One of the most common questions (and, indeed, heated debates) in Golden Dawn communities nowadays is whether or not self-initiation is valid. The opinions on the matter are often so starkly contrasting that new students don't know what to believe. The intent of this post is to explore this matter from both sides, offering my own thoughts for good measure.
Regardie believed that self-initiation was valid. He believed that the LBRP, MPR, and Opening by Watchtower in particular, if performed daily for a period of months and years, would change the energetic level of the candidate, and invoke transformative and initiatory powers, sufficiently enough that they could consider themselves to be initiated, even into the Adeptus Minor grade. He believed that the Order in the 1930s was suffering from spiritual erosion, which seems to be an apt assessment from what we see of the history of the time, with documents being omitted, and high-ranking officers claiming grades they did not understand, let alone having the practical magickal skills to enact their mysteries and fulfill their gradework. It fell to the individual student then to ensure their own progress, and thus the whole notion of self-initiation came into play.
The problem with the sudent ensuring their own progress is manifold. It requires firstly that they be of a dedicated sort, that they practice the work (and not become an armchair magician, as so many do, increasing their book knowledge and their bookshelf at the expense of their spiritual knowledge and their practical magickal skill), and that they be determined enough to see it through. Having a lodge or temple, with various officers, helps keep people active, and a good officer can often whip a languishing student back into shape, saving them from their own erosion. The student must also have a strong discriminating mind, the ability to distinguish between illusion and reality, between deceptive entities and helpful spirit, and they need to have a subtle understanding of the multiple layers of ceremony, not to mention the oral tradition and "temple culture" that is often lost when one "goes it alone". They must also avoid rushing ahead, doing gradework beyond their grade, or falling pray to egotism, all of which can be avoided by a watchful Chief, who has (or, at least, should have) both the experience and know-how to spot and deal with these matters before they get out of hand.
The problem with self-initiation is that, because it's not presided over by a group of trained and qualified initiates (with at least one Adeptus Minor), there's no real guarantee that the initiation has been effective. For example, a candidate may undergo a Neophyte initiation at a physical temple, and they need not actively impart much to the ceremony. All they have to do is be receptive enough to let the energies impart upon their aura and affect their subconscious. All the real work is done by the Officers - the raising of energy, invocation of forces, assumption of God-forms, banishing, etc. When it comes to self-initiation, partcularly of the early grades where the candidate has little or no prior magickal experience, how can they compensate for the absence of these trained Officers; how can they ensure that all the appropriate energy is raised and assimilated, and the duties of all the Offices fulfilled? To do this has required a Probationer "grade" prior to the probationary grade of Neophyte, where the candidate effectively trains him or herself to the appropriate level to perform the ceremony properly and effectively. Tools are built, concepts or God-forms are meditated upon, and the ceremony is studied meticulosly.
However, the most important thing is this: these ceremonies are not to be performed once and then deemed to have been successful. Regardie was miffed at why people would perform a consecration ceremony and immediately consider themselves adept at such, without ever considering to repeat it at least one more time, if not dozens of times! Likewise for these initiation ceremonies. Indeed, there is far too much of beauty in them to be only experienced once, but the speeches and ceremony aside, the real purpose of performing these multiple times is to ensure that the full effect is achieved, that the initiation can be deemed true and proper, and that the entire ceremony can be considered effective and successful. If it is not, then you simply do it again. Indeed, considering how many mistakes we often make when learning new rituals like the LBRP, and how many more we make in the more elaborate ceremonies of the grade initiations, performing them multiple times is essential to simply doing them right. If you have the Kerux say the Heirophant's part, or you forget to circumambulate or knock, etc., then you are not doing the ceremony right, which may impact on how efficacious it is. With all things, practice makes perfect, and no student of magick worth their salt, however arrogant they may be, can consider themselves above this sage advice.
The problem with astral initiation is that you simply don't know if it was done, unless you are particularly sensitive to the astral world, perhaps becoming lucid in a dream where the initiation is taking place. Many people tend to "sell" astral initiations, and while they are definitely true and valid if actually done, the potential that they might not be lends me to be wary of them. I have participated in astral initiations, and they can be effective, but this was in a much closer and tight-knit community than what is often offered nowadays. Even if one does opt for this, I suggest they don't rest on their laurels and do nothing physically themselves. They should perform the ceremony even as the astral adepts are doing so. Physical enactment is one of the very tennets of Golden Dawn work.
