Gyllene Gryningen

Radical ethics: Dualism and the Golden Dawn – Part Three

2012-01-28T11:55:00.136+01:00

This is the third (and perhaps last) part in my series of essays on the question of Dualism and the Golden Dawn. In my second part, in which I clearly presented my views on the dual nature of God and that “evil” preceded “good” in the sequence of creation from chaos to cosmos, I did warn my reader that he or she might find my words being “outrageous…and perhaps even blasphemous…” Not surprisingly then there has been reactions labelling my opinions as “unreasonable”, “simplistic”, “having absurd implications”, as well as being “philosophically incoherent and morally abhorrent”. I have been accused of propagating a view that ultimately doesn’t see any difference between good and evil, thus supporting evil. For some reason one is only expected to nurture a clear-cut division between these existential contraries, to be regarded as a sane man.

You can read the original debate between myself and my typical Christian detractor here. With some reluctance and after a lot consideration I have finally chosen to address these accusations, well aware that with my apologia I might create even more confusion instead of shedding light on this topic, or even stir up some more upset feelings, and perhaps even inspire some to threathen my sorry heretical arse with enternal damnation in hell, at least in the minds conditioned by dualistic theology. I have used the ensuing debate as a template for this essay, added upon, further developed and embellished with some more thoughts on this matter that has come to the surface of my conscious awareness lately in pondering and contemplating these matters. I must add that the preparation of this essay has been quite exeptionally time consuming and slow, no doubt because of the sensitive contents of this matter.

At the outset of this discourse I must state my opinion, nay firm conviction, that people who cannot phantom a reality and nurture a holistic world view, that take both evil and good into equal account, are hopelessly trapped in a dualistic world view which is overly simplistic, and thus false. However, I don’t blame anyone for being such; this is the common trait of the conditioned mind. But, I cannot follow in the steps of the common and natural man’s reasoning as I am walking along a entirely different path. I am not stating that my conclusions represents the truth either, but at least they do try to embrace the complexity of existence as a fact; that truth is not always what it seems and that it should be looked for further, beyond the usually obvious.

To illustrate this whole issue, and raise the temperature somewhat, a very interesting, albeit equally predicable, question was raised by the typical Christian apologist – if I cannot see any real difference between the actions committed by Adolf Hitler and that of Mother Theresa? God forbid even to suggest that Hitler and Mother Theresa were both humans facing equal existential problems and opportunities in life, having emotions of love and hate, as with any of us! Any effort made to humanize evil characters such as Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussain or Osama Bin Laden, trying to understand their psychology, is seen as highly dangerous by most individuals today. In the consensus opinion of contemporary society Hitler is simply evil, a monster not fit to be considered or assessed with the same standards that we expect ourselves to be judged.

As a starter, I see a great problem (and hazard even) to demonise any individual, also such arch-villains as Adolf Hitler. Or in demonising me for that matter who has the nerve to suggest that “evil” is the dark side of that same coin which contains also the “good” side. To me this line of thinking, which the common and politically correct individual represents, only serves his own defence mechanisms of the ego; pointing one’s finger towards that “evil” person outside of oneself instead of looking into the mirror and looking for it in one’s own self. Demonisation is an easy escape strategy (or mechanism). One of the easiest, actually. Sadly enough, it is a common trait by the majority of people to look outside of oneself and condemning one’s neighbour, instead of looking for the evil inside and distinct from that other person.

In my opinion monsters as Hitler or saints as Mother Theresa are as human as the rest of us. We all share the basic existential conditions. We have all our dark and brighter sides. Hitler also had this dual nature. As well as he could hate an entire race he could also love his close ones. He was a vegetarian and abhorred the hunting of animals. Mother Theresa also had her dual nature; as well as she did help the sick she also showed the typical repressing traits of the common Christian Catholic missionary and even showing neglect in the face of human suffering. There is both an angelic and demonic side to all of us; that is what it is to be human. Dehumanise arch-villains as Hitler and you will stop looking for the tyrant and racist inside of you. Idealize icons as Mother Theresa and you will start legitimising your own spiritual pride and patronizing traits.

Thus I don’t believe in all “evil” or absolutely “good” humans. Humans are simply humans – of a dual or two-fold nature. To become more than human we must unite all opposites within us. That means stop pointing fingers (i.e. projecting) and start looking inside and scrutinizing ourselves. Naturally, there are good and evil actions; though we mustn’t condemn man, only his actions. All people are capable of both evil and good actions, without neither being essentially bad nor god in themselves as persons. Why? Because we are the microcosm – a reflection of the macrocosm which also expresses this two sided nature; the dual contending forces.

Thus, I have never stated that there is no “right” nor “wrong”, or not any “good” nor any “evil”. I have simply said that these two facets of existence are both stemming from the divine, from one common source. The ancients understood that principle better as they saw evil deities being part of the cosmic forces. In Hindu mythology, to take but one example, you have Kali which is an integrated part of the great cosmic All, as is any other of the “good” deities. Likewise, Set (the Egyptian Satan) is the brother of Osiris (the solar deity of redemption and resurrection). Set is also somtimes depicted as the twin of the god of light or Horus (see image at the header).

My typical Christian detractor accuse me of being inconsistent in claiming that there are good and evil actions when evil and good ultimately is one and the same thing; thus there is no standard where we might measure actions. People have misunderstood my point though. I have never said that good and evil is the same thing. All I have said is that they are two aspects or contraries within the same thing. This one and the same being or power has this dual nature of contending forces as an innate quality. Light manifests either as a particle or a wave; thus it has both natures which are diametrically different. The world wherein we exist is paradoxical; as humans we are likewise paradoxical, contradictory and ambivalent.

This concept of one Supreme Being with two natures seems to have originated in the teachings of Zoroaster or Zarathustra. And here it must be remembered that all of the Abrahamic religions – the Hebrew, Christian and Muslim alike – originates in the teachings of Zoroaster, at least in part. In him we have received the concepts of monotheism, i.e. the belief in one and supreme God, the battle between one good spirit and one evil satanic figure, the concept of free will of Man, the belief in angelical beings, the transcendence of God, the belief in hell and a paradisiacal existence, the salvation of man, the Last Judgement, etc. Gnosticism, both in its Judaic / Hebrew and Christian / Greek forms, have its origins in Zoroastrianism as well.

According to Zoroastrianism that great and transcendent God Ahura Mazda, emanates two contending forces or spirits from itself. These are the two opposing angelical beings; Angra Mainyu (also referred to as Ahriman), the “Destructive Principle”, we may recognize on the side of the evil as striving to bring the principle of chaos into play, and on the side of the good we may realize Spenta Mainyu (also known as Ormus) as the instrument or “Bounteous Principle” of the act of creation. This is reminiscent of the thoughtless and thoughtful lights of the Qabalistic Ain-Soph, the former resenting creation while the latter propagating it. But we mustn’t forget that both of these combatants originate from the same source, that of Ahura Mazda, i.e. Godhead. Thus they are both part of Ahura Mazda in essence, but only one – the good angel Spenta Mainyu – will prevail.

We will find the same theories being developed by Sigmund Freud, but in the microcosm – Man. He talks about the death (thanatos) and life (eros) instincts. But he also talks about the necessity of fusion between them two, as the death instinct (in the form of aggression) may serve the life instinct if conjoined to it. Thus, in fusing “good” and “evil” you effectively root out the worst evil behaviours in man and may even enhance the good ones, as lots of psychic energy is stored up in what we consider to be the bad and repressed aspects of ourselves.

Now, good and evil are as two great emanations of Godhead or cosmic rays which inflicts and affects us. It may also be likened to two water streams which stems from a common source. After leaving the source of the water that great river eventually divides itself into two streams, through the progression of involution in the creation process; somewhere in the descent there is a watershed. As humans we may choose to enter any of these two streams at any given time. We are free to do that. Standing in one of these we will be saturated by the quality of that water. But at any time we may step out from the water to descend into the other and contrary river. We may follow that water and let it take control of us, and see where it leads us, or we may choose to take a swim and move upstream instead. In doing the latter we will eventually pass the watershed and finally enter into that one great river which is neither good nor evil, it only IS. And that final state is fundamentally good; not tentative as in the lower and minor river of goodness. After entering that One and primary river of the life-power, in which both the principles of death and life are at play but eternally fused, we are short in reaching the final goal or destination; the source of the well. Bathing in that calm well we will transform ourselves into immortal demi-gods, leaving humanity behind.

Thus we are at the liberty of choosing wherein to bath in the streams of the waters of life and death. We have eaten from the fruit of knowledge and are able to distinguish between good and evil. We must therefore guard ourselves against attributing a person an overall quality only because they generally behave in a certain way to us. If only showing “good” traits, such as doing and saying “intelligent” things, does that necessarily mean that they are “intelligent” only? How can we know that they are not only adapting to what we are expecting of them? In an entirely different context compared to when they normally interact with us, they might show qualities that we generally would attribute as “bad” or “evil” even. A person in one particular context may be highly intelligent or sane, but in another completely stupid or insane. Thus a man is not just his observable actions, which are only at the surface in his interaction with us; he is lots more that that.

This brings us naturally to the topic of punishment, especially of the state sanctioned variety. Should we kill murderers or rapists, etc.? If you would ask me I would answer: No, I don’t believe in the “eye for an eye” philosophy of the Torah or old law. It cannot be a question of government-sanctioned revenge. Should we incarcerate criminals? Yes, of course! Contrary to what people might have construed from my apparent opinions, I do believe we should correct criminal behaviour, both for the sake and security of our community and for the sake of rehabilitation of antisocial behaviour.

I do believe that most of deviant and criminal behaviour originates not inside man itself but through his adaptation to his environment; certain interactive environments, social considerations and structural conditions do effect the development of the character, both for “good” or constructive and for “bad” or destructive. Still, regardless of origin of this deviant behaviour, it does create a guilt which must be refunded to the community according to the principle of cause and effect. There is such a thing as Karma, the Sanskrit word meaning “action” and denoting “cause and effect”. All actions have consequences, both good and bad actions. We are all part of a great web of interaction with our environment, especially the social dimension. Still, we mustn’t condemn the man, only his actions. As humans we are all equal in that Great and Eternal ALL, even if we have different conditions and possibilities.

Also, we still must understand that whatever is regarded as being criminal or antisocial behaviour today has not been regarded as such yesterday, or even will be regarded to be in the future. Our conceptions of what is normal and abnormal, or even criminal, change with the times. Qualities of “good” and “bad / evil” are thus no absolutes in most cases. On the contrary, they are frequently quite arbitrary, and follow the tides of the times, current paradigms and contemporary society. The worst mental sickness once regarded in ancient Greek has become a post-modern virtue, that of hybris. State law is equally fleeting, not in the least eternal. The accusations towards Socrates, the most wise, as being impious and corrupting the youth are laughtable in the eyes of modern man, and certainly didn’t deserve his death. In two millenia future mankind will laught at our judicial system as well; we are not at the height of human achievement in today’s society and culture, on the contrary, we are at the rock bottom of human developement or the Kali Yuga.

To use the two examples already suggested: although history has condemned their acts as a crime against humanity (and rightly so) the nazis during the Second World War nevertheless regarded themselves doing the handiwork of the good, ridding humanity from what they believed to be an evil and a dire threat to mankind. Many regard Mother Theresa being a self-sacrificing humanitarian while others regard her and any of that clerical ilk to be hypocrites, representing pure evil, remote from any good. Mother Theresa followed a tradition of church activism, representing a long chain of Christian missionaries who during medieval times helped destroying entire cultures, such as the Aztecs and Incas in South-America (seeing the Indians as being soul-less animals in human form, quite reminiscent of the nazi “untermenschen” ideology) and putting their once grand civilizations into oblivion; history has condemned them too.

Although I do believe that there are absolutes regarding truth and ethics, it is quite difficult as a human to know which is actually a “good” behaviour and which is a “bad” one. Most acts and behaviours are adequate. Not all, of course, but most. Even those that the majority regards as objectionable, or even abhorrent. In my profession I work in counselling and many behaviours that my clients are exhibiting are condemned by most in our modern society (even by me sometimes), but still looking closely what actually motivates them or in what context (and from which history) they are acting, their behaviour is as adequate as mine.

So in the final analysis I neither believe that any human individual is born evil nor good. I am truly convinced that we develop a survival strategy or a philosophy of conduct which is determined by our experiences from the first breath in our life to the last, which develops our unique set of defence mechanisms and unconscious internal conflicts, coupled with the choices we make according to both the opportunities or hindrances that we encounter in our social interaction and in relation to our peculiar unconscious dynamics (although even our “free will” is determined by our unresolved unconscious conflicts). I would love to have both Adolph Hitler and Mother Theresa on my analytic couch! Both were motivated by their own unique neuroses or personality disorders in their respective “missions”.

In a way I’m glad that Hitler and Mother Theresa were brought up in this discourse, by someone else than me, as they commonly represent the two opposite ends of human behaviour – the evil and the good respectively – in our occidental christianized minds. However, I must add that the act of picking these two extreme examples in the name of rhetoric, or that of child abusers (which is the most common rhetoric trick to use), is typical of someone who wants to effectively silence this kind of problematization or discussion. I have seen this happen on several occations. These types of behaviours, that both Hitler and Mother Theresa or any other exceptional or deviant examples showed, don’t represent any typical traits in human behaviour. I am talking about darkness and brightness which resides in all of humanity, in both great and small, but still within the common man. Picking extremes won’t further any fruitful discussion or lead to a greater understanding of human behaviour and a proper approach towards wise conduct and spiritual development in fusing the disassociations of the soul.

Returning to my previous talk about Zoroastrianism, actual dualism eventually started to creep into its tenets, and suddenly Ahuru Mazda or God was identified solely with Spenta Mainyu or Ormus, while Angra Mainyu or Ahriman became the opposite of God itself. These concepts soon also creeped into the later Abrahamic religions, although the Hebrew religion retained most of the original concepts of Zoroaster while dualism became a strong feature of both Christianity and Islam. In these two latter religions we se Satan as an opposite force primarily to God himself, not to any angel of light such as Michael per se. They forget that Satan (or Samael) and Michael – which are the true cosmic contraries as the angels of darkness and light – are both “Sons of God”, both equally serving the Supreme Godhead.

Thus exoteric Christians read the Book of Job differently from the Hebrews, or that of Esoteric Christians as myself for that matter. They regard my interpretation of the Bible as faulty. They state that, even if Satan (“the accuser”) is said to be among the “Sons of God” (the Beni Elohim) this doesn’t at all mean that his actions were approved by God, rather that he belonged to a certain “angelic category”. Certain angels are by exoteric Christians compared to humans in their god-given free will to express evil or good intentions. Thus now we enter the topic of “fallen angels”; is there even such a thing as a fallen angel?

In the Old Testament of the Hebrews we have only one obvious narrative of something that possible could be a reference to “fallen” angels, that of the Nephilim, which in the King James Bible is translated as “giants” but actually should be translated as “the fallen ones”. I have taken the liberty of changing the meaning of that word accordingly in the Kings James translation, and also that of the God name. Thus Genesis or the 1st Book of Moses states:

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the Beni Elohim (Sons of God) saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And IHVH (the Lord) said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were Nephilim (fallen ones) in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the Beni Ha-Elohim (Sons of God) came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. (Genesis 6:1-4)

Thus, if we are to read the Bible somewhat to the letter (not taking into consideration that there also are pointers to a possibility that the “Nephilim” were not the offspring of angels but that of Cain), it is not the angels themselves who are fallen here but their offspring. As man is a fallen creature according to Genesis, also half-breeds (i.e. half men and half angels) must be fallen; it is the human part of the Nephilim which is fallen, not the angelic.

In reading the New Testament we find a different interpretation or view upon the angels. Now suddenly we may find not only heavenly messengers (angels) but also “the messenger of Satan” (2 Corinthians 12.7). Thus, from the exoteric Christian perspective, we have the concept of rebellious angels, cast down from heaven. It is said that Satan was the foremost and most loved of angels, who rebelled against God over Man, and thus became Lucifer – the fallen angel. We suddenly have the concept of heavenly wars, with Satan and God as commanders or warlords. It is also here that we find Michael being the foremost champion of God against the Luciferian angelical armies of the Dragon, i.e. Satan or the Devil (Revelation 12:7-9).

The fact is that the name “Lucifer” was coined with the Latin translation of the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament by Hieronymus, referred to as the Vulgata (Vulgate), written in 382-405 AD. It is nothing short of a direct revision of the original Hebrew and Greek, especially in the former text. Thus in the Book of Job instead of “morning” we find the latin word “Lucifer”, a traditional name for Venus in pagan times (Job 11:17), as well as in Isiah:

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! (Isiah 14:12, King James Version)

However, the original Hebrew doesn’t say “Lucifer” but הילל בן־שׁחר (Helel Ben-Shachar) meaning “morning star, son of dawn”, probably a reference to Venus. Both the Hebrews and the Christians regarded the stars of heaven representing cosmic forces; as the pagans revered the stars and planets as gods and goddesses, Hebrews and Christans saw them as expressions of angels. However, they also warned against worshipping of the stars, i.e. the angels, as only God was worthy of worship, represented by the Sun which outshines any star or planet. Later the concept must have crept into the minds that shooting or fallen stars actually represented angels falling down form the sky, being cast down to Earth by God.

However, the problem is actually not of translating “star of morn” into “Lucifer” but rather the shift of meaning in that latter Latin word. Prior to Origen and his contemporaries of the 3rd Century, the name Lucifer wasn’t synonymous with that of Satan. Thus when Hieronymus later translated the original Greek text of 2 Peter 1:19, which reads “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts…”, being a student of Origen he named the day star Lucifer as a reference to Satan.

However, not all of Christian dualistic conceptions about the nature of “evil angels” can be attributed to a faulty translation. Peter later says in that same book, reflecting Jude, thus:

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment... (2 Peter 2:4)

And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. (Jude 1:6)

Thus we see also amongst the earliest Christians notions of fallen angels going against the will of God, a though which was quite foreign to the Hebrews, with the possible exception of the reference to the Nephilim. That reference to the offspring of humans and angels could have passed us by as a quite innocent sentence, if it wasn’t for the fact that there exists an apocryphal and pre-Christian book called the Book of Enoch. In that book the author develops the idea of giant half-breeds roaming the land and making all sorts of blasphemous and sinful acts. But that is not all, the angels who begot these Nephilim where fallen themselves, i.e. revolting against God and teaching mankind all sorts of useful skills, such as making swords and armour. Interestingly enough, God sends the Arch-Angels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel (who we in the Golden Dawn recognize as the Elemental Angels) to correct these rebels. Thus, these four Arch-Angels are the foremost protectors against the evil demons and their offspring.

The Book of Enoch never made it into the canon of the Old Testament, which isn’t at all surprising as it was once regarded to be blasphemous to even suggest a thing as angels rebelling against God. However, certain Christian Orthodox churches (the Ethiopian and Eritrean) took that book to their hearts. The Book of Enoch is also referred to and even quoted in Jude:

And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. (Jude 1:14-15)

Thus it is not a stretch to imagine that the Book of Enoch became popular amongst Christians, which is also understandable as it confirms early Christian theology concerning rebellious angels and wars in heaven, resulting in the angels falling from the sky and hitting Earth. And as such Christians have a tendency to interpret the Old Testament in that new light as well, in an effort to justify their New Testament dogma. Thus in Psalm 82 we read:

God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods. How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah. Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked. They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course. I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes. Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.

Exoteric Christians find proof in this passage of cosmic forces being contrary to God. However, in this passage we see YHVH standing amongst other gods, passing his judgment upon them for not taking pity on the poor and needy, condemning them to mortality in the process. Here we see the Hebrew god being one of several gods, all of them (including IHVH) being subservient to an even more exalted Deity. Scholars agree that this passage is a remnant of the earlier monolatrial phase of the Hebrew religion. We know that in Exodus the God of the Hebrews waged a successful war against the ancient Egyptian Gods. Thus this passage cannot be judged and compared to later Hebrew texts and that of the Christian New Testament which are steeped in a monotheistic mould. Besides, all of the gods present in that assembly answer to the Most High, in a similar manner as the dark and light spirits do in relation to Ahuru Mazda.

Thus there is no actual dualism evident in the Psalms such as may be found in the New Testament. Even if it wasn’t the Christians who originated the concept of “fallen” angels, an idea originally foreign to the Hebrews, they surely enough popularised it. Later that new paradigm was incorporated by the Prophet Mohammed when compiling the Qur’an. Thus in the Surah (chapter) 17 it reads regarding Iblis (Satan):

And [mention] when We said to the angles, “Prostrate to Adam,” and they prostrated, except for Iblees. He said, “Should I prostrate to one You created from clay?” [Iblees] said, “Do You see this one whom You have honored above me? If You delay me until the Day of Resurrection, I will surely destroy his descendants, except for a few.” [Allah] said, “Go, for whoever of them follows you, indeed Hell will be the recompense of you – an ample recompense.” (17:61-63)

It is easy to interpret this passage on its face value (that is exoterically) as a clear reference to arrogance and disobedience. However, some Sufis present an alternative and non-dualistic esoteric interpretation of this cosmic occurrence. According to them God put Satan to the test of the latter’s love for and devotion to Him; one surely cannot worship anything other than the One. Thus God never had the intention of forcing Satan to worship Man, a lesser being than that of Satan; he couldn’t be expected to reject God. Between two evils – that of disobedience and that of rejection – Satan chose disobedience of and love for God, even if it meant eternal suffering in Hell. Thus Iblis is the least incredulous of all the angels. But as submission seems to be the greatest virtue in Islam, even greater than love and loyalty (the word Islam means “submission”), Satan is punished for his crime. According to the Qur’an angels do not possess free will and thus worship God in total obedience.

Now, when speaking about concepts of “evil” and “good” I follow the original point of view of the Old Testament. I don’t agree with exoteric Christianity’s or Islam’s dualistic world view (although the concept of “fallen angels” is a good mythical motive to understand certain phenomena and conditions of terrestrial existance). The Hebrews understood questions of evil and good better than that of the exoteric Christians and Muslims. My conclusions arrives from reading Hebrew mysticism, i.e. the Holy Qalalah, which is based on traditional and original concepts, which clearly became misunderstood and misused by the later exoteric Christians and Muslims.

So basically, the typical exoteric Christian has a faulty understanding of Old Testament (that is Hebrew) mythology. An Angel is by the very definition of the Bible and the Qur’an a “messenger” or מלאך mal’ach (ملاك‎ malak in Arabic), one who delivers the word of God, a spiritual being which expresses His Will. Satan surely is such a messenger in his original form. Was he evil in tempting Job, or did he simply put Job’s faith to the test, as he did with Jesus in the desert? Were the Angels which God sent to Sodom and Gomorra, to destroy these cities and massacrate all their inhabitants, evil as well? Is that a good act? It surely is not an act of love.

The exoteric Christians answer that the angels was sent to Sodom to perform a judgement of the inhabitants, in an act of love towards justice and righteousness. They state that people may deserve the punishment of death, and when such is executed it is not in itself an evil act. I don’t agree with them at all. I regard capital punishment to be both offensive and criminal; definitely evil. I regard the U.S. invasion of Iraq to be equally “evil”, as well as any war waged against any country or enemy. And yes, all destructive forces are part of the “evil” sphere, including God killing men, women and children because of their supposed sins.

Much of the Old Testament is a recount of bloody wars waged by the Hebrews when they seized the promised land from its original inhabitants. According to the Bible, they exterminated several different nations and peoples, on the direct command of God. We are not talking about occupation; we are talking about genocide. No one was spared, neither children nor women; in some cases God allowed women to be spared to be abused by the Hebrew males (i.e. with the objective of rape). What we see being described in the Torah, Judges, etc. is nothing less than ethnic cleansing, acts we today regard as abominable. But all of this was done in the name of God and on his direct command. Thus Holy Wars! During the Christian expansion we had the equivalent in the crusades. In Islam they have the Jihad. Thus we see a God of War and of Peace, expressing two contrary modes which easily categorizes themselves as evil and good respectively.

However, the process of putrefaction in nature is also part of the evil phases of existence, as well as death (remember the death instinct of Freud), but it serves the life principle nevertheless. In all cycles of life and nature you will see the destructive and constructive forces supersede each other in a cyclic manner. When in equilibrium, it upholds life and promotes evolution. Likewise, war can also be waged in the name of “good” even if it is an evil act in itself; any power or country starting a war regards it to be justified according to what it considers to be good (and evil) and in some instances sanctioned by God Almighty.

That said, in the final analysis I believe that God transcends both “good” and “evil” (remember the river and streams analogy that I referred to above), especially the human conceptions of these two terms (which I believe is a construction that changes with the times). But God is also the source of both these forces in nature and universe, and in Man, which we may regard as “evil” and “good” in their expressions. Thus, nothing can be un-approved by God. In Him we live and move and have our being. Noting that exists can be outside of Him. Nothing. Everything is an expression of Him. He is the ALL. The ONE. We as humans, as well as the Sons (i.e. angels) of God, are parts of Him. To become more than human is to become a Son (or Daughter) of God.

My typical Christian detractor finds these last statements repulsive, especially that Man is part of God, and God is incarnated in Man – Deus est Homo. Forgetting that the Gospels make the same claims regarding Jesus (the son of man), in his dualistic mind he accuses me of creating confusion between the concept of God as being the sustaining cause of everything and the conception of Him being everything. And as an extra measure, he finally throws in that ultimate weapon in defence of his dualistic tower of Babel: Am I bold enough to state that, in everything being an expression of God, this also applies to the rape of children? Does God rape God then?

I am of course aware of the delicacy of this question, and of any answer which may follow. I wish I could say “no”; I have small children myself that I am raising and protecting. But reality isn’t that simple. All I can say as an answer to this ultimate question is that I remain strong in my conviction that my God is both transcendent and immanent. God’s transcendence is unphantomable to Man; yet in Man does God express His immanence. Man is part of God, and God lives in Man. We as humans express divine intention and will, always. This we do both consciously and unconsciously.

Throughout creation and in particular through Man, God beholds God, in whatever aspect that one may imagine. The expression of God is indeed beautiful and blissful, but He can also raise an equally ugly countenance. Remember the divinely sanctioned genocides accounted for in the Old Testament; even the brutal killing of children and rape of women.

Christians have a hard time accepting any evilness of God or divine sadism; they even call massacres and genocides as expressions of “goodness”, as God is above all criticism. A divinely inspired murderer is beyond reproach; a murderer motivated by greed is condemned to death instead, even if he commits exactly the same act as the murderer following the commands of God. Thus for an exoteric Christian, a good intention makes an evil act good; the end justifies the means. The Qabalists on the other hand, at least those following the teachings of Nathan of Gaza and all subsequent Sabbathian doctrines, recognizes that God expressed evil as well as good, hate as well as love and compassion, severity as well as mercy. There simply cannot be another explanation for the narratives of the Old Testament. The esoteric doctrine teaches us to remember that, “in the midst of material gloom…the Divine Darkness is the same as the Divine Glory” (Golden Dawn Equinox Ceremony).

Following this, one may justly ask me that if it’s true that God is both equally good and evil, is it not equally true that to become more than human is to become a Son of the Devil? However, such a question presupposes a fundamentally dualistic world view. As a non-dualist I don’t even believe in the Devil (or Satan), at least not as an independent force non-attached to God. If he even exists he surely is on God’s payroll, expressing God’s commands as any angel would. But why would I like to become one with any aspect of him, be it Samael (Satan) or Michael or whatever intermediary or messenger, as I could become one with the All instead? Remember the admonishment made not to worship the minor stars and planets, the lesser deities and angels. Thus there is only the option of becoming one with God, which means embracing both His dark or evil side, as well as His bright and good side. In the final analysis, in all that God created God saw that it was good.

From the above remarks some may consider me advocating amorality and instigating antisocial behaviour, or libertinism, following the nietzschean creed, “god is dead, there is no truth, all is permitted”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Contrary to what people may construe from my previous words and declarations, I am no cultural relativist and I do not believe in social constructionism as the answer to all human behaviour and belief systems. Neither am I a nihilist. I do believe in absolute truths and I do believe there exists true ethics. I am not a liberally minded guy; people who know me well also know me to be a quite conservative guy. I am a professed Traditionalist in the sense of modern thinkers as René Guénon, Julius Evola and Frithjof Schuon.

However, I also believe that there is an exoteric and esoteric understanding of truth and of ethics. There is the conditioned mind of the common man, driven by his so-called “common sense” and there is the trained and opened (as in receptive) mind of the initiate and mystic. Or to use the terminology of the Gnostics, the psychics and the pneumatics respectively. Opinions between the exoteric and esoteric world view are often opponent or goes contrary. It simply is impossible to reconcile. Debates between these two camps are futile.

Exoterically minded people tend to create God into their own image; they project any wants and fantasies about the divine from their own subconscious neuroses. The same goes for the majority of ideologies, philosophies and creeds concerning truth, morals and ethics. Social constructionism is an adequate theory to describe the mechanisms and to understand the human majority as a collective. However it falls short when trying to describe esotericism and the quest for truth of magicians and alchemists. An esotericist makes great effort in transcending the consensus opinions of his exoteric contemporaries. He also makes an effort to transcend his own socially and materialistically conditioned mind.

Esotericism is antinomian by its very nature; it unconditionally goes contrary to established norm and convention, especially in the realms of epistemology, moral codes, philosophy and religion, even politics. That’s why esotericists and mystics have been banned, condemned, shunned and excommunicated by society and religious institutions or even burnt at the stake, throughout history. Today we know what happens to Sufis at the hands of Wahabis. The worldview of esotericists appears to be repulsive to the outer world, even irrational or contradictory. It goes beyond superficial understanding and literal meaning. It is heterodox, radical, anti-fundamentalist and non-dogmatic, at least when viewed from the conditioned and “natural” mind; verily, it represents a true orthodoxy and dogma which shatters the worldview of the common man, natural scientist and exoteric theologician, not governed by Ratio (rationality) or Logos (logic) alone but more so by intuition, Gnosis (knowledge) or in other words Illuminatio (illumination).

For me, however, there is but one ethical creed to follow which seems to be universal enough, even amongst both exotericists and esotericists, conditioned and unconditioned mind alike. Sometimes man cannot escape truth. It requires the faculty of empathy, which supersedes that of logic. I’m talking about the way of the heart, that of Compassion, which expresses itself in practical application as the Golden Rule – Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And also its negative consequence or Silver Rule – Do not do unto others as you would not have them do unto you. This implies a respect for your neighbour’s integrity, as well as your own. This rule was expressed in the doctrine of the Christ, the Buddha, Confucius, and it is represented in most religions all over the world. Even the ancient Egyptians and Greeks followed this rule. Compassion is the creed of the Bodhisattvas. According to the Tibetans, Compassion is a prerequisite of the manifestation of the so-called “rainbow body”, the final liberation and transmutation of the elementary physical body.

