Is 100K actually needed to study Freemasonry?

Over the last few years, I have noticed an alarming trend in occultism: Some students believe that they should get everything for free---as in esoteric Orders, groups, teachers, and writers should not get a dime from the students. These are the same type of students who do not believe in doing daily exercises or memorizing the basic terms. I thought that I saw the worst of it a couple of months ago when someone suggested that magical Orders should pay their students to be members.

Well, I was wrong.

Last night during one of my moderator runs on Facebook, I ran across a pending post that made me realize that it could get so much worse.

Now for those who have not heard my rant: Running an esoteric Order (group) costs money---candles, rent, handouts, etc. all cost money. And writing a book and teaching takes a person away from activities that would result in a paycheck. And I feel that it is unfair for the students to get these services for free, placing the entire monetary burden on occult leaders, especially when occult leaders have to shell out money for things like groceries.

Plus there is also the little fact that I had to pay for lessons, books, materials, and membership dues, as well as pass my Grade exams--therefore, I do not see why the modern generation of students should get a free ride. Yes, I believe that modern occult students should suffer as much as I did coming up the ranks.

In other words, I am an asshole who does not realize that modern students are vastly superior in wisdom to me, and that I am blessed to be in the mere presence of such enlightened souls.

How much of an asshole am I?

Take for instance, last night's post.

Here is a lad advertising a GoFundMe campaign to help him collect the money neccessary to buy materials to study the Masonic symbols. He shared his ad with over twenty Facebook groups. And he is only asking for a mere 100K (one hundred thousand dollars).

Yes, I said 100K.

What the hell is he trying to study? Primary sources? Handwritten manuscripts? George Washington's wig? Maybe he thinks that he needs to own a lodge.

Or maybe, my inner asshole says, he is trying to get other people to pay him not to work and be a full time student of Freemasonry. And by full time, I mean he sits on the sofa reading internet posts and never once steps into a lodge.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why this person is so special that we should fund their esoteric career. And yes, I looked at what little they had public on their Facebook profile , and there is nothing to indicate that this person is the next Albert Pike. I am not even sure that he is a member of a Freemason lodge....and that would be the first step to understanding Freemasonry, or so I would think.

But if you think that I am wrong, feel free to donate funds to him.

Or better yet, start up a GoFundMe campaign to pay me 100K not to make fun of him. It can't be good for his studies that people like me are using him as fodder on a slow news day. Think of the number of special snowflake students you could save from the likes of me if you funded me to....pet cats all day long...go back and get my Masters in a completely useless degree (either history or literature)...go to Rome and annoy Nick Farrell...help out my wife in the art studio...run naked though a Broncos game...the possiblities are endless---hell, toss enough money at me (100K, come on people!), and I might even finish the artwork for the Tarot deck that I am working on. And if you like, I can claim to be studying Freemasonry while I am doing so. After all, if you give me 100K, I too can be a special snowflake.

Remember special snowflakes need you to fund them, so that they get all the esoteric wisdom and knowledge for free.  Don't listen to those asshole occult teachers who believe that money should flow to the teacher and not towards the student.

#specialsnowflakesmatter

And he spammed this across 20+ FB groups last night.

100K to learn more about Freemasonry. 

Membership is the product

Reading the comment section of another blog, I realized that I did not make a certain point clear in my last blog post. (I was bored, and stuck on a plot point in the science fiction mystery that I am writing...if it matters about why I was surfing the internet and not writing this morning.) I also realized that some people consider everything about them...and a two years ago, it would have been all about someone else that they hated--would someone please pass the "center of the universe" stick to the right because not everything is about what a great gift you are to the universe.

(And seriously, when do I get my turn to hold that sacred stick of importance?!)

Anyway, the point I failed to make clear in my secrecy as a business model post was the fact that it is the membership that is the overpriced product that underlies the accusation that secret societies are nothing more than money making scams for their leaders.

The membership in the secret society is the product.

You do not need to sell anything else to be accused of running a scam. Just collect membership dues and you too can be called a slimy con-artist. Selling unicorn wands, fairy success dust, and thistle poppets just adds fuel to the fuel of the toasty bonfire roasting your reputation, but the collection of membership dues is the match that sets off the blaze in the first place.

And this is not just something that came out of our "all secrets and techniques should be freely given" New Age culture--no, this has been true for three hundred years at least. Don't believe me? Consider this. In 1717, the Freemasons binded together in their first Grand Lodge, so that they could separate the legit members from the false members; it turns out that some pub owners were selling Freemason memberships to their customers along with watered-down ale. Shortly after that, we start to see the first accusations and publication of the Freemasonic rituals and secrets. And there is not a pixie chalice anywhere in sight for sale.

The simple fact that you are collecting membership dues is enourgh to cause someone to scream bloody murder that you are taking advantage of people. This is why all esoteric Orders have been accused of this at one time or another (normally by upset ex-members or their rivals)--in fact, being accused of being a con-artist is almost a badge of honour; it shows that one has grown big enourgh to annoy someone else.

And for the curious, yes, I am going to be running a summer special on fairy success dust (or fairy sh** as I like to call it) and thistle poppets (bumper crop this spring)--everything will be sold at bonfire prices, so get your money ready because Mad Uncle Morgan is selling it all!

Secrecy as a business model

One of the periodic accusations that one hears about the secret societies is that the whole system is a money making system for a few people at the top of the system. The earliest example of this accusation that I have encountered involves Freemasonry (an example of such was given in a previous Quote of the Day post); but I do understand that there is an earlier one about the Rosicrucians (but I am not sure that it is about the RC, as much as alchemists in general). And I have heard this about all existing esoteric Orders--OTO, Golden Dawn, BOTA, AO, AMORC, etc.

If one believes even a fraction of the accusations, one must conclude that all the secret and esoteric societies are nothing more than a scam to make money for their leadership.

And even when there is no one at top to recieve the riches of excess dues and fees, an Order can still be accused of being nothing more than a business opportunity for its membership. For instance, nowadays, you do not hear of the leaders of Freemasonry living off of excess dues, but you hear a lot of people accuse the entire system of being a network of favored contacts which give work and opportunites only to those who are fellow members of the fraternity.

