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L I M I N A
Magical Beginnings: The Intellectual Origins
of the Victorian Occult Revival
Alison Butler
In the late nineteenth century, the formation of a society of practising
magicians marked the climax of the Victorian revival of magic and occultism.
This paper examines the origins of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
through an analysis of the intellectual environment of the nineteenth century
as well as through the identification of the presence and influence of a
continuous magical tradition. As the tradition is traced throughout the
century, individuals and societies responsible for its preservation are
identified and their roles in the history of magic are established. The way in
which these societies and individuals directly influenced the Order itself is
also examined. Analysing this renewal of the intellectual appeal of magic
in the nineteenth century, as exemplified by societies such as the Order of
the Golden Dawn, will enable comprehension of why the Western magical
tradition continued and thrived in the face of its supposed enemies: scientific
advancement and secularisation.

In early spring of 1888 a temple devoted to the study of magical arts

opened its doors to the occult world of England. The Isis-Urania
Temple in London was the first temple of the Hermetic Order of the
Golden Dawn. In an era of immense occult and esoteric activity
such an establishment was scarcely remarkable on the surface. 1 The
Order of the Golden Dawn, however, proved to be truly unique in
that it appeared to have no precedent for its focus on practical and
ceremonial magic. Em erging in a society accustomed to the
hierarchical and secretive nature of Freemasonry, the ghostly realm
of the spiritual ists, and the mysticism and mythology of the
theosophists, the Order of the Golden Dawn stood out for its
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emphasi s upon magi c. It was an esote r i c soci ety for
practicing magicians.
The emergence of the Order in late nineteenth-century England
represents the development of a new dimension in Victorian
intellectual history and marks an important turning point in the
history of Western magic. There is a tendency in the academic study
of magic to characterise magical belief and practice as irrational.
Thi s tendency i s the re sul t of a mi srepresen tati on and
misunderstanding of the nature of magic and of its historical role in
Western culture. This misrepresentation is dependent upon two
erroneous interpretations of magical practice and belief. The first
interpretation is derived from a religious view of the world and the
second from an apparent scientific view of the world. 2 Early biblical
religion provides us with some of the first written documents that
deal with magic. In this forum magic is depicted as evil and
forbidden yet, most importantly, it is portrayed as being quite real.
This understanding of magic prevailed in the Middle Ages when
unorthodox and deviant religious practices were classified by the
Church as magical. The scientific viewpoint dismissed magic in
favour of the more objectively verifiable applications of scientific
practices and beliefs.3 The Age of Enlightenment furthered this early
scientific approach by characterising magic not only as inefficient
but also as irrational when placed under the scrutiny of newly
establ i shed sci enti fi c and empi r i cal methods. The se two
understandings of magic, one as terrible and real, and the other as
inefficient and wrong, continue to taint the western comprehension
of magic.
It is not only general cultural and social interpretations of magic
that have misdirected our understanding. Academics across the
disciplines have contributed to the chaotic conglomeration of notions
that characterises the average Western definition of magic. Early
academic study of magic was based on an understanding that magic
belonged to more primitive and irrational times. The theory of
magic that held sway in most academic examinations was that of
Sir James Frazer (1854-1941) who defined magic by a law of
similarity and in its differentiation from religion and science. Frazer
argued that all magic functioned under some sort of sympathetic
union between the magical intention and the physical object to be
acted upon. 4 The problem with his definitions can be found in his
claim that magic was logically more primitive than religion and
that the most backward culture was prolific in magic and barren in

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religion. Frazer believed that it was through the eventual recognition

that magic was inefficacious that cultures turned to religion.5
This Frazerian view of magic as being at the bottom of the totem
pole of a li near notion of inte lle ctual r ationality i s slowly
disappearing from academic research. Important contributions to
the study of magic from the ancient world to themodern day have
been m ade throughout the last 40 years. Fr ances Yates has
progressed the interpretation of magic as rational through her work
on Renaissance Europe and Elizabethan England. She presents the
view that magical belief and practice are indicative not of delusion,
superstition or ignorance, but rather of an ontological philosophy,
a way of interpreting and participating in the world. 6 Yates also
contributes to the history of magic by arguing for a continuity of
the occult philosophy from the thirteenth century right up to the
seven tee nth cen tur y by l i nki ng Chr i stian cabal ism wi th
Rosicrucianism and tracing its path through some of the magical
worlds most important thinkers.7
Stanley Tambiah, in his Magic, Science, Religion and the Scope of
Rationality, dismisses earlier definitions of magic, such as that of
Frazer, for their dependency upon an understanding of history as a
progressive and linear process. 8 He uses the example of Renaissance
magic to show that while humanity is reaching ne w heights
scientifically, which implies a progression in rationality, there is also
a corresponding revival of interest in arcane magical texts, which
also infers a reversion to the superstition and apparent irrationality
of an earlier time. Tambiah goes on to use this example to undermine
the notion of history as a rational process. 9
American anthropologist T.M. Luhrmanns outstanding study
of magic practitioners in late twentieth-century London breaks down
the polarity, established by earlier anthropological and historical
research in to magic which categorises a magical m indset as
irrational, while viewing a Western mentality as rational. Luhrmann
disproves the notion of a magical mindset being exclusive to the
Western world, explaining this magical mindset not in the context
of the objective imposition of rational boundaries, but rather in the
context of subjective interpretations of the world. As Luhrmann
rightly points out, a magician under stands magical theory as
coherent, ordered and rational. 10
Antoine Fai vre an d Wouter J. Han egraaff are two other
contemporary scholars of magic who share and support the view
that magical belief is part of a rational system of interpretation. Both

