Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy! (Real reason that the Hollywood cesspool and other cesspools exist)

Recently, there has been an uptick in horrible things happening to good people. There have been an increase in the number of immigrants, house foreclosures, jobs being lost, tires falling off of the back of trucks, sexual harassment accusations, Confederate statues being taken down, satiric writers not shutting up, gun rights being threaten by people who have no desire to shoot other people, and that horrible woman Hillary Clinton almost becoming President of the United States of America. And all these horrible things are caused by the same thing:

Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!

That Wall not being built: Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!
Parking ticket: Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!
Not getting a raise at work:  Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!
Bank says that they want their money: Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!
Loan shark says that they want their money:  Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!
Your horse not winning their race:  Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!
Toaster trying to electrocute you:  Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!
Killer Chinese satellite falling on your house:  Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!
Your favorite politician being falsely accused of sexual harassment:  Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!
Your favorite media talking head being falsely accused of sexual harassment: Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!
Your favorite Hollywood bigshot being falsely accused of sexual harassment: Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!
Vatican sex scandal:  Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!
Your least favorite politician actually committing sexual harassment:  Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!
Your least favorite media talking head actually committing sexual harassment:  Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!
Some Hollywood bigshot you hate actually committing sexual harassment: Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!
Being told that Alt-Right is just another term for "F***ing Nazi": Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!
Mass shootings:  Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!
Pot becoming legal: Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!
Liberals continuing to have civil rights:  Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!
Least favorite critic continuing to breathe in and out: Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!
The ice cream parlor being out of your favorite flavor: Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!

And you know that it must be true when the world's greatest occultist and lover tells you...

"Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy! is why the world is a hot damn mess."

Because that explanation is so much more reasonable than "Human beings, especially men, abuse power whenever they acquire it."

For instance, there is no way that Hollywood turned into a cesspool in the thirties when men realized that there was money to be made making movies. There is no way that the hundred plus production companies of the 1910s and 1920s being brought up and condensed into a mere dozen in the 1930s and 1940s resulted in a situation where a handful of men could force women to have sex with them if they wanted to keep working. There is no way that these powerful men could convince their companies to sweep such behavior under the rug, paying off the most dangerous and uncomfortable accusations, putting clauses into their contracts that they (the powerful men) could have all the accusations they wanted as long as they paid fines, and enact self-censoring rules that ensured that no one could make a movie or television series about what was really going on. There is no way that power was condensed in the hands of a few men in such a way that it became a running joke in Hollywood that certain men in Hollywood controlled the entire careers of female actors because no one could actually talk seriously about the issue of sexual harassment if they wanted to continue working in Hollywood.

And there is absolutely no way that Wall Street, Washington D.C., Silicon Valley, mega-churches, network journalism, monolithic esoteric traditions, and a score of other industries that this blogger is too lazy to mention by name, had suffered the same type of power hoarding by men, so that they could also sexually harass any woman that they wanted to.

Hell, even the Bible has sexual harassment in it, saying that men are allowed to rape women as long as they pay a fine for violating virgins. There is absolutely no way that the Bible was actually written by men who held power and decided that they liked abusing the power that they hoarded.

No, it is far more reasonable that it was all the result of...

Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!

Furthermore, it is more reasonable that only those who do not share your particular political opinions are actually doing such misdeeds while those of your political mindset are being falsely accused. It is just a joke when your favorite politician says that they have committed sexual harassment on a live microphone, but completely true when your most hated and loathed enemy politician is accused of supporting a Satanic baby sacrifice ring. There is no way that your approval and white-washing of the deeds of those who share your political mindset is helping create the problem. There is no way that you have been tricked by false news and fast talking. No, that is can't be true; it must be a...

Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!

After all, that allows you to have a righteous hate of those who do not look and think like you do. It allows you to take part in a righteous crusade to free the world from a Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy! It makes you one of the good guys. It allows you to look forward to killing people that you do not like because they have to be part of a Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!

