Yesterday, VH Soror FSO announced that the Grand Temple of Ptah (Chicago), Temple of Thoth-Hermes (Denver), Temple of Het-Heret (Seattle), Sanctuary of Isis (Los Angeles), and Sanctuary of Maat (San Francisco) were now officially under the banner of The Order of the Golden Dawn: Collegium Spiritu Sancti.
Let's be perfectly honest: Changing the name of their Order was absolutely necessary. Between the fact that Robert Zink seems to be as deeply dug in as he was before, the fact that Zink is the bearer of the license for the use of the name Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn, and the amount of sludge and bad feelings associated with the EOGD (most of which is connected with Zink), a name change was so needed---if only to give themselves a chance to develop their own reputation in the Golden Dawn community without being constantly confused with the EOGD.
But there are actually a deeper magical issues involved.
One of the theories about the egregore is that the name of an Order actually serves as one of the keys to being able to tap that group's energies. I am not sure how much I buy into that theory. It seems to have developed from the fact that the Order name is one of the things that you promise to keep secret---it seems to be a wild guess about this clause of the oath without taking in account the history and mythology of the lodge system.
But here is the rub: Any group that is using their Order name as part of the security of their energy bank has two names---their public name and a hidden name (often only known to the Inner Order and officers). The name that you are actually pledging to keep secret is the hidden name, not the public one.
The argument that the various name changes of the Golden Dawn groups have undergone represent security updates can go either way when you start to look at what was going on historically. For instance, do you really want to continue to use the name Golden Dawn in 1902 after its association with the Horos? (It is ironic that the modern Golden Dawn groups have actually used the name Golden Dawn for longer than the original Order did.) So on one hand, you have the bad PR; but you also have the fact that the rituals are now public knowledge (large hunks of the ritual published in newspapers no less---where everyone can read them).
(Sidenote: There is some indications that Mathers was planning on reclaiming the name Golden Dawn in the rituals recently published by Nick Farrell. I would quote the exact lines from the ritual, but I have misplaced my copy of the book.)
Ultimately, one must look at the names of the Orders much like one looks upon the various mottos of the members. Depending upon the Order you study, there are times that you change your motto. My most used motto is actually my second Golden Dawn motto. A significant life event happened between the time I took my Neophyte motto and the time that I entered Zelator---so significant that changing my motto was completely in order. I also have multiple mottos because of various group membership (new group=new motto). Interesting enourgh, the modern custom of changing your motto upon Inner Order entry is not observed by all Orders; and in fact, when examining the original Order, one discover few members who actually changed their motto at Inner Order.
If you look at the history of what directions the various Orders went after changing their names, you will notcie that the various Orders are not clones of one another (even when they are sharing communications with one another). Now if you buy into the esoteric fact (or theory) that names have power and vibration, one has to consider that changing the name of an Order changes its vibration (or at least, part of it).
Now, I am not going to analysize what the EOGD to OGD-CSS change really means. For one thing, it is complicated. For instance, what is the real name of the EOGD? I tend to refer to it as HOMSI (Hermetic Order of the Morning Star International) because that is the name that Order had when I first encountered information about it. But the EOGD seems to have a dozen names over its history. I am not sure that any of the name changes mattered---I think that the birth name of that Order remained the same.
Another reason for me not to analysize the names is that it is not a simple operation. Do we use English numerology? And if so, how do we deal with the non-English parts of the new name? Or does the entire name need to be put into Latin? And do we count every "the" and "of" in the name?
But for those who want to experiement with analysizing the names and what to use English numerology, I leave you with the following information. The planets and elements for the numbers one to nine (according to one system) are as follows:
One: Sun---Fire
Two: Moon---Water
Three: Jupiter---Fire
Four: Uranus---Air
Five: Mercury---Air
Six: Venus---Earth
Seven: Neptune---Water
Eight: Saturn---Earth
Nine: Mars---Fire
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According to Robert Zink's ex-wife, Sonya, they originally called the order they created the "Eternal Circle of Light". They later used Eternal Golden Dawn", "Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn International", then "Hermetic Order of the Morning Star International."
Officially, Bob's group today is called the "Hermetic Order of the Morning Star International dba Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn." Bob claims to be "certified" to use this name, but this is quite impossible, as no such thing exists anywhere in trademark law as a "trademark certificate."
Likewise there is no such title as a "Grand Magus" - such as Bob claims - anywhere in the Golden Dawn universe either - although the "Grand Nagus" from Star Trek does fit quite well - considering the Ferengi-like nature of some of Bob's shadier business dealings.
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