Moina Mathers

Moina Mathers, around 1887

Moina Mathers (born February 28, 1865 in Geneva , † July 25, 1928 in London ; born Mina Bergson ) was an English artist , Kabbalist , occultist and Rosicrucian . She was the sister of the French philosopher and Nobel laureate in literature Henri Bergson and together with her husband Samuel Liddell "MacGregor" Mathers one of the leading figures of the magical secret societies Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the successor organization Alpha et Omega .

Live and act

Mina Bergson was the fourth of seven children of the Polish-born Jewish composer Michał Bergson . The family traveled across Europe on the run from increasing anti-Semitism . When the girl was two years old, the Bergsons settled in Paris. The father Michel Gabriel Bergson was a music professor and composer who had some success with the operas Louisa de Montfort and Salvator Rosa . The mother, Katherine Levison, is said to have had spiritualistic abilities that she is said to have passed on to her daughter. The older brother Henri was an elite student at the École normal supérieure and later became known as a professor at the University of Paris, mainly through philosophical writings.

In 1873 the family moved to London. Mina soon turned into a talented artist. At the age of 15, she attended the Slade School of Fine Art in London , a renowned art school that primarily focused on promoting young women. At Slade School, Moina received four awards for her drawings as well as a scholarship . At the time, she became friends with Annie Horniman , who later helped fund the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

Samuel L. MacGregor Mathers and Golden Dawn

Samuel L. MacGregor Mathers at a young age

While studying at the British Museum in 1887, Mina Bergson met her future husband and spiritual partner, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers. At the time, both were engaged in ancient Egyptian art and Egyptian mythology . A year later MacGregor Mathers founded the Isis-Urania Temple of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (" Isis-Urania Temple of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn "), short "Golden Dawn" or HOGD, which became one of the most influential Western occult secret societies has been. Mina was initiated in March 1888 . As a personal magical motto , she chose the Latin Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum (VNR), which means something like "No traces backwards". In 1890 she married MacGregor Mathers and Mina Bergson became Moina Mathers. She probably chose "Moina" because of its Celtic-mythical appearance and to match her husband's preference for Scottish . She also supported MacGregor Mathers in his political commitment to regaining Scottish independence from the United Kingdom . In the occult partnership, MacGregor Mathers became the "awakening of spirits" and Moina the " clairvoyant prophet", the artist who was able to "awaken" her husband. Allegedly, they are said to have led their unusual partnership as an exclusively spiritual and ritually pure bond, because with the marriage vows they had sworn to renounce the sexual act with each other, which however did not prevent both from becoming intimate with other people. In any case, there were no children from the marriage. For Moina's future life, MacGregor Mathers and the Order became the only destination. She believed she shared her soul with her husband and did so to the point of self-sacrifice: So she gave up the dream of her own career as an artist and devoted her talent exclusively to the “Divine Light” for the good of the Order. Most of the time she was engaged in magical rites , the worship of various pagan deities, and metaphysical communication. For the religious community she was considered the high priestess and personification of the Egyptian goddess Isis . One of her main tasks was the design of the regalia , regalia and magical symbolism of the order as well as the establishment of its temples in London and Paris, whereby she was almost constantly on the move. Moina Mathers designed numerous magical diagrams, pentagrams , decorative elements, symbols and tarot cards , among other things .

Alpha and Omega

Moina Mathers during the performance of the "Rites in honor of Isis", Paris 1899

Her most notable works include the color symbolism of the order and the vault paintings in the temples. Under the guidance of Samuel MacGregor Mathers she designed the stamps of the order Isis Urania , Ahathor and finally Alpha et Omega . Moina Mathers not only contributed to the artistic design of the Golden Dawn and its subsidiary organizations: Together with her husband, she also acted as a talented and multilingual medium, after all, she was fluent in German, English and French. In 1892 the Mathers moved to Paris, where they founded Ahathoor Temple two years later . In March 1899 they performed their “ Rites in honor of Isis” at the Theater Bodiniere in Paris . The performance was very popular in the occult circles of the Seine metropolis. In the following period, the couple commuted between Paris and London. The exact whereabouts of the Mathers during this period is largely unknown. At the turn of the century there was schism in the HOGD and in 1904 there was a dispute between MacGregor Mathers and Aleister Crowley over the upper hand in the order, with "magical attacks" supposedly also being involved. Around 1912 the Mathers returned to Paris. In November 1918, Samuel L. MacGregor Mathers died in Paris, presumably as a result of the Spanish flu . Moina, on the other hand, was convinced that her husband had been so exhausted due to his long-term contact with the "Secret Chiefs" , cosmic super beings of the astral plane , that he died.

In 1919 Moina returned to London. She took over the management of the Golden Dawn together with Edmund Berridge and William Brodie-Innes and successfully established the Alpha et Omega Lodge , which she presided over for the next nine years. From the 1920s onwards, Golden Dawn slowly broke up into splinter groups, for example Paul Foster Case founded the Order Builders of the Adytum in the USA based on the model of the HOGD. Case is said to have previously been excluded from the HOGD by Moina Mathers. In the period that followed, Moina was increasingly afraid of magical attacks by her competitors, and she is said to have been in contact with an ominous "Frater X", which led to discrepancies with other members of the order, such as Dion Fortune .

Late years

Little is known about Moina Mathers' further private life. In later years she is said to have suffered major financial problems. In the hope of being able to be artistically active again, she resumed portrait painting , which she had already practiced during her studies in Paris. However, she was not very successful as a painter. Critical voices claimed that Moina's artistic talent was destroyed by her occult work. She wrote the preface for the second edition of Samuel L. MacGregor Mathers' translation of Knorr von Rosenroth's Kabbalah Denudata , published in 1926 . From 1927, Moina Mathers' health deteriorated dramatically; she was also of the opinion that the "Secret Chiefs" were now calling for her too, and so she refused to eat anything for the purpose of spiritual purification. She died on July 25, 1928 in St. Mary Abotts Hospital in London.

Moina Mathers was posthumously accused of "psychological murder from beyond" by her rival Dion Fortune in 1929 and was held responsible for the mysterious death of Netta Fornario , which was allegedly evoked by black magic . Netta Fornario was a former adept of Moina Mathers, a member of Alpha et Omega, and a friend of Dion Fortune. Her unclothed body was found on the Hebridean island of Iona in 1929 . The circumstances of her death have never been clearly established.

literature

• Ithell Colquhoun : Sword of Wisdom, MacGregor Mathers and the "Golden Dawn" . Kersken-Canbaz, Bergen 1996, ISBN 3-89423-030-4 .
• Mary K. Greer: Women of the Golden Dawn: Rebels and Priestesses . One Park Street, Rochester, Vermont, 1995, ISBN 0-89281-607-4

Web links

• Biography of Moina Mathers (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Mary Greer, Women of the Golden Dawn: Rebels and Priestesses , pp. 40-45
2. ^ ^{A b} Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia - Moina Mathers. Retrieved November 5, 2008 . 
3. ↑ Mary Greer, pp. 40-47
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Biography of Moina Mathers. Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn, accessed November 5, 2008 . 
5. ↑ M. Isidora Forrest: Isis Magic Cultivating a Relationship with the Goddess of 10,000 Names. Llewellyn Publications, 2001, ISBN 1-56718-286-0 , p. 213
6. ↑ Mary Greer, pp 348-358
7. ^ Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers. Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, archived from the original on January 31, 2009 ; Retrieved November 5, 2008 . 
8. ↑ Netta Fornario: Iona's Occult Mystery. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on June 25, 2015 ; Retrieved November 5, 2008 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.