ABSTRACT
The Tattvas were one of the most notable Eastern elements in the ritual magic of the Golden Dawn, an all the more remarkable inclusion when authors consider that this Order was based solidly on the occult inspiration of Western mythology. Nevertheless, the Tattvas were adopted from their original Hindu context as appropriate symbols of the elements. W. E. Butler has alluded to the Tattvas as tides operating in the magnetic sphere of the Earth so that ‘The Element of Akasa is strongest at sunrise, then it merges into the element of Vayu. This in turn merges into Tejas, and this into Apas, and finally Apas merges into Prithivi’. The technique of using the Tattvas as ‘astral doorways’ is not intended as an escapist diversion, but instead is supposed to show the practitioner that certain active energies are operative in his unconscious mind.
