Category: Uncategorized
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The Seymour papers 2 – Magic in the ancient mystery religions
December 1934-March 1935 Part 1. Magic, Myth, Mystery Summary. Magic has to do with the mind making contact with the unseen spiritual side of the world. It involves the subconscious mind, and everyone’s subconscious mind has latent powers for magic. Work in a mystery school is about training these latent powers and accessing higher states…
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The Seymour papers 1 – The meaning of initiation
Colonel Charles “Griff” Seymour (1880-1943) was one of the most important esotericists of the twentieth century. He is almost unknown today. Seymour was a close collaborator of the much more famous Dion Fortune, and he duly turns up in fictionalised form as the Priest of the Moon in Fortune’s novel The Sea Priestess. A formidable…
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Voodoo in court
This article was originally published on 12 February 2025. It was also posted on my Substack. The Employment Tribunal has ruled on a harassment claim which involved the African Caribbean religious tradition of Vodun (generally known as ‘Voodoo’). The case is Wint v Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council 1306321/2023, and judgment was given at the end of…
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Paganism in English law
NONE OF THIS IS LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU WANT LEGAL ADVICE, YOU SHOULD CONSULT A SOLICITOR. This is a short article on the status of Paganism in English law. I originally wrote it in 2018, and it is not guaranteed to be up to date. Nevertheless, it may be of interest. Introduction Before the nineteenth…
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Two reincarnation stories from British India
Occasionally, a child will claim to remember having lived a past life. These cases can sometimes be distinguished from childish fantasies by features that seem to link the child’s claims with verifiable details of the past life. Many examples of such stories can be found in the books of Ian Stevenson and Jim Tucker, or…
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“Cops arrest rabbi in park with naked teenager”
The strange story of the Secret Gospel of Mark In my recent piece on the unexpected finding of religious texts, I left out the most famous example from recent years of such a text being found. I’d like to focus on that episode in this article. It forms a notoriously difficult and bitter academic puzzle.…
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Bishop Richard Williamson – Fall of a Wykehamist
Originally posted on 30 January 2025. The rebel Catholic bishop Richard Williamson died yesterday after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage. He was 84. A convicted Holocaust denier and defender of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, His Lordship was on record as claiming that 9/11 was staged by the US Government and that the Apollo…
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The first Pagan funeral in the USA?
The following text comes from a press report of the funeral of the Baron de Palm, a German esotericist who died in New York in 1876. It may be the first Pagan funeral in the history of the United States. It was also apparently the first occasion on which the Orphic Hymns were used in…
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“I’ve just found a holy book!”
This piece has also been posted on my Substack. Sacred texts have a habit of being discovered unexpectedly. Every so often in the history of religion, something very unusual but very convenient happens. Someone finds an old text containing sacred knowledge which has unfortunately been hidden until that moment. He – it is usually a…
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The Crockford’s Preface – Remembering an Anglican tragedy
Originally posted on 5 December 2024. Today is the 37th anniversary of the death of Rev. Dr Gareth Bennett. He was 58. He took his own life as the result of a tragic and unnecessary scandal. Bizarrely, it all started when he agreed to write the Preface of the forthcoming edition of Crockford’s Clerical Directory.…
Dr Robin Douglas 