Page 2

THE WARRIOR TROUBADOUR continued ...

Lt. McMurtry left on November 20th, flying out of Newark Airport on an old DC-4 bound for California. He wrote Crowley that he was planning on spending "a few days with his parents near Fresno." After leaving his parents he headed to southern California and the Agape Lodge to act as a Sovereign Grand Inspector General for the OTO. Originally he wrote Crowley that he was hoping to leave by the 8th for L.A. but he records in his diaries, "17 Dec. San Francisco to L.A." Grady remained in southern California until January 20th, gathering information and visiting with Agape Lodge members. One evening at the Lodge, Grady witnessed his old friend Jack Parsons do some fencing with another man who had been recently hanging around - it was L. Ron Hubbard. Grady writes they "decided to do some fencing - without masks. The light was very poor and they kept tangling with the rugs but, as both men know something of the sport, it was not exactly mortal combat." It was an interesting evening until Betty, the sister of Parson's wife, walked into the room. Grady continues saying she "took a foil against Hubbard, I thought that someone was going to be killed. They finally desisted after she had been rapped smartly across the nose." Just plain fun at the Agape Lodge.

I am not going to go into all the details of what was going on during this period that would warrant an Inspector General making an Official Report on Agape Lodge. I believe it would take a lengthy article to flush it out. It's safe to say that Crowley was not happy with what he was hearing about Jack Parsons and the antics of others at the Lodge. The Official Report dated January 25th 1946 that Grady McMurtry submitted to Aleister Crowley is very lengthy. It ends with the statement that this is "The end of the report on Hodge-Podge-Lodge - otherwise known to its inmates as Ghastly Gables." Crowley definitely liked the report.

As previously stated, by late January Grady was in San Francisco waiting for his discharge papers from the Army. He writes Crowley a letter letting him know "that I am once again established in San Francisco and am now enjoying the amphibious existence of being half soldier-half civilian. I will still be in the army until my terminal leave is up in February but I can wear civilian clothes, if I can find them."

Grady sent Crowley another letter from San Francisco dated January 26, 1946, where he remarks: "O yes, the Army finally got around to promoting me just before I got out. I am now a Captain. Something like sending flowers to my funeral." In another letter early the next month (2/1/46) he writes "... the promotion comes in very handy. Mostly because it will be gratifying to be able to step in as a Captain in the next war instead of having to fight my way up from the ranks again. Me thinks that the army may be the safest place to be in the next war." What is most interesting about the letter written on January 26th is Grady's paragraph which deals with his "little figure" or image which he has designed. Grady with a great sense of humor actually had the nerve to ask Crowley to "Be a nice Beastie and tell me what to do with it." Its amazing 'Beastie' didn't. Rather in his reply letter Crowley simply states "I do not see exactly how I can help you about your squiggle; it seems to me that you have worked it out extremely well, especially the complete seal at the bottom." This 'squiggle' that Grady draws in the letter for Crowley is (see Fig.1) one which he further states contains a great deal of mystical meaning." Grady writes a whole paragraph about this symbol and further elaborates that he'd like "to make a seal ring. I am thinking of having a design such as this (see Fig.2) cut on it. Thus I would have the feather of Thoth-Maat at the prow and the hawk of Horus at the helm, with the sun and the star representing Hadit and Nuit." In the future he would occasionally use this symbol as his signature at the bottom of some letters. Grady also drew this symbol in green pencil in the center of a small tombstone which has a tiny little worm crawling across the top. (see Fig.3) This drawing is located on the top of an original typed copy of one of his undated poems, A Worm in Earnest. The drawing might imply that the "little worm who burrows, burrows" is crawling across the top of Grady's own tombstone.

     

By February 1946 Grady Louis McMurtry was making plans to attend the University of California at Berkeley on the G.I. Bill to take up 'classical studies', eager to get on with his life now that the war was over. There is only one poem from this period, entitled End Run, dated February 17, 1946, but presumably Grady wrote others. The following month, on March 22, the first of two extremely important documents from Aleister Crowley arrived. In the document of the 22nd Crowley appointed Grady "as Our personal representative in the United States of America, and his Authority is to be considered as Ours, subject to the approval, revision, or veto of Our Viceroy Karl Johanness Germer IX° OTO ..." The next to arrive came dated April 11th, 1946, and briefly states, "This is to authorize Frater Hymenaeus Alpha (Capt. Grady L. McMurtry) to take charge of the whole work of the Order in California to reform the Organization in pursuance of his report of Jan. 25, '46 e.v. subject to the approval of Fr. Saturnus (Karl J. Germer). This authorization is to be used only in emergency."

