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 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.

How dare you support occult watchdogs!

This is what I am supposed to be--a nice miltant fluff bunny who accepts that everyone is perfect just the way that they are. 

Occasionally, I get emails and instant messages from people who say, "How dare you support the occult watchdog community! It is none of their business that I am misleading occult students while stuffing my wallet with overpriced dues and class fees."

My response tends to be, "Bite me! You are a crook and a danger to the occult community. It is only a matter of time before you make the papers and give the entire community a black eye, so why should we wait for the Christmas rush? Let's just air the fact that you are a human speed bump, and get it over with."

Sometimes, the next message will be a threat that a lawyer is coming to take away my first-born child; sometimes, it is silence; and every so often it is "Just wait until the watchdog community decides to air your dirty laundry! I can't wait until the shoe is on the other foot. They are coming for you because you are a bigger crook and menace than I am."

At this point in time, I tend to disturb at least one of my cats with my howls of uncontrollable laughter.

Then I write back, "Exactly what would the occult watchdogs reveal that is not public knowledge already?"

Typically, I get silence back.

But seriously, what could the occult watchdog community reveal that would make them the enemy?

The worst thing I believe is the fact that I write dubious erotica, something that I have admitted to numerous times. Dubious erotica is where the dirty, filthy money is at. Yes, I am one of those writers that believes that you should never write anything for free. After all, I have a monthly Petsmart bill to pay. Ok, maybe they could reveal the exact types of dubious erotica, my list of pen-names, and the titles of my stuff.....and I imagine that no one will actually care. And let's be honest, I would just turn such a situation into a fire sale--"Come one, come all! Read the horrible stuff that I have written, so that I do not need to live off of dues collected from gullible occult students. Because ripping off occult students is so much better than writing dubious erotica." (And no, I am not going to give you the list---just because I am a "sex-worker," it doesn't mean that I have to give you my number---after all, I prefer not knowing who actually reads that rubbish.)

Of course, they might also reveal that my non-erotic stuff on Amazon is over-priced, and not true to some standard of "being stuff that is thousands of years old and sounds like pure fluff." Yes, a lot of my stuff was written and created last Thursday. Oh, the horrors of them seeing my Amazon author page.

Or they might reveal that I am working on some humorous occult community satire (under another pen-name that is none of your business...but which I have made absolutely no effort to distance myself from; so once I publish, everyone will know that it is me within...a week, maybe two weeks, not longer than a month).

Or the horrors of my Deviant Art page.

Or my Gamecrafter page (over-priced fugly Tarot deck coming soon some time in the future).

Or my Etsy page (over-priced occult themed audios coming soon some century).

What else could the occult watchdogs reveal?

Well, I have a shaky lineage in both Wicca and Golden Dawn. And I don't have a giant stack of unpublished material written by a dead white guy pretending to be a caveman.

And I dropped out of Pat Zalewski's Inner Order course during the Adept Major section---that has to be proof that I am ripping someone off.

There is also the fact that I only have a Bachelors degree. Well, two actually (literature and history). But I have not finished a Masters program...and that somehow must be an occult crime--because you know that I have to have some dirt that the watchdog community can use against me.

Oh, the watchdog community might reveal that I have dabbled with Satanism, Thelema, Daemonaltry, and Chaos magic....and who hasn't?!

Maybe they will mention that I have been unemployed forever...because being a writer and artist and self-employed is not being true to the American way of slaving away for fat cats at the top of the economic totem pole. (And as a writer, I always accept donations of food and money...because artists be straving.)

Speaking of cats, the watchdog community might publish mugshots of all my cats....because cats are not dogs, and must be evil.

I once had a black girlfriend, a gay roommate, a couple of failed business ventures, was in the military a whole eight weeks---damn it! There has to be something that I have hidden that the occult watchdogs are going to go berserk over.

Oh I know---I was elected to lodge office by a group of not-yet-Neophytes; that is wrong. No one should actually be elected by students to teach. Everyone knows that the proper way to do things is to declare yourself Grand Poobah and give no one an ounce of control.

And there is the little fact that my lodge split into two. That is worrisome because there is absolutely no way that the Freemasons in the group could have been upset with Morgan's sense of humor and unwillingness to advance people before he felt that they were ready. No, the lodge split had to be because Morgan was collecting excessive annual dues. (Yes, they were excessive at sixty dollars a year---after all, the leader of a group is supposed to pay for all the materials consumed during ritual and lessons.)

Oh. Oh. Oh. I know the worst that the occult watchdogs could reveal.

I believe in gun-control and the legalization of marijuana. That means that I am some type of hippy. And not only do I believe in legal weed, I am guilty of smoking pot. And yes, the occult watchdogs are going to be all over that fact, ain't they?

Did I miss anything? Oh yeah, I don't accept every student that applies--that is suspicious. And I don't teach things that I do not know...that is not how it is supposed to be done.

Oh wait, I do teach some dubious occult lore---I am a Sun Sigh astrologer. Yes, we finally found something that the occult watchdogs will actually care about....as soon as others quit trying to poison people, and hexing people, and generally helping themselves to all the money in other people's wallets.

Yes, the occult watchdogs are coming for me, but I think that I am on the end of a very long list of crooks and false prophets. So no, I am not really concerned that they are going to come after me.

And that is why I can support the occult watchdog community. Because quite honestly, I am not doing anything wrong that they actually care about.

Yes I said that (the David Griffin edition)

No denial here--yes, I did say that.

Facebook down, Instagram down, can't play Vikings Gone Wild!, Bejeweled Blitz is unavailable, Hulu seems to be missing also...oh, I guess it is time for an installment of "Yes, I said that!" the delightful game where I admit to saying and doing things that has upset various people on the internet.

And tonight's offended contestant is the ever delightful David Griffin. There are many things I have said and did that Griffin, and his rabid followers, are annoyed with.

Perhaps the best one to start with is what I said when I recently learned that paid government trolls were trying to discredit him. Yes, I said, "Wait a second! You can get paid to annoy and discredit this man?! Where do I sign up?"

Is there a conspiracy to destory him and his Order? Hell, if I know. But I would love to get a paycheck simply for annoying the man--that would so beat writing erotica and grave robbery for a living.

Hey, it is not like David Griffin and me will ever be besties.

Not that he hasn't tried to be nice to me. For instance, in late December, he posted the following picture to his Golden Dawn Facebook group.

Colorado Kitteh sez Dude, I tink dis was some bad catnip!

Problem is that a couple of days later, David Griffin complained about people causing discussions to go off-topic with non-magical talk, including talk about the legalization of marijuana.

