>
> On May 17, 8:28 pm, catherine yronwode
herb-magic.com> wrote:>>> Here is the time line regarding the trademark conflict between Chic
>>> Cicero requested by Cat Yronwode. I have been following this conflict
>>> very closely, and have downloaded all relevant documents from the
>>> court's website. I would suggest that you do the same, Cat, to really
>>> make sense of this mess.
>>> ______________________
>>
>>> Timeline of the Trademark Conflict between Chic Cicero and David
>>> Griffin
>>
>>> 1982
>>
>>> Cris Monnastre approaches Chic Cicero and Larry Epperson and invites
>>> them to begin to work together with her. This association becomes the
>>> Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Cicero files letters of
>>> incorporation in 1988.
>>
>>> January, 1994
>>
>>> Cris Monnastre, Praemonstratix General of HOGD, leaves Chic Cicero's
>>> home with David Griffin after Chic Cicero allegedly throws a tantrum,
>>> screaming at Monnastre in public over what kind of pizza to order.
>>> Upon returning to Los Angeles, the Los Angeles earthquake hits. Co-
>>> chiefs Chic Cicero and Larry Epperson allegedly "resign" GH Soror MdA
>>> (Cris Monnastre) by falsely telling the order that she "resigned."
>>> Monnastre immediately reconstitutes the order with two new Chiefs.
>>> David Griffin becomes the legitimate Imperator of HOGD.
>>
>>> February, 1994
>>
>>> David Griffin founds the Isis-Nut temple in Stockholm and registers
>>> the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn trademark in Sweden. He
>>> immediately afterwards uses this trademark as the basis to register
>>> the same trademark in the newly created OHIM trademark office for the
>>> entire European Union.
>>
>>> March, 1995
>>
>>> Chic Cicero files to register the HOGD trademark in the USA. Cris
>>> Monnastre and Griffin hire Stewart MacKenzie, the attorney who won the
>>> Marcello Motta vs. OTO case to defend their interests and file formal
>>> opposition to Cicero's trademark application. Cicero and Babwahsing
>>> allegedly begin anonymously publishing Nazi rumors about Griffin on
>>> the internet. Cicero's alleged involvement with the New Jersey,
>>> Cavalcanti crime family, strip clubs, and pimping are also exposed to
>>> the public for the first time.
>>
>>> March 1996
>>
>>> Cicero, Griffin, and Monnastre sign a legally binding contract to
>>> share the "Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn" trademark on a world-
>>> wide basis. Cicero gains partial ownership of the mark in Europe and
>>> Griffin-Monnastre gain partial ownership as well in the USA. Griffin
>>> and Monnastre, upon reaching this settlement agreement with Cicero,
>>> consequently withdraw their trademark opposition.
>>
>>> 1997
>>> Griffin and Monnastre, together with the Ahathoor Temple No. 7 in
>>> Paris, the August Order of the Mystic Rose, and a temple in South
>>> America form an international Conferation of the Hermetic Order of the
>>> Golden Dawn.
>>
>>> 1998
>>
>>> SRIA (America) Imperatrix, Sister Lucia Grosch, is sued by Frank
>>> Modica. Destitute, she is forced to accept money from Maria Babwahsing
>>> to settle the suit in exchange for handing over the SRIA to Babwahsing
>>> and Cicero. Cicero is alleged to have threatened Grosch with violence
>>> if she did not comply.
>>
>>> 1999
>>
>>> The Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega and its outer order the
>>> Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn proclaim the Reformatio
>>> Fraternitatis, Anno 1999, moving all published Golden Dawn material to
>>> the outer order and replacing this material with a new Second Order
>>> curriculum derived entirely from confidential, pre-Golden Dawn
>>> Rosicrucian and Hermetic esoteric transmissions.
>>
>>> Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn publishing releases David Griffin's
>>> landmark work, The Ritual Magic Manual. In this work, Griffin follows
>>> the same lines of synthesis employed by Mathers for elemental magic
>>> uniting the Qabalistic and Enochian systems and achieves the same
>>> integration for Planetary and Zodiacal magick. Griffin's work makes
>>> the magick of the R.R. et A.C. easy to practice for the first time.
