That's a paddin! (Things not to say in Golden Dawn forums)

Go ahead---use those Bible quotes to prove that you are right.

Last night, I had an encounter with a troll on one of the Facebook Golden Dawn groups. In honor of this brave troll (he was proud to be Norse--which made him better than the members of the Golden Dawn), I present ten things to say if you want to get a paddlin' and booted from a group that I moderate (and yes, I do moderate a couple of Facebook groups).

1: I have never opened a book on Golden Dawn, but I know that Golden Dawn members are doing it wrong.

2: Golden Dawn Orders are the babysitters of the occult.

3: Aleister Crowley was (and will always be) the most important member of Golden Dawn.

4. Golden Dawn magic obviously does not work because none of the Golden Dawn members are lottery winners.

5. Golden Dawn, the magical Order, is the same as the Greek political party, Chrysi Augi.

6. Come join my vastly superior magical Order.

7. The magicians of Golden Dawn are nothing more than cry baby divas.

8. Master Magicians and Adepts are fighting with one another for the privilege to teach me.

9. Golden Dawn is the Satanist pawn of the SRIA Illuminati.

10. I know the answer to your question. It is in my expensive book that I have written---go buy it right now!  

And if this was not enough to inspire your trollish nature, and you want to go for the ultimate trolling status and that honorable banned trophy, watch this important instructional video by JP Sears. 

Death of community by egotistic orgasm

Your typical esoteric student--both in and outside of the Orders.

You would think that with the internet, especially with the number of esoteric students on Facebook and Yahoo (and possibly in other corners of the web), that we would be living in a time of great communication with one another with a free exchange of ideas and lessons.

Oh, wait, I am forgetting something...the fact that your typical esoteric student believes that their wisdom and ideas are absolutely correct and that anyone who dares say otherwise are guilty of having ego issues.

For instance, point out that traditionally Golden Dawn has nothing to do with aliens and you are told that everyone's ideas are equally true. Well, unless you have spent twenty plus years training in one of the Orders--then you are completely wrong...in other words, Adepts and members of the Inner Orders should be taking commands from Neophytes and people who are not even in the Orders in the first place.

It would not be so bad except that some leaders actually encourage this behavior by patting the most clueless people on the head, telling them that their ideas are absolutely correct, while insisting that more experienced students have to prove their ideas to seventeen decimal points. And if you protest, these same leaders show the newbies exactly how to deal with differences of opinion by banning the experienced members that disagree with them. And heaven forbid that you actually start making jokes about this--at that point, you get burned as a troll. And why do some leaders do this? Because there are more people who believe that aliens from outer space rule the world than there are hard working mystics and magicians--if you are only after large numbers of people giving you money, you encourage the egos of dumb students.

In the meantime, the experienced students are quiet (refusing to give up any information), leaving or being removed from the groups, leaving only the leaders and the students with the biggest egos around, free to say any dumb thing that crosses their mind. And as a result, one can see that the online esoteric community is rapidly approaching death by egotistic orgasm.

And yes, I realize that I have an ego problem for not seeing the vast wisdom and knowledge of those who have less than an hour of actual esoteric training and those leaders who give them cookies for being so brilliant.

Pagan prayer for the busy season

Ok, this is a lift from the Colorado Pagan Yahoo Forum; it was posted by Teresa n'ha-Pagani.

White Lady and her Consort, Help us remember that the jerk who cut us off in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours that day and is rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children.

Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who can't make change correctly is a worried 19-year-old college student, balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for next semester.

Remind us, Lady and Lord, that the scary looking bum, begging for money in the same spot every day is a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares.

Help us to remember that the old couple walking annoyingly slow through the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress are savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report she got back last week, this will be the last year that they go shopping together.

White Lady and her Consort, remind us each day that, of all the gifts you give us, the greatest gift is love. It is not enough to share that love with those we hold dear. Open our hearts not to just those who are close to us, but to all humanity. Let us be slow to judge and quick to forgive, show patience, empathy and love.

So Mote It Be!

Trollish behavior

Over the last few days, I have been watching a troll on one of the Yahoo groups that I am a member of. I am positive that it was just a troll.

It started off when someone mentioned that someone was selling Ambramelin oil on eBay. Now, I am sure that the first post was merely a sales pitch, probably by the eBay seller themselves; but perhaps not, those of us in the esoteric community do tell others of our discoveries of decent priced material and tools.

One of the responses was that one should not buy oil from someone that they do not know, with a catty comment that "I suppose that you buy your magical tools also." And they signed it 93 (this whole story, sadly, is an example of the behavior that the worst of Thelema produces).

At this point, I got involved because yes, I have brought tools and oils from other people. I asked if he grew his own food, hoping that he would see the point that I was trying to make.

Yes, I forgot my father's advice of not arguing with drunks and fanatics. He never said anything about trolls, but I suspect that they fall under the fanatic category.

There was a couple of moments of quiet. Then the troll came back that they did grow all their food and meat, and that no real magician uses tools that other people made. He also made some comments about women only having one purpose---shades of Crowley.

And I dont need to describe the rest; experienced group members can fill in the rest of the blanks.

But it always worries me to see this type of behavior. What if a true Neophyte (someone who knew nothing about Golden Dawn, or Thelema, for that matter) saw this? What if this type of behavior was your first exposure to Our Tradition?

There were some that thought that my responses should have been more impolite, or at least not so subtle. But when I saw how they were signing their posts (93), I knew that indulging in anger would accomplish nothing. And I promptly suspected a troll to boot, someone whose true purpose of posting was to cause trouble.

Now, I know some fine Thelemics, who are very smart, very skilled at magic, and who seek to enlighten others. This person was not one of those. And I refused to stoop down to their level.

So that is my complaint of the day: I hate internet trolls.