THE GOLDEN DAWN…
LINKS and REFERENCES
Fiction, no less than history, is plagiarism. . . cunningly contrived under a cloak of scholarship; to evoke the sights, the smells, the attitudes of vanished days; the thief borrows from authorities of earlier times, themselves distillations of even earlier epochs, and on and back until a full century-wheel's turned. Below are some sources employed in configuring this serial… some nearer truth than others, some more amusing, some less so. All… books, music, art… evoke at near or far remove that menagerie of the senses known, collectively, as the end of the 19th century, that we at the start of the 21st may hold it up, as a mirror, asking: are we really the better off, today, for our mechanical delights only approached in the dreams of Edison and Villiers? Or must we wake, chilled and dispirited… longing for the azur existing just over the horizons of our automatons' embrace?
SOME BOOKS
:
Anderson, Ken - Hitler and the Occult
Bergson, Henri - Laughter
Blanchard, Charles - Modern Secret Societies (1903)
Brodie-Innes, J. W. - The Scottish Witchcraft Trials
Bulwer-Lytton, Edward - The Coming Race, Kenelm Chillingly, Zanoni (see also biography by Allen Christensen)
Cardozo, Nancy - Lucky Eyes and a High Heart (Maud Gonne)
Carr, William Guy - Pawns in the Game
Chesterton, G. H. - The Father Brown series, The Man Who Was Thursday, Autobiography
Cicero, Chic - Golden Dawn Journal
Clymer, R. Swinburne - Occult Science, Compendium of Occult Law, What is Rosicrucae?
Colquhoun, Ithell - Sword of Wisdom
Crowley, Aleister - Aleister Explains Everything, Magick Without Tears, Moonchild (novel). See also biographies by Cammell and Suster (below)
Encausse, Gerard (Papus) - What is Occultism?, The Bohemian Tarot
Freud, Sigmund - Interpretation of Dreams, Letters (1899-1900)
Gardner, Laurence - Bloodline of the Holy Grail
Giles, Cynthia - History of Tarot
Goodrich-Clarke, Nicholas - Occult Roots of Nazism
Greer, Mary K. - Women of the Golden Dawn
Griffiths, Richard - The Reactionary Revolution
(Martinism: Guaita, Huysmans, Peladan, Bloy, Jules Bois and other ultramontane Catholics, Symbolists and Hydropathes: note especially Barbey d'Auervilly, that ancient dandy whose "Les Diaboliques" inspired succeeding generations from Rimbaud to Mallarme)
Guenon, Rene - Reign of Quantity
Haeckel, Ernst - Evolution of Man, Last Words on Evolution, The Last Link
[also Story of the Development of a Youth, autobiography, see Robert Jay Lifton's "The Nazi Doctors" for a slightly different account!)
Harper, George Mills - Yeats and the Occult
Harper, Patrick - Daimonic Reality
Harris, Melvin - Investigating the Unexplained
Heckethorn, Charles W. - Secret Societies
Hartmann, Franz - Among the Gnomes, Magic White and Black, Occult Science in Medicine, The Physician of the Future
Heinz, Heinz A. - Germany's Hitler
Hitler, Adolf - Mein Kampf
Howard, Michael - The Occult Conspiracy
Howe, Ellic - The Magicians of the Golden Dawn
Jarry, Alfred - Ubu Roi, biographies by Nigey Lennon, Linda Stillman and Shattuck's "Banquet Years" (below)
Jetzinger, Franz - Hitler's Youth
Johnson, Josephine - Florence Farr
King, Francis - The Magical World of Aleister Crowley, OTO Rites, The Rites of Modern Occult Magic, Satan and Swastika
Leigh, Richard - Secret Germany
Levi, Eliphas - Book of Splendors (and biographies by Mauchel and Papus - see Encausse, above)
Lewis, C. S. - That Hideous Strength
London Times - Issues of November 1st to December 26th 1899
Machen, Arthur - The Great God Pan, Things Near and Far
Mallarme, Stephane - Afternoon of a Faun and other poetry
Marinetti, F. T. - selected Futurist Essays
Massey, G. - The Book of Beginnings
Mathers, MacGregor - The Kabbalah Unveiled
Maugham, Somerset - The Magician (fictionalized bio of Crowley)
May, Karl - The Winnetou sagas
Moore, Virginia - The Unicorn (Yeats)
Morand, Paul - 1900 AD
Morrow, W. C. - Bohemian Paris Today (1900)
{other useful works on fin du siecle Paris include "Paris in Old and Present Times" (Hamilton), "Things Seen in Paris" (Holland), "From a Paris Garret" (LeGallienne), "Paris, 1900" (Mendell) "The Paris We Love" (Ogrizek), "Old Paris" (Shelley) and, especially, "Elegant Wits and Grand Horizontals" (Cornelia Otis Skinner), "Paris in Profile" (Slocombe) and "Paris" (Gertrude Stein)}
Nietzsche, Friedrich - biographies by Brinton, Crawford, O'Brien
Nordau, Max - Degeneration
Pennick, Nigel - Hitler's Secret Sciences
Peyre, Henri - What is Symbolism?
