An OTO Author's On-Line Tantrum

You know, over the years I have grown rather fond of my paparazzi.

As they say in Europe:

"You can recognize the greatness of a man by the cacophony of barking dogs nipping at his ankles."

The TRUTH About KKK Support for Hillary Clinton and the Body Count That Follows Her (reply to Frater "Blowhard" Barrabbas)

Over on his Talking About Ritual Magick blog, Frater "Blowhard" Barrabbas just wrote a bigoted, ignorantly misinformed, fear mongering, Communist leaning political rant so deluded and inaccurate that it does not deserve a reasoned reply.

Frater "Blowhard" Barrabbas

In fact, it does not even deserve to be read.

For example, who takes the crap they serve as news on mainstream media seriously today, other than Blowhard Barrabbas? Southern Poverty Law Center? Only Blowhard Barrabbas. SPLC is one of the most discredited propaganda mouthpieces of the totalitatrian American left.

Sadly, there are still a couple of innocent, hatchling Witches out there who might mistake the propanganda Blowhard Barrabbas spews as gospel. For their benefit, the above video will set the record straight about the Clintons and the Dixie mafia.

Good luck campaigning for the Clinton crime family, Blowhard Brian!

Why don't you leave political discourse to people better informed than you, and concentrate instead on your Magick hobby?

At least there you know what you are talking about instead of just spouting George Soros' talking points you read on the Daly Kos.

Regarding Blowhard's repeating Clinton's calling all her political opponents "racist," we have a classic case of "the one who smelled it, dealt it.

It is no one other than Clinton who chose former West Virginia Ku Klux Klan "Exalted Cyclops," Robert Byrd as her "mentor" in the Senate.

Hillary Clinton kissing former KKKlan leader, Robert Byrd

Here is a little piece of good advice for Blowhard Barrabbas: "Get your facts straight next time before putting your foot in your mouth like this again."

Don't think that Hillary Clinton's relationship with the KKK ended with Byrd's death. She continues to be supported by prominent KKK members. Why has Hillary not disavowed the massive support she continues to receive from KKK leaders even today?

So, we see that, while she attempts to divide and conquer America by spreading false accusations of racism towards her political rivals, the real racist here is Hillary Clinton.

New Age Ninnies Tomato David Griffin as "Satanist" Over FREE! Magical Evocation Webinar

by Rosicrucian Imperator

David Griffin

Fellow Magician,

As you likely know, I do a lot of free teaching as a public service to the Magick community.

Little did I suspect yesterday, when I announced my forthcoming free Webinar this Sunday at noon: „Demonic Evocation and the Golden Dawn“ that this would signal a return to tactics of the old days of the Golden Dawn flame war - with the usual chorus of jealous ninnies and other morons attacking me online, this time accusing me of teaching „Satanism 101“.

For crying out loud, guys. Golden Dawn Magick is not some New Age - fluffy bunny - crystal unicorn loving - made up tradition afraid of its  own shadow!

No! The Golden Dawn is a legitimate Magickal tradition that stands on the shoulders of two Millennia of Hermetic and Rosicruican traditional practises and teachings.

Whether you like it or not, teachings about the Qlippoth and the so-called „averse forces“ are an integral part of the Golden Dawn Magick system. They have been so since the beginning.

Anyone who has been around the Golden Dawn for any length of time knows this - and I am not about to water the system down to please a bunch of New Age nincompoops living in their mommy's basements.

It's only sensation-seeking paparazzi trying to make a name for themselves on my coat tails, together with the crystal unicorn hunting, New Age fluffy bunny morons who still don’t have a clue about Magick.

Are you confused by what all the fuss is all about?

Good. You should be, because the crystal unicorn hunters making all the fuss are the ones who are REALLY confused.

Come find out what all this nonsense is all about at the webinar this Sunday where I set the record straight once and for all!

Don’t miss the occult event everyone is talking about ...

"Demonic Evocation and Golden Dawn Magick"

Sunday, July 17, 2016 at 12:00 PM PDT

Seats are limited and there will be no replay, so register free HERE now while you still can.

In abundance, power, and truth,

David Griffin

PS: So what's next? EA Koetting accusing me of trademark infringement over "evocation" on his website or Frater Barrabbas having another meltdown attacking me on his blog?

Secrets of Aeonic Spellworking (Binding Daesh)

On the Winter Solstice on December 21 a grass roots, worldwide movement of Magicians, Witches, and Shamanic practitioners, synchronised independent Aeonic rituals in order to bind the terrorist group called Daesh, so that Daesh will be unable to continue to cause harm to others and so that the results of such harm shall fall back on them. This recent magical working against Daesh has generated a tidal wave of enthusiasm from hundreds of practitioners  dedicated to utilizing spellcraft not only for their own personal benefit, but also for promoting greater consciousness in the world we live in.

It has also generated extensive discussion and controversy, however, about the viability of using magick to work non-local change.  Some of this discussion has been confused with habitual skepticism about the feasibility of using magick to create any change at all, or the verifiability of magical success.  These objections, however, can be raised against any working, since magick (contrary to many mistaken pretensions of the modern occult revival) is not science.  However, it is also not religion.  We can at least agree with A.A. Boss, Paul Joseph Rovelli, on that latter point, though we would also reject that magick’s methods are those of science, or that its aims are those of religion.  We’ve already addressed Rovelli’s generic internet attacks, and so in this post we will move on to respond to the more detailed criticisms of "pulp magick" Llewellyn author, Brian Watling, who writes for Llewellyn under the pseudonym, Frater Barrabbas.

Along the way, we’ll also share some insights and speculations concerning perspectives and techniques useful to the practice of aeonic magick, to which some of our readers might be now being introduced for the first time.  We contend that aeonic magick – briefly summarized as magical operations oriented toward producing psycho-historic change -- is not only a viable application of the magical will of the adept, but indeed vital to initiatory development.  This means understanding aeonic magick is critical to your magical progress even if you are a solitary practitioner!

Aeonic magick is to personal spellcasting as political skill is to subtle persuasion.  But just as you can't totally avoid the political world, sometime even if you're a hermit, aeonics affect your magical practice whether you're aware of it or not!  It has a long history, although not necessarily by that term, which is a contemporary one.  Initially the importance of aeonics seems to have been due to the importance of magical worldviews in spawning civilization – subsequent developments in religion, science, and art have frequently been fueled, or even inspired by magical workings.