The problem with physical initiation is that you need a temple, officers, and all those other resorces that go into forming a local group, because chances are (especially if you're in Europe) that there's none where you live. We can whine and complain at this lack, but at the end of the day it's the Work that matters, not a brick-and-mortar temple of brick-and-mortar brains. There is a lot of importance in physical intiation and temple work, and I hope to see more of it, but we should never dismiss self-initiation in order to bolster our numbers in our physical lodges, as so often is done nowadays, with people claiming all sorts of nonsensical stuff, such as being the "one and only authentic Golden Dawn", or claiming definitive lineage back to Mathers, which is just as difficult to prove as most lines of apostolic succession in Christianity. Lineage has its importance, but it's not the be-all-and-end-all, and it's not necessary. What is necessary is the Work, and your own personal dedication to fulfilling it. At the end of the day the true initiation comes from your Higher Self, as you are lifted up spiritually, and a piece of paper proclaiming an attained grade is only the physical manifestation of that internal process. As Above, So Below. If you have the paper and don't have the process, then it is meaningless, and you can consider the initiation to be rendered null and void. No one can confer enlightenment to another - we each have our own experience of Gnosis, an experience which makes us "more than human", and no mere human can decide on the validity of such.
If any of you have read my other blog, Henosis Decanus, you may have noticed my post on whether or not one could be self-ordained into the priesthood. In that post I highlighted how the priesthood is the equivalent of the Adeptus Minor grade of the Golden Dawn. There are also Minor Order grades (as part of Formation) prior to ordination that are the equivalent of the elemental grades of the Golden Dawn. In my post on self-ordination I highlighted some of the flaws of that idea, and I showed that it was not quite the same as self-initiation, though those flaws still exist with both. The issue here is whether or not you can self-initiate into Adeptus Minor and above. The differing views tend to narrow here and the usual answer is: no. The reasoning for this is that you need to be initiated in a Vault of the Adepti in order to consider that initiation valid and effective. Supposedly Mathers wrote a self-initiation ceremony for Adeptus Minor, however, so I guess the vote isn't really out on the matter. I will explore this particular issue in more depth in another post.
Regardie believed that self-initiation was valid. He believed that the LBRP, MPR, and Opening by Watchtower in particular, if performed daily for a period of months and years, would change the energetic level of the candidate, and invoke transformative and initiatory powers, sufficiently enough that they could consider themselves to be initiated, even into the Adeptus Minor grade. He believed that the Order in the 1930s was suffering from spiritual erosion, which seems to be an apt assessment from what we see of the history of the time, with documents being omitted, and high-ranking officers claiming grades they did not understand, let alone having the practical magickal skills to enact their mysteries and fulfill their gradework. It fell to the individual student then to ensure their own progress, and thus the whole notion of self-initiation came into play.
The problem with the sudent ensuring their own progress is manifold. It requires firstly that they be of a dedicated sort, that they practice the work (and not become an armchair magician, as so many do, increasing their book knowledge and their bookshelf at the expense of their spiritual knowledge and their practical magickal skill), and that they be determined enough to see it through. Having a lodge or temple, with various officers, helps keep people active, and a good officer can often whip a languishing student back into shape, saving them from their own erosion. The student must also have a strong discriminating mind, the ability to distinguish between illusion and reality, between deceptive entities and helpful spirit, and they need to have a subtle understanding of the multiple layers of ceremony, not to mention the oral tradition and "temple culture" that is often lost when one "goes it alone". They must also avoid rushing ahead, doing gradework beyond their grade, or falling pray to egotism, all of which can be avoided by a watchful Chief, who has (or, at least, should have) both the experience and know-how to spot and deal with these matters before they get out of hand.
The problem with self-initiation is that, because it's not presided over by a group of trained and qualified initiates (with at least one Adeptus Minor), there's no real guarantee that the initiation has been effective. For example, a candidate may undergo a Neophyte initiation at a physical temple, and they need not actively impart much to the ceremony. All they have to do is be receptive enough to let the energies impart upon their aura and affect their subconscious. All the real work is done by the Officers - the raising of energy, invocation of forces, assumption of God-forms, banishing, etc. When it comes to self-initiation, partcularly of the early grades where the candidate has little or no prior magickal experience, how can they compensate for the absence of these trained Officers; how can they ensure that all the appropriate energy is raised and assimilated, and the duties of all the Offices fulfilled? To do this has required a Probationer "grade" prior to the probationary grade of Neophyte, where the candidate effectively trains him or herself to the appropriate level to perform the ceremony properly and effectively. Tools are built, concepts or God-forms are meditated upon, and the ceremony is studied meticulosly.
