Magical Secrecy – a few notes.

This is very rough; I will tidy it and add some nice pics later on

As I mentioned in the last post the e-publication of ‘The Book of the Tomb’ by Nick Farrell is causing ructions in the GD community. I cannot possibly read all the forum posts on this topic but have read most of the blog posts and am amazed and some of the invective out there directed at poor Nick. Some people even seem to harbour gleeful hopes that the Guardians of the tradition will smite him down with accidents and lightening and some such things. I doubt it. Israel Regardie did far more revealing, was said to regret it a bit in his old age and lived happily and lustfully until a ripe old age. There is no way we can make these connections between misfortune and breaking of oaths and to subtly cast Nick’s fate this way is in very poor taste.

The other point that needs to be stressed is this. The Book of the Tomb really is not very revealing at all. The information contained within it is hardly super enlightening. Morgan Drake Eckstein for example says he passed a temple test on the material within the book before seeing a copy. There is an Order in Sydney which seems to have become independent of Mathers circa 1904, before the compilation of the book and their vault is stunning, beautiful and correctly coloured.

David Griffin on his blog made lots of comments on this subject, which I responded to. He declined to publish my response because of some legal agreement. I have written asking for clarification on this but in the meantime will repeat some of my response here, as I have no legal agreement with anyone. Avoid the lawyers, I say. Some are nice and wonderful but many are simply expensive.

Some people have questioned the Nick’s motivations for e-publishing the Book of the Tomb. I am sure that Nick, like  Israel Regardie and Pat Zalewski sees himself as defending the Golden Dawn tradition by releasing information that would be of value to Orders which do not have access to this document. Now we can question if this is the right thing to do or not, but not Nick’s motives. As for personal motivations: well he is not making money from this and any personal notoriety resulting from this release must surely be miniscule. Will impressionable young women open their beds to him on the strength of this? Will people stare in awe as he walks down the street? I don’t think so. At best someone may buy him a beer.

I am not sure what oaths Nick has taken, but my own oaths do not preclude me from publishing western magical material obtained from sources outside my Order (since they do not refer to any other Order or what I may find in a book store or what someone may give me). This is why (in answer to David’s question, last post) I was happy to publish those Cromlech papers I have which are not covered by oath or personal commitment to secrecy. I am assuming the persons who gave me such papers without requiring such oaths knew what they were doing. They were members of secret Orders after all.

I think Nick is in a similar position and obtained the Book of the Tomb from non-initiatory sources. If he has access to AO material from non-initiatory sources then any “fault” lies with the original custodians of those documents. After all once magical documents leave the protection of their original provenance they unfortunately end up fair game. See for example the publications of R.G. Torrens in the seventies. I still shudder at those books.

Personally, I wish the Golden Dawn was never made public and the material released, but it has been and now there is a whole non-secret, non-Order based tradition. We need to find ways traditional Orders and those based on public sources can exist in harmony. The release of information like the Book of the Tomb, which ensures all Orders have the same information, can help this. From the point of view of Orders and groups based on the publicly revealed Golden Dawn teachings, Nick’s actions are a good thing: they have access to information they previously did not. However, that said all Orders have a right to protect their own veils and secrecy and I can see why some people can get pissed off when there ‘secrets’ are revealed.

Of course, the revelation of various ‘secrets’ of Hermetic and Lodge traditions is almost as old as the oldest of these traditions, Freemasonry. It has been going on a long time and is not a contemporary phenomenon. Whether this is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is another question, but one thing is clear: despite the revelation of ‘secrets’ the living traditions, such as Masonry, survive and thrive just as the Golden Dawn has in the 60 years since the Regardie revelations.

There is also a very good argument that the broader Golden Dawn tradition is no longer solely a lodge tradition but something else, something new that does not derive its authenticity, teachings and spiritual currents in the traditional manner. We may not like this, but it seems to be the case and is no doubt useful for many people. For example, in a country as remote as Australia there are virtually no Golden Dawn temples within reach for majority of our population. In other countries many temples are corrupt or dysfunctional and therefore physical temple initiation may not be a simple matter of choice. Public information is therefore crucial for these Golden Dawn folk and secrecy which inhibits the release of this information a ‘bad thing’.

The magical, as contrasted to the functional uses of secrecy are detailed very well by John Michael Greer in his “Inside a Magical Lodge”. I cannot really add much to that discussion. In essence John argues magical secrecy is a tool for the transformation of consciousness by keeping information secret, regardless of the utility of that information. So the various passwords and symbols and names of an Order have no meaning outside of that Order, no use to anyone else, yet these are the main secrets of that Order. This is why many Masons, despite their secrets already being revealed will not discuss them with cowans – they still keep them secret, safe and precious and therefore they contain meaning and mystery. This is exactly how and why I value magical secrecy and also why I maintain my oaths, even when straining at the leash from time to time.

It is sightly different in the case of magical practices. Of all the various techniques of magic, some are now published and some are still secret. However, the keen aspirant with the right altruistic and higher intentions can find all they need already. No one of any sense would say we cannot reach the fulfilment of illumination and unfoldment without the secrets of one particular Order in one particular era of history in a few particular countries.

There are real magical secrets of the RR et AC still out there, though many from my experience are not contained within documents at all. The various inner workings of the Grade initiations are one case in point. Personally, I would not like to see these released simply because if performed incorrectly they can stuff up the initiate very badly. There are other techniques and practices along the same lines. Many though can be revealed because they require the inner keys of initiation and meaning to make them work. Again, this is another aspect of secrecy that is very important: the key to unlock the magical secrets are contained within us and we need to unfold in service to release them.

Desperately Seeking … Something

Of late I have been too wrapped up in material concerns (helping M move) to have much time for MOTO. There has been a bit of movement on the Golden Dawn front with Nick Farrell e-publishing as open source an important AO document from the early 20s. Poor Nick is being vilified and flamed and subject to all sorts of wot-nots by some GD folk for his action. I will have some more to say on this soon, but for now would simply ask everyone to consider the actual people involved in this. We may question the wisdom of his decision, but Nick’s intentions (borne out by his public work and service) are really beyond reproach and to get personal and nasty is just not cricket – as my teacher used to say.

Anyway… for some quick light relief I have been scanning the search terms people have plonked into Google and other beasties to find MOTO. There are the obvious ones there – like “By Names and Images” (the much delayed book), and “Golden Dawn Ritual”. The page most people get to from these searches is “Notes on  an Unpublished Pentagram Diagram” which goes to show that the old ’say its secret and it will sell’ strategy will still pay dirt in the magical community

There are some interesting ones which make me wonder about the people searching for this information (and what they thought of MOTO when they found us). For example:

• “Israel Regardie death spell”

Now is that to kill Mr Regardie (if so, a bit late) or a spell created by him to nobble someone who’s pissing you off?

Some people just want answers:

• “What does Atlantis mean to Wiccans?”
  

Yes, well we all wonder that. But how about,

• “Lesbian sex moves”?

I still can’t figure out what page that hit, but I am sure the searcher was mightily disappointed, though maybe less so than the person who found MOTO while searching for “Christian sex”.

Of course some people like to combine their interests, and so we have:

• “Golden Dawn mystic sex chants”

I guess the double CD gift pack is just around the corner.

Another person no doubt cursed MOTO when he found nothing to satisfy his craving for:

• “Photos of Lisa Simpson naked”.

Seriously, what were they expecting to see?

However, my all time favourite search which found us is:

• “Aleister Crowley Steak”

Doesn’t that make the tummy rumble. Or something.

Why I Love Magic – personal, mystical and social.

One of the side benefits from my recent distress at the Golden Dawn community’s continued infighting is that through my keeping up to date I have come across several excellent blogs. Some of these are on MOTO’s blogroll, so have a look. Of particular interest is Soror FSQ’s blog, “Flight of Hermes“. There are several other blogs that interweave magical wisdom and personal experience within the Golden Dawn tradition, but Soror FSQ does it well. Sadly, it is hard to avoid stereotyping here: blogs of the same type by men seldom express emotional authenticity with such grace as this one by a woman. Within the Golden Dawn as a whole the men out number the women, particularly when we examine leadership roles and public presences, yet often the women make the most profound contribution to an Order or working sphere. The same is true of virtually any religious tradition in the west.