The influence of shamanism on early pagan religions is fairly uncontroversial, and a brief review of early oral traditions, later written down, like the Rig Veda, makes it obvious that quite lot of magick for the success and flourishing of a culture against its enemies was being performed along the early boundary between shamanic magick and priestcraft.  Similar references appear throughout the rites of the ancient Persian Magi, although these were admittedly rather conflict-obsessed.

In later pagan times, priests associated with state religions would routinely perform operative theurgy for political or military purposes; the Romans were relentlessly enthusiastic about this, and ultimately adopted foreign cults into Rome frequently for this sort of purpose.  Even Christian bishops claimed such effectiveness for their prayers, infamously taking credit for the death of Julian, struck down by a Persian spear.

More plausible specific examples of magical warfare are more accessible in the recent historical record, such as the storm legendarily conjured by John Dee to destroy the Spanish armada, the contributions of voudonic magicians to the successful Haitian Revolution, or the renowned occult war efforts of Dion Fortune, Aleister Crowley, and others against National Socialist Germany.  Occultists and magicians on both sides of the war vied to influence regimes and outdo each other.

This didn't stop with Allied victory! Contemporary examples are lesser known, and although overt assertions of success in this regard are unusual, they are not unheard of.  Peter Carroll has claimed that the Illuminates of Thanateros contributed through magical working to the overthrow of Ceausescu, for example, and continues to promote British resistance to the European Union.

This is just one example of chaos magical interest in attacking politically repressive targets; in Liber Null and Psychonaut Carroll suggests aeonic magick as a primary activity of the Adept, and in later work he proposed a sample ritual for this purpose entitled (rather ironically now, we think) the Jihad of Chaos. Initiates associated with the Arcane Order of the Black Sun reputedly used magick in the favor of the successful 2004-2005 “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine, and London’s “Dionysian Underground” inspired by the late Steve Ash routinely performed magical workings for political purposes in the UK for a decade. Many of these groups, and numerous others as well, known and unknown, continually add their wills and intentions to the chaos of the socio-political world.

But aeonics isn't just for elite political manipulators, power-thirsty schemers, or idealistic revolutionaries!  These contemporary examples demonstrate that although the historical record favors references to elite magicians working with political figures in this regard, this is due more to the disparity of concerns between rulers and the ruled than it is to any limitation on the applicability of magick to socio-cultural and psycho-historic conditions.  There are plenty of cases in the pre-modern world in which practitioners lacking direct access to political power still attempted to use magick to influence leaders or the state, but this would have been regarded as criminal (in Rome, for example) or in later cases, heretical.  In one famous case, Roman officials believed that the numerous poppets and curse paraphenalia found under a senator’s bed had caused his death, and took this seriously enough to enact a judicial process.  James VI was paranoid of witches, but they really might have been out to get him through a failed magical assassination attempt.

In general, the historical record is unlikely to preserve any reference to attempts at magical influence on political actors unless these actors have been involved in magick themselves, or unless a judicial process has occurred as a result.  Certainly magick for personal purposes has been, and probably always will be, more common place.  But this does not mean there is any reason to believe that a magician lacking mundane access to political power might not have attempted to influence the political process, despite not being directly involved with the rulers and leaders of the land.  In fact, the contemporary practitioner is in a much better position in this regard due to the increasing shrinkage of the global community, particularly due to the potential opportunities for coordinated efforts offered by the internet and social media.  In fact, without them you probably wouldn't be reading this!

But don't buy everything (or even most things) that you see on social media. It is not uncommon in personal magical practice for one apparent intention to conceal another; this technique is used in ways ranging from completely benign, such as the stage magick used in some shamanic healings, to the thoroughly malevolent, such as the combination of pharmacology and misdirective implications of death magick to produce voudonic zombies.  Michael Aquino famously rejects government and military use of operative magick in his MindWar research, based on its inefficiency, but he goes on to promote disinformation campaigns waged for the purpose of creating a reality shared by citizens and enemies alike in which the victory of the state is inevitable – an application of what his Temple of Set would refer to as “Lesser Black Magic” in all but name.

Full blown ceremonial and ritual magick can be used with a similar diversity of intentions, and it is extremely naïve to suppose that every occult war effort --- particularly one performed out in the open --- is as linear in its intentions as victory prayers.  Certainly, in the same way that Frater Barrabbas suggests that the material basis of a binding operation can actually be shown to the target to enhance the psychological effect, chaos magicians have frequently observed that war magick can effectively involve much more posturing and propaganda than full-blown death magick.

Had we been organizing a spell to kill the so-called “Caliph” of Daesh, we would not have used Facebook.  Every adept should recognize that in aeonic magick, it is not only the effects of the spell or ritual which are at issue, but also the way such effects are perceived, understood, experienced, or received by observers and the masses, by the casters themselves, and also by those who may believe themselves to be the targets of the operation.  Even an aeonic operation that appears very straightforward may be anything but!

With this introduction to the important heritage of aeonic magick and occult warfare in esoteric tradition, we’re going to address Frater Barrabbas’s specific points about magical theory, and then conclude with some observations that we hope may inspire further discussion.

The Frater’s first main technical point is that there is no reason to combine binding and reflection.  This misses the point that harm already wrought can still be reflected upon the guilty in a magical working of retribution and punishment.  It is as if Barrabbas believes that there may be reason to imprison someone, but not also to fine them.  Of course, judicial systems frequently impose both incarceration and financial penalty, and our interest in both restraining Daesh and subjecting it to retaliation seems to us to be both just and prudent.  

Next, let’s consider Frater Barrabbas’s Kardashian example, despite it being a rather poor comparison since it is totally irrelevant to issues of psycho-historic change or trends, such as a case of attempting to empower or disempower a movement or ideology like Daesh.  What might happen to an adept who (for whatever reason) decides to attempt to magically enamor Kim Kardashian? The most likely outcome, as Frater Barrabbas rightly suggests, is failure, followed by the creation of an independent obsession.

