Epistle2

An Open Epistle

on Lineages of the AA

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. - AL I:40

Many know the early history of our noble fraternity which is rarely debatable, but few know what occurred after the death of its founder, our beloved prophet Aleister Edward Crowley (1875-1947). It is no secret that Crowley left absolutely no provisions in his Last Will and Testament regarding what should happen to the AA after his death. This has been the root of the problems plaguing the fraternity today. We do know that the leading figure in the Order, Karl Germer, emphatically believed it was Crowley’s last wish that in the event of his “death or disability a General Council of the Order shall be summoned within a year and a day of that event by Frater (Saturnus) ... The Council shall discuss the existing conditions of the Order freely for 11 days; after hearing the same the members of the AA highest in rank (and in seniority) shall assume our present functions and govern the Order in our place.” Unfortunately, after Crowley’s death on December 1st 1947, Germer never organized a General Council to convene and discuss the future of our noble Order. The closest he came was to send out an ‘official’ abridged note, quoted above, to other AA members. Grady McMurtry received this attached to a letter dated March 1st 1948 in which Germer writes that the following paragraph is from a Crowley document “of interest.” However, as Grady often disgustedly said, nothing more ever came of this and no meeting was held despite his numerous pleas to Germer to fulfill Crowley’s last wishes.

The difficulty with what Germer quotes is that he admits in his letter that it “is only a preliminary notice” and “will take months before the complete document will be available in New York.” The document he mentions is known as The Constitution of The Order of Thelemites. It seemed simple enough, but proved problematic. According to Germer, when a ranking AA member in England, named Gerald Yorke (Frater Volo Intelligere), found the original document amongst Crowley’s papers he “thought it was important enough that I should have it.” Yorke copied the above note and quickly mailed it off to Karl, who then mails it out to other AA members. The problem with what Yorke quotes is that it could be construed as being misleading if not taken out of context. Some believe it is flawed and confuses apples with oranges. I’m not going into all the details of what I’m implying because, in fact, it is irrelevant to the point being made. We don’t dispute the possibility of a problem with interpretation on Yorke’s behalf which, if correctly understood, could possibly show that no election may have been required for someone to assume Head of AA. However, Germer never received a copy of The Constitution of The Order of Thelemites to find this out for himself. The document only recently resurfaced. The realization of what this document actually states and as to whom it really implies, has some claiming that it proves beyond a shred of a doubt that Germer automatically assumed Head of the Order whether or not he knew it, or accepted it during his lifetime. Yet this belief is childishly laughable, unjustifiable and a distortion of what actually occurred. It is merely an attempt to justify ‘present day myth-making’ while ignoring historical facts regarding leadership’s responsibility as such was then perceived. In other words, the over-all question which must be pondered is whether or not Germer’s belief at the time weighs heavier than what some document discovered years later implies.

Let’s look at it further from a legal standpoint. Obviously, if Germer never received the information he could only act in relation to the knowledge he possessed. Whether such is proved right or wrong long after his death is actually immaterial. You can not rewrite history. In fact, no leader of either OTO or AA is exempt from this folly. Everyone, from Germer and Grady to Frater Hymenaeus Beta on down, have made errors during the course of their tenure. We’re constantly finding new Crowley documents which suggests this to be the case. Or is it? In truth they all acted ‘as if’ and in good faith with what they and others honestly believed to be correct at the time. This could be construed as ‘legal justification for their actions’ in a Court of Law because they were or are, technically, in charge of running the affairs of the Order and every leader has the right to change old policies and set new ones. This is how organizations grow. The time to have debated a Germer policy was back then, not now. At this point in time the best that we can do is reflect upon his actions as historical folly and then change such so that future generations don’t have to go through the confusion all over again. So, regardless of all this modern day haggling, it is an undisputed fact that Germer honestly believed a meeting was mandatory but he never held one. He wallowed on this issue and kept putting it off until his own death on October 25th 1962. Therefore, contrary to what anyone would have you believe, Germer never was, nor officially assumed, Head of AA. The best we can say is he remained the Order’s senior member to whom others looked for guidance.

