The Occult Lodge: Part Six

From the Dawn to Darkness

by Midnight Freemason Contributor 

Bro. James E. Frey 32° KT, ROS

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Aeister Crowley

The Ordo Templi Orientis, or the Oriental Temple of the East or the Order of Oriental Templars, was founded between 1895 and 1906 as an elite invitational group of Masons who established a more esoteric version of the Masonic Rites focusing on sexual energies. The OTO was founded by Theodor Reuss who had a long history of participating in occult and fringe masonic groups. In 1880 Reuss attempted to revive the Bavarian Order of the Illuminati of Adam Weisthaupt and again in 1888, both times failing miserably. Upon this failure he began to formulate the outline of the OTO with Carl Keller in 1895.
Reuss then sought out to legitimize his group by reaching out and becoming active in other streams of esotericism. He soon was introduced to Dr. William Wynn Wescott, leading member of the S.R.I.A and founder of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. At the time Wescott was the Grand Master of the Swedenborgian Rite of Phremasonry and provided Reuss with a charter to form his own lodge dated July 24, 1901 and a letter of authorization to form an S.I.R.A group in Germany February 24, 1902. Reuss was also designated an inspector with the Martinist Order in Germany by Gerard Encausse (aka Papus) who provided him with a charter June 24, 1901.

OTO Temple

Westcott and Papus assisted Reuss with establishing his order, Papus helped Reuss establish the OTO Gnostic Catholic Church and Wescott assisted Reuss in contacting John Yarker to recive chaters for the Rites of Memphis and Misraim September 24, 1902. By attaining these charters from the leading esoteric and occult leaders he became legitimized to create his own Order. Reuss based the structure of his Order around the Swedish Rite of ten degrees inspired heavily around the Templar mythos and the theoretical aspects of sexual magic.

In 1910 Reuss became acquainted with Aleister Crowley, British Occultist and Former Golden Dawn Member, while living in London. The story goes that Reuss was reading Aleister Crowley’s “Confessions” and discovered that he had published their supreme secret. He then contacted Crowley and admitted him to the first three degrees and then only two years later Crowley was advanced to the tenth degree and placed as Grand Master in charge of Great Britain and Ireland. Crowley then wrote The "Manifesto of the OTO", which described its basic ten-degree system the 7th, 8th, and 9th, degrees being Kellner’s three degree system of the Academia Masonica.

In 1914, Crowley moved to the United States and began to break away from the Masonic influences of the OTO and began integrating the concepts of his own religion of Thelema. He then wrote a religious service for this new version of the OTO called the Gnostic Mass. Reusss' O.T.O system  contained their versions of the degrees Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft and Master Mason. The fourth degree being Holy Royal Arch and the fifth degree was Scotch Mason. Crowley attempted to work this Masonic-based O.T.O. in Detroit, Michigan which resulted in the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite declaring them to be clandestine, centered on the basis that the O.T.O. rituals were too similar to Scottish Rite Masonry's own rituals.

In a 1930 letter to Arnold Krumm-Heller, Crowley Wrote:

“However, when it came to the considerations of the practical details of the rituals to be worked, the general Council of the Scottish Rite could not see its way to tolerate them, on the ground that the symbolism in some places touched too nearly that of the orthodox Masonry of the Lodges.”

In 1914 Crowley then fully integrated Thelema into the OTO by rewriting the initiatory rituals and incorporating his own philosophical understanding of the grade work. By rewriting the degrees Crowley removed most of those symbolic connections to Masonry. He did not rewrite the fourth degree ritual, which remains in its form and structure related to the various Royal Arch rituals of Masonry.

Gnostic Mass

In 1920 Theodore Reuss suffered a stroke and communications between Reuss and Crowley began to deteriorate. Crowley broke ties with Reuss and proclaimed himself Outer Head of the Order. In 1925, during a tumultuous Conference of Grand Masters, Crowley was officially elected as Outer Head of the Order.

The majority of the philosophy of the OTO can be summed up by the quote that began Crowley’s involvement with Reuss in Crowley’s confessions:

“It offers a rational basis for universal brotherhood and for universal religion. It puts forward a scientific statement which is a summary of all that is at present known about the universe by means of a simple, yet sublime symbolism, artistically arranged. It also enables each man to discover for himself his personal destiny, indicates the moral and intellectual qualities which he requires in order to fulfil it freely, and finally puts in his hands an unimaginably powerful weapon which he may use to develop in himself every faculty which he may need in his work.”