The doctrine of Compassion as central tenets in spirituality have been, and still are, represented by the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth (the Christ) and Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha). It is interesting to see that Christianity and Buddhism arose approximately during the same time in history (Siddharta predated Jesus with some 500 years). Perhaps the time was ripe for mankind to open up their hearts in a never before seen manner? It is quite obvious that the God of the Torah and the God of the Gospels are quite different in tone and intent, the former representing a stern and severe Father (some even regard Him to be a sadist considering what He commanded the Israelites to do in His name), the latter a merciful and loving one. The early Christian sects regarded themselves being liberated from the old Law of the Torah through the death and resurrection of the Christ and the quickening of the Holy Spirit. They now followed the Way of Compassion.

The old covenant of the Old Testament was that of Severity (Tetragrammaton or יהוה); the new covenant of the New Testament is that of Mercy (Pentagrammaton or יהשוה; the Holy Spirit being the fifth letter of Shin inserted into the Yod He Vau He). Obviously, here we are able see the Qabalistic connection to the Sephiroth Geburah (Severity) and Chesed (Mercy – the Sephira of Compassion) of the Tree of Life. And in the Sabbathian Qabalah the side of Severity (the Black Pillar) upon the Tree of Life represent the left-hand emanation (i.e. evil side) of God, while the side of Mercy (the White Pillar) represent the right-hand emanation (i.e. good side) of God. Thus, in a way, the Old Testament (Black Pillar) describes the severe and evil aspect of God while the New Testament (White Pillar) represents His good and compassionate aspect. On face value these two (the Hebrew and Christian) may seem to be altogether different gods, but they are eternally united by the Greater Deity which transcends these dual contraries.

However, Compassion is not only to be directed towards our fellow men, and especially towards those who deserves it less. It is more so supposed to be directed towards ourselves, especially towards the lowliest parts or ourselves, the personal demons or qlippoth of the subconscious. And as towards any transgressor or evildoer, compassion must be tempered by severity. This is “that Great Arcanum, the proper equilibrium of mercy and severity, for either unbalanced is not good; unbalanced severity is cruelty and oppression; unbalanced mercy is but weakness and would permit evil to exist unchecked, thus making itself as it were the accomplice of that evil.” (Neophyte Ceremony of the Golden Dawn).

Remember Christ who “did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). That is, he didn’t only bring compassion but severity as well. Figuratively, in his left hand he held his heart and in his right a sword. Again we may interpret this using Freud and his controversial thoughts regarding the life and death instincts. The sword may be brought into service of the heart, in the same manner as the death instinct (thanatos) may be made to serve life. This is especially true when dealing with one’s own dark sides, the Jungian Shadow, or the qlippoth (demons) of the microcosm. The Sword of Severity must be used to hold the dark powers in check. But we mustn’t extinguish or annihilate them with our Severity – we mustn’t kill the demon with our Sword – but instead bring them into the light and the greater whole, in the name of Love. We must forgive all transgressions but not allow any more evil acts to be expressed. Only in this way may we unite our dark side with the inner light.

Thus, when analysing the dual aspects of God or the All – the Macrocosm or Universe – we should foremost do it towards ourselves. It is in Man or the Microcosm that this division is the most apparent and alarming. It is Man who commits the most atrocious acts; the evilness of one human may descend further than that of God as a Whole, or the All. It is through Man that the dark powers of the universe finds most expression; nevertheless it is still part of Divine Intention and Will, manifesting in the form most suited for that purpose. This is no strange thing, considering that Matter according to Lurian Qabalah is the most fallen and thus “evil”. Through the shattering of the vessels in the process of creation, these shells fell down and mixed with the Kingdom (Malkuth) and made it the realm of the demons or qlippoth (shells). Man is a “child of earth” to use Golden Dawn terminology. The name Adam means “of earth”. Man’s realm is that of Assiah, the World of Action. Thus the qlippotic forces easily grab or even obsess our being.

As humans we are basically shattered beings. The Great Work of Alchemy aims at re-uniting ourselves into a coherent whole. In this way we as the Microcosm will better mirror the Macrocosm and thus receive true Illumination. At the same time we will also help restoring the Greater World from its fallen and divided state. This is the task of Mankind, living in the World. To do that we must first recognize our dark and evil side and reconcile it with our bright and good side. For this to happen we must bring back our projections from our fellow men and start looking at ourselves instead. Instead of looking four faults in our neighbour we must start searching for our own flaws in the deepest recesses of our subconscious.

If we fail in doing this; if we refuse to acknowledge any personal evil and only recognize our goodness, that doesn’t mean that there is no evil inside of us. On the contrary, through blissful ignorance evil will take a greater part of our nature, even if we are unconscious of its expression. Instead we find ever more faults in our neighbour, masking the fact that it is our own neurosis – not that of the other person – which motivates our condemnation. In short, we develop a stern and severe character, that is an unbalanced Severity. But through Compassion, strengthened or tempered with Severity, and through introspection may we fulfil our great task – that Great Work – of truly rooting out the evil inside of us. This is an esoteric interpretation of the New Covenant.

S∴R∴

Frimureriets förhållande till traditionen

2012-01-09T23:33:00.024+01:00

Jüri Lina, den estniske esoterikern och antisionisten som mest har gjort sig ökänd såsom konspirationsteoretiker och historierevisionist (läs förintelseförnekare), för en i synnerhet obevekelig kamp mot Frimureriet. Detta har han gjort i diverse filmer och genom sina två böcker Under Skorpionens tecken och Världsbyggarnas bedrägeri – frimurarnas dolda historia. Jag måste villigt erkänna att jag inte har läst någon av dessa böcker; men jag har sett filmen Ljusbringarna: Jahbulons Emissarier. Dessutom har jag läst uttalanden om hans böcker och produktbeskrivningar, etc. Av detta kan man dra den slutsatsen att Lina anser Frimureriet utgöra ett av de främsta redskapen för Den Nya Världsordningen (NWO – The New World Order). Bakom denna står sionistiska krafter som även använder sig av kommunismen som ett av sina redskap. Bolsjevismen anses ha sitt ursprung ur någon obskyr rysk Frimurareloge. Dessutom är Frimureriet styrt av Illuminaterna som ursprungligen grundades av Adam Weishaupt i Bayern. Föga förvånande för mina läsare har jag inte mycket till övers för Linas fantasier, Frimurare som jag är, även om Lina kan träffa rätt ibland i sitt forskande efter enskilda fakta.

Dessutom finner man ibland kritik från vissa Traditionalistiska läger mot Frimureriet i det att upplysningsfilosofin anses har frodats i dess Loger, såväl som liberalismens idéer. Vissa av dem har även tagit till sig Linas kritik mot Frimureriet. Såsom Traditionalist och Frimurare är det min avsikt att här göra vissa förtydliganden, utifrån den erfarenhet och kunskap som jag själv har om Frimureriet.

Först och främst måste man komma ihåg att Frimureriet inte är en homogen rörelse. Snarare är den en mycket splittrad sådan. Dels har vi den stora uppdelningen mellan det franska Frimureriet å ena sida och det brittiska Frimureriet å den andra (det svenska Frimureriet erkänner idag endast det senare). Det var också inom det franska Frimureriet som radikala politiska idéer fick frodas, medan man i brittiska Frimurareloger förbjöd diskussioner om politik (en princip som även gäller i det svenska Frimureriet). Sedan har vi dessutom det s.k. ”fringe” (eller ytterkants) Frimureriet som inte är erkänt av varken det franska eller brittiska Frimureriet.

För det andra så finns det ett esoteriskt (eller mystiskt) Frimureri och ett s.k. ”blå loge” Frimureri (även kallat Johannesfrimureri), varav det senare mest ägnar sig åt välgörenhet och endast arbetar med Frimureriets tre första grader; det esoteriska Frimureriet tillhör det s.k. ”högregrads-frimureriet”. I både Frankrike och i synnerhet Tyskland frodades det esoteriska högregrads Frimureriet. Såsom Johannesfrimureriet i Sverige härstammar från Frankrike härstammar det svenska högregradssystemet (vilket är esoteriskt i sin grund) delvis från Frankrike men mestadels från Tyskland. I ytterkanterna av frimureriet (det s.k. ”fringe” frimureriet) hittar vi de mest uttalade esoteriska logerna, men dessa är som sagt inte erkända av det formella Frimureriet.

I Tyskland utvecklades mycket intressanta Rosenkorsiska frimureriska högregradssystem som bekämpade Illuminati-ordens form av ultraliberalism. Mest framträdande av dessa var det alkemiska sällskapet Gold und Rosenkreutz Orden. Rosenkorsarna var traditionalister, så ock mycket av övrigt högregrads-frimureri. Svenska frimurare håller hårt på sina traditioner. Frimureriet är självt en representant för Den Ursprungliga Traditionen enligt Traditionalismens fader René Guénon. I detta håller jag med honom.

Även om det verkar som att Adam Weishaupt var inspirerad av Frimureriet när han organiserade De Bayerska Illuminati så var varken han eller hans ordenssällskap en egentlig Frimurareorden. Den var aldrig erkänd av varken de franska eller brittiska Storlogerna. Man måste akta sig för att blanda äpplen med päron. Sålunda har jag inte mycket till övers för Jüri Linas slutsatser i det här fallet, lika lite som jag har mycket till övers för Weishaupt, Karl Marx eller Lenin.

Angående den påstådda sionistiska kontrollen av Frimureriet så är det ett faktum att Frimureriets högregradssystem i nästan samtliga fall är kristet. Svenska Frimurare Orden (SFMO) avkräver en kristen tro av sina kandidater. Judar påstås ha skapat frimureriet enligt Lina, men han väljer att bortse från det faktum att judar har förvägrats medlemskap i just frimureriets högregradssystem, i synnerhet i Tyskland. Man tvingades att bilda separata judiska loger, den mest berömda i Frankfurt-am-Main 1807 kallad L’Aurore Naissante.

Även de tyska Rosenkorsarna, och i synnerhet Gold und Rosenkreutz Orden, var skeptiska till judar som medlemmar i sin skara och många var t.o.m. direkt antisemitiska. Därför bildades så småningom ett nytt Rosenkorsisk sällskap, vilket schismerade ur Gold und Rosenkreutz, som tillät judar och kristna att arbeta i samma Loger, de s.k. Asiatiske Bröderne. Det fanns loger från båda dessa Rosenkorsiska grupperingar i Sverige, och de var varandras ärkefiender här såväl som i Tyskland.

Frimureriets egentliga historia och ursprung kommer inte kunna finnas bland sionister utan i Storbrittaniens adel. Lika mycket som jag anser Jüri Linas konspirationsidéer vara fantasifoster så anser många seriösa historiker det vara fantasier att tro att Frimureriet härstammar från Tempelherre-Orden, vilket är en vanlig mytisk historiebeskrivning i Frimureriets högregradssystem som innehåller mycket Tempelherre-mystik. I mina ögon är Frimureriet ursprungligen en kristen domän, inte judisk. Judarna, och andra trossamfund, kom senare till Frimureriet. Det utvecklades t.o.m. ateistiska loger i Frankrike.

Förvisso talas det mycket om Tempelbygget i Frimureriet (Salomons Tempel) men detta gör inte Frimureriet judiskt för det, ännu mindre sionistiskt. Vi får inte förglömma att Templet i Jerusalem var en helig plats både för Judar och för Kristina. Denna plats figurerar mycket i Nya Testamentet. Tempelherre-Orden grundades uppå Morias topp och tog sitt namn Pauperes commilitones Christi templique Salomonis (”Kristi och Salomos tempels fattiga riddare”) för att bekräfta sin andliga länk med denna plats. Sålunda talar Frimureriets byggnadstekniska symbolik i förhållande till Salomos Tempel snarare för denna påstådda koppling till Tempelherre-Orden som ett historiskt ursprung.

Inom Frimureriet kan vi se en demarkationslinje gå mellan upplysningsfilosofi (dvs. materialism och liberalism) på ena sidan och traditionalism (motupplysning och esoterik) på den andra. Inom De Blå Logerna eller Johannesfrimureriet frodades de nya ”moderna” idéerna om liberalism och upplysningsfilosofi, medan det i de olika högregrads-systemen (det ”skottska” och tempelherremystiken) frodades en motståndsrörelse mot upplysningen. Alltså kan man se en inneboende motsättning mellan olika synsätt.

I Sverige kan vi eventuellt se ett tecken på denna skiljelinje och inbyggda konflikt, i och med Anckarströms kungamord (på Gustav III). Anckarström själv var inte frimurare men konspiratörerna var det. Bland dessa fanns eventuellt även Kungens bror, Hertig Carl, som var Stormästare och reformatör för Svenska Frimurare Orden, tillika övertygad esoteriker. Även Gustav III var frimurare och ordens beskyddare. Men många ansåg att Gustav gick för långt i sin liberalisering av Sverige; Gustav III:s ”revolution” föregick den franska och hade en del liknande innehåll, bl.a. adelns minskade privilegier.

Europas esoteriska historia är oftast synonymt med europas adel; de flesta hermetiska alkemister och högmagiker antingen tillhörde överklassen eller var ”anställda” av denna. Bl.a. anställde Gustav III en hovalkemist på Drottningsholm, August Nordenskiöld, som inte själv direkt var ståndslös. Sålunda kan man lätt dra den slutsatsen att de europeiska Loger som arbetade med Frimureriets högregradssystem mestadels blev ett forum för hög- och lågadel, och andra välbärgade medborgare, medan Blå Loge-frimureriet var mer öppet även för ”ofrälse”. Ordensvurmandet var mycket utbrett bland den europeiska adeln.

Alkemin, vilket måste anses representera Traditionalismen i formen av ett praktiskt hantverk, flörtade rejält med adeln och representerade det gamla feodala samhällets världsbild och dess traditionella värdegrund. Om ni vill läsa mer om detta rekommenderar jag Carl-Michael Edenborgs doktorsavhandling/bok Alkemins Skam, som beskriver detta mycket väl. Det är då inte konstigt att Rosenkorssällskap, såsom den tidigare nämda Gold- und Rosenkreutz Orden, våldsamt motsatte sig Weishaputs projekt, vilket ju var en radikal form av upplysningsfilosofi och representerade en liberalism som var något av en föregångare till Marxismen.

Sammanfattningsvis ville jag med dessa ord ha sagt är att där fanns ”frimurare” och att där fanns frimurare inom samma organisation, vissa uppenbart av ädlare blod än andra. Den ”finare” kategorin av frimurare drogs ofta till esoteriken och Frimureriets högre grader, och motsatte sig våldsamt sådant som ansågs vara politiskt korrekt i diskussionerna hos de Blå Logernas salonger. Så på ett sätt är det korrekt att säga att frimureriet understödde liberalismen och upplysningsfilosofin, men samtidigt är det också lika korrekt att säga att Frimureriet representerade en institution som arbetade för att bevara den gamla, traditionella och i grunden esoteriska världsbilden.

S∴R∴

Frequently asked questions concerning the Reformation of 1999

2011-12-29T17:10:00.003+01:00

What follows is a compilation of a list of frequently asked questions regarding the General Reformation of 1999 (Reformatio anno 1999) which was initiated by the Rosicrucian Order of the Alpha et Omega® 12 years ago now. Most of these questions were originally posed to me personally more than three years ago. The majority of these questions and my answers are in most cases verbatim quotations from two discussions with members and/or representatives of other fractions of the Golden Dawn community not adhering to the said reformation, mostly by Tony DeLuce of the Rosicrucian Order of the Golden Dawn who’s valuable contribution is maked by an (*).

I originally published these discussions on this blog on 2009-11-20. Approximately 10 years after the General Reformation the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega® has initiated a Minor Reformation, according to the Rosicrucian cycles of reformations which decrees that within the 111 years cycle of a General Reformation there also should manifest a series or recurring Minor Reformations according to a 10 years cycle. This latest Minor Reformation has affected and still affects both the First (or Outer) and Second (or Inner) Orders, and in particular the latter one or the Ordo Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis® (R.R. et A.C.). Thus today I have decided to expand upon these previous discussions with four more questions which are inspired by recent assumptions made on the blogosphere regarding the reformation which needs to be addressed, as it seems that something that I have written might have contributed to a confusion regarding certain issues, creating possible misattribution to what I, the Order jurisdiction that I govern and am the official spokesperson for in Scandinavia actually represent. These latest questions that I have added today is marked by an (**). I have also taken the liberty today to expand somewhat where needed upon the original answers that I wrote up three years ago.

Thus what follows is a species of polemical debate, albeit expressed in a fraternal spirit. I have however taken the liberty to edit the original texts, amend and expand upon them somewhat, such as inserting new questions, to better be able to format the material into the classical Q & A format. It should however be made clear that my answers represent the way that the said Greater and Minor reformations have been implemented in the Scandinavian Jurisdiction, which in some minor instances might differ from how other Jurisdictions of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega® or affiliated jurisdictions might have implemented them.

Q: I would like to ask if you could give us some information regarding your personal relation and experience of the Reformation and what you hope to accomplish with this discussion.

A: First of all I’m not one of the original reformers, these being properly the Greatly Honoured Fratres L.E.S. (David Griffin) and D.L.S. (Jean-Pascal Ruggiu). But I had regular communication with one of these and to some extent served as a counsellor and adviser during the time of its genesis. I have also been one of the key people who has implemented the Reformation according to the guidelines as given by my Chiefs, namely in my own Temple Alpha et Omega No. 9 and other Temples in Sweden, and later also when the so called Cyber Temple was created in 2002 and to which we then attached the name “Harparkrat”.

I have furthermore advanced several initiates through the Grades and personally supervised their training and giving them regular counselling, as part of their initiatic process, since the middle 1990’s. Thus I have a profound experience of initiation and training of initiates both prior to and after the Reformation in 1999.

As I myself already had gone through my Outer Order process before 1999, I therefore have no personal experience of the curriculum and training from the perspective of the initiate. But my teacher and tutor in the Temple in which I was initiated through the Outer Order Grades introduced me to techniques traditionally belonging to the Second or Inner Order, such as the Supreme Ritual of the Pentagram, which I performed during this entire initiatory process. Furthermore, my own Inner Order training has taken all the benefits of the reformed curriculum of the Ordo Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis® or R.R. et A.C.

So I believe I’m quite qualified to have an educated opinion of the effectiveness and appropriateness of the Reformation. This however doesn’t mean that I won’t acknowledge anyone’s right for a difference of opinion. To be honest, I fully respect any reservations against the Reformation. I probably would have been one of its critics wouldn’t I had experienced it so closely myself. But hopefully my answers will be able to dispel all prejudices against the Reformation and give a more solid background against critics or the curious to base their own judgement.

Q: Or perhaps just bear out the fact that you are simply making rationalizations to justify your actions. But before I venture any further into my critique of your Reformation, I would like you to explain to us the general nature and some aspects of it. Am I correct in assuming that the reformation of 1999 have changed the entire initiatory system of the Golden Dawn?

A: The reformation of 1999 doesn’t change the initiatic structure at all, but instead greatly enhances it. Our initiatic rituals, even if they are not identical to the ones as found in published literature, are much alike the ones members of other Golden Dawn Orders are accustomed to, even if we have made some amendments and improvements in our effort to create a working hermetic vessel. The greatest change though lies on the individual level and personal work. As the G∴D∴ in the Outer was mainly a theoretical Order, now it is also operative magical and alchemical.

Q:** The Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega® claimes that it is being guided by a Third Order originating in Europe in its ongoing implementation of the Reformation. If one is to accept the existence of an European Third Order, does this also imply that one has to follow the lead of the Chief of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega®?

A: No, not at all! The Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega® has made it perfectly clear for everyone that it is willing to share its teachings emanating from the Third Order with Adepts from other Rosicrucian Orders, even ones belonging to the Golden Dawn community. However, we do require that they have followed the traditional formula of physical initiation and that they adhere to the obligations as contained in published rituals of the Neophyte and Adeptus Minor, in particular concerning upholding the sanctity of secret and unpublished material.

Q:** Does the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega® consider all published Golden Dawn material to no longer be valid teachings?

A: No, not at all. Much of what has been published is still valid and genuine teachings that may contribute to the evolution of the initiate. However, since the General Reformation of 1999 much if not most of the published materials originally belonging to the Second Order has been transferred to the Outer Order (the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn®) or the lowest level of the Adeptus Minor Grade. In the reformed Outer Order the initiate will now encounter these previously exalted teachings and magical formulae on an relatively early level. In the sub-grades of the Adeptus Minor Grade the initiate will work even further, and in more detail at that, with traditional Golden Dawn Theurgy, as found in published literature, besides being presented with an entirely “new” albeit traditional curriculum which is secret. In the senior Grades of the Second Order the initiate will encounter teachings and magical formulae which are traditionally Rosicrucian and yet secret, going beyond the modern restraints of the “Golden Dawn Tradition”.

Q:** Am I to assume that all of the published rituals and lessons have been rewritten to make the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega® completely secret again? And have you abandoned the post 1888 reformation Golden Dawn system entirely?

A: No, this is not an correct assumption. As I said previously, we have not abandoned the Golden Dawn system, neither of Theurgy nor of Initiation. We still work the beautiful Theurgic system as handed down to us from S.L. MacGregor Mathers and W.W. Westcott, although with due corrections and considerable additions. Even if a reformation does changes to a system – rearranges, corrects and cleans it – we have not thrown away the babe with the bath water.

I cannot say in any detail what changes has actually been done to the reformed curriculum. However, and as I said, the published lectures of the First and Second Orders of the Golden Dawn are still being used in the reformed Order. In the process of adaptation to the First or Outer Order many of them have been amended, corrected and expanded upon. Most of the Knowledge Lectures of the Outer Order have been rearranged and expanded as compared to the ones published by Israel Regardie and R.G. Torrens.

When it comes to our Initiation Rituals, they still follow the standard Golden Dawn protocol, as found in the original Cypher Mss., and in some cases even follows it better than the original ones written up by MacGregor Mathers. However, they have been partially developed and adapted according to the reformation. Furthermore, all old passwords have been abandoned and replaced by new ones as a consequence of the profanation. However, despite these changes the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega® still consider itself working with the Golden Dawn System of Theurgy and Initiation.

Q:** Are you claiming that all modern developments of Golden Dawn post 1888 are wrong, including the works of MacGregor Mathers and Westcott, and that Golden Dawn needs to be restructured according to the precepts of the Third Order? Is it your aim to abandon all developments and to retrace the system back to the 17th Century?

A: No, we don’t want to take the system back to the 17th Century. The aim of the General Reformation, Anno 1999, as well as our current Minor Reformation, is to take both the system and the Order into the 21th Century. We have adapted the system to meet the requirements of modern students of Magic and Alchemy. Furthermore, not all developments post 1888 are dead wrong. Most of what was developed either by Westcott or Mathers, or by both in co-operation, is still workable although there are errors in their teachings, as presented in published literature, which needs correction, both on the levels of scholarly research and of practical application of formulae.

As a Traditionalist Order the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega® consider it to be imperative to receive guidance from the Third Order in the reformation of the Golden Dawn System of Theurgy and Initiation. Although there are aspects of some developments made by Westcott and Mathers, as presented in published literature, which has strayed to far from what the Third Order once considered to be acceptable, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the entire system as presented by these two 1888 reformers goes contrary to what the Third Order considers to be correct application of the Hermetic and Rosicrucian Tradition.

That said, we do need to be cautious against any modern developments made post 1900. Although the Stella Matutina contributed to the Golden Dawn Tradition in some respects, in others it strayed away to far from the original intention, such as the inclusion of a foreign Grade system. However, we have to be even more cautious against recent developments made by individuals that haven’t even gone through the initiatic system properly and according to traditional protocol. In our post-modern era there are many irregular teachings being spread construed by self-proclaimed representatives of the Golden Dawn and Rosicrucian Traditions.

Becuse of the fact that much of the Golden Dawn Tradition is public domain, anyone may create his own interpretation of it and develop it freely and further without the necessary containing structure and context of proper and regular initiation. The fact remains that you need traditional initiation with authentic lineage to fully make use of and understand the Golden Dawn System of Theurgy and Initiation. However, this does not mean that all developments are invalid; some suggestions made by certain modern authors are quite intersting and actually contributes to the overall Golden Dawn Tradition. So there are exceptions. What I am saying though is that we have to be extremely cautious today as the true gems that are presented in our post-modern age comes extremely far between.

Q: You mentioned previously that since 1999 the Outer Order of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega®, i.e. the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn®, is an operative magical and alchemical Order. But how has the curriculum and training of the initiate actually been changed after the Reformation?

A: The curriculum has been changed to the extent that much of the documents previously only provided for Adepti Minori or 5°=6° of the R.R. et A.C. on the sub-grade levels of Neophyte Adeptus Minor (N.A.M.) and Zelator Adeptus Minor (Z.A.M.), referred to as “Rituals A to Z” and “Flying Rolls”, as published in books by Aleister Crowley, Israel Regardie and Francis King, have been distributed to members of the Outer Order, the Golden Dawn, at certain Grade levels. In some cases these has been amended in the process to better fit with the Outer Order terminology and structure.

However some aspects of the old R.R. et A.C. material, as published by Crowley, Regardie, Torrens and King, is still properly reserved for the N.A.M. level of the Reformed Inner Order. Some of it, and unpublished (or partially published) original manuscripts from the original Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega, are being implemented to the relatively low Z.A.M. level. Beyond that (i.e. from the level of Theoricus Adeptus Minor or Th.A.M. and onwards) we present original and traditional material previously not used in the R.R. et A.C.

Furthermore the initiates of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega® follows a very rigid regimen of gradual magical workings as related to the prior standards and correspondences as set forth by the original Golden Dawn of the 1888 year reformation, i.e. following the path and ascension of the Tree of Life. So a Practicus of our Order, as an example, invokes all forces relating to Water and the Sephirah Hod – nothing else nor anything less. You will see the same with all the other Elemental Grades, as invocation starts off with the Zelator Grade.

Our Neophytes prepare themselves for the future work of invocation. This is done with Lesser Rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram, and the Ritual of the Middle Pillar. As initiates of the Elemental Grades they learn to perform the Greater Pentagram and Hexagram Rituals. As portal members they learn the Supreme Pentagram Ritual. As Neophyte Adepti Minori they work with the Planetary Hexagram workings inside the Vault.

In the Elemental Sub-Grades of the Adeptus Minor Grade they work with each Enochian Tablet (Elemental, Planetary and Zodiacal), and in much more detail and depth compared to the Outer Order Workings, plus even more interesting operations that I cannot divulge here.

So, as you see, there is a very conscious and deliberate structure in the Magical training of the initiate that, in my experience, is superior to the old structure of training. On the level of Adeptus Major, which also breaks up into Sub-Grades, we amongst else train our initiates in magical evocation, i.e. the much misunderstood but highly imperative workings with the averse forces. These averse forces are of course the repressed “demons” or complexes of the unconscious of the initiate. If successful, this naturally transforms the initiate into an Exempt Adept, free from his own irrational and infantile desires.

This clearly follows the Abramelin formula as described in the old and venerable grimoire called The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage translated by S.L. MacGregor Mathers, one of the reformers of 1888. The six months preparation as described in the second book corresponds to the Elemental Grades and Portal. The convocation of the good spirits corresponds with the Adeptus Minor Grade, which of course should result in the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, while the conjuration of the Evil Spirits is corresponding with the Adeptus Major Grade.

Q: Could you give us a more detailed description of how the Grade work and practical magic has been implemented since the Reformation?

A: I cannot divulge anything more about how the curriculum and Grade work has been implemented in the Inner Order of the Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis®, but I can say something more about the work and study being done in the Outer Order of the G∴D∴ according to the so called “Elemental Grades”. This structure is quite simple and is as follows:

Zelator 1°=10°, corresponds to the Sephira Malkuth on the Tree of Life, the Element of Earth and the plane of the Elements. The initiate thus learns to invoke and banish the Element of Earth, and the so called Earth Triplicity of the Zodiac, i.e. Capricorn, Taurus and Virgo. As this Grade relates to the plane of the Elements the initiate learns meditative techniques, which involves relaxation and awareness of the physical body.

Theoricus 2°=9°, corresponds to the Sephira Yesod, the Element of Air and the Planet of Luna. The initiate therefore learns to invoke and banish the Element of Air, and the Air Triplicity of the Zodiac, i.e. Libra, Aquarius and Gemini. The initiate is also required to work magically with the Planets of Luna and Saturn. As this Grade introduces the initiate to the astral plane he or she learns techniques of astral projection and the formulation of the astral “body of light”. This Grade also involves breathing exercises and mind awareness meditation.

Practicus 3°=8°, corresponds to the Sephira Hod, the Element of Water and the Planet of Mercury. The initiate then learns to invoke and banish the Element of Water, and the Water Triplicity of the Zodiac, i.e. Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces. The initiate is also required to work magically with the Planets of Mercury and Jupiter. Because of the mercurial nature of this Grade the initiate learns different techniques of meditation, concentration and the training of will. This Grade also introduces the initiate to the arts of divination, through the special method called “geomancy”.

Philosophus 4°=7°, corresponds to the Sephira Nezach, the Element of Fire and the Planet of Venus. The initiate obviously learns to invoke and banish the Element of Fire, and the Fire Triplicity of the Zodiac, i.e. Aries, Leo and Sagittarius. The initiate is also required to work magically with the Planets of Venus and Mars. Because of the venusian and fiery nature of this Grade the initiate also learns to practice the art of devotion of the deity. He or she works further with divination based on the Tarot and Astrology (i.e. making horoscopes). This Grade also introduces the initiate to the art of exorcism and thaumaturgy.

Portal (Senior Philosophus), corresponds to the Veil of Paroketh, the Element of Spirit (or Quintessence) and the Planet of Sol. In a likewise manner the initiate learns to invoke and banish the Element of Spirit, and all of the Four Elements in union and synthesis. When it comes to astrological magic the initiate learns to invoke all of the 12 Zodiacal Signs together in a balanced disposition, and also the Planet of Sol (which actually involves the invocation of the previous Six Planets). Thus the initiate on this level strives through his theurgical work to reunite the differentiated forces of the Elements, Planets and Zodiac into a coherent whole.

Neophyte Adeptus Minor 5°=6°, corresponds to Tiphareth, the Element of Spirit and the Planet of Sol. Here the process of integration of the Planetary Forces are taken a step further through the medium of the Vault of the Adepti and the prescribed rituals workings attached to this Tomb of C.R.C.

One also has to take into consideration that the initiate not only learns to invoke and banish, but also to skry into the corresponding plane of that force and also to use the invoked force in consecration of physical objects. Scrying involves the use of ritual, symbol and imagination to make an inner contact with the invoked force through clairvoyance.

