William Heidrick thinks that the "OTO owns the A.A. related Crowley copyrights" and "living members must sponsor and a chartered initiator must initiate according to external rules for O.T.O. membership" as the A.A. "is an Inner Order, the latter is an Outer Order".
William Breeze thought that after "Germer's death, Motta effectively held all of the offices [of the A.A.] as he was the only officer alive". But when Marcelo Motta (8=3) had dismissed Breeze as a failed probationer in June 1976, he decided - according to his own words to Marcelo Santos -- to form a link to "the A.A. proper" and hit back that Motta gave up his authority to govern the A.A. already in 1975 when commenting Liber AL.
Phyllis Seckler had 'expelled' McMurtry from her Jane Wolfe A.A. lineage back in 1979 although McMurtry had assumed the 9=2 in 1977 and Seckler was a 5=6 only. Breeze was not able to join either the Wolfe or the McMurtry lineage (eventually pretending that Phyllis Seckler was not very well-trained) and having no links to the many other A.A. lineages all over the world, e.g. Arnoldo Krumm-Heller's (8=3) or Charles W.'s (5=6), Friedrich Mellinger's, etc. he still had to find another tie, although Liber Causae says that the A.A. knocks but once at one's door.
Harry Smith, born 1923, a friend of Karl Germer (8=3), began A.A. work with Charles Stansfeld Jones (1885-1950, Magister Templi, some say Magus) and Albert Handel around 1950. But as this survivorship of Jones came after Crowley had expelled Jones, some people consider this lineage as invalid. Nevertheless, from 1978 on, William Breeze living partime together with the 'American Magus' Smith, admired him as "my guru, friend and guide" (similarly did James Wasserman who never went above Probationer in Motta's A.A.). After Breeze became head of his 'Caliphate' he immediately began bringing people into his A.A.. This was 1985.
After Grady McMurtry's death in 1985, the pertinent A.A. had splintered into 'at least' three lineages, run by J. Edward Cornelius, William Heidrick and James T. Gr?eb. Therefore, the 'Caliphate' under Breeze became a battleground for Breeze's new A.A. (sometimes mistaken for Motta's A.A.) vs. McMurtry's A.A..
Harry Smith died in 1991. Maybe around this time, James Daniel Gunther came forward because he had a Charter by Marcelo Motta (although he had resigned by letter when he was 4=7): On 18 July 1976, Gunther, Wasserman and Richard Gernon had left Motta: Wasserman and Gernon in order to join McMurtry's 'Caliphate'.
In the back of those books which Breeze published, such as 'Magick (Liber ABA)' in late 1994 Breeze's A.A. officially moved out into the public's eye. In 'The Commentaries on The Holy Books' (1996) one got a first official mention of Martin Starr's involvement. In a piece entitled 'Liber Vesta' (not written by Crowley) they listed on the inside, Frater V as 7=4 which is Gunther. Then Frater VV as 6=5 which is Breeze and Frater SUA as 5=6 or Starr (with his address as Cancellarius).
Martin Starr is a regular Mason, a 32° of AASR. In 1996, his homepage mentioned that he was the Senior Warden of Oriental Lodge No. 33, A.F. and A.M., a Regular Masonic Lodge of the M.W. Grand Lodge of Illinois, located in Chicago; the Captain of the Guard in the Gourgas Chapter of Rose Croix, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, Valley of Chicago; a member of N. Tracy Walker Chapter No. 2 of Royal Arch Masons, under the Grand Chapter of Illinois; actively involved in Masonic Research, serving as Chaplain of the Illinois Lodge of Research. He's also a member of the Quatuor Coronati Correspondence Circle, the Scottish Rite Research Society, the Philalethes Society and the Grand College of Rites of the USA and a member of the Caxton Club, Chicago's premier bibliophile society
Born 1959, Starr had become member of Motta's O.T.O. on 12 October 1976 under Richard Gernon and rose to "Director" (and III°) of a pertinent O.T.O. branch on 1 November 1976. During the Court trial 'Caliphate' vs. Motta, on 25 January 1985 he changed side and favoured McMurtry -- Not gone above Neophyte in Motta's A.A., eventually Starr was expelled also from Motta's O.T.O.
After the Court decision that had ruled in favour of McMurtry in the 9th Circuit of Appeals and where Starr had witnessed to McMurtry's favour, Starr expressed that Metzger has more claim to the OHO than anyone else, "certainly over McMurtry," although "I now believe that Germer did intend to appoint Motta the O.H.O. on his deathbed". About the "Caliphate" he also stated after the trial that "they have distorted and falsified the facts to serve their purposes".
There is a letter to Euclydes Lacerda de Almeida (recognized a 2=9 by Motta) in which Starr speaks of his 1=10. In April 2000, Starr threatened Lacerda's ISP, and enforced him to remove a letter from 1995 in which Starr recognized Lacerda as the highest A.A. degree in Brazil.
Apart from the fact that many people assume that true Premonstration died out with Gerald Yorke in 1985 (although Yorke had left the A.A. in 1932 or 1933), there are several not yet mentioned A.A. lineages: "The Brothers of the A.A. refuse none. They have no objection to anyone claiming to be one of Themselves. If he does so, let him abide by it," 'Voice of the Silence' III.24. This means that many A.A. connections are really but are the ties?
Successorship of C.F. Russell via Louis Culling: Culling, in fact, was never admitted by Russell into the A.A. (but accepted by Crowley as a Probationer) and, in any case, Crowley had expelled Russell;
There are rumors of a Frank Bennett (5=6) successorship but there are no suvirving documents;
Kenneth Grant;
H.J. Metzger;
Others from Motta's lineage: William Barden, Ben Stone, David Bersson, Ray Eales ...
A couple of people are claiming a Francis Regardie link. Though Regardie was admitted as a Probationer, and though he did personally carry out all the rest of the curriculum through Adeptus Minor, he and Crowley separated before he went to 1=10 and he never claimed to be an A.A. member at all.
There is a rumoured A.A. line from More on Parsons in Nikolas and Zeena Schreck: Demons of the FleshJack Parsons * Marjorie Cameron * Kenneth Anger * Anton LaVey * Michael Aquino. But Aquino corrected the rumour in April 2000: "Anton LaVey never claimed to be an initiate of either the A.A. or the O.T.O. Neither have I."
Suggested e-books:
Michael Smith - Ways Of The AsatruRoger Whitaker - Antinomianism
Pagan Pride Project - What Is Asatru
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