The Magister Volume 0 Section 2 of 3

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THE MAGISTER MAGICK IN HISTORY, THEORY & P RACTICE Volume 0: The Order of Revelation The Worker Enters the Workshop Part 2 of 3 parts on Kindle

O.E.D. Neophyte Grade Material Publication in Class B

FORGE PRESS

Keswick, Cumbria, 2016 www.westernesotericism.com Copyright © Frater V. (Marcus Katz) 2014, 2016. This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the author. Tarosophy® and Western Esoteric Initiatory System® are registered trademarks. First paperback edition published 2015 by Salamander and Sons. This Kindle edition and all further print editions published by Forge Press, authorized by the author to whom all rights belong to this work. This Kindle section includes several links to other recommended reading however a complete list of these books and links will be found in the Reading Lists in part 3. Edited by Paul Hardacre & Marcus Katz.

ALSO BY FRATER V. (MARCUS KATZ) The Path of the Seasons (Forge Press, forthcoming 2016) The Magician’s Kabbalah (Forge Press, 2015) NLP Magick (Forge Press, forthcoming 2016) Tarosophy: Tarot to Engage Life, Not Escape It (Forge Press, 2016) After the Angel (Forge Press, 2011) The Alchemy Workbook (Forge Press, 2008) The Zodiacal Rituals (Forge Press, 2008) Secrets of the Thoth Tarot (Forthcoming, 2016) Secrets of the Celtic Cross (Forthcoming, 2016) With Tali Goodwin Tarot Edge: Tarot for Teens and Young Adults (Forge Press, forthcoming 2016) Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2015) The English Lenormand (Forge Press, 2013) Tarot Life (in 12 books, Forge Press, 2013) Abiding in the Sanctuary: A. E. Waite’s Second Tarot (Forge Press, 2013) Learning Lenormand (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2013). Tarot Turn (in three volumes, Forge Press, 2012) Tarot Inspire (Forge Press, 2012) Tarot Face to Face (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2012) Around the Tarot in 78 Days (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2012) Tarot Twist (Forge Press, 2010)

Tarot Flip (Forge Press, 2010) Easy Lenormand (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2015) I-Ching Counters (Forge Press/TGC, 2015) The Original Lenormand Deck (Forge Press/TGC, 2012) With Tali Goodwin, Sasha Graham (ed.), Giordano Berti, Mark McElroy, Riccardo Minetti & Barbara Moore. Tarot Fundamentals (Lo Scarabeo, 2015) Tarot Experience (Lo Scarabeo, forthcoming 2016) With Derek Bain & Tali Goodwin A New Dawn for Tarot: The Original Tarot of the Golden Dawn (Forge Press, 2015) As Andrea Green (with Tali Goodwin) True Tarot Card Meanings (Kindle, 2014) Tarot for True Romance (Kindle, 2014) Kabbalah & Tarot: A Step-up Guide (Kindle, 2015) Visit Author Sites for Complete Bibliography & Details www.marcuskatz.com www.taligoodwin.com

For all Applications to the Crucible Club and Order of Everlasting Day www.westernesotericism.com

Ded ications This second section of Magister Vol. 0 on Kindle is dedicated to Mozart in the Jungle. And as ever, and above all, this book is spiritually dedicated to Antistita Astri Argentei The Priestess of the Silver Star She whose light leads the way to the Arcanum Arcanorum, the Secret of Secrets Vos Vos Vos Vos Vos V.V.V.V.V. In Memorium Professor Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (1953-2012), for opening the door another degree. We will teach on the avenues and in gardens more perfect than we can imagine when the walls of the world have long fallen. -

The Magister

Therefore in honour of the feast, Which we shall hold today, That her grace may be multiplied A good work will she do: The rope will now be lowered Whoever may hang on to it He shall be freed.

Christian Rosencreutz, The Hermetic Romance: or, The Chymical Wedding (1616)[1]

“The World is on fire,” Sigismundo Celine said quietly. R. A. Wilson, Illuminatus Volume I: The Earth Will Shake[2]

Table of Contents On Those Things Which Call Us to Awakening Jerusalem’s Furnace The Stages of the Journey The Court Before the Tabernacle: Zelator (Malkuth) The Sanctuary or Forward Area of the Tabernacle: Theoricus (Yesod) Practicus (Hod) Philosophus (Netzach) The Holy of Holies: Adeptus Minor (Tiphareth) The Mercy Seat and Solomon’s Throne: Adeptus Major (Geburah) and Adeptus Minor (Chesed) After the Passing Over: Magister Templi (Binah), Magus (Chockmah) and Ipssisimus (Kether) The Alchemical Amphitheatre On Dreams and States of Consciousness The Guardian on the Threshold and the Inner Guide The Invisible College On Initiation and Calcination Vignette: The Mystical Explosion Exercise: Examining the Zelator The Secret Ladder The Sound of the Trumpet

Historical Context Authorship The Fama The Confessio The Chymical Wedding The Mirror of Wisdom Symbology and Metaphor Academic Study of the WEIS The Nature of the Debate Western Esotericism, Rituals and Knowledge The Problem of Magic and the Occult Treatments of the Magical Orders The Teachings of Individual Esoteric Teachers and Followers Conclusion The Academic and Esoteric Encounter The Birth of Academic Studies of Western Esotericism The Dangers of Monolithic and Historic Analysis The Insider/Outsider Problem The Issue of Secret Knowledge Definitions of Western Esotericism The Contemporary Milieu Conclusion The Ascent Narrative The Ascent Narrative in Christian Mysticism

The Ascent Narrative in Kabbalah Curriculum Studies Applied to Western Esotericism Introduction: Curriculum as Model Methodology: Analysis of Curriculum Analysis of Content The Self in Education Curricula as Content Purposes Content Procedures Evaluation Differences Between Secular and Esoteric Curricula Builders of the Adytum (BOTA): The Creation of a Curriculum The Teachers: A Case Study of Florence Farr The Aim and Structure of the Golden Dawn Light Before the Dawn: The Sat B’Hai and the Gold and Rosy Cross The Sat B’Hai and the August Order of Light The Influence of the Gold and Rosy Cross Westcott’s Western Mystery Doctrine Mathers and the Book of Concealed Mystery History Foundations at 17 Fitzroy Street A Society of Hermetic Students

The Devastating but Priceless Secret The Construction of the Curriculum The Knowledge Lectures and Flying Rolls The Flying Rolls List of Rolls and Authors The Rituals The Ladder and the Golden and Rosy Cross Students of the Golden Dawn Problems of Delivery of Material Qualification of Knowledge This is Reserved for a Higher Grade The Failure of the Golden Dawn Alumni of the Golden Dawn The Strange Reward Conclusion Part Two

On Those Things Which Call Us to Awakening

Exhaustion of the world and the limits of its offerings; The duplicity of the dreams of others; Circuited horizons of the logician’s love; The feelings of the imagined heart. The stark sunlight and its revelations; The broken chains of all that was important; The boundless creation exceeding all things; (Knowledge of God, given and taken). The tides of the sea and the calling of the deep; The word half-heard in the signature of all. But most of all, the One Who sees us sleeping And dreaming of an everlasting day.

Jerusalem’s Furnace

In this second section of the Magister on Kindle we will open by considering The Soul’s Journey Into God, by St. Bonaventure, attributed to the Tree of Life, as a demonstration of the initiatory journey mapped within Christian mysticism. It is through the use of kabbalah as a system of correspondence that we can perceive the structure of the initiatory journey, and penetrate to the core experiences and challenges encountered by a practitioner, no matter their cultural context. St. Bonaventure was a Franciscan monk born in central Italy in 1217. He joined the Order in 1243, and wrote a number of masterpieces including a biography of St. Francis. The most widely known of his works is that dealt with here, The Soul’s Journey into God, a dense summa of medieval Christian spirituality. It is based upon a vision of the Seraph, the six-winged angelic creature which had provided St. Francis his critical mystical experience, and it was whilst meditating on this vision that St. Bonaventure realised that “... this vision represented our father’s rapture in contemplation and the road by which that rapture is reached.”[3]

The Latin title of this work is Itinerarium mentis in Deum, and it is of interest to this present work that Itinerarium can be translated as ‘plan for a journey’ (itinerary), which is part of the function served by any initiatory system, such as the Book of Coming Forth by Day, the kabbalah, or the Bardo Thodol.[4] The Stages of the Journey According to Bonaventure, the journey of the soul is divided into three general stages: Purgation, Illumination and Perfection. Each of these responds to first, the human nature, second, the effort of the individual, and third, the action of God as Grace. The actions of the three stages are usually given as: Purgation Announcing, Leading & Declaring Illumination Ordering, Strengthening & Commanding Perfection Receiving, Revealing & Anointing These nine actions may be laid onto the Tree from Yesod up to Kether as a very general schemata of the processes undergone by the initiate, and follow a similar development of pattern to that found in alchemy. The three stages represent the grades between Malkuth and Netzach (Purgation), Tiphareth to Chesed (Illumination) and Binah to Kether (Perfection).

The Furnace of Jerusalem (per Bonaventure)

Bonaventure further divides the journey into six stages, taking the Seraph (with six wings) as the symbolic matrix of the description, and these stages take us from the condition of the mortal man to that of the contemplative residing in the mystical experience of the ‘Superluminous Darkness’ of God. I have ascribed these stages to the kabbalah and the initiatory system from Malkuth to the Abyss, as Bonaventure, like many mystics of the time, ceases his description at this level, although hinting at further states beyond. As Brady notes in his preface, the journey takes us “... into the cloud of unknowing, which is itself perhaps the most perfect knowing here below of the One in Three.” I take this “One in Three” to refer to the upper sephiroth of the Tree above the Abyss. It is the contention of the initiate that states can be opened above this Abyss, where identity merges with God as no-thing, and the Self is entirely annihilated. This assertion may have been unspeakable for such as Bonaventure due to its potential for interpretation as heresy. The condition of the mortal man is pictured as that of a ‘poor man in the desert’. However, this situation is deemed redeemable, as the Franciscans followed the doctrine of exemplarism; that all creation is a set of moments in the inner dynamism of God. That is to say, by observing the events of Nature, one could come to know the dealings and nature of God. As Bonaventure words it: “This is our whole metaphysics; emanation, exemplarity, consummation; to be illumined by spiritual rays and to be led back to the highest reality.” The journey is also related to the description of Solomon’s Temple and I have accordingly divided the following synopsis in terms of the temple.

The Temple of Ascent (per Bonaventure)

The Court Before the Tabernacle: Zelator (Malkuth) The first stage is that of imposing technique to exercise the natural powers which sow the seeds of initiatory progress, and avoid ‘sin’ (i.e. automatic attachment to the apparent). These natural powers are grace, which is awoken by prayer; justice, which is awoken by leading a good life; knowledge, which is activated by meditation; and wisdom, which is brought into being through contemplation. The quickening of these latent faculties by the practices given brings the Initiate to the ‘Valley of Tears’ and the commencement of the second stage. The Valley of Tears can be seen as symbolic of path 32 of the Tree leading from Malkuth to Yesod, and is also indicated on The Moon atu of the tarot. The Sanctuary or Forward Area of the Tabernacle: Theoricus (Yesod) The second stage of contemplation is the observation of the ‘vestiges’ of God, which is performed through the “mirror of things perceived through sensation.” The Latin root for ‘vestige’ primarily means ‘footprint’, and it can be seen in a similar way to the chief Mayan God, who was only known by his ‘footprint’ – that is, by his passing, rather than his presence. Bonaventure observes, according to his reading of Aristotle’s physics, and Augustine’s, that the world is “generated” and that “everything that moves, is moved by something else.” During the main work of the Theoricus, which is observation, one may come to recognise a unity running behind the apparent world.

The third stage of the journey is the successful conclusion of the work of the Theoricus, who has come to see that one “will be able to see God through yourself as through an image, which is to see through a mirror in an obscure manner.” Practicus (Hod) The third stage continues with the study of natural, rational and moral philosophy, which illuminates the mind, and thus, “illumined and flooded by such brilliance, unless it is blind, can be led through itself to contemplate that Eternal Light,” which is a key experience of the initiatory journey. That is to say, the reason, as it becomes refined and tested, eventually concedes its own place and limitations, and loses the power to confuse or enslave the identity. It is, like each of our false separations, “led through itself.” Philosophus (Netzach) Citing the Canticle of Canticles as a key text for stage four reveals much of Bonaventure’s belief about the work and events characterising the stage. Indeed, the emotional world is much in evidence in his descriptions of “the fullness of devotion, by which the soul becomes like a column of smoke from aromatic spices of myrrh and frankincense,” “intense admiration, by which the soul becomes like the dawn, the moon and the sun,” and “the superabundance of exultation, by which the soul, overflowing with delights of the sweetest pleasure, leans wholly upon her beloved.” It is to this stage that Crowley recommended the work of Liber Astarte, which was a devotional rite seeking to unite the Philosophus with a particular deity through devotion. The practical aspect of this stage is in the ‘hierarchical operations’ of perfecting or arranging our soul as in the ‘heavenly Jerusalem’. That is to say, we must configure ourselves in accordance with our own personal revelations, as attained previously.

The Holy of Holies: Adeptus Minor (Tiphareth) The fifth stage is the attempt to gain the apex mentis seu synderesis scintilla, the highest part of the soul, from which mystical union proceeds. Whereas the prior stages have been concerned with enquiry and resultant revelations, the middle stages are concerned with ‘being’ and ‘direct knowing’ of the “eternal and most present; utterly simple and the greatest; most actual and unchangeable.” Here words begin to lose relevance to actual direct experience of that which is “greatest precisely because it is utterly simple.” In kabbalah this is denoted partly by the symbolism of the Veil of Paroketh which separates the lower four sephiroth from Tiphareth. The Mercy Seat and Solomon’s Throne: Adeptus Major (Geburah) and Adeptus Minor (Chesed) The sixth and seventh stages of the Work are described with analogy to the two Cherubs facing the Mercy Seat. The discernment of Geburah and the joy of Chesed are pointed to as connected to the contemplation of the trinity (i.e. the upper sephiroth of Binah, Chockmah and Kether). A “perfection of illumination” is attained at the end of the sixth stage, and the seventh stage is given to the “passing over of the Red Sea” into the “Superluminous darkness” and “unknowing,” which I would suggest describes the stages of the Abyss and Binah in the initiatory system. From that point, Bonaventure hints “to the friend to whom these words were written, let us say with Dionysius; But you, my friend, concerning mystical visions,

with your journey more firmly determined, leave behind your senses and intellectual activities, sensible and invisible things, all nonbeing and being; and in this state of unknowing be restored, insofar as it is possible, to unity with Him who is above all essence and knowledge. For transcending yourself and all things, by the immeasurable and absolute ecstasy of a pure mind, leaving behind all things and freed from all things, you will ascend to the superessential ray of the divine darkness.” After the Passing Over: Magister Templi (Binah), Magus (Chockmah) and Ipssisimus (Kether) As a conclusion, Bonaventure notes that during the final stages of contemplation and work, it is acceptance of death or unity with the ‘fire’ which alone can achieve a successful conclusion, in order that we may “pass out of this world to the Father.” If the work of the lower sephiroth is characterised by enquiry, and that of the middle sephiroth by being, then the work of the upper sephiroth is that of transcendence. Bonaventure’s prose is extremely straightforward, despite a tendency to repeat a theme by listing aspects of it from many angles, and as such is quite accessible to the student of mystical attainment. This fire is God,

and his furnace is in Jerusalem.

The Alchemical Amphitheatre

In this section, we learn of the place of our Work, the real Temple and discover the Hidden College.[5] The work of the Order of Everlasting Day is carried out in the Crucible, a network of activity which operates under ten temples, in which initiates work at the appointed time and fashion: Malkuth: Temple of Anubis Yesod: Temple of Harpocrates Hod: Temple of Sothis Netzach: Temple of Isis Tiphareth: Temple of Ra Geburah: Temple of Horus Chesed: Temple of Amoun Binah: Temple of Nephthys Chockmah: Temple of Thoth

Kether: Temple of Maat As these Temples are always available and functional (in either a virtual or realised sense), they operate within each grade. As an initiate passes through the work and experiences of each grade, they access intimations of these Temples at higher grades. In a spiral path we work a complete system of initiation. As there are passages between the grades, at any point – one may not have the necessity or grace to complete the work within any particular Temple – we make our way to the Shrine of Stars, to transition between the grades. Beyond and above all, there exists the Sanctuary of Nuit which provides a contemplative space for those passing between Temples. During the operation of the work of the Temple in which one is exploring, there are three forms of activity, which may be carried out sequentially or concurrently. These are modelled on architectural terms to suit the service the work provides in the building of our inner temple: Pillar: Practice, ritual and workings (techne) Archway: Contemplative, meditative work (praxis) Passage: Ideas and principles, context, learning work (theoria) These activities are bound together by the fundamental teaching of correspondence and experience – we learn to apply these to our actual and daily life, to engage it more fully, not escape it. Nor do we use our work as a prop or a substitute for anything else.[6]

In the Temple of Harpocrates, for example, we learn more of silence and secrecy. The god Harpocrates is often shown as a child or figure touching their finger to their lip in the universal sign of silence. In the Golden Dawn, this position is one of two positions given to the Neophyte to learn as representing their state. As with any posture, it also signifies a mental state – a spiritual asana or attitude. For the process of calcination, the slow burning fire, to complete successfully, it is silence and secrecy that must be observed in order to create an hermetically sealed vessel – yourself – with no leak at the seams. This allows the alchemical work of change being wrought by the techniques and contemplations, methods and models, to intensify and work upon itself – inwards – to change your relationship and awareness of the universe. The more that is spoken, the more that is revealed, the less the Work can be done. We say at this grade, “The worker is hidden in the workshop.” This idea, which comes from Sufism, is also prevalent in alchemy, which we turn to in order to see where we perform this work and upon what it is performed. Although the answer is obvious, it is worth stating, as later it may be that the obvious answer is experienced in a more profound manner. Although most people believe that alchemy was mainly concerned with turning lead to gold, and other early chemical experiments taking place in secret laboratories, many alchemists also practised alchemy as a spiritual art and science. That the alchemical process is an internal process as well as an external process is intimated by Daniel Mogling (under the pseudonym of Theophilus Schweighardt) in The Mirror of the Wisdom of the Rosicrucians (1616).[7]

Here we see that although there are three aspects of the alchemical work – the ‘ora’ or prayer, the ‘labora’ in fields and streams, and the ‘atte natura’ or examination of Nature in the workshop, divided into both a primary and secondary work (‘ergon et parergon’) –the hidden skull symbolism and the textual reference to “climb down from the mountain and look with thy left eye (but with the right eye maintaining its precedence) into time and the creatures” both suggest changes in the state or awareness of the alchemist. Indeed, Mogling furthermore stresses: “‘Know Thyself! Know Thyself!’ I say, and so thou shalt come to pansophic perfection...”

Theophilus Schweighardt, The Mirror of the Wisdom of the Rosicrucians (1616)

This movement to a spiritual (pansophic) working of alchemy is also evident in the works of Heinrich Khunrath (1560-1601), whose Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom[8] depicts a place of working where the laboratory has become a lab-oratorium; a place of prayer and meditation. Furthermore, such alchemists as Paracelsus “mainly regarded alchemy as important for the curing of disease and the prolongation of life” rather than just as an entirely external discipline. Although Paracelsus indeed calls alchemy an art, with Vulcan its artist – denoting a more practical aspect – he also states that alchemy means: ... to carry to its end something that has not yet been completed. It is this unfinished business that the Great Work is concerned with: the idea that the universe is unfinished, and that we are co-creators in completing it by completing ourselves. This task is not only a singular ‘heroic’ journey but a mythic and universal one – as we have earlier seen within the framework of Naturphilosophie. The idea of co-creation in an evolving universe can be found as an idea as early as Plato in Timaeus and as contemporary a notion within astrophysics as in The Unfinished Universe by Louise B. Young.[9] So universe is our Temple, our amphitheatre, our Work. The Self in relation to universe is our method, our aim and our currently present state. It is only in each moment that we may find the gold – the Philosophers’ Stone, the Summun Bonum, the ‘good end’ which is ever-present. It is this we must remember through all our techniques, which are only essential to bring about a remembrance of this state – this truth, this nature – and not to distract us further.

Heinrich Khunrath. Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae. (Hamburg, 1595)

On Dreams and States of Consciousness Our main engagement in universe is through consciousness. It is here that we perceive of ourselves as a state or a process of being. Our awareness and attention present a changing state in which our perceptions interact with universe. In such a field arises a sense of identity and separation. This situation – the ‘darkness’ from which the Neophyte is brought into the ‘light’ – is mapped on the Tree of Life by the path between Malkuth, the Kingdom and world of action, and Yesod, the Foundation and realm of illusion, ego and dreams (also the realm of the sense of self and separation). The tarot card corresponding to the path is The World or Universe. It is also the only path that has two correspondences in astrology: of Earth (space) and of Saturn (time). It simultaneously presents to us both reality and the illusionary sense of reality. The engagement of the unconscious will become present in our Work as we progress, through dreams and visions. This shifting of state will be mapped by our later initiation into the grade corresponding to Yesod on the Tree of Life. The development of such unconscious processes is also evident in the writings of the alchemists. Like those in psychotherapeutic analysis, these writings record the occurrence of vivid symbolic dreams and visions. C.G. Jung was aware of this, writing that “the alchemists themselves testify to the occurrence of dreams and visions during the Opus.” He references Nazari, the Visio Arislei, Ostanes, Senior, Krates, Ventura, and Khunrath all as acknowledging dreams as important sources of revelation.

This activation of the unconscious is evident in as early a text as the Visions of Zosimos (c. 300 A.D.),[10] to the literary construct of The Alchemical Wedding by J.V. Andreae (1616).[11] Compare the following two accounts from these works: And having had this vision I awoke again and I said to myself “what is the occasion of this vision? ...” and Whereupon the trumpets began to sound again, which gave me such a shock that I woke up, and then perceived that it was only a dream, but it so strongly impressed my imagination that I was still perpetually troubled about it, and I thought I still felt the wounds upon my feet. Or the poetic account given in the alchemical text, John Dastin’s Dream,[12] published by Elias Ashmole (1652), which indicates the same state – which is not so much dream-like (asleep) as more specifically a hypnagogic state: Not yet full sleping, nor yet full waking, But betweene twayne lying in a traunce; Halfe closed mine Eyne in my slumbering ... As one proceeds through the work of the Crucible, we expect to notice an irruption of unconscious processes through dream, daydream and vision. It is this arising of new content that requires constant integration through the methods of the practical teachings.

The Guardian on the Threshold and the Inner Guide At each stage of the work there is an assisting guide as well as a challenging guardian. In many ways, like Janus, the Roman god of transitions, these could be considered different faces of the same entity or experience. At first, this assistance is through an external teacher, book or course. At the same time, these teachers, books and courses cause us to rely upon their teachings and advice, increasing dependency, not releasing it. This is inevitable at the first stage but must become undone later. We must remind ourselves that, in the end, we are alone in this path – although perhaps that loneliness is more profound and complex than it appears at present. The constant interruptions and sudden challenges we meet in the early stages of the Work are notorious and common. The challenge can be boredom, distraction, trials, and tribulations, but they all serve a simple function – to pull us back into the world. This is the Guardian on the Threshold of the first stage. Often this can manifest as a dark and disturbing nightmare, where an actual presence is felt – esoteric and occult literature is full of such accounts.[13]

The Hermetic Garden of Daniel Stolcius (1624)

Guide Figure from the Book of Lambspring (1625)

Sometimes this happens in the world between sleep and waking, either as we drift into sleep or up into awakening. This is called the hypnagogic state. It has also been noted that the hypnagogic state often brings with it a sense of a presence outside of the individual.[14] There are particular emblems in alchemical literature that incorporate the presence of a guide, often as a representation of Hermes Trismegestus, as from this image from The Hermetic Garden of Daniel Stolcius (1624). Or this image of the Guide Figure from The Book of Lambspring (1625).[15] In even earlier texts, the guide – or sense of another presence outside the alchemist – is present, as in the works of Zosimos, where we encounter “a little man, a barber, whitened by years,” who responds to the question of his identity by describing himself as “a spirit and a guardian of spirits.” We will return to this guide and to this guardian at another time. For now, it is enough that we are made aware that they are present and can recognise them when we encounter them – as we surely will.

