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Oooookay. I'll be the first to answer this seriously. I guess this is where I come out as an all singing, all dancing G.D. Ceremonialist. Currently a working Practicus (3=8), but that's only so relevant, really.
I remain very happy with the path, with the current, and with the group I'm involved with. But, we're a small group unaffiliated with any of the big ones - which helps a lot. The G.D. name is pretty comprehensively muddied thanks to the internicine warfare between the three big players.
So, what does it mean to me? What do I know? What shouldn't I know?
It means I've been through a series of damn effective initiations. It means I've learned an awful lot of tables and correspondences that I fluctuate wildly in my consideration of. It means I work with a group and we all speak a common tounge. I've worked as an officer in multiple floor roles and multiple initiations.
Over the course of a couple of years regular work in this system, I've made some pretty serious changes in my self, my life and my nature. It's put me directly in contact with my Higher Self - although only when it wants to say something, not when I want it to. It's brought me pretty starkly into awareness of a whole bunch of things that I'd not noticed in the path. It's given me a whole bunch of skills I didn't have when I started clairvoyance, astral projection, and others) and the elemental initiations have each changed my life incredibly.
All this said, though, the GD is a school and not a working magical order (outside of initations). Which means in terms of what I'm 'supposed' to know, there's a lot of space. I know a lot of things that I shouldn't technically learn until later -however, for the most part I've stuck w/ the curriculum provided. There's plenty of juice there too keep me busy, and I really don't mind taking things gradual for a few years.
I spent a lot of time screwing around with chaos style stuff and getting nowhere. The structure inherent in the GD has really helped me to make actual progress - in some sense I'm taking slower than I otherwise would. Hell, I know the theory of invoking fire, I'm just not doing it until I'm 4=7. That build up and pressure makes things amazing when I get to them. I thought structure was going to be the worst possible thing for magic, and it turns out that it's really not, for me at least.
It's also easy to look at G.D. work and see only the limitations of the structure. That's not it at all. It's a tool set - one with great flexibility. Picking up Regardies "Golden Dawn" there are 7 rituals provided - a lot of people take that to be the be all and end all of the system. Nothing of the sort - those are 7 examples of how the underlying formulae can be used to create anything you please.
Honestly, with ten years of 'ooky' under my belt, the last 2 spent in the G.D. have resulted in more wonder, passion, and pure blinding terror than the rest put together. Now, that could be me, that could be the system. I'm honestly not sure. But boy, it sure seems to do the trick. |
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