Aleister Crowley (Oct. 12, 1875-Dec. 1, 1947) was a fascinating man who lived an amazing life. He is best known as being an infamous occultist and the scribe of The Book of the Law, which introduced Thelema to the world. Crowley was an influential member in several occult organizations, including the Golden Dawn, the A∴A∴, and Ordo Templi Orientis. He was a prolific writer and poet, a world traveler, mountaineer, chess master, artist, yogi, social provocateur, drug addict and sexual libertine. The press loved to demonize him and dubbed Crowley “The wickedest man in the world.”

Edward Alexander Crowley was born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire on October 12, 1875. His parents were members of the Plymouth Brethren, an extremely devout Christian sect. It was in this Christian childhood that he came to refer to himself as The Beast 666. He was also fortunate to be heir to a small brewing fortune, which he largely used for travel and publishing his works over his lifetime.

He entered Trinity College at Cambridge in 1895, and left just before finishing his degree. He was initiated into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1898. The next year he purchased Boleskine House at Loch Ness in order to perform the ritual known as the "Abra-Melin Operation".

In 1902 he began the practice of yoga in Ceylon with Allan Bennett, an associate from the Golden Dawn. He returned to Boleskine in 1903 and married Edith Rose Kelly, the sister of the painter Sir Gerald Kelly. On their honeymoon, they visited Cairo, Egypt in 1904. It is here that he came to write "The Book of the Law" on April 8, 9, and 10.

In 1907 Crowley founded the Order he called the A∴A∴ Two years later, he divorced Rose and traveled to the Sahara Desert with poet Victor Neuberg, where they performed a series of rituals that resulted in the book "The Vision and the Voice".

Aleister Crowley (1875 – 1947)

In 1913 Crowley was initiated into Ordo Templi Orientis by Theodor Reuss. The following year Crowley was advanced to the X° and became head of O.T.O. in Great Britain and Ireland. That same year, while on a trip to Moscow, he wrote the "Gnostic Mass".

With the beginning of WWI, Crowley retired to America in 1914, where he began editing the publication "The International". He returned to Europe in 1919. The next year he founded the "Abbey of Thelema" in Cefalú, Sicily — an experimental commune based on the principles of Thelema and inspired by the works of Rabelais. He was expelled from Italy by Mussolini in 1923. During his time at Cefalú, in 1922, Crowley proclaimed himself "Outer Head of the Order of O.T.O."

In 1929 Crowley took his second wife, Maria de Miramar - a native of Nicaragua - although she eventually succumbed to mental delusions and died in an institution three decades later.

By 1935, largely because of his lifelong self-publishing efforts and a lost libel suit, Crowley had lost his personal fortune and settled into bankruptcy. For the next decade he kept himself afloat through publishing and occasional help from associates and students. His final years were characterized by poor health and heroin addiction alongside a continued zeal for promulgating Thelema. In 1945, he retired to Netherwood, a boarding house in Hastings, England. On December 1, 1947, at the age of 71, and with his son Ataturk by his bed, Aleister Crowley good-spiritedly and quietly celebrated his Greater Feast. His ashes were later buried next to a tree in Hampton, New Jersey on the property of Karl Germer (Crowley’s successor to OHO).

Thelemites today hold a wide spectrum of beliefs regarding Crowley's status as prophet. Some view Crowley as he did himself — the literal messenger of a new spiritual Law for mankind. Others believe that "Aiwass" was simply an unconscious (or even fraudulent pseudonym) of Crowley, and that the merit of the Book rests solely on its content without need for objective verification. Yet others disregard Crowley altogether. However, it is reasonable to say that Crowley still plays a very large role in the understanding of Thelema, and his words are constantly used to promulgate its doctrines today.

[Source: Thelemapedia - Aleister Crowley]

Essays and Writings by Aleister Crowley:

Biographical writings:

The Confessions of Aleister Crowley — An Autohagiography

The Equinox of the Gods

Genesis Libri AL — The Boyhood of Aleister Crowley

The Beast — LIBER 666 - "The Master Therion, A Biographical Note"

"The Holy Books of Thelema"

» The Libri of Aleister Crowley — is part of : The Complete Technical Library of the A∴A∴ and O.T.O.

About » "The Book of the Law" — LIBER CCXX (Liber Al vel Legis) :

The Stéle of Revealing

Introduction to Book 220

Commentaries to Liber AL vel Legis

The New Comment to Liber AL vel Legis

The Old Comment to Liber AL vel Legis

The Djeridensis Comment — "The Comment Called D" — Crowley's 1923 EV commentary on "The Book of the Law" .

About "Thelema":

Duty - (» in Hungarian) — A note on the chief rules of practical conduct to be observed by those who accept the Law of Thelema.

The Antecedents of Thelema — Crowley himself acknowledges Rabelais’ influence on Thelema in an incomplete and unpublished in his lifetime essay.

On Thelema — An explanation of various ethical considerations including compassion within Thelema, and the key difference between sympathy and pity.

The Method of Thelema — An essay on putting Thelema into practice.