But let’s delve further into the example, the way a very determined magician might do, who was truly intending to experience a relationship (or at least a hookup) with Kim Kardashian.  As Frater Barrabbas also predicts, the obsession is likely to become autonomous given a lack of opportunity to manifest, so the magician will probably dream about her.  If he is able to ignore the dreams, repress them, or use them as an opportunity to cast more spells, he may end up meeting someone who embodies what Kim Kardashian subjectively means to him.  This seems to fit with Frater Barrabbas’s idea that the real target of any such operation is not the real person (unknown to the magician) but only the magician’s idea of the target.

This also generally holds true, except that once the idea of the target is properly bound and controlled, a sufficiently determined or obsessed practitioner will eventually acquire real information about, and perhaps even a real connection to, such a target.  It is at this point that the real danger of stalking arises – who knows how many mentally unbalanced celebrity stalkers might, under other circumstances, have had the necessary talent and obsession to become practicing magicians.  In this sense, the initial working becomes only a preliminary working, the same way that on a personal level, novices are more likely to produce subjective changes than objective ones in their early practice, such as discovering that their enemy “disappears from their life” rather than disappearing from life itself.

This can cause some magicians – even experienced magicians – to develop the ultimately undermining and self-defeating view that magick is intended to produce only such subjective results, more and more pervasively.  This attitude can lead to the solipsism Frater Barrabbas seems to be concerned about, and it should be avoided.  Yet, we would never tell a novice that if he or she cursed an enemy to destruction and then never heard from that person again, that the novice was a failure, a time-waster, or delusional.  We would instead encourage them to develop increasing discrimination, diligence, and discernment, and cultivate opportunities for increasingly literal results.  One way of developing such power is looking for them, and one way of compensating for a lack of magickal link is to become inundated with information about, and attention to, the subject.

This is, of course, also a way to become very obsessed.  So once our hypothetical caster has begun to conjure all kinds of literal and symbolic Kim Kardashianity into his reality, and finally overflows into actually developing connections to her, he must indeed navigate the dangers of becoming a stalker or becoming consumed by this obsession.  The breaking point likely comes when he finally gets enough of a connection to directly experience that Kim Kardashian is nothing like “Kim Kardashian,” which is, in fact, a successful spell result, since by this point the magician will have summoned someone or something (possible multiple someones) much closer to his original symbolic desire.  However, once he does have a real connection to Kim Kardashian, he still has the opportunity for a presumably much less problematic (but much less satisfying) conjuration.

It should be clear why this was a rather poor comparison to Daesh on the part of Frater Barrabbas, but hopefully indulging it has allowed us to demonstrate a significant point: our spell is, of course, directed at the idea of Daesh, because, after all, Daesh is only an idea, and a fraudulent one at that: a spurious state, with a confabulated Caliph, implausibly Islamic, even more clearly a golem fueled by Western arrogance and hubris than Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the latter of which at least had the merits of confounding Soviet ambitions in Afghanistan.

Frater Barrabbas compared Daesh to a boogeyman similar to the former Soviet Union, and although he rightly points out that most Americans overestimated the power and threat posed by the USSR, he somehow overlooks the point that it did embody corruption, evil, and stupidity, and the idea it represented was rightly vilified and deserved to be undone.  That doesn’t mean that all ideological efforts against it were somehow either redundant or solipsistic; it means that in focusing on reinforcing ideological rejection of the Soviet Union, they contributed their conviction to its collapse. 

Frater Barrabbas describes the Daesh we know in the West as a “dark shadow.” Indeed, this shadow has already cast itself into the West in the form of repeated terrorist actions, the recruitment of Western Muslims as well as immigrants, and the further darkening of the Western perception of Islam, itself a consequence surely promoted by the real creators of this political golem.  What better way to combat an entity created by the political black magick of nefarious manipulators – than with magick?  That our spell coincides with military victory demonstrates its aeonic coherence; the acausal synchronicities of spellworking can be neither proven nor disproven, but they can be experienced.  To experience them aeonically presents the opportunity for the practitioner to establish resonance between personal life and psycho-historical currents, and it is these currents which may carry the magician beyond adeptitude.  

Yet, we recognize that many magicians, even many adepts, may deliberately choose an apolitical path.  They may purposely reject involvement with the themes, ideas, and currents of this aeon, or any aeon.  There are other paths across the Abyss, and other paths deeper into it.  But such a choice should be made based on an apprehension of the magician’s own disposition, not the spurious and ultimately corrosive idea that magick is by definition confined in its influence and significance to the “personal life,” especially since those who have yet to experience the gnosis of the adept are barely “persons” to begin with.  It is through interaction with, and inspiration by, transpersonal powers and forces that the personality of the adept is created, shaped, and fashioned. 

We find it particularly ironic that Frater Barrabbas chose to evaluate this aeonic working from the perspective of the solitary pragmatic magician, when he himself is clearly a religious practitioner presumably engaged in ceremonial and ritual magick deriving its aeonic momentum from the ideological and theological egregores of Wicca and Thelema.  These traditions utilize magical techniques to fulfill religious and mystical aspirations, and also draw upon the shared beliefs and egregores of (mostly) ideologically harmonious magicians to empower personal aims, even utilizing continually repeated religious ceremonies for such a purpose.

Thelemic groups in particular have tended to hold that by advancing the aeon, the personal opportunities of the magician are advanced as well.  Does Frater Barrabbas really hold that it is worse for a group of practitioners to come together on a magical holiday to put their skills – whatever they might be – to a common aeonic purpose, even if it is merely the binding and ultimate destruction of a mere ideological golem – than it is for them to routinely engage in the religious ritual veneration of aeonic constructs created by Western magicians of the recent past?  

Apparently Barrabbas sees no problem in repeating the aeonic conjurations of “Secret Agent 666” (to borrow a moniker from the title of a recent scholarly work on Crowley by Richard Spence), who himself was so embroiled in political magick that he regarded publication of Liber AL as sufficient to instigate wars and took credit (after the fact) for “V for Victory”, but Barrabbas objects to contemporary magicians emulating the Beast in any similar regard, instead of merely imitating his ritual ingenuity.

