Golden Dawn Blog by Frater Yechidah

There are two ways people can get psychic abilities. They're born with them or they develop them. Some have natural psychic abilities and also develop them further, while others block out any inkling of a sixth sense that might hint that there is more to life than the physical. The problem for those with natural psychic abilities is that it can be extremely difficult to control them. They are not a skill that has been learned, but something that just is and just happens . Some, through their struggle, learn to control their abilities, while others find them slipping out of their hands at every grasp. Developed psychic abilities, on the other hand, usually bring a level of control, depending on how gradually they are developed, how much work the student is putting in, and what system they are using. In fact, it's less of an "ability" and more of a skill, a tool that can be taken up when needed and locked back in its box when not. This is important, because sometimes...

Sandra Tabatha Cicero has joined the Golden Dawn blogosphere, launching a blog for the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (HOGD), which can be found here . Tabatha is one of the Chief Adepts of the HOGD and is also Supreme Magus of the Societas Rosicruciana in America. She has co-written and co-edited a number of books with her husband, Chic Cicero, and has written a number of excellent articles on the Golden Dawn and other topics of interest to Golden Dawn magicians. Check out her blog and welcome her to the blogosphere. She hasn't posted much yet, but there's a sample from her Westcott's Enochian Tablets article from Hermetic Virtues  and some thoughts on Osirification which provide some interesting reading.

In February of this year Nick Farrell, the head of the Magical Order of Aurora Aurea , released Mathers' Last Secret: The Rituals & Teachings of the Alpha et Omega . The book caused a stir among many people and groups. Some were pleased to see more unpublished documents shared with the wider public, while others saw it as a further profanation of the Golden Dawn system. It's technically the second book in a three part series, with the first originally intended to be published by Thoth Publications a few years ago. It's almost guaranteed that the other two books will cause further controversy within Golden Dawn circles, but they provide some valuable information about the Alpha et Omega, the order that Mathers established when the original GD split.

The air is everywhere, all around us. Yet it is only when we concentrate it within a vessel, within the lungs, that there is life. Therefore we must take that which is spread here and there, from all ends of the Universe, and channel it into a vehicle through which we might come alive and bring life to our magical goals. The enactment of Magic is the exhalation of the breath which leads to Form, but it must be preceded by an inhalation, which sculpts our aspirations in Yesod before they reach fruition in Malkuth. This is why Aleph, the breath, begins the Hebrew alphabet, and why Beth follows, for the birth of Gimel cannot occur if the divine breath is not channelled into the house. Only with the union of Force and Form can anything truly be achieved. This relates to Flying Roll No. V , because the Imagination is the Air, ever-present yet lacking in direction. The Will is necessary to guide it, to make the Jack of All Trades a Master.

Issue 16 of Hermetic Virtues has been released, containing the following excellent articles: + Westcott’s Enochian Tablets by Sandra Tabatha Cicero + The Hermit by Harry Wendrich + There is No Part of Me Which is Not of the Gods by Nick Farrell + Mathers’ Last Secret: A Review by Samuel Scarborough + The First Degree Tracing Board – A Comparative RitualDiscussion by Timothy Walley + Modern Magick: Twelve Lessons in the High Magickal Arts: A Review by Samuel Scarborough + Raising the Serpent in the Western Mystery Tradition Part III: The Great Work by Harry Wendrich +Revelation of the Holy Guardian Angel by Jayne Gibson To obtain a copy, click here .