Golden Dawn Rituals & Commentaries

by Pat Zalewski

I first started doing a series the �Z� series of books, on the Golden Dawn ritual and teachings, for Llewellyn Worldwide Publications, about twelve years ago. The original idea was to do a single volume which incorporated all the rituals and teachings. The concept I envisaged differed a great deal from Francis Regardie�s Aries Press/Llewellyn Publications edition. At that point in time the Aries Press edition used the rituals of the Bristol Hermes temple which were pruned down somewhat from the original with a great deal of text missing in the grade and Portal rituals. The ritual diagrams included were vague at best, and also left a lot out, with many other diagrams being omitted from the ritual. In the Falcon Press edition of Regardie�s second Golden Dawn publication, the missing portions of text from the Llewellyn/Aries Press editions were included, but whoever drew up the diagrams simply used the first edition ones from Regardie�s earlier book. Subsequently many of the diagram�s placements of the ritual were still not shown.

My original contention was to do the rituals of the Whare Ra temple (which were in effect almost the same as the Golden Dawn ones�unlike those of the Hermes temple) and include the following components that were missing from Regardie�s original book:

1.      All the ritual diagrams

2.      A commentary on the rituals.

3.      A commentary on the diagrams.

4.      The teaching for each level of the Element grades.

5.      The God forms of each element grade (from a Moina Mathers A.O. paper).

6.      Diagrams of Energy currents on the temple floor for each ritual.

Llewellyn originally suggested all of this in a large single volume, and then contacted me again about putting each grade level in a separate volume, which would also include Waite�s Golden Dawn rituals pre 1914. These were from his �Rectified Rite� volumes which he and Felkin appeared to have initially shared an interest in.

My own thoughts were that if the rituals were broken up this way, they would bomb, if sold like that, because the interest was simply not there for individual Golden Dawn books on the Element rituals. However I went ahead and wrote seven separate volumes. These were part of our own original study and it made very little difference to me personally if they were published or not. As the material had to be collected and organized into separate grade levels from Whare Ra. My old friend and mentor, Jack Taylor, an ex-Hierophant of Whare Ra temple in New Zealand, had lost some of his Order papers, but the bonus was that Jack knew more about ritual in his head than what was written down. There were two major Golden Dawn collections in New Zealand. My own and Tony Fleming�s. Tony is also a collector and between us we got most of the Whare Ra material. Tony also knew many of the people I did and also had a very deep knowledge of the subject. Tony was also initiated into the 7=4.  Chris and I were initiated by Jack Taylor into that level, and Tony was initiated by Frank Salt and Archie Shaw (Archie was a former chief who left in the mid 1960�s). Like I had, Tony did not initially have a complete set of Whare Ra papers. In many respects when viewing the material for the individual volumes we found our selves looking at it like a jig saw puzzle. If I did not know it then Tony did, and vice versa, also there was also a few we put in the �too hard basket.� Tony was also generous with his time and input in reviewing old Golden Dawn and later Stella Matutina and Alpha et Omega papers. Because Whare Ra temple lasted longest of the Golden Dawn temples, it did generate quite a bit of data outside of the Official Knowledge Lectures. The geographic location which Whare Ra was situated was a large one and encompassed two cities. Because of the distance involved Daemonstrators were created. These Officers were appointed to handle the teaching and day-to-day chores for the temple members in each area. There were usually about five of them at one time (though the maximum was once six, when Felkin initiated some of the New Zealand members of the SRIA) and each one sometimes supplied his or her own lectures. These would also vary as the officers changed with time over Whare Ra�s sixty- four year history. So tracking down every document by this temple is virtually impossible because of the numbers involved and the time scale.

 The original volumes written for Llewellyn were:

1.      0=0

2.      1=10

3.      2=9

4.      3=8

5.      4=7

6.      Portal/5=6

7.      Brief  Golden Dawn History.

Eventually these were all submitted to the publisher and just sat there with little response for a number of years. When I finally got an answer out of Llewellyn to whether they would publish any more of the �Z� series on rituals or not, the answer being negative, I put plan �B� into action. This was to go back to the original plan and combine all seven volumes into one book. At this point David Stoelk in America, offered to do the editing and combine the books into a single volume for me. The first rough draft being done in 1992. David at that point had been working closely with myself and Laura Jennings, in getting the diagrams drawn up. Laura had used many of these diagrams in her correspondence course. Unfortunately due to David�s work commitments and due to communication failures with Laura Jennings, I found that there were still quite a few diagrams from the rituals not done so the entire book was never really completed. A point I was never aware of when the original Mss were submitted to Llewellyn like this with complete texts and rough drawings for about three of the books. At that point I was sending the rough diagrams (from the Whare Ra rituals and from mine and Taylor�s notes) to Laura who would get David to redraw and send them onto Llewellyn with the text files. At any rate for one reason or another�not known to me, the diagrams were never completed as a finished product. So in part, I can feel empathy with Llewellyn having a text manuscript with only partial drawings showing up.

