Social Victorians/People/Less-Famous People Involved in Spiritualism

But Not in the Golden Dawn

... or not in the 19th-century Golden Dawn.

Some of the people on this page were in fact famous and very important; they're here until I collect enough information about them socially to give them their own page.

Thomas Lake Harris

• T. L. Harris

Connections to the Golden Dawn

• Thomas Horton
• Edward Berridge

Bibliography

• Berridge, Edward. The Arcana of Christianity. 3 vols, 1858-1867.
• Berridge, Edward. God's Breath in Man and in Humane Society. 1891.

F. N. Heazell

• Revd F. N. Heazell
• Golden Dawn motto: Evocatus Paratus (E.P.) (Alastor)

Friends

• Jessie Payne Margoliouth

Bibliography

• Margoliouth, Jessie Payne, and F. N. Heazell. Kurds and Christians. 1913. [accounts of a mission from the Archbishop of Canterbury to Assyrian Christians in Turkey and Persia]
• Taylor, D. G. K. "Jessie Payne Margoliouth." ODNB.

Fred Hockley

Demographics

• Died 10 November 1885 (Howe 10)

Acquaintances and Friends

• William Robert Woodman? (King 89 42)
• A.F.A Woodford? (King 89 42)

Questions and Notes

1. Fred Hockley "mystic, clairvoyant and would-be magician" (King 89 42).
2. George Redway got some of his papers when he died (Howe 85 39, n. 3). Included among these papers was the Cypher MS? (King 89 42).

Anna Kingsford

• Anna Bonus Kingsford (16 September 1846 – 22 February 1888)

Acquaintances and Friends

• Isabelle de Steiger (Howe 190, n. 1)
• Edward Maitland

Organizations

• The Hermetic Society

Timeline

1885 May, Kingsford co-founded with Edward Maitland the Hermetic Society (Küntz 200).

1886, summer, MacGregor Mathers lectured to Kingsford's and Maitland's Hermetic Society on the Cabbala "and was rewarded with honorary membership" (Howe 40).

Questions and Notes

1. Moina Bergson Mathers wrote the Preface to 4th edition (1926) of MacGregor Mathers's The Kabbalah Unveiled. "Her Preface is the only source of information about Mathers's schooldays":

After some years of seclusion in the country, where my husband led a student's life in preparation for his future work, he met Anna Kingsford, who introduced him to Madame Blavatsky. Madame Blavatsky invited him to collaborate with her in the formation of her Society. After deliberation, notwithstanding his profound admiration for that remarkable woman, this invitation he was compelled to decline. Their ideals were not the same. At that time he was more in sympathy with Anna Kingsford's ideals of esoteric Christianity and of the advancement of woman. Moreover he was profoundly interested in her campaign against vivisection, in which he vigorously aided her. (quoted in Howe 38-39)

Edward Maitland

• Edward Maitland (1824–1897)
• Herbert Ainslie, pseudonym

Friends

• Anna Kingsford

Organizations

• The Hermetic Society

Timeline

1885 May, Kingsford co-founded with Edward Maitland the Hermetic Society (Küntz 200).

1886, summer, MacGregor Mathers lectured to Kingsford's and Maitland's Hermetic Society on the Cabbala "and was rewarded with honorary membership" (Howe 40).

Neville Meakin

• Stella Matutina motto: Ex Oriente Lux (E.O.L.) (Alastor) — "Light from the East"

Questions and Notes

1. An Edward Meakin did work in Morocco about this time; he had siblings that the ODNB doesn't name. Possible connection?

Bibliography

• [Osborn?]. "Baha’i Mage: The extraordinary life and work of Robert Felkin." https://bahai-library.com/pdf/o/osborn_life_robert_felkin.pdf (accessed July 2020).

Gustav Meyer

• Gustav Meyer (19 January 1868 – 4 December 1932)
• Gustav Meyrink (pseudonym)
• Golden Dawn motto:

Acquaintances

• W. Wynn Westcott

Organizations

• Theosophical Society, but not long.