However, the most important thing is this: these ceremonies are not to be performed once and then deemed to have been successful. Regardie was miffed at why people would perform a consecration ceremony and immediately consider themselves adept at such, without ever considering to repeat it at least one more time, if not dozens of times! Likewise for these initiation ceremonies. Indeed, there is far too much of beauty in them to be only experienced once, but the speeches and ceremony aside, the real purpose of performing these multiple times is to ensure that the full effect is achieved, that the initiation can be deemed true and proper, and that the entire ceremony can be considered effective and successful. If it is not, then you simply do it again. Indeed, considering how many mistakes we often make when learning new rituals like the LBRP, and how many more we make in the more elaborate ceremonies of the grade initiations, performing them multiple times is essential to simply doing them right. If you have the Kerux say the Heirophant's part, or you forget to circumambulate or knock, etc., then you are not doing the ceremony right, which may impact on how efficacious it is. With all things, practice makes perfect, and no student of magick worth their salt, however arrogant they may be, can consider themselves above this sage advice.
The problem with astral initiation is that you simply don't know if it was done, unless you are particularly sensitive to the astral world, perhaps becoming lucid in a dream where the initiation is taking place. Many people tend to "sell" astral initiations, and while they are definitely true and valid if actually done, the potential that they might not be lends me to be wary of them. I have participated in astral initiations, and they can be effective, but this was in a much closer and tight-knit community than what is often offered nowadays. Even if one does opt for this, I suggest they don't rest on their laurels and do nothing physically themselves. They should perform the ceremony even as the astral adepts are doing so. Physical enactment is one of the very tennets of Golden Dawn work.
The problem with physical initiation is that you need a temple, officers, and all those other resorces that go into forming a local group, because chances are (especially if you're in Europe) that there's none where you live. We can whine and complain at this lack, but at the end of the day it's the Work that matters, not a brick-and-mortar temple of brick-and-mortar brains. There is a lot of importance in physical intiation and temple work, and I hope to see more of it, but we should never dismiss self-initiation in order to bolster our numbers in our physical lodges, as so often is done nowadays, with people claiming all sorts of nonsensical stuff, such as being the "one and only authentic Golden Dawn", or claiming definitive lineage back to Mathers, which is just as difficult to prove as most lines of apostolic succession in Christianity. Lineage has its importance, but it's not the be-all-and-end-all, and it's not necessary. What is necessary is the Work, and your own personal dedication to fulfilling it. At the end of the day the true initiation comes from your Higher Self, as you are lifted up spiritually, and a piece of paper proclaiming an attained grade is only the physical manifestation of that internal process. As Above, So Below. If you have the paper and don't have the process, then it is meaningless, and you can consider the initiation to be rendered null and void. No one can confer enlightenment to another - we each have our own experience of Gnosis, an experience which makes us "more than human", and no mere human can decide on the validity of such.
If any of you have read my other blog, Henosis Decanus, you may have noticed my post on whether or not one could be self-ordained into the priesthood. In that post I highlighted how the priesthood is the equivalent of the Adeptus Minor grade of the Golden Dawn. There are also Minor Order grades (as part of Formation) prior to ordination that are the equivalent of the elemental grades of the Golden Dawn. In my post on self-ordination I highlighted some of the flaws of that idea, and I showed that it was not quite the same as self-initiation, though those flaws still exist with both. The issue here is whether or not you can self-initiate into Adeptus Minor and above. The differing views tend to narrow here and the usual answer is: no. The reasoning for this is that you need to be initiated in a Vault of the Adepti in order to consider that initiation valid and effective. Supposedly Mathers wrote a self-initiation ceremony for Adeptus Minor, however, so I guess the vote isn't really out on the matter. I will explore this particular issue in more depth in another post.
Posts
11 comments:
Hello there Dean,
I came across your Blog a few days back and have been impressed with the ideas and how they are presented.
Just a few points on self-initiation. It really depends on the definition you ascribe to these words.
As a discreet one-off ceremony, like those given in the Ciceros' book, it is impossible. This is not only because of the sensible points you explore, such as skill levels, but also because of one point you touch upon - passivity of the initiand.
For initiations within the GD tradition to work the candidate needs to be passive. They are the First Matter being worked on, by the initiating team and inner contacts.
