Founded in 1673, Chicago is one of the most dynamic cities in the United States; it is also one of the most psychic cities in the country. Chicago has had more than its fair share of fires, epidemics, immigrant poverty and violence, organized crime and other paranormal triggers. Beyond and above this history, Chicago is a cultured city filled with kind, hard-working people... these negatives simply come with the territory of being one of the largest and oldest metropolises in the country.

Chicago’s progressiveness has always been coupled with an awe of the spiritual, with hospitality toward psychic phenomena. For over a hundred years Chicago has hosted more than its share of unexplainable events in its History. Local Legends, paranormal events, Historical Churches, fascinating occult architecture, and home to the largest number of metaphysical practitioners and clairvoyants,

Chicago has truly earned the reputation to be known as “the Psychic City” and also home to the Largest Golden Dawn Temple in the entire Midwestern United States.

     In the late 1800’s MacGregor Mathers' co-founder of the Golden Dawn and the classical teachings, built ties to charter three Temples that were in the United States. They were Thoth-Hermes, Chicago; Ihme, Boston; and Themis, Philadelphia. Little is known about the Boston and Philadelphia Temples except for a handful of Adepts. These Adepts refuse to make known to the public their lineage except to say that they prefer not to claim lineage at all. This is the way of the true mystic

     In 1900, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was rocked by disagreements between Dr. Edward Berridge and Annie Horniman, culminating in a rebellion of the Adepts of the Isis-Urania Temple No. 3. This was quickly followed, in 1901, by a scandal involving impostors using Golden Dawn materials for unseemly ends, culminating in the name of the Golden Dawn being dragged through the mud in the courts and in the press, and provoking further schism within the Order. In 1906, therefore, S.L. MacGregor Mathers summarily closed the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and founded the Alpha et Omega.[8]

     Two temples in Great Britain remained loyal to Mathers and joined the Alpha et Omega, one in London and the other in Edinburgh. Two or three former Golden Dawn temples in the United States, including Thoth-Hermes in Chicago, remained loyal to Mathers during the schism as well.

     By 1913, Mathers was presiding over at least five Temples; the original Isis-Urania Temple No. 3 (with 23 Inner Order members by 1913), presided over by Dr. Berridge, the Ahathoor Temple No. 7 in Paris led by Mathers himself, the Amen-Ra Temple No. 6 in Edinburgh, presided over by John William Brodie-Innes, the Thoth Hermes Temple No 8 in Chicago, The Thme Temple No 9 in New York, presided over by Michael Whitty, and the Neith Temple No. 10 in New York. When Mathers died in 1918, he was succeeded by his wife, Moina Mathers in cooperation with J. W. Brodie-Innes.[10]

     Today the Golden Dawn Tradition as handed forth by Mathers maintains its strong roots in Chicago, serving the Chicago metro area, northwest Indiana, and the entire Midwest. Temple Ptah of the Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn stands as a cornerstone in the Classical Golden Dawn Tradition keeping true to the path of Initiation, and hosting weekly classes, Invocational rites, and Workshops. For more information feel free to contact us right away.