Biography of Desmond Bourke

Desmond Bourke (1918 - 2005) was a key player in nearly every field of British esotericism. Bourke became a 7=4 of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, an VIII Degree of A. E. Waite's Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, an Adeptus Maximus of Madelain Montalban's Order of the Morning Star, an Arch Druid of numerous Druidic Orders, a High Grade Freemason, IX degree of Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, a Martinist (Superieur Inconnu), Reaux-Crois, and Chief of the Sovereign Imperium of the Mysteries.

Bourke also became a Gnostic Bishop (multiple affiliations), founded the Hermetic Martinist Order, and guided the merger of the Ancient and Archaological Order of Druids with the Literary and Archaological Order of Druids to form the Universal Druidic Order. (The intimate association between the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Druidry that began with the mutual initiations of S.L. MacGregor Mathers and George Watson MacGregor Reid, continued and deepened under the leadership of Arch Druid and Golden Dawn Adept, Desmond Bourke.) Bourke, who held multiple Golden Dawn and derivative lineages, served in the 1980's and 90's as Praemonstrator of the Serapis temple of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in London, England. Together with Countess Tamara Bourkoun and Marquis Nicolas Tereschenko, Desmond Bourke was instrumental in keeping numerous derivative Golden Dawn lineages alive despite the publications of Crowley and Regardie.