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Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers
Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers in Egyptian getup.jpg
Mathers, in Egyptian costume, performs a ritual of Isis in the rites of the Golden Dawn
Born8 or 11 January 1854
Hackney, London, England
Died5 or 20 November 1918 (aged 64)
Paris[1]
NationalityBritish
Alma materBedford School
OccupationOccultist
Known forHermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
Spouse(s)Moina Mathers
Parent(s)William M. Mathers
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Samuel Liddell (or Liddel) MacGregor Mathers (8 or 11 January 1854 – 5 or 20 November 1918), born Samuel Liddell Mathers, was a British occultist. He is primarily known as one of the founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a ceremonial magic order of which offshoots still exist today. He became so synonymous with the order, that Golden Dawn scholar, Israel Regardie, would in retrospect observe: "the Golden Dawn was MacGregor Mathers."[2]

Early life[edit]

Mathers was born on 8 or 11 January 1854 in Hackney, London, England. His father, William M. Mathers, died while he was still a boy. His mother, whose maiden name was Collins, died in 1885. He attended Bedford School, subsequently working in Bournemouth, as a clerk, before moving to London following the death of his mother.

His wife was Moina Mathers (née Mina Bergson), sister of the philosopher Henri Bergson.

Lifestyle[edit]

Mathers added the "MacGregor" surname as a claim to Highland Scottish heritage, although there is little evidence of such in his family background. He was a practising vegetarian, or (according to some accounts) vegan, an outspoken anti-vivisectionist, and a non-smoker. It is known that his main interests were magic and the theory of war, his first book being a translation of a French military manual.[3] He became more and more of an eccentric towards his later years, as was noted by W. B. Yeats.[4]

Freemasonry[edit]

Mathers was introduced to Freemasonry by a neighbour, alchemist Frederick Holland, and was initiated into Hengist Lodge No.195 on 4 October 1877. He was raised as a Master Mason on 30 January 1878. In 1882 he was admitted to the Metropolitan College of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia as well as a number of fringe Masonic degrees. Working hard both for and in the SRIA he was awarded an honorary 8th Degree in 1886, and in the same year he lectured on the Kabbalah to the Theosophical Society. He became Celebrant of Metropolitan College in 1891 and was appointed as Junior Substitute Magus of the SRIA in 1892, in which capacity he served until 1900. He left the order in 1903, having failed to repay money which he had borrowed.[5]

Upon the death of William Robert Woodman in 1891, Mathers assumed leadership of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. He moved with his wife to Paris on 21 May 1892.[4] After his expulsion from the Golden Dawn in April 1900, Mathers formed a group in Paris in 1903 called Alpha et Omega (its headquarters, the Ahathoor Temple).[6] Mathers choosing the title "Archon Basileus".[7]

Translations[edit]

Mathers was a polyglot; among the languages he had studied were English, French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Gaelic and Coptic, though he had a greater command of some languages than of others. His translations of such books as The Book of Abramelin (14th century), Christian Knorr von Rosenroth's The Kabbalah Unveiled (1684), Key of Solomon (anonymous, 14th century), The Lesser Key of Solomon (anonymous, 17th century), and the Grimoire of Armadel (17th century), while probably justly criticised with respect to quality, were responsible for making what had been obscure and inaccessible material widely available to the non-academic English speaking world. They have had considerable influence on the development of occult and esoteric thought since their publication, as has his consolidation of the Enochian magical system of John Dee and Edward Kelley.

