The Golden Dawn of a New Millennium

by David Griffin - G.H. Frater Lux ex Septentrionis
Golden Dawn International Imperator

Brothers and Sisters of the Golden Dawn,
I just read an interesting article by Frater Perigrin on his Magic of the Ordinary Blog.

First off, I would like to congratulate Frater Peregrin on a fine article. There remains much confusion here in the West regarding the true nature of initiatic spiritual lineages. Most people either think that lineage means apostolic succession as in the case of certain Christian churches or that it is based on mutual recognition as in the case of Freemasonry.

The spiritual transmissions that occur with initiation in the lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, however, like that described by Frater Peregrin in the above linked article, are one of the best examples to help Westerners understand the true nature and value of spiritual lineages.
I am aware that this remains somewhat controversial, but if we in the Golden Dawn community could just get our egos and defensiveness out of the way, both the Hermetic and Rosicrucian traditions also have major spiritual lineages to transmit to intiates, that have been faithfully passed down in an unbroken chain, from Alchemical Master to Alchemical Disciple, for two entire decades of Centuries.
These Hermetic and Rosicrucian spiritual lineages should be transmitted to initiates and practiced. Although some Golden Dawn leaders disagree with me about this, I personally have no doubt that the Golden Dawn was originally created with the specific intention to serve as a vehicle to transmit these spiritual lineages.
What the Golden Dawn community has not yet fully understood, is that this is not a question of ego, or claiming some sort of "legitimacy." These Hermetic and Rosicrucian spiritual lineages can transcend faction and unite us all, while totally preserving the complete independence and autonomy of individual temples and orders.
The manifestation in recent years of these unique, Western spiritual lineages is an event of great historical and spiritual importance. We are talking about nothing less than our spiritual heritage, the Occidental equivalent of spiritual lineages like Zen and Tibetan Buddhism in the East.
In this way, the Golden Dawn has the potential of becoming a major spiritual force in the 21st Century because new, independent, Golden Dawn temples are spontaneously appearing much in the way that Freemasonic lodges spontaneously formed all over the place in the 18th Century!
Although this represents a major development in my thinking, in my current opinion today, the rapid and spontaneous formation of new and completely independent and autonomous Golden Dawn temples should be actively encouraged and as much guidance and support given as possible to emerging temples.
In this way, the Golden Dawn can become a major vehicle for the preservation, transmission, and practice of these secret but quite substantial Hermetic and Rosicrucian spiritual lineages. If the Golden Dawn is to have a major impact on spirituality in the new Millennium, it will be as a vehicle for the transmission to initiates of these Hermetic and Roscrucian spiritual lineages and practices.
On another note, I am pleased to see that the videos published on Easter by our order have inspired a passionate debate about the fine points of Golden Dawn ritual. There is clearly great public interest in Golden Dawn ritual and the public response to our films has been overwhelmingly positive.
When we made the decision to release these films, we knew already that there are petty individuals out there that attack before they think. Despite this, our order and no other Order, had the guts to post material in the open for critical review - even by those who don't understand it - or compete with our order. We went ahead anyway because we are confident enough to tolerate even the sad behavior of individuals who put personal grudges and vendetta ahead of the interests of the entire Golden Dawn.
