Nick Farrell is mean to the Alt-Right (and they are upset about it)

Yesterday, in a howl Nick Farrell wrote a Facebook group moderator post about the posts that would get you banned from one of the Golden Dawn Facebook groups that he moderates. One of the things on the list was posting Alt-Right stuff. And his howl was met with screams that he was being unfair to the Alt-Right; and that by not mentioning the Alt-Left, he must somehow be supporting the Alt-Left.

Personally, as a fellow moderator of that particular GD FB group, I thought that backlash was ridiculous. First off, it is the Alt-Right posts that people keep trying to make that are the issue. Second, I haven't been seeing any Alt-Left posts in the pending stack. Third, the Alt-Left is a myth of the Alt-Right, who just assume that those who hate them are somehow organized beyond the Punch the Nazi level. Fourth, if Alt-Left posts were found in the pending stack, I would reject them (as well as Nick) simply because that particular GD FB group tries to remain focused on magic, and not on bovine end-products.

[If you are an Alt-Right, there is a Golden Dawn Facebook group ran by David Griffin which will totally let you post Alt-Right stuff. I am not sure if Griffin is an Alt-Right supporter, but he sure seems to hold their political position. In fact, the quickest way to get banned from his GD FB group is to be a liberal, and to tell him that his Alt-Right views are full bovine end-product goodness. And his GD FB group seems to be 100% about politics and 0% about magic, so there is a place for you.]

In response to the outrage that he was being unfair, and is somehow a member of the Alt-Left, Nick Farrell wrote a blog post. He wrote: 

"Some people think that the issue is political and you should not be talking about politics on a Golden Dawn chat group anyway.  While there is some truth in this, for me the issue is NOT political at all. Alt-Right ideas are not political at all but are the antithesis of everything the Golden Dawn represents.

Stripping away “political” ideas of alt-right we are still left with the following fundamental beliefs which are alien to the core of the Golden Dawn:

• The superiority of white males.
• Hatred of Jews and Muslims and homosexuals.
• A misogynistic opposition to “feminism” which is a call for women to adopt traditional roles."

You can read the rest of his blog post on his blog: Sorry, you can't be Alt-Right and a member of the Golden Dawn.

If Alt-Right is banned, why not Alt-Left?

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.

Sealing the directions using IAO (reblogged from Nick Farrell)

Nick Farrell wrote: For a while I wondered why in the Sepher Yetzirah it refers to God by the name יהו instead of the more traditional tetragrammaton. This might be because the writer was using the name in Greek IAΩ. This name was the name given to the Tetragrammaton in the Greek translation of the Old Testament but was also a name given to Jupiter and was a mystical cry in the mystery rites. IAΩ was the letters of the sun, moon and Saturn in Greece, but it was also the first, middle and last letters of the alphabet. Translating it back into the original Greek it starts to make sense in that context.

He looked forward and sealed the East, with A I Ω.
He looked to the right and sealed the South, with Ω I A.
He looked behind and sealed the West, with Ω A I.
He looked to the left and sealed the north with A Ω I.
He looked below and sealed the deep, with I Ω A.
He looked above and sealed the height, with I A Ω.

Read the rest of the post "WMT (Western Mystery Tradition) Kabbalah is no longer my personal magical system's backbone" at http://www.nickfarrell.it/kabbalah-and-me/

Everything you need to know about the history of the Golden Dawn flame war

[This blog post was written February 13, 2015, and was never published because everyone said that the days of the Flame Wars! were over---I am publishing it today because someone just started screaming that someone was trying to start a new flame war against them.]

The history of the twenty year plus long Golden Dawn flame war is (more or less) as follows:

In the late 1990s, two different Orders trademarked the name "Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn." One was based in Europe, and the other one was based in the United States. The trademark was fought over in a lengthy court battle, a battle that also spilled over onto the internet.

In addition to this, two GD gurus decided that they wanted to turn Golden Dawn into a business, one where they had the monopoly over the entire Golden Dawn system. To help accomplish this, both parties also fought it out on the internet by defaming the other party, and anyone who supported them.

Both of these battles resulted in at least one party using sock puppets and their human followers to post the most vicious and nasty lies that they could think of to describe the other parties and people that they wanted out of the Golden Dawn business.

During the course of all this, sooner or later, everyone got called a Neo-Nazi, Satanist, and a criminal. Needless to say, there is a lot of hurt feelings.

Who is guilty? Well, each party involved blames someone(s) else for the whole nine yards.

So basically, some parties decided that it made good business sense to call other people names, in order to convince students of the Golden Dawn system that they were the only logical choice to teach and lead Golden Dawn, given the fact that all of the other Golden Dawn leaders and teachers were complete and utter dogs intent on ripping people off and using them for their own evil pleasure.

As always, remember "Buyer Beware!" for some people are very good at appearing to be other than what they really are.

Magical Order of Aurora Aurea is closing its correspondence course

Today Nick Farrell announced: "The Magical Order of the Aurora Aurea is no longer offering its correspondence course. Those who are already in it will continue to be supervised. It has been running now for seven years; however in the last 18 months, we have been getting complaints that it is too difficult for modern people. I have no interest in dumbing it down -- it weeded people out, but more recent candidates have not continued past lesson three."

And I understand this---there is a reason why the EOEW/BIOGD/BIORC correspondence course has gotten so little attention---and it is pretty much the same reason.

For those who are interested in a Golden Dawn correspondence course, I have been recommending the book, Self-Initiation into the Golden Dawn Tradition (Cicreo), and its (unofficial & unauthorized) support group Sanctuary of Mau.

Someday, I do plan on creating a print-on-demand course, but it is not high on my list of things to accomplish anytime soon.

Leave me out of your peace treaty

This is just a short and sweet open letter to David Griffin and Nick Farrell, and the multitude of their various and sundry supporters:


Good luck with your peace.

But beware that I will not take down a single post.


I stand behind my words---I do not rewrite my history.


If you want people to quit talking about you in a negative manner, quit talking about conspiracies, the unfitness of other teachers and authorities, and get a bloody sense of humor.


If you want people to talk positively about you, do something positive. Write another book. Write a blog post with actual information in it. Make a video that is not a bloody commercial filled with eyesores. Tend your own garden of students and do not worry about the rest of us mismanaging our responsibilities.


