The Occult Lodge: Part Six

From the Dawn to Darkness

by Midnight Freemason Contributor 

Bro. James E. Frey 32° KT, ROS

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Aeister Crowley

The Ordo Templi Orientis, or the Oriental Temple of the East or the Order of Oriental Templars, was founded between 1895 and 1906 as an elite invitational group of Masons who established a more esoteric version of the Masonic Rites focusing on sexual energies. The OTO was founded by Theodor Reuss who had a long history of participating in occult and fringe masonic groups. In 1880 Reuss attempted to revive the Bavarian Order of the Illuminati of Adam Weisthaupt and again in 1888, both times failing miserably. Upon this failure he began to formulate the outline of the OTO with Carl Keller in 1895.
Reuss then sought out to legitimize his group by reaching out and becoming active in other streams of esotericism. He soon was introduced to Dr. William Wynn Wescott, leading member of the S.R.I.A and founder of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. At the time Wescott was the Grand Master of the Swedenborgian Rite of Phremasonry and provided Reuss with a charter to form his own lodge dated July 24, 1901 and a letter of authorization to form an S.I.R.A group in Germany February 24, 1902. Reuss was also designated an inspector with the Martinist Order in Germany by Gerard Encausse (aka Papus) who provided him with a charter June 24, 1901.

OTO Temple

Westcott and Papus assisted Reuss with establishing his order, Papus helped Reuss establish the OTO Gnostic Catholic Church and Wescott assisted Reuss in contacting John Yarker to recive chaters for the Rites of Memphis and Misraim September 24, 1902. By attaining these charters from the leading esoteric and occult leaders he became legitimized to create his own Order. Reuss based the structure of his Order around the Swedish Rite of ten degrees inspired heavily around the Templar mythos and the theoretical aspects of sexual magic.

In 1910 Reuss became acquainted with Aleister Crowley, British Occultist and Former Golden Dawn Member, while living in London. The story goes that Reuss was reading Aleister Crowley’s “Confessions” and discovered that he had published their supreme secret. He then contacted Crowley and admitted him to the first three degrees and then only two years later Crowley was advanced to the tenth degree and placed as Grand Master in charge of Great Britain and Ireland. Crowley then wrote The "Manifesto of the OTO", which described its basic ten-degree system the 7th, 8th, and 9th, degrees being Kellner’s three degree system of the Academia Masonica.

In 1914, Crowley moved to the United States and began to break away from the Masonic influences of the OTO and began integrating the concepts of his own religion of Thelema. He then wrote a religious service for this new version of the OTO called the Gnostic Mass. Reusss' O.T.O system  contained their versions of the degrees Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft and Master Mason. The fourth degree being Holy Royal Arch and the fifth degree was Scotch Mason. Crowley attempted to work this Masonic-based O.T.O. in Detroit, Michigan which resulted in the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite declaring them to be clandestine, centered on the basis that the O.T.O. rituals were too similar to Scottish Rite Masonry's own rituals.

In a 1930 letter to Arnold Krumm-Heller, Crowley Wrote:

“However, when it came to the considerations of the practical details of the rituals to be worked, the general Council of the Scottish Rite could not see its way to tolerate them, on the ground that the symbolism in some places touched too nearly that of the orthodox Masonry of the Lodges.”

In 1914 Crowley then fully integrated Thelema into the OTO by rewriting the initiatory rituals and incorporating his own philosophical understanding of the grade work. By rewriting the degrees Crowley removed most of those symbolic connections to Masonry. He did not rewrite the fourth degree ritual, which remains in its form and structure related to the various Royal Arch rituals of Masonry.

Gnostic Mass

In 1920 Theodore Reuss suffered a stroke and communications between Reuss and Crowley began to deteriorate. Crowley broke ties with Reuss and proclaimed himself Outer Head of the Order. In 1925, during a tumultuous Conference of Grand Masters, Crowley was officially elected as Outer Head of the Order.

