Scholarly pretensions against the Secret Chiefs

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Something that really disturbs me is when someone uses the pretence of scholarly historical research, guising it under the cloak of objective science, to down play on other peoples opinions or outlook on life, only because these don’t suit the political agenda that one tries to promote. And on this blog I intend to continue exposing these little schemes and politica agendas, as I have done in the past. I will keep calling things by their correct names and designations. Historical revisionism, which I am referring to here, often has political aims, not scholarly objectives.

One such author that I have brought to the attention of my readers in the past is Nick Farrell. Now, I do respect Mr. Farrell as an author and have much enjoyed some of his previous works. His Making Talismans is a good introductory work upon the subject, for the Neophyte and Adept alike. That title I can warmly recommend for anyone interested in the way of making talismans within the Western Esoteric Tradition in general and the Golden Dawn Tradition in particular. In the future I might write a review of Making Talismans which will bear the mark of both recognition and praise. However, some other of his works I simply cannot reconcile with.

I am of course talking about one of his latest works on the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega and its former Archon Basileus, S.L. MacGregor Mathers. I have written a review in two parts on this blog last year entitled Historical Revisionism in the Golden Dawn – Part 1 and Part 2 of a critical review of ‘Mathers’ Last Secret’. In this book Mr. Farrell proposes two main ideas, that (a) MacGregor Mathers took the initiation rituals of the Golden Dawn Tradition into a Masonic direction, stripping it off from all Magic, and that (b) he changed the same rituals into Magically barring the initiate from a full spiritual development. The attentive reader will of course notice that ‘a’ contradicts ‘b’. One may summarize this work precisely as that, full of inconsistances and logical holes; it says more about the author than it does about the subject. But then again on a deeper philosophical level that can be said about any author and his work, also my blog. However the bias of the author becomes very apparent in Mr. Farrell’s case.

In my critical review of this book I have given ample evidence which takes Mr. Farrell’s propositions apart, one by one, drawing on both intellectual analysis but also on my own one and a half decades of experience of these rituals profaned in that book. In my review I also give ample evidence that Mr. Farrell consciously tries to damage the reputation of the historical Alpha et Omega in order to elevate the historical Order of the Stella Matutina and its New Zeeland Temple Whare Ra. Being a brief student of one of its former Chiefs he somehow feels obliged, albeit misguided, to uphold its integrity against the prevailing positive and admirable opinions about Mathers’ Alpha et Omega. Considering himself to be a heir of that New Zeeland lineage he of course tries to uphold his own and that of his Order’s current against the contemporary heirs of Mathers’ A∴O∴. Thus Mathers’ Last Secret never really raises itself beyond the level of politically motivated character sniping.

It pretends also to be a scholarly work, presenting the early form of the Alpha et Omega rituals and documents in an objective way. But even in this respect it fails tremendously, as entire portions of the rituals in the source text are missing and the transcriptions are filled with typos and errors. I know this to be absolutely true as I myself own copies of the same source material as Mr. Farrell. To give but one exemple: A couple of weeks ago I was making a in depth study of the Adeptus Minor Ritual, checking against a original copy of the Isis-Urania Temple No. 3, a late original of the Ahathoor Temple No. 7 (from the George Slater or V.Q.P. collection) and the same early Alpha et Omega source text as that of Mr. Farrell’s (the N.I.S.I. collection). In this I started off in my reserch resorting to Mathers’ Last Secret as I find the N.I.S.I. mss to be extremely irritating to read because of the terrible hand writing and constant errors (seen as overwrites and marginal corrections). But in comparing to the original N.I.S.I. document I soon dropped checking against Mr. Farrell’s book as his transcript was literally filled with errors, such as misspellings, etc.

The publishers have admitted to this and thus shortly (less then one year) after the publication of the first edition they published the second edition, which they refer to as the “scholarly edition”. The question which naturally arises is why the “scholars edition” wasn’t published already a year ago at the outset of the release of the title? That first edition shouldn’t have left the editorial in the first place. Publishing a revised edition not more than one year after the first is a bit unorthodox, to put it mildly.

As my friends and family know, I am a big fan of the movies. I buy my own hard copy DVD:s (I hate pirate copying), but one thing that makes me somewhat irritated is when a film company releases a title only to relase the “special edition” or “directors cut” less than a year later. Someone laughs all the way to the bank I guess. The world of occult literature can be well without any “authors editions”. However, I have been informed by the publishers (The Roscicrucian Order of the Golden Dawn) that making money has never been the issue in the case of Mathers’ Last Secret, as the actual number of people buying these types of books are very few. So it finally comes down to the fact that the first edition amounts to nothing more than sloppy work and research.