Do not expect the entire internet to confirm with your wishes to only have good things said about you. Contrary to conspiracy theory, the internet is made up of individuals, and some of us just do not like you.


And yes, I am moderator in the Golden Dawn Facebook group that Nick runs as a public service. That fact does not compel me to be part of your peace. All that requires of me is to keep out ads for Raybans and Ugg boots, and to delete any discussion that is going to result in a stabbing.


Honestly, if I had my way, I would have deleted every reference to David Griffin as soon as I became a moderator of that Golden Dawn group. And I would have deleted all new conversations about Griffin as soon as I became aware of them. All conversations about Griffin end up with people having hurt feelings---Griffin has simply made too many enemies over the years, therefore no conversation about the man is going to remain polite.


I realize that this response will get me labeled an enemy...but I was already burdened with that label before today. And in fact, I have grown comfortable in my knowledge that I will never be a member of the One, True, dating back to the Ancient Egyptians, trademarked until the cows come home, Mystery Tradition. That is actually a good thing--after all, I might feel like punching you in the nose if I ever met you in person, and you are not worth going to jail for.

Crata Repoa Decoded by Nick Farrell (book review)

As most of my regular readers know, the latest limited edition offering by Nick Farrell is The Hidden Path Behind Initiation or Crata Repoa Decoded. In the book, Farrell comments on the "syncretic fantasy" of masonic ritual, the Crata Repoa, written in 1770 by Karl Friedrich von Koppen and Johann Wilhelm Bernhard von Hymmen. Treating the Crata Repoa as an allegory of initiation, Farrell teases out a general path that all initiates of spirtual traditions suffer though.

And it is a path of darkness and suffering, with a lot of death and underworld experiences, if Farrell's reading of the allegory is correct. This is a point that I am currently hard pressed to argue with, given both my depression and the fact that I feel as if my connection to the higher has dried up (my depression probably would not be as bad as it is if I felt that I was still under the blessing of the higher, but that ship has sailed). Given my personal state of mind, I am not so sure that I can do justice in reviewing this book, still one must try.

One of the amusing things that has occurred since Farrell has published this book, or I assume that it would be amusing if my mental state was close to normal, is that Farrell recieved a "cease and desist" notice from someone claiming that Farrell had revealed real secrets about an Order constructed from the Crata Repoa. Personally, I do not see how he could have revealed real secrets unless the Crata Repoa itself is being considered a secret, for the majority of the book is his own reading of the allegory.

This is not a book that you buy to learn the secrets of another group--this is a book that you read to learn something about the secrets of the group that you already belong to. In my case, that would be an offshoot of the Golden Dawn tradition, and not any group based on the Crata Repoa itself.

One of the theories that occultists have is that the path of initiation, especially the mystical and magical versions, has certain landmarks, no matter what version that one suffers though. And Farrell theoricizes that this is exactly what the allegory is supposed to be about, the common experiences that initiation would bring about. After reading the book, I must admit that Farrell seems to be right that the Crata Repoa was an allegory to talk about these spiritual experiences.

Farrell also points out places where the Crata Repoa might have influenced the creator of the Golden Dawn Cipher Manuscript, in particular the use of the names of certain officers of the Order.

Normally, at this point, I would give a star rating to the book, but honestly I am not sure that I can do that with complete clarity, so I will not attempt to do so. Do I think that the book is worthwhile to my readers? To some of them, yes--but I am not sure that my entire audience would benefit from reading this book, especially if they are not yet ready to start to struggle with the overall arch that the path of initiation entails.

You drove me into the conspiracy

[This post is being written on September 27, 2012--and it is a prediction of the HOGD/AO reaction to the fact that a book of Commentaries on the Golden Dawn Flying Rolls has been published. I am writing it now because I am sure if what I am predicting comes true, I will not feel like being even this polite.]

Yes, I willingly volunteered to write a commentary on one of the Golden Dawn Flying Rolls when a member of the "evil conspiracy" asked me to. Yes, I knew that the profits were going to the Golden Dawn Legal Defense Fund. And yes, I knew who else were writing commentaries.

Well, the first statement is true. The other two statements were good guesses on my part. (I saw a partial "proof" copy just a couple of days ago, so I know that my guesses were true.) I will admit that I didn't ask certain questions once I heard that it was a "non-profit" community project, and that Nick Farrell was involved.

Now, I do not necessarily agree with everything that Nick says. I think that he knows this. For one thing, him and me have different opinions about what goes into running an esoteric Order--I suspect this is because I come from the "back of the bookstore" and "let's talk about this over coffee" schools of training; in many ways, his training was better than mine (not hard to accomplish at all). For a second thing, Nick casts Samuel Macgregor Mathers in the role of evil genius; I am not sure that Mathers was nearly as conscious of the effects that his instructions would have. (I will talk more about that in another blog post--if I haven't already by the time this entry is actually published.)

So why would I willing volunteer for this project, especially when I knew that it would get me labeled as a member of an evil conspiracy.

Because the HOGD/AO has already claimed that I am a member of the evil conspiracy.

When I was asked to volunteer for this project, it was just after the little McTroll name-calling session that occurred after the Biased Book Review Battle of 2012 (aka Nick Farrell's positive book reviews must be all written by members of an evil conspiracy--no one could actually think that Farrell's books had any real merit). In the case of that battle, I got labeled as a "McTroll."

After being labeled a member of the conspiracy (which I wasn't) and having my reputation dragged through the mud--yes, I willingly volunteered to do this project.

I did briefly think about withdrawing from the project when the HOGD/AO announced their Peace and Harmony Pow Wow. Clear up to the second that I realized that peace between me and the HOGD/AO meant me ceasing to write about anything occult.

In particular, two comments kept me in the project. The first one was by an anonymous commenter, who lumped me into a list of bad writers and bloggers.

It is a laundry list of who the HOGD/AO considers to be agents for the conspiracy.

A couple of people on this list are friends of mine. And a couple of them I would love to work with, even if it is only getting an article into the same book as them. Plus, lets be honest, they have influenced my approach to magic and Golden Dawn more than Griffin ever has.

The second comment got my Irish up. (Note, both of these comments were made after the HOGD/AO announced their peace effort...hence, my opinion that only my complete disappearance would be classified as peaceful from their viewpoint.) And it is by Griffin's own wife. Even assuming that she was reacting to a death threat, I found it highly disturbing as a writer.