I have really appreciated Sr FSQ and other bloggers sharing their personal experience of magic and the Golden Dawn. I seldom have the clarity and courage to do so. Well … I once submitted a lengthy report of my youthful pagan religious and mystical experiences to an anthropologist who was writing a book on the subject and seeking personal stories. The first I knew the book was out was reading a review in the West Australian where my memories were quoted and held up to ridicule by the reviewer who could see no good in Pagan mysticism at all. I am now a little more shy in revealing stuff

One of the most wonderful aspects of magic is the way it can help us interweave all aspects of life into a single, coherent whole. It can unify the various parts of our lives so we are travelling with perhaps many intentions but of one spirit towards one goal. Magic for me is composed of three interlocking spheres: the personal, the mystical and the social. Naturally we can relate these to the Tree of Life

Personal Magic

Magic on a personal level helps us change and transform.  To begin any act of transformation we leave what is known as the Path of Return and step off the cycle of repeated existence and habitual thought patterns. We do something different and step beyond Malkuth, or in Golden Dawn terms we enter the path of initiation and leave the path of the Natural Man (borrowed from St Paul). This is the first step and often the hardest as it involves a form of self exile from the herd-tribal mind set and the social-genetic programs we have in inherited from our family and society.

However, there is no point in magic or any spiritual practice unless this transformation takes place. Unless, slowly year by year we are truly changing into a more compassionate, integrated, mature and wholesome person. Often this involves what today we call “healing” and really should be considered a precursor to any serious magical or tantric practice. We can relate these transformational actions to the lower four Sephrioth, Malkuth through Netzach with the prime area of change being undertaken in Yesod the sphere of reactions, the unconscious and sex. Every night I introspect on these three areas and try to see where I really am. How did I react during the day and why? What unknown or uncontrollable personal forces made my choices for me? How was I sexually, either physically or in imagination? I’d wager these are three vulnerable areas for most of us.

It is a common esoteric truism that to fully change any sphere we need to operate from the sphere immediately above it. Our physical bodies are moved by our energy. Our energy is clarified and strengthened by our emotions and thoughts which in turn are effected by our sense of self. So for full therapeutic transformation and to avoid the merry go round of therapy helping to pay for our counsellor’s beach house, we need to access the self, the Sphere of Tiphareth, or more accurately the lower facing aspect of Tiphareth. This is the aim of such ‘transpersonal’ therapies as Jungian analysis, which is wonderful when used in conjunction with body centered modalities but often just lovely mental gymnastics when practiced alone.

Such self focused work involves far more than a few therapy sessions or facing the interior imago of our parents from childhood conditioning. As we said such personal transformation is needed but is only one aspect of the personal change that magic directed by the One involves. Esoterically we are all the central point in the unlimited circle of the One. When I say “we are the centre” I do not mean our higher selves, nor our ‘balanced self’, nor our future self, but who we are right now, this very instant. Even if we are immersed in dysfunction and addiction. We are all the centre of God’s complete love and attention. This is a great mystery. As William Blake puts it, we are all, each of us the Only Son of God. This means God, whose circle of circumference is nowhere, beyond limit has each of us at His centre. Always. Yesterday, today and tomorrow no matter who we are or who we are not.

Once we realize this intense gift we are never personally empty, alone or broken again. The full gaze and love of the One is constantly upon us and therefore our personal lives begin to have meaning. How we act and love and serve in our personal life becomes incredibly important. This realization is not easy and for me my most personal act of transformation is learning to hold this truth for longer periods more frequently. Cleaving to this realisation is an act of standing, as we are, naked in God’s revealing light. Ultimately having the courage to be revealed in front of God is an act of returning love, from ourselves back to God. It is through this love our lower selves, Netzach through Malkuth may be healed. This is expressed beautifully by the great Sufi poet Rumi:

This is Love: to fly without limits
to cut through all the veils – now!
The first instant – to reject the life you knew.
The last step – to give up feet entirely.
To see right through materialism,
To refuse to see addiction as inevitable.

In Golden Dawn terms what we have been discussing is the Outer Order and the liminal grade of the Portal – well, that’s the theory. In practice most of us are still bumbling around with our Yesodic reactions even after we have dressed up very nicely and been declared “Greatly Honoured” Grades are an artificial construct and have nothing to do with our spiritual unfoldment or personal transformation. However, even though still only a map the progression through the layers of self just outlined is useful. We all need maps. Nearly all the great mystical and magical traditions have some form of this progression mapped out.

