Golden Dawn Research Articles

Movement versus Party: The Electoral Effects of Anti-Far Right Protests in Greece

The way social protest affects electoral outcomes remains a lacuna. This article helps fill this gap by examining how social protest against far right actors affects their electoral standing. The article utilizes a unique dataset of 4,745 local protest events to investigate how mobilization against the far right in Greece affected its electoral performance. The article finds that protest activity depressed the electoral results of the far right Golden Dawn by as much as 16%, after controlling for a number of important variables. The article identifies and specifies the patterns through which protests against the far right affect its electoral standing. Protests are effective when following the “tango” pattern—when there is close interaction of far right and anti-far right events. The timing of protest is also important and the article shows how the synchronization of protest and electoral cycles affects electoral outcomes. The article uses the findings to discuss the varying impact of protest across electoral cycles.

The Entangled Imagination: W.B. Yeats’ “Moods” and the Psychologization of Magic

Among modern practitioners of magic, the “psychologization of magic” has become a common strategy to adapt practices such as rituals of invocation to naturalistic thought. In this article, I discuss what was probably the most elaborate attempt to bridge the gap between the magic of the past and magic suited for the present that took place within the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (1888–1903). Approaching the Order’s teachings through the lens of contemporaneous literary discourse, the Irish poet and magician William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) attempted to consolidate supernaturalist and naturalist understandings of magic throughout the 1890s. In 1892, he made the concept of the “immortal moods” a key to both his poetry and his magical practice. Evoked through symbols in a ritual or a poem, these moods would descend “like a faint sigh into people’s minds” and move them to action, causing “all great changes in the world.” Yeats explored this concept in theoretical writings, poetic experiments, and his ritual practice, finding his own imagination entangled with past imaginations. Serving a brief term as the Golden Dawn’s Imperator and Instructor in Mystical Philosophy in 1901, he condensed the insights gained from this work in the doctrines of the “great mind and great memory.” Presenting a study of Yeats’ psychology of the universal mind, this article shows how his amalgamation of literary and folkloristic theorizing paved the way to connect magical and poetic practice to the emerging psychological discourse.

Conjuring Planetary Spirits in the Twenty-First Century: Textual-Ritual Entanglements in Contemporary ‘Magic(k)’

This article illustrates textual-ritual entanglements in Western learned magic across almost two millennia through an analysis of Frater Acher’s Arbatel experience. Frater Acher is a contemporary practitioner of ‘magic(k)’ who, between 2010 and 2013, performed a series of conjurations of six planetary spirits inspired by an early modern manual of learned magic named *Arbatel*. Frater Acher combined the Arbatel with ritual techniques from numerous further contexts, among them the late ancient *Greek Magical Papyri*, the Clavicula Salomonis tradition, Paracelsianism, Hermeticism, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, theurgy, modern imagination techniques, as well as chaos ‘magic(k)’. As a consequence, Frater Acher’s Arbatel experience – as he frames his ritual diaries published online – reveals a strikingly entangled ritual that illustrates the breadth, depth, and complexity of Western learned magic, as well as its manifold entanglements across time and space. His diaries also demonstrate that, even while following largely formalistic premodern scripts of learned magic, contemporary practitioners may nonetheless display a high degree of flexibility, creativity, and innovation. The article closes by reflecting on whether it is likely that such strategies were also present in premodern practitioner scenarios. In doing so, it calls for taking the – extensive but hitherto almost completely neglected – data of experience reports by contemporary practitioners of ‘magic(k)’ into account when interpreting premodern sources of learned magic. As a consequence, this is the first systematic attempt to compare and juxtapose premodern and modern interpretations and mindsets of practitioners of learned magic. It is thus also the first scholarly article that aims at elucidating a premodern manual of learned magic through reading and analysing the experience report of a contemporary practitioner.

The Anthropocene as framed by the far right

The Anthropocene as framed by the far right

Feminism contested and co-opted: Women, agency and politics of gender in the Greek and Greek-Cypriot far right

