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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"
"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law "
On this website I start and end all the posts with the law of Thelema. At the beginning I post 'do what thou wilt...' and at the end 'love is the law...'.But for casual correspondence, as well as for the comments fields i use the number 93. I have been asked twice in the last few weeks so Perhaps i should explain why 93 is used amongst thelemites as an informal greeting (if you haven't already googled it). The number 93 is often used as a short form of the law of thelema which is a standard greeting amongst Thelemites. This is 'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law'. 93 is the number value of the word thelema meaning will. The standard ending is 'Love is the law, love under will. Here there are two words with the enumeration of 93, thelema (will) and agape (love) therefore 93/93. 93 is also sometimes used as a verbal greeting. Thelema is often referred to as the 93 current as Aiwass, Crowleys higher guardian angel's name also enumerates to 93. It becomes a bit of a cultural thing though for lodge, ritual and formal stuff the longform is used. It also allows the sneaking of such a greeting into less esoteric correspondence and opens the question of 'what's the 93 for?' I can then explain if people are interested without cramming the law in word down their throats.So in case you've been one of those wondering, thats why!
"Love is the law, love under will"
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!
A lot of people have some strange ideas about magick. One of the most common ideas is that magick is a way of getting what you want. In a way that's true; casting a spell is an act of determining a goal, focusing your intent, and then throwing that intent out into the world to manifest itself. Yes, you can use magick to help you get what you want, but in my experience "want" is only half the picture.
My path is a rough one and my Goddess is harsh - she frowns on wasting magick on the superfluous. Does that mean I don't do magick to help me find a parking spot downtown? Hell no. I do plenty of frivolous magick, but I'm not going to bother my Goddess with it. When I do little spells to make my life easier I use my personal energy and the energy of the world around me. Sometimes these spells work and sometimes they don't; it depends on what other energies my will has to overcome, how focused my energies were, etc. When I want something but don't really need it I'm on my own for making it happen.
When I really need something - that's a different story entirely. When I have a genuine need I can ask my Goddess to give me a boost that almost always guarantees success. The tricky part is knowing what you really need in order to ask for it. For example, I was unemployed for over a year when I got out of law school and I desperately needed a job. Unfortunately, I graduated a year into the recession and jobs were thin on the ground for even the best students (which I was not). If ever there was a time that I needed every iota of energy on my side at was during that job hunt, so I did several spells to help me find employment. At first I did spells to help me find "the perfect job," the job that would pay my bills, make me feel good about myself, have a positive work environment, and have room to grow. This was what I wanted, but who actually manages to find a job like that right out of school with no experience. Unsurprisingly, those first spells didn't work too well. Then I started doing spells to help me find a "decent" associate position that would pay my bills and at least offer some challenges day to day. If those jobs were out these, they didn't find me. Finally, I just did a spell to find any job that would keep me from defaulting on my student loans and credit card bills, whether it was an attorney job or not. I got a job within a week. What I "needed" was to learn to swallow my pride and take what was actually available. Magick done to fill a need is the most potent magick anyone can do.
How do you know what you really need? The best way I've ever found to identify what you really need is the mediator's trick of asking why. Think of something you want, now ask yourself why you want it, then ask yourself why you want that reason, do this over and over until you finally find the real reason for your desire - that's the need, and if it's not a need then you probably shouldn't be doing magick for it. For example, I want an iPhone, why? - they're cool, why do I want something cool? - it's fun and would make me feel less behind the times, why is that important? - it gives me self-esteem, why do I want that? - self-esteem feels good, so what I want is to feel good. Do I "need" an iPhone to feel good, no - so no iPhone spell. However, I can do a spell to help me to know what I need to do so that I can feel proud of myself and have better self-esteem and then do it. Could that kind of spell lead to an iPhone, possibly, but it will likely lead to something much better than a nifty toy that will be obsolete in a year.
