Lineage

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

▸ View the chart: Selected teaching and succession line, as recorded on this page

Lineage chart: Aleister Crowley, Karl Germer, Marcelo Ramos Motta, then Frater V. and Frater S.U.A. who reconstituted the Order in 1988, then Frater I.T., then Frater L.R.H. — Tap the chart to open it full size.

The A∴A∴ descends from teacher to student, one link at a time. Whether that descent makes lineages, plural, or whether there is one A∴A∴ whose inner reality no succession divides, is a question this page leaves open. On the metaphysics we take no position; on the record we are exact. The chart below sets the whole descent in one view. It is drawn from the imprimatur record, among other documents: an imprimatur is the license printed in an official publication of the Order, and by tracing who issued them, and under what office, the descent of authority can be reconstructed link by link. The line of this edition runs in red.

The record after the Prophet is unusually well documented. Crowley named Germer his representative by written instrument in 1941 and entrusted him with the library and the copyrights; at his death in 1947 the members of the Order treated Germer as head of the Work, and every branch charted below descends through or around him. Germer received Motta in 1953 and corresponded with him through the last decade of his life. At Germer’s death Sascha Germer wrote to Motta that he was the Follower, and the imprimatur of Liber Aleph, published in 1961, prints Motta as Imperator under the motto Φ; from 1961 to 1987 the imprimaturs of the Order issued under his hand.

After Motta the record shows several continuations, and this page does not adjudicate among them beyond what the documents themselves state. Two of his students, received and taught by him, reconstituted the Order in 1988 and completed its Governing Triad at Nashville in 1992 with the Outer Head of the Order of the O.T.O. The succession recorded here descends through Frater S.U.A., whose acknowledgment as an Adept is in Motta’s own hand and whose office as Cancellarius stands in the imprimaturs of The Equinox of 1996 and 1998. This page announces that the line continues, and records its descent; it solicits nothing. Those who would look closer into the record may write to secretary@thebookofthelaw.com.

AiwassThe Book of the Law delivered in Cairo, April 8–10, 1904.
- ΤΟ ΜΕΓΑ ΘΗΡΙΟΝ (Aleister Crowley)The Beast 666, scribe and prophet of the Book of the Law, Magus of the Aeon. Founded the A∴A∴ in 1907, with Frater D.D.S. (George Cecil Jones) as Praemonstrator and Frater N.S.F. (J.F.C. Fuller) as Cancellarius; reorganized it in 1919 with Frater Achad as Cancellarius. Died 1947.
  - Frater I.A. (Allan Bennett)Crowley's teacher in the Golden Dawn, where his motto was Iehi Aour, and later the Buddhist monk Ananda Metteyya. His motto and grade, 5°=6□, appear in the imprimatur of The Book of Thoth (1944), though he had died in 1923 and never belonged to Crowley's A∴A∴.
  - Frater Achad (Charles Stansfeld Jones)Cancellarius from 1919; claimed the grade of Magister Templi as the prophesied child; broke with Crowley, entered the Roman church in 1928. His writings seeded later currents, but no continuing school descends from him directly.
  - Soror I.W.E. (Martha Küntzel)Crowley's German translator. Her motto, Ich will es, appears in the imprimatur of The Equinox of the Gods (1936) with the Inner College grade 7°=4□, where she took the place of Frater D.D.S. She died in 1941.
  - Frater S. (Karl Germer)Crowley's successor at his death; a Master of the Temple. Named Crowley's representative by written instrument in 1941; head of the Work from 1947; received Motta into the A∴A∴ in 1953. He organized no new governing triad, and at his death in 1962 the Order branched.
    - Frater A. (Marcelo Ramos Motta)Received by Germer in 1953; sole Officer of the Great Order after the death of Germer, by the imprimaturs issued under his hand from 1961 to 1987. Died 1987, naming no successor.
      - The Reconstitution of the A∴A∴ (1988)After Motta's death his two disciples, Frater V. and Frater S.U.A., together reconstituted the Order; the Governing Triad was completed at Nashville in 1992 by Frater V.V. (William Breeze, Hymenaeus Beta, the Outer Head of the Order of the O.T.O.), with Frater V. as Praemonstrator and Frater S.U.A. as Cancellarius. The branches below descend from this one act and stand on its one foundation.
        
        Frater V. (J. Daniel Gunther)First appeared in 1975 as Frater K.N. of a Nashville chapter of the Order, claiming an appointment made at Concord, California, in 1971; accepted by Motta as a student later that year; parted from him in 1978. Continued the Governing Triad with Frater V.V.; his school is the A∴A∴ in amity with O.T.O. today. Died August 23, 2024.
        
        Frater S.U.A.Student of Motta, acknowledged by him an Adeptus Minor. Swore the Oath of the Abyss under Motta. Reconstituted the Order with Frater V. in 1988 and performed the first Neophyte initiations of the modern era; from 1992, Cancellarius in the Governing Triad. He was replaced by Frater I.T. as Cancellarius, and his hand countersigned the oaths of the line below. His office stands in print in the imprimaturs of The Equinox IV (1996, 1998).
        