The majority of the philosophy of the OTO can be summed up by the quote that began Crowley’s involvement with Reuss in Crowley’s confessions:

“It offers a rational basis for universal brotherhood and for universal religion. It puts forward a scientific statement which is a summary of all that is at present known about the universe by means of a simple, yet sublime symbolism, artistically arranged. It also enables each man to discover for himself his personal destiny, indicates the moral and intellectual qualities which he requires in order to fulfil it freely, and finally puts in his hands an unimaginably powerful weapon which he may use to develop in himself every faculty which he may need in his work.”

Crowley’s new OTO system was re written into different schools of triads based on the tarot. The entire system is as follows: 0° Minerval, I° Man & Brother,  II° Magician,  III° Master Magician,  IV° Perfect Magician & Companion of the Holy Royal Arch of Enoch, and P.I.—Perfect Initiate, or Prince of Jerusalem. Then came the honorary degree of Knight of the East & West. The next school was The Lovers Triad which focused on active and passive energies of the soul. V° Sovereign Prince Rose-Croix, and Knight of the Pelican & Eagle, Knight of the Red Eagle, and Member of the Senate of Knight Hermetic Philosophers, VI° Illustrious Knight of the Order of Kadosh, and Companion of the Holy Graal Grand Inquisitor Commander, and Member of the Grand Tribunal Prince of the Royal Secret, VII°—Theoreticus, and Very Illustrious Sovereign Grand Inspector General Magus of Light, and Bishop of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica Grandmaster of Light, and Inspector of Rites & Degrees. The degrees of the Hermit Triad are of sexual nature. In the VIII° of Perfect Pontiff of the Illuminati, the initiate is taught masturbation magical practices, in the IX° of Initiate of the Sactuary of Gnosis the magical techniques related to traditional intercourse, and in the XI° of Initiate of the Eleventh degree a form of sex magic involving non-traditional intercourse is taught. The final Supreme Secret is given in the X° Rex Summus Sanctissimus.

~JEF

James E Frey 32° classifies himself as a gentleman of the old world, which means he is known to stand in the great forests reciting poetry to fair-haired damsels while wrestling bears for sport. He is a District Education Officer for the Grand Lodge of Illinois, a Past Sovereign Prince of the of Danville AASR, member of the Oak Lawn York Rite, Medinah Shriners, Royal Order of Scotland, Quram Council Allied Masonic Degrees and initiate of the Golden Dawn Collegium Spiritu Sancti. He is also a guest lecturer on Occultism and Esoteric studies in masonry for the R.E.B.I.S Research Society.

The Occult Lodge: Part Five

The Occult Reformation 

by Midnight Freemason Contributor 

Bro. James E. Frey 32° KT, ROS

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

The period existing during the mid 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century saw the rebirth in the romanticism with the occult lodge. This was termed the occult reformation and no other group embodied this evolution in esoteric practice more than the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn is often considered the most fundamental magical school to come out of the Occult Reformation in the 1880s. This Group had extremely close ties to Masonry, not only being founded by Masons, but being founded by Elite Masons of the Societia Rosicruciana in Anglia. This Group of Masons sought to reform Rosicrucianism and create a magical order that was separate from Masonry so women could have equal membership in the mysteries. But this Hermetic Order has its origins steeped in legend and is riddled with mystery surrounding one of the most prominent Masons of his day poet and historian Kenneth Mackenzie.