For whatever reason one wants to publish a Golden Dawn book, authors should be much more catious what they publish and in what shape. The 1st edition (“the sloppy edition”) of Mathers’ Last Secret is outright desinformative at many levels. Even if one is biased against one particular branch of the G.D “community”, these rituals should be treated with due respect. Not the least from the scholarly point of view. I consider Mathers’ Last Secret (1st edition) to be a work in haste. I find it to be extremely careless editory wise, which makes me wonder if scholarly considerations were put in abeyence for a fast time schedule (for whatever reason)? I stand by my opinion that it is one of the worst “G.D. publications” that I have seen yet, if not the worst. As I have stated before it should never have left the printing shop.

So if we conclude that neither monetary nor scholarly ambitions was the prime motivator behind its publication, one of course must ask what was the real motivation? As I cannot look into the head of Mr. Farrell (lacking yet the necessary occult skills) I have to guess. But it is a qualified guess, nevertheless. Well actually, its more than a qualified guess as Mr. Farrell finally confessed his true motivation behind his “historical research” over at his blog. Although Mathers’ Last Secret presents a bad transcription of the original Alpha et Omega rituals it in fact does reveal some important particulars and unique features which was created by MacGregor Mathers to retain and uphold the egreore of the Order, after the publications of the Horos scandal. Mr. Farrell and his publishers, who symphatize with the crusade which Mr. Farrell and Mr. Zalewski jointly has waged against the Alpha et Omega current, both past and present (especially the latter), are perfectly well aware that the current Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega® has used the same rituals as MacGregor Mathers drew them after the official closing down of the Isis-Urania Temple and the expulsion of its rebellious Adepts (that is, the majority of its members).

Mr. Farrell and his publishers are good enough occultists to know that the best way to hurt a magical Order is to publish its rituals. They have of course masked it behind the cloak of “scholarly considerations”, such as giving the opportunity of Golden Dawn students to study the Alpha et Omega rituals for the first time, excusing their actions and violations of traditional oaths with the myth that the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega is a long gone and dead Order. But these same individuals are quick in withholding the public from the facts that these same rituals has been regularly and magically worked since at least the early 1990’s. Thus they are not dead. They are not a historical curiosity. On the contrary these same rituals have initiated hundreds and hundreds of initiates since the early 1990’s. Another qualified guess is that more initiates has passed through them during the last two decades than during the times of MacGregor Mathers, Brodie-Innes and Carnegie-Dickson. How is that for a dead Order and egregore?

When S.L. MacGregor Mathers created the magical aspect of the Golden Dawn current in general and the Inner Order in particular he did that with the aid of the Secret Chiefs of the Third Order. The authority of the Third Order is the only authority and lineage which actually counts, if we are speaking about spiritual lineage. The Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega retained that authority and lineage through MacGregor Mathers whereas the Stella Matutina or any other offshoot of the original Golden Dawn did not. When the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega re-emerged in the early 1990’s, when the old Grand Temple of Ahatoor No. 7 was revived in 1992, it did that initially empowered through a continuous line of succession at the level of Adeptus Exemptus, the Grade in the Golden Dawn Tradition which carries the formal lineage. But one decade later it re-established the authority and spiritual lineage of the real source behind the Golden Dawn, the Third Order. Thus the modern Alpha et Omega works under the same aegis and authority as that of Mathers’s Alpha et Omega, through the Secret Chief Lux e Tenebris.

The detractors and enemies of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega, both past and present, being well aware of this of course then must attack that very concept of the Secret Chiefs and the validity of the Third Order as the next phase of the ongoing campaign against the Alpha et Omega, this time attacking its source – the Third Order. As we saw with the publications of Mr. Farrells books on MacGregor Mathers, in which there was a long line of messages posted on Pat Zalewski’s forum by both Mr. Zalewski himself and Mr. Farrel smearing the reputation of MacGregor Mathers and his Alpha et Omega, there has for the last year of so been an ongoing smearing campaign against the concept of the Secret Chiefs as held by the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega®, both on that same Yagoo group and on the blogosphere. I have written some apologetical replies previously on this blog which has captured the spirit of the latest polemic in my Common misconceptions regarding the nature of secret traditional teachings and I have also addressed some of these issues in my latest and updated version of the Frequently asked questions concerning the Reformation of 1999.

