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Friday, May 3, 2013

Demons, Magical Hierarchies, and the Golden Dawn

by Golden Dawn Imperator
David Griffin

Serious students of Golden Dawn magick are well aware what a monolithic tome the Ritual Magic Manual [1999: Golden Dawn Publishing] is. What is less known are the years of research that went into its preparation. For example, I left no stone unturned in attempting to find earlier sources for and to verify and correct, where necessary, the hierarchies used in Golden Dawn Magick

Readers of the Golden Dawn blog have seen some of the fruit of this research, for example, in articles I published here, here, and here. Understanding the need for additional research, I have never been shy to point out areas where additional research might prove particularly fruitful. 

For example in the footnote on page 610, I wrote:
"The Sephirothic Qlippoth may be found in The Kabalah Unveiled (from the Latin 'Kabalah Denudata), trans. S.L. MacGregor Mathers [1887] ... Further research regarding earlier sources of this Hierarchy remains indicated."
- David Griffin
I am therefore quite pleased this week as I noticed that Frater A.M. (Olen Rush) just wrote:
"The Mathers lecture (or whoever transcribed it) on Qliphoth is a direct cut and paste of the Rosenroth description of his figura XVI in Kabala Denudata. This information is gathered from diverse sources within the same tradition. We have RaMBaM, RaMBaN, RaMaK, the Tikkunim, Emek HaMelekh, Zohar, Beth Elohim, Gate of Heaven, and Garden of Pomegranates for sources. They are listed in some detail preceding the text."
- Olen Rush
I am glad Frater Rush is following my lead by conducting additional research in this important area, and is going more in depth regarding the Arimaic and Hebrew origins of the Qabalistic hierarchies of Golden Dawn Magick. Such research is long overdue.

I have no doubt Frater Rush will prove more than equal to the task.

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9 comments:

  1. Aletheia LVXMay 4, 2013 at 10:55 AM

    Good work Olen! High time these sources were critically compared from within the same tradition...

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 18, 2013 at 2:20 AM

    Care Imperator David Griffin
    You helped me so much with your Great RMM and this blog.

    I have some questions in my mind and I wish to have your answers:

    1. Is it necessary to have a special place to perform our daily rituals? or just my bedroom will suffice?

    2. Where can I find meaning of symbols and names used in rituals ? I think agripa's three books are so hard to understand...

    3. Why we use blue color for pentagrams in LBRP?

    -- My first language is not English ... please forgive my possible language errors --

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Imperator David GriffinMay 23, 2013 at 6:30 AM

      1. What matters is that you do the magic, not the place where you work. It would be nice to have a beautiful and suggestive place to practice, but do the work anyway.
      2. You might try, "Godwin's Book of Angels.
      3. The pentagrams burn the color of the fire on a gas stove.

      Delete
    2. AnonymousMay 23, 2013 at 10:42 AM

      thank you for your good answers, Mr.Griffin

      But about my third question, I mean what does the blue color mean symbolically in this ritual? Is it attributed to sephirah chesed?

      and I have another question, can you please answer this too?

      I am going to prepare for elemental magic, but I don't know should I perform GIRP everyday? if yes, how many moths have I to do that?

      Delete
    3. Imperator David GriffinMay 23, 2013 at 11:41 AM

      Remember, you are tracing FLAMING pentagrams. This is not symbolical but the colors of flame.

      Forget the GIRP. Just do the Middle Pillar with Qabalistic Cross and Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram before and after.

      Delete
  3. AnonymousMay 23, 2013 at 1:42 PM

    Again, thank you for your answers

    I am practicing The Middle Pillar for months (about 3 months), am I not ready for Greater Rituals of Pentagram?

    When can I start elemental work?
    (I have already constructed enochian tablet of Earth and tablet of union and going to construct other elemental tablets.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Imperator David GriffinMay 23, 2013 at 2:03 PM

      First add the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram and the Analysis of the Key Word to your practice for several months.

      Delete
    2. AnonymousMay 28, 2013 at 10:58 AM

      So I did.
      But what about The Rose Cross Ritual?
      How to add this ritual to my practice? Is it to be performed everyday?

      Delete
  4. Luciano PereyraAugust 9, 2017 at 6:03 PM

    Hello, Mr. Griffin, I read your blog a lot, I wanted to ask you a question, what do you think about the entities mentioned, could they be objective?
    And you find this statement correct?

    "The initiate, if it has been well trained, that the sphere
    Of feeling is somewhat subjective; You will never believe the illusion that images
    Observe are the real things they represent; He also knows, however, that
    Between the image and the concrete thing outside of itself there must be an approximation, or not
    It would be able to adapt to its environment and would be extinguished. But, and this is the
    Key in all doctrine on the sphere of sensation and its relation to reality
    Objective, the initiate knows that the images he sees and correspond to reality,
    They are but a selection of reality, and such selection may be so
    Biased and incomplete that will totally distort reality. The world
    Subjective differs from objective in degree, but not in class; Differs in being part and not the
    Everything, and it is such incompetence what makes all spiritual work necessary
    And which justifies the words of St. Paul as to his hope that one day
    He could know God as the divinity knew him, and this is the hope
    Of every initiate, and the end towards which he directs all his efforts "

    ReplyDelete