Crowley’s new OTO system was re written into different schools of triads based on the tarot. The entire system is as follows: 0° Minerval, I° Man & Brother,  II° Magician,  III° Master Magician,  IV° Perfect Magician & Companion of the Holy Royal Arch of Enoch, and P.I.—Perfect Initiate, or Prince of Jerusalem. Then came the honorary degree of Knight of the East & West. The next school was The Lovers Triad which focused on active and passive energies of the soul. V° Sovereign Prince Rose-Croix, and Knight of the Pelican & Eagle, Knight of the Red Eagle, and Member of the Senate of Knight Hermetic Philosophers, VI° Illustrious Knight of the Order of Kadosh, and Companion of the Holy Graal Grand Inquisitor Commander, and Member of the Grand Tribunal Prince of the Royal Secret, VII°—Theoreticus, and Very Illustrious Sovereign Grand Inspector General Magus of Light, and Bishop of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica Grandmaster of Light, and Inspector of Rites & Degrees. The degrees of the Hermit Triad are of sexual nature. In the VIII° of Perfect Pontiff of the Illuminati, the initiate is taught masturbation magical practices, in the IX° of Initiate of the Sactuary of Gnosis the magical techniques related to traditional intercourse, and in the XI° of Initiate of the Eleventh degree a form of sex magic involving non-traditional intercourse is taught. The final Supreme Secret is given in the X° Rex Summus Sanctissimus.

~JEF

James E Frey 32° classifies himself as a gentleman of the old world, which means he is known to stand in the great forests reciting poetry to fair-haired damsels while wrestling bears for sport. He is a District Education Officer for the Grand Lodge of Illinois, a Past Sovereign Prince of the of Danville AASR, member of the Oak Lawn York Rite, Medinah Shriners, Royal Order of Scotland, Quram Council Allied Masonic Degrees and initiate of the Golden Dawn Collegium Spiritu Sancti. He is also a guest lecturer on Occultism and Esoteric studies in masonry for the R.E.B.I.S Research Society.

The Occult Lodge: Part Four

Masonic Magic to Mysticism 

by Midnight Freemason Contributor 

Bro. James E. Frey 32° KT, ROS

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Martinist Regalia

During the time in which the original Elu Cohen was in operation, Martinez de Pasqually took an apprentice by the name of Louis Claude de St.-Martin. Louis Claude de St.-Martin was born in 1743 to a religious family of minor French nobility. St. Martin was admitted into the Order of Elu Cohen around 1767, but prior to that had been admitted to an unknown Masonic lodge in 1750 as well as an initiate to the Rite of the Strict Observance in 1773. St. Martin became the secretary of the Elu Cohen from 1768 to 1771. This is when he met Willermoz who was the head of the Elu Cohen lodge. St. Martin was inspired by the philosophy and teachings of Pasqually and sought to integrate then with the Rite of Strict Observance. The Rite of Strict Observance was founded by Baron Karl Gotthelf von Hund in 1749, and was based on the myth of a direct lineage to the original Knights Templar which was received by an “Unknown Superior” in Paris in 1742.

St. Martin became more and more disengaged with ceremonial magic of the Elect Priests and began to wonder if all the magic circles and ritual elements were necessary to experience the presence of God. St.-Martin saw one’s spiritual path as an internal work, which he called the “way of the heart”.

St. Martin believed that Christ was the Word or the Gnosis as written in the gospel of St. John, and this Word was with Man in the beginning, but had been lost. Only through recovery of this lost Word could Man be whole and Reintegrated into the presence of God. . St. Martin began to publish his philosophy under the pen name the Unknown Philosopher. Not only did St. Martin have dislike for the ritualized working of the Elu Cohen, he also began to question the necessity of ritual in a Masonic setting as well. In July of 1790, he left Freemasonry in order to focus on his contemplative “Way of the Heart” until his death in 1803.