Consecration of objects involves the creation and magical charging of ritual tools. Thus the Outer Order initiate is required to create a set of three magical wands, each consecrated to the hierarchy (Elements, Planets or Zodiac) to be later used when invoking a force. The initiate also creates symbols in the Golden Dawn Tradition referred to as “flashing tablets” which basically is a species of talismans painted in the appropriate colours and symbols. This creation and consecration of magical implements are brought to its peak at the level of N.A.M. of the 5°=6° Grade.

Q: This seems to be a quite structured framework of teaching and working. But also a bit rigid in my opinion. Even when being compared to the old Z.A.M. and Th.A.M. examinations of the R.R. et A.C.

A: This is an important point which I’m glad that you brough up. The curriculum in the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega® is not set in stone, as in non-variable. The tutor-student relationship is paramount in our teaching system. Whatever a student does and whenever he or she does it when it comes to actual work is someting between these two persons, and nobody other’s business. It is the tutor who finally decides if someone is eligible for advancement. And no student is alike. Therefore there of course is head room for changes and alterations of curriculum if it is juged and agreed upon that the student would benefit from it. The curriculum as presented here is a general guidline which has proven to be opitimal for most students. It is also a minimal requirenment what a student must master in our Order in the normal case scenario. But the tutor has the final word when it comes to the exact requirements.

Q: The Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega® professes to teach the Science of Hermes, i.e. about Alchemy. In what way has that been implemented since 1999?

A: The initiate is introduced to some very basic spagyrical or alchemical operations already in the senior Grades of the Outer Order. As an Adeptus Minor 5°=6° he or she works with the Lesser Work or the Circulatum Minor, the production of the Plant Stone. In the Adeptus Major 6°=5° Grade the work concerns with the Great Work, or Ciruculatum Major, according to the Dry Way of the Black Dragon. In the Adeptus Exemptus 7°=4° Grade the work mainly deals with the Great Work according to the Wet Way of the Red Dragon.

Internal Alchemy, the true jewel and capstone of the old continental Rosicrucian tradition, is the subject of the three Magisteria of the Magister Templi 8°=3°, Magus 9°=2° and Ipsissimus 10°=1° Grades. But minor and basic aspect of Internal Alchemy of a preparatory nature are already implemented in the sub-grades of the Adeptus Minor 5°=6°. The first proper introduction to Internal Alchemy, which echoes that which is later practiced in the Third Order, is made at the level of the Adeptus Major 7°=4° Grade.

Q: What in your opinion has been accomplished with the Reformation of 1999?

A: In my own personal experience and that of my students, I know the difference between how it was used to be and how it is now after 1999. As I said, the Outer Order process is now greatly enhanced, but at the same time “weeds out” the unprepared. Granted, the initiatic process is much more testing and tries the candidate to a greater extent, but that is for the good in my opinion.

Some leave because they cannot handle the forces, i.e. out of spiritual immaturity. Others leave because of the time consuming required work and study, i.e. out of laziness. The rest are much more tempered and prepared for the Greater Initiation of the Adeptus Minor.

Considering the advanced workings of the reformed Ordo Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis® this magical and alchemical preparation in the Outer Order is both required and needed. So the reformed curriculum is certainly not for anyone interested in the G∴D∴; it is not for the armchair occultist. As a matter of fact, it requires perseverance, courage, determination, maturity, seriousity and sincerity. Following the required work, it is extremely difficult to advance just by chance or outer appearance, and intellectual capacity alone.

Q: This magical training as proposed by the Reformation seems to be, in my opinion, way to advanced for most Outer Order members. It seems a bit hazardous, don’t you think, to expose a beginner initiate to this kind of magical work?

A: I wouldn’t say that it is more dangerous to be an initiate today after the Reformation. But it is definitely more difficult, and creates lots of stress in the life of the initiate. However he or she is protected by the egregore and current of the Temple and Order.

It has always been the fact, both before and after the 1999 reformation, that the initiate is introduced to the forces of the Grade (which is a blend or amalgamation of Elemental, Planetary, Zodiacal and Sephirotic currents) through ritual of initiaton by the medium of the Hierophant and the Temple. The Grade Rituals serves to be a species of catalyst which awakens the corresponding forces within the Sphere or Aura of the initiate. This fact makes him or her able to work with these forces and transform him- or herself through their agent, which is always linked to the currents invoked prior in the Grade Initiation Ritual.

Furthermore, the initiate is under strict supervision of his or her tutor or mentor, which is a must with this kind of advanced curriculum. Any signs of unwanted effects are easily spotted; the initiatic process is properly adjusted, checked, suspended or discontinued. My experience is that the initiate, either him- or herself intuitively or by necessity, knows when the obstacle is to great, be it the sheer workload or spiritual unpreparedness.

Knowing that the initiatic process of the Golden Dawn in itself is quite intense, if one is dedicated to the path, it is even more so and greatly enhanced now since 1999. The archetypal synchronistic events are even more emphasized. Each initiation (or advancement) is a species of a deliberate crisis for the initiate; it may bring forth spiritual development or regression. Even more so now. But as I said, the mere structure of the work, together with close tutorship, the Grade rites and the protective egregore, makes this a great opportunity for the sincere student.

Q:* But if I may contribute to this discussion, there is another dimension to all of this. I believe that placing Inner Order teachings into the Outer Order may perhaps involve a misunderstanding of the actual processes involved and there is much more possible in the Outer Order than an intellectual foundation.

The Outer Order process is greatly facilitated by introducing a sequence of symbols to the Initiate in a precise predetermined order. It is very important that the Initiate complete the Outer Order process in the prescribed manner before being introduced to the symbol system of the traditional Inner Order. Otherwise, the intended process is difficult to unfold in the consciousness of the Initiate. Why do you think the Zelator was pledged to never reveal anything regarding the grade to a Neophyte, Theoricus to Zelator, etc. and most importantly between the Outer and Inner Orders?

What you have done, at least in part, is like putting the last chapter of a Mystery Novel in the front of the book somewhat spoiling the ending for those who don’t want to know before hand. So are you not aware that by moving published Inner Order material into the Outer Order, you are impacting the process that was designed to occur and instead actually moving right into some of the fundamental Work that was designed to occur in the Inner Order?

A: It is my firm conviction, based upon my own experience and that of mentoring initiates through all of the Grades, that working with traditional techniques that once were solely reserved for Adepts already in the Outer Order doesn’t spoil anything for the candidate; it enhances the initiatory process. Believe me it does. The initiations give the proper incitement for your own work with the forces corresponding to the Grade. The initiate actually takes off from where the initiation ritual started. After the Reformation the initiate can take full advantage of his or her initiation or advancement ceremony.

Thus, this use of traditional Inner Order techniques doesn’t stand in any contradiction to what the initiation and advancement ceremonies of the Outer Order actually present. On the contrary it makes it even more logical. There has of course occurred some inconsistencies but these have been dealt with in a most satisfactory manner. The final result is a much more enhanced and substantially more comprehensive Outer Order.

Moreover, since the 1999 reformation it is a necessary prerequisite to know and understand basic techniques for invocation and banishing of Elemental, Planetary and Zodiacal forces, to be able to fully take advantage of the even more advanced training of today’s reformed Ordeo Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis®. One has to remember that not only has the Outer Order gone through a reformation but even more so the Inner Order.

Basically the fundamental structure of the Outer Order is still the same. More has been added to it in the way of theory and practice to enhance both the education and the training of the magician. But the Inner Order is fundamentally changed since the Reformation. This however doesn’t mean that one stop performing traditional Inner Order magical operations. They are still there, but the ones of a more basic level has been properly placed into the Outer so that the Adept can focus on more advanced and detailed work in the Inner.

So in my opinion the magical formulae in the Outer Order after the Reformation mainly consist of very fundamental and basic theurgy, i.e. the invocation of primary forces belonging to the hierarchies of the Five Elements, Seven Planets and 12 Zodical Signs. This is not advanced magic at all; this is fundamental magic which properly belongs to the Outer Order. Inner Order workings should be reserved for more complex and detail formulae, such as invocation and scrying into very specified planes of existance belonging to sub-forces, etc.

This means that since the Reformation the magical workings of the Outer Order are interlinked to the workings in the Inner Order; the first naturally progresses into the second. But besides this further and thorough use of traditional Golden Dawn Theurgy, the Inner Order practical workings involves traditional theurgical formulas which precedes the particular Golden Dawn tradition, alchemical processes and energetic manipulation of the subtle body which prepares the Adept for the advanced inner alchemical work of the Third Order.

When Golden Dawn was first created in 1888 nobody in the H∴O∴G∴D∴ had any direct contact with any Third Order. And when MacGregor Mathers eventually made this personal contact in 1892, even he only received portions of it. Now when the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega® finally has received this in full, suddenly the whole initiatic system comes into new light. When you build new levels or stores into your house, you have to make sure that the foundation can hold this new weight, and if it doesn’t you must build a new foundation or at least enhance it. That’s what we have been doing following the 1999 General Reformation. Change one level and you must rearrange the whole system.

So today our Order has the unique advantage of being able to perceive the whole Inner (Second) and Outer (First) Order system from the viewpoint of the Third Order. So please understand and also respect that we percieve things a little bit differently in the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega® and other Orders.

Q:* I do respect that G.H. Frater L.E.S. has received some additional knowledge that he believes is from a 3rd Order member, etc. and that from this knowledge the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega® believes it should change the first two Order structure.

But even if it all may sound nice at face value, I cannot help asking myself if it all doesn’t boil down to the fact that what you have done with your Reformation is that you have moved what have been traditional Second Order symbols and rituals into the Outer Order curriculum only because of the publication by Regardie, etc.?

I do understand the impact of the publication, etc. but surely very few Neophytes have extensively studied such a complex system before their Initiation to significantly impact their experience and the impact of the actual Ritual performed by trained officers will have their effectiveness.

A: About the changes we have been forced to do, yes I confess that they were made out of necessity. Each 111-year cycle requires a general reformation of the Order and of the tradition. Why? Times changes. People also. The Order must change with the times to be able to accommodate the students of today.

Look for example between the 1777 (Gold- und Rosenkreutz) and 1888 (Golden Dawn) reformations. In the Gold- und Rosenkretuz Orden theurgy were only taught in its highest degree, that of Magus. Before you were considered to be fit to wield the magical forces you had to produce the Philosophers Stone in the Alchemical laboratory. Golden Dawn changed all that 111 years later. They moved theurgy from the Third Order (Magus) into the Second. Why? Everybody was reading Eliphas Levi and Francis Barrett, et al. The times had changed and Victorian students expected to learn magic on an earlier level than ever before.

Besides this, alchemy was considered a spurious “science” at best, charlatanism at worst. It was taken away and replaced with conceptions of a “spiritual alchemy”, a tradition that at least in part is still propagated in the Paul Foster Case lineage. Suddenly everything, even theurgy was considered to be part of the Great Work. Later S.L. MacGregor Mathers received alchemical transmissions from the continental Adepts known as “The Third Order”, but this material was reserved for the highest grade of adepthood, and no mention of it was ever made (remember the P.F. Case and Moina Mathers affair?). Why? His transmissions were of the Internal Alchemical tradition, i.e. sexual in nature. During Victorian times this was a hot potato, to say the very least. So the 1888 (and the 1893) reformations turned everything upside down; therugy was now taught before alchemy, which became the capstone of the system.

The 1999 General Reformation follows this same spirit. It has forced the tradition to adapt to modern times. Many interested in occultism knows, at least in theory, how to perform a full pentagram or hexagram ritual. Almost everyone has seen the Pentagram and Hexagram printed with full correspondences when reading books which means they already have been exposed to these symbols. The most logical step is to present a new teaching curriculum that takes this fact into account. That’s the raison d’être of a General Reformation.

So here we are at the present state of affairs. Because of the wide distribution today of books by prominent authors the Golden Dawn Tradition of the R.R. et A.C. is now public domain. If you enter schools like B.O.T.A. (Builders of the Adytum – P.F. Case’s spin-off Golden Dawn-style Order) and O.T.O. you at a very early stage of your studies encounter symbol systems traditionally reserved only for Adepti of the R.R. et A.C. according to the 1888 reformation. Should today’s Golden Dawn present anything less?

The modern day Golden Dawn Order must stand prepared to accommodate modern students of the mysteries, which are much more prepared compared to Neophytes of old, thanks to writings of Regardie, Crowley, Fortune and Case. Actually modern students of today expect and deserves a much more thorough magical education and training in the Outer Order.

Q:* By properly administering the Outer Order process, I adamantly disagree the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn would be administering anything less, on the contrary, it would be providing something very few Orders actual do…

Regarding O.T.O., they are not nor do they claim to be working the G∴D∴ system. They are more of a Thelemic Freemasonry group and do not have much if anything to do with the Golden Dawn though I suspect through the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light one could trace some common ancestry.

Regarding the B.O.T.A. they do not introduce Inner Order Ritual Work or Symbols in the Outer Order. Paul Case did, via his lesson material, provide some of the key Zelator and Theoricus Adeptus Minor Inner Order methods, i.e. coloring a Tarot Deck, Skrying with Tattwas, building a body of light, sound and color, etc. but this was not designed to be a Outer Order process and if used in conjuction with such would not interupt it by the careful selection of the material used.

A: In the B.O.T.A. you basically learn the Minutum Mundum diagram as a Associate Builder, complete with the correct correspondences including the relation between sound and colour, which was 5°=6° arcana years before Case became a member of the Rosicrucian Order of the A.O., and that even before entering Chapter work (i.e. Temple work). The Minutum Mundum is one of the central symbols in the 5°=6° ritual, perhaps the most significant symbol in the classical Golden Dawn, not revealed in the 1888 reformation until properly attaining the 5°=6°. I would say that this constitutes an unorthodox way to do things, wouldn’t you agree?

Regarding O.T.O. members are encouraged to read Crowley’s works, including the periodical organ The Equinox. They even have continued to print new editions and contemporary issues. There’s lots of 5°=6° symbolism in the Equinox journal. It also is quite common to see O.T.O. members seek initiation into a Golden Dawn Order.

Q:* As I stated previously, there are no symbols or rituals that are provided in the Associate Curriculum or Outer Order System of B.O.T.A. that would disturb the Outer Order Process. There is material in the correspondence course that is/was part of the traditional Zelator and Theoricus Adeptus Minor curriculum but has been careful selected to not interfere with the process.

Yes, times do change and so do Orders, etc. but if one is going to actually administer the Outer Order Process, and you are aware of how this process unfolds, then one cannot simply place Pentagram and Hexagram Rituals in the Outer Order.

But doing so doesn’t mean the rest of your Order is completely damaged and you cannot be functional, it just means the Outer Order Process as it was designed to Work will be significantly impacted and instead you are in affect providing the Intellectual Foundation in the Outer Order and moving the actual Work of the Inner Order into the Outer.

A: Yes, you are quite correct. Today we don’t follow the original intention of the Outer Order, but that’s the point. The Outer Order has received a new and more important role as a preparatory vehicle for the reformed Inner Order. That doesn’t mean that the initiatory rituals and the unfolding process have been severed (as I suspect you imply with your word “impacted”), on the contrary it has been greatly enhanced.

I have had the opportunity to see the initiatory process first hand and how it unfolds both before and after the reformation, before as an initiate and Hierophant and after as a Hierophant. The process was very alive and vivid by it self prior to 1999 just by providing initiations, but I have seen the process being enhanced and even more aligned according to the archetypal forces of the Grades in my own students after the reformation. I cannot see that the initiatory process of the Outer Order has been changed in tone or content in any way, or that it is hampered or in any way disturbed by performing corresponding pentagram and hexagram invocations. All that I have been able to observe is that it has become even more profound than ever before. Others maybe would call it more intense...

Furthermore, regarding the Greater and Supreme Pentagram Rituals used in the training of the Outer Order initiate. These rituals are in fact used in the corresponding initiation rituals. The Outer Order members have been exposed to these since the 1888 reformation, both in attendance of the said rituals and also intellectually as these were plainly shown printed in the loan copies of the corresponding documents, with attached instructions of how to trace them. This is a good exemple of how the 1999 reformation has enhanced symbols and formula already present in the Outer Order. What has been added to the magical fauna in the Outer Order since 1999 is the introduction of the equally advanced Greater Hexagram Rituals. We have choosed to do this to further enhance the initiatory process to also involve Astrological Magic, not mere Elemental.

Yes, I do understand that the process was supposed to be more gentle and subtle in its unfoldment, compared to today, but as I said before, things has changed during last Century and the initiate today stands more prepared to receive the impact of initiation as it is today in our Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega®. Besides this, our egregore is greatly enhanced by its contact with the Third Order and this provides additional protection for its initiates. This has to be taken into account and not be underestimated.

Q:* No, I was not suggesting that you have severed the Outer Order process, only that you are not working the Outer Order Process as it was intended. The Outer Order process is facilitated by placing certain Symbols into the consciousness of the Candidate in a predetermined manner at precise intervals in the process. The unfolding of these symbols in the consciousness takes time and if symbols are utilized out of Order this interrupts and lessens the impact when key Inner Order symbols are later presented at the appropriate time having a profound effect on the Candidate.

It has nothing to do with this process being gentler, it has to do with how the system works. Basically what G.H. Frater L.E.S. has done is something similar to what Crowley did with the A∴A∴ – Crowley did away with the Elemental Rituals completely – G.H. Frater L.E.S. has chosen to begin the Magical Work using Inner Order symbols and rituals in the Outer Order foregoing the Outer Order process and using the Elemental Rituals as intellectual training.

A: Well, it’s true that the Reformation has changed the intention of the Outer Order somewhat. But this doesn’t mean that we have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. The truth in this matter is that the changes actually made has been the least “severe” in the Outer as compared to the Inner, not to say the Third Order.

The Outer Order rituals are still there, more or less compareble to the ones in published works, and they still present symbols that are impregnated into the Aura of the candidate. These symbols are then being enhanced and worked upon through the personal Grade work as presented in the Reformed curriculum and training, using magical formulae formerly used in the Inner Order pre reformatio, such as the pentagram and hexagram rituals. In our opinion this process of unfoldment necessarily must have a personal level attached to it as well as a group ritual level. The one does not exclude the other.

Furthermore we also believe that the modern candidate is prepared to meet certain symbols earlier now than was the case some 120 years ago. I must repeat and stress the undeniable fact that the material prima of the candidate has evolved during this time interval that necessitates that the initiatory process likewise must adapt and evolve accordingly.

But I feel that we have reached a point where we won’t shed any more light on this matter without further polemicising and comparing contrasting opinions. Let’s just finally agree to disagree.

Q: Fair enough. Is there anything more that you would like to say before we end this debate?

A: Nothing else but simply stating that it’s up to my readers now to judge for themselves if all this is mere rationalization concocted up in my own mind, or if my words bear the mark of someone with experience.

Please also bear in mind that I don’t regard the pre-1999 reformation curriculum to be without merit. It still has an extremely great spiritual potential to bring the initiate to his or her own Godhood. I even wouldn’t dare to call the structure of curriculum that I profess to be superior, even if it is enhanced, to the one the majority of Golden Dawn initiates are used to. Please continue to follow it. I encourage you to.

This is not about an “old vs. new aeon” thing. Not an all. It is just the simple fact that we prefer to do it a bit differently as compared to how the majority of the Golden Dawn community are used do it, and that we regard ourselves to be in a legitimate position to make these changes. Still there are lots of points left that we share in common. We are basically working in the same Tradition. Again, let’s look for the similarities instead of the differences between us.

S∴R∴

Common misconceptions regarding the nature of secret traditional teachings

2011-12-16T22:31:00.107+01:00

In this post-modernist age there are many strange notions circulating on the Internet amongst occultists. Lately we have seen more examples to this effect in the contemporary Golden Dawn community regarding what should to be expected of “new” teachings taking off from the published materials of Order documents written in the latter part of the 19th Century. A “loundry list” coming from such quarters was published the other day on G.H. Fra. L.e.S.’ blog what should be expected being transmitted from any Secret Chiefs of a Third Order. They (i.e. the Secret Chiefs) are expected to deliver more papers on the Golden Dawn Tarot, on Golden Dawn style Enochiana, on Enochian Chess, on God-Forms used in the different Grades (initiation ceremonies), on Golden Dawn Grade ceremonies (which means more ritual commentaries), on non-material alchemy (“spiritual alchemy” that is), on the Convoluted Forces, etc.

These types of questions are to be expected from individuals not looking beyond stuff written about the Golden Dawn tradition and any modern developments or deviations of it made by Anglo-Saxon authors, such as Israel Regardie, Aleister Crowley, Dion Fortune, Paul Foster Case, etc. That is, individuals with big blinkers preventing them from seeing the Golden Dawn Tradition as being but a petal (but a most beautiful one!) on the grand Rosicrucian Rose of the Hermetic Cross.

The big question that pops up in my head is: Why should the Secret Chiefs of the Third Order stoop down to any post-modernist reconstructions of what actually is lacking in the Golden Dawn Tradition? Not all aspects of the Second Order / R.R. et A.C. teachings as presented in published literature has been condoned by the Third Order in the first place. The fact is that the Third Order severed its communication with the Golden Dawn Tradition following the publications of Aleister Crowley when they saw what S.L. MacGregor Mathers had done to the teachings, taking liberties and not taking into consideration the importance of not blending egregores traditionally foreign to each other. To cut it short, MacGregor Mathers went somewhat to far in his syncretistic endeavours. Why should They even condone any further deviations from the Tradition?

That said, I know for a fact that teachings with extremely important practical implications are given on Golden Dawn ritual that has uncovered layers which no-one would have even dreamt of was possible, especially in post-modernist circles, and which properly reconnects the “classical” Golden Dawn symbolism with the ancient Tradition. And it has been there before everyone’s eyes all the time! It’s just too obvious to be noticed.

The rituals of the Outer or First Order should be studied in detail by the Second Order, at the level of the 5°=6° and its sub-grades. The 5°=6° is the proper study, in my opinion, of the 6°=5°, while that latter Grade should be the study of the 7°=4°. The Third Order is definitely not the place to study freemasonic style rituals. Somewhere along the path of the initiatory system rituals must change in emphasis and structure from symbolical to direct manipulation of the energetic body. Thus the higher you go, the more “simple” the rituals may seem. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the higher Grade rituals are less complex or intricate in their composition, however this is not on the symbolical or intellectual level but rather energetic. After a certain point initiation rituals are only supposed to be experienced and integrated magically and alchemically, not through intellectual study of symbolism. MacGregor Mathers and W. W. Westcott already knew this when they created the 6°=5° and 7°=4° rituals, which are much more simple, cut down and direct compared to the 5°=6°. This means that the freemasonic emphasis and preoccupation with symbology and analogy fades away already in the Second Order.

Regarding alchemy, there is no such thing as a “non-material alchemy”. That is simply a modernist reconstruction (even predating our post-modernist age) which is based upon a faulty and un-initiated understanding of the Royal Art. Alchemy is about the restoration of matter into its original state. Anything else is simply allegorical speculation which properly doesn’t concern the Third Order, and hardly even the Second. Post-modernist authors have recently made suggestions concerning Alchemy that from a strictly Hermetic point of view aren’t even properly speaking allegorical, as they represent pure intellectual speculation.

For me it seems that the most important aspect of the training of the Adept, in a post-modernist vision of the Golden Dawn, is that of intellectual understanding and to create even more convoluted teachings. Whereas the actual goal of the Adept in the Traditional Rosicrucian system of initiation is that of emancipation from the restrictions of ordinary or mundane (mediocre) life – that of the accomplishment of the Philosopher’s Stone and the attainment of Immortality. Where is the Stone to be found or extracted from further intellectual speculations?

Many aspiring or prospective students are being put off by the Western Esoteric Tradition, and in particular the Golden Dawn Tradition, as it is presented in published litterature, because it already lays to much emphasis on intellectual studies compared to presenting practical formulae. Today students expect noting less practical as compared to the Eastern Traditions, and rightly so. They want and need tangible transformation of their physical and sublte selves. Today, a Golden Dawn Order must stand ready to deliver the goods, so to speak. So what then is its higher teachings supposed to deliver? Even more complex intellectual study and speculative convolutions? Do people really believe that analysis provides true Illumination? Or do they mistake enlightenment for Illumination?

Remember that enlightenment only concerns itself with the rational mind while true Illumination instead concerns the True and Higher Self, and ultimately God or the All. If you prefer the enlightenment of the analytical rational mind over the Illumination of God you will let your ego or lower self usurp the throne of the True King, the Solar Self. Thus will you be condemned to ignorance from the Ultimate Truth, satisfying yourself with small bits and pieces of facts, always missing the bigger picture. Even worse than that, actively inhibiting your process of transmutation – of the Great Work – you will also choose death and corruption before immortality and emancipation.

Whatever teachings originating from the Third Order that I have been fortunate enough to encounter on this topic (of Alchemy), they far surpasses anything that lately has been presented in a purely speculative and convoluted manner. I am especially disappointed lately with certain understandings of Golden Dawn Alchemy, recently published, which will take the serious student nowhere in his alchemical understanding.

But then again, you won’t find any of these Third Order teachings being profaned in the same manner as has become the custom of certain post-modernist authors. True Second Order material is not for the armchair magician to receive without any personal effort at all. If you want to receive the benefits of the Traditional teachings originating from the Third Order, you have to do that in the traditional way – that is through initiation. This material is sub rosa, as it traditionally is supposed to be.

However, that doesn’t mean that it is not available. In fact the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega has invited Adepts from a wide variety of Rosicrucian Orders to have a share of this unique material as well. I know for a fact that several well respected authorities on the occult and accomplished Adepts already have become privy to these teachings. But my oaths of secrecy prohibits me to reveal the identities of these Adepts. So, the fact is that the Alpha et Omega isn’t at all withholding any new information from the general esoteric community. But it must be remembered that this sharing can only be administered under strict traditional rules which involves severe oaths of secrecy. Individuals who have proven themselves to be untrustworthy through profanation or cannot follow basic and traditional rules of the Golden Dawn and that of Rosicrucianism cannot expect to receive any secret traditional teachings.

But that doesn’t mean that the teachings coming from the Third Order into the reformed Second Order necessarily take off from whatever has been presented in post-modern publications, developed according to the personal reconstructionist preferences of the authors. What the Third Order has presented constitutes Traditional teachings on different aspects of the standard Golden Dawn teachings, such as the symbolism of the Neophyte Hall and a full alchemical explanation of the Outer Order Rituals which goes way beyond anything that has been presented lately on Alchemy and Golden Dawn Ritual.

Also, it must be made clear for my readers that there are secret teachings reserved for Third Order initiates as contrasted to teachings that have originated from the Third Order as well but are meant to be applied in the context of the reformed Second Order. I know from personal experience that the sub-grades of the 5°=6° have already been expanded upon. But the teachings of the senior Grades of the Second Order, i.e. the 6°=5° and 7°=4°, are being expanded upon in a much more grander scale.

One such aspect of the teachings recently transmitted to the reformed Second Order, hermetically sealed from the Outer World, is the true meanings of the Kameoth or Magical Squares corresponding to the Seven Planets, which clearly interconnects in a direct way with both Golden Dawn initiation rituals and the magical system of the Lesser Adept. The student of the First Order and the Lesser Adept of the Second Order encounters the Magical Squares presented in a simple two-dimensional format, such as they are found in published literature. The Third Order has recently transmitted teachings that instructs the Major and Exempt Adepts how to decipher these enumbered grids so that they may create three dimensional cubes, using the Planetary Seals to unlock the encrypted published Kameoth. These cubes are then used to access parallel dimensions on the inner planes, through secret magical hierarchies and their accompanying names and sigils, which leads to the centre of the Cube and the purely Divine. Thus, what we see here is an extremely advanced form of Planetary Theurgy.

However, the newly received teachings from the Third Order must bee seen against the context of the initiatic system of the Adeptus Grades of the Second Order. A basic understanding of this system has recently been unveiled by Lux E Tenebris. Let me make a brief summary of these teachings. Basically the three Adepti Grades represent a mental, energetic and physical process of change and unfoldment. The Adeptus Minor 5°=6° Grade represents a death process and constitutes a self-sacrifice, in order to initiate a transformation of himself into a new form. In the Adeptus Major 6°=5° Grade the soul is detached and separated from the “dead” body and in this state the candidate encounters his own complexes during a sojourn to the underworld, as well as seeing both his own microcosmic nature and the greater nature of the macrocosm in a different and true light, resulting in a full and stabilized contact with the Divine Genius or Holy Guardian Angel. After this revelation the soul is returned to its body and the Adept becomes resurrected unto a new species of life and thus emerges as an Exempt Adept. As an outcome of this encounter with the upper realms of the astral, the hidden powers of the Adept are awakened, and in the Adeptus Exemptus 7°=4° Grade he learns to harness these powers for the common good as well as to govern the Order, as all necessary lineages are bestowed unto him at this final Grade of the Second Order. Further Magical and Alchemical techniques are transmitted to the Exempt Adept, which will help him to pass across the Abyss into the Third Order, where the final accomplishment of the Great Work is supposed to occur.

I personally have found these teachings on the Adepti Grades to be remarkable and as such they constitutes evidence of true traditional Hermetic teachings. I really recommend the reader to study the text in full. Furthermore, and to my personal satisfaction, they confirm most of my own beliefs about the initiatic journey that I have gathered through my own experience of the Second Order / R.R. et A.C. initiatic and magical process. I have published a series of essays on this subject in the following order:

The big difference between the analysis made by L.e.T. and me is the allotment of the contact between the Adept and his Holy Guardian Angel. However, this also depends upon how one defines “Knowledge and Conversation”. L.e.T. stresses that the contact with the Angel is stabilized in the Adeptus Major Grade, which actually leaves room for an initial knowledge and conversation with the Guardian Angel at the level of Adeptus Minor, albeit a tentative or “volatile” one which yet has to become stabilized or “fixed” at the level of Adeptus Major.

Many students interprets the words “Knowledge and Conversation” as depicting a union with the Guardian Angel or Divine Genius. However, these two occurances are distinct experiences, the Knowledge and Conversation signifying the first stage which eventually may lead to a full union. The Major Adept experiences a stabilized communication with his Guardian Angel, which means that he is more fully introduced to its presence compared to the dim and clogged communication between the Lesser Adept and the Angel. The difference in communication between the Lesser and Greater Adepts being that of separation (or “death”) of the physical body, representing an alchemical separation and a major leap in the spiritual unfoldment of the initiate.

If someone rejects these teachings as irrelevant it says more about that person expressing this opinion that it does about the teachings themselves. Anyone that has passed through the ordeal of the Second Order, as it was originally and traditionally intended, will immediately acknowledge the truth in L.e.T.’s words. Furthermore, his disciple G.H. Fra. L.e.S. has clearly proven that there are substantial teachings that has been approved for the senior Grades of the Second Order of the Alpha et Omega. But what has been said in concrete terms regarding these are only teasers that cannot be put into any practice without proper initiation. Enough proof have been shared to the Outer World just to show what can be expected from any serious students who are prepared to meet the requirements of receiving them.

