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?

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

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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

Are you a Tarot blogger? Want to Hop with us? (Next topic: Respecting the Tarot)

Do you blog about the Tarot? Do you want to help build community among Tarot bloggers? If so, consider joining the Tarot Blog Hop.

Eight times a year (aligned with the eight Wiccan sabbats--but that is only because it was something that many of us Tarot bloggers knew, so it doesn't have to do anything with the sabbat the Hop lands on), a dozen or more Tarot readers, authors, and experts, blog about one of their favorite subjects--the Tarot.

The Tarot Blog Hop is in its fifth year.

What are the rules?


Members of the Tarot Blog Hop commit to doing two blog hops a year (out of the eight). They link to two neighbors, and create a link chain leading from one blog to another in a big circle. And most importantly, our posts are about a theme that a volunteer wrangler and cat herder came up with.


We organize the Tarot Blog Hop though a Facebook group (you must confirm that you blog about the Tarot before we let you join the group---because that's the purpose of the group).


What type of topics could you be blogging about?


Good question. The next Tarot Blog Hop is being wrangled by me (August 1, 2017), and here is the blogging prompt that I provided to the group:


Our theme for this Tarot Blog Hop is pretty broad--Respecting the divinatory arts, with an emphasis on Tarot.


When I was growing up, I spent some time with my Wiccan aunt. Many of the lessons I learned from her about the occult have affected me and the way I approach things. One of the lessons that I learned was to respect divination systems.


My first lesson in this was in relation to a Magic Eight Ball (as silly of a divination device as you can get). “Respect the Eight Ball, and it will give you accurate answers,” my aunt told me. Over the years, I have learned that she was right about this advice.


As a result, one of the things I teach is “Show respect to the divination systems you are using, even if they are silly systems.”


We all have rules, habits, customs that are our ways of showing respect to our divination tools--things that we do that seem to increase our connection (therefore, our accurancy) with our divination tools.


We also know things to avoid doing--things that seem to annoy our divination tools--things that end up with us saying, “Don’t do that--it upsets the cards.” For instance, my tools gets uppity when someone keeps rewording a question in an attempt to get the answer that they want to hear--snarky answers start to happen, and total silence descends if one does not get the hint that the cards have given all they intend to give you.


So your mission this Tarot Blog Hop is to discuss how you show respect to the Tarot (remember it is called the “Tarot Blog Hop”) and things that you have learned not to do. It can range from smudging the deck periodically to elaborate rituals like the Golden Dawn uses, from not using the cards until the dinner table is clean to well, whatever it is that you do. We all have stories about this subject--if you don’t, you would be the first reader I ever encountered that didn’t have stuff to say on this topic.


[Would you like to take part in the Tarot Blog Hop? If so, come join us on the Facebook group.]

This blog is ten years old (wave your hands in the air like you don't care)

This blog is ten years old as of today--can you believe it? That's a hundred and twenty months, or 3653 days of my random rants being on public display.

Over the last ten years, I have published 1410 blog posts, annoyed several people, been accused of being a member of a conspiracy comprised of dark magicians hell-bent on destroying the reputation of the most gifted and enlightened occultist ever (because we must continue to enslave humanity), pimped my ebooks,  and shared a godzillion cat pictures--all in the name of fighting of boredom and having a soapbox to yell at people from.

My posts get 319 views on average, and I have about 3749 views a month. And yes, I realize that every other occult blogger in the world has a bigger audience than I do; that's not going to change because I refuse to tell people how spiritually advanced they are, refuse to buy up tons of internet domains all feeding into my blog, and generally find advertising my own stuff a complete and utter bore.

Imagine that I said something witty about cats and money controlling the world.

So what have I learned over the last ten years? Here are ten things I learned...

# 1: I like cats better than I like certain people. And cats are as good of teachers as anyone else's Secret Chief. Every blog post that I write includes me saying, "Don't walk across the keyboard" at some point.

# 2: Stockpile your "nuclear troll" posts. There are a dozen posts that I have written, but have never published because they consist of me saying that the Imperial Pickle is the nastiest occultist I know (though Buddha Night does give them a run for their money). But never fear--if they annoy me, my finger might slip and "accidentally" hit the Publish button.

# 3: Peace is over-rated. And those who believe that you should never read another person's blog, and post your own response declaring them a wheelbarrow short of a garden shed, have no idea how the blogosphere actually works. The blogosphere is just one big argument, flowing from one blog to another.

# 4: Never use white text on a black background. I was one of the first Golden Dawn bloggers to do this (if not the very first) for symbolic reasons. And honestly, if I could go back in time, I would not do it again. Why don't I change it? Because I would have to manually fix all 1410 blog posts--I tried fixing it a couple of times, and ended up with white text on a white background.

# 5: A picture in every blog post is nice for link sharing purposes. I don't follow this rule as religiously as I should.

# 6: You can't please everyone, but you can easily piss everyone off. Every blog post I have written has been misread by someone.

# 7: Hiving off topics into other specialty blogs does not work for me--because I do not have the patience to build up another blog. That's why I talk about anything I want to on this blog, even if it has nothing to do with magic and witchcraft.

# 8: Everyone knows more than I do...because they have told me so. This includes the guy at the doughnut shop, who has never opened up an occult book in his entire life.

# 9: I am the class clown, the court jester, the Forest Gump of occultism. Or so I have been told repeatedly. In other words, people think that their opinions, beliefs, and practices are better than mine (absolutely correct, like Ten Commandment level of correctness)---and they really, really do not like people treating the subject of the occult with anything less than 200% seriousness. In other words, they think that I tell too many jokes.

# 10: I still like blogging, so I going to ignore all of your requests for me to quit blogging. Obviously, blogging is one of my guilty pleasures because everyone knows that occult blogging does not pay.

Just some of my stats for this blog--and yes, I know that your blog stats are better than mine.

Are you a lazy magician or just high all the time?

Every once in awhile, I have someone tell me that I seem to missed the point of having an occult blog. Typically, this happens after I write a blog post in reaction to something I have seen online (or worse, encountered in "real life"), an issue or topic I feel passionate about...but have absolutely no desire to research and write a PhD thesis about, or to put down the brownies long enough to search the astral planes to find the answer to.

Yes, that is right--some people actually expect me to do research and/or magic before I sit in front of the keyboard.

And people think that I smoke a lot of dope?!

Exactly how have these people missed the fact that I blog because I am an angry frustrated comedian? Just because I am writing about magic and witchcraft, it does not mean that I am going to do serious work before I post. In fact, given the number of people who want straight woo to be blown up their ass, I am actually better off just making up shit.

Unicorns--happy unicorns--flowers--happy flowers--trees--happy trees--Bob Ross.

See, I just increased my blog readership by two hundred percent. Absolutely no research or spell work needed at all.

I am also a little confused by the fact that they missed that I am a "professional liar." And you know that is true because a couple great Order and magical leaders said so. If I am going to be a liar, why would I need to research or actually do magic? And you know that those who call me a liar are right because a philosopher once said that all poets are professional liars who should not be trusted.

So tell me again why I should write journal level articles or perform serious magical research for what is essentially a blog to keep me from writing nasty urban fantasy novels and occult satire.

Yes, I have missed the point that occult blogs are supposed to be serious, full of hard magical work and deep research.

But at least, I still have a pleasant buzz going.

Time for a random nip test.

October 2013 Third most read month ever

The cat version of Thriller.

Looking over my numbers (stats), I see that last month (October 2013) is now my third most read month since this blog started in 2007. Last month scored 10,606 page views--beating out the previous third most read month, November 2010, which had 8,523 page views. And sometime on October 14, 2013, I passed two hundred page views overall for this little cynical blog.

So what does this all mean? People like cat pictures and poetry better than snarkiness? Or does it mean that snarkiness and shaming the entire Golden Dawn community, along with unhealthy battles in one's comment section, is the real attention getter? (Yes, I am still only at forty percent of the page views of the blog that claims to be the most read Golden Dawn blog ever--a blog that I was checking the comment section three times a day during several ugly discussions...and I suspect a whole bunch of other people were doing that also--in which case, their claim of having the biggest Golden Dawn audience is vastly inflated.)

As for those people who do not like poetry and cat pictures, you are safe for a week...maybe. After all, the holiday season is coming up and that means cats dressed as Santa, doesn't it? Plus you know that you want to read a poem entitled "When elves attack."

But don't worry, I also plan on writing some stuff about Golden Dawn and magic really soon...because this blog is supposed to be about the Golden Dawn system of spiritual and magical attainment (plus some Wicca...and some New Age stuff...and anything else I choose to write about...because after all, it is my blog).

Are you sure that spiritual means what you think it does?

One hundred ninety eight thousand all time views here

Secret Chief Apollo states his reason why you should read this blog.

So according to the Blogger's information, as I write this, I have exactly 198000 all-time views. There is part of me that wants to claim that "nearly two hundred thousand readers have discovered this blog"--but that would be false. In fact, it is probably just twenty-five readers who have came here eight thousand times apiece. Yes, that is right--overall views is just the number of "page views/reads" that you have received, not the number of readers overall...despite what some bloggers would have you believe.

I have no idea (and either does any other blogger) about how many "unique" readers I actually had over the years--mainly because the NSA will not tell us. Why is that? Because every time that someone rereads a post, or checks my comment section, that is counted as an additional pageview--the only way to track "unique" readers is to install cookies on visitors computers, and the cookies are only accurate until the user wipes their internet browser cache. That is, if you are not the NSA--the NSA is tracking something else completely (as in your individual email addresses, phone numbers, and service providers) and using a really big server to store all the information in.

And yes, if you are reading this, the NSA is probably looking at you--after all, this blog is about the Golden Dawn, and the Secret Chiefs of my Order have light bulbs. That is radical occult science!

A thousand blog posts and this is what I have learned

Blogging is sort of like being the cat here.

Welcome to my thousandth blog post. Or thousandth on this blog. It is well over a thousand if you count the other nine still active blogs that I maintain (more or less maintain) and the several blogs that over the years have been deleted in the course of hosting service changes. It is close to a couple thousand if you toss in all the half written (and sometimes fully written but too trollish for prime time) posts that I have never been bothered to hit publish on.

