A widely-shared view of the goal and method of the Golden Dawn's Outer Order, in particular, but also the system as a whole—which I have also shared at one point—is to improve the self, to go through an alchemical process of change (often seen today in psychological terms), which typically involves breaking down one's life, one's fears, one's desires, one's weaknesses, and one's strengths, into Elemental aspects, which are then explored, strengthened, addressed, or balanced in each of the Elemental Grades (at least from the modern perspective).
While entirely admirable, and not without a measure of success—as experienced by many who have followed this approach—this conflicts with some of the official instructions given on how the Order (at least in its original incarnation, and subsequent form in the A.O.) approached things. Consider, for example, this extract from Flying Roll XX ("The Constitution of Man", a lecture delivered on 23 September 1893 by S.L. MacGregor Mathers):
"The Theosophists apparently advise the student to commence with the study of himself, and then come to the study of the Universe, and while I quite agree that he may arrive at his end by that means, there is the danger of that spiritual or thought selfishness, and this is the reason why we study the Macrocosm before the Microcosm.
"This continual dwelling on one’s own nature, with the idea of reforming and making oneself better, is apt to give you too concentrated a view and you are threatened with the selfishness which you have yourself engendered. This is also the danger of too great an asceticism, because it is apt to bring about the feeling that you are better than other persons.
"These are the dangers. If you can escape these dangers you will arrive at the goal.
"Therefore, to the student who is studying Clairvoyance, it is particularly advisable that he should rather repress that form of it which tends in his own direction, for fear of encouraging that spiritual selfishness which is so subtle as to escape his attention until it is too late. If he continues along this path, his errors will increase, and he will arrive at a period of depression. From this will arise a series of miserable feelings which might have been checked in the beginning."
This, to me, is rather explicit. One is advised to not continually dwell on "one's own nature", even for that high ideal of "reforming and making oneself better", for this would lead to an insidious selfishness, even though the initial aim was pure and good. In essence, it becomes a form of subtle narcissism. The magician who focuses on what is seen in the mirror or the lake—even with the aim of polishing or purifying—may, over time, forget to look at the world around them, seeing only that small and dim reflection. Notwithstanding the fact that Mathers himself was not without ego (to put it lightly), this is perhaps a somewhat glossed over teaching (and the teaching itself can still be valid, even if the vessel is flawed).
This raises the question, then, if the focus on improving and balancing one's Elemental nature in the Outer Order, as many do today, is in alignment with this ideal. Indeed, it does not seem like this was the approach taken in the original Order, which is supported by the fact that many advanced through the entirety of the Outer Order grades in roughly a year, leaving very little time for such a balancing to occur. When we add in the lack of practical instruction in the Outer Order (even the familiar Meditations were a later Stella Matutina addition), it seems nigh impossible for a student to achieve this.
I have argued for many years that there is a flaw in asking an Outer Order student to perfectly balance themselves before joining the Inner Order, as they have not been given the means and tools to do so (indeed, even the Elemental Implements are traditionally reserved for the Inner Order). Instead, the Outer Order grades act like a map for the territory that will be walked in the Second Order, where the Zelator Adeptus Minor studies the Neophyte Grade, the Theoricus Adeptus Minor studies the Zelator Grade, and so on.
The focus on the Greater World is also apparent in much of the teachings of Zelator Adeptus Minor, where, for example, Clairvoyance is used to skry Enochian Tablet squares and not parts of the self.
Of course, one must not forget the Hermetic axiom of "As Above, So Below", and thus the study of the Greater World does achieve, by proxy, a study of the Lesser World, and vice versa, but clearly the initial focus on the former helps prevent an almost exclusive focus on the Lesser World as being the totality of the Divine as opposed to merely part. We might all think this is an obvious point, and one we are immune to, but spiritual sin is much more subtle, and it is the accumulation of small errors that chips away at the edifice and undermines the whole.
As an aside, previously published versions of Flying Roll XX erroneously give the wording as "The Theosophists apparently advise the student to commence with the study of the Universe", which is the entire opposite meaning and a most egregious error. This was corrected in
The Complete Flying Rolls of the Golden Dawn, compiled and edited by the late Samuel Scarborough.
