UNMASKED: "Anonymous Nick" Farrell Sock Puppet Flip-Flops on Golden Dawn Lineage

by AΩ Imperator David Griffin

Nick Farrell recently wrote on his blog:

"A few blogs have appeared attempting to discredit ... my ... involvement with Whare Ra. ... When it comes down to it, these comments are usually written by those who do not have any real connection to the Golden Dawn and have lineage envy."

I am pleased to see Nick Farrell finally advocates the importance of Golden Dawn lineage, even from such a dubious source as the OTR after Whare Ra closed. Although he put his foot in his mouth, Farrell has in writing adopted a position similar to mine on the importance of lineage in the Golden Dawn.

In all fairness, I should mention though that Mr. Farrell quickly backpeddled and published a vacuous denial on blog anonymously published by Mr. Farrell's sock puppet, "Anonymous Nick."

"Anonymous Nick" and Puppeteer Farrell

Nonethess, despite Mr. Farrell's sock puppetry, flip-flopping, and vacuous denials, there is no doubt what the expression "lineage envy" means. Mr. Farrell can not erase what he wrote merely by sticking his hand up a puppet's garments.

"Anonymous Nick" went on to suggest that there no Hermetic, Rosicruican, or Golden Dawn lineages exist in the GD today because no one today can produce an unbroken paper trail of charters back to S.L. MacGregor Mathers. Sch an assertion demonstrates profound ignorance regarding the true nature of lineage in spiritual traditions. Such ignorance in turn arises from a conflation of the Golden Dawn with Freemasonry, where paper trails of charters are so desperately coveted by lodges. This is, however, a completely inappropriate yardstick for the Golden Dawn. "Anonymous Nick" does not even understand that the Golden Dawn is not a fringe Freemasonic rite! In reality, the Golden Dawn is one of the world's great spiritual initiatic traditions, not unlike Zen and Tibeten Buddhism in the East, where lineage is spiritual and therefore means something completely different than it does in Freemasonry.

The concept of lineage is found not only in Western esoteric orders, but also in the great spiritual traditions of the East, as well as in Christianity and Freemasonry in the West.

In Christianity, the doctrine of Apostolic Succession maintains that the Christian Church today is the spiritual successor to the original body of believers in Christ, composed of the Apostles. In pre-Protestant Reformation Churches, Apostolic Succession is claimed as having been passed through unbroken lines of bishops beginning with the original Apostles.

In its formal aspect, lineage may amount to little more than a formal means of mutual recognition, as in the case of Freemasonry, which exclusively uses paper trails of charters and systems of mutual recognition between Grand lodges to establish what Freemasonry calls ‘regularity.’

George Washington

Of course, in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and in the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega, we do alsso have our charters, which we are very proud of, yet unlike Mr. Farrell's sock puppet, we understand that there is much more to spiritual lineage than pieces of paper. The Golden Dawn is not unique in in this regard, either.

In Western esotericism, numerous orders use lineage as a means of ensuring a direct transmission of spiritual principles and energies. Lineage, like trademarks, is also a basic form of protection for the public, that what members find is actually what they associate with the name or the spiritual tradition. Who wants to join a Martinist order, only to find Hindu teachings instead, or to join the Golden Dawn looking for tradtional initiation and to learn Hermetic and Rosicrucian magic and alchemy, only to find Mystical practices, New Age teachings, or "Astral" initiation instead?

Louis-Claude de St. Martin

Martinist orders, for examples all claim lineage deriving from Louis-Claude de St. Martin. L'Ordre Martiniste (the Martinist Order) came about in 1884 when Gerard Encausse (Papus) met August Chaboseau. They discovered that they had both apparently received Martinist initiation through two different chains of succession which linked back to Saint-Martin and his original disciples. Papus claimed to have come into the possession of the original papers of de Pasqually and to have been given authority in the Rite of Saint-Martin by his friend Henri Viscount Delaage. However, Encausse realized that there was a "missing link" in his own chain of succession: he and Chaboseau therefore "swapped initiations" in order to consolidate their lineages.

