When I first joined the Order, I assumed it was of a solar nature. “Golden Dawn” seemed a reference to the rising Sun, and Tiphareth was so prominent and central in the Tree of Life. Famously, the Sun is shown rising above the water in the Cross and Triangle in the Inner O. manuscript “Book T” – which Regardie popularised on the cover of his “The Golden Dawn” publication.
But I came to realise that this was only one interpretation, and an exoteric one at that, and that Golden Dawn was equally an allusion to Venus, the Morning Star. She heralds the Sun’s rising as the dawn starts to glow, and her importance as a representative of the feminine in the O. is increasingly revealed as one’s progress through the grades are made.
On the surface, the O. appears quite masculine, sufficiently so that some react adversely. It is hierarchical, and tests must be passed and grades and titles are conferred. In old school fashion the language used often defaults to the masculine, and its ceremonial structure has roots in freemasonry, an all male domain.
But the O. also, of necessity according to the laws of nature, has a feminine side that is receptive and responds to this masculine action. Without this response the O. is, in fact, quite dead – a historical reenactment bereft of its soul – if you like, a right handed strand of DNA without the accompanying left handed strand of protein.
This equally applies to the student, and is why our minds must be active in our meditations and study, so as to attract the feminine intuition of the Soul to guide one’s attention and enquiry.
Other than in the name of the O. itself, hints of the importance of the role of the feminine are shown by the Pillars and given in the Altar Diagrams of the 2=9, 3=8 and 4=7, as well as the three Angels of the Tarot cards on the Middle Pillar, and in the Offices of Hegemon and Demonstrator.
Mathers’ introduction to his Kabbalah Unveiled reveals an awful lot, as does his romance with the worship of Isis while he was in Paris. Likewise, Felkin’s higher grades of the O., which expound greatly on the notion of the feminine in the mysteries, and Daath particularly.
Intuition, Love and Unity.
With these attributes, signs of a balanced feminine response, an Adept of the O. can begin performing the Great Work. Until then, “magical’ ritual involves just going through the actions, in true masculine form – all head, and no heart.
Kasmillos
