Prolouge



The following Text is by Theodore Reuss, who was involved in the British and German Anarchist movement prior to founding the Ordo Templi Orientis. After accepting the Book of the Law, Liber Legis, he adopted it as the basis of his plans for a Gnostic Communist society. The American Republican version of Thelema as it is popularly promoted today is in complete contrast to what Reuss envisioned for the Order.



Reuss uses the term Christian in it's earliest communal/communist interpretation, that of the Agape Feasts of the oppressed during the age of the Roman Empire. This is the standard use of the term proto-communist as used by Marx and Engels.



Reuss was influenced by the free love movement in Anarchism, and his first anarchist propaganda pamphlet was on 'Free Love", which he published in England and again later in Austria.



He was also influenced by the sexual revolution of the 1920's which was occuring in the Weimar Republic, Swizerland, Paris, and America. The influence of the popular ideas of Frued and those of fellow German Radical Wilhelm Reich, can be

be seen in his call for a sex positive morality. This is very similar though not identical to Reichs work on the Sexual Revolution published during this period.



He accepts the Thelemic doctrine of monism, that is 0=2, there is no division, there is one pantheistic universe. In this he is influenced by Joseph Dietzigen's Cosmological Dialectics, which were published and circulated in England, America and Germany.



He promotes a Prussian or German Socialism obviously as influenced by Oswald Sprengler as by Lafayette. Very much under the influence of the utopian socialists like Saint Simon and Fourrie, where he outlines a social program of reform, based on a communal society of Thelemites.



And these are closed communities, or monastic societies, not unlike the Anabaptist communes. Thelema is advocated as a form of communalistic, communist society, which acts as an example to other communities within society of how a truly free people can live.



This is why the exhortation, Achtung! at the end. For Thelemic Socialism to succeed in changing society, it must be created as a living example to all.



A good lesson for those who would practice Thelemic Magick in the community today. And an excellent antidote to the rampant Nietchiezan super man ideology prevading 'Thelemic individualism' of the current tendencies, sects, cults, orders, associations, lodges, etc. And of course an excellent balance to the writings of the 'imp' Crowley.



The OTO was more than just Crowley, it was Reuss as well until his death. And this is no mere historical blip in the cult of Crowleyainity, the OTO was the first proto-Masonic order in Europe after WWI and the Bolshevik Revolution to accept the Law of Thelema, Liber Legis as a holy text. As such it was NOT merely the toy or pawn of Crowley.



It was an after thought to Crowley after a while, as he continued his Great Work with the A.A. To Reuss and to others it was a continuation of the Pan-Sophist movement in Germany and Europe, a continuation of the Ophidian Gnostic revival in magick. The actual activation of the proto-masonic rituals as an effective magickal ceremony. With the activitation being tantra yoga and sex magick. In this way the writings of the Master Therion fit within the Pan-Sophist Gnostic current as envisioned by Reuss and the OTO.



Today there as many OTO's as there are Crowley Cultus, in fact they are often one in the same. However there is the Thelemic Socialist current of the Reuss OTO which is as different from Crowleyite Thelema as the later Frater Saturni would be from both of them, being an attempt to invoke a Satanic/Saturnian Thelema.



This is not the place to get into a detailed explanation of the OTO's existance sans Crowely and how Crowleyanity dissolved it for the cult of Crowley. I will leave that for a further article.











THE PROGRAMME OF CONSTRUCTION AND THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES



OF THE GNOSTIC NEO-CHRISTIANS O.T.O.





PUBLISHED IN 1920



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Guiding Principles of a new Civilization and Religion.

Mankind, tortured by the World War, needs a new faith, a new

Christianity, and a new civilization built upon it.

That the much praised European civilization and the Christian Church

were unable to prevent the cruelties of this World War or the greed and

hatred of the peace that was meant to end this world war, this alone is

sufficient proof, that Christianity as it reigns to-day, and modern

civilization it created, are no longer capable of living, and must be

replaced by a new Christianity and a new civilization.







But mankind also demands a new faith. Because the old belief in God,

which flowed from the Christian teachings as brewed by the Church

Fathers, has for the great majority of the members of the Christian

Church, long become a fairy-tale, because it was unable to withstand

the biting criticism of modern science. And the belief in mankind

(belief in brotherliness) was exceptionally thoroughly destroyed by the

peace of Versailles , much more than by the events of was themselves.