David Griffin feels that I am part of the plot to destory him and his Order, and his Facebook group. 

Honestly, I wasn't trying to derail his discussions. But yes, I was guilty of talking about the legalization of marijuana. Some members of his Facebook group did not understand why he had tagged me with the Bad Catnip kitty. So, I had to explain that it was a joke, that Griffin knew that I lived in Colorado, that I was a supporter of the legalization of marijuana, and that I was the caretaker of a feral cat colony as well as being the pet of several cats. And considering that this was the only discussion talking about the legalization of marijuana, I guess I should have just ignored the questions of those who did not understand the joke in the first place, and allowed Griffin to explain why he was tagging me in a cat picture. 

I was a little surprised that he went on to say that anoyomous bloggers had called him, "HugASatanist Griffin." Yes, an anoymous blogger did popularize that nickname, but they were not the ones who coined the nickname. Yes, I was the first person to say that Griffin wanted us to hug Satanists. It happened during the lead-up to last year's MagickAll--an event that featured E. A. Koetting as a guest speaker, At a certain point, the non-Griffin Golden Dawn community, which represents maybe a whole one percent of the GD community (the other 99% being firm Griffinites) got upset that E. A. Koetting would be invited to a Golden Dawn sponsored event, due to him being a black magician, and the Golden Dawn Neophyte oath containing the clause that one promises not to do black magic ever. 

(It should be noted that I have heard that Griffin's Order, being the most modern and progressive, as well as best lineaged, GD group today does not include this anti-black magic clause in their Neophyte oath, therefore, black magicans are welcomed in the HOGD/AO; and not having the clause, the HOGD/AO could actually invite a black magician to lecture their members on how to do black magic.)

Yes, I was super hostile about Griffin and Koetting being besties.

My coining of the nickname, HugASatanist, was probably the politest thing I said during the uproar. At one point, Griffin said that anyone protesting the attendance of E. A. Koetting at MagicakAll was a racist (a feat done by swapping out the term "black magician" for the term "black man" in the hostile statements made by the non-HOGD/AO community), and that it was also Wiccan bashing--both accusations got my Irish up, and I said a lot of hostile stuff in return. And yes, I recently said that I found it ironic that Griffin now finds Koetting to be a dangerous black magician. 

Speaking of nicknames, yes, it is true that yesterday when someone asked why Griffin is so obsessed with the SRIA, claiming that the SRIA are out to destory him and his Order, I said, "One of the reasons that he who must be mocked talks so much about the SRIA, is simply the fact that legally he is not allowed to name another Order that he fought a court battle against--the SRIA shares a common member with this unnamable Order." The common member last name, for those who are unaware of this factiod, is Cicero. But the important part is that I just coined a new nickname for Griffin, "he who must be mocked."

Another thing that I recently said is that I thought that his ad copy (blurb) for his latest video, and the video itself, was simple fear mongling. (I have said several times in the past that I feel that Griffin is using fear and conspiriacies as selling points, and a way to bind the members of his group to his leadership--so it is nothing new in what I said about his marketing style.) I also said that I did not like his Starship video background special effect, that his movements were awkward, and that the information content of the video was extremely low. I also mentioned that I felt that the fact that E. A. Koetting was now being used as the archvillian evil black magician to be especially ironic. Of course, I do not feel completely bad about this, for I recently learned, thanks to a posting by someone that I am positive is a sock puppet (yes, I said that someone was using a sock puppet to fed Griffin advertising opportunities), that Griffin believes that even my serious videos on the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram are nothing more than jokes. I would repeat what I said about the man after I heard this, but I really do not need to do so--my regular readers know that I occasionally swear like a sailor. 

No, I am not in serious competition with Griffin--I tend to avoid the "I am under magical attack" audience.

The most insulting thing I have probably said, in the last six months about David Griffin, was about his Facebook group. One of the things that I dislike about his group is that it tends to be knee deep in people who have never cracked open a book on the Golden Dawn. Now, I do understand that Griffin's version of Golden Dawn is not the same one that I am accustomed to--that in his Order, the Grade initiation rituals are not nearly as important, and that one can actually do all the Grade work before recieving the initations, something that is impossible to do in the version of the GD that I work with.

But because his Order is set up that way, his Facebook group, in my opinion, bogs down in conversations where people are claiming to be the next Messiah, smarter than everyone else about the Golden Dawn, despite the fact that they do not know the first thing about Golden Dawn as far as I am concerned. And yes, I did say on more than one occasion that it is the price you pay for wanting to have the biggest and most active Golden Dawn Facebook group, as well as an Order that is built to handle vast masses of people--something that I have said on several occasions is not what GD is about. 

It is because of that trend of crap conversations filled to the brim with nonsense, that I have said that I follow his Facebook group for "purely entertainment reasons." Yes, I said that the only value his group offers me is its entertainment value. Now, this is not always true--occasionally, a good conversation does happen there, but it could be weeks between good conversations. Weeks where, as far as I am concerned, his Facebook group exists solely for making me laugh. 

So why do I say the things I say about Griffin? 

One, my style of Golden Dawn is different than his. I am outright conservative in my approach to Golden Dawn when my style is compared to Griffin's. The only thing that Griffin is more conservative about is the subject of lineage, which makes sense considering his Order's lineage traces back to the Ancients and was authorized by the Pharoahs themselves. My own lineage only traces back to a bunch of Odd Fellows who also decided to work the Golden Dawn system.  

Two, I get caught up in the flame war. The instance that Griffin accused me of being involved in a conspiracy against him and his Order, I became part of the oppostion. At heart, I am an angry blogger, and I am quite willing to be angry at him, just for the heck of it. 

Three, I refuse to make peace with the man. I was raised in a household where one carried grudges to the grave. Once I was gifted with the accusation of being his enemy, my upbringing kicked in and dig a trench and a no man's land, complete with barb wire and land mines. 

But most importantly, I say stuff about Griffin because it amuses me to do so. I take great delight in mocking the man on a regular basis. Of course, given my family background, this probably means that I really, really love Griffin--for arguing and fighting and insulting one another was a family pasttime during my childhood. 

And on that note, I leave you with two memes I created about David Griffin, and one that I got from someone else. Yes, I am the person who created the first and third memes. And yes, all three memes amuse me very much...especially when sharing them with the entire world. 

Based on an extensive scientific study, this is what David Griffin posts on the internet. 

And we all know it is true because Griffin says it is. 

Hey, I say that this line from Third Rock From the Sun fits Griffin to a T. 

