SHOCKING TRUTH: Paganism Under Siege!

 

by Golden Dawn Imperator

David Griffin

I recently read graduate student, Carlolyn Tully’s, article in The Pomegranate "Pagan journal,"  entitled "Researching the Past is a Foreign Country: Cognitive Dissonance as a Response by Practitioner Pagans to Academic Research on the History of Pagan Religions." You can read Tulley's entire article here. 

Caroline Tulley

In the interest of full disclosure I should first clarify my position in this discussion. First off, I am not an academic scholar, nor do I aspire to ever become one. The academy, with its anti-spirituality, materialistic paradigm, its prejudices, and its skewed paradigm based at times on research results manipulated for political expedience, is simply not my cup of tea.

I am, however, both Pagan and an initiate of a living Hermetic Pagan lineage. Since 1994, I teach and initiate in Hermetic Science. I presently lead the world's largest, most innovative, and fastest growing Golden Dawn order. I additionally serve as anthropological informant and public exponent of a continental European Hermetic Pagan initiatic center that has been around for a very long time.

Despite my lack of any academic pretense, the above indeed gives me a unique perspective and voice on certain aspects of Pagan culture.

I have neither investment nor even interest in debating the historicity of Hermetic Science or the continental European, Hermetic initiatic school I represent, although Hermetic Science indeed descends from a spiritual science that flourished already in ancient Egypt. What concerns me as Hermeticist is not the antiquity of our science, nor the puerile debates of the academy, but the astonishing efficiency of Hermetic Science for spiritual development.

Many Pagans in today's community still have a naive trust of academia. Part and parcel of such naïveté is the belief that anthropologists are unbiased ethnographers merely studying cultures. Thus Pagans blindly trust that their cultures are merely being impartially observed.

"The goal [of ethnography] is to collect data in such a way that the researcher imposes a minimal amount of their own bias on the data." [Brewer, John D. (2000). Ethnography. Philadelphia: Open University Press. p.10.].

Many Pagans remain blissfully unaware that there is another branch of anthropology, called "applied anthropology," devoted instead to the manipulation of cultures. According to van Willigen:

"Applied anthropology is "anthropology put to use", in which specific work is defined in terms of the problem and not the discipline" [van Willigen, John. (1993. Applied Anthropology: An Introduction. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, p.7]  

"Applied anthropologists are often also implementers, mediators, coordinators, administrators, evaluators, activists, and cultural and political "motivators" (van Willigen 1993: 4-5; Hill and Baba 1997: 90).

Frequently, applied anthropologists are hired by corporations for:

"social marketing (research-based strategy combining commercial marketing with applied social science to assist people to change to beneficial behaviors. (van Willigen 1993: xiv; van Willigen 1993: 157-207).

For those unfamiliar with the discipline of applied anthropology, simply put, it is where an anthropologist enters a culture with an idea of what in the culture needs to be changed, for example, to increase profit for a corporation, or for the implementation of government programs.

One example would be an applied anthropologist hired by Marlboro. Such an anthropologist would study a target age group (age 23 to 37, for example) to figure out what that age group thinks is cool and desirable. Marlboro would then use the gathered information to develop advertising campaigns that would portray smoking Marlboro cigarettes as cool and desirable in terms that the target population identifies with.

It was an applied anthropologist who told Nestle that people in underdeveloped countries view those in uniforms as more trustworthy than even relatives, thus causing this massive genocidal effort to take place in the name of profit.

Nestle’ s marketing techniques were later accused of bribing doctors, nurses, and many other medical officials to help promote the infant formulas. “Milk nurses” who were professional salespeople often dressed in white went from door to door selling and “educating” the new mothers about the infant formula.

"One notorious example of such tragedies [caused by applied anthropology] was the malnutrition and infant death that followed Nestle’s introduction of infant formula in the developing world. Often, Third World women could not afford to continue to buy formula in the amounts recommended, nor could they ensure that bottles were sterile or that water to mix the formula was pure. 

