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Matthew McBlain Thomson
Matthew McBlain Thomson (9 January 1854 – 13 September 1932)Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon - Matthew McBlain Thomson was a Scottish-born convert to Mormonism, Freemason and a convicted fraudster. Masonic activities Thomson was born in Ayr, Scotland on 9 January 1854.Howe & Möller 1978 He was by trade a house painter. He became a Freemason in 1874 while still living in Scotland. In 1881, Thomson immigrated to Idaho, United States, where he joined the King Solomon Lodge in Montpelier, Idaho.Homer 1992, 77 Eventually, the lodge members refused to accept his Masonic degrees from Scotland and also accused him, as a Mormon taking part in the Temple endowment ceremony, of practicing a "clandestine" form of Masonry. After leaving "regular" Freemasonry as practiced under the Grand Lodge of Idaho, Thomson founded his own Masonic organization, the American Masonic Federation (AMF), and began practicing what he called "Universal Masonry", which accepted Mormons as members. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ayrshire
Ayrshire (, ) is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county, in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. The lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area of Ayrshire and Arran covers the entirety of the historic county as well as the island of Arran, formerly part of the historic county of Buteshire. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine, North Ayrshire, Irvine and it borders the counties of Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire to the north-east, Dumfriesshire to the south-east, and Kirkcudbrightshire and Wigtownshire to the south. Like many other counties of Scotland, it currently has no administrative function, instead being sub-divided into the council areas of East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire. It has a population of approximately 366,800. The electoral and valuation area named Ayrshire covers the three council areas of East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire, therefore covering the whole histo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African-American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. African Americans constitute the second largest ethno-racial group in the U.S. after White Americans. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of Africans enslaved in the United States. In 2023, an estimated 48.3 million people self-identified as Black, making up 14.4% of the country’s population. This marks a 33% increase since 2000, when there were 36.2 million Black people living in the U.S. African-American history began in the 16th century, with Africans being sold to European slave traders and transported across the Atlantic to the Western Hemisphere. They were sold as slaves to European colonists and put to work on plantations, particularly in the southern colonies. A few were able to achieve freedom through ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Bucharest metropolitan area, metropolitan area of 2.3 million residents, which makes Bucharest the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 8th most-populous city in the European Union. The city area measures and comprises 6 districts (''Sectors of Bucharest, Sectoare''), while the metropolitan area covers . Bucharest is a major cultural, political and economic hub, the country's seat of government, and the capital of the Muntenia region. Bucharest was first mentioned in documents in 1459. The city became the capital in 1862 and is the centre of Romanian media, culture, and art. Its architecture is a mix of historical (mostly History of architecture#Revivalism and Eclecticism, Eclectic, but also Neoclassical arc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Confessions Of Aleister Crowley
''The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography'' is a partial autobiography by the poet and occultist Aleister Crowley. It covers the early years of his life up until the mid-late 1920s but does not include the latter part of Crowley's life and career between then and his death in 1947. Mandrake Press published the first two sections as separate volumes under the title ''The Spirit of Solitude'' in 1929. Background Crowley had originally intended that the work would be published in six volumes, but only two of these had been published before the Great Depression and various internal disputes led to the demise of the publishers. The project languished uncompleted throughout Crowley's lifetime, and it was not until 1969 that the Confessions were issued in a single volume edition, edited by John Symonds and Kenneth Grant. Whilst the single volume edition includes much of the text of the first two volumes (and of course that of the latter four) it is nonetheless an abr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Secret Chiefs
