BOOK REVIEW: "Mansions of the Moon" by Frater V.L.

Introduction by David Griffin

If one only listens to the gutter press in the Golden Dawn Blogosphere, you can easily get the misimpression the G.D. is more about leaders bumping egos than it is about magical work.

Except for the professional tabloid journalists among us posing as "myth-busting" iconoclasts (who thrive on subtle put downs of other G.D. orders and their leaders), the vast majority of Golden Dawn initiates, Adepts, and leaders are hard working people dedicated to helping others and working on their own spiritual growth.

Take, for example, the excellent new book written by Alpha Omega member, Frater V.L. 

The following review of this important book first appeared on the Lux Veritatis (The Light of Truth) blog (HERE), written by solitary practitioner and independent GD magician, Frater A.T.L.V. I am reblogging the review in its entirety, as follows:

BOOK REVIEW: "Mansions of the Moon" by Frater V.L.

by Frater A.T.L.V.

This is a GREAT book! This is a book that all ceremonial and ritual magicians, Golden Dawn or otherwise, should not ignore.  I have been working with it for some time now and it has produced great results.  It deals with a Lunar system of astrological magick, rarely ever discussed, that is completely unique compared to the Solar based planetary day and hour system and corresponding astrological magick we are all so used to. It is written by a very wise man, trained in both the Magical and Mystical aspects of the Rosicrucian and Hermetic Western Mystery Traditions.  An intelligent, intuitive, and brutally honest fellow true Rosicrucian and Hermeticist, Frater V.L., who's blog you can visit at fratervl.blogspot.com HERE 

You may purchase the paperback HERE. There is also a PDF version you can purchase by following the link from his blog listed above.

Review

"Mansions of the Moon" is a book of great value for the magician, and deals with Lunar astrological Magic, a topic which is rarely dealt with in any detail beyond the construction and use of Talismans, as it is in "The Picatrix".  This book is rather a practical manual for the invocation of the 28 presidential Angels that rule their respective 28 Mansions of the Moon.
  

The Mansion system is a system based on the passage of the Moon through the zodiacal Wheel, rather than the more common system which is based on the passage of the Sun through the zodiacal Wheel.  It uses the Tropical zodiac system, which is more suitable in this case as the system is based on observing the movement of the Moon through the zodiac from the Earth's perspective.  Because of this, it does not take into account the variations in the movement of the Sun as does the Sidereal system, and all of the 28 mansions occupy a fixed space in the zodiacal Wheel.

The purpose of the book is not to simply make and consecrate Talismans to these 28 presidential Angels of the 28 Mansions of the Moon, but rather to directly invoke them, just as one does with the Angels of the Elements, Solar zodiacal Planes, Planetary, and Sephirothic Forces, in traditional Golden Dawn Magic, with one major difference.  Timing.

The Mansions of the Moon is by its own right an independent system which works directly with the Zodiac in relation to the Moon, rather than the Sun.  Because of this fact, the timing of the rituals are determined in a different way than the traditional planetary day and hour system.

Since there are twelve zodiacal Signs, and 28 Mansions, naturally, each Mansion does not have a direct correspondence with a just one specific zodiac Sign. Rather, each Mansion occupies a certain number of Degrees and Minutes of the zodiacal Wheel, with overlap in the Signs that they occupy. This gives each Mansion a unique set of properties based on its position within the zodiacal Wheel which the Moon is passing through, which are colored by the properties of the different Signs it occupies.

The current Mansion is determined by the position of the Moon within the zodiacal Wheel, which means that only one Mansion is able to be worked with during a given period of time.  Here a huge difference lies in comparison to the systems of magic based on the position of the Sun in the zodiac, and the use of the planetary hours.  As long as the Moon is in a specific Mansion, you may work with the Rite of that Mansion and its Angel during any time of day or night, without regard to the hours.  You may work with only the Mansion in which the Moon currently resides in, and no other.

The book's Rites are based on a Golden Dawn ritual framework, but can be adapted to fit nearly any ceremonial magician's needs. It is similar in a way to Enochian Magic and Solomonic Magic, in that it uses an altar with a Tablet of Practice along with a scrying medium.  It also makes use of a Lamen that must be constructed for each Angel, similar to the Seals in the "Clavicula Salomonis".  It gives very detailed instructions on how to create everything necessary to work the system effectively.

The book gives precise information on the locations of the 28 Mansions, in table form, for easy identification of the current Mansion, the degrees and minutes it occupies, the name of the Mansion, and its presidential Angel.  It goes into further detail with a page on each Mansion, its Seal or Lamen, which contains its Sigil, and for what purposes its Angel can be invoked.

It also contains a section that describes in detail the tools necessary to perform the invocations, and has clear diagrams that make it easy for the magician to be sure they have everything set up correctly. It is very user friendly, and serves mainly as a practical guide for these specific invocations of the 28 Angels of the Mansions, without a lot of theoretical material.

In this sense it is a very valuable book for the magician that knows how to perform invocations, and is looking to work with the energies of the Moon in more depth than just the usual Golden Dawn Luna invocation in which one invokes the Archangel Gabriel and the full hierarchy of the Moon. 