Now, we must admit it happens. I am quite sure that most of my readers can point to an esoteric Order...or two...or six...that can reasonably be accused of such behavior. Part of the problem is the fact that in an esoteric Order that has a single person at top, the chore of running the organization is overwhelming and the person tends to end up neglecting their day job...with the Order often having to pick up the loss of income for the leader's missed opportunities. But unfortunately, this is only part of the problem.

A larger part of the problem is the fact that secrecy can be a key method of turning an esoteric society into a money making system.

For instance, lets look at my favorite tradition---the Golden Dawn. In past posts, I have speculated that the number of people in the Golden Dawn market is about a thousand people (and even if it is not, it is a nice round number to use for this example). If you can convince a thousand people to shell out a $120 a year in dues and fees, you have a pie of $120,000. Now the trick for such a market is to get it all--if you can corner the market, then you can squeeze it for a big paycheck. For instance, with a monopoly, one could keep their operating expenses down to $20 a person. This may seem small, but if you have the entire market cornered, then it is an operating budget of twenty thousand a year. This would leave a hundred thousand annually for the person at the top--it is a nice profit margin.

Of course, in mainstream Golden Dawn, this is impossible. In order to make it work, you would have to prevent anyone else from serving the same community. The more competition there is, the lower the profit margin. In fact, given the amount of information that has been published about Golden Dawn and its offshoots over the years, it is next to impossible to accomplish. Not that it has not stopped people from trying to do so.

(Before anyone thinks that I am talking about them, just remember that everyone points fingers at their enemies with this accusation. You point at me; I point at you--it is all rather childish. And I do know for fact that some Orders which are operating in the red, with the leader picking up the slack, has been accused of this crime. So let's not point fingers unless you have proof in the form of a ledger or two. And if you believe that I am describing your behavior, well, just remember that certain forms of behavior just worries me.)

So let's say you wanted to run an esoteric system as a money making system, how would you go about it? Well, first you need to make sure that you have an absolute monopoly, that you are the sole source of information. Then you want to make sure that no one ever advances far enourgh to threaten that monopoly, and that no one can use your lessons and names and labels without a major court case. At the same time, you want a series of endless lessons to cater for anyone that keeps mailing you their annual dues...without any real tests to prevent them from recieving more lessons.

And then...and here where it becomes about secrecy...you want to go as far towards the absolute secrecy side of the spectrum as you can, giving out only commonly known stuff to whet people's appetites, leaving just hints that the next level is where all the really important stuff is hidden. And the first thing that you make secret? The very fact that you have set up an esoteric Order to be your own personal piggy bank.

The thing that prevents Golden Dawn from being a good esoteric cash cow is simply the fact that way too much of the information is publically available. For a couple of hundred dollars, you can own the backbone of lore and rituals that is the Golden Dawn tradition. To make money off an esoteric system, you need to make sure that you are the only source for the information; and Golden Dawn is definitely not ideal for that goal...not that this fact has not stopped people from trying to do so.

Qod Freemasonry as a fraud and money machine

The following is a biased conclusion drawn from a treasury report of the Keystone Lodge (no. 639) presented in 1870 and used in Ronayne's Hand-Book of Freemasonry (1917) to justify his printing of the Freemasonry rituals. [Please bear in mind that this quote is a set-up for the next post in my secrecy series, and should not be viewed as my opinion of Freemasonry.]

[What becomes of all the Masonic money?]

With regard to this official document [a treasury report], it will be sufficient to remark that it indelibly stamps every single transaction in the organization of Keystone Lodge, No. 639, as a wilful and deliberate steal, from beginning to end. First, every candidate was defrauded in the sum of $64.25, by being charged $65, in all for his three degrees, when the officers and members of that Lodge knew, just as well as they did their own names, that those very same degrees,--word for word, and in better form,--could be purchased of any regular book-seller in the country for 75 cents at most.

Secondly, the money thus fraudulently obtained from "the poor, blind candidate," was in its turn stolen by Moses Shields, their Worshipful Master, and by others, thus very forcibly proving the truth of that old adage--"Ill got, ill gone."

Thirdly, the Grand Lodge of Illinois, for the sum of $75, gave them permission to open their Masonic confidence shop and to sell Masonic so-called secrets to any white man of mature age, who might be foolish enourgh to buy them, thus encouraging and perpetuating the fraud by issuing its charter or warrant, empowering them to work.

In this manner, Freemason Lodges are organized and the money fliched from the poor, selfish, deluded dupes who join them, is disposed of. Every Masonic Lodge in the world is a fraud; the sale of its sham degrees is but obtaining money under false pretenses; and what is worse, the Masons themselves know it. This being the case, then, and desiring to do what I can towards exposing the swindle and the outrageous humbug of these dark gangs of conspiracy, I would earnestly call the reader's attention to [Ronayne's Hand-Book of Freemasonry], as containing the literally correct ritual and work of Freemasonry.

Why did Frater C mix systems in the Cipher Manuscript?

As I have noted before, we don't actually know for (one hundred percent) who created the original outline of the rituals contained in the Cipher Manuscript. For simplicity's sake, let refer to him or her as person C. Now, it is more likely that it was a man who created the rituals, so I am going to refer to them as a Frater for the rest of this post...and for the rest of this series for that matter. Hence, Frater C is whoever created the first outline of the Golden Dawn rituals.

(I would also like to use the honorary "S.H." for them, but the use of that implies that they were much higher in the system than some are willing to give them credit for...therefore I will only say it in my head as I write this post.)

Today, the general rule is "Do not mix systems" unless you are an expert in them...or a chaos magician (I can't imagine a chaos magician reading my blog...but it could be happening...*waves hi at the chaos magician in the crowd*). This rule has not always been the standard. Heck, even in this generation, it is not always the standard...my first Wiccan mentor used the rule "Use whatever works best for the job at hand" and occasionally that meant using the symbols of one system with the techniques of another system.