The literature on the gender dimension of far-right politics has established the constitutive role of gender and women’s involvement in the far right. However, knowledge about how far-right women negotiate and condition their agency within their parties and how they relate to gender, gender equality and feminism remains limited. This article builds on literature on conservative and far-right women’s agency, and on feminism’s employment by the far right. Based on interviews with female politicians and seasoned activists of the Greek Golden Dawn and the Greek-Cypriot National Popular Front, it examines how highly engaged far-right women construct their political agency at the intersections of often contradictory discourses and how, in doing so, they impact understandings of gender, gender equality and feminism. The analysis of the interview material identifies three different formulations of political agency the participants refer to: radical motherhood; female political militancy/political militant femininity and troubling of far-right gender roles. I argue that these different formulations of political agency show how, by using elements of feminism, far-right women construct flexible and versatile far-right gender discourses, which challenge gender essentialist positions that their parties convey. Moreover, they challenge delineations of far-right women’s political agency based on the compliance/(feminist) resistance dichotomy and expose the processes through which far-right women contest feminism by drawing on it. The article further argues that these formulations of political agency and far-right gender discourses may contribute to the far right’s appeal among women with diverse views on gender, gender equality, feminism and politics, as they may respond to an array of interests and demands that can be made from many different positions. Therefore, beyond contributing to discussions about the role of women, gender and feminism in far-right politics, the article demonstrates the importance of studying far-right women’s views for gaining a well-rounded understanding of this issue.

Golden Dawn Is Attempting To Regain A Presence In Greece With A Focus On Northern Greece And Western Thrace

Golden Dawn Is Attempting To Regain A Presence In Greece With A Focus On Northern Greece And Western Thrace

William Lethaby, Symbolism and the Occult by Amandeep Kaur Mann

Reviewed by: William Lethaby, Symbolism and the Occult by Amandeep Kaur Mann Zachary R. Schwarze amandeep kaur mann. William Lethaby, Symbolism and the Occult. London and New York: Routledge, 2022. Pp. 264. In William Lethaby, Symbolism and the Occult, Amandeep Kaur Mann identifies and analyzes occult influences upon the work of British architect William Lethaby (1857–1931). More precisely, Mann is interested in visual symbols of occult origin which populate Lethaby's oeuvre and, according to the architect, communicate profound truths about the cosmos. Among her goals is to show that these influences are not irrational or otherwise foolish quirks of the architect's mind, but rather constitute proof that Lethaby, along with a number of other architects and artists from fin de siècle Europe, worked within a sphere of profound occult influence. That is to say, occult symbols do not decorate Lethaby's drawings and realized structures, but instead inform at the most fundamental level what an architectural space is meant to do, i.e., affect spiritual transformation within a person inhabiting [End Page 472] that space. In crafting her methodological approach, Mann mirrors Lethaby's semiotic/allegorical mode of selecting symbols: if Lethaby selected symbols based on intrinsic, occult meanings or properties, then Mann's task is to identify those meanings and properties to understand the functions of individual compositions and structures. The book is divided into three parts. The first, titled "Lethaby, Occultism and Symbolism," situates Lethaby within the occultist milieu of fin de siècle Europe, particularly that of Victorian Britain. Here, Mann identifies the Theosophical Society, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and Éliphas Lévi as ideological influences. Lévi appears to be particularly significant, as the author inserts a scanned page of one of Lethaby's notebooks where he draws one of Lévi's magic squares and writes iterations of the word "abracadabra" (20). This section also lays out theoretical frameworks used by the author to interpret Lethaby's use of symbols. These include: semiotic theory, with particular attention to Carl Jung and Charles Sanders Pierce; a theory of magical symbols concerned not only with semiotic meaning, but also with tangible outcomes associated with the reproduction of certain symbols; and finally Victorian psychological associationism, as represented by John Ruskin and Wilhelm Worringer, which is concerned with a universal set of symbols and colors that evoke particular responses and may be learned and manipulated (26–33). The second and longest part of the book, titled "Elements of the Occult in Lethaby's Work," deals with identifying particular symbols which appear in Lethaby's oeuvre and tracing their meanings back to sources either encountered by or available to the architect. Mann separates symbols into two categories, alchemical and occult magical. Lethaby's use of alchemical symbols is predicated on the principle that people should not be passive observers of architectural space, but rather participate in it. His alchemical preoccupation is correspondingly concerned with journey and transformation. As an example, the author adduces references to the journey and transformation of the character Poliphilo in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili—which Lethaby read (45)—as a direct inspiration for the frontispiece he designed for the 1889 Architectural Association Sketchbook (59). The other category of symbols, the occult magical, communicates more general "esoteric" meanings (91). The author draws examples of symbols of this category from Lethaby's drawing A Beryl Shrine (1888). Here, Mann interprets the serpent, a principal symbol in the composition, to represent "man's lower, material nature," (101) as evidenced by direct influence from Dante Gabriel Rosetti's poem Rose Mary (1871–1881). The final part of the book, titled "The Occult and Lethaby's Legacy," uses William Lethaby's work to argue for occult ideas, themselves dating back to [End Page 473] at least Europe's medieval period, as fundamental to the history of modern architecture. Here, the author capitalizes on the breadth of examples to show that Lethaby, like other artists and architects of his time, did not develop occultist ideologies in a vacuum, but rather in direct connection to his sociocultural surround. Mann shows how Lethaby, as a predecessor to architects, artists, and designers of the mid-twentieth century, exerted influence...

