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On this week's episode of The Philosopher's Zone, ALAN SAUNDERS talks about Plotinus, one of the often mentioned figures in Ken Wilber's integral theory, but a philosopher many of us know little about. Here is a brief introduction from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, linked to below.
Plotinus (204/5 - 270 C.E.), is generally regarded as the founder of Neoplatonism. He is one of the most influential philosophers in antiquity after Plato and Aristotle. The term 'Neoplatonism' is an invention of early 19th century European scholarship and indicates the penchant of historians for dividing 'periods' in history. In this case, the term was intended to indicate that Plotinus initiated a new phase in the development of the Platonic tradition. What this 'newness' amounted to, if anything, is controversial, largely because one's assessment of it depends upon one's assessment of what Platonism is. In fact, Plotinus (like all his successors) regarded himself simply as a Platonist, that is, as an expositor and defender of the philosophical position whose greatest exponent was Plato himself. Originality was thus not held as a premium by Plotinus. Nevertheless, Plotinus realized that Plato needed to be interpreted. In addition, between Plato and himself, Plotinus found roughly 600 years of philosophical writing, much of it reflecting engagement with Plato and the tradition of philosophy he initiated. Consequently, there were at least two avenues for originality open to Plotinus, even if it was not his intention to say fundamentally new things. The first was in trying to say what Plato meant on the basis of what he wrote or said or what others reported him to have said. This was the task of exploring the philosophical position that we happen to call 'Platonism'. The second was in defending Plato against those who, Plotinus thought, had misunderstood him and therefore unfairly criticized him. Plotinus found himself, especially as a teacher, taking up these two avenues. His originality must be sought for by following his path.Saunders' guest is PETER ADAMSON, a professor in the Department of Philosophy, King's College London.
WHO WAS PLOTINUS?
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He believed in the One, a fundamental principle of the universe. He believed in the Intellect and the Soul. He also thought that matter was evil. This week, the Philosopher's Zone enters the strange world of Plotinus, a great philosopher who kept the pagan flame alight at a time when the Roman empire was about to give itself up to Christianity.
Show Transcript
Guests
PETER ADAMSON
Professor
Department of Philosophy
King's College London
United Kingdom
Further Information
PLOTINUS - STANFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PHILOSOPHY
Presenter
Alan Saunders
Tags: The Philosopher's Zone, Who was Plotinus?, Alan Saunders, Peter Adamson, Philosophy, history, Integral theory, Plotinus, paganism, great chain of being, nonduality, Neoplatonism
Suggested ebooks:
John Mitchell - The Philosophy Of Witchcraft
Israel Regardie - The Philosophers Stone
Aleister Crowley - Lecture On The Philosophy Of Magick
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This morning I read a Golden Dawn blog claiming that the Golden Dawn is really about "the coming New Age shift" in 2012. This Golden Dawn order elsewhere claims that the Emerald Tablet of Hermes is really about "The Law of Attraction" as popularized in New Age film, "The Secret. "
On his website, Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn guru Robert Zink even claims that his "Astral Initiation" can make you a "full Golden Dawn initiate" without ever leaving your own living room. All you have to do is send him 185 - and for your trouble - he will even throw in a free CD on how to "Unleash Your Inner Adept!"
So why all of this New Age hype about the Golden Dawn? It actually makes sense when you consider the enormous market potential of all things New Age. "The Secret" film, for example, grossed over 50 million.
Admittedly, Robert Zink has gone far in transforming his Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn into a New Age school.
The traditional Golden Dawn, however, is not about "The Law of Attraction" nor even about "the coming shift in 2012."
In fact, the traditional Golden Dawn is not even New Age wisdom. The Golden Dawn is ageless wisdom.
Rooted in the Hermetic and Rosicrucian traditions, the classical Golden Dawn teaches the ancient Egyptian Royal Art of Alchemy, Astrology, and Theurgy (Magic). The Golden Dawn is a true Hermetic school with the ultimate aim of accelerating of energetic evolution in order to attain Solar Ascension and Conscious Immortality.
As you can well imagine, such lofty goals are not easily attained. The Golden Dawn as a spiritual path demands an enormous amount of time, energy, discipline, and dedication. This is why - despite Robert Zink's New Age Golden Dawn rebranding - the Golden Dawn will never have mass appeal like the New Age movement.
Admittedly, there is indeed an astral component even to true Golden Dawn initiation. But when someone promises you that - without ever leaving your own living room - you can become a "full Golden Dawn initiate for only 185 (reduced this week only to 97)" - You can be 100% certain they are selling you blue sky!
In reaity, the Golden Dawn is not a spiritual path for the many. In fact, the Golden Dawn is not really a spiritual path even for the few.
But for those extremely rare individuals who have "the right stuff" - and who are ready for a quantum leap in their spiritual evolution - the Golden Dawn offers more for Western individuals than any other spiritual tradition or school.
For true Golden Dawn initiation and training in the spiritual disciplines of the traditional Golden Dawn, you are invited to visit the website of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the outer order of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega(R).
Sub Umbra Alarum Tuarum, Yeheshua
G.H. Frater Lux Ex Septentrionis
David Griffin
Imperator Ordinis, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
outer order of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega
"Ex Deo Nascimur.
In Yeheshua Morimur.
Per Sanctum Spiritum Reviviscimus"
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BY JOSH LOEBDRESSED in flowing robes and painted green from head to toe, about 100 Pagans descended on Holborn on Sunday to parade through the streets in celebration of spring.The walk was organised by Geraldine Beskin, who runs London's oldest Pagan and occult bookshop, the Atlantis in Museum Street, Bloomsbury. She said it marked a crucial date in the Pagan calendar, adding: "It is a celebration of the rebirth of spring. We are a very egalitarian religion - we celebrate both females and males. But this celebration is about the male energy. It is about procreation. Sex is necessary for new life."She dismissed myths about Paganism that suggested much of the religion was about moonlit orgies."We are not promiscuous but we are also not prudish," said Ms Beskin. "Sex and birth is essential and we mark that."More than 60,000 people registered their religion as Pagans on the last census.