Doing magick for what you need, rather than just to do or get the things that you think might fill your needs is both more effective and can open you to possibilities that you'd never thought of. There is one caveat to doing this sort of magick: occasionally, what you really need is a swift kick in the ass. Is it what you want? No. Will you probably be better off for it? Yes. Be open to what you really need and your magick will help you more than you can imagine, just accept that what you need isn't always what you want.
Suggested ebooks:
Justin Winsor - The Literature Of Witchcraft In New England
Michael Sharp - The Great Awakening
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.
TEMPLE OF THELEMA
HISTORY LECTION
TO THE ERUDITE OF THELEMA:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Our Order first announced itself to the public with a
Manifesto published in 1604, and widely distributed throughout
Europe beginning in 1612. Its impact on the cultural evolution of
the Renaissance was inestimable, despite the fact that it operated
almost entirely in secret. Countless volumes, often speculative
and fanciful, have been written on its subsequent history. In
1887, it authorized the establishment of a visible Outer Vehicle
called the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
When the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn ruptured in schism
in 1900, conventional wisdom said that it was a failure; yet no one familiar with Western Hermetic Magick in this century can question
the major positive influence it continues to have even today.
On the 300th anniversary of the publishing of our first
Manifesto, a representative of the governing Third Order, named A.,
contacted a brother, P., and ordered him to assume governance of
the Order and to reformulate it along certain lines. A new
Manifesto was dictated, called the Book of the Law. This is the
true Book T which, as our predecessors wrote, is found at the Heart of the Master. It was dictated in 1904, and widely distributed
throughout Europe and the world beginning in 1912.
Together with another brother, D.D.S., P. reformulated the
Order as instructed. In doing this, they dispensed with an Outer
Order altogether, and opened immediately, to all who were prepared
by life, the Work of the Inner. (For example, the old sub-grades
of Zelator Adeptus Minor through Adeptus Adeptus Minor were now
called simply Neophyte through Adeptus Minor.) They identified
themselves by the initials A.'. A.'.
For their work we are grateful, for we are among their direct
successors and were brought to Light by their Wisdom.
Yet, while superior to all that had gone before, their work
failed in one respect: There remain aspirants, capable of success,
who require a more graduated approach to the Inner Veil; and our
Greatly Honored Fraters provided no clear approachway for such
students.
Only a few years later, another Frater P. resigned from the
American remnant of the old Golden Dawn order, as an act of
conscience. He, too, was then contacted by an agent of the Third
Order, named R. This Master completed P.'s initiation, and set him
the task of preparing a new Outer Vehicle by which the greatest
number of aspirants could undertake the task of self-regeneration
and be prepared for the Inner Work. In this, P. succeeded
admirably, accomplishing for the Outer Order, by his perseverance,
what the other P. accomplished for the Inner Order by his
endurance.
For this we are grateful, for we are among the direct
successors of this P. as well, and have seen the fruits of Beauty
harvested by the gardeners trained in his school.
Yet, while the instruction of the Master R. gleams with
Wisdom, his words soar with the same philosophy that is found in
the Book of the Law, and he refers regularly to the dawning of a
New Age of Regeneration and Healing for all humanity, this Outer
School did not align itself openly with the new Thelemic
Dispensation. It taught of Light, Life, and Love; but rarely
carried the additional torch of Liberty.
In our own time, we were among those to reap the rewards, and
therefore inherit the trust, of the A.'. A.'., and to find the path lighted by the Book of the Law. With this trust came the
responsibility to make clear the Path for those who come behind us.
Yet so many of those who approached were ill-prepared to begin the
journey. Our Soror M., through her College of Thelema, provided a
preparation for many; but even this appealed only to a specific
type of character.
The Outer Orders already existing and known to us did not
fulfill the genuine needs with which we were faced. Those which
both initiated and taught were not Thelemic; while those which were Thelemic would not teach.
The Next Step, therefore, was clear. It was necessary to
establish a new Outer Order, on the pattern of the Tree of Life,
whose methods include ceremonial initiation, structured education,
and on-going group participation; whose members as a condition of
membership, are prepared to put the Great Work foremost in their
lives; and which bases all of its practices and principles on Liber AL vel Legis, The Book of the Law.
