Exploring topics related to personal transformation, power, and spiritual ethics, drawing from Thelema, western esotericism, and philosophy.
This summer, I’ve put out a lot of content about Ordo Templi Orientis. I’ve described how it promotes unstable leaders, protects high-degree abusers, spies on its members, punishes criticism, and sculpts people into shapes fundamentally at odds with the Law of Thelema. The reactions have been intense: gratitude from those relieved to hear their experiences…
It’s been interesting to see how many current Order members—some of them longtime initiates—have reached out to thank me for saying what they’ve been thinking for years. People are tired of watching dysfunction and self-serving decisions framed as the way of the world by people who aren’t even rational let alone world-wise. Also, to the…
After eleven years of sincere membership and service—including my recent role as Master of Horizon Lodge—I have formally resigned from Ordo Templi Orientis. This is not a decision I made lightly. I invested years of study, leadership, initiation work, and creative output into the Order because I believed in its stated ideals: freedom of will,…
There are two problems I see with the view that O.T.O. should not teach an orthodoxy.
The idea that truth—spiritual or otherwise—reduces to personal truth isn’t “Thelemic” per se. It’s just secularism. That’s one of the defining stroke of the secularist worldview.
The purpose of any O.T.O. local body is to assist individuals to find their respective true wills and to promulgate Thelema. Differences in local culture notwithstanding, that’s what each lodge, oasis, or camp has a duty to do. There are many ways individuals can interact with us. There are the obvious ones like attend Gnostic…
I spent a lot of time this weekend contemplating the lamen of O.T.O. (I was at a Kaaba Colloquium and seated much of the time in front of the podium.) It gave me some time to think about the symbols that appear in it. One of the things that really struck me is how much…