Remembering Frater Aossic, the late Kenneth Grant:
When I was still only a 15 year old schoolboy, passionately imbibing everything that was weird and alternative (from H P Lovecraft to Philip K Dick, William S Burroughs and already befriending the notorious Throbbing Gristle, and as a consequence being ‘in at the start’ with TOPY) , I had been steeping myself in the Occult from the age of
11, already reading all the Aleister Crowley that I could lay my hands on, and became acquainted with the works of Kenneth Grant.
Left: Kenneth Grant, as he looked around the time the author corresponded with and met him; Right: Matthew Levi
Stevens, about a year after he met Mr Grant, in full Temple ov Psychick Youth ‘Tibetan’ mode
So I wrote to him, c/o the publisher, borrowing a trick from Rimbaud of pretending to be a coupla-three years older than I was and seeking to claim my place amongst the aspirants (ah, the arrogance of youth!). To my surprise and delight he replied, always writing very formally (“Dear Mr. Stevens”, and signed “ Sincerely, K. Grant”)
but still taking the trouble to answer my various queries. He was also good enough to put me on to Frank Letchford, that other great friend & champion of the one-andonly Austin Osman Spare. Eventually I met him, almost by accident – by being in ‘the right place at the right time’ when a book boo k-dealer friend of mine had reason to meet
with him – and although at first he seemed slightly less-than-amused by my presence, and the fact I had misrepresented my age (at 15 I was still of course a minor, and living at home with my parents – neither detail totally lost on a man who had assiduously avoided controversy or personal disclosure in the public arena, whilst at the same time writing prolifically on the Black Arts and sex-magick, as Head of a ‘secret order’ dedicated to the same) Still, after af ter a little while the conversation
warmed, and we discussed a number of things – some of which were of genuine interest & surprise, as I will attempt to outline below. I genuinely believe his curiosity got the better of him, and the fact I was the same age at which he had experienced his own first ‘magickal awakenings’ was not lost on him, either. It ended with him
recommending me to my studies, both in and out of school, and that I was welcome to write back if I was still seriously interested in Crowley, magick, and the O.T.O. when I reached the age of legal adulthood at 18. Although with the passing of time I was never to take him up on this (and, indeed, have never been a member of ANY group calling itself the “Ordo Templi Orientis”, or other such body), I retained
friendships and corresponded with a number of key British Thelemites over the years. Also, Kenneth Grant’s almost surprising accessibility caused me to later
encourage both my ex-wife Mouse (formerly of Psychic TV) and my old friend Gavin Semple to write to Grant regarding regar ding their various researches, and he didn’t disappoint
either time.
Here is what I remember from Frater F rater Aossic, Kenneth Grant:
He liked Count Basie, and was convinced that his ‘jump’ rhythms held sonic keys to
tangential tantras on the reverse side of the Tree-of-Life. On the other hand, like so many of his generation, he was all-too dismissive in the extreme of pretty much ALL ‘popular’ music recorded from the 6 0s onwards, which he characterized along the
lines of idiot noise that interfered with the higher vibrations, etc. Despite his lifelong dedication to the life & works of Aleister Crowley, promulgation of the Law of Thelema, claiming Outer Headship of his Own True Order, etc., he confided that really his ‘first love’, spiritually speaking , was Advaita Vedanta: this lead to him writing a number of articles for Indian journals, and for a while becoming a follower of the Sage of Arunachala [all of this was later collected and commented upon in ‘At the Feet of the Guru’ ] He really believed that H. P. Lovecraft was “onto “on to something” – the Necronomicon in
fact existed on the astral, as it were, and that HPL had apprehended this through his
dreams, or suchlike, but was unable to accept the ‘truth’ of what he had discerned –
that he was in effect an unconscious magickian. rag e, and Guru Sri Mahendranath was being At a time when ‘AMOOKOS’ was all the rage
talked up in all the English Occult ‘zines, he told me that he could not find any reference to Crowley meeting with a Lawrence Miles, or advising any young seeker that “the West was finished” and that he should go to I ndia to seek enlightenment,
anywhere in the numerous journals, desk diaries, or appointment books that covered the time at which ‘Dadaji’ ‘ Dadaji’ was said to have visited with him. He had received his first intimations of ‘an Occult Transmission’ Tra nsmission’ at 15, when he had received a Transmission from the entity S’lba – also the same age at which he came
across Crowley’s ‘Magick In Theory & Practice’ in a Charing Cross Road bookshop, which lead him eventually to write to AC c/o the publisher (he was hoping that AC would be able to teach him yoga!) These things go in cycles, I’m sure… Of profound interest was Grant’s assertion that Crowley’s revision of the XI* O.T.O.
(the sex-magickal degree relating to anal intercourse/homosexual working) was in fact IN ERROR, and that The Great Beast’s reading of ‘per vas nefandum’ – “by the unmentionable way” – was incorrect, and that this was in fact referring to ritual intercourse during menstruation, the ‘unclean’ time when a woman was of ‘no use’
(reproductively speaking). This somewhat bold and controversial insistence that The Great Beast had actually GOT IT WRONG where one of his sex-magickal innovations was concerned (probably a case of AC putting personal penchant over and above any ‘true’ symbolism or tradition ), and that by this means Grant opens the door to an integration of Thelema with the true ‘Left Hand Path’ of Vama Marga Tantra.
And lastly, on a more personal note, with regard to my age he encouraged me to make the best of my education (he seemed particularly pleased that my schooling included Latin, Religious Studies, and a generous round of the Sciences – in short, a classic English grammar school education – as he felt this would provide just the sort of grounding a serious student of magick needed), and when he understood that my interest in the Occult was leading to a certain amount of social ostracism, even problems with bullying at school, he recommended to me the Fourth Power of The Sphinx: that as well as To Know, Will, & Dare, one should also remember when to Keep Silent… Finally, in closing, I know that a picture of Grant is often painted as autocratic, ‘old school’ authoritarian, which may well have been so – several people have lead me to
believe that he was actually easier to get on with if you WEREN’T a member of his
Typhonian Order! – but the thing that impressed me about him was his obvious dedication to the daemonic feminine. His championing of the work of Dion Fortune, and of Marjorie Cameron (at a time when most people, if they were aware of her AT active encouragement of ALL, just thought of her as “Jack Parsons’ widow”), and his active successive generations of strong women occultists such as Margaret Ingalls (‘Nema’),
Janice Ayers & Jan Bailey, Mishlen Linden, Linda Falorio, and Mary Hedger – as well as his life-long devotion to his wife, the artist Steffi Grant, attest to this. The last living link to Aleister Crowley, Gerald Gardiner, Eugen Grosche, and Austin Osman Spare, his legacy is yet to be fully assessed and we shall not see his like again.
In Memoriam Kenneth Grant, 1924-2011, now gone to his Greater Feast.
Matthew Levi Stevens www.whollybooks.wordpress.com
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