Rosicrucian Road Trip: The AMORC Takeover of San Jose, OTO, Secret Societies as Spy Cover in WWI, & Crowley's Occult Sexpionage (Pt. II) - TEASER

Welcome back to ParaPower Mapping—it's the second part of our investigation into the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis. In Part II, we pick back up following our unpacking of Crowley's early years as a sexpionage magus & agent provocateur. We assemble the evidence supporting our overarching argument that the founder of AMORC, H. Spencer Lewis, was likely a German agent or asset and consider the attendant implications. Anxious to listen to the full version of Pt. II? Support the show & subscribe to the Premium Feed to access the complete version (which includes an additional hour of dizzying research & AMORC revelations—not to toot my own horn, but it's some of Klonny's niftiest research yet)—as well as exclusive EPs that release biweekly: patreon.com/ParaPowerMapping In this EP, we discuss: Harvey Spencer Lewis's early life in New Jersey; his German mother (backing up our German asset argument); the foundational myth of AMORC, involving Lewis & his father traveling to Toulouse & meeting an aged hierophant & supernal Rosicrucian masters in a tower—which links this EP to the "Fin De Siècle" series, as it's the same city where Sar Péladan's brother Adrien was initiated into another French Rosicrucian order; sex magic progenitor Paschal Beverly Randolph; the AMORC charter ("Pronunziamento") which Crowley disparaged for the apparent gaffe of titling it w/ an Italian phrase instead of French, plus serial predator & literal vampire Lt. Col. Michael Aquino's discovery of a copy of the charter in the NY Public Library that is initialed OTO, hinting at even closer ties b/w the two orders; Wandering Bishops; Pristine Church of Rosicrucæ; Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia; H. Spencer Lewis's "Gold Bonds" fraud in NYC; AMORC's wealthy benefactors in San Fran & San Jose, including a German emigre named Elsa Lincke who was involved in bringing cabaret to NY & who Crowley's  A∴A∴ also received financing from; Lewis's initiation into the OTO; an explainer of OTO's esoteric sex magick degrees and the possible utility that sexual blackmail such occult traditions serve intelligence agencies; Lewis's initiatory society federation FUDOSI, and connections to the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose + Croix, Martinist Order, and Co-Masonic Order of Memphis-Misraim (which preceded OTO); AMORC's relationship w/ Du Pont; the creation of synthetic gems & diamonds in the RCU alchemy laboratory; the AMORC ethos's fusion of esoteric Christianity & Greco-Egyptian Hermeticism; another Rosicrucian society in New England that preceded AMORC & was led by Sylvester Gould & connected to Boston College; the Wars of the Ros(es)icrucians lol... the rivalry between H. Spencer Lewis and R. Swinburne Clymer (who ran a competing American Rosicrucian order & wrote a book accusing Lewis of defrauding people and being connected to Crowley); their competing federations; Crowley's attempt to extort $900,000 from H. Spencer Lewis by claiming initiatic succession as head of the OTO; an examination of the newspaper articles I found on Lewis's arrest over the "gold bonds" AND, most interestingly, hinting that Reuss may have been Lewis's handler, the fact that the NY DA & fed agents raided AMORC having learned that Lewis was promising prospective members of a draft age exemption from the draft!; the fact that the raid likely precipitated Lewis & AMORC moving to Tampa Bay & then San Jose; the AMORC compound Rosicrucian Park in downtown San Jose; the rumor that Walt Disney was a member (another German sympathizer); Lewis's involvement in the Institute for Psychical Research & possible connection to the Society for Psychical Research (which counted Crowley's handler Fielding as a member); and so much more. Songs: | Nancy Sinatra - "The Last of the Secret Agents" |