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?

Are flame wars good for business? (Blog Advice)

My superpower is pissing people off. Seriously.

One of the things that you see quite a few new bloggers do is to attempt to please everyone. There is a problem with this approach---you tend to end up with a vanilla blog that no one reads (not even your own mother). Awhile back, I started to read blogs written by pro-bloggers (bloggers who were making a living by blogging). And all the pro-bloggers seem to think that you cannot have a successful money-making blog without upsetting the occasional reader.

This opinion made me reconsider the recent policy by some to shut up anyone whose opinion upsets someone else. What if avoiding the flames is actually harmful to business?

(By "business," I mean getting eyeballs to your blog.)

Looking around at the various Golden Dawn blogs that I am aware of, I was stuck by the pageviews of the blogs that shouted flame war the most, allowing the most trollish comments through---the more irate the comments, the more views they exhibited.

Now, I will admit I was not scientific in my approach; I was using the numbers from the widgets that bloggers willingly displayed. I am not sure if the numbers can be gamed or not. What I do know is that if the numbers are even half-right, these people who are fanning the flames and allowing trolls to post are getting a lot more pageviews than I am.

And over the last few years, I have watched two Orders basically run campaigns where they claimed that others were attacking them. It reminded me of the tactics that various bad governments used to control the minds of their population. I don't foresee either group changing their tactic any time in the near future. Obviously, instilling the fear of others into their membership is good for their business.

Now, I am still not completely sure that flame wars are good for business, nor am I sure if they are bad for business. But I do know one thing for sure. Trying to avoid a flame war is bad for my business. Let me explain.

Over the last year, there have been several times that I had a really good blog idea...then I would realize that it would upset someone, and I would not write the post. That is right: the fear of causing flame war prevented good blog posts from being written. It is the French method of losing wars---surrender before the fighting begins. (Leave your rage about my bad attempts at humor in the comment section.) Basically by allowing the internet fire department to control my writing, I went silent which just gives the victory away to anyone who is willing to buck the trend.

Look around the Golden Dawn blogosphere. What do you see? A lot of silent blogs. I suspect that it is because no one wants to post for fear of causing a flame war. I am not sure that it is good for business. I know that it is hurting my own business. Is it hurting yours?

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.

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.

One Pot Witchery Stone Soup (ebook review)

ebook review: One Pot Witchery Stone Soup---the Hidden Grimoire of the Kitchen Hedge Witch (Barbara Ann Daca).

A few years ago, I spent a lot of time hanging out at Herbs and Arts, one of the occult shops here in Denver. At the time, Morning Glory was running the shop. There were a lot of evening classes held there during this time period, plus several that happened on the weekends. I took several classes from Morning Glory; I also took a class from Cassandra, a kitchen witch.

One of the relics (it is a relic to me) that resulted from this time in my magical training was a notebook that had the stray lines of ritual, wise sayings, cooking notes, and herbal recipes in it. And One Pot Witchery Stone Soup reminds me of that old notebook of mine.

One Pot Witchery Stone Soup is one part cook book (there are a couple of recipes I need to try), one part spell book (there are a couple of spells I need to try), and one part collection of lore and wise witch sayings (dressing in red for your weddings ensures faithfulness in bed---I did not know that, but I do like the idea now that I do).

My only issue with this ebook is the formating (Kindle version). It has all the earmarks of the print copy file being used for the ebook. There are places that sections are muddled together, and there are a couple of places where I am sure a different font was used and stripped out when it was converted to ebook form (it is either that or those who taught me certain things were using a different script style---if you know it, you will spot it). The author might have been better off creating a clean file for the ebook creation process. But let's be honest, all writers working in the ebook trade, including myself, are experiencing a learning curve on the proper ways to format ebooks. The information in the ebook far outweighs the formating issues.

I give this book four out of five pentacles.

[Disclosure notice: this ebook review was based on a free ebook copy being given out by the author for promotional purposes.]

And if you would like a copy of this ebook, the author is giving away free copies until December 30, 2011 on Amazon.

(Copying from the author's Facebook page posting)

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12 Days of Christmas Kitties Bonus Kitty 5

My cat's favorite Christmas carol.

This is the Christmas Kitty that caused me to inflict a bunch of funny cat pictures on you this holiday season. It reminds me so much of one of the cats that I own---or does he own me? This morning, my wife gave him a new toy and within a couple of hours, he had destoryed it. I am quite sure that if we got a Xmas tree that he would remove most of the ornaments before the day was done. Nevertheless, I do love my wild rescue cat. And with this picture, we close out another holiday season---next on the Gleamings from the Golden Dawn is a series of posts that will be labeled annoying and trollish. Ye have been warned.