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Faivre and Hanegraaff argue for the r ecognition of Western
esotericism as a world view characterised by magical belief and
practice, amongst other things.11
It has become obvious through this new and remarkabl e
scholarship, that if the role of magic in society is ever to be
understood, it must be accepted as part of the modern Western world
as well as part of its past. Despite the recent work of scholars such
as Luhrmann, Tambiah, Faivre and Hanegraaff, which marks the
beginning of sound scholarship in an area sadly neglected or poorly
represented by past scholarship, the earlier biases still linger. The
understanding of magic as an irrational and primitive intellectual
viewpoint that is inferior to a scientific one is difficult to eradicate.
Through an examination of the origins of the revival of ritual magic
in Victorian En gland I will show how the continuation and
expansion of the Western magical tradition in an era of scientific
advancement and secularisation reflects the ongoing relevance of
magic to intellectual hi story as a valid, popular and r ational
interpretation of the world.
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was founded by three
men, or chiefs, who dabbled in the various occult, masonic, and
mystical pursuits that were popular at the end of the nineteenth
century. Dr William Robert Woodman was a physician and a mason
with interests in Cabala, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, astrology,
alchemy and tarot. Dr William Wynn Westcott, a coroner and also a
mason, was primar ily interested in Cabala, Hermeticism, and
Rosicrucianism. The third and most influential chief was Samuel
Liddell MacGregor Mathers, yet another mason, with an uncertain
past, who recreated his persona into a powerful magus. Mathers
was the true magician of all the chiefs and it was he who shaped the
Order into the uniquely magical society it became.
Although the history of the Order s actual establishment is shady,
other scholars have carried out pioneering work in this area.12 They
have determined that the Order was founded based upon suspect
documents, called the cipher manuscripts, written by a possibly
fictitious individual, Anna Sprengel. These documents claimed that
the Order originated from an earlier German occult order. There is
speculation as to whether these documents, which Westcott found,
were forged by him or based upon manuscripts which were once in
the collection of older and respected practitioners of occult arts in
the nineteenth century. This speculation has been thoroughly
examined and scrutinised by previous scholarship. What has not
been examined is the role of the Order of the Golden Dawn within
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a Western magical tradition. The intellectual history of the Order

