Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose: A Prospectus

[ecosophia]

Last week, at the conclusion of a five-part sequence of posts here on Pythagorean numerology, I mentioned that those posts were among other things knowledge lectures for the relaunch of the eccentric Golden Dawn offshoot I more or less inherited from my late teacher John Gilbert. That attracted a great deal of enthusiasm, so I plan on proceeding a little more directly than I’d originally anticipated.

What I have in mind for this project differs in some details from his order, the Magickal Order of the Golden Dawn (MOGD), just as that differed from Juliet Ashley’s Holy Order of the Golden Dawn, that from Waite’s Holy Order of the GD, that from the Hermetic Order of the GD, and that from whatever source inspired Westcott and Mathers to get the whole ball rolling in the first place. To mark the distinction and avoid confusion, I’ve given this new venture a different name, the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose—FHR for short.

I have a great deal of material from the MOGD to edit, format, and post—four or five times as much, for example, as I had from the Order of Spiritual Alchemy. John’s system included its own idiosyncratic take on the Tree of Life, its own distinctive symbolism for the grades of initiation, its own grade rituals, and a great deal of other material on a galaxy of occult topics. I plan on working that up as time permits, and I’m going to do my best to post something here every week, but it’s still going to take quite a while.

The FHR has eight grades of initiation, as follows:

0° Candidate

1° Seeker

2° Sojourner

3° Server

4° Student

5° Teacher

6° Initiate

7° Adept

Of these, the 0° is a preliminary degree for those who are exploring the work of the Fellowship but have not yet made a commitment to that work.  The 7° is an inner degree which is to be attained by the individual through his or her own efforts, and remains a wholly private matter when and if it is attained. (Anyone who proclaims himself or herself an Adept of the FHR thus proves by that act that he or she isn’t one, and also the he or she doesn’t know the first thing about the Fellowship’s teachings and traditions.) The grades between these two endpoints correspond very roughly to the historic Golden Dawn grades, as follows:  Seeker to Neophyte, Sojourner to Zelator, Server to Theoricus, Student to Practicus, Teacher to Philosophus, and Initiate to Portal.

All the work of these grades, and the grade initiations themselves, are designed to be performed by the individual member through his or her own efforts.  A member who reaches the grade of Teacher is qualified to found a temple, if three other members join in, but this is optional at best and irrelevant at worst. Individual work is the heart of the system. The primary goal of that work is the attainment of wisdom through the practice of ritual, meditation, and divination, and the study of traditional occult teachings. The secondary goals of the work are the development of a good general grounding in occultism that can then be applied to many other practices, on the one hand, and on the other, reaching a professional level of skill in at least one form of divination. (John was a brilliant tarot reader, but he encouraged students to master whatever mode of divination they preferred, as well as getting a general grasp of a few standard methods.)

There is no hierarchy in the FHR beyond the necessary structure of degrees. Any person who successfully completes the work as far as the Teacher grade can open a temple and serve as its head. Any person who successfully completes the work as far as the Initiate grade is in possession of the full tradition and may do with it as his or her personal spiritual vision directs. This includes the right to go off and set up a separate working using whatever variations on the material he or she chooses to use, just the way I’ve done here. (Occult traditions routinely pup offshoots this way—it seems reasonable to acknowledge that, and not try to fulminate uselessly against it.)

The foundations of training in the system will be familiar to my regular readers. (Where do you think I got this approach?)  The daily practices are a daily discursive meditation, a daily divination, and a protective ritual—John Gilbert strongly recommended the Sphere of Protection but he also allowed members to practice the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram and Middle Pillar exercise instead if they found those more suitable; the FHR will continue that tradition, and add the Judson exercise as a third option. If you haven’t settled on one of these, try all three while you’re in the Candidate degree and see which works for you. If you already follow a system of training that includes these three elements as daily practices, why, you’re good, and you can do the rest of the FHR work as a supplement to that system.

