Conference hydra::dejavu

	A USENET subscriber asked about scholarly references to
    Golden Dawn history and materials, as they were not satisfied
    with the objectivity of the usual references to Mathers,
    A.E. Waite, Israel Regardie, and so on.  I suggested James
    Webb's 'Occult' series, and received a reply that I thought
    was very interesting and worth re-posting here for those
    interested ...  As usual, net headers moved to the end.
    -------------------------------------------------------------
    
Webb's books are certainly thorough and well documented, though they're
almost like huge bibliographic essays.  His _Harmonious Circle_ is
very interesting, too, and showed a better grasp of "the irrational"
than his earliest things.
 
In addition to Ithell Colquhoun, there are Francis King (not the
novelist), Ellic Howe, and R A Gilbert:  the last two, like Webb, position
themselves as outsiders, and in a sense have a more objective approach.
They are not hesitant to assume the most mundane, obvious and petty
motives when they are the most parsimonious explanation.  The last three
are good about documents; Gilbert in fact has done very interesting work 
from manuscript sources on AE Waite.
 
There is in fact a Golden Dawn industry; their references can get to
some of its productions.  The output of the Yeats Industry is another 
good place to go:  George Mills Harper (_Yeats' Golden Dawn_, to name
just the most obvious) and even Virginia Moore (whose _Unicorn_ was
the first thing that made academics unable not to notice that Yeats was
a magician) -- though she is a bit off about the GD, as Howe and others
point out.  Of course, she didn't have access to the things they did.
There is also a series of Yeats studies annuals (edited perhaps by 
Warwick Gould?) that includes essays on the GD, and reviews of new 
material on the GD that touches on Yeats issues.
 
There is even something of a Dion Fortune Industry:  Alan Richardson's
various rewritings of his Dion Fortune book are worth looking at, as
are his other things (e.g. on Chruistine Hartley & co) for another
view of the world Colquhoun touches on in her _Sword of Wisdom_.
 
--Has anyone by the way ever managed to read any of Colquhoun's books
other than that one?  I managed to look at one or two when I was last
at the British Library (1984, unfortunately) -- some alchemical-surrealist
stories, I seem to remember, with touches of _Maldoror_-- but I never
managed to see _The Goose of Hermogenes_.  Does anyone know what it's
like?  Good title anyway.
 
I'm not sure, though, that objectivity is the only criterion one
should use to sort out the GD stuff.  Some partisan and even
utterly mad material is good when it gives something of the lived
reality for one of the participants.  What I remember of "Inquire
Within"'s productions was very interesting indeed -- impossible
to check now however since (as I remember) they are no longer at the
British Library. (_Light-Bearersa of Darkness_ and _Trail of the
Serpent._  I would very much like a chance to read them carefully,
now that I know what I know!)
 
After the documentary stuff, one should read the documents themselves
(if one can find them!), but only after arming oneself with a large
bucket of consecrated irony.
 
--LeGrand
Article: 2486
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From: rjb@milton.u.washington.edu (LeGrand Cinq-Mars)
Newsgroups: alt.magick
Subject: Re: Wanted: Information sources on the Golden Dawn
Message-ID: <1992Feb28.173201.13440@u.washington.edu>
Date: 28 Feb 92 17:32:01 GMT
References: <1992Feb26.175530.10889@PA.dec.com>
Sender: news@u.washington.edu (USENET News System)
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Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
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    Re .0: "I could have sworn there was already a topic for the Hermetic
    	    Order of the Golden Dawn, but I can't find it...."
    
    Perhaps it's been Hermetically sealed off?
    
    Earl Wajenberg

    I know we've discussed the GD -- probably several times -- but I don't
    remember a topic devoted to it.

					Topher

    re: .3, Topher,
    The only previous discussion I found in a brief scan was
    in Note 777 about Crowley, where his relationship to the order
    was brought up.  Notes which might be considered related in some
    sense but don't mention the GD at all include : 
    129.* on Magic (since it was a Magical order), 
    928 on the Rosicrucians (since the GD order claimed Rosicrucian lineage, 
    	via the activities of Westcott and Mathers), and 
    1256 on Alchemy and Hermeticism (since he GD was also
    	involved in 'spiritual alchemy,' and deeply immersed in the
    	Egyptian and Greek symbology of that practice.
    
    						todd

    I have added a keyword "Golden_Dawn".  There are 37 notes (including
    the base note of this thread) listed.  Many concern the Golden Dawn
    Tarot deck, others only mention the Golden Dawn peripherally.  There
    is, however, a fair amount of material all told.

