Trump and immigration (why I cannot agree to kick everyone out)

On Tuesday, the greatest American patriot ever, President Donald "He is Jesus--and he is going to save us from the wrath of God!" Trump is probably going to do his best to turn the United States of America back into the all-white 1950s version of America that his supporters voted for.

Yes, he is going to look at the Dreamers, those immigrants who were brought to this country as kids by their illegal immigrant parents, and say, "Yes, I realize that you have been raised in this country, and that you consider yourselves Americans, but my voters want a completely white America, so you are going to be deported. But don't worry, my supporters are also going to demand that blacks be sent back to Africa, and Asians sent back to China, and I bigly support the idea that they should be because none of them voted for me, and I must make America more white if I want to ensure that I am President-for-Life."

Or something like that.

(By the way, there are actually Trump supporters who want to deport all black people back to Africa, even though some of their families [black families, that is] have been living here since before the American Revolution....because you can't be a real American if you are not one hundred percent white. Exactly where in Africa, Trump supporters want to deport blacks to, is a little fuzzy.)

The idea held by Trump supporters, or at least this particular sub-set, is that illegal immigrants (and legal ones for that matter) are taking good paying jobs from honest white Americans.

Having worked alongside those in the Dreamer category, I have a bit of bad news for these white Americans---you didn't want the jobs when we offered them to you.

Yes, I said that white Americans will not accept the jobs that immigrants are doing. Or at least, not the type of jobs that I was trying to fill.

For the one person who does not know, I used to manage a restaurant of the fast food variety ("not fast food--good food fast" as one of the owners used to say).

I started out working in food service after failing high school (because my mom insisted that babysitting my siblings was more important than my homework), after being discharged from the military (because my father died in a truck accident, and I was supposed to go back home and take care of my siblings), and having no other option.

It was a horrible job. The hours were bad. You reeked of grease and smoke (and possibly onions). The pay was low as minimum wage law allowed. Your schedule could change at a moment's notice. ("Punch out--labor is too high, but don't leave--you will need to punch back in once the dinner rush starts.") And no white person with decent chances at better employment would ever take the job.

I worked alongside of people whose parents were illegal: some of which who were born in this country, others not. Many of them couldn't speak a word of Spanish. And they consider themselves Americans, not Mexicans.

Often I was the "token white guy," the only white guy working in a crew of forty or so. The other occasional white person often fell into a category that your typical stereotype Trump supporter would like to outlaw: poor college students, art school graduates, gays and lesbians--you know the type. 

And when I became a manager, quite honestly, I filled the jobs with who I could. Given the restrictions on pay and benefits, and the delightful working conditions, it was seldom that a white person would apply for a position that I was trying to fill.

(And I was trying to find employers for fast food--don't get me started about lettuce and fruit picking jobs that no white person is ever going to be willing to do.)

Plus, a good percentage of my customers were immigrants or children of immigrants--the non-white type.

(One of the reasons that I do not hold 9/11 against all Muslims is that I was managing a Greek restaurant at the time--and my Middle Eastern customers were more horrified by the terrorism than my white customers.)

So that is reason one about why I am automatically against kicking all the nasty immigrants out.

(By the way, one of the reasons that people insist that we must get rid of all the immigrants is that their neighborhoods are crime filled cesspools. I somehow missed all the crime--the worst danger I faced was that a girlfriend might insist that I become a Catholic. Oh wait, some "real" Americans consider being Catholic a crime, much like being a Muslim or a Jew, or for that matter, being a witch and pagan.)

Second reason is that I grew up in mixed race neighborhoods. Outside of visits to my parent's hometown in Nebraska, a brief stay in a trailer park (before I was seven), and five years in a northeast Colorado town (the whitest place I have ever been), I have always lived in mixed neighborhoods.

(The northeast Colorado town is why I was confident in my prediction that Trump would win the election--I lived with those people who embraced Trump--it was only a matter of time before they tried to stone me to death for my odd beliefs in diversity and religious choice.)  

For instance, when my father brought a place in the Five Points, there was two Hispanic families, two black families, a Polish family, a Chinese family, and us (German-Jew)--all within an one block radius. It is hard to embrace a pure white America when one spent most of one's afternoons at the black neighbors house (who I knew better than my own biological grandparents) watching reruns of Star Trek.

(Yes, Star Trek...one can assume that did not help any when it came to my adult views on immigration.)

And that level of racial diversity was also seen when my father took me to construction job sites.

