User blog:Inept Wiki User/Exploring Bases: Magicians of the Golden Dawn

When devising this little side-project, with Aleister Crowley currently on the stage, Herald suggested a little look at the magical organization which he was a member of; the Golden Dawn. There is quite a lot which could be covered, but for this initial post, it will just be a quick overview of the organization and some of its members. This was initially planned to be done in the months after NT18 last year, which described Aleister Crowley's past with the Golden Dawn, seeming like a good time to do so. Unfortunately, due to various circumstances, progress has been slowed and it was delayed far past this point. However, certain events in NT20 have presented another opportunity.

NOTE: Bear in mind that a number of the subjects which might be involved have differing interpretations and disagreements concerning them. Also, I'm just a casual reader in these areas, so there may be some mistakes at times, though I try to avoid them as much as possible. If there are any points for improvement, correction or discussion, please feel free to discuss them in a constructive manner in the comments section below.

NOTE: Due to certain hints concerning what transpires in NT21, as well as high workload and generally being a bit fed up with this, this article is being launched while only partially done and with many references yet to be put in place. It will be updated as the rest is completed.

Introduction
The  (Latin: Ordo Hermeticus Aurorae Aureae), more commonly referred to as the Golden Dawn (Aurora Aurea), was a magical organization which was active in Great Britain during late 19th and early 20th centuries, devoted to the study and practice of the occult.

The Golden Dawn was founded in 1887 by, and , three British occultists who were  and members of the  (S.R.I.A.). The foundation of the order was based upon a set of documents obtained by Westcott known as the which outlined the magical rituals and theories which would form the base of the Golden Dawn's teachings. Westcott allegedly made contact with, an adept whose name was listed in the documents and apparent contact point for a group of higher beings referred to as the , and received a letter granting permission to establish a temple for a new order.

The Isis-Urania Temple was subsequently established in London in 1888. In its early years, the Golden Dawn was a single cohesive group. In 1892, an inner, Second Order was founded, made up of adepts who had completed the training taught to initiates into the original, outer, First Order. The group's Third Order was allegedly the Secret Chiefs, with which contact was supposedly made through the leader of the Second Order as an intermediary, following the end of the alleged correspondence with Anna Sprengel in 1891.

Over time, the group grew in notability and notoriety, though it maintained secrecy concerning its mysteries and teachings. At its height in the mid-1890s, the Golden Dawn had over a hundred members from every circle of society and from a variety of professions; many from the arts and sciences, but also trade and business, and apparently some from the clergy as well.

Woodman died after a brief illness in 1891 and in 1896, Westcott ceased public involvement with the Golden Dawn, believed to be due to his position as a Crown Coroner and his association with the group (seen as disreputable for someone in that position) coming to the attention of his superiors, leaving Mathers as the overall leader of the Golden Dawn, though Westcott maintained influence in the cabal which Mathers sought to erode in time.

Dissatisfaction with Mathers' autocratic leadership (as well as his association with ), scandals and further schisms within the Golden Dawn eventually led to the organization's collapse in 1903, after which various successor groups formed, including Mathers' (A∴O∴),  (S∴M∴), the  (formerly the first temple of the original order), and Aleister Crowley's. Many of these have likewise collapsed over time while some successors continue in some form to this day. The Golden Dawn was a major influence on 20th century Western occultism, inspiring many magical concepts which form the cores of various contemporary traditions and systems.

Founders
The Golden Dawn had three co-founders, two of which have been named in the Toaru series. In real life, these three occultists were and members of the  (S.R.I.A.), a Rosicrucian magical order. Whether or not their Toaru counterparts were also part of this group isn't known, though the way in which Mathers and Westcott refer to might suggest otherwise.

Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers
First off, there is the most notorious of the three founders, - magician, Jacobite, autocrat and eccentric. He led the Golden Dawn for much of the organization's life and his actions played a major role in the group's eventual collapse. While the circumstances in the Toaru universe were different, his actions played a key role in shaping the backstory and events of the series. In both, he was an ally-come-enemy of Aleister Crowley.

Mathers was born in London in 1854. He was the son of a commercial clerk, William M. Mathers, who died while he was young. After his father's death, he lived with his mother in Bournemouth. Briefly serving in the local barracks and working as a clerk himself, he joined the Bournemouth Freemasons in 1877 and the Rosicrucians in 1882. He moved back to London in 1885, following the death of his mother. In 1886, he, along with several other future members of the Golden Dawn, attended a series of Hermetic lectures by, who has been thought to have been a major influence on them and to whom Mathers would later dedicate one of his translations.

