What is astral initiation and what does it have to do with traditional Golden Dawn initiation?
People join the Golden Dawn looking for physical initiation in a real Golden Dawn temple. Sadly, many Regardie-based groups have thrown traditional Golden Dawn initiation right out the window, inventing strange and untraditional “long distance” or “astral” initiations instead. It has been argued that there is always an “astral” element in any genuine Golden Dawn initiation. This is true in the limited sense that the energetic or “astral” body of the candidate is always ultimately impacted by the initiation. In other words, the initiation works on many levels and affects not merely the physical body of the candidate. This does not mean, however, that the actual physical presence of the candidate with an initiating Hierophant is not necessary. On the contrary, there is an actual transmission of energies from the initiating Hierophant, awakening certain forces in the energetic body of the candidate. Contrary to the opinions of certain Regardie-based groups, this can only occur in the phys
