FIRE & ICE
The History, Structure, and Rituals
of
Germany's Most Influential
Modern
Magical Order:
The Brotherhood of Saturn
by
Stephen E. Flowers, Ph.D.
Llewellyn's Teutonic
Magick Series
Teutonic Magick is as vast as the northern sky and as
deep as the shrouded northern mists.
Many of the most powerful forms of magick in the
West were developed to an early perfection by Teutonic
magicians—Albertus Magnus, Agrippa, Paracelsus—
some were even elevated to the level of legend, such as
Faustus.
Teutonic Magick is multifaceted—it has its own
innate traditions—those of the ancient Germanic peoples (Anglo-Saxons, Germans, Dutch, Scandinavians)
and in addition it has those of the general Western Tradition which they received from southern Europe in the
Middle Ages—and proceeded to develop with characteristic scientific zeal.
The world of Teutonic Magick is full of truly secret,
some sinister, corners as well. Many of these—like so
much else that we believe to be sinister—are thus characterized simply because they are unknown and perhaps also misunderstood. There are whole realms of
Teutonic Magick that have largely been kept truly secret
until the latter part of this century.
Llewellyn's Teutonic Magick Series is the first to
explore this world in a systematic and authoritative
way. It will reveal the secrets of German rune magic, the
obscure mysteries of Gothic Kabbalah, the magic of
Faustus, and the deepest mysteries of the German
occult orders such as the Rosicrucians, the Illuminati,
the Fraternitas Saturni, and the dreaded FOGC-Lodge.
The path of Teutonic Magick is focused on the
expansion of consciousness through a will to power
and knowledge—the way opened for the Teutonic
magician by Woden on an archetypal level and followed by Faustus and most modern magicians.
FOREWORD
The occult world of Germany, ancient and modern, has long been shrouded in a dense mist of secrecy
and profound mystery. Deep within this secret world
there is an order known as the Fraternitas Saturni—
the Brotherhood of Saturn. This can without doubt be
called Germany's greatest secret lodge. The order is
still the most active and important magical society in
Germany today, but from its formal beginnings around
1926 until 1970 it was almost totally secret. Only
through a quirk of fate did the inner documents of the
order slip into the hands of those who published them
in Germany. Fire and Ice coherently summarizes and
presents the vast array of documents available in German concerning the FS. There is no such study available on this order even in German. In this book the
reader is given a rare glimpse into the inner workings
and secret rites of this occult lodge.
The FS as it is constituted today may or may not
bear any resemblance to the form of the order presented in this book. What you see here comes from the
period between 1926 and 1970.
In exploring Fire and Ice you will be able to begin
to open the hidden way to the Saturnian sphere which
rules the New Age. The Saturnian path of initiation,
until now only darkly perceived—as if through a
mist—will be revealed. You will be able to begin to
work with the magical formulas of Saturnian magic
for self-development as well as for more practical or
concrete ends.
Fire and Ice opens the pathway to an age-old
tradition of magic that influenced, and may have even
formulated, the traditions in Britain and America, for
example that of the Golden Dawn. The FS preserves a
vibrant Thelemic current of magical tradition and
practice. The old Grand Master of the order, Gregor A.
Gregorius, stored up a unique Thelemic philosophy,
which remained secure from public scrutiny for almost
forty years. He was safe to pursue the directions and
consequences of Thelema free from the influences of
mediocre philosophies that elsewhere stultified and
prevented it from reaching its ultimate Aeonic enfoldment.
Fire and Ice is an important cornerstone of the
Llewellyn Teutonic Magic Series; it demonstrates in
contemporary and practical terms a unique current of
magical culture at home in the Teutonic homeland
which has greatly influenced the world beyond the
borders of that region.
INTRODUCTION
The Fraternitas Saturni (FS), the Brotherhood of
Saturn, has become known to English readers through
fragmentary descriptions which emphasize the sensational, sex-magical aspects of this lodge's work or
else its darker, more Satanic, side.1
This is understandable in light of the fact that the FS is (or was) the
most unabashedly Luciferian organization in the
modern Western occult revival, and its practice of sexual occultism perhaps the most elaborately detailed
of any such lodge. The FS represents a unique blend of
astrological cosmology, neo-Gnostic daemonology,
sexual occultism, and Freemasonic organizational
principles. This grand synthesis was originally the
vision of one man, the long-time Grand Master of the
FS, Gregor A. Gregorius.
This book is probably the first attempt ever made in any language to present a comprehensive view of
the history, organization, doctrines, rituals and practices of the most powerful and influential magical
lodge in modern Germany. The "compendium" of FS
material cited in Richard Cavendish's Encyclopedia
of the Unexplained is an enormous, but sometimes
disorganized, trove of documentation which was
collected by Prof. Dr. Adolf Hemberger of the University of Giessen, West Germany.2
Other recent treatments of the FS in German have also made use of the
mountains of documentary evidence, but have made
little attempt to organize it comprehensively.3
Here, I
will try to present an organized and comprehensive
outline of this magical lodge. The reader should be
advised that the author is not an initiate of the FS.
However, I had the advice and consultation of the
Brotherhood, as is cited in the Acknowledgments. I
hope that this combination, coupled with my longtime experience in the history and practice of magic,
will provide a sense of objective sympathy.
The FS is an organization that has undergone
several transformations during its most recent manifestation (from about 1927 to the present). Most of
the material used for this book and the ideas discussed in it have been drawn from the period when
Gregorius was Grand Master, or shortly thereafter (to
about 1970). Therefore, it cannot be assumed that
doctrines or practices discussed in these pages are in
fact still a part of the current doctrines and practices
of the FS in Germany.
In these pages there is, however, a complete
vision of the lodge, including many of its most secret doctrines and ritual practices from that earlier period.
A comprehensive overview of its organizational structure of thirty-three degrees of initiation is one key to
the understanding of the lodge's work and purpose.
The chapter on the doctrines of the FS is concentrated
on what is perhaps the three most unique aspects of
FS doctrine: 1) the astrosophical teaching of Saturnus
as the Demiurge ruling over the present stage of cosmic evolution, 2) the strongly Luciferian aspect of this
doctrine, and 3) the teachings of sexo-cosmology and
sexual occultism—the Yoga of the Dark Light—as it is
tied up with these theories.
The rituals presented here are complete treatments of rites found in archival material. They amply
demonstrate the liturgical scope of the Brotherhood,
and provide further significant insights into their
philosophy that are inaccessible in theoretical discussions.
After studying the doctrines of the FS for almost a
decade, and after significant experimentation with a
number of its formulae, I believe that the Brotherhood
of Saturn indeed holds a unique place in the history of
the revival of the Western magical tradition. For too
long, the English-speaking magical forum has been
ignorant of the exact nature of German occultism and
magic. Although a great deal of "English occultism" is
actually, or supposedly, derived from sources in her
Continental sister nation (e.g. Rosicrucianism, the
Golden Dawn [cf. cipher manuscripts], even the
O.T.O. itself), little has been done in the way of systematically analyzing this vast and vibrant world.
Generally, it might be said that what the Golden Dawn has been to Anglo-American occultism over the
past hundred years, the Fraternitas Saturni has been
to German occultism. But whereas the "secrets" of
the GD have been published and reprinted over and
over, the mysteries of the FS have—until recently—
remained behind a veil of obscurity. Therefore, anyone who would really understand the depths of the
magical subculture of today, be it in German or Anglo-American society, needs to have a thorough grasp of the
history and doctrines of the Brotherhood of Saturn.
Chapter I
A History of the
Brotherhood of Saturn
Distant Roots
As with all organizations of an occult nature,
accurate and consistent historical data for the FS is
hard to obtain. On some aspects there is an abundance of information, while on others we are left to
speculate. In this chapter, I want to trace the history
of the FS as an organization and as an idea, and at the
same time remain as much as possible within the context of events in the contemporary occult subculture.
Documents within the FS1
point to the idea that
on some mystical level there is a connection between
the ancient mysteries of the Germanic past and the
Fraternitas Saturni. It is held that there were Saturnian Brotherhoods working as early as the end of the
1600s in Sweden, Denmark, and Poland. Also, it is
indicated that there is a mystical connection between
he Greco-Roman Saturnian Principle {fatum, fate) and the old Germanic high god, Wotan, whose name is
also spelled in these documents as "Fuotan"; hence
the link with fatum. Supposedly both Hoëne-Wronski 2
in the nineteenth century and Gregorius in the twentieth century made these connections.
This Fuotan is
seen as the All-ruling Principle of Fate, which does not
itself succumb to the ultimate "Twilight of the Gods."
It is understandable in light of the neo-Romantic Germanicism prevalent in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Germany that FS doctrine would to
some extent derive from the Germanic (or as they
would have it, "Aryan") North rather than from the
Mediterranean region.3
Later, it was emphasized that
the Brotherhood had its origins in the rituals of the
Roman Saturnalia (which takes place around December 27th),4
which made clear the FS's tendency away
from the Christian world-view and toward a darker
side of things. At one point, apparently between 1927
and 1933, there was a provision of the group that
only "Christians" (i.e., non-Jews) could be initiated
and that all neophytes had to acknowledge the basic
"Nordic" ideology of the lodge.
This is mentioned to indicate the underlying belief
that the FS itself has its mystical origins in the North,
and that there was indeed an early Saturnian Brotherhood in the Scandinavian region whose history remains
quite obscure. It was to these dim roots that the early
FS traced its origins.
As far as the Scandinavian Brotherhood of Saturn
that was supposed to have been working during the
late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries is
concerned, all that is said is that it was active in alchemy and in mathematical and Pythagorean mysticism, and that this group was probably based on an
even earlier brotherhood in the region. By the end of
the eighteenth century those lodges had disappeared
and nothing further was heard of them.5
According to FS documents, a Saturnian Brotherhood was revived in Warsaw by the mathematician
and mystic Joseph Maria Hoëne-Wronski (1776-1853).
This lodge was said to have had outer courts in Krakow,
Posen, and Thorn. Ultimately these lodges were destroyed by various wars.6
Although the mysterious Hoëne-Wronski may
have indeed revived a Saturnian lodge in Poland, the
historical record makes it clear that he could not have
remained active there, because by the time he was
twenty-one he was studying philosophy in Germany.7
Hoëne-Wronski spent most of his life as a Polish
expatriate in France, where he is generally held to
have been the magical initiator of Alphonse Louis
Constant, or as he was better known, Eliphas Levi.8
Hoëne-Wronski was indeed an "occult master" involved
with the ideas of the Kabbalah, Gnosticism, and the
teachings of Jakob Boehme, but he was also a well respected (if a bit eccentric) mathematician and philosopher of his day. He was also dedicated to romantic
social reform movements, and was the leader of a
group called the "Antinomian Union." Among other
things, Hoëne-Wronski held that humanity was to
pass through five evolutionary stages, and that his
theories would open the way to the fifth and final
stage. Perhaps the most important of Hoëne-Wronski's
theories was his Principle of the Absolute, which held that knowledge of truth was possible through human
reason combined with a secret mathematical formula
However, he never seems to have been able to communicate this formula. Related to this was his Law of
Creation, which posited that man could "create reality"
from the sum of his sense impressions, again combined with a mathematical formula.
The historical connections between HoëneWronski and the FS are tenuous, but there are several
points on which his theories and legacy touch upon
the later development of the FS itself. Certainly not
the least of these is his role as initiator of Eliphas Levi
(between the years 1850 and 1853), who was to be
instrumental in the general occult revival of the late
nineteenth century.
Rebirth
Before we can fully understand the founding and
subsequent development of the present FS from 1928,
a more complete context for the magical revival in late
nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Germany
needs to be outlined.
The German-speaking region of
central Europe was itself the breeding ground of certain underground streams of occultism, but these
were often so deep underground that they did not call
much attention to themselves.
Some of these currents
were taken up by individuals and groups outside the
region—especially in England, where we note the German roots of such organizations as the Golden Dawn and the O.T.O.10—and subsequently re-imported into
the German-speaking world in a more popularized
form The popular occult revival came somewhat
later to Germany than it did to France and England,
but once it did arrive it struck deeper roots there than
it had elsewhere.11
This might be due to the longstanding, sub-cultural presence of occultism already
mentioned.
The most important single stream of the early
magical revival in Germany and Austria for the history of the FS is that of quasi-Masonry, or Winkelbauer, as it is called in German. Various Masonic
and quasi-Masonic lodges had been active in Germany from at least the eighteenth century.12
Many of
them were highly secretive due to their own political
activities or due to their fears of political suppression.
Here we will only be concerned with those groups
known to have done magical work and to have some
connection with the eruption of occult activity in central Europe between the World Wars.
One of the most important, and certainly the
most diabolically mysterious, of these shadowy lodges
was the Free-Masonic Order of the Golden Centurium
(FOGC). This order was supposedly founded in 1840
in Munich by some rich German industrialists and
well-placed citizens.13
The FOGC was an openly
daemonological order that maintained magical contact with a tetrad of daemons: Barzabel (planetary
demonium of Mars), Astaroth, Belial, and Asmodeus.
The service of these entities was to provide the initiates
he order with untold personal power, influence,
and wealth
In essence the FOGC was a cult of human sacrifice. The centurion in its name is Latin for a group or
division of one hundred. Actually, the number of
initiates in the lodge was limited to ninety-nine—the
one-hundredth member of the order was the demonium
itself. Each year a new member was elected and initiated, so the extra human initiate had to be sacrificed
to the demonium. This whole affair was taken care of
on the night of the twenty-third of June, St. John's
Day. On that night, the lodge members would convene, and if no brother had died in the course of the
year, a "lodge sacrifice" had to be chosen. This was
done by drawing lots. The initiate chosen for this
honor would then drink a poison draught in order to
complete the sacrificial act. In the case of their refusal,
this could be accomplished at a distance by means of
the dreaded "Tepaphone" (German: Tepaphon)—a
machine which, when coupled with the will of a magician, could kill anyone no matter where they were.
This machine is also mentioned and described in the
FS documents. The sinister FOGG plays a dominant
role in the "magical autobiography" of Franz Bardon,
Frabato,14
wherein dramatic instances of the application of the Tepaphone are portrayed. Most of the
material having to do with the FOGC seems quite
legendary and fantastic in tone, but certain features of
it are more practically treated in the FS materials.
Less mysterious, but still quite obscure, was the
early work of Theodor Reuss, who is said to have
revived the Order of Illuminati in Bavaria in 1880.
There were even two new Orders of Illuminati, one
headed by Reuss and another by Leopold Engel in Dresden. By 1899 these were unified, but they only
worked together until 1902. After 1902, Reuss seems
to have fully shifted his emphasis toward the development of the O.T.O. Engel continued with his branch
of the order until 1924, and then founded a new
Illuminati group, the World League of the Illuminati,
in 1927. This newer order lasted until 1933, two
years after Engel's death.15
After abandoning his efforts to revive Bavarian
Illuminism, Theodor Reuss devoted himself to quasi-Masonic work that would culminate in the Ordo
Templi Orientis. Reuss edited a journal called the
Oriflamme from 1902 to 1923. This was a general
outlet for various orders and lodges founded by Reuss,
and was dedicated to an eclectic synthesis of Masonic,
Rosicrucian, Templar, Gnostic, and certain forms of
Indian occultism.
Reuss, who was a half-German, half-English, sometime singer, press agent, language teacher and spy,
bought the charters of two Masonic organizations, the
Ancient Primitive Rite of Memphis (95°) and the
Egyptian Rite of Misraim (90°), from the English Mason
John Yarker. These two groups were unified by Reuss in
1902 and called the Ancient and Primitive Rite of
Memphis and Misraim. Working with Reuss at that
time were the well-known Theosophist Franz Hartmann and another occult figure named Joshua (also
known as Heinrich) Klein. Hartmann had known Karl
Kellner, founder of the O.T.O., since at least 1886,
when the two collaborated on a form of inhalation
therapy for tuberculosis based on Kellner's process of
manufacturing cellulose. Klein ran a Utopian colony in Upper Bavaria called Erdsegen ("Blessings of the Earth"),
which he established after inheriting a half-million
marks. All three men—Reuss, Hartmann and Klein—
were at one time or another involved with the progressive underground Utopian colony near Ascona,
Switzerland, called Monte Verita.16
In its earliest phase, the O.T.O. was developed by
a wealthy Viennese industrialist and high-grade Freemason, Karl Kellner. It began about 1896, but no documentation of it exists before it was mentioned in the
Historische Ausgabe der Oriflamme (1904).17
It was
sometime between 1896 and 1904 that Reuss, Hartmann, and Klein began to collaborate with Kellner in
their collective quasi-Masonic endeavors. Kellner had
apparently already developed a system of sexual
occultism based on what Indian Tantrism he was able
to learn and on the teachings of the American sexual
mystic Paschal Beverly Randolph, as transmitted
through a French branch of Randolph's organization.
Traditionally, Kellner is supposed to have travelled in
the East, where he learned sexo-yogic secrets from
three adepts, two of them Hindu and one Muslim.18
Shortly after the collaboration among Kellner, Reuss,
Hartmann and Klein began, Kellner died (1905), and
Reuss became the Outer Head of the O.T.O.
Under Reuss the O.T.O. flourished as it never had
before. In 1912, Reuss openly published the true
nature of the work of the O.T.O. in the Oriflamme:
"Our Order possesses the KEY which opens up all Masonic
and Hermetic secrets, namely the teaching of sexual magic,
and this teaching explains, without exception, all the
secrets of Freemasonry and all systems of religion."
Also in that year, Reuss met with the English
magician Aleister Crowley, whom Reuss supposedly
accused of revealing the Order's secrets of sexual
magic. Crowley really knew nothing about the techniques Reuss was alluding to, but the works of
Crowley are so full of sexual references that it certainly seems that he did. A sort of mutual conversion
took place, in which Reuss convinced Crowley of the
power of the O.T.O. sex-magical technology and
Crowley converted Reuss to the Aeonic Law of Thelema. In 1922, Reuss resigned his position in the
O.T.O. due to poor health, nominating Crowley as his
successor. Reuss died the next year. The Beast was,
however, not immediately accepted as the new Outer
Head of the Order (OHO). The translation of Liber AL
vel Legis (The Book of the Law) in German in 1925
was a watershed in that some dissidents were won
over, while others were totally repulsed by the contents of the book. In time, the rituals and ideology of
the old O.T.O. were "Thelemized" by Crowley's influence, and finally Baphomet (Crowley's O.T.O.
nickname) was firmly established as the international
Outer Head of the Order.
Besides the O.T.O. there was another group
working in Germany in 1925 that had attracted
Crowley's attention—the Pansophical Lodge, or Pansophia. This group was headed by Henrich Tränker
(Br. Recnartus), and was founded originally as a loosely
organized study group in Berlin shortly after the First
World War. However, it soon became formalized as
the "Grand Pansophical Lodge of Germany, Orient-Berlin." The Grand Master of this Lodge was Br. Recnartus, its Master of the Chair was Master Pacitus
(Albin Grau), and its Secretary was Gregor A. Gregorius
(Eugen Grosche). Another important initiate of this
lodge was Karl Germer (Br. Saturnus), who was also the
paid personal secretary of Heinrich Tränker. Tränker
was the head of a whole eclectic, occult, "pansophical" movement made up of several orders, lodges, and
societies. Some of his authority was derived from
Theodor Reuss, at least according to Aleister Crowley's
own account.19
It was from contact between this
group and Crowley that the Fraternitas Saturni under
the Grand Mastery of Gregor A. Gregorius came to be
founded in 1928. These affairs will be addressed
later.
Finally, with regard to the quasi-Masonic background of the FS, these are the supposed German
origins of Die Goldene Dämmerung—the Golden Dawn.
This magical order was founded in England in 1888.
Its own tradition holds that its authority was derived
from a German order of the same name. Ellic Howe
has carefully thrown a good deal of doubt on the
whole tradition of the German origin of the organization in his Magicians of the Golden Dawn.20 He contends that W. W. Wescott essentially forged the
documents relevant to this tradition. Howe's arguments
make a great amount of sense. An interesting question
that remains is why Wescott would have chosen Germany as a source for his imaginary lodge. On the surface the explanation that Germany was suitably
remote, yet plausible—at least more plausible than
the subterranean Himalayas—seems reasonable. The
specific choice of Germany, and not France, Italy, or Russia, perhaps originated in the more mysterious
reputation the Germans had, as compared to that of
other countries, among the English. One historical
factor that may have led to this was the traditional
presence of "Secret Chiefs" (Superiores Incogniti) in
the German Masonic Order of the "Strict Observance," active since the middle of the eighteenth century. Ellic Howe speculates that Wescott did not have
the Secret Chiefs in mind so much as he did the hidden
mahatmas of Blavatsky's Theosophical Society.21
This
may well have been, but there were sufficiently deep
and long-term, network-like connections between
the German and English Masonic and quasi-Masonic
groups to warrant the idea that these Secret Chiefs
were thought to be akin to those of the Masonic
Strikte Observanz.
