Mr. Farrell replied with yet another long "lineage rant" Alpha et Omega. The Golden Dawn community, of course, grew bored with Mr. Farrell's attack rants long ago, that have even tainted the feigned objectivity of his otherwise fine books.
There is no need, therefore, to waste time refuting such nonsense in detail yet again, as such screeds have been refuted over and over for nearly two decades already.
Let it suffice to say that, despite frequent and thorough refutation, Nick Farrell today still fails even to grasp what lineage means for a spiritual tradition like the Golden Dawn. Farrell mistakenly assumes that Golden Dawn lineage is like the formal lineage of Freemasonry, which amounts to little more than successions of paper charters.
The Golden Dawn, however, is a spiritual tradition, and thus lineage for the Golden Dawn, contrary to Nick Farrell's fundamental misunderstanding, is not at all like that of Freemasonry, but instead more closely resembles the lineages of Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, which are also "spiritual" lineages.
Golden Dawn lineage, as do all of the great spiritual lineages of the world, carries with it sets of spritual practices that lead to specific spiritual realizations, as do as the Dharma transmissions of Buddhism.
A perfect example of Golden Dawn spritual lineage, are the secret magical practices of the Hermetic tradition just communicated by the Secret Chiefs of the Third Order of the Golden Dawn to the Second Order of the Alpha Omega. As I mentioned in my recent article here, this spiritual lineage includes the initiatic secrets of the magical systems only touched upon in Cornelius Agrippa's", De Occulta Philosophia, "that were only alluded to in the profaned Golden Dawn material published by Crowley and Regardie. This is the first time that the actual magical practices have been transmitted to any Golden Dawn order.
This Hermetic spiritual lineage also includes a great deal more, which I am not at liberty to disclose publicly at this time. I may only mention that this Hermetic spiritual lineage also includes a complete system of Chaldaen elemental and astrological magic, available exclusively in the Second Order of the A.O.
When it comes to spiritual traditions, lineage without the requisite spiritual practices is worthless, and the true reason why Nick Farrell continuously attacks the Alpha Omega is to divert attention from the fact that Farrell has nothing at all to offer his Golden Dawn students, except for well known and published material.
Readers interested in examining a more thorough refutation of one of Nick Farrell's typical lineage rants, should read "Golden Dawn Lineage, Nick Farrell and Historical Revisionism" on the Golden Dawn blog here.
Readers seeking more detailed information about the true nature of Golden Dawn lineage or about the vast Hermetic, Rosicucian, and Golden Dawn lineages held by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Rosicrucian Order of A.O., will find it on our website here, here, and here. and on the website of the Golden Dawn Research Center here.