic churches were essentially Christian in nature. In 1907, Gerard Encausse, Jean Bricaud and Louis-Sophrone Fugairon founded their own, simply called the Gnostic Catholic Church. In 1908, they gave O.T.O. Grand Master Theodor Reuss episcopal consecration and primatial authority in their GCC. Later that year, Reuss incorporated the Gnostic Catholic Church into O.T.O. after the original founders renamed their own church to the Universal Gnostic Church.

The name "Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica" was not applied to the church until Crowley wrote the Gnostic Mass in 1913, which Reuss proclaimed to be the church's official rite. This marked the first time an established church was to accept the Law of Thelema as its central doctrine. Reuss then announced a new title for himself: the "Sovereign Patriarch and Primate of the Gnostic Catholic Church".[citation needed]

In 1979, Hymenaeus Alpha X° (Grady McMurtry) separated Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica from Ordo Templi Orientis, and made it into an independent organization, with himself at the head of both. During this period of separation Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica published its own quarterly magazine.[9] However, in 1986, his successor, Hymenaeus Beta, dissolved the separate Gnostic Catholic Church corporation and folded the church back into O.T.O. Since then the Church has expanded greatly, and in recent years several books and articles dealing with the E.G.C. and the Gnostic Mass have been published by its Clergy, notably by Tau Apiryon & Tau Helena,[10] James Wasserman & Nancy Wasserman,[11] Rodney Orpheus & Cathryn Orchard,[12] and T Polyphilus.[13]

The Gnostic Creed

A creed is a statement of belief—usually religious belief—or faith. The word derives from the Latin credo for "I believe". The creed of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica—also known as the Gnostic Creed—is recited in the Gnostic Mass, during the Ceremony of the Introit.

The text of the Creed is as follows:

I believe in one secret and ineffable LORD; and in one Star in the Company of Stars of whose fire we are created, and to which we shall return; and in one Father of Life, Mystery of Mystery, in His name CHAOS, the sole vicegerent of the Sun upon the Earth; and in one Air the nourisher of all that breathes.
And I believe in one Earth, the Mother of us all, and in one Womb wherein all men are begotten, and wherein they shall rest, Mystery of Mystery, in Her name BABALON.
And I believe in the Serpent and the Lion, Mystery of Mystery, in His name BAPHOMET.
And I believe in one Gnostic and Catholic Church of Light, Life, Love and Liberty, the Word of whose Law is THELEMA.
And I believe in the communion of Saints.
And, forasmuch as meat and drink are transmuted in us daily into spiritual substance, I believe in the Miracle of the Mass.
And I confess one Baptism of Wisdom whereby we accomplish the Miracle of Incarnation.
And I confess my life one, individual, and eternal that was, and is, and is to come.
AUMGN. AUMGN. AUMGN.


Explication of the Creed

The first six articles profess several beliefs by the congregants. The remaining two are confessions. The Creed ends with the Thelemic form of the Pranava, equivalent to the sacred Vedic syllable "Aum" or to the "Amen" of the Judaeo-Christian tradition. On the basic form of the Creed, Tau Apiryon and Helena (1998) write:

The first 4 clauses are attributed to the four letters of Tetragrammaton YHVH: the Father (Chaos); the Mother (Babalon); the Union of Father and Mother in the Son (Baphomet); and the Daughter, the Bride of the Son (the Church). The two following clauses describe the essential products of the Mass from the perspective of the congregation. The final two clauses are in the form of confession rather than belief and describe parallels between the occurrences in the Mass and the life of the individual.


See also

• Gnosticism
• Gnosticism in modern times

Notes

1. W. B. Crow quoted in T. Apiryon, Introduction to the Gnostic Mass.
2. King, Francis (1973). Secret Rituals of the O.T.O. New York: Samuel Weiser. ISBN 0-87728-144-0
3. "sabazius_x: Same-Sex Marriage". Archived from the original on 2009-12-26. Retrieved 2009-11-01.
4. Crowley, Aleister (1929). The Spirit of Solitude: an autohagiography: subsequently re-Antichristened The Confessions of Aleister Crowley. London: Mandrake Press.
5. U.S. Grand Lodge: Membership in E.G.C.
6. Sabazuis. "Rituals". The Invisible Basilica. Retrieved 2011-07-19.
7. Helena and Tau Apiryon The Gnostic Mass: Annotations and Commentary (footnote). Ordo Templi Orientis, 2004.
8. Sabazius. "From the Grand Master" in Agape, V. 9, No. 1, p. 3. Ordo Templi Orientis, May 1, 2007.
9. "Ecclesia Gnostica: a bibliographical note". Retrieved 2009-11-25.
10. T Apiryon; Helena (2001). Mystery of Mystery: A Primer of Thelemic Ecclesiastical Gnosticism. Red Flame (2nd ed.). Red Flame. ISBN 0-9712376-1-1.
11. Wasserman, James; Nancy Wasserman; Aleister Crowley (2010-03-31). To Perfect This Feast: The Gnostic Mass: Revised Second Edition (2nd Revised ed.). Sekmet Books. ISBN 0-9718870-3-9.
12. Huggens, Kim; Sorita d'Este; Emily Carding; Rodney Orpheus; Cathryn Orchard (2009-12-02). From a Drop of Water - A Collection of Magickal Reflections on The Nature, Creatures, Uses and Symbolism of Water. Avalonia. ISBN 978-1-905297-34-4.
13. T Polyphilus. "Vigorous Food & Divine Madness". Retrieved 2011-07-19.

References

• Crowley, Aleister. Liber XV, The Gnostic Mass.
• Ordo Templi Orientis, U.S. Grand Lodge (2004). Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica. Retrieved January 3, 2005.
• Helena and Tau Apiryon. (1998). The Creed of the Gnostic Catholic Church: an Examination. Retrieved Sept. 20, 2004.
• Fr. HydraLVX. The Gnostic Catholic Creed: Seeds of Self Knowledge, appearing in Lion & Serpent: The Official Journal of Sekhet-Maat Lodge Volume 6, Number 2.
• Thelemapedia (2005). Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica. Retrieved June 9, 2005.

External links

• Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica homepage
• A Collection of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica and Gnostic Mass Materials
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Re: Ordo Templi Orientis Spermo-Gnosis: Carl Kellner, Theodo

Postby admin » Tue Aug 14, 2018 11:59 pm

Knights Hospitaller
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 8/14/18

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

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Knights Hospitaller
Fraternitas Hospitalaria
Knights of Saint John (of Jerusalem)
Knights of Rhodes, Knights of Malta
Image
Flag of the Order

The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (Latin: Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), also known as the Order of Saint John, Order of Hospitallers, Knights Hospitaller, Knights Hospitalier or Hospitallers, was a medieval Catholic military order. It was headquartered in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, on the island of Rhodes, in Malta and St Petersburg.

The Hospitallers arose in the early 11th century, at the time of the great monastic reformation, as a group of individuals associated with an Amalfitan hospital in the Muristan district of Jerusalem, dedicated to John the Baptist and founded around 1023 by Gerard Thom to provide care for sick, poor or injured pilgrims coming to the Holy Land. Some scholars, however, consider that the Amalfitan order and hospital were different from Gerard Thom's order and its hospital.

After the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 during the First Crusade, the organisation became a religious and military order under its own Papal charter, charged with the care and defence of the Holy Land. Following the conquest of the Holy Land by Islamic forces, the knights operated from Rhodes, over which they were sovereign, and later from Malta, where they administered a vassal state under the Spanish viceroy of Sicily. The Hospitallers were the smallest group to colonise parts of the Americas; at one point in the mid-17th century, they acquired four Caribbean islands, which they turned over to the French in the 1660s.

