By VH Frater L.V.X.

This question is a double-edged sword, and so I will answer it in several different ways. The Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn, both historical and today, is an outer mystery school. Just like the Order one hundred years ago, our Order has a variety of people from a wide spectrum of religions. The Book of the Law written by Aleister Crowley teaches Thelemite Philosophy; this philosophy is one man’s vision of the universe and is not consistent with traditional Western Mystery teachings. It may or may not have any value depending on your worldview, but to consider it a progression of classical Golden Dawn teachings would be a non-compatible paradigm shift. It is true that Thelemites are accepted into the outer school of the Golden Dawn. However, it is made clear that the Golden Dawn in the Order is a Hermetic curriculum, not a Thelemic curriculum.

The real confusion pertains to the Inner Order that governs the Golden Dawn; new initiates in the Golden Dawn that are Thelemites are told that they may progress up to the grade of 4=7, however higher grades that move beyond the Golden Dawn and into the realm of Second Order teachings are not available. The reasons are simple: Aleister Crowley’s Thelemic Philosophy may have pertained to Aleister Crowley, but it certainly does not pertain to the cornerstone of Light or the symbolism of Light as taught in the Second Order of the Golden Dawn. When Aleister Crowley wrote the Book of the Law, he wrote it as a person who had long been expelled from the Golden Dawn and the Inner Order. This may have influenced his anti-classical mentality, and the rest is history.

While others may find inner strength, we find it impossible to give any credence to an individual who appeared to be in such a deep state of turmoil and rebellion. To wit, Liber AL taught that all the old rituals from classical Golden Dawn are “Black”. He also seems to have believed that he was the Beast 666 or at least that’s what he called himself. He also believed that the classical source of holy energies shifted in the Golden Dawn Hall of the Neophyte, because of his so-called “NewAeon”.

With all due respect to our Thelemite brethren, while they may hold Crowley and Liber AL in high esteem (and we have absolutely no problem with that), the mixing of the two worldviews is kin to mixing water and oil. Many Thelemites who are intellectually honest believe the same. They agree that the student of the mysteries ultimately will need to walk one path or the other.