Their other brother Poseidon was also an aggressive wooer, chasing Demeter while she was still mourning Persephone. He delayed the homecoming of Odysseus for ten years, causing shipwrecks and other disasters.

It was he who caused Pasiphae to lust for the bull of Minos and so give birth to the Minotaur. That cannot have been an easy pregnancy.

Greek gods were conceived as powerful immortals, in character both jealous and amoral. Thus they were strikingly different from the virtue-supporting gods of the apocalyptic dualist tradition, that started with Zoroastrianism (Ahura-Mazda), then was followed in turn by Judaism (YHWH), Christianity (Jehovah) and Islam (Allah). The Roman Emperors who claimed divinity were often cruel rulers. By the time Constantine accepted Christianity, perhaps everyone else had had enough of that.

My Argument

Behind all this lies the economy of the early Indo-Europeans, a mix of nomadic pastoralism and settled farming or fishing plus trade. They needed rain which fell from the sky and was thus under the patronage of Sky Father gods, who needed to fertilise fecund Mother Earth goddesses. I believe the sexual imagery of the myths speaks to the need for frequent “showers” of fertilising rain, as well as pollination of plants by “the birds and the bees”. Greece is a complex peninsula with a particularly long and winding coastline. Surrounded by the vast sea on which stood many islands and other trading opportunities, the good will of the sea god was particularly important to the Greeks. The numerous stories of animal transformation speaks to the need for farm animals to produce numerous healthy offspring, so that farms may continue and prosper.

Minoan Crete had a highly developed bee keeping culture, that included tools like smokers and honey presses.

Probably Hannahanna the Anatolian Bee Goddess - possibly wearing an Egyptian nemes (striped head cloth) - more on her in the sequel next week

By the 5^th century BC the Greeks were using oblong cylindrical ceramic bee hives. The ancient Greeks had an understanding of pollination and recognised the role of bees and other insects in fertility of the crops. Greek writers, including philosophers like Aristotle (4^th century BC), documented the behaviours and life cycles of bees, emphasizing their importance in the ecosystem. They noted the mutualistic relationship between bees and flowers, which was essential for plant reproduction. The crops like olives and grapes benefitted from this activity. It is believed that Aristotle wrote at least two treatises on plants. He mentioned over 500 plants.

The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle 384-322 BC was the founder of scientific beekeeping. In his book “History of Animals” he devoted a section to bees. He described the structure of the bee family, the division of duties, how to care for them, and some diseases. Aristotle wrote that bees emerge from honeycombs, while at that time it was believed that the offspring of bees emerge from flowers. But it should be taken into account that Aristotle mistakenly believed that bees obtain honey by collecting it from the air and not from the nectar of plants. Nevertheless, Aristotle made a significant contribution to the development of beekeeping until the Middle Ages.

Earlier, about 700 BC, Hesiod wrote Works and Days (a poem of about 800 lines) where we see a calendar used to plant at propitious times. He aligned the calendar to seasonal stars. He described prosperous farming that involved oxen and mules and other workers to support the farmer.

Xenophon’s Oeconomicus, written around 360 BC, reveals no new developments in agriculture since Hesiod.

Honey in literature and what it says about conflict

The founder of ancient medicine Hippocrates 460 – 377 BC described the therapeutic properties of honey recommending its use in the treatment of purulent wounds, stomach and liver diseases.

The ancient Greek philosopher Democritus 460-370 BC when asked by people how to live longer and stay healthy, answered that one should use oil for external use and honey for internal use.

Pythagoras 570-495 BC and his followers used honey as a staple food. He believed that honey was a source of youth and longevity.

According to legend, Zeus’ father Kronos wanted to swallow him immediately after birth, as he did with all his children. So Zeus’ mother Rhea hid him in Diktean Cave in Crete. Pigeons brought ambrosia for Zeus, an eagle a goblet of nectar, and bees collected honey for him and guarded the entrance to the cave. When people tried to enter the cave, the bees attacked them. According to another version of the legend, the nymph Melissa fed Zeus with honey and milk of the goat Amaltheia.

Zeus was but a kid at the time - image by Giulio Romano

This legend is an example of the inter generational fighting that preceded the rule of three brothers, Zeus, Hades and Poseidon. The times were brutal. It does not excuse their awful treatment of women in mythology but is part of the context. Story tellers always need drama and that comes out of conflict. There are some important Greek dramas in which women hurt men, which is a separate issue.

Copyright: Ian F Freer 2026

1. What is a reindeer army?

2. Which Eli sent the wicked messenger?

3. Why did the orphan have a gun?

4. Why did princes keep the view, instead of watchmen?

5. What happens when God is on the side of every army in the conflict?

6. Who was Queen Jane, was she a Tudor?

A Study in Irony

Did you know that Bob Dylan was Iron Man? (No Joans were harmed in the making of this picture)

There was a time when I had a vinyl copy of every Dylan album then in existence. I learnt and played his songs on guitar and harmonica. I played them to the long- suffering, now Professor, Matthew Francis.

I have other, more researched, work in the pipeline but I’m giving you a light read this week.

Paying Subscribers are welcome to ask for their free signed copy of my first book, The Pagan Eden.

Best wishes

Ian

This is the story of Alexander III of Macedon (regnat 336 to 323 BC). His mother’s family from Epirus claimed a connection to Trojan War hero Achilles. Alex was only Macedonian on his father’s side.

This version of the story of Alexander emphasises key issues rather than summarising everything, for it excludes both the final years spent east of Babylon and the long and frustrating siege of the coastal city of Tyre in modern Lebanon. The fact that Alex reached Pakistan and western parts of India by conquest is thus ignored, remarkable though the fact is. There is also no mention that he was taught by premier philosopher Aristotle. His economics are ignored but in truth he conquered silver mines wherever he could and then minted silver coins to pay his troops. The film assumes that Macedonia was Greek although this has been debated. We can now say with confidence that the kingdom of Macedon arose in the 6^th century BC, ruled by highlanders closely related to the other Greek groups. (North Macedonia’s current status as a Slavic speaking land says far more about Slav invasions later on.)

I would say the emphasis of the series is religious but there are also great battle descriptions and re-enactments. No translators or interpreters are shown at work but in reality they seem very likely to have played an essential part in his career and that of his generals. At one point he says we must turn the page but books with pages were invented only centuries later. He used scrolls, just like Claudius in I Claudius.

What the screen writers seem to want us to remember is that

· Alex was more ingenious than his generals or his opponents

· He was inspiring and charismatic but he really had to work at that by thinking outside the box, to impress people who doubted him

· Darius of Persia (Mido Hamada) was an uninspired and emotional leader, who threw away his huge advantages time and again, including his lovely and affectionate wife Stateira played by Agni Scott (and from whom his legitimacy as a ruler actually stemmed)

· The Egyptian city of Alexandria was quite remarkable, personally marked out by Alex on the ground, and seems to have replaced Babylon as capital of the world until Rome did so in turn – it is being excavated right now but we have not found the God King’s bones or tomb

· The handsome woman oracle at Siwa in the Egyptian desert was as cryptic and portentous as oracles usually are

· Alexander was told by his mother that his father was not Philip II but the God Zeus

· The Egyptians thought Zeus was their God Ammon (Amun Ra) with the curved horns later placed on Alexander’s coins, to show the world his divinity. But Alexander may have made this up after his chat with the woman oracle at Siwa.

· There is constant tension between Alexander’s world-conquering inclusiveness and the Macedonians’ desire for revenge on Persia for past invasions, with xenophobic undercurrents. Apart from Alex, who was very well educated and a genuine cosmopolitan who wanted to take over governing the Persian Empire, each side regarded the other as barbarians - but both were wrong. Alex got it right.

· This is not a Brokeback Mountain style drama of closeted buddy love. The Greek tolerance of gay relationships is clearly illustrated but in this series we never hear that life partner Hephaestion (Heph, as Alex calls him) dies suddenly in Ecbatana only a few hundred miles east of Babylon and that bereft Alex then begged the Siwa oracle to grant him posthumous divine status. You can see where the Julio-Claudian family gained their love of claiming godhood, so vividly illustrated in I Claudius (aka Keeping Up with the Julio-Claudians).

You really should watch this one. Mona and I were both enthralled but I award 4 stars as I have very minor reservations. It ushers in the Hellenistic World (323 BC to the death of Augustus in 14 AD), so that overlaps with the history dramatized in I Claudius and Claudius the God.

Suggested further reading:

The Persian Empire in The Great Courses, presented by Professor John W Lee, UC Santa Barbara. I believe I am approaching readiness to watch it all a second time. It is extremely well written, researched and delivered, and I have told him so.

The Persian EmpireThe Persian Empire | The Great Courses Shop

The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander - reviewed as “the most thrilling volume in this fine series” by The New York Times Book Review

Loeb Classical Library Arrian: Anabasis of Alexander (multiple volumes, for those who need the Greek as well)

The other four main accounts are by Plutarch (priest at Delphi and philosopher, who wrote the famous Parallel Lives), Diodorus Siculus, Quintus Curtius Rufus and Justin.

The Hellenistic World by FW Wallbank – Fontana History of the Ancient World series. This is probably the single most useful book to read, if you like the ancient history in my blog - because I really love the Hellenistic period/culture and the Romans often just copied it into Latin.

Dating Macedonia

Copyright Ian F Freer 2026

However, note the following.

Undercooked meat

You can get toxoplasmosis from raw or undercooked meat and shellfish.

This list includes:

• pork

• lamb

• venison

• oysters, mussels, or clams

Make sure all meat and shellfish are cooked before eating. Yes, that includes you, fans of the disturbingly Lovecraftian “Blue Oyster Cult” mythos.

Handwashing is also important. You can get toxoplasmosis by handling raw or undercooked meats or shellfish and then touching your mouth without first washing your hands.

Religion

Before the rise of the Israelites, pork was already taboo in parts of Syria and Phoenicia (the western part of the Neo-Assyrian Empire). The pig represented a taboo observed at Comana in Pontus (located by the river Iris near Tokat in Turkey, on the Black Sea), as noted by the Greek historian Strabo.

8th century BC Babylonian wisdom literature labels pigs as unclean and reviled by sun god Shamash due to their customs, even though pigs were raised and eaten in everyday life. (The star symbol of Shamash with wavy rays is still used on the flag of the Assyrian peoples today. He is mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh.)

Assyrians associated pigs to the demoness Lamashtu. Pigs were also sacrificed in Babylon during Akitu (the Spring Festival held on their New Year’s Day).

Baby-eating demoness Lamashtu - note wings for quick getaway

According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the Scythians (horse-riding nomads in Ukraine and thereabouts, who probably included the Amazons and the Parthians) had a taboo against the pig, which was never offered in sacrifice, and they apparently loathed it so much that they did not even keep the animal within their lands.

Ancient Egyptians also featured their own pork taboo, repeatedly recorded by Classical authors, although it seemed to apply only to priests. In turn, Egyptians were also said to sacrifice pigs once per year. It is heavily debated if Egyptian religious restrictions on pork might have influenced Jewish ones or vice versa, but I suspect the Mesopotamian rules were far more important. As cats were venerated in ancient Egypt, there would have been a reservoir of infection regardless.

According to the Torah, pigs are considered unclean animals; they have split hooves but do not chew their cud, which disqualifies them from being kosher. This dietary restriction is part of Jewish law and tradition. The references are Leviticus 11: 3 and Deuteronomy 14:8. However, there is an exemption in Judaism on the basis of pikuach nefesh, which allows a Jew to break almost any Torah commandment including the restriction on consuming pork without it counting as a sin, if they find themselves in a life-threatening situation, namely starvation.

In Islam, based on the Quran, pork is haram (forbidden) and cannot be made halal just by following the religious rules on animal slaughter. Because Allah is merciful and forgiving, it is taught that there are some exceptional circumstances where pork might be consumed. The point is one of necessity. There is a reference to the earlier Jewish rule at Al-An’am 6:146.

In Europe, pork was commonly eaten and indeed piglet sacrifice featured prominently in the Eleusinian rites practiced near Athens. On the other hand, Pythagoras was a vegetarian and he influenced early, middle, and late Platonism. Normans ate le porc (from Latin porcus) rather than Saxon swine.

Mutant wild boars of Chernobyl - no Scythians to keep them out of Ukraine now

India

The pork taboo in India is a complex issue influenced by religious, cultural, and health beliefs.

Here are the key reasons behind this taboo:

• Hinduism: Many Hindus view pigs as unclean and avoid pork due to its association with ritual impurity. Vegetarianism is common in India. Asceticism is admired by followers of Shiva, God of the Yogis.

• Islam: Islamic law explicitly forbids pork, considering pigs as unclean animals. This ban was based on interpretations of the Quran and Hadith.

• Health Reasons: Pork’s higher fat content and tendency to spoil quickly in hot climates make it less preferred in traditional Indian cooking.

