Chic Cicero & Sandra Tabatha Cicero
Avalonia Author Interview

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The Interview
by Avalonia
( February 2005: A indicates answer by Chic Cicero & Sandra Tabatha Cicero,
Q indicates questions by Avalonia)

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Q: As Chief Adepts of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, you have published many books on the subject of the Golden Dawn. This is something that you are evidently passionate about. What do you think are the strengths of the Golden Dawn system of magick?

A: Nearly everyone will agree that no organization has had a greater impact on ceremonial magic than the Golden Dawn. Almost every aspect of the Golden Dawn’s curriculum has been absorbed into modern Western magic and esoteric belief. The Golden Dawn is not a religion, although religious symbolism and ideas permeate its teachings.

We believe that one of the major strengths of the Golden Dawn system is its inherent design. It was intended to be a school and repository of esoteric knowledge, where men and women could learn the fundamentals of the magical arts and the various elements of Western mysticism and spiritual philosophy. Students are guided through a series of initiatory rites, which each new grade attained leading to ever more rigorous areas of magical study, covering such topics as meditation, Qabalah, astrology, tarot, divination, inner alchemy, etc. Students absorb this material in gradual stages designed not to overwhelm them or cause psychic imbalance. Those students who are admitted into the higher grades learn the practical side of magic-the assumption of godforms, the creation and consecration of talismans, Enochian magic, skrying and astral work, and so forth.

We find the Golden Dawn’s method of teaching magic in careful, measured steps works much than the “sink or swim” technique of overloading students with advanced magical workings that they are not properly prepared for.

Q: The Golden Dawn system of magick mixes a range of different world pantheons with Christian symbolism. Are there any of these that you personally consider to be more significant for someone working this system of magick?

A: Along with Christian and Greek symbolism, the Egyptian pantheon certainly plays an important role in the Golden Dawn system. Many Egyptophiles are naturally drawn to the Order’s teachings. Much of the Order’s work on the subtle planes involves the visualization and assumption of Egyptian godforms such as Isis, Nephthys, Thoth, and others. The Outer Order of the Golden Dawn has been described as “Osirian” in essence. This is because the Egyptian god Osiris, embodied by the Hierophant, plays a crucial role in the astral work of the Neophyte Hall and the Outer Order in general.

The legend of Osiris, who was an “ordinary” god (if you can say such a thing) until his death, dismemberment, and resurrection is a kind of model or pattern for the candidate of the Mysteries-who “dies” to an old way of life, is symbolically “dismembered” by the initiatory process of self-analysis, and is “reborn” to a new spiritual way of life. Osiris is the perfect deity to symbolize this process, because in addition to being a magical process, this is also a psychological as well as an alchemical one. In analytical psychology this “Osirian” process is called analysis, confrontation (with the shadow), and self-realization. In alchemy it is known as separation, purification, and recombination. In magic it is referred to as purification, consecration, and union. All of these terms are used to describe the same basic purifying experience. In the Outer Order of the Golden Dawn, the student must examine his or her own inner workings-separating (“dismembering”) by defining and analyzing the various components of the psyche. The initiatory process works to purify and consecrate these psychic components until at length they are recombined, reunited, and realized (“resurrected”) in a more exalted or spiritualized Whole.

The work of the soul, like the work of alchemy is cyclical, and so this process will be repeated on a higher level in the more advanced grades of the Golden Dawn’s Second Order (the R.R. et A.C.). Here the Egyptian and Osirian paradigm remains, but it also morphs into the symbolism of Rosicrucianism and mystical Christianity. Here the initiate is introduced to the legend of Christian Rosencreutz, which is itself an allegory of the life of Christ. It should be apparent that throughout the Golden Dawn system, the model of a dying and resurrected Deity takes precedence, precisely because it symbolizes the continual process of alchemical growth and spiritual evolution.

Q: As a magickal couple, do you both have very similar interests or are they widely different?

A: Our interests are virtually identical. It was our attraction to the Golden Dawn that first brought us together over twenty years ago. I suppose we could drag out that tired old phrase “soul mates” but “spiritual companions” sounds less dated. We continue to find a never-ending source of richness and inspiration in the teachings of the Golden Dawn. And we enjoy exploring the system together. We feel that we are very lucky that way.

We share an interest in Egyptology, Biblical archeology, and Christian mysticism. If we could point to any slight difference in our other interests, however, it would be that Chic has more of an interest in Freemasonry and Tabatha has more of an attraction to ancient Babylonian culture and mythos. But this difference in interest is very slight.

