|
 |
Allan Bennett
1872 - 1923
 |
Allan Bennett was an analytical chemist by training who was brought
up as a Roman Catholic by his widowed mother. He was the typical
Sagittarius who radiated much spiritual intensity. He was a man
with very distinguishing features, burning eyes and thick brows.
He was recognized as an Adeptus Minor in the Golden Dawn by the
age of 23. He is most remembered as the first teacher of
|
practical magic to the famed Aleister Crowley. Bennett
was always close to the Mathers and had made frequent visits to their
home to stay, sometimes for days, even weeks. Although Bennett's effect
upon the Order of the Golden Dawn wasn't as influential as other members
like William Westcott, Annie Horniman, or William Butler Yeats, he contributed
a part of himself to the Order in his own silent way. Bennett helped Mathers
in collating a mass of papers and valuable Order material. Some of these
works were later undertaken by the hands of Crowley and published under
the title, Liber 777. Much credit was also given to Bennett for laying
out the ground work of the Sepher Sephiroth.
One of Bennett's better assets was his talent and performance
in practical ceremonial magic. One popular composition was the rite of
evocation of the Spirit Taphthartharath to visible appearance. Much of
this work can be accredited to Bennett.
Bennett left England and the Golden Dawn to live in the east, where he
studied Buddhism in Situ. He joined the Sangha and took the name Swami
Maitrananda, and later Ananda Metleya. He traveled to Burma, where living
the life of a Bhikkhu was sufficient for him. After some years in the
Eastern world, he returned to Britain as a missionary. He founded a Buddhist
lodge which later developed into the Buddhist Society. At this time, all
workings between him and the Golden Dawn, or even Crowley for that fact,
were almost non-existent.
Bennett eventually lost hope and satisfaction with the Eastern path to
spiritual enlightenment. In the 1920's, he again took up residence in
England. He had outgrown his Buddhist life. As deep and prolonged as the
time had been, it still had not quenched his insatiable hunger for spiritual
attainment.
Allan Bennett was a clear thinker and a natural ascetic. Having divested
himself of his few possessions on entering the Sangha, he was extremely
poor. He rented a back room, unfurnished except for a small table with
two or three books and his famous "blasting rod". He seems to
have preferred this to the wands recommended in the Golden Dawn. He charged
it with considerable magnetism, and would mount it in a wooden handle
painted with words of power. The words of power could be changed according
to the nature of the operation proposed. Beyond this, his room was filled
with machinery. His mechanical works were devoted to the aim in perfecting
a device to establish conscious communication with the astral world.
Bennett's health grew worse than ever in England. It had first declined
there in his earlier years due to the climate. In a final attempt to relieve
his misery, he tried at Liverpool to board a ship bound for a warmer climate.
The captain, unwilling to take responsibility for anyone so gravely ill,
refused him passage.
Bennett died almost instantly from severe asthma spasms and convulsions.
He died leaving behind very little. The location of his writings, books,
journals or manuscripts were unknown to many save perhaps to only those
of his brethren of the Buddhist Society and close relatives & disciples.
In his last days, shortly before his death, he resigned from the Buddhist
Lodge which he had formed. He was sick, tired, and realizing that his
time on this earth was now at an end, he perhaps not in a formal way,
but in a way that matters most, in his heart, he stood once again within
the Hall of the Neophyte before the Banner of the East, and before an
etheric figure of his late mentor, MacGregor Mathers.As his eyes may have
glanced upward, he saw descending upon him, the Light of his own Higher
Genius.
|
