Brean Down

24th January

Hawthorn on Brean Down

A sunny Sunday is not to be wasted by staying in and working. After weeks of bad weather, I had itchy wheels, and so leapt at the opportunity of going on my first rideout of the year. I packed some lunch, togged up and set off … after a false start. I was hoping to take the Legend out on its first spin of O Ten, but the battery in the Triumph was flat after nearly two months sitting on my drive, and so I fired up the Zuki, fresh from its MOT.

It felt great to finally escape the city, to turn the wheel and blow away those cobwebs! The run to Brean is very picturesque, if windy, along the A368 via Chew Valley. Parts of it, with chocolate box villages nestled amidst steep wooded hills remind me of ‘little Switzerland’. With all the hairy bends its slow riding so you are forced to enjoy the view.

Leaving the Mendip range, you then have to negotiate the big sheds of Weston Super Mare – dreary, but you soon pass these, heading south. The turn to Brean is easy to miss – and the ride is frankly, bizarre, zigzagging back and forth without any clear reason – and disconcertingly heading away from Brean towards Brent Knoll. Finally, it hits the coast road that takes you past caravan parks and crazy golf type places. But it’s all worth while in the end – the headland of Brean Down looms into sight, looking stunning on a sunny winter’s day. I park up and grab a much needed cuppa, as my head had gone numb!

The sunlight on the sea was dazzling – it was so good to see the coast. Brean is the nearest decent stretch for me in Bath. I climbed the steep steps, sweating in my leathers, but the view was worth it. Spectacular panorama over the Severn Estuary, looking glorious today in the sun. I sat and ate a sandwich – just as well, as my rumbling stomach must have been audible from Wales – 2.30pm being a bit late for lunch for me. A ‘boost’ on the way stopped my blood sugar levels from completely crashing.

I walked along the south side, topping up on Vitamin D in the sunlight. A notice in the cafe mentioned someone had lost an engagement ring on the Down, and so I couldn’t help but scan the grass. It would’ve been nice to have found it for them. Imagine!

It gave the place a certain numinosity to know I was walking where Violet Firth, aka Glastonbury mystic author Dion Fortune, had walked. And also where they shot scenes for the Shekhar Kapur movie ‘Elizabeth: The Golden Age’, Brean Down providing an unlikely stand-in for the White Cliffs of Dover. To think of the delectable Cate Blanchett riding here, in full armour with a false leg (so she could appear to be riding side-saddle), surrounded by hundreds of extras, cap-a-pie, also gave the place a certain layering of weird glamour.

Brean Down – a long finger of carboniferous limestone pointing out into the Severn – is a like a 3-D history lesson. From the 300 million rock (cousin of Gower Peninsular, on the Welsh side), forced up into its present ridge 230 million years ago; to the remains of animals from the end of the last Ice Age (auroch, giant deer, reindeer, Arctic Fox, bison, mammoth, wolves and lemmings), 14 to 10 thousand years back – and the first signs of human habitation; a worked giant deer antler from 10,000 BC; to Iron Age settlement – a hill fort from 300BC; to a Roman temple 370AD (which must have inspired occult writer Dion Fortune, who based the temple in her 1930s novel The Sea Priestess there); to the Napoleonic fort, Victorian follies and WW2 gun battery and secret weapons testing; right up to the National Trust primping of the present day. An amazing place.

Yet despite millennia of human activity on the headland, it still feels like nature’s own, a wild place, if not true wilderness, with an impressive array of plants (include the lovely named White Rock Rose, growing in its most northerly location); butterflies; birds and animals. A sign on the way up said ‘Beware Steep Cliffs and Goats’. I didn’t see any today, but their were plenty of walkers out enjoying the sun, and I did meet a couple of young ‘rock monkeys’, who started chatting to me as I stood on the site of the Roman temple, having a moment’s connection with my personal spirituality.

I felt an edifying sense of peace and space. We get so hemmed in by life, and forget to look outside of our respective boxes. Visiting a place like Brean Down gives you a perspective on things. The stoic longevity of such a place helps one to endure, to keep going, to weather all that life throws at you. You leave feeling ‘lighter’.

I descended for a final coffee before I hit the road. I sat on the sea wall and watched a man trying to get his dog, a young Alsatian, to come back. The dog clearly wanted to keep on playing, gamely leaping back, head down to front paws, dropping a ball in front as if to say ‘come play, the sun is out, it is a good day to be alive – work can wait.’ This dog wanted to have its day. Alas, the chain awaits and we all get called back, eventually – but it was worth bearing the cold to blast away the winter blues.

Such an excursion – a walk somewhere beautiful – makes one feel like the end of the week has been ‘marked’ in some way, providing a break from the routine of the week. Stepping off the wheel briefly, creating a sense of hiatus. Sacred time, before the mundanity of Monday kicks in again.

I enjoyed the fast ride home – taking the A38 and A4 – through the lengthening shadows and low golden light. Hitting the traffic lights of Bristol, the night swiftly fell and the temperature dropped. I was glad to get back. It is one of the pleasures of such an experience to return home to a long soak, warm fire, a big mug of Earl Grey, hot buttered crumpets with cinnamon, and a peaceful mind as one slides into Sunday night, with a good book or good film to ease the brain into blissful oblivion.

I am that soundless, boundless, bitter sea.
All tides are mine, and answer unto me.
Tides of the airs, tides of the inner earth.
The secret, silent tides of death and birth…

Dion Fortune: The Sea Priestess

I have got this need to create images of the Great Goddess in a human shape…I see the earth as a living entity, and I guess this is a way of communicating with her.
This is a smoke fired ceramic torso – 20”x14”.
It is made to hang from the wall with hooks at the back. See more at my website www.annakeiller.com.

Violet Mary Firth, better known as Dion Fortune, was one of the most famous occultists of the 20^th century. She was the founder of the Society of the Inner Light and claimed to have participated in the “Magical Battle of Britain” to prevent a possible German invasion in World War II. Her many occult novels and works on magical subjects are still in print and many occultists consider her Mystical Quabalah to be one of the best books on magic ever written.

Although we know that Dion Fortune was born at Bryn-Y-Bia in Llandudno, Wales, on December 6th 1890, no written record concerning her exact time of birth has ever come to light. Nevertheless there exists one important statement from her mother, Sarah Firth, claiming that she sat with the newborn child in her arms during the dark hours before dawn. Taking this fact into consideration, I was trying to rectify Dion Fortune’s nativity  in a traditional manner with the help of primary directions. Having done so, my proposal is that the birth took place at 1:58 AM.

