The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was founded in London in 1888 by three Rosicrucian Masons. For the first time men and women worked together as equals in magical ceremonies whose purpose was to test, purify, and exalt the individual's spiritual nature so as to unify it with his or her "Holy Guardian Angel."

While the history of the G.D. is well documented and several of its male initiates have become famous, their female counterparts have received little credit. And yet, when one reads between the lines, four women stand out as the true heart and soul of this magical Order. This is the story of these four amazing women and the difference magic made in their lives. It also demonstrates how magic can make a difference in our lives today.

Actress Florence Farr produced the first plays of both William Butler Yeats and George Bernard Shaw, and was head of the G.D. in England before becoming principal of a women's college in Ceylon.

Tea heiress Annie Horniman, as "founder of the modern English theatre," built and subsidized Dublin's Abbey Theatre based on a series of four Tarot readings.

Artist Moina Bergson Mathers, sister of philosopher Henri Bergson, became Paris's priestess of the Goddess Isis, and channeled magical rituals from Secret Chiefs.

Irish revolutionary Maud Gonne, who inspired Yeats's greatest poetry and plays, was "Ireland's Joan of Arc" and "Woman of the Sidhe."

As members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in London, Paris and Dublin in the 1890s, they used magic to change the politics, literature and theatre of their time, heralding a "new age" and a "new woman."

Author, Mary K. Greer, gleaned twelve self-empowering principles from these women's lives that we can use to achieve our own goals.

EXCERPTS:

The Spiritual Marriage of Maud Gonne and William Butler Yeats

Moina MacGregor Mathers on "Woman's Role in Religion"

Florence Farr, George Bernard Shaw, and the Mysteries of Sound

Annie Horniman and the High Priestess Card

Twelve Principles of Success

JUST DISCOVERED: MacGregor Mathers's Final Address to the OGD

Published by Park Street Press / Inner Traditions, Rochester VT, 1995. 495 pages. 42 B&W photographs.

The Spiritual Marriage of Maud Gonne and W. B. Yeats

Maud Gonne returned to Dublin in December 1898 and was with Willie [Yeats] constantly. Her renowned beauty was then in its full flowering, a beauty that her friend, Ella Young, described as "like the sun when it leaps above the horizon." "She is tall," Young said, "and like a queen out of a saga. Her hair is burnished gold and her eyes are gold, really gold." When she was with Yeats in public all eyes would fall on them, creating a stir in the surrounding crowds as people stopped and turned to stare: "It is Maud Gonne and the Poet. She has a radiance as of sunlight. Yeats, that leopard of the moon, holds back in a leash a huge lion-colored Great Dane--Maud Gonne's dog, Dagda."

One day Willie arrived as usual to see Maud. But on this day she asked him, "Had you a strange dream last night?"

"I dreamed this morning for the first time in my life that you kissed me," he replied. Maud then described her own dream: "When I fell asleep last night I saw standing at my bedside a great spirit. He took me to a great throng of spirits, and you were among them. My hand was put into yours and I was told we were married. After that I remember nothing." For the first time with "bodily mouth," Maud then kissed him.

The next day Willie found her sitting gloomily over the fire. "I should not have spoken to you in that way," she said, " for I can never be your wife in reality."

"Do you love anyone else?" Willie asked.

"No." But she admitted that there was someone else, a child, and that she had to be a "moral nature for two."

Then bit by bit, she began to tell him the story of her life. Some of these things Willie had heard as rumors, twisted by scandal, and had chosen not to believe. Now he was learning the truth. As Willie remembered it:

She had met in the South of France the French Boulangist deputy, [Lucien] Millevoye, while staying with a relative in her nineteenth year, and had at once and without any urging on his part fallen in love with him. She then returned to Dublin where her father had a military command. She had sat one night over the fire thinking over her future life, and chance discovery of some book on magic among her father's books had made her believe that the devil, if she prayed to him, might help her. She asked the Devil to give her control of her own life and offered in return her soul. At that moment the clock struck twelve, and she felt of a sudden that the prayer had been heard and answered. Within a fortnight her father died suddenly, and she was stricken with remorse. (Yeats, Memoirs)

Maud told Willie of her troubles with Millevoye and of the birth and death of her son. "The idea came to her that the lost child might be reborn," wrote Yeats later, "and she had gone back to Millevoye, in the vault under [her son's] memorial chapel. A girl child was born."

A few days later they undertook a silent trance, and both experienced a vision about which they agreed not to speak until it was over. Maud "thought herself a great stone statue through which passed flame." She was unmoving, enduring, perpetual, like the stone and earth of the country she love, fired by the life force and passion of those who lived on the land.

Willie felt himself "becoming flame and mounting up through and looking out of the eyes of a great stone Minerva." With his creative spark of artistic genius, he needed a form through which to flow. This form was Maud, embodying for him the spirit of the land itself -- of Ireland.

This experience confirmed that theirs was a "spiritual marriage," coming from "the beings which stand behind human life." They were to receive initiations for founding an Irish Mystery School. Theirs was not a marriage of the body but a sacred rite for linking the Bard and the Earth Mother. Maud learned in a trance, induced by staring at a talisman devised by Willie, that "the initiation of the cauldron or cup is a purification, that of the stone power, that of the sword knowledge and subtlety, and that of the wands a supernatural inspiration." For Maud and Willie these were the four suits of the Tarot, as well as the four treasures of the Tuatha de Danaan.

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Moina MacGregor Mathers on "Woman's Role in Religion"

In 1899 Moina Mathers, as the High Priestess Anari, was interviewed for an article on "Isis Worship in Paris." She said:

"The idea of the priestess is at the root of all ancient beliefs. Only in our ephemeral time has it been neglected. What do we find in the modern development of religion to replace the feminine idea, and consequently the Priestess? When a religion symbolizes the universe by a Divine Being, is it not illogical to omit woman, who is the principle half of it, since she is the principle creator of the other half--that is, man? How can we hope that the world will become purer and less material when one excludes from the Divine that part of its nature which represents at one and the same time the faculty of receiving and that of giving--that is to say, love itself and its highest form--love the symbol of universal sympathy? That is where the magical power of woman is found. She finds her force in her alliance with the sympathetic energies of Nature. And what is Nature if it is not an assemblage of thought clothed with matter and ideas which seek to materialize themselves? What is this eternal attraction between ideas and matter? Is it the secret of life. Have you ever realized that there does not exist a single flame without a special intelligence which animates it, or a single grain of sand to which an idea is not attached, the idea which formed it? It is these intelligent ideas which are the elementals, or spirits of Nature. Woman is the magician born of Nature by reason of her great natural sensibility, and of her instructive sympathy with such subtle energies as these intelligent inhabitants of the air, the earth, fire, and water."

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Florence Farr, George Bernard Shaw, and the Mysteries of Sound

In January 1893, Florence Farr gave her first lecture on the angelic Enochian language [as recorded by Queen Elizabeth I's royal astrologer-magician, John Dee]. Used in ritual, the vowels are sounded in a powerful way to sympathetically vibrate the ether on the astral plane. Florence's voice--especially low, resonant, trained--was perfect. She put all the energy that Bernard Shaw had lamented was lacking in her dialogues on stage into creating these vibratory tones. Speaking powerfully became her focal point for both ritual and the stage. In one of her novels, Florence described her own efforts: "She heard that some of the words, as she spoke them, sounded round and full, and moved her to the depths of her heart; others sounded little and thin, and resolved to work away until she had got all alike resonantly beautiful. She kept the one idea before her of making every sound she uttered beautiful."

