music and tales
In discussing colorful forms of spiritualism in the Victorian era, we would be quite remiss is we ignored the group that started it all, that brought medieval hermeticism, western esotericism and occultism into the Renaissance and paved the way for much […]
We shall end our little 4 part series of Freemasonry with some pictures of Masonic temples. During the 1700s as Freemasonry became a new type of social club centered around symbolic spiritual morality with less and less ties to its […]
Now that we’ve not only covered some interesting early history of Freemasonry involving the Hanovers and Jacobites but established the animostiy of the Catholic Church towards Freemasonry (although to be fair, i have not yet listed the specific reasons the […]
During the 18th, 19th and early 20th century Freemasonry grew to enormous proportions. Groups of lodges operated under various Grand Lodges, but each Grand Lodge was more or less independent from one another. Thus, many different types of degrees, rites, […]
We’ve covered the Golden Dawn, we’ve covered Spiritualism and Theosophy. If you were doing something crazy and far out in the Victorian era, we’ll get to it, but at long last we turn our gaze on the single most influential […]
In examining the more colorful forms of spirituality that appeared during the Victorian and Edwardian eras, there are some interesting figures who movements like Theosophy drew upon and reimagined into a mythological status. The Compte Saint Germaine is perhaps one […]
Now that we’ve covered the history of Theosophy, let’s end our little sojourn with a discussion of what the movement was all about. Basically, Spiritualism began the idea that ghosts and occultish things could be reasoned out and studied scientifically. […]
When Helena Blavatsky died in 1891, she left a strong movement. Her last book, the massive 2 volume The Secret Doctrine contained an enormous amount of deep thinking, wild assertions, challenging revelations and talking points to last for years. Indeed, […]
With her massive, two volume book Isis Unveiled, Blavatsky not only discusses close to the entirety of Western Occultism and Spiritualism, but all out attacks the scientific materialism and religious orthodoxy of her day. Few Victorian views on these […]
“We assert that the divine spark in man being one and identical in its essence with the Universal Spirit, our “spiritual Self” is practically omniscient, but that it cannot manifest its knowledge owing to the impediments of matter. Now the […]