The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

An order founded contemporaneously as the SPR, by freemasons in 1888. The Order of the Golden Dawn was primarily active in Britain, where it became a relatively well-established and popular society that boasted over 100 members, including the poet W. B. Yeats.

It was a highly secretive organisation that was based on a hierarchical system of grades and rituals of initiation. However, the Order was subject to a number of public scandals that undermined both its secrecy and legitimacy.

An organisation devoted to the study and practice of the occult, metaphysics and paranormal activity. Focused on studying astrology, tarot deviation, geomancy, astral travel and alchemy.

Founded as a magical order, rather than scientific. Despite this difference both societies were considered in similar light in the minds of the ‘scientific’ community.

Anthony Enns and Shelley Trower, Vibratory Modernism, (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillian, 2013).