FRATERNAL DEBATE: "What is the difference between Traditional Golden Dawn and Reconstructionism?"

by Sincerus Renatus

Golden Dawn Reconstructionist, Pat Zalewski, recently wrote:

"I was having a chat today with another GD'er on the Inner Order teachings of some temples which brought up some interesting viewpoints. discussion we talked about the two methods of obtaining GD teachings which essentially is from your own efforts and experience in the GD or bringing in some other orders material en block. It simply depends on the development of the temple or people concerned. If you follow the Mathers pattern of the subgrades (also Portal and 5=6)the elemental rituals then it is unlikely that newer material would explain these ritual levels, especially godforms, diagrams and movement patterns etc.

"However the GD was develop to allow for a growth patterns within the adepts to have the ability to create this material and keep creating it as more inner order members go through the system and add their own input. Now C. has done this, Open Source has done this, Nick has done this and my guys have done this along with many other GD temples. That is the true beauty of the orders teachings in allowing you to create this from 5=6 and up. Its allows different temples to explore different areas. All you have to do is think back 30 years ago in the GD when 5=6 was considered the ultimate and Regardie's books the pinnacle of GD development. With technology being what it is now and the what is likely over the next 30 years much of the material we are doing in individual temples will be leaked to other groups and there will most likely an amalgamation of sorts.

"Now when you bring in other material en block then all of this growth and development that you wish to experience will be bypassed- unless this new material looks at the subgrades from the GD ritual viewpoint and follows the frame work of each level explaining the ritual of previous levels.

"I sincerely wish all those GD temples out there the best of luck and activelyencourage them to start writing their own material for the sub grades and up, including their own rituals above the 5=6."

Golden Dawn Traditionalist, Sincerus Renatus, replied:

These are typical talking points of Pat Zalewski, that the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and its parent order, the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha Omega somehow use "other Orders'" materials. In reality, our order's advanced teachings area not more "other" than the 2nd Order is to the 1st Order. I know for a fact that the new teachings explain external theurgical formula using internal formulas; there is a direct connection and lineage. Thus what the 3rd Order of the A.O. teaches is the crowning of the so-called "Golden Dawn system of Magic" as published by Regardie, et al.

Pat Zalewski is gravely mistaken if he thinks that it is possible to extract higher teachings which will work magically and alchemically from what may be gathered from the published 1st and 2nd Order material. Some may be extracted for sure but the effects on the inititate is marginal from a pure magical / alchemical / energetic level.

There exist 3rd Order formulae from which the 2nd Order formulae derived. The only possible way to receive these teachings is to become inititate into them. This requires a 3rd Order initiate, or what is commonly referred to as a "secret chief". This is the traditional way, and this is the ONLY possible way as well. Any other ways are but "reconstructed" and leads to a dead end, or a pure intellectual exercise, which has no actual significance in the Great Work of transmutation of Man.

Neo-Pagan & Neo-Golden Dawn Reconstructionists

Raymond Buckland, Seax Wicca
Neo-Pagan Reconstructionist

In recent months, we have here on the Golden Dawn blog been discussing how the anthropological concepts of traditionalism, reconstructionism, and revisionism (routinely used to analyze spiritual traditions) can help to better understand divergent philosophical approaches prevalent in the Golden Dawn community. I remain convinced that a great deal of differences between us can easily be overcome by understanding and better defining how vastly different our philosophical approaches really are.

Isaac Bonewits
Neo-Druid Reconstructionist

There still remain important roadblocks to the harmony we can yet achieve through better understanding of our fundamental philosophical differences. One impediment is the mistaken belief that the reconstructionist approach is somehow inferior to traditionalism or revisionism and that the term "reconstructionist" is meant as an insult when used to differentiate philosophical approaches to the Golden Dawn.

Those who are unfamiliar with what these terms actually mean, will find them explained very well in two excellent articles by Neo-Pagan magician and author, Frater Barrabbas here and here.

