Golden Dawn grade system

[Luxocculta]

I want to post this as an idea not as an absolute truth or dogma! As I was rereading Regardie's Golden Dawn I came upon the idea that the Grade Rituals are maybe a little far from the original Grades as they're supposed to be in Western Hermeticism.

When you read The Practice of Magical Evocation by Franz Bardon you can see that the idea of the "evolution" of the Magus by magical practice is simply to visit each plane or sephira, become familiar with its vibrations and friendly with some beings there who are called by their sigil or name - the sigil is simply a graphical representation of the name which you can make up easily f.ex. with the Rose Cross Sigliization technique or use more traditional ones like in Agrippa etc.

So I think - and this is confirmed by Bardon's book - that "grade" simply means the level of the Tree of Life to which you are able to rise and communicate. So f.ex. "7=4 Adeptus Exemptus" simply would mean you can talk and walk on the Jupiter Plane viz. Chesed. The paraphernalia like amulets, incense, colours, simply sets the mood. Crowley said something in this vein too, and you can look up these correspondences in his Liber 777 if you like or use the ones from Heptameron, Agrippa, etc.

So, Zelator would mean to visit each element although the sequence is unclear, but maybe the Temple Layout helps: Here we have - from north to east counterclockwise - this order: Earth, Water, Fire, Air. Which is interesting insofar as it totally corresponds to the order of the chakras to which the kundalini is supposed to rise: Root Chakra (earth), Sexual Chakra (water), Navel or Solarplexus chakra (fire) and Heart Chakra (Air).

After this comes the Astral Plane which corresponds nicely to the timeless Element of Spirit or Akasha (Space). Then the planes of the Planets follow in the traditional order given by Agrippa, Bardon and the ancients: Luna, Mercury, Venus, Sol, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn which are the appropriate Golden Dawn Grades, too.

So, what do you think about this idea?

LUX
lux

[Luxocculta]

BTW and this has nothing to do with the above: did you ever notice when you turn a Rosecross upside down (like Satanists and the Pope do) you get an image of copulation?



which in turn reminds me of this image and Jakob Boehme:


Thought this was fun to point out as it's always good to have a new perspective



But what do you think of the grade thing? I think the Golden Dawn Grade Rituals are valuable tools...but some students forget the meaning sometimes as it's shrouded in too many words

[Etar]

"It should be stated that these Grades are not necessarily attained fully, and in strict consecution, or manifested wholly on all planes. The subject is very difficult [...]" — One Star in Sight

I think your ideas are "correct", but it doesn't replace the traditional grade system, which is perfectly designed (talking about A∴A∴ here, not HOGD).

[Luxocculta]

traditional grade system, which is perfectly designed (talking about A∴A∴ here, not HOGD).

I'm not part of the HOGD or any Golden Dawn order!

I was just referring to the Stella Matutina version in Regardie's book.

with "perfectly" you mean absolute, eternal, unchangeable, never to be critisized? [wink]

[Etar]

No, I mean serviceable. It's all I need. That's because it allows one to perform the Great Work in an orderly manner.

[Angelus7769]

I am new here. But from What I have learned throughout the years is that the Golden Dawn system has helped me achieve many things about myself in which I never knew were possible. The grade sytem does start from malkuth and goes along all the paths of the tree channelling these areas within your body (spiritual alignment) to reach keter. I believe most human empathic beings can achieve their highest level of attunement where I have only been able to rise to chokma. My goal is binah, but given time i will achieve this. I don't believe one can reach keter in this plane - alive.

Lets see where this gets me. Le-Olahm