The Universal Gnostic Church: Prospectus

[ecosophia]

Ever since I started posting material on the traditions I inherited from John Gilbert, some readers have expressed interest in the Universal Gnostic Church (UGC), the religious body at the center of those traditions. After much reflection, I've decided to go ahead and set out the course of training that leads to ordination in the UGC. One of the reasons that this took quite a bit of reflection is that I've had bad experiences with this in the past. A lot of people treat ordination to the priesthood or priestesshood as a matter of getting a certificate that allows them to tell other people what to do. I've dealt with people who said all the right things to my face, and then turned around the moment they got ordained, and jumped up on a self-manufactured pulpit to play little tin god to anyone who would listen.

Ordination in the UGC is not an excuse to pretend to be a little tin god. It's not a license to tell anybody else what to do. It's a tradition of spiritual practice, right action, and the pursuit of personal experience of spiritual realities. Pursued in the proper spirit, it's also a whale of a lot of work. Consecration as a bishop -- the rite that permits you to ordain and consecrate others -- is even more work. The prospectus below will give you some idea of what is involved. In the weeks ahead, I'll clarify the rest of the details. First of all, though, we should review some history.

*  *  *  *  *

The Universal Gnostic Church was founded in 1952 by Revs. Omar Zasluchy, Owen Symanski, and Matthew Shaw, three ministers of the Universalist Church in Pennsylvania who disagreed with their church’s decision to amalgamate with the Unitarian Church. They were inspired by what was then known of the ancient Gnostics, and hoped to combine the open-minded and tolerant attitudes of their Universalist heritage with the Gnostic focus on individual spiritual experience. Zasluchy and Shaw arranged to be consecrated to the historic episcopacy of the Christian church by Bishop Robert Monroe of the Liberal Catholic Church, an independent sacramental church allied with the Theosophical movement, while Symansky received consecration in two related lineages. The UGC was not exclusively Christian, despite this—it revered the Divine which, according to its teachings, was behind all religions.

While Bishops Zasluchy and Symansky remained in Pennsylvania, Shaw moved to Colorado. There he became an associate of the occult teacher Dr. Juliet Ashley, who had her own contacts with the UGC and had received consecration from Bishop Symansky in his lineages. In 1984 Shaw and Ashley both consecrated several new bishops of the UGC, John Gilbert among them. Later on, John and another UGC bishop, Betty Reeves, received consecration sub conditione from Warren Smith, a Gnostic bishop whose lineage included the Antioch-Malabar succession and the French Gnostic succession. (See note 1 below)

(Consecration sub conditione is an arrangement whereby a bishop whose lineage is in question receives an additional consecration from a bishop whose lineage is beyond doubt.)

The UGC had its own seminary, Universal Seminary, which prepared students for the priesthood or priestesshood. It had two monastic orders of its own, the Order of the Universal Monk and the Order of the Universal Nun, and several bishops of the UGC founded additional monastic  orders. For several decades in the late twentieth and very early twenty-first centuries, it was active in its own quiet way, with congregations on at least three continents.

Bishops of the UGC were permitted and even encouraged to found their own churches if they wanted to depart from the UGC’s own admittedly quirky traditions. One of these, the Gnostic Celtic Church, is still active today; it functions as the religious branch of the Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA), another order in which John was an initiate. Several other churches that trace their lineage through the UGC also appear to be active today. To the best of my knowledge, however, the UGC itself went dormant nearly a decade before John’s death and has remained inactive since that time. As far as I know, similarly, the monastic bodies founded by the Church have become inactive.

This seems unfortunate to me. Odd though the UGC unquestionably was, it had its own lively traditions and teachings, and its forthright affirmation of individual freedom in the quest for union with the Divine seems even more relevant today than before. I was properly consecrated by John Gilbert and two other UGC bishops, Albert Stubblebine and Rima Laibow, in 2004, and I am therefore fully qualified to revive the tradition.  The one question I have is whether there are individuals willing to put in the necessary work to qualify as priests, priestesses, and bishops in the UGC tradition—for this is not something that is passed on lightly.

Belief or Gnosis?

