Ordo Aurum Solis

Various initiatic traditions existed in ancient Greece. These were called Mysteries. In Greece the Mysteries of Eleusis, Samothrace, Orpheus, and Dionysus were among the most important, and in ancient Rome and across its empire, the Mithraic and Isiac Traditions. These effectively combined the sacred Mysteries with the rationalism of Philosophy, which constituted the real genius of such esoteric traditions.

Greek initiates were strongly present in Alexandria, in the latest period of Egyptian history known as the Ptolemaic period. They brought with them the Greek initiatic system of the Mysteries, which was then incorporated by the ancient Egyptian priests into their traditions, thereby giving a new, coherent structure to the same. According to Ordo Aurum Solis and its initiates, this was the real birth of the Hermetic Theurgic Tradition, later to be known as the Ogdoadic Tradition, or Ordo Aurum Solis. As Sumerian and Egyptian magic also found their place in the clear system of the ancient Greek Mysteries, the Western initiatic tradition was born.

Just before the dawn of the 20th century, there were a number of "antiquarian" and "folklore" societies in England that chronicled curiosities and pursued their own chosen researches. One such society was known as the Societas Rotae Fulgentis (i.e., “Society of the Blazing Wheel”) and had been slowly amassing a wealth of knowledge and research from its various antecedents in the Ogdoadic Tradition. To this society belonged two dedicated occultists, Charles Kingold and George Stanton. In the changing religious and political environment of the late 19th century, they decided to take the core philosophy of the Societas Rotae Fulgentis and constitute it into a living magical and initiatory order, establishing Ordo Aurum Solis in 1897 and reawakening the Golden Chain of the Greek and Egyptian initiatic heritage.

Melita Denning and Osborne Phillips are the pen-names of Vivian Godfrey and Leon Barcynski, who together authored many books in the early days of Llewellyn Publications. Chief among these was the formal presentation of the Order Aurum Solis' philosophy and praxis: The Magical Philosophy.

Melita Denning, a Jungian scholar, was the first female Grand Master of the Order. She led the Order from 1976 to 1987, and from 1988 till her death on 23 March 1997. Earlier in her life, she had traveled throughout the Middle East and the Mediterranean in search of occult knowledge. It was after six years of research that she finally came upon Ordo Aurum Solis.

Osborne Phillips was Grand Master of the Order from 1997 to 2003. He received magical training early in his life at the hands of Ernest Page, a London astrologer of some repute. In the early 1970s, he was in charge of psychic investigation as conducted by certain initiates of Ordo Aurum Solis. Phillips was also a student of U Maung Maung Ji, who specialized in Eastern philosophical systems and was a co-worker of the UN Secretary-General U Thant.[8]

7th Grand Master of the Aurum Solis, Carl Llewellyn Weschcke was also the chairman of Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd. until his death in 2015. He wrote several books on psychic empowerment and published, through Llewellyn, books of the Ordo Aurum Solis. Weschcke reaffirmed his support to the Hermetic Tradition in the foreword to Jean-Louis de Biasi's The Divine Arcana of the Aurum Solis.[9]

Jean-Louis de Biasi, an author and philosopher born in Southern France, has been involved in the Mystery Traditions for the past forty years. He has been Grand Master of Ordo Aurum Solis since 2003, as shown on the Order Aurum Solis' website. De Biasi has written books on the Ogdoadic Tradition, the Tarot, the aura, and Freemasonry. As per his website, he now seems to be actively writing books in English. He wrote Secrets and Practices of the Freemasons: Sacred Mysteries, Rituals and Symbols Revealed and has written two books directly related to Ordo Aurum Solis: The Divine Arcana of the Aurum Solis and Rediscover the Magick of the Gods and Goddesses.[10][11][12] His book, The Magical Use of Prayer Beads, contains practices coming from the Aurum Solis.[13] All these books have been published by Llewellyn Publications.