Taking a look at the nativity, we see that her Sagittarius Sun in the 3rd house is in close opposition to Caput Draconis in the 9th house. This makes them immediately recognisable as being important indicators of her life. The Sagittarius Sun is characteristic for people looking for wisdom and knowledge and a deep interest in spiritual matters. The positioning of the Sun in the 3rd house indicates that the native may express his interest in writing or other forms of communication. Dion Fortune’s 3rd house Mercury adds, of course, to her success as a successful author of many books. The placement of her North Node makes it clear that her field of interest could only lie in the occult. Venus, ruler of the Ascendant, is in shocking condition, being combust, peregrine and retrograde and together with her 12th house Moon can tell us a lot about her difficult emotional life patterns and her notoriously secluded lifestyle.

If we now have a look at some of the most important dates in Dion Fortune’s life, it will become clear that my suggestion for her time of birth at 1:58 AM is likely to be correct.

At the age of 23, in March 1913, young Violet had a nervous breakdown. This event is clearly reflected in the primary direction of the Moon to the South Node occurring the same year. William Lilly says about contacts between Moon and Cauda Draconis in his Christian Astrology: “It usually brings a melancholy Disease or proceeding of phlegm along with it.”

On April 17th 1927 Dion Fortune married Penry Evans; in the same year her primary directions included Ascendant square Venus and MC trine Venus. William Lilly says about Ascendant square Venus: “the Native falls into distempered passions by his folly in Love”, and about MC trine Venus: “many times it produces marriage”. The same aspect can also be seen in Dion Fortune’s Solar Return chart for 1927.

Already in December 1938, she got divorced. The primary direction for that year, Moon square Mars, tells the tale of this event. Interestingly 1927 and 1938 were both profected 1st house years for Dion Fortune, indicating new beginnings on the spiral path of life.

On January 6th 1946 Dion Fortune died from leukemia. The primary directions for the year show Ascendant opposite Mars, in the secondary progression her Ascendant squares the natal Mars. This year was a profected 8th hose year with the profected South Node close to the 8th house cusp.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Read Madrid footballer and Portuguese international has apparently been cursed by a Voodoo priest with the intention of ending his career. Pepe, the Voodoo priest in question (presumably no relation to the Real Madrid number three), claims that he is not doing it because he has a thing against Real Madrid or Ronaldo personally, but because he has been paid good-money to do so. Well, you can’t fault the man’s ethics!

But the real question is who hired Pepe to work this evil magick? Journalists have come up with a short-list of likely suspects. They have narrowed it down to Ronaldo’s ex-girlfriends, and several million Barcelona / Man City / England / etc fans.

“But Alex,” I hallucinate that I hear you say, “can you not provide some magical help or advice for those of us who might find ourselves caught in the same situation? Even if we don’t play for Real Madrid?” Why certainly! Here is my quick guide to Psychic Self-Defence.

By far the most lucid and sensible account of the subject is the book of the same name by Dion Fortune. Unfortunately, from the cases I myself have heard about, this book is obviously far too sensible for anyone to take any notice of! Basically, Dion’s gist is this: at least 90% or more of cases of alleged psychic attack are in fact nothing of the sort – instead they are far more likely to be either imaginary or symptomatic of a psychoneurotic condition (or worse).

Hence the first step in warding off a perceived magical or psychic attack is to seriously consider whether it might not be as bad you first thought. I have heard from people who claimed that they were being attacked and cursed and hexed right left and centre – and then casually admit that they had been hospitalised for schizophrenia in the past, and not make any connection between the two.

So let us assume that you have been able to dismiss every possible mundane explanation for the run of misfortune you are experiencing, and suspect that it may well indeed be a psychic attack? What then? The simple answer is that just as a psychic attack starts from somebody else’s mind, so a good psychic defence starts from your own. You basically have to fervently Will that you are protected, and it is so. There are a number of methods which facilitate this.

Essentially by visualising a magical barrier surrounding oneself, and concentrating on the idea that it will protect you from malicious influences, this has the effect of actually repelling such forces. The most famous method of forming such a magical barrier is the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, which was originally devised by the Golden Dawn.

The casting of the circle in Wicca is itself a circle of protection which protects all the participants whilst they are taking part in a particular ritual.

In his book, Auras: What They Are and How To Read Them, the author Joseph Ostrom describes several Aura meditations which are effectively protection rituals. For example, visualising oneself in a gold-metallic aura: this not only protects from unwanted external influences, but also energises and perks up the individual thus protected.

There are many other such protection rituals which are based upon the same principal e.g. the meditation on the Cloak in Martinism, numerous variations on the Pentagram ritual itself, etc. One important fact is that these rituals not only protect from external malign forces but also close down ones own psychic sensitivities if one has negligently left them open.

Tiny blue flower dissolving in the August sunlight in Houston, Texas. Photo ©2009 by H. Kathleen Gresham

As healers we draw power from the Earth as well as the rest of the cosmos. Yet often we are not taught to think about that.

Older generations (and many people even today) were taught that we should live only for Heaven and wean ourselves away from the Earth. For healers that translates to what we call “living in your head,” “not being fully in your body most of the time,” or trying to shut down the lower chakras (which would kill you if you could actually do it) and trying to live from the upper chakras only.

But living on the Earth, as we are, means living in your body, balancing your chakras, and living with the energy of a particular place. If magic is defined as “causing change, using the mind,” then healing is a form of magic. And according to Dion Fortune, one of the greatest metaphysicians of the 2oth century, all magic is local magic.

Healers truly do use the power of the Earth as well as the heavens. But how well do most of us really know the part of the Earth where we live? To find out, take this short quiz to find out how well you know wild plants and animals native to your neighborhood:

http://www.examiner.com/x-16972-Houston-Shamanism-Examiner

You may be surprised.

This is the text of a paper which I presented recently on Lucid Dreaming. It is an abbreviated form of the extended treatise which appears on my website and in many ways it is more autobiographical.

Introduction

In this paper I intend to speak about a method of attaining an altered state of consciousness which is almost as easy as falling asleep – literally.

“Lucid Dreaming” is a special type of dreaming in which one is aware that one is dreaming, but without waking-up. This is only a very basic and incomplete definition, because there is far more to lucid dreaming – as I will explain presently.

