Apotheosis

Esoteric Orders: A Survival Guide
          Section I: How To Find An Esoteric Order

Last Chapter: Section I: Introduction

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Back at the turn of the 19th century, if you wanted to get involved in an esoteric Order, you needed to know somebody. Secret societies were, well, still secret back then, for the most part. On rare occasion, one might see an editorial, or even rarer, an advertisement in a fringe magazine, with contact information through postal mail, if one was lucky.

How much things have changed in a century and a quarter.

When I was initially looking for the Golden Dawn in 1997, I stumbled upon AvatarSearch one night, which billed itself as the search engine for the occult Internet. Although it’s already been gone for a few years, it did a pretty good job in its day. I remember typing in “Golden Dawn” and immediately getting half a dozen solid hits. Before I knew it, it was 3 AM, my eyes were glazed over, and so was my mind from all the information that had been thrown at it. I started out excited, and ended up inundated.  Nearly two decades later, in a World Wide Web where “Google” has become a verb, a newcomer would only get more overwhelmed.

Solid, principled esoteric Orders have to walk an interesting tightrope in the 21st century. Tradition holds that they operate under a veil of secrecy. They have their oaths to preserve and their heritage to protect. Contemporary society, however, almost demands that they present some sort of public presence. This typically rubs raw against Orders’ oaths of secrecy, but it also provides them a powerful benefit, as they also have the responsibility of their egregore to perpetuate. Finding that balance is a difficult exercise, but one that they should not shrink away from, as good Orders are all about proper equilibrium, for their members and themselves.

Because of this, websites of responsible esoteric Orders are going to be predominantly for educational and informational purposes.  If their tradition already has a rich and protracted history, plenty of space will be devoted to it.  If the Order is a variation on a tradition, or an entirely new incarnation, expect there to be some sort of founding statement or manifesto, defining itself and its raison d'être.

Every half-decent website is going to have a fairly sizeable section devoted to resources, including such things as references, articles, images, historical letters, art, news, and event announcements.  Information pertaining to the Order's teachings, even if it has been published for decades, should be significantly excised, simply out of respect to the tradition and its oaths.  However, you can get an idea of the group's mindset and center of attention from the resources they provide.  If their materials adhere closely to their own tradition, you can expect the Order to be focused and devoted to that tradition.  However, if their information spans widely across a number of different doctrines and practices, it could be evidence of a hazy concentration on, or worse, a fundamental lack of understanding of, their own tradition.

Since these sites are primarily about information, and because these Orders are still semi-secret, don’t be surprised if they make it a little difficult to find out anything about how to become a member.  In fact, you should count on it.  You might find a reference on a remote page to a post office box or an email address.  At most, there may be an online form to fill out for serious inquiries only.  Many Orders, including ones with groups, circles or temples world-wide, shy away from publishing their locations.  After all, a good Order is going to, first and foremost, be discreet.

The more dubious Orders out there do not suffer this conundrum.  In this day and age, anyone with a little pocket change and time on their hands can register a domain name and set up a slick website, replete with fluffy bunny affirmations, surrounded by lots of eye candy.  In this sense, the Internet is the “Wild Wild Web” when it comes to trying to make heads or tails of legitimate esoteric Orders.

Those types of groups, more especially the smaller ones, are more than ready to let you know how widespread they are.  The thing is, finding out that an Order has multitudinous temples across the globe really doesn’t tell you much.  When newcomers see the word “temple”, they think of a free-standing building with dozens of people participating.  Truth be told, many of the “temples” out there are a couple people running things out of their spare bedroom, if you’re lucky.

The same goes for any references to membership brought up by the website.  Simply put, the earlier there is mention of the ease, and especially the cost, of joining their Order, the sooner you know what their focus is truly on.  If the information on the main page of the website reads like the script of a bad infomercial, then it is highly likely that they are trying to sell you something.  That’s fine if you’re looking to buy a pentacle necklace, a cool talisman or some other pretty bauble, but we’re talking about the first step on a new spiritual life here.  Think about it.  If a website claims to be the elite Order of its tradition, would it be so indiscriminate of its applicants as to allow anyone with a credit card and a button click to become a member?

Along the same vein, if an Order claims that they have all the tools and tricks to make your newly-founded spiritual life instantly powerful and easy, then they are trying to take you to the cleaners.  There are many reasons why the endeavor is called “The Great Work”.  It’s because it takes a Great deal of Work to achieve it.  Any good writer can give easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions for rituals and ceremonies.  Knowledge, however, falls considerably short of gnosis, and won’t get you even near the threshold of understanding or wisdom.  Spiritual growth requires a great deal of personal introspection, admission of hard truths about yourself, and significant psychological change.  There are no short cuts.  You will not hold dominion over your own personal world until you first know thyself.  As above, so below.  As within, so without.

Remember that this is but your very first step in finding the spiritual path that is right for you at this very moment.  Surfing the web is a good opportunity to get a glimpse of what’s available out there.  However, just because certain statements and claims are out there on the Internet, that doesn’t make them true.

If you want to find the right esoteric Order, you are going to need to do more than scratch the surface.  You are going to need to crack the veneer.  There are plenty of people out there, also accessible through the Internet, who have been underneath the candy-coated shell.  You can glean a great deal of valuable information from them, if you next choose to seek them out and engage them properly.

