Ordo Templi Orientis Phenomenon

"Ljuben je zakon" or "ljubav pod voljom"?
The O.T.O. in former "Yugoslavia"
O.T.O. srbija

Peter-Robert Koenig

 Emir Salihovic [see below] in an email dated November 2000:
 "I heard about Robert Nemecek, but I doubt he introduced Thelema to
 socialist Yugoslavia. I think there's more evidence that Zivorad
 Mihajlovic-Slavinski from Belgrad did that. He published his first book
 in 1973, I think, and he was already mentioning Golden Dawn, Crowley
 etc. In 1976 he published his book "Psychonauts of interior worlds",
 where he devoted a whole chapter to Crowley, OTO, sex magic etc. In the
 same book he wrote extensively about Kenneth Grant also. It is well
 known that Oliver Legradic, and his predecessor (I forgot his name),
 were members of Slavinski's "Psychotronics Society" and learned about
 Crowley from him. It was simply that those people later contacted
 Caliphate, became members, and brought OTO to Yugoslavia."
 

The 'Caliphate'

 Emir Salihovic [see below] in an email dated November 2000:
 "At that time I was meeting those people. I was interested in joining
 Caliphate officially, but Legradic rejected me on the grounds that I
 was a friend with Julijan Naskov, whom he disliked. Anyway, as the
 bishop of OTO EGC, Legradic baptised me into EGC, with several more
 people. In March of 1989 I even did one Mass with them, acting as the
 Priest. I almost regularly attended these Masses. But the bastards
 didn't call me to join when they had that group-sex session :)) Oh,
 yes, I was really hot about Sr. Venus, as everybody else... :) "
 

 Emir Salihovic [see below] in an email dated November 2000:
 "Prvoslav later left OTO anyway. He even moved from Belgrade. He was
 nice man, but I think that he suffered from some kind of light mental
 disorder. I was living in his flat for about a month."
 

   Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 
   Subject: O.T.O. in YU

   93!
   (I hold a widely spread opinion that this is a greeting that
   expresses most deep respect to a person adressed)
   I am a person mentioned in a some letters from people that were
   involved in YU O.T.O. called Artur, which should be fra. ARTHuR,
   actually.
   After a many years of occasinal reading of the interesing materials
   on your site, which I beleive read only a small percent, I have to
   give you some more precise data. It concerns a very few details,
   but it is obvious that some of the people have their own
   misconceptions which should be, for the sake of truth, cleared.
   1. Concerning the expulsion of the members of ABRAHADABRA lodge
   from Caliphate, we were only expelled from the lodge by fra. Khonsu
   under the obvious influence of spirit, glue and his late wife,
   sorror Venus. I checked the facts personally with O.T.O. HQ. Me and
   other fratres et sorrores are still member, though not active.
   The only person expelled was Mr. Madic (fra Ekanath) for reasons
   that are correctly shown in the letters that you quote.
   2. The famous group sex orgy after a Gnostic mass, held at Mr.
   Madic's place was not an orgy at all. What happened is that some
   six members of the camp (it was still a camp then) spontaneously
   started to provoke each other into some mild petting which
   culminated in pseudolesbian petting exhibition involving two
   sorrors, Venus & Aquarius. Both of them were classical examples of
   sexual provocatresses, psychologicaly troubled, but it is not mine
   to explain. Most of us were provoked by them many times, since we
   all were actually friends, and a rather good ones. They undressed
   their blouses, showing breasts, and actually fighting for a title
   of a alpha-female in the group. They did not realise that the third
   one already established her status, which later on came obvious,
   and she was a most often a priesstes, and a most desired one by all
   of us who acted as a priests. It was Vlada Madic's girlfriend,
   Maja, who even nowadays is a well known person in Belgrad occult
   circles. This event, which 6 persons attended, and I was not
   interested, since I was in the other room with another girl, ;)))
   and only came in once to tell them that I was busy, so they
   proclaimed me a Black Guard, and asked me to make sure that nobody
   came in. There were still some of the people in the flat, after a
   mass. Present were s. Venus, s. Aquarius, Maja Mandic, f. B., f.
   Parsifal, and Vlada Madic. All of the involved, including me, later
   on had trouble with fra. Khonsu, when he married sorror Venus. We
   were, among the rest of stupid accusations, blamed for inventing
   and spreading the rumour about s. Venus having an orgy with all of
   us. Rubbish. Nobody ever gave any importance to this event, but it
   obviouslu ment something to late s. Venus. It seems that Legradic
   never really realised that this childish fun took place in reality.
   I personally feel sorry for a poor girl although she gave me a lot
   of trouble with no reason at all. But it was her life and she did
   with it what she felt she should.
   3. B., V. Madic and me received some night calls from Legradic that
   we were expelled from an order, so I imediatelly called Bill
   Heidrick an asked him about that, he had no knowledge or any
   document about it. After some 10 years, when I left country for
   some time for bussines reasons, I had an email contact with him
   when he assured me that if only I started to pay my fees, I would
   agan be a member in "good standing". Since I was not involved in
   any Caliphate works, I prefered to stay silent. So did others.
   4. The first book published in Serbia by O.T.O. members was Book 4.
   The printing was financed by fra. Parsifal and me, and in the
   redaction Legradic was also involved, and so was formally Vlada
   Madic, although he did almost nothing, but he was learning how to
   do it, and later on started his own publishing company, Esotheria.
   Fra P. and I dod almost all the work, and translations were done by
   ex-members of the Abrahadanra camp, which by the time started their
   own camp in Zavidovici, B&H. They are the members mantioned in a
   part about fleeing from the country, and now they live in Canada.
   What happened is that fra. Khonsu took all of the print to
   distribute it arround the country, to members and the other
   interested in Theleme. The book was sold in few months, and we
   never got any money from it. Only when it became obvious, fra P.
   took almost by force last few dosens of copies from Legradic, and
   in that way, selling these last ones we succeeded to get back only
   the money we put into it. Since I borrowed money for that, I was
   actually in minus, and also since I beleived that I will get some
   money from it, I did not work for some moths, so the whole thing
   came as a rather bitter wakeup.
   When I publicly asked Legradic about what actually happened, and
   whether there is any money, he took a drop of Abramelin oil (well,
   actually, a mixture, a drop diluted in lots of olive oil ;))) on a
   thumb and "ritually" pressed it on my forehead, thereby banishing
   me from a Lodge. The reason he gave was my undermining his
   authority as a Lodge master. I did not reply, it was below any
   conception I ever had about honour. Which was more important, I did
   not care anymore, since I already saw what he was doing. The only
   thing I regreted at that time was the certainty that if I adressed
   any of the senior officers in HQ, it was my word against his. And I
   knew that other Lodge members would not back me up. Later when it
   came to writing a letter to Caliph, most of them acrually turned
   yellow. I knew it earlier.
   Fra. Parsifal, probably the person that deserves most credits for
   O.T.O. popularity in Serbia, and even more, in ex YU, took the rest
   of the books from f. Khonsu to save our investment, and since he
   did not obey masters order to work against me, he was accused for
   breaking an oath of. III deegree, which is a classic abuse of power
   on behalf of that bastard. This word I do not use emotionaly, since
   I am not interested anymore, I am just trying to use the proper
   expresion for this semihuman creature which obsessed the whole of
   YU O.T.O. He never grew up from an adolescensy, and after I lost
   him from sight he only sunk deeper. After he lost his wife, Venus,
   maybe something changed, but I have no idea. Evenmore, it is not my
   bussines.
   5. The group that gathered working in my flat, as it is said in a
   passage on Abrahadabra Oasis, from 19th of February was not a adhoc
   gathering of unsatisfied members of the Oasis and later Lodge. It
   was our old magic group from which actually the O.T.O. in Belgrade
   emanated. In summer 1984 us 5 member of "Psychotronic society" that
   was founded by Zivorad Mihajlovic Slavinski, started experimenting
   with ceremonial magick, not knowing much about Thelema, but very
   soon we learned about and studied it passionately. The group was
   fuonded in my appartment by one who later on became fra. Parsifal,
   then one Dusan Licina, also a brother later on, who died heroicaly
   in Bosnia as a medic. He was married to a sorror Aquarius. Also
   there were two friends from a nearby municipality of Pancevo, who
   never joined O.T.O. but stayed in E.G.A. of Slavinsky, and there
   was of course me. This group flourished through years, involving
   many people from Belgrade, some of them now famous in art circles,
   we had guests from all the parts of the world, contacts with all
   kinds of traditions. For instance, when we were deeply involved in
   O.T.O. in 87, and 88, before Oliver Legradic came to Bg. we had as
   a regular guest John Myrdhin Reynolds, Tipetan mystic, teacher and
   translator, who also is a friend of Caliph. ;) We all attended his
   and Namkhai Norbu's Dzog Chen seminars, we studied Yoga, Tantra and
   who knows what. On the Yoga seminar mentioned in Madic's account I
   introduced to the rest od brothers an modern alternative technique
   of Rebirthing by Leonard Orr, and so on. The group kept working on
   even after the collapse of O.T.O. in Belgrade. Not to forget that a
   prominent member was one B. who is also mentioned. He was actually
   a leader at a time. I took on when he left. But in the beginning
   there was no leader. We all just did our Will. And so is today,
   though we do not meet officially, but we are still friends, all of
   us, with an exception of one sister.
   6. Frater Prvoslav is in a way not fairly described by Emir, who
   happens to be a friend to. ;))) Prvoslav is simply not a fool.
   Thats all, he doesn't care for politenes and he was really ready to
   beat the bastard Legradic at the time. Some brothers stopped him.
   Later on he turned a genuine mystic, lived in a cottage by some
   lake, and now works with wood, carving religious motives. He
   actually lives Thelema more than a lot of others, although his art
   is motivated by ortodox christian icons.
   7. Milan V. and Joca, that are also mentioned are respectively,
   Oliver Legradic's Best man, and a first boyfriend of s. Venus. They
   both strayed into mental disorder of some kind.
   8. All of the reports of Zivorad Mihajlovic Slavinsky are not
   really accurate, except the mere facts, but that is another story.
   Suffice to say that he was a pioneer of psychic journeys in ex YU,
   and he still works a lot. He has two sides, and it can be an
   interesting story. If you want to know, I can supply facts, but it
   is a damanding work. He is the best partner when it comes to
   practical work, and a dangerous enemy when it comes to money and
   power.
   