China

In China, like Europe, pork is widely consumed and is a staple in Chinese cuisine, with historical roots dating back around 8,000 years. However, certain ethnic groups, particularly Muslims like the Uyghurs, do not eat pork due to religious beliefs, creating a cultural divide regarding its consumption.

Eating cat meat is a taboo in many cultures, but it is practiced in some regions such as parts of China, Vietnam, and Madagascar, where it may be considered a delicacy or traditional dish.

Why the taboos?

Max Price has argued thus:

“I argue that the well-known taboo described in Leviticus reflects the intention of the biblical writers to craft an image of a glorious pastoral ancestry for a heroic Israelite past, something they achieved in part by tying together existing food traditions. These included a taboo on pigs, which arose early in the Iron Age during conflicts between Israelites and Philistines and was revitalized by the biblical writers. The taboo persisted and mutated, gaining strength over the next two and a half millennia. In particular, the pig taboo became a point of contention in the ethnopolitical struggles between Jewish and Greco-Roman cultures in the Levant. Ultimately, it was this continued evolution within the context of ethnic and religious politics that gave the pig taboo the strength it has today.”

My not unpopular theory is that scavenging omnivores like pigs and goats were a real threat to the ecosystem in hot, dry countries. Chickens were much cheaper and did not do that kind of damage. Also pork meat goes off fast in the heat. Pigs and goats get a bad press in Judaism. By the middle ages, Jewish writers like Rashi and Maimonides were reduced to giving vague waffling answers to the question, as clearly by then it was lost in the mists of antiquity.

The unspoken question – why are cats not in the list?

Toxoplasmosis, as I pointed, out can breed inside cats alone. Humans have kept cats as pets for thousands of years, with evidence of cat domestication dating back to ancient civilizations in Egypt, Rome, and China. The unique relationship between humans and cats, characterized by affection, companionship, and mutual benefit, has led to cats being viewed differently from livestock or other animals commonly raised for food. However in extreme situations such as starvation, even the taboo on cat meat can be overcome, leading to a real risk of toxoplasmosis infecting in numbers the human hosts.

“The Horrible History of Cat Sacrifice” – blink and it’s gone

Cat sacrifice is for similar reasons frowned upon in religious traditions. Or so most of us thought until 2025, when a shocking piece of research emerged. The internet pounced on this and purred happily. The paper posited that the Egyptians wanted cats for sacrifices first; their more gentle and manageable traits were selected for easier handling.

This (now withdrawn or, should I say, scratched?) academic publication of 2025 suggested that cats are linked to the Egyptian goddess Bastet, who first appeared with a lion’s head, but was increasingly represented with the head of an African wildcat in later centuries. “This transformation was coincident with the rise of cat sacrifice, whereby millions of free-ranging and specifically-reared cats were mummified as offerings to the goddess,” they wrote.

As statues dedicated to Bastet tended to be in more arable areas, the rodent-killing benefits of cats may have proven useful to humans and “provided the context for the tighter relationship between people and cats that led to the wildcat’s domestication, motivated by their newly acquired divine status”.

Fertiliser?

Victorian-era Brits may have used those mummified cats for fertiliser. Speaking to BBC Science Focus, the study’s lead author said: “At temples dedicated to [Bastet], we find millions of mummified cats. There were so many that in the Victorian period, tonnes of them were brought back to Britain to be ground down and used for fertiliser.”

Bastet Image from British Museum

I must emphasise that it is speculative to claim that cats in Egypt were bred in large numbers primarily for later mummification. It seems counter-intuitive, especially as so many Egyptian deities had cat heads and somebody needed to keep rats and mice out of the huge grain stores on which its continuing and often interrupted prosperity depended. So much so, that Rome regarded Egypt as its grain store. Cats were praised from the 1^st dynasty onwards for killing venomous snakes and were thought to protect the Pharaoh.

Magic vs Moggies?

The common image of cats in historical witchcraft pictures them as pets of witches, who looked after them and may have believed in supernatural benefits from the relationship. Perhaps they kept down the flea population in times of plague. The names recorded, like Sathan and Pyewacket (as recorded by Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins, played by Vincent Price to chilling psychopathic effect on screen in 1968), are evocative of the era.

I was going to write at this point an expose of non-Egyptian cat sacrifice, for supposed occult benefits, in history but the more I considered the evidence (with “what if it is misinterpreted?” as my top question), the more it became clear that this is not a disturbing truth at all but - far more likely - a disturbing and prejudiced misinterpretation of supposed evidence - that in every single instance I saw is either ambiguous or wholly unquantified. Academia needs to be very wary of putting out papers that do these conjuring tricks with thin air. The mummified cats paper that was withdrawn is probably a symptom of a malaise at the universities, not a unique error.

To cut to the chase, a flat or headless black cat at the roadside tells us far more about road safety than about occultism. Nobody makes that case about flat hedgehogs, on identical evidence. A mummified cat in the walls of a house tells us they are curious animals who can get stuck. Rumours of cat sacrifice in the medieval Highlands may be just that, rumours to pass a windy night. Putting the worst possible spin on such reports is not scholarship but dodgy journalism at most. These matters are never tested in Court. I hope I have managed to de-sensationalise a fascinating topic.

Further reading

Leviticus 11:7-8 states: ‘The pig, though it has a split hoof completely divided, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you”

Max D. Price, Evolution of a Taboo: Pigs and People in the Ancient Near East, 2020, Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780197543276 p.133-134

Moses Maimonides A Guide for the Perplexed at III 48

Marvin Harris: The Abominable Pig in The Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig - Touchstone Books

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.28.645877v2.full The withdrawn cat survey:

Redefining the timing and circumstances of cat domestication, their dispersal trajectories, and the extirpation of European wildcats

https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/taigheirm

Mummified cats in homeshttps://www.homebuilding.co.uk/advice/mummified-cats

Copyright: Ian F Freer 2026

The house is large enough for cameras to get well back and show the actions really well. (It was actually located in LA, where the exterior shots happened.) The supposed address of the Halliwell Sisters was at the invented 1329 Prescott Street, San Francisco.

There were wonderful aerial views of San Francisco in every episode, to cement the illusion that the actors were not filming in LA.

1329 Carroll Ave, East Los Angeles, CA 90026 is generally known as the “Charmed House” for its role in the popular TV show. This historic house also is known as the Innes House. It was built for Daniel Innes, a socially prominent city councilman and real estate developer who lived in the house for about 40 years before selling it in 1920. Carroll Avenue is in the Angelino Heights neighbourhood, in the Echo Park community of Los Angeles. Nearby is 1345 Carroll Avenue - used by Michael Jackson in Thriller. These were built as four-bedroom, four bathroom type family houses. (Michael Jackson’s screen house has been converted into apartments and is not open to visitors.)

The architecture behind the Charmed House's power

Like later seasons of BUFFY (1997-2003), which over time switched from mainly vampire action to far more demon action, the Halliwell sisters are under constant attack from sinister underworld forces, because underneath the house is a powerful force that these demons covet. Like the town where Buffy lived, the house was built on top of the wrong forces, just as Sicily’s Mount Etna supposedly covers the overthrown god Typhon/Set.

Yet it is also the source of the witchy powers, which make these Halliwell sisters the most powerful witches in the world. The Charmed Ones alone have The Power of Three. Up in the attic is a huge green-bound Book of Shadows (a kind of self writing family grimoire or magic equivalent to The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Universe) which repels all but the Charmed sister-witches. The cover has an embossed Celtic triquetra symbol which sometimes glows.

The kitchen is where they make magic potions to throw at demons identified by their Book of Shadows. They certainly buy a ton of mandrake root through the 8 seasons.

Like Harry Potter, there are numerous portrayals of the challenges of mixing with normal people, who have no idea about the battles that happen daily for white witches. Sometimes they are police, putting the worst possible interpretation on the endless disappearances. These ladies vanquish a heck of a lot of demons, some of whom had been passing for human and therefore were known to the authorities. Other characters are boy friends or work bosses. Much inventive “white lying” happens as a result. They are saving the world but most people do not need to know the details.

The mostly friendly cop Darryl Morris (Dorian Gregory)

Bewitched (1964-1972)

Charmed is a huge progression from the BEWITCHED series that ran in my childhood days. The lead witch Samantha was married there to Darrin Stephens and trying to fit in with “square” society of the day. Her normal husband had a boss and family secrets were jeopardised by Samantha’s mother Endora, who was quite the trickster and endlessly mocked Darrin, whom she regarded as unsuitable. Samantha just had to twitch her nose sideways and magic would happen, no potions or spellbooks in sight. Death threats to the lead actress, Elizabeth Montgomery, over her Vietnam stance, meant that she was truly relieved when the show ended. I knew nothing of that when I watched it. Dick York, who played Darrin, had lifelong back pain from a workplace injury in a movie, which meant that his acting career was increasingly intermittent afterwards. It is said that he had an unreciprocated crush on his screen wife.

The show’s relationship with Christianity was unclear and underworld demons were not involved.

In 1965-70 another light-hearted fantasy magic show “I dream of Jeanie” had Larry Hagman play an astronaut who discovered a bottled up genie, played by Barbara Eden, on an island. She is 2,000 years old and beautiful but lacking in guile. They fall in love. This show was referenced later in an episode of Charmed, “I dream of Phoebe”, where Phoebe Halliwell became trapped in a similar genie bottle.

In 1996-2003 we had Melissa Joan Hart starring as “Sabrina the Teenage Witch”. Breaking from the traditional portrayal as green skinned (Wizard of Oz), hook nosed and pointy chinned, we had an American Rose in her teenage years. She lived with her witch aunts and talking black cat Salem in Massachusetts. Like Buffy, which started in the following year, there was a previous history to the tale. A movie for Buffy and a 70s comic book for Sabrina.

Moving on from Bewitched

Wicca (the 20^th century pagan religion) and hordes of demons really come centre stage in CHARMED. However, the medieval Christian view of demons as incessantly anti-good and living in the underworld/hell is the backdrop, which is not the same as in Wicca. Some feel this view of evil is an uncomfortable philosophical placement but it provided endless storylines of great drama.

The Charmed show’s creator Constance M Burge is an American television writer and producer. She is also the creator of the short-lived series Savannah (1996–1997). Burge was also a writer for Judging Amy and Ally McBeal, and has produced several other shows. She had two sisters in real life. Goodreads shows numerous books written by Burge, which tend to relate to the Charmed tv series. The show’s main Producer was the highly successful household name Aaron Spelling, which is amusing given that “spell casting” is one of the main activities in the series.

CHARMED makes the demons and other magic characters very varied, in height, looks, ethnicity and so on. But generally the demons predictably want to acquire extra powers by stealing them, usually with fatal consequences. So the demonic hierarchy in the show is incredibly unstable. They often vanquish each other when the Charmed ones are not doing it. There are many scenes where a leading demon has assembled their group of followers and then eliminates one (in flaming agony) out of displeasure with performance.

A major vanquishing is accomplished - in this case the demon lawyer

Like BUFFY the show is very kinetic. There is much kick boxing and cartwheeling, quite a joy to see. The furniture in The Manor takes hefty beatings in nearly every show. Blasting with fireballs is a typical disposal method in a fight. Reflecting fireballs back to sender is often seen as a defence move. Either way, demons get vanquished and disappear in agonising flames.

The witches use a pendulum over a city map to locate people who are missing. They call this scrying, whereas I call it dowsing with a pendulum, and associate scrying with crystal balls. In the final season, Caley Cuoco moves in to The Manor and introduces the surviving Halliwells to scrying on computer with an app. Occasionally they communicate by Ouija board rather than telephone.

Scrying tonight! Paige scries with a pendulum over the map, watched by Leo and his screen wife Piper

The show’s writers and make up people did a fantastic job. It is an intensely addictive show. Some episodes are humorous parodies, which provides a light break from the world-level seriousness often portrayed. The writers make Phoebe, the youngest sister played by Alyssa Milano, a writer of successful advice column Ask Phoebe, so they have their own experiences to draw on there. The casting is always right and Oded Fehr lingers long in memory as a repeating demon opponent Zankou but you may recall him as Bodnar in NCIS. He plays this guy with total relish, really invested in the scheming. The late Julian McMahon, the talented Australian actor, who died of cancer soon after Shannen Doherty, played Cole the demon lawyer, who manipulated Phoebe endlessly and was most often purely demonic but with occasional reformations. An actor lying, as he always does, is like deception on another level.

Second sister Piper, played by Holly Marie Combs, has a husband Leo Wyatt, whose role is mostly as a healer and guardian angel or “Whitelighter”. He was played by Brian Krause, known from the Bandit series. Piper was created by and based on one of her own sisters, by writer and early show runner, Constance M Burge. Leo was introduced as a handyman, very attractive to all three sisters. In his role as a Whitelighter, he has to follow the rules of The Elders and mentor/monitor some assigned human charges. The witches have the job of protecting innocents under attack and have to save their lives. They are learning on the job, as their childhoods were free of magic.

