Paul Foster Case, the Alpha et Omega and Golden Dawn group ritual

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There have recently surfaced some quite interesting facts which pertain to the Builders of the Adytum, abbreviated as B.O.T.A., created by Paul Foster Case in 1923. These have been presented by Tony DeLuce, which according to himself is the current Preceptor for the Western U.S., Australia, and Japan of the Fraternitas L.V.X. Occulta (Fraternity of the Hidden Light), a spin-off of B.O.T.A. created in 1982 by Paul Clark. The F.L.O. claims initiatory lineage to the B.O.T.A. and to Paul Foster Case, and through the latter to the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega.

I was involved in an exchange of forum posts with Tony DeLuce between 28^th to 30^th of June, 2008, from which I have drawn the greater bulk of the quotations. I have presented this correspondence here on the Gyllene Gryningen blog before (on July 16^th, 2008) but have been compelled to make several amendments having been looking through it again, finding that I have presented the information in a somewhat unjustifiable harsh format when it comes to my interpretation of Tony’s motives. I therefore now present this information in this “upgraded” and cleaned up format, more befitted a fellow seeker of the mysteries. According to Tony he has:

…been Initiated into various Esoteric Orders over the last 25 years or so and currently supervise four operating Lodges that are of direct lineal descent from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn through the Alpha et Omega. It is also very rare (perhaps even uniquely so) but not only has there been no break in Initiatic link but, in addition, there has been no break in active Ritual from the Alpha et Omega to the present. The momentum that began 120 years ago in the form of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn has had no break or interruption in Lineage and Ritual for 120 years. Of course, the lineage and weakly so the Ritual can be traced much further back than this.

So looking at this statement it is clear that B.O.T.A. and its spin-offs, such as the F.L.O., regard the lineage of Paul Foster Case to be a direct continuation of and unbroken link back to the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega and thus to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Recently there has again been suggested that the B.O.T.A. perhaps is the most valid or only successor with the most solid lineage back to the Alpha et Omega. This is quite a bold statement being made both in the past and present, and the purpose of this essay is to hopefully clear this matter up.

First of all I personally do respect the experience contained both in the B.O.T.A. and the F.L.O., and I furthermore do acknowledge and even commend all the benefits of a continual and uninterrupted Temple work, stemming from the A∴O∴ and going through the B.O.T.A. into the F.L.O. This doesn’t however mean that this has been reserved uniquely through the B.O.T.A.

But perhaps the B.O.T.A. and F.L.O. in fact are one of the very few organizations in the U.S. that have preserved the active ritual Temple work of the Alpha et Omega, and thus have had most experience with the initiatory process and how it was supposed to be conducted since the start of the original Golden Dawn activities in England 1888? But in Europe (or rather England) the situation has not been the same as in the U.S. The A∴O∴ has existed since its inception continually but under different names and forms. This continuation was transferred to Paris, France, in 1992 and further transferred to Sweden in 1997.

Besides this there are more key players in the U.S. which hold at least an equal lineage to the B.O.T.A. and Paul Foster Case through his successor Ann Davies. I am referring to Robert Word who leads his own Order called August Order of the Mystic Rose, abbreviated as A.O.M.R., which draws heavily from both the original Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega and the B.O.T.A. in its teachings and formulae of initiation. Just recently Robert Word was interviewed by Julia Sherred on Blogtalk Radio, and according to her “in 1973 he received direct transmission and experience of higher states of consciousness from Ann Davies, the successor of Paul Foster Case, through the process of impactation”.

Furthermore, Robert Word and the A.O.M.R. has mutual fraternal and initiatic recognitions with the current revival of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega as represented by Jean-Pascal Ruggiu and David Griffin, the Order which I represent in Sweden and Scandinavia. So as can be seen this lineage and current of Paul Foster Case has found its expression since the creation of the B.O.T.A., not only through the F.L.O. but through other formats as well. Thus there are Adepts coming from the fold of Paul Foster Case and Ann Davies which continues the work to this day in different forms.

Personally I think it’s great that the F.L.O. exists as a live vehicle (as opposed to the current dead and mummified state of the B.O.T.A.) for the Paul Foster Case lineage and tradition. P.F. Case is a man and teacher that I really respect and view as the greatest American occultist of all times. I have myself gone through most of the Associate Builders program and it was really rewarding and prepared me a lot for the initiatory process of the Golden Dawn. But Tony DeLuce himself he:

…wouldn't call B.O.T.A. dead – I would suggest that they instead represent an ARC of exactly how Paul Foster Case left his rendition of the G.D. in 1954 (Ann Davies did not touch the Chapter system). They also do a great job sending out the lessons like clockwork and by doing this have touched the lives of tens of thousands of Initiates like you and me.

