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The McGD(R) of Ronald McFarrell and other franchisees of the McGoldenDawn(R) "Cult of Reconstructionism" are only the latest McDonaldizers of Occulture, but the Golden Dawn is not just any Order! In fact this rot is now eating at what has long represented the public face of the Western Mystery TRADITION.
Even though the McGD propaganda offensive still spins itself into frenzies of purple prose pre-prepared by the McGD lobby for release just as the final plank in McFarrell's several volume political tract hit the streets, the Traditional Golden Dawn Defence Team has stood strong.
No amount of name-calling, mud-slinging, and rote denial of matters of fact has quenched the iron resolve of the Alpha Omega in drawing a line for traditional GD orders in the sand against ALL who deny our Way the right to exist unmolested, with Secrets intact, and our members respected in their Path of choice.
The agenda currently in use by the McDonaldizing franchisees is hallmarked by the blindness of Fundamentalism, which always requires that blinkers be worn to exclude any valid point of view coming from the marginalized Other.
What has given McGD added force in warping the debate is that post-modernist "culture" is itself fully in support of such agendas against traditional spirituality, and selectively redefines "that which is rational" to suit itself. This has become so all-pervasive in modern life as to represent an unconscious web of assumptions.
McGD(R) Secret Chief - Raphael McFallenAngel(R)
As a traditional Golden Dawn order, the Alpha Omega must be forever wary of this onslaught generated by popular culture's fear and denigration of tradition, which stands in stark contrast to the fast food mentality of "ME! MORE! NOW!" - as this is entirely underpinned by egotism, greed and impatience.
It becomes ever harder to successfully train aspirants who arrive at our doorsteps drenched in these poisons. When they discover that we are applying antidotes of selflessness, hard work and patience, the shock is often too much for those so used to instant gratification of their culturally manufactured "needs"! Nor do we pander to demands for adjustments to a more "politically correct" approach that would better suit the ego games of Fifth Columnists seeking to force the election of their preferred candidate in some variety of boardroom takeover fantasy.
The fast food spirituality of McDonaldized Occulture cannot digest us so it instead attacks us at every turn. The root of this is the infantile desire to kill their father and possess their mother, for the AO, as a traditional GD order, openly claims to be manifesting from the SOURCE, and thereby the Father of the GD Egregore, and to carry the maternal Isiac Mysteries.
In fact a juvenilization of the Golden Dawn is underway among post-modernist initiates, one that perfectly matches the regressive trends of the wider popular culture towards arrogant disregard for the traditions of elders, and failures to mature responsibly beyond the larval stage.
McGoldenDawn(R) GMO Bio-Science
This neoteny will drive the McGD Franchisees into a species of Genetically Modified Order, as the only response they have left in the face of their DENIAL of the validity of the Third Order!
McGD(R) FrankenFoods Borg of Directors
They think that they have published the entire GD GENOME now that McFarrell has declared himself Burger King, but they are imagining uses for this code that were never part of the original intention, and these are not natural to the system.
From their lust for Revelation via disembodied Secret Chiefs, they will breed strange hybrids and monsters to feed the power vacuum installed above the headless corpse of a system re-animated by Franken-Farrell's McGD - and some of these will inevitably turn and bite them.
It is truly no surprise to us that we are specifically NOT mentioned by name in McFarrell's Tract, even as he lists his Reconstructionist allies, teachers and McGD franchisees. This marginalization is fully intended. Traditional Golden Dawn Orders have no place in books publishing their secrets, vilifying their founders through pop-psychoanalysis, and setting forth the future plan of attack for the McGolden Dawn Franchisee.
Ronald McFarrell's "Rosy Cross" Inner Order
Those named will be high among the "peers" who will come to "review" every publication with regards to its post-modernist PURITY, and denigrate each traditional voice that dares to be heard over the cosy hubbub of self-congratulation, as it develops a New Orthodoxy.
As a traditional Golden Dawn order, we in the Alpha Omega are the fly in their ointment, and the memory of the Egrogore they think they can Genetically Modify to suit their Frankensteinian dreams. Ronald McFarrell's GMOrder Initiations may fix hunger pangs for a time, but the McGD Franchise knows that post-modern aspirants will keep demanding MORE...
