Don's Source About Magical Personality

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There is much more to these traditions than the "attaining of states", in my humble opinion, but everyone finds their own way to the One and no path is wrong.

As for how these recipes were tested, they were not built from nothing. The founders of the Golden Dawn were Master Masons and high ranking SRIA Rosicrucians who had practiced and studied esoterics for many years. Dr. Wescott in particular was quite oriented towards the sciences and they were tested through repeated experimentation as far as I understand, building from hypothesis. The LBRP is but one ritual of the Golden Dawn which was built from a variety of influences, of which there is indeed a verifiable history scattered across various books.

However, the easiest way to understand Golden Dawn is as "fringe masonry", it has a lot of similarities to masonry in its ritual structure and design but is pointedly more pagan and 'occult' than masonry which is more influenced by Hiram and Judaism.

Ultimately, everyone connects with different things and different paths. I'm of the opinion that many paths exists because people are very different but everyone will find their own way.