The Dangers of Mysticism — Affectionately inscribed to Arthur Edward White

The System of the O.T.O. — From "Magick Without Tears", this letter outlines the system of the Order, how it differs from the A∴A∴, and briefly addresses other matters relating to the O.T.O.

Postcards to Probationers — Principles of Yoga and Magick

About "Magick & Occultism":

MAGICK (Liber ABA) & Magick in Theory and Practice — LIBER IV

The Book of Thoth — A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians

The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King — the first of five magical texts known as the "Lemegeton".

Magick Without Tears — A series of advice on occult, spiritual, and practical matters.

The Temple of Solomon the King — A lengthy and detailed Magical Record of Crowley's personal esoteric exploits on his journey across the Mongolian deserts.

Black Magic is Not a Myth

The True Greater Ritual of the Pentagram — A thelemic version

The Supreme Ritual — Invocation of Horus

The Heart of the Master - (» in Hungarian) — A visionary and poetic summary of Thelema, the Holy Qabalah, the Tree of Life and the Tarot.

About "Freemasonry":

My Relations with Freemasonry — Chapter 78 from Aleister Crowley's "Confessions"

What is Freemasonry? — From "Confessions", Crowley's account of his motivations and methods in reconstructing O.T.O. and its rituals

About "Drugs":

The Diary of a Drug Fiend

Absinthe — The Green Goddess

The Drug

Ethyl Oxide

Synopsis of six articles on drugs

About "Sexuality & Sex Magick":

The Cephaloedium Working — An unsuccesful sexual magick ritual carried out in Cefalu

Every Woman is a Star — An essay on the Thelemic approach to women, excerpted from "The Law is for All".

On Sexual Freedom — An essay on Thelemic sexual ethics.

About "Politics & Social Affairs":

The Beginning of the New World — An examination of the state of the world at the beginning of the New Aeon.

The Scientific Solution of the Problem of Government — A short political essay from the 1930s EV, explaining how the Law of Thelema can be the foundation of a scientific approach to the art of government, in contrast to other approaches such as Divine Right and democracy.

On the Education of Children — An essay describing Thelemic approaches to childhood education.

About "Philosophy":

Berashith - בראשית — An Essay in Ontology (With Some Remarks On Ceremonial Magic)

Science and Buddhism — in LIBER LXVII

An Essay Upon Number — in LIBER LVIII

Time — A Dialogue between a British Sceptic and an Indian Mystic

About "Yoga":

Eight Lectures on Yoga — An essay on Yoga Practice.

Collections & Essays:

Konx Om Pax — Essays in Light

Little Essays towards Truth

The Soul of the Desert

About » "The Rites of Eleusis" — LIBER DCCCL :

The Rites of Eleusis — Their Origin and Meaning

Eleusis — from Aleister Crowley's Collected Works, Vol. III, Epilogue.

Concerning “Blasphemy” in General and the Rites of Eleusis in Particular

Dramatic Works & Theatrical Plays:

AHA! — LIBER CCXLII - A Poetic Discourse between an Adept and His Pupil.

Adonis: An Allegory — LIBER CCCXXXV - An Allegory by Aleister Crowley Inscribed to Adonis.

The Tale of Archais (1898.)

The Mother's Tragedy (1899.)

The Fatal Force (1899.)

Jephthah — A Tragedy (1899.)

Tannhauser — A Story of All Time (1901.)

Orpheus — A Lyrical Legend (1905.)

The World's Tragedy (1910.)

The Scorpion — A Tragedy in Three Acts (1910.)

Household Gods — A Comedy (1912.)

The Ship — A Mystery Play (1913.)

The Stratagem — and other stories (1916.)

Poetry:

The Sword of Song — LIBER LXVII - Two Poems with a critical study of various philosophies plus an account of Buddhism.

Songs of the Spirit — A collection of poems (1898.)

The Temple of the Holy Ghost — A collection of poems (1901.) also known as "The Soul of Osiris"

The Winged Beetle — A collection of poems (1910.)

Writings about Aleister Crowley and his work:

Other Internet Resources of Aleister Crowley's writings:

Ananda Metteya born Allan Bennett (8 December 1872 – 9 March 1923)

Charles Henry Allan Bennett was born in London on the 8th December 1872.  His father, who was an engineer passed when he was still a young boy and was raised by his mother as a strict Roman Catholic.  Like Crowley, Bennett suffered from severe asthma and would use a wide variety of drugs to combat it but it would haunt him his entire life which was unfortunately cut short when he died at the age of 51 due to a bowel obstruction.

In 1893 Bennett joined the Theosophical Society which he was a member of until 1895.  In 1894 he also took initiation in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, taking the motto Frater Iehi Aour which means “let there be light.”  He left a profound impression upon his superiors in the Order and within a year’s time would enter the Golden Dawn’s Second Order.  Shortly thereafter (in 1898) Crowley joined the Golden Dawn and it is here that the two first met.

At the time Bennett struggled financially and lived in sub-par conditions.  So Crowley invited Bennett, who he was very much drawn too – to live with him.  Bennett would agree and hence began there long and fruitful friendship.

