Grady Louis McMurtry
- This article is about a Thelema personality/topic
Grady Louis McMurtry (October 18, 1918 – July 12, 1985) was an American ceremonial magician, student of occult writer Aleister Crowley, and an adherent of Thelema. He is best known for reviving the fraternal organization Ordo Templi Orientis, which he headed from 1971 until he died in 1985.
Early life and career
He lived in various parts of Oklahoma and the Midwest and graduated from high school in Valley Center, Kansas, in 1937. He then moved to Southern California to study engineering at Pasadena Junior College, where he made friends with some students at the nearby California Institute of Technology. Among them was Jack Parsons, who shared his enthusiasm for science fiction, and who introduced him to Thelema. In 1941, McMurtry was initiated into the Minerval and I° of Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), a secret society headed by Aleister Crowley.
In February 1942, two months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, McMurtry's entire Reserve Officers' Training Corps class was called to active duty, serving as an officer in Ordnance. He participated in the invasion of Normandy, the liberation of France and Belgium, and the occupation of Germany. He was recalled to active duty for the Korean War, eventually achieving the rank of major. He was called back for another tour of duty in Korea in the early 1960s. Six months before completing 30 years of Reserve service, he was mustered out as a lieutenant colonel during a Reduction In Force (RIF) and lost what would have been his earned pension. He pursued his academic studies as a civilian between tours of duty at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his A.B. in political science in 1948 and an M.A. in the same discipline in 1955. His thesis for the latter degree examined the parallels between magic and Marxism. In a 1970 conversation with Jacques Vallée, who was puzzled by McMurtry's extensive military career, McMurtry identified as a political liberal. He opposed Richard Nixon's Middle East policies and described himself as "a poet who happened to fight in two wars."
During World War II, primarily when he was stationed in England in 1943 and the first half of 1944, McMurtry was able to meet with and become a personal student of Aleister Crowley, who elevated him to IX° of O.T.O., giving him the name Hymenaeus Alpha (which enumerates to 777) in November 1943.
In September and November 1944, and again in June 1947, he received letters from Crowley referring to him as Crowley's "Caliph" (or successor). When McMurtry returned to California after the war, he was appointed as Crowley's O.T.O. representative in the United States in April 1946, subject only to the authority of Crowley's viceroy and heir apparent, Karl Germer.
Crowley passed away in December 1947, and Germer was acknowledged as the head of the O.T.O. At that time, the only active Thelemic O.T.O. body in the world was Agape Lodge in Southern California, which was led by McMurtry's friend Jack Parsons for a period. McMurtry intended to establish a lodge in Northern California, but his increasingly strained relationship with Karl Germer—stemming from Germer's refusal to initiate new members—halted his plans. He attempted to rally other O.T.O. members in California to persuade Germer to alter his policy. Still, tensions escalated during a meeting in 1959 when Dr. Gabriel Montenegro (Germer's representative) "ordered" McMurtry to stop his efforts. This directive was confirmed in writing in November 1960. Reluctantly, McMurtry complied with the order, and he felt disillusioned enough by the situation that he withdrew from his direct involvement with the O.T.O. In 1961, he relocated to Washington, D.C., where he quickly became entirely out of touch with other O.T.O. members.
Re-establishing O.T.O.
Main article: Ordo Templi Orientis
This section does not cite any sources. Please improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) On October 25, 1962, Germer died from prostate cancer at the age of 77, without naming a successor as head of the O.T.O. His widow, who was not a member of the O.T.O., retained material possession of the extensive archives of the O.T.O. While individual members continued with their spiritual activities, the central organization, for all practical purposes, ceased to operate.
A few individuals, notably Kenneth Grant of Britain, Hermann Metzger of Switzerland, and later, Marcelo Ramos Motta of Brazil, claimed succession to Germer. McMurtry was unaware of any of these developments until 1968, when he received a letter from Phyllis Seckler, a fellow Agape Lodge O.T.O. initiate.
Seckler's letter was intended to inform McMurtry that the archives in the care of Germer's widow, including Aleister Crowley's library, had been burglarized the previous year by unknown individuals. Upon becoming aware of the situation, he decided to take charge of what remained of the O.T.O. In 1969, he left his position at the United States Department of Labor and returned to California to investigate the burglary. Although the crime was never officially solved, McMurtry believed it had likely been committed by a group that claimed affiliation with the O.T.O. and referred to itself as the "Solar Lodge." McMurtry had moved into Seckler's home in Dublin, California, and they soon got married.
At this time, McMurtry decided to restore the Order by invoking his emergency orders from Crowley, which granted him the authority (subject to Karl Germer's approval) to "take charge of the whole work of the Order in California to reform the Organization." He assumed the title "Caliph of O.T.O.," as specified in Crowley's letters to McMurtry from the 1940s. His witnesses were Dr. Israel Regardie (1907–1985) and Gerald Yorke, both of whom offered their support.
Together with Seckler and two other surviving members, Mildred Burlingame and Helen Parsons Smith, he gradually resumed performing O.T.O. initiations. They also ultimately succeeded in their quest to find a publisher for the Thoth tarot deck created by Aleister Crowley. O.T.O. was registered with the State of California as a legal organization on December 28, 1971.
In 1974, McMurtry and Seckler separated, prompting him to relocate to Berkeley, California. Germer's widow passed away in 1975, and in 1976, a court order allowed the remaining members of O.T.O. to claim the substantial archives that remained. In October 1977, McMurtry established Thelema Lodge in Berkeley as the headquarters for his revitalized O.T.O. Many initiations were conducted, and a weekly celebration of the Gnostic Mass was soon established in the San Francisco Bay area. McMurtry and other initiators chartered by him founded O.T.O. groups in various locations across the United States and internationally. By 1985, O.T.O. reported over seven hundred members in several countries. That year, McMurtry, dealing with declining health, won a lawsuit against Motta in United States District Court regarding the ownership of the O.T.O. trademarks and copyrights. He passed away in a convalescent hospital in Martinez, California, on the same day the U.S. court clerk released the decision that finalized McMurtry's efforts to reestablish O.T.O. Since then, O.T.O. has grown to over three thousand members in more than forty countries, although membership has notably declined over the past decade.
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Grady_Louis_McMurtry ]
Sources
| Ordo Templi Orientis | |
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| Outline of spirituality ● List of occult terms ● List of occultists ● Outline of spirituality |
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- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Grady_Louis_McMurtry ]
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