Now, as fate would have it, when Germer died, just as he never held a meeting on Crowley’s behalf, he left no provisions for an assembly to convene on his own. Some believe that since he never assumed the position of leadership there may have been, at least in his own mind, no reason to hold such. Of course, there will always be those who’ll quickly harp, to anyone who’s ear they can bend, that no meeting was ever required. That the senior ranking initiate automatically assumes the responsibility as the Head of the AA upon the death of the previous leader. They ‘need’ you to believe this. If history can be changed, and I stress changed, to reflect that Germer was automatically Head, regardless if he accepted such while alive, then this promotes the idea, at least in their mind, that their teacher Marcello Motta assumed the responsibility of leadership upon Germer’s death. After all, Motta was an Adeptus Major or 6=5, supposedly the highest ranking initiate worldwide. However, their assumptions are absurd and myth making. It is no secret that Motta’s claim to being head of the Ordo Templi Orientis were, needless-to-say, proven 100% false in a US Court of Law as the delusions of an afflicted mind. Even his own students acknowledge that he had been going at tad bit bonkers since the early seventies. So why should we believe anything Motta claims? Especially a view which states that he ‘automatically’ became Head of anything. In fact, in March of 1978 I had the opportunity to question Grady McMurtry about Motta’s claims in regards to both O.T.O. and AA. My diaries record a sarcastic comment he made, saying, “Ya, he’s head of the AA like he’s head of the O.T.O.!” I tend to agree with my teacher’s assessment on both accounts and do not accept Motta’s claims or those of his students. I can not comprehend how we’re all expected to believe that every AA Initiate world wide, regardless of which branch they originally joined or when, are now members in their Order, under their leadership, myself included. You can imagine my surprise when I woke one morning in the late nineteen-eighties, after years of being in Grady’s AA lineage, only to find out that I had new superiors!

Still, let’s give Motta’s students the benefit of a doubt and play the Devil’s Advocate. Let’s say that what they claim is true. That Motta, like Germer, automatically assumed Head of the AA simply because he was the highest ranking initiate. Now I won’t get into what Motta’s Last Will & Testament states but this newly fostered belief implies that after his death in late 1988 then the highest ranking initiate should have taken over, right? In other words, myself, Soror Meral, Kenneth Grant and a few others, from other lineages, should have assumed some responsibility of worldwide leadership since we were some of the highest ranking initiates in the world who were still active, had not resigned or been expelled, but we did not. Instead, we simply remained the Heads of our own lineage which is, as it should be. Other Motta students, some in fact lower in degree than ourselves, took over Motta’s lineage upon his death. However, these same people, like their teacher before them, boisterously proclaim sovereignty over all of us and the Gods forbid if we dare to disagree with being ‘assimilated’ or doubt their authority.

Since the terms ‘independent bloodline’ and ‘lineage’ have been mentioned, we need to extrapolate upon this topic further for clarity. Both terms dictate the present state of affairs of the AA. It’s no secret that, due to his own self-imposed isolation, Germer’s death was not discovered or openly acknowledged for many years. By this time both the OTO and AA had entered into a Dark Night. This is an historical fact. No one had been officially appointed Head of either fraternity and few initiations were occurring anywhere in the world. Both fraternities nearly vanished into the obscurity of history thanks to the infectious Saturnian actions of Karl Germer against his children which scattered them worldwide. With the rebirth of western magickal traditions in the mid nineteen-sixties and early seventies, a new thirst for Crowley’s teachings was slowly beginning to emerge. Somehow Crowley knew this period was going to be a unique. He wrote Grady in 1944 predicting that, “1965 e.v. should be a critical period in the development of the Child Horus.” Grady explained that Crowley spoke not of an adult Horus but of a ‘child’ as if to imply the New Aeon, slowly crawling along, would now be learning to walk. However, unbeknownst to Crowley, this period signifies when all the ‘children’ from Grady McMurtry, Phyllis Seckler, Kenneth Grant, to Motta himself and many others, who had been working the AA system privately for years, would slowly be coming into their own rights. One reason for the present state of affairs of the AA is that not one of these emerging initiates would ever try to unite the rest. In fact, many had no knowledge of other initiates and had little, if any, contact with the rest depending upon where they resided in the world or with whom they were still on speaking terms. Many simply assumed the responsibility of leadership in their area and their area only by virtue of being the senior ranking member. This is an important fact to realize because it created the structure of AA as it presently stands: splintered and often historically confused. Still, contrary to what some would have you to believe, it is during this period and not during Crowley’s lifetime that the AA really started functioning and growing. Prior to this period the number of active members were only a small handful scattered worldwide, disorganized and mostly on their own.