Passivity produces certain qualities in the subtle bodies. If the candidate were to start invoking or visualising, then these qualities change completely.
That said, there are some initiatory processes that do work this way. If you look at some sections of the RR et AC initiations which are public, you will find them. In Vajrayana Tantra the initiate is active throughout. But the GD tradition is not like this, and therefore a single self-initiatory ceremony cannot be undertaken.
However, if we are to carefully analsyse the inner workings of the ceremonies, which even after Pat Zalewski's works, are still mostly unpublished, we can devise a series of spiritual practices that will transform our subtle bodies and place within them the currents required.
So a self-initiatory process is possible. However, it needs to be done with skill and care. For example, Israel Regardie's comments on the outer outer grades being replaced by regular Watchtower ceremonies are misleading and very elementally biased. There is far more in these ceremonies than elemental currents and the order of creation, which is what the Watchtwower provides.
Astral initiation - again you make great observations. This may be suitable for other traditions, but not for the Golden Dawn. Two main reasons, (1) the initiations were not created in this manner - nor was the tradition, and therefore cannot easily bend this way, and (2) GD/RR et AC initiation occurs on all the planes, including the physical and etheric. Astral initiations cannot effect the etheric plane without moving though the subconscious of the initiate (and even then only via skillful initiators) and the passage through the subconscious will deflect or distort the currents (by definition the candidate, as candidate not a perfect initiate has subconscious blockages).
Anyone blessed to have had the physical touch of an authentically contacted Hierophant during an elemental GD initiation would agree with me. Some of the currents are passed by touch, hence the grip etc.
Thanks for the Blog,
Peregrin :)
Thanks for the wonderful post frater. As someone who is going through self initiation I was always interested in these debates truly feel that aside from maybe 5=6, the other grades can be done solo.
Love your blog BTW.
Ave Peregrin (any relation of a certain Took? :P),
Thank you for the kind words. It's great to know that people are reading this and finding it of value; it keeps me motivated to keep writing.
As for your points on SI, I agree with some and disagree with others, or, rather, I give a qualified agreement.
As I mentioned in my post, unless you're really good at initiations, doing it once isn't going to work. This actually applies for some temple initiations too, as some Officers can be rather poor in their position, not imparting proper energies, not taking on the right God-form, or not delivery speeches with the required fervency (as attested by Regardie in his own AM initiation).
But yes, passivity is an issue, and if you're doing the roles of the Officers, then you're not necessarily passive enough to receive the energies properly. That doesn't make it impossible, however. I have been able to don the role of an Officer and then that of a candidate within a few minutes of each other; it does require a shift in consciousness, akin to that of the assumption of God-forms, and you are right that most Neophytes, etc., will not possess this ability at this early stage of their growth (unless they've already had experience in another tradition, etc.).
Likewise, I agree that the grip, etc. provide essential currents of energy that can be lost in self-initiation. However, this assumes that the Officers actually do their work properly, which isn't, as I'm sure you know, always the case. I'm also of the mind that self-initiation is better than none at all. In a sense you could think of it like a bad physical initiation. Some elements will be lost, but that doesn't render it entirely ineffective (after all, some of the inner understanding of the ceremonies was added later than Mathers' time).
There's also the issue of Mathers' AM self-initiation ritual. I have yet to see it personally, but I have it on good faith that it does indeed exist (unpublished). For all our debating about whether or not self-initiation is possible and valid, I think if Mathers did write a self-initiation ceremony for AM, then that kind of destroys some of the arguments against self-initiation, especially since Mathers contributed so much to the physical ceremonies themselves.
You'll have to elaborate on precisely what you mean by "authentically contacted Hierophant". Do you mean "Secret Chiefs" here?
Thanks for the comment, and, keep reading :)
LLLSHJ,
Y.
Ave Marquis,
I'm with you 100%. I believe that self-initiation is both possible and valid, although I qualify that by saying that the candidate needs to put a lot into it to make it effective.
The problem with most of these debates is that they can get out of hand very quickly, with one group dismissing another, and vice-versa, and ending in petty squabbles of egos. The intent of this post is not to really get into that debate, but more to offer my own thoughts and feelings on the matter.
Thanks for reading :)
LLLSHJ,
Y.
Hi there Dean and Marquis.
Some good points raised, thanks.
I am in agreement mostly with them all :) I think the Magical community as a whole is to precious concerning initiation, and this leads to all sorts of acrimony.