        Frater I.T. (John-Peter Lund)Student of Fratres V. and S.U.A.; Neophyte of the reconstituted Order as K.D.X.; admitted to the Inner College as T.H.A.T.; second Cancellarius of the Great Order, succeeding S.U.A. in that office. He received the bearer of this edition as a Probationer in 2014 and initiated him Neophyte at Turin in 2016. In his last illness he swore the Oath of a Master of the Temple, taking the motto I.T.; his thesis, The War of the Rose and the Cross, was published in 2023 under the imprimatur of Frater L.R.H.
        
        Frater L.R.H.Received as a Probationer in 2014 by Frater I.T., Cancellarius of the A∴A∴, as T.B.T.E.; initiated as Frater S.E.T., a Neophyte, in Turin, Italy, in the summer of 2016, by Frater I.T.; completed the Work of the Outer College under the hand of Frater S.U.A., and admitted by him into the Inner College as an Adeptus Minor on January 26, 2020, as Frater π. After swearing the Oath of the Abyss, Frater π became a Magister Templi, 8° = 3□, under the motto L.R.H. His imprimatur, Pro Coll. Summ., stands in print in The War of the Rose and the Cross (2023). The line of this edition.
      - S.O.T.O. (David Bersson)Continuation claiming Motta's succession; issued the 2009 electronic reissue of The Commentaries of AL from which this edition's Motta text derives.
      - Frater 31-93-31-1 (Ray Eales)Motta-derived claim; H.O.O.R. and associated workings.
        
        Soror EAEA (Mônica Dusi Rocha)Of Frater 31-93-31-1's line, whose imprimaturs carry her motto with the grade of Zelator, 2°=9□.
      - Brazilian continuationsMotta's Brazilian students, among them Euclydes Lacerda de Almeida, carried the Work in Brazil after 1987.
    - Soror Estai (Jane Wolfe) → Soror Meral (Phyllis Seckler)Wolfe, Crowley's direct student, taught Seckler, whose standing Germer recognized. Seckler founded the College of Thelema in 1973, and two living schools descend from her hand.
      - Frater Π. (James A. Eshelman)College of Thelema and Temple of Thelema, with Soror S.e.S. (Anna-Kria King).
      - Frater I. (David Shoemaker)Temple of the Silver Star, founded under Seckler's charter in her last years.
  - Hymenaeus Alpha (Grady L. McMurtry)Crowley's Caliph for O.T.O. in America; A∴A∴ claims also descend through him, notably the line documented by J. Edward Cornelius in Red Flame.
    - Frater Achad Osher (J. Edward Cornelius)Of the McMurtry-Cornelius line, he documented the successions. He was head of McMurtry's A∴A∴ from 1985 until his death on December 8, 2023.
      - Frater Hymenaeus Epsilon (Christopher Reed Johnson)Received into McMurtry's A∴A∴ in 2022, took the Oath of the Abyss in 2023, and became Inner Head of the line at Cornelius's death on December 8, 2023, according to the line's own published timeline.
  - Israel RegardieCrowley's secretary and editor of The Law is for All; several later claimants trace recognition through him, and his editions carried the Book to the widest public of any branch.
    - Gerald SusterRegardie's student and a writer on Crowley and the Golden Dawn. He died in 2001. A Serbian line traces its A∴A∴ recognition through him.
      - Frater A. (Dušan Trajković)Frater Aureus, 5°=6□, of the Regardie-to-Suster line, which also counts Frater L. (Slobodan Škrbić) and Frater S.U. among its officers. He wrote Anatomija Ambisa (2019), issued under that line's imprimatur.
  - Other linesIndependent and regional successions continue elsewhere, among them European lines such as the Serbian school of Frater L. (Slobodan Škrbić), and collaborative bodies such as Astrum Argenteum and the Sodalitas Rosae+Crucis that join branches in common work.

Documents

From the archive of the bearer: the instruments on which the descent stands, published as received.

The instruments of Frater S.

Crowley authorizes Germer as his agent, 1933 — In Crowley’s hand: “This is to authorize Mr Karl Germer, whose signature appears below, to act as my agent.” London, October 9, 1933.

Appointment of Germer as personal representative, 1941 — “I, Edward Alexander Crowley, hereby do constitute and appoint Mr Karl J. Germer… to be my personal representative in the United States of America.” Torquay, May 5, 1941.

Power of Attorney to Germer, 1941 — The Power of Attorney: “I, Edward Alexander Crowley, otherwise known as Aleister Crowley, or as To Mega Therion, chief of the A∴A∴, or as Baphomet, Frater Superior and O.H.O. of the O.T.O., do appoint Mr Karl J. Germer… to be my personal agent and representative in the United States of America.” London, July 18, 1941. Page 1.

Authorization of Germer as agent and attorney, 1942 — “To act as my agent and attorney in every respect… and I pledge myself to recognize, confirm, and honour any and every document that he may sign on my behalf.” London, December 10, 1942.

The last will of Aleister Crowley, 1947 — The last will of Aleister Crowley (contemporary copy), naming Germer first among the Executors and leaving the books, writings, and copyrights in trust to the Order. Page 1.