Papus

The French Revolution, though destructive for all of France, was equally devastating for St. Martin’s path of Martinism. St. Martin had few disciples but his teachings survived through a lineage of student to teacher aural recounting until in 1891 when a student named Gérard Encausse desired to reform the Order of Martinism. Taking the name Papus he claimed a succession from Augustin Chaboseau and Henri Delaage supposedly going back to St.-Martin himself. Papus reformed Martinism into a Masonic structure, of a series of three degrees which were reminiscent of the Craft Degrees of Freemasonry, but with a mystical emphasis. Usually referred to as Associate, Initiate, and S:I:. This newly-organized system of Martinism became associated with the French Gnostic movement and has long been associated with the tradition of the ‘Episcopi Vagantes’ or “Wandering Bishops”, and Encausse was most certainly made a bishop.

The three-degree system of modern Martinism borrowed Masonic symbolism, such as the pillars of Solomon’s Temple, and added Kabbalistic and Gnostic emphasis to lead the Initiate into a deeper understanding of the nature of Polarity as it occurs in both Nature and the mind of Man. There was also some borrowing from the Mark Master degree in order to gain a deeper appreciation of the True Meaning of the Stone that the Builders rejected as a symbol for the Christos. This rebirth in Martinism is a part of a larger cultural movement of the time referred to as the Occult Reformation.

~JEF

James E Frey 32° classifies himself as a gentleman of the old world, which means he is known to stand in the great forests reciting poetry to fair-haired damsels while wrestling bears for sport. He is a District Education Officer for the Grand Lodge of Illinois, a Past Sovereign Prince of the of Danville AASR, member of the Oak Lawn York Rite, Medinah Shriners, Royal Order of Scotland, Quram Council Allied Masonic Degrees and initiate of the Golden Dawn Collegium Spiritu Sancti. He is also a guest lecturer on Occultism and Esoteric studies in masonry for the R.E.B.I.S Research Society.

The Occult Lodge: Part Three

The Elu Kohen

by Midnight Freemason Contributor 

Bro. James E. Frey 32° KT, ROS

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Martinez de Pascually

As the high degrees developed, one of the first occult orders to develop out of Masonry was the illustrious and secretive Orde Chevelier Macons Elus Cohen de L’Univers or Order of Knight-Masons Elect Priests of the Universe, more commonly referred to as the Elus Cohen. The Elus Cohen is one of the most serious and prominent of occult societies, given its deeply rooted occult practices as being the active role in the redemption of humanity from its fallen state. Usually reserved for Gnostic Clergy, the Elus Cohen is the inner order for most Martinist streams and teaches advanced forms of ceremonial magic. Martinez de Pascually was the founder the Elus Cohen.and was born in Grenoble, France in 1709. His father had received a Masonic patent from Charles Stuart “King of Scotland, Ireland and England, dated 20th May 1738 and granting him as "Deputy Grand Master the power to erect temples to the glory of the Grand Architect”. This gave him powers as a Deputy Grand Master with the power to establish lodges, and this power was transferred to his son upon his death.

At the age of 28, Martinez was a Master Mason and upon his Father’s death he received this charter and thus formed the Elus Cohen in 1765. This Order admitted only Freemasons, but practiced mystical medieval rites involving angels and archangels. These heavily esoteric initiations echoed a Catholic form of ritual and prayer, as well as a use of the psalms as mantra meditations. “The higher degrees of the Order taught such practices as the invocation of various spirits, such as the ‘Shem ha-Mephorash’ (שם המפורש ) of the Qabalah, the so-called “divided Name” as derived from Exodus XIV:19-21, celebration of the Equinoxes, and similar highly ritualistic and time-consuming forms of ritual work.” (Kevin Davis, Brothers From Another Mother).

Martinez vision was a working of a great spiritualized movement within the higher ranks of Freemasonry. Martinez formed his spiritual group during the period of the creation of the High Degrees which were being introduced into Freemasonry. Due to the often found resentment of the of the High Degrees by Masonic Authorities Martinez chose to create a “side” organization which would have a more spiritual character than Freemasonry traditionally had. To this organization however, he would only admit Master Masons who had taken the additional Masonic degree of “Elect”. The Order of Élus Cohen was rumored to have nine, ten or eleven degrees divided into three main classes, followed by a secret grade. Each class of degrees correlated to different aspects of Solomon’s Temple.