As a feature of organization and doctrine this
concept is inexactly reflected in the FS as the GOTOS
entity—the guiding force of the order embodied in the
33°, which is actually the superhuman Saturnian
Demiurge.
Whatever the origin of the idea of Secret Chiefs, it
cannot be denied that the founding and development
of the Theosophical Society had a transformative effect
on the history of occult movements in Western society.
The Theosophical Society was founded in New York
in 1875, and its influence was felt throughout the
occult subculture from that time on,22
mainly in the
popularization of occult ideas of the East and West
and in the eclectic synthesis of these ideas into a more
or less coherent whole.
Theosophy was introduced into the German speaking world in the late 1870s by the Viennese
Friedrich Eckstein. By 1884 it had been officially
established in Germany. At about that time, a high
official in the Theosophical Society in Adyar, India,
Dr. Franz Hartmann, made a trip to Germany, where
he met Karl Kellner and became involved with him in
occult work of the kind mentioned above. Here there
is a definite and early connection between a leading
Theosophist and the future Outer Head of the O.T.O.
Later, of course, Hartmann would be one of the leading figures of the German O.T.O. along with Klein and
Reuss. Another Theosophist, Rudolf Steiner, also had
O.T.O. connections. Theodor Reuss gave Steiner a
charter to found an O.T.O. lodge in Berlin around
1906, while Steiner was General Secretary of the
Theosophical Society in Germany. In all of this there is
evidence that the world of quasi-Masonry in Germany
was open to Theosophical ideas, and that individual
Theosophists were also seeking deeper, practical
magical applications of occult teachings in the ranks
of the quasi-Masonic orders.
A further important contextual element for the
development of the Fraternitas Saturni was the Ariosophical movement. Again there are vital interconnections with the Theosophical and quasi-Masonic
worlds.
The most important single figure in the general
Ariosophical movement was Guido von List (1848-
1919). From early in his career he was in the Theosophical milieu in matters völkisch and occult. In the
1890's, he was involved with a Viennese literary society
which included Rudolf Steiner and Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels (Adolf Joseph).23
List was the son of a
wealthy Viennese tradesman, but his talents and
desires ran more to the literary and the occult. He
eventually succeeded in winning a place for himself as
a poet, novelist, and playwright within the largely
establishment völkisch circles of Austria. Beginning
in 1902, however, List gave full vent to his mystical
inclinations, and embarked on the path of an occult
master. In that year he underwent an operation for
cataracts, after which his eyes were bandaged for
eleven months. In this enforced state of blindness and
darkness List was enlightened to the runic mysteries.
(The runes are a system of written symbols used by
the ancient Germanic peoples as a sacred or magical
script.24) Two years later, List wrote his first occult
study: Das Geheimnis derRunen.25 The Ariosophical/
runic occultism of the FS is ultimately derived from
this basic text, List's subsequent studies, and the
magical work of those inspired by those studies, e.g.
Friedrich Bernhard Marby and Siegfried Adolf Rummer. In the FS, Frater Eratus (Karl Spiesberger) was
one of the leading exponents of rune magic.26
The Guido von List Gesellschaft (society) was
founded in 1905 to support the master and his work
in occult Germanicism. Among the members of this
society were Dr. Franz Hartmann and Lanz von
Liebenfels.
Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels, an ex-Cistercian monk,
also became involved in the generally theosophical
and völkisch milieu after 1900. In 1907 Lanz revived
the order of the Templars—in the form of the Ordo
Novi Templi (ONT)—the Order of the New Templars. This organization shared the use of Templar symbolism with the O.T.O. Both orders also revolved
around sexual mysteries, but the kind of sexual mysticism practiced by the ONT and the O.T.O. were very
different indeed. Lanz preached a doctrine of racial
enlightenment through the practice of strict eugenics,
through which the Grail of pure Aryan blood would
be restored.
In addition to the previously stated Ariosophical
leanings within the FS, the other significant shared
elements between Ariosophy and the FS seem to have
been their doctrines of a coming age of higher spiritual
evolution, an interest in Templarism, and the belief in
hidden masters. All but the interest in runes are also
shared with Theosophy and quasi-Masonry.
In addition to quasi-Masonry,
Theosophy, and
Ariosophy, another branch of esoterica that burst on
the scene in early twentieth-century Germany was
astrology. Until sometime after 1914, astrology was
just one more of the many arcane sciences practiced
within the mysto-magical cultural milieu of quasi-Masonry, Theosophy, and Ariosophy. By the 1920s,
however, astrology had become more popular in Germany than any of these other branches of occultism.
The interest of the FS in astrology extends to the most
esoteric levels of the subject in its doctrines concerning the Aquarian/Saturno-Uranian Age. But the attraction of widespread interest in a lodge with obvious
astrological implications is clearly based on the popularization of astrology in the 1920s.27
It was in the context of these major streams of
occultism that the Pansophical Lodge of Master Recnartus existed, and from which the Fraternitas Saturni
was to emerge.
As mentioned before, Pansophia must be characterized as a movement overseen by Heinrich Tränker—
Master Recnartus. Tränker, like Theodor Reuss, engineered a number of occult groups. And as we have
mentioned before, Tränker is even supposed to have
derived his Masonic authority from Reuss. The main
period of activity for Master Recnartus was just after
the First World War. At first, the "Pansophical Society"
was a study group founded just after the war in Berlin.
Their areas of interest included Gnosticism, the ancient
mysteries of Greece, Egypt, and Babylon, as well as
problems of philosophy, religious history, metaphysics,
depth-psychology, "cosmosophy," and the Kabbalah.
In the early 1920s, Tränker founded a Collegium Pan¬
sophicum. This organization, which may have existed
only on paper, gave Tränker's work a more Masonic,
orderly cast, and acted as a background for the publication of some of Tränker's occult works. In 1921 all
the Pansophical streams governed by Tränker were
brought together in the Grand Pansophical Lodge (of
the Light-Seeking Brethren) of the Orient-Berlin.
Besides Tränker, one of the leading members of
this lodge was Karl Germer (Frater Saturnus), who
was Tränker's secretary and who later became the
Grand Treasurer General of Crowley's O.T.O., and
eventually Outer Head of the Order upon Crowley's
death in 1947. Another leading figure was Albin
Grau (Master Pacitus), who was also a set designer for
the UFA studios in Berlin, where he designed the sets
for such films as Nosferatu (1922) and Shadows
16 / Fire and Ice
(1923). (Indeed, there seems to have been a good
deal of occult involvement among the German filmmakers of the pre-1933 era; some of the mysteries of
this milieu have yet to be unraveled.) Finally, there
was Eugen Grosche, who was initiated by Tränker
and given the lodge name Gergor A. Gregorius. It was
Gregorius who was the actual founder of the Pansophical Lodge and who was its general secretary.
Gregorius ran an occult bookshop in Berlin at the
time.
In the summer of 1925, the most important event
leading to the emergence of the FS took place. Without
apparently knowing very much about his teachings,
Master Recnartus invited Aleister Crowley to his
house in Weida in Thuringia, Germany. The purpose of
this meeting was to confer the leadership of the groups
controlled by Tränker onto Crowley. Or so it seemed.
After Theodor Reuss died in 1923, the international leadership of the O.T.O. passed to Crowley in
England. Crowley had been an initiate of the Golden
Dawn from 1898 to 1900. In April 1904, while in
Cairo, Egypt, Crowley received a book—called the
Liber AL vel Legis—which was transmitted to him by
a praeterhuman entity calling itself Aiwass. This text
is known more simply as the Book of the Law. With the
reception of this book Crowley began to function as a
Magus, and proclaimed a new Aeon with a new
lema was summed up in the motto: "Do what thou
wilt shall be the whole of the law," to which the obligatory response became: "Love is the law, love under
will." All this constituted the Law of Thelema,
Word: (Thelema: True Will). The Law of The which was either accepted or rejected. During the ensuing decade, Crowley worked on trying to develop his
or Silver Star. This order was constructed in 1907,
and announced for the first time in the first issue of
The Equinox (March 1909). However, this instrument proved unsatisfactory to Crowley's plans for
dissemination of his new Aeonic Law.
When Crowley met Theodor Reuss in London in
1912, the Great Beast found a more suitable institution in the O.T.O. Reuss made Crowley the head of the
order in Britain at that time. Crowley took the magical
name "Baphomet" for his elevation to the X°—the
highest title the O.T.O. had to bestow. The secret of
the O.T.O. is, as we know, the practice of sexual magic
and mysticism. Crowley had up until this time partially understood such things, but with the reception
of the O.T.O. teachings on this subject he began to
delve into the practice almost exclusively. From 1912
until 1922, when Reuss suffered a stroke and retired
from active participation in the order, there was a
sense of collaboration between Baphomet and Merlin
(Reuss). Crowley received the innermost magical secrets of the order, and Reuss had Crowley revise the
rituals of the O.T.O. in a form which accorded with
the Law of Thelema. Reuss apparently named Crowley
to succeed him as O.H.O., but there was substantial
resistance to this among members of the German
O.T.O. It must be said that Baphomet rapidly spread
both the O.T.O. and his Word, Thelema, in the English speaking world through his own contacts and by
means of The Equinox, in. which he began to print O.T.O.-related material after 1912. After Merlin's
death in 1923, things moved inevitably to a crisis
point.
The German branch of the O.T.O. had apparently fallen into the control of Heinrich Tränker after the
death of Reuss. This was perhaps due to the fact that
Crowley's teachings were not universally acclaimed
in Germany. The lack of acceptance stemmed both
from Crowley's doctrine of the New Aeon—which
had not yet appeared in German—and from Crowley's
veiled references in his writings to the secret of the
IX°—sexual magic. The German branch had generally
guarded this secret closely, and only revealed it in part
at the VIII0
, where the secrets of solitary sex-magic
were taught. Without being specific, Crowley had
revealed too much to persons unprepared for such
mysteries. When the overall picture in Germany at
this time is assessed, it is clear that there was a split between those enthusiastic about Crowley's teachings
and those highly suspicious of them.
It was into this set of circumstances that Crowley
moved in that fateful summer of 1925. He, along
with his entourage of Leah Hirsig, Dorothy Olsen, and
Norman Mudd, left from Paris to go to the home of
Heinrich Tränker in Weida. Karl Germer had paid for
their trip to Germany. Crowley had sent a copy of the
Book of the Law ahead to Weida, where it was promptly
translated into German. The "Weida Conference," as
it came to be known, was attended by Crowley's
entourage, Heinrich Tränker (Grand Master of the
German Rosicrucians and Pansophism), his wife Helene,
Albin Grau (Master of the Chair of the Pansophical Lodge), Eugen Grosche (Secretary of the Pansophical
Lodge), Karl Germer, Martha Küntzel, and a few other
occult leaders. The real purpose of this conference
was the acceptance or rejection of the Law of Thelema,
and the exploration of the possibility of uniting several
occult factions under the leadership of a New World
Teacher—the Great Wild Beast 666.
Accounts of this conference vary in detail, scope,
and conclusion;28
certainly the most amusing account
is that written by A.C. himself. None can be completely trusted, as each writer has some sort of ax to
grind. But subsequent historical facts allow us to
reconstruct the actual outcome of this occult conclave.
To begin with, the translation of the Book of the
Law caused quite a stir. Both Albin Grau (Pacitus) and
Tränker (Recnartus) were ill-disposed toward its anti-christian stance. Recnartus is supposed to have
softened his criticism and come to some new understanding of the book's contents. But Pacitus remained
opposed, if tacitly. On the other hand, as subsequent
events were to show, Gregorius was favorably impressed with the Beast and his Word. The conference
ended with an obviously uneasy communique entitled
"The Testament of a Seeker." Its text read:
"The Teacher of the World, whose appearance was predicted
for this year, and who has been awaited by all true seekers—
and especially by those of the Theosophical Society—has
appeared at this exact time in the person of the Master To
Mega Therion (i.e., Aleister Crowley). We the undersigned
have seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears
and we know, certainly and without lies, that he is in truth
the transmitter of the Word after which the soul of humanity thirsts."
Events following the so-called Weida Conference
show just how uneasy this agreement was on all sides.
Tränker and Grau renounced the communique almost
immediately following the event, and eventually even
Mudd (in 1927) and Leah Hirsig (in 1928) withdrew
their support.
During the months and years following the meeting at Weida, Gregor A. Gregorius must have been
studying and assimilating Crowley's teachings, as well
as those of the Pansophism, Rosicrucians, and others
in his environs. On Maundy Thursday 1926, the Pansophical Lodge was ritually closed and dissolved. On
the following May 8, five Fratres founded the Fraternitas Saturni. This was to be a magical order which
accepted the Law of Thelema, but which was to be
totally independent of any other magical order. A few
days later Gregorius wrote to the Beast, informing
him of the aims of this revived Saturnian Lodge. The
letter and the document outlining these early aims are
printed here as Appendices F and G.
As far as the Rosicrucian-Pansophical Lodge faction and its leaders, Tränker and Grau, were concerned, there seems to have been a falling out over,
among other things, the treatment of the Master
Therion by Recnartus. It was rumored that Tränker
had a hand in having Crowley expelled from Germany.29
This was apparently one of the critical events
which led to the final dissolution of the Pansophical
Lodge in 1926. Although it is possible that Tränker
and Grau continued their occult work, nothing more
is heard of them in this capacity. A full one-third of
the members of the Pansophical Lodge became the core of initiates of the FS.
Between May of 1926 and Easter Saturday 1928,
the FS was further consolidated and refined into a
more cohesive structure. It is this day in 1928 which
actually serves as the date of the official magical inception of the FS.
After this there followed a period of intensive
activity for the newly (re-) founded FS, especially in
the environs of Berlin, where Gregorius had his bookshop. Gregorius began publishing FS material, some of
which was available to the public, some of which was
only for distribution within the Lodge. Five issues of
the journal Saturn-Gnosis were printed. In this journal, articles on magical subjects by Gregorius and
other writers within and without the FS, including
Masters Pacitus and Therion, appeared. (Neither of
these men had any official connection with the FS.)
There was also a series often Magische Briefe (Magical
Papers) published from 1926 to 1927 or 1928. These
were for the most part supposed to be translated from
English, and to have been written by To Mega Therion.
However, it seems more likely that they were actually
written by Gregorius or by other FS initiates, as they
bear little resemblance to Crowley's typical work.
Finally, in this period Gregorius produced a series of
fourteen printed Lectures of the Lodge-School, as well
as other interna for initiatory instruction. Many of
these works were published by the lodge's own
house, INVEHA.
The relationship between Aleister Crowley and his orders(the AA and the O.T.O.) and Gregorious and the FS was an ambivalent one. Gregorius had made it quite plain that although he accepted the Law
of Thelema, he would accept no official relationship
with Crowley or his organizations. On the whole it
seems that Gregorius claimed a closer link with Crowley
and his work than actually existed. FS materials, doctrines, and rituals, as can be seen in this book, are only
laced with Crowleyanity—their shape and substance
remain something other than what the Beast promulgated. There was some contact between Crowley and
Gregorius between the years 1928 and 1933, and some
opportunities for meetings. Crowley was in Germany
in 1929, when he married Maria Theresa Ferrari de
Miramar, and on different occasions in 1930 he was
in Berlin during some rather frantic affairs.30
Most of
Crowley's influence on Gregorius seems to have come
through his published writings, many of which were
translated into German by initiates of the FS. Gregorius
was later to publish translations of magical works
taken from Magick in Theory and Practice (1929).
The actual accomplishment of Gregorius and the FS
was a more or less cohesive synthesis of Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite Freemasonry, Luciferianism,
astrological mythology, Crowleyanity (or Thelemism),
sex-magical practices of the old O.T.O., various Indian
yogic systems, and medieval and modern doctrines of
alchemy and ritual magic.
Interregnum
The great storm-cloud broke over the Fraternitas
Saturni and all other Masonic and quasi-Masonic lodges
in Germany on January 30, 1933, when Adolf Hitler,
Führer of the NSDAP, took the oath as chancellor of
Germany. By the next month emergency powers had
been invoked and many groups thought to be of a subversive nature, from Communists to Masons, were
suppressed. This began a process in which secret
societies and occult orders of all kinds began to be systematically suppressed. Most sources on the history
of the FS state that the lodge was closed and banned in
1933. 31
Certainly Gregorius' bookstore and the publishing house would have been closed down by 1934.
In 1935 another wave of "voluntary" dissolutions of
secret societies followed. Finally, in a declaration of
Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler in 1937, all occult
and quasi-Masonic organizations, even the völkisch
ones that had generally and originally been supportive of National Socialist aims, were banned. These
völkisch groups included those founded by Guido
von List and Lanz von Liebenfels. Early in this cycle of
bannings Gregorius is said to have emigrated first to
Switzerland and then to Cannero, Italy.
There he
remained until October of 1943, when he was arrested
and extradited back to Germany through pressure
from the Nazi government. He was released on his
own recognizance after only one year, and apparently
allowed to continue his occult studies after his release.
After the war ended in 1945, Gregorius set about
refounding the FS. There is more than one odd aspect to these events of 1933 to 1945.
We know very little
about what actually happened to Gregorius in these
years. The fact that someone extradited from a foreign
country by the Nazis would then just simply be let go
after a year's detention—and then allowed to continue his suspect activities within Germany—is almost
unbelievable.
Renewal
Supposedly Gregorius was able to maintain contact with many of the Fratres of the FS while he was in
Switzerland and Italy. After the war, he called the
Brothers together to reorganize the order; but as he
found himself at that time in Riesa in the Soviet
occupation zone, it was impossible to carry out the
work of the Order. It was not until 1950 that Gregorius
went to the Western zone of occupation and from
there to West Berlin. His five-year sojourn in the east is
also rather odd.
In any event, in 1950 the FS again became active
and the first issues of the Blätter fur angewandte
okkulte Lebenskunst ("Papers toward the Applied
Occult Art of Life") began to appear. About twelve
issues of these per year continued to be published
until 1962.
On March 18, 1957 the FS was declared the
Grand Lodge of the Fraternitas Saturni at Berlin. At
that time there were outer courts in many German
cities. Of course, Gregorius was named its Grand Master. The period from 1957 to the date of Gregorius'
death in 1964 was one of intensive activity and growth
for the order, but the time between 1960 and 1964
was apparently beset with various internal problems
generally characterized as a power struggle between
Gregorius and Grand Chancellor Amenophis.32
Upon
the death of the GM Gregor A. Gregorius in January
of 1964, these internal conflicts became more acute.
Discords and Harmonies
Between the time of Gregorius' death and 1969
there were numerous conflicts within the FS. The
"First Council of the Grand Lodge" met at the Easter
Festival Lodge meeting of 1964 and elected Magistra
Roxane, who had been the Lodge Secretary and a close
personal associate of Gregorius, as the next GM. Several
long-time initiates left the order at that time. Within a
year Roxane was dead. In 1966 a triumvirate was
elected under the leadership of Magistri Giovanni, the
Lodge Secretary. Frater Daniel 12° was subsequently
elected to the Grand Mastery. The fact that a Frater of
such a relatively low degree was elected to the Grand
Mastery could have been taken as an ill omen.
Daniel set about reorganizing the Brotherhood.
One of his innovations was the installation of an
"inner circle" of initiates within the FS itself. This was
the Alter und Mystischer Orden der Saturn Bruderschaft—AMOS-OMS (Old and Mystical Order of the
Brotherhood of Saturn). Only nine initiates could belong to the AMOS. These actions led to even more
dissension.
In 1969, yet another GM was elected. This time
the Brother, Br. Jananda 8°, was of an even lower
grade. Jananda had entered the order only in 1964, so
the lineage of Gregorius had already been virtually
broken with this election. This precipitated a crisis
that indirectly caused the internal documents of the
FS to be published. Daniel continued with a schismatic FS, while another schismatic group calling itself
the "Theosophical Order Fraternitas Saturni" under
GM Immanuel was formed in Frankfurt. The main
body of the FS elected a new GM known as Andrzey.