This blog exists for my purposes

[This post was originally written on February 6th, and was meant to go live on February 28th 2013, but I de-scheduled it because someone made a fuss about DMK not playing nice. So I thought that I would play nice...turns out that I should have issued it because the people who insist that the rest of us should play nice--don't.]

In light of a set of planned series of posts that I intend to write, I need to issue the following reminder:

This blog exists for my purposes, and not yours.

It does not exist to support your version of esoteric history or occult technology. And it is definitely not meant to convince people that your version of magic and occult, especially your chosen Order, is correct, true or even worthwhile.

In other words, this blog is meant to further my stuff--not yours. Therefore the ideas and facts and beliefs talked about do not have to support your chosen version of the world; after all, it is my version of reality that I am talking about.

You have your own avenues of promoting your version of reality. This is mine.

Also note that as a writer, many of my posts are rebundled into other projects (some of which I charge money for), therefore "fair use" does not mean that you can copy my entire post to prove one of your points. Robbing my cat of food will just p*** me off--and it will make me an enemy of yours.

And this concludes this obligatory round of disclosure issued because for some people, diversity means anything that supports their position, and conspiracy means anything that doesn't.

Am I a Demonolator?

Looking over my list of things I want to blog about in the near future, I realized that the question of "Am I a Demonolator?" is going to come up at some point...so I just as well get it over with.

And in all honesty, most of my regular readers and friends have already made up their minds about this question--for those people who feel that they already know the answer, feel free to wander off because nothing that I am about to say is going to change your mind.

Now, for the rest of you, mainly those who just accidently stumbled across this blog while googling "demonolatry"...

I do not consider myself to be a demonolator. But I can see how someone might believe that I am. And they might be right...of course, that last part probably needs some explanation. So here goes...

My preferred definition of Demonolatry is the ACTIVE worship of demons and/or the use of entities commonly known as demons to perform magic as the PRINCIPAL AGENT in the ritual and/or the consulting of demons as the PRINCIPAL SOURCE to learn magical techniques.

Please note my emphasis on the "active" part. I don't consider the passive use of demons in magic to be demonolatry. And there is a lot of passive use of demons in ceremonial magic, even in the holy grimoiric and Golden Dawn varieties. Also note my emphasis on demons having to be the "principal agent" or "principal source."

By "principal agent," I mean that the highest name used in a ritual or spell is actually the name of entity classified by the grimoires or folklore as a demon. In other words, the controlling force in the ritual is a demon, not one of the Christian/Hebrew names of God, nor is it a pagan deity. Please note that if the pagan deity has been demonized by the Church, then it is a demon if you are using the grimoire version of the deity--but not a demon if you are using a pagan version of the deity.

And by "principal source," I mean that you are calling directly on the demon, without using compulsion of the Christian/Hebrew godnames, and using a demon as the principal agent to control and empower the ritual.

The reason for this emphasis is the simple fact that modern-day Christianity is basically the King James translation of the Bible with a dollop of Dante and Milton tossed in for good measure--basically, any god other than Jesus (and his Father) is a demon, and goddesses are automatically demonesses. Yes, there are exceptions, but at the most severe level--all magicians are demonolators as far as radical Christianity is concerned. (In fact, the more radical the sect of Christianity, the more likely that only Christians of a particular sect are considered to be truly saved Christians, with the majority of Christians also being Satanists simply because they do not belong to the right church.) Therefore, if you are a magician, then you too are a demonolator to quite a few people...people whose opinions I generally ignore.

So my dear reader, you can see how some people could consider my worship of Bast as proof that I am a demonolator by their definition of the terms; but by my definition, I am not even close to being a demonolator because I am using a non-Milton/non-grimoiric form of Bast. (For the non-literate people: Milton classified all the Ancient Egyptian deities as fallen angels serving in Lucifer's war machine--a point that annoys me as a modern pagan.)

There is also a guilt by association that some might accuse me of. Yes, I have friends in the demonolator community. Yes, I have borrowed working techniques and ideas from some of them. But if you insist on guilt by association, then I am also a radical member of the Tea Party branch of the Republican party who believes that all laws should be based solely on the Bible because some of my friends on Facebook believe such things. Therefore, guilt by association has to be tossed out...because everyone is guilty of something by that standard.

Another related question is: Are demonolators Satanists? To this one, I always have to ask: Have you met and encountered first-hand many Satanists? Because those people who brag about being Satanists generally only worship themselves and/or are doing it for pure shock value, and would not know what a demon was if it bit them in the ass. Therefore, even if I was a demonolator, I would not want to be called a Satanist. (This connection is along the lines of saying that all users of the Elder Futhark [runes] are Neo-Nazis--a suggestion that might get you punched in the face by a big bearded Viking dude.) Of course, as a magician, according to radical Christians, I am automatically a Satanist even if I do not believe in his existence--therefore, I suppose to many people demonolators are automatically Satanists, even if the idea would get them punched in the face at some point. And please note that one really needs to know the context that the name/term Satan is used by a demonolator to be able to answer this question...just for that individual (there is no blanket answer here as far as I am concerned)--plus, I know one demonolator that uses Lilith as their Principal Agent--that makes them a Lilithist, not a Satanist (they like to point out that Satan in the Old Testament is a name of an office, and not an individual--therefore worshipping Satan is like worshipping a nameless lawyer).

And if you read this far, I bet that you still have the same opinion on whether or not, I am a demonolator as you did before you started reading it. The demonolators and radical Christians who thought that I was a closet demonolator before still think that--pointing out gleefully that I am just playing word games here. The pagans and Wiccans who thought that I was a pagan and/or Wicca are still thinking that. And my three favorite critics are still considering screaming at the top of their lungs that I am a very evil man. In other words, no opinion has ever been changed by a blog post...simply because you are not going to use my definition of demonolator if it does not already fit your world view. Which begs the question of: Why even bother? Answer: I love Google.

All materialistic magic is black magic

A spell involving a Jupiter Lightning Glyph and two monkeys.

Happy New Year!

And given that it is the first day of the New Year (2013), it is now time to make certain of my critics happy and issue yet another bloody annual disclosure statement.

This year's complaint--I do materialistic mundane magic.

Now why does this need a disclosure statement?! Well, according to some extreme opinions of some experts, you cannot do magic to affect the physical mundane world while also working on spiritual development. In fact, some of these experts believe that all mundane related magic is black magic...in other words, only spiritual development is white magic.

It won't be so bad, except that some of these so-called experts state that once you do mundane magic, you can never complete the Great Work. Ever. No matter how much time, energy, or lifetimes you spend doing the Work.