When we look at the Cipher Manuscript, we see a remarkable mixture of symbols and techniques taken from various systems and cultures. A question naturally arises from this fact.

"Why did Frater C mix systems in the Cipher Manuscript?"

My answer is that Frater C was a product of his time period, just like the Cipher Manuscript is. While others argue an earlier origin for the Golden Dawn system, it is my belief that it is a product of the Victorian Age. Today, we think of the Victorian Age as a conservative time period---and forget that England went from a farming based economy to an industrial based economy. Labor rights, women rights, and the roots of the New Age movement were all developments of this time period in England. We are looking at the dawn of industrial world...and it all happened during the lifetime (a long lifetime) of a single Queen.

Now, one of the things going on in England was what some refer to as "The Golden Age of Fringe Masonry." Or as I like to refer to it, "The Golden Age of Loony Secret Societies." The hundred years from 1850 to 1950 is the most fertile time for the lodge system. The birth of the lodge system is often said to be 1717, when three Freemason lodges in London formed a Grand Lodge, but the lodge system actually predates that year---1717 is the birth of the Grand Lodge system, lodges existed before that time.

The lodge system is actually a product of England. Or at least, lodges using "lodgekit" are. Secret societies existed before the birth of the Grand Lodge system, but the Grand Lodge system changed how they worked. And inside the realm of spiritual development, the lodge system has no counterpart anywhere else...wherever you see lodges, you feel the touch of the English.

Now previous to the start of the Golden Age of Loonies, the rituals practiced by lodges were simple affairs. But as the number of Orders exploded during the Loony period, the rituals got more and more complicated. To explain why, we must remember that lodge membership was a big business and a source of entertainment for its members. The capstone for entertainment value was when one Order created a set of rituals around the novel, Ben-Hur.

Any culture that was not bolted down became fair game. This included the spiritual systems. Now, the lodges tended to not mix systems. But this changed as the age went on.

Part of the reason is the explosion of the spiritual and Theosophical movements. (Think New Age if you want to consider a modern counterpart.) The Theosophical movement was very much into mixing systems together. And the Theosophical movement was busy taking away potential members.

When you actually start looking for mixing of systems, history is full of examples. The Roman Empire, Graeco-Egypt, the Medieval Age, the Fama of the RC, can all be mined for examples. There is nothing quite like the reading of medieval literature and encountered Isis as an example of a saintly woman. And Frater C would have known this.

One can see that it is not always "Do not mix systems." Often, it is "Take whatever will work the best and use it." And Frater C willingly grabbed anything that was not bolted down. It is reasonable to assume that Fracter C was aware of the Theosophical movement. And while he was not into the entertainment side of the lodge system, he did know that the English occultists of the day were willing to borrow from any system they could get their hands on. Call it a form of Magical Imperialism. Of course, knowing why he mixed system just leads to other questions that must wait for another day...or week...or however long it takes to rotate around to them.

Are posts about the Freemasons coming?

Freemasonry meets the RC Society

Tonight, I was posting back and forth with someone on Facebook. They are doing a bit of research on Freemasonry and world history. I wish them luck on that topic---it is far outside of my expertise. Nevertheless, I find myself with the urge to write something about the Freemasons.

Now, my opinion about the Freemasons is based not on rumor; it is based on first hand experience of knowing Freemasons. I think everyone inside of the esoteric lodge system knows at least one Freemason---it is an occuptional hazard if you are a member of a group that has lodge meetings.

Before anyone asks---no, I am not a Freemason.

I have mixed feelingss about the Freemasons, especially when it comes to the esoteric Orders. Which is probably better than the opinions they have of me---I tend exhibit signs of adult ADHD, and I have no truck with people who are merely interested in collecting more Degrees and Grades. I also have an opinion about how much the Freemasons have to say about what goes on in the esoteric Orders, and I tend to be loud about that opinion. There is also my wicked witch ethics and beliefs.

These opinions and character flaws do not prevent me from having friends who are Freemasons; they merely prevent me from being a Freemason.

Nevertheless, I have done some study of their Order. Partially, because it is the proto-type for all lodge based systems including Golden Dawn and British Wicca (though some will argue that they are not); and partially because if you are a history student, they are really the only lodge system that you are allowed to study (if you are allowed to study them at all---the couple of papers I have done on them in college, I had to fight to do). Freemasonry to the history student is like Golden Dawn is to the literature student (the only reason you can study Golden Dawn as a literature student is that Yeats was a member).

I also collect the occasional odd bit of literature and gear that comes my way. For instance, the photo for this blog is from my collection---there is a history behind this piece of artwork; some of it personal.

Anyways, I am happening this post worked the bug out of my system because otherwise I will be boring you with other posts about the Freemasons. And no one wants that, including me.

Can the SRIA decide what Golden Dawn group is official?

I have been thinking a lot about "recognition" lately.

First, there is the ongoing drama in the EOGD. When news came out that Robert Zink was voted out of the EOGD, several of us came out and siad a few words. David Griffin (HOGD/A&O) came out in support of the vote. Nick Farrell noted that the EOGD was not set up to allow such a vote; he also stated that a new name and system was probably in order.

Bast Temple took a vote on it, and decided to continue with our current policy of recognition---we recognize individuals, not groups. (There actually some history beyond that policy; it allows us to avoid recognizing the bad eggs in good groups while allowing us to recognize good people in bad groups.) Needless to say, the Bast Temple vote pleased no one outside the pale of Bast Temple. Given the news coming out of the EOGD, I would still vote the same way---recognition to individuals and not groups.

Second, there is always the ongoing debate in Golden Dawn about who is legitimate Golden Dawn and who is not. A lot of that debate depends upon where you think the roots of Golden Dawn lay, and where you think it should be going. Needless to say, those who do not see eye to eye do not recognize one another.

Third and the subject of this post is a recent blog post about William Coon II, the Supreme Magus of the SRICF, saying that the SRICF of America and the SRIA of England have the right to decide which Golden Dawn Order is the "official Golden Dawn." Thumbs up to David Griffin for bringing that one to my attention.