The Invisible College

The Invisible college of the Rosicrucians, Theophilus Schweighardt Speculum sophicum rhodo-stauroticum, 1618

There is a building, a great building lacking windows and doors, a princely, aye imperial palace, everywhere visible, but hidden from the eyes of men, adorned with all kinds of divine and natural things, the contemplation of which in theory and practice is granted to every man free of charge and remuneration, but heeded by few because the building appears as bad, little worth, old and well-known to the mind of the mob who are ever heedless and seekers after things new; but the building itself is so precious, so delicate, artistic and wonderful in its construction that no wealth, gold, jewel, money, goods, honour, authority or reputation in the whole world can be named which is not to be found in that high reputable palace in high degree. It is itself so strongly fortified by God and nature, and preserved against the onslaught of the ignorant, that even though all the mines, cannon, batteringrams and petards and such recently invented military devices were used against it all human endeavour and toil would be useless and in vain. This is the Collegium ad S.S. of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, this is the royal, nay more than imperial palace of which the brethren in their ‘Fama’ make mention, herein are hidden the inexpressible costly treasures and riches – let this be a sufficiently lucid account thereof. Oh how many men go unknowing and without understanding through all the rooms, all the secret hidden places of this palace, unseeing, uncomprehending, worse than a blind man, or as the saying goes, as a donkey on a bagpipe, because they have not been sufficiently prepared and made worthy. He who hath ears, let him hear.[16]

The contemporary writer on alchemy, Adam McLean, suggests that the iconography of alchemy presents a psychological and spiritual opportunity for communication with the divine, as we will see in our contemplation work: Alchemical emblems are not textual information encoded in symbols which can be precisely decrypted into a ‘meaning’, but they are instead dynamic gateways, before which we can stand and allow ourselves to enter into an inner dialogue with the imagery.[17] Whether chemical, spiritual, spagyric, or philosophical, the enduring legacy of alchemy in psychology is evident in a range of titles both popular and academic. We conclude in the words of Silberer, discussing the goal of alchemy, taking from H.A. Hitchcock: Here lies one of the greatest mysteries of the whole of alchemy ... If, for example, it is said that whoever wishes to make gold must have gold, we must suppose that the seeker of truth must be true ...[18] The Invisible College is before our eyes, as we have eyes to see. It is to this aim that we dedicate ourselves in the Crucible.

On Initiation and Calcination When you continue this work of the Outer Court for several months, learning and practising the basic exercises, you may find yourself settling into a routine – a rather curious sense of boredom, even. Some students find disappointment setting in, and a little anxiety. Some students choose at this point to give the work up as not being what they expected. The daily tasks of keeping a dream diary and a magical record seem to dry up in insight, which seemed to be present at the beginning. The tutor or texts being followed may even seem unresponsive and irrelevant. This is – albeit a fact you must presently take on trust, or ask those who have gone through this first year – all to be expected and essential to further progress. You might be surprised how common and predictable this stage is. It is best described by alchemy. Although there are many versions of the stages of alchemy, the one I use ascribes the process of calcination to the first esoteric grades of Neophyte and Zelator. This first year is the work of the Neophyte becoming the Zelator – one who has ‘zeal’. As such, the process of calcination is seen as a dry, steady, gentle heat. It shakes out – quietly, slowly, almost unnoticeably – old habits and resistances, attachments and tired viewpoints, perspectives and memories. It gently dries them out into the boredom of the work, as the new – willed and magical – habits instil themselves as a framework. With the Lesser Banishing Ritual you are orientating yourself in space; with the Liber Resh observation you are orientating yourself in time. With the Middle Pillar exercise you will start to equilibrate yourself, and with the Rose Cross exercise which follows later you will come to equilibrate your environment. These four techniques are the four elemental parts of Malkuth, the Kingdom, which the Zelator inhabits.

Vignette: The Mystical Explosion The mystical experience can often be likened to an explosion caused by a bomb planted by a bomber. By the time that one has come to one’s senses after the event, which was so totally unexpected and shattering, the explosion has long wiped out any chance of seeing the footprints of the bomber. The thought process – and sometimes the practices and sequence of exercises or reading – that precede a mystical experience can rarely be precisely recalled nor ordered. This makes for frustrating learning, although one builds up a sense of faith that the viewpoint is more important than the past journey. Frater P.P.E. had two such experiences in this light, the first of which was whilst at a place of employment. He was musing on some kabbalistic conundrum and turned to look away from the window and at a red electric plug connected to a wall socket. At that moment, the red plug became real in a sense unlike anything he had experienced before or since. The whole of existence was present and correct in a timeless moment, before it slipped away back into the previous state of awareness. Perhaps there was something in the symbolism of being plugged in, or perhaps the colour red? These events are rarely repeatable. The second experience was when Frater P.P.E. was sitting on the floor at a manual typewriter, in the days when that counted as a wireless word processor with its own built-in printer. He turned to pick up a sheet of paper and was suddenly and undoubtedly seized with an absolute knowledge of what the universe was for, what it intended, and how it all worked. This lasted for several seconds before again being replaced by everyday consciousness. Afterwards, there was some sense of it all being about friction and communication, but these hardly touched upon the actual experience. The initiation system is designed to promote these higher states and prepare the initiate to hold them for longer periods of time.

The result of setting up these systems / frameworks / exercises is that what is not willed, what is not magical, what is not balanced, begins to become more obvious, even if only distantly at present. The initial reaction to this is often one of displacement – an unwillingness to even admit that anything is happening. It is this gentle tension that begins to shift the ground. Again, a gentle heat. The continuation – in fact, the concentration upon – the techniques is paramount. They provide the framework in which initiation takes place, and the foundation for further progress. They also provide an experiential language in which you can maintain orientation during later experiences. Again, it is not the content that is so important – it is the pattern and the process. This becomes clearer as you work through any initiation, and is why the system is flexible across time, space and culture. Beyond this, at the end of your Zelator work, there is an initiation into Theoricus, ascribed to Yesod, ‘Foundation’ on the Tree of Life. It should be noted that each grade of initiation is an entirely different state of consciousness.[19] It is this state that truly denotes the initiate of that sephirah – a Zelator is in an entirely different headspace than a Practicus, for example, even if they both like the same music, or they wear different clothes. The experiences of dryness, boredom, frustration, and even apparently external distractions and events which seek to prevent one from continuing study are part of the 'Dweller on the Threshold' syndrome, which we examine later in this volume.

The outer is not a sign-post in this work; the concerns, practices and values of each grade are entirely different. The initiation at the end of Zelator throws you into an intense state which might be predicted by the tarot cards attributed to the paths connecting Yesod to the other sephiroth. It is not to be taken lightly, although it is offered to you at the end of your year’s apprenticeship. It initiates at least another one to three years of work and experience that is impossible to explain until it is commenced. Exercise: Examining the Zelator You may now choose to look at the grade of Zelator. Research calcination, and look at the tarot cards that correspond to the paths which lead in / out of Malkuth: The Last Judgement, The Universe and The Moon. What influences do you see these cards as having upon your present state? What warnings do they hold? What opportunities do you have to learn their lessons and transcend them? You may wish to consider joining us in the Crucible Club and engage in a graduated series of self-study exercises opening up the Western Esoteric Initiatory System at your own pace – at the conclusion of which an application may be made to the Order of Everlasting Day for which this work is a presentation.

The Secret Ladder “Thus, the axis of the sefirot also constitutes the vertical ladder that is climbed by the mystic when he progresses in both understanding and in discovering experientially the higher levels of the divine structure.” — Moshe Idel, Ascensions on High in Jewish Mysticism[20]

The ladder provides a central icon in the mysteries of the WEIS. We here mention many of the variations of this principle icon in our Great Work, to which we will return later. As a symbol of the ascent narrative, it denotes many things. Firstly, of course, it is a means of ascending from the lower to the higher – but it is equally a symbol of the descent of the higher to the lower. As above, so below.

Frontispiece, Mutus Liber

In an illustration by Dürer, we see the astrologer sat in a chair on which the planets provide panels or stages uniting the Earth or globe in the astrologer’s hands to the celestial world above his head – each planet thus representing a stage of connection between man and the heavenly realm. In Christian imagery, we see paintings of Saints progressing up the ladder in steps, but with the demons attempting to arrest their ascent in a variety of ways. In one representation, we see that our ascent may be contested by other agents. It is of little consequence if these are seen as internal or external to the self, so long as it is recognised that there appear to be challenges to our ascent. The ladder is utilised in tracing boards within Freemasonry. The tracing boards are used as important teaching devices in Freemasonry, and are often painted as large panels and shown to a candidate during an initiation ritual. The ladder and step-ladder appear not only in Freemasonic art and diagrams, but also as actual items in certain rituals. In this famous frontispiece of the alchemical work, Mutus Liber (published c. 1677), we see a drawing of Jacob’s Ladder – the ladder which was seen by Jacob in a dream – with the angels ascending and descending. In this particular version, we see the angel blowing a trumpet to awaken Jacob from his sleep. This reminds us somewhat of the commencement of the Rosicrucian manifesto, the Chymical Wedding, and also the tarot image of The Last Judgement. The tarot card The Last Judgement also corresponds to one of the paths connecting Malkuth, the Kingdom, to the upper reaches of the Tree of Life. It is thus of import to the Zelator. In another ladder diagram, this one of a cosmological nature, by Robert Fludd in 1619, we see the ladder reaching up to the divine realm or the celestial realm signified by a star or bright light.

The rungs on this ladder are marked with aspects of human ability: sensus, imaginalis, ratio, etc., for the senses, imagination and rationality. Here we start to see that the rungs of the ladder are being viewed as essential building blocks for connecting with the divine. By working on the areas marked by the rungs, we create the ladder.[21] The nature of the ladder as signifying the hierarchy of realms is seen most clearly in Ramon Lull’s (1232-1316) illustration. Here Lull depicts the divine city and the world as being divided by a ladder of grades of being, starting with the mineral world, the world of plants and animals, then moving up through man and the angelic realm. The figure holds a further map of the aspects of art and science and human ability that provides a mechanism or compass for making the ascent to the divine world.

Steps of Ascent, from Ramon Lull’s Liber De Ascensu et Decensu Intellectus (written 1304, first published 1512)

The Sound of the Trumpet “Therefore we appeal to many a learned man in our writings With letters and by our own hands Although our names are not known, That is known to many a philosopher Many a chemist, many a Doctor Many a Reverend, many a worthy man Knows the sound of our trumpet.” Altar of the Theraphic Brotherhood, 1617[22]

We will now examine a number of perspectives on the ‘Rosicrucian manifestos’, specifically regarding the original intention behind their writing and publication. It is the present author’s view that the manifestos represent a test – in its truest forms of both challenge and measurement – of the time in which they were composed. This test – a word whose etymology means a vessel in which metals were assayed, similar to the Latin root, testa, ‘pot’ or ‘shell’ – is indeed such a shell in which a critical examination was carried out on the consciousness of the age. Not only are the manifestos loaded with metaphors – of light and dark, of lions and eagles, of night and dawn, of chalices, fountains, vipers, and asses – they are in themselves a meta-metaphor in which there is “the right, simple, easy and ingenious exposition, understanding, declaration, and knowledge of all secrets.”[23] It is also noted that in modern parlance, the mechanism by which this intention was carried out was the use of ‘undercover viral marketing’; a method by which a large audience of interested persons is rapidly reached by harnessing the existing social network ‘underneath’ the existing media, state or institutions. Tobias Churton approaches this concept when he refers to the publication of the first manifesto, the Fama Fraternitatis (1614) as “one of the most virulent intellectual hurricanes ever to hit Europe.”[24] The effectiveness of this method – likely the first use of viral marketing in print – is evidenced by the rapid spread of the Rosicrucian ‘furore’ prior to its premature closing-down at the onset of the Thirty Years War, and its longevity to the continuing expressions of Rosicrucianism in the present day. [25]

We will limit this present survey primarily to the first two published works of the ‘Fraternity of the Rosy Cross’, namely the Fama Fraternitatis (1614) and the Confessio Fraternitatis (1615), although we will also use selected material from the Chymical Wedding (1616). The so-called ‘fourth manifesto’, Speculum Sophicum Rhodo-Stauroticum (or, The Mirror of the Wisdom of the Rosicrucians), will also be referenced specifically with regard to the ‘college’ of the Fraternity, which indicates in metaphor the likely intention of the manifestos as a whole. To begin, we will set the historical context of the publications, then move on to a brief textual analysis, particularly where the intention of the writings is given, either explicitly or implicitly. We will be looking at contemporary thoughts on the likely authorship of the documents, and the background of the author which further illuminates possible intentions arising from his activities and worldview. Although the symbolism and metaphors employed are arguably the most discussed, divertive and mysterious elements of the texts, we will briefly touch upon these aspects, not wishing to add what Waite calls the “purposeless and rambling speculations” made on Rosicrucianism.[26] Having illuminated likely intentions from these perspectives, we will finally look on the actual impact of their publication. Historical Context The publication of the documents in Germany between 1614 and 1616 contextualises their writing in a time of critical change in Europe. The Reformation and Counter-Reformation had ended after 100 years, and the Thirty Years War was to start within four years of the publication of the Fama Fraternitatis. The key dates referenced here are given in the table below. A Timetable of Rosicrucian Publications

1517: Commencement of Reformation by Martin Luther. 1555: Peace of Augsburg ended violence between Lutherans and Catholics in Germany. 1586: Johann Valentin Andreae (born). 1604: A trigonus igneus (‘fiery triangle’) appears in the constellations of Serpentarius and Cygnus. 1606: Religious tensions broke into violence in the German free city of Donauwörth. The Lutheran majority barred the Catholic residents of the Swabian town from holding a procession, causing a riot to break out. 1612: Death of Emperor Rudolph II, leading to expectation of radical reforms.[27] Manuscript version of Fama Fraternitatis refered to by Adam Haselmayer. 1614: Publication of Fama Fraternitatis, dess Loblichen Ordens des Rosenkreutzes (or, The Declaration of the Worthy Order of the Rosy Cross) at Kassel (in German). 1615: Publication of Confessio Fraternitatis at Kassel (in Latin). 1616: Publication of Die Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosenkruetz (or, The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz) at Strasbourg (in German). 1618: Publication of Speculum Sophicum Rhodo-Stauroticum (or, The Mirror of the Wisdom of the Rosicrucians). Start of the Thirty Years War. 1622: Two ‘Rosicrucian’ posters appear in Paris.[28] 1654: Johann Valentin Andreae (died).

The first appearance of the word ‘Rosenkreuz’ in a printed book was in a Tyrolean schoolmaster’s response to the unpublished Fama, in 1612.[29] This schoolmaster, musician and alchemist, Adam Haselmeyer, was deeply versed in the works of Paracelsus, and proclaimed a newly-founded religion, the ‘Theosphrastia Sancta’. According to Gilly (2003), this response demonstrated that Haselmeyer saw both Rosenkreuz and Paracelsus as revealing the ‘Theosphrastia Sancta’, a divine truth preserved throughout history, in order to bring about a new religion of “evangelical freedom ... promised [to] this latter world.”’[30] This was how the manifestos were to be received – as an announcement, a trumpet call, a revelation bringing about an awakening of a new Christian truth; one promised not by the Church, but by the Hermetic tradition of which Paracelsus was theologist. Indeed, this new truth was seen by Haselmeyer as a form of religious science – deciphering the ‘textus libri Naturae’ – and as a form of observance, practical, and experimental. In this we see how the new philosophy reflected the ‘Christo-cabalistic divine magic’ of Khunrath, who wrote some years earlier in his own Confessio: ... when ye my contemporaries were idly dozing, I was watching and at work, meditating earnestly day and night on what I had seen and leaned, sitting, standing, recumbent, by sunshine, by moonshine, by banks, in meadows, streams, woods and mountains.[31]

This insistence of communion with Nature, travel, universal brotherhood, and a life imitating that of Christ was to form the template which the manifestos would exploit, to present highly critical ideas within an allegorical framework, itself referring to, and calling for – and in effect, attempting to bring about – a general reformation of the whole world. It is clear that the author/s of the Confessio saw the time being due for this reformation. They saw themselves as lighting the ‘sixth candlestick’ which would bring about a new age – perhaps developing the model of Joachim of Fiore, who saw three ages: that of the Nettles, Roses and Lilies. [32]

Johann Valentin Andreae (1586-1642)

Authorship Although published anonymously, it is now widely accepted that the manifestos originated in the ‘Learned and Christian Society’ established by Johann Valentin Andreae in Tübingen in 1610.[33] This group also included Christoph Besold and Tobias Hess. It is likely that the manifestos were the result of a meeting of these minds, although Andreae did claim authorship of the Chymical Wedding. It has been reasonably suggested that as Andreae was aged only 19 at the time of the writing of this latter text, on the evidence of its more mature construction and content, compared with other works by Andreae, it was likely re-worked by the group prior to actual publication.[34] This authorship, whether individual or collective, in part or in whole, emphasises the intent of the manifestos to respond to what Edeighoffer calls “the crisis of European consciousness in the 17th century.” A collective of individuals, radical reformers, synthesised a spiritual gnosis of a “Neoplatonic, gnostic reworking of orthodox Christian theology,”[35] and presented that in the shell of allegory and mystery as challenge to the piety of the age. The Fama

The first of the manifestos, the Fama, describes the life, travels and death – and later discovery of the tomb – of a certain Brother C.R., “a German, the chief and original of our fraternity.”[36] The Fama records the beginnings of a brotherhood, comprising originally four, and after the building of a secret college, the Sancti Spiritus, enlarging to eight members. These members travel, and hold to six articles, including the requirement to keep secret for 100 years. During the following description of the later finding of the tomb of C.R., the text returns to the need for secrecy and brotherhood on numerous occasions. The Fama is overtly anti-Papal; the Church is described as “not cleansed.”[37] However, the Fama is also critical of alchemy, the “ungodly and accursed gold-making,”[38] although it notes that the first of the brethren to die – Brother J.O. – was “well-learned in Cabala” and indeed describes a manuscript, ‘Book H.’, which attested to this knowledge.[39] The religious context which the Fama explicitly states is Christian: But that also every Christian may know of what religion and belief we are, we confess to have the knowledge of Jesus Christ ... Also we use two sacraments, as they are instituted with all Forms and Ceremonies of the first renewed Church.[40]

When the Fama was first printed, it was within a volume including a preface and a ‘reply’ by Adam Haselmayer. The contents of this preface and reply led Frances Yates to suggest that the intention of the Rosicrucian manifesto was “setting forth an alternative to the Jesuit order, a brotherhood more truly based on the teaching of Jesus.” However, she admits that the preface and reply are ambiguous, although there is clearly “an intention of associating the first Rosicrucian manifesto with anti-Jesuit propaganda.”[41] It is clear, however, that the intent of the text is to announce a rediscovery of transmitted wisdom, a philosophy that “also is not a new invention, but as Adam after his fall hath received it.”[42] This revelation, symbolised by the allegory of the discovery of the tomb of C.R., heralds a new reformation, both of “divine and human things, according to our desire, and the expectation of others.”[43] It could further be added that the intention is to imply criticism of the Reformation, which was seen to have failed, and also a further intention to test the expectation of ‘others’ (i.e. the public and the learned men to whom the pamphlet is addressed) against a Christian philosophy that is not given but suggested as pure in comparison to the established Church.

The call to the reader to “declare their mind”[44] is a device which assures the publication of this pamphlet will engender what contemporary advertising would refer to ‘viral marketing’. Indeed, modern campaigns often use undercover and subtle forms of graffiti in city environments to reinforce the mystery of the brand which is being marketed.[45] This is analogous to the appearance of posters promoting the Rosicrucian cause in Paris in 1622; the first commencing with the line, “We, the Deputies of the Higher College of the Rose-Croix, do make our stay, visibly and invisibly, in this city ...” and the second ending with the words “The thoughts attached to the real desire of the seeker will lead us to him and him to us.” So, in this sense the publication of the manifestos can be seen, as Christopher McIntosh says, as “the greatest publicity-stunt of all time,”[46] with the intention of a test of the consciousness of the age through the first use of a ‘viral marketing campaign’, mapping a ‘virtual world’ against the ‘real world’ to highlight the wide gap between the utopian vision of a ‘New Age’ and the failure of both Church and State in the reformation towards that vision. This self-referential aspect of the texts leads Colin Wilson to write that the invention of Christian Rosenkreuz is “not a hoax so much as a cry of rejection and a demand for new ways: in short, a kind of prophecy.”[47] Fr. Wittemans – whose work has been criticised elsewhere – states that the “only certain thing is that Andrae (sic), with thirty others, published the Fama as a sort of experiment ... in order to discover whether and which lovers of the true wisdom are to be found in Europe.”[48] In this he accords in that expression with Tobias Churton, when he writes that Andreae was “calling out for a second spiritual and scientific reformation to encompass all men of goodwill in the true Christian spirit of love and brotherhood.”[49]

The Confessio The publication of the Confessio Fraternitatis in the year following the Fama added more depth to the mystery and debate now rising with regard to the Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross. It is estimated that several hundred works were printed regarding the search for – or criticism of – the Brotherhood, although there is as yet no extensive dated bibliography of this tangled furore.[50] In this we can see that whatever the intention of the work, the actual effect was as a catalyst – dividing the audience in a way that the author may not have intended. If Andreae was indeed author of the Fama, as we have touched on, he wrote in 1619, “Would that the remaining chimes and little bells by which this fable was noised abroad be melted down: I mean that their prolific writings would all go up in smoke!”[51] The Confessio was first published in Latin, and the authorship has been attributed to either Andreae or Tobias Hess.[52] Perhaps the Latin delivery was meant for more learned minds than had received the Fama? It may have been intended to quell the facile posturings of the public with regard to the Brotherhood, or it may indeed have been intended to further fuel the debate. The preface of the Confessio states that it will list “thirty-seven reasons of purpose and intention,”[53] yet in true ambiguous and esoteric fashion does not then make explicit the manner in which the text relates to thirtyseven reasons.

The text immediately makes two things clear: the world is “falling to decay, and near its end,” and the Brotherhood are in some way superior to the ‘mortals’ addressed by the text.[54] This context allows a direct criticism of both “the Pope and Mahomet” and the intention of the text is stated “for the sake of the learned ... make a better explanation.”[55] This explanation delivers the rise of a new philosophy and the start of a ‘Sixth Age’ into which newcomers will not be immediately initiated, but “must proceed step by step from the smaller to the greater.”[56] This statement of a step by step revelation is of interest in that it appears to refer to a graduated initiation – again referenced later in the Confessio; “this Fraternity, divided into Degrees.”[57] Another intention given by the text is that God himself has decreed that the Fraternity be enlarged,[58] which intensifies the call for the public to respond. The Confessio goes on to expound upon the coming of light to the darkness of “the arts, works and governments of men,”[59] sparing few areas of life in its critical gaze. It sees the dawn of a new Reformation, and hints that the Brotherhood has power through ‘magical writing’ by which prediction can be made.[60] However, it places the religious or spiritual background of the Brotherhood as Christian; the study of the Bible is seen as the “whole sum of our Laws” and yet, at the same time, alchemy is seen as a “great gift of God” so long as it leads to the “knowledge of Nature.”[61] The Confessio draws to a close by continuing its specific criticism of the “Roman Imposter” or “Viper” Pope, the “worthless books of pseudo chymists” and the “vain (astronomical) epicycles and eccentric circles”; thus, the philosophy of the Brotherhood is seen as holding truths beyond religion, alchemy and astrology.[62]

The text concludes by repeating the intended aim of the Brotherhood to “enrich and instruct the whole world” and the call to seek and find the Fraternity the sooner that liberation may come.[63] The Chymical Wedding It is the opinion of Adam McLean that without the third manifesto of the Chymical Wedding being published, the two preceeding texts would have faded from the public imagination. The publication of the “profound allegorical statement of the mystery of inner transformation” that is the Chymical Wedding, further deepened the enigma of the followers of Christian Rosenkreuz by demonstrating their possession of an “esoteric core.”[64] Although Andreae admitted authorship of the Chymical Wedding in his autobiography, Vita ab Ipso Conscripta,[65] he also dismissed it as a ‘ludibrium’. Ludibrium is a word derived from Latin ‘ludus (ludi)’, meaning ‘plaything’ or ‘trivial game’. In Latin ludibrium is an object at the same time of fun and of scorn and derision. However, in Andreae’s Peregrini in Patria errores (1618) he compares the world to an amphitheatre where no one is seen in their true light – thus the ludibrium could well be seen to have serious purpose undeneath the play itself. It may be seen that Andreae delighted in ambiguity, and as Churton notes, “ambivalence was central to Andreae’s genius.”[66]

It suffices to note that the tale of the Chymical Wedding commences with an invitation to arise from “carnal desires” and through selfexamination – “examining myself again and again” – come to an “understanding of the secrets of Nature.”[67] This method and resultant vision is told through a complex allegory of trials, rituals and realms, culminating in the admittance of Christian Rosenkreuz into the order of the Knights of the Golden Stone, whose motto is “The highest wisdom is to know nothing.”[68] The idea that the intention of the publication of the Chymical Wedding was to redirect the audience to the Fraternity of the Rosy Cross as a literary device is stated by McIntosh (1987) and, indeed, Andreae had written in Turris Babel that “in vain do you wait for the coming of the Brotherhood.”[69] The Mirror of Wisdom This ‘fourth’ Rosicrucian manifesto, Speculum Sophicum RhodoStauroticum (or, The Mirror of the Wisdom of the Rosicrucians), was published in 1618, authored by Daniel Mögling under the pseudonym of Theophilus Schweighardt. Although another complex piece of writing, drawing also on Thomas à Kempis’ Imitatio Christi, it can be seen that this piece attempts an explanation of the methodology of the ‘Rosicrucian Order’, and also intends to delineate the order, their works and their buildings as an inner and received wisdom, and not a material manifestation. The College of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood is described as:

… everywhere visible, but hidden from the eyes of men, adorned with all kinds of divine and natural things, the contemplation of which in theory and practice is granted to every man free of charge and renumeration, but heeded by few because the building appears as bad, little worth and well-known to the mind of the mob who are ever heedless and seekers after things new … [70] Another striking illustration from the same work is that used to encapsulate the text where it refers to the Ergon and Parergon – Work and Greater Work – of the Rhodo-Stauroticum. It is clear from the illustration, combined with the text, that the intention is to signal an inner work – the events are taking place in the two sockets of a skull in a mirror of the text: And here is to be noted that the created soul of man has two spiritual eyes; the right eye can see into eternity, and the left eye can see into time and creatures.[71] Mögling goes on to say that “... the Brotherhood against all expectation goes mightily forward,” but that entry is by prayer and works alone, which will attract a brother of the order to give the earnest seeker the Parergon, or Greater Work. This ‘fourth manifesto’ clearly intended to place the mysteries of the Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross as a means of gnosis, or divine knowledge of Nature, through Christian and Hermetic methods and principles. Symbology and Metaphor

The symbolism of both the Fama and the Confessio are replete with indications that they are used in service of an intended awakening – a new dawn bringing light to the darkness of ignorance. Such symbolism as the rose, the dawn, the flowing chalice or fountain, briefly included in the Fama and Confessio, find their full expression in the Chymical Wedding. It is the symbol of the trumpet that calls this awakening at the start of the Wedding, which belongs to the apocalyptical tradition. Often in the New Testament the sound of trumpets is tied to Christ’s coming. Notice Paul’s description of the resurrection of the dead at the time a great trumpet announces Christ’s return: “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed – in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”[72] The use of metaphor is well known in psychotherapy as a means of circumventing the conscious mind. A congruent and well delivered metaphor is a powerful means to affect change.[73] In the manifestos we see a complex metaphorical structure which plays with time – the unlikely timeline of Christian Rosenkreuz’s life and the constant references to the end of one age and the commencement of a new age – and space – “the college which is everywhere visible, but hidden from the eyes of men.”[74]

In literature, the creation of a ‘virtual’ world replete with worldview and behaviour to challenge existing notions is commonplace. All literature is analogous, a map of the territory of existence. The content and delivery of the manifestos still finds its echoes in the works of those authors versed in Gnostic, alchemical or kabbalistic motifs, such as Jorge Luis Borges, whose ‘Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius’ is referenced by McIntosh with regard to the Rosicrucian phenomenon,[75] and contemporary authors such as William Gibson who coined the term ‘cyber-space’ and whose recent work references a fragmentary piece of video released over time across the Internet which spawns its own interpretators and followers despite any clear indication of its intention.[76] In this section we have seen that each of the manifestos revealing the existence of the Fraternity of the Rose Cross and its founder Christian Rosenkreuz had a common intention to challenge what the author/s saw as the prevalent ignorance of the age, within the religious, artistic and scientific establishment. Their content, delivery and release were fashioned in such a way as to promote widespread discussion – although this also resulted in a literal belief of the content, i.e. the existence of a real brotherhood of mystical Adepts, as the lowest common denominator of public opinion. The likely re-working and publication of Andreae’s Chymical Wedding intended to re-frame opinion towards the literal, but in fact deepened the apparent enigma and promoted the mythology of the secret brotherhood and their Hermetic, alchemical knowledge and powers. Whatever their original intention, the manifestos remain ever-timely, visionary and powerful emblems of spiritual striving. It is not only the Tübingen Circle of the early 17th century who – in the face of political chaos, impending war and the failure of religious establishments – looked towards a universally-lived life of truth in a world of mutual trust and respect.

We will next move on to the academic study of the WEIS, and explore the work of the Golden Dawn, most particularly its curriculum and the student experience. Whilst what follows is more of an academic discussion, we will highlight much which sets the context for our contemporary appreciation of the tradition. If you are disinterested in academic analysis, language or primary source material, you may comfortably pass by the following portion of this volume – although I would recommend some dips into the primary material amidst the academic language.

Academic Study of the WEIS

The academic study of Western esotericism is the main issue for this section of first volume of The Magister, as it provides essential grounding in areas of little usual concern to practitioners. The students of the OED are encouraged to pursue historical research and wide reading in order to appreciate the breadth of their work and the roots from whence it has grown. There are, however, two areas that we must make clear. Firstly, in academia, it would not be sufficient to simply talk about a singular monolithic ‘Western esoteric tradition’ without defining the terms and scope of the term. In the volumes of The Magister, we use the term as a general label for our work, without need to define it further. Secondly, the approach of academic study to esotericism has blatantly ignored the taught content of magical curricula, which is our primary concern in these volumes. Often content is seen as merely a response – to disempowerment, disenfranchisement, science, etc. – and not as a source of independent value. Here we see it from our practitioner perspective as not requiring justification or defence; it is an active approach to engaging life, not a passive response mechanism (or if so, no more than any other activity, including academia).

The academic ambivalence to actual content versus content-asresponse – for example, Webb,[77] Gibbons[78] and Owen[79] – is reflected in other contemporary studies such as Hanegraaff.[80] Whilst speaking of the New Age sensu lato and sensu stricto, and referring to the movement as a whole being rooted in the New Thought tradition (and yet emerging as a secularised esotericism), Hanegraaff sees this movement as characterised by a popular Western cultural criticism. Whilst analysing any movement as a ‘flight from reason’ or ‘disenchantment’, or a reaction against male disempowerment, as in Carnes, [81] there is little motivation or necessity to explore the actual content of that movement. Similarly, if content is not viewed beneath activity, where that activity – usually ritual – is seen as a device to maintain secrecy as power, or to alleviate psychological stress, as a psychogenic model might construct, then again, the scholar can feel justified in abandoning any further investigation of esoteric content. This has meant that the bulk of esoteric teachings have lain fallow to academic appreciation, and that a blind spot to the majority of activity engaged in by individuals has been created. A member of the Golden Dawn would have spent many more hours in private study than a brief initiatory ritual, and even within that ritual, the bulk is taught content, elusive to existing models of initiation.[82] Since the revival of academic discourse in the Hermetic tradition pioneered by Yates[83] which followed the attempts of practitioners such as Waite (1921) and Lévi (1855) to discover and divulge – often under the veil of an implied secret knowledge – their roots in an attempt termed by Scholem, with regard to kabbalah, as a “supreme charlatanism,” there has, however, been an accelerating scholarly appreciation of Western esotericism. [84]

This is evinced in the publication of the monumental Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism (2005) and the foundation of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism in that same year.[85] It is within this dynamic discourse that we will seek to place this present study of the content of esoteric curricula – the taught content of a range of groups and individuals self-identifying as holders and transmitters of Western esoteric teaching and tradition. The Nature of the Debate It is proposed that we take a wide view in order to achieve our aim of surveying such a vast wealth of material present in occult teachings from across a century. We will avoid, by doing so, a reductionist strategy leading to constrained conclusions, such as Carnes, whose study of ritual fraternities, who were “[nearly all] exclusively masculine institutions” leads to the argument that such groups “provided solace and psychological guidance during young men’s troubled passage to manhood in Victorian America.” [86] This entirely ignores the rise of esoteric organisations during that same time which promoted equal membership for both men and women, such as the Theosophical Society and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Similarly, we seek to avoid the implied critique of the complex content of the curricula evident in Webb,[87] and Gibbons who argues that the occult philosophy has a “merely compensatory function.”[88] In fact, Webb, whose ambivalent sympathy for the matter is confused, goes so far as to say that the occult tradition is singularly characterised as “world-rejecting,” whilst ignoring the vast range of methods taught within such groups to engage magically with the world itself in everyday life.[89]

Our analysis will call upon the work of René Guénon[90] and others such as his nephew and student, Luc Benoist,[91] in subjecting the curricula to the conceptual model of landscapes, sign-posts and qualifications – of subjective and objective esotericism (the student experience and the taught content) and of the relationship of experience and tradition.

Western Esotericism, Rituals and Knowledge One recent examination of ceremonial practice in Western esoteric groups is Henrik Bogdan’s book, Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation (2007). Bogdan matches his research paradigms to those similar to Yates, Faivre and Hanegraaff, whilst noting the limitations of each – the Hermetic tradition implied by Yates, the validity of Faivre’s defining components to post-18th century currents, and whilst appearing to favour Hanegraaff, Bogdan notes this latter’s approach as being open between a spectrum of reductionism and all-inclusiveness.[92] Bogdan usefully adds the importance attached to personal religious experience – a theme to which we will return – and the introjections of the concept of personal Will into the schema of magical practice. We will trace this particular development in full as it is of significance to the practitioner experience and the aim of the curricula, particularly following the work of the occultist Aleister Crowley (1875-1947). We will see how Crowley’s definition of magic, later transformed by Dion Fortune (1890-1946), has informed the aim and attraction of magical practice throughout the revival of neo-paganism and into popular culture. In relation to Faivre’s definition of esotericism on the basis of six characteristics (see later), Bogdan categorises texts in four manners, implicitly or explicity esoteric in content, according to Faivre’s components. However, having established this categorisation, Bogdan later concentrates far more on the rituals of initiation rather than the taught content or ‘inbetween’ teachings that fill-in the student experience between those rituals.

It is my view that these teachings are often neglected due to their complexity and diversity, and in favour of already established paradigms for examining ritual, particularly initiatory ritual. It is similar to the Sufi parable about looking for a lost key in the light of a street lamp rather than at the door where one lost it, because there it is darker. Although such rituals are a key component of many of the groups we are to survey, the student experience would be far more involved with learning – and being taught – magical practices and concepts than the occasional (albeit important) ritual initiation. Faivre also implicitly directs us away from the taught content: The best way to locate any of these six components in a discourse, a work, a ritual, etc., is not to look for doctrinal tenets, but to try and find evidence of their presence in concrete manifestations like images, symbols, styles, etc. [93] Bogdan himself concentrates the study of his work upon the rituals of initiation; those of the Freemasons, the Golden Dawn, the O.T.O., and modern Wicca or witchcraft. He analyses the structure and basic components of these rituals, and concludes that the rituals can be seen as ‘mirrors’ of the esoteric currents of the time, and that the symbols encountered within those rituals are concerned with an ‘esoteric worldview’. Although the former conclusion is fully demonstrated in the work, the argument that the rituals reflect an esoteric worldview is not fully developed. Similarly, in the whole of the work, the taught content is barely touched upon other than as a diversion to demonstrate the introduction of sexual magic into the curriculum of the O.T.O., leaving the penultimate paragraph of the entire study to briefly and generically outline:

These [esoteric] teachings are often concentrated in the instructional part of the rituals, and can consist of such topics as alchemy, astrology, and magic.[94] In academia, the structure and workings – even the specific content of teachings – of esoteric groups is often ignored in treating these groups through the lenses of reception, historiography, sociological modelling, and literary critique. This is evident in earlier publications of material for an academic appreciation of Western esotericism. A key writer on the Golden Dawn, R.A. Gilbert (1987), wrote on his selection of A.E. Waite’s papers for publication: Of the remaining twelve essays, five are on mysticism, three are on rituals, and four concern the structure and working of the Order; they are all of lesser interest than the six published here.[95] The otherwise laudable and comprehensive – indeed, monumental – two volume Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism (2005) has no individual entry for initiation, although it has one for imagination.[96] Neither does it treat grades, although it treats many other subjects. However, it does reference at length the concepts – prevalent in Western esotericism – of hierarchies, and intermediaries, which provide the cosmological backdrop for Faivre’s (1994) components of the Western esoteric tradition, specifically, correspondence and, in turn, the fundamental backdrop for concepts of graduated ascent which is central to the magical curricula that we present here.[97]

It is fair to point out that some scholars have recognised the importance of content, but have usually approached it in a dismissive way. The following observation by Daniel van Egmond is an example: A comprehensive comparative study of the doctrines and practices of these Western esoteric schools with those of some of the established traditions might enable us to discover the main causes of their failures, and might help us to understand their importance as a spiritual phenomenon, even within our own culture.[98] A more distinct argument, whilst not from a recognised scholar, in favour of appreciation of the teachings of esoteric organisations may be discerned in the work of René Guénon (1886-1947). In an appreciative summary of Guénon’s work, Borella writes: It remains to be said that the metaphysical conception of symbolism he [Guénon] laid out is doubtless the only one that (intelligibly and without any diminution) allows one to take in all the sacred scriptures and thus escapes the destructive deviations of modernism.[99]

The Problem of Magic and the Occult

Green argues that magic has been unjustly neglected by contemporary sociology.[100] He defies this neglect by freely using the term ‘magic’ and editing a journal entitled Journal for the Academic Study of Magic. More broadly, there seems to be wariness on the part of academics to refer to ‘magic’ and the ‘occult’ rather than the preferred category of ‘Western esotericism’. A brief survey of academic titles demonstrates a slight majority of titles favouring the ‘esoteric’ brand. However, most groups that we survey will be seen to be self-defined as ‘occult’ groups and teaching ‘magic’. The term ‘magic’ is often confined to primitive societies, and it is here until recently that sociology has concerned itself; Weber, Durkheim and Mauss’s tribal studies are typical.[101] Only recently has a sociological and anthropological eye been turned to the contemporary practice of magic, namely Green,[102] Evans,[103] Luhrmann,[104] and Greenwood,[105] whilst others have concerned themselves with the neo-pagan community, such as Clifton[106] in the United States, and Hutton.[107] Luhrmann usefully introduces the idea of different discourses that are perceived by the practitioner during the study of magic (an area we will examine), and notes that the practice of magic is interesting as a flamboyant example of a common process, “That when people get involved in an activity they develop ways of interpreting which make that activity meaningful even though it may seem foolish to the uninvolved.”[108] It is this activity we will examine from the student experience – what was practised and what interpretation was placed upon the practice by the practitioner?

Treatments of the Magical Orders There are substantial treatments of only a few of the diverse groups who have claimed to be bearers of the Western esoteric tradition, none more so than the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, founded in 1888.[109] In these treatments we see an array of biography, sociological analysis (often concentrating upon the initiation rituals or political in-fighting of charismatic leaders) and reproduction of source materials in collations of letters and teaching materials, such as the ‘Knowledge Lectures’ distributed by the order. There are no comprehensive attempts to analyse the teachings themselves, which are given verbatim, or to trace the development of those teachings over time. There are neither attempts to comment upon the student experience or the specific attraction of such teachings, which often required substantial investments of time and energy to accomplish, particularly in practical matters such as the creation of magical implements and tools – a task to which even W.B. Yeats applied himself.[110] There are other groups that have received specific attention. The documents of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, active from around 1895, have been disclosed by Godwin, Chanel and Deveney, with biographical sketches of influential members such as Max Theon, Peter Davidson, Thomas Henry Burgoyne, and Paschal Beverly Randolph. We may see here that it is essential to carefully survey the teachings of each group; here we see that a form of sexual magic was likely being taught[111] prior to the earliest claimed by others such as Bogdan (2007). In fact, work from the group published as the Light of Egypt (1889) by Thomas H. Burgoyne, writing as Zanoni, has an entire chapter on the ‘Mysteries of Sex’.[112]

Other groups are perhaps more well-known and yet have been little approached by academic studies; where these groups are still active, public or have surviving members, there is often distrust of ‘outsider’ enquires. Such groups include AMORC, the Rosicrucian Order, the O.T.O., and the Order of the Cubic Stone. Still others are active and well known in the ‘New Age’ community: the Servants of Light, the Society of the Inner Light, and the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) amongst these. All of the aforementioned have structured curricula of study. The teachings of these groups is rarely made public. On occasion a private student publishes material, such as David Edwards from the Order of the Cubic Stone, whose slim volume, Dare to Make Magic, includes basic instructions from that group.[113] We know much of the earlier Golden Dawn teachings through publication of its private materials by Aleister Crowley in his journal of ‘scientific illumism’, The Equinox, and Israel Regardie’s monumental publication of the Complete Golden Dawn, which proved to be far from such. Other lesser known groups will also be examined throughout The Magister, such as Clifford Bias’ Ancient Mystical Order of Seekers (AMOS) and C.C. Zain’s Brotherhood of Light.

The Teachings of Individual Esoteric Teachers and Followers There have been a number of recent scholarly incursions into occult groups, such as the Typhonian O.T.O. ,[114] Order of Dagon or the Dragon Rouge. [115] Not surprisingly, groups which have been open to such study have on the whole benefitted from having their work promoted within and without academia. The academic is congratulated on his access to the group, and the group is often given an air of ‘established recognition’ by the study. We should also note that a number of strands of Western esoteric teachings were developed by individuals whose works proved popular and attracted followers whilst not establishing an organisation themselves. Such authors include Franz Bardon and Ophiel, whose works have attracted small numbers of nonetheless devoted followers of a variety of esoteric teachings and techniques, namely ritual and kabbalah in Bardon and astral travel in Ophiel. [116] This volume will also reference lesser known authors in the Western esoteric field during the past century, including Eldon Templar, whose works The Path of the Magus and The Tree of Hru serve as examples of the curriculum applied to spiritual development, and far earlier examples of New Thought teachers explicitly demonstrating the ascent narrative in their teachings, such as the Astarian Society. The complex cosmological backdrop of the curriculum can be read in such works as The Hidden Way Across the Threshold, written in 1887 by J.C. Street, a “Fellow of the Order S.S.S. and of the Brotherhood Z.Z. R.R. Z.Z.” At this time, we see a bridging of spiritualistic practice, mediumship and magical practice of a Hermetic nature. We will later see such transition points of the curriculum and its relationship to defining a tradition.

That the work of these esoteric organisations was primarily teaching to serve the aim of initiation is undoubted; from the beginning of the Golden Dawn society, one of the three primary founders, Westcott, had been keen to develop a full curriculum from the rudiments of the ‘cypher manuscripts’.

Conclusion It will be argued that the magical curriculum is more than what Gibbons partially dismisses as a “compensatory function” or even a “palpable absurdity” for which “mystification is its best protection”[117] rather it is a means of reintegration through a project that has its roots in Neo-Platonism, the Renaissance and throughout the entire corpus of Western esotericism. [118]

The Academic and Esoteric Encounter

In introducing the magical curriculum – the very prima materia of the Western esoteric tradition – it is necessary to trace the academic history that precedes this study, and highlight salient issues with the encounter of the scholar and the esotericist.[119] The specific issue of knowledge deemed esoteric – the very nature of that knowledge – and neutrality with regard to that knowledge must be identified and acknowledged. We must also position our study with regard to the nascence of academic approaches, recognising both the limits and opportunities of a field in the earliest stage of development. We will conclude with a summary of the contemporary milieu.

It is understated to remark that the scope of Western esotericism is vast, the corpus both complex and obscure. The language, terminology and cosmological schema are both cross-cultural and specialised. The appropriation of cultural references spanning the whole of recorded time and with no respect for geographical boundaries further bulks out this material, making it impenetrable to many. A tradition of correspondence between systems as varied as science and Jewish mysticism adds further layers to this morass. We might take for example this example from a classic theosophical text: The meaning is plain.* They [the three steps] are all symbols, and emblematic, mutually and correlatively, of Spirit, Soul and Body (MAN); of the circle transformed into Spirit, the Soul of the World, and its body (of Earth). Stepping outside of the Circle of Infinity, that no man comprehendeth, Ain-Soph (the Kabalistic synonym for Parabrahm, for the Zeroana Akerne, of the Mazdeans, or any other ‘UNKNOWABLE’) becomes ‘One’ – the ECHOD, the EKA, the AHU …[120] *The numbers 3, 5, and 7 are prominent in speculative masonry, as shown in ‘Isis’. A mason writes:- “There are the 3, 5 and 7 steps to show a circular walk. The three faces of 3, 3; 5, 3; and 7, 3; etc., etc. Sometimes it comes in this form – 743/2 = 376.5 and 7635/2 = 3817.5 and the ratio of 20612/6561 feet for cubit measures gives the Great Pyramid measures,” etc., etc.[121]

It is perhaps this type of content which prompts Gibbons (2001) to propose that fragile intellectuals, “socially useless by commercial or industrial standards,” fall back on raising their trade into a mystery, and thus “occult philosophy in its pure form serves a merely compensatory function. Mystery is its own authority. A palpable absurdity is a challengeable absurdity, and mystification is its best protection.”[122] Criticism has been levelled at the late Victorian self-styled scholar-magicians, who have been found guilty of a “considerable confusion” in the eyes of contemporary scholars.[123] The academic encounter of Western esotericism is as problematic as that of the same academic encounter with religion. In the encounter, we may perceive early – for the study itself is nascent – evidence of the ‘false anxiety’ described by Penner and Yonan[124] where practitioners and scholars alike seek to either defend the ‘irreducible’ nature of the assemblage of actions, beliefs and values that constitute the esoteric corpus, or argue for a post-modern reductionalism deemed by Windschuttle to be the “killing of history.”[125] We might agree with Rudolf Otto and Mircea Eliade that esoteric belief, as religion, is a unique category – whilst distinguishing it somehow from religion – in its claim for a numinous and sacred space.[126] We might, however, wish to categorise its components to attain a definitional construct against which to analyse a corpus and deem it as belonging in the Western esoteric space.

There is further complication. The early pioneers of academic study were in fact the practitioners – insiders – themselves. Such practitioners and developers of the esoteric corpus at the turn of the 20th century – Lévi, Blavatsky, Westcott, Mathers, Waite, MacKenzie – considered themselves scholars of esoteric knowledge. Their ability and enthusiasm for research – Westcott himself wrote to a colleague, Theodor Reuss, to ask him to attain and preserve useful primary source material in Europe for study – is matched only by their ability to utilise that material in the support of their own esoteric claims. Lurhman wryly remarks that “entering magic is like entering a scholarly pursuit; the practitioner is impressed by the depth of knowledge, and dazzled by the learning of the leaders of the profession.”[127]

The Birth of Academic Studies of Western Esotericism Frances A. Yates began a new revival of academic interest with the 1964 publication of Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, where she developed the concept of magic (noted prior as influential on Bruno by Lynn Thorndike in his History of Magic and Experimental Science[128]) as belonging to a Hermetic philosophy.[129] Other scholars, such as D.P. Walker (1958), were already examining the Renaissance and highlighting the influence of a magic-based prisca astrologia, albeit one tempered by a Christian perspective: They must have been divine, or taught by God, those men who have handed down to us these sympathies and antipathies, and names, of the stars.[130] Yates’ 1975 work, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, set a staging post for Western esotericism at either side of the Thirty Years War, with the tracing of the current of thought through the Renaissance, cutting off after the publication of the Rosicrucian manifestos, to reappear in the Enlightenment. She acknowledges “groping in the dark” in some areas, and when discussing ‘secret societies’ emphasises: ... these groupings are intended only as hypotheses which might guide future investigators along a historical path which has not yet been trodden …[131] Antoine Faivre puts the role of the scholar thus: ... those of us who study it [Western esotericism] are not only called upon to be scholars, but detectives who are able to follow its often elusive traces.[132]

The Dangers of Monolithic and Historic Analysis In describing the content of the magical curriculum, we must be mindful of reducing the corpus to a monolithic structure. The whole of Western esotericism, as Idel writes of religion, is a “conglomerate of ideas, cosmologies, beliefs, institutions, hierarchies, elites and rites that vary with time and place,” even when one single religion or esoteric system is concerned.[133] The schisms of an order such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn result in a fragmentary assemblage of materials, rites, teachings, and artefacts. The identification and assessment of the permeation, given import and reception of these loosely connected assemblages, is a difficult task to comprehensively complete – if not impossible. That we are performing a historical summary is also prone to interpretative misunderstandings. We might miss how the curriculum itself was developed, in what order, and in what way was it developed as a response-in-time (at the time) to its reception. Taking the whole as a simple historical artefact for analysis may disguise useful information as to the intentions behind its development. The Insider/Outsider Problem

Mitchell suggests that any academic has to “reconcile the demands of scholarly caution and detachment with the need to develop and maintain a consistent ‘philosophy of life’.”[134] Donovan speaks of the difficulty of establishing, achieving or even imposing any form of neutrality in the field of religious studies.[135] I would argue that the same applies to Western esotericism, considered as an assemblage of teachings, rites and behavioural expectations much like religion. There must be a suspension of disbelief by any outsider to the ‘otherliness’ of the magical world-view in which – in part – it is possible for participants to comprehend fiction as reality. An example of this would be where contemporary Chaos magicians create a radical post-metaphysical form of spirituality from the fictional Lovecraft mythos.[136] The Issue of Secret Knowledge Two early forays into the contemporary Western esoteric domain make clear the issues inherent in the study of esoteric knowledge and those who practice esoteric systems. In the case of Lurhmann, she is expressly dismissive of the systems of correspondence, stating that: The fantasy of a truly successful command of magic depends upon detailed symbolic knowledge and expertise in performance so complex that actual achievement is impossible ... The scholarship creates the secret of success as the unattainable end of eternal study.[137] She talks of the interpretative drift of non-magicians into a “flamboyant instance of the conceptual cacophony of contemporary culture.”[138] Lurhmann, however, provides a useful list of works generally favoured by contemporary practitioners.[139]