Grady did publish one of his poems during this period. It appeared a magazine published by students at the University of California, where he was enrolled. The poem was entitled The Cyclops (written in 1942), and appeared in the Spring 1946 issued of The Occident, A Literary Magazine.

Crowley and McMurtry continued to exchange many letters during the postwar period, but many were friendly correspondence rather than official business. One particular letter which Grady wrote to Crowley dated May 12th 1946 is worth quoting,. It contains some gossip about his wife Foxie, which is Foxie #2 or Marjorie Fox, not to be confused with Foxie #1 or Claire ... confused? ... even Grady must remind Crowley "that's my wife." Anyway she is pregnant and expecting to give birth "to a new McMurtry in October." In the same letter Grady states "Here is a copy of Space Tides, my latest effort in the line of poetry. Had hoped to make it longer but I had to cut it short as I wanted to enter it in a poetry contest over at the University. Then I found a copy of the poem that won last year's prize and decided that I didn't have a chance." Crowley replied to Grady in a letter dated June 14th, 1946. He made no mention of Space Tides or what his views were of this rather lengthy poem.

There are a few letters in between, but the letter of November 14th 1946 begins with Grady writing "Well, the great event has evented so I thought I would drop you a few lines. Foxie was delivered of a 7 pound some ounce baby boy yesterday morning, November 13, at approximately 9 AM. We have named him Grady Shannon and mother and son are doing nicely. Proud pappy went down to the office and sowed his cigars and was the recipient of many a vacuous stare and hearty handshake and that is just about it." Actually Grady was extremely worried toward the end  of the pregnancy because the baby was a month late, and had been expected since October 20th. At this point Grady is still taking philosophy courses at U.C. Berkeley. His poetry began to slack off, and very little survives from this period. We do know that he kept in close contact with the Agape Lodge in Los Angeles, but he was basically attempting to get his life together, coping with college, work and a family.

Soon the new year of 1947 was upon Grady Louis McMurtry family. He 'surfaces' again and finally writes Aleister Crowley a letter dated January 3rd, 1947. It begins "No doubt you have enjoyed a welcome relief from the persistence of my letters, but now I am back in circulation. The proximate cause, as they say in the Army, for my lack of letter writing recently was a piece of philosophical research that I had to work out for myself." Grady then spends the rest of the letter discussing rather in depth this philosophical problem. He ends his letter very lovingly but a little worried about Aleister Crowley's health and the harsh British weather that he's been hearing about. In February Grady McMurtry wrote a.poem entitled 3 Pears Dormant. It is the only dated poem from this year which survives on file.

In April Aleister Crowley writes a scribbled letter to Grady where he claims that on March 8th his health failed badly and that he came very close to "cashing in my checks!" It had been a severe winter, and Grady's reply of the 15th voices concern and relief that Crowley is alright. Crowley replied "I was very glad indeed to have your letter of the 15th inst. The Winter here has been unspeakable - one of the worst I ever experienced, and I have known some. It has kept me ill but ailing and confined to the house for practically the whole time. It has not let up on us yet." The rest of the letter discusses Shannon's horoscope and Crowley's views on some of the philosophy which Grady rambled on about in an earlier letter. Crowley's letters are getting

shorter.

In June Aleister Crowley writes out his Last Will & Testament. He also writes Grady McMurtry a letter dated June 17th, which begins, "It seems a long while since I heard from you. This is a great mistake: I will tell you why in strict confidence. In the event of my death, Frater Saturnus is of course my successor, but after his death the terrible burden of responsibility might very easily fall upon your shoulders: for this reason I should like you to keep closely in touch with me."

Throughout the next few months Crowley and Grady exchanged many letters, mainly discussing philosophy and gossip regarding the Californian OTO. For example, in September Grady asked Crowley, "By the way, would you be in need of any winter under clothing? During the bitter cold prevailing in Northern France in the winter of '44 and the first part of '45 (during the Battle of the Bulge) I had occasion to acquire a considerable supply of 'long-handles' and heavy socks. I hear that it is going to be cold again in Europe this winter so if you want them just whistle." This is the gist of many of the letters - just very friendly. The last letter Aleister Crowley wrote to Grady is dated November 5, 1947, a very brief reply to Grady's letter of October 26th. He ends the letter, "Love to Foxie and Shannon as well as to yourself, with my blessing."