                     I hope these lines will help to clarify some
                     things, and if you need more, I am ready to
                     give further info. But, when I try to get some
                     more detailed idea from your site, it gives me
                     headache, considering the mere size of the
                     material.... ;)
                                           Yours sincerely,
                                           Nebojša Mirèetoviæ,
                                           fra. ARTHuR

The Typhonian O.T.O.

 Yoga: Psychic Training
 The Keys of Psychic Magic
 Hermetic Symbols
 Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Hermeticism
 Psychonauts of Inner Worlds
 Psychotronics: A Theory and Practice of Parapsychology
 Translations of Aleister Crowley's Liber Al and Liber Aleph
 The Course of Gnostic Occultism (published by Vladimir Madic)
 Excalibur
 In 2003/04 he published his first novel called "The Dawn of Aiwaz" 
   ("Praskozorje Ajvaza"). 

[From: Der O.T.O.A-Reader.]

 Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000
 From: 'Kreshimir Markovich'
 Subject: Croatian caliphate
 You can quote me as 'Vilenjak'. That means, roughly, 'Faery' and that
 is my nickname on occult-related Internet discussions.
 You had been falsely informed that Croatian caliphate OTO is not
 functioning. If you are interested in that part of OTO history, see
 www.iridis.hr/theba or www.pubwww.hr/cro_oto links. Croatian OTO is
 alive and kicking — with active bodies in Zagreb, Split and Ivanicgrad
 (town near Zagreb). Only Bosnian BABALON 149 Oasis in Zavidovici (city
 near Tuzla) was destroyed on material plane during the War. Roughly in
 Autumn of 1992, when Serbians smashed Croatian defences in North Bosnia
 and attacked Tuzla Muslim enclave from the back... but I will ask for
 better information.
 OTO body (Mirrah lodge) in Zagreb have public EGC mass every week,
 Babalon ritual and Baphomet mass (also public) every month.
 Zagreb has Mirrah lodge, and members of that body had rented small
 apartment for masses and communion. Mirrah is name of a quasar. Every
 Saturday we have EGC mass (with public invitation, very liberaly
 granted), on full moon Babalon ritual and Baphomet mass on new moon.
 After group rituals we usually have a party.
 Master of Mirrah lodge is Ranko Blazekovic. I will collect other
 information in next week or two. OTO in whole of Croatia have about 100
 members. But I will send you more detailed information soon.
 Ivanijgrad have LA-AL camp and Ra-Hoor-Khuit camp. People there are
 very active, and besides EGC mass for initiated members they do
 invocation of Heru-Ha-Ra monthly.
 Split have Theba Oasis and Baphomet Oasis. Theba has great web pages
 on www.iridis.hr/theba which will be translated into English soon.
 I apologize because of sending you incorrect link two times. Correct
 address is pubwww.srce.hr/cro_oto."
                                  ***
 Zivorad Mihailovic Slavinski is known in the former Yugoslavia as a
 publicist and the author of books of dubious quality. I know of people
 who developed serious problems by doing the exercises written in his
 book 'Training of the Indian Yogi and Fakir'. He also translated the
 texts of the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram (Golden Dawn version,
 incomplete and with mistakes) and of the Middle Pillar (this had
 serious mistakes) and published them as the 'Secret of Psychic Magic'.
 He had a lot of members in the Ecclesia Gnostica Alba. But in that
 organisation he was only teaching techniques pirated from Charles
 Berner ('Direct Enlightenment'), and the 'Excalibur' books, Ramana
 Maharshi's 'Vicara', Sedona and Scientology — all sold at extravagant
 prices (at least by standards in the former Yugoslavia.
 What they did, in fact, were the so called "Enlightenment Intensives".
 

