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New Light: The Rise of the Golden Dawn

Nevill Drury

in Stealing Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Modern Western Magic

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was founded in England in 1888 and has strongly influenced contemporary Western magical beliefs and practices. The rituals of the order were based originally on ... More

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was founded in England in 1888 and has strongly influenced contemporary Western magical beliefs and practices. The rituals of the order were based originally on five Masonic grades discovered in the papers of a deceased English Rosicrucian. One of the co-founders, Dr. Wynn Westcott, who was himself a Freemason, asked his colleague Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers to expand the material to form a more complete occult system. Mathers worked on the formation of a new body of rituals and chose as his basis the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, using its ten sephiroth (or levels of consciousness) as the basis of different ceremonial grades. Westcott, Mathers, and another occultist, Dr. William Woodman, appointed themselves the heads of the Second Order of the Golden Dawn (known as the “Red Rose and the Cross of Gold”—Rosae Rubae et Aurea Crucis). The first Golden Dawn temple, Isis-Urania, opened in London in 1888. By 1896 there were also temples in Weston-Super-Mare, Bradford, Edinburgh, and Paris. In a break with Masonic tradition, all of the Golden Dawn temples admitted both men and women. The Golden Dawn attracted many well-known figures, including the distinguished Irish poet William Butler Yeats; A. E. Waite, originator of the popular Rider Tarot pack and the leading occult scholar of his day; and Aleister Crowley, the famous, and later notorious, “Great Beast 666.” Well-known female members included Maud Gonne, Florence Farr, Moina Bergson, and Violet Firth—later known as Dion Fortune. As MacGregor Mathers became increasingly autocratic in his relationships with fellow members, the order began to fragment, and following Mathers’ death in 1918, the original Golden Dawn splintered completely. However, other derivative groups emerged, including the Stella Matutina (Morning Star). Between 1937 and 1941, Israel Regardie, a one-time secretary to Aleister Crowley, published the complete rituals of the Stella Matutina in four volumes under the title The Golden Dawn. These books constitute the most complete magical system produced in modern times.Less

Magicians of the New Dawn

in The Place of Enchantment: British Occultism and the Culture of the Modern

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn taught the theory and practice of ritual magic or practical occultism without any of the hesitations and prevarications of the Theosophical Society, and it ... More

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn taught the theory and practice of ritual magic or practical occultism without any of the hesitations and prevarications of the Theosophical Society, and it became the beacon around which the lives of its most devoted initiates were organized. According to Golden Dawn tradition, however, the Order, although of late Victorian origin, did indeed have an immaculate pedigree. The way in which the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was conceived, organized, and run reflected the Masonic background and Cabalistic interests of its cofounders. Madame Blavatsky had taught that the world would enter a new phase with the coming century, passing from a “Dark Age” of materialism into a cycle of great spiritual development; the illuminati of the Golden Dawn were similarly caught up in visions of a new order predicated on spiritual enlightenment.Less

Of Viennese Nights and Golden Dawns

Richard Barrios

in A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film

Filmed operettas were more prominent in the early sound era than they would ever be again. The first, The Desert Song, showed both the advantages and pitfalls of putting these works on film. Opera ... More

Filmed operettas were more prominent in the early sound era than they would ever be again. The first, The Desert Song, showed both the advantages and pitfalls of putting these works on film. Opera star Lawrence Tibbett scored with The Rogue Song, as did director Ernst Lubitsch with The Love Parade. Others could be pompous (The Vagabond King), trivial (The Lottery Bride), or horrendously racist (Golden Dawn). With Viennese Nights, Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II created a viable operetta especially for the screen, although not with financial success.Less

Aleister Crowley and the Left-Hand Path

Nevill Drury

in Stealing Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Modern Western Magic

Arguably the most influential occultist of the twentieth century, Aleister Crowley was initiated as a Neophyte in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn on 18 November 1898. He passed quickly through ... More

