Bay Area Thelemic Temple – Oakland, California - Atlas Obscura

Bay Area Thelemic Temple

A temple devoted to inner esoteric mysteries located in a California commercial strip. 

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Located behind a nondescript modern storefront, the Bay Area Thelemic Temple keeps alive the secretive traditions of the Ordo Templi Orientis. 

The Ordo Templi Orientis or “Order of the Temple of the East” is a secretive religious organization founded by Carl Kellner in the early 1900s to act as a sort of masonic organization and later refined by famed occultist Aleister Crowley. Hundreds of the order’s temples can be found around the world, but actually obtaining their addresses can be tricky. Most temples like to remain anonymous to the general population, locating themselves behind innocuous exteriors.

The Bay Area Temple is a smaller space, but less hidden. They still hold magical ritual rites such as a Gnostic Mass and can assist interested individuals with steps on initiation through the order’s mysteries. Initiation rites are highly secretive, as well as their practices, but it is rumored that members of the OTO practice astral projection and perform rituals to invoke angels and demons. 

However despite the groups secretive nature, the Bay Area Thelemic Temple is surprisingly inviting.

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