Sunday, August 7, 2011

The Golden Dawn Debates: Donald Michael Kraig vs. David Griffin - On The Secret Chiefs of the Golden Dawn


Donald Michael Kraig recently wrote:
"Recently there have been a spate of attacks on Regardie’s book as being incomplete or not “the real stuff” leading to new books and claims by individuals to have received new information from the Secret Chiefs...
In my opinion, these claims and counterclaims all miss the point. Real magick is not about some new secret ritual, an alternate correspondence on the Tree of Life or a variation on a well-known ritual that changes a word or two. Real magick is about what you do with what you have. And with Regardie’s book, you have a lifetime of training and learning and practice...
I’ve known some people who have tried to figure out the Golden Dawn and its techniques and given up in disgust, saying it was too complicated (complex, yes, but once you understand the complexities it’s not complicated at all). Alternatively I’ve known people who say that it’s too simple, but who have never ventured into the third or fourth volumes. I’ve also known people who have literally reversed important aspects of the rituals, knew they were doing this, but claimed they were doing Golden Dawn work. And, as mentioned above, others claim what’s there isn’t enough and are “receiving” new, more advanced information. I imagine some of these people will attack me for what I’ve posted here, and that’s okay."
(For the benefit of the uninformed reader, Donald Michael Kraig is well known in the Golden Dawn community as an initiate of a Regardie-based Golden Dawn order founded in Georgia by an OTO member/Lewellyn author in the early 1980's. Kraig's Golden Dawn statements frequently so closely resemble the positions of this order that Kraig often appears its de facto spokesperson.)

Care Frater Don,

Who is it exactly that has been "attacking" Israel Regardie's book? Is it, in your opinion, not possible for our two orders to disagree on fundamental philosophical points about the Golden Dawn, without the need to resort to calling philosophical disagreements "attacks"?

Personally, I fully embrace diversity in our Golden Dawn community and view both philosophical disagreement and scholarly debate as not only positive but as actually helping the Golden Dawn tradition to continue to grow and evolve. As brothers from different Golden Dawn orders, can we not agree to disagree without feeling attacked or wagging fingers at one another making wild accusations?

Has the time not come to leave behind old wounds for the good of the Golden Dawn community? - instead of merely not mentioning names while continuing to make sniping remarks?

Moving on to more important matters, I fully agree with you that Israel Regardie's Golden Dawn compendium is one of the most important books ever published. (I personally believe, however, that the Golden Dawn would have been better off today, had Regardie not broken his vows by publishing this material though).

You are correct that Regardie's Golden Dawn compendium contains so much magical material that normal people will never be able to fully master it. The book itself is certainly not incomplete. It accurately reflects the Golden Dawn as it was developed in 1888.

The fact, however, nonetheless remains that the Golden Dawn as it was then developed remained a truncated and incomplete system. The Golden Dawn was never intended to end at the relatively low, (5=6) Adeptus Minor level. The grade system is based on that of the Gold and Rosy Cross Order of 1777 Germany. You are well aware that the grades of the Second Order (6=5) Adeptus Major and (7=4) Adeptus Exemptus were never fully developed by S.L. MacGregor Mathers. Whether you agree with this or not, the reason for this is that Mathers was cut off from his source - as the Secret Chiefs were not at all pleased with what he had done with the 5=6 material.

The net result of this is that there are a great many Golden Dawn Adepts today who were initiated into Adeptus Minor (5=6) long ago. Many of these are the best and the brightest among us in the Golden Dawn community. These Adepts have mastered the published Regardie material (that ends at this minor grade) long ago.

Some of these Adepts have even been initiated into Adeptus Major (6=5). But what did they find there? In most Golden Dawn orders, they either nothing at all - or merely something that their local leaders concocted themselves.

Should these Adepts - the best and the brightest among us - really remain forever stifled in their initiatic progress at Adeptus Minor?

I do not think so - and neither do the Secret Chiefs of the Third Order of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega. This is why they have finally released the material for Adeptus Major and Adeptus Exemptus that they had originally intended to release through Mathers until he botched the Adeptus Minor.

These materials complete the magical developments that begin with 5=6. I have given one example already of how this is the case in my previous blog, regarding the magical squares deriving from Agrippa and how they are still cyphered as included in the (5=6) Adeptus Minor material of the Golden Dawn. The entire original system is now fully revealed in the (6=5) Adeptus Major and (7=4) Adeptus Exemptus grades of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega.

As I mentioned earlier, I believe diversity is a very good thing in the Golden Dawn community. If someone is looking for the personal ideas of Pat Zalewski, his order provides a valuable contribution to our community. If someone is looking for a personality cult centered around Israel Regardie, they can also find that in our Golden Dawn community too. The great news, however, is that if Adepts are looking for traditional Golden Dawn training that completes what they started learning in the (5=6) Adeptus Minor grade, the Alpha Omega is now making this material available to our Golden Dawn community for the first time in history as well.

I must admit that I am a bit surprised at how much venom has been aroused by this joyous new, however. Judging from all of the buzz on the internet, especially on certain Yahoo fora, one would think that the old Golden Dawn flame war had reared its ugly head again.

