Morgan Drake Eckstein

A question that I occasionally kick around is “What qualities should a leader have?” Inside the initiated traditions, such as Golden Dawn, this question is generally ignored. In the initiated traditions, you are taught that the person who has the most initiations is the leader---after all, the person with the most initiations (and the most secret documents) has the most knowledge. And that is what the initiated traditions are all about---the preservation of esoteric knowledge.

But this standard does not work outside of the initiated traditions. In fact, one could argue that this idea does not really produce good results inside the initiated traditions. With leadership being based on a single thing---initiations and secret information---the system makes would-be leaders to focus on pursuing just that goal. If you want to be a leader in Golden Dawn and other esoteric initiated systems, all that matters is collecting Degrees and Grades. Everything else can be ignored. As a result, one ends up with leaders whose sole qualification to be a group leader is the fact that they have undergone multiple initiations. Leadership inside the esoteric traditions often lack even the most basic skills that leaders in other fields must have.

For instance, it has been my experience that leaders who pride themselves on knowing the most are the ones who are least able to clearly communicate the essence of that knowledge to others. Now, the happy little cynic says that part of this is the simple unwillingness to hand over information to potential rivals. But I suspect that it is also the way that their teachers taught them---after all, we learn to teach the system based on how we were taught the system ourselves. If someone learned the system from someone who was as clear as mud, one tends to teach it to others in the same slurry-licious manner.

One of the ongoing gripes that one hears from leaders of the initiated traditions is that no one outside of their own groups ever listens to them. It hurts their tender feelings that they have lessons to teach, and people tend to chose to give the opinions of non-initiates more weight. They hate people like myself that openly say, “I would rather follow a Neophyte [the lowest Grade in GD] who is willing and able to clearly explain the little that they know. The most advanced Ipsissimus [theoretically, the highest Grade in the GD system] is completely useless if they are unwilling and incapable of explaining their great wisdom.” As one can guess, I do not make many friends with this attitude.

This attitude of mine, which is occasionally referred to as an “attitude problem,” illustrates a primary difference between the way that the initiated and non-initiate communities chose their leadership. Outside of the circles where possession of knowledge is the holy grail of leadership, it is the ability to communicate that is the key factor in deciding who to follow. The leaders outside of the initiated community are sometimes not even called “leaders.” The leaders in the greater esoteric community are bloggers, workshop teachers, ritual organizers, shop owners, artists and authors, and those people you call when you need some advice. The really great ones all have the ability to communicate their knowledge and opinions. They may not be the most knowledgeable, or even the most pleasant people to hang around with, but they all capable of clearly conveying what is on their minds. And I do not know about you, but to me that counts more than all the initiations and secret documents in the world.