Formula often was heavily diluted with contaminated water, leading to infant diarrhea, malnutrition, and outright starvation. Women who relied on formula instead of breastfeeding could not switch back to the breast, since their milk supply dried up when not used. Nestle was aware of these problems, yet would not withdraw the formula from countries where these problems were manifest, triggering a massive global boycott of Nestle products. (Baba, M. Anthropology and Business. 2006. Encyclopedia of Anthropology. H. James Birx, Ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Pages 83-117., reprinted here, p. 13).

So what might Pagan culture under siege by applied anthropologists look like?

Whereas ethnographers studying Paganism would be interested in unbiased, impartial observation of Pagan culture, applied anthropologists would instead be interested in manipulating the culture - steering and directing it in specific directions using to specific goals to implement a well defined, predetermined agenda.

Questions that naturally arise are:

• Towards what goals would applied anthropologists want to steer Pagan culture?
• And in the service of what agenda?
• And for whom?

One could, for example, encounter a situation where applied anthropologists come in to figure out where Pagans, especially those book-learned Pagans who don't yet have access to an initiatic tradition, are most insecure and unsure about their own faith. The applied anthropologist would then fill it in with information manipulating the thinking of those Pagans.

As a purely hypothetical, yet concrete example, one could easily imagine applied anthropologists hired by the Catholic church to steer Pagan culture in a particular direction. What "social problem" might such anthropologists be hired to solve? Since nearly every aspect of Pagan belief is an anathema to Christianity at large, a general agenda might be simply to inhibit the growth and expansion of Paganism.

One specific goal towards accomplishing this agenda could be to attempt to render Pagan culture dependent on academia for its identity. Another goal could be to remove all ecstatic states from Pagan culture, whether entheogen or sexually induced. Yet another could be to convince the culture their religion is made up out of whole cloth. Yet a fourth specific goal could be to deprive the culture of any roots from its history by convincing the culture that any and all belief in historical roots is primitive and irrational (e.g. "cognitive dissonance").

The achievement of these goals would not merely inhibit the growth and expansion of the Pagan movement, but would also greatly aid in the achievement of the centuries old agenda of the church to completely obliterate the previous religious paradigm.

Having looked at essential differences between ethnography as impartial, unbiased observation and applied anthropology as direction, steering, and manipulation of a given culture, let us now consider Caroline Tulley's article in detail.

Caroline Tulley writes:

"What Pagans either do not know or conveniently forget, however, is that this identity relied on academic scholarship in the first place."

No, Pagan identity did NOT rely on academic scholarship in the first place. On the contrary, the culture's naive over-reliance on academic scholarship that makes the Pagan culture easy prey for applied anthropologists. To what degree this dependence may have been deliberately engineered is a question that deserves in depth research.

One thing that Tully (and others like her) gloss over or fail to consider is that there are two camps of Pagans: 

1. Those who are book-learned and taught by other book-learned Pagans and 
2. Those who are initiates of a living Pagan tradition (of which, Wicca is by no means the only one.)

Perhaps what Tulley says above may be true for book-learned Pagans. It is most certainly NOT true for Pagan Hermeticists or for Initiates of other Living Pagan Traditions.

Attempting to render Pagan culture dependent on academia for its very identity would certainly make an interesting goal for an applied anthropologist with the right agenda,  however.

Thus I ask Ms. Tulley:

• What happened to the ethnographic method?
• Would it not behove Tully, as ethnographer, to actually impartially listen to what Initiate informants have to say for a change?

Tulley then uses repetition as a rhetorical tool to further steer Pagan culture towards her goal of rendering Pagan culture dependent on the academy:

"modern Paganism has always been dependent upon academic scholarship—particularly history, archaeology, and anthropology—in its project of self-fashioning."

Rather than making an unbiased observation, Tulley instead here clearly states the direction she wants to move the Pagan culture in!