Mackenzie became a Mason in 1870 and a brilliant occult researcher, and authored the “Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia” in 1877 after mastering the Masonic mythos. On his quest for greater light in occult knowledge it was claimed that Mackenzie traveled across Europe seeking the true lineage of the Rosicrucians. During his time in France he was initiated through the nine grades of the “Gold und Rosenkreuz Order” and was given special permission to take notes on their initiations forming what would be known as the “Cypher Manuscripts”. Upon returning to England Bro. Mackenzie was instrumental in developing the initiatory grades of the S.R.I.A with Bro. Robert Wentworth Little who founded the order in 1867. The S.R.I.A became the premiere Masonic organization in London and because of its esoteric and occult nature it drew into its ranks influential membership including Dr. William Wynn Wescott, Samuel Liddell “Macgregor” Mathers, Dr. Robert William Felkinand Arthur Edward Waite. Wescott and Mathers would be deeply influenced by the S.R.I.A and with the obtaining Cipher Manuscripts after Mackenzie’s death they would go on to found the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

The Cypher Manuscripts are a sixty page outline of magical initiations, corresponding to the elemental energies of Earth, Air, Water, and Fire, as well as kabalistic and alchemical notes related to each Grade. Wescott and Mathers included these manuscripts into the Order incorporating Egyptian symbolism and various Grimoire influences creating a sustainable current of energy that has been used as the foundation for countless occult orders. The First grade of Neophyte 0=0, is on a general level dedicated to the concept of darkness. In this Grade the Initiate is meant to realize he is bound by his own perception of subjective reality and that he must purify and cleanse his own being in order to shed the influence of his lower self upon his soul. The Initiate walks the path dictated in certain chapters of the Egyptian Book of the Dead and divided his sprit from the elemental energies freeing himself from material influence. The Grade of Zelator 1=10 correlates to the element of Earth. In this Grade the Initiate regains the element of Earth but with a new spiritual perspective and thus begins the journey of regaining his elemental energies to reform his spiritual self. The Grade Theoricus 2=9 correlates to Water, Practicus 3=8 to water, and Philosophus 4=7 to fire.

Hierius at Vernal

Equinox Ceremony

With the elemental energies regained like the Godform Osiris, the parts of the self that were once divided are now united into a balanced spiritual being. This new spiritual being is now dedicated to the Great Work without an influence of creed or religious dogma. Each grade also has kabbalistic and alchemical correlations that give a tremendous depth to its symbolism and value as an esoteric system. It is at this point the Philosophus engages in the ceremony entitled Portal, which represents the unification of their elemental energies with spirit. This creates the unified pentagram of the individual, a blazing star of aether united with all elemental forces.

The Golden Dawn created such a stir in the esoteric communities that it attracted a variety of influential people from the artistic community such as actress Florence Farr, poet W. B. Yeats, writer Bram Stoker, poet William Sharp, and bad boy Aleister Crowley. The legacy of the Dawn was short lived, as schisms among members led to the dissolving of the Order. Overall, the Golden Dawn tradition is alive but heavily divided over who should be considered the “official” Golden Dawn. With egotistic leaders claiming direct contact with the secret chiefs to eminent Freemason Chic Cicero with his lineage from Reguardi, to a variety of independent temples, the Golden Dawn community is in contest with each other.

Overall, for the esoteric student the works of the Golden Dawn are fundamental to the understanding of the Western systems of Magic. It was founded by masons in an attempt to revive and reform Rosicrucianism. They sought to overcome the mundane influences of humanity, only to be destroyed by the lower parts of the human character. Research of the Dawn is important to all Brothers who wish to further understand the Occult revival, as most esoteric groups to come after are forever indebted to the efforts of Wescott, Mathers, and Mackenzie.

~JEF

James E Frey 32° classifies himself as a gentleman of the old world, which means he is known to stand in the great forests reciting poetry to fair-haired damsels while wrestling bears for sport. He is a District Education Officer for the Grand Lodge of Illinois, a Past Sovereign Prince of the of Danville AASR, member of the Oak Lawn York Rite, Medinah Shriners, Royal Order of Scotland, Quram Council Allied Masonic Degrees and initiate of the Golden Dawn Collegium Spiritu Sancti. He is also a guest lecturer on Occultism and Esoteric studies in masonry for the R.E.B.I.S Research Society.