 Many members of the Croatian 'Caliphate' are introduced to occult
 themes via books Slavinski has written (that is translated and compiled
 badly). But he was never relevant to serious seekers.
 No Serbian in Lika has the surname 'Aivaz'; that's a ridiculous
 fantasy of Zivorad 'Zika' Mihailovic. If you look at the language in
 Bosnia and central Croatia, you will see it was greatly influenced by
 Turkish during the rule of the Ottoman Empire. There is a Turkish word
 'avaz' which means 'herald' or 'news'; there is a daily paper in
 Bosnia's capital, Sarajevo, called 'Dnevni Avaz' which means 'Daily
 Herald' or 'Daily News' — you can find it in any Turkish-English
 dictionary if you want. Some of the Turks intermarried with Bosnians,
 and there are some Bosnian Muslim families with first or surnames
 related to 'avaz'. But not in Lika, the ancestral home of the Tesla
 family — but in central Bosnia!
 I found even more information in a bigger dictionary... the word
 'avaz' is of Persian origin, and is more authentically spelt as 'awaz';
 it meant 'voice'. If you remember how Aiwass was supposed to look, you
 can easily imagine that angel/demon at the beginning of Liber AL saying
 simply: 'I am the voice (awaz) of Ra-Hoor-Khuit'."

 From: "Vranic Predrag"
 Subject: On Aiwass surname in Bosnia
 Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2004
 Had to inform you that Ajvaz (Aiwass) is a real surname in both Serbia
 and Bosnia.If you need any kind of proof, the easiest one is to check
 mailing boxes and residents info at the building where OTPOR ( one of
 the main organized acters in so called "October Revolution" that
 pulled-off the Milosevic's regime) has its headquarters in the street
 called 'Knez Mihailova', Belgrade, Serbia.The more obvious proof
 couldn't be managed at this moment. Still, it bothers me that certain
 people uses false arguments fro m esotheric resources as a weapon for
 their low aims in campaign against one nation, in this case, Serbian
 nation.
 

The Gnostic Light Movement

 Emir Salihovic [see below] in an email dated November 2000:
 "In the very beginning, Naskov called his magical system "The Red
 Gnostic Alliance", later on he changed the name to "Gnostic Light
 Movement". [...] The basis of Naskov's system was
 expounded in the so-called "Book of Gnosis", a manual comprising seven
 magical rituals/meditations, based on Thelemic symbols. Each one of
 those rituals had its sexomagical version. Gnostic Light Movement was
 considered as an outer order. I met Naskov for the first time in May of
 1985. He claimed that he channeled the structure of these magical
 orders in March or April same year. In July we did some magical
 workings together, for the first time. A man from Zagreb joined us. It
 was a kind of two day magical retirement. We did a number of magical
 rituals, invocations and meditations, including the invocation of Lam.
 As far as I am concerned, that work was fruitful for me: I had a lot of
 insights, interesting experiences... Very strange physical phenomena
 occurred during the invocation of Lam, I must say. I was only seventeen
 years old at that time. It was a kind of real magical initiation for
 me."
 

[From: Der O.T.O.A-Reader.]

 Emir Salihovic in an email dated November 2000:
 "In fact, before the war in Bosnia started, Naskov gave me a charter
 authorizing me to be the Master of whole OTOA in Yugoslavia. Also, he
 gave me a charter which authorized me to head Gnostic Light Movement,
 but under his supervision.
 In 1994 I published a book called "Gnostic Light Movement". Several
 people expressed their interest to join that magical group after they
 read the book. But, 70-80% of material in that book was my own magical
 work: insights, constructions etc. Maybe that was the reason why Naskov
 never used that book as the official GLM manual, although he used it to
 promote his work. For years we didn't have any kind of magical work
 together. Naskov formed a small group in Skopje, Macedonia, and as far
 as I understood, they didn't work on the lines of "old" GLM.
 Eventually, I decided to distance myself from GLM as an official
 organization (although it never reached the level of organization) and
 continue my work individually. I also formed my own group in Belgrade,
 and we were practicing ritual magick, studied magical formulae, did
 some "Maat magick" etc.
 At that time I got very much involved with Bertiaux system, and did a
 lot of Voodoo magick and sex magick of "8th degree". I performed
 self-initiations into degrees of Lave-tete, Canzo and Houngan, using
 official La Couleuvre Noire rituals which I got from Lamparter. I also
 wrote a new scheme for working OTOA degrees. In a letter, Courtney
 Willis approved me to work that way. But, I never initiated anybody
 into OTOA or LCN. It was the same period when I got a charter to run
 QBLH Alchemist Church and Ordo Astrum Argentum in Yugoslavia. I think
 Bertiaux mode of work is too difficult, obscure and confusing for the
 majority of people. I found new ways to work it in a way which is more
 acceptable, but as I said, I still didn't give any kind of
 "initiations". One of the reasons is that I should have Monastery of
 the Seven Rays material translated into Bosnian, and it's a lot of
 material and I have no time to do it. And I'm not rich enough to pay
 professional translator. I started to work on a new book, called "The
 Grimoire of the Star and the Snake". I have no clue when I am going to
 finish it."
 

 1. I am the AIWASS current 418 that emanates through you.
 2. Take my knowledge thus as I give it in full consciousness.
 3. I have already spoken to you about it back in the 80's in my month.
 4. Now you want to say that you hate the hand and the pen but I am
    stronger.
 5. Yes, your prophet is curious about my being a woman, but I am NUIT.
    Yes, I am Nuit.
 6. It is Me who talks to you not AIWASS.
 7. Creative power of your being invoked me and I want to send you a
    message.
 8. Work with me is very powerful and you must support/bear it. (Etc.)
 

 Emir Salihovic in an email dated November 2000:
 "Actually, the drawings published in "Der OTOA-Reader" (Male Chakram)
 are from Bertiaux system. I don't know who did the drawing of male
 genitals (good work, anyway), but it was I who marked 16 occult
 centers, according to the secret papers of Bertiaux's Monastery of the
 Seven Rays magical system. Those 16 genital chakras correspond with 16
 "exoteric" chakras of the whole body, and are used as centers for
 focusing ojas or magical power during magical rites. There are also
 certain interesting methods of magical massage of those centers, for
 purpose of evoking those energies, which are described in the papers
 for the initiates of the 4th year of study of the Monastery of the
 Seven Rays course of lessons. Interested readers can consult "The
 Voudoun Gnostic Workbook" by Michael Bertiaux. Those centers are
 described in the papers entitled "The Magical System", in the first
 section of the "Workbook" — "Voodoo Energies"."
 

After Julijan Naskov had handed his OTOA authorizations in Yugoslavia over to Emir Salihovic, there was a period of stagnation for the OTOA during the Balkan wars of 1991-1995. After that Salihovic revived OTOA work. In June 2006 he visited Michael Bertiaux in Chicago. Bertiaux ordained him as bishop of the Ecclesia Gnostica Spiritualis (registered in the State of Illinois as "Neo-Pythagorean Gnostic Church"), and initiated him into his Choronzon Club. Eventually, he created the Ecclesia Gnostica Pneumatica in the Balkans.

This is an outline of an article originally published in the German magazine "Abrahadabra" in April 1993, with additional material from my German book "Der OTOA-Reader" (1994), and "Abramelin & Co." (1995)
Adapted translation by Mark Parry-Maddocks

Search Parareligion Website

The Threepenny Gnostic Opera with charters of e.g. Manuel Cabrera Lamparter, William W. Webb et. al. History of the Gnostic Churches related to the O.T.O. and O.T.O.A. Ken Ward The Italian O.T.O. never hade more than 12 members Technicians of the Sacred Der O.T.O.A.-Reader contains a lot of further picture material The Gnostic Lineages of the O.T.O.A. and related organisations and Churches "Ljuben je zakon" or "ljubav pod voljom"? O.T.O. and O.T.O.A. in former "Yugoslavia" Anti 'Caliphate' hunt in Serbian Papers O.T.O. groups and O.T.O.A. in Italy The History of the XI° and the Choronzon Club A letter of Michael P. Bertiaux to Gary M. Kelly / Martin My O.T.O.A. 1987-1991 How William Breeze lost an Apostolic Succession The Typhonian O.T.O., with material from Maggie Ingalls on the Ma'at-Continuum Photos of Hector-François Jean-Maine, Michael Paul Bertiaux, Marc Lully and two Gnostic Masses

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More about all this in: Andreas Huettl and Peter-R. Koenig: Satan — Jünger, Jäger und Justiz

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