Ok, so the reason I wrote that article the other day was because I read a blog that I won't link to because the pinhead doesn't deserve the traffic. This idiot blogger basically said that anyone who researches anything occult on the internet or in any publicly available work is a delusional idiot if they think they can attain K&CHGA. For support he bashes Crowley, claiming to know more about Crowley and his spiritual state than Crowley did himself.
He claimed to have access to manuscripts that are a few hundred years old. He claimed that they were from the real A:.A:., which is allegedly a Memphis Misraim Rite. He said they only start teaching real mysteries after the 50th degree. He said available manuscripts don't have the keys to make them useful. And then he bags anyone, whether it's rootworkers, Hermeticists, or pagans who's going out on their own to study, experiment, and implement the occult traditions without going through the Masons and getting inducted into the A.: A.:. He closes claiming to know that the Abramelin rite was really based on secret papers that he implies he's seen.
It was only later, after posting my post and reading some comments by Morgan Drake Eckstein that I realized I'd just taken out the whole Golden Dawn-Thelemic/OTO tradition as well. Which wasn't my point at all. I don't mind taking out the Bozo Brigade led by delusional clowns who treat their tradition like a science fiction TV show or a cartoon, those buffoons suck donkey balls and they make a mockery of magic. Magic is serious business.
But there are a lot of GD folks who see the system as a valid and valued compilation of Hermetic, Alchemical, and Kabbalistic principles that can lead to understanding and advancement on the path of the Great Work. They ignore the obviously fake bullshit of the creation myth, and look at the material that was put together logically and cohesively to see how to make it work. They are mechanics, tinkerers who inherited a project car that needs a lot of love, but could run faster than greased lightning when it's finished if they ever get the time and funds necessary to finish restoring it.
Mr. Eckstein is one of these, as are Sam Webster of the Open Source Order of the GD, and Nick Farrell. Frater AIT and Frater VL belong to a branch of the GD that's infected by ludicrous leadership, in my opinion, but they are diligent workers who I respect a great deal. A well known author of instruction on traditional grimoire magic is one of the main leaders of another GD Order, and I have nothing but respect for him. The Soror who blogs as PhoenixAngel also has my respect for her efforts to attain spiritual insight and ability through the GD. Jason Miller is either an active or former member of several GD-based or Thelemic Orders with creation myths that run the gammut of believability, and you all know how much I respect his knowledge, understanding, and insight into the way the universe works.
These folks, and the thousands like them, are not the people I'm taking out. They all have a healthy skepticism in their approach to the systems they are working on. They're looking for useful truth in systems of attainment, and I support and encourage that in everyone's path.
And I'm not saying there's nothing to be found in Orders with hokey origins. I'm a Hermeticist, for Christ's sake (literally!). I get a lot out of the Corpus Hermeticum, and it's almost certainly 100% total bullshit in its origin myths. I don't take them literally, I take them as explanatory models. As an explanatory model, the Secret Chiefs of the Golden Dawn make sense. The myths present a metaphorical spiritual truth. Whether Mathers met or did not meet physical people who were or pretended to be the Secret Chiefs doesn't matter, there's something that began as an Idea in the Mind of God that manifested as the Golden Dawn, on purpose, to accomplish specific pieces of God's plan on Earth, regardless of my opinion on the details.
But the main point I'd like to make on all this is that regardless of the origin, or the paperwork, or the living-dead-revived-zombified status of a tradition, anyone can perform the Great Work and succeed, no matter what anyone says about it. God calls us to the Work, in my interpretation and preferred expression of the process of becoming a magician. He reveals what we need to know when we need to know it. He makes a way for us to reach him and to become what we are meant to be. He does so through whatever spiritual tech or belief system is available, and when you get past all the words and symbols, we all learn to do the same kinds of things in our esoteric pursuits, whether it's in a shamanic tribe, ATR diaspora, Lodge Hermeticism, Debutante Dilettante, or rogue Hermeticist with an internet connection and a few pages of spirit names and little common sense.
People are free to study, experiment, explore, record, and pass on their results to everyone else. There's no limit to what you can or cannot learn on your own or in a tradition that goes back a few thousand years. If you want to learn how to do magic, there's nothing that can stop you. Having secret papers may help you in your path if that's what you're called to, but secret papers don't give you the corner on the market, or invalidate anyone else's path.
Head for the Red: The ongoing adventures and insights of a magician's attempts to accomplish the Great Work.
