[JohnDL]

On MacKenzie:

Turns out there are TWO occultist MacKenzies, the second being William Lyon MacKenzie King, b. Dec. 17, 1874 – d. July 22, 1950, highly respected Prime Minister of Canada, and grandson of Canadian firebrand William Lyon Mackenzie (who was expelled five times from the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada for libel, re-elected each time). MacKenzie King was a minor occult figure, though:

Privately, he was highly eccentric with his preference for consulting spirits, including those of Leonardo da Vinci, Louis Pasteur, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, his dead mother and several of his dogs, all named Pat. He sought personal reassurance from the spirits, rather than political advice. Indeed, after his death, one of the mediums said that she had not realized that he was a politician. King did ask whether his party would win the 1935 election, one of the few times politics came up during his seances. His occult interests were not widely known during his term in office, however, and only became publicized by biographers after his death who used the extensive diaries that he kept most of his life.

The bloke we are after is Kenneth MacKenzie (often spelled Mackenzie), who as the following quote shows was right in the thick of things. I'm posting the whole thing as it succinctly shows the degree of connection between so many of the principle players in the Occult Revival:

There were several precursors to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn that combined Alchemy and Kabbalah in their work. Two of these groups from the early 1800's were particularly significant. The first was the 'Loge sur aufgehenden Morgenrothe,' founded in Frankfurt in 1807, which surfaced in France as the 'Aurore naissante' (both titles mean 'Rising Dawn'). The Duke of Sussex brought this society to England in 1817. The second was the 'Chabrath Zerek Aour Bokher,' (Society of the Shining Light), brought to England in 1810 from Hamburg, Germany by Johannes Friedrich Falk. The most influential of these groups was the early Rosicrucian Order, the 'Order of the Gold and Rose Cross.' British occultist Kenneth MacKenzie (born October 31, 1833) was initiated into a branch of the Order in France and brought to England a manuscript outlining the Order's nine grades of attainment. MacKenzie was an accomplished occult scholar, author of the Masonic Encyclopedia, knowledgeable in several ancient languages and in contact with many contemporary occultists -- including the French occultist Eliphas Levi, who gave MacKenzie notes on the magical use of the Tarot.

In 1866, Robert Little used MacKenzie's grade system to create the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (SRA) as an occult study group for Master Masons. Many of its members went on to direct involvement in practical magick in the Golden Dawn. A major influence for the creation of both of these societies was Frederick Hockley (1809-1885), the occult mentor of MacKenzie. Hockley inherited a large library of rare alchemical works from Sigismund Bacstrom, a Scot who founded a branch of the Societas Rosae Crucis in Scotland after being initiated into the group on the French Island of Mauritius. Originally founded as an ersatz Rosicrucian group by Philip Ziegler shortly after the appearance of the Fama, the Societas Rosae Crucis spawned many branches that eventually became genuine alchemical societies. Little had used MacKenzie's grade names, but he preferred using rituals from Masonic sources. His successor as Supreme Magus of the SRA, Dr. Robert Woodman, inherited MacKenzie's notes and passed them on to his friend, Dr. Wynn Wescott.

Wescott, who had inherited Hockley's alchemical library and obtained MacKenzie's cypher manuscript from his widow, collaborated with Woodman and ardent occultist Samuel [MacGregor] Mathers in 1887 to use the notes as a basis for a new group dedicated to practical magick, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Mathers used his knowledge of the Kaballah and access to magickal manuscripts in the British Museum to flesh out MacKenzie's notes into full rituals. McKenzie had liked Mathers, and had given him notes he received from Levi on the magickal use of the Tarot, which Mathers included in the Golden Dawn rituals. MacKenzie founded his own private alchemical organization, The Society of Eight, to which he only admitted master occultists. The stated purpose of the Golden Dawn was to aid its members to test, purify and exalt the individual's spiritual nature so as to unify it with his or her Holy Guardian Angel.

Magick was in the air in England at the time; Edward Maitland and the noted occultist Anna Kingsford had founded the Hermetic Society a few years previous, in 1884, and in 1887, Helena Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society, had settled in London. When the Golden Dawn began taking away her members, Blavatsky started the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society to try to compete with the Golden Dawn.

