Ghosts and the Slow Shutter

Does the slow shutter of a camera capture a person's essence suspended in time for real? Yes we know its all about light capture but even so, I'm sure there is a bit more to this question.

Its like the famous parapsychologist visionaries of old. Many of them went off and wrote one book, or two books, three books four books etc. and these books were acclaimed as brilliant at the time of writing as many of them still are today.

On closer inspection however, these famous persons often used someone else's ideas and put these ideas in to a format which was up to date in their lifetime and so on and so forth.

If you study this subject carefully you will see that the same ideas have been re-packaged and trotted out for hundreds of years and several 'great men or women' have taken credit in modern history for a foundation of ideas and systems that was not in fact originally developed by them, but was actually developed hundreds of years previously.

Every so often someone has come along, read some old books and re-packaged the concept as their own work. I have recently found that many of the works attributed to a 'golden handful' of very famous 19th and 20th century parapsychologists are merely re-packaged copies of very much older material and it is not the work or even the idea of the 'golden handful' at all yet even today, they take all the credit for apparently mainly working out these systems themselves.

Another thing that may make people in awe is that these scholars of old have a fondness for latin language. Now there is nothing particularly clever about using latin. In the UK today you can read a bit of latin on the back of your shampoo bottle.

Learning latin was part of the national curriculum in the UK right up to the end of the 1960's and many private schools continue to teach latin today. The Catholic church used latin in it's mass. It was reasonably normal to use latin back in those days, it didn't mean anyone was exceptionally bright or clever just because they used a bit of latin. Latin sounds more pompous than using English, that's all, but its not really, but people think it makes them sound posh.

My late brother could read both latin and ancient Greek fluently, but that's because he learned it at school. He had books like Virgil's Aenid in latin and one day my hamster found a piece of chocolate on top of this book, ate it and dribbled all over the book's cover and that about sums up my view of stuff written in latin!

All Along The Watchtower

It would seem that every good occultist has had some sort of manic 'Carrie' style religious upbringing that has turned them in to some sort of 'nut' at least where the general public are concerned.  Even Joseph Stalin of Russia was the son of a priest. You could say that the 'mania' develops from being brought up in a religious household and goes on from there.

As far as the Golden Dawn is concerned, too many people think they 'own' It, own Its Rights, Its essence, itself. There are a good number of 'High Fallutin', 'factual' missives on the internet, including stuff about The Society of Dew and Light, like oh they actually KNEW David Lund personally.

Truth is my family really did know the Lunds, back in the 19th Century and yes some of the family were freemasons and members of other brotherhoods groups and sects back in good old Bradford as well as a number of other places.

Fact- the Stella Matutina was not the Golden Dawn but an offshoot of it. Dion Fortune belonged to the Stella Matutina not the Golden Dawn. Israel Regardie had a lot of manuscripts from the original Golden Dawn workings but he was NEVER a member of the ORIGINAL Golden Dawn, but another offshoot. So much of the stuff on the internet is factually incorrect, yet people brag and brag about their ownership of the Golden Dawn. Well good luck to them if that is their trip, but it is not the God's honest truth whatever they say.

Going on to The Watchtower this is another belief system, with Jehovah (God) as the great lord. it is still very interesting if somewhat bigoted. But then all religions are totally bigoted. It the 'my way or no way' syndrome.

Jehovah's Witnesses on Wikipedia

Occultism in a Creepy Old Building

The occult is a science, which follows a particular order. It's not about who knows the most, about what, or where, or how or any form of 'show off' knowledge. True followers of any occult path are in it for the religion, not to show off, thats why many occultists in history were poor, including Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers. Occultism is not a substitute for modern medicine, nor is it a placebo or blind faith, it is something more, a third element creeping in, or indeed being drawn in by a person or persons with enough knowledge of occult science in everyday life to make this happen.