I do concur with Tony’s last sentence. But the claimed lineage of S.L. MacGregor Mather’s Alpha et Omega, through Paul Foster Case and the B.O.T.A., must be problemized somewhat. First of all the fact is that Paul Foster Case was expelled from the Alpha et Omega, which by the way also seems to be the case with Paul Clark in relation to the B.O.T.A. as he was forced to leave that organization little more than one year after being advanced to the B.O.T.A. Adeptus Minor 5°=6° Grade. So formally no lineage may be transferred though an expulsion looking from the standpoint of validity, at least according to tradition.

Hence the Alpha et Omega never recognized the validity of the B.O.T.A., in the same manner as the B.O.T.A. doesn’t recognize the F.L.O. as the successor of the Paul Foster Case lineage. But we must of course consider the fact that there actually exists an unbroken initiatic lineage from the Alpha et Omega through the medium of Paul Foster Case, which has been passed on the level of 5°=6°. But formally this doesn’t suffice and officially is regarded to be irregular. But there is of course a real magical transference in any initiation, regardless of the formal regularity.

The same must of course also be said of the so called Israel Regardie initiatic lineage; although Regardie left the Stella Matutina by his own consent he was never granted any charter or privilege to confer any Grades of the Golden Dawn, let alone the 5°=6°, which he also admits in his letters. Tony DeLuce furthermore has this to say regarding the Regardie lineage:

Cris Monnastre [i.e. the pupil of Israel Regardie – S.R.] is a very intelligent fine practitioner of the G.D. system and I am sure Regardie trained her to the very best he was capable. For Second Order Practices like the applications of the Middle Pillar Exercise, etc. I am sure he did a wonderful job passing this on to her and probably understood some such things better than anyone else ever did.

But Regardie having been to his Temple only for his own Initiations and Elemental Advancements makes him a less than perfect person for the training of the actual Group Ritual. […] It is simply impossible for Regardie to have picked up the complexities of the G.D. Group Ritual by only showing up a few times and dropping out of the training after only a year or so and reading documents.

In my opinion Regardie, who were a close friend of Paul Foster Case’s, was probably one of the greatest ceremonial magicians in our times and knew well how to unlock the Theurgical system of the R.R. et A.C. (Golden Dawn’s Inner Order) like no contemporary. His personal experience was passed on to his only personal student and disciple Cris Monnastre, which passed whatever she knew about this to David Griffin under her private tuition. It has been a real privilege to be able to learn this formulae of magic myself in the Temple that initiated me and through the personal supervision of Mr. Griffin.

What many seem to forget in discussions on the Golden Dawn as of lately is that the real beauty of the G∴D∴ tradition is its Theurgical system of Magic. The rites of passage, the Rosicrucian initiatory system of the Tree of Life, is the basis which holds the initiate within the framework of progression, but it is the personal work and understanding of Theurgy that brings the initiate through this framework along the path. Without the personal work it’s like creating a passive system of vessels or Sephiroth, void of power or active current. These two aspects of the process are essential for all true initiation. Thus there has always been a emphasis on the personal magical work or Theurgy in my Order in contrast to group ritual.

And undoubtly Regardie has evolved the Theurgical system of the Golden Dawn into further heights. But many people don’t know that Regardie actually was the Sub-Cancellarius of the Hermes temple (which initiated him) and was closely associated with its Chiefs. To claim that he did nothing but attend his own initiations is misinformative to say the very least.

But this has not so much to do with Israel Regardie as it has to do with Paul Foster Case. Hence when Tony implies that there has existed an unbroken line of “oral instruction” concerning group ritual work stemming from the Alpha et Omega, transmitted through Paul Foster Case and further to Paul Clark and the F.L.O., it is easy to construe the idea of the Fraternitas Lux Occulta (the group that Tony represents as one of its Chiefs) as the only true inheritor of the Alpha et Omega’s secret esoteric transmissions.