has yet to be addressed and deserves examination in order to further
understandings of the development of magic within Western culture.
Such a study would seek to establish why such a tradition continued
and thrive d despi te supposed threats from other intellectual
movements associated with the rise of science and secularisation.
Despite its uniqueness as a society for practising magicians, the
Order was still very much a product of its time. The structure and
content of the Order were subject to the literary, philosophical,
political and religious influences of the era. Nineteenth-century
thought was l argel y affected by the r i si ng popul ar ity of
secularisation and science. In reaction to this decline in religious
belief and the increase in scientific dogma, two seemingly opposed
systems of thought rose to prominence in the second half of the
nineteenth century. Victorian England witnessed the curious blend
of scientific natural ism an d the bel ief in magic. The forme r
mai ntai ned that bel i ef i n any non-physi cal agenci es was
superstitious and indicative of a culturally dysfunctional society.
The latter sought to establish, within the natural world and governed
by natural laws, the mystery and spirituality traditionally associated
with religious and magical thinking.13 These two systems of thought
were exempli fied, on the one hand, by scientific naturalism
popularised by leading scientific figures such as Thomas Huxley
and John Tyndall and on the other hand, by the attempt to restore
the Christian faith through the e stablishmen t of a spir itual
Christianity based upon intellectual and popular movements which
were completely disparate to scientific naturalism. These included
Hermeticism, theosophy, spiritualism, and magic.
These opposing intellectual movements could not help but be
affected by the scientific mentality of the era. Evolutionism,
rationalism and scientific methodology all worked their way into
this occult system of thought, creating a new kind of occultism. The
new occultism was expressed in the individual work of certain
people who played influential roles in the creation of the Order of
the Golden Dawn. There has been no examination of the nature
and extent of the influence of these individuals upon the Order,
and without such an examination the Order seems to spontaneously
appear at the end of the century. Thus, this paper seeks to fill in
some of the blanks surrounding the Order s origins and to add a
new dimension to the intellectual history of the nineteenth century.
To do this, the writings and beliefs of these individuals are analysed,
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together with the effect that they had upon the Order s subsequent
beliefs and practices.
Despite the apparent dominance of science and materialism in
mai nstream thought in the ni neteen th centur y, there was a
persistence of magical belief that was expressed in forms of popular
magic such as astrology, magical cures, and a variety of methods of
divination.14 On a smaller scale, there is also evidence supporting
the existence of serious scholars of magic who collected and studied
the works of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and other magi, in search
of a higher magical knowledge. The cabalistic magic and the brilliant
synthesis of existent philosophies and religious systems of the
Renaissance that were carried out by Marsilio Ficino and Pico della
Mirandola had not disappeared. Many such philosophical tenets
were preserv ed and assimi lated into Rosicruci ani sm in the
seventeenth century. With a dubious history, promises of hidden
knowledge, and claims to an ancient tradition, the Rosicrucian myth
fed the desires of would-be magicians of the era. Despite its
association with Rosicrucianism, the Western magical tradition was
not exclusive to secret societies. The texts of the Christian cabalists
fell into the hands of many individual scholars and potential adepts.
The practice of cabalistic magic throughout the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries can be verified by the existence of occasional
publications, such as Ebenezer Siblys Celestial Sciences in 1784.
Cabalistic magic tended to be classified alongside astrology, alchemy,
witchcraft, and other supposed superstitious practices and beliefs.
Englands intellectual circles had yet to embrace this type of magic
as a popular pursuit.
It was not until the publication of Francis Barretts impressive
compilation and textbook on ritual magic, The Magus or Celestial
Intelligencer in 1801, that the comprehensiveness characteristic of
the Renaissance cabalists was once again evident in Western magic.
By presenting, in a single book, a large portion of the occult literature
available in English translation, Barretts compendium tells much
about the state of magical knowledge and practice in England at
the beginning of the nineteenth century. In creating a magical
textbook and establishing the notion of a magical school, Barrett
had introduced a new accessibility to magical studies. 15 He helped
set in motion a process that would result in the institutionalisation
of magic by the end of the century. Before that would happen,
however, the study and practice of magic had to make its way
through the middle of the nineteenth century.
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Any proof of the practice of magic in the mid-nineteenth century

must be sought amongst individual scholars and would-be adepts.
The key figures involved in the magical tradition of the middle of
the nineteenth century were Frederick Hockley and Kenneth
Mackenzie.
Frederick Hockley (1809-1885), an accountant by profession, was
one of the best-known occultists of the Victorian age. His library
contained hundreds of books and manuscripts on astrology, Cabala,
magic, mesmerism and other esoteric subjects. Much of Hockleys
collection was acquired and offered for sale by the occult bookseller
and publisher George Redway in a catalogue of 1887 entitled List of
Books Chiefly from the Library of the Late Frederick Hockley, Esq.,
Consisting of Important Works relating to the Occult Sciences, both in
print and manuscript. 16 Over 1000 books and manuscripts are listed
in the published catalogue. Some of the magical works in Hockleys
collection were manuscripts on ceremonial magic, Cabala and
divination, which he himself had transcribed, complete in some
cases with coloured drawings.17 It is through these catalogue entries
that Hockley can be identified as following a particular magical
tradition characterised by his possession of works on the occult
sciences. In his collection were works by John Dee, Ebenezer Sibly,
several manuscripts belonging to the Key of Solomon,18 and a copy of
Francis Barretts The Magus, which had played a crucial role in
reviving these traditional occult sciences.
From an early age, Hockley was interested in various areas of
occultism. He became involved with the increasingly popular
spiritualism and experimented with many of its forms, finally
settling upon the method of scrying with a crystal or mirror. Hockley
could not actually see anything himself in the mirror or crystal, but
used what he called a speculatrix, usually a young girl, to obtain
answers to more than 12 000 questions from a variety of spirits over
several years of experimentation. The process involved consecrating
the mirror or crystal to God and invoking the name of Christ while
calling to a specific spirit. After the spirit had communicated its
message it was discharged, once again through the invocation of
Christ, and then the ritual concluded with a prayer of thanks. All
this was done in order to avoid raising evil spirits, although
apparently such spirits sometimes managed to stubbornly appear
despite any precautions. 19
Hockley was initiated as a Freemason in 1864. He joined the
Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (SRIA) almost 11 years later.20 The
SRIA, founded in 1865 by Robert Wentworth Little, was a society
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open only to master masons. It encouraged the study of cabala and
occultism. The Supreme Magus from 1891 to 1925, and one of the
founders of the Order of the Golden Dawn, William Wynn Westcott,
claimed that Robert Little had found some old recorded rituals in
the storerooms of Freemasons Hall, which he brought to Kenneth
Mackenzies attention with the intention of forming an esoteric
society. Mackenzie was an avid occultist who claimed to have
received i nitiation into a Ger man Rosicrucian fraternity and
therefore was perceived as having the authority to found a new
Rosicrucian society. 21
Hockley is referred to in Westcotts official history lecture of the
Order of the Golden Dawn as one of the Order s adepts and as being
possessed of the power of vision in crystal, and whose [manuscripts]
are highly esteemed.22 Hockley was not a member of the Order of
the Golden Dawn as he died three years prior to its establishment
in 1888. Hockley did influence the Order, however, in that his
manuscripts were used by some of its members, such as A. E. Waite,
Florence Farr, W.A. Ayton and Percy Bullocks. Waite had access to
three manuscri pts, The Journal of a R osicru cian Philosopher,
Crystallomancy and Collectanea Chemica . Farr and Ayton made
transcripts from Hockleys manuscripts and Bullock obtained The
Journal of a Rosicrucian Philosopher.23 So while Hockley himself did
not participate in, or consciously influence the Order of the Golden
Dawn, his work and texts were claimed by the Order in the
formulation of its own system.
The other key figure in tracing the masonic, Rosicrucian and
occult roots of the Order of the Golden Dawn is Kenneth Mackenzie
(1833-1886). Mackenzie spent his childhood in Vienna where he
claimed he was initiated into a Rosicrucian society. When Mackenzie
returned to England in 1851 he began writing articles and translating
texts on a variety of topics for publication. His most well-known
and influential work was his Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia published
in 1877. The books primary historical merit is that it catalogues
dozens of secret societies, including several which did not exist.
Mackenzies knowledge of occult matters and his proficiency in
German, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew made him a prime candidate
for membership in many of the esoteric and pseudo-masonic
societies taking shape in the middle of the century. He was also a
member of the Royal Asiatic Society from 1855 to 1861 and was a
fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1854.24 Through his literary
inter ests and a famil y conn ection he enter ed the world of
Freemasonry but resigned within a year of his initiation, finding
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more interest in the fringe masonic societies operating at the time.25

