The August Order Of Light (AOL)

Origins and history

According to the Order’s own account, its ceremonies grew out of material gathered by Maurice Vidal Portman, who went out to India in 1876, the year Lord Lytton became Viceroy. The Order describes him as a keen student of Eastern lore who studied the scriptures and religious customs of Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Muslims and collected traditions from holy men and ascetics of many faiths. Portman (1860–1935) is better known to history as an officer of the Royal Indian Marine who spent some twenty years as the British official in charge of the Andamanese people in the Andaman Islands, where he photographed and wrote about the islanders and their languages.

The first version of the Order made little impression and lay dormant for some years. Its revival came through two Yorkshire Masons, T. H. Pattinson and Dr Edwards, who, the Order says, were chosen by Portman himself to rework his material. Drawing on long reading in Oriental literature and on conversations with learned Indian visitors to Britain in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, they recast the rituals into a set of ceremonies and lectures designed to teach in a clear and orderly way. The Order dates its present form, and its senior Temple, from 9 January 1902; Mackey’s Encyclopedia places the revival at Bradford a year earlier and gives Edwards’s initials as J. B., where the Order’s own pages have B. E.

In its early decades the Order was closely tied to the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. Writing in 1921, J. S. M. Ward described the “Illustrious Order of Light” as working only at Bradford and drawing its members entirely from the Rosicrucian Society, whose leading figures also guided the Order. For most of the twentieth century there was just one Temple, which met at several places in Yorkshire before settling in Halifax. A second Temple was founded on 9 September 1972 and now meets at Radlett in Hertfordshire.

The twenty-first century brought rapid growth. Temples were consecrated at Ivanhoe in Melbourne (November 2011), at Lower Mitcham in Adelaide (November 2011), at Allentown, Pennsylvania (2013), at Freemasons’ Hall in Chennai, India (2014) and at Leiden in the Netherlands (2019). Every Temple carries the name Garuda, after the great bird of Hindu tradition, and is numbered in order of seniority. The rituals were revised once more in 2011 by Dr P. G. Maxwell-Stuart, then President of Garuda Temple No. 1.

The Order is careful to distinguish itself from the Sat Bhai, an earlier society introduced around 1875 by British military officers returning from India, which also used Indian names and symbols but has no connection with the Order of Light.

Purpose and teaching

As its name suggests, the Order is concerned with light in the sense of intellectual and spiritual illumination. Its grades present the old religions of the world, especially the mythology of India, as a source of insight for the thoughtful Mason. The Order likes to compare itself with the Rosicrucian Society: where that body looks to the mystics of medieval Europe, the Order of Light turns to Eastern theology and accounts of the creation of the universe.

Discussion is an essential part of every meeting. Members are encouraged to share what they know and what they think, so that the whole Temple learns together and each member carries something useful back into Freemasonry and daily life. A selection of papers read in the Temples is published on the Order’s website, on subjects as varied as the mandala, the Qabalah, mudras, the Bhagavad Gita, dreams and the symbolism of the spiral.

The theme of light also shapes the Order’s charity. Every candidate makes a contribution towards a charity that provides eye surgery for poor and disadvantaged communities in the developing world, so that the gift of sight follows the search for inner light.

Membership

The Order welcomes Master Masons in good standing who belong to a lodge under the United Grand Lodge of England, the Grand Lodges of Scotland or Ireland, or any other Grand Lodge recognised by England, and who want to look at Freemasonry from an Eastern philosophical point of view. Interested brethren submit a written expression of interest, with a copy of their Master Mason’s certificate, and the decision to accept or decline rests entirely with the Arch Presidents. The Order advises applicants to allow around six months for an answer.

Entry is never automatic. Before admission, and again before each step of advancement, a candidate must present to the members a paper on an esoteric subject outside Freemasonry. The requirement ensures that everyone in the room has done some genuine study of his own.

The Order recognises only Temples holding a warrant signed by its current Arch Presidents, and has publicly stated that a body consecrated in Brazil under its name is not part of the Order.

Organisation

Two Arch Presidents lead the Order, assisted by the Council of Agni, which oversees all of the Temples. Each Temple is directed by its Council of Garuda, supported by an officer called the Guardian of Light and the other Temple officers. Temples meet several times a year, with their meetings timed around the main turning points of the solar year, for ceremonies and for research and discussion.

Degrees and ceremonies

The Order works two principal degrees, known simply as the First and Second Degrees, with a ceremony called the Passing of Garuda standing between them. Alongside these it holds ceremonies to mark the solstices and equinoxes, which give the Order’s calendar its rhythm. The content of the ceremonies is reserved for members.

Regalia

Members wear a robe and belt rather than the aprons of Craft Freemasonry. A breast jewel is presented in the First Degree and a jewel worn at the neck in the Second. The Order explains that each item of regalia relates to the lessons taught in its ceremonies.

Temples of the Order

• Garuda Temple No. 1: Halifax, West Yorkshire (1902)
• Garuda Temple No. 2: Radlett, Hertfordshire (1972)
• Garuda Temple No. 3: Ivanhoe, Melbourne, Victoria (2011)
• Garuda Temple No. 4: Lower Mitcham, Adelaide, South Australia (2011)
• Garuda Temple No. 5: Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA (2013)
• Garuda Temple No. 6: Chennai, India (2014)
• Garuda Temple No. 7: Leiden, the Netherlands (2019)

For more information or if you would like to join, please visit the following URLs:
– https://sites.google.com/site/augustorderoflight/home (Highly Recommended!)
– https://beyondthecraft.net.au/the-august-order-of-light/