Q: Your workshops are very popular and successful, what do you attribute this to?

A: We would like to think it’s because people “get it” that we’re not interested in attracting followers, or pretending that we are greatest magicians on the planet, or trying to fleece people out of their money. There are some “teachers” who seem to be on a power trip-they want to dictate to other people what to do and when to do it, or want to use the hard work of others as their own personal cash cow. Seeing a spiritual/magical system being abused in such a way gets depressing sometimes.

One of the things that first attracted us to Israel Regardie’s books was his style of writing-the way he truly seemed to care about helping spiritual seekers. You could feel his passion for the Great Work throughout his work. On the other hand, we’ve read a few books and websites whose authors seem to write with a condescending attitude toward their readers, rant and rave against other authors and groups, or make claims to be the only “Anointed Ones” on the planet to have found “The One True Way” of all magic. We never wanted our books to sound arrogant in that way-ever. Most readers of esoteric books are intelligent. They can tell when something smells like buffalo chips.

Some people live to tear down others out of jealously, fear of competition, or whatever. Unfortunately this is just as true for the magical community as it is for human society as a whole. This has become especially easy in the age of the Internet where anonymous cowards start flame wars while hiding behind phony screen names. That is just plain childish and stupid-and completely unspiritual. You have to wonder about the mental health of people who claim to be spiritually advanced and yet spend large amounts of their time posting hateful gossip and slander.

Whether we agree with them or not, we do not slam other authors or other magical groups, and we advise our students to follow suit. In fact, other than posting articles to our website, we don’t post on the Internet at all. We much prefer talking face to face with live individuals. It’s much more satisfying.

We both have day jobs and work for our lunch money. So we have to laugh when people assume that the Golden Dawn has made us rich. We can honestly tell you that the Golden Dawn has cost us thousands and thousands of dollars-it’s a labor of love for us. We love the system and that’s why we’ve spent 25 years or more building temples, making wands, and trying to help students with the Work. We try to keep it real. If we don’t know the answer to something, we’ll say so. Teaching and learning is a symbiotic relationship. There are times when we learn new things from our students. We love that. As we like to say: We are all Neophytes. We can all learn something from each other.

Q: Will you be doing any workshops in the UK during 2005?

A: Yes, we will be giving a workshop on Spiritual Alchemy in London on Saturday, April 30th, at Regent’s College. Details will be posted to our website. We will also be back in the UK sometimes in the fall, to give a workshop in Nottingham.

Q: Who has inspired you the most on your respective magickal paths?

A: That’s easy. Israel Regardie has had a huge impact on us both personally and magically. As you know, Regardie was the author of several books on magic. He is credited with removing the veil of secrecy surrounding modern occultism and ceremonial magic.

Regardie was born in England in 1907, but he spent most of his life living in the United States. In 1926 he was initiated into the Societas Rosicruciana in America, a Rosicrucian group that used Golden Dawn rituals. In 1928 he took a job in Paris working as a secretary for Aleister Crowley, a famous (we might say infamous) magical author and magician.

As a young man, Regardie studied every magical book he could get his hands on and by 1932, he had become a magical author in his own right. It was during that year that he published two books: A Garden of Pomegranates, which described the mystical system known as the Qabalah, and The Tree of Life which is considered his greatest work. It was the publication of the Tree of Life which resulted in Regardie being invited to join the Stella Matutina, a major offshoot of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (which had ceased to exist under that name in 1903). Regardie went on to write several more books, including The Golden Dawn: An Account of the Teachings, Rites and Ceremonies of the Order of the Golden Dawn and The Middle Pillar, which explored the common ground between magic and modern psychology. Later Regardie become a chiropractor and a psycho-therapist. He died in 1985, but his books are considered classics among magical text books.

In The Tree of Life Regardie drew a comparison between the mystical systems of Western Magic and Eastern Yoga-how they were alike and how they were different. But he was mainly interested in describing Western Magic, or the magic that developed in the major civilizations of the West. This type of magic is sometimes called theurgy, which is Greek for “God Working.” Theurgy is an ancient form of magic used for personal growth, spiritual evolution, and for becoming closer to the Divine. Regardie was not interested in hexes or spell-casting in order to get rich, curse your enemies, or to make someone fall in love with you. Regardie had very little tolerance for such things. He was mainly interested in magic as a system for self-healing as well as for spiritual evolution and psychic growth.