This blog was started on July 16, 2007...which means that I have been blogging six years (provided that basic math is my friend today--it is still early...basic math might not be speaking to me today). Well, longer than six years, I moved over to Blogger on June 4, 2007 after my previous blogging platform was discontinued by a web host service. At first, I thought that I was going to be mainly blogging about the joys of writing (aka my Musings from the Inkwell). Then, I decided to spin off my Golden Dawn, Wicca, and magical rants and raves--hence this blog that you are currently reading. It was my first subject spin-off (now, I own ten blogs on Blogger).

So what have I learned over the years?

Do not google yourself!!!

Seriously, googling yourself is not worth it. If people are upset with you, they will tend to tell you in no uncertain terms in your own comment section (with the exception of non-professional bloggers who think that you will go read their blogs if they refuse to comment directly on your post...professional bloggers know better). And if people agree with you, either you will hear crickets, they will agree in the comment section, or they will blog about it on their own blogs. Your biggest hits will actually not be findable by Google...because you will be referred to as "some blogger," "some troll," "some lunatic," or one of the terms that your parents used for you during one of your more brilliant moments--my favorite is "turnip head."

There is no conspiracy on the internet--just waves of people blogging about other people's blogs.

I know that one is hard to believe...if you are not a semi-professional blogger. Truth of the matter is that the blogosphere feeds upon itself. Person A writes about Subject XYZ; Person B is desperate to find something to blog about, and decides XYZ is a good subject; then Person C decides that Person A and Person B are both out of their f***ing minds. Persons D though infinity just repeat the actions of B and C. So on any given day, there is only one new subject at best, and everyone will comment about it within the week.

Honest book reviewing is best done by people who are trolls at heart.

Having done more than my fair share of book reviews, I realize that the only way one can honestly review a book that is badly written and/or thought out is to have the heart of a troll. And not to care when the author points it out that you are not a nice person (and they will). Yes, critics meet under bridges to share stories of our hate mail.

Of course, having the heart of a troll extends to every honest blog post that one ever writes...because there is always someone that you are going to upset. In fact, inside the professional blogging circles, one is not considered to be doing the job properly if one is not upsetting people.

Troll cat does all my book reviews now.

There is such a thing as being a professional blogger.

I know that there are some people in the occult community that do not consider me a real blogger because I have ads on my blog, and ebooks that I occasionally promote, a whole line of erotica books that I do not advertise--to these people, I have to point out that the only things that I am really good at is writing and annoying people--if I do not take advantage of that and turn it into professional rage (the only reason to remain a blogger on some days), using ads and tacky self-promotion to earn money, then it is back to flipping burgers...and do you really want me to touch your food and have access to guns at the same time?! No, it is better that I get paid to blog. And among non-occult bloggers, being professional means that you cashed at least one check from AdSense (not everyone has the occultist viewpoint that money is not to be sought after).

Cat pictures sell!!!

Who would have guessed that one?! Three of my top ten posts are cat pictures posts. And this is an occult blog. Go figure. Of course, as a worshipper of Bast, I am obligated to post the occasional cat picture, and therefore it just proves that I am in the correct line of work.

If I had to start all over, I would write about economics.

Seriously, if I had to start a brand new blog purely for the purposes of professional blogging, I would not write about the occult. No, I would go for economics instead. Because everyone reads rants and raves about economics. And I would get a classier type of troll...well, maybe. And there is always something new to blog about in that field every day. That last part is important...because having done a thousand blog posts on a subject (minus bouts and fits of cat pictures), I know that being able to open up a newspaper, turning on the television news, or looking at the search engines trends, and having a new blog post idea just leap into the boat is a godsend. Especially if blogging has became a large part of your income stream.

Here is to the next thousand posts. I am embracing the dark side of blogging and letting the cat pictures flow.

Success as a blogger earns you a dead mouse on your desk.

Poor magicians

One of the reasons that I am welcome as a plague in certain circles is the simple fact that I became a magician to keep the wolf away from the door. I am not in the esoteric arts for spiritual development or to be a service to mankind; I am here merely because I was looking for a big enough stick to smack the wolf on the nose and survive the crisis of being a poor kid and young adult.

Now, there are some that will roll their eyes, and ask how poor could I have been when I entered the field. Let's see, my father lost everything that he owned; I am the oldest of eight kids; and I grew up constantly wondering if I would have a roof over my head tomorrow. Plus, where my next meal was coming from was always a concern. I wore whatever could be brought at yard sales for a quarter. When I left home, I joined the military...because I was poor. I was a high school dropout that got bad grades because my folks could not afford a real babysitter. And I worked twenty years in food service making minimum (or just above) wages.

And if you still don't believe that I know what it is like to be poor, just remember that I have done Tarot readings and practical spells for the payment of government surplus cheese and peanut butter--because all I had to offer was my skill as a magician, and all my clients had to offer was some food (which I was very glad to eat).

Just admitting this stuff bars me from entry to certain select circles. Part of it is simply misunderstandings of what magic is. [If you want to know why I started to think about these matters today, go read this entry on Aaron's blog.]

