Style Guide

Updated: February 4, 2024 EV.

This style guide is intended for use in preparing all official publications of U.S. Grand Lodge, O.T.O., with Agapé, and the U.S.G.L. website as primary examples. The guide is for new, contemporary texts issued by Grand Lodge. Historical documents, even ones created within living memory, have used other style choices; these should be preserved when they are quoted or reproduced. For issues not addressed in this style guide, refer to The Chicago Manual of Style.

Frequently Used O.T.O. and Thelemic Terms

• brethren: Not capitalized.

• brother(s), sisters(s), sibling(s): Not capitalized unless preceding the civil.name(s) of a member or a list of members.

• Camp, Oasis, Lodge: Always capitalized when used as local body category names.

• Chapter: Always capitalize when referring to a body of Rose Croix.

• Camp Master, Oasis Master, Lodge Master: Rather than Campmaster, etc. See master and past master for capitalization style.

• committee: Do not capitalize unless used in a proper noun (e.g. Committee of Four, Conference Committee but “that is what the committee decided”).

• Committee of Four: Always capitalize when referring to the committee described in Liber CXCIV; when calling it "the Committee of Four," do not capitalize "the."

• Degree: Capitalize when part of a specific degree title, (e.g. “Minerval Degree,” “Third Degree,” “Rose Croix Degree”). Do not capitalize for a generic initiation, e.g.: “Abbreviations of numbered degrees should always use a Roman numeral and the degree symbol: I° or IX°. Do not use Arabic numerals or substitute asterisks for degree symbols. Do not use semi-abbreviations such as 2nd Degree.”

• Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (E.G.C.): Omit "the" (i.e., "E.G.C." rather than "the E.G.C."). In body text, include periods but omit spaces (i.e., "E.G.C." rather than "EGC" or "E. G. C."). 

• Electoral College (E.C.): Capitalize when referring to a specific college. (e.g., "the U.S.G.L. Electoral College; note "the" is not capitalized. In "there are now at least three electoral colleges in the world," it is not capitalized.)

• Hermit Triad: Rather than "Hermit's Triad" or similar.

• High Priestess: Always capitalize when referring to the office within a Chapter of Rose Croix.

• initiate(s): Not capitalized.

• Knight of the East and West: When pluralization is necessary, use (1) "Knights of the East and West" or (2) K.E.W. (not “K.E.W.s”).

• local body: Not capitalized. Avoid the term “local body” when a more specific one (Camp, Oasis, Lodge) can be applied. Even then, “local group” or “official organization” may be preferable.

• local master, master, past master: Not capitalized for general use, but capitalized when used as a proper noun, e.g., "reporting is the responsibility of the local master," "Soror A.U.M., Past Master of the Lodge," and, "past masters of Lodges are often more than willing to help with the ongoing work of the Lodge." Not “body” master.

• Lover Triad: Rather than "Lover's Triad" or similar.

• magical, magician: Omit the “k,” it is not "magickal," "magickian;" it is not capitalized.

• magick: Is both a noun (“techniques of magick”) and an adjective (“magick wand”).

• Man of Earth Triad: Rather than Man-of-Earth Triad (never “Men of Earth Triad”); always capitalized as shown.

• Minerval (and any other degree titles): Always capitalize; italicize when referring to the ritual text.

• Most Wise Sovereign: Always capitalize when referring to the office within a Chapter of Rose Croix.

• Novitiate, novice: "Novitiate" is the name of the program, and is capitalized; "novice" is the term for a particular person undergoing training for service in the clergy, and is not capitalized. E.g., "Soror A.U.M. is a novice priestess in the Novitiate Program of the E.G.C." See "master, past master"  for capitalization style. “Novice,” like “magick,” is both a noun and an adjective.

• O.T.O.: Omit "the" (i.e., "O.T.O." rather than "the O.T.O."). In body text, include periods but omit spaces (i.e., "O.T.O." rather than "OTO" or "O. T. O."). 

• Order: capitalize when referring to the organization.

• priest, priestess, deacon, deacon-sacerdote, bishop, child, children: These words are not capitalized unless used in a proper noun, e.g., "Everyone who knows Bishop Pelagius knows a bishop of the E.G.C." See also Styles of Address: EGC. Also capitalize when referring to a ritual office in Liber XV, e.g., “In Liber XV, the Children hand ritual implements to the Priestess and the Priest.”

• Rose Croix: Always capitalize. Do not hyphenate or use + between the full words when referring to the body of initiates described in Liber CXCIV, e.g. “members of the Lover Triad are part of the Rose Croix.” When abbreviated as part of a Chapter name, a + should appear between the letters, e.g. "Proserpente Chapter R+C."

• S.G.I.G.: When pluralization is necessary, use (1) "Sovereign Grand Inspectors General" or (2) S.G.I.G. (not “S.G.I.G.s”).

• Sovereign Grand Inspector(s) General: Always capitalize.

• Tau vs. T: Use either, following the preference of the specific bishop. If used posthumously, attempt to find an example of the bishop's preference in their own writing; if no such example exists, or for non-specific use, "T" (and, if applicable, TT) is standard, with no period.

• Thelema, Thelemite, Thelemic: Always capitalize.

Civil and Magical Names

Civil names of O.T.O. members may optionally be preceded by the terms Brother, Sister, or Sibling. Magical names should be preceded at least on the first reference with the terms Frater or Soror; siblings may choose Fratrem or Cognatum optionally. After first use in a given document, these terms may be abbreviated as Fr., Sr., Frm. or Co., respectively.