A couple of years later Bennett would travel to Southeast Asia, primarily in the hope that it would improve his health but also to study Buddhism.  He moved to Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka) to study Yoga under the Yogi Shri Parananda.  Crowley visited him several times during this period and Bennett would introduce Crowley to a number of practices.

It was during one of these visits that the two went for an extended retreat to practice Yoga together and Bennett came to the conclusion that Buddhism was indeed his calling. In December Bennett relocated to Burma in order to become a novice within Theravada Buddhism and by February of 1902 Bennett took his Bhikkhu ordination which made him the second Englishman ever to become a Theravada monk. At his Ordination he assumed the name Ananda Maitreya (meaning “Bliss of loving kindness”) but would later change it to the Pali version, Ananda Metteya.  (Metteya being a future incarnation of Buddha).

Fra∴ Iehi Aour - Bhikkhu Ananda Metteya

Charles Henry Allan Bennett (1872 – 1923)

Just after his ordination Crowley would again visit and the two discussed how they could bring Buddhism to the west.  Crowley fondly recollects this visit in his “Confessions”.  These visits and Bennett’s instructions would serve as a catalyst in Crowley’s spiritual development

Bennett then went on to establish the International Buddhist Society, the Buddhasasana Samagama, in 1903. He began to publish pamphlets and a quarterly journal in English speaking countries with the goal of establish a Buddhist Sangha in England.  In April of 1908 he returned to England to do just this and helped establish the Buddhists Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Bennett would eventually publish two books The Religion of Burma (1911) and The Wisdom of the Aryas (1923).

Though not officially a member of A∴A∴ as we know it Bennett would significantly influence Crowley’s thinking not just in regard to Buddhism but also in regard to Yoga, Pranayama and several other meditative practices whose techniques Crowley continued to utilize and teach throughout his life. Notably, Crowley’s teachings in regard to the Magical Memory stem from what Bennett taught Crowley during this period.

Crowley also included one of Bennett’s essays, “The Training of the Mind” in the Equinox Vol 1 no. 5 and would expand upon Bennett’s Qabalistic dictionary Sepher Sephiroth which is now listed as an official publication of the A∴A∴ given in Class B.

In his essay “Training the Mind” Bennett describes how meditation can cultivate Right Concentration.  However, what few people know is that Bennett did not write this essay for inclusion in the Equinox – Instead it was originally published in as a pamphlet for Bennett’s organization, the International Buddhist Society in 1908 and was entitled “On the Culture of Mind” which Crowley simply renamed and published in the Equinox, clearly demonstrating that Crowley still highly regarded these teachings.

[Source: Astrum Argenteum - Allan Bennett]

Writings about Allan Bennett and his work:

Other Internet Resources about Allan Bennet's writings:

Austin Osman Spare (December 30, 1886 - May 15, 1956 EV) was an English artist and magician.

He was the son of a London policeman. As a child, he showed an affinity for art, and he briefly attended an art school. At the age of 13, he left school to become an apprentice to a stained glass maker. During his teen years, his fascination for the occult grew apace, heavily influencing the work he produced. In May 1904 EV, one of his drawings was exhibited at the annual Royal Academy exhibition in London, generating a storm of publicity for the young artist.

In October 1907 Spare exhibited his drawings at the Bruton gallery in London. His work resembled that of Aubrey Beardsley, but was full of grotesque, sexualized human figures and magical symbols. These elements appealed to avant-garde London intellectuals, and brought him to the attention of Aleister Crowley. Spare became a Probationer of Crowley's order A∴A∴ in July 1909, but was not initiated as a member, although he contributed four small drawings to Crowley's publication The Equinox. Crowley later characterized Spare as a "Black Brother."

In 1917, during World War I, Spare was conscripted into the British army, serving as a medical orderly of the Royal Army Medical Corp in London hospitals. He did not see active service, and was commissioned as an official War Artist in 1919. He visited the battlefields of France to record the work of the R.A.M.C.

Although regarded as an artist of considerable talent and good prospects, Spare chose not to get involved into the London art scene, but lived a rather secluded life financed by pictures (portraits in particular) he sold for very small sums to friends and neighbors. Spare expressed contempt at the idea of selling his works at higher prices - an option he could easily have had. He worked very quickly and often finished drawings in minutes.

Spare's artistic and magical publications include "Earth Inferno", "The Book of Pleasure", "The Focus of Life", manuscripts of "Logomachy of Zos" and "Zoetic Grimoire of Zos" which remained uncompleted at his death on May 15, 1956.

Frater Yihoveaum

Austin Osman Spare (1886 – 1956)

His iconoclasm and aversion to moralism as well as his sigilization served to distinguish his personal style of magic (the "Zos Kia Cultus") from others, and were influential on the Western esoteric tradition that later came to be known as chaos magic.

[Source: Thelemapedia - Austin Osman Spare]

Writings by Austin Osman Spare:

Writings about Austin Osman Spare and his work:

Other Internet Resources of Austin Osman Spare's writings:

Franz Hartmann IX° (22 November 1838, Donauwörth – 7 August 1912, Kempten im Allgäu) was a German medical doctor, theosophist, occultist, geomancer, astrologer, and author.