The next critical stage in the developmental cycle of the AA would occur when many of the students of the above mentioned individuals began coming into their own rights in the nineteen eighties. Unfortunately, Hadit warns us, “the Eighties cower before me, & are abased.”(AL III:46) Since we are not allowed to comment publicly on verses found in Liber AL vel Legis, according to some people’s interpretation of The ‘Tunis’ Comment, I’ll let the reader ponder the thought as to what they feel is being lowered, degraded and abased.

All in all, in Truth, we should not fret over the actions of our Secret Chiefs. We mortals can not second guess their motives. For all practical purposes the AA did not splinter into little pieces, it simply mutated into a more Thelemic organization by offering diversity of thought rather than the rigidity of only one way. My own superior, the late Grady Louis McMurtry, was living in Washington D.C. at the time of Germer’s death. He often used the analogy of a Tree for the AA, the roots of which are well founded in Crowley but whose branches began growing in different directions, the fruits of which are very distinct if you know the leadership of each branch or lineage. This was his way of explaining how others could be in the same Order but not be connected to himself or his lineage. To me this is the beauty of our Order, never cornering the market on Truth while being so eclectic in its labors that it aids the diversity of humanity rather than the Egotistical Wills of a select few. This is true Thelema and, whether or not this was Crowley’s intent when he set up the Order, it evolved to such over a period of ninety years, of which the last thirty or more has had no single leader presiding over the whole. In other words, the AA, guided by the Secret Chiefs, is a beautifully growing tree whose branches reach toward the heavens with each designed to fulfill the varied needs of Thelemites worldwide. It was Grady’s belief, as it is mine, Soror Meral’s and other lineages, that a student is drawn toward the branch which best suits his or her needs.

The question which needs to be addressed is what happened to Grady McMurtry’s lineage of the AA after he died? Like Motta’s, Grady’s also splintered into two or three distinct branches. Now I can not speak for the others, I can only speak for myself and explain how I came to assume the leadership of my particular branch. The whole story has never been made public. It has remained within my lineage and considered no one else’s business. However, the recent state of affairs of our noble Order forces me to come forward to explain the Truth which is often concealed by those wanting to be King of the Hill.

My story begins in 1984. I held the degree of Adeptus Minor 5=6 directly under Grady when I headed to Syracuse New York to meet him. This is well documented. At the time I was living in New Haven, Connecticut. He had called me earlier in the week and requested ‘strongly’ that I come up. It seemed urgent but he refused to tell me over the phone as to why he wanted to talk, other than to say it had to be in person. A bit of history is required to understand what was about to transpire.

We all know that on October 12th 1977, just as the Sun passed the peak of an eclipse on the birthday of Aleister Crowley, Grady signed a Charter officially establishing the OTO in Berkeley, California, using Crowley’s special Seal Ring of Ankh-af-na-Khonsu. What is never discussed is that the Charter actually states, “Let all Thelemites know that I, Hymenaeus Alpha, 777 IX O.T.O., 9=2 Caliph of the Ordo Templi Orientis of Aleister Crowley, Baphomet, 666, do hereby Charter Thelema Lodge as Grand Lodge of O.T.O.” All well and good, but how many people are aware that Grady actually signed the Charter as a Magus of the AA, 9=2? He rarely talked about this but his students will attest that according to Grady, on this particular day, he made the affirmation to assume the degree. Grady asserted that he uttered his magickal Word, as a Magus, under his breath. It was the letters ‘OTO.’ This affirmation would not only give birth to The Grand Lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis but would reactivate and breathe life into the Order, or so he believed. In fact, Grady felt his entire life had been preparing him for that single moment and, in many respects, I agree. I explained all the details of Grady’s ‘fate’ which lead up to this event in the lengthy biography titled The Warrior-Troubadour, The Life & Times of Grady Louis McMurtry which appeared in Red Flame No.1.