This assumption of mine is corroborated by one of Tony’s latest statement from November 14^th, 2009, namely:

Personally I believe there is a whole lot more that is required than being Initiated by someone who was initiated by someone, etc. to Mathers and Westcott, i.e. there is a substantial amount of training that would be, in my opinion, almost impossible to ever pick up from books or on one’s own in order to effectively perform the Golden Dawn Group Rituals.

So according to Tony DeLuce, contrary to the Israel Regardie lineage, the Paul Foster Case lineage actually carries such an oral tradition on Golden Dawn group ritual. But in this instance we mustn’t forget that:

1. Paul Foster Case was only a relatively brief member of the A∴O∴ and even more so of the R.R. et A.C. (likewise with Regardie and the S.M., and Paul Clark and the B.O.T.A.). Case entered the Outer Order in 1918 and the second in June 1920. He resigned (or was expelled) in February 1922. So he was in the Inner Order for about 1.5 years. Perhaps longer than Regardie, but comparatively not long by any standards.
2. Case knew Michael Whitty in 1918 and developed a close friendship with him. They even wrote some books together (notably The Kybalion and The Book of Tokens). But Whitty, as Chief of the Thoth-Hermes Temple and Chief-Adept of the A∴O∴ in America, couldn’t have taught anything about the inner teachings of group ritual prior to Case taking the 5°=6°. Besides this, Whitty died in December 1920. So they only knew each other for two years and only were Fratres R.R. et A.C. together for about 6 months.
3. Case openly admits (and is proud about the fact) that he never sat as Hierophant at Thoth-Hermes. He never did any Enochian work while in the R.R. et A.C. Basically, he never initiated anyone into the Outer Order Grades from the position of the initiator. How could he then have had a deeper understanding of the Outer Order Grade Rituals and its currents, not ever performing either as Hierophant nor doing any Enochian Work? The Enochian Tablets are the prime motivators in the Elemental Grades, and are closely connected to the Officers (and godforms) on the Dais. They (the Dais Officers) are the main factors in controlling the currents of each Grade Ceremony and affecting the Sphere of Sensation of the Candidate. Case was void of any personal experience and probably also understanding of this, and thus void of oral instruction regarding “group ritual” passed over to the B.O.T.A. Taking away the Elemental Enochian currents from the Grade Rituals is the equivalent of removing the primum mobile from the Tree of Life, i.e. the Crown. Anyone having had any experience of G∴D∴ “group ritual” knows this.
4. Case never took his examinations to become a Z.A.M. He didn’t even consecrate any Elemental weapons. Surely he couldn’t have been as great ceremonial magician and being able to understand the intricacies of the Theurgical system of the R.R. et A.C. as did Regardie.
5. Case was only an acting Chief-Adept of the R.R. et A.C. for about 6 months. Did he ever initiate anyone into the 5°=6°? There are indications that he may have officiated in the Corpus Cristi ritual in 1921 but he surely couldn’t have officiated as Chief-Adept as he claims he never performed any Enochian Ritual in his life, ever. The Consecration Ceremony of the Vault of the Adepti namely involves the invocation of the Enochian Watchtowers and is regularly to be performed at Corpus Christi.

So the question basically boils down into this: How could Paul Foster Case have had any time to learn all the intricacies and secret teachings of group ritual work in about 1.5 years? Or rather, how much could Whitty have learnt Case about this in a less then half of a year? If there even were any teachings about the Grades beyond the 0=0 (the Ritual Z-papers) and 1=10 in the first place.

We all know that the secret teachings about Grade Rituals weren’t passed to anyone prior to the 5°=6°, and the Z-1 and Z-3 (the Neophyte Ritual) at the level of Neophyte Adeptus Minor. Thus he could only have had access to the commentaries on the Neophyte 0°=0° Grade. How could Paul Foster Case have had any profound knowledge of the inner workings of the Grade Rituals castrating them as he did when he removed the Enochian Elements from them?

And now just recently, between November 17^th to 19^th, Tony DeLuce has finally made some very interesting and enlightening remarks about the Golden Dawn tradition of the B.O.T.A. which corraborates my conclusions. He says thus:

B.O.T.A. Chapter is basically Mather’s A.O. Rituals for 0=0 to 4=7 (pretty much word for word with 2=9 deviating the most) with the Officer names changed along and a few small additions. Portal and 5=6 are very close to the S.M. Rituals. PFC substituted his own set of Tablets constructed from Crowley’s 777 that do not use the Enochian Language.

