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.

1900s

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

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.

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 expels Crowley from the OTO.

1925 - Self-proclaimed "black magician" and Thule Society member Adolf Hitler publishes his "magickal confession," Mein Kampf, in Austria.

1925 - Aleister Crowley is named Outer Head of the OTO.

1926 - A "purge" of magicians, occultists, and magical societies begins in California.

1927 - Kulik expedition to Tunguska discovers metal debris scattered about the destroyed area.

1928 - Fire destroys the library at Miskatonic University, including the infamous "special collections" containing a number of nefarious magical texts.

1930s

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.

1937 - A flash flood of the Miskatonic River destroys the Massachusetts town of Arkham.

1940s

1942 - OTO leader Aleister Crowley selects John Whiteside Parsons to lead Agapé Lodge.

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.

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.

1952 - John Whiteside Parsons is killed in an explosion at his private laboratory.

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.

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.

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.