“The Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), an esoteric fraternal order which is perhaps best known for its associations with former leader and primary ritualist/liturgist Aleister Crowley, has recently achieved two major legal victories. The more important of the two regards trademark control over the terms “OTO” and “O.T.O.” in the UK.

“I am happy to report that OTO has prevailed against Starfire Publishing Ltd.’s opposition to our trademarks for “OTO” and “O.T.O.” in the United Kingdom. In her decision of June 8, Anna Carbone, the Appointed Person hearing OTO’s appeal, found in favor of OTO, overturning a previous decision in favor of Starfire. OTO’s registrations of the marks “OTO” and “O.T.O.” are now proceeding normally in the UK, joining our previous registrations of “Ordo Templi Orientis” and the OTO Lamen. Under UK law, there can be no further appeal of a decision by an Appointed Person, in either the Trademark Registry or High Court.”

What does this decision mean? Joined with the international order’s trademark control in the United States (and the rest of the world), it means that a variety of splinter groups using the term “OTO” (or variations thereof) must now cease or risk legal action. The OTO’s official press release specifically names British occultist Kenneth Grant’s “Typhonian” Ordo Templi Orientis in its warning to groups started by expelled or resigned members.”

(via The Wild Hunt Blog)

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“Fans of terrible movies shouldn’t miss Chemical Wedding, which contains so many wooden performances it should really have been thinned before release by the forestry commission. Director Julian Doyle shoots the whole thing as though it is a Hammer horror film, and most of the actresses have the Hammer hallmark of being extraordinarily unfit for acting. Most of the cast underact. The one, big - and I do mean big - exception is Simon Callow, who appears to have been taking acting lessons from Brian Blessed and, possibly as a result, gone stark staring bonkers.

Callow is at his exuberant worst as a stuttering Cambridge academic who - because of some incomprehensible scientific experiment that goes wrong - is taken over by the spirit of Aleister Crowley.”

(via The Daily Mail)

(Related: “Aleister Crowley movie, The Chemical Wedding, trailer”)

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(via Plutonica)

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Paul Green’s audio drama of rocketry, passion and magick, performed by Travesty Theatre in London 2005 and directed by Alison Rockbrand. The play explores the life of Jack Parsons - godfather of the American space programme and acolyte of the magus Aleister Crowley.

Part 1.

Part 2.

More by Paul Green.

His novel, The Qliphoth.

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All of Grant’s works were highly influenced by Crowley’s Thelemic tradition. One particular work, which holds considerable interest, is Nightside of Eden in which Grant proceeds to describe what he refers to as the Tunnels of Set.

A close examination of the Tunnels of Set will bring the reader to a realization that Crowley might not have been Kenneth Grant’s only influence for this darker side of occult mysticism. It seems that Grant’s Nightside of Eden is also somewhat rooted in the works of H.P. Lovecraft and his often referred to tome the Necronomicon.

Full Story: Key 64.

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A COUPLE jailed for nine months for contempt of court for refusing to withdraw claims an occult group was killing children were freed yesterday after spending seven weeks in jail.

Vivienne Legg and Dyson Devine were jailed for failing to remove allegations that the secretive international society Ordo Templi Orientis was a pedophile ring.

Other claims included members of the group tortured and killed children, drank the children’s blood and ate their organs and used naked children as waiters at functions.

OTO told the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal the couple had breached the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act.

The couple ignored a July VCAT order to remove the comments. Judge Marilyn Harbison said the claims were still on the website in November when police were forced to bring the couple to the tribunal to face contempt charges. Judge Harbison gave the couple overnight to think about the consequences of their actions.

But instead of returning the next morning they fled to their NSW home until their arrest and jailing for contempt last month.

The couple’s lawyer Simon Moglia told the tribunal yesterday the couple had been financially ruined and had fled the tribunal in November because they had realised they had made a mistake by not complying with its order.

From: news.com.au.

(Thanks Danny).

See also: Anti-OTO Website Lands Two In Jail.

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“Two Tucabia residents have been jailed for contempt of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal and sentenced to nine months jail in Victoria after refusing to remove offensive material from their protest website. A warrant for the arrest of Vivienne Legg and Dyson Devine was issued on November 28, 2007 after a lengthy court battle was launched by Brent Gray and David Bottrill, members of a religion called Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), in the State’s anti-discrimination court. The court found Legg and Devine guilty under the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act anti-discrimination legislation pertaining to racial and religious vilification after they published information on their website, gaiaguys.net.”

