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Posted at the Vernal Equinox, 20 March, 2001 CE.

The Magicians of the Golden Dawn
A Documentary History of a Magical Order 1887-1923

Ellic Howe

Thumbnail Review

In spite of Howe’s self-impressed tone of rationalistic superiority and his obvious bias on subjective matters, he is a superb researcher of historical fact, and three decades after its first publication, this remains the most thorough history of the dates and records of the early days of the Golden Dawn. However, be warned that even the choice and reportage of the facts is coloured by Howe’s need to depict the Magicians as delusional eccentrics and his nearly total inability to appreciate the legitimate achievements of the Order and its members.

—APF

Table of Contents

	Foreword by Gerald Yorke	ix
	Preface	xxi
	Acknowledgments	xxvii
1	Suspect Documents	1
2	The Rosicrucian Society of England	26
3	The Three Chiefs	34
4	The Golden Dawn in the Outer 1888-96	45
5	Some Initiates	61
6	The Second Order	75
7	The Second Order Diaries 1892-3	91
8	Magical Operations	104
9	Uneasy Relationships 1893-6	110
10	The Petition	139
11	The Magical Progress of Frederick Leigh Gardner	145
12	Complications Galore	159
13	Before the Crisis 1897-9	187
14	Rebellion in London	203
15	The Battle of Blythe Road	219
16	The Interregnum	233
17	The Stella Matutina	252
18	All Ends in Confusion	273
	Postscript	284
Appendix I	Cypher MS.—First leaf of Neophyte Ritual	286
II	The Practicus Adeptus Minor Curriculum	288
III	W. B. Yeats (Demon Est Deus Inversus)	290
IV	The Second Order’s Membership Roll	292
V	Mathers’s Ahathoor Temple at Paris	295
VI	Short List of Mottoes	296
	Index	299

Publication Information

Howe, Ellic, The Magicians of the Golden Dawn.

First edition:

London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972.
306+xxviii pp, illus.
ISBN 0-71007-339-9

Second ed.:

New York: Samuel Weiser, Inc. 1978.
306+xxviii pp, illus.
ISBN 0-87728-369-9

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Currently (03/2001) out of print. Search:

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