And in no way, are you being played by a Conspiracy to Control How You Think and Act, Pay Dues to, What you Buy, and What to Watch and Read, and Who to Vote for, by some people who decided that your hot button, the thing that makes you stupid is the idea that all your troubles are being caused by a Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy! After all, for that to be true, there would have to be a...

Global Satanic Enslaver Black Magician Conspiracy!

If you were ok with Trump's "grab them by the pussy" comment, then you are part of the problem.

Evil Antifa I am (Super magician might be a Fascist)

Let me see if I understand this correctly--I am an enemy because I am against Fascism. Why is Fascism a good thing?!? And why does this make me a worse person than the person who just implied that they are a Fascist (or at least, has no problem with their leaders being Fascists)? This sounds an awful lot like saying that someone is an enemy because they do not support Nazis and Neo-Nazis, and Stalin-era style Communism. And how the f**k is this person considered a better Rosicrucian than I am?

Seriously, he says that I am an Antifa...wait, what the hell is an Antifa?

I will admit that I had to look up the word--Antifa. Yes, that is right--I had no clue what he was saying about me...which is most of the time. Honestly, I avoid reading his stuff because it tends to make me wonder how this person has been elevated to the highest position in the Golden Dawn and the Western Mystery Traditions, including witchcraft and Wicca.

The short answer to that question is that he conned or self-appointed himself into high positions, misrepresented his contacts (puffing them up to be uber-secret-special-contacts), and used a free lawyer to try to destroy his competition. What he did--anyone could do--it just requires one to be a little bit of d**k***d.

And he claims to be able to speak for all of the Western Mystery Tradition. So just remember that He. Speaks. For. You. 

The insult of the week is Antifa.

And he says that I am an enemy of you and the entire world because I am an Antifa.

So basically, he believes that nations (and esoteric Orders and traditions, for that matter) should be ruled by ruthless people who crush their competition, can do whatever they want, and are in constant competition to destroy one another (in other words, he is all about the "winning" and does not care how much damage is done to other people and communities as long as his community is the Best and Greatest).

(No wonder he hates binding spells--how can people do whatever they like to, including all the nasty bad things, if they have restrictions imposed upon them?) 

Free trade agreements are bad. Efforts to stop global warming are bad. He was literally throwing his hands in the air, thanking Trump for making America great again. He believes that the United States is the greatest country in the world, and the rest of the world can go f**k itself.

I, on the other hand, am a global Rosicrucian--a lot of the problems I am seeing, in my opinion, require a global solution. And yes, that makes me your enemy.

Worried about other countries manufacturing your goods--encourage fair wages and working conditions in those foreign countries. Worried about refugees coming into your country--encourage better living conditions in those countries, and consider removing "strong arm" governments from having power there. Worried about climate change--well, it is going to require a global solution.

He will have none of this because all that matters is the short term Winning of the greatest country in the world, the United States of America. He does not care about the long term results and problems facing this world--because he is going to ascend into a glorious solar body while the rest of us drown in sorrows. He is checking out; he is not sticking around.

I, on the other hand, am coming back to this world. This world is my heaven and my underworld. I reincarnate. So the problems of today just grow into the problems of my future lives. Yes, you can embrace Heaven and skip away, or ascend in your glorious solar body with him, or make things so bad that the Messiah has to come to fix things. I don't have that option. Nor do I want it. I am a Wiccan, and my reward and punishment is to come back, to reincarnate in this world.

And because of that, I want things to improve here, on this world.

(I would also like to see mankind travel to and colonize other planets and solar systems, but that is a topic for another time.)

But that is wrong because...he says that it is wrong. And who are you to disobey your glorious leader? Go on goose-step with him into your glorious solar body evolution where you can watch and laugh as this planet drowns and humanity burns.

Remember that you have to hate Antifa because he might be a fascist.

(And even if I don't reincarnate--what type of person wants to keep the world in its current sad state of affairs? Or worse, is perfectly ok with making things worse? I believe that the term rhymes with E**l B*****d.)  

Public hexing--tool of justice or simply overkill?