In 1887, he was approached by fellow S.R.I.A. member William Wynn Westcott, for aid in deciphering the contents of the Cipher Manuscripts and developing them into a functional magical system and curriculum. After developing the foundations for the new group and inviting S.R.I.A. chief William Robert Woodman to join them, in 1888 the trio established the Hermetic Order of Golden Dawn and the Isis-Urania Temple, in which Mathers held the initial post of Praemonstrator.

Following Woodman's death in 1891, Mathers inherited his position as Imperator while Westcott became Praemonstrator. His magical mottos were S' Rioghail Mo Dhrem (S.R.M.D., Gaelic for "royal is my race")(his Outer Order motto and that of the MacGregor clan) and Deo Duce Comite Ferro ("With God as my leader and the sword as my companion"). Mathers would subsequently restructure the Golden Dawn, resulting in the establishment of the Second Order. Mathers married Mina Bergson (who subsequently took the name Moina Mathers) in 1890 and emigrated to Paris in 1892, though he continued to lead the Golden Dawn.

Frequently described as an eccentric and increasingly so as time went on, Mathers was an enthusiast in Celtic history, culture and affairs, particularly those of Scotland. Styling himself as a highlander and wearing traditional attire, he took the name MacGregor to signify his supposed lineage, which has been noted as somewhat dubious, both in-series and out. He also had a strong Jacobite agenda, which he would end up devoting much of his attention to, at the expense of his Golden Dawn affairs and to the discontent of its members, contributing to his eventual fall. He also had an interest in ancient Egypt, though not nearly to the extent of his Celtic and Scottish interests.

He was interested in warfare and military tactics, but he was also an anti-vivisectionist and a vegetarian. He was a non-smoker, which was slightly unusual for the time, as well as an advocate of woman's rights, quite possibly due to the influence of Anna Kingsford. He also held interest and participated in boxing and dueling, apparently receiving a nose scar from the latter. If certain sources are to be believed, he also had a tendency to play chess by himself, supposedly against unseen supernatural entities.

Being a polyglot, Mathers translated a large number of occult books, including The Book of Abramelin (14thC.), The Kabbalah Unveiled (Christian Knorr von Rosenroth, 1684), the Greater Key of Solomon (anonymous 14thC.), the Lesser Key of Solomon (anonymous 17thC.) and the Grimoire of Armadel (17thC.). He played a major role in the development of the Golden Dawn's magical system and curriculum, and was responsible for introducing certain Enochian aspects from the works of John Dee into their rituals.

Like his Toaru counterpart, the real Mathers displayed strong authoritarian tendencies. He sought to eliminate opposition to his control, eroding the authority of rivals and demanding submission from the other members, even at one point claiming to have been inducted into the Third Order. At the same time, he became increasingly more focused on his Jacobite agenda and militarism, while still expecting the obedience of the London temple adepts as he ruled in absentia from Paris. His attitude would cost him the financial backing of Annie Horniman, which was one of the Mathers' key sources of income, and led to increasing discontent among the other members of the Golden Dawn.

Unlike his Toaru counterpart who was struck down by Aleister Crowley in 1900 following the Battle of Blythe Road, the real-life Mathers (who was still on friendly terms with Crowley at that point) was expelled from the Golden Dawn in April 1900 due to dissatisfaction with his leadership among the London adepts, his attempts to exert his authority, his association with Crowley, and his claims concerning Westcott and the Cipher Manuscripts. His attempts to hold onto the Golden Dawn failed and his deception by in the following year dealt another blow to the order.

When it became clear that he wouldn't be able to reclaim what he had lost, Mathers took the people still loyal him and what assets he still had or could obtain, and founded a successor organization, (A∴O∴), a few years later. He would continue to lead this group as Imperator until his death in 1918, after which his wife Moina became the group's Imperatrix. The exact cause of his death isn't clear, though at least one unverifiable account by Dion Fortune attributes it to the influenza epidemic at the time.

