> The Nuada was a Druidic group and documented in Colquhoun's Sword of
> Wisdom as practicing GD rites and directly descended from Isis-Urania.
> Its founder was in contact with Westcott / Mathers and received the
> lineal succession of 7 = 4 from them, later transmitted directly to
> Bourke. During the schism, they were neutral.
>
> The website http://www.angelfire.com/weird2/obscure2/druid.html
> provides additional
> supporting documentation on the Nuada group, in agreement with
> Colquhoun.
>
> SAR
>
>

>
> --- In golden-dawn-group@yahoogroups.com, "bscaro" wrote:
>
> Hi
>
> Some of this stuff is interesting. If it comes from a reading of
> Ithell Colquhoun then you have to be wary of it.
>
> But what's this 'Nuada' druidic group that Griffin and Co are
> alleging practised both GD and druidry side by side ?
>
> Is there any basis for that one ?
>
> Desmond was a 9th degree in SRIA. He was a Martinist too. And a
> number of other things. I believe he passed on charters to the Waite
> FRC and many other things and had a hand in passing on an 'OTO'
> allegedly coming from Reuss to Vyvyan Deacon to his daughter Vivienne
> Browning to Dr. Greg Tillett. That had Desmond Bourke's fingers all
> over it. I'm fairly sure it's bogus.
>
> Here in Sydney no one has heard of it.
>
> Ben
>
>

>>
>> Does the "Bourk connection" refere to one Desmond Bourke?
>>
>> This name has come up peripherally in connection with various
>> organisations, many Masonic, (e.g. Societas Rosicrucian in Anglia,
>> Archeological Order of Druids, OM&S, Hermetic Martinist Order, and
>> other similar groups), but I have never found any details as to who

> he

>> is (or was, or what part he played.
>>
>> Anyone know?
>>
>> LVX
>>
>> Michael Robartes
>>

>
>
>
>
> Sar Draconis wrote:

>> Sar Draconis wrote:

>>> Sar Draconis wrote:

>>>> Sar Draconis wrote:

>>>>> Colquhoun interviewed MacGregor Reid directly regarding the Golden
>>>>> Dawn: she briefly recounts the meeting in her book, "The Sword of
>>>>> Wisdom":
>>>>>
>>>>> "Mystified by certain resemblances in structure and wording between the
>>>>> Druid-rituals and those of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, I
>>>>> once asked Dr. Robert A. F. MacGregor Reid, lat Chosen Chief of An
>>>>> Uileach Druidh Braithreachas (= The Druid Universal Bond) what
>>>>> connection there was between the two fraternities. He replied:
>>>>> 'Doesn't it occur to you that the Druid Order is the survivor of the
>>>>> Golden Dawn?' Later he passed on to me his account of a more
>>>>> intribuing survival, that of 'a very strict GD Lodge in the Regent's
>>>>> Park area . . ."
>>>>>
>>>>> SAR

>>>>
>>>> The fact that certain of the high Chief Druids of the British Isles,
>>>> such as MacGregor Reid and Desmond Bourke, possessed also lineal de
>>>> jure 7=4 authorities over the rites of the Golden Dawn, has been more
>>>> or less of an open secret within the British occult underground for
>>>> decades. Bourke's GD authority extended so far as to give him the
>>>> right to transmit an independant authority over the GD to active GD
>>>> groups, such as the Ancient Magickal Order of the Golden Dawn, which
>>>> maintained an active Golden Dawn Temple in the greater London area for
>>>> more than two decades. This is why those Chiefs possessed a de jure
>>>> 7=4 authority over their rituals.
>>>>
>>>> I expect to dig out more quotes from Colquhoun dealing with the Druids
>>>> and the Golden Dawn in subsequent posts.
>>>>
>>>> SAR

>>>

>>>>> Sar Draconis wrote:

>>>>>> Sar Draconis wrote:

>>>>>>> Sar Draconis wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>>> Bourke knew and worked with Montalban for a period of time, but this by
>>>>>>>>>> no
>>>>>>>>>> means indicates that his occult involvements, neither his GD
>>>>>>>>>> involvements,
>>>>>>>>>> stemmed from her alone. Indeed, as previously pointed out, certain of
>>>>>>>>>> his
>>>>>>>>>> Druid associates carried a Golden Dawn lineage to him within the
>>>>>>>>>> context
>>>>>>>>>> of a Druid Order which was simultaneously Druid and Golden Dawn (i.e.,
>>>>>>>>>> the same group working both genres of Rites.