The UGC is distinct from many currently popular religious organizations in that it does not expect its members or clergy to have some specific set of beliefs—that is, opinions about spiritual matters. That is what distinguishes Gnosticism from other religious movements. At the heart of Gnosticism is gnosis:  that is to say, direct personal experience of spiritual realities. Historian of religions Bentley Layton has proposed that the word gnosis might best be translated “acquaintance”—it’s not book-learning, much less repeating some set of opinions by rote. It’s the real but elusive kind of knowledge you get when you are actually, personally acquainted with someone or something.

Gnosis doesn’t just show up for the asking. Personal spiritual practice is needed to develop the capacities of body, mind, and heart that will bring you into direct contact with spiritual realities. The Universal Gnostic Church thus puts personal spiritual practice at the heart of its path.  

Gnostic traditions vary in their understanding of gnosis. Some insist that only certain people are capable of personal experience of spiritual realities. Some insist that the quest for that experience necessarily involves rejecting the material world or physical embodiment. The UGC does not accept either of these claims, and its name reflects this.  The UGC tradition proclaims a universal gnosis—that is to say, a gnosis that is available to all who seek it. The UGC tradition also proclaims a gnosis of the universe—that is to say, a gnosis that can be experienced in and through nature and the material world.

Requirements for Ordination

The UGC in its heyday highly encouraged any member who was interested in the church and its traditions to enter the minor orders of Cleric, Doorkeeper, Reader, Healer, and Acolyte. A set of papers, the Gnostic Lessons, were circulated among members, and included ceremonies of commitment by which members not in contact with an active congregation could receive the minor orders and develop their own spiritual life. Ordination to the priesthood and priestesshood, on the other hand, was a considerably more demanding and selective process.  The requirements for ordination varied from time to time—John was not the most organized or consistent teacher!—but he had no time for people who simply wanted to collect a certificate giving them a supposed claim to unearned authority.

This approach seems wise to me. The following qualifications therefore must be met before a candidate is qualified for ordination as a priest or priestess in the Universal Gnostic Church:

1. Completion of study in an affiliated tradition. The UGC in its heyday was associated with several initiatory bodies, which I have already revived. Two programs of study I have developed draw on the same material and either of these may also be used to qualify. If you intend to seek ordination as a priest or priestess, you must therefore complete one of the following courses of study.

Traditional Orders:
•    Ancient Order of Druids in America—initiation into the third degree.
•    Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose—self-initiation into the 6° Initiate grade.
•    Modern Order of Essenes—attunement as a Master Healer.
•    Order of Spiritual Alchemy—acceptance into the third level of the order.

Additional Options:
•    The Dolmen Arch course—completion of the Gwyddon Rhydd grade.
•    Golden Section Fellowship—completion of the three degrees of the Fellowship.(see note 2 below)

You do not have to complete one of these before you begin your studies for the priesthood or priestesshood, but you must complete this before ordination. This is non-negotiable. Other courses of study will not substitute for one of the listed options; don’t even ask. Please note also that I will ask you to document your studies.

2. Establishing and maintaining a personal spiritual practice. The UGC clergy is not a place for armchair mystics.  Daily practice of a set of spiritual disciplines related to the UGC tradition is part of the training for the priesthood or priestesshood. This can include developing ceremonies and practices for a group or congregation, but this must always be secondary to your own personal practice.

3. Completion of the Gnostic Lessons.  These are included already in the study program for the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose, the Modern Order of Essenes, and the Golden Section Fellowship. If you choose some other option, the Gnostic Lessons—which will be republished over the weeks ahead—should be studied and practiced. Here again, you can expect to document your studies.

4. Studies for the Priesthood or Priestesshood.  The traditional UGC training program focused on one of the classics of American spiritual literature, The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James. You will need a copy. This book has passed out of copyright and can be downloaded free of charge from many online archives:  for example, here. However, you may find it helpful to get a printed copy, because your studies will involve very close attention to this text; I wore out a copy during my studies. This was the book that inspired the three founders of the Universal Gnostic Church in their work. It presents spirituality as a deeply personal matter rooted in individual experience and accessible to anyone.

