Magic School: Mystery Traditions Past & Present II

Starting in this month, esoteric lecturer Ken Rees is running his second series of evening classes in London on The Mystery Traditions: Past and Present. Although this follows on from his earlier course on the classical mystery traditions, you don't need to have studied that to get a lot out of this series of evening classes.

The course description says:

The Mystery Traditions of Europe did not die out consequent on the rise of Christianity from the 4th – 5th CE. centuries onwards. The need of many people to find solace in esoteric rather than exoteric institutions continued, often discretely and covertly. While we only have a broken chain of links from the classical Mediterranean schools to the present day, various orders and societies have carried secret knowledges forward including the Knights Templars, the medieval witch cult and the revived gnosis of the Albigensians.

The 17th and 18th centuries saw a re-invention of tradition. This creative activity expressed itself in a myriad ways, key representatives including Druidism (under the inspiration of a Celtic revival), the Rosicrucians and Freemasonry, while the Christian mystery tradition included that of the mystic Emanuel Swedenborg. Similarly, the 19th century saw a revival of Renaissance magic best exemplified by the original Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

The 20th/21st centuries have seen the rise of eclectic New Age philosophies including the Arcane School of Alice Bailey, Neo-Platonic groups such as the Universal Order and, within the Christian tradition, the Anna Kingsford influenced Order of the Cross. A number of hermetic societies on both sides of the Atlantic now exist, often incorporating the phrase `golden dawn’. While contemporary nature religion such as the Wicca version of witchcraft also embodies elements of mystery tradition as does neo-shamanism.

This course will explore some of the examples given above.

You can learn about the Mystery Traditions at the six-week course on Tuesdays evenings from 8pm to 10pm, starting on 19 February and running until 26 March. Fees are £47, or £16 for concessions.

The venue is The Mary Ward Centre, Queen Square, London WC1N 3AQ. To enrol, call 020 7269 6000. For more details, e-mail: kenrees@talktalk.net or visit www.marywardcentre.ac.uk

The photo shows the entrance to Temple Church, in London, once owned by the Knights Templars.

Previous related posts:
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2012/11/magic-school-mystery-traditions-past.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/08/history-of-magic-in-modern-age.html

This Week's Pagan Events In London and Elsewhere

Now to Sunday 9 September; Mummers, Maypoles and Milkmaids. Free exhibition, coinciding with the publication of the book of the same name, bringing together 50 photographs of regional rituals performed throughout the year from Cornwall to Northumberland to mark the changing seasons and celebrate nature's bounty. Location: Horniman Museum, 100 London Road, Forest Hill, London SE23 3PQ.For more details, visit http://www.horniman.ac.uk/

Now to Sat 27 Apr 2013; Signs, Symbols, Secrets: An Illustrated Guide to Alchemy. Free exhibition of images and writings about the quest for the philosophers’ stone. Venue: Science Museum, Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London SW7 2DD. For more details visit: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/galleries/signs_symbols_secrets_alchemy.aspx

Monday 6 August; Animal Guides and Spirit Animals. Talk by Mike Stygal at Romford Sacred Hart Moot. This pagan moot meets on the 1st Monday of every month, from 7pm to 10.30pm at Edge Nightclub, by Romford Market, Romford. Entry £3 or £2 for PF members. More details on www.sacredhart.350.com

Monday 6 August; Charles Fort's Birthday - a Gathering of the Damned. Charles Fort was the reluctant inspiration for fortean thought. The London Fortean Society and friends will be marking it with a visit to Fort's London residence. Meet outside 39A Marchmont Street at 8pm for a short reading and toast followed by a swift drink in his honour at the nearby Marquis Cornwallis pub. All forteans and friends welcome.

