This document is for the purpose of answering several objections made against our Order by a number of parties. By no means do we wish to dignify the objections through this act of responding to them, nor enter into a political debate. However, for the benefit of those who are presently indecisive about seeking admission to our Order, as well as for our present initiates, we believe that it is important to document our response to the accusations made against our Order and several of its members.

OBJECTION: There are those within the Order that do not believe that every religion is valid and that every scripture written by every culture is equally valid to every other.

ANSWER: We are all individuals in this Order. We all have our differences of opinion. Some are more strongly positioned and studied in their views than others. Individual opinions abound in the Inner Order and we don't seek to control each other, but we do reserve the right to challenge each other on the consistency and reasoning behind our beliefs. That is a common dynamic in all brotherhoods.

Every human being places judgement values, and the initiation into Adepthood does not eliminate a human's right to choose his or her path and beliefs, nor does it require an Adept to accept a new-age worldview of "I'm okay, your okay" as a sign of "enlightenment". Most of the accusers are individuals that have personal anger with the Order and its members because they weren't able to make the group unilaterally see things their way. Consequently, they have since tried to justify their actions with false accusations of corruption so as not to come across as utterly self-centered.

OBJECTION: Every once and awhile a member of HOMSI puts a post with misleading information on a public discussion form or news group. An ex-adept of HOMSI then attempts to correct the misinformation.

ANSWER: Neither myself nor any other higher-grade initiate of this Order has ever placed a misleading statement regarding our Order either in public or in private. We stand by our assertions regarding our Order, and if anyone wishes to address a concern about our Order or about the public or private statements we have made are welcome to email us at info@golden-dawn.org to respectfully request further clarification or discussion. E-mails sent in the form of an attack or wild accusation will not be honored. Public attacks against our Order on web-site or newsgroup forums will be addressed on a case by case basis. However, our focus is the Great Work, not in engaging in fruitless arguments with angry and bitter accusers. Those familiar with the medium are well aware of the deficiency of internet posting to defend oneself and one's organization against slander.

It is well documented and known that internet "flame-wars" are a means of placing public pressure on an organization through generating sensationalistic conditions for the purpose of forwarding a personal agenda. We do not wish to play into that kind of sensationalism. Our Order and its initiates are honest, forthright, and willing to stand completely behind their assertions through knowledge and experience. We have always been willing to clarify, justify, and defend such assertions through proper means.

OBJECTION: The online heated debate between current and former members of HOMSI is not a pre-planned and malicious assault on the Order.

ANSWER: This is a deliberate deception. Our accusers have, in fact, proven, admitted, and identified themselves as banding together to work against us and have deliberately planned their smear campaigns against us through the use of sympathetic website forums and through privately approaching initiates. They have collectively placed threats and demands both publicly and privately (which are not identical), demonstrating that they have thought out their methods and are working together to achieve their personal and group goals. Our primary accusers, consisting of expelled initiates and their former students, have come together to form an organization. We have witnessed their use of that organization to attempt to discredit our Order and organize new recruits to forward their personal agenda. Many of their members have made clear vows that they will "do all that they can to destroy HOMSI and targeted Adepti."

OBJECTION: These detractors have as much right to speak their minds in public anyone does.

ANSWER: Perhaps legally, but each of the former initiates of our Order have sworn the Traditional Neophyte Oath including the portions which state: "... most solemnly promise to keep secret this Order, the names of its members, and any and all proceedings that take place at its meetings from every person in the world who has not been initiated into it…. I undertake to maintain a kindly and benevolent relation with all Fraters and Sorors of this Order. I will treat all members as if they were a brother or sister, as if we shared the same mother, the same father…. Neither will I encourage schism nor encourage or suggest other members abstain from Order participation or membership." Therefore, these individuals are violating their sacred oaths. They thus demonstrate that their solemn word means nothing and that they have a distorted perception of honor.

