Customer Reviews

The Golden Dawn Scrapbook: The Rise and Fall of a Magical Order

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R. A. Gilbert's _Golden Dawn Scrapbook_ is an enjoyable read, but focuses on the (many) scandals involving the founders and hangers-on of the G.D. For those interested in the personalities behind this influential magical movement, the book is insightful but should not be your first entre to the G.D. It's too easy to get lost in the names. The anecdotal rather than strictly chronological approach may also be off-putting to some.

For a strict history, read Ellic Howe's _Magicians of the Golden Dawn_ or Mr. Gilbert's _Golden Dawn, Twilight of the Magicians_. For the G.D. rituals, read Israel Regardie's _The Golden Dawn_. But if you are trying to gain an insight into the characters that started the G.D. movement, _The Golden Dawn Scrapbook_ is helpful.

The book is very readable - I finished it in one day, and rather enjoyed it. The material is mostly gossipy, which makes for easy and fun reading.

The book's gossipy character makes it somewhat shallow.

Each chapter centers around one major character. This way the events' time line is hidden, and many events are mentioned several times in different chapters.

As the book tells more about the events than the people themselves, I think breaking the material by person only confuses the book needlessly.

I recommend this book for people who are interested in the people behind the order, and not in the order history or order materials.

R.A. Gilbert did a halfway decent job exposing the Golden Dawn. Since he's an occultist himself, he doesn't go all the way and say "They were nothing but fakes, frauds, and gullible fools, and it's all just a pack of lies", but there are you feel he's going to when you're reading the book. He details the Jackson rape scandal of the early 20th century that ultimatley helped destroy the Golden Dawn (or at least it played a small part). There are plenty of rare pictures, included a novelty greeting card that satirized the trial, showing it got a lot of publicity at the time. Skeptics will certainly enjoy this book, as long as they read between the lines.