Lurking on Pat Zalewski’s Yahoo Forum, I have come to the conclusion: there are no innovations or new developments in the Golden Dawn!
I say this because the same subjects keep getting debated month after month: only the titles of the threads change. Heck, with only so many shopping days to go til Christmas, we will be probably going on about solstices soon enough!
Anyway: here is a prime example – a debate whether in the Golden Dawn it is a good idea to open the temple in the 0=0, then raise it to a higher grade, then lower it back down again afterwards. It was gone over last month, but in the context of opening and closing by sceptre.
— In golden-dawn-group@yahoogroups.com, “Martin Thibeault” <reaux.croix@…> wrote:
Aside from schedule conflicts, I am interested to hear how you would deal with the 0=0 Godforms invoked on the floor for the Opening and then invoking the ones for the Elemental Ceremony to follow. Would you invoke the 0=0 ones, leave them there then have Officers briefly leave Temple while the Hierophant invokes the Elemental ones? Would you `release’ the 0=0 ones prior to invoking the Elemental ones? If so would you re-invoke them for the closing at the end?
Given that Macgregor Mathers thought that the god-forms of the 0=0 were basically the same as those of the Outer Order generally but with a few variations, this would be entirely reasonable: what’s more there would be no re-invocation because they are already there.
Of course – if on the other hand you subscribe to the rather sophisticated method of attributions set out in Rituals & Commentaries this would not be feasible.
It all boils down to what you consider authentic GD practice: the kind outlined in Mathers’ paper on the 1=10 ceremony, or what was done at Whare Ra.
See what I did there? I included a plug for two different Pat Zalewski books, so he’s in a win-win situation whatever the outcome of the debate! 🙂