On Monday, December 1, Aleister Crowley died at the age of 72.

On Wednesday morning Grady Louis McMurtry received a Western Union telegram which simply stated, "Aleister died peacefully Monday 11 AM Love, Karl (&) Sascha."

He replied to Germer's telegram with a letter dated December 9th. "Your night-letter informing me of Aleister's death reached me Wednesday Morning. I find it difficult to describe my feelings. I suppose that 'Choric sadness' comes about as close to it as anything. A great, ringing chorus of joy to send him on his way to the fulfillment of his Will, and at the same time a certain infinite sadness that I have lost, temporarily at least, a friend and we have lost a teacher. You will note that the sadness is for myself, not Aleister."

Shortly after Aleister Crowley's death Karl Germer assumed the office of Outer Head of the Order of the OTO. The politics of the OTO under the leadership of Karl Germer changed drastically. It is not the purpose of this short biography to go into details regarding the problems and events that would so completely reshape the Order. It is fair to say that Frater Saturnus like his namesake, Saturn, 'ate his children.' Within the following years Aleister Crowley's entire library in England was packed and shipped to Germer in New York. It didn't take Germer long to realize that he needed larger quarters, and soon moved to a house in Hampton, New Jersey.

Like many OTO members, Grady remained intermittently active in the Order for quite awhile. In 1948 he received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Philosophy from the University of Berkeley. His political science thesis was entitled The Millennial Glow: Myth and Magic in the Marxist Ethic. It is noteworthy that between Crowley's death and May of 1949 there is only one surviving dated poem, entitled Of Emerald Earth. Once again, we do not know which of the undated poems come from this period.

On February 24th 1950 one of the founding members of the Ordo Templi Orientis in the United States died in Canada - Frater Achad, Charles Stansfeld Jones. Later that year on June 25th the North Korean army invaded South Korea and was quickly declared the 'aggressor' by the United Nations. By August, U.S. troops under Gen. Douglas MacArthur had already halted the advance of North Koreans. In 1951 Grady was called back into active military service, and thus we come to his second tour of duty, this time as Captain Grady Louis McMurtry, Ordnance Corps, U.S. Army Korea. Grady has written that "we did not call it a war in those days, although it obviously was ... at least those of us who got to Korea quickly discovered that it was a real live shooting war. My particular piece of the action was that of Ammunition Supply Officer for the Central Front - that would be from Chunchon north to Whacon, Kumwa and the Iron Triangle, the main line of Resistance being held by 9 Corps American on the left, 2nd ROK in the center, and 10 Corps American on the right, which we damn near lost when the Chinese hit the Khumwa Ridge with a human wave offensive that went on for a solid week in October of 1953 ... we never thought about the North Koreans when I was there, so far as we were concerned we were fighting the Chinese."

Before going to Korea Captain McMurtry was assigned for awhile as a Training Officer for a group of Reserve Units that were stationed in Baltimore, Maryland. It turned out that his base was not far from Hampton, New Jersey, where Karl Germer had moved. Naturally, Grady visited Karl at his new address as often as he could. One story that Grady loved to tell and retell is worth repeating at length. It deals with the ashes of Aleister Crowley, which had been sent to Germer after Crowley's cremation in England.

Grady recounts that during a particular visit in 1951 he and Karl were "taking a walk down the driveway and into the front yard. I remember it had rained, one of those sudden New Jersey thunder squalls that are heralded by hot, muggy winds and high white cumulus, and followed by heavy downpour. I was walking on the right. Naturally I was, in uniform. It seemed like I always was in those days. While we were walking along - as usual I had lighted my pipe, Karl suddenly pointed to a scroungy tree and said, 'And that is the Aleister Crowley tree!' Being a little slow on the uptake, I said, 'What?,' and he repeated with somewhat more emphasis; 'That is the Aleister Crowley tree!' I still didn't get it and said something like; 'What do you mean?' and he said, 'Well one day Sascha and I were discussing what to do with Crowley's ashes and suddenly she took the urn in which they were kept and dashed them at the foot of this tree and said, This is the Aleister Crowley tree!' So I looked at the stupid tree and I looked at the muddy ground at the base of it. Obviously there was no sign of the ashes and obviously there was no way they could be recovered, and I was sick in the stomach."

