The Ordo Templi Orientis and the Emergence of Thelema

The Ordo Templi Orientis (or O.T.O., as indicated notably on our Crowley tarot decks) is an occult initiatory society founded at the turn of the 20th century, closely linked to the emergence of Thelema. This esoteric spiritual movement revolves around the ideas of Aleister Crowley and the Book of the Law (Liber AL vel Legis), Thelema’s sacred text from 1904. A secret organization inspired by Freemasonry, the O.T.O. distinguished itself by claiming to possess the “key to all Hermetic and Masonic secrets.” History.

The origins of the O.T.O. between fin-de-siècle occultism and Masonic legacies

The Ordo Templi Orientis emerged amid the occultist and Masonic ferment of the late 19th century. Its very name - “Order of the Temple of the East” - evokes the legendary heritage of the Knights Templar. The order’s founders, Austrian industrialist Carl Kellner (1851–1905) and German occultist Theodor Reuss (1855–1923), drew inspiration from Templar myths and their tradition of esoteric rites. The Knights Templar, suppressed in the 14th century, were notably accused by their detractors of illicit sexual practices during secret ceremonies. It was in this context that Kellner and Reuss, both high-ranking Freemasons, developed a new initiatory society.

Around 1904, they officially established the Ordo Templi Orientis in Germany. From the outset, the order presented itself as a federation of high Masonic degrees: Reuss and Kellner had obtained charters as early as 1902 authorizing them to practice several occultist Masonic rites (Memphis, Misraïm, Swedish Rite), issued by Englishman John Yarker, an influential figure in irregular Freemasonry. These exotic rites - combining Egyptomania, Illuminism, and Rosicrucianism - formed the core of the new order. In practice, the O.T.O. borrowed from Freemasonry its hierarchical structure of degrees, initiatory oaths, and part of its symbolism. Kellner’s ambition was to establish a “Masonic Academy” synthesizing the various systems of high degrees then in existence.

At the same time, the order incorporated more daring esoteric teachings. Kellner claimed to have discovered the true key to Masonic mysteries during his travels in the East, from three adept masters. In reality, his “adepts” seem to have been the ancient works he studied: erotic treatises such as the Kama Sutra and the Arabic manual The Perfumed Garden, sources of a doctrine of sexual magic that he intended to place at the heart of the order. From its beginnings, the O.T.O. presented itself as the possessor of a singular occult knowledge: mastery of sexual energies as a path to illumination. Reuss, a journalist and Freemason active in numerous occult circles, established himself as the order’s organizer. He attracted several prominent figures of fin-de-siècle occultism to the O.T.O.: in France, the esoteric physician Gérard Encausse (known as Papus); in Germany, the future founder of anthroposophy Rudolf Steiner; and the American H. Spencer Lewis (future creator of the Rosicrucian AMORC), all received charters from Reuss integrating them into the nascent order.

As early as 1912, the O.T.O. publicly announced the nature of its secret teaching. In a special issue of its journal Oriflamme, Reuss proclaimed that the order “possesses the KEY that opens all Masonic and Hermetic secrets, namely the teaching of sexual magic, which explains without exception all the mysteries of Nature, all the symbolism of Freemasonry, and all religious systems.” This bold declaration marked the O.T.O.’s entry into the small world of the era’s esoteric societies, while stirring curiosity and controversy. But 1912 was also the year of a decisive event that would shape the order’s future: Reuss’s meeting with Aleister Crowley.

Aleister Crowley and the integration of Thelema into the order

Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), an iconoclastic British occultist, was initiated into the Ordo Templi Orientis in 1912 and quickly became its central figure. Legend has it that his entry took place in dramatic circumstances: Theodor Reuss allegedly approached Crowley to reproach him for revealing an O.T.O. secret in one of his books. Indeed, in his collection The Book of Lies (1912), Crowley had published - without realizing it, he claimed - a veiled instruction concerning the arcana of sexual magic. When Reuss pointed this out to him, Crowley suddenly understood the esoteric meaning of a passage he himself had written, revealing one of the order’s key sexual practices. Impressed by Crowley’s ingenuity, Reuss admitted him to the O.T.O. and appointed him in 1912 to lead the British branch, with the title of Grand Master National X° for Great Britain and Ireland. Crowley thus received authority to develop the O.T.O. in the English-speaking world, in exchange for his discretion regarding the order’s “secrets.”

