Golden Dawn

Convictions, morals, other societies and religions.
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Nefastos
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Golden Dawn

Post by Nefastos »

Dear brothers, sisters & our guests! I'd like to know your thoughts, experiences & studies concerning the order of Golden Dawn and its teachings.

Some stray thoughts upon the subject:

For quite a long time I've had this fascination of sorts considering the said organization. I appreciate the original texts highly, although I have my opinions about what lackings made its fall possible. Namely, its emphasis in lower kind of magic & not enough in the higher kind, which again & again must stress the ethos of the higher ego: most of all, complete honesty that rises above all personal ambition. If one has some kind of an esoteric rank, it is precisely esoteric, and can't be used in worldly manner.

Not long ago we read some Golden Dawn books as a practice for a group of brotherhood members. My part was "Book T", other members read different books. It was a nice start, but there's so much to learn & to discuss, and I see no reason why interested outsiders couldn't join to many parts of that discussion.

Most readers are likely familiar with Israel Regardie's "Golden Dawn", in which he published - without permission, following the example of Crowley - most of the order's teachings. Only problem with the said book is the same as its best feature: it is so comprehensive that reading if from cover to cover demands much time. Because of that, there are some books that might be more rewarding to an outsider. For example, Torrens' "The Inner Teachings of the Golden Dawn" is nice. There are many other such texts, although we must understand that not all of the so-called "Flying rolls" teachings were equally important or of equal quality. E.g. King's "Ritual Magic of the Golden Dawn" includes some not-so-great material while omitting many important parts, in my opinion.

When talking about occult societies, we know that scandal usually follows in their wake. Tons of material have been produced for & against the Golden Dawn members, and we should be wary not to take things too easily as they are presented. Much of that discussion is in some way biased. But if we keep that in mind, I'd like to recommend R.A. Gilbert's book "The Golden Dawn scrapbook". Even while its author clearly despises occultism per se, it has some good information to think about. Most of all that recommendation goes to the fratres in the aspect of the Eye, focusing on that critical & sceptical point of view.

What's interesting about the Golden Dawn is, that because it encouraged more personal emphases from its members than Theosophical Society, its more important members seem to come from a wider set of personal preferences. It might even be argued that if these personality types would have been put in some kind of aspectual hierarchy regarding to their temperaments (and not of developing grades), more fruitful "unisono" would have been potentially produced. As it was, "one for all" often became "all for one", and personalities triumphed over ideals with known results.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
Circaeon

Re: Golden Dawn

Post by Circaeon »

Worth to mention in this context is perhaps that the doctrines and methods exposed by Dr. Israel Regardie differ from the original H.O.G.D. teachings on several levels, since he chose to weed out several essential rosicrucian elements and influences from the late rituals and formulas. In other words, the esoterical components presented by Dr. Regardie where, at the time, more in line with Stella Matutina, rather than with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The fundamental doctrines were however still quite similar, which would later result in a rather comprehensive assimilation of several S.M. elements into the coeval H.O.G.D.

Regardie was, in other words, an essential influence to the H.O.G.D. tradition and The Path of the Middle Pillar. Not unlike the late Mr. Aleister Crowley, or the H.O.G.D. to western esotericism in general, for that matter. It's an interesting ladder.

Even though I am not an adherent to the tradition of Sephirothic Qabalah or The Path of the Middle Pillar, I have deep respect for the H.O.G.D. due to their historical influence and sincere work efforts. The Golden Dawn Scrapbook was a nice documentation, with a lot of attractive information on the order. I did however feel that the author was too harsh in his critique towards Mr. Mathers. He was indeed an eccentric, with some less favorable (human) traits, but he was also a quite brilliant occultist. In my personal opinion i.e.
Abhavani
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Re: Golden Dawn

Post by Abhavani »

Nefastos wrote:Not long ago we read some Golden Dawn books as a practice for a group of brotherhood members. My part was "Book T", other members read different books. It was a nice start, but there's so much to learn & to discuss, and I see no reason why interested outsiders couldn't join to many parts of that discussion.
Could we consider that we'd had some sort of another practice around Golden Dawn in the more or less near future? I would find this useful and fruitful, since Golden Dawn's system is still very unfimiliar to me, but I'd reckon its potential.
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Nefastos
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Re: Golden Dawn

Post by Nefastos »

Abhavani wrote:Could we consider that we'd had some sort of another practice around Golden Dawn in the more or less near future? I would find this useful and fruitful, since Golden Dawn's system is still very unfimiliar to me, but I'd reckon its potential.


