Balder Ex-Libris

Author : Regardie Israel
Title : The original account of the teachings, Rites and ceremonies of the hermetic Order of The Golden Dawn
Year : 1986

Link download : Regardie_Israel_-_The_Golden_Dawn.zip

Just about 100 years ago (in 1887) we had the beginnings of The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. It was then that (according to history and "myth") Dr. William Westcott discovered a cipher manuscript that led to the founding of an English branch of Die Goldene Dammerung in 1888. It was this Golden Dawn that attractedsome of the most talented personalities of the time - including W. 8. Yeats, Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen, Florence Farr, Annie Horniman, A. E. Waite, S. L. MacGregor Mathers, Dion Fortune and Aleister Crowley. And it was this Golden Dawn that itself provided a NEW DAWN for "occultism" in the early 20th century. In the early 1900s, the original Order began to fragment. First Crowley published many of the G.D. rituals in The Equinox and left to form his own order, the A.A., in 1905. The original Isis-Urania Temple expelled Mathers, and then - as The Stella Matutina - under the direction of Waite, put more emphasis on mysticism than had the original G.D. Later Dion Fortune broke off from this Temple to form her own Inner Light group. It was as a member of the Stella Matutina that Israel Regardie first published a nearly complete set of the rituals and teachings in 1937-40 as the first edition of this present work. Later he sold the copyrights for this and most of his other books at that time to the Aries Press, and I purchased them in 1968 and brought out the second edition, with new material from Regardie, in 1969. As Sam Webster points out in the Epilogue to this fifth edition, this book has been the foundation for much of the "occult revival" of the last half of the twentieth century. It has provided resource materials for Wicca, the New Paganism, various magical groups, and for tens of thousands of serious students. And as Cris Monnastre points out in her Introduction, it is now beginning to provide a structure into which modern psychology can flow to bring about a solution to the present world crisis which demands a dramatic expansion of consciousness and of the 'tools' of awareness. It is the actual "structured"experience of magic - whether it be attained through group or solitary work - that is vital to the accelerated evolution of human consciousness beyond present limitations, and to the expansion of human awareness from communal to global dimensions. And it is this that is essential to avoidance of nuclear war and to the restoration of Nature to the environment and of humanity to Nature. The Golden Dawn is a curriculum of study, a workbook to the Great Work, and Cris Monnastre has provided guidelines to the practical approach to the Work. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of personal work, for it is that - whether undertaken alone or with a group - that is important. Only personal work can accomplish true initiation. And The Golden Dawn is a valid curriculum for personal work even for those associated with other than Golden Dawn groups or systems of magical study. One of the great messages of the New Age is that of eclecticism - if it works, use it! There are many other valuable and valid resources for our evolution, and in this time of "quickening", all are pertinent. But it is a personal and regular program of meditation that brings order to what otherwise might prove chaotic. Such a program, combined with the simple magical exercises of "The Middle Pillar" and "Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram", and the keeping of a journal will initiate your own journey to the Light! I want to give special appreciation to the writers who have added important materials to this new edition, but I also want to give personal appreciation to Israel Regardie for having recognized in 1937 that the "time for secrecy" was over. The twentieth century is a time in which the knowledge of the past has to be brought forward and integrated into a new "common sense" upon which a new humanity can be built. Once, years ago, when I first talked about buying the Golden Dawn copyrights from the Aries Press, another occult writer made a statement to the effect that no one could "own" this knowledge -for it all came originally from God! I think that concept describes exactly what we are dealing with: true Spiritual Technology, Treat it as such! Throughout this edition we have retained the original pagination so that references to the original four volume edition could still be identified. I have made corrections to the original where they were needed, but unless important to the readers' perception I have not made changes to the style. In addition, I am very much indebted to Cris Monnastre, MaDhyan Anupassana, George Wilson, Hal Sundt and Sam Webster for their help and their contributions. In most cases these are identified by initials, along with my own, in footnotes. And it is with a great deal of pleasure that I announce that Cris Monnastre has been instrumental in bringing together these, and other G.D. practitioners, who will be producing a future series of "Golden Dawn Manuals" to develop individual techniques and exercises for study and use. Carl Llewellyn Weschcke. St. Paul, July 10, 1986. ...