But sound, she discovered, was more than beautiful resonation -- it was the detonating force of creation. She wrote:

"The Vedantists tell us that sound is the elemental correspondence of etheric spaces, the root of measurable things. And our hearing and our speech, the part of the mind that receives impression, can all be resolved into the element of sound--the strange grey world of sound, flashing or detonating, imperceptibly subduing and mastering, or roaring maledictions upon us, gasping in ecstasy or choking in death, thousand-tongued. The mystery of sound is made manifest in words and in music . . . we are overwhelmed by the chatter of those who profane it, and the din of the traffic of the restless disturbs the peace of those who are listening for the old magic, and watching till the new creation is heralded by the sound of the new word."

Florence was working with powerful energies that tested her ability to handle their reflections on the material plane. Perhaps the shattering events that followed were, for Florence, a result of her contact with the purifying Angels of Enoch.

Bernard Shaw and Florence were having a passionate love affair despite his simultaneous attentions to Jenny Patterson (a widow friend of his mother's and his first lover) and May Morris Sparling (William Morris's married daughter). Shaw noted in his diary five days after Florence's first Enochian lecture that they were both "very happy" spending their evenings reading Walt Whitman to each other. But this peaceful interlude was not to last. Jenny Patterson, returning from a trip to Italy, burst in upon Florence and Shaw, screaming that Florence could not have him. The next day Shaw made Jenny write a note of apology which May Morris delivered. Florence refused to see Shaw for a month, during which he wrote the scene into his new play, The Philanderer. Florence countered with a novel, The Dancing Faun, in which an enraged woman kills him and gets away with it.

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Annie Horniman and the High Priestess Tarot Card

Upon being asked how to perform a scrying or visualization with a Tarot card, Annie wrote:

"For Tarot Cards, etc. I can only tell you what I have found out for myself by experience and practice. I take the High Priestess, the Moon, in my hand and look at the figure and imagine it as a stately woman in golden mitre in red gold-bordered robes on a throne with a book in her hand. I make the Lunar Hexagram saying Shaddai El Chai, Gabriel, Malka, Chasmodai, Gimel and pass through the figure I have made (I do this as I write). I seem to stand before a solid figure, similar to what I have built up but large and brilliant against a pale bluish atmosphere--her face is pale and rather round and very peaceful and calm with blue eyes. I repeat Hexagram and Names and make LVX signs and she bows gravely and asks what I want. I ask if this be the right way to pass into the domain of the High Priestess? She bows, raises her right hand and uplifts a small silver rod or sceptre with a crescent on top. I test it and it becomes the source of white brilliancy and she points upwards with it. I thank her and salute and return.--Of course that is only just the starting point of a journey."

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Twelve Principles of Success

Have a "room of one's own"--a space in which to "breathe."

Find outcast communities and acquire outsider philosophies that support your belief in personal power.

Channel creative energy through some form of artistic expression.

Operate in a metaphoric universe in which you can transfer ideas from one realm to another.

Believe you can influence events (i.e., "create your own reality").

Name your most valued qualities as your own source of power (i.e., through a magical name).

Make choices: both affirm and set boundaries.

Face problems as creative challenges, allowing for paradox, to create "uniquely fitting situations."

Be self-conscious and self-reflecting, using astrology, tools of divination, and metaphysical models of existence.

Allow for inner diversity, and sidestep or return projections using methods of psychic protection.

Periodically center and renew your connection with Spirit through cyclic and seasonal rituals, initiations, and rites of passage.

Use will, imagination and desire (i.e., magick) to transcend the limits of normal experience.

MacGregor Mathers's Final Address to the OGD

A second minute book of the Ahathoor Temple in Paris has surfaced in a private collection that prefers to remain unknown. The records show little G.D. activity during WWI and in the years following Mathers' death. Note that Moina Mathers took a second magical name upon her initiation into the Inner (Rosicrucian) Order: In R.R. et A.C. [the Inner Order], Victoria Mea [Victory is Mine]. This seems to indicate that she is now assured, as her Outer Order motto attests, of "leaving no vestiges or traces behind" -- perhaps this was to be her last earthly incarnation. Of greatest interest are the following:

Thursday, 12th December 1918, 43 rue Ribera, Paris, 2:30 in the afternoon.