Frater Barrabbas
Neo-Pagan Revisionist

This week, Pat Zalewski published a humorous poem on his Yahoo group that underscores the tensions created in our Golden Dawn community by a misunderstanding of these anthropological concepts, that in reality are extremely useful:

Pat Zalewski

Neo-Golden Dawn Reconstructionist

"Now grab a partner and go to the left, the Reconstructionalists are the best, 

Take your partner to the right, and the traditionalists will die of fright, 

call a chief to tell you what and you'll put everything in the pot, 

Now hold the phone while I change the step, the chiefe brings it on inept, 

now I claim this golden prize and it lasts as long as butterflies, 

Now I don't care as colour is best just as long as I not like the rest 

I'll take my partners in my hands and lead them to the promised land 

where my truth doest prevail even though it is beyond the pale, 

I circle now to meet in the middle but I fear I am taking a piddle 

I hope by now I have got it right, I have to change it again before the night. 

Pat"

In truth, there is nothing at all inferior in spiritual reconstructionism to traditionalism or revisionism. The Neo-Pagan community, for example, has been greatly enriched  by the hard work of excellent academic reconstructionists. One shining contemporary example is Tony Mierzwicki, whose academic rigor and integrity has been nothing less than impeccable with his reconstruction of the Greek Paganism of Alexandria. Isaac Bonewits of the Neo-Druids and Raymond Buckland, creator of Seax Wicca, are additional examples of fine reconstructionists. The Celtic, Nordic, and Roman Pagan traditions are other examples of  successfully reconstructed and fully revived spiritual traditions.

Tony Mierszwicki, Greek Alexandrian
Neo-Pagan Reconstructionist

There are, however, several important hallmarks necessary for successful reconstruction of a spiritual tradition. Successful reconstruction requires, for example, extreme reverence towards the sources and the source materials of the spiritual tradition, meticulous academic rigor, and a strict adherence to traditional meanings of key concepts within the source tradition. Each of these are key arenas where Neo-Golden Dawn reconstructionists still have a lot to learn from their more successful counterparts in the Neo-Pagan community.

For example, this week Neo-Golden Dawn reconstructionist, Tony De Luce, founder of the "Rosicrucian Order of the Golden Dawn," wrote on Pat Zalewski's forum:

"Ave Pat, 

A “reconstructionist”  sounds a great deal more like someone that would place Hexagram rituals in the First Order and position a European Alchemical Order as the "authentic" 'Third Order' of the Golden Dawn claiming they are the same group that revealed themselves to Mathers :-) . That would fit my understanding of "reconstruction" whereas most of the Golden Dawn community is working from a much more Traditional perspective understanding the importance of symbol placed in its proper place and the function of the Outer Order as preparation for the Inner Order. Developing the teachings beyond ThAM within the constructs of the Golden Dawn and R.R. et A.C. is not “reconstructing” it is “expanding” :-)  

-Tony DeLuce"

In the above citation, Mr. DeLuce attempts to redefine the well established anthropological concepts of traditionalism and reconstructionism. This is not untypical of less than meticulous Neo-Golden Dawn reconstructionists, who have not infrequently concocted new and fanciful definitions for fundamental aspects of the Golden Dawn tradition.

We have, for example, elsewhere witnessed Mr. DeLuce erroneously claim that Golden Dawn lineage traditionally passes from Chief Adept to Chief Adept, although there is no evidence to support this anywhere in the source material. According to the actual data, the original Hermetic and Rosicrucian lineages of the Golden Dawn, as well as of its later offshoots, have always been vested in the (7=4) Adeptus Exemptus grade, and never in any purely ceremonial office, such as Hierophant or Chief Adept.

