THE DETROIT FREE PRESS

Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A.

10 January 1922

(page 11)

ADMITS 'O.T.O.' REHEARSED RITUAL OF CULT IN 1918.

Ryerson Says Group of Detroit Men

Rehearsed Ritual of Cult in 1918.

The ritual of the “Oriental Order of the Temple,” mystical cult whose chief tenet is “Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law,” was rehearsed by a small group of Detroit business and professional men on night in 1918. This statement was made Monday by Albert W. Ryerson, former head of bankrupt Universal Book Stores, Inc., whose affairs are inextricably woven with the “O. T. O.,” at a bankruptcy hearing before Referee George A. Marston.

Ryerson, despite questioning by Attorney Grover L. Morden, counsel for the creditors and trustees of the Universal Book Stores, refused to give the names of the men who he said took part in the ritual a part of which consists of kneeling before a priestess. He denied that a permanent organization ever had been formed in Detroit.

Letters on “Equinox” Admitted

Letters from Ryerson to Aleister Crowley, author of The Equinox, official handbook of the O.T.O., were admitted in the court as exhibits. In several of them Ryerson began with the precept, “Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law,” and ended with another axiom of the O.T.O. “Love is the law—love under will.” In one, he wrote that his activities on behalf of the organization had disrupted his home, alienated his friends and destroyed his business. In another he lamented the opposition of churches to the publication of the Equinox, and to preliminary arrangements for the organization of chapters of the O.T.O.

Morden in his questions attempted to establish his contention that it was publication of The Equinox by the Universal Book Stores, incorporated, of which Ryerson was the head, that brought about its financial downfall and that no prudent business man would have consented to publish the literature of the mystical cult. His questions also were aimed at attaching blame for the failure of the corporation to Ryerson personally. “A business man should have known that the front[is]piece of The Equinox, representing the hanging of Christianity on a gibbet, alone would have resulted in the failure of the publishing house.

Ryerson while on the stand declared that he accepted his first philosophical ideas from Ralph Waldo Emerson ( of whom he said drove a dog cart in Boston). Emerson he said read much literature pertaining to the worship of sex among the ancients.

The hearing was adjourned until January 20, following Ryerson’s testimony and the introduction of the documentary evidence.