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The Golden Dawn past and present -

The esoteric order known as the Golden Dawn is a famous manifestation of the Western Mysteries in recent times (see www.goldendawnpedia.com). It is credited for the development of a profound system of theurgy that has influenced the development of a plethora of western mystery schools and traditions and many spin-offs, such as Wicca.

Its beginnings were in the 1880s in London, England under the leadership of an esoteric genius called Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers. Mathers, a devout student of the mysteries and initially a Freemason, translated and explored many of the aged occult manuscripts that were hidden away in European libraries at the time. He was so accomplished that he made the unstranslatable translatable and turned many of what were unfathomable theses into a workable occult system. From this grew the Golden Dawn, a secret, hermetic society that made its secret presence felt in Victorian society, at a time when there was a renaissance in mystical thinking and practice.

The Golden Dawn based much of its core operation in the traditional corpus of the western mystery tradition, typically Greek hermetic writings, Ancient Egyptian mysteries, alchemical texts, the qabalah (kabbalah), tarot, the Enochian tradition and astrological treatises.

The Order developed and grew and famous members included people like the poet WB Yeats and society members, such as the lawyer John Brodie-Innes. It was pioneering in that is was the only secret society at the time that permitted the membership of women, again one of Mathers' innovations. Mathers believed that in all things there should be an equal balance and put this into practice.

In fact one of the sound principles of the Order was that it based alot of its operation on action rather than dry, academic intellectuallisation of occult history. Mathers system was a working system. It was meant to be used not simply talked about.

The order flourished for the first 10 or so years of its operation and Temples were established across Britain, in Europe and in several states in the USA. However, like all large organisations it experienced politics and the human failings of its members. Various schisms developed and the order began to divide and split into numerous offshoots. One member, against his oath, published many of the order's highly secret teachings. This man, Aleister Crowley, was subsequently expelled from the order. He went on to develop his own version of occult practice which

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