Before joining The Thelemic Order, you should take a look at the Understandings.  You don’t have to agree with every word, but we ask that you be “In Principal Sympathy with the Understandings.”  

• By “principal” we mean “first” or “of the highest order.”  
• By “sympathy” we mean “understanding between people” or “commonality of feeling.”

So by “Principal Sympathy” we mean “Primarily having a feeling of support for and comprehension of the ideas behind the understandings and moreso than most other beliefs.” 

Okay.  You do realize there’s no cost to be a Corresponding Member right?  

You’ll want to join our Non-Member mailing list.  We’d love to keep in touch with you!

Associate Member 

Associate members are contributors to some private local body of TTO, but do not directly support the International organization. This basically means you’re a “member by accident,” but you can claim some priviliges of membership.

Corresponding Members

• Don’t have to pay any dues
• Do have to keep their e-mail up to date
• May be Ordained and become EGH Clergy
• May take initiations and become Chartered Initiators

Supporting Members

Supporting Members make an annual contribution to the work of TTO. By maintaning membership they become eligible to participate in all the business of the Order.

• Observing Members of the Assembly at the beginning of their second year.
• Members of the General Assembly at the beginning of their third year.

Members of the General Assembly may take part fully in the business of the Order including voting on the membership of the Executive Committee and the Secretary General, and may sign proposals to force consideration of items by the leadership, as well as other rights.

TTO is not a “pay to play” system. We offer financial relief for those unable to pay, and do not allow the registration of distinterested parties to “buy” additional votes.

If you have more questions about membership and voting including specific privileges and voting rules, consult The TTO Handbook on the Constitution Page.

TTO is a legitimate church.  Very few spiritual organizations charge a monthly fee for basic membership.  We want to be open to all members and ability to pay should not be a barrier.  

In general we feel that you should be willing to “put your money where your mouth is.”  If you want to change the organization, as opposed to just benefiting it, you should also support it.

If you can’t afford the money, our financial hardship plans make it possible to become a supporting member by offering support in other ways.

Small organizations are notoriously vulnerable to tampering through membership packing, a process where bad actors join the organization, even though they disagree with its goals, with the aim of destroying it, or grossly altering it.

We don’t feel a very large body of people will be willing to pay for membership for two years in order to outvote the legitimate members.  If it does happen, we’ll certainly have advance warning.  By having a waiting period we insure that the members who are in sympathy with the understandings of the organization have a say, while making it hard for others to tamper.

As the organization ages, the waiting period serves a further purpose.  

It takes a while to get to know the processes of an organization, and understand how it runs. Rash new members often want to change everything right away and that usually isn’t in the best interests of the Group. Often the sort of people who want to change the organization in their first month of membership flame out by their sixth, leaving a mess behind. Two years is enough time to weed out the people who are all bluster and no follow-through, and to ensure that people voting on issues have a good understanding of the things they’re deciding.

On the other hand, nobody wants to wait a decade to have a say-so in how an organization is run. We feel two years is a reasonable period. That time may be relaxed as the organization grows and becomes more stable.

Membership Form

Financial hardships may be granted if payment of the annual rates would cause a severe hardship.  This is to insure that people who are unable to pay are not denied a voice in the Business of the Order.

Disability or Inability to Pay  – in this case you’ll be asked some questions so that we can understand why paying for membership would constitute a severe hardship for you.  

Volunteer Work in Lieu of Payment – in general we still expect volunteers to pay for their Supporting Membership, however if you have a lesser hardship, but are able to offer volunteer help, we may accept your promise of volunteer work in exchange for Supporting Membership.  Renewing this membership may require submission of a written letter attesting that you have done volunteer work on behalf of the Order, or one of its Affiliates.

Your TTO name, or Order Name is the name which will be used for all communication between TTO and yourself, and for all communication outside the Order. The exception is that you may specify another name for the delivery of surface mail.

Your TTO name is public. It may be shared freely between Officers, and will be used to refer to you in regards to reporting of public events. It is not considered private. It may appear on the TTO website in lists of members, etc.

Your TTO name may be your magical name, your actual personal name, or any other name you choose. It must be comprised of ASCII or Unicode BMP characters to ensure we can store and print it. That’s most of the characters you would ever use.

You may change your TTO name, however we cannot “undo” any previous uses of your name, so think carefully about using your real name, or any widely known nicknames, as your TTO name.

TTO names do not need to be unique, however non-unique names may be assigned an arbitrary suffix.  Remember that you can always change your TTO name. 

Currently there is no limit on changes, however limitations on frequency of name changes may be imposed if individuals abuse the privilege.