Theodor Reuss 1917 — Ordo Templi Orientis Synopsis of Degrees

Synopsis

Degrees as institutional machinery

The structure of the O.T.O., like that of Freemasonry, is based on a staged series of initiations or degrees.

Its higher degrees are not decorative afterthoughts. They define the difference between a borrowed Masonic scaffolding and the O.T.O. proper: the order begins to become itself only when the apparatus climbs beyond the lower initiatory façade.

Lower frame Craft Masonry, AASR and Memphis-Misraim supply much of the visible architecture.

Administrative apex Certain terminal degrees function as charters, authority and jurisdiction rather than initiatory revelation.

O.T.O. proper The higher degrees carry the actual Order-specific claim, including the IX° material.

After Franz Hartmann

The post-1912 arrangement

After Franz Hartmann's death in 1912, the O.T.O.'s structure was defined in this way: the first three degrees were the equivalent of Craft Masonry; the IV° was a mutated version of the AASR; in the V°, Hartmann's obscure “Esoteric Rosicrucianism” was combined with the AASR's eleventh and eighteenth degrees.

Both the name and the lection for the VII° were taken from the fourth degree of the Fratres Lucis, the “Knights of the True Light” or “Order of the Asiatic Brethren” — and therefore, for Reuss and perhaps Aleister Crowley, the “Hermetic Brotherhood of Light”. The VII° itself seems to have been a purely administrative degree.

Real O.T.O. membership began at the VIII°. The IX° corresponded to the Illuminati Order, and the X° was Reuss himself. Sex-magic entered the Order teachings only at the IX°.

Yarker, Crowley, and the compound system

Administrative equivalences

In 1914, one year after John Yarker's death, Aleister Crowley linked several of the AASR's and Memphis-Misraim's degrees with some of the O.T.O. degrees. The 33° AASR, 90° Memphis, 95° Misraim and X° O.T.O. are purely administrative degrees.

After 1917

Umbrella order, charter machine, higher-degree reserve

After 1917, the O.T.O. was intended as an umbrella Order: a collection of other Orders with the authority to grant charters, permissions and degrees from those bodies.

In 1917 Reuss changed the structure again, redistributing the thirty-three degrees of the AASR among the first six O.T.O. degrees. The VII° thereby became identical with Craft Masonry, and again proper O.T.O. membership did not commence until the VIII°, now dubbed the “Esoteric Rosicrucian” degree. Sex-magic was again imparted only in the IX°.

The essence, or secrets, of the Ordo Templi Orientis variations are found in their higher degrees. Strictly speaking, only members of these degrees are considered members of the O.T.O. proper.

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