A portrait of the
Communitas Saturni History
The Communitas Saturni is a thelemic community of selected members who are determined to follow the path of Saturn. As an occult Freemason lodge the Communitas Saturni is working on the spiritual temple building of mankind, by seeking for ennobling their members
and others spiritually and magically to bring about a general human league which is in miniature already represented by the Communitas Saturni. If we are even evolving ourselves, thus we may change the human society too. Concerning this we call upon Gregor A. Gregorius, the founder of the modern Saturn lodges. Gregor A. Gregorius was secretary-general of Master Recnartus'
“Grand Pansophic Lodge” in Berlin, Germany, before he founded the Fraternitas Saturni in 1928. Laying the foundations of the Fraternitas Saturni began with the council of Weida in Thuringia, Germany, convened in 1925 by Master Recnartus for the purpose of fixing the direction of the groupings leaded by him. Even the direction of the German division of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) was devolved to Master Recnartus after the death of the Outer Head of Order (OHO) Theodor Reuss, however Reuss
appointed Aleister Crowley being his successor. As probably the doctrines of Crowley were quite not accepted in Germany that time, the appointment of Crowley as new OHO met with massive resistance from the German OTO.
After the conference in Weida the direction of the German OTO fell upon Aleister Crowley which caused the splitting and then in 1926 the ritual closure of the Pansophia of Berlin. Those who accepted Aleister Crowley as Therion joined the OTO, and the others founded
in 1928 under the Grand Master Gregor A. Gregorius a new saturnic lodge - the Fraternitas Saturni. Shortly after Hitler's takeover in 1933 the Fraternitas fell a victim to the Nazis' censorship and was prohibited as many other parties, associations, or similar organizations that were considered suspicious at that time. Only in the Fifties some of the old members came
together again to continue their work. The following time was characterized by great growth and activity for the order, but was soon in the early Sixties overshadowed by internal difficulties. Mainly after Gregorius' death in 1964 conflicts arose within the community which led to the retirement of many high degree members as well as to the splitting of the group. Various new groupings developed from this surrounding field, among others e.g. the Ordo Saturni, one of the few lodges that still
exists, as well as the Fraternitas. The history of the Communitas Saturni started in 1993, founded in Kaiserslautern, Germany by Grand Master Immanuel who transferred the grand lodge patent to the lodge. The Communitas Saturni works in the tradition and with the original rituals of Gregor A. Gregorius, and follows the high degree system of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite of Freemasonry. The name Communitas = Community instead of Fraternitas = Fraternity is intentional as the Communitas Saturni is working beyond the polarities.
After the Grand Master retired in the age of 72 from his active participation in the Communitas Saturni, the new Temple in Mannheim, Germany was initiated in April 1995. Then in 1998 the first orient of the Communitas Saturni in Wiesbaden, Germany could be inaugurated. Why Saturn?
Astronomically Saturn was representing a long time the visible bound of our solar system, as the guardian of the boundaries and the mediator of inner and outer solar system. Saturn needs 29,5 years for its solar orbit and thus was the planet with the slowest orbital velocity. In mythology Saturn was i.a. the god of time and death (Kronos). One can see both polarities of Saturn uniting visually, with the spherical
planet as masculine symbol surrounded by the rings as female symbol. Saturn represents the equalization of opposites as well as the union of negative and positive crafts. Saturn is beyond of dictions as “good and evil”, “black and white”. According to the Saturngnosis it is the symbol of bounds, guardian of the time and thus judge of karma and fate, death and reincarnation. Saturn works from within to without, appears supporting and all-embracing, is centre and surrounding. In the higher
octave Saturn is the guardian of the threshold, the last frontier to divinity, from which we all were sent. In this capacity Saturn is equated with Lucifer as light bearer = Prometheus, who gave the fire to mankind because he really loved them in contrast to god Zeus. In the lower octave Saturn is equated with Satan as seducer, settling within the human ego and so avoiding the liberation of karmic entanglements. According to the world philosophy of the levels, Saturn is classified to the
causal level where the karma of the worlds exist. At the end of times Saturn will judge karma and fate as redeemer in his positive sense, but also as destroyer in his negative sense, who will throw those souls into the Abyss which were non-transformed and stuck to the earth. For this reasons we consider Saturn being analogical to the law ”Do what THOU wilt”. Do what thou
wilt is not considered to ruthlessly imposing your based will, but to ”do your true divine will”, for everyone carries the spark of divinity within. To recognize and to regard this requires much work and extreme high ethical demands to the member of a Saturn-community. Saturn as master of the human body and the unconscious ego which works outwards, shall help to push up the
ego, according to the model “Every man and every woman is a star”. And like the stars existing within a community, so we set great importance to treating each other like brothers and sisters. For Saturn is attached to the causal level, our occult Saturn-community is equated to the principle of a spiritual religion, also defined as high mental or causal religion. We allow our
members to join any religion they like, provided that it meets with our ethics. Anyway, most of the religions are settled within the astral or lower mental level. As Saturn lodge we follow the path of Gnosis and perception, not the path of belief. We do not follow dogmatic doctrines and we refuse to worship entities from this level.
Every member contributes individually to the internal program of the lodge. So our magical and mystical orientation is as various as our members are.
Membership
At present two German orients exist in Mannheim and in Wiesbaden. Once a month on ”Saturn-day” we come together for celebrating the Saturn Ritual to get in touch with the cosmic crafts. Furthermore study groups meet for practising the different magical and mystical subjects of occultism.
Every member is obliged to evolve for increasing inner perfection and to
bring their own experiences into the community, so that all the brothers and sisters may build upon this knowledge. Everyone may profit from this interchange of information by receiving further suggestions to follow the individual path of Saturn.
Since the CS is a hermetical order, our members must not talk with non-members about private matters of other members, nor lodge rituals or any didactic material. However many books have already been published about hermetic lodges, the tradition
of discretion still makes sense, as the key to an experience is the gradual practice, e.g. to understand a ritual absolutely is only possible by the appropriate initiation. Any adult person can become a member of the Communitas Saturni and will be integrated in the community for a probationary period of one year. This is an advantage for both parties, since the prospective
neophyte as well as the community may have enough time to find out if the full initiation can be realized. Furthermore, the probational period serves the candidate to face the own duties towards Saturn as well as the will to working together in a community. Personal contact and the regular attendance at the monthly lodge meeting is really desirable. In case of your interest
we look forward to receiving your application to the following address: Communitas Saturni - P.O. Box 100907 - 68009 Mannheim, Germany
e-Mail: info@communitas-saturni.de |
