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Easter Sunday, 4/12/2009
Happy Easter Brothers and Sisters of the Golden Dawn of all Orders and Temples!
May the light of the Rose+Cross shine brightly today upon all of us. I am sorry it took me so long to follow up since my return from the Ahathoor Temple No. 7 in Paris last Monday. This week has been a wirlwind since my return and I wanted to have everything ready to share with you on Easter Sunday. Well, here it is.
In reality, I did not go to Paris merely for the Equinox Ritual at the Ahathoor Grand Temple of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Actually the Ahathoor Mother Temple was host to the 100 Year Centennial Jubileum Celebration of S.L. MacGregor Mathers' founding the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega in 1909.
This year's International Conclave was for the Second Order and above, so we convoked the International College of the Adepti of the Alpha et Omega as well. The festivities lasted several days as we initiated in all grades of the Second Order and there were marvelous lectures from four separate A.O. Imperators!
The good news for you is that this time we filmed everything - so now you can also be a part of this exiting event - even if you were unable to be there with us in Paris! I opened the conference by greeting our Brothers and Sisters of the Golden Dawn around the world. Here is the video of the opening festivities (note that the speeches always follow bits of ritual):
Here you will enjoy more ritual, and information about the Hermetic and Rosicrucian Roots of the Golden Dawn.
Many of you read the recent weblog I wrote upon my return from Paris. Unsurprisingly, I was once again attacked on an anonymous blog, this time criticized by a post alleging that the Ahathoor Temple in Paris today is not the temple that S.L. MacGregor Mathers founded in 1892.
Well, the truth is usually far more interesting than anonymous, strife stirring rumor, and the modern history of the Ahathoor temple certtainly fits this criteria! In fact, Jean-Pascal Ruggiu, G.H. Frater Lux Aurorae, gave a fascinating lecture about how his research into the history of the Ahathoor Temple led him to Marquis Tereschenko, who eventually reconsecrated Ahathoor Temple in 1992.
I don't want to ruin this fascinating story for you, as here is G.H. Frater Lux Aurorae to tell you the whole story himself:
Next, we were all treated to a wonderful lecture on the Gold und Rosenkreutz order and the Rosicrucian roots of the Golden Dawn in Germany by V.H. Frater D.L.M., the Imperator of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn(R) for German speaking countries:
Few people realize that the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn's Imperator for Scandinavia, V.H. Frater Sincerus Renatus, actually was born in Poland. Ever true to these roots, V.H. Frater Sincerus Renatus, has a particular love for the Qabalah of the Shabbathaian movement in messianic Judaism, particualrly as it filtered down with the followers of Jaqob Frank. The story of the Qabalistic Roots of the Golden Dawn is a particularly fascinating one, involving many of the leading figures from this movement who found their way into the Order of the Asiatic Brethren, then later into the Jewish Lodge at Frankfurt, the famous, Zur Goldenen Morgonroethe Lodge. VH Frater Sincerus Renatus' lecture on the Qabalistic roots of the Golden Dawn is bound to become a classic, and adds many pieces to the jigsaw puzzle of the Continental European origins of the Golden Dawn.
Finally, the International Conclave of the Adepti and the 100 Year Jubileum concluded with my keynote address on the Emerald Tablet of Hermes, the Hermetic Tradition, and the Golden Dawn. Since there has been so much controversy surrounding the Emerald Teblet of Hermes since the recent translation by Nineveh Shadrach of the Magic Society of the White Flame, I thus attempted to shed new light on the Emerald Tablet, as revealed by Apollonius of Tyana's Book of Causes, in which the earliest extant version of the Emerald Tablet was originally published, together valuable commentaries essential to its proper understanding.
It is my sincere hope that some of the factionalism between Golden Dawn orders and temples will now die down, so that at our next International Golden Dawn Conclave ALL brothers and sisters of the Golden Dawn may attend, regardless of what order or temple you belong to. This was the dream of our cherished, late Praemonstrator, Marquis Nicholas Tereschenko, and perhaps we will yet see his dream realized in our lifetime.
Until then, we are this year at least able to share these precious videos with you!