The knights were weakened in the Protestant Reformation, when rich commanderies of the order in northern Germany and the Netherlands became Protestant and largely separated from the Roman Catholic main stem, remaining separate to this day, although ecumenical relations between the descendant chivalric orders are amicable. The order was disestablished in England, Denmark, Sweden and elsewhere in northern Europe, and it was further damaged by Napoleon's capture of Malta in 1798, following which it became dispersed throughout Europe and Russia.

History

Foundation and early history


Image
Grand Master and senior Knights Hospitaller in the 14th century

Image
"Piae Postulatio Voluntatis". Bull issued by Pope Paschal II in 1113 in favour of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, which was to transform what was a community of pious men into an institution within the Church. By virtue of this document, the pope officially recognized the existence of the new organisation as an operative and militant part of the Roman Catholic Church, granting it papal protection and confirming its properties in Europe and Asia.

In 603, Pope Gregory I commissioned the Ravennate Abbot Probus, who was previously Gregory's emissary at the Lombard court, to build a hospital in Jerusalem to treat and care for Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land.[1] In 800, Emperor Charlemagne enlarged Probus' hospital and added a library to it. About 200 years later, in 1005, Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah destroyed the hospital and three thousand other buildings in Jerusalem. In 1023, merchants from Amalfi and Salerno in Italy were given permission by the Caliph Ali az-Zahir of Egypt to rebuild the hospital in Jerusalem. The hospital, which was built on the site of the monastery of Saint John the Baptist, took in Christian pilgrims travelling to visit the Christian holy sites. It was served by the Order of Saint Benedict.

The monastic hospitaller order was founded following the First Crusade by Gerard Thom, whose role as founder was confirmed by the papal bull Pie Postulatio Voluntatis issued by Pope Paschal II in 1113.[2] Gerard acquired territory and revenues for his order throughout the Kingdom of Jerusalem and beyond. Under his successor, Raymond du Puy, the original hospice was expanded to an infirmary[3] near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Initially the group cared for pilgrims in Jerusalem, but the order soon extended to providing pilgrims with an armed escort, which soon grew into a substantial force. Thus the Order of St. John imperceptibly became military without losing its charitable character.[3]

Raymond du Puy, who succeeded Gerard as Master of the Hospital in 1118, organised a militia from the order's members, dividing the order into three ranks: knights, men at arms, and chaplains. Raymond offered the service of his armed troops to Baldwin II of Jerusalem, and the order from this time participated in the crusades as a military order, in particular distinguishing itself in the Siege of Ascalon of 1153. In 1130, Pope Innocent II gave the order its coat of arms, a silver cross in a field of red (gueulles).[dubious – discuss][4]

The Hospitallers and the Knights Templar became the most formidable military orders in the Holy Land. Frederick Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor, pledged his protection to the Knights of St. John in a charter of privileges granted in 1185.

The statutes of Roger de Moulins (1187) deal only with the service of the sick; the first mention of military service is in the statutes of the ninth grand master, Fernando Afonso of Portugal (about 1200). In the latter a marked distinction is made between secular knights, externs to the order, who served only for a time, and the professed knights, attached to the order by a perpetual vow, and who alone enjoyed the same spiritual privileges as the other religious. The order numbered three distinct classes of membership: the military brothers, the brothers infirmarians, and the brothers chaplains, to whom was entrusted the divine service.[3]

In 1248 Pope Innocent IV (1243–1254) approved a standard military dress for the Hospitallers to be worn during battle. Instead of a closed cape over their armour (which restricted their movements), they wore a red surcoat with a white cross emblazoned on it.[5]

Many of the more substantial Christian fortifications in the Holy Land were built by the Templars and the Hospitallers. At the height of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Hospitallers held seven great forts and 140 other estates in the area. The two largest of these, their bases of power in the Kingdom and in the Principality of Antioch, were the Krak des Chevaliers and Margat in Syria.[2] The property of the Order was divided into priories, subdivided into bailiwicks, which in turn were divided into commanderies.

As early as the late 12th century the order had begun to achieve recognition in the Kingdom of England and Duchy of Normandy. As a result, buildings such as St John's Jerusalem and the Knights Gate, Quenington in England were built on land donated to the order by local nobility.[6] An Irish house was established at Kilmainham, near Dublin, and the Irish Prior was usually a key figure in Irish public life.

The Knights also received the "Land of Severin" (Terra de Zeurino), along with the nearby mountains, from Béla IV of Hungary, as shown by a charter of grant issued on 2 June 1247. The Banate of Severin was a march, or border province, of the Kingdom of Hungary between the Lower Danube and the Olt River, today part of Romania, and back then bordered across the Danube by a powerful Bulgarian Empire. However, the Hospitaller hold on the Banate was only brief.[7]

Knights of Cyprus and Rhodes

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Street of Knights in Rhodes

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The Knights' castle at Rhodes

After the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1291 (the city of Jerusalem had fallen in 1187), the Knights were confined to the County of Tripoli and, when Acre was captured in 1291, the order sought refuge in the Kingdom of Cyprus. Finding themselves becoming enmeshed in Cypriot politics, their Master, Guillaume de Villaret, created a plan of acquiring their own temporal domain, selecting Rhodes to be their new home, part of the Byzantine empire. His successor, Foulques de Villaret, executed the plan, and on 15 August 1310, after over four years of campaigning, the city of Rhodes surrendered to the knights. They also gained control of a number of neighbouring islands and the Anatolian port of Halicarnassus and the island of Kastellorizo.

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Rhodes and other possessions of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John.

Pope Clement V dissolved the Hospitallers' rival order, the Knights Templar, in 1312 with a series of papal bulls, including the Ad providam bull that turned over much of their property to the Hospitallers.

The holdings were organised into eight "Tongues" or Langues, one each in Crown of Aragon, Auvergne, Crown of Castile, Kingdom of England, France, Holy Roman Empire, Italy and Provence. Each was administered by a Prior or, if there was more than one priory in the langue, by a Grand Prior.

At Rhodes, and later Malta, the resident knights of each langue were headed by a baili. The English Grand Prior at the time was Philip De Thame, who acquired the estates allocated to the English langue from 1330 to 1358. In 1334, the Knights of Rhodes defeated Andronicus and his Turkish auxiliaries. In the 14th century, there were several other battles in which they fought.[8]

In 1374, the Knights took over the defence of Smyrna, conquered by a crusade in 1344.[9] They held it until it was besieged and taken by Timur in 1402.[9]

On Rhodes the Hospitallers,[10] by then also referred to as the Knights of Rhodes,[11] were forced to become a more militarised force, fighting especially with the Barbary pirates. They withstood two invasions in the 15th century, one by the Sultan of Egypt in 1444 and another by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror in 1480 who, after capturing Constantinople and defeating the Byzantine Empire in 1453, made the Knights a priority target.

In 1494 they created a stronghold on the peninsula of Halicarnassus (presently Bodrum). They used pieces of the partially destroyed Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, to strengthen their rampart, the Petronium.[12]

In 1522, an entirely new sort of force arrived: 400 ships under the command of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent delivered 100,000 men to the island[13] (200,000 in other sources[14]). Against this force the Knights, under Grand Master Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, had about 7,000 men-at-arms and their fortifications. The siege lasted six months, at the end of which the surviving defeated Hospitallers were allowed to withdraw to Sicily. Despite the defeat, both Christians and Muslims seem to have regarded the conduct of Phillipe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam as extremely valiant, and the Grand Master was proclaimed a Defender of the Faith by Pope Adrian VI.

Knights of Malta

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Deed of Donation of the islands of Malta, Gozo and Tripoli to the Order of St John by Emperor Charles V in 1530.

