Resources, Beginner Links, Court case, & Updates
Please review the other posts, particularly the Plagiarism of Modern or Living Authors for the bulk of the Plagiarism with side by side comparisons, this post is a follow up with additional info and links of interest. Featuring some places to find study material or similar threads.
**PLEASE NOTE**
There will be be a larger more detailed resource for origins and practice comings soon. The Links provided below are simple starting points, and data has been and is being collated on a large scale to help women in this work.
For now here are a few starting points and general information.
The ST website now has a very lacking statement on it's homepage, and have replaced the word "tradition" with "conclave"
The photo of the woman on their site and in the 2008 interview labeled "Pall of Pollen Elder" is simply an antique photograph of a woman in mourning "telling the bees" and that they are not elders (and that there are no elders of the tradition) has been confirmed by the trust.
Ross Heaven vs Simon Buxton :This links to the court case about trademark infringement for Darkness Visible, but there is information and discussion of the Sacred Trust in the transcript. It was not a friendly case. Ross Heaven (who is now passed) claimed to have ghost written TSWOTB for Simon and that it was made up. Simon lost the case but won the appeal. This is simply here for the mentions of the book-Jump past the articles to view court case details/testimony about the book.
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Links
Inner Alchemy and Internal Elixers One of many traditions of Inner Alchemy. Check out Kenneth Grant's work on the Kalas, as well.
What the Bee Knows PL Traver's book What the Bee Knows free online
Travers at Parabola Just a lovely archive of Travers essays at Parabola magazine
Knowledge Lecture from the Golden Dawn
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
Dr. Thomas Penry Evans and Dion Fortune there is speculation that "Bridge" may have been Thomas Penry Evans, husband of Dion Fortunate (others believing he is an amalgamation of men/did not exist), who died before Simon was born.
Please see other posts for links to the Siddha walk and Infinity walk, as well as work by Joseph campbell around the Pollen path.
More Articles:
Fox in the Beehive Review This amazon review has information of interest to those trying to pin down origins
Andrew Gough Interview. Along with the Ashe Journal award (see below) Simon's book also won the 2005 Canizares Book Award for non-fiction and was endorsed by Tori Amos on the cover of the book (though the publishing of it was allgedly non-consensual/accidental).
"Buxton affirms that the ancient shamanic tradition of the Bee, which can be traced from the earliest of epochs of pre-history right through to the founding forefathers and principals of the United States of America, is still practiced in the 21st century"
As mentioned, Simon is now saying he doesn't know anything about who taught his teachers, isn't a tradition, and so on.
New Age Fraud: Pollen Path/Navajo
Here is a link to Shaman's Drum 2004
PDF, an article about the book, and it's problems, by Timothy White,
before the Plagiarism was discovered. Interesting to read a perspective
of a peer at the time and also see many parallels drawn to other work,
etc.
Ross Heaven on Buxton : Scroll down in the article to see information on Buxton.
Inner Traditions In the description it is non-fiction, describing a lineage/tradition, which is a word Buxton is now saying he"regrets using" as it is not a tradition.
Ashe Journal Award in 2005 for TSWOTB for ethnography and spiritual autobiography.
Buxton has also told students that is was intended as fiction (but also that it happened as written).
Scriptus Recensera Repost of this book review from the first blog entry ft summary of the plagiarism before the Steiner/Bleakley etc surfaced.
Pagan Book Reviews Addressing the claims of it being a secret, "unbroken" tradition.
Mind Folds (Used in Darkness work) were created by the artist Alex Grey, which doesn't have anything to do with plagiarism, it's just a cool fact.
"Each man has his own vocation. The talent is the call." Ralph Waldo Emerson
"As Bridge said to me early on in our acquaintanceship ‘everyone has their own vocation. The talent is in hearing the call.’" Simon to Andrew Gough
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"I have seen the future, and it works" -Joseph Lincoln Steffens 1933
Court Case Highlights
Mr. Buxton states that the Trust has been trading since 1995. He adds that in 1986 he was inducted into a small, private shamanic group of ‘bee-keepers’ known as ‘The Path of Pollen’. The full detail of this is set out in the book The Shamanic Way of the Bee (see Exhibit 1),
Ms. Ahsan confirms Mr. Heaven’s assertion that he showed her chapters of a book he was ghost writing for Mr. Buxton that later appeared in the The Shamanic Way of the Bee. She is convinced that Mr. Heaven is the author and that the book is fictional, the latter belief being based on her knowledge and experience – as a professional journalist and editor – in ‘spiritual’ subjects.
This assertion of Ms. Ahsan’s (Mr. Buxton refers to this in his statement dated 16th October 2006 at paragraph 11) does not sit well with the review of Prediction Magazine when the book was published. In the unnumbered opening pages of The Shamanic Way of the Bee it is praised as ‘Simon Buxton’s much awaited debut ...’. Ms. Ahsan was the editor of this magazine at the time and, apparently, the book was also elected Prediction ‘Book of the Month’.
Their professional relationship developed: they co-wrote the book Darkness Visible and conducted workshops under the same name in 2004 to 2005. Mr. Heaven also claims that he ghost wrote the book The Shamanic Way of the Bee for Mr. Buxton. Certainly he is not credited with authorship – though he claims that he expected this following the publication of Darkness Visible in joint names and states that the Acknowledgement on page ix of the The Shamanic Way of the Bee, where he is thanked ‘for his golden heart and poet’s quill’ is a reference to his authorship. Of the book Darkness Visible Mr. Heaven also states that he penned the vast majority of this composition, Mr. Buxton contributing fewer than 15 pages (see paragraph 20 of Mr. Heaven’s statement), his name only appearing ‘as a courtesy’. In support of this Mr. Heaven refers to a download from Amazon, the on-line bookshop, which refers to Mr. Buxton as ‘contributor’ not as a co-author (Exhibit 6). In a later statement, Mr. Buxton argues that this reference was made by an unknown unauthorised third party (see Mr. Buxton’s statement dated 16th October 1994 and Exhibit 17B).