Therefore, there were at least three groups working
under the FS banner in 1969.
Apparently it was the former GM Daniel who
gave or sold a mass of internal documents in 1969 to
Prof. Dr. Adolf Hemberger, who then published many
of them in his 1971 study of the organization. The FS
had, up until that time, been a truly secret lodge
which preserved those rituals and practices they
wanted to keep hidden from outsiders. Now the whole
interna, or at least the vast majority of them, had been
exposed. This led to the necessary reorganization of
the system. On Easter Saturday of that same year, the
various factions of the FS reunified.
The material used in this book comes from the
period before 1969 and therefore does not reflect the
rituals and doctrines of the Fraternitas Saturni as it is
working in the world today.
Chapter 2
Doctrines of the
Brotherhood of Saturn
LUX E TENEBRIS LUCET ET LUCEAT
Doctrines and teachings concealed within the
magical lodge Fraternitas Saturni are wrapped in the
dark cloak of the Demiurge Saturnus, and are truly
revealed only to those elect of Saturn who are able to
comprehend and understand the Saturn-Gnosis. This
gnosis is sometimes dark and foreboding. It uncovers
the dark side of the Aquarian Age—an age to be ruled
by Saturn. But it is also enlightened by the "higher
octave" of Saturn—Lucifer—and by the dark light of
Saturnian yoga, or sexual mysticism and cosmosophy.
The teachings of the FS are highly eclectic. This is
understandable given the lodge's "pansophical" origins.
"Pansophical" here means "wisdom that encompasses
all other forms of wisdom." In the early part of the
twentieth century there were several "sophie's," all
based on analogy with Blavatsky's Theosophy. There was the "ariosophy" of von List, von Liebenfels and
others, and the Anthroposophy of Rudolf Steiner. The
original pansophy of Heinrich Tränker was an attempt
to synthesize all forms of occult teachings then in
practice. This, however, proved a difficult task, as
there seemed to be no unifying element or central
focus for the maelstrom of occult lore swirling around
in the pansophical movement.
It was the Fraternitas Saturni and Gregor A.
Gregorius, directly or indirectly through the acceptance of the Aeonic Law of Thelema, which provided
the necessary elements of cohesion to the pansophical
approach in Germany. In this chapter we will concentrate on those things which make the FS teachings
unique and give them definite shape. Underlying all of
this is the usual post-Theosophical mixture of Eastern
and Western doctrines and practices to be found in
quasi-Masonic orders of the late nineteenth and early
twentieth century, e.g. the Golden Dawn and its
derivatives. The elements that make the FS unique are
its focus on the Saturn archetype, the Saturnian mythos
of a new aeon based on an astrological process, and an
unabashed Luciferianism. Further aspects which,
although not unique to the Brotherhood, added to the
lodge's working focus are: the doctrines and practices
of sexual magic (principally taken over from the
O.T.O.), and the Law of Thelema, which had been formally accepted from the Master Therion (Aleister
Crowley) at the inception of the FS.
From the standpoint of existing magical and mystical traditions, the FS is a mixture of Eastern and
Western streams. A survey of the contents of the issues of Saturn-Gnosis, the Papers toward the Applied
Art of Living (1948-1950), and the Papers toward
the Applied Occult Art of Living (1950-1958) shows
how this is so.
From Eastern (really Indian) ideologies
come the themes of awakening of the chakra system
in the magician,1
the laws of reincarnation and karma,
and the practice of tantric sexual mysticism. From
various branches of the Western (for want of a better
term) tradition come the doctrines of ritual magic
(taken mainly from the medieval and Renaissance
grimoires), astrology, Rosicrucianism, Gnosticism and,
of course, the overriding Masonic form of the lodge's
organization and ritual. The documents indicate that
the Eastern influence became stronger after the reorganization of the lodge after the Second World War.
It is also interesting to note that in comparison to
similar eclectic lodges, the FS laid relatively little
emphasis on the Tarot and the Kabbalah. Within the
FS teachings, special emphasis is placed on crystal and
mirror magic,2
pendulum magic,3
and "daimonic
magic."4
Saturn-Gnosis
The gnosis of the FS is a complex set of magical
doctrines. These include a special path of initiation as
well as a complete astral or planetary cosmosophy
and a Luciferian element. In many regards the Saturn-Gnosis is in accordance with what is known of the
Ophite and Barbelo Gnostic sects of antiquity.5
Gnosis is a form of knowledge concerning the cosmos to
which the individual feels called, or "elected," and
which is based not on the belief in certain dogmas but
rather on deep personal experience. The teachings,
practices and rituals of the FS are intended to provide
just such an initiatory experience.
Although in ancient times Gnosticism existed in
a myriad of often mutually incompatible sects, there
were certain doctrines common to most of them. First,
they held that there existed a godhead beyond all
categories as well as a three-fold god subsisting in the
fullness of being (pleroma), or light. This divine realm
of fullness of being transcends the place in the world
where matter exists; these two realms are separated
by a great barrier (horos). How these realms became
separate is a matter of diverse speculation, however,
what is certain among the Gnostics is that our world
was not created by the god of light, but rather by an
entity that resulted from a deficiency in the pleroma.
This deficiency came about either through progressive
degeneration as the outflow of being got further and
further from its source, or through a conscious withdrawal of divine will (thelema) from the outer reaches.
By whatever process, lesser independent entities arose
in the graduated levels (called aeons) of the new cosmos. These entities were called archons. One of these
archons is the entity—or demiurge—that created our
world of matter. This entity is identified by some
Gnostics with Jehova (YHVH), the god of the Old Testament. Finally, it was held that man, as a mixed entity
consisting of elements with origins in both the world
of light (of God) and the world of darkness (of the demiurge), could only be redeemed by knowledge
(gnosis). This knowledge was a direct experience of
being, not something acquired by learning or even by
conclusions reached by logical methods. The demiurge
Jehovah demanded faith (pistis); the "Good God"
could only be reached through gnosis.6
The Saturnian Archetype
From the perspective of FS teachings, the essences
of the planets are complex entities. The central focus
of the Brotherhood is the Saturnian complex, which
we will refer to here as an "archetype." From an
aeonic perspective, the planetary complex surrounding
Uranus is also important in FS teachings.
A review of any modern astrological text will
show what the common views of Saturnian characteristics are: practical, cautious, constructive, responsible,
patient, ambitious, thrifty, reliable and self-disciplined.
Negative characteristics might include: mean, narrow minded, severe, aloof, dogmatic, heartless, and cruel.
Some of the older characteristics of Saturn were taken
over by Uranus. Again, a review of standard texts will
show certain Uranian characteristics: humanitarian,
friendly, kind, independent, original, inventive, strong willed, versatile, loathing restriction. Negative characteristics might be: eccentric, perverse, rebellious.7
A synthesis of all these characteristics will basically give the entire picture of the Saturno-Uranian
complex as it is projected in the ideology of the FS.
In the Saturn-Gnosis the planet and archetype of
Saturnus is the focal point for the manifestation of the
Demiurge. This Demiurge is identified with Lucifer—
the Bearer of Light—as the higher octave of Saturn. In
this capacity it is the "Guardian of the Threshold" to
higher initiation and being.8
According to secret FS teachings, Saturnus is the
Great Judge that manifests justice; he also brings
reason and intelligence, and governs all standards of
weights, measurements, and number. He is the Lord
of the Seven Dwellings (= planetary genii of the outer
realm), and governor of the revealed world and lord
over life and death, and over the light and darkness.
Saturnus is seen as the breaker of cosmic order and
unity—thus he instituted death, causing regeneration
and change to come into being. One of the ways in
which he broke the cosmic order was in the revelation
of divine secrets to mankind.9
For this he was punished.
Thus in many ways Saturnus is identical with Prometheus of Greek tradition, and is certainly to be
identified as well with the Serpent of Paradise.
This Demiurge Saturnus is identified with the
number 666. He is the Beast 666, manifest in the
Man (or Men) 666, and in the Living Center of the
Sun—Sorath 666. 10
Further Luciferian aspects of the Demiurge Saturnus will be explored below when we discuss the
specifically Luciferian/Satanic 11
facets of the Saturn-Gnosis. What is important to realize at this juncture is
that Saturn is seen not in an exoteric sense—relevant
primarily to the non-elect of Saturn—but rather in an
esoteric sense relevant to his chosen ones. Here Saturn is seen as the tester and judge, and ultimately as the
initiator into higher knowledge and power. This capacity is further amplified by the underlying Uranian
influence.
Besides these general teachings on the nature of
the Demiurge Saturnus, the FS has a special doctrine,
particular to it, concerning an entity attached to the
planet Saturn and active on the Earth, called the
GOTOS. This is the specific egregore or daimonion of
the Brotherhood, of which the Grand Master 33° is
the personal representative. The GOTOS functions in
a way similar to the way the Secret Chiefs worked in
the Golden Dawn system. The belief of this system of
lodges having hidden, praeterhuman intelligences at
their esoteric heads is commonly held in the FS. Members would, for example, say that Baphomet was the
lodge daimonion of the Knights Templar.
The name GOTOS is actually a formula made up
of the initial letters in the official name of the 33° :
Gradus Ordinis Templi Orientis Saturni.12
The daimonion GOTOS is understood as a preexisting entity, but
it is also used as the egregore of the lodge. An egregore
is a sort of "group spirit" or thought-form magically
created by a community of people from its collective
ideals. The egregore can be seen as a collective hypnotic suggestion which can be experienced directly, if
subjectively, by the participants in rituals wherein
the egregore is invoked. This tends to take on objective reality as the experience of the egregore becomes
an experience that is shared within lodges.13
GOTOS guides the initiate toward divinity. It has
a dark and light aspect and stands beyond all notions of good and evil. This is related to the +/-Absolutum.
The initiate who has been informed by the GOTOS
will combine the Apollonian and Dionysian within
him—he will put the Apollonian in the center of his
world-view, but will joyously observe the sacramental daemonic liturgy of life and death. The magical
synthesis of this duality is thought to make it easy for
the initiate to "change raiments" (i.e., to die), as he
passes from one plane of being to another.14
Jananda, writing as Aythos, defines the GOTOS
in the following terms: "The GOTOS, as a magnetic
accumulator in the Saturn-sphere, stores .. . projected
magical powers in the causal sphere through the Chain
of Brotherhood."15
Here it is clear that the egregore is intended to
work in a particular magical way. It is a kind of "battery"
which can be charged with the psychic energy of the
lodge. This "battery" is given a particular form, which
acts as an access-key to its power. When members of
the lodge have need of the accumulated and stored
magical energy, they can "tap into" it if they have the
proper ritual keys. In the ritual practice of the FS, the
GOTOS is especially charged during the Easter Lodge
when, through the formation of the magical Chain of
Brotherhood, energy is circulated to the GOTOS. In
trance states certain initiates of the FS could actually
gain "astral" visions of the humanoid appearance of
the GOTOS. This image was at some point cast in a
sculpture by Sorella Gabriele and set up in the Lodge
Temple in Berlin. At one time all members of the FS
were to have one of these busts of the "Master Gothos"
in their private sanctuaries (see page 72).
Through the experience of the GOTOS the Saturnian Brother or Sister is able to feel directly the
qualities of personality that he or she is expected to
develop as an initiate of the FS: compassionless love,
willpower, resolution, severity (with him or herself
and others). These are developed in order to create the
conditions for higher spiritual development through
mastery of one's own self and the environment. In other
words these are the characteristics of the Saturnian
magician. Gregorius himself, in a poem published in
Saturn-Gnosis 1 (1928), described the GOTOS as a
leader on the path into the solitude of Saturnian-Uranian
knowledge (a knowledge into which each must go
alone). He portrays the "love" of Saturn as "severity,"
but declares that whoever can withstand the tests
will ultimately be greeted as a friend and brother.16
Aim of the FS
The Lodge Concept
The Brotherhood of Saturn characterizes itself as
a "just, enlightened, perfect, secret, magical, ritual
lodge." Each of these terms further defines and clarifies the nature of the FS. 17
It is "just" or "righteous" in that all initiates are
ethically trained in order to become balanced, productive and most importantly conscious members of
the lodge and of society as a whole. In Masonic terms,
the new initiate is compared to a rough-hewn stone
which is to be finished by the mason.
By "enlightened" it is meant that the FS is of Gnostic origin, i.e., it is involved with the effort to gain
direct experience and vision of the divinity. True to
Gnostic doctrine, the FS holds that this understanding
must come from outside the limitations of normal
deductive or inductive logic. Magical work is made up
of experience and only the elect may ever truly understand it.
The FS is a "secret" lodge in that the public identities of the members are supposed to be unknown to
the other members. Each new initiate is given a lodgename which he or she is to be known by in lodgerelated affairs. During the ritual lodge work which
takes place when a new initiate is received, his public
name along with his lodge name are burned together
in the brazier to bind them together "astrally."
"Ritualistic" means that the lodge celebrates certain ritual ceremonies at appointed times as an integral
part of its overall work. The most sacred night is that
of "Good Saturday"—when in the lore of the Christians
it is said that Christ was in the Underworld preaching
to the "good pagans."
The word "magical" here denotes the idea that
the lodge works with invocations and evocations of
entities from beyond the mundane realm.
It is a "Brotherhood" in that the bonds made
within it are intended to continue beyond death on
the "mental plane." In the concept of Brotherhood
both men and women are included.
Quite often Brothers and Sisters place three points
This is an exhortation "to work in the triplicity:
harmony-justice-fraternity."18
This three-fold motto
either before or before and after their lodge names. can also be taken as an indication of the value system
within the lodge.
Among the highest aims of the FS is the spiritual
perfection of its initiates. But this is not really seen as
an end in itself, but rather as a means to the elevation
of the consciousness of the lodge as a whole, which in
turn leads to a sympathetic raising of consciousness in
the world outside the lodge.
An esoteric aim of the
lodge especially pursued by the High Grade Masters
(30°—33°) is the binding of the so-called "outer lodge,"
i.e. the FS as it is known in the world, to the "inner
lodge" which exists on the "mental plane."
It is from
this inner lodge that the High Grade initiates are to
receive instructions for magical work to be disseminated within the order. Through this interaction,
the two lodges, the inner and outer, begin to reach
higher and higher levels of harmony.
Additionally, the
FS, as a Thelemic order, is concerned with activating
the Law of Thelema on this planet. In the higher
grades it is taught that the higher sense of the Law of
Thelema involves the binding of humanity closer to
the Saturnian influence.19
The Way of Saturn
The path of Saturnian initiation is one often
wrapped in darkness in which the initiate finds the
light. It is one of solitude (as the FS has come to recognize the existential problem of modern humanity),
which it has incorporated into its program. As an order the FS provides a definite initiatory path and
curriculum which is particular unto itself.
Despite the
recognition of the initiate's lonely path, the FS tries to
provide a magical environment in which the individual
can most clearly find his or her way to the Guardian of
the Threshold—and beyond.
The cultivation of solitude is a primary task of
the Saturnian brother or sister. As the initiate has
chosen a pathway to higher knowledge through the
Saturnian sphere, he has naturally isolated himself
from the mass of humanity. By so doing he has also
liberated himself from a vast number of the influences
of the masses, influences that are detrimental to his
initiatory progress. The initiate's need for this spiritually undifferentiated humanity becomes less and
less as his progress accelerates.
So despite his solitude
(and more to the point, because of it) he is happy as a
self-contained individual. Because he stands more
and more outside the standards of common human
measurements and evaluations, the Saturnian brother
has progressively less spiritual need of common human
society. The solitude is a joyous one, mainly because
the initiate is always conscious of, and focused on, his
initiatory aims.20
This cultivation of magical and initiatory solitude,
when applied to the FS as a body, manifests as an
elitist philosophy. As a link in the self-contained Chain
of Brotherhood, the initiate is not only able to overcome in perfect serenity all difficulties that might
arise in life, but also to put behind him all the doctrines and dogmas of the outmoded religions of the
masses—Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc. He knows that the gnosis of the Absolutum (= "divinity as an
immaterial spectrum") is an unattainable goal for the
mass of humanity given its present state of evolution.21
Knowing this, the FS does not reject humanity,
but merely takes a more realistic view of it, and attempts
to accelerate the evolution of mankind by means of
the magical/initiatory tools at its disposal.
The main spiritual tool of the FS is the initiation
and transformation of individual brothers and sisters.
This is done through magical training and ritual initiation. Through years of concentrated meditative and
contemplative work in which he has been very severe
with himself, the chela acquires the Saturnian attributes of seriousness, concentration, and critical
thinking, as well as the Uranian qualities of intuition
and knowledge. One of the first steps in this training is
the rejection of speculative fantasies, and the concentration on fact and intellectual pursuit.
This, it would
appear, is the best foundation for more occult or magical practices. Eventually, by following the magical
curriculum of the FS, the brother or sister will become
the master of all spheres of activity and endeavor. The
initiate will become master of both the dark and white
lights, and will be able to command the daemons of
the nether regions as well as the angels of the mental
spheres.22
Anyone already familiar with the work and
curriculum of modern occult lodges will have noticed
the unusual emphasis found in the FS on the "dark
side" of the initiatory process. This, of course, originates to some extent from the Saturnian archetype
itself as it is commonly understood. But there are further mysteries behind this that we will explore
later. For now let it suffice to say that the FS preserves
a gnosis of the shadow side of the light, the "nightside
of being." In Kabbalistic terms this is known as the
qliphothic realm. However, and this is the pivotal
point, at the same time the FS tries to cultivate the
highest ethical standards when dealing with these
forces.23
This is another instance of the Saturnian tendency to synthesize opposites into a dynamic process.
Another manifestation of this tendency is the
training principle of going against the natural grain of
the character of the initiate. The magician willfully
"re-polarizes" himself in ways contrary to his own
innate nature. "The rationalist must discover his soul,
the romantic must express his essential rational characteristics .. . "24
In more esoteric terms this describes
the alchemical process of coagulating the Saturnian
lead with the Solar gold, or in astrological terms the resting Lion is driven to the SaturnianGoat from where it can descend to rule in an enlightened
condition in the realm of Earth. Common to all these
processes is the idea of a coagulation (a synthesis) of
the extremities of a polarized system. Consequential
to this process is an emphasis on the "dark side"
which is just as essential as the "light side." This is in
contrast to the average modern occult lodges, which
shun any reference to the darkness and pursue a
unipolar development. This curiously enough leads
them into an entanglement with the problem aspects
of dualism—for the darkness abideth forever.
In the final degrees of Saturnian initiation the
brother or sister can fearlessly gaze upon the Guardian of the Threshold and the gate will be opened to him/
her that he/she may pass into the trans-Saturnian
spheres. This may, it appears, come at the end of the
brother's/sister's present incarnation. In any event,
they will remain an integral part of the Brotherhood.
The abyss does not frighten them as they prepare for
their next incarnation, in which they may continue to
serve the Earth in the interests of Saturn.25
Or they
may permanently enter into the existence of the archedaimonium in order to fulfill some higher tasks in the
inner order. Whatever they do, they do it of their own
truly free wills. By the time they reach this stage of
initiation, the powers of life and death are in their
hands, and these powers they can use as they will. The
High Grade initiate "will always re-crystallize himself, even after he loses his present form."26
In an aeonic perspective, as understood within
the FS, it is becoming more possible in the rising
"Emerald Dawn" of the Saturnian-Uranian age to
reform humanity in the light of this dawn. Ultimately,
the goal is to bring this process to fruition, and to realize the exalted state of solitary freedom.27
Astral Gnosis
As the name of the order indicates, the Fraternitas Saturni places a heavy emphasis on astrological
doctrines or astrosophy. The teachings which involve
Saturn are derived from a basically Gnostic cosmology, in which the planet Saturn is identified with the Demiurge and with the Guardian of the Threshold
(Hüter der Schwelle), who comes between the initiate
rising through the planetary spheres and their access
to the firmament and the light.28
As mentioned before, the archetype of Saturn as portrayed in the FS is a
manifold which fits into a complex cosmology. [Ancient of Days? DC]
The FS
teaches an astrosophical cosmogony and anthropogony
(how the world and mankind came into being), as well
as a unique cosmology describing the map of the
world as it is now. Many elements of its cosmogony
and eschatology are derived from the mystical German cosmologist Hans Hörbiger, who is perhaps best
known from the portrayal of his ideas in The Morning
of the Magicians.29 Most significant, however, are the
FS doctrines concerning the procession of the equinoxes,
which heralds the coming of the Age of Aquarius. The
FS has a special perspective on this New Age.