Therefore, because I do materialistic magic, and I started off doing material magic, I can never complete the Great Work...therefore, why are you reading this blog?

Now, personally, I believe that not only is this idea extreme, it is also wrong. Yes, I said--wrong. It is based on the idea that the material world is evil, and that the spiritual (heaven) is good. It is an idea that affects our entire culture, thanks to the ideas of Judaism, Christianity and Islam (all of whom inherited it from Zoroastrianism). Therefore, it is understandable hearing this from occultists who come from esoteric groups that require or emphasize one of these religions, such as most Golden Dawn groups.

The really sad part is that I hear this from pagans and Wiccans who are drawing inspiration from other religions that do not have this fatal duality.

And the really annoying part is that Golden Dawn enshrined this idea right into its Outer and Inner Order Oaths. Yes, you can be expelled from GD just for doing a simple money spell. It is better to live under a bridge homeless than do a spell to gather a little rent money in an emergency.

(Please note that in two of the Inner Order courses that I suffered though, I was required to do mundane magic--I am guessing that by the strict classic version, they would not be considered really Golden Dawn.)

Here is a hint for the Wiccans who believe in this duality--read the Charge of the Goddess which states off with: "Whenever you have need of anything, once in the month and better it be when the moon is full, then shall you assemble in some secret place and adore the spirit of me, who am Queen of all witches." How can you start an invocation like that, have no concept of heaven, and still end up with a severe duality that says the material world can never be spiritual?!

And for those of you who are curious, the BIORC does not view all materialistic magic as black magic (it is complicated determining what black magic is...but just because it is aimed at the material world does not automatically make it black magic), and spiritual development is tied to developing the mundane side of one's life at the same time. It is little things like that which will ensure that the BIORC is not considered Golden Dawn by everyone within ten years (if we are not already beyond the point of no return).

Of course, if you are really concerned about my behavior, you better tell Jason Miller that I am misusing one of his Jupiter lightning glyphs to try to promote evil monkeys. (I am quite sure that he has something to say about this subject.) And for the so-called experts, well, they are always right and I am always wrong as far as they are concerned, which is why you are supposed to be reading their blog and forum posts and not mine. Listen to their superior wisdom because I am busy making things up as I go along, and they have the experience of excellent teachers that I didn't have.

Happy New Year!

[Update: July 2013: Due to differences in sales expectations and business philosophy, in early July 2013, I ceased to be involved in the Turtle Monkey project.]

My favorite charity

We support Trap-Neuter-Return programs.

One of the questions that a global Rosicrucian has to struggle with is: Who should recieve my compassion and charity? We swear to help "heal" the world; but unless we are a member of the medical profession, our oath focuses more on healing the minds and general conditions of the world than it does the physical well-being of individual bodies.

Part of the question that we must struggle with is the fact that the entire world is in trouble. There are more people who need help than there is help available; you will never run out of people who need help. You can always give more...until you have nothing left to give.

(Jeff Goins talks some about this in his book Wrecked: When a Broken World Slams into your Comfortable Life.)

So we must decide where to focus our attention. Some people choose to focus on the global level, or the needs of the citizens of other countries. And that is ok.

I, on the other hand, chose to focus more locally. Part of the reason for this is simply the fact that I grew up poor. I was one of those kids who ended up eating free school lunches, and ate stuff from the local food banks. And if I was not redirected to another charity, I would probably be focused on helping a local food bank.

But I got side-tracked into a different type of charity and healing work. A type of healing work that does not involve human beings. That is right; I ended up working with cats.

How it happened was simple. When my wife and I brought our house, it came complete with a feral cat colony. The problem with feral colonies is that unless someone becomes their care-taker, the cats in a colony will continue to breed and overpopulate an area. This results in many deaths by stravation and disease among the poor cats caught in the situation.

The easiest way to deal with the problem (besides people not abandoning un-fixed and fertile cats in the first place) is to control the colony. Relocation does not work because more feral cats will just move into the area if a colony disappears; the same thing happens if you completely destory a colony. The only way to control a colony is to take care of it. And the first step in caring for a feral cat colony is to neuter and spay the existing members of a colony.

Once my wife and I became aware of the feral cat colony, we started to rescue the kittens who could be tamed, and fix the cats who could not be. Several males had to be put to sleep due to disease. Since then, we had to do several more rounds of trap-neuter-return. We also have to make sure that the colony gets fed--ask me about my cat food bill; it is like feeding a four-legged army.

The two cats in the picture that accompanies this post are two of the cats that we rescued as kittens two years ago when a new round of feral cats came into our neighborhood. They are really sweet cats. You really cannot see it in this picture, but both of their left ears are nipped (this is to let colony care-takers and other people know that these cats have already been fixed). We did not originally think that the two brothers would be tamable, but they seem to like being petted, fed, and allowed to lay on the sofa. I would be hard-pressed to tell that they were originally ferals if I did not already know.

So that is the type of charity that I am involved with--a local cat charity. It is not better than those people who work with people, either locally or internationally. Nor is it worse. It is just the type of charity that I am best suited to work with. And in the end, that is what determines the type of charity and healing a Rosicrucian does--the personality and skills of a Rosicrucian determines the type of healing that they do. Therefore, a difficult question turns out to be very easy to answer once one knows oneself.

Let's be clear about something

I would like to be clear about something. I give David Griffin, the HOGD/AO, and its membership, the same amount of respect that I feel they give me. I do not need to be part of a vast and evil conspiracy to dislike the HOGD/AO; I merely need to read the things that they say about me. And because I never foresee them treating me with more respect, I never foresee myself treating them with more respect either. I am not sure how I can make it any more clearer than that.

Diversity in Golden Dawn and paganism does not mean automatically having to agree with the opinions, official statements and lessons given out by David Griffin, the HOGD/AO membership, and their Third Order. And it sure does not mean that I have to treat with upmost respect those people who treat me like some deranged lunatic and claim that I have done things that haven't even crossed my mind yet.

As I said, I do not need to be part of a conspiracy to act as if I do not like you--I merely have to respond in the exact same manner that you treat me and other people. The simple truth is that there is no need for an anti-HOGD/AO conspiracy; all one needs is a bunch of people who dislike you for being a know-it-all who has absolutely no idea that sugar catches more flies than vinegar. Scary, isn't it?

Humor needs no apologies (Would dad approve)



The truth behind mostly widely read blogs and websites.