When David originally placed all the books in single volume, it was too big to publish this way with seven parts. We both decided to cut out the knowledge lectures of each grade from the New Zealand temple, along with the Waite rituals.  Also we thought about having a single chapter on God forms of the elemental grades as they would have been duplicated in the six volumes with god forms appearing more than once in each path or Sephiroth. David did a very fine job here and I hereby acknowledge my debt to him. When I eventually got around to deciding to self-publishing this big book on the net, Pat Terrel stepped up to the �crease� (or �plate� if you want to use the American vernacular) and pitched in by completing and in some case redoing the rest of the ritual diagrams. It took quite a few months to get them correct, with Pat setting up a web site for me to view the diagrams on line as each one was done and would then comment on each. Pat was actually very much intrigued with the Moina Mathers God forms and the Admission badges as sketched on the temple floor plans showing the energy currents on the floor for each Path and Sephiroth ritual. He quizzed me relentlessly on each detail. So I also owe Pat Terrell a big debt of thanks. Without him and David, the book would still have remained seven obscure volumes gathering dust on my library shelf. I was fortunate enough to get my basic training off ex-Whare Ra temple members in the late 70�s to the 80�s and a little beyond. All of them in their own way helped me with the input to this book especially the commentary of the rituals.

The real big plus in this book is Moina Mathers paper on the Elemental grades titled �The Magical Energies and God-forms of the Elemental Grades For the Grade of Adeptus Exemptus.�  I also have the paper on the 1=10 analysis for the Th.A.M.grade, written by her husband. The God-forms placements differed markedly to her husband�s. According to Euan Campbell, late of Whare Ra, this paper was given to him by his friend, Langford Garstin, in the early 1930�s. After Mathers� death, Brodie-Innes did not know which version to use for the 1=10 grade. Both were available. It was Moina however who completed this from the 1=10 to the 4=7 and also did some work on the Portal as well. When Euan Campbell  brought this paper to New Zealand, it was given to Mrs Felkin. Now at that point Dr. Felkin also had tried associating god forms for the elemental grades and it was nowhere near elaborate as Moina�s one. The use of the admission badges traced on the temple floor showed the points of energies where either or both the god forms and diagrams would sit. With this paper you trace the streams of energy present in the rituals. It was also something more than an intellectual exercise. The reason that Taylor got to see this paper at all was when an initiate was startled during the rituals when she saw the outline of the Admission badge on the floor. She approached the then Hierophant (Frank Salt) and got nowhere. Taylor was also present during this ritual and saw the same thing. He approached Mrs. Felkin who then took out Moina Mathers� paper of the god-forms and admission badges on the temple floor plan for the elemental rituals. This was the copy that Campbell brought back from England. My copy came from Taylor�s copy. There was also about thirty or forty written pages attached to this that Mrs. Felkin did not pass on to Taylor, when he took the papers to copy. He did mention that there were a number of drawings of Chakras with different colour changes in different points of some rituals, and that was about all he could remember of it. Felkin also used a set of papers called the �Process documents�, given to him by Steiner which showed Chakra activation during meditation.

One interesting point that comes across in the ritual commentaries is the references to Chakras. Most people consider that the old Golden Dawn worked on the principles of the Kabbalistic Soul, for ritual analysis work. At the time of her death in the late 1920�s Moina Mathers was actively teaching Chakra theory in connection with ritual. You�ll also see this in the hard to get books on Alchemy by her student Langford Garstin.(such as �Secret Fire� which was written when Moina was alive and published only a couple of years after her death.). Chakra theory, was also taught at Whare Ra by Mrs. Felkin.  Moina Mathers not only taught chakra theory but also the use of the subtle bodies in ritual as well. In fact the Kabbalistic Soul, subtle bodies, and Chakra theory were part and parcel of awareness teachings within the Alpha et Omega and Stella Matutina temples. Though it was never taught in the early days of the Order, it was added to the main corpus of Golden Dawn teachings as more knowledge became available on Chakra theory in the West.

