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Nick Farrell just published yet another long flame attack (yawn) on the Alpha et Omega, rife with the customary "ad hominum" attacks on GH Frater S.R. and myself. (The article just above Farrell's: "Limited Number of Golden Dawn Tarot Meditation Sets Available.")
What is most telling about this latest rant is how Mr. Farrell opens by trying to hawk his latest Golden Dawn rehash book by setting our order up as straw men in a transparently desperate sales gimmick.
Here we have the truth of the matter.
Farrell is fanning flame war merely to peddle his books and tarot trinkets!
Well, to this I say:
"AW COME ON, NICK. THE GOLDEN DAWN IS NOT A BAZAAR. WE AT THE ALPHA ET OMEGA COULD CARE LESS WHAT YOU WRITE OR WHAT TRINKETS YOU SELL. WHEN IT COMES TO THE ALPHA ET OMEGA, ALL YOU HAVE ANYWAY ARE LONG SINCE DISCARDED VERSIONS OF A.O. RITUALS AND DOCUMENTS, LONG AGO EITHER UPDATED OR SUPPLEMENTED WITH NEW MAGIC FROM THE SECRET CHIEFS...... SO PUBLISH AWAY TO YOUR HEART'S CONTENT. IT IS YOUR KARMA, NOT MINE.HOW ABOUT GIVING THE GOLDEN DAWN COMMUNITY A BREAK, THOUGH, AND FIND SOME OTHER WAY TO PEDDLE YOUR TRINKETS THAN TO SUBJECT AN ENTIRE ESOTERIC COMMUNITY TO YOUR TANTRUMS AND ANTICS. I WILL NOT COMMENT ON YOUR OFT-REPEATED MISREPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE LINEAGES OF THE ALPHA OMEGA, AS WE HAVE REFUTED SUCH NONSENSE FROM YOU OVER AND OVER ALREADY IN MANY PLACES. I WILL ONLY MENTION THAT THE REAWAKENING OF THE AHATHOOR TEMPLE IS A COMPLETELY UNRELATED MATTER, AND THAT THE ALPHA OMEGA'S STATEMENT ABOUT OUR GOLDEN DAWN LINEAGES HAS ALWAYS REMAINED CONSTANT, DESPITE YOUR ABSURD LIES TO THE CONTRARY.I KNOW YOU HOPED THAT YOUR "SECRET A.O." GOLDEN DAWN REHASH BOOKS WOULD BE DEVESTATING TO OUR ORDER. I AM SORRY TO DISAPPOINT YOU, NICK, THE BOOKS AND TRINKETS YOU SELL ARE COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT TO US. WE REVISED ALL A.O. RITUALS LONG AGO AND YOU HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE WHATSOEVER OF THE CONTENT OF OUR PRESENT RITUALS, SO PLEASE QUIT ACTING LIKE OSCAR THE GROUCH NOSING AROUND IN OTHER PEOPLE'S GARBAGE. IN REALITY, WE HERE AT THE ALPHA ET OMEGA ARE SWIMMING IN AN OCEAN OF NEW MAGIC RECENTLY RELEASED BY THE SECRET CHIEFS OF THE GOLDEN DAWN'S THIRD ORDER, SO WE COULD CARE LESS ABOUT WHATEVER OLD MUSTARD STAINED A.O. CAST OFFS YOU FIND IN THE TRASH. SO PLEASE, NICK - STOP TRYING TO PEDDLE YOUR BOOKS, SEMINAR CDS, AND TAROT MEDITATION SETS BY ACTING LIKE A SCHOOLYARD BULLY THROWING TEMPER TANTRUMS TO GET ATTENTION. I AM NOT SURE ABOUT IN YOUR MOAA, BUT WE HERE AT THE ALPHA ET OMEGA, HAVE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS TO DO WITH OUR TIME, LIKE PRACTICING NEW MAGICK. Finally, it is clear you have not learned from the lesson of Robert Zink. You obviously think the Golden Dawn community is your own private playground and you can go on attacking the Alpha Omega all you like without consequences. But there is one factor you have not properly considered...What to you think the Secret Chiefs must think about your constant attacks on the Alpha et Omega at a time when they have just given the Golden Dawn the greatest gift of new magick since the founding of the order?Whether you believe the Secret Chiefs are real or not does not matter one whit. The Secret Chiefs are physical. The Secret Chiefs have been working very hard of late to transmit all of the new magick right now to the Golden dawn community, while you are making a complete fool of yourself. So continue with your silly attacks on the Alpha Omega and the Secret Chiefs all you like. But just remember... Whether you believe in them or not, and even though they are remaining silent on the sidelines... The Secret Chiefs are observing everything...
"The Only Thing Sacred to a Farengi is Profit."