Sub Umbra Alarum Tuarum, Yeheshua
David Griffin
G.H. Frater Lux Ex Septentrionis
Imperator Ordinis, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega
"Ex Deo Nascimur.
In Yeheshua Morimur.
Per Sanctum Spiritum Reviviscimus"
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!
I am currently in the process of trying to get my first book published. It is entitled "Operant Magick" and is essentially a textbook on ritual magick incorporating some of my own personal theories and research along with key concepts from the Western Esoteric Tradition. One of the key concepts that I introduce in the book is the "operant field". I use this term all the time when discussing ritual work and it appears nowhere in any other published source on ritual magick, so here's a basic overview of the idea.
Most Western ritual magicians use variations of the pentagram and hexagram rituals. In the Golden Dawn tradition you have the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram and the Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram, in the Thelemic tradition you have the Star Ruby and Star Sapphire, in the Aurum Solis tradition you have the rituals for raising the Wards of Power, and so forth. The normal way this is taught is as it appears in Donald Michael Kraig's "Modern Magick", one of the most popular and widely available books on Golden Dawn magick. Kraig says that you start off just using the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram and then move on to using the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram followed by the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram at the beginning of every ceremonial ritual. The Golden Dawn taught both banishing and invoking forms of these rituals, but Kraig sticks to the banishing versions and a lot of ritual magicians are taught to do the same.
I started researching these ritual forms years ago and was confused by how little material was available on the invoking versions and when they should be used. In Aleister Crowley's "Liber O vel Manus et Sagittae" it is kind of a curious fact that he covers the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram followed by an explanation of the Lesser "Invoking" Ritual of the Hexagram. I went ahead and decided to try this combination out even though most writers will tell you that you shouldn't use the rituals that way. I was absolutely blown away by the result - all of a sudden my practical magical work got a whole lot better. I set up a number of objective tests and, sure enough, the LBRP/LIRH was amazing. I couldn't get anywhere near the same result with the LBRP/LBRH - even though the only difference between the banishing and invoking forms is the direction in which the hexagrams are traced. When I discovered this I asked around and, sure enough, most of the magicians who I knew who were able to get good results using the Golden Dawn forms had figured out the same thing. Other skilled magicians I know have tried the combination at my suggestion and also found that it just works better.
So what is going on here? I think that most modern writers don't understand how to use these rituals. From a Hermetic perspective the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram represents the psychological realm or microcosm and the Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram represents the physical realm or macrocosm. Together the rituals set up a space in which the relationship between microcosm and macrocosm is defined that I call a "field". The four combinations of the banishing and invoking forms of the two rituals set up four different fields that are useful for specific magical operations.
BANISHING FIELD (LBRP/LBRH): This is how most magicians begin their rituals when working with the Golden Dawn forms. It is, in effect, the "full shutdown" - it clears mental and spiritual forms from both the interior and exterior worlds. In can be used to completely cleanse a temple, banish spirits permanently, or neutralize a magical effect that is targeting the magician. What it also does, though, is shut down any ongoing spells that the magician has running unless they are bound to talismans or some anchor other than the magician's consciousness. If you are casting a spell that you want to work over the next week, don't end the ritual with this combination under any set of circumstances unless you're convinced you made a mistake and want to stop the spell. The effect that you just set in motion will be negated when the field goes up.
INVOKING FIELD (LIRP/LIRH): This combination energizes all ongoing magical effects, and can be used to begin a ritual that you want to operate in both the interior and exterior worlds. A good example of this is a spell to get a good job. You want the spell to affect your psyche in such a way that you seem more confident and capable, but you also want it to shift probabilities in the material world so that the right opportunity will come your way.
CENTERING FIELD (LIRP/LBRH): This combination sets up a field in which the interior world is engaged while influences from the exterior world are neutralized. This field is ideal for exclusively psychological magical work of all sorts.
OPERANT FIELD (LBRP/LIRH): This is the one that I use the most. The field clears the interior world and then merges it the with the exterior world, setting up a space in which thought can more easily become material reality. All of the energy of a spell cast within this field is targeted on the macrocosm and the resulting probability shifts show that magick done this way just influences the outside world better - significantly better.
