Golden Dawn Blog by Frater Yechidah

As a follow-up to my previous blog post , questioning the supposed rule that a Rosicrucian cannot claim to be a Rosicrucian, I have discovered some additional references that really do make it clear that the Golden Dawn founders, at least, did not accept this view (and, indeed, violated it, if there ever was such a rule then to violate), and it was also not (and still is not) held by many others within the wider Rosicrucian community. 1. Mathers wrote an open letter that was published in the public occult journal Lucifer (run by the Theosophical Society) in 1889 (just one year after the founding of the GD), challenging a group called the Order of the Dew and the Light, which claimed to be the true and only descendants of the "Fraternitas Rosae Crucis." He explicitly stated that he was writing "on behalf of the Metropolitan College of the Rosicrucian Society of England," openly named Woodman as head of that same order, and stated that Westcott was Secre...

A common view espoused today is that a Rosicrucian may not claim to be a Rosicrucian, that doing so essentially shows that he or she is not actually a member of that Fraternity. Peregrin Wildoak raised this topic in his recent blog post with a number of sources for this rule, and though the sources may appear initially compelling, there are a number of issues which make me question just how authentic this prohibition really is, and how valid it is in the context of the Golden Dawn. 1. The primary sources for Rosicrucianism are, of course, the Fama and Confessio , and it is the Fama that gives us six articles that the ancient brethren bound each other to keep. The first two of these concern us, given that they are cited as evidence for the aforementioned rule. "1. First, That none of them should profess any other thing than to cure the sick, and that gratis.   2. None of the Posterity should be constrained to wear one certain kind of habit, but therein to foll...

(An excerpt from the book S.R.I.A. Manual by Dr. George Winslow Plummer, published in 1923.) 1. Love God above all. To "love God" means to love wisdom and truth. We can love God in no other way than in being obedient to Divine law; and to enable us to exercise that obedience conscientiously requires knowledge of the law, which can only be gained by practice.  2. Devote your time to your spiritual advancement. As the sun without leaving his place in the sky sends his rays upon the earth to shine upon the pure and the impure, and to illuminate even the most minute material objects with his light; likewise the spirit of man may send his mental rays into matter to obtain knowledge of all terrestrial things; but there is no need that the spirit should thereby lose its own divine self-consciousness, and be itself absorbed by the objects of its perception. 3. Be entirely unselfish. Spiritual knowledge begins only where all sense of self ceases. Where the delusion wh...

There are many misconceptions out there about what the Golden Dawn is. Instead of disputing or debunking them, let us look at what the Golden Dawn really is. These points are in no particular order, nor are they a complete representation, but they will hopefully shed more light on this more than a century old tradition. The Golden Dawn is a syncretic tradition that combines and unifies a multitude of magical systems employed in the Western Mystery Tradition, including, but not limited to: Qabalah, Astrology, Tarot, Hermeticism, Alchemy, Rosicrucianism, Enochian, Geomancy, and various other esoteric subjects. The Golden Dawn is a school that teaches a structured approach to magic, being primarily theoretical in the Outer Order (the Golden Dawn proper) and practical in the Inner Order (the RR et AC or Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis). Some have likened the requirements of Golden Dawn study to that of a college degree, with several grade exams and, in the Stella Matutina traditio...

I'm sure many of you are familiar with the "argument" that Hermeticism is the oldest thing in existence, stemming from Ancient Egypt (or possible Atlantis before it, as some argue). Now, while I appreciate that there was more than likely a system of philosophy and practice that was dedicated to Thoth (I'm not sure about the Greaco-Egyptian hybrid of Thoth-Hermes at this time, as this seems to me to stem from Greek Alexandria, and thus would not come into play in Ancient Egypt before Greece took control), I prefer to use the Academic distinction for this as Hermetism , because we're taking a big leap of faith in saying that one (Hermeticism) is the other (Hermetism). The fact of the matter is that we simply don't know if the Ancient Egyptian Thoth cult believed the things we accept as Hermeticism today, so we can say "I personally believe they did" but not "they did", as there's no textual evidence for it. Lack of evidence is not evide...

The history of Rosicrucianism is a bit of a muddled affair, not least of all due to the fact that we don't really know who wrote the two manifestos (barring the likely candidate of Andreae, who wrote the Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz ), nor why they were written, nor, indeed, if it was intended as a joke or a subtle social experiment designed to bring about change, propelled by the powerful forces of mystery, secrecy, and intrigue. It is difficult, even in modern times, to separate the myths from the facts, to discern which was the first actual Rosicrucian group from the many that claim its ancient heritage. The Rosicrucians: The History, Mythology, and Rituals of an Esoteric Order , by Christopher McIntosh (author of The Rose Cross and the Age of Reason ) is an excellent attempt at this discernment. The book spans just under 150 pages, which is relatively slim for a scholarly work, but then this is mainly intended as an overview, and is certainly not lacking in depth i...

" This , I believe, explains why Rosicrucianism has continued to exert its grip on the Western mind. It is not because we are hopelessly gullible, or because we would like to believe in absurd fantasies. In a legend like that of Christian Rosenkreuz, we seem to catch a glimpse of what we ought to be, and what we could be . If we set about it with sufficient determination, the grip of 'the world' can be broken - or at least, weakened until it ceases to induce a constant feeling of alienation. We are a planet of a double star, torn between two powerful gravitational forces. We have to learn to move inward without losing control over the external world and, like Rimbaud, simply surrendering ourselves to an 'ordered derangement of the senses.'" - Colin Wilson, Introduction to Christopher McIntosh's The Rosicrucians