Timeline

1883, Meyer's mother moved to Prague, where he lived for 20 years.

1889, a 1893 letter from Westcott to Meyrink proves that he was a member of the Golden Dawn in about 1889 ("Gustav Meyrink").

1911, Meyer's family (including his wife and 2 children) moved to Stamberg, in Bavaria.

Bibliography

• "Gustav Meyrink." Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Meyrink (accessed July 2020).
• Meyrink, Gustav. The Golem. 1915.

Walter Moseley

Demographics

• According to A. E. Waite, Moseley's "health had been seriously damaged by the use of drugs for occult purposes" (Howe 85 39, n. 3).
• George Redway acquired Moseley's books on the occult, "including a number of Hockley manuscripts" (Howe 85 39, n. 3).
• Residences: Buildwas Hall, Shrewsbury

Acquaintances and Friends

• A. E. Waite
• George Redway

Henry Steel Olcott

• Colonel Henry Steel Olcott

Demographics

• Nationality: American
• Religion: began as Protestant Christian, then embraced Buddhism and Spiritualism

Family

• Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (2 August 1832 – 17 February 1907)
• Mary Epplee Morgan

1. 4 children, two of whom survived childhood

Acquaintances and Friends

• Helena Blavatsky
• W. Q. Judge
• Lord and Lady Borthwick, Gabrielle Borthwick's parents

Organizations

• The Theosophical Society

Timeline

1875 November, Olcott co-founded with Helena Blavatsky and W. Q. Judge the Theosophical Society.

1884 April 9–20, Olcott and perhaps Blavatsky attended "Almost nightly meetings aid receptions at the Sinnetts. [Olcott] Meets Edwin Arnold, F. W. H. Myers, William Stead, Camille Flammarion, Oscar Wilde, Prof. Adams, discoverer of Neptune, the Varleys, the Crookes, Robert Browning, Sir Oliver Lodge, Matthew Arnold, Lord and Lady Borthwick, C. C. Massey, Stainton Moses ('M. A. Oxon.') (Diaries)." (Chronological Survey: xxviii–xxix)

Bibliography

• Chronological Survey of the Chief Events in the Life of H. P. Blavatsky and Henry S. Olcott, December, 1883, to December, 1885 Inclusive. (http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/misc/cs_06.htm)
• "Henry Steel Olcott." Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Steel_Olcott (accessed July 2020).

Will Reason

• Revd. William Reason
• Golden Dawn motto:

Organizations

• Not a member of the 19th-century Golden Dawn

Questions and Notes

1. M. C. Curthoys and Tim Wales, in their ODNB article on Sir Percy Alden (1865–1944), say that Alden "set out his views on the role of settlements in local government in a contribution to University and Social Settlements (1898) edited by his friend the Christian socialist Will Reason."

Israel Regardie

• Israel Regardie (17 November 1917 – 10 March 1985)
• Golden Dawn motto: Ad Majorem Adonai Gloriam (A.M.A.G.) (Alastor)

Friends

• Aleister Crowley

Organizations

• Not a member of the original, 19th-century Golden Dawn.

Timeline

Before the first -- but after the second -- edition of Regardie's The Golden Dawn, Aries Press bought the rights to his work.

Anna Sprengel

• Fraulein Anna Sprengel (d. 1893?)
• Chief of Licht, Liebe, Leben Temple #1 of the Golden Dawn (Harper 74 166, n. 27).
• Golden Dawn motto: Sapiens, Dominabitur Astris — "The wise will be ruled by the stars" (Howe 296).