Rest assured that the A.O. is not trying to lord anything over anyone. We are actually performing a valuable service to the entire Golden Dawn community by making this advanced material available to all of the brightest and best among us - assuming that they can fulfill the same traditional requirements that have been in place since 1888 - and are willing once and for all to keep vows of initiatic secrecy inviolate.

One thing that has surprised me in this entire discussion has been that so many Golden Dawn leaders have come out saying that they do not believe that MacGregor Mathers really met in person with the Secret Chiefs in Paris in 1891 as Mathers himself plainly stated. These individuals are in for a big surprise in years to come, since the advanced teachings are very real and will ultimately be verified by Adepts from a cross section of the entire Golden Dawn community.

Meanwhile, the even the radical reconstructionist Golden Dawn faction is already finding it more and more difficult,  in light of serious new academic research, to dismiss Mathers own statements regarding his physical meeting with the Secret Chiefs of the Third Order in Paris in 1891. The cynics and the sceptics in the Golden Dawn community apparently have not read the latest academic research on the subject. I quote from page 159, "William Blake e William Butler Yeats, by Arianna Antonielli (2009: BILIOTECA DI STUDI DI FILOLOGIA MODERNA - Library of Studies in Modern Philology, Florence University Press, p. 159):
"Nel 1891, Mathers viene chiamato a Parigi da un emissario dei misteriosi Capi Segreti del terzo ordine, a lui noto soltanto come Frater Lux E Tenebris. Guardiano delle tradizioni misteriche dei Sumeri, dei Caldei e degli Egiziani, Frater Lux E Tenebris deposita nelle mani di Mathers le chiavi per accedere a quella sapienza antica e segreta. Una volta a Londra, Mathers ha tutto ciò di cui necessita per fondare, nel 1892, l’Ordine Interno o Secondo della Golden Dawn: una società prettamente rosacruciana chiamata infatti ‘RR+AC’, Roseae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis."
English translation:
"In 1891, Mathers was called to Paris by a mysterious emissary of the Secret Chiefs of the Third Order, known to him only as Frater Lux E Tenebris. Guardian of the mystery traditions of the Sumerians, the Babylonians and Egyptians, Frater Lux E Tenebris deposited in Mathers' hands the keys to access this ancient and secret wisdom. Once in London, Mathers has everything he needs to found in 1892, the Inner or Second Order of the Golden Dawn a purely Rosicrucian society called  the 'RR + AC ', Roseae Rubeae et Aureae Cross. "
Note that the above cited quote recently appeared not on a publisher's publicity blog, but rather in a highly respected academic journal.

Indeed, it is these self same Sumerian, Babylonian, and Egyptian initiatic mysteries that are now being further transmitted in (6=5) Adeptus Major and (7=4) Adeptus Exemptus grades of the Inner Order the Alpha et Omega.

5 comments:

  1. I can't believe that you think that 5=6 is such a low grade. By stating this I question your grade. There is a lifetime of work withion the 5=6 and if you have mastered it all you might as well start your own religion. Very pompous my friend!

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  2. I am astounded by some of the incredibly bizarre ideas about the Golden Dawn that certain people have developed over the last Century.

    First of all, the Golden Dawn did not just fall out of the sky.

    Contrary to such peculiar misunderstandings such as that just exhibited by our anonymous and hostile Frater, the Golden Dawn is, in fact, the continuation of a much earlier Rosicrucian tradition and Hermetic lineage.

    In particular, the Golden Dawn's grade structure derives directly from that of the 1766 Golden and Rosy Cross order in Germany.

    To derisively suggest otherwise - or to erroneously claim - that the Adeptus Minor grade is the "summum bonum" of traditional Rosicrucian initiation and training - betrays a profound ignorance of legitimate and historical Rosicrucianism.

    The Adeptus Minor grade and initiation remains today what is has always been - and just what the name says - nothing more than a MINOR grade and initiation.

    Adeptus Minor has throughout Rosicrucian history been merely a PREPARATORY grade for one of the most profound grades and initiations of the entire Rosicrucian lineage ...

    ADEPTUS MAJOR

    That this still has not been grasped by so many initiates is the greatest tragedy of the Golden Dawn!

    The wonderful thing, however, about the diversity of our Golden Dawn community - is that EVERYONE is welcome to hold his or her own opinions about the Golden Dawn ...

    Even such uneducated and mistaken ones like the one just espoused by Frater Anonymous.

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  3. G.H. Frater L.e.S.

    I would like to see your various information about the Second and Third Orders curriculum integrated in one peace with some clarifications. I think that will help our GD community and HOGD-AO members to grasp the significance of those events even more.

    For instance:

    The first piece of information came from the HOGD site, http://www.golden-dawn.com/eu/displaycontent.aspx?pageid=330 - Confusion on the Internet - A guide for the Bewildered, where:

    2002 - Meeting with the HOGD Chiefs in Paris where "(...) they were given everything for the Third Order that had been envisioned for the Golden Dawn since its inception in 1888. These materials included the initiation rituals for the Golden Dawn system's three highest grades (called "Magisteria"); Magister Templi (8-3), Magus (9=2) and Ipsissimus (10=1)."

