O.T.O. Phenomenon · Archive dossier

Aleister Crowley:
This is the Last Will

The 1947 testament, its facsimile trail, and the later administrative quarrels around belongings, copyrights, literary executors and O.T.O. property. A legal document, inconveniently literal.

The document core

What the will actually says, and what it does not say

Aleister Crowley's Last Will and Testament, dated 9th June, 1947, annulled all previous Wills and named the journalist John Symonds (1914–2006) and the novelist Louis Wilkinson (a.k.a. Louis Marlowe, 1881–1966) as Crowley’s literary executors. Karl Germer (1885–1962) and the painter Frieda Harris (1877–1962) became responsible for Crowley’s personal belongings, while Germer took charge of the O.T.O.

Crowley's Last Will made no mention of Grady Louis McMurtry (1918–1985).

Crowley died an undischarged bankrupt on 1st December, 1947. The Official Receiver, the Insolvency Service of the United Kingdom, appointed to administer his affairs accepted Germer’s claim on behalf of the O.T.O. as an unincorporated association to funds of £450, as property held in trust by Crowley for the O.T.O.

Facsimiles

The testament pages

Aleister Crowley, Last Will and Testament, 19 June 1947, page 1
19 June 1947 facsimile, page 1.
Aleister Crowley, Last Will and Testament, 19 June 1947, page 2
19 June 1947 facsimile, page 2.
Aleister Crowley, Last Will and Testament, 19 June 1947, page 3
19 June 1947 facsimile, page 3.
From: Materialien zum O.T.O.
Aleister Crowley, Last Will and Testament, 19 June 1947, page 4
19 June 1947 facsimile, page 4.
Aleister Crowley, Last Will and Testament, 19 June 1947, page 5
19 June 1947 facsimile, page 5.
Aleister Crowley, Last Will and Testament, 1 December 1947, page 1
1 December 1947 facsimile, page 1.
Aleister Crowley, Last Will and Testament, 1 December 1947, page 2
1 December 1947 facsimile, page 2.
From: Noch Mehr Materialien Zum O.T.O.
Afterlife

Copyrights, receivership, and the slow paperwork séance

After Crowley’s death, Germer, Wilkinson and Harris questioned whether the Official Receiver really was the legal inheritor of Crowley’s copyrights in consequence of Crowley’s bankruptcy. A voluminous correspondence dragged on throughout the following years, though all participants were sure the Crown, of whom the Official Receiver was the legal representative, did not in fact possess the copyrights.

Kenneth Grant, Aossic and Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis
Kenneth Grant
John Symonds, literary executor of Aleister Crowley
John Symonds
Francis King
Francis King
Karl Johannes Germer
Karl Germer
Document constellation

Items of historical interest

Aleister Crowley LTD.

In 1930, Karl Germer sent a description of Aleister Crowley LTD. to Fernando Pessoa.

This is the Last Will

Aleister Crowley’s Last Will and Testament, placed here in its document setting.

Germer, Wilkinson and Lady Frieda Harris

The long correspondence and the legal-literary sediment around the posthumous estate.

National Grandmasters and OHOs of the O.T.O.

Names, claims, offices and the inevitable choreography of titles.

Credits

Image and document credits

The facsimile and portrait material is presented here as part of the O.T.O. Phenomenon archive context.

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