Category: Uncategorized
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“All our ancestors were literal believers, all of the time”?
The quotation in the title comes from the historian Peter Laslett. It is brought up from time to time by historians of religion. Is it true? There is a certain core truth to it. If we could travel back in time to just about any period before the industrial revolution, we would be surprised at…
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The Jewish boy who was kidnapped by the Pope
“Signor Mortara, I am sorry to inform you that you are the victim of a betrayal.” The officer felt uneasy, but he had his orders. “Your son Edgardo has been baptised, and I have been ordered to take him with me.” The date was Thursday 24 June 1858, and the place was the Italian city…
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Polytheism in the Bible
The Bible teaches unambiguously that there are many gods. I’m not making some kind of tenuous linguistic argument here based on dubious translations of obscure terms. It is blatant. There are a number of verses in the Bible in which polytheistic gods are referred to using precisely the same set of Hebrew terms that are…
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The Seymour papers 8 – The Magna Mater
This is the penultimate part of my republication of the writings of Colonel Charles Seymour, an important Irish esotericist of the twentieth century. November 1937 to April 1938 Part 1 Notwithstanding the scanty nature of the records that have escaped the iconoclastic zeal of past ages, in most of the Mystery systems it is still…
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Fatima for the non-religious
Hardly anyone even tries to look at the story of Fatima from a relatively dispassionate standpoint – the commentary tends to consist of either Catholic devotional writing or sceptical debunking. So I thought I’d try a different approach. The feast of Our Lady of Fatima is coming up on 13 May. Now is a good…
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Two socialist rituals from 1924
I’ve uploaded the text of two rites of passage intended for use by British socialists: a child’s naming ceremony and a wedding ceremony. We meet in this public manner in order to testify our conviction that every child born to our race, of whatever nation or colour, should be honoured as a new member of…
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The most exclusive club in the world
Originally posted on 27 April 2025. Also posted on my Substack. Since cardinals and conclaves are in the news at the moment…. How do you become a cardinal? Perhaps the most surprising thing is that, in principle, you don’t need to be a priest. Back in history, so-called ‘lay cardinals’ were sometimes appointed. In spite…
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The Seymour papers 7 – Eheieh asher eheieh
This is the latest in my series of republications of the writings of the important 20th century Irish esotericist Colonel Charles Seymour. October 1937 When Moses the Egyptian initiate on the barren, sun-smitten wastes of Horeb, the Holy Mountain of God, asked the Spirit of the Burning Bush for his name, he got the curious…
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The legend of the hammer
This piece was originally posted on 21 April 2025. It was also posted on my Substack. There is an old story that the death of a pope is verified by striking him on the head three times with a gold or silver hammer while calling him by his baptismal name, the name that his mother…
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Egg rolling – A British Easter Monday custom
Competitive egg rolling is a traditional Easter Monday custom in Britain, particularly in northern England and Scotland. The rolling of the eggs was undertaken by children and teenagers. It seems that they would try to smash the eggs of other participants – presumably the eggs were hard-boiled. In at least some cases, the eggs were…
Dr Robin Douglas 