Like in the Toaru series, Mathers' relationship with Crowley would turn to one of enemies however the breakdown occurred a few years after the collapse of the Golden Dawn. One of the various factors involved in this concerns Aleister releasing several of Mathers' translations (such as the Lesser Key of Solomon in 1904) and Golden Dawn material without permission. Mathers attempted to sue Aleister in 1909 for publishing Golden Dawn material in , against the order's code of secrecy, but failed due to not properly copyrighting the material. Mathers was among the enemies whom Crowley featured as antagonists in his works, portraying him as the main villain S.R.M.D. in his 1917 novel .

William Wynn Westcott
Under construction

William Robert Woodman
Work in progress The third founder, who wasn't named but referenced in Toaru series, was. A senior member of the S.R.I.A., Woodman had become Supreme Magus of the society after the death of the group's founder a decade earlier and had expanded the order into one of the premier Rosicrucian societies in the world, extending its influence beyond London and the rest of the UK to America and Australia. Due to his seniority and grasp of Hermeticism and Qabalah, Westcott invited him to become a founding leader in the Golden Dawn, holding the office of Imperator in the Isis-Urania Temple. His magical mottos in the Golden Dawn were Magna est Veritas et Praelavebit (meaning "Great is the Truth and it shall Prevail")(or just Magna est Veritas) and Vincit Omnia Veritas (meaning "Truth Rules All").

As well as being an occultist, Woodman was also a surgeon (as a volunteer during Napoleon III's coup-d'état, at a GP and as a police surgeon) and a prominent horticulturalist.

Unlike his Toaru counterpart, Woodman didn't retire from the affairs of the Golden Dawn due to old age, remaining a leader in both the Golden Dawn and the S.R.I.A. until his death in 1891 following a sudden illness. However they are both the least known founder, in part due to his death occurring before the creation of the Golden Dawn's Second Order.

Aleister Crowley
There's quite a lot which could be said about Aleister Crowley and a fair bit was covered in NT18, but this time around it'll just be some stuff pertaining to his time in the Golden Dawn and his relationships with the other magicians in the order.

Aleister was introduced to the Golden Dawn by (who would later help him found the A∴A∴) in 1898 and inducted later in the year by Mathers. His magical motto in the order was Perdurabo (Latin for "I will endure (to the end)", somewhat apt given his Toaru incarnation). He quickly rose through the ranks of the First Order, passing the Adeptus Minor examination in May 1899 but was refused initiation into the Second Order. In August of the same year, he went to near  to carry out a series of rituals from The Book of Abramelin (the Loch Ness experiment referred to in NT19). While there, he apparently took to calling himself the 'Laird of Boleskine'.

Aleister wasn't particularly popular within the order, in part due to his inclinations and lifestyle, and feuded with a fair few members, Yeats among them. His main friend within the Golden Dawn was his mentor Allan Bennett. Due to the poor state of Allan's previous residence, Aleister shared his flat with Allan with the latter tutoring him in return. Late in 1899, Allan's asthma worsened and he subsequently departed to Asia to relieve it, with Aleister apparently contributing to the cost of the journey, as opposed to what happened in the Toaru series. Aside from being mentored by Bennett and Jones, Aleister was also allied to Mathers, seeing him as his potential link to the Secret Chiefs.

Unlike his Toaru counterpart, who destroyed the cabal and cursed its members in an attempt to change the foretold death of his daughter, the real life Aleister Crowley was still affiliated with Mathers at the time of the Golden Dawn's collapse. Mathers' association with him aggravated the other members' increasing dissatisfaction with Mathers and Aleister's promotion by him, overriding the decision of the London officials, was the final straw that prompted them to expel Mathers from the order.

Though the motivations and circumstances differ between the two, both were key factors in the conflict in the Golden Dawn and both instigated the 'Battle of Blythe Road', ostensibly on Mathers' behalf in real-life and pretending so in the Toaru series. The real life Aleister apparently wore a black Osiris mask and kilt during the incident (if I recall correctly, there were a few people hoping for this bit to crop up in some form). Following the fallout, Aleister left the country and went to the US and then Mexico, embarking on a journey across the world.