A second anthropological analysis of contemporary practice is to be found in Greenwood who also acted as a participant in esoteric groups, but finds herself more sympathetic whilst her “cosmological framework was being slowly shifted” by her new studies. Her work draws on Frazer, Mauss and Malinowski as claiming that the logic behind magical thinking is rational.[140] Later studies, such as Evans and Bogdan, demonstrate the case of “going native in reverse”[141] as both scholars were practitioners prior to their studies. However, even as late as 2007, Evans proposes that we “simply do not have the right tools (yet)” to study these areas.[142] Definitions of Western Esotericism The self-definition of groups promoting an esoteric curriculum varies between the use of occult and esoteric. These terms are often seen as synonymous. Academic debate tends to favour the term esoteric rather than occult. As Laurant has summarised, the two terms ‘esotericism’ and ‘occultism’ entered into Western culture in the second quarter of the 19th century.[143] Esoteric was first encountered as ésotérisme in 1828, whilst the Latin, occulta, occolto were in use from as early as 1120 A.D. and prominent in use in Bruno (1548-1600) and Agrippa (1533).[144] Laurant traces the rise of institutionalised occultism, although curiously remarks that the “greatest impact” in this area was made by “Sar” Joséphin Peladin, which is arguable.[145] He concludes that occultism and esotericism separated between 1905 and 1914 with the growing gulf between science and faith, and that the history of the occult movement ends with René Guénon’s (1886-1951) denouncement of occultist initiation and “transposed materialism” in favour of an overarching “metaphysical tradition.”[146]

The complexity of the rise of esotericism in its broadest sense is termed by Faivre to be a “subtle history,” which must be read not only with “eyes of flesh but eyes of fire,” to reveal the “only history where meaning is unveiled.”[147] Faivre has suggested that if esotericism is considered as a form of thought, then we can identify the presence of six fundamental components within an historical context.[148] The use of these components is to facilitate the sketching of a possible boundary – albeit a fluid one – around the field of study. It also allows the academic to distance the study from the self-defining presence of the term within the constraints of a particular group or individual being studied. However, we must also define such key concepts as gnosis, theosophy, occultism, and Hermeticism in much the same way. The six components identified by Faivre as identifying esoteric thought are: Correspondence Living Nature Imagination and Mediations (intermediaries and levels) Experience of transmutation The practice of concordance (social equality) Transmission (of the teaching)[149] It is intended in this volume to work from the corpus itself, in order to generate a taxonomy which may or may not accord with Faivre’s components. A hierarchical structure may not be possible between the practices and teachings of a particular group and the components of esotericism, for, as Faivre admits, these components are “distributed in varying proportions” across the “vast, concrete, historical context.”[150]

The Contemporary Milieu The publication of the journal Aries (2001-) marks a watershed in the academic appreciation of the Western esoteric tradition.[151] In 2003, the Journal for the Academic Study of Magic also began to provide a peer reviewed publication for the development of academic consideration of modern magic.[152] The European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE) was founded in 2005 as a learned society to advance the academic study of the field.[153] Three University Chairs of Western esotericism exist; Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Sorbonne, Paris, France; University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and University of Exeter, United Kingdom. Recent works tracing the history of Western esotericism have further identified key contributors to the academic recognition of esotericism, including C.G. Jung (1875-1961), Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) and Mircea Eliade (1907-1986). In the light of our present study, and as a necessary basis of the ascent narrative which we will come to discern, von Stuckrad comments that “what is special about esoteric traditions is their tendency, not only to regard the human soul in a Neo-Platonic sense as the ‘true centre’ of man, but to grant this effectively divine status.”[154] Conclusion We might conclude, then, that the task before us – not as a practitioner seeking to defend the very construct in which the materials are delivered, but as an academic seeking to understand the nature of those materials to determine the construct itself – is to be sympathetic to the ideas, wonder at the complexity and determine the nature of the engagement of these materials to the human experience. As Faivre summarises:

The task of the scholar of esoteric studies is not to prove that such an invisible ‘Tradition’, hidden behind the veil of the history of events, did or did not exist as such before the Renaissance; rather, the task consists of trying to grasp and to describe the different facets of the emergence of this idea as it appears in the imaginary and the discourses of the last centuries. [155]

The Ascent Narrative

In describing a master narrative as a “global or totalizing cultural narrative schema which orders and explains knowledge and experience,” Stephens (1998) also notes that the usage of traditional materials brings with it “predetermined horizons of expectation and with their values and ideas about the world already legitimized.”[156] Whilst avoiding the unnecessary unpicking of contradiction in the Western esoteric schema presented through the magical curriculum, we can attempt to discern the presence of a “grand cultural narrative” which is larger than the sum of its parts.[157] The Ascent Narrative in Christian Mysticism In the Plotinian exercise of ascent, it is to Augustine (354-430 A.D.) we will turn to discern what Louth (1981) deems a “uniquely important” contribution to the West – that is, a new dimension of psychological engagement lacking in the mystical theology of the Eastern and Greek Fathers.[158] In addition to this contribution, we will also focus upon the graduated nature of the ascent, which forms an essential component of the ascent narrative as it permeates into the esoteric grade system via an appropriation of kabbalistic notions of an emanative creation.

In Confessions IX we see Augustine’s personalised account of the ascent experience: Rising as our love flamed upwards towards that Self-same, we passed in review the various levels of bodily things, up to the heavens themselves ... And higher still we soared ... and so we came to our own souls, and went beyond them to come at last to that region of richness unending ... Louth sees in this a clear and fundamental sympathy with Plotinus. That the nature of this ascent is graduated is made apparent. Augustine writes: I shall mount beyond this power of my nature, still rising by degrees towards Him who made me. And so I come to the fields and vast palaces of memory …[159] The iconography of the ladder to represent this ascent, which will be traced in the Western esoteric schema, is made most explicit in the work of the Sinai Monk John Climacus (525-607 A.D.), The Ladder of Divine Ascent. Climacus developed the ladder icon beyond the brief analogous form commented upon by earlier contemplatives such as St. Gregory of Nazianzus and St. John Chrystom during the 4th century, and Theodoret of Cyrrhus in the 5th century.[160] Whilst describing himself as a “second-rate architect” with regard to the structure of the ladder, it is apparent that this icon and underlying structure became a significant influence on the Christian East.[161] The Ascent Narrative in Kabbalah

Moshe Idel writes of Johann Reuchlin’s (1455-1522) integration of the Christian concept of the ladder as spiritual progress with the addition of a ‘golden chain’ from Psuedo-Dionysus, within the speech of a kabbalist, as an assumption of a philosophia perennis alluded to by Pico. Reuchlin wrote, through the words of Simon, a kabbalist: For our frailty we fall short of the good which is called God, and cannot climb there except with steps and ladders. You customarily refer to the Homeric chain. We Jews look to the holy scripture and talk about the ladder our father Jacob saw, from the highest heaven stretching down to earth, like a cord or rope of gold thrown down to us from heaven, a visual line penetrating deep within nature.[162]

Curriculum Studies Applied to Western Esotericism

In this section I consider selected elements of Western esotericism as an essentially educational project, with particular highlighting of several curricula of that project within selected occult orders and with further case studies of individuals as both delivering and receiving that curriculum. It is proposed that in making this consideration – one to which little academic attention has yet been placed – I will highlight the importance of content within Western esotericism and make the case for the various curricula as embodying a spiritual ascent narrative that has been progressively excluded from mainstream Western religion since the Reformation.

Neither educational specialists nor academic studies of Western esotericism have approached this study. It is far more common to approach the practices and taught content of the field through the lens of anthropology (Greenwood, 2009) or sociology (Hanegraaf, 1996). This has been described as two parallel paradigms of esotericism – as a ‘form of thought’ (Faivre) and as ‘gnosis’ (Hanegraaff) – but both applying to the rituals and initiatory structure of the occult orders rather than the taught content or curricula.[163] This present study of content as curricula through the lens of curriculum studies breaks new ground in the appreciation of the educational project of Western esotericism. It is not possible here to elaborate entirely upon all aspects of curriculum studies – a field in its own right – or all aspects of the development of Western religious ideas over the past few centuries. I will draw from these fields in order to provide a lens on Western esotericism which has hitherto been unexamined, and use concepts and comparisons to better provide an analytical framework of taught content, student experience and the development of teaching within occult orders. The central questions that I will address include: In what way can Western esotericism as taught within magical orders be considered as an educational project? What were the aims of this project? As an educational project, how did esoteric teaching differ from and overlap secular teaching? What are the specific challenges in teaching an esoteric curriculum? How did selected groups respond to these challenges? What is the content and structure of the curriculum of Western esotericism? How did the structure reflect the concerns of the group?

Are there unalterable landmarks (‘signposts’ in Guénon) in the curricula? How was esoteric knowledge, skill and experience graduated? What authority was attributed to the source of the curriculum and content? What value was placed on particular elements of the content? How was this content taught and received? Were teachers trained to be teachers of this material? How did students self-assess their progress? What training methods were used? How was this content evaluated and assessed? Did the project meet its aims? In short, I shall essentially argue that the Western esoteric teaching we are examining – when considered as an educational project – demonstrates a clear curriculum with defined aims, specifically contextualised as an ascent narrative. In answering these questions, we will examine the structure and development of the curriculum in particular groups, considering notions of hierarchy, elitism, presuppositions of merit, the notion of valuable knowledge, and marginalisation. We will specifically assess the issues arising from the notion of education as having relevance to normative society. If there is a consensual expectation that education should fit contemporary social requirements – a sine non qua of secular education and curricula planning – how does Western esotericism transcend this boundary? What function does this curriculum fulfil?

A parallel will be drawn between the adult education movement, and issues of teaching adults – andragogy (Knowles[164]) – which applies to the delivery of Western esotericism. It is of note that as with other forms of working class adult education, during the same period of the Golden Dawn order, there was a rapid jump in participation of adult schools in the period up to the First World War. By 1909-1910 there were some 1,900 schools in the United Kingdom alone involving more than 114,000 adults (this was the peak of participation).[165] A number of overlaps between secular and esoteric educational projects will also be taken as brief case studies, namely the Steiner educational establishments and the Point Loma School established by the theosophists. We will also see that in one particular case – the Order of the Golden Dawn - it was a failure to meet this educational project which brought about the downfall of the organisation, rather than the more often cited political causes already examined. Whilst the social, personal and political schisms may have caused disruption, it will be seen – from the student’s perspective – that it was the disruption to the teaching which caused their leaving, not the mostly behind-the-scenes politics. Introduction: Curriculum as Model Squires describes the curricula, both beyond as well as within the educational process, as a “locus of tensions.”[166] He further goes on to say, with regard to vocational courses, that there will be a tension between “academic and professional criteria ... social and role elements... personal and role elements.”[167]

The precise definition of an ‘academic’ process is ambiguous. Whilst it is generally used in the secular sense of ‘higher education’,[168][169] Squires argues that its fundamental ambiguity has to do with “the nature of the activity, or activities, as now conceived and practised.”[170] Whilst there is general agreement that the process refers to the advancement and transmission of knowledge at a high level, there are shades between the teacher as researcher and the researcher as teacher. In the latter, this is less teaching – in the didactic sense – than revealing, allowing participation in the process of thought or reflection. In this, it is more a guild model, where the craftsman or master is observed at work by his apprentices and learning takes place by a process of intellectual osmosis. In the former – teacher as researcher – the teacher makes available their research by delivery; that is, they transmit and interpret on behalf of the student, rather than discover and create in front of them in a participatory process, such as a philosophical debate. Methodology: Analysis of Curriculum We can attempt to evaluate the esoteric curriculum in terms of secular educational methodology by utilising a model adapted from Robert Stake, [171] given in Barnes.[172] In this methodology, we make key distinctions between intended and observed curriculum activities. In historical research, we will adapt this further to exchange ‘observed’ for ‘reported’ when looking at the student records of those following these esoteric curricula. We also examine through this methodology the proposed teaching and the actual teaching, with regard to antecedent. In this present context, this will refer specifically to the ‘grade requirements’ expected by the student when entering any particular phase of their study – were these specified and did the student actually demonstrate these antecedent requirements?

Intended antecedents Recorded(observed) antecedents Intended transactions Recorded (observed) transactions Intended outcomes

Recorded (observed) outcomes.[173]

Analysis of Content I will also utilise a scheme derived from Eraut, Goad and Smith[174] to analyse the curricula material, particularly where it is relatively extant such as the case study I will offer for the Order of the Golden Dawn. Whilst this scheme offers a basic categorisation of material, and analysis of overt characteristics (i.e. how are they presented, what are their stated aims, etc.), I will make a focused use of the criteria by which conceptual presentation and the relationship between learning activity and content is formulated. This is of particular relevance to the teaching of material within ritual which is found within such groups as the Order of the Golden Dawn.[175] The Self in Education In secular education, the lifeworld (or Lebenswelt – Schutz, 1974) of the student – the changing inner landscape of meaning and value – is largely marginalised. In the business of education, “a good deal of teaching and learning is faith-in-a-hurry.”[176] However, in esoteric education, it is this very lifeworld which is the critical component and ‘inner school’ of the curriculum. It is perhaps this aspect that attracts students to overcome their resistence to education as presented within the WEIS.

A.E. Waite (1857-1942) referred to this Hermetic philosophical basis as “an actual, positive, and realisable knowledge concerning the worlds which we denominate invisible, because they transcend the imperfect and rudimentary faculties of a partially developed humanity.”[177] Owen (2004) argues that it was this promise of a marginalised education that attracted students to the Order of the Golden Dawn, in that “it was this kind of questioning that drew women and men alike into occultism, and occultism alone that seemed to them to offer the synthesized answers that religion, science and philosophy in isolation could not provide.”[178] Perhaps it has ever been the case that the answers are never discovered in isolation, but in systems which are open enough to provide a synthesis which can generate insight.

Curricula as Content In this section we will argue that the planning of curricula by the Western esoteric orders under discussion reveals a fundamental epistemological concern that is at once the root of the stated purpose of the group in its educational endeavour, yet at the same time undermines that self-same ambition. It will be seen that an adherence to the components of Western esotericism (Faivre, 1994) inevitably leads a group to an absolutist epistemology with regard to its delivery of content. The key elements of curriculum planning as given by Tyler (1949) – purposes, content, procedures, and evaluation – may also be used to determine the emphasis of the educational establishment which concentrates upon any particular element (Kelly, 2009). In fact, Kelly proposes a matrix of three major ideologies:[179]

Curricula as content Education as transmission Curricula as product Education as instrumental Curricula as process Education as development Kelly argues that in secular education the concentration on curricula as content reveals an “absolutist epistemology” which invariably leads to loss of freedom and status for the individual.[180] The planning model which derives from such a position asks first, “What kinds of knowledge enjoy this absolute status?” and education is defined, ironically in this context, as “initiation into intrinsically worthwhile activities” (Peters, 1965, 1966). [181] Purposes The objectives of a secular curriculum may be broadly derived and developed from several sources – both of which have their critics. The curricula may be extrapolated from a study of contemporary life; sometimes derided as the “cult of presentism” (Tyler, 1949) or from the subject specialists themselves.[182] However, an esoteric agenda may be considered to take an alternative account of “the conditions and opportunities of contemporary life.”[183] I will examine the nature of this account. The First World War brought about an immediacy of training logic related to the skills required at that time, and that logic continued afterwards to deal with “the critical aspects of this complex life” that was fast-changing thereafter.[184] There was no need to teach things which had been important 50 years ago.

In the esoteric curriculum, there is an explicit rejection of ‘contemporary’ notions of application and a critique of ‘presentism’. As Goodrick-Clarke commented, “the esoteric curriculum does not value information, activity or skills simply on the basis of current popularity, utility, or their adoption by a majority of persons.”[185] This argument goes back to Herbert Spencer’s essay, ‘What Knowledge is of Most Worth?’, which has characterised secular education for a century. All too often the curriculum of the Christian school has been “a patchwork of naturalistic ideas mixed with biblical truth.” It is beyond this present work to explore how education has been funded by religious organisations, however, it does raise a point to consider. According to Frank Gaebelein, this has led to a form of “scholastic schizophrenia in which highly orthodox theology coexists uneasily with a teaching of non-religious subjects that differs little from that in secular institutions.”[186] Content The content of a curriculum provides a wealth of material to analyse both the intrinsic logical structure of knowledge selected for teaching in addition to the ‘hidden curriculum’ of social and personal education gained via the study of that content.[187] In secular education, the school curriculum is described as “a selection from the culture”,[188] but does this same selection apply to the esoteric endeavour of a magical order such as the Golden Dawn? Whilst the curricular content can be examined for its logic, it can also be examined for its likely usefulness in the lives of its students; an evaluation more apt perhaps for a curriculum whose ambition is for the “adept” to discover “the establishment of poise and balance in his own consciousness, and the manifestation of his conceptions of justice in every detail of his own personal conduct.”[189]

In the examination of content, I will also propose a typology or classification of esoteric content, to reflect the secular categorisation schemes proposed by Hirst and, alternatively, Lawton.[190] These schemes allow for an evaluation of whether content “appears to have social utility” or otherwise contributes to the enhancement of a student’s life.[191] The contrast of Hirst’s ‘logical levels’ and Barne’s ‘organisational arrangements’ will find a parallel in the Golden Dawn’s hierarchy of graded teaching and organisation of correspondence to the kabbalistic Tree of Life. Procedures Whilst there are few classroom observations of Western esoteric teaching, there are records of student experience, lecture attendance and other material which I will draw upon to demonstrate the procedures used to teach the curricular content. These will be explored as ‘procedural methods’ derived from the content itself.[192] This examination of procedure will reflect upon the content and the appropriateness of the methodology to teach that content. I will then evaluate the effectiveness of the procedures within the classification of content in the prior section. I will ask whether the occult orders were more effective at teaching a skill such as ‘astral travel’ or turning out mature human beings better able to engage with the world. Evaluation

We must first consider the difference between the evaluation of a course of study and its assessment. The evaluation of a curriculum in the secular sense is the process by which the ‘nature and desirability’ of a course is given ‘value or worth’; but to define the extent to which a course is ‘workable and effective’ requires a form – or forms – of assessment.[193] These forms of assessment create the basis for the evaluation of the effectiveness of a course in meeting the intended aim specified by those who create the course, understood by those teaching it, and received by those learning. We cannot cover all the arguments for various forms of assessments in this context (see Pidgeon and Allen, 1974; MacIntosh, 1976; and Rowntree, 1977), but we can summarise the following five categories (Gibby, 1978): Tests and examination constructed to measure ‘cognitive’ development; Systematic observation and recording of the learners’ progress made by those teaching; Self-assessment records by the learner; Personality and sociometric techniques carried out by the teachers and others; Longitudinal studies of learners’ development carried out by researchers.[194] No longitudinal studies have been carried out on the students of any particular esoteric curricula, to my knowledge. I would propose that this is because of the paucity of data, the fragmentary nature of delivery of esoteric curricula, the scantiness of student records over a consistent period of time, and perhaps the academic approach that content is a “palpable absurdity”[195] and an orientation to the esoteric project as “guildstructure” rather than “academic structure” (i.e. the perceived intent to control rather than educate).[196]

The examinations to measure cognitive learning were enshrined in the Golden Dawn through eight curricular areas of study, with practical and theoretical testing. As an example, the examinations to pass between the grades of Zelator to Theoricus Adeptus Minor in the Alpha et Omega temples (founded in 1900, 1913 and 1919) were listed as: Preliminary / Obligation: Performance Pentagram and Hexagram rituals

of

the

Rosy

Cross ritual,

Elemental: Creation of the magical implements Psychic: Tattva vision and astral projection Divination: Astrology, geomancy, tarot Magic: Talismans, ascending the planes, vibration of the divine names, ceremonies of invocation Enochian: Attributions and a report of an astral vision Symbolical: Explanation of the Neophyte ritual Consecration and evocation: Method, execution and effect[197] Differences Between Secular and Esoteric Curricula In secular education, the task of delivering content as education is to assist the young pupil “to negotiate meaning in a manner congruent with the requirements of the culture”.[198] In an esoteric education, arguably countercultural, how are the “modes of representation”[199] created if there is no congruence with social norms? Having compared and contrasted some important aspects of secular education with those of esoteric orders, we shall now look in some detail at the curriculum of certain particular esoteric orders, primarily the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

Builders of the Adytum (BOTA): The Creation of a Curriculum Before we move to the Golden Dawn, we will look at a popular off-shoot of that order – the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA). In 1922, Paul Foster Case (1884-1954) began the construction of a curriculum, The Ageless Wisdom. In 1927 a ‘substantial shift’ in the curriculum was made, as detailed instructions for working magic and meditation were taken out of public circulation and moved back into a private “Chapter” structure which Case had initiated in 1926-1927. A new 48-week course was provided, called the ‘Extension’ or ‘First Year Course’ which contained more tarot material than previously. This was quickly followed by a ‘Sound and Colour’ course, ‘Esoteric Astrology’ course and ‘12 Lessons on Alchemy’.[200] In 1931-1932, Case produced ‘Inner Order’ teachings on the tarotkabbalah hybrid ‘Cube of Space’ system.[201] BOTA lay out their curriculum and ethos in The True and Invisible Rosicrucian Order (1927). It is here that we see explicitly the association of the grade structure with states of experience within the student: The main thing to bear in mind in approaching this explanation of the Rosicrucian Grades is that every path on the Tree of Life corresponds to some particular mode of human consciousness.[202] Furthermore, the Neo-Platonic ideology that knowledge is a recovered attribute is stated: ... these descriptions are of vital importance, because they refer to mental states that are present in the life of every human being. Sometimes they are latent, sometimes they are active, but they are always part of the makeup of every man and woman.[203]

The finalised curriculum is: 7 lessons – Seven Steps; 11 lessons – Introduction to Tarot; 47 lessons – Tarot Fundamentals; 53 lessons – Developing Supersensory Powers (Ann Davies); 32 lessons – Interpretation of Tarot; 12 lessons – Master Pattern; 40 lessons – Tree of Life; 17 lessons – 32 Paths of Wisdom; 12 lessons – Sound and Colour; 52 lessons – The Great Work; 52 lessons – Esoteric Astrology (Ann Davies’ lectures using PFC’s notebooks); 52 lessons – Sexual Polarity (Ann Davies); 78 lessons – Oracle of Tarot (Ann Davies); 78 lessons – Vibratory Powers of the Qabalah (Ann Davies); 104 lessons – Meditation Ascent on the Tree of Livingness (Ann Davies); 68 lessons – Qabalistic Doctrines on Rebirth and Immortality (Ann Davies); The Seven Steps, Tarot Fundamentals, Interpretation of Tarot, and The Great Work are covered by the following books: Occult Fundamentals and Spiritual Unfoldment, Volume1: The Early Writings; Esoteric Secrets of Meditation and Magic, Volume 2: The Early Writings; Esoteric Keys of Alchemy;

Hermetic Alchemy: Science and Practice – The Golden Dawn Alchemy Series 2; Tarot Card Meanings: Fundamentals; Interpretations;

Tarot

Learning Tarot Essentials: Tarot Cards for Beginners.

Card

Meanings:

Florence Farr Whilst I will later contextualise esoteric teaching within the broad framework of social, personal or general education (Squires, 1987), I will first examine the nature of teaching and teachers through the occult order of the Golden Dawn. The tension in teachers between practice and teaching, knowledge-base and role-model, found within secular education I will argue is found in esoteric teaching. Whilst there is a similarity in that “such tensions are mitigated by the existence of teacher-practitioners, who perform a dual role”[204] there is, however, a significant difference in the esoteric teaching, in that the curricula itself is not controlled by an external body or organisation to that of the teachers. This difference will be shown to account for much of the difference in secular and esoteric teaching, where in the latter, transmission / tradition is to the forefront.[205] The educational background of the founders of the Golden Dawn is of a varied nature. William Wynn Westcott (1843-1925) claimed to have been educated “at Grammar School, Kingston-on-Thames and University College, London.”[206] However, as Gilbert (1997) demonstrates, much of Westcott’s claims in the autobiographical letter quoted are “exaggerated or falsified.”[207]

William Robert Woodman (1828-1891) was qualified as a medical practitioner by 1851, and was described by Westcott as “an excellent Hebrew scholar, and one of the few English masters of the Hebrew Kabalah.”[208] In this, all the founders of the Golden Dawn were selfschooled and self-taught, taking time to pursue their studies. Westcott “went into retirement at Hendon for two years, which were entirely dedicated to the study of Kabbalistic philosophy, the works of the Hermetic writers, and the remains of the alchemists and the Rosicrucians.”[209] Shortly before the establishment of the order, each was lecturing, and a programme card for the Hermetic Society lectures in July 1886 lists Mathers lecturing on ‘The Physical Alchemy’ and Westcott lecturing on ‘The Sepher Jetzirah’.[210] Regarding the remaining founder of the order, Samuel Liddell Mathers (1854-1918), we know even less about his early life and education.[211] Waite spoke of him as having “an utterly uncritical mind” and “a fund of undigested learning.”[212] Yeats said he “had much learning, but little scholarship.”[213] The lack of formal education in the founders seems to have then been reflected in the development of both the curriculum and the teaching methodology. Whilst the founders were mainly self-schooled, particularly in the mysteries, they expected their students to adopt a formal educational approach.

