What a delight it was to see an educational program on the Smithsonian Channel tonight, now that the History Channel regales us with Pawn Stars, Ozzie & Jack’s World Detour, Swamp People and Hairy Bikers. This evening they outlined a fascinating history about the Tower of Babel. Given that the Pentateuch wasn’t written down until […]
Last weekend I had the pleasure of visiting an old friend, Gordon Stuart, in Mississauga, Ontario. As well as being one of the most recognized and decorated Freemasons in Canada, he is also very well read in matters esoteric, and has a wonderful library. Every time I visit he has a number of exotic books […]
I’ve been doing research on the famous image of King Solomon’s Temple which suddenly started appearing all over Europe towards the end of the 17th Century. Most famously, perhaps, this image was used by Gerhard Schott as his design for the enormous, 80 feet round and 13 foot high model of the Temple for an […]
More of a public service announcement than a true Blog, really, but too important not to bring to your attention. From Friday, June 30 to Wednesday, October 4, 2017, there will be an exhibition of works from the six Salons de Rose+Croix organized in Paris by Joséphin Péladan during the 1890s, which focused on art […]
Oh, the horror! The first issue I learned early on is that I am one of the few people who is active in the esoteric and Masonic world who can read French! Let’s just say this is quite an issue, since so many important books, rituals and commentaries are written in French, and probably because […]
One of the great French esotericists of the latter half of the 20th Century was undoubtedly Robert Ambelain. For many years his activities and books dominated the French esoteric landscape. Indeed, he sometimes thought he had been too successful, in that so many people copied his ideas and presented them as their own, as the […]
Well, plans are always changing, and a chance communication last night has persuaded me to set aside one book in favor of another, at least for now. I am now engaged in translating “Des Erreurs et de la Verité” (Of Errors and Truth) by Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin. Printed in 1782, it was his first book, […]
I was delighted to hear today from my good friend, author and artist Angel Miller, to tell me that an interview we did a few weeks ago has been posted on his Blogsite. The link is here: https://phalx.com/2017/03/18/freemasonry-esotericism-and-spiritual-development-an-interview-with-piers-vaughan/ I hope you enjoy it!
One of the more amusing nicknames I was given when I first started to talk in the New York area back in the mid-1990s was ‘Piers the Nut’! When I first came across from England, I had assumed that American Masonry was identical in nature, and behaved as such. This put the leadership of my […]