Two other books are required for your studies:

•    Practical Mysticism: A Book for Normal People by Evelyn Underhill. This is a concise and thoughful summary of traditional Western mysticism, more accessible than the author’s earlier and more diffuse volume Mysticism. Practical Mysticism is also out of copyright and may be downloaded free of charge from online archives:  for example, here. 

•    The Many Paths of the Independent Sacramental Movement by John Plummer. This is the one really worthwhile study of the broader movement of independent churches to which the UGC belongs, written by a participant in the movement. It is still in copyright, but may be purchased through the publisher, Apocryphile Press, or from  Bookshop.org.

Beyond this, you will need to study three (or more) holy scriptures or books of sacred narratives from three different religious traditions. Since the Gnostic Universal Church sees the Divine as being present in all religions, its clergy must be conversant with more than one set of scriptures. You may choose any scriptures or books of sacred narratives that you wish. Among the many options are:

•    The New Testament
•    The Bhagavad-Gita
•    The Dhammapada
•    The Tao Te Ching
•    The Kojiki
•    The Theogony of Hesiod and the Orphic Hymns (count as one scripture)
•    The Corpus Hermeticum
•    The Elder Edda
•    The Mabinogion
•    The Popol Vuh
•    The Book of Mormon
•    Oahspe

This list should be seen as suggestive rather than restrictive, and you should feel free to choose scriptures or sacred narratives that are not listed here.

You will be reading each of these volumes—the three books and the three scriptures—many times, and you will be expected to write about your thoughts, feelings, and responses to the ideas in them in quite some detail.

5. Ordination. In order to become a priest or priestess in the UGC you will have to arrange to visit me in Rhode Island in order to receive the sacrament of ordination.  This can only be done in person, and only a bishop can confer ordination. Once there are more bishops in the UGC, this will be a little easier, but for now the situation is what it is.

I’m well aware that this is a very demanding set of requirements, and many people who might otherwise be interested will be unable to complete them. That cannot be helped. I’ve tried to make the traditions I received from John Gilbert as accessible as possible, but in each case there are requirements that have to be met, and the requirements for ordination in the UGC are more challenging than any other. This will take you roughly as much work as you would expect to put into getting a divinity degree and ordination from a more conventional seminary—which is exactly the point, of course.

Requirements for Consecration

If you seek to become a bishop in the UGC, another set of requirements comes into play.

1. Ordination to the priesthood or priestesshood. You have to be a priest or priestess before you can become a bishop. It really is that simple.

2. Continued development of a personal spiritual practice. If it’s essential for a priest or priestess to pursue an active spiritual life involving regular practice, it is even more important for a bishop to do so. The bishops of the UGC are the bearers of the tradition—a tradition of practice, not of dogma.  It must be kept living through ongoing personal experience.

3. Completion of study in a second affiliated tradition.  The bishops of the UGC were custodians of the entire body of tradition associated with the church. Most of us learned all, or nearly all, of the various teachings John had to offer. I won’t require that—though I recommend it!—but you will need to do the work listed above in at least two such traditions before you can be consecrated.

4. Significant independent contributions to the UGC tradition. The standard way to qualify for consecration as a bishop back in the day was to take the teachings, come up with some personal way to work with them, and teach this to others in some organized concept. I qualified by taking on the task of reviving the Ancient Order of Druids in America and developing the very sparse material John had inherited into a fairly complete system of Druid nature spirituality.  Other bishops pursued their own visions in their own way. The point is that a bishop should do something personal and creative with the heritage of the UGC tradition.

5. Consecration. Once again, this has to be done in person, so you will have to visit me in Rhode Island after all the other requirements have been met so that you can receive the sacrament of consecration.

So here you have it. Next week I plan on posting a paper on the UGC’s apostolic succession. After that I’ll post material on the UGC's monastic dimension, then the six Gnostic Lessons, and then some material on how to approach the required reading. After that?  It’s up to you.

Note 1: I had previously believed, based on incomplete sources, that John was consecrated sub conditione by Herman Spruitt of the Church of Antioch. The lineage is the same in either case; Warren Smith was consecrated by Lewis Keiser, who was consecrated by Herman Spruitt.

