I was a founding member of a Golden Dawn style lodge that has long since died a gentle death. We had four neophytes and an adept. In reading this post, entitled Has the Global Conspiracy Bumped Off David Griffen by Nick Farrell, I was reminded of a solid piece of advice my former mentor instilled in us all. For those of you not familiar with the these two, let me fill you in. Both David Griffen and Nick Farrell are famous in the Golden Dawn community. David has run a lodge for umpteen years. Nick has run a lodge too but for how long I do not know. He is the author of a few books. One of them has a solid reputation the other doesn't. Of course, in certain circles, those reputations are reversed. I have never met either of them.
The argument taking place is sadly typical of public Golden Dawn figures. I am not taking sides. Not because I don't have an opinion but because taking a side has no value. My opinion is not going to change anyone's mind. This is following that advice my former mentor gave us all. Which I paraphrase here:
When it comes to the Golden Dawn flame wars, do not engage. That is a distraction. Simply keep your head down and do your own Work.
What matters is the Work, not one's reputation. What matters is the Work, not what someone says about you. What matters is the Work, not debates about lineages, minutia and who has what lost document.
This is true no matter what Pagan/Occult group you may be engaged with. If the group is about drama and reputation simply make an exit. If the group is known enough to be found but quiet enough that you never hear of them, chances are it is working well. I am not bashing the Golden Dawn Style groups at all. I am merely pointing out the quieter ones are usually more valuable and such is true no matter what tradition you may find yourself in.
Get to work no matter what your tradition is. Your reputation, if you care about that, will be established in time with no effort at all.
5 comments:
Now that's some good advice. Exit.
Solid advice as Andrew put it.
It would be really nice if that was possible all the time. You can stay out of something for ten years and write a book which offends someone and you can find yourself in the middle of one.
At the moment I would like to be out of this one but the bloke has ordered his group to attack me on Amazon until I withdraw the book? What am I supposed to do other than just hang in there.
I fully understand your dilemma especially given the book represents a lot of work and you want it judged/enjoyed on its own merits. Who wouldn't?
However, given that the community is so small and full of such voracious readers, I think the rest of the community simply reviewing it for what it is, good or ill, would eventually influence others to a deeper level than defending yourself would. You audience is not David any more than mine is Evangelical Christian. For that matter, you are not David's audience. Neither one of you is going to convince the other of anything of import.
For me, debating with the Evangelical is a waste of my time and theirs. It would also cause me stress. I choose to invest myself elsewhere.
Now the misquoting can be corrected simply by displaying the misquote text to the actual document without commentary.
While an emotional response is understandable that investment can be made to more productive ends.
Withdrawing from engagements that brought me more harm than good was a difficult lesson for me to learn but one of the best and deepest my mentor ever instilled within me.
Gentleman, I am not moving that war from Nick's page to this one. I am not posting a tit for tat fight in my comments section. That isn't going to happen.
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