Bottom line: initiation is one way of BEGINNING the work, not the work itself. If we make a "correct" beginning and do not do do the work this is not superior to honestly trying to begin right and stumbling a little and then doing the work. The motivation is what is important, of course. So yes, a self-initiation in the spirit is more "valid" than a temple initiation in the wrong spirit or conducted by incompetent officers.
So yes, I agree that temple officers are sometimes not trained correctly - sadly. We have been blessed otherwise, and in the isolation of Perth, Western Australia, have come across few of the abuses and mistakes i read about on the net.
Also, as mentioned, the inner work for the ceremonies remain largely unpublished, as does much of the latter RR et AC material.
This is where - and clarifying for Dean - the presence of Inner Plane contacts (however experienced) comes in. Without Inner Plane contacts connecting through the Hierophant (GD) and Adepti (RR et AC)an initiation, self or temple, will not work. As the currents of the Orders are not of this plane and are held and conferred by the inner plane contacts.
However, please let me stress the point that the contacts may be experienced in many ways - they do not need be experienced as 'Secret Chiefs'.
I am curious about the alleged 5=6 self initiation by Mathers. Can you provide more information on this? Sources, rumours etc? I cannot see it myself (though with Mathers, who knows?) - as one of the base principles of the 5=6 is its collegiate nature; becoming a member of the College.
Of course, the transition to the state of consciousness that the 5=6 symbolizes is, and can only be, accomplished by self transformation. And in that context, Mathers very early on translated a good process, the Sacred Book of Abramelin.
thanks for the ideas and this Blog,
Peregrin :)
Like peregrin I am impressed with your Blog and congratulate you on a stimulating and well presented site.
I do not share your views however on the possibility of self-initiation into the traditional Golden Dawn system. This is not to say that one cannot become, in the broad sense of the term, an adept in occultism through one's own efforts, nor is to say that one cannot achieve possible heights of spiritual and occult attainment independent of the GD system. Indeed these are evidently possible. But it is to say that the very nature of the GD system precludes the possibility of self-initiation and would have been regarded as an absurdity by members of the original, pre-Regardie Orders. In the same way that performing a ceremony in my bedroom will never make me a Roman Catholic priest (no matter how 'Holy' I may be) nor permit me to become a Freemason, so also the notion that I can become an initiated Neophyte into the GD through actions I perform myself is indicative of a misunderstanding of how the system is conceived as working. Of course, again, any one can say that they disagree and decide to award themselves any Grade they wish, whether Neophyte or Ipsissimus (and many do), just as people also claim to have revelations and accordingly proclaim themselves to be priests or the Messiah Himself, but in terms of how the Order was originally established,this is merely wishful thinking. Can one, therefore, who has not been initiated, use the methods of the GD effectively and advance in occult study. The answer is obviously 'Yes'. You do not need to be an initiated GD member to pursue the same Pathway any more than you need to be a member of any organisation to become knowledgable about its practises and beliefs.
On a different question I also take a different view to you when it comes to Regardie. It needs to be remembered that he spent less than 2 years in the Order and after breaking his obligations, and treating his kindly old Chiefs disgracefully (and severely embarrassing Dion Fortune who got him in the Temple), he then abandoned all GD work entirely. Apart from writing books one will search in vain for any GD work ever carried out by Regardie over the 40 odd years following his leaving the Hermes Temple. Indeed, he admits as much in some of his unpublished correspondence. Moreover, the reasons Regardie gives for breaking his obligations are entirely spurious and self seeking. Given his junior and brief period in the Order he was simply unaware of the extent of the work and the other Temples operating in London at that time. Examination of correspondence with the Chiefs from the period point rather to the fact that he was irritated over several factors, including; criticism of some of his magical work; his perception of criticism about his previous association with Crowley; and his annoyance that his request for employment at the New Zealand Temple was rejected (this is documented). Interestingly, Regardie admits in letters written in the 1970s that he acted badly with respect to the Chiefs. With the renewed interest in the occult in the late 1960s and 1970s Regardie found, to his bemused surprise, that he was now being treated as a sort of GD guru. But his reluctance to become involved in the modern Orders, apart from a nominal acquiesance, is very clear and probably wise- apart from his period of study and brief invovement with the Order 35 years earlier, he had nothing to teach and very little to say. This is evident from his excruciatingly trivial and inaccurate comments in the Falcon edition of the GD corpus.
