kaos

There is no mention of the demonic doorknocker in the official rite privately printed
for the Supreme Council (I have the 1994 revision, which runs to 73 A6 pages, 1995 is
the latest), but it has long retained my fascination since first hearing about it, over and
above the perhaps more weighty matters now to be discussed. Namely, that Aleister
Crowley substantially plagiarised the 18° ritual when constructing his 5° ritual for the
Ordo Templi Orientis. For reasons of space (and copyright) I am unable to reproduce
the two rituals, but interested parties should have little difficulty following the argument
or tracking down the appropriate source materials. I am in any case primarily motivated
to publish a debate on this matter by two informed insiders, rather than pursue the
cheaper practice of publishing the rituals of secret societies as if such two-bit detective
work was somehow impressive. Here follows Jac Partit’s considered opinion on the
central problem with the oto 5°.
JOEL BIROCO
Jac Partit’s initial salvo
Back to the oto fifth degree. I won’t go through a word for word comparison because
you will be able to do this with the 1994 ritual [of the 18°]. To me the 5° seems so
totally flawed as to raise the possibility that it has a completely destructive effect. This
is because the fundamental structure is unchanged—rather than redesign the building
the oto have rearranged the mantelpiece.
The ritual had its foundation in one Willermoz, a Christian Thaumaturgist and
Martinist of Lyon. Therefore the 18° temple was set out to correspond to the Christian
passion. The oto have not fundamentally changed this. For example the pelican is
Christ crucified and the eagle Christ in his ascension. These are unchanged. The numbers
33 etc and colours are Christian and one has to ask whether the trampling of the cross
and presence of the priestess are any more than window dressing. Indeed the failure to
realign the symbolic structure means that conflicting currents are worked. You will see
that the sections of the New Testament have been removed yet no alternative is put in
their place—the reference to the rending of the temple is again a Christian one.
The lost word in the first point in the 18° is inri, which is a formula alluding to the
lost word and far more numinous than the approach introduced by the oto. The
obligation is pure masonry.
The rest of the second point is more a series of exchanges with a catechism. The
sealing of the candidate in the oto misunderstands that the seal is undertaken so that
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