Talk to most people in the Golden Dawn/Western Mystery Tradition community (and this includes Thelema and Wicca) and you will hear that the purpose of the mysteries is spiritual development and service to mankind. In fact, there are groups that will bar you from entering if you say anything other than those two reasons for wanting to join. Anything else, especially practical magic, is viewed as black magic and power seeking.

But this is what the documented record of Western magic is all about--weather magic, power magic, legal magic, treasure magic, health magic, love magic--all about fulfilling basic needs in a hostile wolf at the door world. Even alchemy was about the practical nine times out of ten. Yet we in the modern world are not allowed to have these needs or desires.

Why? Because H. P. Blavatsky tells us that it is wrong. Yes, the modern view that the only acceptable uses of magic are spiritual development and service to mankind comes straight out of the writings of Blavatsky, the mother of Theosophy. And the modern Orders have embraced this fact, rejecting anyone who admits that they actually need to practice practical magic. Blavatsky made the esoteric Orders into the mystic dreamlands they are today. You can mediate all you want on the glories of the divine, just don't attempt to better your life conditions with practical workings.

Therefore, we do not find truly poor magicians in the ranks of the Orders (unless they lied to get in). The members of a Law of Attraction group are always living above the poverty level. The members of your typical esoteric Order can always pay their annual dues, no matter how much they are. And people can charge hundreds of dollars to do workshops, to teach magic that does not actually work, because everyone who attends can afford for magic not to work. It is all theory and no practice because anything other than spiritual development and service is considered black magic.

In the meantime, people like myself tend to remain outside the Halls of the "True Mysteries" working our small low practical spells, hoping to keep the wolf from the door for one more day. We are simply too poor to be worthy of proper training. And Heaven forbid that we ever decide to retake the mysteries back; after all, we are the unwashed, unsaved, impure masses.

Quoting others in full

Fair is fair--right?

Anonymous comments are not proof

One of the things that I have been thinking about lately is how much weight one should place on blog and forum comments made by anonymous people. And by "anonymous," I mean people who either openly post as an anonymous (and perhaps unregistered) user, as well as those who use a handle such as "the Golden Dawn avenger"--a handle that actually tells you only that the person behind the handle has a big ego.

There are two reasons why I have been thinking about this.

One, I am in the process of setting up a blog to collect all the book reviews that I have done in various places. I have needed to do this for awhile. It has become more urgent, due to the fact that I am starting to recieve books from some GoodReads drawings that I recently entered (I have recieved the first two books today).

Do I allow comments on the Book Review blog? Or do I just refuse to allow comments through? And does it matter either way? (Please note that my book reviews were called into question earlier this year...by anonymous and faceless people.)

The other reason I have been thinking about anonymous comments is watching the comments being made on one of my blog posts on this very blog. There has been one person who has been pointing out dirt about Robert Zink--provided that you place any stock in comments that direct you to other comments made on another blog by anonymous people.

Personally, I do not need to hear anonymous comments about Zink to have an opinion of the man. After all, I had internet dealings with the man (we are not favorite people of each other); plus, I have done some "exit counseling" with some of his former membership--enourgh to know that I am definitely not suited to be one of his students.

The same holds true of several other people in the Golden Dawn community. Between the grapevine and my own interactions with people, I have a really good idea of who is what type of lunatic without having to read anonymous comments about them. And I am sure that they feel the same way about me--we all know that I am a lunatic with a soapbox.

And honestly, I find that the way that anonymous comments are presented as "proof" painful to watch because of the double standard that is applied to them. Simply put, an anonymous comment is considered to be proof when it supports your stated conclusion, but is considered a falsehood when it does not support your argument. If it is undermining your competition, an anonymous comment is proof and perfectly acceptable because people need to be able to present evidence without fear. But the same comment is it attacks your position must be coming from the political sock puppet of your enemy and is a complete lie, therefore anonymous comments should never be considered proof that you too are special type of lunatic.

Of course, most proof in the occult community tends to be treated the same way. Scholars have a double standard applied to them (if they support your argument, they are a good scholar; if not, they are a fraud who should be kicked out of the academy). Business practices and recruiting techniques are ok when you use them, but fraud when other people use them. A simple statement of a claim of ancient knowledge is accepted point blank by one group's membership while the same type of claims are considered lies when made by another group.

It is enourgh to make one want to declare that everyone is a liar and a fraud. And far more simple too. Of course, I have gotten to the stage where I am just starting to ignore any comment that is made by someone that I do not personally know. But let's be honest, being called a neo-nazi and told outright that it is ok for others to destory one's reputation because you do not belong to the one real Golden Dawn makes one dislike anyone who stands behind "anonymous" or "enemy of all false GD Orders" and calls you names.

So do not expect me to accept blog and forum comments presented by anonymous posters of proof of anything. After all, I know enourgh people who are posting using their real names that I do not need to see evidence that is untraceable. You would not accept my statements as proof if I hid my identity, so why should I trust you when you do the same?

My shocking disbelief: Primordial Languages of Power (1/3)

Over on Postmodern Magic, there is a three part series about things that the blog author does not believe in--Atlantis and Secret Chiefs are the first two parts (as I write this, the third part is still forthcoming). Of course, this got me thinking about the things that I do not believe in, and I decided to also blog about three things that I do not believe in...because that is how the blogosphere rolls. Given that they chose to pick on Atlantis and the Secret Chiefs, I will pick something else to start off with.

