THE GOLDEN DAWN SCRAPBOOK - The Rise and Fall of a Magical Order R. A. GILBERT Contains full color photographs and illustrations as well as black and white, 200 pages, published by Samuel Weiser, inc. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the last and greatest flowering of the Victorian Occult Revival embodied the quintessence of the Western Hermetic Tradition and gave it a unique, practical expression. Its rituals have been publicly available for some 60 years, while its history has been clinically dissected as an academic exercise. But now it's time to bring some humanity back into the history of the Golden Dawn, which R. A. Gilbert accomplishes brilliantly with The Golden Dawn Scrapbook. This is the story of fallible men and women who aspired to a new vision of reality. It is their very humanity-their weaknesses as well as their strengths-that gives their Order a nobility, grandeur, and purpose. Gilbert includes photos and personal letters, published here for the first time, and describes the rituals, structure, and personalities involved with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, from its creation in the late 1800's to the dissolution of its hierarchy in the early 1900's. Gilbert leads readers from the initial birth of the movement by founding members William W. Westcott, William R. Woodman, and Samuel L. MacGregor Mathers, through the sensationalistic press the Order received during the trial of the Horos, to its eventual breakup as each personality split the Order further apart. Gilbert offers an intimate and cohesive history of this much maligned, and often misunderstood group.

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