Crowley, already an influential member of several occult orders (he had co-founded his own mystical school, the A∴A∴, and spent some time in the Golden Dawn), saw in the O.T.O. a ready-made structure into which he could insert his own spiritual vision: Thelema. This Greek term meaning “Will” designates the religious philosophy he founded after receiving the Book of the Law in 1904. This short prophetic text, which he claimed to have written under the dictation of a superhuman intelligence named Aiwass, proclaimed a new spiritual era, the Aeon of Horus, governed by a single law: “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the law, Love under will.”. In other words, each individual must discover and fulfill their True Will, their authentic purpose within the cosmic order, in freedom and with respect for that of others. Crowley regarded himself as the prophet of this new Thelemic revelation and would henceforth devote himself to spreading it within the O.T.O.

Between 1913 and 1918, Crowley undertook a profound reworking of the O.T.O. With Reuss’s approval, he rewrote all the initiation rituals to imbue them with Thelemic principles, gradually removing purely Masonic references in order to create a coherent system suited to the new era. In 1913, he also composed the liturgy of a Gnostic Catholic Church attached to the order: a ritualized mass, known as the Gnostic Mass, celebrating in allegorical form the mysteries of creation, love, and will (this ritual, published under the name Liber XV, would become the O.T.O.’s central ceremony according to Crowley). By integrating Thelema - that is, the Book of the Law and its precepts - as its ideological foundation, the O.T.O. became, according to Crowley, “the first of the great organizations of the Old Aeon to accept the Book of the Law.” The order thus acquired a new doctrinal corpus centered on the realization of True Will, spiritual freedom, and the exploration of mystical energies through symbols and rituals.

In 1922, following health problems, Theodor Reuss relinquished his functions and designated Crowley as his successor as Outer Head of the Order (O.H.O.). Crowley, now at the international head of the O.T.O., accelerated the transformation of the organization according to his vision. He made the order the principal vehicle for his magical and religious philosophy. This Thelemic orientation was not, however, unanimously accepted by the original members. When Crowley had the Book of the Law translated into German in 1925 for distribution among the German lodges, a crisis erupted. A core of German members rejected the doctrinal innovations imposed by Crowley. Not sharing Crowley’s veneration of Rabelais and Horus, nor his anti-Christian approach, they split off and continued their activities on the fringes, maintaining a pre-Thelemic lineage of the O.T.O. - this was notably the case with Eugen Grosche, who founded his own occultist society, the Fraternitas Saturni, based on a system close to that of the O.T.O. but purged of Thelema. Despite these departures, Crowley retained the support of other German disciples (such as Martha Küntzel and Karl Germer) and succeeded in maintaining a branch of the O.T.O. in Germany committed to his views. Nevertheless, the unified order as conceived by Reuss no longer existed: it had split between an international Crowleyan movement and local dissident groups opposed to the “Law of Thelema.”

Rituals, internal organization, and esoteric legacies

The Ordo Templi Orientis adopted a structure and ritual practices inspired both by Freemasonry and by Western occult traditions. Initiation unfolded through a series of progressive degrees, each conferring particular teachings and secrets. Like Masonic degrees, the O.T.O.’s initiation ceremonies staged allegories and symbols intended to gradually convey to the candidate an understanding of the “mysteries of Nature” and their own spiritual identity. Historically, the O.T.O. comprised ten numbered degrees (I° to X°) organized into three triads (symbolically corresponding to the Man of Earth, the Lover, and the Hermit). The first six degrees delivered general occultist teachings, preparing the initiate for the more specific revelations of the higher degrees. Indeed, it was in the 7th, 8th, and 9th degrees that the practices of sexual magic, which characterized the order, were communicated: the use of sexual energy - notably through the control of ecstasy and the symbolic transmutation of vital fluids,... - for spiritual and operative development. The 10th degree was purely administrative, reserved for the order’s national leader (Rex Summus Sanctissimus). Under Crowley’s influence, an informal 11th degree was added, linked to non-traditional sexual techniques he was experimenting with, but this degree carried no hierarchical function. Finally, the title of XII° or Frater Superior designated the O.H.O., the international head of the order.

