It’s always super fun to look at eccentric Victorians, and I think the extreme Egyptian-philes of the 19th century take the cake. On that note, might I introduce the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn? Pictured here are two of the most (in)famous members, Aleister Crowley (he trained there before breaking off to start his own esoteric religion) and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, a founding member. They are both cos-playing at being Egyptian mystics.

Egypt-mania hit the Victorians hard, with the Napoleonic takeover of Egypt and the ensuing British conquests of the 19th century spurring a fascination with mummies, monuments, and the (often skewed understanding of) mystical death rituals of the Ancient Pharaohnic eras. The society of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was secretive and hierarchical from the start. Initiates would enter and study various lessons, working their way up three “Orders” of ever-more-specialer knowledge.

The first order or “Outer Order” was the most basic; the Second Order was the “Rosae Rubae et Aureae Crucis” (the Latin makes it even more special), and the innermost circle were the adepts. The basic curriculum looked at things like the Tarot (in fact you can still purchase Aleister Crowley’s “Thoth” Tarot Deck), and built up to astrology, alchemy, magical rituals, and even communication with Ancient deities. Studies of bad translations of the Egyptian “Book of the Dead” ensued, as did these marvelous costumed leaders, and pseudo-Egyptian temples across Britain and into the United States.

Quite famous Brits joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn: the poet W.B. Yeats, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Pamela Colman Smith (who co-created one of the most famous and still used Tarot decks).

The Egypt-mania of the Victorians was a particular expression of Orientalism, a deliberate fetishizing of “the East” which reflects far more about Victorian values than an actual Egyptian past.