August 10-12; Artemis Gathering. Three-day festival of witchcraft in the Oxfordshire countryside with talks, workshops, a bar and catering facilities, organised by The Children of Artemis. Tickets are £36/£42. For more details or to by tickets visit http://www.witchfest.net/artemis_gathering.htm

Saturday 11 August; Chalice Well Children's Day 2012: Celebrating the Future. A free event for children and families at Chalice Well World Peace Garden, in Glastonbury (pictured). Time: 10am - 5.30pm. Free entry to the gardens for families but do book an advance ticket here: http://www.chalicewell.org.uk/index.cfm/glastonbury/Events.Details/event_id/299. For more details about Chalice Well, visit the website http://www.chalicewell.org.uk/

Sunday 12 August; Treadwells Social Sunday: Kalevala, The Land of the Heroes.Readings from the classic Norse tales, with Kate McKnight. Venue: Treadwells, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 7BS. Readings 2pm and 4pm, shop open from noon to 7pm. Free social event, but please book your place in advance. info@treadwells-london.com http://www.treadwells-london.com/

Sunday 12 August; The Order of the Golden Dawn Maat Temple Presents a Day of Talks. A full day of talks on some of the spiritual systems integral to the Golden Dawn and its rituals. The day offers chance to meet members of the lodge and to find out more about this group in London today. Venue: Treadwells, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 7BS. Start time: 10.30am Price: £10. Advance booking: email keithmagnay@btinternet.com

Occult London: A Walk for Occultists

View Larger Map

This summer, folklorist and writer Paula Dempsey will be conducting walking tours of Central London to explore the capital's magical history.

Occult London: A Walk for Occultists is aimed at those who already know a thing or two about the main characters of British magic, such as Aleister Crowley, John Dee, Harry Price, the Golden Dawn and the Freemasons, but want to find out more tales and intriguing anecdotes about their London adventures.

Paula knows the locations of their incense-fogged sitting rooms and secret temple chambers as well as their favourite pubs and even what they liked to drink! On this guided tour she shares her knowledge and offers a fascinating glimpse into London's rich and varied occult heritage.

I went on Occult London: A Walk for Occultists last summer, and can thoroughly recommend the tour. You can read my review here: http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2011/06/occult-london-walk-for-occultists.html

Paula Dempsey is also the author of the Investigator's Guide to Occult London - written as a sourcebook for players of Lovecraftian roleplaying games, but full of well-researched information about the city's mysterious past.

The walks are being run through Treadwells, 33 Store Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 7BS. The cost of tickets is £8, advance booking is essential. Tel: 020 7240 8906 or email: info@treadwells-london.com.

Dates for Occult London: A Walk for Occultists in 2012 are: Wednesday 18 July (7.15pm), Saturday 28 July (2pm) and Thursday 2 August (7pm).

The map at the top shows the location of Treadwells, the picture top right shows Freemasons Hall, in London.

Links and previous related posts
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2011/06/occult-london-walk-for-occultists.html
http://www.treadwells-london.com/
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2012/05/london-walks-curiocity-and.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2011/07/on-this-day-john-dees-birthday.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/11/melissa-harrington-on-aleister-crowley.html

Review: Words Alone - Yeats

On this day, 10 December, in 1923, W B Yeatswas awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was the first Irishman to be honoured with the prize, for what the Nobel Committee said was "inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation".

As much as I like Yeats' poems, the reason I'm writing about him on A Bad Witch's Blog is that Yeats, as well as having a life-long interested in mythology and folklore, was also an influential occultist and a member of societies including The Ghost Club and The Golden Dawn. He was influenced by the writings of theological philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg and studied Theosophy. Yeats said: "The mystical life is the centre of all that I do and all that I think and all that I write."

I've just finished reading a book about Yeats by historian R F Foster called Words Alone: Yeats and his Inheritances.

The book is primarily about Yeats' literature rather than his occult or magical activities, but I found it interesting because it describes the background to Yeats' work, interests and beliefs - literary and political, but also his fascination with spirituality, folklore and the supernatural.

