Cromlech Aura Paper (Number 13)

Sex magic

The document that follows belongs to the rather notorious group of writings often referred to as the Cromlech Temple aura/sex magic papers. Circulating privately within that offshoot environment, they acquired a reputation far larger than their actual distribution. Some later critics argued that these papers suggest the Second Order of the Golden Dawn secretly taught sex magic, since it is unlikely they originated solely from one or two members acting alone.

In practice, however, the situation was more complicated and far less cinematic. The Cromlech material reflects a strand of metaphysics which was not limited to the Golden Dawn. Aura, elemental currents, and the interaction between heredity, magnetism, and astral formation were part of the theosophically influenced magical groups of the time. Its tone is moralising and hierarchical, couched in the language of spiritual warfare. It does not read like libertine experimentation. In fact, it looks more like a metaphysical hygiene manual written by someone who believed the universe was watching them as they looked at porn.

There is some ‘sex theory’ in the material, but more in terms of the universal Masculine and Feminine potencies as described in Mathers’ Golden Dawn ThAM paper, which Carnegie Dickson reissued as an 8=3 paper. The only controversial comment about sex is where it states (paraphrasing) that no expression of sexuality is to be condemned (being of divine origin), but that humans must adhere to the morality of the time and place in which they live.

If the Golden Dawn had developed a doctrine of sexual magic, however, it would have resembled something like the argument found here. The emphasis would have been on magnetism, polarity, astral generation, and the ethical consequences of union. It would have framed sexuality as a dangerous, energetic process governed by cosmic law and divine hierarchy, not as a theatrical rite designed for shock value. The operative mood would have been one of caution and metaphysical responsibility.

Modern popular imagination often reduces “sex magic” to something halfway between Hammer Horror melodrama and soft-focus occult erotica. The Cromlech paper, by contrast, treats sexual union as an occult mechanism capable of generating astral entities for good or ill, embedded in a rigid moral cosmology. Regardless of its metaphysical aspects, it is straightforward and doctrinal. Instead of scandal, readers encounter theology.

Cromlech history

According to Tony Fuller, Cromlech’s Sun Order never really went away; it stayed alive on paper and then resurfaced when the right people reactivated it.

James Brodie Innes was the first head, styled as ‘Metatron’, and he pulled in a fair chunk of Golden Dawn talent. Robert Felkin joined, and plenty of other former GD hands followed.

Amongst the Aura papers are several focusing solely on the Exempt Adept 7=4, and as they were issued during Mathers’ membership, it is safe to assume he must have approved. James Brodie Innes was Mathers’ deputy head of the AO at the time. Tony Fuller has found evidence of Mathers’ membership, but has not found any for Moina’s membership; her membership can be assumed.

A number of the Cromlech papers are an extension of GD/RR et AC teaching, particularly relating to Elementals, and Book of Concourse of Forces (leaping dragon formula, etc.). The paper trail even shows Cromlech documents with AO stickers.

Cromlech had traction with the SM members until Felkin discovered Mathers was involved. Felkin believed he was forbidden to work with Mathers, so he resigned.

What Felkin did not clock was that Doctor Carnegie Dickson was a keen member. When Brodie Innes died in 1924, Dickson took over as head and kept the Cromlech ticking along. After Felkin died in 1926, the SM chiefs in England promptly joined up.

Dickson died in 1954, and Mrs Carnegie Dickson became head while two serious English members, Charles Renn and Beryl Renn, kept the flame alive.

Cromlech in New Zealand

By 1962, Hermes itself had gone inactive, and the Renns, both 6=5, wanted to do their 7=4. They were told they had to go to Whare Ra in New Zealand, which they did.

They loved Whare Ra enough to emigrate. Mrs Carnegie Dickson told them to open a New Zealand temple for the Sun Order, to be known as the Iona Temple, and the correspondence for this is said to be extensive.

Iona opened in 1964, and the Renns shipped a vast quantity of Cromlech papers with them. Some of the original Edinburgh regalia and even furniture made the trip.

About 15 Whare Ra people joined, including one of Whare Ra’s most senior members, Euan Campbell. Campbell joined prior to the Renns and was initiated by Carnegie Dickson in 1934 when he stayed with the Dicksons and gave a paper to Dickson’s revived Amoun Temple in London. In the early 1959s Dickson sent 8=3 material to Campbell.

Charles Renn died in late 1965, aged only 60, and Beryl Renn succeeded him with Mrs Carnegie Dickson’s approval, which kept the line of authority intact.

By about 1969, still grieving and trying to cope in a new country, Beryl struggled to run the Sun Order’s Iona Temple. Mrs Carnegie Dickson suggested leaving it inactive and reviving it later.

The closure of Whare Ra in 1978 made revival harder because the local ecosystem that fed it had dried up.

Reactivation

According to Tony, in the 1980s, with Beryl in her late 60s, four New Zealand Cromlech members and ex-Whare Ra members started meeting again. The order was reactivated, and three new members came in. Two of those people met circa 1989, and some Cromlech papers changed hands. The message was that no more were available unless you met Beryl, who was living in Napier.

A meeting followed, and in 1993, Beryl handed over a huge trunk. It contained Cromlech documents, Dickson Golden Dawn material, Alpha et Omega papers, plus regalia and furniture.

In 2000, the trunk and the rest were brought to the UK. The membership now stretches across New Zealand, the USA, Spain and Ireland, with New Zealand still in the mix, and a couple of well-known GD people in the US have joined.

The archive is said to include 45 Aura documents and more than 60 other manuscripts.

Dion Fortune and Cromlech

There is a Dion Fortune aspect to the story, because Maiya Tranchelle-Hayes, known as Soror Ishtar and described as a senior member, was Dion Fortune’s mentor and, around 1940, initiated a small number of Fortune’s members into the Sun Order.

The London temple under Carnegie Dickson was called Beacon, making three temples in the story: Cromlech, Beacon, and Iona. Iona is glossed as ‘God’s Cave.’

Iona had John von Dadelszen’s approval, but it raised eyebrows elsewhere; Frank Salt called it “unnecessary”.

The aura papers we are publishing are signed by Shemesh, who is described as entirely different from Felkin’s Ara Ben Shemesh, and Tony suspects Felkin missed the Cromlech current and created his own connection.

“Beryl Renn remained a friend until her death in her 90s a few years ago, and she was a deep source on Cromlech, Hermes Temple and the Carnegie Dicksons,” Tony said.