Hartmann was an associate of Helena Blavatsky and was Chairman of the Board of Control of the Theosophical Society Adyar. He collaborated with the mystic Carl Kellner. He published the journals Lotusblüthen (1893-1900) and Neue Lotusblüten (1908-1913). He wrote articles on yoga and popularized the subject within Germany.

He has been described as "one of the most important theosophical writers of his time". His works include several books on esoteric studies and biographies of Jakob Böhme and Paracelsus. He translated the Bhagavad Gita into German and was the editor of the journal Lotusblüten. He was at one time a co-worker of Helena Blavatsky at Adyar. In 1896 he founded a German Theosophical Society. He also supported the Guido-von-List-Society (Guido-von-List-Gesellschaft).

According to Theodor Reuss he was one of the original founders of the magical order that would later be known as Ordo Templi Orientis, along with Theodor Reuss and Carl Kellner.

[Source: Wikipedia - Franz Hartmann]

Franz Hartmann IX° (1838 – 1912)

Writings by Franz Hartmann:

A List of Works by Franz Hartmann:

• Magic: White and Black (1886)
• The Life of Jehoshua, the Prophet of Nazareth
• The Life and the Doctrines of Philippus Theophrastus Bombast of Hohenheim Known as Paracelsus (1887)
• The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme (1891)
• In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom - Containing the History of the True and the False Rosicrucians (1890)
• Among the Adepts: The Brotherhood of the Golden and Rosy Cross and Their Occult and Mysterious Powers
• With the Adepts: An Adventure Among the Rosicrucians (1910)
• An Adventure Among the Rosicrucians: A Student of Occultism
• The Principles of Astrological Geomancy
• Correlation of Spiritual Forces
• Alchemy and Astrology
• Metafisica Medicina y Sanacion
• Philosophy and Theosophy
• The Four Pillars of Occult Medicine
• To Will, to Dare and to Be Silent in Magic
• Occult Science in Medicine (1893)

Frater Achad, born Charles Stansfeld Jones (2 April 1886 – 24 February 1950) was an early aspirant to A∴A∴ (the 20th to be admitted as a Probationer, in December 1909) who "claimed" the grade of Magister Templi as a Neophyte. He also became an O.T.O. initiate, serving as the principal organizer for that order in British Columbia. He worked under a variety of mottos and mantonyms, including V.I.O. (Unus in Omnibus, "One in All," as an A∴A∴ Probationer), O.I.V.V.I.O., V.I.O.O.I.V., Parzival (as an Adeptus Minor and O.T.O. Ninth Degree), and Tantalus Leucocephalus (as Tenth Degree O.T.O.), but he is best known under his Neophyte motto Achad (Hebrew אחד "unity"), which he used as a byline in his various published writings.

Having been recruited through The Equinox in 1909, Jones was the twentieth person to join Crowley's A∴A∴ order. Jones' motto as a Probationer was Vnvs in Omnibvs (V.I.O.), and his supervising Neophyte was J.F.C. Fuller (Per Ardua). When Fuller later withdrew from the A∴A∴, Aleister Crowley took over as Jones' superior. Jones advanced to Neophyte, taking the motto Achad, which he was subsequently to use for most of his published writings, and by which he is best known. Jones continued his work under Crowley in the Outer Order of A∴A∴ until the former decided to "take 8°=3□, in case that is what the Master really needed," i.e. to claim the grade of Magister Templi in the Third Order, thus assisting Crowley's advancement to the further grade of Magus, by filling "the Master's" current position in the A∴A∴ hierarchy. (Note that – vows of obedience notwithstanding – service to a superior is not part of the A∴A∴ ethical system.) Jones took the Magister Templi obligation (i.e. "the Oath of the Abyss") and notified Crowley.

The news came as a profound revelation to Crowley. Nine months earlier he had been involved in a set of sex-magical operations with Sr. Hilarion (Jeanne Foster) in an apparently unsuccessful effort to conceive a child. Crowley noted the nine-month interval and concluded that Jones' "birth" as a "Babe of the Abyss" qualified him as the "magical child" of Crowley and Hilarion. He welcomed Jones to the Third Order, and declared him to be his "beloved son." Eventually, goaded by suggestions from Jones and impressed by his qabalistic insights into The Book of the Law, Crowley came to consider the younger man the "child" and the "one" prophesied "in Liber Legis I:55-56 and similar passages."

Frater Achad אחד – Parzival IX° – Tantalus Leucocephalus X°

Charles Stansfeld Jones (1886 – 1950)

Inspired by the fifth point of the Task of a Zelator in the A∴A∴ system, Jones sought from Crowley authority to begin O.T.O. initiatory work in Canada. The result was the first operation of Mysteria Mystica Maxima degrees in North America, and the founding of British Columbia Lodge #1, where the original founders of Agape Lodge were first initiated.

