The Cipher Manuscripts of the Golden Dawn

Info On The Golden Dawn Cipher Manuscripts (from Wikipedia):

The Cipher Manuscripts are a collection of 60 folios containing the structural outline of a series of magical initiation rituals corresponding to the spiritual elements of Earth, Air, Water and Fire. The "occult" materials in the Manuscripts are a compendium of the classical magical theory and symbolism known in the Western world up until the middle of the 19th century, combined to create an encompassing model of the Western Mystery Tradition, and arranged into a syllabus of a graded course of instruction in magical symbolism. It was used as the structure for the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

The Manuscripts

The folios are drawn in black ink on cotton paper watermarked 1809.^[1] The text is plain English written from right to left in a simple substitution cryptogram. Numerals are substituted by Hebrew letters – Alef=1, Bet=2, etc. Crude drawings of diagrams, magical implements and tarot cards are interspersed in the text. One final page translates into French and Latin.^[2]
The Ciphers contain the outlines of a series of graded rituals and the syllabus for a course of instruction in Qabalah and Hermetic magic, including Astrology, Tarot, Geomancy and Alchemy. It also contains several diagrams and crude drawings of various ritual implements. The Cipher Manuscripts are the original source upon which the rituals and the knowledge lectures of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn were based.^[3]
The actual material itself described in the Manuscript is of known origins. Hermeticism, Alchemy, Qabalah, Astrology and Tarot were certainly not unknown to 19th century scholars of the Magical arts; the Cipher is a compendium of previously known Magical traditions. The basic structure of the rituals and the names of the Grades are similar to those of the Rosicrucian orders Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia and the German 'Orden der Gold- und Rosenkreuzer'.

Discovery

William Wynn Westcott, a London Deputy Coroner, member of the S.R.I.A. and one of the founders of the Golden Dawn, claimed to have received the manuscripts through Rev. A. F. A. Woodford, who was a colleague of noted Masonic scholar Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie.^[4] The papers were to have been secured by Westcott after Mackenzie’s death in 1886, among the belongings of Mackenzie’s mentor, the late Frederick Hockley,^[4][5] and by September 1887, they were decoded by Westcott.^[4]
The Manuscripts also contained an address of an aged adept named Fräulein (Miss) Anna Sprengel in Germany, to whom Westcott wrote inquiring about the contents of the papers.^[6] Miss Sprengel responded, and after accepting the requests of Westcott and his partner and fellow Mason Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, who had helped translate the texts, issued them a Charter to operate a Lodge of the Order in England.^[6] Westcott's first Golden Dawn temple was the Isis-Urania Temple, styled "No. 3."^[6] Temple No. 1 would have been Fräulein Sprengel's lodge, and No. 2 was supposedly an abortive attempt at a lodge by some unnamed persons in London (possibly a reference to Mackenzie and other S.R.I.A. members some years earlier).^[7]

Controversy

Considerable controversy surrounds the origins of the Cipher Manuscripts. Westcott claimed Sprengel was a German Adept of the 'Gold- und Rosenkreuzer' Order who wrote letters to Westcott and Mathers granting them permission to establish the Order in England. Mathers later claimed that only the letters were forgeries, but it seems unlikely that Westcott or Mathers wrote the Manuscripts themselves, as some believe.^[8]
There is considerable doubt among scholars that Westcott's story is accurate. In particular, the age and contents of the documents have been the subject of much controversy.^[8]

• The manuscripts are written on paper watermarked 1809, yet contain reference to Egyptian imagery that was unknown to scholars before the deciphering of the Rosetta stone in 1822.^[9]

• References are made to the connection between the Qabalistic Tree of Life and the Tarot trumps. This idea was first put forth by French author Eliphas Levi in 1855.^[10]

Possible sources

A variety of theories exist as to the real source of the Cipher Manuscript. Some of the more common ones include:

• Westcott and Mathers created all the Manuscripts and letters themselves,^[11] and created the origin myth of "Rosicrucian Adepts" to give credibility to their new Order.^[12]
• Mason and clergyman A.F.A. Woodford found the Cipher Manuscript in a secondhand bookstall on Wellington Road in London, and gave it to his friend Westcott to be decoded.^[13]
• The Sprengel letters were a forgery by Westcott, but the Manuscripts were written by Kenneth Mackenzie and/or other scholars of the S.R.I.A. (to which Westcott, Mathers and Woodman belonged as early as 1881). Fräulein Sprengel was a legend invented by Westcott to give lineage to the newly formed order. Westcott created the mythology of the Cipher Manuscripts' origins, knowing that a more esoteric source would carry weight with occultists of the era.^[13][14]
• There was no German order; the first Golden Dawn temple was a project of a secret group within the S.R.I.A. called the "Society of Eight". (By the time Westcott "discovered" the Manuscripts, all the members of the Society were deceased.) Fräulein Sprengel didn't really exist, but the Manuscript itself has true antiquarian origins, traceable to Johann Falk and passed through the hands of Francis Barrett, Eliphas Levi, and eventually to Mackenzie, Woodford and the S.R.I.A. (and the Society of Eight).^[3]
• There really was a German Rosicrucian order, sometimes referred to as the "Gold und Rosenkreutz," and it already had a branch in London, founded around 1810. Mackenzie was a member of this German order, into which he had been initiated by Count Apponyi of Hungary, and obtained the rituals described in the Cipher from them.^[15]
• The rituals in the Manuscripts were written by Baron Edward Bulwer-Lytton, honorary patron of the S.R.I.A. and author of an occult novel called Zanoni - A Strange Story, or by Frederick Hockley, the famous Rosicrucian seer and transcriber of occult manuscripts, and thence passed to Mackenzie.^[14]
• The Cipher Manuscript was legitimate, and the Golden Dawn is a valid offspring of an older Jewish order in Bavaria called Loge zur aufgehenden Morgenröthe, which translates to "Lodge of the Approaching Morning Light"^[14] or "Lodge of the Rising Dawn". This Order was founded to allow German Jews to conduct Masonic-style lodges since, at the time, Jews were banned from participation in Freemasonry.^[16]

In any case, no evidence has ever proven the existence of Fräulein Sprengel or her Lodge.^[7] (By Westcott's account, the other members of the German order supposedly objected to Sprengel's chartering of the Isis-Urania Lodge, and all further communications were cut off after she died.)^[17] The Isis-Urania Charter was written and signed only by Westcott, Mathers and William Robert Woodman.^[17] There are letters by Mackenzie that indicate the 'Society of Eight' existed, but nothing that describes what they actually taught or practiced.^[3] The symbolism and philosophy contained in the Cipher Manuscripts are not very different from that of high-degree Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism, and Mackenzie and the members of the S.R.I.A. were capable-enough esoteric scholars, with access to works on the Qabalah, Hermeticism, and Egyptology in Masonic libraries, to have combined it all into the form followed by the Golden Dawn.^[3]
However, there is no conclusive evidence to prove any of the proposed origins of the Cipher Manuscripts. Questions about the authenticity of the Manuscripts and the authority of the Isis-Urania Charter contributed to the first great schism of the Golden Dawn Order in 1900.^[17] In 1901, with the dissensions in the Golden Dawn, the poet W. B. Yeats, a member of the Order, privately published a pamphlet titled Is the Order of R.R. et A. C. to Remain a Magical Order?^[18] The true origins of the Cipher Manuscripts remain a mystery to this day.


( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cipher_Manuscripts )


More Info (from other sources): http://hermetic.com/gdlibrary/cipher/ ~ http://www.esotericgoldendawn.com/tradition_ciphers.htm ~ http://www.golden-dawn.org/truth_ciph1.html ~ http://www.hermeticgoldendawn.org/kuntz-ciphermanuscript.html ~ http://www.hermeticgoldendawn.org/runyon-gdcypher.html ~ http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Golden-Cipher-Manuscript-Studies/dp/1558183256

Folio 13 of the Cipher MMS

The cipher used in the manuscripts, shown in a 1561 edition of Trithemius' Polygraphia.

Revelações da Aurora Dourada: o Esplendor de uma Ordem Mágica (por R. A. Gilbert)

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http://r-gilbert.comprar-livro.com.br/livros/1857374172/
http://www.planetanews.com/produto/L/13524/revelacoes-da-aurora-dourada--o-esplendor-de-uma-ordem-magica-r-a--gilbert.html
http://www.skylarkbooks.co.uk/Shop/media/Revelations-of-the-Golden-Dawn-Gilbert.htm
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1185829.The_Golden_Dawn_Scrapbook
http://pt.scribd.com/doc/7164122/Gilbert-The-Golden-Dawn-Scrapbook

Isis-Urania Temple

Info About The First Temple of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn :

The Isis-Urania Temple was initially the first temple of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The three founders, Dr. William Robert Woodman, William Wynn Westcott, and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, were Freemasons and members of Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (S.R.I.A.).[1]

Contents

1 History
2 Separation
3 Independent and Rectified Rite of the Golden Dawn
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References

History

In October 1887, Westcott wrote to Anna Sprengel, whose name and address he received through the decoding of the Cipher Manuscripts. A reply was purported to have been received with much wisdom, and honorary grades of Exempt Adept were conferred upon Westcott, Mathers and Woodman, as well as a charter to establish a Golden Dawn temple to work the five grades outlined in the manuscripts.[2][3]

In 1888, the Isis-Urania temple in London was founded,[2] in which the rituals decoded from the cipher manuscripts were developed and practiced.[4] In addition, there was an insistence on women being allowed to participate in the Order in "perfect equality" with men, which was in contrast to the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (S.R.I.A.) and Masonry.[3]

