S. L. MacGregor Mathers: Golden Dawn Founder and Translator

Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (1854–1918) was the principal architect of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the most important English translator of magical texts in the late nineteenth century. He wrote or expanded most of the order's rituals, created its Second Order of adepts, and published English editions of the Kabbala Denudata, the Key of Solomon and the Book of Abramelin that shaped ceremonial magic for a century. His autocratic leadership also helped break the order apart in 1900.

Early Life and Masonic Formation§

Mathers was born in Hackney, London, in January 1854, the son of a commercial clerk who died when he was young. He was educated at Bedford School and lived for some years with his mother in Bournemouth, working as a clerk. He developed a lifelong passion for military history and strategy, and his first publication was a translation from French, Practical Instruction in Infantry Campaigning Exercise (1884).

He was initiated as a Freemason in Bournemouth in 1877 and in 1882 joined the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, the Masonic Rosicrucian society whose members included William Wynn Westcott and William Robert Woodman. Through them he gained access to a circle of Victorian scholars of the occult. He taught himself Hebrew, Latin, French and some Greek, and spent long hours in the reading room of the British Museum copying magical manuscripts. In this period he began to style himself "MacGregor", claiming descent from the Highland clan; in later years he used the Jacobite title Comte de Glenstrae.

The Kabbalah Unveiled and Other Translations§

Mathers' first major book was The Kabbalah Unveiled (1887), an English translation of three Zoharic texts, the Book of Concealed Mystery and the Greater and Lesser Holy Assemblies, from the Latin of Christian Knorr von Rosenroth's Kabbala Denudata (1677–1684). Mathers added a long introduction that presented the Kabbalah as the key to the Bible and to Western esoteric philosophy. The book was translated from a Latin translation rather than the Aramaic original and is now superseded by scholarship, but it introduced generations of English readers to Kabbalistic ideas such as the Ain Soph and the divine countenances. For the original tradition see What Is Kabbalah?

In 1888 he published a short book on the tarot, and in 1889 The Key of Solomon the King, compiled from several manuscripts in the British Museum. This edition, discussed in our article on the Key of Solomon, became the standard English grimoire, despite its silent omissions and its combination of manuscripts of different dates.

His most influential translation was The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage (1898), made from a French manuscript in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in Paris. Its six-month retreat aimed at the "knowledge and conversation" of one's guardian angel, described in our article on the Holy Guardian Angel, became a central ideal of modern magic, especially for Aleister Crowley. Later scholarship, notably Georg Dehn's work on the German manuscripts, showed that Mathers' French source was a late and abridged version. Mathers also translated the first book of the Lemegeton, which Crowley published without crediting him as The Goetia (1904).

Founding the Golden Dawn§

In 1888 Mathers joined Westcott and Woodman in founding the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Westcott supplied the "Cipher Manuscripts", skeleton outlines of five rituals, and the story of a German adept who had chartered the order; Mathers turned the outlines into full ceremonies of considerable dramatic and symbolic richness. He drew on Kabbalah, Egyptian religion, the Rosicrucian manifestos, Renaissance magic and the writings of Éliphas Lévi, creating the Neophyte ritual and the elemental grades of the Outer Order.

The Second Order and the Secret Chiefs§

Around 1891–1892 Mathers established the Second Order, the Ordo Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis, and wrote its central initiation, the Adeptus Minor ritual, performed in the seven-sided Vault of the Adepti. He claimed that his authority came from the Secret Chiefs, superhuman adepts of the Third Order, with whom he said he had made contact in Paris. The Second Order papers, many written by Mathers, taught the consecration of talismans, ritual of the pentagram and hexagram, geomancy, tarot divination, astral vision and the order's version of Enochian magic.

Paris, Moina and the Rites of Isis§

In 1890 Mathers married Mina Bergson, a talented artist and student at the Slade School and sister of the philosopher Henri Bergson. As Moina Mathers she designed much of the order's symbolic art and acted as a seer in her husband's magical work. For a time the couple depended on the generosity of Annie Horniman, the tea heiress and order member, who secured Mathers a post at her father's museum in south London.

