Good luck with your meat fight (Goldie Oldie)

[This post was originally written on March 24, 2012...and I think that it applies equally well to the current brouhaha between Nick Farrell and David Griffin...or at least, I feel exactly the same way about the current mess as I did then about this previous situation. So here you go a Golden Oldie, just cross out what was happening then and insert what is being said now, and pretend that I cared enough to update this. Have a nice afternoon everyone.]

One of my favorite scenes from Dharma and Greg.

Ok, I have hit the point where I firmly suspect that I am going to be blacklisted because I refuse to see that Nick Farrell was only bad-mouthing one particular group that claims AO descent in the introduction to King Over the Water: Samuel Mathers and the Golden Dawn. Furthermore, I refuse to retract my good review of the book.

Let me be clear, I have personnally seen other groups doing this...aka in living memory and within the last decade. The trademark did not stop this from happening; it merely removed it from public view. Some of these leaders were bad. And just because your group is good today, it does not mean that it will be good tommorrow. Therefore, I see the need for the warning, and I have serious doubts that it was only referring to one particular group. And no, I do not believe that descent from the original Order, or communication with Secret Chiefs, automatically makes you good guys.

I am not interested in your proof that you are real and your leader pure---let me be clear---I have personnally been burned by people claiming descent from the AO; I have also been burned by people claiming to be communicating with the Secret Chiefs (Third Order). I do not need to see Farrell's proof that people have abused the vaccuum that a lack of information has generated---I have experienced the abuse first hand.

I may not only have a Crowley in my woodpile; I may also have a Mathers in my woodpile. I have been told that my lineage traces through Mathers. Of course, because I am not a member of the trademarked organization, therefore I am no longer AO.

When you demand that Farrell apologizes to everyone in the AO community, am I one of the people he is supposed to apologize to? No. Because I am not a card-carrying member of the trademarked Order.

Therefore, forgive me...and go ahead blacklist me...because I am just as AO as the rest of you (according to some of the people who I have dealt with) and I do not see the need for Farrell to apologize to me (because of abuse by people who claimed to be AO).

Good luck with your meat fight!

Reminder of 2013 Hearthstone Open Full Moon dates

Here are the dates for Community Church's Open Full Moon rituals. Hearthstone Community Church is a non-profit organization that helps provide support and space for Wiccans who want to do public full moon rituals. Hearthstone is still looking for voluteers to lead most of next year's rituals--March and June are already reserved. (Yes, June 21st OFM will be done by Bast Temple--BIORC; it will probably be an example of a solo GD ritual.)

2013 Open Full Moons

January 25
February 22
March 22
April 19
May 24
June 21
July 19
August 16
September 13
October 18
November 15
December 13

Hearthstone OFMs are held at the First Unitarian Church, 1400 Lafayette, Denver, Colorado. Doors open at 7 pm, and ritual starts at 7:30 pm. The rituals are held upstairs, and the Church is handicapped accessible (there is an elevator that goes up to the second floor).

This coming year, I will continue writing a monthly column for the newsletter (fourth year in a row).

(My newsletter articles from 2010 are collected in Pizza Boxes on the Floor; the 2011 articles are collected in the ebook Bad Monkey. The 2012 article collection is awaiting the creation of a cover--unfortunately, the photo I want is a two person gig...so it might not be released any time soon [it is just the cover that needs to be done].)

Golden Oldie Doomsday Cults Feb 2008

It is a Golden Oldie time, where much like the better cable networks we play a rerun for you. Going though the stacks, I found myself wondering what it was about February that brings out the doomsday cultist in me. Both of the posts that I have mentioned 2012 in were written in February (the first one in 2008, the second one this year).

This particular post comes from 2008. It just shows my natural bad attitude to the whole concept of doomsday in general. If you want to check out my bad attitude to 2012 in particular, hop over to the entry A Doomsday Like Any Other.

