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...

The Autumnal Equinox edition of Hermetic Virtues magazine is now out, and includes work by Lyam Thomas Christopher and Lon Milo Duquette, along with many other excellent articles (and a new Horus Hathor tarot card, as well as a Malkuth ritual), including one of my own, entitled Reconciling An Elemental Inconsistency , which deals with the frequently-asked question of why Air is attributed to Theoricus and Yesod (a watery Lunar sphere) and Water is attributed to Practicus and Hod (the sphere of Mercury and the intellect, etc.). Reasons for why this seems inconsistent are first explored, before addressing some of the reasons for why it actually makes a lot of sense. If you don't already have a subscription to HV, get one now, and feel free to comment on the article itself (or other matters in the new issue) here. Hermetic Virtues, Volume 2 Issue 2

The Gold- und Rosenkreuz Order, one of the first Rosicrucian orders in existence, seems to have had a major effect on the formation of the SRIA and Golden Dawn, as evidenced in Rosenkreuzery by I.A. Fessler, which gives the breakdown of grades as: 1 9 Junior 2 8 Theoreticus 3 7 Practicus 4 6 Philosophus 5 5 Minor 6 4 Major 7 3 Adeptus Exemptus 8 2 Magister 9 1 Magus In the SRIA, the Junior became a Zelator, and the names of Theoreticus or Theoricus, and Philosophicus or Philosophus, can be used. The Adeptus tag was also added for the Minor and Major degrees, which seem unusual in the above layout, as if they are, indeed, missing part of their name. Templi was then added to the Magister grade, completing the layout. It's interesting to note the numbers given to the grades. Since there is no tenth grade, the Adeptus Major one is "5=5", for example, and that does not fit nicely with the Tree of Lif...

Sincerus Renatus made a comment on an earlier post here that the Portal grade correlated with Yesod, as opposed to my previous assertion of Adeptus Minor to this Sephirah. This opened the door for Adeptus Minor to go to Tiphareth, as per its traditional grade structure. However, this got me thinking about the Three Degrees in the Golden Dawn system, and how they each relate to a single Sephirah on the Tree of Life, and, indeed, a number of other elements of the Golden Dawn system. The First Degree is the entire Outer Order, from Neophyte to Philosophus. It is attributed to Malkuth. The Second Degree is Portal, and is attributed to Yesod. The Third Degree is Adeptus Minor (including all its sub-grades), and is attributed to Tiphareth - although all the Inner Order would also qualify for this Degree (albeit the original Order didn't really go above Adeptus Minor, barring temple grades). These also correlate with the three principle Officers in the Outer Halls: the Hierophant, Hegem...

Continuing the Yesod theme of recent posts (see here and here ), I'd like to explore a less well-understood aspect of the grade structure of the Golden Dawn and its attribution to the Tree of Life; and, for those already familiar with this, I hope to add another aspect for consideration: the Tzaddiqim (righteous). The beginning or casual student will no doubt be aware that the grades of the Golden Dawn are attributed to the Sephiroth (barring the probationary grades of Neophyte [0=0] and Portal, which can be seen as an outer court to Malkuth and Tiphareth respectively [it's interesting to note that these are the two Sephiroth with probationary grades before them, hinting once more at their union]). Thus we have Zelator [1=10] attributed to Malkuth, Theoricus [2=9] attributed to Yesod, Practicus [3=8] attributed to Hod, Philosophus [4=7] attributed to Netzach, and Adeptus Minor [5=6] attributed to Tiphareth (the grades above this are not relevant to this post). This is the p...