In his latest posting on the Golden-Dawn-blog, David Griffin talked about the counter-initiatic force as a force that tries to hinder important initiatic events.
Well, i think i have encountered this force several times for myself.
I remember my first date with the german Imperator back in 2002.
I wanted to introduce myself to him, and ask for initiation into the Neophyte grade.
We had an appointment in a cafe i knew well.
I was in there right on time, and since i have already seen him at the official inauguration of the german Temple, i knew after whom i was looking.
But i could not see him, neither inside the cafe at one of its tables, nor outside or in front of it.
I spent maybe half an hour going in and out again, desperately looking after him.
Then i went home again, sadly thinking that he must have made a joke on me, and doubting my worthiness for initiation into the Order.
But then i decided to call him again and it turned out that he, like me, was there right on time, and could not find me too!
When we finally met again, we could not explain how we could not have met at this first date.
This still puzzles me.
What is also still on my mind is my trip to America to attend an international Golden Dawn gathering and to receive my Philosophus initiation (!).
First, my bosses would not grant me vacation.
But then i decided to go there for just a weekend, despite my voice of reason (and now, of course iam glad i ignored that voice on that special account).
One or two days before my actual flight, several flight unions started to strike.
This caused great horror in me, since i knew i had to be exactly on time in Las Vegas to not miss anything important.
Finally every plane i had to take was too late and i missed every planned connection flight.
I found myself at the airport in Frankfurt, not knowing for one hour where my luggage is or which plane to take. Time was running, and i already had the thought of giving up altogether, and flying back to Berlin.
Finally, maybe 15 minutes before start, i found out that i had been redirected to an alternative route, and that my luggage was already at the new plane.
All in all i spent 24 hours on planes and in airports. And i would have missed the last possible flight from Washington to Las Vegas, and thereby coming one whole day later and only being able to meet-and-greet before going home again, would i not have ran through the customs and practised queue-jumping (i remember one european guy shouting: "Oh these germans, they always cant wait!").
The most bizarre thing happened one day before my scheduled flight to another european city for my initiation into Portal.
I woke up very early in the morning because the heater in my sleeping room started to make nerving hammering sounds.
I rushed out of bed, deciding to deaerate it now.
I grabbed a screwdriver and fumbled with it at the valve on the side of the heater.
Suddenly, the valve broke off, and a fountain of hot, almost boiling water flooded my room. It was a matter of seconds, and all my bed and furniture and book piles on the floor stood under water.
It even ran in cascades down the stairs to the lower floor.
In my shocking state, i was nonetheless really quick in collecting every towel from my house.
Fortunately, a good friend and neighbour came to help me with the mess.
But then i realized that the hot water had flown over both my hands, and that they started to blister!
So i went to my doctor and got both my hands bandaged.
Well, i thought, now i can cancel my flight and postpone my initiation.
But over night my hands started to heal very quickly, and when i was ready for the flight the next day, miraculously i even needed no bandages anymore.
I think i even know, to some extent, the counter-initiatic force, or the force that wants to hinder spiritual progress, before every greater invocation i plan. Especially in the past, or when i began to invoke regularly.
There have been many voices and moods that wanted me to linger away from my plans.
Sometimes this manifested as urgent phone calls from friends with unexpected news, sometimes maybe as slight headaches (that passed at the moment when i started to do my preliminary banishings), sometimes as subtle ailments in one or another kind.
In regard to my personal work at my temple at home, i always thought this to be a kind of spiritual or magical test in itself.
My own Evil Persona, trying to convince myself in subtle ways to give up my lofty plans.
But the more often i conquered this force with firm will, the less distractive or convincing it became.
But now i wonder about the gravity of the counter-initiatic force when it ever comes to higher initiations.
Will i nearly escape death if i ever receive higher adept grades?
Lots of laughter.
In L.V.X.,
L.e.N.e.
Mittwoch, 23. Februar 2011
Dienstag, 1. Februar 2011
Gustav Meyrink and the occult tradition in Germany before World War II
All through the years i have always been interested in the occult history of Germany, and especially Berlin.
Of course, I have read Karl Frick's masterpiece of scholar research "Die Erleuchteten", a heavy volume which deals with all the gnostic-theosophic and alchemical-rosicrucian secret societies in the german speaking countries up to the end of the 18th century.
Therein i found the most extensive excourse on the german Gold-und-Rosenkreutz-Orden and its spin-off the asiatic Brethren i have ever read, both organisations being antecedents of the modern Golden Dawn.