Other characters include Darklighters, armed with crossbows, who seek to kill Whitelighters in order to make good witches more vulnerable to the attack of evil, as well as to kill mortals destined to become Whitelighters. A little harder to grasp is the concept of Grimlocks. Grimlocks are white-fleshed demons with whirling red eyes, who usually dwell within sewer systems. They choke good individuals to death, by seeing the auras that surround them, which they are able to do with the eyesight of children. The stolen eyesight only lasts 24 hours.

The character of Death often appears to warn of impending demise. He is implacable but Piper in particular tries to negotiate or outwit him. He is a lot chattier than Death in Bergman’s The Seventh Seal and cannot be confused with a gardener (as in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life) as he is not carrying a reaping tool.

Many of the unsympathetic characters are played by British actors with upper class accents and floppy hair. There is just something about the accent that American audiences lap up.

The oldest sister Prue Halliwell was played by the late Shannen Doherty and she licked Piper and Phoebe into shape many times. Her abilities were telekinesis and astral projection. As the most powerful, she had nicknames like Super Witch and Wicca Wonder. In 2023 it emerged that Doherty was fired at the end of season 3 in 2001 due to clashes with Alyssa Milano.

Now, I have a lot of admiration for Milano and wish to share one story here. In the late 1980s, Milano contacted Ryan White, a preteen boy ostracized for having AIDS, and a fan of hers. She attended a party for him where she sat with him for six hours making friendship bracelets. They appeared together on The Phil Donahue Show, where Milano kissed White on the cheek to emphasize that people do not catch the disease through casual contact. Ryan died aged 18, one of the haemophiliac patients given infected blood which killed him.

Separately, Milano has co-founded NORA in an effort to reduce NRA influence on Government. She deals with her dyslexia by writing her words down. Milano and Combs often had co-producer credits on the series.

Back at Charmed, a new half-sister, Paige Matthews, was introduced in season 4. Independent to the extreme, she quickly transitioned from newbie to star fighter of demons. She was played by Rose McGowan from 2001 to 2006.

Conclusions

Charmed looked at major themes like family, love, femininity, morals and ethics – all these resonate with every generation. The monster of the week episodic format is addictive. It had loved guest actors like Charisma Carpenter from Buffy and there are many cameos from talented young actors, like Norman Reedus, before they became famous (as a zombie despatcher in his case). The special effects were top quality for the decade, often using fireballs and orbing out/in, which looks like the Star Trek-style “beam me up Scottie” shimmering fade out. The fashion designs were “to die for, dahlinks”. Phoebe was the most daring in her outfits and accompanied them with a dazzling smile. The acting performances of the sisters were never less than mesmerizingly great. Like in the original Stargate SG1 tv series, there was a special chemistry of the core team.

The writers were positive about the love relationships, not fixing blame on the lead characters but allowing them to make human mistakes and then move on without vilification. The show is realistic and also constructive about the rocky road of love. Buffy Summers the Vampire Slayer seemed to be punished for her relationships but Charmed is more hopeful.

It avoided gender stereotyping. The sisters can get jobs and do them well. Leo can be a stay-at-home Dad. The women are strong characters, self-reliant, able to prioritise in a busy lifestyle, resourceful and often stubborn or determined. They acquire new magic skills fast, with study and practice. As the demons are ultra-competitive, it makes sense that there would be much verbal fencing between the sisters too.

There is a realistic view of family clashes. Living in the same house was the norm in most seasons. Later on, when sisters start to move out, it unpacks a whole different set of sibling issues, which keeps it fresh.

In today’s world, it still helps to show us how people make choices and the value of a tight support network. It shows that there may be a moral depth to everything and that we should pay close attention to subtle signs, so that we keep aware of the truth. If they give up fighting evil, it is tantamount to helping it. Oh, and the leprechaun is rehabilitated as a serious character. Sláinte is táinte (translation: Health and wealth, their spell for good luck).

If you loved Charmed, ranked as the number one Witch show on tv, then you should try “A Discovery of Witches” (2018), “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” (2018), “Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” “Motherland Fort Salem” (2020), “Witches of East End”(2013) and “Supernatural”(2005) among many other successful shows on related themes. As a longstanding fan of amazingly talented older actors, I am really looking forward to seeing Jessica Lang with Kathy Bates in “American Horror Story: Coven” (2013).

What Charmed Got Wrong About Witches |⭐ OSSA - YouTube

List of sisters’ powers

The spell casting is done with rhymes, setting out the magical intention loudly enough to be heard. Both witches and demons often use shape changing to confuse the enemy. Crystals and athames appear but not exactly as done in the Wicca religion.

Prue Halliwell could cast spells and perform rituals. She brewed potions. She located a person or object by scrying over a map. Mediumship, telekinesis and astral projection were shown. The Collective Power of the Charmed Ones gave her the Power of Three. Due to being an upper-level witch she also had high resistance, to both physical and magical harm. Like Phoebe, she excelled at hand to hand combat.

Piper Halliwell had molecular manipulation. She could freeze objects or people. She caused explosions by speeding up molecules. She also had the standard abilities of spell casting, potion brewing, scrying and divination.

The empathic Phoebe Halliwell is based on Constance Burge herself. Her initial powers include premonition and clairvoyance. Levitation and empathy follow frequently in later episodes. Intuition and retrocognition also occur.

Paige Matthews, their half-sister, combines the abilities of a witch and a Whitelighter. She can do orbing, healing and orb shield. She has basic witch powers just like Piper (spells, potions, scrying and divination) and can access the Power of Three (power enhancement).

Billie Jenkins (Caley Cuoco), who lives with the Halliwells in season 8, has the basic witch powers, plus telekinesis and projection. She is also one half of The Ultimate Power. Unfortunately, her lost sister was kidnapped by demons and raised by them, to who knows what evil end….

How they celebrate important events

This is Wiccan style, so marriages are handfasting’s and christenings are wiccaning’s.

You can watch it on Paramount+ and some other channels. The rebooted and recast Charmed ran for four seasons 2018 to 2022 with no input from the original cast whatsoever. Any show that outlasts two seasons is a success in tv terms.

https://secretlosangeles.com/charmed-house-los-angeles/

https://charmed.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Powers

Copyright: Ian F Freer 2026

Arthur Francis Freer (1922-2021) - bibliography

Own titles

Nunshigum: On the road to Mandalay – (1995) Pentland Press, hardback with d/j designed by Geoff Hobbs showing original sketch in oils by author. Maps and sketches included. Dad was an intelligence sergeant with the 3^rd Carabiniers in the Burma Campaign. This book draws on his experience of battle as radio operator in a tank. General Lee tanks were used in the war. This “faction” title biographically surveys the war and then invents a related serial killer who strikes every 13^th April. I am certain that part is pure fiction. 260 pages

Nemesis from Burma: The Bamboo Murders – (2000) Pentland Press, hardback with d/j designed by Geoff Hobbs. Concludes the mystery in the first book. 180 pages

The Path – (2003) Con-Psy Publications, paperback with cover design by author. Survey of the Bear tribe in Europe over the past 5 million years as seen through the minutes of an ethereal committee (aliens or spirits?) intended to monitor our progress. Our predecessors make a spiritual journey and start to discover compassion. This is not archaeology but an interior mental survey. 209 pages. Free download available at the Internet Archive.

Antony says ... – (2006) self published paperback. Transcription from CDs of intelligences understood to be aiming to help humans understand the mystery of life after death. Provides answers to many metaphysical questions such as reincarnation, telepathy, suicide, euthanasia, pain, pets etc.146 pages

The Tall Ones – (2008) self published paperback. Communication from survivors of a destroyed planet with a warning to Earth. 75 pages. Can be bought on ebay UK.

Consultant in oral history books

Forgotten Voices of the Second World War (2004) ed. Max Arthur, Ebury Press paperback

Forgotten Voices of Burma (2010) ed. Julian Thompson, Ebury Press paperback

Peter Foster Freer

https://www.rafcommands.com/database/wardead/details.php?qnum=73427Peter Freer

Battle of Britain Monument

Arthur’s brother Peter Freer (RAF sergeant) is mentioned in Enemy Coast Ahead -Uncensored, by Guy Gibson VC DSO DFC, leader of the Dambusters. Crecy Publishing.

Enemy Coast Ahead - Uncensored: The Real Guy Gibson: Amazon.co.uk: Gibson, Guy: 9780859791182: Books

Ian Freer’s chief writings

Co-edited Stop Press with Varsity (Cambridge University)

Law reports in Crown Office Digest, Journal of Planning and Environmental Law

The Pagan Eden – (2013) Axis Mundi. Paperback.

Pagan Eden, The – The Assyrian origins of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life by Ian Freer on eBay UK is presently advertised at a very competitive price.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pagan-Eden-Assyrian-origins-Kabbalistic/dp/1846945046

Substack mystichistory launched summer 2025

https://substack.com/@mystichistory?utm_source=global-search

Copyright: Ian F Freer 2026

My Excel headings template:

Book title/ Author/ Publisher’s email and contact/ Date of contact/ Outcome/ Resolved

That is line 1; use much wider columns and a bigger font than Excel suggests.

Then use the template by working through your list of citations and pictures and comments, from your draft. You do not need to for quotes that you dispute in an academic way, by stacking up various views and then debating them, like guests at a dinner table. It is the quotes or pictures that you simply employ, that are the problem addressed. Dover Books publish a copyright-free book of symbols but you still need to acknowledge Dover for that. I used them a lot in my first book.

What you need permission for is probably not exactly what you hoped or imagined, if you are new to this.

Read more

The Crusades (1096-1204) were launched by Roman Catholicism ostensibly to retake Jerusalem from Muslims but in reality they were an attack on everyone who thought differently from the Pope.

Slaughter was rained down upon Greek Orthodox Christians, Jews, and any Muslims encountered, even upon heretics in France.

The Crusades made the name and wealth of the Knights Templar although ultimately they lost their kingdom in the Holy Land.

Learned opposition to Judaism and its innate Kabbalah tradition

In the Renaissance, a more learned approach was adopted. For Jews, their books were read by Christian experts in Italy, who found ways to show them as propaganda for Christ. This created a school of thought known as Christian Cabala, spelt with a C for Christ. The aim was to peel off Jews and make them want to be Christian.

Notably they tried to link the supernal triad and three pillars of the Tree of life diagram with the Holy Trinity, which is preposterous for too many reasons to count. The Tree scheme was in essence by this time a Neoplatonic restatement of the Platonic and Aristotelian views on emanations from the One Source of all, linked hypostases or stages connecting the indescribable to the very describable material world. Obviously both Plato and Aristotle were unfamiliar with the Holy Trinity. Plotinus as a gentile did a lot of the spade work in setting up the philosophy or theosophy of Jewish Kabbalah.

Such Christian propaganda writers include Pico della Mirandola and Johann Reuchlin.

https://gangleri.nl/articles/36/christian-cabala/

Opposition to Islam

Nearly 9 centuries ago, a Christian funded a rigged Latin translation of the Holy Quran. Many believe it laid the basis for 5 centuries of hostility towards Muslims. Peter the Venerable was an Abbot of Cluny. In 1142 he travelled to Spain and noticed how some Christians were struggling with the absolute monotheism of Islam which was then powerful. The English astronomer Robert of Ketton was hired by Abbot Peter to lead a team of Quran translators. His team heavily paraphrased the text of the Quran and added many hostile marginal notes. From 1143 this was the West’s definitive take on Islam and made for deep hostility. He made it appear chaotic and illogical, destroying the structure of the original document.

Peter the Venerable published several treatises about Islam and Judaism. The purpose was to better know it so as to attack it.

By 1543 you could be imprisoned for trying to republish this dubious Latin Quran. The fear was that it would spread Muslim ideas. Martin Luther expressed his support for republishing it. He argued that it would expose “the evils and errors of Islam”. So the text continued to spread a message that Islam was violent and chaotic and inconsistent.

Missed Propaganda Opportunity

The propagandists were so focussed on central major texts that they missed the opportunity to attack occultist currents that were spreading in Islam, such as astral magic and talismans. The first English language textbook on astrology by William Lilly needed to be titled Christian Astrology, so as to avoid any appearance of borrowing from the learned astronomers and prognosticators of the Islamic world (although he absolutely did so and on a huge scale).

Magic was deeply established in the ancient world but according to Ronald Hutton it was always, at all known dates, looked upon with disfavour by the powers that be. It was not the same as official ancient paganism but an oppositional and underground current within it. There was folk (low) magic everywhere and learned (high) magic in the cities, but this was not approved. You occasionally saw astrology on a Roman coin but writers like the Isis-worshipper Apuleius in the Golden Ass were very clear in their opposition to witches, a seemingly primeval terror of invisible attacks. What had the neighbour’s broomstick just been used for?

Why no attack?