In addition to the daily practices, weekly practice of a home temple ritual, a sequence of elemental scryings, invocations of your Guardian Angel or Guardian Genius, and a whale of a lot of divination will be part of the training ahead. All told, you can expect to put 30 minutes or so every day into the basic daily practices, and one to three hours a week into other work, plus time spent reading and studying.

Prospective members will doubtless want to know what membership costs and what they will need to provide in terms of material requirements. Membership is free. In terms of equipment, you will need a small table or folding tray to serve as a temporary altar for some practices, and an altar cloth to put over it would be nice. You will need a chair that you can set up facing the altar.  You will need four candles—one each colored red, yellow, blue, and green—and appropriate holders for them. You will need one standard Rider-Waite tarot deck, the one shown on the right—yes, it has to be that specific deck. If you prefer to use a different tarot deck for divination, that’s fine, but you need the Rider-Waite for ritual purposes.

You will also need a pair of small pillars, 6” to 18” tall, which you can put on the sides of your altar; one is black, one white. If you have woodworking skills, making them from wood is the best option, but you can use anything else that works—if you can’t afford much, get two cardboard cylinders from the centers of paper towel rolls, cover one with white paper and the other with black paper, and tape or glue one end of each to a small square of heavy cardboard so they stand up. (Drop something small and heavy into the bottom of each to help with this.)

You will also need symbolic representations of the four elements. To begin with, these are very simple—an incense burner and your choice of incense for fire, a folding fan for air, a cup or bowl of water for water, and a small bowl of salt for earth. Over the course of your training you will replace these with a wand, a book, a cup, and a pentacle; instructions for making or buying these will be included. (Yes, a book for air, not a dagger. That’s one of the distinctive features of this system. There are complicated reasons for it; one of them is the very old rule against bringing anything of a metallic nature into a temple of the mysteries, which some of my readers will have encountered in a different context.)

Some books will also be recommended. All of them are available for free download.

So that’s what you have to look forward to, dear reader, if you decide to climb aboard this very odd train and ride it into the distance. If, having read the above, you’ve decided you want to give it a try, and are willing to start experimenting with the basic practices of the Fellowship, why, by the power in me invested as an Initiate of the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose, I proclaim you received and welcomed in due form as a member of the Candidate grade.

Comments

Thanks!

[(Anonymous)]

I seem to recall you saying that one of your new year resolutions was to offer more occult training. Glad to see you are following through!

While I am still working through some of your other offerings, I have also found Doug Stavish and am taking on some of his training. To think at this time last year I was doing nothing like this!

I will be printing these posts for the future, and taking part as I can. Thank you!

WHD

Oops

[(Anonymous)]

Did I say Doug? Lol

Mark Stavish....

[(Anonymous)]

The cards said yes! I’m in.

I’m very excited, thank you for doing this.

[(Anonymous)]

JMG!
Sing me up! It's like a dream come true. Thank you for doing this.
And it seems that there's a bit of synchronicity here - last month I bought the Tarot deck exactly like the picture in the post, and this month I've become an owner of a folding table (which I got for free from my employer).
I still want to continue to work with Circles of Power. It's a very slow process. I've been doing CC, LBRP and TMP for about 10 months and studying the greater ritual of the Pentagram for the time being. Barring the war, I'm also planning to purchase Paths of wisdom and study that, and I hope those are compatible with Fellowship Of The Hermetic Rose. Again, thank for doing this, we all here a little nervous here, and need all the good news we can get.
Kyivan - 基辅罗斯人

[ecosophian]

While I'm interested, I have too much going on right now. Maybe later.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for this JMG - I appreciate it will be a significant amount of work. It does sounds very intriguing and also might be the kick up the backside I needed.

I'm meditating through Eliphas Levi as well - I take it that's not a problem?

[ecosophia]

None at all. In fact, I'm considering making Lévi recommended reading, and the meditation practice is very much in keeping with the FHR approach.