He became a member of the SRIA in 1872 where he gave several
papers on esoteric subjects prior to his resignation in 1875. 26 That
same year he joined the Royal Order of Sikha and the Sat Bhai which,
according to his Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia, originated in India and
is divided into seven degrees.27 His membership and interest in both
obscure and more popular esoteric societies brought him into contact
with the founders of the Order of the Golden Dawn. Mackenzie
demanded, in a letter announcing the establishment in 1883 of a
new occult order called the Society of Eight, that William Wynn
Westcott not be admitted.28 Mackenzie was also the Grand Secretary
of the Swedenborgian Rite of Freemasonry, which was founded in
the United States and exported to England via Canada in 1876. 29
Westcott took over this role when Mackenzie died in 1886 and
collected Mackenzies papers from his widow.
One of the m ost impor tant e vents that occurre d during
Mackenzies career as an occultist helped to shape the future of
occultism in England: in 1861, Mackenzie went to Paris to visit
Eliphas Lvi (1810-1875). Lvi was born Alphonse Louis Constant
and, in his youth, initially chose the path of priesthood. He later
opted to become a priest of a more magical nature and became the
central figure of nineteenth-century French occultism. He developed
the occult tarot system that was eventually adopted by the Order of
the Golden Dawn, and was the first to incorporate the tarot with
cabala. Lvi presented his occult synthesis of esoteric traditions in
his influential and successful works Dogme et rituel de la haute magie ,
published in 1854 to 1856, Histoire de la magie, 1860, and La Clef des
grands mystres, 1861. He maintained that the doctrines of magic
were behind the symbolism of all popular religion and that it was
only through magic that humanity could re-possess the divine
powers that it once held.
Lvi was also falsely referred to in the Order of the Golden
Dawns official history lecture as one of the Order s earlier adepts,30
and there is a spurious claim that the infamous cipher manuscript
was once in Lvis possession. It appears that Lvis influence upon
the Order of the Golden Dawn was primarily through his books.
Mackenzie is the only English occultist prominent in the history of
the Order of the Golden Dawn who actually met Lvi. An account
of that meeting, as recorded by Mackenzie, appeared in the journal
The Rosicrucian in May 1873.31 Mackenzie returned from this meeting
full of enthusiasm and took great delight in introducing the newly
synthesised occult significance of the tarot into British occultism.
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Mackenzie is also mentioned in the official history lecture of the
Order of the Golden Dawn as prominent among the Orders adepts.32
This claim is questionable. It is certain, however, that Mackenzie
knew the three founders of the Order of the Golden Dawn and that
he and Westcott shared membership in several masonic and magical
societies. Mackenzie was also acquainted with MacGregor Mathers.
According to Matherss widow, her husband had a strong occult
l i nk wi th Macken zi e. 33 Macken zi e also made Woodfords
acquaintance, along with the other two chiefs, through his
membership of the SRIA.
As Mackenzie died in 1886 he did not live to see the establishment
of the Order of the Golden Dawn. While he probably had no direct
hand in founding the Order, his addition to the nineteenth-centurys
synthesis of occult knowledge was invaluable to the system of magic
that came to be practised by Order of the Golden Dawn members.
Despite speculation concerning Hockley, Mackenzie and Lvis
involvement with the cipher manuscripts, the actual degree of direct
influence which these men had upon the formation of the Order of
the Golden Dawn is relatively unimportant. The Orders founders
intentionally set about associating its history and its teachings with
the beliefs and work of these earlier magi. That the founders and
some members actually met Mackenzie, belonged to the same
masonic and esoteric societies which Mackenzie and Hockley
attended, and read the literature produced by all three, is enough
evidence to prove their influence on the Order of the Golden Dawn.
That this influence was intentionally fostered and even sought out
by the founders elevates the importance of Hockley, Mackenzie and
Lvi. Hockley, in accumulating such an impressive occult library
and in his associations with numerous like-minded individuals,
preserved and passed on the magical tradition found in his books.
He also added his own preferred spiritualistic element of crystalgazing into the occult mlange of the day. Lvi began anew the
process of synthesis so important to the development of magic by
introducing the symbolic relevance of the tarot. As an admirer of
both Lvi and Hockley, Mackenzie bridged the gap between French
and English occultism and introduced Lvis thought to the variety
of esoteric circles in which he traveled and to those which he created.
Hockley, Lvi and Mackenzie represent the Western magical and
masonic thread that helped create the resulting magical fabric of
the Order of the Golden Dawn. These men preserved the magical
synthesis first established in the Renaissance, enabled the acquisition
of Rosicrucian, masonic and French occultisme elements, and passed
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this new creation on to their magical successors. It was to be two

