Golden Dawn Blog by Frater Yechidah

It is five years to the day since I posted on my Gnostic blog Henosis Decanus  about the relation of the planets to the Archons of Gnostic mythology . I was recently asked what my thoughts on this are after all these years, so let us explore this idea a little deeper. In the esoteric world we are often seen as being tied to the forces of our birth charts. Our strengths and weaknesses, our high points and low points, our ideals and aims, what drives us and holds us back, are all mapped out before us like an oracle, like the foretelling of our doom.  Indeed, it is often the case that many occultists will blame their chart for their problems, admitting a kind of fatalist thinking, where who and what we are is already decided, and cannot be deviated from. This is, in my opinion, an unacceptable approach for a magician, and certainly for a Gnostic. An adept who blames exterior forces for his or her problems is an adept hoping to escape responsibility, and thus this sho...

One of key factors to Adepthood, as far as I'm concerned, is the magical maturity that should be present, or, at least, a magical puberty that will culminate in magical maturity when the Lesser Adept progresses towards Greater Adept. The point of this is that the entry into Adeptus Minor does not, for one, automatically equate with the entry into Tiphareth, and certainly does not equate with communion with the Higher Self, which may not come until much of the work of that grade is complete. I expressed this point somewhat in a previous post , but I would like to comment more now on exactly how I view this magical maturity and the preceding stages of magical growth. Neophyte can be seen as the symbolic or magical birth of the initiate, from the darkness of the Womb of Matter into the Light of the Spiritual World. Even the thrice-bound cord around the candidate's waist can be seen as the symbolic umbilical cord, which is removed as the initiate enters the Light of Day, and is, as...

One of the most common misconceptions about the Golden Dawn is that everyone who has attained the grade of Adeptus Minor or above is somehow perfect or automatically enlightened. Many people have an inflated (and very erroneous) conception of what adepthood actually means, assuming that it results in the people in question having no ego (as if they could physically live within one), oozing love, kindness, and compassion, never getting angry or showing weakness, frailty, or fallibility, and always giving good, solid advice. And they're wrong. Firstly, receiving a grade or initiation doesn't automatically confer anything . It can begin a process where certain desirable changes occur and traits are gained, but it doesn't always do this (it depends on the ability of the initiating team and the openness and willingness of the candidate to engage fully with the path and the teachings it offers). Initiation is part of a process, and there's plenty more to do before the i...