Towards the end of 1899, the Adepts of the Isis-Urania and Amen-Ra temples had become extremely dissatisfied with Mathers' leadership, as well as his growing friendship with Aleister Crowley. They were also anxious to make contact with the Secret Chiefs, instead of dealing with them through Mathers.[5] Among the personal disagreements within the Isis-Urania temple, there were disputes between Florence Farr's The Sphere, a secret society within the Isis-Urania, and the rest of the Adeptus Minors.[5]

Separation

After the Isis-Urania temple declared its independence, there were even more disputes, leading to the resignation of William Butler Yeats.[6] A committee of three was to temporarily govern, which included P.W. Bullock, M.W. Blackden and John William Brodie-Innes. After a short time, Bullock resigned, and Dr. Robert Felkin took his place.[7] During this time they fell into conflict with Annie Horniman which led to her leaving the order for good. In May 1903 Brodie Innes attempted to pass a new constitution in which he would become head of the order. He was opposed by a majority of the remaining members led by Arthur Edward Waite, Marcus Blackden and William Alexander Ayton. The Waite group proposed that the order should be reorganised and refocused in a mystical direction retaining control of the Isis-Urania temple, while those wishing to pursue active magical operations should separate. This led a minority under Felkin and Brodie-Innes, and including Yeats, to separate to form the Stella Matutina.[8]

Independent and Rectified Rite of the Golden Dawn

Waite, Blackden and Ayton were now the leaders of the order which they now named Independent and Rectified Rite of the Golden Dawn or the Holy Order of the Golden Dawn which aimed at exploring mysticism explicitly abandoning magical operations from the beginning. However Blackden and Ayton in fact took no active role leaving Waite in charge. Those who adhered to the reformed order included Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Pamela Colman Smith, and Isabelle de Steiger. The order also gained an active new member Evelyn Underhill in 1905. After Ayton's death, Col. Webber took his place.[9] Waite continued his Isis-Urania Temple work during the years leading up to World War I and initially maintained a somewhat peaceful relationship with the Amoun Temple of the Stella Matutina though refusing contact with Alpha et Omega.

The new temple, as Francis King notes, "abandoned all magical work, abolished examination within the Second Order and used heavily revised rituals designed to express a somewhat tortuous Christian mysticism.[9] These revisions were carried out by Waite putting them into action in 1910, and have been described by King as "pompous and long windedness".[9] Waite's alterations to the rituals were partially inspired by his investigations into the origins of the Cipher Manuscripts which began in 1908. Waite concluded that the manuscripts inconsistencies meant they could not reflect genuine ancient Egyptian traditions as had been claimed and in fact had been composed some time in the late nineteenth century. This led to a virulent new dispute between those who accepted Waite's findings and those who did not. These disputes brought Marcus Blackden out of seclusion to argue that the cypher manuscripts represented genuine ancient knowledge transmitted orally via the Egyptian fellaheen. This conflict led Waite to close the temple in 1914 and forming a new order, the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross in complete independence from the Golden Dawn and its offshoots, taking a number of members with him. [10] While R. A. Gilbert backs Waite's explanation for the end of the order King speculates that real reason for the ending of the order was that a number of the Adepts had a strong dislike for Waite's new rituals.[11]

See also

Secret Chiefs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Chiefs
Cipher Manuscripts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cipher_Manuscripts
Alpha et Omega
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_et_Omega
Rosicrucian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosicrucian

Notes
 
1.^ Regardie, 1993, page 10
2.^ a b King, 1989, page 43
3.^ a b Regardie, 1993, page 11
4.^ King, 1997, page 35
5.^ a b King, 1989, page 66
6.^ King, 1989, page 78
7.^ King, 1989, page 94
8.^ Gilbert, Robert A.; p. 44
9.^ a b c King, 1989, page 96
10.^ Gilbert, Robert A.; p. 72-3
11.^ King, 1989, page 112

References
 
King, Francis (1989). Modern Ritual Magic: The Rise of Western Occultism. ISBN 1-85327-032-6
Regardie, Israel (1993). What you should know about the Golden Dawn (6th edition). ISBN 1-56184-064-5
Gilbert, Robert A. The Golden Dawn: Twilight of the Magicians. The Aquarian Press, 1983. ISBN 0-85030-278-1.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isis-Urania_Temple
 
 
 

Maçonaria e Magia (The Magical Mason)

About the Author:

William Wynn Westcott (17 December 1848 – 30 July 1925) was a coroner, ceremonial magician, and Freemason born in Leamington, Warwickshire, England.[1] He was a Supreme Magus (chief) of the S.R.I.A and went on to co found the Golden Dawn.

Extract Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wynn_Westcott

More Info & Related: http://www.amazon.com/Magical-Mason-Forgotten-Hermetic-Physician/dp/0850303737/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324748236&sr=1-1 , http://www.allbookstores.com/R-A-Gilbert/author ; http://www.librarything.com/author/gilbertra & http://pt.scribd.com/doc/24111099/R-A-Gilbert-The-Magical-Mason