What follows is Crowley's own account of his motivations and methods
in reconstructing the O.T.O. and its rituals. It is excerpted from The
Confessions of Aleister Crowley, pp. 700-n-704. In this excerpt
Crowley discusses his revision of the ``Oasis'' initiation rituals of
Oø-n-IIIø. His explanatory introduction to these revised rituals, as
presented to then-Frater Superior Merlin Peregrinus Xø when the
reforms were proposed, appears elsewhere in this issue.--H.B.
``WHAT IS FREEMASONRY?'' I collated the rituals and their secrets,
much as I had done the religions of the world, with their magical and
mystical bases. As in that case, I decided to neglect what it too
often actually was. It would be absurd to judge Protestantism by the
political acts of Henry VIII. In the same was, I could not judge
masonry by the fact that it had denounced the Concordat. I proposed to
define freemasonry as a system of communicating truth--religious,
philosophical, magical and mystical; and indicating the proper means
of developing human faculty by means of a peculiar language whose
alphabet is the symbolism of ritual. Universal brotherhood and the
great moral principles, independent of personal, racial, climatic and
other prejudices, naturally formed a background which would assure
individual security and social stability for each and all.
The question then arose, ``What truths should be communicated and by
what means promulgated?'' My first object was to eliminate from the
hundreds of rituals at my disposal all exoteric elements. Many degrees
contain statements (usually inaccurate) of matters well known to
modern schoolboys, through they may have been important when the
rituals were written. I may mention one degree in which the candidate
is portentiously informed that there are other religions in the world
besides Christianity and that there is some truth in all of them.
Their tenets are explained in many cases with egregious error. The
description of Buddha as a god is typical. I saw no point in
overloading the system with superfluous information.
Another essential point was to reduce the unwieldly mass of material
to a compact and coherent system. I thought that everything worth
preserving could and should be presented in not more than a dozen
ceremonies, and that it should be brought well within the capacity of
any officer to learn by heart his part during the leisure time at his
disposal, in a month at most.
The eighteenth-century Rosicrucians, so-called in Austria, had already
endeavoured to unite the various branches of Continental freemasonry
and its superstructures; in the nineteenth century, principally owing
to the energy and ability of a wealthy iron master named Karl Kellner,
a reconstruction and consolidation of traditional truth had been
attempted. A body was formed under the name O.T.O. (Ordo Templi
Orientis) which purported to achieve this result. It is purported to
communicate the secrets, not only of freemasonry (with its Rites of
3ø, 7ø, 33ø, 90ø, 97ø, etc.,) but of the Gnostic Catholic Church, the
Martinists, the Sat Bhai, the Rosicrucians, the Knights of the Holy
Ghost and so on, in nine degrees, with a tenth of an honorary
character to distinguish the ``Supreme and Holy King''of the Order in
each country where it was established. Chief of these kings is the
O.H.O. (Outer Head of the Order, or Frater Superior), who is an
absolute autocrat. This position was at this time occupied by Theodor
Reuss, the Supreme and Holy King of Germany, who resigned the office
in 1922 in my favour.
The O.H.O. put the rituals of this Order at my disposal. I found them
of the utmost value as to the central secret, but otherwise very
inferior. They were dramatically worthless, but the prose was unequal,
they lacked philosophical unity, their information was incomplete and
unsystematic. Their general idea was, however, of the right kind; and
I was able to take them as a model.
The main objects of the instruction were two. It was firstly necessary
to explain the universe and the relations of human life therewith.
Secondly, to instruct every man how best to adapt his life to the
cosmos and to develop his faculties to the utmost advantage. I
accordingly constructed a series of rituals, Minerval, Man, Magician,
Master-Magician, Perfect Magician and Perfect Initiate, which should
illustrate the course of human life in its largest philosophical
aspect. I begin by showing the object of the pure soul, ``One,
individual and eternal,'' in determining to formulate itself
consciously, or, as I may say, to understand itself.
It chooses to enter into relations with the solar system. It
incarnates. I explain the significance of birth and the conditions
established by the process. I next show how it may best carry out its
object in the eucharist of life. It partakes, so to speak, of its own
godhead in every action, but especially through the typical sacrament
of marriage, understood as the voluntary union of itself with each
element of its environment. I then proceed to the climax of its career
in death and show how this sacrament both consecrates (or, rather,
sets its seal upon) the previous procedure and gives a meaning
thereto, just as the auditing of an account enables the merchant to
see his year's transactions in perspective.
In the next ceremony I show how the individual, released by death from
the obsession of personality, resumes relations with the truth of the
universe. Reality bursts upon him in a blaze of adorable light; he is
able to appreciate its splendour as he could not previously do, since
his incarnation has enabled him to establish particular relations
between the elements of eternity.
Finally, the cycle is closed by the reabsorption of all individuality
into infinity. It ends in absolute annihilation which {...} may in
reality be regarded as an exact equivalent for all other terms soever,
or (by postulating the category of time) as forming the starting point
for new adventure of the same kind.