Note 2: As of this writing the full sequence of degrees in the GSF has not yet been published; I hope to complete that process within the next few years.

Comments

Thank You and Alb Question

[jprussell]

Thanks very much for posting this. I've been working on the Minor Orders as part of the MOE work and have found them helpful so far. I'm going to have to pray and meditate on whether to pursue ordination or not, but I'm trying to set myself up to be ready for the option by keeping up with the Minor Order work and getting a first pass-through of the texts done. I also just got a white robe to use as an alb! In any case, I'll follow along eagerly.

Very minor question: the Gnostic Papers specify the alb as a "plain" white robe with a cord belt - is any decoration/embellishment then not in the right spirit? I've been looking at tablet-woven patterns used as trim in traditional Germanic clothing and thinking making some might be an appropriate kind of dedicatory craftwork, and the first place to put it that came to mind was as part of my ceremonial clothing, but I wouldn't want to screw up the commitment ceremonies with something not in keeping with UGC traditions.

Thanks again, with my blessings to any who welcome them,
Jeff

Re: Thank You and Alb Question

[ecosophia]

Minor decorations -- for example, trim around the wrists, hem, and neckline -- are fine. The predominant color, however, should be white.

[arth_cerdded]

JMG,

Despite the mountain of work required for this, I am still very interested. It may be years before I am eligible, but I am drawn to, and feel strongly that this dimension of spiritual work is important for me to do. Looking forward to your future posts on this.

Looks like I have some serious practice, study, soul-searching, and composition to do!

Regards,
Bert

[ecosophia]

Glad to hear it. Stay tuned!

Imagery

[ritaer]

What is the source of graphic you included? Can you expound on the symbolism? Solar cross is pretty obvious, but the details below are harder to make out.

Looking forward to more details. By the way, I have been printing out the other lessons you have posted. Even if I never get around to doing the work I will try to insure that the copies end up someplace they can be accessed by others--for when these electronic screens go away.

Thanks for the good work.

Rita

Re: Imagery

[ecosophia]

The graphic is a mandala painting by Carl Jung, based on a dream he had; I don't know if anyone knows the fine details of the symbolism. Here's a larger version:

https://presearch.com/images?q=jung%20philemon%20painting&page=6#view

[(Anonymous)]

If all goes well, I'll be talking to you in a few years about scheduling an ordination. I'm going to work my way through the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose in a few days, and then I'll start with the rest of the material as it is posted.

[ecosophia]

I hope you realize it will take more than a few days to work through the FHR material. ;-)

[(Anonymous)]

Since I plan to join this, I hope a question on the divination requirements for the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose is permitted. Could I use natal astrology (with reference to predictive methods) as one of the systems? I'm planning to give natal astrology a go, but am not interested in horary astrology at the moment. This may change, but for now my priorities lie elsewhere.

[ecosophia]

You need some method of divination that will allow you to cast a reading each day. Can you do that with natal astrology? In a certain sense: you can track transits across your natal chart each morning. But plain natal astrology, or (say) progressions, which are once a year, would not count. (That said, natal astrology's great stuff; it just won't fill the role assigned to divination in the FHR system.)

Wonderful!

[realmscryer]

Recently, I have been pondering expanding my Dolmen Arch centered daily practices. Looking forward to reading more details.

Re: Wonderful!

[ecosophia]

They'll be forthcoming!

[deborah_bender]

A couple of comments on your post, intended as supplemental information.

1. Holy scriptures. The holy book of the Sikhs is the Guru Grant Sahib. Some may be considering to study a good translation of the Tanach (the Hebrew Bible, which most Protestants call the Old Testament and Jews call the Bible). Jews, unlike some Christians, don't usually just sit down and read the Bible all by itself. There are many, many modern Jewish commentaries, with varied approaches, available for the Tanach as a whole and the 39 different books it contains. For example, Robert Alter wrote a book called Strong As Death Is Love which covers the Song of Songs, Ruth, Esther, Jonah, and Daniel. A more traditional approach would be to read Rashi's Biblical commentary with it.