The subject of the magical link is more pertinent, and lack of viable magical mink is probably the most common reason why aeonic magick may be ineffective, and we certainly don’t intend to argue that the magical link is irrelevant. However, the lack of such a link can still be overcome, as Frater Barrabbas actually seems to admit in his post.  Non-local consciousness can be accessed in a sufficiently deep trance state.  The intervention of spirits, egregores, and servitors can still be effective without a magical link.  Some currents of aeonic magick are sufficiently well-established psycho-historically, or so organically potent, that they can be drawn upon and activated in the right aeonic circumstances and then cascade into reality seemingly of their own accord.

Any or all of these techniques may have been used by any magical adepts participating in this very working – the simple spell we presented online was merely illustrative of how a binding spell against such a target might be performed.  Our expectation was certainly not that the performance of this specific spell, by any number of operators, would be any more effective than a massive prayer vigil.  It seems equally naïve, however, to believe that it would be less effective.  Most contemporary magical theory which has advanced beyond the rather crudely relativistic “energy model” accepts that in an information-based probabalistic paradigm, it only requires onesuccessful execution of a spell by one operator for it to take effect; multiplication of the number of operators either aids the spells of the more competent, raises the possibility that one caster’s spell will be successful, or both.  

Ultimately Frater Barrabbas seems to prefer to present principles of sorcery as Laws of Magick.  Yet, magick is not science.  It certainly has empirical and even experimental components, but it is as much of an art as it is a craft.  The claims of a magician are not repeatable and not falsifiable, any more than those of a historian operating in the paradigm of the humanities rather than the social sciences. Perhaps this is part of why psycho-historic magic is effective; the magician is attempting to create observer effects, not reduce them.  The biases generated by the magician are meant to influence the caster, the target, and ultimately all of reality.

Magick does not operate based on laws.  Magick is a law – and a chaos – unto itself.  The effectiveness of magick cannot be explained by reference to some other belief system, paradigm, or model: magick is the reason why belief systems, paradigms, and models explain anything effectively.  We contend that magick is an art and craft of belief, and as such its effects are by definition global and pervasive.  One interpretation of “crossing the Abyss” would describe it as the transition which occurs when the relationship between the personal reality of the magician and the seemingly objective reality of the surrounding world becomes completely understood and therefore subject to direct influence by the magician.

Can confrontation with this boundary lead to delusion, obsession, hubris, arrogance, grandiosity, and even insanity or madness?  Of course it can.  But so can mysticism and religion.  So can politics.  The dangerous possibility that one might literalize the experience, or the effects, of any magical working will always remain.  As William S. Burroughs, probably one of the greatest magicians of the previous century, laconically remarked, “Magick is dangerous or it is nothing.”

Safe personal spells for prosperity and empowerment are the province of the novice; dangerous, uncertain, risky, and problematic experiments with the powerful forces that drive history should be the province of the adept, and part of doing those experiments is a willingness to occasionally experiment with the beliefs, participation, enthusiasm, and sincerity of others.  Political movements and religions have been born for far worse purposes.  An adept who is afraid to break the supposed “Laws of Magick” or transgress the often self-imposed limitations of possibility is no adept at all.  Magick is not a negotiation with the universe – it is an attack on reality.

PS - Meanwhile 17,656 subscribers now receive my Occult News Network newsletter. If you subscribe free now, I will send you free my special report: "Five Unbeatable Defense Magick Spells No Black Magician Would Ever Want You To Know."

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Are Successful Magicians "Hucksters?" (OTO Llewellyn Author Attacks Golden Dawn Magickal Community)

by Golden Dawn Imperator

David Griffin

Over the past week, the blogosphere has been abuzz again about money and Magick teaching. The whole flap started when Nick Farrell decided to close the Magikal Order of Aurora Aureae correspodence course, then wrote an article suggesting that overall interest in Magick is on the wane in the 21st Century. You can read Mr. Farrell's article, entitled "Ten Reasons Why Public Occultism is Dying" here. Peregrin Wildoak threw his two cents into the discussion on his "MAgic of the Ordinary blog here.

Frater Barrabbas
(Brian Watling)

Everything remained quite civil until Llewellyn author and OTO member, Frater Barrabbas, gratuitously launched the following personal attack on Mr. Farrell on his "Talking About Ritual Magick" blog here,

„Some folks are saying that where the past decades were the golden age, the whole [Magick] movement now is in obvious decline in the second decade of the 21st century. I am, of course, referring to yet another “counter intuitive” whining rant from Nick Farrell on his blog of personal propaganda and self aggrandizement.“

Barrabbas, Farrell, and Wildoak each raise interesting points in their articles. The subject of money and marketing in Magick atually does deserve civil debate. Name calling, like that exhibited by Frater Barrabbas, however,  belongs on the school yard playground, not coming from a putative spiritual leader.

Anyone who has been around the Magickal scene for any length of time already knows that Nick Farrell and I agree about precious little. For example, we have completely different approaches to Magick and the Golden Dawn.

Despite our differences, Nick Farrell remains a valued teacher in our Golden Dawn community. I will therefore not stand by idly while an outside agitator - in this case a Llewellyn author and OTO member- attacks the Golden Dawn community by personally attacking its leaders.

Barrabbas' attack on the G.D. community continues:

"Conversely, those teachers who engage in it expecting to be financially rewarded or by receiving the accolades of their students and peers should consider doing something else. Because they won’t ever become rich or famous teaching occultism and magic unless they become supreme hucksters like Koetting, Zink or Griffin. Even then, it isn’t guaranteed that they will be successful, but to promote one’s tradition and persona like Donald Trump is probably the only way to make occultism and magic really pay."

In addition to Magical Order of Aurora Aureae leader, Nick Farrell, Frater Barrabbas above personally attacks leaders of two other Golden Dawn orders, calling us "hucksters," together with a Satanist!

This  bahavior is so over the top that it merits a public and harsh reply to "Frater Barrabbas" - who in the real world is Brian Watling, a computer programmer and database administrator for Optuminsight in the greater Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Here is my reply:

"Dear Brian Watling/Frater Barrabbas,  

Please quit acting like such a dick. No one asked you for your opinion. Why not go back to Llewellyn and OTO and mind your own business? Peace in our Golden Dawn community has lasted nearly a year now. The GD does not need outside agitators like you stirring shit in our community."

