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The 1950s proved to be a turbulent and formative period for Grant. Later, on 5 March 1951, Germer issued a charter to Grant to open a camp of the order in London and Grant devoted himself to organising OTO work in London and publishing a manifesto of the British Branch of the OTO (1952) with the help of Cecil Williamson (1909–99), the founder of the Museum of witchcraft at Castletown on the Isle of Man. the ninth and eleventh degrees (the tenth degree was an administrative degree reserved for national heads of the organisation). The OTO was a mixed masonic organisation of German origin which Crowley had seized control of in 1922, and which taught sexual magic in its highest degrees, i.e.
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Germer (1885– 1962) who had succeeded Crowley as the head of the order. In 1948, the year after Crowley had died, Grant was formally acknowledged as a ninth degree member of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) by Karl J. Crowley) and identify himself as a thelemite, an adherent of the new religion Thelema of which Crowley was the prophet. Although Grant’s stay with Crowley at Netherwood was short, it had a profound impact upon him and he would for the rest of his life continue to study the works of ‘the Beast 666’ (i.e.
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As noted by 323Ĭrowley in his diary, he took a liking to Grant and shortly thereafter hired the then 20-year-old Grant as his secretary for a brief period when he had relocated to Netherwood, a lodging house outside Hastings. After a brief exchange of letters, Grant was invited on 10 December 1944 to visit Crowley at the Bell Inn, in Buckinghamshire. Grant, who had already read occultist authors such as Blavatsky, was deeply impressed by the book and eventually he managed to get in contact with the author personally. The book referred to above is Aleister Crowley’s magnum opus Magick in Theory and Practice (1930), which Grant came across at the age of 15 at Zwemmers in Charing Cross Road. My own life was changed by Crowley’s Magick’ (Grant 1990: 5–7). To Grant, the prime and most efficient mode of communication was through the written word, as expressed in the only interview that he ever gave: ‘The silent or printed word is more potent than its spoken counterpart…and it reaches those for whom it is intended…Books…have been known to change lives. In contrast to many other occultists, Grant never gave any lectures or participated in public events. Grant led a private and quiet life in Northern London and for the last two or three decades he became increasingly reclusive, which helped to foster the image of Grant as a mysterious and enigmatic person. Part of the appeal to the works of Grant is probably due to the fact that little is known about him as a person apart from the bits and pieces of his autobiography which are revealed in his writings. Apart from having collaborated with, and later promoted the works of influential occultists such as Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) and Austin Osman Spare (1886–1956), Grant is known as the expounder of a particular current in contemporary occultism usually referred to as the ‘Typhonian Tradition.’ This current can best be described as both a synthesis and re-reading of history through the lenses of an occultist worldview composed of such diverse traditions as Thelema, Neo-Vedanta, Hindu Tantra, Western Sexual Magic, Surrealism, ufology, and Lovecraftian gnosis but the Typhonian Tradition as described by Grant in his ‘Typhonian Trilogies’ can also seen as a practical epistemological system aimed at spiritual enlightenment and the transcending of the illusion of duality. He presence of the British author Kenneth Grant (1924–2011) looms large over the history of modern occultism. KENNETH GRANT AND THE TYPHONIAN TRADITION Henrik Bogdan