As a phenomenon, Lucid Dreaming has been known to occultists like Dion Fortune, Ophiel, and more recently, Carlos Castaneda[i] for many years. It is my contention that Lucid Dreaming is actually a form of Astral Projection – and that occultists of the past have recognised it as such.

Speaking personally, it was through Lucid Dreaming that I first became interested in the occult. I was into Lucid Dreaming even before I was into the Golden Dawn. Way back in the distant-past (1995 actually) when I was a student, there I was, reading an interview with ambient musician “The Aphex Twin” in Melody Maker. I didn’t particularly care for the Aphex Twin’s music at that time, although one thing he said piqued my curiosity: he claimed that he used something called “lucid dreaming” to compose his records. He would have all his equipment set up in his studio, and then he would fall asleep and dream lucidly, coming up with a new piece of music which he could immediately record on waking. Apparently he was able to create a lot of material in this way: at one point he claimed that he was able to come up with several albums’ worth of material every week. (Compare this with Kate Bush who is currently averaging one album almost every four years!)

All this talk about Lucid dreaming struck a chord with me: as soon as I heard the phrase, it just sounded as if it were the kind of thing that I could do myself. I therefore read up on the subject and started practising nightly. It took several months of practice for me to get the hang of it, after which I was rewarded with a short dream in which I became aware I was dreaming right in the middle of it, and managed to remain asleep. It was not a particularly interesting dream, and I did not actually do anything with it – it being my first time.

However, after that, as I became used to it, I found I was able to lucid-dream more often: also, the quality of my lucid-dreaming improved. I was able to do quite ambitious things with my lucid dreams, for example: to decide the content of my dream beforehand, whilst awake; to alter details within the dream whilst dreaming, simply by an effort of will; and generally to do all kinds of things like the character Neo was able to do in the movie “The Matrix.”

Around about this time I was becoming interested in the Western Mystery Tradition, and the system of the Golden Dawn in particular. I read Dion Fortune, who claimed that Out of the Body Experiences were just like lucid dreams;[ii] I read Ophiel, who explicitly described lucid dreaming as a means of performing astral projection.[iii] I therefore wondered to myself: can I use my own lucid dreaming to do all the things in the Golden Dawn system, for which astral projection is recommended? The result of my researches was that generally speaking, the answer was yes.

Prior to getting involved with the Golden Dawn system, my lucid dreaming had merely been about self-indulgence. However, as I began to incorporate magick into it, I found I was able to access new dimensions of awareness. I was able to do things like perform rituals such as the LBRP and the Middle Pillar Ritual; develop clairvoyance in the form of tattva-journeys; perform magic spells; commune with angels; and experience heightened states of consciousness. On one or two occasions I even experienced a rudimentary form of pre-cognition, although it did me no good whatsoever – I have never predicted a winning horse or set of lottery numbers, unfortunately.

I also came close to wrecking my health – which is when I discovered that it is possible to do too much lucid dreaming. As a result, nowadays I have cut-down on my lucid dreaming. Whereas when I was starting out I was practising literally every night, nowadays I only attempt to dream lucidly on two or three nights every month. I have found that this is usually quite adequate for all the lucid dreaming which I need to do. I have actually spoken out in public forums, saying that too much lucid dreaming can be bad for you, although I was not received particularly well, as most people in those forums wanted to hear about all the benefits of lucid dreaming, and closed their minds to someone alerting them to the possible dangers.

However, I believe that lucid dreaming, when done in moderation, is fairly harmless and indeed can be quite good for oneself. I also believe it is a very interesting phenomenon because it is one that a complete beginner, with no other talent for psychism, can experience with only a little practice. I myself started out as just such a complete beginner.

I shall now go into detail about what lucid dreaming actually is, the kind of things you can achieve with it, and some practical suggestions which you can take away with you.

Lucid Dreaming: What

Among the types of possible brain-activity in existence, there are four which are relevant when discussing Lucid Dreaming. These are:
· Beta Waves – in excess of 12 Hz i.e. twelve transitions or cycles per second -which correspond to normal waking consciousness;
· Alpha-waves – between 8 to 12 Hz – which correspond to when one is awake, but relaxed, with a stilled mind;
· Delta waves – from 1 to 4 Hz – which correspond to deep sleep; and
· Theta waves – between 4 and 8 Hz – which is between deep sleep (Delta) and relaxation (Alpha).

Researchers have found that phenomena like lucid dreams, out-of-the-body experiences, etc, occur when an individual is in a state of Theta-wave brain activity. In other words, in order to dream lucidly, it is necessary to attain a state of consciousness which is somewhat deeper than deep relaxation, but somewhat lighter than deep sleep.

I contend that the real difference between astral projection and lucid dreaming lies in the way that the individual attains this state of “Theta-Consciousness.” A lucid dreamer will start by descending into a Delta-wave state (i.e. fall asleep), and then ascend into a Theta-wave state. An astral traveller on the other hand would descend into a Theta-wave state from deep relaxation (alpha), without necessarily falling asleep first.

From my experience, there are several different types of dream or non-lucid dream, some of which are easier to achieve than others. They are:
0. Ordinary non-lucid, unmemorable, dreaming – of the kind that most people experience every night.
1. Non-lucid but memorable dreaming.
2. A non-lucid, memorable dream, the topic of which one has successfully “incubated” i.e. decided whilst awake before going to sleep.
3. Basic Lucidity – in which one becomes aware that one is dreaming, but does not necessarily do anything with the dream, apart from observing what goes on.
4. “Wilful Lucid Dreams” – in which one not only dreams lucidly but takes control of the dream whilst it is in progress.
5. Magical Dreams
6. (What I call) “Trans-Lucid Dreams.”

“Non-lucid but memorable dreams.”

Anyone can have an unmemorable non-lucid dream, indeed most people do every night. Even people who claim not to dream probably do, it is just that they forget them. Memorable non-lucid dreams are rarer. People who are not attempting to dream lucidly will only have memorable non-lucid dreams if they are particularly vivid or unusually interesting.

However, it has been found that a necessary first step to lucid dreaming is to be able to remember ones dreams in detail – even the uninteresting ones. This is in fact extremely simple to achieve: it is as simple as keeping a notebook on your bedside table, and writing down everything you can remember as soon as you wake up. This act of making a conscious effort to remember your dreams will in fact have the effect of making your dreams more memorable! You may not be able to write down anything, or anything more than a few sentences at first, but if you keep at it, within a few nights you will be able to fill a whole page or whole pages with the contents of one night’s dreaming.

