SRIA/SRICF: Secret Chiefs or Golden Dawn Impostors?

Golden Dawn Impostor

SRICF Supreme Magus, William Koon II

In August, 2010, the Supreme Magus of the Masonic SRICF, William Koon II, astonished Masonic Rosicrucians gathered at Golden State College, S.R.I.C.F at the Los Altos Masonic Temple in Los Altos, California. Golden Dawn members in attendance nearly spewed their coffee across the room with laughter. 

Golden Dawn members could not believe their ears when Koon made claims implying that  the SRICF in America and the SRIA in England have the right to designate which Golden Dawn order is the "official" Golden Dawn - implying that Masonic Rosicrucians have governing authority over the Golden Dawn.

Let us give Mr. Koon the benefit of the doubt - and assume he is not suffering from delusions of grandeur. We have, after all, entire asylums in California already filled to overflowing with Jesus, Napolean, Hitler and Elvis wannabees.

It is clear, however, from the above statements that both the SRICF and Mr. Kuhn remain horribly ignorant about the true nature and history of the Golden Dawn. To begin with, the Golden Dawn is not at all a masonic order. Secondly, the Golden Dawn was not created by the SRIA. Moreover, Bill Koon and SRIA Supreme Magus, John Paternoster, are not Secret Chiefs of the Golden Dawn. Finally, at no time in history have either the SRIA or the SRICF ever had any sort of governing authority over the Golden Dawn.

Alleged Golden Dawn Impostor
SRIA Supreme Magus, John R. Paternoster

In fact, strong evidence exists that in the early years of the Golden Dawn, the SRIA actually attempted to steal the Golden Dawn's Rosicrucian lineage. Here is the astonishing story of how that happened.

The Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (SRIA) originated in Edinburgh on December 31, 1866, when Robert Wentworth Little (1840-1878) and William Haughan were initiated into a Rosicrucian Society in Scotland. This society was based on an earlier Rosicrucian society in England about which little is known, except that it is likely of Britanic origin and that the ritual they used had no relationship to the Gold und Rosenkreutz Order in Germany.
The reliability of the SRIA possessing any sort of legitimate Rosicrucian affiliation has been seriously compromised by two false stories about its origins historically propagated by the society. According to the first story: "An 18th century Italian Ambassador came to England who possessed certain Rosicrucian secrets, the authority to confer grades and to pass on to disciples that authority. Among the last of those disciples was Grand Secretary, W.H. White. White initiated R.W. Little into the secrets of the fraternity and gave him the authority to recruit others. Little later found some Rosicrucian papers in the cellar of Freemasons' Hall which became the ritual of SRIA."
A version of this story was deliberately propagated by the society with the knowledge of the High Council, when W. Wynn Wescott published it in "The Historical Notes of the SRIA." The only proof of this story cited by Wescott was the first page of a letter written by Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of England, T.F. Ravenshaw.
This story was later proven to be false and every shred of evidence refuted in a paper by Freemasonic researcher Bruce Wilson in 1947. The aforementioned letter had been published by Wescott in incomplete form, for example. Bruce Wilson found and published the entire letter, the second page of which clearly demonstrated that it had nothing whatsoever to do with the SRIA, but rather with the Red Cross of Constantine.
The second story concerned Kenneth MacKenzie (1833-1886) and was first circulated in 1892. The story alleged that: "MacKenzie had early in his life been the tutor of Count Apponyi in Austria, where he was initiated into certain Hermetic and Rosicrucian lineages. He was further given the authority to establish a Rosicrucian society in England, which he then communicated to Little." 
MacKenzie was listed as a Past Magus of the SRIA on a leaflet stating the aims of the society in 1892, signed by then Secretary General W.J. Ferguson. The attempt to posthumously frame MacKenzie as the founder of the society, and thus claim for the SRIA an affiliation deriving from the Fraternitas Aureae et Rosae Crucis in Continental Europe, reached new depths of depravity when even the original Society register was altered. MacKenzie's name originally stood as number 114. This was altered to 0. 
This story was also refuted and the relevant forgeries exposed by Bruce Wilson. Wilson also explained how the fiction of MacKenzie as the founder of SIRA was quickly dropped, but survived in a modified form wherein MacKenzie was said to have unofficially helped Little in founding the order in 1865.
In his 1947 paper, "The Origin of our Rosicrucian Society," Wilson reveals an astonishing discovery. It turns out that Kenneth MacKenzie actually had been initiated into a Rosicrucian society and had indeed received a warrant from Count Apponyi. Furthermore, MacKenzie did actually use this warrant to found a Rosicrucian organization, but it was not the SRIA! Wilson reveals that the warranted organization was none other than the first phase of the Golden Dawn, as a branch of a Continental society called the Brothers of Light. 
This is a reference to the Order of the Asiatic Brethren (also called the Ritter und Bruder des Lichts or Knights and Brothers of Light).The Asiatic Brethren was a schismatic Rosicrucian order founded in 1780 by then member of the Gold und Rosenkreutz order Hans Heinrich von Ecker und Eckhoffen (1750-1790). Interestingly, the Asiatic Brethren was a Rosicrucian order which allowed Jews among its members at a time that antisemitism was rampant in Germany. Among its Jewish members figured prominent Qabalists from the heretical sect of Sabatai Zevi such as Ephraim Hirschfeld (?- 1819) and Thomas von Schonfeld (whose real name was Moses Dobrucshka). 
Thus the order of the Asiatic Brethren appears to hold a unique place in the history of the Rosicrucian tradition, as having fully developed its Qabalistic aspect for the first time. Interestingly, the Sabataian Qabalah of the Asiatic Brethren is of exactly the same nature as that later found in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
Bruce Wilson, in his revolutionary paper, goes on to explain that two temples of "Brothers of Light" were founded in England (Hermanoubis Temple N 2 was in Bristol under F.G. Irwin), but that they waited in vain for the rituals which were never completed. This explains why, when the triad of Woodman, MacGregor Mathers, and Westcott was completed, the Isis-Urania Temple was numbered as Temple N 3, since it was originally envisioned as a continuation of the first phase of the Golden Dawn. This likely also explains the origins of the mysterious "cypher manuscripts," which later fell into the hands of Wescott and eventually became the rituals of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The cypher manuscripts were certainly the skeletal formula for the rituals of the society created by Kenneth MacKenzie to receive the Apponyi Rosicrucian affiliation and transmission.
A number of scholars have speculated whether or not there might have been an historical relationship between the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the "Lodge zur goldenen Morgonrthe" in Frankfurt am Main. Recent research by Rosicrucian scholar Jean-Pascal Ruggiu (present Imperator of the Ahathor Temple N 7 of the Golden Dawn in Paris) has confirmed that this is indeed the case. Once again, the point of connection is the Order of the Asiatic Brethren. Ruggiu has confirmed that the Lodge zur goldenen Morgonrthe in 1807 became the refuge for many of its Jewish brethren when the Order of the Asiatic Brethren fell into abeyance.
Bruce Wilson's landmark study today raises as many questions as it made revelations in 1947. First of all, why would W. Wynn Wescott attempt to appropriate for the SRIA the Rosicrucian affiliation given by Kenneth MacKenzie to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn? In the process Wescott caused great harm to both societies, creating falsehoods and illusions about their origins while depriving the Golden Dawn of its rightful heritage.
Secondly, why did the information contained in Wilson's 1947 paper not become common public knowledge prior to this present writing? In fact, when mention was first made of the Wilson paper in the third edition of SRICF (the American version of SRIA) researcher Harold Voorhis' book, A History of Organized Masonic Rosicrucianism, the SRIA broke off all relations with SRICF due to this incident for several years. Why did the SRIA behave in this odd way?
Finally, one must note that the most widely published researcher of the history the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, R.A. Gilbert, is also a high ranking member of SRIA. Why is it in his thorough study of the history of this Hermetic Order, "The Golden Dawn, Twilight of the Magicians," Gilbert merely quotes "en passant" Wescott's recounting of the origins of the SRIA, with no mention whatsoever that these stories, together with the alleged Rosicrucian affiliation of the SRIA, have been thoroughly discredited? 
Indeed, why is there no mention whatsoever of Bruce Wilson's research, essential to an understanding of the Rosicrucian affiliation of the Golden Dawn, in any of Gilbert's publicly published works? Gilbert certainly must have been aware of Wilson's research. All of these things taken together give a compelling impression of an attempt to suppress the information revealed by Bruce Wilson's research, while maintaining a public illusion of an SRIA Rosicrucian affiliation and concealing the Golden Dawn's true and rightful Rosicrucian heritage through Kenneth MacKenzie.
So, we see that the recent bizarre incident involving SRICF's Bill Koon, is just the latest in a series of incidents wherein Masonic "Rosicrucians" have attempted to hijack the authorities of the Golden Dawn. The truth remains, nonetheless, that the Golden Dawn was not created by the SRIA. Due to all of the above, it remains extremely questionable, in fact, if the SRIA or any of the other Masonic "Rosicrucian" bodies are really Rosicrucian at all - at least in more than in name only. 
All along, due to its dubious origins and questionable (if not non-existant) Rosicrucian lineage, it has been the SRIA that, from the beginning, has been covetous of the Hermetic and Rosicrucian lineages of the Golden Dawn - and not the other way around. 
In fact, truth be told, the real reason for last Summer's latest attempted power grab, is likely because the SRIA has become aware that the HOGD/AO has recovered the complete, original Golden Dawn lineages from Continental Europe, where the true Secret Chiefs of the Third Order have always been and still remain. On the other hand, the so-called Rosicrucian Masonic research bodies, today appear to have become not merely "Rosicrucian" impostors -  but also Golden Dawn "Secret Chief" impostors.

Thieving Klingon bastards!