Changing attitudes about marijuana in the esoteric community (can you change your mind without changing--oh yes, you can)

Over the years, I have watched the esoteric community's reactions to marijuana use change. Or not change. Or change, and then go back to the original position, which is just like it not changing in the first place with the additional fun of having proof that certain people are only interested in collecting dues and fees from you despite their claims that they are progressives and not at all stuck in conservative mindset which would totally welcome all pot smokers being burned at the stake.

My favorite incident of this type is how a few years ago, I watched one of the inspirations for the Great Gherkin tag me in a Facebook post, and then...

(Yes, the Great Gherkin is a composite monster, a Frankensteinian monster created from all the best bits of all the dubious occult leaders I have encountered over the years. You don't think that a single Big Name Occultist running a single Big Name Occult Tradition was the sole source of the Great Gherkin, did you? After all, it would be rather awesome if a single person was really that bad and manipulative, leaving the rest of the occult community safe to do business with. But no, the Great Gherkin is an archetype, an occult clone of awesome fierceness and frequency, one that appears in the genetic makeup of many of the finest occult leaders of our time. What does it take to be included into the hive mind of the Great Gherkin? Nothing more than holding a hand out asking for money while suffering Superior Tradition Disorder.)

So I am tagged in a post about marijuana, and then the Great Gherkin gets upset because not only do I weigh in; but so do other people, many of which do not see the awesome truth that all pot smokers are also violent ax murderers. Calling it a digression--a ploy to derail the many fine and excellent posts about magic occurring in their private FB group--they proudly say that it is better for everyone to have a gun, many guns, that many, many guns will prevent mass murders while pot makes people violent and unsuitable for spiritual advancement.

(Yes, that was the whole point of tagging me--to try to make me wake up to the fact that my ax murdering tendencies would totally be solved by giving me and everyone around me lots of bullets and firearms.--and that pot only made my ax murdering ways worse.)

In a fit of righteous, the Great Gherkin decided that my response ("No, you are wrong about pot making people violent") was just another point to justify kicking me out of their super and most excellent FB group. While it was not the final straw that broke the camel's back, that would have been my position on the definition of black magic (a position that they too shared a couple of days after kicking me out of paradise), they still bitterly talk about me as that Stinky Liberal Communist Leaning Pot Smoking Hippie Who Does Not Know the First Thing About Wicca and Golden Dawn Magic Despite Having Been in the System Practicing For Far Longer Than They Have...that label might need a trademark to ensure that it is only used by the right people to label the wrong people to listen to.

(In the meantime, I am barely able to prepare dinner while under the influence of sufficient amounts of THC, not alone the violent mass murders that I am supposed to be doing as a pot smoker.)

Interestingly enough, just a couple of weeks after kicking me out of their super duper greatest FB occult chat group ever, the Great Gherkin was one hundred percent in favor of legalizing marijuana, and was "the first occultist in the community to do so, having supported marijuana for years and years before anyone else did."

So why the change? Let's assume that it has nothing to do with the fact that large parts of the esoteric community actually support the legalizing of marijuana and that...

Okay, I have nothing here. If it is not jumping on the bandwagon to seem progressive and in tune with today's occult community, in order to keep collecting that sweet, sweet membership money, I have no clue. What I do know is that I have screenshots available for purchase in the kiosk that totally proves that someone was against pot, that they did not like my support of pot, and that they changed their tune after seeing that their potential membership pool had more than a few pot supporters in it.

Which they should have known already.

Having attended my fair share of classes held at occult shops, having attended my fair share of drum circles, having talked to my fair share of occultists, I have been aware of the fact that many occultists and witches smoke pot. In fact, I have heard stories that some of the biggest names in occultism, who scream that the pot is evil, have actually gone on drug benders which they and their trusted lieutenants have covered up. And I am not talking about just one person--no, this seems to be a pattern among many occult leaders who scream that the pot is bad.

Now, there are many in the occult community who are against all mind-altering drugs, including actual medicines prescribed by doctors. There are some who believe that I should not be allowed to take bipolar drugs while being a member of the occult community, not alone being allowed to take the edge off of my Inner Ax Murderer with the Wacky Weed.

But the most interesting part is watching the Big Name Occultist first banning all pot use, embracing it in the name of freedom, and then watching them going back again to condemning it after Jeffrey the Elf and the bestest President ever declared that we are going back to the successful "If you are caught with any pot at all, you will be in jail for the rest of your life" war on dangerous drugs.

(Please note that the Great Gherkin totally argues that any disagreement with the President at all makes you a traitor to the United States, one who should be hang by the neck until dead like the filthy liberal that you are.)

I am sorry, but if you can't make up your mind about the dangers of pot, I am just going to suspect that your current level of support is based not on your own opinions, but rather what you think your membership wants to hear--and that your changing opinion is more about being able to claim to be one of the people while taking the people to the cleaners.

As for myself, have I mentioned that magical pot laced cookies have sufficiently decreased the odds of me murdering you with an ax?

Happy National If You See Morgan About to Commit an Ax Murder, Please Give Him a Magical Cookie Day!

{Updated at 5:16 pm on 4/20/18: Changed "subscribed by doctors" to "prescribed by doctors"--thanks Jack Flash for catching that mistake.} 

Remember if you see Morgan acting like an ax murderer, give him a pot laced cookie. 

Want to see more stuff like this, consider encouraging me by buying a ECS script or two from me.

Here is a link to my Patreon page (show your support and sponsor me with a monthly donation.) 

Correct political thought does not equal magical skill and ability (and vice versa)

On any given day, you can find some self-declared Big Name Occultist (or Magician, or Witch, or Shaman, or Mystic, or...I could go on for hours) loudly proclaiming that some respected or better known occultist said something that is politically wrong, and therefore is a Offender. This is followed by the BNO's own beloved supporters declaring that they will never buy another book by said Offender, will defriend them on Facebook, defollow them on other social media sites, and leave any forums moderated by such an evil Offender. And this is how it should be because the Offender cannot be a real occultist if they hold such erroneous political views.

How a numpty thinks Adeptship works vs the harsh reality.

Quite simply, there are some numpties that believe that Adeptship (or their tradition equivalent) means that one has the correct political views, is of the correct religion and virtue, and has a certain level of perceived magical skill (which can range from none at all to being able to raise the dead) that is always heavily advertised by those who have it.

