The first comprehensive history of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the inner circle that was at the heart of the rise of occultism in the 19th and 20th centuries. Occultism has been associated with visual and literary arts, daring and avant-garde expressions, and nowhere is it more deeply embedded than in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Founded in London in the 1880s by free thinkers, it was the most famous secret society in the world.

In this new, revitalizing history, Felix John Taylor narrates the rise and fall of the Order through the men and women for whom the Order was both an alternative to traditional Victorian religious values and a space for imaginative exploration.

Dedicated to the study of ritual magic, the Order attracted a long list of prominent writers, actors, and visual artists among its members. It looked towards a "golden age" of spiritual enlightenment, with progressive ideas – where rank and gender were no barriers to access – and teachings covering tarot, alchemy, and astral projection, gradually revealed as members progressed through ten "grades".

While its temples were typically places for practicing magic, Taylor finds that the Golden Dawn was at various times more a club for the arts or a society of writers. Political rifts and sexual scandals made it short-lived; however, for many members, occult practices came to influence their work and affect broader culture over a much longer period.

The Golden Dawn, with its role in the foundation of Wicca and in contemporary developments in magic, is a vital thread connecting Victorian esotericism with the modern revival of occultism. This visually striking, meticulously researched literary history reveals those connections, offering an engaging narrative of the Order and its members.