Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (or Golden Dawn for short) was a magical order of secret society for the study of the occult and metaphysics. It was founded in London in 1888 by Dr. William Wynn Westcott and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers. It ceased to exist under that name in 1903. However, two spin-off groups were created at that time, the Stella Matutina and the Alpha et Omega.

While it was popular, many well-known people joined the Golden Dawn. Some of its members included:

• Algernon Blackwood
• Aleister Crowley
• Florence Farr
• Dion Fortune
• Arthur Machen
• Pamela Colman Smith
• Arthur Edward Waite
• William Butler Yeats

Related pages

• Hermeticism

Other websites

• Golden Dawn FAQ
• The Golden Dawn Library Project
• Golden Dawn Tradition, by co-founder Dr. W. Wynn Westcott
• Lots of GD material on display in Yeats exhibition including Ritual Notebooks.
• Golden Dawn at the Open Directory Project