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The Cult Dossier · No. 032 · Occult / Esoteric / Satanic

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

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1888 – 1903 (successors continue) · London, Paris, Edinburgh, Bristol

III. THE LONG NINETEENTH CENTURY

Fully religious — ceremonial magical order

Who led it

Three Freemasons: WILLIAM WYNN WESTCOTT, a London coroner; SAMUEL LIDDELL MacGREGOR MATHERS; and William Robert Woodman. Authority rested on the Cipher Manuscripts and on correspondence with a German adept, Fräulein Anna Sprengel — almost certainly forged by Westcott.

What it worshipped and taught

Ritual magic synthesised from Kabbalah, Egyptian and Greek myth, Enochian angel magic, alchemy, tarot and astrology. Graded system based on the Tree of Life, from Neophyte to Adeptus Minor, with initiation ceremonies of great theatrical elaboration. Claimed contact with the Secret Chiefs, disembodied superiors.

Who was in it

Westcott; Mathers and his wife Moina Bergson, sister of the philosopher Henri Bergson; W. B. YEATS (Demon Est Deus Inversus); ALEISTER CROWLEY (Perdurabo); Arthur Edward Waite, of the Rider-Waite tarot; Algernon Blackwood; Arthur Machen; Maud Gonne; Florence Farr; the confidence trickster Theodor Reuss.

How it ended, or where it stands

Collapsed in schism and scandal within fifteen years.

The dead

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Of note

Small, short-lived, and the single most influential occult organisation in the modern world. Nearly every Western magical group, Wicca included, descends from its rituals.

Its timeline

  1. 1 March 1888 Isis-Urania Temple consecrated in London.
  2. 1892 Mathers moves to Paris and claims sole contact with the Secret Chiefs.
  3. 1897 Westcott resigns after his order papers are found in a hansom cab and reach his employers.
  4. 1900 THE BATTLE OF BLYTHE ROAD. Crowley, sent by Mathers, attempts to seize the London temple in Highland dress and a black mask; Yeats and others physically eject him. Police are called. The order splits.
  5. 1901–1903 The Horos scandal — a couple posing as Golden Dawn officials convicted of rape, using the order's rituals in evidence at the Old Bailey. Public ridicule finishes it.
  6. 1903 onward Fragments into the Stella Matutina, the Alpha et Omega, and A∴A∴.

Its people

Aleister Crowley

To Mega Therion; the Great Beast 666; Frater Perdurabo

Prophet of Thelema; founder of the A∴A∴; head of the OTO · 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947 · active 1904–1947

Born to wealthy Plymouth Brethren parents, he inherited a fortune and spent it. A serious mountaineer, chess player and poet before he was an occultist. In Cairo in April 1904 he received The Book of the Law through his wife Rose from an entity called Aiwass, giving him the law 'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law'. He founded the Abbey of Thelema in Sicily in 1920, where members cut themselves with a razor each time they said 'I'. Expelled from Italy by Mussolini after a follower died there. Bankrupt by 1934, addicted to heroin, he died in a Hastings boarding house. His personal following never exceeded a few dozen; his influence on everything after him is immense.

Before the law. Never convicted of anything. Lost a libel action he himself brought in 1934, which bankrupted him.

Where things stand. Deceased 1947. The OTO survives as a legally recognised religious body.

  1. 8–10 April 1904 The Cairo Working; receives Liber AL vel Legis.
  2. 1907 Founds the A∴A∴.
  3. 1920 Establishes the Abbey of Thelema at Cefalù.
  4. 16 February 1923 Raoul Loveday dies at the abbey; the press storm follows.
  5. April 1923 Expelled from Italy by Mussolini.
  6. 1934 Bankrupted by a failed libel action.
  7. 1 December 1947 Dies at Hastings aged 72.

Checked

Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers

Comte de Glenstrae; Frater 'S Rioghail Mo Dhream

Co-founder and chief, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn · 8 January 1854 – 20 November 1918 · active 1888–1918

The Golden Dawn's principal ritualist — he wrote or assembled most of the ceremonial material that the entire modern Western magical tradition, Wicca included, still runs on. He translated key grimoires and claimed sole contact with the disembodied Secret Chiefs, which he used to assert absolute authority after moving to Paris. That claim triggered the 1900 revolt in which Crowley, acting as his agent, attempted to seize the London temple in Highland dress and a mask and was physically ejected by W. B. Yeats.

Before the law. None.

Where things stand. Deceased 1918.

  1. 1888 Co-founds the order with Westcott and Woodman.
  2. 1892 Moves to Paris; claims sole contact with the Secret Chiefs.
  3. 1900 The Battle of Blythe Road; the order splits.
  4. 1900–18 Leads the rump Alpha et Omega.
  5. 20 November 1918 Dies in Paris, probably of influenza.

Checked

William Wynn Westcott

Frater Sapere Aude

Co-founder, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn · 17 December 1848 – 30 July 1925 · active 1888–1897

A London coroner and Freemason who supplied the order's founding documents — the Cipher Manuscripts and a correspondence with a German adept, Fräulein Anna Sprengel, that almost certainly he forged, giving the order a fictitious continental authority. The forgery is the order's original sin and the reason its authority collapsed. He resigned abruptly in 1897 when his occult papers were left in a hansom cab and reached his employers at the coroner's office.

Before the law. None.

Where things stand. Deceased 1925.

  1. 1887 Comes into possession of the Cipher Manuscripts; produces the Sprengel letters.
  2. 1888 Co-founds the order.
  3. 1897 Resigns after his papers are found in a hansom cab and reported to his employer.
  4. 30 July 1925 Dies in South Africa.

Checked

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