The Golden Dawn started with an Outer Order of five degrees: Neophyte 0=0, Zelator 1=10, Theoricus 2=9, Practicus 3=8 and Philosophus 4=7. Later, they added an Inner Order called the Order Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis (Order of the Red Rose and Gold Cross), and this was the Order's repository of Rosicrucian knowledge. This circle had three degrees of initiation: Adeptus Minor 5=6, Adeptus Major 6=5 and Adeptus Exemptus 7=4. This inner circle focused on experimental ritual magick, while the outer circle focused on practical magick. In 1891, Wescott founded the Wescott Hermetic Library as an alchemical resource for Golden Dawn members. The Golden Dawn grew to five temples in the UK, and had initiated over 300 members after eight years of operation. The Golden Dawn established the Isis-Irania temple in London, with several temples in other countries, such as Dublin and Paris, where the members would meet to carry out their Work. Unlike other magickal orders of the time, the Golden Dawn admitted both men and women as members. The women quickly showed their abilities as several of them rose to the Inner Order and became involved in running some of the experimental Inner Order groups; the most prominent of these was the Sphere, which focused on astral projection. At one point, Florence Farr became the Chief of the Golden Dawn.

The membership of the Golden Dawn included a large number of professional people, especially physicians, chemists, ministers and writers, many of whom were Rosicrucians and/or Masons. Notable members included the poet W. B. Yeats, occult historian Arthur E. Waite, heiress Annie Horniman (who financed the building of theaters in England and Ireland), actress Florence Farr (Bernard Shaw's mistress; she later was head of a woman's college), Irish revolutionary and renowned beauty Maud Gonne (W.B. Yeat's companion, with whom he founded the Irish Mystery School, the Castle of Heroes), author Arthur Machen, Allan Bennett, Fiona Macleod, Moina Bergson (sister of French philosopher Henri Bergson; she married Mathers), author G.W. Russell and magician Aleister Crowley.

After the death of Dr. Woodman, things began to fall apart. Annie Horniman, who had financed much of the Golden Dawn activity, left after a falling out with Mathers. When Westcott resigned to protect his job as the London coroner, Mathers was left in control of the Golden Dawn. Crowley joined the group in 1898 and rose quickly to the position of Philosophus, the highest degree of the Order. Eventually, after Mathers went to Paris to open a temple, Crowley joined up with him and the two began to collaborate on adding a Third Order to the Golden Dawn. However, the myth originally coined about the founding of the Order was discovered to be fraudulent by the members of the London temple, and after many letters of accusations and recriminations between them and Mathers, they voted to expel him from the Order. Crowley and Mathers also had a falling out, and after Crowley broke into the London temple, he was also expelled from the Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn continued in fragmented form, with various members claiming the leadership. The Paris Ahathoor Temple continued as a separate branch of the GD, while other branches were run in Ireland and New Zealand. After Mathers' death in 1918, his widow returned to London and opened another temple there (the Alpha and Omega), which she ran for nine years.

In 1903, Crowley took the material he had been working on with Mathers to create a Third Order of the Golden Dawn, and created his own magickal order, the Argentenum Astrum, or Order of the Silver Star. This included three degrees: Magister Templi 8=3, Magus 9=2 and Ipsissimus 10=1. Crowley considered himself the legitimate heir to the Golden Dawn, and Chief of its Third Order. In 1912, Crowley was initiated into the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), a sex magick order, and in 1921 he succeeded Theodor Reuss as its Chief. Crowley crowned the line of major books published on magick, from Cornelius Agrippa's Occult Philosophy, 1531, to Francis Barrett's The Magus, 1801, to Eliphas Levi's Dogma and Ritual of Magic, 1855, with his own greatest work, Magick in Theory and Practice, 1929. This brilliant and monumental work stands without equal in the history of magick. In this work, Crowley synthesized magic and Yoga into a system designed to attain the Great Work of Alchemy. He used the spelling of magick with a 'k' to indicate that one can only work magick after one has conquered the dark forces (demons and negative karma) that one encounters on the Path of spiritual transformation. For Crowley, the 'k,' being the eleventh letter of the alphabet, represented the eleventh sphere of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, the entrance to the world of the unbalanced forces of Chaos. Crowley greatly admired the French Occultist Eliphas Levi, and thought himself to be the re-incarnation of Levi. Like Levi, he made the Will the focus of his magick, and he combined all that he had learned to create his own system of attainment, called the Cult of the True Will. This was without a doubt the ultimate expression of the Alchemy and Magick of the Golden Dawn, although the continuing development of ideas and practices in the Typhonian OTO make it a contender. Unfortunately, the new revised Golden Dawn lacks the inspiration and initiatory knowledge of the original, and is more of an aborted stepchild than a legitimate successor.