Suggested ebooks:
Reeves Hall - Asatru In Brief
Irv Slauson - The Religion Of Odin
Tuesday Lobsang Rampa - I Believe
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A Golden Dawn Temple
In recent years, our order, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the outer order of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega(R), has grown into the largest and most successful Golden Dawn order in the world. This is primarily because, in 2002, our order reestablished contact with the Secret Chiefs of the Third Order.
In 1891, S.L. MacGregor Mathers had established contact with this same, hidden continental order of Hermetic and Rosicrucian Masters that he called the Secret Chiefs of the Third Order. At that time, the Secret Chiefs transmitted to Mathers the first installment of the curriculum for the Golden Dawn's forthcoming Second Order. Armed with this material, Mathers founded the RR et AC in 1892.
S.L. MacGregor Mathers
Golden Dawn and Alpha et Omega Founder
Sadly, before Mathers ever received from the Secret Chiefs the rest of the curriculum of Golden Dawn's magical system for the higher Inner Order grades of Adeptus Major (6=5) and Adeptus Exemptus (7=4), the Golden Dawn erupted in schism and Aleister Crowley treacherously published the beginner's magic of the (5=6) Adeptus Minor grade.
Aleister Crowley
Golden Dawn Traitor
Due to the profanation through publication by Crowley of the beginner's level of the Golden Dawn magical system, the Secret Chiefs refused to transmit to Mathers the rest of the Second Order curriculum. This resulted in the Golden Dawn remaining an incomplete, truncated system for over a Century.
In 2002, as a sign of good faith, the Secret Chiefs transmitted to the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega the initiation rituals and basic curriculum, originally intended for the Third Order of the original Golden Dawn.
David Griffin
S.L. MacGregor Mathers' Successor as Archon Basileus
of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega(R)
Today, in order to heal the wounds inflicted on the Golden Dawn tradition by profanation from Crowley and Regardie, the Secret Chiefs are finally transmitting the rest of the Inner Order magical curriculum, (6=5) Adeptus Major and (7=4) Adeptus Exemptus, that Mathers was prevented from receiving due to the 1903 schism and to the profanation by Crowley.
As all of this remains oath bound material, there is very little that I may say in public about it. I have been authorized to say this much, however.
As proof of the advanced Second Order transmission, I offer one small example of how the Adeptus Major (6=5) and Adeptus Exemptus (7=4) material completes the (5=6) Adeptus Minor material profaned by Crowley and Regardie. Let us consider the Golden Dawn's use of the magical squares originally published by Cornelius Agrippa in Three Books on Occult Philosophy.
The Golden Dawn's (5=6) Adeptus Minor grade does not really add much of interest to the knowledge of the magick of magical squares beyond that published by Agrippa. The mere advanced (6=5) Adeptus Major and (7=4) Adeptus Exemptus grade curriculum, however, teaches how each Adept can construct their own magical squares, as well as the deeper secrets of the squares publlshed by Agrippa.
For example, until my publishing this article, no one in the entire esoteric community has known that the squares published by Agrippa and included in the Golden Dawn's (5=6) Adeptus Minor grade curriculum are not the real squares, but are only encrypted versions, and only the tip of the iceburg of a vast, incredible system of theurgy that unlocks untold numbers of parallel dimensions on the inner planes, ultimately culminating in union with the Divine at the center of the square, properly understood as a three dimensional cube.
Until this article, no one has understood either what the "planetary seals" published by Agrippa really are, when in fact, they are keys to "unseal" the "sealed" squares in order to reveal the true, unencrypted magic squares, and to unleash the true magick and full power of the system.
Once unlocked with the proper initiatic keys, these magical squares reveal to the advanced Adept the entire, secret magical hierarchy of entities of the Golden Dawn system of magical squares, that remain safely encrypted from those who would seek cheap notoriety by publishing the secret names and sigils of the true, servient spirits of Agrippa's squares.
Please note that the Golden Dawn's advanced Second Order teachings on the vast theurgical system occulted behind the encrypted version of the magic squares published by Agrippa and included in the published Golden Dawn material, is but one small example to show how the Golden Dawn (6=5) Adeptus Major and (7=4) Adeptus Exemptus material completes the published Golden Dawn (5=6) Adeptus Minor material. There are many such ways that the higher grades complete the published material, although at this juncture I am only permitted to draw attention to this one example, since all of the advanced Second Order teachings beyond Adeptus Minor (5=6) remain unpublished and unprofaned, oath bound material.
Let it be known that the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega does not want to dominate any other order. On the contrary, we want to see the entire Golden Dawn community continue to grow in the direction that was originally intended for the Golden Dawn by the Secret Chiefs of the Third Order. We therefore have no problem with sharing the teachings of the higher grades beyond (5=6) Adeptus Minor with Inner Order Adepts from Golden Dawn orders and temples other than the AO.
Please understand, however, that we must be extremely careful about whom we share this unprofaned material with, as I am personally accountable to ensure that this material will not be profaned like the (5=6) Adeptus Minor material was by Crowley. To qualify, therefore, you must have not only been physically initiated as a (5=6) Adpetus Minor, but you must prove yourself trustworthy, be willing to swear to keep the advanced grade material secret, and you must actually keep your word as well.
Unfortunately, there are individuals in our Golden Dawn community who would stop at nothing in order to gain cheap notoriety. These individuals would publish anything they can get their hands on just for cheap fame. And by this, they prove that they are not true initiates, because initiatic secrecy has at all times been considered necessary not as a question of power, but rather as a question of sacredness. The Divine Science should never be profaned.
Sadly, Nick Farrell recently proved that the spirit of treachery of Aleister Crowley is alive and well, by senselessly profaning through publication the Mathers' sacred recension of the Alpha et Omega rituals, together with some hitherto minor, yet sacred nonetheless (5=6) Adeptus Minor A.O. documents. Like Crowley before him, Farrell has therefore proven himself untrustworthy with anything beyond well known and published material. Thus, by his own hand, Frater Farrell has forever blocked his initiatic progress at the (5=6) Adeptus Minor level of published, well known material.
Adepti of all temples and orders of the Golden Dawn community!
