I am not a member of a legitimate branch of Golden Dawn. My proof? I am a scholar.
I was a scholar before I entered the system. I did not hid this fact. The branch that I encountered let me in anyways.
Ok, I was not truly a scholar...at least, not then. I was a high school dropout...with a large collection of books. And I would study a single book for weeks on end.
My sponsor knew that someday I would be a scholar, and still he sponsored me for membership. The interview committee probably saw the tendency towards indulging in scholarly research and they still let me in. During Portal, I proved to be someone crippled with scholarly attitude problems and they still let me advance.
But let's be honest...they were not really Golden Dawn; they were as far away as you could get from being legit. They came out of a schism. They did not believe in absolute obedience no matter how much someone claimed to be in contact with the Secret Chiefs. In other words, anyone who wants absolute obedience thanks solely to the word of their secret and undisclosable Third Order contacts would label them "rebels."
And being a child of rebels and an orphan begging on the doorstep makes me unconcerned about whether or not, Mathers, or Crowley, or GH Frater KL, or Griffin, or anyone else has truly made contact with the Third Order and is recieving information from the Secret Chiefs. Because I come from a corrupted branch of the system and therefore am ineligible to be privvy to such secrets.
The child of rebels is a rebel, and is doomed to be hunted down like a diseased dog. No exceptions.
And in my case, I suffer from the disease of scholarism. I am studying to be both a historian and literature critic. Now, in the branch I was inducted in, this was not a problem.
Being a scholar is only a problem if you must have absolute belief in the mythical history of the system, both in circle and outside of it. Unfortunately, while I can use the recitation of my lineage inside circle as a magical chain, the fact that I become a skeptic outside of circle means that I am unfit for the society of upright people.
And that is why it is wrong to be a Scholar Adept.
To be a True Adept, you must believe in the absolute truth of your superiors at all times. You are not allowed to doubt. You are not allowed to question. The True Adept obeys without question, willingly doing whatever their superiors in the tradition tells them to do.
If you can do that---then there are Orders and leaders out there who will welcome you with open arms.
But it will not be the branch of the tradition that I belong to, for we only accept people who have the potential to be Scholar Adepts. After all, we are diseased dogs, begging orphans, and the grandchildren of rebels and outcasts.
Hi Morgan,
ReplyDeleteyou write, "After all, we are diseased dogs, begging orphans, and the grandchildren of rebels and outcasts."
Borg, Morgan. Don't forget we are also Borg :)
"To be a True Adept, you must believe in the absolute truth of your superiors at all times. You are not allowed to doubt. You are not allowed to question. The True Adept obeys without question, willingly doing whatever their superiors in the tradition tells them to do." Sometimes I wonder if we live in the same world. I've never even remotely been asked to do things like this. Never once within the Golden Dawn system that I was trained in. Then again, I was trained "in the style of the Golden Dawn" but I believe myself to be within the egregore, generally speaking.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully written Frater Morgan and very inspiring. I would gladly join your group of rebels any day.
ReplyDeleteIf you can find the video on PBS using Sapolski's research with baboons... it will explain a great deal about why a Non-Hierarchical paradigm is a more healthy concept. IMHO this applies to the Esoteric as well. Hierarchy quite often leads to a victimization by the alpha baboons. Meanwhile the regular baboons suffer from High BP, High Adreno-Cortical Steroids, High and Rapid Heart Rate, and other major health issues.
ReplyDeleteMost interesting is that when the baboons ate tainted garbage (TB). All of the Alpha baboons died from the disease while none of the regular baboons did. This completely transformed the baboon colony into a baboon quasi-utopia. Other baboons come there and at first are just assholes like most other baboons. Within 6 months the now "laid-back" baboons convert the aggressive ones by mere example. Very interesting stuff.
http://tiny.cc/jqt0x
http://tiny.cc/aeitr
I don't think the problem is being a scholar; the problem is to try to deny your own roots. V.H. Frater S.R. has posted a blog on he points out several examples, and among those examples, he talks about on the buddist trying to ridicule their masters and that's a situation it won't happen. They have respect for their tradition and their superiors; but we as westerns are used to think we can validate everything with proof.
ReplyDeleteLet' say you start an Order and I know you're a researcher and scholar but you don't have respect for your own tradition, what makes you think that I would follow your teachings? I don't care if you have at hand an ancient manuscript from the 1000000 century before the creation of the world but if you don't even respect what you have learned, there's no way I will show respect for you.
Well, my last paragraph is not personal Morgan, so don't take it wrong since that's not the spirit; is just to depict a scenario on how things work in our times.
Peace profound, in LVX
Aw come on, Morgan.
ReplyDeleteNo one has excluded you from anything.
In fact the Alpha et Omega has offered to share the higher teachings of the Second Order (6=5) and (7=4) with qualified Adepts from across the Golden Dawn community.
Just because you don't happen to like either me personally or the fact that these things are being transmitted through the Alpha et Omega, or because you are too proud to apply, does not mean you have been excluded from anything. There are Adepts outside the A.O that we have already begun the advanced Second Order teachings things with. Please do not misrepresent this.
Ironically, that comment was a throw-away comment. This post was set off by something else---mainly the fact that I hate the idea that all scholars are somehow evil.
ReplyDeleteYou are right. I have not been formally excluded from the possibility of learning the advanced material. But I firmly suspect that if I applied I would be.
Of course, I might change my opinion of my chances down the road. After all, I reserve the right to change my mind---always.
If the offer is real, and system is not abusive, then it should be still available as an option in a few years---when I have completed my college degrees, and have a masters in both literature and history.
Big f-ing YAWN.
ReplyDelete