My explanation for the failure to attack Islam on these grounds is that the “occult clerical underground” did not wish to expose itself. The magic books in Christian Europe were largely written by and for literate clerics, as you can see from the wholesale adoption of Christian prayer, mass, angels, and exorcism rites, into the magical texts of the Europe they lived in.

Recommended reading:

Medieval Heresies: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, (Cambridge Medieval Textbooks) Christine Caldwell Ames

Peter the Venerable and Islam by James A Kritzeck

The letters of Peter the Venerable in 2 vols ed by Giles Constable

Writings against the Saracens by Peter the Venerable

Against the inveterate obduracy of the Jews by Peter the Venerable (one of my favourite book titles for its pomposity)

Recommended faithful modern English version of the Quran: The Glorious Quran: Arabic with English Translation (Hardback) translated by Pickthall and Bleher (Islamic Dawa Centre International)

Islamicate Occult Sciences in Theory and Practice ed. by Liana Saif, Francesca Leoni, Matthew Melvin-Koushki and Farouk Yahya. (Brill)

Copyright: Ian F Freer 2026

During Covid (2020) many of us adapted to the concept of a bubble social life. You will already have a feel for what follows.

In Hindu cosmology, the "bubble universe" refers to the concept of a vast multiverse where numerous universes, or brahmans, exist simultaneously, resembling bubbles floating in space or emerging from the divine breath of Vishnu. (Any Kabbalists reading this might notice the similarity to Mediterranean emanationist philosophies, probably going back at least as far as Pythagoras, who shared Indian beliefs in reincarnation and vegetarianism.)

Murray Leinster (1896-1975) invented fictional “pocket universes” 80 years ago in “Pocket Universes” published in Thrilling Wonder Stories. The concept was taken up in succession by Algis Budrys (1931-2008) 20 years later in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine, then by Philip Jose Farmer (1918-2009) writing in 1966 and 1970.

Shrinking was a theme that also trapped people inside tiny, even invisible, locations. One such tale was that iconic 50s film The Incredible Shrinking Man - a 1957 American film directed by Jack Arnold and based on Richard Matheson’s1956 novel, The Shrinking Man. (Richard Matheson wrote screenplays for five of those wonderful Roger Corman (1926-2024) horror movies based on Poe and starring Vincent Price. Corman was the American equivalent of Hammer Horror in the UK.)

While relaxing on a boat, Scott is enveloped by a strange fog. Months later, he discovers that he appears to be shrinking. When he learns there is no cure for his condition, he lashes out at his wife. As Scott shrinks to the point where he can fit into a dollhouse, he has a battle with his family cat, leaving him lost and alone in his basement, where he is now smaller than the average insect. He becomes resigned to his fate after battling a giant spider with a pin. His wife cannot even see him any more but he is small enough to leave the house, as he continues to shrink. Other shows like this included Tom Thumb, Thumbelina, Fantastic Voyage, Land of the Giants series, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Ant-Man, The Incredible Shrinking Woman, Dr Cyclops and The Borrowers.

Separately there is a whole line of horror fiction and fantasy, where travellers enter a village that looks normal but they are unable to leave. The Prisoner tv series is what everyone will think of at this point, with the strange bouncing balls that herd people back in to the charming Welsh village. (In the feudal system, it was hard for serfs to escape the village until the Black Death. This is a whole different level of imprisonment.)

One other such example was written in 1985 by Jack D. Shackleford (1938-2011), a British horror and fantasy writer who managed to appear in the Tony Wilson-hosted After Dark (series 2) Channel 4 TV discussion on April 30 1988, along with American neopagan Margot Adler, Irish goddess worshipper and High Priestess Olivia Durdin-Robertson, Trevor Turner, Audrey Harper, Jack Dover Wellman (a priest interested in psychism) and Moira Woods. I hope you saw it. A few episodes have appeared on YouTube but not this one.

Jack’s last book was The Source (New English Library, 1985). In The Source, the village is suddenly a trap. Aha!

One short story by Jack is known, Thy Intention Turn, from the 17^th Pan Book of Horror Stories (expect to pay about £40). One reviewer spoke highly of this story: ‘Thy Intention Turn’ is as disturbing and unsettling as any of Dennis Wheatley’s best black magic stories.

John Griffin’s From series

‘From’ Is the BEST TV Show You Aren’t Watching Yet

You can see that “pocket universe villages” are a natural resource for the scary fiction writer. One such titled “From” started to appear on our screens in 2022 and has so far completed four seasons, with a fifth now in production in Canada. It was penned by John Griffin, a writer and actor, who wrote a Twilight Zone episode (21st century adaptation from Rod Serling’s classic 60s show) and is associated also with Magic: The Gathering.

The cast is almost wholly new to the average British tv viewer, which definitely enhances for us the sense of normal people trapped in an abnormal village that they enter by seeming accident, not by their own choice, from places all over the USA. The usual sign is a tree blocking the road, near a noisy crows nest, which forces them to turn around and eventually notice that they keep going around in circles thereafter. Crows have been a Gothic trope, at least since Poe wrote The Raven, and pop up in disturbing movies. (But don’t forget Bran the Blessed in the Mabinogion; and John Uskglass, the Raven King of the North regnat 1110-1434, who created Magic, in Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke.)

It’s more Corvid than Covid…

We are introduced in the season opener to the Matthews family, an estranged couple of parents Jim (Eion Bailey) and Tabitha (Catalina Sandino Moreno), with a young son Ethan and older daughter Julie. (A third child has died, marking the family group with pre-existing sadness and resentment.) They are our chief lens on the community they encounter. The whole family say or do things that are constructive, over time, despite their arguments and unhappiness.

The big jeopardy element is mostly this one. The only shelter is in the village, which we have to call Fromville, in the absence of any agreed name. You have to be indoors at night in Fromville or the shrieking manipulative night-monsters will get you and kill you very fast. They do not come out except at night. It takes 4 seasons for the good characters to appreciate that torchlight is their ally. There seems to be a kind of ‘brain fog’ spell cast over everybody.

By far the smartest character is a Tech Bro called Jade Herrera, who frustratingly cannot access his vast fortune or contacts from the village, as it is a pocket universe; and so he has to live on his very considerable, if hippy, wits. Some of the smartest solution ideas come from him. He gradually gets his rough edges sanded off by experiences in the village and forest, so he becomes endearing and heroic. Jade was never evil, just self-absorbed and condescending. He works well with Boyd, Jim and Tabitha.

This show plays similar genre tricks to Lost but is far darker and also magical rather than philosophical. I am glad that it does not spend nearly as much time on back stories as Lost did and so far it has managed not to tie itself in hopeless and untwistable plot knots, as Lost did by its midpoint. So far the show has two awards and 33 nominations and I must say the casting and acting is pretty impressive, like the special effects and sheer imaginative power. There are numerous parallel story lines, such as you would get in a really good season of Walking Dead (before Covid). The enemy here is characterised by how manipulative and deceptive it is, like a narcissistic sociopath with a chameleon trick.

I am not going to spoil it by saying how I would have solved a few challenges in a different way from the good people of the village; but these alternatives exist and possibly will come into use in season 5. (Please drop me a line if you are the show runner!)

Why some but not all of the ideas are familiar

I have further thoughts about genre. The “King in Yellow” horror character (1895) by Robert W Chambers pre-dated HP Lovecraft. Maybe an acknowledgment here?

There are recognisable tropes from George MacDonald’s 1872 novel, The Princess and the Goblin; Tolkien; CS Lewis; and the Diablo computer games (see my previous article about the fantasy writers’ creation of portals and other long-lasting genre tropes, picked up by the Diablo game designers). Yes, we have scary tunnels under a village like Tristram, deadly fiendish monsters live there, all manner of magic pervades the landscapes, and it is a contest you feel impelled to win. A hollow tree in Fromville turns out to be a portal - but it could go anywhere and might trap you. Some of the weirdest situations in Fromville include the electrical items that work some of the time, although we find out quickly (from Tabitha’s excavations) that they are not actually wired up to any power sources. That’s alright, as we have batteries in abandoned cars. We can make a radio and see if anyone can hear us.

Other elements in From

Every time we make a plan and it brings progress, some reactive force seems to strike back. Also some force is confusing people and making them believe falsehoods as facts. The affected people keep these notions to themselves, so it is quite hard to deal with that.

A good but mysterious character is the Boy in White, a recluse who has a fondness for both Ethan Matthews and the person who has been in the village longest, Victor, an artist who becomes a friend to Ethan. I am holding myself back from spoiler alerts and suggest that you just watch it for yourself, if this is your taste. It is dark and some people do get attacked, fairly often, so there is gore.

There is a Sheriff with a Deputy, guns and bullets, so you could see it as a supernatural Western as well. The Sheriff (Boyd Stevens) is really well acted by charismatic Harold Perrineau (who you may recall from Lost) but, the way he is written, I notice he does not always think as sharply in his first reactions as other characters - but he is impressively fast with second reactions. Lots of zigging and zagging in his tactics. His psychotic wife is played by Lisa Ryder (Beka Valentine in Andromeda).

Julia Doyle (Murdoch Mysteries Ep.21 of series 17 named Engaged to be Murdered; and Hell of a Summer) makes a vastly impressive appearance as the long-running and disturbing teenager character of Sophia, of whom I will say no more.

These actors snap into their roles and totally keep “in character”. It is really impressive from an acting perspective. The best aspect is probably the high number of surprises, partly caused by having a really large regular cast in a supernatural drama. Some of the dynamics recall Buffy and Charmed.

In my opinion, this show is better than all of Lost and most of The Walking Dead episodes and avoids the comic book superhero cliches that for me slightly marred the addictive Heroes. But you either get it or you don’t. There are lots of puzzles and the brain gets a good workout, with unusual rules that differ greatly from our own reality. I can tell you the town was built in Nova Scotia using existing roadways and the area offers lots of forest filming, which is always enjoyable - in the day time, at least.

My biggest wish for Fromville: fill in those darn tunnels!

“From” is made by MGM+ and viewable on Now TV, Sky Go, Amazon Video, and Apple TV.

BIG SPOILER ALERT:

FROM Is Retelling a 3,000-Year-Old Myth

Copyright Ian F Freer 2026

Her father attended Trinity College, Dublin and attained a medical degree. He died early in her childhood. Her brother Henry was educated at Harrow School. Annie was fostered by Ellen Marryat. She returned in her late teens to her mother at Harrow, with self-confidence and under the influence of the Tractarians (i.e. the Oxford Movement, the seed of what became Anglo-Catholicism). Hence she married a cleric at age 20; but she became increasingly radical and unsuited to that relationship. Money was short and there were two children of the marriage to Frank Besant (from 1867-1873).

She became very clearly disillusioned with mainstream Christian views, which led to the break up of her marriage and custody disputes over the children. Later in life, the children were reconciled to her.

Political Activist

She explored socialism, Marxism, feminism, Irish home rule, secularism, birth control and other radical causes. She knew George Bernard Shaw and both were Fabians.

In 1877 she and Charles Bradlaugh (the founder of the National Secular Society) set up the Freethought Publishing Company. This made them household names, when they used it to promote birth control and to advocate for parents limiting the size of their families. The church was antagonised. The pair were arrested and eventually had the adverse trial verdict overturned on a technicality.

From 1895-90 she was a Fabian. Shaw sponsored her to join.

It is unlikely that she led the Match Girls Strike in 1888, as is sometimes claimed.

The Spiritual U-Turn (or is it?)

The pure chance of receiving a commission to review a book The Secret Doctrine by Helena Blavatsky led to them meeting in 1890 (which almost did not happen) and to a sea change in her life.

She had found the political activities to be lacking in spirituality. She ended her links to the Marxists at that point. In a few years she became a prominent member of the TS and a prominent lecturer on the subject. Blavatsky died in 1891.

In 1893 Annie represented the TS at the Chicago World Fair.

In 1895 Charles W Leadbetter helped her to become clairvoyant.

They co-authored a book with the intriguing title of Occult Chemistry. Annie always backed him though controversy, which he faced very probably unfairly, when the situation is examined carefully.

In 1907 she met Rudolf Steiner, perhaps the foremost German mystic of the day, and she took the remarkable step of becoming president of the Theosophical Society, with its international headquarters being at Adyar, India. She also joined the Indian National Congress and played a significant role in the Independence movement. In 1914 she helped to launch the Home Rule League for democracy in India, to be a dominion within the Empire.

In the 1920s, she travelled from India to the USA with Jiddu Krishnamurti, whom she proclaimed as the new Messiah (World Teacher) and incarnation of Buddha.

Krishnamurti & Besant (click link for video)

Krishnamurti turned out to be a significant writer in his turn, charming, humble and wise. He disavowed those claims in 1929, which was an awkward moment for the TS and Besant personally. It should not overshadow the very many achievements of her rich and dramatic life, which many would envy. Krishnamurti was not the Messiah. He was one of the supporters who built a school in California, renamed Besant Hill School of Happy Valley in her honour. Roads and neighbourhoods in India have been named after her.