The Occult Lodge: Part Four

Masonic Magic to Mysticism 

by Midnight Freemason Contributor 

Bro. James E. Frey 32° KT, ROS

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Martinist Regalia

During the time in which the original Elu Cohen was in operation, Martinez de Pasqually took an apprentice by the name of Louis Claude de St.-Martin. Louis Claude de St.-Martin was born in 1743 to a religious family of minor French nobility. St. Martin was admitted into the Order of Elu Cohen around 1767, but prior to that had been admitted to an unknown Masonic lodge in 1750 as well as an initiate to the Rite of the Strict Observance in 1773. St. Martin became the secretary of the Elu Cohen from 1768 to 1771. This is when he met Willermoz who was the head of the Elu Cohen lodge. St. Martin was inspired by the philosophy and teachings of Pasqually and sought to integrate then with the Rite of Strict Observance. The Rite of Strict Observance was founded by Baron Karl Gotthelf von Hund in 1749, and was based on the myth of a direct lineage to the original Knights Templar which was received by an “Unknown Superior” in Paris in 1742.

St. Martin became more and more disengaged with ceremonial magic of the Elect Priests and began to wonder if all the magic circles and ritual elements were necessary to experience the presence of God. St.-Martin saw one’s spiritual path as an internal work, which he called the “way of the heart”.

St. Martin believed that Christ was the Word or the Gnosis as written in the gospel of St. John, and this Word was with Man in the beginning, but had been lost. Only through recovery of this lost Word could Man be whole and Reintegrated into the presence of God. . St. Martin began to publish his philosophy under the pen name the Unknown Philosopher. Not only did St. Martin have dislike for the ritualized working of the Elu Cohen, he also began to question the necessity of ritual in a Masonic setting as well. In July of 1790, he left Freemasonry in order to focus on his contemplative “Way of the Heart” until his death in 1803.

Papus

The French Revolution, though destructive for all of France, was equally devastating for St. Martin’s path of Martinism. St. Martin had few disciples but his teachings survived through a lineage of student to teacher aural recounting until in 1891 when a student named Gérard Encausse desired to reform the Order of Martinism. Taking the name Papus he claimed a succession from Augustin Chaboseau and Henri Delaage supposedly going back to St.-Martin himself. Papus reformed Martinism into a Masonic structure, of a series of three degrees which were reminiscent of the Craft Degrees of Freemasonry, but with a mystical emphasis. Usually referred to as Associate, Initiate, and S:I:. This newly-organized system of Martinism became associated with the French Gnostic movement and has long been associated with the tradition of the ‘Episcopi Vagantes’ or “Wandering Bishops”, and Encausse was most certainly made a bishop.

The three-degree system of modern Martinism borrowed Masonic symbolism, such as the pillars of Solomon’s Temple, and added Kabbalistic and Gnostic emphasis to lead the Initiate into a deeper understanding of the nature of Polarity as it occurs in both Nature and the mind of Man. There was also some borrowing from the Mark Master degree in order to gain a deeper appreciation of the True Meaning of the Stone that the Builders rejected as a symbol for the Christos. This rebirth in Martinism is a part of a larger cultural movement of the time referred to as the Occult Reformation.

~JEF

James E Frey 32° classifies himself as a gentleman of the old world, which means he is known to stand in the great forests reciting poetry to fair-haired damsels while wrestling bears for sport. He is a District Education Officer for the Grand Lodge of Illinois, a Past Sovereign Prince of the of Danville AASR, member of the Oak Lawn York Rite, Medinah Shriners, Royal Order of Scotland, Quram Council Allied Masonic Degrees and initiate of the Golden Dawn Collegium Spiritu Sancti. He is also a guest lecturer on Occultism and Esoteric studies in masonry for the R.E.B.I.S Research Society.