“Incubated Dreams”

The next level of mastery is to be able to choose what you dream about. This can be done quite simply – for example, by formulating your chosen topic into an affirmation, and repeating it silently to yourself as you drift off to sleep. E.g.: “I will dream about the Taj Mahal.” Repeated practice increases the likelihood of success. However, if the affirmation can give rise to ambiguity, then your unconscious mind may become unco-operative. For example – if you did try to dream about the Taj Mahal in India, and it so happens that you have a Tandoori restaurant down the road from you with the same name, you may find that using an affirmation like “I will dream about the Taj Mahal” will in fact cause you to dream about the wrong thing! Hence, you might learn from experience to be more specific when formulating an affirmation: alternatively, you could try to visualise your chosen topic, in addition to making an affirmation about it, as you fall asleep.

“Basic Lucidity”

The next-step up is actual Lucidity, the quality of being aware that you are dreaming whilst the dream is in progress. This can take some time to achieve for the beginner, but in my experience it is like learning to ride a bike: it becomes easier after one has experienced it the first time.

There are a number of different techniques for achieving basic lucidity, but most of them have in common a method for programming your unconscious so that when a certain event happens in your dream, it will act as a trigger to make you realise that you are dreaming.

For example, one can condition oneself to continually look for differences between dreaming and real-life, so that when something strange happens, you realise that you are in the middle of a dream. You could also make it a daily habit to periodically do “reality-checks” whilst you are awake – i.e. deliberately stop and try to work out whether you are awake or dreaming. The theory being that if you make this a waking habit, you will carry on doing it whilst asleep. A third method is to program your unconscious with a suggestion, that you will realise you are dreaming when you see a specific thing or object within your dream – for example, your own hands. There are numerous other methods which I will not go into now.

When I first started practising, it would be the case that when I realised I was dreaming, I woke up immediately. However, after becoming used to the surprise, and a lot of telling myself “I will remain dreaming,” I was able to become lucid, even though I had no control over the dream’s content. So although it is possible with practice to achieve basic lucidity, there is actually very little difference to start-off with between a basic lucid dream and a non-lucid one: although lucid dreams always seem to be more vivid and more memorable than non-lucid ones, and even more important. Note: they only seem more important because your ego is telling you that they are.

“Wilful Lucid Dreams.”

What I have been describing up to now I consider being relatively easy to attain. However, the next logical step is to take control of ones lucid dreams – for example:
· To improve their quality;
· To lengthen amount of time you remain dreaming before waking up;
· To avoid lapsing from lucidity into non-lucidity;
· To change the content of the dream whilst it is in progress;
· To change what you are able to do in the dream;
· To be able to consciously choose one thing or another;
· To be able to play out sophisticated scenarios of your choosing;
· To be able to do all manner of ambitious or creative things with your dreams.
All of this takes practice – years of practice. I myself have to practice all of this. I have found that if I get sloppy, I have to re-practice to get back to a proper standard. However if I am practising regularly, I can usually succeed.

Generally, it is possible to do absolutely anything in a lucid dream – so long as you convince yourself that your dream-self is capable of it. A problem I found, however, is that if I had not prepared myself before going to sleep, I might not realise that I had unlimited powers in the dream-world.

For example, because in waking-life all objects are solid, I had unconsciously accustomed myself to thinking they were always so. However, it was after one lucid dream in which I felt boxed-in by something that I remembered: “Dreams are fantasy. I can do what I want in them. Hence, I can give myself the power to pass through solid objects!”

Incidentally, although becoming lucid in a dream is no guarantee that you will be able to think completely rationally in your dream. This takes some effort as well.

In my experience, training oneself to improve the quality of your lucid dreams will involve a lot of programming your unconscious to remember things, that you can stay lucid, that you can stay dreaming, that you have all manner of super-powers and so forth. In this regard it is probably helpful to also have an understanding of self-hypnosis, so that you are able to control you unconscious satisfactorily.

“Magical Dreams”

Everything I have described up to now relates only to the Astral Plane. Non-lucid dreams are in the realm of the lower-astral, whilst lucid dreams are higher up the Astral, so to speak. However if we, as Golden Dawn practitioners want to do actual Magical things in our dreams, it is necessary to reach up and make contact with the forces which lie above and behind the Astral Plane – i.e. the Mental Plane and beyond.

Actually this is not really that much more difficult than attaining the kind of control over ones lucid dreams which I described a moment ago. It is all about practice, training oneself to remember the correct procedures, and being brutally honest with oneself.

You can get a good indication of the standard you need to work to by reading the chapter entitled “Clairvoyance” in the “Black Book.”[iv] Essentially, in order to access a particular magical force, you need to have symbol for that force, which you can conjure before you in your lucid dream. You then project through that symbol as if it were a magic-doorway. You will also need to know the Divine and Angelic names associated with that force, which you then vibrate, and also the appropriate magical signs. The combined effect of symbol, names and signs will serve to attract the actual magical force into your lucid-dream.

The other important thing to remember is to continually test everything you see and experience – and banish everything which tests badly. Spirit guides which do not recognise the Divine names, or give the wrong ones, or make the wrong sign or give the sign with the wrong hand, or which fail any of the other methods of testing – banish them all! Be brutal. And if you only realise there is something wrong with vision after the fact, when you are awake, discount it all, and give it up as a bad job. There is a danger here, in that although your vision might be faulty, it may nevertheless gratify your ego, and you do not therefore want to disregard it. Disregard it! It will hurt you and be a pain for you to think you will have to do it again, but, disregard it! If you start to overlook one little thing in your vision which is out of place, just for the sake of gratifying your ego, you are on a slippery downward slope to self-delusion. Your unconscious will lose all respect it has for you, and your dreams will start lying to you indiscriminately. It is better to have one magical dream which is of an impeccable standard, than a thousand flawed dreams – because the one true dream will always be of a higher quality than any ego-gratifying dream which has a flaw in it.

However, if you do accustom yourself to brutally disregarding false and flawed dreams, you will find that the genuine magical dreams will more than make up for them. It is possible to experience tremendous power and receive genuine insights from bona fide magical dreams. I believe it is possible to use such magical dreams to follow the magical and / or spiritual path, in a manner similar to the way that one would use astral projection to do so. I even believe it is possible for magical dreams to cause effects in the waking world. It is all a matter of years of practice, self-discipline and hard-work.