Astrosophy
According to FS doctrines, on the seventh day of
creation an angel (= Lucifer-Saturn) emanated from
the Absolutum (= the Kabbalistic ain soph). This angel
was given rulership over the outermost sphere and
became the Guardian of Time and Eternity. This entity
stood at the outer limits of the limitless, girding itself
in space and being and all creation. (The Gnostics also
sometimes ascribed this function to Leviathan—the
ouroboros—the serpent at the edge of the firmament
grasping its own tail.) This angel, or god, rebelled against the static, established cosmic order and set
into motion the forces of change and evolution, which
also imply death and destruction. This rebellion is
referred to in Judeo-Christian mythology as the "War
in Heaven," and the angel or daemon is sometimes
identified as (Hebrew) Abaddon or (Greek) Apollyon.
Reference to this may be found in Isaiah 14:12-15
and in Revelations 9:1. By breaking the static cosmic
order the Rebel—Lucifer—became the creator of the
visible world. This battle still rages between the polar
opposites of the outer Saturnian sphere and the inner
Solar Logos, with the Earth in the middle as the main
field of battle.30
What for the most part seems to be a Gnostic cosmology has been deeply influenced by the theories of
Hans Hörbiger (1860-1931). Hörbiger believed that
there were two principal forces contending in the
universe: cosmic fire and cosmic ice (or German:
Welteis). This fits admirably well with Germanic ideas
of cosmogony, of course.31
For Hörbiger the cosmos
was constantly expanding and contracting. It did this
from central points. The primeval cosmos spewed out
galaxies, galaxies spewed forth suns, and suns emitted
planets. But the centripetal force of cosmic ice will
cause each in its turn to collapse back in on itself. Into
the solar system there have also wandered bodies that
did not originally belong to this system, e.g. the Earth's
moon(s), and the planets beyond Saturn. These trans-Saturnian planets belonged to the neighboring solar
system of Alcyone in the Constellation of the Swan
(Cygnus). In time these trans-Saturnian planets will
be absorbed by Alcyone and eventually our Sun will unite with that star as well.32
According to FS doctrines concerning the history
of the Earth, there have been several moons orbiting
the planet at one time or another. These moons were
eventually drawn into the Earth by the centripetal
force of "cosmic ice" as delineated by Hörbiger. There
was a moon over "Lemuria" and subsequently one
over "Atlantis;" both were catastrophically pulled to
the surface of the Earth. Two twin moons, a white one,
Luna, and a black one, Lilith, were then pulled into the
Earth's orbit. The Earth has already absorbed the black
moon, leaving Luna yet to be pulled down in a world
catastrophe.33
These astrophysical phenomena are seen as the
outward manifestations of the "War in Heaven." The
Luciferian Principle is understood as an expelled spark
of the divine which has struggled through the darkness of matter, where this principle manifests itself as
crystalline structure and as light. It struggled its way
further through the kingdoms of plants and animals,
and eventually emerged in humankind where the
spark was liberated. Although generally ignorant of
its true home and origin, this spark does carry in itself
the memories of its primal state.34
It is a mainstay of Saturnian gnosis that the darkness contains the light. Therefore the darkness is
necessary for light to exist. It follows then that in fact
the darkness is superior to the light—ohne Finsternis
leuchtet kein Licht! This light is activated within the
matrix of darkness by the Logos—of the Demiurge
Saturnus—that constantly speaks the words: "Let
there be light!" The outermost station of this light is in the planetary sphere of Saturn, where the light melts
into darkness.35
As the solar system stands now, there is a dynamic tension between the centrifugal force (the outer
limits of which are defined by Saturn) and the centripetal force (the center of which is the Sun). The
centrifugal force—outward moving power—is the
force of creativity and manifestation wielded by the
Demiurge Saturnus, which is an expression of that
force. This is the "divine negative" as the Creative
Principle.36
The centripetal force—the centralizing or
concentrative power—is that of restriction and limitation ruled by the Solar Logos: the Chrestos Principle. Chrestos is Greek for "the good one." These two
forces are in continuous balance and each force contains the seed-principle of its opposite. There is,
therefore, a profound and incomprehensible darkness at the center of the Solar Logos. This is the object
of the Saturnian Solar Cult. At the same time, those
who serve Saturn are also conducting a spiritualized
solar cult in that they are promoting the return of the
lost son (Saturn),who was hurled out of the Sun to his
paternal Solar sphere.37
According to FS teachings, the Earth is also a complex sphere. Parallel to the physical plane of existence on
this planet are two other planes or dimensions: the astral
underlying this physical plane and the mental overlying
it. Magically these are respectively seen as the darkness and light the magician must master in his work.
Interestingly, the secret doctrine has it that the astral
dimension has historically been interpreted as "hell,"
while the mental zone has been seen as "heaven."38
Kabbalistically, the effects of the negative causal
principle of Saturn, which corresponds to the third
sephira, called Binah (Understanding), is reflected in
the ninth sephira, called Yesod (Foundation), which
corresponds to the Moon. Therefore, in the astrosophical doctrines of the FS, the effects of Saturn (= 3) are
transmitted through the Moon (= 9)—the power of
Saturn squared (32
).39
The state of dynamic tension in which the cosmos finds itself is, according to the laws of cosmic ice,
eventually going to collapse. In fact, this collapse is
already underway. Astronomically, this is a process of
various planetary bodies being reabsorbed into the
Sun. On the spiritual level this is tantamount to the
principles, of which these planets are manifestations,
being redeemed. Four planets have been redeemed as
the FS doctrine has it. Two, Vulkan and Hermes, have
already been consumed by the Sun, while Mercury
and Venus have been drawn within its sphere of influence. At some point, Jupiter and Saturn will merge,
combining the mildness of Jupiter with the severity of
Saturn. This will give rise to a new Golden Age.40
Eventually all the planets of the solar system will be
thus "redeemed," bringing to an end this cycle of existence. In this whole process Gregorius said that the
"task of spiritual humanity is to participate consciously in the evolution of the Earth in order to
redeem her."41
AEONIC COSMOSOPHY
The Dark Side of
the Aquarian Age
The strict doctrines concerning cosmic aeons (from
Greek aion, age) have their origin in Gnostic teachings
of the early centuries of our era. This concept, although
it had a certain magical role in ancient times, became
enormously important with the magical work of
Aleister Crowley following 1904. The FS, inspired by
Crowley and by the current astrological speculations
concerning the dawn of a New Age of Aquarius, developed its own aeonic philosophy. It is essential to understand this philosophy if the whole work of the
Brotherhood is to be grasped.
The ancient Gnostic sects of the Mediterranean
and Near Eastern regions held that the aeons were the
emanations of God. These emanations descended from
the fullness (pleroma) of God's light into the darkness.
Aeons are made up of an array of elements, the archons
that rule them, the angels (Greek aggeloi, messengers)
that provide for their dynamic interaction with the
cosmos, the "reasons" (Greek logoi, or "words"), etc.
In Gnostic practice these aeons were seen as barriers
through which the initiate would have to pass after
death until he gained the pleroma. In actual Gnostic
teaching, then, an aeon is a phenomenon of time/
space.42
The Earth may pass though "ages" ruled over
by archons ("rulers") of astrologically determined
periods of time, but the individual soul of a man must also pass through the barriers of the aeon in order to
return to the light. So much for the ancient doctrine.
In Cairo, Egypt, Aleister Crowley received the text
of a book dictated to him by a preternatural entity
identified as Aiwass or Aiwaz. This happened in
1904, and from that time on Crowley began to preach
the advent of a new aeon, the Aeon of Horus, which in
turn superseded the Aeons of Isis and Osiris. It is clear
that Crowley understood himself as an agent and an indispensable element of this new aeon, the Word of
the Aeon made flesh. From that point he was to function as a Magus (although he was not to claim that
grade until 1915), and as the Utterer of an Aeonic
Word. Theoretically, it became his task and his curse to attempt to articulate this Word which is____
(Thelema), the True Will. In this the Great Beast had
synthesized the old Gnostic idea of a natural progression of the aeonic rulers on Earth and the idea of a godlike intervention from above, exemplified in the
Gnostic Christology.
Crowley had conjured a new way of magical
thinking with his aeonic formulation, and it was one
that struck a few responsive cords. Gregor A. Gregorius accepted the advent of the aeonic current of Thelema but did not except Crowley's system (A. A. or O.T.O.), nor his authority in non-aeonic matters.
In
1948 Crowley's own disciple, Charles Stansfeld Jones (Frater Achad), claimed to have uttered a new
Word superseding that of Thelema. Achad's Word was
supposedly Ma-Ion or Ma'at—the Egyptian goddess
of truth and justice. All this turned out rather badly,
as Jones ended his days in obscurity and insanity.
Of course, many hold to orthodox notions of
"aeonic questions" pronounced more or less clearly
by Aleister Crowley, while others even attempt to
work with Achad's formulation. The dynamic understanding of the Setian Xeper, as continually articulated
by its Magus, provides a more individuated and clearly
articulated aeonic pathway than any of the previous
attempts to work with such "Aeonic Words." In any
event, some perspective on these aeonic concepts
cannot be ignored when one is trying to understand
the history of magical thinking in twentieth-century
Western tradition.
In the FS the advent of the new
aeon is seen first and foremost in astrological terms. It
is the equivalent of the Age of Aquarius, ruled by the
planetary archon Saturnus. The role of the Master
Therion's Aeonic Word seems to be of secondary
importance. What might be of widespread interest is
the magico-astrological insight into the fact that the
Aquarian Age will be one ultimately ruled by the dark
Saturno-Uranian archon or demiurge.
The cosmosophy of the FS is dependent on the
natural procession of the equinoxes into the sign of
Aquarius, which as a sign of the zodiac is traditionally
said to be ruled by the planet Saturn. With the discovery of trans-Saturnian planets, and after astrology
had synthesized them into its system, the planet
Uranus was also said to rule this sign. This physical
event, as well as the other astrophysical phenomena
taking place in the cosmos and more particularly
within our solar system, are reflections of metaphysical events occurring simultaneously with the physical
ones. The same can be said for the birth of the solar system, and its eventual entropic collapse.
Although it is stated that "every age or epoch
contains within itself the power necessary to its own
fulfillment,"43
humanity as a whole resists this realization. It is only open to and known by the truly elect
within a society. Humanity is for the most part still
dominated by an unyielding law of self-destruction
that rules in all realms of being, organic as well as
inorganic. Knowledge and experience of the archdaimonic principle embodied in Saturn can, however,
free the initiate from the laws of cause and effect. In
other terms, man can liberate himself from his own
karma.44 Beyond the moral aspects of this, these ideas
are also useful in formulating a notion of how Saturnian magic works. It is the progression of the individual
beyond the threshold—beyond the barrier—in order
to become separate from the internal, objective cosmos. In theory, the Aquarian Age, the aeon of Saturn,
should be manifest first and foremost within the
magically elect.
The influence of the coming Aquarian Age is
being guided by the Demiurge Saturnus, which is in
turn being transformed through Uranian influence.
The present, fading Piscean Age is (was) ruled by
Jupiter, under the hidden influence of Neptune. The
Neptunian influence is thought to be exercising tremendous force at the close of the Piscean Age in the area of
politics; hence the upsurge in collectivistic and communistic ideals. This tide will, however, suddenly
turn, and this influx will be destroyed by the surging
Uranian power. According to Saturnian teachings, the
confusion of today's world is mainly due to the convergence of the two competing and conflicting aeonic
streams, the incoming Aquarian and the outgoing Piscean.
It will be up to the emerging Saturno-Uranian
spirit and its elect to bring a new order out of this
chaos. In this process the old nature of Saturn is
undergoing a transformation as well. It is becoming
more "spiritual," while at the same time it retains its
basic quality of stability and solidity. The synthesis of
these qualities leads to a powerful balance in which
the powers of the spirit are directed and manifested in
exacting, precise ways which are as yet unheard of.45
In the Saturnian view, there does seem, to be
sure, a dark side of the Age of Aquarius. Based on
some fairly objectively interpreted astrological teachings, it could be concluded that the Aquarian Age will
only appear to be one of rational and humanitarian
egalitarianism. The Saturno-Uranian reality looming
behind this world of appearances will be one of an
enlightened system of control by a ruling elite—the
final reign of the Illuminati.
The Luciferian Principle
Although in later times the Luciferian aspect of
the Fraternitas Saturni might have been toned down—
especially in materials meant for public consumption—
the ideology of Gregorius himself was permeated with
this Luciferian Principle. The FS has its own mytho-magical understanding of what the nature of this
entity is, how it relates to the order's astrosophy, and
to the initiatory work of the order. Gregorius, although
not as ingenious a poet or artist as Crowley, was
nevertheless more straightforward in his approach to
the role of darkness and the Luciferian light than was
the Master Therion. Perhaps it is for this reason that
Gregorius was less "perplexed" than Crowley.
In the FS, Lucifer is understood as the Light
Bearer for mankind. As a result of being given this
light by Lucifer, which continues to be reborn in every
generation of humanity, mankind will be able to take
a measure of egocentric power from the solar Logos. In
this way Lucifer is the savior of humankind, at least
for that part of humanity that has been able to comprehend his Principle. The essence of the Saturnian
cult is the effort to understand this entity and to consciously make use of its power in the service of the
solar Logos (Sorath).46
Gregorius was always anxious to point out that
this Luciferian mythology was in fact older than the
ignorant misunderstandings and willful distortions of
the Judeo-Christian tradition. He claimed to have his
54 / Fire and Ice
knowledge from a pre-Christian and/or non-Christian
sect of "Barbelo-Gnostics."47
In the FS Lucifer is the
embodiment of enlightenment and reason; there are
none of the destructive slanders against him as in the
Christian tradition.
However he came by it, Gregorius does seem to
have a correct interpretation of the relative roles of
that entity referred to as the Light-Bearer (Greek Eosphoros) and that referred to as "God." Perhaps the
oldest version of the Lucifer myth is that of the Greek
Prometheus ("he who has foreknowledge"). Traditions
differ on many details of the Promethean mythology,
but what is essential is that Prometheus, wishing to
help and preserve mankind (some say he even created
mankind), brought the divine fire—or higher consciousness—and bestowed it upon men. This was the
first enlightenment of humanity. Zeus, however, was
angered and punished Prometheus by hurling him
into the depths of Erebus. There he was staked to a
mountain—an image prefiguring the crucifixion by
hundreds of years. The point is that the "creator god,"
here Zeus (in the Judeo-Christian tradition Jehova),
wants to keep humanity in subjugation and slavery to
the "natural laws" which he has set up—but a rebel
figure, here Prometheus (elsewhere Lucifer) befriends
man and brings him the means to become as one of the
gods. This is the fundamental idea underlying the
Luciferian stance of the FS and its connection to pre and non-Christian attitudes toward the myth.
Because of the general domination of the Judeo-Christian mythic scheme in medieval and post medieval European culture, the FS also, of course, deals with the Luciferian mythos from that standpoint,
taking a decidedly Ophite (or Naassene) view. The
myth is most readily available in the Judeo-Christian
canon in Genesis 3. A close and objective reading of
this myth cannot but prove the Saturnian point: that
the Serpent (Hebrew: nechesh) is the friend and brother
of Adam, while the Lord God (Hebrew: yahweh elohim)
is only his keeper and shepherd. The rebel spirit Lucifer
opened the way for man's rebellion and hence his
salvation; Jahveh would have held man in the eternal
bondage of ignorance. The Serpent gave Knowledge
(Gk. gnosis)—and thus is the true friend of mankind
and his true liberator. Any other interpretation of the
text of Genesis 3 would seem wildly imaginative.
Following basically Gnostic thought, the doctrines of the FS contain a Christology that is consistent
with this view of the Eden myth. They would hold
that the Ophite/Naassene teaching that the Serpent
(Heb. nechesh) in the Garden of Eden and the Anointed
One (Heb. messiach)—the Christos—are one in the
same. This could be backed up with the Kabbalistic
interpretation of nechesh = N.Ch.Sh. = 50.8.300. =
358 and messiach = M.Sh.Y.Ch. = 40.300.10.8. =
358. That both, according to the esoteric laws of
gematria, render the sum of 358 demonstrates their
essential unity. The Christos is a messenger and son of
the Serpent, therefore, and not of the Creator. This
Christos preaches gnosis (knowledge) and not pistis
(faith). The Serpent of Eden is further identified with
the brazen serpent of Exodus and with the serpent entwined staff of Hermes, the caduceus.48
According
to FS teaching, the Serpent of Eden may also be identified with Satana, the feminine aspect of Satanas.
This in turn corresponds to the kundalini—serpent
power—of Indian tantric lore. The truly beneficent
principle is, however, identified as the Chrestos, not
Christos. The Chrestos, the Good-One, is the designation of the beneficial solar entity.
Lucifer would also appear to have a central role in
the origin of humanity, and in the origin of death. It is
thought that Lucifer brought about physical procreation through a primeval sexual act with Cheva (Eve).
With procreation came death; but of course without
death there is no change, no evolution. Thus the opening
of the gate of death, the act of "sinking into matter,"
was a necessary step to link man to the current whereby
Paradise can again be gained. But this time humanity
will do it consciously and of its own will, and thus gain
eternal life and wisdom. Then man will have truly
become his own god—which is the path of Saturn.49
Also in accordance with its Gnostic heritage, the
FS doctrines lay a strong emphasis on dualism. Not so
much a good-versus-evil dualism, but rather a beyond good-and-evil dualism summed up in the Saturn Gnostic dictum: lux e tenebris—Light from the Darkness! In an article entitled "Saturn-Yoga," Gregorius
stated: "Without Darkness there is no Light. The Light
shines in the Darkness and the Darkness is more
powerful than the Light!"50
This is an idea we have
already met which simply states that the Light is held
in a matrix of Darkness, that both are necessary to
existence, and that it is the goal of the practitioner of
Saturnian Gnosis to gain experience in, and mastery
over, both the Light and the Darkness. The view is one clearly shown in the familiar yin-yang
symbol used by the Taoists:
Figure 2.1: The Yin-Yang
in which the seed of the opposite quality is shown to
be embedded in the depths of its counterpart. Thus
there is a heart of Darkness within the Sun, and the
Saturnian Darkness shines with a profound Light.
The true god of Saturnian Gnosis is a Janus-faced
entity—Baphomet: Temohpab—a god containing both
a positive and a negative side. Both paths, that of the
Right and that of the Left, lead to the Absolutum,
which stands beyond good and evil. Again, true to
Gnosticism, the Saturnian emphasizes that the initiate
must enter a path—and work and experience.51
The Luciferian mythos is, of course, also accounted
for in astrophysical terms within the teachings of the
FS. The "Fall" of Lucifer from "Heaven" is equated with the physical event of the expulsion of the planetary masses from the solar sphere. Lucifer is identified
with the "higher octave" of Saturn (in astrology this is
also equated with the planet Uranus, the planet of
rebellion). In this planetary position, Saturn-Lucifer
has been able to rule all the planetary entities within
its orbit, being especially forceful on the planet Earth.
Again the Earth is the main field of contention between the Solar Logos and the Luciferian Principle.52
The initiate struggles toward a harmonious arrival at
the Theonium of Saturn, and not toward the Sun,
because the Sun would destroy and consume him.
The Saturnian sphere offers enlightenment, control,
and independence. This always returns to the essentially complex structure of that which is called Saturn.
It must always be remembered, for example, that the
Saturnian sphere contains the seed of the Chrestos Principle.53
Gregorius poetically described some of the Luciferian Gnosis in a poem entitled Fallen Angel, which
was first published in the Blätter (January 1955),
p. 11 :
For millions of years he stood before God's Throne
as a guardian, watchman, and caretaker.
But when the son returned,
his hand grasped only emptiness.
He stood before God and saw him not.
He called unto God in vain
and his soul wept.
But in the distance glowed in the firmament
a blue star, and a voice spoke unto him:
I seek Thee, come Thou to me,
give me Thy hands.
A pale visage shone in the distance,
and a slender hand began to work.