Essentially, my life experience says that neighborhoods are supposed to be mixed race and culture. Yes, I know that I am committing a great sin not viewing all non-whites are the enemy, but what the heck, it is not like me being a German-Jew is a mark in my favor on the real white American scorecard.

Third and the most important reason that I am against kicking out all the immigrants (legal, illegal, Dreamers) and closing the borders to further immigration is: My wife is an ESL teacher. 

(ESL: English as a Second Language)

My household's bread and butter comes from the existence of immigrants in our society. My wife is working a second Master degree in this field. And she makes far more money than I ever will (because I chose to be a writer in a time where writing is no longer a viable career choice--if it ever was).

You kick out all the immigrants, and close the borders, to save American jobs--and my wife, a white American, loses her job. And that is just the tip of the iceberg of the effect that removing immigrants from the economy will have. (I could go into horrific detail....but if you are a Trump supporter who believes that your job went away because of an immigrant, nothing I can say will change your mind.)

And that reason alone, all by itself, is reason enough for me to be opposed to Trump's vision of a pure white America without immigrants in it. After all, all politics are local--and my own local household economy depends upon the existence of immigrants.

But my wife losing her livelihood is probably ok if you are a Trump supporter who hates and fears immigrants....because I imagine that if you desire an all-white immigrant-free America, then I also imagine that you want to burn me at the stake for not being the all-white church going Christian that all Americans should be--something about me being a pagan witch and the grandson of German-Jew immigrants that needs to be arrested and deported back to Germany, despite the fact that I have never lived in Germany--all because America is about white America, and not about the dreams of non-white immigrants seeking a better life. 

This is what America is supposed to look like according to Trump.

How to foresee outbreaks of flamewars and hordes of trolls from the true GD

If you ever want to be able to predict flame war outbursts, and how David Griffin and his loyal following are going to respond, just keep in mind three things.

One, David Griffin wants to turn the Golden Dawn into his own personal business, have a monopoly, and have control over the entire system (aka control the trademarked name and control its entire membership). Hence his love of secrecy and traditional lore that you can only receive if you accept him as the gatekeeper and true guardian of the Golden Dawn tradition.

Two, David Griffin wants to be known as the foremost authority on Golden Dawn and the esoteric traditions, yet remain humble at the same time. Hence his bragging that the Secret Chiefs have chosen him as their sole contact and voice.

Three, David Griffin carries a grudge against anyone that has helped prevent him from accomplishing the first two goals. Anything that anyone says or does that makes it harder for him to accomplish the first two goals will result in a flame war attack against the statement or action, along with a character assassination attempt.

[This post was written on May 22, 2013 and is being held in reserve for the next time that the trolls decide to come after me for upsetting the "rightful and only true leader of the Golden Dawn."]

Rant--helping the poor is in your best interest (UBC--day 12)

Apologizes to all who have been following the Halloween (witchy) poetry series. But this morning, I was reading a post by one of the other bloggers doing the Ultimate Blog Challenge and I feel a rant coming on; therefore, it is probably best that I just get up on my soapbox and address the issue that I am raging about today.

(For those who are curious to read the post in question, it is "Rant--stop hating on the poor for not being 'poor enough'" that you can read here.)

Dear people who think that the poor are not poor enough to deserve help,

Let me appeal not to your human decency, which I presume that you do not have, but rather to your enlightened self-interest. There are good reasons that you want to make sure that the poor have roofs over their heads, warm clothes, working fridges, cable TV, computer games, internet access, and phone service. Quite simply, it is in your best interest to make sure that the poor have these things.

Why? Because you do not want to die.

No, I am not talking about an armed uprising. Your life will be endangered long before the poor take up guns to take away your belongings. Why? Because we live in the same areas that you do.

And more importantly, we occasionally handle your food.

Stop and think about it. The poor need clean water, safe and healthy living conditions, including warm clothes and working fridges, simply because without them, the poor are a pandemic just waiting to happen. And don't think that your money and holiness will protect you from a raging disease that starts and spreads among the poorer citizens (and non-citizens) of your nation. It just takes one bad contact and the disease will leap to those who have money.

A pandemic can wipe a large hunk of the population out. I can hear you say, "Good, less poor people." Just keep thinking that--because poor people will not be the only ones to die in such an event.

The 1918 Spanish Flu killed off fifty million people (3% of the world's population at the time). And it must readily killed off the healthy people, not the typical kids, elderly, and infirm that a typical outbreak kills off. Half of the deaths were adults between the ages of twenty and forty years old. And it did not care about your social and economic class either.