She continued to campaign for theosophy and independence until her death in 1933. She could speak in public as many as 66 times in a single year.

There are not many writers who could pen both My Path to Atheism and Why I Became a Theosophist. I have no doubt that she was a flexible thinker and to me that is a sign of strength and learning, not weakness.

Co-Masonry

Not so many people know of her interest in gender-free Freemasonry but she did establish the first overseas Lodge of the International Order of Co-Freemasonry, Le Droit Humain. Over the next few years she established lodges in other parts of the Empire.

According to the website of Universal Co-Masonry, Annie Besant travelled to France in 1902, accompanied by six friends interested in becoming Freemasons. There, Besant was initiated, passed, and raised in Respectable Loge, located in Paris, France. Freemasonry was a logical extension of her life’s work - to promote the rights of women and improve the brotherhood of all mankind.

Later that year, Brother Besant helped to bring Co-Masonry to England, founding Emulation Lodge No. 6 in London. Through dedication and hard work, Besant rose to the 33rd Degree of Ancient Freemasonry, joined the Supreme Council, and became Most Puissant Grand Commander. In an address delivered in 1909, she explained the importance of initiating both men and women as equals in Freemasonry stating:

Co-Masonry has arisen from the bosom of Masculine Masonry in order to bring women into that ancient fraternity on exactly the same terms as men, and thus to restore the whole Brotherhood to the position from which it fell when it broke its link with the Ancient Mysteries by excluding women from its rank.

Personal observation

I cannot write about this subject without a fond recollection of the Quaker and hymn writer, the late James Williams. He was certainly much amused and surely impressed by Annie’s controversial reputation.

On my last visit to the University of Amsterdam, we visited the TS in Amsterdam which displays framed photographs of both Besant and Krishnamurti. All had to be hidden away from the Nazis during WWII. This illustrates vividly her commitment to uplifting and advancing humanity, feared by those who misguidedly went in an altogether much darker direction.

If I assess the overall pattern of her life, it falls into three parts, which match the thesis, antithesis and synthesis paradigm. That speaks of real progress.

Ian F Freer Copyright 2026

Moina had no children. Various accounts suggest that the couple were very close but (a) had some entirely secret private teachings about sexual matters and (b) were not disposed to practise intercourse and (c) I believe that they had to be very careful with money. She did not remarry. I am not willing to speculate beyond what I know.

The ejection of Annie Horniman, who had money from the Quaker tea family, by MacGregor Mathers, was likely followed by a curtailment of funding. Nobody should doubt that Mathers was principled.

Her probate records obtained via MyHeritage read as follows:

MATHERS Moina MacGregor of 266 King’s Road Chelsea Middlesex widow died 25 July 1928 at 28 Marloes Road Kensington Middlesex London 21 September to Philip Bergson author. Effects £190 17s 2d.

Is Philip, mentioned as the holder of probate here, the brother? He certainly outlived her and could have done this.

Phillip Bergson – the mystery deepens

I could not find any mention in MyHeritage of a Phillip Bergson as sibling in the family tree of her or her brother Henri Bergson, which is very well documented in the genealogy website. Some other family trees of the same family have the spelling as Phillip Bergson (Berkson) but they also spell Moina as Moira, so caution is advised.

There is however mentioned, in a number of versions of the same family tree, a Philip Taleg Bergson, also known as Philip Beaufoy Barry, born in London. His dates are 1871 to 1947. He died on 19 January 1947 in a London hospital and probate was taken out by Barclays Bank, with effects recorded of £1735. He would have been in a position to deal with Moina’s probate and the implication is that siblings of the family mostly kept in touch, as adults.

His Anglo sounding nickname may have been designed to counter anti-semitism but other reasons are possible. If he went to the USA, he returned, but it raises questions as to whether he really left. Colquhoun claimed that Philip ran a printing and book-binding business but later emigrated with his wife to the USA. There is something that does not quite fit, looking at the evidence as a whole. Nobody has shown that he died in the USA and Americans have wonderful genealogical resources. The Mormons claim to have 36 billion historical records.

Her brother the Philosopher Henri Bergson – conversion seems in evidence

Here is the gravestone of Henri Bergson and his wife and their only child, Jeanne. Note the cross and the absence of any Jewish religious symbols.

How to study the three books of the Zohar studied by Mathers, after Kabbalah Unveiled by Mathers was improved upon

Mathers worked from a Christian edition, not a Jewish edition. If you decide to buy the Mathers version, I recommend choosing the hardback with yellow dust jacket and folded diagrams. It is like studying the maps in the three hardback volumes of Lord of the Rings. There is really no substitute. You will also see the lengthy foreword written by Moina in 1926, for the editions after the death of her husband. It gives an indication that his death was followed by numerous enquiries made to his widow, by seekers after knowledge. It is also still in print, in numerous modern editions.

It is dedicated to Anna B Kingsford and Edward Maitland, in my view as an acknowledgment of (i) the Hermetic Society’s great achievement of laying the foundation for the GD and (ii) the closeness of the GD founders to the named persons. Anna Kingsford was as real as Anna Sprengel was not. It was very decent to include this tribute and so remind people to this day, of the contribution Kingsford and Maitland made to the Hermetic current.

Mathers clearly recognised that he was working with a trio of interdependent works – the Greater Assembly, the Lesser Assembly and the Book of Concealment. Most of the Zohar is based on the Tree of ten sefirot but these three texts consider three other distinct divine configurations, faces or partzufim.

In Lurianic Kabbalah, Partzufim are reconfigured arrangements of the ten sefirot, the divine emanations or attributes. Each Partzuf is a harmonious unit, integrating multiple sefirot into a single persona. For example:

• Arich Anpin (”Long-Faced One”) represents patience and the higher divine will.

• Zeir Anpin (”Short-Faced One”) embodies emotional attributes.

• Nukvah or Malchut represents the feminine aspect of the Divine.

• Abba (Father) and Imma (Mother) form the inner divine family, interacting to produce Zeir Anpin and Nukvah.

• Each Partzuf contains all ten sefirot in a fully expanded form, allowing them to interrelate and “enclothe” one another, correcting the flaws of the primordial world of Tohu, where sefirot acted independently.

• This dynamic interaction is central to the cosmic process of Tikkun (rectification), where divine light is channelled into creation.

Partzufim serve as vessels for divine light, enabling the infinite essence of God (Ein Sof) to manifest in the finite world. They are not separate gods but different aspects of the singular Divine, allowing humans to perceive and interact with divine energies. The anthropomorphic imagery—such as limbs corresponding to specific sefirot—helps illustrate the interconnection of divine attributes and the mirroring of cosmic processes in human experience

It is unfamiliar territory for most of us. In particular, one of the faces is the partzuf of Nuqba, the Divine Female. This is why the Zohar is so important for the study of Shekhinah in literature.

The unspecific female face or partzuf

Her face is lacking in detail, in contrast to the detailed Male Face. Perhaps she was considered to be veiled, as was the custom in relevant parts of the world? That seems to me to be the simplest explanation and I call in aid Occam’s Razor. The scholar Mark Verman suggested that perhaps it is because she was associated by Kabbalists with the Moon, which has no radiance of its own. In the Song of Songs, she asks not to be stared at because she is swarthy, notes Verman.

Other Zohar versions

You can study much Jewish literature for free at sefaria.org in their digital library. They have a phone app. The Kabbalah Centre has put Zohar online at www.zohar.com. Other Zohar versions can be found at archive.org and the Internet Sacred Text Archive.

Of course, the best critical edition today of the Zohar is the award-winning multi-volume Pritzker edition edited by Daniel Matt. There is information here which Mathers could not have known. Pritzker works directly from the unusual version of Aramaic and the Hebrew in the earliest known texts of Zohar. Each printed volume retails at about £50.

Pritzker Volume 5 opens in mid-Exodus and concludes with the short section Sifra di-Tsniuta, the Book of Concealment.

Pritzker Volume 8, running from Leviticus to Numbers, has the Idra Rabba or Large Gathering (Greater Holy Assembly). Idra Rabba is a meeting of mystics called by Rabbi Shimon to align the divine faces and so to heal Jewish religion. This text has been described as the most dangerous teaching in the Zohar! It is quite baffling to many who read it, unless you consult the wonderful study (described as sensitive and methodical by Verman) undertaken by Melila Hellner-Eshed, called Seekers of the Face (Secrets of the Idra Rabba) and published by Stanford University Press.

Pritzker volume 9 runs from the middle of Numbers to the end of Deuteronomy. It includes the Idra Zuta (The Small Assembly). This is part of the commentary on Deuteronomy. Rabbi Shimon gives his final address, then departs life to be joined with the Divine Feminine, Shekhinah.

More art by Moina Mathers

In Ithell Colquhoun’s Sword of Wisdom (her biography of Mathers) between pages 96 and 97 we have Moina’s paintings in the anteroom of the Ahathoor Temple in Paris. It is a series of Egyptian deities in oil-paint and collage on canvas. Included are Horus and Nephthys. Copyright rests with the estate of I. Colquhoun, also an artist of great interest.

Art from Mathers’ Kabbalah Unveiled

These carefully executed diagrams are vital but I am uncertain who drew them.

The extended Tree in the Four Worlds is a long fold-out, opposite page 51.

Other Art by Moina Mathers

MacGregor Mathers in GD robes - now on display at the Atlantis Bookshop, London. No artist knew the subject better than Moina Mathers.

Charter of Osiris Temple No.4 of the GD

Original design for the Great Seal of the Second Order 1891

Copyright Ian F Freer 2026

Thus, two of her female relatives on the maternal side hailed from my native Yorkshire. (Click in circle to move the image)

Henri Bergson

Mina’s most famous relative was philosopher Henri Bergson, who deserves a sketch here as he is not included in the mostly excellent BBC iPlayer series on Great Philosophers. (Nevertheless, it is Euro-centric, and silent about pre-Socratics, Stoics, Middle Platonists, Neoplatonists, Indians and Chinese. Personally, I see the Stoics as far more important than most philosophers of the past 200 years excluding Nietzsche, Russell, and Wittgenstein, and they are sadly misdescribed in some of the popular modern literature. Perhaps I should try to correct that in a side project.)

Henri Bergson was Mina’s eldest brother. His dates are 18 October 1859 in Paris to 4 January 1941 also in Paris, at the age of 81 years. He lost his Jewish faith around the age of 15 years. At his death, a Roman Catholic priest said prayers as he had asked, but he never formally converted because he cared about the persecution suffered by the Jewish people in Europe.

Although he solved a mathematical problem, he chose Humanities as his discipline. He obtained his Ph. D in 1889 from the Ecole Normale Superieure, University of Paris. His wife was Louise Neuberger, a cousin of writer Marcel Proust, who he married in 1891. In fact, Proust was best man at their wedding.

In 1922 Bergson wrote a book about the Einsteinian Universe, which caused a debate with Albert Einstein about physics.

The most notable works of Bergson include Time and Free Will (1889), Matter and Memory (1896) and Creative Evolution (1907). He was influential in analytic philosophy and continental philosophy and had a revival in 1966 onwards due to the publication by Gilles Deleuze of Le Bergsonisme. His key approach is the proposition that immediate experience and intuition are relatively more important for understanding reality, than are abstract rationalism and science.

I am as pro-rationalism and science as anybody could be, but I do know that some scientific insights have been prefigured by relevant dreams; also, I attach great value to experience as teacher, when properly contextualised.

Bergson expressed in 1907 the still current concept of elan vital. This is a vital force or vital impulse that drives the evolution and development of organisms. Vitalism teaches that we organics possess a unique life force, distinguishing us from inert matter. (Where AI falls, on this scale, is so I believe a truly important philosophical question for the current age. Some evidence suggests that a degree of agency also exists or seems to do so in complex AI programmes and therefore points to an independent agenda.)

In 1927 Bergson was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature and in 1930 the Grand-Croix de la Legion d’honneur. He was in fact the first man of Jewish descent to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was seen as opposed to the dominant secular and scientific attitude adopted by the officials of the French Republic. (Much the same may be said of Golden Dawn members, like his sister Mina.) Henri Bergson was also President of the British Society for Psychical Research, which is interesting not least because the Golden Dawn curriculum included psychic development training.

Henri and Mina Bergson’s great-great-grandfather Szmul Sonnenberg was a prominent banker and protégé of King Stanislaw II Augustus, King of Poland from 1764 to 1795. The name Bergson appears to be adapted from Bereksohn, a famous Polish entrepreneurial family.

Mina’s adult life

Mina married the English occult author Samuel Liddell Macgregor Mathers, a founder of the legendary Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Later the couple moved to Paris, where her husband researched and translated manuscripts and books in his field of interest and she was employed as an illustrator. She changed her name to Moina. After her husband’s death in 1918 she headed a successor organisation, called the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha and Omega.