Aeons descended from him
to sink into the sea of ages.
The great angel standing there,
was once his brother and commander,
who now has left him.
Now his voice again calls to him—
and through the spheres his call resounds
out to one, who created him:
"Satanas Triumphator!"
The basis for the ambivalent stance of the FS
toward the whole Luciferian aspect in the Saturnian
Gnosis is clearly revealed in the doctrines concerning
the actual esoteric structure of the entity Saturnus.
Around the physical planet Saturn is arrayed a complex of entities constituting internal and external
aspects, as well as higher and lower octaves of the
planet. A composite of these might appear as shown in
Figure 2.2 on the following page.
As has been intimated, the outer and ruling aspect
of the planetary genius is that of Saturn with all its
previously outlined characteristics. A part of this is
the egregore of the FS itself—the GOTOS. Deep within
there is, however, the creative solar spark called the
Chrestos-Principle.54
These two aspects can work
harmoniously and consciously together in the controlled sphere of Saturn. This enlightened state is
facilitated especially when harmony with the higher octave of the planet, Lucifer—the Light-Bearer—is
concentrated on. The higher octave is also harmonized with the planetary spirit of Uranus, with
which Saturn works for the current aeonic transformation. In the lower octave, Saturn is connected to
the Satanic force. This is the power of rebellion, adversity, and death, all of which are absolutely necessary to man's path of attainment—to his Becoming. However, this purely "Satanic" aspect can be ultimately as
dangerous and destructive to consciousness as is the
self-obliterating power of the Sun. The Saturnian
brother must remain concentrated on the higher
octave in order to remain fully conscious and independent (consistent with the Luciferian Principle),
and not fall into the lower to become a mere tool of
the Demiurge.
In the working or ritual aspects of the FS curriculum the Luciferian Principle is also highly evident.
Some of this will be far more fully explored in the
practices and rituals of the Brotherhood in Chapter 4.
However, at this time it is worth pointing out that the
"Sacrament of Light" in the FS is understood primarily
as a Luciferian Mass in which the initiate experiences
the transcendent in the immanent. This experience
leads to meranoi—transformations in the initiate. The
ultimate end of these transformations, according to
FS doctrine, is the cessation of the necessity of incarnation, as the individual light merges with the Light of
the World.55
This transformation in the Luciferian Light is not
completely manifested in the grade system of the FS
until the 33°. The complete name of this degree makes
the nature of this attainment clear: "Gradus Ordinis
Templi Orientis Saturni im Orden des dunklen Lichts"
(i.e., Grade of the Order of the Eastern Temple of
Saturn in the Order of the Dark Light).56
Ultimately,
this work does not end in the obliteration of the self in
the ain soph, but rather in the deification of that
transformed self. This is perhaps most lyrically outlined in a poem he wrote in 1943 but which
was not published until March 1955, in Blätter:
Thou Art Thine Own God
1. Thou must affirm the God in Thee, for every
doubt takes power from Thee.
Every hour of Thy divine knowledge brings
Thee a step higher in Thy journey.
2. Thou canst unfold the spark,
that God bestowed on Thee, to a pure flame
that makes worlds fall and rise again,
God is in Thee!—Thou art Thyself God!
3. Thus Thou canst have Gods enthroned in Thee
build altars, ignite sacrificial flames,
for every dream—and form of thought is
Thy power,
and every force of desire takes a form and
shape.
4. Thus art Thou the shaper of transcendental
worlds,
imaginary creator of Thine own realm,
Thou art priest, magus, royal lord—
and prince in Thy soul's expanse.
5. Cyprus groves stand round Thy palaces of
thought
and blue waves lap at the marble steps
and ships fare out upon the seas,
for Thee, who wearest the purple.
6. The Earth is Thy sorrow that shaped the
knowledge
and bitter fruits of Thy Golgotha—
And nevertheless the call rings out to Thee:
Lo! I am here!
The Luciferian Principle is essential to the aeonic
philosophy of the FS. In their astrosophy, the spiritual
changes coming about in the world which are mirrored
in astrophysical processes (i.e., here the procession of
the equinox into the zodiacal sign of Aquarius ruled
by Saturn/Uranus) are tantamount to the advent of
an Age of Lucifer. This is what Gregorius must have
recognized in Aleister Crowley's "Equinox of the Gods"
concept, in which the Age of Osiris gives way to the
Age of Horus.57
But it must be quickly pointed out
that Gregorius had his own ideas of what all this
meant and how the aeonic process worked. Generally
speaking the ideas of Gregorius were more consistent,
mainly because he did not shrink from the "dark
aspects" and clear Luciferian connotations. The Lucifer
of the FS system is understood first and foremost as a
part of the Saturnian planetary sphere and is clearly
identified with pre- or non-Christian Gnostic concepts. Therefore any attempt to characterize the FS as
"Satanic" in the Christian sense of the term must
fail.
THE YOGA OF THE DARK LIGHT
FS Sexual Mysticism
It is probably in the area of the practice of sexual
magic that the FS has become most notorious in esoteric
circles. This notoriety has chiefly come about through
the publication of reports or isolated documents 58
that perhaps give some idea of the kind of sexual
magic practiced in the FS. But these reports are nevertheless largely taken out of context and therefore can
not give anything but a distorted picture of actual FS
theories and practices. In Chapter 4 we will provide
some practices of Saturnian sex-magic, as well as the
full rite of the Pentalphic Grade, which has until now
only been alluded to in print. The background of sexual magic in the FS is closely related to that of the
O.T.O. as discussed in Chapter 1. However, the FS
under Gregorius developed some of its own ideas,
mainly based on astrosophical and Gnostic precepts,
along with what was at the time (i.e., late 1920's)
modern sexology.59
Here we will try to concentrate
on those concepts and doctrines relatively unique to
the FS.60
For the most part, sex-magical practices in the FS
were confined to the work of the 18° (Pentalphic). In
this degree the initiate makes a deep study of the sexual magic and mysticism as outlined in the O.T.O. system. It is clear that the whole O.T.O. system—which
is supposed to be something more than sex-magic— obviously exerted a strong influence over the FS. The
clearest expression of this is in the name GOTOS.
Beyond the overt practice of sex-magical techniques,
a whole "sexual cosmology" was deeply embedded in
FS doctrine.
This teaching is partly taken from tantric and
quasi-tantric systems and partly derived directly from
Gnostic sexual cosmologies. From tantrism the FS
derived its theories of the chakra system in the human
body, which was conceived of as being naturally
polarized in one way (negatively) in women, and
another way (positively) in men.61
A survey of the
numerous allegorical and mythic representations of
Gnostic cosmologies 62—descriptions of how the world
came into being—shows that many of the FS doctrines
on sexuality could have possibly been taken from the
general picture outlined in Gnosticism. In the ancient
gnosis the ultimate god-form manifested from the
god-head. This god-form is three-fold, consisting of
mind (Greek nous), thought (Greek ennoia) and reason
(or word, Greek logos). From this masculine entity
emanated the first aeon, which is defined as his own
mirror image reflected in the "pure water of light."
This first aeon is called either Barbelo or Sophia (wisdom)—the feminine aspect of the father-god—herself
androgynous. She is the mother of the Demiurge and
is also responsible for implanting the "divine spark"
in humanity. This Sophia is regarded ambivalently by
the Gnostics as she was the first entity to suffer a
"fall," perhaps due to her excessive cravings and
curiosities concerning knowledge. This ambivalence
is subsequently reflected in human women, and is represented in the esoteric Eden myth by both Lilith
and Eve.63
There are obvious correspondences between the relationships of Father—God : Barbelo/
Sophia; Adam : Lilith/Eve; and astronomically, Sun :
Moon/Earth, etc. This lore seems to form the matrix
of FS sexual mysticism. But it must be remembered
that the FS is essentially an eclectic, innovative, and
somewhat pragmatic order, so no one set of doctrines
tends to dominate it completely. The Saturnian Gnosis
is a unique Gnostic teaching.
The very nature of the sexes is, according to the
Saturnian Gnosis, a part of the same phenomenal
process as the manifestation and evolution of the
planetary bodies. Gregorius held that the negatively
polarized manifestations of Saturnian and Lunar forces
were, on Earth, incarnated in the forms of women,
who are the vicars of the Luciferian Principle. The
sometimes ambivalent attitude toward this principle
leads to an ambivalent stance toward women as a
phenomenon. It is even stated at one point that the
esotericist should seek to free himself of the feminine
daimonium by means of sexual magic.64
In contrast,
men are esoterically the manifestation of the Solar
and Jupiterian forces. For sex-magical work, of course,
women are seen to correspond to the planet Venus,
and men to the planet Mars. This will be outlined
further in the sections dealing with sex-magical practices.
Gregorius claimed that Karl Kellner (founder of
the O.T.O.) taught that sexuality held the key to
understanding cosmogony, and that the natural laws
of sexuality were a mirror or shadow image of cosmic processes.
The most concentrated manifestation of these
cosmic realities were in those physical parts of the
sexes which most distinguished one from the other:
the sexual organs themselves. Thus, the phallus is a
symbol and manifestation of the divine willpower of
imagination, of the faculty of image-making. Conversely, the female genitalia, or kteis, is the symbol and
manifestation of the plasmic emulsion of expansive
chaos, the matrix in which reality takes shape. The
manifestation of all realities is then made possible by
a willed projection of consciously visualized image
into this chaotic matrix.63
There was a relative lack of women initiates in
the FS, which is revealed in the rosters printed in
some of the interna from the 1950s and early 1960s.
This, no doubt, would be explained in poetic terms
from the libretto of the opera Die Zauberflöte by W.
A. Mozart:
Ein Weib, das Nacht und Tod nicht scheut
Ist würdig und wird eingeweiht.66
(Act II, Scene 5)
The essential problem would seem to be that
women are thought to be generally shy of the nightside of reality, despite men's hopeful projections upon
them. It is truly a special woman who comes to terms
with this aspect.
This reference to Mozart's Magic Flute is telling
in another way in that it is deemed an important
accomplishment in the initiatory progress if the magician can find and work with a woman who embodies
his "sister soul."67
Conversely, the woman magician
must find her "brother soul."
In its early years the FS was in many ways unable
to fulfill its own "New Age" vision of itself with regard
to sexual mysticism. From an aeonic perspective perhaps it was just too early. Probably not until the latter
half of the 1960s were the aeonic elements in place to
give a true expression to "Saturnian sexuality." Much
that was lacking seems due to the "nature bound"
aspects of sexuality and the aforementioned "ambivalent" attitude toward women. Some greater understanding in these fields has been offered by Frater in his handbuch der Sexualmagie 68
The Yoga of the Dark Light is quite literally the practice of the union, here through sex-magical techniques, with the fleshy embodiment of one's own opposite self. Here, the Dark Light is interpreted as the Saturnian/Luciferian light as incarnate in the sexual partner, with whom ritual coitus or other practices are performed. The Dark Light can also be equated with the magical power of sexuality and of the orgasm.
Nietzschean Thelemism
The official motto of the FS is "Tue was Du willst
ist das ganze Gesetz, es gibt kein Gesetz über tue was
Du willst. Liebe ist das Gesetz—Liebe unter Willen—
Mitleidlose Liebe." (Do what Thou wilt is the whole of the Law, there is no Law beyond do what Thou wilt.
Love is the Law—Love under Will—Compassionless
Love.) The first part of the motto is the familiar
Crowleyan Thelemite formula, which is left unaltered.
The second part, which is the response to the first, has
been slightly altered in Saturnian practice. The words mitleid lose Liebe, which may be translated as "compassionless love," or "love without pity," make the
Saturnian nature of this love clear. It refers to both the
"love" of the Demiurge Saturnus or the GOTOS for his
minions on Earth, i.e. his stern "testing," and to the
kind of "love" that a Saturnian brother should show
toward others.
One of Aleister Crowley's most interesting discussions of love is found in his Eight Lectures on
Yoga,69 where he says that "love under will" is a unit's
"instinct to unite, and the act of uniting... with its
opposite." Here Crowley appeals to a model of nature
when he says that hydrogen seeks to combine with
oxygen and not with other molecules of hydrogen—
which is not in the "nature, or the 'true Will,' of hydrogen." Thus Crowley identifies natural order with
"true Will."
According to Crowley's theories, if not his own
practices, the ultimate act of love should be the act of
flinging "ourselves up into the furnace of ecstasy
which flames from the abyss of annihilation."70
To
avoid and to deny the desirability of this act of love is
the essence of Black Magic—as the essence of White
Magic is self-annihilation. It seems that it was this
aspect that the FS wished to clarify with the addition
of the phrase "compassionless love."71
It appears certain that here too the FS doctrines
are drawn from Nietzschean concerns. In his great
book, Thus spoke Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche
devotes a whole section to "On Pitying."72
Here, and
in many places elsewhere, Nietzsche equates the act
of pitying with that of self-annihilation. Here Nietzsche
says indeed "God is dead"—but what does he say
killed him?—"his pity (i.e. 'love') for man." Zarathustra preaches "all great love is even above all its pity,
for it still wants to create the beloved"— love without pity.
A "pitiful" love is one in which the lover is
annihilated by the beloved; love without pity is where
the lover—or magician—creates his beloved out of his
own self.
So in many ways the FS addition of these two
words to the whole Thelemite formula put a whole
new perspective on the philosophy. Rather than seeking self-annihilation beyond the threshold, the Saturnian Brother seeks to become his own god. Crowley
never tired of calling those who endorsed, or seemed
to him to endorse, this path of non-self-annihilation
"Black Brothers" (or "Brothers of the Left-hand Path").
Perhaps it was because the Beast himself was one of
these (yet denied it, even to himself) that, when confronted with the ultimate moment of truth, he was
so "perplexed."73
In summary, the doctrines of the FS are generally
consistent with its cosmology and theology (or "daemonology"). The Saturnian brother must enter upon a
hard path to be tested. He must be hard on himself, as
others will be hard on him. But once he passes through the Threshold into the realm of higher power, the
severity of Saturn will be turned in his favor. All of
this presupposes a strict set of initiatory standards
and a high level of structure. This is the subject of our
next chapter.
next
Organization of the
Brotherhood of Saturn
notes
page 206 here
http://www.metaphysicspirit.com/books/Fire%20and%20Ice%20-%20The%20Brotherhood%20of%20Saturn.pdf
Distant Roots
In addition to the previously stated Ariosophical leanings within the FS, the other significant shared elements between Ariosophy and the FS seem to have been their doctrines of a coming age of higher spiritual evolution, an interest in Templarism, and the belief in hidden masters. All but the interest in runes are also shared with Theosophy and quasi-Masonry. In addition to quasi-Masonry,
Theosophy, and Ariosophy, another branch of esoterica that burst on the scene in early twentieth-century Germany was astrology. Until sometime after 1914, astrology was just one more of the many arcane sciences practiced within the mysto-magical cultural milieu of quasi-Masonry, Theosophy, and Ariosophy. By the 1920s, however, astrology had become more popular in Germany than any of these other branches of occultism. The interest of the FS in astrology extends to the most esoteric levels of the subject in its doctrines concerning the Aquarian/Saturno-Uranian Age. But the attraction of widespread interest in a lodge with obvious astrological implications is clearly based on the popularization of astrology in the 1920s.27
It was in the context of these major streams of occultism that the Pansophical Lodge of Master Recnartus existed, and from which the Fraternitas Saturni was to emerge.
As mentioned before, Pansophia must be characterized as a movement overseen by Heinrich Tränker— Master Recnartus. Tränker, like Theodor Reuss, engineered a number of occult groups. And as we have mentioned before, Tränker is even supposed to have derived his Masonic authority from Reuss. The main period of activity for Master Recnartus was just after the First World War. At first, the "Pansophical Society" was a study group founded just after the war in Berlin. Their areas of interest included Gnosticism, the ancient mysteries of Greece, Egypt, and Babylon, as well as problems of philosophy, religious history, metaphysics, depth-psychology, "cosmosophy," and the Kabbalah. In the early 1920s, Tränker founded a Collegium Pan¬ sophicum. This organization, which may have existed only on paper, gave Tränker's work a more Masonic, orderly cast, and acted as a background for the publication of some of Tränker's occult works. In 1921 all the Pansophical streams governed by Tränker were brought together in the Grand Pansophical Lodge (of the Light-Seeking Brethren) of the Orient-Berlin.
Besides Tränker, one of the leading members of this lodge was Karl Germer (Frater Saturnus), who was Tränker's secretary and who later became the Grand Treasurer General of Crowley's O.T.O., and eventually Outer Head of the Order upon Crowley's death in 1947. Another leading figure was Albin Grau (Master Pacitus), who was also a set designer for the UFA studios in Berlin, where he designed the sets for such films as Nosferatu (1922) and Shadows 16 / Fire and Ice (1923). (Indeed, there seems to have been a good deal of occult involvement among the German filmmakers of the pre-1933 era; some of the mysteries of this milieu have yet to be unraveled.) Finally, there was Eugen Grosche, who was initiated by Tränker and given the lodge name Gergor A. Gregorius. It was Gregorius who was the actual founder of the Pansophical Lodge and who was its general secretary. Gregorius ran an occult bookshop in Berlin at the time.
In the summer of 1925, the most important event leading to the emergence of the FS took place. Without apparently knowing very much about his teachings, Master Recnartus invited Aleister Crowley to his house in Weida in Thuringia, Germany. The purpose of this meeting was to confer the leadership of the groups controlled by Tränker onto Crowley. Or so it seemed.
After Theodor Reuss died in 1923, the international leadership of the O.T.O. passed to Crowley in England. Crowley had been an initiate of the Golden Dawn from 1898 to 1900. In April 1904, while in Cairo, Egypt, Crowley received a book—called the Liber AL vel Legis—which was transmitted to him by a praeterhuman entity calling itself Aiwass. This text is known more simply as the Book of the Law. With the reception of this book Crowley began to function as a Magus, and proclaimed a new Aeon with a new lema was summed up in the motto: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law," to which the obligatory response became: "Love is the law, love under will." All this constituted the Law of Thelema, Word: (Thelema: True Will). The Law of The which was either accepted or rejected. During the ensuing decade, Crowley worked on trying to develop his or Silver Star. This order was constructed in 1907, and announced for the first time in the first issue of The Equinox (March 1909). However, this instrument proved unsatisfactory to Crowley's plans for dissemination of his new Aeonic Law.
When Crowley met Theodor Reuss in London in 1912, the Great Beast found a more suitable institution in the O.T.O. Reuss made Crowley the head of the order in Britain at that time. Crowley took the magical name "Baphomet" for his elevation to the X°—the highest title the O.T.O. had to bestow. The secret of the O.T.O. is, as we know, the practice of sexual magic and mysticism. Crowley had up until this time partially understood such things, but with the reception of the O.T.O. teachings on this subject he began to delve into the practice almost exclusively. From 1912 until 1922, when Reuss suffered a stroke and retired from active participation in the order, there was a sense of collaboration between Baphomet and Merlin (Reuss). Crowley received the innermost magical secrets of the order, and Reuss had Crowley revise the rituals of the O.T.O. in a form which accorded with the Law of Thelema. Reuss apparently named Crowley to succeed him as O.H.O., but there was substantial resistance to this among members of the German O.T.O. It must be said that Baphomet rapidly spread both the O.T.O. and his Word, Thelema, in the English speaking world through his own contacts and by means of The Equinox, in. which he began to print O.T.O.-related material after 1912. After Merlin's death in 1923, things moved inevitably to a crisis point.
The German branch of the O.T.O. had apparently fallen into the control of Heinrich Tränker after the death of Reuss. This was perhaps due to the fact that Crowley's teachings were not universally acclaimed in Germany. The lack of acceptance stemmed both from Crowley's doctrine of the New Aeon—which had not yet appeared in German—and from Crowley's veiled references in his writings to the secret of the IX°—sexual magic. The German branch had generally guarded this secret closely, and only revealed it in part at the VIII0 , where the secrets of solitary sex-magic were taught. Without being specific, Crowley had revealed too much to persons unprepared for such mysteries. When the overall picture in Germany at this time is assessed, it is clear that there was a split between those enthusiastic about Crowley's teachings and those highly suspicious of them.