In his correspondence, Germer tells a different story - claiming that a few years earlier in 1949 he and his wife simply decided to give Aleister Crowley a proper burial. It appears Sascha did not smash the urn at the base of a tree. Karl wrote to jane Wolfe stating that "On April 8th Sacha and I gave A.C.'s ashes the final resting place. We have 5 very large Pines in the front of our house and Sascha suggested the foot of the finest (called Aleister) as the spot. I dug a pit under the pine and we had a small ceremony on April 8th. The ashes are in a small casket which in turn is in a strong box." Some years later when Germer was moving to California he wrote, "I have decided to unearth the ashes and take them West in the car" - unfortunately he records that he could only find the rusted nails of the strong box.

But to return to the war, and the question: how did Grady lose a gravy job in Baltimore and end up in Korea? After the Reserve Training job in Baltimore Grady was "assigned to the Army's Office of Psychological Warfare at the Pentagon. It was a very good job and I know I would have liked it. It required Top SECRET clearance. On my application for security clearance I noted that I was a member of Aleister Crowley's (notorious) ORDO TEMPLI ORIENTIS. I wasn't refused clearance. The Herr GENerALL just quietly withdrew my application. That is how I wound up in Korea."

Grady had been stationed in Korea for almost a year on the Eastern Front near Kim Chun. He recalled that "One day, I had to go to the local lavatory which happened to be a shack, of course, with three holes cut in a piece of board" with "the cold Korean air blowing up the crack of your ass." While he was sitting there he picked up a magazine from the pile and began to flip through it. The magazine was called People Today, the August 13th, 1952 issue. He abruptly stopped at an article entitled the L.A. Lust Cult, Weird Black Magic Rites Flourish in Wealthy Pasadena. The article dealt with the recent accidental death of a rocket scientist in a bomb explosion. He read further, and found to his horror that it was about Jack Parsons! Grady was in "a bit of a shock" - no one had bothered to write him to let him know of the tragic death of his old friend. He later learned that Jack had accidently dropped a can of mercury fulminate in his laboratory. The explosion knocked him momentarily unconscious, burning and mangling him severely, and he later died in the hospital.

Back in Korea, in 1953 the Communists abruptly agreed to an Allied peace proposal, and by July of that year a truce was signed by both sides at Panmunjom, thus officially ending the 'police action.' Shortly before the truce was actually signed, Cap. McMurtry found himself transferred from the Korean front to Japan, where he spent the next six months. His job was that of Explosives Safety Engineer, inspecting the cargo ships being loaded with high explosives, bombs and ammunition bound for Korea. As he has told it, it was his job to make sure the Japanese "didn't blow up the place thru careless handling of what was to them just wooden crates of stiffs." By the end of 1953 Grady found himself a civilian once again. He received his discharge papers. He did however buy into the American fear of that period, and stayed in the Army Reserves, 'just in case.' He aimed to help do what every other red-blooded American wanted to do, 'keep America strong.' He was promoted yet again just before getting out of the service and was now Major Grady Louis McMurtry. Shortly after his release he returned to San Francisco, and by 1954 he was a graduate student and teaching assistant in the Political Science Department at the University of California, Berkeley. Grady held this position until 1956.

At around this time Karl Germer decided he wanted to leave New Jersey and head for the warm, sunny weather of California. Germer lived in assorted apartments for several years before settling into a small house about six miles outside West Point, in northeast California. During the late 50's, Grady McMurtry held a job as a management analyst for the State Department of Labor in Sacramento, California. Then on March 29th 1958 - Jane Wolfe - another early member of the OTO died in southern California in Los Angeles. The following year in 1959 Grady wrote such poems as The Great White Hunter and The Beatnick Mother Goose.

In 1961 Grady moved to Washington D.C. to take an administrative position in the Treasury Department, but only stayed in this position for about a year, soon moving to the Labor Department. For the next eight years he lived and worked in Washington D.C.

