MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS
Unlike Isis and the Hellenistic god Serapis, the great Egyptian god Osiris, judge of the dead and lord of the underworld, did not become the…
Month: December 2022
ORPHISM
The system of spirituality and philosophy underlying the Dionysian mysteries, Orphism took its name from the legendary musician Orpheus, who was considered to be its…
ORPHIC CIRCLE
According to several accounts from the late nineteenth century, a group of occultists active in London during the 1830s and 1840s, practicing clairvoyance with crystals…
ORMUS
According to an origin story circulated by eighteenth-century Rosicrucians, the founder of the Rosicrucian Order, an Egyptian priest and mage of Alexandria who was converted…
ORIGIN STORIES
Among the standard elements of the secret society toolkit from the seventeenth century to the present are romantic origin stories that link orders and degrees…
ORDO TEMPLI ASTARTE [OTA]
One of many occult secret societies active in America today, the Ordo Templi Astarte (Order of Templars of Astarte, OTA) was founded by American magician…
ORDO NOVI TEMPLI [ONT]
One of the most influential secret societies in the proto-Nazi underworld of early twentieth-century central Europe, the Ordo Novi Templi (Order of New Templars, ONT)…
ORDER OF WOODCUTTERS
One of the first modern secret societies open to men and women alike, the Order of Woodcutters (Ordre des Fendeurs) was founded in Paris in…
ORDER OF THE WHITE ROSE
One of the odder secret societies of Victorian Britain, the Order of the White Rose was founded in 1886 in London under the leadership of…
ORDER OF THE STAR IN THE EAST
One of several groups organized by the Theosophical Society in the early twentieth century under Annie Besant’s leadership, the Order of the Star in the…