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Grand culverin of the Knights Hospitallers, 1500–1510, Rhodes

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Arms of the Knights Hospitallers, quartered with those of Pierre d'Aubusson, on a bombard

After seven years of moving from place to place in Europe, the knights gained fixed quarters in 1530 when Charles I of Spain, as King of Sicily, gave them Malta,[15] Gozo and the North African port of Tripoli in perpetual fiefdom in exchange for an annual fee of a single Maltese falcon (the Tribute of the Maltese Falcon), which they were to send on All Souls' Day to the King's representative, the Viceroy of Sicily.[16][17]

The Hospitallers continued their actions against the Muslims and especially the Barbary pirates. Although they had only a few ships they quickly drew the ire of the Ottomans, who were unhappy to see the order resettled. In 1565 Suleiman sent an invasion force of about 40,000 men to besiege the 700 knights and 8,000 soldiers and expel them from Malta and gain a new base from which to possibly launch another assault on Europe.[15] This is known as the Great Siege of Malta.

At first the battle went as badly for the Hospitallers as Rhodes had: most of the cities were destroyed and about half the knights killed. On 18 August the position of the besieged was becoming desperate: dwindling daily in numbers, they were becoming too feeble to hold the long line of fortifications. But when his council suggested the abandonment of Birgu and Senglea and withdrawal to Fort St. Angelo, Grand Master Jean Parisot de Valette refused.

The Viceroy of Sicily had not sent help; possibly the Viceroy's orders from Philip II of Spain were so obscurely worded as to put on his own shoulders the burden of the decision whether to help the Order at the expense of his own defences.[citation needed] A wrong decision could mean defeat and exposing Sicily and Naples to the Ottomans. He had left his own son with La Valette, so he could hardly be indifferent to the fate of the fortress. Whatever may have been the cause of his delay, the Viceroy hesitated until the battle had almost been decided by the unaided efforts of the knights, before being forced to move by the indignation of his own officers.

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Re-enactment of 16th-century military drills conducted by the Knights. Fort Saint Elmo, Valletta, Malta, 8 May 2005.

On 23 August came yet another grand assault, the last serious effort, as it proved, of the besiegers. It was thrown back with the greatest difficulty, even the wounded taking part in the defence. The plight of the Turkish forces, however, was now desperate. With the exception of Fort Saint Elmo, the fortifications were still intact.[18] Working night and day the garrison had repaired the breaches, and the capture of Malta seemed more and more impossible. Many of the Ottoman troops in crowded quarters had fallen ill over the terrible summer months. Ammunition and food were beginning to run short, and the Ottoman troops were becoming increasingly dispirited by the failure of their attacks and their losses. The death on 23 June of skilled commander Dragut, a corsair and admiral of the Ottoman fleet, was a serious blow.[19] The Turkish commanders, Piali Pasha and Lala Mustafa Pasha, were careless. They had a huge fleet which they used with effect on only one occasion. They neglected their communications with the African coast and made no attempt to watch and intercept Sicilian reinforcements.

On 1 September they made their last effort, but the morale of the Ottoman troops had deteriorated seriously and the attack was feeble, to the great encouragement of the besieged, who now began to see hopes of deliverance. The perplexed and indecisive Ottomans heard of the arrival of Sicilian reinforcements in Mellieħa Bay. Unaware that the force was very small, they broke off the siege and left on 8 September. The Great Siege of Malta may have been the last action in which a force of knights won a decisive victory.[20]

When the Ottomans departed, the Hospitallers had but 600 men able to bear arms. The most reliable estimate puts the number of the Ottoman army at its height at some 40,000 men, of whom 15,000 eventually returned to Constantinople. The siege is portrayed vividly in the frescoes of Matteo Pérez in the Hall of St. Michael and St. George, also known as the Throne Room, in the Grandmaster's Palace in Valletta; four of the original modellos, painted in oils by Perez d'Aleccio between 1576 and 1581, can be found in the Cube Room of the Queen's House at Greenwich, London. After the siege a new city had to be built: the present capital city of Malta, named Valletta in memory of the Grand Master who had withstood the siege.[citation needed]

In 1607, the Grand Master of the Hospitallers was granted the status of Reichsfürst (Prince of the Holy Roman Empire), even though the Order's territory was always south of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1630, he was awarded ecclesiastic equality with cardinals, and the unique hybrid style His Most Eminent Highness, reflecting both qualities qualifying him as a true Prince of the Church.[citation needed]

The Knights in the 16th and 17th centuries: Reconquista of the Sea

Following the knights' relocation on Malta, they had found themselves devoid of their initial reason for existence: assisting and joining the crusades in the Holy Land was now impossible, for reasons of military and financial strength along with geographical position. With dwindling revenues from European sponsors no longer willing to support a costly and meaningless organization, the knights turned to policing the Mediterranean from the increased threat of piracy, most notably from the threat of the Ottoman-endorsed Barbary pirates operating from the North African coastline. Boosted towards the end of the 16th century by an air of invincibility following the successful defence of their island in 1565 and compounded by the Christian victory over the Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, the knights set about protecting Christian merchant shipping to and from the Levant and freeing the captured Christian slaves who formed the basis of the Barbary corsairs' piratical trading and navies. This became known as the "corso".[21]

Yet the Order soon struggled on a now reduced income. By policing the Mediterranean they augmented the assumed responsibility of the traditional protectors of the Mediterranean, the naval city states of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa. Further compounding their financial woes; over the course of this period the exchange rate of the local currencies against the 'scudo' that were established in the late 16th century gradually became outdated, meaning the knights were gradually receiving less at merchant factories.[22] Economically hindered by the barren island they now inhabited, many knights went beyond their call of duty by raiding Muslim ships.[23] More and more ships were plundered, from the profits of which many knights lived idly and luxuriously, taking local women to be their wives and enrolling in the navies of France and Spain in search of adventure, experience, and yet more money.[24]

The Knights' changing attitudes were coupled with the effects of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation and the lack of stability from the Roman Catholic Church. All this affected the knights strongly as the 16th and 17th centuries saw a gradual decline in the religious attitudes of many of the Christian peoples of Europe (and, concomitantly, the importance of a religious army), and thus in the Knights' regular tributes from European nations.[25] That the knights, a chiefly Roman Catholic military order, pursued the readmittance of England as one of its member states – the Order there had been suppressed, along with monasteries, under king Henry VIII of England – upon the succession of the Protestant queen Elizabeth I of England aptly demonstrates the new religious tolerance within the Order.[26] For a time, the Order even possessed a German langue which was part Protestant or Evangelical and part Roman Catholic.[citation needed]

The perceived moral decline that the knights underwent over the course of this period is best highlighted by the decision of many knights to serve in foreign navies and become "the mercenary sea-dogs of the 14th to 17th centuries", with the French Navy proving the most popular destination.[27] This decision went against the knights' cardinal reason for existence, in that by serving a European power directly they faced the very real possibility that they would be fighting against another Roman Catholic force, as in the few Franco-Spanish naval skirmishes that occurred in this period.[28] The biggest paradox is the fact that for many years the Kingdom of France remained on amicable terms with the Ottoman Empire, the Knights' greatest and bitterest foe and purported sole purpose for existence. Paris signed many trade agreements with the Ottomans and agreed to an informal (and ultimately ineffective) cease-fire between the two states during this period.[29] That the Knights associated themselves with the allies of their sworn enemies shows their moral ambivalence and the new commercial-minded nature of the Mediterranean in the 17th century. Serving in a foreign navy, in particular that of the French, gave the Knights the chance to serve the Church and for many, their King, to increase their chances of promotion in either their adopted navy or in Malta, to receive far better pay, to stave off their boredom with frequent cruises, to embark on the highly preferable short cruises of the French Navy over the long caravans favoured by the Maltese, and if the Knight desired, to indulge in some of the pleasures of a traditional debauched seaport.[30] In return, the French gained and quickly assembled an experienced navy to stave off the threat of the Spanish and their Habsburg masters. The shift in attitudes of the Knights over this period is ably outlined by Paul Lacroix who states:

