by Marcus Katz
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 naturkrȁfte 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.” wa
s 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 additi
onal 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]