*shrugs and gesticulates* Bof.... la princesse est morte quand-meme.... *downs glass of pastis*
Historian of religions, paganism and esotericism. Website: https://www.robindouglas.org
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*shrugs and gesticulates* Bof.... la princesse est morte quand-meme.... *downs glass of pastis*
Diana Week was extraordinary - a brief window into the popular hagiology of the Middle Ages, complete with institutions trying to encourage and profit from it. The only thing that came close to it was the Queen's death - another exercise in vernacular religiosity, but one that felt less weird.
Ah yes. Jollers has past form on that too. Didn't he do it with a first instance judge?
I seem to recall one barrister-commentator (not Barrett) explicitly calling for ministers to appoint judges on the basis of political considerations. He thought that this would end well. I wondered if his wifi connection had some kind of filter that prevented content from the USA from reaching him.
It's ultimately destructive of any belief in constitutionalism because the endgame is that the conspiracy of the tofu-eating wokerati is too entrenched to be defeated by normal means - we need a strongman who will drain the swap, take back control and crush the saboteurs.
There's a grain of truth in it. I'm an ex-lawyer myself. Not many of us are flag-painting nativists. But it's toxic because it plays into a deeper paranoia about British society being run by unelected "enemies of the people" who have contempt for salt-of-the-earth working-class patriots.
I don't think it's quite that. I think it's an attempt to mobilise a widely-held stereotype of lawyers as politically liberal and socially insulated The "lefty lawyers" trope has been deployed in the immigration debate since Boris Johnson's time. I assumed it had come from focus groups.
Jeez. You’re in trouble when the C of E actually has an opinion on something. (The C of E’s great battle cry: ‘On the one hand — but on the other!)
I saw an AMORC centre, with a sign outside, while going out for dinner in Peckham, of all places!
In my upstairs library, I have two little statues, one of the goddess Isis and the other of a kneeling donkey. Both are sat beside a bowl of roses. There's also a stone carving of Epona. I suspect Apuleius would approve of the literary homage (although George Fox wouldn't!). 😀
THE ROMAN OCCULTIST WHO WROTE A NOVEL The only complete Latin novel that survives today is The Golden Ass, which was written by a Roman of North African extraction called Apuleius. Apuleius was a witty, learned man who may have had some dark secrets.
Wearing a beard is against traditional practice, of course (assuming that Father is a secular priest of the Latin Rite).
You can read more on my website here: www.robindouglas.org/post/the-rom...
Apuleius has influenced numerous people, including the Romantic poets and the writers of the Aesthetic and Decadent schools. He has also been influential on Freemasons, who have seen him as an ancient predecessor, and Pagan revivalists from the Golden Dawn to Wicca.
The other especially memorable part of the novel is Book 11, which features a miraculous appearance by the Goddess of the universe, who identifies herself as Isis. The hero of the novel ends up being initiated in to the mystery cults of Isis and Osiris.
The Golden Ass contains a mixture of constant violence, scatology, and taboo-breaking sex. It also contains the well-known fable of Cupid and Psyche, which may have something to do with Platonic ideas of the descent of the soul into matter and its reascent to the divine.
As a result of the witchcraft allegations, he found himself on trial for his life. His defence speech still survives. How convincing it was is a matter of opinion - he seems to have known a bit more about the occult than a respectable Roman ought to have known - but he ended up being acquitted.
His career takes us deep into the worlds of magic, witchcraft and fantastical literature. Apuleius was a philosopher in the tradition of Plato. He was also an initiate of a number of mystery cults and - allegedly - a witch.
THE ROMAN OCCULTIST WHO WROTE A NOVEL The only complete Latin novel that survives today is The Golden Ass, which was written by a Roman of North African extraction called Apuleius. Apuleius was a witty, learned man who may have had some dark secrets.
Who and what *is* Mary? P. L. Travers was an occultist, after all. If we look at the book, the text rejects the specific theory that she is a fairy; but other possibilities are wide open.
