Golden Dawn Blog by Frater Yechidah

In an interesting blog post Nick Farrell asked a pivotal, and yet frequently ignored, question about why some magic fails. He cited a number of reasons people have given over time, including classic cop-outs like God or your Higher Self saying no, and the more acceptable notion of psychological blocks. On the first topic, I do not personally believe that God or the Higher Self would refuse a request. This might be an acceptable idea in a devotional school of thought, but magicians do not simply go with the flow—they create and direct the flow. A magician is an active player in the universe, one who takes responsibility for his or her life. If a ritual for a job is performed and it does not work, then the magician cannot simply blame God and accept this as "the way it is meant to be." Such fatalistic thinking has no place in magic. So if external forces are not stopping us, that leaves internal forces. In many ways we are our own worst enemies, and part of the proces...

Recently the topic of fear stopping one's progress has come up, specifically in relation to the use of certain types of magic, but it is an important point for us all in general. I have already shared somewhat on this topic in a previous post entitled Fear is Failure , but I have the following to add, or reiterate, here: Firstly it is important to post the quote from one of the ceremonies: "Fear is failure, so be thou without fear. For he who trembles at the Flame and the Flood and at the Shadows of the Air, hath no part in God." There is also a reference to this in the essay entitled On the General Guidance and Purification of the Soul which is given to the Practicus: "Humble thyself before thy God, yet fear neither man nor spirit. Fear is failure and the forerunner of failure; and courage is the beginning of virtue. Therefore fear not the Spirits, but be firm and courteous with them, for thou hast no right either to despise or to revile them, and this too may lea...

One of the key passages of the Neophyte ceremony is that said by the Hiereus: "Fear is failure [and the forerunner of failure]" (the bracketed part is only employed by certain groups). "Therefore, be without fear", we are told. I would like to explore some of these elements of fear that a Neophyte might face. Firstly there is the fear of magic, spirits, and the "occult" in general. To fear such is to cause the journey to cease before it is begun. Fear is a natural human emotion, true enough, but we are to become "more than human", and to do so we must not fear the tools of our growth, which are the occult. To do so would mean that we leave the path, having failed our mission, giving in to the wiles of the ego, and never progressing within the Order. Secondly there is the fear of change. Magic is, as Crowley put it, change in conformity with Will. Initiation, if successful, causes the beginnings of change. This can be hectic and seemingly catastro...