Really? Was not the last time ethnographers so blatantly told a culture what they are, from the comfort of their Ivory Tower and without actually doing any participant observational field research in the Victorian Era?

Tulley continues:

"Thus the Pagan Studies scholar can act as a “gobetween,” connecting academia and Pagan practitioners, functioning both to defuse antagonism and to introduce hybrid vigour into modern Paganism."

Since when is it the role of the ethnographer to "introduce" their goals into the cultures they are studying? When were the ethics of ethnography replaced with the aims of applied anthropology?

Pagan Studies' stated goal of introducing new elements into Pagan culture makes it a perfect cover for applied anthropology to manipulate, steer, and drive Pagan culture towards specific goals in service of predetermined agendas.

Since the mid 1950s, anthropology has taught, from the earliest 101 class to the most advanced post-graduate seminar, that the position of the ethnographer is to remain neutral with respect to altering the culture being studied.  In the field, much time and energy is spent in preventing aspects from the culture of the anthropologist leaking over into the culture being studied and forever altering it in ways that, whether intentionally or unintentionally, lead to artificial culture change.

With Tulley we have an anthropologist loudly and proudly declaring her goal to "introduce hybrid vigour into modern Paganism."

Judging by Tulley's article, Pagan Studies should perhaps better be called the New Victorian Anthropology since it takes the same Imperialist stance that “We” know better than “They” and “We” shall save “Them” from "Themselves" by coming to a more clear historical understanding of "Their" culture than "They" have, and purposely drive "Their" culture in the direction "We" have identified as correct on the basis of "Our" historical research.

What I find most disingenuous about such deliberate "steering" of Pagan culture are the subtle manipulations of the weakest members of our Pagan community, who may be new to the faith, alone in their search, and have not yet had access to true initiatic science, but only to published materials.

Moreover, Caroline Tully is not the only anthropologist who has been steering Pagan culture towards "infused" goals either. Professor Sabina Magliocco, Chairperson of the Department of Anthropology at California State University, Northridge, has been spending a great time of late preaching to Pagans not only about the nature of their history, but also infusing fire and brimstone fear of Pagan Fundamentalism into Pagan culture as well. The question then naturally arises, towards what goals is Maglioccco steering Pagan culture - and in the service of what agenda?

Sabina Magliocco

Using the manipulative power of repetition, Tulley repeats Magliocco's fundamentalism meme when Tulley writes:

"The perception of academics as outsiders has resulted in fierce boundary-policing by Pagans, and resistance is framed in terms of protecting religious rights and the expression of outrage at what are perceived as offensive interpretations of a past that Pagans imagine is their own. Essentially it is fundamentalism and stems from fear of removal of a carefully constructed Pagan identity."

We here see Tully working in tandem with Magliocco's goal (here) of "infusing" (as Tulley calls it) fear of creeping fundamentalism into Pagan culture.

Is it fundamentalism when the Bongo-Bongo native stands up and says "Hey, quit trying to define our culture. If we like eating witchetty grubs and honey ants, that is our business!"?

Why then is it fundamentalism when Pagans tell anthropologists that we understand our culture in our own unique learned and shared way of thinking, feeling and behaving - and do not need applied anthropologists trying to define and change it for us - according to their own interpretations of what they think would be best for our collective culture?

What do Pagans need to do in order for anthropologists to treat Pagan culture in a manner ethically appropriate for responsible ethnography? Do we really have to start wearing bones in our noses?

Caroline Tully continues:

"I propose that trying to understand academic research in history and archaeology is, for many modern Pagans, akin to visiting a foreign country where the inhabitants speak an indecipherable language."

Is it the job of ethical ethnographers to attempt to convert a culture they are studying to the culture of academia? Here we see Tully's goal of making Pagan culture dependent on academia again. Why is Tully attempting to teach Bongo-Bongo natives to speak English, instead of herself learning to speak Bongo-Bongo?

Tulley continues:

"I argue that the new interdisciplinary category of Pagan Studies scholar—hybrid offspring of the academy and Paganism - is uniquely suited to bridge this communication gap."