[SRICF: Societas Rosicruciana in Civiatibus Foederatis; SRIA: Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia]

Do I believe that Coon said that? Yes, I do.

Especially if this is the same William Coon II, who is Grand Master of the Grand Encampment of the Knights Templar of the USA. For an example of his authority, consider his opinion about another group that he consider to be an "invasion of terrority" threat.

The Great Priory of America is an unrecognized Templar Order operating within the United States of America, in direct conflict with Section 3 of the Constitution of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States of America. Accordingly, membership in the Great Priory of America is incompatible with membership in the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States of America and any Grand, Subordinate, or Constituent Commandery under its jurisdiction or owing allegiance to the same.

For more about this situation, check out the Freemasons For Dummies blog.

Do I believe that he considers that the Golden Dawn is an "invasion of terrority" threat? Yes, I do.

But does the SRIA and SRCIF have any right to determine what Golden Dawn Order if the "official" Order? In my opinion, no.

I do understand their logic. Kenneth Mackenzie, Samuel Liddell "MacGregor" Mathers, William Wynn Westcott, and William Robert Woodman were all members of the SRIA. Robert Felkin and Arthur Edward Waite were also members. All the founding members of the original Order, the (best candidate, IMHO, for) creator of the Cipher Manuscript, and leaders of two of the splinter groups were members of the SRIA. Logically, especially if you believe that Golden Dawn was started out as a forgery, the lineage of the first generation of Golden Dawn came from the SRIA.

Now, Griffin argued against Koon using the official history of the Golden Dawn as his Order (HOGD/A&O) tells it. Honestly, I do not have enourgh information to decide whether that history is true or not.

But I do have enourgh information to argue that the creator of the Cipher Manuscript (who I believe is Mackenzie) and the three founders of the Isis-Urania (Westcott, Mathers, and Woodman) had no intention of making the Golden Dawn answerable to the SRIA.

First, the Golden Dawn was formed during the mushrooming of the lodge system in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There were Grand Lodges forming all types of lodges. It was a big business with plenty of potential members (by business, I mean that there is a certain economies involved that are best explained by treating the lodge system as a type of business model---not all lodges were created for profit). Most (if not all) Grand Lodges declared their independence.

Second, the Golden Dawn allowed non-Christians, non-Masons, and women to be members. At the time, these were charter-revoking acts if your group was SRIA---and probably still are (not being a member of the SRIA, I am guessing here).

Third, whether you believe that the Sprengel letters are legitimate or fake, the letters tell us that our roots are in Europe and that the Golden Dawn is on its own---we are not of the SRIA, and the parent body wants nothing to do with us. One of the purposes of the letters, whether they were created by Westcott or actually written by Sprengel herself, is to put the authority for Golden Dawn inside of Golden Dawn itself.

So can the SRCIF and the SRIA issue a judgment and decide who is the "official" Golden Dawn? Yes...(cue laughter)...but it will only be obeyed by the loyal members of the SRIA and SRCIF.

And for me, that is the biggest joke about Koon's opinion about the SRCIF and the SRIA being able to decide the issue. The only people who are going to obey the ruling are (maybe) SRCIF and SRIA members.

Oh, and whatever Golden Dawn group that they decide to pick. Which will be an all-male, all-Freemason, all-Christian group. In fact, I would be willing to bet that it will be the least magical of the Golden Dawn Orders. They will pick something that is little more than a study group with merit badges---not a single member will be able to hex their way out of a wet paper bag.

The leaders of the SRIA and SRCIF will pick the weakest link---a Golden Dawn group that is absolutely no threat to them. It will be all about the business of membership numbers---the membership numbers of the SRIA and SRCIF, not Golden Dawn's.

All the rest of the Golden Dawn community, however much we do not see eye to eye, no matter how much we distrust one another, no matter our beliefs about Golden Dawn history, no matter the differences in our adminstrative structures, will laugh when we hear the official proclaimation and continue to go about our Work. Bottom line is that the SRIA and the SRCIF opinion will be ignored by the overall Golden Dawn community (outside of whoever they pick). Me, David Griffin, Pat Zalewski, Nick Farrell, and Chic Cicero will all agree that the SRIA and the SRCIF have no business determining how official any of our groups are.

I have said this before, and I will say it again---as long as you and your fellow members think that your group is official, who cares about outsiders and their opinions? I don't and either should you.

Remember to keep your dagger sharp, your wand lit, your cup fulled, and your pentacle flowered---we are all in this together.

Public domain and copyrights of secret rituals

One of the things that has cropped up in the ongoing internet discussion about secrecy is the whole issue of public domain. As a writer and a scholar (or as much as I am capable of being one), I have a different point of view on these matters than some other people do. For me, the issue of public domain is more about copyright law than it is about secrecy.

Copyright law has always been slightly fuzzy when it comes to secret societies. And the history of the secret societies is full of "revealing of the secrets" of various groups. The most interesting revelation was probably the printing of the Freemason rituals. The justification of this act was that the whistle-blowers claimed that the Freemasons were nothing more than a money making scam to line the pockets of the Master Masons.

(It is interesting that this rumor occasionally crops up in Golden Dawn circles.)

The revealing of their rituals was not nearly as harmful to Freemasonry as the legend of their response to one whistle-blowing incident---even today, they are blamed for burning down a printer's house and murdering someone (the Morgan Affair). Whether they did or not is open to debate...personally I think that they just put the fellow on a boat and forgot to give anyone his forwarding address. (For the record, the whistle-blower may not even been a Freemason; he may have conned his way into a Blue Lodge pretending to be one.)

It is the rumor of how they reacted and the inherient distrust that human beings have for secret societies that did the harm---not the actual revealing of their rituals. In the United States, an Anti-Masonic Party formed, and the Freemasons almost completely disappeared. In Europe, the Freemasons have been blamed for wars and rebellions as well as controling politics and big business.

(I am still waiting for the arrival of the Anti-Skull and Bones Party. If there is any secret society that deserves their own Anti-Society, it is the Skull and Bones.)

