Biography of Countess Tamara Bourkoun

Countess Tamara Bourkoun (1911-1990) founded a derivative Golden Dawn order called Order of the Pyramid and the Sphinx. The O.P.+S. practiced Alpha et Omega ritual and worked Enochian magic, and had numerous connections with the Golden Dawn and its derivative orders. The cousin of the Cancellarius of the Alpha et Omega under Moina Mathers, Langford Garstin, also named Garstin, became a member of the Order of the Pyramid and the Sphinx.

Ithell Colquhoun, who wrote "The Sword of Wisdom" (a biography of S.L. MacGregor Mathers) was also an initiate of the O.P.+S. Helen Rand, former Cancellaria gave the pillars of the Isis-Urania temple to Countess Bourkoun for use in the rituals of the O.P.+S. Miss Tranchell Hayes, Imperatrix of Mathers' Alpha et Omega eventually transmitted the lineage and authorities of the Alpha et Omega to Countess Bourkoun. Countess Tamara Bourkoun, together with Desmond Bourke and Marquis Nicolas Tereschenko, was instrumental in keeping the various Golden Dawn derivative lineages alive following the publications of Crowley and Regardie.

Bourkoun also became an active Gnostic; was ordained as a Sub-Deaconess of L'Eglise Universelle de la Nouvelle Alliance' by Roger Caro in 1973, made a Deaconess by H.L. Jacques Lacroix in 1975, and ordained a priest by Jean-Paul Charlet in 1977. Bourkoun was the official representative in Great Britain of the 'L'Eglise Universelle de la Nouvelle Alliance," directed by Roger Caro who was also the Imperator of the Frères Ainées de la Rose+Croix (F.A.R.+C., Elder Brothers of the Rose Cross).