How to Perform the Step of the Golden Dawn Neophyte Grade

At the end of the traditional Golden Dawn Neophyte 0=0 initiation, the newly minted Neophyte is given mini-lectures about some of the symbols that they have encountered during the Neophyte initiation. The newly initiated Neophyte is also given instruction in the common techniques of secrecy used in the standard nineteenth century lodgekit. The techniques covered are the Step, Grip (secret handshake), Signs, and Passwords.

These techniques were standard issue during the heyday of the lodge and Order system, and were meant to allow the members of the Orders to be able to separate the legitimate members of an Order from those who were just pretending to be members. Today, the need for this separation may not be readily apparent to the modern student of the mysteries; but in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many Orders and lodges provided economic safety nets and mutual aid to their members. Before the modern government funded social safety nets (such as unemployment insurance and social security), the lodges were often a member's only way to insure that their family would be taken care of in case of a major economic setback.

There was also the issue that it was impossible for a member of one of the bigger lodges or Orders to know everyone else who was an official member. One of the basic tools of determining this, the "membership card"---a card stating that a person had paid their duties and was a member of an Order---had a major flaw: It was possible to create a fake membership card if you got your hands on an original; sometimes it merely required the changing of the name on the card. It should be noted that all the quick and dirty ways for determining the legitimacy of a membership were flawed by the fact that with enough information anyone (given the right ethnic background and sex) could fake knowledge of the security measures---which is why the publication of the rituals of an Order was such an outrage to legitimate members of an Order. The only absolute way of ensuring that you were dealing with an actual member was to contact the lodge though which they claimed to hold membership.

This flaw in the system did not prevent old Orders from creating more elaborate modes of recognition, nor did it prevent newly created Orders from adapting the same procedures. The use of these modes of recognition is encoded into Golden Dawn by the very first document of the system, the Cipher Manuscript. One of the procedures included was the step. The unknown creator of the Cipher Manuscript wrote, "Step=one short step by left foot."

The instructions given to the newly initiated Neophyte often boils down to the simple lines, "Advance thy left foot a pace as if entering a portal. This is the Step." These lines are followed by the Hiereus, the officer instructing the Neophyte at this point in the ritual, performing the Step in front of the Neophyte. The Step is practiced, and also included in the exchange of the Password of the Grade and in the giving of the Sign of the Enterer.

Based solely on experience of the Neophyte ritual, the student of the mysteries might just consider that the Golden Dawn was merely using the Step as part of the recognition process and as a ritual set-piece. Yet this bit of basic lodge work takes on a more complex meaning as it is tapered though the Golden Dawn matrix. According to the Adept Minor 5=6 ZAM (Zelator Adept Minor) document called the Z1 "The Enterer of the Threshold", the symbolism of the Step, Signs, Grip or Token, and the Words have a three-fold interpretation. This three-fold interpretation includes the apparent meaning, a spiritual or mystical reference, and a practical (magical) application.

The Z1 development of apparent meaning of the Step states that the left foot is advanced six inches. The distance of six inches is merely to render it understandable by those initiates who are used to English system of measurement. Ideally, it should be six times the measure of the thumb, which is symbolic of the element of Spirit and one's will. The reason for it being done with the left foot is that the left side of the initiate of Golden Dawn is imprinted with the Pillar of Mercy, symbolic of Isis and beginnings. The Step is meant to remind oneself of how one moves in a strange dark room, searching for light and obstacles.

The Z1 states that the symbolic meaning of the Step is "the stamping down of the Evil Persona." Again, a measure of six is emphasized; this time associated with the sacrifice of Osiris and the eventual attainment of the sephiroth of Tiphareth. Turning its attention to the practical application, the Z1 states that the Step represents "the beginning of a magical force." It is in this section of the Z1 that the Adept is given the Adept Minor 5=6 ZAM visualization of the Step: "Let the Adept...take that Step as if he stamped upon the Earth, and the Earth quaked and rocked beneath him. As it is said, 'Clouds or Darkness are around him---Lightning and thunders the Habitation of His feet." The Z1 closes the section with the secret name of the Step of the Neophyte, the Step of the Avenger.

This last statement, as well as the references to Isis and Osiris, and the Step's use in giving the Sign of the Enterer, has led to the tradition that the god-form that should be used in connection with the Step is Horus the Avenger, a variation of the god-form used by the Hiereus during the Neophyte Grade initiation.