For the makers of the peace of Versilles had decoyed the peoples of

America and Europe into the field by the slogan: "For Freedom and

Humanity; For Justice and Equality' to fight a crusade against the

Imperialism of German barbarity. And in the end the gentlemen

Clemenceau and Lloyd George exploited the naivete of the German Michel,

who, confiding in the glamour-casting and treacherous promises of the

leaders of the Entente that not the German people, but only the

imperialism of the Hohenzollern was to be exterminated, finally abandon

fighting and resistance, in order to erect the Anglo-French world-

imperialism on the deceived and enslaved German People.







For their own undoing however, Clemenceau and Lloyd George also

destroyed all faith in humanity and brotherliness in their allies,

through the Versailles machinations, so that millions of people,

victors and vanquished alike, have lost all faith in God and man.







The Community of the Gnostic Templars or Neo-Christians, abbreviated as

O.T.O., which already before the was had numerous adherents in America ,

Holland , Bohemia , France , Russia , Italy , etc., now steps out from the

reserve it cultivated until now, in order to bring to tortured mankind

the new Glad Tidings of the Gnostic Christians, and the new

civilization springing therefore.





The message of the O.T.O. is: Freedom, Justice, Love.





The Freedom of the O.T.O. is freedom from Original Sin, and the freedom

to execute the Will of the God-head. It does say in Liber Legis: "Do

what thou wilt". But it is also said: But remember that you will have

to render account for all those deeds! That is the law of Karma.

So that not willfulness and unbridled behaviour, but strict discipline

is "true freedom".







Highest self-culture, iron self-discipline, that is O.T.O. freedom. All

freedom not controlled by strict self-discipline is licentiousness,

willfulness, lawlessness, leading to Chaos.







"Do what thou wilt" is also in no wise identical with "Do what you

like", but "Do what is thy Will, but examine, whether what thou wilt be

God's will also". Only when your will is in agreement with the "Will of

God", can you put it into practice. But then with intense

concentration.







Justice is the second principle and refers to the purpose of man's life

on earth, and the destiny of mortal man. The purpose of man's existence

of earth is: faithful devotion to duty. Everybody must, whether well

born or lowly, educated or uneducated, whether day labourer, peasant,

artisan, professor, judge, merchant, artist or king etc., - simply

everybody must do his duty to his utmost ability wherever fate has put

him. That is his purpose, the fulfillment of God's law, of Justice. All

is Law in the Universe. Life on earth is also subject unto it. Whoever

lets this thought ripen in himself to its utmost possibility, will find

the solution of many questions that worry him. The phrase is hard, but

truth is always hard and encloses the duty to work of every individual.

Beautiful, of enthusiastic beauty, is only Love, and "Love is the

highest law, love under control of the Will!" - Love is the reward of

overcoming self, the basis of all brotherhood, the source of strength

for devotion to duty; She makes us accept hard truth, leads us to

conscious union with God, and enables us to approach God during this

life on earth, and really to experience "at-one-ment with God."







The Master Therion says: The act of love consummated with overflowing

energy, under control of the Will, is the "Act of God", a "sacramental

act", is "In-God-with-God-at-onement". A man to whom it was granted to

unite with God, under control of Will, in the godly, sacramental

love-act, is a channel for the deity. Yet, says Liber Legis: "Although

much is said in the law of highest Love, of enthusiastic, yielding,

selfless, flaming, fiery, overflowing, love, there is no word about

sentimental love". This also one has to ripen within oneself. Because

the results are seen in a 1000 channels of earthly, daily life; they

contribute to beautify it; they build a bridge to "Art". Love alone

makes life bearable, Life, - otherwise so cold and often cruel.







The above mentioned principles and inferences to be drawn therefrom

have been concentrated by the O.T.O. into the following fundamental

canon of belief: "God and the world (Visible as well as Invisible) are

an all- embracing, limitless realm, the Universe, consisting of the

conscious primal energy (or creative potency), the positive force, and

the unconscious primal substance (world egg or matrix), the negative

force, which create through union (primal creation) new worlds with

them, and attract or create creatures of similar principles. The

likeness to God of created beings is shown by the fact that the primal

creative potency inhabits them as well. The potency is the innate

proof to the creature, of descent from God the original creator.

