Social Victorians/People/Allan Bennett

Also Known As

Family name: Bennett
Charles Henry Allan Bennett (8 December 1872 – 9 March 1923)
Allan Bennett Macgregor
Golden Dawn motto, Inner Order: Iehi Aour — "Let there be light," in Hebrew (Alastor)
Golden Dawn motto, Outer Order: Voco — "Let there be light," in Latin (Howe 150)
Bhikkhu Ananda Metteya, name as Bhuddist monk

Demographics

Nationality: English
Occupation: analytical chemist
Residence: 67 Chancery Lane, London (1899)

Acquaintances, Friends and Enemies

Friends

Robert Felkin
Frederick L. Gardner
Aleister Crowley, apparently, with whom he may have written Sepher Sephiroth: svb figvrâ D (phrase in Greek alphabet)

Organizations

Golden Dawn, Isis-Urania Temple
Theosophical Society, Esoteric Section
Alpha et Omega

Timeline

1894, Bennett "was employed by Dr. Bernard Dyer, Analytical and Consulting Chemist, of 17 Great Tower Street, London, EC" (Howe 150–51).

1894 February, Bennett was initiated into the Isis-Urania Temple of the Golden Dawn (Küntz 179).

1895 March 22, Bennett was initiated into the Inner Order of the Golden Dawn (Küntz 179).

1896 May 13, 8:32 p.m. to 9:16 p.m., Florence Farr, "with the assistance of Alan Bennett [sic], Charles Rosher and Frederick Leigh Gardner evoked the mercurial spirit Taphtharthareth to visible appearance — or so the four of them believed" (King 89 52; Howe 106). Farr, Rosher and Bennett were all sick — as Bennett put it, "afflicted with grim and horrible diseases"; Bennett wrote this "Ritual for the Evocation unto Visible Appearance of the Great Spirit Taphthartharath," or Mercury (Howe 106 qting Bennett.

1897 December 21 or 22, circa, Bennett refused to sign Frederick Gardner's petition in support of Annie Horniman (Howe 143).

1898, Bennett "consecrated a talisman to protect Dr Felkin ('Finem Respice') from obsession, [which means that] he invoked in turn the 'Spirit of Osiris Triumphant' — 'the Divine Self' of Frater Finem Respice — and the archangel 'Mikhael who are like unto God'. But he then went on to address 'this creature of talismans' thus: 'I travel upon High, I tread upon the Firmament. I raise a Flame with the Flashing Lightning of Mine Eye. I fly forward in the splendour of the Daily Glorified Ra. Thou art Myself, Mine Image, My Shadow. I have fashioned Thy Form. I have fashioned Thy Soul. I have made Thee a Creature of My Thought. Powerful art Thou for ever against the Larvae that posses'" (Howe xviii, xv).

1899, spring through October or November, Bennett and Aleister Crowley lived at 67 Chancery Lane, London (Howe 194 ff).

Questions and Notes

Aleister Crowley, who saw a lot of Bennett in 1899, says Bennett "suffered acutely from spasmodic asthma. His cycle of life was to take opium for about a month, when the effect wore off, so that he had to inject morphine. After a month of this he switched to cocaine, which he took until he began to 'see things' and was then reduced to chloroform" (Howe 150).

Bibliography

Alastor
Howe
King 1989
Küntz