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To: alt.magick.order,alt.magick.serious,relcom.arts.magick,alt.magick.theurgia,alt.magick.goetia,alt.magick
From: yekhidah@aol.com (Yekhidah)
Subject: Re: Fraudulent Hermetic Orders
Date: 13 Jul 2002 23:50:16 -0700

I found this info on the web for the history of the Golden Dawn.

THE HISTORY OF THE THELEMIC ORDER OF THE GOLDEN DAWN

By David Cherubim
(Frater Aurora Aureae)
Copyright © 2001 e.v.
The Order of the
Thelemic Golden Dawn.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

We shall now give a proper account of the history of the Thelemic
Order of the Golden Dawn, commencing from that point in earthly time
where the Spirit of the Order assumed its fundamental form, and we
shall give details regarding the main figures of our lineage, the
founders and teachers of our esoteric Magical Society, which, be it
Hermetic or Thelemic in kind, is given the sacred name of the Golden
Dawn.

We shall begin in the year 1887, when Dr. William Wynn Westcott
(1848-1925), a London Coroner, Theosophist, Freemason and Rosicrucian,
obtained a Cipher Manuscript from a debatable or rather unknown
source.  In this Cipher MS. there were contained skeleton rituals of
initiation, attributions of the Tarot Trumps to the letters of the
Hebrew Alphabet, and the name and address of a Rosicrucian Adept
located in Germany, Soror Sapiens Dominabitur Astris (Fräulein
Sprengel).  Westcott wrote to her with the result that in November of
1887 she authorized him to found an English branch of the Golden Dawn.
This led to the establishment of Isis-Urania, Temple No. 3, of the
Order of the Golden Dawn in the Outer, in the year 1888.  It was on
February 12, 1888 that Westcott and two other Masons and Rosicrucians
signed the Preliminary Pledge Form of the Golden Dawn.  Then a Warrant
was created for these three to constitute and rule the Isis-Urania
Temple and they signed it on March 1, 1888.

Westcott was a member of an Esoteric Society of Master Masons, called
the Rosicrucian Society of England (Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia,
or Soc. Ros., founded in 1866 by Robert Wentworth Little).  After the
death of the founder of this society in 1878, Dr. William Robert
Woodman (1828-1891) became its Chief or Supreme Magus.  After
Woodman's death in 1891, Westcott became the Supreme Magus of the Soc.
Ros.  Another member of this esoteric society was Samuel Liddell
MacGregor Mathers (1854-1918).  Mathers, like Westcott, was a member
of its High Council.  Westcott invited both Woodman and Mathers to
join him as Chiefs of the Isis-Urania Temple of the Golden Dawn.  It
was Mathers who assisted Westcott in decoding the Cipher MS.  The key
was contained in Abbot Johann Trithemius' "Polygraphiae" (1561). 
Mathers also expanded on the skeleton rituals of initiation and it was
his occult genius that made the Golden Dawn into a Magical Order.  He
eventually became the sole Chief of the Order.

Now regarding three other very important figures of the Golden Dawn
who played such a major part in shaping Aleister Crowley's magical
career and who therefore play a significant part in our history.  In
February of 1894, a man named Allan Bennett (1872-1923) was initiated
as a Neophyte of the Golden Dawn.  He quickly advanced to the Grade of
Adeptus Minor.  Crowley first met Bennett in the spring of 1899 during
a Golden Dawn ceremony.  Bennett then acted as Crowley's magical
mentor and later as his Guru (Yoga Instructor) in 1901.  Bennett took
the Yellow Robe in 1902 and became a Buddhist Monk, but which he later
abandoned.  He is well known as the Leader of the first Buddhist
Mission to the West.  In June of 1894, a man named Julian L. Baker was
initiated as a Neophyte of the Golden Dawn.  He advanced to the Grade
of Adeptus Minor on March 10, 1896.  And on July 12, 1895, a man named
George Cecil Jones (1873-1953) was initiated as a Neophyte in the
Golden Dawn.  He advanced to the Grade of Adeptus Minor on January 11,
1897.  It was Jones who proposed to Crowley that he join the Golden
Dawn and he sponsored Crowley for his Neophyte initiation. (Jones also
later assisted Crowley in the formation of Astron Argon, or the Order
of the A.·.A.·., from 1906 to 1909.)  Crowley met Baker during the
summer of 1898, and Baker introduced Crowley to Jones in September of
1898.

Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) joined the Golden Dawn as Frater
Perdurabo (Neophyte 0=0) on November 18, 1898.  He was initiated to
the next grade of Zelator (1=10) in December of 1898, as a Theoricus
(2=9) in January of 1899, as a Practicus (3=8) in February of 1899, as
a Philosophus (4=7) in May of 1899, he then took his Portal Initiation
in December of 1899, and was initiated as an Adeptus Minor in Paris on
January 16, 1900 by Mathers who Crowley first met in May of 1899.  Now
scandal and schism arose in the Order in 1900; the London Adepts were
in revolt against Mathers, the Chief of the Order, and by the end of
March, the London Temple declared independence from Mathers.  Both
Crowley and Jones originally sided with Mathers during the revolt, but
later went their own ways, Crowley to Mexico who then became a
Freemason.  Crowley stated, "In 1900, the Order in its existing form
was destroyed."

