Should GD leaders be talking about politics

During the current election cycle, some of the "leaders" of the "Golden Dawn" have been posting about how they feel about various political positions.


Hell, I have done it myself....though it should be noted that no one actually considers me to be a leader, or even to be a member of the Golden Dawn in the first place.


Now most of this political quibbling has been restricted to the personal walls of people. Still this has upset some people. In my case, some people have caught onto the fact that I am a stinking dirty liberal hippy---a fact that I am surprised that they have not picked up on sooner---something that they do not understand at all.


But some of these political posts have been posted to the Golden Dawn groups ran by leaders of the Golden Dawn. And there has been some backlash.


Should this stuff be posted to GD FB groups? And should it be issued inside the Order themselves?


In my opinion--no. When I joined Golden Dawn (or rather a group that claimed to be Golden Dawn, but which would have absolutely nothing to do with most of the big name GD Orders), I was told that my oath of obligation would not have anything contrary to my civil, moral, or religious duties in it. I was not asked about what religion I belonged to (but I am sure they knew that I was a wicked Wiccan witch), what political party I belonged to (at the time, I was "Republican" thanks to family tradition, but really something else), nor was I asked any of my political positions (pro-choice, pro-immigration, pro-gun control, pro-pot).


Based on the loudest leaders in Golden Dawn today, at least the ones talking about politics, I realize that I should have never been allowed into the tradition in the first place.


Yes, I am saying that it seems that Golden Dawn is far right as you can get (anti-abortion, anti-welfare, anti-immigration, pro-gun, anti-drug) based on the loudest leaders talking about politics in the system.


I am quite sure that there is a petition somewhere to get me expelled from the system based purely on my politics.


But let's be honest, Golden Dawn has a long history of leaders being involved in politics. Yes, I am talking about Mathers, who would be far right in today's politics. Therefore, yes, GD leaders can be interested in politics. And obviously, based on Mathers' politics, GD should be far right in its politics. And Mathers knew, rightfully, that politics trumped the teaching of magic.


And given the fact that the tradition claims to be Rosicrucian, a tradition that is interested in the reformation of the world, yes, GD Orders probably do have to instruct their members in the correct political positions and goals to hold and promote.


Therefore the sad truth is that, yes, GD leaders have a right to stuff political positions down their membership's throats, kick them out of groups, and to expel them if they choose the wrong political party or religion. And it is all done in the name of reformation, Rosicrucianism, healing the world, seeking out the light, and the Summum Bonum.


Fortunately, for the greater Golden Dawn community, I am not recognized as being a member of the tradition, nor is my Second Order membership recognized, and no one ever listens to me---because given the fact that I believe (oh so wrongly) the RC would be middle of the road politically, or horrors of horrors, liberal, I might actually have to trot out my pro-choice, pro-immigration, pro-gun control, pro-pot positions and exhibit them publically to offset those who are coaching their membership to take far-right positions.


Of course, if I did that, one would be advised to vote with their feet and leave all the circles and groups that I frequent. After all, that is what the original membership of the GD tradition did when its leader decided that politics was more important than magic.

How many Third Order members should exist (or Dropouts by the numbers)

I once belonged to a group that claimed that there should be a ninety percent dropout and failure rate between certain Grades. It doesn't sound so bad until you actually do the math. (Or maybe it is just to my ears that a ninety percent failure rate doesn't initially set off alarm bells...it has been known to happen that I do not catch the perfectly obvious.)


So based on a ninety percent dropout and failure rate how many members would have to apply and be admitted to Neophyte to generate a single Third Order member? Quite a lot actually with a ninety percent discard rate.


At the most strict version of the system with ninety percent failure rates for Neophyte, the rest of Outer Order, Portal, Adept Minor, Adept Major, and Adept Exempt, all adding up, the math looks like this...


