The Magicians of the Golden Dawn
At the greatest of their seasonal festivals, the Spring Equinox, this is a fit time to consider the most celebrated order of ceremonial magicians in the history of the world, which established the template for most modern ritual magic. The group also contained some of the most vivid characters in the story of that magic, including Samuel Mathers, William Butler Yeats, Arthur Waite and Aleister Crowley. The talk will take a fresh look at how the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was founded, who inspired and led it, and how its rituals were developed. It will examine the complex and controversial place of religion in the order, and the relationship between paganism and Christianity in it. Finally, it will deal with the dramatic and traumatic end of the order and consider its legacy.
Speaker: Professor Ronald Hutton is a Professor of History at the University of Bristol. He is a leading authority on history of the British Isles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, on ancient and medieval paganism and magic, and on the global context of witchcraft beliefs.
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