In various occultist movements, Secret Chiefs are said to be transcendent cosmic authorities, a spiritual hierarchy responsible for the operation and moral calibre of the cosmos, or for overseeing the operations of an esoteric organization that manifests outwardly in the form of a magical order or lodge system. Their names and descriptions have varied through time, differing among those who have claimed experience of contact with them. They are variously held to exist on higher planes of being or to be incarnate; if incarnate, they may be described as being gathered at some special location, such as Shambhala, or scattered through the world working anonymously. History One early and influential source on these entities is Karl von Eckartshausen, whose '' The Cloud upon the Sanctuary'', published in 1793, explained in some detail their character and motivations. Several 19th and 20th century occultists claimed to belong to or to have contacted these Secret Chiefs and made ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abbey Of Thelema
The Abbey of Thelema is a small house which was used as a temple and spiritual centre, founded by Aleister Crowley and Leah Hirsig in Cefalù (Sicily, Italy) in 1920. The villa still stands today, but in poor condition. Filmmaker Kenneth Anger, himself a devotee of Crowley, later uncovered and filmed some of its murals in his film ''Thelema Abbey'' (1955), now considered a lost film. Name The name was borrowed from François Rabelais's satire ''Gargantua and Pantagruel'', where an ''Abbaye de Thélème'' is described as a sort of "anti-monastery" where the lives of the inhabitants were "spent not in laws, statutes, or rules, but according to their own free will and pleasure." Prior to arriving at the name, Crowley referred to the house as Villa Santa Barbara. The name "Thelema" is derived from the Greek θÎλημα (« thélêma »), which refers to 'divine will'. Objectives The Abbey was to be Crowley's commune, while also being a type of magical school, giving it the design ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ordo Templi Orientis
Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.; ) is an occult secret society and hermetic magical organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century. The origins of O.T.O. can be traced back to the German-speaking occultists Carl Kellner, Theodor Reuss, Heinrich Klein, and Franz Hartmann. In its first incarnation, O.T.O. was intended to be modelled after and associated with European Freemasonry; as such, in its early years, only Freemasons could seek admittance. Founder and first head of the Order Carl Kellner wanted to create an Academia Masonica wherein various rites of high-degree Freemasonry could be conferred within German-speaking countries. During the course of his esoteric studies across the globe and from many traditions, Kellner believed that he had discovered a key which offered a clear explanation of all the complex symbolism of Freemasonry and of nature itself. Kellner intended that O.T.O. preserve and confer this key. After the death of Reuss, English writer and occultis ... [...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, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Aeon of Horus, 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, Cambridge, Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, where he focused his attention upon 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zurich, Switzerland
Zurich (; ) is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The urban area was home to 1.45 million people (2020), while the Zurich metropolitan area had a total population of 2.1 million (2020). Zurich is a hub for railways, roads, and air traffic. Both Zurich Airport and Zurich's main railway station are the largest and busiest in the country. Permanently settled for over 2,000 years, Zurich was founded by the Romans, who called it '. However, early settlements have been found dating back more than 6,400 years (although this only indicates human presence in the area and not the presence of a town that early). During the Middle Ages, Zurich gained the independent and privileged status of imperial immediacy and, in 1519, became a primary centre of the Protestant Reformation in Europe under the leadership of Huldrych Zwingli. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theodor Reuss
Albert Karl Theodor Reuss (; June 28, 1855 – October 28, 1923), also known by his neo-Gnostic bishop title of Carolus Albertus Theodorus Peregrinus, was a German tantra, tantric occultist, freemason, journalist, singer and head of Ordo Templi Orientis. Early years Reuss was the son of an innkeeper Franz Xavier Reuss and his wife Eva Barbara Margaret Wagner at Augsburg. He was a professional singer in his youth, and was introduced to Ludwig II of Bavaria, in 1873. He took part in the first performance of Richard Wagner, Wagner's ''Parsifal'' at Bayreuth Festspielhaus, Bayreuth in 1882. Reuss later became a newspaper correspondent, and travelled frequently as such to England, where he became a freemasonry, Mason at the Pilger Loge No. 238 of the United Grand Lodge of England in 1876. He also spent some time there as a journalist and as a music-hall singer under the stage name "Charles Theodore." In 1876, Reuss married a woman ten years his senior, Delphina Garbois from Dublin, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Bricaud
Jean (or Joanny) Bricaud (11 February 1881, Neuville-sur-Ain, Ain – 24 February 1934), also known as Tau Jean II, was a French student of the occult and esoteric matters. Bricaud was heavily involved in the French neo-Gnostic movement. He was consecrated a Gnostic bishop on 21 July 1913 by bishop Louis-Marie-François Giraud. by Stephan A. Hoeller (written in the early 1980s) He was the of the '' [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