Baphomet (Aleister Crowley) awarded Jones all O.T.O. degrees through the Seventh expedentiae causa in 1915. Jones was not given the Ninth Degree until he demonstrated a knowledge of the Supreme Secret of the Sovereign Sanctuary of the Gnosis in correspondence with Crowley. On his admission to the Ninth Degree, Jones took the magical name Parzival.

Jones became Grand Treasurer General after Crowley removed George Macnie Cowie from the post in 1918. Crowley and Jones soon came to disagreement about the management of Order funds, Jones resigned from O.T.O. altogether in 1918. Crowley did not accept Jones' resignation, however, and Jones was eventually made Grand Master for North America by Theodor Reuss. Jones and the German initiate Heinrich Traenker were the Grand Masters who confirmed Crowley in his succession to the office of Outer Head of the O.T.O. in 1925.

Jones' organizing interests were never fired by O.T.O. after the early work of British Columbia Lodge. At Crowley's later request, Jones resigned from the office of National Grand Master General. Although Crowley formally expelled Jones from the Order in 1936, Jones nevertheless considered himself "Past Grand Master for the United States of America" until his death.

In 1921, Jones joined the "Universal Brotherhood" (U.B.), also known to its members as the Integral Fellowship or as the Mahacakra Society (or M.), depending on their level of participation. This group had been actively recruiting among Theosophists for a decade or more, and Jones was one of a number of prominent Thelemites who eventually joined.

The methods of the U.B. involved one-to-one correspondence, with an elaborate set of rules regarding strict secrecy of instructions, envelopes-within-envelopes, purple typewriter ribbons, and special paperclips. Aspirants were provided with typescript lectures ("sutras") on metaphysical topics, using idiosyncratic terms like "integrality" and "partitivity." A system of alms provided for funds to be remitted back up the same chain down which these instructions descended. Organizational titles and pseudonyms in the U.B. were generally taken from Sanskrit. Few U.B. writings have become accessible to non-members, but those that have, taken with Jones' writings in the U.B. vein, suggest that their doctrines involved a baroquely intellectualized form of sentimental monotheism.

In 1924, Jones was superintending about 70 members of U.B., and he formed a plan for subsuming Thelema into the U.B. as a Grama or "Integral Body," which would perpetuate some O.T.O. and A∴A∴ materials "in their pure form." He communicated this idea to Wilfred T. Smith, who was at that time his subordinate in both the U.B. and A∴A∴, but Smith's interest in the U.B. was slight and waning.

Annie Besant, as head of the Theosophical Society, strictly forbade cross-membership in the U.B. As Crowley became aware of the involvement of his followers, he likewise denounced the U.B., calling it a "swindle" in correspondence with Jones. Many of those who left the Theosophical Society for the U.B. under pressure from Besant later converted to Roman Catholicism.

In 1928, Jones himself became a Roman Catholic, undergoing baptism and confirmation into the laity of that church. At roughly the same time, he succeeded to the U.B. office of Mahaguru, thus becoming the chief of that organization. Jones continued to hold that office, apparently until his death. Jones was succeeded as Mahaguru by John P. Kowal (1900-1978).

The true aims of the U.B. remain obscure, but it has been accused by Wilfred T. Smith, among others, of acting as a front for Roman Catholic infiltration of occult groups; and by former member Paul Foster Case of being inspired by the Bavarian Illuminati. Mahaguru John P. Kowal told Martin Starr that its purpose was "to make men think."

In late 1917 Jones was arrested in a Vancouver hotel, where he had been behaving erratically. He was imprisoned on suspicion of being a draft dodger who was pretending to be insane. He was released after three days.

Kenneth Grant, writing in The Magical Revival, claims that on Jones' return to Vancouver circa 1930, he was wearing only a raincoat, which he proceeded to throw off, and then circumambulated the center of the city as a magical operation of some sort, earning himself criminal arrest and a stay in a mental institution. This story, which Grant may have had directly from Crowley, is in all likelihood a confusion of the 1917 incident with the "insanity" of Jones' 1928 baptism and 1929 confirmation in the Roman Catholic Church.

After two of his pieces had been published in Crowley's journal The Equinox, Jones self-published his book Q.B.L., and then wrote several books that were issued through the Yogi Publication Society of Chicago. Jones self-published others with a "Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum, Publications Department" imprint. Many of his writings remained unpublished on his death.

[Source: Thelemapedia - Charles Stansfeld Jones]

Writings by Charles Stansfeld Jones:

A List of Other Works by Charles Stansfeld Jones:

The Collected Essays of Frater Achad

• The Treasure House of Achad — An introduction to this series of Achad works by T. Allen Greenfield. [Mjölnir vol. 1, no. 1.]
• Belief vs. Knowledge — An essay contrasting religious belief with direct spiritual experience. [Mjölnir vol. 1, no. 2.]
• Mirrors of Life — Concerning subjective relativism and freedom of awareness. [Mjölnir vol. 1, no. 3.]
• Freedom — Concerning the enjoyment of life and living. [Mjölnir vol. 1, no. 4.]
• Untitled Letter to the Universal Brotherhood — Concerning Right Knowledge. [Mjölnir vol. 2, no. 4.]
• Thinking Backwards — Concerning Crowley's method of discovering “past lives”. [Mjölnir vol. 2, no. 3.]
• Nothing — Concerning the abandonment of all finite characteristics. [Mjölnir vol. 2, no. 1.]