Now, let's be honest--I do not agree with her base opinion that I was hurting the egregore of Golden Dawn, especially the part of it that belongs to the HOGD/AO. But her tone implied that they (the HOGD/AO) can do anything that they want and not have to apologize for it, while the rest of us need to get permission for everything that we do.

(For the record, the part in red is my personal commentary...for it describes how I felt about the comments.)

Having dragged my reputation through the mud, and labeling me an "evil conspiracy member"---it was natural for me to say, "Yes" to a project that I knew was going to be classified a plot by the conspiracy.

In fact, I am not sure that I would have qualified to be involved in this project if it wasn't for the HOGD/AO. After all, I was a neutral clear up until they decided to declare me a member of the conspiracy for giving Nick's book a positive review. And let's be honest, I never bothered to prove that I was a Golden Dawn expert, preferring to remain a lunatic with a soapbox. I honestly think that the HOGD/AO labeling me a McTroll got me this gig.

So I would like to give the HOGD/AO a big thanks for labeling me a member of the conspiracy, and allowing me to get involved in this latest project. I learned a heck of a lot from this project, and it is going on my resume.

The Magic Machine by Nick Farrell (book review)

One of the things that amuses me is the occasional outpouring of "secrets must be kept" when someone dares to publish something that is already well past its "keep secret until" date. Today, the source of my amusement was the debate on whether or not, Nick Farrell should have published pictures of the walls of the Vault of the Adepts.

My own position...well let's see...

Venus Vault Wall Study.

...I first published a set of Vault wall studies on this blog starting in June 2009, shortly after the Book of the Tomb was open-sourced by Nick Farrell. And I have kicked around actually doing some Vault wall merchandise...something that I may still do. After all, a quick image search on Google will yield dozens of hits, and there are some crass people already doing Rose Cross lamen merchandise (all seem to be using the same picture to boot). So I really think that secrecy on this particular subject has flown the coop. It is now time to start making sure that people are getting it right. Now that my position on secrecy and much of it still apllies to the Vault walls is out of the way, let's move on to reviewing the book in question.

As I have already said, secrecy has flown the coop on this one--it is time to make sure that people are getting it right. And this is what The Magic Machine--The Golden Dawn Vault in Colour by Nick Farrell is about, helping people get the vault colors right.

The most valuable piece of this book is the eight colored plates showing the general key to the background color of the Vault walls, and the individual planetary Vault walls. And while I prefer mixed pigments over pixels, I wish I would had this book earlier in my occult career when I was preparing to build a Vault of the Adepts.

(Before you ask, the project never got past the study stage, due to the sudden vacating of anyone who might have needed to be vaulted by the current lodge that I belong to...it was a strange summer that year.)

Comparing my first study and later ones (I have done several over the years) to the plates in The Magic Machine, I am comforted to see that I am in the general ballpark, not exactly the same colors as Farrell is using, but close enough when one accounts for the difference in methods used. It was also comforting to read that someone else stumbled upon the problem with the Vault's ceiling--something that drives me a little batty.

Now I imagine that some people in the Golden Dawn tradition will claim that he is wrong about how the colors are created. Of course, if he is wrong, then so am I--and I was initially working from the texts published by Regardie and some misc. unpublished notes from a modern Order, and not directly from the Book of the Tomb. Then again, I just shake my head about how the critics have done their own Vaults--it is like they are working from a completely different set of instructions that have nothing to do with any actual Golden Dawn material.

Besides the meat of the book, Farrell does give hints on how to use the pictures, general information about the Vault of the Adepts, and a nice set of planetary deity calls to key your work with the Vault walls to.

I recommend getting this book if you ever think that you might need to build a Vault or work with one.

Five out of five stars.

The Magic Machine--The Golden Dawn Vault in Colour is a limited edition hard-cover book available from Lulu. 

[Required FTC disclosure: This review was based on a low res electronic copy of the book given to the reviewer to ensure a timely review of the book.]

The Shem Grimoire by Nick Farrell (Book Review)

Table of contents page from the Shem Grimoire.

The first thing that a reader needs to know about this book is that this book is not for beginners. This is not a history of the Shem ha-Mephorash and the evolution of its associated angels, nor is it heavy on theory and philosophy. No, this is a grimoire with just enough history and theory to orient a Zelator Adept Minor (Z.A.M.) before turning them loose on actual working with the Shem Angels.

The second thing that a reader needs to know about this book is that it is meant to be used. One of its center pieces is a ritual to actually get in contact with a Shem angel (one of the 72 angels created from the so-called 72 lettered name of God...which actually has 216 letters in it, but who is counting?). There is also an interesting Middle Pillar ritual, complete with head movements inspired by Abraham Abulafia (a mystic of the Kabbalah bent).

(I might write a blog entry about the rituals contained in this book after I work with them for awhile. Or maybe not...it is always hard to tell with me.)

Having worked with some of the Shem angels previously (using a combination of techniques grabbed from Golden Dawn, the Franz Bardon school, and ancient paganism), I mainly focused on the listings for the angels--the place I start with most books that list the uses and powers of spirits that I have previously worked with...because if they get that section wrong, then I have to wonder about the accurancy of the rest of the material.

Based on Nick Farrell's descriptions of the Shem angels, I am confident that he has actually worked with them. While there are minor differences in the functions of the angels as Farrell describes them compared to my own experiences, the differences are so insignificant that one can see that they are based on differences in perception of the operators involved, and not ignorance.

But one does not have to have extended working experience to double-check the general function of the angels. One of the things that I learned while working with the Bardon system was that the angels ruling the important positions of one's birth chart has a certain amount of influence over the individual. If one sits down with their birth chart and look at the position of their rising sign and their planets, one can often see how those planets and sensitive points of one's birth chart is colored by the influence of the angels that rule those astrological degrees. (This is a point that Farrell also mentions in his book--he suggests what order one might want to work with the angesl ruling one's birth chart.)

(Important note--remember to round up when doing this. For instance, Leo 20 degrees, 33 minutes is actually the 21st degree of Leo, not the 20th.)

