What was this topic for again?

Not sure what he's getting at here. I think (don't quote me on this) that he's trying to espouse architectural magic (highly ritualised, highly specialised, but, because of this, highly powered) as powerful. Oh, and that Masons are powerful mages... I think.

Not quite sure what he's trying to ask or discuss here, actually, but hell, even if he doesn't clarify, working out what's meant will be a discussion.

Sorry, Ashley. In a bit of a bitchy mood from dealing with a fundamentalist medium ("All psychics have spirit guides, and the ones who don't seem to just can't see them!" ... yeesh.)

That there are occult practices in the Freemasons order that we know, they are highly ritualistic and there might be real power and wisdom there, but I think that many of them are just members for the social benefits and to be able to go out and have fun with their buddies.

Anyone who know anything about the Rebecca order? A Freemason order open to women.

It could off course also be that they do know what they are doing but that they have taken the Cabbalistic symbols and changed them and made a system of their own. I am also under the impression that the first degrees of Freemasonry it not that deep, that the real rituals comes later for those who want more out of the order than an old boy's club.

If I'm not mistaking I think that the Rebecca chapter as well as the order of the Eastern Star are open to women only with prior or current family affiliation with masonry.For example, if you have a husband who belongs to a lodge then you have the option of joining a sorority based and closely tied to masonry.

Aleister Crowley was a Freemason, although the UGLE was a bit snotty and said his Lodge in Paris was not affiliated to it. I sometimes wonder what changes The King of Iona might have made within Freemasonry had he been accepted - but I don't think much would have changed; he would have left standard Freemasonry anyway.

The OTO is a masonic organization. The Swiss OTO (if it still exists) is not Thelemic and its rituals were not altered by Crowley, so I imagine its rituals are similar to normal European masonic rituals.

English Freemasonry has been de-Chritianized, except for one line of ritual (in Emulation working), and there is a great emphasis on the Sun, so it has always had a slight Croweyan ethos.