They always come, (unless you just imagines something else, which you didn’t - they know who they are) you probably just couldn’t sense them because you have not developed your psychic/astral senses yet. They could be jumping up and down trying to get your attention and you are blind and deaf, psychically speaking, so you can’t tell. This is why there are techniques to ask them for help that don’t need you to sense them, like using petitions.
From a general perspective that is not related to any given system, you’ll want to get your spiritual hygiene sorted out, and start work on developing your astral senses, then when you can know you have a decent chance at avoiding impostors and parasites then you could try the first contact guides we have on here.
There’s many more routes to this. I use VK Jehannum’s blog successfully to get an introduction into each sphere - and you can take that as deep as you like, it’s up to you to explore.
I think you answered your own question. The Golden Dawn just doesn’t have all the info you need, and pushed the reader in a direction you’re not into. Therefore there will be other sources that are better for you.
The basics can be picked up for free all over this forum, though I’d highly recommend learning energy working such as qigong, which develops your ability to sense energy (spirits are made of energy) and also understand and manage your own energy better, which makes everything easier and safer.
We have a list of book recommendations here which includes beginner works: