Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn ( Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, in short, the Golden Dawn ) was a magical discrete society. It was founded around 1887/1888 in London by William Robert Woodman, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and Wynn Westcott William. The Order existed until 1903 and then fell apart due to internal disputes in various successor organizations.
Famous members of the Order have included Aleister Crowley, Arthur Machen, Arthur Edward Waite, and William Butler Yeats.
The Golden Dawn saw itself as a continuation of the Rosicrucian tradition and thus became the prototype of other esoteric working religious communities. Many of the modern magical or esoteric movements such as Wicca and Thelema can be traced back to this Order.
History
All three founders - Westcott, Mathers and Woodman - were both Freemasons and Rosicrucians of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. Westcott and Mathers were members of the founded by Anna Kingsford Hermetic Society in London. The grade structure of the Golden Dawn is based, similar to the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, to the degree designations of the German gold and Rosicrucians who were connected to the Sephiroth of the Qabalistic Tree of Life.
The Basics of the Teachings of the Golden Dawn took to the so-called cipher manuscript, believed to have been after the Order Legend of Wynn Westcott "discovered" and " decrypt ". It includes initiation rituals for the first five degrees of the Order and the secret associations of the tarot to the Hebrew letters. The initiative to found the Order, originally came from Wynn Westcott, the driving force behind MacGregor Mathers was. Of the three founders of the Golden Dawn itself Mathers employed most intensively with ritual magic. In addition to the basic Kabbalistic work of Christian Knorr von Rosenroth Kabbalah denudata translated and he commented numerous works of Solomonic magic literature, including The Key of Solomon the King and The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, 1898.
By December 1891, the first five grades were processed ( internally referred to as External or First Order ). The Second or Inner Order, which should include the Adeptengrade existed previously only administratively, since there was no initiation rituals or teaching contents for this. It was Mathers reserved, this second order, to create the actual magical order, Ordo Rosae the Rubeae et Aureae Crucis ( Order of the Red Rose and of the Golden Cross), also referred to as " RR A. C. et called. " In the autumn of 1891 Mathers said in Paris contact with the "secret superiors " to have made the members of the inmost or third order. From a Frater LET ( Lux e tenebris ) he claims to have received further instructions for the construction of the Second Order. He then created the central initiation ritual of the Order, the Adeptus Minor Gradus. For the described in the Fama Fraternitatis retrieval of the hidden tomb of Christian Rosenkreutz is implemented ritual. It is specially designed the " Vault of the Adepts ", a walk- seven-page initiation chamber. This vault is considered as a reflection of the universe, among other things, comply with its colorfully painted sides of the seven planets. This is the so-called Pasty, a sarcophagus in which the adept will lie during the ritual to embody the Founder Christian Rosenkreutz.
Westcott was mainly responsible for teaching content of the Outer Order, now Mathers wrote almost all the important instructions and doctrinal writings of the Second Order. In Order of appearance only the Small Invozierende and the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram were taught so that the students could get a picture of the invisible forces and their steering. This should change. Immediately after the initiation of the Adeptus Minor, this had to work through a set of instructions and treatises. He had to make magic items and to consecrate, including the four " Elemental Weapons " rod, cup, dagger, and pentacle. More advanced documents dealing among other things with the early modern system of Enochian Angel Magic of John Dee, which are based on Dee's magic items are, however, referred to by Michael Stausberg as misunderstood and modified. In addition to these official doctrinal writings circulated among the members of the inner order also called Flying Rolls, essays and advice from more advanced members.
1897 Wynn Westcott gave all leadership positions at Florence Farr. This provoked some controversy between Arthur E. Waite, MacGregor Mathers and Farr. Disputes over the leadership of the Order and Mathers demand his instructions should always be observed, as well as disputes over the content of teaching of the Second Order led to a schism and the collapse of the Golden Dawn in 1903; also be mentioned that the London members rejected the appointment of the young Aleister Crowley in the fifth degree by Mathers, which, as measured by Mathers leadership, a rebellion equaled. The significant annual membership fees at that time were in the amount of the annual income of a governess or a secretary. There were also disappointments over foundation legends, the alleged truth of this time just crumbled. Waite, Mathers and Farr tried, more or less just divide the structures among them. Waite founded in the same year the mystically oriented Independent and Rectified Rite of the Golden Dawn, which was renamed in 1916 in Fellowship of the Rosy Cross. Waite is also the inventor of the Waite Tarot Rider-Waite - Tarot respectively. Mathers was striving to unite the rest of the Temple of the Golden Dawn Order of Alpha et Omega under his. Florence Farr's successes to provide a separate organization on its feet, but failed. Furthermore founded the former Golden Dawn members Robert William Felkin and John William Brodie -Innes the Stella Matutina - Order. In 1933 Israel Regardie was initiated into the Hermes Temple of Bristol.
Teaching content
The curriculum of the Golden Dawn consisted of numerous occult and mystical traditions such as Kabbalah and Tarot, Astrology, Alchemy and Enochian magic Dees and from work with the gods of ancient Egypt and Greece. Elements of Christianity and Judaism were syncretistic integrated. The degree system was divided initially into nine, later in eleven levels that are associated with the Kabbalistic Sephiroth ten. Many of today's occult organizations use study material of the Golden Dawn. For example, in some Wicca groups has its pentagram rituals are used, the unchanged the Golden Dawn come.
Successor organizations of the Golden Dawn
- Independent and Rectifide Rite of the Golden Dawn ( 1903 to 1914, Waite )
- Alpha et Omega (from 1903 to about 1940, Mathers )
- Stella Matutina ( 1903-1978, Felkin )
Newly established by Golden Dawn members organizations
- Builders of the Adytum
- Society of the Inner Light; formerly Fraternity of the Inner Light
In the tradition of the Golden Dawn groups working
- Temple of Light, Love and Life ( EOGD - Great Temple of EOGD of Europe, Zurich )
- Hermetic Order Temple of Starlight, The Netherlands
- Fraternity of the Hidden Light, Fraternitas LVX Occulta ( FLO)
- Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn ( HOGD ®), Outer Order of Alpha et Omega ®; with trademark protection for the name Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the European Union and Canada; inter alia, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Germany, Berlin, ( German section of the HOGD ®)
- Servants of the Light ( SOL)
- Society of the Inner Light; formerly Fraternity of the Inner Light
- Splendor Lucis; working in the tradition of the Golden Dawn Order with headquarters in Switzerland