Today in the digest version of the messages on the Magical Working Group yahoo forum, there was the final results of a poll on secrecy and how people felt about the publication of Inner Order material.
(Warning---this was an online poll, done on a Yahoo forum, a forum that focuses on helping people study and use the Cicero's Self-Initiation into the Golden Dawn Tradition book---other forums and polls will show different results. If you know of other polls that have been done, share links with me, so that I can present a wider sample of results---thanks.)
The poll was created in September 2009, and just closed today (or yesterday). A total of 32 people voted (I presume that I was one of them...but I don't remember if I did this one or not---it does not matter, everyone knows my opinion on the subject if they are a regular reader of my writing.)
The question was:
"Some people have questioned the motivations for publishing Inner Order material, such as in the cases of Crowley and Regardie. Do you see this as defending the Golden Dawn tradition by releasing further information that would be of value to Orders and students which do not have typical access to these and further remaining documents?"
The possible answers (and the number of votes---percentage is how Yahoo sees it) were:
"Absolutely NOT!" (None, zero, not a single vote.)
"Keep them private" (Two votes, 6%)
"I think it [to] be of value, but only to responsible Temples and members" (Six votes, 18 %)
"As long as its NOT for personal motivations, not making money, and any personal notoriety" (Twenty-four votes, 75%)
Ok, before anyone points it out---yes, the answers are worded funny. I personally would have included another answer, or at least, tried to---Yahoo is not the world's best poll taking device. The third answer does not define who a "member" is, and the fourth answer probably does not fit the reason Aleister Crowley published.
Nevertheless, the fact that the majority of people voted in favor (sort-of) for publication says something. I am not sure what it says, but it says something. Of course, as a writer and business manager, I tend to look at it as a market problem---Are people actually buying the product? And would it be more beneficial to the bottom line to hoard the information?
I know that you have your own opinion---you are welcome to share it in the comment section; but please remember that I moderate the comments, not everything gets approved (flames and spam gets toosed into the round pixel file). Also remember that it can take me up to forty-eight hours to get back to the computer to check for comments---after all, I have a novel that I am working on.
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2 comments:
Check out the Wikileaks website. Julian Assaunge just published the secret Inner Order ritual of the Skull and Bones Society. Does this count in the final category above?
I believe one of the problems of these kinds of polls is that they more then likely would only reflect what the specific group would feel towards secrecy rather then the GD-community as a totality. But you are probably right in asserting that it means something.
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