St Guinefort was literally a dog. www.thegreyhoundsaint.com
St Adauctus ("Added") was so called because he randomly came forward for martyrdom alongside a priest and no-one knew who he was or what his name was.
The Victorians are often seen as pioneers of modern science and technology. But they were spooky too. Many Victorians were involved in occult activities like Spiritualism. Some attempted to combine science and the supernatural by engaging in psychical research. /1
Thank you!
("ghosts seem to be happy" - a conclusion of the writer Frederic Myers from examining apparition cases - is an observation that I suspect will interest @edwardw2.bsky.social).
Read more about this on my Substack: religionoffthebeatentrack.substack.com/p/the-scienc... /End
There were a series of attempts to investigate paranormal phenomena in a rationalistic way, outside the framework of traditional Christian theology. Some fascinating bodies of data were compiled, which continue to raise questions today. /2
The Victorians are often seen as pioneers of modern science and technology. But they were spooky too. Many Victorians were involved in occult activities like Spiritualism. Some attempted to combine science and the supernatural by engaging in psychical research. /1
There is an associated trivia question: "which Beatle had the same first name as 3 Labour prime ministers?" Answer: James Paul McCartney
Oh, everyone loves Mill!
I suspect that Carlyle wouldn't be flattered by that comparison.... Surely if we're looking for a godfather of liberal imperialism it would be his adversary Macaulay?
The Morant Bay rebellion would be a good subject for a TV series. It's not nearly well enough known in Britain.
Didn't the two things inextricably go together? The same forces of economic development that enabled the rise of liberalism also enabled global-scale imperialism.
I'm thinking of writing something about it.
It's a reference to an obscure occult rite! It was supposedly written by a Jewish kabbalist in the middle ages, but it was probably the product of a Lutheran in the 17th century.
How many people in the world have done the Abramelin? (People currently alive, that is.) I'm thinking that it must be in three figures, maybe even in four figures.
(From the archives) Is Keir Starmer Britain's first atheist prime minister? www.robindouglas.org/post/britain...
This idea has a long history on the British far right, obviously starting with Mosley, but also including (notoriously) Alan Clark, and echoed in the writings of P*ter H*tchens and John Charmley. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Just been to @museecluny.bsky.social and took this pic of the Emperor Julian dressed as a priest of Serapis for all my Julian stans @metalclassicist.bsky.social @robincdouglas.bsky.social
A great article, though I think it’s also interesting that Keir Starmer: with his family’s sabbath-keeping, is also representative of that contemporary tendency to say, “Well, I’m an atheist but my wife/husband/partner is X and it’s very important to us as a family.”
Yes! That's a good point.
(From the archives) Is Keir Starmer Britain's first atheist prime minister? www.robindouglas.org/post/britain...
I wrote this last year. No-one seemed to be able to write with nuance about the Latin Mass, so I thought I'd have a go. It also serves as an introduction to the Latin Mass for non-Catholics and the reasons for the bitter politics around it. religionoffthebeatentrack.substack.com/p/what-is-po...
Cummings has been on record for some time as saying that the UK should have carried out military strikes on French beaches to destroy the boats. That would have led to the funniest ever Article 5 intervention.
I wrote this last year. No-one seemed to be able to write with nuance about the Latin Mass, so I thought I'd have a go. It also serves as an introduction to the Latin Mass for non-Catholics and the reasons for the bitter politics around it. religionoffthebeatentrack.substack.com/p/what-is-po...
Okay, I've deleted my earlier post. Apparently, this is *not* a pipe. But the fact that I thought it was says a lot about society.
No, they didn't care about religious affiliation - Hitler prided himself on rejecting irrational Christian religious bigotry in favour of scientific racism - but the fact remains that they, when classifying their victims, they relied on decisions made by 19th century rabbis.
The fact that the Nazis ultimately fell back on a religiously-determined criterion of Jewishness exposes the emptiness of their supposedly scientific ideas.
This is a mistake, and it should be corrected. But a larger and more important point remains.
