The
Hermetic Order of the Golden
Dawn was a nineteenth century Masonic-styled
initiatory group dedicated to "Hermetic"
magical practice- that is, occult theurgical magick. The group consisted
of two orders, patterned after the Kabbalistic
Tree of Life- one outer "occult society" represented by the lower sephiroth,
and an inner order of adepts, represented by the upper.
The magick of
the Golden Dawn was based on the work of medieval and Elizabethan era kabbalah,
ritual magic, and spiritual alchemy, with an emphasis on the Enochian workings
of John
Dee and Edward Kelly. The initial teachings of the order were based on
a document known as the "Cipher Manuscript," a coded series of lectures on
magick, Tarot, and Kabbalistic gematria.
Members of the
Golden Dawn included founders Wynn Westcott, MacGregor Mathers, and William
Woodman, as well as Poet WB Yeats, actress Florence Farr, author Arthur Machen,
as well as prominent occultists Dion Fortune, Aleister Crowley,
Arthur Edward Waite,
and Israel Regardie.
Golden Dawn founder SL MacGregor Mathers
Related
Resources:
Golden
Dawn Resources
Histories, biographies, rituals, texts, image galleries, and
much more.
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