Hello Bumblebee,
although I am not actually a member of any leadership team, but I hope I am allowed to answer your questions nevertheless. ;-)
< Where can the newcomers learn more about your school's history, vision, etc.>
On our homepage there is an "about us" section that introduces the school and its aims, and also some of its members.
< You say that the school is in existence for 10 years, but you still consider it young. >
yes, this is right. The lifetime of a mystery school might (and should!) be hundreds of years, so ten years is comparatively young.
< is this just the online course that is new? >
yes, the online course is new, but it is based on the teachings of the previous years as well as it contains brand new materials, since our school (and before it became a school in its own right in 2010, the lodge, respectively plus its outer court) have always been developing further, learning and growing all the time during their existence. It is this very Jewish thing of "lifelong learning" for just as we cannot (should not!) simply stop to learn we should not simply stop to develop spiritually either. So we make it a virtue, for we want to know in order to serve.
More about the online course can be found in the course resources, which is probably the preferable place to discuss such things further (just in case you would like to do that).
< Also - what was the need for creating new course materials - since this is the offspring of SOL, why new course?>
Please allow me to quote Dolores herself here, for this is what Dolores has to say on the subject of daugther schools:
"Lodges within a school are the "children" of that school and, like children they grow, change, and begin to express their own individual styles and ways of working. This is to be expected and is applauded by the 'Mother' school. If the teaching has been assimilated well the next stage is reached and a Lodge in effect breaks away from its matrix and becomes a school in its own right."
< I personally came to this site because I liked the book "Qabbalistic magic" - this it the type of teaching that makes me feel whole. >
Yes, I think I know what you mean. I experienced something very similar when I started my training: it felt to me like coming home, finally, after many years of searching elsewhere and always found disappointments.
< I know that new orders are created when a need for a new vision arises or the founder encounter a group of seekers who need a new approach, thus the order is created to respond to their "spiritual needs". >
I think you might have a point here. However our vision is both old and new, I guess, see the next paragraph.
< What is your vision? >
Please allow me to quote from the above mentioned resource "about us" on our homepage:
"It is our purpose to teach the whole of the Western Mystery Tradition on the highest level, in order to preserve and spread the Light of the Mysteries. Our work is not for profit, but for the spiritual development of Humanity. The Lodge Chayot ha-Qodesh is known and respected within the Servants of the Light School of Occult Science for the high standart of its work and the high quality of its training."
In Light,
Andrea