Inflated with wealth, laden with privileges which gave them almost sovereign powers ... the order at last became so demoralised by luxury and idleness that it forgot the aim for which it was founded, and gave itself up for the love of gain and thirst for pleasure. Its covetousness and pride soon became boundless. The Knights pretended that they were above the reach of crowned heads: they seized and pillaged without concern of the property of both infidels and Christians."[31]


With the knights' exploits growing in fame and wealth, the European states became more complacent about the Order, and more unwilling to grant money to an institution that was perceived to be earning a healthy sum on the high seas. Thus a vicious cycle occurred, increasing the raids and reducing the grants received from the nation-states of Christendom to such an extent that the balance of payments on the island had become dependent on conquest.[24] The European powers lost interest in the knights as they focused their intentions largely on one another during the Thirty Years' War. In February 1641 a letter was sent from an unknown dignitary in the Maltese capital of Valletta to the knights' most trustworthy ally and benefactor, Louis XIV of France, stating the Order's troubles:

Italy provides us with nothing much; Bohemia and Germany hardly anything, and England and the Netherlands for a long time now nothing at all. We only have something to keep us going, Sire, in your own Kingdom and in Spain.[32]


It is important to note that the Maltese authorities would neglect to mention the fact that they were making a substantial profit policing the seas and seizing "infidel" ships and cargoes. The authorities on Malta immediately recognised the importance of corsairing to their economy and set about encouraging it, as despite their vows of poverty, the Knights were granted the ability to keep a portion of the spoglio, which was the prize money and cargo gained from a captured ship, along with the ability to fit out their own galleys with their new wealth.[33]

The great controversy that surrounded the knights' corso was their insistence on their policy of 'vista'. This enabled the Order to stop and board all shipping suspected of carrying Turkish goods and confiscate the cargo to be re-sold at Valletta, along with the ship's crew, who were by far the most valuable commodity on the ship. Naturally many nations claimed to be victims of the knights' over-eagerness to stop and confiscate any goods remotely connected to the Turks.[23] In an effort to regulate the growing problem, the authorities in Malta established a judicial court, the Consiglio del Mer, where captains who felt wronged could plead their case, often successfully. The practice of issuing privateering licenses and thus state endorsement, which had been in existence for a number of years, was tightly regulated as the island's government attempted to haul in the unscrupulous knights and appease the European powers and limited benefactors. Yet these efforts were not altogether successful, as the Consiglio del Mer received numerous complaints around the year 1700 of Maltese piracy in the region. Ultimately, the rampant over-indulgence in privateering in the Mediterranean was to be the knights' downfall in this particular period of their existence as they transformed from serving as the military outpost of a united Christendom to becoming another nation-state in a commercially oriented continent soon to be overtaken by the trading nations of the North Sea.[34]

Life in Malta

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Auberge de Castille in Valletta, an example of 18th century Baroque architecture built by the Order.

Having gained Malta, the knights stayed for 268 years, transforming what they called "merely a rock of soft sandstone" into a flourishing island with mighty defences and a capital city (Valletta) known as Superbissima, "Most Proud", amongst the great powers of Europe. However, "the indigenous islanders had not particularly enjoyed the rule of the Knights of St John". Most Knights were French and excluded the native islanders from important positions. They were especially loathed for the way they took advantage of the native women.[35]

In 1301, the Order was organized in seven langues; by order of precedence, Provence, Auvergne, France, Aragon, Italy, England, and Germany. In 1462, the Langue of Aragon was divided into Castile-Portugal and Aragon-Navarre. The English Langue went into abeyance after the order's properties were taken over by Henry VIII in 1540. In 1782, it was revived as the Anglo-Bavarian Langue, containing Bavarian and Polish priories. The structure of langues was replaced in the late 19th century by a system of national associations.

When the Knights first arrived, the natives were apprehensive about their presence and viewed them as arrogant intruders. The Maltese were excluded from serving in the order. The Knights were even generally dismissive of the Maltese nobility. However, the two groups coexisted peacefully, since the Knights boosted the economy, were charitable, and protected against Muslim attacks.[36]

Not surprisingly, hospitals were among the first projects to be undertaken on Malta, where French soon supplanted Italian as the official language (though the native inhabitants continued to speak Maltese among themselves).[37] The knights also constructed fortresses, watch towers, and naturally, churches. Its acquisition of Malta signalled the beginning of the Order's renewed naval activity.

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View of the fortifications of Valletta

The building and fortification of Valletta, named for Grand Master la Valette, was begun in 1566, soon becoming the home port of one of the Mediterranean's most powerful navies. Valletta was designed by Francesco Laparelli, a military engineer, and his work was then taken up by Girolamo Cassar. The city was completed in 1571. The island's hospitals were expanded as well. The Sacra Infermeria could accommodate 500 patients and was famous as one of the finest in the world. In the vanguard of medicine, the Hospital of Malta included Schools of Anatomy, Surgery and Pharmacy. Valletta itself was renowned as a centre of art and culture. The Conventual Church of St. John, completed in 1577, contains works by Caravaggio and others.

In Europe, most of the Order's hospitals and chapels survived the Reformation, though not in Protestant or Evangelical countries. In Malta, meanwhile, the Public Library was established in 1761. The University was founded seven years later, followed, in 1786, by a School of Mathematics and Nautical Sciences. Despite these developments, some of the Maltese grew to resent the Order, which they viewed as a privileged class. This even included some of the local nobility, who were not admitted to the Order.

In Rhodes, the knights had been housed in auberges (inns) segregated by Langues. This structure was maintained in Birgu (1530–1571) and then Valletta (from 1571). The auberges in Birgu remain, mostly undistinguished 16th-century buildings. Valletta still has the auberges of Castille (1574; renovated 1741 by Grand Master de Vilhena, now the Prime Minister's offices), Italy (renovated 1683 by Grand Master Carafa, now the Malta Tourism Authority), Aragon (1571, now Ministry for EU Affairs), Bavaria (former Palazzo Carnerio, purchased in 1784 for the newly formed Langue, now used as the Government Property Department) and Provence (now National Museum of Archaeology). In the Second World War, the auberge d'Auvergne was damaged (and later replaced by Law Courts) and the auberge de France was destroyed.

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A 1742 Tarì coin of the Knights Hospitaller, depicting the head of John the Baptist on a platter.

In 1604, each Langue was given a chapel in the conventual church of Saint John and the arms of the Langue appear in the decoration on the walls and ceiling:

• Provence: Michael the archangel, Jerusalem
• Auvergne: Saint Sebastian, Azure a dolphin or
• France: conversion of Paul the Apostle, France
• Castile and León: James, brother of Jesus, Quarterly Castile and Leon
• Aragon: Saint George [the church of the Langue is consecrated to Our Lady of the Pillar Per pale Aragon and Navarre]
• Italy: St Catherine, Azure the word ITALIA in bend or
• England: Flagellation of Christ, [no arms visible; in Rhodes the Langue used the arms of England, quarterly France and England]
• Germany: Epiphany, Austria born by a double-headed eagle displayed sable

Turmoil in Europe

Even as it survived on Malta, the Order lost many of its European holdings during the Protestant Reformation. The property of the English branch was confiscated in 1540.[38] The German Bailiwick of Brandenburg became Lutheran in 1577, then more broadly Evangelical, but continued to pay its financial contribution to the Order until 1812, when the Protector of the Order in Prussia, King Frederick William III, turned it into an order of merit;[38] in 1852, his son and successor as Protector, King Frederick William IV of Prussia, restored the Johanniterorden to its continuing place as the chief non-Roman Catholic branch of the Knights Hospitaller.