Of course, the flaw in the Freemasonic conspiracy theories is that often both sides of any issue have an equal number of Freemasons present. For instance, the American Revolution, and its result---the United States of America, has been considered by conspiracy theorists to be the work of Freemasons. The truth of the matter is that the British had an equal number of Freemasons serving and supporting their side. If the British would have won, it could have been argued that the British victory was the result of a Freemason plot.

In part, it is the human distrust of secret societies that makes the issue of public domain and copyright law so bloody confusing when it comes to the rituals and activities of secret societies. "If they were not up to no good, why are they keeping secrets?" The laws typically treat ritual scripts the same way that they do glaze and soap recipes---if you learn the secret, not only can you use it, you can also publish it and the secret society cannot do much of anything about it.

And secret societies have tried to do things about their secrets being published. A few years ago, one secret society trademarked their service name, and then tried to legally seize all copies of documents in various libraries and private collections pertaining to their Order claiming that because the documents had their trademarked name on them, the documents legally belonged to them. The scholars who oversaw the libraries and privates collections promptly showed this Order to the door, laughing at the foolishness of the attempt.

Scholars and journalists both are thorns in the sides of the secret societies. This is because both professions have a "fair use" loophole in the copyright law that they use to their own advantage. All it takes is one scholar or journalist declaring that there is something of interest to look at in your Order and you promptly have a problem keeping the genie in the bottle. And they firmly believe that he who has access to the documents has the right to print all the juicy bits.

Even more scary to the secret societies is that scholars and journalists do not even have to wait until the copyright expires before publishing material. All they have to be is claim some interest in the material, and weave the magic wand of "fair use." And anyone can publish material of a secret society once the copyright expires---aka the material enters public domain.

A few years ago, one Freemasonic association started to publish the rituals of some extinct secret societies. Their logic is that by publishing the material, they can prevent someone from resurrecting these particular Orders---aka they think that they can renew the copyright of the material and control it. No, once something goes into public domain, you cannot put the genie back into the bottle. It is a bluff---you cannot actually prevent someone from using material that has entered public domain. And they cannot deal with it as a trademark issue unless they resurrect the Orders themselves.

Of course, that is the big issue with the latest discussion---public domain material can be used by anyone. As long as they do not use a trademarked service name, there is nothing to actually stop them from trying to use the material. Note that I said "trying to use."

Now, given the fact that the material that has been being discussed in the latest secrecy discussion belongs/ed to an esoteric society, just having access to the material (documents) might not be enourgh to be able to use the material. Given the fact that there are seven layers to the material, and the documents only gives bits of any particular layer being talked about, there is a lot of stuff that a person would have to figure out to be able to fully utilize the material.

(Ok, I could be wrong here---one of the rumors about the material is that it is defective in this regard. I am not sure how much weight I want to give that rumor without seeing the bulk of the material with my own eyes. I have heard statements like that before about other material---stuff that I now keep under lock and key.)

Even the Crowley and Regardie material needs to be looked at in the light of the seven layer system if you want to unlock its full potential. And that brings us to how did we get to this state of having a good part of the Golden Dawn material published by the two of them. Well, sorry to say, it is the fault of a court case. Or rather two of them.

The first one involved a fraud---the Horos trial. MacGregor Mathers, for some reason allowed a woman by the name of Madame Horos, aka Swami Vive Ananda, aka Editha Jackson into his lodge; he claimed that she was the real Fraulein Sprengel, aka Soror Sapiens Dominabitur Astris. She milked him for information, then misused the rituals of Golden Dawn for her own ends---fleecing young women. At the Horos trial, a lot of the Golden Dawn ritual got read into the public record. The trial gave Golden Dawn a major public relations problem. 

(No one has ever been able to give me a good reason why Mathers' Secret Masters did not intervene and warn him about Madame Horos. I just simply do not understand the logic of allowing the Order material to be misused, and the Order being dragged though the mud.)

The second trial involving the copyrights of Golden Dawn came when the infamous Aleister Crowley decided to publish the rituals of Golden Dawn. Mathers tried to get an injunction against Crowley. Between the lack of money and the fact that large parts of the rituals were already part of the public record (thanks to the Horos trial), Mathers failed to prevent Crowley's publication of the rituals.

(At first, Crowley's publication of the material, and Regardie's later publication, did not reach as many people as most modern students of the system tend to believe. Paul Foster Case and Dion Fortune exposed more people to the material than either Crowley or Regardie did---initially that is. Later, when Crowley and Regardie's works were rediscovered, they became part of the "bible" of the modern occult revival and their influence swelled.)

It was the trials that broke any hope Golden Dawn, and later AO had of keeping their material under wraps forever. That and the mistake of letting William Butler Yeats into the Order---for some reason, having a famous poet makes the Golden Dawn a subject of academic interest (remember scholars invoke the angel of "fair use").

Advice to any Order that wants to keep their material secret: Don't get involved in court cases and never let anyone with the slightest potential to become famous or important into your system. Also do not link your Order to the Golden Dawn, for even normal protections provided by copyright law tend to be useless in the protection of the material.

Exoteric Lodge Order Membership and the Esoteric Lodges

Frater AIT over on his blog just mentioned that every Senior Adept that he personally knows is a Freemason. And he asks if he is missing anything by not being one himself. Well, it depends on what you are hoping to get out of Freemasonry. It also depends a lot on the culture of the particular esoteric Order that you belong to.

(For the purposes of this post, I am defining Exoteric Order as a group that is organized for purposes that are mundane: insurance, networking, social pleasure, etc.---daily "real world" concerns. I am defining Esoteric Orders as those organized for magical and mystical purposes---or "mumbo-jumbo and a lot of crap" as one Freemason called it [which just goes to show that not all Freemasons are going to welcome members of Golden Dawn or Wicca or OTO into their lodges].)

I know one Esoteric Order (a Golden Dawn Order in fact) where every single Adept Minor is a Master Mason. Why? Because it is in their bylaws. In that particular Order, you are required to be a Master Mason in order to become an Adept Minor. The reason is that the leaders of this Order believe that it shows a certain level of commitment to become a Master Mason. (Hmmm, I guess the lodges in their neighborhood are harder to get into than some of the local ones.)