Moina Mathers also echoes this teaching in her paper "Address to the Neophyte on the Objects of the Order" (this was, to my knowledge a paper given exclusively in the A.O., but I am unaware of the original date it was given, though I suspect it was after her husband's death):
"Contrary to most of the Occult Societies of today, our studies commence principally with that of the Greater World. We are counselled not to concentrate too much on ourselves until we have learnt how to do so with a certain judgment and breadth of mind. Our tendency is so easily to narrow all things to our personal nature and idiosyncrasies.
"Now although the explanation of the nature of Man is little touched upon in the earlier Grades, the principal study being directed to that of the Greater World, yet in a sort of more or less unconscious manner the commencement of the growth and purification of the nature of the candidate may be said to begin as he enters the Threshold of the Temple."
Here we see some clarification in relation to the Outer Order, where it is acknowledged that growth may indeed be seen, but that it is "more or less unconscious", and also merely the "commencement of the growth and purification" of the individual. One is not, therefore, expected to consciously work on this in the Outer Order, nor, indeed, to achieve it in totality.
However, Moina somewhat contradicts this later in her paper with the following comments:
"TRY TO equilibriate these elements in yourself, and as you progress the ceremonies can help you if you will; for they impress on your psychic atmosphere the balanced symbols of these elements which will assist you to test your own nature, and will give you, if you be attentive to your intuition, a certain power which should enable you to search into your own character and to see its defects.
You should be able to perceive which of the Elements are to be strengthened and purified in yourself and also which have yet to develop, for when you say that you do not possess such and such a quality and that therefore you cannot exercise it, you are in error, for as a properly constituted human being you have the four Elements in your composition and consequently the qualities of their natures; and it remains with you how far these are suffered to lie dormant."
This instruction matches more with the approach we are commonly used to today, where the focus is on finding one's "defects" and "equilibrating" the Elements within one's self (taming those that run wild and bringing into action those that are not strongly present). Clearly this is an ideal and goal, yet it is also liable to become the very "continual dwelling on one’s own nature, with the idea of reforming and making oneself better" that Mathers warns against.
Perhaps, like in all things, balance is needed. One must not entirely ignore one's personal growth, but this should not be the entire or "continual" focus, particularly in the Outer Order Grades, where we likely lack the appropriate "judgement and breadth of mind". Indeed, Moina's words of "too much" are apt to emphasise here. Too much of anything, even a noble thing, is liable to lead to error. We can, therefore "try to" (as Moina stresses) equilibrate our nature, while not making this the focus and goal of the Outer Order, which is to prepare ourselves for the real work of the Inner Order, where, eventually, the Lesser World comes into focus.
If one were tempted to think that Mathers' perspective and approach changed or evolved since 1893 when he gave the lecture that became Flying Roll XX, there is also this very similar phrasing in his article on "The Real and True Rosicrucian Order" in the occult journal Azoth in December, 1916 (less than two years before his death):
"In our preliminary work we encourage our members rather to study the Greater World, than themselves who are the Lesser World, so as to counteract the natural tendency to become too self-centred, and to exalt the self at the expense of Universal Nature."
Of course, it is clear here that the self is not ignored altogether, and the Lesser World is indeed explored in later material, including in the Inner Order (Ritual U/V deals specifically with the Lesser World of Man, and Mathers mentions the concept of reincarnation in his Azoth article), but it almost seems today that the opposite is true: that the "preliminary work" of the Outer Order is used to focus almost entirely on the individual, the Lesser World, and not the Greater World, quite specifically "with the idea of reforming and making oneself better", as warned against in Flying Roll XX.
I am hesitant to criticise this, as, like Mathers' recognition that Theosophy's similar approach can indeed yield success, I would never dismiss the growth achieved by anyone taking such a path. I do, however, recognise Mathers' warning of how such a focus can lead one into error, and I think that this aspect of the teaching—which is somewhat lost today—deserves renewed attention.
Comments