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Die Goldene Dammerung

15:54 / 26.11.02

I'm reading Do What Thou Wilt, A Life of Aleister Crowley, by Lawrence Sutin, and have come across something that bothers me, though I'm not sure why, on the origins of the rituals of the Golden Dawn:

Enclosed with [the rituals] was a cover letter of sorts ... which gave the name and forwarding address of one Fraulein Anna Sprengel, an exalted Chief Adept in a secret society called "die Goldene Dammerung." In [William Wynn Westcott, the founder of the English Golden Dawn chapter]'s translation, this became "the Golden Dawn."

"Dammerung" is an ambiguous word, more like "twilight" than "dawn," especially in connection with Germanic mythology. Sprengel later disappears and there is, apparently, some doubt as to whether she existed at all. What say you, Barbeloid?

Does this belong in Books? Where do we discuss occult history?

17:17 / 26.11.02

At the time, nobody attributed their original works to themselves. It was always a secret passed to them when they were initiated into an ancient and secret order, such as after they decoded the secret code of the Rosecrutians and were found and initiated by the last remaining master of the temple. Everybody did it, and they all lied about it. Thus was the fashon of the time, as it lent credibility to your work. Chances are, the publisher of any ritual is also at least in part the author as well.

There were some occultists and conspirators, see, and they met in secret for fear of persecution. Thus formed the Masons. Some of those guys more interested in the occult than government infiltration split off and formed the Golden Dawn. Others formed the Theosophical Society. Crowley and Regardie split again with the Thelemic Golden Dawn and sucked up a bunch of folks in the other groups above. More of that sillyness continued, and then Regardie published the lot and it all became moot. Now, noone cares, and we have Barbelith. Thus endeth the short history of the Illumanitis.

17:24 / 26.11.02

By the way, Dammerung refers to both twilight and dawn. German likes to reuse words alot like that.

18:55 / 26.11.02

... but the elf Delling guards the sunrise, Billing the sunset...

19:15 / 26.11.02

cusm, I get that part. I'm troubled by the image (I didn't know that about German) being used, not so much where it comes from. If they thought they were ushering in a "Golden Dawn" but were actually involved with a "Twilight"... I dunno, I'm still thinking about it. Thanks, tho.

19:35 / 26.11.02

I checked my dictionary again. The root Da:mmer means "dusky", more in the half light/half dark sense than the time of day. Da:mmerung is twilight primarily, but situationally in the morning means dawn as well. So, if its morning and you refer to Damm:erung, its the dawn. Later in the day, its the dusk. But yea, it could mean either without the reference.

Makes me think immediately of a reference to the Equinox. The word seems to mean more the change of light and dark than which way its changing to, which is awfully signifigant, more so than dawn or dusk alone.

19:44 / 26.11.02

Wow. Okay. In that case, a "golden" twilight has got to be morning, right? Because an evening twilight would be some kind of dark.

the Equinox ... which is awfully signifigant, more so than dawn or dusk alone

I got the sense, from the text of the initiations &c., that they were referring to a cultural or aeonic "dammerung" -- not an equinox but a dawn. That's the ambiguity that troubled me. I see your point, though, and maybe when you take the long view it's prescient, whether they knew it or not.

So, anyway, d'you know about these goings-on around 1899-1900? They're hilarious.

20:07 / 26.11.02

Crosspollinating from Perfect Tommy's thread in Books - in the fin de siecle period, did they refer to the 1700s as the Enlightenment?
Cuz if they did, then duh... a new era *would* be a kind of twilight, wouldn't it, with science setting and magic rising.

07:39 / 27.11.02

Well, I was reading about the history of the Golden Dawn this very morning on the way to work, in Ithell Colqhons's "Sword of Wisdom" - bio of Macgregor Mathers and the Golden Dawn.

I've gone from finding all that stuff really boring, to finding it fascinating, and kind of romantic.

07:41 / 27.11.02

BTW, what's Sutin's opinion on the genuineness or otherwise or the Cipher Manuscripts?

(Told you I was finding this stuff romantic)

12:53 / 27.11.02

He's professionally neutral about the whole thing, but it's clear that he believes them to be a pack of neurotics. He's more sympathetic with Wescott and WB Yeats than Mathers or Crowley, but still seems to believe the whole thing a castle in the air. It may be the account I'm reading, but I find the whole thing funnier/sillier than romantic.

grant:
Cuz if they did, then duh... a new era *would* be a kind of twilight, wouldn't it, with science setting and magic rising.