Mina (28 February 1865 – 25 July 1928) was obviously a talented artist, as is well known to those who have seen her book illustrations. At the age of 15 years, she enrolled at the Slade School of Art. She was awarded a scholarship.

She became close friends with Beatrice Offor from Sydenham, who was to become one of the most famous portrait painters until her death, from injuries sustained in falling from a window, in 1920. The most famous paintings by Offor include Destiny, The Rosary, Circe and The Crystal Gazer. Offor is buried at the Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries.

Also at the Slade, Mina met Annie Horniman, of the Tea family, who was to become a major financial sponsor of the married couple. In 1887 she first met Mathers while they were both studying at the British Museum. It was in this period that the Hermetic Society, launched by visionary theosophist and early woman doctor Anna Bonus Kingsford, had held its very final meetings in London, where it shared members with the future Golden Dawn.

It was only a year later that Mathers co-founded the Golden Dawn. Moina was to be its very first initiate, breaking with the past Masonic tradition of men only (today there are several women only Orders and the mixed Co-Masons headquartered in Surbiton, so everybody is content with the particular Order they belong to – please refer to my previous article about Women’s Masonry). Anna Kingsford had established by her strong leadership and impassioned writings that (i) Victorian women had a role to play in Hermetic organisations and (ii) that there was a need for such organisations in London, then the capital of a worldwide Empire. So, I believe that Kingsford helped Moina Mathers in her esoteric aspirations, whether or not they knew each other well, which is not apparent from the biography of Kingsford. (Please see my earlier posts about Kingsford.)

Golden Dawn members took Latin mottoes, rather like the custom with heraldic coats of arms. Moina was Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum which means “Prudence never retraces it steps”. To modern ears this may sound like a Harry Potter spell.

In 1900 she married S.L. Mathers (1854-1918) who had attended Bedford public school.

In 1878 he became a Master Mason, having been initiated into Hengist Lodge No.195 on 4 October 1877. In 1882 he was admitted to the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia. He had been invited by Blavatsky to collaborate with her in the foundation of the Theosophical Society but declined. He was more synonymous with the Golden Dawn than any other individual, according to Regardie, who should know. He designed the curriculum and rituals of the Order. In 1891 he assumed leadership upon the death of William Robert Woodman. Moina worked as his clairvoyant seeress. She illustrated what her husband had evoked, as they believed. According to Mary Greer (esp. pp.40-45 and 74-79 and 348-358 of Women of the Golden Dawn), the name Moina is Celtic and never again did she use the name Mina. Her husband was very infatuated by Celtic aspirations and mythology; and he took the name MacGregor in addition to his birth names. They lived at the Hornimans’ Forest Hill Lodge, where they held metaphysical events. WB Yeats witnessed some of these events.

Walk Like an Egyptian

In March 1899, which is shown by surviving photographs, they performed together the rites of the Goddess Isis on stage at the Theatre La Bodiniere in Paris.

The location is 18 Rue Saint-Lazare. The theatre ran from 1890 to 1902 and it is currently a restaurant. The theatre staged lectures and performances for aristocrats, grand bourgeois and intelligentsia. Some remarkable posters survive from its theatrical performances. More information can be found in Dix ans de boheme by Emile Goudeau (2000).

The illustrations Moina provided for her husband featured in The Kabbalah Unveiled (a translation of a few more difficult books of the Zohar compilation, from the Latin by von Rosenroth), a text damned with faint praise indeed by AE Waite, and the Book of Abramelin (see illustration).

In 1914 Mathers opened a recruitment centre where he recruited hundreds of Britons and Americans for service in the Foreign Legion. The couple had leant first aid and ambulance work many years before. In 1918 MacGregor Mathers was an early victim of the Spanish flu and died after three months of illness. His grave has lately been found in Paris, according to Nick Farrell in The King Across the Water.

In 1919 Moina returned to London, living first in Kensington, then Chelsea. She worked with John Brodie-Innes to establish a temple called Alpha et Omega in London. This was associated with his previous temple in Edinburgh of that same name.

The surrealist artist Ithell Colquhoun was told by a mutual friend that Moina felt disoriented without her former husband’s direction. She also felt alienated from many of the Golden Dawn people, which is not surprising to me as the Paris temple had its fair share of disputes with London while her husband was alive. As we see below, she was also to experience friction with Dion Fortune. She was very short of money once more and tried to support herself by portrait painting. She was sponsored by Isabel Morgan-Boyd and possibly again by Annie Horniman. Moina and Horniman were members of GRS Mead’s Quest Society.

Colquhoun later joined it and recounted that Questers recalled Moina as a wonderful personality resembling a gypsy or priestess, although one dissenting voice described her unkindly as “a dumpy little woman, not good-looking, and eccentric”.

She had a resonant voice that “dominated the assembly”, a characteristic which perhaps owes something to magical training and/or theatrical experience.

Gerald Heym described Moina as the greatest clairvoyant of the century.

A certain Frater X said that Moina lived in fear of occult attack. It is interesting that Dion Fortune, with similar training, felt impelled to write a book about psychic self-defence. Also, Fortune was to complain bitterly about the limited nature of the GD teaching given by the widow Mathers and/or her immediate teacher, one Maiya Curtis-Webb.

Moina died in 1928 in London. She probably still had some contact with Annie Horniman in the final years of her life, as Annie outlived her by 9 years. Her friend and sponsor Annie Horniman lived from 1860 to 1937 and was known for establishing the Abbey theatre in Dublin (which opened in 1904) and the very first regional repertory theatre in Manchester. In 1933 she was awarded the Companion of Honour. She encouraged new works by Yeats and Shaw. She was in the Golden Dawn until 1903. Yeats had many memories of her. Her nickname was “Hornibags“ due to the Tea connection. Annie is said to have caused some degree of scandal by openly smoking in public.

What is quite certain is that Moina Mathers knew Dion Fortune, who also outlived her, but in a less friendly way than had been the case with Annie. The slightly humorous account given by Fortune in RA Gilbert’s Golden Dawn at page 78 is as follows:

“It may be as well to explain my own position in relation to the Golden Dawn. I joined the Southern branch of the Scottish section of it, since disbanded in 1919 and transferred from there to the section of it which Mrs McGregor Mathers was the head, and which claimed the only orthodoxy. She nearly turned me out for writing The Esoteric Philosophy of Love and Marriage, on the grounds that I was betraying the inner teaching of the Order, but it was pointed out to her that I had not then got the degree in which the teaching was given, and I was pardoned. She suspended me for some months for writing Sane Occultism, and finally turned me out because certain symbols had not appeared in my aura – a perfectly unanswerable charge. However, I transferred again to yet another section of the Order where, for the first time, I saw justice done to what is, in my opinion, a very great system, and continued my studies without interruption.”

This passage by Fortune makes a number of implied criticisms of Mathers and her running of the Order. Fortune was obviously a very considerable authority in her day and this should not be minimised, although of course neither person is here to defend themselves today. According to Gilbert, the “other section” mentioned was the Stella Matutina. She was able to join the Hermes Temple of the Stella Matutina, as Hermes became independent from 1923.

Towards the end of 1927 Moina stopped eating and was clearly ill for a long period thereafter. On 25 July 1928 at 63 years of age, she died at St Mary Abbots Hospital on Marloes Road in London. Her body was cremated. She left her personal effects to her brother Phillip Bergson who was a publisher, an author and an actor. Close to the time of World War II, he emigrated to the United States. Mary Greer confessed herself unable to trace him. This is a great pity for GD historians.

Ithell Colquhoun stated that around 1939 all Moina’s original A.O. furniture and original papers were burned by order of Mrs Weir, which occurred in the grounds of a country house in Hertfordshire. Thus, again frustratingly for historians, she left no traces behind; Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum.

Copyright Ian F. Freer 2026

The Greeks saw the Earth as Ge or Gaia, female, but the Egyptians saw the Earth as a male deity, Geb. (See illustration of Geb supporting astral Goddess Nut or Nuit.)

Around the world, there seems to be a clear majority for Goddess of the Earth. The Sumerian position was very complicated, as numerous deities were allocated Earth duties. In proto-Indo-European religion, there is usually an Earth Mother and Sky Father. I have heard people say “she is an Earth Mother” type but really that is a cultural construct of people who speak an Indo-European language. Granted that English and Spanish are very widely spoken, there are still other major languages quite outside that category.

The Moon runs into similar issues. The Egyptians had definitely masculine views of the Moon, seen as Thoth, Khonsu or Iah. Unsurprisingly the Dogon people of Mali also believe that the Moon is a male deity. So did the ancient Mesopotamians, who worshipped the Moon God Sin.

In the Romano-Greek mythologies you would expect a female deity, such as Selene, Diana, Luna or Artemis. In Wales we have Arianrhod or silver wheel, very poetic. But in Norse mythology the Moon God Mani was the brother of Sol (female in Germanic cultures, along with the Lithuanians, Latvians and Hungarians). In India, Chandra or Soma is the Moon God. Ra in Egypt is the prototypical male Sun deity in a sky boat and frankly most cultures agreed that the sun is male.

We are aware that the female cycle is lunar. It is therefore a great puzzle when we see a male moon deity. The Male Moon believers conceive of him as a wise and protective spirit.

In the reconstructed but not directly observed Proto-Indo-European system, the Moon was personified as Menot a male god. The Sun was personified as goddess Sehul.

You need to pay attention to the relevant cultural context. You cannot or should not shoehorn an alien god or goddess into a specific culture. The Chinese concept of Yin and Yang may be helpful. It implies that these attributes are on a graduated scale and that both are observable.

Consistency is a requirement of Philosophy (especially in the branch called Logic) and Science (especially in experimental results). Consistency is not however a requirement between faiths, for that way lies madness. Philosophy and Science aim at universal applicability. Faiths are more inward looking. Religion comes for the word for binding together, a cultural aim. Gender in faith matters is an aspect of the creative or artistic imagination, so arguably it is free to roam wherever necessary.

Side Issue

We could move on from gendered polytheism to gendered monotheism, which is more relevant for many people today and also to any Platonists, past present or future.

Most of the religious people in the UK practice an Abrahamic faith. These use Semitic languages in their source materials. One of the habits of that language group is to use masculine as a default gender because words need a gender. This concept is lost in modern English but was apparent in Latin and Norman French. So, Gods of these faiths are addressed as masculine purely because it is a default setting. It does not mean that followers should exalt males or look down on females, not at all. (If they do, that is a separate issue.) I have heard a woman, who clearly knew very little about these matters, berate a published Kabbalah teacher for using masculine wording about the Deity. What is he supposed to do? Overturn the Semitic language default setting? The discussion did not go there, but it certainly would if I was faced with the same question or criticism.

In Judaism there is a taboo on making images of the Deity, which is no doubt designed, one might assume, to head off such arguments. Nevertheless, in Kabbalah there are some completely heretical writings, which describe a giant masculine body of the Most Holy One. Nobody knows why that occurred or what the aim of the writer was or why it was not burnt. Perhaps the authors were rabbis writing for other rabbis. Nobody really knows. It is one of the many mysteries in Kabbalah.

Arik Anpin

Was God partnered with a Goddess?

Raphael Patai was pushing this notion of the Hebrew Goddess in the 20^th century. I suspect it is a lazy argument. There is archaeology to show that very early in Canaanite history there were some images of a divine family. That cannot without more support a direct route to the Shekhinah (the female spirit of the Most Holy), appearing millennia later in the literature of the Middle Ages. Asherah was a wife of Baal but the Hebrew God was distinct from Baal so it is not really a strong case for partnering any version of El or Yahweh with Asherah in the long term. I was more sympathetic when I wrote “The Pagan Eden” (published 2013) but more study has lessened my enthusiasm. There is a very strong rebuttal argument contra Patai published in Gnosis magazine (San Francisco, see article “The Redemption of the Shekhinah” by Ya’qub ibn Yusuf in Gnosis 14 (Winter 1990)). Also, Dr Justin Sledge (Esoterica channel on YouTube) seems to favour Marian theology of the Middle Ages as a probable cause of Shekhinah mysticism in Judaism.

Is this evidence? The supposed Yahweh/Asherah drawing. It seems to say Yahweh and his Asherah - but that does not prove it was Yahwist-approved - and one swallow does not make a spring.

There have been numerous massive changes in Judaism since the period in which a divine family illustration was acceptable (if it was – we have no label saying this family drawing is completely kosher). The emphasis on mono is far stronger in Judaism and Islam than it is in trinitarian Christian theology.

Copyright Ian F Freer 2026

Here are links for more information. Borealis means northern, derived from the Greek wind god Boreas.

www.custodiaborealis.org

https://www.facebook.com/groups/custodiaborealis

Witch trials took place in the north as elsewhere, such as at Pendle, where the Quakers later established a base. In Victorian times, with the development of widespread education and new sources of wealth, this region became an esoteric hotbed.