Fraternal regards
Tony Fuller
Ave Peregrin,
Yes, I think initiation is hogged like a "resource", with everyone wanting full control and capitol over it. Ultimately, however, I think it's a misunderstanding of what initiation really is (as you mentioned about the "beginning" things).
Thanks for the clarification of the Inner Plane contacts comment. I am wary when people claim contact with "the Secret Chiefs" in order to justify bringing in new material and claiming a monopoly on the Order's system (in much the same way Mathers took over by creating the RR et AC). However, "inner plane contacts" in a more general, and, indeed, personal, sense is fine by me (we had the same in my previous Order). The important thing is to not use them to justify our actions here on Earth. The inner plane contacts are, in a sense, the animate projections of the egregore.
I can't really say much more about Mathers' supposed 5=6 SI ceremony, as I haven't seen it yet. It may have been written after the initial split. Perhaps Mathers was attempting to reclaim some old ground by providing initiation material for solo practitioners. It's unusual, and I have a hard time grasping the matter myself. All I can really do is wait and see, however, as I'm reluctant to make a judgement one way or another on the matter until I see the "hard evidence".
Thanks for the comment :)
LLLSHJ,
Y.
Ave Tony, and thank you for the kind comments. It really is a pleasure to see that people find this material of interest :)
There's no denying it. The Golden Dawn, no matter how much I like it, and no matter how far I intend to go with the system, has no stranglehold on enlightenment or spiritual progress. People have been advancing spiritually for millennia before it came about - indeed, often with the same material the Golden Dawn later adopted (in which case it is in their debt, not the other way round). As a Gnostic, I know that spiritual growth is reliant on Gnosis alone. All else is icing on the cake, as it were. Waite's G.'.D.'. group, mystic instead of magician, could just have easily offered the path of progress as Mathers' or Felkin's.
On the matter of self-initiation, I think we'll have to agree to disagree.
The thing is, of course the original Order and its members would have considered SI an absurdity. They were living in the era of the Victorian lodge system. It was all about the lodge. Most members also believed that Anna Sprengel existed, that they were operating in a long-living lineage from her and the old European Rosicrucians, and that the Secret Chiefs existed. If they had known that there was no real warrant for the Order, etc., then most of them wouldn't have joined. The idea of SI didn't even exist then, so of course it would have been seen as absurd.
You can't become a Roman Catholic priest through a ceremony in your bedroom because you must have the sanction of the Pope and the Church, and involves legal matters (the ability to wed people, for example). Priesthood, however, is akin to Adeptus Minor, as I stated in my original post (with the link to my post at Henosis Decanus on self-ordination), which most G.'.D.'. Orders believe requires physical initiation in a vault. The possibilities for the Minor Orders are a different matter entirely.
There will always be people not fit to claim grades in the G.'.D.'., and this includes many who physically initiate. However, we always have to take the following two points into consideration:
a) some modern Orders have grade material and initiations for 6=5, 7=4, and the three Third Order grades, even though the original Order stopped halfway through the 5=6 material. Who conferred these grades?
b) Mathers and Westcott created the Golden Dawn ceremonies, even though they had the Cipher MS. Who initiated them into the grades? What gave them the authority to initiate others when they themselves had not been initiated into those grades? Or could we consider their own self-appointment to grades as self-initiation?
The fact that Regardie spent less than 2 years in the G.'.D.'. is irrelevant. Many members progressed to Adeptus Minor in a year. I think his criticisms were fair and just, and we should never be afraid to speak out just because they are our "kindly old Chiefs" or that we might embarrass someone who vouched for us.
I think it's naive to say that Regardie had "nothing to teach". Most of us would never have even heard of the Golden Dawn if it was not for him, and I'm sure his two years experience is better than what most of us have to offer.
But again, we will have to agree to disagree. I understand that Regardie was one of the less experienced Golden Dawn members, and that he had his flaws like everyone else (*cough* Mathers), but at the end of the day the majority of modern Golden Dawn orders and students owe a debt to his decisions, whether he intended them for the greater good or not.
Thanks for the comment :)
LLLSHJ,
Y.
Hello,
It is great to have such an knowledgeable GD historian as Tony discussing these issues.
Just briefly.