Unpublished writings include:

• The Alpha and Omega of Initiation — summarizing Jones' appreciation of the O.T.O. and A∴A∴ systems.
• A Master of the Temple, part two — (previously and currently projected for publication by O.T.O. in The Equinox III:2)

Other Internet Resources of Charles Stansfeld Jones' writings:

• Frater Achad (Charles Stansfeld Jones) (by Astrum Argenteum)

J.F.C. Fuller (1876-1966), full name John Frederick Charles Fuller, was a British general, military historian and strategist, notable as an early theorist of modern armored warfare, including categorizing principles of warfare. He was also the inventor of "artificial moonlight".

He was born in Chichester, West Sussex, England on September 1st 1878, and educated at Malvern College and Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst from 1897 to 1898. He proceeded to become 2nd Lt at Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and to serve in South Africa from 1899 to 1902. He then attended Staff College at Camberley and served as an adjutant to a territorial battalion. During World War I, he was a staff officer with the Home Forces and in France and from 1916 worked in the Heavy Branch, which was later to become the Tank Corps. He planned the tank attack of Cambrai and the tank operations for the autumn offensives of 1918. His Plan 1919 for a fully mechanized army was not put into action. After 1918, he held various leading positions, notably as a commander of an experimental brigade at Aldershot. In the 1920s, he collaborated with his junior B.H. Liddell Hart in developing new ideas for the mechanization of armies. Upon his retirement in 1933, impatient with what he considered the inability of democracy to adopt military reforms, he became involved with Sir Oswald Mosley and the British Fascist movement. His ideas on warfare continued to be influential in World War II, as much with the Germans, notably Heinz Guderian as with his own country.

In addition to his military accomplishments, Fuller was a vigorous, expressive and opinionated writer of military history and of controversial predictions of the future of war.

Frater Non Sine Fulmine "Per Ardua"

J.F.C. Fuller (1886 – 1956)

Fuller met Aleister Crowley after winning a contest that the latter had sponsored for someone to write a critical summary of the Crowley literary ouvre to that date. The result was Fuller's "The Star in the West", a volume thick with praise for Crowley's mystical insight. Fuller became one of the first aspirants to formally associate with A∴A∴, taking the motto "Per Ardua" with Crowley as his immediate superior in the Order.

As Crowley's public profile grew more scandalous, Fuller was increasingly uncomfortable with supporting him. In 1913, angry with Crowley's refusal to defend himself against slanders, Fuller fully withdrew from A∴A∴ and severed his social ties with Crowley.

[Source: Thelemapedia - J.F.C. Fuller]

Writings by J.F.C. Fuller:

Writings about J.F.C. Fuller and his work:

Other Internet Resources about J.F.C. Fuller:

Theodor Reuss (1855 - 1923 e.v.) Theodor Reuss was an Anglo-German tantric occultist, utopian socialist, journalist, singer, and promoter of Women's Liberation; and the successor to Carl Kellner as head of O.T.O.

Reuss was born the son of an innkeeper at Augsburg on June 28, 1855 e.v. He was a professional singer in his youth, and was privileged to work under Richard Wagner, whom he first met, along with Wagner's patron, King Ludwig II of Bavaria, in 1873. He took part in the first performance of Wagner's Parsifal at Bayreuth in 1882. He later became a newspaper correspondent, and travelled frequently as such to England, where he became a Mason in 1876. He also spent some time there as a journalist and as a music-hall singer under the stage name "Charles Theodore."

In 1880, in Munich, he participated in an attempt to revive Adam Weishaupt's Bavarian Order of Illuminati. In 1885, in England, he joined the British Social League, which some say he joined to spy on Karl Marx's daughter for the German Secret Service. While in England, he became friends with William Wynn Westcott, the Supreme Magus of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia and one of the founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Wescott provided Reuss with a charter dated July 26, 1901 for the Swedenborgian Rite of Masonry and a letter of authorization dated Feb. 24, 1902 to found a High Council in Germania of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. Gérard Encausse provided him with a charter dated June 24, 1901 designating him Special Inspector for the Martinist Order in Germany. In 1888, in Berlin, he joined with Leopold Engel of Dresden, Max Rahn and August Weinholz in another effort to revive the Illuminati Order. In 1895, he began to discuss the formation of Ordo Templi Orientis with Carl Kellner.

