Dr Robin Douglas

This is an article on the contemporary Pagan community in England and Wales, based on what the census results can tell us. How many Pagans are there? Where do they live? What do they look like when broken down by age and sex? What is a Pagan? Pagans are difficult to count, for several reasons.…

It was never about God Blasphemy is in the news again following the overturning of Hamit Coskun’s conviction for burning the Qur’an. “There is no offence of blasphemy in our law”, declared the court near the beginning of its judgment. This is true, but the history here is more complex than is generally realised. England…

This is the last in my series of posts making available the writings of Colonel Charles ‘Griff’ Seymour, one of the most important esotericists of the twentieth century. May to September 1938 Part 1. The Gods of the Mysteries In these articles an attempt will be made to show what the gods of a Mystery…

If you are reading these words after 24 September 2025, there is a chance that you have missed out on the fast track to Heaven. Predictions have been circulating online that an event known as the Rapture will take place today or tomorrow. These claims seem to originate from a South African clergyman, Rev. Joshua…

A further post in my series republishing The Folklore of Herbs (1946), a book by Katherine Oldmeadow, who was a significant figure in the British pagan revival. CHAPTER IV SOME OF THE OLD HERBALISTS Adam might be called the first herbalist when he was put into a garden made by God. The people of Biblical times and…

A further post in my series republishing The Folklore of Herbs (1946), a book by Katherine Oldmeadow, who was a significant figure in the British pagan revival. CHAPTER III WITCHES: BLACK AND WHITE The housewives of the past were learned in the use of physic herbs and capable of doctoring their households. But some of them, not…

Today is the anniversary of the demise of the last clerical government in Europe. On 20 September 1870, the army of the Kingdom of Italy entered Rome and put an end to the anachronistic entity known as the Papal States – in modern terms, a kind of western Iran. * From the eighth century CE…

A further post in my series republishing The Folklore of Herbs (1946), a book by Katherine Oldmeadow, who was a significant figure in the British pagan revival. CHAPTER II HERBS AND THE STARS The virtues of herbs were known to the ancients and books on them were written in England in pre-Christian days, but mixed…

This is the first of a series of posts in which I am republishing a book entitled The Folklore of Herbs by Katherine Oldmeadow. The book was published in 1946. Oldmeadow seems to have been a significant figure in the revival of pagan witchcraft in Britain: she was identified by Philip Heselton as one of…

Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (1784-1817), also known as Sheikh Ibrahim ibn Abdallah, was a Swiss traveller and orientalist. Educated in Cambridge, his principal claim to fame was his rediscovery of the ancient city of Petra (in modern Jordan). Below is an account of premodern Mecca from Burckhardt’s Travels in Arabia. The account is somewhat critical, and it…