Please click History to read the Christine Rhone interviews from the RILKO Journal
Friday 25th September 2009
THE ENDURING MYSTERIES OF SECRET SOCIETIES
David V Barrett
Why do secret societies have such an appeal? What do they believe, and where do their beliefs come from? Freemasonry, Rosicrucian and Neo-Templar organisations, the various offshoots of the Golden Dawn and the OTO -- do any of them have any genuine claim to be the true successors to historical movements? Does it matter if they make up their own histories, as well as their myths and rituals? What are the connections, if any, between John Dee, the Royal Society, Aleister Crowley and Wicca? And does the Priory of Sion, star of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail and a best-selling thriller, actually exist? Can David Barrett possibly answer all these questions and more in just an hour?
David V Barrett is the author of, amongst others, The New Believers: A Survey of Sects, 'Cults' & Alternative Religions, A Brief History of Secret Societies, and the Atlas of Secret Societies. He is a frequent contributor to Fortean Times magazine, and has written for many other newspapers and magazines, mainly on esoteric religion and history.
Friday 30th October 2009
THE BYROM COLLECTION 'PROGRESS', THE CONCEPT OF THE ELIZABETHAN PLAYHOUSES & THE WELSH CONNECTION
Joy Hancox
The 516 drawings in the Byrom Collection cover a wide range of different but interrelated disciplines. Joy Hancox had spent 25 years pursuing the provenance of this unique resource. This evening will unravel the latest findings about these drawings that she has identified with Elizabethan playhouse and their aristocratic patrons. The trail of her investigations has led her to hitherto unknown connections with Elizabethan industrial monopolies, people and places in Wales. The recent findings at the site of the original playhouse in Shoreditch, London, have prompted her to include a practical demonstration of how the design concept of the theatres in the drawings can be interpreted with the help of the number symbolism associated with the Cabbala and the Rosicrucian philosophies.
Joy Hancox is an Associate of the Royal College of Music who gave up her work in education to research the life of John Byrom, a member of the Royal Society. Studying his phonetic shorthand and interest in codes led her to discover his collection of remarkable mathematical drawings. Their relevance to the Elizabethan theatre opened up wider areas of knowledge. The latest stage in this odyssey is now complete and ready for publication.
Friday 27th November 2009
THE SONG OF THE EARTH: A NEW LOOK AT CROP CIRCLES AND LANDSCAPE ZODIACS
Anthony Thorley
Landscape Zodiacs continue to be seen, particularly by the sceptically inclined, as more imagination than objective reality. Following in the footsteps of Katharine Maltwood, Elizabeth Leader and Mary Caine, Anthony Thorley has for many years been researching into the origins and continuance of the landscape zodiac phenomenon which includes not only the famed Glastonbury Zodiac, but over forty other zodiacs in the English countryside. The emerging picture from this research is that the reality of zodiacs, and the related phenomenon of crop circles, is somehow related to human consciousness and imagination interacting with a living enchanted landscape, a tradition recognised in many indigenous cultures as the song of the earth.
Anthony Thorley is a retired psychiatrist who has been researching landscape energies and traditions for over thirty years. Together with his wife Celia Gunn he has recently completed a major world overview of sacred sites and their protection. He has just published his first novel, Well Below Average, is working on a book on the Masonic vision of eighteenth-century Bath, and is developing a PhD on the conceptual basis of landscape zodiacs as sacred space. See www.earthskywalk.com and www.thealchemicaljourney.com
Friday 29th January 2010
MARY SIDNEY AND THE WILTON ACADEMY; HER PART IN THE SHAKESPEARE ENIGMA
Sue Sheridan
'Mary Countess of Pembroke, Delia born of a laurel-crowned race, true sister of Sidney the bard of Apollo, fostering parent of letters... Muse of the Poets of our time' (C. Marlowe)
Mary Sidney was a phenomenon, a remarkable Renaissance woman who played a considerable role in what can be called the 'Shakespeare Enigma'. In this talk Susan will consider the controversial notion that Sidney's Wilton Academy, with its team of Renaissance writers and promoters, was involved in sponsoring, creating, and printing, what became known in 1623 as 'The Workes of William Shakespeare', The first known plays of Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Richard III and 3 Henry VI were actually brought onto the world stage in 1592 through her own theatrical company, Pembroke's Men. Marlowe, Daniel, Jonson, and many other great Elizabethan and Jacobean writers sang her praises, and after her death, the compilers of the Folio dedicated it to her sons, 'the incomparable brethren.'