We began communicating with Regardie in 1981 and in the summer of 1982 he came to Columbus, Georgia to consecrate our Golden Dawn temple and Vault. (A series of letters from Regardie from around that time can found on our website.) In addition to being a great teacher, Regardie was a just fun person to be around. He was a real person. He enjoyed things as diverse as professional wrestling and classical music. He simply loved life. He wanted his friends to call him Francis-“None of this Dr. Regardie, s**t!” he would say. He had an impish Scorpio sense of humor and got a kick out of sending stinging quick-witted barbs on occasion. He was a knowledgeable and talented magician, as well as a gentle, ethical man who worked to help others.

Q: Do you feel that modern writers try to psychologise magick too much?

A: Some authors psychologize magic too much, others not enough. Some writers believe that “it’s all in your head” while others seem to believe that “it’s all in the hands of the gods.” The truth lies somewhere in the middle of these two extremes. Some authors do fall into the trap of the “psychologization of magic.” They proclaim that deities, angels, and spirits are simply creations of the human mind. Although pop psychologists derive their thinking from the theories of Swiss psychologist Carl G. Jung and others, they misunderstand Jung, who had a plaque above the front door of his home which read in Latin: “Bidden or not bidden, God is present.”

It all comes back to the old Hermetic axiom of “As Above, so Below.” God, gods, angels, and spirits exist out in the Greater Universe, just they exist within its mirror-the Lesser Universe of the human soul. To affect a change in one is to affect a change in the other. The Divine life force (known variously as the astral light, chi, prana, etc.) permeates everything. The Divine gave us the human mind, the most powerful magical tool we possess. And it is through the human mind that we are able to visualize and invoke gods, angels, and spirits-those Divine forces within us that are connected to their mirror image out in the Greater Universe. Magic strikes a balance between psychology and spirituality.

Q: We are often asked about the roots of Wicca, and certainly when it comes to practices Wicca has “borrowed” quite significant ideas and material from the Golden Dawn. What do you consider the most important roots of the Golden Dawn system of magick?

A: Much of this is covered in Chapter One of our book The Essential Golden Dawn. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn takes the first part of its name from the Hermetic Tradition or Hermeticism. This in turn is named after a human incarnation of Hermes-Thoth, the Greek god of communication combined with the Egyptian god of wisdom and magic. The roots of the Hermetic Tradition can be traced back to the Hellenistic period at the beginning of the Common Era, when the great cultures of Egypt and Greece merged after Alexander the Great conquered the known world. The cultural center of Alexandria bought together a variety of different religions, philosophies, and traditions that resulted in a new synthesis of beliefs and practices that would become known as Hermetism-the ancient source of modern Hermeticism.

Although Hermetism was attributed to an avatar of the Egyptian god of wisdom, and was Egyptian in essence, this new tradition embraced not only the richness of Egyptian religion, but also the many faces of Classical Greek philosophy and religion, particularly the teachings of Platonism, Neoplatonism, Stoicism, Neopythagorism, and Iamblichan theurgy. It also embraced the magical teachings and angelic hierarchy of Judaism, as well as Zoroastrianism and the many forms of Christianity and Gnosticism.

What did ancient Hermetism gain from this mixture? From Egyptian religion came the standard for magical formulae, potent ritual techniques, and some of the earliest ideas about the human soul. From the Greek philosophers came new insights about the universe and humanity’s place within it, including the theories on the four elements, the mystical power of numbers, and the evolution of the human soul. The Greek Mystery religions brought a deeply personal relationship between human worshipers and their beloved gods. Stoicism provided an emphasis on virtue, rationality, and moral conduct. Neopythagorism, Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, and the ancient Christian sects supplied the vocabulary and primary ideas of ancient mysticism. Iamblichan theurgy outlined basic magical techniques are still in use today.

In the fifteenth century, Renaissance scholars and Christian mages helped transform ancient Hermetism into modern Hermeticism. New elements were added to the tradition in the seventeenth century-namely Rosicrucianism, an esoteric path that emphasized alchemy, Qalabah, and Christian mysticism. A century later, aspects of Freemasonry, particularly Masonic ritual structure, was firmly imbedded into the mix.

All of these components helped to shape the Golden Dawn.

Q: What advice would you give to a newcomer who is interested in the Golden Dawn?