And the potential for a pandemic to develop in the poor populations of the civilized world increases once you start to take away basic survival items, such as working fridges.

Plus mistreating the poor will inconvenience you long before that. For instance, internet service--are you aware that many fast food restaurants are now only accepting online applications? No applications from the poor, especially those who need the aid (such as food stamps to supplement their dirt-poor wages), and you will have no one to serve you your Big Mac. Or bag your groceries. Or...well, the list goes on and on.

So just remember that if you get your way, and cut off aid to anyone who does not appear poor enough to deserve aid, that you will reap the benefits by gaining the health hazards of a third world nation (go to India and tour the poorer areas if you think that you might want to do it anyways).

Oh, and just remember that we live in an equal opportunity county. Just like everyone can work hard, or simply get lucky, and become rich, every person who is not living in poverty can become poor (stock market crashes, etc.).

Blessed be.

[And for anyone curious, I grew up poor, and have never made more than nineteen thousand a year--twenty years in restaurants making minimum wage or close thereof--hence my membership in the ranks of the poor...which is why this issue annoys the hell out of me, and why I am so well aware that poor people are touching your food.]

Do not shame your spiritual leaders!

Only God deserves to be paid for his time and energy.

I presume that you have heard about the pastor who decided that she did not need to tip an Applebee's waitress...because God deserves his ten percent and waitresses do not deserve any money at all (zero percent). And I presume that you have heard about the waitress being fired from her job because the waitress had the guts to post a picture of the receipt on the internet.

Now, as a former restaurant worker and manager, I have strong feelings about the whole issue.

One, waitresses and waiters are often working for minimum wage. And they get a special type of minimum wage--the kitchen stuff washing dishes are actually making more money an hour than the wait staff because the law presumes that the wait staff is going to be getting tips. If they don't get tips, they are merely getting a couple dollars an hour in wages.

(I once saw a restaurant owner make everyone "wait staff" just so they could pay everyone this super-low rate of pay. So the kitchen staff would wait on tables for a couple of hours a month, just because the owner was super-cheap. Needless to say, none of the employees were happy about the situation...it did not end well for the restaurant--one wonders why no one cared about the condition of the food being served.)

Two, this whole incident just proves that one is not allowed to shame our so-called spiritual leaders in this country. Oh, we shamed a pastor--her followers might not do business with us any more, therefore we better fire the person who shamed her to appease the angry Christian horde.

Forget about the fact that spiritual leaders should be held to a higher standard. It is now wrong to shame them. Or at least, it is wrong to shame them if they are Christian and cry about being shamed. It is probably still all right to shame all the pagans because after all, their followers do not represent a significant number of potential customers. Yes, it is all about the money, and not about spiritality or ethics.

And yes, I have seen this same type of nonsense in the occult communities. As long as you have an angry horde of people willing to defend your bad behavior by not spending their money on certain products, you can force the entire community to accept your unethical behavior. Shameful, ain't it?

Splitting the timeline (Tarot Blog Hop)

A Tarot spread for when you have multiple possible courses of action.

Welcome to the Yule 2012 Tarot Blog Hop. If you are reading this, then the world did not end yesterday...and it is time to consider what you are going to do with the coming year.

If you are doing the Tarot Blog Hop, then odds are you just came from Fool Stop--the official blog of U.S. Games (oh yeah, the kind people who supply us Tarot readers with almost half of our Tarot decks...or maybe that is just me). If you are one of my regular readers, then you probably arriving here from St. Andrew's Academy and Library for Misplaced Spells, where initated secrets go to hide.

Now, if you are anything like me, the start of a new year makes you look at certain things in your life, things that need to be dealt with. For me, this coming year is all about the writing and certain other creative endeavors. But I do have a certain problem--there are so many projects to deal with, or that I could be doing, that I am not sure what project needs to become my priority.

In an ideal world, I would have access to a time machine and I would hop into the future to peek at which one I did. And being a Virgo, I would also want to look at several alternate timelines. I don't want to just blindly pick an option, or settle for just one. No, I want to know what all the options were and their respective outcomes. Did I mention that I am a Virgo? A Virgo that just happens to be a science fiction fan?

Anyways, I do not have access to a time machine...this makes me sad.

But I do have access to a magical tool that does allow me to peek into the future, and to weigh multiple courses of action. Yes, that is right--I am about to abuse a Tarot deck in a weird time splitting experiment.