In other words, as far as the Numpty is concerned, Adepts think exactly like they do. And that Adepts will give them cookies for being as brilliant as the Adepts are (if not fall over themselves bowing down to the Numpty's superior wisdom--for all numpties know that they are the most advanced magician and mystic in the world).

It is just too bad that it is easy to fake all three requirements if you are a sociopath. Just like voters fall for politicians who are not anything like they claim to be, numpties fall for and support occultists who are faking their political beliefs (or at least radically relabeling them for public consumption), would not know the mysteries of religion if they got bit in the butt by one, have vastly overstated their magical ability and knowledge, and have all the virtues of a Mars bar without all the tasty sugar.

Numpties prefer to have Adepts defined by these requirements, mainly because they themselves might be able to claim Adeptship someday if they only have to master their talking points, parroting the "correct" answers that their own future followers will go ape over.

Never mind the fact that there are some a**h***s who believe that Adeptship is rooted in actual initiationary experiences (such as actually undergoing the initiation rituals), arcane lore, and at least enough magical ability to hex one's way out of a wet paper bag. The opinions of a**h***s don't count, only the howling of the courageous wolves of occultism, who should never be mistaken for sheep, not alone the lemmings that the more dubious occult leaders treat them as.

Remember that real Adepts think exactly as you think they should.

Big Name Occultists would not be so upset about the Offenders, if they would only shut the f**k up and quit breathing. And the numpties would not be so upset if they did not desire one day to lead their own horde of lemmings. Because if there is one thing that an Offender is good at, it is not recognizing the true occult geniuses in their midst.

This lack of recognition is why Big Name Occultists have to tell you all the evil stuff that Offenders do, such as misreading the Bill of Rights, voting for the wrong politician, believing that sexual offenders have no place in the esoteric Orders (or politics for that matter) and deserve a good binding.

If the Big Name Occultists don't do this, the Numpty might accidentally start believing the other falsehoods that such Offenders spread, such as: pointing out that certain parties did not actually undergo the initiation rituals of their tradition, only know the mysteries of using a photocopier and bovine end-product generators, and quite frankly could not hex their way out of a wet paper bag if they had to.

If the Offenders were true occultists, they would totally agree with everything that the Big Name Occultist did. Sue your competition into extinction--fine. Rebel and claim that your teacher had no ethics (or rather the wrong ones)--excellent. Make up a totally bogus lineage and set of teachings--good god man, I must have some of that; take my money please!!!

Annoy someone important--buy this banned by BNO book.

The evil of Offenders is so dangerous that if the numpties don't scream bloody murder on their own, the Big Name Occultists would have to create lists of banned books, magazines, blogs, podcasts, videos, and websites that their followers are not allowed to read. And you can tell that the Big Name Occultist is protecting you because hey, if the Offender can't get their political ideas and religious beliefs in order, how could they possible know anything about the occult?

Or you could just presume that you already know everything.

And numpties are quite happy with this, for they know that they already know everything. There is nothing that an Offender can teach them. In fact, the only reason that the Numpty puts up with the Big Name Occultist is that they recognize the greatness of the the Numpty.

I am not saying this is why the occult world can't have nice things...

Now, I can hear you say, "Dear Uncle Morgan, you express political ideas all the time; surely you think people should agree with you."

Yeah, but they don't--that is why I have to keep repeating myself. Besides occasionally I am wrong about politics...because my magical skill and ability and evil magical lore gives me the exact level of knowledge about politics as it does about gasoline engines; in other words, none at all. Everything I know about politics came from watching my parents volunteer and canvas for political candidates and listening to my dad's comments about what we heard on talk show radio on long trips. That and watching Nixon announce that he was resigning (sad when your first memory of a President is of the forty-fourth worst President)...which made me believe that all politicians are corrupt in one fashion or another. And reading and watching stuff about politics. I had to work hard to know as little as I do about politics unlike Big Name Occultists who get a completely perfect and correct set of political and religious ideas in the same Cracker Jack box that they received their Grade of Most Advanced Occultist Ever from. 

Just like you should not judge my magical ability based on my politics, you should not judge my politics on how much I have suffered in the name of magic and the mysteries. I would still be a nasty evil witch even if I agreed with your political and religious opinions.

Besides I wanted to make a living as a newspaper columnist--but somehow ended up making jokes about occultists instead. (Honestly, I have no idea how it happened--one day, I realized that I had spent an hour comparing a Big Name Occultist to a novelty condom and was too lazy to hit Delete.) You wouldn't deny me my dreams, would you? If Emma Bombeck could make jokes about suburban life and raising a family and still have political opinions,  why can't I make jokes about the esoteric traditions and the strange people that I encounter while pursing the mysteries and still have political opinions? It is not like I am asking to be the Head of your esoteric tradition...that would be the job of your favorite Big Name Occultist--all I am asking is to do is to be allowed to tell funny stories, to convince you to care enough about politics to get involved and at least vote, and teach you to be suspicious of anyone who claims to be the True Head of All of the Mysteries and Esoteric Traditions.

Obligatory apology about how we are misjudging you for the Numpty that you ain't.

Of course, it should be noted that I am on a few Banned lists. Because of my politics? Because I think numpties can learn? Because I mock Big Name Occultists and their traditions? Who knows?

And as such, I should be apologizing for my Offending Ways. Not that I am good at apologizes. The last one I write read something like this:

"On the behalf of the group, I would like to apologize for not recognizing that you are the most important person in the world. You see, we are bitter old hags who had to work hard for the little bit of recognition that we have received. We were not allowed to walk in with a sweet a** story, and declare ourselves the most important person in the world. No, we had to kill someone, and help someone else hide a body or two. This makes us happy little cynics. So when you walk in with your special snowflakish, all we want to flush your various body parts down a toilet. It is nothing personal--it is just how the world works. As a sign of apology, let me buy you a drink of poison."

Now imagine that I am apologizing for my wrong political and religious ideas.

Do you feel better?

No.

Well, I guess you are going to have to agree with your Fearless Leader and fire me as an occult authority.

Remember that you have to think exactly like your Fearless Leader if you want to become an Adept.

Why I blog about politics and other distasteful stuff (why should those people have all the fun)

One of the questions I occasionally get asked is: "Why do you blog so much about politics and other distasteful things? Shouldn't you be focused on magic and whatnot? Or at least, satire and humor? After all, that is what you claim this blog is about."


