Marcelo Ramos Motta

From Thelemapedia

Marcelo Ramos Motta (Jul 27th, 1931 e.v. - Aug 26th, 1987 e.v.) was the first Thelemic writer in Brazil, a member of Astrum Argentum, and founder of the Brazilian Society Ordo Templi Orientis.

Marcelo Motta was born in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Very little is known about his childhood, only that he was born into a German family and received a very strict education, amplified by his admission to the Military Academy of Rio de Janeiro. His father was a follower of the doctrine of Allan Kardec and his mother was Catholic. According to Motta, by the age of 11 he had read the books of Eliphas Levi, Papus, Blavatsky, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Patânjali, Paraclesus and Arnold Krumm-Heller. Through Krumm-Heller's work, he became interested in the Rosicrucian mysteries. But his first contact with a true Rosicrucian society, the Brazilian branch of AMORC, did not satisfy him, and he started his search for an initiatory school of the sort he found in Krumm-Heller's novel "Rose-Croix."

Motta had a deep disgust for Catholicism (the predominant religion in Brazil), which he saw as the disruption of the will to live. For the rest of his life, he was occupied with a vision of the Anti-Christ as he perceived it, extant in Rome.

During his time at the military academy, he became interested in Astrology and Tarot, among other esoteric topics. At the age of 17 he made contact with the Fraternitas Rosacruciana Antiqua, Krumm-Heller's Rosicrucian order where Motta took his first initiations in 1948, at the age of 17. Local political tension impelled him to move to Europe and then to the United States. His mission on this voyage, given by the Brazilian leadership of the FRA, was to meet Parsival Krumm-Heller (son of Arnond Krumm-Heller and then legal leader of FRA) and mediate the contacts between the Brazilian group and the international leadership.

Motta's first contact with Thelema was through J. Symond's book The Great Beast. Later, in the USA, P. Krumm-Heller introduced Motta to Karl Germer, leader of the Ordo Templi Orientis at that time. Germer gave to Motta the choice between O.T.O. and A.'.A.'. and Motta chose the latter.

Returning to Brazil in 1962, Motta translated and published Crowley's Liber Aleph and "Calling the Sons of the Sun," the first Thelemic writings published in Brazil. From this year to 1987, Motta had numerous A.'.A.'. students under his tutelage, and tried to establish an O.T.O. Lodge in Brazil, though he was never a member of Ordo Templi Orientis.

Marcelo Motta was the instructor of two very well known A.'. A.'. probationers, Paulo Coelho and Raul Seixas. Another famous student of Motta's was Euclydes Lacerda de Almeida, who later founded two Thelemic groups in Brazil, the Ordem dos Cavaleiros de Thelema (Order of Knights of Thelema) and the Sociedade Novo Aeon (New Aeon Society).

In 1978 Motta tried a take-over of the leadership of O.T.O. from Grady McMurtry. According to some sources, Germer told his wife, Sasha, that he left the control of O.T.O. to Motta. Sasha wrote a letter to Motta to this effect, but he never received it. Nevertheless, Motta tried to assume O.T.O. leadership. But in legal proceedings that took place in the US, his claim to the leadership and copyrights of Crowley's Order and work were dismissed. He then founded S.-O.T.O., a group wholly separate from the O.T.O.

Motta never had any kind of economic stability, jumping from job to job and making a living as an English teacher, aided by the help of his followers at S.-O.T.O.. He died on August 26th, 1987, at the city of Teresópolis (Brazil) at the age of 53. Motta was, allegedly and by his own admission, an alcoholic who suffered from extreme paranoid delusions (for example, he reportedly believed that he was the real target of the JFK assassination, that the CIA and Israeli secret service were targeting him for decades, etc.).

Today, in Brazil, Frater Thor ( Euclydes Lacerda de Almeida) keeps his memory with A.'.A.'. .

Motta Groups

Marcelo Motta founded two Thelemic groups in Brazil:

• Ordem de Thelema (Order of Thelema)
• Society Ordo Templi Orientis
• Adjuvo(Motta)'s branch of A.'.A.'. in Brazil (http://www.astrumargentum.org)