Take for instance, the position of Mercury in my own birth chart, Leo 20 degrees, 33 minutes. This places my Mercury, the planet of communication and writing, in the section of the zodiac ruled by the Shem angel Meheshiiah (Mem-Heh-Shin-Yod-Heh). Given that I am one of the less evolved types, the influence of this angel tends to be more dubious and negative than positive. One of the things that Farrell says about Meheshiiah is, "There is little in the way of conciliation about him and Meheshiiah is unhappy to make a peace which does not involve total capitulation." Many people who have dealt with me will nod knowingly at this point, because I will not accept partial peace offerings, preferring to remain at war with people instead--a trait that often shows up in my writing.

I am giving this book five out of five stars.

The Shem Grimoire is limited to two hundred hard-cover copies, and is available from Lulu. 

[Disclosure: This review is based on a pre-proof stage file copy given to me by the author for review purposes.]

What My Hierophant Should Have Taught Me (Book Review)

One of my favorite sayings is "If you want to understand the behavior of Secret Chiefs and their human representatives, think of the Secret Chiefs as being cats." Many people think that I am merely making a joke--I am not. It is a statement that I make in all seriousness. I don't think that a lot of people get my point. But if anyone gets my point (and the real useful advice that goes along with my statement), I suspect that Nick Farrell is one of them.

Recently Nick Farrell wrote a limited edition book called "What My Hierophant Should Have Taught Me." It consists of a series of aphorisms applicable to the occult path, along with a commentary for each one. Some of the aphorisms are:

*Magic is not a religion
*You crave power
*Understanding symbols is a key to understanding the universe

and my personal favorite:

*When things go wrong, do not panic

(which I tend to lump in with my own personal aphorism--When working with Sister Amy, have a fire extinguisher ready...honestly, do not let her near any open flames.)

This book is filled with useful advice, some of which I wish I would have learned sooner than I actually did. For the most part, I agree with the advice given in this book. There are a couple of things that I am going to have to experiment with (or pay more attention to) before I make a judgment on--mainly technical advice on working magic.

I imagine that a lot of people are going to judge this book harshly. Some of the advice is about the warning signs that a group (or a group leader) is not on the up and up. It has been my experience that such dubious people turn nasty when they believe that someone is talking about them in a negative light; after all, someone might actually listen and not pay them the dues or accolades that they so richly deserve.

Farrell also mentions advice about how groups react when someone leaves a group (either willingly or not)--this advice falls under the category of "Gee, I wish someone would have warned me about that sooner."

Overall, this is a very useful book--one that I wish I had much earlier in my occult and esoteric career. I give it five out of five stars.

What My Hierophant Should Have Taught Me (limited to just a hundred copies) is still available on Lulu.

[Disclosure: This review is based on an electronic file version provided by the author for review purposes.]

Limited editions have to be limited

The other day, I was reading the comments on a Facebook announcement about a new limited edition book. (Yes, a Nick Farrell limited edition book.) And one of the commenters said that perhaps in the future that the author would consider reissuing the material in another edition or perhaps even in ebook form. At this point, I must admit that I sadly shook my head because I realized that the commenter was overlooking a basic fact about the limited edition book market.

If "limited edition" is being used as a sales tactic, then the edition truly has to be limited.

Limited edition sales tactics depend upon just a handful of things to quickly and completely sell out their print run--a very limited number of copies, the author's authority, the rarity of the information, and keeping one's word about the number of copies that are going to be issued.

Limited edition sales tactics also can benefit from deluxe editions (fine leather covers, signed and numbered copies), but for the most part, it is the rarity of the limited copies that drive the success of the sales tactic.

The things that can hurt the success of a limited edition include poor information and burning your previous customers (there are some publishers that I will never buy a limited edition from ever again, simply because they seem to think slapping the words "limited edition" on poorly written and formatted crap ensures a steady income). Poor economic times can also hurt the success of a limited edition (heavens knows that I currently can't afford to buy any books--limited edition or not).

But the number one thing that can hurt the success of a limited edition is for the customers to believe that you are going to print more copies in the future. (I am not talking deluxe editions here, which go hand in hand with a regular edition--deluxe editions are brought often simply because they are a luxury or better printed than the regular version--no, I am talking about true limited "only X number of copies will be printed" editions here.) If the customer believes that you are going to later republish, either with more copies, or in a cheaper form, the urgency for them to quickly buy a copy fades.

And if the customer has been burned before by an author or publisher deciding to print more copies than they originally promised to, good luck at selling them anything that you chose to label limited edition.

It is the rarity that drives the sales of limited editions. Period. End of sentence.

Now, rarity is not affected by some things. For instance, piracy does not affect limited editions. (Or at least, no one has ever showed me credible research to prove that piracy affects limited edition book sales.) The initial rarity of a limited edition is not affected by piracy because there is no promise that a book is going to be scanned and uploaded to the pirate sites. And piracy (if it actually occurs) does not affect the long term value of a limited edition either, for the physical copy is actually king when it comes to the second hand and collectable market.

(For those who are curious, I used to be in the collectable market at one point both as a seller and a collector. The rules have not changed, despite the presence of ebooks and pirate sites, as a quick hunt on eBay shows.)

So the poor soul--and by "poor," I mean that their budget is like mine, without any room for luxuries--asking if someday the author might change their mind and print more copies, is barking up the wrong tree. No working writer with knowledge of the publishing field would dare break their word about the number of copies that they were going to print, especially in a niche market such as Golden Dawn (which has a couple thousand members who all know one another). Any author daring to break their word would rapidly destroy their ability to quickly move copies of any future limited edition. And no intelligent or hungry writer would want to do that injustice to their own writing career.

Coffee Tea or Secret Chiefs

Sorry Nick, my Secret Chief passport expired.

So it is now down to the wire for the Secret Chiefs to show up and shoot Nick Farrell with large amounts of lightning bolts for being so ballsy that he challenged them to show up and smite him dead. As for my Secret Chiefs (aka my cats), their passports are expired and they think that I should front their travel expenses, and quite honestly they believe that Nick Farrell might kiss dogs with that mouth of his, so he will have to just go unblessed by their presence.

Now, exactly what does the results of this challenge prove? (Provided that the Secret Chiefs do not show up at the last second just to annoy me by making me rewrite this blog post.)