(For the record, both Atlantis and the Unknown Secret Chiefs are high up on my list of disbelief...as they are commonly thought of in esoteric circles--go read the Postmodern Magic posts; they touch upon many of the problems that I have with the two subjects.)

One of the things that I disbelieve in is the idea that there is a primordial language out there which when you speak it, magic automatically happens.

Armanic, Hebrew, Ancient Egypt, bastardized Latin, have all at one time been thought to be a language that if you speak it, wonderful horrible things happen--walls bleed, worlds get created, Republicans burst into flames. The Enochian language of Doctor Dee is also a candidate, as well as certain esoteric forms of mathematics, for this "too dangerous to be revealed to the great unwashed" language.

Much of our time in esoteric circles and studies is involved in studying these mystery languages. If you are in the Outer Order of Golden Dawn, you spend time studying the Hebrew alphabet, which you are oathbound not to reveal to others (seriously, the Hebrew alphabet is actually oathbound in some GD circles to this very day). You also get to hear some Greek, some badly spoken Ancient Egyptian, and Enochian, as well as some Latin. In Inner Order, the RR et AC, you deal a lot with Enochian and Hebrew...not enough to order soup, but enough that one can make the occasional odd pun that no one understands.

The esoteric theory behind the Great Primordial Langauge of Magic, Light and Creation, is that it is the language of the gods, angels and ascended masters. At the beginning of the universe, some deity created the universe by uttering some magic words. Later, the same deity (often, but not always) created the art of writing. Over time, this pure language of creation got corrupted into the languages that we humans speak on a daily basis.

The important part is the idea that IF you could RESTORE the language to its precreation/creation/divine state, you can perform MIRACLES.

Think Harry Potter meets the Tetragrammaton.

Because of its awesome power, the primordial language must be guarded from those who are not yet ready to use it--aka everyone who has not paid you enourgh lodge and Order dues yet. Seriously, you would not want a Democrat to gain access to it, they might go around healing the poor for free.

And in esoteric circles, a lot of training goes into making sure that you are spiritually ready to learn the primordial language...because time spent paying lodge and Order dues are the purest form of tithing and spiritual development. Without the training, you could seriously hurt yourself using the primordial language.

Yet here is the thing to remember about the claim--secrecy reveals what it conceals, and conceals what it reveals--it is not the language that does the work; it is the training that you undergone to qualify to use the language that does the heavy lifting.

Of course, the fact that I do not believe that it is the secret esoterically guarded primordial language that is important is SHOCKING. And probably a form of Golden Dawn heresy. You can buy your pitchforks and flaming torches from several GD vendors if you want to form an angry horde and burn me at the stake (hey, I am Wiccan--I am allowed to make witchhunt jokes).

Here is the real secret to know if you see me use a primordial language of power in your presence to perform some bit of magic--what you are percieving is a mere one-seventh of what I am doing. It is not the language by itself that gives its power--it is the hidden six-sevenths that is happening elsewhere; six-sevenths that is only possible with a lot of occult training.

So the next time, you see me ignore someone's claims that they know magical words that automatically causes certain events to happen when uttered, and that one must be highly trained, developed and vetted to learn, just remember I do not believe that it is the language doing the work--rather it is the training and development that they are insisting that you do first...provided that they are actually training you and not just milking you for Order dues, which probably the thing that esoteric language most often gets used for.

The Bloggess dresses up her cat

Yes Bloggess, your cat looks so thrilled by this costume.

It is not often that I can send you to someone else's blog, so that you can see how a Halloween Kitty costume was made. But this is one of those rare times--the Bloggess, a divinely funny lady, has just posted the instructions on how she made the costume for her kitty. Go read her insanity now!

Do not say my name!!!

C'mon say the Forbidden Name!!!

I will admit that it amuses me to a certain extent when someone quotes me, or talks about something that I have said, and does not link to the post which they are quoting from. It is even more amusing when they refuse to say my name, and refer to me as "another blogger." Especially, if I had linked to one of their blog posts--gee, I give you link love and you refer to me as just another blogger.

Nine times out of ten, it is because they are taking my statement out of context, and do not want their readers to know what the whole story was. (The tenth time, I presume, is just because my name is also the name of a demonic entity who will cover you with cat hair.)

Hint, it is better to not to mention my statement at all and pretend that it was never said, rather than offer a counterpoint to the statement that you are only using a couple lines from. People notice stuff like this, and it leads them to believe that none of us actually get along. It might also make people think that something is not kosher in Denmark.

And this is all related somehow

My cat loves this statement from Joe Konrath. Copied and pasted [sic].

[As you read this post, please remember that I am trying to decide how much guilt I bear for the sad state of the Golden Dawn community. Is my dislike of the HOGD/AO poisoning the well? And do I need to completely walk away from Golden Dawn if the only way for peace and haramony to reign is for people like myself to completely disappear from the system?]

[And yes, yes--I know that I should just apologize to HOGD/AO, and never admit that I am struggling with the idea of peace with them. Even if it means that I have to completely disappear from the Golden Dawn scene thereafter.]

