Dr. Gabriel Montenegro Vargas

Born:    8 January 1907 in Zapotlán, Mexico.

Died:  14 July 1969 in Daly City, California.

Dr Gabriel Montenegro Vargas is an enigmatic figure in O.T.O. history, and many details of his biography remain mysterious. He is the only individual known to have been initiated into the Order during Karl Germer's administration, and after this occurred in 1948 no other initiations were to be conducted in O.T.O. for over twenty years.

He was born on 8 January 1907 in Zapotlán, Mexico. During his youth and early adulthood he traveled back and forth from Mexico to the San Francisco Bay area, where he later trained in the healing arts and qualified to practice as a doctor of chiropractic.

During this time, he began to take an interest in mystical practices and fraternities. He studied with Toltic Indians, and he was also raised as a freemason, being initiated to the 33° of the F. & A. M. in Mazatlan. When he sought initiation in the O.T.O. during the 1940s the only group available in Mexico was a non-initiating branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis Antiqua chartered by Arnold Krumm-Heller. After coming to the United States for his initiation into Germer's O.T.O. he continued in regular attendance as a devoted member of the Order, in association with Agape Lodge in Los Angeles. On 6 August 1948 he took the Minerval initiation at the Agape Lodge. and was eventually initiated to the IX° and took the name of Fr Zöpirón. Another name, Theophilus, may have been reserved for the A∴A∴ in his work as a Probationer under Roy Leffingwell.

Montenegro, or "Monty," as he was often called, is also remembered for his pointed opposition to Grady McMurtry's plan to organize members to pressure Germer into restarting O.T.O. initiations in the late 1950s.

In 1966 Montenegro began corresponding with members of Hermann Metzger's Swiss O.T.O., and the following year he visited Metzger at Stein in Zurich. The reception he received there seemed warm at first, but when Montenegro declined to accept Metzger as the Outer Head of the Order (O.H.O.) of O.T.O. their relations became increasingly hostile. Montenegro described being awakened during the night by repeated loud noises, and upon emerging from his room to investigate, finding Metzger seated at a table in an advanced state of inebriation. His host was slamming a liquor glass down upon the board and yelling "I am the O.H.O.! I am the O.H.O.!" Montenegro left soon afterwards.

In 1969 Montenegro voiced his support for re-starting O.T.O. with Grady McMurtry, although he died on 14 July before an organizational meeting could take place. The funeral was overseen by the F. & A. M. Lodge #434 in Daly City, and he was buried at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma. He was survived by his wife Marguerite (who died in 1999) and a daughter, Sister Marie Angelica, now a Notre Dame nun.

Gabriel Montenegro's tombstone is inscribed "Gabriel Montenegro V. / A Thelemite / 1907-1969." Above the inscription, flanked by two crosses, is a stylized O.T.O. lamen, which contains inscriptions denoting his membership in the O.T.O., the A∴A∴, and the Scottish Rite of freemasonry.