A LEADER of the counter-traditionalist “Golden Dawn Community” recently asked for textual evidence that S. L. MacGregor Mathers in fact had been in communication with the Secret Chiefs in the form of written letters from both MacGregor Mathers and presumably Lux e Tenebris. Not only has this leader taken this question out of its proper context and into an entire different field. He also betrays his profound ignorance of how esoteric orders are supposed to be worked.
He wants to study academically that which cannot be studied academically, i.e. the existence of the Secret Chiefs and their Secret Collage. He wants to read letters written by them addressed to MacGregor Mathers. He will never be satisfied in this respect though as MacGregor Mathers was very clear about the fact that he communicated with them only in person, either in the physical or astrally. It wasn’t like they kept minutes from their meetings and such.
Instruction from the Third Order is always orally conferred. You only have your own notes and whatever you are able to remember in your head to rely on, something that must never come to the knowledge of the profane and in particular fall into the hands of academic scholars. Never. Period.
This was also the supposed intention of all proceedings in traditional esoteric Orders such as that of the Golden Dawn and the Alpha Omega. All personal notes were supposed to be returned on command and at least after the death of the initiate. Non of the G∴D∴ or A∴O∴ corpus were supposed to fall into the hands of academic scholars. In a similar manner, initiates shouldn’t substitute their status as initiates with that of being academic scholars, as the post-modernist generation of Adepts has succumbed to.
The moment that the G∴D∴ and A∴O∴ curriculum became published it was a grave error; something that was never supposed to happen. The Golden Dawn is not as Freemasonry or any of its bodies, including the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (S.R.I.A.). Freemasonry (and the S.R.I.A.) represents a exoteric initiatory tradition. Historical research thus comes naturally within their own circles and most jurisdictions have research lodges. Freemasonry doesn’t represent a secret organization although their rituals are supposed to be.
The Golden Dawn and Alpha Omega once represented an esoteric initiatory tradition. The Order itself was supposed to be secret and all initiates prohibited to even mention its existence. The existence of the G∴D∴ and A∴O∴ was made semi-public (as with the Gold und Rosenkreutz Orden and the Asiatic Brethren) because they needed to attract a larger circle of members than they had previously, but beyond some ambiguous notes and references in occult magazines and publications, nobody was supposed to know what the words “Golden Dawn” or “Alpha Omega” actually meant or represented. The moment that Aleister Crowley, and soon afterwards Israel Regardie, profaned the G∴D∴ material, it became a exoteric tradition, to be treated as any Freemasonic body.
The irony of it all is that the author that I have reviewed here on this blog, Nick Farrell, who makes a dichotomy between “magical” Golden Dawn and “freemasonic” Golden Dawn, in falling in line with profaners such as Crowley and Regardie, is making the Golden Dawn even more Freemasonic, open to academic scrutiny. It seems as his own Order for all practical purposes is acting as a Golden Dawn research Temple. Why doesn’t all of this surprise me, knowing that the Freemasonic research society and counter-traditional organization known as the S.R.I.A. is the acting “Third Order” of the post-modernist “Golden Dawn Community”? Their own collage of the Adepti are making the Golden Dawn more and more exoteric by the month with their various publications, pushing it into Freemasonry in the process.
Returning to the main issue here raised by the post-modernist leader of the counter-traditionalist “Golden Dawn Community”. It was never a question about proving or disproving the existence of the Secret Chiefs, either in the flesh or the popular post-modernist view of angelic Secret Chiefs who can be channeled into any willing medium. The question which I am debating in my reviews of Nick Farrell’s books is whether MacGregor Mathers, Westcott or Brodie-Innes belived in physical Secret Chiefs or astral ditto, or both.
Instruction from the Third Order is always orally conferred. You only have your own notes and whatever you are able to remember in your head to rely on, something that must never come to the knowledge of the profane and in particular fall into the hands of academic scholars. Never. Period.
This was also the supposed intention of all proceedings in traditional esoteric Orders such as that of the Golden Dawn and the Alpha Omega. All personal notes were supposed to be returned on command and at least after the death of the initiate. Non of the G∴D∴ or A∴O∴ corpus were supposed to fall into the hands of academic scholars. In a similar manner, initiates shouldn’t substitute their status as initiates with that of being academic scholars, as the post-modernist generation of Adepts has succumbed to.
The moment that the G∴D∴ and A∴O∴ curriculum became published it was a grave error; something that was never supposed to happen. The Golden Dawn is not as Freemasonry or any of its bodies, including the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (S.R.I.A.). Freemasonry (and the S.R.I.A.) represents a exoteric initiatory tradition. Historical research thus comes naturally within their own circles and most jurisdictions have research lodges. Freemasonry doesn’t represent a secret organization although their rituals are supposed to be.
