In the research I did for my new book
King over the Water, I came across one very interesting fact which
surprised me. There have been a number of Orders out there who claim
that they have lineage from the Isis-Urania Temple of Mathers. This
was the temple that Mina set up in London after her husbands death
and which continued under one of her students Garstin. Garstin was
not the supreme chief of that order. Mina had handed the chief-ship
to someone else I have named in my book.
King over the Water ready for pre-order |
According to Garston everything (other
than personal equipment) was destroyed. This event coincidently
coincided with Transhall-Hayes joining with Dion Fortune. The pair
were motivated by TH's contacts to hatch out a new Golden Dawn tradition, although
this never completely came about.
The AO did continue in a form under
Carnegie Dickson. Dickson had been appointed the head of the AO by
Brodie Innes. But he also became chief of the Bristol Temple and
thus the two strains merged somewhat. He ran Bristol but also a temple in London which recognised AO and SM).
What is important however is that if
Mather's branch of the order was shut down by its secret chiefs then
it could not give out any lineage. If any modern order believes in
secret chiefs they must equally accept that the Death of the Mathers
branch of the Order was ordered by them and therefore any lineage
derived from that source must be bogus.
Equally it must be accepted that if the
secret chiefs clearly allowed Carnegie Dickson and his lineage to
continue in some form (and they seemed happy with the merger with the
SM) then that branch of the AO tree died with the closure of the
Bristol temple.
Lineage comes from the authority to set
up a temple or Order. It is defined by the Order itself. In the case of Whare
Ra it was defined by a 7=4 being given the link by someone qualified
to receive it.
But this makes it tricky for any modern AO order to claim direct living lineage from Mina Mathers' group. They have to come up with the fact that they were ordered to shut by their temporal and secret chiefs in
the 1940s. Unless they reject the doctrine of Secret Chiefs, they
cannot claim a right to even exist, because the Secret Chiefs of the
Order said they shouldn't. In many ways this could also explain why
Carnegie Dickson stuck to the SM and Transhall-Hayes buried her
magical gear. They took the Secret Chiefs seriously so they could
not disobey them.
King over the Water will come out in a couple of weeks and pre-orders for the hardback are going rather well. You can pre-order the limited edition here the paperback will come out later in the year.
So you are saying that the whole 42 cents I paid for my lineage was too much?
ReplyDeleteIt probably has a lesser value... depends if you got baseball cards with it.
ReplyDeleteNice post, Nick, thanks :)
ReplyDeleteThis is most interesting. Can't wait to read the book - when are paper back orders being taken?
You write, "According to Garston everything (other than personal equipment) was destroyed. This event coincidently coincided with Transhall-Hayes joining with Dion Fortune. The pair were motivated by TA's contacts to hatch out a new Golden Dawn tradition, although this never completely came about"
I assume TA = Tranchell Hayes. I am a little confused on this, as from memory what Gareth Knight records is the contacts used were Dion's. And I understand that the work they started, but never finished, would have been a a revision and consolidation of many strands of the Western mysteries, not just GD. Am i right on this, or got the wrong end of the stick?
Thanks :)
I have fixed Tranchell-Hayes and yes it was. What Knight suggests is that the contacts wanted a Golden Dawn without the elemental contacts and an emphasis on the Arthurian tradition and a more three degree structure. The Golden Dawn system was mentioned in the sessions more than anything else in the Western Mystery tradition. The result certainly was nothing like the Golden Dawn. The System was worked in the 1950s after Fortune's death (much of the information has been published by Knight).
ReplyDeleteHi Nick, looking forward to release of your new book, which I will definitely
ReplyDeletebuy once released at http://www.bookdepository.co.uk
I believe that the Carnegie Dickson A.O line continued onto Charles Renn in N.Z.. is this correct? Re: the reputed Secret Chiefs.. well what can I say, even though
I regard myself as being aligned to the David Griffin camp (and supportive of the HOGD.AO) this secret chief thing does piss me off.. sigh.