Brian Watling calls me a "huckster." Is this true? Of course not. I am not a huckster. What I AM though is a better Magician than Frater Barrabbas will ever be in the real world.

Want proof? Fine. Here:

Even today, Brian Watling continues to slave his health away 9-5 (+overtime) at his database administrator Muggle job with Optuminsight ...

... just like he has for the past 26 years.

And me? I have been semi-retired since I was 25. That's right. For the past 35 years, I have been privileged to have had 6-7 months free each year to devote entirely to the Magick of Light.

Do you think such liberty just fell out ot the sky? 

Hardly. Wake up people. I created it Magickally - And so can you.

I put a spell on myself using a rare French grimoire when I was young, conjuring the ability to master languages. Eventually mastered French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish and English. Of course, I had to work to become fluent in all these languages, but this was nonetheless the fruit of my Magickal Will. 

Does this make me a „huckster“? No. It does make me a linguist though. It also proves I'm a damned good Magician.

Manifesting a Muggle career that left me half the year to pursue my passion for Magick was also a product of my Magickal Will.

Such liberty does not just fall out of the sky. I created it magickally. And you can liberate yourself as well.

I am sick and tired of Magick "wannabe gurus" calling other people names - I mean these are people who can't muster enough Magickal Will  even to liberate themselves for proper time to devote to Magick.

Maybe these armchair heroes should quit harassing real Magicians - and devote themselves instead entirely to their time-slave Muggle jobs.

No wonder people like this so frequently choke on sour grapes.

And if you think they've been envious of my life until now, wait until they see what I'm about to accomplish.

I can only share a tiny part of what is coming on the horizon, but here is a piece of juicy gossip for the occult paparazzi:

"When I turned 60 this year, I took a magickal decision to retire from my Muggle job as a tour guide to devote myself not just half the year - but henceforth the WHOLE year - to empowering people with the Magick of Light  and facilitating their spiritual awakening." - David Griffin

Does this make me a huckster? No. 

But it will further prove my Magickal abilities once it manifests.

NOTE: Before the occult tabloids rake me over the coals again, lets be clear about this. I still plan to lead a couple of Muggle tours each year despite my retirement. I ENJOY guiding tourists from around the world through America.

No doubt there will be others like Frater Barrabbas who will come along and call me names for devoting my life all year to Magick. Believe me. Such people would be better off to quit gnashing their teeth on sour grapes, and prove their worth as Magiciansinstead  by transforming their OWN lives.

Next Frater Barrabbas compares me with Donald Trump. This part is really silly.

Although I am flattered by the comparison, I am nothing like Donald Trump. I am younger than Donald Trump. I am better looking than Donald Trump. And most importantly - I have a LOT more hair than Donald Trump!

But there is ONE thing Donald Trump and I do have in common. Donald Trump is courageous enough to speak his mind and to tell people even uncomfortable truths.

As any reader of our Golden Dawn Facebook group (here) will attest, there are certain issues I am passionate about - like healing our environment, the right of American citizens not to be spied on without a warrant, and rampant abuse of government secrecy.

For example, Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations concluded yesterday, yet the American people are still in the dark about the full contents of this treaty. According to Wikileaks documents, this treaty could have profound effects on American sovereignty, potentially even dragging us into globalism in an EU-like "Pacific Union" - effectively abolishing our constitution.

People - wake up! Open your eyes to what is going on around you.

At a minimum, these issues need to be discussed openly, publicly, and thoroughly. We Americans have a right to know and to legitimately participate in determining which direction our nation will take.

Lastly, the underlying reason Frater Barrabbas calls me a "huckster" is because he doesn't like that our order uses 21st Century marketing. Well, guess what - so does Optuminsight - the tech company Brian Watling works for.

Big deal. Get over it. 

I have no problem with Bryan Watling voicing his opinion about marketing in occultism, even though he is wrong. He just shouldn't call people names. There is no call for that.

Besides - Let's remember that our order, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn under the Alpha Omega is the largest and fastest growing Golden Dawn order in the world. In fact, today we are growing three times faster than ever before.

Success is my proof. I must be doing something right.

And yes - This is my REAL hair!

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Wiccan Origins and Born-Again Crowleyanity

by Alexandrian Wiccan High Priest

Golden Dawn Imperator

David Griffin

Over on his Talking About Ritual Magick blog, Llewellyn author Frater Barrabbas (Brian Watling) wrote:

Frater Barrabbas/Brian Watling 

"If you are going to advertise that you can teach and initiate magicians so that they may be elevated to an Ipsissimus (the highest degree possible: 10 = 1) then learn how to spell that word before you post the advertisement. Not being able to spell this word certainly doesn’t give your potential students (or anyone else) the confidence that you know what you are talking about."

I wrote and thanked Frater Barrabbas for pointing out all the buzz in the magickal commiunity over the "Ipssissimus" typo on our order's newly redesigned website HERE.  In case you missed it before, our order just completely remodeled our website and online school; classroom, curriculum, teaching methods - everything - including bi-weekly Magick webinars FREE! for Golden Dawn members.

I also had a very serious word with our order's marketing company about the typo!

However, Barrabbas/Watling continues:

[Gerald Gardner's] "The Great Rite, however, was based on the Thelemic Gnostic Mass."

In my opinion, Thelemic zealots have overstated Crowley's influence on Wicca for years now, while simultaneously ignoring the importance to Wicca of Gerald Gardner's visit to the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii during his sojourn in Italy prior to formulating Wicca.

Gerald Gardner

In Witchcraft Today, Gerald Gardner wrote:

"I had always believed that witches belonged to an independent Stone Age cult whose rites were a mixture of superstition and reality ...

... and when I visited the Villa of the Mysteries at Pompeii I realised that the great resemblance to the cult. Apparently these people were using the witches' processes. I know, of course, that ancient and modern writers have agreed that the Greek mysteries of Dionysus, Zeus, Orpheus, Zagreus and Eleusis were similar; therefore since each mystery had different rites and myths but was the same, this must mean that they had some inner secret.

