The Typhonian Order, previously known as the Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis (TOTO), is a self-initiatory
magical organization
A magical organization or magical order is an organization created for the practice of ceremonial or other forms of occult magic or to further the knowledge of magic among its members. Magical organizations can include Hermetic orders, Wicca ...
based in the United Kingdom that focuses on
magical and
Typhon
Typhon (; grc, Τυφῶν, Typhôn, ), also Typhoeus (; grc, Τυφωεύς, Typhōeús, label=none), Typhaon ( grc, Τυφάων, Typháōn, label=none) or Typhos ( grc, Τυφώς, Typhṓs, label=none), was a monstrous serpentine giant an ...
ian concepts. It was originally led by British occultist
Kenneth Grant
Kenneth is an English given name and surname. The name is an Anglicised form of two entirely different Gaelic personal names: ''Cainnech'' and '' Cináed''. The modern Gaelic form of ''Cainnech'' is ''Coinneach''; the name was derived from a byna ...
(1924–2011) and his partner Steffi Grant, and is now believed to be led by their deputy Michael Staley.
The Typhonian Order is among the most well-known
Thelemic
Thelema () is a Western esoteric and occult social or spiritual philosophy and new religious movement founded in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), an English writer, mystic, occultist, and ceremonial magician. The word '' ...
magical orders, primarily due to the publications of Kenneth Grant. In particular, it has influenced
Dragon Rouge
Thomas Karlsson (born 1972) is a Swedish occultist and esoteric writer, with a PhD in the History of Religions from Stockholm University. (Thomas Karlsson's PhD thesis, in Swedish) In 1989 he founded Dragon Rouge, a Left-hand path and right-ha ...
and was instrumental in the creation of
Nema Andahadna
Margaret E. Ingalls (September 16, 1939 - January 9, 2018), known by her pen name Nema Andahadna or simply Nema, was an American occultist, ceremonial magician, and writer best known for her magical writings about the Ma'atian current.
Early li ...
's Maat Magick movement. Grant was also responsible for naming the
left-hand path Luciferian order known as The Order of Phosphorous run by Michael Ford.
While the group is known to still promote the
Crowleyan Law of Thelema, it is said to also focus on exploration of foreign intelligence such as
extraterrestrial life and
daemon
Daimon or Daemon (Ancient Greek: , "god", "godlike", "power", "fate") originally referred to a lesser deity or guiding spirit such as the daimons of ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology and of later Hellenistic religion and Hell ...
s, and on the darker aspects of occult existence.
Origins
The original
Ordo Templi Orientis
Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.; ) is an occult initiatory organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century. The origins of the O.T.O. can be traced back to the German-speaking occultists Carl Kellner, Heinrich Klein, Franz Hartmann and T ...
(O.T.O) was founded by the wealthy German industrialist
Carl Kellner. After Kellner's death in 1905,
Theodor Reuss
Albert Karl Theodor Reuss (; June 28, 1855 – October 28, 1923) also known by his neo-Gnostic bishop title of Carolus Albertus Theodorus Peregrinus was an Anglo-German tantric occultist, freemason, journalist, singer and head of Ordo T ...
became Outer Head of the Order.
In 1920, Reuss suffered a stroke, leading
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...
to question his competence to continue as Outer Head of the Order. By 1921, Crowley and Reuss were exchanging angry letters, culminating in Reuss' expulsion of Crowley from O.T.O.
[Koenig]
"Ordo Templi Orientis--Introduction"
/ref> Crowley then informed Reuss that he was proclaiming himself Outer Head of the Order. Reuss died in 1923 without naming a successor, and Crowley was subsequently elected and ratified as Outer Head of the Order in a Conference of Grand Masters in 1925. World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
then intervened, destroying the European branches of O.T.O. and driving its members underground. Karl Germer
Karl Johannes Germer (22 January 1885 – 25 October 1962), also known as ''Frater Saturnus'', was a German occultist and the United States representative and later a successor of author and occultist Aleister Crowley as the Outer Head of the Ord ...
was incarcerated by the Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...
. By the end of the war, the sole surviving O.T.O. organization was Agapé Lodge in California, where Germer moved after he was released from internment in 1941.
Crowley's succession
After Crowley's death, Germer was his unchallenged successor for some time, and recognized and endorsed Grant's status as a IX° (Ninth Degree) adept in 1948. However Grant later claimed that his assumption of the XI° (Eleventh Degree) was confirmed in 1946, presumably by Crowley, the same year that he was initiated into the A∴A∴
The A∴A∴ ( ) is a magical organization described in 1907 by occultist Aleister Crowley. Its members are dedicated to the advancement of humanity by perfection of the individual on every plane through a graded series of universal initiation ...
, an associated Thelemic magical order created by Crowley in 1907 after leaving the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn ( la, Ordo Hermeticus Aurorae Aureae), more commonly the Golden Dawn (), was a secret society devoted to the study and practice of occult Hermeticism and metaphysics during the late 19th and early 20th ...
.
In 1954, Grant began the work of founding the New Isis Lodge, which became operational in 1955 when Grant announced his discovery of a "Sirius/Set current" in a new manifesto upon which the lodge would be based. Karl Germer disliked this new manifesto so much that he expelled Grant from the O.T.O. Grant responded by declaring himself the Outer Head of the Order, assuming the XII° degree, and taking his supporters into schism against those still following Germer. Grant's group henceforth became informally known as the "Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis," absorbing the New Isis Lodge in 1962, around the same time that Germer died without formally naming a successor as Head of O.T.O.
A document published in 1998 in Volume 2, Number 2 of ''Starfire'' purported to demonstrate that Crowley appointed Grant as Outer Head of the Order in 1947, before Crowley's demise:. A statement published in March 2009 in Volume 2, Number 3 of ''Starfire'', however, acknowledges that ''it has subsequently been established the document was a fake'' and identifies "the perpetrator".[Michael Staley, Starfire II:3: ''Instrument of Succession - An Apology'']
See also
* Magical organization
A magical organization or magical order is an organization created for the practice of ceremonial or other forms of occult magic or to further the knowledge of magic among its members. Magical organizations can include Hermetic orders, Wicca ...
References
Citations
Works cited
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Further reading
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{{Thelema series
Fraternal orders
Left-Hand Path
Magical organizations
Thelema