GOLDEN DAWN - Key Persons
Dr. William Robert Woodman (b. 1828, d. December 20, 1891): Dr. Woodman is least known among the three founders of the Golden Dawn, due to the fact that he died before the creation of the Golden Dawn's Second Order, the R.R. et A.C., and before the more turbulent years of the Order's history.
Woodman was born in in England in1828. He studied medicine and was licensed in 1851. That same year he volunteered as a surgeon during Napoleon III's coup d'etat . He then set up his own general practice at Stoke Newington where he also served as police surgeon.
In addition to his interests in medicine and Hermeticism, Woodman had a love for gardening. He was a prominent horticulturalist and flower exhibitor. After inheriting some property in Exeter, he retired there in 1871 to pursue his gardening aspirations, but moved back to London in 1887. So admired was he in that field of expertise that after his death, the Royal Horticultural Society erected a memorial for his grave in Willesden.
Born on December 17, 1848 in Leamington, Warwickshire, England, Westcott was the youngest of six children, although he often implied that he was an only child, suggesting that he was not close to his siblings. Both his parents died before his tenth birthday. He was adopted by his uncle Richard Westcott Martyn, who, like Westott's father, was a surgeon. Young William attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School at Kingston-upon-Thames and went on to study medicine at University College in London. In 1871 he became a partner in his uncle's medical practice at Martock, Somerset. It was during this nine-year period of time that he married his wife, Elizabeth Burnett, who did not share her husband's interest in esoteric studies. Their marriage resulted in five children.
Following the death of his uncle in 1879, he took a two-year retirement at Hendon, so that he could devote more time to the study of Qabalah, Hermetics, and Alchemy. Westcott's sabbatical was well-spent-he studied the works of Eliphas Levi and began to prepare illustrations for his text on The Isiac Tablet of Cardinal Bembo, a paper he later delivered to the SRIA in1887.
Sometime around 1880, Westcott joined the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (the Rosicrucian Society in England, often called the Soc. Ros. or the S.R.I.A.), a fraternity whose membership was restricted to high-ranking Freemasons. In a letter to F.G. Irwin, dated January 7, 1880, Westcott asked to be introduced to Dr. William Robert Woodman, who was then Supreme Magus of the S.R.I.A.
On the medical front, Westcott emerged from retirement in 1881 and was appointed Deputy Coroner for for North-East London and Central Middlesex, a position he held until his retirement in 1918. His medical writings included works on alcoholism and suicide, including his text on Suicide: its History, Literature, Jurisprudence, Causation and Prevention. It seems that few of his colleagues in the medical profession were aware of his esoteric interests.
Over the next decade Westcott's involvement in Masonry and Hermeticism increased. In 1882, he became General Secretary of the S.R.I.A., and in 1892 he was elected Supreme Magus, a position he held for 33 years. He also became an influential member of H.P. Blavatsky's Theosophical Society. Christian esotericists, Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland, unhappy with the Eastern emphasis of the Theosophical society, resigned from the T.S. in 1884 to form the Hermetic Society, inviting Westcott to join as an honorary member. Later, in 1890, Westcott became a probationer in the Esoteric Section, a body of the Theosophical Society created in 1888 for the benefit of some of the more Western-minded, practical occultists who were included within the ranks of the T.S. It was also during this decade that Westcott would make his most important esoteric discovery.
Samuel Mathers (b. January 11th 1854, d. 5th November, 1918): Of the three founding members of the Golden Dawn, S. L. MacGregor Mathers has been simultaneously the most vilified and the most deified. Both views are off the mark, for Mathers was neither a villain nor a superhuman god. He was, however, one of the more colourful characters in the history of the Golden Dawn, displaying many of the assets and liabilities often associated with those who possess magical genius and creativity. A gifted ritualist, Mathers produced some of the finest teachings in the Western Esoteric Tradition, but he was also capable of being an eccentric tyrant. Of the three founding Chiefs of the Order it was Mathers, the primary Chief of the R.R. et A.C., who made the Golden Dawn into a truly magical Order.
Samuel Mathers was born on January 8, 1854 at 11 De Beauvoir Place, Hackney. His father, William M. Mathers, was a commercial clerk. and died while young Samuel was still a boy. He lived with his widowed mother (maiden name Collins) at Bournemouth until her death in 1885.
Mathers enlisted as a soldier with the First Hampshire Infantry Volunteers. One photograph shows him in the uniform of a lieutenant, although he was never more than a private. His first book was actually a military manual, Practical Instruction in Infantry Campaigning Exercise (1884), which was based on a French military manual and adapted for the needs of the British Army. In addition to his interest in military tactics and warfare, he was also a keen student of boxing and fencing.
After his mother died, Mathers was left impoverished. He moved to London where he lived in at Great Percy Street, King Cross. He was appointed as assistant librarian to Annie Horniman's father, Frederick Horniman, founder of the Horniman Museum and an affluent tea importer. Mathers married Mini Bergson on June 16, 1890 at Chacombe in Oxforshire by Rev. W.A. Ayton, who was a prominent alchemist and member of the Golden Dawn. The Matherses lived at Stent Lodge, Forest Hill, but due to poverty they moved to central London and began to live on Annie Horniman's charity.
In the Preface to her late husband's translation of Knorr von Rosenroth's Kabbala Denudata, Mina (or Moina) Mathers revealed some of what little information was ever printed concerning Samuel's early life, although it does not paint an accurate picture of Mathers' ancestry:
"As a very young boy he was intensely interested in mysticism and symbolism generally. He was educated at Bedford Grammar School, specializing on the Classical side. During his spare moments he collected and made a special study of Celtic tradition and symbolism. This love of Celtic Symbology was inherited from his Highland ancestry. His ancestor, Ian MacGregor of Glenstrae, an ardent Jacobite, after the ‘45 Rebellion went to France and under Lally Tolendal fought at Pondicherry. This ancestor was created Comte de Glenstrae by Louis XV. This French title was inherited by my husband and he always used it when living in France. As a young man he came into contact with Kenneth Mackenzie, with whom he had a strong occult link. Kenneth Mackenzie, author of the Encyclopedia of Masonry, had been a great friend of Bulwer Lytton. After some years of seclusion in the country, where my husband led a student's life in preparation for his future work, he met Anna Kingsford, who introduced him to Madame Blavatsky. Madame Blavatsky invited him to collaborate with her in the formation of her Society. After deliberation, notwithstanding his profound admiration for that remarkable woman, this invitation he was compelled to decline. Their ideals were not entirely the same. At that time he was more in sympathy with Anna Kingsford's ideals of esoteric Christianity and of the advancement of women. Moreover, he was profoundly interested in her campaign against vivisection, in which he vigorously aided her. Three or four years later he was told by his Occult teachers to transfer his center to Paris, where my husband and I lived for the rest of his life. I wish here to record my thanks to my occult masters, and the deepest gratitude to the memory of my husband, comrade and teacher, all of whom have shed such light upon my path." [1]
Moina's devotion to her deceased husband was admirable, although her version of events was not always reliable. Mathers' supposed highland ancestry and inherited title of Comte de Glenstrae is pure fantasy, and Annie Horniman certainly had a role in the Matherses decision to move to Paris. Moina also exaggerated her late husband's role in the creation of the G.D. while downplaying the roles of Westcott and Woodman , suggesting that the two men "aided in the administrative side of this school and its teaching to a certain extent." [2]