MacGregor Mathers, an author with an "uncritical hand"[edit]

Why were MacGregor Mathers' translations of rare "magical" manuscripts justly criticised with respect to quality? There are three principle reasons:

1. His, somewhat fantasist, belief in the genuine magical potency of the Grimoire manuscripts and integrity of their original authorship. The post-Enlightenment rationalists of 19th century Britain regarded them as Medieval superstition, and if they did have any value it was an anthropo-historical one "mainly as a curiosity of old-world credulity."[8]

2. Even if (by a suspension of disbelief) the original of a Grimoire did have a supernatural potency, the extant manuscripts, or their published forms, were not necessarily true to their proto-type (in substance or claimed authorship). A. E. Waite cautioned in The Book of Ceremonial Magic: " whereas they [the Grimoire manuscripts] often exceed understanding owing to the errors of transcribers, the misreadings of printers, the loose methods of early translators, and seemingly, it must be added, the confused minds of the first compilers, "Solomon" himself not excepted."[9]

3. There was never any substantial evidence (even anecdotal) that MacGregor Mathers ever possessed magical power, which might be expected from a man who was privy to (what he supposed to be) the magical arcanum of the Grimoires. He seems to have been more a creature of ritualized theatre than an assayer of, what MacGregor Mathers, himself, termed: "Magic, [...] the Science of the Control of the Secret Forces of Nature."[10]

For example: At no point in The Sacred Book of the Magic of Abramelin the Mage, does MacGregor Mathers even suggest that the reputed author "Abraham the Jew" might be pseudepigraphical (fictitious) - Not even in passing. Nor, does he contemplate, the very significant possibility, that the work may have been a fraud for financial gain; written for mere entertainment value; or just written to bedevil (and / or indict) the credulous. MacGregor Mathers confirms his conviction that Abraham was a genuine, historical figure in such statements as these: "That Abraham the Jew was not one whit behind any of these Magicians in political influence, is evident to any one who peruses this work." "The full and true history of any Adept could only be written by himself, and even then, if brought before the eyes of the world at large, how many persons would lend credence to it? and even the short and incomplete statement of the notable events of our Author’s life contained in the First Book, will be to most readers utterly incredible of belief." "This faith at length brought him its reward; though only at the moment when even he was becoming discouraged and sick at heart with disappointed hope. Like his great namesake, the forefather of the Hebrew race, he had not in vain left his home."[11]

Book III, of this "the Veritable and Sacred Magic" by Abraham the Jew,[12] promises that the graduate will be able: "To know all things Past and Future in general."[13] "To obtain information concerning, and to be enlightened upon all sorts of propositions and all doubtful Sciences."[14] "To know the Secret of Letters."[15] "To transform Men into Asses."[16]; and many other wonders besides. It would stand to reason that any manuscript that imparted such power to the worthy magus would have only been in the possession of the elect, and reproduced only with the utmost reverence and fidelity. However, that was not the case. The manuscript from which MacGregor Mathers translated The Book of the Sacred Magic (still held at the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in Paris) evidences many scribal crudities, implicit contradictions, and other pitfalls typical of the Grimoiric genre.

MacGregor Mathers relates several of these defects in the Introduction of The Sacred Magic of Abramelin The Mage:

1. "The style of the French employed in the text of the [Sacred Magic] MS. [manuscript] is somewhat vague and obscure, two qualities unhappily heightened by the almost entire absence of any attempt at punctuation, and the comparative rarity of paragraphic arrangement. Even the full stop at the close of a sentence is usually omitted, neither is the commencement of a fresh one marked by a capital letter."[17]

2. "[...] the phraseology is quaint and at times vague, and the second person [French] plural, [formal] “vous,” is employed for the most part instead of [the intimate] “tu” " (the familiar form by which you would expect a father (Abraham) to address a son and heir (Lamech)).[18]

3. "In the Manuscript original this name [Abramelin] is spelt in several different ways, I have noted this in the text wherever it occurs. The variations are: Abra-Melin, Abramelin, Abramelim, and Abraha-Melin."[19]

4. "Abraham the Jew grudgingly admits that the Sacred Magic may be attained by a virgin, while at the same time dissuading any one from teaching it to her!"[20]

5. "From this it results that the magnum opus propounded in this work is: by purity and self-denial to obtain the knowledge of and conversation with one’s Guardian Angel, so that thereby and thereafter we may obtain the right of using the Evil Spirits for our servants in all material matters."[21] I.e. you can have any materialist self-indulgence that you want so long as you are of such a holy disposition that you have no desire to have any materialist self-indulgence that you want - A kind of Catch-22 situation.