Sure enough, these petty individuals did not disappoint me. They immediately rolled out any attack they thought might scare people most, for example, pretending my Golden Rosicrucian cross is an "Iron Cross." They quickly followed by anonymously publishing a blog proclaiming our Hegamon as dressed in the garb of the KKK and insinuating that our order is nothing but a nest of Nazi's.
It is interesting to note that the use of such abusive, ad hominem, attacks such as “you’re a racist,” “you’re an anti-Semite,” “you’re a Nazi” and so on is a common tactic used by extremists to scare people into silence.
Such extremist tactics are not about to work on me, however. There is not the slightest chance I will start defending myself by trotting out all my Jewish friends. Remember the Seinfeld episode where Jerry was accused of being an “anti-dentite” because he didn’t like going to the dentist? The whole thing is absurd.
It is fascinating, however, to consider the following. Nazism is a form of fascism. Fascism is a form of saying: “only we have the truth and everyone must do it our way.” Have you noticed how all of the attacks on our order since we released the films on YouTube have been of precisely this extremist nature? In other words, the individuals who have been spreading these Nazi rumors have not only been using extremist tactics but have clearly demonstrated their having a fascist approach to the Golden Dawn themselves!
In fact, they are trying to deflect this onto our order in order to shift attention from their own fascist approach. This is a classic instance of "the pot calling the kettle black." We often find outside of us what we detest most about our secret selves. In the Johari window, there is an area called the “secret self.” It is an area of our personality that we cannot see but others can. It’s the psychological defect that causes a closet homosexual senator to take a militant stance against homosexuality.
Unlike those attacking us with extremist tactics and a fascist approach to the Golden Dawn, our order is completely open with material deemed appropriate for the community and we remain willing to discuss, debate, or explain where necessary. We have nothing to hide and we don't prescribe to doing something just because Regardie's book suggests it. Magic is a science and therefore it can be improved.
Our Order nonetheless is run in a way that maintains strict adherence to the methods of the Golden Dawn as the HOGD/AO interprets and understands them.
Our order has a passion for spreading the message of the Golden Dawn as we have received it and we will not allow bullying tactics stop us from spreading the message of the Golden Dawn and the advanced spiritual practices from the Hermetic and Rosicrucian lineages transmitted by my spiritual Teachers in Continental Europe.
In the reaction to our Order's release of these recent films, there is one more thing, however, that concerns me a great deal. The sort of criteria and methods of analysis that have been applied to our ritual performance attempt to assert some sort of "official canon" or "Golden Dawn orthodoxy" in ritual performance or spiritual practice attempting to impose only one "right" way to do things, based on a fascist approach to the published writings of Israel Regardie or other Golden Dawn historical documents.
I fundamentally disagree with this. Any attempt to establish some sort of "Golden Dawn Orthodoxy" in ritual performance or spiritual practice presents a serious risk of the Golden Dawn stagnating as nothing more than an object of historical curiosity.
On the contrary, I believe that the Golden Dawn community needs to come to better understand how the Golden Dawn is just one manifestation of the Hermetic and Rosicrucian traditions and how the spiritual lineages of these traditions have far more to offer than just the Golden Dawn.
Only by becoming an outer vehicle to transmit to initiates these spiritual lineages and practices, can the Golden Dawn can take its rightful place in the spiritual history of a new Millennium.
What Freemasonry was to the 18th Century, the Golden Dawn can become today - the vehicle of a powerful spiritual impulse for a new era.