‘Where are the equal rights?’ Far-right women challenging gender equality and human rights in Greece

Across Europe, far-right groups balance between contradictory positions on gender equality, invoking women’s rights to claim European cultural superiority over imagined patriarchal Muslim immigrants while rejecting gender rights as threatening the nation. Using discourse analysis of online party media and parliamentary speeches, we explore intersections of gender and race in Greek neo-Nazi women’s public positioning towards gender equality, showing how these seemingly contradictory positions align well with the party’s political vision. At a moment of pervasive racist uses of feminist discourse (Farris 2017; Hark & Villa 2017), Golden Dawn women supported an antifeminist position that re-signifies ‘women’s rights’ as a racial issue, in order to construct political enemies and dismantle equality projects.  By representing gender violence  –  as in debates on the Istanbul Convention  –  as exclusively committed by the ‘non-white’‘Muslim’male, and by rejecting ‘artificially constructed’ equality rights in favor of ‘natural’ rights, they claimed Golden Dawn as the only political actor genuinely promoting women’s welfare.

The Adventures of an Oral History Archive in the Greek Public Domain

In December 2021 a famous Greek TV and radio journalist and well-known anti-vaxxer, Yiorgos Tragkas, passed away due to Covid-19 complications. In the previous two decades, Tragkas had become a controversial figure, employing an anti-elite, pro-Russian and anti-Western narrative that fed into the country's underdog culture. His ethnocentric, populist, toxic tabloid journalism had been a popular genre in Greek political culture since the early 1980s. However, the debt and migration crises that shook Greece fuelled populist politics and a wave of misinformation.1 Tragkas jumped on the bandwagon of this new era by whitewashing the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party on national TV and by live appearances dressed up as a Second World War Nazi officer, with photos of Adolf Hitler and Angela Merkel on his desk.

Mythologies of Genesis and Neo-Nazi Palingenesis: Commemorating the Battle of Thermopylae in the Political Rites of the Golden Dawn

This article examines the public commemorations of the battle of Thermopylae held by the Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn in the wider context of fascist appropriations of classical antiquity. The discussion focuses on the rhetorical and cultural mechanisms involved in transforming the historical event into a fascist mythology. Drawing on methodologies of narrative analysis and performance studies, I examine the narrative patterns and ritual practices deployed in these commemorations to engross the participants in stories of genesis and rebirth. During the commemorations of Thermopylae, Golden Dawn strove to revive both the spirit of the Spartan soldiers and the ideals of Nazism. The example of GD demonstrates that the persistence of the narrative of rebirth within neo-Nazi cultures is instrumental in the resurgence of fascism. By looking at this example closely, we can conclude that commitment of neo-Nazi groups to classical antiquity invites reflection upon the role of classical traditions in Western culture.

Far-Right vigilantes and crime: law and order providers or common criminals? the lessons from Greece, Russia, and Ukraine

ABSTRACT The extant literature claims that vigilante groups protect the traditional societal order by taking the law into their own hands. Vigilantes target entire categories of ‘others’ to prevent and punish their alleged criminality or norm-breaking. These activities are often connected with far-right political movements. However, the literature fails to explain why far-right vigilante groups are frequently involved in purely criminal activities (like extortion or robbery), despite their public presentation as bastions of law and order. This text provides a tentative theory of the political-criminal convergence in political violence under the disguise of community protection against crime and norm-breaking. This theory is demonstrated through the cases of Russia (Russian National Unity), Greece (Golden Dawn), and Ukraine (Azov movement).

