Order of Eastern Templars ~ History & Perspective
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Order of Eastern Templars ~ History & Perspective A S the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light melded into the Ordo Templi Orientis in the early years of the 20TH Century, the latter became the chief working institution following the AUTHENTIC TRADITION. The Order of Oriental Templars, beyond reasonable question, has held the primary warrants and patents and legal rights of the AUTHENTIC TRADITION in the West for the most recent period under our consideration here, namely circa 1900-2000. The bare bones of the early story of this body of manifestation, precisely because it remains a living manifestation as we write these words, are too well known in general outline to need retelling here. Be it noted that in various accounts, ranging from scurrilous critiques to outright order propaganda and apology, there are departures from our brief accounting here. This is the author‘s take on this history. Be it also noted that there are bodies of manifestation peripheral to the Oriental Templars that work with the true central gnosis of the AUTHENTIC TRADITION, with or without charter, and are thus, by definition, part of that tradition. We have given due attention to Wicca. A closer similarity to the central gnosis of the AUTHENTIC TRADITION may perhaps be found in such bodies as the Fraternity of Saturn in Germany, which continued to practice the central gnosis insofar as its chiefs understood it, while often rejecting the Thelemic spirituality of Liber AL vel Legis and the leadership of Aleister Crowley. Bodies as distant as the Ancient and Mystic Order of the Rose Cross (AMORC) and its rivals were certainly influenced by the H. B. of L., and even OTO, but seem to have failed the unique central gnosis that is the near-infallible marker of the AUTHENTIC TRADITION of the sacred fire of love wedded to will. The Hermetic Brotherhood of Light began to transfer its headquarters to America in the late 1880s, under Burgoyne and Davidson. They set up the nucleus of a colony in Loudsville (now Cleveland), White County, Georgia. While they continued extensive contact in Europe, Loudsville became the de facto headquarters of the organization for the remainder of its independent existence. Burgoyne moved to California and published The Light of Egypt. Davidson continued to distribute The Morning Star and numerous monographs from Loudsville, becoming the American representative of Dr. Encausse‘s Martinist Order, and eventually the English-language publisher of Max Theon‘s Cosmic Philosophy, until Davidson‘s death in 1914. Though Theon lived on into the early 1920s, his mystical work had essentially ended with the tragic drowning death of his wife, who was his magical link to the secret chiefs of the inner order. Essentially, all organizational manifestations end if they lose their magical link, though they may linger as shells for some time thereafter. Conversely, a new attempt at Manifestation on an organized basis must establish such a link, or it is a mere hollow shell or, at best, an archival receivership between active manifestations. Dr. Encausse, better known by his pen name ―Papus‖ was one of the towering figures of the AUTHENTIC TRADITION in Europe in the late 19TH and early 20TH Centuries. He considered Davidson, the H. B. of L. outer chief, to be his ―practical master‖. He also entered into association with such occult luminaries as the esoteric Freemason Dr. Theodor Reuss and eventually Aleister Crowley. Carl Kellner was one of the pioneers of yogic practice and philosophy, as well as both ‗regular‘ and esoteric Freemasonry in Austria in the same period. Reuss and Kellner met in 1894 to discuss formation of an ―Inner Circle‖ and a broader ―Academia Masonica‖, with Kellner as its chief. The purpose of this Academy was to convey the central secret of the AUTHENTIC TRADITION in a Masonic format. How much work of the H. B. of L. — Fratres Lucis type was actually done during the 1890s is not well documented. It hardly emerged out of inaction when Reuss, having acquired certain esoteric Masonic patents in 1903, began publishing the Oriflamme. About the time of Kellner‘s death, he announced the existence of the ―Inner Circle‖ (a term, later taken up by Meade Layne and Mark Probert in the 1940s in occult circles in Southern California), which was gradually to effectively become the branch of esoteric Freemasonry beneath his overall (and overbearing) leadership under the name Ordo Templi Orientis. Reuss revealed that the AUTHENTIC TRADITION, at its core, was a magical secret gnosis of a sexual nature, taught explicitly only at the highest degrees. Much influenced by the structural authoritarianism then afflicting German culture, his management style was absurdly top heavy. The legacy of this style continued to haunt the organization long after his death, even with Crowley‘s efforts to—somewhat—mitigate this outdated despotism in an ostensible ―INTIMATION WITH REFERENCE TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ORDER‖ written, unfortunately, while he was still under Reuss‘s authority. In 1913, Reuss, who spent much of his time going back and forth between Britain and his native Germany, showed up unexpectedly at the home of the British mystic, poet, mountain climber and rogue, Edward Alexander ―Aleister‖ Crowley. Crowley had already become a magical philosopher and sometimes practitioner through his controversial association, first with the original Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and then with the Golden Dawn progression, known as the A:.A:. His journal ―THE EQUINOX‖ was the premiere magical journal of the early Twentieth Century. As an esoteric (and arguably regular) 33RD Degree Rite of Memphis Mason, Theodor Reuss had accorded him the VIITH Degree in his Templar Order. By 1910, roughly coincident with the death of the Grand Hierophant John Yarker, Reuss, Crowley and Encausse (Papus) conjointly presided over the Rite of Memphis. According to his own account of the event, after composing one of his several masterworks, the collection of Cabalistic paradoxes and musings published as The Book of Lies, Crowley was visited unexpectedly by Reuss, who told Crowley that he had published the central secret of the Order of Templars of the Orient. Crowley professed ignorance of that secret, and Reuss pointed it out in plain language in The Book of Lies. ―…The entire symbolism, not only of freemasonry, but of many other traditions, blazed upon my spiritual vision.‖ Crowley said in his autobiography. ―From that moment the O.T.O. assumed its proper importance in my mind. I understood that I held in my hands the key to the future progress of humanity.‖ Crowley was elevated by Reuss to the IXTH Degree of the OTO system, and given essential charge of the Order in the English-speaking world. For some years prior, after 1904, Crowley‘s occult work had become increasingly influenced by the controversial work eventually called Liber AL vel Legis, (The Book of the Law), written in Crowley‘s own hand in Cairo, but ascribed by him firstly to automatic writing, and ultimately to an intelligence higher than human. That this short volume certainly does entwine with the central gnosis of both the Kellner-Reuss OTO and the authentic occult tradition is difficult to deny. It is worth noting that it also is unavoidably associated with the rich tradition of trance channeled holy books familiar from this period of history in many contexts. One thinks of Joseph Smith‘s Book of Mormon, to the immediately contemporary Oahspe and Cosmic Philosophy, down through the Seth material and RA material of the second half of the twentieth century, with a nod towards the mysterious novels of ‗Patience Worth‘. The issue of Liber AL is worthy of a separate critical volume. Suffice to say here that Crowley took the opportunity as head of OTO in the English-speaking countries, to rewrite and consolidate the rituals of OTO into a system of initiations that continued to gradually lead the initiate to the central sexual gnosis, while incorporating his perspective on Liber AL into the ritual structure. We shall return to this intent shortly; it is often downplayed by persons with quite different agendas. There is no discontinuity of the Order‘s purposes from Kellner and Reuss to Crowley, but, presently, we must ask if the management of the Order at the current time is successfully serving these purposes. Reuss continued to head the organization until felled by a stroke in the early 1920s. Under Reuss the OTO had enjoyed considerable growth in Continental Europe, notably in Germany, France and Switzerland (where Reuss established its headquarters), while Crowley left a modest but working body in Britain, spending World War I building the OTO and his A:.A:. in America and Canada. By the time he returned to Britain the OTO branch under his authority and designated the Mysteria Mystica Maxima (MMM) had suffered both financial and legal reverses in England, while his student Charles Robert John Stansfeld Jones (Frater Achad) was left in charge of the work in North America, headquartered in Vancouver. Jones and Crowley drifted apart, mostly over metaphysical differences, and the ailing Reuss lost faith in Crowley over perceived intrigues by the latter, which may be seen largely in terms of the bitterness between Germany and Britain at the end of ―The Great War‖. Reuss told Crowley to continue his work with the MMM in the English speaking world, while he would continue as Outer Head of the Order in Europe. Crowley responded bitterly that he intended to succeed Reuss, who was, in any case, overtaken by death shortly thereafter. Crowley, with the support of Frater Achad (Jones) and other luminaries of OTO and related bodies thereupon assumed leadership of the entire Order. Some local bodies, especially in Continental Europe, were highly uncomfortable with Crowley‘s Liber AL being incorporated into the work of the OTO, and continued to operate under various names, teaching some version of the OTO‘s traditional central gnosis.