Dues, warm bodies, and officers

The dissolution of the RMWT has got me thinking today about the resources neccessary for the functioning of lodges and covens. A lot of people think that all it takes to run a lodge or coven is someone wanting to do so. Yes, that all that it takes to start a group, but it requires a lot more if the group is going to stick around and be functional.

I invite you to stroll around the internet for awhile. There are some groups on the internet that look functional; but in reality, never hold meetings and in fact, can be said to consist solely of the webmaster and a couple of minions. I have heard rumors that one of the Big Name Orders does not have a single lodge in existence, and I know of another that is trying to look like a Big Name Order and doesn't have any lodges. Looking good on the internet does not neccessary mean that a group is actually functional.

And by functional, I mean that members occasionally met face-to-face, initiations and rituals are performed, lectures are given, and the occasional handout is issued. By this standard, many esoteric groups are not actually functional.

So what resources does an esoteric group need in order to be functional?

Dues (money): Money is neccessary for a group to function; it allows them to buy supplies (incense, candles, ink cartridges, the occasional ritual prop) and to rent a meeting place. Some groups also kick in to compensate the chief officers for their time, and it takes a lot of time to run an occult group if it is growing and developing.

Many people object to dues. They say that the wisdom of the ages should be given to everyone for free. These are the same people who think that writers, Hollywood film companies, and musicians should give their product away for free.

"The wisdom of the ages does not belong to you; it should be given away for free to everyone who is interested in it."

By the way, these are the same people who complain almost the loudest about the fact that there are no cutting edge occult books, and that most occult books are just copy and paste jobs. Why are there no cutting edge occult books? Simple, no one is willing to pay for them; therefore, publishers do not commission them, and writers do not write them.

(In fact, many occult books are now being done by small publishers or print on demand services because the bigger publishers only want mega-new-age books that sell better. The quality suffers because of this.)

Furthermore, these are the same people who believe that all the expenses of an esoteric group should come out of the wallets of those who run it. They don't want to chip in for incense and supplies even. Of course, if they become leaders, they will expect their members to chip in. And so it goes.

There are also some people who scream loudly that certain occult leaders are robbing their members by charging them dues. Ironically, some of the loudest in that category charge their own members dues.

(Yes, some of the politics of the occult community is actually about money, and who is making it.)

And there are some leaders who generally have an aversion to collecting dues, and believe that the wisdom should be taught for free. Generally, the groups they form dissolve because they don't have enough resources to continue operating.

When Bast Temple formed, the costs for the meeting were read out loud for all to hear, a custom lifted from Hathoor Temple. A couple of the members were surprised to learn how many expenses were actually involved in running a group; it was something that they were never exposed to before. Within a couple of meetings, one of the members (not the founder of the lodge) proposed a dues structure, and it passed; to this day, the Bast Temple dues are set by the active membership of the lodge.

Dues come from the members; and if you have enough members, most of a group's needs are taken care of.

Members (also known as warm bodies): One of the most important resources a lodge can have is members. Without members, a group is just a paper and/or an internet group, existing only in the mind of its founder and whoever falls prey to the illusion.

From the members come the dues, the experiences, and the people neccessary to actually do the rituals. Without members, rituals are impossible to do in a group setting. It is possible to get away with less than a full number of members, as Bast Temple has proven with their revised Neophyte ritual; but some members are always neccessary.

And without members, especially the occasional new member, an esoteric group is doomed to extinction. The reason for this is that the membership is the pool that new officers are pulled from.

Officers and leaders (the people who attempt to herd cats): Without officers and leaders, it would be impossible for occult groups to exist. The number one case of occult group dissolving and disappearing is the lack of leaders and officers. The history of the occult is littered with groups that died out and disappeared when its leadership got burnt out or died.

For any occult group to survive more than a single generation, officers have to be replaced. And for a group to survive for more than a couple of years, officers must be able to avoid becoming burnt out and/or bankrupt.

Of course, the real trick here is for the officers to learn to set their egos aside, teach younger members to replace them, and actually step aside and allow them to take over. This is harder to do than it looks. It depends on being able to say, "I don't know. I need help doing this work. It is no longer my problem." Tough words to say under most situations.

And looking at the RMWT and its dissolution, I know that the cause of its death was rooted in the fact that only a couple of people were carrying all the expenses, the membership numbers were dropping, and a couple of people were stuck doing all the work. It was a deadly combination for any esoteric group.