I have another book in my possession, a limited edition of 500 copies which is simply called "Gold-und Rosenkreutzer", published by the "Archiv für altes Gedankengut und Wissen" in Germany, with beautiful typeset and bound in red linen, and this one consists mainly of very cryptic recipes of laboratory alchemy written down by different brethren of the old G.u.R. Order.
A very detailed historic account on the occult history of Germany and Bohemia we also find in the biography of Gustav Meyrink, a german writer (1868-1932) who is famous for his occult novels, especially "Der Golem".
Gustav Meyrink not only was the head of the bohemian branch of the Asiatic Brethren, but also of countless other masonic and esoteric bodies and branches of that time. He knew every renowned person of the occult and theosophic scene of that time, and he also was in mail contact with William Wynn Westcott, from whom he received certain instructions on hermeticism.
This biography is full of interesting anecdotes on occultism, since Meyrink, throughout his whole life, tried to "become more than human", and experimented with several systems to achieve this, western and eastern techniques alike.
At the end of his life he even said that he found out that the primary aim of any occult student should be to strive to not only change consciousness through magic, but moreover to transmute the physical body into higher forms of energy.
This, and the whole knowledge displayed throughout his extensive body of writing, published and private, reveals that he certainly has reached a high level of attainment.
One of the most interesting anecdotes that comes to my mind when remembering Hartmut Binders biography is that Meyrink once described the official emblem of the Asiatic Brethren, which consisted of the heads of a boar and of an unicorn, placed symmetrically to each other.
Then there is http://user.cyberlink.ch/~koenig/, the page of one Peter König, who is regarded as one of the best historic researchers on german occultism, especially on the phenomenon of the O.T.O., the german Fraternitas Saturni, and everything that predated these two organisations. It is said that Peter König possesses even more material on the history and origin of the O.T.O. than the O.T.O. itself.
On the 7th of December 1937, the german Nazi government forced every masonic and related esoteric organisations to close down their lodges, and on Königs research page we find a facsimile of the original edict with a list of all the names of these esoteric bodies. And hey, this list is HUGE.
Amongst all the numerous masonic organisations, we find also countless rosicrucian bodies, and even one organisation called "Der hermetische Orden der Goldenen Dämmerung", which, of course, caught my greatest interest, since i never heard of one german branch of it before.
I also once saw on TV a documentary on Hitler and the occult, where i saw shots of the inside of several occult lodges in Berlin in the 30s.
This all sums up to the conclusion that there once was a rich occult tradition in the german speaking countries, and that this tradition suffered a severe cut through Hitlers regimen.
He not only was committing genocide, but also murdered a vast esoteric corpus, and at the same time, and paradoxically, tried to incorporate bits and pieces of plain esoteric knowledge into his semi-esoteric ario-sophic Order of the S.S.
Hitler made tabula rasa on the occult landscape of Germany, and i believe only the smallest pieces of it could survive underground.
After World War II, the occupation forces of America helped to re-erect Freemasonry, and a few personalities from the several occult bodies who survived the War began to re-erect the O.T.O. and a pansophic lodge out of which was born the Fraternitas Saturni.
Soon Crowley appeared on the scene, and after becoming head of the english branch of the O.T.O. through Theodor Reuss, exerted his influence on the german countries as well, by proclaiming that he was the Prophet of the New Aeon at a famous congregation of occultists in Thüringen in the 40s.
Since then, the loose strands of german occultism that survived WWII became influenced by the Law of Thelema in varying degrees, and in my opinion, spoiled.
What is left in Germany since then is Freemasonry, the O.T.O., and the Fraternitas Saturni, that was founded by one Eugen Grosche, formerly secretary of the pansophic lodge, who was also present at the convention in Thüringen and highly excited by Crowleys appearance.
And last but not least, in 2002 a Temple of the Golden Dawn was inaugurated in Berlin
by David Griffin, the international Imperator G.H. Frater L.e.S., to bring back the Light to its original place!
My conclusive thought on all that is, although its sad that probably a great deal of knowledge simply got lost during WWII, its maybe not necessary to have a vast amount of esoteric bodies here, like it has been in former times.
We have to bear in mind that at the beginning of the 20th century, and even before, it was to some extent simply "trendy" to be member of a secret society- given that you were upper class or at least of "good standing", of course....
Quantity is not quality.
Of course, I have read Karl Frick's masterpiece of scholar research "Die Erleuchteten", a heavy volume which deals with all the gnostic-theosophic and alchemical-rosicrucian secret societies in the german speaking countries up to the end of the 18th century.
