Roots of Golden Dawn: Part One

The Golden Dawn system of attainment is unfinished; I mean this in the sense that all living spiritual and magical systems are being constantly added to by their members. Hence they are growing and changing, expanding and evolving; the instant that a system stands still, it becomes fossilized and becomes a relic of the past.

In the case of Golden Dawn, it could be also argued that is unfinished because there are vast sections of it that have been lost, hidden, destroyed, or never revealed. There is also the little issue that some of it truthfully hasn’t been finished unless you believe in the existence of a Third Order that holds the rest of the system, and do not believe that the system is a product of its own members and officers.

I obviously have my own opinions about this matter.

Exactly how much of the system should be revealed is also a matter of some debate. There are some people who look upon the writing of Israel Regardie, Pat Zalewski, and Nick Farrell as pure blasphemy. There are others that believe that the only sure way to ensure that the tradition does not disappear as so many other Orders have in the last hundred years is to publish the heart of the system.

The responses to the vast amount of material that has been published about Golden Dawn have been varied. Some treat all the published material as if it now belongs to the Outer Order (insisting that the Inner Order must be absolutely secret); others still make their members take a vow of secrecy about the entire system, despite the presence of the published material; and others just smile and go about their business knowing that it does not matter a whole lot about what is published and what is not because until you complete the work of the system, there will always be mysteries and secrets that you do not understand about the system.

I have been a member of many groups. I have seen each one of these reactions up close and personal. I have my own chosen favorite reaction that is based on my own experiences; most people who know me are well aware of my personal opinion about the issue.

(A note of some small historical interest: A lot of people believe that David Griffin and his branch of the Golden Dawn were the first to move everything that has been published into Outer Order; they were not the first to do so. That reaction actually predates the internet; Griffin’s Order is merely the best known modern advocate of that response to the vast corpus of published Golden Dawn and RR et AC material.)

Which response to the published material is the correct one depends upon the answers to a handful of questions:

“Where is the foundation of Golden Dawn? What are its roots? What is the essential core of the Golden Dawn system?”

The answers to those questions, whether one actually knows the answers or merely believes that they do, will determine one’s response to the published material, secrecy, and whether or not Golden Dawn is a finished or unfinished system.

~~~To Be Continued~~~