C.S. Jones had resigned from O.T.O. in 1919, but had continued to correspond with Reuss; and on May 10, 1921, Reuss chartered Jones as X° for the "United States of North America." On the same date, he chartered Heinrich Tränker (Recnartus, 1880-1956), who headed several esoteric organizations within a movement termed "Pansophia," as X° for Germany.

    On July 30, 1921, Reuss issued another "Gauge of Amity" document, this time to H. Spencer Lewis, the founder of A.M.O.R.C., the San Jose, California based Rosicrucian organization. This document also recognized Lewis as a VII° member of O.T.O. Crowley had met Lewis previously in 1918 in New York, and was not impressed with him. Reuss returned to Germany in September of 1921, settling in Munich. On September 3, 1921, Reuss chartered Carl William Hansen (Kadosh, 1872-1936) as X° for Denmark. In October of 1921, upon Dunn's resignation, Crowley appointed Frank Bennett (Dionysus, 1868-1930) as his Viceroy to Australia:

Crowley's Succession

There is some reason to believe that Reuss suffered a stroke in the Spring of 1920, but this is not entirely certain. Crowley wrote to W.T. Smith in March of 1943:

the late O.H.O., after his first stroke of paralysis, got into a panic about the work being carried on...He hastily issued honorary diplomas of the Seventh Degree to various people, some of whom had no right to anything at all and some of whom were only cheap crooks.

Shortly after appointing him his Viceroy for Australia, Crowley appears to have corresponded with Frank Bennett and discussed with him his doubts about Reuss's continuing ability to effectively govern the Order. It would appear that Reuss discovered the correspondence; he wrote Crowley an angry, defensive response on November 9, 1921, in which he appeared to distance himself and O.T.O. from Thelema, which, as shown above, he had previously embraced. Crowley replied to Reuss's letter on November 23, 1921, and stated in his letter, "It is my will to be O.H.O. and Frater Superior of the Order and avail myself of your abdication -- to proclaim myself as such." He signed the letter "Baphomet O.H.O." In a diary entry for November 27, 1921, Crowley wrote: "I have proclaimed myself O.H.O. Frater Superior of the Order of Oriental Templars." Reuss died on October 28, 1923 e.v.

    In his Confessions, Crowley recounts that Reuss "resigned the office [of O.H.O.] in 1922 in my favour." In a letter to Heinrich Tränker dated February 14, 1925, Crowley stated the following:

Reuss was very uncertain in temper, and in many ways unreliable. In his last years he seems to have completely lost his grip, even accusing The Book of the Law of communistic tendencies, than which no statement could be more absurd. Yet it seems that he must have been to some extent correctly led, on account of his having made the appointments of yourself and Frater Achad, and designating me in his last letter as his successor.

    In a letter to Charles Stansfeld Jones dated Sun in Capricorn, Anno XX (Dec. 1924 - Jan. 1925), Crowley said, "in the O.H.O.'s last letter to me he invited me to become his successor as O.H.O. and Frater Superior." Reuss's letter designating Crowley his successor as O.H.O. has not been found, but no credible documentation has surfaced which would indicate that Reuss ever designated any alternative successor.

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