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Is the Golden Dawn a religion? If so, what is it?

Neophyte

Miranda Kerr Worship
A label's a label.


Labelling people is the first step toward discriminating against (one of those people). :(

There is nothing wrong with labeling as long as one realizes people are still different. People use to label me as a Baptist (I did as well), this just gave people a general idea as to what I believed. It did not tell them everything I believed, since everyone believes differently to a point. Again, labels are not bad...miss-using them are. There is a difference.
 

Witch9

Member
There is a difference.

I prefer to use names. Labels carry too much baggage. And you are, of course, entitled to use whatever name/label/brand you want, as long as it is your choice. Of course, if you let someone else label you, giving them that permission is also your choice.

I have been known to say, "A pox on all your labels", but some people don't like refer
ences to poxes, especially from Witches. Actually, some people don't like Witches, either, and mostly because of the baggage that they think that label carries.

Sometimes I think animals are the ones who are truly blessed, because they don't have language and all the crap that goes with it.


:bb:

"I yam wot I yam . . ."
[youtube]Ox5mzTtYfK0[/youtube]
Popeye
 

Mike182

Flaming Queer
A masonic or hermetic order would be the best name I can think of.

A question comes to mind though, does the Golden Dawn count as being revealed? Bearing in mind the role of the Secret Chiefs.
 

Jacksnyte

Reverend
A masonic or hermetic order would be the best name I can think of.

A question comes to mind though, does the Golden Dawn count as being revealed? Bearing in mind the role of the Secret Chiefs.
Not really. The original documents mysteriously dissappeared, and it was later discovered that the woman they came from most likely never existed. It has been generally assumed that Mathers & Co. made up the whole thing.
 

alexsumner

New Member
The Golden Dawn is not a religion per se. It is the name of an order and a system of magic. Its members come from different religions - from paganism (of all traditions) to very liberal Christians. One of the things that new initiates are told is to respect all religions.

The GD uses the both the Qabalah and the gods / goddesses of Ancient Egypt as a sort of common vocabulary - each individual member is expected to contemplate the symbolism in terms of their own belief system.

The GD does not promise its adherents salvation, but rather attempts to enable its members to Know that which their own religions expect to be taken on faith alone.
 

Muffled

Jesus in me
"The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (or, more commonly, the Golden Dawn) was a magical order active in Great Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which practiced theurgy and spiritual development. It has been one of the largest single influences on 20th-century Western occultism.

Concepts of magic and ritual at the center of contemporary traditions, such as Wicca and Thelema, were inspired by the Golden Dawn.

The three founders, William Robert Woodman, William Wynn Westcott, and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers were Freemasons and members of Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (S.R.I.A.). Westcott appears to have been the initial driving force behind the establishment of the Golden Dawn.

The Golden Dawn system was based on hierarchy and initiation like the Masonic Lodges, however women were admitted on an equal basis with men. The "Golden Dawn" was the first of three Orders, although all three are often collectively referred to as the "Golden Dawn". The First Order taught esoteric philosophy based on the Hermetic Qabalah and personal development through study and awareness of the four Classical Elements as well as the basics of astrology, tarot divination, and geomancy. The Second or "Inner" Order, the Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis (the Ruby Rose and Cross of Gold), taught proper magic, including scrying, astral travel, and alchemy. The Third Order was that of the "Secret Chiefs", who were said to be highly skilled; they supposedly directed the activities of the lower two orders by spirit communication with the Chiefs of the Second Order.



Most temples of the Alpha et Omega and Stella Matutina closed or went into abeyance by the end of the 1930s, with the exceptions of two Stella Matutina temples: Hermes Temple in Bristol, which operated sporadically until 1970, and the Whare Ra in Havelock North, New Zealand, which operated regularly until its closure in 1978."

SOURCE: Wikipedia
So it appears that whatever the nature of the Golden Dawn, it's now a "was" and not an "is."

I once asked a Jewish girl how she could do Tarot cards since it would appear her religion forbade it. She said "I am not Jewish; I am Rosicrucian"
 
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