Those who had been fortunate enough to study this body of traditional instruction are amazed at the quality of the teachings of the deeper symbolism of the Golden Dawn. But these teachings doesn’t concern itself with any post-modern opinions about what the Golden Dawn is supposed to be reconstructed into; it concerns itself with the original Hermetic teachings behind Rosicrucian Traditions such as the Golden Dawn. And in this respect, even aspects of the teachings which MacGregor Mathers took himself liberties with would become subject to correction. The Golden Dawn Tradition, having lost its guidance for the last century, has to be subjected to some necessary purging. Initiates must be prepared to rid themselves from some of their precious preconceived conceptions; they must be prepared to “kill their darlings”. Remember the Stella Matutina version of the 0=0 ritual which says that “only those who are lightly armed can attain the summit”.

Now, the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega has been accused of rejecting astral contacts and that we have stated that the Third Order only works upon the physical level in transmitting secret teachings. It is true, to a certain extent, that we have opposed “astral contacts” as a valid substitute for live encounters. The reason behind this is the New Age movement popularising the dangerous practice of “channelling” astral entities, something that unfortunately has also spilled over into the Golden Dawn community.

But let us problematize this somewhat, remembering well that I cannot speak candidly about this sensitive subject. What I may say, or rather repeat what G.H. Fra. L.e.S. already has said before, is that the Third Order operates on different levels, of which the physical is but one. But there also exists Hermetic Masters of the Third Order that operate on the Solar Plane, as an outcome of completing the Great Work. The Third Order is governed by two councils, each having 12 members. The council that operates on the Solar level presides over the council of 12 Magi in physical incarnation. Thus, if you encounter a Third Order which cannot manifest any living or incarnated Masters, chances are high you have arrived at a dead end which will lead you nowhere or worse provide you with a erroneous understanding of the Tradition already manifested. It is obvious, at least for those who have encountered it, that the Third Order primarily uses its physically incarnated Magi to guide any outer vehicle and public or semi-public initiatory school. Solar Masters doesn’t contact just any initiate or Adept, only true Magi that had done the required Work.

Post-modernist teachers within the Golden Dawn community rejects the notion of incarnated masters, comparing it to Theosophy and as such of being foreign to the Golden Dawn Tradition. Suffice to say is that Theosophy has lot of fanciful theories of “Mahatmas” and the like. This has nothing at all to do with any Third Order teachings. If anything Eastern, one has to look at the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition to find anything remotely similar. But what post-modern teachers and students with reconstructionist tendencies doesn’t understand is the full implications of the Hermetic Tradition, of which the hierarchies of initiates is but one. There are many layers of this Tradition in which Rosicrucian Orders as the Golden Dawn constitutes but the Outer Vehicles. And, as has been shown, even amongst the ancient Third Order there exists hierarchal layers which goes beyond the pale of the outer or physical world. The fact is that the Occidental Alchemical Tradition is as interesting as anything similar in the Orient, including Tibetan Buddhist Tantra which it approximates in its richness and variety.

The Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega has also been accused of being a teacher centred organization relying heavily on Masters and apprenticeship, and that the Secret Chiefs stands in between the initiate and his illumination. It is true that a student in our Order may experience more guidance compared to a majority of contemporary organizations. However, the Third Order doesn’t stand in between Man and the Divine. This is a Catholic or Orthodox Christian viewpoint. What the Third Order and its Secret Chiefs does provide though is the Hermetic Tradition, both in theory and practice, in its most true and uncorrupted form. This Tradition in itself provides the means for humanity to restore itself into its original and true form, in which spirit and matter, mind and body, becomes as One. No Master can grant you this, beyond being the yeast or catalyst in initiating this process; substantial result actually comes from hard work and personal effort on the part of the initiate. Thus, the Master provides you with the initiation and the transmission of a body of teachings you yourself have to apply in your daily work.

The Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega is a Traditionalistic Order. But being such doesn’t limit itself into scholarly study of old or ancient manuscripts in libraries or private collections. Rather it concerns itself with traditional initiation and esoteric lineage, i.e. the passing on of a magical current and any oral teachings that follows with that from Master to disciple, from initiator to initiate, of an unbroken chain that has hundreds of generations behind it. There is no other way of fully receiving a genuine and living Tradition; you will only find bits and pieces of incomplete information in published literature and in libraries, dead tracks as it were, which in no way will lead you to a full understanding of the Tradition and especially grasping its practical formulae. The Question of the Magical Squares, which everyone takes for granted through published literature, serves as a good one example of this. The practice of Internal Alchemy being yet another. Of course anyone with power ambitions in the Golden Dawn community, being outside the pale of this wonderful experience of true initiation, will only scratch his head in reading this and surely also feel intimidated by the very idea, as this ruins his own reconstructed franchise.

Another strange notion recently suggested by the post-modern mind is that having an older Order and its teachings at the apex of the system makes the First and Second Orders of the Golden Dawn redundant. Why not go straight to the source, they ask? However, this assumption only betrays a faulty understanding of initiatory processes and the traditional way of the training of the initiate. There are three levels of the initiatory process. The first one, which properly belongs to the Outer or First Order, is the symbolical, which I here propose also may be referred to as the “saturnian mysteries”. The next level is the analogical, also referred to as the “lunar mysteries”, which properly belongs to the Second Order. The last step is the direct way of initiation, also referred to as the “solar mysteries”, which constitutes the formulae of the Third Order.

Although the modern initiate stands prepared in a quite different way as compared to the one belonging to the former Reformation anno 1888, making purely “saturnian” Freemasonic style initiation and instruction redunant in our age – the Reformation of 1999 has made the Outer or First Order into a analogical one by all practical means, albeit on a basic level – to properly prepare the initiate he or she must proceed first with the “lunar” work before he or she may start with the “solar”. To skip the preliminary analogical step may have serious or even disastrous consequences for the initiate, depending on his or her qualifications, both spiritually and energetically. But the general scheme of initiation must follow these steps. For a fuller grasp of the role of the three Orders of the Golden Dawn I recommend the essay written by G.H. Fra. L.e.S. on this subject entitled Types of Esoteric Orders and the Reformation Fraternitatis, Anno 1999.

Furthermore, individuals making such propositions have entirely missed one very important fact regarding the nature of the Third Order. It is not a public or semi-public organization that anyone may contact through an e-mail address or just by clicking on a message button of a website on the Internet as with most big-name orders. Contrary to the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega, or any visible and external collage, the Third Order is an extremely secretive Rosicrucian Internal Collage. They cannot be sought after and found in some kind of a Knights Quest, as in the tragicomic story of R.W. Felkin, the Chief of the Stella Matutina. He did find a teacher in Rudolf Steiner but not an actual Secret Chief. Contrary to this idea, the fact is that the Third Order must find you instead; if you are deemed worthy they will eventually contact you.

Thus the only way in being spotted by them is by joining any of the true and authentic Rosicrucian bodies. The Rosicrucian Order of the Alpha et Omega is but one of these outer and modern vehicles of the true and ancient Order. However, even in such a legitimate body not everyone is admitted into the highest Hermetic initiatory cycle. The Third Order only admits the most promising and advanced Adepts. And even among these only the fewest of the few are admitted by invitation. If working in the Golden Dawn system to be even considered for admission one must already be an Adeptus Exemptus (7°=4°). And to reach to that exalted initiatory stature in itself, you must progress through the entire First and Second Orders. As I have said repeatedly, the initiatory system of the Golden Dawn represents true spiritual progression attained in graduated steps. You simply cannot cheat the natural way of spiritual development; alchemy imitates nature!

Moreover, the teachings of the Third Order, amongst else, contains the true secrets of Alchemy. But I must repeat, this doesn’t mean that you must skip neither the First nor the Second Orders. In alchemy the Matter must be properly prepared and the heat gradually raised, also inside the initiate. In your Alchemical and Theurgical training, you have to work first with the external processes, which in the case of Alchemy involves the external laboratory of cucurbits, alembics, crucibles and ovens, and in the case of Theurgy our well known gowns, altars, tablets, implements and talismans, etc. When these analogical or “lunar” tools have been properly worked upon and integrated into your own Sphere of Sensation, you are then ready to work with the direct or “solar” processes of Internal Alchemy and Internal Theurgy.

Having succeeded in creating the external Philosopher’s Stone through the Mineral Great Work doesn’t make you a Magister Templi (8°=3°) by default, as has been suggested. At most it makes you an Adeptus Exemptus (7°=4°) and as I just said that Grade is a requirement for being prepared to proceed with Internal Alchemy and initiation into the Third Order, which solely concerns itself with the creation of the Internal Stone and development of the Solar Body of Light.

S∴R∴

Does the Fama Fraternitatis prohibit against the alchemical goal of immortality?

2011-11-20T00:06:00.028+01:00

To some English reading students it may seem as if the Fama Fraternitatis actually is prohibiting us alchemists to reach our ultimate goal in the Great Work, which is to experience the ultimate effect of the Philosopher’s Stone – that of Immortality.

A certain sentence in the Fama may be inferred to mean that immortality is not an object that is allowed or proper for a Rosicrucian to pursue. Or does it mean this? Let us explore this subject further. The full sentence in the English version of the Fama Fraternitatis reads regarding the Rosicrucian brethren:

After such a most laudable sort they did spend their lives, but although they were free from all diseases and pain, yet, notwithstanding, they could not live and pass their time appointed of God.

But most of us know that the Fama Fraternitatis wasn’t written in English. In fact Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philalethes) translated the text from it original German in 1652. The first published edition in 1614 presented the text in German. One year later there was published a latin text. There is no evidence that can prove to us for sure in which language the original text was actually written, but it is commonly agreed that the German text is authoritative and comes closer to the original intent and meaning of the original writer than does the later English translation. Now, the original German reads:

...und wiewohl ihre Leiber aller Kranckheit und Schmertzen befreyet waren, köndten doch die Seelen den bestimpten puncten der Auflösung nicht überschreiten.

According to my dear German friend and brother Rene Nagual (Frater L.e.N.e.) it translates as:

…and although their bodies were freed from sickness and pain, their souls could not trespass CERTAIN points of dissolution.

Suddenly there is no reference to any “God” who appoints any time to the Rosicrucian brethren, as is suggested in Vaughans rendition of the text. Instead we see in that German sentence a reference to the Soul (Seele). We also see a point that cannot be trespassed, which leads to “dissolution” (Auflösung).

I believe the word “Auflösung” is the key here. In my German–Swedish dictionary it states that this word does translate to “dissolution” but also to “restoration”. That means that the Souls of the brethren “could not trespass certain points of restoration”. For me it has strong alchemical connotations which obviously escaped Vaughan’s eyes. For me it says that the Rosicrucian brethren, although they prolonged their physical life, didn’t succeed in creating their Solar Bodies, which means that their souls couldn’t reach that final redemption and restoration which would grant them conscious immortality.

Whatever finer meanings we may extract from that German sentence, it clearly is a fact that it does not prohibit against exceeding any natural life span as set down by God Almighty. It seems that the English translator (that is Thomas Vaughan) was steeped in a puritan protestant Christian world view which coloured his translation, which is strange considering he was an alchemist. What may be inferred from the accounts of the deaths of the various brethren, that follows the quoted sentence, is that they didn’t complete the Great Work during their life span; the time simply wasn’t enough for them to succeed in the alchemical processes, which requires many decades to be completed. Perhaps this is a reference to old age being a hinderence in the Great Work?

Now some readers may react against this emphasis on the physical and carnal body. Doesn’t the Rosicrucian Order of the Alpha et Omega claim that immortality is reached at the point of physical death, in which the consciousness is projected into the Solar Body? Yes, it does. But we mustn’t forget that the Fama is an allegorical story, and allegorical stories tend to become very concrete in their descriptions. Thus any reference of not being allowed to exceed a natural life span can be seen as a critique against the alchemical quest for immortality.

Thus the allegorical Fama in its English version may be seen as a prohibition against Alchemy and its goal of immortality in whatever form. We must remember that in the old alchemical lore there has often been claims of Adepts that could bee encountered several centuries after their physical birth. The Comte de St. Germain is the most reknown example, but also Nicolas Flamel and even Fulcanelli. But as it turns out, the Fama has never prohibited anything of that kind, that is in its original version. Instead it (in that sentence under consideration) in fact addresses the development of the soul instead of any limits to the physical body.

My conclusion. The actual Fama Fraternitatis doesn’t prohibit physical immortality. It rather says that the Rosicrucian brethren didn’t acchieve immortality after their deaths because they didn’t reach to a state of restoration of their souls.

Addendum 21/11 - 2011

I must add to the above, for clarification purposes, that in my German–Swedish dictionary from 1962 it says that the word “Auflösung” may be translated into “restoration” if used in a musical context. That is, if used as a musical term the word “Auflösung” may also be translated into “restoration”. However, we know that mystics and esotericists of the late renaissance quite often used music and musical terms as a methaphor to describe esoteric concepts, for example in the works of Robert Fludd. We cannot exlude the possibility of that word in that sentence being used in this context.

However “dissolution” is probably the original meaning of the word being used by the original author, as suggested by my German friend. Again, in a alchemical context dissolution refers to the process of rendering a solid matter liquid – the solution of the Prima Materia. This is a necessary preliminary stage in the Great Work which opens up the Matter, and constitutes a part of the Solve (“solution” or “separation”) phase, to create the Philosopher’s Stone.

It is interesting then to find in my old dictionary that the word “Auflösung” may be translated into “solution” as well in a more general definition of the term, contrasted to the narrow as suggested in the musical context. Thus the above German sentence may be translated as:

…and although their bodies were freed from sickness and pain, their souls could not trespass certain points of solution.

There clearly must be a common etymology between the words “solution” and “solve”. Furthermore there is definitely a shared etymology and meaning between dissolution, solution and resolution, all words that may be translated from the German “Auflösung”.

So what we see here may be a reference to the (re)solving of a problem. In the context of the sentence it may refer to a resolution or the resolving of a problem contained in the soul. And we know that Internal Alchemy concerns the work of creating an Immortal Soul, through the medium of the base elements contained in the physical body used as building blocks in this transmutation process.

Thus the old German text, when it is placing that sentence in the context of the mortality of the brethren, may allude to a meaning that concerns the brethren experiencing ordinary mortality because their souls hasn’t been prepared enough in the alchemical process. We know that Rosicrucians were also alchemists so it must be asserted that the Fama was written by an author who knew his alchemy and its peculiar terminology – that is if we believe that the Fama Fraternitatis is a genuine Rosicrucian text (which I personally as a traditionalist do).

S∴R∴

Do you want to take the blue pill or the red pill?

2011-11-15T00:14:00.040+01:00

“You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.” – Morpheus

Some teachers of the Golden Dawn community try to make you believe that the Golden Dawn was a hoax and that its founders were fraudulent. It has been proposed that the reason that the Golden Dawn Tradition actually does work (which is indisputable) is that the magical current somehow succeeded to be transmitted into its egregore despite of its founders, not because of them. These modern teachers tries to make you believe that S.L. MacGregor Mathers was guided by some unconscious genius that happened to manifest the beautiful magical system of the R.R. et A.C. (Ordo Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis), just by chance. Just like that! This situation may be likened to the stage magician (illusionist) who suddently succeeds in creating a true miracle, true magic, without him knowing what actually happened.

But as a student, for your own spiritual benefit and sanity, it is in fact important to choose a Tradition and an Egregore that is based upon the real Tradition and upon actual Truth. Fraud and deceit may create serious damage to your spritual progress, unbeknown to you. You will become aware of it, but then it is perhaps to late to save yourself. Even if you pursuit your path in greatest seriousness and earnest truth, if your teacher or spiritual ancestor is a liar and a fraud, this will bring you serious karmic consequences. So, my dear reader (and I take it that you are a student of the Golden Dawn if you are reading this blog on a regular basis), you have to make a choice. This is perhaps one your most important choices in your entire spiritual quest. You are now standing on the crossroads.

The left-hand path lead you to pursue the following world view and opinions of your own tradition and towards the ones that helped you in bringing it forth:

MacGregor Mathers and William Wynn Westocott were both fraudulent; together they perpetuated the myth of the Secret Chiefs and that the Order of the Golden Dawn was based upon the true Rosicrucian Tradition. However, they told their initiates lies to gain legitimacy; there actually were no Secret Chiefs and there were no true lineage to any Rosicrucian Order. There have never existed any true Rosicrucian Order as mentioned in the Fama et Confessio Fraternitatis in the first place. These 17th Century documents were simply written as an ironic satirical commentary on the popular esoteric undercurrents of the European culture of that time. In fact Westcott or MacGregor Mathers, or both, wrote up (as in invented) the Cypher Mss. of the Golden Dawn Tradition. There was absolutely no continental origin to that document as Westcott stated. MacGregor Mathers created the entire R.R. et A.C. magical system almost single-handedly from his studies of ancient mss. as contained in the British Library Museum and the Bibliothèque de l’ Arsenal in France. In no way did he meet any emissary of the Third Order in Paris calling himself Lux E Tenebris and that gave him any material, as he boldly claims. All the documents of the R.R. et A.C., the “Rituals” and core documents, etc., were written up (as in created) by Westcott or Mathers (especially the latter), either single-handedly or in co-operation. There is absolutely no other secret Golden Dawn material that still awaits to be published beyond that already found in books by Aleister Crowley, Israel Regardie, R.G. Torren, Francis X. King, R.A. Gilbert, Darcy Küntz, Pat Zalewski, Nick Farrell, et al, at least non of any real importance; the best material has already been published and any later material only deteriorated. The system ended at the level of Theoricus Adeptus Minor, or at a stretch at the level of Practicus Adeptus Minor. That’s it. There are no authorities of the Golden Dawn Tradition, and certainly not any Secret Chiefs walking the earth. Sometimes proficient Adepts may receive some spiritual inspiration (such as in angelical astral contacts) on the inner planes, but that is all to it as an external source. There is no need for any Temples to get initiated into the Tradition and especially not any lineage. Anybody can be his own initiate and teacher and master. Anyone can receive inner spiritual guidance to receive instruction. Therefore, you can develop the tradition in any direction that you please. The Golden Dawn Tradition is as an open source document that can be tampered with by anyone, and only for the better because the founders didn’t know anyway what they were dealing with; modern students have lots more knowledge and information compared to them. There is no living tradition that can be transmitted. Make it up for yourself; magic is only in the mind anyway. No magical formula is more important than any other; use the system that you find most likable. Use that which works for you; you can choose whatever you want, and if no resluts are forthcoming soon choose another. This also counts for any alchemical teachings. The old medieval alchemists were fools; true alchemy is a spiritual discipline and doesn’t concern any material substances. All the alchemical processes and substances are only metaphors for spiritual development. Only through your own meditation on its symbolism may you gain understanding of its meanings. There are no external Masters, there is only you.

On the other hand, walking the right path will admonish you to nurture the following beliefs towards your tradition and its founders:

MacGregor Mathers and Westcott were both true initiates of the Rosicrucian tradition. They were given a legitimate authorization to open the Temples of the Order of the Golden Dawn. They were both taught by teachers and initiates who had perpetuated the true Hermetic and Rosicrucian Tradition, stemming from European soil. Neither MacGregor Mathers nor Westcott wrote the Cypher Mss. That originated from the true Third Order and changed some hands until it found its way into Westcott’s. The Third Order is an ancient fraternity whose name is a well-guarded secret. It has been amongst men since the ancient Sumerian, Egyptian and Greek civilizations and cultures. It did create the Rosicrucian Tradition and was behind the manifestos from the 17th Century, to operate as a true Alchemical vehicle for the Hermetic Tradition. In 1888 and 1892 it created the Order of the Golden Dawn and the R.R. et A.C. respectively as legitimate vehicles of the true Rosicrucian Tradition. Although both Westcott and MacGregor Mathers were amongst the greates esoteric scholars of their generation they neither invented the initiatory system of the Golden Dawn nor the magical system of the R.R. et A.C. MacGregor Mathers in fact received communication and instruction from real Secret Chiefs in the flesh, who gave him both the Adeptus Minor Ritual and the greater bulk of the R.R. et A.C. “Rituals”. To be able to lock up magically the ceremonial system of the Golden Dawn and the R.R. et A.C. you need to be initiated into it by a legitimate Temple. You cannot self-initiate yourself into the true Rosicrucian Traditon nor the Hermetc Alchemical system; only through initiation can you be fully empowered to carry out the practical work. There is a living tradition that doesn’t need to be reconstructed. The system may change and grow – reform itself – but that may only be properly carried out with the guidance of the Secret Chiefs of the Third Order. And yes, they (the Secret Chiefs) and their secret Third Order is still around and it still guides the occult tradition, not only that of the Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn is but one petal of the greater Hermetic Rose. And its teachings are only the tip of the ice-berg; and only on a basic beginners level at that! There exists a true Alchemical Tradition which greatly differs from any current modern revived alchemical practices. The true Western Internal Alchemical tradition, which is a Occidental system that shares much with Oriental Tantric and Taoist Alchemy, is still a truly esoteric (as in occulted) tradition which has been preserved from ancient times and is still being taught by the Third Order in its original and uncorrupted form. It possesses the keys to Immortality through the proper preparation of the Philosopher’s Stone. This knowledge is reserved for initiates only and is beyond the pale of the Outer World or any published literature.

So now my dear reader, and serious student, which one is it? What pill do you want to take? The blue pill or the red pill? The choice is all yours.

Choose with great discrimination. Whatever pill you choose will have great or even grave consequences. I don’t blame you if you take the blue pill. That is the easy path. The path of the many. The path of the modern conditioned mind. Take the red pill and I will guarantee you a most difficult path that you may perhaps not persevere through. That path is only for the very few. If you take it, be prepared to reconsider and reorient your entire modernist world view and outlook upon Man. Prepare to be shocked by the sheer truth; you may not like it (the truth). You will have to be prepared to kill you darlings of which some are the most dear to you. The true Rosicrucian rose is beautiful in its red colour but also one riddled with thorns. Receive it and there will be no turning back. You may sting yourself upon it. Are you prepared?

Are you prepared to become a true prophet and an equal amongst demi-gods? Are you prepared to stand in the presence of the Immortal Ones?

S∴R∴

A review of Nick Farrell's article 'Secret Chiefs and the Golden Dawn'

2011-10-05T18:22:00.043+02:00

Nick Farrell has published an article in the latest issue of Hermetic Virtues (Volume V Edition 17–Autumnal Equinox 2011) called “Secret Chiefs and the Golden Dawn”, in which he tries to refute the idea of physical Secret Chiefs altogether and instead promote astral and angelical channelings as a liable formula. Mr. Farrell accuses Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers of using lies and deception in trying to uphold the idea of a physical and incarnated Secret Chiefs while at the same time resorting to channeled sources.

S.L. MacGregor Mathers

Reading Mr. Farrell’s article it is shows an author who supposedly were at the scene (obviously using a time machine) when all the important occurrences worth mentioning were happening during the fin-de-siècle era. At least this is the impression one gets when reading Mr. Farrell’s article, which is a typical example of the writing style of yellow page journalism that we have grown accustomed to from his latest literary efforts. As an example he describes the process of S.L. MacGregor Mathers’ dealings with his Secret Chief, through the lens of a letter correspondence between himself and William Wynn Westcott. Yet he presents absolutely no sources or references to corroborate his story, in a manner that I have seen with other journalists posing as historians. Thus we must conclude that they are based upon Mr. Farrell’s own fabrications and fantasies, or embellishings, rather than anything solid and historically proven, other than whatever he may have read into Ellic Howe’s The Magicians of the Golden Dawn.

W.W. Westcott

Mr. Farrell also uses whatever Mr. Howe presents in his book (again not directly referring to Howe’s book as a source, although he does mention it as a important work on Golden Dawn history), as to the quotations from Annie Horniman’s “memorandum” written in 1898, to prove his case that it wasn’t MacGregor Mathers’ Secret Chief Lux e Tenebris who had told him to leave England and permanently move to Paris, contrary to whatever MacGregor Mathers himself claims in his official 1896 manifesto to the R.R. et A.C. Adepti:

I [was] able to proceed to the attainment of the Knowledge of the full 5° = 6° Ritual and of the Obligation thereof; and the establishment of the Vault of the Adepts; my quitting England being a necessary preliminary thereto.

S.L. MacGregor Mathers’ statement must be placed in juxtaposition with what his wife Mina Mathers, in her preface to her husband’s book The Kabbalah Unveiled, later wrote in 1926 concerning this matter:

Three or four years later [after the founding of the Order of the Golden Dawn] he was told by his Occult teachers to transfer his centre to Paris, where my husband and I lived for the rest of his life.

There is no doubt in my mind that Mina clearly refers to S.L. MacGregor Mathers’ prime motivation to move to Paris as to facilitate his communication with his Secret Chiefs. If they were solely astral or angelical contacts, surely there wouldn’t be any need for a physical relocation. These written statements, when compared together, for me clearly confirms that his Occult teachers, in the minds of MacGregor Mathers and his wife, were real and physical individuals.

Mina Mathers

Ignoring the accounts made by either of the MacGregor Mathers couple both Mr. Howe and Mr. Farrell lays more credibility to Miss Horniman’s word that the couple didn’t leave because of MacGregor Mathers being called to Paris by his “occult theachers” but rather that Mathers had followed the footsteps of his wife, who had received some funding from Miss Horniman to pursue her artistic talents in Paris. Miss Horniman’s quotation taken from The Magicians of the Golden Dawn reads in full:

They were living at Percy Street [following MacGregor Mathers loosing his job in 1891 and the couple consequently being forced to leave their flat at Stent Lodge, Forest Hill] and Mrs. Mathers asked me for a ‘loan’ immediately. I had only got about £8 (under £10 I know) in gold… Then I had some money to spare and proposed that she should go to Paris, not as an occultist but as a fellow [art] student of great promise. During 1891 I think they must have still lived in England–I find two cheques, on for £50, March 5th, 1891, and one of June 3rd, 1891, for £40 payable to a friend who gave me others instead as I wished to keep the matter secret. [My emphasis]

However we cannot know all the transactions that occurred between Miss Horniman and Mina Mathers or her husband. Perhaps Mina or her husband had already hinted to her that they wished to leave England for Paris, following the loss of their income and old living quarters, hoping for Horniman to fund their project following MacGregor’s encounter with L.e.T. in 1891. To me Miss Horniman emphasizing that Mina should leave for Paris without her husband and not as that of an occultist hints at such a possible scenario. Be there as it may, but whatever Mr. Howe and Mr. Farrell have based their own conclusion on is the somewhat ambiguous words of Annie Horniman (and here even Mr. Howe confesses that the “memorandum” in question is a bit difficult to follow logically) who by the time she wrote her “memorandum” in 1898 had an ax to grind with MacGregor Mathers, who by then had expelled her from the Order. It is clear that she disliked MacGregor Mathers and thought of her friend (that is Mina Mathers) to have fallen pray into his hands. Can we sense a tone of jealousy here, on the part of Miss Horniman, that her friend preferred her husband (and his influences) before her? Let us not digress to far into the topic of Annie Horniman, who would serve to be a fine case study for a psychoanalytic essay.

Annie Horniman

I won’t go into any greater details regarding Mr. Farrell’s personal opinions on this matter of Secret Chiefs in the flesh or the “mental condition” of MacGregor Mathers, other than making the readers aware that he himself has an interest in refuting physical Secret Chiefs to be anything but a myth and MacGregor Mathers to be a loony. He uses his usual talking points to further his own post-modern reconstruction of a Golden Dawn Order. Mr. Farrell clearly isn’t dealing with this subject from the perspective of a dispassionate and objective historical researcher, but obviously has his own agenda in furthering his opinionated and highly biased position, as any journalist would with an historical revisionist agenda. But I must react when he claims any historical veracity to his speculations.

Nick Farrell

One such claim is that both MacGregor Mathers and Westcott knew that the Secret Chief Lux E Tenebris was actually the Angel Raphael but that they both lied when they affirmed that he was a real and living person which MacGregor Mathers claimed to have met in 1891 in Paris. But what Mr. Farrell chooses to withhold his reader from is the true source of the Raphael equals L.e.T. story. It is actually based upon a visionary experience recorded back in 1888 (that is the year when the Golden Dawn was founded) by one Frater Vota Vita Mea, that is Thomas Henry Pattison which is listed as No. 8 of the Horus Temple No. 5 membership roll, admitted as a 5°=6° by march 1888. The letter in which this vision is presented has previously been published in full by R.A. Gilbert in his The Golden Dawn Scrapbook, pages 37-39. The transcript reeds in full thus (retaining comments by Mr. Gilbert within square brackets):

Copy of Communication from the Inner Ring, made to Fra. Vota Vita Mea, given in his letter of June 20, 1888 to Fra Sapere Aude:

The Crowned One gave to Fras. V.V.M. and H. [presumably F.D. Harrison] much information concerning the natural creation and the following symbol was the one he adopted to illustrate primary creation or the union of ﬁrst causes:

After this Fra. H. was conducted by an Eagle-headed messenger into the presence of the Angel R + [Raphael] (whom I, S'Rioghail Mo Dhream, know by the motto L[ux] e T[enebris]) He said:

‘I wish to speak to you of the G.D. The prime mover of it must exercise the keenest possible care, and must not accept people into its secrets who are not Occult Students, they all ought to have some occult development which has been the outcome of their own research; otherwise much Evil Magic will be the result. Much good can come out of it if rightly directed, but one Evil One can upset the Harmony of the whole, so that its efforts would be neutral for a lengthy period. The Idea in view must be not to establish an Order; but to gather together those men who are an Order In themselves. Understand that the G.D. is MY Order and that I am and must be accountable for it. The last one initiated [Dr T.W. Coffin, who left the Order within a year having remained in the grade of Neophyte] must be considered and allowed to wait before giving information; 2 or 3 others also are not of much use, and others are likely to drop out. You must take every care not to initiate any who have no occult tendency in a degree developed. Convey my message to those who can carry out my advice.

‘You must consider yourselves highly favoured indeed for being allowed to come in contact with the one (the Crowned One) you did tonight.

‘Also, I would caution and advise you to be very careful in the use of Divine Names, and all symbols should (be) correctly traced. I have seen this lady in Switzerland whom you have been trying to release. I conﬁrm the work you have attempted. But you have failed to fully carry out your intention. The failure is due to the want of correctness in carrying out your Ritual. When the Divine Names are used they are made operative by the emotion of the Soul; if uttered by a cold soul-starved man they are of no use. Put your soul-power into them, and let your whole being speak them; then they do become Operative; and the ﬁnal Issue of this lady in Switzerland is left open at present for your instruction. You have discovered and commanded the assailants, but you have not yet subdued them; although she will be very carefully watched now: You must make your promise of protection a fact, and establish it as a permanent operation. I shall see you again as to this.’

He also said; - ‘The G.D. will soon ﬁnd the prime movers plenty to do; they will have more applicants than they can take; and if not careful will get beyond their control.’