I call this spread--The Time Split, for it allows one to see possible outcomes for multiple options and choices of behavior. It involves at least eight cards for two possible options, with additions of three cards apiece for each additional option beyond the initial two.

The first card of the spread is the current situation (this card can be either randomly choosen or pre-selected). The second card (random draw) provides more information about the current situation.

It is the third card that we start to deal with the various options that are open to us; the "option" cards (3rd, 6th, and so forth) can be either randomly choosen or pre-selected--the choice will depend on how clear you are about possible options available. (A clear-cut list is better dealt with using pre-selected cards; if one has no clue what options are available, randomly drawn cards are the way to go.) The third card (as well as the 6th, and so forth) represent one possible course of action.

The fourth and fifth card (as well as 7th and 8th, and so forth) are randomly drawn.

The fourth card represents additional information about the option in question. In the case of a randomly drawn Option card, it might help verify the option. In the case of pre-selected Option card, it might call attention to complications that Option would require in order to be implimented.

The fifth card represents the most likely outcome if the Option is taken. Always bear in mind that this outcome depends upon the implimentation of the Option under consideration. Also remember that the very act of looking at a possible future changes the future.

Cards three, four and five represent one Option. Cards six, seven and eight would represent a second Option. One can add additional rows of three cards to cover additional Options. (My experience says to limit the number of Options to five--anything beyond that tends to be overkill and quite confusing to keep straight. Ideally, it should be two or three Options considered in a reading.)

So there you have it, the Time Split, the Tarot spread that I am currently using to try to figure out the best option for my business to be focused on in the upcoming year. And yes, it probably will involve monkeys (regular readers will understand why).

If you are continuing with the Tarot Blog Hop, your next stop is the blog of Joanna Ash--Sun Goddess Tarot. And if there are any breaks (broken links) in the Tarot Blog Hop, the Master List can be found at This Game of Thrones. My regular readers will go back to annoying the librarian to let them into the forbidden section where all the really good secrets are hidden. Happy Yule, Merry Xmas, and Happy New Year (and whatever other holidays I am forgetting) to everyone!

No lottery magic for me

As some people know--probably not any of my regular readers--the Powerball prize is up to 425 million. This means that a lot of people are going to be buying a Powerball ticket for the next drawing. And there might be some people who even attempt to cast a magical spell to win the lottery.

I will not be one of them.

Years ago, I used to buy lottery tickets. And yes, I dabbled in luck magic during the first couple of years of my Golden Dawn experience...it was the monthly talisman experiment for me.

What did I learn?

I learned that my magic is not good enough to budge the lottery odds. Oh, based on my results, I can budge the probabilities enough to be measurable, but not enourgh to actually win the big prize. Or for that matter, even the medium prizes.

Maybe if I could be bothered to join one of those super-secret esoteric Orders where the entire Inner Order system of magic is still secret because it is so dangerous, I might get better results. But I am going to guess that even those groups advise their membership not to bother with trying to win the lottery.

Today, whenever I get the urge to buy a lottery ticket, I go and write an article on the lottery. For instance, I have talked about the ticket price of a Powerball ticket, and debated if lottery tickets make good Christmas gifts. My return for writing a lottery article is better than my average return from a lottery ticket (I used to buy a lot of losing tickets).

Now, this does not mean that I do not gamble--after all, I am a writer and an artist, who dabbles in publishing (mainly pictures of farting monkeys and badly written erotica)--it is hard not to gamble when you are self-employed. But I am better off spending any extra cash I have on...well, almost anything other than a lottery ticket.

(And if you want to buy me a lottery ticket for Xmas, don't--I would rather recieve a lump of coal instead...it is for a spell *wink*.)

I do not need to promote your stuff (open letter)

Today, I recieved one of those emails that makes one firmly believe that some people do not understand the Bill of Rights. Basically, I had someone complain because earlier this year, I choose not to promote their stuff. They are now up to the scream that says that I am denying them their right to free speech.

Let's be clear. The only person who has the right of free speech on a blog is the blogger(s) themselves. Everyone else is free to set up their own blog, fanpage, or website, publish their own ebooks and printed material. You have the freedom of speech (provided that you are not advocating crime) to say wherever you want on your own platform.

And me refusing to advertise your stuff is not denying you free speech. Let's be clear--you and I are rivals (more or less). You would refuse to advertise my events on your platform because it is not in your best interests to do so. I am merely making the same decision. You have your own platform to get the word out--use it. Quit trying to subvert my platform for your own purposes.

Have a nice day.