Demographics

• Probably fictional: Howe says that Wynn Westcott made her up? He also says somewhere that the name Anna came much later. On Wynn Westcott's inventing Fraulein Sprengel in order to have an authority for establishing the the Golden Dawn itself, Richard Cavendish says, "The subterfuge of Westcott's, of which [MacGregor] Mathers was probably aware at the time, bedevilled the G.D. 'story' until very recently when the present writer discovered a cache of original G.D. documents, which had remained hidden for more than fifty years, and was able to deduce what actually happened in 1887 and after" (100).
• Lived in Germany
• Died 1890 (Küntz 212)

Timeline

1840 February 10, Sprengel supposedly joined the Inner Order of the Golden Dawn (Küntz 212).

1926 June 24, Moina Mathers told W. B. Yeats that SDA [Sprengel] was an American, not a German (Harper 74 166, n. 27).

1926 July 14, Moina Mathers told W. B. Yeats, in answer to a query of his, that the Matherses didn't trust Sprengel (Harper 74 166, n. 27).

Thiesen

• Mr. Thiesen
• Dr. Thiesen
• A spirit rather than a human?
• Golden Dawn motto: Lux E Tenebris (L.E.T.) or Lux e[t] Tenebris — "Light out of darkness" (Alastor; Küntz 215)

Timeline

1891, "Allegedly Dr. Thiesen was the ruling spirit of H:.A:. and in autumn 1891, he supplied S. L. Mathers with material that Mathers used to write the Adeptus Minor Ritual" (Küntz 215).

Evelyn Underhill

• Friends, Arthur Machen
• No evidence she was a member of the Golden Dawn.

Questions and Notes

1. So take her off the big list of members of the GD?

In a Later Organization

1. Miss Ada Severs — Benedicamus Deo (B.D.) (Alastor)
2. Anna Sprengel — Sapiens Dominabitur Astris (S.D.A.)
3. Christina M. Stoddart — ??? (I.F.C.) (Alastor)
4. Mr. Thiesen — Lux E Tenebris (L.E.T.)
5. Mrs. Tranchell-Hayes — Ex Fide Fortis (E.F.F.) [not in orig org?]

Probably Not: Insufficient Evidence or Wrong Person Identified

1. Sara Allgood (alleged only, per Wikipedia)
2. William Sharp (pseudonym: Fiona MacLeod)
3. Thomas Windram — Semper Paratus (S.P.) (Alastor). James Thomas Windram (1877–1936), South African; member of Crowley's AA 11 August 1910 and South African O.T.O.
4. Arnold Bennett (Israel Regardie, 1982, says there was a rumor he was a member, but that is the only evidence)
5. C. W. Berridge (Alastor, but n.d.)
6. Miss Childers — Quis Seperabit (Q.S.) (Alastor)
7. W. E. Carnagie Dickson — Fortes Fortuna Juvat (F.F.J.); son of George Dickson, same motto
8. Ethel Felkin — Quaero Altissima (Q.A.)
9. Harriet Felkin — Quaero Lucem (Q.L.); Robert W. Felkin's 2nd wife
10. J. C. Fitzgerald — Deus Meus Deus (D.M.D.) (Alastor)
11. Dion Fortune — Deo Non Fortuna (D.N.F.) (joined in 1919)
12. William Hammond — Pro Rege Et Patria (P.R.E.P.) (Alastor)
13. F. N. Heazell — Evocatus Paratus (E.P.)
14. Miss C. E. (Catherine Edith) Hughes (Küntz 193) — Lux Orta Est (L.O.E.) (Alastor)
15. A. Cadbury Jones — Faire Sans Dire (F.S.D.) (Alastor)
16. Charles S. Jones — Achad (A.) (Alastor)
17. Gerald Kelly — Alpha et Omega motto: Eritis Similis Deo (E.S.D.) (Alastor; Küntz 196)
18. Neville Meakin — Ex Oriente Lux (E.O.L.)
19. Gustav Meyrink
20. Edith Nesbit (Edith Bland)
21. Will Reason — Semper Sperans (S.S.)
22. Israel Regardie — Ad Majorem Adonai Gloriam (A.M.A.G.)
23. Sax Rohmer — he claimed membership, but there is no other evidence and he had motive
24. Bram Stoker
25. Evelyn Underhill
26. Charles Williams (like Evelyn Underhill, in Waite's organization after the original Golden Dawn
27. Georgie Hyde-Lees Yeats — Nemo (N.)