“Trans-Lucid Dreams”

The final type of dreams, which I will mention very briefly, are what I call “trans-lucid” ones, i.e. lucid dreams in which one experiences transpersonal states of consciousness. I cannot say too much about them because I have very limited experience of them indeed: I merely theorise them to exist.

You ought to be aware that a number of Eastern sources claim that lucid dreams, or astral visions, are most definitely not the highest form of consciousness attainable. For example, in Tibetan Dream Yoga, lucidity, far from being the end-result, is in fact a mere side-effect which arises as one attempts to attain what is described as “clarity” – a state of perfected contemplation.[v]

Furthermore, Ramana Maharshi describes the ideal state of consciousness as akin to dreamless-sleep, though conscious[vi]. Following this line of reasoning, the ultimate perfection in lucid dreaming would be to dream lucidly about absolutely nothing – to hold the mind completely still. Which of course is extremely difficult because as soon as one thinks of something one has broken ones line of consciousness.

Practical Dream-work

As promised I will now describe some practical work which you can undertake in your own time. The magical power of dreams has been known or suspected since ancient times – it was certainly known to Henry Cornelius Agrippa, author of Three Books of Occult Philosophy, a key sourcebook of the Western Mystery Tradition: in fact most of the Golden Dawn knowledge lectures are taken more or less directly from Agrippa.

In that book, Agrippa described a method of “Dream Divination” which has the benefit of being both astrologically and qabalistically sound.[vii] The method is as follows:
· Firstly, draw up your natal horoscope, and make a note of where your ninth house lies.
· Secondly, using a current ephemeris, find out exactly when the Moon transits your ninth natal house. Given that the Moon makes a complete circuit of the Zodiac in a lunar month, it will usually transit your ninth house for a period of two to three days each month.
Agrippa contends that one can attempt dream divination during those two days when the Moon is in your ninth house. This is because your ninth house represents, amongst other things, occult visions; whilst the Moon is the planet of dreams: according to “777” it is associated with the magical powers of clairvoyance and, not surprisingly, dream divination.

Hence, what I recommend is that on the night or nights indicated by your calculations, you “incubate” as a subject for your dream, the question which you want answered. I also recommend that you make a note of the time, date and place where the question occurs to you: that way you can cross-check the results of your dream divination with Horary Astrology.

It would also help if you invoke Luna as best you know how, immediately before retiring. I personally like to use the following Graeco-Egyptian invocation.[viii] It is quite short, but it is meant to be repeated nine times, the effect of which, combined with vibrating the barbarous names of invocation, do lead one into a kind of altered state of consciousness by itself.

Hail, Saks Amoun! Saks Abrasax!
For thou art the Moon, the great one of the stars, he who formed them!
Listen to these things which I say!
Walk thou in accordance with the words of my voice!
Hear me now:
Than
Thana
Thanatha
Thei
For this is my true name.

Bibliography

Agrippa, H C, Peterson, J H (ed.), 2000, Three Books of Occult Philosophy,Twilit Grotto – Esoteric Archives, www.esotericarchives.com/agrippa/agrippa1.htm, accessed 25/06/2008.
Betz, H D, 1986, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation,including the demotic spells – volume one: texts, University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London.
Castaneda, C, 2004, The Art of Dreaming,Thorsons, London.
Crowley, A, 1987, 777 and other Qabalistic writings of Aleister Crowley, including Gemetria & Sepher Sephiroth, Weiser, York Beach ME.
Fortune, D, 1987, Applied Magic, Thorsons, London.
Ophiel, 1961, The Art & Practice of Astral Projection,Weiser, New York.
Regardie, I, 1989, The Golden Dawn, sixth edition, Llewellyn, St Paul MN.
Rinpoche, N N, 1992, Dream Yoga and the practice of Natural Light, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca NY.
Wilber, K, 2000, One Taste: daily reflections on Integral Spirituality, Shambhala, Boston & London.

Notes

[i] See bibliography.
[ii] Fortune (1987) – see bibliography.
[iii] Ophiel (1961), chapter 2.
[iv] Regardie (1989), p456 et seq.
[v] See Rinpoche, N N, in Bibliography.
[vi] “That which is not present in deep, dreamless sleep is not real.” Quoted in Wilber (2000).
[vii] Agrippa, Book 1, Chapter 59.
[viii] Betz, pp232-3.

Nothing seems important to me anymore. I mean, I wrote “My Status” and really came to the conclusion that things are what you make of them. Which is good, right? Except that I’m not so sure any more.

I mean, I’m wondering if sex really should be something important? Something revered? Certainly not to the extent of the “virginity festish” as Valentini puts it, of course. That’s just damaging and insulting. But as it stands (in my head), sex really doesn’t mean much. It’s neither good nor bad, it just is. And, like I said, I’m wondering if I should regard it as more than that. Does it truely change people? Will I really regret it if I do it too soon? Why?

And it’s not just sex I’m concerned about. I have forced myself free of the “purity myth” with the idea that things are what you make of them. And purely that. I used to love symbols and just the symbolic meaning was enough for me to translate it into real-world importance.
For example, iron affects faeries. I don’t think I’ve ever really found a reason– Actually, my mom might’ve mentioned this, but anyway. The point is, I equated it to the fact that humans were building with iron, making it synthetic. So it doesn’t coincide with nature properly. Or even simply the ideas of iron and then a lush, green forest just don’t work. Ok, to be honest, that only just barely worked because I know for a fact that iron is actually a mineral. And anyway, I didn’t actually believe in faeries. But that’s not the point.

I kinda realized that I couldn’t really think of anything being so significant or important when I was talking to him last night. We were talking about Dion Fortune’s Psychic Self-Defense. It’s getting a little out-there for me. She’s explaining what’s supposedly out there and far too much is hitting a little too close to fantasy. She’s right in that there would be no smoke without some fire, that this stuff has to be rooted in something true, but it just strikes me as getting too much like what I know isn’t true.

-to be finished later: remember, blood and vampires-
Last edited by Diastrofi on September 28, 2009 at 4:47 pm

Anyway, my mom explained it to me, so I’m not really going to rant as much, but I’ll explain the blood and vampires bit. Dion Fortune mentions vampires and explains them and she mentioned blood and it sounded a bit too close to fantasy and that’s why I was questioning it. That’s all. Anyway, yeah, that’s all.

As I see it, the Arthurian legends, or the Matter of Britain, or whatever you want to call it–the great tree of tales that stands at the center of so much European and American literature–has five major branches.