[As an example] the B.O.T.A. [Earth] Tablet looked exactly like the drawing in Folio 13 [from the Cypher Mss.] complete with Sepherotic crosses, etc, and was constructed from Intelligences that were all associated with ‘Earth’

Paul Case did add some really interesting papers to some of the grades but I would estimate well over 95% is identical to the Golden Dawn. The “extra Tarot” can be found in the correspondence lessons not PFC’s Golden Dawn System.

I believe it is safe to state that B.O.T.A. Chapter Ritual operates much like Golden Dawn Ritual before the R.R. et A.C. was brought in, i.e. much closer to Masonry than what became of the Golden Dawn after the Second Order was established.

Paul Case did not use God-forms but associated each Officer with a Sephira. There were no Invisible Stations, etc. or aspects of the Z document utilized.

B.O.T.A. is the only living representative of the A.O. Lineage though only up through the First Order curriculum and 5=6 Initiation (there is no Second Order curriculum in the B.O.T.A.).

Thus based upon this information from a initiated source of the Paul Foster Case tradition and lineage we must conclude that Case didn’t teach the mechanics of ritual as described in the “Ritual Z”. How can this then constitute any traditional Golden Dawn group ritual work without any knowledge of how to link the outer ritual performance to the inner workings?

I have heard years before that B.O.T.A. uses some kind of Elemental Tablets, which looks like Enochian equivalents, but without the Enochian Letters. That’s a good metaphor actually; it’s like a book with blank pages. What they have done is substituting the Enochian Angelic Names on the Tablets with Hebrew Angelical Hierarchies in a very unorthodox manner. This shows the lack of understanding of Enochiana from Cases’s point of view, which also show lack of understanding of the Grade Rituals themselves.

The absence of the “Ritual Z” in the B.O.T.A. equivalent of the R.R. et A.C., and furthermore the lack of any curriculum on that level, really shows in my opinion that Paul Foster Case carried very little material from Alpha et Omega’s Inner Order, besides the actual Adeptus Minor 5°=6° Grade Ceremony. Thus the myth of any oral Golden Dawn “group ritual teachings” transmitted through Paul Foster Case and Ann Davies falls quite flat.

Sorry as I am to arrive to such conclusions about Paul Foster Case’s deeper understanding of G∴D∴ “group ritual”, despite the fact that I respect him as a profound occult teacher and what he actually did with the Hermetic Qabalah of the Golden Dawn, I must conclude that he didn’t have anything to teach about group ritual to his new B.O.T.A. and Temple of “Holy Qabalah and the Sacred Tarot” that could have originated from his experiences in the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega. So whatever he did teach about group work must have been his own invention.

So my conclusion is that one must regard B.O.T.A. (and its later derivatives, such as the F.L.O.) as a species of side tradition of the Golden Dawn, in a similar manner that one must regard A.E. Waite’s later organization the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross. They are of course perfectly valid traditions in their own right but not properly speaking part of the actual Golden Dawn.

This means that any derivatives of B.O.T.A. must base any understanding of group ritual upon any of these four alternatives:

1. Teachings that Paul Foster Case himself developed as creator and Chief of the B.O.T.A. To this one might also add any developments made by Ann Davies, his successor.
2. Teachings that the Chiefs of the derivative Orders themselves have developed after leaving or being expelled from the B.O.T.A.
3. Teachings based on whatever the Chiefs of the derivative Orders has read into the ritual commentaries of Pat Zalewski (the so called “Z-5”), which basically boils down to Pat’s own interpretations of what some old Whare Ra Adepts in O.T.R. (Order of the Table Round) learnt him combined with his own original input. This basically constitutes the standard in the modern Golden Dawn community.
4. Either of these three in combination.

Personally I would opt for alternative 3, not only because of my belief that ritual analysis on the Elemental Grades mainly is coming from that source regardless which Order is implementing it, but also based upon the quotations from Tony DeLuce and whatever he has expressed about his knowledge of group ritual and his sources, as this older quotation reveals:

The rhythm of the knocks and circumambulation, the timing between movements, etc. is not written down in books and neither is endless oral instruction that takes many years to fully comprehend and apply to the Group Ritual system.

This quotation is a good example of Tony’s assessment of what constitutes secret knowledge of group ritual, which sounds quite “Zalewskian” if you ask me. For example in what direction a sword is to be pointed when being held in ritual, etc. In my opinion to much emphasis is put on the outer performance of ritual in this kind of teachings.