The imprimaturs of the line

Imprimatur of Liber Aleph, 1961 — *Liber Aleph* (Liber CXI), published by Germer, 1961. Imprimatur: N. Fra: A∴A∴; O.M. 7° = 4□ R.R. et A.C.; Φ 6° = 5□ Imperator. Motta stands Imperator in print while Germer lives.

Imprimatur of The Commentaries of AL, 1975 — *The Commentaries of AL*, 1975: Motta’s imprimatur across the three colleges, 216 8° = 3□ Pro Coll. Summ. at its head. The very book whose commentary stands beside every verse of this edition.

Imprimatur of The Equinox IV(1), 1996 — *The Equinox* IV(1), 1996. Issued by Authority: V. 7° = 4□ Præmonstrator; V.V. 6° = 5□ Imperator; S.U.A. 5° = 6□ Cancellarius, Pro Coll. Int. The office of S.U.A., in print.

Imprimatur of The Equinox IV(2), 1998 — *The Equinox* IV(2), 1998: V. Præmonstrator; V.V. Imperator; S.U.A. Cancellarius.

Imprimatur of Liber DX — *Liber DX*, Publication in Class D: the instruction given to Neophytes of the Order. Imprimatur: 93 10° = 1□, 666 9° = 2□, V.V.V.V.V. 8° = 3□, Pro Coll. Summ.; V. 7° = 4□, V.V. 6° = 5□, T.H.A.T. 5° = 6□, Pro Coll. Int. T.H.A.T. is Frater I.T., who received the bearer of this edition as a Probationer.

Imprimatur of The War of the Rose and the Cross, 2023 — *The War of the Rose and the Cross*, 2023. Imprimatur: L.R.H. 8° = 3□ Pro Coll. Summ. This imprimatur is printed in Frater I.T.’s own book.

Motta and the Germers

Motta to Germer, July 1954 — Motta to Germer, Baton Rouge, July 2, 1954: “First, let me give you plainly my opinion on sex and sex morality…” The disciple bares his whole history to his teacher without reserve. Page 1.

Motta to Germer, February 1957 — Motta to Germer, Baton Rouge, February 22, 1957: “I vowed in my Oath that I would dedicate all that I am and all that I have to the Great Work,” with the Oath sworn at Barstow quoted from his diary. Page 1.

Motta to Germer, July 1957 — Motta to Germer, July 30, 1957, pressing for the true condition of the O.T.O.: “is the Order so poor and helpless right now as it seems to be?” Page 1.

Motta to Germer, December 1959 — Motta to Germer, December 31, 1959: “Is it TRUE? Is it FALSE?… When you invoke Aiwass and Therion and Babalon: are you invoking anything that exists?” Page 1.

Motta to Sascha Germer, February 1957 — Motta to Sascha Germer, February 12, 1957: “…allow me the solace, I say, in being able to have the honor to call you my soror.”

Bank order from Motta to Sascha Germer, December 1964 — Two years after Karl’s death: sixty dollars to the widow, by bank order from Rio de Janeiro, December 1964.

Motta to Sascha Germer, May 1966 — Motta to Sascha Germer, May 25, 1966, on the piracies of *Magick* and the defense of the copyrights. Page 1.

Motta and Liber Aleph

Motta to Germer on publishing Liber Aleph, May 20, 1959 — Motta to Germer, May 20, 1959: “how much, at a minimum and a maximum, would it cost you to publish LIBER ALEPH… with the Seal of the A∴A∴ stamped on it.” Page 1.

Motta to Germer on the printing, May 30, 1959 — Motta to Germer, May 30, 1959, on the printing of the five hundred: “My concern is totally with A.C.’s unpublished books.” Page 1.

Motta to Germer on the printing of Liber Aleph, 1961 — Motta to Germer, Rio de Janeiro, August 24, 1961: securing with his own money the printing of *Liber Aleph*, the book whose imprimatur names him Imperator under the motto Φ.

The Nashville chapter (1975)

Frater K.N. of these letters is Gunther, four years before he met Motta; the Cancellarius who signs them, Frater N.A.S., is understood to be his own hand as well.

Letter from Frater N.A.S. to Hymenaeus Alpha, page 1 — Frater N.A.S., Cancellarius A∴A∴, Nashville, to Hymenaeus Alpha, Caliph of the O.T.O., announcing the chapter of the Order under the direction of Frater K.N., appointed Praemonstrator December 3, 1971, at Concord, California. Page 1.

Letter from Frater N.A.S. to Hymenaeus Alpha, page 2 — Page 2, closing: “For is it not written: I will give you a war engine.”

Envelope postmarked Nashville, March 1975 — The envelope, postmarked Nashville, March 11, 1975.

Letter from Frater N.A.S. to Samuel Weiser, Inc. — Frater N.A.S. to Samuel Weiser, Inc., New York, relaying the order of the Praemonstrator that publishers be informed the Order “is still operative and accepting Probationers on a regular basis.”

Corrections to this chart are welcome: secretary@thebookofthelaw.com.

Love is the law, love under will.