OTO in the News

Here's the sort of press OTO should be getting. Note the complete lack of Illuminati nonsense or similar nattering on about how the Order controls the politics and finances of the world (spoiler: it doesn't!). Also, the serious perspective of the article is refreshing in contrast to treating the Order as some kind of freak show just because we take an alternative approach to spirituality - like several British press outlets did earlier this year.

“I had always been interested in the occult and alternate religious traditions, even though I started off as a ‘good little Christian boy,’” said the body master, David, who asked that his last name not be used. “In the back of my mind, I knew I needed something else.” David looked into Buddhism, Wicca and New Age beliefs. But then he began to read about the OTO’s most famous leader, Aleister Crowley.

“Ever since I heard that name, he always had a grip on me,” said David. “I decided I need to go experience a Gnostic Mass, and I found Sekhet Bast Ra. At first, I thought it was the strangest thing I’d ever seen in my life, but I wanted to go back.”

Founded in Germany by Karl Kellner and Theodor Reuss, the secret society gained most of its prominence early in the 20th century, when Crowley, dubbed by the press as the “wickedest man in the world,” took the order to newfound worldwide fame. Although he was widely demonized, his work and rituals transformed the order into what it is today, with the Law of Thelema — “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law” — the OTO’s guiding principle.

According to David, however, this isn’t an excuse to go wild. Quite the opposite, actually. “It never implies, at least to me, ‘Do whatever you want.’ The true will — some people might say is destiny, some might say fate, but I think it’s more than that — is what you are here to do. There are people who are following their true will without even knowing about Thelema. It’s a guideline that anyone can follow to [become] a better person.”

I suppose the truth is a disappointment to anyone who believes that we run the CIA and divulge secret pass codes at our initiations that can be used to make our enemies disappear or comb through their NSA files, but really, the idea that occultists wield incredible political power wasn't even true in the nineteenth century, let alone today. On the other hand, there are plenty of situations in which the power to control one's mind is a whole lot more useful - and that's something Thelema really does teach.