There has in recent weeks been an interesting debate on various Golden Dawn fora between Pat Zalewksi, of the Order of the Golden Dawn, and Robert Zink, of the Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn, about the Secret Chiefs of the Golden Dawn's Third Order. This debate is enlightening, as it demonstrates the fundamental philosophical, magical, and spiritual differences between the Robert Zink's EOGD, Pat Zalewski's OGD and our order, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the outer order of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega. Pat Zalewksi recently wrote:
Lately I have lampooned the secret Chiefs concept because some, groups are placing people, either real or imagined, in a combined role prophet and angel. This is quasi theology. Even spirit guides are just that -not directors... This Order we are in and spiritual essence we have tapped into is very real. The problem is that is does not give you common sense and the spirit world for many becomes a real world of fantasy, as some have shown in recent years.Mr. Zalewksi is being unusually polite in the above quote. Elsewhere, Mr. Zalewski has basically called people "mad as a hatter" that believe in the Secret Chiefs.
Robert Zink's Astral "Secret Chiefs"
In response to Pat Zalewski, Robert Zink recently wrote:
Greetings,
When I read about connection to the Secret Chiefs or whatever you want to call these spiritual Beings, I am often shocked at the answers I hear, and from people I really respect. The problem with the Secret Chiefs is that if you have had a tangible experience with them, if you have worked with them, if they have appeared in physical manifestation then all seem rational and normal. For example we know that Mathers was in connected with the Secret Chiefs and when the good brethren rebelled against him, his magic through the power of these Secret Beings of Light destroyed the order into numerous bits.
So, if you have had contact with these Beings of Light, then it is normal. If however you have studied the GD for years, gone through all the manuscripts, done all kinds of rituals, and have never so much as received a post card from them, then they become aspects of your Higher Self, or parts of your personality or some other assignment. The point is to discredit them as fast as you can because you don't have a path to them. So in this situation the Secret Chiefs are subjective. If you know them, there real, if you don't there not.
Zanoni (Robert Zink)
P.S. I wonder if these people who discredit the Secret Chief also discredit the arch angels, or the planetary spirits? Maybe we are all on a trip and none of it is real. If this is your belief, get out of the Golden Dawn, you are in the wrong group.
To this Pat Zalewski recently responded:
Then you have people running orders that are in direct contact with astral beings such as astral masters. That makes the chiefs word almost omnipotent. You can't argue with invisible entities who give instructions. Usually this will come out in sexual exploitation. That's the potential Waco and Jones syndrome.
The above posts make clear that both Robert Zink and Pat Zalewksi, following the lead of Dion Fortune and Robert Felkin, each consider the Secret Chiefs as some sort of "disincarnate entities" or "astral masters" like Blavatsky's Mahatma's.
In fact, Robert Zink is reputed to channel these alleged disincarnate entities to influence members of his EOGD order. This emphasis on channellng is quite understandable considering the decidedly New Age direction that Robert Zink has gone in and away from classical Golden Dawn.
Alleged Astral Masters &
Schismatic Golden Dawn Spin-Offs
Robert Zink's claiming this kind of "inner plane contacts" is not uncommon for occult societies., however. In this mistaken "Astral Master" view of the Secret Chiefs, Robert Zink is in good company - with schismatic members of both the original Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and expelled members of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega. For example, once Robert Felkin betrayed S.L. Magregor Mathers and founded the schismatic Stella Matutina, Felkin also claimed such contact with "astral" Secret Chiefs that Felkin called Sun Masters. Likewise, Violet Firth (aka Dion Fortune), following her expulsion from the Alpha et Omega, also claimed such "Inner Plane" contacts. In fact, Dion Fortune often used techniques common with spiritualism, i.e. putting herself into a passive state of receptivity and receiving channeled messages.
The New Age community has been privy to this kind of practice and New Age bookshelves are filled with channeled communications, one more fanciful than the other. Reading this kind of literature readily shows that mediums often fall into the trap of self-deception and self-delusion, common in nature to the so called "regression therapies".