women who added the other important ingredients of esotericism
and theosophy to this legacy.
One of the most influential people on the Order of the Golden
Dawn was Anna Bonus Kingsford (1846-1888). She has also been
the most overlooked figure in the history of the Order. While her
association with Mathers and Westcott, and the admiration they
both held for her, has been well-documented, her experimentation
and interest in practical magic has never really been explored, nor
have her writings been examined for their relevance to Order of the
Golden Dawn belief and practice.
Kingsford was an extraordinary esoteric Christian mystic with
a doctorate in medicine and a passion for social reform. She had a
cur ious ble nd of i ntere sts: Her metici sm, m agic, me dicin e,
antivi visectioni sm, women s righ ts and vegetariani sm. She
experienced unusual visions, primarily while she was asleep, and
claimed that she used no dream-producing agents or drugs to bring
about these visions, despite some opinions to the contrary.34 In
Edward Maitlands biography of Kingsford, he makes reference to
her use of chloroform in easing the pain of her chronic pulmonary
afflictions, and to conversations he had with her whilst she was
under the influence of the chloroform. He believed that during these
conversations others spoke using her voice.35 Kingsford believed
that these visions and voices were divine in nature and were sent in
order for her to recover a theological system that was founded at
the beginning of existence, was comprehensive of all religions and
was inclusive of both sexes. Kingsford recorded the details of this
theological system in The Perfect Way, or, The Finding of Christ,
published in 1882 and co-written with Maitland, her partner in
spiritual exploration. The Perfect Way was an attempt to reconcile
science and religion at a time when science was threatening to bring
about the demise of religion.
Kingsford was a radical antivivisectionist and presented many
addresses against this form of research. She obtained a degree in
medicine from the University of Paris where she witnessed at first
hand the practices of the vivisectors, and she developed a hatred
for them and their work. Kingsford attempted to murder several
scientists through the magical projection of a destructive force using
her own will. Kingsfords prime target was Louis Pasteur. She
admitted to using her will to project a magical force of destruction
against two vivisectors who passed away while she was studying
in Paris and claimed responsibility for the deaths.36 Pasteur, however,
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remained undefeated. Kingsfords loathing for his work is expressed
in an address entitled Violationism: or sorcery in science, which she
presented to the members of the British National Association of
Spiritualists in 1887. She opened this address with the proposition
that she intended to:
shew that sorcery has indeed been revived in
modern times to a considerable extent, but that
its revival has taken place, not in the domain of
Spiritualism, but in that of Science itself. 37
It was not only through her written works that Kingsford
influenced the occult world of her day. She and Maitland gave
lectures on the esoteric Christianity they developed in The Perfect
Way to private audiences in London in the spring and summer of
1881. It was in this setting that they first encountered members of
the Theosophical Society, a society that was to play an important
role in the formation of occult thought in the late nineteenth century.
The Theosophical Society was established in the United States
in 1875 by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Colonel Henry S. Olcott and
others interested in the popular spiritualist movement that had just
taken the occult movements in the United States and England by
storm. Blavatsky was born in the Ukraine and worked as a medium
in New York City prior to founding the Theosophical Society. She
moved to India and set up the headquarters of the society there
some seven years after its initial establishment in the United States.
A branch of the Theosophical Society was established in London in
1878 but it was not until 1884 when Blavatsky herself arrived in
London that theosophy gained the popularity that it was to enjoy
for several decades and continues to enjoy to this very day. Blavatsky
believed it was her mission to reveal an ancient knowledge of the
world, which was guarded and revealed by hidden masters who
she referred to as Mahatmas, and that she was the representative
of these invisible adepts. Blavatsky claimed to have studied under
one of these Mahatmas in Tibet, where she learned ancient truths
which she shared in part with the world in her two-volume work,
Isis Unveiled, published in 1877, and The Secret Doctrine, published
in 1888.
Blavatskys theosophy was based on a system of religious and
mystical thought that was largely opposed to conventional Christian
beliefs. She mixed Western Hermeticism with Buddhist and Hindu
elements and her own interpretation of Eastern religion and
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mysticism. Initially, the Eastern and Western aspects were equally