There is something in the water today...or is it the air (no, what is in the air is burning forests...at least here in Colorado, that is). Several times today, I have been involved in conversations about comedians having to apologize for making a joke. It has even infected the internet (Nerdist: Comedy Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry...Right?).
A lot of people do not like my personal stance--I never apologize for making a joke, no matter how badly it fails or how offended you feel about it. The only possible exception is if you are a friend that I have known for years...and I must really care deeply about your feelings to even consider apologizing to you. I have been known not to apologize to people that I was having sex with, so the average internet reader doesn't have much of a chance to weasel an apology out of me.

Basically, there are three people in my universe who might be able to get an apology if I offend them with a joke...or at least, there are only three people that I ever remember apologizing to for comedic mistakes.

In fact, I am just the type of person who if I realize that the subject matter bugs you that I will keep pounding that particular drum all night long. Yes, I know it is rude--I don't care. This is something that recently some people did not consider when accusing me of making a particular joke that they did not like...if I was responsible, I would have continued to use the offensive character in question. (Hell, the character had great potential in my opinion.) It might be a family trait.

Occasionally, someone wants me to apologize for something that I found funny. Really? I need to apologize for having a sense of humor that doesn't perfectly match your finely attuned  and much superior sense of humor? Sorry, but that is not going to happen either.

My first role model for comedy was my father. And yes, that is probably the worst thing that could happen to me. Dad worked construction, was a delivery driver, etc., all those manly jobs that I consider to be too phsyically intensive for my tastes.

(On the other hand, I choose to do the mental labor intensive tasks of staring at a blank screen until my forehead bleeds--I am not sure that was a wiser decision.)

Anyways, most of the jokes that my father told involved the Polish. His friends focused on the other races.

This was before the era of political correctness. Today, you would not dream of telling these types of jokes. On one hand, this is a good thing--we now know that we just one big human family, an unhappy infighting one, but still family. On the other hand, it tends to led to the argument that you are not allowed to point out the weird things that anyone does because it might offend them--after all, you do not want a stupid person to realize that they are being stupid.

Would my father approve of my own humor? I am not sure. He would probably groan at the weird definitions that I created for The Zealot's Dictionary. He would probably also agree that some of my jokes work best in person (or video) because discussions of the specialness of OTO is best when accompanied by a hip bop and the Golden Dawn with an Elvis thrust. And he would definitely support my opinion that if one person is allowed to use bad humor about people they do not like, then so am I when I talk about them in return.

Yes, my dad might not have understood my sense of humor or many of the jokes I tell. But he would support my stance that no apologies would be forthcoming just because it just happened to offend you. After all, he never apologized for any of the jokes that he told, no matter how dubious they were.

Someone is going to be upset



Fuck you---I am Cat.

[This post was originally written in April 2012, and was not posted because I decided to be nice. It is being posted today because David Griffin and his Order will be demanding an apology from me in the future because of a project that I had in the pipeline for a couple of years that they will claim is ripping off their ideas because they openly stated that they are mixing science with the esoteric mysteries before the first part of my project was ready to be published. So I am just going to state the fact that I will not be apologizing for that project...or any other thing that I might do that upsets them in the future. The stuff in red was written today.]

There are days when you know that someone is going to be upset with you...and your friends...and your lodge...and your Order. This is one of those days. I imagine that they are also going to be upset with my cats.

Why?

Because my lodge looked at my notice of resignation, heard why I had to resign (because Griffin and company thought my opinion of them and their actions in the great book banning of 2012 were the "vilest"), and then proceeded to point out that my oath was not to Griffin's HOGD/AO, but rather to the BIOGD/BIORC and the IIOGD (which had given a previous HOGD/AO version the bird).

[Yes, there were groups calling themselves HOGD/AO before Griffin took out his trademark---shocking, but true. Even more shocking is the fact that my lineage may actually trace to Mathers. There are days I pray that it doesn't.]

Therefore, given that my oath was not to Griffin and his Order, and my duties likewise, the membership of the lodge did not see how the opinion of people outside our Hall had anything to do with whether or not I should remain a member of the lodge and Order. At that point, they set fire to my notice of resignation.

And you know that there is going to be a horde of people upset about this.

[For some reason, the members of Bast Temple do not consider the members of the HOGD/AO to be their brothers and sisters in the Work, I wonder why that feel that way.]

I am not really surprised by this. The people who join Bast Temple who do not like me and my actions tend to rapidly leave and join another Denver Golden Dawn lodge. My fellow and lady lodge members are used to my "in-your-face" opinions. In fact, they pointed out that the "vilest" language I used was actually polite compared to some of the things that I have said over the years.

They also did not think that I owed Griffin and company an apology over my honest opinion. In fact, it turns out that the lodge's opinion of the situation and the players would really upset some people.

The angry horde is going to be appalled that I am the polite, rational member of the lodge.

Furthermore, the members of the lodge want Griffin to know that they do not care about what I say about him and his. They understand that Griffin has appointed himself (or is it the Secret Chiefs and the Third Order?) judge and jury over all things Golden Dawn, but they would like to point out that they voted a long time ago not to join Griffin's Order. (Long story, mostly boring---and sad because they decided that they preferred a different devil in charge---it recently came back up with the revelation of new superior teachings which they voted not to learn.) And they want Griffin to know that his opinion is not welcome in matters concerning the actions of the membership of Bast Temple.

The angry horde, armed with pitchforks and flaming torches, want my head on a platter. And they are going to have to settle for calling me bad names. And that is really going to make them upset.

[Furthermore, I would like to add that my lodge knew about my bringing science into the esoteric mysteries project for the last two years, therefore I am quite sure that they not consider my project to be ripping your Order off.]

[One of the results of this demand for an apology is a new "tradition" where I am not allowed to bring myself on charges based on demands from Griffin's group. The membership of Bast Temple have stated that they will only consider bringing me up on charges on things that they discover on their own; by the way, they do not read Griffin's blog or forum...so demands for my head will be met with indifference by me.]

Ok I have read your advertisment (blog advice)

Open letter to the person who attempted to post the same comment three times on three different entries:

Dear blogger,

I am glad that you like (?) my blog. But I have a policy of not allowing comments through that are thinnly veiled advertisements---especially ones that are little more than a series of keywords that you are hoping that the search engines pick up on. Furthermore, you really need to brush up on your English, for instance "I really lie your blog" is not the same as "I really like your blog." It is nothing personal; my opinion is based purely on your comment context; it is simply that I would like you to actually comment on the context of my blog, rather than simply post an advertisement for yours. In other words, it is for business reasons, including SEO reasons, that I am not going to let your comment through.

