The A∴A∴ and The Order of the Silver Star
Aleister Crowley’s Order of the Silver Star
The A∴A∴, usually understood as Astrum Argentum or Argenteum Astrum, meaning “Silver Star,” is one of the most important magical organisations associated with Aleister Crowley.
Unlike the more socially oriented Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), the A∴A∴ was intended primarily as a school of individual spiritual and magical development. Its purpose was to guide an individual through a carefully structured series of initiatory grades towards what Crowley regarded as spiritual attainment and illumination.
The origins of the A∴A∴
The story of the A∴A∴ begins partly with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the influential occult organisation into which Crowley was initiated in 1898. Crowley had been introduced to the Golden Dawn through George Cecil Jones, an English chemist and occultist who was himself a member of the order. Jones became an important magical mentor and associate of Crowley.
The Golden Dawn taught ceremonial magic, Qabalah, astrology, tarot, alchemy and other Western esoteric disciplines through a graded initiatory system. However, by the beginning of the twentieth century it had become seriously divided by disputes concerning authority and leadership. Crowley himself became increasingly dissatisfied with the organisation and with its leadership under S. L. MacGregor Mathers.
Against this background, Crowley and Jones began developing the idea of a new magical order.
The exact chronology is somewhat complicated. Sources commonly give 1907 as the founding period, although some A∴A∴ traditions date its conception to 1906 and its public emergence to 1909. Crowley and Jones were the principal founders. Major-General John Frederick Charles Fuller, a soldier and occultist associated with Crowley, was also involved in the earliest formation and was regarded as the third of the order’s early chiefs.
Thus, although the A∴A∴ is often casually described as “Crowley’s order,” it is more historically accurate to describe it as founded by Aleister Crowley and George Cecil Jones, with Fuller playing an important role in its early establishment.
Why was it created?
The A∴A∴ was partly conceived as a successor to the magical training tradition of the Golden Dawn, but Crowley and Jones wanted something substantially different.
Rather than creating another conventional occult lodge in which large numbers of members met together, the A∴A∴ was designed around individual instruction.
Its fundamental idea was that a student should work directly with a teacher or superior, progressing through a sequence of grades. A member was principally connected to the person above them and, if they eventually became qualified to teach, to the person or people below them.
This created an unusual structure in which the organisation could exist without conventional temples, committees or large meetings. It also meant that the A∴A∴ could be understood simultaneously as an outer organisation and as an inner spiritual fellowship.
The influence of Thelema
The A∴A∴ developed alongside Crowley’s emerging religious and magical philosophy of Thelema.
The central sacred text of Thelema is Liber AL vel Legis, better known as The Book of the Law. Crowley maintained that he had received the book in Cairo in 1904 from a praeterhuman intelligence named Aiwass.
The fundamental Thelemic maxim, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,” became closely associated with Crowley’s spiritual philosophy.
The A∴A∴ therefore incorporated Crowley’s developing system of magical practice, meditation, Qabalah, yoga, ritual and mystical attainment. It was not simply an organisation for studying occult subjects intellectually: its emphasis was on actually undertaking spiritual and magical practices.
“Scientific Illuminism”
One of the most interesting aspects of Crowley’s approach was his attempt to reconcile mystical experience with the scientific spirit of the modern age.
The A∴A∴ became associated with the phrase:
“The Method of Science — the Aim of Religion.”
Crowley wanted magical and mystical practices to be approached experimentally. Instead of simply accepting that a ritual, meditation or mystical exercise worked because an ancient authority said it did, the practitioner was encouraged to perform the experiment and observe its results.
This philosophy became particularly visible through The Equinox, Crowley’s periodical, which began publication in 1909 and became the principal published vehicle for A∴A∴teachings.
The Equinox published magical texts, rituals, philosophical essays, accounts of experiments and instructions relating to ceremonial magic, yoga and mysticism. Consequently, although the membership structure of the A∴A∴ was deliberately private, a remarkable amount of its curriculum was made publicly available.
The A∴A∴ system of grades
The A∴A∴ adopted and considerably modified the idea of ascending initiatory grades associated with the Tree of Life of Qabalah.
The grades represent stages in the individual’s spiritual development. Broadly, the system progresses from preliminary preparation and practical magical training towards increasingly profound mystical attainment.
Among the best-known stages are:
- Student
- Probationer
- Neophyte
- Zelator
- Practicus
- Philosophus
- Dominus Liminis
- Adeptus Minor
- Adeptus Major
- Adeptus Exemptus
- Babe of the Abyss
- Magister Templi
- Magus
- Ipsissimus
The terminology derives partly from the Golden Dawn tradition but was reorganised within Crowley’s own system.
The famous concept of “crossing the Abyss” is particularly important. In Crowley’s interpretation, the Abyss represents a profound spiritual division between ordinary consciousness and higher states of realisation. The individual who reaches the relevant stage must confront the dissolution of the ordinary ego and the attachments associated with it.
The mysterious figure Choronzon became associated with this region of Crowley’s magical cosmology.
What did members actually study?
The A∴A∴ curriculum was remarkably broad. Depending upon the grade and individual circumstances, a student might undertake:
- ceremonial magic
- meditation
- concentration exercises
- yoga
- Qabalah
- astrology
- tarot
- invocation and ritual
- visualisation
- astral practices
- mystical contemplation
- study of sacred texts
- ethical and psychological self-examination
- dream work
- analysis of personal magical experiences
Crowley also placed considerable importance upon recording one’s experiences in a magical diary.
The idea was that spiritual development should involve disciplined observation rather than simply adopting beliefs.
Important members
The A∴A∴ attracted a number of remarkable people during Crowley’s lifetime.