New Age Channeling Vs. Traditional Golden Dawn
Robert Zink's channeling of his imagined "Secret Chiefs" has nothing to do with traditional or classical Golden Dawn teachings, however. Unlike today's New Age community, the Golden Dawn, from its very inception in 1888, always has been very clear in its condemnation of these kind of practices as potentially dangerous for the human spirit. The Golden Dawn tradition has always scorned passive mediumship and idealized active seership as the only true alternative for a Magician. For example, the original application form of the Golden Dawn in 1888 illustrates this point quite clearly:
The Chiefs of the Order do not care to accept as Candidates any persons accustomed to submit themselves as Mediums to the Experiments of Hypnotism, Mesmerism, or Spiritualism; or who habitually allow themselves to fall into a completely Passive condition of Will; also they disapprove of the methods made use of as a rule in such Experiments.The original Neophyte Obligation from 1888 underscores this condemnation of "passive mediumship" or "channelling" even more:
I will not suffer myself to be hypnotized, or mesmerized, nor will I place myself in such a passive state that any uninitiated person, power, or being may cause me to lose control of my thoughts, words or actions.Thus we see that, contrary to the claims of Robert Zink, putting oneself into a state of mediumistic receptivity, as in the case of New Age "channeling", not only runs contrary to all traditional Golden Dawn teachings, but is even an outright breech of obligation for traditional Golden Dawn initiates. Contrary to what Robert Zink has been teaching members of his "Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn," there is no way of getting around this fact. Robert Felkin and Dion Fortune's methods were not and are not compatible with the Golden Dawn, nor are any of the New Age methods of channeling and communication with entities. Period.
Moreover, Pat Zalewksi quite correctly points out the danger for of potential abuse of power if one buys into the notion of Secret Chiefs as channelled entities. In this regard, I find myself in rare agreement with Pat Zalewski.
What S.L. MacGregor Mathers Says
About the Secret Chiefs
What both Pat Zalewski and Robert Zink fail to properly consider, however, is that the Golden Dawn did not just fall out of the sky. S.L. MacGregor Mathers, for example, claimed quite specifically that the Secret Chiefs were real people that he met in Paris in 1891. He also claimed that they gave them the material for the Golden Dawn's Second Order, the R.R. et A.C.
So, who should we believe about the true nature of the Secret Chiefs? S.L. MacGregor Mathers, who says that they are real, physical people who are responsible for the creation of the Golden Dawn, Robert Zink, who claims that they are Astral Masters whom he has a unique calling to channel, or Pat Zalewksi who claims that anyone who believes claims like those made by Robert Zink, who "channels" his "Secret Chiefs" must be "Looney Tunes"?
The H.O.G.D. Position On the Secret Chiefs in the A.O.
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the outer order to the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega is quite clear and transparent regarding our philosophical position concerning both the original and actual "Secret Chiefs" of the original Golden Dawn's projected (and the Alpha et Omega's actual) "Third Order."
Kenneth MacKenzie and the Origins
of the Golden Dawn
In 1850, Count Apponyi, a representative of the “Secret Chiefs,” initiated Kenneth Mackenzie in Austria. Apponyi gave MacKenzie the Hermetic lineage, rituals, and teachings of our First Order, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (H.O.G.D.). These MacKenzie later encoded into the famous Cypher Manuscripts used by Wescott and MacGregor Mathers to found the Golden Dawn in 1888. The much touted "Anna Sprengel" story was, in reality, little more than a red herring designed to protect the true identities of the Secret Chiefs. In this regard, W. Wynn Wescott, in his "History of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia" writes not only of:
MacKenzie’s Rosicrucian initiation in Austria while living with Count Apponyi as an English tutor,” but also writes that “MacKenzie had been in communication with German Adepts who claimed a descent from previous generations of Rosicrucians that had admitted him to some grades of their system and had permitted him to attempt the foundation of a group of Rosicrucian students in England, who under the Rosicrucian name of the information that might form a partly esoteric society.
