What to Think of a Hand of Peace

The Golden Dawn has been shattered into remnants of its former unity since the schism of 1899. Without going into the particulars of that (since most readers here would be familiar with the history), the Order essentially broke into splinter groups. Since that time, many groups have formed independently, many of whom are online and offer various forms of initiation.

Being a practitioner of Golden Dawn style magic for some 15 years, most of which were solitary, I've always been dismayed at the attacks many of these groups made upon each other. When I moved and found a group here in Denver, I was apprehensive and at the same time excited. My time with the first group did not last long past my initiation into the 1=10 grade of Zelator, and my move to another group here proved more fruitful. I am not here to cast aspersions on any one group, and I can only speak about the one I'm currently a member of, and I refuse to break my vows to any group I belong to in any way. I am a member of, but do not speak for my particular Temple.

The recent move by Fr. David Griffin's group, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn to attempt to ease the years of fighting between different groups has got me to thinking about the future of the Order. Fr. Morgan's post on his blog "Gleamings from the Dawn" may be correct about the impossibility of a unified Golden Dawn. But is that such a bad thing?

The issue of the legitimacy of any group that offers initiations is a major concern, but out of the scope of the current discussion. Let us assume that all the major players in the current US GD scheme are "legitimate," whatever that may mean. Ignoring off-shoots like the Thelemic Golden Dawn, there are currently three major GD Orders in the United States, the Cicero group, Robert Zink's group and David Griffin's. These three groups have existed in one form (or name) for as long as the Internet has existed, and have in some way or another "announced" their presence to the world. Remembering as far back as I can, I don't remember a time when these groups weren't in some form of competition with each other. How can we all come together? Bro. Griffin says that,

[Our] Hermetic and Rosicrucian spiritual lineages can transcend faction and unite us all, while totally preserving the complete independence and autonomy of individual temples and orders.

This may be an excellent first step, and is in theory a beautiful idea, but how far would we have to go to "ensure" the inclusion of all the differing off-shoots that exists in the GD paradigm? Would there be inclusion or exclusion of Thelemic orders? How about groups that practice GD Work, but don't call themselves such? I highly doubt we'd all be happy about the inclusion of group "Enter Name Here" or group "Other Group" in a united Order.

What would a combined "Order" gain the community? There are three GD groups here in Denver, and I personally know that at least one of those has open relations with local Rosicrucian groups, and friendly relations with other GD groups, but has no interest (to my understanding) of joining with any over-arching GD merger. I feel extremely content belonging to a group that is far more interested in practicing the Work, including at least opening and closing at every meeting, education and officer training than one that is concerned with other Orders and the management or lack thereof involved in joining all groups together.

In my opinion, the egregore of the GD is large enough to handle those who perform rituals incorrectly, or those who include outside information including Celtic or other mythological godforms, or Thelemites. We'll never be a united community as David Griffin correctly mentions though until we do set aside our animosities. And this goes for everyone, including myself. In this blog, I'll do my best to never cast aspersions on any of my brothers or sisters in the Great Work.