The Society Of Dew And Light - Our Documentary From January 2010

The Society of Dew and Light was perhaps even more unusual and elusive than the Golden Dawn which is very widely known of these days. There are some differences, most notably that its founder,  David Lund, was not a wealthy man and had to put in a lot of 'hard graft' at his job. So despite his obvious ability and occult talents, he did not get the same level of respect from the authorities that was afforded to the members of the Golden Dawn. When we discuss the Golden Dawn here, we mean the original late19th century group.

Below is the original post that went with the film.

The Society of Dew and Light (or The Dew and The Light), actually preceded The Hermetic Order of Golden Dawn. Samuel Mathers and Madame Blavatsky got in to quite a flap over David Lund, who was related to a well known Bradford photographer called Percy Lund, a man who later tried to join Arthur Waite's 'Holy Order of The Golden Dawn in London'.

David Lund was interested in Indian magic long before Thomas Henry Pattinson revived and remodelled Mr Portman's Garuda rites around 1902. The police had a dislike of Mr Lund and combed old laws under which they could prosecute him, whilst other fortune tellers plied their trade freely in the Keighley area. Perhaps it was because David Lund was not London based, or perhaps it was because other men became jealous of the high number of women who sought his advice. It appeared that even Samuel Mathers and Madame Blavatsky were jealous of his abilities and so attempted to libel him in publications such as 'Lucifer' magazine.

However, David Lund still had a band of very dedicated followers, as the short film suggests.

Golden Dawn In Bradford - Our Documentary From 2009

We first started this blog in July 2009, but have shut the original old posts due to broken links caused as time moves on and things change!

This is the original content posted on this blog in the summer of 2009.

The film charts the history of The Golden Dawn in Bradford, focusing on Mr Thomas Henry Pattinson, leader of the Bradford Horus Temple of the Golden Dawn and later, co-leader together with Dr Edwards, of The August and Oriental Order of Light Garuda, based on the teachings of a Mr Portman who had spent much time in India and who revived the Indian Cult of Garuda, the bird God of Hindu and Buddhist religions. Mr Pattinson was also a very prominent Theosophist, following the teachings of Madam Blavatsky.

The kingpin to all this was Dr William Wynn Westcott, a Freemason, Theosophist and one of the founders of The Golden Dawn along with Dr Woodman and Mr Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers. Dr Westcott visted Bradford, in West Yorkshire frequently and also attended meetings of the Theosophical Society in Bradford. He knew Mr Pattinson and it was Dr Westcott who authorised the setting up of both The Golden Dawn Temple of Horus in Bradford and also later persuaded Mr Pattinson to co-head The August and Oriental Order of Light Garuda, along with Dr Edwards, with the agreement of Mr Portman who had studied the teachings of the Cult of Garuda in India.

There are many conflicting stories about exactly what went on. In the late 19th and early 20th century, Bradford, West Yorkshire was bursting with very earnest mystical societies.

One version of the Bradford Horus Temple re-surfaced again in 1983, when Salvo and Sindy IIardi discovered it in the attic of their newly purchased restaurant, New Gobbles, the event was even mentioned in The New York Times, as the fame of the discovery had spread. Mr and Mrs IIardi tried to re-furbish the temple to turn in to a local heritage landmark. Although the temple was clearly a replica of the original Horus Temple of the Golden Dawn, confusingly, it had also been used as a Garuda Temple. The original Garuda Temple was in premises at Kings Arcade, Bradford, (now demolished) and had the Garuda painted on the back wall in place of Horus, the art work done by a lady who had spent much time in India.

By 1984, Mr and Mrs IIardi had ordered ceremonial magical equipment for display and had parts of the temple repainted. One expert brought in, insisted the original paintings were from the early 1900's, but had been replenished in the 1950's. Predictably, the IIardis ran out of money and left the premises, their dream unrealised and the important find largely unrecognised after the original bursts of publicity.

Curiously, the author of the piece was witness to the temple during a visit to the building in 1986. It is now understood that there remains little to suggest the property at Godwin Street, Bradford, was once home to such a significant faction within the occult fraternity.

