About the
Communitas Saturni Orientation The Communitas Saturni is a thelemic community of selected members who are determined to follow the path of Saturn. As an occult Freemasonic lodge the Communitas Saturni participates in the spiritual temple building of humanity
by seeking for ennobling their members and others spiritually and magically for their own higher development and for a change of society for the better too. At the centre of this striving for spiritual development is the Saturnian principle and Thelema, the Law of the Will. Saturn is the “Guardian of the Threshold” to a
higher level of being and “Guardian of Karma” helping us to know our true divine will and to strive for divine perfection, for knowledge and perception in full karmic responsibility. As a Saturn lodge we go the way of Gnosis, of knowledge, and not of belief. We therefore define ourselves as a lodge of knowledge and not as a community of
faith. We follow no religious dogma and we refuse to worship entities out of this world. Each member contributes individually to the internal teachings of the lodge. Our magical-mystical orientation is thus as various as our members.
[Top] History Founder of the modern Saturn lodges was Gregor A. Gregorius, bookseller from Berlin in Germany, with civil name Eugen Grosche. Gregor A. Gregorius was secretary-general of Master Recnartus' “Grand
Pansophic Lodge” in Berlin, Germany, before in 1928 he founded a Saturnian lodge called Fraternitas Saturni. Their foundation stone was laid in 1925 on the council of Weida in Thuringia, Germany, which was convened by Master Recnartus in order to stipulate the leadership of the groups he was in charge of. Also the German division of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) was under his control after the death of OHO (Outer Head of Order) Theodor Reuss, even
though Reuss had appointed Aleister Crowley as his successor. The German OTO however put up massive resistance against Crowley’s nomination as OHO, possibly due to the fact that Crowley’s doctrines had not yet won recognition in Germany at that time. After the conference in Weida, the control of the German OTO fell to Aleister Crowley, a circumstance that caused the Pansophia Berlin to split, followed by its ritualistic close-down in 1926. Those who accepted
Aleister Crowley as Therion joined the OTO, the others accompanied Gregor A. Gregorius and founded in 1928 under his patronage a new Saturnian lodge – Fraternitas Saturni. Only shortly after Hitler’s assumption of power in1933 the FS fell victim to national socialistic censorship and was banned. Only in the Fifties some of the
old members came together again to continue their work. The following time was characterised by great growth and activity for the order, but was soon in the early Sixties overshadowed by internal disagreements. Particularly after Gregorius’ death in 1964 conflicts arose within the community that caused many high-degree members to resign and to split up in smaller
study groups. Numerous new groups developed from this environment, like e.g. Ordo Saturni, one of the few lodges that still exist up to now like the Fraternitas Saturni. The story of the Communitas Saturni began in 1993, founded in Kaiserslautern, Germany, by Immanuel, former Grand Master of the Fraternitas
who assigned the Grand Lodge patent to the Communitas Saturni. The work of the Communitas Saturni has ever since been in the tradition and with the original rituals of Gregor A. Gregorius, corresponding to the high-degree system of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. The naming into Communitas = Community instead of Fraternitas = Fraternity is intentional as the Communitas Saturni works beyond polarities and admits both male and female members.
After the Grand Master retired at the age of 72 from the active work in the Communitas Saturni, the new lodge rooms in Mannheim were initiated in April 1995.
[Top] Why Saturn?
Astronomically, Saturn has long been the last visible planet at the border of the solar system, therefore considered as the Guardian of the Threshold and also as mediator between inner and outer solar system. Saturn needs approx. 29.5 years for a revolution around the sun, was thus the
planet with the longest orbital period known in ancient times, and in mythology considered as god of time and death (Kronos). Visibly combining both polarities, with the planet sphere as a masculine symbol surrounded by the rings as a symbol of femininity, Saturn represents the balance of opposites as well as the union of negative and positive energies.
Saturn moves beyond terms such as “Good and Evil”, “Black and White”. In its higher octave, Saturn is the Guardian of the Threshold at the last frontier to the realm of the divine. In this capacity, Saturn is equivalent to Prometheus who brought the fire to mankind out of love.
According to the resonance principle of the hermetic law, Saturn in its lowest
octave is equated with the seducer, persisting within the ego and a bar to resolve karmic entanglements. Within the teachings of the cosmic levels Saturn belongs to the causal realm, the world of the universal karma. As judge of karma and fate at the end of times Saturn can act as a redeemer in a positive sense, or in a negative sense as a
destroyer to cast those non-transformed and bound to earth souls into the Abyss. For these reasons we identify Saturn with the law of Thelema “Do what THOU wilt”. Do what thou wilt does not mean to always get your own way regardless of the consequences, but rather “Do your own divine will” for everybody bears the spark of divinity within. To recognise and to live this requires a great deal of work and demands an extremely high ethical standard of the members of a Saturnian community. Mutual respect for the brothers and sisters of the lodge is very important too. Saturn, as the ruler over the human body at one hand, and the unconscious
ego on the other, should help with the higher spiritual development to improve the ego analogous to the Masonic metaphors of the rough-hewn stone at the building of the temple of mankind. As Saturn belongs to the causal realm, our occult Saturnian community is equal to the principles of a spiritual religion, also defined as higher mental or
causal religion. Our members are allowed to practise any religion, provided that it corresponds to our ethics. Most religions are situated in the astral or lower mental planes anyway.
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Membership in the Communitas Saturni Presently lodge meetings take place at the mother house in Mannheim, Germany. We are not represented in any other country and all our rituals and teachings are solely available in German. We can accept only members who can attend regularly at least to the monthly
lodge meetings and it is most desirable to attend the study groups too that take place additionally. We do not offer tele-membership or correspondence courses. Once a month on ”Saturn-day” we come together for celebrating the Saturn Ritual with which we spiritually connect to the cosmic powers. Furthermore
study groups meet for practising the different magical and mystical subjects of occultism. Each member has committed to work at his or her inner spiritual perfection and to share the personal experiences with the community so that other sisters and brothers can build on this knowledge too. In this way we have an active
exchange of information for everyone to get hints and suggestions on the Saturnian path. As the Communitas Saturni is a hermetic lodge, our members must not talk with non-members about private matters of members, teachings and rituals of the lodge, or any other internal matters. Even though much literature has been
published about most of the secret societies we trust that the tradition of discretion still makes sense. The key to an experience is to learn successively, e.g. a ritual requires a step-by step approach and an appropriate initiation to fully understand it, just as in the principle “the journey is the reward”. [TOP] | 
