So there has been an article in the blogosphere on this subject by Nick Farrell already, but in my opinion, its description of what the GD owes to Freemasonry not go far enough. Here then is my own take on what concepts from Freemasonry have found their way into the Golden Dawn.
Knowledge Lectures
Each of the three degrees of Craft Masonry has its own “Lecture” which contains the traditional teaching of the degree. These are written as a Catechism i.e. question and answer format: the original intention being that they could be performed in Lodge as a ritual, if there was not any other degree work to be worked at any given meeting. Furthermore, before being advanced to a higher degree, each candidate was expected to learn the Degree Lecture, and undergo an examination in its contents before proceeding. Unlike the Golden Dawn, the examination was done in oral form in Lodge, in front of the other brethren.
The lectures of the degrees of Masonry can be found here.
Unfortunately, what has happened in modern Freemasonry is that the Degree Lectures are seldom printed with the ritual books, nor are they automatically given to each candidate after he has taken his degree. Furthermore, there is no volition on the part of the United Grand Lodge of England to oblige Lodges to do so. What is left of this traditional practice is that candidates are given a small set of questions to memorise, which in each case amounts to a mere fraction of the original Degree Lecture – without necessarily being made acquainted with the traditional teachings from which they are derived.
Thus, the inclusion of Knowledge Lectures in the Golden Dawn, far from being an Hermetic innovation, is actually an attempt by its founders to get back to the original essence of Freemasonry!
Spiritualisation of the Lodge Room Prior To The Ceremony
Farrell said:
One Golden Dawn order used to require members to que[ue] up to enter the temple and give the handshake and whisper the password to the sentinel to get in – all forced, masonic and all un-necessary.
This is disingenuous on Farrell’s part to say the least, because he does not mention why the members were made to leave the Temple and wait outside in the first place.
I, myself, am aware of an order that did this – it was because the Hierophant was busy conducting an Inner Order Ritual to activate the god-forms of the Temple, in advance of the ceremony.
The details of this Inner Order Ritual are a confidential matter for that order, suffice to say that being an inner order ritual, it would have been inappropriate to perform it in front of members of the outer order. Now, think about this: you have a load of outer order members waiting to enter the sacred space of the temple. Do you make them enter in an appropriate manner, which forces them to think about this sacredness, and re-affirm their connection to the energies invoked at the most recent Equinox ceremony? Or do you just say “Right, in you come, you lot.” ?
But I digress.
The idea of spiritualising the ritual space in advance of the meeting is in fact an old Masonic tradition, and is still practiced in some Lodges in Scotland. The form this takes, however, does not consist of elaborate hermetic rituals, but more simply that the officer appointed to prepare the Lodge (the Tyler) offers prayer whilst doing so – specifically in the lighting of the lodge candles. The Tyler’s actions therefore are a form of Candle Magick to invoke Wisdom, Strength and Beauty into the Lodge room! One can therefore appreciate why the Golden Dawn might want to do this, but after a more Qabalistic fashion. I believe that some Lodges in England follow the Scottish practice or do something similar, or at least they did within living memory. Unfortunately, however, as with the Degree Lectures mentioned above, UGLE does not require individual lodges to do this, with the result that although it is traditional, it is not a common feature of modern Freemasonry.
Grade Signs
In the context of discussing the grip, Nick says
Unlike the grade signs [the grip] has no inner use either because you don’t tend to shake hands with strange beings to test them…
I’m glad to learn that Grade Signs are a way to communicate with discarnate entities – as let’s face it, grade signs did not exist in the Grimoire Tradition. This means that the introduction of grade signs is a welcome innovation which the Golden Dawn made. Hmm, I wonder where the GD got that idea from…
People Who Only Turn Up For Their Degrees, Then Bugger off.
The sad fact is both Freemasonry and the Golden Dawn have had their portals darkened by people with entitlement issues. I’m talking about people who are willing to jump up the degree or grade ladder themselves, but lose interest when the focus of any given ceremony is not about them, but someone else. This is really contrary to the spirit of joining a magical order in the first place: the point of not being a Billy No-Mates self-initiate is that there is value in helping each other on the path of spiritual evolution, whether that be in the form of taking a formal office, or just by providing moral support to a fellow initiate.