BY DAVID GRIFFIN
MASTERING THE ART OF RITUAL MAGICK - GREATER KEY - VOLUME 3
by Frater Barrabbas
Immanion Press / Megalithica Books, June 2010
It is finally in print, the long awaited third book in the trilogy, "Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick". While only a few know that this work was originally written in 1996 and called "Pyramid of Powers," a name that was changed along with a massive rewriting and editing project, it was a persistent and laborious act of will that finally saw this work fully printed. Although many hands had a role in helping to make this dream realized, it was also the ambitions of the author (myself) who continued to push for that realization.
There is some very important information found in this third volume of the MARM series, especially since it is the final part of a work that seeks to give the power of building a personal and unique ritual magickal system into the hands of the intermediate student. This work, in three parts, teaches the art of magickal system building, which is a very complex and difficult methodology to learn. It's easy and simple to just use the rituals that are found in books or grimoires, but this work shows how more rewarding and empowering it is to write your own personal magickal system. There will be other books produced using this perspective, but this, as far as I know, is the first of such. Let's take a brief look at what the third volume contains in regards to content, so you will know why I believe it to be the most important of the MARM trilogy.
Completing the work begun in "Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick: Foundation" and "Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick: Grimoire", this book contains the detailed instructions on how to build a key of correspondences and apply it to the nine rituals of this series. There is also information that will aid the seeker in forming a sustainable magickal working group as well as an in-depth analysis of the ritual structures of the nine rituals used in this system.
Written for the intermediate student and practitioner, this "Greater Key" is the third volume in the Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick trilogy. This book is the final step in commanding the occult arts of ritual magick, and is recommended to anyone seeking to master the art of building a complete magickal system.
In this book you will learn:
* Components of a key of correspondences
* How to configure your own key of correspondences
* Neopagan, Qabbalistic and Gnostic example keys included
* How to customize the nine rituals of the MARM series
* Methods of forming a Star group and building a group key
* Determining and avoiding group pitfalls and crisis's
* Instructions for joining the Order of the Gnostic Star
* Example of an actual New Moon working with journal entries
* Glossary of all terms used in the MARM series
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
FRATER BARRABBAS TIRESIUS is a practicing ritual magician who has studied magick and the occult for over thirty-five years. He has emphasized pragmatism and structuralism in a discipline that he believes has lost its direction and become diluted by mediocrity and misunderstanding. He believes that ritual magick is a discipline whose mystery is unlocked by continual practice and by occult experiences and revelations.
The book Disciple's Guide to Ritual Magick represents an entry level work written for the beginning student of ritual magick, but it's one work existing within an orbit of many completed and planned literary projects; each of which shall attempt to modernize the practice of ritual magick, making it relevant in the new millennium.
The three volume set, Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick was written for the intermediate student of ritual magick, assisting that seeker in crafting his/her own system of magick. The first volume contains all of the documentation that an intermediate practitioner should know, the second contains the grimoire of ritual templates, which the student must modify to build a personal magickal system, and the final book contains the key and methodologies used to modify and personalize the rituals contained in the grimoire.
Suggested ebooks:
Aleister Crowley - Pocket Guide To Thelema
Charles Webster Leadbeater - Occult Chemistry
This year Mabon, the Autumnal Equinox, occurs on Friday the 23rd, but like many Pagans I celebrate Mabon on a convenient day between the 20th-23rd. I will be doing most of my celebrations this evening by meditating, and doing divination.
Mabon is a celebration of the harvest and marks the changing of the seasons as the official start of Autumn. Here in Seattle we're enjoying our last days of warmth and sunshine before the inevitable beginning of the rainy season. Soon having warm, dry toes will be but memory. Even though it's still warm out, the shift towards Autumn is quite obvious if you look for the signs - trees are beginning to lose their leaves, the mornings are chill, and (most tellingly) it's dark when I leave for work.
For some Autumn is a time of sadness as children trudge back to school and we say farewell to the easy summer weather - not for me. I love Autumn. When I feel that cool, crisp wind coming down from the North I feel excited and invigorated. I love watching the sun rise in a clouded sky. I love hearing leaves crunch under my feet. I love the smell of mulling apples. I even love the first Autumn rains. But the most important things about the change from summer to fall, for me at least, is that it's the time when my magick comes alive. As a shadow worker most of what I do stays pretty dormant over the summer and it's not until we shift from the light half of the year to the dark that I feel compelled to do magick. I can feel the shift in the air. I can feel dark magicks waking up and tapping on my windows. I love it!
So yes, I celebrate the harvest on Mabon, but that's not all. For me Mabon is a celebration of re-awakening and growing power. It's the time when I get to go out and dance in friendly energies at midnight - my reward for waiting patiently and being good since the Spring. I'll spend tonight meditating on my plans for the next few months and doing divination to guide me along my path. I don't do any major rituals or spells on Mabon - those wait for Samhain. Instead I like to spend this holiday quietly, just enjoying the energy and letting my hair down. The time for my major works is coming all too soon, so I like to enjoy the last of my lazy days.