And I would focus on humor and the occult if only certain other occult authorities would shut up about politics and whatnot, and focus solely on magic and the occult instead.


Unfortunately, these other occult authorities insist on preaching that everyone needs a gun, that Hillary Clinton should be shot as a traitor, that the news media needs to be put under government control, that Muslims should be put into concentration camps, that global warming is a Chinese hoax, that chem-trails are real, that free trade agreements are bad, that all immigrants are evil criminals, that you are not allowed to protest the actions taken by your government, that there are some nice people who just happen to also be Neo-Nazis, that there is an evil conspiracy of black magicians controlling the parts of the government that they disagree with, and that President Donald "Jesus" Trump is the greatest President ever.


If these dozen or so Big Name Occultists, all who claim that they speak for (and lead) the entire esoteric occult community, would shut up, I would be inclined to restrict my political commentary to my satires. But they won't, so either will I.


In fact, they believe that because they are the Heads of Great Traditions Going Back To The Stone Age And The Garden Of Eden, that not only are their opinions right, but that everyone who studies under them, and who comments on their pages, blogs, and groups, should be forced to think and believe exactly like they do.


If you think that I am wrong, just tell one of them in one of their forums that they are wrong--and see how quickly you get banned and expelled from their Holiest of Groups for disagreeing with their political opinions.


Quite honestly, I don't want you to think that they speak for all of us. Or at least, I don't want you to think that they speak for me.


So until they shut up about such matters, either will I.

I blog about politics because I disagree with the opinions of others.

Chaos magicians say VERB Trump and his magical defender

This has been a "I know better than read anything about the bestest ever Golden Dawn leader, ascension coach, and super sexy David Griffin" type of week--and yes, the writing has suffered for it. Yes, I wasted more hours than I am willing to admit to, watching the flaming dumpster fire that erupted after a bit of fair and balanced news reporting on how the valiant and most pure patriotic defender of American freedom, David Griffin, was laying down his life to protect the 45th and final President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

(I know that it was fair reporting because Griffin, himself, said it was fair and balanced.)

This blog proudly supported by MasterWitch--apply today.

I am not sure exactly where the dumpster fire started. Maybe it was on Watchers of the Dawn. Or maybe it was in Griffin's own comment section. Or maybe it was when people on Facebook said, "Your wife did what? Are both of you sociopaths? Why would you think that it was a good idea to tell us that your [fruit] [verb+ed] your [vegetable]?!?"

Whenever it started, there was plenty of angry commenters.

On one side was those who admire--like--nay, love, that sexy man that lost the popular vote by three and a half million, President Donald J. Trump. Included in this group were those people who think that David Griffin is the greatest occult teacher and leader of all time--because Griffin told them that if you love America, you have to side with his political opinions. 

On the other side were the animal lovers who would sacrifice their own lives for their pets, those who think that President Trump cares about nothing except his ego and funneling millions of government dollars into his family business, and those who think that Griffin might be mentally ill.

So we tossing out the Constitution, so that you and buddies can burn witches...

Ok, maybe Griffin is not mentally ill, but he is still the same [relative] of [canine] that we all learned to know and love during the twenty years of "If I, David Griffin, cannot turn the Golden Dawn into my exclusive cash cow, then I will burn its reputation to the ground, so that no one can have it after I die" tactics.

The first sign I saw that Griffin was going to use this situation to bludgeon his enemies was when he made the following comment to the witches and magicians who seek to BIND (not kill) President Trump, so that Trump does the least amount of harm possible to...well, everyone he considers a loser (basically everyone who makes less than a hundred million a year--which includes 99.99% of the people who voted for him):

"It is really astonishing to me how those out of work, overweight, bottom feeders cowering behind their computers in their daddy's basements, really thought that they could magically attack the American people, depose a President, and destroy democracy in America unopposed.

"Really?!?!

"And you didn't think that there were any Magicians better than your sorry asses who love and defend this country? Think again scumbags!

"If this little Civil War YOU IDIOTS have been magically starting for months actually does go HOT--well--let's just say that there will be nowhere left for you to hide."

[And brace yourself, here's the most disturbing part...]

"We will find you no matter what pit you try to crawl into. We will drag you out of your daddy's basement and into a court of law to be tried by a jury of your peers to be hanged by the neck until dead as the traitors you are."

Ever look at someone and think, "Why has no one hit you with a shovel yet?"

At this point, I realized a horrible truth--David Griffin wants to kill witches and magicians who disagree with his political positions.

Forget Freedom of the Press, Freedom of Speech, and Freedom of Religion--if you disagree with Griffin's position of "Trump can do whatever he wants because he is the bloody President," then you are a traitor, and deserve to die.

Please note that the real crime here is that you are a LIBERAL. This is the same man that talked about how gun owners were going to descend upon Washington D.C. and forcibly remove Hillary Clinton from office--and he APPROVED of deposing a President if it turned out to be Hillary Clinton.

He can try to clothe it all he wants as PRINCIPLE--the truth of the matter is that he believes that liberals are all traitors--and he wants to see liberals removed from having the political franchise (no more liberals voting, no more liberals in journalism, no more liberals holding political office).

It is hard to respect a man who has double standards like this.

(It should be noted that I don't see the Magical Resistance trying to start a civil war--for pete's sake--it is a BINDING spell to LIMIT HARM!)

Let me tell you a joke--David Griffin walks into an Order...

Turns out that wasn't the best part.

After watching angry and cynic comments pile up against him, Griffin declared that Nick Farrell, current owner of Watcher of the Dawn, had to be an intelligence agent (a f***ing spy!) because he wasn't censoring the negative comments that people were making about Griffin.

And he went on and on about this for over fifty comments--it was like the good old days of the Golden Dawn flame wars.

For those who did not experience the wonderfulness of Griffin during the flame wars, the game was played like this.

First, Griffin claims to be the most wonderful and understanding person in the world. Plus as an added bonus, he is the most advanced magician and witch to ever walk the face of the Earth. You should be so lucky to have Griffin as your friend and teacher.