W. Wynn Wescott here writes unusually candidly about the true origins of Golden Dawn. In this context in the April 1874 edition of The Rosucrucian, Kenneth MacKenzie also makes cryptic reference to an elusive
In his Royal Masonic Cyclopedia, MacKenzie adds that:
To these Hermetic Brothers of Egypt appertains the Philosopher’s Stone and the elixir of life, the art of invisibility, and the power of communication with the ultramundane life.
MacKenzie further describes these elusive Rosicrucian Adepts that:
They are men of moderate competence, blameless lives, austere manners, and almost ascetic in their habits…
In describing their method of teaching, MacKenzie states that :
They cheerfully answered questions, but appeared not to court enquiries.
S.L. MacGregor Mathers met in 1891 these same “Secret Chiefs” in Paris. In describing these secret Rosicrucian Adepts, MacKenzies’ comments are interesting that:
They courted no publicity
and that:
They never remained long in one country, but passed away without creating notice, or wishing for undue respect to be paid to them.
Upon his return to England, Kenneth MacKenzie founded this esoteric society that would later become the Golden Dawn under the original name of “Fratres Lucis” or “Brethren of the Cross of Light.” MacKenzie’s temple was Number one, followed by the Bristol temple of F.G. Irwin as Number two. Isis-Urania therefore became Temple Number three when the Golden Dawn was "founded" in 1888. The teachings for this order were coded using Trithemius “Stenographia” as “Cypher Manuscripts” that were later obtained by Wescott from MacKenzie’s widow following the latter’s death in 1886.
Mathers and the Secret Chiefs
Next, in 1891, Golden Dawn founder, S.L. MacGregor Mathers, visited Paris where on July 30 he was initiated by representatives the same Continental European order of Hermetic alchemists who had initiated Kenneth MacKenzie, to whom Mathers henceforth referred to as the "Secret Chiefs." As was the case with the "Anna Sprengel" story associated with Kenneth MacKenzie's "Cypher Manuscripts," a new story was invented as diversionary tactic to protect the true identities of the Mathers' Secret Chiefs involving a fictitious "Dr. Thiessen."
From the Secret Chiefs in Paris in 1891, S.L. MacGregor Mathers received the same Hermetic and Rosicrucian lineages transmitted earlier to MacKenzie by Count Apponyi, as well as an esoteric corpus and skeletal initiation rituals with which to create the Golden Dawn's Rosicrucian "Second Order," the Rosae Rubeae et Aurae Crucis (R.R. et A.C.). Immediately upon having founded the R.R. et A.C., Mathers moved to Paris to be near his Secret Chiefs, where in 1894 Mathers founded the Ahathoor Temple No. 7. While living in Paris, Mathers received advanced teachings about spiritual sexuality from his “Secret Chiefs,” notably certain techniques of "Hermetic Inner Alchemy" and "Alchemical Magic," which were intended for eventual inclusion in the Golden Dawn's projected Third Order.
In 1909, Mathers founded the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega (also known simply as the Alpha et Omega or A.O.) as a superstructure for the Golden Dawn's projected entire 'three order' system, with the H.O.G.D as its first and the R.R. et A.C. as its second order. As Chief of the Alpha et Omega, Mathers took the title, “Archon Basileus.”
Unfortunately, Mathers passed away in 1918 before he fully mastered the techniques of "Hermetic Inner Alchemy" and "Alchemical Magic" well enough to manifest the Alpha et Omega's planned Third Order. Mathers nonetheless did communicate some of the more advanced teachings regarding spiritual sexuality to certain select students, notably to Edward Berridge.