However, in the case of Florence Farr (1860-1917), the Golden Dawn did benefit from the presence of a natural teacher, and indeed one who later became a professional teacher. Farr’s contribution to the order’s delivery of the curriculum is, I argue, paramount to their relative longevity. As Greer (1995) notes, “Florence was no feeble figurehead... she was not afraid to create policies she thought essential to magical work, such as changing examinations.”[214] Farr was educated at Queen’s College, London (1877-1880), received good reports but did not progress to higher education. After an unsuccessful attempt at teaching (1880-1882), she continued her career in the theatre whilst joining the Golden Dawn in 1890.[215] However, her educationalist tendency was always present, manifesting through her Golden Dawn involvement and ultimately leading to her placement in the final years of her life as Lady Principal of the Ramanathan College, Ceylon.[216] Even before leaving London for that placement in 1912, she was researching the latest educational methodology, including the Montessori techniques.[217] A later volume of the Magister returns to share a more detailed analysis of Farr’s work on Ancient Egyptian thought and unpublished work by her on correspondence systems between Western and Eastern thought, Astrology and other matters of relevance to practitioners.

The Aim and Structure of the Golden Dawn

In this section, we will trace the history of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, with specific reference to the sources of its taught material and the structuring of that material into a graduated curriculum of study. We will expressly identify primary source material which is contextualised within the overarching theme of ascent-into-gnosis which has been proposed as the meta-narrative of Western esotericism. We will highlight unpublished evidence of the pedagogy of the order and its intent as an educational project. It is intended also to demonstrate that the taught content was purposeful in teaching correspondence, a key component of Western esotericism (Faivre, 1994) in order to achieve changes of awareness. Utilising primary original accounts of the reception of the teaching, we will examine how those changes – and potential for such – engaged students for substantial amounts of time. In conclusion, we will propose that the order failed not through political schisms or personal rivalries per se (Colquhoun, 1975 and others), but only insomuch as those flaws negated the purpose of the order to transmit the study of correspondence to enable the ascent narrative to be actualised in the lives of its participants.

Light Before the Dawn: The Sat B’Hai and the Gold and Rosy Cross The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, whilst evidencing a structure and curriculum that epitomises the synthesis of materials comprising a claimed Western esoteric tradition, should not be considered a creatio ex nihilo, but perhaps a creatio ex materia. In this section we will pursue two pre-existent esoteric societies which are individually lesser known but yet, when brought together, contributed much to the immediate impact and subsequent rapid development of the order, shaping for the following century the content of the magical curriculum. These two societies are the fringe Masonic group, the Sat B’hai, ‘Seven Brothers’, and the German alchemical order, the Orden der Gold- und Rosenkreuzer, ‘Order of the Gold and Rosy Cross’. I present new translations and previously unpublished material on both groups to highlight their contribution to the development of a magical curriculum and the structure of its delivery. These two strands come together in the work of Francis George Irwin (1828-1892), Benjamin Cox (1828-1895) and Kenneth MacKenzie (18331886). That these three pursued an educational ambition realised through a research project is clear. As Howe points out, with regard to MacKenzie: His ‘A Word to the Literary Men of England’ in Notes and Queries, 1 March 1851, proposed the foundation of a learned society whose task would be to rescue old manuscripts in Greek, Latin, Anglo-Saxon, Norwegian, Zend (an ancient language allied to Sanscrit), and a dozen other middle-eastern and oriental tongues.[218]

The Sat B’Hai and the August Order of Light The esoteric milieu from which the Golden Dawn arose has been characterised as a baffling “lunatic story” and dismissed as “great fun for amateurs of the absurd.”[219] However, despite this, the structures nascent in such sketched out fringe degrees such as the Sat B’hai provided the primary material which allowed the Golden Dawn to appear as a ‘pre-founded’ order. The Sat B’hai and the August Order of Light were two ‘orders-on-paper’ that provide us with evidence of thinking that later flourishes into practical realisation in the Golden Dawn. A particular item, easily identified, where the code of the Sat B’hai evidences seeds which would later flourish in the Golden Dawn, is code 23 which dictated the changing of passwords and signs at the vernal equinox. [220] This is a practice taken through into the Golden Dawn and beyond to Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), who continued to see the vernal equinox as symbolic of the change not only of passwords, but of whole Aeons – representing changes of consciousness across the whole human race. As we know, his first and most influential periodical was entitled, appropriately, The Equinox. There is unpublished primary source evidence to suggest that the writing of his most discussed work, the ‘inspired’ Liber Al vel Legis, The Book of the Law, took place on the vernal equinox, and not 08-10 April as referenced in all published sources.[221] The concept of the change of authority corresponding to the Equinox did not escape Crowley who most surely intended the title to be a barb against the Order as well as the reception of his inspired book.

The August Order of Light (1881) was structured in three sections comprising nine degrees. In the Sat B’hai, the first three degrees have the candidate being named a ‘Mute’, then progressing to gain their voice as an ‘Auditor’, and finally progressing to ‘Scribe’ in charge of their own senses. This is somewhat mirrored in the August Order of Light with the first three grades being Novice, Aspirant and Viator, foreshadowing the Golden Dawn Neophyte, Zelator and Theoricus.[222] However, as we will see, the Golden Dawn drew upon a different mother-pattern for their graduated system. The contents of study of these fringe degrees, particularly these two ‘oriental’ degrees, is often eclectic. Whilst subjects such as spiritualism and mesmerism fascinated the late Victorians, they were often kept at arm’sbreadth from the ‘occult’ subjects of study.[223] Francis George Irwin, however, certainly saw mesmerism as a part of the curriculum. He was a keen manufacturer of Masonic rites, and in one set of notes for the formation of a secret society, whose main initiation ritual would involve a candidate being “conducted to a kind of labyrinth,” he wrote: The society is pledged to study the following subjects. Natural Magic – Mesmerism – The Science of Death and of Life – Immortality - The Cabala – Alchemy – Necromancy – Astrology – and Magic in all its branches.[224] Howe is somewhat dismissive of Irwin’s “delightful nonsense” so does not comment on the fact that Irwin saw this society, and its symbols, no matter how nascent, as leading to changes in states of awareness. In the brief notes for the symbol of this society, Irwin notes that the candidate would be: invested with the Cross of gold and enjoined to fit himself for that state of mind [my emphasis] of which it is the emblem.[225]

Irwin was perhaps ambivalent about the actuality of esoteric practice. However, Benjamin Cox was of a more practical nature, employing crystal gazing methods and scrying into his everyday practice. Cox wrote to Irwin in 1871 that: You seem undecided as to believing in occult science. I have not a shadow of doubt in the matter.[226]

In 1874, we see the stated motivation for such knowledge to be acquired, as Cox implores Irwin for more information with regard to the Fratres Lucis: ... the one desire of my heart is to become a member of some Order wherein I may learn the mysteries of nature and truth so that I may not only benefit myself but that of [sc. also] my fellow men. I have, as you know, ever considered the knowledge of occult science the one sure and safe means whereby we can obtain truth and wisdom.[227] The Influence of the Gold and Rosy Cross The Golden Dawn also drew from the Gold and Rosy Cross organisation of a century prior, through the cipher manuscripts. The similarity of the structure of the Order outlined within the manuscripts to the Hauptpläne of the G&RC is clear. It is likely that MacKenzie translated these Hauptpläne (main plans) prior to his creation of the cipher manuscript as he had an excellent knowledge of German and as his one-time mentor, Frederick Hockley (1808-1885), had written to Irwin in 1873:

Of course Mr. M.’s information is only derived from his intimate knowledge of French and German, and when you have mastered that difficulty, a vastly enlarged field of occult science will furnish you with Original matter, as well as others …[228] These plans were published by MacKenzie in his Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia in 1875-1877 by John Hogg. However, they are substantially edited and truncated. That MacKenzie has re-constructed this table from the original is made clear: It has been thought desirable to insert in this place two tables illustrative of Rosicrucian philosophy – the first of these has never before been published and has been specially constructed by the editor of for this work. The statements therein contained are derived from many sources of an authentic character, but have never been collected together before.[229]

Westcott’s Western Mystery Doctrine

Westcott (1848-1925) cites three standard works in his Introduction to the Study of the Kabbalah (1888, published 1910), of which two are in English and one in French: these are The Kabbalah, its Doctrines, Development and Literature (Ginsburg, 1865); The Doctrine and Literature of the Kabbalah (Waite, 1902), and the Kabbalah (Franck, 1889).[230] These same works are likewise referenced by E.A. Wallis Budge some 40 years later in his preface to Amulets and Superstitions.[231] to

Westcott positions the kabbalah as a “Western mystic doctrine” related the “Egyptian Hermeticism” alongside the “Indian Esoteric

Theosophy.”[232] Identifying the goal of each to be seeing “God face to face”, he goes on to refer to the grade system: We must be content to progress, as students have ever done, by stages of development; in each grade the primal truths are re-stated in a different form; they are revealed or re-veiled in language and symbolism suitable to the learner’s own mental condition; hence the need of a teacher, of a guide who has traversed the path, and who can recognise by personal communion the stage which each pupil has attained.[233] This is another clear indication of the graduated ascent narrative, with recognisable – “by personal communion” – stages that would be able to be matched to the “mental condition” of the initiate.

Mathers and the Book of Concealed Mystery

In 1887, Samuel Liddell Mathers (1854-1918), by then MacGregor-Mathers, published The Kabbalah Unveiled, a first translation into English of the Latin text of Knorr von Rosenroth’s Kabbala Denudata: “The Kabbalah Uncovered, or, The Transcendental, Metaphysical, and Theological Teachings of the Jews” (Sulzbach, Latin, 1677-1684). The life of von Rosenroth is briefly covered by Scholem (1974)[234] who writes that “although the book contains many errors and mistranslations, particularly of difficult Zoharic passages, there is no justification for the contemporary Jewish claims that the author misrepresented the Kabbalah.”[235] History The complex synthesis of esoteric materials included in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn curriculum is widely regarded as the apex of late Victorian occultism. The order, whose history and sources we will outline with specific regard to the taught content, was founded in 1888 by MacGregor Mathers (1854-1918), William Wynn Westcott (1848-1925) and Robert Woodman (1828-1891).

The impact of the order on its members and later students is a testament to the power of the material to attract and engage individuals over a substantial amount of time. Others have reviewed and analysed the dramatis personae of the order,[236] the women of the order,[237] the poet of the order, Yeats,[238] lesser known members such as Frederick Hockley,[239] well known members such as A.E. Waite (Gilbert, 1987),[240] the politics and group development,[241] the initiatory rituals,[242] and printed a selection of the additional teachings – the Flying Rolls (King, 1981).[243] However, I here focus upon the taught content of the order, its sources, structure, development and reception. In doing so, I intend to demonstrate that this material serves a master ascent narrative whilst further moving to a compendium of Western esoteric material. To take a specific example, we find that a Golden Dawn member, upon reaching the grade of Philosophus, would be expected to learn: The five rituals [of initiation], the three side lectures of 3 = 8 [Geomancy, General Guidance and Purification of the Soul, and the Tarot Trumps and their attribution to the Hebrew alphabet]; the four Knowledge Lectures, and the special Side Lectures of 4 = 7 , viz. Geomantic Talismans, Tree of Life in the Tarot, Shemahamphorash & [The Chaldæan Oracles of] Zoroaster, Qlipoth [of the Qabalah], Tatwas, [Poly]grams and [Poly]gons ...

And all of this was before making application – containing a formal statement that these subjects have indeed been studied – for the next grade. The multiple cosmological schema implicit in this summary include kabbalah, ancient Egyptian magical-religious practice, Zoroastrianism, and Eastern (Hindu) and Western (Pythagorean) philosophies. The specific subjects such as talismans and tarot are equally a synthesis of material incorporating elements from a broad range of sources, including the grimoires and magical encyclopaedias of John Dee (1527-1608) and Edward Kelly (1555-1597), Agrippa (1486-1535) and Francis Barrett (b. circa. 1780-80)[244] There is evidence that Mathers had a general structure for these subjects. An early 1897 Ritual A on general orders, covering the examinations of a Zelator Adeptus Minor to a Theoricus Adeptus Minor (the first two grade stages of the Inner Order) divides the work into several categories: preliminary, elemental, psychic, divination, magic, Enochian, and symbolic. [245] These categories can be summarised as: Preliminary: Learning correspondences, e.g. minutum mundum diagram Elemental: Constructing magical tools Psychic: Spirit vision and astral projection Divination: Astrology, geomancy and tarot Magic: Invocation, talismans, rising on the planes Enochian: Astral vision of specific Enochian squares Symbolic: Analysis of the Neophyte ritual and construction of a ritual

Furthermore, the structure is often recursive and self-referential, namely in being constructed upon the plan of the kabbalistic Tree of Life, one of the contents of the same structure. In a set of notes on alchemy, Westcott conveys how alchemy as a subject is to be studied in four ways, corresponding to the planes or worlds of the kabbalah, namely: Occult chemistry Assiah Psychic alchemy Yetzirah Mental alchemy

Briah

Spiritual alchemy Atiziluth[246] We will return to these divisions of subject matter within the curriculum later, having first traced the foundation of the order and the likely sources of the taught content.

Foundations at 17 Fitzroy Street The first warrant of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was signed by its founders at 17 Fitzroy Street, London. MacGregor Mathers, William Wynn Westcott and Robert Woodman, it has been suggested, used 17 Fitzroy Street as it was the studio of Mina Bergson (1865-1928; later Moina Mathers, after her marriage to MacGregor). However, another name is associated with that same address; a name that has only been highlighted later in the Golden Dawn story – that of H.M Paget. Henry Marriott Paget was married to Henrietta Farr, sister of Florence Farr. In fact, it is at the Pagets’ next home after Fitzroy Street, in Bedford Place, that Farr went to stay after her marriage broke up, and where she met W.B. Yeats. The Bedford Place crowd were a central nexus of Golden Dawn activity following its first year or so, and perhaps requires more research. Bedford Place was drawn by Paget, an artist whose brother famously drew Sherlock Holmes, giving him the distinctive deerstalker that Conan Doyle had never written. The 1901 census records Paget and the ages of his family and two servants. What has not been noted in previous research is that H.M Paget was living at 17 Fitzroy Street in 1879 with his wife and children, likely visited by Henrietta’s sister, Florence, before Mina Bergson took residence there sometime between 1880 and 1886. A letter to Paget at 17 Fitzroy Street, from fellow Royal Academy artist Sir Frederick Leighton, is clearly postmarked March 1879, some nine years before the property was used by Mathers and Company.[247]

Letter from Leighton to Paget, 1879

Notes & Queries, December 8th 1888 & February 9th, 1889

Notes & Queries, December 8th 1888 & February 9th, 1889

Notes & Queries [detail], December 8th 1888 & February 9th, 1889

Notes & Queries, December 8th 1888 & February 9th, 1889

A Society of Hermetic Students We know that the first public announcement of the Golden Dawn was by the allusion contained in two letters published in Notes and Queries, 08 December 1888. Here we see the original letter and the response, 09 February 1889, both likely written by Westcott, the first under an alias, ‘Gustav Mommsen’. We can note the phrases “society of students”, “course of study” and “Hermetic students of the G.D.” Clearly an educational agenda is being advertised. But what sort of students did the Golden Dawn wish to attract, and who was shaping the curriculum to be taught? It is my view that Westcott was the chief architect of the educational project within the order, and it was he who had a clear idea of the type of people he wished as students. In answering a request in his letter dated 15 December 1884, possibly to A.E. Waite (1857-1942), Westcott wrote: The Rosicrucians of Bulwer Lytton are fanciful and impossible people – Our type is more Valentine Andrea, Basil Valentine, Jacob Behmen ... Like many modern forms of old Societies we have great difficulty in not getting spoiled by members who join without real desire to study the occult.[248] Westcott was particularly enthusiastic about the delivery of esoteric teachings, and he himself delivered almost 50 papers to the members of the Metropolitan College from 1885 to 1928. The subjects of these papers included alchemy, Rosicrucianism, numerology, and kabbalah. He also published works on the Isiac Tablet of Cardinal Bembo and the significant eight volume collection Collectanea Hermetica (1893-1896).

GD2-1-2 p169 Founding Members Original Golden Dawn Manuscript

His papers also included works on comparisons of Mithraism and Freemasonry, and the Egyptian and Greek Mysteries, in which he saw “a magical chain of union between these great benevolent institutions.” From the beginning, Westcott had been keen to develop a full curriculum from the rudiments of the ‘cypher manuscripts’. He had written to Mathers in 1887 that, once the cypher was written up and a third Chief was chosen, they must “endeavour to spread a complete scheme of initiation.”[249] Westcott was certainly avid in his range of subjects for such a scheme. In an earlier address to the S.R.I.A. he suggests as topics for study: the whole range of church architecture as crystallised symbolism, the dogmas of the Gnostics, the several systems of philosophy of the Hindoos, the parallelism between Rosicrucian doctrine and Eastern Theosophy, for which read Max Heindel’s ‘Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception’, and that enticing subject, the origin and meaning of the 22 Trumps or symbolic designs of the ‘Tarocchi’ or pack of Tarot cards, which Eliphaz Lévi says form a group of keys which will unlock every secret of Theology and Cosmology.[250]

Westcott’s voluminous writings and numerous interests (mainly from the S.R.I.A.) provided a store of information from which the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, under Mather’s direction and ritual structuring, profited immensely.

Th.A.a Book (Yorke Collection)

The Devastating but Priceless Secret The taught content of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was delivered through several channels: as ‘Knowledge Lectures’, given within or as an addendum to ritual initiation; as ‘Flying Rolls’ or supplementary texts available to the initiate; and as teaching embedded within the ritual speeches, both initiatory and otherwise. Some would have been automatically given to the student, other material would be requested from the library, such as that held at Clipstone Street. An original document on astrology and tarot, for example, was maintained in a bound hardback pad, entitled Th. A.a. Minor, Astrologie and had the word ‘Loan’ written in gold.[251] The Construction of the Curriculum When we examine the Knowledge Lectures (the formal taught curriculum of the Golden Dawn) and the Flying Rolls (the supplementary instructional texts of the order) we encounter what Luhrmann would no doubt call the multifarious occult[252] - subjects of study veering between clairvoyance and Theban, the construction of a pentagram, Enochian language and teachings on the place of self-sacrifice.[253]

These subjects could easily be dismissed as examples of “structured ambiguity” resting on a “deconstructed notion of belief”[254] specifically designed to create “interpretative drift” – a progressive rationalisation of irrational beliefs.[255] However, this may not be the only interpretation of the aim of these practices. We will examine the construction of the curriculum and isolate statements of intent, and demonstrate the place of what Greenwood calls the magical consciousness – a form of associative thinking through sensory patterns of interrelatedness.[256] This consciousness is the intent of the practices – one found in participation, not analysis.[257] As we explore the construction of this curriculum, we will measure the “coherence, direction and purpose” of the teachings against the stated intent. [258] The Knowledge Lectures and Flying Rolls There were five main Knowledge Lectures and 36 Flying Rolls[259] – composed by Mathers and others – and their manufacture was described by him as not simply the “somewhat commonplace labour of translating a heap of unclassified MSS. ready placed in my hands for that purpose.”[260] Indeed, the genesis of “almost the whole of the Second Order Knowledge” was obtained by him from the “Secret Chiefs”; “by clairvoyance, by Astral projection on their part and on mine – by the Table, by the Ring and Disc, at times by a direct Voice audible to my external ear...”[261] In fact, he attested that the obtaining of the ‘Z ritual’ (the Zelator ritual) had resulted in extreme “nerve prostration” and bleeding from the nose, mouth and occasionally the ears.[262] Whilst we can make of this what we wish, the amount of material is testimony to one who once greeted A.E. Waite (18571942) in the British Library Reading Room, staggering under a load of books, with the words, “I have clothed myself with hieroglyphics as with a garment.”[263]

According to Westcott, Mathers studied under him and Woodman from his admission in 1882 to the Rosicrucian Society of England. Mathers would have been 28 years old. He proved an apt pupil and published a translation of Rosenroth’s Kabbalah Denudata (1677) in 1887, some five years later. He also published The Key of Solomon the King (1889), in which he was assisted by Westcott and later the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage (1898), which had a troubled publishing history. He also provided essays to the Rosicrucian Society’s Transactions, including ‘The Deity in Hebrew Letters’, ‘Rosicrucian Symbols’ and ‘Rosicrucian Ancients and their Zodiacal Emblems’.[264] Mathers published a few other writings outside of the Golden Dawn material: a work translated from the French on infantry campaigning, a poem ‘in six duans’ entitled ‘The Fall of Granada’ and his work on tarot, The Tarot: Its Occult Signification, Use in Fortune Telling, and Method of Play (1888).[265] This latter work coincides with the foundation of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, where Mathers was to produce the ‘Herculean task’ which he felt called upon to execute; the synthesis of kabbalah, tarot, ritual, Ancient Egyptian myth, Enochian magic, and more into an entire magical curriculum. [266] The Flying Rolls

The documents known as the Flying Rolls were circulated to members of the order with strict instructions. If the member were to be away, they were to inform the member from whom they received the materials – indicating that the documents were circulated rather than distributed from one source. They were circulated by registered post, “properly covered and fastened up against inspection.”[267] A time limit was placed on the keeping of each roll, and the member was required to sign a form and acknowledge receipt of the roll. All queries were to be passed back to N.O.M., Westcott,[268] and no address was ever to be written down on the papers. Westcott’s papers give a catalogue of the rolls, including the date of issue and the cost of copying the document. The catalogue is of interest particularly with regard to the date of circulation and also the naming of the rolls, which demonstrates variances as the rolls were later edited and changed, in content or sequence.[269] The first roll was issued on 07 November 1892 at a cost of 2/6d. It was entitled ‘Warnings’ and was followed that same month by three further rolls, on ‘Purity and Will’, ‘Instructions’ and a ‘Spirit Vision’, this last composed by Florence Farr and Annie Horniman. It was later re-numbered and replaced by a note by Mathers on the second roll. Further rolls followed for 1892 and 1893, and the last was issued in November 1894. The latter rolls vary more widely between administrative instructions, such as the process of stamping letters (Adepts were advised to place the stamp facing sideways with the Queen’s face upturned to replicate the position of C.R.’s head in the tomb), to the usage of ritual implements in divination. The roll on stamping letters was erased and replaced with one on clairvoyance in 1894.[270] List of Rolls and Authors[271]

‘Warnings’, Westcott. ‘Purity and Will’, Westcott. ‘Instructions’, Westcott. ‘Spirit Vision’ [later re-numbered 6], Farr & Simpson. ‘Imagination’, Berridge. ‘Note on Roll 2’ [later re-numbered 4], Mathers. ‘Material Alchymy’, Westcott. ‘Geometric Pentagram’ [originally ‘Enoch Suggestions’], Pullen-Berry. ‘Right and Left Pillars’, unknown. ‘Self -Sacrifice’, Mathers. ‘Clairvoyance’, Mathers. ‘Telesm[atic] Images and Adonai’, Mathers. ‘Secrecy and Hermetic (Love)’, Farr. ‘Talismans and Flashing Tablets’, Westcott. ‘Man and God’, Westcott. ‘Fama Fraternitatis’, Westcott. ‘Vault Sides’, Westcott. ‘Progress’, Horniman or Simpson.[272] ‘Aims and Means’, Westcott. ‘Elementary View of Man’, Mathers. ‘Know Thyself ’, Moina Mathers. ‘Free Will’, Murray [not present in King, 1987)]. ‘Tatwa Visions’ [originally ‘Regulations for Exams’], Moina Mathers. ‘Horary Figure’, Berridge. ‘Clairvoyance’ [originally ‘Notice re. Stamping Letters’], Brodie-Innes. ‘Re Planets to Tatwas’ [a supplement to Roll 12], Mathers. ‘Theurgia’, Percy Bullock. ‘Use of Implements in Divination’, Mathers & Westcott.

‘Order to 4 Liutenants’, Mathers. ‘Tatwas and Scrying & Hierophant’s Making 0=0 Signs’, Mathers. ‘Theban Letters’ [originally numbered 31], Westcott. ‘An Exorcism’ [originally numbered 32], Brodie-Innes. ‘Enoch Visions’ [originally ‘New Regulations’], Rand. ‘Ethiopic Letters’, Moina Mathers. ‘Notes on the Z Exordiums’, [likely Mathers] ‘Skrying and Astral Projection’ [not included in Westcott’s catalogue as issued after he resigned from office], Moina Mathers. Whilst Francis King was in “no doubt” that these flying rolls were created “mainly” by Mathers,[273] it is apparent in analysis that the bulk of content more than equally came from Westcott. Of the Flying Rolls, Westcott authored 11, Mathers 10, and they jointly authored another. A textual analysis of the word count of material demonstrates that Mathers produced some 10,900 words and Westcott 16,000.[274] So were these documents intended to be circulated as part of an overarching structure, and what was their intent? How did they integrate with the Knowledge Lectures and rituals of the order? How where they received by the students? We will here concentrate upon the original manuscripts of the order, rather than later variants such as the Stella Matutina or Cromlech Papers.[275]

We will turn our attention to the first rolls in order to discern the nature of the teaching being presented. The first rolls treat the subject of the will rather than ritual magical practice – and rather than the “Golden Dawn apocrypha” labelled by King[276] they appear more to be discursive papers built upon each other, referencing both the Knowledge Lectures, rituals and in addition building upon previous circulated roll material. The first example is P.W. Bullock’s (n.d.) ‘remarks’ on the prior roll of Westcott on ‘Will’. Bullock would work some two years later with Westcott on the introduction to The Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster (1895) published in the Collectanea Hermetica series.[277] His response in the rolls is dense: he quotes the Bible and the Bhaghavad Gita, and references numerology, kabbalah, alchemy, clairvoyancy, and Eliphas Lévi in as many lines. It seems that these rolls were not pedagogic material but were circulatory documents intended for discursive practice. The language of each expects prior knowledge – of the ‘Minutum Mundi scheme’ in Mathers own addition to this particular roll – and experience, such as of the Vault of the Adepts.[278] In modern parlance, these rolls were a discussion forum, with threads for particular themes, and not a linear or structured teaching method. The Rituals Although most scholars concentrate upon the initiatory rituals (Bogdan, 2007), the vast array of other rituals contain textual passages denoting much of the intention behind the order’s project. These rituals – including Enochian squares and invocations, evocation of angels, and the consecration of the Vault of the Adepts – are perhaps less treated for their content, whereas ‘initiation’ is deemed by scholars a safer subject, despite the content of such rituals far outweighing the initiatory texts in both mass and engagement by the student.

