How Aleister Crowley Came To Berkeley ___________________________________ by Philip Jameson [Editorial note: The following article is reprinted from a news report from the early 1970Õs on the formation of the Thelema Lodge in California. It is offered here to give a brief outline of how the Berkeley O.T.O. came into existance. Although much of the material is now out-of-date and much information has been ignored by the writer, the article is relatively truthful and contains very few historical inaccuracies. Reprinted from "The Rising Aeon Journal, the official publication of the Seattle Ordo Templi Orientis] The recent occult fad of the Sixties and early Seventies was not the first to sweep the western world. There were previous ones every 40 or 50 years in the17th,18th and 19th centuries with dozens of alchemical, Masonic and Rosicrucian orders starting up at the drop of a charter. One of the more famous (or infamous) of these was the O.T.O. or Ordo Templi Orientis, (Order of the Eastern Temple) which claimed to be descended from the original Knights Templar. The Templars were an extremely wealthy and powerful religious order of crusading knights which was broken up by the Roman Catholic Church and Phillip IV of France in 1307 amid charges of satanism, sorcery, homosexuality and not giving the Pope or the King a big enough cut of the profits. In 1913, an out-of-place-and-time hippie named Aleister Crowley published his gem of metaphysical paradoxes, The Book of Lies, in which he accidently revealed on the major sex magick secrets of the O.T.O. (which he knew only to be a European masonic group). The then ÒOuter Head of the OrderÓ (grand-high-mucky-muck) in Germany, Theodore Reuss, contacted Crowley and insisted that he would have to be initiated and sworn to secrecy. Swiftly the young genius rose through the ranks to the Òninth degreeÓ and soon was given a charter by Reuss to start up a British branch of the Order, which he pretty much ran as he damned well pleased. As a magical lodge the O.T.O. as ran by Crowley nominated as an avatar of Oriental sex and drug mysticism on a basis of standard Rosicrucian-Masonic cerimonial magic. The goal was primarily a religious one: Òthe Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian AngelÓ (communication with oneÕs higher self) and the eventual attainment of enlightenment. If Crowley had stuck with this, the other lodges of the O.T.O. probably would have remained friendlier. But then he came up with the ÒLaw of ThelemaÓ (a Greek word meaning ÒwillÓ). In 1904, Crowley went through an intense three-day psychic experience during which he ÔreceivedÕ through automatic writing a document known as The Book of the Law, supposedly dictated by various Egyptian deities. This extremely compicated mystical work stated, amongst other things, ÒDo what thou wilt shall be the whole of the LawÓ (one of the most misunderstood phrases) and ÒLove is the law, love under will.Ó Gradually, Crowley adopted the entire structure of his branch of the O.T.O. to his ÒThelemiteÓ doctrines of absolute metaphysical independence. The Book of the Law has a nmuber of harsh and complex passages which unfortunately make it easy to twist in order to suit the purposes of fascists, satanists and other powertrippers, although Crowley himself seems to have been an Ayn Rand sort of anarchist. A number of the O.T.O. lodges split over the thorny question of whether or not to Òaccept the law of Thelema.Ó Thus, even today, there are a handful of legitimate O.T.O. groups which will have nothing to do with Crowley if they can help it. CrowleyÕs O.T.O. was fairly successful as such groups go, absorbing many of the members (and a great deal of written material) from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which Crowley had previously joined just in time to be an active participant in its political dismemberment. Eventually, Reuss resigned as Outer Head of the Order (ÓOHOÓ) in favor of Crowley, who went to town, chartering branches in Canada, the United States, Australia, South America and elsewhere. But as the fad dwindled, so did the membership, and the German lodges were destoryed by the Nazis (as part of their final solution to the uppity occultist problem). So by the time Crowley died in 1947 hardly any of the O.T.O. lodges, original or Thelemite, continued to exist. Karl Germer, a ninth degree initiate of the Swiss O.T.O., then took over as OHO and did almost nothing for the rest of his life, since he was going in other spiritual directions. Several years after GermerÕs death in 1962, another ninth degree initiate from the United States, Grady L. McMurtry, decided to activate his Òemergency powersÓ as Caliph of the O.T.O. The year before his death, Crowley had given McMurtry (who had been with him through the war) papers appointing him as his Caliph (since Crowley considered himself a ÒprophetÓ naturally his successor would be a ÒcaliphÓ), in order to investigate some problems with the collapsing lodges in America. These made Grady second in command of the Order, under Germer. Since nobody else in the late Sixties seemed to be doing anything, McMurtry decided to declare himself OHO, and to take over what was left of the O.T.O. until such a time as the Order again had sufficient lodges and members to hold a proper international election for an OHO. After knocking around the Bay Area for a few years, he finally decided to try some Òfairly heavy magickÓ last spring, opening up the Order to an influx of psychic energy from the ancient Egyptian Gods worshipped by the Order. KAPLOOIE!! The hippie-commie-pervert-weirdo-heathen occultists of Berkeley descended upon him en masse to check him out. They found a hard drinking, hard thinking crusty old man with one of the worldÕs greatest collections of humorous Al Crowley stories. Living with a priestess from the New Mexico desert, ÒGradyÓ found the living room of their house filled every week with increasing numbers of Crowley fans, eager to join a serious (but not too serious) magical lodge based on his theories. One by one, many of the best and most scholarly occultists in the Bay Area began to show up to evaluate the ÒnewÓ group, and quite a few of them seem to be sticking around to help with the organizational work. Friendly links with the remnants of precious O.T.O. lodges in the United States and a gradual unification seems to be shaping up. Something magical certainly seems to be going on with the O.T.O. now that itÕs centered in Berkeley. Since April, over 80 new members have been initiated into the Òzero-ithÓ degree (for novices) and a half a dozen or so people have been initiated into the first, second and third degrees. (Thus, the heirarchy of the organizational structure is slowly being filled up properly.) A newsletter with real occult meat to it is being published quarterly, with subscribers and associate members from all over the world gobbling up each issue. Regular classes in Cabala, Yoga, Ceremonial Magic and Thelemic Metaphysics are being organized and the bi-weekly open meetings are filled to over-flowingÑ enough so that the Order is having to rent a hall. Perhaps the best sign of Divine Intervention is that the rampant sexism of previous Crowley groups (a hangover from the 19th century) is fighting a losing battle against the increasing number of strong women joining the Order. Ceremonies are being edited and rules changed so as in almost full and equal participation for all, regardless of race, gender or place of plausible origin. On October 12th, the Feast of Crowleymas (Uncle AlÕs birthday) the ÒThelema LodgeÓ of the O.T.O. was officially chartered as the grand lodge of the Order, just as the sun came out of its eclipse. Like a phÏnix rising from the flames, Aleister CrowleyÕs Ordo Templi Orientis appears to be reborn, thanks to Bay Area occult know-how and a little divine help.