The Ordo Aurum Solis

The Ordo Aurum Solis is a Western mystery school that claims to transmit the Ogdoadic tradition, a distinct stream of Hermetic and Neoplatonic theurgy whose roots the order traces through classical antiquity and the Renaissance. Operating as a parallel and occasionally rival current to the Rosicrucian stream represented by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Aurum Solis presents a magical system grounded in Greek philosophical categories and classical theurgical practice, using the framework of the Ogdoad, the region of the fixed stars above the seven planetary spheres, as its primary cosmological model.

The order has been less prominent than the Golden Dawn in the wider history of Western esotericism, but it has attracted dedicated practitioners and produced a body of published teaching that has introduced many readers to its distinctive approach.

History and origins

The Aurum Solis claims an unbroken lineage reaching back to 1897, when it was founded in England. The historical details of the order’s early period are not fully documented in public sources, and the degree to which the claimed lineage can be verified independently is uncertain. The order’s public profile rose substantially in the 1970s when Melita Denning and Osborne Phillips, the pen names of Vivian Godfrey and Leon Barcynski, who served as Magisters of the order, began publishing its teachings through Llewellyn Publications.

Their multi-volume work The Magical Philosophy, along with the Llewellyn Practical Guide series covering topics including astral projection, creative visualization, and the foundations of high magic, brought Aurum Solis teaching to a broad audience. These works represent the published exoteric curriculum of the order and remain in use by practitioners who have no formal connection to the order itself.

The order has continued operating into the present century, with Osborne Phillips resuming its leadership after an interim period. It is headquartered in the United Kingdom, though it has members in multiple countries.

Core beliefs and practices

The Aurum Solis frames its work within the Hermetic tradition as filtered through Neoplatonic philosophy, particularly the theurgy described in the writings of Iamblichus and Proclus. Theurgy, literally “divine working,” is the practice of ritual acts understood to awaken or attract the presence of divine intelligences, not merely to symbolize them but to genuinely engage them in the practitioner’s transformation.

The cosmological structure central to Aurum Solis practice is the division of reality into seven planetary spheres and the Ogdoad above them, the sphere of the fixed stars associated with the divine principles governing the cosmos. The work of the order involves the gradual purification and elevation of the practitioner’s being so that consciousness can ascend through these spheres toward the divine, a process described through both ritual and contemplative means.

The order uses the Middle Pillar exercise and related Sephirothic visualizations alongside its own Ogdoadic formulas, the Rousing of the Citadels (an energetic activation of the body’s subtle centers corresponding to the spheres), and a system of ritual work centered on planetary and stellar forces. The order’s approach to Qabalah is genuine but recontextualized within a Greek philosophical framework that gives greater weight to Neoplatonic categories than the more Judaic-inflected Qabalah of the Golden Dawn.

The grade system follows the Western mystery school pattern, with progressive initiations marking development through the curriculum. Each grade corresponds to a sphere of the Tree of Life and involves both intellectual study and practical magical work.

Open or closed

The Aurum Solis is an initiatory order; its formal grades and inner teachings are transmitted through initiation, and membership requires application and acceptance. However, as noted, a substantial portion of the curriculum has been published and is available to any interested reader. The Denning and Phillips books constitute a genuine curriculum that can be worked independently of formal membership.

Those seeking formal initiation may contact the order directly. The order does not publicize its membership size, and the application process involves communication with the current leadership.

How to begin

The most accessible entry point for independent study of the Aurum Solis system is the Denning and Phillips book The Foundations of High Magick (volume one of The Magical Philosophy), which introduces the Ogdoadic worldview, the theory of the subtle body, and basic ritual practice. Their Mysteria Magica (volume three) addresses the practical magical curriculum in greater detail.

For those already working within a Western ceremonial tradition, the Aurum Solis material offers a thoughtful Greek philosophical recontextualization of familiar practices. The order’s emphasis on the classical theurgical tradition makes it particularly relevant for practitioners interested in connecting modern ceremonial magic to its ancient sources.

In myth and popular culture

The Aurum Solis is a specialist organization within Western esotericism and has not entered popular culture in the way that figures such as Aleister Crowley or organizations such as the Golden Dawn have. Its influence has been channeled primarily through the published works of Melita Denning and Osborne Phillips, whose Llewellyn books on astral projection, creative visualization, and the foundations of high magic reached a wide audience from the 1970s onward without necessarily naming the order to which they belonged.

The broader tradition the Aurum Solis claims to transmit, the Hermetic and Neoplatonic stream rooted in figures such as Iamblichus, Proclus, and Plotinus, has a more visible cultural presence. Neoplatonism shaped the Renaissance recovery of ancient learning through figures including Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, both of whom are significant in the history of Western esotericism. The theurgical tradition that Iamblichus defended against the more intellectualist Neoplatonism of Porphyry is increasingly recognized by scholars as a genuine philosophical and religious system rather than a mere superstition.

Myths and facts

Several misunderstandings about the Aurum Solis are common among those who encounter it for the first time.

• A common assumption is that the Aurum Solis is simply a minor variant of the Golden Dawn. The two orders share the broader Western ceremonial magic heritage, but the Aurum Solis grounds its work in Greek Neoplatonic philosophy and the Ogdoadic structure rather than the Rosicrucian and Kabbalistic framework central to the Golden Dawn. The difference is not superficial.
• Some readers of Denning and Phillips assume that the published curriculum is the full Aurum Solis system. The published books represent the exoteric or accessible teaching; the inner curriculum transmitted through formal initiation is a separate matter.
• The order’s claimed foundation date of 1897 is sometimes taken as securely documented historical fact. The early history of the Aurum Solis is not fully verifiable through independent public sources, and the authenticity of the claimed lineage is accepted on faith by members rather than confirmed by external historical evidence.
• The Aurum Solis is sometimes described as Pagan or Wiccan in popular listings of magical orders. It is a Hermetic and Neoplatonic magical order, distinct from Wicca and Pagan nature religion, though individual members may also practice in those contexts.
• Some practitioners assume that the Aurum Solis system is inaccessible without formal initiation. A substantial independent study curriculum can be built entirely from the published Denning and Phillips books, which represent a genuine and workable entry point to the tradition’s outer teaching.