Publisher Oxford University Press says on its website: "W B Yeats is usually seen as a great innovator who put his stamp so decisively on modern Irish literature that most of his successors worked in his shadow. R F Foster's eloquent and authoritative book weaves together literature and history to present an alternative perspective. By returning to the rich seed-bed of 19th-century Irish writing, Words Alone charts some of the influences, including romantic 'national tales' in post-Union Ireland, the poetry and polemic of the Young Ireland movement, the occult and supernatural novels of Sheridan LeFanu, William Carleton's 'peasant fictions', and fairy-lore and folktale collectors that created the unique and powerful Yeatsian voice of the decade from 1885 to 1895."

One of the things I found most fascinating about the book was its discussion of Irish fairy lore and beliefs. Yeats - and others of his contemporaries - were avid collectors of fairy stories and folk tales that otherwise only existed in oral traditions. Apparently Yeats' favourite stories were Irish occult tales, including one in which a country boy with an eye for the girls is punished one evening by a fairy band. They tie a corpse to his back and rule that he must bury it by sunrise, but make the task more difficult as other corpses rise from the ground throughout the night to terrorise him.

Yeats was apparently also intrigued by a piece of folk magic he was told: "If you love in vain, all you have to do is go to a graveyard at midnight, dig up a corpse, and take a strip of skin off it from head to heel, watch until you catch your mistress sleeping and tie it round her waist, and thereafter she will love you forever."

R F Foster was unable to discover if Yeats ever tried out this ghoulish spell. Perhaps that is a question best left unanswered.

Links and previous related posts:
Words Alone: Yeats and his Inheritances
www.oup.com

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1923/yeats-docu.html?print=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._B._Yeats

http://www.theosophical-society.org.uk/
W B Yeats Major Works

On This Day 8 April

On this day, 8 April 1896, occult society The Golden Dawn initiated a Church of England clergyman called William Alexander Ayton into its ranks, according to Llewellyn's" 2010 Witches' Calendar.

Actually, the calender has his name as Aynton, but I think this might be a misprint because, never having heard of him, I did a bit of web searching to find out more. I couldn't find very much about this mysterious man, but his surname does seem most likely to have been Ayton.

According to Wikipedia (not necessarily a more reliable source than Llewellyn's calendar):

"William Alexander Ayton (1816–1909) was a British Anglican clergyman, with an interest in alchemy. He translated from Latin the life of John Dee written by Thomas Smith. He is generally thought to have been a member of the shadowy Society of Eight founded in 1883. He became a member of the successor Order of the Golden Dawn. He was a supporter of the reforms of Arthur Edward Waite, which split the Order as the Holy Order of the Golden Dawn and the Stella Matutina."

Another website, Sue Young Homeopathy, states that Ayton was interested in homeopathy as well as alchemy, but was best known as the Golden Dawn's alchemist.

I also found details of a book called The Alchemist of the Golden Dawn: The Letters of the Reverend W.A.Ayton to F.L.Gardener, 1886-1905. Sadly it is out of print. Second hand copies are available through Amazonfor around £35.

Links:
Llewellyn's 2010 Witches' Calendar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Alexander_Ayton
http://homeopathy.wildfalcon.com/archives/2009/01/16/william-alexander-ayton-1816-1909/
The Alchemist of the Golden Dawn: The Letters of the Reverend W.A.Ayton to F.L.Gardener, 1886-1905 (Roots of the Golden Dawn series)

Happy birthday, Yeats!

Today, 13 June, is the birthday of poet, dramatist, folklorist and occultist William Butler Yeats (1865-1939).

Yeats had a lifelong interest in mysticism, spirituality and astrology and much of his poetry was influenced by this, particularly Irish mythology.

In March 1890 Yeats was initiated into the occult group the Golden Dawn. After it broke up he remained with its offshoot the Stella Matutina.

Here is one of my favourite poems by Yeats:

Down by the Salley Gardens
Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;
She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;
But I, being young and foolish, with her did not agree.

In a field by the river my love and I did stand,
And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand.
She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;
But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.

Links:
http://www.love-poems.me.uk/biography_yeats_william_butler.htm
http://www.pgil-eirdata.org/html/pgil_datasets/authors/y/Yeats,WmB/life1.htm
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~martinh/poems/yeats.html