>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> See, for example, http://www.angelfire.com/weird2/obscure2/druid.html,
>>>>>>>>> which refers to Desmond Bourke ! ! !
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> The Ancient and Archaological Order of Druids was merged in 1966 with
>>>>>>>>> the Literary and Archaological Order of Druids to form the Universal
>>>>>>>>> Druidic Order, the new organisation being based in Blackheath, London.
>>>>>>>>> This merger ocurred under the guiding hand of Desmond Bourke the head
>>>>>>>>> of the Ancient and Archeaological Order and subsequently the Universal
>>>>>>>>> Druidic Order.

>>>
>>> Interestingly, Colquhoun alludes to this Druid Order of which Desmond
>>> Bourke was the
>>> head as being connected with the founder of the SRIA:
>>>
>>> " In 1874, Bro. Little had also founded the Ancient and Archaeological
>>> Order
>>> of Druids which was open to Masons only; some of its regalia, with
>>> designs
>>> reminiscent of the eighteenth-century Druidic revival, can be seen in
>>> the Museum of Grand Lodge. This was the Order into Winston Churchill
>>> was inducted at Blenheim on August 15, 1908."
>>>
>>> Thus also, Winston Churchill was intiated into the very same Druid
>>> Order
>>> of which Bourke ultimately became the head, and which he merged
>>> with the "Literary and Archaological Order of Druids" to form the
>>> Universal Druid Organisation, centering it in Blackheath, London, where
>>> he resided.
>>>
>>> SAR
>>>

>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Bourke was something of a lynchpin in British druidry, in addition to
>>>>>>>>> the above orders, he is also head of the Ancient Order of Druids
>>>>>>>>> Hermeticists which, decades before, had gained attention by holding
>>>>>>>>> annual Summer Solstice celebrations at Stonehence between 1901 and
>>>>>>>>> 1914. Bourke is also a Freemason and a member or leader of sevaral
>>>>>>>>> other quasi-Masonic initiatic orders thus continuing the traditional
>>>>>>>>> association between Masonry and Druidry.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> The Ancient Order of Druids is still going strong continuing to hold
>>>>>>>>> ceremonies but functioning largely social and charitable organisation.
>>>>>>>>> The Masonic character is still present, the Order is still organised
>>>>>>>>> into lodges (most Druid orders organise themselves into groves) and
>>>>>>>>> most of these are exclusively male. Women members are allowed but their
>>>>>>>>> lodges are separate.

>>
>> Colquhoun discusses further certain cultural influences of the Druids.
>> Interestingly,
>> she states that W. B. Yeats prepared an edition of the Collected Works
>> of
>> William Blake, in the preface of which he states that Blake was ' a
>> member
>> of the Golden Dawn." Colquhoun speculates that the Blake connection
>> was through a Druidic association, but which she considers linked in
>> some
>> way with the Golden Dawn:
>>
>> "If one assumes that there was something equivalent to a Golden Dawn
>> temple operative in the nineteenth century, it might explain the
>> otherwise mystifying statement in the preface to the edition
>> of 'The Collected Works of William Blake' by W. B. Yeats and
>> Edwin Ellis, to the effect that Blake was a member of the Golden
>> Dawn. Surpriing enough on the surface - since the GD as
>> Yeats knew it had then been in existence only about five years! -
>> it hints at a relationship between Druidry and the Order."
>>
>> Colquhoun's speculation is interesting, given the relationship between
>> certain Druidic traditions and GD practices (which will be familiar to
>> those who are initiates of both Orders). Colquhoun goes ahead
>> and describes the antiquity of the Druid Order, and its reconstitution
>> in London circa 1717:
>>
>> "The 'Ancient Druid Order' furhter recounts that the Mother-grove
>> of An Uileach Druidh Braithreachas, named An Tighe
>> Gairdeachas (= the Gate-House) was inaugurated on
>> Primrose Hill at the Autumn Equinox of 1717 with John Aubrey
>> and John Toland as moving sprits. The meeting drew delegates
>> from previously-existent but scattered Druidic and Bardic circles
>> in London, Oxford, York, Cornwell, Wales, Anglesey, the Isle of Man,
>> Scotland, Ireland and Brittany. (There is nothing improbable in this:
>> small Bardic circles, usually based on a family-group, are still
>> indigenous to Wales.) They chose Toland as the first Chief of a
>> reconstituted Druid Order. At that time John Aubrey headed
>> the Grove of Mount Haemus at Oxfore, which had either persisted
>> since 1245 or been revived under the original name . . ."
>>
>> Later in the 18th century, the Ancient Order of Druids would be
>> suppressed
>> by an act of Parliament, and forced to go underground.
>> A successor Order, the United Ancient
>> Order of Druids, would be brought to the Americas within the first two
>> decades of the Twentieth Century. Within the world of Druidism,
>> mutual recognition and inter-fraternal communication would prove
>> common, and thus assisting in Bouke's access to the GD
>> traditions and authorities preservied by MacGregor Reid.
>>
>>