The Knights of Malta had a strong presence within the Imperial Russian Navy and the pre-revolutionary French Navy. When Phillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy was appointed governor of the French colony on Saint Kitts in 1639, he was a prominent Knight of St. John and dressed his retinue with the emblems of the Order. In 1651, the knights bought from the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique the islands of Sainte-Christophe, Saint Martin, and Saint Barthélemy.[39] The Order's presence in the Caribbean was eclipsed with De Poincy's death in 1660. He had also bought the island of Saint Croix as his personal estate and deeded it to the Knights of St. John. In 1665, the order sold their Caribbean possessions to the French West India Company, ending the Order's presence in that region.

The decree of the French National Assembly in 1789 abolishing feudalism in France also abolished the Order in France:

V. Tithes of every description, as well as the dues which have been substituted for them, under whatever denomination they are known or collected (even when compounded for), possessed by secular or regular congregations, by holders of benefices, members of corporations (including the Order of Malta and other religious and military orders), as well as those devoted to the maintenance of churches, those impropriated to lay persons and those substituted for the portion congrue, are abolished ...[40]


The French Revolutionary Government seized the assets and properties of the Order in France in 1792.

Loss of Malta

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Emperor Paul wearing the Crown of the Grand Master of the Order of Malta (1799).

Their Mediterranean stronghold of Malta was captured by Napoleon in 1798 during his expedition to Egypt.[18] Napoleon demanded from Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim that his ships be allowed to enter the port and to take on water and supplies. The Grand Master replied that only two foreign ships could be allowed to enter the port at a time. Bonaparte, aware that such a procedure would take a very long time and would leave his forces vulnerable to Admiral Nelson, immediately ordered a cannon fusillade against Malta.[41] The French soldiers disembarked in Malta at seven points on the morning of 11 June and attacked. After several hours of fierce fighting, the Maltese in the west were forced to surrender.[42]

Napoleon opened negotiations with the fortress capital of Valletta. Faced with vastly superior French forces and the loss of western Malta, the Grand Master negotiated a surrender to the invasion.[43] Hompesch left Malta for Trieste on 18 June.[44] He resigned as Grand Master on 6 July 1799.

The knights were dispersed, though the order continued to exist in a diminished form and negotiated with European governments for a return to power. The Russian Emperor, Paul I, gave the largest number of knights shelter in Saint Petersburg, an action which gave rise to the Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller and the Order's recognition among the Russian Imperial Orders.[45] The refugee knights in Saint Petersburg proceeded to elect Tsar Paul as their Grand Master – a rival to Grand Master von Hompesch until the latter's abdication left Paul as the sole Grand Master. Grand Master Paul I created, in addition to the Roman Catholic Grand Priory, a "Russian Grand Priory" of no fewer than 118 Commanderies, dwarfing the rest of the Order and open to all Christians. Paul's election as Grand Master was, however, never ratified under Roman Catholic canon law, and he was the de facto rather than de jure Grand Master of the Order.

By the early 19th century, the order had been severely weakened by the loss of its priories throughout Europe. Only 10% of the order's income came from traditional sources in Europe, with the remaining 90% being generated by the Russian Grand Priory until 1810. This was partly reflected in the government of the Order being under Lieutenants, rather than Grand Masters, in the period 1805 to 1879, when Pope Leo XIII restored a Grand Master to the order. This signaled the renewal of the order's fortunes as a humanitarian and religious organization.

On 19 September 1806, the Swedish government offered the sovereignty of the island of Gotland to the Order. The offer was rejected since it would have meant the Order renouncing their claim to Malta.[46]

Remnants

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View from Valletta, Malta, showing Fort Saint Angelo, belonging to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

In August 2013, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced that the 150,000 square feet (14,000 m2) Hospitaller hospital, built between 1099 and 1291, with permission from the Muslim authorities, had been rediscovered in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It had been able to accommodate up to 2,000 patients, who came from all religious groups, and Jewish patients received kosher food. It also served as an orphanage, with these children often becoming Hospitallers when adult. The remaining vaulted area was discovered during excavations for a restaurant, and the preserved building will be incorporated in the project.[47]

Claims over the Knights Hospitaller

Several organizations claim with their own sources to have evolved from the Knights Hospitaller but all are subject to international dispute and lack recognition. The Russian Tradition was recognized by the Pope with Tsar Paul I becoming Grand Master. The British resented this decision as it could have given Russia access to the Mediterranean through a claim over Malta. Britain said that the decision of the Pope was not official. The Holy See later retracted its decision stating a number of conflicts with Tsar Paul I, since he did not follow the precepts binding the Grand Master: he was married and not celibate ; he had never been to Malta and declined to live there; and he was not a Roman Catholic. In the 20th century a British leaning order called the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) was formed claiming descent from the early 19th century. Its recognition was promoted by Britain and accepted by the Roman Catholic Church on several conditions, but most countries do not recognize it, while other countries do so according to different criteria ranging from a sovereign entity to a charitable organization. The British leaning SMOM order, ironically, has also formed a protestant branch of the order. Several other orders have made claims over the Order of St John since the 19th century. Each order, including the Russian Tradition and the SMOM generally use their interpretation of sources to present and claim a particular history of events. No independent sources support any superseding order of the Knights Hospitaller, all of which use either non-primary or self-published, non-peer-reviewed sources in support of their claims of legitimacy. The Order came to an end either sometimes after the expulsion of the knights from Malta or soon after the Russian revolution, both in the early 19th century.[48]

Sovereign Military Order of Malta

In 1834, the order settled in Rome.[49] Hospital work, the original work of the order, became once again its main concern. The Order's hospital and welfare activities, undertaken on a considerable scale in World War I, were greatly intensified and expanded in World War II under the Grand Master Fra' Ludovico Chigi Albani della Rovere (Grand Master 1931–1951).

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Coat of arms of the Order of Malta

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, better known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), is a Roman Catholic lay religious order and the world's oldest surviving order of chivalry.[50] Its sovereign status is recognised by membership in numerous international bodies and observer status at the United Nations and others.[51]

The Order maintains diplomatic relations with 107 countries, official relations with 6 others and with the European Union, permanent observer missions to the United Nations and its specialised agencies, and delegations or representations to many other international organizations.[52][53] It issues its own passports, currency, stamps and even vehicle registration plates[citation needed]. The Sovereign Military Order of Malta has a permanent presence in 120 countries, with 12 Grand Priories and Sub-Priories and 47 national Associations, as well as numerous hospitals, medical centres, day care centres, first aid corps, and specialist foundations, which operate in 120 countries. Its 13,500 members and 80,000 volunteers and over 42,000 medical personnel – doctors, nurses and paramedics – are dedicated to the care of the poor, the sick, the elderly, the disabled, the homeless, terminal patients, lepers, and all those who suffer. The Order is especially involved in helping victims of armed conflicts and natural disasters by providing medical assistance, caring for refugees, and distributing medicines and basic equipment for survival.

