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Atlantis Bookshop
The Atlantis Bookshop is an esoteric bookshop in Museum Street, London. Established by Michael Houghton in 1922, it is currently owned and run by Bali Beskin and her mother Geraldine. Atlantis has long been a hub for London's occult world.Carr-Gomm & Heygate, p. 453 Gerald Gardner attended meetings of The Order of the Hidden Masters in its basement during his formative years, and also held meetings of his own Coven there. The shop published his first book on witchcraft, the novel ''High Magic's Aid''. Here he also met Ross Nichols, later a key figure in the Druid world, who edited Gardner's 1954 ''Witchcraft Today''. Atlantis hosts art exhibitions and esoteric talks, workshops and book launches. For many years it ran a discussion group for pagans and magicians called "The Moot With No Name" in the nearby Devereaux Arms off Fleet Street, which then moved to Milford's pub in Milford Lane as "The Atlantis Bookshop Presents" before ceasing some years ago. It also publishes occasiona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlantis Bookshop, Museum Street, Bloomsbury (cropped)
Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works ''Timaeus'' and ''Critias'', wherein it represents the antagonist naval power that besieges "Ancient Athens", the pseudo-historic embodiment of Plato's ideal state in '' The Republic''. In the story, Athens repels the Atlantean attack unlike any other nation of the known world, supposedly bearing witness to the superiority of Plato's concept of a state. The story concludes with Atlantis falling out of favor with the deities and submerging into the Atlantic Ocean. Despite its minor importance in Plato's work, the Atlantis story has had a considerable impact on literature. The allegorical aspect of Atlantis was taken up in utopian works of several Renaissance writers, such as Francis Bacon's ''New Atlantis'' and Thomas More's ''Utopia''. On the other hand, nineteenth-century amateur scholars misinterpreted Plato's narrat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Esoteric
Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas and currents are united since they are largely distinct both from orthodox Judeo-Christian religion and Enlightenment rationalism. Esotericism has pervaded various forms of Western philosophy, religion, pseudoscience, art, literature, and music—and continues to influence intellectual ideas and popular culture. The idea of grouping a wide range of Western traditions and philosophies together under the term ''esotericism'' developed in Europe during the late seventeenth century. Various academics have debated various definitions of Western esotericism. One view adopts a definition from certain esotericist schools of thought themselves, treating "esotericism" as a perennial hidden inner tradition. A second perspective sees esotericism a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Museum Street
Museum Street is a street in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, England. To the north is the British Museum, hence its current name. The street is populated by cafes and bookshops to appeal to the international museum-going public. To the north is Great Russell Street. To the south are Bloomsbury Way and New Oxford Street. The nearest tube stations are Tottenham Court Road and Holborn to the southwest and southeast respectively. History The street goes back to the 14th century and beyond. It remained largely rural until the late 17th century when the growth of London caused its urbanisation. Known as a thoroughfare since records began, it soon came to be known as ''Peter Street''. The origins of this name are unsure though scholars agree it is unlikely to have been an eminent Peter (notwithstanding perhaps St Peter) and more probable it derives from a saltpetre manufactory which is thought to have existed there long before the British Museum opened in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerald Gardner
Gerald Brosseau Gardner (13 June 1884 – 12 February 1964), also known by the craft name Scire, was an English Wiccan, as well as an author and an amateur anthropologist and archaeologist. He was instrumental in bringing the Contemporary Pagan religion of Wicca to public attention, writing some of its definitive religious texts and founding the tradition of Gardnerian Wicca. Born into an upper-middle-class family in Blundellsands, Lancashire, Gardner spent much of his childhood abroad in Madeira. In 1900, he moved to colonial Ceylon, and then in 1911 to Malaya, where he worked as a civil servant, independently developing an interest in the native peoples and writing papers and a book about their magical practices. After his retirement in 1936, he travelled to Cyprus, penning the novel ''A Goddess Arrives'' before returning to England. Settling down near the New Forest, he joined an occult group, the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship, through which he said he had enc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ross Nichols
Philip Peter Ross Nichols (28 June 1902 – 30 April 1975) was a Cambridge academic and published poet, artist and historian, who founded the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids in 1964. He wrote prolifically on the subjects of Druidism and Celtic mythology. Work He revived the interest in Celtic neopaganism and Druidry in the 20th century. Nichols was a Member and Chairman of the Ancient Druid Order which traces its lineage to a meeting at the Apple Tree Tavern in Covent Garden, London, in 1717' although Professor Ronald Hutton has demonstrated that it only dates back to 1906, the 1717 story being a modification of the founding of modern Freemasonry. His main work, ''The Book of Druidry'', was published posthumously in 1990. Life Philip Peter Ross Nichols was born in Norwich, England, and educated at Bloxham School. While a graduate history student at Cambridge University, Nichols became influenced by the work of James George Frazer, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, T.S. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Witchcraft Today
