Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers

## MacGregor Mathers

**Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers**, often called as just **MacGregor Mathers**, is a famous magician and one of the founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. He is the single [Bishop] of Sirzechs Lucifer's Peerage.

## Overview

**Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers** (1854 – 1918), born **Samuel Liddell Mathers**, was a British occultist. He is primarily known as one of the founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a ceremonial magic order of which offshoots still exist.

He became so synonymous with the order that, in retrospect, "the Golden Dawn was MacGregor Mathers."

## Appearance

Mathers is a rather tall and lanky man, with ghastly-pale skin and surprisingly slender yet muscular frame. He has long indigo-blue hair that flows freely down to his back, and his eyes are sharp, long-slitted, and are a striking blue color. He speaks with an aloof tone, with hints of a Scottish accent.

## Personality

Mathers is a charismatic and eccentric man whose greatest devotion is to magical research and the pursuit of his goals, and thus, never holding down a worldly job.

While other magicians of his era advocated traditions and the need to compromise with pre-existed laws of physics and nature, he expressed a desire to progress even if it meant entering areas considered heretical and taboo at the time.

More often than not, he comes across as an eccentric due to his flamboyant behavior and his odd speaking style. However, as a member of one of the Four Great Satans' peerage, as well as one of the most well-known [Bishops] in the Netherworld, he harbors a more calculating and reserved side with a sharp political mind and gaze that reads others quite well.

He is a prideful man who wants to have his name be remembered and leaves his mark in history, especially when in association with the Golden Dawn. In order to achieve his desire, he made efforts to overwrite the pieces created by the other members with his own and engraved his name on the *work kit* that the Golden Dawn produces as if to imply that this kit was *his* creation and not a collective effort.

Despite speaking of the work kit that he helped create as one which master and apprentice can use equally and aiming to break the master-apprentice learning system, he is an authoritarian who looked down on others from a special position reserved only for himself and made use of his apprentices in order to further his own success.

## History

### Early Years

Samuel Mathers was born in January 1854 in Hackney, London. Even at a young age, he was known around the neighborhood for his eccentricity and his interest in magic and the occult, which led many to believe him to be a "witch" and subsequently isolated him and his family.

In his early 20s, he was introduced to and later initiated into Freemasonry by a colleague and quickly rose through the ranks due to his own charismatic nature, though many believed it was through magic, and eventually left the group later in his life.

In 1887, he met and fell in love with Mina Bergson during a trip to the British Museum where she was studying. Later on, he would initiate her as the first member of the Golden Dawn in March 1888. In 1890, the two would get married and Mina Bergson changed her name into **Moina Mathers.**

### Golden Dawn

In the latter half of the 19th-century, Mathers founded the **Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn** together with William Wynn Westcott (who invited him to help with the founding) and William Robert Woodman. According to Woodman, the order was originally mundane, though only after Mathers introduced the rest of them to the supernatural world did it become a magician association.

#### Control of the Order

With Woodman retiring due to old age, control of the growing cabal was left between Mathers and Westcott. Due to their conflicting views on how the cabal and magic should proceed, as the Golden Dawn worked towards the ultimate goal of discovering an unified theory to explain the truths of the world and constructing a magical *work kit* that would bring endless possibilities for magicians.

Being an older age, Westcott advocated traditions and saw a need to compromise, while Mathers wished to see progress, even if it meant going into areas considered taboo and heretical at the time. He, in particular, wanted his name to be the one associated with the products of the Golden Dawn's research and sought to overwrite the individual pieces that other members had constructed with ones of his own.

Eventually, the Golden Dawn came to be divided between two factions, each supporting the ideology of either of them, though neither faction had complete control over the organization as a whole.

#### Aleister Crowley

Eventually, in his quest to gain more political influence than Westcott, Mathers scouted Aleister Crowley and brought him into the cabal, intending to use the young man's talents for his own purposes. Westcott was reluctant to have Crowley enter the cabal and others held similar sentiments. Shortly after Crowley entered the order, he performed a summoning ceremony in the presence of the two founders, the results of which reinforced their own sentiments.