The problem with the caption is that it misinterprets this requirement as meaning that the grandparent had to have been a piously observant Jew in adult life, whereas what it really meant is that the grandparent had to have been entered into Jewish religious records when they were born.
This brings us back to the provision referred to above. In summary, you were classed as a Mischling if you had one or two Jewish grandparents. But this just moved the question backwards. How did you know if your grandparent was Jewish? Answer: if they "belonged to the Jewish religious community".
The Nazis tied themselves in knots trying to solve this insoluble problem. This endeavour included positing different categories of "Mischlinge" (roughly, "mixed-blood") to try to capture part-Jewish individuals.
The key point is that there was no "right" answer to this. The racial categories that the Nazis were using were spurious. They prided themselves on being scientific racists, but there is no scientific test for determining who is and isn't Jewish.
The Nuremberg Laws, in brief summary, excluded Jews from German citizenship and from sexual relations with people of "German blood". This raised the question of who counted as Jewish. In 1935, there were a considerable number of people in Germany who had mixed Jewish and non-Jewish ancestry.
The confusion comes from this provision of the first implementing decree that was issued under the notorious Nuremberg Laws. It was issued on 14 November 1935 over the signature of Hitler and two of his ministers. www.servat.unibe.ch/dns/RGBl_193...
The caption is incorrect and should be changed, but there is an important point here. Contrary to what some posters are assuming, the writer of the caption was not some idiot who thought that Nazi antisemitism was religious rather than racial. www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...
It has always been wild to me that, as a British person raised in America, an enormous number of Americans have expressed their assumption that the modern British monarchy is a direct succession from a historical King Arthur, the first king.
Just gonna point out how medievalism underpins this far right nostalgia #medievalsky
I wrote this guide to studying ancient history which deals with source analysis in the second section. It's not focussed on one single source, but it's a superb introduction for people new to history and I'm going to plug it anyway 👍 www.academia.edu/127144255/St...
hello if you were teaching PGT students from multiple disciplinary backgrounds about historical source analysis what cool article that does a really nice analysis of one source in depth would you set them to read? i had one which we cannot use for redacted reasons and now im drawing a blank 🗃️
I'm reading the judgment in Hegab v Spectator. Best quote so far: "the claimant was not genuinely seeking to explore matters of theology and eschatology with the group of masked men that he was addressing"
I think it's right to acknowledge that the area bombings in WW2 were wrong - the atomic bombings are a more difficult issue - but making an apology seems to me to be problematic. To whom would the apology be made? Who in 2025 is in a position to receive and to accept (or reject) the apology?
Delighted to be in Glastonbury again - looking for a flat to buy this time!
Records of a series of Victorian séances I recently posted an article on Francis George Irwin, a Victorian occultist and Freemason. I've now posted about an intriguing series of séances that Irwin held in 1872-3. Link in next post
I conclude that "the spirit messages seem to contain the same mix of truth and falsehood that will be familiar to anyone who has looked at this kind of material" Link: www.robindouglas.org/post/the-s%C...
Records of a series of Victorian séances I recently posted an article on Francis George Irwin, a Victorian occultist and Freemason. I've now posted about an intriguing series of séances that Irwin held in 1872-3. Link in next post
a point that isn't made strongly enough is that if Mencius came back to life his first priority would be to bitchslap Curtis Yarvin so hard for taking his name in vain that his teeth would fall out.
🚨 New episode of my podcast! Feminist occult literature Sue Terry talks about her research on esoteric themes in feminist writers, from the Golden Dawn to Mary Poppins as the goddess Kali. Links in next post
Thank you!
A rare 19th century text from the early pagan revival made freely available for the first time!
Substack audio: religionoffthebeatentrack.substack.com/p/feminist-o... Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeVf...
🚨 New episode of my podcast! Feminist occult literature Sue Terry talks about her research on esoteric themes in feminist writers, from the Golden Dawn to Mary Poppins as the goddess Kali. Links in next post
A rare 19th century text from the early pagan revival made freely available for the first time!