First are the stories of Arthur himself and of his knights.  These may be epitomized by the Sword: Arthur’s Excalibur, the miraculous sword given him by the Lady of the Lake, the symbol of his sovereignty and of the ideals of knighthood.  The musical Camelot summed it up nicely: “Not might makes right, but might for right.”  Knighthood is usually seen as a masculine ideal; that didn’t stop me from having a succession of toy swords as a girl, or from haunting the Arms and Armor room at the museum, scenically located in a dimly but strategically lit basement.  I didn’t want to be the fair maiden, the damsel in distress (“Sorry, neither,” as Uhura said to Sulu); I wanted to be the rescuing knight, the shining hero with the sword.

Second are the stories of the Holy Grail.  The Grail is such a complex symbol that I can’t even begin to do it justice.  It is part of Arthur’s mythos but also stands on its own.  It is pagan and Christian, Celtic and Saracen, a symbol of healing and salvation that proves the undoing of Arthur’s kingship.  If the Sword is the masculine symbol of Might for Right, the Grail is at minimum the feminine symbol of Giving through Taking, “a condition of complete simplicity, costing not less than everything.”

Third come the stories of Merlin.  Merlin is part of Arthur’s story, yet he has stories of his own which may be older.  The most common image of Merlin is as the wise old eccentric advising Arthur the young hero; he is the template for Gandalf, Dumbledore, old Ben Kenobi.  But his first appearance in literature is as the magical youth who uncovers the fighting dragons beneath a hill and opens himself up to prophecy and vision.  Geoffrey of Monmouth, who introduced Merlin and recorded his prophecies in his History of the Kings of Britain, later wrote a Life of Merlin in which his relationship to Arthur does not appear.  R.J. Stewart has worked with and written about the stories and images of Merlin as a European magical system, culminating in a Tarot deck based on Geoffrey of Monmouth’s accounts.

Fourth are the stories of Taliesin. Taliesin, Primary Chief Bard of Britain, is a figure even more distant from Arthur in origin than Merlin, yet he has become attached to the Arthurian mythos; he is Arthur’s bard as Merlin is Arthur’s druid. Taliesin is a complex figure, partly a historical person who lived and wrote in the Old North of Britain in the sixth century C.E., partly a mythical figure who is, like Orpheus, a prototypical or archetypal bard with spiritual and magical powers.  The earliest Druids of the Druid Revival, the fraternal/spiritual movement of the eighteenth century, seized upon his poetry (and that attributed to him) as the product of a lost spiritual system, and while they were most likely wrong, they gave Taliesin a far greater fame and immortality than his own writings gave his patron Urien Rheged.  To Revival Druids today, Taliesin remains the examplar of spiritual and magical initiation.

Fifth and last are the stories of Avalon.  While mentions of Avalon in Arthurian and earlier Welsh literature go back well before Sir Thomas Malory wrote, the prominence of Avalon in recent Arthurian fiction is owed to the success of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s answer to Malory, The Mists of Avalon, and its sequels and prequels (now being carried on by Diana L. Paxson).  Bradley undertook to retell Malory’s saga from the point of view of its (occasional) villainess, Arthur’s sister Morgan le Fey, and made Morgaine and the Ladies of the Lake priestesses of the old pagan religion of Britain.  (Unfortunately for Guinevere, she becomes the prime representative of Christianity in Arthur’s life, and a largely unsympathetic character.)  Bradley’s inspiration most likely came from clairvoyant and magical work done by Dion Fortune and associates at Glastonbury in the first half of the twentieth century. Fortune, a former member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn who founded her own magical working group, pioneered the association of the mythical Avalon with the historical Glastonbury, the concept of Avalon and Britain as a depository for the ancient wisdom of Atlantis, and the vision of a fusion of  Celtic pagan and Christian mysteries in the Matter of Britain as the spiritual health of Britain and its gift to the world.

The power and importance of these stories is demonstrated by the fact that people keep retelling them, in novels, in short stories, in films, in television programs, and probably in other formats I’m not aware of.  I intend to blog about the retellings that have meant the most to me as I go on.

Iona, a sick little island in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland, boasting former religious splendour from a monk allegedly more mad and more sinister than Rasputin (and I’m a big fan of Rasputin, a great man) – wickedness, pretending to be good, evil masquerading as holy!? A monk from Ireland who allegedly buried his friend in the foundations of his monastery. How unholy and ungodly is that? Get real, that is evil. But monks and nuns came and went and Iona became a tourist attraction in the Gulf Stream, alive with legends of Selkies (seal elementals), mermaids and much more. Drawing poor Netta Fornario, a rich but lonely psychic healer from the safety of her London home in Mortlake Road, Kew, to the horrors of Iona in August 1929, when Netta was in her early 30’s. Netta was found naked and dead in November 1929, near a ruined village, logged as a ruined farmstead, nothing there just a few stones and hastily buried by the islanders of Iona in one of the biggest conspiracy cover-ups to hit Scotland in the 20th Century. No wonder she reputedly haunts the scene, or is that Iona island tourist propaganda too? Just what did those mad islanders do to Netta Fornario? All reports of her later days are from supposed islanders reports and they could well all be lies as well as the supposed accounts of what Netta said and the accounts of her last days on Iona, they may be pure fiction, disinformation allegedly put about to cover the truth of Netta Fornario’s murder by the islanders.

Watch the Netta (Eh, Eh) Musical Mystery

Laydee GooGoo took another outing as Lady Garrote, in producing the Netta Fornario video based on Lady GaGa’s song Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say). I don’t know why GaGa’s somewhat inane, flavour of the moment songs fit so well into Occultism and the darkness such as Lady Garrote’s Clear Cut Hypnosis film about Jack the Ripper and Countess Bathory, and now The Golden Dawn’s film about Netta Fornario, but she does and they do. Come on, GaGa’s probably a Satanist really (and some would say why not?) but for all her innocent guile she comes over as evil, so maybe she’s not Satanic, just worldly and greedy, but GaGa’s as big a puppet as Kermit, the frog outfit she wore to shock Germany. Maybe she’s mentioned in Mein Kampf?