It will be clear from the above that the philosophical perfection of
this system of initiation leaves nothing to be desired. We may write
Q.E.D. The practical problem remains. We have already decided to
incarnate, and our birth certificates are with our bankers. We do not
have to worry about these matters, and we cannot alter them if we
would; death and what follows death, are equally certain, and equally
able to take care of themselves. Our sole preoccupation is how to make
use of our lives.
Now the O.T.O. is in possession of one supreme secret. The whole of
its system at the time when I became an initiate of the Sanctuary of
the Gnosis (IXø) was directed towards communicating to its members, by
progressively plain hints, this all-important instruction. I
personally believe that if this secret, which is a scientific secret,
were perfectly understood, as it is not even by me after twelve years'
almost constant study and experiment, there would be nothing which the
human imagination can conceive that could not be realized in practice.
{...}
The injunctions of the sages, from Pythagoras, Zoroaster and Lao Tzu,
to the Cabalistic Jew who wrote the Ritual of the Royal Arch, and the
sentimental snob who composed those of the Craft degrees, are either
directed to indicating the best conditions for applying this secret,
or are mere waste of words. Realizing this, it was comparatively
simple for me to edit masonic ethics and esoterism. I had simply to
refer everything to this single sublime standard. I therefore answered
the question ``How should a young man mend his way?'' in a series of
rituals in which the candidate is instructed in the value of
discretion, loyalty, independence, truthfulness, courage, self-
control, indifference to circumstance, impartiality, scepticism, and
other virtues, and at the same time assisted him to discover for
himself the nature of this secret, the proper object of its employment
and the best means for insuring success for its use. The first of
these degrees is the Vø, in which the secret is presented in a
pageant; while he is also instructed in the essential elements of the
history of the world, considered from the standpoint of his present
state of evolution and his proper relation to society in general with
reference to the same.
The degree of Knight Hermetic Philosopher follows, in which his
intellectual and moral attitude is further defined. In the VIø, his
position having been thus made precise, he is shown how to concentrate
himself to the particular Great Work which he came to earth in order
to perform. In the VIIø, which is tripartite, he is first taught the
principle of equilibrium as extended to all possible moral ideas;
secondly, to all possible intellectual ideas, and lastly, he is shown
how, basing all his actions on this impregnable rock of justice, he
may so direct his life as to undertake his Great Work with the fullest
responsibility and in absolute freedom from all possibility of
interferences.
In the VIIIø, the secret is once more manifested to him, more clearly
than before; and he is instructed in how to train himself to use it by
certain preliminary practices involving acquaintance with some of
those subtler energies which have hitherto, for the most part, eluded
the observation and control of profane science.
In the IXø, which is never conferred upon anyone who has not already
divined from previous indications the nature of the secret, it is
explained to him fully. The conclusions of previous experiments are
placed at his service. The idea is that each new initiate should
continue the work of his predecessor, so that eventually the
inexhaustible resources of the secret may be within the reach of the
youngest initiate; for at present, we are compelled to admit that the
superstitious reverence which has encompassed it in past ages, and the
complexity of the conditions which modify its use, place us in much
the same position as the electricians of a generation ago in respect
of their science. We are assured of the immensity of the force at our
disposal; we perceive the extent of the empire which it offers us, but
we do not thoroughly understand even our successes and are uncertain
how to proceed in order to generate the energy most efficiently or to
apply it most accurately to our purposes.
The Xø, as in the old system, is merely honorary, but recent
researches into the mysteries of the IXø have compelled me to add an
XIø, to illustrate a scientific idea which have been evolved by the
results of recent experiments.
In the reconstituted O.T.O. there are therefore six degrees in which
is conveyed a comprehensive conception of the cosmos and our relation
therewith, and a similar number to deal with our duty to ourselves and
our fellows, the development of our own faculties of every order, and
the general advancement and advantage of mankind.
Wherever freemasonry and allied systems contribute to these themes,
their information has been incorporated in such a way as not to
infringe the privileges, puerile as they often seem, which have been
associated hitherto with initiation. Where they merely perpetuate
trivialities, superstitions and prejudices, they have been neglected.
I claim for my system that it satisfies all possible requirements of
true freemasonry. It offers a rational basis for universal brotherhood
and for universal religion. It puts forward a scientific statement
which is a summary of all that is at present known about the universe
by means of a simple, yet sublime symbolism, artistically arranged. It
also enables each man to discover for himself his personal destiny,
indicates the moral and intellectual qualities which he requires in
order to fulfil it freely, and finally puts in his hands an
unimaginably powerful weapon which he may use to develop in himself
every faculty which he may need in his work.
{...} I believe that my proposals for reconstituting freemasonry on
the lines above laid down should prove critically important.
Civilization is crumbling under our eyes and I believe that the best
chance of saving what little is worth saving, and rebuilding the
Temple of the Holy Ghost on plans, and with material and workmanship,
which shall be free from the errors of the former, lies with the
O.T.O.
