Post #28. The Orders of the Beast: The A∴A∴ and the O.T.O., Crowley’s Magical Machines
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The A∴A∴ (the initials are variously said to stand for Argenteum Astrum or Silver Star) was Crowley’s replacement for the Golden Dawn. It was a spiritual and magical order designed to guide individuals on the path of self-knowledge and the discovery of their true will. Like the Golden Dawn, it was structured as a hierarchical, initiatory system, with a series of grades that corresponded to the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. But the A∴A∴ differed from the Golden Dawn in several crucial respects.
Individual Work: The A∴A∴ was not a lodge-based system. Each member worked alone, in direct contact with a single, more senior member who acted as their guide and teacher. The emphasis was on individual experience, not on group ritual.
The Holy Guardian Angel: The central goal of the A∴A∴ curriculum was the attainment of the "Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel." This was a profound, life-altering experience, a direct communion with one’s own personal genius or higher self. It was only after attaining this state that the magician could truly know their true will.
Crossing the Abyss: For those who succeeded in this great work, there was a further, even more terrifying ordeal: the crossing of the Abyss, the great spiritual chasm that separates the phenomenal world from the divine. This involved the complete annihilation of the ego, the ultimate act of spiritual surrender. Those who succeeded in this ordeal became Masters of the Temple, beings who had transcended their own humanity and become part of the great spiritual hierarchy that guides the planet's evolution.
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The O.T.O. (Ordo Templi Orientis): The Magic of Sex
While the A∴A∴ was a secret, spiritual order for the dedicated few, the O.T.O. was a more public, social, and fraternal organisation. It was a modern-day Knights Templar, a body of men and women dedicated to the principles of freedom, individualism, and the Law of Thelema. The O.T.O. had existed before Crowley, as a quasi-Masonic German magical society. But Crowley was invited to lead its British branch, and he quickly remade the order in his own image, making the Law of Thelema its central principle.
The great secret of the O.T.O., the magical key that was revealed to its highest initiates, was the theory and practice of sex magic. Crowley believed that sexual energy, the libido, was the most powerful force in the human organism, and that it could be harnessed and used for magical purposes. The O.T.O. taught a series of techniques for harnessing the sexual act, whether with a partner or alone, to generate immense amounts of magical energy, which could then be directed towards a specific goal, such as spiritual enlightenment, the acquisition of power, or the creation of a work of art.
This was a radical and shocking idea in the sexually repressed world of Edwardian England. It was also a powerful and effective form of magic. For Crowley, sex was not a source of sin or shame; it was a sacrament, a divine act, the ultimate expression of the creative force of the universe.
The Two-Fold Machine
The A∴A∴ and the O.T.O. were the two arms of Crowley’s magical machine. The A∴A∴ was the engine room, the place where the hard, solitary, spiritual work was done, where the individual magician was forged in the fires of initiation. The O.T.O. was the public face, the social and political arm, the army of the new aeon, which would carry the Law of Thelema into the world and build a new society based on its principles.
From his base in London, Crowley directed this two-fold machine. He published his books and journals, gathered his disciples, and performed his rituals. He was building a new kind of black magic temple, one that was not made of stone, but of people —a network of initiated individuals dedicated to the Great Work of personal and social transformation.
The influence of these two orders would be immense. They would become the primary vehicles for the transmission of Crowley’s magical system, and their teachings would influence countless other magical groups and individuals in the decades to come. The Beast had not just received a new law; he had built the machine that would enforce it.
In our next post, we will explore the practical techniques of Crowley’s magic, from the rituals of the pentagram and the hexagram to the complexities of his system of sex magic.
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Solomon Jones (Author/Researcher)
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