The V.H. Soror "Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum" [Moina Mathers] 5=6, Praemonstratrix, announced that the Supreme Chief of the Order, the Greatly Honored Frater "S'Rioghail Mo Dhream" [MacGregor Mathers] 5=6, Imperator, "Deo Duce Comite Ferro" 7=4, had departed from his terrestial body, during the night of Tuesday, November 19 to Wednesday, November 20 to the minute [midnight], but that spiritually, he shall be with us always.

In his last moments he instructed that the V.H. Soror, "Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum" 5=6 Praemonstrix, "In Rosae Rubeae et in Aureae Crucis, Victoria Mea" 7=4, in conjunction with the V.H. Frater "Sub Spe" [John Brodie-Innes] 5=6, "Fidei Tenax" 7=4, and the V.H. Frater "Resurgam" [Edmund Berridge] 5=6, "In Spiritu Sancto" 7=4, to see that nothing might interrupt the Work of the Order, and to see that the Tradition would always be observed.

He named as his Successor and as Supreme Chief of the Order, representing the Secret Chiefs, the V.H. Frater "Sub Spe," "Fidei Tenax" 7=4.

Sunday, August 7, 1921, 26 Rue Vavin, 3:00. The G.H. Soror "Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum" read a message from the late Chief, Frater "S.R.M.D.," the last which he had addressed to members of the the Order before leaving the physical plane -- "all of his last thoughts while undergoing the transition of leaving his body were for our Order," Moina Mathers noted.

He wished that you all might continue your Work within this Order, just as if he were yet present among us in his physical body. He had reason to believe that he would be able to guide and to protect you, from the Spiritual Plane where he now is. He asks that you should keep intact the official Instruction of the Order, knowing that he received it in a direct line from the most pure Rosicrucian source, even though these Mysteries are found somewhat modified in their exterior form, for reasons of Tribe and Culture.

For you who aspire to become Adepts, he insists above all on the importance of the spirit of Brotherhood, which is essential in a mystical asociation, because the least discord could permit the Evil Forces to gain a foothold among us. And by "Brotherhood" he understands not only submission to the letter, but also to the spirit of our Obligation; because among the most important points about which we must be aware there are those things which could afford entrance to the adverse forces -- in particular, we refer to intolerance and sterile discussions between members. We should assemble in our Temple, for our Work, on a Ground of complete neutrality and perfect Harmony, even if in private life, our relations with certain Fraters or Sorors might not be as entirely harmonious or as mutually amicable as would be desired. The goal of all our efforts is to arrive at a strong and harmonious synthesis. And to this aim we shall most rapidly and completely attain by melding all our individual virtues and abilities, so that we function together as a single homogeneous unit.

Thus so, our G.H. Chief asks above all else that you cultivate tolerance, and that sympathy which flows naturally, sympathy for your immediate circle, and sympathy for all of Nature -- because with what does the Adept work, if it is not with Nature and her Forces? He must enter into contact with the Forces, serving and assisting them. And the Forces certainly won't obey a stranger to them, when they submit but uneasily even to one who knows them well. They will only submit to one who can understand their nature, who can "sympathize" with them, and to one who can just so, in rising to a higher plane, rule them. Of such a one, it is only to him who can elevate himself to a higher plane than the Forces, who can comprehend the Forces in their interior nature -- who, in a word, shall "sympathize" with them. And he shall attain the most absolute Harmony, the most perfect communion with all things -- he shall understand the true Charity, which is a ray borrowed from that Universal Light itself. And such a one shall repeat with the fullest of verities this saying of the Adept: "I am He who is robed in a body of flesh, but in whom doth shine the Spirit of the Gods. [Translated from the French by Robert Word.]

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