If you would like, try it out and see, and let me know how it goes. I think you'll be impressed.
Suggested ebooks:
Tarostar - The Witchs Spellcraft Revised
Frederick Hadland Davis - The Persian Mystics Jami
Katharine Pyle - The Counterpane Fairy
ENTRY INTO FAERIE, THE DEVA REALM
Hail Psilos, Guide and Guardian along the path between Binah and Kether.
Hail Tehuti, Master of the stylus, the knowledge of mathematics and the arts.
Hail Thoth, Teacher of Wisdom, magick, and the symbols of Tarot.
Hail Hermes-Trismegistus, 'Thrice-great' messenger of the gods
Son of Maya and Zeus Master Thief Trainer of the Way of the Thief
Father of Pan, the Wild Goat God Wielder of the Caduceus
Patron to the Magi, the line of ancient adepts Inscriber of the Emerald Tablets Mercurial escort, bearing Psyche to the palace of the gods, where she partakes of the ambrosia of immortality
Master Servant, Hanuman, bringing the Key of Solomon, the Egyptian Ankh of Life.
Hail Merlin, Otherworld Guide,
Arch-Seer and Prophet of the Druids
Wizard and Founder of the Order of Istari,
Dweller of the Island of the Blessed, Aman
Mithrandir of the People of the Stars, and friend to all free ones
We welcome an initiation into your Mysteries,
a glimpse of your wonderful magick
that is the essence of consciousness.
Let the Dolmen-shape of the umbrella fungi
soften the rain of your teachings
as it gathers these waters of life
in its sponginess.
Allow our safe passage through your netherworld.
Show us the fruit of our labors and ready us for
the lessons we may approach.
We would take your hand as you lead us
down the spiral path into Faerie.
We look to you for advice and encouragement
as we will this transition.
Let your spore-seeds inflame
our awareness and self-understanding
just as this return-offering
burns to the ash of shed skin.
May our journey through and out of the Underworld be pleasant yet fruitful.
May we remember to trust our inner being as the source of manifestation and the center of existence.
Thank you for your patience.
Thank you for your compassion.
Thank you for your humor.
Thank you for your awareness.
The flesh of the gods
The blood of the gods
Absorbed and encompassed,
we enter the womb only to exit
from the cave of our abandoned shell-self.
In love, peace, and trust in all things
we begin this adventure in a spirit of bright joy
and tender blessings.
Suggested ebooks:
Howard Phillips Lovecraft - The Beast In The Cave
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - The Child That Went With The Fairies
The A.’. A.’. is the Supreme and Eternal Inner School of initiates who have in all times overseen the evolution of consciousness on this planet. This order has assumed various forms and names throughout history. In all cases, however, its chief work is the preparation of the individual for Initiation. It is from the A.’. A.’. that The Book of the Law was issued to humankind, to announce the advent of the Aeon of Horus. The current outer form of the order was created by Frater P. and Frater D.D.S. under the guidance and instruction of the A.’. A.’.
This path of High Magick is not for most. The A.’. A.’. is the parent of all other viable initiatory systems. All others are but preparation (or specialized training) for those who will eventually aspire to this One Order of the Shining Star. Affiliation is for those — perhaps only for those — who dedicate themselves, with reverence, duty, sympathy, devotion, assiduity and trust, to the performance of the Great Work now, within this incarnation; and to dare, with courage undaunted, to perfect it.
Love is the law, love under will.
Since last November my friend Frater Barrabbas has been following an ongoing debate in the Pagan community over how closely modern Paganism resembles its historical ancestors. In a more recent article he discusses his interpretation of the three philosophical perspectives that seem to be fueling the debate.
These three different philosophical perspectives are based on three different approaches to engaging with a tradition. I call these three perspectives "traditional lore, reconstructionist" and the middle ground of "objectified traditional lore," or "revisionism." If you ever wanted to be entertained, just get together three individuals who are die-hard adherents of these three different perspectives, introduce them to a strategic point of disagreement, and then let the fur fly.
