Florence Farr – The Evocation of Taphthartharath, and the New Woman of the Golden Dawn ⋆ Nettle’s Garden – The Old Craft
Another fascinating article from Nettle’s Garden. In 1896, London, some of the most revered Adepts of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn gathered to perform a ritual written by Aleister Crowley’s teacher, the man who basically introduced Buddhism to the west and institutionalized it in the UK: Allan Bennett. The ritual would make the spirit of Mercury physically manifest before them. Allan Bennett was there as an assistant Magus, the master of the ceremony, Florence Farr, who was a beautiful woman dressed in a white robe adorned with a yellow sash and on her head she wore an indigo nemes – the headcloth of the pharaohs. Around her neck she wore the seal of Taphthartharath, the spirit of Mercury, around her waist was a belt with a holy dagger, in her left hand she held an Egyptian symbol of immortality, and in her right hand, she held a lotus wand.