This task has been accomplished. The Order's name is the
TEMPLE OF THELEMA. Its chief Work is the preparation of the
individual for INITIATION; yet it seeks only those who truly desire to grow in love, power, and wisdom and to serve humanity in
conformity with the Book of the Law.
By this letter, we invite all to search themselves sincerely
and decide if they are of us.
Application for an interview, or specific questions, should be
addressed to the Temple Cancellarius at:
Harpocrates Temple
TEMPLE OF THELEMA
222 North Manhattan Place
Los Angeles, CA 90004
"This shall regenerate the world, my little
sister, my heart & my tongue, unto whom I send
this kiss."
Love is the law, love under will.
Sub Umbra Alarum Tuarum.
Suggested ebooks:
Aleister Crowley - Liber 161 Concerning The Law Of Thelema
Anonymous - The Prayers Of The Elementals
Aleister Crowley - Pocket Guide To Thelema
Over the last couple of days, Morgan Drake Eckstein has written a couple of thoughtful articles about the present state of the Golden Dawn community, with one drawing parallels with the broader Pagan community and even with the American political scene. You can find this article here. There are several things in these articles, however, that Morgan appears to have misunderstood, or perhaps is pretending not to understand. In the following open letter, I address these issues:
Care Frater Morgan,
Congratulations on a humorous and insightful article, which I by and large enjoyed. You have eloquently delineated several of the challenges presently facing our common Golden Dawn community. For example, you wrote:"WHAT ONE DOES NOT NEED TO IMAGINE IS THE LACK OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE TWO SCHOOLS."I THINK YOU HAVE HIT AN ESSENTIAL NAIL ON THE HEAD HERE. I APPLAUD YOU FOR ENCOURAGING GREATER DIRECT, FRATERNAL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN TRADITIONALIST AND RECONSTRUCTIONIST GOLDEN DAWN ORDERS. CERTAINLY THE FRATRES ET SORORES IN THE HOGD/AO ARE OPEN TO THIS. EVERYONE from the Golden Dawn community is welcome to post on the HOGD/AO Yahoo forum for example, here.
Sadly, most of the leaders of the Golden Dawn reconstructionist camp, on the other hand, stubbornly refuse any direct, fraternal dialogue. Despite the HOGD/AO trying to promote harmony in the GD community for years, they refuse any and all direct, fraternal dialogue. On the one hand, they refuse to post on our forum. On the other hand, they also refuse to allow anyone from our order to post any reply directly on their forum either. It is this intransigent stubbornness from the reconstructionist camp that unnecessarily perpetuates tension in our Golden Dawn community, with the respective camps reduced to talking past one another from their respective soapboxes across the internet.
Next you wrote:The primary issue is whether or not to accept the existence of an European Third Order acceptance of such implies that you are willing to follow their public Head and spokesperson, are willing to increase your level of secrecy to the point where all published material are no longer considered valid (including the Mathers material) and all the rituals and lessons have been rewritten to re-install absolute secrecy, and are willing to be expelled if one of your fellow lodge members breaks their secrecy oath. Acceptance also implies that all modern developments of the Golden Dawn system (aka any that developed after the Cipher Manuscript) will someday be abandoned.Here I can not at all agree with you. No one has ever said that all modern developments need to be abandoned. No one has said that anyone needs to follow anyone else either. Have you really so completely misunderstood, or are you simply making this up and falsely attributing it to Golden Dawn traditionalists?
In reality, the HOGD/AO has said over and over for years that there is plenty of room for diversity in the Golden Dawn community. This is what makes the GD community grow and thrive.
Diversity is a good thing. Our order, at least, is willing to live and let live. It is the GD reconstructionist camp that constantly has been attacking the traditionalist Golden Dawn orders, and certainly not the other way around. we at the HOGD/AO fully embrace diversity in the Golden Dawn community, even if we do not always agree with you and others on everything.
