12 Pieces of Advice for GD Applicants

This is a little snippet of excellent advice (stolen from Morgan Drake Eckstein's blog) from the author Nick Farrell. It is worth sharing for its humour and wisdom. Check out Morgan's blog for similar snippets and his own thoughts and musings on all things GD.

"A brief FAQ of realisations for those who want to join a working GD group

1. It is better to work on the basis that a group should not accept you. If it does you are either lucky or the group is suspect. "I would never trust a club which would admit me as a member," Groucho Marx

2. It is not what the group can do for you it is what you can do for thegroup.

3. Do not ever aspire to be 'an adept' or seek 'enlightenment' from a group. These are things you do on your own and could never be recognized by a group even if you attain it. Real aspirations for joining a group are personal and often very small.

4. Real teaching is what you get when you are ready to receive it. It is never put on paper. Lessons, etc. are only guides to real teaching which must be found by yourself. Intellectual knowledge is a tool to real knowledge, passing an exam is no indication of evolution any more than passing your written driver's test means you can drive a car.

5. No one in the GD is above the grade of Neophyte. Those who tell you their grade to impress you are lying. Generally the higher the grade, the bigger the liar... anything beyond the veil is probably trying to sleep withyou.

6. Real magicians are unimpressed by people claiming they are high grademasons.

7. GD leaders should be unimpressed by what grades you got in a different esoteric school.

8. Group leaders are unimpressed by people trying to show how clever they are. Knowing that a particular astral plane is coloured pink is not the same as going there. Sharing intellectual information is like listening to someone informing you about a place because they have read about it in Wikipedia.

9. Esoteric Groups are about daily work: intellectual and practical.

10. In joining a GD group, leadership is not impressed when you tell them that you have been doing loads of pentacles and hexagrams and inner order work daily. This is because people who brag about that sort of thing generally have not been doing them properly, have been largely unchanged by the experience and suddenly can not do a basic meditation daily when they are required to.

11. Esoteric Schools do not owe you anything. Theoretically they are not supposed to notice you.

12. Who are you anyway?"

A Prayer for the Global Economy

We send energy to aid in the regeneration of the global economy, that we might all be prosperous, that we might all avail of wealth, and that we might all return to days of hope and joy, and partake in a better, more affluent world. We will for reinvigoration, recovery, and stimulation in the global economy, and we take the fear and gloom and despair that permeates the world and transform it into hope, joy, and universal happiness, for such such is the power and potency in us as global alchemists to bring about change and transformation, to ensure a thriving and flourishing economy for this day and the many days to come.

The Many Layers & Aspects of Golden Dawn Work

In all aspects of Golden Dawn work there is the exoteric or apparent element and an esoteric or hidden one (and sometimes there is a third layer of symbol between them). It can therefore be argued that these seemingly simple rites and rituals are very potent acts of magic, and the more we realise such, the more we can get from them.

My Views on Fate

I believe that certain things are "fated" to be, but, in fact, they're also completely changeable. In a normal human sense they are fated, but in a more "godly" sense they are changeable. This is where the distinction between Higher and Lower Self is needed. The Higher Self chooses, while the Lower Self enacts a choice. Indeed, this is where, to give an analogy from the Matrix, the Oracle tells Neo "You've already made the choice. Now you have to understand it". If we will, we may change anything that is "fated", but only through the Higher Self - and we may decide not to change something after initially trying to once we realise it was an essential choice for our spiritual growth.