Mystical Magic

There has been much unproductive polarisation of magic and mysticism where the two are seen to be opposite ends of the spectrum of spiritual experience. Maybe they are for some, but not for me and certainly not for the traditional esoteric schools and teachers in the west. Magic is practical mysticism, a series of artificial bridges based on sound spiritual skills to engage the higher aspects of the soul. Here we are specifically referring to the upward facing aspect of Tiphareth through to Daath (if we are blessed). Again there are maps and sequences of unfoldment laid out in most traditions. Mysticism is not a free for all experience of the One complete with visions, spasms of energy and psychic flashes, though it can quickly degenerate into such unhealthy states. For most of us this is almost guaranteed to happen, in some form, if we attempt magic prior to engaging in the self transformation outlined above. The works of St John of the Cross and St Teresa of Avila are classic examples of the discipline required in mystical work. So too when examined properly and practiced with altruistic intentions is the curriculum of the RR et AC.

It is important to state something again and again, as most of us do not get this, and indeed we cannot ‘get’ it until we have experienced it. This little quote sums it up well:

Spiritual growth does not come merely through intellectual or emotional development. There is another state of being to be reached, another quality of awareness that reveals new aspects of reality. (Theodore J. Nottingham: The Mysticism of Christian Teaching).

In one sense then ‘we’, the regular everyday Peregrin and whoever you are reading this, the person who does the shopping, does not experience mysticism or magic. It is the upper spheres of the Tree, the so called ethical triad of Tiphareth through Chesed which are the vehicles for mystical magic and most of us do not shop or work or even love with these spheres. To enlarge our selves to be active within the realm of mystical activity very much involves dying to who we are. Each time we expand in some way we die; it is a natural part of the process. So, strictly speaking ‘we’ do not think or feel or react when engaged in mystical and magical states of being. We may need the language and concepts of feelings, emotions, thought, bodily sensation and our own self to express the experience but none of these are really the modes by which the experience unfolds. Magic (like Tantra) is the best way for us who are not born mystics to achieve this state. In Buddhist terms magic is the skillful means by which we reach these transformational and blessed states. This is what magic is all about.

Social Magic

Once we have properly engaged in mysticism and magic we have gone beyond ourselves. We thus are waking from the lie that all people believe – that there is a separate being called Peregrin or Mr Rudd or you. This, as I keep talking about on MOTO compells us to compassion. We know we are all interdependent; that we are the asylum seeker on the crowded, fear-ridden boat, that we are the lesbian who cannot bring their partner home for Christmas and we are the rapist locked in internal and external prisons. This knowledge impels us to act; we just have to. And here is the beauty of magic, particularly of RR et AC magic. The very practices, the actual skillful means by which we become mystics can be used to bring about change in the social-political world. The rituals, the processes require very little modification to help us change the world. Isn’t this beautiful? Qabalistically of course, we revisit and act in the world of Malkuth where we started, the real world of love and pain, hope and fear.

Joanna Macy, activist, deep-ecologist, writer and teacher talks about the need for change and transformation to occur on three levels. Firstly, there is the activist level, which really is buying us time. Activists however act as the Biblical prophets – they disrupt the social order, the status-quo and hold our choices and injustices up high for us to see so they become conscious. Secondly, the level of internal change within ‘the system’ itself where change agents are white-anting the dominant power systems, slowly bringing about change and new ways of being to foster justice. And thirdly, the level of group consciousness, in magical terms the cultural and society egregores. It is here that magic really comes into its own and can produce wonderful changes. There is not much written about this, though the best examples of the principles behind the processes can be found in the works of Dion Fortune and the magical stream stemming from her work – and of course in the works of Starhawk and Reclaiming.

However, even on the first and second levels social magic is possible and can produce results. I have seen this happen. We can change the outcomes of actions and protests. We can support those tackling the “system from within”. We really can. And this is why I love magic so much – personally, mystically and politically

Vivaldi – Dixit Dominus

I don’t normally use MOTO to simply link to other things on the web, but this is so lovely I just have to. Back to normal programming soon

Golden Dawn Harmony & Lineage and Polytheism

This weekend I am resting after some very intense transpersonal cleansing and exorcism work down in the country. As I sloth around in bed I have been wandering around the net, and of course have been reading lots on the recent theme of ‘Golden Dawn Harmony’. My take on this all has been varied and often naive. Working in the refugee field for many years now I am aware of the various stages of change required for harmonious living between people of differing cultures and viewpoints. I would suggest what we need prior to any harmony in the Golden Dawn is tolerance. This means different groups accepting the other groups right to exist. On a Malkuth action plane this requires doing nothing and saying nothing that counters or hinders any other group. Practically this means a very different ambiance in the Golden Dawn community than at present. All the crappy pages and blogs would go for a start.