Merlin Peregrinus X°

Theodor Reuss (1855 – 1923)

The discussions between Reuss and Kellner did not lead to any positive results at the time, allegedly because Kellner disapproved with Reuss's connections with Engel. According to Reuss, upon his final separation with Engel in June of 1902, Kellner contacted him and the two agreed to proceed with the establishment of the Oriental Templar Order by seeking authorizations to work the various rites of high-grade Masonry. Wescott assisted Reuss to contact the English Masonic scholar, John Yarker (1833-1913). Along with his associates Franz Hartmann and Henry Klein, he activated the Masonic Rites of Memphis and Mizraim and a branch of the Scottish Rite in Germany with charters from Yarker. Reuss received letters-patent as a Sovereign Grand Inspector General 33° of the Cernau Scottish Rite from Yarker dated September 24, 1902. On the same date, Yarker appears to have issued a warrant to Reuss, Franz Hartmann and Henry Klein to operate a Sovereign Sanctuary 33°-95° of the Scottish, Memphis and Mizraim rites. The original document is not extant, but a transcript of this warrant was published in Reuss's newsletter, The Oriflamme in 1911, which commenced publication in 1902. Yarker issued a charter confirming Reuss's authority to operate said rites on July 1, 1904; and Reuss published a transcript of an additional confirming charter dated June 24, 1905. Reuss and Kellner together prepared a brief manifesto for their Order in 1903, which was published the next year in The Oriflamme.

When Carl Kellner died in 1905, the leadership of the Academia Masonica of O.T.O. fell upon Reuss's shoulders, and he incorporated all his other organizations under its banner, developing the three degrees of the Academia Masonica, available to Masons only, into a coherent, self-contained initiatory system, open to both men and women. He promulgated a constitution for this new, enlarged O.T.O. on June 21, 1906 in London (his place of residence since January 1906) and the next month proclaimed himself Outer Head of the Order (O.H.O.). That same year he published Lingham-Yoni, which was a German translation of Hargrave Jennings's work Phallism, and issued a warrant to Rudolph Steiner (1861-1925, who was at the time the Secretary General of the German branch of the Theosophical Society), making him Deputy Grand Master of a subordinate O.T.O. / Memphis / Mizraim Chapter and Grand Council called "Mystica Aeterna" in Berlin. Steiner went on to found the Anthroposophical Society in 1912, and ended his association with Reuss in 1914.

On June 24, 1908, Reuss attended Encausse's "International Masonic and Spiritualist Conference" in Paris. At this conference, Reuss issued to Encausse a warrant to establish a "Supreme Grand Council General of the Unified Rites of Antient and Primitive Masonry for the Grand Orient of France and its Dependencies at Paris," and possibly received authority in Église Catholique Gnostique. He also appointed Dr. Arnold Krumm-Heller (Huiracocha, 1879-1949) as his official representative for Latin America.

While living in London, Reuss became acquainted with Aleister Crowley. In 1910, he made Crowley a VII° of O.T.O. (based on Crowley's previously held 33° in the Scottish Rite), and in 1912, he conferred upon him the IX° and appointed him National Grand Master General X° for the O.T.O. in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland by charter dated June 1, 1912. Crowley's appointment included authority over an English language rite of the lower (Masonic) degrees of O.T.O. which was given the name Mysteria Mystica Maxima, or M:.M:.M:. In 1913, Crowley issued a Constitution for the M:.M:.M:. and the Manifesto of the M:.M:.M:., which he subsequently redrafted and issued as Liber LII, the Manifesto of the O.T.O. In 1913, Crowley wrote Liber XV, the Gnostic Mass for Reuss's Gnostic Catholic Church. Crowley also dedicated his Mystery Play The Ship (1913) and a collection of poetry, The Giant's Thumb (1915) to Reuss.

In 1914, at the outset of World War I, Reuss left England and returned to Germany. He worked briefly for the Red Cross in Berlin, then, in 1916, moved to Basle, Switzerland. While there, he established an "Anational Grand Lodge and Mystic Temple" of O.T.O. and the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light at Monte Verità, a utopian commune near Ascona founded in 1900 by Henri Oedenkoven and Ida Hofmann, which functioned as a center for the Progressive Underground. On January 22, 1917, Reuss published a manifesto for this Anational Grand Lodge, which was called "Verità Mystica." On the same date, he published a revised O.T.O. Constitution (based in a large part on Crowley's 1913 Constitution of the M:.M:.M:.), with a "Synopsis of Degrees" and an abridgment of The Message of the Master Therion appended. Reuss held an "Anational Congress for Organising the Reconstruction of Society on Practical Cooperative Lines" at Monte Verità from August 15-25, 1917. This Congress included readings of Crowley's poetry (on August 22) and a recitation of Crowley's Gnostic Mass (on August 24). On October 24, 1917, Reuss Chartered an O.T.O. Lodge, "Libertas et Fraternitas" in Zürich. This Lodge later placed itself under the Masonic jurisdiction of the Swiss Grand Lodge Alpina.

In 1918, Reuss published his German translation of Crowley's Gnostic Mass. In a note at the end of his translation of Liber XV, he referred to himself as, simultaneously, the Sovereign Patriarch and Primate of the Gnostic Catholic Church, and Gnostic Legate to Switzerland of the Église Gnostique Universelle, acknowledging Jean Bricaud (1881-1934) as Sovereign Patriarch of that church. The issuance of this document can be viewed as the birth of the Thelemic E.G.C. as an independent organization under the umbrella of O.T.O., with Reuss as its first Patriarch.

