Magical societies come in all sorts, from suburban Wiccan covens to highly anonymized, distributed colleges that collaborate through correspondence. Working with others adds intersubjectivity, and the effect of shared belief, to magical operations, and one can learn things through that which otherwise one might not, but they are not absolutely essential.
My uncle said sumpin' similar when I joined the Army.
I think Thorssen is right, it just never seems to work out, at least not for very long. Also the sketch factor is always present, such as the temple of blood and martinet press supposed to have been started by the fbi, and the temple of set being started by a psychological warfare specialist from army intel.
I do recall that Michael Aquino who was Temple of Set founder was a career intell officer. But that was never a secret. The Army itself was a bit leery of the man. Towards his career's end he was implicated in child sex allegations---which the military typically does when it wants to cancel an officer. Nothing ever came to trial as I recall, but care was taken to blacken his reputation. (This isn't special pleading: I get a bad vibe off the guy. He tried too hard to look Satanist.)
I'm reminded of a Quentin Crisp line: "It may be true that artists adopt a flamboyant appearance, but it's also true that people who look funny get stuck with the arts".
Though the Army later busted Lt.Col. Aquino's balls over "child molesting" rumors. I'm no fan of either the Temple of Set nor of Aquino. But when the military decides to turn and rend their own, kiddy-diddling is the charge of choice. Aquino eventually beat the rap; not the smear that never washes off.
Actually, he might've been on to something. That's why a real kick-a** order has a pretty high initiation bar. The guy who is permitted to join isn't the one who sought membership. Like the old USMC recruiting slogan, "Maybe you can be one of us."
I would have thought for Crowley, the 'telling no-one' would have been the hard part
Since he includes the incident in his books, clearly he failed that test.I would have thought for Crowley, the 'telling no-one' would have been the hard part
On reflection, the other reason I haven't joined any order is that I'm not sure there are groups for materialist magicians. Well, not that kind of materialist, anyway.
I mostly am a loner when it comes to practicing magic.
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for hearing the fact that you are willing to practice the theater thing again if it would be for magic 
Arguably e-groups are not groups at all. For a group one needs trust and bonds, which are really iffy online. Online anyone can be a baaad-ass mage. It's a lot like online dating: Prince Charming might turn out to be Ted Bundy, or at least a real-life Kyle Schwartz.I mostly am a loner when it comes to practicing magic.
It sounds way too much for me to do group rituals and such. That's my personal take on it.
And it is also because of trust issues due to largely finding bad e-groups either of JoS or other morally scarce groups, and that is what made me more like, nuh-uh when it comes to e-groups.
I wish you luck with your friends though. You are pretty lucky to have such contacts
Also, chapeau
Same... I've never felt compelled to seek out an order; perfectly happy being the lone practitioner -- plenty of books and resources available nowadays.
One other thought that just occurred to me -- you could always try asking the spirits you work with for guidance.
You know, that should be obvious, but it did not occur to me till last night under the influence of a Stalking Hyena post in another thread. (Earlier today I suggested that some exposure to lead is not necessarily harmful. Maybe that explains my slow uptake.)