In this sense are to be understood the words of the Bible: and God

created man in His image, in God's image he created him.







In order to find the truly complete solution of the world-riddle, one

has to disregard the fundamentally erroneous but common distinction

between Spirit, Soul, and Matter. The Soul is only to be regarded as a

"spiritual" thing (spiritual agent) which has existed from the

beginning of time as primal sensation in the primal act of creation.

This primal sensation in man is the yearning of the split-off part to

re-unite with the mother principle (therefore religere and religion).

Because man cannot comprehend God through his intellect, but only feel

him through his soul ("In the heart", one says, although the bearer of

sensation is the sympathetic nervous system), which after physical

death returns to God. Without the primal sensation there would be no

creation or creatures.







For the practical execution of the above stated principles, the Order

seeks to establish communities founded on co-operative principles of

people free from sin (freed from the Christian-ecclesiastical original

sin). For the creation of such communities only such people are

suitable, who are convinced of the existence of a soul which enables us

to approach resemblance to God; who have understood that selfish action

is the source of all human ills, and that we prepare our lot after

death during our life on earth, according to the law of Karma; who are

filled with the truth of this saying of Man: Only he who has understood

the holy doctrine concerning the holiness of the God organs, is truly

free and liberated from all sin." Liberation from original sin is the

"true freedom". We still wish to constitute a community of (sexually)

free people, who are without (sexual) sin. We wish to create men who

will not have to be ashamed of their creative organs.







Because of the Christian civilization still reigning to-day, this

attempt will meet great difficulties, but a beginning has already been

made, and been successful with a small circle. On a large scale such an

attempt will finally succeed only when the new gene ration will be

brought up from earliest youth according to the principles of the new

moral code.







Youth must look upon the sexual organs as something holy right from

early childhood. Their functions must be explained to boys and girls as

"holy actions", as soon as the mother notices that the sexual forces

are beginning to appear. These doctrines must be given out by parents

in the most natural manner from earliest childhood. And in school, men

and women doctors, instead of the present teachers of religion, will

exercise priestly office and teach doctrines with scientific basis as

"teachings for this life". On the foundation laid by these

physiologists (priestly doctors) the "teachings for the Other life"

will be then given by doctors of the soul (spiritual priests).







At the moment it is the other way around. From the earliest childhood

children are crammed with otherworldly teachings and religious fables,

which collapse completely which the child grows up, because the adult

finds that they do not represent facts. This belated discovery produces

a struggle in developed people, which brings an immense amount of

unhappiness and misfortune for all that were misled in this fashion.

People less advanced become liars and hypocrites, which encourages

moral catastrophes and h as consequences such as we now have to witness

at the end of the war. Therefore new morals have become essential. In

future the doctor-priest, under the parents' supervision, will teach

children from earliest youth that the sex organs are holy, and that

they have to be particularly guarded and protected, because in actions

which later on be done through these organs, invisible God will make

himself manifest to Man. Because this act, accomplished with these

organs, is a repetition on earth of God's original act of creation, in

which God reveals himself to us, works through us, and through whose

execution we always re new our union with God, and constantly create

new beings, according to His will and command, "in his image".







A youth brought up according to such principles will not only be

steeled and proof against the misuse of the sex organs, but they will

also begin very early to comprehend God, and to believe in this God,

because they recognize a link between God and Man in the creative act,

which they feel binds them to the godhead. Belief reared on this base

will be so firm, so marvelous, that it will be able to move mountains.







Plan of a neo-Christian Community.







The basic principles of the construction-programme of the Gnostic

Templars and neo-Christians (O.T.O.) have been condensed in the

following essay as a practical political programme. Persons of the same

language and same race form a closed peoples community (The State.) All

toil, all means of production, all natural resources (such as coal,

iron etc.) all large- scale exploitation of natural products (such as

large-scale farming, vine- growing etc) all public transport (railways,

shipping), all public welfare institutions, trade, communication (such

as postal services, telegraph, hospitals, orphanages, schools, museums,

art institutes), all available capital in paper or bare money, which

exceeds a value of, say, 10,000 mark, is common property of every

member of the people.







