We had development class last night, which went ok, but afterwards some of them hung around and we sat in the smoking room playing with the keyboard, tamborine, marachas and guitar. We basically had a good old fashioned drum jam session, which probably annoyed the neighbors no end. That'll teach 'em to keep their damn rental trucks parked outside someone's driveway so someone can hit it with their car...

Speaking of which, the rule of three was invoked. Thursday morning I wrecked the car (see Thursday's entry). Friday evening I managed to burn a circle into our kitchen counter from a frying pan (don't ask). And Saturday, I burnt out the vaccum cleaner, by vacuuming up the Christmas tree skirt. The whole house smelled of burnt rubber for several hours afterwards. Lovely...

Golden Dawn stuff: I've pretty much got the hebrew letters down now. Samekh trips me up more often than it should, but I've basically got a handle on it. I just need to do the finals and I'll be done with that bit.

But the correspondences, the letters, the deities, planets and astrological symbols only have as much meaning as you choose to give them. If they don't matter to you, then they don't matter. Use what ever correspondences you want: Bars of Soap, ex-girlfriends, Star Trek Episodes, transformers or Snowmonkey trump cards. The only purpose of any of this is to spin up your senses and your consciousness so that every aspect of your being is focused on the task at hand.

You see, this is the kicker: You can only get so far in Golden Dawn/Ceremonial Magic or even Wicca for that matter by studying and learning books and practising rituals and doing spells. The real power lies buried in you and your higher self. You have to establish a connection with your higher self and maintain it, if you want to progress. And you can't fake it. Or rather, you can fake it, but not to anyone who doesn't fake it. Because those who can do it will know if you're faking it. None of this stuff is spelled out in the early levels of learning Wicca or the GD. A lot of it is oathbound in Wicca, or simply not communicable in a meaningful sense in the GD. This can be a problem for the novice, when picking a tradition, because they may not find out until the 2nd or 3rd degree what the true purpose of their training is. In fact, depending upon how the tradition was started, it may not be part of it at all. Which means you could, to use an analogy, effectively spend 3 years dating a pig in a wig. If the founders of the tradition "didn't get it" when they started their tradition, then they can't pass it onto you, can they? Undoubtedly, there are many 2nd and 3rd degrees wandering around out there happy and secure in the knowledge that they have learned all there is to know about Life, The Univserse and Everything (I miss you, Doug!), when in fact they haven't learned squat of any import. Here's what I can tell you: You don't roll the dice with the Golden Dawn. It is a complete system that will get you there if you have a good teacher who understands the materials, or if you can teach yourself.

If you don't want to study GD, but do instead want to study Wicca through to its logical conclusion, then look for Wiccan, Celtic or Druidic traditions that incorporate the Qabbalah, Sufism, Shamanism or Yoga into their curriculum. If they do, the likelihood is they do have a handle on the 'end-game'. If you don't give a rat's ass about spiritual enlightement, but just want to pick up girls, then pick whichever tradition you want and get yourself a cool Craft Name.

Have a great Sunday :)