The proper avenue for former initiates is to seek discourse with us is privately, which they have not done so with any sense of honor or sincerity. In fact, it is our initiates who have sought to begin a discourse with them, which they have at times agreed to, but never held to any agreements they committed to from such dialogues. When an outside party considers the words of our accusers, and the possibility of their truth or fiction, it would behoove such an observer to consider the source from which those words and accusations are issuing.
FURTHER: The Law asserts that free speech does not protect libel and slander to the degree they have perpetuated it, and in fact, they are breaking the law by doing so especially in posting the mundane names of several initiates-whether their signed oath against doing so constitutes a legally binding agreement or not. This also covers those who are not former initiates of our Order, but have joined their bandwagon opportunistically to further other goals they may personally have.

OBJECTION: The current adepts of HOMSI seem intent on avoiding any direct contact and possible resolution in a civil fashion.

ANSWER: False. Many attempts have been made to engage in direct contact and resolution in a civil fashion. Several such attempts were made personally by the author of this document. In fact, the lack of civility, the wave of threats, and the avoidance of contact all characterize the actions of these accusers, not us, who are the accused. The only form of contact we are not interested in entertaining is a fruitless and slanted flame war on some website forum, especially not through a website that is run and moderated by an individual who has his / her own personal agenda against our Order.

OBJECTION: The accusers have tried to bring issues to us directly and that has also failed.

ANSWER: The primary attempts by our accusers that have been made were through public flaming and inflammatory anonymous accusations and threats through e-mail in addition to a few threatening e-mails that were not made anonymously. Such communication does not constitute an attempt to "bring issues to us" in a "civil fashion" as they put it. Such attempts at "communication" they made were, in fact, responded to. However, being that the attempts did not contain any desire for resolution, only attacks, there was no opportunity to provide resolution through said intercourse.

OBJECTION: The accusers care about and love this Order as much as we do. They are willing to defend it from any who attack it whether from within or without. Criticism of internal corruption isn't an attack, but a desperate plea for reformation.

ANSWER: This is a vague accusation that is not backed up by any evidence or truth. The problem these former initiates have with our Order is the fact that it contains certain individuals that would not condone the deplorable or ridiculous actions which characterized the final period of their time with our Order. If they categorize the strength of our stance against such actions as they had committed-prior to and after their expulsion-as "corruption," then that is their misguided use of English, not a sign of flaws within our leadership. Secondly, a public, sensationalist flame war does not constitute any kind of "plea for reformation". Threats from members of their group that they will do "all that they can to destroy HOMSI and everyone of its Adepti" do not characterize a group that unilaterally seeks to defend, love or reform our organization to a positive end. Other activities that are not commensurate with their protestations of love for our Order include: repeatedly posting our private grade materials for public consumption against their oaths, approaching individual initiates to fill them with false accusations regarding our Adepti, stealing the property of our initiates, harassing our functions with childish phone pranks, and sending doctored, sexually explicit photos and messages via fax to the employment offices of our members. These people have demonstrated time and time again, no matter how naively we have attempted to make peace with them, that their only goal and agenda is the destruction of our Order and personal defamation.

OBJECTION: The fact that the current inner order has not publicly answered the accusations made against the Order and certain individuals therein is proof that the accusations are true and not mistaken.

ANSWER: Such a statement is obviously as a semantic means of pressuring us to engage in a public, internet flame war on a website moderated by a known public-detractor of our Order. Our refusal to engage in debate under such conditions is not self-incriminating in the least. If they wish to open a dialogue with us, they have always been welcome to do so. Simply e-mail us at info@golden-dawn.org in a civil, non-harassing manner and such requests as are made will be brought to the Second Order for evaluation, response, and arrangements. The refusal to work in this manner is a sign that their interests are not in resolution, but in defamation. Private communications with us have confirmed this.

OBJECTION: Private emails sent to individual Order members with discrediting comments and accusations against the Order and individuals that are apart of it are attempts to send basic information as innocent food for thought. They are not attempts to influence such members to resign but rather to help them grow stronger in Light and help make the Order better.

ANSWER: The existence of such disarming and innocently-sounding assertions in the midst of horrid, false accusations sent clandestinely to initiates of our Order (who have no part in the issues they are bringing to them) is the worst form of deception and politics.