The Golden Dawn and Alpha Omega once represented an esoteric initiatory tradition. The Order itself was supposed to be secret and all initiates prohibited to even mention its existence. The existence of the G∴D∴ and A∴O∴ was made semi-public (as with the Gold und Rosenkreutz Orden and the Asiatic Brethren) because they needed to attract a larger circle of members than they had previously, but beyond some ambiguous notes and references in occult magazines and publications, nobody was supposed to know what the words “Golden Dawn” or “Alpha Omega” actually meant or represented. The moment that Aleister Crowley, and soon afterwards Israel Regardie, profaned the G∴D∴ material, it became a exoteric tradition, to be treated as any Freemasonic body.
The irony of it all is that the author that I have reviewed here on this blog, Nick Farrell, who makes a dichotomy between “magical” Golden Dawn and “freemasonic” Golden Dawn, in falling in line with profaners such as Crowley and Regardie, is making the Golden Dawn even more Freemasonic, open to academic scrutiny. It seems as his own Order for all practical purposes is acting as a Golden Dawn research Temple. Why doesn’t all of this surprise me, knowing that the Freemasonic research society and counter-traditional organization known as the S.R.I.A. is the acting “Third Order” of the post-modernist “Golden Dawn Community”? Their own collage of the Adepti are making the Golden Dawn more and more exoteric by the month with their various publications, pushing it into Freemasonry in the process.
Returning to the main issue here raised by the post-modernist leader of the counter-traditionalist “Golden Dawn Community”. It was never a question about proving or disproving the existence of the Secret Chiefs, either in the flesh or the popular post-modernist view of angelic Secret Chiefs who can be channeled into any willing medium. The question which I am debating in my reviews of Nick Farrell’s books is whether MacGregor Mathers, Westcott or Brodie-Innes belived in physical Secret Chiefs or astral ditto, or both.
However, as the Golden Dawn in the Outer and the R.R. et A.C. (at least to the level of Th.A.M.) since the last Century has been turned into a Freemasonic and exoteric Order, at least that can be researched with a basic level of academic rigour, something that my reviews has prooved is lacking in Nick Farrell’s books.
However, all esoteric levels of the system, i.e. beyond the 5°=6° and especially the true nature beyond the 8°=3°, cannot and will never be. This rules out all academic research about communication with the Secret Chiefs as that properly and still belong to the esoteric level of the Golden Dawn. This post-modernist Golden Dawn leader should know this, which makes his gambit look ridiculus, regardless if he is just playing his usual game of irony or if all of this simply expresses a profound ignorance typical of his generation.
Addendum (2013-07-12)
The Golden Dawn being exoteric up to and including the Theoricus Adeptus Minor (Th.A.M.) sub-grade of the 5°=6° only applies to the older general reformation of 1888. The latest general reformation of 1999 initiated by the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha Omega®, which is still continuing in intervals of decades, has had its purpose of remedying this fact. The reformed Outer Order is properly speaking in a state of “semi-exoteric” status, or “semi-esoteric” depending if you prefer to see a half-full or half-empty cup, as the old initiation rituals has been revised and all old pass-words abrogated and changed to secret (i.e. esoteric) ones. Also, there is currently secret teachings being transmitted to the Outer Order Grades as we speak which are older and predating the Rosicrucian Tradition, still within the Hermetic Tradition, and at the same time the origin and true basis for the later G∴D∴ practicies which are still used today and in the form as outlined in the General Reformation anno 1999, of which I have spoken of before on this blog.
The reformed Second Order, or the Ordo Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis (R.R. et A.C.), is even more esoteric compared to the Outer Order, as the 5°=6° ritual in a similar manner has been revised as with the Outer Order rituals, while its 6°=5° and 7°=4°rituals are completely esoteric being based upon the old and true initiatory formula. The same goes for the curriculum of these Grades, the curriculum and training of the Adepti Grades. The 5°=6° still uses the published R.R. et A.C. formulae of the Magic of Light as parts of its sub-grades, while at the same time presenting age-old esoteric teachings and formulae constituting the majority of its reformed corpus, as well as secret Rosicrucian formulae coming from the 1777 general reformation. This even becomes more expressed in the 6°=5° Grade.