• Brother, Sister, Sibling: Used with civil names.

• Frater, Soror, Fratrem or Cognatum: Used with magical names or mottoes.

• Fratres, Sorores, or, Cognata: Plural forms to be used with magical names or mottoes.

• Abbreviations (Fr., Sr., Frm. or Co.): Uses include:

  • Tables of contents, lists of U.S.G.L. officers, and similar contexts.

  • After the first reference (e.g. "Soror" written in full) in a  document.

  • In contexts requiring unusual brevity, as determined by authors and editors.

When crediting a writer on the page where their submission appears, their name is listed exactly as in their submission, which may or may not include a fraternal title of any kind.

Internet References

Hyperlinks should normally appear with appropriate anchor text, with the underlying URL invisible. E.g., to direct readers to the U.S.G.L. Treasury website, it is better to write "Further information is available on the U.S.G.L. Treasury website" than "Further information is available at https://treasury.oto-usa.org/." If an entire site is best referenced by its domain name, use the freestanding domain name as the hyperlinked text. E.g., "The best source of information about the U.S.G.L. Treasury is treasury.oto-usa.org."

Email addresses should be rendered in visible form as a hyperlink to a mailto: URL for that address (e.g., "Contact us at webmaster@oto-usa.org if you have comments"). Not all browser configurations handle mailto URLs properly; making the address visible allows users to fall back to copying and pasting the address.

When referring to internet resources in printed text:

• When referring to an entire website, only the site's domain name should appear, underlined.  E.g. "More information can be found at treasury.oto-usa.org."

• URLs and e-mail addresses are underlined. Simplify URLs as much as possible; this typically includes dropping the protocol specifier (http:// or https://) and trimming trailing characters if the result is still functional -- e.g. "oto-usa.org/locations" rather than "https://oto-usa.org/locations/." 

• Capitalization of email and website addresses. Use lowercase for email addresses and domain names. The path part of the URL (following the domain name) can be mixed case and should be reproduced verbatim.

• Always manually confirm that web and email addresses that will appear in print work when typed verbatim into a browser or email client.

Abbreviations

Write each term in full once before using an abbreviation. The abbreviation may appear in parentheses following that first use for added clarity. E.g. "Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (E.G.C.) is a religious organization. Through E.G.C, we provide..." On a public website, this should be done on each page (as there is no predicting which page a visitor will read first).

Abbreviations in which each letter is spoken separately should be written with periods following each letter (e.g., E.G.C., O.T.O., U.S.G.L.). Abbreviations that are spoken as single words (acronyms) should be written without periods (e.g., NOTOCON).

Common noun abbreviations that are used in the plural may omit periods (e.g., "URLs"). Avoid such constructions if it is not overly cumbersome or confusing to spell out the abbreviation. E.g., "Uniform Resource Locator" is not a widely recognized term, but URL is; on the other hand, "Powers That Be" is better than "PTBs."

As a special case, the abbreviation for era vulgaris is EV (no periods, small capitals if possible). It should be separated by a space from the date to which it applies (e.g., "January 2, 1987 EV").

The abbreviation for Mysteria Maxima Mystica should be written with Masonic-style triple-points  (M∴M∴M∴), as should the name A∴A∴ and the degree abbreviations P∴M∴ and P∴I∴. (NB: The "M" abbreviations for the first through third degrees are archaic; but if they are used they should take one, two, and three dots respectively, as shown in Liber LII.)  No other abbreviations should be written with Masonic-style triple-points to indicate abbreviation except in quoting material which did so in the original text. The Masonic-style triple-points do not constitute punctuation and should be followed with a period when they occur at the end of a sentence.

Date Format

• Common calendar dates: Use long date format (e.g., January 23, 2005 EV) when space permits.

• Thelemic dates: Use astrological symbols where possible. See the Thelemic calendar page on the public U.S.G.L. website for more information and resources.

Titles

• Titles of publications, recordings, and other media should be capitalized and italicized. Additionally, nicknames, short names, or translations of titles, when used in place of those titles, will be treated as titles; that is, capitalized and italicized. Examples:

  • Liber OZ is also known as the Rights of Man.

  • Liber OZ is a listing of the various rights of man, using words with only one syllable. ("Rights of Man" is not being used in this instance in place of a title.)

  • I recited the Rights of Man.

• Liber XV is the title of a document, not the name of the ritual as performed, which is the Gnostic Mass. E.g., “The ritual text of the Gnostic Mass may be found in Liber XV.”

• Titles of classes, presentations, seminars, etc. are headline-capitalized. No quotes, no italics, unless something within the title requires it. (e.g., "An Introduction to The Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley"). 

Occasions

Avoid the terms "lesser feast" and "greater feast." For an individual's birth or death, simply use those words or equivalents. For the celebration of a birth, use "feast for life." For a remembrance of a recently deceased individual (i.e. a funeral), use "feast for death." So, for example, it is incorrect to write "Brother Bob celebrated his Greater Feast on June 1," or "Brother Bob celebrated his feast for death on June 1;” it is correct to write "Brother Bob died on June 1, and his friends celebrated his feast for death three days later."

Grammatical Issues

• Punctuation used after italicized (or underlined, if necessary) title or text is not italicized (or underlined).

• Em-dashes (—) have no space before or after use.

• A comma is placed immediately before a conjunction—usually “and,” “or,” or “nor”—in a series of three or more terms.

For More Information

For questions of style and usage, use the following references:

• The Chicago Manual of Style (latest edition)

• The Oxford English Dictionary

• The Elements of Style by Strunk & White