This new so-called Pagan Studies is a perfect cover to covertly implement the methods of applied anthropology to more effectively manipulate Pagan Cultures - in the same manner applied anthropologists steer cultures in the service of Nestle and Marlborough.

The greatest problem I see with this newly invented Pagan Studies perspective is that the anthropologist no longer remains an objective observer and a neutral third party. Applied anthropologists deliberately manipulating and steering cultures can be as dangerous as any conquistador or missionary. Franz Boaz and Margaret Mead must be spinning in their graves!

Tulley continues:

"this paper will highlight examples of combative interaction between Pagans and academic researchers"

If there is antagonism between Pagans and anthropologists, isn't it because anthropologists, rather than listening to Pagans like responsible ethnographers, are instead busy "introducing" their own agendas into the culture?

It is NOT the job of the ethical ethnographer to teach the Indians how to grow corn! 

It is their job to LISTEN to what the Indians have to say about how they feed themselves. 

Tully next suggests that "cognitive dissonance" is what is causing Pagans to react negatively to new revelations about their culture by contemporary scholarship. Why is this anthropologist lamenting the fact that the Pagans are not behaving like good little savages and doing what the obviously superior anthropologist says?

Translation:

"Why are those Indians hunting buffalo again instead of sitting on the reservation eating flour like they are told? I mean the nerve of these informants!  Participating in their culture and ignoring the anthropologists!  After all, anthropologists know best and the culture will certainly be better off once they start listening to our superior methods for living in this modern world!"

Tulley's comments about "cognitive dissonance" imply that Pagans know their belief system is wrong and are irrationally seeking ways to ignore academic research in order to bolster their improper learning. Frankly, it’s meant as an insult to Pagans. The term itself was first coined to explain the stupidity of UFO believers in light of conflicting evidence.

I thought that telling a Bongo-Bongo native what their culture "really means" went out of style with corsets and top hats, but it seems to have crept back into academic vogue in this new, applied steam punk nightmare of a reconstructed Victorian anthropology!

If someone wants to believe in the Jedi religion (now official in the UK), they will obviously experience cognitive dissonance as they know their “religion” is based on fantasy. However,  that’s their business and the role of social psychology is to understand these people rather than change them. It is the job of the clinical psychologist to help people deal with destructive beliefs, not anthropologists. What Tulley is expressing is a form of academic ethnocentrism.

I propose that, in reality, many Pagans are merely fed up with anthropologists trying to manipulate and steer their culture rather than listening to what actual Pagans from both camps have to say about themselves and their culture. 

"Let us civilize these poor, ignorant savages!"

Tulley continues:

"What Pagans either do not know or conveniently forget, however, is that this identity relied on academic scholarship in the first place."

No, Pagan identity did NOT rely on academic scholarship in the first place, although Tully and others like her seem obsessed with making Pagan identity become dependent on academia.

Tulley continues:

"When a situation arises in which Pagans do not like what they hear from academics, the conceptual spaces from which they can speak and be heard, and from where they produce their own counter-narratives, are primarily the Internet, self-publishing and the Pagan conference. Particularly in the case of the Internet, the material Pagans produce ends up being more widely distributed and easily accessible than academic texts can ever hope to be. It is at these sorts of sites that some Pagans have assumed the discourse of oppressing the perceived academic coloniser."

Translation:

"How dare those ignorant Bongo-Bongo savages try to tell us how their culture is? These Bongo-Bongo have the nerve to actually insist on having their own voice in how their culture is defined. How dare they?"

Tulley continues:

"It is obvious that many Pagans, including those that so vehemently oppose Hutton’s work, are unaware of the evolution of witchcraft scholarship. Nor do they understand the rigors of historical methodology."

Translation: 

"Oh these poor ignorant savages. We anthropologists know what is best for them. They should just shut up and let "we who know better" steer their culture in the direction that we know better is best for them."