(via The Daily Examiner. Hat Tip: Abrahadabra)

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“[…] Looking at what we see as “occultism” today is not same way in the past. Historically speaking, the subjects that are included in occultism, such as astrology, magic, alchemy, qabalah, and the like, were not excluded or pushed to the periphery of society and not distrusted like they are today. In fact, they were integral parts of how society investigated the world around them and were technologies used to discern the hidden aspects of the universe. Occultism, per se, is a modern concept-it arose in the later 19th century. In the past the occult was seen as integral part of the world. After all, the word occult means “hidden.” When astrologers investigated the charts, they were attempting to see the hidden or occult influences and determining causes deriving from the celestial sphere; when alchemists experimented with matter, they were attempting to determine the hidden or occult properties of matter; when qabalists, Christian, Arabic, or Jewish alike, explored the qabalah, they were seeking to understand the hidden influences of the divine and how they manifested in our world. In essence, they were all seeking to understand the hidden aspects of reality; the things people did not see operating on a day-to-day basis.

Today, because of the influence of science and other societal structures, many of the early ways of investigating the hidden world have been determined as invalid and excluded. These formerly accepted practices, such as astrology, have been determined to be worthless, or at most, for occasional amusement and not anything to be taken seriously. Those still searching for the occult side of things do not always agree and still give validity to such techniques. Other times the technique or practice transforms, such as alchemy. It evolved into modern chemistry on one hand, and symbolic alchemy on another; the latter being employed by magicians mapping certain processes and Jungian psychologists. Regardless of the technique, the salient point remains, there are hidden forces at work in the world around us and in us and occultism is the process by which these processes are investigated and exposed.”

(via The Treasure House of Pearls)

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s the lead singer from Iron Maiden the new Rob Zombie? Bruce Dickinson, the old school hard rock band’s lead singer, penned the screenplay for Chemical Wedding, an occult thriller which, according to Variety, “stars Simon Callow as the reincarnated Aleister Crowley, an occult scholar who was once labeled as the most evil man in Britain.” Crowley wasn’t just “an occult scholar.” His very existence struck fear into the hearts of the U.K. residents throughout his lifetime.

Full Story: Monster Fest.

(Thanks Danny Chaoflux).

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“The latest Fortean Times is a special issue looking at various aspects of Crowley to mark the 60th anniversary of his death, on the 1st. I’ve had my copy for a day or two and had time to read through a number of articles and they are all excellent but the one that stands out is the one by Alan Chapman looking at the LAM hypothesis.”

(via Cabinet Of Wonders)

(see also The LAM Hypothesis)

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ARG Net has an update about lonelygirl15 (Previously on Technoccult).

The letter from “the creators” is incredibly lame. To quote New York Times blogger Virginia Heffernan :

I don’t know what to add, except UGH at the “it’s not lies or a coherent mystery; it’s all a fascinating artistic jeu d’esprit” idea. I think Jayson Blair might even have tried that one.

In fact, I’d rather that The Creators were more serious–more mysterious–more even, hm, Thelemic about it all. I mean that, whatever their ideology or frame of mind, I wish they showed more heart for the actual stuff of the videos; I don’t quite see, for example, how sloughing off Bree as the “magical faerie spirit in all of us” (or whatever that was) is going to win them any allegiance over here, where Bree–the character AND the live being playing her–were what originally excited us.

In other words, I didn’t set out to see a big art experiment. I set out to get to know Bree. And it’s not fair to make it sound as if that’s an infantile motivation for looking at the vids, or as if higher minds would understand that the lofty call of filmmaking qua filmmaking supersedes the draw of a fictional character.

Dickens was careful not to tell his crazed, besotted fans: “Little Nell’s not important! She’s just everygirl! It’s me! I’m a WRITER! And the novel is a NEW FORM!”

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The white-hot spark of a YouTube user named LonelyGirl15 has set the dry timber of the summer Internet community ablaze. Ostensibly the video blog of a teenaged American girl named Bree, the 23 videos posted so far have chronicled a budding romance with a boy named Daniel, but there’s a twist: Bree’s family is very religious, she is home-schooled, and she has pledged a “purity bond” with her father. Even stranger is the fact that Bree’s religion is never named, and in fact on various comments on YouTube she has said that it is not mainstream - “We’re not Christian or Buddhist or Hindu or anything like that.” There’s also a mysterious picture of famous occultist Aleister Crowley on Bree’s bedroom wall, above a candelabra which she’s vehement that Daniel not light. And wait - that Crowley picture is new - it used to be something else (could that possibly bear a resemblance to Baphomet?) A dark twist, indeed.

Full Story: Alternate Reality Gaming Network.

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R.U. Sirius: Timothy Archibald of Sex Machines.

NeoFiles: Craig Newmark of Craig’s List.

What We Are At War.

Viking Youth: Greys, Crowely, the UFO phenomenon and the Death of a Species.

Viking Youth: Mounting the Spirit Horse & Laying the Foundations.

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