The sexual magic taught in the O.T.O. long fueled fantasies. However, internal documents published in the 1970s revealed a coherent symbolic system: the rituals of the higher degrees employed ritualized sexual practices (autoerotic in the VIII°, sacramental heterosexual in the IX°, and possibly homosexual in the XI°) as supports for ceremonial magic operations. Far from being a simple pursuit of pleasure, these rites intended to use ecstasy as the driving force behind the adept’s magical will - an approach influenced by Eastern esoteric teachings (Tantrism) but adapted to a Western occultist framework. This use of sex as a universal “key” was, as noted above, proclaimed by Reuss as early as 1912 and systematized by Crowley within the order’s Thelemic corpus.

Alongside its secret initiations, the O.T.O. possesses an ecclesiastical branch called the Gnostic Catholic Church (E.G.C.). Founded around 1913, it openly celebrates a central rite: the Gnostic Mass, written by Crowley. This mass, halfway between a theatrical liturgy and a magical ritual, features a priest and priestess officiating before an altar bearing the order’s symbol (the chalice-shaped seal and pattée cross). Through poetic invocations and offerings, it seeks to exalt the masculine and feminine principles, the Sun and the Moon, and to symbolically unite the practitioner with the inner divine. Crowley regarded this rite as “the central ceremony of the public and private celebrations” of the O.T.O. The Gnostic Catholic Church considers itself the heir to the French Gnostic movement launched at the end of the 19th century by Jules Doinel. Aleister Crowley himself was consecrated a Gnostic bishop through this lineage: he received an episcopal consecration validating his status as Patriarch of the Universal Gnostic Church, in the line initiated by Doinel and propagated by the French occultist Papus. He subsequently transmitted this spiritual authority at the head of the O.T.O., so that each leader of the order bears the title of Gnostic bishop. This Gnostic claim complements the O.T.O.’s Masonic heritage, illustrating the duality of its nature: both an esoteric initiatory order and a mystical church.

Doctrinally, the O.T.O. subscribes to the principles of Thelema formulated by Crowley. In addition to the law “Do what thou wilt”, the order embraces a vision of a universe governed by the cyclical evolution of aeons (spiritual ages). According to Crowley, humanity has entered the Aeon of Horus, the age of the crowned and conquering Child, following the Aeon of Osiris (the age of patriarchal sacrificial religions) and the Aeon of Isis (the primitive matriarchal era). The Aeon of Horus would be characterized by the affirmation of the sovereign individual, called to grow in consciousness and love in order to realize their true Self. The O.T.O. sees itself as the instrument of this new era, charged with anchoring the Law of Thelema in the world. In practice, this means that the order encourages the comparative study of religions, the quest for the Holy Guardian Angel (the individual’s divine soul), and the practice of various mystical techniques (yoga, qabalah, meditation, ceremonial magic), grouped under the term Magick. This eclectic synthesis testifies to Crowley’s influence on the O.T.O.’s spiritual orientation: from a conventional esoteric Masonic society, he transformed it into the vehicle of a new philosophical religion imbued with Hermeticism, Gnosis, and modern occultism.

Crises, schisms, and the order’s revival (1920–1985)

In the 1920s, the O.T.O., fully Thelemized by Crowley, remained obscure and weakened by divisions. In Germany, the rupture of 1925 led to the creation of the Fraternitas Saturni by Eugen Grosche, a rival organization that largely adopted the O.T.O.’s teachings (sexual magic, astrological esotericism) while rejecting the prophecy of the Book of the Law. This German occult fraternity, founded in 1926, still exists today outside the O.T.O.. Crowley, for his part, chose to concentrate his efforts on the English-speaking world, where his personal influence was stronger. From 1920 onward, he settled in Cephalonia (Greece) and then in Paris, and founded the short-lived Abbey of Thelema in Sicily - an experimental community living according to the law “Do what thou wilt”. Although this communal project had no direct connection with the O.T.O. (it was Crowley’s private initiative), it helped forge the magician’s dark legend: expelled from Italy in 1923 for “immoral practices,” Crowley was branded by the British press as “the wickedest man in the world.” These scandals cast a shadow over the O.T.O., which became associated with his name, and fueled the general public’s persistent distrust of the order and of Thelema in general.