OBJECTION: HOMSI and various individuals who make up its present leadership have participated in or conducted illegal and criminal activities.

ANSWER: False. In fact, those making these accusations against our Order are the only ones in this debate who have committed illegal and criminal acts-some of which were the very reasons that they were expelled from this Order. Such activities on the part of our detractors include: theft of property, encouragement of Outer Order initiates in the possession and use of illegal narcotics, sexual harassment, libel, slander, and capricious use of law enforcement.

OBJECTION: HOMSI Adepti evoke Qlippothic forces with the intention of destroying the personal lives of people whom the Inner Order suspects of opposing it.

ANSWER: The appropriateness and righteousness of the magic of Light is demonstrated within our Order. Part of the power gained through the study and practice of Inner Order techniques is the ability to see in the astral and discern what energies are being used upon us. Other times, individuals attacking us with such energies have openly admitted to it and even identified the type of beings they were using. A commitment to peace implies the power to defend oneself. And, certainly, the tools are available for us to do so. But, the idea that our Adepti have been sanctioned, condoned or instructed by others to use Qlippothic forces to "destroy the personal lives" of others with some indiscriminate abandon is false. In fact, this is a case of accusing the accused of one's own crimes, which is a common practice in Machiavellian propaganda used by these individuals. However, let it be known, that as Magicians of Light and Adepti of the sacred Western Mystery Tradition, we have the means to magically defend ourselves and the innocent, and we reserve the right to do so with the tools provided to us by Tradition upon any who would attack our Order, its initiates, or any helpless person in the world. And let it be made clear and official, that our techniques and abilities have always been and continue to be solely for defense, never to initiate an attack, and that like has always been met with like, nothing more, and only through the magic of Light, that healing and harmony be the result or outcome.

OBJECTION: Members of our Order have conducted surveillance (i.e. sat outside people's houses spying on their activities) on former members.

ANSWER: Acts of private investigation for the purpose of repossessing stolen property are entirely legal in the United States. A vehicle in the hands of the wrong party and not in the hands of the legal owner was located and successfully repossessed. This was a private, civil matter that the Order is not, nor should be involved in.

OBJECTION: All the Order grade material is public domain and available to anyone who wants to read it.

ANSWER: Much of the Outer Order grade material is public domain. It was also 100 years ago when the Historic Golden Dawn was passing it to its initiates. It's simply not possible to copywrite the Hebrew alphabet that is necessary to further studies of the Qabalah. However, the real and noticeable change takes place in the higher grades. It is here that the oral tradition of our Order and its rich history into antiquity comes to life in the initiate. Beginning with Adeptus Minor, we estimate that 70% of the material and information are taught verbally, mouth to ear, as it has been taught for centuries. This does not even include the higher grades of the Inner Order. While much of the preliminary material is basic and available in numerous places, it is essential for further growth and development. In addition, even the novice can tell you it's not simply the knowledge, but the power of initiation that invokes true growth and healing in one's life.

OBJECTION: The HOMSI claims direct false lineage to MacGregor Mathers and the original and historic Golden Dawn.

ANSWER: The Order has never publically made such claims. Here's why:
Every group, fraternity or church that claims lineage puts itself in the center of the bull's eye for target practice. The original Golden Dawn under MacGregor and Westcott was harshly challenged for their lineage and was never able to prove it. While we do not debate their lineage, we do point out that it was a serious bone of contention 100 years ago. Mormons claim lineage to the Divine through Joseph Smith (debateable), while Catholics claim lineage to Peter and Christ (debateable). Many Masonic groups claim lineage to the Knights Templar (debateable). We don't question their lineage. We simply point out that a more important use of energy should be spent on the Great Work, not the tired, old lineage debate. Either an Order has the "positively manifested current" or not. And, if we do have the "positively manifested current," lineage and 3 dollars will buy you a latte at Starbucks. And if not, all the paper work, diagrams, and graphics will not make any difference. We do, however, believe that we are the true and foremost guardians of the Western Mystery Tradition.