The first female in America to address mixed crowds at a public event, Frances Wright was one of the first American feminists, and female abolitionists, a champion of worker’s rights, and a sharp critic of religious institutions. Frances was the first American to write eloquently of sexual passion as a wonderful pleasure, not a sinful … Continue reading
”Inspiration and Aspiration” by Solon Borglum, in the garden of St. Mark’s of the Bowery, commissioned by William Guthrie Christianity remains the most acceptable, best-known and officially sanctioned religion in America, but American Metaphysical Religion has intersected and in many ways transformed Christian belief and practice. The brothers Guthrie are an excellent example of the … Continue reading
Four time mayor of a Midwestern town, publisher of the American frontier’s only periodical devoted to Plato, Thomas Moore Johnson was also president of the central council of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, a mystery school that taught sex magic (though their version of it wasn’t as sexy as you might think). Voters also elected … Continue reading
Alexander Wilder, pioneer of holistic medicine, helped Madame Blavatsky finish her classic book Isis Unveiled. As a young man he was a member of the notorious Oneida cult. As a politician and journalist he fought against slavery then helped kick Boss Tweed out of New York. He lectured at the famous New England Transcendentalist Concord … Continue reading
Part 1: Hiram K. Jones the Western Wonder On Sunset Boulevard, across the street just east of the Whisky a Go Go, is a store named Hippocampus where since it opened in 1967 people have found oddities, curiosities and treasures. Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, or Janis Joplin probably wandered in when it was new. By … Continue reading
Mystical philosopher Manly Palmer Hall wasn’t my grandfather, yet he was. Both my grandfathers had been killed in a war, but fate provided a friend who gave me all the grandfatherly gifts of wisdom and opportunity anyone could hope for. I was there when this photo was taken in the PRS vault; my girlfriend and … Continue reading
An ancient Chinese dialect from a barely literate psychic was only one of the inexplicable happenings. These events didn’t occur in the 19th century in some rural town. They happened in 1927 in New York City. Dr. Neville Whymant, linguistics professor at both London University and Oxford, formerly of Tokyo University and Peking University, didn’t … Continue reading
Puritan alchemists founded America; sounds like bad fiction but it’s fact. As befits a young republic, the history of the earliest origins of American Metaphysical Religion amounts to a long list of extraordinary characters, daring experiments, and unlikely friendships. We’ll meet alchemists who persecuted witches, alchemists who were governors, and several alchemists who served as … Continue reading
Rodin’s Orpheus and Eurydice Vegetarian, non-violent, a singer and string strummer, a poet, a broken hearted lover, traveller to other worlds, not just on the first tour bus in western history, the Argo, but also beyond death, to the world of gods and ghosts. Straights snickered that he was not only effeminate but the first … Continue reading
If life after death is a fact, wouldn’t our favorite activities somehow unconsciously resemble it? Wouldn’t we symbolize the truth over and over again, remembering but not recognizing that we’re remembering? We love to become motionless consciousness. Consuming experiences vicariously, like the dead observing the living, we watch movies or TV shows, feeling the tension … Continue reading