>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> It was three members of the S.R.i.A. William Wynn Westcott, Samuel
>>>>>>>> Liddle McGregor Mathers and Dr. W. Woodman who founded the Hermetic
>>>>>>>> Order of the Golden Dawn, an order which has gained a notorious
>>>>>>>> reputation largely by introducing Aleister Crowley to the occult.
>>>>>>>> Little's Druid and Rosicrucian interests seem to have been brought
>>>>>>>> full circle in 1916 when Nuada, a Duid society and off-shoot of the
>>>>>>>> Golden Dawn tradition was founded. Nuada was based in Clapham, London
>>>>>>>> and was led by G.W. MacGregor Reid. McGregor Reid was a personal friend
>>>>>>>> of Crowley and was also a Chosen Chief of the Universal Druid Bond from
>>>>>>>> 1909-1946 after which he was succeeded by his son Robert (Chosen Chief
>>>>>>>> 1946-1964).
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>

>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> SAR

>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> That Bourke as "something of a lynchpin in British druidry" received
>>>>>>> the 7=4 authorities for the Golden Dawn through Druid Orders cannot be
>>>>>>> surprising. Indeed, the association of G.W. MacGregor Reid as the Head
>>>>>>> of an Order which was simultaneously Druid and Golden Dawn is well
>>>>>>> documented in Colquhoun's book "Sword of Wisdom." Therein, Colquhoun
>>>>>>> documents the fact that Mathers and Westcott were members of a Druid
>>>>>>> organization connected with Reid, and also, that certain GD
>>>>>>> tradititions derived from the Druids, not the other way around. Druid
>>>>>>> traditions in U.K. go back many hundreds of years, and develop a
>>>>>>> particularly Celtic focus of the Mysteries. That S.L. MacGregor
>>>>>>> Mathers was a member of a society connected with MacGregor Reid's, and
>>>>>>> indeed transmitted the authorities of the 7=4 to him in order to
>>>>>>> continue the G.D. traditions under Druid auspices, cannot be
>>>>>>> surprising, given his high interest in and attachment to Celtic
>>>>>>> traditions. That Bourke subsequently received this G.D. 7=4 lineage
>>>>>>> through his Druid involvements is also hardly surprising, given his
>>>>>>> position as "a lynchpin in British druidry", which entailed also, of
>>>>>>> course, the status of Arch Druid with full authority over the Druid
>>>>>>> traditions. Hence also, it is not surprising to learn that Bourke
>>>>>>> transmitted the full authorities not only of the G.D., but also of the
>>>>>>> Druid traditions as well, to the (two) Chiefs of Serapis Temple, (the
>>>>>>> identity of one of which, however, is still unknown to Maria writing as
>>>>>>> Teletourgos, showing that her claims of contact with Serapis are
>>>>>>> false.)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I hope to follow up with some quotations from Colquhoun's book dealing
>>>>>>> with the subject of Druidism and the Golden Dawn, in subsequent posts
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> SAR

>>>>>>
>>>>>> Colquhoun commences Chapter 11 of her book with an allusion to the
>>>>>> Golden Dawn found in a Druid ceremony of the Summer Solstice performed
>>>>>> at Stonehenge - - - indeed, a ceremony which appears to be ancient in
>>>>>> origin, and even to have connections with the ancient mystery rites of
>>>>>> Egypt (which maintained "diplomatic relations" with the Druids.)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> "For to us this is the Day when the Sun has climbed to its zenith, as
>>>>>> the Greatest Manifestation of Light that we can know in the mundane
>>>>>> sense, and hence the Druid Tradition of "the Golden Dawn."
>>>>>>
>>>>>> SAR