What do you think about a high-ranking Freemason practicing magic while being a Freemason?

The association between Freemasonry and magic arises primarily from late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century occult writers and high-degree Rites, rather than from mainstream lodge practice 12. In the advanced degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite and other higher Rites, scholars noted that the study of mystical names (onomatology) and Hermetic philosophy intersects with the dogmas of magic, offering insight into the historical development of Masonic symbolism 121.

French esoteric writers such as Ragon and Éliphas Lévi sought to establish an "Occult Freemasonry," attributing magical powers to sacred words and tracing connections between Masonic mystery and ancient magism, alchemy, and magnetism 1. Some high-degree creators integrated magical operations directly into their systems; for instance, Cagliostro utilized a "sacred pentagon" in his Egyptian Rite, claiming it enabled spiritual intercourse for his followers 1. Similarly, magical figures such as the pentagram and magic squares were studied by Masonic antiquarians for their numerical and talismanic symbolism 1.

Despite these esoteric influences on the higher degrees, Masonic commentators generally distinguished genuine Masonic philosophy from the practice of magic. Albert Pike argued that primitive Masonry was purely moral and simple, but became distorted when later innovators introduced absurd gewgaws and hideous pretended mysteries into the system 3. Within the Craft and Hermetic research lodges, magic and Hermeticism are treated as subjects of historical and symbolic study to explain the origins of inherited emblems, rather than as operational practices of the Order 12.