The occult is not about a lot of male chauvinists in a rock band giving themselves or their band an occult based name to be 'really clever', its not about emo's or goths or anyone playing at being a pretend vampire and its not just for young people who dye their hair black, or old hippies from times past. The occult is really serious. It's one of the most serious things there is in life and it is there for anyone who has a genuine interest.

For those who are religiously minded, the occult doesn't actually go against anyone's God either, because it is not saying it is bigger than the Creator, just a part of creation and that could mean that your particular God created the occult too, so its not acutally about idolatry because all these created elements, perceived by some as idols could be seen as belonging to the Creator and being part of the Creator and therefore not idols at all, but part of the same picture.

The occult is not about arrogantly knowing the most about past occult 'heroes' or what happened to 'such and such' or where certain events happened. It's not about saying God is good or Satan is bad either. Anyone is bad who hurts other people with vindictive knowing. Anyone intent on harm is evil, whether they label themselves a follwer of God or Satan. Similarly anyone who helps others or does a nice thing for someone else is good whether they are a Satanist, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or other.

I have spent the last few days reading, exclusively, The Holy Qur'an translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. Before this I was reading all about Buddha and how to become a Buddha.

A lot of religious problems seem to be cultural rather than genuinely religious. To say a Satan is evil, end of, is not ackowledging the problems created by over zealous religous belief in GOOD which becomes evil because of the over zealousness applied.

I was suprised at how similar the Qur'an is to The Bible. A lot of it is so the same, why is everyone falling out? I have also read The Satanic Bible, by Anton La Vey and that man wrote in the main, some very helpful and sensible straightforward advice about looking after yourself.

Anyway, the upshot of it all is that we all repeated the Shahada quite seriously out loud which is what you have to do to become a Muslim so I suppose we have all become Muslims now too.

I think if someone tries to infiltrate your beliefs with 'false prophets' or the 'prophets of false' or false mockery, (whatever false means to you) or just plain nastiness, your only option is to infiltrate theirs as they tried to infiltrate yours. Hopefully it will all come out in the wash and everything will be OK in the end.

Meanwhile here is a creepy picture of the wreck of the conditioning house in Bradford, West Yorkshire, a truelly hideous, dangerous derelict building. Shalom.

Polyfaith Exploits of The New Hermetic Order of The Golden Dawn With Dew and Light

Cernunnos

Ibo-Ibolo

Horus

We know that 'Degree' ceremonies are meant to teach followers of certain concepts in small manageable steps. For instance, you could learn about the elements of Earth, Air, Water and Fire (in Feng Shui, the five elements used are earth, fire, wood, metal and water.

But in the same way you could attend Cambridge University, or you could equally attend the University of Life and eventually at some point your paths would cross.

It's the same with esoteric systems, there is more than one way to learn them and arrive at the same conclusion or destination as your counterpart. 'It's not what you do, it's the way that you do it' as the song goes.

If you are Polyfaith, then you can believe in everything at once if you feel like it, or be selective. We have a shrine to the Lady Epona, a Shrine to Lord Ganesha, paintings of the African warrior Ibo-Ibolo, the Lord Horus and also a painting of one of the oldest Gods of all time, dating originally from the stone age, Cernunnos, who is also known by various other names.

Vochi, One of Bradford's Great Pretenders?

I've mentioned Vochi here because he so craved fame and attention and would go to inordinate lengths to get it. Having said all that I think he was a snob, despite the fact that at the time I knew him he lived in a bedsit in Manningham, Bradford, but that didn't stop him getting grants for writing and I am given to understand he did some recordings with Red Rhino Records in York. He was one of those people you'd see, year after year,walking round town in a black leather suit or boots with silver platforms, like a peacock, with a dowdy peahen girlfriend in tow. Then he disappeared, either he cut his hair, got a car and moved to the suburbs, or he left Bradford. He's probably not even called Vochi anymore!

