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From: heidrick@well.sf.ca.us (Bill Heidrick)
Newsgroups: alt.magick,alt.magick.order
Subject: Re: Typhonian vs. Caliphate OTO
Date: 13 Oct 1995 15:53:57 GMT
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gavin.butstraen@student.kuleuven.ac.be (butstraen) writes:

>Can anyone explain to me the REAL differences between Typhonian 
>and Caliphate OTO? I am more intersted in the way these orgs.
>function and in people's experiences with them, so no history
>lectures please.

The "Caliphate OTO" is the OTO and the Typhonian OTO is a Kenneth Grant
fan club.  If you get a response on behalf of the Typhonian's, you should
reasonably expect to find a reversal of this expression.

Here are some of the basic differences, but please carry any further
questions on this point to alt.magick.order.

The OTO (sometimes called the "Caliphate OTO") is a continuation of the
OTO formerly led by Aleister Crowley, chartered and recognized as such by
the US Federal Courts.  It continues the structure of the OTO both in
terms of the administration and the Crowley initiation rituals.  It owns
Crowley's copyrights and the trademarks of OTO.  It continues the form
of the Order as established under the Reuss constitution of 1917 e.v.
Membership has continued from Crowley's time, with officers and members
carried over from Agape Lodge (opened in 1935 e.v. under Crowley by
W.T.Smith in southern California).  Present membership c. 2,700 in over
forty countries.

The "Typhonian OTO" denies the validity of the Lodge system.  It has no
central authority, other than Kenneth Grant to a very limited extent
-- since it continually fragments into other groups also claiming to
be the Typhonian OTO and not accepting Grant's leadership.  It does not
continue the Crowley initiation rituals, has no documents of charter,
is not recognized as a continuation of any form of OTO and has no
carried over membership from any previous OTO presence -- since Grant
was expelled by the Head of OTO (Karl Germer, Fr. Saturnus) for violations
of the OTO constitution in 1955 e.v.  It asserts some claim to use
of the Crowley copyrights and OTO trademarks, but this claim is not
supportable in UK law (this is the contention of the OTO of which I am
an officer, not a matter as yet decided by the British courts).  Its
membership and geographical distribution is not known to me.

Again, please carry any significant follow up over to alt.magick.order,
deleting the alt.magick simple newsgroup cross post.

93 93/93
Bill Heidrick, TG OTO