The part of the book that deals with the actual ritual instructions contains valuable commentary that will really help the beginner to understand the component parts of the greater ritual.  It is clear and concise and to the point.  As I said earlier, it is presented in a Golden Dawn ritual framework, but the instructions are given in a way where the magician can omit the Golden Dawn parts of the ritual to suit their own needs if they so desire.

There is also an appendix at the end of the book that gives ritual instructions for the Qabalistic Cross, Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, and Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram.  These rituals are used when doing the invocation in the Golden Dawn format, and these additional ritual instructions will be very helpful to those who are not familiar with the basic rites of the Golden Dawn.

Mansions of the Moon, by Frater V.L., is a great book and invaluable resource for both beginning students and advanced magicians alike.  Working with the different Mansions and their ruling Angels brings much insight into the Lunar forces, and is a wonderful tool for the practical magician.  With 28 Mansions and Angels at your disposal, all with their own correspondences and abilities, there is little you can not accomplish with this book when working sincerely with the system.

I personally have had some pretty profound results working with the system, and since starting to incorporate it into my routine, I have been regularly working with it, always discovering new things as I continue to work it.  It has also given me much insight into Lunar energy in general and its various Angels, along with all that they have to offer the magician.

I highly recommend this book to any ceremonial magician, Golden Dawn or otherwise, that is looking for a practical manual for working with Lunar astrological magic, or simply to expand upon the more common rituals that one practices in the Golden Dawn Tradition.

Thank you Frater V.L., for a wonderful and extremely useful book that will no doubt produce endless results and revelations for magicians everywhere. It certainly has for this magician!

Sincerely and Fraternally in L.V.X.,

Frater A.T.L.V.

BOOK REVIEW: Commentaries on the Golden Dawn Flying Rolls - by the Golden Dawn Community

by Alpha Omega Imperator

David Griffin

"A valuable addition to the library of any Golden Dawn Magician"

- David Griffin

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn saw its beginning in its present form in 1888, when Isis-Urania Temple Number 3 was founded by S.L. MacGregor Mathers, Robert Woodman, and W. Wynn Wescott. 

The order is a late flowering of a Hermetic and Rosicrucian initiatic center in Continental Europe, whose lineages and teachings were carried to England by Edward Bulwar-Lytton and Kenneth MacKenzie.

Count Apponyi of Hungary was a Rosicrucian, representing an extremely ancient and secretive Continental European order of Hermetic alchemists, to whom S.L. MacGregor Mathers would later refer to as the "Secret Chiefs" (Geheime Oberen in German). Apponyi transmitted to MacKenzie certain Hermetic and Rosicrucian lineages together with esoteric transmissions with which to found what in 1888 became the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in Britain.

Upon his return to England, Kenneth MacKenzie founded this esoteric society that would later become the Golden Dawn under the original name of “Fratres Lucis” or “Brethren of the Cross of Light.” MacKenzie’s temple was Number one, followed by the Bristol temple of F.G. Irwin as Number two. Isis-Urania therefore became Temple Number three when the Golden Dawn was "founded" in 1888. The teachings for this order were coded using Trithemius “Stenographia” as “Cypher Manuscripts” that were later obtained by Wescott from MacKenzie’s widow following the latter’s death in 1886.

Although the Golden Dawn never attracted great numbers of initiates under Wescott, Woodman, and Mathers, the publication of the Golden Dawn's teachings by Aleister Crowley and Israel Regardie nonetheless caused the Golden Dawn to impact and influence nearly every aspect of today's Western esoteric tradition. 

As a fitting testament to the enduring power of the Golden Dawn, the tradition has managed to survive and thrive even unto the present day, despite over 120 years of persistent take over attempts by rival Rosicrucian order, the SRIA.

Not only has the Golden Dawn survived, it has flourished, blossomed and given much diverse fruit. From the earliest offshoots, the Alpha Omega, Stella Matutina, and Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, to the myriad diversity of orders and temples that make up today's Golden Dawn community.

It is precisely our diversity that is the greatest strength of today's Golden Dawn community. From fully independent, Pagan-led orders like the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the outer order of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha Omega to Christian oriented orders directed by SRIA - From Thelemic Golden Dawn orders to the smallest independent temples - From Magical G.D. orders like the A.O. who remain under the direction and protection of the physical Secret Chiefs in Europe to mystical orders that channel "Secret Chiefs" as "Astral Masters" - today's Golden Dawn community comprises greater diversity than at any previous time in history. 

As Peregrin Wildoak writes in his Preface to Commentaries on the Golden Dawn Flying Rolls:

There are more Golden Dawn orders, groups, and magicians today then ever before and the tradition itself is in an exciting phase of development and growth.

- Peregrin Wildoak

Seekers today are able to approach Golden Dawn groups that emphasize vastly different approaches: from magical to mystical, Christian, Jewish, Egyptian, or Pagan, to Nonsectarian and Ecumenical. Despite this great diversity, all of these groups are united by common Hermetic and Rosicrucian roots, and a common base line spiritual technology to offer today's spiritual aspirants.

