kaos

as their arguments fail to stack up. One then wonders what the point of all of their
cobbled together grades and spurious titles is—is it perhaps that this is all there now is
in the Order? That the current of the new aeon is elsewhere and all they inherited was
the dirty washing and teatowels.
No modern authentic traditional esoteric order has relied on Templar succession. It
triumphed as a romantic idea of the 19 th century.
JAC PARTIT
The argument difficult to argue
John Day mentioned to me privately another argument to do with the symbolism of
the oto rite, but felt that though this argument was persuasive it was not proper to
allow it to enter the debate and amiably conceded Jac Partit’s points. I may hint darkly
at the other argument by reminding readers that some hold that the “true” origin of the
term “Rosicrucian” is sexual and that the “rose” is a blind inserted into the symbolism to
conceal the sexual nature of the “alchemical process”, that actually it is the “ros” (Latin,
“dew”) of the Cross.
It should also be pointed out that technically the Order of Oriental Templars do not
today claim Templar succession, even though they rather lackadaisically imply it. I once
asked Bill Heidrick of the Caliphate oto on the alt.magick newsgroup what exactly
were the claims of the Caliphate oto to have descended from anything. I did actually
intend to imply a question more to do with the controversy of the origin of the Caliphate
as opposed to the oto per se, but nonetheless though he dodged that his answer is of
interest:
Mainly from the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, with absorption or influence from a
whole slue of other organizations cited by Crowley in the Blue Equinox, including very
distant or mythical influences such as the Illuminati. Those last are demonstrated
precursors only in the sense of the influence on the general European culture. Knights
Templar is in that category, at best.
It needs to be said that Aleister Crowley himself, for all of his plagiarism or “adaption”,
did envisage that the oto’s rites would be performed with style and was only too aware
before his death that they were becoming empty imitations. Crowley wrote a letter to
Jack Parsons on March 27, 1946, in which he expressed his disgust with the Agapé
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