Arthur E. Waite 1857 -1943

English Christian mystic and writer on masonic and occult subjects, he wrote A New Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry : Their Rites, Literature, and History and Emblematic Freemasonry. A large collection of his writings and letters is in the Iowa Grand Lodge Library, Ceder Rapids. USA. His name is often linked with Wica, Wynn Westcott, Aleister Crowley, MacGregor Mathers, and Theodor Reuss. Waite was received into the Golden Dawn in January 1891 although his attendance and involvement was sporadic. Entering the The Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (SRIA) in April, 1902, Waite precipitated a schism in the Golden Dawn the following year. He purged magic from the rituals, replacing it with mysticism. This society, the Independent and Rectified Rite of the Golden Dawn, was soon torn by further feuds and was dissolved by Waite in 1914, to be replaced by the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross in 1915. By this time there were some half dozen offshoots of the Original Golden Dawn, Waite's version being a minor note in the main theme continued by the Order of the Stella Matutina of non-mason, Dr. R. W. Felkin.¹ He reprinted the prophecy of Paracelsus, Glauber, Thomas Norton, Alexander Seton and other alchemists concerning the coming of one master alchemist Elias Artista (Elias the Artist) in interpretive prose form in The Hermetic Museum:

"This knowledge would often have been the glory of England's kings, if their hopes had been firmly placed upon God. One who shall have obtained his honors by means of this Art, will mend old manners, and change them for the better. When he comes, he will reform the kingdom, and by his goodness and virtue he will set an everlasting example to rulers. In his time the common people will rejoice, and render praise to God in mutual neighborly love. O King, who are to accomplish all this, pray to God the King, and implore His aid in the matter. So the glory of thy mind will be crowned with the glory of a golden age, which shall not then be hoped for as future." ²

1.Taken from the website of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon at http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/esoterica/waite_a/waite_a.html

2. Prophecy –A History of the Future, Internet Version, by Robert A Nelson at http://www.rexresearch.com/prophist/phf3eu~1.htm