Editing Ceremonial magic (section)

===Kenneth Grant===
{{main|Kenneth Grant (occultist)}}
[[File:Kenneth Grant.jpg|thumb|Grant in the library of his Golders Green home (taken by Jan Magee in 1978)]]
[[Kenneth Grant (occultist)|Kenneth Grant]] (1924–2011) was an English ceremonial magician and advocate of the [[Thelema|Thelemic]] religion. A poet, novelist, and writer, he founded his own Thelemic organisation, the [[Typhonian Order|Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis]]—later renamed the Typhonian Order—with his wife Steffi Grant.

Grant was fascinated by the work of the occultist Aleister Crowley, having read a number of his books. Eager to meet Crowley, Grant wrote letters to Crowley's publishers, asking that they pass his letters on to Crowley himself.{{sfnp|Evans|2007|p=286}} These eventually resulted in the first meeting between the two, in autumn 1944,{{sfnp|Evans|2007|p=286}} at the Bell Inn in [[Buckinghamshire]].{{sfnp|Bogdan|2015|p=2}} After several further meetings and an exchange of letters, Grant agreed to work for Crowley as his secretary and personal assistant. Now living in relative poverty, Crowley was unable to pay Grant for his services in money, instead paying him in magical instruction.{{sfnmp|1a1=Evans|1y=2007|1p=286|2a1=Kaczynski|2y=2010|2p=533–534|3a1=Bogdan|3y=2015|3p=2}}

In March 1945, Grant moved into a lodge cottage in the grounds of Netherwood, a [[Sussex]] boarding house where Crowley was living.{{sfnmp|1a1=Evans|1y=2004|1p=227|2a1=Evans|2y=2007|2p=286|3a1=Kaczynski|3y=2010|3p=534}} He continued living there with Crowley for several months, dealing with the old man's correspondences and needs. In turn, he was allowed to read from Crowley's extensive library on occult subjects, and performed ceremonial magic workings with him, becoming a high initiate of Crowley's magical group, [[Ordo Templi Orientis]] (O.T.O.).{{sfnp|Evans|2007|p=287}} Crowley saw Grant as a potential leader of O.T.O. in the UK, writing in his diary, "value of Grant. If I die or go to the USA, there must be a trained man to take care of the English O.T.O."{{sfnmp|1a1=Evans|1y=2004|1p=227|2a1=Evans|2y=2007|2p=287}}

Grant drew eclectically on a range of sources in devising his teachings.{{sfnp|Hedenborg White|2020|p=161}} Although based in Thelema, Grant's Typhonian tradition has been described as "a ''bricolage'' of occultism, Neo-Vedanta, Hindu tantra, Western sexual magic, Surrealism, ufology and Lovecraftian gnosis".{{sfnp|Bogdan|2015|p=1}} According to Djurdjevic, Grant's writing style is notorious for being opaque with "verbal and conceptual labyrinths".{{sfnp|Djurdjevic|2014|p=91}} The historian of religion, Manon Hedenborg White, noted that "Grant's writings do not lend themselves easily to systematization".{{sfnp|Hedenborg White|2020|p=181}} She added that he "deliberately employs cryptic or circuitous modes of argumentation",{{sfnp|Hedenborg White|2020|p=169}} and lacks clear boundaries between fact and fiction.{{sfnp|Hedenborg White|2020|p=161}}

Grant promoted what he termed the Typhonian or Draconian tradition of magic,{{sfnp|Djurdjevic|2014|p=95}} and wrote that Thelema was only a recent manifestation of this wider tradition.{{sfnp|Djurdjevic|2014|p=106}} In his books, he portrayed the Typhonian tradition as the world's oldest spiritual tradition, writing that it had ancient roots in Africa.{{sfnp|Djurdjevic|2014|p=96}} The religious studies scholar Gordan Djurdjevic noted that Grant's historical claims regarding Typhonian history were "at best highly speculative" and lacked any supporting evidence, however he suggested that Grant may never have intended these claims to be taken literally.{{sfnp|Djurdjevic|2014|p=109}}

Grant adopted a [[perennial philosophy|perennialist]] interpretation of the history of religion.{{sfnp|Hedenborg White|2020|p=159}} Grant's wrote that Indian spiritual traditions like Tantra and Yoga correlate to Western esoteric traditions, and that both stem from a core, ancient source, has parallels in the perennial philosophy promoted by the [[Traditionalist School]] of esotericists.{{sfnp|Djurdjevic|2014|pp=92–93}} He believed that by mastering magic, one masters this illusory universe, gaining personal liberation and recognising that only the Self really exists.{{sfnp|Djurdjevic|2014|p=98}} Doing so, according to Grant, leads to the discovery of one's true will, the central focus of Thelema.{{sfnp|Djurdjevic|2014|p=109}}

Grant further wrote that the realm of the Self was known as "the Mauve Zone", and that it could be reached while in a state of deep sleep, where it has the symbolic appearance of a swamp.{{sfnp|Djurdjevic|2014|p=99}} He also believed that the reality of consciousness, which he deemed the only true reality, was formless and thus presented as a void, although he also taught that it was symbolised by the Hindu goddess [[Kali]] and the Thelemic goddess [[Nuit]].{{sfnp|Djurdjevic|2014|p=100}}

Grant's views on [[sex magic]] drew heavily on the importance of [[sexual dimorphism]] among humans and the subsequent differentiation of gender roles.{{sfnp|Hedenborg White|2020|p=168}} Grant taught that the true secret of sex magic were bodily secretions, the most important of which was a woman's menstrual blood.{{sfnp|Djurdjevic|2014|p=96}} In this he differed from Crowley, who viewed [[semen]] as the most important genital secretion.{{sfnp|Hedenborg White|2020|p=174}} Grant referred to female sexual secretions as ''kalas'', a term adopted from [[Sanskrit]].{{sfnp|Djurdjevic|2014|p=107}} He thought that because women have kalas, they have oracular and visionary powers.{{sfnp|Hedenborg White|2020|p=169}} The magical uses of female genital secretions are a recurring theme in Grant's writings.{{sfnp|Hedenborg White|2020|p=165}}