Again, I find your honesty and insight demonstrated about direct communication in our community to be highly commendable. Sadly, however, it appears that you are not always willing to fully embody such a lofty and admirable level of integrity, as in when you wrote today:
"As far as I have been able to determine from the outcries of the internet police is that if someone does not agree absolutely with your opinion, your lesson plan, your Grade system, and your version of Golden Dawn history, then it is flame war."Aw come on, Morgan. Please quit pretending to be stupid as it is obvious that you are not. You know full well the difference between flame war and honest, fraternal discussion and debate. You also know full well that the HOGD/AO encourages and fosters fraternal discussion and debate, and does not pretend to be any sort of internet police.
It is also true, however, that after nearly two decades of recurrent and repeated attacks on our order not only on the internet but even in court as well, that I personally have precious little tolerance left for such destructive behavior in our community.
"So what is flame war?", you ask. Do I really need to spell it out to you even yet once again? Well, OK, let's give you the benefit of every doubt.
Fraternal discussion becomes flame war, in my opinion, when fraternal discussion is hijacked by cheap rhetorical tactics. These include but are not limited to the use of "talking points", repeated over and over, propaganda style. You can tell that a discussion has degenerated into flame war, when the person you are engaging ignores every counter argument, and merely repeats their talking points over and over. Do you really need concrete examples of this? OK, go over to Pat Zalewksi's Yahoo forum and search for the search terms "secret chiefs, SC, third order," or "Desmond Bourke."
What do you find with such a simple search? - Hundreds upon hundreds of attack posts repeating the same "talking points" over and over like a broken record. Our order's leaders and members have wasted literally thousands of hours rebutting the "talking points" that have been written over and over on these subjects on that forum, propaganda style for well over a decade.
And guess what?
Every single rebuttal, every single refutation, has simply been ignored.
And guess what else?
The same talking points have simply been repeated over and over, propaganda style for over a decade.
Enough is enough already.
Sincerely,
David Griffin
Letters recently leaked from the Vatican suggest that a power struggle may be going among the various members of the College of Cardinals. The Roman Catholic Church has not disputed the contents of the letters, but claims that the media has vastly overstated their importance. The College of Cardinals is a secretive organization, and it may very well be that this sort of thing goes on all the time but is not usually reported to the public. Nonetheless, the documents contain some allegations that sound more serious than general, day-to-day operations.
The first missives to be published date from last spring. In them, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigan`o, at the time the deputy governor of Vatican City, fretted that he would be ousted after making enemies in his effort to combat overspending and cronyism in the awarding of contracts. He pleaded with his boss, the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and the pope to let him stay on. Instead, Archbishop Vigan`o was named the papal nuncio, or ambassador, to the United States.
Letters and documents by other Vatican officials followed, including some that suggested that the Vatican was not adequately complying with international legislation to prevent money laundering.
One anonymous document published in a national newspaper last week cited reports that a Sicilian cardinal had spoken vaguely about a plot to kill Pope Benedict XVI before the end of 2012.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, called the reports "delirious and incomprehensible."
One of the biggest problems with religious and spiritual groups, especially large ones, is that whenever a group of people get together you get politics. And politics are bad for spiritual realization. They detract from the group's true purpose and cultivate animosities that can lead to infighting. Aleister Crowley may gone a little too far in putting together his guidelines for A.'.A.'. when he stipulated that each initiate could only know one other person in the order, but there's certainly some merit to the general idea. As Crowley commented in "Magick Without Tears", "I am afraid you have still got the idea that the Great Work is a tea-party. Contact with other students only means that you criticize their hats, and then their morals; and I am not going to encourage this. Your work is not anybody else's; and undirected chatter is the worst poisonous element in human society."
Wise words, those.
Suggested ebooks:
Kenneth Grant - Aleister Crowley And The Hidden God
John Moore - Aleister Crowley A Modern Master Extract
I have started the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal and will post articles at strategic points in the process to share with you how this ordeal is shaping up. One can spout platitudes and make theories about magick, but the real proof is in the performance of actual ordeals and experiments.