Tulley continues:

"Pagan opinion is influential because of the heavy reliance on the Internet with its disseminatory power, as well as the self-publishing boom."

Translation: 

"How dare those Bongo Bongo savages speak out and disagree with how I am defining their culture for them!"

Tully writes:

"Pagans risk being stereotyped as “noble savages.”

I can not believe Tulley really wrote that. But she did. Then she continues:

"Not all Pagans want to fossilise in a pseudo-primitivist mental utopia."

And here the other shoe drops. The above statements perfectly represent the arrogance of so-called Pagan Studies as New Victorian Anthropology towards Pagan culture.

Tulley even then repeats:

"Pagan Studies scholars have the capability to invigorate Paganism from within."

Since when did it become the role of the ethnographer to steer a culture from within according goals set by anthropologists? Tulley's hidden agendas seem quite transparent now.

Then, just to bring home her utter disdain for the ethics of ethnography, Tulley even repeats her desire to manipulate and steer Pagan culture yet once again:

"The Pagan Studies scholar infuses Paganism with hybrid vigour."

The time has come for anthropologists manipulating Pagan culture to finally be honest about what they are doing and quit pretending they are merely impartial and unbiased ethnographers. The time has also come for such anthropologists to state clearly toward what goals, for what agendas, and for whom they are manipulating Pagan culture. Or has the time not even come for such New Victorian Anthropologists to quit trying to manipulate Pagan culture all together?

After all, Pagans have been doing quite well without them for a VERY long time.

Dear Ms. Tulley,

Please understand: We Pagans that you treat like "poor ignorant savages" want neither your baby formula, cigarettes, nor even your genetically modified corn.

It is not your role as ethnographer to "infuse," manipulate, or steer our Pagan cultures towards goals YOU think are best for us. 

So please take your baby formula, cigarettes, and GMO corn back to your bosses at Nestle, Marlborough, and Monsanto and tell THEM to drink, smoke, and eat them!

We "noble savage" Bongo-Bongo Pagans are quite content drinking breast milk from our Great Mother and eating our witchety grubs and honey ants!

Pagan Scholarship and anti-Pagan Propaganda

by David Griffin

"Pagans today have NO roots in antiquity!"

"Because we wiped out every trace - We KNOW."

Many Pagans today believe there are no clear links between ancient and modern Paganism. They are convinced there exist only reconstructed Pagan traditions and that any direct, lineal survival of ancient Paganism has been completely debunked by modern scholars.

Such misunderstandings are unsurprising, since modern Pagan research has been misrepresented over and over on Christian websites, blogs, etc. Most Christians are neither involved nor even interested in such shenanigans. There are, however, elements within Christianity that still have not given up trying to suppress Paganism, especially now that Paganism is growing, and are not above using modern propaganda methods to achieve their objective.

Take, for example, the impartial sounding Religious Studies blog. There you find claims that any connection between modern and ancient Paganism has been thoroughly debunked by modern Pagan scholars. Yet on the same blog, you find the historical veracity of Jesus proven by mere quotation of Biblical scripture!

Why is it that aspects of Paganism are subjected to one standard of scrutiny and those of other religions to a completely different yardstick?

Sadly, even "pro-Pagan" scholars are not above such double standards. Take for example, how Pagan "hard polytheists" have recently been branded fundamentalists by Wiccan Sabina Magliocco, Chairperson of the Department of Anthropology of California State University, Northridge, when Magliocco wrote in the article you can read here, 

"These [Pagan Fundamentalisms] have centered around two hot-button topics: the historicity of Wiccan foundational narratives, and the nature of the gods." -Sabina Magliocco

Sabina Magliocco

Why is it that Pagan hard polytheists are branded fundamentalists, yet Christians, Jews, and Muslims, who likewise believe in the objective existence of THEIR Gods are not likewise denigrated, nor are Hindu hard polytheists for that matter either.

Such a double standard coming from a self-identified Wiccan is unethical enough on its own, but out and out fear mongering about an unspecified and unsubstantiated "Rise of Pagan Fundamentalism" has no place  in responsible academic research.