6. "Abraham in several places insists that the basis of this system of Sacred Magic is to be found in the Qabalah. Now, he expressly states that he has instructed his eldest son, Joseph, herein as being his [and his only] right by primogeniture, even as he himself had received somewhat of Qabalistic instruction from his father, Simon."[22]

7. "Any advanced student of Occultism who is conversant with Medieval works on Magic, whether MS. or printed, knows the enormous and incredible number of errors in the Sigils, Pentacles, and Hebrew or Chaldee Names, which have arisen from ignorant transcription and reproduction; this being carried to such an extent that in some cases the use of the distorted formulas given would actually have the effect of producing the very opposite result to that expected from them."[23]

It did not occur to MacGregor Mathers to mention that Abraham the Jew demands what is virtually impossible with the injunction: "Should he who performeth this Operation during the Six Months or Moons commit voluntarily any mortal sin prohibited by the Tables of the Law, be certain that he will never receive this Wisdom."[24] Common sense tells us that a man is certain to sin, at least once, during a six month (or moon) period - voiding the whole operation. Thus, the failure of the undertaking could always be attributed to the neophyte, and never to the futility of the operation itself. But, as A. E. Waite observed: "It is not, however, unreasonable that impossible conditions should attach to an impossible object."[25]

It never occurs to MacGregor Mathers to critique (beyond its basic etymology) something as contentious as the name Lucifer ascribed to one of the "Four Princes and Superior Spirits" in Book II of The Sacred Magic of Abramelin.[26] The New King James Version interprets Isaiah 14:12 as follows: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!" The "son of the morning", or Morning Star, was a symbolic reference to Babylon (a state that rancoured the Jews, as it had enslaved them). The Latin Luciferos (light bearer) is an ancient Roman reference to the planet Venus (the "Morning Star" also called the "Evening Star" during its periods of heliacal setting). Venus is the brightest star in the sky. How is it that a Latin word could have ever occurred in an ancient Hebrew scripture? How is it that a word that became synonymous with "Satan" (Satan and Lucifer being one and the same entity) in the Middle Ages now constituted a proper noun, an individuated character? The other three of the "Four Princes and Superior Spirits" in Book II (Satan, Belial and Leviatan) all have names that are Hebrew in origin. Why is "Lucifer" not consistent with these? If the fall of Lucifer and his rebel angels had occurred before the creation of Adam and Eve, why was it not even mentioned in Genesis? Why is the Book of Enoch, that relates the narrative of the fall, only considered an apocryphal (fake) book of the Old Testament? - Even though the first Book of Enoch contains such wisdom as: "their leader Uriêl, a holy angel who was with me, showed to me [...] 3. And I saw six portals, out of which the sun ascends, and six portals into which the sun descends; the moon also rises and sets in these portals, and the leaders of the stars and those led by them; six in the east and six in the west, [...] 37. And thus he [the Sun] ascends and descends, and is not diminished, and does not rest, but runs day and night in his chariot, and his light shines seven times stronger than that of the moon; but as regards size they are both equal."[27]

MacGregor Mathers does not engage in comparative study of The Sacred Magic of Abramelin relative to other significant works of Grimoiric literature. For instance, the Grimoirium Verum was, according to A. E. Waite, a product of the mid-eighteenth century,[28] and not originally published in 1517 as the Grimoirium itself vaunts.[29] The author of the Grimoirium like that of the Sacred Magic, appears to cast Lucifer and Satan as different spiritual entities. The "superiors" Lucifer, Astaroth and Beelzebuth are the triarchy ruling the ranks of - a surprisingly disciplined and servicable - Pandemonium.[30] Lucifer has, "two demons under him, Satanackia and Agaslsierap."[31] It is interesting to note that the oldest known versions of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin, in manuscript, only date from about 1608; are written in German and can now be found in Wolfenbüttel.[32][33] But, MacGregor Mathers was assured that his Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal version came of late medieval provenance as it, "bears the date of 1458."[34]