By contrast, successful academic reconstructionists in the Neo-Pagan community, without fail have strictly adhered to traditional meanings of key concepts within the source traditions. Neo-Golden Dawn reconstructionists, on the other hand, have carelessly redefined even the traditional concept of Hermetic and Rosicrucian spiritual lineage -  for example, in order to claim a non-existent "Initiatory Lineage through Israel Regardie." In reality, such a notion is completely foreign to all Golden Dawn source material and Israel Regadie even wrote here that he had no lineage whatsoever to transmit.

Nick Farrell
Neo-Golden Dawn Reconstructionist

Unlike their meticulous Neo-Pagan counterparts, uncautious Neo-Golden Dawn reconstructionists have - time after time - abandoned all semblance of academic rigor, redefining one traditional Golden Dawn concept after the other, frequently according to mere personal interest or whim. We even  witnessed, for example, haphazard Neo-Golden Dawn reconstructionists redefine even such key source Golden Dawn concepts as initiation itself.

One Neo-Golden Dawn order, for example, today actually touts "traditional Astral Initiation" on its website, which has, of course, no basis in the source tradition whatsoever and is nowhere to be found in any available Golden Dawn source material. Another Neo-Golden Dawn reconstructionist has deceptively packaged even so-called "self-initiation" using New Age guided fantasy, as though it were a traditional Golden Dawn practice.

It is an unwavering faith in the source traditions they are resurrecting that has crowned Neo-Pagan reconstructionists with success in bringing an entire host of once extinct Pagan traditions back to life. Among leaders of Neo-Golden Dawn orders, however, a host of Golden Dawn reconstructionists foolishly continue to claim that the source Golden Dawn tradition has been flawed and based on lies and deception from its inception.

Neo-Golden Dawn reconstructionists claim, for example, that Golden Dawn founder W. Wynn Wescott, forged correspondence with the Continental Rosicrucians authorizing the establishment of the Golden Dawn - and that G.D. founding father, S.L. MacGregor Mathers, lied when he claimed that the Secret Chiefs of the Third Order were real people from a continental Rosicrucian, magical, and alchemical order that he met with in Paris in 1891.

As a striking example of these sort of self-defeating Neo-Golden Dawn reconstructiionist arguments, only this week Pat Zalewski wrote:

"I think we have pretty much exhausted this Secret Chief nonsense and its changing goal posts(from angels to humans) and especially their inability to produce anything significant from the astral realms. Threads like this are important from time to time to warn newbee's into the GD what path not to travel and what we think of that, especially if they have not had contact with people outside of their own orders."

Successful Neo-Pagan reconstructionists like Raymond Buckland, Isaac Bonewits, and Tony Mierzwicki, have proven over and over how successful reconstruction of a spiritual tradition requires a fundamental faith in the source tradition.

By contrast, Neo-Golden Dawn reconstructionists like Nick Farrell, Pat Zalewski, and Tony DeLuce all believe that the Golden Dawn is rooted in but lies and deceit. They each, moreover, deny the physical reality of the Secret Chiefs of the Third Order as the source of the Golden Dawn as was specifically and unequivocally claimed by the Golden Dawn's founding fathers.

It has been proven over and over again that successful reconstuction of a spiritual tradition requires not only academic rigor and a deepest respect for the source material. There inevitably also comes a time where perpetual tinkering with the source material is no longer enough.

If a spiritual system is to be successfully revived, the reconstruction must eventually also be brought to life. This requires a leap of faith and a fundamental belief in the value and the validity of the source tradition. Nordic Neo-Pagans, like their Celtic, Greek, and Roman Neo-Pagan counterparts, firmly believe in the validity and value of the Pagan system that has been successfully reconstructed and brought back to life.

Unlike their successful Neo-Pagan counterparts, the Neo-Golden Dawn reconstructionists fail in their reconstruction attempt because they lack the requisite faith in the source tradition to bring it fully back to life.

Lacking the requisite faith in the Golden Dawn source tradition to fully enliven thier reconstructions, Neo-Golden Dawn reconstructionists end up instead perpetually tinkering with the source material of what for them forever remains a dead - or at best, an UNDEAD - Golden Dawn tradition.

