Category: Historical Figures
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Frederick Douglass’s Travels to Italy and Egypt (1886-1887)
Reflections tying classical worlds to Black American history and Douglass’s rhetorical strategy in engaging with classical antiquity and critiquing aspects of Catholic ceremonial from a republican, Protestant perspective. In the waning days of September 1886, Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist and statesman set sail from New York aboard the steamer City of Rome, beginning an extended…
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The Contributions of Black American Classicists against Racism
Beyond the well-known figures like Phillis Wheatley and Frederick Douglass mentioned in the Introduction to Five Early Figures, a generation of Black American classicists emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, often born into slavery or its immediate aftermath. These scholars mastered Greek and Latin to refute racial inferiority claims and assert our…
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The Fourteen Black Classicists from Michele Valerie Ronnick’s Exhibition
Michele Valerie Ronnick’s traveling photographic exhibition originally focused on twelve BLACK CLASSICISTS debuted in 2003 and was later expanded to fourteen Black Classicists. Ronnick’s exhibition has undergone 50 iterations in 15 years and her project began in the 1990s. This mosaic history displays pioneering Black scholars of Greek and Latin from the late nineteenth and…
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Introduction to Black Republicanism: Five Early Figures, Wheatley to Douglass
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a small but influential group of Black intellectuals engaged deeply with Greco-Roman classics and the ideals of classical republicanism. This engagement was multifaceted in that they drew on ancient texts to demonstrate Black intellectual capacity in the face of racist denials. This challenged e.g., claims by Thomas…
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Third Republic Civic Republicanism, Esoteric Movements and Protestantism in France Belle Epoque Era
INTRODUCTION Historical figures involved in French Third Republic (1870–1940) politics were generally opposed to the monarchy, aligning with the prevailing republican and anti-clerical sentiments of the era, though there are nuances in this time within esoteric currents. The Theosophical Society in France, officially established as a section in 1899, attracted and propelled several notable figures who were…
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Abolitionist David Walker turns Fire into Radical Revolution against Slaveholding Republic
David Walker turns ancient philosophy of Fire into radical revolutionary resistance against the slaveholding Republic. DAVID WALKER’S APPEAL AS THE FULLEST AMERICAN EMBODIMENT OF THE ARCHAIC PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE David Walker’s Appeal (1829) is indeed the fullest and single most American embodiment of the ancient tradition of FIRE come down to us through the philosophy…
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The Conflicted Albert Pike, and a Wounded Union: Early Years 1830s to 1880s
INTRODUCTION: ECLECTIC MASONIC PHILOSOPHER IN CONFLICT Albert Pike’s editorial career exhibits a philosopher highly in conflict with himself, and I hope his inner conflicts alongside his philosophical legacy may provide us the chance for reflection about similar men of our day. People fixate on Albert Pike’s pro-slavery stance (and often exaggerate or distort it) for…
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The Reluctant Messiah: Truth about Jiddu Krishnamurti and Theosophy
INTRODUCTION Jiddu Krishnamurti, “Great Liberator or Failed Messiah,” asks Luis S. R. Vas in his highly insightful book about the relations between Jiddu Krishnamurti and the Theosophical Society. This story is about a young boy that became an important philosophical teacher throughout the 20th century. Groomed by theosophists, Annie Besant and Charles W. Leadbeater to…
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Case of the Masters, their Disciples and Sponsors behind the Theosophical Movement
INTRODUCTION THIS SERIES WILL PROVIDE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE ROLE AND HISTORY about the “the Masters” that were said to be secret sponsors behind the Theosophical Movement and its operations. These circles of adepts, including their disciples and associates were said to have activities in South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, the Americas…
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Riding the Tiger of Modernity | Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad on Julius Evola
SHAYKH ABDAL HAKIM MURAD ON JULIUS EVOLA COUNTER-CULTURE “…so Evola is a point of reference for people who are seeking an alternative, but unfortunately because of his possibly xenophobic blindspot when it came to Europe’s “third heritage”. . . .the Heritage of Islam — Gaudí’s move was definitely in the direction of the underestimated Ishmaelite…
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Marc Demarest on the Armchair Occultist, Godfrey Higgins: Modern Occultism, and the Professionalization of History
THE ARMCHAIR OCCULTIST: GODFREY HIGGINS, ANACALYPSIS AND MODERN OCCULTISM LECTURE Emma Hardinge Britten Archive. The Church, Christian Spiritualists, and the professional establishment sought to control the influence of occultists. Anacalypsis becomes a popular rediscovery of literature at the time Isis Unveiled is published. Marc Demarest explains how the tyros of Occult Literature and Mythography (1820s-1870s)…
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U.G. Krishnamurti: Recollects the Second-Generation Theosophical Society
Second Generation refers to a shifted leadership in the Theosophical Society, with international headquarters in Adyar, Madras, post-1890’s, and led by Annie Besant in 1907 til her death. The second generation Theosophists drift from a teaching of progressive evolution to a program of “progressive millenialism,” says Catherine Wessinger, in her The Second Generation Leaders of…
The American Minervan 