MacGregor Mathers visits the sins of the text upon the transcribers and not on its progenitor(s). The text is presumed to be an inferior rendering of an indubitable "magnum opus" of high and low (mundane) magic. Despite all of these resources for doubt, MacGregor Mathers proffered The Sacred Magic of Abramelin, as "conferring a real benefit upon English and especially American students of Occultism."[35]

It was MacGregor Mathers' partiality to the beau idéal, to the point of reductio ad absurdum, that defined his authorship in the minds of many critics. It is possible that the commercial imperatives of his publishers caused MacGregor Mather's failure to express any fatal doubts about the texts he translated, but that is only conjecture. MacGregor Mathers' believed, ostensibly, in the integrity of the original Grimoires, and also the "benefit" inherent to invocations, barbarous names, pentacles etc. contained in later, corrupted versions. It was these postulates (apparently subject to no burden of proof, whatsoever), and other translational / analytical failings that inspired A. E. Waite to describe MacGregor Mathers' English incarnation of La Clef de Salomon (the Key of Solomon), as the "work of an uncritical hand."[36]

Further Criticism[edit]

In addition to many supporters, he had many enemies and critics. One of his most notable enemies was one-time friend and pupil Aleister Crowley, who portrayed Mathers as a villain named SRMD in his 1917 novel Moonchild. According to Crowley's memoirs, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, Mathers was in the habit of ostensibly playing chess matches against various pagan gods. Mathers would set up the chessboard and seat himself behind the white(s) pieces, with an empty chair opposite him. After making a move for himself, Mathers would then shade his eyes and peer towards the empty chair, waiting for his opponent to signal a move. Mathers would then move a black piece accordingly, then make his next move as white, and so forth. Crowley did not record who won.

Earlier, Crowley wrote in his Confessions that: "As far as I was concerned, Mathers was my only link with the Secret Chiefs to whom I was pledged. I wrote to him offering to place myself and my fortune unreservedly at his disposal; if that meant giving up the Abra-Melin Operation for the present, all right."[37]

In 1888, MacGregor Mathers' text, The Tarot: Its Occult Signification, Use in Fortune Telling, and Method of Play, was published. Twenty-two years later, in 1910, Waite's own book, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot was made available to the public (along with the Rider Waite tarot deck). Mathers' text was listed as "XIV" in the bibliography. In that entry, Waite delivered a scathing critique of Mathers' scholarship: "There is no pretence of original research [on the part of Mathers, in The Tarot: Its Occult Signification, Use in FortuneTelling, and Method of Play], and the only personal opinion expressed by the writer or calling for notice here states that the Trumps Major are hieroglyphic symbols corresponding to the occult meanings of the Hebrew alphabet. Here the authority is [Eliphas] Lévi, from whom is also derived the brief symbolism allocated to the twenty-two Keys. The divinatory meanings follow, and then the modes of operation. It is a mere sketch written in a pretentious manner and is negligible in all respects."[38]

In The Doctrine and Literature of the Kabalah (1902), Waite denigrates Mather's, previously published work on the subject, in the following terms: "the Kabbalah Unveiled [1887] of Mr. S. L. MacGregor Mathers, which is largely translation and commentary, and, in addition to other limitations, embraces therefore only a small portion of an extensive literature."[39]

A. E. Waite, as a critic, however, wrote from the position of a "Victorian occultist". A position, possibly, entailing (according to Wouter J. Hanegraaff's definition) that: " the magical pursuits of occultist organizations should be rejected in favor of an idiosyncratic form of Christian mysticism."[40]

Death[edit]