### MacGregor's Downfall

Mathers' downfall began when Crowley learned about the future death of his daughter from Charles Bennett, which would be the result of the various rituals and magical experiments resulted from the Golden Dawn's careless activities, as well as how the founders were aware of this possible future but continued regardless, believing that their skills in Ceremonial Magic would protect them from the negative effects.

Crowley subsequently decided to leave the Golden Dawn for good, horrified by what the future laid down for him and his daughter, though not before he had decided to destroy the cabal in an attempt to change his daughter's fate. With witchcraft, he cast a curse upon the cabal that would doom its victims to either die or live a life devoid of success.

#### First Conflict

The conflict between Mathers and Crowley began when Crowley launched an attack on the former and a magical battle ensued, with both sides being evenly matched. Mathers called him a fool for not sticking with him to receive scraps of his success, which Crowley responded with by questioning Mathers' own marriage with Moina, thus enraging Mathers further and leading to him displaying his authoritarian traits. The battle ended as Mathers' reinforcements arrived. Crowley retreated, but he was able to obtain a sample of Mathers' blood.

#### Battle of Blythe Road

After the first battle, Mathers learned that Aleister had occupied "36 Blythe Road", the Golden Dawn's most important ceremonial ground and armory, supposedly on his orders. Upon questioning, he was informed that Crowley had used his blood to produce a forged document in order to make Westcott's Faction believe that Mathers ordered Crowley to occupy Blythe Road.

Not long afterward, a furious Westcott confronted Mathers at his headquarters, together with magicians from his faction. He claimed that the document was forged and it was solely Crowley's doing, but couldn't say that the document was forged with the same method which Westcott used to forge a letter from Anna Sprengel, as Westcott was in front of his subordinates and wasn't in a position to openly accept it as doing so would compromise his own position.

A war subsequently broke out between the Mathers' Faction and the Westcott's Faction of the Golden Dawn. While battles raged in London's magician community, Crowley took advantage to attack members of both sides and plant evidence pointing to the other side. As the war escalated, further opportunities arose and eventually an opening emerged for Crowley to take out the founders.

Mathers was present when Westcott was attacked and struck down by Crowley using a cursed arrow. Mathers was able to repel Crowley's witchcraft, at the cost of becoming fatally injured and the destruction of many of his symbolic weapons.

However, in focusing on protecting himself from Crowley's cursed summons, he made the fatal mistake of not paying attention to his true enemy, Crowley, who struck him down with an enchanted sword, and with it, brought his curse upon him. Mathers managed to set off a few more explosions, but ultimately Crowley was the one left standing while Mathers escaped in the chaos.

### Later Years

After escaping Blythe Road, Mathers was assisted by Moina to escape to Paris where he then lived an anonymous life. At some point, he was sought by Sirzechs Lucifer, one of the Four Great Satans who rule over the devils the Netherworld, and was offered to be reincarnated as a member of his peerage, which Mathers accepted.

After finishing his will and inheritance, he faked his death as the result of the Spanish influenza on November 5th 1918 and relocated to the Netherworld to live in the Gremory Clan's territory. Originally, his wife Moina was supposed to be reincarnated after him, though not before she had settled down their death plans, but due to her newly-discovered pregnancy, the ritual was put to a halse. In 1927, due to birth complications, she died delivering their stillborn daughter and was buried on Earth by her family.

## Equipment

**Bishop Pieces**: Mathers was reincarnated using two Bishop Pieces, which grant him an immense increase in his magical energy as all of his pre-existed magical powers and skills were greatly enhanced. In addition, they also act as a pseudo-magical foci that allow him to wield the Gremory Clan's magic circle to cast his infernal magic.

## Trivia

* Soon after his reincarnation, Mathers used Sirzechs' influence to actively change the narrative surrounding many events of his life, such as his position within the Golden Dawn, the rivalry between him and Westcott, the Battle of Blythe Road...
* While it's publicly believed that he founded Alpha et Omega, Mathers denies all claims of his associations with the occult order and states it was the works of his wife Moina Mathers.
* Mathers added the "MacGregor" to his surname as a claim to his supposed Highland Scottish heritage from the House of Stuart.
* Mathers was known to be a practising vegetarian, an outspoken anti-vivisectionist, and a non-smoker, while his other interest from magic was theory of war.