Israel Regardie - The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic.pdf

THE COMPLETE GOLDEN DAWN SYSTEM OF MAGIC
same fate will not await them as it did all ventures into utopian communities. There
are only a mere handful who can tolerate more than a glancing casual look at other than
the superficial aspects of what life presents to them.
For this handful, the Golden Dawn system presents itself as the answer to their
innumerable questions. The system itself is timeless. It did not owe it origins to the
formation of that particular Order called the Golden Dawn in the latter part of 19th
century. The greater part of it, in one form or another, has existed for centuries -- actually
forever -- not necessarily in the open where it could be attacked by secular and
ecclesiastical authorities, but under cover, secretly and safely. Those who were in need of
its teaching and work would inevitably be attracted to some one or other of its members,
and undergo initiation. This process occurred in the past even as it does today. When the
time comes for the inner awakening, as it may be called, all sorts of synchronicities, as
Jung might call them, occur which lead them inevitably in the right direction, to the
Western Esoteric Tradition.
THE WESTERN ESOTERIC TRADITION
There are a many legends circulating within the occult field that may clarify
what is commonly called the Western esoteric tradition as being opposed to the so-called
Eastern tradition.
It is held that several centuries ago a group of wise men gathered in the Near East
to discuss ways and means of disseminating the ageless wisdom so that no opposition
from vested interests would be encountered, and at the same time evoke recognition from
those who had evolved to a state of psycho-spiritual "readiness". After much discussion,
it was agreed that they should devise a set of pictures that could be circulated as playing
cards. Pictures that would tell a story relative to man, and who he was, as well as where
he came from. Pictures that would relate him as a person to the greater world in which he
found himself. I n a word, the Tarot cards came into being to serve such ends. Originally
employed as playing cards or for fortune telling, they were carried all over the Near East
and Europe by gypsies and other travelling bodies, and eventually permeated all civilized
countries in the Western hemisphere.
The other legend is to be found in a document circulated early in the 17th century,
the Puma Fraternnatitas. It purports to narrate the history of one Christian Rosenkreutz, a
young man who was educated in one of the monasteries in Germany. He wandered to
North Africa and the Near East where he was well received by the wise men resident there.
They taught him Alchemy, Astrology and Qabalah, together with other occult subjects.
When he left he had acquired a liberal education in the occult arts which he took with him
to Germany, to the monastery from which he originally came. Gradually he conveyed his
knowledge to a monk here and there, until there were enough more or less enlightened
monks to comprise an organizational body that came to be known as the Rosicrucians.
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