In the book, the analysis of each grade ritual is full of notes and sayings from Taylor that we copied down over the years and from letters sent to us when we wanted points clarified. This way many of the word-of-mouth teachings of Golden Dawn rituals will be carried over. Some of the comments made by Jack Taylor are darn right hilarious. Jack was like that, and in many ways mirrored Regardie�s no nonsense attitude to magick in general.

One of the sticking points of the sub grades of the Golden Dawn was the material for each grade. I have noticed in a number of books have stated that the Th.A.M  papers provided the papers for the 6=5 grade of the Alpha et Omega temples and the Stella Matutina under Felkin. This was simply not case. The 5=6 level, as Mathers and Westcott had originally envisaged, had 5 sub-grades to it, not just to the Th.A.M. Mathers continued working these levels in his A.O. group. Euan Campbell brought back to New Zealand all this information and more, and there some meetings with Mrs. Felkin in the early 1930�s about re-introducing some of the sub-grade levels to the 5=6 but these were rejected.  The following table gives a brief analysis of the sub grade of the 5=6 material as applied to the Elemental rituals:

ZAM          Studies the 0=0 grade

THAM       Studies the 1=10 ritual and diagrams

PAM          Studies the 2=9 ritual and diagrams

PHAM       Studies the 3=8 ritual and diagrams

AAM         Studies the 4=7 ritual and diagrams

This was the old Golden Dawn method of working these levels but since the highest level reached (next to the Chiefs) was 6=5 for Moina Mathers (prior to 1900) and THAM for the rest of the troops, much of the material has not been published.  So by providing some of the extra ritual and god forms diagrams the basis to use each of these sub-grades now becomes available. At Whare Ra temple there were no sub-grades for the 5=6. In the Stella Matutina, they were pretty much abandoned by 1912.  At Whare Ra, the ritual was king, lectures simply backed them up. When you got to 5=6 you simply went aback and studied the Elemental rituals in more depth. This process though was lost in time. When I first went through levels, Taylor insisted I work through every Elemental ritual as they did in the AO. Campbell had shown Taylor the A.O key of study for these levels. The Felkin�s tried to cover this by doing some elaborate ritual explanation but opted to put these in the elemental grades rather than 5=6. The end result though worked out about the same.

In the A.O. the 6=5 studies were the Portal ritual and diagrams and the 7=4 studies was mainly the 5=6 ritual and diagrams. There was also numerous papers appended to these grades for further study.

The material presented in this book not only gives individual temples a chance to explore the levels of the 5=6 but also gives a base line for the 6=5 and 7=4 grades to be worked practically, as opposed to just being given them with no work attached to them, as well. The level of work and understanding at the Zelator Adeptus Minor Grades, the first level of the 5=6, to the top level of Adeptus Adeptus Minor is a vast one, as taught within the A.O. temples. This book goes a long way into opening up that door and giving individual temples a chance to experiment with these very functional grade levels.

Unfortunately many people think the Golden Dawn stopped at the first level of the 5=6, it did not. It is still a growing vibrant form of energy that enriches those exposed to it. This book was written to help supply a skelatonic format to the higher grades of the 5=6 and beyond, and for those who wish to explore them on a practical level. The colour copies of diagrams in the 5=6 ritual are taken directly from Miss Felkin�s 5=6 ritual book. The exception being the colour photos of Wyn Westcott�s breast plate for the 5=6, which were copies taken from photos by Tony Fleming. In the Golden Dawn proper with two exceptions (the Diagrams Before and after the Fall) were in black and white (including Tarot cards) . The Enochian tablets simply had black and red letters on a white background with no seals. The coloured Enochian diagrams are shown for the first time on the outside of the inner wall of the vault.   When the diagrams for the different levels of the 5=6 are given out to the THAM and above they were in full colour, with detailed explanations.

In the book there is also a detailed explanation of the LVX signs of the 5=6 and their inner application. Some of you may have wondered why the L formulae differed in shape  and body position, as shown by Regardie and also by Crowley. This book includes a detailed explanation of this.

The book is approximately 500 pages and in three volumes, spiral bound, with a delivery of around 12 weeks.  It costs 77 dollars (US) and you can contact the author at [email protected]  and monies sent c/- Freshwater Post Office, Cairns, 4870, Australia.  

Go to Pat and Chris Zalewski's The Magical Tarot of the Golden Dawn

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