Practicing in Accordance with the Golden Dawn Materials

There are basically three approaches to Golden Dawn work:

1. Do it completely on your own, or in conjunction with like-minded individuals who are also beginners;

2. Find an active Golden Dawn temple and join; or

3. Do some preliminary work and then join a temple.

I used to subscribe strongly to #2, but have come to believe that the published materials and comments are so rich that some very solid work can be done alone, on your own, in actually advancing through the outer grades and not just in picking and choosing preparatory rituals designed for individual practice to study and work on.

Keep in mind that Golden Dawn work is essentially divided into three areas: graded initiations, which are required before receiving certain knowledge lectures; preparatory exercises, such as the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, Rose Cross Ritual, Analysis of the Key Word (INRI) etc.; and knowledge lectures and other study.

I have no doubt that a pure-hearted, properly motivated individual can practice the preparatory exercises to great benefit, and study the knowledge lectures and larger body of published works they suggest. The question is whether one can "receive the grades," or some semblance of them, by reading the initiatory rituals carefully, imaginatively engaging in them, or actually carrying them out without full temple paraphenalia and full temple officers.

My conclusion is that the best initiation is from a group that has already done solid work itself, but that to a large extent you can also "haul yourself up" by your own bootstraps - which is essentially what the founders of the Golden Dawn and their most infamous student, Aleister Crowley, did. Doing it yourself is harder, but free from the political infighting and social issues attendant to groups. Also, you have more "ownership" of the results yourself.

You should be cautioned that some active temples take a dim view of self-initiation, and will refuse to initiate you into any ritual you have even read beforehand, much less "self-initiated" yourself in via active imagination. On the other hand, one group invites self-initation in the outer orders (up to Adeptus Minor), and has taken the position that the publication of outer Golden Dawn materials has to be recognized at this stage of the game as an accomplished fact and de facto invitation to participate "at large."

In the course of this blog I will hopefully explore self-initation and the available source materials more.