>>
>>> 2002
>>
>>> The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, under Griffin's leadership,
>>> opens the Harparkrat Cyber Temple, making the HOGD system available
>>> for students living in outlying areas for the first time, yet
>>> preserving the sanctity of physical initiations in real temples.
>>
>>> In October, 2002, Griffin and other HOGD leaders meet in Paris with
>>> representatives of the Continental European Hermetic and Rosicrucian
>>> secret alchemical society that had given the Cypher manuscripts to
>>> Kenneth MacKenzie with with the HOGD was created and the material for
>>> the RR et AC to S.L. MacGregor Mathers. Mathers referred to these
>>> Continental Adepts, the "source of origin" of the original Hermetic
>>> Order of the Golden Dawn as the "Secret Chiefs." Representatives of
>>> this order give Griffin the rituals and the esoteric teachings that
>>> had been intended for the "Third Order" of the original, Hermetic
>>> Order of the Golden Dawn.
>>
>>> Chic Cicero, breaks his agreement not to initiate each other's
>>> students with Griffin by initiating Griffin HOGD member, Mark Griggs.
>>> Griffin breaks off all relations with Cicero. Cicero begins to
>>> tortuously interfere in the internal affairs of Griffin's order by
>>> offering advanced grades and trademark licenses to anyone willing to
>>> foment schism.
>>
>>> 2003
>>
>>> A group of alleged Satanists form the so-called "Open Source Order of
>>> the Golden Dawn."
>>
>>> Cicero begins to solicit trademark infringement on his website and to
>>> "nakedly lisence" a host of self-initiation, astral initiation, and
>>> Satanist groups to use the "Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn"
>>> trademark.
>>
>>> 2005
>>
>>> Cicero breaches his contract with Griffin and files a frivolous
>>> lawsuit against Griffin in U.S. Federal Court. Cicero hires a ghetto
>>> lawyer from downtown Oakland upon the urging of "Open Source"
>>> Satanist, Joseph Max. Griffin's HOGD interests are represented by
>>> Florida attorney, Jorge Hevia III.
>>
>>> January, 17 2007
>>
>>> Cicero settles litigation with Griffin, caving in and basically giving
>>> Griffin everything that he wanted, including the permanent right to
>>> call his outer order the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the USA.
>>> There are several reasons why Cicero caved in so badly. The first is
>>> that Griffin had managed for all intents and purposes to bankrupt
>>> Cicero with his his attorney's scorched earth legal strategy, forcing
>>> Cicero to reply to 115 filings that were made during the case.
>>> Moreover, only weeks before the scheduled trial, Cicero found that he
>>> had painted himself into a legal corner. On the one hand, Cicero faced
>>> at least a 90%% chance of haiing his USA trademark cancelled by the
>>> judge if the case went to trial for the following reasons:
>>
>>> 1. Cicero and his order were clearly not the "source of origin" of the
>>> Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. (His attorneys had been silly
>>> enough to argue that they were in their early filings, thus
>>> inadvertently setting Cicero up for a fall.)
>>
>>> 2. Cicero was clearly guilty of soliciting infringement of the mark on
>>> his website. This alone was grounds enough for the mark to be
>>> cancelled.
>>
>>> 3. Cicero was guilty of "naked" licensing, which means licensing third
>>> parties to use the trademark without proper supervision and control.
>>> His website announcements made this easy to prove as well. This also
>>> in itself would have been sufficient grounds for the judge to cancel
>>> the mark should the case have gone to trial as well.
>>
>>> On the other hand, it had become increasingly clear that, even in a
>>> best case scenario, should Cicero by some miracle of fate have won a
>>> judgement against Griffin for trademark infringement in the USA, this
>>> would have in itself been grounds for Griffin to obtain a similar
>>> judgement against Cicero for his infringing on Griffin's trademark of
>>> the same name in Europe. Thus, caught in a lose-lose situation, Cicero
>>> caved in and gave Griffin everything he wanted in order not to get his
>>> trademark cancelled in trial.