Third Order 1
Adept Exempt 10
Adept Major 100
Adept Minor 1000
Portal 10000
Outer Order 1000000 (a million)
Neophyte 10000000 (ten million)


...you would need ten million Neophytes to come in just to generate a single member of the Third Order (and that presumes that the Third Order has no built-in failure rate of its own).


Now assuming that this level of failure is too extreme (and it does assume a full Inner Order course, such as Pat Zalewski's), what would the numbers look like with the entire Inner Order, and not the individual Adept Grades, having a total ninety percent rate of failure. The numbers are friendlier, but I wonder if there are enough Neophytes worldwide to generate a single Third Order member in our lifetime.

Third Order 1
Second (Inner) Order 10
Portal 100
Outer Order 1000
Neophytes 10000 (ten thousand)


Of course, maybe this rate of failure is still too harsh. Maybe the Portal failure rate is just part of the overall Inner Order failure rate. It would look something like this...


Third Order 1
Second Order 10
Outer Order 100
Neophytes 1000


...still the numbers look off, simply because of how few Adepts there are, compared to Third Order members. (Seriously, given the number of Adepts out there, we should be awash in Third Order members if a ninety percent failure rate was happening at this projected rate.)


So I am thinking that the first breakdown should be re-examined from the bottom up. Using a ten thousand figure for the number of Neophytes entering the system in our generation, and a full ninety percent dropout rate for each of the Adept Grades (but not Portal), we should have...


Ten thousand Neophytes initially, a thousand people who get somewhere between Zelator and Philosophus (1=10 to 4=7), a hundred people who only get to Portal or Adept Minor, ten Adept Majors, and a single person who gets to Adept Exempt. And absolutely no Third Order members.


Feel free to argue the numbers in the comment section--heaven knows that I am bored today to even think about such ideas.

Poor magicians

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

Growing abyss between schools of thought

One of the trends that I noticed over the past year is the growing abyss between various schools of thought. In US politics, the gap has grown so wide that I foresee nothing but badness occuring in the upcoming Presidental election (it is the rich and the poor brainwashed by the rich vs. the poor). In paganism, there is growing gap between those building on the past and those building on the concept that it is a newly invented religion. In Wicca, the gap between the secret coven members and the public anything goes witchcraft continues to widen.

What all these situations have in common is that the differences of opinion, perhaps the very bedrock of ideas that the schools of thought are built upon,are creating differences in the language being used so wide that clear communication is being blocked. This communication gap may or may not being
 intentional.

This type of situation is also occuring in Golden Dawn. For years, we have suffered from the difference between the self-initiates and the classically trained and initiated Temple (lodge) members. Golden Dawn has always lost a certain number of people to the fact that active Golden Dawn lodges are hard to find. The couple of work-arounds that has been developed to address the problem are highly questioned in a few quarters.

And for several years, we have seen the growing abyss between Robert Zink and certain members of his Order. This spring, it finally broke the EOGD into two camps; and earlier this month, it became three camps. It looked like a repeat of the Revolt of the Adepts for awhile there.

Then we have the latest and greatest difference of opinion to develop in the Golden Dawn community. There has been a growing abyss growing between the European school of Golden Dawn and those schools that originated elsewhere in the world.

The primary issue is whether or not to accept the existence of an European Third Order---acceptance of such implies that you are willing to follow their public Head and spokesperson, are willing to increase your level of secrecy to the point where all published material are no longer considered valid (including the Mathers material) and all the rituals and lessons have been rewritten to re-install absolute secrecy, and are willing to be expelled if one of your fellow lodge members breaks their secrecy oath. Acceptance also implies that all modern developments of the Golden Dawn system (aka any that developed after the Cipher Manuscript) will someday be abandoned.

Ok, maybe it is not that severe...but given the fact that no one (outside of a couple of selected spokepeople) are able to talk about what is going on in that camp---well, one can only imagine what is really going on.