I'm impressed by the number of dominant, powerful women who rose to prominence in the occult field during this period: Anna Kingsford, Dion Fortune, Helena Blavatsky (and later, Annie Besant), and Mary Baker Eddy (founder of Christian Science) being the most prominent. I wonder at the cultural milieu that fomented this in a historical period when one would expect all-male "religious" leadership. It also seems to me that this has had an impact on the way JKR has drawn Hermione, who resembles these forceful, impressive but imperfect women. As HP is a traditional tale, and Hermione is the traditional Soror Mystica, this left JKR with little wiggle-room as to leaving Hermione in a traditionally female supportive role, but she has compensated for that with Hermione's obvious power and her ability to create action (Dumbledore's Army, etc.). There are some interesting if vague parallels between Hermione and Anna Kingsford, though I wouldn't push them too hard. Some of her writing is here.

From this fascinating timeline, A Timeline of the Occult and Divinatory Tarot from 1750 to 1980:

1861 December 3rd. Kenneth Mackenzie visits Éliphas Lévi in Paris. Tells him of his work with Tarot. Lévi shows Mackenzie a manuscript set of 21 cards + Fool “according to the earliest authorities” and drawn by his own hand. He wrote about his impressions of the occasion as An Account of What Passed between Eliphas Levi Zahed (Abbé Constant), Occult Philosopher, and BAPHOMETUS (Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie), Astrologer and Spiritualist, in the City of Paris, December, 1861 for The Rosicrucian.

According to the timeline, MacKenzie died in 1886. I'll not excerpt any more from it here, or you all will be still reading this when IrishFaerie turns 80, but it is fascinating and I'll recommend everyone take a look, as it contains much about the Tarot. On the subject of Tarot, here is another site, Collected Fragments of Tarot History; A Chronological Fact Sheet and Index to Sources well worth attention. From Page 1, "Before there was Tarot," this is included:

c.1300 Mamluk, Egypt
The Mamluk style of playing cards was probably created sometime in the thirteenth century, and is almost certainly the direct ancestor of early European cards. The suit-signs are very similar to the Latin suit-signs. These cards were refered to in early accounts as Saracen cards, e.g., jeu de quartes sarrasines.

And this, about the vicious suppression by the Church of the mere idea of a female Pope. This lends context to the changes in the Tarot deck, and the replacement of the Woman Pope with a less inquisition-attracting figure:

1300 Lombardy, Italy
Gertrude Moakley wrote about the Popess card in the Visconti-Sforza deck: “Her religious habit shows that she is of the Umilata order, probably Sister Manfreda, a relative of the Visconti family who was actually elected Pope by the small Lombard sect of the Guglielmites. Their leader, Guglielma of Bohemia, had died in Milan in 1281. The most enthusiastic of her followers believed that she was the incarnation of the Holy Spirit, sent to inaugurate the new age of the Spirit prophesied by Joachim of Flora. They believed that Guglielma would return to earth on the Feast of Pentecost in the year 1300, and that the male dominated Papacy would then pass away, yielding to a line of female popes. In preparation for this event, they elected Sister Manfreda the first of the Popesses, and several wealthy families of Lombardy provided at great cost the sacred vessels they expected her to use when she said Mass in Rome at the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Naturally, the Inquisition exterminated this new sect, and the ‘Popess’ was burned at the stake in the autumn of 1300. Later, the Inquisition proceeded against Matteo Visconti, the first Duke [imperial vicar?] of Milan, for his very slight connections with the sect.”

