(1821-1890 e.v.) by T. Apiryon English explorer, orientalist, scholar, linguist, sexologist, mystic and spy. He was raised in France and Italy and studied at Oxford. He served as a Captain in the Bombay Native Infantry in what is now Pakistan from 1843 to 1848. He travelled the world in service to the British government, and
Comments Off on Sir Richard Francis Burton(1751-1824 e.v.) by T. Apiryon English antiquarian, philologist, numismatist, free-thinking Deist philosopher, expert on Greek literature, member of the Radical (Whig) Party of Parliament and the Society of Dilletanti, friend of Lord Byron, patron of art and learning, and country gentleman. Knight was born at Wormsley Grange in Herefordshire to a parson, Thomas Knight, and
Comments Off on Sir Richard Payne Knight(1824 – 1904 e.v.) by T. Apiryon Major-General J.G.R. (James George Roche) Forlong was a Scottish military engineer in the Anglo-Indian Army, who received acclaim from the governments of England and India for his brilliant feats of road-building in the jungles of the Indian subcontinent during the Mahratta and Burmese wars. Forlong’s lifelong hobby was
Comments Off on Forlong dux33° 90° 96° X° (1850 – 1905 e.v.) The Spiritual Father of Ordo Templi Orientis by T. Apiryon Carl Kellner was an Austrian paper chemist and an avid student of Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism and Eastern mysticism, and traveled extensively in Europe, America and Asia Minor. During his travels, he claims to have come into contact with
Comments Off on Carl Kellner(c. 1817 – 1890 e.v.) by T. Apiryon Author of The Rosicrucians, Their Rites and Mysteries (1870), which is included in Section 2 of the A:. A:. reading list. By profession, Jennings was the secretary to Col. Mapleson, the operatic manager. He was a correspondent of Bulwer-Lytton, a student of the writings of Jacob Boehme,
Comments Off on Hargrave Jennings(1844-1900 e.v.) by T. Apiryon German poet, composer, classical scholar and philosopher. Famed for development of the idea of the “Superman,” the individual who exceeds the limitations set by cultural norms, and for his theory of civilization as resulting from the conflict and resolution of two human tendencies: the Apollonian, representing the rational desire for
Comments Off on Friedrich Nietzsche(1810-1875 e.v.) by T. Apiryon Usually known by his pseudonym “Eliphas Lévi Zahed,” which is a translation of his name into Hebrew, this Parisian was almost single-handedly responsible for the popular resurgence of the Secret Traditions in the 19th Century. Lévi synthesized Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Qabalism, Gnosticism, Masonry, Rosicrucianism, Alchemy, Tarot, Mesmerism, Spiritism, along with
Comments Off on Alphonse Louis Constant(1813-1883 e.v.) by T. Apiryon German composer of grand operas based on themes from European mythology, notably Der Ring des Niebelungen (a series of four full-scale operas), Lohengrin, Tannhäuser and Parsifal. Crowley based his play “Tannhäuser” on the libretto of Wagner’s opera (see Collected works, Vol. I), and regarded Parsifal as a masterpiece of initiated
Comments Off on Richard Wagner(1845-1886 e.v.) by T. Apiryon Ludwig II, the reclusive “Swan King,” also known as the “Mad King” of Bavaria (1864-1886). Ludwig was the last of the German feudal princes: a romantic dreamer who viewed himself as a divinely sanctioned monarch after the model of his hero, Louis XIV, the “Sun King” of France. He was
Comments Off on Ludovicus Rex Bavariae(1757-1827 c.e.) The name William Blake was added to the list by Patriarch Hymenaeus Beta in the Fall of 1997 e.v., based on Crowley’s essay “William Blake,” published in Oriflamme 2, Ordo Templi Orientis, 1998 e.v.
Comments Off on William Blake