>>
>>> My basis of this analysis is a careful reading of all of the court
>>> documents available online through the US Federal court's Pacer
>>> system which I downloaded. Hevia's scorched earth policy is
>>> reprehensible though not unethical. But then again, Cicero did not
>>> comply with an existing contract. At the same time, Griffin's
>>> advantage is that his EU trademark does not have to follow these same
>>> "source of origin" requirements.
>>
>>> February, 2007
>>
>>> Cicero's claims against Griffin and Griffin's counter claims against
>>> Cicero are dismissed with prejudice by the judge. Within hours,
>>> Griffin announces that his order is in possession of the entire Third
>>> Order transmission originally intended for the original HOGD, and that
>>> its curriculum includes the sexual practices of Hermetic Inner Alchemy
>>> and Alchemical Theurgy, that had been obtained by GD founder, S.L.
>>> MacGregor Mathers from the Continental European "source of origin" of
>>> the original Golden Dawn.(Continental Adepts called Secret Chiefs by
>>> Mathers)
>>
>>> May, 2007
>>
>>> "Golden Dawn Lineage" claims made on their websites by Cicero's HOGD
>>> and Babwahsiing's SRIA are unmasked on based on no evidence
>>> whatsoever. Neither Cicero nor Babwahsingh produce any evidence to
>>> substantiate their claims, but instead allegedly go on a defamation
>>> rampage on alt.magick and on anonymously published web sites defaming
>>> Griffin and his, Jorge Hevia III. Cicero HOGD, Inc. Principal Board
>>> Director Anthony and noted Golden Dawn historian, Anthohy Fuller (aka
>>> Anthony Fleming) admits that Cicero's HOGD and Babwahsing's SRIA
>>> (America)'s lineage claims are without merit.
>>
>> Okay, then.
>>
>> Really, i liked the way your post started out so neutral and then ran
>> off the rails around the time you called the OSOGD "Satanists." After
>> that it was all downhill.
>>
>> Still, you have opened some new areas of information, for which i thank
>> you sincerely, and what you say has been confirmed in part by others,
>> especially in anonymous emails.
>
> Sorry. I meant "alleged" Satanists.
Correction gratefull accepted.
> I read this allegation originally
> last year on Wikipedia about the OSOGD.
The "Wikipedia Revision Wars" are an interesting sidelight to this
issue, and similar Wiki Wars are ongoing in many of the fields of
cultural and social material dealt with at Wikipedia.
I sould spend an hour or two telling of my own experiences with bias at
Wikipedia, but i haven't time today. Suffice it to say that in almost
every field at Wikipedia to which i contributed during my short stint
there as an editor -- religion, folk lore, Thelema, African American
history, country music, blues music, history of occultism, 20th century
history -- i found evidences of deliberate tampering, slanderous
revision, and ego-spamming being conducted by organized individuals,
often working in teams. The only fields i entered that were seemingly
exempt from such programmatic revisions were botany and Chinese tea
culture.
> I first thought that I should
> leave it out, but then I remembered the Nazi rumours that you continue
> to propagate here and archive on your luckymojo website. This caused
> me to believe that you might be interested in archiving yellow
> journalistic rumors as well.
Indeed, i am. The allegations of the OSOGD being Satanists is a
documentable subject and i will deal with it; the problem i had with
your objectivity is that you flat-out called them Satanists, thus
displaying your inntention to smear them.
> Certainly Wikipedia is a more reliable source than alt.magick.
Not so. See above.
> If you are archiving Nazi rumors, why not
> Satanist ones as well about the other order as well? Oh yes, that hits
> a little two close to home, does it not, Cat, with your hubby being a
> member of the allegedly Satanic OSOGD?
You are having a splendid conversation with yourself in a mirror,
mouthing lines you have written for me.
Have you noticed yet -- will you ever notice and acknowledge? -- that
these lines do not accord with what i am saying, what i believe, what i
intend to archive, or what i am telling you?
Wake up.
Wake up.
Wake up.
> My poiint in all of this is that you, Cat Yronwode, are anything but
> an "objective" archivist.
I am trying to be impartial, but it is difficult to avoid forming at
least a mildly negative opinion about you, seeing as how you are
babbling on in usenet having an imaginary conversation with an imaginary
me whom you seek to spank for offenses i have not committed.
Wake Up.
Be wise.
