Grant, Kenneth
Founder of a branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO),
a ceremonial magick group in the tradition of Aleister Crowley,
in Great Britain. Grant was initiated into Crowleys own
order, the A? A?, and the OTO.
After Crowleys death in 1947 he was succeeded by Karl Germer
as outer head of the order. Germer was at that time living
in the United States. He presented Grant a charter to open the
New Isis Lodge of the OTO in 1955. Grant was limited to
teaching the first three OTO grades. After Germer died in
1962 Grant claimed leadership of the OTO. While members in
America did not acknowledge him, there was no one in England
to oppose his authority. Grant began to accept initiates
for all ten working degrees of the order (the eleventh being
purely administrative).
Grant worked with John Symonds, Crowleys literary executor,
to produce The Confessions of Aleister Crowley (1969). Grant
also published The Magical Revival (1972), an informative survey
of occult theory and practice in modern times. A particularly
valuable chapter is concerned with the work of occult artist
Austin Osman Spare. Grant also published Images and Oracles
of Austin Osman Spare (1975), a study of the work of this strange
and talented artist.
Grants wife, Steffi, contributed beautiful illustrations to five
Carfax Monographs issued by the Grants in London in a limited
edition, dealing with The Tree of Life, The Golden Dawn, Aleister
Crowley, Austin Osman Spare, and Vinum Sabbati.
Sources
Grant, Kenneth. Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God. London
Muller, 1973.
. Cults of the Shadow. New York Samuel Weiser, 1976.
. Images and Oracles of Austin Osman Spare. London
Muller, 1975.
. The Magical Revival. New York Samuel Weiser,
1972.
. Nightside of Eden. London Muller, 1977.
. Outside the Circles of Time. London Frederick Mueller,
1980.
Symonds, John, and Kenneth Grant. The Confessions of Aleister
Crowley. New York Hill & Wang, 1969.