There is plenty of evidence that the AO in Mathers time conferred the 6=5 and 7=4. These rituals have not been published (to the best of my knowledge). Pat Zalewski, somewhere (in print not private emails I am pretty sure) says he decided not to publish them as the Whare Ra versions were much better. Tony will be able to provide more info on this. Since there are several versions of these things floating around it would be nice to have an authenticated copy in print
When a new Order is formed the Chiefs, are commissioned and instituted at the appropriate grades from the founding body, whether that be a Grand Lodge or an inner plane commission. This is presumably where Mathers et al received their grades from. Similarly when a group opens up the Third Order, the founding chiefs too will receive such a commission and conferment. Once this is achieved it is then perfectly valid for the Chiefs to require new members of the Order to work through a curriculum to achieve the same grade. (Though personally, I have never worked in an Order than operated beyond the 7=4).
This is not magical elitism, simply practical Order mechanics and is in essence how the western lodge tradition has always worked. This tradition has evolved and survived over the last 500 years, and I do not know of a better way of organizing magical or spiritual groups in the west today. It is a pity it is not utilized more. Its rules and methods of organization are worth studying, and yes within this context self-initiation makes no sense. This is why I always refer to processes that may provide the equivalent magical and spiritual transformation, but which cannot make one a member of a particular Order, or even a particular tradition.
Israel Regardie: thank you Tony for being clear and blunt about this – the idolization of Israel has gone way too far. I was aware of all you posted apart from his requests for employment at the NZ temple. You say this is documented. I am out of the loop a little; can you provide a reference please to a published work or private collection? Thanks. As I coyly hinted at in my previous comment, Israel’s GD knowledge would have to have been quite limited to make the comments he did regarding the elemental grades. His comments, bad editing and lack of wisdom in the Falcon Press collection can perhaps be excused due to his advanced age at the time?
Of more significance here is the fact that, in some sense, Israel’s actions in breaking his oaths and publishing the GD material (or more accurately, the limited amount he had access to) can be considered theft. The material was not his and was clearly only on loan to him. Therefore, again in some sense, all who have purchased the GD books and received its teachings only from there, not from an Order with lineage prior to 1937, are recipients of stolen property.
As I have mentioned in my own blog, to make ‘good’ the reception of stolen intellectual property we must take what we receive and use it for the intention it was originally designed by the founders, both incarnate and non-incarnate, of the GD. This intention is clearly stated in the Equinox ceremony – ‘love, expressed towards, God, humanity and the universe’.
Thanks,
peregrin
Dear Dean/Peregrin,
Thanks for your interesting responses. Yes our respective views on self-initiation do differ. Without labouring the point, however, I would ask those who advocate the efficacy of self initiation whether they consider there is any difference between the former and an initiation carried out by Hierophants who have themselves been validly initiated and have performed the necessary work. Within the GD, and its successors, for example, one was forbidden to be Hierophant until certain 5=6 worked had been performed. But why was this so? The answer is that there were deeply magical reasons for this restriction. If then an initiation could be fatally flawed by an inadequately prepared Hierophant how much more so, clearly, would this apply in the case of self-initiation. Of course, anyone can reject this restriction. But on what basis other than a personal wish? And if we reject this, why not reject other things? At what point have we ceased to follow the GD system? Are we really that much more advanced than the founders and early Chiefs to be in a position to consider the system as some sort of occult smorgasboard where we retain what we like and shun what is personally inconvenient or disliked? These, of course, are rhetorical questions but I sometimes think it may be useful to ponder them. There is little doubt, in my view, that the original curriculum was a very demanding one requiring great discipline and effort and this does not sit well with many modern aspirants or people who have an ambition to lead an Order and become a 'teacher'.
Regarding the Higher Grades Peregrin is right, but Pat did not publish them for the reason given but rather because he does not have them, although I have shared a few parts of the GD 6=5 with him. They are very different from Felkin's Stella Matutina versions. Unlike the SM and Waite's Orders, the GD and AO did not work the 8=3 or 9=2. With regard to the SM 6=5 and 7=4 it should be noted that the published versions have quite a few errors and omissions. The 7-4, for example, is described as 'The Red Rose Which Blossomed'. This is entirely wrong. It should be 'The Rod Which Blossomed' which is a reference to the Rod of Aaron'. There are many other similar problems although not as many as can be found in Regardie's works which have numerous errors and large chunks of text missing in various papers which completely change the meaning.