In England one called it "nationalization of property." Private

property is abolished on principle, but each responsible member of the

community can claim as his or her personal property everything he or

she acquired through his or her own labour for personal use. (This

comprises clothes, books, household utensils, but excludes objects of

luxury, things made of gold, jewels, etc.) Also he may own during his

present life a small piece of arable land allotted to him or her for

building or planting.







Within the community bare money is not allowed. No member of the

community is allowed to own money or securities worth more than 10,000

Mark, and these also return to the community after his death. Nobody is

allowed to possess any securities yielding dividends. These, as far as

they exist within the community, are common property for the benefit of

the state, as for example, for trade with other (strange) people's

communities.







Every member of the community - man or woman - over 18 is obliged to

labour daily according to his capacities for the weal of the people's

community. A jury of fellow-workers, with two members chosen by the

accused, will decide in doubtful cases what "according to his

capacities" may mean in cases where a person protests against work

allotted to him. People refusing to work will be punished by long,

public, forced labour.







Work to be done for the community not to exceed 36 hours per week.

Wages due for such work to be credited by the community executive to

each worker with the common community account.







In return for the fulfillment of the duty to work, the community

guarantees to keep every single member of the community, so that they

have free of cost, controlled (rationed) means of living, including

free housing, heating, light, clothes rationing, instruction, care of

the sick, education of children, entertainment, like theatres, music

art etc., and a free funeral.







All persons over 60, as well as the sick and permanent invalids are

freed from the duty to work, but receive the same free advantages as

the fit. The right to inherit is abolished in principle. Only moveable

objects of personal use, which have less value than 10 Mark, can be

willed by parents to their own children.







All large-scale trade, especially with foreign countries, all industry

(except for small hand production) is done on account of the community.

All works of Art ore property of the community. In order to spur on

each single comrade to do the best he can, be it in the field of craft,

trade, industry, art, farming, cultivation of animals, household etc.,

or any other type of work, peoples' prize feasts will be instituted

each year, whence those people who had done best during the year, will

be publicly praised, crowned with laurels, and rewarded. The value of

the prize consists of real and ideal values. All who have won first

prize will be named as judges for the following year. Also they will

have preferment, with travels for amusement, for example (which are

forbidden - outside the country - to all other members of the

community, in order to encourage settled habits). Journals of research



will constantly be made, paid for by the community, but only

prize-winners will be chosen for them.







The people (every man and woman over 20) every year elects an executive

council, who has to deal with the community's business. This council is

aided by experts of all sorts of work, subordinated to it, which are

elected by the people direct every 7 years. Re-election is permissible.

Order in the interior to be preserved by a body (town-watch,

community-watch, field-watch) elected by the community. For protection

against the exterior, each man and woman has to put his/her person at

the disposal of the community. For this purpose they have to undergo a

yearly training from 17 onwards, lasting 6 months when 17, 2 months

when 18 and then each year a fortnight's refresher training.







All lawsuits are cost free.

Persons who molest the law by unjustified complaints, make false

accusations, or swear false oaths, murder, steal etc., will be punished

by publicly dishonouring forced labour. The public law will be dealt

and pronounced by judges elected by the people.







All relations between a man and a woman will be regarded as a marriage.

Children bear the mother's name. Each child is brought up by the

community. If applied for children up to 6 can be brought up the mother

at home. Every man, woman, boy and girl over 14 will be regularly

examined by the medical delegates of the supreme people's health board.

Persons (male or female) who have not been found capable by the supreme

medical board of producing healthy children are not allowed to wed.

People who produce children despite this decree, will be punished by

public forced labour.







Religion will be a private matter. but as the reigning Christian

Church, built on the doctrines of the Church Fathers, have abandoned

the pure doctrines of original Christianity, and have proved absolutely

incapable of diminishing even to a slight extent the low animal cruelty

current amongst their own, externally most zealous adherents, the State

will support and encourage the cult of the re-vivified original

Christianity (Community of Gnostic Neo-Christians).







ATTENTION!

The above construction programme can only be realized through the means

of peaceful, social development, and never through violent revolution.

Theodor Reuss

The head of the O.T.O. Community.



