Occultism in Norway

332 Uldal And Winje

Chapter 42 Uldal and Winje Occultism in Norway

Geir Uldal and Geir Winje 1

In Norway, as in other Western countries, the number of magic-occult groups and practitioners has increased over the last thirty to forty years. The magical work in these milieus involves performing rituals in order to restructure and change oneself, and through this change potentially influence one’s surround- ings. Norwegian practitioners work as members of magical groups and on a more individual basis. Many see themselves as belonging to a global move- ment, rather than a merely Norwegian one, and some have found teachers in countries such as Brazil, USA, France, and Switzerland. Various forms of ritual magic derived from rather distinct contexts are combined and integrated in many ways. The practitioners often belong to more than one group, and they often wander from one milieu to another. Diverse practices and concepts are in a constant state of flux. Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) has the largest membership and is clearly the most influential magic-occult group in Norway. It has about 100 members, but many more followers, and operates a website (). Because of the influence of Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), the Norwegian OTO under- stands itself as a thelemic order. The order is often misunderstood, since references to it often focus on sexual magic and other sensationalist activities, even if this is not a part of any of the initiation rites. After Crowley’s death, many people continued the work of OTO in different parts of the world. Some presented themselves as Crowley’s heirs, with varying degrees of success. Over the years a lot of groups have claimed to be the authentic OTO; among them is an originally American branch which was headed by Grady McMurtry or Hymenæus Alpha 777 (1918–1985). This branch has often been referred to as Caliphate OTO, and this is the group we find in Norway. A so-called Typhonian branch was developed by Kenneth Grant (1924–2011), who for a short period was Crowley’s secretary. This was originally an English branch, which, compared to the Caliphate OTO, was characterised by a lack of rituals of initiation. It has later seemed more interested in innova- tion and the development of new rituals, pantheons and the like. Even if the

* We wish to thank Harald Andreas Lie, Cathrine Brandt, Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold and other informants for their helpful suggestions.

Typhonian Order (previously known as the Typhonian OTO) has no formal sta- tus in Norway, it represents – as we shall see – a creative force in the magic-occult environment. Besides the organisations set up by McMurtry and Grant, there is also a Haitian-inspired branch, Ordo Templis Orientis Antiqua (OTOA), where elements from Vodun are combined with the remaining elements. This branch is also represented in Norway. Besides these three branches of the OTO, contem- porary Norwegian occult groups are strongly influenced by a wide variety of lodges, orders, and magical milieus. In this chapter we will take a closer look at the OTO in Norway before we present some of the more important non-Caliphate OTO magic-occult groups. However, let us firstly cast a short glance backwards in time.

The Magical Revival og the 1890s

The Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863–1944) is often mentioned in connection with the so-called magical revival at the end of the nineteenth century. In the early 1890s he spent some years in Berlin, where he, together with artists such as the Swedish dramatist August Strindberg (1849–1912) and the Polish writer Stanislaw Przybyszewski (1868–1927), occupied himself with studies in the occult and paranormal. According to some secondary sources, he was a member of The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (HOGD), but no primary sources known to us mention this. What is mentioned is an interest in monism and crystallography (Næss 2004). We also know that Munch was inspired by older occult works, for instance Michael Maier’s Atalanta Fugiens (1617, Berman 2006). However, we know very little about other influences. Whatever happened, the suggested connection between Edvard Munch and the HOGD is a good example of how cultural life in Norway, as in other Western countries, was influenced by the magical revival at the time (Vindheim 1990). But while Spiritualism, Theosophy and other trends led to the establishment of various organisations, we do not know of any Norwegian organisation for ritual magic. Among students in Oslo there was, however, an attempt to estab- lish a temple around the end of the nineteenth century. This was inspired by the Ahathoor Temple in Paris, but was probably never realised. We may assume that some Norwegians, individually or as members of groups outside Norway, did practise ritual magic during the first part of the twentieth century, but we have no record of any organised activity before 1982, when the OTO established itself in Bergen.