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By
Frater Yeheshua Mihi Omnia
Trevor Walker
The Golden Dawn is not a religion; it is a living breathing dynamic, practical system of comprehending the secret forces of nature and the Divine. In its essence it is a philosophy. It is a system which places the aspirant at the threshold of an inner frontier, of the limitless and immortal, immeasurable greatness, higher than all height and lower than all depth comprehending all things and creatures from the Alpha et Omega of the g-d like power that is latent/dormant in man.
Man is the Microcosm, the miniature of the Macrocosm the greater world, Seeing that the Universe is one living-breathing organism, man has within him all the forces in the macrocosm the greater world.
The aim of the order of the Golden Dawn and the ultimate message of our esoteric work is to become “More than Human” this is to become a perfected illuminated adept, where our bodily functions on all levels Physical, psychological and physiological are more harmonious in their interrelation. The idea behind this is to grow and transmute into the image set for us by the divine and reveal our own divinity and fulfil our highest potential to reach to the stars.
This then enables us to function more consciously as the problems or complexes can sometimes effect how we live our lives in the mundane world, if these are then cleared away by going through the Golden Dawn outer order system, we can then function more consciously and not be at the mercy of fate but can then control our destiny so that our external surroundings don’t govern us.
Making it so that you get a much more fullness of self and integrate the archetype of the shadow. More importantly you get to “know thy self.”
In genesis 1:26-1:27 there is a quote “and god went on to say let us make man in our image according to our likeness” again emphasising that there is g-d power latent in man.
It is part of our work which we call the “Great Work” to uncover and awaken these forces within us and in doing so casting off the dross and complexes (that also may sometimes be necessary as it might corrupt part of the inner innate power) or sleeping dogs that perpetually and normally make us swing between the two pillars the contending forces of nature never finding the “Middle Way.” Once the middle way has been established and the elemental portions of the Psyche have been cleansed and equilibrated, mastered and controlled within and the initiate has awakened the once latent faculties then they can be truly called now an Initiate, then as an Adept the goal is then to attain the knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel and work with the energies without as the internal energy’s at this point should be equilibrated.
There is a popular occult axiom that “nature unaided fails” this alludes that only through initiation and certain training that a person can then fully achieve the most sublime levels of awareness, intuition and comprehension of what most GD initiates are in accord, would call the Divine. The initiate transmutes themselves in a way just as the alchemist shows a distinct dislike and contempt of the natural or impure state of their matter, and then through transmutation reveals the inner pure gold of spiritual selfhood and what is known as the stone of the philosophers, the stone of the wise, the quintessence, the summum bonum, true wisdom and perfect happiness.
The GD just doesn't act as a one way ticket system the initiate has the techniques, theory and practical applications to be able to help themselves through all situations in their life, by applying the theory, and ritual practices, that will keep them in equilibrium and well-being often long after the initiate will pass through the outer order even until the end of the Earthly incarnation, The theory and practice the initiate learns in the order can be put into practice in their everyday mundane lives.
Ultimately everyone in at least one of their lifetimes must complete the great work to ascend and remain in g-d-head, or decide to re-incarnate to help those not as evolved, often referred to as a bodhisattva. Initiation and magical theurgy is a perpetual thing that is eternal and everlasting through a persons incarnations and will be there ready to pick up in their next life.
Rather than a purely devotional attitude towards the divine as Golden Dawn practitioners we experience and enrich our bodies with the energy of the divine to reveal through illumination the inner pure gold of spiritual selfhood from the illusionary mask of the outer shell and personality. So as well as aspiring to the Divine we also have the advantage of being able to experience divine.
The Golden Dawn do not consider themselves Christian, Gnostic etc, The Golden Dawn is an eclectic amalgam of religious symbolism and concepts, We are all generally in accord that there is a Divine Creator of the Universe and that is what we aspire to, This form of philosophy is termed Hermetic, and some Golden Dawn practitioners consider themselves a seeker of hermetic philosophy, almost like Gnostics, where the Gnostics saw themselves of fragments of the divine, splintered or separated at conception and it was their ultimate aim of reuniting with the Divine.
The difference between hermetic and Gnostics is that Hermetic teaches us that the earth and material incarnation is not to be despised but in order to get back to the divine we have to gain a mastery over the earth before we can ascend and reunite with the Divine.
Hermetic philosophy also tells us that the earth and material incarnation is not to be despised but we are to lean from it and evolve with it. We are told in Hermetics not just to nourish the material body but also the spiritual body, however nowadays in society and the world we live in have generally seemed to have swung to much towards the Material nourishment and in some cases completely neglected the spiritual body completely.