emphasised in her synthesis, as demonstrated in Isis Unveiled, which
focuses as much on Gnosticism and cabalism as on Buddhism and
Hinduism. Blavatsky did, however, develop a preference for Eastern
doctrines and esoteric interpretations. There were many who
believed Blavatsky to be a fraud but there were many others who
were unsatisfied with conventional religious beliefs and welcomed
both Blavatsky and her teachings as bearing the wisdom and truth
which they sought.
When Anna Kingsford walked into the arena of the theosophists,
her teachings were also readily embraced. Her Perfect Way had much
in common with theosophy but the fundamental difference between
the two teachings was that Blavatskys theosophy valued Eastern
thought above Western wher eas Kingsfords teachings were
primarily based upon Christianity. Conflict eventually arose from
these differing positions. Initially, however, Kingsford and Maitland
were welcomed into the theosophical community and were voted
president and vice-president of the British Theosophical Society in
1883. 38 Kingsfords lack of toleration for Blavatskys Mahatmas
eventually led to disagreements over the societys precedence of
Eastern over Western beliefs. Kingsford and Maitland proposed that
two sections be created within the lodge, one to study the teachings
of the Tibetan Mahatmas exclusively, and the other to study esoteric
Christianity and occidental theosophy. The struggle ended only
when Kingsford and Maitland resigned from their posts in 1884.
This was not the end of Kingsfords activities in esoteric societies,
as she and Maitland promptly set up their own oranisation. The
Hermetic Society was founded in May 1884 and over the next two
years Kingsford gave lectures at well-attended society meetings
discussing everything from animals and their souls, to extraneous
spirits and obsession. Both Westcott and Mathers lectured to the
society on the Cabala and on alchemy in 1886, and Mathers became
an honorary member in the summer of that same year.39 Kingsford
had long suffered from asthmatic attacks and delicate nerves, and
in 1887 her health declined further. She died in 1888 and the Hermetic
Society died with her. That same year, the Isis-Urania temple of the
Order of the Golden Dawn, opened its doors.
The masonic structure of the Order of the Golden Dawn,
combined with its admission of both men and women and its
emphasis on magic, makes it unique in the history of nineteenthcentury occultism. The admission of women, however, and the
emphasis on Hermeticism and cabalism outside of practical magic
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renders the Order akin to the Hermetic Society. Judging from the
membership and attendance at functions of Kingsfords Hermetic
Society there was strong interest in Western occulti sm and
esotericism. It is quite likely that Westcott saw Kingsfords death as
an opportunity to begin his own magical society.
Kingsfords understanding of magic involved the use of ones
will in order to accomplish the desired outcome. She believed that
through focusing the will, one could affect another s actions or even
their very existence. This is an interesting development from Barrett,
Hockley and Mackenzies time in which intermediary spirits were
invoked in order to car ry out the magical task. Kingsfords
understanding of the purpose of white magic was centred on the
notion that the indivdual will was united with the divine will.40 To
cater purely to the base individual desire could lead to the practice
of black magic. This understanding of the function of magic and
the will informs the works produced by members of the Order of
the Golden Dawn and their magical rituals. 41 It is possible that it
was Kingsfords interpretation of the functioning of magic that
hel ped shape the O rder of the Golden Dawn. Kingsfords
acquaintance with Westcott and Mathers clearly suggests that they
were influenced by her thought through direct personal contact as
well as through the ideas expressed in her lectures to the Hermetic
Society and in her writing.
Both the Theosophical Society and the Hermetic Society, despite
their differing foci, were important in that they offered an alternative
religious and mystical philosophy to a world rapidly becoming
devoid of any sort of mystery. Both tended to be underground
movements and did not necessarily invade public intellectual life
in a radical way. Yet as the end of the nineteenth century approached,
more and more artists, intellectuals, and professionals joined their
ranks as they sought to understand the reinterpretation that science
demanded of existence, without losing the mystery and appeal of
the unknown. The parchment roll of the Order of the Golden Dawn,
which all members were obliged to sign, includes W.B. Yeats, Maud
Gonne, Mrs. Oscar Wilde, tea-heiress Annie Horniman, actress
Florence Farr, medical doctor Edward Berridge, and novelist Arthur
Machen, to name a few.42
Blavatsky was very much trying to sell her theosophy as an
eastern philosophical, religious and mystical system. This focus did
not appeal to those who felt there was no need to look elsewhere
for such explanations and that within the Western world such
heterodox philosophies could be uncovered. It was for these people
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that the Hermetic Society held such appeal, as it offered specific

