Dark Jazz Timeline: Occult History

Please note: litigious parties and other intelligence-challenged creatures should note this is a fictional timeline which utilizes some historic figures and events for its content. If you have a bone to pick with something on this page, you need to get over yourself, and quick.

Prior to the 20th century

1458 - The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage dates itself internally to this year

1531 - Three Books of Occult Philosophy by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa published in Paris.

1589 - John Dee and Edward Kelley begin the Enochian workings.

1606 - Trithemius' Steganographia first published.

1776 - Adam Weishaupt forms the "Order of Perfectibilists", which is later known as the Illuminati.

1781 - Monde Primitif by Antoine Court de Gébelin.

1855 - Transcendental Magic by Eliphas Levi was published.

1875 - The Theosophical Society is founded.

1875 - Aleister Crowley born in Warwickshire, England.

1886 - Austin Osman Spare born in London.

1889 - Mathers' edition of Key of Solomon published.

1898 - At age 23 Aleister Crowley joins the Golden Dawn.

1899 - C.G. Leland publishes Aradia, the Gospel of the Witches.

1900s

1900 - Aleister Crowley expelled from the Golden Dawn.

1904 - Austin Osman Spare exhibit at the annual Royal Academy exhibition in London

1905 - Ordo Templi Orientis is founded in Vienna, Austria.

1908 - Occultist Ambrose Bierce publishes The Devils Dictionary in a limited first edition print run of 666 copies. The same year he publishes The Cynic's Word Book, which is re-titled in 1911 to obscure the earlier diabolic edition.

1907 - Aleister Crowley forms Argentium Astrum (A∴A∴)

1917 - Thule Society founded in Munich, Bavaria.

1910s

1912 - Aleister Crowley joins the OTO at the invitation of Outer Head Theodor Reuss.

'1913 - The Book of Pleasure by Austin Osman Spare. Occultist Ambrose Bierce disappears while travelling in Mexico.

1914 - Over a period of seven weeks, Aleister Crowley and Victor Neuberg perform a series of twenty-four rituals known as "the Paris Working." Eight months later, Neuberg has a nervous breakdown.

1915 - Crowley meets Wilfred Smith in Vancouver and grants permission for Smith to found the Agapé Lodge of the OTO in California.

1916 - Crowley performs a series of magical operations with well-known spiritualist Evangeline Smith Adams at her cottage in New Hampshire.

1919 - A sample of the Philosopher’s Stone is discovered in an Egyptian New Kingdom tomb by noted archaeologist Flinders Petrie.

1920s

1920 - The Ecclesia, a Rosicrucian Temple of Healing, is founded in Oceanside, California.

1923 - OTO leader Theodor Reuss accuses Aleister Crowley of necromancy and expels him from the OTO.

1924 - Theodore Reuss dies, screaming

1925 - Self-proclaimed "black magician" and Thule Society member Adolf Hitler publishes his "magickal confession," Mein Kampf, in Austria. In England, Dr. Anton Phibes murders seven doctors and a nurse, all of whom he deems responsible for his wife's death during surgery the previous year. He is stopped from killing three others but escapes. Aleister Crowley is named Outer Head of the OTO.

1926 - A series of "magic wars" of magicians, occultists, and magical societies begins through the United States and Europe. This ten-year conflict leads to the consolidation of numerous magical groups and guilds into the larger and more venerated societies such as the Golden Dawn. The O.T.O. also takes in several refugees and rises quickly to become the second largest magical society in the world. Other groups that are not consolidated disappear, many of their members the victims of accident or suicide.

1927 - Kulik expedition to Tunguska discovers metal debris and strange green rock scattered about the destroyed area. Four members of the party suddenly go berserk and attack the others, killing three before they themselves are killed. Local guides abandon the scientists in panic and nearly half the researchers die in their attempt to return to civilization.

1928 - Fire destroys the library at Miskatonic University, including the infamous "special collections" containing a number of nefarious magical texts. Josemaria Escriva founds Opus Dei in Spain. The organization assumes operation of the "Special Branch," a Vatican office dedicated to the pursuit of supernatural threats to the Church. Dr. Anton Phibes, missing since 1925 and presumed dead, is sighted in Egypt. He is pursued by investigators and believed drowned, but his body is never recovered.