Lammas Coven Connection - Day Is Dawning

Attendance was good at the coven's Lammas gathering. There were many positive spirit energies about too. To make it even better, there was a really ambient atmosphere from everyone and all of the elements were represented in a series of friendly rituals. A loaf and beer were given back to the earth as a thank you. The fire represents the corn, a celebration of Lugh and the first Harvest Festival of the year.

Horus Temple Of The Golden Dawn Occult Group In Gobbles Restaurant Attic

These events are kind of entwined - sort of. They are threads which tenaciously come together - kind of.
Guy Watson's shop sat squatly in Darley Street, Bradford and it catered, back in the early 70's to those people who had evolved from the Hippy Set - Scott McKenzie's San Francisco flower children that wanted just a little more sophistication, as the early 70's began to rev up quicker than a Ford Cortina's engine. They still liked their floppy hats and Indian velvets but the flowers had begun to wilt a bit and the Beatles had all split up.

Afghan coats were all the rage- swirly embroidered uncured sheepskin; sometimes still with brambles in the long drooping wool trims. To set off the velvets and the Afghan coats, these newbie fashionites of the 70's would often wear heavy silver gemstone rings with multiple bracelets and bangles. All these items were supplied in copious amount's by Guy Watson's strange multi-tiered, rickerty shop.

Employees of Guy Watson's sometimes heard tinkling bells coming from the attic and the sound of organ music, especially when all the customers had gone home, but they were philosophical and got on with their job.

Guy Watson's continued in popularity as punk gave way to New Wave of the late 70's and very early 80's. Yhe shop was still packed as new generations of people went in and out of it's doors, clutching bags of 'alternative' goodies that would have their friends exclaiming 'Where did you get that from?'

Then suddenly Guy Watson's became a restaurant - well two themed restaurants and a coffee bar in the basement. Their velvets, knick knacks and New Age business was moved round the corner to a new unit.
In the restaurant a model train on a track above the head's of diners. True to form, it was the wackiest pizza restaurant ever, whilst upstairs in the more formal Garden Restaurant, diners sat in white plastic garden chairs on fake grass decked with fake flowers under sun umbrellas. it was all totally delightful.

Then things started to go a bit wrong - just a little - sort of - a frisson.

Guy Watson sold the restaurant which was called Gobbles, to a hard working Italian couple who promptly renamed it 'New Gobbles'. The name 'Gobbles' came from a large pair of moving red lips which hung over the entrance.

The couple discovered a temple hidden behind junk in the very top attic. They got very excited and a paranormal/occult expert from Leeds was called in to identify the temple in the top attic room.
This expert proclaimed the temple to be the lost Horus Temple Of The Golden Dawn which was known as 'temple number five'

The owners of New Gobbles planned to turn the area of the temple and the floor below in to a nightclub, but they ran out of money and sold up. In the meantime the owner of Guy Watson's new store was rumoured to have gone bankrupt.

The restaurant was renamed L'Aragosta and as I was working for a local magazine at the time I went in and sold them an advert. I asked if I could see the temple and they took me up lots of flights of stairs to an attic. The place did look a bit weird and had a kind of atmosphere but I remember it quite clearly and wrote an article on the place for a paranormal magazine at the time.

Firstly, there were the beginnings of the repairs the previous owners had begun before running out of cash. There were black and white pillars and an Egyptian figure on a throne painted on the wall. The ceiling was painted like the sky, going from pale blue with little fluffy white clouds to black with white stars. One wall was painted like the sea and there was a huge golden sun half  in and half out of the sea. On the sea itself was a little boat sailing toward the horizon. The carpet was purple and there was an old organ bolted to the floor. So I actually went in this temple and know what was there because I was there with it.

Originally the Golden Dawn Temple in Bradford was situated in The Alexandra Hotel  now demolished. The Hotel later became a part of Bradford College. The Golden Dawn Temple then moved to a pub cellar - again the pub was long ago demolished.