Elu Cohen Apron

The first class contained the traditional Degrees of Symbolic Masonry plus an additional degree of Grand Elect or Particular Master. The second class contained the Porch Degrees of Apprentice-Cohen, Fellow-Cohen and Master-Cohen. The third class contained the Temple Degrees of Grand Master Élus Cohen, Knight of the East and Commander of the East. The secret doctrine of the Order was based mostly on Martinez’ only book, The Reintegration of Beings, which is a mystical reinterpretation of the Pentateuch. Martinez commentary focused on the purifying diet of the Levites and the importance of the exorcism of planetary energies to rise above the evil found in the individual and collectively in the world.

The secret grade of the Order contained the degree of Réau-Croix, a title inspired by both Masonic and Rosicrucian circles at the time. In this Degree of Réau-Croix, the Initiate is exposed to the spiritual realms through Magical Invocation or Theurgy. The Candidate is taught to draw the Celestial powers into his spiritual aura, by doing so into the earth’s aura as well. The Candidate is taught to interpret certain signs as perceived through auditory and visual manifestations, which the candidate uses to evaluate his own spiritual re-integration into the spirit.

The purpose of the Réau-Croix degree was to perceive the Beatific Vision of the Repairer, Jesus Christ, in response to Magical Evocations in order to repair one’s own fallen state and act as an active participant in the redemption of all humanity to repair the first sin of Adam. Martinez perceived God to be primordial Unity that emanated beings from his own nature. Until Lucifer, who wanted to exercise his own creative power, fell victim to his own faults, which caused Lucifer and his followers to be forever separated from the spirit trapped in the material. To resolve this, God sent man endowed with a state of perfection to work towards the reconciliation of Lucifer. Adam then fell himself and became trapped in the material realm as a physical and mortal being. So it is the spiritual destiny of Mankind to save both himself and the original creation which can be accomplished through the inner perfection with the help of Christ, the eternal repairer.

Through the rites of the Elus Cohen, the initiate is to enter into relations with angelic entities, which are sympathetic to Man’s fallen state, who aid him upon the path to reintegrate his spirit away from the material plane into unity of the spirit. After Pasqually’s death in 1774 the teachings of the Elu Cohen were most certainly doomed to fade into the mists of history. But a fellow by the name of Willermoz desired to preserve the Elus Cohen teachings within the highest degrees of the Régime Ecossais Rectifi (Scottish Rectified Rite), more commonly known as the Chevaliers Bienfaisant de la Cité Sainte (C.B.C.S.) was founded by Willermoz in 1774.

~JEF

James E Frey 32° classifies himself as a gentleman of the old world, which means he is known to stand in the great forests reciting poetry to fair-haired damsels while wrestling bears for sport. He is a District Education Officer for the Grand Lodge of Illinois, a Past Sovereign Prince of the of Danville AASR, member of the Oak Lawn York Rite, Medinah Shriners, Royal Order of Scotland, Quram Council Allied Masonic Degrees and initiate of the Golden Dawn Collegium Spiritu Sancti. He is also a guest lecturer on Occultism and Esoteric studies in masonry for the R.E.B.I.S Research Society.

The Occult Lodge: Part Two

 From Operative to Occult

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Bro. James E. Frey 32° KT, ROS 

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

In the recent climate of the literary outbreak of novels based on the speculation of Masonry, modern culture has begun to accept the doubtful notion that Masonry is the descendent of the Medieval Knights Templar, or that it is the barren of some shadowy conspiracy bent toward world domination. But this is only a modem interpretation of a climate of speculation Masons of the 1800s concocted in order to give the Masonic system a romanticized history. But it should be noted that overzealous Masons creating a myth that the craft is traced to ancient origins was a common trend among fraternal groups of the era. It was thought that an elaborate myth of historical connections gave the fraternal group legitimacy.

But in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there was a common theme among Masonic scholars creating a legacy, connecting the craft to a variety of occult groups such as the Rosicrucians, the Essenes, Ancient Egypt, and a variety of other spiritual systems. This was because many of the first members that transformed the Craft from an operative guild into a speculative craft were intellectuals of the Royal Society. These intellectuals were under the influence of classical philosophy, which often incorporated the mystical teachings of the medieval ages. This gave many who were interested in occultism through the age of 18th and 19th centuries the vessel they needed to explore subjective symbolism and determine their own spiritual truths. 

