Category: Magic

Magic, Martial Arts, & Masonry: With Martin Faulks

Published on by Angel MillarLeave a comment

Martin Faulks is the author of Becoming A Ninja Warrior, Black Soul Mirror, and Adepthood: Success On All Levels, among other books, as well as a meditation master and a practitioner of both martial arts and Franz Bardon’s system of Hermeticism. He is also the managing director of Lewis-Masonic, the world’s oldest Masonic book publisher.

Martin studied with the Yamabushi monks in the mountains of Japan, as well as with other teachers, and with other schools of spiritual and martial development.

In this interview, he discusses:

  • The practice of meditation and the development of the powers of the mind.
  • What’s required of a genuine spiritual teacher.
  • The four elements in initiation and martial arts.
  • Training with the Yamabushi monks (and what’s required of an authentic student).
  • The origins of Franz Bardon’s system of Hermetic self-development.

You can find out more about Martin at his website, here.

Cagliostro & The Egyptian Rite Of Freemasonry: Philippa Lee

Published on by Angel Millar1 Comment

Freemasonry, magic, Kabbalah, and alchemy all fused together in Count Cagliostro’s Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry. In this interview, Philippa Lee (AKA Philippa Faulks) discusses Cagliostro’s life, his Egyptian Rite, alchemy, Egyptology, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and important, lesser-known esotericists such as Martines de Pasqually.

Philippa is the author of The Masonic Magician, Cagliostro: The Unknown Master, and Modern Mantras, among other books. She is also currently the editor of The Square magazine. You can find out more about her work here.

The self-styled “count” Cagliostro is believed to have been initiated into a Masonic lodge, attached to the Rite of Strict Observance, in London in 1776. A decade later, he attended the Lodge of Antiquity in London. During that time, he also founded his Egyptian Rite, which drew upon alchemy, Kabbalah, and related esoteric phenomena.

Although it died out after a few years, much of its ritual was adopted by the Rites of Memphis and Misraim. It was also the first esoteric Rite to be inspired by the idea of the Mysteries of ancient Egypt (though we find Egyptian aesthetics turning up in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Ordo Templi Orientis, and A.M.O.R.C., among other esoteric and occult Orders later on).