Book review: Rosana Masiola and Sabrina Cittadini, The Golden Dawn of Italian Fashion: A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Maria Monaci Gallenga

Book review: Rosana Masiola and Sabrina Cittadini, <i>The Golden Dawn of Italian Fashion: A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Maria Monaci Gallenga</i>

The sun sets on Golden Dawn: Media representations of the biggest trial of Nazi criminality of our times

The sun sets on Golden Dawn: Media representations of the biggest trial of Nazi criminality of our times

Sound and Ritualistic Language in Charles Williams’ War in Heaven

Abstract This study uncovers a link between sound patterns and ritualistic language in Charles Williams’ novels through an analysis of the relationship between type of sound and content. The study focuses on War in Heaven with a view to conducting a preliminary exploration into this link, and establishing possibilities for future research. Like Williams’ other novels, War in Heaven is saturated with the symbolism and ritual practices he learned in The Fellowship of the Rosy Cross and, potentially, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Williams’ experimentation with sound to convey his experience of ritual is explored through the framework of Roman Jakobson’s “Poetic Function”, to establish how Williams may have intended sound to contribute to the experience of the reader. Using a data driven approach, the study explores how sound patterns work with ritualistic content across War in Heaven, discovering a link between fricative sounds and ritualistic events.

Societal Responses to Right-Wing Extremism: Antifascist Mobilisation against Golden Dawn in Greece

ABSTRACT The literature on how democratic polities deal with right-wing extremism focuses on political and institutional actors at the expense of societal agency. This article offers a corrective by analysing antifascist mobilisation against one of the most extreme parties in Europe, Golden Dawn in Greece. It uses in-depth interviews with antifascists to sketch the developmental trajectory of Greek antifascism. It then utilises an original dataset of thousands of antifascist events to document spatial and temporal patterns of antifascist mobilisation. The article shows how antifascist mobilisation affected the developmental trajectory of the party and ultimately led to the conviction of its leadership.

I Cannot Find the Hanged Man: Tarot Cards in Fantastic Fiction

In 1909, the occult publishing firm Rider and Son issued a pack of Tarot cards created by the artist Pamela Coleman Smith and the writer Arthur Edward Waite, both members of The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. This new Tarot linked a divination device that originated in the eighteenth century with current esoteric ideas. T. S. Eliot’s use of the cards in The Waste Land fixed the image of Tarot as the embodiment of a mystical quest, and, as the most available Tarot in the twentieth century, the Rider Pack provided an enduring set of images and meanings for Tarot mythology, which continues to influence speculative fiction and to create new interactive storytelling memes through Tarot readings.

Greece: A Procedural Defence of Democracy against the Golden Dawn

Greece not a militant democracy – Constitution rejects party bans – Challenge posed by neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn – Preference for a procedural approach – Not as passive as previously thought – Proactive use of regular law – Golden Dawn charged for being a criminal organisation disguised as a political party – Questions about the political timing of the trial – Importance of judiciary independence – Why not a terrorist organization – Suspension of party funding and other restrictions against Golden Dawn – Actions by state institutions as opposed to local and civil society – How to distinguish between procedural- and militant-democratic initiatives – Political rights of convicted party leaders – Benefits and risks of procedural model

Yeats’s Theories on Spirituality in “Magic,” “Swedenborg, Mediums, and the Desolate Places,” Per Amica Silentia Lunae, and A Vision

This essay aims to look into Yeats’s theories on spirituality in his four essays: “Magic,” “Swedenborg, Mediums, and the Desolate Places,” Per Amica Silentia Lunae, and A Vision. Before moving on to the main discussion, this article briefly examines the several factors that helped shaped Yeats’s thoughts on spirituality, not least of which was his exposure to folklore and his father’s repudiation of established religions. Such childhood influences led Yeats to join first the Theosophical Society and then the Golden Dawn in search of alternative forms of spirituality. It also contributes to Yeats’s unique theories on spirituality that is based on Irish traditions such as Irish folklore and legends. Then, this essay discusses Yeats’s prose writings, starting from his 1901 essay, “Magic” to A Vision, which can be considered as the culmination of his lifelong search for spirituality in order to talk about how Yeats tried to formulate his thoughts on spirituality over time.

From Obscurity to National Limelight: The Dramatic Rise, Fall and Future Legacy of Golden Dawn

From Obscurity to National Limelight: The Dramatic Rise, Fall and Future Legacy of Golden Dawn

The role of economic and cultural changes in the rise of far‐right in Greece: A regional analysis

AbstractThe recent strengthening of right‐wing and far‐right populism is one of the greatest political manifestations of our times and a dominant feature of the current European political landscape. In Greece, its rise coincided with a period of a prolonged financial aid programme (“bailouts”) imposing harsh austerity measures and deep structural reforms. The objective of this study is to assess the extent to which the spatially differentiated gains of Golden Dawn, one of the most anti‐establishment, anti‐migrant and anti‐EU political parties in Europe, were due to (socio‐)economic or cultural changes (or both) that took place in the country in recent years. The findings provide evidence in favour of the combined role of (socio‐)economic and cultural grievances; however, the former seem to be more important than the latter.