However, years later in 1984, he felt his Universe was in jeopardy of collapsing. There were ‘traitorous dogs’ nipping at his heels. The analogy he used was like “black crabs in that drainage ditch hard by Old Tokyo Bay” who lived in “shit.” It is not the purpose of this Introduction, although recorded elsewhere fairly in-depth, to explain why he felt this way. Those who know the events of this period will attest that the OTO was very unstable. The main reason for this according to Grady, was his own continued inability to fully activate the degree of Magus which he had assumed in 1977. To achieve this he believed, whether right or wrong, that he needed someone to assume the degree of Magister Templi, thus pushing him forward, as Frater Achad did for Crowley in 1916. I know that some people might disagree that Grady was ever a Magister Templi because I have heard grumblings of which degree some are willing to accept that he had obtained to prior to his death but, such is a ludicrous notion. I won’t get into the varied reasons why they need to degrade him, but in Truth no one can ever dispute another’s claim to have sworn the Oath of the Abyss, as Grady had often stated he did. That is Grady’s karma and his alone. In fact, all initiates have the right to swear this Oath no matter which degree they hold and, as his student, I will not deny Grady’s claim to having done such. It’s all I’ve ever known and I must honor it. However, it can be debated whether or not Grady had the ability to fulfill the next degree, which in all honesty even he doubted. Still, we must consider the power behind the Word of a Magus. It should create a Universe. Grady’s Word created (or re-activated) the OTO which many of us are still part of to this day. This is the true power of a Magus. If anyone within the OTO denies such then they deny the very cause of their existence as it presently stands rooted deeply in Grady McMurtry and the Caliphate.

Anyway, back to Syracuse, after a rather lengthy conversation Grady took out a pile of assorted letters from a folder and began reading from them to me. He quoted a letter which Crowley had written to him in November of 1944, or “Trust not a stranger: fail not of an heir.” He also told me that, according to Crowley, an Adept only has 2 real steps to take: 1.) to achieve 5=6, which means bringing your Energy up to your Heart Chakra Tiphereth where you meet your HGA and then, ‘under that divine guidance’, to 2.) essay the adventure of the Abyss. He later gave me the folder to keep and study. It took me years to fully understand the ordeals which were about to be thrust upon me. Since, as he stressed, I had already accomplished the first step of 5=6 and was one of the highest ranking members in his lineage, he hoped I would be willing take the Oath of the Abyss for his sake and the OTO. He then took my copy of Magick, which I carried with me everywhere, opened it to a page and began to read, “No attainment soever is officially recognised by the AA unless the immediate inferior of the person in question has been fitted by him to take his place.” With his pen he then drew a big circle around the paragraph, as he put it, so I don’t forget. It became very clear as to what Grady was saying and why he wanted me to take the Oath of the Abyss. None of his students had taken his place as a Magister Templi when he assumed the degree of a Magus in 1977. Now, years later, he believed he needed this.

The urgency for me to take the degree, at least in his mind, was the factor of his failing health and that his other heir had recently, quote, “failed him miserably” and aligned himself with “the enemy” who were attempting to infiltrate and undermine the Order while he was in the throngs of a lawsuit against Marcello Motta. Grady suspected that this was beginning to happen as far back as 1981 which is why he began to quietly groom me behind the scenes, as to not put all his apples in one basket in regards to AA. I’m not going to give all the details of the tragedies which occurred behind the scenes which prompted Grady to act. That is his karma and mine for accepting it. Besides, some of the players are still alive and it would do no one justice to reveal what tormented Grady during the last few years of his life. Contrary to what some people have claimed, at no time was taking this Oath ever demanded of me. The decision was left totally up to me, as witnesses of what transpired in Syracuse will attest. In fact, Grady himself told me it was OK if I did not accept this “challenge”. Nothing between him and I would ever change and he would find another Way. However, there would be no need for that. Later that day of April 22nd 1984, after deeply searching my soul, I made up my mind. I swore the Oath of the Abyss before Grady Louis McMurtry, thereby assuming the degree of Magister Templi 8=3, as well as taking the VIIIº of the noble Fraternity of Ordo Templi Orientis. When he signed and sealed one of the appropriate documents he used black sealing wax. At the time, he turned to me and chuckled, saying, “obviously obtained for this event.” I made a comment that it is understandably not a color he’d normally be using. I asked him where he found black sealing wax, of all things, on such a short notice in Syracuse late at night. He laughed and simply said “magick.” Later he confessed he had brought it, along with all the quoted letters, from California as “part of his plan”, hoping I’d be a part in it. One of the things which he stressed was that I should continue taking the degrees between Adeptus Minor and Magister Templi to balance myself karmically for the ordeals which would be imposed upon me by the Secret Chiefs. I gave him my Word that I would.