				    Topher

    
    There used to be a correspondence course for Golden Dawn work. Helios
    book service of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England used to run it 20
    or so years ago. They then moved to Glastonbury, Somerset but I
    haven't checked the last couple of times I've been through there to see
    if they're still open. Regardie's works were used, as well As Dion
    Fortune's and Gareth Knight's two books on the Practical Quabalah. A
    student of Regardie who has since passed on, was spiritual director for
    some years. His name was W.E. Butler and he's written a number of books
    on practical Golden Dawn work. I undertook the course for some 3 or 4
    years. It took at lest 2 hours a day, often much more. The practical
    results from the work were immediate and actually quite amazing. I
    regard Golden Dawn meditation and visualization exercises as practised
    by the Helios group (with a British/Celtic mysteries focus) as being
    a perfect first rung for the serious student.
    

    re: .6,
    	Thanks very much, Chris.

    Didn't W. E. Butler also found the esoteric school in Great Britain called
    Servants of Light?  I seem to recall reading that in the book included
    in my Servants of Light tarot cards and also in a companion pathworking
    book (which studies the major arcana as deep meditative/psychological/
    spiritual tool).  I'm not good at remembering author's names but I think
    the author (also diretor of the school) is Ashworth_Noeticki (can't
    remember her first name).
    
    Ro
    

    
    You may be right. I don't know. I think most people of European extraction
    do better with their own occult heritage than they do with superimposed
    Oriental traditions, tho' the basic techniques are similar. I know I
    worked with Raja Yoga methods for many years until I decided to go
    easier on myself and work within my own (in my case Celtic/British) 
    tradition. The Golden Dawn method is to increase power through use of
    proper (seated vs lotus) asana combined with breathing exercises as a
    first step. This equates to basic prana yoga techniques and is covered
    very well by Regardie's book, "The Art of Spiritual healing" or suchlike. 
    After this is mastered to some extent, visualization exercises surrounding
    the sephiroth are begun. Only after a year or so of this work does the
    path-working and "adventure game" type visualization work begin. It is
    during this work that one comes into contact with the whole Egregore of
    the Western Mystical tradition. The point is that, apart from this
    work, one is building the concentration and meditative skills that
    seemed so elusive for many of us when working with yogic methods.
    
    Once you start this work, seriously, you realise you are never alone.
    It is only practical work that makes the occultist. 
    

    
    Hi Chris,
    
    Interesting.  What is written about here and in the West in general re:
    mythology, etc., seems totally foreign to me and makes very little 
    sense...yet the yogic perspective and discipline along with the core 
    message of the Vedas is crystal clear.
    
    However, I'm fairly certain I've lived in India for many incarnations, 
    which could have a lot to do with it.
    
    Cindy

    
    True, Cindy, or perhaps you were also incarnated in the 60's :-)
    

    re: Yoga and Golden_Dawn
    
    Many parallels can be found to the Yogic tradition and the
    Western magical ones.   I tend to agree with the theory that any given 
    egregiore is consistent within itself and the best for an individual
    is simply the one for which the individual has the greatest affinity.
    
    Interestingly, it seems to me that most attempts to casually
    mix symbol systems results in more confusion and harm than benefit.
    But certainly, there is a wealth of value in Yoga methods that has
    at times been incorporated into Western practices.
    
    There are a lot of stories about Crowley's enthusiastic practice
    of the Yogic breathing.  And as I think Chris mentioned, Regardie
    spent much of his writing describing Eastern practices, Lamaist
    and Yogic, that related to his own practice.
    
    And as Chris also seems to imply :-) there was a significant
    revival of Eastern religion in this country in the sixties,
    which many of us were strongly exposed to and found affinity for,
    which might tend to overshadow any interest in similar
    Western traditions, although their underlying principles might
    be pretty much the same.
    
    								todd

    re: .14,
    	Thanks, Jim.
    
    	May be one of the older editions of the Regardie work ?
    
    	Israel Regardie originally published The_Complete_Golden_Dawn_System
    	in multiple volumes, which was at the time the first public
    	release of most of that material.  In fact he was heavily criticized
    	for making it public at that time.
    
    	As far as I know, the only other (complete) renditions of the order's 
    	rites have been found in re-publications of that work.  
    
    	Llewellyn Press, which is otherwise extremely variable in the quality 
    	of what they publish on this subject (they publish a LOT of 
    	pandering junk, in my opinion) happens to put out a very nice single 
    	volume edition, which has each section cross-referenced back to the 
    	older volume page numbers, and with an excellent index and several 
    	useful commentaries.  It runs about $20 U.S., I think, in softback.
    
    							regards,
    
    							todd

    sounds like a dandy name for a pop group.
    
    Dougie
    

>    sounds like a dandy name for a pop group.
    
    I'd figure more a punk or heavy metal band.