And remember these reruns are not free, so make sure that you buy a tin foil hat from our sponsor, Bast Temple. Providing the best Golden Dawn correspondence course printed on tin foil hats---that is Bast Temple. (Some assembly required. Initiations not included in the tin foil correspondence course. Astral initiations provided for an astronomical fee.)

One of the things I roll my eyes at are those people who are worried about the end of the world--the soothsayers of doomsday. The current doom is the end of the Mayan cycle, which ends on 2012. The soothsayers, and their believers, say that the world is going to come to a sudden end in a couple of years.


This particular theory is tied to the shifting of the magnetic poles. The shifting of the poles is a real thing, but it is hardly doomsday. The geological history of the Earth indicates that it has happened before and will happen again. The shifting of the poles, reversing the magnetic field around the Earth, is a minor inconvience, but we do want it to happen.


The mathematic models show that the shifting of the poles will bring the magnetic field of the Earth back up to full strength. This is a desirable thing. Without an eventual shift in the poles, based on the mathematical models, the magnetic field will weaken and disappear completely. That would be bad--rent the movie "The Core" if you want to see how bad it would be.


Personally, I would be more worried about a global economic crisis than I would be about the magnetic shift, but each to their own.


Doomsday are always with us; Revelations is happening everyday. Each of us has our own personal doomsday happening in our lives if we just look hard enough. For me, my doom is typically the next test or term paper that I have to cope with. For me, doomsday is up close and personal.


For many, it is not. And there are groups and fads that cater to them.


Yes, doomsday is catered. I would avoid the deviled eggs. I don't think that the ham is kosher. And who invented the Freemasons to our doomsday. But I disgress.


Yes, there are groups whose purpose is to prepare its members for doomsday. And there is always a new doomsday if it turns out that the previous doomsday was a false alarm.


I have belonged to several border-line doomsday cults. The first coven I belonged to was big on being prepared for a nuclear doomsday. A box of MREs (meals ready to eat--sure to survive a nuclear disaster because no one wants to eat them) and a lot of water was highly suggested, along with knowing where all the fall-out shelters were. Ironically, being prepared for a nuclear disaster ensures that you are prepared for other acts of god.


And when I was in the EOEW, there was the one meeting that drifted into getting ready for Y2K. Do you remember Y2K--the year that the world was supposed to end as all the world's computers crashed. If you want to know what I think of your average doomsday prediction ask me how I coped with Y2K.


Yes, I had some canned food, a small camp stove, and some bottled water. Toni would not allow me to buy a crossbow; in fact, she (like so many others) was appalled to learn that I believe that defending myself with deadly force is a real option in an emergency. Question my ethics all you want; at least I know my stance on how important my life is in comparsion to other random looters. Do you know how much value you place on your skin?


Toni got interested in Y2k late. In my opinion, too late. For her, it was a last minute thing.


I have been interested in doomsday since I was a teenager. Blame it on too much science fiction. In my opinion, you should be prepared to be thrust into the Hall of Judgment at any time. Doomsday will not be announced ahead of time; either will your last trumpet. If you are really concerned about doomsday, live every minute like its your last.


So it was with some amusement that I watched her learn about Y2K. I wasn't worried about Y2k. I had my nuclear stockpile; all I needed to get was a crossbow. It was only due to a lack of money that she didn't help drive up the price of bottled water.


But Toni is also an airhead. One I know who she was listening to (a good fortune teller on a personal level, can't hit the broadside of a barn on the global level); and two, she made some last minute changes in my perfectly good plan. She decided that we were going to stay at her place, not mine. That made my preparations useless. And she still won't let me invest in a crossbow.


For the record, I was not concerned with Y2K. The closer we got to the actual day, the less concerned I became. Why? I know something about programming computers. If Y2K was going to be a problem, we would have seen indications of it long before New Year's Day. I was not worried about the power plants shutting down, or planes falling out of the sky. I, much like my bosses, knew that the real problems of Y2K if any would be monetary.


How did my bosses plan on dealing with Y2K? Simple, they handed me a pencil and a pad of paper. It was a very business approach to doomsday. If doomsday happens, we will cater it.