Let us next examine the foundational narratives relevant to the survival of ancient Paganism, likewise branded fundamentalist by Dr. Magliocco. Note that Magliocco is quite careful to confine her fear mongering about "Pagan fundamentalists" to Wicca, regarding the "historicity of Pagan foundational narratives."

Such caution is thrown to the wind in anti-Pagan propaganda elsewhere describing Pagan scholarship, however. In the article on the Religious Studies blog entitled, The origins of neopaganism and Prof. Ronald Hutton we find, for example:

"Some neopagans, however, claim that their religion is a direct, lineal survival of ancient paganism...  

... How much of this is actually true? In particular, how much of modern Wicca is a genuine survival of ancient paganism?... The evidence shows that Wicca was created by Gerald Gardner and a small number of other middle-class occultists between the 1920s and the 1950s ... 

the Religious Studies article then wildly concludes:

... Paganism as such disappeared from Europe with the spread of Christianity, and did not reappear until the pagan revival got under way in the 19th century."

Ronald Hutton

Note the way the above, anti-Pagan propaganda narrative seamlessly jumps from Prof. Hutton of Bristol University's Department of History's research on Wicca in southern England to the unsupported conclusion that Paganism as such disappeared from Europe with the spread of Christianity.

I am not suggesting that Pagan scholars like Prof. Magliocco or Prof. Hutton are secretly persuing a Crypto-Christian agenda. These scholars are indeed, however, playing directly into the hands of Christian propagdists out to impede the growth of Paganism.

What is it then that contemporary scholarship actually does say - if not that Paganism disappeared from Europe until the 19th Century Pagan revival?

Prof. Magliocco, for example, readily admits that:

"There are very clear links between ancient and modern Paganisms ...  The links can be found in folk customs, in the Western tradition of magic and esotericism, and in art, literature and philosophy." -Sabina Magliocco

This statement is strongly supported by data provided by anthropological informants of my wife, anthropologist/initiate, Leslie McQuade Griffin, as we shall see below. Dr. Magliocco, however, continues:

"As an anthropologist, I am bound by a code of ethics which demands that I put the good of the communities I work with before anything else, including my research program and professional advancement."

I am not questioning Dr. Magliocco's ethics in particular, but the above statement invokes the entrenched belief held by many Pagans that the ethics of academic research can be blindly trusted. This, in reality, is not always the case, as Leslie McQuade shockingly outlines here:

Leslie McQuade Griffin

"As an archeologist, I have had the great fortune to work in some pretty amazing places, from the English Heritage, Eartham Pit dig in West Sussex where Homo heidelbergensis was discovered during the dig, to the Botai dig in Kazakhstan for the Carnegie Mellon Museum of Natural History, where I was told to cover up the discovery of artifacts made of bone which bore a striking resemblance to screw drivers, which would be astonishing for the time period - to the Chatan-cho dig Okinawa where we were ordered to conceal our discoveries by the Japanese government since they didn't like that we found Koreans rather than Japanese.
I left archeology when the sanctity of scientific data was repeatedly sacrificed for political expedience. As a scientist, I wanted no part in such hypocricy."

Thus, when McQuade began to concentrate more on ethnography, she was already aware of the profound role scholarly bias and even political expediency frequently play in academic research. On significant archeological digs, McQuade was ordered to manipulate and suppress data to skew results of research.

On the subject of Pagan survival, HPS McQuade recently wrote:

"Initiates also hid themselves within Christianity itself, transmuting the ancient Egyptian symbols into versions easily hidden in the symbols and tenants of the new, aggressive faith for re-emergence when the time was both safe and right. 

