The Magi of the Drawing Room
Monday January 28, 2008 8:29 AM
During the days of Jack the Ripper, occultism was all the rage in London. The British empire had already been introduced to a variety of unusual beliefs, both through the advent of Spiritualism as well as the influence of Helena Petrovna Blavatksy's organization, the Theosophical Society. And then a London coroner, Dr. William Westcott, decided to get together with his rather colorful friend, S. L. Macgregor Mathers (pictured on the left in full ritual regalia) to found what is known to the world as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Together with Dr. W. R. Woodman, Supreme Magus of the Rosicrucian Society of Anglia, they formed the three chiefs of the Order.
Westcott, who was a Mason, claimed to have access to a mysterious cipher, connected to a German Rosicrucian, Anna Sprengel. Mathers took the material in the cipher and developed an elaborate ritual system from the information it contained. Drawing heavily upon traditional ceremonial magic, ancient Egyptian mysticism, and the Kabbalah, the ritual system of the Golden Dawn remains highly influential even today.
Between 1888 and 1896, over 300 initiations were performed. The Order attracted a wide variety of members, drawing primarily from the London literati of the day. Members included the poet W. B. Yeats, Constance Wilde (wife of the far more famous Oscar Wilde), actresses Anni Horniman and Florence Farr and learned occultists Israel Regardie and A. E. Waite. Aleister Crowley, who would later found his own magickal societies and scandalize the world by styling himself the Great Beast, was also first involved with the Golden Dawn. If you have ever read the Tarot, you have likely been exposed to some of the Golden Dawn's lingering influence. The most standard template for modern Tarot decks is based upon the < href="http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/rider-waite/" target="_blank">Rider-Waite deck, named in part for occultist A.E. Waite, who developed the deck. Pamela Colman-Smith is responsible for the artwork.
In-fighting caused strife within the Order by the turn of the twentieth century. Issues were particularly heated between Mathers and Crowley, who allegedly engaged in a series of vicious psychic attacks upon one another. Ultimately, the organization shattered into splinter groups, some of which lingered on through the 1940s. There are several groups around today that still claim a direct lineage to the original Golden Dawn, including the Horus Temple and the Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn.