What one does not need to imagine is the lack of communication between the two schools. For the person who does not keep track of such things, here is the scorecard: The European school insists that all modern developments (before 1888) of Golden Dawn are wrong (including Mathers) and that Golden Dawn needs to be restructured according to the precepts of the original parent organization---all statements of the modern school are labeled flame attacks. The modern school insists that the original parent organization does not exist and has never existed, and that it is a shell game to conceal who is really the Head of the European school---furthermore, the modern school is slightly upset that all new developments must generally be abandoned to return the system to its 17th century glory.

Ok, maybe it is not that severe...but both sides refuse to communicate with the other party until they agree to play by their rules.

Of course, this scorecard summary ignores those of us who believe that the Golden Dawn developed from an earlier system, but that contact with Third Order was broken for so long that the modern Golden Dawn does not have to answer to the European Third Order---in other words, we have been separate systems for a long time and no longer have much in common. To reunite the two schools means destorying one of them---someone has to lose in order for there to be a reunification.

Now, the big question is do I foresee this abyss of difference, and the lack of communication between the schools, going away any time soon? No. In fact, at the point of time, I foresee the pagans, the Wiccans (and witches), and the American political system healing their differences long before the European and global Golden Dawn communities heal theirs.

Preparing to initiate a Theoricus

Yesterday and today, I am doing the final preparation for initiating a member into the Grade of Theoricus. It is not the first time that  I have done this task and probably will not be the last. Nevertheless, I find it an interesting that every time I have done this, diagrams have wandered off. Yes, once again, I am drawing up the Theoricus diagrams.

This cycle, it is also interesting because it is the second of a set of three initiations. Last month, a member advanced into Zelator; and next month, we are going to have an advancement into Practicus. Busy, we are. Because of this, we are just opening the lodge room up in the necessary Grade, and then leaving it there until we bump it up another Grade for the next person. This is the first time that we had the opportunity to do it this way.

Of course, the most interesting part for me is that despite the fact that this cycle of initiations was scheduled months ago, there have arose schedule conflicts. And they are all on my own end. My sister chose to come visiting during this time, and got upset because of the tightness of my schedule. Given her feelings about my involvement in Golden Dawn, I am quite sure that she is thrilled that I placed the lodge above her. But given the difficulties that the person we are advancing has in getting time off from work (it takes an act of congress for them to get time off), once this initiation was scheduled, I was unable to change the timing of it. As someone else noted, my sister really needs to give more warning about her little vacations if she actually wants any chance of seeing me---after all, my schedule is blocked in months in advance and once the schedule is made, I have little or no leeway to change it.

(It should be noted that my relationship with my siblings has always been on thin ice. Last year's melt-down, combined with this year's has just been par for the course. As my regular readers know I do not respond well to anger and blackmail. And that is what I got for admitting that my schedule was tight. Basically because I was not willing to change my schedule which was rooted in the schedules of other people, I was told that it was proof that I did not love my family. My response is that because I was INSTANTLY met with anger and blackmail that they obviously had no respect for me in the first place. And so it goes. I am quite sure that all can see how this one is actually going to end.)

Here is to tomorrow's Theoricus initiation. Hopefully, the initiate has a better experience than I did getting ready for it. And if not, here is to the cup of tea and sympathy that I will provide afterwards.

New Year Resolutions

As I mentioned in my writing blog, I believe in New Year's resolutions. This year, I have just the one resolution (to increase my writing income). Or at least, that is the one I committed to at the moment.

I know that many occultists go for occult goals (attaining certain Grades, increasing lodge's membership, developing certain powers). I frown on goals that are exclusively occult related. I happen to live in a world where one needs to have one foot in both worlds (the occult and the ordinary). Because of that I tend to favor the ordinary type of resolutions (lose weight, make more friends, run a successful business), goals that fit into the so-called "real world" (exactly how real the "real world" is a whole different issue).

The reason for me to favor mundane goals ties into what I consider to be the purpose of Golden Dawn--infusing Light into the day to day world. We must not only gain a greater share of the Light (or rather awareness of the Light), but we must also learn to ground it in the world of Assiah. As a freelance writer, one of the Assiahic areas that I operate in is the running of a business (all good freelance writers are business people). If we can not bring our spirituality and magic to bear on pragmatic goals, then what is the point of us living in the material world?