Aleister's relationship with Mathers broke down a few years after the collapse of the Golden Dawn. Aside from clashes of ego, Aleister also published several of Mathers' translations (such as the Lesser Key of Solomon  in 1904) without permission and also published Golden Dawn material in The Equinox against the code of secrecy that the order followed. Mathers subsequently attempted to sue him in 1909, though he failed as the material was not properly copyrighted. Both the real life and Toaru Aleisters featured versions of their enemies as antagonists in their works, with Mathers being portrayed as main villain S.R.M.D. (or Douglas) in his 1917 novel , along with Waite (Arthwa(i)te) and Yeats (Gates).

Moina Mathers
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Allan Bennett
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A. E. Waite
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W.B. Yeats
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Robert William Felkin
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Annie Horniman
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Others
There are many other individuals who were members of the Hermetic Order of Golden Dawn and its successor organizations, and others which have been rumored to have been members. However I'm not going to go into detail about them as the research before has taken up enough time and at this rate this might not be finished before 2019.

There are few notable members whom I will mention briefly here. , one of the people who brought Aleister to the Golden Dawn and was one of his few friends in the order, who later help him found the A∴A∴. , who illustrated the Tarot cards developed by Waite. who acted as Mathers' representative in London but split away from him in 1900 as his actions brought about the schism in the Golden Dawn. , who was on the leading committee for the Isis-Urania Temple and later made peace with Mathers before his death.

Anna Sprengel
In both real-life and the Toaru series, 's existence is a somewhat dubious one. Supposedly a countess of Landsfeldt and hailing from Nuremberg, Germany, Anna Sprengel's name and an address was listed in the Cipher Manuscripts, as an adept and a point of contact with the Secret Chiefs. After the documents were decoded, Westcott wrote to the adept and supposedly received a letter from her granting him permission to establish a temple in Britain. The correspondence with Anna Sprengel ceased in 1891 when she is alleged to have died, after which the Golden Dawn's leaders had to establish contact with the Secret Chiefs on their own.

Some sources claim that Anna Sprengel was the child of and his mistress, though there is little evidence to prove this and little evidence to prove the existence of Anna Sprengel at all. With the possibility that Cipher Manuscripts and the letter were forged by Westcott,  it is also likely that Anna Sprengel was similarly invented in order to give the order legitimacy. There's also the fact that her magical motto Sapiens Dominabitur Astris (S.D.A., "the wise person shall be ruled by the stars") was identical to that of, who influenced both Westcott and Mathers, whose Hermetic Society the former attended and to whom the latter dedicated a translation of The Kabbalah Unveiled.

In 1901, Mathers was briefly deceived by the fraud into believing she was Anna Sprengel. She subsequently stole and used Golden Dawn material in a sex scam for which she and her husband were arrested, defaming the name of the order in the resulting scandal, which was another factor in the group's collapse.

Dion Fortune
Under construction

Paul Foster Case
Work in progress Another one of the reinforcements who came to Mathers' aid after he was attacked by Aleister Crowley before the Toaru version of Battle of Blythe Road. Like Dion Fortune, Paul Foster Case was a member of the successor organization rather than the Golden Dawn itself and was another who came into conflict with Moina Mathers.

Case had an interest in the occult from a young age and apparently experienced, which he would have a conservation about with in 1891 at age 7. He also had a musical talent and pursued an early career as a musician, though he abandoned it to focus on mystical affairs after a meeting in Chicago (1909-10).

In 1918, he met Michael James Whitty, then-Cancellarius of the Thoth-Hermes Lodge of Alpha et Omega in Chicago and was invited to join. He was initiated into the Second Order in 1920 and eventually became the lodge's Praemonstrator, though he drew envy and acquired enemies through his progress. A disagreement with Moina Mather led to Case's resignation and departure from the order in 1921. A few would later express the belief that Moina killed the goose that laid the golden egg with how she dealt with Case.

After leaving the Alpha et Omega, Case worked on creating his own group in 1922, eventually establishing the (or ). The group's teachings were derived from those of the Golden Dawn, but with the Enochian elements introduced by Mathers removed, which Case believed to be dangerous and linked to the health problems which caused Whitty's death in 1920, concerns he would mention to Israel Regardie. Around the time of the B.O.T.A.'s founding, he supposedly also had a series of communications with "".

Case would continue developing the B.O.T.A.'s curriculum over the next three decades, as well as authoring various books on the occult, Tarot and Qabalah. He eventually died in 1957 while on holiday in Mexico with his wife and was cremated there.

Israel Regardie
Under construction

Other

 * Golden Dawn.org, Biographies