Let us recall again that the Golden Dawn is first and foremost a spiritual tradition. Therefore, charters and such, are not all that matter. In all of the great spiritual traditions, both East and West, lineage carries with it a spiritual transmission or realization, as in the case of Dharma transmission in Zen Buddhism.

Zen Buddhism, for example, maintains records of their historical teachers who, according to the traditional history of that school, have passed the Dharma from generation to generation in an unbroken line since the time of the Buddha. Dharma transmission is the formal confirmation by a master of Zen or Chan Buddhism of a student's awakening. This one-to-one transmission is said to trace back over 2,500 years to Gautama Buddha when he gave dharma transmission to his disciple Mahakasyapa, who is regarded as the first patriarch of Zen in India.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
Shambhala Buddhist Lineage

I have often heard people in the Golden Dawn community say that: "Lineage does not matter. What matters is to do the work." This is certainly half true. "To do the work," however, one must have the necessary spiritual practices, as is the case with the Buddhist lineages.

The various lineages of the Alpha Omega carry with them a vast corpus of knowledge and spiritual practices from the Hermetic and Rosicrucian traditions. These include advanced magical and Hermetic Internal Alchemical systems that the Alpha Omega already shares with a number of traditional Golden Dawn orders.

What those like Mr. Farrell's "anonymous" sock ppuppet, completely fail to understand is that, as one of the great spiritual traditions of the world, the ultimate aim of the Golden Dawn is to help individuals "to become more than human,” which means spiritual development through energetic evolution.

"Anonymous Nick" ignorantly defines Golden Dawn lineage as mere paper trails like in Freemasonry. If Mr. Farrell and his sock puppet had access to the Golden Dawn's advanced Hermetic and Rosicrucian spiritual techniques and realizations beyond the elementary material published by Regardie, they would not so lightly dismiss a spiritual lineage as important as the Golden Dawn."

 - AΩ Imperator David Griffin

The Spiritual Mission of the 

Alpha Omega

The Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega is not just a merely "Golden Dawn" order. Whereas most GD orders, including Mr. Farrell's, offer their students little or nothing more than the well known spiritual techniques published long ago by Israel Regardie, the Alpha Omega offers a great deal of additional, traditional, supplemental and corrective material - including highly effective techniques for spiritual realization and energetic evolution - so far available nowhere else in the Golden Dawn.

These living spiritual slineages are certainly not just paper charters. "Anonymous Nick" still fails to understand that the true mission of the Golden Dawn is to facilitate the spiritual development and energetic evolution of human kind - by providing the spiritual technology necessary to "become more than human."

In the Alpha Omega, we make advanced magical and alchemical spiritual technology of the Golden Dawn, deriving from our numerous Hermetic, and Rosicrucian lineages available in a variety of contexts. As the HOGD, we provide traditional initiation and training in the Golden Dawn materials published by Israel Regardie, together with supplementeal and corrective spiritual exercises. As the Alpha Omega, we teach Ritual Magick, Alchemy, and a vast array of spiritual techniques that go far beyond the published Regardie material most merely Golden Dawn orders rely almost exclusively on. In addition to our unique curriculum, the Alpha Omega is further distinguished as the only Golden Dawn order utilizing the latest 21st Century methods developed over the past decade by on-line universities.

The Alpha Omega holds that human life on Earth is but the caterpillar stage of a higher, energetic form of life that human beings are evolving towards. Similar to the "rainbow body" of the Tibetan Dzogchen lineage, the spiritual practices of the Golden Dawn, Hermetic, and Rosicrucian lineages involve the cultivation of a Solar Body of Light.

For the Golden Dawn Adept, the goal of the true completion of the Opus Magnum is the projection of consciousness into a fully mature Solar Body at the moment of death. This culmination of the Opus Magnum bestows conscious immortality on the SOLAR PLANE - at the speed of light in the universe inside of starlight.

Sincerely,

AΩ Imperator David Griffin