Commentaries on the Golden Dawn Flying Rolls is a volume edited by Nick Farrell and published by Kerubim Press, a publishing house belonging to Golden Dawn members, Nick Farrell and Dean Wilson. Commentaries a collaborative effort by a wonderful selection of authors from a vast cross-section of our G.D. community, each bringing forth their own unique experience and point of view. Commentaries represents a noble effort to present to the public a snap shot of the kaleidoscope of our rich G.D. diversity. 

The book is organized by the numbers of the Flying Rolls, which essentially translates into chapters, with each chapter including one or more articles commenting on the content by various authors in the Golden Dawn community. As the commentary is separate from the Flying Roll material itself, one may easily read only the original Flying Rolls to come to a unique and personal understanding of the material without the colorations of commentators.

Although many of these Flying Rolls have been previously published by Francis King in Astral Projection, Ritual Magic, and Alchemy (Aquarian Press: 1987), there are several Flying Rolls in this new collection that have not been seen in print before. Moreover, there is a great deal of valuable information to be gleaned from the commentaries themselves, based on individual research or personal magical experience of the authors.

The book contains a Table of Contents at the beginning and a short biography of each commentator at the end. In a perfect world, I would have like to have seen each commentary also listed in the table of contents together with the author to make it easier for the reader to find a particular author's articles.

In the Introduction, there are short biographies written by Nick Farrell of the various Golden Dawn Adepts who authored the original Flying Rolls. To enjoy this book, one need not agree with everything that every commentator writes. For example, in Farrell's biography of S.L. MacGregor Mathers in his Introduction to Commentaries on the Golden Dawn Flying Rolls, Farrell writes that Mathers "developed the Second Order and its teachings by Inner Plane communication with an entity Mathers believed was the archangel Raphael and used the magical name Lux e Tenebris."

There are several problems Farrell's thesis that Mathers saw his contact with the Third Order, Frater Lux E Tenebris, as the Archangel Raphael - and that this proves that Mathers did not see the Secret Chiefs as physical persons.

1. Mathers (in primary sources) claimed to be in contact with the Secret Chiefs both astrally and physically, so the two notions are not in any way mutually exclusive.
2. Even if Mathers saw Frater Lux E Tenebris as the Archangel Raphael in 1888, this is long before Mathers (in primary sources) claimed to have established physical contact with the Secret Chiefs in Paris in 1891.
3. Primary sources indicate that the notion of the Secret Chiefs as physical persons was generally accepted by various Adepts following the G.D. schism of 1903, including the founders of rival Golden Dawn offshoot orders, A.E. Waite and R.W. Felkin, who counted among Mathers' greatest critics.

For a complete analysis of these problems as well as of the weaknesses in Mr. Farrell's research methods, see my introduction to Sincerus Renatus' well researched article, On the True Nature of the Secret Chiefs, that you can read here.

As outlined above and demonstrated in detail here, there are serious problems with the historical reliability of certain of Nick Farrell's biographies in his Introduction to Commentaries on the Golden Dawn Flying Roles. Nonetheless, Nick Farrell still deserves much praise for the initiative he took to make this book a reality. As regular readers of the Golden Dawn Blog already know, the Alpha Omega has led the way for years in launching one initiative after the other to foster ever greater harmony in the Golden Dawn community.

For example, we invited every Adept from every G.D. temple and order of the entire Golden Dawn community to the 2012 International Conclave of Golden Dawn Adepti (here). This year, the 2013 International Golden Dawn Festival (here) was additionally open even to members of the outer order of every temple and order of the entire G.D. community. To foster true harmony, we deliberately chose to exclude no one.

It is therefore wonderful to observe Nick Farrell follow in the Alpha Omega's footsteps and spearhead a community effort which resulted in Commentaries on the Golden Dawn Flying Rolls. It is even more precious to witness such fine contributions from so many varied members of our richly diverse Golden Dawn community. 

Authors who contributed to Commentaries on the Golden Dawn Flying Rolls each deserve much recognition and much praise. Commentaries is packed with fascinating information.

For example, there remains a persistent misunderstanding in the Golden Dawn community that Golden Dawn training should be free. This is not true, since anything of spiritual value is also of material value. Nick Farrell clears up this misunderstanding, by showing how things were done in the traditional Golden Dawn, when he writes:

"The cost of each flying roll was between 2/6 (half a crown) and 7/-. ... In a time where an average worker made £10 per year, and you could buy a reasonable sized house for £500, half a crown represented two thirds of an average workers monthly wage. Owning a full set of flying rolls would cost a Golden Dawn member about £5. If a group were to charge the same amount of money in today's terms, you would be expected to part with £1,400 [$2130] for a couple of sheets of paper...

Membership fees were half a crown [two thirds of an average worker's monthly wage] and then on top of that they had to pay for their papers, which seemed to be a similar price to the flying rolls."

- Nick Farrell

Thus, Nick puts the question of Money and the Golden Dawn to rest once and for all by making clear that in the original Golden Dawn, merely owning a complete set of flying rolls cost Golden Dawn members half a year's wage for an average worker. According to statistics published by the U.S. government, this would equate in 2012 to $21,347. On top of this came membership dues and initiation fees, and members were expected to pay for their grade documents as well.

