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  2229

Subject: THE FEMININE CURRENT IN THE GOLDEN DAWN
                                        by Peregrin

                 (A version of this article first appeared in SWEEPINGS).

          Many Wiccans and Pagans, whilst declaring themselves "eclectic"
seem
          to avoid the Golden Dawn like the plague. This is quite understa
nda-
          ble, since on the face of it the GD seems to be counter to most
of the
          Pagan philosophies. (The open hostilities and down putting direc
ted at
          Wiccans that pour out of some GD practitioners does not help the
          matter either.)

          The GD Is often viewed as inflexible, patriarchal, authoritarian
 and
          stuck up its own behind. A few Wiccans do practise the GD, but m
ost of
          these, I feel do so with the belief that the two are watertight
compa-
          rtments - that is Wicca is a religion and the GD a "system". Mos
t
          (including myself), if they confide in you will admit that they
view
          the GD as more "powerful" - at least in the magical as opposed t
o the
          religious sense.

          It is my aim here to show that the essence of the GD is not inhe
rently
          patriarchal and opposed to Pagan ideology. This I believe can be
 r-
          eadily observed if we remember that the Hermetic Order of the Go
lden
          Dawn was a late 19th century outward manifestation of a spiritua
l
          system aeons old. The essence of the system would therefore be c
on-
          tained within, but not altered by, and outward form that reflect
ed
          late 19th century western occult ideology. (Remember also that t
he GD
          first emerged via Masonic sources and thus the outer form was he
avily
          coloured by that system.) This essence can however be readily "t
apped
          into". This will then help the magician avoid being trapped into
          "believing" the GD's outer form. The essence I speak of is, of c
ourse,
          the Goddess.

          On the face of it to say that the GD's essence is Goddess sounds
          absurd. But please do not judge the GD book by its cover. Forget
 the
          outer form, forget the Victorian pomposity, forget the props. Le
t's go
          a little deeper.

          First off, the original GD System relied heavily on its ceremoni
al in-
          itiations. The process of initiation (even the mimicry of ritual
          initiation) always involves a death and re-birth, which can only
 truly
          occur via Goddess, since only the "female" force of the universe
 can
          give birth.  Thus straightaway we see that at the core of the GD
 is an
          unrecognised Goddess force. To deny it is to say that either, a)
 the
          GD initiations do not involve a re-birth; b) something other tha
n Go-
          ddess can give birth; or c) the GD initiations are not effective
,
          which anyone who has undergone them will heartily dispute.

          Christopher S Hyatt, the main collaborator with the late Israel
Regar-
          die before his death, in a recent book - The Secrets of Western
Tantra
          - makes several hints which echo the views I express. Says Hyatt
, when
          tracing the link between the GD and the Tantric Goddess:

          "...one attribute among many others which gives the whole show a
way is
          the equality between male and female adepts." (p.69)

          For a Masonically derived Order in Victorian England this was an
 unpr-
          ecedented and daring move. Yet this had to, and did occur, since
 the
          Order's essence is based firmly on Goddess and the co-equality o
f the




  2230

          sexes. Looking a little more closely at the formation of the Ord
er
          will also show many other clues regarding the hidden Goddess ess
ence.

          Firstly, the leading light of the Order, S L MacGregor Mathers,
was an
          ardent supporter of the equality of the sexes and the young femi
nist
          movement. In his introduction to "The Kabbalah Unveiled" he sets
 the
          record straight concerning the nature of divinity:

          "...the translators of the Bible have crowded out and smoothed u
p eve-
          ry reference to the fact that Divinity is both masculine and fem
ini-
          ne... now we hear much of the Father and the Son, but we hear no
thing
          of the Mother in the ordinary religions of the day."

          Presuming the hidden Goddess essence and following the mythology
 of
          the Order, it becomes apparent why the "Secret Chiefs" chose suc
h a
          person to lead the GD. If the Order's essence was patriarchal th
ey
          would surely have chosen a different man.

          Continuing with the examination we find that the Outer Order rit
uals
          are based upon a set of cipher manuscripts. In those manuscripts
, as
          published in "The Secret Inner Order Rituals of the Golden Dawn"
, we
          find the candidate is often referred to as "she". In an age when
 women
          were still calling themselves "brothers" and "chairmen", this is
          significant.

          Further, the Order was chartered and given authority (ie, symbol
ic
          life) by a woman (Sr SDA). Now admittedly serious doubt has been
 cast
          upon this history, but regardless of whether the events occurred
 in
          shared space-time or Westcott's mind, the symbolism is important
 - it
          is a symbolic birth performed by a Goddess figure.

          This theme is further developed in the naming of the first true
GD
          temple in England (and the initial temple of many GD Orders worl
dwide)
          as the Isis-Urania temple. Thus the Order is visibly dedicated t
o, and
          under the influence of, the Goddess. Behind all things, even GD
t-
          emples, is the Mother.


          Before having a quick flick through Regardie's "The Golden Dawn"
 to
          see what Goddess essence we can find there, let's pay attention
to
          some of the more prominent proteges of the Order. Firstly Mather
s
          himself went on to utilise his GD adeptship to develop, along wi
th his
          wife Moina, the Rites of Isis in Paris (the couple nearly always
          worked as a partnership in their occult work.) Secondly Aleister
 Cr-
          owley, despite his male ego, misogyny and viciousness went on to
 pr-
          oduce a sort of Nuit "cult", using GD based techniques. Crowley
him-
          self is an excellent example of my point that inner essences do
not
          necessarily reflect outer forms and vice versa. It is hard to im
agine
          that such a person as Crowley (the man) could act as medium to s
uch
          Goddess inspired beauty as the closing paragraphs of the first c
hapter
          of Liber Al vel Legis. Yet Goddess came forth anyway. Crowley, l
ike
          the GD was outwardly patriarchal, but contained the essence of G
od-
          dess. There is no more Goddess inspired thealogy than Crowley's
maxim,
          "Do what Thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law".