[(Anonymous)]

The pictured Rider Waite tarot deck appears to be available for order from the giant south american river company, but there is some discussion in the comments about receiving good quality decks made in italy vs. lousy ones made in china--
Here's a link;
https://www.amazon.ca/Rider-Waite-Tarot-Arthur-Edward-Waite/dp/091386613X/ref=pd_sbs_7/132-9096475-1252859?pd_rd_w=n0Iw5&pf_rd_p=5e3de09f-c23c-4218-88f9-a2511d573f0c&pf_rd_r=PDJ5WP0SWJ5PEQMMDQNZ&pd_rd_r=a017a0d6-8886-4780-b64d-8eeaec60c1b1&pd_rd_wg=7qqQU&pd_rd_i=091386613X&psc=1

Are you or the readers aware of other online sources that have better quality decks? Shopping in local shops preferred when available, of course...

[ecosophia]

I recommend getting it directly from the publisher, US Games Systems, which sells direct to the public, rather than going through the Big Slimy River. Here's the link for the English language edition:

https://www.usgamesinc.com/Tarot_and_Inspiration/pamela-colman-smith/rider-waite-tarot-card-deck.html

Here's the one for their Spanish edition:

https://www.usgamesinc.com/Tarot_and_Inspiration/pamela-colman-smith/spanish-rider-waite-tarot.html

And here's a large size of the same deck, which is great for ritual use:

https://www.usgamesinc.com/Tarot_and_Inspiration/pamela-colman-smith/giant-rider-waite-tarot.html

FHR and LRM

[(Anonymous)]

I was about to get back into my study of LRM after a hiatus of more than a year - during which I kept a loose daily practice of meditation and tarot divination. This new course, however, is very tempting. So, I have two questions for you, JMG: 1) are the goals of the FHR and LRM courses different? And, if yes, how? 2) assuming a comparison made sense, the level of spiritual development attainable upon completion of the LRM course is equivalent to which grade of the FHR?
Thank you!

Re: FHR and LRM

[ecosophia]

1) Yes, they're different. LRM is preliminary training meant to prepare you for intensive work with Golden Dawn ceremonial magic. FHR is a more general course of occult training not specific to GD practice, or to ceremonial magic.

2) That's a little like asking for a comparison between an apprenticeship with a plumber and a associate of arts degree from a community college...

[ganeshling]

Is the symbolism of FHR compatible with or adaptable to CGD? If someone completes the CGD course and wants to join FHR, would they be able to keep actively exercising the CGD while working on the FHR material?

[ecosophia]

Yes, you could do that. You'd want to keep doing the CGD version of the Pentagram ritual and the Exercise of the Central Ray as your daily ritual practice, of course, but that's workable. The one potential source of confusion would come in if you've done anything with the tarot material given in The Coelbren Alphabet, because the FHR tarot correspondences are different -- but so long as you're okay juggling different correspondences, you should be fine.

[alifelongme]

I am in the middle of LRM. Provided that I have time and motivation would it be advisable to do both? Thanks.

[ecosophia]

Whether it's advisable or not is up to you -- you might consider a divination on the subject. I know of no reason why you shouldn't do so, however.

[followerofteshu_22]

I'm interested. I tend not to be much of a joiner, but this seems like an interesting endeavor. Thank you. :)

[ecosophia]

One of the reasons I'm doing this the way I am is that a good half of the really good occultists I know aren't joiners -- they prefer to work on their own and to steer clear of the sometimes really toxic group politics of the occult scene. My plan is to place the entire FHR system online, a piece at a time, so that people can practice it with whatever level of social interaction they like.

I'm doing the same thing in book form with the Golden Section Fellowship, for what it's worth. Consider it an experiment. ;-)

I'm in

[(Anonymous)]

Learned Sir,

The timing is really good! I just finished the course outlined in Learning Ritual Magic. I had planned to move on to Circles of Power as the next step in my path, but after some meditation I decided that the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose is for me. I really appreciate that the two systems are compatible - this is more of a change in focus than a change in my path per se!

thanks,

Lothar von Hakelheber

Re: I'm in

[ecosophia]

One of the things I hope to do with the FHR project is provide a framework within which people studying a fairly broad range of Hermetic spiritual and occult paths can participate, and maybe at some point work together. One way or another, it should be entertaining!