Then he plays nice with one of his critics (or business rivals---because like it or not, Griffin wants to make money doing Golden Dawn). When the critic is dumb enough to say, "Nice day, isn't it?" or something else equally non-offensive, Griffin then proceeds to insult and accuse them of selling people into slavery on the behalf of a plot by black magicians hellbent on enslaving humanity, and attacking him--humanity's best hope for spiritual ascension and enlightenment.

To prove that you are not a servant of evil, you must do him a small favor, like admitting that you are the servant of an evil conspiracy to destroy both Griffin and humanity, or giving him complete control of something that you own (like an entire website). Oh, you will still own it, but he will decide what you can do with it. Basically, you have to undermine his critics, crush all negative comments about him, acknowledge him as your superior, and generally kiss his a**.

Having seen this power play more than once, I have drawn some conclusions:

1) Griffin might be delusional, either though mental illness or a drug induced sanity blowout.
2) Griffin has no clue how non-brainwashed people act and respond.
3) Griffin only cares about his wallet and feeding his ego.
4) If I wanted to put up with nonsense like this, I would go visit my mother.

Oh man! Someone thought of the same nasty trick that I did.

But it gets better.

When I read the original post that Farrell reported on, I noticed that amidst the patriotic "I was born before the Vietnam war ended" good solider laying down his life to protect the only chance that 'Murica has to be great again, was the revelation that Griffin and his wife turned themselves into lightning rods, so that the First Family could live free of any restriction and continue to abuse America for their own monetary and egotistical gain.

And the first thought though my mind was: "Hey, that means that I could target both Trump and Griffin at the same time."

Yes, I know--that was an evil thought. After all, they are both so well loved. It is not like anyone would think that they are both rude and self-serving.

Unless they are evil chaos magicians, that is.

Lo and behold, some chaos magicians actually (all on their own, no prompting) came up with the same idea. So this month, around the date of the next Trump Global Binding Ritual (July 21st), you will see pictures not only of Trump being struck by a Blasted Tower sigil, you will also see pictures of Griffin being sigiled up as a lightning rod. These pictures are sure to be obscene because of how chaos magicians typically choose to charge their sigils (if you don't know--don't google it--remain an innocent virgin, unviolated by chaos magic). 

And for me, it is not that I have anything against Griffin and Trump, outside of their need to have no one challenge their fragile egos and atomic vacuum powered wallets--it is more of the principle that if you don't play nice with others, if you are ok with harming others (because they are not good conservatives, or they not "winners!"), that if you look forward tossing out parts of the Constitution, and then killing witches and magicians because they do not believe in the same stuff you do, then you need to be bound so that you can't do any more harm.    

Let the lightning rods do their work to protect someone who might be even worse than Nixon.

Are you an evil witch or magician who thinks that Trump, and his loyal magical defender, like hurting people in the name of puffing up their egos and bank accounts? Consider taking part in the global monthly waning crescent moon ritual to bind the actions of President Donald J. Trump.

For full text of Global Binding Ritual of Trump, click here. 

Dates for future Global Bind Donald J. Trump rituals 

[Asterisked * dates are slightly moved from the last quarter crescent moon to occur on significant dates.]

2017

July 21; August 19; September 18; October 17; November 16; December 16

For a full list of future Bind Trump dates, click here.

A magical sigil being used by some to bind Trump.

Lineage dost not make an elder

The other day, during my monthly Trump rage, while reminding people of the global Bind Trump ritual, I was called out onto the mat by one of occultism’s self-proclaimed Big Names, who declared that people like myself were destroying the work of decades by Wiccan Elders to convince Christians that Wiccans are not Satanists. Needless to say, I did not take kindly to the lecture, especially given the implication that the lecturer considers themselves a Wiccan Elder—the fact that they called me Forest Gump didn’t endear me to them either.

What makes this person a Wiccan Elder? Is it their long experience with Wicca? No, I would not call seven years of experience worthy of the label of Elder. No, what makes this person believe that they are a Wiccan Elder, and a leader of the Craft is the simple fact that they were initiated by someone who was initiated directly by Alex and Maxine Sanders, the founders of Alexandrian Wicca. Likewise, this Big Name is now referring to his wife as “Witch Queen.” Again, the only justification is that they claim a superior lineage to the rabble, a claim of initiation that some Alexandrians doubt happened.

In my case, I do believe that an initiation did happen. But I believe that it was the old game of “I will give you a degree, if you give me one.” In this case, it appears that a Golden Dawn initiation (an Inner Order one) was given for a Wiccan initiation. It should be noted that I actually doubt that they are just two steps away from the Sanders. Nevertheless, even if they are telling the truth, I do not believe that they deserve the respect they are demanding from others.

This is not the first time that they have played the superior lineage card. For years, this Big Name has claimed to be the best leader in Golden Dawn, for his contact with the Secret Chiefs of the tradition—uber-humans who only he is enlightened enough to be in contact with. And seven years ago, they claimed contact with a uber-secret branch of Italian witchcraft. Two years ago, they received their uber-special Alexandrian initiation.

They are not the only ones who try to play the superior lineage card. One cannot throw a stone without hitting someone who has been personally picked by the gods to lead mankind to a glorious new age, or a witch who is descended from the many witches who were burned in Salem. Mankind is awash with people with better lineages, better contacts, superior wisdom, and better personalities than the rest of us, the unwashed rabble who should fall behind them in adoration.

Unfortunately, the esoteric world has far too many people like myself, who could care less about your superior bloodline, your superior lineage, and you having been kissed by the gods.

No, my Elders are those who have served for years without having to trot out a superior lineage. Morning Glory, former owner of Herbs and Arts, who provided a place for witches to meet and hold classes, she is an Elder in my book. Cassandra Ravenwolf, who taught herb classes, answered my silly questions, and provided a place for the community to meet, she is an Elder in my book. Alia Deny, who has helped introduce many people to the community, with decades of service under her belt, she is an Elder in my book. My Elders have served for decades, and have never asked me to automatically give them respect just because their lineages were better than mine.

And while I will never be an Elder, despite having written about Wicca and witchcraft for twenty-five years, I refuse to respect someone whose only claim to being an Elder is that they have a better lineage than I do. (The exact reason why I am automatically disqualified for Elder status is that no one realizes exactly how long I have been involved in the community, how old I really am, and most importantly, I keep saying things that no proper Elder would dream of saying—the community has voted, and I am exempt from all such duties, thanks to the filthy words that keep coming out of my mouth.) No, only actual service to the community, and acknowledgement by the community that you are doing good work, counts towards being an Elder in my book.

