Mary, I really liked your post about the three stages, and it really is true. On the one hand, I study the Golden Dawn eagerly, and want to know everything about what they did, and on the other hand, I know it is a lie, and that the manuscripts were forged. However, the attributions do "work" insofar as they do what they were meant to do, provide food for thought, so I'm willing to practice a little Doublethink and ignore the forgery, taking the substance instead.
Just as Moses may or may not have received the tablets on Mount Sinai, it is still perferable if we don't go around killing people.