History of the Golden Dawn

Course Code: WM 120 NE (online-English)

Course Dates: January 17th 2011

Instructor: Austin Case

Description: 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.

Texts:

Ellic Howe: The Magicians of the Golden Dawn
R.A.Gilbert: Revelations of the Golden Dawn

Additional readings will be provided online. Each week will be supplemented with an online discussion of the week’s material, highlighting key points of the readings and also providing additional background information relating to the reading.

Prerequisites: None . This course is a prerequisite for advanced courses WM 220 and WM 320.

Languages: English only. Our English language requirements do apply to this course.

Delivery: Online only.

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.

History of the Golden Dawn

Week 1	Introduction to the Order: A brief look at England in the late 19th century and some ways that the G.D. influenced later occult currents -Historical context -Influence of the order upon later currents in Western Esotericism
Week 2	Influences Upon the Order: The influence of other esoteric currents (real and fictional) upon the G.D. -Literature -Theosophical Society -Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor
Week 3	The Order’s Beginnings: Looking at the suspicious documents and Masonic society involved in establishing the order -The cipher manuscript -Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia
Week 4	The Heads of the Order: Background about the order’s enigmatic leaders -William Robert Woodman -William Wynn Westcott -Samuel Liddell Mathers
Week 5 Response paper due	The Outer Order: Setting up the temples and looking at some of what a member of the order learned and went through in the order -Establishing the temples -The aspirant’s ascent -Symbols and ceremony
Week 6	The Inner Order: The section reserved for very promising members wherein magic could begin to be practiced -Ordo Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis -Magical operations
Week 7	Key Members: Some details about the central figures and the relations between them -Biographical information -Personal interactions
Week 8	Disintegration in the Order: The breakdown of the order and the resulting chaos -The crisis -The interregnum -The Stella Matutina and other vestiges
Week 9	Research Paper Due Learning Journal Due