Truth About Dues

There appears to be a vocal minority who are under some abstract kind of idea that a Golden Dawn Order should not charge dues of any kind.

People who live in the world and are involved in the area of higher education understand the importance of providing as much support and back up for the hungry student. Most Golden Dawn Orders do exactly this. In the first five grades there can be over 900 sheets of paper, printing, audio tapes, etc. This doesn't even include the twenty-four hour fax, personal proctor, 7-day a week on-line Adept for teaching help, and Order Newsletter. ( One main tenet of the classical Golden Dawn Order is to provides the serious student with every opportunity for success.) No school is free. The historic Golden Dawn from the very beginning was not free. A growing Hermetic Fraternity with world-wide support must ask of its members a minimal due structure.

Keep in mind a few important points:

1. The Outer Order is not Rosicrucian.

It is an Outer Order School and Fraternity that is designed to initiate, teach, and prepare worthy candidates for Second Order work. Dues are not a part of the 2nd Order. However, many other Fraternal groups do charge much higher amounts of money for higher grades. That is their business; we neither applaud them nor do we condemn them.

2. No one was ever turned away from the Golden Dawn Order, now or in the past, for inability to pay dues.

3. Members do not make a profit and neither does any Golden Dawn Order.

Even with the minimal dues that members contribute to their Order, dedicated Order members pull money out of their own pockets to purchase printing, equipment, computers, Temple furniture, etc. No one asks them to give extra help, they do it because they love their Order and they want it to be the best in the world.

Adepts also do a tremendous amount of research work remaining within the sanctuary of the Order and not being shared with the uninitiated or non-members who just collect information, but seldom do the Work.

4. As stated earlier, the Golden Dawn, from the beginning, had various fees and dues.

The following is a brief summary and is documented in the book entitled The Golden Dawn Companion, by R. A. Gilbert:

From the by-laws of the Isis-Urania Temple:

"Annual subscription (dues) shall be two-shillings and six pence and shall be paid on or before the Assembly of the Vernal Equinox in each year."

(The above does not include much other than membership.)

A subscribing member may purchase from the Cancellarius any of the following:

Ritual of Neophyte - 5s 0p
Zelator - 5s 0p
Theoricus - 5s 0p
Practicus - 6s 0p
Philosophus - 7s 0p
Ceremony of the Equinox - 1s 6p
The Historical Lecture - 2s 6p
Lecture on Pillars - 2s 6p
Copies of other documents,
Lecture -- per folio, per 100 wds - 0s 2p

The insignia as follows may also be purchased:
Sash of Neophyte - 2s 6p
Zelator - 3s 0p
Theoricus - 3s 6p
Practicus - 4s 0p
Philosophus - 4s 6p

Note paper, stack with G.D. Crest - 0s 9p per quire

Envelope stamped with G.D. Crest per packet - 0s 6p

There were several other fees including Second Order Fees. The point is clear, once and for all, that the Golden Dawn has always had a due structure. There is an old saying that if you pay some one enough money to find a brown back, yellow spotted beetles in your backyard, they will continue to find them even if they have them imported. The same is true of criticism of Orders or any other fraternal school for charging dues. If people want to criticize the Work we are doing and the efforts many are making, they will find fault no matter what is said.

Peace Profound.