The Sovereign Military Order of Malta established a mission in Malta, after signing an agreement with the Maltese Government which granted the Order the exclusive use of Fort St. Angelo for a term of 99 years.[54] Today, after restoration, the Fort hosts historical and cultural activities related to the Order of Malta.[55]

Alliance of the Orders of Saint John of Jerusalem

During the Reformation, German commanderies of the Bailiwick of Brandenburg (located chiefly in the Margraviate of Brandenburg) declared their continued adherence to the Order of Saint John even as their knights converted to evangelical Christianity. Continuing to the present day as the Order of Saint John of the Bailiwick of Brandenburg, this forms an order of chivalry under the protection of the Federal Republic and with its Herrenmeister ("Lord of the Knights") almost always a scion of the House of Hohenzollern (currently, Prince Oscar of Prussia). From Germany, this Protestant branch has spread by membership into other countries in Europe (including Belgium, Hungary, Poland, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, France, Austria, the United Kingdom, and Italy), North America (the United States, Canada, and Mexico), South America (Colombia, Venezuela, Chile), Africa (Namibia, South Africa), Asia, and Australia.[56]

The commanderies of the Bailiwick of Brandenburg in the Netherlands (which originated in the Middle Ages) and Sweden became independent of the Bailiwick after the Second World War and now are independent orders under the protection of their respective monarchs; the Dutch monarch is an Honorary Commander of the Order of Saint John in the Netherlands, and the Order of St John in Sweden is protected by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

All three Protestant orders, the German, Dutch, and Swedish, are in formalised co-operation as members of the Alliance of the Orders of Saint John of Jerusalem, founded in 1961 by the Order of Saint John of the Bailiwick of Brandenburg. (As well as originating with the mediaeval Knights Hospitaller, these three orders meet the traditional conditions for dynastic orders of chivalry under the legitimate fount of honour of each nation, and thus enjoy recognition by the privately operated and funded International Commission on Orders of Chivalry as of 2016.) The Protestant orders remain independent of though co-operative with the Roman Catholic Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

In England, almost all the property of the Knights Hospitaller was confiscated by King Henry VIII through the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the Reformation. Though not formally suppressed, this effectively caused the activities of the English Langue of the order to come to an end.

In 1831, however, a British order was recreated by European aristocrats claiming (possibly without authority) to be acting on behalf of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.[57] This order in time became known as the Most Venerable Order of Saint John, receiving a royal charter from Queen Victoria in 1888, before expanding throughout the United Kingdom, the British Commonwealth, and the United States. Today, the best-known activities of this order are the St. John Ambulance Brigade in Britain and the Commonwealth and the Saint John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem.[58] The Most Venerable Order of Saint John has maintained a presence in Malta since the late 19th century. In contrast with the orders originating with the mediaeval Knights Hospitaller, the British organisation no longer limits its membership to Christians.

Other orders

Following the end of World War II, and taking advantage of the lack of State Orders in the Italian Republic, an Italian called himself a Polish Prince and did a brisk trade in Maltese crosses as the Grand Prior of the fictitious "Grand Priory of Podolia" until successfully prosecuted for fraud. Another fraud claimed to be the Grand Prior of the Holy Trinity of Villeneuve, but gave up after a police visit, although the organisation resurfaced in Malta in 1975, and then by 1978 in the USA, where it still continues.[59]

The large passage fees collected by the American Association of SMOM in the early 1950s may well have tempted a man named Charles Pichel to create his own "Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitaller" in 1956.[5] Pichel avoided the problems of being an imitation of SMOM by giving his organization a mythical history, claiming that the American organization he led had been founded within the Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller in 1908—a spurious claim, but which nevertheless misled many including some academics. In truth, the foundation of his organisation had no connection to the Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller. Once created, the attraction of Russian Nobles into membership of Pichel's 'Order' lent some plausibility to his claims.

These organizations have led to scores of other self-styled orders.[5] Another self-styled Order, based in California, gained a substantial following under leadership of the late Robert Formhals, who for some years, and with the support of historical organisations such as The Augustan Society, claimed to be a Polish prince of the House of Sanguszko.[5]

Princes and Grand Masters

See also

• Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes
• List of the priors of Saint John of Jerusalem in England
• Teutonic Order
• Knights Templar
• Torphichen Preceptory
• Pierre Jean Louis Ovide Doublet, a leadership member of the French Secretariat of the Knights Fortifications
• Fortifications of Rhodes
• Fortifications of Malta
• Kolossi Castle
• Mailberg

References

1. Adrian J. Boas, Jerusalem in the Time of the Crusades: Society, Landscape and Art in the Holy City under Frankish Rule, (Routledge, 2001), 26.
2. "Knights of Malta – unofficial website".
3. "Moeller, Charles. "Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company". Newadvent.org. 1910-06-01. Retrieved 2014-03-02.
4. Louis Moreri, The Great Historical Dictionary(1759):[page needed]
5. Cartulaire general de l'ordre des hospitaliers de St Jean de Jerusalem (1100–1310), ed. Joseph Delaville le Roulx (Paris, 1894–1906), no. 78, no. 2479.
6. L. Greaves, Houses of the National Trust: Outstanding Buildings of Britain (London, 2008) p. 325
7. M. Rady, Nobility, Land and Service in Medieval Hungary[1]
8. Graham, J. J. (1858). Elementary History of the Progress of the Art of War. R. Bentley., page 299
9. Helen J. Nicholson, The Knights Hospitaller, (Boydell Press, 2001), 54
10. Artemi, E. DIASPORIC COMMUNITIES IN RHODES 1350 -1450. The Knights of Rhodes – the hospitallers
11. "Catholic Encyclopedia: Knights of Malta". Newadvent.org. Retrieved 2008-10-12.
12. "Bodrum.com".
13. Balfour, Baron Kinross, Patrick (1979). The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire. p. 176.
14. (G. Veinstein). "Süleymān: Encyclopaedia of Islam: Brill Online". Brillonline.nl. Retrieved 2008-10-12.
15. "Malta History". Jimdiamondmd.com. Retrieved 2008-10-12.
16. "Malta History 1000 AD–present". Carnaval.com. Retrieved 2008-10-12.
17. This historical fact was used as the plot hook in Dashiell Hammett's famous novel The Maltese Falcon.
18. "Knights of Malta". Knightshospitallers.org. Archived from the original on 5 July 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-12.
19. Balbi, Francesco (1965). The Siege of Malta, 1565. Boydell Press. ISBN 9781843831402.
20. Ottoman Siege of Malta, 1565, World History at KMLA. Accessed 14 September 2007
21. Peter Earle, Corsairs of Malta and Barbary, (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1970); p. 107
22. Hoppen, 'The Finances of the Order of St John of Jerusalem' p. 106
23. Peter Earle, Corsairs of Malta and Barbary, (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1970); p. 109
24. Peter Earle, Corsairs of Malta and Barbary, (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1970); p. 97
25. Herny Kamen, Early Modern European Society, (London: Routledge, 2000); p. 17
26. D F Allen, "Charles II, Louis XIV and the Order of Malta", The Historical Journal, 33(4), 1990, p. 326
27. Paul Walden Bamford, 'The Knights of Malta and the King of France 1665–1700', French Historical Studies, 3, 1964; p. 432
28. Paul Walden Bamford, "The Knights of Malta and the King of France 1665–1700", French Historical Studies, 3, 1964; p. 434
29. D. F. Allen, "Charles II, Louis XIV and the Order of Malta", The Historical Journal, 33(4), 1990, p. 324
30. Paul Walden Bamford, "The Knights of Malta and the King of France 1665–1700", French Historical Studies, 3, 1964; pp. 423–433
31. Paul Lacroix, Military and Religious Life in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1964); p. 188
32. D. F. Allen, "Charles II, Louis XIV and the Order of Malta", The Historical Journal, 33(4), 1990, p. 338
33. Desmond Seward, The Monks of War (London: Penguin, 1972); p. 274
34. Molly Greene, "Beyond the Northern Invasion: The Mediterranean in the 17th Century", Past and Present, 2002 (174), p. 46
35. John Sugden (3 Feb 2014). Nelson: The Sword of Albion(illustrated ed.). Random House. p. 122. ISBN 9781847922762.
36. Nicholas C. Prata (1 Apr 2004). Angels in Iron (illustrated, reprint ed.). Arx Publishing, LLC. pp. 10–11. ISBN 9781889758565.
37. Cassar, Mario. "L-Istorja tal-Ilsien Malti". L-Akkademja tal-Malti. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
38. "History – Order of Malta in the UK". Orderofmalta.org.uk. Archived from the original on 24 July 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-12.
39. Louis Jean Pierre Marie Bonnassieux, Les grandes compagnies de commerce: étude pour servir à l'histoire de la colonisation. Originally published Paris, 1892. Reprinted in 1969 by Ayer Publishing.
40. Robinson, J.H., ed. (1906). "The Decree Abolishing the Feudal System". Readings in European History 2 vols. Boston: Ginn. 2: 404–409.
41. Cole, Juan (2007). Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 8–9.
42. Cole, Juan (2007). Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 9.
43. Cole, Juan (2007). Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 10.
44. Whitworth Porter, A History of the Knights of Malta (London: Longman, Brown, Green, 1858). p. 457.
45. "Focus on Malta – History". Focusmm.com. Retrieved 2008-10-12.
46. Stair Sainty, Guy (2000). "From the loss of Malta to the modern era". ChivalricOrders.org. Archived from the original on 6 March 2012.
47. Mairav, Zonszein (August 5, 2013). "Mideast's Largest Crusader-Era Hospital Unveiled". National Geographic Society. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
48. Dijkhof, Hans J. Hoegen; Dijkhof, Hendrik Johannes Hoegen (2006). The Legitimacy of Orders of St. John: A Historical and Legal Analysis and Case Study of a Para-religious Phenomenon. Hoegen Dijkhof Advocaten. ISBN 9789065509543.
49. "Sovereign Order of Malta – official site". Orderofmalta.int. Retrieved 2016-09-12.
50. World Orders of Knighthood and Merit edited by Guy Stair Sainty, Burke's, Aug 2006
51. "Organisations granted Observer Status in the General Assembly". Archived from the original on 1 December 2012.{}
52. Bilateral relations. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
53. Multilateral Relations. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
54. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 19 November 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
55. Sovereign Order of Malta – official sitepublisher=Orderofmalta.int|date=|accessdate=2017-09-12
56. "St John International". Retrieved 2016-06-17.
57. Desmond Seward, The Monks of War: The Military Orders(London 2000), 270–85.
58. "St John Eye Hospital". Stjohneyehospital.org. Retrieved 2008-10-12.
59. "Self-Styled "Orders of Saint John" II". Chivalricorders.org. Archived from the original on 19 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-12.
This article incorporates text from Knights of Malta 1523–1798 by Reuben Cohen, a publication now in the public domain.