When Grady returned to Berkeley things began calming down as if his Universe was getting re-aligned due to what transpired magickally in Syracuse. The opposing forces, some of whom were in-house fighting, shook hands and seemingly tried to work together. However, Grady would often tell me over the next year that he could never trust any of them again, nor confide in them as he had in the past. Since most of what occurred in Syracuse, between Grady and myself, dealt solely with AA issues he felt no one in the OTO in California had to know all the details except the fact that he had given me VIIIº. Although, typical of Grady, he talked to someone whom he thought he could trust and thus it got out that I had taken the Oath of the Abyss. However, it really didn’t matter to me. I had immersed myself deeply into the degree and into those things which Grady told me to study, especially in regards to Liber Aleph. My own life became filled with daily ritual and constant meditation. I was finding myself confronted time and time again by Choronzon. Life proved interesting. Then, as if by the fate of the Gods, while deep in a Magickal Retreat at Grady’s own request, I received a phone call that my beloved superior had quietly died in his hospital bed. This was one of the darkest days of my life. It was July 12th 1985. Two days before my thirty-fourth birthday. To this day I have vivid memories of leaving Syracuse (in 1984), wondering if my taking the Oath of the Abyss would really help Grady obtain what he wanted—now, a little over year later, only the Gods would ever know.

Like his predecessors, Grady McMurtry left no written provisions for an official Head to take over his branch of the AA nor were there any plans given to me, or to others, for a meeting to be called to discuss this dilemma. In some ways this was my own fault as I was the senior member of his lineage. I should have assembled, as I knew Grady believed to be the correct procedure, a “General Council of the Order ... within a year and a day” of his death, but I didn’t. I can give no good excuse for my actions other than to say that I was being consumed as I faced the Dark Night of my own Soul by letting the Gods guide my destiny. The ordeals which I was going through at that time were severe and I felt that I should remain in my Magical Retreat. I have no regrets. After all, progressing through the degrees was the last thing Grady and I ever talked about and I felt strongly that I must fulfill it.

I did not worry about the state of affairs which Grady’s branch was going through and, in my absence, it began to grow noticeably into different directions, or branches, similar to what occurred after the death of other notable members. I had immersed myself into reading those things which, as Grady pointed out, would further my studies. On February 16th 1988 I completed my Thesis for 7=4 and five years later to the day when I swore the Oath of the Abyss, or on May 22nd 1989, I had completed all the tasks which Grady McMurtry had requested and came full circle. Back on April 22nd 1984, I wrote in my diary that after being alone for hours, “when Grady arrived I simply looked up at him from the chair and humorously to break the ice, asking, why me, are you sure I’m what you’re looking for? He walked past me toward the kitchen and said harshly, ‘Jerry ... you’re he!’ I turned, said, OK I’ll do it. He simply said ‘good’ as if I, a soldier, accepted his suicidal mission.” Yes, it took five years to the very day to come full circle to this point and five is the number of the Hebrew letter HE ... in a very strange and odd way, I was, as Grady pointed out, He. However, by this time Grady McMurtry’s branch of the AA had already splintered and those whom I could have been summoned to a meeting had become heads of their own lineages, even if they had not accepted such a role outwardly. In retrospect I think this may be an important stage in the growth of every branch of the AA.

Love is the law, love under will.—AL I:57

Frater Achad Osher 583

Editor’s Note: Most of this Epistle was taken almost verbatim and incorporated

into the Introduction to Red Flame, A Thelemic Research Journal No.7,

The Magickal Essence of Aleister Crowley in 1999ev.

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