The foundational documents of the original Order…

The foundational documents of the original Order of the Golden Dawn, known as the Cipher Manuscripts, were written in English using Trithemius cipher, a polyalphabetic cipher invented by the German author and monk Johannes Trithemius in the fifteenth century.

The Manuscripts give the specific outlines of the Grade Rituals of the Order and prescribe a curriculum of graduated teachings that encompass the Hermetic Qabalah, astrology, occult tarot, geomancy, and alchemy.

According to the records of the Order, the manuscripts had been passed from Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie, a Masonic scholar, to Rev. A.F.A. Woodford, whom British occult writer Francis King will describe as the fourth founder (King, Francis (1989). Modern Ritual Magic: The Rise of Western Occultism) although Woodford dies shortly after the Order is founded).

The documents had not excited Woodford and in February 1886 he had passed them on to Freemason William Wynn Westcott, who managed to decode them in 1887.

Westcott is pleased with his discovery and calls on fellow Freemason Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers for a second opinion.

Westcott asks for Mathers' help to turn the manuscripts into a coherent system for lodge work.

Mathers in turn asks fellow Freemason William Robert Woodman to assist the two and he accepts.

Mathers and Westcott have been credited for developing the ritual outlines in the Cipher Manuscripts into a workable format.

Mathers, however, is generally credited with the design of the curriculum and rituals of the Second Order, which he calls the Rosae Rubae et Aureae Crucis ("Ruby Rose and Golden Cross" or the RR et AC).

Influences on Golden Dawn concepts and work include: Christian mysticism, Qabalah, Hermeticism, the religion of Ancient Egypt, Theurgy, Freemasonry, Alchemy, Theosophy, Eliphas Levi, Papus, Enochian magic, and Renaissance grimoires.

In October 1887, Westcott purports to have written to Anna Sprengel, whose name and address he had received through the decoding of the Cipher Manuscripts. (Anna Sprengel, countess of Landsfeldt, love-child of Ludwig I of Bavaria and Lola Montez, is a person whose existence has never been proven, and whom it now seems was invented by Westcott to confer legitimacy on the Golden Dawn.)

Westcott claims to receive a wise reply that confers honorary grades of Adeptus Exemptus on Westcott, Mathers, and Woodman and charters a Golden Dawn temple consisting of the five grades outlined in the manuscripts.

In 1888, the Isis-Urania Temple is founded in London, where the rituals decoded from the cipher manuscripts are developed and practiced.

In addition, there is an insistence on women being allowed to participate in the Order in "perfect equality" with men, in contrast to the S.R.I.A. and Masonry.

This first lodge does not teach any magical practices per se (except for basic "banishing" rituals and meditation), but is rather a philosophical and metaphysical teaching order.

It was called "the Outer Order" or "First Order" and for four years the Golden Dawn will exist only in this order.