One, it proves that some people do not believe that the Secret Chiefs are physical beings who are hard-wired into the Golden Dawn tradition. And they will continue to thumb their noses at anyone who claims contact with the physical Secret Chiefs--including citing this challenge as proof that the Secret Chiefs are not physical beings.

Two, it proves that some other people will continue to believe that their leader is the only person enlightened enough to deal with the Secret Chiefs despite the lack of any witnesses to their existence outside their own leader's best friends and wife. And they are really good at explaining away all reasonable doubt that the lack of independent evidence causes--there are a few churches that wish for that level of pure faith in their followers.

Wait a second--didn't we already know this before this challenge was issued?! My cats could have told you this, and they are too lazy to do the proper Grade signs. In other words, one group will continue to say that the Secret Chiefs are not physical beings while the other group will claim that everyone else is too unwashed to be blessed by their presence. Status quo remains the same.

Truth about the conspiracy against Griffin and the AO



Conspiracy writing cat listens to Elvis between blog posts.

Ahh, we all knew this day would come. One of the Sorors involved in the conspiracy against David Griffin and his completely awesome AO Order has finally cracked, telling the truth for the whole world to know.

I no longer have to lie about the conspiracy. No longer do my cats (Secret Chiefs) have to come up with new and better lies to hide the truth. Finally, I can tell the truth.

Elvis is a better spiritual leader than David Griffin.

Furthermore, Nick Farrell and Pat Zalewski both know it. Their respective Orders are all about listening to Elvis albums and trying to understand the full awesomeness of the King---Elvis Presley. They have all his albums, and one of them even has some of his sweat in a vial.

And to prove that this is the truth, I will tell you a startling revelation---the Vault of the Adepts is made with painted velvet walls, and all the Third Order members wear blue suede shoes. It is true. All the proof you need is to know is that Elvis lived, died, and will be revived in the future.

The Secret Chiefs say, Meow--you are nothing but a hound dog.

Elvis fans know the truth.




What is Griffin trying to accomplish?

Looking over the few blog posts about David Griffin "suggesting" to his members that they rush over to Amazon and give Nick Farrell one-star negative reviews for his alleged insulting remarks about Griffin's HOGD/AO that did not originate from the two parties involved, I have noticed that the general opinion is that Griffin has lost his flaming mind. And I understand how one would believe this; I thought this when I saw the first puppet master post (really there is a global conspiracy against Griffin and his Order? it is not just simple loathing for a man who seems determined to destroy the greater Golden Dawn community because we refuse to bow down to his infinite wisdom?).

But the writer and business manager in me saw something more going on.

First, it was the launch of a major promotional campaign. Same as all of his campaigns, it features him knowing the truth and the rest of us as fools being too stupid to follow him. (Gee, I wonder why the rest of us loathe him.)

Second, it was launched just before his magical confab, one that was ill-timed for any leader in another Golden Dawn Order to attend. (Gee, could it be that Griffin did not actually want leaders from other Orders to attend?) That was too big of a coincidence for me.

Third, before the confab even started, Griffin was foaming at the mouth that Farrell was violating his Order and his copyrights. Here is a man who does not understand copyright law. Or any of the other laws that he threatens people with.

So I do not believe that Griffin has gone insane. No, I believe that he has other reasons to send his troops at Farrell. And yes, they willingly voluteered to do so. The poor fools.

One of the quickest ways to bond a group together is to give them a common enemy. In this case, Nick Farrell. If Robert Zink was still around and active, he could have been the sacrifical victim, but it is the community's loss that Zink is currently rebuilding his empire. And Pat Zalewski didn't have anything recent to rant about. So it had to be Nick. Poor Nick.

Now, how do I know that this is not what it appears to be? Simple, bad book reviews do not actually hurt the sales of established writers. In fact, the buzz and shouting probably helped Farrell's book sales. Therefore, considering Griffin is not stupid, and presuming that he has not went insane (ok, there is a possibilty there), why would Griffin do this campaign?

The only answer I have is the common enemy bond. These freshly minted Adept Minors have been given a common enemy to fight against. It is a minor form of brain washing.

And it does not matter if Griffin consciously meant this campaign to do that or not---he still gets points on the various cult danger evaluation forms for calling his members to fight in this campaign. And the fact that his members willingly hopped to defend their and his honor gets him even more points. And if you wait a few days, the final unveiling of the puppet master, who is supposely controlling the venom that flows in Griffin's general direction (it can't be the simple fact that people loathe the man), will gain Griffin even more points on the cult scales. Unless he has lost his flaming mind, in which case, the situation is even worse than I think it is.

[The opinions expressed here are mine. Remember that I PDFed a lot of what has happened, and no judge in the land is going to rule that this commentary is off-limits thanks to how silly this situation looks.]

Good luck with your meat fight!



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 buried 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!

And the internet boils over (Flaming Book Review edition)

Satan Kitty is annoyed that we must talk about things other than him.

I was not going to blog about this...but the members of the HOGD/AO want an answer, so here I am blogging about the internet boiling over.

(For those who do not know about today's meltdown, David Griffin has allegedly ordered his members to quit buying Nick Farrell's books, and to give Farrell's books extreme negative reviews on Amazon; and Farrell has allegedly bad-mouthed the only people who have ever called themselves Alpha and Omega.)

The question that is forcing me to address today's meltdown is: Why did I not address Nick Farrell alleged bad-mouthing Griffin's HOGD/AO Order in my antacid review?

Now, this question should have came up before this point. But the only comment I got about the review before today was a remark from one of my friends that I could not spell (antiacid, antacid--what's the difference?!). I might have gotten a comment or two on Facebook, but I do not remember them...because they did not question why I said the things that I said about King Over the Water: Samuel Mathers and the Golden Dawn in my review of the book.

In fact, I was expecting the internet to boil over the first week of March...it didn't. It made me suspect that the only people reading my review were crickets. It made me suspect that the only people to read Farrell's book were the reviewers.

Now, my unpleasant answer to the question---I did address it. Maybe, just maybe, I was too subtle about it.

Here is where I addressed the alleged bad-mouthing of the current AO.

The biggest problem with this book quite honestly is that those people who need to read it the most will ignore it because their superiors will tell them that it is just a pack of lies and a political ax job meant to destroy Mathers and their superiors' reputations. And they will believe their superiors. Farrell tries to address this issue by pointing out some of the things that dishonest Orders have done in the past. I would love to say that the offenses he lists are isolated events, but they remind me of the laundry list of crap that I have seen in the various esoteric groups that I have been involved in.

