Monday, January 30, 2012

Internet Censorship and Digital Piracy

by David Griffin


On his Talking About Ritual Magic blog, Frater Barrabas just wrote an interesting article discussing Internet censorship and Internet piracy. You can read it here


Like Frater B., I too am against misguided attempts to censor the internet like SOPA and PIPA. As occult authors, however, we do have good reason to be concerned about piracy. As you likely know, there are a group who call themselves "Digimob" and are dedicated to scanning every new significant magical work that comes out, and releasing in immediately in a torrent file on Pirate Bay and the like.


The "Digimob" means well, wanting to make occult works available to people with limited resources. I wonder, however, if they realize how much work goes into producing a quality occult work and how limited our financial return actually is for all of our effort?

I spent, for example, five fulll years in the research and writing that went into the Ritual Magic Manual.

I also wonder if Digimob realizes, that they are actually sawing off the branch they are sitting on. Moreover, each of us makes important decisions based on what they are doing.

For example, I have already written and for years have had ready for release, a revolutionaly book on Rune magick based on research I did living in Scandinavia using sources not at all available in English translation. 

The occult community, however, continues to be deprived of this knowledge and the fruit of my research, because, in response to Digimob piracy, I personally refuse to release it only to have it given away without my permission in a torrent file.

Unlike many occult authors, I have no real need to publish any information at all. Firstly, I do not need the money. Secondly, I do not need to promote of my name. The Ritual Magic Manual stands on its own merits and my reputation is already solid as the Chief Adept of the A.O. In other words,  I have neither financial, professional, nor even ego investment in kudos for releasing information, including a book already finished that will revolutionize thinking on rune magick.

My choice is instead to simply deprive the esoteric community of the fruits of this essantial research. I have been sitting on the manuscript already for years while using its contents in my own magical practice and sharing it with select others who know how to respect secrecy.

But wait ...

There is more!

In fact, most of the esoteric community is already well aware that as Chief Adept of the A.O., I am sitting a vast treasure trove of other traditional occult information available nowhere else. Granted, much of this is information is protected by initiatic secrecy, but there is plenty of stuff that I actually could release to the public.

However, with the Digimob pirates around, why should I? 

What the Digimob pirates fail to realize is that they are actually depriving THEMSELVES of essential and astounding occult information as the direct consequence of their misguided actions.

When the Digimob pirates stop destroying the already tiny market for occult works, I will resume releasing occult information that the public will otherwise never have access to. 

Meanwhile, I will continue to simply sit on a vast treasure trove of secret information, sharing only bits and pieces in initiatic circles...

While the pirates eat the goose in one single meal, and go on missing out on entire hen houses of golden eggs!

Friday, January 27, 2012

A Busy Golden Dawn News Week

by David Griffin

We are coming up on an important anniversary in the Golden Dawn community. On February 4, it will have been one year that the Inner Order Adepts of the Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn published an announcement expelling Robert Zink from his own order.


If you accept to Bob's version of the story (a la Louis XIV: "la France- c'est moi") the EOGD  Adepti didn't have the right to expel Bob due to a putative trademark licence (he apparently never really received though!). If you accept the Adepts' version of the story, they eventually got fed up and decided to just change their name from EOGD to be done with Bob's shady business reputation. Judging from the below Better Business Bureau report, this was likely a wise move on their part.


In any case, nearly one year ago today, we welcomed the Order of the Golden Dawn, Colegium Spiritu Sancti to the ranks of our diverse Golden Dawn community. The Adepts of the OGD/CSS appear to be doing very well for themselves, once unfettered from the dead albatross once hindering their Order.

In any case, the OGD/CSS is marking their one year anniversary untethered from Frater Bob with a beautifully crafted new website, which you can view here.


The initiates of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and the Adepts and Magisters of the Second and Third orders of the Alpha Omega salute the coming of age of the Adepts in the OGD/CSS, and look forward to breaking bread with you at the upcoming International Conclave of Golden Dawn Adepti near Las Vegas, beginning on March 9. 

Readers who missed the earlier announcement can read about the International Golden Dawn Conclave here.


In ther breaking news in our community (also related to the fall of Adept Zink), you may recall that for over a decade, Frater Bob's flagship website was located at www.Golden-Dawn.org. 

I am pleased to announce that as of this post, Golden-Dawn.Org is now under new management.

The Fratres et Sorores of the HOGD and the AO promise to make Golden-Dawn.Org a shining beacon of light, promoting fraternal harmony in the entire Golden Dawn community.

