While the group continues to promote Aleister Crowley's religion Thelema, it also focuses on exploration of foreign intelligence such as extraterrestrial life and daemons, as well as the darker aspects of occult existence.
[3] While not central to the Typhonian Order one of the most notable, studied and controversial aspects of the tradition surround Kenneth Grant's use of the fictional works of cosmic horror author H.P.
Lovecraft to explore occult psychology in that he viewed the entities of the Cthulhu Mythos not merely as fictional creations but as manifestations of archetypal realities, possibly even as symbolic representations of actual spiritual forces or beings.
Reuss died in 1923 without naming a successor, and Crowley was subsequently elected and ratified as Outer Head of the Order in a Conference of Grand Masters in 1925.
[9] In this manifesto, Grant wrote that a new energy was emanating down from Earth from another planet which he identified with Nuit, a goddess who appears in the first chapter of Crowley's Thelemic holy text, The Book of the Law.
(Outer Head of the Order) of O.T.O., claiming that he deserved this title not by direct succession from Crowley but because he displayed the inspiration and innovation that Germer lacked.
[14] A document purportedly by Crowley naming Grant as his successor was subsequently exposed as a hoax created by Robert Taylor, a Typhonian O.T.O.
The renaming to "The Typhonian Order" signifies this ideological and practical departure, focusing more explicitly on Grant's specific interests in the darker aspects of the occult, extraterrestrial dimensions of consciousness, and the exploration of what he termed the "Tunnels of Set."
These concepts delve into areas of the occult that are far removed from the original teachings of the O.T.O., hence the rebranding serves not only as a formal but also a symbolic declaration of independence and differentiation.
[20] In Central Africa during prehistory, he believed there had been a religion devoted to the worship of a goddess known as Ta-Urt or Typhon, from which the Typhonian tradition stems.
[18] Influenced by Maharshi, Grant adopted the Advaitan world-view that only "the Self", or atman, really exists, with the wider universe being an illusory projection.
[23] Grant further wrote that the realm of the Self was known as "the Mauve Zone", and that it could be reached while in a state of deep sleep, where it has the symbolic appearance of a swamp.
[30] Grant's views on sex magic drew heavily on the importance of sexual dimorphism among humans and the subsequent differentiation of gender roles.
[37] In Grant's perspective, Lovecraft's narratives and mythos tapped into the same primordial truths and cosmic mysteries that esoteric traditions and magical practices sought to explore.