In my opinion, it is the spirit of fraternal cooperation underlying the Commentaries on the Golden Dawn Flying Rolls project that matters most, and the resulting book is a worthy testament to the diversity that comprises today's Golden Dawn community.

The republishing of the Golden Dawn's flying roles in yet another edition, however, also underscores the major challenge the Golden Dawn community presently faces. The greatest problem before us today is that virtually all of the 1888 Golden Dawn material already been published.

The good news is that for several years the now physical Secret Chiefs of the Golden Dawn's Third Order have been transmitting vast quantities of supplemental Golden Dawn material that finally give our Golden Dawn community essential new teachings and spiritual practices for the first time in over a century. These materials reinvigorate the Golden Dawn from the lowest to the highest grades of the order.

For Fratres and Sorores longing for something more than the published 1888 Golden Dawn material, the supplemental teachings and spiritual practices recently transmitted by the Secret Chiefs to the Golden Dawn community through the Alpha Omega are already waiting for you! As always, the Alpha Omega remains willing to share these teachings and practices with all orders and temples and their members in our Golden Dawn community.

All you have to do is knock, and the door will open for you. Why not come in out of the cold?

Here are a some original highlights from various commentators contained in Commentaries on the Golden Dawn Flying Rolls:

Lisa Llewellyn, from the Universal Order of the Morning Star, writes regarding Flying Roll IV:

"What is most interesting about this working [contained in Flying Roll IV] is that it is a vision of the Divine Feminine, of the Goddess. This was occurring at a time when most esoteric societies, such as Freemasons and SRIA had all male membership and spoke only of God as "He and Him." Here we have a working revealed in the words of Soror SSDD and Soror F (et R) "The Great Mother Isis, the Isis of Nature.
This was at a time when ... society was really quite patriarchal."

- Lisa Llewellyn

Frater Yechida (Dean Wilson) of the Ancient and Honorable Order of the Golden Dawn, co-owner of Kerubim Press together with Nick Farrell writes regarding Flying Roll V:

"The key to this paper is that imagination, the construction of a virtual form within the mind, is real within the appropriate realm of its existence (the astral and higher planes). It may or may not have a physical presence, but that does not diminish its reality. To the dreamer the dream is real."

- Dean Wilson

Frater YShY of Thuban Temple writes regarding Flying Roll VI:

"[The] few lines [of Flying Roll VI] actually contain one of the most useful and potent formulas in all of the RR et AC, which is to invoke the highest first in every operation. The suggestion is simple, when working with the color red, it is a symbol of Will and hence Gevurah and Mars, and one should always invoke Kether first."

- Frater YShY

Regarding Flying Roll VII, Rachel Walker, of the Order of the Golden Dawn: Collegium Spiritu Sancti, writes:

"Mathers frequently said "Invoke and Invoke often." This does not merely refer to engaging in ritual invocation, but more importantly to invoking the Divine into every activity that we may become  part of the "living tradition" of magic where every enterprise is a magical act and an expression of the Divine."

- Rachel Walker

Regarding Flying Roll IX, Soror AID, Deanna Bonds writes:

"The tree of life is a geometric glyph that represents the structure of the Universe and everything within the universe as a fractal pattern of the whole. The tree of life can be viewed as creation itself, God, man, or anything in between."

- Deanna Bonds

Regarding Flying Roll X, Samuel Scarborough of the Ordo Stella Matutina writes:

"[Apotheosis is] to raise oneself closer to the Divine, or in the case of the Magnum Opus, to unite with our Divine Self, thus becoming more divine and closer to God."

- Samuel Scarborough

 Regarding Flying Roll XI, Jayne Gibson writes:

"The magical visionary arts can lead the magician to realms of intense beauty and knowledge. The methods of skrying, travelling and rising on the planes take time to master, but there are great rewards to be had after the work is done."

- Jayne Gibson

Regarding Flying Roll XII, James French of the "Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn" writes:

"Any practical occult work that is of any use should leave the operator feeling exhilarated. ... If one is drawing on cosmic energies, as should be the case if the Adept is diligent with her practice,  the result, again, ought to be ecstatic, not draining."

- James French

Regarding Flying Roll XIII, Joseph Max of the Thelema oriented, "Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn," writes:

"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" ... is the most famous maxim of Thelema, and Crowley drew a clear distinction between "Will" and simple desire. The maxim does not mean simply "do what you wont," but rather to spend one's life discovering one's True Will, and following it."

- Joseph Max

Regarding Flying Roll XV, VH Soror QQDAM, member of the Magical Order of Aurora Aureae writes:

"The Golden Dawn is not a religion, nor does it purport to be. That is very clear. It is a fraternity, the common ground of which is the acceptance of the 'Hermetic ancient philosophy; as expressed in the Ritual, and Pictorial and Symbolic representations' which are given at the different stages of progress."

- VH Soror QQDAM

Regarding Flying Roll XVI, Ian Cowburn (Frater L), member of SRIS and the order of Brigita Beatica Britanniae, writes:

"As to the etymology of the word Rosicrucian, several derivations have been given. The more reasonable derivation is from rose and cross. This was undoubtedly in accordance with the notions of Andreae, who was the founder of the Order, and gave it its name, for in his writings he consistently calls it the Fraternitas Roseae Crucis, or the fraternity of the Rosy Cross."