He then said to Fra. H, ‘You can go’; and the Eagle-headed Messenger conducted him back. [My emphasis]

In this letter MacGregor Mathers clearly identifies the Angel R+ (which Mr. Gilbert infers is Raphael *Please read my addendum regarding the possible true identity of Angel R+) with Lux e Tenebris, the motto that MacGregor Mathers continued to used whenever he spoke of his later in the flesh Secret Chief which he met in Paris, anticipating Mathers and his wife finally moving to Paris a year later in 1892. This document Mr. Farrell uses to “prove” that MacGregor Mathers and Westcott had lied concering the in the flesh existence of L.e.T. and that his true nature actually was that of a purely astral or angelic entity.

For me it seems plausible that MacGregor Mathers used the Lux e Tenebris phrase as a generic motto or “decknamen” for whatever Secret Chief or source of inspiration he had come into contact with or believe in at a certain point. After the meeting with his physical Secret Chief in Paris he started to apply that motto onto him. Later on there started to spread a false rumour that the identity of L.e.T. was a Dr. Thiessen of Liege, who supposedly died in 1909. However, it’s a well known fact amongst initiates that the L.e.T. motto is a blind, and that the real motto and true identity of MacGregor Mathers’ continental Secret Chief is still secret to this day.

W.B. Yeats

Mr. Farrell then goes on to “analyse” (and we who had read his Mathers’ Last Secret knows what his biased analyses actually amounts to) the two accounts that we have from MacGregor Mathers regarding his physical encounters with his Secret Chiefs. The first is actually an account made by W. B. Yeats, taken from his Autobiographies written in 1926. Here Yeats recalls a conversation with MacGregor Mathers concerning the Secret Chiefs:

Once, when Mathers told me that he had met his Teachers in some great crowd, and only knew that they were phantoms by a shock that was like an electric shock to his heart, I asked him how he knew he was not deceived or hallucinated. He said, “I had been visited by one of them the other night, and I followed him out, and followed him down that little lane to the right. Presently I fell over the milk-boy, and the milk-boy got in a rage because he said that not only I but the man in front had fallen over him.” He, like all that I have known who have given themselves up to images, and to the speech of images, thought that when he had proved that an image could act independently of his mind, he had proved also that neither it, nor what it had spoken, had originated there.

Now Mr. Farrell infers Yeats to actually say that MacGregor Mathers had proved that whatever he saw didn’t actually exist in the place he said it had, referring to the quote in which Yeats says that Mathers, “like all that I have known who have given themselves up to images, and to the speech of images” thought that he had proven that a human made image had life of its own. Now, this in not at all what Yeats says. What actually was explained to Yeats by MacGregor Mathers was that he “thought that when he had proved that an image could act independently of his mind, he had proved also that neither it, nor what it had spoken, had originated there.” This example proves that Mr. Farrell is bent on twisting his sources and quoting them freely according for them to suit his own wishes.

The second “analysis” is of MacGregor Mathers famous (and in some quarters infamous) “manifesto” (a part of which I quoted above) of which parts referring to his rendezvous with the Secret Chiefs I will now quote in full:

The working of the Second Order having been thus initiated I was enabled to proceed to the acquirement of the Wisdom of the Zelator Adeptus Minor Grade for transmission to you: - a work, the enormous strain and labour of which it is impossible for me to exaggerate. For, you must not think that the obtaining of this Knowledge of the Second Order for you has been merely and simply the somewhat commonplace labour of translating a heap of unclassified MSS ready placed in my hands for that purpose. This might indeed be difficult and fatiguing, but it would be the merest child’s play compared with the Herculean task that I have been called upon to execute.

Concerning the Secret Chiefs of the Order, to whom I make reference and from whom I have received the Wisdom of the Second Order which I have communicated to you, I can tell you nothing.

I do not even know their earthly names.

I know them only by certain secret mottoes.

I have but very rarely seen them in the physical body; and on such rare occasions the rendezvous was made astrally by them at the time and place which had been astrally appointed beforehand.

For my part I believe them to be human and living upon this earth; but possessing terrible superhuman powers.

When such rendezvous has been in a much frequented place, there has been nothing in their personal appearance and dress to mark them out as differing in any way from ordinary people except the appearance and sensation of transcendent health and physical vigour (whether they seemed persons in youth or age) which was their invariable accompaniment; in other words, the physical appearance which the possession of the Elixir of Life has traditionally supposed to confer!

On the other hand, when the rendezvous has been in a place free from easy access by the Outer World they have usually been in symbolic robes and insignia.

But my physical intercourse with them on these rare occasions, has shewn me how difficult it is for a mortal, even though advanced in Occultism, to support the actual presence of an Adept in the Physical Body; and such meetings have never been granted to my own personal request, but only by their own special appointment; and usually only for some reason of special importance.

I do not mean that in such rare cases of physical converse with them that the effect produced on me was that intense physical exhaustion which follows depletion by magnetism; but, on the contrary, the sensation was that of being in contact with so terrible a force that I can only compare it to the continued effect of that usually experienced momentarily by a person close to whom a flash of lightning passes during a violent storm; coupled with a difficulty in respiration similar to the half-strangling effect produced by ether; and if such was the result produced in one, as tested as I have been in practical Occult Work, I cannot conceive a much less advanced Initiate being able to support such a strain even for five minutes, without Death ensuing.

Almost the whole of the Second Order Knowledge has been obtained by me from them in various ways; by clairvoyance, by Astral projection on their part and on mine-by the table, by the ring and disc, at times by a direct Voice audible to my external ear, and that of Vestigia [Mina Mathers], at times copied from books brought before me, I know not how, and which disappeared from my vision when the transcription was finished, at times by appointment Astrally at a certain place, till then unknown to me; and appointments made in the same manner and kept in the same manner as in the case of those rare occasions when I have met them by appointment in the physical body.

The strain of such labour has been, as you can conceive, enormous; in especial the obtaining of the Z ritual, which I thought would have killed me, or Vestigia or both, the nerve prostration after each reception being terrible from the strain of testing the correctness of every passage thus communicated; the nerve prostration alluded to being at times accompanied by profuse cold perspirations; and by severe loss of blood from the nose, mouth, and occasionally the ears.

You know the extreme and sustained attention and critical judgment requisite to obtain any reliable and truthful answer through the Table or the Ring and the Disc. Add to all this Ceremonies of Evocation, almost constant strife with opposing Demonic Forces endeavouring to stop the delivery and reception of the Wisdom; and the necessity of keeping the mind exalted towards the Higher Self; while at the same time exercising the critical Archaeological Knowledge and having to make the many references necessary to detect any misapprehension of meanings of passages in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldaic, Egyptian and what not; and you will only then have a faint idea of what my struggles have been. The only one among you who has known the fearful difficulties I have had to contend with, has been Sapere Aude [Westcott] and he has therefore well known that such work could not be done in a hurry and rapidly like mere mechanical transcription, or even like ordinary original composition.

According to Mr. Farrell the words of MacGregor Mathers betray the world view of Helena P. Blavatsky’s and Annie Besant’s Theosophical Society and only someone initiated into that world view (which I presume Mr. Farrell is) can truly understand his message. When MacGregor Mathers says regarding the Secret Chiefs that he “do not even know their earthly names” Mr. Farrell somehow regards this not to mean that MacGregor Mathers believed they were alive at this present time but that they were deceased. Not being privy to Theosophic initiation I cannot see much more to this sentense than that Mathers didn’t know….their Christian names! I suppose that this can be equally applied to living, dead or undead persons.

H.P. Blavatsky

When MacGregor Mathers says that he “know them only by certain secret mottoes” Mr. Farrell infers this to mean that the Archangel Raphael was turned into Lux E Tenebris! Couldn’t it also mean that they didn’t want to reveal their mundane identities? What about Occams Razor? And when MacGregor Mathers states that he “have but very rarely seen them in the physical body; and on such rare occasions the rendezvous was made astrally by them at the time and place which had been astrally appointed beforehand,” Mr. Farrell disbeliefs that he actually referred to physical bodies and that he instead rarely saw them with his eyes open, that he always ran into them at astral locations. Mr. Farrell states that this astral appointment procedure was a typical Theosophic formula. Here we see yet another example of Mr. Farrell choosing statements to suit his own agenda, clearly leaving out that sentence in the manifesto which says that “For my part I believe them to be human and living upon this earth” or referring to “my physical intercourse with them” or to that “of physical converse with them”, etc. How is that for Theosophic notions Mr. Farrell?

Annie Besant

Analysing the following statement by MacGregor Mathers when he says that “When such rendezvous has been in a much frequented place, there has been nothing in their personal appearance and dress to mark them out as differing in any way from ordinary people except the appearance and sensation of transcendent health and physical vigour (whether they seemed persons in youth or age) which was their invariable accompaniment; in other words, the physical appearance which the possession of the Elixir of Life has traditionally supposed to confer...” Mr. Farrell relegates this to some meditation technique of random encounters with anyone, clearly ignoring that an astral appointment had been made beforehand and that Mathers clearly knew that he was supposed to meet someone on a certain spot.

When MacGregor Mathers states that his “physical intercourse with them on these rare occasions, has shewn me how difficult it is for a mortal, even though advanced in Occultism, to support the actual presence of an Adept in the Physical Body” and later that “the sensation was that of being in contact with so terrible a force that I can only compare it to the continued effect of that usually experienced momentarily by a person close to whom a flash of lightning passes during a violent storm; coupled with a difficulty in respiration similar to the half-strangling effect produced by ether; and if such was the result produced in one, as tested as I have been in practical Occult Work, I cannot conceive a much less advanced Initiate being able to support such a strain even for five minutes, without Death ensuing…” Mr. Farrell interprets this to be a description of a Theosophic style channelling session through the throat chakra! I wonder, how does one “channel” someone who is in his physical body and through physical intercourse? (I leave that up to our own imagination!)

It seems that Mr. Farrell himself hasn’t been in the presence of an energetically charged person; what Mathers is describing here are sensations he has concretely felt in his aura (Sphere of Sensation) in the presence of an Alchemical Master. I have heard people meeting holy persons or bodhisattvas, such as His Holiness Dalai Lama, who have sensed strong energetic sensations in their presence. In any good Golden Dawn Temple, if the Hierophant does his work properly the present should feel emanations or raditaion of energies stemming from his Sphere of Sensation. Imagine then meeting someone who has, as MacGregor Mathers puts it, “possession of the Elixir of Life!”

A bodhisattva

In closing Mr. Farrell arrives at his final point, the actual reason why MacGregor Mathers exposed W.W. Westcott hoax of the forged Fräulein Sprengel letters; because he had met the said Fräulein in person! That is through Swami Laura Horos! According to Mr. Farrell this is the first time that Mathers actually started to believe in his own lie of the physical Secret Chiefs, only because she in fact presented herself as being the real Sprengel and using the latter’s motto ‘Sapiens Dominabitur Astris’ and in fact did succeed in deceiving Mathers. Although this whole incident is the most awkward in MacGregor Mathers enire magical carrer, still Mr. Farrell’s suggestion that Horos somehow replaced L.e.T. is laughable. But it is also quite illogical because at the outset of his article Mr. Farrell holds that Westcott never believed Fräulein Sprengel to be a Secret Chief of the Third Order, only being a mere Adeptus Exemptus 7°=4° Grade of the Second Order. But now suddenly she is elevated to that of a Secret Chief of the Third Order by Mathers! This clearly shows yet another example of Mr. Farrell’s ambition to character assassinate a guy who single-handedly elevated the Order of the Golden Dawn into a truly Theurgical operative society, serving as the mouth piece for the Third Order.

Swami Laura Horos

It is however amusing, or even refreshing, to see that Mr. Farrell actually believes that MacGregor Mathers wasn’t the creator of the R.R. et A.C. corpus, such as the Adeptus Minor Ritual or the Ritual “Z” papers, etc., that he actually believes that Mathers in fact was in contact with something that can be referred to as an Third Order, albeit of the later Theosophical kind of ascended masters or astral contacts. That is, channeled Masters. It is funny though, as I was under the impression that he regarded the whole Secret Chiefs thing to be a myth and fantasy. But he perhaps suddenly feels obliged to embrace the astral teacher-channeling theory as that has lately been approved and promulgated in a recent book on Alchemy and Golden Dawn Ritual written by Pat Zalewski.

Mr. Farrell also states that MacGregor Mathers had lost connection with his early contacts of the 1890’s. On this last point he is wholly correct as the physical Secret Chiefs actually did break their ties with MacGregor Mathers, but only following the court case with Aleister Crowley over the publications in The Equinox, when reading Crowley they realized that Mathers had gone to far in blending Hebrew, Egyptian and Enochian egregores into the same rituals. This suggests that the Secret Chiefs had left him with lots of freedom in arranging the material into a workable and coherent format, for better and for worse.

*Addendum 6/11 - 2011

Let me propose another identity of the entity referred to as R+ in the vision made by Thomas Henry Pattison. It is a tradition amongst traditionalist Rosicrucian initiates to abbreviate the word “Rosy Cross” with an “R” followed by the cross symbol (+), the “R” of course denoting “Rosy” and the “+” signifying the “Cross”. This small detail is not that well known amongst modern reconstructionist Rosicrucians. In a way the “R+” is a shortform for “R+C”. It was also sometimes used amongst initiates to end any abbreviation ending with the letter “R”. As an example, the Swedish Freemason and Rosicrucian Gustaf Adolph Reuterholm (1756–1813) ended his occult Mss. with the letters “G:A:R+”. My attention was drawn to this protocol of using “R+” to denote the Rosy Cross lately when a Rosicrucian initiate ended his correspondence with me using this formula.

So, the conclusion from all of this is that the true identity of the “Angel R+” might as well be “Angel Rosy Cross” as it is “Angel Raphael”. Or rather, knowing the traditional protocol for the combined use of the letter “R” and the symbol “+” to denote the Rosy Cross or Rosicrucianism, a fact which R.A. Gilbert obviously seems to lack any knowledge of, as well as his modernist propounders amongst the Golden Dawn Community (i.e. Mr. Farrell, et al), I hold that it is most probable that the author of that letter in fact is referring to the “Angel Rosy Cross” rather than the Archangel Raphael. This brings profound connotations, which I prefer not to delve into to deep here on this blog. Suffice to say is that it may be (or rather probable is) a reference to the Guardian Angel of the Rosicrucian current or egregore. In ending, it is well to point out that there isn’t much of a contradition between such an angelic being and a physical secret chief as it may seem for an non-initiate scholar; they both may belong to the same circle of initiates, if not the same class. At least, students who may have read the course material of Paul Foster Case attentively won’t find it as such.

*Addendum 9/11 - 2011

Let me present yet another solution (or rather yet another layer) to the riddle of the identity of the “Angel R+”. It has been suggested to me that there may be a connection between it and the “Master R”, the famous Secret Chief of Paul Foster Case. Case identifed him as “The Master Rákóczy”. There actually exists certain Theosophic connotations regarding this personality, but let us ignore these. Let us instead turn our attention to Manly P. Hall who identifeied a certain Transylvanian Prince Ragoczy with Comte De St. Germain, the famous immortal Rosicrucian Adept of the 18th Century (whereas Theosophy regards the Master R to be the teacher of St. Germain). Now, this may seem to contradict my previous addendum; but the fact is that it doesn’t at all. There is no contradiction, other than in the eyes of the ignorant. Even the letters “R” and “C” are present in his name.

S∴R∴

Concerning Artisans and Puffers

2011-09-22T20:21:00.065+02:00

In the Ordo Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis (R.R et A.C.), the last clause of the obligation (corresponding to Malkuth) of the Adeptus Minor reads thus:

Finally, if in my travels I should meet a stranger who professes to be a member of the Rosicrucian Order, I will examine him with care before acknowledging him to be such.

This echoes the corresponding obligation of the Sociatas Rosae Crucis (S.R.C.) of Sigismund Bacstrom:

Should I travel either by sea or by land and meet with any person that may call himself a Brother of the Rosy Cross, I will try him whether he can give me a proper explanation of the universal fire of Nature and of our Magnet for attracting and manifesting the same under the form of a salt, whether he is well acquainted with our work, and whether he knows the universal dissolvent and its use. If I find him able to give satisfactory answers, I will acknowledge him as a member and a brother of our Society. Should I find him superior in knowledge and experience to myself, I Will honour and respect him as a Master above me.

In my opinion the R.R. et A.C. obligation is quite vague as to how such a stranger should be examined, while the one of the S.R.C. states plainly how that is to be carried out by the initiate. I am firmly convinced that the latter version became summarized into the former, and that the one of the R.R. et A.C. should be viewed in the light of the obligation given in the S.R.C. to be understood fully as to the motive behind it. Now, in my opinion it stands clear that the reason behind this clause is to test and weed out the Puffer from the true Artist. Let me explain these terms in a moment but indulge me first to linger some more concerning the above quoted and related obligations.

The seals of S.R.C. and R.R. et A.C.

In different debates there are often expressed quite severe judgments against anyone attempting to sort out what is a true teaching and what is a false or deficient teaching. There is always someone who raises their finger and objects against these “unfraternal manners”. But when we look at the above quotations taken from two central initiatory rituals is turns out that it is the obligation of a true Adept to test any claims made of such Adepthood and claims of Rosicrucian Theurgy and Alchemy. And we all know that knowledge of Alchemy is seriously lacking in the contemporary Golden Dawn community. It doesn’t suffice to have read the works of Frater Albertus or Manfred Junius, and put whatever they have said to the test tube, to claim to be a true Artist. Whatever you may gain of experience from that endeavor is but Plant Spagery (i.e. the Lesser Work), and even that requires many, many hours in the lab. Imagine then gaining a true proficiency in the Great Work, which truly is a Herculean task! So any claims of Alchemical knowledge by Golden Dawn Adepts (and especially them!) have to be tested (for the sake of the general public), especially if they publish books which claims to represent “Golden Dawn Alchemy”, which is an oxymoron in our post-modern age.

So quite naturally, and justly so, in the wake of Pat Zalewski’s new book on Alchemy and Golden Dawn Ritual there has erupted a quite heated debate over the value of Alchemy and how it should be implemented with the Golden Dawn Tradition. This discussion has also developed into a general discussion concerning the true nature of Alchemy, in relation to the paths that we could term as “external”, “internal” and “spiritual”. And when we are dealing with the latter two terms they often become confused or conflated in any discussion concerning Alchemy or the Royal Art.

This confusion arises from the fact that much what passes for “internal” actually isn’t the real thing. Compared to the Western Tradition, Eastern Tradition speaks lots more in plain language than does its Occidental counterpart, although not all of the Eastern Alchemical Tradition is in print. However, Western source texts are lots more occulted and tending to metaphorical compared to the plain and direct explanations in the various Sutras and Tantras, etc. Therefore Alchemy is such a confused topic today in the West, compared to the situation in the East where there exists a general agreement of what it constitutes. Thus it is my firm opinion that one needs to agree upon certain standards when discussing Alchemy, so that we as participants know what we are referring to, to prevent any further confusion. Let me therefore present the following and tentative definition of these terms.

At the onset I must emphasize that when I talk about “Internal” or “Inner” Alchemy I am specifically referring to physical processes of the microcosm (or between two microcosms), not at all mental processes or intellectual correspondences. Read this again and carefully: Internal alchemy, as has been stated again and again both by me and other representatives of my Order, involves tangible matters and energies, not cognitive or mental functions per se. That latter type of alchemy which solely deals with mental processes I am here referring to as “spiritual alchemy”.

On this blog I use the following terms and definitions, and I expect you to use these as well when engaging in discussions with me here:

External Alchemy = Archemical and Spagyric processes, which has their basis on the Hermetic philosophy and Alchemical formulae that utilizes an external laboratory (such as artificial ovens, flasks, crucibles, etc.) using the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms of physical matter. Archemy is Spagery worked upon the mineral kingdom, whereas the processes involving the plant kingdom only concerns Spagery. This may also be referred to as “Exoteric Alchemy”, or the Lunar Mysteries of analogy. It is related to ordinary chemistry (and is its forerunner), as it uses its matters, but follows alchemical principles.

Internal Alchemy = Alchemical processes (proper) that uses the internal laboratory (the human body, both physical and subtle), either directly manipulating energies or using physical substances from the Alchemist’s body (animal kingdom), strictly following Hermetic principles and dogma. This may also be referred to as “Esoteric Alchemy” or the direct Solar Mysteries.

Spiritual Alchemy = Mental, spiritual and psychological phenomena being explained using alchemical symbology and processes as metaphors. It is however not based upon Hermetic philosophy but rather theology or psychology or magic in general, using the superstructure of Hermeticism to expound the latter disciplines. Perhaps a good alternative term, which is more intuitive, is to refer it to a “Mystical Alchemy”, and furthermore I also propose the term “Mercurial Mysteries”, as it involves the intellect and psyche, as well as the volatility of their constructs.

Note: I know that this division is a mental construct in itself (i.e. Mercurial), and that all these “ways” or perspectives are interlaced, also in specifics, to create but One Universal Alchemy. But if we are to understand what we are talking about here without any confusion, let’s stick to these simple definitions when using terms as “Inner” or “Internal”, at least on this blog.

Now that we have settled on a common vocabulary, and having agreed upon these simple definitions of Alchemy, let me proceed with the subject matter of this essay, following the adage of the Adeptus Minor Obligation: that of artistry and puffery. Now this last clause of the obligation that is required of an Adept of any Rosicrucian body obviously isn’t one of the nicest. On this I agree. It is not without reason is has been attributed to the last of the divine emanations, the Sephirah Malkuth or the Kingdom (that of the manifest matter). But nevertheless, it is a necessary one that any true Adept must follow, if the need arises, as any other of the clauses.

Before we proceed with the current debate from this somewhat severe viewpoint, let me first try to define what I (and many Adepts with me) mean with the terms “Artist” and “Puffer”. In my opinion there are not only two but three major categories of professed alchemists as well as occultists in general; the true artist, the puffer and the charlatan. The Artist or Artisan is someone who is an initiate of Hermetic Alchemy and follows true processings in producing the Philosopher’s Stone, knowing well that alchemical texts uses metaphors for their processes and “decknamens” for their different matters. He is not your ordinary greedy Chrysopoeist (“goldmaker”).

The puffer is often well meaning and serious, but because he lacks proper initiation has lost his ways in the maze – the labyrinth (the convolutions of the brain) – and cannot distinguish between analogy and literal meanings in the case of the external laboratory practitioner. The word “Puffer” or “suffleur” is a reference to the use of bellows when heating the ovens, and hints at someone bellowing in vain for his quest of producing gold. In our modern age this term may also be used in reference to intellectual constructs, castles built up of “hot air” so to speak, which have no foundation in any true Alchemical teachings.

The last category, and of course the worst, is that of the charlatan. He is one who knows that he is a fake but has developed his deceptive abilities sufficiently enough to get away with pretending to be an artist. The source image is the travelling salesman who tries to convince you that he may help you with any problem or against any ailment, only if you buy his “universal panacea”. These fakers don’t concern us at all in this current debate. I will only deal with artists and puffers in this essay.

Now if anyone writes about Alchemy, especially when it deals with the Rosicrucian Tradition such as the Golden Dawn, his knowledge must be tested by the true Artists. These latter have always been quite severe against charlatans and puffers in the past Centuries. Just pick up any alchemical tract of choosing and you will see it often starting off with a long judgmental critique, vitriol even, against false alchemists and their false understanding of the true nature of the Stone and that of the Prima Materia. Let me quote the Master Alchemist Michael Sendivogius and the opening lines of his The New Chemical Light, which serves to be a typical example of this attitude:

When I considered in my mind the great number of deceitful books and forged Alchemistic “receipts”, which have been put in circulation by heartless impostors, though they do not contain even a spark of truth – and how many persons have been and are still daily led astray by them? – it occurred to me that I could not do better than communicate the Talent committed to me by the Father of Lights to the Sons and Heirs of Knowledge. […] The facts and deductions which I have here briefly set down are transcribed from that manual – experience, graciously bestowed upon me by the Most High; and my object is to enable those who have laid a sound foundation in the elementary part of this most noble Art, to advance to a more satisfying fullness of knowledge, and to put them on their guard against those depraved “vendors of smoke,” who delight in fraud and imposition. […] In these wicked days, indeed, when virtue and vice are accounted alike, the ingratitude and unbelief of men keep our Art from appearing openly before the public gaze. Yet this glorious truth is even now capable of being apprehended by learned and unlearned persons of virtuous lives, and there are many persons of all nations now living who have beheld Diana unveiled. But as many, either from ignorance or from a desire to conceal their knowledge, are daily teaching and inducing others to believe that the soul of gold can be extracted, and then imparted to other substances; and thereby entice numbers to incur great waste of time, labour, and money: let the sons of Hermes know for certain that the extracting of the essence of gold is a mere fond delusion, as those who persist in it will be taught to their cost by experience, the only arbitress from whose judgment seat there is no appeal. If, on the other hand, a person is able to transmute the smallest piece of metal (with or without gain) into genuine gold or silver which abides all the usual tests, he may justly be said to have opened the gates of Nature, and cleared the way for profounder and more advanced study. […] Let me therefore admonish the gentle reader that my meaning is to be apprehended not so much from the outward husk of my words, as from the inward spirit of Nature. If this warning is neglected, he may spend his time, labour, and money in vain. Let him consider that this mystery is for vise men, and not for fools. The inward meaning of our philosophy will be unintelligible to vainglorious boasters, to conceited mockers, and to men who smother the clamorous voice of conscience with the insolence of a wicked life; as also to those ignorant persons who have fondly staked their happiness on albefactions and rubrefactions and other equally senseless methods.

Remember that alchemy is an operative (that is experimental) spiritual science and as any science there will be heated debates amongst scientists, especially it if turns out that a layman has put out a book which claims to be scientific.

Let us first turn our attention to the concept of “spiritual alchemy”, that kind which supposedly is addressed by Mr. Zalewski in his new book on Alchemy and Golden Dawn Ritual. Now, Mr. Zalewski tries to interpret the much older Alchemical Tradition from the outlook of the quite young (or rather infant) Golden Dawn Tradition. Mr. Zalewski’s publishers has stated the motivation behind his approach quite plainly thus:

This book is the first attempt to publicly analyze the Outer Order rituals with an alchemical frame of reference completely within the context of Golden Dawn teachings. This is the condition used by Pat for the expansion and development of the higher teachings, i.e., they must enrich and inform everything else in the Golden Dawn or they cannot be part of the established Tradition.

This looks good on paper but the problem is that the Alchemical Tradition, that has so much more to offer to the aspiring and diligent student compared to the Golden Dawn Tradition, becomes diluted in this effort to make it fit into the latter. I have written about this before on my blog so there is no need for me to repeat myself here.

If you read that previous blog you will notice that I am quite open minded concerning some forms of spiritual interpretations of the Golden Dawn Tradition. For example I believe that there is some fruit to harvest in the attempt of attributing the stages of the initiatory process of the Golden Dawn with that of the stages of the Alchemical Process, which traditionally is distinguished by different colour attributions in the following order; Nigredo (Blackening), Cauda Pavonis (Peacocks Tail), Albuedo (Whitening), Citrinas (Yellowing) and finally Rubedo (Reddening).

Now I have to confess that I haven’t read Mr. Zalewski’s latest book yet (thus this cannot be considered to be a review), but it is my understanding from other’s descriptions that he regards the entire Outer Order of the Golden Dawn as being part of the Blackening Phase – the Nigredo – of the Alchemical process. On this part I actually agree with him. But it doesn’t seem to stop there, as Mr. Zalewski has introduced an entirely new concept to Alchemy, which at least I have never heard of before, that of sub-phases. This means that he regards the 1°=10° to correspond to a “Nigredo of Nigredo” phase, that of 2°=9° to an “Albuedo of Nigredo”, that of 3°=8° to a “Citrinas of Nigredo”, and lastly that of 4°=7° to a “Rubedo of Nigredo”.

This arrangement is somewhat reminiscent of the division of the Elements into sub-elements when using Malkuth as the symbol of Earth and its four divisions into sub-elements of Earth. Looks nice on paper if you only have the Golden Dawn as the base for your understanding. The problem arises when you try to understand the Royal Art itself based upon such speculative theories, as this arrangement has no basis at all in traditional Alchemy. So here we see a typical example of transforming the Alchemical Tradition to suit Mr. Zalewski’s understanding of Golden Dawn Ritual. In the light of these new ideas of his, taken together with whatever I have read of Mr. Zalewski on his yahoo-forum and his previous speculations concerning the attribution of the Tarot and the three alchemical phases, and 7 and 12 processings, I would categorize him to be the post-modern equivalent a puffer. He is not a charlatan as some would have him to be. Even if I cannot see any true artist in him I regard him to be at least sincere in his endeavors. What can be held against him though is that he trusts his own intellect and likes his own ideas to much and thus is caught up in the labyrinth of his own imagination.

Pat Zalewski

However, it does happen from time to time that even a puffer can contribute something to our understanding of alchemy (and in this case of the Golden Dawn), if he is benigned with the Grace of God. As an example of this I found his “Alchemical Pentagram” to be quite useful reading his original edition of the Golden Dawn Ritual Commentaries book, as it is based upon the Alchemical theory of the “Golden Chain of Homeros”, although I have arrived at somewhat different conclusions using that polygram model. However, I cannot say if Mr. Zalewski has been so blessed lately as I haven’t read his latest book. I’m not even sure if I will ever read it because my precious time is so short and the work load to great; I prefer to read classical alchemical source texts in contrast to recent inventions or fabrications. I have to make priorities, and to be honest, I believe that Mr. Zalewski has written his best works already (which I already have in my shelf). What I have heard others say about the book hasn’t made me change my mind as of yet. But I’m still considering reading it, and if I will do that I will come back to you with a full review that may perhaps alter my preliminary conclusions in this essay. It is always my prerogative to change my mind as I see fit and if I stand corrected.

The Alchemical Pentagram

At least I don’t refute Mr. Zalewski’s knowledge of Golden Dawn Theurgy and ceremonial (and as I said, from time to time even I find some things he has written in his Ritual Commentaries to be useful). Together with a thorough textual understanding of the classical alchemical corpus fused with an extensive experience of at least external operative laboratory practice, it may create some workable fruit or at least some interesting speculation. But regarding the alchemical operative knowledge or experience of Mr. Zalewski, he has himself on several occasions confessed, information that has also been corroborated lately by individuals that have known him when he was living in New Zeeland with his ex-wife Chris Zalewski, that it was in fact she who did a great deal of work with Plant Spagery, whereas he himself did not. She even published a book on the subject in the early 1990’s called Herbs in Magic and Alchemy (which is more of a magical herbalist’s handbook than an alchemist’s, the latter part heavily based upon Frater Albertus’ The Alchemist’s Handbook, including its omissions of important steps which leads the reader to a ruined elixir!).

