Thelema has several organizations today that are clearly, salacious cults,that at the least, are cults that offer absolutely nothing in terms of nourishing spiritual growth, and in some situations, being psychically destructive. All these groups do not qualify their membership by setting standards and qualifications for meeting those standars, as a way of ensuring a high level of credulity. Eligibility to become an Initiate should require the candidate to have reached a level of formal education in the arts and sciences; (requiring here at the least, a bacheloIrs degree), and having already developed a confident practice in the literature, meditations and rituals of the Western Mystery Tradition. So, any lodge functioning as a teaching lodge and allowing inexperienced and uneducated people into its sanctuary, creates a fully dysfunctional environment that brings harm to everyone at every hierarchical level.

The formation of a properly functioning Magickal Lodge does not offer instruction on the basics of Magick. The qualified candidate should already have mastered these techniques before being considered for membership in the Lodge. Note that in promulgating Thelema, Crowley assumed his readers were well-read and steeped in the Mysteries; he wasn’t writing for the uneducated mind. Any and everything that has brought about a popularization of Thelema to its Social Media-oriented audience, has also served in corrupting some very sophisticated concepts in order to make them appealing to a widening audience of people.So that we’ve come to a place where several behavioral patterns show some of these groups to be real cults, with some observable behavioral traits giving us reasonable cause for concern.

One of the first things we find in some of these groups is a certain level of Internal Control by its leaders over its rank-and-file membership. In order for its leaders to hold political and social power, freedom of association is curtailed, as well as controlling speech and inhibiting the freedom of expression. In a recent, well-publicized incident within the Caliphate, we saw a leadership that holds strong alt-Right political opinions represent these as consistent with Thelemic Doctrine; to the point of punishing prominent members who led a left-wing reaction against the leadership. It was treated, as if it was an insurrection.

Also, I’ve personally witnessed Ray Eales micromanaging the lives of the members in H.O.O.R.; outright telling people who they could and could not associate with. And I’ve witnessed the verbal assaults and emotional harassments of David Bersson of the S.O.T.O. In both cases, they are emotionally abusing their members in a manner that debases their integrity. So that you should recognize that this is a real Magickal Attack that these orders direct at their membership. And simultaneously, the leadership is always manipulating events to maintain power. The alteration of Liber AL; the fill/kill pronouncement is as classic a move of any leader that ever moved to consolidate his power of people. The ability to alter the holy books of the order is a pure power grab.

For that matter, the deification of the leadership is also a strong sign of a problem. Bill Breeze sets himself up as a Pope and the bureaucracy acts as the Vatican machine. They defend their copyrights; sometimes vaguely implying that they hold copyrights on public domain documents, as well as ruthlessy defending the copyrights they do control. They hold a large investment account and the leaders use the dues of the membership to acquire personal treasures. As well, they’ve routinely re-written their history; with an eerie Orwellian resonance.

Ray Eales and David Bersson both privately make claim to holding the ‘Office of the Beast;’ a metaphysical doctrine developed by Motta. Here we see that Motta is the source of his own power grab over his membership. It also has a papal character, and with Eales and Bersson creating their own Vatican machine. They only do this at a much smaller scale than the Caliphate O.T.O. But of course, don’t tell Ray that David’s the Beast and Sun that flies in the sky…and don’t tell David that Ray’s the legitimate heir to the Throne of Ra, with the Earth herself, depending on every breath he takes.

Though I can only relate vague stories I’ve heard of the parasites feeding off of Kenneth Grant’s legacy, yet one thing they have in common; the ‘worship of dead masters.’ The Caliphate manipulates Crowley’s legend, as the Motta groups hold to the arrogant personality he frequently displayed. And they both use this model to produce a frozen perception of the nature of the Universe and being with the idea that there’s nothing new to learn and all is known. For that matter, both have their own way to made their simplistic, anti-intellectual doctrine seem a virtue with the act of evil put on any heretical thought.

Members of H.O.O.R. are on Social Media; proclaiming that knowledge itself, is evil and can only emanate from Da’ath, as a scourge from the demon, Choronzon. They’ve generated their own boogey-man and use it to help maintain a cognitive dissonance over the group. Outside ideas can’t even be heard by them. In a similar manner, the Caliphate O.T.O. generally controls the publishing industry and has de facto, editorial control over the information that reaches their members.

So, though the claim to be an exponent of the science and art in an evolving practice, they really present a fixed belief-structure; warding off any challenge to its veracity. The Secret Chiefs are not presented through a continued revelation of new Gnosis, but rather, they are reduced to idols that show up to coronate the leaders. In this way, canon is formalized and the current generation of Thelemites are being forbidden their own direct contact with the Divine.

Fear and alienation towards the corporate structure and its managers having been authorized with rank creates a Spartan mentality with militaristic undertones. The Caliphate O.T.O. probably collects the greatest amount of money from its members over the years. And they will easily and even indiscriminately excommunicate members to control their behavior. And the Motta lines are all about the immanent attack of the Black Lodge; always under Magickal Attack in order to generate an aura of paranoia.

Conspiracy theories become the hub of intellectual thought and the cultural development of its members. Along with this the idea is held up that ‘we are in’ and ‘they are out,’ as they are ‘mundanes’ or the ‘profane.’ The initiations themselves are actually meaningless in the way that they are performed and only lead to further confirm one’s indoctrination into the group. And if you’re put out from the group or disappoint the group in any way, upon leaving the group, they will take every opportunity to assassinate your character.

Examples of all this, that the reader can prove this for him or herself are not hard to find. Keep your eyes and ears in the ready and don’t allow yourself to be fooled by some of the really nice people in all the smaller satellite bodies with their orders. As you step forward in their initiation structure or simply as you step through time, they bureaucrats will come at you, and they’re good at what they do!