- Ian Cowburn

Regarding Flying Roll XVII, Eric V. Sisco, member of the Societas Rosicruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis (SRICF) writes:

"In the summer of 1891, S. L. (MacGregor) Mathers, one of the founders of the Order of the Golden Dawn took a trip to Paris, and allegedly, by serendipity alone, happened to make contact with a group of Continental Adepts in the Bois de Boulogne....
...How the Cipher Manuscripts, for both the Outer and Inner Orders, managed to find their way into the hands of Wescott and Mathers respectively, remains a topic of much controversy."

- Eric V. Sisco

Regarding Flying Roll XX, Aaron Leitch writes:

"The Microcosm--Man is one the most important documents given to students of the original Golden Dawn ... It was intended as an Inner Order essay concerning the practical application of Qabalistic Psychology within the Order's system of spiritual rectification ... it is a veritable guide to the Great Work of the Adept."

- Aaron Leitch

Regarding Flying Roll XXI, VH Frater Philomancer of Thuban Temple writes:

"Advancing through the Outer Order is no small task. Every grade is a milestone, each initiation a rite of passage, until at length the initiate has conquered all obstacles through perseverance."

- VH Frater Philomancer

Regarding Flying Roll XXII, VH Frater Iaodaf Oias Vooan writes:

"We can choose to remain in blissful ignorance, or we can pursue the path of the magician. It can be our will to attach ourselves to the material plane and base our existence upon the attainment of material wealth and nothing more. Alternatively, we can study occult science, practice a system of high magic and eventually surrender our wills to the grand design."

- VH Frater Iaodaf Oias Vooan 

Regarding Flying Roll XXIII, Christopher Bradford, Frater AIT, former Alpha Omega member who left the Golden Dawn to practice Palo Mayombe following the tragic death of his son, writes:

"The inner worlds are limitless--and without structure, a vision is meaningless. Mental masturbation, instead of useful travel. Inspiration is like a bolt of lightning, and structure is the conductor enabling the transfer of its power to the magician."

- Christopher Bradford

Regarding Flying Roll XXIV, Lauren Gardner of the Ordo Stella Matutina writes:

"For those comfortable and familiar with the horary method of astrological divination, perhaps the only benefit to be gained from studying the original Flying Roll is the opportunity to note certain minutia of the technique used by members of the Order while interpreting horary charts."

- Lauren Gardner 

Regarding Flying Roll XXVI, Frater AM Olen Rush writes:

"We learn quite a few things regarding the Planets, Tattvas, and Elements through Flying Roll XXVI. One of the most significant and revealing of which is the relationship to certain Compound Elements."

- Olen Rush

Regarding Flying Roll XXVII, Frater Goya of the Circulo Iniciatico de Hermes writes:

"Although ritualistic and showy, the Golden Dawn was able, thanks to the brilliant mind of its creators, especially McGregor Mathers, to remove many of the magical techniques that were almost standard in Europe that period. The Golden Dawn was the first group imminently magical, who dismissed in its rituals any type of sacrifices involving blood."

- Frater Goya

Regarding Flying Roll XXVII, Sam Webster of the of the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn writes:

"Theurgy is the core of what we do. Invocation, the assumption of God-forms, oracular possession, and working with spirits are all used in theurgy to spiritually advance the practitioner and make us 'consorts of the Gods'. Handed down through history, from Iamblichus who explained it, to Agrippa who fused it with Christianity and Kabbalah, to the Golden Dawn where it was developed into a school, this ancient stream of spiritual practice underpins all we do today."

- Sam Webster

Regarding Flying Roll XXVIII, Morgan Drake Eckstein of Bast Temple writes:

"It is not the magician who must be perfect and not concerned with the world; it is the mythical being that the Order is meant to produce, a person who is more than human, who is perfect and above worldly concerns and connections."

- Morgan Drake Eckstein

Regarding Flying Roll XXXVI, VH Frater Amoun Ra of Thuban Temple writes:

"To visualize is to project an idea in anthropolomorphic and symbolic terms to have better clarity when studying anything from Yoga to Ceremonial Magick. ... The more one spends their time developing these techniques, the more one opens their mind to receiving information from the Akashic Record."

- VH Frater Amoun Ra

Remember though, for Fratres and Sorores longing for something more than the published 1888 Golden Dawn material, the supplemental teachings and spiritual practices recently transmitted by the Secret Chiefs to the Golden Dawn community through the Alpha Omega are already waiting for you! As always, the Alpha Omega remains willing to share these teachings and practices with all orders and temples and their members in our Golden Dawn community.

There is no need to leave your present temple. All you have to do is knock, and the door will open for you. Why not come in out of the cold?

Click HERE to explore our Outer Order, undergraduate level Magical training program, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn!"

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Critical Book Review of Nick Farrell's "Mathers Last Secret" by GH Frater Sincerus Renatus

by guest blogger GH Frater  Sincerus Renatus
(Introduced, abridged and expanded by David Griffin)

GH Frater "Spock" Renatus

The following book review is a critical, scholarly analysis of Nick Farrell’s commentaries found in his new book, Mathers Last Secret, which Mr. Farrell has appended to the Rituals and some other papers belonging to the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega (A∴O∴), founded and headed by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers.