Pillar question

[(Anonymous)]

A hopefully simple question on the pillars since sometimes details can be important. Would a simple stain that allowed the grain to show through be OK with the pillars, or is it important that the colors are solid without any patterns breaking through?

Thanks for this great opportunity,
Prizm

Re: Pillar question

[ecosophia]

A stain rather than paint is fine. Some details are important, but that one isn't.

Tabling

[goatgodschild]

Thank you for this. I am very interested.

However, I am curious if the top of a small bookcase, being clear of other things, might function as a temporary altar. Or would the books below disrupt the energy?

Re: Tabling

[ecosophia]

You can use anything with a flat upper surface. Yes, bookcases are fine.

[(Anonymous)]

Is there a recommended order in which you should do SOP, meditation, and divination?

- athaia -

[ecosophia]

I recommend doing the SoP first, so you do the rest in a magically clean environment. The rest is up to you.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG!

I’d like to start putting together the equipment for this. Can I re-use things that I already have or does it need to be new?

Also, if we use a book instead of a knife due to the metal issue, do we have to be mindful of what the other things are made of? For example, can the cup or incense burner be metal or do they need to be something else?

Thank you!
- J

[ecosophia]

1) You can use existing items if they haven't been formally consecrated to some other use.

2) The metal rule is far from absolute; it's best to use nonmetallic substances, but there's wiggle room if something metal is what you can get!

Count Me In!

[vixintheshadows]

So excited to work through this after following JMG and reading your books for so long! Thank you for your gracious generosity in making this accessible and readily available John!

Universal Waite Tarot?

[agitated_seraph]

Are any "updated" versions of the original Rider-Waite deck useable? I typically use the Universal Waite Tarot Deck (see here: https://www.tarot.com/tarot/decks/universal-waite), which is non-standard in that it has been re-colored. I can get my hands on the original if it's non-negotiable, but since I've built a relationship with the Universal version I thought I would ask. Thanks in advance!

Re: Universal Waite Tarot?

[ecosophia]

Nope. It needs to be the standard version with the standard colors, so that you can tap into the egregor of the order's earlier versions. You can use the Universal deck for your own tarot readings, etc. -- you need the standard version as altar diagrams for the degrees.

Thank you

[(Anonymous)]

My heartfelt thanks to you for making this material available. I intend to work with it.

Re: Thank you

[ecosophia]

You're welcome and thank you. I hope it's at least as useful to you as it was (and is) for me.

[mksyorke]

Hi JMG,

I am late to the Party but excited to start practicing the FHR teachings!
Especially as it will allow me to incorporate my Heathen leanings with my spiritual practice.

A question on certain wording, with the Guardian Angel/Genius, would it still be valid to say Guardian Spirit?

Thank you for making this available!

770

Matt

[ecosophia]

Yes, you can say Guardian Spirit too, or use a term that's specific to your Heathen tradition. BTW, all the FHR material is now available online for free download as four PDF files here, among other places:

https://octagonsociety.org/archives/fhr/

[druidyogi]

Hello outside of following the book is there anything we need to do to join this order?

[ecosophia]

Nope. This is a completely open-source system; you can work your way step by step through it by yourself, using the downloadable book, or you can join together with three or more other people and, once one of you reaches the 5° Teacher grade, open a temple and do some of the work together. I decided to set things up that way because, like a lot of people, I'm sick and tired of the petty politics that infest so many occult scenes, with people using lodge or temple charters to enforce conformity and boost their egos.

If you have any questions about the material, I do an open post on this journal every Monday where I field questions from readers -- you can certainly ask about the FHR work there. Lots of people do.