The Temple of Horus, Bradford

We would like to thank anyone who has sent us interesting and uplifting emails. However there is always 'one' isn't there? The one who doesn't like what you're doing, or thinks you don't have a right. We received emails from a man who works at Bolling Hall, in Bradford on this and a sister site, doing a bit of 'fishing'. We responded politely and then got a strange email back from a man claiming to hold the charter of a now defunct Horus Temple in Bradford.

Really this is of no concern to us. Whoever left the premises in Godwin Street Bradford to rot and did not respectfully remove the iconic images if they were of no further use to them, is not in our opinion, respectful of the Divine to the level that they should be.

Our new Temple of Horus in Bradford is not about degree ceremonies, charters or pomp, - a lot of which turned out to be rubbish anyway. In the founding of the original Golden Dawn, Westcott and Mathers merely set up a lot of the stuff themselves with some help from other masons and manufactured all the so called intervention of Anna Sprengel who probably did not exist, along with the 'secret chiefs' it just sounded good at the time. Westcott and Mathers with a bit of help from a Dr Woodman really just used their own knowledge and ability to set up the Golden Dawn.

The Horus Temple of the Golden Dawn which we run in Bradford today is about philosophy, art, music, drama and respect for spirituality in general.

Thelema and Babalon in Bradford

In 2005, whilst living in Huddersfield, I had a rather strange phone call from a man who told me he lived in Great Horton, Bradford. This man went on to say how valuable the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram was and also mentioned a ritual involving a nine pointed star and the Rose Cross. The man then went on to talk about Aleister Crowley. He insisted that Aleister Crowley had indeed come to Bradford and that Mr Crowley himself had done ritual workings in a building on North Parade in Bradford.

With a little digging around, I found that one of the branches of the Theosophical Society (at one time there were two branches in the area) had once held meetings in the Yorkshire Penny Bank Chambers at the end of North Parade and thought it was possible from what I was told that this was the same building where Aleister Crowley had also held his rituals.

It should be remembered that Mathers and Crowley were once on very friendly terms, however, a person who actually has done the Abramelin ritual allegedly successfully is the author William Bloom.

I would say personally that it is not always necessary to do elaborate rituals to achieve such a thing, for if some being wants to see you, it will find you anyway and many people claim to have seen their Guardian Angel, just check out the psychic monthly magazines, without going in to retreat for a year.

People have said that they have had strange experiences in places that Crowley has lived such as Boleskine House and various flats in the London area. Crowley probably didn't bother banishing things from other realms that turned up, so they stayed put.

The house where I reside now is full of psychic phenomena, a number of people have experienced all sorts of things in the house, good and bad but we wouldn't banish it
we just leave it be.

If you've ever checked out details of former O.T.O Agape lodge member and rocket enthusiast Marvel 'Jack' or 'John' Parsons, who has a moon crater named after him, you will see that he involved himself in the Babalon working and although Cameron his partner sometimes saw herself as Babalon, Jack was looking for another Babalon to turn up, possibly to his detriment.

As each city apparently has its own angel, then Bradford is perhaps looked over by the Lady Babalon of Thelema. Bradford is also mentioned in T. S. Eliot's poem 'The Waste Land.' Bradford's wasteland has flowered again, perhaps as the City of Pyramids and yet The Abyss is never far off as there is, behind the fences of the new Bradford urban Garden, a deep drop in to the empty basin originally prepared for the new Bradford Canal which has not as yet come to pass and yet in the maze of Bradford's Garden Magic or mage-ick, perhaps there Lady Babalon and Thelema can be found still. At least, I'm sure my phone caller would take this view.

Majestic Wool Exchange Clock Tower In Creepy Sepia

This picture shows the Wool Exchange, Bradford, in a kind of alternative universe, as if a door has opened in the ether and an alternative Bradford has appeared that is similar, yet different to, the original one. Maybe there has been a time slip that has transported the camera in to a completely different sequence of events appertaining to a form of reality. This is a ritual in itself.

Rain Magick In Bradford City Centre

The elements in use here magickally, would essentially be water from the rain, which would include the air element of the sky and clouds as well and then thirdly, the earth. it would actually have been possible to have used the floor as if it were a mirror or crystal ball, because of the shine. The mirror image shows an apocalyptic Bradford in an alternative reality.

The Black Canon of Bolton Abbey

One of the most famous fairly local landmarks is that of 12th century Bolton Abbey, which confusingly is really a priory, a priory being smaller than an actual abbey.
The ruins and local church are haunted by the ghost of a monk known as The Black Canon'.
As many people will know, monks wrote in Latin, often producing illuminated manuscripts,with fancy lettering.

Strangely enough, the writings of some religious monks is the foundation stone for a good number of magical philosophies and systems.

Steering By Starlight In Haunted Liverpool

Steering By Starlight - authored by Martha Beck is a book I bought a few years ago and which I still find good to dip in to. There is nothing better than having some real positivity on hand in a book and Steering By Starlight is very straightforward. I would certainly recommend it.

I also really, really like Tom Slemen's Haunted Liverpool series of books. I have not read absolutely every one of them, but I have read the ones that are currently available, along with the Haunted Wirral series and all the offshoot books too. The latest one is not only about Liverpool and covers other places in the world.

They are good because they  have a lot of magical information in them, including true life accounts of time slips, strange magickal lodges, vampires, cryptids, experiences in other dimensions,odd happenings and strange alien beings, as well as disappearing villages and much more.

Tom Slemen has obviously studied physics at high level because he backs up a lot of what he writes regarding time slips with genuine scientific explanations.The rest of the articles in his books are things that have been told to him by members of the public as he apparently has a radio show too.

We Had The Golden Dawn Information First Before The Bradford Telegraph And Argus!

The person who wrote in to the Bradford Telegraph and Argus in 2009 got their information off our blog - this one in fact. I did shut a lot of posts because they had broken links and the original blog goes back to July 2009. I put some of the info off the blog in a book. I complained to the Telegraph And Argus about this (using our information) at the time as our blog was not mentioned as the source.

It is amazing just how many people think they own the Golden Dawn and believe they understand the magickal concepts far better than anyone else. And who is to say they do or do not? Reality is often in the mind.

But there are very many other systems of magick and the Golden Dawn system is indeed only one of many such systems. The trouble with all magick is that it can so very easily become mixed up with ego and ego is very much a human frailty. Whereas ego defines an individual it can also be that person's downfall if they believe or allow their ego to be above their actual human capabilities.

I would personally recommend The Secret, The Power and The Magic by Rhonda Byrne for those wishing to use mind power to get what they want. I have all three books and I find them extremely interesting - I actually got The Secret when it first came out. Barbel Mohr's Cosmic Ordering Cards are also very upbeat and positive!