The Secret Chiefs &
The Golden Dawn's Third Order
Exactly one hundred eleven years after S. L. MacGregor Mathers' historic (1891) meeting with the Secret Chiefs in Paris, representatives of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega were invited once again to Paris to meet with a with a representative sent by them. Astoundingly, at this historic Paris meeting in 2002, the emissary of this secret order once again introduced himself as Frater Lux E Tenebris! ...And as the Secret Chiefs had done with Mathers before, they gave to us essential esoteric transmissions. In 1891, the Secret Chiefs gave Mathers everything necessary to formulate the Second Order of the original H.O.G.D. 111 years later, in 2002 (and once again in Paris), the Secret Chiefs gave the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega the initiation rituals and teachings that had been intended from the beginning for the Third Order of the original H.O.G.D. At that historic 2002 meeting in Paris, Frater Lux E Tenebris, initiated Jean-Pascal Ruggiu and myself, David Griffin, and transmitted to us the Hermetic and Rosicrucian lineages, rituals and teachings with which to complete the highest grades of the Golden Dawn’s Third Order. This Third Order curriculum includes the practices of Hermetic Inner Alchemy, which represent the most secret part and the capstone on the pyramid of the entire Western Esoteric Tradition.
As a direct consequence of the October, 2002, meeting in Paris with Frater Lux E Tenebris, for the first time in history a successor of the original H.O.G.D. now possesses the complete curriculum of the Third Order, including the complete sexual mysteries of Hermetic Inner Alchemy and Alchemical Theurgy once given by them to S.L. MacGregor Mathers himself. Thanks to the faith and trust placed in our order by the Secret Chiefs, the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega has finally completed the entire "three order" system that had been intended for the original H.O.G.D. from its inception, from the 0=0 grade of Neophyte all the way through the 10=1 grade of Ipssissimus.
Contrary to the speculations of Robert Felkin, Dion Fortune, and others, the true Third Order is not reserved exclusively for discarnate, astral masters, but comprises what has at all times been the highest teachings of both the Hermetic and Rosicrucian traditions. The initiatic authority of the Alpha et Omega no longer rests not merely on charters, affiliations, and trademarks (although we do have these things), but more importantly, the Alpha et Omega is a true vessel of the highest Hermetic and Rosicrucian mysteries entrusted to us by the Secret Chiefs of the Third Order.
The True Nature of
Golden Dawn Lineage
The primary lineages of our order are Hermetic and Rosicrucian in origin, the importance of which remain largely misunderstood and underestimated by the general public. Many people misunderstand the primary importance of these lineages as some sort of appeal to legitimacy or initiatic authority. Whereas these things indeed have a minor importance, to consider Hermetic and Rosicrucian lineages merely from such a limited perspective is to completely miss the forest for the trees.
The true Hermetic and Rosicrucian lineages of the Golden Dawn in general, and of the Third Order of the Alpha et Omega in particular, do not merely imply a sort of apostolic succession in the sense that such a notion is understood in Christianity, nor are they merely institutional like the lineages of Freemasonry (based on mutual recognition). Neither are they a mere means of merely asserting some sort of legitimacy or initiatic authority.
Instead, like the spiritual lineages of Zen and Tibetan Buddhism in the East, the Western Hermetic and Rosicrucian lineages carry with them very specific sets of spiritual exercises and techniques that lead to particular exalted states of consciousness and spiritual attainment. The techniques of these lineages are transmitted in documents, yet with oral instructions essential to their mastery revealed only to initiates.
Our Hermetic lineage arose in Egypt, was carried to Europe with the Greek and Roman empires, and has been passed down from Hermetic master to disciple through centuries in an unbroken chain of initiates, and was transmitted to our order by the secret Continental European order of Hermetic alchemists, commonly referred to as the “Secret Chiefs” (Geheime Oberen), who are the “source of origin” of all of the initiation rituals, teachings, and spiritual practices of all of the grades comprising all three orders set forth in the original Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
Hermetic Inner Alchemy:
Physical Transmutation & Energetic Evolution
The “Hermetic Inner Alchemy” of initiates of these Hermetic lineages has to do quite specifically with the transmutation of the physical body into pure Solar energy accompanied by a radical transformation of consciousness. The secrets of Hermetic Inner Alchemy have been kept extremely secret among initiates for millennia and still remain so until today. The reason for the secrecy is that these practices can be extremely dangerous unless your energetic body is properly prepared in advance of their practice.