Returning to the The Shamanic Way of the Bee, Mr. Heaven also states that this was written as a work of fiction, a fantasy, and places in evidence various pieces of material to bolster this contention (Exhibits 2 and 3: Exchanges on Internet Forum that refers to ‘The Path of Pollen’ as depicted in the book as a fraud; Exhibit 4: a download form the on-line encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, which labels the book as an Example of ‘Plastic Shamanism’, that is, of individuals who pass themselves off as spiritual leaders, but are ultimately motivated by personal gain; and Exhibit 5: various comments on the book by way of reviews on Amazon).
Mr. Heaven states in paragraph 19 of his statement that his relationship deteriorated after the publication of The Shamanic Way of the Bee; in particular: it was published as a work of non- fiction, his involvement in it was not mentioned and he never received any payment for the work (as promised). He adds ‘I had questions about Mr. Buxton’s integrity and was concerned for my reputation’.
Mr. Heaven further describes how their relationship broke down completely at the final course they ran together in 2005, claiming that Mr. Buxton lost control during conduct of the seminar and he reminded him that DARKNESS VISIBLE was his work and said that he was uncertain, in view of this behaviour, whether he wanted him to assist in the future. Mr. Heaven further asserted his rights when an article by a journalist working for the Observer newspaper, who had attended this final course, marginalised his contribution (Exhibit 12). The paper later published the following correction:
‘In the article below we said that the Darkness Visible course is run by the Sacred Trust. It is, in fact, the project of Simon Buxton and Ross Heaven ... and while Simon Buxton runs the Sacred Trust, Darkness Visible is a quite separate initiative’.
This must govern my approach to the claims of both Mr. Buxton and Mr. Heaven. Before their relationship broke down, these two gentlemen were effusive of the talents and integrity of each –
Mr. Buxton of Mr. Heaven in ‘Acknowledgements’ in The Shamanic Way of the Bee: ‘I wish to thank ... Ross Heaven for his golden heart and poet’s quill’;
Mr Heaven to Mr. Buxton, in the quoted reviews of the The Shamanic Way of the Bee: ‘Simon Buxton is a man with genuine miracles to impart’
It is clear that this case challenges the views they once held of each others’ probity and integrity. It certainly appears that each have made assertions that do not sit well with certain other parts of the evidence they have submitted.
For example, Mr. Heaven refers to the fictional nature of the The Shamanic Way of the Bee, but he writes in the Forward of that book: ‘As fantastic as it all sounds, I will vouch for every word of it. I have known Simon Buxton for many years and have had the pleasure and privilege of teaching with him on occasion. I have also been his student and know him as a fine teacher, an intelligent and ethical man, and a person of complete integrity’. Mr. Buxton also points out that Mr. Heaven was active in defending the veracity of his claims in relation to the truth of the events in The Shamanic Way of the Bee, writing a ‘robust defence’ as a response, on his behalf, to a highly critical editorial in an American magazine called Shaman’s Drum (see his statement dated 16th October 2006, paragraph 1 and Exhibit 3B). Many of the comments in this email – dated 29th November 2004 –do not sit well with Mr. Heaven’s later claim that he ghost wrote the book as a work of fantasy. For example,
Mr. Heaven states that he sent this letter out of loyalty to Mr. Buxton and later regretted it, sending a retraction. A copy of the latter is not enclosed in evidence and I am thus unsighted as to its date and contents.
Whatever Mr. Heaven may contend now, there is a profound and direct contradiction between his stance as indicated in Exhibit 3B and that as set out in his statements in this matter. In terms of defending his honesty Mr. Heaven is caught between ‘a rock and a hard place’: either he spoke the truth when he supported the events as set out in The Shamanic Way of the Bee, and thus his statements in this case are a misrepresentation of the truth, or he has ‘come clean’ now, for whatever reason, but was not doing so when the book was published.
More generally, it is notable that Mr. Heaven places in evidence little secondary material that supports his assertions of fact. For instance, the draft of the work that (in his contention) resulted in the The Shamanic Way of the Bee as it developed and progressed would have been useful evidence of his authorship of this book. And there is no material – such as examples of advertising or ‘flyers’ – in relation to the seminars he stated as being organised by him alone under the name in suit or, indeed, any statement as to the number of these events, their location and their participants – that would support his contentions. In paragraphs 29ff of his statement
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dated 15th June 2006 Mr. Heaven contrasts his evidence of ownership of the mark with that of Mr. Buxton’s, stating that the latter’s evidence does not include any reference to a wider audience in the form of articles, presentations, interviews and so on. This may be the case, but neither does Mr. Heaven’s evidence before the relevant date – I have examined the material he has provided in this regard in detail above.
As for Mr. Buxton, the evidence submitted by Mr. Heaven may be taken to suggest that doubt exists in the ‘spiritual’ community as to the veracity of the events described in the Shamanic Way of the Bee. The extent of this is hard to gauge as the material included in evidence is not always clearly autonomous, but there does seem to be some clearly independent comment to that effect mentioned in evidence (in particular, the article in Shaman’s Drum, though not, itself, submitted in this case). In Mr. Buxton’s defence, he has not resiled from his initial view of the events described in the Shamanic Way of the Bee and, indeed, they are now advertised as part of his teachings and training. Students of his claim to follow the ‘Path of Pollen’
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