Robert King (1869-1954) had been a member of the Liberal Catholic Church, The Theosophical Society, and several of its associated ceremonial orders. 

Dion Fortune (1890-1946), on the other hand, had studied with Theodore Moriarty, whom she immortalized under the fictional name of Dr. Taverner, and with Moina Mathers, widow of MacGregor Mathers, in a daughter temple of the then schizmatic Golden Dawn.

With Dion Fortune's blessing, Mr. Butler deepened his own esoteric contacts and was eventually one of the originators of the Helios Course, a correspondence course on occult science, the majority of which he wrote. Mr. Butler, aided by Dolores and Michael and Ashcroft-Nowicki, used the correspondence course as the nidus for the outer expression of the S.O.L. inner order, the Fraternitatis Alexandrae.

In recent years, the S.O.L. has gradually re-established its physical plane presence with a variety of activities and pendant magical lodges.

Lodge Phoenix, S.O.L., is a ceremonial magical lodge meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. It was inaugurated in 1993 under the auspices of Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, Director of Studies of the S.O.L. The lodge was formally raised in 1995, and in 1998 was consecrated at the second level.