6=5 Alex Sumner

https://solascendans.com/2012/02/08/adeptus-major/

Today I am going to do a survey of the grade of 6=5 Adeptus Major, by examining how the various different
offshoots of the Golden Dawn the Alpha et Omega, the Stella Matutina, the Holy Order of the Golden Dawn,
and the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross decided to deal with the subject. The one thing they all have in common
is that they agree the grade has to do with Geburah in the same way that 5=6 Adeptus Minor is to do with
Tiphereth but there the similarities end. Each different faction went off in their own direction, having different
ideas about what the Adeptus Major was actually meant to do.

As far as I am aware, none of the published Adeptus Major rituals are used by modern day Golden Dawn orders
they have gone on to use different or modified versions.

Alpha Et Omega
The cover for "Book of the Concourse of the Watchtowers" by Tabatha Cicero, featuring a reconstructed version
of the Tablet Of Union.
The Book of the Concourse of the Watchtowers, by Sandra Tabatha Cicero
The Alpha et Omega 6=5 so-called Ritual has now been published: as an appendix to Tabatha Ciceros new
publication, Book of the Concourse of the Watchtowers. I say so-called because the version published is not a
real ritual. It does not have an opening or closing, nor does it have any drama in it. It consists of one chief
officer, the Conferring Adept, teaching the signs and words of the grade to the Aspirant, who is prompted
throughout the ceremony by a conductor. The explanation of the Tarot cards is brief. If anything, it is more of a
fragment of a ritual perhaps part of something that remains unpublished, or a work-in-progress.

The only interesting thing, IMHO, is that the brief explanation of the nature of the signs gives a tantalising
glimpse into what Mathers might have imagined the work of an Adeptus Major to be i.e. the use of Geburah-
force to subdue evil entities although no detail is given about the Adeptus Major curriculum itself. It is also
interesting in that the symbolism anticipated the ideas the Crowley expressed about the nature of the Adeptus
Major grade in the latters John St John.

Stella Matutina

Stella Matutina
Now the Adeptus Major ritual of the Stella Matutina is a far more interesting affair. An incomplete version of the
ritual was published by Pat Zalewski in his book Secret Inner Order Rituals of the Golden Dawn : fortunately
though, I have seen a copy dating from a Stella Matutina temple circa 1916, so I have been able to compare.
Now this is a proper ritual. It has drama, it has beautiful ritualistic speeches, but most importantly it introduces
in the course of the ritual several key qabalistic concepts which provide much food for thought. The ritual
should be read in conjunction with the account of W B Yeats own experience of this ceremony, which is printed
in George Mills Harpers Yeats Golden Dawn , which gives details of the astral work that went on invisibly as
the ceremony took place.
This ritual lays much emphasis on the Shekinah the divine presence of God who is here portrayed by a
female officer. Why the Shekinah? I believe the answer must lie in the fact that in Gematria, Geburah is
equivalent to Debir, which is the Holy of Holies, where the Shekinah was said to reside upon the Ark of the
Covenant between the wings of the two kerubs. The aspirant is therefore the High Priest, who goes into the Holy
of Holies (actually the Vault of the Adepti which has been re-dressed for the occasion) and after a period of
meditation discovers the Shekinah, who first comes to him (or her) like a light-bearer in darkness.
An interesting feature is that the Aspirant remains completely silent throughout the ceremony, until formally
released at its climax. It is worth noting that quite separately Wynn Westcott did indeed describe the Adeptus
Major grade as:
a degree of death and solmnityreferring to the precedent stage of obscuration, during which silent study
and meditation may be considered as the typical condition
Flying Roll XVI, the History of the Rosicrucian Order.
One is tempted to speculate that in this respect the Stella Matutina ceremony is probably more to what Westcott
intended than that of the AO! Unlike the AO ceremony, which is nothing but signs and an explanation thereof,
the Stella Matutina 6=5 mentions two signs (thou shalt avert thy eyes from evil as did Isis on the right thou
shalt withdraw from evil as did Nephthys on the left,) but does not really demonstrate what they are: obviously
part of the esotery that was only transmitted from person to person.
The lacuna in Zalewskis ritual amounts to three-fifths of the oath being omitted (the oath of an Adeptus Major
is in five parts), as well as an instruction that the Aspirant is censed in the form of a Pentagram, before being led
out temporarily before then next point in the ceremony. When read in full, the oath of the Adeptus Major reveals
that the duty of the new initiate is to apply the severity of Geburah to his or her own moral nature, whilst
emphatically being merciful to the faults of others.
I found one mistake when I first read Zalewskis version, however: when I checked, I found that the mistake had
been in the original ritual! Namely: the wrong passages of the Sepher Yetzirah are quoted when the aspirant is
given the teachings of the Paths of Mem and Lamed.
A sort of curriculum has emerged as to what the Stella Matutina envisioned for the Adeptus Major grade.
Although on first reading it does not seem much, from my own personal researches I believe that additional
papers were also issued to the adepts which suggested ways in which the Adeptus Major practices could be
extended to achieve extremely sophisticated result. In any event, the lines try to find your own Path for the
Inner Life, and now is the time to fill in gaps of the 5=6 syllabus and to choose your special subject in which
to qualify, conceal more than they reveal: I get the impression that Felkin, the author of the Stella Matutina
6=5 ritual, believed that if the Adeptus Minor grade was equivalent to a Bachelors degree in Magic, then the
Adeptus Major was equivalent to a Masters.

Holy Order of the Golden Dawn / Fellowship of the Rosy Cross

Whaddaya mean, I'm not the prophet of a new aeon?

The Holy Order of the Golden Dawn Adeptus Major Ritual has now been published in Regardies Complete
Golden Dawn System of Magic . It catches Waite as he was beginning to embrace mysticism, yet had not
completely thrown off all of the trappings of the original GD. Now here is a curious thing: despite superficial
differences, much of the underlying structure of the first Waite ritual is identical to that of the Stella Matutina
version. E.g. the aspirant remains in silence until released in the final part of the ceremony, he or she goes into
the Vault for a period of meditation, before encountering the Shekinah, who leads the aspirant out. Intriguingly,
Waite identifies the Shekinah as Nuit, and the newly advanced aspirant as Horus. Could this in fact mean that
Waite was a secret Thelemite (extremely ironic given the caning he received from Crowley in the Equinox)? Or
perhaps when Crowley received the Book of the Law, the Gods were telling him not to become the prophet of a
new aeon, but that he was now ready to become an Adeptus Major?
After the Holy Order of the Golden Dawn closed, Waite founded the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross. The grades
are named after those of the Golden Dawn but Waite finally took the opportunity to abandon the last vestiges
GD dogma of which he disapproved and finally do his own thing. Nevertheless, the FRC Adeptus Major ritual
still displays certain similarities to the version he wrote for the Holy Order of the Golden Dawn. There is a
sojourn within the sanctuary, the Shekinah makes an appearance but the insistence of silence is strictly
removed. Needless to say, any references to Horus and Nuit have been removed.
As far as I know, there was no curriculum per se for the FRC grades I believe that Waite intended the
ceremony itself to be both the initiation into and the teaching of a given grade. In this sense the FRC is rather
like a masonic version of Rosicrucianism. I did hear one senior esotericist say that this being the case, an
initiate could theoretically be advanced through each grade at successive meetings, or slightly less than a year if
they met every month, although I doubt very much that this would happen in practice.