Proust, Marcel - The Guermantes' Way, Letters (1899-1900)
Rabelais - Gargantua and Pantagruel
Raine, Kathleen - Yeats and the Tarot
Ravenscroft, Trevor - The Spear of Destiny
Regardie, Israel - What You Should Know About the Golden Dawn
Rohmer, Sax - the "Fu Manchu" series, The Romance of Sorcery
(see, also, his biography by Cay Van Ash)
Ruskin, John - see biography "The Wider Sea" by John D. Hunt
Russell, George (A.E.) - The Avatars, The Candle of a Vision
Salon of 1900 - A handbook of the Paris Exhibition
Scott, Ernest - People of the Secret
Seifer, Mark - Nikola Tesla
Sora, Steven - Secret Societies of America
Steiner, Rudolf - Occult History
Stoker, Bram - Dracula, Lair of the White Worm
Suster, Gerald - Legacy of the Beast, Occult Messiah
Tesla, Nikola - see biographies by Mark Seifer, David Peat
[also, novel "The Last Hero" by Leslie Charteris]
Torrens, R. G. - The Golden Dawn
Viereck, George Sylvester - Confessions of a Barbarian, Songs of Armageddon
(also, biography "Odyssey of a Barbarian" by Elmer Gertz)
Villiers d'Isle Adam - Axel, Cruel Tales, L'Eve Futur
[also, biography by W. Conroy
Von List, Guido - Secret of the Runes
Waite, A. E. - The Occult Sciences, Shadows of Life and Thought
Weinberg, Bernard - Limits of Symbolism
Whiteside, Andrew - Schonerer: The Socialism of Fools (Vienna)
Wilson, Robert Anton - The Illuminati Papers, The Cosmic Trigger
Yeats, William B. - A Vision, Discoveries, Essays, Rosa Alchemica, The Secret Rose, The Speckled Bird, The Trembling of the Veil, Where There is Nothing (also recycled w/less Jarryisms as "The Unicorn from the Stars")
(see also criticism and biographies by Harper, Henn, Hood, Jeffaires, Kelly, Murphy, Oppel, Pierce)
Zalewski, Pat - Golden Dawn Enochian Magic
SOME VISUAL ARTISTS:
Dijkstra, Bram - Idols of Perversity
Marinetti, F. T. - The Futurist Manifesto
Melies, George - films and biographies: Paul Hammond, "Marvelous Melies", John Frazer, "Artificially Arranged Scenes", Erik Barnouw, "Magician and Cinema" (also treats Neville Maskelyne)
Moreau, Gustave - works
Smith, Pamela Coleman (Pixie) - see S. Kaplan in "Tarot Encyclopedia"
Toulouse-Lautrec - works, biography by Henri Perruchot
Vehmgericht Yearbook - a fraternity initiation manual published by students at Berkeley, 1894
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here's an Australian site by Johnny beinArt, containing not only his own work, but a gallery of new Symbolist, Surrealist and just plain strange drawings. . . |
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SOME MUSICIANS:
Berlioz, Charles (esp. "Fantastic Symphony and "les Francs Juges")
Debussy, Claude - music, biographies by Dietsche, Lockspeiser, Nichols, Thompson, Vallas
Satie, Erik - music, biographies by Gillmor, Orledge, Volta
SOME LINKS to RELATED WEBSITES
Like the water-carrying brooms in Paul Dukas' "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (transposed to film, starring a certain mouse), the Golden Dawn never so much died as divided and subdivided. Crowley stormed out to form his own lodges after feuding with Mathers; the O.T.O (says Francis King) split at least four ways after his death in 1947. Another "executive dispute", this between Mathers' widow Vestigia and the author Dion Fortune, resulted in further splintering so, now, one may find Golden Dawns to satisfy any persuasion. Some are social, some secretive or serious, many ridiculous or tangential. A few qualify as sinister… Suster numbers the Solar Temple (the French sunglass-heir suicide cult) and Manson Family among children (or grandchildren) of the Golden Dawn.
Conspiracy theorists will appreciate the determination of Robert Anton Wilson to prove
everything relevant; the Golden Dawn being one link in a chain binding Adam Weishaupt and potencies back in time up to Sirhan Sirhan, the Rockefellers (of course) and the hidden Master who, last time I checked, was Elwood P. Dowd and his spiritual familiar, Harvey. Mr. Wilson may have discovered even higher agencies by now - by all means, explore…The Robert Anton Wilson homesite
Aleister Crowley, like the Golden Dawn itself, has inspired numerous "official" home pages; it would be presumptuous to presume one to be more "official" than others.