On April 8th, 9th, and 10th of 1904, Crowley received from his Holy
Guardian Angel (Aiwass) the Book of the Law (Liber Legis), which
proclaimed that he was the Prophet of a New Aeon (New Age) and that
his office was that of being the Founder and High Priest of a New
Order of the Golden Dawn, which he later called the Order of the
A.·.A.·. (Astron Argon), maintaining, however, the name of the Golden
Dawn as the title of the Outer Order.  Crowley's reception of the Book
of the Law was a direct manifestation and result of his initiation
into the Order of the Golden Dawn.  The Golden Dawn was, in fact, the
basis of the Proclamation of the New Aeon of Horus and the Law of
Thelema.  After receiving the Book of the Law, Crowley wrote and sent
a letter to Mathers informing him that the Secret Chiefs had appointed
him to be the visible Head of the Golden Dawn.  Mathers did not
respond, but nor did Crowley expect a response from him.

On July 27, 1906 Crowley renewed his Adeptus Minor obligation during a
visit with Jones.  Crowley wrote, "Fra P. [Crowley] was crucified by
Fra D.D.S. [Jones] and on that cross made to repeat this Oath..."
Later these two Adepts discussed the idea of forming a New Order.  By
December 10, 1906, Jones recognized Crowley as a Magister Templi
(Master of the Temple).  Crowley, however, did not actually accept
this grade until December 3, 1909.  But by their sincere efforts and
spiritual preparation a New Order was made manifest in the year 1907,
called the Order of the A.·.A.·. (Astron Argon).

In October of 1928, a man named Francis Israel Regardie (1907-1985)
met with Crowley in Paris to become his personal secretary and
student.  On October 28, 1930 Regardie took the Oath of the
Probationer of the A.·.A.·. (A copy of this Oath is printed in chapter
eleven of the sixth revised edition of Regardie's book, "What you
should know about the Golden Dawn.")  In January of 1933, shortly
after severing with Crowley, Regardie joined the Order of the Golden
Dawn (Stella Matutina) at Hermes Temple in Bristol with the Neophyte
Motto Ad Majorem Adonai Gloriam.  (In the book, "The Eye in the
Triangle", Regardie states that he retained this same Neophyte Motto
for his 5=6 Adept degree, the Adeptus Minor Grade.)  Regardie resigned
from Hermes Temple of the Stella Matutina on December 5, 1934.  Many
years later Regardie initiated Frater Adonai Achad (a past Chief of
the T.·.G.·.D.·.), who also became Regardie's legitimate heir,
continuing the Regardie lineage of the Golden Dawn through a
reorganized form of the Order, called the Hermetic Temple and Order of
the Golden Dawn in association with the Israel Regardie Foundation. 
Regardie died on March 10, 1985.  Frater Adonai Achad initiated Frater
Aurora Aureae as an Adept of the Golden Dawn on March 10, 1990, five
years after Regardie's death, and Frater Aurora Aureae was chartered
to operate his own Temple of the Golden Dawn and he received
certification up to the Grade of Adeptus Exemptus of the Regardie
Lineage of the Golden Dawn.  Frater Aurora Aureae also became one of
the Officers of the Israel Regardie Foundation and later a Chief, or
the Cancellarius, of the Hermetic Temple and Order of the Golden Dawn.

On the Vernal Equinox of 1990, Frater Aurora Aureae and Frater Adonai
Achad inaugurated the Thelemic Order of the Golden Dawn (New Order of
the Golden Dawn), and they acted as the Ruling Chiefs and Hierophants
of the Order.  This was a major spiritual and historical event.  To
start, twelve candidates were initiated into the grade of the
Neophyte, and within a year the Order began to expand in both the US
and other Countries.  The Thelemic Order of the Golden Dawn (Order of
the T.·.G.·.D.·.) is dedicated to the teachings of Aleister Crowley,
Thelema and the Golden Dawn.

On December 4, 1994, Frater Aurora Aureae peacefully resigned as a
Chief Officer of the Hermetic Temple and Order of the Golden Dawn and
Israel Regardie Foundation. (On December 4, 1994 Frater Aurora Aureae
also officially resigned from the O.T.O., or Ordo Templi Orientis,
which he joined on June 16, 1985 at Baphomet Lodge in LA, CA USA.) 
Now Frater Adonai Achad and Frater Aurora Aureae departed ways in
peace, with Frater Aurora Aureae becoming the sole Chief and Grand
Hierophant of the Thelemic Order of the Golden Dawn (Order of the
T.·.G.·.D.·.), continuing with other Initiates the Great Work of
Spiritual Initiation and Illumination in the world of men and women.

One last important fact should be noted in connection with the history
of the Thelemic Order of the Golden Dawn.  In 1998, Frater Aurora
Aureae inaugurated, in the USA, the Aleister Crowley Foundation, which
is dedicated to the perpetuation of the teachings of Aleister Crowley
and Thelema and the promotion of the activities of contemporary
Thelemites and Thelemic Orders and their literary works, internet
services and events.  The Aleister Crowley Foundation operates in
association with the Thelemic Order of the Golden Dawn, but with its
own unique form of membership and special purpose to fulfill for the
Great Work of Thelema.

Love is the law, love under will.