The reason he is mentioned here is because he was an unusual, though not very pleasant person. I think I tried to understand him, but some people have such big egos that it is impossible to have any kind of relationship with them. He claimed to have an interest in the paranormal. There was a bit of a scandal which was mentioned in the papers of the time, when a vicar banned a play Vochi had written from being performed in the local church hall. I'm sure it is easy to understand why that would be!

'Dracula' at Bradford Playhouse & Film Theatre

The Freemasons and Other Groups

My great uncle was a Mason, he was also a lot of other things including a nice old chap, he really was kind too. My grandfather belonged to the Ancient Order of Buffaloes and my brother was a member of the Round Table, his wife being a member of the Ladies Circle.

When I was fourteen I attended a 'family night' at a Freemasons lodge in Leeds, along with my brother, his wife and their friends, the invite coming from Brian who was Worshipful Master of this particular lodge at that time and a friend of my brother.

We played cards in the ceremonial 'court room', where there was a black and white chess board carpet on the floor. My cards partner, Mike and myself sat at a cards table and played against another pair, before moving to the next table and playing again. There were quite a few card tables set up and you played and moved to the next table. I wasn't really sure what game we were playing but my cards partner, Mike and myself won a prize at the end which was officially awarded downstairs, where a party was held.

Because Brian was the Grand Worshipful Master and we were his guests, we got a few privileges such as using his downstairs room as a cloakroom. On the wall was a long black and white framed photo of a lot of men in pinnies.

What I never liked, even as a young person, was all this men's stuff. It was all about men and men being powerful, women being mere decorations. If you look around you, it doesn't matter if a man is old, or fat, he simply doesn't care, because no one sees this as a mortal sin, hes a MAN, it doesn't matter. But a woman on the other hand, is persecuted for her size and weight, or her age, her insecurities fed by a thousand adverts to make her feel she is not good enough in her own skin. So she becomes a pawn to the will of a man.

This is not a feminist request for a rantidote, merely a request for true equality; a few years ago, an educational publishers published an article of mine in one of their books about ageism towards women.

Unfortunately men's clubs and men's societies even today act as a barrier towards giving women equal rights. Yes there are now token women members of many groups but its not quite the same thing as having had EQUAL rights from the start.

The pictures show degree ceremony staffs of a different Order (such as 60° x 3 = 180°) and there we have an equilateral triangle or is it a pyramid? I suppose you could meditate upon this triangle or put an eye in it, or walk through it and end up in Narnia (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, great book, a childhood favourite).

Lets hope the New Dawn washes away old prejudices.

Followers Of The Astral Path

The Golden Dawn and its offshoots hold the fascination of many across the globe. Pop and rock acts have called their bands 'The Golden Dawn', 'Secret Chiefs' and 'Dion Fortune' to name but a few examples.

One strange email discovered last Thursday afternoon was from a man who said he still held the 'rights' to the name Horus Temple of the Golden Dawn in Bradford. We explained that an area may hold several churches of the same name e.g. St Mary's or St Peter's but that didn't make one more valid or less worthy than the other. The man said he was a member of the Ciceros, so we checked this out as well as the various other Horus Temple's around the globe and also The group which calls itself The Golden Dawn in the UK.

A lot of workings are based on Israel Regardie's publication of Stella Matutina work, an offshoot of the Golden Dawn of which Dion Fortune was once a member. As Israel Regardie was born in 1907 he wasn't even around when the original Golden Dawn were running and the magical papers he obtained were from the Stella Matutina who in any case had adapted many of the Golden Dawn's truly original rites. Below are are quite a lot of links to troll through for anyone who wants to examine this fact. In other words, all groups in existence today could be said not to be the true Golden Dawn of yesteryear even if they have copied and even perfected many or even all the rites, which were constantly being changed even in the time of Westcott and Mathers.

We think the Golden Dawn should belong to the People as it is a part of living history and not just to an elite and wealthy chosen few who have the money and means. Many people are not professionally well connected enough to become Freemasons and the original Golden Dawn was full of theatre people, artists and writers, many of them women who would not have been allowed to be Masons in those days. Basically it was for people with enquiring minds, who wanted more from life than what they saw in front of them.