A Pagan, Wiccan, natural craft/philosophy would adhere With GD Philosophy, it would be my view that you could most defiantly benefit from coming from this kind of background, as pagans feel empathy with the Earth and most of the work is about becoming a ritual magician. That could be defined as someone who though certain training has gained supremacy over nature and over the elements. However to obtain this you must have an understanding of them and have mastered the energy’s they represent in your own energy body.
A pagan, Wiccan, natural craft, background would greatly enhance your experience, as you will have already some kind of knowledge, understanding and sympathy with the elements and the Earth.
The Golden Dawn system can be practiced by any one willing to make the self sacrifice to become greater than are now and become more than human, as a system it does not conform people like a religion does, you live your life by your own consciousness by what you deem you should do or not do, what is good and what is bad and through the work you try to become a better person and understand emotions at a deeper level such as love and forgiveness and really feel what the reality is of those emotions is that the work reveals to you, also offers the initiate the tools to awaken themselves to the hidden power within the potential that is lying dormant.
The experience of the Initiate is completely their own there is no prescribed feelings or experiences the GD work is there to get the initiate into contact with their true inner nature. The GD work in with its many functions can establish contact and awaken the dormant parts of the psyche, the experiences and the way the effects manifest in an initiates life are very personal and theirs to enjoy.
The problem with some religions is they cannot integrate new elements into their religion just like the rigid vessel of Christianity that finds it hard to except new perceptions. Most religions are oppressive in the fact that you can only adhere to their view point and the people involved in most organized strict religions are called “followers” implying that they are told how to feel, what to think and how to act, most religions are not sympathetic to other world views or spiritual views or that of other established religions and will fervently preach that only they have the keys to heaven and govern their followers with an Iron hand and by a set of oppressive rules that their followers must adhere to, governing and ruling them accordingly.
The Golden Dawn Philosophy and order teachings are neither good or bad the teachings are just neutral. It is the person that brings it alive by living the experiences that the work brings and transmutes themselves, changing themselves into better more balanced human beings eventually becoming more than human.
The religious iconography used by the Golden Dawn in the outer and the Inner Order of “RR ET AC” is not really a viewpoint where we embrace fully in totality the religion that it represents and incorporate various whole religious systems, as this would be incompatible and the various viewpoints of these religious systems in some cases would clash greatly, it is more the fact that the orders teachings is based on symbolism.
It would be very difficult and near impossible to amalgamate so many religious view points to have them cohabiting and integrated in one whole under one umbrella, after all some religions cannot get on with the views of their own fellow brothers and sisters and integrate their own beliefs in the own system, never mind trying to work with other religious systems.
Most of the religious symbolism used in the Golden Dawn is to a greater or lesser existent there to show the progression and evolution of the soul through self sacrifice, also the body of man and how it evolves through esoteric/hermetic training and maybe to a lesser extent inspires us to look at the hidden inner essence of things. As the Golden Dawn is an eclectic amalgam of many systems brought together it offers comprehensively symbolic incites at many different stages in the life, progression and evolution of an initiate along the path.
In the GD we are not specifically integrating the whole Christian religion when we use Christian symbolism nor are we calling ourselves Christian, We are using the symbolism of the Cross and the crucified g-d to represent symbolically the process of the soul, Birth, Death, rebirth. It represents what the process of the order is about coming from darkness and obscurity to be perfected under the magic of the light of the divine. Think also about the Egyptian trinity that is prominent in the Golden Dawn Osiris, Isis and Horus, Succinctly It was Osiris that was killed and then rose again being reborn in the eternal light and was king of the underworld.
In the main the theory of the Golden Dawn is based on the Holy Qabalah, The Qabalah gives us the theory, and magical theurgy is the practical application of the theory of the Divine and the universe that the Qabalah bestows us with.
I would recommend to all true seekers a site you where you will find a wealth and abundance of information: www.golden-dawn.com look in the library section there you will find all the information you need on what we study and are our historical texts such as the Rosicrucian manifestoes such as the Fama Fraternitiatis and more. If you feel passionately about starting to study and work in this area I cannot recommend highly enough the web site. You are potentially a few clicks away from starting the great work to fulfil your destiny and reach to the stars and beyond. I would say that the site in question given above is the foremost Hermetic/Esoteric school that exists today anywhere in the world, I urge you to take a look around the site and read the intro you will not be disappointed. There are many knowledgeable Fraters and Sorors there to help you and you will never be alone in your quest. You can also benefit from physical initiations at one the orders temples that has lineage to the original order.
Before all things are chaos, the darkness and the gates of the land of night, quit the night and seek the splendour of eternal light through our most sacred order.
Fraternally In L.V.X.,
Frater Y.M.O.“Ex Deo Nascimur
In Yeheshua Morimmur
Per Spiritum Sanctum Reviviscimus”