So those people who believe that I should kiss the hem of their robe, due to their uber-specialness, can go wash their heads in a bucket while I continue to be (as this great leader said) the Forest Gump of occultism. After all, I know my place in the scheme of things—I am here to annoy those who seek to be Elders without possessing any actual merit, and expect instant elevation to chief wombat. It is not a nice job, but someone has to do it.

[Author’s note: This column was started previous to the death of Alia, president of the Hearthstone Community Church; she will be missed by all of us in the community that knew and loved her.]

Things that you might get expelled from an Order for (or Petition your fearless leader to get rid of these evil people)

This post was inspired by an exchange on Facebook which lead me to think of all the silly things that I have seen (or heard) that got members (initiates) expelled from lodges, Orders, covens, and traditions over the years.

There are some things that should get one banned from an occult group, such as being a serial ax murderer or being a sexual creeper or being the seller of pyramid schemes, things that no one in their right mind would agree is acceptable behavior--yet often are allowed by the leaders of occultism when it is done by themselves or their favorite students.

To balance off the lack of expulsion of the expel-worthy, what the occult community actually gets is expulsions over stuff that probably shouldn't be expel-worthy offenses, but totally are if the leadership takes a dislike to you...which tends to make one believe that certain occult leaders are only interested in their own egos, money! money! money! and sexual conquests.

But never fear, expulsions are always done for the "good of the tradition" and the "lesson that they will provide to the former member." Remember believing otherwise is an expel-worthy offense. Remember that the fearless leader does not want to do this, but the Secret Chiefs of the tradition have spoken.

In no particular order, you might get expelled from an occult group if you...

...disagree with the leader's politics.

[Therefore, my socialist tendencies (called communism by those who are enlightened) should get me kicked out of the Golden Dawn tradition by those noble leaders who embrace the true political faith of the Freedom Initiative Republicans (formerly known as Teaparty Republicans).]

...are a writer.

[True story, I was a member of a "Golden Dawn" Order, and was good to go for the next initiation three months before, two months before, one month before...and then totally unacceptable for the next initiation two weeks before. I was told that I had developed "ego issues" and was told not to come back until I fixed them. So what were the ego issues? Oh, the leader had learned that I was a writer who eventually wanted to write about the occult.]

...complain about the antics of "trusted officers."

[True story, an whole bunch of European initiates got expelled from one group when they complained that they did not want a convicted sex offender to be one of their officers. Guess who was kept as a member.]

...being a "black magician."

[Which much means that you can be thrown out for any magic that you do, including healing puppies.]

...refusing to expel someone.

[Oh yes, Order officers can be expelled if they do not expel the people that the Chief of an Order tells them to.]

...turn down an sexual advancement.

[Sorry, if you want to remain a member, you have to have sex with Supreme Imperator Pussy Grabber Midas--it was why we taught you about blindfolds in Neophyte.]

...get asked questions about occult matters in front of the group's leader.

[Because the Secret Chiefs say that your fearless leader is to be the membership's sole source of occult wisdom and knowledge. It is one thing to assign work to their aides, who are 100% loyal to them and the Secret Chiefs, but to allow an ordinary member to expound upon mysteries is simply evil.]

...fermenting rebellion.

[I told you not to criticize the leadership, or let them know that you can hex your way out of a wet paper bag, or know more than they do. Never insist that their vices outweigh their virtues. And never show any sign of leadership or organization talent.]

...refusing to shell out for additional contributions.

[By keeping your money in your wallet, you prove that you are evil and do not care about the welfare of the planet and its people who are being served by the greatest of servants, your noble and highly graded fearless leader.]

...talking to former members of the tradition.

[After all, expelled members always lie about why they were expelled.]

 ...learn the true lineage of your fearless leader. especially if you dirty your tongue telling other people about it.

[Remember that claims that some people conjured a Goetia spirit who told them that they were a Magus (9=2), or other people never underwent a single Outer Order initiation before conning their way into Adeptus Minor, or who have made up invisible people, or simply photocopied the material of other authorities and tradition, are completely and utterly false lies spread by those who envy their brilliance. Your fearless leader really did make contact with the one true tradition and its guardians who promptly decided that they were the greatest occultist ever and the only person that they would ever speak to.]

...disagree with your fearless leader's favorite conspiracy theory.

[Even if you were at the event, and remember it completely differently, you are wrong--or worse, a paid troll and traitor to humanity.]

...taking medication.

[Taking medication for physical ailments proves that you are unworthy of the hidden wisdom of the tradition. Taking medication for mental issues just proves that you are a dangerous psychopath that is going to kill everyone.]

...ask too many questions.

[Remember that your leader can only give you information by the spoonful because if you saw the whole system all at once, your head would explode.]

...being a spy.

[Of course, a spy will say that they are not a spy.]

...belonging to a forbidden society, political party, church, or religion. 

[This is sure proof that the darkness and evil of the world is out to destroy their group--after all, they sent you to wreck havoc with your trollish ways.]

...speaking positively about their rivals.

[You forgot that their rivals have never done anything worthy of compliment. The only occult leader who ever done anything positive is your own fearless leader.]

...laughed at this blog post.

[Because this post was nothing but pure vicious lies told by a paid CIA troll to help destory their group once and for all.]

Satire--making jokes about things that actually happened, but not quite in the manner that you told the story...because if you actually told the story exactly the way it really occurred, no one would actually believe that it was the truth.

So what inspired this post? A joke that my commie political opinions would be enough to get me tossed out of the Golden Dawn tradition if certain GD leaders could actually expel me from the tradition (they can't because I am not a member of their downline). 

First, I painted all Republicans as evil.

Tax the rich, and give poor people free healthcare.

And that means that I am a communist and should be banned from GD, right?

And people took this seriously, believing that certain parties were going to expel for my political positions....which tell you that this type of behavior is actually occurring in some occult groups.

Gender-neutral pronouns (because the SJW insist that we need them)

The other day on Facebook, one of my friends (well, a FB friend--some of them count as friends, right?) posted a link about an article talking about how SJW (social justice warriors, or social justice fanatics, or social justice zealots, or social justice m*****f***ers) were upset with a Bernie Sander's loss, and were blaming it on Elizabeth Warren, claiming that the loss was caused by her not being progressive enough.