Arguably the most influential occultist of the twentieth century, Aleister Crowley was initiated as a Neophyte in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn on 18 November 1898. He passed quickly through the introductory grades of the Order and then sought initiation into the spiritual rebirth ritual that would admit him to the Inner, or Second Order. Following his initiation into this Order in France in January 1900, Crowley returned to England, where he challenged the authority of William Butler Yeats, hoping to displace him as head of the Golden Dawn in England. Crowley was unsuccessful in his bid to dislodge Yeats and then suddenly switched course, withdrawing from the Golden Dawn and embarking upon a series of travels through Mexico, the United States, Ceylon, and India before finally arriving in Cairo. It was here, in 1904, that he received a mediumistic revelation from a metaphysical entity called Aiwass (transcribed as a text later known as The Book of the Law) that would lead to the establishment of his magical cult of Thelema. Crowley’s doctrine of Thelema (Greek: “will”) was based on the practice of sacred sex magick (Crowley’s unique spelling of the word) and claimed to herald the arrival of a new cosmic Aeon. Crowley (as the Great Beast 666) and his Scarlet Woman, or Whore of Babalon (sic) would be the principal players in an ongoing sacred magical saga intended to replace the world’s major religions. Events in Crowley’s magical career took an unexpected turn in London in May 1912, when Crowley was contacted by Theodor Reuss, head of the German branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis—an esoteric organization similarly dedicated to the practice of ritual sex magic. As a result of their meeting, Crowley became head of a new magical order known as the Mysteria Mystica Maxima, effectively an English subsidiary of the German Ordo Templi Orientis. In 1922—following Reuss’s retirement—Crowley replaced Reuss as the head of the O.T.O. itself, a position he held until his death in 1947. Crowley left behind an enormous outpouring of magical writing, much of it related to his central magical dictum: “Do what thou wilt, shall be the whole of the Law.” Among the most enduring aspects of Crowley’s esoteric perspective are his systematic approach to magical consciousness and his emphasis on self-empowerment. Crowley celebrated the cause of the individual throughout his life, despite the controversy he attracted through his own, unique approach to ritual magic.Less

Freemasons and the Rose Cross

Nevill Drury

in Stealing Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Modern Western Magic

Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism both played a pivotal role in the formation of the nineteenth-century Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn—a key organization associated with the modern magical revival. ... More

Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism both played a pivotal role in the formation of the nineteenth-century Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn—a key organization associated with the modern magical revival. This chapter provides background information on both esoteric movements. The formation of the Grand Lodge of England in 1717 represented the beginning of “speculative” Freemasonry. This present-day fraternal form of Freemasonry does not require that its members be working stonemasons. Freemasonry as a tradition derived originally from the secret practices of highly skilled stonemasons and cathedral builders who worked on large-scale constructions in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and England during the early Middle Ages. However, within the modern magical context it is Freemasonry’s system of ritual initiatory grades that has been most influential. The three founders of the Golden Dawn—Dr. Wynn Westcott, Samuel Mathers, and Dr. William Woodman—were all Freemasons, and the Golden Dawn itself adopted a Masonic grade structure based on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Rosicrucianism, meanwhile, provided the inner spiritual focus of the Golden Dawn—the latter’s inner Order was known as the Red Rose and Cross of Gold. The elusive Rosicrucian fraternity first announced their existence in Germany with the release of four pamphlets in 1614–1616. The last of these—an allegorical work titled Die Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosenkreutz [The Chemical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz (or Rosycross)]—is especially important in the context of contemporary magical thought because of its alchemical themes and spiritual rebirth symbolism and its direct influence on the Inner Order ritual grades of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The German Rosicrucian fraternity proposed that the faults of the Christian Church could be reformed through the accumulated sacred knowledge held at that time by a number of learned magicians, Kabbalists, physicians, and philosophers. In some ways the Golden Dawn can be considered its modern British counterpart—the Golden Dawn had many Christian members and, like the seventeenth-century Rosicrucians, their interpretations tended toward esoteric gnosis—sacred “inner” knowledge far removed from doctrinal orthodoxy.Less