A: The best advice we can give is to read as much as they can about the subject. Read everything. Read books by Israel Regardie and Dion Fortune. Read our books. Read books by R.A. Gilbert, Pat Zalewski, John Michael Greer, and Darcy Küntz. Read Mary K. Greer’s Women of the Golden Dawn and Susan Johnston Graf’s W.B. Yeats-Twentieth Century Magus. Read books by Paul Foster Case and The Magicians of the Golden Dawn by Ellic Howe. And yes, you should read books by Aleister Crowley (even if you don’t like Crowley) and Arthur Edward Waite (even if you have a hard time getting through his ponderous writing style). One good introductory book is Learning Ritual Magic by John Michael Greer, Clare Vaughn, and Earl King, Jr. Just read everything.

Joining a Masonic or Co-Masonic type of organization will give readers some idea of the underlying formation and organization that was behind the structuring of the Golden Dawn system. John Michael Greer’s book Inside a Magical Lodge: Group Ritual in the Western Tradition will also help in this regard.

Be discriminating when it comes to joining any magical group, whether it’s Golden Dawn or any other tradition. (And keep sniffing the air for those infamous buffalo chips!) There is no group operating today that can prove that it has an unbroken line of institutional lineage back to the original Golden Dawn which ceased to exist in 1903, so forget about finding a group with real “apostolic succession.” Looking for Secret Chiefs under the bed is a complete waste of time-time that could be better spent actually doing the Work. The Great Work is the only important consideration.

In fact, don’t feel like you have to join a group at all. Maybe you simply want to start a small Golden Dawn study group with your friends. Maybe self-initiation is a route you might consider. If you really want to join an established group, there are many different Golden Dawn Orders that offer teachings-some groups teach traditional Golden Dawn while other blend Golden Dawn with other traditions such as Wicca or Thelema-which is perfectly fine so long as these distinctions are made clear at the outset. So find a group that fits you and your needs.

But we also recommend putting the books and study work aside on occasion and connecting with the rest of humanity-our brothers and sisters on this spinning globe. (Just because most people in Western society are not into magic does not give magicians the right to look down their noses and call them “troglodytes.” Many ordinary people may in fact be more spiritual than a good many magicians!) Magical folk, especially ceremonial magicians, tend to be recluses and hermits. And sometimes people use magic just like they use food, alcohol, or drugs-as an escape mechanism for avoiding human interaction. An obsessive or fanatical approach to magic may lead to the pitfalls of magical practice-ego-inflation and messianic complexes. Israel Regardie suggested that magical students undergo some form of psychotherapy to guard against this phenomenon. It is vitally important for students to maintain a healthy balance between the magical world and the secular world of everyday human contact. True spiritual growth is meant to be a benefit to all of humanity. So get out into the world. Do charity work. Connect. Watch a good movie. Play with the dog. Live a little.

Q: The Golden Dawn has an inherent structure of hierarchy, yet today many newcomers to the magickal world seem to show an interest in systems that allow them complete freedom, without the need to commit. What are your feelings on eclectic solitary practises which have resulted as a consequence?

A: It important to realize that most Golden Dawn Orders follow the hierarchical structure of a school, where the teachers, rather than the students, get to set the curriculum. A school is not a democracy. If someone has a problem following an established curriculum, maybe a school is not the right setting for them.

However, thanks to people like Israel Regardie, the Golden Dawn system of magic can be fully explored by solitary practitioners and groups of like-minded people who simply to wish to study the Golden Dawn tradition on their own. They can learn rituals like the LBRP, the Middle Pillar, and the Rose Cross Ritual, and even the initiation rituals and adapt them to their own style of working. They can study the Golden Dawn’s teachings on tarot, geomancy, Enochian, the creation of talismans, the Z-documents, etc.

You have to remember that when Regardie published all of this material, the remnants of the Golden Dawn-the last temples of the A.O. and the Stella Matutina-were in a severe state of decline. Regardie felt that the Golden Dawn Order system was fading into extinction. He felt that the only way future generations could benefit from the Golden Dawn’s teachings was to publish them. In 1937 he could not have imagined that Golden Dawn Orders and temples would make a come-back the way that they have in recent years. He probably assumed that everyone in the future would eventually be working on their own without the benefit of temples. Many of his later books where written with this in mind. He was a firm believer in the value of self-initiation.

So like Regardie, we have no problem with eclectic solo practices that have developed along the way. Many solitary magicians have come up valuable insights and good results which have proven to be beneficial to others working Golden Dawn magic. And again, some magicians working on their own or with others have adapted the Golden Dawn’s teachings by adding material from other traditions to suit their own likes and needs. There is nothing wrong with this.

