A question that crops up every so often from people interested in garnering a stronger understanding of what the Golden Dawn is all about, and why certain beliefs or practices are utilised, is the Egyptian focus of the Outer Order. At one stage I was asked "is there an explanation or group of explanations even as to why the Egyptian pantheon is utilised versus any other?" While there are a myriad of reasons, some esoteric (and often highly convoluted), I have opted to give the more pragmatic of reasons below:
1) It was claimed by Westcott, in his History Lecture, that the Jewish people were taught by the Egyptians. It was common (and still is) to ascribe ancient wisdom to the Egyptians. Alchemy, for one, is a word that comes from "Al-Khem", or "from Egypt". Here is a little of what Westcott wrote:
2) Egyptology and archaeology was really kicking off at the time of the inception of the Order, particularly with the work of E.A. Wallis Budge. I believe the Rosetta Stone, for example, was discovered around a century or so before the Golden Dawn was established. Likewise, there was a lot of fervour and interest in the archaeological world regarding certain Egyptian finds. The Egyptian Book of the Dead is, in particular, a source work for Golden Dawn material. This "popularity" is believed to have influenced the Golden Dawn's emphasis on Egyptian forms in the Outer Order, and I agree that there is much truth to this assertion.
1) It was claimed by Westcott, in his History Lecture, that the Jewish people were taught by the Egyptians. It was common (and still is) to ascribe ancient wisdom to the Egyptians. Alchemy, for one, is a word that comes from "Al-Khem", or "from Egypt". Here is a little of what Westcott wrote:
It is therefore part of established Western tradition to hark back to older times and places, intimating that what is taught to initiates now is a continuation, in some form, of the ancient teachings and practices of the initiates of the past. This gives credence to those modern teachings and practices, and adds to the mystique of connecting to this "long-established" esoteric tradition."Through the Hebrew Kabbalah, we have indeed become possessed of more of the ancient wisdom than from any other source, for it must be born in mind that the Hebrews were taught at one time by the Egyptians, and at a later date by the Chaldean Sages of Babylon. It is A very curious fact that the Classical nations, the Greek and the Roman, have handed down to us but slight glimpses of the Ancient Magic, and this is the more notable because Greece succeeded to the Mastership of Egypt, and Rom to the Empire of both the Greeks and of the Jews. Greece indeed succeeded to a share of the Mysteries of the Egyptians, for the Eleusinian Mysteries were copies of those more ancient and solemn ceremonies of Isis, Osiris, and Serapis, but they lacked the true Magic of Egypt and further the classics retain but faint glimpses of even the Elusion Secrets. And these glimpses serve only to disclose the fact that the Eleusinian pupils were partly ignorant of the Isiac Mysteries, a notable example of which is seen in the use of the words, Knox Om Par, of which even they knew not the meaning, the words being merely the Greek incantation of the real ancient Egyptian words whose meaning has been a secret for centuries.
Hence the 0 = 0 grade of Neophyte is found to possess Egyptian characteristics and symbolism, and further an attentive study of the Higher Grades will reveal the source of much of the culture, and illustrate the language of the late Eliphaz Levi, through whose adeptship and advocacy the study of Occultism has been popularized."Westcott - History Lecture
2) Egyptology and archaeology was really kicking off at the time of the inception of the Order, particularly with the work of E.A. Wallis Budge. I believe the Rosetta Stone, for example, was discovered around a century or so before the Golden Dawn was established. Likewise, there was a lot of fervour and interest in the archaeological world regarding certain Egyptian finds. The Egyptian Book of the Dead is, in particular, a source work for Golden Dawn material. This "popularity" is believed to have influenced the Golden Dawn's emphasis on Egyptian forms in the Outer Order, and I agree that there is much truth to this assertion.
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5 comments:
There was a general Egyptian revival going on in that time period. Farr wrote a small book on Egyptian Magic. It was assumed that the Egyptians were the root of the tradition, just like it was assumed centuries earlier by the Hermetics.
A better question would be why does Golden Dawn continue to use the Egyptian symbolism that they do despite the fact that it is outdated. Simple, it works really well.
And besides, there are people like me who really like using it.
What's interesting to note is that despite the huge influence the Egyptian Revival, and the overall interest in antiquities during the victorian era many of these ideas are just flat out wrong. This whole connection with the ancient egyptians was done more out of a very romantic view then out of any historical fact.
Despite the fact that most of those past findings have been disproven about everything starting in Egypt its unfortunate that many people still believe so.
Oh, I thought they focused on Egypt just cause anyone who could build pyramids like that must be pretty cool. I hope folks don't disagree with the Egyptian tradition just cause of that urban myth that says the pyramids were built by Martians.
Oh, I thought they focused on Egypt just cause anyone who could build pyramids like that must be pretty cool. I hope folks don't disagree with the Egyptian tradition just cause of that urban myth that says the pyramids were built by Martians.
There isn't much authentically Egyptian about Florence Farr's *Egyptian Magic*, sadly. Farr continued the Renaissance error of viewing the Hermetic Corpus as ancient Egyptian, rather than as post-Chrsitian (the correct dating first assigned by Isaac Casaubon in 1614, according to Frances A. Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, p. 398).
To this error she added the Romantic delusion--common in the 19th century--that history is peppered with "initiates" belonging to "ancient" secret societies. (However, this should not detract from the abundant evidence that Farr must have been an impressive ritualist--see, for example, W. B. Yeats's statement in his Autobiographies p. 149,that Farr had "an incomparable sense of rhythm and a beautiful voice," was "erudite in many heterogenous studies" and "driven by an insatiable, destroying curiousity.")
The meanings that Farr and the G.D. assign to Egyptian symbols has little or nothing to do with the meaning that the ancient Egyptians assigned to them.
Moreover, the writings of E. Wallis Budge --which were good for 100 years ago -- have been superseded. Unfortunately, they continue to be influential in occult circles because they are available in inexpensive Dover editions, whereas the works of more modern Egyptologists can be expensive and hard to find. But in recent decades very good works on Egyptian magic have become available in paperback, such as Geraldine Pinch's Magic in Ancient Egypt (British Museum Press, 1994; University of Texas Press edition, 1995). There is no longer any reason for occultists to repeat the G.D.'s and Budge's factual errors except willful ignorance.
One of the most perniciuos ideas is the baseless theory of the Egyptian origin of the tarot cards, first proposed by Count Antoine de Gebelin in 1781 and popularized by the French occultist "Eteilla" (real name: Alietta) two years later. For a good account of this fanciful bit of pseudo-history, see Tarot Symbolism by Robert V. O'Neill (Lima, Ohio: Fairway Press, 1986).
Were Florence Farr alive today, she would be sitting in the Reading Room of the British Museum, pouring over the latest work of Egyptology. Unfortunately, today most of people who are intersted in the occult are not of the calibre of Florence Farr Emery or her close friend, W. B. Yeats. Even Mathers and Westcott--though given to humbug--did try to make use of what the great European libraries had to offer.
Why is the original menaing of the Egyptian symbols relevant to magic? Well, according to certain magical theories (e.g., Yeats's), these symbols were empowered though millennia of continuous use in ancient Egypt (remember, the pyramids are as distant in time from Julius Casear as Caesar is from our own day). "Whatever the passions of man have gathered about becomes a symbol in the Great Memory, and in the hands of him who has the secret it is a worker of wonders, a caller-up of angels or of devils" (Yeats, "Magic", 1901). To use these ancient symbols without knowledge of their original Egyptian meanings, is like taking a powerful drug without knowing its properties.
--M.
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