The Occult Revival

Michael Shaw

in The Fin-de-Siècle Scottish Revival: Romance, Decadence and Celtic Identity

This chapter argues that fin-de-siècle occultism was a key component of Scottish cultural revivalism in the late-Victorian period. Discussing a range of figures – including Patrick Geddes, S. L. ... More

This chapter argues that fin-de-siècle occultism was a key component of Scottish cultural revivalism in the late-Victorian period. Discussing a range of figures – including Patrick Geddes, S. L. Macgregor Mathers and John Duncan, I demonstrate that occultism supported and defined cultural nationalism in Scotland in numerous ways, as it did in Ireland. A sub-chapter focuses on Egyptomania in Scotland and I argue here that the international craze for Egypt had particular resonance in Scotland due to Scotland’s ‘Scota Pharoah’ foundation myth. I then assess key occult societies and their intersections with neo-Jacobitism, a movement that spoke well to cultural revivalists’ nostalgia for the House of Stuart. The chapter also uncovers Geddes’s plan to create a Celtic occult society, not dissimilar to W. B. Yeats’s Order of Celtic Mysteries, in Edinburgh.Less

Esotericism and Escape

C. Nicholas Serra

in W. B. Yeats's A Vision: Explications and Contexts

This essay provides an overview of W. B. Yeats’s involvement with mystical, magical, and pseudo-scientific societies over the course of his lifetime, with emphasis on the goals of the Hermetic Order ... More

This essay provides an overview of W. B. Yeats’s involvement with mystical, magical, and pseudo-scientific societies over the course of his lifetime, with emphasis on the goals of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn  (and, more generally, fringe-Masonry, Rosicrucianism, and the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia). It explores the progression of stories and poems explicitly and implicitly related to Yeats’s magical activities, contextualizing the aims, genesis, and final form of A Vision within the pragmatic goals of a Golden Dawn adept: as an example of Yeats’s personal cabala. Furthermore, this treatment highlights the limitations of the canonical sources commonly employed by Yeatsians to elucidate Yeats’s esoteric interests, Israel Regardie’s works in particular, and proposes an exegetical methodology for reading based upon the “heretical” primary works produced by Yeats’s erstwhile colleague Aleister Crowley (arguably the only source of original, pre-1900 Golden Dawn information written for the uninformed or uninitiated reader).Less

Documenting Crises: Raising Awareness through Documentary Film

Philip E. Phillis and Philip E. Phillis

in Greek Cinema and Migration, 1991-2016

In the final chapter, the author focuses on the most recent efforts by Greek filmmakers to direct attention to the ongoing refugee crisis. In particular, 4.1 Miles (2016) and Summer on the Island of ... More

In the final chapter, the author focuses on the most recent efforts by Greek filmmakers to direct attention to the ongoing refugee crisis. In particular, 4.1 Miles (2016) and Summer on the Island of Good (2009), exhibited online , deal head-on with the plight of refugees in Greece and en route to Europe and simultaneously reveal the indifference of the European community and the difficulties that Greece faces in managing the situation amidst its financial crisis. In addition, Golden Dawn: a Personal Affair/Xrysi Avgi:Prosopiki Ypothesi (2016) sheds light on the alarmingly growing popularity of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn which has spearheaded a racist rhetoric and attacks on refugees. The discussion thus focuses on cinema as a means towards raising awareness, to politically engage with endemic xenophobia and to challenge cultural perceptions. Ultimately, this chapter aims to show the potential of Greek cinema to document the plight of refugees in a manner that mainstream media and the political establishment overlook.Less

‘The sphinx will speak at last’: Visions, Communications and Esoteric Experience

Eleanor Dobson

in Writing the Sphinx: Literature, Culture and Egyptology

This chapter investigates visions of ancient Egypt that were understood to be grounded in supernatural truth. It examines the Egyptologists on the peripheries of magical orders, including E. A. ... More