1371 Catalonia, Spain
The earliest reference to cards in Europe, “it first appears as naip in a Catalan document of 1371.” This reference comes from a 1989 article in the Journal of the International Playing Card Society, by Luis Monreal, which post-dates most of the other sources used for this list. (P 36.) This reference appeared in the Diccionari de rims commissioned by Peter IV, King of Aragon. (Ortalli, 175.) Earlier references exist, some of which may in fact be legitimate, but all of which appear disputed as spurious by at least some contemporary playing-card historians.

1442 Ferrara, Italy
The earliest known mention of Tarot appears in an account book (Registro di Guardaroba) entry for the 10th of February. It notes that four decks were commissioned from the painter Iacobo Sagramoro, who had been painting cards since at least since 1422. “Sagramoro was to be paid 20 lire ‘for having coloured and painted the cups, swords, coins and batons and all the figures of four packs of trump cards, [quattro paia di carticelle da trionfi] and making the backs for a pack of red cards and three packs of green ones, embellished with roundels painted in oil, which our Lord has for his use’.” Another reference occurs in the Registro dei Mandati, to pare uno de carte da trionfi. This is the earliest reasonably clear reference to Tarot cards I am aware of, based on the sources listed, although the Cary-Yale deck may predate it.

Again, go read the whole thing...

In reference to HP (how did THAT sneak in here? ), what is being shown historically is that during the Occult Revival, these several separate underground streams- Alchemy, Astrology, Tarot, Cabbalah, Magic, Rosicrucianism, Gnosticism, etc., were all being forcibly integrated over the course of about 150 years. Rosicrucianism seems to be the key to the amalgamation, having been the earliest attempt at cross-systemization. So it should come as no surprise to us that when applied to the symbolism and structure of Harry Potter, the parallel systems of Tarot, Cabbalah, Rocicrucianism and Alchemy all come up with an essentially identical structure with strong overall similarity in symbolic meaning, differing only in the application of specific elements within the structure, and that even "outliers" such as Gnosticism tend to fit into their "proper" places. This tells me that we really need to be looking at HP symbolism from the point of view of the Occult Revival rather more than from the earlier separate or semi-separate (as one cannot really separate Rosicrucianism from either Gnosticism or Alchemy, for example) roots of the individual systems, as I doubt we would be finding so much compatability in our analyses. At the same time, it seems well established that JKR has regularly reached back to eras before the Revival for her primary symbols, as both the Norse Runes and the apt applications of certain early versions of the Tarot cards seem to indicate. Impressive! But it really seems probable that in this sense the HP novels are genuinely "modern occult" works, though shorn of a LOT of monkey-business (so perhaps not "occultist").

Finally, a chance to make some replies to what others have posted:

Emerald:
Speaking of which, your view that Voldemort's Priestess association seems unclear stems, I believe, from it too being a heavily female influenced card. Voldy has forsworn not only the company of real life (human) females, he has rejected the traditional female aspect of arcane knowledge - spiritual growth. His pursuit of arcane knowledge was only a means to dominating others, not understanding himself. While he has very good intuition, it serves only his material, conscious well being. It in no way serves a spiritual, subconscious role in his life. The inverted meaning of this card does apply to Voldy, especially the one from SGE, "Egotism. Vanity. Immorality. Superficiality." Voldy is notably lacking "wisdom" and "perception," both of which are mentioned in regards to the upright meaning.

In that "layout," the Priestess, originally Woman Pope, was assigned to the fourth spot, GoF, which has proved troublesome in several different readings. But in the above you are quite right, and thinking of the card as the Woman Pope- the female ruler of religion, the female ruler of the male subconscious, makes it more clear. So, can or should we connect this to having so many female images for his horcruxes? I think so. Cup, Locket, Ring, all female images. The diary is a container of sorts, so is perhaps also a female image? Even Nagini the snake (usually a male image), is female, making it androgynous at most. If Harry is a horcrux, he is an accidental one, and the only male thus far.