The Occult Lodge: Part Three

The Elu Kohen

by Midnight Freemason Contributor 

Bro. James E. Frey 32° KT, ROS

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Martinez de Pascually

As the high degrees developed, one of the first occult orders to develop out of Masonry was the illustrious and secretive Orde Chevelier Macons Elus Cohen de L’Univers or Order of Knight-Masons Elect Priests of the Universe, more commonly referred to as the Elus Cohen. The Elus Cohen is one of the most serious and prominent of occult societies, given its deeply rooted occult practices as being the active role in the redemption of humanity from its fallen state. Usually reserved for Gnostic Clergy, the Elus Cohen is the inner order for most Martinist streams and teaches advanced forms of ceremonial magic. Martinez de Pascually was the founder the Elus Cohen.and was born in Grenoble, France in 1709. His father had received a Masonic patent from Charles Stuart “King of Scotland, Ireland and England, dated 20th May 1738 and granting him as "Deputy Grand Master the power to erect temples to the glory of the Grand Architect”. This gave him powers as a Deputy Grand Master with the power to establish lodges, and this power was transferred to his son upon his death.

At the age of 28, Martinez was a Master Mason and upon his Father’s death he received this charter and thus formed the Elus Cohen in 1765. This Order admitted only Freemasons, but practiced mystical medieval rites involving angels and archangels. These heavily esoteric initiations echoed a Catholic form of ritual and prayer, as well as a use of the psalms as mantra meditations. “The higher degrees of the Order taught such practices as the invocation of various spirits, such as the ‘Shem ha-Mephorash’ (שם המפורש ) of the Qabalah, the so-called “divided Name” as derived from Exodus XIV:19-21, celebration of the Equinoxes, and similar highly ritualistic and time-consuming forms of ritual work.” (Kevin Davis, Brothers From Another Mother).

Martinez vision was a working of a great spiritualized movement within the higher ranks of Freemasonry. Martinez formed his spiritual group during the period of the creation of the High Degrees which were being introduced into Freemasonry. Due to the often found resentment of the of the High Degrees by Masonic Authorities Martinez chose to create a “side” organization which would have a more spiritual character than Freemasonry traditionally had. To this organization however, he would only admit Master Masons who had taken the additional Masonic degree of “Elect”. The Order of Élus Cohen was rumored to have nine, ten or eleven degrees divided into three main classes, followed by a secret grade. Each class of degrees correlated to different aspects of Solomon’s Temple.

Elu Cohen Apron

The first class contained the traditional Degrees of Symbolic Masonry plus an additional degree of Grand Elect or Particular Master. The second class contained the Porch Degrees of Apprentice-Cohen, Fellow-Cohen and Master-Cohen. The third class contained the Temple Degrees of Grand Master Élus Cohen, Knight of the East and Commander of the East. The secret doctrine of the Order was based mostly on Martinez’ only book, The Reintegration of Beings, which is a mystical reinterpretation of the Pentateuch. Martinez commentary focused on the purifying diet of the Levites and the importance of the exorcism of planetary energies to rise above the evil found in the individual and collectively in the world.

The secret grade of the Order contained the degree of Réau-Croix, a title inspired by both Masonic and Rosicrucian circles at the time. In this Degree of Réau-Croix, the Initiate is exposed to the spiritual realms through Magical Invocation or Theurgy. The Candidate is taught to draw the Celestial powers into his spiritual aura, by doing so into the earth’s aura as well. The Candidate is taught to interpret certain signs as perceived through auditory and visual manifestations, which the candidate uses to evaluate his own spiritual re-integration into the spirit.

The purpose of the Réau-Croix degree was to perceive the Beatific Vision of the Repairer, Jesus Christ, in response to Magical Evocations in order to repair one’s own fallen state and act as an active participant in the redemption of all humanity to repair the first sin of Adam. Martinez perceived God to be primordial Unity that emanated beings from his own nature. Until Lucifer, who wanted to exercise his own creative power, fell victim to his own faults, which caused Lucifer and his followers to be forever separated from the spirit trapped in the material. To resolve this, God sent man endowed with a state of perfection to work towards the reconciliation of Lucifer. Adam then fell himself and became trapped in the material realm as a physical and mortal being. So it is the spiritual destiny of Mankind to save both himself and the original creation which can be accomplished through the inner perfection with the help of Christ, the eternal repairer.