During the interwar period, the O.T.O.’s activities declined in Europe under the blows of fascism. In Germany, from 1933 onward, the Nazi regime banned occult and Masonic organizations: O.T.O. lodges, treated as equivalent to Freemasonry, were dissolved or forced underground, and several members had to flee the country. Karl Germer, one of Crowley’s principal followers in Germany, was interned in a labor camp because of his Masonic affiliation and ties to Crowley. He eventually went into exile in the United States. Similarly, the British O.T.O. gradually disappeared. By the end of the 1930s, practically only one active lodge remained in the world: Agape Lodge No. 2 in California. It had been founded in 1935 in Los Angeles by Wilfred T. Smith, a disciple of Crowley, with the help of Jane Wolfe (a former Hollywood actress who had converted to Thelema). During the Second World War, Agape Lodge - relocated to Pasadena under the direction of aerospace engineer John Whiteside “Jack” Parsons - became the O.T.O.’s last active stronghold. Parsons, a flamboyant occultism enthusiast, pursued research into space propulsion (he would co-found the Jet Propulsion Laboratory) while serving as a Gnostic priest within the O.T.O. Despite the isolation of this Californian enclave, Crowley continued corresponding with his American followers during the war, hoping to keep the order alive.

In 1947, Aleister Crowley died in England at the age of 72. Before his death, he had taken care to bequeath all his rights and writings to the O.T.O. and officially appoint Karl Germer (Frater Saturnus X°) as his successor at the head of the order. Germer, living in exile in the United States, thus inherited the title of O.H.O. and the daunting task of rebuilding the organization. However, a period of dormancy began. Germer, a discreet and rigorist figure, decided to suspend initiations within the O.T.O. From 1947 until his death in 1962, he devoted himself primarily to the posthumous publication of Crowley’s works (he supervised the publication of Magick Without Tears in 1954 and the annotated The Vision and the Voice). Without new recruitment or a clearly designated successor (Germer had not appointed one), the O.T.O. withered. When Germer died in 1962, the order appeared almost moribund: Agape Lodge in California had dissolved shortly beforehand, and the remaining members still in contact could be counted on one hand.

Yet it was at this same time that an unexpected Thelemic revival took place through a series of claimants to Crowley’s legacy. During the 1960s–1970s, no fewer than four distinct groups claimed succession to the historic O.T.O.

• In England, Kenneth Grant (1924–2011), Crowley’s last secretary, had received Germer’s authorization in 1951 to establish an O.T.O. lodge in London. An adventurous mystic, Grant quickly blended Thelemic teachings with his own experiences (he claimed to make mediumistic contact with extraterrestrial intelligences he called Nou). In 1955, he created the New Isis Lodge, which departed from Germer’s instructions; Germer expelled him from the order. Grant then pursued his path independently: over the course of numerous writings, he developed a personal esotericism combining Thelemic magic, Lovecraftian occultism, and Tantrism. He proclaimed himself Crowley’s legitimate heir, relying on an ambiguous note in which Crowley viewed him as a possible trained successor. Grant’s group, later known as the Typhonian Order, still exists in the United Kingdom. It has, however, officially renounced the use of the name O.T.O. and has operated since the 2000s as an independent esoteric order, the product of Grant’s singular vision.