Thus, the transmutation of Lead into Gold so often referred to in alchemical literature has in reality nothing to do with trying to manufacture gold. Rather it refers by analogy to the transmutation of the physical body, or Prima Materia, into pure energy and the cultivation of the energetic body. This is also referred to as the cultivation of Soul, with the ultimate goal of giving birth to a ‘body of light’ or ’solar body.’
As an Adept learns to project his or her consciousness into that solar body, he or she becomes more and more conscious of his or her immortal nature, even while still alive. At the conclusion of the Great Work, at the moment of death, the Adept separates his or her consciousness from their physical body and projects it into their ’solar bodies,’ thus achieving liberation from further incarnation and becoming consciously immortal.
This “Opus Magnum” or Great Work of completing human evolution into pure Solar energy is the true object and goal of all Hermetic spiritual practice. This may be completed in a single incarnation only using the secret processing of Hermetic Inner Alchemy, to which allegorical reference is made in the long descriptions of laboratory processes of certain classical alchemical texts. Hermetic Inner Alchemy works upon the human body itself as a First Matter or Prima Materia, and cooks it using the subtle fires of the body itself, including love and sexuality. In this way, the highest practices of Hermetic Alchemy also involve a uniquely Western form of sacred sexuality. As these techniques can be extremely dangerous for those whose energetic bodies have not been sufficiently and properly prepared, they have remained the most hidden part of the Western Esoteric tradition.
These techniques involve the preparation, rectification, and multiplication of the Philosopher’s stone, as is described in the Book of Causes in the commentaries on the Emerald Tablet of Hermes. Very little may be revealed to non-initiates about the true preparation of the Philosopher’s stone, or regarding its rectification and multiplication.
Thus the primary importance of Hermetic and Rosicrucian lineages are spiritual and have to do with attainment, as is the case with the great spiritual lineages of the East. Everything else, including any sort of assertion of secular legitimacy or initiatic authority, is secondary and of relatively minor importance. Any analysis that does not properly take this into consideration of necessity misses the main point of these Hermetic and Rosicrucian lineages.
The Alpha et Omega
Answers Demands for Evidence
On several occasions, our order has been challenged to provide "evidence" of these claims. The first challenge we were presented came from the Sun Order of the Cromlech Temple, about whom pretentions were being made that they were the “true” Third Order of the Golden Dawn. The second challenge came from Pat Zalewksi of the OGD. The third challenge came from Robert Zink of the EOGD.
Both Pat Zalewski and Robert Zink attempted to limit the notion of "evidence" in this context to "historical evidence," a great deal of which has been presented above in this blog. It should be noted that neither Mr. Zalewksi nor Mr. Zink are at all objective in this matter, as much of their credibility has been built on the mistaken notion that the Secret Chiefs do not exist as real people.
Beyond the historical evidence presented above, however, I am severely limited in what I may present by the desire of my teachers that their true identities remain secret. This restriction is compounded even further by traditional initiatic vows of secrecy.
For example, I have personally examined the entry in Third Order roll books documenting S.L. MacGregor Mathers 1891 initiation into the Third Order in Paris, yet I remain unable to present this documentation as it would completely reveal the true identities of both Mathers' and my teachers. As the interested reader may have observed, competing Golden Dawn orders have not hesitated to use these limitations in their marketing campaigns against the Alpha et Omega.
This does not mean that the Alpha et Omega has not provided any additional evidence to substantiate our above asserted claims, however. On the contrary, we have presented "initiatic evidence" on three distinct, separate occasions in response to challenges.
