The brightest gem has many facets

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.

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.



5 comments:

You are absolutely correct that the "brightest gem has many facets". The Flying Rolls Commentary book certainly illustrates that clearly.

The number of diverse contributors and their varying ideas is proof the the Golden Dawn Tradition and Community are alive and thriving. There are differences of opinion within the Community, but as you point out that makes for a rich milieu from which to grow and learn.

There was indeed a sad period in time when there appeared to be a great deal of infighting and backstabbing, especially in the online fora and blogs. Overall it was only a handful of folks participating in that loudly. Some of them not even members of the Golden Dawn Community, but outsiders stirring strife.

The truth is that there has been a lot of very quiet behind the scenes cooperation, sharing of ideas and information, and just general fraternalism going on within the Golden Dawn Community since I became involved about 20 years ago. This was eclipsed at times by the noise that was around on the internet a decade or so ago. What has manifested now is the natural outgrowth of all that fraternal work and sharing of ideas! It is high time as well, in my opinion.

A lot of the dross within the GD Community has been burnt off and even the strife-stirring outsiders to the Community have faded away. What is left is a more perfected Community which can more openly work together, can share more, strengthen the Community and Tradition more, and get on with the very important Work at hand - the Magnum Opus.

In LVX,
Samuel

July 7, 2013 at 10:56 AM  

From what I remember of those days a lot of the wars were based on two or three individuals trolling people who should have known better and then unleashing sock puppets onto them to make it look like their numbers were greater. I remember the day in 1997 when I packed it in completely. I dont think I was the first and I wasnt the last. In the end it was just the trolls and their sockpuppets and everything public just vanished. Alt.magic is just a source now for UFO hunters and conspiracy nuts. It is a pity in many respects because that was a golden age for information with some top names posting when normally you would have had to wait months for a letter back from them. But what happened really was that we all started emailing each other and supporting un-officially. The trolls still continued their antics but normally from attack blogs, all this did was keep the impression going that the war was still running. One attack blog has a post with more than 50 comments all written by the sock puppet. Fortunately they are shouting to a void now, and few believe them. Still, the commentaries book was one of the first fruits of the sort of information being shared behind the scenes.

July 7, 2013 at 11:29 AM  

The articles are very well done. Each tends to expand on the original roll, and tie in other aspects of GD. There are some new ideas as well.

As one of the contributors, I have enjoyed my efforts in this project and feel that overall the other papers will be useful for study. This book is a must-have for any occultist.

Quite the book.

Y

July 7, 2013 at 12:05 PM  

Great post Eric! And I agree wholeheartedly. The Golden Dawn community has had some growing pains over the last twenty years, and has certainly had some hard lessons to learn. But, even through the toughest times, there were some (most really) who just stayed quiet and did the Work.

Now we have truly come of age - as a movement - and have left our past struggles firmly where they belong. The past several years has seen a new age of fraternity and cooperation between the various GD Orders. And we are only beginning to see a wealth of new material and resources produced by this second generation of modern GD Adepts.

The past 20 years has had its share of strife - but I am honestly excited about what's coming in the months and years to come. We may be witnessing a new Golden Age for the Golden Dawn. ;)

See my post on this very same topic here:

http://aaronleitch.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/what-exactly-do-you-mean-by-golden-dawn-community/

LVX
Aaron Leitch

July 7, 2013 at 4:07 PM  

Amazingly enough, in alt.magick they're still at it.

October 29, 2013 at 1:53 PM  

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