LOCAL FREE ILLUMINIST BODIES ARE AS VARIED AS THE NAME IMPLIES....

At this important point in the evolution of the Western Magical Tradition, it is becoming increasingly apparent that restrictive forms of gnosis based upon “grade systems” are becoming irrelevant for many who are attempting to perform the great work at this time; that is perhaps why you have read this far. Congregational illuminists operating on the principles of Scientific Illuminism find that, although some may have worked alone for extended periods, they may be living in a place on the Earth where they have no contact with others who may benefit from the sharing and developing research that could be usefully applied individually and collectively.

All congregational illuminists are dedicated to the furtherance of the Great Work, through themselves and through mutual aid and sharing.

The theory underlying congregational illuminist decentralism can be traced to anarcho-syndicalism, to certain Protestant Sects such as the Levelers and True Levelers in Britain at the time of the English Civil War, and denominations such as the Society of Friends on the one hand and the Congregationalist movement on the other. As it has developed in the modern occult-metaphysical world, three interesting elements all went into the making of the present movement.

The basis of Congregational Illuminism is simple, and can fairly be summarized as:

1. Spiritual growth is incompatible with authoritarian structure.
2. Scientific Illuminism requires a non-dogmatic, experimental
approach.
3. A free society linked in free communion should be actualized.
4. We facilitate, we do not lead. We do the Work, we do not extract
oaths or dues, or require dogmatic beliefs.

But even these are a matter of individual preference. We are a free communion. Some of us are energy Workers, Working with the "points chauds" (key power points in the human body) system, others are Gnostics, others are radical re interpreters of freemasonic fraternal ideals,others engaged in more traditional mystery play initiations without the bindings involved in hierarchy.

First and foremost, the 19th Century Gnostic Revival and coinciding independent Apostolic Lineages set loose at the very time of the occult revival introduced decentralized Apostolic and Gnostic successions of egregore, which overlapped by the early 20th Century directly into the occult community, through the exchange of Masonic Dignities with Ecclesiastical Offices. Some centralist bodies took these successions to add legitimacy to their own agendas, but ad vitam egregoric transfers insured that no central authority could ever be definitive. This process continues inside congregational illuminism and elsewhere to the present time. Egregore without central authority or agenda has proven a fertile field for spiritual development.

The development of the modern OTO, beginning with Grady McMurtry and the establishment of Thelema Lodge out of Agape Lodge in California "spun off" a good many experiments inside the Caliphate OTO in Northern California, including "heretical Gnostic masses". The increasing centralization of cOTO spun off two notable tendencies operating outside cOTO but still under the influence of Aleister Crowley's ideas, notably the Ecclesia Gnostica Universalis (EGnU). Ecclesia Gnostica Universalis (EGnU) was founded by a College of Bishops on the Fourth of July in the Year 2000 C. E. It has drawn together in a very non-hierarchical manner both Apostolic, Apostolic, Gnostic and Thelemic persons interested in a non-authoritarian approach to the magical-ecclesiastic egregore. A brief history is given on the EGnU site at

http://www.egnu.org/wiki/On_the_Origins_of_the_Gnostic_Mass

The EGnU has continued to develop as an ever-broadening coalition of those who choose to celebrate the mysteries as spirituality or religion, but of diverse interests from Thelemic Gnostic, Voudon Gnostic and Eastern Tantric sources. Congregational Illuminists in the USA and the Balkans are wrestling with a Gnostic ceremonial...