Sanctuary of Maat officially closed

A few months ago, as many of my readers know, the Golden Dawn community lost a valuable member, GH Frater Imhotep. He was the founder and prinicipal mover behind the Sanctuary of Maat, an online Hermetic school that used the Cicero's Self-Initiation into the Golden Dawn Tradition as their primary textbook.

And as most of my readers know, between his death and a rather ugly server crash, the website of the Sanctuary of Maat has been inaccessible for months. Basically, everyone including Proctors and Co-Chiefs, were locked out of the site. 

Today, it was announced that the Sanctuary of Ma'at was being officially closed, and was no longer going to be accepting applications for SoM memberships or study groups. The decision was made because of the loss of all the school's data in the server crash, the death of Imhotep, and the need to focus on the growth of the physical Order.

Part of the official announcement for the closure, made by GH Frater Odo Caosg (Imperator, Ordo Stella Matutina) included the following statement:

If you currently have an ongoing subscription to the SoM [Sanctuary of Ma'at], please cancel it. The current Chiefs of the Stella Matutina have no access to Frater Imhotep's accounts, so we can not remove you or offer refunds, nor can we access any funds that are paid into it. Likewise, we have no access to the existing SoM website, and cannot even post this announcement there. It is our hope that these accounts will close of their own accord now that our Frater has passed on.

For those who are involved in the process of self-initiation into the Golden Dawn tradition, the Magical Working Group (MWG) yahoo group is still available for answering questions about the system. Most, if not all, the former Proctors of the SoM are active on the MWG. And many are members of the Ordo Stella Matutina or other lodge based Golden Dawn Orders, as are many former SoM members. In fact, the trend for SoM members to move on to take physical initiations was one of the reasons that the Ordo Stella Matutina was formed.

(Yes, one of the members of Bast Temple--VH Frater H.K.Aa.L.A.H.R.--was a proctor for the Sanctuary of Maat.)

Long time members of the SoM will remember this picture.

The public speaks out on the publication of Inner Order material

Today in the digest version of the messages on the Magical Working Group yahoo forum, there was the final results of a poll on secrecy and how people felt about the publication of Inner Order material.

(Warning---this was an online poll, done on a Yahoo forum, a forum that focuses on helping people study and use the Cicero's Self-Initiation into the Golden Dawn Tradition book---other forums and polls will show different results. If you know of other polls that have been done, share links with me, so that I can present a wider sample of results---thanks.)

The poll was created in September 2009, and just closed today (or yesterday). A total of 32 people voted (I presume that I was one of them...but I don't remember if I did this one or not---it does not matter, everyone knows my opinion on the subject if they are a regular reader of my writing.)

The question was:

"Some people have questioned the motivations for publishing Inner Order material, such as in the cases of Crowley and Regardie. Do you see this as defending the Golden Dawn tradition by releasing further information that would be of value to Orders and students which do not have typical access to these and further remaining documents?"

The possible answers (and the number of votes---percentage is how Yahoo sees it) were:

"Absolutely NOT!" (None, zero, not a single vote.)

"Keep them private" (Two votes, 6%)

"I think it [to] be of value, but only to responsible Temples and members" (Six votes, 18 %)

"As long as its NOT for personal motivations, not making money, and any personal notoriety" (Twenty-four votes, 75%)

Ok, before anyone points it out---yes, the answers are worded funny. I personally would have included another answer, or at least, tried to---Yahoo is not the world's best poll taking device. The third answer does not define who a "member" is, and the fourth answer probably does not fit the reason Aleister Crowley published.

Nevertheless, the fact that the majority of people voted in favor (sort-of) for publication says something. I am not sure what it says, but it says something. Of course, as a writer and business manager, I tend to look at it as a market problem---Are people actually buying the product? And would it be more beneficial to the bottom line to hoard the information?

I know that you have your own opinion---you are welcome to share it in the comment section; but please remember that I moderate the comments, not everything gets approved (flames and spam gets toosed into the round pixel file). Also remember that it can take me up to forty-eight hours to get back to the computer to check for comments---after all, I have a novel that I am working on.