What is it that YOU are really interested in?
Is cheap notoriety truly all you want?
Or are you not more interested in spiritual development?
Do you really want to remain spiritually stuck forever at the (5=6) Adeptus Minor level?
Or is your true heart's desire not rather to become "more than human" by practicing the COMPLETE Golden Dawn system of magick and theurgy?
The price of this higher knowledge is nobility of purpose, hard work, and to actually KEEP SACRED the initiatic secrets of the Golden Dawn, as have all true and faithful Hermetic and Rosicrucian Adepts of all centuries have that have come before us.
Adepts from any Golden Dawn order or temple interested in advanced training in the Golden Dawn system magick and theurgy for the Grades beyond the well known, published material of the (5=6) Adeptus Minor grade are invited to contact me discreetly using the contact link at the Golden Dawn website here.
Sub Umbra Alarum Tuarum,GH Frater Lux ex Septentrionis, 8=3
by David Griffin
Imperator Ordinis,
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
Archon Basileus, Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega
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Anger Rising
An Interview
by Dnyl of T.O.P.Y Chaos
Dnyl: You're currently working on a film, "Mouse Heaven"?
Kenneth Anger: Yes I'm finishing a film I've alrealy shot. It's a
study of animated toys of a rare nature. These are collectables of
early Walt Disney toys. I've always loved Mickey Mouse since I was
a little boy and I'm outraged about the current Disney company's
attitude to Mickey Mouse. I mean they think they own it but all the children of the world own Mickey Mouse. And I have devised a way to star Mickey Mouse in a film that the current Disney company can't
legally object to, by filming an antique toy collection of early
Disney toys. And it's just a coincidence all those toys happen to
be Mickey Mouse. I'm actually being very respectful of early Mickey Mouse. I hate later Mickey Mouse, because from "Fantasia" on the
Disney people decided to humanise the mouse, remove his tail- which is a kind of castration- and turn him into a little boy who is a
sort of a goody-two-shoes. And he's no longer the mischievous,
sadistic mouse that he was in the beginning. He used to do nasty
little tricks like twist the udd ers of cows and things like that.
And that's the only mouse I'm interested in, I mean this kind of
demon 'fetish' figure.
Dnyl: There is a rumour that you are going to do a film of the
Gnostic Mass.
Anger: Well, I'd love to but I'm very leery of any groups or
organisations. You see what's just happened in Waco, Texas where
someone that claims they're Jesus Christ, and he killed seven
federal agents when they tried to get to his armed fortress where a lot of brainwashed Australians are held up.
Well, I'm not too keen on any group or cult. I've been to meet the
various groups who call themselves O.T.O. which Crowley founded.
But Crowley never 'annointed' them or approved of them. All the
groups are fighting with each other. There's been raids, thefts,
houses have been broken into, books have been stolen, one house was burned down. These are Crowleyites fighting among each other and
I'm ashamed of them. They're as bad as christians. In other words
you get these far right christian sects and they're doing that kind of nonsense. Every group is a poison. I mean, once you get two or
three people together- three's a crowd and four is a poisonous
cult. And then you get jealousies. Crowley found that out himself.
He tried to have a commune, the first commune which was in 1920 in
Cefalu, Sicily. Human beings are too fallible for all this
idealism, living like the lion lying down with the sheep in the
holy kingdom. It's just not natural!
So you think I would approach the O.T.O. and the Crowleyites and
say ok, you want the Gnostic Mass filmed? I am the most skilled
film-maker among you. I mean, some of them have video cameras and
so forth and they turn out absolute garbage. Well I said if you
want a professional film-maker to film your ceremony, I respect the Gnostic Mass and I have performed it and I have watched various
people performing it. I said I will do it, but you've got to come
up with, say, fifty grand for me. I can't do it for ten cents. I
can't even do it for a thousand dollars. I would do it absolutely
beautifully, in a setting with actors. You see the most respected
high priestess is so ugly her face would freeze a clock. Even
though she has all the spiritual stuff, I'd get a movie actress to
play the high priestess to do the Gnostic Mass on film. When it's
done in a little back room in New York city, where I've attended a
very moving Gnostic Mass, but everyone in i t sort of looked like
homeless people who'd come in and dressed u p in sheets. And I
don't think that's the image we want to project, the Crowleyites
want to project. Like I'm sure there were homely Nazis with glasses and so forth that Leni Riefenstahl didn't film in "The Triumph of
the Will", her Nazi propaganda film. She only chose the handsome
studs and she ignored the little runts who were Nazis, you know,
looking like rats in glasses.
So, ok, they'd better hurry up because my years as a film-maker are coming to an end. My eyes will fail, my mind will fail, and my
health will give out or something. Or just get tired of life, which I am every other week. So I'd love to film it, but I will not do it on a shoestring. I need about fifty grand, that's what I said. Next year I'll need about sixty grand because everything becomes more
and more expensive. And I could have done it ten years ago when I
first suggested it for twenty-five grand. But I would never make
one on video, for instance, just because it's economical. I am a
film artist. I work on celluloid, and I prefer to work on 35mm.
Dynl: Was "invocation of My Demon Brother" based on "Moonchild"?
Anger: A bit. Yes. There's a ceremony in "Moonchild". And the
creation of a moonchild, which is the idea that you can have a baby between two people. It usually takes two people to make a baby but
not always. I mean, in other words, the legend is that there's such a thing as the immaculate conception. There's never an "immaculate"
conception, you can have one person and an entity, and the entity
is not necessarily human. In other words the moonchild would be the moon spirit impregnating the woman, and the c hristians would turn
that and say it was the virgin Mary. But as a matter of fact she's
still pregnant, she still had intercourse but it wasn't with a
human- if you believe the christian myth, which I don't.
But yes it's an influence and I show the title of the book in one
shot so I acknowledge the influence. And I have that title, which
is the only title that says "ZAP, YOU'RE PREGNANT, THAT'S
WITCHCRAFT". Because "ZAP" is already an antique expression from
the sixties. In fact, the "ZAP" comics were drawn by a friend of
mine in San Francisco, and that was a little joke to him. But "ZAP"
si still a magickal word because it comes from the sound of
electricity. ZAP- it's something that's very quick, and that's w hy I used it.