And the lot of us was talking about how political movements keep getting highjacked by SJW. And it does happen. And sometimes in the strangest places. I once saw an artists co-op be hijacked by the SJW.

(True fucking story: Business meeting, planning for an event, and suddenly we have three hours burned up by SJW trying to figure out how not to offend people. And all the while, me and one of my artist friends are sitting there rolling our eyes--because the quickest way to become famous as an artist in the good ol' USA is to offend people. And someday, I plan on doing exactly that.)

Anyways, so the lot of us on Facebook are exchanging stories. Including stories about how the Occupy movement short-circuited because everyone and their mother insisted on including their pet issue, instead of focusing on a single issue.

Then (true to form) some SJW starts to chew various people out in the thread for not caring enough about one of their pet issues. In this case, it was all about trans-gender issues, including bitching about why no occult Order has ever decided to use gender-neutral pronouns.

Any occult authority when faced with hordes of SJW. 

I will admit that I gave a tiny little scream. After a couple of witty comments about how burning people at the stake was probably wrong, I remarked that I was off to write this blog post, and the SJW said, "Go on, have the last word. It is obvious that it is important to you." And then the SJW continued to harass else everyone in the thread.

(For the record, I got side-tracked--obviously I care, but not enough to write this post in a timely manner.)

Now, exactly what the fuck is a gender-neutral pronoun? It is a way to refer to someone without assigning gender to them. And it is only a problem for languages like English that has gendered pronouns (ex. he, she); there are many languages where all the pronouns are gender-neutral already....presumably SJW has other things to complain about these languages (because SJW are always raging about something).

As many of you know, one of my damn bachelor degrees is in Literature (because...because I am a complete idiot as the SJW crowd will point out). Up until 1960s, style books were listed "he" (and its siblings) as a non-gendered pronoun. Yes, that's right; "he" is non-gendered. (That's chanting you hear is the SJW crowd getting out torches and pitchforks.)

I am aware of non-gendered pronouns. Left to my own devices....well, honestly, I would just continue writing the same damn way that I have been writing---using those damn gendered pronouns. If I was forced to use non-gendered pronouns, I would use "one" and "they"---and "it" if I was in a mood.

By the way, according to the SJW crowd, this is not good enough.

There is also the little fact that I think using "Lord" in a non-gendered way to refer to various entities that rule over various types of operations is completely all right (while completely ignoring the fact that some of these entities have gender [bad Morgan], and some are even beyond gender [bad, bad Morgan].

No, no no. According to the SJW magicians, using "Lord" is wrong. Period. End of discussion. And refering to the general population of magicians and witches, using either "he" or "she" or even "they" is also wrong...because some humans are beyond gender, or trans-gender, or.... [Let me be honest, I get confused by the terms "cis" and "trans"---which makes me a very bad Morgan.]

And yes, I am aware of "ze" and "zhe" and other terms....but I really can't tell you which of them are actually trans-gender, and which are non-gendered, and all that jazz.

More fucking pronouns than I actually need. 

And not for the lack of people in college telling me that these terms are better. Of course, I might have been one of those people who thought that the idea of re-writing Shakespeare for a non-gender/trans-gender audience was just plain silly (I mean gender is part of those stories in their original historical context, right?). [Honestly, this argument is put forth by some Literature students--all of which I believe are pricks and/or cunts.]

At this point, those SJW, who are all about fixing the way society looks at gender, want to take away my Writer Union card (though being an erotic writer is grounds enough for the SJW to want me to quit writing the way that I write), my Adeptship (because if I can't figure a politically correct and gender-less way to say "Lord", it means that I am not really an Adept), and my university degrees (because I am not liberal and progressive enough to have actually earned two bachelor degrees).

And damn it, NO, NO, NO, I am not going to learn to write stuff in a gender-less SJW way. First, it feels damn artificial to me. Second, that is not my voice or viewpoint. Third, some of the mysteries are about polarity and gender. Fourth, not only do I have to learn to write that way, but the readers would have to learn to be able to read that stuff (have you tried to train readers to read odd stuff---it is harder than it looks). Fifth, fuck you SJW!!!

Let's be honest, no Order is going to work that hard. AMORC at one point promoted Esperanto as an universal and preferred language for initiates. And how well did that project go? Well, do you know anyone who speaks Esperanto? Anyone? Me neither.

And if I was to write in a trans-universal language style, it would end up sounding something like Cityspeak from Blade Runner (Cityspeak was a wide mixture of Spanish, French, German, Hungarian, Chinese, and Japanese)---though my version would probably have a little Yiddish, Hebrew, and Ancient Egyptian tossed in. But the SJW would declare that not good enough because...because, damn it, I am not trying hard enough to jump though the Social Justice Warrior hoops, and I am a white guy living in reasonable safe neighborhood.

Just screw you SJW, I am not writing that way. And yes, I know, I will be one of the first ones against the wall when the SJW revolution comes because I am evil for using gendered pronouns. Then again, I assume that everyone is going to placed against the wall at some point because as far as the SJW is concerned, we are all social justice sinners, heretics, and traitors.

Occult fiction of David Griffin (hashtag blackmagicianlivesmatter)

Occasionally, people ask me if I read occult fiction, and the answer is yes. Then they ask me who is my favorite occult fiction writer, and I typically name some unknown writer because that is who I am. But I will admit that there is one occult fiction writer that I follow with great interest...

...and that is David Griffin.

You can't beat David Griffin when it comes to surreal satire of Big Name Magicians, Big Name Witches, Big Name Pagans, and Big Name Occult Orders.

Take for instance, his current work in progress #blackmagicianslivesmatter

Griffin is not trying to start a civil war...

A few days ago, Griffin posted a link to advertise his satrically named Occult News Network mailing list and Facebook page. Then he proceeded to share it with a hundred different Facebook groups, just the way that we see people hawk their expensive seminars, webinars, and badly researched and formatted books.

Some of these "ads" ended up in various Chaos Magic groups, a couple of which who did not take lightly to being spammed (they were ignorant that this is a performance piece of art) and they booted Girffin from their groups.

And then Griffin, the master story teller that he is, weaved this booting into his long running series "Hordes of black magicians are coming to enslave you using puppies and bacon."