Fraternally and sincerely,
David Griffin
Imperator Ordinis
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega

The Golden and Rosy Cross Worn by International Golden Dawn Imperator, David Griffin

David Griffin - G.H. Frater Lux Ex Septentrionis

Golden Dawn International Imperator

Since the recent YouTube release of 13 videos from the Golden Dawn's 100 year Alpha et Omega Jubileum in Paris, there has been a great deal of interest about the cross I wear in the photo above.

Certain misinformed (or perhaps even ill intentioned) individuals have repeatedly and erroneously suggested I am wearing a German Iron or perhaps even Nazi cross.

As is so often the case, the truth in this instance even is more fabulous than the rumors people spread based on malice or mere ignorance.
In reality, I wear a cross of pure 24k gold, enameled red, that derives directly from the 18th Century German Rosicrucian Order known as the Gold und Rosenkreutz. There have been many variants of this same cross down through history. Here are a just few of them:

The Gold und Rosenkreutz Order, the Rosicrucian predecessor of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is, in fact, the source of origin of entire grade system of the Golden Dawn, as well as the mystic numbers of the grades, mystic titles, symbols, etc.

This same Golden and Rosy Cross has been worn by our elder Adepts of the Gold und Rosenkreutz Order, at least since the general reformation of 1777. Looking through the Tableau of the Gold und Rosenkreutz Order (from the reformation of 1763), as published by Magister Pianco in his Der Rosenkreuzer in seiner Bloesse, there is a column appended that describes the "signs" of the Grades. Looking at the Grades of Adeptus Major, Adeptus Exemptus and Magister Templi you will find the following signet of the Grade: "A Cross of Gold enameled Red." Here we have a clear reference of this symbol being in use by Rosicrucian initiates even as early as in 1763.

Considering that many of the names of Golden Dawn grades, mystic titles, etc., derive directly from the Gold und Rosenkreutz order, one can even argue that this cross is actually the prototype or "source of origin" of the Rose Cross lamen later adapted by the Golden Dawn's Second Order, the R.R. et A.C., and worn by its Adepts until today. This cross thus is an important symbol of the Rosicrucian lineage of the Golden Dawn that descends from the Gold und Rosenkreutz order, through the Asiatic Brethren, and the Frankfurt lodge "Zur Goldenen Morgonroethe" in Germany.

Although the historical origins of this Golden and Rosy Cross are to be found in the Rosicrucian Gold und Rosenkreutz order of 18th Century Germany, its mythical history extends much farther back in time. Here is the legend of this cross, as told in one of the unpublished initiation rituals of the Gold und Rosenkreutz Order:

At the beginning of our Christian era, there lived in Egypt a great initiate named Ormus; called Ormesius by the Greeks. Ormus was a priest of Serapis in the city of Alexandria and an initiate of the Hermetic mysteries. Ormesius forsaw the rise of Christianity, and thus was converted to the new religion by St. Mark in AD 44. To ensure the survival and transmission of the Royal Art, Ormus stripped the mysteries their Egyptian trappings, and re-veiled them in the symbols and rites of the new religion. To preserve the initiatic transmission as well, Ormesius founded a Hermetic mystery school called the ”Fraternity of the Sages of Light,” known to initiates through the centuries as the the Ordo Ormesius, or the Order of Ormus.

The Order has manifested to the outer world under many names and has undergone many transformations. In 1111, it was known as the Alliance of Magical Brothers. In 1222, following the defeat of the Crusaders in Jerusalem and the expulsion of Christians from the holy land, the surviving members of the order disbursed across the world. Thus the light of our fraternity was carried to France where the Knights Templar were formed by Hugues de Payns with the aid of the Alliance. Thus the red cross of our order became the primary emblem of the Knights Templar, who provided the spiritual implulse for a new Crusade to retake the holy land.

In 1314, when when the Knights Templar were supressed in France, the last Grand Master, Jaques de Molay, sent his nephew, the Count of Beaujeu, into the Templar crypt in Paris, to recover a chest filled with the esoteric secrets of the order. These documents were dispatched with an envoy of knights to Scotland, where they arrived in 1333, and were later used to lay the spiritual foundations for Freemasonry. Time and again across the centuries, our order has manifested and been known by many names. In 1444. It was known as the Order of the Cross, in 1555 as the Order the Rosy Cross, and in 1666 as the Brothers of the Golden Cross, and 1777 as the Order of the Golden and Rosy Cross.

From the earliest times, initiates of our order have recognized one another by the primary ensignia of our order: an enameled red cross made of purest gold and worn over the heart of the Adept. This red cross of our order became the primary emblem of the both Knights Templar and the Golden Rosicrucians. Legend has it this cross was originally drawn with the blood of Christ upon a white shield by Joseph of Arimathea, and that this shield was carried by Galahad on the Grail quest.

This same cross has also been worn by numerous Templar Rites in Freemasonry, including the Strict Observance and the Scottish Templars. It is still worn today by high grade members of the Swedish Rite of Freemasonry, to which I additionally belong, and in which I hold the IX degree.
P.S. - I just noticed that Sincerus Renatus also just also wrote an excellent article about this same cross. As it contains valuable additional information, I suggest that you also read this article here.

Sub Umbra Alarum Tuarum, Yeheshua
David Griffin
G.H. Frater Lux Ex Septentrionis
Imperator Ordinis, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega

"Ex Deo Nascimur.
In Yeheshua Morimur.
Per Sanctum Spiritum Reviviscimus"