Dnyl: I've read that when Bobby Beausoleil stole "Lucifer Rising"
you tried to turn him into a toad. Is this just a rumour?
Anger: Well, no it isn't a rumour. I did a ceremony, and with an
artist friend of mine I created a beautiful enamel medallion. On
one side was Bobby's portrait painted on a miniature porclain, just like in the time of Queen Elizabeth the first, before they had
photography.
Bobby was a very beautiful boy, with beautiful blue eyes and he was nineteen years old and he had long hair to his shoulders. He was
very cocky and very self-confident, but he was a scorpio and he had a lot of scorpio traits, which are charismatic but they're not
always easy to work with (and I have a half scorpio in my
horoscope). But on the other side was a toad, a beautiful golden
toad.
So, anyway, the toad is from the fairytale about the frog prince.
You know, you kiss the toad and maybe it'll turn into a prince, and maybe you'll get herpes from the toad, frog herpes, which must be
horrible. Or something, who knows. It's a symbol, of faith, and
true love and various things. I mean its a marvellous fairytale.
Crowley adored fairytales and so do I, and he wrote a wonderful
essay about them. This was like "flip the coin", in other words I
knew there were these two natures, and he could be ei ther this
poisonous toad or an angel. Because his dark side of his nature
took over- he stole my van, he stole the film, he betrayed me. I
gave him money to buy some musical things for his band, instead he
went and bought a huge amount of marijuana in Mexico, and drove up
in my van with my license plates on the van, full of bales of
marijuana (at that time, as big as this couch you could buy these
huge things, wrapped in black plastic).
He stored them in my studio. He sneaked them in and stored them.
Our dog began sniffing these wrapped up plastic packages, and then
I cut one open and there was all this grass. It was my apartment
and if anyone was gonna get busted I was gonna get it- he would get off as a minor and I was 'seducing' him or 'corrupting' him in some way. So I picked up the bales, threw them down the front step, and
I'm not particularly a physically hefty hunk of a guy or anything
like that but when I'm mad... I picked him up by the scruff of his
neck when he came home after a late date and tossed him down the
front stair. And that was the end of our relationship.
But you know scorpios are sneaky, and so he waited. He had a real
old car that kept breaking down and everything, but I had the van
that I bought for the first "Lucifer Rising" film production. He
knew I never cooked, and he waited until I went out to dinner with
a friend. Then he broke into the place, stole all the film and then stole the van. So I came back and there was no van, no film, and he was gone. I knew he did it, nobody else could have done it- or
wanted these cans of film with "L.R." on them for "Lucifer Rising".
Dnyl: You were saying last night that he took your van and then
broke down in the desert and was picked up by the Manson Family.
Anger: No, this was in San Francisco where I was living in the
Russian Embassy, which was the consol house when imperial Russia
had a consol in San Francisco. We lived there. He stole the van and he drove it to southern California which is about four hundred
miles south, towards L.A. He had friends down there working in the
group "Love", they were a sort of acid rock group that he played
for. And it broke down not in the desert but in San Fernando valley on the road in front of Spahn Ranch, which is where a t that moment the Manson Family was holed up in the abandoned movie sets. They
were living in this broken down Western village, and somehow they'd got this guard who was supposed to look after it who was blind. I
mean, having a blind old man as a guard! They sweet talked him in,
they said "we'll go get your groceries and we'll do this and that
and so forth. You poor old man, blind. What a pity you're blind you can't see what beautiful chicks we are". Man son would use these
girls in that way on various thing s. So, the girls came out, here
was this cute guy, nineteen years old, with a broken down van and
they said "hey, why don't you move in with us" so that's how he got mixed in with them.
But he was my second choice for Lucifer. The first one was six
years old and he died in an accident thinking he was an angel and
could fly. His name was Vito. He had a hippy mother and a hippy
father who were both artists and he was an absolutely stunning
child. He had platinum blonde hair. It's never been cut since he
was born, so it was down to his shoulders, and he looked like a
Blake cherub. He was so awesomely beautiful. People would see him
and just go "ahgh"!
This kid had that charisma, that magick, but he died before I could use him. I told him I wanted him to be in the movie and he agreed,
he said yes. And I didn't suggest that he would try rehearsing
flying on the roof, but that's where he died, in an accident he
fell off the roof. And you know it's just heartbreaking. Everyone
was in mourning, in fact we never got over it.
At any rate, you know, Bobby was the second choice and he was
nineteen, not six, and so the angelic side... he was more the
demonic side. And I thought I could handle that and I couldn't. It
sort of blew up in my face! But he was arrested for murder two
years after he left me. He left me in '67 and the Manson killings
began in the summer of '69, beginning with Bobby and Susan, one of
the girls. He had sold some bad dope to the Manson family that the
Manson family had resold to the Hell's Angels, and the dru g agents had sprayed it with cyanide. And so all the Hell's Angels, about
fifty of them, got extremely ill. They almost died, and then when
they recovered they blamed the Manson family. They said 'if you
don't kill whoever you got that dope from, we will kill all of
you'. That was California in the sixties (laughs), the so-called
generation of love, or summer of love or whatever (laughs). That
was a farce! And so that's how Bobby got mixed up in mur der and
why he agreed to murder and, you know, they were al l dropping acid like it was breathe mints, and generally cutting loose from their
family connections. They were all middle to upper-middle class
kids, you know, rebelling against their backgrounds. That was
basically it.
Dnyl: How did you meet and get involved with Brian Jones, Mick
Jagger and the Rolling Stones?
Anger: Well, it was very easy for me because I moved to London from San Francisco and my best friend happened to be the best friend of
Mick Jagger and he still is today. That was the magick key in the
door, but it was nothing special. I don't really like rock and
roll, in fact I never listen to it voluntarily. I like some of
their ballads, like 'Ruby Tuesday', I think it's a beautiful song,
and some of the choir things. I never really liked 'Sympathy for
the Devil', even that (but I don't think you can real ly call that
rock and roll).