The most important aspect of what occurs in G∴D∴ ritual work is what happens on the inner planes. Reading the Z-1 and Z-3 papers, one is apt to become impressed looking at what actually happens in the astral temple. I don’t get the impression reading it that the main focus lies on rhythm in circumambulation or which exact intervals should be considered while knocking.

Rest assured that there has always been a keen interest, scrutiny and focus on the forces working on the inner planes in the knowledge and tradition that was passed over to me through David Griffin. The different currents as portrayed by the godforms, the Enochian Tablets etc. has always been the main focus while doing group ritual. Doing ritual is about creating magical current and evoke the formulation of L.V.X. If not, rituals simply turns into dead meaningless movements.

Another aspect of initiation is the actual transference of current from the Sphere of Sensation (aura) of the Hierophant to the candidate. The forces in the hall are activated in the aura of the candidate as transmitted through the initiator. This link between the auras of candidate and Hierophant eventually becomes a major point of current transmission during initiation. It can be compare to what happens during reiki initiation. It’s the signum of any genuine initiation and initiatic lineage. That’s why there is much emphasis on “apostolic succession” in different esoteric and exoteric spiritual traditions, as for example in the Martinist tradition where the laying of hands constitutes a important aspect of initiation.

Lastly, there is more to initiation than actual initiation rituals being performed. There is also the initiatic process. Initiation is (as the word implies) the fresh beginning of a new current, a current that must be received by the initiate, worked with, integrated and transformed inside of him or her. This requires personal work, and the guidance of one’s Hierophant. Here the Hierophant becomes important in the role as guide and teacher. In this instance I believe it’s better to quote someone’s personal experience of such a proficient initiatior:

Cris Monnastre was in many senses a stickler for form and protocol. She insisted that every single aspect of every initiation ritual be painstakingly performed correctly, even under less than ideal conditions at times. She also insisted on extremely detailed examinations for each grade as well as strictly maintaining the traditional time intervals between the grades. This series of initiations was the most profoundly transformative event of my life. I was extremely lucky in that Cris Monnastre is a gifted psychotherapist as well as a skilled Hierophant. Powerful and potentially destructive unconscious psychic contents emerged for me during the outer order process, and I frankly question if I would have made it through to 5=6 if Cris Monnastre were not so talented. Upon finishing this process, I was a far greater man than I was before.

This personal reminiscence of David Griffin clearly shows that a good initiator must not only be proficient in performing the ritual and making the actual transmission of current. He or she must also, and more so, be proficient enough to assist the initiate in the personal process that he eventually will experience while in a Grade. For him to be able to do so, the Hierophant must have gone through this process himself. This is a very important aspect of initiation, often neglected in the current debate.

Every group and incarnation develops its own niche so to speak. All groups have their strong points and weak points. The strong point of Whare Ra for example was their long and continual experience and development of group ritual mechanics. While that aspect of the transmission may have been lacking in the Paul Foster Case lineage its strong point however is the instruction on the Holy Qabalah and the Tarot, which probably matches no other.

One particular trait of the “Regardie-Monnastre lineage” (if I may be allowed to call it so) is its mentoring program, which is based more upon the close teacher-student (or master-apprentice) relationship. Israel Regardie and Chris Monnastre had such a mentor-protégé quality to their relationship, which was later also transferred to the working relationship between Ms. Monnastre and David Griffin, and which has also been the case between Mr. Griffin and yours truly. In the same manner I also work quite close with my students overseeing their initiatory process and spiritual progress as their mentor.

I believe that this tradition, which has been passed on to the Order that I teach in, stems not only from Regardie’s experience of his own relationship to his mentor, i.e. Aleister Crowley, but more so I believe from the fact that Regardie had a profound understanding of psychology and of psychoanalysis. As Ms. Monnastre is a psychologist of profession this formulae has been further perpetuated in her relationships to her students. In a similar manner Mr. Griffin has taken courses in gestalt therapy and psychosynthesis, as I do myself train to become a professional psychotherapist. You would be surprise to find out how many of Mr. Griffin’s and mine students who have become therapists in different professional venues.

Thus the strong point in the Regardie-Monnastre-Griffin transmission is the profound knowledge of the existential and psychological aspects of the initiatory process. This can be easily attested and ascertained in the now classical article on initiation and transference, another important aspect of initiation which has evolved through experience. This profound analysis of the psychological aspects of initiation is an important factor which has to be interwoven and taken into account in the overall picture of initiation.

S∴R∴