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
Pendel, George – Strange
Angel (biography of John Parsons, rocket scientist and missing link between
Crowley and L. Ron Hubbard)
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 was an Australian site – extinct now, maybe cached? - 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. 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 Melchior’s invaluable SURVEY ON MODERN MARTINIST
ORDERS, was a casualty of Yahoo’s dumping its Geocities site. Its portrait-gallery of Hermetic all-stars
will, perhaps 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 ol’ Al’s
made it to Wikipedia , and a namesearch 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.
He has 109 Tweets and 118
friends on My Space (as of 1/1/10), but only 8 on Facebook. And here’s Jarry himself, riding his
bicycle on You
Tube.
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:
KRISTIN BUXTON PAGE massive gob of weird and
Discordian links
IMPROBABILITY where are found the Annals of
Improbable Research and the Japanese Enema Museum. The 1/1/10 issue highlights “the Bank Robbing Teachers’ Club”
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."