Here, for example, is an extract from the speech given by the Hierophant towards the close of the Ceremony of the Equinox, stating the intent of the order: Fratres et Sorores of the Order, seeing that the whole intention of the Lower Mysteries, or of external initiation, is by the intervention of the Symbol, Ceremonial, and Sacrament, so to lead the Soul that it may be withdrawn from the attraction of matter and delivered from the absorption therein, whereby it walks in somnambulism, knowing not whence it cometh nor whither it goeth; and seeing also, that thus withdrawn, the Soul by true direction must be brought to study of Divine Things, that it may offer the only clean Oblation and acceptable sacrifice, which is Love expressed towards God, Man and the Universe.[279] This is an ascent narrative with the metaphor of ‘awakening’ from a sleeplike state clearly depicted. As these subjects were made increasingly public, what remained secret? And what attitude did the student need in order to benefit from these teachings? A case study of one particular student – the notorious Aleister Crowley – will be made in this context. With regard to the reception of these teachings, Aleister Crowley’s response to the “devastating but priceless secrets”[280] revealed to him on his initiation into the order in 1898 was that, “I had known it all for months; and, obviously, any schoolboy in the lower fourth could memorise the whole lecture in twenty-four hours.”[281]

Although Gilbert notes Crowley’s following comment, in which Crowley writes, “I see today that my intellectual snobbery was shallow and stupid. It is vitally necessary to drill the aspirant in the groundwork,”[282] it should also be noted that Crowley’s commentary goes further in regard of the teachings and their relationship to ritual. Crowley notes that his reception of the initiation ritual itself is made a true “sacrament” despite the “muddled middle-class mediocrities” that he deemed were performing the initiation.[283] For Crowley, he saw himself as “entering the Hidden Church of the Holy Grail,” and not merely the Mark Mason’s Hall. He was successful, he suggests, because of the need for the student to be “armed with scientific knowledge, sympathetic apprehension, and common sense.” For him, this is due to his own “training in mathematics and chemistry ... poetic affinities ... and practical ancestors.”[284] Furthermore, he goes on to note that “this course of study [the terminology and theory of Magick from a strictly intellectual standpoint] should precede initiation and that it should not be mixed up with it.”[285] As his Confessions record a discussion of this matter as early as 1898 with both Julian Baker and George Cecil Jones, it is obvious that already Crowley was considering the teaching methodology, order of delivery of content, and preparation of the candidate. It is these early thoughts on the curriculum and grade structure that would resurface later in Crowley’s own revision of the scheme through both the O.T.O. and the A A

∴ ∴

A.E. Waite also expressed similar bemusement in his own initiation, which had taken place some seven years earlier in 1891:

I met, however, with nothing worse than a confounding medley of Symbols, and was handed a brief tabulation of elementary points drawn at haphazard from familiar occult sources: on these I was supposed to answer given questions, did I wish to proceed further. They were subjects about which it turned out that the GD had nothing to communicate that was other than public knowledge.[286]

Waite’s progress through the curriculum took him initially to the grade of Philosophus by April 1892, after being initiated as a Neophyte in January of 1891, as the 99th member of the order. He had attained Practicus in December of that same year, but after Philosophus, he resigned in 1893. It was to the second order he rejoined six years later, on 03 March 1899, as an Adeptus Minor. What work Waite did on the curriculum is unknown. It appears unlikely he took examinations, although he may have constructed Enochian tablets and studied further symbolism of the tarot, all prescribed on the curriculum of the Zelator Adeptus Minor.[287] This discontent with the original curriculum was not uncommon. J.W. Brodie-Innes (1848-1923) answers the discontent of the candidates to the Amen-Ra Temple in 1895 with a paper summarising the required reading and a return to the Ritual of Initiation for further study, in addition to ‘eight lectures on various subjects’ and the ‘First Knowledge Lecture’. He answers the question “Is this all?” by stating: It is not to jest with him [the newly initiated brother] that this lecture is put forth in this way. Our curriculum is an elaborate system of occult education and training, designed many centuries ago, to lead men step by step to the highest advance they are capable in this life of attaining ..[288].

Again, we see the ascent narrative being seen as the ultimate goal of the curriculum of taught content. It is also apparent from Brodie-Innes’ paper, ‘The Hermetic System’ (1892), that he sees a concurrent stream running throughout history, keeping these teachings alive in “times of darkness and materialism.”[289] In the writings of Waite we see an unusually clear statement of his own opinion – writings intended for his own ‘Rectified Rite’ (which came later after he left the Golden Dawn) and not for public consumption. He is writing on the ceremonial union which occurs in the initiatory ritual of the Adeptus Minor, and is worth quoting at length: The great types and symbols have been put into his [the initiate’s] own hands – the preparations have been made for his assistance in a long sequence of Grades; and he has been told in the Portal of the Rosy Cross that the intimations of spiritual consciousness should begin to manifest within him. That is a state which no man – whether Hierophant in the G.D. or Chief Adept in a Temple of the Second Order – can communicate to recipients. The most that can be done is to awaken that which is sleeping, and for this work the concurrence of the Postulant is essential.[290] That is to say, Waite states that the teachings are preparatory – for assistance – and the rituals are their intimations, but their aim is a spiritual consciousness that could not otherwise be awakened or communicated.

“An initiate is not the same as a mystic. Being an initiate – having an intuitive comprehension of what reason cannot explain – is a very deep process; it is a slow transformation of the spirit and of the body, and it can lead to the exercise of superior abilities ...”[291]

— Umberto Eco, Foucault’s Pendulum

GStA PK, FM, 5.2 D 34 Nr. 1757: Planus Principalis Pro Concordia Fratrum Rosae et Aureae Crucis post Revolutionem universalem Anno Domini 1767

GStA PK, FM, 5.2 D 34 Nr. 1759: Haupt-Plan für das gegenwärtige Decennium, 1777

The Ladder and the Golden and Rosy Cross We can view the Golden Dawn structure in the light of many preceding systems of ascent narratives, bound by a common graduated progression from the world of matter to the divine realm. We see the ascent narrative depicted in its most common symbol – a ladder – in early Christian mysticism, the theosophy of Robert Fludd, Freemasonry, the Catalan mysticism of Ramon Lull, alchemy, and finally, kabbalah, in which Jacob’s Ladder finds its parallel in the Tree of Life, another image of graduated ascent. One should first turn to the first use of kabbalah as a system of magical graduation, where it was specifically associated with a curriculum. In this case, an alchemical course of study, which pre-dates the Golden Dawn by 100 years. This system is found in the papers of the German Brotherhood of the Golden and Rosy Cross (G&RC), Rosae et Aureae Crucis, operating in the mid-to-late 1700s. These documents are also the foundation of the contemporary Order of Everlasting Day and will be fully detailed in a further volume of the Magister dealing with modern initiatory work and practice. Here we see two examples of the structure of the G&RC, in two Hauptpläne dated 1767 and 1777, given by Geffarth in Religion und arkane Hierarchie.[292] We see immediately the familiar grade names and kabbalistic correspondences. The G&RC is far more alchemically-minded than the later Golden Dawn, whose main alchemical works were carried out by few individuals, such as A.E. Waite and W.A. Ayton (1816-1909). However, like the Golden Dawn, the G&RC took candidates through a progressively practical curriculum, commencing with the basic elements:

The members of the first, lowest degree, juniores [learnt] the ceremonial, catechisms and the chemical instructions ... Within the first part of the institute was the instruction of the first degree, which contained the four elements; fire, water, air and earth, and their meanings. A junior thus got only the fundamental instructions and an indication of what the alchemical language mediated.[293] After then passing through the grade of Theoricus, it was only at the appropriately named Practicus that knowledge was then converted into practice, with the alchemical work of working with the chaotic mineral, electrum.[294] Even so, this practice was incomplete – although results would be gained, the practitioner would not yet be aware of their true significance. Only the Philosophi were given the deeper knowledge, the true secrets of the mineralischen naturkr ȁ fte to contemplate.[295] The higher grades were given to even fewer; “some among them” would be able, at the grade of Minores, to affect “miracle cures” with their alchemy, and the sixth degree of Majores worked to produce “one or more of those first four particular stones.”[296] In this, the Golden Dawn also concurred that the curriculum work of the Adeptus Minor recapitulated the work of the lower four grades, dividing the grade into sub-elements.

Beyond this grade the syllabus widened: the Adepti Exempti would come to learn “the work of nature, caballa and magia naturalis.” The eighth degree of Magistri began to formulate the synthesis of these arts into the “great work” until the ninth degree of Magi was opened by “divine providence.” Like the Thesophical Society and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the G&RC also had its secret chiefs; this mysterious grade of Magi for which there were no papers – the holder of this grade would understand its work. In Geffarth’s words, they would “formulate the total requirement of the attainment.” Holders of this grade were seen as equivalent to “Moses, Aaron, Hermes, Solomon, and Hiram Abif.”[297] Due to the controlled release of the papers through the hierarchy, and the giving of practical experiments whose meaning was only explained at a later grade, as Geffarth points out, “initiation and thus the relinquishment of secrets thus took place gradually.” The student could, if necessary, receive the lessons by mail. In other words the G&RC seems to have been the first mail order mystery school of the kind later exemplified by the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor and AMORC. Geffarth mentions this in his book. In a sense also the G&RC can be seen as a precursor of the external degree courses, such as those offered early on by London University – although no one involved in those courses would ever have heard of the G&RC.

Students of the Golden Dawn

That the work being undertaken by the “students of the G.D.” was being undertaken seriously is in no doubt, if we are to judge it alone by the time being devoted to studies by the students. In a letter dated 10 July, year uncertain (although whilst she was living at 123 Dalling Road, so early 1890s), Soror Sapientia Sapienti Dono Data (Florence Farr) wrote to De Profundis ad Lucem (Frederick L. Gardner, 1857-1930): I have your Adonai. Perhaps you can call for it on Thursday on your way home. I don’t think I could undertake to copy the Z but I will do the diagrams for you: if you copy it or get it copied.[298] She goes on to remark: You see, as I write myself I find it very trying to do much litha copying, even when I have to. One gets cramp, etc. Painting and making diagrams is a comparative rest.[299]

Her attitude as a teacher is also presented as she concludes: I think it best to do exams in the hall so that both parties can wear robes etc., and do the work thoroughly. So I’ll go there on Saturday afternoon. [300]

Farr was also a strict teacher when it came to ritual work. A letter likely from 1895-1896 to F.L. Gardner states firmly: If you propose to continue the studies of the rituals, I should be glad if you would learn by heart the part of the Kerux ... in the Ritual of the 32nd path ... so as to be able to take the part in it without the aid of a book [sc. manuscript] until the time when the lights are turned up. Although it has been said that no examinations survive for the students, there are tantalising traces of student progress pencilled in throughout the surviving correspondence, often on the back of letters already quoted for their political content in tracing the order’s downfall. These seem closer to the authentic dying voice of the order; that of its members attempting to pursue their education whilst their teachers squabbled and organised political petitions. We will look at just one such example during the time when the anti-expulsion petition of Annie Horniman (1860-1937) was being circulated. The Golden Dawn historian R.A. Gilbert suggests that, although we can only speculate in the absence of surviving ‘examinations’, it is likely that many members actually worked through the curriculum:

The large number of surviving ritual manuscripts indicates that members did copy the relevant texts once they had been advanced to that Grade, but the only other original material consists of a number of letters from members relating to their progression. None of these indicate exactly what they had produced or how it was received by their notional examiners. There certainly was a fast progression for some of the members but from their general correspondence, and from their activities within the Order, it seems probable that they did follow the prescribed syllabus of studies – both theoretical and practical – in its entirety. What cannot be said is just how many, if any, of them either failed to make satisfactory progress and subsequently dropped out of the Order, or were obliged to ‘resit’ the examinations.[301] This is borne out by the collection of Golden Dawn member letters held in the Yorke Collection (Warburg Institute, University of London) which mostly relate to the politics and petitions that engulfed the order. However, enveloped within those communications are traces of the curriculum, examinations and even the organisation of mentoring, testing and revision sessions. I believe that these have been overlooked whilst researchers have mainly concentrated upon the politics of the main correspondence. Some of these notes are written on the back of letters, cards or petitions, sometimes in pencil or as an obvious afterthought. The first example demonstrating these communications is from 14 March 1897: March 14, 1897 11 Hillden, Sutton Court Road, Chiswick

Dear Soror I should be much obliged if you will kindly send the paper for my exam on the altar diagrams to Fra. De Profundis (F.L. Gardner), who superintends my exams, as I hope to be ready in a day or two. Yours faithfully Genetheto Phos (W.F. Kirby)[302] W.F. Kirby (1844-1912) was previously the Honorary Secretary of the Hermetic Society, founded by Anna Kingsford (1846-1888) and Edward Maitland (1824-1897) in 1884.[303] Her address is one of many in the Bedford Park and Chiswick area. He was also one of many members who left the order after the infamous Horos trial which scandalised the order in 1901.[304] Whether he, like another member, left “in a ghastly funk ... and hurriedly burnt all ... lectures, letters, jewels, robes, etc.” there is no record. [305] The practical production of regalia and artefacts is also present within the curriculum, and the dearth of remaining evidence should not limit our imagination as to the wealth of items that must have been present at both Golden Dawn rituals and in the possession of its members. Howe (1972) gives evidence of nine members (around 1892- 1893) creating and consecrating sets of magical instruments, including the Lotus Wand, and even running out of enamel paints when painting the colour correspondences onto the Rose Cross regalia – or complaining that a blacksmith had not correctly straightened the handle of a ceremonial sword. [306]

There is also the evidence of regalia constructed for use in the A.O. which belonged to Soror Ex Fide Fortis (Mrs. Tranchell-Hayes) which was buried in a “cliff-top garden on the south coast.”[307] It was bizarrely washed up 30 years later onto a beach, the area having crumbled, and pronounced by local and national papers to be a ‘witches box’. It contained quarter banners, stoles, sceptres and a notebook – it was recognised by Doreen Valiente as belonging to the Golden Dawn, and apparently was then returned to London for safe-keeping.[308] Diaries from Clipstone Street, London, where two rooms had been rented by Westcott in 1892, and in which a full ‘Pastos’ (ceremonial vault) had been erected, further testify to the time that candidates spent working through the curriculum, for example, ‘invocating the spirit of Jupiter’. At least 30 Adept initiations were carried out in the vault between 1892-1893.[309] The theoretical knowledge and understanding prescribed in the curriculum is furthermore advanced in the level of detail and refinement of knowledge already presented in earlier grades. Not only would the candidate have to understand the rudiments of both the Enochian system and the system of geomancy, they would also need to demonstrate that they understood:

the correspondence existing between each of the 16 figures of Geomancy and each of the 16 Lesser Angles of the Enochian tablets treated as a whole.[310] Another letter, dated 1896, shows a typical assignment for a student: SRIA Dec 3 1896

‘Good Litha’ [lithograph, paper] on consecration – request you write one (on Talismans) for Juniors. You can now learn up to Z1 and Z3 for H exam; include the Coptic alphabet with its 10 Sephirothic letters, learn every Coptic name and place on the Temple position diagram ... S. Aude[311] Thus, within the curriculum being developed by Mathers and Westcott at this stage, there was “a symbolic synthesis so complex and extensive as to stagger the imagination.”[312] In fact, previously unpublished material makes it evident as to the scale of this synthesis. In one such paper we see the signs of LVX being overlaid onto a clock face in order to make correspondence with the solstices and equinoxes, thus aligning the student to the orbit of the Earth about the Sun.

Page of LVX signs from GD Notebook in Yorke Collection

This synthesis in ritual demonstrates that the relationship of ritual and initiation to the magical curriculum is complex. In the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, it is evident that rituals to confer grades of initiation were designed to correspond to specific levels of teaching and defined content – the so-called Knowledge Lectures. The rituals themselves introduce new concepts and symbols, whilst offering explanation of earlier rituals, pedagogic description of the symbols of the present ritual, and hints of further teaching to follow in later grades. However, the praxis of the individual members of the order could be at wide variance with the taught curriculum. Similarly, many papers were privately circulated providing additional commentary upon the existing teachings or entirely new, developmental material – these papers were referred to as the Flying Rolls. Furthermore, initiates of the order were expected to devise their own rituals based upon the framework presented in the order curriculum. An example of such a ritual is that created by J.W. Brodie-Innes (1843-1928) under his order motto, Sub Spe, in 1895. This ritual utilises incense, the tracing of pentagrams and sigils, culminating in an evocation and visible manifestation of a “vampirising elemental” – all in order to recover from a severe attack of influenza.[313] Problems of Delivery of Material

It is worth considering the state of technology, specifically in terms of transportation and communications (printing and post), at the time when the Golden Dawn was founded. In that year, there were no portable typewriters, automobiles were only just replacing the carriage, and post was still being delivered by tricycle in Coventry.[314] They were unable to take full advantage of the opportunities just around the corner, as typing, printing, copying, transport, and postal advances made the ‘correspondence course’ a popular mechanism of learning. It was not until the Golden Dawn had fallen apart that radio technology and long distance telephony developed, allowing distance learning to spread even further.[315] Qualification of Knowledge We turn now to a subject which appears to be altogether missing in recent studies of initiation, such as Bogdan and Bell, which focus upon the definition of the term and its ritualised forms, the difference between initiation and rites of passage, and typologies.[316] That is to say, and this is certainly clearly presented in the works of the French traditionalist (and esotericist) René Guénon (1886-1951), the concept of qualification and, more importantly, landmarks – a term that Guénon felt so fitting he kept it in the English, as it has “no exact equivalent in French.”[317]

There are further tests which have not been published, neither in Regardie, who originally published the Golden Dawn materials in several volumes between 1937 and 1940, nor later versions. In a 4=7 paper in the hand of F.L. Gardner, on the ‘Tattvas of the Eastern School’, there are not only descriptions of the activities suited to each of these ‘tides’ which are active throughout the day, means of using these tides, through meditation, for curing disease and forecasting future events, but also a practical test of skill.[318] The means of testing the skill of the Philosophus in these matters is by placing “five bullets or counters” of the colours of the tattvas in one’s pocket and selecting blind the correct counter which relates to the tide of that time of day. A further instruction suggests that with time, the practitioner can select two counters to calibrate more accurately to the shades between passing tattvic tides. This is Reserved for a Higher Grade But did the Golden Dawn members commit themselves to this curriculum, and did it achieve its stated intention to prepare the candidate for nothing less than “preparation for immortality”? According to Israel Regardie (1907-1985) there was some difficulty for the average student: ... the basic knowledge material was all disconnected data and pretty much of a closed book. All he could do was memorise the stuff by rote, and ask questions of the Officers of the Temple he belonged to. They may or may not have been too helpful. One of the common clichés was that the elucidation of this or that set of notions was reserved for a higher grade. Very frustrating![319]

And although Regardie goes on to suggest that the student working through the outer order curriculum would have been in possession of a great deal of material, he notes that it would have probably not been integrated, even though it was handed out ‘piecemeal’. With a lack of supervision, it would have also not been committed to memory or tested. This is later confirmed when he writes:

... despite the fact that the papers on the Pentagram and Hexagram rituals suggest, nay demand, that the contents be committed to memory, few apparently took this injunction seriously. Instead of being content with the rubric of the ritual stating that for example the invoking Pentagram of Air should be traced in the Air, or that the banishing Hexagram of mercury should be traced, the members whose papers I have seen drew the appropriate figure. This of course suggests that the figures were not committed to memory, and that the member had to draw the appropriate figure on the pages of the ritual in order to jog his memory.[320]

However it was delivered and received, there was one clear goal with this content – that the student learn correspondence between all aspects of their experience: For it is the science of correspondences he is studying the whole time, whether between the Divine Powers and the Universe, between these and man, or between these again and the different planes and developments in the life of Nature.[321]

The Failure of the Golden Dawn It is here, in this specific enterprise, I propose, that the Golden Dawn can be said to have truly failed, as it became swallowed up by personal and political feuds documented ably elsewhere,[322] it increasingly failed to teach the curriculum of correspondence, thus disengaging the ritual activities – merely performance pieces without proper preparation – from the taught symbolic language of magic. The latter was neglected as arcane symbolism relegated to the futile delivery of exoteric knowledge (i.e. the Hebrew alphabet) without due application in practical exercise. It was indeed a triumph of politics over policy, a failure to adhere to the most elementary principle of the project. A private letter of 1899 to F.L. Gardner held in the Yorke Collection (Warburg Institute, University of London) illustrates this failure in the resignation of one particular member: Doubtless you know of my resignation from the GD. I got tired of the empty monotony of mere ceremonial without any real explanation of its import and significance if there is any at all worth knowing that I did not previously know.[323]

This member, F.J. Johnson, was first initiated in 1889, visited Clipstone Street many times during 1893, after being initiated into the second order at the start of that year, and left in 1899.[324] His trajectory summarises both the curriculum and the failure; four years to work through the outer order work – with an initial rush of excitement (he visited the vault at Clipstone Street some 13 times in the year after his initiation, “invariably to collect or return manuscripts”[325]) leading to a six year disillusionment following his entry to the Second Order, ending in resignation. Perhaps it could also be argued that initiates were not taught to apply their teachings to their own lives and transformation. Similarly, higher order material may not have been ready for them, leaving them in a vacuum; nor, possibly, where it was doing so, was the impact of their practical work on their lives being supervised. In an analysis of Mathers and the teachings of the order, Nick Farrell has raised these issues, which he sees as a “cautionary tale” and “fatal flaw” at length.[326] The curriculum may also have failed in its transmission and reception away from the charismatic leaders who regulated its delivery and monitored its results. It was hardly set up for distance learning, particularly overseas. A critical letter of resignation in 1921, from Lilli Geise (?-1924) of the Thoth-Hermes Temple of the A.O. (Alpha et Omega) in New York, to Brodie-Innes, stated the curriculum as a major cause of discontent, intimating also that there had been prior instructions not to develop the curriculum by introducing other elements from her close experience with her teacher (and later, husband), Paul Foster Case (1884-1954). Regarding MacGregor Mathers, she wrote to BrodieInnes:

I have, however, no faith in the source of his initiation, on account of the very unsatisfactory curriculum up to the grade which I reached, including the books of the Z.A.M. Second Order ... Then the utter lack of guidance from the very beginning in this country, about 18 years ago. There never were really any capable leaders.[327]

It is apparent that the curriculum can function as a cohesive device within the structure of an organisation often led by a few charismatic individuals in a hierarchical fashion. In the story of Paul Foster Case, we see his split from the New York Thoth-Hermes Temple of the Golden Dawn (Alpha et Omega) being precipitated in part due to a disagreement about the place of teachings on sexual magick within the curriculum. Moina Mathers had written to him: ..... I have seen the results of this superficial sex teaching in several Occult Societies as well as in individual cases. I have never met with one happy result.[328]

Incidentally, an unpublished version of the curriculum for Theoricus Adeptus Minor (c. 1894) does contain a suspicious item of study in this light, namely “the opening of the knowledge of the masculine and feminine potencies necessary unto the manifestation of all things.”[329] Other changes of the curriculum followed. When Case founded his own order in 1922, the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA), following his development of a magical curriculum in terms of a comprehensive correspondence course in 1902, he purged all reference to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn’s usage of Enochian magic:

B.O.T.A. is a direct off-shoot of the Golden Dawn, but its work has been purged of all the dangerous and dubious magic incorporated into the Golden Dawn’s curriculum by the late S.L. MacGregor Mathers, who was responsible for the inclusion of the ceremonials based on the skrying of Sir Edward Kelly. There is much in these Golden Dawn rituals and ceremonies that is of the greatest value; but from the first grade to the last it is all vitiated by these dangerous elements taken from Dee and Kelly. Furthermore, in many places, the practical working is not provided with adequate safeguards, so that, to the present writer’s personal knowledge, an operator working with the Golden Dawn rituals runs very grave risks of breaking down his physical organism, or of obsession by evil entities.[330]

It is worth digressing upon the changes that Paul Foster Case affected upon the Golden Dawn magical curriculum, not only on its content but on its delivery – specifically into the American market. A revealing letter from Case to Israel Regardie, dated 10 August 1933, recounts his experience and reasoning for re-inventing and re-presenting the Golden Dawn teachings, a project which proved successful as BOTA maintain a strong presence in the United States, South America, Australia, and Europe. Another off-shoot of this project is the Fraternity of the Hidden Light, Fraternitas L.V.X. Occulta: The curriculum of the Fraternitas L.V.X. Occulta, or Fraternity of the Hidden Light, is a structured, graduated system which utilizes grades as a means of identifying the level of a student for the purpose of receiving the Ancient Wisdom teachings.[331]

Alumni of the Golden Dawn Were there successful graduates of the Golden Dawn educational endeavour, and if so, how can this be measured? The failure of the order as a stable organisation within a relatively short period of time left many members disenchanted. This has been demonstrated, particularly during the period whilst the main business of the order was circulating a petition for the expulsion of one of its members, Annie Horniman (1860-1937).[332] Ironically, it was Horniman who had written a Flying Roll in 1893 encouraging beginners to work with “patience and hope” and claimed “none of us who have made sacrifices for it [the order] in a right spirit are disappointed with the result.”[333] Following the collapse of the order, there was little overt trace of its legacy of trained Adepts. Whilst commenting on an article on Betty May (?-?), in the Worlds Pictorial News, the stage magician and esoteric student Chris van Berne (1871-1950), a follower of Aleister Crowley, wrote to another follower, Norman Mudd (c.1890-1934) in 1925: I meet several of the old G.D. but they know very little. Some of the Bradford crowd are still searchers, but the rest are only book collectors. [334]

In fact, van Berne estimated the number of ‘real workers’ to be 15 or less. His lack of enthusiasm that the teachings would be transmitted beyond a select group is also evident. In response to the news that Thomas Burgoyne (1855-1934) was to publish a book through Foyles in London, he writes:

... as I have nearly all the M.S.S. of that extinct society [the Golden Dawn], also the H.B. of L. [Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor], I have written to them [Foyles] to say that I think the work will be quite wrong, in facts and details. I have not had their reply yet.[335]

The Strange Reward “Sing out the song; sing to the end, and sing The strange reward of all that discipline.” — W.B. Yeats, A Vision As we have seen, a certain level of commonality of orders, grades and rituals, in addition to the actual content and delivery of teachings, is evident across many of the schools of Western esotericism. It is proposed, however, that the cosmological grounding of the Western esoteric tradition in a world of hierarchies and intermediaries, allied with a Gnostic concern of selfdeliverance, logically requires a curriculum of praxis and theoria which not only reflects this cosmology, but necessitates a mechanism to deliver a promised salvation. The Hermetic corpus clearly commences with this framework, and we will briefly return to this early articulation of a world of degrees as quoted earlier from the Hermetica. Whilst these degrees or stages originally depicted (much like the Ancient Egyptian Book of Coming Forth by Day) the after-death ascent and return to the heavens and salvation, to initiates, this is a clear depiction of a way of exhaustion; as each zone or grade is attained, the psychic devices of the ‘Earthborn man’ (‘child of Earth’ in the Golden Dawn Neophyte initiation) are disabled, in order that the next grade can be attained, and ultimately entry into the ‘Ogdoadic region’ is attained.