(For the record, there are some things that I do have to advertise--my wife's pottery is one of them. But let's be clear about the difference--her success affects me...in a positive way. On that note, my wife has recently put up a brown [rust colored] mortar and pestle on her Etsy site.)

Brown mortar and pestle available on the Celtic Soul Etsy page.

Back Alley Education

Something that gets me into no small amount of trouble is how I picked up the little bit of education that I have. I tend to describe it as a "back alley education." And it is across the board---academics, writing, business, esoteric---there is really no area that the majority of my education came from approved and honored sources.

In the literature classes, I have a hard time buying into the basic concept of literary theory---the idea that the writer meant to imply great ideas and social commentary with the use of characters and imagery---which is one of the reasons that I struggle with literature. Maybe if I had a classic education, I would have an easier time buying into it.

But I didn't have a classic education. In fact, I am a student that was shuffled back and forth between advanced classes and short bus classes clear up to junior high. For some reason, talking with a German/Yiddish account makes one an idiot, and having a high pitched girlish voice makes one a moron. On the other hand, being able to pass tests with a bare minimum of study and completed homework makes one a frustrated genius.

Clue, I am not a moron or idiot, and the genius train refused to honor my ticket.

School districts and teachers literally did not know how to cope with my "special needs." It also did not help that we moved around so much. About the time, a school district figured out what to do with me, we would end up moving again.

None of this helped my social skills either. There is no point in being nice, polite, or pretending to be normal if you are going to lose any friends that you make within a couple of years because you have to move to yet another house.

And in high school, outside of the token speech therapy and social worker, there was a general lack of effect to address the weirdness that is me. In the school district's defense, it was a small town; there were budget issues.

In the end, I dropped out of high school. One class short. Freshman composition.

Yes, I said freshman composition. In my defense, there were some familial issues in play.

(A few years ago, I did manage to pass the GED tests...without studying for it. I used it to get into a community college, and then somehow managed to transfer to an university. Someone obviously was asleep at the switch. It looks like I might actually get a degree.)

So given this background, it is amazing that I managed to learn anything at all. Especially when you realize that I took my "how to learn" cues from my father, who did not even finish junior high.

My father made sure that I was surrounded by books. And he did a lot of reading himself.

What he could not pick up directly from books, magazines and newspapers, he picked up by questioning people. If you even find yourself being questioned to death by me, blame my father.

I have followed this pattern to the letter. For many years, while I was working in restaurants, my co-workers swore that I had to be going to college---there was no other possible reason that someone would read as much as I did otherwise. And I was not reading the current best-sellers either.

If I ran into someone with knowledge about a subject that I knew nothing about, I would grill them about all the ins and outs of the field. I have no problem with admitting that I know nothing at all.

And the amount of writing I did was ungodly. I was always writing something or other.

Of course, that is one of the reasons that I have a hard time buying into the basic premise of literary theory. I did too much writing without having any higher education. I wrote because I wanted to, and because occasionally I could con someone in writing me a check for something I wrote.

This leads to me having an attitude problem when someone claiming that Victorian writers had all these great social commentary ideas that they concealed in their writing. No, no, no---they were getting paid to write long tedious novels; one does not need to know anything more to explain their writing.

Yes, I am still a problem student today.

I am also a problematic business manager. I do not care what your business or economic theory is. If I have seen something like it fail, and fail big, then I am going to refuse to believe that you with a perfectly good academic degree know more about business and economics than I do, someone who just happens to have a decade plus of running a business under his belt.

I am also a problematic occult student. For many years, I had access to a handful of books. Literally, I could count the number of occult books I had access to on one hand. For me, one does not need a multitude of classes, books, or memberships, to understand the occult. One just needs to be doing the work while having an open mind that one techniques can be improved.

Obviously, this means that the whole purpose of the three Order system (Outer, Inner, and Third Orders) has slipped me by. I picked up the majority of my occult theory before joinning Golden Dawn, gained a lot of my practical experience before making my way into Inner Order. And I talk back way too much to ever have anything to do with Third Order. I am not big on secrecy and absolute obedience.

Maybe if I would have been exposed to the way the esoteric Orders were originally set up, I would feel different. But I wasn't. I learned more about Golden Dawn, talking to my sponsor and mentor over a cup of coffee than I ever did in lodge or from reading Regardie. The same goes for every Advanced Adept Advisor that I have ever dealt with---it is the side-tracks that I am learning from, not the lesson of the day.

This background creates a major attitude problem, or so people who claim to be more advanced than me have told me repeatedly.