One of the things that I occasionally joke about is that it is not a good idea to piss off a witch because they will hex you back into the Stone Age. And that is exactly what some witches decided to do earlier this month to convicted rapist Brock Turner.

For those who missed all the excitement: Brock Turner, a Stanford student and competitive swimmer, was tried and convicted of sexual assault on an unconscious woman who attended a fraternity party in January 2015. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Turner to six months in county jail and three years of probation; Turner must also complete a sex offender management program and register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

That sentence, as well as the defense of Turner – including a letter written by the boy’s father stating that twenty years of prison was an unjust sentence for “twenty minutes of action” – exploded on social media. Turner, who had a blood level double the legal limit at the time of the assault, has expressed regret for being drunk, but not for the sexual assault itself. This omission of regret resulted in Turner’s picture being plastered all over Facebook with people calling for the judge to be recalled, and for people to rethink the crime of rape.

One of the people on Facebook that took offense at the light sentence for Turner was Iowan Melanie Elizabeth Hexan, who works as a belly dancer and midwife. Hexan also self-identifies as a Priestess of the Elder Craft. Hexan created a ritual to punish Turner using a hex. “Witches doing spells in times when they’re otherwise powerless goes back thousands of years,” Hexan said on Facebook.
Hexan created a page for the spell on Facebook, which included an instruction to chant, “Brock Allen Turner, we hex you. You will be impotent. You will know constant pain of pine needles in your guts. Food will bring you no sustenance. In water, your lungs will fail you. Sleep will only bring nightmares. Shame will be your mantle. You will meet justice. My witchcraft is strong. Our witchcraft is powerful. The spell will work. So mote it be.” Originally, the curse was meant to be performed by just Hexan and her twelve coven sisters, but thousands of witches joined the event on the night of June 7th.

And as is typical of social media, there are plenty of people who believe that Hexan, and the thousands of witches who joined her, have stepped over the line of what a witch is allowed to do. Hexing people is wrong, and the court has already sentenced Brock, claimed some people on Facebook, making the curse unnecessary.

Now, it should not surprise anyone that I have an opinion about this. Regular readers of my commentary might even remember one of the more interesting times I weighed in on this subject.
A few years ago, an unidentified man was sexually assaulting women in the neighborhood that I lived in. Given the multiple assaults, and the fact that the police had not yet caught him, a few of the local covens decided to get together to bring the serial rapist to justice. The coven that I worked with did such a working. And one of the questions that came up during the planning of the ritual was whether or not the coven was willing to perform a death curse on the rapist, if that was the only way to prevent him from sexually assaulting other women. Those of us doing the working decided that we were perfectly OK if the rapist accidentally stepped under a bus.

This particular working became part of my own instructional material on ethics. It is a weighty question. Part of the origin myth of Wicca is that witches, in the days of yore, would get together to seek justice denied to them by those in power, by performing spells to redress the injustices done to them. The difference between the days of yore and today is that thanks to social media, one is not restricted to the witches of one’s coven when one performs a working. Today, one merely has to post an idea to do a working, and one could potentially have hundreds of witches involved. Most of the time, your idea will reach a few dozen of your friends; but thanks to the power of social media, one could find oneself brewing up a storm in a viral teapot.

Performing mass rituals is not a new idea. During World War II, the English ceremonial magic teacher Dion Fortune sent out instructions to the members of her organization on how to perform a series of meditations designed to protect England from invasion by the military forces of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. And today, there are occult leaders who organize rituals designed to bind and destroy terrorist organizations, and to protect citizens from the excesses of government.

There is some debate on how effective mass rituals can be. One of the difficulties with mass rituals is that outside of the overall intent, which is often rather nebulous and ill-defined, different people will use different symbol sets and have different ideas of what needs to be done in order to accomplish the main goal of the ritual. Without a common set of symbols and a well-defined goal, a lot of mass ritual simply fails due to the lack of cohesion. It is difficult enough to coordinate and direct a ritual done by a single coven which has been trained to work together; let alone attempt to perform a worldwide mass ritual being done by hundreds or thousands of people.