Here Griffin introduces the villian--a black magician pretending to be a chaos magician.

Something, something dark side; let me save you. 

And here is your hook to popular culture, a common tactic of the snake oil salesman. 

And this story has it all: black magicians drunk with power, pretending to be harmless chaos magicians; civil war; race issues; a master magician armed with the sword of knowledge determined to free mankind from enslavement from black magicians.

Now, for those of you who missed the earlier installments of this comedy, Griffin started writing this a couple of years ago when he invited E. A. Koetting to his famous Magickall event. Just like in this case, he argued that the magical community, Golden Dawn in particular, was racist for protesting that his performance piece was unacceptable (basically, the Golden Dawn community missed the satire and irony of inviting a "black magician" to an event sponsored by an organization that traditionally swears to have nothing to do with "black magic"). How was it racist? Well, just substitute "negro" for "black" and you will see that Golden Dawn is racist, just like the secret black magician pretending to be a chaos magician is in the latest chapter of this story.

Anyways, at Magickall, E. A. Koetting did a long lecture, and both EAK and Griffin wrestled with one another (just like Grave Digger and Hawk Hogan used to do).



This wrestling match was met with such a roaring success that both Koetting and Griffin promptly declared each other arch-enemies; Koetting blaming Griffin for his arrest; and Griffin blaming Koetting for the vast army of soulless black magicians who assassinated Kennedy, created chem-trails and GMOs, and who now control the entire economic and political system of the world.

Now, the best part of this is the ongoing series "Hordes of black magicians are coming to enslave you using sex magic and demons, lots and lots of sexy demons" is how Griffin has crowd-sourced the creation of a mythical war between white magicians and black magicians, a war that will allow the hero (a mighty occult knight who is the embodiment of King Arthur and Merlin MacGregor) to save us all.

Yes, you too can help Griffin create and write this great saga by using the hashtag #blackmagicianslivesmatter (which will get great attention because it proves that your average magician is racist--yes, Fox News will pick up this story because of the outrage that the black community will have to have for the idea---for one, there is the black react to magic in general [see The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore for details], and there is the totally true fact that police forces of the world are just chock-full of black magicians using wands that shoot out steel balls to eliminate anyone who suspects their slavery to this evil cabal).

That's right, you can post a link to a chem-trail article, or a Fox News report, or a video of President-for-Life Trump shooting a puppy, or Sauda Arabia burning a witch, blame it on black magicians (using the hashtag #blackmagicianslivesmatter), and help create a real civil war between white magicians and black magicians, so that the hero (who will be played ny the greatest actor in the world, the ever sexy David Griffin) can swoop in and save the world.

This story needs to be told, so get to using that hashtag:  #blackmagicianslivesmatter

[As a sidenote, one must boo the horrible response so far. EAK and his pet chaos and black magicians have done absolutely nothing yet with the hashtag #blackmagicianslivesmatter. There was only one mention of it on twitter, and three mentions of it on Facebook (one being a question in a secret group asking if anyone was using it yet; the other two was Griffin telling people to use it).]

Twitter results previous to this blog post. 

Facebook results previous to this blog post. 

[Furthermore, one must boo the audience of this performance piece who obviously are not sosphicated enough to understand the art of satire, and are treating this story as if Griffin is just a big liar trying to drum up business. Please respond as if the story Griffin is telling is true, and it will make it a better piece of entertainment for all of us fans of this series.]

It is the right of the story teller to create a mythology. 

Satire, people, satire--do not mistake satire for ad spam. 

Vote for your favorite occultists

Ever want to see your favorite occultist get an award?

Well, here is your chance.

Until December 23, 2015, you can email your choice for the following categories to 7thphoenix@gmail.com

Among the catergories are:

Best work on demonology/necromancy
Best male occult author non-fiction
Best male occult author Fiction
Best female occult author non-fiction
Best female occult author fiction
Best anthology
Best overall occult book 1970-2015
Best occult podcast
Best occult course
Best occult research work
Lifetime occult contribution achievement award

And you can add other categories. I suggest that you add "Best occult blog" and then nominate this here blog.

Yeah, I know. There are a billion better occult blogs than mine. But you can't fault me for dreaming, can you?

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.

How to start a GD argument

On this week's episode of Star Wrecked--the Next Face Palm.

Bored? Have a bowl of fresh buttery popcorn? And a six pack of micro-brews? Ready to amuse yourself with a fight? Grab your dice (3d6), roll them, and use the result from the following table as your initial sentence to start a fight in your favorite pixelated Golden Dawn watering hole.

3: "I am not even a Neophyte, and I know more about Golden Dawn than the rest of you do."

4: "All Golden Dawn writers, except ABC, write books about the Golden Dawn only to make large bags of money and/or destroy all other GD Orders except their own XYZ Order."

5: "The only real genius/magician in Golden Dawn was member ABC."

6: "Adepts should act only in the following manner..."

7: "Members of XYZ Order are abandoning ship because the actions of ABC."

8: "Unicorns and glitter are the future of Golden Dawn."

9: "The form of alchemy that Golden Dawn taught was..."

10: "The Secret Chiefs are/were real, and this is the form that they take/took, and this is the esoteric Order that they currently/previously guided."

11: "The Order of the Golden Dawn never closed its doors. Member ABC became its leader, and only Order XYZ is its only legitimate descendant."

12. "The proper work of the Second and Third Orders of Golden Dawn is as follows..."

13: "All Golden Dawn Orders, except XYZ, are money making scams."

14: "I have decided to change ritual QRS."

15: "All members of Order XYZ are involved in big-ass-impossible conspiracy against ABC and/are Neo-Nazis."

16: "The only part of Golden Dawn that matters is..."

17: "The only way to properly initiate a member of the Order is..."

18: "Bleep. Peace. Harmony. Victory. Bleep."

You might be an evil BNP if...

A genuine BNP.

[For the purposes of the following post, please remember that I tend to divide BNPs, BNMs and BNWs into two groups: 1) self-serving profit-greedy community-destroying evil ones; and 2) community-serving non-profit group-building good ones. In this post, I am talking about the worst qualities of the evil BNPs, BNMs and BNWs--though in all honesty, the good ones sometimes also indulge in these behaviors much to the irk of the esoteric community.]