Rather than dismiss the content of a ritual which falls outside established concepts of initiation – for example, the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram – in favour of more accessible academic ground like the role of an initiation in re-establishing patriarchy et al, we might look to understand the reasoning behind the ritual being promoted as fundamental to a student’s progression in the magical curriculum. That content – that the ritual is a ‘banishing’ – and its position in the teaching order of many groups is the key factor. Dion Fortune, commenting on Israel Regardie’s publication of the magical curriculum as the Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic, wrote of the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, and Regardie’s publication of it: It is this formula which is given to the student immediately on initiation long before he is taught any practical working, in order that he may protect himself in case of Astral trouble. If Mr. Regardie is justified in drawing back the veil at all, then he is, undoubtedly justified in providing the necessary protection against anything untoward that may come through the veil. The Lesser Pentagram is of the nature of a fire extinguisher, and it is very necessary to have some such device handy when one ventures into such highly charged levels of the unseen as are contacted by the methods he describes.[336]

We may conclude that in all cases, the curriculum is seen as preparatory; a series of steps (literally grades, gradus, Latin ‘step’) towards an ultimate goal which transcends those lessons but is entirely reliant upon them – that of gnosis or enlightenment. The ladder is laid down at the end of the ascent, as we have seen indicated in the Mutus Liber.

Mutus Liber, Final Plate

That the goal may be attained is seen in the structuring of the orders to reflect a hidden hierarchy – an Invisible Church or Invisible College – whose masters have accomplished the Great Work. By entering into the curriculum, and taking the oaths, the candidate is initiated into this implicit framework, promising that through their work, they will strive to master the elements of their being. In both the Theoricus ritual of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and a paper from that order on ‘The General Guidance and Purification of the Soul’, in order to learn self-knowledge and direct the forces of nature, the candidate is instructed:

Be thou therefore prompt and active as the Sylphs, but avoid frivolity and caprice. Be energetic and strong like the Salamanders, but avoid irritability and ferocity. Be flexible and attentive to images like the Undines, but avoid idleness and changeability. Be laborious and patient like the Gnomes, but avoid grossness and avarice.[337]

It is that the elemental rituals of the order, the paraphernalia of ‘fan, lamp, cup, and salt’ represent this curriculum, teach it and reflect it as an enactment of enchantment, a play of the mundus imaginalis, so that the candidate may be lead out of the ‘darkly splendid world’.

We may see a specific cohesion of the WEIS within the curriculum of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, drawing together and disseminating esoteric teachings in an attempt to provide no less than an education in magical ascent and liberation. This was not merely a reaction to the disempowerment of the male (Carnes, 1989) or against a disenchantment of the world (Owen, 2004). Neither was it entirely a flight against reason (Webb, 1971), although these views provide multiple lenses through which we might contextualise the life of those developing and pursuing such a curriculum. The ideal of the curriculum and its place in the overall practice of the WEIS is more than the second perspective viewpoint or analysis. Despite recognising that a member had limited time to devote to the practice of a curriculum, despite the lack of support for distance learners, and an overburdensome language obscurum per obscurius, and despite the eventual fragmentation of teaching through public scandal, the lofty idealism, the Promethean ambition of the curriculum of the WEIS remains: Our subject of study is inexhaustible for it is the Universe itself whose Mysteries we seek to fathom by the aid of that Secret System of Correspondences and Formulas, the especial knowledge of our Order the Keys of the Wisdom of all Time. Our Grades therefore form the ladder which aids us to mount upwards towards this end, a ladder in which not one rung is wanting neither is there a Lacuna. We appeal to the soul by the secret formulas hidden in our Ceremonies; to the mind by the special studies of the Order, to the body by the Stations and movements in the Temple and to the whole being by the combinations of these.121

Conclusion Part Two

This concludes the second part of Volume 0 of The Magister on Kindle. Now that the extremely academic work is presented on the recent history of occult groups, teaching and structure, we can move on to more practical, psychological, magical and mystical matters in the final section and then the remaining ten volumes of this series. The third and concluding part of The Magister Vol 0 outlines the connection between psychology and magick, and then provides a range of practical rituals and exercises in order to get you started on this profound path of western spiritual development. Whilst some of these may have been covered in other books, they are presented here in the context of a forty-year period of practice, experience and study which has revealed many new aspects of the rituals and their proper place and practice within the whole spiritual journey. They have also been extensively worked by a range of individuals and groups from neophytes to adepts and their consequences fully experienced and incorporated into our teaching.

You will also discover a huge bibliography of recommended books on the subjects covered in this first volume of the Magister, and a graduated reading list by initiatory grade. We provide a brief outline of the contents of the final section below and we look forward to continuing this epic journey into magick with you in the Crucible Club, into which you are cordially invited in the spirit of a magical life.

Magister Volume 0 Part 3 In the Shadow of the Bright Circle: The Relationship Between Modern Ceremonial Magic and Psychology Strange Prisoners Naturphilosophie and Jung, the Development of the Unconscious The Nancy School and the Technique of Suggestion The Golden Dawn and the Development of the Self Dion Fortune and Israel Regardie, Psychoanalysts and Magicians Israel Regardie: The Sage of Sedona Dion Fortune: Priestess of the Soul Contemporary Syntheses of Psychology and Magic The Oath of Harpocrates: Considerations on Secrecy and the Hermetic Vessel Flying Roll XIII on Secrecy and Hermetic Love Sermons Through Stones: Who Are the Secret Masters? No Man Hath Seen Me Unveiled: Considerations on the Dweller on the Threshold The Ka, the Ba, the Ab: Considerations on the Divisions of the Soul Vignette: The Goddess of Sais The Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel The Sacred Magic of Abramelin Vignette: 13 Dancing Girls on a Wednesday The Holy Guardian Angel The Angel and the Higher Self

On the Egregore The Abyss Vignette: The Cube of Undoing The Fourth Way Work The Kundabuffers Watching for Kundabuffers The Initiatory Tarot The Three Decks The Mystery of the Monogram The World The Fool The Blasted Tower The High Priestess Your Magical Journal and Dream Diary Optional Journal Practices The Dreaming Mind Zosimos of Panopolis The Vision of Zosimos Exercise: The Seven Steps Contemplation Optional Dream Practices Exercise: The Fountain of Morpheus (An Initiated Method of Dream Recall) Exercise: Hand Observation for Lucid Dreaming The Dream Journal: Liber Somnorium

The Magickal Name The Purpose and Nature of the Magickal Name Salutations, Forms and Greetings Formal Framing in the Order of Everlasting Day Selected List of Magical Names and Mottos The Rituals and Practices Vignette: Airport Adoration Liber Resh (Solar Adoration) Liber Resh vel Helios sub figura CC Commentary and Practice Liber Qoph vel Lunae (The Book of the Moon, a Lunar Observation) The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram Notes Prior to Commencing the Practice The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (LBRP) Visualisations The Self in Relationship (The Middle Pillar) Notes Prior to Commencing the Practice The Middle Pillar Method Circulation of the Light The Peace Profound of the Rose Cross and Key The Rose Cross Ritual The Opening of the Golden Dawn into the Everlasting Day The Opening of the Everlasting Day The Rituals of the Sapphire Temple The Oath of the Tarot Majors

Conclusion Frequently Asked Questions Reading List Part One: General Reading Part Two: A Magical Curriculum (Books by Grade) Bibliography Index

[1] Knight, G. & McLean, A. Commentary on the Chymical Wedding. Magnum Opus: Edinburgh, 1984, p.10. [2] Wilson, R.A. Illuminatus Volume I: The Earth Will Shake. Lynx: New York, 1988, p.317. [3] Cousins, E. (translator). Bonaventure: The Soul’s Journey Into God, The Tree of Life, The Life of St. Francis. SPCK: London, 1978, p.54. [4] For after-death books that perhaps give some intimation of paths for life, refer to Budge, E.A.W. The Book of the Dead. University Books: Secaucus, 1981; Faulkner, R.O. The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. University of Texas Press: Austin, 2000; Rinpoche, S. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Rider: London, 1995; Evans-Wentz, W.Y. (editor). The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1985; and Western esoteric versions of the same such as Ashcroft-Nowicki, D. The New Book of the Dead. Aquarian: London, 1992, and Gold, E.J. New American Book of the Dead. IDHHB Publishing: Nevada City, 1981. [5] For a more extensive workbook and background on alchemy, see Katz, M. The Alchemical Amphitheatre. Forge Press: Keswick, 2008, and titles in the reading list. [6]For more teaching of the Crucible Club and the Order of Everlasting Day, see www.westernesotericism.com. [7] Schweighardt, T. Speculum sophicum rhodo-stauroticum. See http://www.levity.com/alchemy/schweig.html [last accessed 22nd August 2014] [8] De Rola, S. K., The Golden Game: Alchemical Engravings of the Seventeenth Century. Thames & Hudson: London, 1988. pp. 29-44.

[9] Young, L.B. The Unfinished Universe. Simon & Schuster: New York, 1986. [10] Zosimos. See http://www.levity.com/alchemy/zosimos.html [last accessed 22nd August, 2014] [11] Andreae, J.V. Chymical Wedding. See http://www.levity.com/alchemy/chymwed1.html August, 2014]

[last

accessed

22nd

[12] Dastin, J. Dream. See http://alchemywebsite.com/tcbdastn.html [last accessed 22nd August 2014] [13] See also Fortune, D. Psychic Self-Defence. Aquarian: Wellingborough, 1981, for accounts of various psychic and ethereal disturbances through the work. [14] Mavromatis, A. Hypnagogia: The Unique State of Consciousness between Wakefulness and Sleep. Routledge: London, 1991. [15] See de Rola, S. K., The Golden Game: Alchemical Engravings of the Seventeenth Century. Thames & Hudson: London, 1988. [16] McLean, A. ‘The Fourth Rosicrucian Manifesto? The Mirror of Wisdom of Theosphilus Schweighardt’ in The Hermetic Journal, Number 25, p.21. [17] McLean, A. The Western Mandala. Hermetic Research Series: Edinburgh, 1983. Also refer to McLean, A. Study Course on Alchemical Symbolism available in print from www.alchemywebsite.com [last accessed 08 February 2013]. [18] Silberer, H. Hidden Symbolism of ALCHEMY and the OCCULT ARTS. Dover Publications: New York, 1971. p. 337 [19] There are others who also point out that initiation confers a lineage within a certain magical tradition, for example, McCarthy, J. Magical

Knowledge Vol. I. Mandrake: Oxford, 2012, p.171. [20] Idel, M. Ascensions on High in Jewish Mysticism: Pillars, Lines, Ladders. CEU Press: New York, 2005, p.49. [21] We will return to this ladder in a following volume, which also spells out the word SIIRIUS (Sirius) in the first letter of each of the rungs, leading to a clearly marked star in the heavens. The star Sirius has a particular place in Western Esotericism, popularised by R. A. Wilson in his semiautobiographical book, Cosmic Trigger. [22] Altar of the Theraphic Brotherhood Fraternitatis Crucis Roseae, 1618, in McLean, A. (editor). The Hermetic Journal, Number 37 (Autumn 1987), p.39. [23] See Yates, F. A., The Rosicrucian Enlightenment. Routledge & Kegan Paul: London, 1972, p.259. [24] Churton, T. The Golden Builders. Red Wheel/Weiser: York Beach, 2005, p.91. [25] For example, AMORC. AMORC stands for the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, an esoteric fraternal group founded by H. Spencer Lewis in 1915, and whose website describes, “The Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, is internationally known as the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis. We are a nonsectarian body of men and women devoted to the investigation, study and practical application of natural and spiritual laws. Our purpose is to further the evolution of humanity through the development of the full potential of each individual. Our goal is to enable everyone to live in harmony with creative, cosmic forces for the attainment of health, happiness, and peace.” http://www.amorc.org/ [last accessed 28 September 2006]. [26] Waite, A.E. The Real History of the Rosicrucians. Kessinger Publishing, 1999, originally published by George Redway: London, 1887,

p.433, in which he accuses Hargrave Jennings of such “ramblings,” and on Jennings’ book, The Rosicrucians, their Rites and Mysteries, Waite states that this “does not contain one syllable of additional information on its ostensible subject.” [27] Yates, F.A. The Rosicrucian Enlightenment. Paladin: St. Albans, 1975, p.72. [28] The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, op. cit., p.139. [29] Gilly, C. Theophrastia Sanca: Paracelsianism as a religion in conflict with the established churches at: http://www.ritmanlibrary.nl/c/p/res/art/art_01.html, IV and note 41 [last accessed 27 September 2006]. [30] Theophrastia Sanca: Paracelsianism as a religion in conflict with the established churches . op. cit., IV [last accessed 27 September 2006]. [31] Khunrath, H. Confessio in the Amphitheatre, quoted in Churton, T. The Golden Builders. Red Wheel/Weiser: York Beach, 2005, p.68. [32] Hanegraaf, W.J. (editor). Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism. Brill: Leiden, 2006, II, p.1012. [33] Hanegraaf, W.J. (editor). Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism. Brill: Leiden, 2006, II, p.1009. [34] McIntosh, C. The Rosicrucians. Crucible: Wellingborough, 1987, p.46. [35] Churton, T, The Golden Builders. Red Wheel/Weiser: York Beach, 2005, p.122. Other names in this ‘golden chain’ included Valentin Weigel (1533- 1588), Sebastian Franck (1499-1542) and Casper Schwenckfeld (1489-1561). See pp.116-126.

[36] The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, op. cit., p. 283. [37] The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, op. cit., p.288. [38] The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, op. cit., p.295. [39] The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, op. cit., p.289. [40] The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, op. cit., p.294. [41] The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, op. cit., p.72. [42] The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, op. cit., p.295. [43] The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, op. cit., p.294. [44] The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, op. cit., p.296. [45] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing [last accessed 23 September 2006]. [46] Churton, T. The Golden Builders. Red Wheel/Weiser: York Beach, 2005, p.130. [47] Wilson, C. ‘Foreword’ in McIntosh, C. The Rosicrucians. Crucible: Wellingborough, 1987, p.10. [48] Fr. Wittemans. A New and Authentic History of the Rosicrucians. Rider & Co: London, 1938, p.33. [49] Churton, T. The Golden Builders. Red Wheel/Weiser: York Beach, 2005, p.114.

[50] See Yates, F. The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, Paladin: St. Albans, 1975, chapter 7, ‘The Rosicrucian Furore in Germany’, particularly note 3, p.127, and Churton, T. The Golden Builders. Red Wheel/Weiser: York Beach, 2005, pp.131-135. [51] Churton, T. The Golden Builders. Red Wheel/Weiser: York Beach, 2005, p.152, quoting De Curiositatis Pernicie Syntagma. [52] The Golden Builders, op. cit., p.143. [53] Confessio, Preface, in White, R. (editor). The Rosicrucian Enlightenment Revisited. Lindesfarne Books: Hudson, 1999, p.15. [54] Yates, F. The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, Paladin: St. Albans, 1975, p.296. [55] The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, op. cit., p.297. [56] The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, op. cit., p.298-299. [57] The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, op. cit., p.300. [58] The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, op. cit., p.299. [59] The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, op. cit., p.301-302. [60] The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, op. cit., p.303. [61] The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, op. cit., p.304. [62] The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, op. cit., pp.304-305.

[63] The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, op. cit., p.306. [64] McLean, A. & Knight, G. Commentary on The Chymical Wedding. Magnum Opus: Edinburgh, 1984, p.2. [65] McIntosh, C. The Rosicrucians. Crucible: Wellingborough, 1987, p.46. [66] Churton, T. The Golden Builders. Red Wheel/Weiser: York Beach, 2005, p.152. [67] Knight, G. & McLean, A. Commentary on the Chymical Wedding. Magnum Opus: Edinburgh, 1984, pp.8-9. [68] Commentary on the Chymical Wedding, op. cit., p.72. [69] McIntosh, C. The Rosicrucians. Crucible: Wellingborough, 1987, p.51. [70] McLean, A. ‘The Fourth Rosicrucian Manifesto? The Mirror of Wisdom of Theosphilus Schweighardt’ in The Hermetic Journal, Number 25, p.21. [71] ‘The Fourth Rosicrucian Manifesto? The Mirror of Wisdom of Theosphilus Schweighardt’, op. cit., p.32. [72] 1 Corinthians 15:51-52. [73] Barker, P. Using Metaphors in Psychotherapy. Brunner/Mazel Inc: New York, 1985, pp.32-34, also pp.28-29 on the clinical use of anecdotes and stories. [74] McLean, A. ‘The Fourth Rosicrucian Manifesto? The Mirror of Wisdom of Theosphilus Schweighardt’ in The Hermetic Journal, Number 25, p.21. [75] McIntosh, C. ‘The Rosicrucian Legacy’ in White, R. (editor). The Rosicrucian Enlightenment Revisited. Lindesfarne Books: Hudson, 1999,

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[89] Webb, J. The Flight from Reason. MacDonald & Co: London, 1971, p.224. [90] Guenon, R. Initiation and Spiritual Realization. Sophia Perennis: Hillsdale, NY, 2004; Perspectives on Initiation. Sophia Perennis: Hillsdale, NY, 2004. [91] Benoist, L. The Esoteric Path. Crucible: Wellingborough, 1988. [92] Bogdan, H. Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation. State University of New York: Albany, 2007, pp.9-15. [93] Faivre, A. & Voss, K. Western Esotericism and the Science of Religions. Peeters: Leuven, 1998, p.62. [94] Bogdan, H. Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation. State University of New York: Albany, 2007, p.172. [95] Gilbert, R.A. (editor). Hermetic Papers of A.E. Waite. Aquarian: Wellingborough, 1987, p.145. [96] Hanegraaff, W.J. (editor) with Faivre, A., van den Broek, R. & Brach, J-P. Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, 2 volumes. Brill: Leiden, 2005. [97] Faivre, A. Access to Western Esotericism. State University of New York Press: Albany, 1994, pp.12-13. [98] van Egmond, D. ‘Western Esoteric Schools’ in van den Broek, R. and Hanegraaff W.J. (editors). Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times. State University of New York Press: New York, 1988, pp.340-341. [99] Borella, J. ‘René Guénon and the Traditionalist School’ in Faivré, A. & Needleman, J. (editors). Modern Esoteric Spirituality. SCM Press Ltd:

London, 1993, p.346. [100] Green, D. ‘Wishful Thinking? Notes Towards a psychoanalytical sociology of Pagan magic’ in Journal for the Academic Study of Magic, Issue 2. Mandrake: Oxford, 2004. [101] Mauss, M. A General Theory of Magic. RKP: London, 1972. [102] Green, D. ‘Wishful Thinking? Notes Towards a psychoanalytical sociology of Pagan magic’ in Journal for the Academic Study of Magic, Issue 2. Mandrake: Oxford, 2004. [103] Evans, D. The History of British Magic after Crowley. Hidden Publishing: Oxford, 2007. [104] Luhrmann, T.M. Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft. Picador: London, 1989. [105] Greenwood, S. Magic, Witchcraft and the Otherworld. Berg: Oxford, 2000. [106] Clifton, C.S. Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America. Alta Mira Press: Oxford, 2006. [107] Hutton, R. The Triumph of the Moon. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1999. [108] Luhrmann, T.M. Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft. Picador: London, 1989, p.7. [109] On the Golden Dawn alone: Colquhoun, I., Sword of Wisdom. Neville Spearman: London, 1975; Gilbert, R.A., A.E. Waite A Bibliography. Aquarian: Wellingborough, 1983; Gilbert, R.A., A.E. Waite Magician of Many Parts. Crucible: 1987; Gilbert, R.A., Hermetic Papers of A.E. Waite. Aquarian: 1987; Gilbert, R.A., Revelations of the Golden Dawn. Quantum: 1997; Gilbert, R.A., The Golden Dawn Companion. Aquarian: 1986; Gilbert, R.A., The Golden Dawn Scrapbook. Weiser: 1997; Gilbert, R.A.,

The Golden Dawn: Twilight of the Magicians. Aquarian: 1983; Graf, S.J., W.B. Yeats: Twentieth-Century Magus. Weiser: 2000; Greer, M.K., Women of the Golden Dawn. Park Street Press: 1995; Harper, G.M. Yeats’s Golden Dawn. Aquarian: 1987; Howe, E. (editor). The Alchemist of the Golden Dawn. Aquarian: 1985; Howe, E., The Magicians of the Golden Dawn. RKP: 1971; Jensen, K. Frank. The Story of the Waite-Smith Tarot. ATS: 2006; Raine, K. Yeats, the Tarot and the Golden Dawn. Dolmen: 1976; Torrens, R.G. The Secret Rituals of the Golden Dawn. Aquarian: 1973. [110] Raine, K. Yeats, the Tarot and the Golden Dawn (Dolmen, 1976) contains photographs of Yeats’ magical implements, which he fashioned by hand. [111] Godwin, J., Chanel, C. & Deveney, J.P. The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor. Weiser: York Beach, 1995, pp.178-179. [112] Zanoni. The Light of Egypt Vol.I. Wagner: Denver, 1963, pp.28-43. [113] Edwards, D. Dare to Make Magic. Rigel Press: London, 1974. [114] Evans, D. The History of British Magic after Crowley. Hidden Publishing: Oxford, 2007. [115] Granholm, K. Embracing the Dark: The Magic Order of Dragon Rouge - Its Practice in Dark Magic and Meaning Making. ÅBO AKADEMI UNIVERSITY PRESS: Åbo, 2005. [116] Bardon, F. Initiation into Hermetics. Osiris-Verlag: Koblenz, 1962; Ophiel. The Art and Practice of Caballa Magic. Samuel Weiser: York Beach, 1977. [117] Gibbons, B.J. Spirituality and the Occult. Routledge: London, 2001, p.141.