...Scholarship has made repeated efforts to discover what took place until the Villa of the Mysteries was discovered. The paintings contain the answer, for they extend all round the walls of the hall."

At the very centerpiece of the frescoes of the Villa dei Misteri in Pompeii, Italy, appears the Hieros Gamos, the wedding ceremony of Dionysos and Ariadne. Thus, it is clear The Great Rite finds its roots in the rites of ancient Paganism, as rediscovered by Gardener in the frescoes of the Villa of the Mysteries - rather than in Aleister Crowley and the OTO's Thelemic church. In fact, one might even wonder if the ancient Pagan sexual mysteries depicted in the Villa of the Mysteries,  might not be the true source of the sexual mysteries of OTO as well, despite misdirecting OTO origin lore about the orient. This would be the complete opposite of what Barrrabas has suggested.

The Hieros Gamos is by no means the only element of Wiccan ritual originating in the frescoes of the Villa of the Mysteries. For example, the Wiccan use of the scourge figures prominently below where a woman prepares to strike with a whip a young woman who is leaning on another's lap.

So, in response to Brian Watling's (aka Frater Barrabbas) questionable attribution of "The Great Rite" of Wicca to Aleister Crowley and the OTO's Gnostic Church, I have but one question:

"Where is our Wiccan scourge in your Crowelymass?"

Rule No. 1 - When you convert to Thelema from Wicca, don't accuse adherants of your former religion of sectarianism while you misattribute the origins of Wicca to Aleister Crowley. It just makes you look silly!

Secret "TARGET LIST" of Spiritual Leaders EXPOSED!

by David Griffin

When my Son, Adam, tragically lost his life in a fatal car accident last July, I couldn't believe the sick rumors that my on-line attackers were secretly, perversely rejoicing and celebrating my Son's death.

Adam Kadmon Griffin (1992-2014

But when author David Mattichak recently passed away, these same covert defamation operatives openly gloated and mocked Mattichak's death on the secret Facebook group where they routinely gather and conspire. Sickeningly, the evidence above shows that even when challenged, the gloating continued!

R.I.P. David Mattachik

Services will be held Feb. 2, 2015

Noteworthy are names on their now published TARGET LIST:

• Rowan Pendragon
• David Mattichik
• Frater ATLV
• Starhawk
• EA Koetting
• Kevin Carlyon
• Elish De Avalon
• Lizzy Rose
• She' D' Montford
• Leslie Grififn
• David Griffin

Other members of the secret Facebook group where the target list was clandestinely published, include Aaron Leitch, leaders of his order and even the Imperatrix of SRIA (America). Admin of the group? Peregrin Wildoak.

Are people who publish TARGET LISTS or who gloat over the death of others really the sort of people YOU should trust with YOUR spiritual development?

PREDICTION: The spin doctors will not come out and try to minimize what the above list really means. They will attack me for making this public, calling me paranoid, etc.

Even after my Son passed away, the defamation crew continued to attack me on-line. Instead of showing even a crumb of compassion, the attackers instead put up a website showing only one side ot the 20 year old flame war and deceitfully claiming: "There is no GD war. There is only one lunatic, David Griffin, attacking the entire Golden Dawn community."

My family's hearts are still striken with grief, yet Nick Farrell's entire Facebook entourage continues to flame and defame me and even try to blame it on me as if the were innocent babes.

Our hearts are STILL TODAY devastated with grief over our loss of Adam, yet these people publish my remaining family's names today on a secret TARGET LIST? 

Enough is enough. This is a new low, even for the ongoing defamation operation..

UPDATE: It was just confirmed that one of the people on the above target list, Lizzy Rose: "had her house shot at."

UPDATE 2: She d'Momford, also on the list, has referred the matter to the police in Australia.

EXPOSED: Why do Psychiatric Patients Found Golden Dawn Orders or Become Therapists?

by Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn®

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Imperator David Griffin

The Mysticism vs. Magick debate in the Golden Dawn community took an unexpected turn this week, as it raised important questions about why individuals who are chronically clinically depressed become Psychotherapists or Golden Dawn leaders. The discussion this week highlights not only the danger posed to spiritual aspirants by those who become therapists or spiritual leaders to compensate for ongoing mental problems like chronic clinical depression, but also the unnecessary suffering caused to aspiring Magicians by confusion about the aims and practices of traditional Mysticism vs. those of traditional Magick.

I was recently approached on Facebook by a man named Brad, who has been practicing Golden Dawn Magick for many years, but was dismayed because he still was unable to "overcome his ego" and therefore had failed to "merge with God."  I am heartbroken when I hear such stories because such individuals are suffering completely without reason other than that they have hopelessly confused the aims and methods of Magick with those of Christian mysticism.

There are too many Golden Dawn authors and "leaders" who use the terms Mysticism and Magick as though they were interchangeable. There are others who are deliberately dishonest about it, misrepresenting the spiritual methods of traditional Christian Mysticism as the Magickal methods of the traditional Golden Dawn. They are not the same. Not at all.

I have already addressed these issues over and over, including in previous articles on the Golden Dawn blog here, here, and here. I am glad to see that this important issue is finally being discussed more in detail on the Blogosphere. This weeks discussion began with a fine article by Alexandrian Wiccan elder, Frater Barrabbas, that you can read here. This was followed by significant Facebook debate and a second great article by Frater Barrabbas here.

During the Facebook debate, I was disappointed to witness the level of confusion exemplified even by one of my former students, who wrote the following:

 "I regard the experience of the Dark Night to be a integrated and necessary part of intitiation, and the outcome of the disintegration of the component parts of the initiate or solve phase of initiation; the alchemical nigredo."

What disappoints me most about the above statement is the way it attempts to fancifully redefine traditional Golden Dawn initiation as well as the Nigredo in traditional Hermetic alchemy. The Dark Night of the Soul of St. John of the Cross refers not to Magick, but to Christian Mysticism, which itself is a fine, very specific and well defined spiritual system and with its own unique methodology (one that in is many ways diametrically opposed to the methods and aims of the classical Hermetic tradition). Despite the erroneous claim made by my former student in the above statement, St. John of the Cross's "Dark Night of the Soul" in reality has nothing at all to do with the Nigredo in traditional Hermetic alchemy either.

