When Florence Farr took her initiation into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn just before her 30th birthday, she was blindfolded and led on a symbolic journey from darkness into light. In this initiation ceremony, she would say: "My soul is wandering in darkness seeking for the light of occult knowledge." Throughout her relatively short life, it is clear that she was the 'adept's adept', fulfilling this vow in continually seeking esoteric wisdom and bringing it forth into the world. Meet Florence Farr...
Florence Farr, Leader of the Golden Dawn
Born in 1860, magician and mystic Florence Farr was way ahead of her time, becoming an initiate of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1890. Ultimately, she became the leader and chief adept of this dynamic occult group, and its original South West London Temple of Isis-Urania (Heavenly Isis) named for the Egyptian goddess Isis in her starry form. This secret esoteric order was extremely influential, with many luminaries of the day as members. Thanks to the Golden Dawn, we have the basis for much of the occult, pagan and new age knowledge and ways of working with it that we use today. Florence Farr was a shining star among the members, and she brought the mystical knowledge from the secret temple out into the world via her public arts.
Florence Farr's occult interests
Florence Farr studied Egyptology and Ancient Mesopotamia at the British Museum, and knew Sir Edgar Wallis Budge. She was expert in Qabala and wrote ceremonial magic exploring Ancient Egyptian myth and mysticism, contacting the Egyptian deities via psychism and ritual. She was accomplished in the meaning and use of symbolism, colour magic and visualisation, along with tarot meditation. In her magical writing, Florence Farr shows the importance of seership and what she called scrying in the spirt vision. She showed a deep interest in the philosophies of the ancient world and the mysteries of time.
Farr the Creatrix
If her magical life was writ large, her outer-court life was impressive too. She was a West End actress of some note, known for her personal beauty and her sublime, ethereal voice. She was also a playwright, musician, composter, director, and producer, being the first British woman to act in Ibsen's plays. She gave George Bernard Shaw his first opportunity to have one of his plays performed. An accomplished musician, she developed seductive sounds and rhythms to be recited on her psaltery, to accompanying hypnotic chanting, the idea being to lift the consciousness of the audience.
Florence Farr was also a journalist, and a first wave feminist, writing strongly in favour of women's rights and equality for all, including worker's rights. She had a big influence on the famous Irish poet and fellow Golden Dawn alumnus, and former College of Psychic Studies member, W.B. Yeats. Additionally, Farr almost certainly inspired some of the Egyptian Gothic revival novels of the early 19th century, such as The Jewel of Seven Stars by her colleague Bram Stoker of Dracula fame. Florence was a friend of Rider-Waite-Smith tarot artist Pamela Colman-Smith, and collaborated with her on set design at the Lyceum theatre, where several of the company were associated with the Golden Dawn.
Florence Farr and the Sphere Group
Farr created a secret group within the secret order, with handpicked adepts based on friendship and compatibility over magical grades. This was the Sphere Group, that worked with a spirit form she had identified at the British Museum, via a statue and a mummy case, as her Ka – an Ancient Egyptian understanding the spirit double she called her 'sister soul'. Farr's Ka inspired her decision that it was time to leave the Golden Dawn, and she became a Theosophist. She was invited to go to Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, to become the headmistress at a school for girls, where she continued her studies of Eastern philosophies and mysticism until her death at 56 from breast cancer.
Farr into the future
It was at a séance in 1988 that Florence Farr communicated, asking that there be public performances of her Egyptian plays, with profits going to breast cancer charities. This is the basis of the subsequent Florence Farr events over the years. The 3rd Annual Florence Farr Conference at The College of Psychic Studies in 2025 is one such event. It celebrates this extraordinary visionary, dramatist, pioneer of women's rights and leader of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn with a programme of talks, performances and discussion. Book your place now:
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