Fraternitas Saturni

An influential occult group in Germany before World War II, headed by Albin Grau as grand master, accepting much ofthe teachings of Aleister Crowley. The group was disbanded by the Nazis in 1933 but reorganized in 1945.

A German ritual magic group the Fraternitas Saturni grew out of the spread of Crowley's ideas in Germany in the 1920s among members of the Grand Pansophical Lodge, a Masonic occult order. Among the leaders of the lodge was Eugen Grosche, better known as Gregor A. Gregorius. Gregorius was favorably impressed by Crowley's ideas of a new aeon of magic activity characterized by the law of thelema (will) and his teachings on sexual magic, but did not wish to associate directly with Crowley or any of the organizations he headed. In 1926 he led in the dissolving of the Pansophical Lodge and the formation of the Fraternitas Saturni, drawing additional inspiration from reports of Saturnian lodges that had existed in Germany in earlier centuries.

Gregorius began to write a series of books and documents for the new fraternity, borrowing heavily from Crowley's works. The lodge was suppressed shortly after Hitler came to power in 1933 and Gregorius moved to Switzerland. He was extradited to Germany in 1943 but survived the war and refounded the group in 1945. Its growth was delayed by its location in Soviet territory through the late 1940s. The lodge was not truly revived until 1950, when Gregorius was able to move to west Germany. In 1957 a grand lodge was established in Berlin and Gregorius was declared its grand master, a position he held until his death in 1964.

After Gregorius's death the lodge went through a period of dissension and split into three factions. Copies of materials that had been kept secret were handed over to Dr. Aldolf Hemberger, who published them along with his study of the group. Finally, in 1971, the three factions of the fraternity reunited and returned to their secret ritual life. The order continues to exist in Germany, according to reports.

In the 1970s the Fraternitas Saturni emerged in Toronto, Ontario, under the leadership of Frater Set-Orion, the North American grand master. Its present status is uncertain. Copies of the pre-1969 rituals were published in English in 1990 by Edred Flowers, who manifested no knowledge of any North American lodge.

Sources:

Flowers, S. Edred. Fire and Ice: Magical Teachings of Germany's Greatest Secret Occult Order. St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn Publications, 1990.