Because Masonry became an organization accepting many mystical brethren, the occult minded brethren of the time adopted aspects of Masonry into the developing "magical" lodges. Primarily they adopted the lodge structure finding its organization as both a degree based learning system and a democratic formation as ample for developing a harmonious and productive organization. But as speculative masonry sought to define itself in its early decades of development through its progression of High Degrees, so the occult lodges defined itself through these High degrees having discrete and secretive groups in which to practice their spiritual paths.

~JEF

James E Frey 32° classifies himself as a gentleman of the old world, which means he is known to stand in the great forests reciting poetry to fair-haired damsels while wrestling bears for sport. He is a District Education Officer for the Grand Lodge of Illinois, a Past Sovereign Prince of the of Danville AASR, member of the Oak Lawn York Rite, Medinah Shriners, Royal Order of Scotland, Quram Council Allied Masonic Degrees and initiate of the Golden Dawn Collegium Spiritu Sancti. He is also a guest lecturer on Occultism and Esoteric studies in masonry for the R.E.B.I.S Research Society.

St. John the Evangelist - Revisit

by Midnight Freemason Emeritus Contributor

W.B. James E. Frey

My Brethren, December 27th marks the hallowed feast day of St. John the Evangelist. St. John is an important and distinguished figure within the symbolism of the Craft. St. John was one of the main apostles of Jesus Christ and is renowned with receiving from the Christ, a secret mystical doctrine which would define the Johnannite tradition. The word evangelist means writer of the gospel and St. John is accredited with writing the Gospel of John, the Epistles of John, and the book of Revelation. Bro Mackey states that St. John is venerated in Masonry because “His constant admonition, in his Epistles, to the cultivation of brotherly love, and the mystical nature of his Apocalyptic visions, have been perhaps, the principle reasons for the veneration paid to him by the Craft. “ (Mackey, Masonic Encyclopedia)

St. John supposedly lived in Galilee and was the brother of St. James. They were considered “hired men” which most likely means they were craftsmen doing a variety of work and odd jobs. The brothers were said to have lived in poverty and renounced material possessions. This is in part due to the fact that both brothers were followers of John the Baptist when he preached in the wilderness of Jordan. Both were baptized and initiated into the Baptist’s religious order which was most likely connected to the sect known as the Essenes. John and James were both on the banks of the river Jordan and witnessed the baptism and initiation of Christ. Which means they beheld the descending of the Holy Shekinah, or Holy Spirit in the form of a dove when the Baptist exclaimed with prophetic perception, "Behold the Lamb of God!"

It is said of all those in attendance, that it was only John and James that stayed after the ceremony to talk with Jesus of his experience. John then invited his new Master to his home in Galilee. He traveled with Christ to attend marriage feast of Cana. At the feast, John witnessed the miracle of water being turned to wine. This miracle solidified John’s dedication as a disciple and follower of Christ through out his travels. It is said that he was within Christ’s innermost circle and was one of the first disciples to be invested with the power to heal the sick. John suffered with Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane and sat at his right hand during the last supper.

He is referred to as, "disciple whom Jesus loved.” John was the one whom Mary Magdalene went to with news of the Resurrection. And when John and Peter were on the Sea of Galilee they witnessed the Vision of the Resurrected Christ. He appeared as an astral figure on the shore in the first light of morning. Peter could not recognize him but John could. Possibly signifying that John had a greater understanding of the spiritual perception over the physical senses, or material world. St. John witnessed the Ascension and received the spiritual fire of the Holy Spirit at the Pentacost. This indicated that St. John was baptized both by fire and water.

Irenaeus states that after the death of Peter and Paul, St. John settled in Ephesus. From there, Saint Jerome says that John supervised and governed all the Churches of Asia. Around 97 A.D. John was exiled to the Aegean island of Pathmos where he received apocalyptic visions, which he recorded in the Book of Revelation. The date of his death cannot be determined but John was the only Apostle of the original twelve that did not die by martyrdom.

St. John’s connection to the craft is vague and shrouded in mystery. St. John the Baptist was the patron saint of the builders’ guilds and St. John the Evangelist was not adopted into the craft until after the sixteenth century. This would place the adoption of the Evangelist around the time of the shift from operative Masonry into the speculative craft. According to Masonic historian Kenneth Mckenzie “although it has been urged that the dedication to these saints did not arise out of the circumstances to the doctrine of Christianity… that the custom of dedicating lodges to these saints arose from astrological reasons.” (Mckennzie, Royal Masonic Cyclopedia).