This bylaw has an odd effect...there are no female Adept Minors in that Order. And there will never will be unless they change the rule. For some of us, this is viewed as a violation of the very landmarks of Golden Dawn which historically is open to both men and women, as well as RR et AC (the very Adept Minor oath states that one will consider both sexes equally for admission). For bloody sakes, Moina Mathers was an Adept Major (6=5), and Florence Farr was an Adept Minor (5=6) THAM---you can't tell me that they were Master Masons. This bylaw is one of the reasons that I will never join that Order.

I know another Esoteric Order where they consider Master Mason to be the equivalent of the Adept Minor Grade. I know of a member who conned his way into Master Mason (he had no intention of actually working Freemasonry after he got advanced), just so that he could jump over several Outer Order Grades and become a Hierophant. Not only did he abuse Freemasonry, he promptly left the esoteric Order he was in and started his own (promptly closing the loophole so no one else could do the same).

I myself have been a member of several Orders---outside of learning lodgekit and making some social contacts, I learned nothing of use to me for my Golden Dawn work.

So how did the idea that a Freemason degree is somehow as good (or perhaps better) as a Golden Dawn Grade arise? Simple, we can blame it on the fact that all three of the Founders of the Hermetic Golden Dawn (Isis-Urania #3) were members of the SRIA. In addition to that, the Sprengel letters state that there is an Order in Europe (though the letters also state that initiations are not done in lodge, so this part of the theory is on shaky ground). Those who hunt for Third Order typically look for another Order (the safest place for a Third Order member to hide from members of Golden Dawn is actually inside Golden Dawn itself).

The logic goes: If the Founders of the Order were Freemasons and SRIA, then there must have been a reason for it; therefore, we must give those members with Freemason backgrounds more authority.

Here is the counterargument: Membership in Freemasonry was just normal for the times. There is no esoteric significance in it---it is like having  health insurance today.

In the United States, over six million men out of 21 million were members of one Order or another in 1899. There were over three hundred fraternal Orders in the United States, and about 1000 different degrees. Each year 200,000 thousand more men joined. If one includes minorities and women, forty percent of the adult population belonged to at least one fraternal Order.

The sheer numbers alone undermine the argument that membership in another Order was what set the Founders of Golden Dawn apart from the general population.

My grandmother was a member of the Woodmen of America. The neighbors on both sides of the house I lived in while attending high school were members of exoteric Orders. At least one of my teachers was a member of an Order. You cannot tell me that exoteric membership prepares one for magical work. It is only in my generation that exoteric Order membership is rare.

The whole idea that membership in an exoteric Order, especially Freemasonry, really needs to be laid to rest. If you are going to join Freemasonry, do both Golden Dawn and Freemasonry a favor and do it because you actually want to work the Freemason degrees and not because you want to boost your status in Golden Dawn.

Were Mathers and Westcott initiates of the Golden Dawn?

Were Samuel Macgregor Mathers and William Wynn Westcott actually initiates of the Hermetic Golden Dawn? At first glance, this question seems clear cut, and perhaps a little stupid. But then again, I cruise in that back corner were the clearer a question appears, the more you need to reexamine the issue to figure out what it really going on.

This particular question came about because of VH Frater SR's comment to one of my previous blog posts where I was wondering exactly who was denying the connection between Golden Dawn and Freemasonry. Once I heard his response, I realized that I am one of the people he is talking about denying the connection.

Because I do not force people to join Freemasonry, and point out that they are two different Orders, I am helping deny the connection and worth of Freemasonry. *sigh* I should have known that I was one of the deniers.

For the record, I believe that Freemasonry is valuable resource for some people. But given the fact that most of the people I know only have time to be active in one Order, and they tend to be interested in the occult, I tend to emphasize Golden Dawn over Freemasonry. I also belong to an Order with female members, therefore emphasizing Freemasonry tends to put them in a bad position (almost a second-class position if you ask me).

Also because I consider Golden Dawn starting in 1888, and having no previous lineage that has the right of rulership over the modern Golden Dawn, I am helping deny the connection. *sigh* As I said, I should have realized that I was guilty.

For the record: Yes, Westcott and Mathers were Master Masons. In Westcott's case, he was a member of a lot of Orders (not as many as Waite, but close). Yes, we have to say that part of their personal lineage comes from Freemasonry. But I am not sure that we can claim that any of their authority to rule Golden Dawn came from that particular direction. Today, we tend to think of Freemasonry as the Mother of all Orders. Perhaps it is.

Then again, I am one of the orphans who have serious doubts about the worth of an unbroken lineage. Of course, that may just because I have encountered a few people who considered their lineage better than mine, therefore they thought that they were more fit to rule than the people I answered to. I have seen the utter messes that these lineage pounders have made of their groups. Extinct groups abound that were built on the claim of lineage.

Heck, if I wanted to play that game, I could claim that part of my lineage traces though the EOEW. I could claim that based on the symbolism of the "RED" degree that I have been exposed to the Adeptus Major Grade energies...but I don't. Why? Because they are different systems.

I am sorry, but I do not buy into the idea that because Westcott and Mathers were initiates of Freemasonry, or SRIA, or fill-in-the-blank Order that they were initiates of Golden Dawn. If it doesn't work for me to shore up my lineage, it should not work for them either.

As for them being physical initiates of Golden Dawn, my answer is: No, they were not. I do not buy into the theory that they were astral initates or self-initiates either. And ultimately, it does not matter that they were not.

Mathers and Westcott had gone though lodgekit bootcamp. They had a ton of lodge experience. They knew the symbolism contained in the Cipher Manuscript. And most importantly, Golden Dawn had no lineage predating 1888. Isis-Urania was the first Golden Dawn lodge. The Golden Dawn rituals were never worked before they started to work them.

Westcott, Mathers, and Woodman did not need a lineage to open up the energies of Golden Dawn. They were the elders of the tradition; they were the ones that laid the foundation of the system. They were the ones who built the door to the system and installed the locks. It is the rest of us that follow them that need a key to open the door to the system. Fortunately, for most of us, they were not the ones who drew up the initial blueprint of the Order (the Cipher Manuscript), otherwise most of us would be stuck outside freezing.

