Tradition
Ordo Templi Orientis
An initiatic order founded in early twentieth-century Germany, restructured by Aleister Crowley as a vehicle for the religious and magical system of Thelema, with which it is now closely identified.
The Ordo Templi Orientis (Order of Oriental Templars, often abbreviated O.T.O.) is an initiatic order organised through a graded system of degrees. Following its restructuring under Aleister Crowley in the early twentieth century, it has functioned principally as a vehicle for the religious system known as Thelema, whose foundational text is Crowley’s The Book of the Law (1904).
The order is led by an Outer Head (the “Frater Superior”) and operates internationally through national grand lodges, local bodies, and ecclesiastical entities of the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, its associated church.