But Brian was a very magickal person, and he was a witch. He had a
third nipple. Like Rosaleen Norton (that I hope to make a film
about) had the equivalent of an extra nipple. Brian's nipple was
down here on his inner thigh, and for a straight guy to take down
his pants to show me his third nipple! He said "I have a witch's
mark' and I said 'yeah?'. And he said 'yeah!'. We were alone and he siad 'here, I'll show you' and so he took down his pants. And
here's this little...but it was, it was formed like a pe rfect
nipple on his inner thigh. And I said 'is it like your two other
nipples?' and he said 'yeah, its fun to...here touch it!' And I
touched it (laughs). You know he would play with me that way a
little bit, but he was an absolute darling of a person.
But I saw him destroy himself in two years with heroin, and the
only reason he took heroin was to blot out his terrible fear of the public and the police. He got so paranoid about the police that
were going to bust him for dope and all that, that he used to hide
under the bed like a little child. 'Where's Brian? Where's Brian?'
Well, he'd be under the bed hiding. Trembling, like this, because
he thought the police were coming and they were going to take away
his dope. It's such a waste of talent.
I've enjoyed knowing those people, but I don't go name dropping all the time. I've known people that meant a lot more to me than any of the Rolling Stones. I'm sorry that Brian died, but it was a hell of a life. I wouldn't wish it on anyone to be a pop star.
But I hope I live long enough to see the decline and fall of
Michael Jackson. Because I've talked to plastic surgeons that
worked on him, and his nose is held up by a prayer. In other words, it is collapsing in on itself, he had all the cartilage removed and its possible the whole thing will melt, like the witch at the end
of the Wizard of Oz. That would give me a certain satisfaction, I
won't say pleasure, but this story of him having a skin disease- he bleaches himself twice a week! He slathers himself in this ointment that stinks to high heaven and it'll probably give him cancer or
something (laughs). He claims he has impetigo but that's absolute
rubbish. He's been bleaching himself, which is like an insult to
the black race.
But he removed his African nose that used to have two nostrils big
enough to drive a bus in. He took about a pound of liver off his
lips. Now he has these thin little prissy lips and now he claims
that oh, he had a little work done. A little work done! But who is
he kidding? What I can't understand is why he isn't totally
rejected by the blacks because he's like insulting the blacks to
try to bleach himself white. And then he claims its a disease, I
mean come on! At any rate, I don't deal with pop celebriti es. I
basically deal with old movie personalities that I find much more
interesting. But I am going to have a footnote or something about
Michael Jackson because he has made one or two films, and he
generally pisses me off, frankly!
Peregrin Wildoak recently published his first book, By Names and Images. You can find the book available for purchase here. In this book, Peregrin really surprised me. Sure, there are numerous personal innovations, but Peregrin is uncharacteristically honest about it, for which he should be highly commended.
Most importantly, By Names and Images highlights the importance of the inner workings that actually make the Golden Dawn rituals and ceremonies operate effectively. This book actually adds something valuable to the existing Golden Dawn literature. I would therefore recommend this book to all aspiring Golden Dawn students.I wish I could say the same about many of Peregrin's recent blog articles.
On his Magic of the Ordinary blog, Peregrin has written one fine article after the other. Sadly, however, Peregrin far too frequently permits his well researched and well written articles to be poisoned as tools for the sectarianism that unfortunately has infected so many parts of the Golden Dawn community.
On numerous occasions recently on MOTO, you find extremely interesting and well written articles poisoned near their conclusion by the inclusion of thinly disguised sectarian sniping.It is quite sad when otherwise fine authors permit their ethos to be hijacked in the service of political or religious extremist sectarian agendas. This is sadly the case with Peregrin's latest article on MOTO, entitled "Casting obloquy and irrational religion."
Peregrin writes:
Do we say and do nothing in the face of religions that preach oppression and hate? As Edmund Burke said, "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." Personally, I say, bugger that for a lark and have no problems laying into religions of hate and oppression, obloquy notwithstanding. - Peregrin WildoakI could not agree with Peregrin more on this. I have for months been tirelessly exposing the bizarre takeover attempts of Golden Dawn temples and orders by the segregationist SRIA and the anti-Semitic and anti-Pagan "Order of the Rose and Cross.
KKK Grand Wizard - SRIA Supreme MagusThe problem is, however, that altough Peregrin is going to careful lengths to disguise what he is about to do, he nonetheless embarks on pursuing precisely such a extremist religious and political agenda for the entire rest of the article, where Peregrin uses all of the propaganda tactics of Holocaust denial to deny that there was ever any Pagan Holocaust. To make crystal clear what Peregrin is actually doing, we must merely substitute the word "Jewish" for the word "Pagan" and examine what Peregrin says in light of the replies by major Jewish organisations to the propaganda of Holocaust denial.
Peregrin writes:"At the less extreme end of things, I started thinking more about this issue a week or so back after posting on Facebook that I was surprised that some magical folk still referred to 'the Burning Times' as a factual series of events, where Pagans were persecuted by 'the church'. Nick Farrell, in his normal wise manner, responded by saying, "It is an article of religious faith a bit like the virgin birth." If this is so, and I think Nick is technically correct, then have all my previous articles and postings back to 1989, where I critique the Burning Times as myth not history, been casting a little bit of obloquy? I certainly have been firm in my opinions. Does the fact that people are consciously or unconsciously holding something as a 'religious truth' bar us from saying how stupid it actually is?" - Peregrin WildoakCalling the Holocaust a "myth" or an article of "faith" rather than historical fact is a typical strategem of Holocaust Denial. The Anti Defmation League (ADL) writes in its introduction to "Holocaust Denial: An Online Guide to Exposing and Combating Anti-Semitic Propaganda:"Holocaust denial, which its propagandists misrepresent as "historical revisionism," has become one of the most important vehicles for contemporary anti-Semitism. It is the invention of a collection of long-time anti-Semites and apologists for Hitler." - ADLLet us modify the above ADL statement as it applies to the present instance to make clear what Peregrin is actually doing in this article:
"Holocaust denial, which its propagandists misrepresent as "historical revisionism," has become one of the most important vehicles for contemporary anti-Paganism. It is the invention of a collection of long-time anti-Pagans and apologists for the Inquisition."Is what Peregrin wrote above racist? Let's answer this question by substituting the word "Jewish" for "Pagan," and look at Peregrin's words as though he were referring the the Jewish rather than the Pagan Holocaust.