A better way to get me to link to your blog is to write real comments that add something to the discussion. You may not realize this, but search engines are programmed to ignore, or to devalue, sites that use the advertising tactics that you are using. What you really want to do is to be a valuable member of my community, therefore making me think of you as a friend, or at least an interesting expert in your field, and getting an organic in-post link to your blog; this type of link would actually carry far more weight with the search engines than the link contained in your canned blog comment.

Yours in the Great Work,

Morgan Drake Eckstein

Cipher Manuscript built in problems

Ok, I think that I am done with the numerous disclosure statements that I have had to issue to make everyone happy---which all basically say that you should not be reading this blog (or any of my writing for that matter) because I am not an expert in their eyes (and I am referring to several parties here---I don't think that I can throw a rock without hitting someone who believes this).

So now, let's turn our attention back to the Cipher Manuscript (there is a post from a few days ago on this subject).

There are a few problems with studying the Cipher Manuscript---some of which have plagued Golden Dawn from its very beginning; others are problems affecting anyone who wants to study the manuscript and its content.

Let's start with the latter type of problem. The biggest problem that affects scholars studying the Cipher Manuscript is that we are forced to study it through "trace copies" and "photocopies." This may or may not be a problem depending upon what you are interested in. If you are only interested in the contexts, then trace copies and photocopies are sufficient for one's purposes. But trace copies and photocopies require one to take a leap of faith about certain things, such as the age of the paper and ink. For instance, the science of determining the age of a manuscript has moved on since the last time that the age of the manuscript was determined.

Now, today we are better off than we were forty years ago. We do have the photocopies and trace copies of the Cipher Manuscript. Previous to the 1970s, no one (or maybe only a few people) in the esoteric community had access to the Cipher Manuscript. The document entered a private collection in 1923, and for all practical purposes disappeared.

The circulation of the Cipher Manuscript, awareness of the actual document and not just the myth of it, seems to have been limited to a small number of people in the original Order. Interestingly enourgh, A. E. Waite seems to had access to its contents through a copy of the document made by W, A. Ayton. Likewise, Frank William Coleman knew of the Cipher Manuscript. I have reason to believe that Aleister Crowley may have had knowledge of its contents, but I have no hard proof to prove my theory. The exact circulation of the contents of the Cipher Manuscript among the membership of the original Golden Dawn is hard to determine based on the currently available information. I feel that is safe to say that study of the Cipher Manuscript by members of the original Order was optional, and probably involved a favor or two in order to be allowed to make a copy of it.

In modern times, the Cipher Manuscript resurfaced. The first person to see it in modern times was Ellic Howe, who gained access to the private collection that used the document since 1923. Howe's conclusions about the Cipher Manuscript was unfavorable to say the least. Interestingly enourgh, Howe seems to ignored some of the pages of the document, or perhaps did not see the whole document. During the 1970s, there were some small press publications of the Cipher Manuscript. It was not until the 1990s that a decent publication of the Cipher Manuscript happened.

Today, the best sources are "The Complete Golden Dawn Cipher Manuscript" (Darcy Kuntz) and "Secrets of the Golden Dawn Cypher Manuscript" (Carroll "Poke" Runyon). There are a couple of websites that host images of the Cipher Manuscript; my preferred favorite is the Golden Dawn Library Project.

A couple of the modern Golden Dawn groups have changed their lesson plans to include the Cipher Manuscript. Hathoor Temple (IIOGD) included it in a limited lesson at the Inner Order level---based on the less-than-stellar 70s publications. BIOGD/BIORC includes a brief lesson about the Cipher Manuscript in Outer Order at the Zelator (1=10) Grade level (limited to the Neophyte and Zelator sections), and a longer lesson at the Inner Order level of Adept Minor Theoricus (5=6 THAM).

Another problem facing the scholar is the fact that various publications of the Cipher Manuscript order the pages of the Cipher Manuscript differently. I am working on a spreadsheet to address this problem (in fact, considering that this is a "prescheduled post," it may actually be done by this point in time). There is the additional problem that there were later additions to the Cipher Manuscript, including pages by Coleman and Westcott. Complicating matters is the fact that the lines of the documents are garbled---in fact, the Cipher Manuscript may be a copy itself of an earlier version.

Unless you have worked at "translating" some of the pages yourself (actually the proper term is "decipher"), one is unaware of the difficulties involved at decoding the mess that the Cipher Manuscript is...in fact, Runyon points out that he understands why several people did not finish the task.

The final problem facing the scholar who is merely studying the content of the document is that the Cipher Manuscript is an outline that refers to information from sources---and one is left trying to figure out the sources without a list in hand. In a future post, I will be discussing this problem in more detail; I am merely mentioning it at this point to remind people that I am aware of the problem.

Now the preceeding list of problems was merely based on the content of the Cipher Manuscript itself. There are also a couple of problems that plague the person trying to put the Cipher Manuscript into its proper context (again, the subject of an upcoming blog post). Briefly, they are "Who wrote the document and why?" and "How did Westcott obtain the document?" Both of these questions have plagued Golden Dawn from the beginning. (And in my case, they have spurred me to issue a set of disclosure statements prior to issuing this series of blog posts...because people hate my conclusions.)

So there you have it, a list of problems that will cause no end of problems when it comes to studying the Cipher Manuscript. You will be seeing these problems rear their ugly heads over and over again as we progress through the Cipher Manuscript.

Diclosure I do my own artwork

And the disclosures just seem to keep coming. Tonight's disclosure is inspired by something that happened on Facebook. A customer was complaining to one of my writer friends about the fact that she used Paint or Word to create the sigils in one of her books. Needless to say, the conversation was all downhill. Including a comment from me warning the person not to buy any of my books because my sigils are horrific ugly...which I was informed was not the point. Of course, I responded with the fact that I actually use the Paint program on occasion.

Then we got the truth, the person thought the book was overpriced for having such bad sigils. In another words, you can charge an arm and a leg for a book with beautiful, professional drawn sigils, even if it is little more than a paper weight...but heanven forbid you actually charge a high price for a book that works with ugly amateur artwork in it. I suspect the person was a muggle and not a magician.

Therefore, I have to warn people that I do all my own artwork. And it is ugly artwork (I failed high school art), just one step above stick figures. My sigils are ugly and badly drawn. My diagrams are ugly and badly drawn. My godform drawings are ugly and badly drawn. I think that you get the idea.

So be warned that my books do not contain professional drawn artwork. Though it should be noted that I have accepted money for doing artwork, therefore by Olympic standards, I am a professional artist...just not a very good one.

Blog Advice and Disclosure Statement on Prescheduling Posts

Last week, during the midst of having prewritten and prescheduled posts go live, I realized that I needed to disclose the fact that I sometimes prewrite and preschedule blog posts. OMG! It is another bloody disclosure notice, and Morgan is trying to disguise it as blog advice. (That is exactly what you thought, isn't it?)