study in Western esoteric topics such as the Cabala and Hermeticism.
It was in such an environment that magic could find fertile ground.
Interest in magic had not disappeared but, as has now been shown,
it continued to be pursued and studied by individual scholars. The
development of French occultism, thanks to Eliphas Lvi, earlier in
the century, fuelled interest in magic in England and exerted great
influence on would-be English magicians. On the outside the
Hermetic Society seemed to show no apparent interest in magical
studies, however, its founder, Anna Kingsford, had a personal
interest in magic and studied occultism while in Paris, using what
she believed to be white magic in her anti-vivisectionist campaign.
Apart from nourishing the appropriate intellectual environment
in which the O rder of the Golden Dawn could thri ve, the
Theosophical Society and Kingsfords Hermetic Society supplied
the numbers to people the Order. With the members and founders
of the Order of the Golden Dawn holding memberships at various
times with the wide selection of existing esoteric societies, the Order
was bound to reflect the influence of the doctrines and structure of
these other groups. In creating the Order, the founders intentionally
drew upon their masonic, Rosicrucian, Hermetic, and theosophical
experiences. The Order of the Golden Dawn picked up the thread
of the western magical tradition as introduced to the nineteenth
century by Barretts The Magus, and expanded upon by Hockleys
spiritualism, Levis occultism and Mackenzies bizarre blend of
fringe masonry and practical magic. To this, the Order added the
eastern elements and theosophy touted by Blavatsky and the intense
moral religiosity and individual responsibility expressed in the
works of Kingsford and Maitland. The latter two also contributed
their attempts at reconciling the conflicting doctrines of nineteenthcentury science and religion. No doubt Kingsfords understanding
of the nature and functioning of magic, as an individually powered
process in conjunction with the divine, was influential on the Order s
definition and practice of magic.
In creating this synthesis, the Order of the Golden Dawn was
carrying on the tradition of Western magic, as the synthesis and
appropriation of obscure and unorthodox ideas was its very nature.
A synthesis of this degree and with such implications had not
occurred since the Renaissance when the Cabala was added to the
formula by Pico della Mirandola and when Agrippa made his
contribution through the addition of occult sciences. The Order of
the Golden Dawns re-creation of the Western magical tradition was
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to affect the course of magic at least for the next century, as it had
created the perfect magical blend for the twentieth-century mind
inclined to embrace such an esoteric worldview. The secret to the
success of Golden Dawn magic, however, lay in its nineteenthcentury origins. Emerging from the discord between science and
religion, the Orders magical system provided the answer for those
who remained unconvinced by the empiricism of science and
disappointed by the archaism of religion.
Notes
1

The formation of the order followed closely on the heels of Anna Kingsford and
Edward Maitlands Hermetic Society in 1884, Madame Blavatskys Theosophical
Society in 1875, and theSocietas Rosicruciana in Anglia in 1865. Throughout this period
interest in Hermeticism, Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism had been increasing as
indicated through membership in these societies and other fringe organisations as
well as through contemporary literary and artistic expressions.
2
Stanley J. Tambiah refers to these interpretations as legacies from the JudaeoChristian religious tradition and from the systematic science of classical Greece
respectively, and he provides a detailed discussion of the development and origin of
each legacy. Stanley J. Tambiah, Magic, Scie nce, Religion and the Scope of Rationality,
Cambridge University Press, Cambr idge, 1990, pp.6-11.
3
ibid., p.9.
4
Sir James G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, abridged (1922), Oxford University Press,
Oxford, 1994, pp.26-28.
5
ibid., p.55.
6
Frances A. Yates, The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age, Routledge & Kegan
Paul, London, 1979.
7
Yates, The Occult Philosophy , Frances A. Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment,
Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1972, and Frances A. Yates, Giordano Bruno and the
Hermetic Tr adition, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1964.
8
Tambiah, pp.24-32.
9
ibid., p.124.
10
T.M. Luhrmann, Persuasions of the Witchs Craft Ritual Magic in Contemporary England,
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1989, p.116.
11
Antoine Faivre, Access to Western Esotericism, State University of New York Press,
Albany, 1994, and Wouter J. Hanegraaff, New Age Religion and Western Culture,
Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1996.
12
Important scholarship on this area has been conducted by Ellic Howe, The Magicians
of the Golden Dawn: A Documentary History of a Magical Order 1887-1923 (1972), Samuel
Weiser, Maine, 1978 and R.A. Gilbert, Revelations of the Golden Dawn: The Rise and Fall
of a Magical Order, Quantum, London, 1997.
13
See Peter J. Bowler, Reconciling Science and Religion, University of Chicago Press,
Chicago, 2001, for an examination of the resurgence of support for religious values
in Victorian England in the face of the extreme philosophy of scientific naturalism .
Also Frank Miller Turner, Between Science and Religion, Yale University Press, New