Watch and wait before you bleat.
> Baseless Nazi rumors about others get
> archived aon your family website.
That is, unfortunately, how history is written -- in fits and starts. I
too wish that controversies based in demeaning untruths would die away,
but such is not the case.
Next week i will post some of what Clymer said about the AMORC. IT WILL
MAKE YOUR HAIR STAND ON END.
Antipathetic rumour-mongering is, like it or not, the inheritance of
virtually every occult order in Europe and the Anglophone countries.
> Baseless Satanist rumors about the
> order that your husband belongs to, get conveniently ignored.
Wrong.
> You do
> not like the timeline that I submitted because it does not conform to
> your true agenda, which is one of libel and distortion of truth.
I did not say that i did not like the timeline. I said that the first
portion of it was more usefully objective but that it got derailed into
subjectivity when the Satanist material was included as "fact". I will
be using much of it, and i thanked you, with genuine appreciation, for
your posting of the facts as you recall them.
> I would suggest that you immediately remove all of that Nazi crap from
> your luckymojo website if you expect anyone at all to take what you
> are doing here seriously.
I am not the archivist of the site you are mentioning.
> Otherwise, archive the equally stupid
> Mafioso, Prostitute, and Satanist rumors as well and at least you
> might be considered an objective rumor mongering.
Be patient.
> And please don't try
> and insult our intelligence by trying to tell us again that it is your
> allegedly Satanist husband secretly archiving that Nazi garbage on
> your website, and that you have no responsibility for it. You are not
> an SS officer "just following orders" and you do have responsibility.
First, my Satanist husband is not "allegedly" Satanist, He does identify
Satanism as his religion. For more about his definition of Satanism
(veneration of the wild, the "adversary" of human civilization) see the
book "Not in Kansas Anymore" by Christine Wicker, where he was
interviewed at length. By the way, this book, published by
HarperCollins, also contains an account of an OSOGD initiation, so it
may be of interest to you on that account as well.
Second, it is indeed my husband, not me, who runs the site
http://www.arcane-archive.org
-- and he always has. I have on a few occasions suggested usenet
articles for him to archive, but his selections are his own. Right now
he is away from usenet, but as soon as he returns, i will point him to
these threads and i hope that he will archive all of the substantive
posts.
> By the way, do you intend to also archive the rumors about domestic
> violence that I just read this morning as well?
Yes, this will be part of the "programme booklet" i am compiling.
Whether or not siva archives any such posts independently of my
compilation is up to him. He does tend to avoid archiving posts that
consist of boilerlate text or that simply point to URLs (as the URLs
have a way of disappearing). He does not copy web sites (unless they are
copyright free) and so if you wish to see material pertaining to
Cicero's domestic violence charges included, it woul behoove you to
write a calm, journalistic, substantiated, and decently composed post on
the subject. Transcribe neatly and accurately any text found on pdfs
(the archive is text-based) and try to avoid ending paragraphs with
strings of mountingly hysterical rhetorical questions.
> Why not?
I just said, "Yes."
> The documents appear genuine.
I agree.
> You have some tough questions to anwser, otherwise
> your credibility is in the toilet.
Those were not tough questions for me. They were simple questions that
you need not have gotten twisted into a snit about.
> Right now you look like a
> rumormonger out to libel the HOGD/A+O in order to make the "allegedly
> Satanic" OSOGD that your hubby belongs to look good, while
> conveniently whitewashing and ignoriing the dirt of the Cicero HOGD,
> Inc. that licenses the your husband's allegedly satanic, OSOGD.
I have no intention of whitewshing anyone. I am interested in this
narrative as it unforlds in scandal and libel and rumour for the same
reason i am interested in comparing it to the Clymer/Lewis feud of the
1930s, the earlier HOGD schism, and the Randolph/Blavatsky feud. I am
tryng to present some slightly eccentric but documentable facts about
our small corner of the metphysical world. There is humour to be had,
and wisdom, and caution, and a few gasps of shock, and in the end, by
reading of these events, i sincerely hope that we who work in the fields
of occultism and magical aspiration will learn something about humanity
and how better to conduct our social and ersonal lives. That's the
programme.
cat yronwode