You might be an evil BNP (Big Name Pagan), evil BNM (Big Name Magician), or evil BNW (Big Name Witch) if...

1)...you are instantly upset before reading the rest of this post.

2)...you brag about being on talk shows or an advisor to media companies.

3)...you have your own 1-800 number.

4)...you have minions [especially worrisome are sock puppets and dedicated defenders of your work].

5)...you brag about having the biggest group/most readers/most advanced students/most advanced teachings/a lineage that goes back to pre-Adam times.

6)...you launch lawyers at people for offenses unworthy of actual notice.

7)...all your profile pictures are glamour shots.

8)...you believe that you are always right, that you can say any damn fool thing you want, and that other people do not have the right to correct you [because only trolls and flamers claim that you are wrong].

9)...no one remembers the last time you said "I was wrong" or "I do not know the answer to the question."

10)...if you claim to be a living god, sole heir to a super secret esoteric tradition, a 113th degree in a system none of us know a thing about, a genius, or the upmost authority in a field of knowledge without a strong academic background in that field. [By "strong" I mean, would someone at an university consider you an actual authority.]

11)...you use the words "celebrity," "world famous," and/or "authorized representative of Tradition XYZ" to describe yourself.

12)...you own more than one trademark, business, or product line.

13)...you claim to personally bless the items that you sell.

14)...you claim to be able to lift the nasty curse that my ancestors had cast upon them.

15)...your website costs more per day than my entire monthly soda and cat food bill.

16)...you worry so much about people stealing your ideas that people have to sign non-disclosure agreements to access any of your lessons.

17)...you could pay my mortgage payment with the amount of money you earn with your speaking fees alone.

18)...national book clubs carry your books, CDs and videos.

19)...people outside of the esoteric community recognize your name.

20)...your esoteric writing actually makes you more money than a burger flipping job would.

21)...you are involved in most of the conflicts in your respective community because you either created the problem or you volunteered to fix the problem.

22)...you are on several councils and boards that have never actually seen you show up at a meeting.

23)...the spiritual and magical accomplishments, Grades and Degrees that you claim to have obtained could fill a small phone book.

24)...you insist on being the center of attention, and require star billing and an fee just to attend an event.

25)...you have already hand-picked your successor, but reserve the right to change your mind just in case they go nuts and/or try to become a BNP/BNM/BNW themselves.

26)...people fight to be able to kiss your ring.

27)...you are offended by this post because it perfectly describes you.

Gauging the state of Golden Dawn

One of the things that I have noticed over the years is that people gauge the overall condition (state) of Golden Dawn from a very limited perspective.

It is not surprising that we do this. After all, Golden Dawn is a secret society. It is not like we record our meetings and post the entire proceedings on the internet.

But one needs to remember that we are only getting snapshots of what is going on in Golden Dawn today. We have limited information to base our judgments about the health and general condition of the system.

And this is true of the past, as well as the future.

What caused me to openly realize this is recently I ran across someone talking about the state of Golden Dawn in the nineties...the Golden Dawn they remembered from the nineties was not the Golden Dawn I remembered.

And why not?

For one thing, we belonged to different Orders in different parts of the country. Hence, we had different leaders, different memberships, and different concerns.

You can not judge the entire system, and whether it is dying or not, based solely on your local scene. Nor can you base it on the postings of a single internet group, blog, or member.

Even if you read all the internet postings on all the public forums, you still would not know what was going on behind closed doors.

In order to know the full state of Golden Dawn, you have to know everything that is going on...and no one can accomplish this (not even the Secret Chiefs).

You can not say that the modern Golden Dawn is no longer painting fish blue unless you know everyone in Golden Dawn and what they are doing. There may very well be a group (or member) that is still painting fish blue.

On the other hand, you can make guesses. Certain members ask questions that provide good indications of what they are currently studying. Certain leaders telegraph what is going on behind closed doors with their broadsides. But please keep in mind, that these hints are still just snapshots and not the whole picture.

So the next time that you think Golden Dawn is dying, think again. The same holds true if you think it is growing. Your opinion of the state of Golden Dawn (as well as mine) is just an guessimate.

Affliation and bias

Recently, I was reading a post on the Golden Dawn Forum from someone involved in setting up a Golden Dawn group in Massachusetts. They want an unbiased explaination about the differences between the various branches of the Golden Dawn system.

They are not going to get one.

It is impossible to know the differences between the various branches of the system and not have a bias. If you have an association with a branch of the system, you are biased. If you are not affliated with a branch, but can percieve differences between them, you have a bias.

The reason that they want an unbiased opinion is so they can figure out what branch to associate with; they did not state that they wanted an affliation, but I suspect that they feel that they must have a connection to one of the existing branches of the system to be legitimate.

Now everyone who knows me knows my personal bias.

I feel that a group should actually start out without an affliation. Each Golden Dawn group (lodge) is different. Each group has their own working style. Each group has their own way of dealing with the hierarchy and administrative side of things.

And often, when left to their own devices, a group doing the work (working the system) will discover that they are happier not answering to anyone else. Or at the very least, that their opinions of the right way of doing things does not match any existing group.

Charters, Warrents and Affliations (Associations) come with rules. One should know what makes them happy before burdening oneself with a bunch of rules.

That is my opinion.

If a group decides after a couple of years of work that they want to affliate with one of the Big Name Orders, or even one of the smaller ones, then at that point they should feel free to do so. At least then, they will have a benchmark to compare the advantage (if any) of belonging to a Grand Lodge.

Clarification: Book of the Tomb entry

I want to clarify something I said in an earlier entry; the entry in question is about the Book of the Tomb and its recent publication.

I wasn't just blaming just one side or one person for what happened.

I was blaming everybody.

There are no heroes in this story; but then again, I am not sure that there are any villians either.

There are just people in this story.

And what is to be blamed is actually human nature: SOB.

STANDARD OPERATING BEHAVIOR

(And all this time, you thought it meant something else.)

At the start of this situation, as a scholar and an initiate, and as someone who came from a really bad family and has been in some really bad groups, I could predict what was going to happen.

And why could I do this?

Because what was about to happen was based on SOB; the actors were all human (or at least they all started out that way); standard operating behavior was going to determine what was going to happen.

Sad, but true.

You can not blame one person, one side, one Order for what happened. The fault lies in the entire bloody Golden Dawn community, and perhaps even the entire world.