Peregrin's words would then read:
"I was surprised that some magical folk still referred to 'the Holocaust' as a factual series of events, where Jews were persecuted by 'the Nazis'." - Peregrin rephrasedThis makes Peregrin's true agenda not so hidden, doesn't it?
The Pagan and Jewish Holocausts In response to Peregrin's above cited anti-Pagan defamation, Alexandrian Wiccan elder and famous Pagan author, Frater Barrabbas, replied:
"To call religious persecution (whoever the target) from that time as just a myth is quite ridiculous by itself. Tell that to Giordano Bruno (and many others), who was burned at the stake in Rome. Tell that to many gifted and intelligent men who were forced to suppress or recant their theories or discoveries, such as Galileo." - Frater BarrabbasAlexandrian Wiccan Elder, Frater BarrabbasPeregrin continues:"The Burning Times myth tells us 'nine million' people were burnt during the Witch persecutions of early modern Europe which were directed at existing and remnant 'pagan' religions. To maintain this as 'true' we have to ignore or claim conspiracy on the vast amount of evidence that places the number of executions as between forty and a hundred thousand" - Peregrin WildoakNow, let us evaluate whether or not this is anti-Pagan propaganda by rewriting the salient part as though Peregrin were writing about Jews rather than Pagans.
"The Holocaust myth tells us 'six million' people were killed during the Holocaust of Nazi Germany which was directed at Jews. To maintain this as 'true' we have to ignore or claim conspiracy on the vast amount of evidence that places the number of executions as between forty and a hundred thousand." - Peregrin rephrasedTo make clearer what Peregrin is actually up to here, one need merely consider the following words from the website of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:
Holocaust denial is an attempt to negate the established facts of the Nazi genocide of European Jewry. Key denial assertions are: that the murder of approximately six million Jews during World War II never occurred; that the Nazis had no official policy or intention to exterminate the Jews; and that the poison gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp never existed. A newer trend is the distortion of the facts of the Holocaust. Common distortions include, for example, assertions that: the figure of six million Jewish deaths is an exaggeration." - USHMMFrater Barrabbas responded to Peregrin:
The number of deaths associated with the witch burning times (which occurred during the reformation period, starting around the 1530's) has been estimated at around 180K throughout Europe, for a period of around 200 years. Peregrin is correct that the 6 - 9 million number is pure fantasy, and in fact, might be an attempt by modern witches to copy the Jewish holocaust numbers, or even best them.
However, religious persecution, whatever its guise, did manage to kill quite a number of people over a long brutal period of time. If you consider the 30 years war of the first half of the 17th century, where a combination of war, persecution, famine, crop depredation, and disease severely diminished the population of the German states during that period, then it was no small event in the history of Europe. To call religious persecution (whoever the target) from that time as just a myth is quite ridiculous by itself. Tell that to Giordano Bruno (and many others), who was burned at the stake in Rome. Tell that to many gifted and intelligent men who were forced to suppress or recant their theories or discoveries, such as Galileo. I wouldn't call Bruno a Christian either, since he was much more a Hermetic Neo-Egyptian pagan. - Frater BarrabbasPeregrin is clearly attempting to dismiss the Pagan Holocaust by disputing the actual number of dead as is typical of anti-Semitic Holocaust denial sites today. Peregrin's anti-Pagan agenda becomes readily apparent when imagined he were talking about Jews rather than Pagans. It does not matter whether 100,000 or 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust. It should never have happened and should not be forgotten despite the attempts of Holocaust deniers to cast doubt on the reality of the Holocaust by disputing the actual number of dead. The same holds true for the Pagan holocaust. It does not matter if there were only 50,000 or 9 million dead. It should never have happened and it should not be forgotten, despite the efforts of Holocaust denial propagandists like Peregrin to whitewash the truth or dismiss it as mere "myth."
To maintain [the Pagan Holocaust] as 'true' we have to ignore [that the] vast majority of them of Christian folk, and the executions often organised by secular and local authorities, not state imposed Christianity. - Peregrin WildoakPeregrin's argument that most of the victims were Christian depends entirely on the dubious argument as Peregrin has argued elsewhere that all Pagan's had been "Christianized" by the time of the Inquisition and that there were no real Pagans left. To attempt to whitewash the Inquisition in this manner is Holocaust denial on par with the worst anti-Semites today.
According to the Jewish Virtual Library, one of the most frequent propaganda strategies of Holocaust deniers is the following argument:
"The Holocaust Did Not Occur Because There Is No Single "Master Plan" for Jewish Annihilation"In light of the above, let us now reexamine what Peregrin is really doing by imagining he were talking about Jews rather than Pagans. His above statement would then read:
To maintain [the Holocaust] as 'true' we have to ignore [that the] vast majority of them of normal folk, and the executions often organised by secular and local authorities, not state imposed Nazism. - Peregrin WildoakFrater Barrabas responded to Peregrin:
To call religious persecution (whoever the target) from that time as just a myth is quite ridiculous by itself. Tell that to Giordano Bruno (and many others), who was burned at the stake in Rome. Tell that to many gifted and intelligent men who were forced to suppress or recant their theories or discoveries, such as Galileo. I wouldn't call Bruno a Christian either, since he was much more a Hermetic Neo-Egyptian pagan. However, the argument of whether there were cunning folk caught up in the persecution, or that there were vestiges of pagan religion wiped out by this onslaught is mere rhetoric. Both Catholic and Protestant Christian authorities acted in a heartless and brutal fashion towards individuals who were merely perceived as different. We have no idea what that situation was like, but we can at least understand why future governments (such as the US) insisted on becoming secular organizations. It allowed the world to continue without the possibility of state sponsored religious wars.
