June 2005 Press Release

The Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) in Australia has filed complaints of religious vilification against Reina Michaelson, Vivienne Legg and Dyson Devine in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).

Our applications to VCAT rest upon alleged breaches of Victoria's Racial and Religious Tolerance Act of 2001.

Under this legislation, a person must not:

"on the ground of the religious belief or activity of another person or class of persons, engage in conduct that incites hatred against, serious contempt for, or revulsion or severe ridicule of, that other person or class of persons".

We claim that the three persons named above posted on their websites a document which refers to a "satanic" cult which engaged in murder and other crimes including child abuse.

The document includes the following text:

"From everything that I have been told by Mick, the cult appears to be the Order Templis Orientus (Illuminati), operating in Australia."

The main testimony leading to this conclusion comes from an alleged witness and victim of this group who, it is claimed, suffers from Disassociative Identity Disorder and/or Multiple Personality Disorder.

Legg and Devine have also published a significant amount of other material on their website which defames and vilifies the O.T.O. They have complained to various government and law enforcement authorities about us. They also hyper-linked their online accusations directly to the Australian O.T.O.'s own webpage and posted the names of O.T.O. members who sought the removal of this material.

The original document has now been reposted on other websites throughout the world. The material was removed from Michaelson's website only after complaints were filed.

The O.T.O. refutes all allegations of criminal acts made against it and considers the claims that Thelema justifies or sanctions such behaviour constitutes religious vilification. We filed complaints with the Equal Opportunities Commission of Victoria which, as part of its function, seeks to conciliate disputes.

In her statements to the Commission and later to the press, Michaelson cited the Thelemic Holy Book, The Book of the Law and claimed that Thelema was not lawful and that the O.T.O. "advocates illegal activities."

Legg and Devine claimed that we were part of a world wide conspiracy which included the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal and stated that they would not participate in proceedings.

The Racial and Religious Tolerance Act is not designed to stop people expressing their views in a reasonable manner or engage in healthy debate.

The Act does however outlaw the vilification of other religions.

According to Helen Szoke, Chief Executive of the Victorian Equal Opportunity Commission, "a good way to think about vilification is as the promotion of hatred" and that "when considering vilification and acts of hatred under the Act, it needs to be recognised that we are considering the most extreme point in the continuum of prejudice. It is its lowest ebb ."

We agree with this and do not consider the conclusions drawn by Legg, Devine and Michaelson about our religious beliefs, as the Act requires, to have "been conducted reasonably and in good faith for a genuine academic, artistic, religious or scientific purpose". We consider they constitute vilification.

This baseless vilification of the O.T.O. and its members (in Victoria and other States of Australia) could not go unchallenged and we requested that our complaints be referred to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Following legal advice, other than the above and outside of submissions made to the relevant courts the O.T.O. has, at this stage, no other public comment to make on the current cases and any other legal actions it may take.

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