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Words from the Author (via email) - Rated
Here are some revealing comments from the author relating to this work.
In The Complete Golden Dawn Initiate I have chosen to present material such as the practical
Shemhamphorash (describing how the Angels held to watch over certain aspects of the Self can be identified by the zodiacal positioning of certain planets) alongside 20th century initiatives inspired by the Cubic Stone Order and the Fraternity of the Sanctum Regnum. To counterpoint the latter, I have reprinted key works from the Zohar tradition that provided the foundation stone upon which the whole Golden Dawn representation of the philosophic Qabalah depend. Also, I have included a work from the early second millenium from the Islamic tradition, which I feel has great bearing upon the subtleties of the Rosicrucian school which influenced the spiritual technology of the Golden Dawn. Despite my association with a number of teachers who received their initiatory push from former members of the Stella Matutina, linked thereby to the later surviving original Golden Dawn lodges, I make no claims that readers should suppose my authority depends upon this serendipity. Instead, I have endeavoured to supply a supplementary body of information that might be appreciated by lone students (or those working in small groups) who see the virtue of distilling the essence of GD lore as revealed in group initiation rites down to what might be practicable in the light of our evolved understanding of the principles at work therein.
The GD tradition is alive and well in the UK and select places around the world ... these places being the site of practice of individuals and small groups working independently of any supposed traceable lineage depending upon GD antecedents. Of those groups claiming some sort of authenticity on the basis of lineage, what is often overlooked is (in my humble opinion) that the validity of the work pursued by these groups is limited (in an 8 of Swords style restriction) by the participants having to remain bound to the original praxis ... daring not to step beyond the perception of a historical orthodoxy: a phenomenon that has put the brakes on such trains of discipline as Science and Medicine throughout their respective
development.
I think the problem with the small minority of people who express dissatisfaction with this work lies in a phenomenon called Group Think (widely commented upon on the www).
Fromj Wikipedia: "Groupthink is a type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas. During groupthink, members of the group avoid promoting viewpoints outside the comfort zone of consensus thinking".
When this limiting philosophy is applied outside the comfort zone of the group, hostile and destructive actions and propoganda are often manifest.
Now, many of those who imagine that their participation in contemporary commercial business enterprises masquerading as GD temples might be undermined by the appearance of voices not sanctioned by 'group think' fail to see that the horizons of their thinking are limited ... even primitive. Thus, we get the kind of hostility referred to above .... a kind of petulance often seen to be exhibited by those whose thinking is limited in capacity when challenged by experience. It is the reaction of the emotional idiot.
Time and time again, we see 100 year old material represented, re-explained with no evolution of sophistication that might be expected of any student who is keen to develop their master's work. In the field of the physical sciences, there are usually great revolutionary discoveries every 25 years or so. In the past 25 years, this has not been the case. In the area of philosophical Qabalah & the Hermetics of the Golden Dawn 'system' this seems to have been the case for some 50 years or so. It would seem that group think has quite a grip on contemporary culture. No one dare stand outside the envelope .. and the few that do have to skip lightly to avoid the public stoning.
A friend of mine wrote: "Somebody ought to write about the class issues at work with all this stuff goes all the way back to the GD a bunch of bourgeois well-offs recreationally playing at magick, and everybody since playing at being like them."
This seems to be the prevailing attitude in so many GD interest groups and also amongst the Crowleyan tomfoolery clubs of which the great master would be truly ashamed.