''Witchcraft Today'' is a non-fiction book written by Gerald Gardner. Published in 1954, ''Witchcraft Today'' recounts Gardner's thoughts on the history and the practices of the witch-cult, and his claim to have met practising witches in 1930s England. It also deals with his theory that the Knights Templar had practised the religion, and that the belief in faeries in ancient, mediaeval and early modern Europe is due to a secretive pygmy race that lived alongside other communities. ''Witchcraft Today'' is one of the foundational texts for the religion of Wicca, along with Gardner's second book on the subject, 1959's '' The Meaning of Witchcraft''. Gerald Gardner in the foreword to Witchcraft Today: Whilst by the time of writing, Gardner had been initiated into the religion, and had formed his own coven, he did not state this in the book, instead he "posed as a disinterested anthropologist". page 206 The introduction to the book was written by Margaret Murray, who had widely ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was named. The street has been an important through route since Roman times. During the Middle Ages, businesses were established and senior clergy lived there; several churches remain from this time including Temple Church and St Bride's. The street became known for printing and publishing at the start of the 16th century, and it became the dominant trade so that by the 20th century most British national newspapers operated from here. Much of that industry moved out in the 1980s after News International set up cheaper manufacturing premises in Wapping, but some former newspaper buildings are listed and have been preserved. The term ''Fleet Street'' remains a metonym for the British national press, and pubs on the street once frequented b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century. A prolific writer, he published widely over the course of his life. Born to a wealthy family in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, Crowley rejected his parents' fundamentalist Christian Plymouth Brethren faith to pursue an interest in Western esotericism. He was educated at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, where he focused his attentions on mountaineering and poetry, resulting in several publications. Some biographers allege that here he was recruited into a British intelligence agency, further suggesting that he remained a spy throughout his life. In 1898, he joined the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, where he was train ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Book Of The Law
''Liber AL vel Legis'' (), commonly known as ''The Book of the Law'', is the central sacred text of Thelema. Aleister Crowley said that it was dictated to him by a beyond-human being who called himself ' Aiwass'. Rose Edith Kelly, Crowley's wife, wrote two phrases in the manuscript. The three chapters of the book are spoken by the deities Nuit, Hadit, and Ra-Hoor-Khuit. Through the reception of the ''Book'', Crowley proclaimed the arrival of a new stage in the spiritual evolution of humanity, to be known as the " Æon of Horus". The primary precept of this new aeon is the charge, " Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." The book contains three chapters, each of which was alleged to be written down in one hour, beginning at noon, on 8 April, 9 April, and 10 April in Cairo, Egypt, in the year 1904. Crowley says that the author was an entity named Aiwass, whom he later referred to as his personal Holy Guardian Angel. Biographer Lawrence Sutin quotes private diari ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gumshoe (film)
''Gumshoe'' is a 1971 British black comedy film that was the cinematic directorial debut of director Stephen Frears. Written by local author Neville Smith, who appears as Arthur, the film is set in Liverpool. Albert Finney plays the role of Eddie Ginley, a bingo-caller and occasional club comedian who dreams of being a private eye of the kind he knows from films and pulp novels. Having put an advertisement in a local newspaper (the ''Liverpool Echo'') as a birthday present to himself, Ginley is suddenly contacted for what appears to be an actual piece of detective work. Plot Eddie Ginley works at a bingo hall in Liverpool, England, but dreams of becoming a stylish private investigator like those he has read about and seen in films. After finally placing an advertisement in a local newspaper announcing his detective services, he receives a mysterious offer. Even though Ginley is inexperienced and clueless at certain aspects of investigating, he comes to realize that he is entan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odin Brotherhood
The Odin Brotherhood is the name of a group that practices the modern Pagan religion of Heathenry.Michael Streeter. ''Behind Closed Doors: The Power and Influence of Secret Societies''. New Holland Publishers Uk Ltd. 2008. pgs 143-5, 258. The group first gained attention when Mark Mirabello published a book which describes the group and its beliefs, ''The Odin Brotherhood'', in 1992. A second book about the group,''The Way of the Odin Brotherhood'' by Jack Wolf, was published in 2013. According to Mirabello's account, the Brotherhood alleges to be the direct survivor of an ancient pre-Christian belief system. Mirabello's book has been mentioned in several publications about religions and secret societies, and the Odin Brotherhood is listed in the eighth edition of J. Gordon Melton's '' Encyclopedia of American Religions''. Other scholars and many in the Heathen community have expressed scepticism as to the Brotherhood's existence. History Mark Mirabello, a professor of histo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