The idea of clubbing together in a fraternal order to help one another is something the GD inherited from Freemasonry, but so too is the fact that there will be people who are unclubbable, who think “what’s in it for me?” Taken to the extreme, they depart as soon as they realise that the only real progression left open to them comes through service to others – again, a legacy from Freemasonry.
This by itself is unfortunate: but what becomes really irritating is that these same people then go on to think that they are now uniquely qualified to pass judgement on the order – whether it be Freemasonry or the Golden Dawn – when in fact they have the least experience of that which they profess to know.
Sol Ascendans - The Website of Alex Sumner 
How to Predict the General Election 2017
In my experience of trying to use Astrology to predict election results, I have come to the following conclusions.
This is especially true where a country has an electoral system where votes do not translate directly into seats, either in the House of Commons (UK) or the Electoral College (USA). So for example, in the most recent US Presidential election, I announced that Hilary Clinton had the most favourable stars on that occasion, and indeed she edged the popular vote… but Donald Trump got in nonetheless. Likewise, at the last UK general election, held just two years ago in 2015, I predicted great success for the UK Independence Party, and indeed they became the third most popular party in the country… in terms of people voting for them. However, because of the way their support was distributed across the country, this only meant that they came third in almost every constituency for which they fielded candidates, hence they did not actually gain any MPs that way.
With this is in mind, I shall now publish my predictions for the next UK general election, including the major issues that the new government will face, as well as how the popular vote will go for the major parties on the day.
Overview
Current Prime Minister Theresa May has called the election for Thursday June 8th 2017. Polls will close at 10pm that day, which is the moment that the fate of the election is sealed. I have therefore taken 10pm on 8th June 2017 at Westminster (where the House of Commons is situated) as the time, date and place of birth for the new Parliament. A chart drawn up using these parameters looks like this:
The General Election: 10pm on Thursday 8th June 2017, at Westminster.
What I immediately noticed about this chart is that the date of the election is very close to the Full Moon. We should therefore expect a high turn-out of voters from the extremist ends of the spectrum, as the Full Moon always causes the special members of the electorate to crawl out of the woodwork!
The new government is represented by the Sun, which is in Gemini in the 6th House. The moon – which represents the People – is in opposition to it in the 11th, whilst both are squared by Neptune, making a nasty T-formation. Neptune here represents political systems based on collectivity, which suggests to me it should represent the remaining 27 members of the EU, In which case we can be confident that the public will generally feel frustrated by our soon-to-be-erstwhile European partners, who will in turn be trying to pressurise the Government into taking a decision that it would rather not take.
Ironically, however, BREXIT will only be one issue that the new government has to deal with. The main focus of its forthcoming term of office, rather than Europe, will actually be reform of the National Health Service.
The general population will mostly be opposed to the work of the Government, instead caring more about Parliamentary reform, especially in the way the House of Commons works.
There will be a major allegation of electoral fraud, probably made by the UK Independence Party (for reasons which I will outline below), due to foreign interference in the election – either by the EU or by Russia. The Judiciary (represented by Jupiter) however will resolve the allegation in a manner which is favourable to the Government, and at least satisfactory to the people.
On the plus side, the economy will improve. On the minus side, Russia and North Korea will continue to be headaches.
How the Parties will fare in the Election
To determine this, I have used my tried and trusted method of analysing the transits formed by the Election’s chart with the horoscopes of the parties’ leaders.
Theresa May
Conservatives (incumbent)
Led by: Theresa May, born 1st October 1956, Eastbourne, East Sussex.
