Many people are familiar, even if only in a vague form, with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the occult fraternity of the Victorian era, which gave rise to such well-know magicians as S.L. "MacGregor" Mathers, W.W. Westcott, Florence Farr, William Butler Yeats, Dion Fortune, Israel Regardie, and, of course, the infamous Aleister Crowley. However, a fleeting familiarity is not the same as a true understanding of what the Golden Dawn was (or, indeed, is, as it still operates, in various forms, to this day).

"The Essential Golden Dawn" by Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero, leading Adepts in the tradition, was written to tackle that problem.

And it does. Most introductory texts span a mere hundred or so pages, but this text reaches three hundred, with seven in-depth chapters, two appendices, a glossary, bibliography, and an index. The chapters deal with Hermeticism and its origins, a history of the Order, including some brief accounts of its more famous members (replete with photos of them), a thorough detailing of what magic is and how it works, a detailed look at the structure of the Order (its grades, degrees, and officers), some basic Golden Dawn rituals, a brief look at the teachings of the Order (from the Qabalah and divination to astral projection Enochian Magick), and a chapter dedicated to addressing the issues of self-initiation, lineage, the problem of ego, and related matters that might inadvertently plague the aspiring student of the Mysteries.

All of this information is thorough, accurate, informative, and, above-all, given in simple language. The coded mysteries of an occult society can often throw people when they first look into it, but the Ciceros have given a great introduction to the Golden Dawn and its system of magickal training and practice, an introduction that I feel no new student to the Order should go without.

Indeed, even if you do not intend to practice the system, or, indeed, magick in general, this is a useful book. Apart from setting the record straight on the history of the Order and its many colourful characters, the chapter on magick will give many people a better understanding of "what it's all about", how it works, and, most importantly, why anyone would use it.

For the more "seasoned" practitioner, is this worth the money? Very much so. There are large sections in each chapter dedicated to the history of the magickal systems the Order uses: for example, Hermeticism, Gnosticism, Qabalah, Tarot, and, of course, Enochian. I cannot imagine a reader failing to learn something from this book, even if they have a familiarity with the history of these systems already. It's a good resource, and very readable (I read it in little over a week). I believe it's out of print at the moment (I got a second-hand copy), but it's worth tracking down if you're interested in the Golden Dawn tradition.

The Essential Golden Dawn, by Chic & Sandra Tabatha Cicero: Llewellyn Publications (2003)

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