A Diary contains words; words, as Logos, the word incarnate- fitting for what develops from the words in the diary, is it not?. Logos is one of the Three Pillars, as I recall. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

Logos: often translated as "word", it's true meaning is much more multifunctional (a better translation would be "reason"). The Logos is the light that gives Gnosis via communication. It is the Christ (not to be confused with Jesus). First there was a thought, then the word. We pass on knowledge in this world through words. It is something that gives us guidance by "seeing" or a certain amount of comprehension.
http://www.kheper.net/topics/Gnosticism/glossary.html

"A better translation would be "reason." Isn't that what the Diary was capable of- reason?

Logos: An ancient Pagan Greek term meaning "word" or "reason", and used to indicate the concept that the universe was governed by a higher form of intelligence. St. Paul and other Christians have used it to describe Jesus as the "Logos of God" - the concept that the eternal thoughts of God were made incarnate (endowed with a body) in Jesus.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/gl_l.htm

Logos: This Greek term, meaning "word" (but much more) was first introduced into the stream of human thought by the philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus (d. 475 BC). Though, Heraclitus stressed that "change" was the one constant in the universe, He also began to develop the idea that God, in a monistic sense, was the unifying principle and underlying Reason (logoV) behind the universe ; thus, he recognized change and diversity , on the one hand, yet a coherent, unchangeable unity, on the other. ...
http://www.apologetics.org/glossary.html

That seems to give the Diary a more specific location in Voldemort's horcrux tree.

Emerald:
This is what I meant by saying we may need several lists... would seven lists of sevens be taking it too far?!

Seven TIMES seven lists of seven sevens will probably not be enough...

Emerald, on sexing horcrux objects:
Don't you have five things here? Or are you going with there only being A Gryffindor or A Ravenclaw piece? And how do we make the gender associations? A ring, by its shape, is more representative of female anatomy and also the all encompassing Cauldron of Life, the womb. A locket is usually worn by a female, and it also can hold a person's representative imago within it, also womblike. But the cup is definitely a female symbol, no question about it. To go with the real people, a Gryffindor piece would need to be male in nature and a Ravenclaw piece female. Perhaps this is showing us that the Slytherin piece ought to be considered the Diary.

Going with the above, and with only two horcruxes (presumably) left to identify, we might look for "female" objects for all the horcruxes (admitting symbolic androgyny or hermaphroditism for Nagini). On the other hand, Harry- possible male horcrux- represents a challenge to male Voldemort. Gryffindor was a male challenge to Slytherin, so there might be parallelism there too. Nagini as hermaphrodite would symbolically link her to Mercury. I think from the discussion subsequent to your comment that the Locket is the "true" Slytherin piece.

Emerald:
It's highly ironic that multiple Slytherin items are more closely associated to "female" since Voldy has tried to purposefully eshcew feminine influence. There would be the Diary, Ring, Locket, and Nagini(?) all being Slytherin-like and, along with the Cup, all having strong female/reproductive connotations. The first four even have family connotations as well. So, five "female" items. Five reproductive items....

And, Nagini is Voldebody's "mother," is she not? Feeding Babymort with venom. He's pushing all the female aspects of his subconscious away, into objects; Transference, I believe the Freudians call it.

Barmy:
My impression was that Kiplings 'mish mash' was a product of Theosophy.

Two opinions:

http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/theos/th-imo.htm

Perhaps the Irish author who has had the most powerful impact on the trend of modern writing since 1920 is James Joyce, who "exiled" himself to Paris. His Ulysses, about a day in the life of a modern Dubliner, and Finnegan's Wake, another study of daily life in a part of Ireland, are both very obscure. Stuart Gilbert visited Joyce to discuss their inherent meaning. Joyce asked Gilbert if he had read Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled or the writings of A. P. Sinnett, derived from contact with HPB and two of her teachers. Gilbert found that Joyce had certainly derived material from Isis Unveiled and Esoteric Buddhism, stating that "it is impossible to grasp the meaning of Ulysses, its symbolism and the significance of its leitmotifs, without an understanding of the esoteric theories which underlie the work." What were these concepts? Metempsychosis or transmigration of souls (not bodies), karma, universal manifestation and rest periods, "hermetic correspondences" or the "law of analogies," among others.

