I can remember a time, back about a decade or so ago, when the most recent "Golden Dawn Wars" started. A person couldn't go anywhere in the online arena, whether it be alt.magick, or the Golden Dawn Yahoo Groups (most especially the Golden Dawn Meeting Place), or the Order-based fora offered up, without witnessing bickering and infighting as far as the eye could see. Arguments about lineage and legitimacy, who were the REAL heirs of the Golden Dawn legacy, were the most popular. Then the juiciest gossip about misconduct or malfeasance by certain Order Chiefs would come out, to the audience's relish. All this did a lot of damage to the Golden Dawn community, and more especially its reputation, to any esoterically-minded person who heard about the mudslinging.
Yet in the midst of these various and sundry skirmishes, there would be a rare, occasional post which would basically say, for each person mired in those battles, there were many others simply doing the Work in silence.
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| This book is proof of that declaration |
The Commentaries on the Golden Dawn Flying Rolls is the culmination of an idea over ten years in the making. Twenty-seven authors from fourteen different Orders and organizations and one selfless publisher, with a singular vision and love for the Golden Dawn System of Magic, were able to set aside any political differences and complete a very well-written work in peace.
As you read through the various commentaries, you will notice that the authors come from a wide spectrum of backgrounds and experiences, and I'm sure some of them will flat out disagree with some others' commentaries. (I know I do.) I do not see this, however, as a dilution nor a dispersion of the original Golden Dawn egregore. Rather, I see it instead as a rich diversity, in which differing viewpoints can be shared and synthesized, or if not, practitioners have simply agreed to disagree like mature adults. When all is said and done, we are all much more alike than we are different, and that is just one of the many reasons why this book's author is listed as the Golden Dawn Community.
Having been both a participant of the online kerfuffles and a contributor to this book, I guess you can say I have been both part of the problem and part of the solution. Ten plus years, though, is plenty of time to learn a lot of lessons. The main thing I have learned is that those voices that speak the loudest or most prolifically rarely come from either knowledge or wisdom. Far better to listen to those who speak softly and sparingly, most especially the still, small voice of the Divine Spark within.
