One thing the OTO will often fall back on is that it is a “volunteer organization” — when it suits the people in the upper echelons. The OTO, they will quickly point out when criticized, is composed of people who volunteer their time to the Order; lower degree members should be grateful that the higher degrees are even there to volunteer, or so those same higher degree members will quickly point out when the astute members begin to pick apart the poorly knitted sweater of the (c)OTO.
Consider that members of the Electoral College of the OTO are, as per Liber 194, supposed to exhibit first-rate ability in some branch of athletics and in some branch of learning. That is, the members of the Electoral College of the OTO must be in peak mental and physical shape. Why? Because the mind is heaven and the body is earth, the two spheres that merge to form the lamen of the order, and which are reflected in the Gnostic Mass when the Priestess says, “Greeting of Earth and Heaven.” That is, the seemingly mundane requirements that qualify one to sit on the EC of OTO are, in fact, magical formulas that reflect the supposed secret of the ninth degree of the Order.
If that doesn’t make much sense to you, don’t worry about it–what matters is that the OTO is supposed to admire, promote, and respect certain mental and physical attributes in its leaders. In the eighth degree, members are supposed to be philosophically inclined with special training in the art of government. This reveals that, as the degrees progress, greater emphasis is placed on academic rigor and intellectual achievement.
But none of this matters. The members of the EC of the OTO, like the members of the Areopagus of the Eighth Degree, are generally poorly educated, physically unfit dullards. And somehow, despite the fact that all of these seemingly trivial qualities are actually very important from an occult standpoint, any criticism of the Order for failing to adhere to its own foundational documents can be swept aside by firmly stating that “the OTO is a volunteer organization.” Fat? Stupid? Philosophically illiterate? Can you at least fill a chair? Welcome to the Electoral College of the Ordo Templi Orientis!
But despite what Content Love Knowles had to say to me as she made damned sure I would leave the OTO forever, that road works both ways. If the OTO is a volunteer organization for the leadership, then it’s a volunteer organization for those below–and my oaths are merely voluntarily kept. When I elected to stop volunteering, I told all that the Minerval word was ON, the First Degree word was JA, the Second Degree word was BO, and the Third Degree word was MABN (JAHBULON and ABADDON round out the Man of Earth words to Perfect Initiate). I still have no qualms about revealing these things for the reasons stated above.
But that’s the thing–the OTO didn’t expect me to break my oaths. They erroneously thought I’d keep their secrets and take the abuse they elected to heap on me for daring to blow the whistle about a drug-abusing, wife-beating, child-neglecting member of the EC and his asshole-buddy SGIG who promoted and protected him. But it’s a volunteer organization, after all, and I stopped volunteering to obey like a good mindless drone.
If David Scriven (Sabazius X) doesn’t appreciate the fact that oaths are, by their nature, voluntary, then he’s not truly worthy of being a Grand Master of the Order. Or maybe he is–after all, it is a volunteer organization and one warm body is pretty much as good as another.
My Job Is Scaring You 