Golden Dawn Witch Hunt Revealed: Fundamentalism

by David Griffin

For nearly two decades now, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha Omega, and other traditionalist Golden Dawn orders heve been harrassed, misrepresented, and defamed across the internet on a variety of fora, websites, and blogs belonging to Golden Dawn reconstructionists. The really nasty attacks came on "anonymous" websites and blogs. The Alpha Omega was also attacked in the courtroom in an failed attempt to prevent us from even calling our order Golden Dawn. Due to the hard work and skill of our Praemonstrator and attorney, GH Frater DeDI, we managed to prevent anyone from gaining absolute control over the Golden Dawn trademark.

It should come as no surprise then that over the years, I have earned a special place of hatred in the hearts of those who want to destroy the Alpha Omega and to control the Golden Dawn. Never since Aleister Crowley has any esoteric leader been so attacked and maligned as I have over the past two decades I have served as Archon Basileus of the Alpha Omega and Imperator of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

The HOGD and the AO are by no means the only traditionalist Golden Dawn orders to have  been subjected to legal harrassment and internet defamation. Dr. Robert Word, Chief Adept of the August Order of the Mystic Rose, was legally harrassed as well - and nearly bankrupted in the process of defending himself and the AOMR.

At the recent Conclave of the Adepti, hosted by the AO near Las Vegas, Nevada, our College of the Adepts told me they are fed up with the constant harrassment of our order, our members, and our leaders. They are particularly unhappy with my having to waste so much time defending the reputation of our order, which could be better spent translating additional magical transmissions for our College. 

To free up my time, numerous Adepts stepped forward, offering to assist in defending the reputation of our order and its members. You may have already noticed in recent weeks the vigilent presence of AO Adepts across the Internet. I commend them for the find job they are doing in defending the Rose of our order from further defamation.

I was not suprised that our Adepts were fed up. After all, what more could the AO do? Our order had worked tirelessly to promote harmony in the Golden Dawn community for years. We had tried to reason with our attackers using logic. I had tried to reason with them using humor. We had even invited them to share the mysteries of the higher grades of the Golden Dawn at our International Conclave of the Adepti.

It had become clear there was no way that hate filled individuals would end their Witch Hunt against the AO, no matter what we did. Therefore, the Adepti suggested we step up our reputation defense, and we make crystal clear to the world what is really going on.

For AO Adepts, Nick Farrell's latest book, which in its introduction slanders our order by implication, was the last straw. Farrell had been spreading malicious rumors about our order on the internet for nearly two decades. He had published our rituals. He had slandered our founder Mathers and our present leaders. He had deeply offended our members. And now, said the Adepti, Farrell had crossed a line that demanded a firm response from our College.

Our order therefore drew a line for Farrell in the sand. Amazon.com was the ideal venue for our College to show its resolve, as Amazon is the primary place Farrell sells his book attacking the Alpha Omega.

One would think that, once Nick Farrell became aware of how he had offended his Golden Dawn brothers and sisters of the AO, he would have apologized to them. Instead, Farrell once again unleashed the full fury of his Witch Hunt. Our order and its leaders were attacked by anonymous trolls with vile slanderon Farrell's personal blog and on hate filled blogs of his friends.

Farrell, as he has done for decades, tried to blame his agression once again on our order. He denied the offensive passage in the book even referred to our order, yet turned around and spread the the same vile rumors on his personal blog!  As a diversionary tactic, he even accused me of "forging" the introduction to his book!

Farrell and his hate blog allies, next claimed that I, as AO Imperator, am merely inventing  the entire 20+ years of attacks on the members of our order. He claimed I do this to brainwash AO members to unite our order against an imaginary outside enemy. That 20+ years of legal and internet attacks are thoroughly, historically documented did not hinder Farrell in his Witch Hunt in the least.

I next published Episode 3, "The Dark Secret Revealed" of The Golden Dawn Saga to make clear to the greater esoteric community what Nick Farrell's real agenda is and has been all along. I showed how the arguments in Farrell's book he uses to attack the Alpha Omega, our Secret Chiefs, and our founder, S.L. MacGregor Mathers, are the identical arguments used for decades by Fundamentalist Christians to attack the Golden Dawn. As proof, I directed readers to "Uncommon Sense Ministries," an anti-Golden Dawn and anti-Pagan web site operated by Fundamentalist Christians out to destroy the Golden Dawn.

Instead of any rational reply, Farrell and his allies began behaving like third graders in a food fight, unleashing a tsunami of hate-filled slander against our order and its leaders on the Internet. Farrell mocked the parallel between his attacks on the Alpha Omega and Fundamentalist Christian attacks on the Golden Dawn, claiming "I am not even Chrisitan."

Farrell had completely missed the point. I was never implying Nick Farrell is a Fundamentalist Christian. I am saying, however, that the dark specter of Fundamentalism has reared its ugly head in the Golden Dawn community - and that Farrell and others like him are, in reality, Golden Dawn Fundamentalists ... 

I am also saying that Golden Dawn Fundamentalists are using the tactics of Fundamentalist Christians to attack their Golden Dawn brothers and sisters in the Alpha Omega!

Fundamentalist Golden Dawn Creed

"You AO freaks are delusional!
Your lineage is a lie!
There are no Secret Chiefs!
Your Imperator, like Mathers your Founder ...
... is a madman and a liar!
Repent, you AO witches - Or rot and burn in fire!"

Let us examine, therefore, the dangers of Fundamentalism for the Golden Dawn Community. Any kind of fundamentalism, be it Biblical, atheistic or Islamic, is dangerous. The new fundamentalism of our age leads to the language of expulsion and exclusivity, of extremism and polarisation, precisely as we are experiencing today in the Golden Dawn community.