In fact, the difficulty of doing mass ritual is one of the reasons that I argue that there is often an ulterior motive behind such workings. Fame, the desire to lead others, wanting to appear to be an important voice in the community; these seem to be the real purpose of such mass rituals. I would be suspicious that the creators of such mass workings were attempting to siphon off the energies raised for their own purposes; but given the fact that there are easier ways to raise and stockpile energy, I am willing to give a mass ritual organizer the benefit of the doubt on that one.

The mass hexing of Brock is actually one of the few that I have seen that I think might have a chance to work as a mass working. Hexan gave detailed notes and suggestions, and the participants had a specific target. It is hard to bind an organization like ISIL whose public perception is ambiguous, and which acts like a hydra when attacked—an organization that has its own legion of supporters praying for its success. It is a lot easier to target an individual, where it is a specific crime being punished, and you have the necessary biographical and identity markers to target that single individual. And the rage over the light sentence would be a boiling cauldron which in the right hands could be used to leverage the probabilities surrounding the individual.

So was it ethical to do? Earlier I mentioned a working I had been involved in. Some of the people who heard this story actually decided that based on my decisions that I was permanently unfit to be an occult leader, something that they used to justify the formation of another lodge of the tradition I worked. Maybe they were right. Or it could just be that they wanted to lead the parade, and I was in their way; it is always so hard to tell in these matters. But some of the mental gymnastics that they used to get to the place where they decided my judgment was completely untrustworthy makes me a little sick to my stomach. For instance, some of the people who thought that I was morally unfit declared that we did not even have the right to use a spell to help speed up the capture of the offender. Let me remind you that at the time of the working, no one, including the police, knew the identity of the serial rapist. Declaring that none of us had the right to do such a working implies that no one has the right to magically defend themselves and their community. I can understand being uncomfortable with death magic, but declaring magic to help discover the identity of a serial rapist off-limits seems to be overkill to me.

Was the mass hexing of Brock overkill? Perhaps, if all the spells descended directly upon him. If he burst into flames, then it would probably be overkill. But if it just causes him to feel guilt and shame for performing the crime he did, then no, it is not overkill. And while I am uncomfortable with the media attention that the mass hexing received, for I am still trying to convince people that witches are mostly harmless, it might not actually be such a bad thing. I have argued before that witches need to be visible if we want the government and politicians to take into account our concerns.

And in the case of rape, there is the sad reality of how it is dealt with. When it comes to offenders, the concern is often that it is wrong to punish them for a single mistake, or even worse, multiple mistakes, and that we should allow them some freedom to reach their full potential. The victims, on the other hand, tend to be blamed for the crime, with people asking what the victim did to have caused a sexual predator to descend upon them in the first place. Part of this cultural bias is created by the dominant religions of our culture, which have holy books that state that the poor condition of the world, of mankind’s expulsion from paradise, was caused by a woman. Furthermore, the holy books of the dominant religions state that women are second-class citizens at best, and really should be happy with their place in life as property of their betters, the male of the species. And don’t even get me started on the fact that wealth is used to get offenders off the hook for their crimes, or at least, to get more lenient sentences.

Perhaps, a few more public hexings are in order. Perhaps, we should be loud about the fact that our religion does not give men a free pass to rape and pillage as they please. Perhaps, it is time for us to point out that certain actions are unacceptable, and that our magic is powerful, and that we are not afraid to use it. And perhaps, even, it might be good if Brock suffered spontaneous combustion. Yes, that would be death magic, but it would send a message that rape was unacceptable.

[This post appeared originally in the June 2016 Hearthstone Community Church's newsletter. And if you would like to write an article or commentary about this public hexing, there is room in the next issue of Denver Witch Quarterly for it.]

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?

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.]

Can I wrack you with a rolled-up newspaper

There appears to be a discussion brewing on the blogosphere about whether or not it is proper to drop an "evolution" bomb on people who are annoy you...or endangering you...or are endangering others.

