A debate erupted on Facebook about the necessity of the Golden Dawn initiations. Over the years there have been various suggestions that various grades are un-necessary and you can do Golden Dawn magic (usually the ritual material at the 5=6 grade) without doing the outer order. One argument goes that the Golden Dawn founders Mathers and Westcott where not initiated into those grades so they don’t need to either.  Another, put forward by Israel Regardie, is that the Golden Dawn elemental grades were pants and were better off being replaced by the Watchtowers ritual for a while before getting on with the 5=6. Like many things Golden Dawn related, the key advocates of running it down have not seen a Golden Dawn