Speaking of Regardie, while I do agree that the availability of GD material has been useful and appreciated by very many people that does not, in my view, justify his actions retrospectively. If it did, then there is no point in any modern member taking the Neophyte or any other obligation. At any point they decided it was 'right' to expose the secrets of their Order they could resort to Regardie's type of rationalisation. Apropos of secrecy there were very strongly held magical reasons for adhering to it which are too involved to elaborate here. It is impressive, in my view, that out of some 700 members of the GD, and immediate successor Orders, only two members broke their obligations: Crowley and Regardie. Paul Case did also expose some of the material but not the rituals. The 'leakage' of other material has occurred though about 10 people failing to destroy their papers before death and these then passing to others. Not a bad record for 700 odd members.
In this regard I am still in close contact with an elderly Hermes member plus one or two ancient Whare Ra people and even now, to this day, they are extremely discreet in their correspondence, referring to the Order simply as 'the O.'
The reference to Regardie seeking employment as 'secretary' at Whare Ra appears in one of the letters written by one of the Hermes Chiefs to Regardie. His request coincided with a visit by a senior Whare Ra member to the UK and Regardie wanted the Chief to put in a good word for him. She did but the answer, regarding the position, was 'no'.
Fraternal regards
Tony
Ave Peregrin & Tony,
Thank you for the very revealing and intriguing info. I was vaguely aware that Mathers decided to have the ThAM members go straight to 6=5 rather than continue writing material for the AM sub-grades. Did he have a new syllabus for 6=5 and 7=4?
I also agree that many people nowadays want to omit work that is difficult (although it could be argued that they were doing this in Regardie's day, as evidenced by them omitting many lectures, etc. that they themselves could not understand). In a sense, some people want a "pop culture" Golden Dawn, a fast-food Order. Indeed, the fact that shock is usually the answer to the revelation that the AM work is at least 5 years, if not 10, is an indicator of this.
However, while I would consider myself "traditional" when it comes to the Golden Dawn (I would like to adhere to the old structure and syllabus as much as possible), I also think we not to avoid falling into the trap of refusing to let the teachings and system grow and adapt to the modern world. I think SI is part of that growth and adaptation, especially in an age when lodges are seeing a decline (the sparsity of lodges in Europe, the birth-place of the Order, is a stark indication of this).
But yes, SI and physical initiation are not the same thing. Indeed, I believe the Ciceros state likewise in relation to their book. They don't treat SI students as they would physically initiated members of their Order. Likewise even for the HSoM and its physical initiatory body, the OSM. You actually have to receive all the physical initiations to be part of the OSM, or to pass into the Inner Order.
So, there is a difference, and if we remember the distinction, I think we'll have less problems, especially when it comes to people claiming to be Adeptus Minores from SI (or worse, by only reading the rituals, as many do with Lyam's material). There is a lot that an SI student will miss out on, not least of all the energetic intricacies of the initiation itself, the oral tradition, and practical physical instruction - but I still hold by my original sentiment: it's better than nothing.
True, we could see it as a watered-down version, or even, in extreme cases, as a complete debasement. But in the end, we debate trivial matters, for what does it really matter if you or I are "authentically" initiated into the Golden Dawn? Again I will reiterate earlier sentiment by saying that, as a Gnostic, the only thing of true importance is Gnosis. All else is designed to stimulate or prolong the experience of Gnosis. The Golden Dawn is certainly not the only means, and Gnosis can be achieved through "authentic" initiation or through the most basic forms of meditation.
If we forget this, if we obsess so much over grades, titles, who's "authentic" and who isn't, then we deliberately distract ourselves from the experience of Gnosis. And I would ask then, is it the ego doing this? And, if it is, can we really claim to be "authentically" initiated?
On the matter of secrecy, yes, that's a huge area, and there are very good reasons to keep the tradition alive, and they go far beyond the practical requirements of bygone days. I intend to write about this point in some detail here in the future, but, as you hinted at, there are many symbolic and magical reasons for it. Still, I'm not going to pretend that I'm not indebted to the likes of Regardie and Zalewski's publication of material. Not only does it offer the material for wider consumption, but it means it can be discussed and expanded upon by new students, many of whom are not members of a physical temple at all. The expansion of the energetic inner workings of the ceremonies is one of these matters.
I was not aware of many of the points raised against Regardie, so thank you both for sharing (I did question before whether or not Regardie had the right to publish material he didn't have copyright over too, for that matter). I would love to know more about this "shadier" side of Regardie. Are any of these letters, etc., in print? Where might I find them?
Thanks again to both of you for the feedback. This is turning into a lengthy exchange of comments!
LLLSHJ,
Yechidah.
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