Why Clear Definitions Are Important

Many readers have noticed I have been donating a lot of philanthropic time to our Facebook Page (here) and Group (here), teaching "Critical Thinking for Magicians" and the "Philosophy of Magick." I have been providing this educational service without charge to the Golden Dawn community, because I know the flame wars that have nearly destroyed the Golden Dawn can only continue while readers remain uneducated how to critically examine the arguments and talking points of flamers.

Think about it. All it really will take to end the 20 year old Golden Dawn flame war once and for all is to train the Golden Dawn community in critical thinking. Once the method of critically evaluating the arguments of flamers is correctly understood and employed, flamers lose all credibility, for their arguments do not stand up to the light of reason.

There are three "acts" of the mind according to philosophers. These are:

1. UNDERSTANDING the meaning or what something is.
2. JUDGMENT of what is true.
3. REASONING to find out why something is.

Terms (words) we use must be defined and agreed upon. A term can be clear or unclear (ambiguous). Terms can never be true or false, valid or invalid. The first act of the mind is to understand the term.

Propositions can ONLY be true of false. They are never valid or invalid. They are never clear or unclear (only terms are clear or unclear). Propositions have two parts: subject and predicate terms. The second act of the mind is to judge if a proposition is true or untrue.

Finally, we examine WHY one idea is true and another false. This is the third act of the mind (reasoning). An argument has two parts: the premises and the conclusion. Arguments are either valid or invalid. They are never clear or unclear (only terms are). Arguments are never true or false (only propositions are).

To validly disagree with any conclusion, one must show that there is either:

1. An ambiguous term, or
2. A false premise, or
3. A logical fallacy in the argument such that the conclusion does not necessarily follow from the premises.

Clear definitions are important for any communication at all to have meaning. All science grows in three main phases. These are (1) a common vocabulary, (2) correlation, and (3) effect-cause-effect. This means that every known science began by first establishing a common vocabulary that permitted its proponents to communicate. Without a clear definition of each term, conversations end up turning into arguments even when both sides are actually proclaiming the same truths.

Aristotle was quite adamant that we must always begin by clarifying our terms. Unfortunately, when important terms and concepts, such as “Magick” and “Mysticism” are used with imprecision, we end up fighting about something that isn’t really important. I won’t bother with the last two phases as they are not relevant to this discussion.

One of the greatest failures of the modern Golden Dawn has arisen due to the fast and loose tendency for GD "leaders" to willy-nilly redefine traditional terms according to personal whim. In this way, even traditional Hermetic alchemy has been stripped of its traditional meaning in the Hermetic tradition and misused even as a mere synonym for "personal growth."

What is most surprising about the above cited statement from my former student, is that it comes from someone who not only presents himself online as a Golden Dawn "traditionalist" - but even as a crusader against what he calls "post-modernist" tendencies in today's Golden Dawn community. I am therefore surprised that, despite such posturing and bluster, his above cited statement fully embodies the "post-modernist" tendency to fancifully redefine traditional terms according to personal whim and caprice.

Let us set the record straight again. The sublime Mysticism of St. John of the Cross and its methodology are not synonymous with "clinical depression" - and any "traditionalist" Golden Dawn leader ought to know better than to play fast and loose with definitions of traditional concepts like "post-modernists" do. 

There is already too much confusion between the methods of traditional Mysticism and traditional Magick and this confusion is already causing great and needless suffering in individuals like Brad who approached me through Facebook.

Just because an aspiring Magician is Roman Catholic (as is my former student) this does not automatically transform the classical Golden Dawn into a school of Christian Mysticism. Even if one founds a "Golden Dawn" order according to his personal vision of a hodgepodge of Christian Mysticism jumbled with Freudian psychology and Golden Dawn teachings ...

... the classical Golden Dawn remains a Hermetic tradition of Magick and Alchemy ...

... and not just another psycho-mystico-magickal "salad of the day" dreamed up by yet another in a long line of would be Chefs.

The Hermetic tradition does not need to import luminaries and methods from traditions other than our own. We have our own methods and luminaries, including Giordano Bruno, Marcilio Ficino, Cornelius Agrippa, Gerolamo Cardano, Pietro D'Abano, Theophrastus Paracelsus, and Eliphas Levi (not to mention the entirety of Egyptian, Chaldeaen, and Sumerian Magick).

Moreover, just because an aspiring Magician has been struggling against chronic clinical depression for decades, this does not make one's depression somehow identical with St. John of the Cross's "Dark Night of the Soul" either! 

If someone has failed for decades to overcome clinical depression, will becoming a psychotherapist somehow magically banish the depression? No - but the personal failure of the therapist to do so may well make him a danger to his patients!

If someone who has played at Magick for decades while at the same time failing to overcome chronic, clinical depression, eventually founds their own Golden Dawn order and presents themselves as a spiritual leader, will this suddenly banish chronic, recurrent depression? No, but the personal failure to do so may well make them a danger to their Golden Dawn students!

Physician - Heal THYSELF!

I have great compassion for anyone who suffers from chronic and recurrent clinical depression. I have neither compassion nor tolerance, however, for anyone who, rather than dealing with their own personal issues like overcoming chronic depression, instead make themselves a danger to others by setting themselves up either as psychotherapists or as spiritual leaders rather than fundamentally come to terms with their personal inadequacies first.

It turns my stomach when I meet people who are suffering needlessly because they think that a Magican is supposed to negate their ego in order to merge with God as is the case with traditional Mysticism. And those who peddle Mysticism for Magick and deliberately cause confusion about the very real differences between the two traditions are personally responsible for such needless suffering.

I am certainly not saying that there is anything wrong with Mysticism as a traditional spiritual path. Mysticism is a great path and even the right or the only path for some people. It is however, diametrically opposed to the traditional Magical spiritual path in both its goals and its methods. What I emphatically do object to is the dishonesty of misrepresenting Mystical spiritual methods as Magick. Just look at the way poor Brad from Facebook is suffering as a consequence!

Immediately following the 1903 schism, William Butler Yeats wrote an article entitled "Is the Golden Dawn to remain a Magical order?" Ever since, a chasm has emerged between those in the Golden Dawn community who gravitate more towards Mysticism and those who gravitate more towards Magick. This has created fundamental differences between one Golden Dawn order and the other, which endure in our Golden Dawn community even until today.