These astrological reasons are to correlate the symbolism of the St. Johns for the summer and Winter Solstice. The Sun enters Cancer about the 21st day of June, which is correlated to the 24th and dedicated as a feast day to St. John the Baptist. In the winter, the Sun reaches Capricorn on the 23rd of December, which is correlated to the 27th of December and dedicated to St. John the Evangelist as a feast day. This placed the two feast days of the St. John’s when the sun is lowest and highest peaks of its yearly cycle showing both the astrological meridian height of the sun in the south and the lowest point of darkness in the north, the shortest and longest days of the year.

Within the speculative craft the Saints John are called the parallels of Masonry and between them we see the point within a circle. From the oldest times, the point within a circle was a symbol of the sun and has been adopted in various cultures as such. Mackey states “The two days are the limits of its circle, therefore the circle is shone set between the lines. The Point Within the Circle represents the year, a year of work, a year out of a man's life; at least it does if the history of its use is a true guide to its symbolic meaning.” (Mackey, Masonic Encyclopedia)

It we look at the St. John the Evangelist symbolically within the context of the Masonic journey, John is every individual initiate. John is initiated by John the Baptist into the mysteries and purified, similarly how the entered apprentice is given a white apron to represent a new sense of purity. John travels with his Master and it indoctrinated in the parables of truth, similar to the Fellowcraft traveling the different compartments of the Temple being indoctrinated with the spiral staircase leading to truth, Similar to the Master Mason John is witness to the death and resurrection of his master.

Fitting in the mythos of the Masonic lost word John makes reference to Christ as “the Word.” With the death and resurrection of the Christ the true word of the gnosis is lost. But the word is found again within his own soul through the mystery of the spiritual fire of the Pentecost. The lost word is the individual soul of the initiate and the connection to the redemptive energy of the Christos. Elementally the Johns are the parallels that the Baptist represents the mystery of water and the natural or material world, the Evangelist representing the mystery of fire and the supernatural or spiritual world. With this interpretation the Master Mason dwells in the center balanced between his physical and spiritual, aware of his inner Christos in the spirit but bound to his obligation to his fellow man in the physical.

It is also important to note that the book of Revelation shows the revelation of a new name of God identified as Alpha Omega. I only mention this because there are old rituals, and some modern cryptic rites, that see the restored lost word being Iota Alpha Omega, IAO. Which correlates to the famous verse from Revelation 22 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Blessed are those who wash their robes. They will be permitted to enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life.” (St. James Bible) In certain neo-Rosicrucian groups IAO is considered to represent the process of life, death, and resurrection.

This is often also attributed an Egyptian symbolism. I is for Isis, giver of life, A is for Apophis the destroyer, and Osiris risen which is also given solar meaning. From a psychological perspective this formula is important because our sense of identity is ever changing as we experience new things and grow as a person. Those who are afraid of destroying who they are in order to grow often become stagnate in psychological growth and develop neuroses around this painful transition.

Over all the dedication of lodges to the St. Johns dedicates the lodge itself as a solar temple representing the yearly course of the Sun. It places this subconscious symbolism on each initiate as they travel from the shortest to longest day on a search for both external light of the intellect and internal light of the spirit, or Word. On an exoteric level you have a representation of the Evangelist being a reminder of steadfast duty to one’s faith. Esoterically the Evangelist is the Initiate who becomes the master, and through astrological correlation is symbolic for the Masonic journey.

~JEF

James E Frey 32° classifies himself as a gentleman of the old world, which means he is known to stand in the great forests reciting poetry to fair-haired damsels while wrestling bears for sport. He is a District Education Officer for the Grand Lodge of Illinois, a Past Sovereign Prince of the of Danville AASR, member of the Oak Lawn York Rite, Medinah Shriners, Royal Order of Scotland, Quram Council Allied Masonic Degrees and initiate of the Golden Dawn Collegium Spiritu Sancti. He is also a guest lecturer on Occultism and Esoteric studies in Masonry for the R.E.B.I.S Research Society.