While the Roman Inquisition didn't actually either torture or kill individuals who were judged as heretics of some kind or another, they did have the assistance of civil authorities and hired torturers to do their dirty work for them. From the stand-point of the individual being questioned and tortured, and then burned at the stake, I doubt if it made all that much difference. While Peregrin desires to maintain a certain degree of accuracy, by dismissing the suffering of many thousands of individuals as a mere myth, all he does is give affirmation and fuel to present and future religious persecution. This, of course, is my opinion, but I think that Peregrin is being smug in his post-modern presumptuousness.
To highlight just how serious and brutal it was to get caught up in an accusation of witchcraft, I point out to you the handy link from Patheos here. It's a decision flow chart showing the different vectors that occurred when one was accused of witchcraft. I found this to be quite a good reminder that the witchcraft persecution was a terrible and bloody time for many people, victims and their kith and kin.
In light of the above, I asked an ethnohistorical expert in the Great Witch Hunt, Professor Paolo Portone of the Insubric Center for Ethnohistorical Research (based in Cuomo, Italy) to comment on the glaring inaccuracies and propaganda spin in Peregrin's article. Here is my translation the rebuttal published by Prof. Portone on Peregrin's blog:ETHNOHISTORIAN AND WITCH HUNT EXPERT,PROF. PAOLO PORTONE"Who is still afraid of witches - the awkward legacy of the witch hunt in contemporary historical debate. More than five Centuries have passed since the Papal bull "Summis desiderantes affecti-bus" (1484) which officially began the epoch of the Great Witch Hunt. A persecution that by geographical extension, in its systematic radicality may well be considered as the archetype of twentieth century genocide. Despite the recent downsizing of the numbers of the massacre which was committed in the heart of Europe, civilized and Christianized fully in modern form, no one today doubts the seriousness of a phenomenon that caused according to the most acredited academic theses today, around 300,000 trials and the death of at least 145,000 persons (Levack), mostly women, accused of an exceptional crime, impossible to prove unless under torture: the infamous pact with Satan, and the apostatic and heretical consequences of adherence to the cult dedicated to spreading the maleficium in the heart of the Cristian citadel. Despite revisionism and negationism, the debate on the number of victims at least had the merit, to bring to light a phenomenon still marginalised in official historiography, in which scientifically oriented research still shows no small difficulty, if not actual and deliberate resistance, to settle accounts with the identity of "witches", the perfect scapegoats for troubled society in between medieval and modern times. The legacy of the victims, real and mystified, continues to permeate our memory, conditioning retroactively, the judgment on the motives that pushed secular and religious authorities to drag the Devil into court along with his supposed followers. From the distance of centuries since the Witch Hunt, the world of witches continues to be ignored, misunderstood and perhaps even feared." - Paolo Portone
In light of all of the above, it is clear that Peregrin has allowed his author's ethos to be hijacked by anti-Pagan and anti-Semitic extremists of the segregationist SRIA and the anti-Semitic and anti-Pagan "Order of the Rose and Cross." It is tragic when otherwise fine authors allow themselves to become mere pawns of sectarian extremists who continue to attempt to seize control of the Golden Dawn.
BY DAVID GRIFFIN
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Recently, Nick Ferrell wrote a blog article where he criticized the necessity for the oath of secrecy for Golden Dawn initiates. While I am not a Golden Dawn initiate, I do have some opinions about oaths of secrecy and confidentiality. I have also incorporated a kind of oath for members of my own order, but that oath is more engaged with confidentiality and ethics than actual secrecy. Still I can understand the need for such an oath as well as its limitations. You can find Nick's article here.
The Golden Dawn has been rife over the last century or more with various kinds of individual oath breakers. Certainly, Crowley could be considered one of the first, who published the Golden Dawn lore in his periodical "Equinox." Then we have Israel Regardie, Dion Fortune, and a host of others. I have to admit that if these individuals had not circumvented their oaths, none of their writings about the Golden Dawn would have been produced. We would have known next to nothing about this secret organization and its precious lore, and there would have been a dearth of popular occultism, paganism, wicca and magick today. Some might have been quite happy if the occult explosion of the last hundred years had not occurred, but I can tell you that I would have been quite unhappy. In fact, the thought of not being an occultist and having my mono-mania of magick to pursue is quite daunting indeed. (Ha! Maybe I need to get a life and stop being such an occult nerd.)
So I can't either blame or condemn any of these occultists for breaking their solemn oath to the egregore of the Order of the Golden Dawn, because I and many others profited from it. However, I can look at what motivated each of these individuals and determine what the driving force was that caused them to take this step. For all of the occultists except Crowley, the reason was selfless. They were driven by the desire to enlighten and inform the public. It doesn't matter too much that the material was given out of context, since it did indeed inform and enlighten many individuals. In fact, it is probably what saved the Order from complete extinction, so perhaps the egregore of the Order was behind these illicit transmissions.
Crowley's reason for publishing the Golden Dawn material was undoubtedly for pure spite. He despised Mathers and the other members of the Order. He also sought to abrogate the lore for his own personal magickal order, and he published some of Mather's manuscripts and passed them off for his own work. However, Crowley also produced his own stellar work and had many great contributions to the study and practice of magick. However, his intentions were not selfless or positive, even though the final outcome did end up being good. I suspect that Crowley got to taste the full bitterness of his betrayal of a powerful order and its egregore, if we attribute his final days to that consequence. We can also just as well believe that Crowley was just being himself to the very end, brilliant, pathological, addicted, profoundly creative, notorious and controversial. Despite his final pitiful days, I think that Crowley would be pleased with the number of occultists today who read and study his works.
Other occultists have published Golden Dawn material - much of it has been in the public domain for quite some time, so I would assume that such material couldn't be part of an oath of secrecy and confidentiality. So for this reason I couldn't condemn someone like David Griffin for being an oath breaker. In fact, I am quite happy that many Golden Dawn initiates have written books for me to read and study. However, where I draw the line is the consideration of the author's motive. Why are they writing about this material when it properly belongs to the Order of the Golden Dawn. Answering that question is very important, as I have already shown in the examples above. If the motive is a selfless desire to inform and enlighten the public, then it must be a positive development, perhaps one that the egregore has sanctioned itself in some manner. If not, then what is revealed is probably not only illicit but against the spirit of the organization.