That being said, there is a great benefit to be had in the traditional Golden Dawn Order system. It is very valuable to learn from people who have already experienced what you seek to experience. Also, the Order system is set up in such a way as to insure slow and steady progress of spiritual growth, in order to minimize the problems of magical burn-out, psychic imbalance, and ego-inflation. Also, sticking to one spiritual path is a form of discipline. A discipline is a routine of training and self-control that is designed to produce specific results and personal improvements. Someone who does not follow a specific spiritual discipline or established curriculum cannot expect to have the same experience or the same results as someone who does.

Q: The Golden Dawn system was created at the end of the 19th century, how much do you feel it has evolved since then?

A: We feel that it’s pretty hard to improve upon the original. We are amused when every once in a while somebody suggests that because we stick to the traditional Osirian model of the Golden Dawn, we are somehow working a “outdated” system that is stuck in the past and has no relevance in today’s world-as if Egyptian deities such as Osiris and Isis have a limited shelf-life. We would like to think that the old “your system is outdated compared to mine” argument-which has been used in the past by some Christians against Pagans and Jews, and in more recent times by some Neo-pagans against Christians-is itself considered outdated and un-evolved by true students of the Mysteries. The Golden Dawn is not a religion, but it teaches us to “hold all Religions in reverence, for there is none but contains a Ray from the Ineffable Light that you are seeking.”

One way that the Golden Dawn has evolved is that system is far more accessible than it has ever been before. There are more people today who consider themselves Golden Dawn magicians than at any other time. During the Victorian era, members were primarily Christian. Today, people from various religions are drawn to the Golden Dawn, including a large number of Neo-pagans. We have seen Buddhists, Jewish Rabbis, Catholic Priests, Gnostic Priests, Wiccan High Priestesses, and Protestant Ministers included among those who are drawn to the Golden Dawn.

The traditional Golden Dawn Order system is founded upon an excellent bedrock of quality magical studies, ritual practices, and principles that are just as valid and useful today as they were over one hundred years ago. And the traditional Golden Dawn teachings, as we know them, have continued to evolve to accommodate new discoveries in various Western magical systems (such as Enochian), psychology, and archeology (particularly Egyptology and Coptic studies) while remaining true to its Osirian/Rosicrucian roots. It is a living system worked by living magicians who continue to add to the tradition with new insights.

Q: You describe Enochian Magick as the pinnacle of the Golden Dawn system and incredibly magickally potent, how much experience do you feel a newcomer should have before they turn their hand to practicing Enochian Magick?

A: When we were working through the Outer Order grades of the Golden Dawn, Regardie himself told us to leave Enochian alone until we were ready for it. A person who is just beginning to learn how to swim needs to stay at the shallow end of the pool before jumping headlong into the deep end. It’s the same way with magic or anything else for that matter. It is our view that students at the beginner’s level should learn the basics of magic first. The Golden Dawn system of Enochian requires that magicians be competent in all other areas of the Golden Dawn’s teachings prior to performing any advanced Enochian workings. This means that the magician must be skilled in his or her knowledge of the qabalah, astrology, geomancy, tarot, visualization, skrying, the projection of energy, vibration of divine names, etc. Much of the Golden Dawn’s Enochian magic revolves around skrying, angelic evocation, and astral work.

Until they reach a certain level of proficiency in their fundamental studies, Golden Dawn students of the Outer Order are given the Enochian system in small doses. This is because the Outer Order of the Golden Dawn is a school where the student first learns the ABC’s of magic before performing advanced magical procedures. This is one of the hallmarks of the Golden Dawn system.

Each student is an individual and some are going to learn at a faster rate than others. It’s also important for magical teachers and temple chiefs to be able to judge when someone might be getting ahead of themselves and becoming unbalanced by performing too much magical work. If someone is getting extreme, blow-out spiritual visions from performing a simple rite such as the Qabalistic Cross, it would be wise for them to proceed very slowly with the Work-saving Enochian for last. Since the Enochian was designed to be the “pinnacle” of the Golden Dawn system, it should be set aside until the student is ready.

The Golden Dawn Enochian Skrying Tarot was designed with this in mind. Although it was designed and based upon the teachings of the Golden Dawn, we realize that students both within and without the Golden Dawn tradition may use it. It was for this reason that we designed the Skrying Tarot system with three levels of expertise in mind: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. Beginners can use the cards purely as a divination tool, without having to perform complex workings of Enochian magic. As they develop more skills in the magical arts, in whatever tradition they are following, they may advance to the higher levels.

Q: You recently published The Golden Dawn Enochian Skrying Tarot. What inspired you to create this synthesis?