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Haven, 1974, for a detailed study of som e of the individuals who opposed the
intolerance and dogmatism of scientific naturalism.
14
See Chapter 5 of Owen Daviess Witchcraft, Magic and Culture 1736-1951, Manchester
University Press, Manchester, 1999.
15
Francis Barrett, The Magus or Celestial Intelligencer (1801), Lackington, Allen & Co.,
Leicester, 1970, p.140. Here,Barrett takes the opportunity to try and drum up business.
He advertises that he is available to provide private instruction in the occult sciences,
and encourages people to drop by 99 Norton Street, Mary-le-Bonne between eleven
and two oclock.
16
George Redway, List of Books Chiefly from the Library of the Late Frederick Hockley,
Esq., Consisting of Important Works relating to the Occult Sciences, both in print and
manuscript, George Redway, London, 1887.
17
R.A. Gilbert tracks down which of Hockleys manuscripts survived and which ones
are as yet unaccounted for in his essay Secret Writing: The Magical Manuscripts of
Frederick Hockley, in John Hamill (ed.), The Rosicrucian Seer : Magical Writings of
Frederick Hockley, Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, 1986, pp.26-33.
18
The Key of Solomon belongs to a Solomonic tradition of esoteric literature which
attributes several magical texts to King Solomon. The legend describes magic as the
source of Solomans power and riches. The tradition that he left behind instructions
in magical texts outlining how to acquire such riches persisted throughout western
history. Consequently Solomans name became associated with many magical
matters, but especially with grimoires, or grammars, of magical instruction.
19
Hamill, p.15.
20
Howe, p.32.
21
William Wynn Westcott, Data of the History of the Rosicrucians, in R.A. Gilbert
(ed.), The Magical Mason: Forgotten Hermetic Writings of William Wynn Westcott,
Physician and Magus, Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, 1983, pp.34-35.
22
Westcott, The Golden Dawns Official History Lecture, in a private collection
documented in Francis King, Ritual Magic in England (1970), reprinted as Modern
Ritual Magic: The Rise of Western Occultism, Prism, Dorset, Lindfield, 1990, pp. 212217.
23
R.A. Gilbert, Secret Writing: The Magical Manuscripts of Frederick Hockley, pp.
27-28.
24
R.A. Gilbert & John Hamill, Introduction to Kenneth Mackenzie,The Royal Masonic
Cyclopaedia (1877), Aquarian, Wellingborough, 1987, p. vi.
25
ibid., p.vii.
26
ibid.
27
Kenne th Ma ckenz ie, The Royal Mas onic Cyclopae dia (18 77 ), Aquar ian,
Wellingborough, 1987, p.649.
28
Private letter from Mackenzie to F.G. Irwin as documented in Howe, p.31.
29
Ellic Howe, Fringe Masonry in England 187 0-85, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum,
September 1972.
30
Westcott, The Golden Dawns Official History Lecture, pp.212-217.
31
Text in The Rosicrucian vol. II, no. 20, May 1873, pp.27-34.
32
Westcott, The Golden Dawns Official History Lecture, pp.212-217.
33
Moina Mathers in her preface to Samuel Liddell MacGregor Matherss Kabbalah
Unveiled (1887), Samuel Weiser, New York, 1978, p.xii.
34
In his study of modern ritual magic, Francis King claims that Kingsford was an
ether addict and it is this addiction that is the source of her visions. He does admit

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that, despite their questionable origins, the content of the visions is of considerable
significance: King, Modern Ritual Magic, The Rise of Western Occultism, p.48n.
35
Edward Maitland, Anna Kingsford: Her Life, Letters, Diary and Work, 2 vols, George
Redway, London, 1896.
36
ibid., p.268.
37
Mrs. Algernon Kingsford, Violationism: Or Sorcery in Science, Bath, 1887, p.1.
38
The societys name was changed soon after to the London Lodge of the Theosophical
Society.
39
According to Maitland, Mathers gave two lectures, entitled The Kabala and The
Physical or Lower Alchemy and Westcotts lecture was entitled Sepher Jetsirah.
Maitland, p.233.
40
Kingsford, pp.4-7.
41
This understanding of the will in the role of magic can be found in documents
called Flying Rolls. Number five by Dr. Berridge, numbers one and two by Westcott,
Percy Bullock and Florence Farr, and number six by Mathers all exemplify this
understanding of the will. These documents have been published in Francis Kings
Ritual Magic of the Golden Dawn (1987), Destiny Books, Vermont, 1997; originally
published as Astral Projection, Ritual Magic, and Alchemy, Spearman, London, 1971.
42
This membership list belongs to a private collector but is documented in R. A.
Gilbert, The Golden Dawn Companion, Aquarian, Wellingborough, 1986, pp.125-175.

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