I have been reminded of this recently while watching the debate about Pat Zalewski's latest book. I could care less about what the various groups think about his alchemical lore. Pat wrote his book for a single person.

And that is the only person's opinion that matters.

Yes, I feel that the only opinion of Pat's book that matters is that one lone student. Are they actually finding the book useful? If so, then Pat has done good.

Of course, the very fact that I have this opinion proves that I completely missed something important in my esoteric education. But then again, what do you expect from someone who did not go though the proper approved and honored channels to gain the skill and knowledge that he possesses? I have a back alley education, after all; and it shows up all the time in my bad attitude and inability to understand the most basic esoteric concepts in the manner that the higher Grade individuals would like me to observe.

How big is the Golden Dawn market part 3

[If you have a tendency to get upset about my posts that look at Golden Dawn from the viewpoint of a businessman and economist, you may want to go read something else instead. Maybe read or re-read the Harry Potter series---your high blood pressure will thank you.]

A few weeks ago, I was talking to a friend about how the current disagreements among the various Golden Dawn Orders look downright pleasant compared to the flame wars from a dozen years ago. When my friend asked me why the flame wars were worse a decade ago, I answered with what I believe is the true answer.

The flame wars were started by someone who wanted a monopoly.

My friend asked me to explain my reasoning for this answer, so I did.

One of the things that someone steeped in business like myself want to know about the Golden Dawn marketplace is how much you can get on average from each person in the market. It is not enourgh to know how many people there are in the market, you also need to know how much they are willing to spend.

The actions you take catering to such an audience depends upon your opinion of how much of the market will be interested in your product, and how much they are willing to pay for it.

Overall, I estimate that the average member of the Golden Dawn market is willing to shell out a hundred dollars beyond the cost of assembling such products every year. Please note that I am assuming that the product creators are getting paid for the expense of their products (books, membership packets, robes, tools, etc.); that the hundred dollars that we are talking about is the extra margin that the Golden Dawn consumer is willing to shell out per year beyond that cost.

A hundred dollars profit, that is it. And as you know from my previous posts in this series, I estimate that the Golden Dawn market is only maybe a thousand people all together. That is a hundred dollars worth of profit to be divided up among ALL the Golden Dawn product producers per Golden Dawn consumer every year.

In my case, I figure my market share will even be smaller than the whole, and the amount that they will be willing to give me nowhere near approaching the total they are willing to shell out to the entire market.

Figure a hundred people, a dime of profit each, during a good year. Therefore for me, devoting myself to Golden Dawn product production is not a sound economic decision. In my defense, I like talking about the Golden Dawn more than I love the sound of Gold-Pressed Latinum.

(Hey, I heard that groan. I have been told that I should use more Star Trek references on my blog...because Golden Dawn members really love Star Trek. Who would I be to ignore such potential profitable advice? Besides, this column does involve Ferengi-like behavior as you are about to see.)

But consider this---what if you could get ALL the members of the Golden Dawn market to give you ALL the money that they are willing to spend on Golden Dawn in a year? And continue to do so year after year?

A dozen years ago, someone tried to do exactly that.

Think about it. A hundred dollars times a thousand people equals...a hundred thousand dollars a year...equals a million dollars per decade.

But the only way to get all the money was to destory get the rest of us to leave the production end. So the biggest flame war in Golden Dawn history was started.

(Please note that this is a personal theory to explain what happened. Who the guilty party was depends upon who you talk to. And the guilty parties will promptly insist that I am wrong.)

The hoped-to-become monopolist doused everyone with gasoline and lit a match. People tossed back gasoline to defend themselves, their reputation, and their right to discuss Golden Dawn.

If you do not believe me about this theory, just wait until you see someone new come into the Golden Dawn who has decided that they want to be the only authority on the block. This economic theory explains their behavior just as well as theories saying that their egos are out of control.

And I am not the only one that is using the theory either; I am just the only one willing to state what the percieved prize is---a hundred thousand dollars a year.

Every writer that is accused of writing a Golden Dawn book just for profit is a victim of this theory. (And lets be honest, that accusation will be tossed at me, sooner or later.) Every Order Head is accused of only doing it for the money. (That day is coming for me too.)

The sad part is that we do have people who are doing exactly that...but MOST are honest people who just like talking about Golden Dawn.

So how do you separate the hope-to-be monopolists from the passionate talkers? Simple, if you see them give out things that level the playing field, odds are that they are merely passionate about Golden Dawn. And if you see actions that imply that they are the only source of real Golden Dawn information and esoteric wisdom, odds are they are a little budding monopoly building Ferengi.

