The bizarre mysteries of the Golden Dawn

Mar 09, 2023

“...there rose before me mental images that I could not control: a desert and black Titan raising himself up by his two hands from the middle of a heap of ancient ruins.”

The story of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is filled with mystery and secrecy. Allusions to hidden, ancient secrets and veiled truths.

The Cipher Manuscripts are the founding texts for the famous Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

I’m going to share a little bit of it here:

3. the planets, elements
4. and the signs for the
5. Book of Thoth is the
6. universe which is the
7. Veil of God.
8. Learn then O Practicus
9. to know the universe and
10. thyself. Seek in the manifest
11. for the divine One and
12. when found veil the eyes
13. in adoration.
14. Behold the true attribut-
15. ion of tarot. Ponder it
16. in thy heart, reaveal it
17. not to the profane

This excerpt is loaded with references to secrecy. “The veil of God” “veil the eyes,” “Reveal it not to the profane.” The texts are also filled with references to Tarot, astrology, and rituals.

The famous poet W.B. Yeats was a member of the Order, as was Bram Stoker. When Yeats visited the Hermetic Order, something very strange happened to him (so he claims) that convinced him to join, which I will explain later.

First, a very brief history of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn: Hermetic refers to ideas, principles, texts, and societies supposed to have derived from the mythological figure of Hermes Trismegistus, a blending of the Greek messenger god Hermes, and Thoth, the Egyptian god of writing. This man was believed to be the one who knew all of the knowledge and secrets, all the philosophy and science and magic you would think of today, especially the Western tradition.

An old illustration of Hermes learning the secrets of the universe

Texts attributed to him have been “discovered” throughout history, and Hermeticism had revivals during the Renaissance and again in the 19^th century. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is perhaps the most notable secret society to arise from the tradition, and had a profound, I mean a seriously profound impact on the occult practices and theories Western culture draws from today. Women were admitted to the Order on equal basis of men.

Now, the founders of the secret society claimed they were in contact with the “Secret Chiefs” who are mystical beings who are in possession of secret knowledge and possess superhuman powers.

One of the founders, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, believed these beings exist right here with us on Earth.

Here’s a somewhat disturbing sketch that controversial member and famous occultist Aleister Crowley made of LAM, one of the supposed Secret Chiefs he could communicate with:

It’s eerily similar to the “Grey Alien”.

The origin of the founding texts, the Cipher Manuscripts are contentious and remain a bizarre mystery. They do, however contain references that seem very familiar to us. For example, note the mention of the Tree of Life and of alchemy:

7. Hs. See on Tree of Life
8. “ 7 planet on Tree of Life
9. ” 4 “ ” “ ” “
10. Hg. See resume of planets
11. & alchemical on Tree of Life of 1 form
12. H. I name you Practicus &
13. Monokeros de Astris
14. I give you the symbol of
15. H. I proclaim you 3 = 8
16. Be sure to study well and make progress

William Wynn Westcott claimed he learned the name and address of a mysterious woman named Anna Sprengel whose name and address was revealed to him upon decoding the manuscripts, so he said. And it was she who granted him the charter to found the Order. No such woman has ever been identified by scholars.

Now, to return to W.B. Yeats. The poet had a strong interest in the occult and joined the Order after personally witnessing a ‘magic trick’ there. According to his autobiography, the following incident took place:

“He gave me a cardboard symbol and I closed my eyes ... there rose before me mental images that I could not control: a desert and black Titan raising himself up by his two hands from the middle of a heap of ancient ruins. Mathers explained that I had seen a being of the order of Salamanders because he had shown me their symbol...”

Magic consumed him. When his wife practiced the strange art of “automatic writing” in which someone supposedly writes what a spirit is trying to communicate. He would try to piece her mysterious sentences together.

And he would attempt to interpret the bizarre things his wife spoke in her sleep, and when she spoke these “profound” things, he said he could actually begin to smell incense, along with distinct flower scents.

The occult had a profound impact on Yeats’ career. He said:

“If I had not made magic my constant study I could not have written a single word of my Blake book nor would The Countess Kathleen have ever come to exist. The mystical life is the center of all that I do and all that I think and all that I write.”

He would win a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.

- Joe

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The Hermetic Order and the modern world

The Hermetic traditions have a strong potency today, as is evident in the popularity of the fantasy literary and cinema genre, which many believe has roots in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

“One may legitimately wonder what influence the Golden Dawn had on Lewis and Tolkien ... Through it, however, and more particularly through the influence of Yeats, Machen, and Williams ... the Hermetic/Neoplatonic worldview has come to be commonplace throughout fantasy literature.”
- Hermetic Imagination: The Effect of The Golden Dawn on Fantasy
Literature