Just before moving to Washington, in March of 1961, Grady McMurtry had one of the single most important visions of his entire life. He was sitting behind his desk at the Office of Management Analysis at the Department of Labor, which was the top floor of an eight story building in Sacramento. He was sort of spacing, lost in thought, when he noticed on the North wall to his left was a great White Star. He said it was kind of "Chrismasy, if you know what I mean." He then envisioned just below this Star a Great Black City, the City of Dreadful Night which is attributed to the Qabalistic Sphere of Binah. He believed it was a "Vision of the Star Card" of Aleister Crowley's Thoth Deck. So instead of doing his required government work, he turned his typewriter toward the south and wrote the poem The Star of the Magi almost immediately. It was magick. He would continue writing poems which related to Crowley's Thoth cards until the last of the 22 manifested on December 5th 1961, titled The Ark of the Covenant. Grady has admitted that some of these poems he considered really "good, some of them bad ..." further stating with a chuckle, "I know!"

He wrote that, "Crowley's dictum that the 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 & then 'under that divine guidance' to (2) essay the 'adventure of the Abyss,' I named it (the Twenty Two Poems) The Angel and the Abyss, A Cycle of 22 Poems in honor of Our Maid of the Star Drifts." This particular cycle of poetry signified an important stage in Grady's magical life. He considered these poems to be his Thesis on the Universe. It portrays his personal attempts at bringing his energy upward into his Solar Center and then immersing himself in Crossing the Abyss. By this point Grady had already moved to Washington, D.C.

Shortly after completing this cycle Grady claims, "I decided to come down thru the Sepheroth from Kether to Malkuth, including Daath ... The entire cycle I called Dark Space And Bright Stars, A cycle of 11 poems celebrating the Mysteries of the Virgin Goddess." The first of these poems, which manifested on January Ist 1962, is entitled Her Lovely Hair and is attributed to the sphere of Kether. The last appeared on May 31st; called A Fall of Angels, it represented Malkuth. The only other poem which Grady wrote this year was in June, The Mystical Marriage of the Soldier and the Queen. Then, as prolifically as the poetry had flowed, it stopped.

A year after Grady McMurtry moved into seclusion with his new job in Washington, DC, Karl Germer died of prostate cancer in West Point, California. It was October of 1962. Few in the OTO knew of his death - even Grady didn't know, he just continued on with his life. According to Germer's Last Will & Testament he left "the whole of my property and possessions to my beloved wife Sascha Ernestine Andre-Germer as sole heir." He did not, as some historians believe, leave the OTO property to her. To further quote his will, "As regards the property of the Order Ordo Templi Orientis, of which I am the Head, I direct that this is passed to the Heads of the Order, but that, my wife, Sascha E.Andre-Germer, has to be the executor of this part of my will, together with Frederic Mellinger IXth Degree of the OTO." The executors' basic job was to make sure that the OTO property ended up in the hands of the 'Heads of the Order.' We do know that Mellinger, then in Germany, was eventually notified to assist Sascha in concluding the administration of the will. However Mellinger's treatment by both Karl and Sascha made him cautious, and his involvement was limited to contradicting Sascha's choice of the Swiss O.T.O. under Hermann Metzger. Thereafter Sascha was left on her own in deciding what to do with Crowley's library and his possessions, something she was incapable of due to her increasingly fragile mental state and her ignorance of OTO customs. She distrusted everyone, especially the old Agape Lodge members, most of whom were not even contacted regarding Germer's death. In the end Sascha decided to keep all the possessions and to leave everything basically as it was.

In 1962 Grady McMurtry was still in the Army Reserves, having been made a Major shortly after the Korean War. He was pulling special Reserve Duty one night a month with the Mobilization Designation Detachment No. 26, Office of Comptroller of the U.S. Army at the Pentagon. Unfortunately, due to typical Pentagon red tape and paper shuffling, somehow Maj. Grady McMurtry did not complete all the appropriate forms in triplicate, nor get all the signatures required by December 12th 1962. This meant only one thing: he was forced to take permanent retirement. Thus in 1963 Grady found himself a 'real civilian' for the first time since 1941, with absolutely no military attachment.