Wow. It looks like I am really good at predicting the future...I am not.

Get your Golden Dawn brand antacids here! Just $9.99 a bottle.

It is now time to take an antacid and step into the Way-Back Machine---mind the flaming dog poop.
The year is 1989. And I am trying to locate anyone working the Golden Dawn system of magic here in Denver Colorado. There are three lodges operating here. (Actually four, but I am unaware of the fourth lodge at this point.) All three lodges claim to be Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. And one is really loud about the fact that they are descended from the original Alpha and Omega.

It turns out that the loud-mouth is the worst behaved of the lot. I am fortunate that the leader (the sole person who really has power in the group) takes one look at me and decides that I am too poor to be worth his time. Yes, too poor. Years later, I had the opportunity to talk to some former members of the group in question after the group exploded into flames, and they had horror stories worse than mine. (For the record, I have been in a lot of bad groups and had lots of horror stories already about bad leaders.)

I also got to see their rituals, thanks to the fact that for some reason I was declared someone responsible. (How that happened I still don't know.) And honestly, the rituals looked like they came out of Regardie's book. It is safe to presume that the loud-mouth lodge had no actual lineage to the original GD/AO.

Interestingly enourgh, the lodge that might have had the best lineage, and which rituals actually looked like the AOs, chose to bury the fact that they ever had a lineage...occasionally, one would hear a horror story about the group that they sprung from. (Technically, they were a schism group...and we all know that schism are never correct in leaving their Mother Order.)

So here we have a bunch of AO problems of the type that Farrell is referring to and Griffin is not even in the community yet (or at least not as a visible member from where I was standing). This misbehavior was well BEFORE Griffin took out the trademark for the HOGD/AO name.

Therefore, I was not completely convinced that Farrell was talking the current AO. Honestly, if you wait long enourgh, the players will change, but the misbehavior will still be the same. In my experience, the worst leaders mimic Mathers and claim descent from him and his branch of the tradition. There was a thrity year period that a whole bunch of misbehavior was carried out under the banner of being from Mathers' spiritual lineage. And Farrell could have been talking about any of them...he did not mention Griffin's modern AO by name.

(One hopes that Griffin is different...but seriously, threats of lawyers, bad book reviews, and piracy?! One should not have to resort to such threats---one's actions and service to their community should be the only proof one needs.)

And honestly, someday Griffin is going to die and a whole bunch of Orders are going to spring up claiming to descend from his AO, and I am betting that some of them are going to be bad apples. Because of that, I would rather see the warning than ignore the past crimes of groups that spent thirty years claiming descent from Mathers before Griffin even showed up on the scene. Because the warning was needed thirty years ago, twenty years ago, and someday will again be needed.

So there is your answer: I am not completely sure that Farrell was talking about Griffin's Order because there were others claiming descent from the AO long before him, and they were bad evil leaders, and someday others (after Griffin is dead and buried) will claim descent from the AO to justify their misbehavior. Better a warning misread today than none at all.

Book Review King Over the Water

Would you like an antacid with your Mathers' Last Secret book?

When Mathers' Last Secret came out, one of my friends joked that we should market a brand of Golden Dawn antacids. I regret not following up on that suggestion, for the latest book by Nick Farrell, King Over the Water: Samuel Mathers and the Golden Dawn, is going to just increase the market for antiacids among some members of the Golden Dawn community.

This book review is not for the antiacid crowd. My suggestion for the antiacid crowd is just continue on with your work and ignore this book. This includes anyone who thinks that Mathers was the genius behind Golden Dawn, that Mathers was in contact with some uber-Adept, or that secret documents should remain unpublished and Secret Chiefs and their contacts unquestioned. And if you choose to ignore my advice, and buy the book anyways, just remember that I am willing to sell you a big jar of premium Golden Dawn brand antiacid.

In fact, if you feel that Mathers was perfect and/or the Secret Chiefs are perfect, you may want to ignore the rest of this book review as well and just go pop an antacid right now.

King Over the Water

*antacid time*

I like this book. It is long overdue. It will be a valuable addition to anyone's Golden Dawn history or document library.

Have you taken your antacid yet?

(One would hope that the antacid crowd have taken my advice and wandered off already, but I know that they would rather stick around and throw rotten eggs at me for liking this book. *sigh*)

The biggest problem with this book quite honestly is that those people who need to read it the most will ignore it because their superiors will tell them that it is just a pack of lies and a political ax job meant to destory Mathers and their superiors' reputations. And they will believe their superiors. Farrell tries to address this issue by pointing out some of the things that dishonest Orders have done in the past. I would love to say that the offenses he lists are isolated events, but they remind me of the laundry list of crap that I have seen in the various esoteric groups that I have been involved in.

My advice to one and all is: Be wary of anyone who holds an office in an esoteric Order, especially anyone who holds power because of the documents and contacts that they alone control. And be prepared to pop a lot of antacids. Why? Because a lot of people look fondly back on Mathers and decide to act just like he did. This tends to lead to the exact same results that the early GD experienced---do I need to remind you of the last time that this happened?!

Samuel Liddell (MacGregor) Mathers, while necessary for the birth of the Golden Dawn system, is not the person you want to model your behavior on as an officer or Chief of an esoteric Order.

One of the things that I think that every student of Golden Dawn should study is the history of the early years of the Order. It is part of our heritage as members of the Golden Dawn. I don't care what branch of the Golden Dawn tradition you belong to, the early history is important to know.

Unfortunately, up until this book, no history of the early years of the Order has been written by someone who has stood on the inside of a functioning Golden Dawn lodge. The closest we have gotten, previous to this book, are a few Freemasons who chosen to write about esoteric Order history. Because of that there are some things that are perfectly "normal" inside the GD envirnoment that end up sounding mighty strange to an outsider, and the histories so far have made the early GD sound slightly wacky.

Does Farrell make Mathers sound like a complete loon? No. Farrell makes it clear that Mathers had some personal issues, but they are no stranger than those of most of the people that I have sat in lodge with. It was rather interesting to see Farrell point out the possible psychological issues that may have been driving Mathers actions.