The Aleister Crowley Foundation has moved to a new website and The Aleister Crowley Biography Project has surfaced. There is also Aleister Crowley's Home Page (which may not be operated by the Beast, himself, but does contain Links, quotes and excerpts from Mr. C's writings, including this precognitive tribute to Britney Spears: "Behold her, Madonna-like, throned and crowned, veiled, silent, awaiting the promise of the Future." And the Beast-Bot remains under heavy construction, recently, perhaps it shall have resurfaced here by the time you've accessed these references.
Frater 93's page of hermetical and crowleyistic links and essays includes a
SURVEY ON MODERN MARTINIST ORDERS by Frater Melchior, whose portrait-gallery of Hermetic all-stars has, unfortunately, been removed from the paxprofundis site. Perhaps it will return someday: although the photograph of Crowley is that of a rather elderly British gentleman, the portraits of Papus and "Dirty" Franz Hartman are illustrative - after viewing the latter, only a madman would consent to be a patient in this fellow's sanitorium? This, from Gary Kamiya's review of Jan Bondeson's "Buried Alive". . ."Dr. Franz Hartman is perhaps the most terrifying-looking scientist in the annals of medicine -- a maniacal, staring fellow with cavernous rings under his eyes who looks like he just escaped from an asylum for the criminally insane."
Of the sites devoted to Yeats, the majority are academic, a few treat Irish nationalism; downloads of his works in text and audio can be found at
WB Yeats: Poems . The Official Yeats society sligo website perpetuates the artistic heritage of W. B. and his family, including information on his talented but neglected father.The best Alfred Jarry links are French, the next-to-best are (not all so surprising in light of "Ubu") in Polish. The English language "Pataphysics" website on seems to have merged back with the cosmos. . . the domain is, in fact, for sale. . . but a search will find plenty of specialized sites (fishing, bicycling, and such) and no shortage of greasy academics furthering their careers. Needless to say, the late December, 1899 performance of "Ubu" described in "The Golden Dawn" created such a scandal that no reputable archivist or scholar dares mention its existence! In his article for the "Disinformation" website. . .
alfred jarry: absinthe, bicycles and merdre . . . Daev Walsh credits Jarry for inspiring J. G. Ballard and Mad Magazine.
Manifestoes and other Futurist resources… including plenty of over-the-top Marinetti rants… have been collected in the
Futurist pages maintained by admirers who note, regretfully, ". . . too bad they were all Fascists."
AND NOW
, a few chaotic links, some of which eventually wind their way around to one or more of the themes or personages of The Golden Dawn:BKWYRM links to the currently inoperative Beast-Bot, random search engine for Crowley pontifications. and the homepage of the Thelemic Republicans, among others!
KRISTIN BUXTON PAGE massive gob of weird and Discordian links
PETER at SACREDGUIDANCE provides more of the same
IMPROBABILITY where are found the Annals of Improbable Research and the Japanese Enema Museum
UFOSEEK not just men from space, it's also a source for Loch Ness Monster sites
Two links for practicing Magickians . . .
ZEROTIME: 1,000,000 PARANORMAL LINKS
And, for Magicians (of the Neville Maskelyne sort). . .
Siegfried & Roy - Masters of the Impossible
THESE FINAL NOTES on the IMPERSISTANCE of the NARRATOR'S MEMORY...
A reader with some familiarity with persons and events of these adventures will note several discrepancies which, by and large, tend to deal with time. For example, the premiere of Ubu Roi attended by and remarked upon by Yeats occurred in 1896… there is no surviving record of any restaging (however brief) in 1899, just as there is no record of a Melies filming of same. The scuffle at Isis-Urania and subsequent trial, moreover, is reported to have occurred in the spring of 1900 by most reputable sources.
What could be the reason for such discrepancies? It would not be the first time that a historical source tinkered with reality for innocent or other reasons… but more likely it is the fault of the narrator, Cameron, who would have been nearing seventy at the close of the Second World War. Therefore let the reader (and his or her attorneys, if any) take these pages as the fiction they are purported to be, without undue searching about in the attics and basements of history.
"What do you expect anyone to improvise, alas! Which hasn't already passed through a million mumbling mouths?" charges Thomas Edison as a programmer of robot vocabularies, already removed to the dimension of fiction in Villiers' "L'Eve Futur", that missing link of the fin du siecle between Charles Babbage and ENIAC in that discipline we give, now, the name of Artificial Intelligence. "We mutilate, we adjust, we reduce to commonplaces, we babble, and that's all."
