Goetia - Holy Order of the Golden Dawn Canada

This mostly follows the translation in Griffiths and Thomson. A more modern translation may be
found in Betz (ed.), The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (University of Chicago, 1986, 1992)
as PDM xiv. 675-94. A couple of apparent transcription errors in the text as originally printed in
the Goëtia (ABERAMENQOWN for ABERAMENQOWU and FUONS for TUFONOS) have been corrected.
The student will observe that the opening of the invocation is almost identically worded in the
Greek to a passage in the “Bornless One” ritual (section c in the Goetia version), possibly
suggesting Typhonian influences in the latter.
“KODSELIM” square.
This talisman appears in Chapter X of Book 3 of The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the
Mage (in the Mathers edition the top left and bottom right squares have C rather than K); its
stated purpose is “To undo any Magic soever.”
Prefatory Note
D.D.C.F. (Deo Duce Comite Ferro) was S.L. “MacGregor” Mathers, chief of the Hermetic Order
of the Golden Dawn. His “translator” credit was in this instance bogus: the British Museum
MSS. of the Lemegeton are in English. If the date is to be believed, then Crowley’s final falling
out with Mathers and proclamation of himself as the head of the Rosicrucian Order pre-dated the
1904 reception of The Book of the Law.
“The Four Great Princes (acting notably under Martial influences).” The reference is probably to
the Four Princes of Evil of The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, Lucifer,
Leviathan, Satan and Belial. In Liber LXI Crowley alleged that Mathers had “imprudently
attracted to himself forces of evil too great and terrible for him to withstand” which he notes
elsewhere were “probably Abramelin demons.” Crowley claimed elsewhere that Mathers was
obsessed by Mars and Geburah.
S.V.A. and H. were “Swami Vive Ananda” (a.k.a. Madame Horos, Madame Helena, Edith
Loleta, Dis Debar) and Theo Horos (Frank Jackson), a couple of occult con-artists who pulled a
scam on Mathers (Mrs. Horos convinced him that she was Soror S.D.A., Anna Sprengel, the
supposed German Master who authorised the founding of the Golden Dawn, who had not died as
had been reported) and procured from him the ritual of the G.D. which they then used to extract
money from the credulous. They were imprisoned for rape in December 1901; sensational
newspaper coverage around the trial did much damage to the reputation of the G.D. An account
(by J. F. C. Fuller using information supplied by Crowley) of the “investigation by a competent
Skryer” appears in Equinox I (4) pp. 176-7. The Latin quotation is from vol. I of Kabbalah
Denudata (p. 505) and may comprise a further subtle dig at Mathers.
“Ex Deo Nascimur &c.”: Lat., “From God we are born; in Jesus we die; by the Holy Spirit we
live again.” A Rosicrucian commonplace; vide the Fama Fraternitatis.
“Mountain of A.” Abiegnus. A name in later Rosicrucian literature for the “Mountain of the
Philosphers” depicted in Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, the symbolic burying-place of
Christian Rosencreutz. See for example the Adeptus Minor ritual of the R.R. et A.C. as given in
Regardie (ed.) The Golden Dawn and in an abridged form in Equinonx I (3).
“Day of C.C.” Corpus Christi. This was the G.D. interpretation of the “day C.” when, according
to the Fama, members of the Rosicrucian Order were bound to meet at a certain place or send
cause of their absence.
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