Fast Food Spirituality does not satisfy for very long, and over indulgence in it can be damaging to psychic wellbeing.
The McGD Reconstructionists have attacked every traditional Golden Dawn order they could see for two decades now. Dr. Robert Word, Chief of the August Order of the Mystic Rose was forced into silence by legal harrassment. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, our outer order was harrassed in court as well, trying to prevent us from even calling ourselves Golden Dawn.
McGD has used every dirty trick in the book including every fear mongering rumor to try to scare people away from traditional Golden Dawn orders. They have spied on us, sabotaged our temples, tried to poach our members, and everything else you can imagine.
But all of this has been to no avail because the Alpha Omega is still today the largest Golden Dawn order in the world. In the AO, we do not believe that resistance is futile. We will continue to resist the McDonaldization of the Golden Dawn and the AO will always remain a shining beacon of light for people not satisfied with post-modern fast food spirituality, but who are looking for the real deal.
BY GUEST BLOGGERVH FRATER A.A. (5=6)
ROSICRUCIAN ORDER OF AO
New Age marketer, Robert Zink today wrote on his EOGD blog:"The mystical community was shocked when a recent attempt to prove that astral initiation is not valid failed on another blog...I think a more productive path of the HOGD/AO would simply be to offer astral initiation. They are already providing the grade materials in a vending machine style format. This is significantly different from The Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn, which provides complete astral initiation to people who cannot travel to a local temple."Despite Bob Zink's misrepresentation, the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega, and our outer order the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, obviously have never been handing out grades like a vending machine. In fact, our curriculum is the most demanding of any Golden Dawn order, since, unlike other Golden Dawn orders, our members learn and practice the entire original R.R. et A. C. magick already our outer order, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. I personally believe that the HOGD/AO is the best and most thorough school of ritual magic that exists in the world today.
The HOGD/AO remains firmly committed to peace and harmony in the Golden Dawn community. Therefore, regardless how many old misrepresentations and attacks on our order Bob republishes, he is going to have wage his "one man flame war" all by himself. This does not mean, however, that our order will not at least refute Bob's attacks. As Bob continues to recycle old misrepresentations, we will simply recycle old refutations as well.
Let us, therefore, examine what Golden Dawn scholars have said about the New Age initiation Bob Zink invented to replace traditional Golden Dawn initiation, that Bob calls "astral" or "long distance" initiation. Scholars have repeatedly challenged Rob Zink to engage in meaningful debate and to back up his wild claims about New Age "astral" initiation. Instead, he merely repeats his talking points over and over, "slick ad" style, like a late night "Million Dollar Bob" infomercial.
In a nutshell, Bob Zink claims that, for a mere 200, he can wave his magic wand and, "Poof!," make you a "full Golden Dawn initiate" from the comfort of your living room arm chair.
In an old article, "Invoke Logic to Understand the Truth about Astral Initiation, Bob Zink again set forth his whole gamut of talking points and wierd claims about "astral" initiation. Let us review how Bob's claims have been refuted by respected scholars from across the entire spectrum the Golden Dawn community.