Mr. Zalewski is designating his take on Alchemy as a “spiritual alchemy”, in contrast to laboratory practice. He apparently emphasizes that his perspective is not that of the lab practitioner, i.e. non-operative. With this in mind, I personally wouldn’t even refer to his puffery as being of anything “spiritual”, but rather being a kind of “speculative” alchemy in the same vein as the works of C.G. Jung, etc. (At least he is in some really good company!) However, true Spiritual Alchemy brings connotations to great teachers such as Jacob Böhme, who was a true Artist in his own right, although he probably never touched a flask in his lifetime as well. However in contrast to Mr. Zalewski, Böhme based his alchemical ruminations upon spiritual revelations and processes of transformations that he himself had undergone through the grace of God. Some would categorize Böhme’s works as that of prophecy, in the same vein as some consider the works of Emanuel Swedenborg. However, Mr. Zalewski is neither a modern Böhme nor is he a Swedenborg.

Jacob Böhme

If you want to study some really good and initiated Spiritual Alchemy, read whatever Paul Foster Case has written on that subject. In my opinion Case was a good enough initiate of the Royal Art to be trusted when reading his works. The good thing about his teachings is that they border on that of true Internal Alchemy; there is no clear cut division between the Spiritual (i.e. mental) and Internal (i.e. physical) aspect of the Art in his writings. It is this fact that make them so interesting and inspiring to read.

In my humble opinion, from where I am standing today, I hold that it is quite futile to try to understand true Hermetic Alchemy solely from the paradigm of the 22 Tarot Trumps or even the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, for example interpreting the Splendor Solis (who happens to have 22 plates) from the viewpoint of the Tarot. (However if you do the analysis the other way around, that is interpreting the Trumps and letters from the viewpoint of an initiated Alchemical understanding, this might shed some light to the former). Remember however that although both Hermeticism and the Qabalah share a common origin in Egypt and in Chaldean concepts, they both have developed far from each other over the course of many millennia; not to mention that one has retained its pagan roots while the other has not. It is only quite recently, during the renaissance, they both were re-merged together by our Italian Masters and Philosophers, and in the process joined together with the occult doctrine of the Tarot.

But if you resort to using the Tarot and the Holy Qabalah to explain the Art of Alchemy, as does also Paul Foster Case but in an entirely different manner than that of Mr. Zalewski, you have to have a fundamental understanding of the latter to be able to use the former two as pedagogical tools. That is why I can truly recommend Case’s material as a valuable study subject for any initiate, as I know for a fact that Paul Foster Case also involves the physical body as the Prima Materia, however not in such a direct way as that of the Internal Alchemy of my teachers. However, P.F. Case’s understanding of Alchemy is not that of pure intellectual speculation as that of Mr. Zalewski. They are playing in completely different divisions, in my humble opinion.

Paul Foster Case

What Mr. Zalewski is trying to do is to make his readers and students to learn to understand Alchemy from the narrow perspective of the Golden Dawn tradition, which in my humble opinion is a quite fruitless endeavor. However, and of which I previously have hinted at, if you apply the Royal Art itself (that is as a discipline independent from both the Qabalah or the Golden Dawn) onto the Golden Dawn Tradition, you will see the latter in a completely new light. At least for me it has been a true eye opener. Thus I truly believe that the Royal Art may unlock many hidden secrets contained in the Golden Dawn (as the latter is derived from the former), and probably also contained in the Qabalah as an independent tradition, but that you will develop truly false notions about Alchemy if you try to force it into a post-modernist Golden Dawn model in your analysis.

Only in special circumstances and on rare occasions, and through the Grace of God, may you gain some understanding of the Royal Art in meditating on the symbolism of the Golden Dawn, but never in its entire. You have to receive the Keys from a true source to unlock the hidden meanings of Alchemical symbology, and thus may you also unlock the deeper Secrets of the Golden Dawn. These Alchemical Keys has traditionally been bestowed through initiation – the relation between an Alchemical Master and his Disciple – and only in extremely rare cases through direct divine revelation.

But in the post-modern mind there is a strong reluctance or suspicion against the traditional alchemic initiatic norm of passing the body of teaching (orally) from Master to Apprentice or Disciple. One often holds that the Western path, contrary to the Eastern, is more individualistic. It is that, but not at all to the extent we have come to believe in our post-modernist magical culture of the post-Crowleyan – post-hippie era. Following the “True Will” today seems to mean never following the advice of anyone besides one’s own whims and impulses. However the relationship between an Alchemical Master and that of his Disciple, is not that of a Master and Slave. There is lots of room left for trial en error. You have to do the work yourself; your Master cannot do it for you. The history of Internal Alchemy is also replete with examples of high initiates exploring different fields of investigation and further development.

I would rather term the Master-Apprentice relation as that of guidance. In case you are wondering, I would only follow the voice of my external Master if it resonated with the consent of that of my inner / higher Master Teacher (my own Divine Genius). It is also my understanding that the particular path of the initiate is suited to the character and preferences of the initiate; there is no general path that works for everyone. It is the task of the Master to recognize this unique character and individual quality and to guide his disciple accordingly, meeting the needs and wants of his apprentice.

We have now entered into the domain of the operative aspect of Alchemy; the quest for the Philosopher’s Stone. Regarding it the current debate has also revolved around the topic of External vs. Internal Alchemy and how to interpret classical Western Alchemical source texts. Belonging to both camps, that is, believing in the value of both internal and external processings, I don’t necessarily see the opinions that External and Internal students usually propagate as mutually exclusive. To use the Eastern traditions as a comparative example the Tantrikas and Naths, whose teachings are congruent with hermetic principles, believe alchemy to be a “work of two parts”. That is, Hatha Yoga and sexual practices (Internal processings), and that of laboratory alchemy (External processings), according to the Eastern Sages, leads to the same goal – the creation of the Diamond Body. Some of these Sages believe that one is dependent upon the other, even though they at first glance seem to be completely different operations and paths.

Hindu Alchemy involves Yoga (energetic manipulation of the body – trough direct manipulation, such as breathing, posture and visualization) and / or sacred sexuality (Tantra). But it also involves external processings using the mineral Cinnabar and different plants, referred to as Rasa Shastra or Rasayana. This in turn has developed into the tradition of Ayurveda – Indian medicine. We have the equivalent traditions in China and Daoism, which are referred to as Waidan (External Alchemy) and Neidan (Internal Alchemy). Furthermore, the Western Path of the Red Dragon (the path of Cinnabar) is very close in spirit to these Hindu and Daoist notions.

However the Trantrikas and Yogis described internal processings through the use of terms that were borrowed from the tantric outer alchemical practices. This is also seen between Daoist external and internal alchemy. Because I see alchemy as a universal language preceding all religions and classical spirituality, I cannot see any reason why this approach isn’t applicable also to Hermetic Alchemy. So, this means that even if an alchemical author describes processes using languages taken from the mineral realm, this doesn’t mean that he isn’t referring to internal corresponding principles. The case may also be that he is referring to both, that is seeing a full correspondence between external and internal laboratory practices, the one augmenting the other. It is my opinion that the so-called “Dry Path” of Fulcanelli, as described in his Les Demeures Philosophales (“The Dwellings of the Philosophers”), is such a description of a cross-operational technique, involving the Athanor of the external oven as well as that of the human body, but nevertheless independent process-wise. That is, the described process obviously may be performed either as an external or internal working. But my position in this matter is that both working approaches should be performed by the same Alchemist, however not necessarily simultaneously but rather the external preceding the internal (I will return to this sequence in a moment).

But even amongst the practitioners of External Alchemy, which is the most disclosed alchemical tradition contrary to the Internal, there is a division between what some refer to as “Archemy” and “Alchemy”, the latter or course being truer than the former. I have been following (and on some instances participated) over at a well known and acknowledged yahoo-group forum, who has many alchemical authorities of the external paths (and who dismisses Internal Alchemy altogether as that professed by practitioners who have lost faith in the external Philosopher’s Stone). Many speak openly but there are also some few others who seem to be very serious aspiring Sons of Hermes who regard the majority of open discussion concerning itself only with vulgar spagyrics and said archemy, and not that of true alchemy. However it seems that most of these latter reject the idea of an Internal Alchemical process as well.

For example most of these hail Fulcanelli as a true Alchemist but regard his closest pupil Eugène Canseliet (1899 – 1982) to be an Archemist, or even a puffer, who literarily seeks Antimony (or rather Stibnite) as the Prima Materia instead of the so-called “Mineral G”. I have also communicated with some alchemists (or rather archemists) privately who say they possess the keys to true alchemy (of the external way) but don’t share their knowledge with others. My experience is that alchemists are very exclusive, jealous and secretive when they do stumble upon a “true” matter and find yet another “true” processing. I have seen some of the most venomous discussions between alchemists discussing the nature of the true Materia Prima, etc. Thus secrecy comes natural with Alchemy.

Eugène Canseliet

But these proud Alchemists (who actually are Archemists), who only perform the external ways, ironically falls into the same category as the puffers they regard all the others to be; divorcing external processings from that of the internal. They fall into the trap in believing that when Fulcanelli is ambiguous regarding the Antimony (the Prima Materia), that the name of that mineral must be a “decknamen” for some other than the “vulgar” mineral; they foolishly believe he is referring to yet another mineral when instead he is referring to the human body, the Offspring of Saturn, and the process itself as it was of an internal nature. So verily “Antimony” is a decknamen, not for another external mineral but of the human carbon based body instead.

A funny thing about some of the speculations revolving the Fulcanellian “Mineral G” is that it often is suggested to be Galena, the led sulphide, which in ancient times was referred to as kohl used as an eye paint, the earliest reference found in Egypt. The Swedish word “kol” and the German “khole” means carbon (the latter from the latin carbo). It shares its etymology with the English word coal (from the Anglo-Saxon col). Thus one cannot help thinking that Fulcanelli used some kind of play with words (“language of the birds”?), in this case using the Germanic language to actually refer to the human body. It is also interesting to note that the Alchemical symbol for Antimony (the reversed Venus symbol) also is a symbol for the planet Earth itself (Malkuth, which in the microcosm refers to the physical vehicle) and may be used as a general symbol for the Prima Materia.

Now, as with anything that has been claimed by the Rosicrucian Order of the Alpha et Omega, in the usual fashion of the “Golden Dawn community” some individuals have recently disputed the historical authencity of the term “Archemy” just because it doesn’t frequently show up on Google – that which isn’t on Google therefore cannot exist! At least not in the mind of a post-modern English speaking student of the occult.

Granted, it not a common term, but it has been used somewhat in the past. The Master Fulcanelli popularized it in his The Dwellings of the Philosophers back in 1930, where he makes a distinction between true esoteric Alchemy and that of exoteric Archemy (which is of a lesser and analogical nature); for Fulcanelli Archemy is synonymous to Spagery (the latter traditionally being regarded to be the lesser cousin of Alchemy). But there are earlier references to “Archemy” than that of Fulcanelli. The German chemist Hermann Franz Moritz Kopp (1817 – 1892) claims in his Geschichte der Chemie (“A History of Chemistry”) from 1869, that Coelius Rhodiginus (1469 – 1525) used the term “Archemie” in the latter part of the 15th Century. Claudius Salmasius (1588 – 1653) in his Plinianae exercitationes in Solinum from 1629 wrote “Patrum quoque nostrorum aevo Archemia dicebatur et Archemista”. Furthermore, the English edition of Sir George Ripley’s 12 Gates from 1591 says “The compound of alchymy, or the ancient hidden Art of Archemie”. In his Ordinall of Alchemy from 1477 Thomas Norton (1433 – 1513) writes “Mastrye full merveylous and Archimastrye Is the tincture of holi Alkimi”.

The definitions between Alchemy and Archemy obviously has changed during the years, at least if we confine ourselves to published references. They have often been synonymous of the same Art, but some authors, such as the Venetian priest Giovanni Agostino Pantoea in his Ars transmutationis metallicae (“Art of the transmutation of metals), from 1519, made a distinction between them but reversing the meaning and regarded Archemy to be more noble than Alchemy. However, this must be seen in the light of the bad reputation that charlatans and puffers had brought to the name of “Alchemy” during the 16th Century, which had led to the Pope Leo X banning Alchemy altogether but obviously allowing the practice of “Archemy” as he allowed Pantoeas book to be printed.

But it was Fulcanelli who in public presented us with the modern definitions of the terms “Alchemy”, “Archemy” and “Spagery” that I and my Order use whenever we speak of this subject. At the end of this essay I have appended an extraction of the chapter in The Dwellings of the Philosophers that deals with these definitions, so that you may read the words of the Master himself.

Don’t let the quite recent publication of Fulcanelli’s books put you off in reading it. The Dwellings of the Philosophers is by many authorities on Alchemy regarded to be the last in line of classical and true Alchemical texts that has been published. During their 80 years of circulation they have become legendary, as well as the purported feats of its anonymous author (who supposedly succeed with the Great Work, that is produced the Philosopher’s Stone, and gained immortality).

I know of modern students of Alchemy that have committed the entire The Dwellings of the Philosophers to memory – who know it by heart. This says something about its importance and impact in the alchemical community. Most have heard about Fulcanelli’s Le Mystère des Cathédrales (“The Mystery of the Cathedrals”) from 1929 but few Golden Dawn students have heard of his second and more important title (he only published two books), even though it has been translated into English.

I have written about Fulcanneli’s Path of the Black Dragon before on my blog, albeit from an entirely external and exoteric point of view (which is the most common) in where I also in passing mentioned the term “Archemy”, and whatever I said there still holds and doesn’t contradict anything I have said here. In my opinion, the path that Canseliet and his followers has handed down to us, doesn’t constitute any puffery. It is however Archemy. And it was probably taught in this way to Canseliet by Fulcanelli himself. What many seem to fail to understand is that Fulcanelli also taught a way of Internal or Esoteric Alchemy (or Alchemy proper) to complement the External processes of Archemy. This is not only stated by the Secret Chiefs of the Third order of the Alpha et Omega, in a recent communiqué of theirs, but it has also been claimed by independent French sources, such as by the renowned and acclaimed occultist Robert Ambelain.

Thus the external path of the Black Dragon (using Stibnite) only becomes a sign of puffery when you detach it from the overall Alchemical doctrine which also involves corresponding internal processes, in which latter case it represents Archemy. Even if I personally prefer to use the terms Internal Alchemy and External Alchemy (for Archemy and Spagery), it must be clear to everyone that whenever I speak of “Archemy” I’m not referring to puffery at all but in fact to that of external alchemical processings, using Hermetic Philosophy as a basis.

Thus it is in my opinion equally possible to produce an external Philosopher’s Stone with transmuting virtues through Archemy as it is to produce an internal Stone through Alchemy. However, any External Stone cannot be compared to the value of the Internally produced Stone.

But let us regress and involve the concept of Spiritual Alchemy again in our discourse. I firmly believe that both Internal and External processes involves (or are supposed to involve) also the spiritual aspect of ourselves. Furthermore, there is a borderline area between Magic (or Theurgy) and that of operative Alchemy, for example when we discuss the topic of clairvoyance. However, practices which most occultists associate with the words “meditation” and “skrying” isn’t part of the Alchemical practice per se. Skrying more belongs to magical practice. But on the other hand, clairvoyance too has an important part in the processes of Internal Alchemy. And to complicate matters further, Magic is often used in conjunction with Alchemy, both in External and Internal approaches, which also helps to bring in the spiritual aspect of the work.

For example, when I perform an external lab process I usually invoke the forces corresponding to the operation through Ceremonial Magic, and I also do meditations and skryings, with the object to involve my person or microcosm in the external process as well as bringing in the aid of macrocosmic spiritual forces. Contrary to the modern scientific paradigm, which advocates dispassion and separation between subject (scientist) and object, Alchemy involves the Alchemist in a much more profound way, whether it is of the External, Internal or Spiritual kind. Alchemy, as is also the case with Theurgy, is thus about the merging of the microcosm with the macrocosm.

When I perform an internal process my entire being, also the spiritual, becomes involved by default. However, it is not necessary to perform the External and Internal processes simultaneously on every occasion. My conviction however is that the Great Work would be enhanced if we worked both with our external as well as internal laboratory. I also believe that External Alchemy (in conjunction with Theurgy) serves as a good preparation for Internal Alchemy, i.e. that the emphasis changes from the external (macrocosm) into the internal (microcosm) over time.

In the work with Alchemy, as it is envisioned in a Golden Dawn context, you have to start off with the external and tangible first and through the internalization process move on into the internal. This is the same process also with Ceremonial; you have to build yourself your Elemental Weapons (or whatever implement) physically before you are able to use their internal equivalents. Through this process you will also affect your spiritual nature until you are able to produce the physical transmutation. When you are able to do that, you no longer need the external props.

I have suggested elsewhere to this effect, to use the Golden Dawn initiatory system as a frame work, that external processings are more suited for the Second Order, or the R.R. et A.C., while the internal processings are more suited for the Third Order level of work. However, there are some minor and energetic exercises, of a preparational kind, that may supplement the external processes also at a Second Order level.

There is a general agreement in the Hermetic discourse that amongst other things the Emerald Tablet of Hermes introduces the concept of correspondence between the Microcosm and Macrocosm, when it states that “What is the above is from the below and the below is from the above. The work of wonders is from one.” In the latest translation by Nineveh Shadrach it further and in plain words states that “The formation of the microcosm is in accordance with the formation of the macrocosm.” Now, to me these words ring with the sound of wisdom and provide me with a theory of science. They are no empty words to me.

(And in the case of someone raising his finger in objection to me adhering to such outdated theorems: Do I care what the modern scientific paradigm claims as to scientific veracity? And please don’t tell me that modern science isn’t just another faith based system as any other, including religion. Because it is. It even has its own fundamentalists!)

Thus, my main argument is that there is a correspondence between internal and external processes and substances through analogy. As above, so below. As internal, so external. Whatever is in the greater, is also in the smaller. This is a fundamental hermetic principle. Alchemy – and Magic – is about the fusion of the macrocosm with the microcosm. The Law of Correspondences concerns the relation between the Greater / Outside world with the Smaller / Inner World. This is the standard Hermetic definition of the term, which is used both in Magic and in Alchemy.

(Of course the doctrine of the Law of Correspondences – as per example in Aleister Crowley’s Liber 777 – are also used to knit the different macrocosmic parts together, such as plants, minerals, planets, etc., as for example through the Paracelsian doctrine of signatures, which is then applied to the healing of the body and soul of the Magician and Alchemist.)

What I am referring to when I talk of analogy between internal and external processes involves physical matters and actions, not behavioral or psychological phenomena. That latter category of phenomena falls under the “spiritual alchemy” heading. The external is represented by the chemicals and matters and laboratory equipment. Each kingdom has its equivalent Sulphur, Mercury and Salt. The Mercury of Microcosmic Man isn’t the same as that in a Macrocosmic Mineral, but they are the same principle nevertheless and are ruled by the same laws that have their origin in the highest spiritual.

(With the highest spiritual I’m referring to the Hermetic ALL, the ONE. GODHEAD. The DIVINE. I believe Eastern people refer to this as the Causal or spiritual plane (the one that precedes the mental, astral, etheric and physical); the plane of the Brahman.)

To me Nature’s minerals and plants and animals constitute parts of the Macrocosm. My own body parts and fluids, and energetic currents, clearly constitutes the microcosm. So when I want to work alchemically with the macrocosm, I perform external lab alchemy, with the objective to fuse it to my microcosm. Not only do I take the elixirs internally and fuse it with my physical body, for the purpose of healing and regeneration, I also align myself astrally and mentally through skrying and meditation with the process to further this aim.

Why then go through all of this arduous and tedious practice of fusion between the microcosm and the macrocosm? Why not let everything be as it is; why manipulate nature to produce such “unnatural” effects? We have to ask ourselves why this division has occurred in the first place to answer these questions.

The theory of Alchemy agrees with that of Gnosticism and the Holy Qabalah, that Man’s condition is that of being in a “fallen” state. This fall is hinted at in the first chapters of Genesis. Thus, we do have a divine origin but through our life in this exiled and differentiated condition of the Material World we have isolated ourselves from the Macrocosm, through the illusions and convolutions of the mind, and thus also energetically. The work of Alchemy and Magic is reintegration, both of our own separated parts (in our mind and body) but also of ourselves as a separated part of the macrocosm.

Some argue that we as Man are in perfect union with the Universe as it is and that thoughts contrary to this is an illusion. But I ask: Is someone living under the Wheel of Samsara truly one of the gods or demi-gods, in full tune with the Brahman? Is our life here on Earth truly a perfect or ideal condition? Why then do we have to meditate? Why do we have to create conditions of reaching Samhadi if we as Atman already are in perfect union with the Brahman? Why do we even have to dissipate that “illusion” of ours in the first place?

Alchemy is about following Nature but it is also the Art of speeding up Her processes. I want to reach Immortality (leave the wheel of Samsara) and become “more than human” in this life. Not in the next. Enough said by me, who is but a Neophyte of our Royal Art. Let us now instead read the words of wisdom from one of our past Masters, a true Son of Hermes, of which I promised previously. If there is any confusion left from reading my all too over-worded exposition, all that will be dissipated from now on:

An extract from Fulcanelli's The Dwelling of the Philosophers, Chapter VII - Alchemy and Spagyrics

Since Lavoisier, all the authors who have written on the history of chemistry agree to profess that our chemistry comes by direct affiliation from old alchemy. Consequently, the origin of the one is confused with that of the other, to such an extent that modern science would owe the positive facts on which it is built to the patient labor of the ancient alchemists. […] Well, we in turn certify, proposing to prove it, that learned men who have in good faith espoused or propagated this hypothesis deluded themselves by ignorance or a lack of penetration. Understanding only in part the books they studied, they mistook appearance for reality. Let us clearly state, since so many educated and sincere people seem unaware of the fact, that the real ancestor of our modern chemistry is ancient spagyrics and not the hermetic science itself. There is indeed a profound abyss between spagyrics and alchemy.

There was in the Middle Ages and possibly even in Greek antiquity, if we refer to the works of Zosimos and Ostanes – two degrees, two orders of research in chemical science: spagyry and archemy. These two branches of the same exoteric art spread throughout the working class by means of laboratory practice. Metallurgists, goldsmiths, painters, ceramic artists, glassmakers, dyers, distillers, enamellers, potters, etc., had, as much as apothecaries, to be provided with sufficient spagyric knowledge. They perfected this knowledge themselves later on in the exercise of their profession. As for archemists, they formed a special category, more restricted, more obscure also, among the ancient chemists. The aim which they pursued presented some analogy with that of the alchemists, but the materials and the means which they had at their disposal were uniquely chemical materials and means. To transmute metals into one another, to produce gold and silver from coarse minerals, or from saline metallic compounds, to force the gold potentially contained in silver and the silver potentially contained in tin to become real and extractable, was what the archemist had in mind. In the final analysis, he was a spagyrist confined to the mineral realm and who voluntarily neglected animal quintessences and vegetable alkaloids. And since medieval laws forbade private possession of furnaces and chemical utensils without preliminary permission, many artisans, their work once finished, studied, manipulated, and secretly experimented in their cellars or their attics. They cultivated the science of the little particulars, according to the somewhat disdainful expression of the alchemists for these side activities unworthy of the philosopher. Without scorning these useful researchers, let us recognize that very often the most fortunate among them only obtained mediocre benefits, and that the same process, at first successful, later led to nil or uncertain results.

Nevertheless, in spite of their errors – or rather because of them – it is they, the archemists, who provided first the spagyrists and later modern chemistry with the facts, methods, and operations they needed. These men, tormented with a desire to search everywhere and to learn everything, are the true founders of a splendid and perfect science to which they bestowed accurate observations, exact reactions, skillful manipulations, and painfully acquired techniques. Let us humbly salute these pioneers, these precursors, these great workers, and let us never forget what they did for us.

However, we repeat, alchemy has nothing to do with these successive contributions. Hermetic writings alone, misunderstood by profane investigators, were the indirect cause of discoveries which the authors had never anticipated. It is in this manner that Blaise de Vigenere obtained benzoic acid by sublimating benzoin; that Brandt could extract phosphorus by seeking the alkahest in urine; that Basil Valentine, a prestigious Adept who did not despise spagyric experiments, established the entire series of antimonial salts and the colloid of ruby gold; that Raymond Lully prepared acetone, and Cassius the purple of gold; that Glauber obtained sodium sulphate and Van Helmont recognized the existence of gases. But, with the exception of Lully and of Basil Valentine, all these researchers, wrongly classified among alchemists, were simple archemists or learned spagyrists. This is why a famous Adept, author of a classical work, can say with much reason: “If Hermes, the Father of philosophers, was resurrected today, along with subtle Geber, and the profound Raymond Lully, our vulgar chemists would not regard them as Philosophers, and would practically not condescend to number them among their disciples, because the latter would not know the manner of operating all these distillations, circulations, calcinations, and all these innumerable operations which our vulgar chemists invented for having misunderstood the allegorical writings of these Philosophers”.

With their confused texts, sprinkled with cabalistic expressions, the books remain the efficient and genuine cause of the gross mistake that we indicate. For, in spite of the warnings, the objurations of their authors, students persisted in reading them according to the meaning that they hold in ordinary language. They do not know that these texts are reserved for initiates, and that is essential, in order to understand them, to be in possession of their secret key. One must first work at discovering this key. Most certainly these old treatises contain, if not the entire science, at least its philosophy, its principles, and the art of applying them in conformity with natural laws. But if we are unaware of the hidden meaning of the terms – for example, the meaning of Ares, which is different from Aries and is closer to Arles, Arnet, and Albait – strange qualifications purposely used in the composition of such works, we will understand nothing of them or we will be infallibly led into error. We must not forget that it is an esoteric science. Consequently, a keen intelligence, an excellent memory, work, and attention aided by a strong will are not sufficient qualities to hope to become learned in this subject. Nicolas Grosparmy writes, “Such people truly delude themselves who think that we have only made our books for them, but we have made them to keep out all those who are not of our sect”. Batsdorff, in the beginning of his treatise, charitably warns the reader in these terms, “Every prudent man”, he says, “must first acquire the Science if he can; that is to say, the principles and the means to operate. Otherwise he should stop there, without foolishly using his time and his wealth. And so, I beg those who will read this little book to credit my words. I say to them once more, that they will never learn this sublime science by means of books, and that it can only be learned through divine revelation, hence it is called Divine Art, or through the means of a good and faithful master; and since there are very few of them to whom God has granted this grace, there are also very few who teach it”. Finally, an anonymous author of the 18th century gives other reasons for the difficulty that we encounter in deciphering the enigma: “Here is”, he writes, “the first and true cause why nature has hidden this open and royal palace from so many philosophers, even those gifted with a very subtle mind. Because, straying since their youth away from the simple path of nature through conclusions of logic and metaphysics, although ingenuous nature advances in a straight and very simple step in this path as in all the others”.

Such are the opinions of the philosophers about their own works. How can we be surprised then, that so many excellent chemists took the wrong path, and that they deluded themselves by inquiring into a science whose most elementary notions they were incapable of assimilating? And would it not be a great service to render unto others, unto neophytes, to advise them to meditate upon this great truth which the Imitation (Book III, Ch. II, v.2) proclaims, when it says, speaking of the sealed books: “They can make the sound of their words resound, but they do not provide any understanding at all. They give the letter, but it is the lord who unveils the meaning of them; they propose mysteries, but it is He who explains them. They show the path that must be followed, but He gives the strength for walking on it”. It is the stumbling block against which our chemists have tripped. And we can affirm that, if our scientists had understood the language of the ancient alchemists, the laws of the practice of Hermes would be known to them, and the philosophers’ stone would long have ceased to be considered a chimera.

We have stated earlier that archemists regulated their works according to hermetic theory – at least as they understood it – and that this was the point of departure for fertile experiments with purely chemical results. Thus they prepared the acid solvents which we use, and through the action of these on metallic bases they obtained the saline series well known to us. By afterwards reducing these salts, either with other metals, with alkalies, coal, sugar or fatty bodies, they recovered, without transformation, the basic elements which they had previously combined. But these attempts as well as the methods which appeal to it showed no difference with those practiced today in our laboratories. A few researchers, nevertheless, pushed their investigations much further; they remarkable extended the field of chemical possibilities even to such a point that their results seem doubtful, if not imaginary, to us. It is true that these processes are often incomplete and enveloped in mystery almost as dense as that of the Great Work. However […] our chemistry owes everything to spagyrists and archemists and nothing, absolutely nothing, to hermetic Philosophy.

The simplest archemic process consists in using the effect of violent reactions – that of acids on bases – so as to provoke, in the midst of the effervescence, the reunion of the pure parts, their irreducible combination under the form of new bodies. It is then possible, from a metal close to gold – silver preferably – to produce a small quantity of the precious metal. […] But this simple body, so easily obtained, although in a very small proportion, is it truly gold? Our sincerity compels us to say no or, at least, not yet. For even if it shows the most perfect outer analogy to gold, and even most of its properties and chemical reactions, still one essential physical characteristics is missing: density. This gold is less heavy than natural gold, although its own density is already greater than that of silver. We can therefore regard it as, not the representative of a more or less unstable allotropic state of silver, but rather as a young, or nascent gold, which further reveals its recent formation. Moreover, the newly produced metal remains capable of taking and keeping, by contraction, the increased density that the adult metal possesses. Archemists used a process which ensured nascent gold all the specific qualities of adult gold; they called this technique maturation or firming up, and we know that mercury was its principle agent. We find it mentioned in some ancient Latin manuscripts under the expression of Confirmatio. But archemy has other methods, whose results bring the proof of philosophical affirmations. They allow us to achieve the decomposition of metallic bodies, long considered to be simple elements. These processes, which alchemists know well, although they don’t have to use them in the elaboration of the Great Work, aim at extracting one of the two metallic roots, sulphur and mercury.

Hermetic philosophy teaches us that bodies have no action on bodies and that only spirits are active and penetrating. It is they, these spirits, these natural agents, that provoke in the midst of matter the transformations which we observe there, yet wisdom demonstrates through experimentation that bodies cannot form among themselves anything but easily reducible, temporary combinations. Such is the case of alloys, some of which are liquefied by simple fusion, and of all saline compounds. Similarly, alloyed metals maintain their specific qualities in spite of the diverse properties which they take on in the state of association. We can then understand of what usefulness the spirits can be in releasing the metallic sulphur or mercury when we know that they alone are capable of overcoming the strong cohesion which tightly binds these two principles between themselves.

It is essential first to understand what the Ancients meant by the generic and rather vague term of spirits. For the alchemists, the spirits are real influences, although they are physically almost immaterial or imponderable. They act in a mysterious, inexplicable, unknowable but efficacious manner on substances submitted to their action and prepared to receive them. Lunar radiation is one of these hermetic spirits. As for archemists, their conception proves to be of a more concrete and substantial nature. Our old chemists embraced all bodies under the same heading, simple or complex, solid or liquid, having a volatile quality liable to make them entirely sublimable. Metals, metalloids, salts, hydrogen carbides, etc., bring to archemists their contingency of spirits: mercury, arsenic, antimony and some of their compounds: sulphur, sal ammoniac, alcohol, ether, vegetable essences, etc.