Occasionally, I treat the internet as if it is only talking to me (I think that anyone who has taken or considered taking the Oath of the Abyss does this--along with most of the rest of the people on this planet).

So today, I read Joe Konrath talking about how Amazon's allowing of one-star book reviews allows people to trash books:

Buying reviews isn't wrong. Using sock puppets isn't wrong. Leaving fake one star reviews isn't wrong.

It's shitty, and I wouldn't do it. And that's how I'm able to prove I'm right.

Amazon allows one star reviews. In other words, the existing system allows and encourages people to publicly trash books.

[Big snip, and then Joe Konrath continues to say:]

I pick on groups. Big groups who do authors harm.

I don't pick on authors behaving badly.

I'm fine with going against a mob of 400 even though it is an incredibly unfair, one-sided fight. (Hint: you'll need at least 500 more signatures before I'd consider us evenly matched.)

But I'm not okay picking on individual writers.

For those who are curious about how I feel about the on-going sock puppet and paid book review scandal that is big news in traditional book and ebook publishing (three normal novel authors have been caught using sock puppets and using paid reviews) and the resulting one-star campaign against them--just remember that I openly declared war on the HOGD/AO earlier this year when they decided it was ok to give a writer one-star reviews on their entire product line, and not just the two books that offended them.

(Previous to that point, I considered myself NEUTRAL despite the fact that I have been labeled as a menace by them since 2009 for disagreeing with them about the merits of certain books. It was this event that made me consider them enemies...because if they were willing to do it to one writer; sooner or later, I felt that they would do it to me.)

Personally, I think that if they really wanted to convince the writer to quit doing what they were doing, they should have just given him one-star reviews on the two offending books. Trust me, writers notice when just a couple of their books tank--and they tend to just write those books that continue to sell well. But I am obvivously biased because I gave both of the books in question good reviews...I saw merit in them because, well, see the end of this post.

Now continuing with this blogosphere is talking to me, consider the fact that Donald Michael Kraig is talking about the process and purpose of forgiveness and its effect on magick.

To figure out how this ties into the whole scheme, please remember that I have been asked to forgive the HOGD/AO for attempting to destory my reputation, which was their response to me saying that one should not use the tactic of condemning a writer's entire line of work. And I have feel that I am required to take responsibility for the fact that they believe (or "know" as they would remind me) that what went down was an attempt to destory the egregore of their group.

(Please remember that I do not believe that publishing the rituals of a group destorys its egregore--and that I saw the HOGD/AO encourage people to download pdfs of another group's material years ago. I presume that their knowledge changed because now they are against the publication of any information that was once oath-bound. In all fairness, one does need to remember that the material that they were encouraging piracy of was the material from the evil EOGD headed by Robert Zink. Today, the HOGD/AO would not encourage the publication of the EOGD material--how much things change in just a couple of years.)

In all honesty, I still find it hard to believe that there is an organized conspiracy against them. Especially, a conspiracy to destory their Order. But what do I know? I tend to be excluded from all the really neat conspiracies. (Yes, I used to be the last person picked when teams were decided.)

[For this lack of belief in an organized conspiracy, I apologize.]

The final piece of today's internet conversation with me came from Star Foster. Star was writing about how the pagan community needs a library to record and archive the modern pagan history. Star mentions that our pagan elders are dying, records are being lost, and we might have to repeat mistakes simply because we did not record the fact that mistakes happened in the first place.

Unfortunately, I honestly think that Golden Dawn itself needs such a library. And this, I definitely have to apologize. For I believe that the only sure way to preserve our history is for people to write about it, even if this results in biased and false versions of our history. Likewise, I believe the only way to ensure our rituals and lore are preserved is publication of said material.

I apologize for such beliefs, and my lack of trust that a completely secret underground esoteric tradition oathbound is the best way to actually safeguard oathbound traditions, lore and ritual techniques.

So at the end of the day, and this conversation with the internet, I will admit that I am guilty of thinking that the HOGD/AO is an enemy (if only for professional reasons), and that I have said bad things about them in the past. But I am fairly sure that I would react the same way if the events unfolded today.

Essentially, I need to apologize for being me. It makes me wonder how I managed to get into any Golden Dawn Order.

[Yes, yes, I realize that hitting publish on this post also requires an apology. But let's be honest, I believe that it is better to admit that I am struggling with making peace with the HOGD/AO than to just disappear and never write about Golden Dawn again. For that opinion, I owe someone an apology.]

Screenshots of the eBay discontinued offerings

In light of the doubt that some have expressed about eBay getting rid of fortune tellers and miracle workers, I present the following screenshots from eBay's 2012 Fall Seller Update. (And because I can foresee myself blogging more about this subject tommorrow.)

Discontinued eBay categories--Sept 2012.

It says spells and potions are a no-no, along with readings.

 

"Items that will be prohibited include: advice; spells; curses; hexing; conjuring; magic services; prayers; blessings; Psychic, Tarot, Reiki, and other metaphysical services; magic potions; healing sessions...."