Bob Zink wrote:"There is no record of [MacGregor Mathers] traveling to Germany to receive initiation from the continental adepts! He was either self-initiated because there were no continental adepts of the Rose Cross, or He was Astral Initiated...... MacGregor Mathers and Monia Mathers... initiated ASTRAL INITIATION in the United States shortly before MacGregor death and Monia Mathers carried it out for many years."Robert Zink has been challenged, over and over, to provide even a single shred of historical evidence to support these weird assertions. Golden Dawn scholar, Samuel Scarborough, however, writes:"I think of myself as something of a scholar on the GD as well as a serious student of the GD system. The same can be said for Nick Farrell or Imhotep, or several others that say that these astral initiations are not verifiable, nor were they done in the original Golden Dawn or Alpha Omega or Stella Matutina after the 1903 Schism in the regular sense. There is no evidence for "astral" or long-distance initiation from those orginal bodies. I disagree with certain groups that claim that these astral (long-distance) initiations were commonplace within the original Golden Dawn. I have never seen any evidence to support such a claim. Nor can I think that Westcott, Woodman, and Mathers received some astral initiation as founders of the GD in the first place either."Noted magical author, Nick Farrell (Chief Adept of the Magical Order of Aurora Aurorae), writes:"If astral initiation was used within the Golden Dawn there would be some evidence of it... If an astral initiation was taking place then where and when and why did it not leave a trace of paperwork? There are no records of astral initiations being performed, nor any members who are identified as being part of the Golden Dawn who had their initiations astrally recorded. Nor is there any mention of the procedure being used in the various editions of by-laws, nor any diary notes from anyone saying that they had taken part in an astral initiation. While we have access to many different GD rituals, there are no recorded instructions for how to perform one."Next, Robert Zink writes:"If Long Distant Healing works then the same logic applies to long distant initiation. Our early brethren of the Rose and Cross-often did healing and there is nothing written that it was only in person. There astral abilities were often directed at the whole world, or areas of conflict or sickness. If Healing can be done long distant, then so can initiation...... it would be ridiculous to believe that the same Order that teaches magic that can affect time and space in astonishing ways, teaches that initiation must be done within a small confined space or a rented Masonic lodge? This is not very logical."Contrary to Mr. Zink's straw man argument, no one has ever disputed that Golden Dawn initiation has an astral component. What all true initiates understand and that Mr. Zink fails to grasp, however, is that the astral body is rooted in the physical body. In true Golden Dawn initiation, the astral body is affected by a transfer of energies from the physical body of the Hierophant to the physical body initiate physically present in the same room. To suggest that this can be accomplished "from the comfort of your arm chair, watching television on the other end of the world" is a scam pure and simple. Let us review what other Golden Dawn scholars have said about this matter.
On Nick Farell's blog, Polimetis wrote:"Nick. You know how EOGD always argues that and Initiation is not Theatre and is all about the astral (forgetting, as you say, the importance of basic psycological and emotional impact!)? Well, actually, ancient Drama copmes directly from the Dyonisian and Eleusinian Mysteries, and Tragic Festivals continued to a sacred ceremony and a sacred experience for the Athenians, which is, actually comparable to intiation ceremonies (especially masonic high degrees where only a few of the candidates participate, and most are just onlookers!). I bet no one in ancient Greece could say that if the director mentions the name of an Athenian citizen that was out of town, before the perfomance of a Tragedy, would 'astrally" experience the awe and pity that the tragedy inspired, and the psycologically healthy Catharthic effect of actually seeing the sacred perfomance!"Next, Robert Zink writes:"Not everyone is near a physical Temple nor can afford the cost of attending a physical Temple. Should these people be excluded from the Light of Initiation into the Sacred Miseries?"Regarding Robert Zink's claim that "Astral" Initiation helps those who would otherwise not be able to contact the spirit of the order, Nick Farrell responds:"So finally we come to (the) point... that (Astral initiation allegedly) provides a person with a connection to a working group that they would not otherwise had. This is clearly true, but in my opinion any link would appear to be administrative rather than spiritual. A real initiation takes place when the person is ready."Robert Zink continues:"The cost of 5 initiations before one can be invited into the Inner Order is outrageous for someone on a budget. The average round trip air fare is about 500.00 the cost of Hotels will bring this up to about 800.00 and then there may be the cost of a rental car, add another 200.00 Plus food. So each trip to a temple will cost about 1000.00 or more."This is grossly inflated and deliberately misleading. In the HOGD/AO, we allow initiates to complete their grade work one grade at a time, and if necessary for financial reasons, to make only one trip to a physical temple location to receive all of their grade initiations at once prior to admission into the Second Order. Robert Zink knows this.
Then why is Robert Zink is desperately trying to convince you that his New Age "Astral" initiation is as good as the real McCoy? Because he wants to line his pockets with your money!
Clearly, Bob Zink shares the belief that P.T. Barnum once proclaimed: "There's a sucker born every minute!"
Sure "Astral Initiation" works - And this is my new Star Fleet uniform!