Nick Ferrell has written a lengthy article that outlines what he thinks is invalid and wrong about the oath of secrecy in the Golden Dawn. There are things that he finds agreeable and things that he doesn't agree with and feels should be changed. That is all well and good, and probably it would be better stated by someone who has never taken that oath than someone who has.
Say you take an oath. Later on you pick it apart to determine which sections are agreeable to you. Those you agree with, you follow, the rest you ignore. Does that make any sense at all? It seems kind of fast and loose to me. It's almost like getting your driver's license and then deciding which traffic laws are relevant and which ones can be broken. A lot of drivers get away with ignoring some traffic laws, like coming to complete stop at a stop sign, but sooner or later either a traffic cop or an accident will force them to change their mind.
I believe that if you make an oath, it doesn't matter how ridiculous it is, or whether you can obey some parts of it and ignore others. If you don't respect the oath as a whole, then picking it apart will only completely undo it. In other words, if you can't respect any part of an oath, then you have no business taking it in the first place.
Confidentiality is, preeminently, the most important part of an oath. Yet confidentiality extends beyond just the names, addresses and personal characteristics of the members of the organization. It is also includes the daily business and personal interactions of the group, the magick they are jointly working, the rituals and lore that they use, group politics and interactions - all of this is strictly confidential. If materials are not already in the common domain, then they shouldn't be published except without proper authorization from the organizational heads.
I wouldn't like it if some clown in my local magickal temple decided to publish the group's rituals and activities without telling the whole group about it and getting our consent. Maybe someone might have good reasons to publish confidential or unpublished information, but if their reasons are good and if they took an oath to retain all such information as confidential, then they need to ask permission and get approval. In our order, such approval is strictly limited to the local temple, and then it is by full consensus. These are matters of ethics, and anyone who is in a formal group should take them quite seriously.
Here is an example of the oath of ethics taken by an initiate of the first degree (Neophyte) in the Order of the Gnostic Star. I can share this information with you because it has been available on the internet for the past several years.
"I "in the presence of the Lords of the Universe, who work in silence and whom none but silence can express, in this temple of the most high and holy Graal (Isis-Sophia). By the order E. S. S. G. do of my own free will solemnly promise to keep secret this order, its members, its rituals and proceedings. To undertake a benevolent revelation with all the fratres and sorores of this Order. To reveal to no one except the initiates of this order the rituals, ceremonies and documents of this order. That I shall never debase my mystical knowledge in the labor and service of negative magick at anytime nor under any temptation. If I should break this sacred vow, my soul stands before those powers conjured in this sacred place to judge my actions."
Does taking this oath mean that the rituals and documents of the Order must remain inviolable secrets? No, actually, it doesn't. It means that a member of a temple of the Order must keep in confidence all that occurs within it, to protect the members and the workings that they are undergoing. The rituals are not what is kept confidential - only the ritual lore of the temple. There is an important distinction here that should be understood. I usually make certain that prospective members understand the nuances of this oath, but often, I find such an explanation to be superfluous, since it's so obvious what is being kept confidential.
Thus I would never take an oath that I didn't wholly believe in and follow to the end, and I would obey an oath that I took to the fullest possible definition. This is what is expected of occultists, and there is an important reason for behaving in this manner. That reason is rather mysterious at first glance, but if you think about it, it becomes more evident. If you break your oath with a spiritual or magickal organization, then you set up a powerful wave of negativity, distrust and dissonance that has a subtle but powerful over-all impact. If it is egregious and based purely upon one's own lust for power and self aggrandizement, then it will cause a permanent disconnect from the egregore of that organization.
Once such a breakage occurs, as a kind of willful sundering, then it becomes more difficult for any other doors or future possibilities to open for that person. If they have left a bad group, then there is no blame. If not, then they are culpable. If we consider that there are possible higher levels of spiritual and magickal development that are neither in print or held by any known organization, then its possible that such lore would be in the hands of individuals who have achieved the highest level of spiritual and magickal attainment in this world. These individuals would very likely judge an oath breaker as not trustworthy for the greater lore, thus he would be overlooked even if his achievements were monumental.
As far as the Golden Dawn is concerned, a branch or a temple may be bad or corrupt, however, the egregore is still a powerful and positive vehicle in the spiritual and magick world. An oath made in that temple is to the egregore, not to the temple hierarchy. Violations of that oath will be measured against the good and the harm that such an action has caused. The intent of the violation must also be weighed, and that should indicate whether someone meant to do it for the greater good, or did it for ego or spite.
Nick has bragged that when he published an ebook version of the "Book of the Tombs", a document that hadn't ever been published before, he managed to single handedly silence a dispute between two warring factions of the Order that were fighting over the disposition of the Vault of Adepti. The vault is a chamber device that is used in the inner order to conduct intensive forms of magick and initiation, which the document outlined in detail. Supposedly, the two groups then ceased their bickering when they managed to review the original dimensions and qualifications of the vault. Of course, that's his opinion, we can just as easily assume that they were silenced by his audacity and outraged at his illicit actions.
I believe the real issue is Nick's cavalier attitude to the very organization that taught him magick and revealed to him the inner mysteries. What is Nick's intention but his own self aggrandizement, which is in a word, "ego." Nick seeks to make himself a great man at the expense of the egregore of the Order that took him into its bosom. That makes him not only an oath breaker, but a real blackguard as well. Nick seems to be ruled by his piratical rapaciousness for secret occult lore, which he turns around and publishes, all for the greater glory of himself. He seeks not to inform the general public, but instead to promote himself as an authority and a master of secrets. In declaring himself to be an oath breaker, he has shown the world that he can't be trusted, and has unwittingly slammed the door on any future transmission of even greater occult lore. Potential higher adepts would never consider him as a colleague, and who in their right mind would want to have that option negated?
I don't feel impressed by what Nick has done, instead I feel sorry for him. Who could ever trust this man with their lore or their mysteries? However you attempt to spin this dilemma, an oath breaker is just that, an oath breaker. It's someone who betrayed the trust that other individuals placed in them, all for the greater glory of themselves.
Frater Barrabbas
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