On Friday I'm taking the Spirits of Seattle ghost tour, so look for a report on that next Monday.
Suggested ebooks:
Howard Phillips Lovecraft - The Book
Meshafi Resh - The Black Book
Harold Macgrath - The Pagan Madonna
WOMEN VS. MEN
By: Michelle Hass (in conversation with Scott Szakonyi
"Ok folks, Loki and I have been chatting, and we're ready to raise a ruckus that might go on for months."
Chiniginish and I relish the challenge...with Coyote looking over Our shoulders and chuckling...
"Here's the question: Are women superior to men, and if so, why? I THINK that women are superior to men in the modern world because evolution is lagging society. Most of the evolution of the human race (about 60 million yrs) took place in hunter/gatherer tribes, where aggressive behavior on the part of the male hunters was a survival trait, and relating/caring behavior was a survival trait for females. Now, in the 20 thousand or so years since we have become agrarian, the need for male hunter aggressiveness has gone the way of the Dodo, while the need for relating/caring behavior has become primary. Where does this leave us?
"Well, as I see it, women are almost ideally suited to the overcrowded, communication intensive environment that we call modern society. Men, on the other hand, are like people with no arms playing handball. It's not that we're bad folk, it's just that we were designed by evolution for an environment that hasn't existed for 20 THOUSAND YEARS, which is a real drop in the bucket in terms of evolution. Evolution isn't going to be giving us any help for at least a few million years; maybe never since we are constantly screwing up the gene pool with our wars that leave the genetically defective to breed and send the genetically preferable off to evolutionary dead ends. So all we men can do is try to better ourselves and ask for patience on the part of women, who must feel like the entire male sex has completely missed the boat. "
Well, you've got a nice point, but it assumes something that I believe 'taint necessarily so. Is male aggressiveness part of nature or nurture? The jury seems to be coming back from a long period of deliberation, and it looks like the verdict is NURTURE.
This very nicely dovetails with my own theory of what thelemites refer to as the
"procession of the aeons". In Crowley's notorious Liber Al vel Legis, we are said to be passing from an aeon of belief in suffering male gods and patriarchy to an aeon of belief in the value of Self and of partnership between the sexes.
Crowley called the old aeon the "Aeon of Osiris" and the new the "Aeon of Horus, the Crowned and Conquering Child." The enthroned Child is not masculine or feminine, but androgynous/gynandrous. The aeon before the Osirian was that of Isis, an aeon of Great Mother Goddesses and matriarchy.
My chronology is a little different than that which Crowley attributed to these three epochs of human history so far. Crowley declared that the Aeon of Horus began with the Spring Equinox of 1904+ Common, just before the writing of the Book of the Law. I maintain that the change is still taking place, and had its roots in the 1700s+ Common. The writings of the philosopher Locke were some of the first to make a very important quantum jump, and provided ideological impetus for the vital changes that have and are taking place.
What Locke asserted was that government did not rest on Divine Right, but on the consent of the governed. Human beings were not born to different castes, some fated to serve while others were fated to rule by the grace of the gods. Human beings were born equal, and had certain rights as a birthright: Life, Liberty, the right to pursue Happiness, and the right to security of private property.
This assertion shows up in Liber Al as these statements:
"Every Man and Every Woman is a Star. "
"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law. "
"Love Is The Law, Love Under Will. "
"Thou hast no right but to do thy Will. "
In a little less arcane language, these statements run thusly:
Every Individual matters.
Every Individual has the right to live, be free and pursue Happiness (harmony with one's life's purpose, or True Will) as they Will.
These rights stop at the boundary of the Wills of others. Live your life as you see fit, but mind your own business and above all, HARM NOBODY. This includes yourself in a very conditional way. You *do* have the right to self destruction, but if you truly believe that you matter, why would you want to?
These assertions are usually encountered firstly in a Locke-inspired document that has passed into the history of this country, the Declaration of Independence. If there is any one document that is a trigger point for the New Aeon, it's that one. The American Revolution was the first time monarchy was cast aside in favor of democracy of a representative sort.
Democracy was tried before, but never quite this way. And despite several course corrections that needed to be made, (the abolishment of Slavery, the giving of Women, Blacks and Amerinds the right to vote) and some that still need to be made (the granting of total equality for all races and sexes, a shift to a more direct method of participation, i.e. Cyber-democracy) the democratic experiment in the United States is the most enduring of all.
Before the 1700s, government was imposed from above, not thought of as flowing from the consent of the governed. Individuals were not accorded rights as a birthright, but were granted rights by the king, usually on a class-by-class basis. Human beings were dealt with as masses and classes, on a Collective basis.
