Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

**The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn**, more commonly known as the **Golden Dawn**, was a secret society devoted to the study and practice of the occult, metaphysics, and paranormal activities during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Known as a magical order, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was active in Great Britain and focused its practices on theurgy and spiritual development. Crowley was originally a member of the golden dawn, but broke off in order to found his own secret society. Information about thelema, the group formed by crowley shows up on the satanism page.

The golden dawn has a decent amount of presence in the games. Summoning rituals are often shown using explicit golden dawn symbolism, specifically in SMTII and in nocturne. In addition to this, the law side explicitly is shown to draw on them, using its initiation rank naming schema for many of its in-game units in the early games, and seen using their symbolism. Crowley himself also shows up on the chaos side in II.

In addition to the kabbalah, the golden dawn is also associated with tarot, astrology, and alchemy. But these aspects will be listed on their own pages.

## Symbols

**The rose cross** is one of the primary symbols of the golden dawn. It has different versions, either the full multicolored version, or the simplified version. The full version is full of kabbalic imagery, and symbolism of the four elements. But the simplified version is associated with being a union of opposites, with the rose and cross being seen as feminine and masculine polarity.

   **Banners of east and west**. The order of the golden dawn uses the banners of the east and west to represent the duality of light and dark, being associated with dawn and dusk. The east is the aspect of a temple in which the spiritual forces are seen as entering, and the west is where they are existing.

   The symbolism of the banner of the east shows the fire of creation descending on the primordial waters. The cross represents the self, and the tau represents the individual it resides inside. And the self is seen as being reflected in the macrocosm. While the banner of the east uses a six pointed star, versions of it also show up in the game using a five opinted star, such as in nocturne. Though the six pointed version does show up in SMTII, both being used in the summoning doll room, and being used by the adept and neophyte units.

The banner of the west contains a logo associated with the golden dawn itself. This logo reflects the divine light which emanades down to bring stability to reality. The triangle also represents the top three sephirot, seen as the primordial ones giving rise to the others.

**The tree of life**. The golden dawn draws heavily on the tree of life, due to being based on hermetic qabalah. More information about kabbalah in general on the kabbalah page.

## Hermetic Qabalah

The group drew on a variety of sources, such as christian, hermetic, kabbalic, egyptian, greek, and even buddhist and hindu sources. Although the exact beliefs the order had on divinity are not perfectly attested, certain aspects are known. They drew heavily on the kabbalic ideas of the tree of life, and the incomprehensible godhead of the ein sof, but with christian aspects and the personage of jesus mixed in. This christian symbolism was often used in a more abstract manner however, seeing jesus as more of one instance of a perennial symbol, rather than a unique individual. Hermetic qabalah was not strictly abrahamic, but openly embraced syncretism, and introduced many pagan gods to the kabbalah, and viewed these as different limited perspectives on the incomprehensible absolute.

A major deviation from jewish or christian kabbalic aspects is a larger emphasis on panentheism. While kabbalic aspects practiced by strict monotheistic religions tended to still have a stark division between god and creation, hermetic qabalah leans more into the emphasis on creation as manifestation of divinity. By extension they focused more on the magical aspect of these traditions, and the idea of manifesting your own inner divinity - something that was often forbidden by the jewish counterparts. Hence, jesus as a symbol also becomes the symbol of one's own inner divine spark, and ability to function as a son of god. One reason that the degrees of this were somewhat ambiguous is because the society didn't necessarily have totally concrete beliefs, and allowed a degree of disagreement among members.

This qabalic depiction forms a major basis of the games, which use heavy kabbalic imagery to structure the worlds, but show it not in merely an abrahamic light, but also made use of by pagan and eastern deities in the structure of the expanse. This depiction of yahweh as not the sole focus of the absolute, but merely one of many also draws on this tradition. As does the depiction of the summoning circles that were heavily used by these traditions and those like them. Many of the angels on the law side, especially in SMTII also are the ones from the kabbalic angelic hierarchy of angels corresponding to sephirot. Namely, haniel, tzaphkiel, camael, and of course metatron and sandalphon.

A more indirect aspect of the qabalah that likely influences the games is the fact that the disagreement between members is seen not merely as a disagreement on stances, but due to the nature of perception being limited due to the all being beyond comprehension. Hence, the different religious images were seen as tied to human development through time, and different images of god seen as valid alternate perceptions. Some members see this as something that may continue into the future, and the names for god that exist in the far future would be different than those we have now. Hence it ties to this idea that a lot of our religious experience reflects something not as it is in an absolute state, but moreso a phenomenological fact about humanity itself. One that is in constant flux and evolution. And so human thoughts affecting the existence of the gods, and what forms they take in-game is related to this idea.

## Structure

Much of the hierarchical structure for the Golden Dawn came from the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, which was itself derived from the Order of the Golden and Rosy Cross.

First order

* Introduction—Neophyte 0=0
* Zelator 1=10
* Theoricus 2=9
* Practicus 3=8
* Philosophus 4=7
* Intermediate—Portal Grade

Second Order

* Adeptus Minor 5=6
* Adeptus Major 6=5
* Adeptus Exemptus 7=4

Third Order

* Magister Templi 8=3
* Magus 9=2
* Ipsissimus 10=1

The paired numbers attached to the Grades relate to positions on the Tree of Life. The Neophyte Grade of "0=0" indicates no position on the Tree. In the other pairs, the first numeral is the number of steps up from the bottom (Malkuth), and the second numeral is the number of steps down from the top (Kether). The First Order Grades were related to the four elements of Earth, Air, Water, and Fire, respectively. The Aspirant to a Grade received instruction on the metaphysical meaning of each of these Elements and had to pass a written examination and demonstrate certain skills to receive admission to that Grade. The Portal Grade was an "Invisible" or in-between grade separating the First Order from the Second Order.

The obvious thing worth noting about this is that the messians have several units whose names come from the initiation levels of the golden dawn. From lowest to highest these being neophyte, zealot, adept, and magus. In SMTII two of these units explicitly use the banner of the east, a golden dawn symbol.