What use would an Order have for an enlightened being?

If enlightened beings exist, one must wonder if it is possible to meet them in the Orders. Considering what I know about enlightenment, which is not a lot, I would have to say yes. It is possible for a person to use the tools and methods of Golden Dawn to access mental states that are normally barred to us.

Now does that mean that those members higher in the Grade structure are more enlightened than those below them in Grade--NO. One of the misconceptions about Golden Dawn arise from the correspondence of each Grade to a sephirah, and each sephirah to a mystic experience or state of consciousness. Some people believe that the mystic experience comes automatically with the Grade; this is a belief that Mathers seemed to encourage based on my understanding of his writings. One of his students, and later enemy, Aliester Crowley also encouraged this belief. It is wrong.

I have seen no evidence that the mystic experiences automatically come with the Grades. The Grades are the gateways and stepping stones to those experiences; they are not the experiences themselves. A certain amount of work must be done to realize the full potential of a Grade; a person must work to unfold the mysteries of the rose, or any of the lesser Grades.

Nevertheless, occasionally one does run into someone who has gained the vision of the machinery of the universe, or insight into sacrifice, or whatnot though the tools of the tradition. Most, if not all, of them keep their attainment to themselves. Beware of anyone who brags about their knowledge, enlightenment, or Grade; normally, such boasting is the sign of a sure fraud.

Occasionally, it has been said that the tradition is guided, and sometimes outright led, by people who have became enlightened. To be frank, this puzzles me. What possible use would an Order such as Golden Dawn have to an enlightened being?

Even if at their moment of enlightenment, they chose to come back and guide other beings into the Light, wouldn’t the trappings of our tradition be more of a hindrance than an aid to that pursuit? And how hard would it be to hang onto your enlightened state if one was forced to be the head of such an Order?

Thoughts like these affirm my own personal belief that the Golden Dawn tradition is not so much about enlightenment as it is about magic. It is not that enlightened beings are barred from joining the tradition (though I know a couple of Orders that would expel them the moment their leaders caught on to the fact), or that spiritual development can not happen inside the Order--it is merely that it does not seem to me, at least, to be the ideal vessel for this to occur.

So who should decide the purpose?

So given the many things that Golden Dawn could be, we need a definition what is Golden Dawn. As a working definition, let’s borrow from John Michael Greer, and say that a Golden Dawn lodge is a group of people who come together to pool resources for a common purpose while using the rituals and material of Golden Dawn to further their way towards that common purpose.

The definition is a little wordy, but it is much simpler than many essay length definitions I have seen. And it does have the advantage of allowing change to happen in the system, the only constant is being the base line rituals and material.

The definition does have the disadvantage of leaving the door open to any group that decides to use the published Golden Dawn material to call itself Golden Dawn. Personally, I would consider not doing that; may I suggest the term “Golden Dawn based group” instead. Between certain legal issues (a small trademark dispute) and the large amount of expectations and misconceptions about what Golden Dawn is, claiming that one’s is the Golden Dawn is a hazard that one should really look carefully at before stepping into that particular bog.

So given our definition, what should the common goal of a Golden Dawn based group be? And who should decide what it is?

My suggestion is that the purpose should be decided by the members of the group. And I would also not set it into stone too solidly. Yes, by doing so, it does allow the purpose of a group to change as the membership changes (as new members join, and old members leave). I realize that having a fluid, ever-changing purpose will distress some people (for them, there are several Golden Dawn Orders whose purpose is set in stone).

Probably the most common purpose, and the one that Bast Temple (and the BIORC) was set up for, is to perform the initiation rituals and study the Golden Dawn material (both the published and unpublished material). And yes, it may seem strange to advise a changeable purpose when the one I belong to has a set purpose; having such a mission statement on the top of the bylaws is always an option, and besides we don’t say what material we are focused on--the focus of the group’s studies changes as the membership does.