And yes, I do realize that I am nothing more than a happy little cynic. Remember to tip your waitress. Enjoy the rest of the show, starting with the rebuttal by...

Qod Seth Godin on Schools and my response

Over on Seth Godin's blog, Seth wrote, "As we get ready for the 93rd year of universal public education, here’s the question every parent and taxpayer needs to wrestle with: Are we going to applaud, push or even permit our schools (including most of the private ones) to continue the safe but ultimately doomed strategy of churning out predictable, testable and mediocre factory-workers?"

And my answer is, "Yes. Yes, we are."

Not that I personally want to see this happen, but the politicans and general public are sure behind this idea. My proof of this is the fact that politicans want to see standardized testing be applied not only to lower education (elementary, middle and high schools), they also want to see standardized testing applied to higher education (colleges and universities).

Unfortunately, standardized testing kills all independent thought; it marginalizes all subjects that are not testable in the standardized testing envirnoment; it insures that only subjects tested on are given decent budgets; and it generally leads to standards being lowered so that students can pass the tests.

So what does this have to do with Golden Dawn? A lot actually. It ensures that we keep getting applicants who can barely spell, have no command of written grammar, who struggle to cope with the required reading and memorization work, and basically know nothing about philosophy and symbolism beyond the latest teen makeout flick.

Ok, it is great for those Orders who want brainless easy-to-control members. But for the rest of us, we better start figuring out how to teach all the subjects that Rosicrucians presumed an apprentice would have before they walked into the field of alchemy and philosophy.

Take it outside

There are days that I think that the following quote is a good summary of the interaction between various Golden Dawn students and groups.

"What's the point of havin' a rapier wit if I can't use it to stab people?"--- Jeph Jacques.

Yes, yes---I know that I am wrong. No one is being stabbed; and if they are stabbed, then they deserved to be stabbed because their wit and knowledge wasn't great enourgh to defend themselves. And if you say that something is not part of a flame war, then you are innocent of flaming even as your breath reeks of gasoline.

Let's just be honest for a second.

Every Golden Dawn leader thinks that they are right. And every Golden Dawn follower believes that their leader is right clear up to the second that they decide that they are wrong.

And everyone wants the most (if not all) the students of the tradition to follow them. It is all part of the business of having an ego.

And the way you get the most followers, and prove that your knowledge is the greater, is by stabbing others with your wit.

But there are some of us who do not want to watch this.

So just do us all a favor: There is an alley over there---use it, so the rest of us don't have to see you stab the other person.

[And if you are offended by this commentary, then ask yourself why you think that I am talking about you.]

Celtic Soul Jewelry photo day

Decided to spend the day photographing pictures of the jewelry that my wife is making for her online Etsy shop: Celtic Soul Jewelry. She caught me in the right mood, and I had uploaded three articles that I wrote to internet the night before, so I decided that today was as good as a day as any to fix the bad set of photos that previously been uploaded to Etsy. How bad were they? You didn't see me give a link to them, did you? My professional standards kicked in, and you know how I get---I refuse to give links to sites that I consider eye-sores. I think the primary problem was that the lighting and backgrounds for the pieces were bad. So today, the seven pieces that she had already up on Etsy got new photos. I am still not happy with the thumbnails; I need to actually figure out the best way to do this project for that site. Nevertheless, I am much happier with the new photos. And hopefully, it was a slow news day on the internet, and I didn't miss anything of importance today. Tomorrow, I got to write a newsletter column and a blurb for the June 10th Hearthstone Community Church Open Full Moon Ritual which I am leading (hello boys and girls, it is story time). Oh, if you are curious, all three pendants seen in this photo are available in the Etsy shop: Celtic Soul Jewelry. 

Looking at the Golden Dawn as a Business

One of the things that disturbs some people is that I have the habit of looking at Golden Dawn as if it was a business. I tend to blame this on having managed a business for several years; though to be honest, my father also had something to do with this habit (small family business). But let's be honest, my past experiences just bring to the surface my own infernal triad.

There is something deeply twisted about me that causes me to look at most Order-level decisions and statements and wonder how much of the decisions were actually being driven by business and politics, instead of magic and spirituality. Even when someone says that decision XYZ was made because of ABC magical reason and DEF spiritual reason, I tend to believe that there is a GHI business reason and JKL political reason that is the real cause that XYZ was decided upon.

