Golden Dawn Blog by Frater Yechidah

The Golden Dawn was one of the first Orders to accept women as members. Indeed, it was so open to women that they often held the "top jobs". The Golden Dawn also accepted members from all religions. However, this element of equality did not extend to all areas. There is the infamous case of Crowley being rejected for his 5=6 on the basis of his sexual orientation (dealt with to some degree here ), though that was clearly not the only reason for his rejection. I wonder how many others were or might have been rejected on similiar grounds in the overly prudish Victorian society in which the Golden Dawn originally grew. And what of other inequalities were there, such as rejection on the basis of age, race, nationality, political persuasion, or disability? The reasons why a person should be rejected by a Golden Dawn Order should be more to do with their attitude, their willingness or unwillingness to do the Work, etc. than anything that has little or nothing to do with the occult...

Every so often the topic of asceticism is brought up, and some wonder how it applies to the Golden Dawn, and if there is any official policy on it. Some wonder whether or not they may have to give up the recreational use of illegal drugs, or perhaps even alcohol or caffeine, or abstinence from sex and other worldy pleasures. For the latter topic of sex, the relationship of MacGregor and Moina Mathers is an interesting topic of debate, but it seems clear that Mathers, while perhaps choosing a life of sexual abstinence with Moina, did not encourage others to do likewise, and seemed to defend Crowley when others were judging his worthiness on the basis of his sexual promiscuity (among other things). While there was no official policy on one's private sex life (after all, it was supposed to be private, and Mathers was a staunch defender of such), we may potentially gleam some insight to what might have been considered an "unofficial policy", stemming from the Cromlech Temple,...

Continuing the Yeats theme of the previous post , here's the passage I mentioned earlier about Yeats and his attitude towards sex: W.B. Yeats described the summer of 1897, when he was 32, as "the most miserable time of my life". He went on to say, "I was tortured by sexual desire and disappointed love... When desire became an unendurable torture, I would masturbate, and that, no matter how moderate I was, would make me ill." Now, admittedly he was taking hashish pills at the time, which may or may not have influenced his feelings of illness, but it seems hard to deny that his reaction to masturbation was extreme, although probably not uncommon for the Victorian era. I have to admit that, as a young Irish man myself, I find these kinds of accounts quite surprising, even to one already aware of the Victorian attitude towards sex. I wonder if Yeats' extreme view, and that of Moina described in a previous post, was shared by other Golden Dawn members of the tim...

Sex is a controversial subject no matter where it arises, but doubly so when it is relation to a secret society. It is well known, for example, that some of the higher grades of the OTO give teachings on sexual magic, but it is a cause of some debate about how sex is dealt with, if at all, in the Golden Dawn. There has been much misinformation and confusion, partly due, in my opinion, to one modern Golden Dawn order which has included Third Order grades and filled them with sex magic teachings. Some of the confusion may have arisen before this, however, from certain statements and actions taken by some Order members. But first, let us look at MacGregor and Moina Mathers, the two leading forces in the Order once Westcott had resigned. While they were married, they never consummated the marriage, and never engaged in sexual activity whatsoever (or, at least, so it is claimed). In 1895 Moina wrote to Annie Horniman about her views on sex, the sexual abstinence she and her husband undertoo...