Through the rites of the Elus Cohen, the initiate is to enter into relations with angelic entities, which are sympathetic to Man’s fallen state, who aid him upon the path to reintegrate his spirit away from the material plane into unity of the spirit. After Pasqually’s death in 1774 the teachings of the Elu Cohen were most certainly doomed to fade into the mists of history. But a fellow by the name of Willermoz desired to preserve the Elus Cohen teachings within the highest degrees of the Régime Ecossais Rectifi (Scottish Rectified Rite), more commonly known as the Chevaliers Bienfaisant de la Cité Sainte (C.B.C.S.) was founded by Willermoz in 1774.

~JEF

James E Frey 32° classifies himself as a gentleman of the old world, which means he is known to stand in the great forests reciting poetry to fair-haired damsels while wrestling bears for sport. He is a District Education Officer for the Grand Lodge of Illinois, a Past Sovereign Prince of the of Danville AASR, member of the Oak Lawn York Rite, Medinah Shriners, Royal Order of Scotland, Quram Council Allied Masonic Degrees and initiate of the Golden Dawn Collegium Spiritu Sancti. He is also a guest lecturer on Occultism and Esoteric studies in masonry for the R.E.B.I.S Research Society.

The Occult Lodge: Part Two

 From Operative to Occult

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Bro. James E. Frey 32° KT, ROS 

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

In the recent climate of the literary outbreak of novels based on the speculation of Masonry, modern culture has begun to accept the doubtful notion that Masonry is the descendent of the Medieval Knights Templar, or that it is the barren of some shadowy conspiracy bent toward world domination. But this is only a modem interpretation of a climate of speculation Masons of the 1800s concocted in order to give the Masonic system a romanticized history. But it should be noted that overzealous Masons creating a myth that the craft is traced to ancient origins was a common trend among fraternal groups of the era. It was thought that an elaborate myth of historical connections gave the fraternal group legitimacy.

But in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there was a common theme among Masonic scholars creating a legacy, connecting the craft to a variety of occult groups such as the Rosicrucians, the Essenes, Ancient Egypt, and a variety of other spiritual systems. This was because many of the first members that transformed the Craft from an operative guild into a speculative craft were intellectuals of the Royal Society. These intellectuals were under the influence of classical philosophy, which often incorporated the mystical teachings of the medieval ages. This gave many who were interested in occultism through the age of 18th and 19th centuries the vessel they needed to explore subjective symbolism and determine their own spiritual truths. 

Because Masonry became an organization accepting many mystical brethren, the occult minded brethren of the time adopted aspects of Masonry into the developing "magical" lodges. Primarily they adopted the lodge structure finding its organization as both a degree based learning system and a democratic formation as ample for developing a harmonious and productive organization. But as speculative masonry sought to define itself in its early decades of development through its progression of High Degrees, so the occult lodges defined itself through these High degrees having discrete and secretive groups in which to practice their spiritual paths.

~JEF

James E Frey 32° classifies himself as a gentleman of the old world, which means he is known to stand in the great forests reciting poetry to fair-haired damsels while wrestling bears for sport. He is a District Education Officer for the Grand Lodge of Illinois, a Past Sovereign Prince of the of Danville AASR, member of the Oak Lawn York Rite, Medinah Shriners, Royal Order of Scotland, Quram Council Allied Masonic Degrees and initiate of the Golden Dawn Collegium Spiritu Sancti. He is also a guest lecturer on Occultism and Esoteric studies in masonry for the R.E.B.I.S Research Society.