As has been demonstrated by my Italian Pagan informant, Dianus del Bosco Sacro, in his article, “The Great Rite, Hermeticism and the Shamanic-Pagan Tradition of the Sacred Forest of Nemi,” these same initiatic mysteries can be found preserved encoded in divergent symbol systems across centuries, from the frescoes of the Villa of the Mysteries of ancient Pompeii to the symbols of Hermetic alchemy, only to reappear in Leland’s “Aradia: The Gospel of the Witches.” [Fenris Wolf V: Journal for Magical Anthropology, Stockholm 2013] 

In addition to Dianus, Frater Lux E Tenebris, my alchemical Master and point of contact with the Golden Dawn's Secret Chiefs, has additionally agreed to serve as anthropological informant for Leslie's Pagan ethnographic research. Leslie showed the present article to Frater L.e.T. for comment this morning. Frater LeT added the following to conclude the article:

"There is not one form of Paganism, but two that have survived since antiquity. Prof. Magliocco and others are correct in their observations regarding folk customs, cunning folk, etc. These, however, are but remnants of a "low" Pagan tradition, crumbs of ancient wisdom found among ignorant common folk, mixed with superstition, etc. 

There is, however, a pure Pagan current that survived by remaining completely underground. The ancient Pagan Sacerdotal tradition was preserved by initiatic societies, and there is plenty of publicly available evidence of this survival. For example, Pagan thought reached its apogee with Plotinus. From there arise all of the visible teachings that follow. 

Many Pagan mysteries were concealed inside Christianity itself albeit under another name, for example in Gnosticism in the early centuries. We find Pagan teachings again in the writings of Giordano Bruno, the high magic of Tomas Campanella, Marcilio Ficino, and the group gathered around the De Medici family. 

We find Pagan teachings again in Trithemius and Agrippa, who while posing as Christians in order to protect themselves, nonetheless communicated the ancient Pagan Celestial Magick. Just look at the letters his "Christian" friends sent to Agrippa before the publication of his occult philosophy (which contains PAGAN Magick with but a Christian veneer), warning Agrippa to be very careful lest he be arrested, tortured, and burned. 

Paganism was deeply occulted following the edicts of the Emperors so that it might not be destroyed. But even much of the structure of the Christian church itself is Pagan in origin, including the title today used by the head of the Christian church, Pontifex Maximus. 

And these are but the external signs of what was preserved occulted by the Sacerdotal Colleges, later becoming Rosicrucian and the initiatic orders, and transmitted to us today. 

Thus there is not doubt that Paganism has survived. The scholars know this, although they choose to focus on the "low" Pagan tradition  as it survived mixed with superstition in folk magic, etc. To admit the survival of the "high," Sacerdotal Pagan tradition is not in the interest of Christianity." 

The time has come for Pagans to let go of overly naive trust in academia. Academia is never perfectly objective. Scholarly bias nearly always plays a role in research - and even manipulation and supression of data to skew results are not unheard of.

Pagan scholars be should be even more wary how statements they make may be misrepresented by others and turned against our Pagan community, and as far as ethics go, there is no place in academia for fear mongering,

Historians and anthropologists investigating the survival of remnants of Pagan antiquity should examine the Western esoteric tradition more closely.

That no remnants of ancient Pagan "high" Sacerdotal traditions have yet been uncovered, does not necessarily mean they no longer exist.

Scholars may have just been looking in the wrong places...

"A chair? Impossible."

...or sitting on the data all along!

Are Self-Initiated, Solitary, and Outer Order Magicians not "True Golden Dawn?"

"There can be only ONE True Golden Dawn!"

According to Wikipedia:

"Fundamentalism is the demand for a strict adherence to specific theological doctrines... 

... The term usually has a religious connotation indicating unwavering attachment to a set of irreducible beliefs ... 

... [Fundamentalism may also] refer to any philosophy which is literal-minded or carries a pretense of being the sole source of objective truth regardless of whether it is usually called a religion."

Neo-Golden Dawn scholar Aaron Leitch today wrote:

"As you said, that is ZAM material (Z Docs) - and I dare say any Order that moves those teachings to the Outer is no longer truly Golden Dawn... 