Indeed. West and South Asian practices would be a whole further category in themselves.
Yes, I think that's right. You don't really get organised (semi-)pagan rituals in Britain before the GD.
Then there was the Society of Eight, which never got off the ground. There is a theory that the GD cipher manuscript was written by Mackenzie for this body. It was really only with the GD that organised ritual magic (as opposed to individuals messing about with grimoires) took off in Britain.
Spiritualism was an exoteric movement. As to *esoteric* magical orders... perhaps the SRIA would count. But before the GD comes along in 1888 there are very few examples of magical lodges in Britain. Irwin tried to set up an order called the Fratres Lucis, but that existed mostly in theory.
Very good question. Spiritualism was the big example of practical supernatural experimentation in this period - a genuine mass movement which ranged from the working classes up to Queen Victoria (and included Hockley and Irwin).
religionoffthebeatentrack.substack.com/p/the-freema...
On investigation, this seemingly bizarre act fits comfortably into the cultural and intellectual trends of the time - and provides a missing link to the twentieth-century pagan revival. Link in next post.
🚨 New on my Substack! "The Freemason and the sun gods" Why would a nineteenth-century Irish Protestant living in Britain take it into his head to write a hymn to the sun referencing ancient pagan gods?
It's definitely been influential on contemporary pagans - probably to the horror of Frazer himself, who saw himself as a rationalist debunker of religion.
“Hriliu” on a felt-cloth banner written in that weird font from the *Godspell* cast album.
As David Hume put it, Edward I “ordered this sovereign prince [Dafydd ap Gruffydd] to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, as a traitor, for defending by arms the liberties of his native country, together with his own hereditary authority”.
What would a Vatican II version of the Gnostic Mass look like?
Once I was in Wales and a man was drunkenly cursing “that bastard Edward” and I looked around, like which Edward where? But he was talking about Edward I, who absolutely deserved all of the cursing because he was truly the worst, and even 800 years later his actions are still hurting people
Was recently reading a very respectable 1920’s periodical (Time and Tide) and was surprised to see the Brutus myth of Britain’s origins being treated seriously by a contributor
Here’s a thing I knew, but hadn’t absorbed: during the reign of James VI and I, people believed that Arthur and Merlin were real. Anyone know when we realised they weren’t? (Not rhetorical. Really curious)
🚨 New on my Substack! "Bloody Sunday and oral history" Looking at ordinary people's testimony - IRA men, police, soldiers and Derry residents - to shed light on a tragic historical episode. Link in next post
Like many things, it can be framed both in a sophisticated way and a crass way.....
It is, but you do get people arguing this. I've seen it seriously claimed that there were no homosexuals before 1868.
pagesfromahistoriansnotebook.substack.com/p/bloody-sun... This is on my HISTORICAL Substack as distinct from my RELIGION Substack - please subscribe if you haven't done so already!
🚨 New on my Substack! "Bloody Sunday and oral history" Looking at ordinary people's testimony - IRA men, police, soldiers and Derry residents - to shed light on a tragic historical episode. Link in next post
You may recall the police reconstructed his route home from his Oyster card records. And the Church of Fools group then organised a pub crawl based on the route.
I’m not wholly averse to the idea of a complete idiot - who, crucially, has the self-knowledge to know they’re an idiot - as the next Archbishop of Canterbury; it could signal a collaborative approach to the office where the idiot relies on the judgement of others
Ok, I've posted a sample on my Facebook here. It's incredible how clear her esoteric interests are! www.facebook.com/profile.php?...
I've come across an old edition of "The Folklore of Herbs" by a lady called Katherine Oldmeadow, who is believed to have been one of Gerald Gardner's associates and a member of the "New Forest Coven" from which Wicca emerged. Would anyone be interested if I posted a scan of it online?
I think it's a misnomer because the behaviour which it's used to describe isn't signalling virtue. It's usually signalling identity (group membership).
This isn't my area, I'm afraid - but @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social may have some suggestions.