Hathoor Temple Brief History and Overview

Given that some of the lessons and teachings of Bast Temple come from a previous Golden Dawn lodge located in Denver, it might be helpful to know something of the background of that lodge.

Unfortunately, we are at a handicap when it comes to the history of Hathoor Temple. The lodge formally closed in late 1994, and its primary records left Colorado along with its last Chief Adept (Praemonstrator).

The exact date of Hathoor Temple’s founding is unknown; what is known is that during the mid-eighties, Hathoor Temple broke away from its parent lodge and Order. While it was an open secret among the Inner Order officers that such a break occurred, the exact name of the group from which they broke from was carefully expunged from their records, typically with a liberal application of a black marker.

The reason for the schism, if it could be called that, is known. The membership of Hathoor Temple wanted more control over the daily business of the lodge, including the right to limit their membership and to elect their own officers. The parent group rejected this notion, and Hathoor Temple chose to vote with their feet.

But given the earliest papers in the Hathoor Temple archive, this was not actually a great loss. It seems that the parent Order, if it was ever more than two lodges, was based primarily on the same documents that Regardie published. And that they religiously cling to these documents as the whole of the system.

If the most valuable thing you can get from a lineage is the teachings, the parent group failed miserably, and Hathoor Temple was better off without them.

A definite change occurred in the lessons after the break, the material started to expand as ordinary members had the opportunity to add to the system. In their hands, new layers were added to the system.

Comparing the memory of their material with some of the stuff that has surfaced, one is stuck with the question of whether they made connection with an older group, or whether one is drawn to the same place if the rituals and lessons are treated a certain way.

Of course, this does not matter. What matters is that they ended up in the same place as earlier lodges; for instance, they restored the concept of the Adept Minor subgrades.

One may ask why more copies of the material were not distributed to those who the leadership hoped would revive the system? The answer is that they wanted the new leaders to earn the right to lead and teach by their own merits, and not of the basis of merely possessing papers. Any help that the new Golden Dawn leaders got had to be earned while remaining independent of the hierarchies that always threaten to fossilize the tradition.

And that is why Hathoor Temple is important. Not because Bast Temple claims lineage though that lodge (we don’t; Bast Temple lineage starts at the earliest with the formation of the EOEW), but rather because it is from them that the concept of electing officers and members being responsible for expanding the system comes from.

Hathoor Temple did not seek to make contact with Third Order; they worked at becoming their own Third Order. And in many ways, they succeeded at reaching that goal.

Hathoor Temple is no more; long live Hathoor Temple.