Meanwhile, it took almost five years for Germer's death to slowly trickle down to southern California. What occurred next would require a rather lengthy article to explain in detail, but what happened can be summed up as tragic. A group of individuals who believed that the OTO was dead took it upon themselves to break into three homes and steal the libraries. One of the homes which was ransacked belonged to Sascha Germer, and much of the Crowley library was taken, along wit many of his manuscripts and personal possessions. This occurred over the Labor Day weekend of 1967. An old Agape Lodge member, Soror Meral, immediately began a personal investigation to discover the identify of the thieves. She drew her own conclusions as to who had ripped off the libraries, but that is another story. Soror Meral was living in a house in Dublin, California. During her investigation she contacted quite a few of the old Agape Lodge members, one of which was Grady Louis McMurtry in Washington D.C. They struck up a correspondence between December '68 till April of 1969. A lot was discussed, and it was through one of these letters that Grady first learned of Karl Germer's death. Soon after this, Soror Meral recalls. "I learned that he (Grady) held letters of authorization in regards to the O.T.O. from Crowley which also named him as Caliph and successor to Karl." Soror Meral and Grady further discussed at length the possibility of starting up a Thelemic order using Crowley's authorizations. During this period of time Grady had already been divorced from his second wife and was single, with no attachments. He thought it was a good idea trying to revive the OTO. The plan was soon agreed upon, and Grady Louis McMurtry left his job and arrived in California on April 29th 1969. Also toward the end of 1969 Grady married his third wife, Phyllis Seckler, in Tijuana, Mexico.

On a poetic level, from 1962 till early 1972 there are almost no poems written from the pen of Grady McMurtry. He wrestled with the mundane world and continued privately with his studies. Grady wrote only two poems in 1972, the first in February, called Blind Horus; in the following month he penned The Throne of Hell, believed by some to be one of his last dated poems that he wrote.

Once in California, Grady McMurtry used his "emergency power" given to him by Aleister Crowley to reactivate the OTO. The first thing he did was to contact both Israel Regardie and Gerald Yorke whom he regarded as 'The Eyes of Horus.' Grady hoped that both would give their approval after reviewing his documents from Crowley - both did. This period, from the late sixties through the early seventies became known as the Kaaba Clerk House days but unfortunately they would not be totally successful. A book by Nat Freeland entitled The Occult Explosion (1972) gives a brief mention of Grady during this period. A few years earlier - in September of 1970 Freeland wrote Grady a letter stating that "Israel Regardie suggested I could reach you ... I am writing a book about the current resurgence of U.S. interests in the occult science." Freeland was asking for info about the OTO. Although when his book was finally published it only briefly mentioned the "mysterious couple, the McMurtrys, who preside over the official U.S. branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis from a post office box in Dublin, California, a small town north of San Francisco" and little else. Grady lived at this Dublin address - which was his wife's house - for approximately six years between early 1969 and 1974. Then due to difficulties in their marriage he moved out and took up residency to Berkeley.

In early April of 1975 Sascha Germer died in West Point. California. No one found out for almost a year. Regarding Sascha Germer's estate - on July 26th 1976 the Superior Court of the State of California said that the remaining property was to be turned over to Grady Louis McMurtry the "Duly constituted and authorized representative of the Ordo Templi Orientis." In that same year of 1976 Grady and Phyllis were finally divorced. The marriage had lasted about seven years.

The history of why the OTO almost slipped into a certain death under Germer's leadership, and how Grady Louis McMurtry saved it from near oblivion, is extremely well documented. It is a major part of the legacy which we owe the man. His hard work and belief in Aleister Crowley brought the order from near extinction to what it is today. No one can deny this. All the documents and papers of authority which have been discussed in this biography gave him sole and rightful claim to assume the world leadership of the Ordo Templi Orientis, and with Grady at its helm we have sailed into prosperous waters. Even the courts of the United States agreed.

According to Grady, in the early spring of '77 he did some "fairly heavy magick" to open "up the Order to an influx of psychic energy from the ancient Egyptian Gods worshipped by the Order." Jokingly, he then goes, "KAPLOOIE!!", and continues by stating, "the hippie-commie-pervert-weirdo-heathen occultists of Berkeley descended upon him 'en masse', to check him out." They "found a hard drinking, hard thinking crusty old man, with one of the world's greatest collections of humorous Al Crowley stories." Soon his house became filled every week with an increasing number of Crowleyites, eager to learn about Thelema and to join his magical order. It was like magic! Some were obviously Bezerkeleyites but many others were serious students who wanted to study. In April of 1977 Grady McMurtry held some of the first initiations into the Ordo Templi Orientis since the Kaaba Clerk House days of the early seventies.

