December 23, 2015 e.v.

Ordo Templi Orientis, in association with Sekmet Books, is pleased to announce the publication of Success Is Your Proof: One Hundred Years of O.T.O. in North America.

On May 16, 2015 ev, Ordo Templi Orientis celebrated its North American Centennial—commemorating the founding of Canada’s British Columbia Lodge No. 1 in 1915—with a day-long conference hosted in Vancouver by O.T.O. Canada. Prominent researchers and leaders of O.T.O. were invited to deliver papers on this occasion, which are presented here along with additional essays to enhance the utility of this collection for Order members, and other students and practitioners of Thelemic spiritual development.

 

The wide range of subject matter presented here testifies to the vitality and growth of the Order during our last century. Some of the essays in the present volume offer accounts of O.T.O. history—covering prominent figures such as British Columbia Lodge No. 1 founder Charles Stansfeld Jones (Frater Achad), violinist Leila Waddell, and book publisher Albert W. Ryerson. Others discuss more modern history such as a look at the development of the UK Grand Lodge. One paper describes the influence of Aleister Crowley’s magick—and C. S. Jones’ interpretation of it—on Malcolm Lowry’s novel Under the Volcano. Another tracks some six hundred performances of Crowley’s dramatic ritual cycle of The Rites of Eleusis by O.T.O. bodies worldwide. There is an extensive history and analysis of the teachings and structure of the Universal Brotherhood (UB), which attracted Frater Achad during a spiritual crisis and in which he served for three decades. A meditation on the recent past and development of O.T.O. under the leadership of Hymenaues Beta is offered by the National Grand Master of Australia, while the Frater Superior's Representative in Canada discusses the development of the magical memory. Other essays consider what the writings and experiences of O.T.O.’s founders tell us about topics ranging from political and ethical considerations in the New Aeon, the early history of A∴A∴ and O.T.O. before their adoption of the Law of Thelema, and the importance of the relationship between these two allied orders.

This commemorative festschrift volume is dedicated to Frater Superior Hymenaeus Beta—for 2015 also marks the 30th anniversary of his governing Ordo Templi Orientis. All of the conference presenters, supplemental essayists, Frater Superior’s Representatives, and National Grand Masters are honored to be able to express our gratitude and appreciation for his leadership over these decades.

Table of Contents

• Editors’ Introduction
• Raise high the roof beam, carpenters! Hymenaeus! — Shiva X°
• Thinking Backwards, Looking Forwards: On Time, History, and Magical Memory, with Special Reference to the O.T.O. Centennial in Canada and North America — Frater Iskandar
• The New Aeon in the New World: The Law of Liberty in the Wild West — James Wasserman
• Old Aeon Origins: The O.T.O. and A∴A∴ before Thelema — Vere Chappell
• From Amati to America — Cynthia Crosse
• Gathered Into Their Fold — Phanes X°
• Panic in Detroit: The Rise and Fall of a North American Supreme Grand Council (Almost) — Richard Kaczynski
• The Alpha & Omega of Initiation: Aleister Crowley, Charles Stansfeld Jones, and the Way of Duplexity — AISh MLChMH
• Charles Stansfeld Jones and the Universal Brotherhood — Frater Taos
• Bizarre Sons: Charles Stansfeld Jones and Malcolm Lowry — M. Dionysius Rogers
• “It Was Acceptable in the Eighties”: A Brief Account of the Reconstitution of O.T.O. in the UK in the 1980s — Clive Harper
• A Historical Overview of the Rites of Eleusis — Lita-Luise Chappell
• Notes Toward a Bibliography of Works Edited or Introduced by Hymenaeus Beta
• Contributors

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