In Aleister Crowley's "Confessions" the decline of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, as well as that of MacGregor Mathers, is summed up in one paragraph: "They [The remaining members of the Golden Dawn.] went on squabbling amongst themselves for a few months and then had the sense to give up playing at Magick. Their only survivor is Arthur Edward Waite, who still pretends to carry on the business, though he has substituted a pompous, turgid rigmarole of bombastic platitudes for the neophyte ritual, so that the last spark of interest is extinct for ever. Mathers, of course, carried on; but he had fallen. The Secret Chiefs cast him off; he fell into deplorable abjection; even his scholarship deserted him. He published nothing new and lived in sodden intoxication till death put an end to his long misery."[41]

Mathers died on 5 or 20 November 1918 in Paris.[42] The manner of his death is unknown; his death certificate lists no cause of death. Violet Firth claimed his death was the result of the Spanish influenza of 1918. While this seems likely, few facts are known about Mathers' private life and thus verification of such claims is difficult.


See also[edit]

  • The Book of Abramelin
  • Grimoire of Armadel
  • Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
  • Key of Solomon
  • List of occultists
  • List of unsolved deaths
  • Mathers table
  • William Robert Woodman

References[edit]

  1. ^ Nevill Drury, The Dictionary of the Esoteric, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 2004, p. 208.
  2. ^ Israel Regardie, My Rosicrucian Adventure, 1936, (reprinted by St. Paul: Llewellyn, 1971), p. 147.
  3. ^ S. L. MacGregor Mathers, Practical Instruction in Infantry Campaigning Exercise, Translated from the French ( London: City of London Publishing Co., 1884); cited in Christopher McIntosh, The Rosicrucians: The History, Mythology and Rituals of an Occult Order, page 111 (second revised edition, Crucible, 1987). ISBN 978-1852740252
  4. ^ a b William Butler Yeats, The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats, Volume III: Autobiographies, pages 452–453 (edited by William O'Donnell and Douglas N. Archibald, New York: Scribner, 1999 edition). ISBN 0-684-80728-9
  5. ^ History of the SRIA, T M Greenshill, MBE, published 2003
  6. ^ "Samuel Liddel MacGregor-Mathers", accessed 17 February 2007.
  7. ^ John Michael Greer, The Element Encyclopedia of Secret Societies and Hidden History, page 28 (HarperElement, 2006). ISBN 978-0-00-722068-7
  8. ^ Waite, A. E. The Book of Ceremonial Magic, 2nd Edition, London, p. xxvi.
  9. ^ Waite, A. E. The Book of Ceremonial Magic, 2nd Edition, London, p. xxvii.
  10. ^ MacGregor Mathers, Samuel Liddell, The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, 2nd Edition, London, John M. Watkins, 1900, p. viii.
  11. ^ MacGregor Mathers, Samuel Liddell, The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, 2nd Edition, London, John M. Watkins, 1900, p. v.
  12. ^ MacGregor Mathers, Samuel Liddell, The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, 2nd Edition, London, John M. Watkins, 1900, p. 1.
  13. ^ MacGregor Mathers, Samuel Liddell, The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, 2nd Edition, London, John M. Watkins, 1900, p. 122.
  14. ^ MacGregor Mathers, Samuel Liddell, The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, 2nd Edition, London, John M. Watkins, 1900, p. 129.
  15. ^ MacGregor Mathers, Samuel Liddell, The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, 2nd Edition, London, John M. Watkins, 1900, p. 157.
  16. ^ MacGregor Mathers, Samuel Liddell, The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, 2nd Edition, London, John M. Watkins, 1900, p. 147.
  17. ^ MacGregor Mathers, Samuel Liddell, The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, 2nd Edition, London, John M. Watkins, 1900, p. iii.
  18. ^ MacGregor Mathers, Samuel Liddell, The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, 2nd Edition, London, John M. Watkins, 1900, p. iv.