 

For some reason, the policy page on eBay has not been updated yet to include these services, but I assume that it is only a matter of time before eBay does so. As of this point, you can still see listings of these services on eBay...because it is not the end of the first week in September...yet.



Ebay bans fortune tellers and miracle workers

[Update Sept 5th--there is some doubt that eBay has actually made a policy change. This may just be an internet illusion.]

[Additional update Sept 5th--having looked for the information, I can firmly say that this is actually going on...despite the fact that the information was buried deep on Ebay. Added another post with screenshots of the eBay information.]

Yesterday, a fuss started to be made on the blogosphere and Yahoo forums about eBay's recent decision to no longer allow the sale of fortune telling and spell-work. Initially, people were crying that it was a "pagan and Wiccan" ban, but a little research showed that pagan and Wiccan products were still allowed for sale, provided that they were physical items and not just services (good job, David, for spotting that).

Interestingly, the Los Angeles Times article include magic potions in the banned category (wait for it--I will have a few words about that before the end of this post).

Now, living in Denver and having been involved (somewhat--I was the public representative for the ROAM/EOEW at the time) in the fight against Denver's anti-fortune telling regulations, I am positive that it is a service ban and not a product ban. And unfortunately, I can understand eBay's position, just like I can understand the position of Denver's laws on fortune telling.

From 1950 to 2000, it was illegal to perform fortune telling in the city of Denver. The law was part of the anti-gypsy laws. (Discrimination is discrimination is discrimination.) There was a whole set of laws that were designed for the sole purpose of keeping gypsies from being able to make a living in the city of Denver. Violating the law could result in jail time. And then, it became legal to be a fortune teller, provided that you paid a fifty dollar a day license fee (which may still be on the books--I am not sure).

The law was only periodically enforced. The last time, the Denver Police Department decided to enforce it was 1999/2000. The Police Chief actually used the term "gateway crime" to describe fortune telling. Among the Wiccans who decided to fight the law, the joke was that obviously fortune telling led to drug abuse, prostitution, and urinating in public.

(The Wiccans managed to get the illegality of fortune telling overturned, but I am not sure about the license fee.)

But when you look at some of the bad fortune tellers out there (and occasionally, they make national news), fortune telling is a gateway crime. It is the hook to a bigger scam. "The reason why your life generally s***s rocks on toast is the fact that you have been cursed. For a thousand dollars and all your jewelry, I can lift that pesky curse off of you."

There are also things like Divination Addiction that helps make fortune telling a cash cow for those who do readings. Well, a cash cow for the dishonest readers.

And those are the fortune tellers that eBay is really targeting. Unfortunately to get rid of them, they have to get rid of everyone else who is offering such a service or variation thereof. Because of they leave any door open, the slimy con-artists will find it.

This ban is on ALL spiritual advisors and healers--there are a ton of Christian fortune tellers and miracle workers who are also affected by this ban.

(Kinda reminds of the little problem that is ongoing in the erotica market--the Forbidden Four sell, and some people are weasels who keep finding ways to continue writing about yucky themes.)

Now, let's look at from the viewpoint of Golden Dawn. One of the things that people talk about is how some Orders collect dues and provide astral initiations...and because you cannot prove that the officers involved are not sitting around drinking beer, they must be frauds. This is what eBay is targeting. How do we know that Reiki treatements are actually being done? How do we know that spellwork is actually being done? EBay doesn't know how to tell, and might be too lazy to check, therefore everyone selling a spiritual service is banned.

(On a sidenote: I have been told that astral initiation are a scam; self-initiations are a scam; books about the occult are a scam; products made by Golden Dawn members are a scam; and I have argued that memberships in Orders are a product, and have heard people argue that they are also a scam--in fact, I have been told that any Order collecting dues or any monies at all is running a scam. Basically, if you are charging for anything in the esoteric field, there is someone out there who is going to scream that you are running a scam. I tend to ignore the screams of fraud because everyone is accused, and a lot of the people doing the screaming are cheap-skates or sworn enemies of the people they are accusing. It is just easier to presume that everyone is a fraud, and ask yourself, despite that fact, if you find value in the product and/or service that someone is offering.)

Now, one of the loopholes that the frauds will try to use with eBay is the physical product loophole. But eBay is already going after the loophole with the ban on "magic potions." In other words, if the primary selling point is not the product, but its magical power, then it is banned. On the other hand, selling essence oil mixtures will still be acceptable provided that you make no claims about its spiritual and magical virtues (beyond the standard statement "Traditionally, this oil was used for XYZ magic").

So--do I agree with eBay's banning of spiritual advisors and miracle workers? No. Do I understand why they are doing it? Yes.

Kicking around not reading a blog

The Secret Chiefs have voted.

As many of my regular readers know, I try to keep up with all the Golden Dawn related blogs on the internet. It is not as hard as it sounds...there are not that many of them in the first place.

But lately, I have been considering not reading a certain Golden Dawn blog. One, I am finding that I need a chart or scorecard to keep all their claims straight. Two, the things they say about me makes me violently upset. Three, if the things that they say about me are not true, well, I find myself doubting everything else that they say.

I need a chart to keep it all straight.