Be sure to drop by Golden-Dawn.Org and have a look at the many changes recently implemented already.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

RITUAL MURDER? The Golden Dawn DEFAMED!

by David Griffin
What the heck does ritual murder have to do with the Golden Dawn?
  What is this? - yet another chapter in the decades old Golden Dawn Internet Feud?
  I wish it only were!
  Here in the English speaking world, these are reasonable enough questions. But not so in Italy, where the reputation of the Golden Dawn tradition is already in the toilet in the public mind, due to a successful and still ongoing defamation campaign being waged against the entire Golden Dawn tradition.
  The principal agent of this defamation is a tabloid journalist named Gabriella Carlizzi:
Gabriella Carlizzi
  Carlizzi has floated an undending series of allegations so defamatory that, in the popular mind in Italy, the Golden Dawn has come to be associated not only with ritual murder, bet even with the murders of Jack the Ripper and the "Monster of Florence." Another primary actor in this drama is attorney, Paolo Francescetti, who many regard as an "expert" on the subject of ritual murder.
Paolo Francescetti
  The common thread in rumors and allegations surrounding human sacrifice and ritual murder in the mind of masses in Italy, is an alleged esoteric order Carlizzi calls the "Rosa Rossa." Below are just a small sampling, taken from here and here of the some of the shockingly defamatory writings of Gabriella Carlizzi:
The "Rosa Rossa" and its infiltration in certain sects, each is used unawares for the purpose of international crime, absolute power, and mind control ...

This esoteric Order [the "Rosa Rossa"] will be further defined as the most cruel, with their secret rituals all bent on human sacrifice ...
And who, according to Carlizzi, is the architecht of this madness?  Carlizzi writes:
The founder and leader of this Order was Arthur Edward Waite, Magician, Mason and esotericist of our times, who lived until 1942.
A.E. Waite
  That's right. You read correctly. Arthur Edward Waite!
  And the mysterious "Rosa Rossa" order of cannabalistic rites of human sacrifice is allegedly none other than Waite's "Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis, Independent and Rectified Rite."
  Of all the cast of characters of the original Golden Dawn that Carlizzi could have chosen as the arch-villian in her myth, she chose Waite! Aleister Crowley, perhaps I could better understand. After all, Crowley did call himself "The Great Beast." But Waite?
  I wonder if Carlizzi realizes just how ridiculous she sounds in the ears of anyone who knows anything factual at all about the Golden Dawn. You can accuse Waite of many things, not the least of which is writing rituals so long and verbose that they are bound to put even the Energizer Bunny to sleep, but Waite - a ritual murderer? That has got to be one of the most preposterous things that I have ever read.
  Carlizzi continues:
Is there really the Order of the Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis,  Independent and Rectified Rite?
Yes, there is this Order and assumed since its origin, characteristics, and that can not actually be considered as an emanation of other esoteric Masonic Orders, although it seemed to derive from the wider of magic of the Golden Dawn, blending in with the Rosicrucians in order to divert attenttion, but from what? 
... no one imagined that in that the tendency to mysticism and esoteric Christianity would have comprised the "justification" of "human sacrifice" in the name of a higher reason ...

... of bloody rituals, sacrifices, including the removal of 
real human body parts fron the victims, and fetishes, which became the Host during a similar celebration of the Eucharistic celebration of the Catholic religion.
  At this point, gentle reader, you are probably saying, "well, who except Nick Farrell (Golden Dawn leader living in Rome) cares at all about what the public in Italy thinks about the Golden Dawn? Well, perhaps the following declaration from Carlizzi may enlighten you to how dangerous to the entire Golden Dawn tradition this nonsense really is. Carlizzi continues:
Where is the world headquarters of the Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis, Independent and Rectified Rite, and how is it difused in the world?
The headquarters for reasons related to the birth of the founder of the esoteric school, Waite, lies precisely in the United States, with twenty-one temples, and its first branch in London, with eleven temples throughout England.
Then comes France, with five temples, of which the most active is in Perpignan. There are four temples in Italy, three temples in Germany, two temples in Brazil, and two temples in Egypt.
  That's right, this yellow journalist claims that there are 21 Golden Dawn temples in the USA that are not only using the boring rituals written by Waite, but are practicing human sacrifice and cannabalistic Eucharists as well!
  But wait, there's more.
  If this sort of tabloid journalism (that puts even the Golden Dawn's own Nick Farrell's yellow journalistic talents to shame) were not enough, Italian attorney, Paolo Francescetti, seems to be part of this defamation campaign against the Golden Dawn in Italy as well. Admittedly, Francescetti is more cautious in approach than is Carlizzi (perhaps because, as an attorney, Francescetti is likely more aware of the severity of libel laws in the USA and the potential legal consequences of statements like those routinely made by Carlizzi.
  Nonetheless, Francescetti repeatedly conflates the "Rosa Rossa," Calrizzi's mythical order of cannibals practicing human sacrifice, with the Golden Dawn. For example, Francescetti here writes:
London: the birthplace of the Golden Dawn. The "Rosa Rossa" is in fact also founded in 1887 by William Wynn Westcott (who was a member of the Rosicrucian Society in England), Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and William Robert Woodman.
Francescetti continues:
In summary, then, the crimes of the Monster of Florence and those of Jack the Ripper murders were ritual that served to sanctify the areas of London and Florence, while the clamor of newspapers and TV, was used to amplify the effects of this ritual, the propagation of esoteric effects even on citizens.
The crimes of the Monster of Florence, together with those of Jack the Ripper, are the ones that have attracted public attention in this century. They have many similarities, and in fact they are both crimes committed by members of the Order of the "Rosa Rossa." The first who discovered the similarities and formulated a hypothesis in this sense (that is, identifying the Golden Dawn and the "Rosa Rossa" as a link between the two events) was Joseph Cosco who wrote the article on his blog: The Monster of Florence Jack the Ripper, disturbing similarities.
  For many years, I have been warning the Golden Dawn community that we could not afford the inter order bickering of the Golden Dawn flame war on the internet. One important reason for this, was I feared that something just like this might happen.
  And let us not be lulled into a false sense of security in the mistaken belief that such terrible defamation will remain confined to the Italian speaking world. There are plenty of monotheistic zealots and conspiracy kooks in the USA as well. 
  The time has come, therefore, for all of us in the entire Golden Dawn community to put our differences behind us once and for all, and to lock arms in solidarity as a united community defending the reputation of our beloved Golden Dawn tradition.
David Griffin
Imperator, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
Chief Adept, Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis
Archon Basileus, Rosicrucian Order of AO