Many other notable figures in the literary field were affected by the work of Blavatsky and others of her associates. For instance, Sir Edwin Arnold, famous for his poetic life of the Buddha, The Light of Asia, gave Olcott some pages of his manuscript of that work after he had attended a meeting at which Blavatsky spoke. Interestingly, Claude Bragdon relates in his Epistles from an Unwritten History that Rudyard Kipling commenced his writing career when he began working in a junior capacity at the Indian newspaper Pioneer during the last year there of Sinnett as its editor. Bragdon thought that Kipling's first short story "The Finest Story in the World," with its theme of reincarnation, could have been influenced by this association. The story had been published in the Pioneer, and reprinted among Kipling's other collected material in 1889. Kipling's "The Sending of Dana Da" has been described as putting forward "the Indian attitude to Theosophy." (Cf. Rudyard Kipling by Martin Fido, 1974. The author states that Rudyard displayed more "open-mindedness" than his father, John Lockwood Kipling, the noted artist, who denounced theosophy. Fido is not sympathetic to it, but states in reference to Anglo-India: "Theosophy was one of its rare contributions to the world" p. 52.

http://www.theos-world.com/archives/...202001%20Issue
From THE THEOSOPHICAL FORUM, June 1936:
THEOSOPHY, THE ORIENT, AND RUDYARD KIPLING

> The Theosophical Society was formed at New York, November 17,
> 1875. Its founders believed that the best interests of Religion
> and Science would be promoted by the revival of Sanskrit, Pali,
> Zend, and other ancient literature, in which the Sages and
> Initiates had preserved for the use of mankind truths of the
> highest value respecting man and nature.
...
Perhaps not least among the factors that have opened Western
minds to the influences of Eastern thought has been the work of
Rudyard Kipling.... One phase of his achievement of peculiar
interest to Theosophists has not been greatly stressed. In
bringing to the consciousness of the West even a tithe of the
treasures of the mysterious East, Kipling indirectly and quite
unconsciously served the cause of Theosophy.
...
Kipling was to the last an Occidental of the
Occidentals. The predominant element in his work faithfully
reflected the stiff-necked pride of race of the English in India.

Even the Theosophists seem uncertain.

Emerald:
About the various alchemical stages in general:
I noticed that, for me anyway, a lot of the representative items (i.e. sulfuric acid), and even some of the names of the stages, don't really go with the process of the respective stage so much as they describe the result of the stage. E.G., Calcination doesn't sound like fire itself; it sounds like the process of using fire and the result of using that fire. They do call it the "calcination process" after all. Do fine distinctions like this make a difference in alchemy?

And from later:

But, of course, the website author states it's not the individual steps that are important - it's the transition from one step to the next. So we're back to 7 items (the transition between each pair of steps as well as the final destination) from having had 8 items. With 7 in mind I thought I'd try adding the Alchemy stuff, but for the most part I could see no alignments. The exception was kind of interesting, though.

They do go with the process/transition. In fact, each Alchemical "stage" is really the transition. So I think your diagram is compatible, even if reversed...

Wronski feint = Joseph Maria Hoene-Wronski
Cassandra Vablatsky = Helena Blavatsky
Elphias Doge = Eliphas Levi?
Alastor Moody = Aleister Crowley?????

Leaving out Wronski, note that the other three pairs all have the same number of syllables in both first and last names, and are euphonically very similar. Vablatsky and Elphias simply transfer a syllable to become respectively Blavatsky and Eliphas. Alastor is very close in pronunciation to Aleister.

EDIT: You can find photos of a lot of these cats here: http://www.hermetics.org/okultizm.html
Elphias Doge was said by Mad-Eye Moody to wear a "stupid hat" in the early version of the OotP; I found only one painting of Eliphas Levi in a stupid hat, here: http://paginas.terra.com.br/arte/sfv...deEliphas.html However, Crowley was apparently very fond of stupid hats:
http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/confess/baph2.jpg
http://www.unexplainedstuff.com/imag...02_img0270.jpg
http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/confess/1905.jpg
From 1911, high goofiness quotient: http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/confess/1911.jpg
Especially this one: http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/confess/swatch01.jpg
But when I saw this one I immediately thought of the Death Eaters: http://hoor.org/public_library/images/silence.gif

If Mad-Eye is really Crowley in disguise, he shouldn't be complaining about Levi's head gear...

Oh dear- its closing on 2 AM! More another day.