The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a secret society that was active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was founded in London in 1888 by William Wynn Westcott and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, two members of the Society for Psychical Research. The organization was based on the principles of Hermeticism, an ancient philosophy that combines elements of alchemy, astrology, and the Kabbalah.
The Golden Dawn was an initiatory organization, meaning that members had to go through a series of ceremonial initiations in order to progress through the various degrees of the organization. The curriculum of the Golden Dawn was based on the teachings of the Hermetic Qabalah, which is a system of understanding the nature of God and the universe through the use of the Tree of Life, a diagram of ten spheres that represent different aspects of the divine.
Many of its members were notable figures in the fields of literature, art, and science, including William Butler Yeats, Aleister Crowley, and Dion Fortune. The organization also had a significant impact on the development of Thelema, a religious philosophy that was founded by Crowley in 1904.
The organization in 1903, but many of its teachings and practices were passed on to other organizations. Today, there are several groups that claim to be the legitimate heirs of the Golden Dawn, and its teachings continue to be studied and practiced by people interested in the occult and esotericism.
Contemporary magical practices and Wicca are heavily influenced by the society. Many of its members went on to form their own groups, some of them have been instrumental in the development of the modern form of Wicca.
The Golden Dawn system of magic and the Hermetic Qabalah have been studied and practiced by many contemporary ceremonial magicians, and it has been a major influence on the development of modern ceremonial magic