It was into this set of circumstances that Crowley moved in that fateful summer of 1925. He, along with his entourage of Leah Hirsig, Dorothy Olsen, and Norman Mudd, left from Paris to go to the home of Heinrich Tränker in Weida. Karl Germer had paid for their trip to Germany. Crowley had sent a copy of the Book of the Law ahead to Weida, where it was promptly translated into German. The "Weida Conference," as it came to be known, was attended by Crowley's entourage, Heinrich Tränker (Grand Master of the German Rosicrucians and Pansophism), his wife Helene, Albin Grau (Master of the Chair of the Pansophical Lodge), Eugen Grosche (Secretary of the Pansophical Lodge), Karl Germer, Martha Küntzel, and a few other occult leaders. The real purpose of this conference was the acceptance or rejection of the Law of Thelema, and the exploration of the possibility of uniting several occult factions under the leadership of a New World Teacher—the Great Wild Beast 666.
Accounts of this conference vary in detail, scope, and conclusion;28 certainly the most amusing account is that written by A.C. himself. None can be completely trusted, as each writer has some sort of ax to grind. But subsequent historical facts allow us to reconstruct the actual outcome of this occult conclave.
To begin with, the translation of the Book of the Law caused quite a stir. Both Albin Grau (Pacitus) and Tränker (Recnartus) were ill-disposed toward its anti-christian stance. Recnartus is supposed to have softened his criticism and come to some new understanding of the book's contents. But Pacitus remained opposed, if tacitly. On the other hand, as subsequent events were to show, Gregorius was favorably impressed with the Beast and his Word. The conference ended with an obviously uneasy communique entitled "The Testament of a Seeker." Its text read:
"The Teacher of the World, whose appearance was predicted for this year, and who has been awaited by all true seekers— and especially by those of the Theosophical Society—has appeared at this exact time in the person of the Master To Mega Therion (i.e., Aleister Crowley). We the undersigned have seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears and we know, certainly and without lies, that he is in truth the transmitter of the Word after which the soul of humanity thirsts."
Events following the so-called Weida Conference show just how uneasy this agreement was on all sides. Tränker and Grau renounced the communique almost immediately following the event, and eventually even Mudd (in 1927) and Leah Hirsig (in 1928) withdrew their support.
During the months and years following the meeting at Weida, Gregor A. Gregorius must have been studying and assimilating Crowley's teachings, as well as those of the Pansophism, Rosicrucians, and others in his environs. On Maundy Thursday 1926, the Pansophical Lodge was ritually closed and dissolved. On the following May 8, five Fratres founded the Fraternitas Saturni. This was to be a magical order which accepted the Law of Thelema, but which was to be totally independent of any other magical order. A few days later Gregorius wrote to the Beast, informing him of the aims of this revived Saturnian Lodge. The letter and the document outlining these early aims are printed here as Appendices F and G.
As far as the Rosicrucian-Pansophical Lodge faction and its leaders, Tränker and Grau, were concerned, there seems to have been a falling out over, among other things, the treatment of the Master Therion by Recnartus. It was rumored that Tränker had a hand in having Crowley expelled from Germany.29 This was apparently one of the critical events which led to the final dissolution of the Pansophical Lodge in 1926. Although it is possible that Tränker and Grau continued their occult work, nothing more is heard of them in this capacity. A full one-third of the members of the Pansophical Lodge became the core of initiates of the FS.
Between May of 1926 and Easter Saturday 1928, the FS was further consolidated and refined into a more cohesive structure. It is this day in 1928 which actually serves as the date of the official magical inception of the FS.
After this there followed a period of intensive activity for the newly (re-) founded FS, especially in the environs of Berlin, where Gregorius had his bookshop. Gregorius began publishing FS material, some of which was available to the public, some of which was only for distribution within the Lodge. Five issues of the journal Saturn-Gnosis were printed. In this journal, articles on magical subjects by Gregorius and other writers within and without the FS, including Masters Pacitus and Therion, appeared. (Neither of these men had any official connection with the FS.) There was also a series often Magische Briefe (Magical Papers) published from 1926 to 1927 or 1928. These were for the most part supposed to be translated from English, and to have been written by To Mega Therion. However, it seems more likely that they were actually written by Gregorius or by other FS initiates, as they bear little resemblance to Crowley's typical work. Finally, in this period Gregorius produced a series of fourteen printed Lectures of the Lodge-School, as well as other interna for initiatory instruction. Many of these works were published by the lodge's own house, INVEHA.
The relationship between Aleister Crowley and his orders(the AA and the O.T.O.) and Gregorious and the FS was an ambivalent one. Gregorius had made it quite plain that although he accepted the Law of Thelema, he would accept no official relationship with Crowley or his organizations. On the whole it seems that Gregorius claimed a closer link with Crowley and his work than actually existed. FS materials, doctrines, and rituals, as can be seen in this book, are only laced with Crowleyanity—their shape and substance remain something other than what the Beast promulgated. There was some contact between Crowley and Gregorius between the years 1928 and 1933, and some opportunities for meetings. Crowley was in Germany in 1929, when he married Maria Theresa Ferrari de Miramar, and on different occasions in 1930 he was in Berlin during some rather frantic affairs.30 Most of Crowley's influence on Gregorius seems to have come through his published writings, many of which were translated into German by initiates of the FS. Gregorius was later to publish translations of magical works taken from Magick in Theory and Practice (1929). The actual accomplishment of Gregorius and the FS was a more or less cohesive synthesis of Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Freemasonry, Luciferianism, astrological mythology, Crowleyanity (or Thelemism), sex-magical practices of the old O.T.O., various Indian yogic systems, and medieval and modern doctrines of alchemy and ritual magic.
Interregnum
The great storm-cloud broke over the Fraternitas
Saturni and all other Masonic and quasi-Masonic lodges
in Germany on January 30, 1933, when Adolf Hitler,
Führer of the NSDAP, took the oath as chancellor of
Germany. By the next month emergency powers had
been invoked and many groups thought to be of a subversive nature, from Communists to Masons, were
suppressed. This began a process in which secret
societies and occult orders of all kinds began to be systematically suppressed. Most sources on the history
of the FS state that the lodge was closed and banned in
1933. 31 Certainly Gregorius' bookstore and the publishing house would have been closed down by 1934. In 1935 another wave of "voluntary" dissolutions of secret societies followed. Finally, in a declaration of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler in 1937, all occult and quasi-Masonic organizations, even the völkisch ones that had generally and originally been supportive of National Socialist aims, were banned. These völkisch groups included those founded by Guido von List and Lanz von Liebenfels. Early in this cycle of bannings Gregorius is said to have emigrated first to Switzerland and then to Cannero, Italy.
There he remained until October of 1943, when he was arrested and extradited back to Germany through pressure from the Nazi government. He was released on his own recognizance after only one year, and apparently allowed to continue his occult studies after his release. After the war ended in 1945, Gregorius set about refounding the FS. There is more than one odd aspect to these events of 1933 to 1945.
We know very little about what actually happened to Gregorius in these years. The fact that someone extradited from a foreign country by the Nazis would then just simply be let go after a year's detention—and then allowed to continue his suspect activities within Germany—is almost unbelievable.
Renewal
Supposedly Gregorius was able to maintain contact with many of the Fratres of the FS while he was in
Switzerland and Italy. After the war, he called the
Brothers together to reorganize the order; but as he
found himself at that time in Riesa in the Soviet
occupation zone, it was impossible to carry out the
work of the Order. It was not until 1950 that Gregorius
went to the Western zone of occupation and from
there to West Berlin. His five-year sojourn in the east is
also rather odd.In any event, in 1950 the FS again became active and the first issues of the Blätter fur angewandte okkulte Lebenskunst ("Papers toward the Applied Occult Art of Life") began to appear. About twelve issues of these per year continued to be published until 1962.
On March 18, 1957 the FS was declared the Grand Lodge of the Fraternitas Saturni at Berlin. At that time there were outer courts in many German cities. Of course, Gregorius was named its Grand Master. The period from 1957 to the date of Gregorius' death in 1964 was one of intensive activity and growth for the order, but the time between 1960 and 1964 was apparently beset with various internal problems generally characterized as a power struggle between Gregorius and Grand Chancellor Amenophis.32 Upon the death of the GM Gregor A. Gregorius in January of 1964, these internal conflicts became more acute.
Discords and Harmonies
Between the time of Gregorius' death and 1969
there were numerous conflicts within the FS. The
"First Council of the Grand Lodge" met at the Easter
Festival Lodge meeting of 1964 and elected Magistra
Roxane, who had been the Lodge Secretary and a close
personal associate of Gregorius, as the next GM. Several
long-time initiates left the order at that time. Within a
year Roxane was dead. In 1966 a triumvirate was
elected under the leadership of Magistri Giovanni, the
Lodge Secretary. Frater Daniel 12° was subsequently
elected to the Grand Mastery. The fact that a Frater of
such a relatively low degree was elected to the Grand
Mastery could have been taken as an ill omen. Daniel set about reorganizing the Brotherhood. One of his innovations was the installation of an "inner circle" of initiates within the FS itself. This was the Alter und Mystischer Orden der Saturn Bruderschaft—AMOS-OMS (Old and Mystical Order of the Brotherhood of Saturn). Only nine initiates could belong to the AMOS. These actions led to even more dissension.
In 1969, yet another GM was elected. This time the Brother, Br. Jananda 8°, was of an even lower grade. Jananda had entered the order only in 1964, so the lineage of Gregorius had already been virtually broken with this election. This precipitated a crisis that indirectly caused the internal documents of the FS to be published. Daniel continued with a schismatic FS, while another schismatic group calling itself the "Theosophical Order Fraternitas Saturni" under GM Immanuel was formed in Frankfurt. The main body of the FS elected a new GM known as Andrzey. Therefore, there were at least three groups working under the FS banner in 1969.
Apparently it was the former GM Daniel who gave or sold a mass of internal documents in 1969 to Prof. Dr. Adolf Hemberger, who then published many of them in his 1971 study of the organization. The FS had, up until that time, been a truly secret lodge which preserved those rituals and practices they wanted to keep hidden from outsiders. Now the whole interna, or at least the vast majority of them, had been exposed. This led to the necessary reorganization of the system. On Easter Saturday of that same year, the various factions of the FS reunified.
The material used in this book comes from the period before 1969 and therefore does not reflect the rituals and doctrines of the Fraternitas Saturni as it is working in the world today.
Chapter 2
Doctrines of the
Brotherhood of Saturn
LUX E TENEBRIS LUCET ET LUCEAT
Doctrines and teachings concealed within the
magical lodge Fraternitas Saturni are wrapped in the
dark cloak of the Demiurge Saturnus, and are truly
revealed only to those elect of Saturn who are able to
comprehend and understand the Saturn-Gnosis. This
gnosis is sometimes dark and foreboding. It uncovers
the dark side of the Aquarian Age—an age to be ruled
by Saturn. But it is also enlightened by the "higher
octave" of Saturn—Lucifer—and by the dark light of
Saturnian yoga, or sexual mysticism and cosmosophy. It was the Fraternitas Saturni and Gregor A. Gregorius, directly or indirectly through the acceptance of the Aeonic Law of Thelema, which provided the necessary elements of cohesion to the pansophical approach in Germany. In this chapter we will concentrate on those things which make the FS teachings unique and give them definite shape. Underlying all of this is the usual post-Theosophical mixture of Eastern and Western doctrines and practices to be found in quasi-Masonic orders of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, e.g. the Golden Dawn and its derivatives. The elements that make the FS unique are its focus on the Saturn archetype, the Saturnian mythos of a new aeon based on an astrological process, and an unabashed Luciferianism. Further aspects which, although not unique to the Brotherhood, added to the lodge's working focus are: the doctrines and practices of sexual magic (principally taken over from the O.T.O.), and the Law of Thelema, which had been formally accepted from the Master Therion (Aleister Crowley) at the inception of the FS.
From the standpoint of existing magical and mystical traditions, the FS is a mixture of Eastern and Western streams. A survey of the contents of the issues of Saturn-Gnosis, the Papers toward the Applied Art of Living (1948-1950), and the Papers toward the Applied Occult Art of Living (1950-1958) shows how this is so.
From Eastern (really Indian) ideologies come the themes of awakening of the chakra system in the magician,1 the laws of reincarnation and karma, and the practice of tantric sexual mysticism. From various branches of the Western (for want of a better term) tradition come the doctrines of ritual magic (taken mainly from the medieval and Renaissance grimoires), astrology, Rosicrucianism, Gnosticism and, of course, the overriding Masonic form of the lodge's organization and ritual. The documents indicate that the Eastern influence became stronger after the reorganization of the lodge after the Second World War. It is also interesting to note that in comparison to similar eclectic lodges, the FS laid relatively little emphasis on the Tarot and the Kabbalah. Within the FS teachings, special emphasis is placed on crystal and mirror magic,2 pendulum magic,3 and "daimonic magic."4
Saturn-Gnosis
The gnosis of the FS is a complex set of magical
doctrines. These include a special path of initiation as
well as a complete astral or planetary cosmosophy
and a Luciferian element. In many regards the Saturn-Gnosis is in accordance with what is known of the
Ophite and Barbelo Gnostic sects of antiquity.5
Gnosis is a form of knowledge concerning the cosmos to
which the individual feels called, or "elected," and
which is based not on the belief in certain dogmas but
rather on deep personal experience. The teachings,
practices and rituals of the FS are intended to provide
just such an initiatory experience. Although in ancient times Gnosticism existed in a myriad of often mutually incompatible sects, there were certain doctrines common to most of them. First, they held that there existed a godhead beyond all categories as well as a three-fold god subsisting in the fullness of being (pleroma), or light. This divine realm of fullness of being transcends the place in the world where matter exists; these two realms are separated by a great barrier (horos). How these realms became separate is a matter of diverse speculation, however, what is certain among the Gnostics is that our world was not created by the god of light, but rather by an entity that resulted from a deficiency in the pleroma. This deficiency came about either through progressive degeneration as the outflow of being got further and further from its source, or through a conscious withdrawal of divine will (thelema) from the outer reaches.
By whatever process, lesser independent entities arose in the graduated levels (called aeons) of the new cosmos. These entities were called archons. One of these archons is the entity—or demiurge—that created our world of matter. This entity is identified by some Gnostics with Jehova (YHVH), the god of the Old Testament. Finally, it was held that man, as a mixed entity consisting of elements with origins in both the world of light (of God) and the world of darkness (of the demiurge), could only be redeemed by knowledge (gnosis). This knowledge was a direct experience of being, not something acquired by learning or even by conclusions reached by logical methods. The demiurge Jehovah demanded faith (pistis); the "Good God" could only be reached through gnosis.6
The Saturnian Archetype
From the perspective of FS teachings, the essences
of the planets are complex entities. The central focus
of the Brotherhood is the Saturnian complex, which
we will refer to here as an "archetype." From an
aeonic perspective, the planetary complex surrounding
Uranus is also important in FS teachings. A review of any modern astrological text will show what the common views of Saturnian characteristics are: practical, cautious, constructive, responsible, patient, ambitious, thrifty, reliable and self-disciplined. Negative characteristics might include: mean, narrow minded, severe, aloof, dogmatic, heartless, and cruel. Some of the older characteristics of Saturn were taken over by Uranus. Again, a review of standard texts will show certain Uranian characteristics: humanitarian, friendly, kind, independent, original, inventive, strong willed, versatile, loathing restriction. Negative characteristics might be: eccentric, perverse, rebellious.7
A synthesis of all these characteristics will basically give the entire picture of the Saturno-Uranian complex as it is projected in the ideology of the FS.
In the Saturn-Gnosis the planet and archetype of Saturnus is the focal point for the manifestation of the Demiurge. This Demiurge is identified with Lucifer— the Bearer of Light—as the higher octave of Saturn. In this capacity it is the "Guardian of the Threshold" to higher initiation and being.8
According to secret FS teachings, Saturnus is the Great Judge that manifests justice; he also brings reason and intelligence, and governs all standards of weights, measurements, and number. He is the Lord of the Seven Dwellings (= planetary genii of the outer realm), and governor of the revealed world and lord over life and death, and over the light and darkness. Saturnus is seen as the breaker of cosmic order and unity—thus he instituted death, causing regeneration and change to come into being. One of the ways in which he broke the cosmic order was in the revelation of divine secrets to mankind.9 For this he was punished. Thus in many ways Saturnus is identical with Prometheus of Greek tradition, and is certainly to be identified as well with the Serpent of Paradise.
This Demiurge Saturnus is identified with the number 666. He is the Beast 666, manifest in the Man (or Men) 666, and in the Living Center of the Sun—Sorath 666. 10
Further Luciferian aspects of the Demiurge Saturnus will be explored below when we discuss the specifically Luciferian/Satanic 11 facets of the Saturn-Gnosis. What is important to realize at this juncture is that Saturn is seen not in an exoteric sense—relevant primarily to the non-elect of Saturn—but rather in an esoteric sense relevant to his chosen ones. Here Saturn is seen as the tester and judge, and ultimately as the initiator into higher knowledge and power. This capacity is further amplified by the underlying Uranian influence.
Besides these general teachings on the nature of the Demiurge Saturnus, the FS has a special doctrine, particular to it, concerning an entity attached to the planet Saturn and active on the Earth, called the GOTOS. This is the specific egregore or daimonion of the Brotherhood, of which the Grand Master 33° is the personal representative. The GOTOS functions in a way similar to the way the Secret Chiefs worked in the Golden Dawn system. The belief of this system of lodges having hidden, praeterhuman intelligences at their esoteric heads is commonly held in the FS. Members would, for example, say that Baphomet was the lodge daimonion of the Knights Templar.
The name GOTOS is actually a formula made up of the initial letters in the official name of the 33° : Gradus Ordinis Templi Orientis Saturni.12 The daimonion GOTOS is understood as a preexisting entity, but it is also used as the egregore of the lodge. An egregore is a sort of "group spirit" or thought-form magically created by a community of people from its collective ideals. The egregore can be seen as a collective hypnotic suggestion which can be experienced directly, if subjectively, by the participants in rituals wherein the egregore is invoked. This tends to take on objective reality as the experience of the egregore becomes an experience that is shared within lodges.13
GOTOS guides the initiate toward divinity. It has a dark and light aspect and stands beyond all notions of good and evil. This is related to the +/-Absolutum. The initiate who has been informed by the GOTOS will combine the Apollonian and Dionysian within him—he will put the Apollonian in the center of his world-view, but will joyously observe the sacramental daemonic liturgy of life and death. The magical synthesis of this duality is thought to make it easy for the initiate to "change raiments" (i.e., to die), as he passes from one plane of being to another.14
Jananda, writing as Aythos, defines the GOTOS in the following terms: "The GOTOS, as a magnetic accumulator in the Saturn-sphere, stores .. . projected magical powers in the causal sphere through the Chain of Brotherhood."15
Here it is clear that the egregore is intended to work in a particular magical way. It is a kind of "battery" which can be charged with the psychic energy of the lodge. This "battery" is given a particular form, which acts as an access-key to its power. When members of the lodge have need of the accumulated and stored magical energy, they can "tap into" it if they have the proper ritual keys. In the ritual practice of the FS, the GOTOS is especially charged during the Easter Lodge when, through the formation of the magical Chain of Brotherhood, energy is circulated to the GOTOS. In trance states certain initiates of the FS could actually gain "astral" visions of the humanoid appearance of the GOTOS. This image was at some point cast in a sculpture by Sorella Gabriele and set up in the Lodge Temple in Berlin. At one time all members of the FS were to have one of these busts of the "Master Gothos" in their private sanctuaries (see page 72).
Through the experience of the GOTOS the Saturnian Brother or Sister is able to feel directly the qualities of personality that he or she is expected to develop as an initiate of the FS: compassionless love, willpower, resolution, severity (with him or herself and others). These are developed in order to create the conditions for higher spiritual development through mastery of one's own self and the environment. In other words these are the characteristics of the Saturnian magician. Gregorius himself, in a poem published in Saturn-Gnosis 1 (1928), described the GOTOS as a leader on the path into the solitude of Saturnian-Uranian knowledge (a knowledge into which each must go alone). He portrays the "love" of Saturn as "severity," but declares that whoever can withstand the tests will ultimately be greeted as a friend and brother.16
Aim of the FS
The Lodge Concept
The Brotherhood of Saturn characterizes itself as
a "just, enlightened, perfect, secret, magical, ritual
lodge." Each of these terms further defines and clarifies the nature of the FS. 17 It is "just" or "righteous" in that all initiates are ethically trained in order to become balanced, productive and most importantly conscious members of the lodge and of society as a whole. In Masonic terms, the new initiate is compared to a rough-hewn stone which is to be finished by the mason.