George Cecil Jones
George Cecil Jones (1873–1960) was Crowley’s co-founder and one of the most important figures in the early history of the organisation.
Jones had been a member of the Golden Dawn and had introduced Crowley to that order. His knowledge of ceremonial magic and Qabalah contributed substantially to the intellectual background from which the A∴A∴ emerged.
J. F. C. Fuller
Major-General John Frederick Charles Fuller (1878–1966) was a British military officer, military theorist and occultist.
Fuller became one of the earliest important members of the A∴A∴ and participated in its early formation. He was also a close associate of Crowley for a period, although their relationship eventually deteriorated.
Charles Stansfeld Jones
Perhaps the most important A∴A∴ student after Crowley himself was Charles Stansfeld Jones, better known as Frater Achad.
Jones became an important occult writer and Qabalist. Crowley considered him extremely significant in his own magical development, and Achad’s interpretations of Qabalah and Thelema had a considerable influence upon later Thelemic thought.
Victor Neuburg
Victor Neuburg, a poet and occultist, became one of Crowley’s closest magical associates.
Their relationship is particularly famous because of the magical experiments they conducted together, including the controversial Abramelin-related and Enochian practices that Crowley described in his writings.
Neuburg subsequently distanced himself from Crowley, but his place in the early history of Crowley’s magical career remains significant.
Austin Osman Spare
The artist Austin Osman Spare was also associated with the A∴A∴ during its early years.
Spare was an exceptionally original occult thinker whose approach to magic eventually diverged substantially from Crowley’s. His later development of Zos Kia and his emphasis on sigils and the subconscious helped make him an influential figure in twentieth-century occultism.
Jane Wolfe
Jane Wolfe, an American actress and Thelemite, became an important student of Crowley during his period at The Abbey of Thelema in Cefalù, Sicily.
She undertook extensive magical and meditative practices and later became an important transmitter of Crowley’s teachings in the United States.
Isreal Regardie
Israel Regardie is an especially important name, although his relationship to the A∴A∴ and its lineages is more complicated than is sometimes suggested.
Regardie became Crowley’s secretary during the 1920s and later published large amounts of Golden Dawn material. He was associated with the A∴A∴ system and helped preserve and disseminate elements of Crowley’s magical curriculum.
His publications played an enormous role in making twentieth-century ceremonial magic accessible to later generations.
The A∴A∴ and the O.T.O.
It is important not to confuse the A∴A∴ with the Ordo Templi Orientis.
Crowley eventually became one of the most important leaders of the O.T.O., but the two organisations served different purposes.
The A∴A∴ was principally concerned with individual magical and mystical attainment.
The O.T.O. was a fraternal initiatory organisation with degrees, social structures and, eventually, a strong Thelemic identity.
In simple terms, one might describe the A∴A∴ as Crowley’s individual spiritual training system, while the O.T.O. became a much broader Thelemic initiatory and fraternal organisation.
The death of Crowley and the question of succession
Crowley died in 1947.
His death created a major problem for the A∴A∴ because the organisation’s structure did not provide for a single universally recognised successor.
Karl Germer, Crowley’s principal designated successor within his broader Thelemic circle, was regarded by many as the senior surviving A∴A∴ member. However, he did not assume universal control of the A∴A∴.
This became extremely important.
Because the A∴A∴ was based upon a teacher-to-student chain, rather than a central headquarters and democratic membership structure, individual initiates could continue transmitting the system to students.
Consequently, after Crowley’s death, multiple lineages developed.
Is the A∴A∴ still going?
Yes — but with an important qualification.
The A∴A∴ did not simply disappear when Crowley died. Various organisations and groups today claim continuity with Crowley and Jones’s A∴A∴ lineage. Some can trace their teacher-student succession back through documented lines; others have disputed claims of legitimacy.
There is no universally recognised central A∴A∴ authority today.
Thelema.org, for example, explicitly states that after Crowley’s death there were no universal Chiefs of the A∴A∴, while maintaining that the order survived through different authentic lineages.
This is actually consistent with the organisational principle Crowley and Jones established: because the A∴A∴ was based on individual teacher-student transmission, it did not necessarily require a central institution to continue.
Therefore, when someone says “the A∴A∴ still exists,” the statement is broadly true, but it needs qualification. There isn’t one universally acknowledged organisation called theA∴A∴ controlling all practitioners. Instead, there are different A∴A∴ lineages and organisations claiming descent from the original system.
The A∴A∴ today
Modern A∴A∴ groups continue to work with Crowley’s system of:
Thelema → Qabalah → ceremonial magic → meditation → yoga → mystical attainment → initiation.
Some contemporary lineages maintain a relatively traditional interpretation of Crowley’s teachings, while others have developed the system in their own ways.
The organisation therefore occupies a rather unusual position in modern occultism. It is simultaneously:
- a historical organisation founded in the early twentieth century;
- a system of magical and mystical training;
- an initiatory lineage;
- an important component of Thelemic tradition; and
- a collection of modern lineages claiming descent from Crowley and Jones.
Its great innovation was to move away from the conventional occult lodge and place the emphasis upon the individual seeker and the teacher-student relationship. Its graded system was intended to provide a systematic path from elementary magical training towards profound mystical realisation.
Most importantly, the A∴A∴ has not died out. It survives into the twenty-first century through several competing or independent lineages. There is no universally recognised supreme head of the order today, however, and questions concerning which modern groups constitute the “authentic” A∴A∴ remain matters of considerable debate within Thelemic circles.
In that sense, the A∴A∴ is rather different from many historical secret societies: its survival was built into its very structure. As long as an initiate transmits the teachings to a qualified student, the chain can continue — even without a temple, headquarters or central governing body.