2. Fourth requirement for Consecration as a bishop. There is a similar expectation at a certain level in the witchcraft tradition I practice.

[ecosophia]

Thanks for this.

1) All those would also be valid choices. What would you recommend for someone who isn't Jewish and has no exposure to Jewish tradition as an intro to the Tanakh?

2) It's tolerably common, and for good reason.

[(Anonymous)]

I have to admit that I'm still stuck at some very basic questions about the UGC, and I feel that I should probably know a bit more before I even contemplate whether this will be a valid path for me or not.

For example, I suppose the UGC held services (or however they were/are called) for groups or congregations. How does one go about this when people believe in different gods/spiritual beliefs?

When a service is centered around specific people, e.g. a funeral, marriage ceremony or the like, I suppose one would adapt it to the deities or belief system of their choice. But then what if that is something which the priest has never studied, and/or deities to which the priest has no personal connection at all?

While I totally get the concept of personal gnosis on an individual level, it seems that I can't even imagine how that would work on a group level... :-)

Would you care to expand on that a bit, either here or in a separate post? Thanks!

[ecosophia]

This will get a post of its own, but I can summarize the core of that post here. The UGC isn't focused, as so many modern Western religious organizations are, on congregational worship. The reason for that is precisely the one you've stated: personal gnosis is an individual matter. A UGC priest or priestess may officiate at weddings, funerals, et al., but the core of his or her activity is personal development of gnosis, on the one hand, and teaching others how to pursue the same goal, on the other.

There are ways to hold a UGC service for a group, but they don't have much in common with a conventional church service. In our tradition group meditations are welcome but sermons are not! I'll be discussing all this as we proceed.

[(Anonymous)]

This is great! I've been watching for this since you first mentioned you were thinking of reviving the UGC. I ended up reading The Varieties of Religious Experience and Practical Mysticism this past spring to get a sense of whether this path was something I wanted to pursue or not, and I've found that I'm quite drawn to it after reading these books and some of the sacred narratives in the list.

[ecosophia]

I'm glad to hear this. If you still feel the same way when we've finished going over the rest of the details, the door is open.

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Archdruid John,

Thank you so much for this. I look forward to journeying with you. If all goes well, I should be ordained in November in the Liberal Catholic Tradition.

All blessings always
Felix

[ecosophia]

Congratulations and I'm very glad to hear this! Since the LCC has fully valid apostolic succession -- and in fact the founders of the UGC originally received their consecration from an LCC bishop -- once you are ordained, if you complete the UGC course of study, I can grant you faculties as a priest in the UGC as well. If you go on to receive consecration as a bishop the same principle applies.

GNOSIS

[wwzeitler]

As someone who learned Koine Greek and has been studying its vast spiritual literature for decades now (New Testament, Septuagint, Corpus Hermeticum, Apocrypha, Philo, etc.), the analogy for GNOSIS I like is this:

You can read all the books and watch all the videos you want about swimming, and even talk a good game, but to actually jump in the pool and get water up your nose is a completely different order of experience.

You can read all the books and watch all the videos you want about sex, but to actually jump in the sack with your beloved is a completely different order of experience.

Just my $0.02!

Re: GNOSIS

[ecosophia]

Those will do very well as analogies!

[wwzeitler]

I'm curious where you situate the Ecclesia Gnostica (Stephan Hoeller) in your Gnostic Cosmos...

[ecosophia]

There are many different Gnostic churches, each with its own take on the quest for gnosis. Hoeller's church is one of them. The UGC is another. Since gnosis can never be reduced to an orthodoxy, it's not my place to pass judgment on anybody else's gnosis; I will say that the EG has a very good reputation, and I've learned quite a bit from Hoeller's books.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

How does the UGC reconcile the apparent differences between monotheistic and polytheistic religions? Does it hold a view like "prisca theologia", or perennial philosophy, like that of Neoplatonism?

[ecosophia]

The UGC allows each member, clergy or laity, to reconcile those differences for themselves, and to find the set of ideas that best expresses their own experience of the Divine.

