The Equinox (Volume I, Number II)

THE NEOPHYTE Ir was on November 18, 1898, that through the introduction of Fra. V. N., and under his guidance P. entered the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and became a Neophyte in the Grade of O°=O° in the Outer. It may be of some interest to the reader, and also it may in some ways help to elucidate the present chapter, if a short account of the origin of this order is first entered upon. But it will be understood that the following historical sketch, as well as the accounts we are about to give of the rituals them- selves, are very much abbreviated and summarised, when we state that, the actual MSS. in our possession relating to the G.°.D.*.occupy some twelve hundred pages and contain over a quarter of a million words. The official account of the G.*.D.°. (probably fiction) known as “The Historical Lecture,” written and first delivered by Fra. Q. S. N., runs as follows : “ The order of the G.*. D .-. in the Outer is an Hermetic Society which teaches Occult Science or the Magic of Hermes. About 1850 several French and English chiefs died and Temple work was interrupted. Such chiefs were Eliphas Levi, Ragon, Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie, and Fred Hockley. These had received their power from even greater predecessors, 239