What made me realize this was the fact that I dropped a "live and freshly written" post into a block of prewritten ones (there was a hole in the block, and the idea for the fresh post fit in prefectly with the sequence). So I appeared to be reacting to events surrounding something when in reality, I had just taken a best guess about how certain people were going to react ahead of time.

I am not sure if it is a bad sign or not that I can predict how certain people are going to react ahead of time. Personally, I think that it is a bad sign; yet the predictability of reactions in the Golden Dawn community does make one's work as a blogger easier.

Of course, that is the whole reason for prescheduling blog posts in the first place. There are just some mornings when you get up and have a couple of blog posts in mind. Instead of waiting to write them another day, it is just easier to prewrite them ahead of them, and use the schedule function to issue them in a well spaced manner. Prescheduling is also great for those times when you know that you are going to be knee-deep in other activities (semester finals, vacations, well-known weeks from hell).

So if you think that I am reacting to something, you may want to ask me if the post was a fresh post or a preschedule. After all, my evil is often preplanned weeks in advance.

(As a sidenote, I find it interesting that my cute cat picture campaigns---which are prescheduled---do not get me into trouble. Oh, wait, I know why---almost everyone can agree with cute kitty pictures. I only get into trouble when something actually matters to someone.)

Article and Book disclosures

Another disclosure statement---I will NOT be adding disclosure statements to my articles and books. The reasons for this is that A) I am sick and tired of making disclosure statements, especially ones that undermine my own authority and serve no purpose other than advertising an Order that I have no connection with, and B) my readers should be able to figure out from my public profiles, my blogs, and the "putting stuff in context" statements that I have a personal bias and limited knowledge about the stuff I am writing about.

Therefore, if I write about Tarot, I am not going to say that I know nothing about Tarot and that the reader needs to go to someone else for the real initiated secrets. Same goes for Norse runes, alchemy, magic, Golden Dawn, RR et AC, geomancy, and everything else that slips my mind at this moment.

Please note that no one has said I need to do this personally; but given the Golden Dawn information police views about other writers, I thought that I would beat the rush and just issue my warning that I am not going to undermine my own authority and provide them with free advertising.

Note: The membership of the Golden Dawn information police changes on a regular basis. It seems to consist of people who think that they are the only people who really know what the various esoteric traditions are all about.

Disclosure Update 2012

Happy Secular New Year!

Once again, it is time to publish an update to the myriad of disclosure statements that I already have on this blog.

[This disclosure is aimed at a particular school of thought---I am sorry, but I disagree with you. Yet given the fact that you have objected to my book reviews and tried to get me to issue a disclosure on every book review stating (more or less) that the reader should not read my book reviews because of my lack of membership in a correct and true Golden Dawn Order, I feel that I must issue this disclosure before you insist that I issue one.]

Over the past year, it has been revealed that the Secret Chiefs (Third Order) broke contact with Mathers in 1906 when Crowley published the Golden Dawn rituals and the first two rituals of the RR et AC, along with some of the teachings developed by Mathers. The reasons for this severing of contact was that Mathers allowed an untrustworthy member into his Order, one who broke his secrecy oaths, and that Mathers had went too far in his mixing of egregores (lores, traditions, currents, energies) that were never meant to be mixed. In other words, the Third Order had no clue what Mathers was doing until Crowley published the rituals and Inner Order material which just added to the insult that someone had broken their secrecy oath.

The reason that I must issue a disclosure update is that the fact that I rather like the mixing of traditions and lores. And in the interests of keeping you safe and ensuring that you only become a member of legitimate and recognized Orders (which the BIOGD/BIORC is not), so that you might someday be allowed into the glories of Third Order, you must be warned not to consider joining the Order I belong to.

Remember the words of an acknowledged expert in this matter:

"[The] fact is that the Third Order must find you...if you are deemed worthy they will eventually contact you. [The] only way in being spotted by them is by joining any of the true and authentic Rosicrucian bodies."

The fact that I do not think that Mathers went too far, besides being a working writer, ensures that I will never be contacted by the Third Order. If you ever hope to be contacted by them, you really should not be reading anything that I write. This is especially true considering that a lot of my work over the years has been involved in expanding the results of this errorous set of teachings. And whatever you do, resist the urge to come back tomorrow to read my post about the mixing of symbols as revealed by the Cipher Manuscript.

Ye have been warned.

Disclosure about upcoming disclosures

During the first week of the secular year, starting tomorrow actually, several disclosure statements are going to be issued by me. They are going to sound hostile...mainly because I felt like I was being forced to issue them by parties who have appointed themselves the Golden Dawn information police.

Exactly who the Golden Dawn information police are varies by the day of the week, hence why no names are mentioned.

I am issuing the statements as fair warning to the poor students that the information police say that the rest of the Golden Dawn community is conning and ripping off. But each disclosure statement undermines my own authority, makes the groups I belong to look like some alley scum, and serve no purpose other than to make someone else look like they are the only true authority on Golden Dawn. Hence, the hostile tone.

I know that given the fact that I have started to expand my writing into the realm of ebooks, it is only going to be a matter of time before the information police start to call me a crook, a conman, and ignorant flaming troll.

Therefore, I have decided to beat the rush and just issue some disclosure statements as fair warning that you should only be listening to their opinions about what is and what is not Golden Dawn. Yes, I am hostile---after all, I have seen what they say about other writers that I agree (partially) with and I do not like having to undermine my own authority just because someone cries that they and theirs is being flamed every time someone disagrees with them and their official version of what Golden Dawn is.

After the current round of disclosures, I may never issue anothe disclosure statement (outside of monetary involvement of product and service reviews) ever again.

I would love to think that I am judging the Golden Dawn information police wrong; but after watching them over the past couple of years, I know that they are going to come for me next. I have a choice between issuing a few hostile disclosure statements and getting back to work, or dropping out of the business of talking and writing about the Golden Dawn completely. Given the fact that I will not do the latter, I have to do the former.

Ye has been warned.

Misrepresentations and mislabels

A few days ago, I wrote a post where I was talking about the differences between the various esoteric camps and groups. It was a "live drop" into a blank day of a cycle of posts that I had already prewritten and prescheduled to kick off my secular (business) new year. (Actually, the posts were probably more about avoiding the harder money making writing that I should have been doing instead.) And it was a perfect fit for what was already in the pipeline.