Sunday, January 1, 2012

2012!!! International Golden Dawn - R.R. et A.C. Conclave of Rosicrucian Adepti

near Las Vegas, Nevada
2012
Golden Dawn - R.R. et A.C. 
International Conclave of the Adepti
hosted by the
Rosicrucian Order of Alpha Omega
at the newly built
Isis-Hathor Temple
and Retreat Center
Isis- Hathor's Sacred Temple Owls
"Dusty and Dawn"
Qualified R.R. et A.C. Adepts from all Golden Dawn Temples and Orders (and selected Rosicrucian and Magical orders) are invited to gather with Second Order Adepts from the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega for an intensive week of initiation, advancement, and training in the advanced Second Order magical systems and techniques recently transmitted by the Secret Chiefs of the Third Order of the Golden Dawn. 

NOTE: This advanced, traditional Golden Dawn magical training picks up where the published Adeptus Minor material leaves off! R.R. et A.C. Adepts should never again be limited to traditional Second Order teachings that dead-end at the Adeptus Minor level published by Regardie.


R.R. et A.C.
International Rosicrucian Conclave
 2012: March 9-16
(Adept Level only)

Contact us HERE for additional details and registration.

Additionally, as a gesture of fraternal good will, all outer order initiates of all Golden Dawn temples and orders everywhere are invited to attend the A.O.'s open celebration of the Vernal Equinox at Isis-Hathor temple on Sunday, March 18, 2012.

Golden Dawn
Open Equinox Celebration
2012: Sunday, March 18
(Initiates of ALL Golden Dawn Temples and Orders)


NOTE: Even if you are not yet a Golden Dawn initatiate, you can still come. We will initiate new Golden Dawn members in the Neophyte grade as part of the Open Equinox Celebration. You will need to join the Golden Dawn first, however. 

HERE is where you can apply to join the Golden Dawn.

With these small gestures, the A.O. hopes to promote good will and fraternal harmony in the entire Golden Dawn community, and to contribute substantially to upgrading the level of training of Rosicrucian Adepts everywhere.

Don't miss this historical Golden Dawn event!

"In 2012, come celebrate the shift to a new age of sharing, peace and harmony in 
Golden Dawn history..."
Your Hosts,
David and Leslie Griffin

PS: In reply to this announcement about the 2012 Golden Dawn Conclave, one Golden Dawn blog published a photo of an enormous Asian mass marriage ritual. As a result, Isis-Hathor temple has been asked by one Golden Dawn couple if we could not incorporate a marriage ritual for them into the upcoming Equinox festivities. As it turns out, my wife Leslie and I are Pagan clergy and I am also a Gnostic bishop. We are both therefore fully empowered to perform legal marriages at Isis-Hathor. So the answer is YES, we would be honored to marry you! Here is a photo of a recent wedding Leslie and I performed for some Pagan friends of ours from Italy:
A Las Vegas Wedding, Isis-Hathor Style!

Alpha Ωmega Mystery School Livestream