In 1918, Case met Michael James Whitty (died December 27, 1920 in Los Angeles, California), who was the editor of "Azoth magazine" and would become a close friend. Whitty was serving as the 'cancellarius' (treasurer/office manager) for the Thoth-Hermes Lodge in Chicago, which was one of the lodges of the Alpha et Omega (A.O.). Alpha et Omega was the successor organization to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, founded in 1906 by S. L. MacGregor Mathers, after the demise of the Golden Dawn in 1903. Whitty invited Case to join Thoth-Hermes, which was the direct American lodge under the A.O. mother lodge in Paris. Case joined, and quickly moved up initiations in the Rosicrucian grades (True and Invisible Rosicrucian Order). Case's aspiration name in A.O. was Perseverantia (which means 'perseverance').