From the point of view of Arcane lineages, however, what constitutes “evidence” may not be properly limited merely to historical evidence. What really matters, after all, is SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT - together with the preservation and continuing unprofaned transmission and practice of our common spiritual heritage. One must therefore consider that both the Hermetic and Rosicrucian traditions are historically “operative” traditions. Both of these streams of Western esoteric wisdom have historically been concerned primarily with three spiritual disciplines - the practice of Magic (Theurgy), Astrology, and Alchemy.
In this latter sense the Alpha et Omega has already provided substantial evidence to back up our central claim: namely, that the Alpha et Omega “possesses, initiates, and teaches the highest secrets of Hermetic Inner Alchemy.” Everything else, including historical evidence, is by comparison of relatively minor importance.
The true meaning and processes of Hermetic Alchemy remain until today the most carefully guarded secrets of the Western esoteric tradition. Thus, on three separate occasions, the Alpha et Omega’s has provided solid “initiatic” (operative) evidence to back up our claims by revealing new and hitherto undisclosed details regarding the true nature and processing of Hermetic alchemy. After all, what we are speaking of here, at the heart of the matter, are the spiritual lineages of Hermetic and Rosicrucian alchemy. As Israel Regardie once said:
There is something more important than the Golden Dawn – Magic.To this I would add that:
There is something more important than even Magic – Hermetic Inner Alchemy.Of course, persons with a vested interest, like Pat Zalewksi and Robert Zink, will remain focused myopically on "historical evidence" and ignore all evidence having to do with true initiatic secrets. They will, as a matter of strategy, dismiss such initiatic and alchemical evidence as somehow irrelevant. But on the contrary, we are speaking of Arcane lineages - and thus - such evidence is precisely the MOST relevant.
The Traditional Test of True Rosicrucian Initiation
& How The Alpha et Omega's Detractors Have Failed It
In providing such initiatic evidence, the Alpha et Omega perhaps has even gone even a bit over the line according to what is permissible according to tradition. Nonetheless, there is historical justification for this - in both Hermetic and Rosicrucian lineages - wherein it is permissible according to tradition to test the level of initiation of another who also claims to be a Rosicrucian or Hermetic alchemist - by proving to one one another by revealing ON A RECIPROCAL BASIS, back and forth to one another, one's relative level of initiation into the sublime mysteries of Hermetic Inner Alchemy, the greatest secrets of the Western esoteric tradition.
In each of the three instances in which we were challenged, the Alpha et Omega’s response has been the same. We have offered to meet each of these challengers according to traditional Hermetic and Rosicrucian rules, in which it is permissible to to test one another’s level of initiation in Hermetic Inner Alchemy by reciprocally revealing to one another certain hidden facts about the true nature and processing of the Opus Magnum.
In each case, the traditional, initiatic challenge issued by the Alpha et Omega in response to demands for “evidence" went, of course, unanswered by those who so arrogantly had sought to challenge the A.O.'s initiatic authority. As expected, each challenger failed to provide even the the most inconsequential Hermetic or Rosicrucian "operative" information regarding the Opus Magnum. Thus, unless the aforementioned organizations and individuals should yet surprise us by truly meeting us in this traditional test, one may, according to the traditional rules of both the Hermetic and Rosicrucian traditions, safely conclude that none of above are true initiatic schools of the Arcane lineages of Hermetic or Rosicrucian alchemy.
Despite the complete failure of our would-be challengers to provide any evidence that they themselves have actually been initiated even into the least mysteries of Hermetic or Rosicrucian Inner Alchemy, the Alpha et Omega nonetheless followed the traditional rule itself - and in each case demonstrated our level of initiation in the lineages of Hermetic and Roscrucian alchemy - by publicly revealing unpublished, hitherto secret information about the true nature and processing of Hermetic Inner Alchemy, as follows:
1. In the first instance, following the challenge posed regarding Cromlech Temple's Sun Order, the Alpha et Omega revealed the true Prima Materia as the physical body and that any other interpretation of the Opus Magnum other than as the transmutation of the matter of the physical body into solar energy (Spirit) is mistaken.