  19. ^ MacGregor Mathers, Samuel Liddell, The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, 2nd Edition, London, John M. Watkins, 1900, p. vi.
  20. ^ MacGregor Mathers, Samuel Liddell, The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, 2nd Edition, London, John M. Watkins, 1900, p. viii.
  21. ^ MacGregor Mathers, Samuel Liddell, The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, 2nd Edition, London, John M. Watkins, 1900, p. x.
  22. ^ MacGregor Mathers, Samuel Liddell, The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, 2nd Edition, London, John M. Watkins, 1900, p. x.
  23. ^ MacGregor Mathers, Samuel Liddell, The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, 2nd Edition, London, John M. Watkins, 1900, p. xi.
  24. ^ MacGregor Mathers, Samuel Liddell, The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, 2nd Edition, London, John M. Watkins, 1900, p. 90.
  25. ^ Waite, A. E. The Book of Ceremonial Magic, 2nd Edition, London, p. 311.
  26. ^ MacGregor Mathers, Samuel Liddell, The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, 2nd Edition, London, John M. Watkins, 1900, p. 79.
  27. ^ Schodde, George H., The Book of Enoch: Translated from the Ethiopic, with Introduction and Notes, Cambridge Mass., Warren F. Draper, 1882, SECTION XIII Chapter 72:1, 3 & 37
  28. ^ Waite, A. E. The Book of Ceremonial Magic, 2nd Edition, London, 1913, p. 98.
  29. ^ Peterson, Joseph H. (Editor and Translator), Grimoirium Verum, Seattle, Trident Press, 1994, frontispiece.
  30. ^ Peterson, Joseph H. (Editor and Translator), Grimoirium Verum, Seattle, Trident Press, 1994, p. 2.
  31. ^ Peterson, Joseph H. (Editor and Translator), Grimoirium Verum, Seattle, Trident Press, 1994, p. 39.
  32. ^ Abraham eines Juden von Worms untereinander versteckte zum Theil aus der Kabala and Magia gezogene, zum Theil durch vornehme Rabbiner als Arabern un anderen so wie auch von seinem Vater Simon erhaltene, nachgehend, aber meisten Theils selbst erfahrene un probirte, in diese nachfolgende Schrift verfaste und endlich an seinen jüngeren Sohn Lamech hinterllaßene Künste: so geschehen ud geschrieben circa Annum 1404. Wolfenbüttel Library, Codex Guelfibus 10.1.
  33. ^ Abraham ben Simon bar Juda ben Simon. Das Buch der wahren praktik von der alten Magia. Anno 1608. Wolfenbüttel Library, Codex Guelfibus 47.13.
  34. ^ MacGregor Mathers, Samuel Liddell, The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, 2nd Edition, London, John M. Watkins, 1900, p. 34.
  35. ^ MacGregor Mathers, Samuel Liddell, The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, 2nd Edition, London, John M. Watkins, 1900, p. ii.
  36. ^ Waite, A. E. The Book of Ceremonial Magic, 2nd Edition, London, p. 60.
  37. ^ Crowley, Aleister. The Confessions of Aleister Crowley. p. 194.
  38. ^ https://sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/pktbib.htm
  39. ^ A. E. WAITE, The Doctrine and Literature of the Kabalah, London, The Theosophical Publishing Society, 1902. Preface xii
  40. ^ www.tarothermeneutics.com/art/yeats/Mysteries of Sex Waite Machen The Fictive Life.pdf
  41. ^ (PDF). p. 196 http://www.metaphysicspirit.com/books/Confessions%20of%20Aleister%20Crowley.pdf. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  42. ^ "Occult Profiles: Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers". Retrieved 3 September 2020.

External links[edit]

  • Biography from Kheper.net
  • Biography from the Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn
  • Biography from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Inc.
  • The Truth about S.L. MacGregor Mathers

Works at the Internet Sacred Text Archive[edit]

  • The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage
  • The Kabbalah Unveiled
  • The Key of Solomon The King
  • The Lesser Key of Solomon
  • The Tarot

Published Works[edit]

  • 2018 — The Tarot — Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers Edition by Eduardo Filipe Freitas ISBN 1986104028