Mathers and his wife Moina (originally Mina) were actually quite poor for much of their lives and at one time were supported financially by tea heiress Annie Horniman. Pamela Colman Smith died in acute poverty in 1951 and was always short of money during her lifetime, even in her younger days as a starlet painter.

Then you have to look at the fact that however clever the rituals, they didn't do many of the members of magical orders a lot of good in the long run, Dion Fortune died suddenly of undiagnosed leukaemia, despite being hailed even today as one of the most famous Occultists in the world, when she could go out on the astral planes all the time, why didn't she know she was ill and why didn't one of her Great Masters try to help her? Also, why was Mathers conned by some some people purporting esoteric knowledge they didn't have, if he was such an Ippissimus as everyone thought?

None of these people were very good at curing or assisting in the healing of illnesses it would seem, despite all their magic. That, overall, is a very serious flaw in the system. If Mathers could apparently call up and view an Archangel - did he really have that right and what did he want to do it for anyway? - then why couldn't he and all his followers after him cure illness? If they were that good they should have been putting their talents to work in hospitals, mass healing the sick and also saving lives and stopping wars. (Or they could have joined S.P.E.C.T.R.E. and ruled the world, were it not for James Bond!) Remember the cult 60s TV show, The Champions, featuring Craig Stirling, Sharon Macready and Richard Barrett, characters granted perfected human abilities by a secret Tibetan advanced civilisation? Doing good for the people. So why was this not the case with the original Golden Dawn posse?

Although many of them are famous, it never quite really happened for them, heavily bringing their rituals, however fantastical, in to serious question as to why they did not do more good both for the users and for mankind in general, since they purported to be taking orders from 'Secret Chiefs' or Great Masters elsewhere on elevated planes. Maybe they misinterpreted what they believed they were meant to do?

And for the record...

August 21, 2009

On August 21, 2009 and September 29, 2009, respectively, we inadvertently photographed crosses in the sky in roughly similar areas of Bradford, both photographed by accident, when testing the camera and not seen until later – Golden Dawn symbol crosses seen early evening 'As the moon is rising give us the sign?' Is this the sign that we are meant to run the new Temple of Horus in Bradford, be it in our own contemporary, non traditional way, despite what anyone else may say?

September 29, 2009

Two other things happened, last Thursday (October 1). It seemed in my imagination that I was wearing a long cloak entirely made of blue and green feathers and I felt like I was wearing a headdress of feathers and the head of a bird with a yellow beak, as if I had become a bird priest. The image was so strong that I felt compelled to do a quick abstract painting of this bird image that evening. We again took this as a sign that we were on the right track with our new Golden Dawn Temple of Horus in Bradford, though the bird may have been a representation of Quetzalcoatl. The second thing that happened, was that a new book I had bought, still in a wrapper and not even read, fell open at an old photograph of a person wearing a hood, long robe and holding a finger to their mouth. Underneath this photograph is the caption 'The Sign of Horus: SILENCE.' Enough Said?

Quoting The Guide to Mysterious Iona and Staffa, by Geoff Holder;
'The members of the notoriously fissiparous magical groups were always in dispute…their entire lives seemed to be spent in a tragic-comic round of seeking elevated spiritual states, acquiring high faluting titles, and wallowing in base hatreds.'

Quoting Jo and Pete, who commented on an earlier post;
'A lot of what I have seen on the internet about the temple is not true: I was involved in clearing up the attic room in the late 1980's when it was owned by a friend of mine (Sirag). There were also connections to the old St James market, which was the repository of the ritual implements and I had the sword from the temple when the market was pulled down. I have kept rubbings of the ritual markings of the sword, which was identified as the Horus sword by Bob Gilbert (GD historian).'

Followers of the Astral Path

Stella Matutina

The August Order of Light

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (1888)

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Inc.

Chic Cicero