Over the years, I have tried to get people to explain to me why Mathers did certain things (ex. the Horos encounter---why would anyone in contact with Secret Chiefs fall for Horos and believe that they were the real thing). And this is one of the best attempts that I have seen of trying to figure out what was really going on and why Mathers occasionally made a decision that just makes your head hurt as you try to figure out his logic. Is Farrell's solution the only one? No, but it will do until something better comes along.

(If the antiacid crowd is still present, I would like to point out that they are free to hunt down records and documents, and write their own history of Mathers and the early days of the Golden Dawn.)

In all fairness, this book is mistitled---it deals a little bit with every significant member of the Golden Dawn during its early days. Westcott, Crowley, Moina Mathers, etc. But the main focus is MacGregor.

One of the accusations that will be leveled at this book will be that Farrell is not qualified as a historian. I am going to have to disagree with this notion. Having spent a lot of time learning the profession, I can see the hallmarks of a historian in this book. I might not be able to track down all his sources, but I can see that he was actually working from actual sources (primary documents).

As a history of the early days of Golden Dawn, and a biography of Mathers, this book is a welcome addition. It is not the ax job that I expected it to be, occasionally one even feels sympathy for Mathers.

In addition to the history of early GD and biography of Samuel Mathers, King Over the Water also contains several early A&O (GD) documents---an early version of the Book of the Tomb, the Z documents (which I learned is actually a single document divided into three parts), and an earlier version of the Sword Consecration ritual. (Or at least, these were in the earlier draft of the book that I read.)

Each one of these documents is of a particular interest to me. The version of the Book of the Tomb that the BIORC uses is much later, and has some additions made to it (that what happens when an Order believes that its own members can contribute to the system without having to rely on Secret Chiefs); therefore, it is nice to see an earlier version of it (beyond the photocopies that I have been given by others---this is the earliest version I have seen of the Book of the Tomb). The Z Document, just like the material in Mathers' Last Secret, has some material in it that makes me wonder if my Mother lodge reinvented the wheel or actually concealed a major part of their actual lineage (at this point, I really wonder if my lineage does not go back to Mathers on the one side through BOTA---of course, that cannot actually be true).

One thing that the reader should know is that Mathers' Last Secret and King Over the Water are very much tied into one another. If I was to assign them as part of the required reading for a lesson unit, the two books would be assigned together---for parts of each book is only understandable if you have ready access to the other. Then again, that is just like the rest of the Golden Dawn system, isn't it? For instance, the argument that Mathers did not understand the Z Document is dependent on looking both at the shortcuts that Mathers approved of for A&O rituals and the Z Document as Mathers knew it.

Of course, beyond the fact that Farrell's history reveals that Mathers and company was composed of human beings, the publishing of these documents is going to annoy some people. It is natural to be annoyed when your branch of the tradition insists on absolute secrecy.

But the biggest annoyance is going to be the fact that Farrell actually presents a strong case that Mathers' Secret Chiefs were actually ASTRAL. Or some other non-physical entity type (I am including stuff that comes out of one's brain as "non-physical" here). And that more than one person in the early GD had such contacts. The reason that this is going to annoy a lot of people (and there is more than one Order involved here) is that there are several Order Chiefs out there who claim to be in contact with the "one and only" set of Secret Chiefs.

So there you have it, the three strikes against this book (and the reason I should be making a fortune selling Golden Dawn brand antacids)---Mathers and company are human; there are early GD/A&O documents included in this book; and the Secret Chiefs are either astral or a product of the human mind. Nevertheless, this is still the best explanation about why events unfolded the way that they did.

Nick Farrell's book, King Over the Water--Samuel Mathers and the Golden Dawn, is available to order on Amazon.

[Full Disclosure Statement and shameless self-promotion: This book review was based on a pre-publication version of the book given to me by the author. If you would like me to consider reviewing your book, feel free to email me a electronic copy through my lodge email address: basttemple at msn dot com. Remember that my reviews tend to involve the selling of antiacids.]

More history and the color scales

King Over the Water pontential cover.

Talking to a Soror from my lodge about the post about Impressionism and the Golden Dawn color scales, I realized that I need to do a follow-up to it with some additional information. She asked some questions---some involved me looking up information to confirm things I already suspected---and I realized that if she had those questions that other people might be curious about the answers too.

(For the record, it was the potential cover of Nick Farrell's book that made my mind connect several facts together and realize that the expanded color scales of Golden Dawn could only result after 1840. And as far as I know, I am the first one to realize this fact...or at least, the first person to actually consider it to be important; I don't remember anyone ever writing about this topic before.)

First, just to get it out of the way, I do not believe that Moina Mathers was a "modern woman" or a "feminist." I am not looking for an example of a modern woman or a feminist---I am looking for an artist. The reason that I am looking for an artist is that the Golden Dawn color scales have too large of a color vocabulary to be the sole invention of a non-artist.

Agrippa's color scales are an example of a set of color scales created by a non-artist; the color vocabulary is simple and basic. The Golden Dawn color scales, on the other hand, has a wide color vocabulary. Now, one quarter of it is just layering an occult idea (colors attract energies) onto the standard artist's color wheel---something that is easily produced by non-artists. But the other three quarters involve a series of colors so rich and varied that one needs a cheat sheet with paint samples on it to accurately reproduce it (or a digitual camera and a really good color printer).

I have seen no evidence that Samuel Mathers or Wynn Westcott had such a large color vocabulary. The concept that color attracted magical forces was not a new idea---Agrippa and the SRIA are solid proof that the idea was common currency among occultists. Nor have I seen any evidence that convinces me that the SRIA is actually the source for the expanded color scales. Occasionally, someone points to the SRIA as the source of the Golden Dawn Vault of the Adepts---but no one has yet to provide what I would consider proof of this fact. When Westcott mentions that there was an older color scheme for the Vault, he may have been referring to the color lore of the SRIA in his day and age.

Therefore, the idea that color attracts magical forces is common currency of occult thought of the 1890s, but the expanded range of color vocabulary is something new and is the product of an artist---therefore who is the artist? Westcott? Samuel Mathers? Moina Mathers? Someone else? Until someone proves otherwise, I am presuming that Moina Mathers was the one to expand the color vocabulary, and therefore it is she (and not Samuel or Westcott) that is truly the source of the Golden Dawn color scales.

