Two streams of thought have had the most significant impact on the development and dissemination
of Occultism in the West. The first is represented by H. P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society
while the second would be MacGregor Mathers and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
The latter is the protagonist of this episode. Follow along to learn more about the history
and structure of the Golden Dawn.
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Hello everyone. I am Dr Angela Puca and welcome to my Symposium. I’m a PhD and a university
lecturer and this is your online resource for the Academic study of Magick, Paganism,
Shamanism, Esotericism and all things occult.
Today’s video is bought to you by the friend of the Symposium Regulus. Thank you so much
for commissioning this video and I hope it will be of value to you.
The esoteric, later magical and definitely intitiatic Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
was founded in March in 1888. However, its roots lie in a plethora of fringe Masonic
orders and quasi-Masonic societies that flourished from the 1860s onwards. Structures and ceremonies
are Masonic, whereas the symbolism and doctrinal content of the rituals were sourced from the
Western esoteric milieu of the time.
According to Gilbert, the Golden Dawn was an esoteric order the way Dion Fortune would
describe one. Namely, a society ‘wherein a secret wisdom, unknown to the generality
of mankind might be learned and to which admission was obtained utilising an initiation in which
tests and rituals play their part’.
The closest inspiration for the Golden Dawn was a masonic Rosicrucian body, the Societas
Rosicruciana in Anglia, established in 1867. Here there were rituals of initiation that
used a system of grades, quasi-masonic ceremonies, scholastic discussions and the employment
of theoretical elements sourced from the Kabbalah and the supposed teachings of Hermes Trismegistus.
Some of its members, though, were not satisfied with what the order provided as they desired
to dive deeper into various forms of occultism and have more practical magic in their practice.
In April 1882 Frederick Holland gave birth to the ‘Society of Eight’ that attracted
prominent masonic Rosicrucians, such as Kenneth Mackenzie who described the new society as
‘practical and not visionary’ and as standing for ‘work and not play’. However, with
no ritual structure nor systematic teachings, Mackenzie and his fellows started to look
elsewhere, more precisely at the Royal Oriental Order of Sikha and the Sat B’hai. Mackenzie
contributed to creating the rituals of the Sat B’hai to construct a new series of ritual
texts for another initiatic Order designed to instruct on the very essence of Western
esotericism.
Yet, Mackenzie was engaged in many esoteric activities, beyond the aforementioned orders,
and – when he died in 1886 – the ritual texts were only found in manuscript form and
in cypher. When these outline texts were discovered by
William Wynn Westcott, a member of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, they provided a foundational
heritage and were turned into the rituals of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
Westcott found the rituals in an incomplete state, identified the source of the cypher,
and translated the text. Then developed them into complete rituals that became an integral
part of a magical system.
In 1887, Westcott wrote to Mathers asking for his help in writing up the rituals with
the now completed translation, and he told Mathers that he had received the text from
a masonic historian. The third Chief for the projected temple was then found in the person
of Dr William Robert Woodman, Supreme Magus of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia as
well as an excellent Hebraist and a learned kabbalist.
Having now gathered a “historical” lineage, a set of rituals and their overarching system
along with three skilled esotericists the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was born
on the 1st of March in 1888.
By the end of the first year, the order gathered sixty members, fifty-one men and nine women.
The presence of female members was quite an innovation for that time and a novelty in
the realm of ceremonial traditions.
The Order was articulated in grades, with the Neophyte ceremony being the first in a
progressive series to symbolically represent the ascent towards the kabbalistic Tree of
Life. Each Grade of the order was also given a specific name and number, derived, for the
most part, from the structure of an 18th Century German quasi-masonic Order, the Gold und Rosenkreuz.
For the Grade of Neophyte, one was obliged to maintain strict secrecy with regards to
anything about the Order. They would also stand below the Sephiroth and numbered 0=0.
The succeeding Grades were as follows (and I'm using the Latin pronunciation with the
spelling on screen): Zelator, 1=10; Theoricus, 2=9; Practicus,
3=8, and Philosophus, 4=7.
At this point, the Outer Order was completed and the initiate would have likely invested
several years to successfully move forward towards its completion. Beyond it lay the
Second order, or Inner Order of the Adepts, whose ceremonies were not fully formed until
1891.
The three founding Chiefs kept the ultimate authority over the order while each Temple
had its own Chiefs who acted as senior administrative officers. The ceremonies were led by seven
officers, whose titles were drawn from the ones of the functionaries of the Eleusinian
Mysteries, even though the roles themselves were modelled on those of the officers of
a Masonic Lodge.
They, and their masonic parallels, were the ones you see now on screen. Each of them would
wear specific robes and insignia, yet - differently from Freemasonry - every office was open to
both men and women.
The subjects studied by members of the order were delivered in the form of “Knowledge
Lectures” that would increase in complexity as the member advanced from the Grade of Neophyte
to that of Philosophus. Initiates were then expected to become familiar with the Hebrew
alphabet, the meaning of kabbalistic Jewish Influences, alchemical and Tarot symbolism,
Astrology and other forms of divination, as well as the names and natures of the Elemental
Beings – and they would be examined on each and every of these subjects studied. Quite
intense hah? Moreover, they would have to meditate and get proficient in the Rituals
of the Pentagram. Interestingly, the latter was the only straight magical activity of
the Outer Order. The study and practice of magic were exclusively reserved to the Adepts:
members of the Second, or Inner Order, the “Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis”.
Many overlapping causes led the Golden Dawn to fall apart. One of these was related to
a certain Madame Horos, who stole copies of the Golden Dawn rituals and relocated to London,
where she set up a spurious version of the Order and aided her husband in criminal fraud
and rape. When they were arrested in 1901, the reputation of the Golden Dawn got damaged
and the Obligation and the Neophyte ritual were made public and ridiculed by the press.
As a result, many members left it and those who remained were divided by long-standing
factional quarrels.
The most significant of these involved both the structure of the Golden Dawn and the working
of the Second Order. Some, notably Florence Farr, wished to work unofficial magical ceremonies
within small groups of adepts, while others – Yeats and Annie Horniman, for instance
– were vehemently opposed to such groups and desired to retain the rigid examination
necessary to advance in the Order. No compromise was achieved and in 1903 the Golden Dawn was
eventually disintegrated, giving birth to many spin-off traditions and leaving an indelible
mark on the esoteric milieu as well as the various magic or occult traditions that were
born later throughout the 20th century.
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a video on the topic.
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