In the latest issue of Hermetic Virtues (Volume V Edition 17–Autumnal Equinox 2011) Mr. Farrell published a article entitled Secret Chiefs and the Golden Dawn, which I refuted in my usual anal manner on this blog. In Mr. Farrells article he proposes the idea that MacGregor Mathers true Secret Chiefs, if any, were astral in nature, i.e. the old and misleading concept of “inner plane contacts” so popularised by Dion Fortune and the Golden Dawn spin-off tradition perpetuated by Dolores Aschcroft-Nowicki. Mr. Farrell being a former member and initiate of the Servents of the Light (headed by Aschroft-Nowicki), it’s no surprise then that he nurtures such views and desperately tries to overlay them upon the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and its successor the Rosicrucian Order of A∴O∴. However, there is more to this than being fostered in this particular word view. The very concept of physical Secret Chiefs which actually are able to hand down a tangible tradition, not some fancy idea “received” through some spiritual inspiration, is frightening, to say the very least. If it is true that there is a Third Order which are able to pass on an ancient tradition, initiatory lineage from an Adeptus Minor or even an Adeptus Exemptus becomes a moot point.

Surely the initiatory succession line of Ipsissimi is desirable above anything else! What a terrible and frightening idea if you are trying to run a Golden Dawn franchise based upon published works, fragments of documents and scattered and aged former initiates of the last surviving Temples of rebels. Not that this is bad in itself. But such an Order can only take you that far in spiritual lineage – Theoricus Adeptus Minor to be exact. Either you have to create your own high grade system, i.e. a reconstruction based upon any more or less vague hints from the lower Grade teachings, or you go directly to the source itself as the current Rosicrucian Order of the Alpha et Omega® has done. And what would you choose, a reconstruction steeped in post-modernism or the very Tradition itself?

I thought so. This thought is exactly what makes people as Pat Zalewski and Nick Farrell scared as hell. That is what makes them so obsessed with the Rosicrucian Order of the Alpha et Omega, both past and present. In this they use the subtle and deceiving tactics of targeting the historical Order to hit the current Roscicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega®. So it comes as no surprise then that Mr. Farrell has published yet another blog aiming to undermine the notion of any authority behind the Third Order of the Alpha et Omega®, entitled Want to buy a second hand Mathers' Lineage? Actually, this blog tries to promote Mr. Farrell’s lates book in this said campaign, a book which (surprise, surprise!) tries to establish the concept of inner plane astral Secret Chiefs, refuting the thought of physical and incarnated ones.

Let me take the liberty in quoting the hilarious punch line from that blog at great lenght. Mr. Farrell states that:

[The] Supreme Chief [of the A∴O∴] was ordered in the 1940’s to close the Order down. The AO’s work, it was said by them had been done and it was no longer an appropriate vessel for the post war era. Garston and his two co-chiefs were commanded by the Secret Chiefs to take all the material they could find, equipment and vault and consign it to the flames. According to Garston everything (other than personal equipment) was destroyed. […] The AO did continue in a form under Carnegie Dickson. Dickson had been appointed the head of the AO by Brodie Innes. But he also became chief of the Bristol Temple and thus the two strains merged somewhat. He ran Bristol but also a temple in London which recognised AO and SM).

What is important however is that if Mather’s branch of the order was shut down by its secret chiefs then it could not give out any lineage. If any modern order believes in secret chiefs they must equally accept that the Death of the Mathers branch of the Order was ordered by them and therefore any lineage derived from that source must be bogus.

Equally it must be accepted that if the secret chiefs clearly allowed Carnegie Dickson and his lineage to continue in some form (and they seemed happy with the merger with the SM) then that branch of the AO tree died with the closure of the Bristol temple.

Lineage comes from the authority to set up a temple or Order. It is defined by the Order itself. In the case of Whare Ra it was defined by a 7=4 being given the link by someone qualified to receive it.

But this makes it tricky for any modern AO order to claim direct living lineage from Mina Mathers' group. They have to come up with the fact that they were ordered to shut by their temporal and secret chiefs in the 1940s. Unless they reject the doctrine of Secret Chiefs, they cannot claim a right to even exist, because the Secret Chiefs of the Order said they shouldn't. In many ways this could also explain why Carnegie Dickson stuck to the SM and Transhall-Hayes buried her magical gear. They took the Secret Chiefs seriously so they could not disobey them.

