The Gilded Page: The History and Technique of Manuscript Gilding Book

True, esoteric, farcical! The Order of the Golden Dawn is legendary, mostly because of its association with figures like William Yeats and Aleister Crowley, but also as one of the best examples of the revolt against rationality and modernism on the cusp of the 20th Century. One encounters fascinating glimpses of the group in any reading about the more exotic currents of the period so that the pieces suggest facets of a mysterious, occult whole. A thorough account of the organization, however, paints a completely different picture. Founded on fraud and perpetuated by a cast of con artists, loons, and a few genuine seekers (Yeats appears to be among the latter), the GD lurched through 30-some years of history as an organization always trembling at the edge of chaos, blown apart by a series of petty feuds, power plays, and ego tussles. When Crowley joins the group, he appears like a trickster god, sowing mischief and discord in a group that hardly needed the help. Ellic Howe is a non-believer, so his take on all this is often wry and skirts the edge of ridicule at some of the absurd episodes. His reticence to really dig into the more sordid aspects of the order is the book's chief failing. Too often he takes the reader to a titillating perspective then tells us that the juicy details are best found in another source. Still, the book chronicles a fascinating story all around and is probably the most thorough, objective history we are ever likely to get of the most famous 19th Century society of ritual magic aspirants