So - what was going on? Numerous odd and half veiled claims appeared. There was also a mystic Garuda Order of Light Temple in Bradford who some claim used that building too, maybe they did, the building is big enough. The Horus Temple was officially wrapped up a long time ago - or was it? I'd have to say - whatever claims are made to the contrary - no it wasn't.

Officially maybe - in reality a different story. The temple I entered was the Horus Egyptian Temple and not a temple of Garuda - absolutely definitely. I examined the entire area. Attempts were later made to destroy the essence of the temple by radicals, but, true to form, no business stayed in the building very long, So the power of the temple itself held out over and above these physical actions.

Ipsissimus Of The Dawn - What A Feeling Dancing On The Ceiling

If a person could only be a Magus and would have to walk on to the astral levels to become an Ipsissimus would that put him on the same level as the Gods he was calling on to help him in his work?
If he had done all of that then would he be able to access or door or a bridge or some sort of connector between one world and the next or point A and point B or would he have to start off-loading his generated power by backtracking and downsizing to Magus even though in spirituality he had reached the Ipsissimistic level.
That would surely leave an area of wasted energy banked up on the astral planes (not plains in this case!) when the person who had in fact reached the greater had to forgo this because he was made of physical rather than astral matter and had reached his own ceiling.

Water Elementals, Aqua Sulis, The River Styx And Non-Stasis

Undines are the main water elementals that live in rivers or fresh water.  Water represents the fluidity of the emotions, moving from past lives through to present life and on in to the future.  The whole point of water in the tarot cards is showing that everything about life is transient and always moving along.
Water can also represent energy in the same way that the water wheel gave power to the early mills and a flowing river is a very good representative of the Roman Goddess Sulis - as in Aqua Sulis, the Roman name for the city of Bath.

Contained water that has no outlet becomes stagnant and stale, it shows a foetid and polluted state of heart and mind.
Go with the flow and  run away on the River of Life.  The River Styx however, ran through the Underworld and carried souls to a different form of transience.

I remember snatches of a song that as a five year old in class our teacher sang to us.
 It went as following :-

The river sang softly to the leaves on the trees
I am waiting to take you on a journey with me
So the leaves fell down gently
On a bright Autumn day
and floated with the river
Far, far away

The river is never static and life does not exist successfully in stasis.

Satanism in the Bradford Area

Satanism is a completely misunderstood religion. There are very bad people and wrong doers in every religion on the planet, past and present.  Many crimes and evil deeds have been committed in the name of God for hundreds of years.  Satanism is also used as a term in connection with deviants and miscreants, completely overlooking the fact that many of these deviants actually have held positions of power in other religions - an abusive Iman begin mentioned in the press only a few years ago as well as numerous perverted priests.  Then there are the historical atrocities - such as those carried out by Torquemada and the Auto Da Fe's of Spain and Portugal.

Many religions are stained with blood and their followers are in no way in a position to start criticising Satanists of any kind.

We are neither agreeing or disagreeing but try to keep a neutral open mind.

My mother and sister used to read the Dennis Wheatley Black Magic books when I was a child.  I was used to seeing the lurid images on the book covers - they were widely advertised at the time. I later read the books myself as a teenager and found that there was a sort of interesting frisson running through them like a delicious thrill.  Everything looked fine on the surface but there was always someone up to something dastardly behind the scenes and nothing was perfectly ordinary or what it seemed to be.

Some years ago now,a pentagram was found carved in one of the links at Baildon golf course, near Bradford and robed men were seen in the woods at Thackley back in the early 1980's on several occasions.

Judy woods at Wyke, Bradford had a particular Altar Tree which also apparently featured in various rites so the rumours go.

Also a dark coven apparently once operarated in the Thorpe Edge area of Bradford which included communication with UFO's on Ilkley Moor. One of the members, produced a magazine called 'Earth' widely available locally in the late 1980's.

Another Bradford self proclaimed Satanist was a man originally called Nigel who changed his name to Vochi 85 by Deed Poll. He had brief minor fame with Red Rhino Records and some of his writings. He was a friend of a person calling himself Jonny Le Antelope and could often be seen storming round Bradford completely dressed in black!