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Between the formation of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in Scotland on the 4th August 1846 and the present day, a total of thirteen eminent Scottish freemasons have led the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in Scotland, the first of these Sovereign Grand Commanders was Dr Charles Morison of Greenfield …
Continue reading "Ozymandias! The Rite of Misraïm in Scotland."
Rabbi Yitzchak Luria ben Shlomo Ashkenazi (1534-1572), also known as the ‘Ari’ or ‘Lion of Safed’, was taught by the influential Rabbi Moses ben Jacob Cordovero (1522-1570). Known for instigating a new school of Kabbalistic thinking in Palestine known as Lurianic Kabbalah, Luria himself writes very little, and his work becomes known through its reference …
Continue reading "Exile in Kabbalah: A Visit to The Old Tzfat Cemetery"
Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown God’. What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. Acts 17. 22-34 Unknown: God …
Continue reading "Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite: De coelesti hierarchia (c.500)"
The habit of describing the Renaissance in terms of Platonic progression and the Middle-Ages as Aristotelian status quo should be avoided. The eminent scholar James Hankins illustrated that there is no doubt Plato’s contribution is both seminal and evident, even more so with Marsilio Ficino's (1433-1499) efforts, but Aristotelian thinking was ever present throughout the …
Continue reading "Renaissance Syncretism: Plato, Christ, Hermes & Aristotle"
When the Fama Fraternitatis (Fame of the Fraternity) first left the printing presses of Wilhelm Wessel in 1614, the resulting ‘furore’ ignited a flame right across the cultural mindset of Europe. Such was the extent of the controversy it later came to be labelled by the historian Francis Yates as the ‘Rosicrucian Enlightenment’. 2014 marked …
