The Hermetic order of the Golden Dawn

What kind of society includes Bram Stoker, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and H.P. Lovecraft as a member? The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a secret society that dabbled in the occult. It laid the groundwork for modern Wiccanism and esoteric practices and its members studied alchemy and astral travel. Were initiates witnessing magic or smoke and mirrors in the strange temples of this fringe society? Were the order's most famous members engaged with the paranormal or searching out new material for purely commercial purposes?