What I am curious about from people here is: What aspects of the Golden
Dawn, its organization, magical system of thought, members, etc. seem to be
strike people as having really interesting unasked (and unanswered)
questions?
I have to start by echoing the lack-of-history issue for the Golden
Dawn, especially in how difficult it is to link the personal
biographical information of its members to specific magickal practices.
Some people came out of the Golden Dawn as very well-rounded people,
and others went down in a rather spectacular blaze. It would be
interesting to know where the turning points were for these people, and
which aspects of the practice contributed to their respective
developments.
One could probably look at the IOT now (provided one could get access)
and find similar cases of trainwrecks & success stories. However,
to the best of my knowledge the IOT doesn't share much of a communally
understood symbolic system comparable to the Golden Dawn's. One of the
main things I'm interested in specifically is what role, if any,
certain formal devices in the GD's symbol system played (and can play)
a part in what these people did with their "sanity".
- 'Lephty