Golden Dawn Blog by Frater Yechidah

One of my personal magical "pet peeves" is the reversal of the old G.'.D.'. attributions of Air to the Dagger (cutting through the illusions of the mind, etc.) and Fire to the Wand (indicative of the fiery Will, etc.) to Fire for the Dagger and Air for the Wand. This latter approach has been taken up by many Wiccan groups and has been the cause of quite some muddying of attributions, and a lot of confusion therefrom. In a discussion on this topic a while back, Morgan Drake Eckstein mentioned that Francis King and Stephen Skinner, in their Techniques of High Magic , proposed the notion that the traditional attributions, as per Regardie and other earlier sources, were "blinds", and that they should be reversed. He gave the following quote from Skinner's Complete Magician's Tables : "The only notable exception to Golden Dawn practice is the reversal of the ascription of two magical weapons back to the traditional grimoire ascription of the Sword t...

There is a common battle in esoteric circles between the scholarly student and those who believe such scholarship should be dispensed with. For example, in some discussions I have had, I brought to light the very real fact that Hermeticism, as we know it (and I distinguish between it and Hermetism , which results in ire from those unwilling to make the distinction), stems from post-Christian times. All the evidence we have, including the Corpus Hermeticum , the primary source of Hermetic thought and teaching, points to this. Indeed, there may have been an older tradition, but that is speculation. What irritates me, however, is when people seem to think that just because we engage in a spiritual art, we can dispense with scholarship and historical fact, and, indeed, rewrite or reinterpret history to suit our speculation. Indeed, the frequency with which mankind seems to think that "older" equals better, particularly rampant in the occult world, is something that needs addressi...

One of my magical "pet peeves" is the replacement in some traditions of YHVH Eloah va-Da'ath with IAO for the Tiphareth sphere of the Middle Pillar Ritual. There are multiple reasons for this: 1) Laziness. People seem to think that the Hebrew form is too long, and thus vibrating it is more difficult. I've used it for years without any difficulty. Just spend slightly less time with each syllable and you'll be fine. 2) Many people seem to dislike that the Hebrew name is similar to that used for the Da'ath sphere: YHVH ELOHIM , and some others actually think that, because the word Da'ath is mentioned here, it should instead be used for Da'ath. This comes from a complete lack of understanding of the Tree of Life and the God-Names attributed to the Sephiroth. YHVH Eloah va-Da'ath is the God-Name of Tiphareth. Full stop. 3) IAO is Gnostic, and is more Greek than Hebrew (although it isn't really any language at all). Using four Hebrew name...