What seems to be yet a sensationalist claim isn’t actually particularly sensational at all. S.L. MacGregor Mathers’ Rosicrucian Order of A∴O∴ (which remember was the only branch of the original G∴D∴ who held any authority from the Third Order) actually lost that authority already in the 1910’s, i.e. during the life time of MacGregor Mathers. What is sensational is that it continued with its operation as if nothing had happened, also after his death in 1918. So whatever “Secret Chiefs” it was that gave that command in the 1940’s to shut down the remaining A∴O∴ Temples it surely wasn’t that same bunch which MacGregor Mathers had been in touch with and which later authorised the Alpha et Omega® to continue with its mission during the new Millenium; perhaps it was the Chiefs of the Cromlech Temple who gave that command? Be there as it may, but the fact is that the true Third Order never ordered the A∴O∴ to close down anything but simply withdrew its blessing and highest authority; i.e. retreated back into oblivion as it has done so many times in the past.

Mr. Farrell is right about one thing though. He is right about the Adeptus Exemptus Grade traditionally carrying the authority to manifest a Golden Dawn Temple and also its Second Order, even if a Magister Templi is more suited for that mission. It was this authority alone, not that of any Secret Chiefs, which authorised Carnegie-Dickson to carry the A∴O∴ (and thus the G∴D∴) through the 1950’s and merging it with the Stella Matutina (a fact that was originally unearthed by Tony Fuller). An Adeptus Exemptus, since the days of MacGregor Mathers, doesn’t need to rely on any Secret Chief to found a Golden Dawn Temple and carry through intitiations up to and including his own Grade. However, such and Adeptus Exemptus must have a initiatory, esoteric and spiritual transmission which traces its lineage back to S.L. MacGregor Mathers himself, who was the only Chief of the Order and Adeptus Exemptus that originally was under the authority of Lux e Tenebris. The line of succession must then be carried further and handed over from Adeptus Exemptus to Adeptus Exemptus, as was secretly done through the entire last Century in which the torch finally was handed over to Jean-Pascal Ruggiu and Nicholas Tereschenko to manifest again in Paris in 1992, making a full circle.

In this way the tradition and Order which carries it has a inbuilt safety device in which the Order may be ever re-built by anyone holding that exalted Grade of the Second Order, handed over by a previous one, entitled to function as Chief Adept and provisionally independent of the Third Order. However that office and that lineage may never transcend this level and project the Order beyond the Abyss, other than through nominal titles. To really present veritable initiation on the level of the Third Order you need an Ipsissimus to transmit the true spiritual lineage of the Grades of Magister, Magus and Ipsissimus. Thus the sole aim of a traditionalist oriented Adeptus Exemptus, besides to administer the Grades of the Outer and Inner Orders, is to re-establish this link with the true guardians of the Tradition, i.e. the Third Order Secret Chiefs. An Adeptus Exemptus has no right whatsoever to create any “Third Order” superstructure without the aid of a true and incarnate Secret Chief. Only such an initiate has the means to assist the Adeptus Exemptus to pass beyond the Veil of Nephtys and enter the level of the Supernals.

This is what happened to the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega® and its Adepti Exempti David Griffin and Jean-Pascal Ruggiu, who renewed the Adeptus Exemptus transmission and link to the Third Order. However, this link has nothing whatsoever to do with the so-called “etheric link” of the Stella Matutina and the Whare Ra, which Mr. Farrell is referring to in his blog. It is a well known historical fact that this “etheric link” was given to R.W. Felkin from Rudolf Steiner, which he in turn passed on to his Adepti Exempti as a formula of invoking Christian Rosenkreutz himself. This is fine in itself but it is not a proper way of connecting to the Third Order of the Golden Dawn; it connects the Adept to concepts created by Rudolf Steiner and his fancy interpretation of the Rosicrucian Tradition. The link that I am referring to which is held by the Alpha et Omega® is something completely different and founded in objective reality. And after that important first break through in 2002 the Alpha et Omega® has ever since been reforming its Third and as of lately Second Orders. This fact is to the benefit of the greater Golden Dawn Community and may become the privilege of any Adept of that community which upholds the sanctity of his or her sacred obligations and the hallmarks of the Tradition. This has clearly been proven by a recent communiqué from the current Archon Basileus of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega® sounding the trumpet to any worthy Adept to heed the call. Now it is up to you to choose, and I advice you to choose wisely!

S∴R∴