Susan Sheridan wrote and performed her one woman show The Merry Wife of Wilton, which prompted her to follow the academic trail into Shakespeare Authorship Studies resulting in an MA in July 2009. Her varied acting career has taken her from Clacton to Hollywood, and her specialist voice work has led to a further career in voice coaching. Susan has given talks for the Gatekeeper Trust, the London Earth Mysteries Circle, Surrey Dowsers and the Wiltshire Crop Circle Conferences.
Friday 26th February 2010
TEMPLES OF WISDOM: MUSIC, TRANCE STATES, COLOUR AND FORM, FROM EARLY MEGALITHS THROUGH EGYPT TO ROSSLYN CHAPEL TODAY
Karen Ralls
What has long been the connection between music and sound and the ancient belief that it often serves as a powerful catalyst for the alteration of consciousness - i.e mind expansion? Why do certain temple rituals feature sound? Why did many ancient civilisations highly value certain musical intervals, specific rhythms, and acoustic properties? And what are the recent discoveries by modern scientists and medical experts? Join historian Dr Karen Ralls, musician and author of Music and the Celtic Otherworld, Indigenous Religious Music (shamanic), to learn more about certain megalithic sites, Pythagorean theory and Greek sites, early mystery schools, Egyptian temples and sound, and Rosslyn Chapel today, exploring their relationship to sound, geometric proportion, and other key correspondences many of which have, for centuries, been believed to enhance human consciousness and greater awareness of a spiritual, expansive dimension to the mind. While ancient shamanic or priesthood's concept of an 'Otherworld(s)' dimension - and its vibrational/sound aspects as used in many mystery schools - is well-known to us today from anthropology, what is now emerging is growing confirmation from scientific and medical studies in our own time about the effects of sound/music, rhythms, and mantic incantation(s) on the human mind and consciousness. From Plato's quote that 'Music gives... wings to the mind' to 60s Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart's comment that music takes 'the mind and spirit to places unknown...and nothing is too weird for the muse'. What will your quest reveal?
Karen Ralls, PhD, historian and musicologist, was postdoctoral fellow at the University of Edinburgh and is author of The Templars and the Grail, Music and the Celtic Otherworld, Indigenous Religious Music (SOAS), and more. She plays flute and Celtic harp; for more information please see www.ancientquest.com
Friday 26th March 2010
THE GODDESS DIANA IN LONDON, IN THE LANDSCAPE
AND IN LIVING MYTH
Caroline Wise
Why is Diana, legendary goddess of the hunt, sacred oak groves and the moon, one of the most enduring of the classical goddesses? This illustrated talk looks at Diana's origins, symbolism and evolution, and shows how she is far more than an archaic artefact. Diana's myth was moved forward both consciously and unconsciously by at least three great female figures right up until the 20th century. The Goddess Diana and her myths are inextricably linked to London, and had a secret place in the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire, and are still relevant today.
Caroline Wise, a founding member of ASSAP, a past owner of Atlantis Bookshop, has organised many esoteric conferences since 1980. A senior member of The Fellowship of Isis, she lectures on the Goddesses in the UK, Europe and the States. After 20 years as a book dealer and publisher of other people's esoteric work, she is now retired and finishing her book The Horned Goddess.
Friday 30th April 2010
Doors open at 6.30pm
The RILKO AGM will be held from 6.45 to 7.15 & followed at 7.30pm by The Robert Cowley Memorial Lecture The public is warmly welcomed to attend this lecture
COSMIC PORTALS - HIDDEN HARMONICS AND OTHER DIMENSIONS - A LOST SCIENCE?
Peter Welsford
Recent articles in the RILKO Journal have renewed interest amongst members into ancient 'Portals' or 'Gateways', so perhaps the Time has come to explore such phenomena in detail. Originally they were predicted by Bertrand Russell the philosopher who said: '100 years from now it won't matter whether I died in 2012 or 2013 or even 2020. But I believe that some type of Cosmic Portal will be opening at that time and place and that an opportunity will present itself. I fully expect that it will either lead to the next level of this cosmic programme; freedom from an imprisoning time-loop; a Martian-like bubble; or something equally as exotic.' Hence we can look more scientifically into the creation of Cosmic Portals, their potential for transformations into other dimensions and the discovery of many startling implications, which may enhance our daily lives through the inner workings of our DNA. This situation arises out of a series of articles published in Nature, whose unique encryptions when decoded, open up wider horizons and contain the Secrets of a Lost Science.
Peter Welsford FCA is a researcher and writer into Hidden Harmonics (The H-H FactorTM) and a past Treasurer of The Scientific & Medical Network, England.
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