This is natural, since Mysticism and Magick are two quite distinct spiritual paths. The primary difference between Magick and Mysticism lies codified in the actual methods of practice, together with the Mystical or Magical inclinations of the practitioner.

The Mystical path refers to the capacity and will of the practitioner to place oneself in a passive position in relationship to eternal Being and the forces of nature, which the Practitioner begins to invoke and pray to, so they may manifest and enlighten one, thus spiritually uplifting and exalting the practitioner. 

The Magical practitioner, on the other hand, does not place him or herself in a passive state towards natural and Divine forces, but rather in a positive state. Recognizing the Divine Spark inside oneself, the practitioner actively collaborates with Eternal Being rather than waiting for its manifestations.

In Mysticism, the practitioner expects Divinity to manifest itself, and to ascend the staircase that leads from below to on high aided by the Divine hand that takes us and leads us ever upwards.

Magic does not expect this, instead conquering the Inner Planes through one's own effort rather than through Divine aid. Thus, whereas the Mystical approach is one of submission, the Magician instead is a conqueror.

A perfect example of the Magical path may be found in the Mithraic Ritual deposited in Paris, which shows one such practice of divine Ascension of the Magical initiate. While rising towards Divinity to be received like a prodigal Son or Daughter, the practitioner greets the Gods as equals that gradually appear, not fearing them or subjugating oneself before them, but admonishing them and blandishing them with Magical words that open the gates of heaven.

Whereas Magick is based on knowledge, Mysticism is based on on ignorance in the literal sense of "ignoring" or "unknowing." In fact, one of the most important mystical texts in all of Christianity, The Cloud of Unknowing, speaks of making oneself obscure, humble and ignorant before the unmanifest - to remain there, in silence, gradually emptying oneself, while waiting for something or someone (God) to come and fill the void thus created.

Thus two completely different modalities become evident. Whereas the Mystic reflects the Divine light that is poured out upon him, the Magician generates this light, becoming an emitter himself. 

A.E. Waite

The foremost exponent of the Mystical path in the Golden Dawn was Arthur Edward Waite, who completely suppressed Magick in favor of Christian Mysticism in his Fellowship of the Rosy Cross and its Inner Order, the Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis (Rectified Rite). Waite's Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, reconstructed in recent years and open only to Christians, today remains the most Mystical order in the Golden Dawn community.

The foremost exponent of the Magical path in the Golden Dawn was the great Mage, S.L. MacGregor Mathers. Mathers understood that the Golden Dawn primarily as a Magical rather than a Mystical tradition. Over time the Magical spiritual path has become more and more pronounced in Mathers' Alpha Omega. The A.O. today remains the most Magical order in the Golden Dawn community. Our mission is to make Magicians, and unlike all other Golden Dawn orders that make you wait for years, we teach Magick from day one!

In between the Alpha Omega and the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, which most clearly exemplify the diametrically opposed Magical and Mystical Golden Dawn paths, there today exist a host of Golden Dawn orders that lie somewhere in between. Most Golden Dawn orders still teach Magick in their Second Orders, but there nonetheless remain vast differences in their approaches and goals.

There are numerous Golden Dawn orders that have not gone so far as to suppress Magick outright as did the Waite order, yet nonetheless remain quite Mystical in their approach to the Golden Dawn. Such Mystical Golden Dawn orders do not teach Magick at all in their outer order, and provide no guidance or support to their Outer Order initiates who are practicing published Golden Dawn Magick on their own. Mystical Golden Dawn orders view their Outer Order instead as serving primarily to "purge" the personality self, in preparation to receive Mystical illumination from outside the practitioner in their Second Order.

Mystical Golden Dawn orders teach that it is necessary to "loosen the ego" in preparation for Mystical illumination and that the practice of Magick in the Outer Order will stunt what they hold as the necessary purging of the personality and ego. Such methods are identical to the methods of Christian Mystics such as St. John of the Cross and Mother Theresa and other Christian mystics and have been proven effective for centuries for those seeking Mystical illumination. Clearly, aspiring Mystics are best suited for one of the numerous mystically oriented Golden Dawn orders.

That most Mystical Golden Dawn orders have not completely suppressed Magick has led to a very curious situation in the contemporary Golden Dawn community where, even though they use many of the same basic practices, two distinct types of Magick have firmly established themselves.

One type of Magick is rooted in Mysticism, holds the philosophical position that we are all born as sinners, and uses methods like those set forth in "The Cloud of Unknowing" (purgations, humility, "loosening the ego" and waiting for illumination to come from outside).

The other type of Magick is that of the purely Magical spiritual path, as taught and practiced in the Alpha Omega, which proceeds instead through spiritual exaltation, and holds rather a Hermetic philosophical position that we are all children of the Divine; holographic manifestations of the One, which is the entire Universe.

Whereas the Magick of most Golden Dawn orders today is Mystically oriented, passive, and negative (full of purgation, etc.), the Magick of the Alpha Omega is positive, active, and life affirming. Recognizing the Divine Spark inside oneself, the Magical spiritual path actively collaborates with Eternal Being, rather than waiting for its manifestations.

Whereas Mysticism is passive and seeks illumination bestowed through grace from from an outside Divinity, Magick is live-giving and self-illuminating, kindling the Divine spark present inside every Magician to burn brightly, shining like the Sun and Stars.

The wonderful thing about today's Golden Dawn community is that our diversity gives spiritual aspirants a plethora of choices. Aspiring Mystics will find their spiritual quest greatly facilitated in one of the Mystical Golden Dawn orders, where they will find all of the purgation and ego loosening they need to eventually attain Mystical illumination.

Aspiring Magicians, on the other hand, will find all of the training, support, and guidance in all aspects of the Magical spiritual path, immediately upon entering the Alpha Omega's outer order, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which is a Magical order and not a Mystical one.

Again, I am not saying the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn within the Alpha Omega is the "best" Golden Dawn order, only that we do things differently. it goes without saying that, unlike many Golden Dawn orders - in the Alpha Omega - we do NOT make Mystics.

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