Coincidental with these developments was a surfacing of hermetic thought in a more widespread way then ever before in history. The Rosicrucian and Freemason movements brought hermeticism to a wide audience. Within the ranks of Freemasonry were both common and noble, and often commoners would be lodgemasters in lodges frequented by those of noble birth. Hermetic orders ennobled not by birth, but by level of knowledge and initiation and (hopefully)
by level of spiritual attainment.
Now, this was fine in theory, but unfortunately in practice things weren't so swift. It was only until the mid-1800s and groups like the original Golden Dawn that women had the possibility of initiation. Even now, in Masonic lodges that have lost their occult focus and are now little more than men's clubs, men are ritually strip-searched to assure the initiator that the candidate is indeed male and not a disguised female.
The baggage of the old days of sexism and classism remain in a lot of hermetic orders even today. Crowley himself had serious problems accepting women as equals: he had a rather low opinion of them and was quite cruel to them in numerous cases. But very explicit in the message of the New Aeon is that people are to be dealt with, not by sex or race or social strata but by their inborn, inalienable rights as individuals...as Stars, to use a thelemic term.
The Neo-pagan movement was a definite evolutionary step in defining a New Aeon mode of spirituality. Unlike the traditional hermetic order, Wicca and other forms of Neo-paganism do not have a multiplicity of ranks and a chain of command. Some have three degrees, some two, some only one, that of initiate.
Initiation is not a bestowal of rank, but more a purpose-oriented process. As magickal orders continue to evolve, they will either need to emulate more and more the informality and non-hierarchical non-structure of Neo-paganism or choke on their bloated hierarchies. It is funny when one considers that there is much evidence to suggest that Neo-paganism evolved from the Astrum Argentum and the OTO, and that much of Gardner's groundbreaking work in reconstructing the old pre-Osirian Druidic religion was helped along with the research help of Uncle Al himself.
Perhaps, as the knightly orders of the past were meant as guardians of the Christian Church, there will become a symbiotic connection between Neo-paganism and Magickal orders, especially among those whose non-structure mimics that of the coven. Arguably this symbiosis exists now, and hell, I'm living proof of this.
So what the deuce does this have to do with the sexes? You'll see as I wrap this up. Ok...remember I mentioned that before the Osirian epoch and the patriarchy, which seems to have come in with the rise of the big cities and the transformation from a hunter-gatherer society to an agrarian one (methinks you have placed the transformation a little too far into the past) there was the Isian epoch and the matriarchy? Well, before patriarchal philosophy displaced matriarchalism, women pretty much ran things. They didn't hunt because to place women, who were the living image of the Goddess and the ex-nihilo creatrixes of the next generation, in bodily jeopardy was literally blasphemy. Women were the intermediaries for men to the Goddess, who was unapproachable otherwise. The men had their hunting cults, but they were as insignificant in reality as the Victorian-era anthropologists misread the ancient religion of the Goddess as merely an inferior "fertility cult."
When the transition came to the cities and to patriarchy sometime around 10,000- to 7,500- Common, the long-suppressed males took by force what the Goddesses of the Isian era denied them by their divine decree...power. Male warrior deities replaced female mother deities. The priestesses of the old religions were destroyed. (The Book of Joshua in the Old Testament is a vivid account of one triumph of Osiris over Isis.) And the new order began. But the old matriarchal religions survived for several thousands of years after the turn of the aeon, and it is painfully obvious that the old patriarchal ways will haunt us for thousands of years into the future, even as new ways take hold and new philosophies become more accepted. But it really is nurture rather than nature that makes men aggressive and women passive. Men can learn to be nurturing and loving, and women can learn to be assertive and empowered. In order that we can truly enter this new aeon where all are leaders and all are Stars, we each have to cultivate the "other side" of our Selves. No, women are not superior to men, nor is it the other way around. Every Individual matters. Everyone has the potential to be a King, in the thelemic sense of the word. We need to learn to treat all with dignity, be they material successes or abject material failures.
We need to treat even those still enslaved by the old with as
much dignity as those who have declared their secession from them and their embracing of the New Law.
The evolution is really and truly in our own hands.
Beauty and balance, Will and Love,
Michelle.
The coven that I've been working with in Denver begins its cup blessing by a dialogue between the Priest and the Priestess. Both have a hand each on the athame and the chalice:
Priest: "Be it known that a man is not greater than a woman.
Priestess: "Nor yet is a woman greater than a man"
Priest: "For what one lacks"
Priestess: "The other can provide"
Priest: "As the Athame is to the male"
Priestess: So is the cup to the female.
Both: And when conjoined together, they become one in truth, for there is no greater magick in all the world than that of love.
BB Rowan
Suggested ebooks:
Howard Phillips Lovecraft - The Green Meadow
Michael Sharp - The Great Awakening