Although I am not a great fan of Crowley myself, it seems that since there is quite a little interest in the Golden Dawn but much more in its descendant Thelema in the field of Western occultism (including inside the brotherhood), we will start to focus a little more to Crowley's work, and leave the Golden Dawn for the lesser notice.

This will necessarily bring about a lot of not so pleasant karma to work with (I still have a fresh memory about the many years' dreadful dealing with theosophical misconceptions of the opposite sort), but it seems to be quite unavoidable, if we want to activate more in this field of study.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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RaktaZoci
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Re: Golden Dawn

Post by RaktaZoci »

Nefastos wrote:
Although I am not a great fan of Crowley myself, it seems that since there is quite a little interest in the Golden Dawn but much more in its descendant Thelema in the field of Western occultism (including inside the brotherhood), we will start to focus a little more to Crowley's work, and leave the Golden Dawn for the lesser notice.
I'm not personally so familiar with the original GD system, but I've understood from many sources that AC (Crowley) sort of refined and further developed this model (GD) that he was familiar with from his earlier life, but found it unable to express the whole schema properly.
Abhavani wrote:Could we consider that we'd had some sort of another practice around Golden Dawn in the more or less near future?
If such a practice would commence, I'd like to be involved in its preparations..
die Eule der Minerva beginnt erst mit der einbrechenden Dämmerung ihren Flug.
-Hegel
Fomalhaut
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Re: Golden Dawn

Post by Fomalhaut »

RaktaZoci wrote:
Nefastos wrote:
I'm not personally so familiar with the original GD system, but I've understood from many sources that AC (Crowley) sort of refined and further developed this model (GD) that he was familiar with from his earlier life, but found it unable to express the whole schema properly.
Abhavani wrote:Could we consider that we'd had some sort of another practice around Golden Dawn in the more or less near future?
If such a practice would commence, I'd like to be involved in its preparations..


I have started to read The Complete Golden Dawn by Israel Regardie recently. I would also like to be involved in the practise and preparations of it.
"I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become."
— C.G. Jung
Vanadís

Re: Golden Dawn

Post by Vanadís »

I decided to follow fra Fomalhaut and start reading The Complete Golden Dawn by Israel Regardie also. I've gone through some of the pages years back, but now I will get back to it during this year. Or at least the first half of the book. Latter half is about initiations and degree rituals of GD, and I will skip them. So I will be open to discussion about the book / contents via this year.
Kenazis
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Re: Golden Dawn

Post by Kenazis »

I have that book also, but I have so much reading to do now...but tempting is this....collective pressure...
"We live for the woods and the moon and the night"
Fomalhaut
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Re: Golden Dawn

Post by Fomalhaut »

Kenazis wrote:I have that book also, but I have so much reading to do now...but tempting is this....collective pressure...
Join us! :)

Vanadís wrote:I decided to follow fra Fomalhaut and start reading The Complete Golden Dawn by Israel Regardie also. I've gone through some of the pages years back, but now I will get back to it during this year. Or at least the first half of the book. Latter half is about initiations and degree rituals of GD, and I will skip them. So I will be open to discussion about the book / contents via this year.
Should we decide on some certain parts altogether and make a reading group on it?
"I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become."
— C.G. Jung
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RaktaZoci
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Re: Golden Dawn

Post by RaktaZoci »

I just wanted to specify which book we are actually reading, since there are two books with almost a similar name by I.Regardie..?
The other one is titled The complete Golden Dawn system of magic (big book with yellow covers) and the other is called simply Golden Dawn, which is also in a paperback version.
die Eule der Minerva beginnt erst mit der einbrechenden Dämmerung ihren Flug.
-Hegel
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