Among the archemists who used gold to augment it, making use of formulas which led them to success, we will note the Venetian priest Pantheus; Naxagorus, author of Alchymia Denudata (1715); de Locques; Duclos; Bernard de Labadye; Joseph du Chesne, baron of Morance, appointed physician to King Henry IV of France; Blaise de Vigenere; Bardin, of Le Havre (1638); Mlle. De Martinville (1610); Yardley, the English inventor of a process which he transmitted to Monsieur Garden, glover in London, in 1716, and later communicated by Monsieur Ferdinand Hockley to Dr Sigismond Bacstrom, and which became the object of a letter from the latter to M. L. Sand in 1804; finally, the pious philanthropist, St Vincent de Paul, founder of Les Peres de la Mission (The Fathers of the Mission --- 1625) and of the congregation of les Soeurs de la Charite (The Sisters of Charity --- 1634), etc.

We will repeat one last time that of all the operations […], none can be related in any way to traditional alchemy; none can be compared to its own operations. A thick wall separates the two sciences, an insurmountable obstacle for those who are familiar with the methods and formulas of chemistry. We do not want to make anyone despair, but truth compels us to say that those who keep on performing spagyric research will never come out of the ways of official chemistry. Many modern chemists believe in good faith that they are resolutely going far from chemical science, because they explain its phenomena in a special manner without using any other technique besides that of the learned men whom they criticize. Alas, there have always been many of these erring and self-deluded people, and it perhaps for them that Jacques Tesson wrote these words of truth: “Those who want to accomplish our Work through digestions, through common distillations, and similar sublimations, and others by triturations, all these people are off the good path, in great error and difficulty, and they will never succeed because all these names, words, and manners of operation are names, words, and manners of metaphor”.

We believe that we have fulfilled our purpose and demonstrated […] that the ancestor of modern chemistry is not the old and simple alchemy but ancient spagyrics, enriched with successive contributions from Greek, Arabic, and medieval archemy.

If one wants to have some idea of the secret science, let him bring his thoughts back to the work of the farmer and that of the microbiologist, since ours is placed under the dependence of analogous conditions. For, as Nature gives the farmer the earth and the grain, and the microbiologist the agar-agar and the spore, similarly she gives the alchemist the proper metallic terrain and the appropriate seed. If all the circumstances favorable to the regular process of this special culture are rigorously observed, the harvest cannot but be abundant... In summary, alchemical science, of an extreme simplicity in its materials and its formula, nevertheless remains the most unrewarding, the most obscure of all, by reason of the exact knowledge of the required conditions and the required influences. There is its mysterious side, and it is towards resolution of this most difficult problem that the efforts of all the sons of Hermes converge.

S∴R∴

Modern transpersonal psychology vs. traditional psychoanalysis

2011-09-02T13:14:00.028+02:00

And now to something completely different. A comment criticizing Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung from the occult perspective caught my eye the other day, contrasting it with the modern transpersonal school of psychology which was considered to be far more superior. Especially there was some critique against equating “archetypes” with angels, etc. It made me ponder somewhat regarding the nature of archetypes, as well as the purpose of psychotherapy in the context of initiation. So here I will exhibit yet some more of my mental mastrubation.

The reader should also be aware (or warned) that I have the personal ambition of trying to construct a Esoteric Psychology that also works from a strictly clinical sense, fusing elements from both Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung, as two representatives of the psychoanalytic tradition (and taking the benefit of their system of pathology), with that of the Hermetic and Qabalistic traditions, into a workable format in the psychoterapeutic context. In my own research I have found that as much as C.G. Jung can be attached to the Hermetic / Achemical tradition, S. Freud may be corresponded to that of the Holy Qabalah.

Perhaps this will come as a surprise to some, but probably not to regular followers of my blog (in particular if they can read Swedish). In my opinion the initiate of a hermetic initiatic school has much more to gain from taking regular traditional psychotherapy or psychoanalysis than he or she does from transpersonal therapy, such as psychosyntheis. Why? Because (and not counting the fact that the former kind of therapists often have a more solid education and clinical training) we need to access that dark, unconscious and repressed aspects of ourselves – the complexes to use the terminology of Jung and Freud.

Thus, as initiates we shouldn’t write off either Freud or Jung as important in the understanding of the human soul to quickly. I agree that they are limiting (especially Freud) when it comes to transpersonal experiences. But no school of therapy is better than psychoanalysis or analytical psychology, or modern psychodynamic therapy, in probing and giving initiates keys to unravel their subconscious strata, and create psychological healing at that.

Sigmund Freud

I happen to have experience of psychosynthesis, both in training and my own therapy as part of that course (although quite limited). I have all the more experience and solid study of psychoanalysis / psychodynamic therapy both in training and in self-therapy. Based on that I must inform you that I have been given a lot more tools and assistance in my search for self-knowledge through my traditional psychotherapeutic training and therapy, compared to what I managed to gather through my psychosynthesis (transpersonal therapy) course.

What the Hermetic schools lack in training and theory is that part of the psyche or aspect of the work in gaining self-knowledge of what in esoteric psychology is referred to as the subconscious; it does however provide us with a map to experience the terrains of the superconscious. Thus while being in an initiatic school I would say that a psychotherapy that lays its emphasis on the subconscious / unconscious is very beneficient in this respect, as it complements the traditional training of an initiate in a most optimal way.

Now, some of you will either think or say that regular meditation and mindfulness techiques, such as found in Eastern traditions, is much more efficient than regular Western psychotherapy. I beg to differ; in my opinion you need the significant other (that is the therapist or initiator) to gain self-knowledge. Regardie understood this very well, especially when it came to dealing with transferential and projective issues, which I find wholly lacking in the transpersonal schools in the way of tools and theory.

Simple guided meditations will not lead you to that as it involves the conscious mind and will-power to a greater extent; you need to evoke those infantile drives to become conscious of them through the transferential relation. However, spontaneous visualization techiques, such as Jungs active imagination or Katathym imaginative psychotherapy more recently developed by Hanscarl Leuner (while starting off with a guided meditation soon developes into spontaneous imaginary), have their value. But even these techniques presupposes the therapist as an active ingredient, that is the relation between two humans.

Carl Gustav Jung

In that same comment Regardie met some critique for attributing Angelic forces to the archetypes. But in my opinion Angels may in fact be referred to “archetypes” of a sorts when referring to the microcosm, in the same manner as demons can be attributed to our repressed complexes. We have them both inside of us, as well as they both do exist in the macrocosm as independent entities. The Divine Genius is that Angel that is most close to out heart and our Sphere, but there are also others beyond that. I am sure that Jung had a thorough understanding of Plato and thus borrowed the idea of archetypes from him, which in the context of the latter refer to eternal ideas which transcends the mundane world that but reflects them in a shadowy format. Remember that we as Man (microcosm) are made into the image of God (macrocosm).

However I also believe that Jung in a way simplified truth in several instances. In his system there seems to be nothing beyond our Divnie Genius of the Hermetic school, which should be the equivalent of the Self in Jungian terms, our personal God (spark) so to speak. Here I beg to differ with him. How I see it today the Jungian Self (which I equate with the Higher and Divine Genius) is but an emissary of the true God beyond. Jung also make the archetypes, as I interpret him, almost as aspects of the individual Self (the archetype of the archetypes). Thus, using his model the other archetypes, such as the Mother and Father archetypes, attach to the Self. This aspect of the analytical psychology of Jung may also be understood in light of the Holy Qabalah. May I propose the following cross-reference:

The strictly Jungian archetypes compose the Sephiroth of the Assiatic Tree of Life in 10 aspects. Here the Jungian Self corresponds to Kether, or Yechidah of Man. The other archetypes are represented by the other 8 Sephiroth which follows, the 10th sphere representing our personal psyche and the “personal unconscious”. The Holy Qabalah teaches us that all the other 9 Sephiroth are contained in a latent and united form in Kether, that they emanate and thus are hanging as pendants from Kether. This clearly is reminicent of how Jung explains the Self in relation to the archetypes, although he uses a more circular model to explain it.

The anatomical model of the psyche according to C.G. Jung

These archetypes that belong to Assiah are actually the reflection of the True Archetypes of Atziluth (the Archetypal World of the Qabalah). Thus the Higher Self in Assiah (the human world of action) is a reflection of Kether in Atziluth, the true Yechidah of the Greater World. However the Kether of Assiah has gone through lots of stages of descent and involution to reach its final destination which originated in Kether of Atziluth. In fact it emanates or grows out from Malkuth of Yetzirah (the world of formation and of angelical choirs), the feet of that mighty angel which overshadows each man. Thus, man’s Yechidah (that is Kether in Assiah) is but an incarnated emanation of the Yetziratic Angel (our Holy Guardian Angel).

The orginal archetypes, that is the 10 Sephiroth of the World of Atziluth, are both macrocosmic and microcosmic, or in other words, there is no division between Man and God at this point. The same may be said of Briah as well, at least to a certain extent, the creative world in which the archetypes becomes embodied in the form of Macrocosmic Archangels and the Guardian Archangel of Man. In the latter case each Archangelic name represents an aspect of our Mighty Archangel. Thus an Archangel from Briah may interact with us through the medium of the World as well as we may invoke it from inside of ourself, through our own Guardian Archangel, in that realm which reaches beyond Assiah. But the lower (and I believe Jungian) archetypes belongs to the personal and solely microcosmic sphere of Assiah. Thus I interpret Jungs psychology as dealing with the anatomy of Assiah and perhaps the lowest statum (i.e. Malkuth) of Yetzirah.

The World of the Qlippoth

Theurgy goes way beyond this. So in this respect the school of analytical psychology don’t give you the keys to everything, but nevertheless it is a good starter to gain self-knowledge about your Assiatic self, that is the 10 Sephiroth of Assiah, while Freud’s theories limits itself even further down to Malkuth of Assiah, or even the infernal Qlippotic regions below, the dwelling place of the Red Dragon. But traditional Freudian teachiques, or schools that are based on his theories, are very good at gaining knowledge of that Mighty Dragon, I must add.

S∴R∴

The Tree of Knowledge vs. the Tree of Life: Or a followup to the question of why we should be Adepts first and scholars second

2011-08-29T02:55:00.012+02:00

In my previous and last blog I tried to distinguish between true Adepthood and that of academic scholarism, of which the latter we see to much of these days in modern initiates at the expense of the former. With this sequel I hope to dispel any strange notions of anti-intellectualism or anti-scholarism on my behalf. So it seems that some on the blogosphere has yet again mistaken or misrepresented my words, this time interpreting me as saying that Adepts should stop being scholars entirely. That is NOT at all what I am saying. I simply ask for initiates to strive for Adeptship first and to be scholars second. That is taking scholarism from the pedestal without giving it up; relegating it into a tool and from being the sole aim and purpose in itself. Thus I’m not asking you to throw out the babe with the bathwather.

It is of course good and dandy to know several languages and be well versed in archaeology, history and contemporary religious research, etc. S.L. MacGregor Mathers was a perfect example of this, so was W.W. Westcott; they often find themselves in leading positions of orders, as being a leader implies by its very innate nature to create a working curriculum for your initiates. What I AM criticizing is that this type of knowledge ought to be the major measuring stick for Adepthood. It is NOT. True Adepthood has nothing to do with any intellectual qualities per se, but instead that of succeeding with the Great Work and discovering the Stone of the Wise, and thus realizing Immortality. This is the original meaning of the term “Adept” which was invented and used by alchemists in the past. You won’t get immortal and god-like by reading a good book.

Granted, intellectual abilities and study of textbooks can aid you in this alchemical endeavour. But it requires so much more than that; reason alone and intellectual knowledge can not take you there – that is realizing the Stone – but more so faith, devotion, passion, reverence, humility, compassion, desire, discipline and will. I recommend a thorough study of G.H. Fra. Sub Spe’s (John William Brodie-Innes’) paper on the Zelator Ritual in this respect; he has some interesting things there to say concerning the importance of faith in the Work.

Intellectual knowledge creates distance and dispassion. To become an Adept you must merge yourself with that aspect of reality with which you are currently working and researching. The intellect can only take you that far; there is a time and place upon the Path of Return where you must set aside the intellect to gain the true vision of the Universe – Gnosis. Mystics all over the world know all about this. Why is it so hard for occultists to get this into their thick heads?

Theory is always the emphasis in the early stages of the training of the initiate, whereas the Work itself becomes the main concern after a while. Thus theory is the foundation of future Work; however not the Work proper itself. The only quality that can make you persevere through this Herculean Work is that of faith and devotion to it, and a true belief in Divine guidance and providence. There are to many sceptics amongst post-modern Adepts, to little with faith. Many are ambivalent and not truly shure why they are called to do the Work. Looking at the written words of some, I sometimes wonder if they even believe in magic; if they believe in miracles; if they belive in the Philosopher’s Stone and its supposed qualities of transmuation. What they do belive in is their own intelligence and discrimination. They also love to show off their large book collections!

But I say that intellectual endeavour may even become a distraction from more important practical work after a certain point. A large library is not the key to discovering divinity and immortality. The task is rather to find the truly important and handful of books that you should read and re-read, and re-read, and re-read, while working around the clock applying what you have understood from the source texts, until the message reveals itself through a Gnosis.

Discrimination is needed to weed out the puffers from the true alchemist authors. Remember that there are three major categories of occultists; the true artist, the puffer and the charlatan. The puffer is often well meaning and serious, but has lost his ways in the maze – the labyrinth (the convolutions of the brain) – and cannot distinguish between analogy and literal meanings. The charlatan knows that he is a fake but has developed his deceptive abilities enough to get away with pretending to be an artist. But there is of course a thin veil between the true artist and the charlatan, especially from the perspective of the student seeking a teacher. Would you prefer to read books by puffers and charlatans, before that of true artists? I guess not. But the problem is that our community is flooded with works written by puffers and charlatans. Thus the task to find the right literature – that is quality before quantity – is Herculean in its own right.

The Good Book (or Bible) is of course one of these important titles and souce texts, for us Westerners, but there are a few more that can help you in the early stages of the work. The Emerald Tablet is of course a requirement and should be put into a frame and hung onto the wall of every would be alchemist’s home, and meditated upon – daily. There are several other titles, of course. One which comes to mind is the Sepher Yetzirah, from the Qabalistic lore. But the tendency amongst real Adepts however is to cut down the amount of books in their library, at least after a while. Remember, quality before quantity. I once heard about a renowned Alchemist who purportedly only owned two or three books in his shelf. Interesting, huh? I wish I knew which titles. But I mustn’t digress any further…

Consider for a while the two Trees in the Garden of Eden that man was prohibited from eating; the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Tree of Life. Man was lured by the Serpent to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, not that from the Tree of Life. After being caught in the act man was consequently condemned to a perpetual Diaspora and the path of a re-entry back into Eden barred by the Flaming Sword placed in the hand of the Kerubim, to guard the Tree of Life from being plucked by man who then truly would become as one of the gods as he would also gain immortality.

But as initiates we are told to ascend the Tree of Life and thus to quit our exile; alchemy concerns itself solely with the Tree of Life and its golden fruit. Enoch walked with God, thus man was given a promise of a way back into the Garden. Why then, I ask, do so many students of the occult and initiates treat the Tree of Life as it was the Tree of Knowledge instead? Why this sole emphasis on either theoretical knowledge or knowledge gained through astral scrying techiques (that is gaining information from dubious astral entities as sources)? We are very quick in invoking a force to use it as a gateway into hidden realms, and potential treasure house of knowledge, instead of infusing its powers with that of our Sphere of Sensation.

Now, only because of what I just wrote, some individuals will claim that I now told you to stop scrying. I did NOT! What I said was that you cannot gain true Gnosis only by scrying on the astral plane. The astral plane is a treasure house of illusions and presents yet another maze. Do you really believe that by only scrying more you will gain more true visions? Think again; you will probably only end up being a astral junkie instead. It is true that you will gain a more clear and true vision from the true Work; a true clairvoyance. But that is not from searching for astral knowledge per se; it comes from entirely different techniques. True vision is the outcome of more important work than that.

I am of course referring to purely energetic work. You must learn to infuse your Sphere of Sensation with the Powers of the Universe, with its Energies. You must learn to merge the microcosm with the macrocosm. You won’t do that by scholarly endeavours or communing with entities in the astral. It takes something else. Besides, there are other utilites and advantages from traditional scrying work than simply using a questionnare before an encountered entity. I am talking about astral scrying as a means to receive initiation and undergo transformations, which in turn also may have energetic consequences.

The Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life are deceptively alike. They are almost as twins. Thus it is easy to mistake one for the other. For instance, they both have two opposite paths – darkness and light about them. But they are not the same. They have different natures. Eating a fruit of Life will grant different qualities to your being compared to that of eating the fruit of Knowledge. Surely you must suspect this?

May we gain Gnosis trough eating the fruit of Knowledge? I doubt it. The fruits of the Tree of Knowledge has given man his discriminative faculties – his ability to analyse, that is to separate. That is needed in the Solve Phase. But you cannot reach to the Coagula without knowing how to unite the two principles. This uniting principle may only be granted to you by eating the Fruit of Life, plucked from the Tree of Life – that is the Tree of Love and of Light. Gnosis – that is True Knowledge of the nature of things – can only be granted by the Tree of Life (Light and Love). With Immortality comes also Cosmic Consciousness. Enough said. Please feel free to misinterpret and misrepresent me as you wish.

S∴R∴

Concerning the true nature of Lux E Tenebris: an angel or a man? (Or, why we should be Adepts first and scholars second)

2011-08-15T01:06:00.027+02:00

The last month following G.H. Fra. L.e.S.’ announcement regarding the Third Order transmission of secret teachings for the higher grades of the Second Order, the R.R. et A.C. of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega, has seen quite some stir and heated discussions on various fora and the blogosphere. Some conclusions have taken some ludicrous heights, in the usual reconstructionist fashion that we have come to be used to during the recent years.

Now, the good Frater Olen Rush recently published a transcript from a visionary experience back in 1888 by one Frater Vota Vita Mea, that is Thomas Henry Pattison which is listed as No. 8 of the Horus Temple No. 5 membership roll, admitted as a 5°=6° by march 1888.

This letter has previously been published in full by R.A. Gilbert in his The Golden Dawn Scrapbook, pages 37-39. The transcript reeds in full thus (retaining comments by Mr. Gilbert within square brackets):

Copy of Communication from the Inner Ring, made to Fra. Vota Vita Mea, given in his letter of June 20, 1888 to Fra Sapere Aude:

The Crowned One gave to Fras. V.V.M. and H. [presumably F.D. Harrison] much information concerning the natural creation and the following symbol was the one he adopted to illustrate primary creation or the union of ﬁrst causes:

After this Fra. H. was conducted by an Eagle-headed messenger into the presence of the Angel R + [Raphael] (whom I, S'Rioghail Mo Dhream, know by the motto L[ux] e T[enebris]) He said:

‘I wish to speak to you of the G.D. The prime mover of it must exercise the keenest possible care, and must not accept people into its secrets who are not Occult Students, they all ought to have some occult development which has been the outcome of their own research; otherwise much Evil Magic will be the result. Much good can come out of it if rightly directed, but one Evil One can upset the Harmony of the whole, so that its efforts would be neutral for a lengthy period. The Idea in view must be not to establish an Order; but to gather together those men who are an Order In themselves. Understand that the G.D. is MY Order and that I am and must be accountable for it. The last one initiated [Dr T.W. Coffin, who left the Order within a year having remained in the grade of Neophyte] must be considered and allowed to wait before giving information; 2 or 3 others also are not of much use, and others are likely to drop out. You must take every care not to initiate any who have no occult tendency in a degree developed. Convey my message to those who can carry out my advice.

‘You must consider yourselves highly favoured indeed for being allowed to come in contact with the one (the Crowned One) you did tonight.

‘Also, I would caution and advise you to be very careful in the use of Divine Names, and all symbols should (be) correctly traced. I have seen this lady in Switzerland whom you have been trying to release. I conﬁrm the work you have attempted. But you have failed to fully carry out your intention. The failure is due to the want of correctness in carrying out your Ritual. When the Divine Names are used they are made operative by the emotion of the Soul; if uttered by a cold soul-starved man they are of no use. Put your soul-power into them, and let your whole being speak them; then they do become Operative; and the ﬁnal Issue of this lady in Switzerland is left open at present for your instruction. You have discovered and commanded the assailants, but you have not yet subdued them; although she will be very carefully watched now: You must make your promise of protection a fact, and establish it as a permanent operation. I shall see you again as to this.’

He also said; - ‘The G.D. will soon ﬁnd the prime movers plenty to do; they will have more applicants than they can take; and if not careful will get beyond their control.’

He then said to Fra. H, ‘You can go’; and the Eagle-headed Messenger conducted him back.

Now, people has of course noted the particular mention by S.L. MacGregor Mathers of Lux e Tenebris, the motto that MacGregor Mathers re-used for his later in the flesh Secret Chief which he met in Paris in 1892. Some have therefore speculated that MacGregor Mathers started out with a belief of solely astral or angelic powers as the source of the Third Order, and that he later on changed his beliefs into the concept of continental Rosicrucian initiates.

For me this seems plausible, and even more plausible that he believed in both. I personally believe that MacGregor Mathers used the Lux e Tenebris phrase as a generic motto for whatever Secret Chief or source of inspiration he had come into contact with or believe in at a certain point. After the meeting with his physical Secret Chief in Paris he started to apply that motto onto him. Later on there started to spread a false rumour that the identity of L.e.T. was a Dr. Thiessen of Liege, who supposedly died in 1909. However, it’s a well known fact amongst initiates that the L.e.T. motto is a blind, and that the real motto and true identity of MacGregor Mathers’ continental Secret Chief is still secret to this day.

However, one reconstructionist and history revisionist author has even suggested that MacGregor Mathers must have referred to the infamous Madame Horos as his Secret Chief when he announced that he had been visited by them in the flesh. But in his usual manner this author hasn’t made his homework sufficiently enough and completely either missed or ignored the fact that MacGregor Mathers’ in the flesh contact with Madame Horos was established in early 1900, while he made his first official and written claims of physical contact with his Secret Chiefs back in 1896, that is four years prior to him taking in Madame Horos and her husband as guests at his Paris house. He also totally misses the fact that MacGregor Mathers in a weak moment (probably his weakest) believed Madame Horus to be fräulein Sprengel, who used the motto of Sapiens Dominabitur Astris, not that of Lux E Tenebris.

Now let me present the facts, not any fantasies, and again quote MacGregor Mathers’ manifesto concerning the Secret Chiefs in full:

The Manifesto of G.H. Frater Deo Duce Comite Ferro 7° = 4°, Adeptus Exemptus, Chief Adept and Ambassador of those Secret and Unknown Magi who are the concealed Rulers of the Wisdom of the True Rosicrucian Magic of Light:

Unto

The Theorici Adepti Minores of the Order R∴ R∴ et A∴ C∴

Notice: This Manifesto is to be placed in the hands of each Theoricus Adeptus Minor upon his or her attainment of that Grade. After he or she has carefully read the same; he or she must send a written Statement of voluntary submission in all points regarding the Orders of the G∴D∴ in the Outer and the R∴R∴ et A∴C∴ to G.H. Frater Deo Duce Comite Ferro before being permitted to receive any further instruction. Unless he or she is prepared to do this, he or she must either Resign from the Order, or elect to remain a Zelator Adeptus Minor only. And he or she hereby undertakes to refrain from stirring up any strife or schism hereon in the First and Second Orders.

It is necessary that you who have now attained the Grade of Theoricus Adeptus Minor after having passed through the numerous examinations on the Secret Knowledge of the Zelator Adeptus Minor Grade of the Second Order should now understand how that wonderful system of Occult Wisdom has been obtained for you.

Prior to the establishment of the Vault of the Adepts in Britannia (the First Order of the G∴D∴ in the Outer being therein actively working) it was found absolutely and imperatively necessary that there should be some eminent Member especially chosen to act as the link between the Secret Chiefs and the more external forms of the Order. It was requisite that such Member should be me, who, while having the necessary and peculiar educational basis of critical and profound Occult Archaeological Knowledge should at the same time not only be ready and willing to devote himself in every sense to a blind and unreasoning obedience to those Secret Chiefs: - to pledge himself for the fidelity of those to whom this Wisdom was to be communicated: - to be one who would shrink neither from danger physical, astral, or spiritual, from privation or hardship, nor from terrible personal and psychic responsibility; one who, while receiving for transmission the Hidden Wisdom of the Rosy Cross, should be willing to pledge himself under the severest penalties possible, that the Order should be worked in conformity with the principles laid down by those Secret Chiefs not only for the present time but in the future also: - and who should further possess an Iron Will unable to be broken by any unlooked for opposition that might arise in the carrying out of these duties: - he must further pledge himself to obey in everything the commands of the aforesaid Secret Chiefs 'perinde ac cadaver' body and soul without question and without argument whether their commands related to: - Magical Action in the External World; or to Psychic Action in other Worlds or planes, whether Angelic, Spiritual, or Demonic; or to the Inner Administration of the Order to which so tremendous a Knowledge was to be communicated; and that he must further be prepared to abide in any country; to undertake any journey at a moment's notice, or to confront the chances of death, pestilence or elemental upheaval, if called upon in the course of fulfilling their demands to do so; that he would further undertake, whatever might occur, never to lose faith in the Chiefs of the Order, and to keep his body in such a condition of physical health and especially of vital energy, that the ordinary chances of corporal illness and exhaustion should not be permitted to become any bar to his constant efforts and exertions: - all this and yet further conditions were insisted upon as the only pledges under which this Divine Wisdom was to be permitted to be given out: - and these had to be confirmed by the most terrible Obligations.

I, MacGregor Mathers, 'S Rioghail Mo Dhream 5° = 6°, Deo Duce Comite Ferro 7° = 4°, was the Frater selected for this Work: whom you know as the Chief Adept of the Second Order under the title of Deo Duce Comite Ferro which I had taken upon me.

At my urgent request Soror Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum [i.e. Moina Mathers] was allowed to be associated with me in this labour, but only on condition of pledging herself in the same manner, though in a less degree.

With all this it was insisted that I, the aforesaid Frater, and in a less degree the aforesaid Soror were to be held responsible for any action undertaken thro' misapprehension of the instructions of the Chiefs, no matter in what manner those Instructions were to be conveyed.

That yet further it must not be expected that these pledges should confer upon me any right to expect abnormal material support or assistance. The conditions in question, being only those on which I was to be allowed so great an honour as to be the Recipient of the Knowledge for transmission to the Order; and also that in all this my obedience was not to be the passive one of an unreasoning Machine, but the active one of the intelligent and voluntary Ministrant of the Magic of the Eternal Gods.

These preliminary conditions having been solemnly undertaken by us; then, and only then was I able to proceed to the attainment of the Knowledge of the full 5° = 6° Ritual and of the Obligation thereof; and the establishment of the Vault of the Adepts; my quitting England being a necessary preliminary thereto.

The working of the Second Order having been thus initiated I was enabled to proceed to the acquirement of the Wisdom of the Zelator Adeptus Minor Grade for transmission to you: - a work, the enormous strain and labour of which it is impossible for me to exaggerate. For, you must not think that the obtaining of this Knowledge of the Second Order for you has been merely and simply the somewhat commonplace labour of translating a heap of unclassified MSS ready placed in my hands for that purpose. This might indeed be difficult and fatiguing, but it would be the merest child's play compared with the Herculean task that I have been called upon to execute.

Concerning the Secret Chiefs of the Order, to whom I make reference and from whom I have received the Wisdom of the Second Order which I have communicated to you, I can tell you nothing.

I do not even know their earthly names.

I know them only by certain secret mottoes.

I have but very rarely seen them in the physical body; and on such rare occasions the rendezvous was made astrally by them at the time and place which had been astrally appointed beforehand.

For my part I believe them to be human and living upon this earth; but possessing terrible superhuman powers.

When such rendezvous has been in a much frequented place, there has been nothing in their personal appearance and dress to mark them out as differing in any way from ordinary people except the appearance and sensation of transcendent health and physical vigour (whether they seemed persons in youth or age) which was their invariable accompaniment; in other words, the physical appearance which the possession of the Elixir of Life has traditionally supposed to confer!

On the other hand, when the rendezvous has been in a place free from easy access by the Outer World they have usually been in symbolic robes and insignia.

But my physical intercourse with them on these rare occasions, has shewn me how difficult it is for a mortal, even though advanced in Occultism, to support the actual presence of an Adept in the Physical Body; and such meetings have never been granted to my own personal request, but only by their own special appointment; and usually only for some reason of special importance.

I do not mean that in such rare cases of physical converse with them that the effect produced on me was that intense physical exhaustion which follows depletion by magnetism; but, on the contrary, the sensation was that of being in contact with so terrible a force that I can only compare it to the continued effect of that usually experienced momentarily by a person close to whom a flash of lightning passes during a violent storm; coupled with a difficulty in respiration similar to the half-strangling effect produced by ether; and if such was the result produced in one, as tested as I have been in practical Occult Work, I cannot conceive a much less advanced Initiate being able to support such a strain even for five minutes, without Death ensuing.

Almost the whole of the Second Order Knowledge has been obtained by me from them in various ways; by clairvoyance, by Astral projection on their part and on mine-by the table, by the ring and disc, at times by a direct Voice audible to my external ear, and that of Vestigia, at times copied from books brought before me, I know not how, and which disappeared from my vision when the transcription was finished, at times by appointment Astrally at a certain place, till then unknown to me; and appointments made in the same manner and kept in the same manner as in the case of those rare occasions when I have met them by appointment in the physical body.

The strain of such labour has been, as you can conceive, enormous; in especial the obtaining of the Z ritual, which I thought would have killed me, or Vestigia or both, the nerve prostration after each reception being terrible from the strain of testing the correctness of every passage thus communicated; the nerve prostration alluded to being at times accompanied by profuse cold perspirations; and by severe loss of blood from the nose, mouth, and occasionally the ears.

You know the extreme and sustained attention and critical judgment requisite to obtain any reliable and truthful answer through the Table or the Ring and the Disc. Add to all this Ceremonies of Evocation, almost constant strife with opposing Demonic Forces endeavouring to stop the delivery and reception of the Wisdom; and the necessity of keeping the mind exalted towards the Higher Self; while at the same time exercising the critical Archaeological Knowledge and having to make the many references necessary to detect any misapprehension of meanings of passages in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldaic, Egyptian and what not; and you will only then have a faint idea of what my struggles have been. The only one among you who has known the fearful difficulties I have had to contend with, has been Sapere Aude [Westcott] and he has therefore well known that such work could not be done in a hurry and rapidly like mere mechanical transcription, or even like ordinary original composition.