Now, I have weighed in on this issue before, and just want to remind everyone of my own personal opinion---which may or may not be the opinion of my lineage depending upon on how you define lineage.

My answer is simple annoyance---leave them alone; endangerment---send in the flaming butterflies.

For the person who does not understand that last part: one of the people in a lodge that I used to belong to designed a binding spell using butterfly imagery to bind someone who was endangering others (think possible criminal violence). The binding had an end clause that stated more or less that the binding would stop when the person evolved into a higher lifeform.

Now, the debate that brewing is orbiting around the fact that none of us are enlightened enourgh to be making this type of decision. There is only one small problem with adapting that stance---magicians and witches are hunted down like rabid dogs by people who believe that they know what the Messiah would do.

I have dealt with lots of people, and read about a ton more people, who believe that they know how the rest of us should be living our lives. They are the radical branches of their religions. And the problem with them is that they believe that it is ok to cause anyone not living up to their strict standards harm; it is ok to harrass them, cause them to lose jobs, imprison them, even stone them to death---all in the name of religion.

The difference between them and those of us who send in flaming butterflies is that they will only accept one result (one that says they are absolutely right) and we play the lottery.

It is the lottery of spiritual evolution. We do not know what the higher states of spiritual evolution looks like. Even if you think you know the Messiah, and what he/she/it would do, there is a chance you are wrong. Those of us who drop evolution bombs on people are taking a big chance---we may not like what spiritual evolution actually looks like.

And if that is true, then the punishment will fit the crime.

Paying the rent

Tonight while I was over at Tattered Cover, I noticed a sign that said that if you are a student of North High School that it was ok to eat your lunch in the bookstore provided that you had brought something at the coffee shop. Now considering that I was there meeting an occult associate (time will tell if they are a friend), I quickly checked my guilt meter. After all, I was using their coffee shop as a public meeting spot.

I was ok. I had already brought a sandwich and a juice. And considering that I can't step into Tattered Cover without buying some book or another, I knew that they were going to get some money out of my wallet before I left (ended up buying a book of mandalas).

But I have noticed over the years that not everyone who uses public places (restaurants, coffee shops, bookstores) as meeting spots spend a reasonable amount of money at them (occasionally they spend none). And honestly, I think that other people have also noticed this one. Recently I read a blog about things to think about when considering opening an occult store; one of the suggestions was to consider renting a smaller place because the income from having a meeting spot for occultists was generally less than the cost of renting the additional room to allow them to use the place as a meeting space.

(I don't remember what blog I read this on; if you know what blog I am talking about please leave a link in the comment section, so that I can link to the post.)

I think that it is just good form to actually spend money at the places that we use for meeting up with our occult associates. Maybe I am just strange (twenty years of restaurant work will do that to you).

Who's needs are more important?

Last night at the Open Full Moon ritual, I encountered one of those strange ethical dilemmas that make me think for hours on end...without coming to a satifactory conclusion. You know the type. In this case, I was easedropping...I am a writer and I cannot help doing so...plus I just got done talking to this person about Golden Dawn.

Without going into details, the bottom line in this case is a conflict of needs. One person's needs are in direct conflict with another person's needs. This brings up the whole "How do you figure out who's needs are more important?" dilemma.

In this case, there would be no way to be able to have both people as members. One of them has to lose...that is how much of a conflict there is.

Fortunately for me, I do not have to really worry about this dilemma. There is a Trump in play here. One of the people is already a member; the other person is only an applicant.

It may not be fair, but the needs of a current member outweighs the needs of a potential member. It does not matter how valuable the applicant could be; it does not matter what they bring to the table; the Trump stands. It does not matter how useless the current member is; it does not matter what they don't bring to the table; the Trump stands.

Of course, this may not be true of all lodges. This may just be a reflection of the lodge culture that I came up the ranks in. Maybe in a system where only the Co-Chiefs have any say in the matter, the more valuable person would win.

