Golden Dawn Neophyte Ceremony

When you thought you were ready you would let them know, and they would take care of the rest, all you had to do was show up and walk a particular pattern. The preparation was an important detail, as looking back, over time regarding the journey taken by some of the others, nobody was ever told *no*.

If you were ready and you believed that, that belief would be enough to carry you across. If you were unsure, needed more time, but still wanted to give it a go, that courage would also carry you across. Sometimes reflecting on if you were every going to be ready was just as important. Yes, preparation was important, reading and internally-working the grade rituals, being empowered by the mystical repast, and inspired by the password of the Equinox, but even with that, knowing one is a little out of their league works to maintain humility and harmony in the temple. This laissez-faire attitude was by design and was deliberate with regard to how the temple operated. It worked on a kind of Darwinism and self-imposed karma, at least that is how I perceived it. Chasing self, grades, and papers compared to the experiences and magic of the temple would either quickly burn one out, or they would become frustrated by the lack of structure and favors in the temple and leave. One could crown themselves Emperor, but nobody in the club cares or was even listening.

Often when things were just good enough and you were thinking about what is next, one of temple seniors would make a suggestion that an upcoming auspicious date would be a good time to show up at the Temple of Dendur.

When one arrived at the temple it was usually about an hour or so just before closing, playing the odds of the least amount of people being there. One of the temple seniors would meet you at the portal and from there in the courtyard one would walk the Tree of Life as it plays out in the ceremony. Hopefully one had that memorized, and the only other instruction was to take your time with regard to walking.

Regarding the 0=0 ceremony what does it feel like? Similarly, when asking about other experiences in the temple, often the answer was silence, and that is a point I can now agree with and appreciate.

These things need to be experienced first-hand, and each experience while the same in the end, is felt differently in the moment based on the perception and karma of the individual.

To talk about what you may or may not feel during a ceremony would rob the very experience one is trying to create for the other person. It’s natural to wonder about it, and its natural to ask as a part of validation. When one is spending so much time and energy pursuing the occult sciences one wants to make sure they are on the correct path. So, if somebody we respect and admire, a magician, has an experience, and we have a similar experience that means we *are* on the correct path, right?

Perhaps?

But, what about the opposite?

What if a magician who you don’t respect or think is over-rated shares an experience, and you have a similar one, would you dismiss it even if it is correct?

Talking about something before one has experiences and grappled with it on unknown terms shuts down that alchemical current of transformation. That is why to talk about such thins is nonsense and a waste of time. Grab the experience for yourself, and then when you stand with your equals there won’t be a need to talk about it, just a nod and a smile.

This is the nature of the Mystery Traditions, and there is no real way around it.

Walking the courtyard the temple senior that met you would wait at the portal, and from there it was a matter of perception, which taken from the 0=0 ritual through the other grade rituals would put you in touch with the understanding of the Great Work.

That one’s state after the Fall from the garden of Eden a particular body was lost, and that through magic this body can be regained as a right, a right to be more than human. Over time one would perceive more, and by the time one arrived at Philosophus the temple courtyard would not just be empty, but rather it would be filled with the Gods and the shimmering paths and possibilities of the Hebrew letters.

Both of them were always there, it just took some time and convincing otherwise to make the impossible possible.