History of the Golden Dawn

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn has been one of the most influential forces on the trends on esotericism within of the past century. Members of the order included such noted occultists as Samuel Liddell Mathers, William Butler Yeats, Aleister Crowley, and Arthur Edward Waite. However, despite the massive influence that this order has had on recent trends in esotericism, there is much uncertainty surrounding its origins, history, and eventual dissolution at the beginning of the twentieth century. This course will investigate the cloudy history of the order and the various interactions between the key members involved within it to obtain an image of the Golden Dawn that clears away much of the obscurities surrounding it.

The course will take place over a nine week period and each week will be dedicated to a particular aspect of the order’s history. The initial weeks will examine the various influences that the order has both had upon concurrent esoteric trends, the influences upon the order, and also the order’s questionable foundation. The next few weeks will take a look at the three chiefs of the order and then the inner and outer sections of the Golden Dawn. Then for the remaining weeks, the course will focus on certain key members of the group as well the subsequent disorder, breakdown, and eventual dissolution of the order and the various esoteric groups left from the remnants of the break.

There will be a paper due midway through the course and also at the end of the course a longer paper and learning journal will be due.