[(Anonymous)]

Roughly how long would it take to work through all of the affiliated courses? It seems to me that it’s at least a solid decade of serious spiritual work; which I think helps give a sense of the expectation for bishops in the UGC.

[ecosophia]

All of them? Depends on how much spare time you have and how obsessive you are. I got through the lot of them in a little over six years, but then I don't have a social life and think spiritual practices are endlessly entertaining.

[(Anonymous)]

You've said before that it's best not to mix the LBRP and SoP. Given I find the LBRP/Middle Pillar combination is extremely conducive to my spiritual growth, is it possible to work with the UGC teachings and system without practicing the SoP? I know it rules out at least two of the courses (the AODA and Dolmen Arch), but is it still possible to work with this system and maintain my Golden Dawn work?

[ecosophia]

Yes, very much so. You have at least three choices in terms of affiliated traditions -- the Modern Order of Essenes and the Order of Spiritual Alchemy don't have a ritual dimension at all, and are wholly compatible with classic GD work, while the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose explicitly allows the LBRP and Middle Pillar to be used in place of the SoP.

[(Anonymous)]

When you say we'll have to document our studies for something like completing the MOE, what exactly does that mean? I never took any significant notes or anything along the way, certainly not with dates or anything. I guess a similar question applies for the gnostic studies too, which I don't recall requiring writing much down?

[ecosophia]

If your affiliated tradition is the MOE, I'll be asking you to demonstrate energy healing and reflexology before your ordination, and you'll need to be able to do it without having to look anything up in the manual. I'll also be able to tell from your aura if you've done the Gnostic Lessons and the ceremonies associated with them. Once we get to the rest of the studies, you'll find that there's plenty you'll be writing down...

Lobsters!

[(Anonymous)]

Spouse and I are interested as this seems in keeping with our own ideas on religion and spiritual practice...not been to Rhode Island in decades but I certainly wouldn't mind the trip!

Re: Lobsters!

[ecosophia]

Glad to hear it.

Just a small question...

[(Anonymous)]

I have already received ordination and consecration as a Gnostic Bishop. What are the possibilities for affiliation for someone in that position?

Re: Just a small question...

[ecosophia]

Since the UGC has its own very distinctive traditions, it is necessary for anyone who wishes to function as a UGC priest, priestess, or bishop to go through the training program I've outlined here, irrespective of any other training program they may or may not have completed for any other church or organization. Once you have completed the priesthood training program, however, you can present me with details of your ordination and receive faculties to function as a UGC priest as well as in your current church, without requiring any additional ordination. In the same way, once you have completed the training program for the episcopacy, you can be granted faculties to function as a UGC bishop without a further sub conditione consecration.

Re: holy scriptures

[(Anonymous)]

Fascinating, albeit daunting...would the Gospel of Thomas be considered sufficient for a scripture, or would it need to be all of the gnostic gospels? I see you've said you're positing some material on how to approach the required reading, so I look forward to that. Thanks for this!

[iprescott]

Hi JMG,

As this is something that I have been truly looking forward to, I will accept the mountain of work that has fallen upon me to complete this path.

Best Regards,

Ian

[(Anonymous)]

Hope this isn't too dumb a question, but which religious tradition is the Corpus Hermeticum associated with? Neoplatonism is the closest I could think of for it...

Thank you so much for putting this out there! You might be seeing me at some point when we're both much much grayer, but even if it proves to be too much for me to achieve in this lifetime this is helping round out my own spiritual education. I think there are a lot of people out there in a similar position to me, so even if you don't get too many people to go out to Rhode Island, I hope you don't think your mission isn't succeeding!

The metaphor that's sticking to me today is viewing this entire body of work as "open source religion." The majority of people simply use the technology that's out there. If something goes wrong, they'll report their issue and hope those in power change it. They have little say in how their chosen technology is developed, but they don't have to put in that much work to get amazing results.

I used to work at an open source technology company and some of my favorite moments there were responding to customer complaints by saying "here's the codebase and community guidelines, I'm excited to see the new features you add to our product!"

It's MUCH more work to get something done with open source tools. If you're in the habit of blaming others when you screw up, you'll be very frustrated when something goes wrong, and you're better off accepting the hole you dug yourself in and calmly dig yourself out.