As I said, maybe Nick's upcoming book, or maybe Tabatha's, will convince me otherwise.

Possible cover for Concourse of the Watchtowers.

The other thing that my dear Soror brought up was the possibility that it is not water colors or oil paints that are being used in the color scale work. That maybe it is color pencils that were meant to be used. I told her that I was positive that we were supposed to be doing the color scale work in "wet medium." There are some effects that can only be achieved with the use of wet medium---not even the use of modern paint programs can duplicate some of the effects. (Then again, I like the physical process of using a brush to create art.) Furthermore, I told her that color pencils are a modern art development, and that I was positive that the expanded color scales (usable by all Adepts and not just those who were professional artists) had to be an invention occurring after 1840.

Looking it up, I learned that the history of art materials backs up my conclusion. Colored pencils were not marketed to artists until after 1900. It is not until 1920s that we start to get a wide range of art-grade color pencils. Prismacolor pencils are not introduced until 1938. Likewise for other dry mediums---wax crayons 1903; oil pastels 1925; paint sticks 1966.

The only two exceptions for dry medium would be colored chalk and pastels (pastels are pure pigment with a binding agent)---chalks have been used for thousands of years and pastels for about three hundred years. Yet the amount of time that they have been used removes them from the running; if they were suitable for expanding the color scales, the color scales would have expanded much sooner and I would not be looking for an artist inside Golden Dawn to credit the expansion with. Besdies, these two mediums are not actually conductive to making talismans and lamens---which is one of the primary reasons for the Adept's studies of the color scale system.

A final thing I must mention is the fact that we do have a lot of evidence that the color scale work of the Golden Dawn Adept was a new development. The sheer amount of variation between the color scales of various Golden Dawn offshoots, and even between lodges of the same Orders, indicate that the system was not developed enourgh to have standardization. An older, more developed system would have figured out a way to decrease the number of variations.

The expanded color scales are not something that you can look back to a previous esoteric group and find purer information about...unless you want to toss it out completely and go back to the simple color scale used by Agrippa and earlier occultists. In fact, the expanded color scales are so new that the period of its best development may still be in the future.

Impressionism and the GD color scales

King Over the Water by Nick Farrell.

The Book of the Concourse of the Watchtowers by Sandra Tabatha Cicero.

The other day, I was reminded that there are some soon-to-be-released books that are on my shopping list (well, after I managed to crawl out of the monetary hole that I have fallen into). Both Nick Farrell and Sandra Tabatha Cicero posted possible covers for their respective books (I say "possible" because I know how things change at the last moment in publishing).

Looking at the covers, I realized something---our required color scale work in Adept Minor (5=6) was not possible previous to 1841. Or at least, not in the form and style that we do it today.

Don't believe me? Think about how you did your color scale studies. Were there tubes of paint involved? If there were tubes of paint involved, then you are using a post 1841 method. Or did you use watercolors of straight from the pans of a box? In which case, your method of study could not have developed before 1832. The idea of using watercolors from a box only dates to 1766; before that point, watercolors were sold in lumps that had to be hand-grated before using.

The ability to do color studies while sitting in your living room is a product of the Victorian Age. Before the improvements to watercolor paints by Henry Newton and William Winsor in 1832, only professional artists worked with paints. Amateurs did not start to paint until Newton & Winsor developed the methods of creating watercolor paints that could be used directly from the box. Queen Victoria helped lead a national passion for amateur painting.

Paint tubes were invented by an America, John Goffe Rand, in 1841. Rand's invention was a technological leap for the artworld. Rand would tell his son that without his invention that "There would have been no Cezanne, no Monet, no Sisley or Pissaro; nothing of what the journalists were later to call Impressionism." I would go one step further and say that there would be no required color scale work in Adept Minor if he hadn't invented the paint tube.

Please remember that I am not saying that color was not important in magic previous to the Victorian Age (Agrippa is enourgh proof of the importance of color in magical work among our magical ancestors). What I am saying is that the creation of color scales studies and flashing tablets were much harder before that point, and were unlikely to have been an important part of the esoteric lesson plan---at least among amateur artists.

Westcott mentions that there is an older color scale that were used in the ancient Vault of the Adepts. Exactly what this older color scale looked like is hard to say for sure; the Adept Major ritual doesn't develop the idea enourgh to get a clear look at it without some knowledge of art history. There are also alchemical formulas that are actually about making pigments. So while there is definitely color scales involved in the older magical systems, they were placed much higher in the estoteric Grade system.

One of the things that Nick and I have disagreed over (publically on the internet if you want to go looking---I can't remember what Golden Dawn forum it was on) is the importance of Moina Mathers in the creation of the modern Vault of the Adepts and the modern color scales. My logic tends to be: if I needed a crash course in color theory to understand the color scales and its development into the Vault, then an artist had to be involved. My best bet is Moina Mathers, who was trained as an artist. Nick says that Samuel (MacGregor) Mathers and Westcott could be the ones that brought it in---I am not sure if he was implying that the color scales were built up by a previous esoteric group prior to their founding of the Golden Dawn or if it was invented by them (Nick will reply in the comment section about that one).

One thing that would be helpful to determine which one of us is right would be knowledge about whether Westcott or Samuel Mathers were amateur artists before meeting Moina. If they only started working with the complicated color scales after meeting Moina, then I am inclined to continue crediting Moina---after all, she is the one that was responsible for painting the first RR et AC Vault of the Adepts. I am hoping that one or both of these upcoming books reveals some evidence that would make the answer to this question clearer. Knowing the source authority would clear up some questions that I have about the color scales...beyond how much credit to give to Moina.

But while I am unsure about the source authority for our color scale work, I am positive that it is definitely an esoteric development of the Victorian Age. Before that date, the color scales were much simplier, and applied in a different manner when it came to magical workings. This fact affects a lot of stuff that we do and study today---a cascade effect---including the Tarot and the making of magical talismans.

And just in case, you are wondering, the modern Victorian Age color scales is something that I am not willing to abandon, no matter how wrong they are according to the older esoteric material. I may not be good at alchemy, but I am a fair hand with a paintbrush. For maximum outrage, just remember I use the modern color scales with the Elder Futhark (the Norse Runes).