1930s

1930 - Solomon Tophet leaves America for Europe, settling in Rome years later where his son Alexander is born.

1932 - Citing a lack of funds, Miskatonic University announces it will be closing its doors in 1936, marking the demise of the last remaining occult and magical studies program in the world.

1933 - Austrian political agitator and reputed “black magician” Adolf Hitler is committed to an asylum for the criminally insane.

1934 - FUDOSI founded in Brussels, Belgium. Several murders in England and Europe are attributed to Anton Phibes. Dr. Lem Vesalius of the Institute for Psychic Phenomena, who as a young boy was one of the intended victims of Phibes' 1925 murder spree, publishes a book titled, The Abominable Dr. Phibes. Vesalius claims Phibes has possession of Egyptian magical secrets which the murderer uses to prolong his life.

1935 - A flash flood of the Miskatonic River destroys the Massachusetts town of Arkham. Noted British occultist and master magician T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) dies in a motorcycle accident in Dorset, England.

1937 - The Golden Dawn by Israel Regardie published.

1939 - FUDOFSI founded in Paris, France. Jack Parsons joins the O.T.O. in Pasadena.

1940s

1941 - OTO leader Aleister Crowley selects Jack Parsons to lead Agapé Lodge of California.

1943 - Aleister Crowley's Book of Thoth published.

1944 - Crowley meets Kenneth Grant, who is soon after inducted into the OTO and A∴A∴ under Crowley's tutelage. Members of the Thule Society are implicated in a plot to bomb the German parliament.

1944 - Constant Chevillon, the head of FUDOFSI, is murdered by agents of the Thule. Jack Parsons begins work on his magnum opus, a work which attempts to meld magic and science in a “scientific religious philosophy” as the basis for a new world religion.

1946 - Parsons and his friend Ron Hubbard perform the Babalon Working, a ritual intended to summon the "Scarlet Woman." Within days, Parsons is introduced to Marjorie Cameron, a stunning redhead whom Parsons believes to be the fulfillment of the ritual. Parsons and Cameron marry. The three then begin a series of sex magic ritual to create an entity known as a Moonchild.

1947 - Aleister Crowley dies in Hastings.

1949 - Australian occult artist Rosaleen Norton is charged by the Melbourne police for causing public offense with her paintings.

1950s

1952 - Noted artist and occultist Austin Osman Spare founds Zos Kia Kultus with Kenneth Grant. Jack Parsons is killed in an explosion at his private laboratory. L. Ron Hubbard publishes the book Scientology, a extension of his previous work in which he describes his “scientific religious philosophy” as the basis for a new world religion.

1952 - The Art of Rosaleen Norton is published in a 500-copy limited edition. The book features occult-themed art (including an image of the demon Fohat) by Norton as well as similarly themed poems by Gavin Greenlees. Australian police arrest publisher Walter Glover and charge him with production of an obscene publication. After the court finds Glover guilty, copies of the book are destroyed in both Australia and the Untied States.

1953 - The Church of Scientology is incorporated in Camden, New Jersey.

1954 - Marjorie Cameron appears as the Scarlet Woman in the Kenneth Anger short film, Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome.

1955 - OTO adept and A∴A∴ member Kenneth Grant founds New Isis Lodge in England. Grant is subsequently expelled from the OTO.

1955 - Rosaleen Norton is accused of practicing animal sacrifice and devil worship. Police raid her home and seize photographs they later claim depict Norton performing "an unnatural sexual act." Norton is hounded in the press and forced into seclusion, the stress of which led her partner Greenlees to suffer a mental collapse in 1956.

1956 - Austin Osman Spare dies in London.

1961

Marjorie Cameron appears as "the Water Witch" in the Curtis Harrington film Night Tide.

1962

Upon the death of OTO leader Karl Germer, who did not designate a successor, Grant proclaims himself Outer Head of the OTO. This prompts a fierce magical and legal conflict over the true leadership of the worldwide society.

Continuing his claims of worldwide OTO leadership, Kenneth Grant announces the creation of the Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis, absorbing his New Isis Lodge into the new Thelemic order.

1964

On temporary release from asylum, Gavin Greenlees suffers another mental collapse and attacks his former lover Rosaleen Norton with a knife.

Episcopalian minister and noted occultist Michael Bertiaux disappears while travelling in Haiti.