Ordo Templi Orientis (Typhonian)

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The Typhonian Order, previously known as the Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis (TOTO), is a self-initiatory magical organization based in the United Kingdom that focuses on magical and Typhonian concepts. It was originally led by British occultist Kenneth Grant (1924–2011) and his wife Steffi Grant, and is now led by their deputy Michael Staley.

The Typhonian Order is among the most well-known Thelemic magical orders, primarily due to the publications of Kenneth Grant. In particular, it has influenced Dragon Rouge[1] and was instrumental[citation needed] in the creation of Nema Andahadna's Maat Magick movement.

While the group is known to still promote the Crowleyan Law of Thelema, it is said[by whom?] to also focus on exploration of foreign intelligence such as extraterrestrial life and daemons, and on the darker aspects of occult existence.

History

The original Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O) was founded by the wealthy German industrialist Carl Kellner. After Kellner's death in 1905, Theodor Reuss became Outer Head of the Order.

In 1920, Reuss suffered a stroke, leading Aleister Crowley to question his competence to continue as Outer Head of the Order. By 1921, Crowley and Reuss were exchanging angry letters, culminating in Reuss' expulsion of Crowley from O.T.O.[2] Crowley then informed Reuss that he was proclaiming himself Outer Head of the Order. Reuss died in 1923 without naming a successor, and Crowley was subsequently elected and ratified as Outer Head of the Order in a Conference of Grand Masters in 1925.[2][3] World War II then intervened, destroying the European branches of O.T.O. and driving its members underground. Karl Germer was incarcerated by the Nazis. By the end of the war, the sole surviving O.T.O. organization was Agapé Lodge in California,[4] where Germer moved after he was released from internment in 1941.

After Crowley's death, Germer was his unchallenged successor for some time, and recognized and endorsed Grant's status as a IX° (Ninth Degree) adept in 1948.[5] However Grant later claimed that his assumption of the XI° (Eleventh Degree) was confirmed in 1946, presumably by Crowley, the same year that he was initiated into the A∴A∴, an associated Thelemic magical order created by Crowley in 1907 after leaving the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

In 1954, Grant began the work of founding the New Isis Lodge, which became operational in 1955 when Grant announced his discovery of a "Sirius/Set current" in a new manifesto upon which the lodge would be based. Karl Germer disliked this new manifesto so much that he expelled Grant from the O.T.O. Grant responded by declaring himself the Outer Head of the Order, assuming the XII° degree, and taking his supporters into schism against those still following Germer. Grant's group henceforth became informally known as the "Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis," absorbing the New Isis Lodge in 1962, around the same time that Germer died without formally naming a successor as Head of O.T.O.

A document published in 1998 in Volume 2, Number 2 of Starfire purported to demonstrate that Crowley appointed Grant as Outer Head of the Order in 1947, before Crowley's demise:.[6][7] A statement published in March 2009 in Volume 2, Number 3 of Starfire, however, acknowledges that it has subsequently been established the document was a fake and identifies "the perpetrator".[8]

Work of the order

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ Granholm (2012).
  2. ^ a b Koenig, "Ordo Templi Orientis--Introduction"
  3. ^ Kaczynski (2002), p. 332.
  4. ^ Lewis (1999), p. 217.
  5. ^ Evans (2007a), p. 66.
  6. ^ Koenig, "Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis: Aleister Crowley Appointing Kenneth Grant: Provenance of the Document."
  7. ^ Michael Staley, Starfire II:2
  8. ^ Michael Staley, Starfire II:3: Instrument of Succession - An Apology

Works cited

Further reading

  • Bogdan, H. (2006). "Challenging the Morals of Western Society: The Use of Ritualized Sex in Contemporary Occultism". Pomegranate. 8 (2): 211–246. doi:10.1558/pome.8.2.211.
  • Bogdan, Henrik (2015). "Kenneth Grant and the Typhonian Tradition". In Partridge, Christopher Hugh (ed.). The Occult World. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415695961. Retrieved 2024-01-26 – via Academia.edu.
  • Djurdjevic, G. (2014). "Secrets of the Typhonian Tantra: Kenneth Grant and Western Occult Interpretations of Indian Spirituality". India and the Occult: The Influence of South Asian Spirituality on Modern Western Occultism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 91–110.
  • Drury, Nevill (2011). Stealing Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Modern Western Magic. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199792511.
  • Engle, J. (2014). "Cults of Lovecraft: The Impact of H.P. Lovecraft's Fiction on Contemporary Occult Practices". Mythlore. 33 (1): 85–98.
  • Evans, Dave (2004). "Trafficking with an Onslaught of Compulsive Weirdness: Kenneth Grant and the Magickal Revival". In Dave, Evans (ed.). Journal for the Academic Study of Magic: Issue 2. Oxford: Mandrake. pp. 226–259. ISBN 978-1-869928-72-8.
  • Evans, Dave (2007b). The History of British Magick after Crowley. Hidden Publishing. ISBN 978-0955523700.
  • Gauntlett, Edward (2015). Shades in Mauve: A History of the Typhonian Tradition. Von Zos. ISBN 978-0578989853.
  • Linden, Mishlen (2018). Typhonian Teratomas: The Shadows of the Abyss. Black Moon Pub. ISBN 978-1890399597.
  • McDaniel, J. (2016). "India and the Occult: The Influence of South Asian Spirituality on Modern Western Occultism". Magic, Ritual & Witchcraft. 11 (1): 144–146. doi:10.1353/mrw.2016.0000. S2CID 77832183.
  • Morgan, M. (2011). "The Heart of Thelema: Morality, Amorality, and Immorality in Aleister Crowley's Thelemic Cult". Pomegranate. 13 (2): 163–183. doi:10.1558/pome.v13i2.163 (inactive 2024-02-07).{cite journal}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of February 2024 (link)
  • Starkey, Arun (14 January 2024). "The terrifying occult experience that made David Bowie avoid Jimmy Page for life". Far Out. UK. Retrieved 24 January 2024.