Reuss was clearly impressed with Thelema. Crowley's Gnostic Mass, which Reuss translated into German and had recited at his Anational Congress at Monte Verità, is an explicitly Thelemic ritual. In an undated letter to Crowley (received in 1917), Reuss reported exitedly that he had read The Message of the Master Therion to a gathering at Monte Verità, and that he was translating The Book of the Law into German. He added, "Let this new encourage you! We live in your Work!!!"

Reuss left Monte Verità some time before November 1918. On May 10, 1919, Reuss issued a "Gauge of Amity" document to Matthew McBlain Thomson, founder of the ill-fated "American Masonic Federation." On September 18, 1919, Reuss was reconsecrated by Bricaud, thus receiving the "Antioch Succession," and re-appointed as "Gnostic Legate" to Switzerland for Bricaud's Église Gnostique Universelle. In 1920, Oedenkoven and Hofmann abandoned Monte Verità in 1920 to establish a second colony in Brazil, and Reuss published a document titled The Program of Construction and the Guiding Principles of the Gnostic Neo-Christians: O.T.O.

On July 17, 1920, he attended the Congress of the "World Federation of Universal Freemasonry" in Zürich, which lasted several days. Reuss, with Bricaud's support, advocated the adoption of the religion of Crowley's Gnostic Mass as the "official religion for all members of the World Federation of Universal Freemasonry in possession of the 18° of the Scottish Rite." Reuss's efforts in this regard were a failure, and he left the Congress after the first day. On May 10, 1921, Reuss issued X° Charters to Charles Stansfeld Jones and Heinrich Tränker to serve as Grand Masters for the U.S.A. and Germany, respectively. On July 30, 1921, Reuss issued another "Gauge of Amity" document, this time to H. Spencer Lewis, founder of A.M.O.R.C., the San Jose, California based Rosicrucian organization. Reuss returned to Germany in September of 1921, settling in Munich.

There is some reason to believe that Reuss suffered a stroke in the Spring of 1920, but this is not entirely certain. Crowley wrote to W.T. Smith in March of 1943: "the late O.H.O., after his first stroke of paralysis, got into a panic about the work being carried on... He hastily issued honorary diplomas of the Seventh Degree to various people, some of whom had no right to anything at all and some of whom were only cheap crooks." Shortly after appointing him his Viceroy for Australia, Crowley appears to have corresponded with his student Frank Bennett and discussed with him his doubts about Reuss's continuing ability to effectively govern the Order. It would appear that Reuss discovered the correspondence; he wrote Crowley an angry, defensive response on November 9, 1921, in which he appeared to distance himself and O.T.O. from Thelema, which, as shown above, he had previously embraced. Crowley replied to Reuss's letter on November 23, 1921, and stated in his letter, "It is my will to be O.H.O. and Frater Superior of the Order and avail myself of your abdication -- to proclaim myself as such." He signed the letter "Baphomet O.H.O." Reuss's response is not extant, but Crowley recounts in his Confessions that Reuss "resigned the office [of O.H.O.] in 1922 in my favour." However, it does not appear that Crowley waited for Reuss's response to assume his duties. In a diary entry for November 27, 1921, Crowley wrote: "I have proclaimed myself O.H.O. Frater Superior of the Order of Oriental Templars." Reuss died on October 28, 1923. In a letter to Heinrich Tränker dated February 14, 1925, Crowley stated the following: "Reuss was very uncertain in temper, and in many ways unreliable. In his last years he seems to have completely lost his grip, even accusing The Book of the Law of communistic tendencies, than which no statement could be more absurd. Yet it seems that he must have been to some extent correctly led, on account of his having made the appointments of yourself and Frater Achad, and designating me in his last letter as his successor." In a letter to Charles Stansfeld Jones dated Sun in Capricorn, Anno XX (Dec. 1924 - Jan. 1925), Crowley said, "in the O.H.O.'s last letter to me he invited me to become his successor as O.H.O. and Frater Superior." Reuss's letter designating Crowley his successor as O.H.O. has not been found, but no credible documentation has surfaced which would indicate that Reuss ever designated any alternative successor.

Reuss's writings include: The Matrimonial Question from an Anarchistic Point of View (1887); Die Mysterien der Illuminaten (1894); Geschichte des Illuminaten-Ordens (1896); Was muss man von der Freimauerei wissen? (1901); Was ist Okkultismus und wie erlangt man occulte Kräfte? (1903); Was muss man von Richard Wagner und seinen Ton-dramen wissen? (1903); Lingam-Yoni; oder die Mysterien des Geschlechts-Kultus (1906); Allgemeine Satzungen des Ordens der Orientalischem Templer O.T.O. (1906; Parsifal und das Enthüllte Grals-Geheimnis (1914); Constitution of the Ancient Order of Oriental Templars, O.T.O., Ordo Templi Orientis, with an Introduction and a Synopsis of the Degrees of the O.T.O. (1917); Die Gnostische Messe (1920); Das Aufbau-Programm und die Leitsätze der Gnostischen Neo-Christen (1920); and numerous articles published in his periodical Oriflamme (1902-1914).

[Source: Thelemapedia - Theodor Reuss]

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