By "enlightened" it is meant that the FS is of Gnostic origin, i.e., it is involved with the effort to gain direct experience and vision of the divinity. True to Gnostic doctrine, the FS holds that this understanding must come from outside the limitations of normal deductive or inductive logic. Magical work is made up of experience and only the elect may ever truly understand it.
The FS is a "secret" lodge in that the public identities of the members are supposed to be unknown to the other members. Each new initiate is given a lodgename which he or she is to be known by in lodgerelated affairs. During the ritual lodge work which takes place when a new initiate is received, his public name along with his lodge name are burned together in the brazier to bind them together "astrally."
"Ritualistic" means that the lodge celebrates certain ritual ceremonies at appointed times as an integral part of its overall work. The most sacred night is that of "Good Saturday"—when in the lore of the Christians it is said that Christ was in the Underworld preaching to the "good pagans."
The word "magical" here denotes the idea that the lodge works with invocations and evocations of entities from beyond the mundane realm.
It is a "Brotherhood" in that the bonds made within it are intended to continue beyond death on the "mental plane." In the concept of Brotherhood both men and women are included.
Among the highest aims of the FS is the spiritual perfection of its initiates. But this is not really seen as an end in itself, but rather as a means to the elevation of the consciousness of the lodge as a whole, which in turn leads to a sympathetic raising of consciousness in the world outside the lodge.
An esoteric aim of the lodge especially pursued by the High Grade Masters (30°—33°) is the binding of the so-called "outer lodge," i.e. the FS as it is known in the world, to the "inner lodge" which exists on the "mental plane."
It is from this inner lodge that the High Grade initiates are to receive instructions for magical work to be disseminated within the order. Through this interaction, the two lodges, the inner and outer, begin to reach higher and higher levels of harmony.
Additionally, the FS, as a Thelemic order, is concerned with activating the Law of Thelema on this planet. In the higher grades it is taught that the higher sense of the Law of Thelema involves the binding of humanity closer to the Saturnian influence.19
The Way of Saturn
The path of Saturnian initiation is one often
wrapped in darkness in which the initiate finds the
light. It is one of solitude (as the FS has come to recognize the existential problem of modern humanity),
which it has incorporated into its program. As an order the FS provides a definite initiatory path and
curriculum which is particular unto itself. Despite the recognition of the initiate's lonely path, the FS tries to provide a magical environment in which the individual can most clearly find his or her way to the Guardian of the Threshold—and beyond.
The cultivation of solitude is a primary task of the Saturnian brother or sister. As the initiate has chosen a pathway to higher knowledge through the Saturnian sphere, he has naturally isolated himself from the mass of humanity. By so doing he has also liberated himself from a vast number of the influences of the masses, influences that are detrimental to his initiatory progress. The initiate's need for this spiritually undifferentiated humanity becomes less and less as his progress accelerates.
So despite his solitude (and more to the point, because of it) he is happy as a self-contained individual. Because he stands more and more outside the standards of common human measurements and evaluations, the Saturnian brother has progressively less spiritual need of common human society. The solitude is a joyous one, mainly because the initiate is always conscious of, and focused on, his initiatory aims.20
This cultivation of magical and initiatory solitude, when applied to the FS as a body, manifests as an elitist philosophy. As a link in the self-contained Chain of Brotherhood, the initiate is not only able to overcome in perfect serenity all difficulties that might arise in life, but also to put behind him all the doctrines and dogmas of the outmoded religions of the masses—Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc. He knows that the gnosis of the Absolutum (= "divinity as an immaterial spectrum") is an unattainable goal for the mass of humanity given its present state of evolution.21 Knowing this, the FS does not reject humanity, but merely takes a more realistic view of it, and attempts to accelerate the evolution of mankind by means of the magical/initiatory tools at its disposal.
The main spiritual tool of the FS is the initiation and transformation of individual brothers and sisters. This is done through magical training and ritual initiation. Through years of concentrated meditative and contemplative work in which he has been very severe with himself, the chela acquires the Saturnian attributes of seriousness, concentration, and critical thinking, as well as the Uranian qualities of intuition and knowledge. One of the first steps in this training is the rejection of speculative fantasies, and the concentration on fact and intellectual pursuit.
This, it would appear, is the best foundation for more occult or magical practices. Eventually, by following the magical curriculum of the FS, the brother or sister will become the master of all spheres of activity and endeavor. The initiate will become master of both the dark and white lights, and will be able to command the daemons of the nether regions as well as the angels of the mental spheres.22
Anyone already familiar with the work and curriculum of modern occult lodges will have noticed the unusual emphasis found in the FS on the "dark side" of the initiatory process. This, of course, originates to some extent from the Saturnian archetype itself as it is commonly understood. But there are further mysteries behind this that we will explore later. For now let it suffice to say that the FS preserves a gnosis of the shadow side of the light, the "nightside of being." In Kabbalistic terms this is known as the qliphothic realm. However, and this is the pivotal point, at the same time the FS tries to cultivate the highest ethical standards when dealing with these forces.23 This is another instance of the Saturnian tendency to synthesize opposites into a dynamic process.
In more esoteric terms this describes the alchemical process of coagulating the Saturnian lead with the Solar gold, or in astrological terms the resting Lion is driven to the SaturnianGoat from where it can descend to rule in an enlightened condition in the realm of Earth. Common to all these processes is the idea of a coagulation (a synthesis) of the extremities of a polarized system. Consequential to this process is an emphasis on the "dark side" which is just as essential as the "light side." This is in contrast to the average modern occult lodges, which shun any reference to the darkness and pursue a unipolar development. This curiously enough leads them into an entanglement with the problem aspects of dualism—for the darkness abideth forever.
In the final degrees of Saturnian initiation the brother or sister can fearlessly gaze upon the Guardian of the Threshold and the gate will be opened to him/ her that he/she may pass into the trans-Saturnian spheres. This may, it appears, come at the end of the brother's/sister's present incarnation. In any event, they will remain an integral part of the Brotherhood. The abyss does not frighten them as they prepare for their next incarnation, in which they may continue to serve the Earth in the interests of Saturn.25
Or they may permanently enter into the existence of the archedaimonium in order to fulfill some higher tasks in the inner order. Whatever they do, they do it of their own truly free wills. By the time they reach this stage of initiation, the powers of life and death are in their hands, and these powers they can use as they will. The High Grade initiate "will always re-crystallize himself, even after he loses his present form."26
In an aeonic perspective, as understood within the FS, it is becoming more possible in the rising "Emerald Dawn" of the Saturnian-Uranian age to reform humanity in the light of this dawn. Ultimately, the goal is to bring this process to fruition, and to realize the exalted state of solitary freedom.27
Astral Gnosis
As the name of the order indicates, the Fraternitas Saturni places a heavy emphasis on astrological
doctrines or astrosophy. The teachings which involve
Saturn are derived from a basically Gnostic cosmology, in which the planet Saturn is identified with the Demiurge and with the Guardian of the Threshold
(Hüter der Schwelle), who comes between the initiate
rising through the planetary spheres and their access
to the firmament and the light.28
As mentioned before, the archetype of Saturn as portrayed in the FS is a
manifold which fits into a complex cosmology. [Ancient of Days? DC]The FS teaches an astrosophical cosmogony and anthropogony (how the world and mankind came into being), as well as a unique cosmology describing the map of the world as it is now. Many elements of its cosmogony and eschatology are derived from the mystical German cosmologist Hans Hörbiger, who is perhaps best known from the portrayal of his ideas in The Morning of the Magicians.29 Most significant, however, are the FS doctrines concerning the procession of the equinoxes, which heralds the coming of the Age of Aquarius. The FS has a special perspective on this New Age.
Astrosophy
According to FS doctrines, on the seventh day of
creation an angel (= Lucifer-Saturn) emanated from
the Absolutum (= the Kabbalistic ain soph). This angel
was given rulership over the outermost sphere and
became the Guardian of Time and Eternity. This entity
stood at the outer limits of the limitless, girding itself
in space and being and all creation. (The Gnostics also
sometimes ascribed this function to Leviathan—the
ouroboros—the serpent at the edge of the firmament
grasping its own tail.) This angel, or god, rebelled against the static, established cosmic order and set
into motion the forces of change and evolution, which
also imply death and destruction. This rebellion is
referred to in Judeo-Christian mythology as the "War
in Heaven," and the angel or daemon is sometimes
identified as (Hebrew) Abaddon or (Greek) Apollyon.
Reference to this may be found in Isaiah 14:12-15
and in Revelations 9:1. By breaking the static cosmic
order the Rebel—Lucifer—became the creator of the
visible world. This battle still rages between the polar
opposites of the outer Saturnian sphere and the inner
Solar Logos, with the Earth in the middle as the main
field of battle.30 What for the most part seems to be a Gnostic cosmology has been deeply influenced by the theories of Hans Hörbiger (1860-1931). Hörbiger believed that there were two principal forces contending in the universe: cosmic fire and cosmic ice (or German: Welteis). This fits admirably well with Germanic ideas of cosmogony, of course.31 For Hörbiger the cosmos was constantly expanding and contracting. It did this from central points. The primeval cosmos spewed out galaxies, galaxies spewed forth suns, and suns emitted planets. But the centripetal force of cosmic ice will cause each in its turn to collapse back in on itself. Into the solar system there have also wandered bodies that did not originally belong to this system, e.g. the Earth's moon(s), and the planets beyond Saturn. These trans-Saturnian planets belonged to the neighboring solar system of Alcyone in the Constellation of the Swan (Cygnus). In time these trans-Saturnian planets will be absorbed by Alcyone and eventually our Sun will unite with that star as well.32
According to FS doctrines concerning the history of the Earth, there have been several moons orbiting the planet at one time or another. These moons were eventually drawn into the Earth by the centripetal force of "cosmic ice" as delineated by Hörbiger. There was a moon over "Lemuria" and subsequently one over "Atlantis;" both were catastrophically pulled to the surface of the Earth. Two twin moons, a white one, Luna, and a black one, Lilith, were then pulled into the Earth's orbit. The Earth has already absorbed the black moon, leaving Luna yet to be pulled down in a world catastrophe.33
These astrophysical phenomena are seen as the outward manifestations of the "War in Heaven." The Luciferian Principle is understood as an expelled spark of the divine which has struggled through the darkness of matter, where this principle manifests itself as crystalline structure and as light. It struggled its way further through the kingdoms of plants and animals, and eventually emerged in humankind where the spark was liberated. Although generally ignorant of its true home and origin, this spark does carry in itself the memories of its primal state.34
It is a mainstay of Saturnian gnosis that the darkness contains the light. Therefore the darkness is necessary for light to exist. It follows then that in fact the darkness is superior to the light—ohne Finsternis leuchtet kein Licht! This light is activated within the matrix of darkness by the Logos—of the Demiurge Saturnus—that constantly speaks the words: "Let there be light!" The outermost station of this light is in the planetary sphere of Saturn, where the light melts into darkness.35
As the solar system stands now, there is a dynamic tension between the centrifugal force (the outer limits of which are defined by Saturn) and the centripetal force (the center of which is the Sun). The centrifugal force—outward moving power—is the force of creativity and manifestation wielded by the Demiurge Saturnus, which is an expression of that force. This is the "divine negative" as the Creative Principle.36 The centripetal force—the centralizing or concentrative power—is that of restriction and limitation ruled by the Solar Logos: the Chrestos Principle. Chrestos is Greek for "the good one." These two forces are in continuous balance and each force contains the seed-principle of its opposite. There is, therefore, a profound and incomprehensible darkness at the center of the Solar Logos. This is the object of the Saturnian Solar Cult. At the same time, those who serve Saturn are also conducting a spiritualized solar cult in that they are promoting the return of the lost son (Saturn),who was hurled out of the Sun to his paternal Solar sphere.37
According to FS teachings, the Earth is also a complex sphere. Parallel to the physical plane of existence on this planet are two other planes or dimensions: the astral underlying this physical plane and the mental overlying it. Magically these are respectively seen as the darkness and light the magician must master in his work. Interestingly, the secret doctrine has it that the astral dimension has historically been interpreted as "hell," while the mental zone has been seen as "heaven."38
Kabbalistically, the effects of the negative causal principle of Saturn, which corresponds to the third sephira, called Binah (Understanding), is reflected in the ninth sephira, called Yesod (Foundation), which corresponds to the Moon. Therefore, in the astrosophical doctrines of the FS, the effects of Saturn (= 3) are transmitted through the Moon (= 9)—the power of Saturn squared (32 ).39
The state of dynamic tension in which the cosmos finds itself is, according to the laws of cosmic ice, eventually going to collapse. In fact, this collapse is already underway. Astronomically, this is a process of various planetary bodies being reabsorbed into the Sun. On the spiritual level this is tantamount to the principles, of which these planets are manifestations, being redeemed. Four planets have been redeemed as the FS doctrine has it. Two, Vulkan and Hermes, have already been consumed by the Sun, while Mercury and Venus have been drawn within its sphere of influence. At some point, Jupiter and Saturn will merge, combining the mildness of Jupiter with the severity of Saturn. This will give rise to a new Golden Age.40 Eventually all the planets of the solar system will be thus "redeemed," bringing to an end this cycle of existence. In this whole process Gregorius said that the "task of spiritual humanity is to participate consciously in the evolution of the Earth in order to redeem her."41
AEONIC COSMOSOPHY
The Dark Side of
the Aquarian Age
The strict doctrines concerning cosmic aeons (from
Greek aion, age) have their origin in Gnostic teachings
of the early centuries of our era. This concept, although
it had a certain magical role in ancient times, became
enormously important with the magical work of
Aleister Crowley following 1904. The FS, inspired by
Crowley and by the current astrological speculations
concerning the dawn of a New Age of Aquarius, developed its own aeonic philosophy. It is essential to understand this philosophy if the whole work of the
Brotherhood is to be grasped. The ancient Gnostic sects of the Mediterranean and Near Eastern regions held that the aeons were the emanations of God. These emanations descended from the fullness (pleroma) of God's light into the darkness. Aeons are made up of an array of elements, the archons that rule them, the angels (Greek aggeloi, messengers) that provide for their dynamic interaction with the cosmos, the "reasons" (Greek logoi, or "words"), etc. In Gnostic practice these aeons were seen as barriers through which the initiate would have to pass after death until he gained the pleroma. In actual Gnostic teaching, then, an aeon is a phenomenon of time/ space.42 The Earth may pass though "ages" ruled over by archons ("rulers") of astrologically determined periods of time, but the individual soul of a man must also pass through the barriers of the aeon in order to return to the light. So much for the ancient doctrine.
In Cairo, Egypt, Aleister Crowley received the text of a book dictated to him by a preternatural entity identified as Aiwass or Aiwaz. This happened in 1904, and from that time on Crowley began to preach the advent of a new aeon, the Aeon of Horus, which in turn superseded the Aeons of Isis and Osiris. It is clear that Crowley understood himself as an agent and an indispensable element of this new aeon, the Word of the Aeon made flesh. From that point he was to function as a Magus (although he was not to claim that grade until 1915), and as the Utterer of an Aeonic Word. Theoretically, it became his task and his curse to attempt to articulate this Word which is____
(Thelema), the True Will. In this the Great Beast had synthesized the old Gnostic idea of a natural progression of the aeonic rulers on Earth and the idea of a godlike intervention from above, exemplified in the Gnostic Christology.
Crowley had conjured a new way of magical thinking with his aeonic formulation, and it was one that struck a few responsive cords. Gregor A. Gregorius accepted the advent of the aeonic current of Thelema but did not except Crowley's system (A. A. or O.T.O.), nor his authority in non-aeonic matters.
In 1948 Crowley's own disciple, Charles Stansfeld Jones (Frater Achad), claimed to have uttered a new Word superseding that of Thelema. Achad's Word was supposedly Ma-Ion or Ma'at—the Egyptian goddess of truth and justice. All this turned out rather badly, as Jones ended his days in obscurity and insanity.
Of course, many hold to orthodox notions of "aeonic questions" pronounced more or less clearly by Aleister Crowley, while others even attempt to work with Achad's formulation. The dynamic understanding of the Setian Xeper, as continually articulated by its Magus, provides a more individuated and clearly articulated aeonic pathway than any of the previous attempts to work with such "Aeonic Words." In any event, some perspective on these aeonic concepts cannot be ignored when one is trying to understand the history of magical thinking in twentieth-century Western tradition.
In the FS the advent of the new aeon is seen first and foremost in astrological terms. It is the equivalent of the Age of Aquarius, ruled by the planetary archon Saturnus. The role of the Master Therion's Aeonic Word seems to be of secondary importance. What might be of widespread interest is the magico-astrological insight into the fact that the Aquarian Age will be one ultimately ruled by the dark Saturno-Uranian archon or demiurge.
The cosmosophy of the FS is dependent on the natural procession of the equinoxes into the sign of Aquarius, which as a sign of the zodiac is traditionally said to be ruled by the planet Saturn. With the discovery of trans-Saturnian planets, and after astrology had synthesized them into its system, the planet Uranus was also said to rule this sign. This physical event, as well as the other astrophysical phenomena taking place in the cosmos and more particularly within our solar system, are reflections of metaphysical events occurring simultaneously with the physical ones. The same can be said for the birth of the solar system, and its eventual entropic collapse.
Although it is stated that "every age or epoch contains within itself the power necessary to its own fulfillment,"43 humanity as a whole resists this realization. It is only open to and known by the truly elect within a society. Humanity is for the most part still dominated by an unyielding law of self-destruction that rules in all realms of being, organic as well as inorganic. Knowledge and experience of the archdaimonic principle embodied in Saturn can, however, free the initiate from the laws of cause and effect. In other terms, man can liberate himself from his own karma.44 Beyond the moral aspects of this, these ideas are also useful in formulating a notion of how Saturnian magic works. It is the progression of the individual beyond the threshold—beyond the barrier—in order to become separate from the internal, objective cosmos. In theory, the Aquarian Age, the aeon of Saturn, should be manifest first and foremost within the magically elect.
The influence of the coming Aquarian Age is being guided by the Demiurge Saturnus, which is in turn being transformed through Uranian influence. The present, fading Piscean Age is (was) ruled by Jupiter, under the hidden influence of Neptune. The Neptunian influence is thought to be exercising tremendous force at the close of the Piscean Age in the area of politics; hence the upsurge in collectivistic and communistic ideals. This tide will, however, suddenly turn, and this influx will be destroyed by the surging Uranian power. According to Saturnian teachings, the confusion of today's world is mainly due to the convergence of the two competing and conflicting aeonic streams, the incoming Aquarian and the outgoing Piscean.
It will be up to the emerging Saturno-Uranian spirit and its elect to bring a new order out of this chaos. In this process the old nature of Saturn is undergoing a transformation as well. It is becoming more "spiritual," while at the same time it retains its basic quality of stability and solidity. The synthesis of these qualities leads to a powerful balance in which the powers of the spirit are directed and manifested in exacting, precise ways which are as yet unheard of.45
In the Saturnian view, there does seem, to be sure, a dark side of the Age of Aquarius. Based on some fairly objectively interpreted astrological teachings, it could be concluded that the Aquarian Age will only appear to be one of rational and humanitarian egalitarianism. The Saturno-Uranian reality looming behind this world of appearances will be one of an enlightened system of control by a ruling elite—the final reign of the Illuminati.
The Luciferian Principle
Although in later times the Luciferian aspect of
the Fraternitas Saturni might have been toned down—
especially in materials meant for public consumption—
the ideology of Gregorius himself was permeated with
this Luciferian Principle. The FS has its own mytho-magical understanding of what the nature of this
entity is, how it relates to the order's astrosophy, and
to the initiatory work of the order. Gregorius, although
not as ingenious a poet or artist as Crowley, was
nevertheless more straightforward in his approach to
the role of darkness and the Luciferian light than was
the Master Therion. Perhaps it is for this reason that
Gregorius was less "perplexed" than Crowley. In the FS, Lucifer is understood as the Light Bearer for mankind. As a result of being given this light by Lucifer, which continues to be reborn in every generation of humanity, mankind will be able to take a measure of egocentric power from the solar Logos. In this way Lucifer is the savior of humankind, at least for that part of humanity that has been able to comprehend his Principle. The essence of the Saturnian cult is the effort to understand this entity and to consciously make use of its power in the service of the solar Logos (Sorath).46
Gregorius was always anxious to point out that this Luciferian mythology was in fact older than the ignorant misunderstandings and willful distortions of the Judeo-Christian tradition. He claimed to have his 54 / Fire and Ice knowledge from a pre-Christian and/or non-Christian sect of "Barbelo-Gnostics."47 In the FS Lucifer is the embodiment of enlightenment and reason; there are none of the destructive slanders against him as in the Christian tradition.