          Dion Fortune, initiate of the Stella Matutina, also used GD base
d tec-
          hniques to help formulate her Pagan workings, the focus of which
 was
          the Goddess Isis.




  2231

          The most obvious evidence of Goddess in the GD is the Rose-Cross
, the
          symbol of the combined female and male forces. The GD's Inner Or
der,
          the Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis claimed a Rosicrucian lineage,
 and
          the links between the Rosicrucians and Goddess have been detaile
d
          beautifully by Gareth Knight in his book, "The Rose Cross and th
e
          Goddess".

          We come then to the GD tarot, and find it restoring the court ca
rds to
          an equal sexual balance based upon the Tetragrammaton. The male
knave
          (page) of the exoteric packs of the era was correctly replaced b
y the
          female princess, symbolic of the Earth Goddess.

          In Qabalistic philosophy we find the spirit of the Divine often
refe-
          rred to as Shekinah, which is seen as having a female essence. T
his is
          shown clearly by Mathers when he correctly translates a passage
from
          the Sepher Yetzirah:

          "...AChTh RVCh ALHIM ChIIM: Achath (feminine, not Achad, masculi
ne)
          Ruach Elohim Chiim; One is She the Spirit of the Elohim of Life.
"

          This thealogy is followed in the GD. Israel Regardie shows this
in his
          ritual for Spiritual Advancement, which is based firmly upon the
 Z
          documents of the Inner Order. Here he implores the Mother of God
desses
          and Gods (Aima Elohim) to aid him in his quest. Regardie even us
es a
          cauldron as a symbol of the Great Mother. This, believe it or no
t, is
          not a Wiccan ritual, but pure Golden Dawn.

          The main weapon of the RR et AC adept, the Lotus Wand, has embod
ied
          within it much Goddess essence. It is described as, "...a simple
 wand
          surmounted by the lotus flower of Isis. It symbolises the develo
pment
          of creation." (The Golden Dawn, 5th ed. p224.) This indicates th
at the
          creation of the Spirit, the Heavens and the Earth comes from the
 Great
          Mother Isis. The wand also represents the Kundalini - a feminine
          Goddess force. This to me is a beautiful tool, alive with Goddes
s,
          much more so than the Wiccan athame (which is objected to by som
e
          feminist Witches as being aggressive and masculine).

          Finally let us return to initiations. The two most important ini
t-
          iations of the GD/RR et AC system, the Neophyte and the Adeptus
Minor
          ceremonies, both contain the hidden Goddess essence.

          The Neophyte ceremony is based on the myth of the Slain and Rise
n
          Osiris, where the candidate acts as the Slain Osiris. This myth
ho-
          wever is a later patriarchal rendition of the Ishtar and earlier
 Inna-
          na myth of Goddess descending into the Underworld. The Goddess i
s thus
          present deep within the archetypal theme of the ceremony. Furthe
r, the
          act that seals the initiation proper, the final consecration, is
          conducted by Officers representing "the Goddesses of the Scale o
f the
          Balance". And as the badge of the grade is placed upon the new i
nit-
          iate, "... it is as the two Great Goddesses Isis and Nepthys, st
ret-
          ched forth their wings over Osiris (the initiate) to restore him
 again
          to life." The candidate is thus re-born to a fuller life by the
power
          of Goddess.

          The Adeptus Minor ceremony contains much Goddess essence quite o
penly.
          The clearest example of this is the Vault of the Adepti, and obv
ious
          symbol of the Womb of Goddess. As Regardie briefly points out in
 his
          introduction to the Golden Dawn, the candidate is led through th
e Twin
          Pillars which symbolise the vagina and into the womb itself. The
re she
          returns to the Great Mother and is re-born and out through the v
agina




  2232

          once more. The symbolism is so obvious, so beautiful and so pote
nt,
          and I am surprised some Wiccan/Pagan group hasn't adapted the ce
remony
          in their own workings.

          From the foregoing it can easily be seen that Goddess is alive a
nd
          well within the GD - at least in its essence. Sadly not many GD
adepts
          are aware of this. Most GD magicians get too caught up in the ou
ter
          form and potency of the system to notice where the energy and be
auty
          originate. I am not claiming that the GD is, or should be, a rel
igion.
          It is not, and its essence is not. The essence is however Goddes
s and
          Her continuing manifestation in this world. If we are to remembe
r and
          consciously perceive this it will transform our GD work. Then th
e GD
          will no longer be "dry" and without life - the perceptions most
          Wiccans and natural Goddess worshippers intuitively feel.

          For 100 years the Golden Dawn has concealed Her, the Mother of L
ight,
          Life and Love. But now in this time when She is being worshipped
 by so
          many in so many different ways, the Golden Dawn will at last rev
eal
          its secret. And just as the Stone that the Builders rejected sha
ll
          become the Cornerstone of the Temple, so too shall Goddess becom
e the
          key to the 21st century manifestations of what is now the Golden
 Dawn.
          The new Golden Dawn shall one day become as important as the Wic
can
          movement in the collective invocation of Goddess. This process i
s
          already beginning, and we can all take part in and promote it if
 we
          Will. But whether we chose to or not, now is the time to bury th
e
          false split between ceremonial and Pagan magic, for both are bor
n of
          the Mother and both will lead us back to her.