Watch the Netta (Eh, Eh) Musical Mystery

Pale cream, fluffy sheep clouds hover in a faded light blue sky. The central heating boiler hides the rest of the light azure wallpaper scene. I re-enter what is left of the main room. Directly overhead on the low ceiling of the painted attic it is night, but before that it was day. An old wooden organ is bolted to the floor in front of me, I am told the patrons have been unable to move it. On the right wall there is a brilliant scene, it appears to be a golden, orange-yellow sunrise, a ray of hope in a choppy turquoise sea topped by little white crests of gentle foam breakers (another report claims it is a sunset, but it looks like a sunrise to me). On the left wall, under a set of pillars, are a pair of enthroned Egyptian Gods, magnificent on their thrones and unlike the rest of the scene, that area is apparently recently refurbished, the colours strong. It is summer 1986 and I am witnessing history. I have come to the building, housing a restaurant called L’Aragosta (the Lobster) to sell them an advertisement for the magazine I work for and they happily take one. But I would have gladly gone there for nothing in order to enter the Horus Temple of the Golden Dawn, which is where I am standing now.

The Horus Temple of the Golden Dawn, was originally housed in the Alexandra Hotel, Great Horton Road (now demolished) but it was secretly moved in the early 20th century to this attic in Godwin Street, Bradford, which was later used by Freemasons as a Garuda Temple. But this temple does not show The Garuda, a Hindu and Buddhist bird deity on the left wall, instead it shows the ancient Egyptian, falcon headed sun and sky God Horus, not so dissimilar, oddly enough to the Eastern God, Garuda. What is going on? A conspiracy in our own backyard? Funnily enough The Lobster is the name of a UK conspiracy magazine, was this a sign out of time?

You would think that the temple would have been a place of local heritage interest, but despite a blaze of publicity in 1983, even by 1986 it was largely forgotten, except not by me. I have done my best to ensure the Horus temple of the Golden Dawn in Bradford is not forgotten, even though I am told it has now been destroyed, which is a great pity and a great heritage loss.

Watch the brief documentary exploring the sites and figures of The Golden Dawn in Bradford >>

“When it is recalled that Daathis situated at the point where the abyss bisects the Middle Pillar, and that up the Middle Pillar lies the Path of the Arrow, the way by which consciousness goes when the psychic rises on the planes, and that here also in Kundalini, we see that in Daath is the secret of both generation and regeneration, the key to the manifestion of all things through the differentiation into pairs of Opposites and their union in a Third.” -Dion Fortune, The Mystical Qaballah, London, Fraternity of the Inner Light, 7.19 (1957)

music playing:  Swan Lake

Here are some quotes on writing  from Dion Fortune’s, “The Sea Priestess” (1938)

From the Introduction:

1.  “It was said by a reviewer of one of my previous books that it is a pity I make my characters so unlikeable.  This was a great surprise to me, for it had never occurred to me that my characters were unlikeable.  What kind of barber’s blocks are required in order that readers may love them?  In real life no one escapes the faults of their qualities, so why should they in fiction?”

2.  “Any writer will agree that narrative in the first person is a most difficult technique to handle.  The method of presentation is in actuality that of drama, though maintaining the appearance of narrative; moreover everything has to be seen not only through the eyes, but through the temperament of the person who is telling the story.  A restraint has to be observed in the emotional passages lest the blight of self-pity appear on the hero.”

3.   ” People read fiction in order to supplement the diet life provides them…It is too well known to need emphasis that readers, reading for emotional compensation, identify themselves with the hero or heroine as the case may be, and for this reason the writers who cater for this class of taste invariably make the protagonist of the opposite sex to themselves the oleographic representation of a wish-fulfilment.  The he-men who write for he-men invariably provide as heroine either a glutinous, synthetic, saccharine creature, and call the result romance, or else combine all the incompatibles in the human character and think they have achieved realism.”

4.  “Equally the lady novelist will provide her readers with such males as never stepped into a pair of trousers; on whom, in fact, trousers would be wasted.”

From Main Text:

5. “The keeping of a diary is usually reckoned a vice in one’s contemporaries  though a virtue in one’s ancestors.”

6. “We read novels as a kind of supplement to daily life.   If you look over the shoulder of the mildest man in the railway carriage, you will find he is reading the bloodiest novel.  The milder the man, the bloodier the novel- and as for maiden ladies-!  Any particular tough-looking individual, with overseas tan still on his skin, is probably reading a gardening paper.”

“I am the soundless, boundless, bitter sea;

All things in the end shall come to me.”

Violet Mary Firth Evans was born on December 6, 1890 in Llandadno, Wales.  At four years -old, she reported experiencing visions of the lost city of Atlantis. These visions, and the blossoming of psychic abilities, drew her to the occult studies when she was in her twenties. After becoming a member of both The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Theosophical Society, she formed her own esoteric group: Society of the Inner Light.

 Born to a family of Christian Scientists whose motto was, “Deo, non Fortuna” (God not chance), Miss Evans chose the pseudonym, Dion Fortune, and set out to transcribe her spiritual beliefs down on paper. Since witchcraft was still illegal in Great Britain, Ms. Fortune hid her magical teachings in the guise of novels. Her most famous, The Sea Priestess, was self-published in 1938.

Covering the themes of Hermeticism, reincarnation, and Atlantis, – it concerns Wilfred Maxwell, a bachelor, who is bored of his life tending to the family business and to his interfering mother and sister. Upon becoming afflicted with asthma, Wilfred takes to long bouts in bed. “As I lay there, doped and exhausted and half hypnotized by the moon, I let my mind range beyond time to the beginning. I saw the vast sea of infinite space, indigo-dark in the Night of the Gods; and it seemed to me that in the darkness and silence must be the seed of all being.”  Wilfred spends his nights staring down at the moon and discerning,  “I found that the more I dwelt on her, the more I became conscious of her tides, and all my life began to move with them.”

Soon after, Wilfred meets the cold and mysterious Vivien Le Fay Morgan, who claims to be a Priestess of Isis.  “Little by little, she learnt and built, always handicapped by the fact that the moon-magic requires a partner, and partners were hard to find.“ With the warning that she can never give herself to one man, Vivien enlists Wilfred to help her develop her magical image as a sea-priestess.

Months are spent at an isolated seaside retreat, communing with the sea and the moon. Discovering the hidden works of nature. Isis Veiled and Isis Unveiled.

At one point, Vivien stands looking out over the moonlit sea. Raising her arms, she sings:

“Oh Isis, veiled on earth, but shining clear

In the high heaven now the full moon draws near,

Hear the invoking words, hear and appear-

Shaddai el Chai, and Ea, Binah, Ge.”

