Carl William Hansen (11 October 1872 – 3 August 1936) was a Danish dairy farmer,
Luciferian,
wandering bishop, and
occultist. Born in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
and first initiated into
Martinism in 1898 by Alphonse Wallen, Hansen used the pseudonym Ben Kadosh to publish ''Den ny morgens gry: verdensbygmesterens genkomst'' ("The Dawn of a New Morning: The Return of the World's Master Builder") in 1906.
Inspired by the French
Gnostic
Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: , romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among early Christian sects. These diverse g ...
movement and such writers as Carl Kohl, his major interests seem to have been
alchemy and
astrology
Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...
. Until 1905 he was in communication with Swedish playwright and
alchemist August Strindberg.
[Welblund, Aage: Den sidste Guldmager og Kabbalist, Social-demokraten, 19 May 1946 (newspaperarticle), and Pedersen, Bjarne Salling + Madsen, Peder Byberg: Den Hellige Soen, 2006.] Some of Hansen's occult ideas inspire the
Neo-Luciferian Church today.
[The Neo-Luciferian Church . Retrieved on 30 October 2006]
In September 1921,
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 Templ ...
issued fringe masonic charters to Hansen for Gnostic Primas, Memphis & Misraim,
Ordo Templi Orientis, and the
Hermetic Brotherhood of Light.
[Lomholt, Sigurd: Vinkelfrimureriet : irregulære og bedrageriske Frimurer-Riter samt det danske Vinkelfrimureri's Historie i Nutiden. Copenhagen 1931.] In 1923, he founded a Martinist lodge in Denmark, later dissolved and rebuilt as the lodge The Three Columns. This lodge formed part of ''The Danish Grand Orient'', chartered by
Joanny Bricaud in Lyon as ''Grand Orient de la vraie et haute Maçonnerie ésoterique et gnostique du Danemark.'' The Danish Grand Orient worked until 1929 when it merged with the ''Grand Orient of Denmark and the North'' and formed ''The Grand Lodge of Denmark'', an
irregular Masonic body.
Biographies of Hansen have been written by Peder Byberg Madsen and Bjarne Salling Pedersen and included in the 2006 reissue of ''Den Ny Morgens Gry, Lucifer-Hiram, Verdensbygmesterens Genkomst''.
References
External links
"The Dawn of a New Morning: the Return of the World's Master-builder"(2010 English translation)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hansen, Carl William
1872 births
1936 deaths
Danish Luciferians
Danish male writers
People from Copenhagen