I may no longer being running a business, but there is a part of me that is permanently corrupted because I have done so. This fact has been pointed out by several people. They also like to point out that I should not even remotely be allowed near the top of any lodge or Order because of my nasty thought processes.

Bottom line, I am not spiritual or magically-inclined enourgh to accurately judge the behavior of those making the BIG decisions in the Golden Dawn tradition. After all, Golden Dawn is not actually a business.

I don't let the opinions of these people stop me from dissecting decisions and statements, poking around the inwards and guts looking for that point that screams that money and political power was its root cause. I am a happy little cynic, ain't I?

But here is an uncomfortable truth---some decisions and statements were driven by business and politics.

I have been thinking about this a lot lately.

For instance, the other day someone asked a former member of the EOGD if they ever asked for a refund. In the back of my mind, I found myself thinking about how issuing refunds is not in the best interests of any Order (my reasoning was primarily business-related). I almost blogged about it (I may still do so in the future).

And yesterday, when reading a post about a rumor that says Robert Zink is going to be paid all the monies from all future EOGD members in exchange for giving up the ownership of the EOGD websites (gee, I wonder whose bright idea it was to have them owned by Zink), I immediately looked at the rumor and thought that it would be a really bad idea to do that. I have since learned that it is just a rumor. Nevertheless, I might still use it as an example the next time I blog about the evil and neccessarity of collecting dues and fees from esoteric members.

In fact, the whole EOGD business/Order model needs to be looked at. We all know that certain decisions were made because they were in the best interest of Robert Zink's wallet. The trick is to figure out which ones they were, and if the EOGD can live without them (or wants to live without them).

One of the problems with business models, and with Order administrative structures, is that human beings tend to treat the first one that we encounter as the only possible model. Your Mother Order and Mother Lodge really warps the way that you view the administrative system.

For instance, look at my view of the traditional hierarchical administrative structure of the Golden Dawn. I tend to look at it with great reservations. Why? Because in the first lodge structure I was exposed to, all the full members had voting rights. And the right to vote was much lower than the typical model. When Bast Temple started, I was one of the people who pushed for Outer Order members to have voting rights; it was what I knew.

(For the record, I have experience with groups that are modeled on the traditional administrative structure of Golden Dawn, and I have never seen anything good come from it in the long run.)

At the moment, the EOGD knows a system that was heavily influenced by Robert Zink, and I think that worries all of us (at least, those of us who are concerned with the health of the overall Golden Dawn tradition). Hopefully, they can figure out the worst decisions and policies that Zink imposed upon the Order and get rid of them.

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

Legalese induced coma

{I advise my loyal readers to skip to the final paragraph; it is all you really need to read here.}

Today I spent an hour hacking my way though some legal documents that got posted to the world wide web. And honestly, they almost put me into a coma. They made my day at jury selection look like a cakewalk.

I found these documents though a post that David Griffin did. I read them because I felt obligated to read them; nobody else in my lodge is going to bother reading them.

None of us got involved in Golden Dawn, nor any Golden Dawn-based group just so that we can read legal documents. Or at least, I hope none of us did. Then again, there are the writings of Waite...Crowley and Mathers are not much better...and I do know a couple of people who have read the Talmud. Well, I still hold out hope that none of us joined up to read legal documents.

And what did I learn that I did not already know? Just one thing. I am not completely wrong when I refer to Robert Zink's Order as the Hermetic Order of the Morning Star International (a habit I developed during my first encounter with its membership which feels like a century ago).

{Disclosure: I have never been a member of the HOMSI, nor have I ever been a member of Griffin's A&O.}

Reading the documents, I found myself thinking once again that the trademark dispute had nothing to do with esoterics, and everything to do with business.

Of course, let's be honest: My well of thinking is poisoned here. My father started a produce business under the name Farmland Produce. He had to change the name of the company because it was too close to the trademarked name of another company (does anyone really need me to give them a free plug?).

And my advice to anyone who choses to read these legal documents, Griffin's and Zink's postings, or anything else related to this dispute is to read it though the lenses of money making and business. Just presume that all statements are about increasing one's own ability to gain members while decreasing another person's ability to do the same. This statement is not completely true, but I feel that enourgh of the smoke and thunder is directed towards that purpose to justify the advice. {Disclosure: I am writer; part of my income comes from pageviews; do I need to say more?}

Correction notice: 13 January 2010: After reading a comment by VH Soror FSO, I decided to change "make money" to "gain members" in the previous paragraph. Reading her comment, I realized that the non-profit Orders are after members, and not money; hence the correction.