But unless the Chiefs are willing to give me the Knowledge, I cannot obtain it for you: - neither will I give it to you unless I know that the Order is being worked conformably with their wishes and instructions.

What I discountenance and will check and punish whenever I find it in the Order is any attempt to criticise and interfere with the private life of Members of the Order; neither will I give the Wisdom of the Gods to those who endeavour to use it as a means of justifying intolerance, intermeddling, and malicious self conceit. The private Life of a Person is a matter between himself or herself, and his, or her God; and no person who has taken the obligation of 5° = 6°, and studied the same can be ignorant of its clauses and penalties.

The Temples of the Order are places for the performance of Sacred Ceremonies, and the petty criticisms and uncharitableness of social clubs and drawing rooms, should be rigidly banished from them. To invoke carelessly and inadequately the Divine White Brilliance and the Forms of the Eternal Gods while permitting your mind and lower personality to be filled with uncharitableness; towards your neighbour, self righteous pride, and trivial social considerations, is an abominable blasphemy; it is that taking the Name of God in vain which is a most pernicious sin; for by so doing you cannot touch the God, but instead and in his semblance arouse the Evil Antithesis.

This, I know, has been a sin among you during the last twelve months; and be sure that this must bring its reaction; and there is no surer road to this error than the encouragement of the feeling of the Pharisee: ‘God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are’. Such a formula, whether expressed or implied, means at once separation from that God who is universal.

Of what use are the Second Order Centres, if they are not places where the Gods and the Angelic Forces are invoked in Spirit and Truth; and where Mystic Powers have their abode, and where petty social gossip can find no place.

It is possible for you to be word perfect in all the knowledge of the Zelator Adeptus Minor Grade and to know all its Ceremonies by rote; and yet unless you can really and profoundly grasp their inner meaning, an uninitiated person who has a strong will, faith, reverence, self sacrifice, and perseverance, may be more truly a Magician than you.

Finally, the reading of this Manifesto will have made you comprehend the enormous amount of time and energy necessary to obtain the Wisdom of the Second Order. To this must be added the considerable amount of labour connected with the Order - my own work in the outer world - and with all this the imperative necessity of keeping my physical health and vital energy always up to full pitch; and at times having had the extra disadvantage of being compelled to earn my own living in the world.

I therefore expect you to aid me to the best of your ability by carrying out my wishes regarding the management of the Order and by abstaining to the utmost of your power from putting any extra hindrance in my way.

I have considered it advisable that you should have both had in your possession and carefully studied the whole knowledge of the Zelator Adeptus Minor Grade before receiving this Manifesto.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers. 'S Rioghail Mo Dhream
Deo Duce Comite Ferro 7° = 4°
87 Rue Mozart, Auteuil, Paris
October 29th, 1896

It is my belief that this manifesto should be treated as an official order document and statement on the nature of the Secret Chiefs and the Third Order, at the time period of MacGregor Mathers’ most frequent encounters with them. I would also in this instance want to quote W. B. Yeats from his Autobiographies, written in 1926. Here Yeats recalls a conversation with MacGregor Mathers concerning the the Secret Chiefs:

Once, when Mathers told me that he had met his Teachers in some great crowd, and only knew that they were phantoms by a shock that was like an electric shock to his heart, I asked him how he knew he was not deceived or hallucinated. He said, “I had been visited by one of them the other night, and I followed him out, and followed him down that little lane to the right. Presently I fell over the milk-boy, and the milk-boy got in a rage because he said that not only I but the man in front had fallen over him.” He, like all that I have known who have given themselves up to images, and to the speech of images, thought that when he had proved that an image could act independently of his mind, he had proved also that neither it, nor what it had spoken, had originated there.

This account fully corroborates MacGregor Mathers’ beliefs as shown in the above quoted manifesto and fully refute Madame Horus as his Secret Chief, which is a proposperous and outrageous proposition in the first place. A further evidence of this is that it is clearly stated in the manifesto that the reason of MacGregor Mathers and his wife Moina to leave England and permanently moving to Paris was to come closer to his Secret Chiefs, such as L.e.T.; thus it reads:

I [was] able to proceed to the attainment of the Knowledge of the full 5° = 6° Ritual and of the Obligation thereof; and the establishment of the Vault of the Adepts; my quitting England being a necessary preliminary thereto.

S.L. MacGregor Mathers’ statement must be placed in juxtaposition with what Moina Mathers, in her preface to her husband’s book The Kabbalah Unveiled, wrote in 1926 concerning this matter:

Three or four years later he was told by his Occult teachers to transfer his centre to Paris, where my husband and I lived for the rest of his life.

There is no doubt in my mind that Moina clearly refers to S.L. MacGregor Mathers’ prime motivation to move to Paris as to facilitate his communication with his Secret Chiefs. If they were solely astral or angelical contacts, surely there wouldn't be any need of a physical relocation. These written statements, when compared together, for me clearly confirms that his Occult teachers were real and physical individuals.

It is fine by me that there is a variety in the Golden Dawn community. It is fine by me that we share different views regarding the Secret Chiefs and the Third Order, or even that some deny the very existence of the latter and regard it only to be a myth, etc. Each to his own. But what I cannot accept is that facts are being twisted around to serve a militant reconstructionist agenda.

I have watched this debate regarding the Secret Chiefs silently up until now. I honestly don’t care what others think about them or about others’ opinions about my beliefs. These days I’m not surprised at anything anymore; there are obviously no limits to the amount of delusions in the community. Without any connection with the tradition to restraint the imagination people have all sorts of personal opinions and are damn proud to present them all over the internet. The idioticy of the Golden Dawn community is starting to get so piled up it must be almost impossible to wade through it as a prospecting initiate. People may actually start to believe in these fantasies. That’s why I feel obliged to set the record straight.

This whole matter has made me ponder the sad and sordid state of the Golden Dawn community. It has dawned upon me for the last couple of days that it [i.e. the community] produces scholars rather than Adepts. Many today even equate them two. Since the dawn of the last revival of the Golden Dawn Tradition in the 1970’s, it has been a subject to historical research with scholars as Ellic Howe, Francis X. King and R.A. Gilbert. This has put a tone to the whole current. Adepts of the tradition has followed suit en masse.

Now, I do believe that scholarship is a good thing, but if taken moderately. To many initiates and students of the Golden Dawn have an overly detached and dispassionate attitude towards its Tradition. It is not a historical curiosity that can be reconstructed at will; it’s a living Tradition that wants to express itself according to its own rationale. Is has its own soul, it is an entity which acts as an intermediary between the Divine and the mundane. It is possible that the first quoted document (from V.V.M.) captures that notion and spirit. Read it again from this point of view.

Where are the feelings of awe and sacredness in relation to the Tradition? I don’t know about you, but I have had a strong and passionate love affair with the Golden Dawn. For me It is truly a mistress. A jealous mistress, yes, but one which also comforts me and makes me aspire to better myself as a human. I am never alone with the Golden Dawn. She is a infinite source of joy and inspiration. The richness of the Golden Dawn, of its written and living Tradition, is awe inspiring. It is a beautiful Tradition which has been passed on to us to be managed as its stewards, for the betterment of its initiates. As initiates we are her children. Some of her children have been more able than others to act as her vehicles for transmission and expression, which has developed or reformed the Tradition further. These are the most proficient Adepts and prominent teachers, who would naturally become the Chiefs.

Granted, the Golden Dawn is not a religion, and the Order is not a Church. Neither should it be a personality cult. But the Order is not an academic institute, nor is its teachings any science theory. The Golden Dawn is a spiritual path which can be equated with any spiritual path, also those as represented by different religions and Churches. The Order is a Holy institution. It is eternal. Its Halls are sacred as well as it rites; its Officers represent and channel divine powers. It is part of a long chain of vehicles which has transmitted a divine knowledge to aspiring initiates who search for Apotheosis and the attainment of the Philosopher’s Stone. These initiates are aware that by themselves they may produce some minor effects, but with the aid of the Order they become able to create vertible Wonders.

It is only if you approach the Temple with reverence and true spiritual love and compassion that you can gain that sought after illumination. Show deep respect for the Adepts that has walked these steps before you. Show deep respect for its former teachers who has presented the teachings of the Tradition for your own benefit. For your own benefit, mind you!

Would any eastern brother scorn and ridicule its Master or teacher? Would a tantrika downplay on the achievements of previous Masters and teachers of his kaula (spiritual family)? Would a Buddhist show disrespect or spite towards the Boddishatvas? Would a Qabalist badmouth any of its long chain of Masters, or Tzadiks, such as Isaac Luria, Sabbathai Zvi, Nathan of Gaza or Jacob Frank? Why do you think a traditionalist Qabalist makes homage to these individuals whenever he mentions their name, in the same manner as a muslim gives honour to the prophet? Do you believe a Martinist would slander Martinez de Pasqually or Louis Claude de Saint-Martin? No? Why do you think? Because they were perfect Masters? Think again.

Now, I’m not admonishing anyone to feel reverence to S.L. MacGregor Mathers or to place him upon a pedestal. He is not a demi-god; he wasn’t a saint. What I’m saying is that we as initiates and Adepts should feel respect and gratitude to him, and other past teachers of our Sacred Order and Tradition, such as W.W. Westcott, J.W. Brodie-Innes or R.W. Felkin, and even Paul Foster Case and Dion Fortune. I happen to believe that MacGregor Mathers wasn’t that monster as some has tried to make us believe. I happen to believe that he was a good man and a great teacher, a dedicated person who did his very best to make each and everyone of us, who are heirs to his achievements, to gain communion with our God. However, this is not at all about canonisation.

Being initiates we belong to a family with ancestral roots that goes back to antiquity. The Golden Dawn is but the latest form that this entity or ancient egregore has taken in our modern era. We as initiates are part of that egregore. We have the duty to pass on the tourch, which has been passed on to us from our elder brethren and sisters, some of who are historically known and other are not. When we receive the torch we must aspire to leave it in a better condition that it was previously, when the time finally arrives to pass on the torch to further generations. We do not better our Tradition and perfect our Order’s teachings by badmouthing our predecessors, who did the very best that they could manage considering their resources and individual abilities. We do it by setting our own example by our own hard work in perfecting our own base nature. Through our hard work may we come to understand not only ourselves but also that mistress we call the Golden Dawn.

Why is this such a damn hard concept to understand in our post-modern era? This latest tendency amongst some outspoken authorities in the community is childish, to say the very least. It’s infantile and is filled with ugly projections. It smells awful of that old oidipean theme – that of killing your own father to acquire the Kingdom and its Queen. These individuals simply cannot accept the fact that they have to rest upon the shoulders of previous teachers’ achievements, even if they happen to be long since dead. This overly fixation on certain historical personages is an unhealthy sign, which is truly counterproductive.

Many of our previous Adepts, reformers and Chiefs weren’t that perfect and most illuminated individuals that we would hope them to be. We all know that. Probably only few numbers of them achieved that state that we long for as Adepts, to become more than human. Thus it’s easy to turn that initial idealization into literal demonisation. But as initiates we should know better than to succumb to such infantile urges; nothing necessitates this. There is no excuse for us as professed initiates to make ridicule of our ancestors, especially not in public arenas, just to attain scholarly peer recognition or to make greater sales of our books. Attain apotheosis for God’s sake (literary). Stop being scholars; start acting as true initiates and real Adepts instead.

S∴R∴

Magic and attitude

2011-07-02T00:32:00.006+02:00

In a recent discussion on blogosphere someone suggested that we all have different interpretations or perspectives of how we perform our magical rituals within the Golden Dawn tradition, but in the final analysis we all harvest the same results with them. Now, is this a correct assumption or simply yet another truism? Well I do have an opinion on this matter, which will follow, but I am also interested in hearing yours.

I believe that our paradigm and emphasis – the interpretation – of what we do also shapes our magic, as well as it shapes our universe. This is largely in contrast with alchemy (that is of the operative material / energetic type, not the speculative or “spiritual”) which is an art-form that is the most scientific of all the hermetic “arts”. This means that alchemy is more of an objective science than it is a subjective art; if you perform certain processes, objective results will follow which is more independent from your own understanding of them. But you have to know the correct processes to reap the harvest.

Traditionally in your alchemical training, you just receive a process and a very basic understanding from your alchemical master so that you will keep yourself within the borders of the overall operation; your alchemical master won’t tell you what effects to expect until you experience them, in which case he will confirm them for you. And if you don’t experience them you are simply doing it wrong or not good enough. Alchemical effects are signposts to success so to speak.

But the thing is, even if you had some fancy idea with what you would expect from an alchemical processing, that wouldn’t change the outcome if you persevered in your technique. Alchemy doesn’t care about your belief system. It doesn’t even care about your morals or spiritual attainment. It will still produce the pre-supposed results if you persevere. There is this aspect of magic as well, but not at all to the same extent as with alchemy. Thus magic is more of an art than it is a science. If you are to succeed with magic, you have to have gained a certain understanding of what you are supposed to do, and the spiritual (and moral) attainment that follows with it.

Thus with magic, things are a lot more subjective and belongs to the powers of the mind, that is will and imagination, to a greater extent. If alchemy is more of a material and etheric / energetic science, magic is more of an etheric / energetic and astral art, while contemplation and meditation belongs to the mental and spiritual realms. Of course, according to occult law, a higher plane always affects a lower; what I am talking about here is upon which plane certain practices operates on a causal level. An operation has greater effect on that plane in which it also has its causual affinity; thus alchemy, which operates mainly on the etheric / energetic and material planes, is the most effective means to transmute your body. In the same manner, magic, which operates mainly on the astral, is the most effective means you have to transmute your personality and the powers of the mind, etc.

It also works the other way around; there is a repriprocity going on here. Thus your alchemy will be affected by the condition of your body, or how your body works; that’s why diet, physical exercise and hygiene is important in alchemy. Hatha Yoga is an Oriental tradition that examplifies this, as it involves all of these component parts in relation to bodily manipulation. And even more so, magic will become affected by the conditioning of your thinking and feeling, by your particular though forms and projections; that’s why right attitude, virtuous conduct and mental hygiene is crucial for the successful outcome of magical operations.

Thus when it comes to magic – the realm of the astral and etheric – a certain perspective or outlook will affect your imagination, thus resulting in different effects of ritual, or at least altered states. That’s what I meant in a previous essay when I said that although me as a traditionalist share a ritual in common with a reconstructionist, and perform it outwardly almost exactly in the same manner as a “reconstructionist” would do it, we will still reap different results because we see them with different lenses.

Now, don’t misunderstand me here. There are of course objective results in magic too; someone entirely ignorant of what he is doing with a rite, with no expectations at all, will still harvest something – a neutral or objective state. We do perform our rituals in a certain way for a reason; the geometrics, proportions, colours, movements and signs are there for a set purpose. Rituals are performed in the body and physical space-time continuum and thus affect objective physical / etheric results as well. But our mind constantly feedbacks with its interpretations and consequently also alters the objective results. This means that perhaps on a Neophyte level the effects are more or less the same between practitioners, if performed properly, and also quite limited, but that amongst Adepts you will see quite different effects and also more profound results.

Then there is the question if there is a “right” way to perform a ritual or a “wrong” one, if we all agree upon the premise that our outlook changes the effect. Yes, I believe there are certain optimal ways to view or understand our common rituals. I have had the benefit of sharing my magic with many initiates, and tutoring several students, for the last two decades. There certainly are effects to be expected that are shared between us. But if we suddenly change our perspective, out of different reasons, that goes contrary with the statistically significant results between a number of initiates and a traditional understanding, what will happen then? Suppose you read a book or some text on internet which interprets a ritual for you in a convincing way that changes your outlook upon it, even though your previous outlook is shared with the experience of several others, won’t that change its effects which goes contrary to its nature? Yes, I believe it will.

Thus, the best way to learn ritual magic is not to have any preconceived opinions about it, beyond some very basic ideas so that you know what to use a certain ritual for. As with alchemy, there should be certain signs to expect from continuous performance of ritual that the tutor will use to check if the student is progressing with his work. As an Adept, his imagination and willpower being developed into near perfection, the effects of ritual will be greatly enhanced. And if they are harmonious with the basic nature of that ritual and in agreement with tradition the enhancement effect will be even greater. Thus the right attitude in magic is crucial.

So my suggestion to anyone working with the Golden Dawn system of magic, with only the published material as a guide, is to shun any analyses of rituals, even my own. I know that the temptation to search for “facts” is great in this post-modern age of information, especially in the initial stages of the work, but unfortunately there are to many strange notions floating around and especially on the internet. Most true teachers of the system are not writing publicly. And those that are only writes about general topics and only very scarce or non at all about specifics.

Just work with the system, learning the theory from the official documents as published by Israel Regardie, and observe what is happening. Take careful notes from the results that follow. Don’t share them with anyone, especially not on the internet. Stay away from blog-journals and do not consider writing your own, especially if you are a beginner in the practice. Remember that your own insights can become a stumbling block for another practitioner. See what experiences and opinions that sticks around after a few years. Chances are greater that they reflect the true nature of that ritual or magical formula.

S∴R∴

How to marry the Bridegroom with his Bride: A follow-up to Alchemy and the Golden Dawn

2011-06-30T17:52:00.038+02:00

Today – at last – there seems to be a somewhat general agreement in the Golden Dawn community that Alchemy should serve as the capstone to the initiatic system, or at least take on a more substantial role in the senior Grades. This has not always been the case, however. With the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn / Alpha et Omega® this process was initiated following the general reformation anno 1999. As the Alchemical corpus is vast and contains many different aspects (“ways” and “paths”), this implementation and integration of Alchemy with the Golden Dawn has since then been a work in progress, and continues to be so.

I have already written about how I regard these issues in a previous essay; my ideal projected Order. This present essay may bee seen as a companion or follow up to this initial contribution. Or rather it is a comment on recent discussions regarding this would-be marriage of the Golden Dawn with Alchemy. In this respect the “Bride” is the Temple or Order of the Golden Dawn Dawn in the Outer and the Vault of the Adepti of the R.R. et A.C., the bridegroom being the Hermetic Alchemical Tradition since antiquity preserved through the Third Order.

I have, since the very start of my studies of the Golden Dawn Tradition, often asked myself: “Why is the Order actually called the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn? Why not the Qabalistic Order of the Golden Dawn instead? Most of its teachings are Qabalistic anyway? Where is the Hermetica? Where is the Alchemy?” Well, it’s time for the Golden Dawn to properly deserve its designation “Hermetic”, don’t you think?

Now, quite recently, this has become a general discussion and debate – finally! But other than this superficial likeness, that most of us agree with the premise that alchemy should become integrated somehow with the Golden Dawn tradition, the different factions within the community are dealing with this deficiency or lack of Alchemy in the Second Order or R.R. et A.C. in completely different ways. What we see today is rather a polemic how Alchemy should correctly be interpreted. This major difference may be properly analyzed using the already suggested model of “traditionalism” vs. “reconstructionism”.

Reconstructionist reformers are quite stubborn on their self reliance in creating their own system / interpretation of Alchemy – from a non-operational perspective – and forcing it into the Golden Dawn system. There is also a general skepticism, amongst reconstructionists embracing modern natural sciences as dogma, regarding the true value of operational Alchemy, either of the “external” and laboratory type, or of the “internal” kind, the latter often associated with Eastern Tantra and Yoga or Daoism, and thus “foreign” to the Golden Dawn. Few reconstructionists belive in a true material Philosopher’s Stone. Thus they are only interested in developing the speculative or “spiritual” side of alchemical interpretation, which is beyond the scrutiny of natural science, the Stone serving as the metaphor for the illuminated Soul, or similar such notions. Thus is created a dualism between spirit and matter, which is the very antithesis of true Alchemy.

Traditionalists on the other hand are instead doing research into older alchemical and Rosicrucian Mss. and oral traditions to develop their Second and Third Orders in an alchemical (and operative) direction. They also agree upon that there exists an intrinsically Occidental form of Internal Alchemy which is akin to Oriental Tantra but at the same time unique and distinct from the latter, seeing the physical body and matter as an expression of spiritual forces. Traditionalists believe in a actual Philosopher’s Stone and in the reality of transmutation, both of the body and of base metals. Some of these researching Adepti have also struck gold in their digging, finding a dusty copy of the legendary Arcana Arcanorum, and some even fewer receiving internal processings which goes way beyond that.

One well known and respected authority of the post-modern reconstructionist faction of the Golden Dawn, who also disputes the veracity of physical transmutation using the agent of the Stone, has even stated that the Alchemical tradition needs to be adapted to the Golden Dawn paradigm for it to work with the latter in harmony, to prevent any changes to the overall Golden Dawn sub-systems, etc., which is quite baroque for a traditionalist as myself. This type of militant reconstructionism not only tries to reconstruct the Golden Dawn, but the entire Hermetic tradition behind it as well. For a traditionalist it is the other way around in the process of integrating Alchemy with the Golden Dawn tradition; the alchemical tradition has millennia behind it compared to the single Century with the Golden Dawn and should properly mould the latter.

That said, the more I study and practice the Royal Art and do comparative study of esoteric traditions, the more I am convinced of the fact that Alchemy truly is an archetypal language (in a non-Jungian sense) which forms the foundation for most spiritual and religious systems. May I please refer the reader to my latest blog effort. As an example, just by chance while attending a wedding ceremony, I noticed the symbol of the Ouroboros (the serpent biting its own tail) in the Church, flanking the statue of the Crucified Christ. Students of alchemy are well aware of its significance as a symbol of the Royal Art. Its interconnection with Christ and his resurrection is intriguing and proves my case; a wedding ceremony in itself is of course charged with an alchemical significance.

The twin Ourobori (the two gilded circles)
on each side of the crucifix, at Varbergs Kyrka.

Thus, I do believe there is some merit to “spiritual alchemy” after all, although it is quite a recent invention compared to operative alchemy. As an example, the interplay between the King (God / Sol) and Queen (Goddess / Luna) – “the dual contending forces” or sexual polarity – permeates all levels of manifestation, both in the large and the small. Spiritual or analogical alchemy actually saw its first beginnings with the works of Jacob Boehme of the 17th Century, and was also to some extent developed in the original Golden Dawn as well, more than two Centuries later. Alchemy lends itself very well in better understanding the underlying mechanics of the initiatory system of the Golden Dawn, in particular with respect to the phases of the Great Work and the colours, etc.

Being a typical Virgo I cannot help doing that myself on occasion; it really helps me grasping the greater context of the Golden Dawn system. However I would never dream of changing one letter of the old alchemical tradition. On the contrary, if something should be changed it is the Golden Dawn tradition itself, although that fortunately enough seldom must be done as it was based upon the Hermetic Alchemical Tradition in the first place. As I said, its initiatory system lends itself splendidly for alchemical interpretation.

In his recent book Rosicrucian Tradition of the Golden Dawn Samuel Robinson seems to have done something to this effect, and as it looks in the first analysis, from a traditionalist point of view. I am eagerly anticipating its arrival in my mail box in a week or so, and after a careful reading I will return with a full review. I sense it’s a good piece of work, having been following the written words of the author on yahoo for the last years, although his alchemical analysis seems to be limited to the somewhat flawed Stella Matutina 5 degrees system (along the Middle Pillar); Malkuth (Outer Order and first degree), Yesod (second degree) and Adeptus Minor (third degree). No doubt he has corresponded these degrees to the three stages of nigredo, albedo and rubedo, as I myself once did years ago, that is before I discovered the actual reason behind why the Stella Matutina reformed its 11 grade system into a 5 degrees system; today I do it quite differently that for me makes more sense.

However, it must be stated clearly that any “sprititual alchemy” can only constitute a minor part of the alchemical corpus of the Second Order or R.R. et A.C., which primarily must be an operative alchemical order. Anything less than this constitutes a mere “mental masturbation”, if you excuse my rather vulgar use of language. But alchemy is not about intellectual mind games and fanciful speculation, actually, but rather about the energetic transmutation of the body of the initiate, for him or her to “become more than human”, that is, one of the divine immortals or demi-gods – the divinization of humanity. Its techniques are designed with this aim in mind.

What I like with Mr. Robinson’s take on the work of developing the alchemical tradition is that he seems to have a mainly operational emphasis, focusing on the laboratory aspect of alchemy or “external alchemy”, something that I myself agree upon. However I believe we have to work with all of the kingdoms of nature, not only the vegetable, that is, the mineral as well as animal. Our Rosicrucian ancestors in the 18th Century mainly worked on the mineral and animal kingdoms. This is the heritage that we have to administer to our initiates.

To summarize this present discussion, I must emphasize that if you look upon the Golden Dawn tradition from the perspective of the alchemical tradition the former will reveal itself, but if you do the reverse – that is interpreting the alchemical tradition from the limited perspective of the Golden Dawn – your understanding of Alchemy will be clogged. Or to use the above metaphor of the bride and the bridegroom: In most traditional cultures the bride moves to the household of the bridegroom and also takes upon her the latter’s surname. In the case of the Order of the Golden Dawn, this surname is “Hermetic”.

Please don’t misinterpret my latest metaphor (which happens all the time it seems). If you would know me personally you also would know that I am a strong defender of women’s rights, as also MacGregor Mathers was one Century earlier and any initiate would. In truth, the dual contending forces are equal in standing, as shown by the two Pillars in the Hall of the Neophytes. However, in this particular case, the metaphor of a traditional marriage is quite apt as it is the younger tradition (the Golden Dawn) which should adapt itself to the older Tradition (Hermeticism); it is also a question of the merging of generations. However, from this union also something new and fresh emerges; a future offspring. One such “offspring” is the allowance for alchemical speculation, in the vain of so-called “spiritual alchemy”, if done in moderation and without loosing track of the true aims of operational Alchemy. The other is the merging of Magical Ritual with Alchemical Operation, of which I spoke in my earlier essay. Ora et Labora!

S∴R∴

Theurgic Black Magic

2011-06-29T17:51:00.018+02:00

Reading Rufus Opus’ latest blog post and its follow up today I was mildly upset as well as quite intrigued by its contents. Now I haven’t been following his blog or looked at his web page in any greater detail, although it seems to me he is one of the more knowledgeable and proficient magicians out there on the blogosphere, having his foundation in neo-Platonism and esoteric Christianity. It also stands quite clear that he is a very well respected authority on Magic and the classical traditions.

The main issue for me personally is that Rufus Opus has used and frequently is using ritual magic to affect the free will of individuals that annoys him. Using a consecrated material substitute for that particular annoying person he invokes the 7 Planetary Lords and initiates her to their influence to remedy her “sickness” or “faulty ways” of thinking and feeling towards her neighbors – i.e. to stop being such an pain in the neck. This, he claims, he is doing for her own good.

But him being a professed Christian, it makes me wonder if Rufus Opus has ever considered the ethics involved in this kind of “black” magic? What about the free will of man? And who is he to actually know what is best for a human being? Isn’t that the prerogative of God? Is it right to use magic to initiate persons against their will? Is it fair to heal people without their consent?

In my humble opinion, it takes a Magician of Christ’s standing (or a man-god) to free individuals from their burden of karma. Does Rufus Opus consider himself being His equal? It does seem to me that he in fact is doing this out of compassion for the souls of these inflicted individuals. But is he aware of all the consequences of his actions and of the intricate interconnections which we call “fate”, that this person is suppose to experience for her to grow spiritually? Is he aware that in doing this he perhaps is ridding that person from a possible important lesson in life because of any future consequences of Rufus Opus’ actions?

Shouldn’t spiritual development and psychic maturity mainly come (or originate) from within the person, and not from any outside influence? Even if someone can be an important initiator to start a process of growth, personal insight still have to come from within to have any fundamental changing effect, as may be construed from the word itself. Isn’t it the work of the Divine Genius or Holy Guardian Angel of that person to teach her lessons? Isn’t Rufus Opus, when he stepps in, taking his place in Its stead?

These are just some questions that popped up reading Rufus Opus’ last two blog posts. I have my personal opinion regarding all of this, but I don’t know for sure what is the right conduct in instances as this. I suppose there is a line that may be crossed where a Magician can put on the cloak of Christ to remedy mental and behaviour sickness of this kind, but are these instances that he has exemplified – i.e. that of people causing strife and being generally annoying – really belonging to this category? I’m interested in hearing your opinions on this matter.

Rufus Opus himself refers to this formula of Theurgy used against others as the “truest form of Black Magic”. But I don’t know if one form of black magic is actually better than any other. Compare this use of magical manipulation of someone’s free will with an ordinary magical attack where you want to injure or hurt someone. In the latter case you at least have left that person’s free will and integrity intact, even if his life perhaps has been shattered to ruins, if you know what I mean. So I don’t actually know which of these two kinds of black magics is morally superior. What I’m sure of though is that any such magical manipulation of someone else’s fate creates negative after-effects for the magician himself; consider the heavy burden of karma being carried over from that other person. That is a heavy burden ideed for an ordinary magician to carry.

Personally I have never resolved to using back magic of any kind, nor would I do it in any future, perhaps with the exception of warding off someone else’s direct magical attack against me or any of my beloved ones (especially the latter) – but then again that last example wouldn’t constitute any “black magic” in the first place as self-defense is ethically permittable. As I have said in a recent previous blog post, there are situations where severity is required to deal with certain aggressions. However, I’m not a particularly paranoid person, although I do believe that I and others close to me in fact have experienced magical attacks in the past.

What I would do, if being in a similar situation as that of Rufus Opus, is to pray for the annoying person’s soul to receive the Light to better her ways – that is, receive the Light only if she consent to it. Remember that no true initiation forces itself upon any individual; the conscious consent of the candidate is always an important factor also during the ceremony itself (see the “Ritual Z.3” of the R.R. et A.C. corpus). That kind of working could also have involved opening up a direct line with that person’s Holy Guardian Angel, praying for it of doing that, having one’s own Angel communicating with the other person’s Angel or, if one somehow knows the other Angel’s name, through evocation. But then again not forcing anything upon any of them, neither Angel nor Man, only requesting for the Angel’s guidance of the poor soul. As a kind of compassionate prayer.

Perhaps the best solution to all of this would have been to invoke one’s own Holy Guardian Angel or Divine Genius to provide for oneself some more patience and forgiveness towards the other person. We cannot (or shouldn’t dare to) change anyone else, but we definitely can and should change ourselves. As initiates that is our main and constant task.

I’m not trying to be overly judgmental of Rufus Opus’ actions and ideas here, although I would admonish caution against anyone considering what he has suggested. His blog posts have raised several important issues and questions that I wanted to address. What I’m saying is that it may be proper to do this kind of workings if you are working under the consent of the Divine, being given the authority to burn away someone else’s Karma or alleviating his burden of Guilt or Sin, partaking of the level of initiation that equals that of Jesus Christ. In the Golden Dawn scheme of things, this would equal someone being at least a Magus 9°=2°. I hope that Rufus Opus has already earned this spiritual standing, for the sake of his own soul and that of his victims.

S∴R∴