This fundamental lack of faith in the Golden Dawn is not at all the case with traditionalist Golden Dawn orders, such as the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega and the August Order of the Mystic Rose. Whereas Neo-Golden Dawn reconstructionists like Nick Farrell, Tony Deluce, and Pat Zalewksi, each write that the Golden Dawn died when the Whare Ra temple in New Zealand closed its doors, traditionalist orders see the Golden Dawn as a living tradition that never died. Even when there was no visible outer order activity, the Third Order continued in its work without interruption.

Unlilke most Neo-Golden Dawn orders, the Inner Orders traditionalist Golden Dawn orders do not end with the material published by Crowley and Regardie. These orders even today continue to receive additional teaching materials from Third Order archives that complete and augment the information Crowely and Regardie published, as with the unencrypted version of the Golden Dawn's magical squares and the secret instructions about how these squares are to actually be used.

Entire additional magical systems and alchemical materials from Third Order archives continue to be newly integrated into the Inner Orders of traditionalist Golden Dawn orders even today, where the (6=5) Adeptus Major and (7=4) Adeptus Exemptus grades are magical and alchemical in nature - and contain entire unpublished magical systems.

In order to promote greater fraternity and harmony in the Golden Dawn community, the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega has offered to share these advanced initiatic transmissions and magical practices with qualified Adepts from any Golden Dawn temple or order from the entire spectrum of the Golden Dawn community.

The Secret Chiefs Debate: Traditionalist vs. Reconstructionist Golden Dawn

by David Griffin

Over the past week, the Golden Dawn has been rocked again and again by a series of aftershocks in the aftermath of a spiritual earthquake caused by recent revelation that the Secret Chiefs of the Golden Dawn's Third Order are now finally transmitting the advanced Golden Dawn Inner Order (R.R. et A.C.) teachings to qualified Adepts from across the Golden Dawn community.

On the one hand, Adepts from across the spectrum of the entire community have been discretely seeking advanced R.R. et A.C. training. On the other hand, however, Golden Dawn buzz across the internet - from the Blogosphere to Yahoo groups - has reached decibels not seen in years.

To understand what all the fuss is all about, one must first consider how the Golden Dawn's Inner Order (R.R. et A.C.) came down to today's GD community only in incomplete form - as a truncated system of teachings ending with the beginners material published by Regardie and Crowley for Adeptus Minor (5=6) grade.

Secondly, today's Golden Dawn community has long been polarized into two distinct philosophical camps: Traditionalists vs. Reconstructionists. Among traditionalist Golden Dawn orders one finds, for example, the August Order of the Mystic Rose and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (Alpha et Omega). Reconstructionist orders, on the other hand, include Pat Zalewksi's Order of the Golden Dawn and Nick Farell's Magical Order of Aurora Aurorae.

To the uninformed observer, all Golden Dawn orders may appear more or less the same. In reality, however, a vast chasm of fundamental philosophical differences separates Golden Dawn traditionalists from reconstructionists.

For example, Golden Dawn traditionalists view the Golden Dawn as a living organism that has never ceased to discretely function occulted in one permutation or another during its entire history. Reconstructionists Nick Farrell and Pat Zalewski each have written, on the other hand, that any possibly legitimate Golden Dawn lineage most certainly ended when Whare Ra closed its doors. Such reconstructionists view the Golden Dawn as essentially a dead tradition to be reconstructed and further developed through academic research and personal innovation.

Golden Dawn traditionalists see the Golden Dawn as but one outer manifestation of a much greater and older Hermetic and Rosicrucian tradition that has continued in its work uninterrupted for many Centuries.

Golden Dawn reconstructionists, on the contrary, argue that the Golden Dawn is an isolated phenomenon that has no real lineage nor connection to any preexisting Rosicrucian or Hermetic tradition or internal college.