Nick Farrell today leads a Golden Dawn style order of his own creation, called the Magical Order of Aurora Aureae. As a Golden Dawn leader, Mr. Farrell has been criticized from certain quarters about the logical inconsistency (if not outright hypocrisy) of leading a Golden Dawn order, yet publishing secret Golden Dawn documents in violation of traditional Golden Dawn oaths.

Nick Farrell

Such criticism of Mr. Farrell has not been limited to voices from the Golden Dawn community either. Renowned ritual magician, Pagan author, and traditional witch, Frater Barabbas Tireseus, has made clear in an excellent article on his Talking About Ritual Magick blog, that Mr. Farrell's relationship to the Golden Dawn is that of a historical reconstructionist, attempting to reconstruct what Mr. Farrell essentially believes to be a dead order. Frater Barrabbas concludes that, since Mr. Farrell does not believe in certain basic tenets of the Golden Dawn (Secret Chiefs, traditional vows of secrecy with attendant respect for unpublished documents, etc.) Mr. Farrell's reconstruction attempt can amount to little more than a headless Frankenstein's monster; a reanimated, yet incomplete corpse, which is something very different than the numerous, highly successful reconstructions of ancient Pagan traditions reanimated in today's Neo-Pagan community.

Let us examine Mr. Farrell’s attempted distinction between the Golden Dawn as a “Magical Order” vs. as a “Masonic Order”. Farrell argues that the original (pre-schism) Golden Dawn worked under a “Masonic phase”, lacking any true magical current. According to Farrell, this "current" manifested only following the schism, first when the Stella Matutina was created by R.W. Felkin in 1903 and then later with the creation of the Fraternity of the Inner Light in the 1920’s by Dion Fortune.

It should be noted that Mr. Farrell's newly invented distinction between "masonic" vs. "magical" Golden Dawn orders, amounts to trying to dismiss as "merely masonic" all orders in today's Golden Dawn community, except those that descend from Felkin's Stella Matutina or its offshoots, like the OTR. One could, however, just as well argue that, since the Stella Matutina was born of schism, and since Felkin never established contact with Mathers' Secret Chiefs, that it was the Stella Matutina that had no magical current. I state this only to point out the self-serving nature, logical fallacy, and political sniping underlying Mr. Farrell's newly invented distinction.

The A∴O∴, Farrell argues, continued with Farrell's imaginary “masonic phase” and only later, following the death of Mathers, became truly “magical”. This Mr. Farrell attempts to justify by arguing that neither W.W. Westcott (the co-founder of the G∴D∴) nor Mathers were properly initiated into the Golden Dawn; to fully understand the system one must be initiated through its Grades properly and in full ritual. But contrary to Mathers, Farrell argues, Mathers wife Moina was initiated, as well as John William Brodie-Innes, who jointly took over the helm of the A∴O∴ and thus made the “magical” for the first time in its history according to Farrell's definition. As Felkin had been initiated into the Golden Dawn in full form, his organization, the S.M., immediately became “magical” according to Mr. Farrell's untraditional yet admittedly colorful and fanciful definition.

According to Farrell, "Magical" orders are created only through the continuous use of God-Forms, not merely through the performance of ritual. Take away the God-Forms from a rite and it becomes “Freemasonic”; an empty shell or vessel. This is clearly an oversimplification, which underscores that Mr. Farrell's understanding of magical egregores derives from an incomplete understanding of the Golden Dawn. There exist numerous other ways that magical egregores are created and sustained, that remain preserved as oath bound information in the Alpha et Omega, beyond the mere visualization of God Forms in ritual. As an outsider and an uninitiate, however, Mr. Farrell of course remains ignorant of these advanced methods. Mr. Farrell has therefore been forced to rely exclusively on the beginner's technique of using of God Forms in Farrell's attempt to create an egregore for his Magical Order of Aurora Aureae.

Mr. Farrell's argument that Mathers and Westcott were not initiates of the Golden Dawn, does not hold water when it comes to creating a magical egregore or current. It was Mathers himself who brought Mr. Farrell's precious God-Forms into the Golden Dawn, already in 1892, which Farrell also acknowledges. Thus it is all the more peculiar that Farrell does not consider neither the original G∴D∴nor the A∴O∴ as “magical” orders, which they truly were, even according to Mr. Farrtell's fanciful "God Form" standard.

Moreover, Mr. Farrell in reality has no historical knowledge of what Hermetic and Rosicrucian initiations Mathers or Westcott actually received, within or without the Golden Dawn. Farrell's hypothesis amounts therefore to mere speculation.