The establishment of a Golden Dawn temple (Horus temple #5) in Bradford in October 1888 is an exceptional achievement, given that the London/Paris axis so dominated the Order in that century. Perhaps it reflects the massive profits of the wool trade that, for a while, made Bradford a commercial centre of the country. Artistic Egyptian-style wall paintings reportedly survived in that Temple building, when they did not in other temples of the Order.

The Golden Dawn first met at the Alexandra Hotel in Great Horton Road (very close to where I lived in childhood and teens), which later became the Alexandra Annexe, part of Bradford College, before it was pulled down in the late 20th century. The area is now waste land and a car park.

An August Order of Light temple later existed at 52 Godwin Street, Bradford from 1939 until November 1970. The Bradford Order of Light moved in 1971 to Castlegate, York.

In 1983 a flurry of newspaper articles appeared and wrongly claimed this as a GD temple although the mistake was understandable at the time. For over 120 years until now the August Order (who kept quiet in 1983) have used the pillars from Horus #5 GD temple.

Many of the Golden Dawn notables came to Bradford. Mr T H Pattinson, a jeweller and watchmaker, of 6 Piccadilly, Bradford, was the original leader of the Horus Temple. He was a member of the Theosophical Society, a branch of which once ran in Shipley, and now in Leeds.

The history of The Golden Dawn in Bradford was to a great extent controlled by Mr Thomas Henry Pattinson, leader of the Bradford Horus Temple of the Golden Dawn and later, co-leader together with Dr Edwards, of The August and Oriental Order of Light Garuda, based on the teachings of a Mr Portman, who had spent much time in India and who revived the Indian Cult of Garuda, the bird God of Hindu and Buddhist religions.

The news story occurred in 1983, when Salvo and Sindy IIardi discovered the artwork in the attic of their newly purchased restaurant, New Gobbles. The event was even mentioned in The New York Times, as the fame of the discovery had spread. Mr and Mrs IIardi tried to re-furbish the temple to turn in to a local heritage landmark. Although the temple was clearly a replica of the original Horus Temple of the Golden Dawn, confusingly, it had also been used as a Garuda Temple. The original Garuda Temple was in premises at Kings Arcade, Bradford, (now demolished) and had the Garuda painted on the back wall in place of Horus, the art work done by a lady who had spent much time in India. In 1958 any such earlier art had been damaged in winter storms.

By 1984, Mr and Mrs IIardi had ordered ceremonial magical equipment for display and had parts of the temple repainted. One expert brought in, insisted the original paintings were from the early 1900’s, but had been replenished in the 1950’s. Predictably, the IIardis ran out of money and left the premises, their dream unrealised and the important find largely unrecognised after the original bursts of publicity.

Melissa Seims has documented the Bradford GD history very well indeed in her marvellous illustrated book, Light in Extension. It includes illustrations never published before and a foreword by leading GD experts and practitioners, Chic and Tabatha Cicero. For example, you can see the pillars and banners displayed at Horus, and details of individual past members.

https://www.thoth.co.uk/books/light-in-extension

https://www.waterstones.com/book/light-in-extension/melissa-seims/9781913660468

The Chaos Current

Separately, in Burley Lodge Road, Leeds the Sorceror’s Apprentice bookshop run by Chris Bray (aka Frater Marabas) became a phenomenon after its establishment in 1974. It operated a mail order occult paraphernalia service and a magazine called The Lamp of Thoth. One of its funniest columns was called Golem’s Gossip. The writing style was boldly individual and its flavour can be gleaned from this Disclaimer:

DISCLAIMER: Along with five billion other souls on this planet we believe in Transmogrification (magic), and Transubstantiation (life in spirit). About 85% of the world’s population believe in the world of spirit. Only 7% of the world’s population are atheists (scientific materialists) but these few people have a disproportionate influence over the way we live because the government relies heavily on these Scientific Soothsayers of the State to provide justification for their decisions. This disclaimer is to comply with the prejudiced demands of this lobby and should be seen as such…….

In the same period of the 1970s there emerged writers in a school quickly named as Chaos Magic. They were inspired by the channelled artwork of Austin Osman Spare and felt that other occult groupings were too religious. They wanted more freedom than that offered. They also tried to reduce magic to bare technique.

Peter Carroll and Ray Sherwin held meetings at the Sorcerer’s Apprentice and produced the first books on Chaos Magic. The 8 Arrow symbol of Chaos was adapted from the Elric novels of Michael Moorcock (also associated with both UK band Hawkwind and Long Island band Blue Oyster Cult, once marketed as the American Black Sabbath).

From 1994 to 2000, The Invisibles written by Grant Morrison at DC Comics helped to spread the international reach of Chaos Magic.

At an intellectual level, Lionel Snell (Ramsey Dukes) stands out as an author of great insight on these subjects, who writes in an original, entertaining and particularly perceptive way. He has a degree in Pure Mathematics from Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Key aspects of Chaos Magic

· Belief is a tool for creating magical effects

· Peter J Carroll believed that paradigm shifting was part of it

· Cut up technique of Bryon Gysin, practiced on texts by William S Burroughs and David Bowie. Bowie is on record as comparing the randomness of the cut-up technique to the randomness inherent in traditional divinatory systems, like the I Ching or the Tarot.

Why you should donate

Please consider donating at this early stage, as much work is being done and it incurs expenses and fees. They are establishing a charity, which requires fees and administrators. They will acquire a building and will seek out grants and funding. The rules on charities require current knowledge of the law of trusts and compliance therewith. There are numerous legal rules governing the use and adaptation of buildings. Taxes are likely to be applicable unless exemption available.

The main purpose of charitable status is to obtain tax exemption but also it proves that a vetting process has occurred.

I am not doing this work personally but can speak from experience of what it is like as, in the 1990s, in support of a charitable status application, I drafted a new constitution for the Astrological Association that fitted the then current requirements of charity law. There was some delay with that application but you can see the favourable outcome here. The details of what the Charity Commission state are the AA’s activities may be helpful to others.

https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/5036301/full-print

Copyright: Ian F Freer 2026 (amended with grateful thanks to MS on 28 May 2026)

Anna Bonus Kingsford (1846-88). Writer, antivivisectionist, medical doctor, President of the Theosophical Society in 1883 and founder of the Hermetic Society in 1884. In that last role, she and colleagues spoke to hundreds in each meeting in London and helped to lay the foundations for the better known Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a Rosicrucian Order open to both men and women. There is now no serious doubt that the Golden Dawn’s claims to be chartered by a mysterious Anna Sprengel were made up, as a cover for the real inspiration from the above Anna Kingsford. In 1888, three members of SRIA, William Robert Woodman, William Wynn Westcott, and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, formed the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which removed the restriction on membership, allowing non-Christians, non-Freemasons, and women to join. A great deal of the SRIA structure survived in the new order, which went on to greatly influence the modern Western occult revival in the 20th century. Westcott and Mathers are known to have been in the inner group of Kingsford’s Hermetic Society.

The Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia provided the male Masons who founded the GD. As I understand it, this Masonic Order was and is male only; and, unlike most Masonic Orders, it requires trinitarian belief, in other words it is only open to mainstream Christian views, not to followers of the many other religions and spiritualities who are also admitted to most Masonic Orders. Wikipedia says it is a Rosicrucian Order open only to Christian Master Masons. In its various international forms, it is typically open only by invitation.

I have read some of the literature by and about Anna Kingsford, after a very inspiring talk from Elaine Bailey, similar to that which has been uploaded by the Theosophical Society on YouTube. Of course there are other talks on aspects of this topic by other speakers, which you may wish to explore on the same channel.

Elaine Bailey

I have so far studied the following books.

The two mystical works above might fairly be described as “TS-adjacent but influenced by Christian symbolism”, at least more than is commonly found in the work of HPB herself. In a book of 1886, she even related astrology to Christian Mysticism.

Red Cactus is a reliable modern biography which corrects much of the unfortunate earlier work by her colleague Edward Maitland (1824-97), which I cannot recommend to serious historians. For reasons best known to himself, he destroyed much of her surviving notes and letters after her death and he makes some remarks about ABK which do not withstand informed scrutiny. Allan Pert has taken a straight chronological approach and gives us much about her upper class social context and magazine writing history. There are some interesting tensions outlined with HPB’s close supporter Alfred Sinnett, as ABK clearly had a preference for Western over Eastern (arguably better put as “European over South Asian”) mystical analysis and practice, but they seem to have ended in a constructive and peaceful way. Sinnett was more interested in psychism than mysticism. (Her passion for her causes led to taking a risk with the weather and consequently a chest infection that proved fatal. Her health was very poor from 1886 onwards.) It is rather telling that she met HPB in the year after she was President of the London Lodge of the TS and then very quickly established the Hermetic Society. The Golden Dawn was itself a Western response, pulling away from the TS.

The material on vegetarianism is of its time but may be of interest to historians of the topic. Diet has been studied intensely since the 19th century and we are now better informed and in a more nuanced way. It should be noted that vegetarianism is consistent with the focus on Indian or Indian-style beliefs found in the TS of the period, even in London. The Perfect Way in Diet (1881) was her last published book on vegetarianism.

In 1873 she started her study of medicine and gained her Doctorate in it in 1880.

She experienced dream visions over a ten year period starting in 1875, an achievement which sets her apart from many leading figures in the movement.

The Hermetic Qabalah by Kingsford and Maitland has much of interest for both Qabalists and Hermetists as well as Theosophists. It contains an extended biographical preface by Samuel Hopgood Hart, seven lectures including Karma and The Hermetic Fragment Kore Kosmou the Virgin of the World, ten essays and letters including Concerning Reincarnation, the Historic Jesus, Animals and their Souls and the Trinity, a brief chronology, and three illustrations: the Via Crucis, the Lower Triangle and the Upper Triangle.

The wikipedia entry on Kingsford has many important omissions and so you should investigate for yourself, if you want to acquire a complete book collection. Modern print editions are often available.

Born: 5pm 16 September 1846 at Stratford, Essex.

Died: 22 February 1888, age 41 years, 5 months. Mother died in March.

Daughter: Eadith

Copyright: Ian F Freer 2026

I am now exploring the question of whether Orion/Gilgamesh fought the Taurus bull in non-Roman mythology.

Sumerian narrative poems were the basis for the Gilgamesh epic known in the Babylonian language around 1700 BCE. It was still known millennia later. The longest surviving version comes from the 7^th century BCE. Portions were known to be translated into Hittite and Hurrian.

The core theme in the consolidated Babylonian version was how an arrogant king was chastened by knowing that he too had to die, just like everyone else. Modern scientific or pseudo-scientific searches for life extension and immortality have their precedents in very ancient literature.

Gilgamesh as the King of Uruk (which may have given its city name to modern Iraq) battles with the Bull of Heaven, sent by Inanna/Ishtar after he rejects her advances (these reasons are not made clear in the earlier Sumerian version). The enraged Ishtar had demanded the Bull of Heaven from her father Anu. His friend Enkidu dies soon afterwards.

I will try to unpick these elements. Ishtar in Assyria and Babylon is certainly identifiable with the planet Venus, the brightest of all planets in the night sky and always appearing close to the Sun, just like Mercury (who is named as god Nabu/Nebo, a kind of Thoth/Odin figure who is lord of writing, scribes, wisdom and the rational arts in Assyria and Babylonia. He is a son of Marduk.)

Ishtar/Inanna elsewhere invents the zombie, by threatening to raise the dead to eat the living, if she does not get her wish (see the Descent legend). In my opinion, this precise concept was later immortalised in the acclaimed worst movie of all time, “Plan 9 from Outer Space” in which a science fiction version replaced the religious one. Plan 9 is “the resurrection of the dead”. Source: https://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/myths/texts/classic/ishtardesc.htm

The concept of the dead eating the living could relate also to rising stars replacing disappearing stars on a seasonal basis. Not least because the heavens are the realms of the spirits and particularly the immortalised dead (see Ovid).

A likely source of inspiration for the Biblical narrative of Joseph’s Dream (Genesis 37) comes from this debate between Ishtar and Anu. (It also relates to the Ugaritic myth of the death of Aghat and verses 47-48 of Surah Yusuf in the Quran.) Anu at first objects to Ishtar’s demand, insisting that the Bull of Heaven is so destructive that its release would result in seven years of famine. Ishtar declares that she has stored up enough grain for all people and all animals for the next seven years. Eventually, Anu reluctantly agrees to give it to Ishtar, whereupon she unleashes it on the world, causing mass destruction.