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Next Chapter:  Engaging the Community

So much attention has been given to the 30th anniversary of the Consecration of the Vault of the Adepti by Israel Regardie, that another important milestone almost slipped under the radar.  This Summer Solstice marks the 5th anniversary of the publication of Hermetic Virtues magazine.  Vic Sabljic, a tireless and devoted servant of the Great Work, has bestowed a great service to the Western Mystery Tradition.  Furthermore, the list of authors who have written for Hermetic Virtues is a veritable "Who's Who" in the esoteric community.  From many different walks of life and many different traditions, Hermetic Virtues has also served to bring the community together in a greater sense of sharing and harmony.  For all of this, Vic and his Hermetic Virtues team deserves significant accolades.

This edition of Hermetic Virtues also marks my debut as a published author.  The article, Change Your Motto, Change Your Destiny, discusses the concept and history of changing one's name, the various reasons to do so, and provides a deeply meaningful ritual in order to effect such a significant change in one's own magical life.

Here is a small excerpt from the article:

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Abram was promised to be made a great nation by God, but his wife Sarai was barren. Jacob was a cunning lad who undermined his brother and was sent away. Simon was a simple fisherman, Saul a persecutor of Christians. Aside from all being prominent figures in the Bible, what did all these people have in common? They all experienced a life-changing event, after which they took on a new name.

The custom known as Shinui ha-Shem is exercised in the cases in which a person needs to acknowledge life-changing events, change one’s path of misfortune, or even as a last-ditch attempt to save a person’s life from critical illness and imminent death. The foundational premise of this is, if you change your name, you change your fate.

As a ceremonial magician, our first charge is to create for ourselves a magical motto. It is not supposed to be a title or categorization as such, but a conscious definition and crystallization of our intent and aim in our magical lives. It is our first application of Will, the first thing we truly magically create and, in that sense, it is a self-initiation in its own right. This is the magical rendition of Shinui ha-Shem.

However, the magical life is not all roses and rainbows. We endure trials and tribulations, we come to crossroads and, sometimes, we even get lost along the way. As the Hiereus reminds us, “every obstacle can at length be conquered by perseverance”, and when the dawn of a new day breaks, we arise not the same.  As the Angel beseeched Jacob, “Let me go, for the day breaks”, just before giving him a new name, it is such times in our own magical lives that may be opportunities to change our mottos. After all, if changing one’s mundane name changes one’s fate, then changing one’s magical motto changes one’s destiny.

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Be sure to go over to the Hermetic Virtues website and get your copy of the Summer Solstice 2012 edition today.  Personally, my favorite article is Two Thrones for the Golden Dawn by Aaron Leitch, with Enochian Magic in the Golden Dawn Tradition by Dean F. Wilson a close second.  It's a very good edition and you won't regret getting a copy for yourself.

For 30 years, the Light shineth in the Darkness 30 years, and still, the Darkness comprehendeth it not.

Sunday marks an incredible landmark anniversary in the history of the Golden Dawn and the Roseae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis.  On June 24, 1982, Francis Israel Regardie, our Very Honored Frater Ad Majorem Adonai Gloriam, consecrated the Vault of the Adepti, tirelessly built by Mr. Chic Cicero.  Did either of them at the time realize what forces they would set in motion?

The original Golden Dawn was established in March of 1888.  By 1918, it had gone through infighting, uprisings, major schisms, ugly court battles, such bad publicity that name changes were necessary, and the Archon Basileus of the Alpha et Omega, Samuel "MacGregor" Mathers, would be dead by the end of that year.  The various splinter factions had already seen their heyday by then, and were well on the decline.

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn has seen its fair share of trials and tribulations in its history as well, some paralleling the original Order perhaps a little too closely.  But after I saw the following honorarium, signed by so many from such diverse organizations, I could not help but think that the Golden Dawn's best years are yet to come.

On the door of the Vault is written Post CXX Annos Patebo, "After 120 years, I will open".  On Sunday, there needs to be a new inscription: Post XXX Annos Nitemus, "After 30 years, we flourish and shine".

Dear Chic and Tabby, may the Lord of the Universe bless you and keep you, for He Works in Silence, and naught but Silence can express my gratitude to your endless devotion to the Order and to the Great Work.

LVX in Excelsis,
V.H. Frater Phaino

When I was going through the regimen of the Outer Order, by far the hardest grade for me was Philosophus.  I have almost no planets in the Fire signs in my natal chart, and oh, how it showed.   I struggled with the spiritual alchemy of it all, sometimes mightily, but most of the time pathetically.  My wife sometimes reminds me of the scorch marks I left on her, but then I remind her that she was in Theoricus at the time, just fanning my flames.  I had taken no longer than six months in any previous grade.  Philosophus would take me a year and a half.  There were many a time that I didn't think I would make it, but I managed to overcome, thanks to a little help from my friends and loved ones, scorched or otherwise.

The peculiar thing about it now is, out of all the Golden Dawn initiations I conduct, by far the most efficacious ones are the Philosophus initiations.  With a proper opening of the Fire Tablet, salamanders come pouring out and start nipping at everyone's heels.  Closing the same, there follows a noticeable draft felt at the ankles.  So I boggle at the ease of working with the element of Fire, because it gave me so much grief when I went through its Grade.

I was discussing this paradox with my wife while in the car tonight, and I made a realization.  I was reminded of my struggles with social anxieties in my teenage years, and they were much harder and took a lot longer to overcome compared to my paroxysms in Philosophus.  The Hiereus tells us in the Neophyte Initiation that "every obstacle can at length be conquered by perseverance", but what I just discovered is, the longer you persevere, the stronger you become.

Besides, I didn't engage in the quest for the Great Work because I thought it would be easy...