magickal traditions
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I was on the website of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega (otherwise known as the David Griffin Golden Dawn) and I came upon this page: www.golden-dawn.com/eu/displaycontent.aspx?pageid=105-esoteric-orders. Now the page itself is moderately interesting to read (although like many other articles on the site, the main message seems to be 'A&O is better than the other Orders'), but this particular part caught my eye:
On the magical (Theurgical) side, the A+O Adept, having worked with Qabalistic and Enochian magic already in the First Order, works with ever earlier and more powerful systems of Egyptian, Chaldaean, and Sumerian magical systems as he or she progresses through the Second and Third orders.
This seems to imply that the older a magickal system is, the greater its power, as well, of course, that the A&O has somehow come up with piles of material to give their Adepti since the original breakup. What's your opinion on this, and the page in general?
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This seems to imply that the older a magical system is, the greater its power, as well, of course, that the A&O has somehow come up with piles of material to give their Adepti since the original breakup. What's your opinion on this, and the page in general?
"There is a video on YouTube, a Centennial Gathering of the Adepti of some such. In the video, the heads of each Chapter ( I believe that is what they were.. ) talks about how they received initiation and magical documents with which to found a new Second and Third Order of the Golden Dawn system.
Generalizing, my opinion, they all just talked about how great they are and how awesome their Order is.
They are trying really hard to assure themselves of it. -
@veritas_in_nox said
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"On the magical (Theurgical) side, the A+O Adept, having worked with Qabalistic and Enochian magic already in the First Order, works with ever earlier and more powerful systems of Egyptian, Chaldaean, and Sumerian magical systems as he or she progresses through the Second and Third orders."
This seems to imply that the older a magical system is, the greater its power, as well, of course, that the A&O has somehow come up with piles of material to give their Adepti since the original breakup. What's your opinion on this, and the page in general?"
it is also possible that these earlier orders are more powerful* not because of their age but are simply superior systems in and of themselves, that just happen to be older; however that theory likely implies that knowledge that was lost has been recovered, yet still there is the further argument of "Morphgenetic fields" and/or Egregores, which imply some type of memory inherent in Nature Herself but this has as much to to do with numbers of adherents as with age. Steve Nichols is amongst the non-Golden Dawn advocates of the superiority of the Egyptian system.
just my 2c.
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Older doesn't mean better... or worse, for that matter. Neither does newer.
For Black Pearl, I adopted the motto that my old friend Roy Firebrace adopted for his journal, Spica: "Find the new in the old. Find the old in the new." That's where I think the real insight (and thus power) is: When the old can be looked at as it never has been before.
But that's a generalization.
I have taken a gracious approach to David over the years of mostly not talking about him in public. In response to your post I'll just say that it's a shame so many people are developing a negative view of the honorable name Alpha et Omega as a result of his usurpation of it. The A&O was bed that nurtured so many of the most fruitful occult geniuses impacting the 20th Century, including Aleister Crowley, Cecil Jones, Dion Fortune, Paul Foster Case, and others.
it isn't unusual for an initiation system to intentionally move further back in time with deeper levels. Aurum Solis initiations in the D&P era used a differnt cultural setting for the tradition of each Hall. O.T.O. expresses the quintessence of Freemasonry and therefore shows more clearly the progressive movement from formulae of Freemasonry, back to Rosicrucianism, then back to Templarism, then back through Hellenic and pagan traditions to it's central idea. And so forth.
It's admittedly a tactic, though a good one. It's also practical because, when one runs out of something to say or do with the tradition one is working, one can always "uncover" a deeper one from which it emerged. I salute the pragmatism. But you should not think IMHO that one of these has general formulary advantage over the others.