The Golden Dawn is manifestation of the Hermetic and Rosicrucian traditions and thus, at least according to traditional rather than fanciful definitions, the Golden Dawn's current is clearly a magical one. Magical use of ritual certainly did not originate with the Golden Dawn. Both Mathers and Westcott were Adepts of the Hermetic and Rosicrucian traditions long before the creation of the Golden Dawn in 1888, and participated in other rites after that as well. They would not have received the mission and mandate to create the Golden Dawn without this historical reality. Both Mathers and Westcott were members of Kenneth Mackenzie’s group “The Society of Eight” or Fratres Lucis. The Cypher Mss. most likely derived from this society. We do not know if these rituals (as contained in the Cypher Mss.) or early versions of them were not practiced before 1888 and if Westcott and Mathers had not experienced them before the creation of the Golden Dawn. In this context, it is highly significant that the Isis-Urania temple founded by Wescott, Mathers, and Woodman in 1888 was numbered "3", temple number 1 being that of MacKenzie in "The Society of Eight" and number 2 being Hermanoubis Temple of the same, in Bristol under F.G. Irwin.

Thus we see just how conjectural Mr. Farrell's hypothesis actually is regarding the initiations of Mathers and Wescott. It is, in fact, Nick Farrell's propensity to present his own highly speculative opinions as though they were established historical facts, which is the fatal flaw in the scholarship underlying  Mathers Last Secret.


This is a great tragedy, as the book might otherwise have been extremely valuable. As it stands, however, the book has been reduced to just one more minor variant in a seemingly endless series of rehash Golden Dawn compendia. Mr. Farrell's failure to properly identify his personal theories for what they are, but instead misleadingly giving them a false veneer of established historical fact, has rendered historically worthless what otherwise might have been a valuable contribution to the published Golden Dawn literature.

Let us examine Mr. Farell's argument from yet another point of view. Let us assume that Mathers and Wescott indeed were not regular initiates of the Golden Dawn. Does this mean that the Golden Dawn itself was not a magical order, as Farrell argues? I certainly do not believe so, and this would clearly not be the case according to traditional Golden Dawn standards either. In fact, Mr. Farrell's entire hypothesis stands or falls on his personal and fanciful definition of what a "magical" order is. I could as well invent my own equally fanciful and untraditional definition, then use it to prove that Disneyland is a "magical order"!

In any event, Mathers was the creator of the particular form of Golden Dawn rituals that we know of today, faithfully using the Cypher Mss. provided by MacKenzie through Westcott as reference. I consider there exists a magical relationship between the “creator” and the “created” also at a mundane level. Thus, I consider Mathers intuitively understood Golden Dawn ritual as no one else in his lifetime, due of this rapport. Mr. Farrell, like Pat Zalewksi and others  in Farrell's "Felkin/Stella Matutina camp" within the Golden Dawn community, believes that Mathers was guided by some unconscious genius (greater than himself) when he wrote up the rituals and materials, which, according the this camp, “explains” why Mathers later “couldn’t” understand them.

This makes no sense, however. Why should Mathers not be able access this genius consciously, even if this odd notion were actually the case? Why could Mathers not have been governed equally intuitively by this spirit of genius during performance of these same rituals, thus gaining deeper understanding as the practical work progressed? Add to this, 30 years regularly performing and attending these rituals - and you find solid ground for understanding the underlying magical mechanics of the rituals themselves.

Farrell's argument that the Stella Matutina was the first "magical" Golden Dawn order is, in my opinion, but politically motivated poppycock. Golden Dawn style God-Form magic was practiced regularly in the Golden Dawn from 1892 and onwards, and later in both the A∴O∴ and the Stella Matutina. This clearly contributes to the magical power of the rituals, but it is certainly not the only factor. There are other elements embedded in the rituals as well, alchemical processes and sacred geometry, for example, that although presented only symbolically, nonetheless have a powerful, unconscious effect on the candidate. Of course Mr. Farrell and Mr. Zalewski, like all others in the "Felkin/Stella Matutina camp" in today's Golden Dawn community, have no understanding of the magical dynamics of how these powerful elements operate in A∴O∴ ritual, as this information until today remains unprofaned, oath bound information of the A∴O∴. 


Thus, the second fatal flaw in the book, Mathers Last Secret, becomes apparent. Mr. Farrell is publishing and commenting on proprietary rituals and other A∴O∴ material, which as an outsider and an uninitiate, Mr. Farrell is not in a position to properly comment upon in any informed sense - nor even to fully understand - because Mr. Farrell is not privy to oath bound information available only to initiates of the A∴O∴

One may indeed, however, argue that there exists different forms of God-Form magic, and that one method may be considered by some as more effective than another. Mr. Farrell glorifies the practices derived from Dion Fortune’s Fraternity of the Inner Light, that Farrell learned from Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki's the Servants of the Light (S.O.L.).

I have personally been fortunate enough to know a high initiate and personal friend of Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki who taught me her techniques of creating an “Inner Temple”. Thus I am well aware what Mr. Farrell means. I have, moreover, also studied Ashcroft-Nowicki’s book The Shining Paths, which teaches her peculiar astral working she calls as “Path-Working”. I personally like Fortune’s approach to astral work, but still this is not an actual part of the Golden Dawn Tradition; it’s a part of the Dion Fortune tradition, not the Golden Dawn. Although it may be used splendidly by the latter, it still cannot be used as a measuring stick for judging the efficiency of Golden Dawn “magical” ritual.