So as an early birthday present, I think that I am just quit reading that particular blog. I understand that they are the Golden Dawn community, and everyone else is just a noisy outsider...but seriously, I do not remember the last time I read their blog and did not feel upset about what they were saying. It is not worth it.

And honestly, I do not think that they will miss my readership either. They say that they want to be left alone; and do not want me or anyone writing about them, so not reading them will help me not write about them...well, in the sense that I will never realize that I am writing about them (for some reason, everything that someone writes which disagrees with them and their opinions is taken as a conspiracy against them).

Yes, I know: in order, not to write about them, I would have to completely quit writing about Golden Dawn and my opinions in the first place. And well, that is not going to happen. I figure that they are going to continue to accuse me of various things; I just do not want to have to read about how they think that I am busy trying to destory them.

Do we really use just ten percent of our brain?

We can now see inside the working brain.

Rufus Opus (Head for the Red) and Jason Inominandum (Strategic Sorcery) are kicking around a list of five things that western occultism needs to rethink (it is time to retool). For the most part, I agree with their comments (after all, they did hit one of my pet peeves).

And to their list, I would add a sixth item--"We only use ten percent of our brain."

This explanation for why we can perform magic, have ESP, and generally do the unexplainable annoys me. The reason it annoys me is much the same reason that people talking about the Observer Effect and the Uncertainty Principle annoy me; the people who use it take the sound bite and forget the context that the original statement was made in. Anyone who uses it to explain the existence of ESP and magic is using a false reason. It would be just so much better if they just shrugged their shoulders and admitted that they did not know why ESP and magic actually works.

(Personally, I lean towards a kabbalah reason--it is called a soul.)

The statement that we only use ten percent of our brain comes out of the early days of modern brain studies. And much like the parts of Quantum Physics that people use to prove New Age concepts, the ten percent rule is about an lack of proper equipment and sensors to see what was going on.

The original statement was about the fact that the equipment that early modern brain scientists were using could only detect what was going on (activity) in ten percent of the brain. None of the scientists involved believed (to the best of my knowledge) that only ten percent of the brain was being used--no, they merely could not detect what was going on inside of our skulls.

What we have learned in the last ten, twenty years with better imaging equipment and sensors is that no part of a normal person's brain is completely unused. Parts switch on and off as needed, but there is not ninety percent of it just sitting there completely unused. In fact, unused parts of the brain either get rewritten or disappear--there is no unused real estate in your skull. The only people with unused parts of their brain have suffer some form of brain damage. We use all parts of our brains.

Yet people still trot out the ten percent all the time as an explaination...when really we should be more concerned about the brain rewiring that is happening during our practices...but that is a post for another time.

How big is Golden Dawn traffic spike edition

Blame Mitt Romney for the Sesame Street Ad.

Apologies to Tomas Stacewicz and his Facebook friends for using a post on his wall as inspiration for this post. But hey, ideas come where they may---you can't tell the muses not to show up in certain places without pissing them off all the time. My fellow artists will understand that one must accept the muse at all time and in all places if one wants to continue being creative.

What Tomas was talking about does not matter beyond the fact that I wish him luck on that front, and hopes that he wishes me luck towards never having to issue another bloody disclosure statement. Hey, we can dream, can't we? (By the way, Tomas, if you are reading this---I also want to focus on more important things.)

It is actually his friends' comments that the muses pointed to.

First, there was a comment from David Griffin about the traffic spike his blog got from his New Year's announcement. (Nice to see someone else in Golden Dawn also had a New Year campaign brewing in the background---I would hate to be the only one that was using New Year Day to kick off a new campaign.) David was saying that the day of the announcement was the highest "unique traffic" day for the blog. Now, I do not how much unique traffic he got, but at this point in time I bet he has a new marker for the size of the Golden Dawn market. What I do know is that he got a LOT of traffic that day. His stats for that blog took a real jump. I hope that it results in a nice turnout for his event. (Remember people, I am a writer---different concerns drive my actions. His event ultimately benefits one of my markets, therefore I wish him luck on that front.)

The other comment was made by Nineveh Shadrach, who noted that there are only about fifteen to twenty people bloggging and writing in the Golden Dawn community. And that got me thinking about under-represented the overall Golden Dawn community feels on the blogosphere and on the bookshelves. Of course, our percent of people with soapboxes may be the exact same percentage as other special interest groups---the reason that there seems to be more blogging and writing about baseball may simply be that there are more baseball fans. Without better numbers about how many people are actually interested in Golden Dawn, we can only guess. But I will admit that Nineveh is right---off the top of my head, I can think of about fifteen or twenty people who are actively blogging and writing about Golden Dawn. (Of course, part of the reason for the low numbers is simply that it takes a lot of knowledge and/or creativity to maintain ongoing writing projects in this field without having to resort to the old chestnuts. There are a lot of blogs started that fall silent.)

Oh, for those who are curious about the picture (aka the Sesame Street ad), it is from another blog, Loki's Wisdom. The other day, Mitt Romney said that Sesame Street is going to have ads under his watch...and jokes like the Necromatic Golden Dawn (which hopefully is unlike any real Order) sponsoring the Count and the Cookie Monster and shiny red apples and counting just naturally arose. As I said, you have to take the muses inspiration when and where it comes.