The ORT was established in 1970 by Raymond Bernard at the suggestion of Julien Origas, both members of the Rosicrucian organization AMORC, which it initially had a relation to.

AMORC's leader grew worried about the ORT's increasing popularity threatening its international status, and Bernard left in 1972, leaving Origas the Grand Master.

Origas, upon taking control, recreated the group's doctrine away from Rosicrucianism and incorporated aspects of the American religious organization "I AM" Activity.

AMORC is the largest contemporary Rosicrucian organization, structured into lodges which performed initiation rituals into specific degrees.

[1] Raymond Bernard was the legate of AMORC in the Francophone world and the second highest person in the organization's entire hierarchy.

[2][3] Julien Origas was also a member of AMORC; he had been involved with the Gestapo during World War II, for which he served three years in prison.

[5] The creation of this group was supposedly validated by a "White Cardinal" apparition that had appeared to Bernard in Rome, who initiated him as a Templar.

[9] It utilized a double structure, where Bernard was the Secret Grand Master and real leader, but with Origas as the formal president of the organization.

[12] Lewis grew concerned over the ORT's increasing success negatively impacting AMORC's international performance, with Bernard leaving as a result.

[13] After he left, Bernard began discouraging AMORC members from joining the ORT, though kept up a good personal relationship with Origas.

[13][2] The group began to draw more concepts from Angela and from Breyer, revolving around messages given by the Ascended Masters of the Grand Lodge of Agartha and ideas about the end of the world.

[2][9] Origas led members of the far-right to join ORT,[14] and had an affiliation with European white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups.

This group had ideas relating to an imminent apocalypse and ascended masters which walked the earth, among which they counted Origas and the leader of the Saint Germain Foundation, Angela.

The Golden Way Foundation was founded by one Joseph Di Mambro, and was recognized by Breyer as part of his Arginy movement.

During this ceremony, the ORT and the OSTS renewed an allegiance to a "once and future" secret Master of the Temple with supremacy over both organizations (though this meeting did not represent a merger between the groups).

[9] Jouret had no legal right to the ORT name, so he founded a splinter group in Geneva, Switzerland upon his ousting, alongside Di Mambro.

[22][20] The OTS was dually schismatic and a direct continuation of the original ORT, with occult-apocalyptic teachings descended from that of Breyer and Origas, which it tied to other apocalyptic concepts,[20] and some white supremacist ideas.

[27] Not being able to afford the management of the Auty Castle, it became headed in the Toulouse region of France, in Caussade, and mostly in Francophone Africa and Brazil.