Since I have proposed an alternative path to the traditional Abramelin ordeal, joining it with the invocation of the Bornless One, it is important for me to actually test my hypothesis and to note the results for others to examine and ponder. What I have learned through my many years of practical experience is that one's intention has a powerful shaping influence on what one experiences in the practice of ritual magick. What this means is that even a highly flawed ritual performed by a mere novice can be as effective as that performed by an experienced magician if that novice has the right amount of passion, zeal and an empowered and indomitable intention.
However, the difference between a novice and an experienced magician is that the experienced magician can repeat the phenomena produced and even share the rituals and ceremonies that he or she used with others for their examination and experimentation. A novice is effective often as a matter of luck or the right combination of effects, and generally not because of their experience and knowledge. This means that a novice may produce effective results or not, but only somewhat slightly better than chance.
On November 16, at exactly 1:14 pm CST, I began the Abramelin Lunar ordeal with an extensive meditation session and later followed up that evening with a Mass of the Goddess. What I experienced was a potent affirmation that the path and action that I have chosen is the right one for me at this time. I sensed that I had engaged with a powerful spiritual presence, undoubtedly that it was my personal aspect of the Goddess blanketing me with good will, anticipation and joy at the beginning of what will prove to be a very challenging seven weeks of constant meditation, contemplation and invocative ritual magick. So my personal aspect of the Deity is in a positive accord with what I am spiritually and magickally planning to do. That's a good sign, but there have been other signs that I have experienced that would also indicate that fate is positively disposed towards me.
The previous weekend (Nov. 7), I invoked the archangel Ratziel (God's Mystery) using the new methodology that I had assembled recently. Ratziel is a spirit that I have invoked a number of times previously, since I have determined that he is the core of what I have discovered over the years as a very different Enochian system of magick, incorporating the Nephilim as contra-archangelic entities as well as other variations. I intend to write extensively on this different approach to Enochian magick in the future, but for now, let's just say that I am quite familiar with Ratziel.
Anyway, this entity, when invoked, had a profound effect on me and imparted some very fascinating information. The effect was one of acknowledgment, which empowered my intention and gave me a profound resolution that my desire to perform the upcoming ordeal is the correct thing to do. I had to recreate the sigil for Ratziel, having misplaced the one that I made for previous invocations, and the archangel told me that the new sigil was my passport and key for invoking the more potent and mysterious Seraphim and Cherubim, who I intend to invoke in the next four weekends. By the middle of December, I will have invoked all eight of these majestic spirits, and my intention for doing so has been strengthened by the favor and good will of Ratziel. I still need to carefully build up my intention before attempting these invocations, but now I feel more resolved and compelled to do so, and less cautious and worried about the outcome. Invoking these super-archangels is no small matter and approaching them with frivolous requests or unethical desires would be most disastrous for any magician.
Ratziel also imparted to me that he had a hand in influencing and inspiring me to formulate this ordeal, even though the credit for doing so is still completely my own. So what this means is that a bit of angelic providence has inspired and guided me to formulate this working. I must admit that I am greatly intrigued, and it would seem that the spiritual hierarchy is in agreement with what I am about to do. That being said, I must still be disciplined and diligent in all of my efforts in order for this ordeal to be successfully concluded. I will refrain from eating red meat, will eat sparingly and adopt a vegetarian diet for the weekend workings. I am also meditating twice daily - once at waking, and again before bed. The weekends will require some vigils and a steadfast focusing on just the magick at hand, to avoid any distractions. I must, therefore, complete all of my work before the end of the week so as to make myself ready for the major workings on the weekend.
So all is in readiness for the first set of invocations this weekend, when I will invoke the Seraphim and Cherubim of Earth, whose names are Zahariel and Yofiel, respectively. I will write up a report summarizing those encounters, and we shall see how all that plays out. Right now, I feel very confident about the outcome, since all the signs point to a powerful affirmation of the rightness of this working and its successful outcome.
Frater Barrabbas
Suggested ebooks:
Aninymous - The Angelical Alphabet
Sepharial - The Arcana Or Stock And Share Key
Edward Kelley - The Angelic Alphabet