Just when Wilfred is coming out of his shell, Vivien disappears, leaving him shattered. Time passes and Wilfred begins a tentative romantic relationship with the reserved Molly. He teaches her the rituals, and she blooms, finding her personal power, not as a sea-priestess, but as one of the earth. “There was awakening in her something of the primordial woman, and it was beginning to answer to the need in me.”

 Molly discovers that “All Women are Isis”;Wilfred begins his own relationship with the Priest of the Moon.   As a couple, Wilfred and Molly play out the themes of Hermeticism, and help bring  forth each other’s magical abilities.

Through destruction and sacrifice they are reborn.

I write this Blog following some of my own metaphysical researches on the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Too much of recent internet and other authorship focuses on a few bits of information available to the many. I do not claim to be a member of any particular group but I have a significant interest in the subject and practice of Golden Dawn magic. I want to get to the roots.

The most interesting and influential magical group in recent times was the esoteric order known as the Golden Dawn. It was first established in England by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and two others, Dr William Wynn Westcott and Dr William Robert Woodman in the late 19th century. The three founders were all freemasons at the time and members of the “Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia”, which was a masonic Rosicrucian branch. They were led to the famous “Cipher Manuscripts” which essentially outlined a comprehensive magical curriculum and grade structure.

Mathers and his wife, Moina, soon became the driving force behind the Golden Dawn and developed it from its initial masonic midwifery into a highly successful, practical working instrument for the training and use of magical forces. Against all of the Victorian masonic traditions of the time, Mathers admitted women to the Order on an equal basis to men. He believed strongly in the balance of forces at all levels. In addition he was a vegetarian, probably reasoning that the Biblical commandment “Thou shalt not kill” should be lived as read.

Mathers as a man of principle and lived by his own principles. He was a Rosicrucian and as such aimed to contribute in a positive way to the world. This he did via extensive research into ancient forms of magic and he translated a number of key but hitherto obscure magical texts, including the Qabalah Denudata (Qabalah Unveiled), the Key of Solomon and several others.

The strength and current of the Golden Dawn grew over time under Mathers’ leadership and the order developed temples cross the British Isles and in Europe and America. Mathers had set up and developed an administrative body for the Golden Dawn known as the Second Order. This was a purely Rosicrucian Order, known as the Rosae Rubis et Aurae Crucis (RR et AC) and was separate from Masonry, which Mathers had left several years before out of disillusionment.

All members of the Golden Dawn were required to take a sacred oath to preserve the teachings of the Order and the identity of other members as well as other factors. This oath further served to maintain the boundaries of the magical work within the order and concentrate and focus its current. Those who broke the oath, such as Aleister Crowley and later Israel Regardie (Crowley’s secretary and a member of a spin-off group from the original Golden Dawn) who published much of the Order’s secret materials, became instantly disconnected to this current and opened themselves to the consequences they had sworn to in their oath.

In the early1900’s, Mathers had moved his base to Paris, along with his wife, Moina. His distance from the London temples proved costly and schism ensued, with the leaders of some of the London temples breaking away from the main Order (and subsequently breaking their oaths). A number of Adepts remained loyal to Mathers (such as Berridge and Brodie-Innes) and the Second Order under Mathers continued its existence in spite of the confusion evident in the outer Order of the Golden Dawn. Mathers continued to be guided by the “3rd Order” also sometimes called the “Secret Chiefs”. These have recently been revealed to have been highly advanced Adepts, no longer incarnated in a physical body. To the mind of a true mystic, this makes considerable sense as those who were no longer bound by earthly ties would have far broader vision and ability to guide Mathers than anyone in Earthly existence.

The adepts remaining loyal to Mathers continued their work under the title “Alpha et Omega”,this including the American Adepts who had grown out of the Golden Dawn temples established by Mathers not long prior to his death in 1918. It was only recently that it was decided to reform the Outer Order of the Golden Dawn in its true and original form via former members of the American temples. The way this occurred was described by Robert Zink, leader of the international Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn, at a talk at the Atlantis Bookshop in London in 2007. In this talk, Robert highlighted the point that the teachings of the Golden Dawn were not new and that they were reformed as the Golden Dawn to make them once again accessible to society. Robert had been asked by remaining American members of the RR et AC, to re-establish the Order in its original form as established by Mathers and was given the initiatory current to do so. This new form of the Order exists in the USA, Britain, several European countries, Canada, Australia and various other locations worldwide.

Other than this, several groups have enthusiastically taken on the historical literature of the Golden Dawn and put it into action in their own way, setting up Golden Dawn style groups. Spin off groups from the orginal Golden Dawn included the Whare Ra in New Zealand and the Builders of the Adytum in America. Another version of the Golden Dawn was established by one Chic Cicero (a freemason and former Thelemite) in the 1970’s, who even copyrighted the name – which in the view of many belongs to history and is uncopyrightable. Cicero was one of the many students of Israel Regardie (already mentioned). Notwithstanding Cicero’s background, this was one of the closest in approach to the original teachings for some time, despite adulteration of the original materials by Regardie and other writers, such as Chris Hyatt. Other interpretations of these materials include the group called the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn.  The original Golden Dawn spawned several other magical groups, including Crowley’s Order (not Golden Dawn) known as the OTO and the other he is said to have founded known as the AA, both ‘Left hand path’ groups; and the development of Wicca, which borrows a significant amount of Golden Dawn symbolism. A further spin-off group was Dion Fortune’s “Society of the Inner Light”, which formed its own system based on the Golden Dawn and another group called “The Servants of the Light”, set up by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki. Various others developed. Some of these still exist. On the bandwagon were several smaller orders and those set up by amateur enthusiasts.

The existence of the Golden Dawn today as probably the World’s most systematised mystery school, is fortunate for many who wish to make a serious study of the Western Mystery Traditions without the trappings and illusion of freemasonry or the proliferation of New Age hybridisation of east, west and other mystical cocktails.

More information on the Golden Dawn is available at GoldenDawnPedia (http://www.goldendawnpedia.com/).

Advice to the seeker:

Unless you are interested in self-study of the Golden Dawn, it is probably best to look for a group that actually puts into practice the Golden Dawn system and works it, rather than one which focuses on the library of historical Golden Dawn related literature out there.Questions to ask before joining are:

1. What is the curriculum of study?

2. How is it taught?

3. Can you explain the oath taken at initiaiton?

4. What do I get for my fees?

5. What kind of people join and will I get on with them?

Good orders will emphasise the individual path of the member and the personal journey on the pathway of light as much as the magical work to be learned.

Dr RJ Andrews, 2009.