Then on October 12th 1977, just as the Sun passed the peak of an eclipse on the birthday of Aleister Crowley, a 'Charter' was signed in Berkeley, California by Frater Hymenaeus Alpha IX° 777 using Crowley's special Seal Ring. Grady McMurtry then magically uttered the word 'OTO', thus giving birth to the Grand Lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis. His entire life had been preparing him for that one single moment. One article from 1977 has stated, "Like a phoenix rising from the flames, Aleister Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis appears to be reborn, thanks to Bay Area occult know-how and a little divine help." Wherever Aleister Crowley is, he could only be proud of the young man whom he met thirty four years earlier that pounded on his door one cold, winter day answering, "I am Lieutenant McMurtry."

I have only fond memories of Grady from 1977. He had been a guest at my house back in Connecticut on several occasions. He was truly a marvelous man to have known, with a great sense of humor and a hearty robust laugh which this author shall never forget. He always thought I was a workaholic and often told me so. I remember one particular evening as he was showing slides of the Korean War to a late night crowd of friends in my parlor I had fallen asleep in the front row. Ironically everyone during the day, Grady included, had taken a nap but me. I was forced to answer the phones and make all the last minute arrangements for the evening's festivities. It was only natural that in a dark room I slowly slipped off into unconsciousness. Half way through the presentation Grady came upon the particular slide which he wanted to show me. He proceeded to explain the imagery behind "the bear" and its symbolism in Korean art. After a rather lengthy comment he asked my opinion. I didn't answer. He asked again, and again silence. Everybody was starting to squirm in their seats. The person closest to me gave me a shove in hopes that it might wake me. All it managed to produced was a rather loud snore and gurgling sound from an exhausted individual. I didn't wake. Everyone laughed and later I was told, that Grady with his typical wit, chuckled and replied laughingly in a loud voice, "Critics!" The bear symbolism was something Grady felt was deeply rooted in my archetype. When he released Crowley's 777 in April 1980 he sent a copy inscribed, "Jerry, Here's to a Bear for Work!"

I have many such memories, of the two of us walking along the beach quietly sharing thoughts, of playing chess or just sitting around discussing theories of magick and the universe while drinking ourselves into a stupor. At the time I had an old blue tipped Siamese cat named Ling. Qabalistically his name added to 93. He was the house God and he knew it. He would simply walk up to the door and sit staring as only a Siamese can and then let out a deep yowl as if to say, "Hey you! Come open the door now!" Most of us simply ignored him because he was in and out all day long, but for some reason Grady took an immediate love to the cat. Not only was Ling his personal lap cat but if he yowled, Grady would stop what ever he was doing, laugh and say, "The Master calls!" He would then get up and go over to the door to let him out. It became a ritual we all enjoyed.

For some, reading a biography with so much emphasis on Grady McMurtry's involvement in the war as a soldier might seem unnecessary. But for those who knew the man, these are the infamous 'Grady Stories.' In his memory, I have repeated a few of the best of them. Back in the 70's when I first became involved with the Ordo Templi Orientis it was a standard part of our Minerval Obligation to persevere through these stories. Many of us have survived this ordeal and have come through stronger. I only hope that the reader appreciates what we all went through.

Grady didn't write any poetry toward the end of his life, but he sure loved reading to us the ones he had written years earlier. It meant so much to him. At the end of his life Grady suffered from pulmonary edema, which is a condition in which water surrounds the heart, causing strain on the heart muscles and often resulting in death. In his last year he had been hospitalized several times for this ailment. Finally, on July 12, 1985, after a long illness, Grady Louis McMurtry died. He was laying in his hospital bed discussing forms of meditation with a friend when he softly said, "I think my path is more the Sufi Path." When questioned what he meant, he simply looked up and said, "I don't know." He then closed his eyes and quietly died.

On July 15th his body was cremated and several months later as he requested, his ashes were spread across the Pacific Ocean just past the Golden Gate Bridge. The poem which was read at his funeral service was Requiem.

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

                                Written this 27th Day of March, 1994 ev

                                The Sun in Aries & The Moon in Libra

                                In the Valley Of Berkeley, California

                                by Frater ACHAD OSHER 583 VIII° O.T.O.

NOTE: The article originally appeared in

RED FLAME, A Thelemic Research Journal

Issue No.1 The Poetry of Grady Louis McMurtry

Ca: Berkeley, July 1994

RETURN TO THE CONTENTS PAGE

93 93/93