Within the Western Esoteric Tradition, one of the most
well known is the Order of the Golden Dawn; patronized
by scholars and artists alike, in the Endeavour to reach
the Summum Bonus, the pinnacle of the Great work.
While the Order in its original form has long since past
there are a few temples still to be found for those of
us who are not in a position to apply for initiation into
the current of the Order we can have access to the next
best thing, the collections of the Order teachings from
the 0=0 Grade of Neophyte to the 5=6 Grade of Adeptus
Minor, that being the corpus of work and rituals for the
Order in the outer plus the first glimpses beyond the
veil into the second order.
Overall the Work is divided into the following Books:
The first being four introductions from Regardie and the
later editors and friends to the work and to the aims
and means of the Golden Dawn, with reference to (the)
LVX and the Great Work.
In addition to this the introduction contain some pragmatic
advise on how one
should go about utilizing the material present in the
rest of the book so one is
not stuck with a encyclopedia without direction.
The Introductions are best read in the reverse order
that they are presented in the books the oldest being
the best place to start.
Next we find the Knowledge Lectures of the Outer order.
This ranges from the introduction to the Hebrew Alephbeth
and the various astrological and elemental symbols in
the first knowledge lecture not to mention the Ubiquitous
Pentagram ritual and suggest meditation subjects. Of course
the hard bit is to read what to meditate on without reading
the hopeful results presented in the next paragraph and
colouring your efforts.
The lectures continue into a more in depth look at the
Hermetic Qabbalistic correspondence of the 32 paths of
the tree of life and the variety of symbolic subjects
that help illustrate their use in the grade rituals and
other aspects of the tradition along with the meditations
of each grade.
The information contained within the knowledge lecture
help full out the Golden Dawn Tradition which is a tapestry
of symbolic and Qabbalistic correspondences that link
the world together in the form of the Tree of life.
While a lot of the information seems to be endless memorization
of tables and
facts, combined with solid ritual work of the Lesser Pentagram
Ritual and the Daily mediations, the desired effect is
to build up a new vocabulary for the inner self to use
to see, interpret & express the world both inner and
outer in whole new ways.
The Third Section (after some colour plates) is the Grade
Rituals, from the 0=0
Grade of the Neophyte though to the initiation of the
Adept at 5=6.
Each is part of a mystery play taking the aspirant form
the world of darkness,
seeking the light up the spheres of the Tree of life,
and a journey thought the
four elemental worlds until finagling in harmony they
are sacrificed to be
reborn anew as the Adept, to begin the process of growth
and balance again.
Each is beautifully written, allusions to biblical and
other religious rites, and a wonder to read. Fortunate
would be they how get to experience them as part
of a working order, but the sole practitioner is only
limited by their imagination to create the scenes. The
rituals are not to be read once and then pass over but
to be read and reread, spoken aloud the impressed in the
aura of the aspirant so that they become part of the aspirant,
the current they express providing momentum forward living
and breathing not sterile lifeless paper.
They only thing lacking from the rituals is plates of
some of the Diagrams which are referred to in the rituals.
After the Grade Rituals, are the Rituals of consecration
of the working tools of the Adept and an more in-depth
look at the rituals of the Hexagram and the Pentagram,
the most basic (in both the simple and the foundation
stone sense) being introduced in the first knowledge lecture.
While seemingly complex at first the underlying formulae
become more apparent as the study of the material progresses,
like everything a solid foundation is needed before any
edifice can be erected, so too the ground work of the
Outer Order Grades must create the fertile ground before
the Inner order rituals can bear any fruit. Alas the diagrams
in this section are in black and white so some of the
ritual tools lack the vibrancy of appearance they possess
when beheld in full colour.
Following on there are interesting and informative essays
on a variety of subjects relating to the previous material,
such as the symbolism found in the 0=0 grade ritual, the
positions of the Officers in the temples and the symbols
are wield and represent amongst others, written by Regardie
and other Adepts of the Order.
There are also the Formulae of Ceremonial Magic, the
structural form of Ceremonial magical ritual for achieving
different aims, be they spiritual development divination
or talisman creation and consecration. These are followed
by Examples of how the basic skeleton of the rituals present
can be turned in to fully fledge rituals of specific purpose
such as the talismanic ritual being filled out for a Talisman
of Jupiter. As Regardie comment himself in this section
they are only example of what can be done with the system
and a demonstration of understanding in not merely being
about to conduct the ritual present d but to use the foundation
of knowledge building up in the Outer Order and the meditation
to be able to write ones on rituals using the formulae
provided.
Besides the ceremonial magic there are also sections
of Tarot, which is of high complexity when compared to
more off the shelf tarot reading books but also highly
tied in to the overall theme of the Golden Dawn Tradition,
as well as scrying, Tatwaa, and divination by Geomantic
figures, as well Geometric figure and their symbolic interpretation
and a union of Tarot and astrology. Once again a showcase
of how the Golden Dawn attempted to create a synthesis
of the different methods of divination and understand
of the universe into one coherent form.
And Finally Encohian which the last section (before the
hefty index) is devoted
to.
The Golden Dawn interpretation has more of an elemental
focus on the Enochian system the others but this section
still provides a thorough approach to attempting to understand
the 4 great quadrangles or watchtowers and the way to
segment the monolith blocks of esoteric text into the
various names of the hierarchy of the Angels and Kings
named therein. It includes the Four tablets (sadly in
black and white again) as well as the Call in an interlinear
translation. If you find the first sections of the book
heavy and hard going, leave this section for a few years.