    The second piece of information came from this blog:

    2011 (I assumed) - "Today (?), in order to heal the wounds inflicted on the Golden Dawn tradition by profanation from Crowley and Regardie, the Secret Chiefs are finally transmitting (?) the rest of the Inner Order magical curriculum, (6=5) Adeptus Major and (7=4) Adeptus Exemptus.

    Why this events took place in reversed order, I mean, why first the Third Order material was delivered and then the complimentary material for the Second Order and not a way around, which would make a lot more sense, since the Adepts need this material to be prepared for the Third Order instalment?

    Another question: How the current Adepts are coping with all those instruction materials by themselves; I mean to going through them and rising their level accordingly? And about the initiations required to prepare them for those advanced studies? Are they being initiated by the Secret Chiefs themselves? Who else will be prepared to confer such grades to our high adepts?

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  4. Care Frater TAS,

    I am not at liberty to say anything at all about how Third Order grades are being conferred, except to say that they indeed are.

    Frater Lux E Tenebris has always supported the Golden Dawn, but the entire Third Order ruling council has not always agreed with him. The Secret Chiefs were shocked and dismayed by the behavior of the Golden Dawn community following the transmission of the Third Order material in by Frater Lux e Tenebris in 2002. This set our Golden Dawn community back an entire decade.

    You were not around then so you may not recall the way that our order (HOGD/AO) was systematically defamed on the internet in an entire array of fora, websites and blogs hosted by other Golden Dawn orders, how we were sued, etc., but the Third Order leaders certainly saw all of this.

    Frankly, they therefore began to look at other options concerning outer initiatic vehicles and were basically ready to write off the Golden Dawn as a failed endeavor and the Golden Dawn community as a lost cause - once and for all.

    It took me ten years to convince them that the Golden Dawn is worth saving and to continue to transmit more materials. Now that they are finally fully behind this community initiative of the Alpha Omega, they are at last transmitting the remaining Adeptus Major and Adeptus Exemptus material that we should have received already a decade ago.

    In reality, they are actually transmitting far more than this at this juncture, but I am not at liberty to say more than this at this time.

    David Griffin

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  5. Gentlemen,

    I pay my respectful and honorable salutations to the Imperator, Mr. Griffin and all of You working tirelessly for the Coming of the Light. I commend the tremendous work and dedication you are deploying for the advancement of the Light of God to shine in our hearts.

    Allow me to to say that some of the postings there reveal a patent desire to show off or to deliberately create confusion instead of a sincere Longing for the Light of Jesus-Christ. WHO AND WHAT ARE WE REALLY LOOKING FOR? All those non-sense discussions emanate from the "invisible Ego", the actual satan of the Bible, the Actual beast with 10 horns, the invisible one with its number 666 inside of our psyche. It is said there are even Masters that have not decapitated the last remnants of this beast and have not fully purified themselves extensively and they end up even betraying their affiliation or the very Masters who show them the Light. This Path of Light is not an easy one and it requires Consistency and Determination, Renewed Love of God and constant remembrance of the Purpose of the practice. Those idiots, DELIBERATELY confusing others, will have to deal with a severe karma. The Masters of Saturne are no jokes.

    Imagine how I get to here, in this website that I am screening. Let me tell you how: I had a Dream, where somehow I saw myself in a beautiful Estate, with a lavish garden, maybe somewhere in Europe. There were a lot of people there, and somehow, there was a particular individual that I started praying for. Afterward, another person approached me and asked me if I was a Free Mason. I retorted "no". And in one the Massive Stone present, it was written "Imperator". Trust me, I did not even know what it means. This is why I was scouting the internet to find out the meaning when I discovered this website. To continue, I was in a corridor and somehow, I saw a huge serpent wrapping around an individual and he was quite drunk, totally in lethargy. I continued my road and I realized that there was another serpent, quite aggressive, rushing to come in my direction. I run very fast and while in a curve, somehow I became courageous, lifted a Big Stone and told this serpent: "If you do not stop, I am going to break your head down with this stone". It looked at me and backed off. " COULD YOU PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR ESTEEMED OPINION OR INTERPRETATION?

    From that dream, I come to know this website. I am working with the Philosophical Stone, making a descent in the ninth sphere. By the Way, Your article about Sexual Alchemy is phenomenal. Thanks Sir Griffin for being Real, lifting the veil and make us understand CLEARLY that our internal human fire, using the principle of electromagnetism (Male-Female), transforms our lead into gold. There is a lot of work to do. Please, the Sincere brothers should concentrate on working in the Ninth Sphere, shattering our multiple internal ageless demons (egos) with the Help of the Loving Serpent Goddess Mother, Aset and finding at last the Love of Jehovah-Jire, God.. That is the real deal, the real challenge, the real thing. We should lift each other up, pray for each other. All other cold intellectual rhetoric, without sincerity and genuine desire of knowledge, is just a pure waste of time.

    Regards,

    Mike

    ReplyDelete

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