This is a follow up to my previous blog post, Golden Dawn Manuscripts and Where To Find Them. Your Humble Blogmaster, and basset-hound of all things GD, has found yet another cache of original Golden Dawn manuscripts, i.e. in addition to the one which I said its owner did not want publicised. This new cache, however, is reasonably accessible to the public – it is also at a venue that I happened to mention in passing the last time – the Library and Museum of Freemasonry at Freemasons’ Hall in London.
It hasn’t been hidden away at Great Queen Street all this time, it was actually purchased by them in 2008 (I would not be surprised one bit if it is Bob Gilbert’s old hoard). It has only just been catalogued in the past few weeks – i.e. since I first wrote my original blog post. Most of the papers, from my initial perusal, appear to be from the collection of the Reverend Ayton, who was amongst the very first members of Isis Urania temple. Ayton, an alchemist who had briefly met Eliphas Levi many years earlier, became a 5=6 in the original order, and stayed with Isis Urania after the split, becoming a member of Waite’s Holy Order of the Golden Dawn.
As you might expect, the contents of most of the documents have found their way into the public light by other routes, although there are a few rare gems. By way of example, I present the following ritual, which to my knowledge has never before been published. There is a saying in the Golden Dawn – “Invoke the Highest, First.” In this spirit I present the following: the first goody to be revealed from the archives at Great Queen Street is an invocation of the Highest, a ritual of pure Theurgy. It is a particular method of vibrating “Adonai Ha-Aretz” which was distributed to advanced members of the 5=6 Adeptus Minor grade. NB: This is substantially different from the method mentioned in Regardie’s “The Golden Dawn” ! It is, however, similar to a document in the other archives to which I have had access.
Unfortunately I don’t have a facsimile of the ritual. When I asked about making a copy, I was informed that they don’t do photocopies – as this damages the books. They can arrange to make digital photographs of the pages, but this is charged at the rate £2.50 per image (+ £1 for burning it to CD-Rom). Hence the ritual I present below, which was two pages long, would have cost £6 (I didn’t have any change on me at the time when I had a look at it). NB the National Library of Ireland charges similar rates for making facsimiles, which is why Yeats’ papers are not more widely known.
Hence I will have to rely on my notes which I made.
Pay attention – it’s the Scholarly Bit!
The ritual is hand-written on both sides of a sheet of foolscap octavo, which on the front bears a hexagram device in the top-left corner. It is illustrated through at key points in the text with pencil line-drawings. It is bound with other papers of different handwriting in a volume called “Grade of Geburah etc,” which despite its name contains just two documents relating to the 6=5 of the Holy Order of the Golden Dawn, whilst the rest are mainly Adeptus Minor documents of the original order, along with some miscellaneous items.
The hand-writing itself is very neat. I was not able to make a comparison with any known handwriting samples to establish precisely who copied or wrote it. The only thing I can definitely say that it wasn’t Wynn Westcott! Doubtless it would be possible to work out who did it simply by spending more time studying it.
The Ritual Itself
First clear the room with the Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.
Stand in the form of a cross. Say I N R I
YOD NUN RESH YOD*
Alex’ note: in the original this is written in Hebrew, right to left.
Virgo Isis Mighty Mother
Scorpio Apophis and Typhon Destroyer
Sol Osiris slain and risen
Isis Apophis Osiris. IAO
The Sign of Osiris Slain.
L the sign of Isis mourning.
V the sign of Apophis and Typhon.
X the sign of Osiris Risen.
Alex’ note: the above lines are each accompanied by a miniature line drawing demonstrating the signs of an Adeptus Minor. Think of a stick-figure wearing a tau-robe and you get the idea. Interestingly, the “L” is not a straight-armed “L” as given in Regardie’s books, but more of a crooked-arm swastika-like arrangement demonstrated by Crowley in the plates that accompany “Magick in Theory and Practice.” I.e. from the sign of Osiris slain, turn the right arm straight up at the elbow, and the left arm straight down from the left elbow.
L V X Lux the light of the Cross.