Neo-Golden Dawn scholar Pat Zalewksi replied:

"I know of a few GD orders out there that unfortunately teach inner order ritual techniques in the Outer Order."

Scholars have painstakingly researched perished ancient Pagan traditions and successfully reconstructed them into revived Neo-Pagan traditions.

Does this mean Neo-Pagans are not "True Pagans?"

There is no "One True Paganism."

Using archival and published materials, scholars like Pat Zalewski, Aaron Leitch, and others have attempted to reconstruct Neo-Golden Dawn Orders from what they argue was a perished Golden Dawn tradition.

Does this mean Neo-Golden Dawn initiates are not
"True Golden Dawn?"

There is no "One True Golden Dawn!"

Orders like A.O.'s Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn remain recruitment vehicles for Internal Rosicrucian and Hermetic Orders with roots in the distant past.

Does this mean H.O.G.D. initiates are the 
"True Golden Dawn?"

There is no "One True Golden Dawn!"

The Alpha Omega provides Magical guidance and support for Outer Order Golden Dawn Magicians, since they are practicing published Golden Dawn Magic anyway.

Does this mean Alpha Omega initiates are not
"True Golden Dawn?"

There is no "One True Golden Dawn!"

In the Alpha Omega, we provide Magical guidance and support even for Self-Initiates and Solitary Golden Dawn Magicians.

Does this mean Self-Initiates and Solitaries are not
"True Golden Dawn?"

There is no "One True Golden Dawn!"

In today's Golden Dawn community, it is precisely our rich diversity that is our greatest strength.

I find Fundamentalist-like demands for adherence to ideological doctrines defining what is "True Golden Dawn" rather alarming.

"Not one Jot or Tittle can be changed!"

Demands to define "True Golden Dawn" curricula or materials strictly as they were in 1888 are particularly disturbing.

Are we as a community to ignore the Magical needs of Self-Initiates, Solitary Practitioners, and Outer Order Golden Dawn Magicians - merely to adhere to ideological doctrine defining what is "True Golden Dawn?"

The Golden Dawn is not a fixed set of dogmas. Golden Dawn leaders do a huge disservice to the community by encouraging people to treat existing texts as infallible documents. They are so accustomed to the Bible they assume all spiritually-oriented texts are flawless.

Israel Regardie's book is NOT a Golden Dawn Bible.

It is high time students of the Golden Dawn wake up and realize there are a lot of errors in the books they have been using.

One striking example is the Qabalistic arch-demon "Samael" incorrectly listed since 1888 as the Planetary "Angel" of Mars (See documentation HERE).

In fact, most of the printed material the Self-Initiate follows is riddled with errors. What concerns me most is that aspiring Magicians are not being taught to critically reflect on the sources they use.

In the A.O., we teach aspiring Magicians to think differently.

In the A.O., we teach self-discipline, critical thinking, and energetic cultivation of the Soul (astral body).

In the A.O., we have made minor updates to our initiation rituals so current versions can remain secret, according to Golden Dawn tradition.

In the A.O., we have updated our teaching methods to include those of modern, on-line Universities.

In the A.O., we have updated and completed our First, Second, and Third Order Golden Dawn curricula with traditional Magic and Alchemy, drawn from our roots in the LIVING Hermetic and Rosicrucian traditions.

Does this mean the Alpha Omega is the

"True Golden Dawn?"

There is no "One True Golden Dawn!"

I am not even saying the A.O. is the "best" order.

Only we DO things differently.

Click HERE to explore our Outer Order, undergraduate level Magical training program, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn!"

Think Different.

Alpha Omega

We make Magicians!

- Since 1888

Golden Dawn Witch Hunt Revealed: Fundamentalism

by David Griffin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fundamentalist Golden Dawn Creed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1.The Golden Dawn was founded on a hoax

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

3. the Secret Chiefs are but delusions,

4. There is no lineage

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enough is enough!

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

SO SAY WE ALL!

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Today Nick Farrell wrote on his blog: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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