However he came by it, Gregorius does seem to have a correct interpretation of the relative roles of that entity referred to as the Light-Bearer (Greek Eosphoros) and that referred to as "God." Perhaps the oldest version of the Lucifer myth is that of the Greek Prometheus ("he who has foreknowledge"). Traditions differ on many details of the Promethean mythology, but what is essential is that Prometheus, wishing to help and preserve mankind (some say he even created mankind), brought the divine fire—or higher consciousness—and bestowed it upon men. This was the first enlightenment of humanity. Zeus, however, was angered and punished Prometheus by hurling him into the depths of Erebus. There he was staked to a mountain—an image prefiguring the crucifixion by hundreds of years. The point is that the "creator god," here Zeus (in the Judeo-Christian tradition Jehova), wants to keep humanity in subjugation and slavery to the "natural laws" which he has set up—but a rebel figure, here Prometheus (elsewhere Lucifer) befriends man and brings him the means to become as one of the gods. This is the fundamental idea underlying the Luciferian stance of the FS and its connection to pre and non-Christian attitudes toward the myth.
Because of the general domination of the Judeo-Christian mythic scheme in medieval and post medieval European culture, the FS also, of course, deals with the Luciferian mythos from that standpoint, taking a decidedly Ophite (or Naassene) view. The myth is most readily available in the Judeo-Christian canon in Genesis 3. A close and objective reading of this myth cannot but prove the Saturnian point: that the Serpent (Hebrew: nechesh) is the friend and brother of Adam, while the Lord God (Hebrew: yahweh elohim) is only his keeper and shepherd. The rebel spirit Lucifer opened the way for man's rebellion and hence his salvation; Jahveh would have held man in the eternal bondage of ignorance. The Serpent gave Knowledge (Gk. gnosis)—and thus is the true friend of mankind and his true liberator. Any other interpretation of the text of Genesis 3 would seem wildly imaginative.
Following basically Gnostic thought, the doctrines of the FS contain a Christology that is consistent with this view of the Eden myth. They would hold that the Ophite/Naassene teaching that the Serpent (Heb. nechesh) in the Garden of Eden and the Anointed One (Heb. messiach)—the Christos—are one in the same. This could be backed up with the Kabbalistic interpretation of nechesh = N.Ch.Sh. = 50.8.300. = 358 and messiach = M.Sh.Y.Ch. = 40.300.10.8. = 358. That both, according to the esoteric laws of gematria, render the sum of 358 demonstrates their essential unity. The Christos is a messenger and son of the Serpent, therefore, and not of the Creator. This Christos preaches gnosis (knowledge) and not pistis (faith). The Serpent of Eden is further identified with the brazen serpent of Exodus and with the serpent entwined staff of Hermes, the caduceus.48
According to FS teaching, the Serpent of Eden may also be identified with Satana, the feminine aspect of Satanas. This in turn corresponds to the kundalini—serpent power—of Indian tantric lore. The truly beneficent principle is, however, identified as the Chrestos, not Christos. The Chrestos, the Good-One, is the designation of the beneficial solar entity.
Lucifer would also appear to have a central role in the origin of humanity, and in the origin of death. It is thought that Lucifer brought about physical procreation through a primeval sexual act with Cheva (Eve). With procreation came death; but of course without death there is no change, no evolution. Thus the opening of the gate of death, the act of "sinking into matter," was a necessary step to link man to the current whereby Paradise can again be gained. But this time humanity will do it consciously and of its own will, and thus gain eternal life and wisdom. Then man will have truly become his own god—which is the path of Saturn.49
Also in accordance with its Gnostic heritage, the FS doctrines lay a strong emphasis on dualism. Not so much a good-versus-evil dualism, but rather a beyond good-and-evil dualism summed up in the Saturn Gnostic dictum: lux e tenebris—Light from the Darkness! In an article entitled "Saturn-Yoga," Gregorius stated: "Without Darkness there is no Light. The Light shines in the Darkness and the Darkness is more powerful than the Light!"50 This is an idea we have already met which simply states that the Light is held in a matrix of Darkness, that both are necessary to existence, and that it is the goal of the practitioner of Saturnian Gnosis to gain experience in, and mastery over, both the Light and the Darkness. The view is one clearly shown in the familiar yin-yang symbol used by the Taoists:
Figure 2.1: The Yin-Yang
in which the seed of the opposite quality is shown to
be embedded in the depths of its counterpart. Thus
there is a heart of Darkness within the Sun, and the
Saturnian Darkness shines with a profound Light. The true god of Saturnian Gnosis is a Janus-faced entity—Baphomet: Temohpab—a god containing both a positive and a negative side. Both paths, that of the Right and that of the Left, lead to the Absolutum, which stands beyond good and evil. Again, true to Gnosticism, the Saturnian emphasizes that the initiate must enter a path—and work and experience.51
The Luciferian mythos is, of course, also accounted for in astrophysical terms within the teachings of the FS. The "Fall" of Lucifer from "Heaven" is equated with the physical event of the expulsion of the planetary masses from the solar sphere. Lucifer is identified with the "higher octave" of Saturn (in astrology this is also equated with the planet Uranus, the planet of rebellion). In this planetary position, Saturn-Lucifer has been able to rule all the planetary entities within its orbit, being especially forceful on the planet Earth. Again the Earth is the main field of contention between the Solar Logos and the Luciferian Principle.52 The initiate struggles toward a harmonious arrival at the Theonium of Saturn, and not toward the Sun, because the Sun would destroy and consume him. The Saturnian sphere offers enlightenment, control, and independence. This always returns to the essentially complex structure of that which is called Saturn. It must always be remembered, for example, that the Saturnian sphere contains the seed of the Chrestos Principle.53
Gregorius poetically described some of the Luciferian Gnosis in a poem entitled Fallen Angel, which was first published in the Blätter (January 1955), p. 11 :
For millions of years he stood before God's Throne
as a guardian, watchman, and caretaker.
But when the son returned,
his hand grasped only emptiness.
He stood before God and saw him not.
He called unto God in vain
and his soul wept.
But in the distance glowed in the firmament
a blue star, and a voice spoke unto him:
I seek Thee, come Thou to me,
give me Thy hands.
A pale visage shone in the distance,
and a slender hand began to work.
Aeons descended from him
to sink into the sea of ages.
The great angel standing there,
was once his brother and commander,
who now has left him.
Now his voice again calls to him—
and through the spheres his call resounds
out to one, who created him:
"Satanas Triumphator!"
The basis for the ambivalent stance of the FS toward the whole Luciferian aspect in the Saturnian Gnosis is clearly revealed in the doctrines concerning the actual esoteric structure of the entity Saturnus. Around the physical planet Saturn is arrayed a complex of entities constituting internal and external aspects, as well as higher and lower octaves of the planet. A composite of these might appear as shown in Figure 2.2 on the following page.
As has been intimated, the outer and ruling aspect of the planetary genius is that of Saturn with all its previously outlined characteristics. A part of this is the egregore of the FS itself—the GOTOS. Deep within there is, however, the creative solar spark called the Chrestos-Principle.54 These two aspects can work harmoniously and consciously together in the controlled sphere of Saturn. This enlightened state is facilitated especially when harmony with the higher octave of the planet, Lucifer—the Light-Bearer—is concentrated on. The higher octave is also harmonized with the planetary spirit of Uranus, with which Saturn works for the current aeonic transformation. In the lower octave, Saturn is connected to the Satanic force. This is the power of rebellion, adversity, and death, all of which are absolutely necessary to man's path of attainment—to his Becoming. However, this purely "Satanic" aspect can be ultimately as dangerous and destructive to consciousness as is the self-obliterating power of the Sun. The Saturnian brother must remain concentrated on the higher octave in order to remain fully conscious and independent (consistent with the Luciferian Principle), and not fall into the lower to become a mere tool of the Demiurge.
In the working or ritual aspects of the FS curriculum the Luciferian Principle is also highly evident. Some of this will be far more fully explored in the practices and rituals of the Brotherhood in Chapter 4. However, at this time it is worth pointing out that the "Sacrament of Light" in the FS is understood primarily as a Luciferian Mass in which the initiate experiences the transcendent in the immanent. This experience leads to meranoi—transformations in the initiate. The ultimate end of these transformations, according to FS doctrine, is the cessation of the necessity of incarnation, as the individual light merges with the Light of the World.55
This transformation in the Luciferian Light is not completely manifested in the grade system of the FS until the 33°. The complete name of this degree makes the nature of this attainment clear: "Gradus Ordinis Templi Orientis Saturni im Orden des dunklen Lichts" (i.e., Grade of the Order of the Eastern Temple of Saturn in the Order of the Dark Light).56 Ultimately, this work does not end in the obliteration of the self in the ain soph, but rather in the deification of that transformed self. This is perhaps most lyrically outlined in a poem he wrote in 1943 but which was not published until March 1955, in Blätter:
Thou Art Thine Own God
1. Thou must affirm the God in Thee, for every
doubt takes power from Thee.
Every hour of Thy divine knowledge brings
Thee a step higher in Thy journey. 2. Thou canst unfold the spark, that God bestowed on Thee, to a pure flame that makes worlds fall and rise again, God is in Thee!—Thou art Thyself God!
3. Thus Thou canst have Gods enthroned in Thee build altars, ignite sacrificial flames, for every dream—and form of thought is Thy power, and every force of desire takes a form and shape.
4. Thus art Thou the shaper of transcendental worlds, imaginary creator of Thine own realm, Thou art priest, magus, royal lord— and prince in Thy soul's expanse.
5. Cyprus groves stand round Thy palaces of thought and blue waves lap at the marble steps and ships fare out upon the seas, for Thee, who wearest the purple.
6. The Earth is Thy sorrow that shaped the knowledge and bitter fruits of Thy Golgotha— And nevertheless the call rings out to Thee: Lo! I am here!
The Luciferian Principle is essential to the aeonic philosophy of the FS. In their astrosophy, the spiritual changes coming about in the world which are mirrored in astrophysical processes (i.e., here the procession of the equinox into the zodiacal sign of Aquarius ruled by Saturn/Uranus) are tantamount to the advent of an Age of Lucifer. This is what Gregorius must have recognized in Aleister Crowley's "Equinox of the Gods" concept, in which the Age of Osiris gives way to the Age of Horus.57
But it must be quickly pointed out that Gregorius had his own ideas of what all this meant and how the aeonic process worked. Generally speaking the ideas of Gregorius were more consistent, mainly because he did not shrink from the "dark aspects" and clear Luciferian connotations. The Lucifer of the FS system is understood first and foremost as a part of the Saturnian planetary sphere and is clearly identified with pre- or non-Christian Gnostic concepts. Therefore any attempt to characterize the FS as "Satanic" in the Christian sense of the term must fail.
THE YOGA OF THE DARK LIGHT
FS Sexual Mysticism
It is probably in the area of the practice of sexual
magic that the FS has become most notorious in esoteric
circles. This notoriety has chiefly come about through
the publication of reports or isolated documents 58
that perhaps give some idea of the kind of sexual
magic practiced in the FS. But these reports are nevertheless largely taken out of context and therefore can
not give anything but a distorted picture of actual FS
theories and practices. In Chapter 4 we will provide
some practices of Saturnian sex-magic, as well as the
full rite of the Pentalphic Grade, which has until now
only been alluded to in print. The background of sexual magic in the FS is closely related to that of the
O.T.O. as discussed in Chapter 1. However, the FS
under Gregorius developed some of its own ideas,
mainly based on astrosophical and Gnostic precepts,
along with what was at the time (i.e., late 1920's)
modern sexology.59
Here we will try to concentrate
on those concepts and doctrines relatively unique to
the FS.60 For the most part, sex-magical practices in the FS were confined to the work of the 18° (Pentalphic). In this degree the initiate makes a deep study of the sexual magic and mysticism as outlined in the O.T.O. system. It is clear that the whole O.T.O. system—which is supposed to be something more than sex-magic— obviously exerted a strong influence over the FS. The clearest expression of this is in the name GOTOS. Beyond the overt practice of sex-magical techniques, a whole "sexual cosmology" was deeply embedded in FS doctrine.
This teaching is partly taken from tantric and quasi-tantric systems and partly derived directly from Gnostic sexual cosmologies. From tantrism the FS derived its theories of the chakra system in the human body, which was conceived of as being naturally polarized in one way (negatively) in women, and another way (positively) in men.61 A survey of the numerous allegorical and mythic representations of Gnostic cosmologies 62—descriptions of how the world came into being—shows that many of the FS doctrines on sexuality could have possibly been taken from the general picture outlined in Gnosticism. In the ancient gnosis the ultimate god-form manifested from the god-head. This god-form is three-fold, consisting of mind (Greek nous), thought (Greek ennoia) and reason (or word, Greek logos). From this masculine entity emanated the first aeon, which is defined as his own mirror image reflected in the "pure water of light." This first aeon is called either Barbelo or Sophia (wisdom)—the feminine aspect of the father-god—herself androgynous. She is the mother of the Demiurge and is also responsible for implanting the "divine spark" in humanity. This Sophia is regarded ambivalently by the Gnostics as she was the first entity to suffer a "fall," perhaps due to her excessive cravings and curiosities concerning knowledge. This ambivalence is subsequently reflected in human women, and is represented in the esoteric Eden myth by both Lilith and Eve.63 There are obvious correspondences between the relationships of Father—God : Barbelo/ Sophia; Adam : Lilith/Eve; and astronomically, Sun : Moon/Earth, etc. This lore seems to form the matrix of FS sexual mysticism. But it must be remembered that the FS is essentially an eclectic, innovative, and somewhat pragmatic order, so no one set of doctrines tends to dominate it completely. The Saturnian Gnosis is a unique Gnostic teaching.
The very nature of the sexes is, according to the Saturnian Gnosis, a part of the same phenomenal process as the manifestation and evolution of the planetary bodies. Gregorius held that the negatively polarized manifestations of Saturnian and Lunar forces were, on Earth, incarnated in the forms of women, who are the vicars of the Luciferian Principle. The sometimes ambivalent attitude toward this principle leads to an ambivalent stance toward women as a phenomenon. It is even stated at one point that the esotericist should seek to free himself of the feminine daimonium by means of sexual magic.64 In contrast, men are esoterically the manifestation of the Solar and Jupiterian forces. For sex-magical work, of course, women are seen to correspond to the planet Venus, and men to the planet Mars. This will be outlined further in the sections dealing with sex-magical practices.
Gregorius claimed that Karl Kellner (founder of the O.T.O.) taught that sexuality held the key to understanding cosmogony, and that the natural laws of sexuality were a mirror or shadow image of cosmic processes.
The most concentrated manifestation of these cosmic realities were in those physical parts of the sexes which most distinguished one from the other: the sexual organs themselves. Thus, the phallus is a symbol and manifestation of the divine willpower of imagination, of the faculty of image-making. Conversely, the female genitalia, or kteis, is the symbol and manifestation of the plasmic emulsion of expansive chaos, the matrix in which reality takes shape. The manifestation of all realities is then made possible by a willed projection of consciously visualized image into this chaotic matrix.63
There was a relative lack of women initiates in the FS, which is revealed in the rosters printed in some of the interna from the 1950s and early 1960s. This, no doubt, would be explained in poetic terms from the libretto of the opera Die Zauberflöte by W. A. Mozart:
Ein Weib, das Nacht und Tod nicht scheut Ist würdig und wird eingeweiht.66 (Act II, Scene 5)
The essential problem would seem to be that women are thought to be generally shy of the nightside of reality, despite men's hopeful projections upon them. It is truly a special woman who comes to terms with this aspect.
This reference to Mozart's Magic Flute is telling in another way in that it is deemed an important accomplishment in the initiatory progress if the magician can find and work with a woman who embodies his "sister soul."67 Conversely, the woman magician must find her "brother soul."
In its early years the FS was in many ways unable to fulfill its own "New Age" vision of itself with regard to sexual mysticism. From an aeonic perspective perhaps it was just too early. Probably not until the latter half of the 1960s were the aeonic elements in place to give a true expression to "Saturnian sexuality." Much that was lacking seems due to the "nature bound" aspects of sexuality and the aforementioned "ambivalent" attitude toward women. Some greater understanding in these fields has been offered by Frater in his handbuch der Sexualmagie 68
The Yoga of the Dark Light is quite literally the practice of the union, here through sex-magical techniques, with the fleshy embodiment of one's own opposite self. Here, the Dark Light is interpreted as the Saturnian/Luciferian light as incarnate in the sexual partner, with whom ritual coitus or other practices are performed. The Dark Light can also be equated with the magical power of sexuality and of the orgasm.
Nietzschean Thelemism
The official motto of the FS is "Tue was Du willst
ist das ganze Gesetz, es gibt kein Gesetz über tue was
Du willst. Liebe ist das Gesetz—Liebe unter Willen—
Mitleidlose Liebe." (Do what Thou wilt is the whole of the Law, there is no Law beyond do what Thou wilt.
Love is the Law—Love under Will—Compassionless
Love.) The first part of the motto is the familiar
Crowleyan Thelemite formula, which is left unaltered.
The second part, which is the response to the first, has
been slightly altered in Saturnian practice. The words mitleid lose Liebe, which may be translated as "compassionless love," or "love without pity," make the
Saturnian nature of this love clear. It refers to both the
"love" of the Demiurge Saturnus or the GOTOS for his
minions on Earth, i.e. his stern "testing," and to the
kind of "love" that a Saturnian brother should show
toward others. One of Aleister Crowley's most interesting discussions of love is found in his Eight Lectures on Yoga,69 where he says that "love under will" is a unit's "instinct to unite, and the act of uniting... with its opposite." Here Crowley appeals to a model of nature when he says that hydrogen seeks to combine with oxygen and not with other molecules of hydrogen— which is not in the "nature, or the 'true Will,' of hydrogen." Thus Crowley identifies natural order with "true Will."
According to Crowley's theories, if not his own practices, the ultimate act of love should be the act of flinging "ourselves up into the furnace of ecstasy which flames from the abyss of annihilation."70 To avoid and to deny the desirability of this act of love is the essence of Black Magic—as the essence of White Magic is self-annihilation. It seems that it was this aspect that the FS wished to clarify with the addition of the phrase "compassionless love."71
It appears certain that here too the FS doctrines are drawn from Nietzschean concerns. In his great book, Thus spoke Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche devotes a whole section to "On Pitying."72 Here, and in many places elsewhere, Nietzsche equates the act of pitying with that of self-annihilation. Here Nietzsche says indeed "God is dead"—but what does he say killed him?—"his pity (i.e. 'love') for man." Zarathustra preaches "all great love is even above all its pity, for it still wants to create the beloved"— love without pity.
A "pitiful" love is one in which the lover is annihilated by the beloved; love without pity is where the lover—or magician—creates his beloved out of his own self.
So in many ways the FS addition of these two words to the whole Thelemite formula put a whole new perspective on the philosophy. Rather than seeking self-annihilation beyond the threshold, the Saturnian Brother seeks to become his own god. Crowley never tired of calling those who endorsed, or seemed to him to endorse, this path of non-self-annihilation "Black Brothers" (or "Brothers of the Left-hand Path"). Perhaps it was because the Beast himself was one of these (yet denied it, even to himself) that, when confronted with the ultimate moment of truth, he was so "perplexed."73
In summary, the doctrines of the FS are generally consistent with its cosmology and theology (or "daemonology"). The Saturnian brother must enter upon a hard path to be tested. He must be hard on himself, as others will be hard on him. But once he passes through the Threshold into the realm of higher power, the severity of Saturn will be turned in his favor. All of this presupposes a strict set of initiatory standards and a high level of structure. This is the subject of our next chapter.
next
Organization of the Brotherhood of Saturn
notes
page 206 here
http://www.metaphysicspirit.com/books/Fire%20and%20Ice%20-%20The%20Brotherhood%20of%20Saturn.pdf
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