Marcelo Ramos Motta

(Revision as of 02:39, 5 Oct 2005)

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

Marcelo Motta was born in July 27th, 1931 e.v. at the city of 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 at the Military Academy of Rio de Janeiro. His father was a follower of the doctrine of Allan Kardec and his mother was Catholic and was the most present and important figure in Motta's life. According to his legend, by the age of 11 he had read the books of Eliphas Levi, Papus, Blavatsky, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Patânjali, Paraclesus and Arnold Krumm-Heller. Because of his link with Krumm-Heller's work, he became interested in the Rosicrucian mysteries, which became his deepest research topic. But his first contact with a true Rosicrucian society, the Brazilain 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.

His time at the Military Academy of Rio de Janeiro gave him a sense of duty and discipline, which he applied to his occult research. During that time, he became interested in Astrology and Tarot, among other esoteric topics. Those interests were not vey common among his fellow students, but they gave him some knowledge to argue with his Philosophy teacher in a debate that became famous for years.

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 USA. 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." Motta saw lots of connections between the Law of Thelema and parts of his initiations at FRA, but he had never heard about Thelema or Crowley. Furthermore, the book gave him some serious doubts about Crowley's initiations because its biography showed Crowley as a Satanist. After asking P. Krumm-Heller about his questions, Motta received from his superior lots of material about Thelema and Crowley, readings that completely changed Motta's opinion about Aleister Crowley and his methods and philosophy. Later, in the USA, P. Krumm-Heller introduced Motta to Karl Germer, leader of the Ordo Templi Orientis by that time. Germer gave to Motta the choice among 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 fist Thelemic writing published in Brazil. From this year to 1987 Motta, as a member of A.'.A.'. had numerous 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. Coelho later abandoned Thelema and started to follow Catholic mysticism, mixed with some Sufi knowledge and some derivation of Thelemic philosophy, and going on to publish several books. Seixas, a musician, left Thelemic and magical formal training behind, but followed the principles of Thelema for the rest of his life, incorporating Thelemic philosophy into his music.

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 USA, 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) and Frater QVIF (http://www.thelemapedia.org/index.php/Qvif) keep 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