Rocky Mountain Wiccan Temple dissolved

The Rocky Mountain Wiccan Temple has officially dissolved; the board felt that the group had outlived its usefulness. Unmentioned in the dissolution notice (or at least, the one that I saw) was the fact that support for the group in both monetary terms and participation were down.

Fortunately, for those in the Denver area interested in open (public) wiccan and pagan rituals, there is still Hearthstone Community Church.

Humor: Crowley

A friend sent me this today. It sounds exactly like I would expect from him in the afterlife.

Joyous day of Webmastering

One of the joys of being Chief Officer is the duty of being the webmaster for the Bast Temple website. It is a ugly job and someone has to do it, therefore it is my job. Some days it is easier than others. Today was one of the hard days---during the midst of trying to modify the Suggested Reading Page, Microsoft Office Live decided to wig out on me. Internal Server Error--as I said, joy.

So now, I have a crummy looking page up and I can not finish it until Office Live fixes their own problem. One of the things I wanted to do today was to update the description of the Revised Three Officer Version of the Neophyte Ritual that I have a link to on that page. I am in the process of proofing a copy of it before I set it up for a distribution package on Lulu.

(I now realize that part of Steve Nichols' high prices are the result of the distribution package he brought though Lulu. The price of the ritual book went up the instant I accepted a distribution package. I am not happy about the price increase, but it does allow for it to have a wider audience.)

There were a few other things that I wanted to add to the suggested reading page, such as links to my reviews of certain books and links to their respective publisher's sites. But it is all going to have to wait now because some place in the world, there is a server that does not like me.

Tarot deck review: The Classical Golden Dawn Tarot by Dudschus and Sledzinski

Until recently, one of the advantages that BOTA (Builders of the Adytum) members had over the Golden Dawn is that they could hand color a set of pre-outlined Tarot cards which helped them establish the symbolism of the cards firmly in their minds; with the publication of "The Classical Golden Dawn Tarot: An Historic Deck In Black And White" by Richard Dudschus and David Sledzinski, Golden Dawn members can also engage in the practice of coloring their own Tarot cards.

Originally, the members of Golden Dawn were meant to hand-draw their own deck of Tarot cards. There were several reasons for this practice. The primary one is that the Tarot deck that Golden Dawn used was a truly esoteric deck; Golden Dawn members were sworn to keep its symbolism and images secret. The symbolism of the Golden Dawn Tarot tied into the symbols and concepts studied by the students of the system, and the cards were used both in private and lodge rituals (divinations, initiations, pathworkings, etc.). Members of Golden Dawn, and its offshoots, took their oaths of secrecy so seriously that it was not until 1978 that a published version of the Golden Dawn Tarot deck became available. Unfortunately, the first published version of the deck, done by Robert Wang, was less than satisfactory.

To read the rest of my review of the Classical Golden Dawn Tarot, click here.

Open Full Moon Dates for 2008

Hearthstone Community Church
Open Full Moon Dates
for the rest of 2008
July 18
August 22
September 12
October 10
November 7
December 12
Meets at the First Unitarian Church
at 14th and Lafayette, Denver Colorado
Doors open at 7 pm.
Ritual starts at 7:30 pm.

Pier Anthony's on the Tarot

In his introduction to his novel "Tarot", Piers Anthony talks about an experimental Tarot reading he did as part of his research for the novel, a reading that went very well, too well in his opinion. Being a non-believer, he asks “How could a supernatural device work so well for an unbeliever?” His answer, after much thought was: “[T]he tarot deck presents a concentration of symbols, some of which are almost certain to relate to any person. The pictures have multiple levels, many interpretations, and these are what the person tunes in on. If Death comes up and there has been a recent death in the family, there is confirmation. If there has not been a death, then there is the fear of one coming up. If there is no such fear, the symbol may relate to the termination of something important, such as one’s job. Death is not just literal death; it is Transformation, or Change, and can manifest in many ways. Similarly, the other symbols have projections like pincushions; you can’t touch them without getting stuck. The Lovers is also Choice, so that card relates to romance or to a difficult decision; and when was there a time when you are not faced with some decision, and which one is ever simple? Os these versatile symbols, coupled with the human’s mind capacity to interpret, to make something relate, do almost inevitably relate to your life.” As he concludes, he had “solved the mystery."

As an initiate of Golden Dawn, I don’t necessary agree with his answer, but I must admit that his opinion is one of the better non-initiated, non-believer answers that I have encountered about how the Tarot works.