In 1892 they moved to Paris, where Mathers founded the Ahathoor temple and governed the London order by letter. Paris gave them contact with French occultists and artists. In 1899 they presented the "Rites of Isis" in a Paris theatre, a public performance of a reconstructed Egyptian liturgy with Mathers as high priest, which attracted press attention. These were also years of poverty and of increasing quarrels with London. Mathers expelled Annie Horniman in 1896 after she criticised his leadership and his financial demands, and many London members never forgave him.

Schism, the Alpha et Omega and Last Years§

In early 1900 Mathers initiated Aleister Crowley into the Second Order in Paris after the London adepts had refused him. Soon afterwards he wrote to Florence Farr that Westcott had forged the order's foundational correspondence. The London adepts set up a committee of inquiry; Mathers refused to recognise it and sent Crowley to take possession of the Second Order's rooms in April 1900. The attempt failed, and the London group expelled Mathers. The following year his reputation suffered further when the Horos couple, swindlers who had briefly won his trust, were tried in London and the order's rituals were mentioned in court.

Mathers retained the loyalty of several temples, which became the Alpha et Omega, discussed in our article on the Stella Matutina and the Alpha et Omega. His relations with Crowley turned into open hostility; when Crowley began printing Golden Dawn rituals in The Equinox in 1909, Mathers sought an injunction, which was granted and then lifted on appeal in 1910. Mathers died in Paris in November 1918; the cause is uncertain, and the influenza pandemic is often suggested. Moina led the Alpha et Omega until her death in 1928.

Legacy§

Judgements of Mathers vary widely. Crowley, after their break, caricatured him in fiction, while W. B. Yeats, who opposed him in 1900, wrote of him with respect and recalled him in the poem "All Souls' Night". Historians such as Ellic Howe and R. A. Gilbert portray a learned but impractical man, proud, impoverished and convinced of his own mission. What is not in doubt is his achievement: the ritual and teaching system he created, published by Israel Regardie in the 1930s, became the foundation of almost all later ceremonial magic.

Frequently asked questions§

What did MacGregor Mathers translate?§

His principal translations were The Kabbalah Unveiled (1887), from Knorr von Rosenroth's Latin; The Key of Solomon the King (1889), compiled from British Museum manuscripts; The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage (1898), from a French manuscript in Paris; and the Goetia, which Crowley published in 1904.

Was MacGregor Mathers really a Scottish aristocrat?§

No evidence supports his claims to Highland descent or to the title Comte de Glenstrae. He was born in London to a family of modest means, and the "MacGregor" name and title reflected a romantic identification with Scottish and Jacobite tradition.

Why did the Golden Dawn expel Mathers?§

The London adepts resented his autocratic rule from Paris, his expulsion of Annie Horniman, his support for Crowley and his allegation that Westcott had forged the order's founding documents. When he refused their inquiry and tried to seize the Second Order's property in 1900, they expelled him.

Who was Moina Mathers?§

Moina Mathers, born Mina Bergson, was an artist, the sister of Henri Bergson and the wife of MacGregor Mathers. She designed much of the Golden Dawn's art, worked as a seer, and led the Alpha et Omega from 1918 until her death in 1928.

Sources and further reading§

• The Kabbalah Unveiled — S. L. MacGregor Mathers, 1887
• The Key of Solomon the King (Clavicula Salomonis) — S. L. MacGregor Mathers, 1889
• The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage — S. L. MacGregor Mathers, 1898
• Sword of Wisdom: MacGregor Mathers and "The Golden Dawn" — Ithell Colquhoun, 1975
• The Magicians of the Golden Dawn — Ellic Howe, 1972
• The Sorcerer and His Apprentice: Unknown Hermetic Writings of S. L. MacGregor Mathers and J. W. Brodie-Innes — R. A. Gilbert (ed.), 1983
• Women of the Golden Dawn: Rebels and Priestesses — Mary K. Greer, 1995