Radical Golden Dawn reconstructionists, like Nick Farrell and Pat Zalewski, go so far as to argue that the entire Golden Dawn tradition is rooted in lies and deceit. According to radical reconstructionists, the traditional story of Golden Dawn origins is but a hoax perpetrated by Golden Dawn founders, Wescott, Woodman, and Mathers to give the Golden Dawn a faked Rosicrucian pedigree based on forged letters.

It is thus unsurprising that radical reconstructionists argue that the Golden Dawn's Inner Order, the R.R. et A.C, is equally rooted in lies and deceit. They argue that Golden Dawn founder, S.L. MacGregor Mathers lied even when he claimed to have physically met with Continental Hermetic and Rosicrucian Adepts in Paris in 1891, that Mathers referred to as the Secret Chiefs of the Third Order.

Radical reconstructionists claim that Mathers also lied regarding the source of the materials that he used to create the Golden Dawn's Inner Order, the R.R. et A.C., and on which he based the substantial Adeptus Minor (5=6) curriculum. Mathers claimed that this material came from the Secret Chiefs of the Third Order. Reconstructionists, Pat Zalewski and Nick Farrell, claim that this is pure deception and that the Golden Dawn is nothing more than the fruit of the personal research of Mathers, Woodman and Wescott.

Golden Dawn traditionalists argue that initiatic secrecy is important for many reasons, not the least of which is the sacredness with which initiates hold the blessings and fruits of initiation and training. This is the position that has at all times in history been held by all legitimate, traditional initiatic schools.

Golden Dawn reconstructionists, however, argue that secrecy has no real purpose and is only a tool of manipulation. Reconstructionsts Farrell and Zalewski have used this argument to justify the publication of secret initiatic materials. Many reconstructionists argue that all initiatic secrets ought to be revealed and some do their best to publish them with their own name attached to them first

Am I the only one who sees how self-serving and logically inconsistent the arguments presented above of the Golden Dawn reconstructionists really are?

What I can not understand is why on Earth anyone would want to initiate anyone into an esoteric system that they personally believe is rotten to the core, since it was founded as a hoax perpetuated on their students by liars?!?!?!?!

The only explanation that I can see for such a bizarre logical inconsistency is that such individuals must have a purely financial motivation. This at least would make some sort of sense. And indeed both Pat Zalewksi and Nick Farrell, for example, are making a lot of money off of the Golden Dawn - by selling books, tarot cards, expensive correspondence courses, etc. They therefore have a vested financial interest in teaching students an esoteric system that they themselves have argued is completely corrupt.

It is equally clear that the radical reconstructionist camp in the Golden Dawn community has a vested interest in the notion of the Golden Dawn being a forgery rather than an outer emanation of any physical Hermetic or Rosicrucian Internal College predating the Golden Dawn. Radical reconstructionists feel their entire house of cards threatened by the very existence of any Secret Chiefs of the Golden Dawn's Third Order.

It is therefore unsurprising that the recent announcement that the Third Order is releasing the original curriculum for the advanced Grades of the Golden Dawn's Inner Order has this past week led to a vast number of attacks on the very possibility of the existence of the Third Order on Golden Dawn fora controlled by the radical reconstructionists.

For example, Nick Farrell this week wrote:

"The real 8=3 (as opposed to the SM grade) which the third order belongs is beyond form and is on the other side of form. It is the place of Shekinah and other abstract concepts. Putting a committee of blokes in suits whose sole job is to pop up rarely and give chiefs of Orders an ego stroke would be a thoroughly useless and incorrect attribution (the concept is yesodic)."

I forgot to mention that certain Golden Dawn reconstructionists also argue that all Third Order grades are only for disincarnate entities. Let it suffice to say that this flies in the face of both the Hermetic and Rosicrucian traditions - as well as of concrete statements made by Golden Dawn founder, S.L. MacGregor Mathers. This sort of invention is a perfect example of how bad reconstructionism can end up creating bizarre fantasies that have nothing to do with legitimate initiatic tradition.

