Taken at face value it was an innocent enough remark, encouraging friends to explore ‘a belief system to apply to day-to-day life to attain peacefulness’.
But when Peaches Geldof chose to share her ‘religious’ convictions with her 148,000 followers on Twitter, it lifted the lid on a much more sinister world than first impressions would suggest.
The socialite, 24, is a devotee of Ordo Templi Orientis, known as OTO, and even has the initials tattooed on her left forearm.
Sinister: Peaches Geldof has an ‘OTO’ tattoo (left) which is an acronym for the creepy Ordo Templi Orientis
Given her tendency to flit between fads and fashions (at one point
she was a Scientologist, more recently she has wandered into Judaism),
this could be dismissed as another harmless flirtation.
But a closer look at OTO — and Aleister Crowley, its founding ‘prophet’ — gives the lie to that assumption.
Crowley, who was born into an upper-class British family in 1875,
styled himself as ‘the Great Beast 666′. He was an unabashed occultist
who, prior to his death in 1947, revelled in his infamy as ‘the
wickedest man in the world’.
His form of worship involved sadomasochistic s*x rituals with men and
women, spells which he claimed could raise malevolent gods and the use
of hard drugs, including opium, cocaine, heroin and mescaline.
Crowley’s motto — perpetuated by OTO — was ‘do what thou wilt’. And
it is this individualistic approach that has led to a lasting
fascination among artists and celebrities, of whom Peaches is the latest
in a long line.
Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, for example, routinely took part in occult
magical rituals and was so intrigued by Crowley he bought his former
home, Boleskine House, on the shores of Loch Ness in Scotland.
And there are now OTO lodges scattered around the country, practising
the same ceremonial rituals and spreading the word of Crowley.
While membership is secret, Peaches is said to have been initiated
into it, raising the prospect that many of her impressionable fans could
try to do the same.
Converts: Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page are believed to be involved with OTO
Indeed, when one of her Twitter followers asked how she could find
out more about Thelema, another word for Crowley’s teachings, Peaches
directed her to read his books, which she described as ‘super
interesting’.
Other celebrities linked to OTO include the rapper Jay-Z, who has
repeatedly purloined imagery and quotations from Crowley’s work.
Whether wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with ‘Do what thou wilt’ or
hiring Rihanna to hold aloft a flaming torch in his music videos (a
reference to the Illuminati, an outlawed secret society whose name
supposedly derives from Lucifer, or ‘light bringer’), he has given the
sect priceless publicity.
His clothing line, Rocawear, is shot through with OTO imagery such as
the ‘all seeing eye’ in a triangle, the ‘eye of Horus’ (an ancient
Egyptian symbol frequently referenced in occult texts) and the head of
Baphomet (the horned, androgynous idol of Western occultism).
Some conspiracy theorists have seized on this as evidence that he is a
member of a secret Masonic movement which they believe permeates the
highest levels of business and government.
Others take a more pragmatic view: that it is commercial opportunism,
cashing in on impressionable teens’ attraction to the ‘edginess’ of
occult symbolism.
Yet OTO is much more than a marketing opportunity for
attention-seeking celebs. It is a living religion, with adherents still
practising occult rituals set out by Crowley in his books.
This week I tracked down John Bonner, 62, the head of OTO in the UK,
to his home in East Sussex. He told me: ‘We are not a mass-appeal sort
of organisation — in the UK we number in our hundreds. Worldwide it’s
thousands.
Malevolent: OTO was set up by Aleister Crowley, who revelled in the title of ‘the wickedest man in the world’
Celebrities are not always a boon or a benefit. ’We are used to being
misunderstood. Many stories about Crowley, like people saying he filed
his teeth down into fangs, are nonsense.
‘You could call us a s*x cult in a way, because we recognise, accept
and adore the whole process which goes towards making tangible the
previously intangible.’
According to adherents of OTO it takes years of study before you can
begin to understand what the religion is about — much like the equally
controversial Church of Scientology.
Bonner takes issue with the comparison, saying it is ‘extremely
expensive’ to study Scientology, yet OTO demands no financial
contributions.
Given her own dabbling in heroin and casual s*x, particularly during a
rootless period when she lived in Los Angeles a few years ago, it is
perhaps natural that the troubled offspring of Bob Geldof and Paula
Yates should be attracted to such a liberal school of thought.
And if Peaches’ own interest is so shallow, heaven knows what her
impressionable — and mostly very young — fans will take from it.
A former FBI agent, Ted Gundersen, who investigated Satanic circles
in LA, found that Crowley’s teachings about ‘raising demons to do one’s
bidding’ suggested human sacrifice, preferably of ‘an intelligent young
boy’.
John Bonner is dismissive of any idea that he and his fellow
believers would even begin to countenance such excesses, pointing out
that his is the only religion that sends people a letter of
congratulations when they decide to leave (‘because they are exercising
free will, which is what we’re all about’).
But he accepts many people may not be able to deal with Crowley’s complex teachings.
‘You’re not supposed to just jump straight in to it. It takes time
and study, but our rituals are not for public consumption. You need to
join us and go through the initiation process before you can begin to
understand.
‘But according to our beliefs we can’t turn anyone away. So if you
are over 18, are passably sane and are free to attend initiations, then
you have an undeniable right of membership.’
Peaches Geldof is playing with fire. One can only hope her fans treat this latest pose with the scorn it deserves.
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