The reward is at the end of the process you have created something you know inside and out. You're not just using a product, you're participating in it's creation.

open source religion

[deborah_bender]

i really like the phrase you have coined, "open source religion", as well as what you said about it.

Sam Webster founded the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn in 2002. It disbanded in 2019.

I just started reading a book by Jon Hanna, What thou wilt; Traditional and Innovative trends in Post-Gardnerian Witchcraft (2008). From what I've read so far, what the author calls Innovative Witchcraft includes open source approaches.

In 1973 I first succeeded in making direct contact with some practicing Pagan witches. The first witches I spoke with gave me a referral to another group who took a largely open source approach to post-Gardnerian witchcraft. The group had been in existence for about five years when I encountered it.

This organization, known by the acronym NROOGD, was what used to be called a "bootstrap" witchcraft tradition, meaning that it laid no claim to a lineage from any previous group or teacher, nor access to secret teachings known only to a few (apart from proprietary information developed within the group by its own efforts). NROOGD's ethos limited such proprietary information (AKA secrets) to the details of initiation rituals, information about members, and insights about working the rituals which required hands-on practice. Everything else could be revealed to anybody who wanted to know, as could the methods by which it was arrived at.

NROOGD's public sabbats, which were regularly attended by more than a hundred people, were designed in such a way as to effectively constitute publication of research. I believe NROOGD was directly responsible for the adoption of Robert Graves' Triple Goddess theology by most of the post-Gardnerian witchcraft community, but explaining why I think that would exceed the length and scope of a blog comment.

[kylec]

I have been working on the gnostic lessons and will be pursuing this course of training. How far? I'm not sure, but I plan to work until I feel I've hit my.limit. Just wanted to express interest and thanks.

[ecosophia]

Delighted to hear it.

Dolmen Arch and UGC

[(Anonymous)]

I am currently working through the Dolmen Arch, and my current plan is complete the last grade by October 31st of this year. This was a private practice for me and I wrote in my journal just for my own eyes.

I'm feeling drawn to the UCC and I have a couple questions:

1. I am planning on picking up the Celtic Golden Dawn after completing the Dolmen Arch for the first time. Going through the Dolmen Arch made me realize I would like to put a bit more work on the ritual magic side of things. Can the Celtic Golden Dawn be practiced alongside UGC studies, or is concurrently practicing the SoP necessary?

2. Would notes from prior studies work for the UGC? I did not write my notes with the expectation of sharing them for work in another branch of the tradition.

Thank you! and thank you for keeping these traditions alive!

Re: Dolmen Arch and UGC

[ecosophia]

1) Yes, it can be practiced alongside UGC training. The UGC work is best done while performing some kind of daily ritual of protection and blessing, and the CGD LBRP certainly qualifies. In fact, the magical order affiliated with the UGC, which I revised and published under the name of the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose, gives the LBRP as an alternative to the Sphere of Protection.

2) Yes. I won't require copies of your practice journals exactly as you wrote them; instead, if you become a candidate for ordination, I'll ask you to tell me in detail about certain aspects of your previous training. I'm fairly confident of being able to tell the difference between someone who's actually done the work and somebody who hasn't.

Are the teachings and practices of these curriculum inter compatible?

[jeffreynbrown]

I've joined the AODA but have not yet begun to work its curriculum.
I find myself wondering if the curricula of the orders you listed are compatible with each other?
For instance, if I wanted to work the AODA curriculum and the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose, would this create conflicts.
Or if I wanted to work the AODA and Order of Spiritual Alchemy, would this create conflicts.

If you have time, I'd love to hear your thoughts on these musing.


Traditional Orders:
• Ancient Order of Druids in America—initiation into the third degree.
• Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose—self-initiation into the 6° Initiate grade.
• Modern Order of Essenes—attunement as a Master Healer.
• Order of Spiritual Alchemy—acceptance into the third level of the order.

Additional Options:
• The Dolmen Arch course—completion of the Gwyddon Rhydd grade.
• Golden Section Fellowship—completion of the three degrees of the Fellowship.(see note 2 below)