Golden Dawn Blog by Frater Yechidah

"The angels aspire to become men, for the perfect man, the man-God, is above every angel." — Eliphas Levi

Issue 5  of The Ruby Tablet , compiled and edited by Golden Dawn scholar Darcy Kuntz, has been released. Check it out and donate if you like the material. Contents The Rosy Cross in Russia Part 1 by A Russian Abracadabra Golden Dawn Research Trust The Rosy Cross in Russia Part 2 by A Russian Kerubim Press The Conjuration of Kronos by Frater Achad The Twelve Angels of the Zodiac Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Books Laws of the Brotherhood of the Rosicrucians The Mystery of the Lords Prayer Rosicrucian Order of the Golden Dawn Pasquales and his Elus Cohen by Sendivogius Skylight Press Astral Origins of the Zodic Signs The Ineffable Name by A[lexander] W[ilder]

In an interesting blog post Nick Farrell asked a pivotal, and yet frequently ignored, question about why some magic fails. He cited a number of reasons people have given over time, including classic cop-outs like God or your Higher Self saying no, and the more acceptable notion of psychological blocks. On the first topic, I do not personally believe that God or the Higher Self would refuse a request. This might be an acceptable idea in a devotional school of thought, but magicians do not simply go with the flow—they create and direct the flow. A magician is an active player in the universe, one who takes responsibility for his or her life. If a ritual for a job is performed and it does not work, then the magician cannot simply blame God and accept this as "the way it is meant to be." Such fatalistic thinking has no place in magic. So if external forces are not stopping us, that leaves internal forces. In many ways we are our own worst enemies, and part of the proces...

Hermetic Virtues has entered its sixth year, publishing articles on the Golden Dawn and general esoteric ideas and teachings from well-known magicians in the field. Check out the contents of the latest issue: + The Alchemical Hexagram by Chic and Tabatha Cicero + The Emperor by Harry Wendrich + The Grimoire of Arthur Gauntlet - A book review by Aaron Leitch + Group Work - an unpublished Whare Ra document - Mrs. Felkin with a commentary by Nick Farrell + Hidden Treasures of the Golden Dawn - A book review by Samuel Scarborough + Invocation of the Powers of Aquarius by Jayne Gibson + Astrological Magic - A book review by Samuel Scarborough + Becoming the Star Child by Nick Farrell + An Invocation of Kether by Samuel Scarborough You can order a copy here .

A note left behind by Israel Regardie on the construction of the Vault walls offers an interesting approach to the toilsome task of mixing the appropriate colours for the numerous squares: "The most practical plan is to have the walls of the Vault coloured as in the last diagram. Then the way to differentiate between the various planetary sides of the Vault is simply to cover any particular side with a large sheet of strong cellophane or other plastic. So, for the Venus side, the wall could be covered with a Green sheet of plastic. For the Jupiter side with a blue sheet of plastic. For the Mars side with red. For the Saturn side with very dark blue or indigo. For the Solar side, use yellow or gold plastic. For Mercury a yellow orange plastic. And for Luna, a lavender or light violet plastic." Putting aside the fact that the suggested colours here are wrong (the Jupiter wall should be violet, Sun should be orange, Mercury yellow, and Moon blue), this idea is a n...

Something that comes as a surprise to many when first approaching the Golden Dawn system is the prohibition against mediums, which was one of only a handful of things overtly frowned upon by the founders of the Order. Of course, in modern groups this point might not be apparent, and in some cases the rule might not apply at all, but the original Order was very clear that mediumship was not permitted. In one of the early preliminary pledge forms that Candidates were required to sign, there was the following: "The Chiefs of the Order do not care to accept as Candidates any persons accustomed to submit themselves as Mediums to the Experiments of Hypnotism, Mesmerism, or Spiritualism; or who habitually allow themselves to fall into a completely passive condition of Will; also they disapprove of the methods made use of as a rule in such Experiments." This is explicit, criticising not only mediums themselves, but the manner in which they work. This is important, as the...

Robert Halvarsson of cultural magazine Tidningen Kulturen has reviewed my book Enochian Magic in Theory . You can read the original in Swedish here , but the reviewer was kind enough to translate the review below: 16th century magic today Irish author Frater Yechidah have a strong inclination and interest towards the magical-religious system in modern times referred to as enochian magic. This is evident through Kerubim Press release of the book Enochian Magic in Theory . Through this work Yechidah makes a skilled attempt at laying down the theoretical foundation which is part of the system that came out of 16th century Christian occultism. Namely the work begun by astrologer John Dee and clairvoyant Edward Kelley, and their communication with a number of entities they thought to be angels. Through the 19th century’s occult revival, this body of work and more non-rationalist systems were invented or conjured from the past. In the case of enochian magic this was done la...

Issue 3  of The Ruby Tablet, compiled and edited by Darcy Kuntz, has been released. Check it out and donate if you like the material. Contents The Egyptian Belief by P.W. Bullock Hebraic Aspects of the Ritual by Bro. Harry Carr The Order of Saint Catherine of Mount Siani L'Homme de Désire The Riddle of Man's Life by Nathanael

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 ...

Review by Charles Humphries (Published in a forthcoming issue of Behutet Magazine ) Enochian Magic in Theory Dean F. Wilson (a.k.a. Frater Yechidah) Kerubim Press, Copyright Dublin 2012  Trade Paperback, Nonfiction, Magick Reference ISBN: 978-1-908705-03-7 $30.00 US (most websites and retailers) http://kerubimpress.com/enochianmagicintheory/ Dean F. Wilson has offered the first of two of what look to be refreshing and welcome additions to the Enochian Section of any Magician’s library. Meant to be the first of two books, one of Theory and one of Practice, Enochian Magic in Theory is basically a summary of the structure of the extant records of the operations of John Dee and Edward Kelley. There are several accounts of these, with most die-hard enthusiasts having and perusing their own scans of the manuscripts themselves. I myself have spent the better part of two decades going through exactly that process. I know well the mistakes commonly made, the...