Golden Dawn Blog by Frater Yechidah

As a lodge-based system, the Golden Dawn is essentially crafted within the framework of Freemasonry, with an additional layer of magic placed upon those foundations. These Masonic roots are not hard to find, with everything from the officer structure to the grip, step and passwords of the grades stemming from earlier tradition. Some of these elements have an obvious function, where their symbolic purpose and magical application was explained in detail. Others may appear to have no purpose at all, which has led to some modern magicians calling for them to be axed from the rituals. The Past Hierophant is the classic example of this. On the surface, the Past Hierophant appears to do very little. He or she sits to the left of the Hierophant on the dais, watching the proceedings, contributing to the visualisations and inner workings of the ritual. One important duty of the Past Hierophant is to build up the godform of Aroueris upon the Hierophant when he or she is moving (for t...

Jupiter Wall of Magical Order of Aurora Aurea Vault Initiation in the Inner Order takes place within the illustrious and mysterious Vault of the Adepts, a Golden Dawn recreation of the mythical resting place of Christian Rosenkreuz. At first glance at the walls of the Vault it might look like a seemingly random series of mystical symbols, including Hebrew letters, astrological glyphs, and alchemical icons. However, it's really a simple and logical array of some of the most potent forces we deal with as magicians. First, let's deal with the Hebrew letters, which are found within squares with a border. These are the first letters of the names of the Sephiroth, and their placement mirrors that on the Tree of Life. So, the square in the centre of the second line contains Kaph for Kether, the two on the line below are Beth for Binah and Cheth for Chokmah, and so on. Above the Kaph square is the symbol for Spirit, which is a fairly common sense placement, given the position of ...

One of the "conundrums" I've run into over the past few years in the Qabalah is the confusion over the Three Veils of Negative Existence ( Ain = Nothing; Ain Soph = Limitless; Ain Soph Aur = Limitless Light) and which one, Ain or Ain Soph Aur , is "closest" to Kether (as in, bordering it). To illustrate my point, here's the formation given by most Hermetic Qabalists: The above makes "logical" sense (in as much as these abstract, negative concepts can make logical sense), in that the Ain , the Nothing, which is the most abstract and theologically furthest from creation, is furthest from Kether, the first expression of positive existence (albeit a highly abstract formation in its own right). The Ain Soph Aur , the Limitless Light, is then closest to Kether, the source of the Light that "feeds" and emanates the Sephiroth. Kether is sometimes paired with the passage "Let there be Light" from Genesis, which also suggests that th...

Continuing the Yesod theme of recent posts (see here and here ), I'd like to explore a less well-understood aspect of the grade structure of the Golden Dawn and its attribution to the Tree of Life; and, for those already familiar with this, I hope to add another aspect for consideration: the Tzaddiqim (righteous). The beginning or casual student will no doubt be aware that the grades of the Golden Dawn are attributed to the Sephiroth (barring the probationary grades of Neophyte [0=0] and Portal, which can be seen as an outer court to Malkuth and Tiphareth respectively [it's interesting to note that these are the two Sephiroth with probationary grades before them, hinting once more at their union]). Thus we have Zelator [1=10] attributed to Malkuth, Theoricus [2=9] attributed to Yesod, Practicus [3=8] attributed to Hod, Philosophus [4=7] attributed to Netzach, and Adeptus Minor [5=6] attributed to Tiphareth (the grades above this are not relevant to this post). This is the p...

Often times new students to the Qabalah are surprised when they find that sexual symbolism plays a key role in describing the various processes of emanation, etc. For example, Chokmah (the Supernal Father), as the second Sephirah, has a geometrical symbol of a line (made of two points), which can represent the phallus, or, since the line has no defineable end ("how long is a line?"), it can represent the rushing forth of force indicative of the sperm. Binah (the Supernal Mother), as the third Sephirah, has a geometrical symbol of a triangle (made of three points), which contains the force of the line in form, and represents the womb or vagina of the woman (particularly when the point of the triangle is pointing down). While some people may find this symbolism uncomfortable, it is intrinsic to a proper understanding of the Qabalah, and thus the student should not shy away from it. The above diagram explores one more aspect of the sexual symbolism on the Tree of Life, exploring...