• In Germany and Switzerland, another current was led by Hermann Metzger (1919–1990). Metzger had joined a branch of the O.T.O. that remained active in German-speaking Switzerland, stemming from contacts Reuss had established before Crowley. Supported for a time by Germer, Metzger rebuilt after 1962 an organization he regarded as the direct heir of the pre-Crowley O.T.O. Claiming to be O.H.O., he led his Illuminist Order from Stein (Switzerland) and initiated new members in Europe. However, this so-called Swiss lineage gradually died out after Metzger’s death (his successor, Annemarie Aeschbach, died in 2008, and the group ceased all activity soon afterward).

• In the United States, where the O.T.O. had survived, Grady Louis McMurtry (1918–1985) undertook to revive the order. McMurtry, a former army officer who had met Crowley during the war, possessed letters of appointment signed by Crowley authorizing him to “take charge of the entire Order in California in order to reorganize it” if necessary. On the strength of this legitimacy, he gathered former members of Agape Lodge around him (notably the occultist Phyllis Seckler and other veterans of the 1940s) and began initiating new adepts as early as 1970. McMurtry adopted the traditional title of Caliph (meaning successor, which he had received from Crowley) and officially rekindled the O.T.O.’s star in America. In 1979, he filed the articles of incorporation for Ordo Templi Orientis, Inc in California, giving the organization a recognized legal existence. In 1982, the state of California even granted it nonprofit religious association status. Despite modest beginnings and sometimes chaotic leadership (McMurtry, a colorful figure, favored occult experiences and could appear eccentric), this “Californian O.T.O.” grew in prominence throughout the 1980s.

• Meanwhile, in Brazil, a former student of Germer named Marcelo Ramos Motta (1931–1987) also claimed to be the legitimate successor. In the 1970s, Motta created a rival organization called the Society Ordo Templi Orientis (S.O.T.O.) and published extensive volumes of a new Equinox, combining Crowley’s writings with polemical pamphlets against his rivals. A legal battle then began between McMurtry’s and Motta’s groups over recognition of the “O.T.O.” trademark and the rights to Crowley’s work. In 1985, after several years of litigation in the United States, the courts ruled decisively in favor of McMurtry’s organization: a court recognized it as the sole legitimate heir of the O.T.O. and exclusive owner of Crowley’s copyrights. Motta’s claims were rejected, sounding the death knell for his movement - the S.O.T.O. became marginalized after Motta’s death in 1987.

Over the course of twenty years, the Ordo Templi Orientis thus rose from the ashes and clarified its succession. Following Grady McMurtry’s death in 1985, the remaining members of the IX° elected William Breeze (born in 1955) as his successor, and he took the mystical name Hymenaeus Beta. Breeze, a publisher and Crowleyan scholar, has since held the office of Frater Superior and O.H.O. of the so-called “Caliphate” O.T.O. Under his leadership, the order has continued its international expansion, growing from a few dozen active members in the 1980s to several thousand affiliated initiates worldwide today.

An occult order under critical scrutiny

The O.T.O. has also faced suspicion from authorities in certain countries. In 1995, a French parliamentary report on cults included the Ordo Templi Orientis on a list of 173 “cult movements” considered concerning. This mention, motivated by the order’s occult reputation and its closed initiatory character, nevertheless led to no legal action. No specific offense or criminal abuse was attributed to it, and the O.T.O. was not banned. Moreover, French authorities have since abandoned such blanket listings: the O.T.O., which requires its members only to study the Law of Thelema freely and does not violate civil laws, is no longer considered a threat by anti-cult monitoring organizations.

Within the Church and conservative circles, criticism has focused primarily on Aleister Crowley’s persona - labeled Satanistic, depraved, or fraudulent - rather than on the order itself. However, this negative image long affected the O.T.O., regarded as a den of “black magicians” by those ignorant of its true philosophy. The reality, as we have seen, is more nuanced: the O.T.O. presents itself as the guardian of a syncretic mystical-initiatory tradition combining Masonic symbolism, Gnostic spirituality, and Thelemic ideals.

More than a century after its founding, the Ordo Templi Orientis continues to exist today with several lodges. Long shrouded in mystery and the subject of fantasies, it is now better documented thanks to the work of historians of esoteric movements. Despite the controversies surrounding it, the O.T.O. has endured: both a remnant of the initiatory societies of the past and an actor in modern alternative spirituality.