But if they genuinely believed their traditions, the day of magic hadn't ended during the enlightenment -- it was now dusk for all that.

13:02 / 27.11.02

Judging by the way magick has come out of the closet since then, is no longer persecuted as criminal, and has infiltrated and proliferated into pop religions like Wicca and various New-agy movements, Dawn was pretty accurate. I'd say we've moved forward into a Golden Breakfast And Tea as far as magick is concerned.

07:39 / 12.12.02

Actually if my memory serves me correct, the Twilight represents magick, the occult, the paranormal. And I'm not just talking bout the Twilight Zone. I'm talking bout Scandinavian (or is it Norwegian?) folk/fairy tales and stuff.

08:28 / 12.12.02

And a lot of Indian stuff as well - twilight is sacred to Shiva, as the transition point between sun and moon.

14:02 / 12.12.02

Thought I'd also add that this point can be seen as the changing lines in the I Ching - transition point between dark and light. That's why it's seen as such a potent time magickally, because this point of change in necessary for these systems to function. Obviously this isn't just the "golden dawn" but evening twilight as well. Some of these traditions also mapped this onto the breath as a way of talking about macrocosm and microcosm.

Re: My points earlier about finding the GD romatic, its kinda romantic in the same way a dusty attic can be romantic. Either dead and moribund or full of potential mystery. Also (now I've finished that book) the GD influence impresses me more and more - Crowley, Mathers, Regardie, Yeats, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Dion Fortune and many others beside. 20th Century occultism wouldn't have been the same without 'em. No reason why we should repeat their proscriptions like they're cast in aspic, but it's good practice to acknowledge your ancestors!

20:20 / 17.12.02

Are they still around, by the way?

I mean, under the same name....

07:33 / 18.12.02

Well, there's various recensions who claim a variety of different lineages. A lot of magickal groups make a lot of masonic-style "charters", pseudo-legal documents that give them the right to start a new group or a lodge, with the ultimate authority for this resting on the discarnate "secret chiefs"/inner plane adepts/smurfs.

A good/bad example of this is the shitfight around who is the legitimate OTO (ie who had the charter direct from Crowley)- with the Calpihate OTO so far having the best lawyers. Find this stuff completely boring myself and about as relevant to spirituality as George Bush is to democracy.

The point being I wouldn't be suprised to find a few groups around fighting over who is the "real" GD - but i don't know the various different lineage histories. Paul Foster Case's group springs to mind as an American lineage, can't recall name. In the UK the qabalistic order Servants of the Light may/may not have GD links - can't recall. There's also the Oxford Golden Dawn Society who have no direct links to GD far as I know but draw inspiration from them. The Ithell Colqhon book traces lots of different lineage family trees but is only current up to 1975.

16:34 / 05.11.03

I checked an English dictionary and "twilight" means both dusk and dawn. Also both dusk and dawn are "golden". At dusk and dawn the sky turns yellow and, if you're in more poluted areas, a lot of other colours as well.

17:35 / 05.11.03

Paul Foster Case's group springs to mind as an American lineage, can't recall name
you are thinking of BOTA ( Builders Of The Adytum)

but I do not think that BOTA claims to be the direct continuation of the Golden Dawn. Neither does the OTO. I thought both Case and Crowley did leave the GD due to differences in opinion, so they started their own "new and improved" orders....

I was under the impression the tha Golden Dawn does still exist as the "Golden Dawn". At least I met somone who claimed to have been trained and initiated in the GD. I cannot confirm of proof this though.

also, congrats to cusms accurate translation of "da:mmerung" , my native language is german....

00:06 / 06.11.03

Regardie's history of the GD states: "the first chief of this society... was was one Robert Wentworth Little, who is said to have rescued some old rituals from a certain Masonic storeroom, and it was from certain of those papers that the Society's rituals were elaborated...
...One day Westcott discovered in his library a series of cipher manuscripts...It is said that this library was that of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia." Then he says that another source has it that he found them on a stall. Either way, Frauline Sprengell's address was in them - she did not originally supply them.