A: We can’t take credit for The Golden Dawn Enochian Skrying Tarot. It was the brainchild of our good friends, Bill and Judi Genaw, who were both formerly employed by the space industry in Florida. Bill is an engineer who used to fire up the Titan and Aries rockets. Judi is an artist with a lot of experience with computer graphics. One day they came over to our house with a prototype deck of what would eventual become the Skrying Tarot. We immediately realized what a useful tool the deck would be for those who wanted to study the Enochian system and use the cards for skrying into the Enochian Pyramid Squares-an important aspect of Enochian magic in the higher grades of the Golden Dawn system. We were also very excited by the fact that the Western elemental symbols (what we have come to call Western Tattvas) formed an entirely new system for skrying on the backs of the cards which perfectly matched the correspondences on the Enochian side of the cards. We decided to call the entire system The Golden Dawn Enochian Skrying Tarot-and the individual sides would be called The Enochian Watchtower Tarot (front side) and The Western Tattva Tarot (back side).

So the four of us set about fleshing out the system for what was to become the only double-sided deck that we are aware of. At first we thought that the deck’s primary use would be only as a tool for skrying, astral projection, and visionary work. But the more we worked on it, the more it became obvious that the deck could be a powerful tool for divination-not just on one side but on both sides. So then we set about coming up with keywords and divinatory interpretations for both sides of each card of the deck-89 cards times two! It was a long, hard process that took about five years to complete. It was a challenging and unique deck to produce, but we believe the result was well worth it.

Q: Are you working on any books or projects at the moment which you can discuss?

A: Yes, we have a new tarot deck coming out in January of 2006-The Babylonian Tarot-based on the cosmology and legends of ancient Mesopotamia. It is comprised of 83 cards, seventy-eight of which are the traditional cards of the tarot, with qabalistic, zodiacal, planetary, and elemental attributions that completely correspond with those of modern Hermetic decks such as our own previous deck The Golden Dawn Magical Tarot. There are five additional cards in this deck, including one extra trump and four extra court cards. The extra trump card is that of “Genesis” which has no number and is the first card in the deck, because we were trying to capture the antiquity of Mesopotamia and the creation of universe described in the great Babylonian epic known as the Enuma Elish. As for the extra court cards, a traditional tarot has four court types: the King (sometimes called the Knight) the Queen, Prince (also called the Knight at times), and the Princess (the Page or Knave). These correspond to the four elements of Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. The Babylonian Tarot includes a fifth court card type, the Kerub, who represents the element of Spirit.

Also, we have just finished up a book on Tarot Talismans, which uses five different decks to illustrate how to use the cards as talismans and amulets. Different talismanic purposes are described for every card in the deck, and consecration rituals are also provided. A large part of the book covers the angels of the tarot cards and how to invoke them, including making sigils and telesmatic images of these beings. Although the book is based on Golden Dawn teachings and techniques, we have tried to make it accessible to practitioners of many different spiritual paths.

Q: Where can readers go to find out more about the Golden Dawn in general and your books in particular?

A: Many of our books are published by Llewellyn publications (www.llewellyn.com). We also have a book that was published in England by Thoth Publications (www.thoth.co.uk) called Secrets of a Golden Dawn Temple: Book I, Creating Magical Tools.

We maintain a website for the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn at http://www.hermeticgoldendawn.org. There readers can find several articles on magic, tarot, astrology, biographies of famous ceremonial magicians and other topics by many of the magical community’s most respected authors, as well as numerous book reviews. We also have several links to a wide variety of resources that your readers can explore.

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Thank you to Chic & Sandra Tabatha Cicero for granting this interview for Avalonia! It has been an honour and a pleasure !
Please note: For permission to reproduce this article please contact us first – (c)2005 Chic Cicero; Sandra Tabatha Cicero & Avalonia.

Chic Cicero was born in Buffalo, New York. A former musician and businessman, Chic has been a practicing ceremonial magician for the past thirty years. He was a close personal friend of Israel Regardie. Having established a Golden Dawn Temple in 1977, Chic was of one of the key persons who helped Regardie resurrect a legitimate branch of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the United States in the early 1980’s.

Sandra Tabatha Cicero was born in Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 1982 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts.

Both Chic and Tabatha are Chief Adepts of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn who have written several books published by Llewellyn. They share an enthusiasm for the esoteric sciences as well as a love of ritual, dance, music, and the creative arts. They live in Florida with their cat, Lealah, where they work and practice magic.

For those of you wanting to find out more about the work done by the Cicero’s please visit the website of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.