Further reading

• Ball, David (2004). Ironfire. Bantam Dell. ISBN 0-385-33601-2.
• Cohen, R. (15 April 2004) [1920]. Julie Barkley, Bill Hershey and PG Distributed Proofreaders, ed. Knights of Malta, 1523–1798. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 2006-05-29.
• Crowley, Roger (2008). Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World. Random House. ISBN 978-1400066247.
• Fenech, Marthese (2011). Eight Pointed Cross. BDL. ISBN 978-99957-33-08-7.
• Gauci, Liam (2016). In the Name of the Prince: Maltese Corsairs 1760-1798. Malta: Heritage Malta Publishing. ISBN 9789993257370.
• Hoegen Dijkhof, Hans J. (2006). The Legitimacy of Orders of St. John: a historical and legal analysis and case study of a para-religious phenomenon. Doctoral thesis. Leiden: University of Leiden. ISBN 9065509542.
• Levaye, Patrick (2007). Géopolitique du Catholicisme. Éditions Ellipses. ISBN 2-7298-3523-7.
• Lindgren, Carl Edwin (September–October 1999). "Some Notes About the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in the U.S.A". Nobilita (Rivista di Araldica, Genealogia, Ordini Cavallereschi). Istituto Araldico Genealogico Italiano. 7 (32).
• Nicholson, Helen J. (2001). The Knights Hospitaller. ISBN 1-84383-038-8.;
• Noonan, James-Charles, Jr. (1996). The Church Visible: The Ceremonial Life and Protocol of the Roman Catholic Church. Viking. p. 196. ISBN 0-670-86745-4.
• Peyrefitte, Roger (1960). Knights of Malta. London: Secker & Warburg. Translated from the French by Edward Hyams.
• Read, Piers Paul (1999). The Templars. Imago. p. 118. ISBN 85-312-0735-5.
• Riley-Smith, Jonathan (1999). Hospitallers: The History of the Order of St John. Hambledon. ISBN 1-85285-197-X.
• Tyerman, Christopher (2006). God's War: A New History of the Crusades. Allen Lane. p. 253. ISBN 0-7139-9220-4.
• White, Joshua M. (2017). Piracy and Law in the Ottoman Mediterranean. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-1-503-60252-6.
1. ^ As the Sovereign Military Order of Malta

External links

• Sovereign Military Order of Malta official website
• Rare Histoire des Chevaliers de L’Ordre de S. Jean de Hierusalem Rare Book on Knights of St. John
• The Acquisition of Sovereignty by Quasi-States: The case of the Order of Malta by Dr Noel Cox
• WorldStatesmen article
• Houses of Knights Hospitallers, British History Online
• Knights Hospitaller of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in Scotland
• History of the Order of St John in Scotland
• "Vatican celebrates Knights of Malta's 900 years" by Nicole Winfield, Associated Press, Feb 9, 2013
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Re: Ordo Templi Orientis Spermo-Gnosis: Carl Kellner, Theodo

Postby admin » Wed Aug 15, 2018 2:13 am

13th Degree: Royal Arch of Enoch (or Knights of the Ninth Arch)
The Book of the Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
by Charles T. McClenechan
(1884)

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.


THIRTEENTH DEGREE.

Royal Arch of Enoch.

ARGUMENT.


This degree, in fact, forms the climax of Ineffable Masonry; it is the keystone of the arch, and discovers that which is revealed in the succeeding degree of Perfection. It is a most important and interesting grade, and so intimately connected with its successor as to appear like a section of that degree.

The shaded beauties of the sacred words that have so gradually been inculcated, in this degree receive a climax, and culminate in the development of the great mystery of Ineffable Masonry.

"The dark clouds and mists that have hitherto veiled the sacred mysteries now begin to be dispelled: the glorious dawn illumines the E Image with its bright effulgence, and its rays penetrate into dark and hidden places."

Image

ROYAL ARCH OF ENOCH;

OR

KNIGHTS OF THE NINTH ARCH.

THE THIRTEENTH GRADE OF THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE, AND THE TENTH DEGREE OF THE INEFFABLE SERIES.

Image

Image

DECORATIONS.

This Chapter of Royal Arch of Solomon represents the audience-chamber of King Solomon. The hangings are alternately red and white.

Lights -- Three in the East, three in the West, and three in the South.

OFFICERS.

King Solomon is seated in the East.

Hirma, King of Tyre, is also in the East, on the left of K Image S Image

Senior Warden represents Gibulum, and is seated in the West.

Junior Warden represents Stolkin, and is seated in the South.

Treasurer (who represents Joabert), Secretary, Master of Ceremonies, Captain of the Guard, and other officers, stationed as in a Lodge of Perfection.

All Officers and Companion, except the Kings, clothed in black, with apron, collar, and jewel of this degree or of their particular office.

King Solomon wears a yellow robe, purple chasuble, lined with blue, sleeves reaching to the elbows, and rich purple sash, with jewel.

King Hiram of Tyre wears a purple robe, yellow chasuble, and rich purple sash, with jewel.