Tony DeLuce, leader of the Rosicrucian Order of the Golden Dawn wrote:

"Before Theosophy brought Eastern ideas to the West in the later part ofthe 19th century there wss very little of this sort of superstition found in the WMT. Of course everyone`s Guru in the East is an ascended Master and worshiped as God but in the West persons dedicated themselves to Christ. etc. and did not worship other human beings. There were of course Secet Societies of elect occultists etc. and much use of communication with Angelic and other hierarchies of being but nio need to get into contact with socalled Masters. Astral or otherwise. The "Third Order" of the GD is the Inspiration of our Tradition Itself and there is no need of a "middle man".

Mr. DeLuce here conflates the sort of Blavatskian "Astral Masters" taught by Felkin and Case with S.L. MacGregor Mathers' "Secret Chiefs of the Third Order," whom Mathers quite specifically claimed were physical representatives of a Continental European Hermetic and Rosicrucian internal college that he met in person in Paris in 1891.

Pat Zalewksi wrote:

"The yardstick to go by is what the so called secret chiefs give out to their disciples to teach, that's the yardstick to go by. Is what they give out worth it? If you think you are in touch with one then prove it - produce worthy material for the order that was beyond the capabilities of mathers. Just make sure it comes from this source and not a library."

"Frankly many of us are sick of this secret chief nonsense which is frankly a wank for some sort of astral legitimacy that cannot be checked in the physical world. You want to control a temple and promise the keys to the kingdom then channel a secret chief (or more than one). Or you can lower the bar and redefine the definition of a secret chief so that you can pick a patsy have his address. Its all crap and slight of hand. This is when the GD starts to become a belief system when the infallibility of the Secret Chiefs comes into play."

Pat Zalewski is dead wrong here. There is no channelling at all involved in this matter. The advanced Second Order curriculum is very real and stands on its own merits. Proof of this is available to any Adept willing to follow traditional rules and do the traditional work required for advanced initiation and training. 

This advanced Second Order material did not come channelled from any disincarnate entities. It came directly from Mathers' Hermetic and Rosicrucian Internal College that continues to physically exist in Continental Europe until today. And no - these advanced esoteric transmissions can not be found in any library. And yes - for any Adept who masters them it is obvious that they are the continuation of the Adeptus Minor material published by Regardie and Crowley.

I can clearly understand why certain Golden Dawn reconstructionists feel threatened by the emergence of the rest of the Golden Dawn's Second Order curriculum. They feel threatened by the existence of anything that they themselves can not find in libraries. The physical existence of the Hermetic and Rosicrucian Internal College from which the Golden Dawn originally emanated shakes to the core many of their cherished beliefs about the Golden Dawn and also poses an actual threat to the Golden Dawn profits in their bank accounts.

I can fully understand how the existence of the physical Third Order feels threatening to such reconstructionists. I likewise feel threatened as a Golden Dawn traditionalist every time the reconstructionists publish another document that I hold to be sacred to the Golden Dawn tradition. In fact, to Golden Dawn traditionalists like myself and other members of the Alpha Omega, if frequently feels like certain radical reconstructionists are attempting to kill the living Golden Dawn tradition,  so that they can recreate it in their own image.

In the wake of Nick Farrell's publishing the Mathers' recension of many Alpha et Omega rituals that had been in use in our order for many years, I attempted to express this feeling with humor. I ended up taking a lot of heat for this, coming from people claiming I was attacking Mr. Farrell and Mr. Zalewksi. 

Nonetheless, considering how radical reconstructionists keep insisting that the Golden Dawn is dead so that they can reconstruct it, I actually believe that the Borg from the Star Trek universe is a rather apt metaphor for what they are trying to do to our beloved Golden Dawn tradition!

Are they trying to kill and reconstruct
the Golden Dawn tradition?