Illuminates of Thanateros

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Illuminates of Thanateros
AbbreviationIOT
Formation1978
PurposeChaos magic society
Region served
Australia, Austria, Brazil, British Isles, Bulgaria, Germany, North America, South America, Switzerland
Key people
Peter J. Carroll
Ray Sherwin
Websiteiotbritishisles.com
iot-na.thanateros.org

The Illuminates of Thanateros (

occultism. It has been described as "an unprecedented attempt of institutionalising one of the most individualising currents in the history of ‘Western learned magic’."[1]

The IOT has been described as "the Order for 'serious' Chaos Magicians in the same way that the OTO exists for 'serious' Thelemites."[2] The IOT is considered to be an occult[3] or neoshamanic[4][page needed] organization.

Name

The name "Thanateros" is a combination of the names "Thanatos" and "Eros"— the Greek gods of death and sex, respectively. The idea is that sex and death represent the positive and negative methods of attaining "magical consciousness". The word "Illuminates" is used in accordance with the claimed tradition of calling such societies — in which those who have mastered the secrets of magic help bring others to mastership — "the Illuminati".

Its formal name is The Magical Pact of the Illuminates of Thanateros,[5] which is usually shortened to "the Pact".

History

Early

In the late 1970s, Ray Sherwin and

Zos Kia Cultus and a "fusion of Thelemic Magick, Tantra, The Sorceries of Zos and Tao".[7]

Ice magick controversy

In the early 1990s the order experienced a

schism as a result of conflicts about the doctrine of 'ice magick',[8] a major proponent of which was Ralph Tegtmeier.[9]

Peter Carroll learned more about the racial doctrines that Tegtmeier was teaching, and criticized him for it. That led to an untenable conflict between Carroll and Tegtmeier, which culminated in Tegtmeier and all of his followers seceding from the IoT. The vast majority of German and Swiss members left the order, which constituted about 30% of the order's total membership.[10] Ralph Tegtmeier and a few others were subsequently excommunicated.[9]

After publishing Liber Kaos, Carroll retired from active participation in the order, though he remains on good terms with many of the longstanding members.[11]

IOT ritual; an anonymous costumed adept presenting an invocation of the deity Azathoth

References

  1. ^ Otto 2020, p. 762.
  2. ^ Hine 1995, p. [page needed].
  3. ^ Greer 2003, p. 303.
  4. ^ Greer 2003, p. 240.
  5. ^ "A Chaos Magician - VICE". www.vice.com. Retrieved 2022-06-27.
  6. ^ The New Equinox, 1978[full citation needed]
  7. .
  8. ^ a b Carroll, Peter J. ("Stokastikos"). "The Ice War". Chaos International 23.
  9. ^ Carroll, Peter J. (Dec 16, 2010). "Message 0". Archived from the original on 2012-07-14.

Works cited

External links