This chapter investigates visions of ancient Egypt that were understood to be grounded in supernatural truth. It examines the Egyptologists on the peripheries of magical orders, including E. A. Wallis Budge and Battiscombe Gunn, those who took part in spiritualistic activities, such as Howard Carter, as well as the individuals who involved these specialists in their magical and spiritual undertakings. Examining the lives and works of Golden Dawn magicians Florence Farr and Aleister Crowley alongside writers including Sax Rohmer and H. Rider Haggard, it exposes networks of collaboration between Egyptologists and individuals interested in Egyptian rites, and connects these relationships with the Egyptological sites, works and artefacts. Egyptological experts often attempted to distance themselves from the supernatural tales that Egyptian artefacts were particularly liable to inspire, but this was by no means universal. Examining literary overlaps between esotericism and Egyptology illuminates one of the most intriguing aspects of cultural exchange taking place between this scholarly field and culture more broadly: Egyptian spirits and magical ceremonies which Egyptologists frequently claimed had no potency in the modern world (besides in fiction) did, in fact, impress upon several practitioners; esotericists, meanwhile, turned to Egyptology and Egyptologists to buttress their rites, beliefs and experiences.Less

The Revival of Magick: Aleister Crowley

Jason Ā. Josephson-Storm

in The Myth of Disenchantment: Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences

This chapter turns to the infamous British magician Aleister Crowley, who overlapped with Frazer at Trinity College, Cambridge. This chapter shows that Crowley drew on the very text in which Frazer ... More

This chapter turns to the infamous British magician Aleister Crowley, who overlapped with Frazer at Trinity College, Cambridge. This chapter shows that Crowley drew on the very text in which Frazer worked out disenchantment to stage his revival of modern “magick” [sic]. Hence, the narrative of disenchantment was self-refuting insofar as it reinvigorated the very thing it described as endangered.Less

Aleister Crowley in the Desert

in The Place of Enchantment: British Occultism and the Culture of the Modern

Aleister Crowley's magical odyssey is deeply instructive of the potentialities of the psychologized magic of the fin de siècle, and illustrative of its dangers. Not least, his magical practice ... More

Aleister Crowley's magical odyssey is deeply instructive of the potentialities of the psychologized magic of the fin de siècle, and illustrative of its dangers. Not least, his magical practice epitomized the ease with which the high aspirations of an Order like the Golden Dawn could metamorphose into those so-called black arts against which occultists such as Madame Blavatsky railed. In his Confessions, Crowley states that he could not understand the reason for this sudden identification with the forces of evil. He perceived his aspirations as religious, but from the outset there was also the issue of power and control. As a man, Crowley died virtually penniless in 1947 at the age of seventy-two. But as a modern icon, he became a cult antihero of 1960, and allegedly has his place on the sleeve of the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.Less

Spirit, Myth, and Cosmos: From Shamanism to Chaos Magick

Nevill Drury

in Stealing Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Modern Western Magic

The idea that we all have within us a sacred potential is found in Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, and also in the early twentieth-century writings of Carl Jung, especially with regard to his concept of ... More

The idea that we all have within us a sacred potential is found in Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, and also in the early twentieth-century writings of Carl Jung, especially with regard to his concept of the archetypes of the collective unconscious. Jung’s mythic perspectives attracted a substantial readership among enthusiasts of the American counterculture in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and his framework of the psyche has also been widely endorsed by many practicing occultists—ranging from magicians in the Golden Dawn tradition like Dion Fortune and Israel Regardie through to the contemporary Chicago-based Gnostic Voodoo magician Michael Bertiaux. This chapter begins with an exploration of the mythic and archetypal perspectives of Carl Jung and describes its subsequent impact on the American human potential movement—with a particular focus on “Sacred Psychology.” Associated with such figures as Joseph Campbell, Jean Houston, and Jean Shinoda Bolen, this experiential perspective emerged within the American counterculture alongside the various forms of feminism that gave rise to Goddess worship. At the same time there was also renewed interest, from the late 1960s onward, in various forms of indigenous spirituality, characterized by widespread popular fascination with shamanism—the world’s oldest spiritual tradition. Prompted by the bestselling works of Carlos Castaneda, many spiritual seekers sought access to the visionary realms accessed in trance states through shamanic techniques. While Castaneda’s writings are now regarded as substantially fictitious, the American anthropologist Dr. Michael Harner developed practical techniques of applied shamanism that were suitable for a Western audience. Harner’s work—now known as neoshamanism—has in turn influenced visionary magical groups like Diana Paxson’s Hrafnar community in San Francisco. Paxson is interested in the northern European shamanic techniques of visionary seidr magic and has combined Nordic mythic traditions with Harner’s method of experiential “core” shamanism. Also considered here are the visionary states of consciousness accessed by Chicago-based magician Michael Bertiaux, whose contact with various Haitian voodoo spirit entities infuses both his art and his personal cosmology. Finally, this chapter explores the nature of Chaos Magick—an international “post-punk”’ development in contemporary magic that seeks to fuse such disparate elements as Taoism, sigil magic, Crowleyan Thelema, and chaos theory. Influenced substantially by the trance artist Austin Osman Spare and formulated initially by the British occultists Peter J. Carroll and Ray Sherwin, Chaos Magick is arguably the most revolutionary form of modern occultism to emerge so far.Less