Link: I have Royal Arch tool envy and who are these deniers

As most of my readers know, I follow several blogs. Today, on Gyllene Gryningen, there is a posting that brings out the tool envy in me; such pretty tools and wands, I have not.

Now my big question is: Who are these people trying to deny the connection between Freemasonry and Golden Dawn? Outside of Howe, I can't think of any serious attempts to do so.

Of course, there are those of us who refuse to believe that a Master Mason is the equal of an Adept Minor. Those of us who refuse to answer to the Masons are simply stating that the systems have went separate ways long ago...and that is merely an administrative issue. (Some of us also refuse to be demoted because of certain curriclum changes and because our lineage is not perfect, go figure that one out...again, an administrative issue.) We are not denying the connection, merely stating that just being a Master Mason grants you no special rights in our system.

(It is much like the relationship between the Elks, Odd Fellows and the Freemasons. They are all related, but different Orders.)

In fact, I think that it is safe to say that the connection between the two systems, if it has ever really been forgotten (or downplayed) has been rediscovered in recent years. If nothing else, my own interest in the Freemasons stems from my Golden Dawn involvements.

The only thing I can think of is perhaps it is different in the circles that VH Frater SR walks in. Then again, it is probably is considering that our two circles have the promotional "free in every box of cracker jack" land mine field separating them. We also have a pond separating us...oh, wait, that is an ocean.

Nevertheless, I cannot help wondering exactly who VH Frater SH is talking about. I am quite sure that I will find out soon enough.

(And guys, if we can't joke about the distance between us, and the reasons for it, what can we joke about?)

Kicking around secrecy

I have been thinking a lot about secrecy lately. More than I normally do.

I tend to think about secrecy a couple of times a week. It is hard to be a member of a "society with secrets" and not occasionally think of secrecy. Especially if you hold one of the offices that deals with secrecy (the big three and their variations, and Archive Officer).

There is also the little fact that I am a writer, who occasionally hacks out an article that involves the stuff that Golden Dawn studies.

Now, I am not surprised that I have been thinking about secrecy lately. After all. I am getting ready to start researching and creating the material for the June 5th Open Full Moon Ritual that I am leading (the work begins the day after the last of this semester's finals). The theme and work of that ritual is partially inspired by some of the work I have done in THAM (hence me kicking around what should be secret and why).

But what is surprising is that the denizens of the Golden Dawn internet community have brought up the issue of secrecy again just while I am kicking the subject around for the hundredth time. It is the timing that surprises me; that and the fact that no one seriously took the bait set out (then again, it is an argument where there are no winners---ever).

The debate over secrecy erupts periodically on the internet. This latest flow is tied to the recent videos, Vault pictures, and podcasts that have made their way to the internet.

How much secrecy is necessary in Golden Dawn? Is the level of secrecy required for Golden Dawn different than the level needed for Second Order? What should be kept secret? Does secrecy actually protect the egregore of the tradition? How about the sub-egregores? And how much information should we share between the various Orders?

Honestly, I don't know. And just maybe, I don't care either. Besides from where I sit, it just doesn't matter.

The ultimate society with secrets, Freemasonry, has survived despite the fact that their secrets having been let out of the bag since before the formation of their first Grand Lodge. One of their auxillary Orders, the Eastern Star, only forbids the passwords and degree gestures from being published.

And Golden Dawn has survived with its secrets published. Crowley and Regardie didn't destory the system by publishing (I would like to point out that only one of them was actually out to destory the system; the other one was trying to preserve it). We will survive the internet and the latest in Golden Dawn offerings, including the upcoming book about Mathers.

Besides, as an Archive Officer, my oath is to "preserve the tradition" by whatever means necessary. The choice was made for me back in '94. Occasionally, that means publishing stuff or exchanging information with others. And with the lastest offerings, it was the creators of the material that published and revealed it (their natural right).

And this makes me glad---for as long as the system is healthy (or at least not in danger of going extinct), and the lore is in no danger of dying out---as long as the other members of the tradition are doing their best to preserve the system themselves, I don't have to fulfill the ultimate clause in my oath as an Officer. It is better that others decide for themselves the limits of secrecy because my oath doesn't actually give me a choice if we reach the triggering event.

Children welcome

Tonight's Open Full Moon ritual is going to be done by Amy Harper (Nyteshade); it is going to be the annual Wiccaning that she does every year. Both her and Alia believe that we should introduce our children to our spiritual beliefs, so that they are aware of the option.

In many ways, I believe that Golden Dawn should also do this. The Freemasons have a couple of youth organizations; there are plenty of books for wiccans and pagans. But Golden Dawn has nothing, or at least nothing that I am aware of.

Though I would not like to step forward and deal with it myself; imagine the mud that would be sling over that concept. But if we don't do it, who will tell them that this path exists?

Believing in the rupture

Here is a comment I made in response to a posting done on WitchDoctor Joe's blog about those who believe in the rapture, holy war and the Freemason Conspiracy.

It is not the devil you have to fear, it is those who do not realize that they are serving his purpose.

Recognition

Earlier this week, I read a posting on one of the Golden Dawn forums about how does a group get to be recognized by others, and who do they ask to be recognized. After I wiped the cola off my computer screen, I told the poster my opinion of the issue; basically, I would rather do the work than fight for recognition.

Recognition is a concept that came out of Freemasonry. To have your lodge recognized by a Grand Lodge is to have it regarded as being legitimate, and allows the members initiated into your lodge to attend other lodges that recognize your lodge. The reason this is so important in Freemasonry is that Freemasonry is NOT an unified worldwide Order. Rather it consists of a number of Grand Lodges (or Orders as we in Golden Dawn would think of them).

