The Black Lodge | 1992 | Kenneth Grant

The New Isis Lodge was established by Kenneth Grant in 1955, during the period of turmoil that hit the organization following the death of the outer head of the order, Aleister Crowley, in 1947. During Crowley’s last years, aided by the chaos of World War II, the order virtually ceased to exist in Europe. Crowley passed his job to Karl Germer, then living in the United States. Germer operated as a caretaker for the order, but was more interested in seeing to the publication of Crowley’s manuscripts than in aiding the revival of the organization after its decimation by the Nazis. Germer had himself spent several years in a concentration camp prior to escaping to England and then the United States. In 1951 Germer granted a charter to Kenneth Grant, a young magician who had known Crowley during the last years of his life. Originally Grant was limited to performing only the first three of the order’s eleven degrees, but he had access to copies of all of the secret material. In 1955, Grant forma