Occultism in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

Christopher Partridge

in High Culture: Drugs, Mysticism, and the Pursuit of Transcendence in the Modern World

This chapter explores the use of drugs in the occult milieu of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The focus is fin de siècle occultism. While it examines the significance of drug use ... More

This chapter explores the use of drugs in the occult milieu of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The focus is fin de siècle occultism. While it examines the significance of drug use in the life and work of key figures such as W. B. Yeats, Helena Blavatsky, and Aleister Crowley, it also looks at little-known but important occultists such as Paschal Beverly Randolph and Louis-Alphonse Cahagnet, as well as organizations such as the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor and the Order of the Golden Dawn. There is also some analysis of temperance discourses within Theosophy and particularly Spiritualism. Finally, there is an overview of drug use in post-Crowleyan Thelemic thought later in the twentieth century.Less

Holy Terrors: The Mystical Gothic of Arthur Machen, Evelyn Underhill, and Charles Williams

Alison Milbank

in God & the Gothic: Religion, Romance, & Reality in the English Literary Tradition

In Chapter 13, a range of writers, all belonging to the Christian occult group, the Order of the Golden Dawn, employ Gothic tropes to describe theurgic/magical mystical ascent, whereby the material ... More

In Chapter 13, a range of writers, all belonging to the Christian occult group, the Order of the Golden Dawn, employ Gothic tropes to describe theurgic/magical mystical ascent, whereby the material world is raised to the spiritual. Arthur Machen made ecstasy the aim of literature, and his Three Impostors is a self-reflexive work in which embedded tales seek to engender this mystical alchemy, whereby the abject is theurgically raised. Evelyn Underhill takes the concept of the doppelgänger in A Column of Dust to a new place as a heuristic device to learn the love which alone makes knowledge transformative. Like Underhill, Charles Williams explores the redemptive power of the doppelgänger for his theology of reciprocity and exchange in Descent into Hell. Gothic tropes enable a spiritual education and find new ways to deal with the loss of meaning in the natural world.Less

Europe: The Return of the Knights Templar

Daniel Byman

in Spreading Hate: The Global Rise of White Supremacist Terrorism

Anders Breivik’s 2011 terrorist attacks in Norway transformed the world of violent white supremacy. Breivik offered a model for others to follow, releasing a manifesto detailing the fantastical logic ... More

Anders Breivik’s 2011 terrorist attacks in Norway transformed the world of violent white supremacy. Breivik offered a model for others to follow, releasing a manifesto detailing the fantastical logic of his massacre and, with his bombing and particularly his systematic mass shooting, providing a style of attack for future shooters. Both before and after Breivik’s attacks, opposition in Europe to Muslim immigration grew, often exacerbated by jihadist terrorism in Europe and elsewhere in the world. White supremacists also made inroads into politics, with parties in Germany, Greece, France, and other countries espousing strongly antiimmigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment and, in some cases, having links to violent white supremacists. European countries became more aggressive in their efforts to counter white supremacist violence, but they still devoted relatively few resources to the problem, and uneven political support further complicated an effective response.Less