Some of my favorite quotes about the matter comes from Christopher Hodapp's Freemasons For Dummies:

"Freemasonry is not like a corporation or a single, solid, worldwide entity. As a result, no one owns the worldwide trademark to the square and compass logo, and no one can claim he holds the universal copyright on Masonic rituals. It would be like the Methodist Chruch claiming it holds the universal rights to all trademarks, symbols, and sacred texts of Christianity. The Methodists or Catholics or Baptists can't keep a new Christian group from building a chruch and placing a cross over its altar, or stop its choir from singing 'Onward Christian Soliders.'"

"Likewise, Grand Lodges can't stop a group of people from obtaining Masonic rituals out of a book, buying a stack of aprons and officers' jewels, and claiming that they have their own Grand Lodge. Like the branches of the Christian churches, there have been arguments and schisms between differing Masonic groups over the centuries, and factions of Masons have started their own Grand Lodges."

"So who gets to decide who is 'mainstream' or 'legitimate'? Well, in Freemasonry, as nasty as it may sound, might makes right in most cases, and it's a pretty tight club. The big group of mainstream Grand Lodges represents the greatest number of Freemasons in the world. As the 800-pound gorillas in the Masonic Universe, they get to collectively make rules they all agree to abide by."

"None of this is a huge issue to the individual Mason until he starts to travel and visit other lodges or encounters other Masons. An irregular [non-recognized] Mason will not be welcomed into a mainstream lodge, and his degrees and documents will not be considered legitimate. He will not be entitled to the honors, benefits, and fraternalism enjoyed by millions in the Masonic world."

Some parts of this reminds one of the situation in Golden Dawn; other parts do not (can you imagine Golden Dawn having millions of members; I can't).

For instance, Golden Dawn today consists of many different Orders (or Grand Lodges if you will). None of them can claim to hold the exclusive copyright to the Golden Dawn rituals, though certain members like myself can claim the copyrights to our own work and modifications that we have made to the system.

But unlike Freemasonry, in which Grand Lodges have agreed to recognize each other, Golden Dawn have little mutual recogntion. For the most part, a lot of the Big Name Orders do not recognize each other and/or are at war with one another. (I wish that I didn't consider it war, but with how nasty some of the battles have been...) Odds are that if you are in Golden Dawn, you are considered to be irregular by someone else.

And the cherry on top is the little trademark legal war that periodically flares up. Unlike Freemasonry, Golden Dawn has fought its most important recognition battles in court.

That is why I don't think anyone serious about doing the work should get involved in trying to gain recognition. As a tradition, we are too fragmented to justify the effort. At this point in time, it is better for us (outside of the Big Name Orders) to just do the work, and leave the worrying about who is legit and who is not to those who worry about such matters. And pray that we ourselves never grow to the size where we find lawyers on our doorstep.

For myself, I don't recognize any particular Golden Dawn group as legitimate. Why? Because I judge people by their skill and knowledge of the tradition. Have they done the work? If so, then I recognize them; if not, I chose not to associate with them. For me, recognition is an individual award, and not something given over to an entire Order.

Happy Birthday Golden Dawn!

One hundred and twenty years ago on March 1st, the Order of the Golden Dawn was formed. So happy birthday Golden Dawn!

While there are some who claim that the system is older, my opinion is that the Isis-Urania lodge was actually the first lodge. Perhaps someday, I will change my mind about that, but it would take some really good evidence to convince me otherwise.

What impresses me is that the Golden Dawn is still around. In the last century, countless number of Orders have faded away, dying off, and disappeared. Yet Golden Dawn may even survive for another hundred years unlike some of our fellow esoteric and fraternal Orders.

For instance, depending upon who you ask, Freemasonry is expected to become extinct within the next fifty years, or twenty-five, or ten (as I said it depends on who you ask).

Given the fact that Golden Dawn started out small (the original group only had three hundred members) and other Orders have disappeared, why is Golden Dawn still around?

I think it has to do with the fact that first Israel Regardie, then later writers like Pat Zalewski, wrote about the system. Even writers like Steve Nichols and myself have helped keep the system in the public's eye. And if the Order does disappear, which did happen once already, there is enough material to reconstruct the system.

Anyway, happy birthday Golden Dawn! And many happy returns.

How long should one be in Golden Dawn?

One of the disturbing things that I notice about the modern branches Golden Dawn, or at least something it is distrubing to me, is the fact that many treat the Golden Dawn system as something you do for a certain amount of time and then stop after you reach the end of the system.

Part of this trend is that many people have no experience with the non-Golden Dawn Orders. Traditionally in such Orders as the Freemasons, the Elks, and the Lions, one is a member for life. This is especially true of the Freemasons--even if you cease to attend lodge and quit paying dues, you are still a Freemason. You may not by in good standing; but unless you are expelled, you are still a Freemason.

And at one time, even if you were not a member of a non-Golden Dawn Order, you knew someone that was. While I was attending High School, one of my next door neighbors was a member of the Odd Fellows. The town, Brush Colorado, also had a Lion's Club. I didn't think anything was unusual about that. And a hundred years ago, it wasn't that strange.

We forget that a cenury ago, the Orders were striving. Forty percent of the adult population were a member of one Order or another. That wasn't just old white dudes; women and minorities had their own Orders.

It is different today. My grandmother was a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, an Order which purpose is to provide insurance policies to its membership. For me, it is easier to do business with State Farm. This lack of experience with the phenomenona of the Orders and the type of people who join them handicaps our system.

Another handicapp which contributes to the tendency to consider one membership in the system as a temporary thing is the truncated revealing of the system. While the publishing of the core documents of Golden Dawn by Israel Regardie saved the system from extinction, it has also had the effect of freezing much of the system into a form that gives itself to chasing a title and then leaving the system.

In many ways, I consider myself lucky to have found my way into Hathoor Temple before I was exposed to much of the published material. For the members of Hathoor Temple, one was a member for life. Recieving the Grade of Adept Minor was not the end of your involvment with the Order; for them, Golden Dawn was a living, growing system.

It was because of this long view that their curriculum was an expanding one. This tradition carried over into Bast Temple when it formed. I encourage members of the system to take the long view and treat Golden Dawn and its offshoots as an organization that one will be a member for the entire length of their lifetime.