Trace the Rose-Cross in the four cardinal points.
Alex’ note: Here there is an illustration of the Rose-cross. Note that the ritual clearly says the “four cardinal points,” not the cross-quarters – thus differentiating it from the more well-known Rose Cross Ritual. Thence over to page 2…
Formulate whilst facing the East before you in flashing white brilliance:
Illustration from the ritual - Adonai Ha-Aretz formulated in flashing white brilliant letters. Recreated from memory. (c) Alex Sumner 2010
Alex’ note: The word Formulate conceals far more than it reveals. As a magician I would guess this means vibrate “Adonai Ha-Aretz” by the vibratory formula of the Middle Pillar 16 times – once for each letter of the cruciform version of the divine name. However – and note well – this is not indicated in the text.
Attach yourself to your Kether until you see brilliant white light.
Alex’ note: The ritual ends with a sketch of an Adept standing in the sign of Osiris slain, a globe of brilliance immediately above his head (i.e. Kether).
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Very interesting. Thanks for sharing this!
Cheers! Apparently on one message board Tony Fuller has confirmed my guess that the stuff in Great Queen Street is R A Gilbert’s old collection. I knew that Gilbert had been wanting to sell it, so the date that the museum acquired it matched up.
Looks like I will have to pop along next time I am home…Oh and bring a pocket full of change
Looking over what they have listed in their online catalog, only a portion of the material at Great Queen St. was Bob Gilbert’s – the rest has been there since the 1920’s and is what both Howe and Gilbert used as a basis for their original GD material.
The good thing is that it is now confirmed what is in Collection A, where it is located, and that it has been added to. Not to mention that it is somewhat more accessible to GD scholars and hopefully GDers so that they can get a better understanding of the published material based on some of the unpublished diagrams that should accompany those published papers.
Nice find!
Definitely something to play with.
Don’t you find this at Flying Roll XII???
The contents have a similar theme but it is not a copy.
But where does it differ?
After having looked at a copy of Flying Roll XII, it is clear that the Flying roll has a great deal of text which is omitted in this ritual: whereas this ritual has a great deal of diagrams which are omitted in the Flying Roll. Also, the Flying Roll states that its purpose is to brighten the aura, whilst this ritual states that it is meant to “attach oneself to ones personal Kether.” Finally this ritual omits any mention of attempting to formulate a telesmatic figure based on the name “Adonai Ha-Aretz.”
One may argue that both this and Flying Roll XII ultimately achieve the same purpose, but the documents themselves are strikingly different.
Very interesting; definitely worth playing with.
I have always used “Formulate” as ‘Visualize’.
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is the bornless one ritual part of this?
The Bornless Ritual is a separate entity.
Saying that, though, both this and the Bornless Ritual were amongst the papers of Ayton, which I found in Freemason’s Hall, so it is likely he would have practised both rituals.
hi alex, do you think ayton was the source of interest in the ‘bornless ritual’ in the GD or was there an earlier connection?
Hard to say from the evidence. The documents included in the volume at which I looked contained material from Waite’s “Holy Order of the Golden Dawn,” which would therefore be post 1903, although it is probably a compilation of papers from the whole of the previous 15 years.
ok that does indeed help, my feeling is that if Ayton was the source his interest would have been prior to his GD involvement, thus the MS would have been something he made/used some time between 1852 when Goodwin published it, and 1888. Bearing in mind the fact that the ‘bornless’ text is one of the few Egyptian magical documents to be poublished before the founding of the Paris Temple i would be very surprised if more early GD people didnt take an interest in it. Alex, if you are willing i would like to come to London in the next month and meet upi with you (pref at UGLE) and take a look. As you know im working on a multi-volume ‘Akephalos THeos’ project which includes facsimile of the papyrus, commentaries and rerprints of all the imnportant early works on the subject (about 6 slim volumes are proposed of which the first two are already at the binders). If this is of interest to you you can call me on 01780 410504 very best, Eamonn http://www.castleinnbytham.co.uk
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