Apron -- Purple silk or velvet, bordered with white; in the centre of the area, the Enochian delta, with rays.

Image

Collar -- Purple silk or velvet, and suspended to it the

Jewel -- A Gold triangle, on which is engraved the delta of Enoch, with rays. On the obverse side of the jewel is a representation of the first three recipients of this degree, two of them lowering the third into the subterranean vault. Around this device, the initials of the words "Regnante Sapientissimo Salamone, Gibulum, Joabert, et Stolkin invenerunt pretiosissimum Artificum thesaurum subter ruinas Enoch, Anno Mundi 2995."

Age - 7 times 9=63.

Battery - Image

There should be a separate apartment, without apparent door or window; opening overhead, covered with a trap-door, representing a flat stone with an iron ring to it.

Image

OPENING.

T. Image P Image The Lord is great in Zion. Let all the earth praise him for his great and terrible name, for it is holy.

S. Image W Image Exalt the Lord our God, and worship on his holy hill.

J Image W Image He spake from the cloudy pillar and from the fire; and from the depth cometh forth the riches of secret places.

T Image P Image Exalt the Lord our God, for he is holy; and his name, for it is from everlasting to everlasting.

S Image W Image What is man, that he should magnify him, or that he should set his heart upon him?

J Image W Image We are but of yesterday, and know nothing. Our days are but a shadow: they flee, and we know not.

T Image P Image Canst thou, by searching, find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection? He is as high as heaven. What canst thou do? He is deeper than hell. What canst thou know?

S Image W Image His eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his doings.

J Image W Image O God, let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto the children of men!

T Image P Image Let the beauty of the Lord be upon us, and establish thou the work of our hands: O Jehovah, establish thou it!

S Image W Image I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises unto my God while I have my being.

J Image W Image My meditations of him shall be sweet; I will be glad in the Lord.

T Image P Image Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. "Mine eyes shall be on the perfect man," saith the Lord.

"The perfect of the land shall dwell with me: they shall walk in my name, and serve me forever." Companions, let us give thanks unto the Lord, who hath given us the treasures of darkness and the hidden riches of secret places.

PRAYER

O thou great and eternal Lord God, source of light and of love -- thou Sovereign Inspector and Mighty Architect of the wonders of Creation -- who from thy throne in the highest heaven in mercy looketh down upon all the dwellers of the earth -- lend, we beseech thee, thine ears to the prayers and petitions of thy unworthy servants now assembled in thy presence, to teach the mysteries of that Sublime Edifice which is erected and dedicated to thy Most Holy and Glorious Name. pour upon us, and all the members of the Mystic Craft throughout the two hemispheres, the rich blessings of thy Providence. Give us strength to overcome temptations, to subdue our passions, and to practise virtue. Fill our hearts with fear without desolation; with confidence without presumption; with piety without illusion; and with joy without licentiousness. Fill our hearts with tender affections for thy divine goodness, and love for our neighbors: make us faithful to our friends and charitable to our enemies. Dispose our hearts, O thou God Eternal! to receive the splendid impressions of Religion and Humanity; our minds, the great lights of Science; and direct our footsteps in the bright paths of virtue.

Let all our actions prove to an admiring world that our lives are sincerely dedicated to Thee, our God, and to the relief of our fellow-creatures. And finally, when we yield up our breath to Thee, the Source of Life, may we, bearing the rich harvest of good actions, be admitted into that Sublime and Eternal Lodge where happiness reigns without alloy, and where, around the throne of the Great Jehovah, we shall sing hallelujahs to his name.

Now unto the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only Wise God, be the kingdom, power, and glory, forever and ever. Amen!

Omnes. God grant it so may be!

Image

RECEPTION.

I shall now invest you with the apron, collar, and jewel of a Knight of the Ninth or Royal Arch.

The color of your apron and collar is purple, and denotes the royal origin of the degree and the dignity of your station.

The jewel alludes to the delta or golden plate found in the subterranean arch, a more full description of which will be obtained by attending to the history and lecture of the degree.

HISTORY.

G Image O Image Companions: this is the history and legend of this degree. Enoch, the son of Jared, was the sixth in descent from Adam. Filled with the love and fear of God, he strove to lead men in the way of honor and duty. In a vision the deity appeared to him in visible shape, and said to him, "Enoch, thou hast longed to know my true name: arise and follow me, and thou shall know it."

***

Enoch, accepting his vision as an inspiration, journeyed in search of the mountain he had seen in his dream, until, weary of the search, he stopped in the land of Canaan, then already populous with the descendants of Adam, and there employed workmen; and with the help of his son Methuselah, he excavated nine apartments, one above the other, and each roofed with an arch, as he had seen in his dream, the lowest being hewn out of the solid rock. In the crown of each arch he left a narrow aperture, closed with a square stone, and over the upper one he built a modest temple, roofless and of huge unhewn stones, to the Grand Architect of the Universe.

Upon a triangular plate of gold, inlaid with many precious gems, he engraved the ineffable name of God, and sank the plate into one face of a cube of agate.

****

None knew of the deposit of the precious treasure; and, that it might remain undiscovered, and survive the Flood, which it was known to Enoch would soon overwhelm the world in one vast sea of mire, he covered the aperture, and the stone that closed it and the great ring of iron used to raise the stone, with the granite pavement of his primitive temple.

Then, fearing that all knowledge of the arts and sciences would be lost in the universal flood, he built two great columns upon a high hill -- one of brass, to resist water, and one of granite, to resist fire. On the granite column was written in hieroglyphics a description of the subterranean apartments: on the one of brass, the rudiments of the arts and sciences.

The granite column was overturned and swept away, and worn to a shapeless man by the Deluge, but that of brass stood firm, and was found by Noah. Thenceforward the true name of God remained unknown until he said unto Moses in Egypt, when he ordered him to go to Pharaoh, and cause him to send forth the children of Israel out of Egypt: "I am that which I was and shall be: I am the God of thy fathers; the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel He who is hath sent me unto you. I am the Lord, that appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob by my name AL-SHEDI, but my name -- I did not show them."

Moses engraved the ineffable name upon a plate of gold, and deposited it in the ark of the covenant. Moses made the name known to Aaron and Joshua, and afterwards it was made known to the chief priests. The word being composed of consonants only, its true pronunciation was soon lost, but the word still remained in the ark; and in the time of Othniel, in a battle against the King of Syria, those who bore the ark were slain, and the ark fell to the ground. After the battle, the men of Israel, searching for it, were led to it by the roaring of a lion, which, crouching by it, had guarded it, holding the golden key in its mouth. Upon the approach of the High-Priest and Levites, he laid down the key, and withdrew. Hence, upon the golden key worn by the treasurer, you see the initials of these words: "In arc leonis verbum inveni" -- "In the lion's mouth I found the word." This plate of gold was melted down, and made into an image of Dagon by the Philistines, who took it in battle.

David intended to build a temple to God, but bequeathed the enterprise to Solomon, his son, and Solomon selected a place near Jerusalem; but finding overthrown columns of Enoch's temple, and supposing them to be the ruins of a heathen temple, and not wishing to select a desecrated spot, selected Mount Moriah for the site of his Temple to the true God. Under this temple he built a secret vault, the approach to which was through eight other vaults, all under ground, and to which a long and narrow passage led under the king's palace. In the ninth apartment was placed a twisted column of white marble, on which it was intended to place the ark, and in this apartment he held his private conferences with King Hiram of tyre and H Image A Image, they only knowing the way by which it was approached. Solomon proposed to erect a Temple of Justice, and selected as a site the spot where Enoch's temple had stood, and to that end directed that the fallen columns and rubbish should be removed. Gibulum, Joabert, and Stolkin were selected to survey the ground and lay off the foundations.
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