Therein i found the most extensive excourse on the german Gold-und-Rosenkreutz-Orden and its spin-off the asiatic Brethren i have ever read, both organisations being antecedents of the modern Golden Dawn.
I have another book in my possession, a limited edition of 500 copies which is simply called "Gold-und Rosenkreutzer", published by the "Archiv für altes Gedankengut und Wissen" in Germany, with beautiful typeset and bound in red linen, and this one consists mainly of very cryptic recipes of laboratory alchemy written down by different brethren of the old G.u.R. Order.
A very detailed historic account on the occult history of Germany and Bohemia we also find in the biography of Gustav Meyrink, a german writer (1868-1932) who is famous for his occult novels, especially "Der Golem".
Gustav Meyrink not only was the head of the bohemian branch of the Asiatic Brethren, but also of countless other masonic and esoteric bodies and branches of that time. He knew every renowned person of the occult and theosophic scene of that time, and he also was in mail contact with William Wynn Westcott, from whom he received certain instructions on hermeticism.
This biography is full of interesting anecdotes on occultism, since Meyrink, throughout his whole life, tried to "become more than human", and experimented with several systems to achieve this, western and eastern techniques alike.
At the end of his life he even said that he found out that the primary aim of any occult student should be to strive to not only change consciousness through magic, but moreover to transmute the physical body into higher forms of energy.
This, and the whole knowledge displayed throughout his extensive body of writing, published and private, reveals that he certainly has reached a high level of attainment.
One of the most interesting anecdotes that comes to my mind when remembering Hartmut Binders biography is that Meyrink once described the official emblem of the Asiatic Brethren, which consisted of the heads of a boar and of an unicorn, placed symmetrically to each other.
Then there is http://user.cyberlink.ch/~koenig/, the page of one Peter König, who is regarded as one of the best historic researchers on german occultism, especially on the phenomenon of the O.T.O., the german Fraternitas Saturni, and everything that predated these two organisations. It is said that Peter König possesses even more material on the history and origin of the O.T.O. than the O.T.O. itself.
On the 7th of December 1937, the german Nazi government forced every masonic and related esoteric organisations to close down their lodges, and on Königs research page we find a facsimile of the original edict with a list of all the names of these esoteric bodies. And hey, this list is HUGE.
Amongst all the numerous masonic organisations, we find also countless rosicrucian bodies, and even one organisation called "Der hermetische Orden der Goldenen Dämmerung", which, of course, caught my greatest interest, since i never heard of one german branch of it before.
I also once saw on TV a documentary on Hitler and the occult, where i saw shots of the inside of several occult lodges in Berlin in the 30s.
This all sums up to the conclusion that there once was a rich occult tradition in the german speaking countries, and that this tradition suffered a severe cut through Hitlers regimen.
He not only was committing genocide, but also murdered a vast esoteric corpus, and at the same time, and paradoxically, tried to incorporate bits and pieces of plain esoteric knowledge into his semi-esoteric ario-sophic Order of the S.S.
Hitler made tabula rasa on the occult landscape of Germany, and i believe only the smallest pieces of it could survive underground.
After World War II, the occupation forces of America helped to re-erect Freemasonry, and a few personalities from the several occult bodies who survived the War began to re-erect the O.T.O. and a pansophic lodge out of which was born the Fraternitas Saturni.
Soon Crowley appeared on the scene, and after becoming head of the english branch of the O.T.O. through Theodor Reuss, exerted his influence on the german countries as well, by proclaiming that he was the Prophet of the New Aeon at a famous congregation of occultists in Thüringen in the 40s.
Since then, the loose strands of german occultism that survived WWII became influenced by the Law of Thelema in varying degrees, and in my opinion, spoiled.
What is left in Germany since then is Freemasonry, the O.T.O., and the Fraternitas Saturni, that was founded by one Eugen Grosche, formerly secretary of the pansophic lodge, who was also present at the convention in Thüringen and highly excited by Crowleys appearance.
And last but not least, in 2002 a Temple of the Golden Dawn was inaugurated in Berlin
by David Griffin, the international Imperator G.H. Frater L.e.S., to bring back the Light to its original place!
My conclusive thought on all that is, although its sad that probably a great deal of knowledge simply got lost during WWII, its maybe not necessary to have a vast amount of esoteric bodies here, like it has been in former times.
We have to bear in mind that at the beginning of the 20th century, and even before, it was to some extent simply "trendy" to be member of a secret society- given that you were upper class or at least of "good standing", of course....
Quantity is not quality.
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