----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 2:32
PM
Subject: Re: Golden Dawn Questions
On 12/14/05, Al Billings <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
I'm not sure if you have the data sources for
the Golden Dawn to ever determine things like this. You'd need diaries and
other records for the individuals.
No, I certainly don't have the data sources for it. Once again, my
sloppy organizational style has lead my letter to mix together a couple of
different points.
1) It's a shame there are no reliable records (that
I've ever heard of, certainly) relating to the original Golden Dawn, because
it would be awfully convenient to be able to refer to old records. As it is,
to approach the question in point #2 below one would need to find a
contemporary GD group that still uses the full symbolic and technical arsenal
of the original group and keeps to a minimum symbolic and philosophical
influences from Thelema and other recent spiritual movements. Either that or
you'd have to start such a group for the express purpose of watching it
explode...
2) The broader question (regardless of which incarnation of
the GD we're talking about) is simply, how do the pragmatics of the Golden
Dawn work out? What do people use it to do to themselves, particularly when
they're genuinely interested in the religious/magickal work? And what parts of
the system lend themselves to these uses? One could ask this of any magickal
system, but the Golden Dawn (and to a lesser extent Crowley's variation of it)
shoves together a number of interesting devices that are not commonly used
together today by most of the groups I'm familiar with.
-
'L