British classical scholar Graham Anderson notes that, in the Odyssey, Odysseus’s men kill the sacred cattle of Helios Apollo and are condemned to death by the gods for this reason, much like Enkidu in the Epic of Gilgamesh. M.L West states that the similarities run deeper than the mere fact that, in both cases, the creatures slain are bovines exempt from natural death. In both cases, the person or persons condemned to die are companions of the hero, whose death or deaths force the hero to continue his journey alone. He also notes that, in both cases, the epic describes a discussion among the gods over whether or not the guilty party must die and that Helios’s threat to Zeus, if he does not avenge the slaughter of his cattle in the Odyssey, is very similar to Ishtar’s threat to Anu, when she is demanding the Bull in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Numerous depictions of the slaying of the Bull of Heaven occur in extant works of ancient Mesopotamian art. Representations are especially common on cylinder seals of the Akkadian Empire (c. 2334 – 2154 BC). These show that the Bull was clearly envisioned as a bull of abnormally large size and ferocity. It is unclear exactly what the Bull of Heaven represents, however. Assyriologists Jeremy Black and Anthony Green observe that the Bull of Heaven is identified with the constellation Taurus (with which I emphatically agree) and argue that the reason why Enkidu hurls the bull’s thigh at Ishtar, in the Epic of Gilgamesh after defeating it, may be an effort to explain why the constellation seems to be missing its hind quarters.

I emphasise that Gilgamesh uses his sword to finish off the beast and that this is the classic Mithras pose in the Tauroctony scenes. It supports Speidel’s identification of Orion with the hero Mithras.

The twin brother of Ishtar is Utu/Shamash, the sun. This presumably reflects the proximity of Venus to the sun in the sky. Its maximum elongation as a planet is 47.8 degrees, meaning that it never appears further away from the sun than that measurement.

Ishtar was a major deity with a temple in Uruk, the city associated with Gilgamesh. The Assyrians regarded her as second only in importance to their city god Ashur.

Egypt

The sign of Taurus is linked to the goddess Hathor, associated with love and beauty, somewhat similar to Ishtar/Inanna. The Apis Bull was widely worshipped, as recorded by Herodotus.

In the Temple of Sety I at Abydos, a corridor preserves a unique image. The King of Egypt, and his eldest son, wrangle and subdue a bull. This Pharaoh was one of the most powerful ever to rule Egypt and would have been familiar with Babylonian legends.

Anatolia

The Hittite storm God Teshub has been depicted standing on a bull’s back. This may reflect the start of the stormy season, when Taurus is dominant in the night sky during April to May. He also holds a snake. This is another creature from the Tauroctony and may well represent a relevant constellation as we saw earlier.

Greece

For his seventh Labor, King Eurystheus ordered Heracles to capture the Cretan Bull that Poseidon had cursed to destroy the island of Crete. Heracles is of course the immortalised hero constellation that stands opposite Orion. He is the summer hero figure. The snake (hydra) and lion labours may also be astronomical. The conflict at the heart of the cycle is with the goddess Hera, perhaps an equivalent to Inanna/Ishtar.

The legend overlaps with that of Theseus slaying the minotaur on Crete.

India

The most notable bull slaying legend is that of Mahishasura, a buffalo demon defeated by the goddess Durga. This story symbolizes the triumph of good over evil and is celebrated during the Navaratri festival. She uses her trident or trishula to slay the demon. Durga is often shown on a lion, like the Mesopotamian goddess. The story is taken to show the necessary win of courage and justice over ego.

Celtic - Tarvos Trigaranus

The Latin name for a presumably Celtic deity, Tarvos Trigaranus is a bull god, whose name literally means bull with three cranes. Originally, the Latin phrase was a title inscribed on 1st century stone sculpture, but scholars speculate that it was also the name of a bull god. As the name implies, he’s depicted in the form of a bull, accompanied by cranes, or other three long-legged marsh birds.

Tarvos Trigaranus is represented in two stone sculptures in Paris and Trier, Germany. In the Paris sculpture, discovered in 1711 under the Notre Dame Cathedral, he is depicted with the Celtic gods Esus, Cernunnos and Smertrius. (Esus shown above.)

It is believed that a group of boatmen who sailed the Seine River dedicated the monument to Jupiter in Paris, around 26 CE. Unfortunately, the story behind the sculpture has been lost over time, but scholars associate it with a Celtic myth.

Historically, the bull was connected with the Celtic god Esus, who is portrayed in another scene of the same sculpture as a woodman chopping down a tree, sheltering a bull and three birds. Scholars don’t know what the scene refers to, but they associate it with a mythology about regeneration. In the myth, a bull was killed by a hunter, but brought back to life by the cranes.

Obviously Orion was a parallel story of a hunter associated with a bull. Every year the bull reappears in the sky. It is clearly a seasonal myth and the cranes likely just function as a seasonal indicator. The spring migration of cranes can be observed for example in Germany during February to March.

Early Celtic coins had a strong relationship with earlier Greek coin designs. It is very likely that the early Celts were also aware of major Greek legends.

In Ireland the cattle raid of Cooley is a major legend known as the Tain.

Conclusion

We have many examples of northern cultures that broadly shared the Roman world, contributed soldiers to the Roman Army, and would have been able to find the astronomical “Mithras Tauroctony” relatable. The cult idea that Mithras is born “out of a rock” is surely a strong sign that he is a constellation, that first appears on the horizon. In many parts of the world, constellations arise seemingly from the very mountains on the horizon.

Copyright: Ian F Freer 2026

Resources:

I have used mainly the Norton Critical edition of the epic by Benjamin R Foster but you may also wish to read the Penguin Classics edition under the name N K Sandars and the Oxford World’s Classics edition of Myths from Mesopotamia, a new translation by Stephanie Dalley. “Greek Myths and Mesopotamia” by Charles Penglase (Routledge) sheds light on Chaldean influences upon the Homeric Hymns and Hesiod. There is a vast academic bibliography for the Bull of Heaven legend in the epic of Gilgamesh.

Occult Lives The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawnhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxWflp8pEi0

He uses three fields of investigation to locate relevant material. These are:

1. Iranian religious literature.

2. Greek and Roman art.

3. Astral and seasonal symbolism.

The third century CE source of Porphyry confirms that the bull on which Mithras is kneeling is the constellation Taurus. This is the peak period for Mithraism. Perfect evidence. The source is Porphyry’s treatise On The Cave of the Nymphs, which you can easily find in translation by Thomas Taylor. This incontrovertible contemporary evidence says that Mithras “carries the sword of Aries and rides on the bull of Venus”. As Hellenistic astrology was firmly established by then, it cannot be doubted that the reference is to the zodiacal signs of Aries the Ram (1) and Taurus the Bull (2). Further, a bull-slaying relief from Sidon (Lebanon) has the scorpion of the zodiac attacking the genitals of the bull. This is a standard mapping of the zodiac onto the body, for Scorpio is assigned to the genital area. Scorpio is 180 degrees away from Taurus in the heavens.

Porphyry says the cave in the Odyssey of Homer represents the cosmos, following the platonic scholar Numenius. Of course the Mithraeum also represents the cave of the cosmos. Aratus described the equator’s circle and noted that the sign for it is “the Ram and the knees of the Bull”. So according to Porphyry, Mithras is part of the star grouping on the equator (and so is Orion). Manilius, writing in the time of Augustus, stated that, “under him (Orion) the leader, the constellations orbit through all of the sky”.

Speidel looks directly at the winter constellations, which any Roman soldier on night watch would know by heart. He sees the proximity of Orion and his dog (this is a Sirius argument) stabbing at Taurus and he knows from the pattern and these literary sources at once that this is the same scene shown in the Tauroctony.

The Farnese Atlas

The Farnese Atlas is a 2^nd century CE statue of the Titan Atlas holding the globe, and shows 41 classical constellations arranged according to the Greek astronomical knowledge. It may have been influenced by the astronomer Hipparchus and is one of the very earliest sky maps that have survived from Hellenistic culture (there are of course some well known Egyptian and Mesopotamian examples - but with very different constellation names and arrangements.) Culturally this is a much better fit with Roman Mithraism and its iconography than the Persian and so it is part of the strong case for departing from Cumont’s view that the two religions were as one.

The constellations of the bull slaying scene lie along the equator in the summer. They are not just from the zodiac. Speidel posits that Cautes and Cautopates are not Gemini twins but stand outside the picture, in my own words as separated opposites, like theatre curtains, to frame it. This is more plausible than Beck’s Gemini explanation, which would logically require them to be adjacent.

Speidel argues that any case for interpretation of Mithras needs to satisfy three rules as follows:

1. All the elements of the bull slaying scene must be represented in the sky, and they must be portrayed directly, not by allusions to other objects.

2. The constellations thus found must follow a rigorous, meaningful organizing principle.

3. The celestial features and their iconography must be part of the ancient views of the heavens. Hence they must be evidenced by ancient sources, not just be inferred astronomically or astrologically.

In my opinion, these are sound rules and he has applied them rigorously in his argument. The bull and scorpion are very strongly identifiable with Taurus and Scorpio, its opposing sign, for classically evidenced reasons. Much follows from that.

A lion often appears under the bull, for example in Speidel’s illustration of the cult icon from Heddernheim. Here Mithras repeatedly appears next to the Sun God, which I believe cannot be consistent with Beck’s view that they are one and the same entity (he suggests Mithras is Sol in Leo).

This is the famous two-sided monument from Nida / Hedddernheim, which appears in nearly all books on Mithras. It appears today to be held at the Städtisches Museum, Wiesbaden. A copy is held in the Frankfurt archaeological museum.

In my opinion this evidence from the period completely nullifies Beck’s case for Leo or Sun in Leo as Mithras, by the argument of non-duplication. Beck’s case needed to cover all the known archaeological variants, of which there are quite a few.

Speidel sets out the classical myths explaining Orion, for which there are known to be some slight variations. These would in my view be widely known from popular sources such as Ovid.

Turning now to a later book by Roger Beck, The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire was published in 2006 by Oxford University Press and reprinted in 2010. It is a far from easy read and certainly not for the general reader market. He critiqued the current view of Mithraism as a belief system with an esoteric doctrine. He used unfamiliar modern areas of study to throw fresh light on Mithraism. My view broadly is that some of these enquiries are not readily susceptible to either proof or disproof by a third party, which is a problem for the case he makes. If I may home in on the astral symbolism surveyed in the closing chapters, he contends that the sun in the top left of the tauroctony scene has the same meaning as Mithras, the central figure. In my opinion this falls afoul of the same rule I relied on earlier, the rule against duplication of images in an astral scene.

I conclude that Mithras is repeatedly shown approaching the sun in various surviving tauroctony scenes. This seems to suggest rather strongly that Mithras is not a single heavenly body but a grouping, a constellation adjacent to Taurus.

Overall, I feel most sympathetic to Speidel’s view that Mithras was the constellation of Orion the hunter, stabbing up at the bull of heaven. (Students of the Epic of Gilgamesh are recommended to review the battle between the Bull of Heaven and Gilgamesh. It might be the same story. My next piece will explore that possibility.)

Where I agree most strongly with Roger Beck is the notion that in the cult, ritual action was emphasised rather than teaching. This fits with the worshipper base of men of action: soldiers. I have accepted the view of Ronald Hutton that the cult started in Rome and the west, and which compels me (as a person who has studied a good deal of ancient astronomy from multiple cultures) to reject the otherwise very attractive theories of David Ulansey, which are well worth studying albeit with some caution.

Where all these three theorists stray a little, in my view, is in the avoidance of military context.

Hutton tells us that the purpose of a Mithraeum was to offer a social club for the shared eating of fried chicken, in a windowless building with your fellow soldiers. This cannot be random or arbitrary but is overriding context, in my opinion. The whole gathering was overlooked by a tauroctony scene in a niche. These people were not expert astronomers or poets but people who carried out a night watch under a starry night sky. The story of the heavenly bull fight was very ancient and well known because everyone in the northern hemisphere could see it. That is why in my opinion it would be legitimate to look for context at bull myths from all over the northern hemisphere, particularly given that the Roman soldiers were drawn from all over the Empire. Cautes and Cautopates (holding up and down facing torches) need be no more complicated than the eastern horizon where stars rise and the opposing western horizon where stars set (as in “gone west”).

The phrase “an army marches on its stomach” emphasizes that proper nourishment is essential for soldiers to perform effectively. The saying is most commonly attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte and Frederick the Great.

By the time the Roman cult of Mithras started, the Empire was well established under the rule of the Julio-Claudian family. The deceased (but still in memory outstanding) military commander Julius Caesar was a guiding light. Looking after the army was a top priority for the state. In my opinion, it may be that the impulse to found western Mithraism came from the top echelon, the people who had read Julius Caesar, although it was taken up mainly by lower and middle ranks of the armed forces.

(To be continued as a mythological survey.)

Ian F Freer copyright 2026

Hi N

I have paid careful attention to your troubles with various kinds of meditation.

Do not stop your thoughts. None of us can do that and be alive. (Being alive is really the top priority here. Or nothing gets done. LOL.)

What needs to happen is an awareness of “witness consciousness”. The observer of thought is the real you. You are the subject.

Your thoughts are not the real you but some software that is running.

The thoughts are the object, of you the watcher or subject.

I thought this video was particularly helpful on the point. Hope you find it useful.

From Emily Rowell Yoga

Best wishes

Ian