Looking into my cracked crystal ball, I see that David Griffin is about to declare himself the King of the Witches...I think that I might have to burn my union card.
Last night, I was reading Frater Barrabbas' Talking About Ritual Magick blog, and he was talking about the Secret of Pagan Magick. It was a good post, and it was building upon a blog post that David Griffin had wrote about the symbolic and operative traditions (Lunar and Solar Mysteries).
It was a comment that Griffin left to Frater Barrabbas' post that makes me suspect that I am about to burn my union card. Let me just quote it:
....Regarding the Lunar and Solar mysteries in Paganism, I must respectfully disagree with you.... Your point of view is that of an Alexandrian Wiccan, and thus you see Pagan magick as a work in progress - a system still being assembled from an eclectic variety of magickal sources and systems.
Imagine for a moment, however, that there might be another possibility.
Imagine the implications for our modern Pagan movement if an ancient Pagan tradition should be discovered intact - one that fully restores our movement's roots in Pagan antiquity.
Imagine if this rediscovery were to include even its own unique and complete magical system encompassing both solar and lunar mysteries?!?
Would sort of spiritual boost and increase in magical current would such a discovery give Pagan religion in the 21st Century?
Would this not be the greatest gift of a dawning new Millennium for our Pagan faith?
Watch my blog for shocking revelation coming soon.
David Griffin
I am sorry. But the words "freaking unbelievable" and "frak me" leap to mind.
Now, for those of you who do not know David Griffin, perhaps some context is in order. Griffin's Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn big claim to fame is that they claim that they to be the only legitimate Alpha and Omega group in the world, the only living successor to Mather's original Order, and the only Golden Dawn Order in the world to have contact with the original Third (Secret) Order that provided instructions to Mathers.
Griffin collects old documents and lineages like I collect cats.
Now, I will admit that my biggest problem with Griffin is the simple fact that if you go by the rules of the 1999 reformation that I am no longer an Adept. The 1999 reformation that Griffin's Order declared stripped every existing Adept of their Grade. The only way to regain your Adept Grade? Simple, join Griffin's Order.
If I am reading Griffin's teaser correctly, he about to do the same thing to the Wiccan and Pagan communities. He is about to claim that he is the only one to have access to the true and original source of the Pagan Mysteries; and that if the rest of us want to continue to be witches and pagans, we have to join his group.
I hope that I am wrong. But I am not going to hold my breath.
Merry frakking Christmas.
[Full Disclosure: The opinions expressed by Morgan Drake Eckstein do not represent those of Bast Temple or any other Golden Dawn group. Nor do they represent the opinions of any coven, wiccan or pagan group. Morgan Drake Eckstein is solely responsible for these opinions, and consulted with no one (except maybe his cats) before airing his dread of future upcoming attractions.]
Follow-up on this blog post: On 3 February 2011, David Griffin came out of the broom closet and revealed his connection with a Streghera (Italian paganism) branch, Stregheria del Bosco Sacro of Benevento, which claims to have the Inner Alchemy tradition involving the Great Rite of paganism.
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8 comments:
"Our Pagan Faith?" WTF?
All I can do is lol :)
"Thus it becomes clear that Craft (Blue Lodge) Masonry bears great similarities to the first (or outer) Golden Dawn order in that both are symbolical orders, presenting spiritual teachings primarily in symbols contained in the initiatic rituals."
bears great similarities?
The Golden Dawn was created by 32' Masons (red and black lodge), So I think it's the other way around.
I'm sure one would find great similarities between the red and black lodges of Masonry with the inner orders as well. Coincidence? I think not.
Other than that, I found the topic of Pagan Magic as a work in progress interesting. We (Coven) were just discussing that at last Esbat: I personally have an aversion to a "complete" or perfect system, which (to me) implies little or no room for growth and development(of the order or its practitioners).
Our system for example, is not complete. Our initiates are caught up to speed through the progression of our grades until they reach a pivotal point and become "builders" themselves, contributing to the further development of our order. It is an organic system, which will grow and develop as we do.
That is true work and it is never done.
My theory has long been that folks get stuck in Geburah. I respect them for getting that far but I would not follow them. Of course, from my lowly place on the tree, I could be incorrect. I have posted on that topic before.
Every magickal system should be a work in progress. Times change, students change etc.
I had always assumed Mr. Griffin to be Christian. I am not sure why but his comment of "Our Pagan Faith" seems to bring my assumption into question.
Mr Eckstein -
Thanks for linking to my article. However, I have known Mr. Griffin for a year. I have personally met him and found him to be a person of high integrity. I am not a GD initiate, but that has not been held against me. In all this time, Mr. Griffin has never put himself out as an exclusive head of either the GD or any pagan movement. He has always presented himself as just one of many paths, options, or individuals who are on this path. He has also refrained from demonizing any other members of other factions of the GD or criticizing branches other than his. So I would suspect that what he will announce in the future will be just another pagan path for individuals to examine, pursue, or not.
So I don't know why you are calling him "King of the Witches" or saying that he has indicated that he has the only valid GD organization. There has been no indication of this in all of my dealings with him. As an outsider to the GD and its sad flame wars, I haven't found anything in Mr. Griffin's conduct that would show him to be the megalomaniac that you are painting him to be.
Maybe you are right---maybe he is a decent guy. Only time will tell if that is true or not.
There _is_ a pagan tradition that has survived intact through countless millenia unto the present day. It is nothing less than an unbroken continuation of the ancient mysteries right up into modern times.
It's called Astrology.
@Frater Barrabbas: Having never met him, I'm sure I don't have a clue as to Mr. Griffin's true personality or character, but if one were to judge him solely by the material he posts online (and I'm sure there are many that only know of him this way), then such a move wouldn't seem terribly out of character (although I get the feeling Morgan was being more humerus than anything).
Perhaps I'm simply misunderstanding his intended tone most of the time, but much of his text reads like advertisements and media buzzwords.
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