It's an Honor Just to be Nominated

I was cruising around on Facebook recently and came across a video list of the "Top 10 Secret Organizations" posted on Bing. Right there at #9, I found the order of which I'm an initiate, Ordo Templi Orientis. Interestingly enough, the blurb in the video is reasonably accurate, describing OTO as a "Mystical movement based on the spiritual philosophy of Thelema" with "strong connections to the occult." One could perhaps argue the meaning of "strong connections" in this context, but given the significance of Aleister Crowley's work in the general occult scene I nonetheless consider it a basically true statement.

Here's what's interesting about the OTO's inclusion - the other societies on the list. At #9, OTO is ranked higher than the Catholic organization Opus Dei despite the latter group's membership of 85,000 compared to OTO's 3-4 thousand. The rest of the list includes organizations that are legitimately powerful today, shaped historical events, and/or attract a lot of press from conspiracy theorists. Here's the rest of them:

8. The Knights Templar - Prior to the fourteenth century, served as bankers to all of medieval Europe.
7. Ku Klux Klan - Now a shadow of its former self, but once an enormous organization with millions of members.
6. Beati Paoli - I hadn't heard of this one, but apparently it is believed that some of the modern mafia groups are descended from it.
5. Majestic-12 - Researched by many and pretty much found to be bogus, this group was supposedly set up to study UFO techology and communicate with aliens.
4. Freemasons - Another group with which I'm involved, the Masons still have millions of members but are not nearly as nefarious as some claim.
3. Thule Society - Smaller than the OTO even at its height, but this German occult society had a disproportionate influence on Nazi philosophy.
2. The Illuminati - Disappeared around 1800 and fictionalized in the early 1970's by Robert Anton Wilson, this group is nonetheless apparently the sworn enemy of fundamentalist Christianity.
1. The Bilderberger Group - Small but genuinely powerful, the Bilderberger group constitutes one of the largest concentrations of financial and political resources in the world.

You can check out the video here. As they say at the Oscars, it's an honor just to be nominated. And in case you're wondering, no, the OTO does not "run the world from the shadows." It would be kind of cool if it did, though.