Of course even tolerance is going to be hard when different groups view each other as invalid from the outright. This is not a question of lineage but of intention and corruption. If any GD group views the leaders of a rival group as motivated by greed or corruption rather than spirituality we are stuck at the outset. Successful religious ecumenicism is seldom achieved when the different groups deny the good motivations of the other even if unconvinced of correct actions. If a Christian church viewed another church as motivated solely by the desire for money using Christianity as a front, meaningful tolerance would not be achieved. So, I worry about even GD tolerance, let alone harmony when it is clear that even the basic commonalities are not present. I hope I am wrong.

Golden Dawn Lineage

The lineage question (and lineage itself) is like herpes; it never goes away So, knowing we can never solve the issue I would like to ponder it a little and offer a suggestion. There are a few main obstacles to understanding the question of who has valid lineage and who does not: (1) what exactly is meant by lineage, (2) when and where did this view on lineage originate, and (3) the proof of any possible lineage is often kept secret by the Orders themselves. What I suggest is all the Orders pool their resources and track down a proper, unbiased esoteric academic – one employed in the academy not someone who has a degree and who is a member of an Order. We hire them, all the Orders open ALL their records to him/her and they produce a report. This report will say something like:

• If lineage means blah-blah, then GD Order XXX has a lineage from YYY; The documents ZZZ support this lineage.
• If lineage means muck-muck, then GD Order AAA has a lineage from BBB; the documents and reports GGG partially support this lineage as some key elements cannot be verified.
• Etc Etc…

At least then we are not comparing apples and cumquats. Personally, I think the only lineage that really matters is that we actually practice the tradition to serve the world and the One. However we have  received the GD – from Grand Lord Captain Cow, Chief of the Order of Yap-Yap or from the back of a Weeties box or from books – it all pales into insignificance to the fact that we practice. But people are stuck on lineage – the virus won’t go away. So let’s see if we can find some sucker academic somewhere to do this and get it all out in the open for once. What do you think?

Polytheism

Over the last decade particularly I have focused my reading around my two main traditions – the western mysteries and Vajrayana Buddhism. Studying even the core texts from these traditions seldom leaves time for much other reading. So I miss a lot. One of the works I seemed to have missed is John Michael Greer’s “A World Full of Gods: an inquiry into polytheism“. Now I know that John has been very active in the Druid community over the last decade or more but I will admit to surprise to see him defending traditional polytheism given his views on the Gods within his GD based works – the Gods are formulas to structure consciousness. So I am quite keen to have a look at this book from 2005. This afternoon I will do the right thing and perform what is likely to be a pointless ring-around of local bookshops before ordering it online. I haven’t found a good scholarly review of the book yet but have listened to an interview with him about the book. The interview was not very scholarly either but did give John a chance to present his main thesis, which he summed up in this example.

A Bit Nauseous?

If we are looking out of the window and see a Hindu dancer wander by, followed a few minutes later by a Christian priest, followed by a buffalo, we would assume them to be different beings. So too with Gods. Different people around the world experience and relate to different Gods. Either they are really different Gods or most people are wrong or they are the same God under different guises. John says of the latter, he would need proof not just an assumption or declaration that this is so. The obvious, esoteric answer is not that the Gods “are the same” under different guises but that each of them, like all phenomena, are contingent and interdependent lacking intrinsic existence. This lack of intrinsic existence stems from Unity – since we are united we cannot exist alone. Unity is not God under a different name or title. It is not a Being at all, but that which just Is. Even this Is finds its roots in the Not, which we can equate with the Ain of the Qabalah.

This is basic Neo-Platonic esoteric thought and the proof John calls for comes from our own reflection and realisation that all things are impermanent. This is not hard to realise as soon as we look around us. John advises theology to take its models from ecology and I agree: there is no stable, ever existing independent ecosystem. The same with the Gods. This concept of impermanence can be expressed in western terms: “For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever.” (1 Peter 1:24-25). Esoterically, the flesh is of course our earthly selves, the flower our individual ’soul’ or Higher Self which in and by itself is also destined to wither and return to Unity. The Word is the unity of the One and “for ever” does not refer to an eternal time (like day after day in heaven), but a state beyond time since time is a mundane, created experience. I am keen to get into the book and see how John responds to this view, which he must have encountered many times. To have someone of John’s skill and intelligence defending radical polytheism is going to be fun and enlightening to read!