So given the fact that the membership of the group decides the purpose, who decides the membership?

In many Golden Dawn groups, this honor goes to the original founder(s) of the group. This tactic is rooted in the General Orders issued by Mathers--one is granted membership by, and is allowed to continue as a member, only by the sufferance of the Chief Adept.

This is where I part paths with a lot of people. I think, that after the initial membership is gathered, the membership should be allowed to determine who is allowed to join. It works for the Freemasons; why not Golden Dawn based groups?

Many people will answer that it completely ignores the whole spiritual development concept of Golden Dawn, something that may not be in play in all Golden Dawn based groups. Besides what new Golden Dawn group, or old one for that matter, can claim to be enlightened, or have made significant progress on that route? After all, what good would an Order have for an enlightened being?

Purpose of Golden Dawn, and who should be allowed in

One of the things I occasionally ponder is what type of people should be in Golden Dawn and the Orders based on its material.

I am not sure if there is a legitimate answer to this question, or rather a universal answer to it. Each of the Orders that I have experience with had their own answer to the question. In fact, I believe that everyone you ask will give a different answer.

For instance, what is an acceptable reason for joining Golden Dawn? Most would say that one should have a desire to further one’s spiritual development. And most incoming members seem to think that is the only acceptable answer.

If you believe that the only acceptable answer is spiritual development, then you will probably believe that I shouldn’t be a member. Spiritual development was the farthest thing from my mind when I joined the Order; it has remained a low priority for me, though I must admit some spiritual growth has occurred despite my lack of interest in it. I joined Golden Dawn because of the material covered; I was already studying the material--why not do it inside the Order. There was also the issue that I like magic, the little known science of using the human mind to access dimensions that are normally inaccessible to us. To say that I have issues with power would be putting it mildly. In my defense, I remind you that I am the oldest of eight kids, and grew up really poor--a lack of an education and resources has made me a deep reservoir of self-interest. And if magic allows me an edge that I would not otherwise have, so mote it be. For many people, this attitude should bar me from the company of upright souls; the members of the lodge that brought me into the system had no problem with my reaching for power--a fact that would cause many people to say that particular lodge was not really a Golden Dawn lodge.

People are welcome to their opinion. People’s views of Golden Dawn are varied; and there is a Golden Dawn based Order that fits whatever views one chooses to have.

If you think that Inner Order Golden Dawn members should be paladins of virtue and self-sacrifice, there exists an Order for you. If you think that Golden Dawn should be strictly for Christians, then there is an Order for you. If you believe that Jews and Wiccans should be allowed into Golden Dawn, then there is an Order for you. If you like to be told what to do, allowing someone else to control your life, then there is an Order for you. If you are the independent type that wants to chart your own course, then there is an Order for you. If you believe that Thelema should be taught in Golden Dawn, then there is an Order for you.

No matter what you believe Golden Dawn is about, there is an Order that fulfills those conditions, (or at least, claims to fulfill them). This is why it is so hard to decide who should or should not be in Golden Dawn, or for that matter, which group represents what Golden Dawn is really about.

In many ways, it is like the differences of opinion that exist about the real purpose of Freemasonry. There are some who consider Freemasonry nothing more than a social club and networking organization; there are others who consider Freemasonry to be a school of esoteric symbolism. Either camp can find evidence of their case in one or another Freemasonry lodge.

The same holds true for Golden Dawn. My advice to people interested in Golden Dawn is to shop around. I would also suggest being patient; some of the best Golden Dawn groups are small and extremely hard to find. Just because a Golden Dawn based Order is visible and easy to find, and claims to be legitimate (and sometimes the only true Golden Dawn), doesn’t make it so. It also does not mean that it is the best group for your needs. Do not be afraid to take some time (maybe even years) to find the perfect Golden Dawn group for you. After all, you probably would not want to join a Golden Dawn group that would be willing to have me as a member, now would you?