The Witch Hunt that Golden Dawn Fundamentalists have waged against the AO and other traditionalist Golden Dawn orders for 20+ years now, has all of the hallmarks of same sort of fanaticism that typifies Christian Fundamentalism.

Take, for example, accusations of delusion leveled by Nick Farrell and Golden Dawn Fundamentalists against S.L. MacGregor Mathers and modern leaders of traditionalist Golden Dawn orders. This is stongly reminiscent of extremist accusations leveled by Christian Fundamentalists against Joseph Smith and leaders of the Morman sub-culture within Christianity.

The way Golden Dawn Fundamentalists unreflectively dismiss all evidence that does not support their ideological agenda, perfectly typifies extremist Fundamentalism as well. Take for example, the doctrine of the Secret Chiefs as the actual, physical source of origin of the Golden Dawn. Golden Dawn Fundamentalists dismiss the Secret Chiefs as fantasy and any Golden Dawn group that embraces the Secret Chiefs as a source of origin are derided as "delusional." 

Or take the Rosicrucian origins and spiritual lineage of the Golden Dawn. Golden Dawn Fundamentalists claim the Golden Dawn was founded on a hoax. Or take he magical talent and syncretic genius of S.L. MacGregor Mathers - Fundamenalists attack both Mathers and modern leaders of traditionalist Golden Dawn orders as "crazy."

Golden Dawn Fundamentalists, as basic tenets of their doctrine, hold that:

1.The Golden Dawn was founded on a hoax

2. S.L. MacGregor Mathers was not magically talented at all,

3. the Secret Chiefs are but delusions,

4. There is no lineage

5. The Golden Dawn died when the Whare Ra temple closed its doors.

They also hold, however, that despite all of this "the Golden Dawn system works when properly reconstructed."

In his book, The New Inquisition, Robert Anton Wilson (recognized episkopos, pope, and saint of the parody religion Discordianism), lampoons the members of skeptical organizations like the Golden Dawn Fundamentalist faction, as fundamentalist materialists, alleging that they dogmatically dismiss any evidence that conflicts with their materialism as hallucination or fraud. We see this clearly in the agression of Golden Dawn Fundamentalists towards anyone who does not ascribe to their materialistic dismissal of the Secret Chiefs, the founding of the order, etc.

All these themes mirror precisely arguments we find Fundamentalist Christians using in their attacks on the Golden Dawn on the "Uncommon Sense Ministries" website. All of these Fundamentalist Christian attack themes we find mirrored and elaborated in Nick Farrell's books, blogs, and internet postings, but attacking the Alpha Omega and other traditionalist Golden Dawn orders.

Fundamentalist groups generally refuse to participate in events with any group that does not share its essential doctrines. The Golden Dawn witnessed this after the recent Conclave of the Adepti, to which Adepts from the entire Golden Dawn community were invited. Golden Dawn Fundamentalists chose not to come, so they could continue to dismiss evidence running contrary to their Fundamentalist materialist ideology.

We have witnessed over and over in the Golden Dawn community for over two decades how Golden Dawn Fundamentalists selectively ignore all presented evidence, all rational dialogue, and respond only with personal attacks and with propaganda "talking points" instead.

Finally, Fundamentalism is not merely the demand for a strict adherence to specific ideological doctrines. Fundamentalism is usually combined with a vigorous attack on any percieved outside threats to their ideological sub-culture. Clearly, Golden Dawn Fundamentalists see traditionalist Golden Dawn orders as a threat to their ideological agenda. This explains the Golden Dawn Fundamentalists' 20 year long Witch Hunt.

Like their Christian counterparts, Golden Dawn Fundamentalists refuse to participate in events with any group that does not share their essential doctrines. They refuse to view the members of the Alpha Omega as their Golden Dawn brothers and sisters or even to treat them with any modicum of fraternal dignity or respect. 

Instead, Golden Dawn Fundamentalists offend our members, offer no apology, dismiss our Secret Chiefs, pretend our Higher Mysteries do not exist, call us liers and delusional, paranoid - and even manipulative , when we as an order finally stand up to their bullying - and declare ...

Enough is enough!

The true motives of Golden Dawn Fundamentalists are now plain for all to see. Now that their game is exposed, the time has come for the GD Fundies to end their Witch Hunt once and for all.

SO SAY WE ALL!

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Today Nick Farrell wrote on his blog: 

"I started out at aged ten falling into a born again cult which lasted for nearly seven years." 

Mr. Farrell then claims he has since left Christianity. This, however, in no way negates that Mr. Farrell's 20 year Witch Hunt against the AO bears all of the hallmarks of Fundamentalist intolerance and fanaticism.

Mr. Farrell still does not seem to get it. One must not be Christian to ascribe to a Fundamentalist mind set. Islamic Fundamentalists, for example, are just as dangerous as Christian Fundamentalists. 

It is alarming that a uniquely Golden Dawn Fundamentalism appears to have developed in our community unnoticed, bearing all the hallmarks of fanatical Fundamentalism:

1. demand for a strict adherence to specific ideological doctrines, combined with 

2. a vigorous attack on any percieved outside threats to their ideological sub-culture,  

3. refusal to participate in events with any group that does not share its essential doctrines, and 

4. dogmatic dismissal of evidence that conflicts with their materialism as hallucination or fraud. 

Mr. Farrell's 20 Witch Hunt against the members of the AO certainly embodies all of the hallmarks of aFundamentalist mind set - especially in its fanatical intolerance of ideological diversity in the Golden Dawn community.