The biggest difference between the 1888 and 1999 reformations is that the First and Second Orders are completly public, compared to the semi-public state of the First Order and secret state of the Second Order a Century ago. This unfortunately has become a fact because of all the profanations made in the past and all of the resulting consequences that we are facing today. Serious students need to be aware of the existance of our Traditionalist Order in our post-modern age of the Kali Yuga, especially in the face of the real and serious danger posed by the Counter-Traditionalist and pseudo-rosicrucian organizations of the “Golden Dawn Community” so-called, who are basing their teachings on whatever that has been published in Golden Dawn related literature or on the left-overs of the New Zeeland branch of the Stella Matutina, collected by post-modernist scavengers, i.e. the abrogated reformation of 1888. In future essays on the Gyllene Gryningen Blog I will write about and properly define the difference between Tradition and Counter-Tradition. So stay tuned!
Addendum (2014-03-13)
Since writing this blog yours truly is no longer affiliated with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Outer Order of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha Omega® (H.O.G.D./A+O®). However, my general view on this subject stays firmly unchanged, as expressed in the above written text, and what I have authored previously on the Gyllene Gryningen blog still represents my overall opinion. Any practices referred to in reference to the H.O.G.D./A+O® also apply to the Order that I am currently affiliated with, namely the Hermetiska Orden av Den Gryende Morgonrodnaden (“Hermetic Order of the Nascent Aurora”) or H∴O∴G∴M+R.
S∴R∴
However, all esoteric levels of the system, i.e. beyond the 5°=6° and especially the true nature beyond the 8°=3°, cannot and will never be. This rules out all academic research about communication with the Secret Chiefs as that properly and still belong to the esoteric level of the Golden Dawn. This post-modernist Golden Dawn leader should know this, which makes his gambit look ridiculus, regardless if he is just playing his usual game of irony or if all of this simply expresses a profound ignorance typical of his generation.
Addendum (2013-07-12)
The Golden Dawn being exoteric up to and including the Theoricus Adeptus Minor (Th.A.M.) sub-grade of the 5°=6° only applies to the older general reformation of 1888. The latest general reformation of 1999 initiated by the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha Omega®, which is still continuing in intervals of decades, has had its purpose of remedying this fact. The reformed Outer Order is properly speaking in a state of “semi-exoteric” status, or “semi-esoteric” depending if you prefer to see a half-full or half-empty cup, as the old initiation rituals has been revised and all old pass-words abrogated and changed to secret (i.e. esoteric) ones. Also, there is currently secret teachings being transmitted to the Outer Order Grades as we speak which are older and predating the Rosicrucian Tradition, still within the Hermetic Tradition, and at the same time the origin and true basis for the later G∴D∴ practicies which are still used today and in the form as outlined in the General Reformation anno 1999, of which I have spoken of before on this blog.
The reformed Second Order, or the Ordo Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis (R.R. et A.C.), is even more esoteric compared to the Outer Order, as the 5°=6° ritual in a similar manner has been revised as with the Outer Order rituals, while its 6°=5° and 7°=4°rituals are completely esoteric being based upon the old and true initiatory formula. The same goes for the curriculum of these Grades, the curriculum and training of the Adepti Grades. The 5°=6° still uses the published R.R. et A.C. formulae of the Magic of Light as parts of its sub-grades, while at the same time presenting age-old esoteric teachings and formulae constituting the majority of its reformed corpus, as well as secret Rosicrucian formulae coming from the 1777 general reformation. This even becomes more expressed in the 6°=5° Grade.
The biggest difference between the 1888 and 1999 reformations is that the First and Second Orders are completly public, compared to the semi-public state of the First Order and secret state of the Second Order a Century ago. This unfortunately has become a fact because of all the profanations made in the past and all of the resulting consequences that we are facing today. Serious students need to be aware of the existance of our Traditionalist Order in our post-modern age of the Kali Yuga, especially in the face of the real and serious danger posed by the Counter-Traditionalist and pseudo-rosicrucian organizations of the “Golden Dawn Community” so-called, who are basing their teachings on whatever that has been published in Golden Dawn related literature or on the left-overs of the New Zeeland branch of the Stella Matutina, collected by post-modernist scavengers, i.e. the abrogated reformation of 1888. In future essays on the Gyllene Gryningen Blog I will write about and properly define the difference between Tradition and Counter-Tradition. So stay tuned!
Addendum (2014-03-13)
Since writing this blog yours truly is no longer affiliated with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Outer Order of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha Omega® (H.O.G.D./A+O®). However, my general view on this subject stays firmly unchanged, as expressed in the above written text, and what I have authored previously on the Gyllene Gryningen blog still represents my overall opinion. Any practices referred to in reference to the H.O.G.D./A+O® also apply to the Order that I am currently affiliated with, namely the Hermetiska Orden av Den Gryende Morgonrodnaden (“Hermetic Order of the Nascent Aurora”) or H∴O∴G∴M+R.
S∴R∴