I can actually see both sides of the issue on this one. On the one hand, there's something to saying "Ritual X is going to work a lot better for you if you have someone who knows the nuances (including things that may or may not have been assumed by the author) teach it to you than if you try to reinvent the wheel on your own." If you're working in a competent group (I find that competency goes up as publicity goes down, but not always), you may indeed accomplish the same feats in less time with fewer burnt fingers.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I don't see the point of bragging about secrecy. It's one thing to have your own versions of rituals (or completely unpublished rituals/papers, or unwritten teachings, etc) that you want to keep secret, but if you're not planning on sharing them, what's the point of saying "nah nah, look what I've got, fuckers! You can't have it!" If you're going to have secrets, just shut up and get on with the work.
Personally, I think Argent had a valid point (that the average person, with crappy scrying ability and little foundation work done, could pick up an entity pretending to be their HGA if they're not careful about what they're calling for) that could have been made without all the paper-flaunting. Perhaps if he had better stated the secondary point as something like "fuckups like this are less likely to happen when you have someone competent around to verify your results and slap you upside the head when you're being a deluded idiot." it would have been better received.
I have some respect for some of his other posts, so I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one and assume that's roughly what he meant.
(Also, you forgot to plug FSO ;-)
Thanks Frater Rufus Opus, I think you're cool too :) ((bow))
ReplyDeleteOne possible link to the "Secret" papers that are related to Abramelin are a ritual in Martinism. Although it's not exactly secret (published in public books and viewable on Google Books), it's just not very well known.
ReplyDelete"anyone can perform the Great Work and succeed, no matter what anyone says about it. God calls us to the Work, in my interpretation and preferred expression of the process of becoming a magician. He reveals what we need to know when we need to know it. He makes a way for us to reach him and to become what we are meant to be."
ReplyDeleteNicely said.
Hey RO, I wanted to make some occult comments on the topic you just poated about. But you won't post a link to the other guy so I can't see both sides of the argument?
ReplyDeleteThere is something going on in western countries at the moment that means occult lietrature is becoming 'not available' and it concerns me. I resonated with Gordons article about Borders Books. There is a 'black ops' style campaign of action against the occult going on. I'm curious about the 'other' guys blog. Have you read anything about 'Brother ZERO'?
In LVX
@PR: I've had issues with him before this, but this is typical of the kind of idiocy that sucks. Heidrick warned about picking up false spirits without any of the poseur bullshit he displayed. It can be done. He can't do it. Fuck him.
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't know who FSO is.
@DW, there is no argument. There are two very different perspectives. My experiences invalidate his opinions completely.
"...anyone can perform the Great Work and succeed, no matter what anyone says about it. God calls us to the Work, in my interpretation and preferred expression of the process of becoming a magician. He reveals what we need to know when we need to know it. He makes a way for us to reach him and to become what we are meant to be. He does so through whatever spiritual tech or belief system is available, and when you get past all the words and symbols, we all learn to do the same kinds of things in our esoteric pursuits..."
ReplyDeleteThank you for stating what most should already know. It's not the "how". It's the fact that you feel called to do The Work, and most importantly, you follow through and do it in whatever manner suits your proclivities best.
You'll eventually (some sooner than others) bump into your HGA, and really, that's what's most important, isn't it?
Secrecy + Bragging = Elitism which makes me gag.
You can't make something a secret that is not yours in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThere are those who claim that they have "secret documents" that are actually in a public library which has nothing to do with any modern order. Niether can you claim that documents are secret just because they have not been translated from Ancient German yet.
It is all about making your product seem special with the minimal amount of effort. You can give people pieces of paper which they have not seen before and people will believe that you speak to secret chiefs. But these documents are public and out of copyright.
The only advantage in keeping secret the documents I published in Mathers' Last Word was that they covered up that Mathers was not that much of a genius and did not understand his own ritual. I can understand why, if people need believe he was a god people would seek to suppress that information. They would also need to suppress the fact that the AO rituals were not that different from the Golden Dawn ones, which means that they are not a different flavor after all.
It is what your Order does rather than what you claim for it. At the moment there are senior members of Golden Dawn groups that think that they can make outrageous claims do not have to prove anything so long as they shout it loud enough.
Blackadder: Tell me, do you ever stop shouting and bullying the lower orders?
Wellington: [shouting] NEVER! There's only one way to win a campaign: shout, shout and shout again.
Blackadder: You don't think inspired leadership and tactical ability have anything to do with it?
Wellington: [pauses thinking] NO! It's all down to shouting! [roars] BAAA!