Biography:Phyllis Seckler

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Phyllis Seckler
Phyllis Seckler.jpg
BornPhyllis Evalina Pratt
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
DiedMay 31, 2004(2004-05-31) (aged 86)
Oroville, California, United States[1]
Pen nameSoror Meral
NationalityAmerican
CitizenshipUnited States
Period1979–2004
GenreOccult studies
SubjectBiography, astrology, magick
SpouseGrady McMurtry

Phyllis Evalina Seckler (1917–2004), also known as Soror Meral, was a ninth degree (IX°) member of the "Sovereign Sanctuary of the Gnosis" of Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), and a student of Jane Wolfe, herself a student of Aleister Crowley.[2]

Life and career

Under her pen name Soror Meral, Seckler was Master of 418 Lodge of O.T.O. in California from its inception in 1979 until her death.[3] She was also founder of the College of Thelema; and co-founder (with Anna-Kria King and James A. Eshelman) of the Temple of Thelema, both of which organizations she also led until her death. Prior to her death, she also warranted the founding of the International College of Thelema (formerly known as the College of Thelema of Northern California) as an autonomous continuation of her work, as well as the Temple of the Silver Star (the initiatory Order within the International College of Thelema.) She was a writer for and editor of In the Continuum, the journal of the College of Thelema, for nearly 25 years.[1]

For a brief period in the 1970s, she was married to Grady McMurtry. It was as a result of a 1968 letter from Seckler that McMurtry (Frater Hymenaeus Alpha) invoked his "emergency powers" to reconstitute Ordo Templi Orientis, which had flagged following the death of Aleister Crowley's successor as Outer Head of the Order, Karl Germer. It was under their combined leadership that O.T.O. was incorporated under California law and began to grow in North America for the first time since Crowley's death.[4]

Publications

  • Seckler (2003). Jane Wolfe: Her Life With Aleister Crowley (Part 1). Red Flame #10. ISBN 0-9712376-2-X. 
  • Seckler (2003). Jane Wolfe: Her Life With Aleister Crowley (Part 2). Red Flame #11. ISBN 0-9712376-3-8. 
  • Seckler (2010). The Thoth Tarot, Astrology & Other Selected Writings. Teitan Press & College of Thelema of Northern California. ISBN 978-0-933429-27-7. 
  • Seckler (2012). The Kabbalah, Magick, and Thelema. Selected Writings Volume II. Teitan Press & College of Thelema of Northern California. ISBN 978-0-933429-28-4. 

See also


References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 College of Thelema (4 June 2004). "Religious Leader, Educator Phyllis Seckler Dies at 86". http://sorormeral.org/. Retrieved 2011-02-01. 
  2. ↑ Starr, Martin P. (2003). The Unknown God: W. T. Smith and the Thelemites. Bolingbrook, Illinois: Teitan Press. ISBN 0-933429-07-X. 
  3. ↑ "Thelemapedia: Phyllis Seckler". 11 February 2017. http://www.thelemapedia.org/index.php/Phyllis_Seckler. Retrieved 2011-02-01. 
  4. ↑ Hymenaeus Beta, ed (July 1990) [March 1986]. The Review of Scientific Illuminism: The Official Organ of the O.T.O. The Equinox #10. III. Soror Meral, Research Ed. (Revised ed.). York Beach, Maine: Weiser Books. ISBN 0-87728-719-8. 

External links




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