Note: I respectfully disagree with GH Frater SR regarding the spiritual value of the sort of "Pathworking" contained in Dolores Ashcroft-Novicki's book, The Sining Paths. These sorts of "guided fantasy recipes", in my opinion, are spiritually worthless. They are completely devoid of the spontaneous and rich visionary experience derived from the Golden Dawn's "Skrying in the Spirit Vision." Even such visions must be carefully tested by traditional, Golden Dawn means, since the "lower astral" remains the realm of illusion, as countless, worthless, New Age, "channelled" books bear witness to.


For me, it is the height of folly, when it comes to a Hermetic and Rosicrucian tradition like the Golden Dawn, if one takes the sort of ready made "recipes" for visionary experience contained in The Shining Paths, and tries to apply them to the Golden Dawn. It is particularly absurd to call such ready made recipes for visionary experience "Self-Initiation." I guess one can create whatever fanciful definitions of "initiation" that one likes, but clearly New Age style "pathworking recipes" have nothing at all to do with traditional Golden Dawn initiation.

Examining Pat Zalewski’s ritual commentaries, Zalewski also places a great emphasis on God-Form magic, but not at all of the Dion Fortune variety. One does not visualize a lofty space wherein the Hall of Maat and its attending God-Forms are supposed to be created. What Mr. Zalewski teaches is a more energetic approach creating astral shells in the
physical space which brings the Hall of Maat down to the physical.

Mr. Farrell, on the other hand, holds that the S.M. developed and perfected a “magical” approach to Golden Dawn ritual. But we must keep in mind that Farrell doesn’t come to this conclusion based purely on study of S.M. ritual papers, as he does with the A∴O∴. He bases his opinion of the S.M. from experience as a lower degree initiate of the Order of the Table Round (O.T.R.), a side order of the New Zeeland version of the Stella Matutina (Whare Ra), in the late 1980’s.

Mr. Farrell, as an uninitiate, is in no position to likewise properly evaluate the A∴O∴, solely based on what he may have read from incomplete published and archival sources. As an uninitiate, without access to the oath bound information available only to A∴O∴ initiates, Mr. Farrell's uninformed and apparently politically motivated judgements should be taken not with pinches, but with buckets of salt!

I have no personal experience of the Whare Ra so I can only judge its magical ritual efficiency from reading its published rituals and S.M. documents available in A∴O∴ archives, as does Mr. Farrell attempt vis-à-vis the Alpha et Omega. And honestly, how could anyone have dreamt that the Whare Ra practiced that form of advanced magic as described by Mr. Zalewski, merely from reading the original S.M. rituals? Not me anyway. So I ask, how can Mr. Farrell form his severe judgment of the “magical” ritual efficacy of the A∴O∴ based solely upon documents he copied from a museum?

Besides, we do not know that the Whare Ra actually practiced what Mr. Zalewski has tried to make us believe all these years. Other sources inform us that whatever Zalewski has described in his ritual commentaries is only representative of the O.T.R., mixed up with personal creations of Mr. Zalewski himself.

Sadly, given Pat Zalewski's long and well documented history of misattributing his personal inventions to others, including to Whare Ra and to MacGregor Mathers, it is in my opinion that Pat Zalewksi likely made these things up out of whole cloth himself. I am not nearly as generous towards the claims of Pat Zalewski as is GH Frater SR, because over the decades I have personally witnessed Mr. Zalewski, time after time in his published writings, misattribute the source of the things he writes about. 


Pat Zalewksi's books, including his Ritual Commentaries, are nonetheless extremely valuable contributions to the published Golden Dawn literature. This does not mean, however, that Mr. Zalewski should at all be trusted when it comes to his attribution of the sources of his ideas. On the contrary, readers should best assume that Mr. Zalewksi is making everything up himself, except where  his attributions to other sources can be concretely verified in primary source documents.

Mr. Zalewski reports that Whare Ra used an entirely different and dull set of God-Forms in the Elemental Grades, compared to the ones that Zalewski has suggested as being derived from Moina Mathers and the A∴O∴. So, rather than saying that Mr. Farrell bases his experience on the actual Whare Ra, he actually bases his experience from the Order of the Table Round, which, I suspect, in turn relies heavily on the developments made by Jack Taylor, who was its Chief during the early 1980’s.

I suspect that the actual “magical” ritual practice did not differ substantially between the Stella Matutina and the A∴O∴, at least not during the life times of Felkin and Mathers. Mr. Farrell, in fact, has not provided even one single shred of evidence to back up his odd claim that the A∴O∴ ever discontinued the regular use of God-Forms in ritual. Once again, Nick Farrell's personal conjecture is unveiled masquerading as historical fact. I can find no rational explanation for this, other than thinly-veiled Golden Dawn politicking - an attempt to disparage Golden Dawn orders that descend from S.L. MacGregor Mathers Alpha et Omega instead of from the published material deriving from the Stella Matutina or its OTR offshoot. 


It is sad to witness, based on the evidence presented in this review of Nick Farrell's Mathers Last Secret, how the decades old Golden Dawn internet flame war has now spread to politically motivated, editorial sniping in yellow-journalistic, Golden Dawn book publishing.

I wonder - Does anyone even take this book seriously!?!