The Password of the Equinox
The Password, like everything in the Golden Dawn tradition, is more than just a word used to distinguish initiates from non-initiates - it has magical reasons and applications that far surpass its mundane purpose. At each Equinox the Password is changed. The Hiereus explains why this occurs: "The password ... will be periodically changed at each Equinox so that a member who has resigned, demitted or been expelled from the Order, may be in ignorance of the existing password." This is the practical reason, which makes sense and ties in with the Masonic roots of the practice. It was likely particularly useful in the Victorian era when members may have been travelling long distances and would not have had the luxury of internet groups from which they could get to know people — leaving the Password as one of the primary forms of knowing who was or was not an initiate for those who had not met before. But magic underscores all that we do, and while much of our ritual ...