by Morgan Drake Eckstein

Created on: June 27, 2008   Last Updated: June 28, 2008

One of the difficulties in studying the Golden Dawn tradition is that many of its Inner Order teachings have been lost, unpublished, or sometimes never even fully completed, forcing the modern day esoteric Orders that have been built from the Outer Order information (compiled and published by Israel Regardie) and the Adepts connected with these groups, to create their own Inner Order teachings, a major problem for some; Pat Zalewski in his book "Inner Order Teachings of the Golden Dawn" addresses this problem.

The book, not to be confused with Zalewski's earlier book, "Secret Inner Order Rituals of the Golden Dawn" (1988), mainly consists of THAM (Theoricus Adept Minor) lectures written by one of the three co-founders of Isis-Urania, the original Golden Dawn lodge (Temple), Macgregor (Samuel Liddell) Mathers, along with papers written by Pat Zalewski that supplement the Mathers' material. There is also information about the diagrams studied in the PRAM (Practicus Adept Minor) subgrade, alchemy and the Tarot, the Lunar Diagram on the Tree of Life, and the Chief Adept's (Caduceus) Wand, all of which were written by Pat Zalewski.

The importance of the material contained in this book lies both in how the original Grade structure of Golden Dawn's Inner Order, the R.R. et A.C. (Ordo Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis, "Order of the Rose of Ruby and Cross of Gold", also known as Second Order), was conceived and the depth of the teachings revealed.

As originally conceived by Mathers, the creator of the Adept Minor (5=6) Grade ritual, the instructional material of the Inner Order Grades would examine the earlier Grades' rituals and their symbolism. The Adept Minor Grade was divided into six subgrades; the primary teachings for each subgrade would be based on one of the Outer Order Grade rituals. The ZAM (Zelator Adept Minor) subgrade would start the study and analysis of the Neophyte (0=0) Grade ritual, and the THAM subgrade would focus on the Zelator (1=10) Grade ritual, etc. (The Neophyte Adept Minor subgrade was primarily concerned with the creation and consecration of the Adept's magical tools [weapons].)

Pat Zalewski extended this theme to the rest of the Grades of the system. Hence the Adept Major (6=5) will study the Portal ritual while the Adept Extempt (7=4) will study the Adept Minor ritual, and the Magister Templi (8=3) will study the Adept Major ritual.

This system of determining the primary curriculum is not agreed upon by everyone in the Golden Dawn community. There

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