Theresa will have transitting Saturn trine to natal Moon / Venus / Pluto; transitting Caput Draconis conjunct natal Moon / Venus / Pluto; and Jupiter just past natal Sun but arguably within the orb, though this must be considered weak at best. Generally this is favourable: a sense of responsibility and needing to take things carefully sits well with Theresa’s emotions, her relationships with others and secret (inner) strength. She has a sense of destiny that is pulling her out of her comfort zone, but ultimately to her good. This is a time of increasing success in her life.
Jeremy Corbyn
Labour
Led by: Jeremy Corbyn, born 26th May 1949, Chippenham.
Transitting Jupiter conjunct natal Neptune, trine to natal Mercury Px and Venus.
Transitting Sun conjunct Venus / Mercury.
Transitting Mercury conjunct natal Sun.
The result of the election and the newly formed Government will work out well for Corbyn, but not as pronouncedly as Theresa May. Corbyn will experience a certain amount of popularity on the day, but is not a good long term prospect.
Angus Robertson (funny picture not available)
Scottish Nationalist Party
Led by: Angus Robertson, born 28th September 1969, Wimbledon. NB: I have not based my calculations on Nicola Sturgeon, as although she is first minister of Scotland, she doesn’t hold a seat in the House of Commons – Angus Robertson, her deputy, the parliamentary leader of the SNP. Hey, I correctly predicted the SNP’s result in the last election based on Robertson’s chart, so I’m damn well going to do it again!
Transitting Jupiter conjunct a whole load of natal planets: Jupiter, Mercury, Uranus, Sun.
Transitting Saturn square to Pluto.
Angus is in a very strong position, going through a Jupiter Return at the moment. His fortunes are on the increase. It is likely that the SNP will win the remaining seats in Scotland, and get their desired wish for a new Referendum.
It is likely that Robertson will be seen as a strong and capable leader in the House of Commons, and the SNP will wipe out the few seats in Scotland that are still held by other parties. On the downside, however, the SNP’s seats in Parliament will be limited not by electoral defeat, but by the new boundary changes!
Tim Farron
Liberal Democrats
I had to look this up, but apparently they are led by somebody called Tim Farron, of whom I had never heard until earlier this afternoon. Tim was born 27 May 1970, Preston, Lancashire.
Transitting Saturn opposed to Natal Mars, square to Natal Pluto.
Transitting Uranus opposed to natal Jupiter.
Transitting Mercury conjunct natal Sun, trine to natal Uranus.
Despite the fact that his and Corbyn’s birthdays are a day apart, their fates will be very different. His need to be resonsible and careful is diametrically opposed to his temper – he is likely to blow his chances with angry outbursts. His attempt to criticise Donald Trump will backfire on him, as he will come to be seen as someone not fit to conduct transatlantic relations with America. Like Corbyn, he will benefit from a slight filip of transitting popularity on the day.
In fact, the only thing that can be said in his favour is that he bears a passing resemblance to The Master, as portrayed by John Simms! We may joke, but if Farron suddenly summons a load of Toclafane to decimate the world’s population, you know where you read it first.
Tim Farron
The Master
The Green Party
Caroline Lucas, getting to know her constituents.
Sun opposite Sun!
Transitting Mars trine natal Sun and sextile Moon. Her energy and passion is in the right place, however the Green Party itself will not make significant headway.
Paul Nuttall
UKIP
Led by: Paul Nutall, born 30th November 1976, Bootle, Merseyside.
Transitting Jupiter conjunct Pluto, sextile Sun, Neptune, Mars.
UKIP will poll a respectable share of the popular vote, which will reflect well (in the eyes of UKIP supporters) on Nuttall’s leadership of the party. However, having a large share of the popular vote did not help UKIP last time, so this is not necessarily any indicator of increased success in the House of Commons. Of all the party leaders, Nuttall is the most significantly affected by transitting Neptune, the planet of corporate crime and electoral fraud, hence why I suggested he would be most likely to call foul.
Conclusion
Hence my predictions are:
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Tagged as Angus Robertson, astrology, BREXIT, Caroline Lucas, Doctor Who, General Election, Green Party, Jeremy Corbyn, Paul Nuttall, SNP, The Master, Theresa May, Tim Farron, UKIP