Now, during the course of the post, I used the label "European Golden Dawn"---in my defense, I borrowed the term from someone else (opps) and at the time of writing the post, it matched how I was thinking. As was pointed out to me, European Golden Dawn is a mislabel. It lumps everyone in Europe into the same camp (opps). I also learned that I misrepresented the beliefs of at least one of the parties involved (opps).

Well, let me let you onto a little secret---I sometimes write comedy, and all professional comedians are professional liars. We bend the truth for the sake of a good joke. Or in my case, I bend the truth for the sake of an interesting blog post. My regular readers know this. I don't need to tell them that I am a trickster. My regular readers have read dozens of posts where I am busy poking fun and scorn on the parts of the system that I am struggling to make sense of. For me, the politics and bickering between the various esoteric factions is nothing more than one large farce.

The Golden Dawn lodge that brought me into the system labeled themselves, "Independent and Irregular." Call it truth in advertising. All Golden Dawn groups are Independent and Irregular once you step out of their group and start to look at them from the viewpoint of other groups. Pretend that you completely agree with any particular party and then look around at the other Golden Dawn groups---everyone suddenly looks Independent (for not obeying the Big Giant Head) and Irregular (for not believing in the absolute truth that the Big Giant Head teaches). And I do not care who you decide to presume is the Big Giant Head---the result is the same: everyone outside of their select group is a bunch of lunatics.

This is one of the dangers of our current political system in the Golden Dawn system. One can easily fall into the trap of only XYZ is right, and everyone else is wrong. One can also easily fall into using the labels that XYZ is using for the various other camps. It is easy to start to believe that your set of ideas are the only proper and true way of thinking and that everyone who disagrees is nothing more than a flaming troll. And worse of all, some of the Big Giant Heads encourage you to believe exactly this.

Another trap that you can fall into is to believe the misrepresentations that Big Giant Heads put forth about other groups. I was surprised that anyone took my misrepresentations of the the European Order seriously. (Yes, I could be a Big Giant Head---why not?!) Now, there is a grain of truth in what I said, but I took it to the extreme. The trick is to figure out what I actually thought was true before I carried it out to the extreme. (Of course, once you figure that out, you may not like what you see going on---which is why jesters were so important in the Middle Ages---please remember that you are not allowed to kill the comedian when he tells the truth.)

A nasty truth about esoteric groups is that unless you are a member of them, you don't know what is actually going on in them. And if they practicing an information embargo, it is even worse. Think about it---outside of one, two, maybe three of the top people, no one know everything about a group's purposes. There is always the posssibility of there being an ugly surprise waiting in the wings.

For instance, ignore what I said about the European Order's eventual goals. Look at what they said instead, and what they have done over the last thirteen/fourteen years (I was counting on my fingers here), and ask yourself "Why did they do and say these things?" And presume that Griffin (considering that he is their top level person) has really made contact with the Third Order just like he claims. Does Griffin really know why the European Third Order has contacted him? And what is their reason for wanting to bring Golden Dawn, an Order they abandoned, back into the fold?

If you can look at those words and actions, perhaps while believing in the Third Order contact, and not feel a touch of paranoia, then perhaps you are a better person than I am. Then again, my father had Italian friends while I was growing up; I can't help being paranoid. (Please leave your comments about my misrepresentations and mislabels of Italians in the comment section.) My goal here is not to tell you the truth; it is to make you think for two seconds about the dryrot that is weakening the entire Golden Dawn community. After looking at Griffin and his Order's action, look at all the other Orders and leaders. In the end, can you trust anyone?

Please bear in mind, you can belong to an Order without fully believing in its leader and without fully supporting that group's actions. It is how most rational people survive inside the esoteric Orders. It is how I have survived, and continue to survive---but then again, I am just a beacon of rationality, ain't I?

When is it flamewar?

One of the things that I have been debating lately is where is the line between discourse and flame war in the Golden Dawn community. It has became an obsession as the beginning of the year approaches and I am writing out the disclosure statements that start to go live after the first of the year.

And the conclusion I come to presents a sticky wicket for me.

As far as I have been able to determine from the outcries of the internet police is that if someone does not agree absolutely with your opinion, your lesson plan, your Grade system, and your version of Golden Dawn history, then it is flame war. Even with something like a book review, unless you agree completely with the other person's opinion, then you open yourself up to being accused of being a member of the flame war trolls tenth division.

If you know me, you immediately see my problem. I don't agree a hundred percent with anyone's opinion. The short list of people that I disagree with (to a lesser or greater extent) includes Pat Zalewski, Nick Farrell, Chic Cicero, Steve Nicohols, Tony Deluce, Sam Robinson, Tomas Stacewicz, David Cherubim, Aaron Leitch, Robert Zink, and David Griffin. And the list goes on and on. (If I did not mention you, it is simply because I do not want to spend days typing out the names of every known member of the Golden Dawn community.) Some of these people I consider friends---others I would never even remotely consider having a drink with.

Basically, I do not agree a hundred percent with anyone's opinions. But that is where the line in the sand has been drawn: if you do not agree a hundred percent with someone, then you are guilty of being in a blood feud with them. Therefore by the rules being shouted the loudest, I am at war with the entire Golden Dawn community, even the people that I consider my friends.

There is a few dangers with this strict hundred percent agreement standard.

For one, it kills the diversity of the tradition. If everyone must agree with everyone else all the time, then you have no difference of opinion and you can have no discourse. The community will just become a fan club for whoever managed to get the others to agree with them. Of course, this is exactly what I suspect some people want---they want to be the only game, the only true Golden Dawn authority on the block.

It also leads to the possibility of abuse, monetary and emotional, of the entire Golden Dawn community. One of the worst things that could happen to the Golden Dawn is for a single person to corner the entire market---they would be free to abuse the members of the community any way they want simply because there would be no other options. And worse, if you disagree with the abuse, you are the one that is guilty, not them.

And it has already led to a double standard being applied to the various fora and blogs. Comments bad-mouthing other parties are let through despite the fact that if such comments were said elsewhere about the moderator, they would be labeled flame war attacks. Basically, you can say anything you want about other people in the Golden Dawn community, provided that you agree with the moderator of the online community you are posting to.

The cries of flamewar has split the Golden Dawn community is several camps, and honestly I don't think that the wounds will ever heal.

Now, I will admit that is some flaming going on in the Golden Dawn community. There are some things being said that I look at and realize are nothing more than "attack ads." Interestingly enourgh, the replies of the internet police are no better; in fact, sometimes their replies are actually worse. I think that we should have some concern about the possibilities of flame wars being conducted, but I think that it is an error to insist on a hundred percent agreement standard.