2. In response to the challenge issued by Pat Zalewski (OGD), the Alpha et Omega revealed that the transmutation of lead into Golden in reality has nothing to do with "manufacturing" gold, but rather is an allegory for the aforementioned transmutation. Moreover, we additionally revealed that the true nature of alchemical processing has to do with the “cooking” of the physical matter of the body using the subtle fires of the body itself - including love and sexuality. (This latter revelation caused quite a stir. It provoked ignorant marketing slogans, for example, like "“No sex magic in the traditional Golden Dawn" on Robert Zink's "Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn" website.
3. In response to the challenge issued by Robert Zink (EOGD), in the traditional test, despite Robert Zink’s complete failure to demonstrate even a Neophyte's level of initiation into Rosicrucian Inner Alchemy, the Alpha et Omega nonetheless followed Rosicrucian protocol and revealed yet another hitherto completely unknown and unpublished piece of information about the true nature and processing of Hermetic alchemy - namely that the true nature of the rectification and multiplication of the philosopher’s stone has to do with using the stone to charge one’s subtle bodies with the forces of the Elements (in the case of rectification) and of the stars (Zodiac) in the case of multiplication. Moreover, the A.O. further revealed that this is accomplished in Hermetic Inner Alchemy by performing certain alchemical operations according to certain quite specific astrological cycles. It should be noted that, despite the sensationalistic slogans that Robert Zink continues to publish attacking the A.O. on the EOGD website, he has until today completely failed to provide any evidence whatsoever, that he has himself been initiated into even the most rudimentary aspects of Hermetic or Rosicrucian Inner Alchemy.
Thus it is clear that the Alpha et Omega has on three separate occasions already provided substantial initiatic evidence that we are a true Arcane school in the lineages of Hermetic and Rosicurian Inner Alchemy. Those who have sought to challenge us, on the other hand, have themselves completely failed the traditional test.
Nonetheless, the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega reaches out to our brothers and sisters in all Golden Dawn orders, as well as other esoteric fraternities, and Arcane schools here in the West and offers to collaborate with you in the preservation and transmission of the highest aspects of our common spiritual heritage!
Sincere aspirants are welcome to contact me directly at alchemy@golden-dawn.com.
Sub Umbra Alarum Tuarum, Yeheshua,
David Griffin
G.H. Frater Lux Ex Septentrionis
Imperator Ordinis, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega
"Ex Deo Nascimur.
In Yeheshua Morimur.
Per Sanctum Spiritum Reviviscimus"
Sitting here sipping my Latte, I was browsing through a gift from Ishtar Publishing. I received an advance copy of the Grand Key of Solomon the King. Solomonic Grimoires have a venerable tradition and no one has done more to popularize them in modern Western occultism than various members of the Golden Dawn. Even though they are not part of the official Golden Dawn corpus, they have had influence on part of that corpus and have been put to practical use by many a Golden Dawn Adept.
Most people are familiar with Golden Dawn founder, S.L. MacGregor Mathers’ Translation of the Greater Key of Solomon. Even more well known is Mathers’ translation of The Goetia, falsely attributed to Aleister Crowley as is also the case of Liber 777, a table of correspondences actually compiled by Mathers. In neither of these publications, did Crowley bother to cite their origin, but merely “borrowed” Mathers’ work to boost his own reputation.
I have seen something similar happen in recent years when documents clearly stolen from my Stockholm apartment appeared on the Internet bearing the seal of an order newly created by one of my own former students. On a more humorous note, I have even been informed of Goetic demonic workings attacking me ordered by a Chief of a competing Golden Dawn style order - combined with watermelon-stabbing rituals :-)
In the Golden Dawn Library, you will find available for download, for example, both Mathers' translations of the Greater Keys of Solomon and Lesser Key of Solomon (or Lesser Key of Solomon containing the Goetia). And don't forget to check out the Grand Key of Solomon the King here.
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