[118] Faivre, A. Access to Western Esotericism. State University of New York Press: Albany, 1994, pp. 128-133 & pp. 258-261 on knowledge and reintegration. [119] The difficulty in referring to a single definition of Western esotericism is covered in W.J. Hanegraaff ’s essay, ‘The Birth of Esotericism from the Spirit of Protestantism’ in Aries, Volume 10, Number 2 (2010). [120] Blavatsky, H.P. The Secret Doctrine. Theosophical University Press: Pasadena, 1988, p.113. [121] Blavatsky, H.P. Ibid, footnote p.113. [122] Gibbons, B.J. Spirituality and the Occult. Routledge: London, 2001, p.141. [123] Scholem, G. Kabbalah. Dorset Press: New York, 1974, pp.202-3. Scholem refers to the “supreme charlatanism” of Eliphas Lévi (Alphonse Louis Constant), Papus (Gérard Encausse) and Frater Perdurabo (Aleister Crowley). [124] Penner, H. H. & Yonan, E. A. ‘Is a Science of Religion Possible?’, Journal of Religion, Vol. 52 (1972). [125] Windschuttle, K. The Killing of History. Encounter Books: San Francisco, 1996, pp.203-206. [126] Pals, D. ‘Reductionism and Belief ’ in McCutcheon, R.T. (editor). The Insider/Outsider Problem in the Study of Religion. Continuum: London, 2005, p.183. [127] Lurhman, T.M. Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft. Picador: London, 1994, p.274.

[128] Thorndike, L. History of Magic and Experimental Science. Macmillan & Co: London, 1923. [129] Yates, F.A. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. Routledge & Kegan Paul: London, 1964, p.288, discussing Bruno’s ‘philosophicalreligious magic’. [130] Walker, D.P. Spiritual and Demonic Magic from Ficino to Campanella. Sutton Publishing Ltd: Stroud, 2000, p.217, quoting Campanella, Astrologia. [131] Yates, F.A. The Rosicrucian Enlightenment. Routledge & Kegan Paul: London, 1971, p.261. First published in 1972 (this reference at p.217). [132] Faivre, A. & Voss, K. ‘Western Esotericism and the Science of Religions’, in Numen, Volume 42, Number 1 ( January 1995), p.53. [133] Idel, M. Ascensions on High in Jewish Mysticism. Central European University Press: Budapest, 2005, p.1. [134] Mitchell, B. Neutrality and Commitment. Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1968, p.10. [135] Donovan, P. ‘Neutrality in Religious Studies’ in McCutcheon R.T. (editor). The Insider/ Outsider Problem in the Study of Religion. Continuum: London, 2005, p. 246-247. [136] Hanegraaff, W.J. ‘Fiction in the Desert of the Real: Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos’ in Aries, Volume 7. Brill: Leiden, 2007, pp. 85-109. [137] Lurhmann, T.M. Ibid, pp.274-275. [138] Lurhmann, T.M. Ibid, p.376.

[139] Lurhmann, T.M. Ibid, pp.284-286. [140] Greenwood, S. Magic, Witchcraft and the Otherworld. Berg: Oxford, 2000, p.39. [141] Evans, D. The History of British Magic after Crowley. Hidden Publishing: Oxford, 2007, p.67. [142] Evans, D. Ibid, p.53. [143] Laurant, J-P. ‘The Primitive Characteristics of Nineteenth-Century Esotericism’ in Faivre, A. & Needleman, J. (editors). Modern Esoteric Spirituality. SCM Press Ltd: London, 1993, p.277. [144] Ibid, p.277. [145] Ibid, p.285-286. [146] Guénon, R. L’Erreur Spirit. Rivière: Paris, 1921. [147] Faivre, A. ‘Ancient and Medieval Sources of Modern Esoteric Movements’ in Faivre, A. & Needleman, J. (editors). Modern Esoteric Spirituality. SCM Press Ltd: London, 1993, p.70. [148] Faivre, A. Access to Western Esotericism. State University of New York Press: Albany, p.10-15. [149] Faivre, A. Ibid. [150] Faivre, A. Ibid. [151] Edighoffer, R., Faivre, A., Hanegraaff, W. J. & Goodrick-Clarke, N. (editors). Aries. Brill: Leiden, 2001.

[152] Butler, A. & Evans, D. (editors). The Journal for the Academic Study of Magic. Mandrake: Oxford, 2003. [153] http://www.esswe.org/ [last accessed 06 June 2009]. [154] von Stuckrad, K. Western Esotericism. Equinox Publishing Ltd: London, 2005, p.136. [155] Faivre, A. & Voss, K. Ibid, p.51. [156] Stephens, J. Retelling Stories, Framing Culture: Traditional Story and Metanarratives in Children’s Literature. Routledge: London, 1998, p.6. [157] Gorak, J. Making of a Modern Canon. Athlone Press: London, 1991, p.259. [158] Louth, A. The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition. Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1981, pp.132-133. [159] Augustine, Confessions, X.viii. [160] Luibheid, C. & Russell, N. (translators). John Climacus: The Ladder of Divine Ascent. Paulist Press: Mahwah, NJ, 1982, ‘Introduction’ by Ware, K. p.11. [161] Ibid, p.11. [162] Goodman M. & Goodman, S. (translators). Johann Reuchlin, On the Art of the Kabbalah. University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln and London, 1993. [163] Bogdan, H. Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation. SUNY: Albany, 2007, pp.25-26. See also Greenwood, S. The Anthropology of

Magic. Berg: Oxford, 2009, pp.1-13, and Hanegraaff, W.J. New Age Religion and Western Culture. Brill: Leiden, 1996, pp.3-7. [164] Knowles, M. S. ‘Andragogy: Adult Learning Theory in Perspective’ in Community College Review, 5, 3, 9-20, W 78. [165] Smith, M.K. (2004). ‘Adult schools and the making of adult education’, The Encyclopedia of Informal Education, www.infed.org/lifelonglearning/adult_schools.htm [last accessed 15 August 2010]. [166] Squires, G. The Curriculum Beyond School. Hodder & Stoughton: London, 1987, p.54. [167] Ibid. [168] Halsey, A. H. & Trow, M. A. The British Academics. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1971. [169] Startup, R. Studies in Higher Education , v4 n2, Oct 1979, pp. 18190.

[170] Squires, G. The Curriculum Beyond School. Hodder & Stoughton: London, 1987, p.54. [171] Stake, R. E. ‘Generalizability of Program Evaluation: The Need for Limits’, Educ Prod Rep v2. pp. 39-40. [172] Barnes, D. Practical Curriculum Study. Routledge & Kegan Paul: London, 1982. [173] Barnes, D. Practical Curriculum Study. Routledge & Kegan Paul: London, 1985, p.182. [174] Ibid, pp.192-194. See also pp.195-196 for a suggested schema for analysing worksheets, which I apply in part to the ‘Knowledge Lectures’ of the Golden Dawn, particularly with regard to the ‘cognitive processes’ levels I-IV ranging from simple recall to interpretation and hypothesis. Also see Eraut, M., Goad, L. & Smith, G. Handbook for the Analysis of Curriculum Materials. University of Sussex: Brghton, 1974.

[175] Ibid, p.193. [176] Ibid, p.72. The work of Alfred Schutz was a key aspect of phenomenology, later adapted in a reductionist sense to the sociology of religion by Berger, P. L. and Luckmann, T. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. Anchor Books: New York, 1966.

[177] Waite, A.E. The Occult Sciences: A Compendium of Transcendental Doctrine and Experiment. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, & Co: London, 1891, p.1.

[178] Owen, A. The Place of Enchantment. The University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 2004, p.66. [179] Kelly, A.V. The Curriculum: Theory & Practice, Sixth Edition. Sage: London, 1977, p.56. [180] Ibid, p.57. [181] Ibid. [182] Tyler, R.W. ‘Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction’, in Flinders, D.J. & Thornton, S.J. (editors). The Curriculum Studies Reader, (Third Edition). Routledge: New York, 2009, pp.72-73. [183] Ibid, p.73. [184] Ibid, p.72. [185] Goodrick-Clarke, N. Personal Correspondence, 2010. [186] Gaebelein, F.E. ‘Toward a Philosophy of Christian Education’ in Hakes, J.E. (editor). An Introduction to Evangelical Christian Education. Moody Press: Chicago, 1964, p.41. [187] Barnes, D. Practical Curriculum Study. Routledge & Kegan Paul: London, 1982, p.101. [188] Lawton, D., Gordon, P., Ing, M., Gibby, B., Pring, R. & Moore, T. Theory and Practice of Curriculum Studies. Routledge & Kegan Paul: London, 1978. [189] Case, P.F. The True and Invisible Rosicrucian Order. Weiser Books: York Beach, 1989, p.234.

[190] Practical Curriculum Study, op. cit., pp.102-103. [191] Ibid, p.102. [192] Sockett, H. Designing the Currriculum. Open Books Publishing: London, 1976, p.76. [193] Lawton, D., Gordon, P., Ing, M., Gibby, B., Pring, R. & Moore, T. Theory and Practice of Curriculum Studies. Routledge & Kegan Paul: London, 1978, pp.188-189. [194] Ibid. [195] Gibbons, B.J. Spirituality and the Occult. Routledge: London, 2001, p.141. [196] See Owen, A. The Place of Enchantment. The University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 2004, p.57-58, where the creation of the Second Order is seen as having the express purpose of “issuing teachings and making executive decisions anonymously on behalf of the ‘Secret Chiefs’,” although Owen also admits to the educational purpose when she notes that there was “neither precedent for nor contemporary rival to the kind of teaching and training offered by the Order.” [197] Notes of An Adept: Being the Outline and Study of the Grade Zelator Adeptus Minor. Portal Publications, 2005. Also see Küntz, D. The Golden Dawn Source Book. Holmes Publishing Group: Edmonds, WA, 1996, pp.173-174. [198] See Bruner and Haste, 1987:1 in Slee, P. T. & Shute, R. Child Development: Thinking About Theories Texts in Developmental Psychology. Routledge: Abingdon, 2013. p. 74. [199] Ibid.

[200] Moffit, L. Paul Foster-Case Timeline, http://www.2000biz.com/pfc/ [last accessed 13 August 2010]. [201] Ibid. [202] Case, P.F. The True and Invisible Rosicrucian Order. Weiser Books: York Beach, 1985, p.160. [203] Ibid. [204] Squires, G. The Curriculum Beyond School. Hodder & Stoughton: London, 1987, p.61. [205] See particularly, Hanegraaff, W.J. ‘Tradition’ in Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism. Brill: Leiden, 2005, II, pp.1125-1135. [206] Gilbert, R.A. The Golden Dawn Scrapbook. Weiser: York Beach, 1997, p.77. [207] Ibid, p.76. [208] Ibid, p.72-73. [209] Ibid, p.79. [210] Ibid, p.80. [211] Ibid, p.93. [212] Ibid, p.96. [213] Ibid, p.96.

[214] Greer, M.K. Women of the Golden Dawn. Park Street Press: Rochester, 1995, p.191. [215] There are documents relating to Farr’s educational period held in the Senate House Library, University of London, specifically, MS982/H/1, ‘Certificate for the Cambridge University higher local examination’. [216] Greer, M. K. Ibid, pp.344-345. [217] Ibid, p.344. The Montessori methodology would have been relatively new, only published and widely known within the five years prior to this date, but would have been greatly sympathetic to Farr’s spiritual experience within the Golden Dawn. The key concepts of the approach for teaching children – reflect much of that order’s framework: inner guidance of Nature, freedom for self-directed learning, planes of development, and prepared environment. http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori method [last accessed 09 November 2010]. [218] Howe, E. ‘Fringe Masonry in England 1870-85’ in Transactions of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076, London, 1972). http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/aqc/fringe/fringe.html [219] Ibid. [220] Ibid, Appendix, http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/aqc/fringe/appendix2.html [221] Crowley, A. ‘The Book of Hoor’, Yorke Collection. Unfortunately, my own pamphlet on this subject was subject to removal by the current version of the O.T.O. who own the copyright on Crowley’s published and unpublished materials. [222] See http://www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/beresiner17.html [last accessed 23 July 2012].

[223] Waterfield, R. Hidden Depths: The Story of Hypnosis. Macmillan: London, 2002, p.208. [224] Ibid. [225] Ibid. [226] Ibid. [227] Ibid. [228] Ibid. [229] MacKenzie, K. The Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia. Aquarian Press: Wellingborough, 1987, p.616. [230] Westcott, W.W. An Introduction to the Study of the Kabbalah. Metaphysical Research Group: Hastings, 1978, p.7. [231] Budge, E.A.W. Amulets and Superstitions. Oxford University Press: London, 1930, p. xxxviii. “The Kabbalah Denudata by BARON VON ROSENROTH (1677-78) and the Kabbâlâh by Ginsburg (1865), and the works of MR. WAITE are very useful books on the subject, but the practical side of Kabbâlâh is very successfully handled by DR. ERICH BISCHOFF, a skilled Hebraist, in his Die Kabbalah (Einfuhrung), Leipzig, 1923, and more fully in his larger work, Die Elemente der Kabbalah, 2 vols, 1920.” [232] Ibid, p.65. [233] Ibid, pp.65-66. [234] Scholem, G. Kabbalah. Dorset Press: New York, 1974, pp.416-419.

[235] Ibid, p.416. [236] Howe, E. The Magicians of the Golden Dawn. RKP: London, 1972. Gilbert, R.A. The Golden Dawn: Twilight of the Magicians. Aquarian Press: Wellingborough, 1983. [237] Greer, M.K. Women of the Golden Dawn. Park Street Press: Rochester, Vermont, 1995. [238] Graf, S.J. W.B. Yeats: Twentieth Century Magus. Samuel Weiser, Inc: York Beach, 2000. Harper, G.M. Yeats’s Golden Dawn. Aquarian Press: Wellingborough, 1974. [239] Hamill, J. (editor). The Rosicrucian Seer. Aquarian Press: Wellingborough, 1986. [240] Gilbert, R.A. A.E. Waite: Magician of Many Parts. Crucible: Wellingborough, 1987. [241] Colquhoun, I. Sword of Wisdom: MacGregor Mathers and ‘The Golden Dawn’. Neville Spearman: London, 1975. [242] Bogdan, H. Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation. State University of New York Press: Albany, 2007. [243] King, F. (editor). Astral Projection, Ritual Magic and Alchemy. Aquarian Press: Wellingborough, 1981. [244] Including MacGregor-Mathers, S.L. The Key of Solomon the King. Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd: London, 1981, first published 1888. Also The Grimoire of Armadel. Weiser: Boston, 2001. For an analysis of grimoire magic, see Fanger, C. (editor). Conjuring Spirits: Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic. Sutton Publishing Ltd: Stroud, 1998, and

Kieckheffer, R. Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer’s Manual of the Fifteenth Century. Sutton Publishing Ltd: Stroud, 1997. [245] Anon. Notes of an Adept, Alpha Omega Temples. Portal Publications, 2005. A reproduction of G.F. Frater D.D.C.F.’s (MacGregor-Mathers’) issue of Ritual A, September 1897, revised 1898. [246] Notes on alchemy by N.O.M. [Non Omnis Moriar, William Wynn Westcott], Yorke Collection NS32. [247] Private letter from Sir Frederick Leighton to H.M. Paget, postmarked March 1879 (private collection). [248] Gilbert, R.A. William Wynn Westcott and the Esoteric School of Masonic Research, 19 February 1987, http://www.mastermason.com/luxocculta/westcott.htm [last accessed 14 July 2009], paragraph 45. [249] Howe, E. The Magicians of the Golden Dawn. RKP: London, 1972, p.12. [250] Westcott, W.W. An Address to the Sociatas Rosiciana in Anglia. http://www.goldendawn.com/temple/index.jsp? s=articles&p=address_to_the_sociatas_rosiciana_in_anglia [last accessed 14 July 2009]. [251] Yorke Collection, NS64, 17b. [252] Luhrmann, T.M. Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft: Ritual Magic in Contemporary England. Picador: London, 1994, p.6. [253] King, F. Astral Projection, Ritual Magic and Alchemy. Aquarian Press: Wellingborough, 1987, pp.257-260. There were 36 such papers circulating amongst the Golden Dawn members.

[254] Luhrmann, T.M. Ibid, p.367. [255] Luhrmann, T.M. Ibid, p.12. [256] Greenwood, S. The Anthropology of Magic. Berg: Oxford, 2009, p.113. [257] Ibid, p.31 on Lévy-Bruhl and participation. [258] Owen, A. The Place of Enchantment. The University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 2004, p.73. [259] The term ‘Flying Rolls’ (or ‘Flying Scrolls’) derives from Zechariah 5:2: “And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.” [260] G.H. Frater Deo Duce Comite Ferro [S.L. MacGregor-Mathers], ‘The Theoricus Adeptus Minor Manifesto’ in Küntz, D. The Golden Dawn Legacy of MacGregor Mathers. Holmes Publishing Group: Sequim, 2005, p.12. [261] Westcott, W.W. ‘Samuel Liddell Mathers’, in Küntz, D. The Golden Dawn Legacy of MacGregor Mathers. Holmes Publishing Group: Sequim, 2005, p.29. [262] Ibid, p.13. [263] A.E. Waite, ‘Notes of the Month: Appreciation of S.L. MacGregor Mathers’ in The Occult Review, Volume 29, Number 4. Rider & Co: London, 1919, pp.197-199. [264] Westcott, W.W. ‘Samuel Liddell Mathers’, in Küntz, D. The Golden Dawn Legacy of MacGregor Mathers. Holmes Publishing Group: Sequim,

2005, p.29. [265] Küntz, Ibid, p. 30. [266] G.H. Frater Deo Duce Comite Ferro [S.L. MacGregor-Mathers], ‘The Theoricus Adeptus Minor Manifesto’ in Küntz, D. The Golden Dawn Legacy of MacGregor Mathers. Holmes Publishing Group: Sequim, 2005, p.12. [267] Gardner, F.L. copy of ‘General Orders’ in Yorke Collection, NS63. GD MSS. 1. [268] King, Ibid, pp.284-285. [269] Ibid, pp. 286-288. [270] Ibid, p.287. [271] Ibid, pp.257-260, pp.286-288. [272] Ibid, p.258. [273] Ibid, p.14. [274] Word count of text in rolls written by Mathers and Westcott by present author. [275] King, F. Ibid, p.265 on Stella Matutina, pp.195-256, ‘Unpublished Papers of the Cromlech Temple’. [276] King, F. Ibid, p.11.

[277] Gilbert, R.A. The Golden Dawn Companion. Aquarian Press: Wellingborough, 1986, p.94. [278] King, F. Ibid, p.58. [279] Regardie, I. The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic. Falcon Press: Phoenix, 1984, Volume 8, p.11. [280] Symonds J. & Grant, K. (editors). The Confessions of Aleister Crowley. Routledge & Kegan Paul: London, 1986, p.177. [281] Ibid. [282] Gilbert, R.A. The Golden Dawn Scrapbook. Samuel Weiser: York Beach, 1997, p.64. [283] Crowley, A. Ibid, pp.176-177. [284] Crowley, A. Ibid, pp.176-177. [285] Crowley, A. Ibid, pp.177-178. [286] Gilbert, R.A. The Golden Dawn Scrapbook. Samuel Weiser: York Beach, 1997, p.167. [287] Gilbert, R.A. A.E. Waite: Magician of Many Parts. Crucible: Wellingborough, 1987, pp.111-112. [288] Gilbert, R.A. (editor). The Sorcerer and his Apprentice: Unknown Writings of S.L. MacGregor Mathers and J.W. Brodie-Innes. Aquarian: Wellingborough, 1983, p.115. [289] Ibid, p.161.

[290] Gilbert R.A. (editor). Hermetic Papers of A.E. Waite. Aquarian: Wellingborough, 1987, p.193. [291] Eco, U. Foucault’s Pendulum. Pan Books: London, 1990, p.215. [292] Geffarth, R.D. Religion und arkane Hierarchie. Brill: Leiden, 2007, pp.182-183, Abb. 5.1 & 5.2. [293] Geffarth, R.D. Ibid, p.181; “Die mitglieder des ersten, untersten grades, juniores genannt, waren die neuaufgenommenen bruder und galten als anfanger, welche den esten teil des institutes, die ordens-regeln, das ceremonial, den catechismum und die chymischen zeichen kennen lernen sollten. Mit dem ersten teil des instituts war die in der instruction des ersten grades enthaltene erklarung der vier elemente feuer, wasser, luft und erde gemeint. Ein junior bekam also lediglich das grundlegende rustzeug einschlieblich der alchemistischen schriftsprache vermittelt.” [294] Geffarth, R.D. Ibid, p.183. [295] Geffarth, R.D. Ibid, p.184. [296] Ibid. [297] Ibid. [298] Letter from Florence Farr to Frederick L. Gardner, 10 July, Yorke Collection, GD Z1. [299] Ibid. [300] Ibid.

[301] Gilbert, R.A. personal correspondence to present author, 22 August 2007. [302] Letter from W.F. Kirby to unknown addressee, dated 14 March 1897 (Warburg Institute, University of London: Yorke Collection) NS73, Letters A-Z, K. [303] Howe, E. Ibid, p. 40. [304] See King, F. Modern Ritual Magic. Prism Press: Bridport, 1989, pp.79-93. [305] Howe, E. Ibid, p.240 on Westcott’s account of William Peck’s reaction to the trial. William Peck (1862-1925) was the City Astronomer at Edinburgh and was knighted in 1917. [306] Howe, E. Ibid, p.99. [307] King, F. Ritual Magic in England. New English Library: London, 1973, p.123. [308] See http://www.thewica.co.uk/DV%20and%20the%20GD.htm [last accessed 29 June 2012]. [309] Howe, E. Ibid, p.98. [310] Howe, E. Ibid, pp.288-289. [311] Yorke Collection NS73. [312] Fleming, A. ‘Introduction’ in Küntz, D. The Golden Dawn Court Cards. Holmes Publishing Group: Edmonds, Wash., c. 1996.

[313] King, F. (editor). Astral Projection, Ritual Magic and Alchemy. Aquarian Press: Wellingborough, 1981, pp.40-41. ‘Flying Roll XXXIX: An Exorcism by Frater Sub Spe’. [314] http://postalheritage.org.uk/page/movingthemail-timeline accessed 29 June 2012].

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[315] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distance_education [316] Bogdan, H. Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation. State University of New York Press: Albany, 2007. Bell, C. Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1997. [317] Guénon, R. Perspectives on Initiation. Sophia Perennis: Hillsdale NY, 2004, p.98. [318] Yorke Collection, NS64, GD IV.12. [319] Regardie, I. The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic. Falcon Press: Phoenix, 1984, Volume I, p.23. The statement, “This secret is reserved for a higher grade”, became an in-joke for several years within the members of ICOM (see the first part of the Magister Vol. 0) who would use it in everyday life for any situation where information was withheld for no real purpose, or when an employee did not know precisely why they were following some particular rule or code of conduct. As in, “Why do we have to get on the bus?” “The guy didn’t say, I think it is a secret reserved for a higher grade”. [320] Regardie, I. The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic. Falcon Press: Phoenix, 1984, Volume IV, p.8. [321] Regardie, I. The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic. Falcon Press: Phoenix, 1984, Volume I, p.60.

[322] See amongst other works cited, Colquhoun, I. Sword of Wisdom: MacGregor Mathers and The Golden Dawn. Neville Spearman: London, 1975, amongst the earliest surveys of the Golden Dawn. [323] Letter to F.L. Gardner from F.J. Johnson, Christmas 1889 (Warburg Institute, University of London: Yorke Collection) NS73, Letters A-Z, G. Also quoted in Howe, E. Ibid, p.182, n.1. [324] Howe, E. Ibid, p.97. [325] Ibid. [326] Farrell, N. King Over The Water: Samuel Mathers and the Golden Dawn. Kerubim Press: Dublin, 2012. Mathers’ Last Secret: The Rituals and Teachings of the Alpha et Omega. Rosicrucian Order of the Golden Dawn: Laguna Niguel, 2011. [327] Letters from Lilli Geise to Brodie-Innes (New York, 1922). http://www.sria. org/1LilliG_BInnes.htm [last accessed 07 August 2007]. [328] Moina Mathers, letter to Paul Foster Case, 18 July 1921. http://www.golden-dawn.org/ biocase.html [last accessed 08 August 2007]. [329] Mathers, M. ‘Theoricus Adeptus Minor’ Document. Yorke Collection, NS99.13. [330] Case, P.F. Wheel of Life Magazine, March 1937. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_ Foster_Case [last accessed 28 July 2007]. [331] http://lvx.org/flohome.htm [last accessed 10 August 2007]. [332] Gilbert, R.A. The Golden Dawn Scrapbook. Weiser: York Beach, 1997, p.137.

[333] Ibid, p.132. [334] Letter from Chris van Berne to Norman Mudd, dated 10 August 1925, Yorke Collection, OSEE1. [335] Ibid. [336] Fortune, D. ‘Ceremonial Magic Unveiled’ in Occult Review, January 1933. [337] Theoricus Ritual in the Golden Dawn, see Regardie, I. The Golden Dawn. Llewellyn: St. Paul, 1989, p.160. The notion of our embodiment of the four elements is perhaps here taken from Paracelsus, “... there are not four arcana but only one Arcanum; however it has four aspects, just as a tower has four sides, according to the four winds. And just as a tower cannot be lacking in one side, so a physician must not lack any of these aspects. For one aspect does not yet make a whole physician, nor two, nor three; all four are needed. Just as the arcana consist of four parts, so the whole physician must comprise of the four aspects.” Jacobi, J. (editor). Paracelsus: Selected Writings. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1979, p.61. See also Goodrick-Clarke, N. Paracelsus: Essential Readings. Crucible: Wellingborough, 1990, and Webster, C. From Paracelsus to Newton: Magic and the Making of Modern Science. Dover: Mineola, 1982.