According to Barrabbas' definitions, Traditionalists are defined as members of a particular initiatic system or lineage who adhere to to the teachings of that tradition regardless of outside evidence to the contrary. Reconstructivists seek to restore the practices of a particular group at a particular period in time according to academic writing and research about the tradition. Finally, Revisionists validate and augment their lore by researching academic and scientific information. Like this. By those definitions I'm clearly a Revisionist and proud of it. In fact, I have no idea why anyone would want to be a Traditionalist or Reconstructionist if they're at all interested in doing magick.
Purely Traditionalist systems suffer from the accumulation of dogma. Without any sort of peer review inaccurate information can wind up being disseminated. For example, the Golden Dawn origin story about Anna Sprengel and her body of European adepts made for a great plot element in my novel but most experts agree that it is probably not historically true. From the fragmentary technical documents that have been published on the Golden Dawn tradition sometime between Aleister Crowley's work with Macgregor Mathers ("Liber O vel Manus et Sagittae") and Israel Regardie's publication of the Stella Matutina documents ("The Golden Dawn") it looks like the Lesser Invoking Ritual of the Hexagram was replaced by the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram, a change which is taught by most of the modern Golden Dawn orders but which according to my own empirical research on probability shifts massively weakens the system.
Reconstructionists sometimes make important new historical discoveries about their respective traditions that prove useful, but without revision any such system is always going to contain elements that were appropriate in a particular time and place but are no longer relevant to the modern world. For example, there a million books out there that purport to teach "Celtic" Paganism. Many experts believe that the discovery of bog men clearly demonstrates that the ancient Celts practiced human sacrifice. Should we? Obviously a modern person is going to respond in the negative to that one, but as soon as you start changing even extreme elements of the system to fit the modern world you effectively are a Revisionist anyway. I also think the idea that if a magical practice is old it automatically works well needs to be discarded once and for all. My electric refrigerator works a lot better than an icebox.
When Traditionalists and Reconstructions went to war over whether or not Ronald Hutton's ideas about the history of Neo-Paganism were correct my Revisionist response was pretty much a big yawn. Who cares? Seriously. Either the techniques work or they don't. Whether or not they're ancient or modern shouldn't make any difference, especially since the debate seemed to be between two sides that couldn't agree over what percentage of modern Pagan practices have ancient roots. The more important question is what percentage of modern Pagan techniques work and what percentage don't. If all the people kicking up a huge fuss about whether the correct percentage of ancient lore is 10% or 90% instead performed a series of experiments with various Pagan magical techniques and recorded their results something useful would be generated rather than an emotional but pointless debate.
Magick is a technology. That means if something works better it is better, plain and simple. Some of its effects can be subjective, but that only makes evaluation of those aspects difficult, not impossible. Psychologists research subjective mental phenomena all the time. And as far as practical techniques go, all you need to do is set up experiments to test the probability shifts those techniques produce. Ancient methods are still worth studying because the human mind has changed little over the last several millenia, but they should be researched, tested, and integrated into modern systems only if they are found to be effective. The "sifting" method that most proto-sciences use to accumulate knowledge can occasionally produce spectacular successes that the formal scientific method will miss, but at the same time it can produce some spectacular failures, superstitions that manage to live on as the tradition evolves despite their ineffectiveness.
What amazes me from following this whole debate is how ridiculous it is. If your spiritual system works for you and produces the results you want, why should you care if it's ancient or modern? If it doesn't work for you, why should you practice it? Thelema works for me and "The Book of the Law" was written in 1904. I've certainly never lost any sleep over its relatively recent origins. As a matter of fact, from the standpoint of study, being in possession of the original manuscript is quite useful, and if the book were thousands of years old it almost certainly would have been lost. Furthermore, Thelema's modern elements such as "the method of science, the aim of religion" are a big part of its appeal to me and had it originated even hundreds of years ago those elements would probably not be present.
UPDATE: The comment thread for this article has drifted over into discussing the issue of individuals in the Pagan community who do not practice magick but still want to be treated as authority figures. That conversation is continuing over at Rob's place.