(Please note that this applicant may or may not be more valuable than the current member; it does not matter; the Trump still stands either way. I have my own opinion who is the more valuable person, but that does not matter; the Trump controls what will happen in this decision. It could be my own needs involved, and it would not matter; the Trump would still be in play.)

Bottom line is that lodges are supposed to serve their membership. It is not the potential membership that they work for, but rather those who are already in the fold.

Now some people will call this unfair. After all, this Trump is enforced by the voting process of the lodge which is controlled by the current active membership of the lodge...enlightened self-interest would so kick in here. This is just one of the more darker aspects of how lodge culture works.

Someone can scream all they like that the system should serve the needs of everyone. But it doesn't and probably can't. We are bound by no law that says our membership should be open to everyone...and in this case, I am glad of that because there would be no way to meet the special needs of both parties. Sad, but true.

Living in a fishbowl

One of the interesting things (as in the Chinese curse) about being a principal in any esoteric circle is that it is much like living in a fishbowl. I have seen this in Golden Dawn circles, Wiccan circles, Norse circles, and several other circles. If you are in a leadership position, or someone like myself who has a public soapbox, and you are traveling in esoteric circles, your opinions and actions get examined with a fine-toothed comb.

This is true to some extent for everyone. But being a principal (aka mover and shaker) increases the double-guessing of every decision you have ever made, and the criticising of every action you make.

I was reminded of this recently as I stood on the sidelines watching a brewing storm gather. A player in the local esoteric community (or at least, they think that they are a player and a major one at that) had some boundary issues: a member left his group, and a falsehood has been tossed in place to explain the member leaving (one that does not even hint at the truth). All the while, I see the departed member sharping a knife because they suspect it is only a matter of time before it gets really ugly.

Now there are some who will point out that this person should have never gotten into a leadership position in the first place. That someone should have stopped them before they before they became the head of a group. Well, that is a nice theory, but this person (to the best of my knowledge) is a self-appointed leader and expert. It is hard to stop someone from seizing the position; anyone can set themselves to be a leader if they have a dollop of charisma and knowledge in the esoteric community (or so it seems).

And even if they would have worked their way up the ranks in a vetted system, such as Golden Dawn, it still might have not made a difference. For instance, make note that I worked my way up the ranks and I am an officer in one of the branches of the system. Obviously, as my critics point out, someone was asleep at the wheel.

In my case, my flaws tend to blown up until they sound like I am an ax-murderer. Honestly, I have never killed anyone with an ax...my name is not Lizzie. (Apologies to any of my readers that bear that name, but surely I am not the first to make that joke, am I?) Mention that you are quite willing to shoot back if someone starts to fire at you; admit that you thought that the military was a suitable career earlier in your life; make one wrong vote (admitting that you made that vote), and you can become the scum of the earth and a menace to society.

Let's take that miscalled vote as an example. Yes, I was present at a ritual. Yes, there was a vote that asked if death was the only way to take care of the problem if we were willing to go that far. Yes, I voted in favor of death if necessary. Yes, all this is true.

What is never mentioned by my critics is that the target in question was a VIOLENT SERIAL CRIMINAL. It is not like we were targeting an innocent person. Trust me: there is no way you could be doing what this person was doing and be anywhere near being innocent. This was the type of criminal that does not stop until they are caught or they drop dead.

The ritual was a binding, and the workers involved were hoping that the police could get enourgh clues to catch them. We were trying to help using the Art. The question arose about what if a simple binding and mistake-causing hex was not enourgh. What if this person would not stop, and hadn't made (or would not make) enourgh mistakes to be caught and convicted---how far were we willing to go?

I have been told by "light-workers" that we should have projected white light and healing at this poor soul. That all of us that voted that yes, if necessary we were willing to pull the trigger, should have never been allowed into any working circle. That none of us are truly members of the RC. That the very fact that we admit that we can kill someone if push came to shove makes us unworthy of the RC.

To that statement, I tend to ask "Do you allow cops into your system?" If you do not see the concept behind that question, I am willing to bet that you are one of my critics.